by Kira Barker
With so much free time on my hands, I had been wondering how he was going to introduce me to his social circle now that I wasn’t just the bring-and-forget-about eye-candy anymore.
“And you think a dinner party is the right means for that?” I asked, still not completely on board.
“Why not? Isn’t that what wives do?” he joked. Or at least I hoped he was joking, because otherwise we were going to get into some serious trouble soon.
“I’m just not sure if I’ll be that kind of wife,” I let him know.
Darren wasn’t really bothered by my reply.
“I’m not asking you to do this on a weekly basis. Just this once, and maybe again before the holidays. Our little spat there made me consider that you don’t just feel neglected by me in the physical sense, but also emotionally. I should have made sure to set you up better. You’ll likely get a dozen invitations for lunch or coffee at that party, meet the other vipers in the game on their home turf. I don’t expect you to socialize with them if you absolutely don’t want to, but I think some of them aren’t as vapid as they seem at first glance, or when they tried in the past to set me up with the next available friend of theirs in need of a sugar daddy. And it’s not like you can’t handle them after what you’ve told me about your interaction with Brigitte.”
That was true, and it wasn’t the direct communication I was hesitant about.
“And you’ll introduce me as your, what, exactly?” I asked.
“My fiancée, of course,” he replied without hesitation, then gave me a shrewd look. “What else should I introduce you as? You are, after all, the future Mrs. Darren Hunter. There’s no sense in being coy about that.”
“And that’s it?”
His snort was condescending enough to make me frown, but the sigh that followed when he saw my reaction made me mentally backtrack again.
“If you’d quit a job in accounting, you wouldn’t go around and tell everyone that you were a numbers monkey, either, right? So why should it interest anyone what you made a living with before we crossed paths?”
“What do I tell them when they ask how we met? By your logic, I will have to lie to them,” I said.
“Exactly when has that become a problem to you?” he questioned, a wry twist coming to his smile now. “In many ways, this won’t be that different from what you’ve been doing all along, either. Make them feel welcome here and be the perfect woman they want to see. My perfect woman.”
Any protest I might have brought forth got muted when he rolled over and came to a halt perched above me, his knees pressing my thighs apart. I was already a little sore from our previous lovemaking, but feeling his hard cock slide back into me was just wonderful. I stretched, then pushed my hips up to meet his, pulling him closer with my legs wrapped around him. His lips were back on mine, his tongue seeking entrance, and it was only too easy to forget why I had been protesting.
In the end, only one thing mattered: that I loved him, and he loved me.
Chapter 24
Eight days later, it turned out that I’d been deadly wrong about that.
The preparations for the dinner party had actually been a lot more fun and rewarding than I’d expected. The event planner Darren had recommended was a godsend; very professional, very skilled, she let me have the helm but was there whenever I needed anything, or was about to flounder—and flounder I did a lot. There were a million different things to consider, and a million more I wouldn’t have thought of but turned out to be vital.
Even with her help, I barely had time to get my hair done on Saturday afternoon, get my dress from the dry-cleaner, and be presentable and ready when the first guests arrived.
Darren remained plastered to my side for the first hour—an hour I spent nervous and anxious like a schoolgirl on her first day. There were a million things that I felt I still needed to keep in mind and take care of while I tried to remember everyone’s names, faces, and association, a not even insincere smile on to my face. As he’d said, he introduced me as his future wife, much to the surprise of some, but not to others. I’d expected more of the former, and maybe some shifty gazes or frozen expressions, but everyone was very pleasant, very superficial, and I thought we were off to a good start.
Things got a little more complicated about the time dinner was ready. There was some confusion with the caterers that forced me to excuse myself and hurry outside to try to sort things out, and upon my return it was as if just missing ten minutes of conversations had slammed a door shut on me. Suddenly, no one reacted to my attempts at small talk, and if I managed to interject something, I got condescending glances. Darren was caught up in a very animated discussion with the men sitting next to him, too far removed from me that I could even follow it, and my side of the table had taken up shunning me. I still managed to convince myself that I was just projecting and tried to make the best of it, but there was only so much lying to myself that I could do before it became stale.
To give the caterers some space to clear away the main course, coffee was served on the terrace outside, also making it easier for people—mostly Darren—to mingle. It took me a while to shoo everyone out, and just when I was about to finally follow them and maybe get to enjoy the more entertaining sides of being the hostess, a familiar figure pulled me aside into the hallway by the stairs.
I glared at where Ray’s hand was still wrapped around my forearm, and he let go with an amused smile.
“How quickly things change,” he mused as he leaned back against the wooden wall panel, effectively keeping me from escaping unless I tried to squeeze myself by him. Not wanting to give him that kind of satisfaction, I did my best to remain reserved yet civil.
“Not really,” I pointed out. “You know that the only reason I let you touch me was because of the money you paid for it.”
“Ah, not that. I know you despise me,” he murmured and flashed me a dazzling smile. “I meant the recent changes in your life. New house, new job, new persona—almost like a new life, wouldn’t you say?”
