Page 81 of His Own Heaven

“I see. And was Steven intimidated by you?”

“Not even remotely,” she said. “Which made for a pleasant change. He was ex-army and could be a larrikin, but for the most part he behaved like a gentleman, always polite, always professional, and even though I found him attractive, I figured it was one-sided and didn’t pursue it. Until he asked me to stay late one night and help him go over the office budget. One thing led to another and before I knew it we were seeing each other on a regular basis. Although, we never went out in public, and we never told anyone about us, but at the time I didn’t really care. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t alone.”

“So what went wrong? How did he use you?”And what am I going to do to him for hurting you?

Lucy went still. “Just before I quit, the company courted a new client—a movie mogul from the US who makes more money in a week than most people make in a lifetime. Suffice to say the man is used to getting his own way. For a week Steven did the whole wine and dine thing, hoping to land this creep as an exclusive client for any business undertaken in Australia, and apparently, during their final round of drunken negotiations, my preference for kinky sex came up. Mr Mogul decided he wanted a taste… and Steven agreed.”

Toby clenched his jaw so hard it ached, and his lip curled in disgust at the thought of other men discussing his Lucy, talking about her like she was nothing more than something to be ordered off a menu. Men like that didn’t deserve the gift of submission. “Arseholes.”

“The day after their final… hell, let’s be generous and call it a meeting, Steven asked me to stay late and speak with our potential client. I had no clue why he wanted to meet me, the office manager, but I’d trusted Steven and went along with it.”

She paused for a moment, her silence almost as telling as what she said next. “But when Steven introduced me, when the client shook my hand, every hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I knew something was off. The way he looked at me, the way his eyes slid over me and lingered on my scars…. I was fully dressed and I’d never felt so exposed in my life. And then he propositioned me and I felt sick and… ashamed.”

Rage tore through Toby’s chest and flew out of his mouth on a curse. In an instant he’d pulled off to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes, jolting them both forwards in their seats. Lucy braced her hands on the dash and shot him a bemused glare but Toby was too incensed to take heed. He killed the engine. “Was this the guy who wanted you to prostitute yourself so he could film you?”

“Yes.”

“Motherfucker.” He slammed the heel of his palm against the steering wheel, immediately regretting the action. It hurt like a sonofabitch. Lucy laid her hand over his and turned her slim body to face him, then she brought his hand to her face and pressed a kiss to his aching palm. She blinked slowly and shuttered her gaze, but not before he recognised the darkness in her eyes.

He knew what it was because he’d seen it reflected back at him often enough in Charlie’s eyes, and in his own when he looked in the mirror.

Bad memories.

“After the initial shock wore off, I was furious. I told him exactly where he could stick his proposal then stormed out of there and found Steven. And that fuck-knuckle actually had the nerve to ask me how it went. He’d known exactly what was going to happen and he sent me in there anyway. He betrayed me completely, as a lover and a friend.” She drew in a shaky breath. “It still makes me sick, thinking about what might have happened if that guy hadn’t taken ‘no’ for an answer.”

Lucy let go of Toby’s hand and tried to turn away, but he cupped her cheek and refused to let her. He wouldn’t allow her to get lost inside her own head, not with that darkness still overshadowing her eyes. He would help excise her wound, even if all he could do was listen to her and hold her hand.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” he said, keeping his voice gentle as he held her gaze. “What happened when you confronted Steven?”

“I told him I wanted to file a complaint with HR, and he then proceeded to tell me exactly why that was a very bad idea—namely that it didn’t look good forme, especially since I already had a reputation for sleeping with the boss. He said if I knew what was good for me I’d just forget it ever happened.”

Lucy drew in a deep breath then slowly let it out, and Toby hated the sound of defeat in her voice, hated seeing her eyes glaze with tears. “The shitty thing is, I knew he was right. If the client was looking to hire VIP exclusively then he had deep pockets, and there was no way I was going to win a lawsuit against someone with that kind of money. Not without chewing through every last cent of my savings and then some. So I quit.”

A frown tugged at Toby’s brow. “How long ago was this?”

Lucy shrugged. “Back in March.”

Almost six months ago.

“And how have you been living since then, paying your bills?”

His question made her smile, and while he didn’t understand her reaction, he was glad to see the shadows fade from her eyes. “I inherited Nan’s house when she passed so I don’t pay rent and I don’t have a mortgage. And you’ve seen the place. I live a fairly Spartan life. And I’m good with my money.” Her smile became a grin and she looked up at him from under her lashes, as though about to impart another secret. Toby’s curiosity piqued. “The only reason I started looking for work again was because I was so damn bored. I was going crazy sitting at home doing nothing. In all honesty I need a job for financial reasons about as much as you do.”

Toby’s heart stopped momentarily, then slammed into overdrive.Clever girl.He’d known it wouldn’t take Lucy long to figure out he could buy and sell half of Bayside, but bragging wasn’t his style. So he schooled his features, and said, “What do you mean ‘as much as you do’…?”

Lucy cocked one brow and threw him a look that said he was insulting her intelligence, and he bit back a grin. “You knowexactlywhat I mean,” she said, then changed the subject. “Now, what are we going to do about Ashley?”

Toby started the truck and got back on the road. “Let me have a think and I’ll get back to you,” you said, knowing exactly what he should do—trust Lucy and fire Ashley—but he still had trouble reconciling the sweet little girl he knew with the woman willing to betray him. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me Steven’s address?” he added with undisguised menace.

Lucy glanced up at him, amusement dancing across her features. “Why?”

“No reason in particular,” he hedged, thinking of ways he could repurpose the additional truckload of manure delivered to the McMillan job site.

If a steaming pile of shit in Steven’s driveway didn’t send a strong enough message, Toby figured rounding up his seven equally large brothers, paying the wankstain a visit and making him piss his pants might also satisfy his urge to avenge Lucy’s honour.

“You’re thinking about that truckload of manure, aren’t you?”

Toby said nothing, but his shoulders bounced as he laughed, which said more than enough.

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