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Eating and cleanliness are a big thing to him, so the fact that he’s just changed clothes after practically hosing the two of us in cum…
“You smell this?” Stopping in front of me, he wafts his clean T-shirt over his chest.
“The sex?”
“Mmmhmm…”
The smirk on his face pulls higher to one side as he takes a deep, long breath. As if it’s the sweetest perfume he’s ever smelled, Freddie hums.
“One less thing you have to worry about, Swan.” He runs his thumb over my stretch-burned lip as he adds, “Anyone comes too close and they’re going to know I belong to you.”
Oh fuck. Just like that, I fall that much more head over fucking heels for him. Even as I watch him walk out of the door and my insides twist at the physical distance between us, all I focus on is on his scent lingering on my body, the sticky reminder of our intimacy drying on my skin. And I know. I am certain that he will always come back to me.
My lord will forever be mine as surely as I am his.
Chapter 23
FREDDIE
Our phones keep buzzing with breaking headlines, one after the other. The live footage being streamed from Number 10 shows the place swarming as Benedict stands outside the black door, showing his mournful face. I pity him that role. Playing the meek stand-in when he has always been Harry’s keeper.
Christopher looks up at me from the other side of the long boardroom table. There’s fear in his eyes as we watch the news unfold in front of us. That could be us someday. The notion makes my stomach twist as I go back to my laptop and continue going through the doctor’s report while Leo handles the numbers from the cryptic email Harry sent about settling the account.
“What account is he talking about?” he asks out loud, looking between each of us. “I can’t find anything on it.”
“Fred, maybe you should take a look at it, run it through the other red-tape databases?” Christopher shrugs.
He keeps checking his phone, clearly worried about what’s going on outside these walls. Swiping screens, I check on the live feed for my place, searching each square until I find the one for the kitchen. I take a deep breath and relish Georgina’s soft scent as I watch her walk around the island with Grace in her arms. Even with all the shit going on, watching her makes me smile.
She’ll be a great mum someday. Although kids were never a part of the grand plan for me, the prospect doesn’t scare me as much as I expected it to. It’s all down to her and the person she is. I’ve never met anyone with so much fight and fire that has such deep tenderness inside them at the same time.
“Fuckface!” Christopher’s yell draws me out of my reverie. “What the fuck?”
“If this is too much…” Francis starts, but as he pauses behind me, he stops immediately. “We need you here, not there.”
Without a massive to-do, he circles the table to stand in front of the digital whiteboard with all the pieces we have of the puzzle. The one piece that has remained unanswered continues to be the bane of my life. There isn’t much I can’t dig through, but where the fuck Lucy came from the night she turned up…fuck me.
Lucian walks into the boardroom with Laura in tow. She looks like she’s been dragged through hell and back. Harry was her person. He trusted her to be his go-between, and regardless of what any of us feel towards her, she was loyal to him.
“Why am I here?” she asks Francis with tears rasping her voice. “My dad has just died. Your friend has been murdered, and you’re too busy cleaning up and moving things along to—”
“Laura, I know that you’re sad and that you’re in a hard place, but we have to look at the facts.”
A disdainful expression sours her face. The sadness and grief fades as she pulls back her shoulders and levels him with a scowl. “You know my dad would never do this. He would never take his own life. Whatever you all did yesterday. Whatever your meeting was about…that’s what did this. It’s what’s got him killed.”
“What meeting?” I ask at the same time as Christopher blurts, “What the fuck is she talking about?”
“What am I talking about, Francis? Are you keeping secrets again?”
“Laura…” Lucian grits her name in warning while he pours her a stiff drink.
“You think that your fucking whiskey is going to make me feel better? He was your friend, covering for all the shit you need to do to make sure your brotherhood survives.”
It’s not like Laura is the quietest of people, however, her outburst isn’t her usual MO. I watch as she takes the generous double Lucian poured her and downs it in one.
“Your dad was doing his duty,” Lucian sighs.
“He was your friend.”
