Seducing the Chambermaid [Notorious Nephilim 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (6 page)

Once she was safely in her own room, she let the tears flow. She didn’t even understand why she was crying. An intense longing filled her, and she couldn’t tell if it was the need for Andras and Leo’s bodies again, or something deeper, something more intimate.

What the hell had she done? She was soiled. What man would want her for a wife now? She’d given her body to two men like a two-dollar whore. Not that she’d ever been able to picture herself married with babies, but what else could a girl from her neighborhood hope for in life?

Blair took a sip of her Coca-Cola and tried to push those thoughts aside. Andras and Leo had been kind to her. They’d been careful not to hurt her, and their kisses had been tender and romantic. They’d both told her she was beautiful. It wasn’t just sex. It couldn’t be.

“Who the hell are you fooling, Blair?” she whispered, staring out the window. That’s why this place existed. The guests came, and the owners delivered the goods, so to speak. Why would they treat their staff any differently?

The sun was setting over the woods, bathing everything in soft gold and purple light. The sight made Blair homesick for her mother. When she had still been alive, the three of them would go to the lake and watch the sun set over the woods across the shore. That was before her father had started working for Frankie.

Her mom had been gone fifteen years now, and Blair could still smell her perfume and hear her laughter. If she’d still been alive, none of this would have happened. Her father wouldn’t have become mixed up with Frankie, and Blair wouldn’t have had to run away.

And you’d never have met Leo or Andras.

What would happen to her now? Sure, she was safe from her father and Frankie, but was this her life? Was she destined to be merely a plaything for two handsome men who held her fate in their hands?

She should have given the goons the satchel and explained it had been a mistake. Sure, and then they would have all cooked a nice lunch and had a good laugh about it. Right before they filled her full of lead.

Blair finished her soft drink, brushed her teeth, and crawled into bed. She listened to the night sounds of insects and tried to fall asleep while Leo’s hair and Andras’s eyes danced behind her closed eyelids.

Too early the next morning for any decent conversation, the door to Leo’s office burst open, and Gregory Fallon strolled in, his characteristic sneer firmly in place. He perched on the edge of the desk and trained his green eyes on Leo. “What’s the scoop on Blair Lorring?”

Leo blinked a few times, trying to wipe the emotion from his face. “The chambermaid we hired a few weeks ago? What about her?”

“Elizabeth Stanton just came to see me. Damn near caught me in a compromising position with a guest, too. That dame needs to learn how to knock.” Gregory chuckled. “Either that or I should learn to lock my door, eh?”

Leo glared at Gregory. He wasn’t in the mood this morning for Gregory’s over-inflated ego. Of the twelve of them, Gregory was the one who did absolutely nothing toward running the resort. His job, as he put it, was to keep the guests happy in bed. “Get to the point, Greg. I’m busy.”

Gregory grimaced. Leo knew he hated being called Greg. “Fine. Mrs. Stanton said she’d reported her emerald and sapphire necklace stolen yesterday, and this morning it showed up back in her suite with no explanations, no apologies, nothing.”

“So? What does Blair have to do with that?” Leo hadn’t meant to sound so defensive. He forced himself to hold Gregory’s curious gaze.

“So, she asked me who the housekeeper was assigned to her suite this week, and I had no idea. So when mine came in, I asked her, and she told me she was pretty sure Blair has that floor all week.”

“Mrs. Stanton was in here yesterday morning to report the theft to me.”

“Did Blair take the necklace?”

“Obviously not, since it’s in Mrs. Stanton’s room.”

Gregory narrowed his eyes. “Since when do we keep staff who steal from our guests?”

Leo stood up. “We have no proof a theft occurred. Why don’t you take it up with Mrs. Stanton? And since Andras and Zach are in charge of our staff, why don’t you let them do their jobs, eh?”

Gregory slid off the desk and faced Leo. His sneer turned into a knowing grin. “Mrs. Stanton won’t just let this go, Leo. She’s used to people doing her bidding.”

“Then perhaps you should run along and do her bidding, Gregory. Keep her happy, and keep her out of the business of running this resort, okay?”

