My hottest Billionaire a Boss

Episode 17

And she could still hear her father’s shocked voice, the fury that

threaded through the words, as Jarty bellowed, ‘Just what the hell is

going on here?’

For a second her mind went blank in total panic. The next moment she

reacted in unthinking fear and desperation. Pushing hard at Edward’s

chest, she struggled in his arms, frantically trying to get away.

‘I didn’t mean to…’ she said. ‘I never wanted to—he made me…’

And it was on those words that Edward let her go, flinging her from him

as if her touch defiled him, so that she spun halfway across the room,

stumbling hard against the arm of a chair as she came to a clumsy halt.

One corner rammed into her naked thigh, making her head spin with pain,

her eyes blurring with instinctive reaction to the throbbing bruise so

that she heard her father’s roar, saw the blow he aimed at the

younger man’s jaw, through a haze of distress.

‘Get out of here and don’t come back…’

She had tried to convince herself that Edward had less than her to lose.

That as a man, and older than her, he was more likely to be able to shrug

off the unpleasantness of the night, to turn his back on things on her and walk away without a mark on his arrogant hide. His skin was too thick,

his pride too strong to feel the pinpricks of the petty arrows she had

fired at him and that Jarty had taken up and used as weapons too. Now, older and more experienced, there was no way she could look at it

like that. She’d been stupid, immature, totally selfish. She’d thought only

of herself and of putting herself in a good light, and she’d never stopped

to think of the possible consequences for Edward. And she should have

done. She should have told Jarty the truth so that at least he could have

offered Edward his job back. She doubted that he would have taken it

but at least she should have tried to make reparation.

She still should. Even if Edward had made a brilliant success of his life

after Jarty had fired him, she had still been responsible for him being

thrown out without a job or a reference without even a roof over his

head.

And now she knew how that felt.

She knew one other thing. And that was, whether he listened to her or

not, this time she had to stay and face him. Then, she had let Jarty

bundle her up in his jacket and half walk, half carry her away and back to

the House where, after making sure that Edward had not actually

harmed her, he had given her brandy ‘for the shock’ and stayed with her

until the fierce spirit had taken effect and she had fallen asleep.

When she had woken she had been told that Edward had gone. That he

had left field for good and she had nothing to worry about any

more. And, weak as she had been, the mental lacerations of Edward’s

rejection of her still burning in her soul, she had accepted that and had

hoped that it was true.

Now, she could no longer let that easy explanation satisfy her. Edward

was back with a vengeance and she had to face him this time. She

couldn’t run away again. If he ever came back.Once again, she made the weary trek to the window and looked out.The

dawn was almost complete now the sky a glowing pink, and the old saying,

‘Red sky in the morning, shepherd take warning’ echoed ominously inside

her head. Never mind the shepherds. She strongly suspected that the

warning implied in the sky’s bright colouring was just for her.

She wasn’t going to watch from the window any longer, she told herself.

All the watching and waiting in the world wouldn’t bring Edward back to

the house any quicker than he wanted to come so there was no point in

staying there, staring out into the brightening dawn. Besides which, the

last thing she wanted was for him to drive up to the house and see her

standing there, watching for him.

Sighing, she made her way back into the library and curled up on the

settee before the big fireplace there. The leather was old and worn, the

stuffing battered from long wear so that it was far from the most

comfortable place she could sit. But there was no way she was going to be

able to settle in the sitting room, not with the settee there holding such

shocking memories, reminding her of how she had lost all control,

abandoning sanity completely and giving herself up to Edward’s sensual

mastery. And, by doing so, she had given him a power over her that she

knew he would never forget and neither would she. She would only have

to look at him to remember how it had felt to be in his arms, feel his

touch, his kisses. Just the burn of his eyes on her would reawaken the

fiery need that she had experienced in response to his caresses. And he

would be able to look into her eyes and know just how she was feeling

because, now that she had let him know the truth of how much she

hungered for him, she would never, ever be able to hide it from him again.

And a night without sleep wouldn’t help either. If she had any sense of selfesteem then she would go upstairs now and

try to pick herself up. A shower and a change of clothes might give her

some mental strength with which to face Edward when he came back.

If he came back.

Oh, of course he would come back. He had gone to so much trouble to get

his hands on this place; there was no way he was going to abandon it just

because of a complete loss of his temper.

A huge yawn took her completely by surprise and had her blinking

suddenly heavy eyelids as she fought against the thick waves of

tiredness that swept over her.

She really should get cleaned up, make herself look respectable…

She really should…

Her eyes had closed before she had completed the thought and

exhaustion swamped her completely, taking her consciousness with it.

The idea had been to drive far enough and fast enough to work off some

of the black rage inside him and to calm down enough to be able to think At least that had been the plan, Edward told himself as he steered his

car through the main gates and headed up the drive in the light of the

early morning. But the truth was that, far from evaporating, or even

easing, the blazing fury had compacted, set in a cold, hard mass deep in

his heart, sitting there like a lump of black stone, irremovable and

unbreakable. And the realisation that the way that Liza had behaved

had driven him out once again, away from the house he owned his home

just as she had done years before, only darkened his mood even more,

making him determined that this time she was not going to get away with

it.

This time he was the one in charge. He was the one with all the cards in

his hand, cards he fully intended to play against her just as soon as he

got back inside. This time, it would be Liza who would find

herself thrown out of house and home. That had been his plan all along

and only a temporary mental glitch had distracted him from his purpose

for a moment.

But not any more, he resolved as he drew the car to a halt outside the

house and yanked on the brakes. This time, Lady Liza would be out of

here and on her way before she even knew what had hit her. And he

would be only too pleased to see the back of her for good.

The door he had slammed behind him so furiously last night was unlocked

and standing just a tiny bit open, swinging inward at his touch in a way

that made him frown darkly. Had she gone already, leaving the place open

and exposed to possible robbers when she left? Certainly the house was

silent and apparently empty, his footsteps echoing loudly on the wooden

floor.

Liza?’ No response. So had she packed and gone? The thought should have

pleased him, fulfilling the dark ambition he had set himself, but instead

it simply made his displeasure so much worse, deepening his anger at the

way that he had been deprived of the satisfaction he’d planned.

Satisfaction of more than one kind, he remembered grimly. Because, even

now, hours after savage fury had put an abrupt end to the sexual

satisfaction every sense had craved, his body still ached with hungry

frustration, each tightly stretched nerve screaming a protest at the way

he had slammed the brakes on their arousal and forced them under

brutal control once again.

If Liza had gone, then she had thwarted him in all ways, snatching

away his need to demonstrate his power over her, the way that he now

had the upper hand and he fully intended to use it.

Liza?’

Louder this time, but there was still no response, the name seeming to

swirl in the air, disturbing the stillness, the silent atmosphere of the

apparently empty house.

Cursing with fluent savagery in European, Edward was about to head

upstairs for a much-needed shower when an unexpected sound finally

caught his ear. It was soft and barely audible, so much so that he might

not have caught it if he hadn’t been listening intently, looking for just

something like that. It came to him as he placed his foot on the first

step, making him freeze instantly, waiting, listening again—trying to grasp

whatever it was that had tugged at his attention.

There it was again, faint and almost inaudible. A tiny sound, just a sigh or a breath, coming to him from behind the open door into the library.

At once he changed direction, stepping back down off the stairs and

turning to cross the hall.