Isabelle's Story, A Bentley Sisters Novel

by Lauren Beaumont

  Isabelle’s Story

  A Bentley Sisters Novel

  By

  Lauren Beaumont

  ©2013 & 2015 by Blushing Books® and Lauren Beaumont

  All rights reserved.

  No part of the book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Published by Blushing Books®,

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  Beaumont, Lauren

  Isabelle’s Story

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-62750-823-0

  Cover Design by ABCD Graphics & Design

  This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults. Nothing in this book should be interpreted as Blushing Books' or the author's advocating any non-consensual spanking activity or the spanking of minors.

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Ebook Offer

  Blushing Books Newsletter

  About Blushing Books

  Chapter One

  "Damn!" Isabelle swore softly to herself as one of her high heels got caught in a crack in the pavement and she tried to manoeuvre it out without ripping the jade green suede. She was already running late, and this was the last thing she needed. It had just been one of those days, although if she were to be honest with herself, every day was 'one of those days.'

  Isabelle knew that she should feel happy and fulfilled. She was thirty years old, a successful writer with her own apartment and a social life that most people would kill for. Her latest novel had practically flown off the shelves and her agent was urging her already to start a huge marketing campaign in anticipation of the sequel she was currently working on. Or, supposed to be. Recently, however, she just couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing, and whilst she couldn't pin point the reasons for her frustration it was affecting her professional as well as personal life. She'd barely started the new novel, even though she was supposed to be nearly half way through it by now and she knew her agent would have a fit if he knew. Similarly, her personal life seemed to be going from bad to worse, on a mission of self-destruction. Practically every man she met she drove away somehow, sometimes literally by provoking argument after argument and then refusing to have anything more to do with them.

  It said a lot about her current frame of mind that she was meeting one of her best friends, Elena, for dinner along with Elena's newest boyfriend, whilst Isabelle hadn't even bothered to arrange a 'plus one' to accompany her for the evening. There had been a time when she would have lined up half a dozen decent options several days, if not weeks, in advance. Right now, however, Isabelle wasn't even sure she knew what "decent" meant any more, at least not when applied to the male species.

  With a final twist, she wrenched her shoe free from the crack in which it was snared and practically sprinted the rest of the way down the road, rushing into the restaurant where Elena had reserved a table.

  As the maitre d' took her coat, she craned her neck around to search for Elena in the crowd of tables. Puzzled, a frown formed on her forehead. She was almost sure she could make out Elena's distinctive long blonde mane of curly hair at a table across the room, but she was with not one but two men. The first man she recognised as Philip, Elena's latest boyfriend, a nice guy whom Elena had met through some friends at her work. The second man, however, had his back to Isabelle and try as she might she couldn't see his face, although equally she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that there was something about him that looked disturbingly familiar.

  Cautiously, more cautiously than she was comfortable to admit, Isabelle made her way over to the table where she had spotted her friend, who was clearly engrossed in conversation with Philip and the mysterious man seated to her right.

  Philip looked up and, with a grin, stood to greet her. "Bel!" he exclaimed, "Good to see you again!"

  Immediately, Elena swung round and jumped up to give her a hug. "We thought you'd got lost on the way!"

  "Sorry," she murmured, "I was running late and there were no cabs."

  "It's good to see that some things haven't changed in the last few years then," responded a deep, masculine voice from behind Elena.

  Jerking her head up, Isabelle's eyes widened in shock as they drank in the sight of the tall, imposing man with dark blonde hair whose own eyes were twinkling down at her as a sensuous smile tugged at his lips.

  "Alex!" she exclaimed in disbelief. "But you're still in the States!"

  "Evidently not," he responded, dry amusement lacing his voice as he stepped forward and swept her into his arms for a hug that, by anyone's standards, lingered longer than was purely platonic.

  "We wanted to surprise you!" Elena's voice drifted from over Isabelle's shoulder, "Alex has moved back from the States to take on the Head of Cardiology role at St Mary's Hospital here!"

  "Really? You're back permanently?" Isabelle couldn't quite believe her eyes. Was it possible that Elena's older brother, on whom she'd had a prolonged schoolgirl crush all those years ago, was back in London for good?

  "Absolutely," he replied, looking down at her softly and brushed a strand of loose hair away from her eyes, "It's good to see you again, Bel. I told you that I'd be back once the post in the States ended. Don't tell me you forgot?"

  Flushing, Isabelle averted her eyes and reluctantly pulled away from his embrace. She made her way to the empty seat at the table.

  As the waiter arrived to take their orders, Elena chatted away in the background, recounting to Isabelle how a couple of months ago Alex had called her to tell her that he'd been offered the new role back in London, but how she had wanted to keep it a secret to surprise Bel. As Elena gossiped, Isabelle found her eyes increasingly drawn to Alex, who was sitting back in his chair smiling at her appraisingly as he sipped his wine.

