The Gilded Cage

by Lauren Smith

  Hayden slid her hand along the smooth walnut banister. “Your house is so beautiful.” Now that Fenn was gone, she was finally able to focus on the home around her. The house was built of a combination of wood and stone, with rich deep earth tones and red walls. The kitchen had light granite countertops and everything about it was warm and inviting. So unlike her own home.

  The young woman ahead of her grinned. “My mother designed a lot of it. She died when I was four, but so much of her lives in this house, like she’s still here with me.”

  A pang of envy shot through Hayden, stealing her breath for a second. She would never have that closeness with her mother. Not even death had been able to separate Callie from hers. A love like that was powerful. A love like that…Hayden shut her eyes then forced them open. She’d never know that kind of love.

  “I’m sorry about your mother. It must have been nice to have one who loved you so much.”

  They reached the top of the stairs and Callie paused, her lovely hazel-green eyes bright with that uncanny comprehension.

  “You’re not close to your mother?”

  A bitter laugh escaped Hayden. “Ha! Definitely not. I’m not close to either of my parents. They’re the very idea of what most people imagine when they think of rich, elitist snobs. They flaunt their wealth and snub their noses at anyone beneath them. But the worst part is their expectations. Wes and I lead very different lives. He broke from our parents’ hold long ago, but as a guy he’s had it easier.”

  “And you didn’t?” Callie seemed genuinely interested as they headed down the hall and stopped at a room on the right.

  “My idea of a fulfilling life is not to marry one of my father’s golfing buddies and sit on a yacht all day long drinking mimosas and burning my husband’s cash. I’m not going to be some trophy wife. I want to own my own business. Can you imagine what it would be like to start up a business, build it from the ground up and make something that withstands time? I want that. A legacy that I create, something that proves I was here, that I wasn’t a pawn in anyone’s game, that I made a life for myself. I got an MBA for a reason. I’m not crazy for wanting that, right?” Hayden knew she shouldn’t be unburdening her heart to a stranger, but there was something so open and trustworthy about Callie.

  The other woman grinned. “I knew you and I would get along. Screw your parents, and live life the way you want to.” Callie winked at her conspiratorially.

  “Thank you!” Hayden laughed. “I’m glad someone else agrees.” She giggled, feeling a little more motivated than she had in a long time. Fighting against her parents and their suffocating vision of what her life should be had been crushing her the last several years. She’d tried to talk to Wes about it, but sometimes she got the sense he was consumed by an inner darkness. He rarely let anyone inside his heart. As a boy, losing Fenn had wrought changes in him, long before she’d been born. It was part of why bringing Fenn home was so crucial for her: restoring him to his family might restore that part of Wes that seemed to have withered and died long ago.

  “Here’s my room, it has its own private bathroom. You can shower in here. I’ll lay out some clothes for you. While you’re getting washed up, I’ll ready two rooms.” Callie opened the door to reveal a sunny room with butter yellow walls and a bed with a blue plaid coverlet. Seascape paintings lined the walls.

  “Those pieces are lovely. Have you been to the beach a lot?”

  “Never, actually.” Callie sighed. “I’ve never left Walnut Springs. I dream about it, though; seeing the ocean, running through the surf and just feeling the water rush over my feet. I painted those because that’s how I want to believe the ocean looks.” She shrugged her shoulders as though embarrassed.

  “You painted those?” Hayden took a closer look at the oil paintings. “Wow, Callie, you are really talented.”

  Callie blushed and shook her head. “Thanks. I was just playing around with different mediums. I had one class in high school. The rest I just figured out by researching some techniques online.”

  “Well, nicely done,” Hayden praised. Callie was incredibly talented for so little study in art. “Don’t tell my brother or he’ll try to buy these.”

  Callie froze, cheeks turning pink. “He would?”

  Hayden bit her lip, hiding a smile. “Oh yeah. He’s obsessed with art. That’s part of how he makes his living. He gets hired by museums and private collectors to study paintings’ provenances and to help when auctions for big items come up, because he’s very good at discerning the quality and value of pieces. He also has an impressive private collection.”

