Page 13 of The Devious Husband

The Mrs. Kingston Protocol — a protocol that’s enacted the moment Sierra steps foot on any of my properties. She has no idea just how robust my security is, and just how many security personnel are on site and purposely stepping away when she breaks in. The Mrs. Kingston protocol allows her to do whatever she wants without setting off any of my alarms, and it always makes Elijah’s day when she breaks in. There’s nothing he loves more than replaying the security footage from our spy cams in our monthly meetings. If not for the janitor that had already been patrolling the grounds when she was on her way up, she might just have gotten away with her jewelry last time.

“So, how do we merge both of our development plans into something Lena will approve of?” Graham asks, sitting down. “As a starting point, tell us which parts of your proposal are non-negotiable for you, and we’ll do the same. We don’t have much time at all. By the end of this meeting, we need to be on the same page.” His expression is carefully blank, but I notice the way he looks between Sierra and me, and I wonder what he sees.

Sierra nods and carefully places her glass on my coffee table before sitting down next to Graham. Her thigh brushes against his, and Graham’s shoulders relax. What the fuck is going on here? My sofa is big enough to seat five people, so why the fuck would she choose to sit right next to him?

I sit down in the armchair opposite them with my laptop and force myself to work my way through all the documents I’ve compiled for this project. I take my time telling them which aspects are most important to me, and which my firm is best positioned to handle in terms of strengths, but it’s near impossible to stay focused when Graham wraps his arm around the back of my sofa, his thumb touching Sierra’s shoulder.

Why the fuck does he keep doing that? It’s inappropriate, and I don’t understand why she’s letting him. I’ve seen her put countless men in their place for behaving like that with her, so why is she okay with him doing it? He turns his laptop toward her to show her something when it’s their turn to determine their priorities, and she nods, her head far too close to his. “What about this?” he asks, and she leans in to take a closer look at his screen.

“I’m not sure,” she says, reaching over to click on something before placing her hand on his thigh. She leaves it there as she begins to read what’s on his screen, and my heart squeezes painfully. It’s one thing for him to touch her in little ways, but it’s something else for her to reciprocate.

I rise to my feet and walk over to my drinks cabinet to pour myself a glass of whiskey, even if it’s just so I have something to keep my hands busy with. I ran a background check on Graham after I saw them together at dinner, and it came back squeaky clean. Even worse, it revealed the deep ties between their families, and their years-long friendship. Was she waiting for him to come back home? Were they in touch while he was living overseas?

“Oh, it should be down the hallway, on the right,” I hear Sierra say, and Graham tenses for a moment, before he rises from his seat and walks toward my guest bathroom.

I knock back my glass of whiskey when Sierra rises to her feet too, her deep emerald eyes filled with curiosity as she walks over to me. “You don’t usually drink,” she remarks, her eyes zeroing in on my whiskey glass. “Even at events, I very rarely see you drink.”

I smile to myself as I think about the monthly poker nights I attend with her brothers, that she has no idea about. One night of drinking with the Windsor brothers is enough for a whole month. “You don’t know me as well as you think you do, Sierra.”

She raises her brow and places her glass down on the counter inside my liquor cabinet. I know I shouldn’t ask questions I don’t want answers to, but I can’t help myself as I step forward and wrap my hand around her waist, pulling her against me. “Tell me, Kitten… why the fuck are you letting him touch you?”

She places her palm against my chest, her eyes on mine. For a moment, I’m certain she’ll push me away, but she merely stares at me, her expression conflicted. “Why shouldn’t I?” she asks. “He’s nice, and he’s one of few people who truly know me and still like me for who I am. I think there could be something there, if I let it.”

“I thought you didn’t want to be with anyone until your grandmother chose your match, because it’d just be a waste of your time?”

Her eyes widen, and it’s clear I’ve finally truly managed to shock her. “I changed my mind,” she says, her tone resolute. “I don’t want to wait anymore. I’m going to write my own story and marry a man of my choosing.”

Thirteen

Xavier

I try my best to be sly as I walk into one of the gardens in Zane’s observatory, still as terrified of getting caught by Sierra as I’ve always been. For years, I’ve hidden my friendship with her brothers, knowing she’d do whatever she could to put an end to it if she realized just how much I learn about her by attending every month.

More than once, the Windsor brothers have unknowingly given me a competitive advantage against her, and they’ve told me countless stories about her childhood that she definitely wouldn’t want me to know. Over the years, they’ve become brothers to me too, and though they couldn’t possibly know it, they were the ones who kept me going when dealing with Valeria’s absence became too much.

I’m not even sure how we became this close. It was mostly Dion’s doing, but Ares was the one who continued to invite me when Dion moved overseas. Even as my rivalry with Sierra reached new heights, the invites never stopped coming, until eventually, invites were no longer necessary. I wonder if he knew how much I needed those monthly poker nights, if he saw something no one else did.

“You’re late,” Lex says as he sets up the portable poker table he invented for our poker nights.

“Weird,” Ares remarks. “You’re usually very punctual.”

Zane takes a long, hard look at me and sighs. “Whiskey?” he asks.

I nod, and Luca pulls out my chair for me. “What has our sister done this time?” he asks, his sympathetic tone doing nothing to diminish the amusement in his eyes. “I thought you guys were done with your little feud, but that look in your eyes tells me she’s done something crazy again.”

Normally I’d fill them in on the shit she pulled while leaving out some key details, such as what I did to deserve it, but today I don’t have it in me.

“I doubt she did anything,” Lex says, thrusting his phone in Luca’s face. “She’s been too busy parading around town with Graham. I have to say, they look pretty damn good together.”

“Graham fucking Thorne,” I mutter, before knocking back my whiskey. Sierra has been avoiding all my calls and every attempt to be alone with her after business meetings, and all the while, I’ve had to watch her sit next to Graham and laugh with him. Two weeks of that, and I’m at my breaking point.

“I reckon Grandma would actually allow it, you know?” Zane says. “If Sierra went to Grams and told her she wants to marry Graham, I think Grandma would let her. After what she did to me, she won’t risk telling Sierra no when they know each other so well and are clearly a good match.”

I stare at them in pure fucking disbelief. “How the fuck are they a good match?” I ask, my tone aggressive. “He doesn’t fucking know her. Since when is working in the same industry equivalent to knowing someone?”

Ares smiles at me and shrugs. “Well, they are childhood friends.”

I glance at the photo on Lex’s screen, and pure fury rushes through me. They were captured walking out of a restaurant, and he’s got one arm wrapped tightly around her while he holds up an umbrella above their heads. “Does she look like a child to you?” I snap. “He knew her when they were kids, but he doesn’t know who she’s become, what shaped her, what makes her tick.”

---