PLAYED - A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE (74 page)

“I
have to go,” I said, turning to Mr. Princeton. “I’m sorry. I really am. And
thank you so much for everything. But I have to go.”

“Maddy—”
he began.

I
was already gone. How could I possibly stay here?

I
raced through the parking garage. I didn’t even bother to get into my car. I
kicked my heels off, tucked them under my arm, and made a beeline for the
crowded sidewalk where people were lining up to gawk at Preston Harvey and the
monumental decision he’d just made.

The
reporters were all over him. They were screaming his name along with their
questions, all of which was lost to the thrumming of my ears and the cacophony
of the crowd. I didn’t care about any of it. All I wanted was to get to him.

In
a sea of “Mr. Harvey, Mr. Harvey!”, I screamed, “Preston!”

He
turned and looked right at me. The news crews did too. I didn’t say a word, and
for an eternity, we just stared at each other like we were the only two people
in the world.

Then
Preston moved forward, shoving his way through the crowd still clamoring for a
piece of him. When he got to me, he tucked me under his arm and pulled me away
to the curb where Mr. Fletcher and a limousine were waiting.

“Miss
Hearst,” he said, grinning wide. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“You
too, Gordon,” I told him, ducking into the backseat as Preston opened the door
for me before taking his place at my side.

As
soon as Mr. Fletcher closed the door, silence reigned. I looked up at my
stepbrother and shook my head, the tears coming before I could stop them from
running down my face.

“Jesus,
Preston. Why?”

“I
have a lot to explain,” he said gently, “and a lot to make up for. I know that.
Just give me the chance and I’ll tell you everything, Maddy. I promise.”

I
nodded, and as Mr. Fletcher pulled away from the curb, I buckled my seatbelt
and reached for the champagne cooler I knew only too well was in the limo.

“Good
idea,” Preston said. “Let me get that for you.” And he poured us both a glass
of champagne as we sat facing each other for the first time in almost a month.

“I
take it you’ve figured out by now that everything I said to you that morning
was bullshit,” he began. When I nodded, he continued. “I wasn’t sure you’d be
able to forgive me… I had to get you out of there, Maddy, but I couldn’t tell
you why. They wouldn’t have let me, and even if I had, there’s no way in hell you
would have left. Either way, the kind of vengeance they would have brought down
upon your head would have been cataclysmic.”

“They?”
I asked him. “Please tell me this wasn’t all our parents.”

“No,”
he answered. “Well, not your mother, anyway.” Preston took a deep breath and
loosened his tie. “No, it was my father and Jane, if you can believe it. She’s
the reason he knew what happened between you and I. She’d been stalking us for
a while, and that night we first made love, she snapped some pictures through
the open balcony doors.”

“Jesus,”
I breathed, shaking my head. “I don’t believe it. She was obsessed.”

“Yes,”
Preston agreed. “But not for the reason you’re thinking. Hell, it wasn’t even
for the reason
I
was thinking. It
runs so much deeper than that.” He paused again and looked me over. “Christ,
you look good, Maddy. You look incredible.”

I
blushed. Preston looked good, too—great, in fact. Integrity had done him some
good. There was a sparkle in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. I could
tell he was happier with himself than he’d been in a long time, and that made
me happy too.

Knowing
that what he’d said was a lie changed everything. But I still needed to know
why he’d said it.

“Okay,”
I said, “tell me more. What the hell was Jane up to? What was she trying to
accomplish?”

Preston
sighed and leaned back, spreading his arms over the seat behind him. “Money,”
he said at last. “That particular goal goes back a ways. I acquired Jane as a
sort of hand-me-down from my father. She’d been his personal assistant, once
upon a time, and a little more than that too. Seems she’d been doing her
damnedest to become my new stepmother, but my father wouldn’t have it. In his
eyes, she was the kind of girl you fucked, but couldn’t turn into a housewife.
He ‘gifted’ her to me, hoping she’d settle for ‘the next best thing.’_” He
sipped his champagne and added bitterly, “As it were.”

I
made a face. I couldn’t help it. It was just too weird. “She was fucking your
father before she was fucking you?”

Preston
winced. “Don’t remind me. Anyway, I guess she altered her goals to marry me
instead of my father, but when it was clear that wasn’t working out, he hired
her back out of pity. She began her game of seduction all over again, this time
abandoning the whole marriage plot in favor of serving as his mistress. Maybe
she’d never inherit his fortune, but in the meantime, she could benefit from
countless secret vacations and gifts.”

“Wow.”
It made so much sense. A strange, twisted kind of sense, but sense nonetheless.
“How’d you figure it out?”

“Honestly?”
Preston grinned. “I guessed. I figured if my father was cheating, it’d be with
a younger woman. The one I caught him on the phone with at dinner sounded
awfully insecure. He was constantly reassuring her that things were better this
way, that she was still special to him despite his impending nuptials, yada,
yada, yada. Jane had also gone to great lengths to get those pictures, and with
the way my father was trying to push her back on me, I knew there had to be
something going on there. So I went out on a limb and got hold of my father’s
cell phone one day, and sure enough, there were plenty of late-night calls from
Jane.”

“I
can’t believe he let you get close enough to grab his cell phone,” I said. “I
would’ve thought for sure that your father would have been keeping an eye on
you.”

Preston
laughed. “I had to play the part of the baby bird with the broken wing for a
while, but my father’s a megalomaniac. At the end of the day, he was so sure he
had bested me that he couldn’t help but flaunt it. He was convinced I was
nothing to him, that I couldn’t possibly have anything up my sleeve. Honestly,
it wasn’t a hard act to pull off. I
was
devastated about you, Maddy. You have to believe me about that. I understand if
you can’t forgive me… I gave you a good recommendation at that law firm…”

There
was still so much hurt swirling inside of me, and yet I could tell that Preston
wasn’t lying. He had risked so much just to tell me the truth. Unlike the
things he’d said to me that morning in his bedroom, this was all real.

