It was the only way I knew how to make it perfectly clear to Henrik that I could not be bought.
If he was hurt, he didn’t let on. Ignoring my abrupt tone, Henrik smiled up at me apolitically as he rubbed his temples. “Clearly I had far too much to drink last night,” he said. “I regret you seeing me in such an undignified state. And, of course, I very much regret the things I said.”
“Enough with the pleasantries,” I said sharply. “What’s this about threatening Hayden?”
“The threats were never real. He’s my son and my sole heir. I’d never hurt him,” Henrik assured me. “The threats were simply meant to keep him compliant and, for the most part, they worked. Hayden is impulsive and reckless. Maybe you haven’t seen that side of him but I assure you, it’s there.”
“What do you mean?”
Henrik’s face darkened. “When he was fifteen he stole my yacht and went joyriding.”
“And…?” I prompted after waiting expectantly only to get silence. To me that sounded more like the rebellion of a bored rich kid than anything. I looked at Henrik, wondering what else he had to say about his only son.
“After that it only got worse. A year later he threw a massive house party at my mansion while I was out of the country, even going so far as to give my staff the weekend off so he could get away with it. What’s worse is he didn’t invite the classmates from his private boarding school – he threw a party for homeless people and gave away half the contents of my grand parlour!”
“I see,” I said, swelling with pride a little. That was my Hayden.
Henrik was on a real tangent now, unloading a lifetime’s worth of disappointment on me. “And when Hayden was nineteen he disappeared for a week! A whole week! He nearly flunked out of college because he missed his exams! And do you know where my staff eventually found him?”
“Where did they find him?” I asked, disturbed only by the fact that Henrik had sent his staff to bring Hayden home rather than going out searching for him himself.
“He was washing dishes in a soup kitchen!” Henrik exploded. “He was ten pounds underweight because he’d given away the generous monthly allowance I’d provided him with and said he felt too guilty to eat at the soup kitchen when someone less fortunate could be benefiting. He was…he was dumpster diving to survive, and sleeping on the street like a vagrant!”
Henrik seemed genuinely distraught by what Hayden had done, but I thought the whole thing was incredibly altruistic. It was a shame Hayden’s own father hadn’t recognized his efforts to help those around him. Instead, Henrik had only hampered them.
It was as though he thought Hayden’s rejection of his lifestyle of excess was a personal rejection.
“I still don’t understand how Hayden’s behavior led you to threaten his life.”
“Pretend to threaten his life,” Henrik corrected me.
“Fine, whatever…”
“When he graduated college I informed him he was to work for me. He wanted to open a restaurant or some foolish thing, but there’s no money or prestige in that,” Henrik scoffed. “It would have been a waste of a fine education and I wasn’t about to let him pour my fortune into a failing business.”
It pained me that Henrik assumed Hayden’s business would fail. Wasn’t a parent’s role to nurture and encourage a child rather than force them to go down a path that was of no interest? But I kept my mouth shut, preferring instead to simply listen. I was listening to what Henrik was saying but more importantly, I was listening to the things he wasn’t saying.
“I thought if I gave him an opportunity to really make something of himself he’d finally see that I’ve known all along what’s best for him. He’d abandon his preposterous notion that he ought to feel guilty for being born wealthy. He’d learn to be the man I wanted him to be.”
“But…?”
“But little by little he stopped taking my instructions. He was good at his job but he thought he knew better than me. And he started going back to his old ways…he wasn’t reformed at all. He’d merely gotten better about hiding what he was doing from me.”
“You mean giving money away to charity and that sort of thing?” I asked for clarification.
Henrik nodded. “I confronted him. I told him I was going to be monitoring his spending very closely from then on because he couldn’t be trusted not to squander my fortune.”
It was hard for me to bite my tongue. I was tempted to ask Henrik how helping those less fortunate was “squandering” but shelling out millions of dollars on every excess under the sun – like Henrik’s ever-growing art collection – wasn’t. But attacking him would probably just make him shut down. I wanted him to open up to me.
