“But I couldn’t let him get away with it, Lena. I couldn’t. I also couldn’t come here without something to offer you, something to help prove I was, and will always be, on your side.”
“What are you saying, Preston? What did you do?”
His eyes snapped to mine, and I’d never seen him so worried. His eyes were almost frantic, looking back and forth between mine, as if he were afraid he’d never look into them again.
“I found him. I found Derrek.”
My body snapped to attention. “What?”
“I found him.”
“How? Where? Wha—”
“It was the only thing I could think of to do that would prove I was never working for him. Not after I saw you.”
“What did he say?”
“I didn’t approach him. Haven’t gone anywhere near him. I didn’t know if that was something you would want.”
“What I would want?” I was nearly speechless, not able to wrap my mind around the fact that Preston had found him.
“Sam told me he disappeared.”
“He did. Right after you left, he bolted. But you were gone, and you didn’t want to be reached. So, I did the only other thing I could think of. I hunted him down, determined to make him pay for what he put you through. I spent six weeks trailing him, following any lead I could find. When I finally was sure I’d nailed him, I couldn’t do it. I needed you more than I needed him, and I didn’t want to do anything that might take me farther away from any chance I had with you.”
“You could have nailed him? What the hell does that mean?” My pulse was pounding, the very last thing I wanted was for Preston to go to jail, and I had no idea what nailing someone entailed.
“Nothing major, just, you know, confronting him, trying to find some sort of information to convince him to give you what you deserve.”
“I don’t need anything from him anymore,” I said firmly.
“I know, baby,” he said, his hand coming up to my face. “But you deserve so much more than what you walked away with. He not only took what you earned in that marriage, but he took everything your father worked for too.”
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. I’d given up thinking about everything Derrek had taken from me, mostly because I didn’t feel like there was anything to be done about it. I’d signed every document he’d ever placed in front of me – and put in the position again, I’d do the same thing. Every time I made one of those mistakes, I’d done it out of love for someone. It wasn’t my fault that Derrek ended up being a complete bastard and took advantage of me and the love I had for him. And it wasn’t my fault that some asshole beat the crap out of Piper and Preston was forced to agree to ruin me before we’d ever met.
No, these problems were all Derrek’s fault.
Suddenly, there was a fire inside of me. I was angry. More angry than I could ever remember being, and there was only one person responsible for the rage.
Preston was here, offering me the opportunity to find Derrek and get back everything he’d taken from me.
“You really think you can find him, you could find something to persuade him to give me what’s rightfully mine?”
Preston’s eyes never left mine. “All I know is that if it’s what you want, I’ll die trying to make it happen.”
I looked at him, focused on his eyes, and I knew what I had to do.
“All right,” I said firmly. “Let’s find him.”
END OF PART THREE
Part Four
Private
Property
Chapter One
There were few things in my world that could beat a morning cup of coffee on the beach in Hawaii. However, watching Lena jog toward me in rather small shorts and a sports bra ranked higher than any other luxury. I tried to ignore the fact that she was jogging with my baby sister, focusing more on the stretch and coil of the taut muscles in Lena’s legs. Sam was also jogging with them, albeit reluctantly, but my feelings toward Sam also bordered on brotherly.
Lena was the first woman in years who made my blood run hot. She was also the first in years who I felt could match me in intelligence, humor, and—most importantly—in the bedroom. It wasn’t even that Lena was overtly sexual—she wasn’t. She was conservative in most areas of her life, including her body. I considered myself supremely lucky to be privy to what she covered up with clothes. I would forever be grateful that at the end of the day, she was in my bed, telling me about her day, and letting me turn her inside out with pleasure.
I’d never been with a woman before who inspired me to find every single part of her body that could make her writhe, to spend as much time as possible using my mouth, hands, and cock to get her off. A woman so perfectly made to fit me, it was as if we were pieces of the same puzzle.
Being away from her for two months as I tried to find something to offer her, something to convince her that I wasn’t the man she’d been led to believe, was torture. I was sure she’d come to Hawaii and, inevitably, some other man would try to fill up the part of her heart I’d left empty and I’d lose my chance to rectify our situation. Piper had been my saving grace in those early weeks. That critical time when, in most other situations, I’d try to fix the problem immediately. I knew Lena needed something more, something I’d have to dig to find.
Piper owed me nothing, but insisted on going to Lena and being my eyes when I couldn’t be there myself. Parker had always been the brother to swoop in and save the day, and I’d been grateful when he’d decided to head to the island to help Piper. Parker had a life back in Oregon, and his departure was harder on Lena than I’d anticipated. She’d bonded with him in the small time they’d been together, but I was happy they’d connected. I planned on keeping Lena in my life for a very long time, so her relationship with Parker was a tick in the pro column.
I smiled as all three girls approached me. Lena’s eyes locked on to mine.
“You’ve certainly become an early riser since you’ve come to Hawaii,” Piper said, her breath slightly labored. She knelt down and placed her hands on her knees, taking in deep breaths.
My eyes were still locked on Lena, but roamed down her body. “I’d never really had a reason to get up early before. But there are some sights in Hawaii you have to wake up early to appreciate.”
