Willfully Hers (The Dirty Business Series Book 2)

by Michelle Betham

  “And what about Kat? You ever gonna tell her?”

  “I don’t want to ruin her honeymoon. And don’t you go telling her either. I know she’s your sister-in-law now but I don’t want her and Eric’s final few days in Miami to be disturbed in any way.”

  “She’s gonna be real pissed, you know that, don’t you?”

  I smile slightly, and I drop my gaze again, looking down into my mug of coffee. “She’ll be fine.”

  “She’ll be pissed.”

  I look up, and my smile widens. “Then it’s a good job I’ll be thousands of miles away, isn’t it?”

  I look at my watch, and then a voice booms out over the tannoy system letting me know that my flight to London, Heathrow is about to start boarding.

  “At least it’s on time,” I sigh, draining my coffee before I stand up, picking up my hand luggage. “I should make my connecting flight from Heathrow to Manchester no problem.”

  Mike walks out of the café with me, falling into step beside me as I head toward security. The point where I leave this life behind, to go start another new chapter.

  “Hey. Come here,” he says as I reach around into the back pocket of my jeans for my boarding pass.

  He holds out his arms and I step into them, falling into the embrace he gives me, hugging him tight.

  “You sure you’re doing the right thing?” he murmurs into my hair, and I nod, and I pull back slightly and smile at him.

  “I’m sure.”

  I let go of him, but he takes my left hand and looks down at my naked third finger.

  “You took them off, huh?”

  “Fresh start.”

  “Yeah. Fresh start.”

  I stand up on tip toes and I lean in to kiss him, a quick kiss, a friendly kiss. A goodbye kiss. “Thanks again, Mike. For everything.”

  “This is only goodbye for now, Lola. Remember that.”

  I smile again as I start to take a couple of steps back. “I’ll remember that.”

  “You take care of yourself, y’hear?”

  I nod, and I know I have to go now. I really have to go. “Yeah. You too.” And then I turn and walk toward security.

  I’m going home.

  And I’m really okay with that.

  Really, I am.

  Twenty-Six

  Evan

  “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me she was leaving.”

  I look over at Jess as I make myself a coffee in the partners’ kitchen. “Yeah, well, she kind of kept it a secret from most of us.”

  She takes a sip of her drink and looks at me. “You okay?”

  “It was one of those things, Jess.” I stir my coffee and pick up my mug, leaning back against the counter. “It just didn’t work out.”

  “Simple as that, huh?”

  I shrug, because I’m not sure what she wants me to say. “Simple as that.”

  “Do you know where she’s gone? Where she’s working now?”

  “Do you?”

  I stare at her, and I can see it in her eyes. She knows.

  “You’ve spoken to her, haven’t you? Recently, I mean.”

  She says nothing to that, but she doesn’t make any attempt to walk away or change the subject, either.

  “Where is she, Jess?”

  “She’s gone back to the UK.”

  “When?”

  “A couple of days ago.”

  “A couple of days ago? For Christ’s sake…”

  “She is going to talk to you, Evan, I mean, you guys have a lot to talk about, it’s just…”

  She trails off, and I narrow my eyes as I look at her. “Just, what, Jess? First she leaves Cavendish King without so much as a fucking email to tell me she’s going, and now I find out she’s back in the UK and I’m the last to fucking know.”

  “She hasn’t told Kat yet.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

  “Hey, don’t take your shit out one me. Personally, I think the pair of you should’ve sorted your crap out and got on with things, but that’s just my opinion.”

  “And not one I asked for. She back in Manchester?”

  “I think so.”

  I look at Jess, and I frown slightly. “You think so?”

  “She has every intention of getting in touch, believe me.”

  “She tell you that, did she?”

  “Yes, she told me that.”

  I breathe in deep and close my eyes, just for a second. “I need to know she’s okay, Jess. That’s all. Because, right now, I feel like everything’s moving way too fast and I…” I open my eyes and look at her. “I think we were right, to separate, I think that was for the best. But not knowing what’s been going on; knowing she chose to keep all this from me, that’s been like a kick to the gut, and I just need to know she’s okay.”

  “She’s fine.”

  I smile slightly, but that kick to the gut, I’m still feeling the effects. I’ve been feeling them for days now, the pain isn’t easing any.

  “So, are you guys talking divorce, then?”

  “Jesus, Jess, seriously?”

  She shrugs, and she throws me a look that tells me she doesn’t care what she’s saying. She always did have a habit of telling it like it is, so I shouldn’t be surprised that she just asked that.

  “Lola mentioned it, that’s all. So I’m just curious as to what your thoughts on the subject are.”

  “Lola mentioned it?” Another kick, they’re coming thick and fast now.

  “In passing. But she kind of said it was something you guys are probably going to have to talk about, at some point.”

  I drag a hand back through my hair and sigh quietly. “Yeah. I guess it is.” I’m distracted slightly by Hayden’s voice as she arrives in reception, her almost sing-song tone finding its way above the sound of background chatter and ringing phones. “I’d better get back to the office.”

