Secret Pleasure

by Lora Leigh

  “You want to help?” she asked with mocking sweetness. “I just sent Summer, along with Falcone and Gia, packing. Please inform me before you invite any more of my so-called acquaintances to help protect me. I really don’t need the aggravation and I sure as hell don’t want to deal with it.”

  “The hell you did!” Shane was staring at her with an expression akin to horror.

  “Yes, I damn well did!” she snapped. “I refuse to have security that I know will help the two of you lie to me for whatever reason. And while you’re at it—”

  “No, Alyssa.” Sebastian shook his head as though dazed. “You and Summer? Good God. Were you crazy?”

  Crazy?

  No, she’d been out of her mind with grief and drowning in the tears she couldn’t shed. If it hadn’t been for Summer, she might have lain in that bed and drifted away after losing not just Shane and Sebastian but the baby she’d carried as well.

  “What do you think, Sebastian?” She smiled sweetly. “Did you believe I’d be too fucking dead inside to need to be touched? To need a lover? Remember that little bit of recklessness I warned you I was known for.” Her lips curled mockingly. “There’s further proof of it.”

  “But Summer?” he asked again, clearly trying to deny it. “Alyssa, that is—”

  “A friend I’m quite fond of,” she broke in before he could say anything ignorant. “Should I protest your friendship with Courtney Sinclair? After all, you were her first lover, weren’t you?”

  A grimace pulled at his expression before he pushed the fingers of both hands through his hair.

  “Courtney has a big mouth,” Sebastian muttered.

  Courtney was simply unable to lie to her friends, and she considered Alyssa a friend now.

  “So does my father.”

  “We need to keep Falcone from leaving,” Shane broke in. “If he makes it out the gates he won’t come back.”

  “My friend.” Falcone stepped into the room, his voice mocking. “Falcone wouldn’t miss this for all the gold in the family vault.” Smiling, he turned to Alyssa, arching his brow mockingly. “You and Summer? I must say, I always knew Summer had the potential—”

  “Esteban!” The senator came to his feet quickly. “That is my daughter and I know you weren’t getting ready to dirty her with any filth from your mouth. Her or my goddaughter.”

  Falcone lifted a brow, a grin quirking his lips.

  “No, he isn’t,” Shane stated, his tone as dangerous as it was hard.

  They were about to make her completely insane.

  “Posturing!” she snapped. “Damn stupid male posturing. I’m so tired of the bullshit playing out around me that it’s all I can do to keep from shooting all of you.”

  Turning, she stomped from the office; any attempt at a reasonable conversation was just a waste of time at this point.

  She couldn’t deal with this, not now, not with so many emotions ripping her apart and pushing her past her ability to keep them leashed. And if they escaped the hold she had on them … Her breathing hitched, throat tightening and that band around her heart constricted further. She was drowning. Drowning in all the tears she’d been unable to shed and the pain that had never found a way to escape.

  And she had no idea how much longer she could continue treading the treacherous depths of those emotions.

  The door slammed behind her. Instantly Falcone dropped the air of mocking amusement.

  “There,” he announced, his gaze going around the room. “I managed to ensure her exit. Perhaps this will allow you to come to grips with what appears to be a shocking bit of information.” He inclined his head with such superiority Sebastian entertained throwing something at him. Something heavy.

  Or shooting him.

  “Who said we were having a problem with it?” Shane was definitely having a problem with it, Sebastian knew. Just as he was. They were in shock. Never had they imagined Alyssa could tolerate Summer long enough to become her lover for five minutes. Let alone off and on for years. It was inconceivable.

  “You knew about it?” Shane crossed his arms over his chest as Sebastian wondered how the bastard was aware of the relationship the two women shared when he and Sebastian had been unaware of it.

  Falcone stepped farther into the room. “Summer might have mentioned it to me,” he said coolly. “Though I’d prefer not to deal with her temper should she learn I admitted it. She can get rather irate.”

  That helpless little southern belle act never failed to fool whomever she was turning it on. Innocence and flighty feminine naïveté seemed to personify her personality. Until it was too damned late to stop the knee to the groin or the knife she laid to a man’s throat.

