The Seduction 4 (6 page)

“Isn’t this nice?”
She greets me with a kiss. “I actually get to see you in daylight
for a change, instead of just back at the apartment.”

I’m still wound tight
as a fucking vice. “Does this place have steak?”

She grins. “Why do
you think I picked it?”

Keely takes my hand
across the table. “C’mon, baby.” She lowers her voice. “You’ve
been way too stressed. We just have to wait for them to mess up.
Brent’s too cocky, he’ll slip up soon.”

She looks so certain, I
relax a little. Certain, and sexy as hell.

“You know I can’t
resist you in those business outfits,” I tell her, sliding a hand
under the table. I find her knee and squeeze. “Stockings, hmm?” I
slide my hand higher, up that sweet flesh. “You’re going to leave
those on tonight.”

Her breath hitches.
Keely bites her lip. “Yes, Vaughn,” she coos, teasing and
obedient.

Yeah, now I’m
distracted.

But before I can tell
her what else I’m thinking, about her mouth sucking slow around my
cock, a light hand comes down on my shoulder.

“Vaughn, darling,
it’s so good to see you.”

Every muscle in my body
recoils like a fucking electric shock. Even my dick shrinks back at
the sound of that voice. A ghost. A goddamn specter.

“Get your fucking
hands off me,” I growl, not even turning to look.

I see Keely’s eyes
widen with shock and confusion. She looks up. “What’s going on?”
she asks. “Vaughn, who is this?”

Memories crash through
me as the woman lets out a laugh. “Me? I’m Julianne. Vaughn’s
ex-wife.”

KEELY

His ex-wife?

“Ex-fiancée,”
Vaughn corrects her with a growl. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

The woman laughs. “Oh
look at you, still as blunt as ever.” She looks down at me from
beside him, curling her perfect red lipstick in a smirk. “He can be
a real beast, can’t he?”

It’s clear from her
tone, she means more than just his manners.

I can’t believe it. I
don’t know what to think as I stare at Julianne in shock. She’s
beautiful, one of those sleek, blond, glamorous women poured into a
chic black dress and towering spiked heels.

She dated Vaughn?

They were
engaged
?

Julianne looks from
Vaughn to me and back again, and arches a perfect eyebrow. “Oh, did
he not mention me? Whoopsie. Sorry, darling.”

She touches his
shoulder again. I see Vaughn’s whole body tense. “Anyway, I must
be on my way. You look well, darling. Give my love to your brother.”
With a smug grin, Julianne turns on her heel and sashays away.

Silence.

“Vaughn?” I finally
ask, my voice shaking. Insecurity ripples through me, ice-cold. “Is
it true, what she said?”

“Yes.” Vaughn
answers curtly, snapping back to life. He beckons the waiter over,
and orders a steak, rare, like nothing’s happened. “Keely?” he
prompts me. I blink, food the furthest thing from my mind. He sighs.
“She’ll take the salmon,” he instructs the waiter, sending him
away.

My head spins. I knew
Vaughn had a past, that there were women before me. Dozens. Hundreds.
But he always said, he didn’t do relationships. The one time I made
him take me on a real date, he did everything he could to shut it
down.

Now I discover there
was a woman in his life, for real. A woman he wanted to marry, to
start a family with.

A woman he was willing
to say vows for.

“Talk to me, Vaughn,”
I say, hating the pleading note in my voice. “I thought we said no
more secrets.”

“Julianne isn’t a
secret.” Vaughn spits out her name. “She’s the worst fucking
mistake of my life. That’s all you need to know.”

“But that’s not
enough.” I frown. “What happened? How long were you together? Why
did it end?”

“Dammit, Keely, I
said that’s all.” Vaughn scowls at me.

I take a deep breath,
suddenly feeling on the edge of tears.

I thought things were
different now. I thought he was finally letting me in. But if Vaughn
is still hiding something as big as this, what else is still lurking
in his past, undiscovered?

“Excuse me.” I get
to my feet and bolt for the restrooms. I need a moment away from him,
to pull myself together before I lose it completely.

The marble bathroom is
small and cool, and I run my wrists under the cold faucet, trying to
talk myself down.

The door flies open.

“What---” I can’t
even get the word out before Vaughn is slamming me back against the
wall, claiming my mouth in a violent kiss.