  I leave Jess in the kitchen and head outside, catching Hayden’s eye. I’ve had enough of this crap, I’m done with being careful and safe, that isn’t distracting me from shit. And when she smiles at me I know she’s got the message, she’ll follow me. She needs to follow me, because where we’re going, she’s never been there before. So when I reach the elevator I wait until she steps inside, and then I close the doors before anyone else can join us.

  “Good morning, Ms. Monroe.”

  “Good morning, Mr. King.”

  We keep our eyes straight ahead, not looking at each other just yet, and I love how she knows exactly how to play the game.

  “Okay. Come on, come with me.”

  I don’t touch her, I don’t take her hand, I don’t make it look like this is anything more than a meeting we need to have in private, even though no one else will see us down here. When Dana left she gave me the key to her private office, the one only a handful of people know about and even fewer have visited. This is my office now. It’s mine, and today I’m going to christen it in true Evan King style.

  “You’ve got another office?” Hayden frowns as I slip the key into the door and nudge it open, standing aside to let her through.

  “I got another office.” I kick the door shut behind us and lock it, placing the key back in my pocket. “And what happens in here, it stays in here, you got that?”

  She turns to look at me, and she smiles. “I got it.”

  I watch as she slips off her jacket, and for some reason my eyes fall straight to her bare, tanned shoulders exposed in a bright white sleeveless dress that hugs her curves and shows off her tits, in a tasteful way. I mean, she’s all suitable for work, but I guess I’m already imagining what’s underneath that dress, because it’s clinging so tightly to her I can’t see any way she’s wearing panties. And I remember how Lola used to come to work, wearing no panties; those days when we’d steal fast fucks in the file room and I’d spend most of the day with a hard-on just thinking about her perfect ass and what I’d like to do to it. To her. And then I realize where I am and who I’m with and I
give myself an inward shake, I need to focus. Forwards, not backwards, that’s where I’m heading.

  “Are you sure about this, Evan?”

  Hayden’s voice pushes me toward that focus I need to find, and I look at her. “Honey, I’m not sure about anything right now, but I need you to know that I can’t promise you anything, okay? I’m not gonna stand here and say that I’m suddenly gonna start buying you dinner and letting you stay over ‘cause that isn’t gonna happen. It’s never gonna happen, those days are over. Do you understand?”

  She smiles again, and she walks over to me, her fingers lightly touching my cheek. “She really hurt you, didn’t she?”

  I take her hand and gently pull it away from my face. “We hurt each other. And that’s not your business, I’m not here to talk about the past.”

  “Then what are you here for, Evan?”

  I tuck a strand of her red hair behind her ear and I smile, I give her one of my widest grins, the kind I know used to get women wet, and I know I still have that ability. And there’s a part of me that wants to reach down and slide my hand up under Hayden’s dress, find out if she’s wet yet. “I think you know the answer to that one, Ms. Monroe.”

  She takes hold of the hem of her dress and she hitches it up, right up over her hips, and I let out a low but sharp intake of breath as I catch sight of the tiniest, thinnest thong. I could snap that in an instant, finally get to see what she’s been wanting to give me for weeks now. But for some reason I’m stalling, even though she’s silently inviting me to do whatever the hell I want, to move this on, and my cock’s begging me to do something, too. But I don’t do a thing, not straightaway.

  “You don’t want this after all?” she asks, tugging at that barely-there thong, and I can see she’s shaved, all smooth and soft and just waiting for me.

  “I don’t know,” I whisper, and I suddenly feel hot, and not in that kind of way. I feel like everything’s suddenly closing in around me, like my chest’s being crushed by some invisible vice, I can’t do this. I want to, I mean, Jesus, my cock’s hard, it’s screaming at me to get a grip and shove it inside her, to finally get that distraction I need before I go freaking insane! But I can’t.

  And then she turns around, she hoists her dress further up over her waist and she leans forward, pushes her beautiful ass back at me, and my cock screams out again. It’s throbbing so hard, it’s painful, and when she reaches back and takes my hand and places it on her ass I almost come, right there and then. She pushes back against my hand and I let my fingers splay out, I feel her skin smooth and warm against my palm and I want to do this, I do. I fucking do, but it’s crazy, because I can’t. I can’t do it.

  I pull my hand away and she stands up, tugging her dress back down, and her expression, man, she’s pissed. And I can’t really blame her.

  “What the fuck is this, Evan? We get so far, and then you pull back, every time, do you know how that makes me feel?”

  “I’m sorry, I just… It’s wrong, Hayden.”

  “How? How the fuck is this wrong? You and Lola aren’t together anymore, you’re a free man…”

  “I’m still married.”

  “You’re using that as an excuse. What are you scared of, huh? What the fuck did she do to you to make you so…”

  I grab hold of her wrist and I stare her down, I’m angry and frustrated and we should never have come down here. This was a mistake. My mistake.

  “You don’t get to talk about Lola, you don’t get to even mention her name, you hear me? My marriage has absolutely nothing to do with you, and I’m sorry, for whatever the hell this was, but it’s over. It was a mistake. This shit, it isn’t happening.”

