Their Seductress [The Hot Millionaires #1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (26 page)

Nick nodded. “Go on.”

“Doug and I had a perfect childhood. Two older siblings, middle-class parents who loved us all and did everything right, supporting us kids, encouraging us to go for whatever we wanted in life. Doug and I were, understandably, inseparable. In our case the thing about identical twins was spot-on. We could finish one another’s sentences, knew what the other was thinking, all that stuff.” Isaac raked a hand down his face. This was harder to talk about than he’d anticipated. “But there were differences, too.”

“Let me guess,” Paige said softly. “You were cleverer.”

“Yeah, I was, but only because Doug was too lazy to study. Instead of making him think for himself, he persuaded me that we could get away with writing each other’s names on assignments so his grades would improve. I’d take the blame if he did something wrong and our parents were mad at us, I covered for him when he bunked off school, things like that.” Isaac shrugged. “It seemed pretty harmless, until we got to college. By then, Doug had got used to me having his back. He knew how to play the sympathy card, ranting on about how we didn’t want to disappoint Mom and Dad, and I fell for it. He started using drugs at college, too. He convinced me they were just recreational, no big deal, everyone did it.”

“Everyone except you?” Paige suggested, gently touching his thigh.

“Right. Suffice it to say that Doug wouldn’t have graduated without my help, but I still thought we’d be okay. We settled in LA, started that music management business and—”

“Made a cock-up of it with Ellie,” Nick finished for him.

“Not exactly. I wasn’t completely honest about that. Still too loyal, I guess.”

“That was Doug?” Paige breathed.

“Yep. I was called away on some emergency. I wanted to reschedule with Ellie, but Doug persuaded me that wouldn’t look professional. He said he’d listen to her proposal and then discuss it with me.”

“But I’m guessing he wanted to impress you,” Paige said.

“Then and always. He never stopped trying.” Isaac threw his head back and let out a long, slow exhalation. “Ellie saw it at once, of course. She was in LA to set up the branch office of Carter Promotions and offered me the chance to manage it. I said I would if Doug could be my number two, but she persuaded me that would be a bad idea. Like I said in my eulogy, she had a knack of summing people up on the spot. She wasn’t emotionally involved with Doug, could see his weaknesses and strengths, and reckoned the best thing for him would be to stand on his own two feet, without me there to bail him out of trouble. ‘Let him clear up his own messes,’ she said to me. ‘He’ll soon learn.’”

“Sound advice, if you ask me,” Nick said, getting up to refresh everyone’s drinks.

“Yeah well, she brought him back to the Tampa office, kept him off drugs and drew out his ambitions, honing in on his strengths just like she did with everyone she took an interest in.” Isaac put his empty bottle aside. “After two years she offered him the management of the new London office. He went over there and raved on to me about this fantastic woman he’d met.” Isaac ran his fingers softly along Paige’s jawline. “For once he wasn’t exaggerating.”

“But he started leaning on me instead of you,” Paige said.

“He did, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I was really pleased that he had his own empire to run but didn’t realize that he was driving himself ragged trying to eclipse my achievement in LA, just to prove a point. Tragically, nor did Ellie.” Isaac lifted his shoulders. “He was never going to achieve that, simply because LA was a much bigger market.”

Paige sighed. “And the strain pushed him back toward drugs.”

“Hmm, and you know the rest.” Isaac stopped talking and settled his gaze on Paige’s face. “Not a pretty story, is it.”

“It’s very sad,” she said, reaching for his hand. “But I don’t see how you can be blamed for what happened to him.”

“If I hadn’t indulged him when we were kids—”

“But that’s exactly it. You were kids, identical twins. Of course you were gonna look out for your twin brother. You’re no more to blame than I am. Than Ellie is.”

“Precisely!” Isaac offered her a glittering smile. “So no more of this bullshit about being bad luck.”

“Do you think that’s why Ellie included me in her will?” she asked pensively. “I’ve been wondering about that. I mean, you two I could understand, you’ve both known her for years, but although she and I hit it off…” Paige giggled. “In more ways than one, I didn’t know her that well.”

