Betrayed: Keeping her in the Dark Vol. 3 Read online

  “Norah, is it necessary for us to make dinner and clean up as well? Don’t I pay someone to do this?” I kissed her nose. I wanted to get her upstairs as soon as possible. Her red heels were driving me crazy.

  “A little hard work never hurt anyone.

  Drying dishes keeps you humble,” she pressed her lips to mine.

  “You think I’m humble?” I asked. She laughed.

  “No, actually I don’t and drying all the dishes in this house won’t help you with that either.”

  While we made love on top of the island with her red heels against my back, I knew…I knew that this was the life I wanted. Nothing about Norah and I was predictable or mundane. We might not be as exciting or adventurous as Will and Jane, but our relationship worked for us. Both of us.

  Chapter Three

  Norah

  When we left for work the next morning, I told Liam I had forgotten something inside so I could go back inside without him. I wanted to talk to Gerald about my plan, but I couldn’t have Liam hear my discussion. I waved good bye to him and ran back inside.

  “Gerald!” I yelled from the front door, “Gerald!” I kicked off my heels and ran to the kitchen just as Gerald came running out to meet me.

  “Yes, Mrs. Hastings what is it? Is everything alright?” he was wiping her hands with a drying towel so I assumed he had been washing dishes.

  “Yes, everything is fine. I just wanted to talk to you about something.” I motioned for us to go back in the kitchen so he could finish what he was doing. Rosa was at the sink washing dishes and I could hear Maria in the pantry yapping about something in Spanish.

  “Great! I’m glad you’re here too, Rosa, I’m going to need your help.”

  She turned and took the towel from Gerald and wiped her hands off too. They both kept looking at me waiting for me to say something.

  “I want to plan a surprise party for

  Liam’s 30th birthday,” I just blurted it out. I had this huge smile on my face because I couldn’t control my excitement. Rosa started to chuckle and turned back to the dishes and Gerald looked over at her and bit his lip.

  “Ah, Mrs. Hastings….” He started.

  “Please, my name is Norah, Gerald,” I had asked him to call me Norah since we met. He had on occasion. But since Liam and I were married he refused to call me by my first name. He cleared his throat.

  “Mrs. Hastings, I don’t think that is a good idea. Mr. Hastings doesn’t really celebrate his birthday.” He nodded toward Rosa, “Rosa made him a single cupcake when he turned 25, and he never even ate it.” I started tapping my fingers on the island top. Who didn’t like birthdays? Who didn’t like parties?

  “Well that is going to change this year. I don’t care if he has never celebrated it before. He will get a party this year and he will like it!” Gerald started to say something but Rosa stopped him. She waved her finger in the international symbol for ‘no, no, no’, and said something to him in Spanish. He nodded in agreement and turned back to me.

  “I don’t think it is a good idea, but of course I will do whatever you would like to do and help in any way I can, Mrs. Hastings.” I started to giggle and jumped around like a little girl who just got her way, which I guess I kinda did. I wiggled and wrapped my arms around Gerald for a big hug. He patted my back a little. I leaned away from his face.

  “You are such a good man, Gerald.” I kissed him on the cheek. “And for heaven’s sake, you gave me away at both of my weddings, I think you can call me Norah.” I could see his face turning red so I let him go.

  “Okay! This is going to be great! This is what I do for a living so it should be easy, right?” I held out my hands to my sides. “The hard part is going to be keeping it from Liam, because he is such a control freak.” I shook my head. “But don’t worry about him. If the ship starts to sink, the Captain,” I pointed to myself, “will throw you a life raft and go down with the ship.” I nodded and grabbed my purse.

  “Gotta go, I will talk with you later about Operation….Birthday Party.” I started to walk out of the kitchen and then turned back. “I guess if I want it to be a secret I need to come up with a more secretive name.” I laughed and ran out the door.

  Work was busy. I had to handle the last few arrangements for Liam and I in Verona, I had to help Tim book several clowns for a six year olds birthday party he was in charge of, and go to two thrift stores and a flea market to see if I could find a few vintage lace table cloths for a Bridal Luncheon that Kim was in charge of.

  Since inheriting ‘Hastings Events’ from Liam’s company, I had hired two Senior planners, one being Tim, whom I stole from the library and the other being Brenda, three Assistant planners, two people to work in the store front and sell our business to potential walk in clients, and a desk clerk, named Mindy, whom I thought flirted with Liam a little too much sometimes.

  We had at least four events going at the same time. We had a steady little business. When one was over, another walked in the door. I supervised everything and handled most of the accounting.

  Liam kept telling me I needed to hire an accountant and someone for marketing. I thought we were still too small for those things. I could handle the books myself for now, but I hoped that wouldn’t always be the case. I hated dealing with money. Being the accountant in my own business forced me not only to talk about money but to keep the money straight as well.

  After this wedding this weekend and our upcoming spread in London Brides magazine, I was hoping everything would flourish and I would have to hire more staff.

