30. I Thought the Key Was Lost
I THOUGHT THE KEY WAS LOST
Wes
Fable and I stand in the garden at Hale Manor on the patio below the terrace with my sister, Tessa.
I was giving Fable a tour of my old bedroom—and by tour, I mean I was giving her a quickie against the wall. The pregnancy made her horny as hell. I wasn’t complaining. I’d take whatever she offered whenever, wherever.
We’d just finished when Tessa texted that she was at the manor.
Fable freaked and raced into the bathroom to make herself presentable.
We found Tessa in the kitchen, raiding the cabinets for something to drink. “There has to be a shot of something around here.”
“Hello, sis,” I said with Fable’s hand firmly in mine.
She startled but laughed as she turned to us. “I thought I’d outgrown that.”
The brightness in her eyes surprised me. I’d never seen her look so happy. The stress lines that she often carried between her brows were gone. She was dressed in her usual blazer, Oxford shirt, and tailored pants. “Hi. Wow! You look…”
“Different?”
“Better.”
“You too.” She walked to me and kissed both my cheeks. “And you must be the reason why my brother looks less pissed at the world.” She put her hand out to Fable. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Fable shook her hand.
“What do you think of the place?” Tessa gestured around with a grim expression. “Better yet, what do you think we should do with it?”
“If I say burn it, will you help me light the match?” I threw out, only half teasing, and turned. “Follow me.”
With my little angel’s hand firmly in mine, I led the way to the bar in the gentlemen’s parlor. A few carafes of liquor sat on a shelf. I poured two tumblers of bourbon for Tessa and me.
“Nothing for you?” she asked Fable.
“No. Thank you.” Fable placed her hand over her belly, even though she wasn’t showing.
“Oh gosh. Forgive me. I completely forgot. You’re pregnant. Congrats!” Tessa kissed each of Fable’s cheeks. “I suppose that makes me an aunt to be.”
We clinked glasses and downed the double shots. I set the tumblers on the bar. The small staff I paid to maintain the house’s upkeep would take care of them.
After some light catching up while we strolled out back, neither of us wanting to be in the house for longer than necessary, we ended up on the terrace overlooking the garden.
“I forgot how much land was here,” I murmur at the miles of lawn. You can’t see the abandoned garden from the manor.
“At least it’s not hot,” Fable says. We got another heat wave in New York, and Fable just can’t stand it, with the pregnancy making her run hotter than usual.
As she says it, a breeze whisks fallen leaves and dried flowers across the terrace.
“I don’t think you should give the estate to Mum,” Tessa says, staring at the horizon where the sun starts its descent.
“Me neither.”
“But I don’t think you should burn it, either. The land has history. Hale family history that doesn’t include our horrid parents.”
“I don’t want to live in it, Tessa.” A hint of emotion leaks into my voice.
Fable puts her arm around my waist, tucking herself against my side in a way I love.
“Well…” My sister looks back at the manor, taking in its many windows. “Donating it to a trust or opening it to the public are always options.”
“I was thinking about turning it into a homeless shelter.”
A laugh bursts out of her, hard and loud enough to flush her cheeks. “Father would hate that.”
Her reaction tugs up my lips. Mummy would have slapped her face had she laughed like that when we were growing up. It shows how comfortable she is with herself now.
“What about a shelter for battered women?” Fable suggests.
For a moment, neither of us says anything.
I’ve never considered that. From the shock and delight on my sister’s face, neither has she.
“It’s actually perfect.” I squeeze the side of Fable’s waist. “Hale Manor, once a place of debauchery, now a sanctuary for women in need.”
“Really?” she asks, surprised.
“Why not?” I glance at my sister. “What do you think?”
“I think Mum will hire someone to take you out.”
I laugh. “With what money?”
She slaps a hand over her widening smile, but it does little to contain it. “I don’t think we’ve ever had this much fun at home before.”
“This was never home.”
“No.” Her gaze drops to a dead flower, nudging it with the pointy toe of her heel. “I suppose it wasn’t.”
Leave it to me to kill the mood. “Are you okay with that? If you want the manor…”
“I don’t want the manor. I like the shelter idea.”
“You don’t have to be part of it,” I tell Tessa. “I’ll get it set up and find the right people to run it.”
