Risking the Crown

by Violet Paige

  My hands caressed my breasts, massaging over my nipples.

  “You drive me fucking insane when you do that, Em.”

  “Good,” I teased.

  I rubbed my palms over my hips before traveling back to my tits.

  “Fuck it,” he growled.

  He reared up, sending me forward.

  “Oh God,” I squealed. His cock popped from my entrance before he spread my knees wide. I was mesmerized by the flames in front of me.

  The blue and dancing light jumping between the logs. Searing and blistering as the fire licked and billowed in the grate. Just then the head of Vaughn’s shaft slid inside me as I struggled to find something to grasp. He was at a new level of animalistic intensity. It felt so incredible I hummed as my breathing turned to ragged pants.

  “Oh fuck me, Vaughn. Fuck me,” I begged.

  He sent a powerful stroke between my legs and I trembled with dizziness.

  “Like that?” he groaned.

  “Yes. Again. Please.”

  “I can’t fucking stop.”

  I stayed on my hands and knees as Vaughn fucked me one last time. I couldn’t last any longer. I was exhausted. I shook with weariness as he pinched and squeezed my nipple as it draped the pile of blankets and pillows we had brought with us to the floor.

  “You fucking belong to me, Em,” he growled.

  I bucked under him. Another orgasm was about to claim me.

  “Only if you belong to me,” I whispered back to him.

  “Shit,” he groaned. He pumped inside me, spilling his release in my walls. His body molded to mine.

  We collapsed in a heap on the floor. The fire was down to a pile of orange coals.

  “Fuck,” he whispered.

  I rolled on my back. I wasn’t cold. Far from it. I was exhausted and sated at the same time. Vaughn stood to throw another log on the fire.

  I watched his body in amazement. Every line of him was perfect. Every muscle. Every limb.

  He took a few steps to the tray of food and brought it to the floor.

  “I forgot we had food in here.” I sat up to take few bites.

  “We have it all weekend.” He winked. “I didn’t really plan on leaving. I ordered the necessities: food, wine, and wood.”

  I smiled. “Then why come all the way out here?” I asked. “We could have done this at my place.”

  “I don’t remember you having a four-poster bed.”

  I looked at the bed over his shoulder. “True. I don’t.” I took a bite of cheese and cracker and greedily gulped the wine he offered. “Do you think there’s more use for it?”

  Vaughn picked up a strawberry. “At least a hundred more.” He said it with such seriousness I almost laughed.

  Chapter 13

  Vaughn wasn’t completely serious about not leaving the room. The next morning, we had breakfast in bed. Room service delivered a full cart of pastries, fruit, and coffee. After we ate we took a shower, allowing the steam to billow around us.

  “What do you want to do today?” Vaughn asked.

  “What are my choices?” I dabbed shampoo in the center of my palm and ran it through my hair.

  “Drive through the country side.” He counted off the options on his fingers. “Search for Civil War battlefields.”

  “Really?” I eyed him.

  “I did download a new crossword app.” The corners of his mouth twitched.

  I rinsed my hair before pressing into the hard planes of his chest.

  He laughed. “Or we could take in the winery. It’s right outside.”

  I grinned. “And turn down grassy fields of ancient battles?” I scrunched my nose.

  “If you insist on wine.” He gripped my bottom, sliding me against him. “Such a smartass.”

  I bit my lip, peering into his eyes. The water dripped from his lashes. He hadn’t shaved, and the stubble on his cheeks was irresistibly handsome on him. I sighed as his lips moved against mine with tender passion.

  After the shower I pulled on a pair of jeans and a button-up blue plaid shirt.

  The crisp air hit my nostrils when we ventured outside. We walked through the rows of grapes.

  “Try this one.” Vaughn plucked a reddish grape from the vine.

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to do that.” I looked around to see if anyone had noticed.

  “Open your mouth.” He grinned.

  “You are so very bad,” I whispered.

  “You like bad.”

  He touched the grape to my lips. My lips parted as he fed me. I bit into the fruit as his mouth crashed into mine.

  He wrapped his arms around me, lifting me from the ground. I hooked my boots against his waist. There was fever in the kiss. Hunger. Want. Thirst for more of last night.

  The world had tilted off its axis. Vaughn’s hands snaked up the back of my shirt. I struggled to find air in between kisses.

  There was a restlessness between us. I didn’t know if the vineyard could hold us. If the inn could. If there was a place that could contain what we had set on fire.

  My feet finally touched the soil again and I tried to find my balance. I looked in his eyes.

  “The wine tasting?” I nodded in the direction of one of the tasting barns. I’d read in one of the brochures in the lobby that there were three here.

  “Right.” He started in that direction. “Wine tasting.”

  I settled into a stride next to him.

  “Have you done this before?” I asked.

  “No. First tasting.”

  “I’ve done some, but not at a winery. It’s beautiful here.”

  “It’s good to get away from D.C.”

  “How is work going?” I always felt like I pried when I asked about his job, but there was a new connection between us.

  His eyes were set on the red barn in front of us. “You know my work isn’t very interesting.”

  “I don’t know that. You don’t talk about it much. You must like something about it.”