  I didn’t have a chance to brainstorm ideas for Liam’s birthday until after lunch. I made a quick list of friends and close business associates totaling about fifty people and booked the Grand ball room in the London Inn hotel, which Liam also owned. I placed a call to the London symphony Orchestra and asked about hiring ten of the musicians to play at the party and talked to two of our best caterers. Before I knew it, the day was over and I needed to get home.

  I wrote down the information about the caterers so I could give it to Rosa and Gerald when I got home. I figured they could make the decisions about the food. I grabbed all my lists and shoved them in my bag as I walked out. Winston quietly and very 007 like followed me out. I always forgot he was around, but he was always around.

  Liam

  My day was bad. There was no other way to describe it. One of the papers from a major merger was missing and we were now in the middle of a lawsuit and needed it.

  Marcy and I had spent most of the morning going through our archived files and she finally found it just thirty seven minutes before the deadline at the courthouse. Thankfully she made it in time.

  During lunch Dejon mustard dripped on my shirt and tie and I didn’t have a clean shirt in the office so I had to borrow one of Steve’s cotton poly blend shirts. My car overheated on the way back to the office and Trig had to call a tow truck and I ended up walking six blocks.

  After lunch my computer crashed in the middle of making changes to a contract. Marcy told me to let her do it but in my frustration over everything else I wanted the computer time. While our tech department worked on finding my unsaved work, Marcy kept looking at me with an ‘I told you so’ look.

  Then to top it all off, Steve came in just before I was ready to jump out the window and fly home, to tell me that the meetings for this weekend were back on. That meant I couldn’t go with Norah. I didn’t want her to go without me, but I couldn’t do this to her now. Not after everything I had already done to her. She wanted this and I had to be man enough to know she would be fine. She had to be part of her own business and I had to let her.

  It was hard to let go of my fear but actually I think I made it worse. This was important to her and so it was important to me too.

  But I would still sending John and Winston with her.

  When I walked in the door I could hear the music coming from the kitchen, along with Norah, Gerald and Rosa’s laughter. She was in a very good mood and I hated
to break her heart.

  This wasn’t only a work weekend for her, she was hoping to have some ‘us’ time.

  She kissed me and danced around while she put the food on the table. She was trying to tell me a joke that Rosa had told her but she kept laughing when she would get to the punch line and I couldn’t understand her. I loved seeing her like this. So happy, carefree and vivacious. I decided to wait until after dinner to tell her the bad news.

  During dinner she told me about her new office furniture that had come in just before she left the office and how she was so excited to rearrange her office in the morning. Her face lit up when she told me about her upcoming spread in London Bride magazine.

  “Oh and the best part! I booked us a room at this little bed and breakfast on the water. It has a balcony off the bedroom, and I thought since we are going to be in Verona we could reenact the whole...” I had to stop her.

  “I can’t go.” I just ripped it off like a band aid.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I can’t go. The meeting is back on. I guess his wife recovered from her chemical burns, so they’re coming. I’m so sorry, Norah.” She put her head in her hands.

  “So this means I can’t go either, right?” She stood abruptly and scraped her chair across the floor. “I don’t believe this.” She walked across the floor to the buffet table. I thought she was going to make herself a drink but she didn’t.

  “No, just me. You can go.” She turned to face me.

  “Huh?” she sounded confused.

  “I want you to go. You deserve to go. It’s your company, you should be there, and it was wrong of me to ever say you couldn’t supervise your own event.” I stood up and walked to her. Her big smile was back and she wrapped her arms around my neck.

  “Really? You’re gonna let me go without you?” she started swaying back and forth.

  “Well I still have to inform John and Winston that they are now making the trip too, but yes.” I gave her a sweet kiss.

  “I knew there was a catch. Well I hope they own tuxedo’s because it is a formal event.” She had a big smile on her face again. She was gleaming.

  “Could you please stop smiling at me? I am a man in pain here, Norah.” She gave me a smirk.

  “Well really, you’re just a pain.” She always said I was the smartass, but she was quick to the draw herself.

  “I’m sorry, darling. I know you wanted to have some ‘us’ time and now it will have to wait until the end of the month.” She kissed my neck and ran her hands down my arms and took my hands in hers.

  “Well, Mr. Hastings,” she moved so we were now walking toward the staircase, “I say we go upstairs, I will run us a bath in that large tub of ours, undress you myself, and then you and I can have some ‘us’ time right now.” I grabbed her hips and made her move faster up the stairs.

  When I made it to the bathroom, Norah was sitting in the tub, the water was running, and soap suds covered her body. She had also lit a few candles and there was slow romantic music playing the background.

  “I left you for about 2 minutes, how in the world did you have time to do this? I went to the closet and hung up my suit, and you have made our bathroom into a romantic scene from a movie.” I took off my watch, slid my boxers to the floor, and climbed in the tub behind her.

  “Well I have a few tricks up my sleeve, Mr. Hastings. I am an event planner, sir.” I moved the hair from her back and started rubbing her shoulders. She rolled her neck and closed her eyes. “Also, I keep the candles, bubble bath and music in the last cabinet on the end.” She made a humming noise. “That feels good,” she whispered.

