The tight expression Avery wore was one Clay had hated since childhood. One of disapproval and disappointment. Avery Whitfield’s son was supposed to be the consummate ladies’ man. Clay was letting him down.
“All right, let’s go,” he said. No one bothered with towels, just walked naked into the salon. Avery mixed drinks and handed them around, then picked up the tiny vial that rested on the bar and tapped out eight more lines of cocaine.
Everyone took a turn. Finishing last, Clay glanced across the room to see Adrianna on her knees in front of his father, gearing up for a round of oral sex. Gina slid to the floor in front of Clay.
“Relax and enjoy, son,” Avery called out. “You deserve it.”
Clay had been with dozens of women, but always in private. He’d never been into group sex, which seemed even more debauched when one of the participants was his father.
Seeing Gina on the floor in front of him, Clay caught Avery’s smile of approval. Instead of desire, Clay felt a surge of fury and a knot of disgust in the pit of his stomach.
He grabbed Gina and pulled her to her feet, grabbed a condom and dragged her behind him into the bedroom.
“You want to play games, we’ll play games,” he growled. Hard from the drugs, he tossed her on the bed, covered her and drove deep, giving no thought to her pleasure, pounding into her until he reached a climax. Gina came, too.
Clay rolled away and rose to his feet, saw Gina’s satisfied smile. Clearly, she had enjoyed herself, and the knowledge filled him with even more self-disgust.
Regret overwhelmed him. As he stalked out of the drawing room, he felt sick inside. Sick and dead. And so empty he wondered if he’d ever be able to feel anything again.
In his room, he showered, spent extra time scrubbing his skin until it turned an angry red, trying to remove the feeling of self-loathing.
How could he have done it? How could he have let his father goad him into doing something he hated himself for? Something he couldn’t forget or forgive. How could he have betrayed Ellie’s trust so vilely?
He remembered the look on her face as she stood in the doorway, watching him with Adrianna. At the time, he hadn’t deserved that look.
Now he did.
No one was around when he reached the bottom of the marble staircase. Carrying an overnight bag, he headed straight for the servant’s quarters in the rear.
“I need you to take me somewhere,” he told the chauffeur.
A few minutes later, the driver brought the limo around to the front of the house. Clay got in and the car pulled away.
There was a small chateau in the hills above Nice called St. Martin. There were only twenty guest rooms, but the owner was a friend, and he always found a place for Clay.
This time, Jean Paul put him up in one of the small, private villas that surrounded the main chateau. The wizened little Frenchman spoke to him only briefly, just led him to his rooms away from the rest of the house and left him alone.
Clay wondered if the grief he felt inside was evident on his face.
As soon as she arrived in the village of Hickstead, Maggie checked into the Crown and Rose Hotel. She had been waiting for Jake to arrive all afternoon. The moment she spotted his rental car pulling into the parking lot, Maggie hurried down to the lobby.
“I need to speak to you, Jake.”
He stopped as she approached, worry lines digging into his forehead. “What’s happened? Are you alright?”
“Nothing’s happened. I’m fine, but we need to talk.”
“I told you we couldn’t do that, Maggie. You promised me.”
“I know, but I can’t keep that promise any longer. I spoke to Evelyn today. I asked her to fill me in on your background.”
Jake’s expression grew grim. He took her arm and led her over to the sofa in the hotel lobby. Several tourists, cameras hanging from their shoulders and laughter in their voices, walked past, heading for the dining room.
“Dammit, Maggie, you’ve got to stay out of this,” Jake hissed. “You’re putting your life in danger.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Jake?”
Piercing blue eyes bored into her. He sighed. “I was planning to. I just wanted the time to be right. I wanted to tell you about my past, then I was going to ask you to marry me.”
