“Hell no, I stopped pounding on Sean years ago; beating his scrawny little ass lost its appeal. My goal is to bankrupt the bastard and replace that shit sign McKenna Industries with Crown Mar Corp. The McKennas have been a thorn in my family’s side for over a hundred years. Sean and I will settle the feud once and for all.”
Simon grunted. “High aspirations you’ve got there, Chase.”
“No higher than his.” Chase’s guarded expression was fixed on Sean and Teresa. Lilly imagined he was thinking about her sister Cassie, and what Chase wouldn’t give to lavish attention on Cassie, just as Sean was fawning over Teresa. To Lilly’s surprise, he made an uncharacteristic and unexpected statement.
“If you ever tell him I said this,” Chase nodded toward Sean, “I’ll deny it. But I will never understand how he deals with Maris and his father. The situation is wrong on so many levels.”
“I agree. It’s not fair to Teresa…it’s hard for them all. If Sean could change it, he would. You know that. He’s working on it.”
“Yes but —”
“At least he’s honest with her.” Lilly cut him off.
“And he didn’t let her go.” Simon added.
“You just had to get your little dig in, didn’t you Simon?” Lilly chastised him.
“Hell yes!” Simon planted a searing kiss on Lilly’s lips. When she came up for air, all thoughts pertaining to tongue lashing Simon for the nasty comment he made to Chase were gone.
“Lilly, are you sure this is what you want?” Chase asked.
The sincerity and concern on Chase’s face melted Lilly’s heart. She ached for him. The loneliness that surrounded him was painfully clear in the lines around his eyes. He was so cynical about love that there was no way he could grasp or open his eyes to see it between Lilly and Simon.
“Chase, I know you mean well, and you’re just looking out for me. But Simon really is one of the good guys. He would never hurt me. I get him and he gets me. Sure, he’s abrasive at times, speaks before he thinks, and creates situations that the average person never would.” She hunched her shoulders and smiled at Simon adding, “So what? He’s mine. The only person that has to deal with his bullshit is me. I trust Simon completely and I feel very special when I’m with him. He’ll never let anyone hurt me—ever. Simon makes me happy.”
“If you ever need me, you know where to find me.”
“Yes, Chase. I know you’ll always be a phone call away.”
“Unfucking believable,” Simon muttered.
Chapter Seven
Lilly reapplied lipstick and then smiled at her reflection in the mirror. She was glad no one else was in the powder room. It gave her a few minutes of quiet away from the party. A part of her felt a twinge of guilt because of her overwhelming happiness. It didn’t seem fair her heart’s desire would be totally hers, while her sisters’ dreams eluded them. Lilly tried to harness the joy, but failed miserably.
She whispered, “Mrs. Simon Lane
.”
She was ecstatic. In one week, one short week, she would be his wife, his partner for life. Nothing could go wrong now. After years of struggles, years of being handled and sheltered by her family, not to mention Sean and Chase, after years of hoping for an independence all her own, she had it.
The sound of the powder room door being flung against the wall jarred Lilly from her thoughts. She groaned. Jamie Davidson Crane walked up to Lilly with the grace of a gazelle. The woman was pretty, but awkward as hell; tall, willowy, with long midnight black hair. What in the world had Parker been thinking when he married her? Lilly shuddered.
“Why, Lilly Rouilard, I do believe congratulations are in order.”
“Thank you, Jamie, and what the hell are you doing here? You were not invited.” Lilly reached for her blush and, ignoring Jamie, gently ran the brush against her cheeks.
“Now, is that anyway to speak to your boss, dear?”
“You’re not my boss. I made it absolutely clear with your momma that I would not be taking orders from you, and she agreed. Don’t ever refer to me as your subordinate.”
“No, I imagine your submissive side is exclusive to Simon these days. Tell me, did you thank him properly?” Jamie asked.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lilly inhaled deeply and willed away the jitters creeping up her spine.
“Did you thank your master for the job he got for you at my mother’s company?”
