The Boss (Chateau Book 3) Page 22

  Hours passed before the grand finale. Our sweaty bodies lay together on the bed, the duvet kicked to the bottom and only the sheets behind. The fire had died down at some point, but he kept the entire bedroom warm.

  He lay on his back, his head turned toward me beside him, one hand resting on his chest.

  He watched me.

  I was on my side, meeting his look with tired eyes. When I closed my eyes, he would leave. He always waited for me to drift off before he left, in the hope I wouldn’t notice and I would sleep through the night without him.

  I closed my eyes, feeling the fatigue pull at me, the relief that I’d gotten what I wanted.

  I opened my eyes again to reach for the sheets beneath me.

  But stilled when I noticed his eyes were closed.

  Slowly, his breathing changed, turning deeper and lighter. The muscles of his body relaxed. His tense face softened into an expression I’d never seen before, almost like a boy in his childhood bed.

  I woke up when I felt his body shift off the bed.

  My eyes opened, and I saw him at the edge, looking down at me.

  I assumed it was sometime in the middle of the night, but my eyes immediately squinted at the brightness from the sun.

  It was morning.

  He watched me with his typical hard gaze, but he didn’t look angry that he’d slept in my bed through the night.

  I stretched slightly, cold now that he was gone.

  He grabbed the sheets and the duvet and pulled everything on top of me. “It’s early. Keep sleeping.” He leaned over the bed and gave me a kiss, his hand cupping my face as he did so.

  When he pulled away, my fingers grabbed his wrist, not wanting him to leave, to shatter this moment.

  He trusted me.

  I’d made him give me a promise he didn’t want to keep…and he still trusted me.

  He stayed above me, his eyes searching mine for meaning.

  I kicked the sheets back off and pulled him toward me again. “Make love to me before you go…”

  Twenty-Two

  Betrayal of Blood

  Fender

  It was a promise I didn’t want to make.

  But it was the price I had to pay to get what I wanted.

  And it was worth the cost.

  Because Melanie was priceless.

  Whether Raven was dead or alive, it didn’t matter. She’d humiliated me again, but that didn’t matter either. The only thing in my life that really mattered was the woman in bed beside me every night.

  The woman who slept beside me all night.

  The woman who completely lowered my guard to let her in.

  It was hard to believe that it happened, but once it did, the weight left my shoulders. The pressure was off my entire body. The invisible weight of the past had somehow evaporated altogether.

  I lay in bed with my chérie on me, her leg tucked between mine, her arm around my waist, her makeup a mess all over the pillow. Her eyes were closed, but she wasn’t asleep. She rested after the hours spent wrapped up together, sometimes her on top, but mostly me on top of her.

  My chérie was another painting to add to my collection, costing a price in a currency that I never used to pay for things. Euros, diamonds, and gold weren’t enough to afford her. I had to pay with a sacrifice.

  But now I got to live in this painting, got to admire it when no one else was allowed to see it at all. My fingertips gently glided down the back of her arm, feeling her rose-petal-soft skin, feeling how warm she was because of me.

  That moment was shattered by Gilbert.

  “Sir.” He knocked on the door. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but Magnus is here to see you.”

  My fingers stopped their caress.

  Her eyes opened.

  I left the bed and pulled on my sweatpants before I opened the door. “What does he want?” He shouldn’t bother me at this time without good reason, and he shouldn’t still be Paris either. I closed the door and walked with Gilbert down the hallway.

  “He didn’t say, sir. But he has a woman with him…”

  I halted in my tracks and looked into Gilbert’s face.

  He held my gaze. “That’s all I know, sir.”

  My heart worked harder than it ever had, experiencing a spike in anxiety that I hadn’t felt since adolescence. Betrayal seared into my skin like a branding iron. Fury unlike any I’d ever known struck me like lightning.

  I continued down the hallway and made it to the top of the stairs.

  Magnus was there, near the bottom of the staircase as he waited for me.

