His cheeks burned at the memory of opening that first box and laying eyes on its contents. A whip. An honest-to-goodness whip, its handle thick and bound, the tail coiled up like some black, shiny snake that tapered to a thin point. Heat and ice edged their way over Paul’s skin, playing with him, making him shiver. At this point he’d seen what lay beneath the whip and his shivers had multiplied.
Oh my God.
He wanted to lift out every item and feel it in his hands, and yet he was scared shitless. That dark place inside him, the one that had cracked open when he’d first set foot in that club…
It called to him. And by some means Paul couldn’t fathom, Adam knew.
He’d carried the boxes through to the library, wanting to know more, see more, have answers to the numerous questions in his head. Because the one thought sending him into a tailspin was that his bossknewabout these things.
What were the odds on this?
There was no time to give voice to his internal confusion, not when Adam had ejected him from the library. So there he was, on the wrong side of that closed door, while his boss appeared to have taken a step backwards.
This wasnotgood.
No point standing here analysing the situation.He’d move the writing materials box into the office and then see to making lunch.
Adam’s scream gave him a start and he almost dropped the box he was carrying. He put it down on a chair and ran to the library door, stopping short of opening it, his hand stretched out toward the handle.
There’s nothing I can do.
That knowledge only served to make his heart ache.
Paul carried the box into the office and set it down on the desk. All he could think about was Adam in the next room, hurting. What Paul wanted with all his heart was to ease that hurt, but there was little he could do when Adam kept shutting him out.
Unless….
All thoughts of those boxes were pushed aside. His mind had ventured down another route entirely, prompted by therecollection of something he’d read during his research into Adam.
Paul opened the back door that led off from the kitchen and went outside onto the veranda. The garden sloped down toward the beach, stopping short where it met the path beside the Lighthouse. He clambered down the little path set into the hillside to where a bench had been placed, looking out over the entire bay. Paul sat and regarded the view, breathing in the salty sea air. The harsh cries of the seagulls overhead, the happy cries of children playing on the beach, the waves breaking over the rocks: Paul took it all in, breathed it in, let it flow over and through him until he was calmer.
He pulled out his phone and scrolled through until he found Eric’s number.
“Hey! How you doing?” In the background Paul caught several voices.
“Fine,” he lied. “Where are you?”
“Oh, I’m in Yarmouth,” Eric told him. “Me, Shane, Mikey and Jase are on the boat. We’ve just re-varnished the wooden seating on deck, and she looks beautiful.”
It always amused Paul to hear his friend refer to the family yacht as ‘she’. “Actually, the boat’s the reason I’m calling.”
“Okay. Hey, Jase! Careful! You nearly knocked that tin of yacht varnish over.” Eric muttered under his breath. “Can’t get the staff these days.” What followed had Paul grinning. It sounded like a full-blown scuffle was taking place, reminding him of watching little boys fighting in the playground at school, except this was more entertaining.
Eric was breathing heavily. “Sorry about that. I had to show my lackeys who was boss.” Paul recognized Shane’s snort even over the phone.
“You done?” Paul asked him, chuckling.
“Yep. You were saying?”
Quickly, Paul outlined his idea.
“Yeah, I can do that. You got any idea when you want to do this? The only reason I ask is, this week is looking likely. Dad wants her after the weekend.”
“Is Wednesday too soon?” To Paul’s way of thinking, the sooner the better.
“That’s doable. You want me to ask the guys if they’d like to come along? Or would that be overload?”
Paul had already thought of that. “I was going to ask some of them to join me for lunch in the Cove first. Taylor was also on the list.” He hoped to God this would work. “They could join us after if they wanted.”
