By the Hour (The Pleasure Principle Series #2)

by Roni Loren

  Elle sighed. Her little sister always had been a stubborn thing. If she said she’d wait it out, she would. Elle pulled open the door. “You’ve got ten minutes.”

  Nina slipped inside, her heels clicking along the floor. Her sister glanced around at Elle’s place with appraising eyes. It wasn’t anything like the lavish home in the Garden District of New Orleans where they’d spent their teen years, but Elle loved the little renovated cottage.

  “This place has nice bones. It’d sell for a ton in the city.”

  Elle poured herself a cup of coffee and begrudgingly poured another for Nina. She pushed the mug across the bar. “I doubt you’re here to give me a house appraisal.”

  Nina took the coffee and added milk and sugar, a pensive look on her pretty face. She still took way too much milk in her coffee. She’d been doing that since she was a kid. Elle would make her a cup of warm milk and mix in a few tablespoons of chicory coffee because Nina wanted to feel like a grown-up. They’d pretend they were having high tea and scones. Back in the days when they didn’t hate each other, when all Elle wanted to do was see her little sister smile, when they were just two lonely kids whose parents worked too much.

  Elle cleared her throat. “I’m waiting.”

  Nina looked up, the expression revealing faint dark circles under her eyes, the makeup not quite enough to hide it. “I’m getting married.”

  Elle’s grip on her mug tightened but she took a sip, trying to look wholly uninterested. “I heard. I got the announcement in the mail.”

  And tore it into shreds. Then spit on it. Not one of her finer moments.

  “Congratulations,” she said with no sincerity at all.

  Nina set down her mug and rubbed the spot between her eyes. “Look, I don’t expect you to be happy for me. Believe me. I get it, all right. All I can say is what I told you from the beginning—I didn’t mean to fall in love. I didn’t do it to hurt you.”

  Elle lifted her brows. “You didn’t mean to sleep with my husband. Is that what you didn’t mean to do? Somehow you just tripped and fell on his penis in my bed after I generously let you move in with us?”

  Her jaw flexed but she didn’t back down. “I was lonely and did a dumb thing. We both did. He didn’t mean for it to happen, either.”

  Elle scoffed at that, almost choking on her coffee. “Wow, you said that with a straight face.” She gave her a mean smile. “You really believe that, don’t you? That he was so overcome that he just couldn’t help himself? That the beautiful hand of fate pushed you two together? That he accidentally married the wrong sister and the world needed to right it?”

  She crossed her arms, looking more like the stubborn child she used to be than the thirty-three-year-old woman she was now. “You didn’t love him. You never really did. He was just the easy choice for you because on paper it made sense.”

  So that was the story Nina was telling herself to justify things. Nice. If only that were the case. In the end, Nina had done her a favor because her ex was a scumbag. But Nina was wrong. Elle had loved him. He had put on a good show of loving her, especially in public and in front of her family. Elle had been committed to making their marriage work even after she’d noticed Henry getting resentful about how many hours she had to work. She’d tried to adjust her schedule, tried to go out of her way to be attentive. She’d thought they were making progress. Then, she’d come home from a business trip early and walked in on Henry and her sister naked in her bed.

  Henry had declared that he’d fallen in love with Nina and was leaving Elle.

  Then, when Elle had expected her family to be outraged on her behalf, to support her when she was falling apart with anger and grief, they’d informed her that it would be best if she would let it go and move on. Henry worked with her father, so he wasn’t going anywhere. These things happened. It’s better to find out now that the marriage wasn’t meant to be before you had kids. You two were never really well-suited. Don’t make a scandal out of it. As if the neighbors talking about it was a fate worse than death.

  But Elle had been trained for that tactic all her life. Always put on a happy face. When Dad drank too much night at night—he just needs that to relax after work. When her mother would miss yet another important event in their lives—you should be proud your mother’s so successful. When she caught her dad kissing his assistant and told her mom—that’s not what you saw. She’s like family. They were just being friendly.

