RICHARD (A BAD BOY ROMANCE) (46 page)

Preston’s housekeeper had retired to her
one-bedroom suite on the grounds for the evening, so it was just the two of us
in his grand estate. Though he had done his best to calm me in the car, my
knees were still shaking and I could feel panic squeezing my chest. He
suggested I use his master bathroom to relax, and I couldn’t say no to that.

I leaned back in his whirlpool tub, sighing
softly as I piled my hair on the side. The water was nearly scalding hot, perfect
for releasing all the aches and pains that had built in my strained muscles. I
could feel myself slipping away already, the frustration and confusion receding
as I lay my head on the built-in neck support, letting myself float weightless
in the bath. A moment later I heard Preston enter and I opened my eyes to see
him extending a glass of champagne.

“Here,” he said. “You look like
you need it.”

I nodded and sighed as I took it from him,
bringing it to my lips. This was the good stuff, not the fifteen-dollar bottles
I’d picked up from the grocery store once or twice back when I’d been in charge
of
ExecuSpace’s
company parties. Those days seemed so
far away now. I’d been shrouded in opulence for so long that I could barely
remember what it was like to struggle. Had I become my mother?

I didn’t realize I’d said that
last part out loud.

Preston’s eyes darkened as he looked down at
me. “No,
Maddy
,” he said, sitting on the edge of the
tub. “You’re nothing like Vivian. Don’t you ever think that. Okay?”

I smiled at him thinly and took another sip
of my champagne. I wasn’t in the mood to argue. “What do we do now?”

He rolled up his sleeves and sighed, kicking
his shoes across the bathroom floor. Then he reached into the water and pulled
my wet feet into his lap, soaking his slacks as he massaged along my arches
with exquisite care. I moaned and sank into the water, purring like a kitten as
my Preston worked my soles.

“I’m not giving into my father’s demands,” he
said, gently stretching and rubbing each of my toes. I nearly swooned. “We’ll
find a way out of this. It may have to be extreme, but if you’re willing to go
for it, then so am I.”

I opened my eyes. “What exactly are you
proposing?” I asked him.

“I’m not sure yet. But it may involve
withdrawing everything from my account and starting all over someplace new.
Would you be willing to do that with me, if it came down to it?”

I sat up a little, studying his face. “Are
things that serious between us?”

Preston shrugged. “They could be. I don’t
know. But that’s a last resort. In the meantime, I can simply say I’m not
interested in being a larger part of Harvey Enterprises until his plans for the
future include you, too. Maybe there’s still time for me to change things from
the inside—hold his feet to the fire over this. I am his only heir, and the
only one who knows enough about the family business to take it over once he’s
out of the picture. Without me, the board would cut this company to shreds and
dine on its carcass.”

“Do you think that’s enough leverage?” I
asked him. “And what about my mom?”

“That’s up to you,” he told me, gliding his
fingers up my ankles and calves. “What do you want to do about that?”

I pursed my lips in thought. On one hand,
Preston’s father manipulating my mother for his own gains didn’t sit well with
me. She was a terrible person, sure enough, but did she deserve to be used and
lied to like that?

On the other hand, didn’t she sort of have
this coming? I couldn’t say that out loud, of course, but my mother had been
more awful than ever since she and Mr. Harvey had hooked up. It might serve as
some kind of sick vindication to tell her the truth: that she was no more
special to him than any other woman who would silently put up with his shit.

“I’m not sure,” I said at last. “If it were
me, I know I’d want to know. But my mother isn’t me. In fact, she isn’t most
people. I’m not sure she’s even human.” I sucked in a sharp breath as Preston
fondled the very sensitive backs of my knees. “I can’t say with any certainty
that she wouldn’t blame me for this, somehow, or that she might turn a blind
eye and accuse me of lying to ruin her happily ever after. She might just write
me off as jealous and tell your father to make your life hell until you got rid
of me, or something.”

Preston smiled. “That’s not going to happen,”
he told me as he slowly crawled into the tub.

“Preston!” I shrieked, watching his clothes
stick to his body. His white button-down clung to his hard, muscular chest,
revealing the tone of his skin beneath, and I laughed as he prowled toward me.
“You’re getting soaked!”

