Chapter 12
Win
Channing wasn’t the only one with a growing list of grievances.
I was sick of unexplained things happening at the estate when I wasn’t around. It was one thing to blame a teenager’s overactive imagination. It was another that Channing had a detailed list of odd occurrences. I understood why she wanted cameras inside our wing, but my home was the single place I wasn’t being watched. It made my skin crawl to think about adding surveillance to my private space. I didn’t want to worry about Winnie. No security system was one hundred percent secure. If I installed one at home and it got hacked, I couldn’t imagine the damage it would do or how big of a bargaining chip the footage would be in the wrong hands.
Channing firmly believed that the missing items would resurface in a sinister manner. She questioned if my mother might frame her with an evidence trail that led from a crime that would lead to Channing’s arrest. It sounded diabolical, but my mother was indeed conniving and clever enough to frame someone. Which meant I had to be on high alert.
I was at my wit’s end because my mother swore she wasn’t behind the supposed haunting, and for once I believed her. I wasn’t as convinced she didn’t have someone messing with Channing on her behalf, but so far Rocco hadn’t been able to find any evidence of that.. The more I pushed, the more ammunition it gave my mother to question Channing and Winnie’s sanity. She accused me of enabling the redhead and warned that the growing paranoia would adversely affect my niece. Without concrete proof that she was involved, we were at a stalemate. It grated on my last nerve that my hard-won sanctuary was anything but peaceful.
I was furious whenever Channing left for the city to work for my half-brother. I understood it was a strategic move on her part, and that she only took the job to taunt my mother. I hated the mere thought of her breathing the same air as that bastard. I didn’t want her to become too familiar with him. I didn’t want her to be sympathetic to him. I didn’t want her to get close to him or speak of him fondly. If she was going to hate a rich man, namely me, then I wanted her to hate all men who were well-to-do. However, if I made a move to have her fired, or forced Alistair to let her go, it would be an unforgivable offense in her eyes. I’d taken so much from her; it might break her if I demanded more. We had two years to be tied to one another. I didn’t want Channing to be an empty shell when we parted ways. I spent so many years feigning disinterest to keep her safe. I wouldn’t ruin all that hard work just because I was admittedly jealous.
The final thing that made my temper flare was the obvious mistake I made by dragging Channing to this event.
I knew she wouldn’t want to go if I asked, so I forced her to come. Just like I coerced her into marrying me.
It was clear to me that she wouldn’t attempt to blend in or create a favorable impression, but I had no idea how angry it would make me to witness her being blatantly ignored and silently judged. It was impossible for me to be blasé over how poorly she was treated. Everyone turned their heads when we walked in and instantly decided Channing didn’t belong. My reaction was different. Amid a vast array of high-fashion clothing and precious gems, Channing left the biggest impression. Her imperfection in a sea of immaculate perfection took my breath away. Her hair was messy. Professionals did not do her makeup. She wasn’t dressed to the nines. She didn’t wear diamonds, but in contrast, the antique locket she wore around her neck had a hidden picture of Winnie on one side and her sister on the other. The value was immeasurable. But none of these social elites would understand that. The only time she smiled was when the singer engaged her in conversation. She didn’t belong, and she made it clear she didn’t want to. While everyone else found her worthy of ridicule, I was unable to take my eyes off her. Channing was like a spot of sunshine moving through a room full of storm clouds. I realized how wrong I’d been to think she was a bad influence on Winnie.
It was much better for my niece to take after her aunt than any of these women full of false pretenses.
When I saw my half-brother enter the room, all my functioning brain cells stopped working. All I could feel was jealousy. I refused to share her with him. I’d given so much to my father’s mistake. I wouldn’t let that bastard take my wife away from me. It didn’t matter that our marriage wasn’t real; the feelings that were percolating deep within my darkest places were.
Since I didn’t want to make any more demands on Channing, I decided it was best to ask for forgiveness for kissing her instead of permission.
