The Wife Who Knew Too Much(27)
A noise in the hall startled them both. Connor yanked his hand away like he’d been burned.
“Who’s there?” he asked.
“Just staff. It’s okay.”
He didn’t look reassured.
“Let’s go upstairs. We’ll have more privacy,” she said.
As he followed her through darkened rooms and up the sweeping staircase, he was visibly edgy, as if expecting someone to jump out from behind the drapes.
His hesitancy vanished the second the bedroom door closed behind them. The room was dark, lit only by the moonlight streaming through the tall windows. He grabbed her by the waist and kissed her greedily, then walked her backward till she hit the bed. Easing her down onto piles of silk cushions, he tugged the hem of her dress up over her hips. She was naked underneath, and the primitive sound he made when he saw that, the way his breathing sped up, made her quake. He knelt before her, nudging her legs apart. It had been a long time. Feeling self-conscious, she resisted.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No.”
Her heart was hammering.
“It’ll be okay. Just relax.”
She felt his fingers, then his tongue, and melted back against the silk duvet, writhing. He brought her to the edge, then stood up and unbuckled his belt, looking down at her. She watched as he pulled off his clothes. He was perfectly proportioned, luminous in the moonlight. She’d never seen a more beautiful man. He hovered over her, then pushed in. Her hands went around his back, then down to his butt as he moved. She gave herself up to the sensations, feeling the power of him, and the loss of control was exhilarating.
When they’d finished, he kissed her lightly, then rolled off. Their fingers intertwined, but they didn’t speak. After a few minutes, she got up and went to her dressing room. She still wore the beaded gown. Her stylist had sewn and taped her into it earlier that night. She tore it off, and beads went skittering across the parquet floor. In the bathroom, she looked at herself in the mirror. The spots of color on her pale cheeks, her swollen lips, made her look young. She felt strange, unlike herself. She had all the power, and yet she had none. She could ask him to leave. She could even ghost him, and he would accede with no fuss, and never attempt to contact her again. They could pass each other in the halls at Levitt Global and he would say a polite hello, without acknowledging this encounter, because he wouldn’t want to impose. She was confident of that. On the other hand, she could tell him to stay at Windswept—stay indefinitely, not go back to the city, to the office, to whatever he had going on with Lauren—and she was pretty sure he’d do that, too.
She should probably get rid of him. That would be the smart move.
She went back to the bedroom. He hadn’t moved. He was lying back on the cushions, naked and perfect.
She told herself to stop overthinking things.
“Come to bed,” he said.
She did. And didn’t leave the house again for days.
14
A week later, Nina helicoptered into the city to attend the Levitt Global board meeting. The bird’s-eye view of skyscrapers sparkling in the sun was lost on her, as her mind wrestled with knotty problems. Connor had gone back to the city a couple of days before, and she’d discovered she hated being apart from him. She didn’t like that he had a job—working for Lauren, no less, whom he’d admitted to having a fling with. They say if you love someone, let them go, but she didn’t want him out of her sight. They’d tried talking on the phone. It wasn’t enough. He suggested they sext, but Nina refused. For a public figure like her, nudes could get you blackmailed. Besides, she didn’t want a picture. She wanted the real thing.
They touched down at the heliport. She wondered how long it would be until she was alone with him. Would she have to wait until tonight at the apartment, or would he come to her office? She could lock the door.
The car pulled up to the Park Avenue office tower that housed Levitt Global. Juliet waited by the curb with an umbrella to shield Nina’s delicate skin from the July sun. Juliet had been hired as a personal assistant shortly after Edward’s death, when Nina was inundated with messages of condolence and had no patience for replying. The lie of it all. She wasn’t sad, she was free. Juliet took the annoying bits off her hands. Small and dainty, in her customary uniform of black pantsuit and glasses, her dark hair pulled back, she had an air of bland efficiency that Nina found soothing. As Nina stepped into a bigger role at the company, Juliet came along, making the transition seamless. Now she was indispensable, a combination personal and executive assistant and paid companion. She traveled with Nina, and spent weeks on end at Windswept, overseeing the household staff when that responsibility felt like too much. Nina could disappear into her love affair with Connor, knowing Juliet would be there to pick up the slack.
They went over the day’s schedule as they crossed the soaring marble lobby to the company’s dedicated elevator bank.
“Board meeting in thirty minutes,” Juliet said as they got on the elevator, “giving you time to review the packet I prepared. Hank canceled your dinner date—”
“He canceled?”
Hank must’ve heard the gossip about Nina and Connor. This could be touchy.
“Do you know why?” Nina asked.
Juliet shot a meaningful look upward to the top corner of the sleek chrome cab, where a shiny cylinder concealed a camera. They were being watched. That was expected at Levitt Global, and they were well-versed in the location of surveillance dead spots. They got out on the executive floor and Nina followed Juliet down the hallway to an overlooked corner behind a potted plant.