Page 4 of Indecent Secrets

She was a redhead, her hair falling down to the middle of her back, with big green eyes and a naturally pouting mouth. And fuck, her body… she knew how to show it off, sporting a dark green dress that tightly hugged that pert ass, those hips, and was low cut to show off her generous breasts. She was curvy and with legs for days—my favorite kind of woman.

“I’m Leigh,” she said, smiling and playing with her hair. The movement of her fingers drew attention to her breasts, and the look she shot us was coy.

Hmm. Probably another kind of gold digger.

Oliver introduced us, and I saw surprise flit across Leigh’s face before she settled it back into a mask of coquettishness. “Mr. Lawton. We’ve heard so much about you. Whatever compelled you to pick a post at such an obscure college? I’ve heard you’re very good at what you do, surely someplace more prestigious wanted to snap you up?”

So, she knew who Jack was and a bit about his history. Interesting. Definitely someone who wanted to try and snap him up, then? But for what purpose? Just simple marriage and money, or something more sinister like what might have befallen Byron?

“You’d be surprised at how competitive the world of academics is,” I told her. “It’s increasingly harder for people, especially new people, to get jobs nowadays. But I would’ve refused a post if I was offered it somewhere like Stanford. I’m not interested in teaching to large crowds and I like to be out of the city, near nature.”

“Better for contemplation?” Leigh asked with a wry twist of her lips.

“And birdwatching,” I replied, reciting one of Jack’s favorite pastimes.

Her auburn brows rose. “Birdwatching, now that’s a new one. I would’ve guessed stamp collecting.”

The corner of my mouth lifted in a small, but unmistakable smirk. “But I’m assuming you also would’ve guessed I wear nothing but tweed.”

Leigh opened her mouth—and I couldn’t wait to hear her retort—but Merilee elbowed her in the side in a way that the other girl clearly thought was subtle. “We’re honored to have you here, Mr. Lawton,” she said, smiling prettily at me. “This all must be so very new for you!”

I sighed inwardly. I liked Leigh’s more adversarial conversation compared to Merilee’s attempts to make nice, but I could play along. “It is, yes. My uncle and I were estranged but it was nothing personal. The issue was between him and my mother. I always just assumed I wouldn’t get much when he died because of that, even if he never disliked me personally. This was all a bit of a shock.”

“I can imagine,” Merilee said, her tone full of sympathy.

I would give her a point in her favor, considering she sounded genuinely sympathetic rather than faking it the way so many other people I’d spoken to had. If I had to guess, I’d say she was a sweet person who just didn’t have the intelligence to match her heart.

Fine by me, but not really someone I wanted to spend a lot of time around. I appreciated compassion but I needed brains to really enjoy a person’s company. I hated being the smartest person in the room. It meant I spent all of my time bored and waiting for everyone else to catch up.

“We’re excited to have him here, though,” Oliver said, clapping me on the shoulder. “No offense to your uncle, may he rest in peace, but we could use some new blood at the company. There’s always room for innovation, but the man was stubborn as hell and set in his ways.”

Interesting. Could that be why someone had wanted him out of the way?

“Well, I don’t know much about business,” I said in a self-deprecating tone. “I’ll have to depend on people like you three to help me out here.”

“Of course we will,” Jonathan said smoothly.

Yeah, fucking vultures, all of them. But they bought my protestation of ignorance hook, line, and sinker. Why wouldn’t they? They had no reason to think that Jack Lawton knew anything about business.

“I believe in you,” Merilee said sweetly, trying to encourage me.

“And you, Leigh?” I asked, unable to resist poking the bear a little. “Do you believe in me?”

“No,” Leigh replied blatantly. “You’ve done nothing to prove to me that you can handle running a business. But I’m interested to see you try and find out how it goes.”

“Are you interested in business, then?”

“Very much so, yes,” she said with a nod. “I’ve studied business for years and work as a consultant. Mostly for smaller businesses—start-ups, that kind of thing, looking to play with the big boys.”

Her voice dropped a little at the last part, getting husky, and she peered up through her lashes. I saw David swallow hard. The idiot was probably already thinking about those plush lips of hers around his dick. Did he not realize she was doing this on purpose?

Leigh might be who she said she was. Most people were. But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t looking to score big by nabbing one of us men as her boyfriend or lover—or even husband. If she helped smaller companies, then it would be a good idea for her to date or marry someone with connections to the higher levels of business so that she could leverage that to get her clients better deals.

She was a bloodsucking leech the same as the rest of them. She was just being smart about it. And sexy. I couldn’t deny she was gorgeous.

Of course, while these men were probably thinking about getting tied up by her and whimpering as mistress played with their dicks, I liked the idea of taking her down a peg. Getting a clever, proud woman to submit to me, to beg for me… to agree to anything so long as I fucked her…

Leigh would look beautiful with a collar around that pretty throat as she begged master for an orgasm. My cock twitched in my pants at the thought, but I did my best to ignore it. I wasn’t here for that kind of fun. As much as I would usually enjoy sleeping my way through the women here, I couldn’t do that as Jack Lawton. Not if I didn’t want those same women scampering around gossiping about me.

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