Chapter 14
Diamond had just gotten out of the shower when she heard the knocking on the door. Her mood lifted because the food they’d ordered had arrived, and she was starving and tired from her flight here.
She wrapped her hair in a towel as it dried and grabbed the satin bathrobe and rushed into her slippers as the knocking became more insistent.
She opened the door of the bathroom, and the steam from her hot shower escaped.
Diamond didn’t hear anything from the other room and called out that she would go and get the meal from the Uber driver.
Her steps took her to the door, and she opened it without checking and stiffened, glaring into silver eyes that glared back.
Ben pushed past her, coming into the room. “What do you think you are doing Ben?” Diamond closed the door and faced her husband, whose face, as usual, didn’t express how he was feeling, but his eyes this time were so dark, they looked like angry storm clouds.
“Where is the bastard?” He growled, his gaze sweeping over her, and his anger went up a notch.
He turned and began to head toward one of the bedrooms. “Ben, it is not what it looks like.” She grabbed his arm to stop him, but he just kept going.
She raced around him and placed herself spread-eagle over the bedroom door.
“Don’t you dare make a scene; this is not—”
The bedroom door opened behind her, and she turned her head to see a confused and angry Bryce standing there naked with his cock erect, and she groaned. Just as Ben's fist flew past the top of her head and hit Bryce square in the jaw, making him take a step back.
Shaking his head, Bryce charged, but Diamond was in the way. “What the fuck do you think you are doing, and how are you in my house, you crazy bastard?”
She felt Ben's hands on her shoulders as he was trying to move her out of the way, but she dug in her heels. He just lowered them to her waist and lifted her out of the way of the path of Bryce trying to get at him.
They were about to get into it when the other bathroom on the other side opened up and a confused and semi-naked Peter looked on. She sighed. At least he’d had the thought to put something on before coming out after hearing the ruckus going on.
“What the hell is going on?” Peter roared.
Ben froze, his gaze turning to the new person in the room. Bryce took advantage of the momentary distraction and hit Ben in his jaw and then his eye, stopping when Diamond screamed in rage and got in the middle of them. Peter pulled Bryce off of Ben.
They all stood there glaring at each other, breathing hard. But then Ben’s gaze landed on her, and what she saw sent her heart racing with fear.
“It is not what it looks like, Ben.” She pleaded, running over to him and grabbing his arm as he turned to leave.
“Let that mutherfucker go, Diamond. You don’t need him. I will help you to fix—"
Ben reached back and removed her hand.
Her head whipped around, and she glared at Bryce. “I came here after one of the staff from the charity called to give me your message, Bryce, saying it was an emergency. I didn’t know I was going to be ambushed by you and Peter. I thought someone found out about the two of you and you needed my help.”
Ben paused from taking a step and turned around, and she could see him looking at the scene in a different way. His head tilted, and he moved closer.
“Peter Abbott from Logan Private School?”
His eyes shifted to hers with a question in them, and she nodded.
“Can you go and put on some clothes, Bryce, and let us all sit down and talk?”
Bryce opened his mouth to argue, and Peter turned to him. “He now knows about us. I think it would be wise to have a discussion with him now and explain to him what just happened and why we need him to keep silent.” Peter sighed and then rubbed his hand over his bald scalp.
Bryce’s mouth firmed in a displeased line, and he nodded, cupping Peter’s jaw, kissing him on the lips, and then gave Ben a fierce, unwavering stare before turning and leaving the room.
Peter nodded. “I think I better go and change too. Good seeing you again, Ben.”
“Peter.” Ben acknowledged. His jaw clenching tight as he watched Peter walk away from them and into the room with Bryce.
Diamond moved toward Ben now and rose up on her toes, her hand now touching the red spot around his eye and jaw. His eyes lowered, watching her.
“This is going to turn into a beauty of a shiner. You forgot what Bryce is known for: his fists along with his athleticism, remember? Bryce could lay anyone flat without any effort, including you, even though you can box.”
“Take a seat and I will go and get you some ice.” She sighed when he didn’t say anything.
She pulled away, and then he grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t ever do this again, at least until the year is up.” He warned.
Anger and hurt swept through her. Cold, unfeeling bastard.
She marched back close to him and grabbed his nipples and squeezed lightly. His body jerked, and his eyes dilated; he let out a low, soft moan.
