Serving Mr. Stevens, Part Four: The Price of Pleasure -- An Erotic Romance (Part 4 of 5) (6 page)

The relief was so strong that my knees went weak. I held onto the edge of the desk and closed my eyes for a moment, willing myself to
keep it together as best I could.
Fear and relief swirled through my body in equal measure: it was so good to see him, but I was so scared of what would happen next.
Katarina must have felt the same thing, for she started toward Mr. Stevens but then shrank back, almost falling into her chair. “Thank God you’re okay,” she whispered,
before collapsing
into quiet tears.

I stared at him for a long moment
, as he looked back at me like a shipwrecked man
catching a
glimpse of a ship
in the distance
. He was completely disheveled, his hair in disarray, his clothing wrinkled, as though he had slept in his clothes
– or hadn’t slept at all
.
I noticed with a start that h
is tuxedo jacket was gone
: suddenly, I
had the picture in my head of
him covered in bloodstains, carefully taking off the jacket so as not to get the crimson liquid on his white shirt.

The vision made me shudder with revulsion and fear
, followed
instantly by guilt.
What the hell was I thinking?
He couldn’t have murdered Kearns. I trusted him… didn’t I?

Mr. Stevens must have seen the look that flashed across my face, because h
is expression switched from
worried to furious in an instant. His entire demeanor changed,
and it was almost a relief to see him acting the way I was most familiar with.
He
stalked angrily to his office door, throwing it open
angrily
and looking
back
at me with impatience.

“Candace, get in here.
Now.
”

He disappeared through the door of his office without waiting for me to respond, and I knew
there was little doubt in his mind that I’d follow his command as fast as I could.

I looked at Katarina. Her tears had stopped, and now she looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. I had seen that look before, and I suddenly realized where: Last night, as she talked about Mr. Stevens and the contract she had signed
with him all those
years ago.
The look was one of
worry mixed with jealousy, the kind of jealousy that made her want to cry and lash out at the same time. I knew exactly how she felt. But there was nothing I could do about it now, with Mr. Stevens in his office and his demand ringing in my ears.

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed to her, and then turned and practically ran into the office.
Neither of us knew why he only wanted to see me, but it’s not like there was anything we could have done about it.

I closed the door behind me and w
alked cautiously
toward Mr. Stevens. He was standing at the windows, staring out over the
city skyline.
He slowly turned as I approached, and then lifted his eyes to me. I was stunned by what I saw
in them
.

This was Mr. Stevens, of course it was, but it was also someone I had never seen before. Lines of worry etched his handsome features
, and the whites of his eyes had turned an exhausted, bloodshot red
.
When I’d first met him, he’d seemed almost superhuman; now,
he looked
to be a hollow shell of hi
s usual self
.
When he ran his hands through his hair, they shook just the slightest bit. He yanked on the collar of his shirt, opening it up a bit more, as though the fabric itself was trying to choke him.

He looked sad
, confused,
an
d – could
it be –
scared?

It didn’t seem possible, but there it was.
Mr. Stevens looked scared. He looked as though he had seen something terrible
and wasn’t sure how to process it.
It was a remarkable sight to behold. I didn’t know how to act in this situation.
Seeing him so defeated made me want to go to him and cradle him in my arms, soothe him and tell him it was all going to be okay. But the self-assured, dominant man I knew was still in there, and
I knew he’d never want me to do that. S
o
I stopped
short, took up a spot
beside his desk and simply looked at him, waiting.

“Candace…I didn’t do this.” His voice was raw
and hoarse from lack of
sleep, but his eyes were suddenly blazing with honesty.
“If you have ever known anything about me, if you ever will know anything about me, know that
–
with all your heart. There were more than a few times that I would have loved to see the bastard dead, but I
wasn’t the one who did it
.”

I was nodding long before he was done speaking. “I believe you
,
”
I said, my voice already cracking with emotion. “Of course I believe you.”

He began to pace back and forth behind his desk. E
very one of his
step
s
hit the floor hard,
causing a small shockwave to reverberate through the floor
.
I got the impression he’d been doing a lot of pacing since last night, a lot of searching for answers. But it was clear he didn
’t have those answers yet.

