His Absolute Arrangement: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #1) (10 page)

I'd felt so bad about it then.  So wrong, but in a strange way.  I knew that seducing Asher wasn't a good thing, but he looked so lost and loveless.  His marriage was false, some accommodation between two well-to-do families in order to maintain a specific sort of status quo.  He deserved so much more.  Asher mentioned he enjoyed photography, I mentioned something about not being a good model for it, he disagreed, I disagreed with him disagreeing, and...

Somehow we'd ended up taking pictures that might have been considered pornographic.  The memory sent a flutter of nervous happiness through the pit of my stomach.  I'd seen those pictures afterwards, too.  A long time afterwards, far far later, but they were exciting to look at in a curious way.  Only my stomach and my legs and everything between, naked, except then with Asher kneeling there, spreading my legs, his thick erection lodged just barely between my feminine folds.  There were a lot of pictures like that, of various intensities.  In, further, deeper, all the way.  And out, less, leaving, but not entirely.

I realize that this wasn't a particularly high point of my life in regards to situations I was proud of, but it was definitely a highlight in terms of arousal.  Asher and I had photography sessions now, too, and I enjoyed those a lot.  No guilt or regrets or anything like that.  I felt kind of scandalous during them, actually.  He always kept the pictures safe and hidden away, locked up in here.  He did other photography, too, but nothing as naughty, and he kept those less guarded.

Curious, maybe a little interested—or a lot interested—I lifted myself off the bed and went to the closet.  What would it hurt if I looked at some of our pictures for a second?  I just wanted to see them.

I opened the closet door all the way, then got to my knees and opened the special camera case Asher kept there.

Something seemed wrong, though?  A little off?  Strange.  I tried to ignore it, because I didn't know if it was just a random worry or something significant.  Once I finished opening the camera case, I was fairly certain it wasn't just a random worry, though.

Or, it could be still, I told myself.  Asher might have been in a hurry when he last used his camera.  Maybe he'd come here, looked at the pictures, and... had he masturbated right here?  On the bed?  Yes, possibly.  Oh God, that sounded hot.  I pictured Asher frantically scrambling to unbutton and lower his pants while also searching through his camera case to grab his camera, turn it on, and go to his favorite picture of us.  The camera could record short films, too, so maybe he'd watched one of the one or two minute clips?  His hand around his shaft, stroking up and down, faster, until...

I grinned.  Well then, Mr. Landseer, two can play at that game.  The components in the camera case were disorganized, but it looked like everything was there.  I took out the camera, rushed to lock the bedroom door while turning it on, then lifted up my skirt and sat on the edge of the bed.  Jeremy could wait.  He wouldn't even notice, I bet.  He'd just think that most women took a long time in the bathroom and chalk it up to that.  If I was fast, no one would ever notice.

With a grin, I thought about later telling Asher what I had done when he came home and we were in our "meeting."

The camera turned on fine, but the screen blinked a warning at me: No SD card available.

Strange.

I flipped open one of the side latches where the camera had slots for different kinds of SD cards.  It must have come loose during Asher's covert transgression.  Or, that was my initial thought, except after looking closely, I couldn't see an SD card at all.  No regular one, no micro, nothing.

Apparently secretly masturbating to pictures of myself and my husband in his guest home was more complicated than I planned.  I scurried back to the closet, returned to the camera case, and searched for the missing piece.  There were more SD cards in small plastic cases in there, too, but...

Some of those were missing, as well.  Which was very odd.  I furrowed my brow, trying to figure this out.  Asher wouldn't take them out of here, would he?  I didn't think so, but we hadn't exactly talked specifically about it.  I just sort of took it for granted that he always kept everything here, because that's what he did and that's what he said.  He never specifically said he would always keep everything here forever, though.

The thought worried me.  I didn't think it was very safe to leave sensitive material like this somewhere else.  The guest home was fine, locked up in its own right, but doubly locked up behind the fence and gates of the Landseer estate, too.  Maybe a bank box somewhere would be safer, but all things considered it should be relatively secure here.  The only people who had access were Asher's housestaff, and the only people who came here on a somewhat regular basis besides us were Jeremy and the cleaning woman.

