Page 78 of Conquered Betrayal
The mattress moved again as he adjusted his position, the blindfold slipping from my eyes. I blinked at the bright lights in the room, not realizing he’d left them on. He’d gotten quite a show.
His lips slid over mine, then my eyes and forehead. When he leaned away, he gave me a tender smile. “Well done.”
I grinned, the praise warming me in secret places, then tugged the tie from his fingers. “My turn.”
EPILOGUE
JOLYN
One Year Later
The warm windbrushed my cheeks, rustling the pine needles and leaves of the trees edging the lake. A ripple shimmered across the water, drawing my gaze to the two ducks lazily kicking their webbed feet below the crystal clear surface. Sighing, I closed my eyes and leaned back in the beach chair I’d set up on the dock, pretending I was suntanning even though I’d covered every section of exposed skin my one-piece bathing suit didn’t cover with SPF-60 sunblock.
Tap tap tap.The sound of a hammer hitting a nail broke through the calm. I cracked one eye open and watched the two ducks startle and fly off. With a sniff, I adjusted my beach hat and closed my eyes again.
Tap tap tap.
“You two are missing the view.”
I lifted my head at the sound of Brooke’s voice and side-eyed Sabrina. Wearing a transparent wrap over a blue bikini, she faced the same direction as me, enjoying the calm of Kane’s lake in the middle of nowhere. The corner of her mouth quirked up, she shook her head, then lay back in her chair, soaking up the rays.
I’d never been to Saskatchewan before, always flew over it to get somewhere else, but now I understood what I was missing. I couldn’t think of another place calmer, or more private.
Landon and I arrived yesterday by float plane. Kane had erected a large canvas tent for us, complete with a queen-sized portable bed on a frame, rugs covering the dirt floor, and a hose hookup for running water. All in all, a pretty sweet wilderness setup. He’d assembled a similar arrangement for Walker and Sabrina on the other side of the cabin, giving us all a small amount of privacy.
I resettled. “Just because my eyes are closed, doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying the view.”
“Not that view.” I raised up a little bit to glance at Brooke over my shoulder. Her chair faced the opposite direction. “Thatview.” She pointed toward the cabin.
I followed her line of sight to find our three men working on an addition to Kane’s cabin. Architectural plans were spread out on a picnic table, a pile of lumber heaped beside it. While Landon and Kane scratched their heads about something on the schematics, Walker seemed to be the only one doing something.
Tap tap tap.Another nail went into the wood extending from the side of the cabin.
Sabrina and I looked at each other, and like we’d came to the same decision, stood and moved our chairs on either side of Brooke.
Things between Sabrina and I weren’t perfect. When she’d been caged in my brother’s lab, I hadn’t helped her immediately. An underlying tension ran between us, unseen, but there. I knew she understood if I’d helped her sooner, none of what came after to take my brother down would have happened, but it didn’t change the fact that she’d been inside the cage while I’d been on the outside looking in.
Clyborne Inc.’s psychologist said it would take time to heal all the wounds. I had to be hopeful they would, in fact, heal someday.
“We have a problem,” Brooke said suddenly.
I sat up straight. “What?”
“You don’t have a drink in your hand. Major fail on my part.” Flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder, she hopped up and bounced to the mini kitchen she’d set up at the top of the dock. A big tub of ice held numerous kinds of liquor. “What’ll you have? A martini, rye and soda, cosmo, Sex on the Beach?” She waggled her eyebrows at me. Her bright pink bikini contrasted with the greens, blues, and browns in the landscape.
I grinned. “Martini, please. Make it dirty.”
“Coming right up.”
Ice tinkled as Brooke scooped some into a shaker—a strange music in opposition to the calm surrounding the lake. Beyond her, our men argued over the renovation plans, Walker appearing the most frustrated, Kane the calmest but stubborn, and Landon somehow the referee between the two.
Warmth spread through my chest at watching him. I loved him so much. Some days I didn’t know how I got out of bed, because I just wanted to wrap myself around him and not let go. There was a point in my life where I couldn’t see even a day ahead, that my purpose was to take my brother down and that was it. Now I couldn’t envision a day without Landon right by my side.
Brooke extended my martini to me, complete with olives. “How are you enjoying the ‘roughing it’ lifestyle, Jolyn?”
I laughed, taking the drink from her. “I don’t think it’s actually called ‘roughing it’ when you’ve set up a lakeside bar.”
“Of course it is. If you don’t have a flush toilet, it’s roughing it.”