  Her eyes burn into mine as she shakes her head, but I really can’t do this. Not with her, not with someone I know, someone I work with, I can’t go there again. The kind of distraction I need is with faceless women, the kind who don’t matter to me. And I remember how Lola asked me, that very first night we fucked, why I didn’t just sleep with escorts, if all I wanted was sex. I told her it would be like fucking a robot. I hated the idea, then. Now, I think it might be the only way to go.

  “And you don’t get to treat me like this, Evan.”

  I look at her, and I narrow my eyes and loosen my grip on her wrist, I let her go, and she steps back from me, but her eyes stay fixed on mine.

  “I’m sure my father will be very interested to know how the great Evan King really operates.”

  I narrow my eyes a little further as she backs away toward the door. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “How you pursued me from the second I first walked into your office. How you hand-picked me to work for you, because you wanted me.”

  “Are you fucking serious?” I can’t stop the laugh from escaping, this is crazy!

  “How you stalked me, begged me to sleep with you, turned up at bars and clubs I hang out in after work in an attempt to win me round.”

  “Jesus, you’re one messed up piece of work.”

  “All you had to do was fuck me, Evan. That’s all you had to do. And you wanted to, don’t tell you didn’t. I could see it in your face, you brought me down here, for Christ’s sake. So you wanted it. You wanted me.”

  “I wanted sex.”

  “And anyone would’ve done, is that what you’re telling me?”

  “Basically, yeah.”

  It’s her turn to laugh, a cold, humorless chuckle. “And you’re telling me she didn’t hurt you, huh?”

  “Listen, sweetheart, you tell your daddy whatever the hell you want, I don’t care. But you’re a good associate, and you’re gonna make a great lawyer one day, you’re not a stupid girl. You’re not that. So you do whatever it is you need to do to feel better about yourself, but just know that the one thing you aren’t gonna do is throw blackmail in my face. I don’t respond to that shit, and you need to know that.”

  I open the door and indicate to her to leave.

  “My office, fifteen minutes. We’ve got a deposition to prepare for.”

  She grabs her purse and strides through the doorway without a backward glance. Do I think she’ll carry out her threat? I don’t know. Like I said, she’s not a stupid girl, but I don’t know how much all this crap has affected her. Do I feel guilty? Do I feel like I may have led her on? A little, maybe, but she knew what she was doing. Me? I’m not so sure…

  Twenty-Seven

  Lola

  It’s strange, being back in the UK. I’d thrown myself into New York life so much that it’s taken me a while to find my feet here in the country I grew up in. But I’m getting there. It’s early days but I have a new job lined up at a law firm in the city, a new house just outside of the city centre, a quiet, leafy, suburban area filled with families and couples and students; a lovely mix of people. The vibe is good, and it brings back memories of my student days, when I lived in a shared house not all that far from here.

  My new home is within walking distance of small, friendly cafes, artisan delis and local shops selling everything from artwork to handmade clothes, it’s almost bohemian. There are tiny parts of it that remind me of the Village back in New York, and I cling onto those memories, because I will go back. Some day. Maybe I won’t ever live there again, but I will go back. Once things have settled down.

  “I’ll get us some drinks, you go grab us a table. Red or white?”

  “White. You want menus?”

  “Too right! I’m starving.”

  I smile at Jed before a friendly server shows me to a window table for two in the small Greek restaurant we’ve come to for lunch. Jed Harries – an old friend from my university days. A man who became my best friend. Someone who was there when my world here fell apart; someone who was there when I really needed them, even when I tried to push him away, and because of that we’re probably always going to be connected, in some way. So, when I called him and told him I was coming back to Manchester; he was always going to be the first person I saw. Always. And it’s been nice, s
haring small talk and stories of what we’ve been up to since we last saw each other; reminiscing about our university days, our old life here. It’s been nice, just chatting and laughing, I needed this normality. So much has happened since I last saw him, and he knows that me coming back here, it’s been hard. It’s brought back a lot of memories, for both of us, good ones, and the ones that broke our hearts.

  I sit down at the table, take the menus the server hands me, and I look outside, onto the busy street filled with shoppers and workers and I can’t help but think how different this all is to New York. Because I miss that place, it was my home for a long time, I loved living there. It holds a lot of memories – ones I’ll continue to relive, over and over again, and ones that are still too raw to even think about right now. I got to see where I was born, where I spent the first three years of my life, and I met some amazing people. I met my beautiful best friend there. Kat. She’s just about still speaking to me, after I left without telling her, but she understands why I did that. She understands why I had to leave. She’s just not happy I’ve gone, that’s all.

  “Hey. You okay?”

  Jed’s voice interrupts my thoughts and I look up at him, and I smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  “Still getting used to being home, huh?”

  I take a sip of wine, staring down into the glass as my fingers absent-mindedly stroke the stem. “I can’t think of here as home yet, Jed.”

  “You must miss it. New York.”

  I look up and throw him another smile. “Yeah. I do.”

  “It’s a place that’s always fascinated me. One of those places I’d really love to visit. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to live there.”

  “I think it’s what you make it, to be honest. I mean, I kind of always lived near the city, because I liked being near the centre of things, but there were also these wonderfully quiet, less hectic places too, you know? Places I loved to hang out in; little pockets where you could kick back, chill out, leave all the rushing about behind for a little while.”