“Look, I know it’s none of my business but I...” I faltered, I didn’t know what to say. Did I really want to admit that I’d seen her in action the other night? No way!Did I want her to know that I knew my stepfather had criticized her “performance”? Hell, no!
Ultimately, the real reason I was drilling into their relationship was because I had feelings for her. Feelings that meant I wanted their relationship over, and her well away from him as soon as possible.
“You what?” she pressed.
Fuck it! “I care about you.” The words came tumbling out, a surprising sense of liberation coming with them. To hell with being vulnerable. It felt good to actually be honest with someone. Even if that someone was at the heart of it all. “I can’t explain it better than that. What happened yesterday, it’s a first for me ... there’s just something about you...”
I knew I was babbling, but the way she was watching me, her hypnotic green eyes so intent, her mouth pulling me in ... I couldfeel the stress of my confession and the jealous anger stirred by my memories all melting away with her seductive proximity.
“What about Daniel?” she said the words softly, her eyes fixated on my mouth, her gaze flashing with her own obvious arousal.
The realization that she was entertaining the same thoughts as me triggered alarm bells ringing in my mind, even as the throbbing became a persistent ache, a sure sign that I was wet and ready for her. But to give way to it here, in the stable, with workers sure to arrive soon, it would be madness.
Absolute madness.
The idea of madness felt really good...
“So, you going to tell me about Daniel?”
I tore my eyes from her mouth, her words warranting my attention as I realized she didn’t want to let the question go. That it was important to her. And in truth, it was important to me too. She needed to understand what had happened with him. It was just one of the things I had been determined to discuss with her at the earliest opportunity. If my brain would just stay on track...
“He was in the right place, at the right time, it didn’t ... doesn’t mean anything,” I said, my hand reaching out to catch up the same strand of hair that she had only seconds previous tucked away. I noticed how her head titled into my move, how her lids fluttered closed as I brushed it back and my heart swelled. “I just needed someone to take away the ache you had stirred up in me.”
“Are you saying I was the reason you slept with him?” she asked, her voice seductively warm and inviting. Each time her lips moved, I remembered how they felt beneath my own, how her delicate tongue could work me into a frenzy...
“Yes,” I said thickly. “I wanted you and couldn’t have you. It wasn’t about him.”
She looked puzzled. “If that’s the case, then why seek your stepfather out yesterday to encourage the relationship further?”
“I...” I stopped, what could I say? The truth was I’d been caught off guard while snooping in his study. How would she take that news? I still felt uneasy about having done it myself, but, Christ, if I hadn’t I would still be in the dark, completely none the wiser.
“Sorry, it’s none of my business either,” she hurried out, my hesitation making her visibly uncomfortable. “I just hate to see Edward using you like this.”
“That’s a bit rich coming from you.” I wanted to clamp my hand over my mouth — why did I have to sound so bitter? It wasn’t like any of it was her fault.
“Touché,” she said, her smile not enough to hide the fleeting look of sadness that befell her face.
I really was turning into a royal bitch.
“Emma, I’m sorry,” I said gently. “But you have to see it from my point of view, he is my stepfather, my connection to him wasn’t born out of choice, yet you have chosen to be with him, have allowed yourself to be used by him...”
“I know how bad it looks,” she sighed, “but I confess when we first got together I didn’t realize it would be this bad. Not entirely.”
“So now you know what he’s like, why stay?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Her eyes pleaded with me to drop it, but I couldn’t. “Try me.”
She nibbled at her lip once more, her eyes scanning my face as she clearly pondered how I would react.
“Please, Emma, I won’t judge you, I just want you to explain it to me, to make me understand.”
Her body stiffened and she looked away, her gaze following her hand as she caressed Storm’s flank. Eventually she spoke,“When I was little I could want for nothing ... my family was very well off, my mother was a multi-millionairess and my father wasn’t that dissimilar from your own, except his vice was gambling...”
I listened as she described an idyllic childhood. One where her family surrounded her in love and doted on her every wish. She sounded spoiled rotten — much like me if I was honest — and in spite of her father’s gambling habit, her childhood sounded perfect. But then I watched as her expression filled with sadness and the tale turned. Her father started to lose more money than he won, he started to drink and stay away from home.
“...By the time I was fifteen,” she continued, “my parents’ marriage was on the rocks and they were up to their neck in debt. They left one morning never to return, my father had been drinking heavily the night before and lost control of the car they were in, they went off a cliff...”
