Silas stroked his hand through her hair and waited a moment before directing her gaze to his again.
“My only regret is hurting you the way I did,” he said painfully. “If you had told me, that would have never happened. So promise me that in the future you will hold nothing back from me. Especially something that could result in me hurting you, however unintentionally. I could have made it a lot better for you, princess.”
She lowered her mouth to his and kissed him. “I promise, Silas. But if it got any better, I’m not sure I’d survive. Hello? You gave me two orgasms. How is that bad?”
He chuckled and then pulled her down so her body was sprawled atop his. “It’ll get even better, baby. You may not think so, but trust me. This is only the beginning of everything I have to teach you.”
22
Hayley positively glowed with happiness. It was impossible not to notice the change in herself. She only had to look in the mirror to see the soft smile, the warm glint in her eyes. She was always smiling these days. Nonstop for the last week.
Silas stuck his head into the bathroom where she was standing and staring at her reflection as she let her thoughts wander. She glanced up quickly and tried to make it appear as though she were doing something except staring at herself and getting a giddy thrill over how happy this man made her.
“I’m going down to get the car. Give me five minutes before you meet me downstairs. I’ll drive you to school today and pick you up so we can spend the afternoon together according to plan.”
She blew him a kiss in the mirror, immediately lighting up at Silas’s reminder of today’s agenda. They had spent much of the last week in bed. When she wasn’t attending class, she was either on her back or on her knees. She and Silas had christened every single piece of furniture in the house, and once she’d told him she was on birth control pills the morning after their very first time together, he’d become relentless,fixated on the fact he could come inside her anytime he wanted. Not that she really minded.
She was happy. Silas seemed very happy. And making him happy made her even happier. So everything was... perfect.
She checked her watch and then went in search of her violin case and her purse. By the time she had everything ready to go, her five minutes were up, so she headed for the door, making sure she reset every single lock, and then she used the express elevator only for Silas’s use and zipped down to the first floor.
Silas was parked out front, and as soon as she exited the building, he hurried out to collect her case from her, his cell phone stuck to his ear. Not unusual at all considering he spent a lot of time on his phone. He settled her into the car in the passenger seat and then put the violin in the back before returning to the driver’s side. When he slid behind the wheel, he’d evidently ended his call because he placed the phone on the seat next to him.
Hayley looked curiously at him as he pulled into traffic. It was rare to see Silas or any of his men drive. They usually had a driver unless they were babysitting her, in which case there wasn’t room for an additional driver, so one of the three men always drove. What exactly did they do? She’d gotten hints, none of them very settling, but she knew Silas and what kind of man he was. Some would call her a naïve, too-trusting idiot for her unwavering faith in this man, but she knew one thing if she knew nothing else in the world. Silas and his men were good people. Nothing would ever change her mind about that.
“So what exactly do you and your brothers do?” Hayley ventured. “Does it have anything to do with security?”
Silas chuckled. “In a way, yes, and I can certainly understand why you’d think that. We do depend on very good security. Me. There are ever-present threats and danger to not only Drake but all of us. It’s my job to ensure nothing happens to any of us.”
Her brow furrowed in question. “You say that like there’s more danger to Drake. Who is he exactly?”
Silas seemed to ponder her query a moment, his lips pursed thoughtfully. “I work for Drake—we all work for Drake. But it’s not like he’s our boss. It’s difficult to explain. We aren’t a typical business or corporation. I guess a better way of explaining it would be to say I work with Drake. I work with all my brothers. There’s no dick sizing, no competitiveness. We have a job to do and we do it,” he said with a shrug. “My job is to ensure no one gets to Drake or any of my brothers.”
“How exactly do you ensure that?” she asked hesitantly. “Do you kill or hurt people?”
She knew how stupid she sounded. Like a complete bimbo smacking her gum, eyes wide, saying,Oh noes! You mean, you like, make people bleed?She wanted to smack herself and then hide her face for the rest of the day.
Silas’s features became impassive, and suddenly he wore an expression Hayley was unfamiliar with. It wasn’t a way he’d ever looked at her. She couldn’t read a single thing he was thinking or saying. Damn it! When she screwed up, she did a bang-up job.
“Only those who deserve it,” Silas finally muttered.
“Well, if they try to hurt or kill you, then yes, they do deserve it,” Hayley snapped.
A glimmer of a smile curved Silas’s lips and the mask slipped, allowing her to see her Silas again. He reached over to touch her hand and she curled her fingers around his tightly.
“So who was on the phone? Was it Maddox telling you the world is coming to an end and now you have to go play superhero for the day?” she teased, wanting to make him laugh again.
Instead of laughing, his lips formed a grim line and he stiffened.
“Yeah, about that. I’m afraid I have to change our plans, princess. Maddox will pick you up after school and bring you home. I have to spend the day with Evangeline. I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
It took every ounce of effort she possessed to keep her mouth from falling open and to keep hurt from flickering in her expression. She’d assumed that since she’d misunderstood so much already and Silas hadn’t been with Evangeline when he’d gone out of town that he obviously wasn’twithher. Especially now that Hayley was in his bed every night. She hadn’t even considered such a possibility since she’d discovered how wrong she’d been about the nature of his business trip. For that matter, this was the first time Hayley had heard Evangeline’s name even mentioned since Hayley’s last bout of jealousy and insecurity. Hell, she hadn’t even thought about the other woman. She’d forgotten Evangeline existed. And now Silas had to spend the day with this woman? Being with her was more important to Silas than any plans he and Hayley had made?
Her stomach churned even as she admonished herself for once again jumping to conclusions. She’d been wrong about Silas’s business trip.
But had she been wrong about everything else?
“Who is Evangeline?” she asked tightly. “I’ve heard you and the guys mention her, but no one has ever said who she is.”
