Chapter 6 The Morning After
The Morning After
LANIE
I woke the next morning beside Caleb, worn out from our night of debauchery.
We left the party early to again go at it—this time in a room off the main hall.
To my grave disappointment, there weren’t any onlookers.
I couldn’t get over the way Baz made me feel when he watched us.
Shaking the feeling of pure power, I’d mustered with nothing, but my gaze and a few moans delighted me.
I rolled to find Caleb awake and typing away at what I assumed was an email.
“We should get up and go,” I said. “I didn’t realize I slept so late.”
He looked at me, “Oh, it’s no trouble. We have the day to ourselves.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised. “Why?”
“Baz is busy—he is always busy—and we’re free to move about the place. I will not lie. I long to go out for golf with the others.”
I pulled a face.
“I figured you weren’t interested or—”
“No, it’s alright. I’ll curl up with a book and enjoy the quiet. Honestly, I’m fine.”
He turned back to his phone. The lack of interest in debriefing last night confused me. I didn’t understand how he could just move on. I needed more. What had they done together?
I ran my hand across his chest. “So… are we going to talk about last night or…”
Caleb looked back at me, casual as ever.
“Well, what do you want me to say, Lanie?”
“I… I’ve never done anything like that. Based on what you and Baz spoke about… I figured you had.”
“Oh, are you having regrets?” He sweetly stroked my cheek. “I can tell him to fuck off, Lanie.”
“No,” I said. “I rather like pot-stirring. I’m intrigued that any man would—”
“Baz has a kink,” Caleb explained. “I mean, he’s never indicated he wanted me to do… that. I’ve never seen him get off on being cuckolded, but… we’ve done… some things.”
He turned back to his phone nervously.
“Okay, spill. If you are worried about offending me, don’t be. I know you and I are both horny people who enjoy getting a little dark.”
Caleb turned back and shrugged. “We’ve had some good times together.”
“So, you don’t get off on it?”
“Uh… I don’t know how to answer that without sounding fucked up.”
I curled on his chest, looking up as adorably as I could. “I really don’t think you’re fucked up. I think all three of us have something in common and I loved the thrill of it—even if I am not sure about doing it again.”
His face pulled in a way that suggested this was a one-time thing. “I have little interest in doing this again. I don’t know how I feel about him watching.”
“Or sharing?” I raised my eyebrow.
“That bit is not as big a bother,” Caleb admitted. “Sharing doesn’t bother me. It’s the way he looked at you that does. I don’t mind when we’re equals in it, but… something about the way he pursued you is the problem.”
“The money or—”
“No. Money is business. And… Lanie, I think we both know what this is, but… it’s almost perverse. As I said, I don’t mind sharing. We all got what we wanted, but I cannot shake the feeling that—as always—Baz gets everything he desires and it’s beyond a little fun. And clearly, it shook you a bit.”
It didn’t. I’d do it repeatedly.
As redness crept up his cheeks, I backed off.
His insecurity or jealousy showed. I didn’t poke the bear or push the boundary.
Having two men equally invested in my pleasure got me off even if having two men share me, didn’t.
One allowed me control while the other gave it.
But if Caleb didn’t want it, I’d let it go.
“So, if I can ask, Caleb, what does Baz do that he can just throw the GDP of a small country at anyone for any silly thing?” I asked, running my index finger down Caleb’s chest.
“He is a real estate investor. He makes a mint by buying properties at a low price and finding a way to increase their value. He flips them for much more and he charms everyone while he does it.”
“How does one luck into that? Or rather, are they born into it?” I figured the answer was the latter.
“Like most of us, he was born into it. His father is a baron.”
“Like an actual baron or just… figuratively?”
“His father is literally a Baron from some little place in Scotland. They are English by birth, I suppose, but the family inherited a shit ton of money when his father was named heir to some random aristocrat who was a distant cousin. Baz has more money than god from industry, but will inherit even more. They even own the Exham Dyers.”
I was immediately curious—not about the money but about where he was from.
The situation described how my mother lost her family estate perfectly—she was one of many daughters and it was willed to a distant, English-raised cousin.
Her parents wanted her to marry her father’s heir if only to preserve the estate, but she refused.
Instead, she chose to marry my father, a plucky American pilot and the heir to a retail and real estate fortune.
Could Baz’s father be our distant cousin—the one my mother was originally supposed to marry?
“What Barony?” I asked.
“Oh, she knows what a Barony is,” Caleb chuckled. “Who are you?”
“I’m an American playing the arranged wife of an Earl. I know some things.” Of course, that was only half the story.
“Oban, I think.”
My jaw dropped.
“What?” Caleb chuckled. “Do you know them?”
I covered up my surprise. “No, I just thought you were… taking the piss.”
“No, darling. He’s a real-life lord. Our families go way back. He’s like an uncle to me.”
I didn’t want to unpack all those complicated dynamics, so I moved along, much more curious about the family and estate itself. Not wanting to raise suspicion, I played the silly American.