“So are you,” he breathed against one of my
nipples cresting the surface of the water. Then he bent his head down and took
it between his teeth, gently laving it with his tongue as he nibbled and sucked
and made me sigh.

“Oh, hell,” I muttered. “We’re getting
ourselves into so much trouble…”

Preston didn’t seem to care about that. He
only grasped my opposite breast with his hand, crushing it between his fingers
as he drew his body up against mine and parted my legs with his hips.

“It’s worth it,” he assured me, inspiring
chills up and down my spine. I slipped my arms around him, running my dripping
fingers through his hair as he pressed his growing erection against my slit
under the water. “Bend over the side,
Maddy
, while I
turn on these jets.”

I blushed but did as I was told. After the
day we’d had, I needed Preston inside of me. With just a gentle touch, he’d
brought me to this place again, a place where no one and nothing mattered more
than the man of my dreams claiming me. It didn’t matter that some silly piece
of paper might complicate our lives. Stepbrother or not, I was going to do
this.

He helped me up onto my knees and turned me
around, my back against his chest as I gripped the high edge of the tub. I
pressed my stomach against it, my heaving breasts hanging over the side as
Preston spread me with his knee, my pussy positioned right against the place
the jet would bubble up from.

I stuck out my ass and rubbed it against his
swelling crotch, moaning as he continued to tantalize my nipples with his
fingertips. Then he drew one hand away, reached over, and turned on the control
for the jets, and I threw my head back in utter bliss as the one I was
straddling pounded perfectly against my clit.

“Oh, God,” I moaned, squirming as
it pummeled me.

The silken fabric of Preston’s slacks fell
away as he pulled his cock free of them, pressing it against me from behind. He
parted my folds, sliding his tip against my slippery opening while I writhed
and shuddered on the jet teasing me into utter oblivion.

“You’re so perfect,” he whispered, nuzzling
my hair before digging in deep. I cried out as he filled me, his thick shaft
stretching my pussy wide as he grabbed onto my tits with both hands and pushed
all the way up to his hilt. “I need you,
Maddy
. No
matter what happens, say you’ll stay with me.”

I scrabbled for purchase on the slick edge of
the tub as my stepbrother began to thrust in and out of me. Every movement of
his hips splashed water onto the tile floor. I could feel waves of it surging
up over my back, wetting my hair and crashing over me like Preston was the
ocean itself, and I was being swept away by the tide.

I had never felt like this with any man
before. And I knew, deep down in my heart, that I never would.

I let myself believe that this could work. I
released the fear inside of me and took Preston in deep, finally giving him
unfettered access into my soul, my precious core.

“Yes,” I hissed, throwing my head back
against his shoulder as he grunted into my ear. “I’ll stay, Preston. I’ll
always stay. I promise.”

“Nothing will tear us apart,” he groaned,
laying feverish kisses upon my neck as he took me. Before I knew it my orgasm
was upon me and I screamed, bucking against him, the water now flowing freely
out of the tub as we both undulated in ecstasy. “I swear it,
Maddy
. I’ll take care of you, always.”

And then my stepbrother was spilling inside
of me, filling me to the brim with his seed. I shuddered beneath him, feeling
as though we’d made a pact, a bond that couldn’t be broken by anyone, not even
our families.

Everything would work out. I was sure of it.
We’d run away together, if we had to. Preston had promised me as much.

I turned and kissed his lips, no longer
thinking of him as the man who would become my stepbrother, but rather the man
who would make my deepest, wildest dreams come true.

Later, I would hate myself for being so damn
blind.

Despite
all the money I had, all the
privilege extended to me by mere virtue of my birthright, it was only now that
for the first time in my life, I felt truly powerful.

I had long viewed my status as a billionaire
as more of a curse than a blessing. Maybe in some other family it would have
been different, but in the Harvey family, I lived in a gilded cage. People
always thought that because of my money, I could do anything I wanted. They
were sorely mistaken. I could only do what my father would allow. Hell, my
mother had died alone as proof of that fact.

For years, I had cowered in his shadow. But
now I was defiant. Now I felt like a man. And it was all thanks to Madison
Hearst, my soon-to-be stepsister and the love of my life.