  Summer did seem to love her knives. Especially when she was drawing blood with them.

  “Now that we have that out of the way,” Falcone stated dryly, “shall we discuss the matter of Ms. Stanhope’s security or do we have other matters to discuss first?”

  “Yeah,” Shane growled. “Call her Ms. Stanhope again and I’ll cut your fucking tongue out. We clear there?”

  Falcone inclined his head mockingly. “Certainly. Shall we then discuss our target’s security? I need a bit of sleep and I’d like to get the particulars out of the way first.” He focused on Shane. “Or should we discuss other transgressions I may commit instead? I am of course at your disposal.”

  Mocking fucker.

  Shane glared at him.

  Sebastian just sighed.

  The senator glanced over at them. “I don’t remember him being so confrontational.”

  “Blame Summer,” Falcone growled. “I always blame Summer. And I’m usually right.”

  They all sighed at that. No doubt any fractures in Falcone’s legendary patience had to do with Summer.

  “If she’s around…,” Shane muttered.

  “It’s usually her fault,” Sebastian finished for him.

  The office door slammed open and Raeg stalked into the room, his expression furious. He moved straight to the bar and took the drink Falcone was pouring before swallowing it in one shot.

  “Summer?” Falcone asked blandly.

  “Summer.”

  “At least she’s not boring, and she does keep us entertained when she’s here,” the senator pointed out. The observation wasn’t appreciated.

  Three sets of eyes turned on the senator; none of them were laughing.

  No, boring she was not. For Falcone and Raeg, she was a guaranteed nightmare though.

  *

  Alyssa wanted to slam her door. She wanted to push it into the frame with every ounce of strength she possessed. She wanted to hear the violence of wood cracking against wood and have the satisfaction of hearing it echo around her. Instead, she closed it with the utmost control and patience. Just to prove she could do it.

  “Your momma would just shake her head at us.” The lyrical Southern belle accent had her turning quickly to the bedroom doorway. “Then she’d ask me what I’d done to just upset everyone so. You know Raeg is just foamin’ at the mouth. He and Raeg are gonna be so ill now, aren’t they?”

  Alone, Raeg and Falcone dealt fine with her for some reason. Together, the sexual tension was so thick Alyssa doubted Summer could cut it with one of her knives.

  Summer stood nervously at the entrance, her gaze filled with a quiet sobriety Alyssa found disconcerting. But then Summer had a way of making most people nervous, despite all that southern charm.

  She was the queen of double-talk and bullshit when she wanted to be, Alyssa acknowledged, and Summer could see through it like others could see through glass. It was almost impossible to lie to her.

  “Summer, this isn’t your battle. Go home.” She knew her friend wasn’t going to listen, though. Summer never listened unless it suited her best interests at the time.

  “You’re wrong, ya know.” Summer propped one delicate hand on her hip as she frowned back at Alyssa. “I told you to contact Shane and Sebastian before Harvey ever attacked ya,” she reminded
her. “Harvey was a crazy bastard. You wouldn’t call, though. You should have known this was going to come back to haunt ya. I even warned ya.”

  “Father should have never let you stay—”

  “Alyssa, your daddy was like a zombie, tryin’ to keep you alive and take care of your momma’s funeral arrangements while tryin’ to distract reporters.” Summer moved into the living area before going to the couch and curling into the corner of it. “Who better would he trust to take care of you than the friend his wife made certain was trained to do just that?”

  Alyssa glanced upward as though searching the heavens. “Really, Mother?” she muttered. “You definitely had a bad-decision day there, didn’t you?”

  “Your momma didn’t have bad-decision days, Alyssa,” Summer assured her. “She was the queen of manipulators. Damn, I wish she’d been my momma.”

  No doubt Margot had wished that herself often. She and Summer would have been lethal in D.C. They would have started World War III before Davis Allen Hampstead even had a chance to get into the Oval Office.

  “You have no business trying to help track down a would-be killer that’s probably long gone anyway.” The subject of mothers aside, Alyssa felt like shaking some sense into her friend. She rather doubted it would work, though. There would have to be the potential for common sense present first.

