Читать книгу Dirty Little Secrets: A tempting friends to lovers romance - Kierney Scott - Страница 12

Chapter Four

James said something she could not hear as he pulled out of her. An apology maybe? Her brain had not yet engaged. How long had they lain entwined, James still hard in her body? She opened her eyes and saw him pulling off the condom as he walked to the bathroom.

The scene was jarring, in sharp contrast to the euphoria she had just experienced. For her body it had felt like a fantasy, a treat that she had deprived herself of for too long, but no.

This was real. She had just had sex with a stranger.

No, with a journalist!

An icy cold realisation washed over her.

“Oh fuck,” Megan said. She pulled down her dress as she frantically tried to search for her underwear. “Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. So fucking stupid.” Where were her stupid panties? She pulled the duvet off the bed and swore again. She needed to get out of here. She needed to see Ben.

“What’s wrong?” James asked as he ran back from the bathroom.

She ignored him and continued to search for her panties. Of all the stupid things she had done in her life… What the hell had she been thinking?

“Megan, calm down, what are you looking for?”

“I need to go. That was a mistake…oh God. Please don’t tell anyone.” She ran down the stairs. Where were her panties? At least she still had her shoes. Shame nearly knocked her over, she still had her shoes on. What had she done?

“Just relax. Let me get you a cup of coffee…or something.”

He was close behind her, following her steps as she searched for her clothing. He was too close. She did not need the reminder of what she had just done.

She spun on her heel. “I need to go. Please don’t print this. Shit, what is Ben going to say?” Her heart would not stop its brutal assault against her ribs.

“You’re going to tell your husband?” James asked. A peculiar look of confusion and annoyance marred his features.

She realised too late she had spoken her words aloud. Shit, what would an adulteress say? She could not think right now. She had no idea how she was supposed to react. This wasn’t in the script. Funnily enough she had never planned for the eventuality of falling into bed with a journalist. She just needed to get out of there. Screw her underwear. He could keep them. Use them as bloody evidence if he wanted. She just needed to get out of the house before she said anything else. “I’m sorry. I had too much to drink. I have never done that before. I care about my husband. Please don’t publish this.” She closed her eyes, an unfamiliar pressure building. She wasn’t going to cry, she never did.

James stood between her and the door, preventing her from leaving. “Sit down and I’ll call you a cab.”

Megan pushed him frantically. “I need to go. Just let me go.”

“Calm down. What’s wrong?”

What was wrong?! She had just slept with a stranger. She had just messed things up in a monumental way. If anyone found out, if anyone ever questioned her marriage to Ben… No, it could not happen. She just needed to get out of there so she could think.

“I need to go.” She pushed him with all her strength, but he did not budge.

“I’m not letting you go until you calm down.”

“I can’t calm down until I go home and speak to my husband.” She was frantic now, her nerves amped up to maximum. She would not be OKuntil she had spoken to Ben and came up with a plan.

James shook his head. “Seriously, woman? Think that one through. It’s your marriage so I’m not going to tell you what to do, but as a man, I can tell you, I would not want to know. You made a mistake, don’t compound it by telling him.”

Megan’s hands balled into tight fists. “I’m not going to let him read about it in the papers. I’m not going to blindside him with this.”

“No one is going to put this in the papers. I’m hardly going to run a story about how I shagged a senator’s wife. I don’t want my sex life in the paper any more than you do.”

She shook her head. “Your sex life is in the paper all the time.”

James ran his hand over the stubble of his chin. This was not the usual postcoital reaction he received. Usually his only concern was dealing with a clingy woman and having to feign interest before he made an excuse as to why he could not lie about and cuddle and talk about feelings and enjoy the post-orgasm glow. This certainly made a change.

Fuck, what was this woman playing at? Had he misread the signs? They had been pretty clear, like blinking lights over the motorway clear, but maybe he had got it wrong. Shit.

“I’m not going to tell anyone we had sex. It’s not going to be in the papers so just relax.”

“I can name all of the women you have had sex with this year. Because I read it in the papers! So forgive me if I don’t believe you.” She was shaking now, from fear or rage, he couldn’t tell.

Those were hardly all the women he had been with, those were just the women the paparazzi had caught him with, but he was hardly going to correct her on that point. “You think I print stories about myself on purpose? Woman, I do that because I don’t stop my reporters from printing any news they see fit. Unlike my father, I don’t interfere with the free press. I don’t bury stories because they make me feel uncomfortable. If my journalists have a story, they run it. Full stop. But as you can see there are no photographers here, so you’re safe.”

Christ, if she only knew how much he hated seeing stories about himself. He suspected there were a few reporters who pushed to find the most damning story they could run on him, just to see if he would step in and stop them. But he never did and he never would. James would never interfere with the press, no matter what the consequences were for him personally, because he was not his father. He could handle the embarrassment of any story, it was simply a reminder that he had the integrity his father lacked, because James could stop the stories and he didn’t.

Megan’s chest was rising and falling quickly as she took in shallow breaths. She looked scared and vulnerable, like a bird. She was small, maybe a foot shorter than he was. Her height had not been as apparent before because her persona was so brash. But when he looked at her objectively, there was nothing to her.

“I need to go.” Her foot tapped frantically against the hard wood floor.

“Let me call you a cab.”

“Just let me go. I never want to see you again. Please forget this ever happened.”

Megan pushed past him and this time he let her go.

James waited until Megan had closed the door behind her, before he swore out loud. What had just happened? Fuck the staying impartial and reporting the story. He was firmly imbedded in the story. Shit! What had happened?

He should not have let things go as far as they had. Christ, what had he been thinking? Truth was he hadn’t been thinking at all. He let himself forget about his job and his responsibilities, forget about the mess with his father. With Megan it had been too easy to forget why he was in DC.

But he was here for one reason.

Megan had provided a nice momentary distraction but he didn’t have time to forget what he was after. He needed to stay focused. He had worked too hard to rebuild GMN.

One thing was certain, James would discover what Senator McCoy’s involvement had been with the death of Seth Blair and nothing would stop him.