His long pause lets me know that really did hurt him. “Did you confront them then and there?”
“No, how could I? They were murmuring, I love you’s, and things like that. Things she and I never did. Not ever. So I left and confronted her when she came home.” He takes my hands in his and holds them between us.
“I think that’s a good thing that you held onto your sanity at a time most people can’t.”
“But I didn’t hold onto it. When she told me to teach her to do right, I laid into her flesh with a vengeance.” One tear falls down his tan cheek. “She winced every time she sat down that entire week. I kept her ass red. I should’ve let her go.”
“So there is a chance she was trying to get you into an accident to get rid of you and keep the money. That’s something to keep in mind when anyone tries to make you feel guilty about the accident, Channing.” I lean in close and kiss his cheek. “You aren’t the man she was making you be.”
“An animal resides in me, Beth.” His eyes go very dark as he looks into mine. “I let it loose on you once already when I so callously told you we were through because of words my father said. Now I know they weren’t true and I hurt you so bad. The animal inside me has the power to hurt people so completely.”
“I think we all have that, Channing. Don’t be so hard on yourself. I forgave you. Jana wanted you to do that to her. Just try to be aware of that and keep it reined in.” I smile and he only frowns back at me.
“I don’t deserve you.”
I kiss the tip of his nose. “You do.”
“You’re so sweet and innocent and I hurt you.”
“And I forgave you. I never want to talk about it again. Now let’s go to lunch then maybe, if you can pull yourself out of this funk, we can go home for a little one-on-one time in the sheets.”
“Sex? You want to go home and have sex with me?” He looks very puzzled. “After all I’ve told you, you still want me?”
I nod and hop off his lap. “Channing, you’re too hard on yourself. And no, I don’t want to go have sex. I want to go make love to you and show you how tender you can be.”
His smile and the way he extends his hand out to me tells me he’s on board with my idea.
But what a dark side this man has…
Chapter 8
CHANNING
With all of my terrible faults, she says she still loves me. She still wants to be with me after I told her my deepest darkest secrets.
Maybe she’s the crazy one!
She’s taking a long hot bath before we go to bed for the night. Not that I let her sleep that much. I can’t seem to get enough of her and my therapist told me that was natural.
It’s amazing how many things the therapist tells me is natural. I’m not sure I believe her entirely.
Since I’ve become wealthy I’ve noticed that hardly anyone tells me anything but what they think I want to hear. As if that makes me pay them more money for the job I’m asking to do.
My cell lights up as I have the sound off and I see a number I’ve never seen before. “Hello, Channing Michaels, here.”
“Hello, Mr. Michaels. This is Detective Radisson. I know it’s late.”
I interrupt him, “Yes, it is.”
“Sorry about that. I just wanted to let you know that your father, Morgan Riley, came by to see me this evening.”
“I bet I know what he told you.”
He clears his throat. “Yes, I bet you do. Now, I need to inform you that if you are seeing someone it doesn’t exactly matter. But if you were having a relationship before your wife was lost at sea, then it does.”
“Not a problem. I didn’t meet this woman who he’s accusing me of having an affair with until a month after my wife’s death. I hired her as my personal assistant. She’s with me everywhere I go because of that reason. I also have her living in a room in my home so she could have more off time instead of driving back and forth from the corporate apartment she lived in which was part of her salary.”
“I see,” he’s quiet for a moment and I can hear the sound of a pencil scribbling over paper. “Mr. Michaels, I know you’re a busy man and need an assistant. In light of this situation, don’t you think a male assistant would’ve been a better choice?”
“She was the best person for the job. She is very good at what she does. I saw no need to worry about the gender of the person just the qualifications.” I tap my fingers on my leg as this is making me mad that anyone needs to think about who I have working for me.
“Okay. Well, that is your business, sir. I do need to remind you that your wife has not been declared dead yet. She will have to be missing for five years before that can happen.” His words take the air out of my lungs.
“Five years?” I find my body is shaking. “That’s a long time to stop my life from moving forward.”
“I realize that. But until her body is found or some other type of evidence is found where a coroner can declare her dead, then we have to wait five years for that declaration.”
“Okay. Um, what about me moving on with my life? I should be able to do that, right?” I ask as I rub my temples.
“Personally, I’d wait at least a year.” He taps something on his desk and it clicks in the phone. “And about your father. Now this is only my opinion. He’s a loose cannon where you’re concerned. I can see him going to the media when we do nothing with what he’s told us. Also, if we find out you did know the woman he’s accusing you of having an affair with before the time you’ve told me then we do have a problem.”
“No problem. I’m telling you the truth. If that’s all, then I’d like to get off the phone and go to bed. It’s been a hell of a long day.”
“Sure. Bye.” He ends the call and I take in a deep breath then find my father’s number.
He answers with a smug sounding voice, “Did you get a phone call from someone you didn’t want to talk to, Son?”
