The dinner eased by in a sumptuous parade of dishes, things Iâd never tasted â or even seen â before. Iâm more of an onion rings kind of a girl than an haute cuisine chick, but I was so dazzled by the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes that I completely surrendered.If that sounds naughty⊠it kind of was. In a culinary way, anyhow. There was a strawberry soup to start, both spicy and sweet. Foie gras, which is definitely not my favorite food in the world â but the shavings of truffle scattered across the top quickly became my favorite (at least for the next fifteen minutes). A carpaccio of a delicate fish, followed by scallops served on half a scallop shell. A truffle tart with smoked bacon. A cheese soufflĂ©. Abalone and leeks in a ginger broth. Roasted lobster with lemongrass. Grilled seabass with spinach. A tiny veal chop flavored with pesto. Three or four desserts, including a chocolate mousse with a Fuji apple compote. (I was in heaven with the chocolate.) Not only was the food
Things got less dark after that.Although it took me awhile to recover.Connor knew heâd frightened me a little, and so he spent the rest of the time regaling me with stories about playing pranks on schoolmates at boarding school⊠and bizarre tales of business deals gone wrong⊠and funny bits about how much Sebastian hated Connorâs family, and all the snide remarks he would make when he talked to them. Eventually the wine took over and put everything into a nice, soft haze⊠and the food overwhelmed me with the sheer sensual delight of it all. And I forgot about the creepy family history.For a while, anyway.We finished dinner â all sixteen courses â around 11PM. I swear I almost asked the restaurant staff to cart me out in a wheelbarrow. As we walked out into the lobby, Connor did the worst thing he could have possibly done under the circumstances.âSo⊠want to go back to the hotel and have crazy sex?â he whispered in my ear.âUGH. NO,â I said, not wanting to admit that I felt abou
He bent down to my mouth, his lips warm and forceful.I opened my own lips to let him in.I could feel the heat of his body against mine in the cold night air as he kissed me passionately. His wild enthusiasm from a moment ago became feverish motion as his hands roamed over my body.I draped my arms around his neck and pulled him deeper into me.His hands cupped my ass, ran up the red dress, caressed the bare skin of my back. Then I felt one hand circle around to the front of my body and softly move over my breast, feeling its weight in his palm.And I felt something else stir below his waist.I pressed my body against his hips and thighs, felt the delicious weight and size of it as it grew by the second. I dropped my left hand from around his neck and let one finger trace its way down his shirt â over his firm chest, down the ridges of his abs, and to the front of his pants, where I let my palm gently cup the thickness under the cloth. I stroked him, back and forth, slowly, sensuousl
We drove back in silence â at least at first â with Connor holding my hand.I just reclined in the leather seat, feeling wonderful and flushed and completely happy as I stared out the window. This time, though, I wasnât looking at the sky; I was watching the dimly lit desert landscape as it rolled by in the starlight.âYou know,â I said, âitâs kind of ironic that you took me out to see the future site of the largest solar energy installation in the world⊠in a Lamborghini.âHe laughed. âI thought about getting a Tesla.ââThat would have been more apropos.ââYes, it would have. But there arenât many charging stations between LA and Vegas, and the ones that exist are pretty damn slow. But⊠Iâll fix that.ââYou really think you can do it?ââWhat, put in high-speed charging stations between here and Las Vegas?âI rolled my eyes. âYou know what I mean.âHe gave me a little half-grin. âChange the world.ââYeah.ââYes I do, or I wouldnât attempt it.âI thought carefully about what I was goin
We got back to the hotel long after 2AM. Connor opened the door slowly, scanning for any angry Asian bodyguards â but the penthouse was dark, and Johnny was apparently sound asleep in his room.We tiptoed into the master bedroom and closed the door.âI need to take a shower,â I said. I had a thin layer of dust and fine grit over my skin and hair, and there was no way I was getting into bed like that.I peeled off my dress and bra. The panties, as far as I knew, were still in Connorâs pocket.He watched me as I undressed.I enjoyed feeling his eyes roving over me.âIâll join you,â he whispered when I was finished.I looked back at him and smiled. âFine by me.âWhile Connor undressed, I went into the bathroom. There were a number of small candles on the counters; I decided to light them rather than turn on the bright overhead lights.And⊠yâknow⊠just in case.There was a light tap at the door.âCome in,â I whispered.The door opened, and he walked in.Totally naked.I caught my breath.