  And there she was several feet behind him.

  Raven.

  I gripped the rail as I looked down to the foyer, seeing the woman I despised in my very own house…like a fucking guest.

  She must have felt my stare because she lifted her chin to meet my eyes. Instead of her typical venomous fury, she actually dropped her gaze as quickly as possible, like she was truly afraid of me.

  When I took the first step, Magnus glanced up at me.

  I looked at him in a way I never had before.

  Like I didn’t know him.

  Like he was a stranger.

  A liar.

  I took my time walking down the stairs, using the moment to condense my anger, to cool my hatred before I released fury from my nostrils like a goddamn fire-breathing dragon. It was a long walk to the bottom, and our eyes remained locked on each other, a silent conversation happening between us.

  I reached the bottom and reserved my stare for Magnus only.

  She was insignificant to me.

  He was everything to me.

  Magnus stepped back, sensing my rage in the silence, and he had the humility to drop his gaze and break eye contact first.

  I spoke in French, so that dog wouldn’t understand. “You lied to me.”

  Magnus wouldn’t look at me.

  I stepped closer to him, barely able to restrain my rage. “You looked me in the eye and fucking lied.” The betrayal was almost too hard for me to accept. It was too disturbing. Too painful. “For a woman. An ugly woman.”

  Magnus lifted his chin again, dressed in jeans and a shirt, his appearance different when he wasn’t in the garb of the guards. He didn’t look confident either, basking in his guilt for what he’d done.

  “Now, you bring her into my house—like a wet dog that’s going to track mud everywhere.”

  “There was no other way.” He finally spoke up, his chest rising and falling with his deep breathing. “You can’t see past your hate. You can’t see past your stubbornness. I had to save her, and asking you wasn’t an option.”

  “So, you lied to me instead?” I stepped closer, my eyes so hot they were burning my own face. “You love this woman?” That was the only thing I would understand, because I knew the irrevocable feeling all too well.

  Magnus was quiet, his eyes holding my fire. “No.”

  What a disappointing answer.

  “But I feel deep affection for her…”

  I had no fucking idea why. “So, you come here to show me what you’ve done? To come clean and ask for forgiveness? Don’t bother. I will never give what you seek.” He was all I had in this world—and he stabbed me in the back. He helped her escape. He told her the way. He let her beat him in the head just to mask his lie. Pathetic.

  Magnus turned quiet.

  “Leave.”

  He didn’t move.

  “I told you to get out—”

  “I’m here for her sister.”

  All feeling left my body. My extremities turned numb. My heart even stopped.

  “I’m here for Melanie.” He wasn’t the strong man I’d seen on a daily basis. Now, he was torn between his two loyalties—split in half. It made him half the man.

  My eyes immediately glanced to the puppet master behind him.

  She immediately looked away.

  My eyes shifted back to Magnus. “No.” I stepped back.

  “Brother.” Magnus rushed me.
“I’m not asking you this as your business partner…”

  I turned back to give him my full stare.

  “I’m asking you…as family.” He inhaled a deep breath then held it, pleading with his gaze. “I’m asking as your brother.”

  “That’s rich, Magnus.” This woman was a constant prod in his back, making him stick out his neck for my blade. Pussy-whipped and pathetic, he was almost unrecognizable to me.

  He held his stare, not blinking, exuding his desperation. “I never ask you for anything.”

  He’d betrayed me, made a fool out of me, but when my little brother asked for something, it was impossible to deny him. Perhaps the feeling that connected us had never been loyalty. Perhaps it’d been love. “I do this…then I owe you nothing. Ever.”

  Relief flooded his gaze, and he gave a nod. “Yes.”

  I held his gaze a moment longer before I took the stairs, making the climb all the way back to the third floor, down the hallway, and into the bedroom where I left her.