“What job?” Without hearing Jamie say it, Lilly knew the answer. She maintained a look of complete disdain, but what she really wanted to do was run from the powder room, find Simon, and kick his narrow ass.
He broke his promise, ergo, Simon lied.
Lilly was instantly pissed.
“Oh, no,” Jamie gushed. “I let the cat out of the bag, didn’t I? I just assumed Simon’s plea to bring you into the firm was at your request. Well, damn. I guess I put my big mouth in it. I am so sorry, Lilly.” Jamie’s voice dripped with condescending sincerity.
Bitch! Lilly thought. In lieu of voicing her contempt, Lilly decided to save face and went with culpability, compliance, and tact.
“I confess, Jamie. Simon did contact your mother for me. I mean, at my request. I am just a little surprised your Mother told you. I was hoping only Simon, your mother, and I knew.”
Lilly could tell by the stiffening of Jamie’s posture that the response she gave her was hardly what Jamie had expected. But Lilly would be damned if she broke down and showed the slightest emotion in front of this woman.
Nor would she afford Jamie the opportunity to make disparaging remarks about Simon—that honor belonged to Lilly and she intended to make Simon pay for the humiliation this woman was throwing at her. Jamie recovered quickly, and Lilly braced herself for an angry reply.
“Actually, my mother didn’t tell me, Simon did. He shares everything with me. We’re close like that.”
“Sure you are. If you’ll excuse me, I have a party to enjoy and you have a cab to call because you are not wanted here.” Lilly stepped past her but as she reached for the door, Jamie’s fingers snaked around her upper arm.
“We are close. Do you have a problem with that?”
“You are pathetic.” Lilly shook her head. “If you are pitifully attempting to make me jealous or piss me off, forget it, Jamie. I’m not falling for your bullshit. It’s not going to work.”
“The look on your face tells me it already has. I don’t think you’ll be very accommodating tonight when he pulls out his whips and chains. You have to trust a man to take an ass whipping. The look on your face tells me there will be no spankings in the Lane house tonight. Lack of trust in a relationship such as yours and Simon’s is a death sentence. I suspect the party is over for the two of you. If you need help sending back the wedding gifts, I’m available. I look forward to it, as a matter of fact.”
“Is that what this is about, Jamie? Jealous that it’s my ass he’s smacking instead of yours? Get a life and butt the hell out of mine.”
“I had one. But your lover boy managed to screw it up. He turned Parker against me; he turned all my friends against me. He made me a laughing stock!”
“Now, I’m confused. A moment ago, you spoke as if you and Simon were the best of friends. Now you’re bitter enemies. Make up your mind. What I am not confused on, however, is your attempt to bring me into your oh-so-obvious vendetta against Simon. I’m not going to play your game.”
“You already are.” Jamie pursed her lips, winked at Lilly, and then slithered out the door.
“Damn you Simon…what have you done?” Lilly whispered. She leaned against the door and looked around the room. He had promised her that he would not interfere. Did he not understand how important it was that she did this on her own? She had trusted him and he had lied to her.
He was just like Sean and Chase, treating her like a little glass doll that would break if not kept nice and safe under a dome enclosure. She had wanted to do this one thing all by herself, without the in
tervention of anyone.
Why did he have to do this?
She left the security of the bathroom and sought out Simon. He smiled at her from the same corner she had left him in. Simon’s smile stilled her, and for a moment, she questioned if confronting him about the job was really a smart thing to do. Was it so wrong? Then Jamie slid up beside him and whispered something in his ears. He glanced at Lilly again and the look on his face told her that everything Jamie said and hinted at was true.
Simon shook his head and moved toward her. Lilly turned and fled. She wasn’t sure why it hurt so much, and that what some would consider a good thing was so bad and wrong to her. Lilly had wanted to succeed on her own.
Didn’t he know her at all?
