Cage (33 page)

Preston’s housekeeper had retired to her one-bedroom
suite on the grounds for the evening, so it was just the two of us in his grand
estate. Though he had done his best to calm me in the car, my knees were still
shaking and I could feel panic squeezing my chest. He suggested I use his
master bathroom to relax, and I couldn’t say no to that.

I leaned back in his whirlpool tub,
sighing softly as I piled my hair on the side. The water was nearly scalding
hot, perfect for releasing all the aches and pains that had built in my
strained muscles. I could feel myself slipping away already, the frustration
and confusion receding as I lay my head on the built-in neck support, letting
myself float weightless in the bath. A moment later I heard Preston enter and I
opened my eyes to see him extending a glass of champagne.

“Here,” he said. “You look like you need
it.”

I nodded and sighed as I took it from
him, bringing it to my lips. This was the good stuff, not the fifteen-dollar
bottles I’d picked up from the grocery store once or twice back when I’d been
in charge of ExecuSpace’s company parties. Those days seemed so far away now.
I’d been shrouded in opulence for so long that I could barely remember what it
was like to struggle. Had I become my mother?

I didn’t realize I’d said that last part
out loud.

Preston’s eyes darkened as he looked
down at me. “No, Maddy,” he said, sitting on the edge of the tub. “You’re
nothing like Vivian. Don’t you ever think that. Okay?”

I smiled at him thinly and took another
sip of my champagne. I wasn’t in the mood to argue. “What do we do now?”

He rolled up his sleeves and sighed,
kicking his shoes across the bathroom floor. Then he reached into the water and
pulled my wet feet into his lap, soaking his slacks as he massaged along my
arches with exquisite care. I moaned and sank into the water, purring like a
kitten as my Preston worked my soles.

“I’m not giving into my father’s
demands,” he said, gently stretching and rubbing each of my toes. I nearly
swooned. “We’ll find a way out of this. It may have to be extreme, but if
you’re willing to go for it, then so am I.”

I opened my eyes. “What exactly are you
proposing?” I asked him.

“I’m not sure yet. But it may involve
withdrawing everything from my account and starting all over someplace new.
Would you be willing to do that with me, if it came down to it?”

I sat up a little, studying his face.
“Are things that serious between us?”

Preston shrugged. “They could be. I
don’t know. But that’s a last resort. In the meantime, I can simply say I’m not
interested in being a larger part of Harvey Enterprises until his plans for the
future include you, too. Maybe there’s still time for me to change things from
the inside—hold his feet to the fire over this. I am his only heir, and
the only one who knows enough about the family business to take it over once
he’s out of the picture. Without me, the board would cut this company to shreds
and dine on its carcass.”

“Do you think that’s enough leverage?” I
asked him. “And what about my mom?”

“That’s up to you,” he told me, gliding
his fingers up my ankles and calves. “What do you want to do about that?”

I pursed my lips in thought. On one
hand, Preston’s father manipulating my mother for his own gains didn’t sit well
with me. She was a terrible person, sure enough, but did she deserve to be used
and lied to like that?

On the other hand, didn’t she sort of
have this coming? I couldn’t say that out loud, of course, but my mother had
been more awful than ever since she and Mr. Harvey had hooked up. It might
serve as some kind of sick vindication to tell her the truth: that she was no
more special to him than any other woman who would silently put up with his
shit.

“I’m not sure,” I said at last. “If it
were me, I know I’d want to know. But my mother isn’t me. In fact, she isn’t
most people. I’m not sure she’s even human.” I sucked in a sharp breath as
Preston fondled the very sensitive backs of my knees. “I can’t say with any
certainty that she wouldn’t blame me for this, somehow, or that she might turn
a blind eye and accuse me of lying to ruin her happily ever after. She might
just write me off as jealous and tell your father to make your life hell until
you got rid of me, or something.”

Preston smiled. “That’s not going to
happen,” he told me as he slowly crawled into the tub.

“Preston!” I shrieked, watching his
clothes stick to his body. His white button-down clung to his hard, muscular
chest, revealing the tone of his skin beneath, and I laughed as he prowled
toward me. “You’re getting soaked!”

