“Eddy,” I said. Instead of letting me in, she came outside and closed the door behind her, crossing her arms over her chest.
“What the fuck do you think you're doing here?”
12
Edwina
“No, don’t even tell me,” I said when he opened his mouth. “You need to leave, right now.” Just then, I heard Riley squealing, his quick little footsteps running towards the door. Oh, Christ. I lunged for Niall, grabbing his arm and pulling him off the porch, away from the house.
“It’s nice today. Why don’t we walk and talk,” I said.
“What?” he asked. I looked up. The sky had been grey all day and clouds were gathering. It was going to rain. So, the weather matched my mood. Perfect. Just perfect.
I pulled him off towards the back garden which was an overgrown wilderness. If I wasn’t so frantic about hiding Riley, I would be a lot more embarrassed about the state of the grounds. I led us towards the pond in a little grove about fifty feet from us.
“You found me,” I said.
“I did.”
“You realize you can’t just come here to my home unannounced,” I said, letting go of his arm.
“It wasn’t that difficult, to tell you the truth,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. Once you got to Belishire, finding the house was not difficult, he was right. He was trying to make me feel like this was normal behavior though and it wasn’t.
“So, what was so important that you had to come all the way here to do it?” I asked. I wasn’t as upset as I was trying to make him believe. Being in his presence again, despite the circumstances was making me buzz.
“I understand how this looks and how it must make you feel, but I didn’t have a chance to tell you at the party. I wanted to ask about the watch.” I swallowed, glad that we weren’t facing each other. I didn’t have the damn thing anymore. I had sold it for money that I was already planning to spend. I won it in a game. The thing was mine. In any case he wasn’t getting it back because it was gone. I laughed a little.
“If I remember right, I won it in a game fair and square.”
“You cheated.”
“I won regardless,” I said.
“Still. Here’s the thing. It’s an heirloom and I would like to have it back.”
I looked at the ground, watching the dried leaves that had accumulated on the ground crunch under my shoes. An heirloom, was it? Why didn’t he say that before? Now I felt bad about it. My stomach started to hurt.
“I would buy it from you obviously. You can name your price,” he said. I kicked myself mentally. I shouldn’t have sold it so soon. I should have waited and actually gotten the full thirty thousand now instead of settling for the ten thousand that I got.
“Surely you have other heirlooms,” I said.
He laughed. “Of course, but that’s the thing about heirlooms, isn’t it? They aren’t replaceable. That watch is particularly important to my family.”
“This is quite something, Niall,” I said.
“What?”
“I never would have guessed that that was the case when you took it off and chucked it on the table that night.”
He laughed again. “Well, now I’m paying for it. I hope I can persuade you to part with it.”
I tried to think. This was an opportunity to cash out. The watch wasn’t here anymore but I was thinking maybe, if I could get it back, I could sell it back to him for the price of my choice. It sounded tedious and would take forever but more money meant more time. I looked at him, putting on the best flirty face I could manage with no makeup, in my frumpy house clothes and hair in a bun.
“You must be swimming in dough if you’re asking me to name my price on a watch you handed over with no problems just a few days ago.”
His brow went up. “Oh, love, you have no idea. I meant it when I told you to name your price. I can see you have a number in mind.”
I laughed, thinking about how outrageous I could get with it. I didn’t want to take advantage of him but I wasn’t cocking this up.
“Well, I have to tell you then. I don’t have it. I left it in London to get it appraised.”
He nodded, rubbing his fingers over his stubble. “How about we go and get it?” he asked. “That way we get an expert opinion and I pay you the appraiser’s price.”
“I just got home. Leaving again so soon to London might not be possible.”
“I’m heading back to London so how about we stay in touch? You can tell me when we can meet up.”
I was going back to London regardless. I had to get the watch without him knowing that I lied about it being with the appraiser. What were the chances I could even get it back?
“That might work. Sure.”
“It must be hard leaving your little boy behind,” he said. “Why don’t you bring him?”
My mouth fell open. How did he know? He must have heard Riley at the house but how did he know he was a boy? His face was neutral but his eyes were hard. He knew that he had caught me out. Or at least he thought that he had caught me out. If someone had told him how to get here, they must have told him that I had a child. I took a deep breath.
“What about Lisbeth? Your fiancée? Where does she think you are right now?”
He frowned. “I don’t know what you think you know but you have the wrong idea.”
“What is the reality then?”
“It’s a problem at the moment that I haven’t had time to rectify,” he said. I rolled my eyes. That was an interesting way to put it. I didn’t envy the poor woman, whatever the problem he had was.
“I’m sure.”
“Right now, I want to get my watch back so how about this,” he said, pivoting.
“Anything to change the subject,” I said under my breath. He ignored me.
“I can get to London in three and a half hours driving. Come with me, bring the boy. You can stay in my suite, there’s plenty of space. We go to the appraiser and I drive you back after. Maybe tomorrow depending on how long it takes.”
Well, he was serious about this watch, wasn’t he?
