Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Afew days later I still had no answers about what Granger was up to.
Was it true that he was trying to steal something? Why would he be going so hard for an urban legend?
And it had become extremely awkward that I hadn’t accepted any of Pippa’s offers to come and eat breakfast with them.
Hayden would be so good for your career, she said. And maybe if you tried to chat more with Granddaddy’s friends. I know he likes that and some of them have connections at the symphony, you know. And besides, you’re single now. . .
Was that an unspoken agreement to becoming a Siren? That you were available for dating someone the Hollingsworths wanted you to?
I might as well come to breakfast. At least then she might stop asking me about it.
Come down to that guestroom off the breakfast area and I can give you some of the clothes I’m getting rid of, Pippa texted me.
I gritted my teeth. She meant well. Right?
So maybe being her charity project was a little aggravating.
But she meant well.
Which made it all the worse that her husband was fucking me behind her back.
Not only fucking me, but trapping me here in Oystar Bay.
I wished I could say I took no pleasure in his degrading, immoral behavior.
But it wasn’t true. . .
I passed the table getting set up for breakfast and walked down the hall to Pippa’s room.
Was Hayden right with his suspicions about Granger?
I knocked on the door.
No answer.
Now what? Hadn’t Pippa said to meet here?
I knocked again.
And this time, I heard a noise inside.
What was that?
I leaned my ear against the door instinctively.
And I realized that noise was Pippa and Granger having sex.
Low grunts, high-pitched breathless squeals.
Oh, I was an idiot for ever believing Granger cared about me!
My cheeks felt heated. Had I really just put my ear to the door? Idiot! There was a fleshy slap, like he’d just spanked her ass, and my own skin was tingling.
“Be there in a minute,” Granger called out.
Fucking bastard.
I turned and hurried as fast as I dared, out to the big sunroom where Hayden was in a suit watching the breakfast preparations.
“Give you any ideas?” he asked, winking at me, and my stomach already felt nauseated, and this gross idea gave me another lurch.
“No.”
“Come on, everyone knows good girls are the dirtiest fucks.”
His eyes were shining but I was in no mood for his jokes, and I wanted to run away, but Hayden was blathering on, talking about the Sirens performance that afternoon and who all was going to be there and what I was gonna wear.
Not a damn thing about what I was going to play, mind you.
“Sorry,” Pippa caroled, sliding into the room, as sleek and pleased as a cat. “Was that you knocking on the door, Sosie? I should’ve known that would happening. The man is insatiable.”
“No,” I lied. “That wasn’t me.”
How could I escape his relentless betrayals?
Granger strolled in behind her. Jeans, Converse sneakers, old gray T-shirt, where everyone else was in cocktails dresses or a suit.
And he had the audacity to wink at me.
I turned away and sat down at the table.
“What color would you like to see me in, Hayden?” I asked.
“Oh, something green, of course,” he said eagerly. “Because of how beautiful your green eyes are. I have an idea there’s a dress in there with lacing along the front? You’d look good in that.”
I was viciously pleased to see a tiny twitch in Granger’s jawline.
“Who all will be there tonight?” I asked, while Hayden rattled off a list of people whose names I didn’t know.
“I’m excited to see them,” I said. “I admire a man who’s made his own money. Not one who’s married into it.”
Pippa put her fork down with a clatter.
“Is that supposed to be a reference to my husband?” She asked in a hard, tight voice, and suddenly the atmosphere around the family breakfast table wasn’t very friendly at all.
I shrugged. “It’s not in reference to anyone specific.”
Pippa still looked angry.
“Sosie, you sound hormonal,” Granger said, and Hayden leaned forward angrily to object to that, the two siblings bitching face to face.
But a little motion over my best friend’s shoulder caught my eye.
His eyes on mine, I saw Granger stretch his hand over Pippa’s cup of coffee, and crumble something into it.
What the hell?
My jaw dropped.
“Pippa—”
But just then Chamberlain Hollingsworth came in, and we were forced to change the conversation to what he wanted to talk about.
But the whole time I wondered what the hell he was doing.
When Hayden suggested a stroll after breakfast, Granger shook his head.
“Sosie needs to go get dressed and ready for the performance. I think her duties as a Siren take precedence over everything.”
Fuming, I didn’t dare object with Chamberlain there, and I had barely raised my skirt in the changing room when the door opened and Granger walked in.
“I told you I didn’t want you anywhere near Hayden,” he growled. “That’s my pussy. It’s not for every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the fucking neighborhood.”
“What are you doing to Pippa?” I demanded. “What are you putting in her drink? Are you drugging her?”
He laughed, running those strong hands along my arms.
“You think Pippa needs to be drugged to want to fuck me?”
“I swear to god, Granger, I will tell her.”
“Stop flirting with Hayden,” he retorted. “That pisses me off.”
“You’re fucking Pippa, you disgusting bastard! Tell me what exactly your game is here or I’m calling the cops.”
“Idle threats, sweetheart.”
“You can’t watch me every second. The next time I have to hear you having sex, I’m going to go blow Hayden. No matter what the fuck he’s doing.”
Granger closed his fingers around my throat, giving me an admonitory squeeze.
“Why can’t you just trust me?”
“Because I know you!”
“Fine, brat. Why do you think Pippa hasn’t gotten pregnant?”
I gasped, wrenching his fingers off me.
“You’re secretly giving her birth control?”
“Yeah, why would I want that bitch having my baby?”
“Well, why didn’t you give me birth control?” I demanded, trying to ignore the fact that my breasts had felt really full and swollen the last few days, almost achy.
But my period was due. That must be all it was.
“Because I want to get you pregnant.”
“I don’t understand,” I said flatly. “You want your forced mistress to get pregnant? But not your wife?”
“Correct.”
“Why?”
“You want me to blow smoke up your asshole, sweetheart? Want me to play sweet to you? I don’t know why I want you. Maybe I have a thing for redheads. Maybe it’s your tits. Maybe it’s the fact that you’re a brat. Whatever it is, it’s always been you. Knew it as soon as I saw you.”
“But you’re still fucking your wife?”
“That’s right, songbird. And I’ll be doing that until I find it.”
“What is it?”
“Nah, I don’t think I’ll tell you.”
“Hayden is suspicious of you,” I said flatly. “He thinks you’re up to something. What are you up to, Granger?”
He only grinned.
“How about you get dressed?”
Then he raised my chin for a kiss, one arm pressing me tight against his body.
“Don’t fucking kiss me when I don’t know where your nasty mouth has been.”
“All part of the job, baby.”
“What if someone had seen us?” I cried.
But he just shrugged.
“I’ve been looking for this damn thing for two years now. Maybe you’re my good luck charm that’ll help me find it.”
“What damn thing? You’re driving me crazy, Granger! What are you trying to find? You have to tell me!”
“The limit to how much you’re testing my patience” was all he said. “And don’t you dare let me see you out there in green.”
One big hand landed with a stinging blow on my ass. “You won’t be sitting down for a week if you do.”
“Bastard!” I hissed, throwing my high heel after him, but he was already gone.
Minutes after he left, I could still feel eyes on me, so intense that I whirled around, scanning the wood panels, pulling apart the rows of Siren dresses neatly hung up in the changing room.
“Hello?” I called out. “Is anyone there?”
But there was no response.