“I
do,” I whispered. “You tore me apart, Preston. But I believe you.”

He
nodded somberly. “I know. And I know that apologizing doesn’t cut it. But I am
sorry. Do you want to know the rest?”

“Yes,”
I said, gulping down the rest of my champagne before pouring another glass.
“Let’s hear it. I want to know exactly how you took them all down.”

Over
the next several miles, Preston explained everything to me just as he’d
promised. After he’d become certain that Jane and his father were involved,
he’d spent the next several days “confiding” in her. He’d done everything short
of getting intimate with her to convince her that he’d “seen the light,” and
that he wanted her back. He spoke at length to her about her relationship with
his father, all while wearing a recording device. And then, once he had what he
needed, he’d presented that tape to my mother.

Predictably,
she’d been furious—and, as Preston told it, a little heartbroken too. She’d
taken the whole thing straight to his father, which had ensured Jane a security
escort from Harvey Tower in front of all the friends she’d made, and more than
that, she’d never work in the city again as long as the Harveys were around.

In
an attempt to salvage things with my mother, Mr. Harvey had felt obliged to
take her on a one-week “pre-honeymoon” to work things out. Preston took that
opportunity to put in a few calls with state and Federal authorities concerning
his father’s illicit and unethical dealings with a senate candidate—after he’d
gone through his father’s files in his absence, of course.

Once
the authorities had what they needed, they’d come down hard on Mr. Harvey and
Mr. Verger while Preston had gained immunity—after all, his father
had
been blackmailing him, and thanks to
Jane, he had the pictures to prove it—and as a result, the board of directors
had no choice but to vote Mr. Harvey out of his position, as was in their best
interests. Since he’d been groomed for the position since childhood—and since
this stipulation was part of the corporate bylaws anyway—they’d unanimously
agreed to put Preston in his place, and the rest of it I’d seen play out on the
news conference on TV that afternoon.

It
was an incredibly well-orchestrated plan, and frankly, I was in awe of just how
perfectly it had gone. But I was also pissed, because it seemed pretty
unnecessary for him to have said what he did before.

“They
threatened to come after you, Maddy,” he finally explained. “They would have
ruined your life… Or worse. And they’d frozen all my assets until I forced you
to go, so our plan of running away together wouldn’t have worked. I needed you
to be so convinced I was a monster that you didn’t come back until everything
was settled.”

“And
is it now?” I asked him. “Settled, I mean.”

“As
much as it can be,” he said. “I have my money back, as well as unfettered
access to the company’s finances, too. In addition, I get to direct our future
endeavors—and that means the shelter on 39
^th
Street stays right
where it is.”

“You’re
incredible,” I said, laughing as I let it all sink in. “I can’t believe you did
all this.” But one thing gave me pause. “How’s Mom taking it?” I asked him.

“Not
well,” Preston answered. “I’m afraid I’m no longer going to be your
stepbrother. I know you’re broken-hearted over it, but we’ll just have to get
past it, somehow…”

I
punched him in the shoulder, and he cringed dramatically. “Shut up. You’re
serious, though? They’re not getting married?”

Preston
laughed. “My father is very possibly going to jail, and even if he’s not, he’s
been disgraced. She blames him for everything, while he blames her for being
out of the country while I turned him in to the authorities. Really, they’re
perfect for each other. I don’t see how it wouldn’t work out.”

I
shot him a look and he added, “Don’t worry. I’ve made sure she won’t have a
thing to her name. I gave her a nice little going away package. And then I told
her never to come back. I hope that wasn’t overstepping it.”

“It
wasn’t,” I assured him. “I cut off all contact a while ago, and I don’t regret
that decision one bit. I’m glad she’s out of my life. Speaking of which, why
didn’t you let me know any of this sooner? If you’d explained, I would have
stayed away until it was through.”

“I
tried,” Preston said, “but you wouldn’t take my calls. And you changed your
number, remember? Didn’t you listen to any of my voicemails? I just assumed
you’d given up on me. That press conference was a last ditch effort to get
through to you. I thought for sure you’d never want to see me again. But
despite everything…” He softly, tentatively laid his hand on mine. “I had
hope.”

Just
like the first time, an electric charge swept through me as Preston touched my
hand. I shivered in a way I hadn’t dreamed of since the last time we’d been
together. When I looked into his eyes, it was like all feeling returned to my
body. I was alive again, all because Preston had touched me again.

“I
missed you so much,” I whispered to him.

Preston
cupped my face in his hands. “I missed you too,” he told me. “You’re like the
oxygen I breathe, Maddy. I can’t live without you.”

He
kissed me hard on the mouth, pulling me into a tight, passionate embrace. The
city passed us by, but I wasn’t aware of any of it. All I knew was Preston’s
love and desire, and it was all I ever wanted to know.

It
had been too long since he’d held me like this, too long since I’d felt
anything but agony at his absence. “I want you,” I murmured into his mouth,
knowing that I didn’t have to say it, but needing to anyway.

“We’ll
be home soon,” he whispered back, tangling his fingers through my hair. “I need
you more than anything, Maddy, and in a few minutes, we’ll have each other
again.”

I
shook my head. “I can’t wait that long,” I told him. Then I pressed the button
that put the tinted, soundproof divider between us and Mr. Fletcher up, and I
lifted my blouse up over my head.