“I’m what?”
Sebastian pulls me toward the door. “Fired.”
“W-what are you talking about?” he stammers.
Sebastian turns abruptly. “The security footage from the hotel in Bath. Where is it?”
Bart’s eyes widen, and he opens his mouth to say something.
“Don’t you dare fucking lie.” Sebastian growls as we walk out into the crowded backstage corridor.
Bart follows us out. “There isn’t any!” he calls. “I told you that already.”
“That was your last chance. Get out.”
“W-what?” Bart stammers. “You’ve got to be joking?”
“What I am is fucking furious,” Sebastian bellows.
Everyone around us withers and scurries for cover.
Sebastian steps toward Bart. “I know for a fact that there’s footage. April has seen it, and I also know that you’ve been lying to me to cover your own sleazy ass. Do you have any idea how stressful this last week has been for me and April?” he yells. “You didn’t even ask the hotel for the footage, did you?”
Bart takes a deep breath as his eyes hold Sebastian’s. He knows he’s fucked.
“I didn’t know back then that anyone else was involved,” he says. “I knew I was drugged, and I had no idea what I had done. It was to protect Jeremy. I didn’t want him to see me with those girls. I had no idea that, three months after, you were going to need that footage. By then it was too late. I had already said I couldn’t get it. I didn’t think anyone was going to get hurt.”
I close my eyes in disgust. Except the apparent love of your life. Jeremy.
I can’t hold my tongue for one second longer. “Jeremy has seen the footage.”
Bart’s face falls.
“And it wasn’t even the strippers that you ordered for yourself that was the worst part,” I spit. “It was the conversation with your wife that brought him to his knees.”
Bart’s jaw clenches, knowing full well what this means.
Jeremy knows everything… finally.
“Why you think you can treat people the way you do is beyond me. When this story broke, you could have fessed up and saved Sebastian a world of pain. How could you be so selfish?” I ask.
Bart screws up his face in disgust. “And you are so quick to judge, April. Unlike you, I’m not sleeping with the Prime Minister. I don’t get special treatment.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrow. “Leave. Now.”
“You’ll regret this,” Bart spits.
Sebastian’s cold eyes hold his. “I think we both know who’ll regret this.” Sebastian picks up my hand, and we walk down the corridor. He takes out his phone and dials a number.
“Melody, change of plans. I’m returning to London immediately. Reschedule the rest of my meetings.”
He leads me out to the waiting car, and we get into the back seat.
Kevin turns to us. “Where to, sir?”
“Downing Street.”
The car pulls out into the traffic. Sebastian makes a call. “Melody, have the police come to Downing Street. Yes.” He listens. “I’m leaving Winchester now. Thank you.” He hangs up.
I hold Sebastian’s hand in my lap, but he’s too angry to even notice. He’s glaring out of the window as he silently fumes.
But that’s okay. I notice.
I’ve got him in my hand, and I’m never letting go. As long as we’re together, I don’t care about the rest of the world or the lies that they tell.
We’ve got each other, and that’s everything.
Sebastian
I’m sitting with the detectives, watching the footage of Gerhard leaving my room.
Furious doesn’t cut it. I’ve never been so angry.
All this time, Helena was working with him. Were they going to split the money?
Or was he on her payroll? So many unanswered questions.
“That’s it. That’s the proof we needed,” one of them says. He picks up his phone and makes a call. “Hi, Anne this is Steven. Can you do a check on a Gerhard Klein for me, please?” He listens for a moment. “I need to know where he is right now. His home and office addresses. Call me back immediately with the details. Thank you.” He hangs up, and his eyes come to mine. “Are we still pressing charges on your ex-wife?”
“Yes.”
“But you took off the warrant of arrest.”
“Only to bring her out of hiding. I want her charged.” I think for a moment. “I want to speak with her when she’s brought in.”
“Okay.”
Steven’s phone rings, and he answers it. “Hi.” He listens. “Who’s he traveling with?” He narrows his eyes as he looks up at us. “Milania Henchworth.” He scribbles the name down on a pad and then he writes the words:
fake passport
“Get some officers to the airport departure lounge immediately. I want them both brought in.” He hangs up and turns to us. “Gerhard is booked on a flight to Germany this evening at 6:00 p.m. He’s travelling with a Milania Henchworth.”
“You think that’s Helena?” I frown.
“I’ll bet my life on it.”
I roll my fingers on the table. It’s 7:00 p.m. and we are in a restaurant.
“I’m sorry, babe.” I pick up my phone and check it for the hundredth time. “I’m terrible company.”
April smiles over at me. “They’ll get them, Seb, don’t worry.”
“They should have called by now. Perhaps they didn’t turn up for the flight,” I sip my drink. “It probably wasn’t even her.”
“We’ll soon find out.”
I exhale heavily. “If they get to Germany, that’s it. There’s no chance of finding them.”
“Seb…” April sighs.
My phone rings, and I scramble to answer it. “Yes.”
“We got them.”
“Both?”
“Yes, Helena was traveling under a fake passport. Another offence.”
I close my eyes as relief floods me. “Where are they now?”
“London headquarters.”
“I’m on my way.”
The waitress arrives with our meals. “Here you go. Two steaks and salads.” She places them down on the table.
“Thank you.” The waitress walks off, and I stare down at the food in front of me. I can think of nothing worse than eating at the moment. I glance up at April, and as if reading my mind, she points to my plate with her knife.