I wasn’t expecting him to pull plans out so fast. I didn’t know what to say. I opened my mouth and right at that moment, the sky rumbled with thunder. Just then, it opened up and rain came down. It was heavy, soaking through my hair and clothes. I looked around for shelter.
“Come on,” I shouted over the rain, pulling Niall towards the shed near the pond. We ran for the shed, taking shelter.
“Are you okay?” he asked when we were inside. I looked at the state we were in. We were soaked. My clothes were heavy and stuck to me. I ran my hands over my face, brushing my hair back. Niall was a mess too. His hair was darker when it was wet, but he looked like he had just taken a dip in the pond. I couldn’t help it. I laughed.
13
Niall
“What’s so funny?” I asked her. That seemed to set her off even more. She laughed harder, covering her face with her hands. She was soaked from the rain. Her hair was stuck to the sides of her face, the bun that she had gathered it all into completely disintegrating. The blouse she was wearing was wet, clinging to her, exposing the lacy bra that she had on underneath.
It really wasn’t the time, but I could see her nipples hardening through it and it was sending inappropriate thoughts through my head. I was hardening underneath too. It was such a change seeing her laughing and smiling from the welcome she had given me twenty minutes ago but here I was, about to ruin it with my cock. Could anyone blame me, though? She was absolutely delectable and we were in a small, enclosed space together. I didn’t know what she thought would happen pulling me in here with her.
I reached for her.
“What are you…”
I kissed her, cutting her off. I ran my hands over her wet clothes, feeling the heat of her body through them. She softened and leaned into me, but it was only for a moment. She pulled away from me.
“What's wrong?” I asked her. She looked down, sighing. Pe
rfect, I ruined it. She wasn’t here to do that with me. She didn’t want to have sex in a dingy little shed with shovels and fertilizer in the corner. She was classier than that.
“I know that our history has been… complicated. There’s a lot there and it’s not that I don’t want to… I just,” she sighed again, but looked up, meeting my eyes. Uncertainty, confusion; was that regret?
No. I didn’t want her to feel regret for anything we had done together. Not that.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. A lump formed in my throat and my chest felt tight. Suddenly, I was afraid of what she was going to say.
“I’m not comfortable sleeping with a man who’s engaged to be married to someone else. Especially not when I’ve met the woman.”
I groaned, running my hands over my wet hair. Was that it? “I’m not engaged, Eddy.”
“You need to tell Lisbeth Lane that, then. I don’t know how you two do things, telling two totally contradictory stories at the same time.”
This wasn’t about to ruin my life. I never anticipated that it would be so hard to detach myself from my father’s hair-brained plan to marry me off to Lisbeth Lane. It was supposed to be over and done with at Dirk’s party but now, here we were. Here was my father’s meddling ruining things with Eddy when they hadn’t even had a chance to take off. I had to tell her. It was over. I had to be open with her. She needed to know. Everything.
“How do I say this,” I started. She was looking at me expectantly. “I don’t live here. I live in New York. I moved years ago and never looked back. My family is rich, aristocracy. They have expectations of me. I’ve run from them all my life but this time I couldn’t. My father called me home, making me think it was an emergency of sorts. I came over and what he had to tell me was he has a debt he has to settle with another family; the Lanes. Lisbeth’s family. I don’t know the details of how Lisbeth and I got roped into the arrangement but they arranged a marriage between us, had it in the cards since we were both children. Now I guess it’s time to make good on it and they want us to get married.”
“So, you are engaged,” she said.
“No. It isn’t something I agreed to. It was completely planned for us. Neither of us knew that it was going to happen until days ago. He wants me to marry Lisbeth because he owes her family a favor. The engagement is not valid.”
“How would Lisbeth feel hearing you saying all this? She seemed very much on board with being attached to you, the last time I checked,” she said. She was jealous but there was something else there. She was indignant. She felt like Lisbeth was a victim in this too and I was messing about with her feelings.
“Lisbeth and I are yet to have a proper discussion regarding this, but I have no intention of giving her false hope. Nothing will come of this forced engagement.”
“Have you told your father that you have no plans of going through with his plan?”
“Yes, but he thinks he can make me do it. It’s been like this my whole life. My parents basically ignored me my entire childhood. I was their son when I fell in line and did things their way but otherwise, they always had something better to do. They were focused on shaping me into their perfect heir. That was all that was important to them. They wanted me to take over for them when the time was right but I wanted no part of it. Why would I want to inherit the institution that completely robbed me of my childhood?”
She looked at me. It was hard to tell what she was thinking but it felt good telling her what was going on with me. I never really talked about it with anyone, to be honest. I wasn’t close enough to that many people to feel comfortable showing this much vulnerability. If I was going to be honest with anyone, it might as well be her. I felt so close to her already. If anyone was going to trust me, I wanted it to be her.
“Lisbeth still seems to think you’re marrying her.”