“Like I keep saying, if she took to someone, she was generous to a fault,” Isaac said.

“I see what Paige is getting at,” Nick said. “She felt guilty about Doug, too, knew she’d called it wrong, and wanted to make it up to you both.” Nick laughed. “Knowing her, she probably suspected that you two would hit it off as well.”

“This is killing me.” Isaac slipped off the couch and onto one knee. “Paige Fairfax, will you marry me?”

“You’d try to control me,” Paige said, her lips quivering as though she was trying not to laugh. “You know you would. You can’t help yourself. You’re a leader by nature. Besides, I have a career in London.”

“I haven’t told you yet what I’ve worked out here at the office.” He sat back on the couch and pulled Paige onto his lap. “I had a long talk on the phone with Mike yesterday. Obviously, he can’t come back to this office, but I’ve offered him LA.”

“That’s kind of you,” Paige said. “But I thought he wanted out of this business.”

“Yeah well, it’ll be different now. Besides, he’s a good guy and knows the business backward. He wants a new start for himself and the kids away from here. It seemed like the obvious answer. The other directors here are happy to vote me in as new CEO. We just need to run it past Sam at Carter Consortium, but I don’t see a problem there. What I do need is a second-in-command.” He ran his hand along Paige’s thigh. “What do you say, gorgeous?” He smiled at her. “Your own department, your own staff, complete autonomy.”

“I don’t have the experience.”

“Sure you do. We both know who the power behind the throne in London was, even when Doug was in charge.”

She offered him that soft, sultry smile of hers that so got to him. “I suppose we could give it a go.”

“So you’ll marry me?”

“I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to Nick.”

“In marrying me, you’d be marrying Nick, too.
He
can stay.”

“Actually, children, if you’d kindly stop talking about me as though I wasn’t here, perhaps I could speak for myself and tell Paige our thoughts on that.”

“Go right ahead,” Paige invited sweetly.

“I wanna do something with the boat, obviously, and Isaac suggested using it as a corporate hospitality tool.” He glanced out the window to the shiny motor cruiser sitting on the dock. “You know, weekend cruises to the islands to tempt would-be clients.”

“I think that’s brilliant,” Paige said, throwing her arms round his neck. “Ellie would have thoroughly approved.”

“That’s rather what we thought. That way, we’ll have a classy edge on the competition when it comes to enticing new clients, and I’ll be involved in the business, too.”

“So we could all stay here together,” Paige said pensively, nibbling her index finger. “I’d be officially married to Isaac, but we could carry on like we always have.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Isaac said, swooping on Paige and pulling her into a drugging kiss. “I’ll take that as a
yes
then, shall I?” he asked when he finally let her up for air.

She wriggled out of his grasp, pulled her top over her head, and stood in front of them both, massaging her breasts.

“Shall we go up?” she asked sweetly. “I’ll make up my mind after you’ve taken me to bed.” Nick swept her into his arms and headed for the stairs. “It all depends on your performance, obviously.”

Three months later

“Shit!”

Isaac tied his bowtie for the third time, his fingers shaking too much for him to do it right.

“Here, let me.” Laughing, Nick managed it the first time. “You need to chill out, buddy.”

“Easy for you to say. It’s not your wedding day.”

“Yeah it is.”

“I guess so.” Isaac slapped Nick on the back. “Come on. It ain’t the groom who’s supposed to be late.”

Isaac tried to be as relaxed as Nick as he stood by the flowered arch in the grounds of the posh restaurant overlooking Tampa Bay where the ceremony was taking place. He glanced over his shoulder for the hundredth time and was finally rewarded by the sight of Sam’s and Mike’s young daughters walking solemnly down the aisle, throwing petals in front of them. Next came Paige’s friend Saskia, dressed in rose pink, over from England to act as matron of honor. She was cute but not what Isaac was straining to see. Finally, there she was.