  Melanie was fully dressed and on the edge of the bed, prepared for whatever happened downstairs. When she saw me walk inside, she immediately got to her feet and walked to me in her heels. “Everything okay?” Her hands immediately went to my arms, and she came closer to me, surrounding me with her affection.

  Before Magnus had entered my home with his dog, my life had been perfect—a painting. But that woman never failed to interrupt my life, whether it was here or at the camp. She was the thorn on a rose stem, pricking you when you tried to smell the petals. She was the storm clouds that passed over a sunny day.

  “Fender?” She squeezed my arms and brought me back to reality.

  “Magnus is downstairs—with Raven.”

  Her fingers immediately released my arms as her eyes popped wide open. “Oh my god…” She stepped back and cupped her mouth, her eyes still on mine, processing the revelation. “I knew it… I knew she was alive.”

  “She’s alive because Magnus helped her.” She cut the bolt on the stables? Why did I believe that horseshit? Her scent was lost because she perished in the river? I felt like a goddamn idiot. My trust overrode my common sense.

  She dropped her hand from her mouth, her joy so bright, it was like daylight through the windows. “Why are they here? For me? I have to go see her…” She moved past me to the door.

  I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back to me. “Chérie.” I got her close to me, looking into her bright eyes and seeing the excitement she couldn’t contain. “Magnus has asked me to release you. I’ve agreed.”

  Slowly, her excitement faded away, her breathing rising.

  “Go down there. Hug your sister. Tell her you want to live here with me. And that will be the end of it.” Magnus had asked me to release her, and I obliged. But I only obliged because Melanie wouldn’t leave me even if I let her go—and there was nothing her sister could do about it.

  Melanie looked at me and didn’t say a word.

  I stared at her. Waited for a nod. Waited for some sign of agreement.

  She dropped her gaze and looked at her hands as they came together in front of her waist. She did that any time she was nervous. Any time she was unsure of herself. She fidgeted in place, swallowing, her eyes filled with a sheen of dread.

  The longer I stared, the clearer her decision became.

  Magnus had betrayed me.

  Now, the woman I loved had betrayed me.

  The second one hurt a lot more. And that was how I knew how deeply I’d fallen for her. My prized painting would leave my palace. Her side of the bed would be empty. Her quiet presence in my office would feel like a loud absence. The passion would snuff out like the fire in her bedroom. The millions I’d spent on her jewelry would be thrown into the vault to collect dust. The dresses, gowns, shoes, would be stuffed into a closet so I’d never have to see them again. Our time together had been short, but her vacancy would haunt me like a ghost. A million knives pierced me, but my gaze remained as stoic as ever. “Go.” I stepped to the door and left her there.

  “She’s my sister—”

  “Go.” I kept going, walking out the bedroom door, down the hallway, and to the staircase. The last thing I wanted to do was watch her walk out of my life when I’d expected her to stay with me forever. She said she would never leave me, even if she could, but that was a lie, another lie from someone I trusted, and I was too blind to see it. But I forced my indifference, my coldness, and turned off every feeling inside my chest and made it empty, and I walked down the stairs to where Magnus waited.

  Her heels tapped against the wooden staircase as she emerged. “Raven!” Her voice cracked in emotion, echoing in the foyer, showing the depth of her love that she never felt for me.

  Raven moved forward, ignoring me. “Baby sister…”

  Melanie ran the rest of the way then collided with Raven, the two of them holding each other, crying, whispering to each other.

  Raven held her like a mother held a child, supporting the back of her head and rubbing her back, closing her eyes like she was so unbelievably happy to be reunited with the person she loved most.

  Magnus watched them together, his eyes less intense when he watched Raven’s happiness.

  Raven pulled away and cupped her cheeks. “Let’s go home.”

  Melanie nodded.

  Home. When will you be home? Her voice came back to me, her beautiful eyes on me as she sat beside me on the bed where we made love through the night. I thought I was home.

  Raven took her hand, and the three of them headed to the door.