I had a feeling Henrik hadn’t opened up to anyone in a long, long time because it was like a dam had burst. I didn’t think I’d be able to quiet him even had I wanted to. Once he got started, he just went on and on…
“Hayden threatened to quit working for me entirely. He said he’d go open a restaurant and didn’t want a dime. Then he and Steve Martel concocted a plan to extort money from me and that was the last straw. So I started making threats to keep Hayden in line.”
“Wait…what? Hayden didn’t know anything about the stolen painting or the extortion,” I insisted. I’d been there and I’d seen Hayden’s surprise when he’d learned what Steve had done. There was no way to fake that sort of reaction. “It was Steve’s doing and Steve’s alone.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. I know Hayden.”
“The painting wasn’t stolen from my summer home, you know,” Henrik informed me matter-of-factly. “The security system didn’t malfunction; Steve disabled it and then removed the painting himself shortly after Hayden collected it from overseas. He missed shutting off one of my security cameras. I still have the footage if you don’t believe me.”
As soon as Hayden had inadvertently become involved, Steve had likely realized the error of his ways. I assumed he’d removed the painting in an attempt to right his wrong. He’d had a kneejerk reaction and, unsurprisingly, had gotten caught.
“I’m not disputing that Steve was responsible,” I replied, my belief in Hayden unwavering. “He admitted as much to Hayden and me. But I’m telling you that your son had nothing to do with any of it. Hayden was just a pawn in this whole twisted affair. You assumed he orchestrated the scheme with Steve but you’re wrong. I’m telling you…you’re wrong.”
Henrik appeared to consider that carefully for a moment, but then he chortled flippantly. Maybe it was because he couldn’t accept what I was telling him; to do so would require him to admit he’d been wrong. “I can see by the expression on your face that you’re not pleased with me, but everyone has a past, Daniella. How much do you really know about my son?”
“More than you,” I spat. “By the sound of it you were never even around when he was a kid.”
“I was working!” Henrik roared. “Who do you think paid for his fancy private schools, top notch education and exotic vacations? I gave him everything I never had. I gave him everything! He had everything a boy could ever want and then some! And yet what thanks did I get from him? I got defiance and disdain, that’s what. He looks at me like I’m dirt on his shoe.”
“That’s not entirely true,” I pointed out. My heart was pounding in my chest but I wasn’t about to back down. There were things Hayden had never said to his father that Henrik needed to hear. If Hayden wouldn’t say them then I would. I’d fight for Hayden until the day I died. That, to me, was the very definition of love.
Henrik stopped then and looked at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You gave him everything money could buy, but he didn’t have everything a boy could ever want,” I said quietly. “I think all he ever really wanted was a family…and a father who spent time with him.”
“I was working!” Henrik repeated, sounding agitated.
“You’re a billionaire, Henrik.” I decided in that moment to start ca
lling him by his first name to his face instead of just in my head. Calling him Mr. Slate implied a level of respect that wasn’t there…plus maybe it gave the impression I was afraid of him. I wasn’t, and I wanted him to know it. Curiously, I asked, “Didn’t there ever come a point where you felt you had enough money?”
“There’s no such thing as enough money!” Henrik insisted vehemently. His face had grown red and his tie looked like it was choking him. He loosened it before informing me, “If you’d grown up poor you’d know that!”
Who was I to argue with that logic? I’d grown up comfortably middle class so, even though I suspected Henrik’s views were not necessarily representative of most people with low incomes, I decided not to belabor the point. Our discussion had veered off course and was only distracting us from more important issues.
“You need to accept that you and Hayden have different priorities in life or else you’ll lose him forever,” I predicted. For reasons I couldn’t quite put into words, I felt like I wanted to help mend the broken bond between father and son. Henrik was neurotic and misguided, but he was no monster. He loved his son…he just didn’t know how to show it.
“I’ve already lost him.” The sadness in Henrik’s eyes was profound.