  “It’s numbers. Investors. Lots of travel. There isn’t much to discuss. Very dry business.”

  “Do you know of any trips coming up?”

  “I don’t usually know until I have to fly out. It’s one of the drawbacks.”

  “Do you think you’ll stay in the field? In investments?” I wanted to know what challenges he liked. What inspired him. Was it numbers, or was it the job he used to have? The one he never revealed.

  “Let’s not talk about work. We’re on vacation, aren’t we?”

  “But I—”

  He slid the sunglasses from his eyes. His damn gorgeous eyes got me every time. I decided not to press him anymore.

  “Do you want to go get day drunk with me or not?”

  I smiled. “I do. Very much so.”

  “Then let’s go.” He led me into the barn.

  I didn’t expect to see so many people inside. The inn was almost empty, but the wine tasting was packed. I looked up at two crystal chandeliers suspended from sturdy beams running overhead.

  Vaughn and I started at one end of the barn and listened while the sommelier explained the pairings.

  We moved on to the second station when I felt my phone buzz.

  “Hold on just a second.” I winced. “I’m sorry it’s work.” I stepped outside, aggravated Meg had called.

  “Hi,” I answered.

  “I’m so sorry to call you on your weekend away, but I thought you needed to know about this.”

  “What is it?” I rushed her. I wanted to get back inside.

  “Lana Foley hasn’t returned any of my calls.”

  “She hasn’t confirmed the Monday deposition?”

  “No,” Meg answered. “I’ve left messages on her cell. I emailed her personal accounts and I haven’t heard back for the past three days.”

  I exhaled. “Maybe she isn’t somewhere where she can respond.” She was supposed to tell her husband about the baby and the senator before the deposition.

  If she hadn’
t talked to him yet it made sense she wouldn’t answer Meg’s calls.

  “For three days? I think you need to try and see if you can reach her. Maybe she’ll answer if it’s you instead of me.”

  “It shouldn’t make a difference. This is her case. If she wants to sue him, she has to show up.” I lectured as if Meg was responsible.

  “But what if it’s something else?”

  I could see Vaughn through the sliding farm doors of the barn. He was listening intently to the lesson on the next wine. He stood out in the small gathering. I would have noticed him in any crowded room. The way he held his frame. His strong arms. His eyes.

  “It’s Saturday, Meg. Saturday.” It almost came out as a whine.

  “Have I ever called you on Saturday before?” she prodded.

  “No.”

  “I’ll text you her number. Can you at least call? Please?”

  I shook my head. Lana Foley’s case was chipping away at my time with Vaughn.

  “All right. Send it over and I’ll try to call her.”

  “Thank you, Emily. I just hope she’s ok.”

  “Why wouldn’t she be ok?” I stopped before I let myself finish the thought. “I’ll call you right back.”

  I hung up and waited for the text.

  Vaughn strolled out of the barn, carrying a tiny cup. “You missed the pear apricot one.” He dropped the sexy smile. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “It’s a client. She’s not responding to us and we have a huge deposition with her Monday. I need to try to make a few calls. I’m sorry.” I looked at him with regret. I knew I was letting the outside world into our bubble.

  “I’ll walk you back to the room. You can make all the calls you need to.”

  “Are you sure?” I hated it. I hated work. Right now I had some not-so-nice things to say about Lana Foley.

  “Of course. I’ll do some work too. I brought my laptop in case.” He tossed the cup into a bin.

  “We shouldn’t be working. I’m sorry. Really sorry.”

  “No apologies. Come on. I’ll get you back to the room. Hop on.”

  I looked at Vaughn as he stooped to lower his back.

  “Piggy back ride?”

  “Hop on.”

  I giggled as I jumped from the ground.

  “Hang on.”

  I secured my arms around his shoulders as he started to jog toward the inn. That was the moment I realized that beneath the confidence and the polished sexy exterior. Behind his smoldering bedroom eyes, Vaughn was fun.

  I left messages for Lana at both numbers Meg texted to me. I also sent a follow up email. It didn’t make sense that she hadn’t responded to either of us.

  “Do you want to tell me what’s going?” Vaughn asked. He sat on the bed with his laptop, watching me pace.

  I fell onto the bed. “In the vaguest of terms I can tell you my client is trying to sue a high profile member of Congress and I still can’t find her.”

  I stared at the ceiling. It sounded much worse when I said it out loud.

  “Do you want to head back to the city?” he suggested.

  “What?” I sat forward.

  “I understand if you want to check on her. You might feel better if you’re back in D.C. It’s an important case. I assume an important client.”

  “And just leave the winery?”

  He closed the screen. “Are you going to be able to think about anything else while we’re here and you haven’t heard from her?” he asked.

  I lowered my eyes, knowing the truth. I wanted to be the girl so wrapped up in her love life that nothing else mattered, but I cared too much about what happened with Lana Foley. I had invested countless hours in her case. Preparing for the deposition alone was the most time I had dedicated to impending litigation.

  “No. I’m worried about her. The case. Meg is concerned,” I admitted. “I’m trying not to let myself think anything bad has happened. There has to be a logical explanation for it.”

