Chapter 39
brEAKING NEWS: Henry Darlington Kisses Hotel Employee on Balcony!
Online news story by the INsider
Kate
Henry.
He was my first thought when I woke. Had he really joined me in my room last night, or had I just dreamed it?
He had been held up at the ball. I waited for him for hours, resisting sleep, but eventually, my exhaustion had got the better of me.
The evening had been so tiring, emotionally as well as physically.
There had been so many people. So many new faces.
So many conversations I hadn’t been able to follow.
Sitting alone in my room waiting for Henry hadn’t helped.
I hadn’t been able to shake the words of the two women in the restroom—because they were true.
Regardless of how you looked at it, I might belong to Henry, but not in his world—and I never would.
He had enough money for both of us and could shower me with luxury—but I would never truly fit.
The wealth, the extravagance, and the excess would never feel natural to me.
Even if I had more money, I would still buy secondhand clothes, because that’s what I had always done.
I would always choose a practical rucksack over an expensive designer handbag.
If I ever went on holiday, I would choose hiking and camping over sitting around some fancy ski resort.
And I would much rather eat burgers at McDonald’s or pizza straight from the box than swanky caviar hors d’oeuvres.
These little things would always set my world apart from Henry’s.
I yawned and stretched—and felt something warm and firm beside me.
Another body.
So it hadn’t been a dream.
I opened my eyes. The first light of day streamed in through the window, illuminating Henry asleep beside me.
He lay on his front, his face half buried in the pillow, his black hair tousled.
I reached out a hand to brush a few strands from his face.
He seemed tense even in sleep, as if his dreams were plagued with worries and responsibilities too.
I leaned forward and pressed my mouth gently against his, and his eyes instantly opened.
He fixed a drowsy gaze on me, looking up from beneath half-lowered eyelids.
The tension vanished from his face immediately, and his lips curled into a sexy smile.
The fluttering I’d felt in my chest last night returned.
“Good morning,” he mumbled, his voice rough and raspy with sleep.
I smiled back. “Good morning to you too.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yes. You?”
He nodded. “Your bed must be magic. I never sleep this well in my own.”
“Then you should sleep here more often.”
“Perhaps I will,” Henry hummed. He reached for my body under the blanket, pulled me close and kissed me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Sighing, I wrapped my arms around his neck.
His lips sent my pulse skyrocketing. His hands slid lower, slipping under The Darlington T-shirt I’d taken from the laundry room.
Last night on the balcony, I had wished he hadn’t been wearing gloves so I could feel his skin on mine—and now my wish had come true.
I shivered as his fingertips danced over my spine.
A liquid heat coursed through my body, and I arched towards Henry.
I couldn’t get enough of him. Burying my hands in his hair, I pulled his face closer to mine.
He moaned with pleasure as we kissed, and bit gently on my lower lip.
No man had ever kissed me like Henry, with so much longing, and so all-consumingly—and I had never kissed back with such urgency.
The kiss was intoxicating, robbing me of all sense of time.
Nothing else mattered. I forgot last night’s worries, and all my insecurities and reservations vanished.
Henry eventually pulled away from me, his chest rising and falling rapidly. I felt just as breathless. We looked at each other silently for a moment, too dazed to speak. My lips tingled from our kiss.
Henry lifted one hand from my back and gently brushed the hair from my forehead. I loved when he did that. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it earlier last night.”
“It’s fine. It’s not like you stood me up on purpose.”
“I’d never do that. I was thinking about you the entire time.” He began planting tiny kisses along my neck. His warm breath tickled my skin, and the hairs on my forearms stood on end, as if they too wanted to be close to him.
“And I was thinking about you,” I confessed, although it was difficult to focus on speaking. I tilted my head, offering up more of my neck to his lips. The buzzing of his phone vibrating filled the room, but we didn’t react.
Henry kissed my throat, running his tongue over my skin, as if savouring my taste, before gently sucking at my neck.
My breath hitched, and I couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel if he did the same to other parts of my body.
The thought sent a rush of nervous excitement through my veins, like the molten heat of lava.
“How can you possibly taste this good?” Henry mumbled against my skin.
“Water and soap,” I replied, my voice throaty with desire.
He laughed, and I loved how the sound made my entire body thrum. A moment later, though, his phone began to vibrate again on the bedside table. His kisses slowed. I could sense that he was trying to ignore the interruption, but this time, he was unsuccessful.