I gave her the next day off and invited my
father to meet me at my office, where I would break the news to him that I wasn’t
his good little soldier boy anymore. It had taken most my life for me to see
him for what he really was, but now that I had, there was no turning back. This
was
do
or die. Either my father would back off and let
me run the company as I saw fit, or he’d threaten to ruin me and stalk out
under the impression that I still gave a fuck. If the former happened,
Maddy
and I would have to keep our relationship secret, but
that wasn’t impossible to do. If my father chose the latter, I’d take
everything out of my bank account, dump my vested shares, and she and I would
run away together. It really was that simple.

There wasn’t much for us here, anyway.
Billions of dollars could give us a fresh start somewhere new. Hell, maybe we
could go into business together, a joint venture where she kept me honest and I
kept her realistic. Part of me was secretly hoping that was the way things
would turn out. There was nothing I wanted more than to throw my father’s
misery right back in his face just before I vanished into thin air.

I made myself a cup of coffee while I waited,
imagining my gorgeous, half-naked stepsister lounging on my bed and getting a
well-deserved break from all this insanity. Whatever happened next, I was
rushing right back home to her. I couldn’t stand to be away from her for more
than a few hours at a time. Waiting here without her was torture.

Thankfully, I heard the front doors open and
close not long after.
Oh, thank God.
He was finally here.

I made a point not to bring him a mug of
coffee as I strode out, smiling as I envisioned the pure rage on his face once
he heard my decision. But that smile soon turned to a slack jaw and a frown as
I saw who was standing in my foyer instead.

“Jane? What the hell?”

She grinned, tossing her long, auburn hair as
she sauntered toward me in her leopard-print kitten heels. “Don’t you ever get
tired of greeting me like that?” she asked me, clutching a manila folder in her
hand. “A girl could get the idea that you’re not very fond of her.”

“I’m
not,
”
I growled. I didn’t want to leave any room for her to get the impression that I
was somehow pleased she was here. “I was expecting my father. Why are you
here?”

“Because the senior Mr. Harvey doesn’t need
to get his hands dirty,” she said, stopping mere inches from me. She was
wearing a very expensive brand of perfume, but on her, it was putrid. “He knows
how to delegate. Shall we do this in your office, Preston, or would you rather
get into it right here?”

I hated the way she looked at me then. There
was a hunger in her eyes, one that made my stomach turn. I snatched the folder
out of her hand, knowing damn well that whatever she wanted was detailed in
there.

“What the hell is this?” I asked her,
flipping it open. “Is he trying to buy me out?”

I choked as I saw the reality of the
situation. My eyes widened and a hot ember of rage took flame in my chest. This
wasn’t a buyout offer at all.

I looked at Jane, trying not to shake as I
asked her, “Where the
fuck
did you
get this?”

“Oh, Preston,” she purred, walking around
behind me. “It wasn’t that hard.” She stopped and slid her hands around my
waist from behind, trailing her blood red nails down my stomach as she
whispered, “Next time you’re fucking your stepsister, maybe don’t leave the
balcony doors open.
Anyone
could just
look in and see.”

“And take pictures,” I snapped, whirling on
her so fast I almost knocked her down. This was how my father had known about
me and
Maddy
. Jane the hell-bitch had delivered the
photographic evidence right into his sleazy hands.

She regained her balance and smirked. “Don’t
shoot the messenger, Preston. I just do what I’m told.”

“Oh, yes. I’m sure my father twisted your arm
about this,” I sneered, tossing the folder and its contents into her face.
“What does he think this is going to accomplish, huh? Does he think that I’ll
come crawling back now, begging him not to ruin my future at Harvey Enterprises
with these obscene photos? She’s not my stepsister yet, Jane. Nobody going to
give a shit if my father—”

“—waits to release them until he and
Madison’s mother are legally married?” Jane asked, batting her eyelashes in
mock innocence at me. “If he cuts off all your money and then sends these
photos to ever single potential employee Madison will ever interview with in her
entire life? You
really
think no one
will give a shit that Madison Hearst was fucking her stepbrother?”

I shook my head in disgust and disbelief. “He
can’t possibly be serious.”