He didnât let me get away with it for long, though.I was about ten feet away from the bed when he came racing out and almost tackled me from behind, his wet, powerful body smacking hard against my back. I half-shrieked, half-laughed as his arms wrapped around me and pressed me hard against him.âThat wasnât very nice,â he whispered hoarsely in my ear.I tilted my head up and turned it towards him.He kissed me hungrily as his hands founds my breasts and fondled them, hot and wet in his hands.I broke off the kiss this time. âHow do you want me to make it up to you?â I asked innocently, batting my eyes.âI can think of a few ways,â he whispered, then turned me around so we faced each other. Then he grabbed my ass and began kissing me fervently again.I ran my hands over the wet skin of his back, and felt his throbbing shaft â slick from my own mouth â slide across my belly.Then he pulled back, and I swear he would have twirled his mustache if he had one.ââŠI know,â he whispered.Uh
I donât remember much after that.In fact, I donât remember much of anything until I woke up the next morning.The room was dim, but light was glowing through the curtained windows.I remembered Connor making love to me⊠âŠan amazing orgasm as I stared up at the starsâŠâŠand an even hotter orgasm doing something really, really naughty.Maybe it was time for round three.I rolled over and reached for Connor.He wasnât there.His side of the bed was empty, just rumpled sheets and a pulled-back comforter.But there was a note.Lily,Sorry, had to go tip over the first domino.Johnnyâs with me, so youâre on your own.Order some room service â and DONâT PAY FOR IT. Put it on the room tab.Give me a call as soon as you read this.ConnorHe left his cell number at the bottom of the sheet of paper.The first dominoâŠ?Then I remembered what he had said the night before:All the pieces are already in place. Itâs just a matter of tipping over the first domino.I grinned⊠and then lay back in bed,
Okay, mope time over.After I had my little freak-out over an ATM receipt, I decided I was going to celebrate.Not, like, celebrate the way Connor did, with sixteen-course meals and surf-n-turf room service.Just lunch. A nice lunch and a glass of wine. Iâm a sensible girl (usually), and contemplating a year of financial freedom had made me want to keep it.Mmm⊠maybe two glasses of wine.I found a nice little restaurant by the crazy indoor canal that ran through the Venetianâs shopping area. It was late enough after the lunch crowd that there was plenty of seating, so they put me by the wrought-iron railing so I could watch the gondolas go by. Guys wearing white-and-black-striped shirts with little red scarves pushed the boats along with poles. Meanwhile, the people inside the gondolas filmed the whole thing with their iPhones. Or smooched. Or filmed themselves with their iPhones as they smooched.It looked like fun. I wondered if Connor would do something so âVegas-y.âProbably not.
The only part that was slightly sad was that Connorâs mother and brother didnât attend. His mother was still under heavy psychiatric care. She wouldnât have even known what was going on, according to Connor. As much as I disliked Lenora Templeton, that news saddened me. I only wanted her out of my life. I didnât want her to end up like this.His brother had checked himself into rehab. Though he sent his congratulations, Vincent told Connor that he didnât think he could attend, knowing what Miranda had done and how she had met her end. He felt he was still in too precarious a situation emotionally to leave the safety of the rehab center.I know that Connor still bore a lot of anger and hurt towards his mother and brother, but he would have liked to have had them there â as long as they behaved themselves.Things were improving, though. His mother was gradually getting better, and Connor had worked out a deal to take over as interim CEO of the Templeton Group while his brother was in r
But as far as wedding days go, it wasnât the only one.Come on, Iâd gotten married in sopping wet clothes, on a deserted island in the Caribbean, with only four people total in attendance.Did you really think I wasnât going to have a billionaire-style shindig, with all my family and friends?Connor and I decided on it spontaneously, as soon as we got back home. But rather than hold it in New York City, with all its bad memories from the last couple of weeks, we held it two weeks later in Lake Cuomo, Italy. Have you ever seen pictures of Lake Cuomo? Itâs like an Italian Renaissance fairytale. George Clooney bought a residence there, with good reason â itâs one of the most beautiful places on earth. And thatâs where we had our wedding.There was only one shadow hanging over the entire day.After we were escorted back to St. Vincent by the policemen, Connor immediately hired a team of divers to go down to inspect the yachtâs wreckage. There was one body in particular he wanted found.B
It turns out Johnny was right: we didnât see a single shark the entire way.That doesnât mean it was a piece of cake. What with Johnny and Connorâs wounds, and my needing to rely on their help when I was tired, it took us almost an hour. By the time we got to the island, we were exhausted. But Sebastian was there to greet us. As we approached where the waves started to break, he saw us and started yelling and waving ecstatically from the beach.âA little help!â Johnny shouted at him. Sebastian immediately raced out into the waves and dragged me to shore. âThank God, thank God,â he kept sobbing as he helped me lie down on the sand. Then he went back out and helped Johnny and Connor limp their way onto the beach.We all collapsed next to each other. Connor and I held hands as we stared up into the blue sky, too weary to speak.âI thought Iâd never see you again,â Sebastian said, wiping tears from his face.I was touched; it was the most vulnerable Iâd ever seen him.âNo such luck,â Co