“So are you,” he breathed against one of
my nipples cresting the surface of the water. Then he bent his head down and
took it between his teeth, gently laving it with his tongue as he nibbled and
sucked and made me sigh.

“Oh, hell,” I muttered. “We’re getting
ourselves into so much trouble…”

Preston didn’t seem to care about that.
He only grasped my opposite breast with his hand, crushing it between his
fingers as he drew his body up against mine and parted my legs with his hips.

“It’s worth it,” he assured me,
inspiring chills up and down my spine. I slipped my arms around him, running my
dripping fingers through his hair as he pressed his growing erection against my
slit under the water. “Bend over the side, Maddy, while I turn on these jets.”

I blushed but did as I was told. After
the day we’d had, I needed Preston inside of me. With just a gentle touch, he’d
brought me to this place again, a place where no one and nothing mattered more
than the man of my dreams claiming me. It didn’t matter that some silly piece
of paper might complicate our lives. Stepbrother or not, I was going to do
this.

He helped me up onto my knees and turned
me around, my back against his chest as I gripped the high edge of the tub. I
pressed my stomach against it, my heaving breasts hanging over the side as
Preston spread me with his knee, my pussy positioned right against the place
the jet would bubble up from.

I stuck out my ass and rubbed it against
his swelling crotch, moaning as he continued to tantalize my nipples with his
fingertips. Then he drew one hand away, reached over, and turned on the control
for the jets, and I threw my head back in utter bliss as the one I was
straddling pounded perfectly against my clit.

“Oh, God,” I moaned, squirming as it
pummeled me.

The silken fabric of Preston’s slacks
fell away as he pulled his cock free of them, pressing it against me from
behind. He parted my folds, sliding his tip against my slippery opening while I
writhed and shuddered on the jet teasing me into utter oblivion.

“You’re so perfect,” he whispered,
nuzzling my hair before digging in deep. I cried out as he filled me, his thick
shaft stretching my pussy wide as he grabbed onto my tits with both hands and
pushed all the way up to his hilt. “I need you, Maddy. No matter what happens,
say you’ll stay with me.”

I scrabbled for purchase on the slick
edge of the tub as my stepbrother began to thrust in and out of me. Every
movement of his hips splashed water onto the tile floor. I could feel waves of
it surging up over my back, wetting my hair and crashing over me like Preston
was the ocean itself, and I was being swept away by the tide.

I had never felt like this with any man
before. And I knew, deep down in my heart, that I never would.

I let myself believe that this could
work. I released the fear inside of me and took Preston in deep, finally giving
him unfettered access into my soul, my precious core.

“Yes,” I hissed, throwing my head back
against his shoulder as he grunted into my ear. “I’ll stay, Preston. I’ll
always stay. I promise.”

“Nothing will tear us apart,” he
groaned, laying feverish kisses upon my neck as he took me. Before I knew it my
orgasm was upon me and I screamed, bucking against him, the water now flowing
freely out of the tub as we both undulated in ecstasy. “I swear it, Maddy. I’ll
take care of you, always.”

And then my stepbrother was spilling
inside of me, filling me to the brim with his seed. I shuddered beneath him,
feeling as though we’d made a pact, a bond that couldn’t be broken by anyone,
not even our families.

Everything would work out. I was sure of
it. We’d run away together, if we had to. Preston had promised me as much.

I turned and kissed his lips, no longer
thinking of him as the man who would become my stepbrother, but rather the man
who would make my deepest, wildest dreams come true.

Later, I would hate myself for being so
damn blind.

PRESTON

Despite
all the money I had, all the privilege extended to me by mere virtue of
my birthright, it was only now that for the first time in my life, I felt truly
powerful.

I had long viewed my status as a
billionaire as more of a curse than a blessing. Maybe in some other family it
would have been different, but in the Harvey family, I lived in a gilded cage.
People always thought that because of my money, I could do anything I wanted.
They were sorely mistaken. I could only do what my father would allow. Hell, my
mother had died alone as proof of that fact.

For years, I had cowered in his shadow.
But now I was defiant. Now I felt like a man. And it was all thanks to Madison
Hearst, my soon-to-be stepsister and the love of my life.