He ran his hands through his hair again, shaking his head.
“I can’t understand it,” he said. “I’ve gone through it over and over, and it doesn’t add up. I’m being framed, I know that much. But
who would do this
?
And besides that, w
ho could have pulled
it
off?”

“What happened to Kearns?” I asked quietly, not entirely sure I wanted to know the answer. I didn’t know what w
as going to happen to Mr. Stevens next,
but I knew that I had to help him through
this, come what may. And for me to
be able to
do that,
I needed all the answers.

“He was stabbed,” Mr. Stevens said, wincing
as he spoke
.
I nodded – I already knew that much.
“There was blood everywhere…
so much blood
.
I got to him when it was too late.
Whoever did this, it wasn’t quick.
It was… the work of someone who had a lot of anger in them.”

I put a hand on his arm. I was scared to speak
, but I had to be strong now
.
“
So you were the one that found him?”

He shook his head.
“Someone else found him
– some woman, I’m not sure who.
I heard her scream, and then
I ran over to the coatroom. Besides her, I think I was the first to see him.
But it was too late. H
e was already
…
”
He trailed off, though I
knew what he was about to say
.

But for the moment,
I had more pressing concerns. 

“So other people saw you
there with him?
”

He nodded grimly. That wasn’t good – if Mr. Stevens was already
viewed
as a prime suspect, th
e fact that he was spotted at the scene of the murder
only looked more suspicious.
Even as the thought ran through my head, Mr. Stevens threw up his hands and turned to the window, staring out as though he wanted to step through it and disappear into the
void
outside.
He began to speak again, sounding utterly defeated, like a man headed for the executioner.

“The police are going to come to question me
– and soon.
I can only
assume that
they’ll arrest me. It’s all over the news. Maybe I should have gone to the police station myself – maybe it would have been better that way. But I…”

He turned to face me, he eyes still burning.
“…I had to see you again.” He took a step towards me, grabbing my wrist and placing it on his cheek. “This is only the beginning, Candace. And I suspect things are going to become very difficult before this is all over.
”
He paused
to reflect.
“If it’s ever over…”

“It will be,” I said. My voice was confident and sure.
I stepped closer in towards him and placed
my hand flat on his chest, right over his heart
. H
e sucked in a long breath. “You didn’t do this
,” I said
firmly
. “
That’s all there is to it. It may take a while, and it may not be easy. But you
’re innocent, and y
our name
will
be cleared
.”

He looked up sharply. “My name…” there was a stricken look in his eyes now.
“If I were only half the man my father was
…
”
he began,
but
then stopped short, closing his eyes.
He took a deep breath, his chest rising hard and falling under my hand.
I could feel his heart beating fast beneath his ribs.

“My father was a man of such integrity
. He’d never have been accused of something like this.
It would be utterly preposterous, the very idea
he could do anything wrong.
” He let out a bitter laugh, a harsh and strange sound in the present context. “
If I were more like him, no one would ever dream I might be responsible for this.”

My heart ached for him.
Th
is
plaintive tone was so unlike the confident, swaggering man I had come to know. It was a voice filled with regret
, self-doubt
and second-guessing.
I lifted my hand to touch his face
. “Hey, stop that,” I said.
“You just stop that right now.”
It was the first time I’d ever told
him
what to do. His eyes fluttered to me, his pupils narrowing as they focused on my face. H
e turned his lips toward my hand, kissing my skin and closing his eyes.

I pressed my body into him, and
his strong hands came up to cup my hips. We stood there together for a long time, just touching each other
, letting
the pleasure of our touch melt the worry and fear away.
Standing here like this together, it felt as thought nothing else mattered.

“
We c
an
figure this out
,” I whispered.
“We can make this right again.”

He finally opened his eyes and looked right at me.
And there it was:
a glimmer of the old Mr. Stevens, the man who was so confident
, so
passionate
, so
dominant.
I saw it and my heart leap
t
in my chest.
A chill went down my spine, just from the way he looked at me, and suddenly my skin was buzzing all down my body.
He leaned forward and kissed me
,
hungrily
. His lips were warm and sure against mine, moving with the possessive power I had come to
love him for. I felt a crazy mixture of relief, love, and passion take hold of me, each pushing me to kiss him harder.
I’d
had been many new experiences already with Mr. Stevens,
but
this was
yet
another one: A kiss that took my breath
away like I had never, ever imagined.