  "So, Bel," he said, leaning forward and interrupting his sister's chatter, "aren't you going to tell me what you've been up to lately? Your emails recently hardly told me anything."

  "Oh!" she flushed, having been quite happy to let Elena fill the silence while she tried to jolt her brain back into a semi-normal mode and recover from her surprise at seeing Alex back in London after all these years. As children, all four Bentley sisters had grown up close to Elena and Alex, but it was Isabelle who had silently cherished Alex as her first love, even though she doubted that he had had a clue about her teenage feelings and had probably viewed her, along with all her sisters, as an extension of his own family. She hadn't even confided her feelings to Elena, keeping her secrets close to her heart.

  "Well, I guess I haven't really been doing that much... just carrying on with the writing mainly..."

  Elena snorted in the background, "That's so typical of you, Bel, you underplay everything!"

  Elena turned to her brother, "Bel's last novel topped the best seller list and her agent's even talking about selling the movie rights!"

  "Um, yes, well, it's still early days with that, who knows what will happen." Isabelle hated being forced to talk about her own achievements. "My agent's been talking to a few studios who could be interested, but I get the impression it would be a long process, and t
hat's if anything even does come of it."

  "But that's great, Bel!" Alex exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me? I saw that the last book had done really well. It was even topping the lists in the States, but you never mentioned that more might come of it!"

  "Well, I guess I didn't want to tempt fate over it. Besides, there's been lots of other stuff going on recently."

  Although she knew that Alex had kept in touch with her sisters individually, she equally understood that email chat, or even the telephone, just wasn't the same as hearing first hand from someone about what was going on in their life. She began to recount how her oldest sister Megan had met her fiancée Luke, and how their youngest sister Lily was now dating a police detective she had met through her work as a teacher in one of London's rougher inner city schools. As she relayed their stories, she focused her attention on Alex, as Elena and Philip had already met Luke and Tom. Quickly, however, she saw a frown appear on Alex's face as she described the threats that both Megan and Lily had faced around the times they had first started to date their men.

  "Had they taken leave of their senses?" Alex asked seriously, clearly concerned that Megan and Lily had been in such vulnerable positions, Megan with a particularly unpleasant client she had been forced to work for, and Lily with one of the local gangs that had loitered around the new school to which she had moved. "What on earth were they thinking of, letting themselves get into those situations?"

  Isabelle sighed and rolled her eyes at Elena, who grinned back at her from over the table, "See, Bel? I told you that Alex was pretty much cut from the same cloth as Luke and Tom! You're not going to get any sympathy there!"

  "I hardly expected any," she retorted, aware that the wine was beginning to go to her head. She was probably revealing more than she should about her own insecurities as she tried to explain how, although she loved Luke and Tom dearly, and they clearly made her sisters happier than she had ever seen them, they tended towards bossy at times. Isabelle worried that they tried to wrap up her sisters in cotton wool. Even with the wine affecting her judgment, she kept silent about the fact that she knew Luke had spanked Megan in the past when she had put herself in dangerous situations, and although she had never asked Lily, she'd put money on her guess that Tom did the same.

  "It sounds to me like they've had good reason to be bossy with them! If I'd been around when that had been going on, I'd have put them straight over my knee!" Alex said firmly, his usually serene features hardening.

  Isabelle paled visibly at his words, wondering momentarily if she'd failed to be as discreet as she had thought, but Elena and Philip laughed out loud. Clearly they thought his threat was more of a joke. Only Isabelle suspected that he really meant it. That look in Alex's eyes was exactly the same as the one she had seen in those of Luke and Tom when they were worried over her sisters. She had the uncomfortable feeling that Alex's words had been no joke.

  "Nice idea, big brother, but this isn't the eighteenth century, you know!" Elena teased him. "Life and society has moved on, even in England!"

  "From what I've seen of Meg and Lily, I doubt Luke or Tom would have any chance of going down that path!" Philip added. Isabelle winced to realise that, although Philip was clearly a nice man, he had no idea what did or didn't make her sisters tick.

  "Hmmm, perhaps," Alex murmured, not committing himself to agree or disagree. Instead he studied Isabelle's expression and, she knew, took note of the surprise and shock that had fleetingly overcome her features.

  "What about you, Bel?" Alex asked, subtly changing the subject. "You rarely mention in your emails whether you're seeing someone or not?"

  Groaning, Isabelle took a swift gulp of her wine. Although Alex had been her confidante when she was younger, and they had been close, she just hadn't felt comfortable talking to Alex over email about her many disastrous relationships and so had ignored the subject.

  "Don't tell us you haven't heard how Bel's become our resident heartbreaker!" Elena giggled, as Alex gazed at Isabelle quizzically.

  "There's no need to exaggerate!"

  "There's nothing to be embarrassed over! You can get practically any date you want, and you know it!"

  "Hardly," Isabelle muttered.