I gave her the next day off and invited
my father to meet me at my office, where I would break the news to him that I
wasn’t his good little soldier boy anymore. It had taken most my life for me to
see him for what he really was, but now that I had, there was no turning back.
This was do or die. Either my father would back off and let me run the company
as I saw fit, or he’d threaten to ruin me and stalk out under the impression
that I still gave a fuck. If the former happened, Maddy and I would have to
keep our relationship secret, but that wasn’t impossible to do. If my father
chose the latter, I’d take everything out of my bank account, dump my vested
shares, and she and I would run away together. It really was that simple.

There wasn’t much for us here, anyway.
Billions of dollars could give us a fresh start somewhere new. Hell, maybe we
could go into business together, a joint venture where she kept me honest and I
kept her realistic. Part of me was secretly hoping that was the way things
would turn out. There was nothing I wanted more than to throw my father’s
misery right back in his face just before I vanished into thin air.

I made myself a cup of coffee while I
waited, imagining my gorgeous, half-naked stepsister lounging on my bed and
getting a well-deserved break from all this insanity. Whatever happened next, I
was rushing right back home to her. I couldn’t stand to be away from her for
more than a few hours at a time. Waiting here without her was torture.

Thankfully, I heard the front doors open
and close not long after.
Oh, thank God.
He was finally here.

I made a point not to bring him a mug of
coffee as I strode out, smiling as I envisioned the pure rage on his face once
he heard my decision. But that smile soon turned to a slack jaw and a frown as
I saw who was standing in my foyer instead.

“Jane? What the hell?”

She grinned, tossing her long, auburn
hair as she sauntered toward me in her leopard-print kitten heels. “Don’t you
ever get tired of greeting me like that?” she asked me, clutching a manila
folder in her hand. “A girl could get the idea that you’re not very fond of
her.”

“I’m
not,
”
I growled. I didn’t want to leave any room for her to get the impression that I
was somehow pleased she was here. “I was expecting my father. Why are you
here?”

“Because the senior Mr. Harvey doesn’t
need to get his hands dirty,” she said, stopping mere inches from me. She was
wearing a very expensive brand of perfume, but on her, it was putrid. “He knows
how to delegate. Shall we do this in your office, Preston, or would you rather
get into it right here?”

I hated the way she looked at me then.
There was a hunger in her eyes, one that made my stomach turn. I snatched the
folder out of her hand, knowing damn well that whatever she wanted was detailed
in there.

“What the hell is this?” I asked her,
flipping it open. “Is he trying to buy me out?”

I choked as I saw the reality of the
situation. My eyes widened and a hot ember of rage took flame in my chest. This
wasn’t a buyout offer at all.

I looked at Jane, trying not to shake as
I asked her, “Where the
fuck
did you
get this?”

“Oh, Preston,” she purred, walking
around behind me. “It wasn’t that hard.” She stopped and slid her hands around
my waist from behind, trailing her blood red nails down my stomach as she
whispered, “Next time you’re fucking your stepsister, maybe don’t leave the
balcony doors open.
Anyone
could just
look in and see.”

“And take pictures,” I snapped, whirling
on her so fast I almost knocked her down. This was how my father had known
about me and Maddy. Jane the hell-bitch had delivered the photographic evidence
right into his sleazy hands.

She regained her balance and smirked.
“Don’t shoot the messenger, Preston. I just do what I’m told.”

“Oh, yes. I’m sure my father twisted
your arm about this,” I sneered, tossing the folder and its contents into her
face. “What does he think this is going to accomplish, huh? Does he think that
I’ll come crawling back now, begging him not to ruin my future at Harvey
Enterprises with these obscene photos? She’s not my stepsister yet, Jane.
Nobody going to give a shit if my father—”

“—waits to release them until he
and Madison’s mother are legally married?” Jane asked, batting her eyelashes in
mock innocence at me. “If he cuts off all your money and then sends these
photos to ever single potential employee Madison will ever interview with in
her entire life? You
really
think no
one will give a shit that Madison Hearst was fucking her stepbrother?”

I shook my head in disgust and
disbelief. “He can’t possibly be serious.”

