“Where does the hitting his brother, and you getting involved come in?”
“His brother provoked him,” I said vaguely, “but the reason I’m angry is because he lied to me that he was still in New York and since then, he hasn’t called to explain or apologize. He even flung me away when I tried to bring him to his senses, and then drove off from the manor without me. The butler had to call a taxi to take me home.”
“Wow!”
“Since we’ve been together, there’s not a single day has ever gone by without us speaking … until now.
“Hmm … you’ve also be spending almost every night in his home?”
“I will not respond or go to him, unless he explains or apologizes.”
“Good,” she said hardily. “You still have your backbone. I thought love had melted it all away.”
I scowled at her just as Ella returned with three ice cream cones.
We took them from her and Maddie instantly pushed hers towards me, her eyebrows raised. “Take a bite,” she insisted.
I did as she asked and shook my head at her.
“If you’re careless, I won’t forgive you,” she muttered to me. “I need you to get out of this scot free. It’s already gone on for much too long.”
“What did I miss?” Ella asked.
Freya
We arrived back at Maddie’s apartment to find ten bouquets of what looked like a hundred white roses in each one outside our door.
Ella squealed with delight, but Maddie scrunched up her face with distaste.
I knew they were for me and my heart had started to beat really fast. I stared at the extravagant act of apology— dumbfounded.
Ella instantly ran up to it. “You are secretly dating someone, Maddie?”
“Those are not for me,” Maddie said icily.
Ella turned to me. “Oh my, are these from the Duke then?”
“Maybe?”
“Let’s look for the card and take them all in.”
“I hate roses,” Maddie spat. “I don’t want them in my apartment.”
“Oh, Maddie, stop being such a killjoy,” Ella sang.
Maddie and Ella went into the apartment.
I quickly searched the bouquet for a note. I found an envelope and as I opened it, I immediately recognized his handwriting.
I’m sorry, Freya. Call me. Please.
I couldn’t help the warmth that flooded my chest at the message, and although I was still furious at him, I felt my anger start to dissipate like air out of a balloon. I wasn’t ready to call him yet, though.
“Freya,” Ella suddenly screamed from the living room, startling me.
I walked in through the door. “Why are you screaming?”
Both Maddie and her were bent over and looking at something on her phone. They turned to me with wide eyes.
“What is it?" I asked.
Ella came forward. “Brent’s brother is in the hospital,” she said.
I instantly stilled. I was almost too afraid to ask. “W-why?”
“It doesn’t say. He was in a restaurant and suddenly collapsed. It’s everywhere online.”
Ella looked towards Maddie. “They aren’t close, are they? Will he be heavily affected by this?”
I rose up to my feet. If only they knew what was in my head. “I have to go,” I started to say, but the room started spinning from under me, and before I knew what was happening, I felt myself falling.
When I came to Ella and Maddie were watching over me, their eyes filled with concern.
Stop shaking me, I wanted to say, but I couldn’t find my voice.
Maddie eventually brushed Ella’s nervous hand away and sat me up.
Looking around, I realized I was on the floor. “I fainted?”
They nodded.
“How long?”
“Almost a minute,” Ella cried.
Maddie calmly watched me. “Haven’t you eaten today? Why the hell would you faint?”
“Perhaps I stood up too quickly,” I said and with their help, I made it to the sofa. When I saw the quiet shock on Maddie’s face, I added. “And I haven’t eaten much today.”
“What about yesterday?” Ella asked.
“I can’t remember.”
“Let’s go to the hospital,” Maddie said, and began to pull me up.
“There’s no need,” I responded. I had to go to Brent. I needed to find my purse, but my vision was still a bit hazy. I saw my purse on the table. “I’m leaving.”
“You’re fucking not!” Maddie glared at me. “We’re going to the hospital.”
“I’m fine,” I said and started to stand.
“You’re going to him, aren’t you?”
“She’s worried about Liam and what effect it will have on Brent,” Ella tried to explain to Maddie.
This wasn’t true at all. I wasn’t worried, at least not for Liam.
I was terrified for Brent.
Freya
When I arrived at Brent’s home, I stood by the cast iron gate and dialed his number.
“I’m here,” I said and instantly I was granted access.
He answered the door, dressed in nothing but a pair of dark slacks. They had been hastily thrown on, the button was still undone, revealing the light dusting of hair on his groin.
I couldn’t take my eyes off it. How I had missed him. I pulled my gaze up to his, and saw the remorse in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Freya,” he said.
I nodded and walked into the apartment. I stood in the middle of the living room.
“Do you want a drink, or are you hungry?” he asked.
I shook my head. I still didn’t know how I was going to ask him about his brother. Perhaps my aloofness and silence would guilt him enough to respond to me the way I wanted but I was aware that I was treading on dangerous ground. Brent Lucan was not a man to be easily toiled with.
“I was on a day trip to Edinburgh,” he said. “And I just returned. I was about to take a shower. Will you wait?”
I nodded and listened. He did not close the door and I could hear the sound of the water. I stood there for a few more minutes, then I stripped off my clothes and headed over to his bathroom.