The happiest moment of my life was when Connor proposed to me.The second was when he burst through that door.And the third was seeing the look of surprise on Mirandaâs face when she realized what I had done to her.While Connor kept her talking, I picked the lock and undid the handcuffs from my right wrist. (Bobby pins to the rescue!) Then I grabbed Mirandaâs arm and slapped the cuffs on her.Anytime Iâm ever depressed about anything from now on for the rest of my life, Iâm just going to remember the look of surprise on that murderous bitchâs face, and everything will be better. Instant anti-depressant.Miranda yanked her arm up with a clank! of the chain, but she was locked to the metal armrest of the chair â which was bolted to the floor.She screamed in fury, and pulled the gunâs trigger.BLAM!But Iâd purposefully bumped her aim away from Connor â so all that happened was one of the creepy glass spider cases shattered into tiny shards.The gunshot hurt my ears, but Iâd been expe
I couldnât take the shot. I wasnât Johnny; my aim was good, but not stellar, and the floor was already at a 20 degree tilt. Miranda had her gun at point blank range to Lilyâs head. If she pulled the trigger before I got her â I slowly held my .45 away from my body and let it fall to the floor.All the ugliness I knew was inside Miranda revealed itself on her face. It was the evil leer of a serial killer, the grin of a Great White Shark.âI win,â she gloated.My heart sank.It was over. I had failed.I looked at Lily, both sorrow and love welling up at once. She was seated in some sort of chair bolted to the floor, and was handcuffed to the metal armrest.Lilyâs eyes were frantic, but her lips were moving. She was mouthing somethingâŠKeep her talking.I couldnât tell for the life of me what she had in store, but I complied. I looked up at Miranda. âYou win. You can do with me whatever you want, but please â let Lily go.ââDonât waste your breath,â Miranda snarled. âWalk towards me w
The door suddenly burst open, and there stood Connor with a gun in his hand, just like the star of an action movie.My heart soared with love â and fear. Because Miranda was standing behind my chair, just like the villain in an action movie.I was between them â Mirandaâs human shield.I felt the barrel of Mirandaâs pistol jam against the back of my head.âDrop it,â she commanded, âor I kill her.âConnor looked at me helplessly.âDonât worry about me â shoot her!â I begged him.But he wouldnât take the chance. He held the gun slowly away from him and let it fall to the floor. CLUNK.I felt Mirandaâs pistol stop pressing against my scalp, then saw it appear next to me as it pointed at Connor.âI win,â she said, and I could hear the sneering triumph in her voice.
I rushed over to Leoâs body, staggering in the tilting hallway as I ran.He was lying face-up on the ground, a pool of blood spreading out beneath him on the floor.He saw me coming. Tried weakly to lift his AR-15 â I put two more rounds in him with my .45.BLAM BLAM.He lay still after that.Adrenaline coursed through me like a drug, sharpening my senses while making everything unreal.I felt sick. I had just killed a man. I had just taken a life. He was a traitor, yes, and someone who was planning to hand me over to be killed â but still, I felt queasy.Lily.She was all that mattered. I pulled myself together.âNice shooting,â Eve said in my ear. âOh ye of little faith.ââWhat?â At first I thought she meant something about me doubting my abilities to shoot someone, which didnât make any sense.âYou thought I was a turncoat? AGAIN?ââOh,â I said sheepishly. âSorry about that.ââHmph. Weâll talk later. Go down the hallway the way you were originally heading â thereâs a half-dozen g
BOOM.There was a massive explosion somewhere on the ship. Every glass pane in the spider terrariums rattled, and a couple cracked.âWhat the hell?â Miranda said, and stumbled to her feet as the yacht began to tilt to one side.After my initial shock from the blast, I watched Mirandaâs face. She was reacting with more fear â in fact, with more emotion â than Iâd ever seen her display before.She looked back at me, her eyes wide with surprise.After all the indignities the bitch had put me through, I couldnât resist. âGuess my fiancĂ©âs here,â I said, and gave her a little smile.
I was halfway down the deck when Eve spoke in my ear. âConnor, thereâs a problem.ââWhat?â I whispered.âJuan and Leo are on the other side of the yacht, but Iâm not getting any video feeds of them.âThere was a dull WHUP in the distance, then another one a few seconds later.Not like gunshots, exactly. But they did sound like a heavy book being dropped on a wood floor.I ducked into an alcove with a door in it, and hunkered down into a squatting position. âJuan? Leo?ââWe separated, and Juan ran into a guard,â Leoâs voice said. âJuanâs dead, but I got the other guy before he could sound the alarm.âSHIT. Already things were going to hell, and weâd barely engaged the enemy yet.But⊠something didnât make senseâŠI frowned. âI heard two silenced shots. How come I didnât hear any regular gunfire?ââTheyâve got suppressors, too. The first one was the guy shooting Juan, the second was me shooting the guard.âI couldnât put my finger on it, but something seemed off. I just chalked it up to