Page 29 of Indecent Secrets

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The moment Jack was in the bathroom to take a shower after our discussion in the sitting area, I dove for his laptop.

Well, I didn’t literally dive, that would’ve been ridiculous. But I snatched it up and opened it to get it unlocked. I’d gotten a thumb drive from a friend that I could insert into the computer to scramble it and unlock it. It didn’t do much more than that, unless there were some files I wanted to steal by putting a copy on the thumb drive, but I didn’t need anything else anyway.

Jack’s computer was now open to me.

The first thing that struck me as odd was that he’d apparently downloaded a copy of the employee records of everyone in the company. Was he running some kind of background check? Why would he do that?

The next thing that I noticed was that he’d taken photocopies of the papers and sent them to someone. The name and address were encrypted and it was way out of my league to try and figure that out… but why would he be sending these papers to someone else? If it was his lawyer that might make sense, but if so why the secrecy?

I noticed that this wasn’t the only batch of papers Jack had sent this person. There were a dozen emails sent. And the name of the sender wasn’t Jack.

It was Bryce.

Who the hell was Bryce? Why was Jack using a fake name? What was going on?

I wanted to storm into the bathroom and confront this guy, but just in case, I decided it would be best to keep quiet for now and see what I could dig up in the background. If there was stuff on this guy’s private laptop, then there was stuff on his work computer. I also might be able to get him to slip up and give me information, or get something out of Rebecca or another employee. Billy—that guy at reception—he was ambitious, he wanted to move up through the company but didn’t have the connections or Harvard degree. I could use that to my benefit.

Not wanting to push my luck, I put everything back where I’d found it and crawled into bed, curling up. My heart hammered inexplicably. I told myself it was just that I’d stumbled on far more than I’d planned. I just wanted to know more about Jack and what he was up to so I could plan my attacks accordingly, but now it looked like he was sharing trade information with someone, while using an assumed name. Was Jack trying to get his own company taken down? What were his motives?

Even though I tried to tell myself that it was all my concern over my plan, there was the voice in the back of my head that wouldn’t shut up, reminding me that this was going to be the first time I’d shared a bed with someone in years. I didn’t usually do that. Frankly, I just hadn’t liked any man enough to want to stay the night.

But I did want to stay the night with Jack. I wanted him to fuck me in the morning, as he’d promised. I wanted to see more of what he could come up with.

I left the collar on. I wondered if he would notice.

As I lay in bed, listening to Jack in the bathroom taking his shower, I wondered if there was more going on here than I’d thought. A long-lost heir? One who had no pictures of himself? It was the classic kind of bait and switch that led people to be conned by the likes of Anna Delvey.

And Lawton Sr. had died rather quickly…

Jack was young and handsome. Exactly Lawton Sr.’s type, if the stories were to be believed. He was obviously attracted to me, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered to sleep with me, but he’d shown me that he could pretend to be submissive if he wanted to. Had he been stiffed out of Lawton’s will and so he’d cocked up this story of it all being left to his nephew?

My mind raced. It was crazy for me to think this, right? But at the same time it didn’t feel that crazy at all. It felt like it made perfect sense to me, in fact. It would be so easy for someone to pretend to be Jack Lawton. The real Jack Lawton probably had no idea that all this was going on. If he even existed which, to be fair, he probably did, given that he’d published books and his name was on the university website. That would be hard to fake.

But if somehow he was intercepted so that he never found out what had happened… then I could see one of the former and spurned lovers of Lawton Sr. deciding to take matters into his own hands.

What that didn’t solve was the sending of papers to someone else. Why would he be doing that? Perhaps to get advice on business things so that he could take the company away from the other board members? He didn’t seem to like them very much.

The bathroom light turned off and I closed my eyes, breathing deep and even. I heard Jack—I didn’t feel comfortable calling him anything else until I was certain—enter the room and walk over.

He stared at me for a moment as I continued to fake sleep. Had he noticed the collar? I’d thought it would be nice to leave it on all night, so that we could get right to the sex in the morning. It was also just… something I enjoyed keeping on. It made me aware of every breath that I took. Made me feel like I was still bound to him in some way, still submissive.

I liked it.

Jack didn’t seem aware that I wasn’t asleep, and climbed into bed staying firmly on his side. I was just glad he didn’t seem to think anything was up with me. He thought I was who I said I was.

But if he wasn’t who he said he was…

Jack had struck me as dangerous, when we’d first had sex and he’d turned the tables on me. I’d liked the danger. I still did. But not if it might actually end up with my life in his hands. If he had bumped off one man already, who was to say he wouldn’t deal with me, too? Especially if he found out my real motives?

Despite my concerns, I slipped into sleep, exhausted from the day and the sex.

When I woke up, I was in Jack’s arms.

He was apparently asleep, and I didn’t want to disturb him, so I kept myself relaxed and breathing deeply, steadily. I was sure his alarm would go off any minute now.

It was actually nice to wake up with someone holding me. I had forgotten that cuddling like this could feel good. His grip was strong but relaxed, and I felt almost… shielded. My body fit so nicely against his.

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