The Men With the Golden Cuffs (30 page)

Maybe she was the drama queen.

“How is your wrist?” Adam asked solicitously. He had been deeply polite, avoiding eye contact and anything that might be controversial. He was the bodyguard, and she was the client. There was nothing more.

“I’m fine.” It hadn’t been nearly as bad as she’d made it out to be. She doubted she would bruise. It was nothing compared to the ache on her insides.

Adam and Jake she could almost handle. After all, she’d known deep down that they wouldn’t really stay. Men like them didn’t end up in permanent relationships with women like Serena. They found trophy wives when they were ready to settle down. In some ways, it just spared her the pain for later.

But Lara was another story.

Jake pulled her arm into both of his hands. Serena tried to pull away, but he had her by the elbow and the palm, turning her forearm over and inspecting her skin.

“Stop it.” She didn’t want him to touch her. It felt too nice, his callused hands on her skin. It reminded her of how it had felt to be in his arms.

“No.” He traced a finger over the light chafing on her wrist. “I think she’s fine. On the outside. We did a number to her on the inside.”

Adam simply watched the floors go by.

“He’s going to be the difficult one,” Jake said, his voice almost conspiratorial. What the hell was his game now? When she didn’t reply, he merely carried on the conversation as though she had. “I know. I’m surprised, too. I’m usually the obnoxious asshole. I don’t like this whole ‘being the moderator’ thing, but I guess compromise is key in this relationship.”

“There is no relationship, Jacob. The relationship died about a half an hour ago when you called me a whore.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t call you a whore, baby. I mentioned that you would make a good slut. A whore takes money. A slut just loves sex, and you really like sex.”

Asshole
. When had he decided to try to get back into her good graces, and why would he bother? Was he afraid his boss would get pissed off? She was pretty sure Ian Taggart was about to tell her she was on her own. Lara had lied to him, too.

Were Bridget and Chris in on it? She didn’t know if she could handle it if they were. She would really be all alone in the world.

“Can I have my arm back?” Serena asked.

His thumb made little circles over the pulse at her wrist, a tiny touch that threatened to send shivers right through her. It reminded her that she might not have loved sex before, but after Jake and Adam, she was an addict. And she would just have to go cold turkey because she wouldn’t fall for their line of bullshit again.

“Serena, don’t make this hard. You know you want to forgive us. We were wrong. We were complete assholes, but you saw that evidence. Come on, baby, let’s get through this meeting with Ian and then we’ll take you out to breakfast, which is exactly what we should have done in the first place. It’s what Adam wanted to do.”

“It doesn’t matter what Adam wanted. All that matters is what happened, and I won’t ever trust either one of you again. So give me my arm back, and let’s get this little farce out of the way so we can get on with our lives.” After today, she might never trust anyone again.

Jake brought her hand up, kissing her palm. “I’m not going away, Serena.”

“Great, so now I can have two stalkers. Oh, wait. One was a fake, so you can be my first.”

He let go of her hand, but his eyes heated up in that dark, Dom, sultry, get-her-panties-wet way he had.
Damn him
. “I was your first in other ways, too.”

He’d been her first real man-given orgasm, and it didn’t seem like he would let her forget it.

The doors opened, and Serena walked out. At least Adam seemed to have given up the game. He didn’t look her way or say anything that didn’t need to be said.

Grace looked up from her place at the front desk, a bright smile on her face which disappeared when no one returned it. “Oh crap. They fucked up, didn’t they? I knew something was wrong when Ian called us all in on a Saturday. He’s in the back with your agent. Is everyone all right?”

Serena liked Grace, but she didn’t need to plaster her problems across the walls for everyone to see. She gave Grace what she hoped was her best smile. “We’re fine. I think the case is wrapping up, and that’s a good thing.”

Jake wouldn’t let up. “We’re not fine. We did fuck up. We accused Serena of lying and using us, and we were complete assholes and now she’s not talking to us and it’s shut Adam down emotionally.”

Adam turned cold eyes on his partner. “Really? You want to go there?”

Jake shrugged. “We have to go somewhere, buddy. If you don’t like how I’m handling this scene, then feel free to come out of your shell and take over. Trust me. I will be deeply relieved. You’re supposed to handle the emotional shit.”

Grace’s eyes went from Adam to Jake and back again. “Do ya’ll need to see Eve first? She does group rate therapy, I think.”

Jake smiled at the thought. “Not a bad idea. Can she schedule us in for this morning?”

Serena rounded on Jake. He wasn’t giving her the option of keeping her humiliation private. “What the hell are you doing?”

He took her by the elbow and led her away from Grace. Adam stayed in his place, the only one who seemed to be behaving as he should. Jake kept his voice low. “I am trying to salvage what was a complete cluster fuck of a morning.”

“Why? You’re out, Jake. You don’t have to worry about me. You don’t have to protect me. Just leave it where it is, and we can both move on.”

His eyes were steady on her. “I have zero intentions of moving on without you.”

“That’s not what you said this morning. I believe you said you couldn’t stand the sight of me.”

He softened a little, his voice lowering. “And after all that evidence, I was already trying to justify in my mind why I should keep you. I was already trying to figure out how to fix it or how to punish you so I could be okay with staying with you.”

He was so frustrating. “Why?”

He started to say something and then his whole face closed off. “Because we’re good together.”

Not the answer she’d wanted. Not the answer she would accept. She’d hoped, just for a second, he would say the one thing that her stupid heart wouldn’t be able to handle. I love you. She would have thrown herself into his arms and forgiven him with those three little words, but she was just convenient. He was Dominant. She was submissive. She was interested in a ménage. She probably looked like a pretty good deal to Jake now that he was sure she wasn’t a lying, gold-digging whore.