“I don’t know what they told her, but they set up the meeting at the party. My father sent me there to meet her. I wanted to tell her that I knew about the arrangement and kindly turn her down. I didn’t really get around to doing it before she kissed me. I think you were there for that part.”
She nodded. “That’s quite a story.”
“It’s true.”
“I… I’m sorry. I don’t envy your situation.”
She didn’t look or sound convinced. “Eddy, all this right now is messy, but I can tell you one thing for sure. I do not want to marry Lisbeth. I haven’t misled her on my feelings. I’m seeing her when I get back to London and all of this is getting straightened out.”
“You should make that clear to her.”
“I am. I will.”
She still didn’t look as convinced as I wanted her to but she gave me a small nod. “I think we have more in common than I thought.”
“Are you also being forced into an arranged marriage by your parents?”
She smiled wryly. “It already happened. The situation with Russell was a little different but my parents pushed for the marriage when they found out that there was a single, titled gentleman looking for a wife. I didn’t want it, but I wasn’t able to say no. I wish I could do what you’re doing now. Things would have ended up differently.”
“It wasn’t that bad, surely,” I said, then wondered whether I should have taken that back. The man did sell her in a card game and the people of the town seemed well in the know when it came to his indiscretions. She stayed though. If she stayed for five years, there had to have been a silver lining somewhere. I was wishing for it because the thought of her suffering for five years was too much for me. “You got to be a Baroness and come live here, didn’t you?”
She laughed. “Every young woman’s dream. I thought I could learn to love it. He was handsome and I was young, and I thought I could make myself want it eventually. It never worked.”
“It wasn’t all bad, was it?”
“He was a gambler and an alcoholic and nothing I did ever made him stop.”
“He didn’t deserve you. I’m sorry you went through that.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling. She had suffered so much during her marriage, more than I could imagine. I was wrong. There had been no silver lining. She had endured five years of hell with him, and with a small child at home. My heart went out to her. A droplet of water from her hair ran down her temple. I brushed it away with my thumb. She looked up at me. I reached for her with my other arm and pulled her in.
“You deserved so much better than him. You still do.”
“He’s dead now. It’s fine,” she said, smiling, a genuine smile that lit up her face. I was done holding back. I kissed her.
The rain was coming down in sheets outside, but we might as well have been dead to the world. Every time I was with Eddy, nothing else seemed to matter. Nothing besides the two of us even registered. It all disappeared and there was just us. I backed her against the wall and pressed my body into hers. I was dying for the contact. Through our wet clothes our bodies had heated up, but we were still clothed. That was an issue.
I started with her blouse. We separated to get our clothes off, the job a little harder than usual since the moisture made them stick to our skin. Eddy laughed at me trying to get my jeans off.
“No, don’t bother. You’ll hurt yourself trying to do that,” she said. Her top was off but she was still wearing her tracksuit bottoms.
“Have you changed your mind then?” I asked. She looked at me impishly.
“As if we haven’t made it work with clothes on before,” she said. We did it again. Really, all you needed to do was get the essentials out, other than that, it was all extra. I pushed her against the wall, so she faced away from me. I pulled her tracksuit bottoms down over her hips. Christ. Her damp skin glistened in the low light. I grabbed and kneaded her ass in my hands, urging her to bend over at the hips. I was rock hard with no need for further convincing.
“You’re gorgeous, Eddy,” I said. I slid smoothly inside her hot walls. She sighed and pushed back against me. I would never get
enough of this body. The day I did, it would be because I was dead. To be honest, I never thought visiting her at home would yield these results. I wasn’t complaining though. In fact, I was already making plans to return.
14
Edwina
The shed had stood in this spot for years and never once had I thought about using it for this purpose. It was by far the least romantic spot on the estate, not that there had ever been much romance on the estate to begin with. This was totally Niall’s doing. From his hotel room, to his car, to the shed, I had no idea when my sex life had gotten so torrid. Previously, I was lucky if Russell wanted to do it while drunk after stumbling home in the middle of the night, stinking of another woman’s perfume. What was worse was that more often than not, I let him have his way with me.
The first night with Niall, I was upset that that was the kind of sex that I was missing out on being married to Russell. He had more passion and skill in his pinky toe than Russell possessed in his whole body. He knew just where to touch, just how to do it and how to leave me completely satisfied.
I revelled in Niall’s attention and the power of his thrusts behind me. The way he was going I wouldn't last long. I didn't want to. I wanted him to shatter me into a million pieces. I loved our moments together. I never got to experience that kind of sweet abandon anymore. I would miss him when this was over. I was determined to feel every sweet second that we spent together. Every last one.
I stuck my fingers in between my lips and worked my clit while he thrust into me. My breathing became short. The familiar wave started to crest in my body. When it crashed, I pressed my face into the cool wall, biting my lip so I didn't scream. I couldn't hear the rain or Niall or anything over the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears. I felt like he might have said something, maybe that he was going to come because soon I felt his cock pulse inside me, and his thrusts started to slow down.
Admit You Love Me: A Secret Baby Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 2) Page 8