I trapped her between my body and the bathroom counter. I was past worrying about being interrupted or whether this was proper behavior in public. All I could think was that I wanted to kiss her. I wanted those bothersome people outside to know I was fortunate to have her on my arm for the evening. Not the other way around. There was so little in my life I’d ever wanted to claim. It unnerved me that the first thing I was ready to disrupt my stagnant but successful life was this woman. She’d been a nuisance in my life for so long. How did I miss that being near her made me feel like I deserved to have something that was just for me? I had everything, but none of it could fill the gaping void where my heart was supposed to be.
Channing put her hands on my chest to keep a slight space between our bodies. She gasped when I kissed her, but she didn’t pull away. Since her mouth was open in surprise, I slipped my tongue between her teeth so I could taste her fully. There was an intoxicating flavor of expensive whiskey and what I assumed was pure sunshine lingering on her tongue. Her hand curled into a fist where it rested against my collarbone, and I could feel a tremor shake her body. I couldn’t tell if she was trembling with fear or enjoyment. I was fine with either response. As long as it wasn’t revulsion, I would take it.
Her lips were soft. Her hair was silky. Her skin was smooth. She made sweet sounds while I kissed her with everything I was worth.
I could count on one hand the times I’d lost my head, and I would still have fingers left over. Ever since I decided that joining forces with Channing was a ticket to freedom, I forgot every hard-wired rule my mother had drilled into me. I willfully ignored who I was and what I was supposed to be, because when I was with her, I felt like I was someone better than I had ever been allowed to be.
I fisted a hand in her hair and pulled her head back to deepen the kiss. Her lips moved underneath mine, and her tongue started to twist and turn as mine flicked across hers. My skin heated and my breath caught. I used my free hand to catch the hem of her dress and pull it up along the soft line of her thigh. The material wasn’t anything to get excited about, but the flesh hidden under it felt like velvet. She had never been a woman who was waif thin, so there were more than a handful of curves to fill my palms.
I planned to stop the caress when my hand landed by her knee. However, my control wasn’t as steady as it normally was. The next instant, my hand held her bare hip and her dress pooled in dark folds over my forearm. My thumb played with the edge of her barely there underwear. Channing stilled and pulled away. I bent my head so that I could kiss down the side of her arched neck. Her pulse was fluttering rapidly, and her breath was raspy. Her hands on my chest flattened as she pressed back, silently asking me to give her some space.
“What are you doing, Chester? We are not friends. And we are most certainly not lovers. This is outside the realm of whatever we are.”
I licked a lengthy line from the base of her throat until my lips landed next to her ear. I whispered, “We are married, Harvey.” It seemed like the most obvious answer to her question. Didn’t married people touch each other? Didn’t they kiss like their lives depended on it? Didn’t they want each other beyond reason?
I caught her earlobe between my teeth and moved my hand across the quivering surface of her thigh. I wanted to sink into her warmth. I wanted to get lost in her body within her embrace.
“We aren’t married for real. We’re enemies at best, Win.”
I froze. It was the first time she called me Win. It was always Chester because she liked how much it bugged me.
I liked the way my name sounded when she said it.
It sounded like victory.
“We can be enemies — enemies with benefits.” I thought she would walk away from our arrangement with enough to make it worth her while. And yet, I kept finding. things I wanted from her. I was racking up a debt that might not be payable. “We should be on the same side of this one thing, Harvey.” It would make the next two years far easier to bear.
I regained my momentum and licked the shell of her ear. I shifted my hand between her legs and touched her through the thin material of her panties. She didn’t close her thighs or pull back in protest. One of her hands curled around my neck as I kissed her temple. I shifted my hold from her hair to her back so I could pull her closer. Her other hand grasped a handful of my hair. Her skin was damp and fragrant. I really wanted to strip her naked and explore her from head to toe. She felt so much more alive than the partners I typically took to bed.