I gasp for air. He
pulls away, clutching at my body through my clothes. Groping my
breast, shoving his leg between my thighs.

“What are you doing?
Vaughn!” I protest as he yanks up my skirt. He wrenches his belt
open and frees his swollen cock.

“What does it look
like?” he growls, pushing me back against the wall. “I’m
putting my dick back where it belongs.”

He pulls my thighs
apart, panting. There’s a weird desperation in his eyes like I’ve
never seen before.

“No!” I shove him
away. “Not like this. Talk to me, Vaughn. Tell me what’s going
on.”

Vaughn lets out a
curse. He slams the bathroom wall and whirls around.

“Vaughn,” I call,
but he storms out. The door swings shut behind him.

* * *

I don’t know what to
do, I feel so confused, so I straighten up my clothes and head back
to work. The office is quiet during lunch, and I wander the long
route to my office, trying in vain to reach Vaughn on his cell.

You
know what the hell to do. Message at the beep.

“It’s me,” I say,
“Come on, Vaughn, please call me. I don’t even know what just
happened, but whatever you have to say, I’ll listen. I’m here for
you, remember? We’re a team now.”

I hang up slowly,
calmer now. This Julianne woman hurt him; that much is clear. I
shouldn’t be jealous. I just need to give Vaughn time to open up.
He’s emotional right now, blind-sided -- that’s why he tried to
blot her out in the only way he knows how.

I have to believe he’ll
talk to me in time.

“Penny for them?”
Cam’s voice cuts through my thoughts. I look up. I’m outside his
office, the door open. He’s at his desk, looking at some papers as
he eats takeout from a box.

“Give me another
week, and that’s all the company’ll be worth,” I sigh, stepping
inside.

Cam shakes his head.
“It’s not over until the fat lady sings,” he says. “Or in our
case, until the last member votes.”

I pause. I know I can’t
trust anyone here, but finding information alone has been a
challenge. I quickly weigh the risk before asking, “What do you
know about Martin Ridley?”

Cam pauses, frowning.
“I haven’t heard that name in a long time. He was part of the
company, way back years ago.”

“So you don’t know
he’s behind the Excaliber bid?” I ask point-blank.

Cam looks shocked. “Are
you serious? When did this happen? How are you sure?”

If he’s lying, he’s
doing a good job of it. “I had someone do some digging,” I say
carefully, not wanting to give Vaughn away. “And they confirmed
he’s the one behind the hedge fund.”

Cam exhales. “Shit.
That would explain why Ashcroft didn’t accept their offers.”

“So there was bad
blood between them?” I press him, looking for any hints of
deception.

But Cam doesn’t
flinch. “Real bad.” He nods. “Ashcroft wouldn’t even talk
about what happened back then. All he ever said is the guy was
rotting in jail where he belonged.”

“He’s out. And
running around town conspiring with Brent and Carter.”

“Maybe this will help
us.” Cam looks brighter. “Ridley always had the worst
reputation.”

“What do you mean?”

“Shady business
dealings, mob ties, you name it.” Cam sighs. “Ashcroft didn’t
find out until too late, they were already in deep with him. But if
the board knows he’s behind the offer, maybe that will make them
think twice. You can’t trust a guy like that. He’s dangerous.”

I gulp. “That’s not
good.”

“Not at all.” Cam
looks grim. “I heard he had a way of making threats just disappear.
Feds tried to get him on drug running charges once. Two weeks before
the trial, their star witness blew his brains out.”

I feel a chill.
“Suicide?”

“That was the
official verdict,” Cam gives me a look. “But it was too
convenient by half. The guy didn’t leave a note, just put a shotgun
in his mouth and pulled the trigger.”

Just like Vaughn’s
dad.

I stumble back,
suddenly sick to my stomach. “I... should get back,” I say
quickly.

“Thanks for the intel
on Ridley, this should help us a lot.” Cam grins, not realizing
what his words have done to me. “I’ll look into his history with
Ashcroft Industries. Maybe there’s something back then we can use.”

I nod and hurry back to
my office, mind racing. All this time, Vaughn and his family believed
that his father committed suicide, but what if that’s not the
truth?

What if Jack Vaughn was
killed -- because of this man, Ridley?

