The Billionaire's Unwanted Virgin (22 page)

Alice accepted the bottle of water
her mum handed her whilst speaking and drank greedily before she answered, and
looked down her body.

"And where would I keep it, Mum?
Besides I don't want to get mugged. What's going on? Why are we suddenly
newsworthy again?"

"You haven't heard, have you? I
thought you might, being that you run past several newsagents on your route."

Alice shrugged her shoulders.

"I was working things out in my
head. I don't pay much attention to what's around me, you know that."

Alice's mum sighed, and her lips
pressed together into a thin line of disapproval.

"Tell me, did Lakota ever hit
you?"

Alice choked on the sip of water
she'd just taken, and stared at her mum through watery eyes.

"Of course not. I can't believe
you would even ask me that. Have you been reading those gossip rags again? I
told you already, Lakota may have been portrayed as some sort of sadist freak,
but that's not who he is."

"So he's never tied you up, and
done … well, you know." Alice watched the flush creep into her mother's
cheeks with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment at having this
conversation with her now. Sara knew all the ins and outs—well mostly all of
them—some things you didn't share even with your best friend, but she was so
not ready to have this conversation with her mother. And why did she ask her
about this now?

She shrugged her shoulders and
feigned a nonchalance she was far from feeling.

"Why do you want to know this
now, Mum? Has there been another sordid story in the papers, is that it? I can
tell you this much, whatever Lakota and I did, he did with my full
consent."

Elizabeth closed her eyes and released
her breath with an audible whoosh.

"Oh, thank God. I've been going mad
imagining the worst, and that's why you ran and just couldn't bring yourself to
tell me. That wouldn't have been the first time you did that." Elizabeth
fixed her with
that
look, and Alice squirmed.

"That was a long time ago, and
believe me, I learned my lesson. There is no way I would let an abusive a-hole
anywhere near me, let alone Beth." She wiped the sweat out her eyes and
stretched her legs to stop them ceasing up.

"Now that we've cleared that up,
are you going to tell me why you're asking? Why are they here?" She
hitched her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the door and smiled at
a sleepy Beth just trundling down the stairs, thumb in mouth.

"Morning there, sweetie. I'd
give you a cuddle, but I'm all sweaty."

Beth wrinkled her nose and looked her
up and down in disgust.

"Euww, go shower. Wanna watch
C-Beebies."

She half turned and almost collided
with the hallway wall, before she collected herself, grinned sheepishly, and
then trotted into the living room. Seconds later the sound of her favorite
children's channel could be heard blaring.

"Turn the volume down, sweetie,"
Alice and her mum called in unison, and they smiled at each other.

"She will get such a shock to her
system when she can go back to school at the start of term." Alice drew
her mum in for a hug and made to head up the stairs.

"I really do need to shower, Mum.
I can smell myself, and it ain't pretty."

The ghost of a smile flitted over
Elizabeth's tense features, and Alice froze with her foot on the bottom step,
when her mum grabbed her hand.

"I don't know how to say this,
so I'm just going to come out with it. Percy woke me up with a phone call first
thing this morning. He wanted you to know before you read it in the papers, and
encountered that lot out there, I guess, but of course you were gone
already."

"Wanted me to know what, Mum?
Tell me already, you're scaring me here. Is Lakota all right? Has something
happened?" Her voice rose to a shrill shriek at the thought that he might
be hurt, or worse, and she'd never even told him she'd loved him.

"I wouldn't say he's all right
exactly, though Percy, I expect, has got him out by now, but he was arrested
last night."

Alice stared at her mum as though she
had grown three heads. "Arrested? Whatever for?"

"Selina is in hospital with
severe head injuries, and they say he's the one who did it."

****

Lakota followed the duty sergeant out
to the front desk and signed for his belongings. He couldn't have cared less
about them, but formalities had to be followed. After an uncomfortable night
spent on the narrow cot in his holding cell, bone weary tiredness weighed down
his every step. Every time he'd closed his eyes he had revisited that awful
moment when Selina had smashed her head into that mirror. There had been so
much blood. He could still see it under his fingernails, even though he'd
scrubbed his skin raw in the tiny hand basin in his cell.

Thankfully they had given him a
different shirt to wear, keeping his blood stained one for forensic evidence.
This one was too small, and it reeked of moth balls, but at least it wasn't
covered in blood.

He could see a worried looking Percy
waiting for him behind the glass partition, and he raised a weak smile at the
sight of the fresh shirt hanging over the other man's arm.

Thank God for Percy's efficiency, and
his ability to get him out of this hell hole.

"There you are, Mr. Kemnay,
you're free to go."

He grunted his thanks at the
constable, and with a buzz of the door he was free—for now. If he would stay
that way remained to be seen.

"Sir, if I may so, you look like
shit."

Percy handed him his shirt, and
Lakota swallowed a short laugh.

"As would you do after the night
I've had. What's the status?"

"
Lady
Horsley, though I swear
I have never encountered a more misleading title in my life, woke up this
morning." He pulled a face that under any other circumstances would have
made Lakota laugh. Alice would have found it hysterical. With that brief
thought came a wave of misery so acute he struggled to breathe. Alice, who
would never want to see him again for sure after last night's happenings. He
had been such a fucking fool.