Nothing was practiced or planned about her response to me.
She couldn’t hide the fact that she liked the way I touched her and enjoyed the way my kisses made her feel. She couldn’t cover her hesitation. The way she responded was almost shy. The hesitation was endearing. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been with a woman who didn’t want anything from me and was unsure of taking what I offered.
The way her hands were holding on to different parts of me for dear life made my blood pump furiously and sent my head spinning. It was the first time she’d touched me in a way that betrayed her typical frosty attitude. She was clutching me like she never wanted to let go. That feeling overrode the slight sting from the frantic way she pulled my hair.
I continued to stroke her through the thin barrier and watched as her chest and neck flushed a bright pink. She gulped and her eyes widened. Her head tilted back with no help from me, and her grip went from pushing me away to pulling me closer. My shirt was going to be a wrinkled mess and there would be no hiding what we’d been doing in this bathroom.
That’s what I wanted.
I wanted my half-brother to know. I wanted my mother to be aware of the uncontrollable desire she was up against. I wanted all those people with more money than compassion to understand that I was lucky enough to have a real gem in my hands. A jewel that shone brighter than any they brought out for special occasions.
My lips skimmed across her jaw as I let my fingers dip beneath the garment that was keeping me from touching bare skin and delicate folds. She was wet, making my touch glide easily to her most sensitive spots and right to her fluttering opening.
I wanted to imprint the sound she made on my brain. I memorized the way she moved, how her eyes dilated, and what made her body writhe. Those would be recollections I planned to lock away and hold close forever.
She was silky and hot.
I wanted more than my fingers deep inside of her. The thought made my head spin.
I kissed her again. This time, she kissed me back. Our tongues tangled. Our lips collided. Our teeth bit and nipped hungrily. I caught her chin with my free hand and held her in place, preventing her from pulling away until the last of her breath ran out.
Her body clamped down on my fingers moving inside of her. Every quake and quiver made my mind spin and had my sanity slip further away. I was not a man who indulged in much. I had every vice beaten out of me when I was young. It was a novel experience to covet something. I squeezed her jaw and forced her to look at me while my fingers moved deeper, and I flicked my thumb against her clit. Her gigantic eyes popped larger, and the pink blush crept onto her cheeks. It wasn’t just her hair that made her look like a strawberry ripe for the picking.
I very much wanted to devour her.
Channing whimpered, and her fingernails dug into the back of my neck. The slight sting sent tingles of pleasure shooting through my nerves. I was literally hot under the collar. I wanted to strip off my custom suit so we could be skin-to-kin.
“Win…” The way she breathed my name made my dick hard.
“Channing…” The way I whispered hers made her come on my fingers and her entire body trembled.
“Did you just call me by my name?” She sounded dazed. Her head dropped to my shoulder and her shoulders shook as she worked to catch her breath and pull herself together. The words were thin and bewildered.
“Didn’t you use mine?” I pulled my hand free but kept her caged against the counter. “Don’t you think we should be on a first-name basis, all things considered?”
She sniffed and pushed me backward with a hand. She tried to smooth her hair, but her hands were still shaking. She turned to face the mirror and gave our rumpled appearance a startled look. I handed her one of the monogrammed towels so she could clean herself up. There wasn’t much that could be done about her soaked under garments. A fact that made me strangely proud. She wiggled out of them and tossed the minuscule garment into the trash can. Now that she was fully naked under her dress, I was going to have a tough time focusing on anything else.
“I don’t think we should be anything given the circumstances. This feels like the start of trouble I can’t afford to get myself into. We both know what happens when someone from my family plays with fire near someone from your family. Neither of us have recovered from the flames, Chester.”
I lifted a hand to the top of her head and let it drift down the length of her hair. Since she was always slightly ruffled, her appearance seemed less illicit than mine. My clothes were wrinkled, her lipstick was smeared across my mouth, and my hair was sticking up from her fingers clutching at it.
