Beauty from Pain (24 page)

“
Oh, Laurelyn. Ben was really
drunk last night. I’m sure he regrets the whole thing this
morning.”

She’s his sister, but I didn’t expect her to
take his side so completely. “He may, but I can’t live with someone
who calls me a whore. We’re coming for my things and I’m going to
stay with Lachlan.”

“
You mean until this blows
over.”

“
No, he’s asked me to stay with
him until we go home, and I’ve decided I’m going to. I’ll make
arrangements to come to the apartment for my things in a couple of
days.”

“
But you don’t know
him.”

“
Addison, I know him as well as
you know Zac. There’s no difference.” That wasn’t entirely true,
but I felt like I knew most of the important things, even if it
didn’t include his name.

“
Fair point well made, I guess.”
Good. I didn’t feel like arguing with her over this.

“
Lachlan works long days, so call
me next week when Zac is busy and we’ll get together. Maybe we’ll
go shopping.”

“
Okay.”

I hang up and think of how differently our
stay in Australia is from what I imagined. Addison and I haven’t
been apart for more than a day in four years, and now our time
together is barely existent. I could tell she didn’t care much for
me staying with Lachlan, but she’d get over it. She was spending as
much time as she could with Zac and that meant I was going to be
stuck alone with Ben, so I didn’t feel a bit guilty about leaving
to be with Lachlan.

I’m still wearing Lachlan’s T-shirt, which
barely covers my panties, when I leave the bedroom in search of
him. I go into the kitchen first and find the open refrigerator
door. I slip over to him with the agility of a lioness and wait for
him to close it so I can surprise him, but when the door swings
shut, it’s me who gets the shock.

I’m standing face to face with a woman, not
Lachlan.

She smiles at me while diverting her eyes away
from my bare legs. “Miss Beckett?”

I reach for the bottom of the T-shirt and pull
it lower on my legs, as if it’s somehow going to cover my bareness.
“Yes.”

I tug harder on the shirt and realize I’m
stretching it to the point of almost ripping. “I’m Mrs. Porcelli.
It’s very nice to meet you. May I cook you something for brekkie?
Do you like omelets?”

Oh, shit, I’m mortified. I completely forgot
that Mrs. Porcelli would be here today. Now, here I stand to greet
her wearing my panties and Lachlan’s T-shirt, which I’m sure she
recognizes since she does his laundry.

“
Umm, yes. Thank you. If you’ll
excuse me, I’ll be back in just a moment.”

“
Of course, dear.”

I pull the shirt over my panties as I streak
toward the bedroom. Once inside, I shut the door and lean against
it. I put my finger gun to my head and pull the trigger. “I can’t
believe I did that.”

I’m bent over rummaging through my bag when
I’m startled by hands creeping around my waist and warm breath on
the back of my neck. I let out a panicked screech and spin around
to give Lachlan a slap across his chest. “Don’t sneak up like that.
You scared the shit out of me.”

He thinks it’s hilarious. “Sorry. I promise
that scaring you wasn’t what I was going for. I had something much
more like this on my mind.”

He brings his lips to mine and I forget my
disgruntlement with him. I feel one of his hands slide inside my
panties over my bottom. “Oh, no you don’t, Mr. Henry.”

“
Why not?”

“
I just met Mrs. Porcelli, while
wearing this, I might add, and now she’s cooking breakfast for me.
It’ll be rude, not to mention awkward, if I don’t go back out there
to eat what she’s cooking for me.”

He slides his other hand inside my shirt until
he reaches my breast and flicks his thumb over my nipple until it’s
hard. He lowers his mouth to my ear. “She’ll never know, babe. I’ll
be quick.”

“
Yeah, but I’ll know and then
she’ll see it all over my face.”

“
No, she won’t. You’re making too
much of it.” He moves his hand from the back of my panties to the
front.

“
She’s already going to know that
I’m the latest one.”

“
The latest what?”

“
Companion or whatever she calls
us.” Maybe whore.

“
No, she won’t.”

He’s confusing me and it has nothing to do
with his hand in my panties turning my brain to mush. “How could
she not?”

“
She doesn’t know about the
others. She’s going to think you’re my girlfriend.”

How can she not know about the others if she
goes everywhere with him? “I don’t understand.”

“
The others never came to the
vineyards, so you’re the first one she’s seen.”

Well, this is a revelation. “Where did you
take the others?”

“
Hotels.”

I’m surprised by this news. And puzzled. Why
am I allowed into his private world when none of the others have
been?

I don’t have much time to absorb what he’s
told me because I feel his hands on my hips pushing my panties
down. “I’ll be a minuteman. Promise.”

I give into him like I always do and step out
of my panties before letting him guide me toward the unmade bed. I
fall back and he reaches into the nightstand drawer. I hear those
familiar sounds before he grabs my ankles to yank me to the edge of
the bed where he’s standing. “Put your legs around me.”

I do as he says and then he’s inside me. “This
is going to be quick, but only because it’s the way you want
it.”

He wasn’t kidding. He’s slamming into me fast
and hard. He grasps my thighs tightly to keep from propelling me to
the other side of the bed. In one quick motion, I bring my legs
from his waist to his shoulders and it does him in. He thrusts
deeply one last time and I hear him call my name. “Oh,
Laurelyn.”

I love the way he says my name when he
comes.

My ankles are still hooked over his shoulders
and he’s smiling down at me. He kisses the inside of my leg before
he helps me to stand. “I’m going out to check the grafts while you
have brekkie. I’ll be gone a couple of hours and then we’ll have
the rest of the day to do anything you want.”

I’m guessing his vacation from work will be
over tomorrow, so I want to take advantage of our last free day
together. “Can we hang out by the pool and swim?”