  I watched them go, arms by my sides, powerless to do anything because I wouldn’t go back on my word. When I made a promise, I kept it…unlike everyone else.

  Melanie stopped at the door then turned back to me.

  My eyes burned into her face, hoping she would reconsider and stay with me. Momentarily, the peace she gave me returned, the quiet happiness that she provided to my broken soul.

  Guilt. Pain. Remorse. It was in her blue eyes. But there was nothing else.

  “Goodbye, chérie.”

  Twenty-Three

  Tears of Misery

  Melanie

  Magnus parked in front of the apartment building.

  I looked through the rain-splattered glass and saw the window to Raven’s office, the one that had a distant view of the Eiffel Tower. We vacated the car, and my beautiful dress was ruined by the rain that poured down on us. I moved to the stoop that led to the stairs, but when I turned back around, Raven wasn’t behind me.

  She stood with Magnus in the rain, like neither one of them cared. “Go ahead without me.”

  I nodded before I glanced at Magnus, the enigmatic man who only had eyes for her. While she looked at me, he stared at her just the way Fender stared at me. With that dark intensity, that possessive stare, that all-encompassing feeling that made you feel watched even through a solid barrier.

  And that was the moment I knew.

  Those same dark eyes. That same brown hair. That same powerful presence. That same silent command.

  Magnus was his brother.

  I went up the steps and to the third floor where Raven’s apartment was. The door was unlocked, so I let myself inside, seeing that it was exactly the same as the day we left. Her coffee mugs were in the glass cabinet. Her pink dish towel with the Eiffel Tower printed on the front on the kitchen island. Pictures of her friends from college on the fridge. I moved forward to the window in the living room and stared out across the apartment. The same man I remembered sat at his desk with his laptop in front of him.

  It was hard to believe it’d only been a few months…when it felt like an entire lifetime.

  I moved through the apartment and approached the window that gave a view of the city’s most famous cultural landmark. It was still daylight, so when the sun fell, those lights would shine the way I remembered.

  My eyes dropped down to Raven and Magnus on the street.

  They talked, standing several feet apart,
sharing no affection but a connection that I could see with the naked eye.

  I had no idea what to do with myself, so I took a seat at the desk and watched the rain pelt the glass in front of me, the sound comforting but also heartbreaking.

  Because I used to listen to the rain for hours while I was in bed with Fender.

  When he slept beside me.

  I inhaled a deep breath as the tears burned my eyes, suddenly feeling everything at once. The second he was gone, it was like a gaping hole inside my heart. Blood flooded in, and my heart couldn’t beat the same anymore. It ached every single time. It struggled with every beat. Brought more pain every time it tried to keep me alive.

  I didn’t want to leave…but I had to.

  If I stayed, I would never see Raven again. She would never forgive me for wanting to be with him. Our relationship would break apart, and we wouldn’t see each other anymore, even if we were free.

  And she was the person I loved most in this world.

  My cheeks mirrored the window in front of me, my tears drops of rain. My dress was soaked and my skin was cold, but once I took it off, it would really be over. I would be back to my normal clothes, my normal makeup, smelling like cheap perfume and crappy hairspray.

  I wouldn’t smell like him anymore.

  It would be like it never happened.

  The apartment door opened and closed.

  I inhaled a deep breath and quickly worked my fingers over my face, wiping away the tears, fixing the running makeup, doing my best to hide a heartbreak I shouldn’t feel.

  Her footsteps sounded up the stairs. “Melanie?”

  “In here.” I forced a smile that was so numb I couldn’t feel it.

  But I didn’t have to because she looked as devastated as I did. She sat on the chair beside me and inhaled a deep breath, releasing it as a long sigh. She didn’t have tears the way I did, but the heartbreak glistened in her eyes. She cleared her throat and pushed it away like it’d never been there in the first place. Her hand reached for mine and she held it on my thigh, looking into my face as the rain poured down outside, as the sound became louder against the rooftop and the window.