  Don’t trust your gut. That had been the message. Appearances are more important than the truth. Which was why Elle avoided family get-togethers and only had minimal contact with her mom. Her dad had died a few years ago without ever telling her he was sorry for standing behind Henry. She didn’t have the energy to play the game anymore, especially not with her sister because that one hurt the most. They’d been soldiers together in the same bizarre war, always on the same side. Until Henry.

  Henry, whom she was marrying. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here.”

  Nina clasped her hands in front of her. “We’ve moved up the wedding. It’s in two weeks. I need you to come.”

  Elle laughed, actually laughed loud enough that she had to cover her mouth so she wouldn’t wake Lane. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you high? I’d rather get a root canal without anesthesia. Why would you even—”

  “Mom’s got breast cancer.”

  Elle’s coffee cup hit the counter with a thunk. “What?”

  Nina’s throat worked as she swallowed. “She tried to call you and tell you but, obviously, you’re not answering her calls. They want her to have surgery, but she doesn’t want to do anything until after the wedding. I think she’s worried she’s not going to make it out of surgery.”

  “Jesus.” Elle’s heart was thumping too hard, her hands clammy. “What do the doctors think?”

  “They have a more positive outlook than she does, but you know doctors.”

  “We can’t make promises.”

  “Right.” Nina was looking at her hands, absently turning her sparkling engagement ring. “And I know it’s a shit thing to ask. I know I betrayed you in the most epic way possible.” She looked up, her eyes shiny. “And I’m sorry. I truly am. Not that I found Henry, but that he was yours and I didn’t have the right to him back then. I never wanted to hurt you. It was never about that.”

  The apologies were long-coming but Elle couldn’t quite absorb them. Some things were beyond forgiveness.

  “But Mom wants nothing more than for all of us to be at the wedding next weekend. She…” Nina looked up to the ceiling. “She thinks that all this family drama, the tension between you and I, contributed to the cancer.”

  “What?”

  “She said she doesn’t talk about it, but you and I being estranged and you being depressed and living this lonely workaholic life weighs on her.”

  Elle put a finger to her chest. “Me? I’m not depressed. I’m fine.”

  Nina met her eyes, a get-real look on her face. “You live alone on the grounds of a mental hospital. You realize that’s messed up, right? Like, normal people wouldn’t want to do that. This basically screams I want to be a hermit, never get married, and never have kids.”

  “Like that’s some requirement in life? And I was married, Nina.”

  She waved a dismissive hand. “Go ahead and throw it in my face again. You were married. I messed it up. That doesn’t mean it’s my fault that you’re almost forty and bitter and alone.”

  The words were like knives hitting all the tender parts, tearing strips off her. She wanted to throw something, to scream. But before she could get any words out, footsteps sounded behind her.

  “Doc, how could you let me sleep this long? I have a full schedule, you—” Lane’s words cut off as soon as he rounded the corner and stepped into the kitchen, standing there in nothing but a pair of unbuttoned jeans, his discarded T-shirt casually tossed over this shoulder. “Oh. Sorry. Didn’t realize you had company.”

  Lane quick
ly fastened the button on his jeans and offered a chagrined smile as he tugged on his shirt, looking as sexy as Elle had ever seen him in his sleep-mussed and half-naked state. But that view wasn’t as satisfying as her sister’s stunned face.

  “Uh,” Nina said, looking at Lane with wide eyes. “Hello.”

  Lane jabbed a thumb toward the back of the house. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can…”

  “Oh, you’re not interrupting, honey,” Elle said, coming back to herself.

  Honey?

  Lane looked her way, question marks in his eyes. But she hoped she gave him a sign that said, Please, for the love of God, just roll with it. “This is my sister, Nina.”

  Lane’s brows went up, his smile widening. He stepped closer to Nina and put out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  Nina still looked shell-shocked. “And you are?”

  Elle jumped into action before she realized what she was doing. She walked over to Lane and slid an arm around his waist. “This is Lane. My…” Lover. Hooker. Co-Worker. “Fiancé.”

  The word leapt out before she could stop it. Lane’s muscles stiffened beneath her fingers. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. That was absolutely one-hundred percent not what she was supposed to say.

