A Humble Heart (Hollywood Hearts #1)(95)

“Don’t look so upset,” she said playfully. “Pick something else out of the bag and maybe I’ll wear it for you.”

He sat up in the bed. Damn, just the thought of her in the black teddy was enough to get his ass moving off the bed. She wrapped her bathrobe around her and headed out the door.

Edward felt like a kid on Christmas morning. He picked up the bags and dumped them on the bed. He saw a lot of lace and silk. There were new panties and bras too. He ran his fingers over them, imagining how they would feel on her until his fingers came across something hard.

Thinking it was just a security tag they left on one of the garments he picked through the clothes until he found a small thick black box with a small antenna on it. A small red light glowed on the top and the front looked liked the mesh on a microphone. “What the hell?” He picked up the box and looked it over.

On the bottom was printed ‘OMNI 25’. He pulled his pants up and made his way to the office. He sat down at his computer and Googled the name. A gadget site popped on the screen. The OMNI 25 was one of the most powerful listening devices on the market. It could transmit sound from ten miles away.

“Oh shit,” he mumbled. Whoever dropped this in the bag had just heard their very private encounter and unfortunately there was nothing he could do about now. Somewhere close by someone was no doubt already turning what they recorded into an MP3 file.

He made his way to the kitchen and placed the gadget in the refrigerator. There was nothing else he could do but call the police. Hopefully they could get a print off the device or maybe look over the mall security cameras to see who dropped the device in the bag.

After he made the call he walked towards the nursery to tell Dana the police were on their way and what happened. She was tucking their sons in bed. When she turned around and saw him she smiled. He didn’t want to tell her, but it would be worse if she found out on her own. She moved past him to check on the older children.

“Did you pick something out?”

“Dana, you have to get dressed. I have something to tell you,” he sounded glum.

She nodded and went back to the room. She pulled on jeans and a tee shirt. “Okay, tell me what’s going on?”

He dressed as well. “The police are on their way. Baby, someone dropped a listening device into one of the bags.”

Dana felt lightheaded. Edward reached out and grabbed her arm and helped her sit on the bed. “I’m really sorry, honey. They heard everything.”

“Where is it now?” she whispered.

“I put it in the fridge.”

She nodded. “Okay, there’s nothing we can do about it now.” She stood up, trying not to panic. “Do you mind handling the police? I want to work on my book.”

Edward nodded. “It will be okay.”

“Yeah, I know. It will be a bad couple of months and then they’ll move onto something new.” She kissed his cheek lightly before leaving the room.

The police took his statement and the device and left. They didn’t bother making any promises to him. Unless the person who did this had a record there was no way they were going to get a match on prints. He felt like a failure. There was nothing sacred in his life anymore. A very private moment between him and his wife was about to be made public. The things they said to each other, private things, were now public knowledge.

“Shit.”

Another thought occurred to him. Dana would never talk to him during sex again. Hell, she would probably tape his mouth shut. She would probably become skittish about sex, checking the room for cameras, and listening devices before he was allowed to touch her. He could literally kill someone. She was so good in bed, carefree, competent and like nothing he’d ever experienced before. Now they were going to take that away from him as well.

He made his way to the office and stopped when he heard Dana sobbing. She sounded like she was gasping for air. He made his way quickly to the office to find Dana falling from her chair on to the ground, tears streaming down her face as she….laughed? She was laughing her ass off. He couldn’t make out the sound coming from the speakers until he came closer. He dropped his head next to the speakers and heard soft grunting and loud moans.

On the screen was a page dedicated to the latest news about Edward and Dana Pierce. A media box was playing. The caption described an exclusive sexual encounter between Edward and Dana Pierce. The site boasted its claim that one of their informants dropped a listening device into a bag of lingerie.

“Dana, what the hell is so funny?” he asked tensely. He was pissed, whoever did this worked fast. Everything in his life was up for grabs. At least that’s what some people thought. Just because he played a part on the big screen people thought he was public property. They acted like they owned him. He was sick of it.

She tried to talk, but couldn’t. She fell over laughing harder. He ground his teeth and picked up her headphones. He attached them to the speakers and started the audio file again. He sat in her now empty chair, ignoring her as she pulled herself together.

He heard Tyler offer to drop the bags in their room, the sound of footsteps, and then a loud “Oomph” as something fell on the bag. “Shit,” Tyler mumbled. He heard the bag being moved. The noise that followed sounded muffled.

Edward sat on the edge of the chair and listened as the tape was skipped to when they entered the room. The voices were muffled, but he knew they said each other’s names, but they sounded distorted. Even he couldn’t make out anything on the tape. The only thing he could hear was moaning…sort of. He listened anxiously to the rest of the tape. He began to laugh as the embarrassing moments came and went. None of them were clear enough.