He was in the pose I’d seen him in countless of times. Head bowed, as the scalding hot water pelted down onto his head.
I pulled the door open and he straightened. I didn’t look at him.
“It’s too hot,” he said, and quickly lowered the temperature just as I stepped under the cascade.
I shut my eyes while my head got soaked and water flowed down my body. I tilted my head away from the cascade to lather the shampoo in my hair and he tried to take over, as he had done countless of times before.
“It’s fine,” I said and brushed his hand away.
I could feel him behind me, naked, vulnerable, and apologetic, but I knew that he would not remain too long in that state. When he lowered to place his chin on my shoulder, his hands sliding around my waist to glue me to him, I allowed him to hold me. After rinsing the suds from my hair, I turned around to face him then, and looked into his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized again. “I was so furious. I felt as if you had betrayed me. You knew how I felt about Liam and yet you wanted to give them your ear, but I shouldn’t have left you there. I sent the driver back with the car for you and took a taxi myself, but you had already left.”
“Why didn’t you call me afterwards?” I asked.
He hid his face in my neck as he spoke softly, “I was still mad. I couldn’t believe it when I saw your text coolly telling me you were going over there half-an-hour later. You have no idea how dangerous it was. Liam could have harmed you. What better way to hurt me than to hurt you.”
“I didn’t call because you were supposed to be in New York.” The accusation was clear.
“I wanted to surprise you,” he said. “I rounded up all the meetings early so I thought I’d fly in and surprise you, but then I got the text to say you were going to the m
anor. It was a blow. I couldn’t believe it. I became paranoid. I knew they were trying to convince you that I killed your father, but I didn’t, Freya. I swear on my life, I didn’t. I could never have done that to you.”
My heart melted in his embrace. God, I loved this man so much. I turned around and wrapped my hands around his neck and immediately, he picked me up. My legs encircled his waist as he leaned me against the tiles.
My hips already writhing against his hardened cock.
I brushed his hair away from his face, my hand softly caressing the sides. I didn’t know how to ask the question that I really wanted to, and I didn’t know how to take it if the answer was as I suspected. I chose to hold onto my dream for just a bit longer. I took his lower lip in mine and nibbled softly on it.
He didn’t rush me and let it go at my pace, but when I slanted my head to slip my tongue into his mouth ‒ the desire that I knew he was restraining with all his might ‒ was unleashed. It had been almost a week since we had last been intimate, and it was a lot to bear given the way we had become so attached to each other.
He kissed me as though I would disappear at any moment, desperately, breathlessly, intensely. The whole time stroking and sucking on my tongue and lips with such fervor that I could barely keep up.
“I fucking missed you, baby,” he said, as he lowered his head to cover my breasts with his mouth.
I whimpered against him, unable to maintain any element of control I had possessed before making my way here. “I missed you too,” I whispered.
He chuckled. “Me or him?”
“Him,” I replied.
“Ouch,” he feigned hurt.
I half scowled at him.
He pulled slightly away and slipped his cock into me.
I realized all over again that I was addicted to him. The gratification of that first plunge was borderline crazy-good. It felt like all the parts of me had received a bolt of energy and had come alive once again. My eyes rolled into the back of my head.
Brent groaned like a beast and he did not need to say a word, I knew. I understood. We were overtaken by the ferocity of our lust for each other. He began to move inside of me. His thrusts were deliberate and purposefully rhythmic, as though he had all the time in the world to savor our union. As if he was content with the gentle waves of ecstasy that rocked through both of our bodies as my sex grappled with his cock and milked it ferociously.
He scraped his teeth along my neck and it made me shudder, but soon I lost the will to take things slow. My hand slid over to his hard buttocks to force his hips to meet the hastening thrusts of mine. “Fuck me!” I shuddered, my nails digging into his ass to contain the bursts of pleasure that were shooting through every vein in my body.
I thrashed against the tiled wall, with Brent growing harder and thicker as he pounded into me with a ferocious urgency. I tried my best to keep my back arched from the wall. My buttocks were turning sore by their constant contact with the tile.
His explosion triggered mine, and I screamed out at the blast that violently shook both of our bodies. His growl was animalistic as he jerked and fought to find his breath against me. He faltered then, his knees giving out and almost sending us both crashing to the floor but luckily, he caught the rod and held us up with his strength.
I couldn’t register anything else afterwards, until I felt myself being deposited on the bed along with him. My legs remained around his waist, refusing to part as he settled us, and brushed my hair away from my face.
“Let’s go again,” I cried, and his smile brought tears to my eyes, I didn’t want to let him go. I couldn’t let him go.
“I’m not going to fuck you to death. You look tired,” he said.
“Yes, I am exhausted today,” I confessed.
It had become so easy to think that this man I was so intimate with was just an ordinary man. But now more than ever it worried me that perhaps I had been in a bubble for too long. I wondered if he could sense the dread that was brewing inside me. That underneath all the mindless pleasure—I was terrified. In the throes of passion, it had been easy for the world to fade away, but now I did feel frightened.