“What if you gave a section or apartment area to your mom?” Fable says. “Living here, she’d be forced to watch women and children heal and get help in the home she wanted for herself.”
“My god,” Tessa says to Fable. “You are diabolical, and I absolutely love it. She’s perfect for you, Wes.”
“We actually soften each other.” I kiss Fable’s temple.
Tessa’s phone rings. She takes it from her purse and excuses herself, walking to the other end of the terrace.
I turn to Fable and secure my hands around her waist. “You think so too, don’t you? We soften each other.”
“Sometimes.” She smiles sweetly at me. “But sometimes I make you hard.”
Oh shite. This woman. I kiss her madly as the cool breeze brushes our skin. Birds chirp in a nearby tree, leaves rustle, and sheep sound in the distance. It’s the most at peace I’ve ever felt here.
I pull back from Fable and look into her citrine eyes. “You didn’t want this place for us, did you?”
“No way. I don’t think you could ever be happy here.”
It jogs my memory. “I might have forgotten to tell you something.”
“Is it bad?” She tucks flyaway strands behind her ear.
“I’m not sure.” I should just come out and say it. “I own your family’s farmhouse. I bought it when it foreclosed in case you ever wanted it back, but if you want to destroy it, I’m up for that too.”
“You bought it?” Her features twist as she tries to wrap her head around it.
“I didn’t want your dad to have it, and I didn’t know if you’d ever go back, so…” Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.
She turns away and lets the breeze sweep her hair from her face as she stares across the immaculate lawn, the pristine pool in the distance, and the brick pool house.
Shite. “Fable?”
“I’m not upset. I just... I’m conflicted. There are so many bad memories at that place, but I also have fond childhood memories with my mom when my dad wasn’t around.”
“You don’t have to decide anything now or ever.” I move close behind her and slip my hands around her waist, holding her small belly.
She nods. “I feel bad.”
“Why?”
“It was so easy for me to give ideas for what to do with your childhood home, and look how I’m acting about mine.”
“Angel, your ideas were brilliant. And unlike you, Tessa and I don’t have any fond memories here.”
“What direction is the garden?” she asks. “The one where we met.”
I point to the northeast corner.
“I want to go there.” She faces me. “Please.”
“Whatever you wish.”
Tessa rejoins us and says she has to leave. Being here isn’t good for her newfound happiness, and she’s expected back in Scotland for Rory’s birthday.
“You should come. Both of you,” she says, then adds to Fable, “You’d love the castle. Duhnill is special.”
“Maybe. I’ll let you know.”
We say goodbye, and I have Fable wait on the terrace while I get the keys to one of the golf carts.
Fable
The quiet hum of a motor pulls my gaze from the pool and over my shoulder.
Wes pulls up in a black two-person golf cart with beefy tires. I’m glad it isn’t the six-seater the security drove when he kicked Mom and me off the property.
“Hop in, gorgeous.” Wes winks.
My heart flutters like I’m a teenager with a crush on the hottest boy at school.
I sit on the bench beside him, and we take off. My head jerks back from the force, and I laugh.
“I thought we could take the path less traveled, if you’re up for a little fun?”
A smile tugs at my lips. “I’m up for some fun.”
“Hold on.” He taps the grab bar.
I squeeze it as he turns the wheel and stomps the gas. We fly over bumps and hills that pop me off my seat, each one pulling another squeal of laughter from me.
“I’m getting us one of these for back at Hellfire.” He grins. “Actually, we need a new name for it. Got any suggestions?”
He slows down so the drive is smoother and adjusts his hands until they’re touching at the top of the steering wheel, his sexy forearms on display. Nothing about him in this moment says Earl.
“Can you stay in the US and keep your title here?”
His eyes flick to me. “What made you think of that?”
“Being here, I guess.”
“I can. My title doesn’t depend on where I live or what citizenship I have.”
“Oh.” The breeze blows my hair across my face, and I push it back. “What about our baby? Will he or she be an American citizen or a British citizen?”
“That’s up to us. Citizenship is separate from the title. The peerage can only pass to a son, but everything else I own is mine to leave however I want.”
“What do you want more?” I ask. “A boy or a girl?”
“I don’t know. You?”
“I don’t know either.”
The large wall surrounding the abandoned garden comes into view, stealing my attention. I gasp as memories flood my mind.
