Page 56 of Without Judgment

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Mason

After Mr. Newhall left, with explicit instructions I ensure Avery stay home, I spent the rest of the morning fielding phone calls. But there were only dead ends when it came to new leads on Edward’s gambling debts. For the last twenty-four hours, my tech guy had been analyzing the newest video, trying to find the identity of the girl in it. Maybe we could get her to come forward. But even if I found her, I wasn’t sure it would make one bit of difference now.

Because the forty-eight hours were up. Mr. Newhall hadn’t dropped the bid to become mayor, and the newest video had hit the Internet by afternoon.

There wasn’t a thing I could do about it. The fact remained I worked for her father. My business came first. Not a beautiful girl with lips I swore I could still feel sliding down my cock. Or big blue eyes looking lost and a bit sad. As if she was waiting on someone to save her.

Later that afternoon, I went upstairs and knocked on her door. I simply could not ignore this protective sensation I experienced when I was around her. As if I wanted to shield her from the world. Her lack of trust in me bothered me. So did the fact she hadn’t shared her thoughts about the second video. I was hoping to reestablish the friendship we’d been forming.

After no answer to my knock, I turned the knob and let the door open while calling her name. When there was still no answer, I peeked inside.

No sign of her.

Shit. She couldn’t have snuck out again. I’d put all the vehicles in the garage and alarmed the gate to alert me if anyone opened it. I pulled out my phone to trace hers and found it right here at the house. But that could mean she’d simply left the phone here before taking off.

Racing down the stairs, I called out for her. I went from room to room, getting more and more pissed off as I went. Finally deciding it was a waste of time to search the entire house since it was massive, I went to her father’s office and brought up all of the security cams. I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally spotted her. She was lying outside by the pool on a lounger, face down on her stomach. The hot pink bikini bottoms caught my attention first, but then she rolled over, and I realized she was topless.

I was caught between wanting to stare at her perky breasts out there for the world to see, or grabbing a towel and telling her to cover up. I chose the latter. What the hell was she thinking? We had a new swarm of paparazzi parked outside the gate now that the second video had hit. It would be all too easy for someone to climb a tree to catch her in the backyard and get pictures. Was this revenge for her father telling her to act more responsibly? With each step, I got more furious and more irrationally possessive.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

She glanced up at me with a smirk on her face. “Getting rid of my tan lines. But you’re blocking my sun, so if you don’t mind moving?”

Lobbing the rolled-up towel towards her, I let my temper snap. “I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing, but this isn’t helping. Cover yourself and get in the house.”

I expected her to fight me on it. To pout and pitch a fit and say it was well within her rights to do what she pleased. So when she stood up instead and, holding the towel to her chest, started walking inside, it took me a minute to follow.

“What’s your game, princess?” I asked once we were inside.

She tossed a look over her shoulder while climbing the stairs to her bedroom. “Whatever do you mean?”

I followed her, waiting for an explanation of why she was acting so calm, yet crazy. But once she crossed her bedroom threshold and lost the towel, words failed me. On display were the best tits I’d ever seen. Her rose-colored nipples practically begged me to worship them. Her breasts weren’t large, but they were in perfect proportion to her trim waist and the curve under her low-cut bikini briefs which—what the hell?

“What is that scar from?”

She grinned. “Appendicitis when I was fourteen. Had to have the thing out. Then the incision got infected, which is why it’s kind of ugly.”

I was completely floored. “The girl on the video—”

She put on her bikini top before finishing my sentence. “Didn’t have a scar. I’m not sure why it didn’t dawn on me earlier to look. In the first video, it’s hard to tell, but in the second one it’s very easy to see it’s not me.”

“Then you out there topless is—?”

“Hopefully about to go viral in a matter of hours, thanks to a nicely placed phone call from my PR rep along with the photo to point out my scar. With any hope, Edward should expect some reporters to camp out on his doorstep soon, asking him who the real girl is and why he’s out to smear my father’s campaign.”

“You planned this?” I was stunned.

She grinned. “I spotted the difference on the second video last night. Took screenshots, talked to my PR rep this morning. That’s why I was in the backyard sunning topless while a well-positioned photog took a picture.”

“But why topless? You could’ve gotten your point across with the bikini showing your scar.”

She hoisted her jeans up over the sexy, low-cut bottoms before throwing on a T-shirt. “Because topless is what’ll make it go viral. Not that I’m a huge fan of that part of my body going public, but it’s better than a sex video. And we’ll control the picture. Since it’s my photographer who took it, we’ll place a black bar over my chest. Plus, any outrage on my part will easier to believe as I was in my own yard without my father home. Invasion of privacy.”

I stood there, letting it all sink in. Then I realized she’d picked up the handle of a rolling suitcase. “Wait, where are you going?”

“With the video hitting this afternoon and this about to go viral soon, I am not about to become a prisoner here. Instead, I’m driving somewhere and staying in a resort for the next week.”

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