  I didn’t want to believe it was possible something went wrong when Lana told her husband about the affair and the baby. It made me sick to think about it. I also tried to push the nagging thought away that Senator Mitcherson had something to do with her silence. What if he found out she was preparing a case against him? What if he had interfered?

  “All right. Then we’re headed back,” he announced.

  He jumped from the bed and threw a shirt in his bag.

  “But—” I felt the defeat in me change to elated surprise. He was sincere. Vaughn started canvassing the room, gathering our things. “You’re ok with this?” I questioned.

  “Work happens. We have other weekends. You can’t take a chance like this.”

  I stood from the bed and folded my sweater in half. “Thank you.”

  He stopped packing and looked at me. “I’ll get you home.”

  We shoved the rest of our things in our bags. I did a final sweep to make sure I didn’t leave anything in the shower before Vaughn collected the key to check out.

  I looked up at the inn from the front seat. I could see our window. Something had happened between us here. Something magical and unbelievable. Something that had seeped into my soul, binding me to Vaughn in an unimaginable way.

  “Ready to go?” He climbed behind the wheel.

  “Not really, but I have to find my client. What if something bad has happened?”

  “I can help you if you want.”

  He pulled away from the vineyard and we turned onto the highway after meandering through country roads.

  “Help me find her? You’re serious?” I looked at him.

  He pressed his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose. The aviators had a different level of sex appeal on his structured face.

  “Yes. By the time we get back it will be late afternoon. We’ll track her down and we can still finish off our weekend on a high note.” He grinned. “I have selfish motivations.”

  “Really, you don’t have to do that. It’s my mess.”

  All I could think about was how eerily reminiscent this was of Garrett. The familiar tightening in my chest returned. How many times had I searched for him? How many times had I called his friends desperate for answers?

  He squeezed my knee. “Em, I’m going to help you.”

  “All right.” I wasn’t used to it. Accepting help. Even the offer was foreign. I was the one who always solved the crisis. I was the foot soldier. “If you’re sure.”

  “I am. I want to do this.” I knew he wasn’t flirting anymore. He was genuine.

  The rest of the drive we listened to music while I reminded myself Lana Foley and my brother had nothing in common. Their only connection was not returning my calls. The commonality stopped there. It had to.

  Two hours later Vaughn pulled up in front of my apartment.

  “Is your roommate here this weekend?” he asked.

  “No. She texted and said she was staying with her boyfriend. I think she had to work most of the weekend anyway.”

  “Think I’ll ever meet her?”

  “I’d like that. She’s fun, but also a workaholic.”

  He chuckled. “You do realize you’re the one working on a Saturday.”

  “Touche’.”

  “Where do we start to look for your client?”

  I pulled on the handle. “I need to go upstairs and get my office keys. I have her paperwork at my office. Do you want to wait here while I get them?”

  “I’ll keep the car running.”

  I slammed the door and took the steps as quickly as I could.

  Chapter 14

  We parked in a deck not far from the clinic. It was easier to maneuver the campus roads on the weekend. Vaughn walked beside me as I guided him to my office.

  I turned the lights on as we walked through the halls.

  “So this is where the magic happens?” He stood in the doorway while I searched for Lana’s file.

  I laughed. “You make it sound more glamorous than it is.”


  I opened the filing cabinet and flipped to the F stack. I pulled Lana’s file from the folders. There was a standard contact form we attached to all files. I took a picture of the address listed. It had always been a part of the process. I never imagined I would need the information to locate a missing client.

  “Ok. I have her address. We can start there.”

  “And if she’s not there?”

  “I have no idea. I only have one option.” I closed everything I had opened.

  Vaughn examined Addie’s desk. “Is this the infamous office mate’s space?” He shifted the phone and moved a stack of sticky notes.

  “Yes. Don’t touch her stuff,” I scolded.

  “You think she’ll notice if I do this?” He opened the top drawer a fraction of an inch.

  “Vaughn! She’s super picky about her stuff.”

  He chuckled. “Let me know if she notices.”

  I tugged on the door. “Oh, she’ll notice.”

  We walked to the car and plugged the address I had for Lana in my phone. She lived twenty minutes away.

  “Thank you for doing all of this.” I looked at him as he drove us to the house.

  “Sweetheart, it’s no big deal.”

  Maybe it wasn’t a big deal to him, but to me it was an enormous display of just how much Vaughn was willing to do for me.

  “Turn here and it’s on the right.” I pointed to the one-story ranch.

  The sun had just started to set. There were long shadows across the driveway. I hadn’t pictured where Lana lived. She was young and newly married. She was also a woman who had an affair with her boss. This neighborhood looked like the kind of place people moved to raise families. Not the kind of place that was home to scandal and home-wrecking.

  “I think I should go by myself,” I explained. “It’s a very sensitive case.”

  “I get it. Confidentiality. I won’t ask any questions, but if you need me I’m right here.”

  I appreciated that Vaughn understood my job. He didn’t urge me to reveal Lana’s name or why her deposition on Monday was so important. I yanked the door handle and walked to the front of the house. There were geraniums in pots on the front steps along with a few pumpkins. I pressed the doorbell. The chimes echoed like church bells. I waited for Lana to answer.