For The Wicked (Fantasy Heights) (17 page)

Josh seemed to feel a similar compulsion. She hadn’t been allowed farther than arm’s length away from him since he woke up, though she could still feel the distance. Proximity changed nothing. Tonight changed nothing. Josh was sticking to his guns, enforcing their new, uninvolved roles.

She sighed as silently as possible and watched Thomas text someone while the doctor swabbed the suture site one last time. A nurse took over to apply bandages.

The doctor looked to her and Josh. “He’ll have a couple new scars to add to his collection, but otherwise, nothing to worry about. Which one of you is driving home?”

She and Josh both gave each other a sidelong look. She spoke first. “I am.”

From Thomas came, “You are not. I’m driving, but I can’t leave until I’ve talked to Lily and Brandon. Where are they?”

Josh answered. “One floor up.”

Thomas borrowed a t-shirt from the doctor and headed upstairs to hear for himself what Josh and Amanda already knew: Brandon and Lily were fine. Like Josh, they had rebounded quickly from the cocktail. Now that they understood their marriage had been undermined by Tony, Yvette and a host of Janos drugs, they were mad as fire. Plans were already in the works to send them to the same facility as Steph to recoup from the drugs and repair their marriage.

Thomas came back to the lobby, finding her and Josh half asleep together, side by side in viciously uncomfortable chairs.

Instead of rushing them outside, the way Amanda expected, Thomas took advantage of the deserted lobby.

He sat down on the magazine table before them. “I’ve been talking to Max and Eric. They went back to that address Eric gave you, looking for Shelley. There’s no sign of her. The neighbor said they saw her toss a bunch of bags into her car and take off around midnight. No trace of her since.”

Amanda looked down at her hands. Somehow, she was not surprised. “Do you think she’s really going to work for Trebizond?”

“Yes, I really do. And now,” Thomas said to Amanda, “can you explain why you ignored every word, every lecture, I have ever given you about security to rush over to Shelley’s place?”

Josh defended her. “Ah, come on, man. You’re not mad because she took off without thinking, you’re mad because Amanda believed you had really sent those texts.”

“But I didn’t believe it,” she protested. “Not really, anyway. I was… upset about something else, and made a stupid decision. I’m sorry.”

“What upset you?” Thomas asked.

When Josh took over and told Thomas everything, Amanda almost burst into tears again. Not because she didn’t want to choke on heartbreak again, but because she knew what would happen. And she was right. Thomas did not take the news well.

He didn’t argue. He just looked mad, and at the same time, she could see something else: relief, which he was stomping down as hard as possible. She was doing the same thing. Part of her felt relieved of a heavy burden, and excited for what could happen between her and Thomas. The rest of her felt like a complete jerk.

“Could you two try not to look so damn guilty?” Josh asked. “As much as this sucks, I have to admit something. Now that I’ve ended it, I’m relieved. Nothing is worth losing the two most important people in my life.”

Josh left them, and though a tension remained between her and Thomas, he did not dwell on it. Instead, he took her hands and explained that a federal warrant had been issued for Shelley’s arrest. Agents would need to speak to her dad and stepmom. Darren, too.

Thomas said, “This will not be a fun couple of days. I’m sorry. Just let me work, and we’ll get through this.”

His words proved true. The next two days weren’t all terrible, but there were parts she would not relive on pain of death. Like explaining Fantasy Heights to her parents. Explaining how Shelley had taken up with some very bad people. And finally disclosing the part their darling Shelley had played in her abduction.

The pinnacle of awkward reunions came the next day at the Bureau field office when Thomas met with Darren, Shelley’s husband, and Amanda’s former fiancé.

Amanda didn’t think she would ever forget the look on Darren’s face while Thomas explained why there was a federal warrant for Shelley’s arrest. Resentment at the inconvenience mingled with distaste for all the scandal and the details of where Amanda had been since he’d dumped her, and how she had been spending her time.

She found herself watching Darren, surprised at her own flat response to seeing him again. Maybe she was just worn out after the last three days of constant emotional upheaval, but she couldn’t even muster the energy to feel anger over his self-righteous disapproval. All she really felt was lucky to have escaped.

