The Private Serials Box Set (29 page)

   “So this Caleb guy, turns out he was a huge asshole.  Piper will tell you he didn’t start out that way, but he eventually just went down the wrong path.  Regardless, he’s a douchebag.”  He shifted in his chair again, obviously upset by thinking about Piper’s ex.  I made a mental note to talk to her about him later.  “He got into online gambling and that led to him seeking out bookies and making real live bets with some pretty dangerous men.”  Preston’s hand came up to rub his chin, his new beard still there, making a grainy noise as his hand moved over it.  “Well, he did okay for a while, but he was a dumbass and eventually he started getting in over his head.  So much so, in fact, that he ended up betting all of Piper’s savings and losing it.”

   He shook his head.  “Piper should have known better, should have kicked him to the curb, but she let him stay on the condition he started a treatment program.  He told her he would get help, and it seemed like he was.  He went to meetings.  Had a sponsor.  Everything looked like it was improving.”

   I saw a muscle in his jaw start to twitch and the hand resting on the top of the table clenched into a hard fist.

   “One day a man shows up at her apartment and beats the crap out of her.”

   I gasped and my hand flew to my mouth.  “Oh, my God,” I whisper.  Piper was so small and sweet and lovable.  Who could lay a hand on her?

   “Yeah.  It was pretty bad.  My parents got the call in the middle of the night that she was in the ICU.  I flew out there with them to see her.  She was a mess, but after a day or two, she woke up and, amazingly, made a full recovery.  Well, nearly.  She’s still emotionally damaged, as one would be.”  He cleared his throat, bringing a fist to his mouth, and I wanted so badly to wrap my arms around him in that moment.  “But she’s so strong.”

   “Preston,” I whispered, not really knowing what to say.  I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to watch your twin sister fighting for her life in a hospital bed.

   “Anyway,” he continued, powering through.  “Once she woke up and told us what happened, I found Caleb and beat him within an inch of his life.”  The steel with which he spoke those words chilled me.  “Piper said someone came to their apartment looking for payment.  Said Caleb owed this guy twenty grand and he took part of the payment out on her.  So I found Caleb, kicked his ass until he could barely talk, got the name of the person he owed the money to, and then I kicked his ass until he was barely breathing.”  He paused again, this time tapping his fingers on the top of the table.  “I’m not one-hundred-percent sure he lived, but I’m assuming he did because I haven’t been able to find a death certificate for him.  And no one’s come to look for me yet.”

   I didn’t really know what I was expecting Preston to say to me, but this story definitely wasn’t on my short list.  I was a little taken aback by all the new information.  “You might have killed him?”  I asked, my voice small and quiet.

   He shrugged.  “It’s possible.  I wasn’t concerned at the moment with sparing him, but I didn’t intend to kill him.  I just wanted to do to him what his loan shark had done to my sister.”

   I nodded like I understood, but I didn’t.  I couldn’t relate to what he was saying at all.  I was shocked and surprised and caught off guard.  I’d seen Preston protective and forceful, but I’d never seen him violent.

   “Anyway, I found the loan shark and made an arrangement with him.  He’d forgive the debt, to which my sister was linked to through her sleazy boyfriend, and I would be in his pocket.  It was a good deal.  He had no idea who I was, or any real proof that I could be of any help to him, and could have told me to fuck off, but he took the bait.  I gave him all my information and was told he would be in contact when he needed my assistance.  It just so happened that he liked the idea of having his hands reach all the way to the West Coast.  Stroked his ego, so to say.”

   He took a deep breath in then let it out and I watched as some of the tension that had appeared when he was talking about Piper release. 

   “Funny thing about mobsters and people of that nature, they trade favors like picks in the NFL draft.  So eventually I was approached by Edgar.”

   My mind raced trying to place the name.  I’d heard it before.

  “He’s the guy who followed us in his car after the gala.  He cornered us in the alley,” he supplied when he noticed I was trying to put the pieces together.

   “Right,” I said, remembering the round guy who’d known who I was even though I had no idea about him.