Gregory chuckled as he left the room. “Never thought I’d see the day you had to stoop to banging the help, Leo.”

Leo’s hand curled around the marble paperweight, but all he did was give it a hard squeeze. Unfortunately, even if he had hurled it at Gregory’s head, it wouldn’t have done any real harm.

He picked up the newspaper articles accusing Blair of stealing and read them again. They were in over their heads here. Frankie Fillipone was bad news, and even though he knew Zach had been right when he said they couldn’t ask Lilith for help, Leo knew they might have to before all this was over.

Leo had sneaked into Mrs. Stanton’s suite in the middle of the night, using every ounce of power he still had, and placed the necklace on her dresser where Blair had told them she first saw it. Mrs. Stanton never stirred in her sleep. What else could he have done? Tell the woman he just happened to find the missing necklace in his office? No, there had been no other way to resolve this.

He slammed his fist on the desk. Why the hell had he let his dick get the better of him yesterday? Gregory wasn’t entirely an idiot. He suspected something was going on, and he might not let it go, especially if Mrs. Elizabeth Stanton pushed the matter. He hoped Gregory hadn’t given Mrs. Stanton Blair’s name and wished he’d thought to ask him before he left.

* * * *

Blair plodded through her duties the next morning fighting a battle in her mind. Every time she let down her guard, her dreams from the night before invaded her senses with lust-filled images. How was she supposed to function like this? She couldn’t get Leo or Andras out of her mind while awake or asleep.

The dreams had been so vivid Blair had woken at one point bathed in sweat, convinced she smelled sage and peppermint in her room. She’d even jumped out of bed and checked the door to make sure it was locked. Was this what it felt like to lose one’s mind?

Another nagging thought had begun to take shape this morning as well. What if she got knocked up? Neither one of them had used a condom. Surely they used them with the guests? Blair was so lost in her daydreams she dropped things all day, including a vase of flowers in one of the suites. It set her back half an hour as she cleaned up the pieces of pottery and water.

She hurried into the staff dining room at half past noon and grabbed a sandwich and a bottle of Coca-Cola, taking the empty seat next to Cindy.

“What kept you so long?” asked the fiery redhead. “We have to be back to work in fifteen minutes.”

Blair swallowed the food in her mouth. “Just clumsy today. Dropped some flowers and had to clean it up.”

Cindy leaned close to the group of women at the table. “Did you hear Mrs. Stanton has extended her stay
again
?”

Blair’s fingers trembled at the mention of Mrs. Stanton. “Isn’t this the third time?” She tried to fix Deanna with a neutral gaze.

Deanna nodded, a gleam in her green eyes. “Wonder what her husband thinks of that?”

“Isn’t he out of the country?” asked Sally.

Knowing laughter and tongue clucking greeted her question. Mrs. Stanton was rumored to be carrying on with Gregory Fallon, one of the owners. Her husband was a rich railroad owner. Blair’s thoughts drifted away from Mrs. Stanton and back to the scene she’d witnessed in a suite yesterday, before she finished her duties for the day and went back to her room. Her mind played over Emmett kissing one of the guests, then telling Blair she’d have to join them if she was going to stay.

Heat rushed up her neck and face, and she glanced at the other staff, hoping they were too engrossed in their gossip to notice. She stuffed the rest of her sandwich into her mouth and washed it down with the soft drink. What were Leo and Andras doing right now? Were they seducing one of the guests?

The image of them making love to a woman the way they’d had her on the sofa yesterday filled her head, and Blair nearly retched. The jealousy coursing through her was unexpected, dark, and frightening. She was only a chambermaid with no claim on either man. They were her employers, and they believed they’d caught her stealing from a guest. She was on tenuous ground, at best.

Yesterday had been a game they played—nothing more. She’d best get any thoughts of it being something more right out of her pretty, blonde head, as her father used to say when she would occasionally try to tell him her dreams and ambitions. “
People like us aren’t destined for greatness, Blair. We have to work for a living. Put that thought right out of your pretty, blonde head.”

Blair hated to admit it, but in this case her father was right. She worked for Leo, Andras, and the others. It was time to put yesterday’s erotic adventure out of her mind and do her job before she ended up back in Chicago on the run again.