Thomas, on the other hand, was not so disinterested. Behind their backs, where Darren couldn’t see, she held onto the back of Thomas’s suit coat. Every time Darren said something insulting, Thomas’s eyes would ignite like booster rockets.

He kept the savage well in check, however. “If Shelley tries to contact you, or if there’s any suspicious activity in your financial accounts, contact the Bureau immediately. And remember that Shelley herself might not be dangerous, but the situation she’s in, and the people she has chosen to associate with certainly could be. Do you understand?”

Darren let out a put-upon sigh. “Yes, of course, I understand. Have you people spoken to her parents?”

“Yes. We’ve met with them twice already. And you’re free to go now, Mr. Foley. Feel free to contact the Bureau with any questions or concerns.”

With one last withering look calculated to shame Amanda to the core, Darren fled the branch office. Once the door closed, Thomas lowered his head to the tabletop. “No offense, but he’s a dick.”

“I know. Sorry.” She let go of his jacket to apply her nails to his back, scratching between his shoulder blades. He instantly relaxed and accepted the small gesture of comfort. He was probably sick to death of her family.

She and Thomas left the field office to head toward home. During the drive, she fell into another brood.

Thomas asked, “What are you thinking about?”

She picked up his hand and pulled it into her lap. “Josh. And don’t get nervous. I know he did the right thing.”

“He did. When you think about it, could you have lived with Josh constantly feeling like the runner up?”

She shook her head. “I just don’t want him to be alone, you know?”

“I do know. And I love you for that.”

The pure emotion in those wicked black eyes brought an answering rush of everything good. Loyalty to Josh had forced Thomas to keep himself at a distance. That night at the fire, he’d broken past that obligation, and almost from the first moment, she discovered the sheer power of devotion. Thomas had a seemingly endless supply, and to be the one woman he chose to grant it was so amazing and humbling the thought could almost bring her to her knees.

To know a more restrained version of Thomas’s devotion had been shrugged off by Neil Sarzo made the betrayal all the more brutal. That one had hurt. Thomas wouldn’t talk about it yet. He preferred to shove Neil into a de-personalized ‘suspect’ mold and leave him there for now.

Wherever Neil Sarzo and Nicole had disappeared to, Amanda hoped they were afraid. God help those two once they crossed paths again.

Jerod Hughes, at least, might be salvageable. He remained in the hospital, weak but recovering.

As much as she wished Jerod were above suspicion, the truth was much more complicated. If nothing else, Amanda admired his honesty. Jerod could have denied everything and claimed he had only fallen in with DriveRate to spy on the enemy. Instead, he owned up to his ambition. When he made his bargain for the security chief job, he had known the price tag attached would be huge. It obligated him to ignore certain things, like the cause of Steph’s erratic behavior, and Nicole’s disappearance. He had helped to falsify drug tests, but the moment Derek and Ridley were found, he knew he had made a grave mistake. By then, jealousy of Thomas made it harder and harder to redeem himself in any way that could satisfy the size of his debt.

His father wasn’t taking it well. Not yet, anyway, but the green light to finally rip DriveRate into shreds was some small consolation. Thomas doubted the investigation would ever scrape against Neil and the Janos crowd, let alone Trebizond or the mysterious Eighth Empire. So far, those prime targets remained successfully concealed in shadow.

Amanda’s phone buzzed in her lap, and she felt Thomas tense beside her. A quick glance at her screen prompted her to read the text right away. Fiona Cornell, again. She and her employer were hot to place Amanda at one of many projects on their plates. Amanda was most interested in the company in need of a villain, but now that she’d opened the door on offers, Fiona and Jennifer kept trying to top themselves.

“What is it this time?” Thomas asked.

“Does it matter? This isn’t even about me or what I’m good at, anymore. They just can’t stand anyone playing hard to get.”

“I’m gonna keep my mouth shut on that one.”

“You’re so smart. That’s what I like about you.”

He picked up her hand, turned it over and nipped the inside of her wrist.

He took her to the cottage for the first time since the ordeal. Thomas must have been there at some point. Atop the coffee table waited a thick manila envelope along with a big dusty box.