  Callie sat down on the edge of the bed, beautiful eyes wide as saucers. “He has real art?” She blanched as though embarrassed. “I mean, he has real works done by famous artists?”

  “Yes. He has one Monet, a Renoir, and a few others that are really exquisite.” Hayden ticked them off on her fingers as she announced the artists.

  The way Callie’s face lit with joy made Hayden smile. The girl must truly love art. God help her if Wes ever figured that out. She’d be easy prey if he decided to seduce her. After all this craziness with assassins was over with, she and Callie were going to have to sit down and talk about men like Wes. She ought to know what she was getting into if she ever decided to come to Long Island and get involved with the other half of Fenn’s life. The idea made Hayden a little jealous, but she wasn’t the kind of woman to shut Callie out because of green-eyed envy. She was part of Fenn’s life and that meant something to Hayden. And she liked the other woman too much not to want to be friends with her.

  “Well, you and I will have to go to the beach, and you can paint from real life rather than pictures.” Hayden said. In some ways, Callie was just as trapped as she was, and they both deserved to be free. A girls-only trip to the beach could be fun.

  The other woman’s face fell. “Thanks, but I doubt I’d get to go. What with my dad’s heart condition and losing the ranch, I’ll never get to travel.”

  “Losing the ranch?” Hayden’s heart gave a little jerk at the thought that Callie and her father wouldn’t be living in the home her mother had worked so hard to design just for them.

  “With Dad’s hospital bills and a few rough years of losing money in the cattle business, we can’t make the mortgage payments. There are only so many ways to rub two nickels together, you know?” She seemed to be unaffected, but as she reached inside a chest of drawers for clothing, her hands trembled.

  Hayden reached over and curled her fingers around Callie’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. “Don’t lose hope. Maybe we can help you.”

  “You don’t need to.” The other woman said politely as she turned away for a minute to stare out the window that overlooked the ranch’s front drive. Then she turned and with a genuine smile she changed the subject.

  “What was Fenn like as a boy? Did he really have a different life there?”

  Hayden helped Callie collect towels and clothing before she answered. “He was gone two years before I was born, but I know he was a mischievous kid, like most little boys I imagine. He’s a bit like Emery in the way he walks, the way he moves. Of course, I don’t know how close to Emery he is since I’ve known him all of a half a day.” She shook her head, smiling.

  “That’s his twin, right?”

  “Yes.” Hayden pursed her lips in thought. “They’re both dominating and egotistical.”

  They shared knowing grins and laughed.

  “And his parents?”

  “Miranda and Elliot Lockwood. Two of the best people I’ve ever met. They defy every stereotype about rich people you could have. Fenn looks just like his mother, but his attitude is just like his father’s.”

  Callie was the one who giggled this time. “So his dad must be a handful, then.”

  “He is, but he’s also a teddy bear to those he cares about.”

  “I’m so glad he had parents like that,” Callie’s tone was a little wistful. “It also made my father sad to think of him
so alone. Lewis was nice, but like my dad said, there was something not quite right about him, I guess. That’s what I’ve been told anyway. After Lewis died, Mom and Dad took Fenn in like one of their own and the state’s child services let them. I don’t know how much paperwork was involved. Dad doesn’t talk about it. But he’s always seen Fenn as his own son.”

  Hayden leaned back against the bed. “Why does Fenn live in that little trailer? It seems like this house has plenty of room.”

  Callie closed the drawers and joined her by the bed. “We have five extra bedrooms here, plenty of space, but Fenn moved out of the house when he turned eighteen. He said he wanted to earn his place on the ranch. So he saved up, bought the Airstream and has been living there ever since.”

  “That’s definitely his father’s stubbornness. A surefire Lockwood trait. No one ever tells Elliot Lockwood what to do and he has always believed in earning his way in life.” Hayden bit her lip to keep from smiling. It was fascinating to see how much Fenn was like his family, even though he had not been raised by them.