“Maybe there’s still a chance you can fix things. But Henrik, you need to stop lying to Hayden. You need to stop trying to control him. He’ll be getting back soon. Talk to him,” I encouraged, more than willing to give Henrik the chance to break the news to Hayden himself and apologize.
“I wouldn’t know what to say,” Henrik replied, sounding like a timid young child who wanted nothing more than to hide behind his mother’s legs. “You do it,” he half-ordered and half-pleaded. “You tell him.”
With a sigh, I came to understand that Henrik Slate was just too emotionally crippled to take responsibility for his own actions. Instead, he wanted me to do the dirty work for him…and there really wasn’t a lot I could do about it. One of us had to tell Hayden the truth, so if Henrik refused to do it then the burden was going to fall to me by default.
At least I’d be able to soften the blow – or at least I hoped I’d be able to. Maybe there was a silver lining after all.
Chapter 08
“Well you’re a sight for sore eyes.”
Hayden’s voice startled me from a nap. I’d hardly slept the previous night as I’d snuck out of the mansion with the head chef’s assistance. My errand had taken me until dawn to complete and upon my return, there’d been Henrik to contend with. I was exhausted.
After my confrontation with Henrik, I’d returned to my bedroom. There, I’d stripped down to my red satin panties and a grey t-shirt so soft it felt like it was made of cashmere. I’d curled up on the bed, intending to shut my eyes for just a minute while I waited for Hayden’s return. But I must have drifted off.
I propped myself up as Hayden sat on the edge of the bed beside me. “Hello,” he said, wrapping his arms around me and giving me a kiss. He’d loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top of his dress shirt. I could see he was bleary-eyed from traveling so far in such a short time, but I could tell he wanted something other than sleep: me.
Immediately I remembered the news I had to break to Hayden. It physically weighed me down, making my heart heavy with sorrow. Part of me wanted to blurt it out and get it over with, but at the same time I wanted to protect him from being hurt for as long as possible. Plus he smelled incredible, like the cool, clean, mouth-watering aftershave he used. I decided there was no harm in waiting a little longer.
“Hi yourself,” I grinned, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“Sorry for waking you but I spent the entire flight home fantasizing about holding you in my arms. I couldn’t wait a minute longer. Are you feeling alright?” he murmured as his lips grazed my forehead. “It’s not like you to be asleep this time of day.”
“I’m tired,” I yawned. It was true.
“Hopefully not too tired for me,” Hayden teased with a familiar twinkle in his eye. “Although if I have my way, you’ll be worn out once I’m done with you.” His fingers gently traced over my collarbone as he spoke, making imaginary trails across the smooth terrain of my skin.
“Is that a promise?”
“Of course it is.” Hayden paused then and looked at me more carefully. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked. “Something about you seems…off?” He knew me so well. Usually that was a great thing but at that moment, not so much.
How was I supposed to respond to his observation? I wasn’t about to lie but telling him what was going on would ruin the mood in no time. So I opted not to answer him at all. Instead, I cut him off with a steamy, lingering kiss.
Hayden’s hands slid underneath my t-shirt without removing it. I loved it when he played with me without fully undressing me. There was something that seemed so naughty about being half-naked. In a way, it made me feel even more exposed and vulnerable than if I were completely nude…but with Hayden, feeling exposed and vulnerable was never a bad thing. It only served to make our intimate connection that much stronger.
My nipples immediately sprang to life as Hayden massaged them, his lips meanwhile planting tender kisses on my neck. “You smell good,” he whispered, his words muffled by my skin. “Good enough to eat, in fact. That perfume you’re wearing is delicious.” I was about to tell him it was only soap but then he pulled my panties down and words escaped me.
His strong hands pushing my thighs apart, Hayden buried his face in my sex. He lapped at my feminine folds until I was panting, writhing beneath him as I grew wet with arousal. Pretty soon the only thought in my mind was my mounting need for release. As the pressure built within me, Hayden’s fingers slid inside my tight tunnel, filling me up as he kissed my most sensitive place.
