AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He'd never been tempted by other women in all the time they'd been together and he'd been…upset, when she'd disappeared. Angry with her for running from him. Desperate to find her and…what? Bring her back, tell her the truth, he didn't know. Bind her to him so he would never lose her again? Joel gave himself a mental shake. Where the hell had that notion sprung from?
If he'd been a little closed off before he met her, then he'd been far worse afterwards; he could admit that much. He would never let anyone that close again. And he had never again taken on another submissive for an extended length of time, although he told himself that was because he had never found one who fulfilled his requirements. No one but Desi.
"So, Charlotte helped me hide when I couldn't face the world, helped me survive when all I wanted to do was curl up and die, helped me find a new direction when I thought the whole world had crumbled under my feet." She cuddled back into Joel's arms and laid her head upon his chest.
"Without Charlotte…well, who knows!"
Joel shook his head in disbelief, "She managed to convince me that she was as much in the dark as I was." He sounded a bit indignant.
"If she'd just told me the truth?—"
Joel interrupted. "She didn't know the truth; no one did. Everything was covered up. One of the perks of money and power. None of it ever came out. Jake's bitch of a girlfriend was off the scene by then, thank God."
Desi pursed her lips. Jake had been conned by a pretty face posing as a student, when, in fact, she had been a reporter, out to get whatever dirt she could find on the Blackwood boys in order to further her career. Jake hadn't been as lucky as Joel had obviously been at the hands of the press, although she knew that his family connections had lessened the impact a little.
"Eric's father persuaded him to drop the charges and Eric was whisked away to finish out his degree elsewhere." Joel gave a cynical laugh. "Of course, he called that favour back in, when he asked Blackwood to buy out his business after Eric managed to wreck that, too."
So, that explained why the Blackwood Corporation had paid good money for a virtually bankrupt company.
Regardless of the provocation, a criminal conviction would have destroyed Joel's future and done untold damage to the company, its reputation and its share prices. Undoubtedly, that 'old boys' network' that she'd had so much disdain for had protected Joel, but there was no doubt, in this case, the protection had been justified.
Desi was glad that nothing adverse had come of Joel because he had chosen to avenge her honour. She'd never condoned violence, but she would have recoiled at those kinds of consequences for a young man who was merely championing her integrity and a tiny part of her—well, quite a big part, actually—couldn't help but be secretly pleased that he had lost his infamous control over her.
That alone probably said more than all the words he might never say, but it looked like her foolish impulse to run away had led to years of torment that she'd never needed to endure.
They still hadn't discussed Anita Howard, and Desi found herself strangely reluctant to do so. As things stood right now, she felt like a huge burden of pent up sorrow had been lifted from her shoulders, making her entire outlook lighter, as if a shroud had been lifted from around her eyes and she was seeing life in pure, unadulterated colour for the first time in a decade.
She kind of liked the feeling and didn't want to spoil it by talking about the infamous 'other woman'.
Although it hadn't proven to be the case so far, sometimes ignorance was bliss, and Desi could quite happily move forward with her life with just the knowledge she had at this precise moment.
That could be enough, couldn't it? Did she really need to know the rest? Or was the suspicion of Joel's infidelity just another tumour that was eating away at her soul? Something else that might be eradicated if it was just brought into the open.
Joel sat forward and lifted Desi off of his knee. He felt emotionally drained, but he knew they weren't done yet.
Standing, he took her hand and led her back towards the bedroom. Desi went willingly but was surprised when he didn't stop there, pulling her into the en suite bathroom, instead.
The strip lights were bright in the stark white space, but Joel stood her in front of the mirrored wall and went to work searching through the drawers and cupboards. He momentarily disappeared back into the bedroom and returned with an armful of stuff that he dumped on top of the bathroom hamper.
When he came back to her, he was shaking a bottle and clutching a large cotton wool ball. Before she could guess his intentions, Joel swiped lotion across her face and started to remove her makeup, consciously taking off that mask she hid behind.
Joel didn't know what had brought on the urge, but suddenly, he had a craving to see Desi without her face painted. She stood pliant before him as he held her jaw gently in one hand and worked the removing cream over her skin with the other until every trace was gone and her face was fresh and guileless and her adorable freckles shone through.
Then he spun her to face the mirror and she watched, mesmerised, as his reflection went to work on her hair, carefully removing each of the pins that held it secure before misting it with the water spray she normally used to help her tame it into its twist. Instead, Joel scrunched it and fluffed it until the riot of corkscrew curls were restored.
The harsh light picked out the multitude of shades that made up its dirty blonde colour from gold and copper to honey and caramel to the pale streaks that the sun bleached out.
When he'd finished, he pulled her back against his chest and met her eyes in the mirror. He didn't say a word, just nodded in satisfaction and then started to unfasten the buttons of her shirt, holding her gaze all the while. He didn't stop until he'd stripped her completely naked, but she was surprised that instead of taking his pleasure when he was done, he, instead, unbuttoned his own shirt and helped her into that. He didn't close it up but left her breasts partially on display while he unbuttoned his jeans. He left them on, but Desi's mouth watered at the tantalising glimpse of his happy trail arrowing out of sight.
The moment was breathtakingly intimate and Desi hardly dared to breathe, in case she broke the fragile spell that wound between them.
Joel tilted her head to the side and pushed her hair out of the way before lowering his mouth to her neck and placing small suctioning kisses from behind her ear to her collarbone. One hand tangled in her curls, the other splayed across her abdomen.
Desi's breath stuttered as an odd pressure built in her chest at the unexpected tenderness of the interlude.
His eyes appeared an electric blue as they reflected in the mirror, and Desi's head rocked back onto his shoulder as hers slid closed under the weight of his scrutiny.
Joel bit gently down on her neck. "Eyes on me," he demanded. "I want you to watch."