  “Sounds like he really is a Lockwood.” Callie smiled. “I wish I could see him meet his family, but I know it’s not something I should get to see. Well, I’ve bothered you long enough. Why don’t you get showered?” She pointed to the small bathroom at one end of the room.

  “Thanks.” Hayden paused by the door. “It was really good to meet you, Callie.”

  “Same here.” Callie’s response was a little sad as she stepped outside and left Hayden alone.

  As Hayden stripped out of the Valentino dress and her underwear, she mulled over the strange play of events that had led her here and the people she’d met. It was so far from the life and the people she’d grown up around. Aside from the Devereaux family and the Lockwoods, she wasn’t comfortable with her “own kind,” as her parents called themselves. Jim and Callie were wonderful, and knowing that Jim had helped to raise Fenn when his own parents couldn’t eased the pangs in her heart. He’d been in good hands these long years and that would make his parents feel better, if only a little.

  After she’d showered, she stepped out and wrapped a towel around her body. She walked into the bedroom and froze. Fenn was lounging against the wall by the bed, holding up her red dress as though scrutinizing it. There was something sinful about the sight of him next to the bed. It made her think of all the things they could do together…She swallowed hard and tried to ignore the flush on her skin.

  “How you women fit into these little things is beyond me. This thing barely covers your assets.” He looked at her and grinned. “And I do mean assets.”

  “Ha, ha. Hands off my Valentino, cowboy.”

  “Cowboy?” His raspy chuckle drifted over her skin like velvet. “If you don’t want my hands on your dress, where should I put them?” He made the dress dance around in the air in front of her.

  “Hey!” She lunged for the dress and the precarious hold on her towel slipped. Fenn dropped the dress at the same time, reacting instantly to catch her naked body as she dove at him. She squealed as his arms curled around her, his plaid cotton button-up shirt rubbing enticingly against her bare breasts.

  “Oh my God! Let go!” She gasped and shoved balled fists at his chest, desperately trying to ignore her body’s reaction.

  “Fine. I’ll let go.” He was still smirking as he stared down at her and started to loosen his arms.

  A horrifying realization struck just as her own body betrayed her with a heated throb between her thighs. If he let go she’d be completely naked in front of him, and her body was all for that idea. Traitor, she thought. Her skin tingled in anticipation of being touched, stroked…

  Damn, she had to get control of herself fast.

  “Wait!” she hissed in panic.

  Fenn’s large hands spanned her lower back, the heat of his palms searing through her bare skin. She absorbed the heat, letting it burn through her like wind stirring up a brushfire, the tension in her body building with a need for him she was fighting in her head to deny. Before she could think, her body arched, pressing into him, seeking to get closer.

  “Changed your mind, honey?” He drummed his fingertips playfully along the sensitive area where her back sloped out into her bottom. Sparks of arousal lit her up inside, like thousands of tiny fireworks, and she hated to admit what he was doing to her was destroying her rationality. Those few simple touches seared her like a brand. She felt branded by him. Her hips ground against his in invitation and she bit back a whimper as her bare clit rubbed against his jeans.

  God, if she didn’t get a hold of herself, she was going to climb him like a tree and beg him to fuck her. Regaining a few strands of self-control she fixed him with a stare.

  “Promise me you’ll close your eyes before you let go,” she ordered, putting on her best frown to show him she meant business. It was hard to ignore her body, though, the way her nipples had hardened and her womb was beating a rhythmic pulse inside her, ready to be taken by him.

  “No way.” He licked his lips. “I’m a hot-blooded man, and if this is my only shot to see you naked, I’m not missing it, no matter how pissed you’re going to be.”

  She kicked his good leg, and then whimpered as her bare toes connected with the strong leather of his cowboy boot.

  “You ass!” Hayden cursed. It was almost impossible not to be distracted by the way her breasts pressed against his chest, her nipples rasping against the textured fabric of his shirt.

  “Okay, you win, honey. I’m closing my eyes.” He sighed dramatically and made a grand show of shutting his eyes.

