Fade to Black (15 page)

Lily jumped up, feeling guilty, even though
she wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was a guest here. Just who the hell was
talking to her like that? Looking down at her pajama pants and cami top, she
replied, “Excuse me?”

The tall, skinny blonde dropped her purse
on the couch. “Oh, please, you want to play it that way? You’re not too bright,
are you? I’ll be speaking to Devlin about you. Now be a good little girl and
find him for me.” When Lily simply stood there looking at her, the lady crossed
her arms and raised an eyebrow at her. “Now, honey, before I fire you myself.”

“Just who the hell are you?” Lily could
barely keep the anger out of her voice.

“I’m Devlin’s fiancée, Hayden.”

~^~

It took everything Hayden had not to giggle
at the look on the whore’s face. She knew it wasn’t going to take much to make
her run back to her little hole in the wall in that hick-town. Just a little
bit more, though; she didn’t want to tip her hand too soon. She knew Devlin
wasn’t home right now, he’d gone out. Sadly, she wouldn’t be able to kill her,
that would be the best, but there were too many witnesses here. The only good
thing she could say about where the whore lived was that it was much easier to
get away with killing someone.

“Cat got your tongue? Where’s Mary? I never
had a problem with her before. Find her and bring her here, she knows the
proper way to treat her employers.” She looked Lily up and down. “You, on the
other hand, don’t look like you could follow directions even if there were only
two steps.”

“You… you… you…”

Hayden looked down at her nails. “Wow, your
eloquence, it amazes me. Oh wait, do I need to use smaller words?” She closed
her eyes, and then opened them, looking at the ceiling. “Okay, how about this: You
are dumb. Now
please
, I don’t have a
lot of time, get Devlin for me.” She stared at the whore, daring her to say
anything. When the whore didn’t move, she folded her arms across her chest and
stared at her.

“Hayden, when did you get here?” Devlin
said as he strode into the room and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Quickly she hid her annoyance at him
finding her here. “Darling, if you’d check your messages, you’d know I’ve been
back on this coast for a couple of weeks now.” She made sure he kept an arm
around her. She knew he’d be too polite to pull away. Looking deep into his
eyes, she said, “I’ve missed you. I never see you as much as I need to.”

Smiling at her, he gave her a little
squeeze and tried to pull away. “We could be locked together in a room for the
rest of eternity and you wouldn’t think it’d be enough.”

Her breath hitched in her chest. It was as
if he knew. This was another sign they were meant for each other. Hope bloomed
from deep within her and almost bubbled over. Her hands started to shake. She
knew she had to keep everything under control, otherwise her plan wouldn’t
work. Hayden was so
distracted,
she didn’t notice he
had pulled away from her until she felt the loss of his warmth next to her.
Watching him walk to the whore, she wanted to scream for him to come back to
her, where he belonged.

“Hayden, I’d like you to meet Lily Walker.
Lily, this is Hayden Dahl.” He had his arm around Lily, bringing her close into
his side.

Hayden knew she had to leave, had to escape
soon, as she didn’t want everything blown. He wasn’t supposed to show up like
this.
“Nice to meet you.
Devlin, darling, I’m sorry,
but I have to run. I wanted to stop by and see you, maybe pick up where we left
off. Give me a call.”

Spinning quickly on her heels, she left
before either of them could say anything. With fingernails digging into the
palm of her hand, she didn’t realize she was leaving a trail of blood.

~^~

As soon as Hayden left the room, Lily
pulled away from Devlin and walked out of the room without saying anything to
him. Who exactly was this bitch claiming to be his fiancée, treating her like
shit, and then ignoring her? The angrier she became, the quicker she walked,
ignoring his voice behind her. Devlin had done nothing; he’d allowed it to
happen! In fact, he’d had his arms around her. In her world, people did not act
like that, did not treat other people like that. Here was another example as to
why they shouldn’t be together.

When she got to the room they were staying
in, she slammed the door behind her. She took a misstep when she heard Devlin
yell in pain. The door must have hit him. Shrugging, she continued to the
closet where she pulled down her suitcase, tossed it on the bed, and started
throwing things in it.

“Come on, don’t be like that,” Devlin said
from the doorway, rubbing his nose.

Lily stopped and turned toward him with a T-shirt
in her hands. “Don’t be like that? Like what? A human being who wants to be
treated with respect? Oh, gosh, I’m asking for so much.
Respect.
Maybe you should look the word up; you don’t seem to know the definition of
it.” She turned back around and added more to the suitcase.

He grabbed her arm and spun her around.
“Dammit, I do respect you. I’ve never respected anyone more.”

“Sure doesn’t look that way. Now let me
go.”

“No.”

She looked down at his hand still holding
her in place. “No, that’s it? Just no and you think I’ll obey? I don’t know how
things are in Hollyweird, but where I come
from,
women
have a mind of their own and can do whatever the hell they want.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t you remember who you’re
talking to? I’ve grown up surrounded by strong women, all of whom have an
opinion and will make sure you hear it. And guess what? You don’t have to
agree, but you
will
listen. Now why
don’t you sit your sweet ass down and listen to me.” When she made no move obey
to him, he narrowed his eyes, leaned in, and lowered his voice, “Now. Don’t
make me say it again.”

She’d never seen this side of him. She
could see the anger in his eyes and the tension shaking his body. Part of her
wanted to test him, to see how far he’d go, because she was turned on by his
controlled rage. Deciding to see where this was going, she slowly sat down on
the bed, crossed her legs, and looked up at him. Folding her hands together,
she sighed and tried to get across how pissed off she was.