I wanted to tell her I was exceptionally good at putting out fires. I’d been doing it for the Hallidays for years.
I didn’t get the chance to say anything because someone pushed the door open, and the last person I wanted to see, aside from my mother, stuck their head inside the bathroom from the antechamber.
“Channing, are you in here? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. You’ve been gone a concerning amount of time. They served dinner and are moving onto the silent auction. Win is missing, too. Lady Halliday is about to have a heart attack.” I gritted my teeth when I heard my half-brother use Channing’s nickname for my mother.
Alistair DeVere looked like he belonged in my family. While Archie took after our mother, both DeVere and I favored our father. He was a younger, slicker, happier, better adjusted version of me. I thought I couldn’t resent him more if I tried. Then Channing took him under her wing, and all my negative feelings toward him multiplied.
Channing shoved her elbow into my stomach and stepped away from me. She reached up to smooth her hair and belatedly tried to repair her messy makeup.
“I’ll be right out.” Her voice was steady, as if our tryst did not affect her in the slightest. “I didn’t think anyone would miss me for a few minutes.”
Alistair snorted. “Most of those people wouldn’t notice if a bomb went off in that room. But Win is missing, and you were the last person seen with him. Did you put the sign outside the bathroom so you could hide?”
Channing stepped forward and gave me a sharp look indicating she wanted me to remain mute.
But I had no intention of letting her leave with Alistair or lose the opportunity to make my position in Channing’s life — and soon, her bed — clear.
I stepped next to her and met the surprised gaze from the brother I refused to acknowledge. “I put the sign outside the door. I didn’t want to be interrupted. Harvey and I had some important business to discuss.”
The kid’s achingly familiar gaze skimmed over us, and a smirk broke out on his stupidly attractive face. “Looks like it was a pretty intense conversation, but you better get back to the gala. Your mother is ready to send in the National Guard to find you. I overheard someone complain that they paid over a hundred grand to get their single daughter seated at your table for dinner. I think your mother plans to have a bachelor auction with exactly one candidate on the block.”
I grabbed Channing’s hand before she could slip away. I squeezed her fingers and met my brother’s curious gaze with a pointed one of my own.
“That’s impossible. My mother knows that Channing and I are married. She can’t auction me off, regardless of what she promised.”
I wanted him to know Channing was off limits. To my surprise, Alistair barely reacted to the news.
“I know that you’ve got a shady contract marriage going on. That was one of the first things Channing told me when I hired her. Your mother conveniently seems to have forgotten that you’re spoken for. Which doesn’t surprise me. She’s treated you like a pet since you were young.” He wiggled his dark eyebrows at Channing. “Do you want to get out of here? I wasn’t officially invited. They were about to kick me out when I decided to find you. This party isn’t any fun. I can show you a wild time since you’re in the city for the night.”
Before Channing could agree, I pushed Alistair out the bathroom door and stepped back into the busy hotel. Several pairs of curious eyes found the three of us.
“Channing’s my plus one. We’re not staying much longer. She’s coming back to my apartment with me, and I’ll take her home tomorrow.” It was a direct declaration of ownership.
Alistair lifted his eyebrows and hummed softly. “Shouldn’t Channing get to decide if she wants to leave with me or wait for you?”
I clenched my teeth. She should have had a choice, but I was worried it would be him. I couldn’t handle that, so it was best to snatch the decision from her.
“Come on. If my mother is determined to sell me off to the highest bidder, we need to ensure that person is you.” I pulled Channing toward the banquet room. I heard her tell Alistair she would contact him later. I was pleased that she didn’t seem upset that I dragged her away from my half-brother. I gave her a hard look and saw her smile fade. I cleared my throat as the frost surrounded us once we stepped back into the high-end circus.
It didn’t feel like we were playing with fire the way Channing warned. We were toying with something that could be harder to control than a firestorm.
Feelings were far scarier than flames.