He was still standing too close for comfort, but I wasn’t about to back away. Instead, I donned a smile of my own, letting him know just how much impact he had on my sunny disposition.
“And your point is?”
Snorting, he shook his head, clearly amused by something that was completely lost on me.
“You actually believe that this is all real? Man, but he really pulled a number on you.” Chortling, he relaxed against the wall. “One of these days I really have to ask the kid how exactly he does it. If he’d been born a few decades earlier, he would have made one hell of a great snake oil salesman.”
Pursing my lips, I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to keep my gaze as level as possible.
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t? But I think you do, deep down under all that crazy lovesickness. You know that fairy tales aren’t real, and if they were, they wouldn’t end in happiness and rainbows.” He let that hang in the air between us, then eyed me more critically. I did my best not to shiver under his gaze, but it was hard to ignore the feeling as if a thousand bugs were crawling over my skin. “I give you another three weeks, maybe four. Hell, you’re good enough to make it that far. But two months from now you’ll be gone, leaving the stage ready for the next idiot to spread her legs for him.”
If he thought he could intimidate me with that bullshit, he was barking up the wrong tree.
“And what leads you to make this esteemed guestimate? Your superior way of treating women? Your knowledge of the female mind?”
My little jibes left him completely unimpressed.
“The fact that this is actually the thirteenth time we’re playing that very same game perhaps? Even if you think so very little of my intellect, you should give me enough credit to catch on to that after number five or seven.”
I felt the smile freeze on my face but did my best not to react otherwise.
“Are you done? Because I
have more important things to do than—“
“Please, by all means, go back out there and let the others ogle you from all sides so they have something to gossip over in the meantime. But no one’s missing you, sweetheart, and they can take care of themselves for a little while. Unless you strip down and dance naked in the fountain, no one’s going to remember you five months from now.”
Again with that dismissiveness. Yet now it got harder to ignore his words as they sounded so very close to my own observations.
“They don’t take me seriously, not yet. So what? Do you think I always have to be the center of attention?”
He was still gloating at me, that smile never disappearing.
“But you do, and that’s what’s been missing from your life of late. Now that he has you ensnared and closeted away, you’re no longer that interesting; just like a toy you get out when you want to play, then forget about until you’re bored again. Isn’t that what made you such a great whore, being able to play that toy over and over, always available, always yearning for that next instance? Only now you’re not even getting paid for it anymore. Hilarious.”
Swallowing the acerbic remark I wanted to hurt at him, I took a step closer, although I doubted I could intimidate him that way.
“I’m his fiancée, not his whore, or his toy, or any other derogatory term you can come up with. I know that you’re creative like that. You don’t have to like me, or respect me, but I won’t let you continue to play your fucking mind games with me. They have absolutely no effect on me, so you can just stop wasting your time.”
Ray considered my words, for once not using the chance to leer into my cleavage.
“I’m not the one playing games with you, sweet cheeks. I’ve never lied to you, and I’ve even been a generous tipper. I like you, even though the sentiment is obviously not mutual. You have spunk, and you’re clever. I can see what he sees in you, and, honestly? I’m kind of sad to watch him break your spirit. You were one of the good ones.”
I wondered if he actually thought that his constant repetitions would help get his message through my armor, but at the same time couldn’t deny that the tiny voice at the back of my head was gobbling up every single word.
“Let’s pretend I believe anything you say. What should Darren gain from this apparently elaborate scheme? Quite frankly, he blew a lot of money up my cunt along with all that hypothetical smoke, and he could get a lot more mileage out of this than he actually does. That is, ignoring the fact that I’m a good judge of character and know that he’s not lying to me.”
Of course, Ray remained unperturbed.
“Am I lying to you? Right now?” he wanted to know in turn.
I hesitated for a moment, but now that he’d asked, it got a lot harder to ignore him as I didn’t really get the sense that he was simply spewing nonsense.
“You may believe what you say, but that doesn’t make it true.”
He shrugged.
“Maybe, maybe not. The point is that you keep ignoring all the leads I leave for you to try to find out the truth, but you must be curious. There must be bits and pieces that you’ve noticed and couldn’t explain away. He’s good, but not that good. Here’s your chance. Ask me anything you’d like to know about your beloved Darren honey-bunny.”
And just like that, he’d made it almost impossible for me to completely disregard him. I knew that the wise thing would have been to just end this conversation now, go outside, join Darren, and be the best damn hostess in the world. But I still hadn’t heard back from Adam, and while I hadn’t jumped at any of those clues Ray mentioned, they hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“Let’s make a deal. I ask you something, and after you’re done answering, you leave me the fuck alone, forever. How does that sound?”
“Like you’ll change your mind very quickly, but hey, your loss if you don’t. Deal. Ask,” he offered.
I mulled my options over for a moment, but there was really only one question burning in my mind.
“Who’s Juliette?”
