Authors: Morgan Ashbury
Reckless Abandon
RECKLESS ABANDON
Morgan Ashbury
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
RECKLESS ABANDON
Copyright © 2009 by Morgan Ashbury
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-544-3
First E-book Publication: July 2009
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Thanks go to the dedicated staff at Siren-BookStrand, especially Alison and Rachel, whose hard work is much appreciated. And a very special thank you to Diana, whose continued belief in me is one of the most wonderful gifts I have ever received.
RECKLESS ABANDON
MORGAN ASHBURY
Copyright © 2009
It seemed to be her day for eavesdropping.
While the first conversation she’d overheard earlier between two women in the ladies room had been titillating but harmless, this one was not.
Chastity hung back, alert. The thought circled that listening in on other people’s private conversations simply wasn’t done.
Perhaps it should be
.
She hoped she would hear more before the hostess noticed her hovering and moved her along—or worse,
said
something to her. The coffee shop of the Royal Marquise hotel featured booths and tables separated from the lobby by beautifully sculpted lattice decorated with lush greenery. To access the restaurant, one had to walk through a narrow corridor, past the lattice-bordered part of the restaurant seating area.
If one wasn’t too bright, one might be seated there, see no others seated close by in the restaurant proper, and assume one had privacy.
To Chastity’s utter dismay she’d just discovered that her fiancé, Blake, wasn’t too bright.
“Your pussy felt so hot today, baby. You’re such a good little lover.” Blake’s voice sounded softer than Chastity had ever heard it.
Reckless Abandon
7
“I just adore our afternoons together,” an unknown female voice cooed. “I love your cock, and all the delicious things you do to me with it. I really wish you weren’t getting married, Blakey.” Chastity didn’t have very much experience with cocks, but hearing Blake could do delicious things with his was certainly news to her.
“So do I, Miranda. Believe me, if I had any other option, I wouldn’t. Marriage to that bitch Chastity will open doors and give me a cachet I wouldn’t otherwise be able to claim. Once we get it done, and I come back from the interminable honeymoon, there’s no reason you and I can’t still be together, same as we’ve always been. You’re my sexy little honey pot, baby, you know that. I’m going to need to drink your nectar just to keep me sane, to give me something to look forward to. I’ll begin right away diverting funds for us. If I’m careful and smart, I shouldn’t have to be saddled with that cold little cunt for more than three years—four at most. Do you love me enough to wait that long?”
“Oh, Blakey-pooh, you know I do! I just really hate the thought of sharing you with her.”
“Trust me. I won’t be banging her anymore than absolutely necessary. I have to on the honeymoon, of course, to make the marriage legal. After that, I promise, I’ll only touch her when I have to. And every time I slide between her legs, I’ll be dreaming that it’s you I’m banging. I love you, Miranda. Never forget that.” Chastity heard movement and a squishy-slurp sound, and knew they’d started kissing. She couldn’t listen anymore, and the urge for a quiet cup of coffee that had brought her to this spot to begin with had died.
Turning on her heel, she walked at a brisk but elegant pace toward the entrance of the hotel. The doorman tipped his hat as he held the door for her. Her car was in valet parking. Sometimes being rich had its advantages, like having her car brought to her in record time.
8
Morgan Ashbury
She tipped the young man generously and slid behind the steering wheel. As she navigated the afternoon traffic, her mind refused to think. Instinct had her heading toward the massive stone mansion at the end of an exclusive enclave in the west end of the city.
She parked in the circular drive at the base of the stone steps.
Before she reached the top, the door opened.
“Good afternoon, Miss Chastity. It’s so good to see you. Your grandmother is in the day room.”
Having tea, Chastity knew. At five minutes after three, her grandmother would be having tea in the day room. Some people foolishly thought time was determined by the rotation of the Earth around the sun, but Chastity knew better. People set their clocks by the unwavering routines of Gertrude Elizabeth Montgomery Sawyer.