It was probably nothing.  Some weird circumstances that I would never have known about.  Except, of course, I knew now because of the weird thing I'd planned on doing.  Jeremy was still waiting for me, too.  I'd just ask Asher later.  He'd know what was wrong and why some of the SD cards weren't here.  Maybe they were somewhere else in the house; in the guest bedroom or in the library basement.  That made sense.

Jeremy yelled upstairs to me.  He didn't yell anything particular, just some muffled, garbled question about my return.

"I'm coming!  Hold on!" I shouted back.

Fetching the camera from the bed and turning it off, I put it back neatly in the camera case and zipped everything up.  I closed the closet door, then went to rejoin Jeremy downstairs.  The explosive movie, my friend, and my burger and potato wedges awaited me.

T
he movie ended with a lot of explosions.  Having finished my meal, I watched on, plate gripped in my hand, as basically everything within a five mile radius surrounding the current main characters exploded.  I was entirely unsure how they avoided being hit by the blasts, but in a series of slow motion scenes, they narrowly dodged pieces of shrapnel and fire and all manner of other explosive things.

A quick glance to my side showed Jeremy leaning forward on his end of the couch, eyes unblinking, jaw clenched, staring at the projector screen with rapt interest.  I wanted to laugh, but I didn't want to ruin his enjoyment of the movie, especially at the end.  Instead, I leaned back and satisfied myself with a bombardment of smoke and flames.

And that was that.  I couldn't quite tell what happened.  I supposed everything was fine and good now?  The good guys won and the bad men lost.  The good guys were apparently the musclebound ones with grease and athletic shirts covering their torsos.  The camera zoomed closer to one particular muscle man, who started walking off into the sunset after the explosive violence surrounding him had stopped.  One of the busty woman appeared from off to the side and he spared a glance towards her, but nothing more.

She approached him.  He stopped and stared into the horizon.  She came closer, touched his arm, and then he swung to the side, grabbed her hips, and swept her up into a steamy kiss.  This didn't last long and then they were walking, hand in hand, passing the last of the carnage around them and moving towards the setting sun.

I was fairly certain this was meant to be romantic in some way.  The muscle man and the busty woman seemed happy with their arrangement, at any rate.  The walking, joining, kiss, more walking, hand holding.

I honestly didn't know how any of it happened, though.  Did I miss something?  They didn't seem romantically involved for most of the rest of the movie, nor did they talk a lot.  I didn't even know his name, and I think her name was foreign and Russian, maybe.  Ivona?  Natalia?  Something like that...

Jeremy applauded.  I looked over at him, dumbstruck.  He looked at me with a similar expression.

"What are you doing?" he asked, eyebrow raised.  "Aren't you amazed?  That's one of the most touching scenes in the history of movies.  After everything they've done and everything they've been through, almost dying to a million huge explosions, they're still able to find love.  It's a really good movie."

I blinked, then smiled and nodded.  Just smile and nod, I told myself.  Keep it up.

"It's much better than any Nicholas Sparks movie, at least," Jeremy said.

Oh!  Oh no!  I managed to put my plate on the coffee table before I accidentally dropped it on the ground, then I was up in arms.  "I really don't think so!"

"Alright, I admit that some of his movies have explosions in them," Jeremy said.  "Dear John was alright, and The Notebook had a couple war scenes, but that's about it."

"You probably fell asleep during the boring parts because you're dumb," I said.  Perhaps not my best insult ever, but I didn't care.

Jeremy laughed.  "Yeah, you're right.  I probably did.  So I got a nice hour and a half nap out of it, I guess?"

"You're terrible."

"I can't believe you didn't even clap.  You didn't look excited at all.  How can you not be excited when there's so many explosions?"

"To be honest, I don't even know why anything was exploding.  Why did they kiss?  Do they even have names?  The whole movie didn't make any sense."

"The evil looking guys were evil and the good looking ones were good.  What else do you need to know besides that?  The two at the end were the strongest good guy and the most attractive woman who was also a good guy, so of course they're going to get together."

"By most attractive, you mean she had the largest breasts?" I asked.