“Oh, he is,” Jane assured me, grinning from
ear to ear. “In fact, he’s willing to throw you completely under the bus, if
that’s what it takes. He’ll leak the photos to some tabloid somewhere and watch
you go down in flames, if he has to. He might even come out the better for it,
denouncing his only son’s perversions and rooting him out from the company.”
She stepped on one of the pictures and slid it toward me with the toe of her
high heel. “Check your bank accounts, Preston. I’m sure you’ll find that you
really are between a rock and a hard place.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and
quickly logged in to my personal accounts. Just as Jane said, every single one
of them had been frozen. Two of them I couldn’t even log into at all, and the
third had a red banner across the screen that said “pending the results of an
investigation.”

“I have cash,” I told her. It wasn’t much,
but it was still enough to get me and
Maddy
the fuck
out of here. “Hundreds of thousands. I don’t need billions to start a new life
without my father and you.”

“You mean the money you keep in the safe at home?”
she asked me, and I felt my insides coil with dread. “Carla was sweet enough to
fetch that for us. But don’t be too mad at her, Preston baby. She was very
loyal—right up until the point where your father threatened her with
deportation. Little Enrique would be so torn up if his mommy had to go back to
Venezuela without him.”

I wanted to wring this bitch’s neck. I wanted
to watch the life drain out of her eyes as I pressed and pressed until her
throat collapsed. I wanted her to suffer through every moment leading to her
death. And then I wanted to do the same to my bastard father.

“Think about Madison,” Jane said, snapping me
out of my murderous rage. “Maybe you don’t care what people think. Maybe you’ll
find a way to get by with that business degree of yours. But let’s face
it—Madison will be fucked. She’ll never get a job anywhere ever again. And who
knows? Maybe some day she’ll have a mysterious accident just like your mother
did—”

“I swear to God, Jane,” I whispered, just
barely holding back the fury inside of me. “Keep talking about Madison and my
mother. Say one more word about either of them, and I’ll make sure
you
have an accident somewhere down the
line. Maybe not now, maybe not even in a year, but it’ll happen. And it’ll be
messy. It’ll hurt. You’ll suffer in ways you can’t even comprehend. Say
something smart, Jane—I dare you. But if you know me at all, I’m betting you
keep your fat, whore mouth shut.”

Jane’s lips parted, and I waited for her to
say something stupid, anything at all that would give me a reason to carry out
the sentence she so richly deserved. But then she shrugged, shouldering her
Prada bag as she told me, “Just think it over, Preston. You can ruin both your
lives, or you can both come away from this relatively unscathed. Maybe it’s a
shit choice, as far as choices go, but at least he’s giving you one.”

“Go,” I said. It was the only word I could
manage that wasn’t an expletive.

“You’re right,” she said. “I should. Mr.
Harvey will be wanting an update.” She looked me up and down before adding, “We
could have had it all, Preston. And maybe, if you play your cards right, we
still can. I’ve always liked the thought of having a baby, you know? Stranger
things have happened. Feel free to stare at my ass on my way out. Maybe you’ll
be seeing a little more of it soon?”

I watched her walk away, fiddling with her
cell phone as she stepped back through the doors to my office and out into the
sunshine that seemed at odds with the anguish I was feeling now.

I spent the next ten minutes ripping
everything apart. Everything I owned, everything I had built—I didn’t want it.
All I wanted was
her.
And she was the
one thing I could never have.

When my knuckles were raw and bloodied I sank
to the floor in front of the stairway, my chest heaving as I fought for air
between snarls and gasps. Everything was crumbling down around me, and the
person I needed the most was the one whose heart I was going to have to break
in just a matter of minutes.

Someone texted me. My hands shook as I
reached across the floor and retrieved my phone from where it had struck the
wall when I’d thrown it. Beyond the cracked screen, I read the last little
message from Jane.

Carla went ahead and set up a few
cameras on her way out. If you tell that sweet little stepsister of yours
anything we talked about, your father will do all that he promised and more!
J

She was the
most evil
fucking bitch in the entire world. And I was the bastard who was going to do
her bidding. What choice did I have? My father was going to ruin my life, and
Jane had threatened to do something far darker than that. How did she know
about my mother’s accident? What the hell was she trying to imply?

****