  She waited a second before she knocked his arms away and dove for the towel on the floor. She almost dropped it again as she hastily tried to get it wrapped around her body. Her heart was pounding and her entire body shaking as she tried to get the towel around herself, but she kept losing her grip.

  When she looked his way, he had an eye open, obviously peeking. With a firm grip on the towel about her breasts she punched him in the chest. His little grunt of pain was a small balm to her pride.

  “Well, as fun as this has been, I’ve got to go into town on an errand for Jim.” He tapped her upturned nose with his index finger before he walked away.

  She stood there in nothing but her towel, trembling. The man was tying her in knots. There had been times when she’d been almost entirely naked with Dominants at the Gilded Cuff, but she’d never felt so exposed, so vulnerable. What if Callie had come in and seen them? They were in her room, after all. What if Wes had come to check on her and found her naked and body locked to Fenn? Wes would have killed Fenn for that alone.

  Legs still shaking, she glanced around the room, feeling suddenly very small. Fenn could have unraveled her with one crook of his finger. He had had so much power over her body that he could have asked her to do anything, and the terrifying truth was that she might have done just that. Anything. And what’s more, he knew it, too. The blazing heat in his eyes just before he left warned her that he was fully aware he could have her at any time he chose.

  After she calmed down and went to lock the bedroom door, she turned her attention to the items Callie had left for her. The clothes on the bed were her size, and she slipped them on, reminding herself to thank Callie and return the favor. The blue jeans were perfect, and somehow more free-feeling than most of the dresses she wore back home. The shirt was a soft baby blue gingham. She buttoned it up and admired the loose fit. A pair of worn boots and socks sat on the floor by the bed, and she hastily pulled them on, then towel-dried her hair. She gave herself a quick once-over in the bathroom mirror, thankful that she didn’t rely on makeup that often and didn’t miss its absence now.

  Feeling refreshed, she left the bedroom and headed back downstairs. Jim was helping Callie prepare a quick breakfast. They both smiled at her when she walked into the kitchen.

  “Thank you so much for the clothes. I’m glad we’re the same size.” She patted her jeans.

  “Me too! Makes it easy.” Call
ie tucked some dirty pots into the sink and then handed Hayden a plate with a pancake and some toast. “Thought you might be hungry.”

  Hayden took a seat at the table. “Thanks. I may have to buy some new things while I’m here. I doubt I packed the right sort of clothes. I just threw stuff into a suitcase the second I heard Fenn had been located.”

  Jim caught her attention. “Speaking of Fenn…Hayden, would you mind going into town with him?”

  “I’ll go!” Callie offered, but her father caught her wrist.

  “Hold on there, sweetheart. I need your help getting two rooms ready for our guests.”

  “I’ll catch you later, Callie. Girls’ night sound good?” Hayden offered.

  “I’d love that.” The other woman’s wide-eyed hopeful expression made her feel good. She wanted to take that girl out and have some fun. It had been ages since she’d had a girls’ night out. The last time she’d done that was when Sophie and she had…Sophie. Her heart clenched at the thought of her friend in the hospital. She would have to call Emery today and ask how she was. If there had been bad news, she and Wes would have heard by now. That she was sure of.

  Outside, Fenn was near the old red pickup truck and Hayden’s breath caught in her throat. There was something incredibly seductive about a tall man in blue jeans, the wind making his shirt hug his trim waist and broad shoulders. So much about him was a mystery, and that made him all the more enticing. A secret part of her had loved it when he’d held her close, but she didn’t want a man controlling her. Anyone with that kind of power was dangerous to her, especially to her heart.

  As much as she secretly longed for a dominant man to control her in the bedroom, she’d never been able to trust one. There was an awful fear within her that if she allowed anyone to have that unlimited power, they’d run all over her and kill anything inside of her that needed to stay free. She couldn’t help but wonder what Fenn would be like. Was he the sort of man who needed to break a woman and own her? Or could he possess her with passion and only inflame the inferno raging within her even more?