No. I can’t jump to
conclusions. Something like this is too big to just go on coincidence
and rumor. Even Cam said, they never knew about this other guy for
sure -- and I can’t dredge up Vaughn’s past for him without solid
proof.

The thought haunts me
for the rest of the day. I still don’t hear anything from Vaughn,
and when I get back to my apartment, I’m not even sure if he’ll
be there.

But he is. Sitting in
the dark staring out of the window, like he’s been there for hours.

I turn on the lights.
He doesn’t move.

I take a deep breath.
I’m feeling scared and insecure and angry over the way he acted at
the restaurant. But I won’t let him push me around now. If this is
going to be different now, I need him to let me in.

“I was worried about
you.” I cross around so I’m standing in front of him.

Vaughn looks tense and
conflicted. He gulps from the glass of whiskey in his hand. “Dammit,
Keely. Can’t you just leave it alone?”

My heart aches. I hate
seeing him like this. I wish we could just move on and pretend we
never met Julianne at all, but it’s too late for that.

“You promised me, no
more lies,” I remind him. Vaughn gets up angrily and turns to go,
but I move to stop him.

“I mean it, Vaughn.
You either tell me the truth, or you walk out that door right now.
And you don’t come back.”

VAUGHN

Keely stands in front
of me, unflinching. She folds her arms and waits, and I know, there’s
no getting around it now.

Dammit. For a moment, I
wish we could turn back the clock to when I first met her. That Keely
wouldn’t be making ultimatums, she’d be too busy choking on my
cock right now. Yeah, that nervous, blushing woman I could distract
with filthy words, shove my fingers in her pussy and make her come
screaming so hard she forgot what she was asking in the first place.

But I already tried to
block out the truth back at the restaurant. I thought that if I could
just sink deep into her hot, wet cunt, I could wipe the memory of
Julianne’s betrayal from my mind.

I was wrong. There’s
no erasing the past.

“Vaughn.” Keely’s
voice softens. Her eyes are full of emotion. She touches me gently,
and fuck, if it’s my undoing.

Something splits open
inside me. Memories come rushing out.

“I thought she was
the one,” I tell her, hating myself for how fucking dumb I could
be. “I was young, and horny, and stupid, and Julianne... She
dazzled me, I guess. You saw her, she knew exactly how to act, what
to say. I thought she was sweet, and innocent. I couldn’t have been
more wrong.”

Keely exhales. I sink
back into the chair, pulling her onto my lap. The feel of her warm,
lush body pressed against me is soothing, like she’s the one thing
I can hold onto. Keep the harsh truth of the past from cutting too
deep.

“I was crazy about
her, I lost my head. I didn’t realize at the time she was just
playing me. She’d spin on a dime, have crazy mood swings. Be sweet
as pie one day then push me away. It was all a game to her, a way to
keep me running back for more.”

“But you loved her,”
Keely murmurs, snuggling into me.

“I didn’t know what
the fuck love was,” I clench my jaw. “She had me dancing on her
strings. All that time I was panting after her, she was screwing
around. My friends, her co-workers, but that wasn’t the worst. No,
she had a final fuck-you planned, a way to really dig the knife in
before she let me go.”

I stop. I’m numb to
it now. Totally detached. Like I’m telling a story that happened to
someone else.

“What happened?”
Keely whispers softly. She takes my hand, lacing her fingers through
mine.

“She fucked my
brother is what happened.”

I feel Keely’s gasp.
She pulls back to look at me. “Oh, Vaughn...”

“Planned it, too,”
I add grimly. “Set the whole thing up so I’d find them together.
She’s been seducing him for weeks. Telling him how terrible I was
to her, how I picked fights and pushed her around and made her do
unspeakable things in bed. None of it was true,” I add, looking
down at Keely. “I never laid a hand on that woman, I swear. And in
bed--”

“I don’t know if I
want to hear it,” Keely says quickly. I see the insecurity in her
eyes, and I have to chuckle.

“It was nothing like
this, baby. She can’t hold a fucking candle to you.”

A smile curves on
Keely’s lips, but she quickly wipes it off. “That must have been
awful for you.”

“It fucking tore me
apart.” I shake my head. “I swore I’d never let it happen
again. I’d never trust anyone like that, never give someone that
power to hurt me. I would stay in control. I would be the one making
them beg.”