  “But I know how.” Summer grinned. “Come on, sugah, you knew I wasn’t the helpless little belle I pretended to be. You were so busy hidin’ from life, though, that you overlooked that as well.”

  “You make me crazy,” Alyssa hissed. Summer made her feel like she was in high school again. And not in a good way. “I didn’t overlook anything. You and Mother simply made certain I was never aware of it. Thank you for that. While you’re at it, thanks for telling me Shane and Sebastian showed up when I was unconscious two years ago. I appreciate the hell out of all that.”

  In that instant Alyssa realized she was worrying the gems that hung on the gold chain like a talisman again. Jerking her hand down, she ignored Summer’s smirk.

  “You love lyin’ to yourself, I have to say.” The smug little laugh that came with the accusation set Alyssa’s teeth on edge. “You knew the second you realized you were wearin’ that necklace that they’d been here.” Summer gave a little flip of her fingers and a roll of her eyes. “Like I said, you just ignore what you don’t want to see at the time.”

  Crossing her arms over her breasts, she glared at her friend before muttering, “God help me.”

  “He’s tryin’, sugah,” Summer expressed regretfully. “But you are just such a stubborn bitch you keep ignorin’ all His hard work where you’re concerned.”

  “Oh, so you’re God now?” Alyssa questioned her mockingly.

  Summer’s smile was so sugary sweet Alyssa felt the need for a dentist.

  “Really, Alyssa, don’t you recognize His favorite angel? Why, just shame on you all day.”

  “You are outrageous,” Alyssa accused her with a glower. “Well, try this one. Dad just informed Shane and Sebastian that we’ve been lovers. And Falcone overheard it.”

  Summer dropped her head to the back of the couch, her eyes closing momentarily before she turned her head and glared at Alyssa. “Why the hell did you tell Goddaddy, Alyssa?” She pouted. “That’s wrong. And he didn’t have to know.”

  “Me?” Pointing to herself, Alyssa stared back at her in astonishment. “I didn’t tell a damned thing. So how did he know?”

  Something flickered in Summer’s eyes then. A glint of evasive knowledge Alyssa was all too familiar with.

  “You told Margot!” Disbelief vied with pure outrage. “Why would you do something so ridiculous?” Throwing her hands up in complete surrender, Alyssa turned and stalked to the window. “Just how often did you and my mother conspire against me anyway?”

  Summer made her crazy. There was no other word for it. She was like a tidal wave. A tornado or something. She swept in, upended everything, then swept back out again.

  “Your momma guessed, Alyssa.” Summer’s voice was soft, saddened. “She wasn’t stupid where you were concerned. And she didn’t care. She was so worried about you.”

  “And of course you set her mind at ease,” Alyssa snorted, wondering why she hadn’t guessed that one. “What else did she know that I’m unaware of?”

  Turning back to the other woman, she caught the odd expression on her friend’s face before it cleared. Just for a second, she glimpsed a loneliness, a hurt, that filled her with a surge of guilt.

  “Why now”—holding a hand to her side gracefully, palm up, Summer gave her another of those innocent expressions—“I just aint sure, sweetie. You know how Margot was. Eyes in the back of her head.”

  Eyes in the back of her head.

  Alyssa had to force back a sudden smile because Summer wasn’t exaggerating. Margot had known things she should have never known. She could look at her daughter and like a sixth sense, knew things she should have never known.

  “She always knew what you were up to, too” she told Summer softly.

  Summer rolled her eyes, but a flash of grief in her eyes was all Alyssa needed to see.

  “She loved you, Summer,” Alyssa assured her, not in the least jealous of the fact that her mother may well have loved Summer as much as she loved her own daughter. “She loved both of us.”

  Summer looked away for a long second. “If she loved either of us enough, then she wouldn’t have done something so damned stupid!” she snapped, then inhaled slowly and shook her head. “Look, I’m really tired, and that damned Raeg just wears me down with all his glares. I’m gonna go to my room. My luggage should be here in a little bit.”