“A pleasant surprise, Chastity,” Gertrude said with little emotion when Chastity stepped into the day room.
“A matter has come up,” Chastity began. One look from her grandmother had her swallowing her words.
My goodness, yes, we
must observe propriety
. She allowed Franklin, her grandmother’s butler, to seat her at the small round table in a chair he placed adjacent to Gertrude. A fine china cup and saucer appeared and tea, as always, Darjeeling, poured into the cup and set at a precise angle to her right.
“Thank you, Franklin.” Gertrude dismissed the man with a flick of her hand.
Chastity’s impatience gnawed at her. Finally, after she had taken a sip of her tea and asked after her grandmother’s health, the matriarch set her cup down delicately and looked at Chastity straight on, raising her left eyebrow.
“Now, it must be a rather important matter that finds you here at this hour on a Wednesday.”
Uninvited and unannounced
. Gertrude had never been a fan of impulsive acts of any kind. “Yes, Grandmother, I believe it’s a very important matter.” In terms as dispassionate as possible, Chastity told her grandmother about Blake and Miranda and his plans to keep
Reckless Abandon
9
seeing the woman after they had wed. Out of consideration for her grandmother’s sensibilities, she decided to forgo any mention of Blake’s delicious cock and the things it could do to Miranda that it had never done to
her
. Her own upset also prevented her from remembering to relate the part of his scheme where he hoped to be saddled with her for no more than four years, tops.
For a long moment after Chastity finished speaking, her grandmother kept silent. Chastity could clearly read signs of distress on the woman’s face.
“Oh, dear.” She sighed at last. “This is a most unfortunate turn of events.”
Chastity had long been used to her grandmother’s reticence.
Sitting in the day room of the mausoleum she’d grown up in, she realized she’d been hoping for a bit more of a reaction than that.
“Most unfortunate indeed,” Gertrude said.
Chastity got ready to receive the very rare and therefore highly cherished stroking from the woman who had raised her.
“I’m going to have to speak to Blake. He will need to learn to govern himself with far more discretion than that in future.” Only years of training in the proper way for a lady to sit prevented Chastity from staring at Gertrude, goggle-eyed and mouth open.
“Excuse me?”
“Why, anyone might have heard him or witnessed that scene. That will never do. He needs to mind his ways when he joins his name to ours. Discretion is, after all, the better part of valor.”
“Joins his—you don’t seriously expect me to marry him
now
?”
“Of course I do. It’s a good match. The Claytons are our social equals, Chastity.”
When Chastity just stared at her grandmother, the elderly woman sighed.
“Men take mistresses, Chastity. They always have. A blessing, really. Spares the wife from having to endure her husband’s indelicate cravings any more than absolutely necessary. The only reasonable
10
Morgan Ashbury
expectation a wife has is that her husband conduct his private affairs
in
private.”
“I see.”
Chastity took a moment to blot her lips with the fine linen napkin Franklin had earlier draped on her lap. She folded the napkin neatly then set it on the table beside her cup.
She had been raised by her grandmother after the death of her parents when she’d been ten. Gertrude’s high standards and unyielding rigidness had likely saved Chastity’s sanity in those early years when the overwhelming grief might have damaged her psyche.
Over the years, Chastity had done all that had been asked of her, and more. She’d attended the perfect schools, achieving near perfect marks. She stepped into the role of director of the Sawyer Trust as had been expected of her and performed her duties there with unswerving dedication.
Her social life had always been staid, predictable, and proper.
When Blake Clayton had asked her out on that first date more than two years ago, her grandmother had been so pleased that Chastity had, of course, accepted.
She’d accepted his marriage proposal for virtually the same reason.
She was twenty-seven years old, and looking at her future as dictated by Gertrude Elizabeth Montgomery Sawyer, the picture looked bleak.
All her life she’d done the right thing, the proper thing, the perfect thing, the
expected
thing—out of gratitude to and consideration for her grandmother.