   “Turns out, Derrek and Edgar were buddies.  Edgar owed Derrek, for what I’m not sure, but when you made that call to the private investigation firm, you set everything in motion.  Derrek wasn’t lying when he said he’d been waiting for you to make your move.  And,” he continued, “if it’s any consolation, I didn’t work for Derrek I worked for Edgar.”

   “It’s not,” I said quickly, even though I was still a little confused about the specifics.

   “Well, I got a call from Edgar and he told me I was to meet my mark, you, and my job was to get you into bed.”

   My stomach rolled at his admission and I knew he could see the unease in my eyes.  He reached across the table to take my hand, but I quickly slipped them below to my lap.  My defenses went up automatically.  “Well, congratulations.  Mission accomplished.”  My voice was shaky, emotions coming out that I was desperate to keep in.

   “Lena,” he said softly.  “I watched you walk into that bar and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why any man would want to give you up, would want to jeopardize you in any way.  Then I met you, got a taste of your sass, learned how incredibly smart you were, and I knew instantly I was fucked.”

   Just like the first time we’d met, his use of that word sent unwanted, yet delicious, jolts of electricity to the core of me.  I trembled and hoped he didn’t notice.

   “This is all very interesting, but I’ll remind you that you did, in the end, jeopardize me.  You fucked me.  In every sense of the word.  So, tell me, why are you here now?”

   “Because you’re mine.”

   “No, I’m not.”

   “Lena, you’re mine until I decide otherwise.  And right now, you need to hear the rest of what I came here to tell you.”

   I couldn’t think of a response and was still trying to recover from him voicing his possession of me, so I decided to stay quiet.

   “You have to understand the position I was in, Lena.  I wanted you.  More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life, I wanted you.  I wanted to save you, to be with you, to help you.  But I also wanted to give myself to you.  I wanted everything with you.  But, it wasn’t that simple.  I could have told Edgar to fuck off, could have just snatched you up, shown you everything you’ve been missing in your sorry excuse for a marriage with Derrek, and it was damn tempting to do it.  But if I didn’t play my cards right, Piper would be right back where she started.  I had to protect her, but I couldn’t just let you go.

   “It would have been so easy to just take the job and seduce you, but I knew I’d never be able to walk away.  So I had to figure out a way to keep you while still keeping Piper safe.  It just turns out that Derrek and Edgar were a little smarter than I gave them credit for.”

   “What do you mean?”

   “Those pictures you saw?  The ones of us together?”

   I swallowed hard.  “Yeah?”

   “Those were supposed to be taken at your house.  That was the deal.  I was supposed to sleep with you in your bed.  Derrek had cameras in there for weeks just waiting.  That’s why I insisted we leave.  I wasn’t going to give him the ammunition.”  He rubbed his hand over his bearded jaw again.  “So I made sure we never had sex in your house.  Do you remember?  You remember how I made sure we left?”

   “Yeah?”

   “You remember how, right before I slipped into you, I made you tell me you wanted it?”

   My heart simply stopped at his words.  I’d thought about him and I together that way a lot over the last couple of months, remembering the way we were together, how possessive and domineering he was, but also how tender and sweet he could be.  But even with all the nights I laid awake thinking about him, I hadn’t recalled that moment until now. 

   “I couldn’t tell you just then how important it was to me that our being together was your decision, but it was.  I needed that.  Needed you to know that, in the end, you wanted it just as bad as I did.  You
wanted
me.”

   “You said if I chose to be with you, it would be only you from then on.  You said you’d protect me and keep me safe.”

   “That’s all I’ve been focused on doing since you left.”

   I scoffed.

   “You handed pictures of us,
together
, right to him.  Pictures of you buried inside of me.  I was mid-orgasm in that picture.  And you just gave it to him.”  Tears threatened, my breath hitched, the heartbreak of his betrayal bubbling over inside of me.

   “I did nothing of the fucking sort,” he snapped, leaning over the table toward me, his hand slapping its surface loudly, jarring me.

   I wiped away the tear that had escaped.  “Your credibility is shot, Preston.  That photo came from your house.  How else did he get it?”

   “That night – the first night we were together – that’s the reason Edgar tailed me and cornered us in that alley.  Once I took you from your house, he knew I didn’t do it his way; that I wasn’t going to.  So, he sent someone to my house to plant that camera there.  Edgar was stalling me so Derrek could still get his proof.  I was never going to give him what he wanted.  I would never do that to you.  I never knew the photos or videos existed.  I’ve never seen any of them.”