He pulled me tightly into his arms to fall asleep.
My greatest fear was that I would lose faith in him. If he admitted to me that he had indeed driven his brother to the brink of death like he had sworn a few days earlier, it would be the end of us.
I was now aware of what had created that mind of revenge within him, but the brutality of the act in itself against one’s kin ‒ no matter how severe the circumstances ‒ I didn’t think I could excuse it.
Freya
The next morning Brent beat me to the punch.
I was complaining to him about the crippling workload at the office when he suddenly said, “Are you going to tell me what my father said to you?”
“He thought I had some influence over you and he wanted me to use whatever power I had with you to get you to forgive your brother.” I felt the change in him as the words came out of my mouth. Even though I was still physically with him, I could feel his gradual withdrawal, and it stung. “I told him that it was not true,” I added.
He didn’t say a word in denial or agreement. Instead, he asked, “Is that all he said?”
“No,” I responded. “He told me about your mother, that he loved her, but then through poor judgment he got into an affair with her best friend, Liam’s mother.”
“Poor judgment?” He scoffed bitterly.
I could feel the bile in his tone and I didn’t know how to respond, so I just went on, “The affair went on for years until Liam was about fifteen, and then he got tired of being hidden away. He threatened your dad that he would take their existence to the press if he didn’t give them a home too, so he eventually let them move into the manor. He said that the relationship between the two of you was terrible especially as his mother used to be so close to your mom. She had always wondered why she had lost touch with her closest friend only to see her years later as her husband’s mistress. She didn’t take it well and neither did you. He said you were furious at him for hurting her. She got sick and he couldn’t figure out why, but then you started spouting that Liam and his mother were poisoning her.”
“And what did he say about that?”
“He said it was hard to believe.”
“Was that all?” he asked coldly.
“Yes,” I responded.
He got up from the bed and started pacing the floor.
“He said there was no evidence. It was just a child’s fury and pain and that you’ve nursed that misgui—” I stopped and rephrased. “You’ve nursed that thought all these years. That it has only turned you revengeful and bitter and ruined your life. He said you ran away to Tibet, and refused any wealth from him. You were determined to make it on your own. And the first time in a decade you visited on his birthday, it was only to threaten Liam.”
He walked up to me and looked down at me, and I didn’t like the dark look I saw in his eyes. All I could do was apologize, as I sensed that he especially hated that his father had revealed all these family secrets to me. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gone there. I had no right to interfere in something that is so painful for you.”
“Yes, you shouldn’t have gone. You are supposed to be on my side. If I can’t trust you to believe me …” He turned to leave.
I had never felt so inconsequential as I did now. “Brent,” I cried out. “I need to ask you something.”
He had been just about to head into the bathroom so he stopped to listen, but didn’t turn back to look at me.
“Did you …” I began. “I saw the news before I came, about Liam. He collapsed in a restaurant.”
He turned slowly and stared at me.
I looked back at him hoping he would tell me he had absolutely nothing to do with Liam’s collapse, but his gaze remained set in stone.
“Did you have something to do with it?”
“There you go again. That is none of
your business, Freya,” he grated coldly. “This is between my family and me, and I don’t want you to be involved.”
Suddenly, I felt nauseous, so nauseous I had to jump out of the bed and sprint for the bathroom. He stood at the door as I emptied my stomach into the toilet bowl. I felt dejected and on the brink of tears.
“Are you alright?” he asked quietly.
I refused to meet his eyes. “It’s none of your business,” I replied, and rising to my feet, I exited the bathroom, grabbed my clothes, and was out of the house in no time.
He tried to stop me, but I screamed at him to fuck off.
Freya
On the train home, I began to shudder.
All I could hear was the whizz of the train as it sped past the stations and the cranking of the mechanism underneath. Every time the hydraulics hissed to pull the door open, I gazed at the influx and exit of people without seeing anything. A crippling suspicion had taken a hold of me from the moment I had left Brent’s home.
But it couldn’t be possible.
Maddie had brought it up the previous day. At that time, I thought she was being silly. Pulling up my phone again I searched different sites for the early symptoms of pregnancy and was hit with all my current symptoms. My breasts were swollen and tender and I was beginning to spot. All of these however had been the usual symptoms before my periods for as long as I could remember. What was new however, was the constant exhaustion, the fainting spell the previous night, and vomiting.
It was easier to believe that it was triggered more by Brent’s aloofness than what these damn sites were pointing me to. The train stopped once more and a new influx of commuters boarded. The breeze brought to me a strong whiff of garlic, and I instantly doubled.
My hand flew to cover my mouth as I retched. The person beside me instantly leaning away. I jumped to my feet just before the doors closed and sprinted from the train. I panicked as I realized I wasn’t going to make it to the bathroom. As I spun around in despair, tears stinging my eyes, I caught sight of a trash can by the corner and made it just in time to spew my guts into it. By the time I was done tears were running down my face.
Highest Bidder Page 20