  “You feel tight and tense, little one. Your shoulders and neck are stiff.” I kissed her neck and ran one of my fingers down her spine. “What has you so stressed out?” I asked. She let out a deep breath and shook a little from a chill.

  “I guess I am stressed about this wedding. I want it to be perfect.”

  “It will be. Norah...” I turned her to face me, “everything you touch turns into something beautiful. Look at what you have done to this house? You gave it the feminine touch it needed, you did the same to my office. Both of our weddings were like fairytales as well as every other event you have done since you took over this business. It’s going to be fine, little one.” I pulled her hips and moved her legs so she straddled my lap. I took the suds and ran my hands over her body paying special attention to her breasts.

  “Now please, allow me to help relieve some of your stress now.” Before she could say anything I took her mouth with mine and moved my hands to the sides of her head. She started running her hands up and down my arms and then down my chest. She pulled her body closer and rubbed herself against my manhood. I moved my mouth down to her neck and ran my lips over her shoulder. My hands wandered to her back and over her hips. Feeling Norah on top of me was so arousing. Her skin was soft and she had random little brown freckles that I liked to count and kiss at the same time. I had never been able to count them all before taking her, which was fine with me, because it just meant the next time I had to start all over again.

  “I want you so bad, baby,” I panted. I felt her body tense for a second then relax again. I positioned myself at her entrance and she moved pushing me inside her, making a deep moaning sound. I held her hips as we moved against each other and concentrated on the little butterfly behind her ear. I wanted to move her to her back so I could really move, but that wasn’t possible in the tub.

  “I need more, Norah,” I panted. “I need more of you, baby.” I moved faster against her. The tub wasn’t working for me. I needed more so I held her against me and stood up, praying I wouldn’t slip and fall. I took one big step out on the fluffy bath mat then laid Norah on her back and moved my mouth down her body. Her body was slick from the suds. As I kissed her hips I ran my fingers over her sex and rolled my thumb against her clit. I grinded against her skin when I saw her back arch. I slowly moved my mouth to where my fingers were and ran my tongue over her. I put my hands to her buttocks and pressed her to my mouth. She spread her legs to give me better access and I groaned in approval. I parted her fold with my fingers and licked her up and down.

  “Yes, Liam. Ahh. Good lord….yes…” I loved hearing her moan for me. She covered her face with her hands and I knew she was close. I moved my tongue faster and pushed two fingers inside her. When I curled my fingers inside her, she let out a scream that made me hard.

  “Damn, that’s what I like to hear.” I moved to my knees and raised her legs so her feet were close to my shoulders and shoved myself inside her again. “Fuck yes!” I pushed and pulled myself against her, pressing her legs against my chest. Our eyes connected and I wanted to be closer to her, so I parted her legs and covered her body with mine. I touched her chin and licked her lips. She parted my lips with her tongue and I sucked. Her hands had moved down my back and she was pressing me inside her.

  “You belong to me, you know that,” It wasn’t a question but she nodded anyway. “We fit perfectly together,” I kept panting, “You feel so good.” Norah had closed her eyes and was arching her back again. “That’s right, baby, I can make you come anytime I want to…damn you’re sexy.” I pulled her leg up to my chest and her noises made me come. We came at the same time and both started moving a little slower.

  “So what happened to our nice relaxing bath?” she whispered in my ear as I was nestled in her neck. I started to laugh and felt her mouth smile against my head.

  “I needed more room than the tub would allow. It was either get out of the tub or drown you,” I leaned up and looked in her eyes. “I thought doing the latter wouldn’t benefit either of us, so I chose to get out.” I smiled and kissed her again.

  “Well I guess that was good for me, huh?” she started laughing.

  “I wish I could go with you this weekend,” I said as she started wiggling underneath me making me move off of her.

  “I know you do,” she said sarcastically and unplugged the tub.
She dropped a towel in my lap and wrapped another one around her.

  “It’s not for the reason you think, little one.” She snorted.

  “I’m serious.” I stood up and wrapped the towel around my waist. “Yes, it’s true I don’t like to be away from you, but I was looking forward to having some time away with you.” I stopped her from blowing out the candles and pressed our bodies together. “I remember our honeymoon so fondly, but it seems so long ago.”

  “It was only six months ago.”

  “That seems like a very long time.”

  “We went to Las Vegas for Christmas,” she countered.

  “Yes. Being surrounded by your family while we listened to your sisters talk about all the hot guys in Florida is not what I consider time with you. Whenever Jim looked in your direction I wanted to strangle him. It wasn’t very relaxing for me.”

  “Well imagine how it was for me? Knowing that you could fly across the room and strangle him at any moment? It wasn’t very relaxing to me either.” She gave me a kiss on my chin.

  “I will be away for one weekend, and if you are really lucky I might buy you a souvenir.” She winked and walked past me to the bedroom.

  “I am a very lucky man, Norah, so I think my chances are very good.” I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back to me. “Now I just need to decide if I want a key chain or shot glass,” I nestled my face in her ear.

  “I was thinking of a coffee mug with your name on it.” I started tickling her sides and we both stumbled to the bed.

  Chapter Four

  Norah