“I’m sorry. I have to get that.” He reached for his phone, and I saw Olivia’s name on the display. He accepted the call.
Olivia’s face appeared on the screen. She seemed briefly surprised to see me, then she grinned. “Hey, you two,” she purred smugly.
Henry rolled over onto his back and pulled me with him so that my head rested on his chest. With one hand, he stroked the skin under my shirt. “Hey. Have you sobered up yet?”
Olivia waved a hand dismissively, still lying in bed with her hair twisted up in a messy knot.
Even barely awake and without makeup, she was effortlessly stunning—and showed no signs of a hangover.
“So-so. I woke up five minutes ago to go to the bathroom, and I was planning to go back to sleep when I saw that Shannon had sent me an interesting link.”
Henry groaned. “What is it this time?”
Olivia’s gaze flicked to me. “There are new photos of the two of you.”
Henry stopped stroking me. “What? Where?”
“I’ve sent you the link.”
Henry swiftly opened his chat with Olivia and tapped the link.
It led to one of the INsider’s social media pages, where several photos of me and Henry on the balcony had been posted.
Although the images were slightly grainy, it was unmistakably us.
The photos had captured not just our kiss but also showed the moments leading up to and following it, including Henry removing my mask to reveal my face.
Below the photos was a single sensational headline, as if the reporter had been too impatient to write a full article to accompany the images.
“Fuck,” Henry mumbled, and returned to the call with Olivia. Her expression was concerned. “Thanks for the warning,” Henry said. “I’ll call you back later.”
She nodded. “OK. But don’t let this ruin your day. Fuck the paparazzi. You look happy, and I love that for you.”
I smiled. “Thank you. See you later.”
“Bye,” Henry said.
He ended the call and flicked back to the photos. The post already had thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. I was curious about what people had written, but Henry didn’t open the comments. He zoomed in on the photos, studying each one carefully. We looked very close. And in love.
“What do you think?”
I looked up. “About the photos?”
“Yes.”
I wasn’t particularly bothered by them. I found it slightly unsettling to know someone had been watching us kiss, but if people wanted to waste their time like that, it wasn’t my problem. I was living my best life. “I think we look pretty good in them,” I said with a shrug.
Henry laughed, and I could feel the vibration of his chest in my head. “We really do.”
“Does it bother you that someone caught us on camera?” I asked, curious.
“It bothers me that those clowns don’t give a shit about our privacy.
” Henry tossed his phone onto the bedside table with the carelessness of someone who could easily afford a replacement.
“It was a private event, no press allowed, and they’ve got nothing better to do than hide in the bushes with a two-hundred-millimetre lens. ”
“Do you think you’ll get in trouble?” I asked, tilting my head to look at him.
“Who with?”
“Your parents.” I turned in his arms to see him better. He looked back at me, and his fingers began to move across my back again, tracing gentle circles that brought the heat flooding back. “I’m sure they won’t be pleased.”
“So what? I’m not pleased with them either.”
“I just don’t want you to be in trouble because of me.”
Henry snorted. “I’m not afraid of my parents. And there’s no way I’m letting a man accused of rape meddle in my love life—whether he’s my dad or not.”
“And this won’t damage your reputation?” I couldn’t forgive myself if Henry’s image suffered because of me.
A few wealthy snobs gossiping about me was one thing, but if the whole nation jumped on the bandwagon, that was something else entirely.
“What if people think that you pressured me or forced me into something? Most of your dad’s victims were hotel employees, weren’t they? ”
“True, but everyone with any sense will see that our kiss was consensual. And if anyone does kick up a fuss, you can always issue a statement as a last resort, though I’d rather avoid that.”
I nodded. “All right. I just don’t want us to damage the hotel’s reputation.”
Henry smiled, his expression full of unmistakable affection.
“We won’t,” he assured me, continuing to stroke my back.
“There are always headlines about Ethan or speculations about my love life. They don’t mean anything, and they don’t have any impact on The Darlington.
In a couple of days, everyone will have forgotten about the photos. So please, don’t worry about it.”
I nodded hesitantly. “OK.”
Perhaps the photos really weren’t such a big deal.
Who Henry spent his time with should have no bearing on the hotel or its guests.
People were just bored and hungry for gossip.
Besides, the press still didn’t have a clue who I was.
As long as nothing about my past came to light, we had nothing to worry about.