"Hey," Jeremy said, sounding affronted.  "That's not the only thing.  Yeah, so she had large breasts, but she looked great in those latex pants.  What an ass.  Those hips and everything, too.  I mean, really now.  She had a lot of everything if you ask me."

I rolled my eyes at him, then turned to look away.  I ended up glancing towards the open kitchen and seeing the clock on the wall.

"Oh God," I said.

"What?" Jeremy asked.  "What's wrong?"

"The time!  The clock.  Oh God.  It's late.  I need to go.  I was supposed to—"

I was supposed to meet Asher.  In our bedroom.  For some
important business meeting discussions. 
And he'd said, I reminded myself, to wear appropriate attire.  Which basically amounted to nothing or some sexy lingerie.  Yes, we were trying to have a child together, but that didn't mean we couldn't enjoy it, right?

Except he'd be here any minute and I was in the guest house.  He hadn't contacted Jeremy, though.  That didn't mean a whole lot, since Asher could have found another way home.  Lucent was still in the office, and they drove together sometimes.  Or a taxi.  The subway, then a ten minute walk here.  Asher did a lot of things and came home in a lot of ways, but none of those negated the fact that he expected me to be somewhere and I kind of wanted to be there, too.

But I wasn't.

"I have to go," I said again suddenly.

Jeremy just stared at me like I was a nut.  "Alright?  So, go?"

"I'm going!  Can you clean up, please?  It's just a plate, but do you mind?"

"I got it," he said.  "Don't worry.  I know how to clean a plate."

"Thanks," I said.  "The movie wasn't that bad, either.  I didn't understand half of it, but the explosions were neat."  I didn't understand one half of it, but I also didn't understand the other half, either.  I decided not to say that, though.

"There's a sequel," Jeremy said, picking up my plate and laying it atop his.  "We should watch that one next time.  It's good."

"Sure!" I said.  I didn't have time to think of a way out of that.

Scrambling to the front door of the guest house, I opened it and ran out into the open air.  I wasn't that far from the main house, but that didn't change the fact that I was still late for Asher's plans, and... well, yes, we had some beautiful sex in his private meeting room today, but the day wasn't over and there was a lot of time for more beautiful sex.  Sort of.

The celebration tonight.  Asher's sweet gesture of offering to do a quick vow renewal where my father could walk me down the aisle.  Nothing huge, no, but enough.  Some of my friends and family, and his, too, together.  It was really nice, and I loved that he'd done that for me.  It was for him, too, but I think he knew that it was important to me in its own way.

And I would repay him.  With really hot sex.  I mean, I'd enjoy the sex, too, of course.  This wasn't an "either/or" situation here.  I just wanted it to be really hot.  Sexy!  Enticing, alluring, and seductive.  I needed time to set all of that up, though, and I didn't know if I had any time at all.  What if Asher was waiting for me in our bedroom already?  I couldn't just ask him to hold off while I set us up for something steamy and sensual.  That seemed kind of counter-intuitive to the whole process.

I tried running to the front door of the mansion, but heels aren't the most conducive shoes for running.  I managed to hobble and hop my way there a little faster than if I was walking, but probably not by much.  I should work on that.  Maybe they offered classes on how to run in heels somewhere.  It seemed like a useful skill.

Fuck.  I'd forgotten my purse!  I didn't have my keys.  And I'd just said fuck.  I didn't actually say fuck, I told myself, I thought it.  I can be as crass as I want in my thoughts, because no one can see them.  Which means I could think of doing dirty and naughty things with Asher, right?  Yes, and...

Fuck!

I knocked on the door, distracting myself from moments soon to come.  Then I remembered we had a keypad for times like this, so I stepped to the side and flipped up the keypad cover.  The code was... something.  I knew the code, I did!  It took me a moment before I remembered it, typed it in fast, but before I could hit enter and unlock the door someone answered it for me.

I started to thank them profusely and went to move inside, except then I realized it was Asher.  He stood there, eyes dark and glaring, with a forced smile on his face.

"Oh," I said.  "Um... Asher.  Hi."

"Hey," Asher said.  "How are you, Jessika?"

"I'm good.  I was watching a movie with Jeremy in the guest house.  We picked up burgers."