  Nina’s eyes went round. “Wait, your what? You’re engaged?”

  The wonder in Nina’s voice was too much to ignore. Elle liked that she’d shocked her, proved her wrong, even though she hadn’t really at all. She couldn’t find it in her to take it back. Not yet. “Yes, it’s all pretty new, so we haven’t announced it yet. And, of course, I didn’t want to take attention away from your wedding plans.”

  Lane looked at her, his face revealing nothing, but she could feel him vibrating with tension. She smiled at Lane. “Hon, Nina’s getting married in two weeks. To my ex-husband.”

  Awareness dawned on Lane’s face, his lips parting. “Oh, that’s…wow.”

  That was one word for it. “Yep. She was here to invite me to the wedding. It seems the date’s been moved up.”

  Nina had a pasted-on smile, the McCray way. Pretend in front of others. Everything was great. Everything was fine. We’re the bestest sisters ever! That whole adultery thing is so water under the bridge. “So you’ll be there, then? And obviously, Lane, you should come, too. I’m sure our mother would be thrilled to hear Elle’s engaged. She’s always worried Elle is wasting away her best years out here in the boonies.”

  “Yes,” Elle said, deadpan. “The pre-Botox years.”

  Lane’s gaze flicked to her and then he turned to her sister, his grin as genuine as Elle had ever seen it, clearly a way better actor than she was. “I’ll have to check my schedule, but that sounds great.”

  “What is it that you do?” Nina asked.

  “He’s a therapist here,” Elle filled in. “And a student.”

  “A student? I thought you looked young,” Nina said sweetly.

  Elle gritted her teeth.

  “Not that young,” Lane said, his tone buttery smooth, but Elle didn’t miss the sardonic undertone. He was losing his patience with this charade.

  “Well, Nina,” Elle said, breaking in. “I told you I had ten minutes and that was true. Email me the details and we’ll figure everything out.” She put her hand on her sister’s elbow and lowered her voice as she guided her to the door. “Does Mom need anything before then? Is she happy with her doctors? I know a good surg—”

  “We’ve got it covered,” Nina said peevishly. “Henry has taken care of everything. We don’t need your help. I just want you to put on a happy face and make her believe all is well with us at the wedding. I can’t believe you didn’t even bother to tell her you were engaged. You know that would’ve thrilled her.”

  “It only happened a week ago. The ring isn’t even sized yet. Plus, I haven’t had time to call.”

  Nina stepped outside with Elle and turned to her, pinning her with her gaze. “Don’t back out on this. I’m going home and telling her that you’ll be there. Don’t you dare let her down. She needs this.”

  A pang of guilt hit Elle. She’d never been very close with her mom. Her mother had been married to her career and not all that interested in the day-to-day drudgery of motherhood, but her mom was also the one who’d shown her a woman could be the strong one in the family, the breadwinner. They’d at least connected there. So though it was a tenuous relationship, there was love there. She wanted her mom to be well. “I’ll be there.”

  “And no drama. Henry isn’t going to bother you, so you don’t bother him.”

  Elle’s nails bit into her palms. “I wouldn’t waste the breath.”

  “Right.” Nina sniffed. “I’ll email you the details. Plan to come down for the whole weekend. Rehearsal supper is Friday night. Mom would like us all to stay at the house.”

  A whole weekend at her family’s house? Shoot me. Just take me out to pasture and put me out of my misery. “Whatever.”

  Nina smiled but it held no warmth. “’Til then.”

  Her sister turned, hiked her purse onto her shoulder, and walked toward her Mercedes with her shoulders back like an evil queen. Elle shook her head. She remembered when they used to raid her mom’s closet to make costumes and do that walk, pretending they were ruler of the land. Now they were the heads of warring kingdoms.

  Elle let out a tired sound and turned back to the house. She didn’t want to go in. How the hell was she supposed to explain this mess to Lane? He was going to be beyond pissed. He had every reason to be. But what else could she do? She straightened her spine and headed back into the kitchen to face him.

  She found him sitting on her island, drinking her coffee. His attention swung to her the second she stepped inside.

  “Lane—”

  “Don’t you mean honey?”