“
Anything you want,
baby.”

He grabs my panties from the floor and holds
them out for me. He kisses the inside of my thigh as I step into
them. My hands are on his shoulders for balance as he pulls them up
my legs and I can’t resist commenting on it. “You put my panties
back on almost as much as you take them off.”

He pats my bottom when they’re in place. “I
guess I do. Now, get dressed and go enjoy your brekkie. I’ll see
you in a couple of hours.”

I’ll have to shower after breakfast, so I pull
my hair into a ponytail and quickly slip into shorts and a T-shirt
of my own. The aroma coming from the kitchen is heavenly and I
enter just as Mrs. Porcelli is plating a scrumptious-looking
omelet. “Smells delicious.”

“
Thank you. May I pour you some
coffee?”

“
I’m not much of a coffee drinker.
I’ll have juice, but I can get it. You’ve already done so
much.”

“
I’m happy to get it for you,
dear.” I don’t argue and take my seat at the bar where my omelet
awaits. She places a tall glass of orange juice in front of me and
I feel uneasy about allowing her to serve me.

“
Thank you.”

I begin to eat while she cleans the mess from
preparing my breakfast. This makes me feel even guiltier. “I can do
that when I’m finished eating.”

“
Miss Beckett, relax and enjoy
your omelet.”

Miss Beckett isn’t my name. “Okay, but will
you please call me Laurelyn?”

“
Okay, Laurelyn.”

“
How long have you worked for …?”
Oh, shit. I don’t know his name. At least not the one Mrs. Porcelli
would use.

“
I call him Mr. McLachlan, dear.
He’s my employer and although I’m old enough to be his mother, I
wouldn’t feel right calling him by his first name.”

McLachlan.
I laugh to myself because it appears as though we had the
same idea when we chose our aliases. I have to wonder. Is this a
slip-up in his carefully orchestrated plan or is he relaxing his
unbending relationship rules?

Surely, he considered this possibility. He
must’ve known Mrs. Porcelli would say his name in front of me at
some point since I’m staying here full-time.

I decide I won’t mention the discovery of my
newfound information about Mr. McLachlan. Learning his last name
changes nothing for us. I won’t try to find him once I leave
Australia. There’s no reason to worry him, so let him continue to
believe he still holds this secret from me.

28

Jack McLachlan

Spending the day with Laurelyn stretched out on
a lounge chair by the pool is a perfect way to spend New Year’s
Day. The view is mighty fine with her barely there black bikini,
but I worry her skin isn’t prepared for the harsh Australian
sun.

“
You should put on sunscreen so
you don’t sunbake too much.”

She rises on her elbows and peers over her
sunnies at me. “I thought I might get a little sun before I put it
on.”

“
I’m afraid it’ll sneak up on
you.”

“
I guess you would know better
than I do.”

She sits up and grabs the bottle of SPF 70
from the table and begins to massage it into her skin. “This is a
new one for me. I’ve never been swimming on New Year’s
Day.”

“
I guess lots of things seem
backwards to you.”

I can’t see her eyes through her sunnies, but
she smiles and I wonder what she’s thinking. “Yeah, a few things.”
She holds the bottle out in my direction. “Would you do my back for
me?”

I cover her in a generous
application. When I finish, I return to thumbing through the summer
issue of the
Winery and Vineyard
Journal
. I find the article I wrote on
vine grafting and I’m in the middle of it when Laurelyn asks,
“Whatcha reading?”

“
Nothing in
particular.”

“
So, you’re working even when
you’re not working.”

I’m sure it appears that way to her. “I guess
so.”

I place the magazine on the table and she
reaches for it. “Maybe I should read this so I can understand more
about what you do.”

“
Winemaking interests
you?”

“
Not really, but you interest
me.”

She thumbs through the magazine and I see her
stop on my article. I panic as I pray she doesn’t recognize me in
the photograph. “I’m getting into the pool. Why don’t you join me?
You can read all the exciting articles on winemaking
later.”

“
Vine grafting.”
She glances at me. “Is this the same process you’re doing here
at
A
valon?”

I get up to take the journal and place it on
the table. “It is, and you can read all about the thrilling
adventures in grafting later. It’s hot. Come into the pool with me
to cool off.”

She has no idea how close she is to figuring
me out, so I tug on her hands. “Come on.”

She shakes her head and gets up from the
lounger. “You always get your way, don’t you?”

Laurelyn follows me into the pool.
She takes her hair out of the bun and tosses the elastic band to
the sidewalk before she dips her head backwards. She lifts her head
out of the pool and pushes the water away from her face.

She’s a magnet and I’m metal. I can’t resist
the pull between us so I move closer and put my hands around her
waist. She puts her arms around my shoulders and wraps her legs
around me, but not in a sexual way. She’s being playful.

“
So, Mrs. Porcelli and Daniel
travel with you when you’re stationed at different
vineyards?”

Stationed. That’s a good word to describe the
way I travel with work. “They come with me anytime I stay more than
a week, and I try to give them several days to be home with their
families before we leave again.”

“
What do you think Mrs. Porcelli
thinks of you never bringing a woman home?”

I laugh as I picture Laurelyn prancing into
the kitchen in nothing but her panties and my T-shirt. “She
probably thought I was gay until you showed up in the kitchen
barely wearing enough to cover this.” I glide my hands over the
bottom of her bikini.

“
It’s not funny, Lachlan.” She
pretends to be mad but can’t quite pull it off—not with the
underlying grin trying to break through.

“
I’m very sorry you were
embarrassed, but I did tell you she would be here
today.”

“
I know, but it slipped my mind
because it’s only been the two of us in the house since my first
night with you.”