  Turning to Alex, Elena explained. "Bel's just going through a phase where the guys she dates don't really seem to come up to scratch, so she's been getting depressed over it and says she's swearing off men for a while, not that I believe her for a moment!"

  Unable to break Alex's steady gaze, she answered as honestly as she could. "It's not that they don't come up to scratch, really it's not. It's just me at the moment. I don't really know what I want, and it's not fair to give anyone the wrong idea if I'm not sure. Besides, I really need to concentrate on my next book. I'm so far behind," she trailed off miserably.

  Elena squealed. "Oh, but isn't this one in a hospital setting? Alex can help you, can't you, Alex?"

  "Sure. What is it you need to know?" He squeezed her hand reassuringly across the table, picking up on her change of mood even though it seemed to have escaped Elena's notice.

  "Oh, no, really, there's no need," she protested instinctively. "I'm not even at the stage where I know what kind of details or research I need yet!"

  "Then why don't you come to visit the hospital with me and just get a sense of what it's like, for starters?"

  "Oh, well, I guess I could, but only if it's not too much trouble. I don't want to be in the way. "

  "You won't be," he said. "We can go tomorrow afternoon." His tone allowed no argument as he held her gaze. She nervously nodded her acquiescence, thankful when the waiter arrived with their food and the conversation moved on naturally.

  * * *

  "You know, you really didn't have to spend so long showing me round." Isabelle smiled at Alex as they left the hospital.

  He'd picked her up from her apartment that afternoon, which she had discovered was only ten minutes from where he was renting until he found himself something more permanent. They'd spent the last few hours walking round the different departments of the hospital, as he showed her where he worked and how the various units all linked together to form one impressive, organised whole.

  He took her arm as he walked her across the car park. "You don't think I wanted to seize the opportunity while I had it to spend time with you?" he remarked softly.

  Shocked at his words, she stumbled briefly. She felt his arm around her tighten to prevent her falling as he paused to make sure she wasn't hurt.

  "Not quite the reaction I'd hoped for," he mused wryly.

  "But, what do you mean?" Isabelle gulped nervously. She rebalanced herself by steadying herself on his arm, not quite sure if she had heard his words correctly or if her mind was playing tricks on her.

  He chuckled. "I thought I'd been pretty obvious about it, Bel. Aside from all the normal reasons for wanting to come home after so long abroad, one of the big incentives was the opportunity to be close to you again. You were too young when I left—barely out of university—but I'd always hoped that I wasn't wrong in thinking there had always been something between us, a connection, and that when you were older, when I'd finished all the training and time in the States, that maybe, if I wasn't too late, we could figure out if our friendship could lead to something more. "

  "But... I didn't think you'd guessed... that is... I thought..." Stunned, Isabelle stumbled over her words, unable to believe that he might have harboured similar feelings towards her after all.

  "I guessed that if I'd approached you at the time you might have been willing to consider the idea?" Alex smiled, raising an eyebrow at her that left her in no doubt that she hadn't been nearly as subtle as she'd hoped!

  "You were too young at the time, Bel," he repeated. "You needed to have time to experience life for yourself. Although I hadn't quite planned on you becoming the serial dater Elena suggested last night!"

  Her cheeks flushing crimson, she murmured, "She exaggerated."

  "Hmmm. Maybe." He tucked o
ne thumb lightly under her chin while his arm remained firmly around her. He lowered his head and pressed a swift, brief kiss to her startled lips. "Have dinner with me?"

  "What?" She looked up at him, dazed.

  "It's nearly seven, Bel. Join me for dinner?"

  Wordlessly she nodded, her head spinning from his announcement, and promptly she found herself being buckled into his car as they drove back to his house.

  * * *

  Isabelle felt, rather than heard, Alex approach her as she stood on the patio that overlooked the small garden of the Georgian house he rented. She turned her head to look round at him just as he looped a light blanket over her shoulders and pressed a glass of chilled white wine into her hand.

  "Although its spring now, the evenings still get cold, just as I remember," he said, bringing one hand up to massage her shoulder. "There's no need to be tense," he added softly. "I'm hardly a stranger, remember?"

  "I know. It's just, well," she moaned as he pressed on one of the knots that seemed to be a constant presence in her shoulders these days. "It's kind of unexpected, seeing you after so long and then, suddenly, this."

  He chuckled, "I guess I caught you by surprise. I'd asked Elena to keep it quiet that I was returning. I thought it would be a nice surprise. Perhaps there was a part of me that wanted to catch you off guard."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, your emails recently had become more and more distant, not the Bel who used to confide everything to me." He looked at her reprovingly.

  She lowered her eyes away from his penetrating gaze, knowing that he spoke the truth. In the last year or so, probably since her sisters had begun to meet men who they knew were 'keepers', she'd begun to question her own life more and more. She had withdrawn not only from Alex, but from others with whom she was close. Not that she had been pining for Alex from across the seas, but she'd definitely cherished the closeness that they had once shared. Since he'd left, she'd become more solitary and introverted than normal.