Paige wore a champagne creation that sculpted her body before billowing into soft folds that skimmed the carpet. Her hair fell from a clasp on the top of her head and skimmed her shoulders in soft corkscrew curls. She looked radiantly happy as she leaned on Sam’s arm. Her parents hadn’t even bothered to come over for the ceremony. He knew Paige was upset about that, but Isaac reckoned she was better off without them. Sam made a great surrogate father.

As she reached their position beneath the arch, Isaac and Nick shared a glance, blown away by her beauty. Hardly knowing what he said, he repeated the words the minister asked him to speak, impatient to be told that he could kiss his bride. When at last he did so, he didn’t want to stop. Laughing, Nick tapped him on the shoulder, and he reluctantly released his feisty wife from his grasp.

“My turn as soon as we’re in private,” Nick whispered in her ear.

“You bet!” she said, grinning at him.

To raucous applause and a shower of rose petals they ran the gauntlet of guests and photographers and made it to the safety of the restaurant. Nick made a witty speech, they cut cake, drank champagne, did what people did at weddings. Isaac wondered how shocked they’d be if they knew Paige had actually just committed herself to a life with both of them.

He pulled his wife into his arms for the first dance, conscious not of the ring of smiling faces applauding but of the feel of Paige’s body beneath the thin silk of her lovely gown.

“What are you wearing under that, Mrs. Drake?” he whispered in her ear.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Mr. Drake.”

“A garter belt?” he asked hopefully.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” she quipped.

“I intend to find out as soon as we can get rid of this damned lot,” he said on a frustrated sigh.

“Perhaps Nick ought to be the one to find out.”

“Same difference.” He squeezed her waist. “I’ve told you before, you won’t win by trying to play us off against one another.”

The music stopped, and Nick took over from Isaac.

“Happy?” he asked her.

“Hmm, yes. I guess this marriage lark might turn out to be fun,” she said dreamily, pushing herself against Nick just as firmly as she had her new husband.

Nick laughed. “I can see how enthusiastic you are about it,” he said. “Just wait until you get a load of your wedding present later.”

“I can already feel it,” she said, giggling.

“No, actually you can’t. This is something else Isaac and I thought you might appreciate.”

“What is it?” She jiggled about in his arms, as excited as a schoolgirl. “Do tell.”

“If I did that, it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“Damn, I hate it when you’re right.”

Finally it was time to leave. Still in her wedding dress, she obediently followed Isaac into the waiting stretch limo. The whole wedding party lined the driveway, clapping, cheering, throwing more petals over the car as it made slow progress toward the gates.

“At last!” Isaac pulled her into his arms and kissed her like he never intended to stop. “Did you enjoy your day?” he asked, finally letting her up for air.

“Not as much as I intend to enjoy the evening. Where are we going? When’s Nick going to join us, and what’s the big surprise you keeping talking about?”

He chuckled. “Wait and see.”

Without warning he pulled her over his lap and lifted her flimsy skirts. “Oh yeah!” he said when he revealed white stockings held up by suspenders.

“You haven’t seen it all yet.”

“A basque?” he asked breathlessly. “Please tell me you’re wearing a basque. There is something incredibly sexy about a woman wearing a one of those damned things.”

“What’s stopping you from finding out?”

“I guess I’ll have to wait,” he said, glancing at the long row of tiny buttons down the back of the gown. “I’ll never get my fingers round them. Very naughty, Mrs. Drake. I shall have to punish you.”

He brought his hand down lightly over her buttocks, waiting for the inevitable squirm as she wriggled against his hand.

“Like that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Want more?”

“Yes please. Lots and lots more.”

Isaac laughed. “You’re very greedy, Mrs. Drake. I shall have to teach you a lesson.” He pushed her onto the carpeted floor of the spacious car, her skirts still up round her waist. “That’s a much better view,” he said, slipping the butt plug from his pocket and rubbing it between his fingers to warm it. He brought his hand down on her again, at the same time reaching in front of her to find her clit. Not surprisingly, she was already moist. “Ask me nicely and I’ll spank you harder.”