* * * *

Leo drummed his fingers on the desk and tried to concentrate on the menus in front of him. The trouble was that he just didn’t give a shit what kinds of finger snacks they should serve in the speakeasy next month, or if they should now consider calling it a nightclub as opposed to a speakeasy.

Now that Prohibition had been repealed, it was no longer illegal to serve booze. Frankie and his men were losing money on clubs like theirs in Chicago, and that was one of the reasons he’d tried to muscle in on their business a couple of years ago. They had a gold mine here, and Frankie wasn’t stupid. He’d realized that the first time he visited.

Leo and Sterling Neville were supposed to be handling all the details of the speakeasy, but Sterling had taken off two months ago to wander in the woods and do some soul-searching, as he called it, so Leo was running this part of the resort on his own for now.

Soul-searching. What a joke. They had no souls. Banished to Earth by the archangels for their sins, the twelve had started this resort as a lark fifteen years ago, with help from a demon named Lilith. Between the terms of their punishment and Lilith’s spell, cast out of anger, they were stuck living lives during which they never aged, never grew sick or tired, and could do whatever they pleased.

Andras’s remark to him yesterday about being able to call down demons was true. They could if they wanted to, but at what price? They might find out if Frankie figured out where Blair was hiding. So far, they’d been able to stay on the right side of the law, but that could change if a goon tried to worm his way in.

Leo pushed away from the desk and shook his head as his gaze fell on the sofa against the wall. If he didn’t stop thinking about Blair, he’d get nothing done. The memory of her lips wrapped around his rock-hard cock filled his head, and he moaned. Where in the hell had she learned how to give such a perfect blow job? There had been no doubt about her virginity, but surely she’d had intimate experiences with a man before? No woman fucked like that her first time. He should know. He’d deflowered plenty of virgins.

The sight of her red, round ass wiggling in the air as he draped her over his leg filled his mind, and Leo rubbed the front of his trousers. The ability to maintain a perpetual hard-on wasn’t necessarily an advantage. He had work to do. She certainly hadn’t minded the spanking after a while, no more than she’d minded them fucking her.

“Be fair,” he muttered. They had used their powers on her. The dear girl hadn’t had a chance. She’d most likely never done anything close to that in her entire life. She’d been so flustered and embarrassed when it was over she’d practically run out of here.

But her fear had been real. The memory of the look in her eyes when she thought they worked for Frankie deflated Leo’s cock. Blair was on the run, and she was terrified. He and Andras had inadvertently taken advantage of that. Well, maybe not inadvertently. But it wasn’t as if they’d planned it. It just…happened. Blair was there, smelling fresh and alive, and she’d bared her soul to them. How were they supposed to resist that beautiful face and those big blue eyes?

“Fuck.” Leo rose and began to pace the room. He didn’t want to let a woman under his skin, guest, or staff. It was nothing but trouble to allow them in too far. For one thing, he’d have to tell her their secret. And who the fuck would believe it, even if he did? It was too much of a risk.

Some of the staff had been with them since the beginning, and he knew they’d noticed that none of the owners had appeared to age. He and the others had already discussed the possibility they would have to tell the staff what was going on and what that might mean in the long run. But what other choice did they have? Fire them all every ten years or so and start over? That was bound to attract unwanted attention as well.

What if they just told Blair and no one else? At least, not for now?

Leo stood in front of the window, watching a flock of ducks wing their way across the lake. If they told her, she might understand. Underneath that frightened childlike exterior lurked an intelligent woman. Her speech was refined, and her eyes were full of deep emotion. A different woman than the daughter of a small-time bookie was hidden underneath Blair’s chambermaid uniform. The life Leo suspected she’d been trying to flee when she pawned the jewelry wasn’t the life she’d been born to lead.

He believed her story. He wasn’t sure if Andras did, but he did. Blair deserved something better in life than what her father had given her. Where was her mother? He’d wanted to protect and shelter her the moment he laid eyes on her, and he felt no differently now.

Leo’s musings were cut short as the door opened, and Andras stood there, a thoughtful look on his face.

“Stop reading my thoughts,” said Leo.