“Well, it is so interesting to know a real-life lord.”
“Don’t be too jealous, darling,” Caleb chuckled. “He has his own issues and is in a bit of a pickle from the looks of it?”
“Oh?”
“His father is a massive prick. A real wanker! And as such, he makes ridiculous demands of Baz. He always pits him against his boring, daft younger brother. And Baz? Well, he doesn’t help himself.”
“How so?”
“His father—despite being a notorious womanizer in his day—hates Baz’s love of chasing tail. The man may be smart at business, but women will be the end of him.”
“Is he the type to fall in love quickly and get burned? That surprises me.”
“No. He falls in lust, becomes obsessed with a shiny object, and then gets distracted.”
I suddenly understood Caleb’s reticence to let this happen again.
I suspected I was now a bauble to Baz and the reason he did something so stupid as to make a business decision just to watch me cum.
While I sensed things between his father and my mother ended very badly, I was still stuck here for the weekend with a man who should have been my sworn enemy.
I also now knew what Baz’s kryptonite was.
It didn’t just flatter me to be the object of his desire, it gave me another leg up—one Baz didn’t even know I had.
I sat on that, not wanting to draw attention to my intrigue.
Playing cheerful, I asked, “Do you want to get ready for breakfast? I’d blow you in the shower.”
“I’d be delighted,” Caleb said. “Why in the hell are you so horny? You’re a very cheeky girl.”
“I’m insatiable. It’s been a complaint before.”
“Not from me.”
I bit my lip as I left bed. “No, you’re very willing to go to hell with me, Caleb. I adore you for it.”
As I blew Caleb in the shower, I wasn’t thinking about him.
I thought about Baz and how hot it might be to be here right now with him in the corner jacking off while I blew Caleb.
It was power I held—power to torture a man whose family scorned mine.
Suddenly, all I wanted to do was have wild, crazy, slightly vengeful sex.
After all, seduction was an art, and I’d already proven myself an excellent painter.
I told myself every time I tortured Baz with an orgasm, I avenged my family.
BAZ
I took a call, slipping into the library and pulling the door behind me.
My construction manager droned on about job issues and an executive decision he felt I should make with a development in Bath.
But as he continued, I felt eyes on me. I turned to see Lanie reading in the nook by the window, staring from her stomach on the couch with her legs kicking behind her.
She looked so innocent, yet so seductive all at once.
It was that confidence and lack of shame that always stopped my train of thought.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said once he stopped.
“Well, I’d suggest you come down here tomorrow to at least check it out. We’re working around the clock,” he explained. “And it would also signal to the crew this isn’t all for nothing.”
I groaned. “Fine.”
Yes, I have nothing better to do on a Saturday morning than to check on a construction site.
“Good. I will be here early—eight, if you can.”
“Early is better,” I agreed. “I will see you then.”
As I hung up, I turned back to Lanie. She pretended to be focused solely on her book, but I knew better.
“Well, Miss Day, apologies for that.”
“It’s fine. It’s your house,” Lanie looked at her book.
I wanted to toss the damn thing across the room.
“You’re a reader then?”
“I’m not much for golf, Lord Osgoode.” She sat her gaze back on me.
“Nor am I. Too slow.”
“Oh, you’re more for things that go fast?” Lanie raised her eyebrow. “Too fast, perhaps?”
“I’d rather they go fast than drag.”
“I couldn’t tell. Although, sometimes, it might be wise to take a minute?”
Her advice was sage, but damn if I didn’t want to go far too fast with her lips around my cock or to flip her over the arm of a couch and pound into her. Her fearlessness made me nervous, but the way she baited me only made me want to punish her for her bad deeds.
“I don’t have much time,” I wanted to adjust myself. “That’s what my job requires.”
“Yes, of course, it’s just business. Like last night. Was that really the smartest move?”
“You tell me, love.” I prickled at her admonishment.
“Well, was it worth the investment? You’re the one who laid it out there. I had no money in the game, just skin, I suppose.”
Yes, beautiful, perfect, milky-white skin and nipples I wanted to suck very badly.
“The thing with investments,” I said, “is you need to give them time.”
“And do you think it will pay off in the end, Lord Osgoode?”
I smiled, confident. “Yes, I think it will. I suspect it will pay dividends. I rarely regret such investments.”
“Because you don’t like to lose?”
“I never lose, Miss Day.” I turned.
I’d have her—all of her—before this was over.
Unfortunately, I worried that without a gesture, she’d assume this was all just a game I ceded to Caleb.
I gathered a woman like Lanie became accustomed to a chase.
After all, I assumed she could have any younger, rich man she wanted.
I wanted to prove it was me she longed to see after this weekend.
Yes, we’d shared in some sort of carnal mischief, and I longed to do it again, but it was more than that.
Caleb would bore of her, and she deserved better than his usual treatment of discarding a shiny object only days after discovering it.
Yes, I’d find a way to impress her. While Lanie tested my resolve and patience with every sideways glance or innuendo, I would get what I wanted sooner or later. I always did.