“I have news for you. It will take five years before they declare her dead if they find no body. I have more news for you. Unless I knew my assistant before Jana’s death, which I did not, that would be the only reason they’d have to question me. So your plan didn’t work. And you have actually done me a favor because now our relationship can be out in the open.”
“And if Jana is rescued? What then? Do you mean to tell me if your wife comes back from the sea you would tell her she has nowhere to live because you have some bimbo living with you?” He sounds so smug, it’s unbelievable.
“She’s not coming back from falling into the ocean that far out. It would be impossible. And the answer to your question is yes, I will tell her she has no home here any longer. You have all of her things, you take her in. If she comes back from the dead that is.” I turn to find Beth looking at me with a confused expression. “Bye.” I hang up and look at her.
“What was that about?” she asks as she comes to sit by me.
She has on my T-shirt and when I run my hand up her smooth thigh I find that’s all she has on. Her dark hair is lying in limp strands around her pretty, cleanly washed face.
My lips touch hers as I cup her neck. “Don’t worry about it. It was good news for us.”
She pulls back a bit. “Good news? For us?”
“Very good news for us, Baby,” I say as I let my lips move over hers.
Pushing her back on the sofa, I move my body over hers as she asks, “Aren’t you going to tell me this good news? It is about us after all.”
All I can think about is having her on my arm everywhere I go. Holding her hand whenever I want. Kissing her whenever wherever I want.
My body is hot and my cock is jerking to attention. I grind my jean covered cock against the cotton fabric of the T-shirt where it barely covers her sweet spot.
“Uh, uh. First, I want to taste every square inch of you. Then I want to feel you from the inside and make you scream my name. Over and over I want to hear your screams as I make you all mine, Baby.”
Her hands move over my ba
ck and her breathing is already going ragged. Her words come out raspy, “K. If that’s what you want.”
Beth’s hand moves to the button of my jeans and she undoes them and sends the zipper down. Her hand is on my cock and she’s moving it out, freeing it.
Her hands push at my jeans to get them off me as our mouths search the others. Our tongues colliding in a dance that sends us into a frenzy.
I wiggle my body to help her get the jeans off me. Her feet come up and push them the rest of the way down then she moves them in such a way that sends them all the way off.
Then her hands are on the hem of my shirt and she’s pulling it up. I stop our kiss only long enough to let her pull the shirt off over my head then I’m back on her.
The way she grips the muscles of my back and moans makes me happy in a way I’ve never been before. Her adoration of my body is stimulating.
Her legs ease up mine. Her feet moving over my calves until they’re bent and her pussy is primed and ready for me.
She arches up as I move to fill her with my thick, hard, cock. I push it into her and a tiny amount of wind moves up her throat and enters my mouth in a puff of heat.
Another hard thrust I give her and she groans and rakes her nails over my back. Her body moves with mine as if we’re on some cloud somewhere instead of this sofa in one of the many living areas this huge house has.
In one way I can’t think at all, only feel her body underneath mine. Then a million thoughts are running through my head as to all the places I want to take her.
I want to introduce her to my mother and grandparents. I want to take her to Spain. I’ve always wanted to go, and no one has ever wanted to go with me.
Her hands move up into my hair and mess it all up and I love the way it feels. I move harder and deeper into her and her breasts smoosh against my chest. Only the damn T-shirt is stopping me from feeling them completely.
I pull my mouth away as she looks at me with questions covering her face. Then I pull it off her and she smiles and pulls me back to her. Our mouths collide again and I feel like I could live right here like this forever with her.
I move my kiss from her lips to her neck where I nibble and suck on her tender flesh. She moans and scratches my back and runs her nails up either side of me.
I moan against her skin, “I’m going to buy you a ring.”
She moans back, “Okay.” Her legs go all up and down the back of mine.
Her body starts quivering and I know she’s about to let it all go. I bite her then pound into her hard and heavy. My cock is moving fast to ignite her fire and send her into another place and time.
She screams my name as her body clenches my cock. I hold back until she starts to ease up then I let mine go, and it takes her back into another hard orgasm.
“Channing!” Her last word before her body goes slack. Every muscle loose and spent.
I lie on top of her until all of our little jerks and pulses are done. Then I move off her, but keep an arm and a leg over her.
My lips touch her cheek. “So if I give you a ring, you’ll accept it?”
“Of course, once this is all cleared up. Why wouldn’t I? I am more than crazy over you, Channing.” She looks at me with such sweetness in her dark green eyes.
I run my hand over her cheek. “I want to have babies with you, Beth. Lots and lots of babies.”
Her dark brows go up. “Babies? Lots of them?”
I nod. “I want it all with you, Baby. The whole nine yards.”
“As soon as this is all cleared up then we can have that.” She sighs and lies back then closes her eyes. “Whenever this is all over then we can be us.”
“We can be us right now.” I lean up on my hand to look at her and see her reaction.
Her eyes open and her head turns. “Huh?”
“The detective called me. Seems dear old Dad called him and told him I was having an affair. All the detective wanted to know was if I knew you before Jana’s accident. Which I did not.”