  Rising to her feet, Summer shot her a little wink. “Tell those bad boys of yours I said night-night.”

  “Summer.” Alyssa moved to the other woman quickly, touching her arm lightly. “Are you okay?”

  “Sweetie, I’m always fine,” Summer drawled, flashing her a trademark Summer smile.

  “I’m your friend too, Summer,” Alyssa assured her. “It goes both ways.”

  For a second, just a second, the loneliness she sensed in her friend shadowed her eyes.

  “Sweetie, I’m good as a tick on a hound, I promise,” Summer said, giving her a quick hug and a bright smile. “We’ll talk after we make sure you’re nice and safe. A long girls’ night. I promise.” Stepping to the door, Summer glanced back again. “Jet lag has me, darlin’. See you after a quick nap. ’Kay?”

  “Definitely,” Alyssa assured her, for the first time feeling a drift in her friendship with the other woman.

  Summer had been her lifeline more than once, and Alyssa realized that in the past two years Summer had told her next to nothing about her own life. Or the hurt lurking in her eyes.

  24

  Summer wasn’t going to leave. She would gung-ho right into whatever danger could be found at any given moment. That was just Summer. The fact that Margot Hampstead had ensured Summer had the skills to do it just pissed Alyssa off. Margot had made certain Summer was CIA trained and well able to protect Alyssa if necessary. What Margot hadn’t taken into consideration was Summer’s personality.

  She was crazy. A cyclone. A tidal wave. And a CIA trained one at that.

  She drove everyone she came in contact with insane. Alyssa included herself in that category as well. It was one of the reasons Margot had always kept Summer’s visits rather brief. After a month or so, she and Alyssa began squabbling, Margot would say with a resigned little sigh.

  It wasn’t squabbling. They were known to actually fight.

  A smile tugged at her lips. They were still prone to fight.

  Today had been rather mild, actually. That hadn’t even been a good argument, she thought, amused by the confrontation as she usually was once Summer was out of sight.

  It usually took Summer being out of sight, though, for Alyssa to see the humor in it.

  There were other things she saw as well, though. Memories that
she’d forgotten over the years that drifted through her mind.

  Alyssa hadn’t expected her mother’s reaction when she met Summer. It had been the accent, Alyssa remembered. Margot had been waiting when Alyssa had arrived home with Summer after school. When Alyssa introduced them and Summer had hesitantly greeted her, very properly polite, Margot’s eyes had widened, slid slowly to Alyssa, then a little grin had tugged at her lips before she’d nodded to Alyssa.

  She’d approved.

  It was the one and only time Margot had approved of a friend.

  Even Gia hadn’t gotten the Margot nod. Gia’s family connections were impressive and Gia was just as polite as Summer. But like every other friend Alyssa had ever had, except Summer, Margot had simply overlooked her.

  God, she wished Summer would just go home. She and Gia both. They had no business here. They had no business trying to protect her. Hell, she didn’t even want Shane and Sebastian putting themselves in the line of fire. She didn’t want anyone she loved dying for her.

  Especially Shane and Sebastian.

  She loved them with every part of her heart and soul. Every last shred that was slowly beginning to heal with their return.

  Wrapping her arms around herself, she walked back to the window and sat down with a sigh, staring out to the slowly fading evening.

  Where the hell was all this coming from? An attempted hit-and-run. An exploding chair? Really? Two days after Shane and Sebastian had killed Gregory, Harvey had tried to kill her. He’d been furious. It couldn’t be coincidence that he’d been so enraged over Shane and Sebastian. Especially at that time.

  “You mean I don’t know about Shane Connor and Sebastian De Loren?” Harvey had asked softly, the malice in his gaze growing brighter. “But I do know about them, Alyssa. I know about how you fucked both of them. Do you know how long I’ve waited to throw that in your goody-two-shoes face?”

  She had assumed he hadn’t known about her time in Barcelona for long. Why had she assumed that?

  He had waited so long to throw that in her face, he’d said.

  Pulling her lower lip between her teeth, she worried at it. Why had he waited to throw that in her face? How long had he waited?