It didn’t take much for him to catch up to her. Simon grabbed her arm and practically shoved her into the awaiting elevator. It was so like a scene from a movie. The doors were just there, open and waiting for them. He never let his hold on her go, and with his free hand, he jabbed at the button to the eighteenth floor. They had rented a room in the swank hotel for the night, plus several others to accommodate guests who didn’t want to travel home after the party.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said through gritted teeth.
“That you’re a manipulating bastard, and I hate you!”
“Yeah…exactly, and I am, but I will be damned if I allow you to toss me aside like warm shit without an explanation.” Simon’s anger was palpable. Where the hell did he get off being mad! His behavior magnified and spurred her anger. She was the wronged party. He was the liar, not her. How dare he react as if she had done something wrong?
“You lied to me.”
“I lied to protect you!” Simon hauled her shaking body against his chest. “I did it for you Lilly, not to you!”
“I didn’t ask you to help me! I never wanted you to. As a matter of fact, I repeatedly asked you to stay the fuck out of it, and you promised me you would. So you lied. You had no right —”
“I had every fucking right!”
“I’m not your property!”
“The hell you aren’t!” The elevator doors slid open, and without saying a word, Simon pulled her out and practically dragged her down the hall. Once inside their suite, he tossed the key card on the entry table and faced her.
“I’m sorry.” Simon was visibly shaking.
“And I don’t care.”
“Lilly —”
She heard the plea in his voice. “I want to leave, Simon. I don’t want to be here with you, right now. “
“No.” He shook his head and advanced on her. “You can’t go anywhere until I explain what happened.”
“There’s nothing you can say. Just let me go.”
“I can’t let you go, Lilly. I can’t. I was wrong. Are you happy, now?” he yelled at her. “I was wrong; I screwed up again. I know, but please baby, please just listen to me. Let me explain. Please baby, please.”
“Let me go, Simon.”
“No.”
“Let me go, Simon!”
“I can’t! Why can’t you understand that! I can’t let you go.”
“I’ve had enough.” Lilly pushed him aside, intending to leave the room, but Simon snaked his arms around her waist, lifted her off her feet, and in seconds had her through the open door that led to the bedroom. She squirmed in his arms but was unable to free herself.
“You’re not leaving me, Lilly!” He flung her on the bed.
“I hate you, Simon!”
“You love me, Lilly.” He lowered his body on hers and pressed kisses against her cheek. “You love me, Lilly. You love me. Hold me…but don’t let me go. I’ll do anything you want…anything you say, but don’t leave me, Lilly. Please don’t leave me, baby.” He captured her mouth with his, and for a moment, her body relaxed. Simon’s hand slowly ran up her leg, gathering the hem of her dress along the way.
“Stop it, Simon.”
“You want me, Lilly. You love me.”
“Not like this Simon, please let me go.”
“I can’t.” He sat back on his haunches. “I can’t. You promised me Lilly and I believed you —”
“You lied to me!” she yelled.
“For you, Lilly. Everything I did was for you, everything. Was it so wrong?” His hands cupped the back of her neck.
“You’re making it worse. You’re hurting me Simon, just let me go.”
“I’ll never let you go. You want me, Lilly; I can feel it. Your body is dying for me just as much as mine is aching for you.” Simon forced her back on the bed and stretched out over her. He pressed his cock against her center. Against her will, she arched against him and moaned.
“Simon, please…stop, Simon!”
“Say you will not leave me, and I’ll give you anything you ask for.” His fingers sought the moisture the between her legs and stroked her pulsing and sensitive pussy.
“Say it, Lilly.”
He had to keep her. No matter what, Simon’s goal was to keep his woman any way he had too. Lilly was everything to him. When he felt her submission, he took complete advantage of her surrender. Simon turned off all thought and concentrated on bringing her body to full abandon with his ministrations.
His teeth nipped, and then caressed, her slender neck, and ever so slowly, maneuvered down her body to her heaving breast, finally capturing her rock-hard nipple in his mouth, savoring the texture against his tongue, twisting the morsel between his teeth.