He paced back and forth in front of her.
“Let’s start with a little education about ‘Hollyweird.’”

Uncrossing her legs, she started to get up
when he spun toward her and put his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to stay
seated.

“Don’t even think about it. You’ll stay
there until I’m done.”

“Oh, I will?”

“Yes, because while you are pissed at me,
you’re also curious and want to know what I have to say. At least to remember
each and every word of when I was being an ass so you can rationalize how
you’re better off without me years from now.”

“Fine…”

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

“I’ll never tell.” But he was right.

“You don’t have to, I know.
Just like I know this business.
Remember, every relationship
and breakup is public knowledge. It’s all done to either further someone’s
career, or to get their name back out there. Everything is planned; when to go
public with every little thing sometimes takes weeks to plan. I can tell you it
takes the romance out of things, but that’s how it is. Everyone is out for what’s
in it for them, and what it can bring for them. I’m not saying every
relationship here is like that, but a lot are. Even if you had the worst
breakup and hated the other person, you can never let anyone know, because
somehow, someway, somebody is going to find out and plaster it all over the Internet.
You’ve got to play nice.”

“You were sure playing nice.” She was
trying to understand, but it still hurt her.

“Yes, I was. We dated for a while. In fact,
she was my last girlfriend. We actually broke up at the first of the year, but
didn’t go public with it until a couple of months later.”

“So this is always the norm? Can I expect
any other ex-girlfriends coming around saying they are going to marry you and
be rude to me?”

“Hayden is… Hayden. When it was just the
two of us, she was different. As time went on, I became more and more
embarrassed by how she treated people, almost as if they were put there to wait
on her every need. I really wasn’t surprised by how she was talking to you, I’d
heard it before. She told me she had a hard life growing up and only knew how
she was treated; she thought everyone with money acted the same way toward
people, so she did the same.”

“And that makes it all okay? Newsflash, not
everyone had a perfect life growing up. I sure as hell didn’t. The only
attention my mom gave me was when it benefited her and whichever man she wanted
to get in her bed and money out of his wallet. You think that was a good way to
grow up?”

Devlin stopped pacing and stood in front of
her. “No, no it’s not. And she shouldn’t use it as a crutch to get what she
wants. But we’ve talked, Lily. You know
me,
you know I
have to help people. I was hoping I could help her, make her mellow out a bit.”

“I don’t think anyone could help her.”

“Lily, everyone deserves a chance.”

She decided to get the conversation back on
track to what she wanted to know. “Why did you break up?” She was hoping there
was more it.

“The usual reasons.
I
had to travel too much and she was too clingy. Every time I turned around she
was showing up where I was, invited or not. I needed my space. But now I’m
thinking maybe it wasn’t so much she was too clingy as she just wasn’t the one
for me.”

“What are you saying?”

“You know exactly what I’m saying.”

“I think I kind of need you to spell it out
for me.”

He leaned on the bed, placing his fists on
either side of her, their faces inches apart. She could see he was still
pissed, and she didn’t know what was coming next.

“You’ve made me change everything I thought
I wanted.” Slowly he leaned closer; she backed up a fraction of an inch.
“You’ve made me think of someone else besides myself.” Closer still he moved as
she retreated back another inch. “You’ve made me feel things I never thought
I’d feel.” Placing a knee on the bed, he moved to her, and she leaned further
back, almost lying down on the bed. His face filled her vision, the heat from
his body coming closer to hers. “You’ve made me love you and I can never go
back.” He lay down on top of her, his hands framing her face. “I never want to
go back to that lonely, unfulfilled man.” He used his knee to nudge her legs
open and positioned himself so she could feel his hardness between them. “I
want to wake every morning with you.” His hand traveled down to cup the side of
her breast. “But right now, all I want to do is be deep inside you.” He
captured her lips, kissing her savagely while his hands roamed her body. She
wrapped her legs around his waist, giving as
good
as
she got.

Using all her strength, she rolled over so
she was on top of him. Pulling away, she sat up and lifted her arms gracefully
over her head, almost swaying to music only she could hear. He put his hands
under her shirt and lifted up, leaving it twisted around her wrists. Grabbing
her ass with his other hand, he moved off the bed, and she wrapped her legs
around him. Reaching up, he hooked the shirt over the top of the post, twisting
it and yanking down to secure it in place. Her legs dropped and she hung there,
her toes barely touching the ground and chest heaving, trying to catch her
breath.

“Now you’ll have to feel how much I love
you.” He cupped one breast while sucking hard on the other. When she started to
moan, he said, “That’s it, baby,
come
on, let me know
you feel it too.” His hand moved down into her panties, feeling his way in them
to make her scream his name.

He left her hanging there as he dropped to
his knees, yanking her pajama bottoms down. Placing one of her feet on the bed,
he hooked the other over his shoulder and flicked his tongue against her clit
while sliding fingers deep inside of her. His free hand moved up, squeezing her
breast, moving to pinch her nipple.

“Devlin, oh god, Devlin,” she panted. Her
words became jumbled and louder the closer she came to orgasm. Once she went
over the edge and was limp, he quickly stood up and unzipped his pants,
removing them as he placed himself next to her. He then thrust into her, over
and over again. She wanted to touch him, but couldn’t, she
had
to put all her love and passion into her kiss.

She was breathing so hard it felt like the
room was spinning, and her whole body tingled. With their eyes and lips locked
in heated battle, she clenched her muscles around him. The added intensity
forced them both over the edge.

Very carefully he unhooked her shirt from
the bedpost and laid her down. She closed her eyes and relaxed when he started
to gently rub her arms to get the feeling back in them. When he stopped, she
opened her eyes and looked at him.