“Eww. What on earth is that?” she asked.

“Project.” He picked up the envelope and opened the flap to slide out a stack of photos. The top one she recognized instantly as her publicity still from Fantasy Heights. He flipped to the next photo, a shot of her and Josh in wardrobe. Amanda’s hair was in rollers, her mouth open while one of the makeup assistants drew on heavy dark eyeliner.

She gave Thomas a dubious face. “You’re not seriously intending to do anything with these, are you?”

“Yeah. That’s our project. Frame all this stuff, the important stuff, and put it up on the walls, the way you said. The box is full of photos, too.”

She looked at the box, and then at him. “You’re gonna need bigger walls, I think.”

“We’re.
We’re
gonna need bigger walls.” He led her toward the guest room. “And you’re absolutely right. This room is way too small for what I have in mind. Not enough natural light, either.”

She looked inside to find the old furniture had been removed. To one side waited the sawhorse. Thomas had added restraint moorings to the walls and ceilings. Their throne took up half the room.

Lying across the seat was a spreader bar.

“We’ll start house hunting tomorrow,” she decided.

He made a growling sound in his throat and backed her into the room.

She stayed just out of his reach long enough to peel her sundress over her head. As it hit the floor, she caught the sudden shift in his body language, the sudden authoritarian hardening to his eyes.

Oh, she loved this man. It was to be the sub role for her today, looked like.

She immediately succumbed to him, standing still and lowering her gaze to his feet.

And then the game was on.

“Undress me,” he ordered.

Amanda crouched to undo the laces on his boots. Once he had stepped out of them, she stood and pulled his suit coat off. Button by button she worked at his shirt, careful to keep her lashes lowered, to shift her weight from foot to foot, brushing his legs with her knees every time.

As she dragged his shirt off, she made sure to ‘accidentally’ drag her thumbnails across his skin in an arch from his navel, up over his nipples and finally onto his shoulders. The catch in his breath as she did so sent a delightful warning through her system. She would pay for that one. And it would be wonderful.

Before unfastening his belt, she brought her breasts, still trapped in a lace bra, up against his chest. He took a deep breath to press against her. This time, the message her body picked up was more subtle but twice as fiery.

She rushed through the belt, stripped off his jeans and boxers, leaving him nude. Kneeling before him, she took hold of his shaft, held him firmly, kissing the tip of his cock and wetting him with her tongue.

He breathed out a promising sound of pleasure that inspired her to move one hand to his balls, cupping him. She hummed when one of his hands settled onto her head, and then moved lower to take a handful near her nape. The possessive, commanding gesture made her pussy heat and swell in anticipation of all the ways he rewarded submission. When he pulled her hair, she opened her mouth. He pressed in, and she hummed again at the simple pleasure of sensitized lips closing around his warm, hard cock. He pushed her head forward to bring himself deeper and she felt another swell in her pussy as his head reached the back of her throat. He made no secret that he liked how this felt, and knowing she made him feel good had its own combustible effect. She held still and let him direct the rhythm, sometimes moving her, sometimes holding her in place while he thrust into her mouth.

All too soon he wanted to move on. He made her stand to strip off the bra. In its place, he added a leather collar with clamps attached, and he took his sweet time pulling her nipples, stretching them to attach the clamps. Her knees were liquid by the time he finished. She ached for him to fuck her, but knew she would get no relief until he’d played out whatever he had in mind.

“Don’t move.”

She obeyed while he went into a drawer for a pair of wrist restraints, the fleece-lined kind she liked. After securing her, he raised her arms to capture the restraint chain over a new hook dangling from the ceiling.

Trapped, she watched while he returned to the drawer for a long glass wand. It had three plug stages, each bigger than the last. At the sight, her buttocks began to tingle as blood rushed to her bottom, eager to feel that wand inside. Fire chased the blood flow, rolling through her in anticipation right along with trepidation.

Thomas must have caught the conflict in her eyes. “I found out last night that I have a lot to learn about how hard you can come, and why.”

Oh, God. Her bones began to melt. Last night, they had stayed in a hotel closer to the field office. He had been so exquisitely tender and thorough she would never forget it.