Sam took clomping steps to join the group and then collapsed on the sand, not appearing to care that the sand would stick to the sweat covering her body.
“I,” she said, then dragged in a deep gasping breath. “Am never,” she rasped out before she took another breath. “Jogging again.” She was sucking in air as if she’d been trapped under water, deprived of oxygen.
Lena smiled at her friend, but looked back at me. “She’s used to jogging on a treadmill,” she said, her voice light and happy, finding joy in simply being with her friends, and me, I assumed.
“Ah, yes,” I said, sipping my coffee. “Running in the sand is a different exercise altogether.”
“That’s not exercise,” Sam growled from the sand. “It’s torture.” She rolled to her side and stood up slowly, still breathing a little heavily, brushing sand from her body. “The devil endorses beach jogging.”
“Dibs on the shower!” Piper sprinted past Sam, laughing, as she ran toward the apartment building the four of us were currently staying in.
Lena laughed but Sam’s eyes narrowed at the disappearing Piper.
“She’s going to regret that,” Sam said.
“You can use our shower,” Lena offered.
Sam’s hands, which were still brushing sand away, stilled and her eyes darted from Lena to me. “It’s all right. I’ll wait. Besides, it looks as though he’s about to eat you alive.” Sam nodded toward me and I tried to hide my grin. Sam had proven to be one of my biggest advocates in the last few weeks, and I appreciated her complete and unwavering support. She also was exceptionally good at making herself scarce when I needed to be alone with Lena.
Sam winked at Lena and
then limped off the same way Piper had gone. Lena turned her smiling face to me and tilted her head to the side, her grin spreading. “Are you going to eat me alive?”
I walked to her, pulling her against my body, feeling the heat from her sweat-slicked body pressed up against mine, my hand sliding up her back to cup her neck just below her raven ponytail. “Only if you’re a really good girl,” I said quietly, my lips at the shell of her ear. I felt her shiver and myself harden. Knowing the effect I had on her was the biggest turn on.
It had only been a week since I’d made my presence known to her. Just seven days since I’d laid my whole story out, hoping she would believe me, that she would give herself to me again. And in those seven days, after she had accepted that I never betrayed her the way she was led to believe, she’d been nothing but eager and responsive. She wanted me just as much as I wanted her.
My tongue darted out and pressed against the tender skin just under her ear. The salty taste of her caused a low groan as I imagined how the rest of her tasted. I felt her hands both come to rest on my forearms, then slide slowly up my shoulders.
“If you weren’t holding that cup of coffee, I’d ask you to carry me upstairs right now,” she whispered, her breath hot on my ear. My hand moved up, grabbing hold of her ponytail, pulling it down and forcing her eyes to look into mine. I dropped my cup filled with coffee to the sand and pressed my now free hand to the swell of her backside, pulling her in to me, letting her feel my erection.
“Be careful what you wish for, sweetheart,” I muttered, just before bending down and capturing her with my arms, and turning to carry her up the stairs. She immediately started squirming, laughing and mildly complaining as I climbed the stairs with her in my grasp.
“Preston, this is ridiculous,” she laughed, kicking. Lena was a strong woman. She ran regularly and took care of her body. But compared to me, she was slight, and she stood no chance against my arms when they wanted her close. One hand reached out and opened the door to my apartment and once we were inside, I used a foot to slam it shut, wasting no time walking back to the bedroom.
“I missed you when I woke this morning to an empty bed,” I said after I laid her down and covered her with my body. She was breathing hard, but it wasn’t from her run; it was her body reacting to mine.
“I didn’t want to wake you,” she whispered. “You looked so peaceful.”
My eyes ran over her face, trying to read her expression. I’d had a hard time being away from her since I’d come here. At night, my body wound itself around her, my arms and legs sought her out, making sure she was next to me while I slept. She’d probably wanted a few minutes alone; a few minutes where I wasn’t claiming her with my hands or holding her to me in my sleep.
My eyes roamed over her face, trying to read her expression, trying to figure out where her head was at. Lena had always been forthcoming with me, never shied away from telling me what I wanted to know—sometimes I just had to ask.
“Is it difficult to be around me so much? Would you rather go back to staying in the apartment with Piper?” Ever since we’d reconciled, she’d been staying with me in the apartment Parker had originally taken. Sam and Piper were staying in the two bedroom. I’d ambushed her. Shown up when she thought she’d gotten rid of me forever, and I’d practically held her captive since. I knew I was clinging to her, knew I was keeping her close, trying desperately to make up for the two months I had been away.
Her brow furrowed at my words and confusion became evident in her expression.
“Why would I want to move back into that apartment? I want to be with you.” She sounded convincing. In fact, she sounded almost a little offended I’d asked.
“We’ve been together almost every spare moment since last week. I just want to make sure you aren’t feeling smothered or in need of some space.”
“I had two months of space that I didn’t want to begin with.” Her hands moved around my waist and up my back, urging me closer to her. “I want to be with you. It was just a jog.”
She was right, I was being paranoid, but I would give her anything she wanted. I pressed my lips to hers, kissing her lightly, not entirely finished with our conversation.