“Wait. Are you saying he told you that you could have a relationship with someone, now?”
I nod. “As long as I didn’t have a previous relationship with them, yes. So we are cleared for take-off.”
I frown as her head shakes. “People will think terrible things about me, Channing. Your wife has been missing only a few months. People will think we’re awful people. We can’t let this out in the open yet. We can’t. You’re kind of celebrity being the owner of that hockey team and so stinking rich. People will say I got to you when you were down and took advantage of you.”
With a laugh, I say, “I don’t give a flying fuck what people say or think. As long as our being together doesn’t mean I have to be investigated in Jana’s death, that’s all I care about.”
She sits up and looks at me as if I’m crazy. “Channing, they will annihilate us. Can’t you see that? You’ll be stalked by reporters wanting to know what you’re thinking at a time you’re supposed to be grieving or worried about your wife. Not starting fresh with a new girl mere months after this tragedy.”
“So, what are you saying? You don’t want this out in the open then?” I look at her because I cannot believe this.
“It will be devastating if we do. You aren’t thinking clearly. We can’t do that yet. Maybe not for years. Certainly not before she’s declared dead.” She leans back and sighs.
“That will be five years from now unless her body is found.” I watch her eyes go wide.
“Five years?”
I nod. “Sure you want to wait that long to be with me as a couple? Have kids? Have a place we can call ours?”
Her face is blank. “No, I don’t want to wait that long. But I don’t want to face the reporters and people we both know who will think we’re awful people, either.”
So what do we do now…
Chapter 9
BETH
“Something is not right, Michelle. I can smell it.” I tell her over the phone.
Channing’s in a meeting with his hockey coach and I went to pick up the dry cleaning while he’s doing that. And I just saw the black Cadillac again and this time, there were two people wearing hoodies inside it.
“You need to dump him and that job and come back here where things are normal, Beth. Don’t worry about what’s happening in Channing Michaels’ over the top life.” I can hear her let out a deep sigh. “You’re in over your head with this man.”
Am I?
“I can’t do what you’re telling me to. I love the man, Michelle.” I pull onto the freeway and see if I can lose the people in the Cadillac in the traffic. Zigging and zagging through the cars in the Lamborghini, I lose sight of them in the rear-view mirror. “I need your help, Michelle.”
“Shit, Bethy, I can hear the engine revving. You are using some type of hands-free device to talk to me aren’t you?”
My eyes roll. “Yes, Mother. Geez! Anyway, I think if we could gain access to Morgan Riley’s home then I could get some much-needed information on the man. So, how about you show up at his house and tell him you’re there for the maid job you saw posted on some job board at school?”
“No! I’m not showing up at that man’s house! Are you nuts?”
“You can act like you got the address mixed up, but then you can ask him if he needs a maid or anything done around his house. Tell him he’d be helping out a struggling student or something. And while you have his attention held at the front door, I’ll sneak in the back.”
“That’ll never work, Beth! Never! I’m sure he has security.”
I laugh. “No, he doesn’t. I know that for a fact as Channing told me he walked right in the man’s front door once. Also, if you’ll recall, Morgan Riley may have a big house, but he’s living off credit cards. There’s no money for a security system. Come on, Michelle, help me out.”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this. Did Channing ask you to do this?”
“He hasn’t and I’m not telling him. He’d tell me not
to.” I pull off the freeway and head back down a side road toward Morgan Riley’s estate. I got the address off the internet very easily.
“You shouldn’t. You could get us caught and we could be charged with trespassing,” she says.
I can picture her hands moving all through the air. “What are you an accounting student or a law student? We won’t get caught. I can be very stealthy when I want to.”
“Okay, Nancy Drew, tell me when we’ll be doing this thing that will get your ass put in jail but not mine. You see, you might be stealthy but I can run like the devil is after me when I need to. And as long as I can outrun you that’s all that matters.”
“So I can depend on your help then?” I ask with my fingers crossed.
“Yeah. I’ll go ahead and commit to it. You sound like you’ll do this alone if I don’t and then you will get caught. So I’ll help but I’d like to make a bet right now that you won’t find anything to help your man out.”
I see the entrance and pull in. My heart is thumping hard and I’ve broken into a nervous sweat. “No one seems to be home.”
“What?” she shrieks. “Where are you?”
“I’m checking out the address for Morgan and no one seems to be home. There’s no car and the garage door is wide open. I bet I could sneak inside right now.” I look all around and see no one. “The place looks almost like it’s deserted. The grass hasn’t been mowed in what seems like a month or so. And the place looks like it’s running down some.”
“Well, you did say he needed money. Why doesn’t money bags, Channing, give him some money, anyway?”
I park the car and step out of it, grabbing the phone as I do. “He shouldn’t give the man any money. If you only knew. I can’t tell you, though.”
“I hate the way you bring shit up then shut it down.” I hear her take a drink of something. “Hey, did you get out of the car? I hear the sound of crickets and birds chirping.”
“I did and I’m almost to the front door.”
The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance Page 55