   I was losing a battle I’d been fighting for weeks.  I wanted to believe him so badly.  I wanted to believe that he’d never meant to harm me, or cost me everything.  I wanted to believe everything he was saying.

   But he’d lied to me.

   And I wasn’t sure how big or small that was; how significant or insignificant.  Surely, if he was lying to me to help protect his sister, I could forgive him that, right?  But that would mean I’d have to believe him – have to believe the whole story – from beginning to end.  I’d have to believe he felt our connection as deeply as I had.  That he cared about me.  That he was hurting without me.  That he’d come after me.

   He must have sensed my wavering, must have picked up on the fact I was getting lost in the possibility of believing him, because he moved toward me.

   As if in slow motion, his chair slid across the floor and his thigh was pressed up against mine.  The warmth of his hand wrapped around the back of my neck, holding me firmly, pressing his fingers into me just enough to make me gasp.  My eyes slowly closed, as if using my vision would be sensory overload coupled with the feeling of his touch on my skin.  Then his nose moved over my cheek, nuzzling me, stopping when his lips were pressed against the shell of my ear.

   “I can’t be apart from you anymore, sweetheart,” he said so quietly, it was barely a whisper.  “I love you, Lena. You have to believe me when I say it was always you.”  His breath pushed up against the skin of my cheek, sending shivers throughout my body.  “Everything I did, I did for you.”

   “I want to believe you,” I said, bringing my hand up to cradle his face, eyes still closed, not caring that anyone in the coffee shop could be witness to our private moment.  “But if I let you in again, if I choose to believe you and I’m wrong, it’ll break me.  You’ll break me.”

   “Please let me take you somewhere.  I don’t want to have this conversation in a coffee shop.”  His thumb was brushing up and down the side of my neck and all I could do was nod.  He stood and held his hand out for me. Placing my hand inside his warm, strong one was like curling up with my favorite blanket.  It was familiar and reassuring.

   He led me outside to the motorcycle I’d seen him on days before.

   “That was you,” I murmured. 

   “Huh?”  he asked, reaching into a compartment and pulling out another helmet then handing it to me.

   “I saw you on this bike the other day. I saw your hair and your leather jacket and knew it was you, but convinced myself I was just wishing you here or something.”

   He gave me a sad smile and then pulled the helmet over his head.

   “I didn’t know you could drive a motorcycle,” I said, pulling on the helmet.

   “I looked into having my Lotus shipped over here, but it was too costly, especially since I wasn’t sure I’d even get you to agree to talk to me.”  He swung his leg over the bike and I nearly went cross-eyed.  He looked sexy behind the wheel of his Lotus, but he was sinful on the back of a bike.  “Climb on.”  His words could have stopped my heart, could have liquefied every part of my body, but instead, they sounded tense and worrisome.

   “You’re sure you know how to drive one of these?”

   “Lena, you can trust me.”

   Suddenly, I wasn’t just going on a motorcycle ride, now I was making a decision as to whether or not I trusted him.  I wanted badly to climb behind him and let him lead me wherever he was going, but hesitated for just one moment.  I ran all the facts I knew through my brain, tried to weigh what I knew against what I felt, and the scale tipped just slightly toward him.  In truth, the last pebble to fall on his side was Sam.  I knew Sam wouldn’t be here, encouraging our relationship, if he wasn’t trustworthy.

   I followed his example, having never been on a bike before, and swung my leg over the back.  I found that as soon as I lifted my feet from the ground, gravity slid my body down the seat until I was snuggly pressed up against Preston’s back. His hard legs and hips fit against the inside of my thighs.  I laid my hands tentatively on his waist, but he grabbed my hands and wrapped them around him.

   “Hold on tight.”

   My lungs snapped shut with his words, my mind instantly picturing Preston behind me as I was on all fours, open and waiting for him, right before that damned picture was taken of us.  I squeezed my arms around him, both trying to hold onto him safely, but also to push all the humiliating thoughts from my mind of Derrek seeing those photos.