“I just want you to be happy,” I said, my mouth just a breath away from hers.
“I’m happiest when I’m with you,” she breathed, her words making me lighter somehow. We’d met in a very unconventional way, started a ridiculously unconventional relationship, and then everything had gone to shit. She’d been convinced I was the worst man on the planet and there were times I worried her mind was still tainted with those thoughts of me—consciously or not. But I exhaled a sigh of relief at her words, my forehead falling gently to meet hers.
“Same goes, sweetheart.”
“Preston?”
I lifted my head to look at her. “Yeah?”
“One of two things needs to happen here. You either need to take my clothes off me and follow through with your threat, or I need to take a shower.”
A slow smile crept across my face and I leaned back so I was sitting on my ankles, her legs spread out around me. Her body was flushed from her run, a pink hue stretching from her chest up her neck. She bit her bottom lip, waiting for me to decide what I would do with her. To her. I reached behind me to grasp her ankle, bending her knee and pulling her foot in front of me. I removed her shoe and sock, then placed her foot back down and did the same with her other leg. She squirmed a little each time I removed her sock and I assumed she was ticklish, storing that information away for another day.
Once her legs were bare, I bent lower and put my mouth on the skin just below her sports bra, my tongue darting out, eager to taste the salt on her skin. She hummed as my mouth moved lower, stopping just above her shorts. Goose bumps broke out over the soft skin of her stomach and I smiled against her, my mind drifting back to the first time I saw her body and knew she’d be mine.
***
When I’d purchased my baby, my brand-new jet-black souped-up Lotus, I’d imagined myself in lots of scenarios. Sure, I was a private investigator, but the job was less glamorous than one might imagine. I spent more time tailing old married men than gangsters or criminals. The color of the car came in handy at night, but I had to be creative to utilize the speed and sexiness of it. I might have been guilty of happening upon street races or driving recklessly late at night, just to feel like I was using the car to its full potential. But sitting outside of a bar, waiting for some poor unsuspecting woman, was only made better by the car I was sitting in.
This wasn’t my usual job. No. I had always kept my professional and private lives separate. No need mixing the two and creating unnecessary messes. But I’d do anything for Piper. Even if it meant seducing a woman. Even if it meant having my picture taken while I was inside of her—job’s terms, not mine. It was a very specific job. Not just “sleep with the target.” No, it was unusually more in-depth than that. More like, “sleep with target in her own bed, allow photographs to be taken in which it’s obvious and undeniable that sexual intercourse is occurring, deliver images to target’s husband.” What kind of man wants that type of explicit photographic evidence?
As if I couldn’t get more confused about why a man would want someone to purposefully sleep with his wife, she appeared in front of the bar and I was speechless. Her long, black-as-night hair was tied up high, but still hung to the middle of her back. The knee-length skirt hugged her slim thighs as she walked toward the doors, and her sky-high heels made what I could see of her legs look fucking fantastic.
As she reached to pull the door open, she turned toward my car, her eyes scanning the sidewalk, and I knew—from that instant—my life had just been hijacked by a woman I was hired to ruin. Never before had I felt such instant ownership over anyone, but she belonged to me. The way she put herself together, the way she tried to portray herself to the outside world, was a juxtaposition to the softness of her face. Her outfit, so stark and cold, hell, even her hair was tight an
d unobtainable. But her face, it was searching for something, longing and hope prevalent in her expression. She needed someone to help her and I’d be damned if it was anyone but me. In that moment she became my exclusive property.
Chapter Two
I woke to the sound of the front door opening and then closing, and my body shot up from the bed, my instincts taking over. I reached for the gun in the drawer of my bedside table, my fingers nearly on it when I heard Piper’s voice.
“Preston,” she shouted, “are you here?”
I shut the drawer and sighed heavily as my hand ran over my face, my heart pounding. I looked at Lena; she was still asleep. Usually I’d marvel at her ability to sleep through the ruckus, but we’d spent hours earlier wearing each other out in bed, so I understood how she was dead to the world. I stood up, grabbing my jogging shorts from the floor where Lena had thrown them after taking them off me, and pulled them on before heading into the living room.
“Preston?” Piper called out again just as I entered the room.
“Shhhh,” I hushed her quietly, my finger to my lips. “Lena is sleeping,” I said, walking past her into the kitchen and flipping the switch on the coffee maker.
“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” she said, her voice teasing. I could hear the smile on her face, and could tell by the tone of her voice she knew we’d been in bed all day and Lena was sleeping off sex.
I turned toward her. “And your point is?”
“I don’t really have one,” she said, laughing. “Just giving you a hard time.” She came up next to me and took the coffee from my hands, finishing the task for me. Piper had always been louder than I was, more expressive, more forthcoming. I was the quiet one, the one who was thoughtfully silent. Most of the time, at least when we were younger, we were thinking the same thing, our minds always on the same page, but she was just more vocal about everything. There were advantages to being a twin, but those came with disadvantages as well. Even so, I wouldn’t trade her for the world. Having a twin was like having a built-in best friend for life.
The Private Serials Box Set Page 26