"She is claiming amnesia this
morning from what I can gather. How very convenient for her and extremely inconvenient
for us. We would stand a better chance if she actually accused you. That way I
could tear her miserable little blue blooded behind to shreds. Within the terms
of the law, of course." Percy winked at him and steered him through a side
door. "This way, Sir. The damn vultures are everywhere, but there are
considerably fewer of them ‘round the side entrance. I have a car waiting to
take you home."

Home, now there was a thought. The
only home he could think of was Alice's mother's place. The tiny three bed
terrace was filled with love and laughter, and most importantly the woman he
loved. There was no point in denying his feelings any longer. A night spent in
jail made a man re-evaluate his choices in life, that's for sure.

However, turning up at Alice's place
was out of the question. Which left the Dorchester or his country house.

Lakota sunk into the plush interior
of the idling Jaguar with a grunt of relief. Percy ran round the car, and got
in the other side, just as they were spotted. His driver put his foot down, and
several photographers barely avoided being run over.

"Take it easy," Percy
shouted at the driver. "I don't want to have yet more work having to bail
you out of prison, too, when you get done for dangerous driving."

Collin's gaze briefly connected with
Lakota's in the rear view mirror, and his long term driver and security detail
smirked.

"Keep your wig on, pencil
pusher. I'm just making sure the boss is safe. Where are we going to?"

Lakota shut his eyes and rested his
head back on the head rest.

"Anywhere, I don't fucking care.
Just get me out of here."

"Sure thing." The car
continued at a more sedate pace, and Percy picked up the thread of their
conversation.

"So, like I was saying. Unless
she
remembers
soon and gives us her version of events, which should
clear you, but being what she actually did, probably won't, we're all sorts of
fucked." Lakota raised a weak smile hearing the ever polite Percy swear
like that. "I fully expect her to lie through her teeth. We will have to
wait for the result of the investigation and whether the Crown Prosecution
Service decides if there is enough evidence to charge you with GBH. Now, on the
surface there is, but forensics are pretty accurate these days, so we'll just
have to play the waiting game, and hope for the best. A character statement
would come in handy here from someone you've been intimate with recently. Your
wife springs to mind."

Lakota snapped his eyes open and
glared at Percy.

"I want Alice kept out of this.
Besides I highly doubt she would be willing to give such a statement on my
behalf."

No, she would more than likely drop
him in it further. He could still see the fear in her eyes, the way she had
flinched away from him as though he was actually going to hurt her. No, she
would assume the worst just like everyone else did. He forced himself to
unclench his hands and ignored the bead of sweat trickling down between his
shoulder blades. Jesus, just thinking of her reaction to this news had him
break out in a cold sweat.

"Actually, Sir, you would be
surprised. I spoke to Alice this morning, and the only thing she wanted to know
is how you were, and what she could do to help."

Lakota's heart thudded against his
breast bone at that flare of sudden hope.

"She did?"

"Yes, she did. In fact, she said,
and I advised her against this, of course, that she would check on Selina, and
then come and see you. She was most insistent."

"She was?"

Percy smiled and nodded.

"Indeed she was, so may I
suggest we go to the Dorchester, and you freshen up a bit. You could scare
small children with that look."

****

Alice was getting sick and tired of
hospitals. If she never set foot in another one it would be too soon. However
she was a woman on a mission, and she would damn well succeed. It's the least
she could do under the circumstances, and besides she needed to see the Queen
bitch herself. Alice knew she had to be lying. She deliberately hadn't asked
Percy for Lakota's version of events, but she
knew
without the shadow of
a doubt that he would not have hurt Selina on purpose. Not even if she had
begged for it. That wasn't him. How she could be so sure she couldn't even
begin to explain to herself. She just knew that the man she loved was not
capable of something as heinous as this. The Lakota she knew felt things
deeply, even if he didn't put voice to those feelings. He was honorable and
true, and valued his family ties above all else.

And she would tell him so, just as
soon as she got that Selina to back down and stay the fuck away from her
husband. The door to her private room was left ajar, and Alice marched through
without knocking. Selina lay propped up by cushions, a small smile on her face
as she scrolled through her phone messages. The white bandage covering half of
her face and the top of her head gave Alice a moment of concern before the
other woman looked up and her eyes narrowed.

"What are
you
doing
here?"

Alice grabbed the bottom rail of the
bed to stop herself from doing something with her hands that she might regret
later, like slap the bitch.

"Oh, so you remember who I am
then? I thought you had amnesia?" Alice stared the other woman down.

"Ah that. What would you rather
I told them? That the savage you married, smashed my head in the mirror whilst
he was rutting me from behind like the beast he is? Even though I begged him
not to? Would that be better? Is that what you came here to find out? How many
times we fucked before he got carried away?"

Alice gripped the rail so hard, she
was surprised she wasn't leaving indents behind.

"I would rather you told the
truth. We both know that's not what happened."

"Oh, we do, do we? Is that the
royal we, or were you there? Who's going to believe
him
when it's my
word against his? With all the furor you caused leaving him folks will wonder,
won't they? And I understand he's got a rather questionable past."

"You know diddly squat about his
past. I don't believe for one minute that you would have bothered to find out
anything about him past the size of his wallet."

"Oh Alice, sweet little Alice.
You forget the most important thing—the size of his cock."

Alice saw red, literally saw red, and
she would have launched herself at the fucking cow, had it not been for the
voice of reason whispering in her ear.

She's lying. Don't fall for this
again.

Instead Alice smiled a slow,
dangerous, and deadly smile. Some of her inner thoughts must have shown on her
face, because Selina's mask of supreme confidence slipped a little.