Clambering onto rickety crates to scale the wall.
How magical I thought the place was when I found it, as if the world had gifted it to me as something special.
The many times I snuck inside to record videos to post. The peace I found there, as temporary as it was.
The day I stumbled upon Wes, clueless then about how deeply he would shape my life and future.
“Wow,” I breathe out as the golf cart comes to a stop near the iron gate. The trees and grass are taller, and more ivy climbs the wall, but the gate looks clear of all debris.
Wes comes around to my side and holds out his hand. I take it and follow him to the gate.
“I thought the key was lost,” I say.
He smirks. “It is, so I had the gardener break the lock in case you ever wanted to return to it.”
Will I ever get used to the love this man shows me and how it fills me with so much warmth, it makes me an emotional wreck. For a person who never cried much and only under extreme circumstances, I’ve become a sap. Then again, it could be the pregnancy hormones.
Wes gives the gate a hard shove. It creaks loudly and opens just enough for us to enter. Once we’re inside, it’s obvious why it wouldn’t open all the way. A huge rose bush with blush-pink petals blocks the space. The air sweetens with the scent of apples, coming from the flowers.
Unable to resist, I take my phone from my pocket and record the roses dancing in the breeze.
Then I turn and video the rest. Moss grows everywhere, coating some statues completely.
Ivy entwines them too and consumes half the three-tiered fountain.
White water lilies float in the murky pools, spinning softly in the breeze.
It’s magical. I zoom in for a few moments.
Several of the trees are draped in violet wisteria, the clusters hanging over tangled branches. What an amazing phenomenon nature is.
Wes doesn’t interrupt me, just watches as I record thick moss covering parts of rocks and a broken bench.
I turn the camera to purple foxgloves and wild daisies blooming through the tall grass.
An overgrown bush at least five feet tall catches my gaze.
I record it, unaware I’m near the shed until it appears on my screen.
The brick structure surprises me. I lower my phone.
“It looks the same,” I murmur, unless my memory is off.
“I had the gardener clean this up too.” Wes opens the arched wood door. It creaks, but not nearly as loud as the gate.
I join Wes at the entrance and peer inside. Sleeping bags like the ones I’d laid out for us cover the floor.
I gasp again. “How’d you remember? You could barely see.”
Wes’s bluebell eyes sparkle. “I could see enough. It wasn’t a moment I’d ever forget.
I thought about it for years, committing it to memory.
” He slips off his shoes and sits on the sleeping bag, his hand raised to mine.
I leave my wedges by the door and sit beside him, the way I did on our last night together.
Wes shakes his head. “I want you here, Fable.” He pats his lap, and I straddle him, my hands on his broad shoulders, his on my waist. “You became my angel in this shed. I christened you with the nickname back then. They say people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Sometimes you know how important that person is when you first meet them because they stay with you long after they’re gone.
” Wes sweeps my hair behind my shoulder and cups the back of my neck.
“No one has ever stayed with me the way you did. I don’t even like people, except for a few. ”
I giggle, remembering how Lachlan teased Wes about that on the plane.
“You hate everyone, Wes,” Lachlan said, “except for your sister and Fable. I don’t even think you like me half the time.”
Emery cracked up, almost choking on a cracker. I wanted to laugh, too, but held it back with a tight-lipped smile. The two men act like siblings.
“You stayed with me too, even though I hated you. But only because I wanted to kill you,” I tease.
“You do kill me—with your beauty, your sweetness, your body, and the way you give yourself freely to me.” He runs his thumb across my bottom lip. “I’ll happily take the punishment if it means I get to keep you forever.”
“You have me, Wes. You’ve had me long before I even knew it.” I lean forward and kiss his lips.
His tongue slides into my mouth with a soft groan as he pulls me close to him, and his hard cock. My body grows hot with desire and so much love. I know exactly what I want to do in this shed.
I saved his life in here. Now, I want to give him my body and soul. And soon, I’ll give him our baby—a future conceived long ago by a tragic twist of fate.
Beauty can come from abandonment. Healing from near-death. And love from hate. If anyone says otherwise, tell them my story.
*Keep reading for the epilogue and bonus chapter.
New to the series?
Start at the beginning with Prince of Pain, Adelaide and Kingston’s heartbreaking story.