He looked surprised to hear that name, which made hope soar inside of me that I’d just single-handedly managed to unravel the entire yarn of bullshit he’d been spinning, but when he started to speak, my stomach quickly sank.
“Ah, Juliette, I remember now. How could I forget? She was number twelve. Your direct predecessor, if that wasn’t clear from my earlier statement. One of the more disappointing ones, if you ask me. She put on airs and made a huge fuss but rolled over and played dead as soon as things got down to business. Meaning when I roughed her up a little and fucked her loose little asshole, if that wasn’t clear enough.”
“It was,” I let him know; as he’d said before, I wasn’t stupid.
Ray’s smile widened, but he didn’t dwell on that.
“She didn’t really make it far, maybe a week or two after that? Either his ploy to use her temporary vulnerability against her didn’t work, or he got sloppy. Or just bored; she was nice to look at, but it only reached skin deep with her. Beauty, common sense, you name it. She wasn’t much of an improvement over the last three. He hit quite a bad streak there, almost made me back out of our little agreement.”
With my stomach seizing up, I couldn’t not jump at that this time.
“What agreement?”
Of course he was only too happy to enlighten me, his voice taking on a playful lilt.
“The scenario we enact every single time? There’s the introduction, the stalking, the all around being an asshole—my favorite part, by the way. Alison frowns at me acting like that to anyone, so I seldom get a chance to get my groove on, but dear Darren always looks out for me. Anyway, where was I? Right. Then the proposition that inevitably leads to him acting out, the actual screwing her to tear down her defenses so he can ride in and save the day. After that, my job is done and I can count down the weeks before the next one’s ready for some softening up.”
I kept staring at Ray through his whole explanation, my throat tight, and did my best not to actually listen to him. The whole scenario sounded believable, but then that was likely due to the fact that it was a play-by-play of our interaction so far. The best lies were always those that held enough truth to be sound. As a lawyer, I doubted that Ray didn’t know how to twist the truth until it was the complete opposite of what it had started out as. But try as I might tell myself this, doubt was starting to cloud my mind.
“And what should Darren gain from this? If he wanted to enact any specific scenario with me, he could have just told me.”
“But where’s the fun in that?” Ray simpered. “It feels so much better when you think it’s real, and when you finally realize that you’re just a lamb in the slaughter house and the axe is coming down, all that betrayal you feel is real, not just pretense.”
His words hung heavy in the silence between us, and I hated that my mind just wouldn’t come up with a comeback, let alone a good one.
“This just makes no sense,” I tried, but the genuine look of pity, quickly morphing back into that taunting smile, made me shut up.
“To you it doesn’t, but to him it’s what he actually gets out of screwing with you. It’s the whole point. The challenge. To seduce a woman who should, by all means, be jaded enough and well past the point where anyone can still make her believe in love, and once he has her right there, trusting him, maybe even loving him, he crushes her. Or what do you think happened to all the others before you? Ever tried to get a hold of one of them, maybe for a reference? They are all gone.”
With Adam, it had been easy to discard that as nonsense, but Ray was echoing that very paranoid sentiment, and suddenly it didn’t sound quite as far-fetched as before.
“What do you mean by ‘gone’?”
Another shrug from him.
“I don’t know if they are literally gone, but you won’t be able to find any of them. All records wiped, all trails gone cold. Not that hard to do that. Both WitSec or any criminal syndicate worth their salt can accomplish either
.”
And I already knew that Darren was working with one, if maybe even both sides of that possibility, although WitSec made no sense in this case.
“How can you be so sure about that? The girls could just move away, get a new life. It’s what most escorts do once they have made enough money and got tired of whoring,” I pointed out, my voice a little shaky.
“It’s possible, of course, but I doubt it,” he replied.
“Why?”
“Because I tried to track down one of them after she disappeared,” he admitted, then chuckled at the look of surprise on my face. “She was a winner, really. Great body, bright mind, and loved her job. Sounds familiar, maybe? But she wasn’t as stuck up as you are. She played along well enough, but after we were done she suddenly started laughing hysterically, then got out a bottle of booze and told me to drink with her, because that bad a performance just warranted some tequila. Saw right through my bullshit, and not just the whole playacting part. A week later she called me, asked if I wanted another go. I knew Alison wouldn’t be too pleased with me, but for once in her life something needed to go against her wishes, so I agreed. We had a really good thing going there for a while, although she, too, was stupid enough to buy into his crap eventually. And then she was gone, from one day to the next. All profiles inactive or wiped, and no trace of her to be found anymore. I went as far as tracking down her family, but they weren’t the kind of folks whose answers I could trust—too easily bought off. Sad, really, because she was perfect mistress material, but I guess Hunter’s ego is not large enough to stand anyone else ever defiling his woman again after he was done with her.”
Exhaling slowly, I continued to just stare at Ray. Now that he was clearly done with his tale, his perverse joy of making me upset seemed to dull, until he straightened, opening a mostly secure path by him to rejoin the others.