“You don’t own me; I can go and see whoever I want.” She whispered angrily, keeping her voice low so as to not antagonize Bryce anymore and getting into another fight with Ben.
She saw emotion flash in his eyes before he masked it, but what she’d seen gave her pause; he’d looked excited by what she did, but also hurt, and fear had come and gone in a blink of an eye, and if she’d not been so close, she would have missed it.
She began to realize that she needed to study her husband more closely. Ben wasn’t as closed off as everyone thought.
“I’m sorry, I should have called to let you know what I was doing.” But then she tweaked his nipples again, and he gave another excited sound.
“Once again, you have been an ass since we got married. If I wanted a marriage of convenience and to be ignored and bored out of my mind, I would have married Bryce.”
“Hey, I heard that.” Bryce shouted from his room.
Ben’s hands closed over hers. “Go and change and get your things; I don’t like seeing you like this in another man’s home.”
She almost growled in annoyance but remembered there was more than just Ben trying to own and control her, and she had a year to figure it out or leave.
As she made her way to Bryce’s guest bedroom to put on her clothes and grab her overnight bag. She’d only planned to stay the night before heading back to their home.
“Diamond.” She paused but didn’t turn.
“I won’t be ignoring you anymore.” She shivered because his words sounded like a sexual promise and a threat. She was already wet from when she’d gripped his piercings, knowing that doing that would cause him pleasure and pain.
If she’d thought they had time before Bryce came out, she would have taken Ben into the room and rode his dick until the sweet hunger between her legs was assuaged. Since getting here, she’d thought about nothing except getting home to him, but she needed to fix whatever was happening to Bryce. He was her first love and her best friend. They’d been together since she was a teenager, and he was a very important part of her life and always would be. She just had to convince Ben about it now, and maybe it would be easier now that he knew about Bryce and Peter.
Well, that idea flew out the window when she came out of the room seeing Bryce and Ben being held apart by Peter and hearing Ben’s last words.
“If you call her or try to see her, I will tell the press about your relationship with Senator Peter Abbott.”
“Okay, I think it is time for us to go.”
“Yes.” All three male voices responded to her.
She walked up to Ben, grabbing him by the hand and walking with him toward the door, hearing the heavy tread of Peter and Bryce’s feet.
She turned around feeling tired and drained. She hadn’t expected this but wasn’t surprised either. Ben was turning out to be heavy-handed, and she didn’t like it.
“Sorry, Bryce. I, we—" Diamond didn’t finish, not knowing what to say.
“It’s okay Diamond.” Bryce stared into her eyes, speaking to her without saying a word. She felt better and relieved.
They were exiting the door when Ben turned and eyed Peter. “Glad to see my brother was wrong and you didn’t get into football on your parent’s dime but became a senator on it instead.”
She groaned.
“You, Sona—”
Ben closed the door behind them and now pulled Diamond along. She tried to retrieve her hand back, but he held onto it all the way to the waiting car parked outside of Bryce’s condo.
They rode back to the airport in silence until she turned, facing him.
“How did you get here so fast?”
“I left as soon as I saw you were at the airport; I was close enough to not be far behind you.” He said, turning to give her his attention.
“You have a tracker on my phone.” She nodded, not surprised.
“All the women in our lives have one.” He pointed out.
She scowled because the Brooks, even though a very private family, seemed to have a penchant for keeping tabs on their women and knew it started after Carter had lost his fiancée to an accident. The only person that didn’t do that from the family was their half-brother, Leaf, and he should be the one to be doing it. Since his wife up and disappeared for several years, only to pop back up and bring danger with her that had gotten him shot and Zahara’s sister Selena’s ranch manager, Grayson, fighting for his life in the hospital. Now all was good, and Deana, Leaf’s wife, spent her time between Colorado and Vegas helping out Carter with the accounting of his business there.
She turned her focus back to the scenery passing by.
“When did you learn that Bryce was gay?”
She looked back at him. “Since that night we were supposed to do the deed after prom. We went to the hotel, and things began to get hot and heavy, and when it came time for us to have sex, Bryce broke down in my arms crying, finally telling me the truth that I had begun to suspect that year.” She sat forward, looking through the front window now at the traffic.
She remembered Bryce had started to become distant and less affectionate around her, and one time she came upon him and Peter having a heated discussion when she’d gone to meet him after cheerleading practice that had gotten out early.
They had been standing so close to each other, near the side of the bleachers, the team had gone in to take a shower, except them, their bodies tense, and when she’d made a sound, they separated and turned to see her standing there.