  She pressed her thumb and forefinger to her temples. “Shit. I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”

  “So last night we can’t be friends in public and now we’re engaged.”

  She cringed and looked up. “Maybe? Sort of. I’m not sure how that happened.”

  “I think you’ve watched too many romantic comedies. You realize you can’t actually do that in real life, right? Get engaged to someone without their permission.”

  She groaned and went to the cabinet to get another coffee cup. “Yeah, I got that. Look, I’ll figure this out. We’ll make up an excuse as to why you can’t come. I know that was ten kinds of messed up. But she said all these horrible things to me, and once you walked in and she saw you, the lie just came out. I couldn’t take it back.” She blew out a breath. “She’s so goddamned convinced that she’s got me figured out, and I wanted to—”

  “Prove her wrong.”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t tell me your ex cheated on you with your sister. That’s taking fucked up to a new level. Who does that?”

  “Henry does that. And apparently was doing it for a while before I figured it out. I had suspicions toward the end that he was cheating, but I never would’ve considered Nina was the one he was cheating with. I had let her move in when she was in between jobs. I was working long shifts back then. They were both home a lot without me. She thinks he stopped sleeping with me when he started things with her, painted some picture of the frigid wife, but he didn’t. He was sick enough to get off knowing he was bedding us both.”

  Lane made a sound of disgust. “This guy sounds like a real winner.”

  “Yeah, and my family loves him still. He works in the law firm my dad started. Now he’ll be my brother-in-law.”

  “Your parents don’t care that he cheated on you?”

  “My dad passed away a few years ago, but when it happened, neither he nor my mom stood up for me. Henry gave them some bullshit story about how we’d fallen out of love and had been like roommates for a long time and then he met his soul mate in Nina.” She held out her cup and Lane poured coffee into it. “They also didn’t want a scandal or, God forbid, any uncomfortable moments at family din
ners. They expected me to get over it and move on. That’s the McCray way. And really, I think what it comes down to is they believe it was my fault. That I’m too cold or career-focused or whatever.” She gave him a tight smile. “You know, hard to love. Things you already know about me.”

  Lane frowned at her as she took a sip of coffee. “I don’t know that at all.”

  “Right.” She cradled her cup, warming her chilled hands. “Let’s not pretend you haven’t called me a bitch in your head. I am a bitch.”

  The consternation on his face deepened. “I haven’t, for the record, but what’s wrong with being opinionated and tough? You do realize that no matter if you were cold or busy or whatever, you didn’t deserve to be betrayed like that, right? What he did wasn’t just cheating. What you told me he made you do after he’d slept with your sister or God knows who else—that’s fucking abusive, Elle. It’s sick and cruel. Not to mention a risk to your health.”

  She looked down, the words like acid in her stomach. Those weeks after everything had come out, she’d gone to her doctor, had gotten tested for all the diseases, had been racked with anxiety, left wondering how many people’s sexual histories she’d been exposed to via her husband’s penchant for unsafe sex. She’d gotten a clear bill of health eventually, but the waiting had been like having her head in a steel trap with a hair trigger.

  Abuse. She hadn’t labeled it as such, but if she’d heard the story from a client instead of it being her own, how would she have seen it? She swallowed hard. “It doesn’t matter now. He and Nina deserve each other. I’m sure he’ll be cheating before the first wedding anniversary, if he’s not already.”

  “Then why would you even consider going to this wedding?” he asked, genuine confusion on his face. “Tell them to go get fucked and save yourself the trouble.”

  She sighed and peered up at him, an ache moving through her. “That was my plan, but Nina told me my mom has cancer.”

  Lane’s face fell. “Damn. I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, me too. But apparently, me being there and mending fences is Mom’s wish before she has surgery.” She ran a hand through her hair, bone-deep tired all of a sudden. “We don’t have the best relationship, but I can’t turn my back on my mother when she needs me. If she wants me there, I’ll be there and be civil with Nina. I can manage not to murder Henry for three days. Probably. Maybe. I might just sprinkle some laxatives on his Cheerios. Nothing permanently damaging.”