I squirmed with delight, Hayden’s forearms were still pinning my thighs to the bed and were the only thing keeping me from grinding wantonly against his chin. I could tell he hadn’t shaved since before his flight because his stubble tickled my smooth skin in the most wonderful way. It increased the pleasurable sensations assaulting my senses tenfold.
“Ooh!” I gasped as his kisses gave way to something else entirely. There were few things I could think of that were better than Hayden’s tongue licking my clitoris and my toes curled with delight as he did exactly that, coaxing it to come out and play.
Better yet, Hayden seemed to love giving me pleasure with his mouth as much as I loved receiving it. By the time he’d brought me to an earth-shattering climax – or just to the edge if he felt like teasing me – he was always rock hard. This time was no different.
As soon as my orgasm hit, he was on top of me. His hardness slid into my quivering, silky depths before my climax had even subsided, the welcome invasion reigniting a whole new burst of excitement within me. He stretched me open so satisfyingly, almost to the point where it was uncomfortable. It hurt so good…
Hayden pulled his tie completely off then and tied my wrists to the bedframe with it. A shiver of anticipation went through me. There was something so hot about being bound and completely at his mercy. I wouldn’t surrender myself to just anyone, but I trusted Hayden completely. Handing over power to him in the bedroom always seemed to bring us closer and that was something I’d been craving lately.
The lights were still on but, despite having the same insecurities about my body that most women do, I felt no shame. How could I when Hayden was gazing down at me like I was the sexiest woman in the entire world? It was tough to feel anything but confident and desirable when he looked at me like that.
Our eyes remained locked as our bodies found that familiar rhythm that had come to feel like second nature. It was ecstasy.
It was hard to believe that not long ago I’d been an inexperienced twenty-eight year old virgin. Being intimate with Hayden felt so natural and so right that sometimes I forgot we hadn’t been together for years. We knew each other so well, body and mind. He knew how to drive me crazy with just a look and exactly
where to touch me to make me cry out in pleasure. And judging by his reactions, I had the same power over him.
Writhing in ecstasy beneath Hayden, I pulled at my bonds, testing them. The necktie around my wrists held firm, reminding me of just how helpless I was. A warm blush spread over me as I began to moan with longing. Hayden took that as his cue to give me what I wanted, and he grabbed my hips firmly before driving himself into me even faster and harder.
That was it. I couldn’t take any more. I shattered, my body igniting with passion as my orgasm consumed me. Hayden’s hand clamped over my mouth to stifle my screams, his eyes alive with excitement as he watched me cum for him. His own climax wasn’t far off.
Once Hayden had untied me and we were lying there in bed together, my mind turned back to the task at hand. I just wanted to bask in the afterglow of our lovemaking, but I knew I couldn’t keep putting off the inevitable. I took a deep breath, shifted my body around so I was facing him and walked into the eye of the storm with as much courage as I could muster.
“Hayden, we need to talk.”
He rolled onto his side and propped his head up on his hand. “Okay. What’s up?”
I took a deep breath. “There’s no easy way to tell you this, but…your father sent the death threats. It was him all along. He knew about Steve setting him up to buy the stolen painting and he thought you were in on it. The threats were intended to keep you under your father’s thumb.”
Hayden’s forehead wrinkled in confusion as he struggled to make sense of what I’d told him. “How is that even possible?” he murmured, looking perplexed. Then he looked me in the eye. “Are you absolutely sure? How did you find out?”
“Your father told me himself,” I said gently, wishing there was something I could do to lessen the blow. “He had too much to drink the other night and got a little loose lipped. It sounds crazy, I know.”
No sooner than the words left my mouth, Hayden jumped to his feet. “Sadly, it doesn’t sound crazy at all. If you knew my father the way I do, you’d know it sounds exactly like Henrik Slate. Although he’s crazy personified, so I guess in a way it does sound crazy.” He was rambling now, talking a mile minute as he tried to process what I’d just told him.
His Forever (His #3) Page 5