“Let it alone, Jake. You want me to forgive you. Fine. I forgive you, but I can’t forget that the first time you had the slightest doubt about me, you were ready to toss me to the wolves. I asked for one thing, Jake. A little kindness when you were done.”

His face became as hard as granite. “I’m not done, Serena. And I’m sorry to shatter your illusions, but I’m not particularly kind, either. And you know what, you gave as good as you got, sister.”

“What are you talking about?” She’d held it together.

He pointed back at Adam. “What was that crack about Adam shoving something up my ass? Do you know what that did to him? I know he’s a big boy and he should be able to handle it, but god, Serena, you opened about a thousand wounds in that man that have never healed.”

She glanced over. Adam wasn’t talking to Grace. He stood there, his arms crossed as though he was just waiting for it all to be over. “I meant you two protect each other, and you were both pushing me out. I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I don’t care how you meant it, Serena. It’s how he took it. So can’t we all just acknowledge that we said some stupid shit and move on?”

And what would happen the next time she screwed up? The next time she upset Adam? That seemed to happen a lot. It was too much. She couldn’t handle the drama. “I don’t want this anymore. I think I’m saying my safeword.”

He shook his head, disappointment clear on his face. “We aren’t in the dungeon, so it doesn’t count. I’m not giving up on this, Serena.”

Ian walked in, his face stern and unforgiving. “Serena, will you please come on back to my office? We need to talk about something. Jake, Adam?”

The men nodded, and everyone started the walk to Ian’s office.

Ian opened the door, and the first thing she saw was Lara standing at the window. She turned, and Serena almost took a step back. Her always perfectly polished agent was red faced from crying. She’d obviously scrubbed her face clean at some point, and Lara Anderson without makeup looked younger and much more vulnerable than Serena had imagined she could look.

Looks were almost always deceiving.

“Serena, I am so sorry.” She started to take a step forward, but stopped when Jake moved slightly in front of Serena, his gesture clear. He would protect her. Oh, he would casually rip her heart out, stomp on it, and then decide, hey, he didn’t mean it after all, but he would protect her.

Serena noticed Brian leaning against the back wall of the office. His arms were crossed, and he was practically vibrating with discomfort. Still, he gave her a tight smile when he noticed her looking his way. “Serena, hello. I would like you to know that this wasn’t a publicity stunt the firm itself had anything to do with.”

“Shut up, Brian. Can we talk about this like friends? Do we have to start in with the legal crap?” Lara asked, her eyes narrowing.

Brian flushed. His hair was conservatively cut, and he was dressed in a full suit, looking every inch the successful literary agent. According to Bridget, he wasn’t particularly happy with his wife’s new romance clients, but he liked the money they were bringing in. And now he seemed to be worried about a lawsuit. “You’ll wish we’d brought our lawyer into this when Serena uses every fucking thing you say in this office to sue us for everything we have. She needs to know you did this, not the firm.”

“I think we’ve established that Mr. Anderson doesn’t like his wife’s business practices.” Ian took a long breath as he sat behind his desk. He looked right there, a king on his throne, deciding what to do about the peasants. “I take it Jake and Adam filled you in on what they discovered?”

Jake held out the nearest chair to Ian’s desk. He sent her a look that said he would make a big deal out of it if she didn’t sit down. Serena believed him. He seemed utterly willing to humiliate her at every turn. She sank into the chair and looked Ian Taggart squarely in the eyes. “Yes. I understand that this was all a publicity stunt cooked up by my agent. I know you probably won’t believe this, but I had nothing to do with it. I deeply apologize for wasting your time and resources. If you would just send me the bill for the last week, I’ll pay it.”

She stood to go. She didn’t need any explanations. Now it was all out in the open, and she would pay the piper and Adam and Jake could be out of her life. And she didn’t need an agent. She would go independent. That way she wouldn’t be forced to rely on anyone.

Ian’s hands came out, steepling in front of his chest as he considered her. He let a long moment of deeply uncomfortable silence pass. Finally, Serena couldn’t take another minute of it.

“So I should go now?”
Damn it
. That hadn’t sounded sure of herself. Ian was staring through her, and for the briefest of moments, she wanted to drop to her knees and find a submissive position and hope the big bad Dom was satisfied with it.

“No, Serena. You should not go now. You should sit back down until such time as this meeting is complete.”

She swallowed, but decided to make her stand. Independent meant she couldn’t afford to be submissive to anyone. She had to be her own woman, able to stand up to someone like Ian Taggart. “I believe my business is through here. Like I said, send me a bill.”

“Fine. The bill will be for half a million dollars.” Ian’s smile was a chillingly polite thing. “And some change. I’ll get you an itemized list. You can leave a check with Grace.”

“Fuck me,” Brian said under his breath. “She’s going to sue us for that, too. Goddamn it, Lara. I should never have let you bring in clients on your own.”

“Shut up, Brian. I didn’t ask you to be here,” Lara hissed back.

Serena stared at Ian for a moment and decided he was serious. She’d had top-notch bodyguards around the clock for a week, and another agent had been pouring over her case. Yes. It could be half a million dollars. She didn’t have it. Everything was in her house and her car and her business. If she drained her accounts, she might be able to come up with a little over two hundred thousand, but she also had to fight her ex in court. Her advances were small compared to the big New York authors. She made her money in volume. She would have to up her writing schedule. She would need to put out more books.

She would need a payment plan.

“Damn it, Ian. Let her off the hook,” Adam said, frowning at his boss.

“But she’s wriggling so nicely.” Ian’s expression didn’t change.

“Sit down, baby.” Jake nodded toward the chair again. “He’s not going to charge you. He’s being a prick.”

It seemed to be a condition that was going around today.

Ian eyed his employee. “I am merely trying to set parameters, Jacob. And you know how I deal with bratty, impolite subs.”