Best Served Cold (Savannah’s Best #2)

1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Stella

" A re you my slut, Sweet Stella?" Noah asked.

"Yes." I clutched the headboard as he pounded into me from behind. He had the palm of his hand on my clitoris, putting pressure there, and slowly driving me out of my mind.

"You want to come, baby?"

"Oh God! Yes."

"Then say you're my whore, and I'll let you come."

I moaned, writhed…moved my hips against him.

"I'm your whore."

"Good fucking girl."

I unraveled. My cries intense. My body bowed in tension, and I heard him groan, spilling into me. I tried to turn my head to kiss him, but he wouldn't let me, he kept me looking straight, my eyes hooded with pleasure, my breath ragged.

The video was done well, I thought almost objectively.

It showed only my face. Not his.

It showed me naked, not him. He was behind me, hidden by my shame.

My eyes filled with tears.

I looked away from my father as he watched me have sex, while the man who I'd fallen in love with, who I thought was falling in love with me, cared for me, sat across from us, his eyes cold, his expression impassive.

My father slammed his fist on the table when, in the video, I screamed out my orgasm.

"Turn the fucking thing off, Carter."

Noah clicked a few buttons, and the large screen on his desk that he'd turned for us to see went dark.

"You stupid slut," my father said in disgust. "This is the man you spread your legs for? Fuckin' hell. You're a damned embarrassment, Stella."

My hands shook, and I couldn't form words.

Silent tears were flowing down my cheeks, tears that I didn't bother to wipe away. There was no point. I couldn't stem the flow of emotion, of self-hatred, self-pity, intense remorse, and brutal heartbreak.

When I saw my father in Noah's office when he'd ask me to come over, a few days after we first had sex, I foolishly thought he was going to ask my father for permission to marry me.

That's how far from reality I was.

"What do you want, Carter?" my father demanded.

"Well, Senator, it's quite simple, really," Noah spoke clearly, and everything inside me froze. The same voice had made me feel loved for the first time in my miserable twenty-seven years had turned against me.

"You're so beautiful, Sweet Stella. I can't believe I have you here with me."

Noah leaned back with a casualness that belied what was happening in his office, the catastrophe that he'd perpetuated. "You're going to pull your objection to Carter Construction getting the Savannah River Bridge project."

"And you'll destroy that fucking video?"

Noah smiled. Just a few months ago, I’d thought how beautiful that smile was. Now it was a caricature of the beauty I'd loved.

"No, Senator. The video stays with me. Insurance. You understand."

My father's jaw tightened. "You son of a bitch."

"You started this," Noah reminded him calmly. "At least your daughter isn't a sixteen-year-old kid like my sister was. She's a grown fucking woman who made her choices. Neveah was a child when you used a sex tape to blackmail my father into stepping down from running for District Attorney. I'm letting you run for office without the world finding out what a hot bitch your daughter is in the sack."

My heart stuttered at his words. Just a few days ago, his words had been an antithesis to his truth.

"You're the sexiest and most sensual woman I've ever made love with, Sweet."

"I cannot give you the power to keep blackmailing me with that fucking video," my father stated angrily.

Noah shrugged. "My father killed himself, Senator, after you made him watch his sixteen-year-old having sex with a boy you hired to seduce her."

"Neville died in a car accident because he was an alcoholic," my father snapped.

Neveah? His sister? A sex tape? I looked from my father to Noah. Neither was seeing me. They were caught up in their own drama, past and present colliding.

This was some kind of revenge scheme, I realized. And I was collateral damage. Not a human being. Not a person with emotions or feelings.

"He became an alcoholic because you ruined his life. I'm not destroying your life, Senator. I'm just asking you to stop being an asshole," Noah continued. "Take your thumb off the scale when it comes to Carter Construction, and let the process play out fairly. I don't need you to win a contract, I just need you to stop interfering with my business. You started this war by first fucking with my father and now me. I hope this is a lesson you learn well."

And what about me, Noah? I wanted to scream. What about my heart? My dignity? What did I ever do to deserve this?

Sins of the father, I thought. A physical pain ripped through me as I looked at my father's profile with exhausted eyes and a weary heart.

My father got up. He turned to me, and my gaze dropped to my lap. I didn't have the courage to look him in the eyes. I was humiliated. I wanted to sink into the floor and disappear.

"Your punishment, Stella, is that I'm pulling my funding from Savannah Lace. I want my money back. You have sixty days."

He then spoke to Noah like I didn't matter any longer. More than ever, I knew he wished I didn’t exist—that my mother had taken his money for an abortion instead of stubbornly keeping me and forcing him into marriage.

"You vow that video will not see the light of day, and I'll make sure you have the most profitable construction company in Georgia in the next six years of my senate term."

This would be his last senate term, which was why he was desperate to have it, to say goodbye to political life on a high.

"You have a deal, Senator."

I heard Daddy walk out of Noah's office.

I sat rooted in the chair, not sure how the world around me had collapsed suddenly, how all the colors of springtime had become gray and dull.

"Do you need anything, Stella?" Noah's voice was hard as steel. He'd never spoken to me this way once in the past three months that we'd been…what? What had we been doing? I thought we were dating. But he saw me as a lamb being prepared for slaughter. And now I lay at his feet, bloody. An open, throbbing wound in my chest.

I shook my head. I wanted to get away from him, but I didn't know if my legs could carry my weight. I didn't know if I could carry the heavy pieces of my heart.

"Then I must ask you to leave. My next meeting is in ten minutes."

I nodded, feeling lost. I rose on unsteady legs. I looked down at my outfit and stifled the hysteric laugh that was waiting to bubble out. I'd worn a blue sheath dress because Noah liked the color on me. I'd thought, when I saw my father in his office, that it would look good in the engagement photos.

Stupid, stupid Stella.

I smoothed the linen dress, my eyes on the floor. I wanted to ask Noah so many things, but I had all his answers, so there was no point asking the questions.

Did you ever love me? No.

Did you even care about me? No.

Did you only string me along for three months so we could have sex, and you could make the blackmail video? Yes.

Did you think I was beautiful? No.

Did you like how I brought you flowers every time we met? No.

Did you want me? No.

Was I just Baron Hunt's daughter to you? Yes.

Were you ever interested in me for me? No.

Did you really think I was Sweet Stella? I didn't think about you. You don't matter. You never did.

I picked up my bag, and glanced at the bracelet on my slender wrist.

A Cartier tennis bracelet. I was wearing it in the video. He'd given it to me the night we had sex. The one and only time we had sex.

I removed the offending piece of jewelry because it was burning my skin. I set it on his desk and, without a word, walked out of his office on the Savannah riverfront.