“Oh, he is,” Jane assured me, grinning
from ear to ear. “In fact, he’s willing to throw you completely under the bus,
if that’s what it takes. He’ll leak the photos to some tabloid somewhere and
watch you go down in flames, if he has to. He might even come out the better
for it, denouncing his only son’s perversions and rooting him out from the
company.” She stepped on one of the pictures and slid it toward me with the toe
of her high heel. “Check your bank accounts, Preston. I’m sure you’ll find that
you really are between a rock and a hard place.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and
quickly logged in to my personal accounts. Just as Jane said, every single one
of them had been frozen. Two of them I couldn’t even log into at all, and the
third had a red banner across the screen that said “pending the results of an
investigation.”

“I have cash,” I told her. It wasn’t
much, but it was still enough to get me and Maddy the fuck out of here.
“Hundreds of thousands. I don’t need billions to start a new life without my
father and you.”

“You mean the money you keep in the safe
at home?” she asked me, and I felt my insides coil with dread. “Carla was sweet
enough to fetch that for us. But don’t be too mad at her, Preston baby. She was
very loyal—right up until the point where your father threatened her with
deportation. Little Enrique would be so torn up if his mommy had to go back to
Venezuela without him.”

I wanted to wring this bitch’s neck. I
wanted to watch the life drain out of her eyes as I pressed and pressed until
her throat collapsed. I wanted her to suffer through every moment leading to
her death. And then I wanted to do the same to my bastard father.

“Think about Madison,” Jane said,
snapping me out of my murderous rage. “Maybe you don’t care what people think.
Maybe you’ll find a way to get by with that business degree of yours. But let’s
face it—Madison will be fucked. She’ll never get a job anywhere ever
again. And who knows? Maybe some day she’ll have a mysterious accident just
like your mother did—”

“I swear to God, Jane,” I whispered,
just barely holding back the fury inside of me. “Keep talking about Madison and
my mother. Say one more word about either of them, and I’ll make sure
you
have an accident somewhere down the
line. Maybe not now, maybe not even in a year, but it’ll happen. And it’ll be
messy. It’ll hurt. You’ll suffer in ways you can’t even comprehend. Say
something smart, Jane—I dare you. But if you know me at all, I’m betting
you keep your fat, whore mouth shut.”

Jane’s lips parted, and I waited for her
to say something stupid, anything at all that would give me a reason to carry
out the sentence she so richly deserved. But then she shrugged, shouldering her
Prada bag as she told me, “Just think it over, Preston. You can ruin both your
lives, or you can both come away from this relatively unscathed. Maybe it’s a
shit choice, as far as choices go, but at least he’s giving you one.”

“Go,” I said. It was the only word I
could manage that wasn’t an expletive.

“You’re right,” she said. “I should. Mr.
Harvey will be wanting an update.” She looked me up and down before adding, “We
could have had it all, Preston. And maybe, if you play your cards right, we
still can. I’ve always liked the thought of having a baby, you know? Stranger
things have happened. Feel free to stare at my ass on my way out. Maybe you’ll
be seeing a little more of it soon?”

I watched her walk away, fiddling with
her cell phone as she stepped back through the doors to my office and out into
the sunshine that seemed at odds with the anguish I was feeling now.

I spent the next ten minutes ripping
everything apart. Everything I owned, everything I had built—I didn’t
want it. All I wanted was
her.
And
she was the one thing I could never have.

When my knuckles were raw and bloodied I
sank to the floor in front of the stairway, my chest heaving as I fought for
air between snarls and gasps. Everything was crumbling down around me, and the
person I needed the most was the one whose heart I was going to have to break
in just a matter of minutes.

Someone texted me. My hands shook as I
reached across the floor and retrieved my phone from where it had struck the
wall when I’d thrown it. Beyond the cracked screen, I read the last little
message from Jane.

Carla went ahead and
set up a few cameras on her way out. If you tell that sweet little stepsister
of yours anything we talked about, your father will do all that he promised and
more!
J

She was the most evil fucking bitch in
the entire world. And I was the bastard who was going to do her bidding. What
choice did I have? My father was going to ruin my life, and Jane had threatened
to do something far darker than that. How did she know about my mother’s
accident? What the hell was she trying to imply?

****