Peter had glared at her and then walked off in anger. She’d questioned Bryce about what she’d just walked into, but he explained that Peter was upset and had cornered him to say that at the practice recently, he’d felt that Bryce’s head was not in the game.
Bryce then comes out admitting that Peter was right to her, but that he was nervous and could not focus because he wanted to plan a special night with her and take their relationship to the next level; he was hoping Diamond would feel the same way and be okay with them now going to have sex.
She thought she was, and that night when they made their way there, she began to have second thoughts but thought that this was going to be her husband for the rest of her life and figured it would be a special way to become closer in their relationship.
She continued quietly. “This was supposed to be another moment for the two of us to remember as our lives were going to change, it being our last year at the private school and both now being 18. We discussed getting engaged when we were both 21, and Bryce was on his way to playing football in college and hopefully scouted for the NFL.”
Diamond gave Ben a sad smile. “That night after he finished crying, he said he wasn’t ready to come out, especially as he was trying to get into the NFL and needed me to stay as his girlfriend for a little while, and then it just became comfortable to stay that way, since I hadn’t met anyone that I wanted to change my status for and all the attention I was getting as the girlfriend of the great quarterback Bryce Reid. It got comfortable between us, and then I got the call that he met someone, and it was getting serious, but he needed to see me and talk to me.”
She looked down at her hand that now supported a different ring on it and twisted it around while she thought about what led to Bryce proposing to her that year; she had gone to Ben’s parents place for Christmas.
When she finally got to see him, he’d asked her for another favor. “Diamond, I know this is a lot, but I have fallen for someone, and we can’t come out together just yet. He is someone important, and if this got out, it would ruin his career that just got started.”
Diamond remembered; she’d’ sat there shocked to learn that Bryce and Peter, when they were all at Logan, had been interested in each other, and that was what the tense moment was between them at the bleachers. Bryce did not want to admit his feelings for Peter and denied anything going on other than friendship. But when they met up at a charity auction that Bryce attended, he was introduced to one of the senators of Pennsylvania. All that changed when they saw each other again and admitted their feelings, but as they were both under the public eye, and they would be seen together, he needed the focus to be off him and any potential whispers that something was going on between him and Peter by them both having a fiancée or in relationships.
“He promised me it would only be for a little while and then we would call it off, going our separate ways, but they didn’t come out, and then there was another excuse: Peter was running for re-election." Diamond crossed her legs and continued.
"I stayed in the engagement to protect them, and I don’t regret helping Bryce through this. Plus, there were perks to being Bryce’s fiancée; it helped to open doors for me and get me invited to charity events, and that is where I discovered I wanted to work helping people out and taking money from the rich.” She gave him a weak smile and then turned to face the front.
She could feel his eyes on her, searching and digesting what she’d said. Ben gently cupped her chin, turning her back to him. “You don’t regret it, but you were unhappy too, Diamond. For that he and Peter can go to hell, and I don’t want you near them ever again. Especially with no clothes on.”
Diamond protested. “You don’t have to worry about Bryce and Peter being involved with each other. They only like men, not women.”
“They are still men. Stay away from them.” He warned.
She turned around, fully facing him. “You cannot keep me from being around men. Ben, I work with them, and I have to be around them during fundraising. If you open your mouth and try to ban me from working or, even more ridiculous, working with men. I will not do that. You need to understand that I am a loyal woman and will only be with you. No one else.”
He stared at her solemnly, and she hoped he could see that she was being honest. She’d not found any man to stir her the way Ben could, even when she was angry with him.
His jaw clenched. “We will discuss this more later.” He spit out as the car pulled to a stop.
Her shoulders slumped, and then she pulled out her purse, opening it and pulling out her compact to apply her lipstick and make sure that her makeup didn’t need to be touched up. He cupped her jaw, turning her to face him. “I’m sorry if my actions made you feel that way too. That I wasn’t paying you any attention. I can’t control myself sometimes and become fixated on things, just keep getting in my face when I do.” He bent toward her and gave her a soft kiss on her mouth that sent warmth spreading through her.
Ben’s phone pinged again, and they both stiffened. He pulled it out, looking at it, then he frowned, marring his perpetual serene look, bending down and grabbing a brown leather pouch cover, pulling his iPad out. His fingers ran over it, and he studied the information on it.
He then turned to her. “The virus is gone.”