“You’re not going anywhere until you eat that. You haven’t eaten all day.”
“But—”
“But nothing, Sebastian. Eat.”
I exhale heavily and begin to cut up my steak. “Hurry up,” I demand. “We need to go.”
“They’re in jail, and I’m pretty sure they aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Eat your dinner.”
I bite my steak off my fork and smirk at her.
“What?” April raises an eyebrow.
“Why do you insist on telling me what to do?”
She smiles and goes back to eating. “Because I love you.”
“And that gives you free reign to boss me around?”
“Yes.” She chews. “It does, actually. You get to boss me around in the bedroom. The very least I get to do is to tell you to eat your dinner.”
“Touché.” I smile over at the beautiful woman in front of me. “Although, you eating my cock, and me eating dinner are two very different things.”
April smiles. “Not really. Both are essential for good health.”
I stare at her. There’s so much love and acceptance surrounding this woman. There are no secrets, no lies. She loves me for everything that I am and, unfortunately for her, everything that I’m not. I’m grumpy, bossy, dominant, and damn it, I just wish I could be sweeter and more romantic—softer in the bedroom.
I cut into my steak with renewed determination. That’s it. Tomorrow, I’m turning over a new leaf, and I’m going to try and be better. April deserves the best of me, and I’m going to make damn sure she gets it.
An hour later, I walk into the interview room in the police station. Helena’s haunted eyes meet mine.
I glance up at the policeman standing by the door. “I’d like a moment, please.”
He nods and closes the door behind him, leaving us alone. I take a seat at the opposite side of the table to her.
I bite my bottom lip as my eyes hold hers.
She drops her head in shame. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.
I stare at her. She’s so sad, and my stomach twists. “Helena…”
She keeps looking at the floor.
“Look at me.”
She drags her eyes up to meet mine.
“Why?”
Her eyes fill with tears. “I’m scared, Sebastian.”
“Of what?” I whisper.
“I’m pregnant with no money.”
I frown. “There is a baby?”
She nods.
“Gerhard’s?” I ask.
She nods again.
“This is good.” I smile softly. “Congratulations. Life is as it should be.”
Her eyes well with tears, and they break the dam and roll down her face. “How can life be as it should be when I have another man’s baby inside of me when all I want is you?” She angrily wipes the tears away.
I get a lump in my throat as I watch her, and I take her hand over the table. “What we had is over—long over. You need to stop trying to punish me.”
“I want you to hurt like I do,” she whispers.
I frown. I don’t even know what to say to that. “This ends here. This is the last time. I’ve protected you all along because I felt guilty for ending our marriage, but I won’t tolerate it anymore. I’m remarried. April comes first now. She has to come first.”
She looks at me through her tears. “Don’t you miss me at all?”
“I did. For a long time, I did.” I shrug. “But you’ve poisoned any good memory I had of the two of us.”
“Gerhard slept with someone else.”
I exhale heavily.
“A month ago. He says it was a mistake. We were going to Germany to try and start again and make it work.”
“And you needed my money to do that?”
Her eyes hold mine, and I know that they did.
“Gerhard is an asshole.” I sigh. “If a man is happy for his pregnant partner to blackmail another man for money, what does that say about him?”
She stares at me.
“About you?” I murmur, I can’t believe she did this. My anger resurfaces, and I push my chair back. “Goodbye, Helena.” I walk toward the door.
“Please, Sebastian. I don’t want to be pregnant in prison.”
I look back at her one last time. She’s a sad shell of the woman I once married. “Not my problem.”
I walk out of the office and see Steven waiting for me in the corridor. “Charge them both with everything. I’m done.”
It’s 7:00 p.m. when I drive into the garage. We are staying at home tonight. After the last week we have had, and then yesterday with Helena, I needed the comfort of my own home.
I wait for the garage doors to go down. I turn the car off and open the car door. I retrieve the huge bunch of forty-eight red roses and the giant heart-shaped box of chocolates that I bought for April.
This is me, sticking to my promise of trying harder.
No holding me back. I’m going to be a sweeter, more romantic version of myself from now on.
I open the door and hear music. The tantric beat of Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye is playing, and I frown.
Huh?
I walk around the corner to see April sitting back on an armchair wearing a red leather corset and G-string, along with black lace, thigh-high stockings. She’s wearing a long, black wig and sexy makeup.
My cock thumps with appreciation, and I stare at her.
“Cash or credit?” she purrs. She picks up a dildo and sucks the tip of it. “I’m so ready to suck your big cock right now.”
I swallow the lump in my throat and hold up her roses. No words will pass my lips.
She stands and saunters over to me to the music. She licks my lips, and goosebumps scatter up my spine.
“Did you bring me a present, Mr. Garcia?” she whispers as she cups my cock through my pants.
Fuck.
Throb, throb, throb.
I nod. “Yes.”
She licks my lips again.
“I…” Hell, I can’t string two words together while she’s like this. I hold the roses up. “I thought you wanted hearts and roses.”
She takes them off me and inhales their scent. “Screw that,” she whispers and then throws the roses over her shoulder onto the floor. “I want you to fuck me like you hate me.”
I smile.
Fuck, I love this woman.
I snap and grab a handful of her hair, dragging her down to her knees.
“Suck. My. Cock.”