At some point, he wasn’t sure when, but at some point he had ripped the material that separated his tongue from actual flesh, exposing her globes. The fact that Lilly’s teeth slammed into his shoulder, painfully piercing a section of his skin didn’t faze Simon…it wasn’t the first time she had performed such an act, and it would not be the last.
He had her squirming against him, slamming her fist into his back just as he always had in the past. In retrospect, he excused his attack because of the dark edge that always teetered between them. If he drew droplets of blood, she would draw buckets.
Neither had ever complained before, and at that moment, as he struggled to keep her pinned to the bed and desperately worked at freeing his dick from his pants, in hindsight, he thought this was like the countless times before when they explored the darker side of their desires.
“Slow down, baby,” he groaned into the pleasure that only his Lilly could make him feel. Simon relished the foreplay and anticipated the feel of her pussy sucking him in, convulsing around his cock, drawing him in and tightening around him like a vice grip.
“Please…Simon…Please!” He shuddered from her words. Simon loved when she begged. It was unbelievable that her whimper could make him harder, but it always did. Lilly had joked once, after a particularly strenuous and adventurous session in their playroom, that all she had to do was say please and he would burst out of his pants. He shook the thought away and concentrated solely on her need. Tonight he was fucking for his life. He had one objective, and thinking about the past would not get it done.
Lilly thrashed beneath him, her fingers digging into his back and his side. She buckled and fought like the wildcat he had drawn out of her nearly a year ago. Soon he had her dress pushed up, well above her waist, having abandoned the notion of freeing his cock and ramming his dick into her. No, Lilly wanted a fight and she wanted it rough. Simon knew every trick of the trade, and he would give it to her. They had been here before.
Releasing her wrist and bending his body, he buried his face between her parted legs, and covered her clit with his mouth. The smell of her sex rushed through him like a drug, like heroin or injected cocaine. The smell numbed him, froze him to the spot. Nothing registered except loving her, tasting her, bringing her to a swift orgasm. Then and only then, while her body was in the throes of coming, would he fuck her and any thought she may have entertained about leaving him would be gone.
He could not lose her, ever.
Simon’s mind was one sided and all his concentration was on acqu
iring her total submission. It was for her and because of her that he had intervened with the job she coveted. So engrossed with his determination to ensure she would not walk away from their future because of his misguided action in the past, Simon didn’t hear the banging on the door. He didn’t hear the shouts of outrage from the men who had entered. Simon didn’t see the look of horror on the face of the woman who had taken hold of Lilly’s arm and was pulling frantically at her, cursing at Simon as she did so. At that moment, everything was a blur.
The pain that ripped through Simon from the thought he would lose Lilly was quickly circumvented by the excruciating jolt to his body. He had little time to react; a strong pair of hands gripped him and hauled him off Lilly, roughly slamming him onto the floor.
“What the fuck?” Simon rolled to his side and found himself staring into the very angry face of Chase Crown Mar. Before he could utter another word, Chase grabbed him by the collar and smashed a fist into Simon’s jaw, once, twice and then a third time in rapid succession. Right before he passed out, choking on the taste of his own blood, Simon moved his head slightly and caught a glimpse of Lilly. She was crying hysterically, clinging to her sister.
“Oh God, Lilly,” he mumbled.
“Don’t you dare speak to her. Matter of fact, don’t even fucking look at her, you worthless son of a bitch!” Chase roared.
Simon thought to raise his hand in protection, but it was too late. Completely disoriented, his hand landed above his head just as Chase’s fist leveled a final blow to his left eye.
Ignoring Chase’s remarks of condemnation and the look of shock on Sean’s face, through a swollen eye, Simon looked toward Lilly. She was clutching her tattered dress across her chest; her face was streaked with tears, her hair in complete disarray. Right before he closed his eyes, right before the realization of just how misguided his actions were, just before it dawned on him that her no had truly meant no, he opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to say he was sorry, that he had misunderstood, and to ask her forgiveness. But he didn’t speak—Lilly’s words froze him.
“Chase, no! Sean, do something! Help him, please…do something. Please help him, Sean!”
Education of Simon Lane Page 7
