Alpha Billionaire Taboo Prison Break: A Contemporary Romance (4 page)

5.

Eli and I left the green sedan in Maurice’s
garage. We borrowed Maurice’s black SUV—a gift from Eli to celebrate the
butler’s sixtieth birthday, as a matter of fact—and we drove back through
town on our way to the lake house.

“If this lake house is so great,” I asked, “why
am I just now hearing about it? Did it never occur to you that your own
daughter might like to spend a weekend at our private lake every once in a
while?”

“That’s a long story, sport,” Eli said.

He was wearing a pair of Maurice’s oversized
sunglasses and one of the T-shirts that I had bought for him.
The shirt was on the snug side
,
I couldn’t
help but notice
. Eli rubbed the scruff on his chin. It was growing
thicker than I had ever seen, nearly the length of a respectable beard.

“Have you ever seen me swim?” he asked.

“You own a swimming pool. Two swimming pools
that I know of, to be precise.”

“Yeah, but have you seen me dip so much as a toe
into either of them?”

I thought about this. To my surprise, I could
not conjure a single memory of Eli swimming in his own luxurious pools.

“But,” I replied, “I did see you swim that river
two nights ago.”

Eli grinned and nodded. “I didn’t have much of a
choice.”

Eli grew silent for a while. The SUV turned onto
a narrow road winding into the steep hill country west of town.

“I don’t like to talk about it,” he said, his
voice barely audible. “The memory haunts me to this day. That lake may look
placid on the surface, but it’s deceptive. The undertow. My mother …”

Eli was quiet again. I lay my hand on his arm.

“I couldn’t save her,” he finally said.

Behind his dark sunglasses I could not see Eli’s
eyes, but tears were welling up in the corners of my own. This partial
revelation had explained so much. We drove not saying a word. I tried to be
there for him, to show him I cared, but I could tell he did not wish to tell me
more. Maybe later.

We entered a tunnel through one of the mountains
and the radio stopped working, which made me even more painfully aware of the
long gap in our conversation.

Eli turned onto an even steeper and more winding
road. We drove to the top of a mountain all covered with green trees. The road
kept going on the other side of the mountain, winding down into a valley.
Around a particularly sharp curve, the road came to a dead end. Eli stopped the
SUV in front of an elaborate wrought-iron gate that reminded me of the main
entrance to the Rutherford estate back in Shiloh.

“Home away from home,” Eli muttered. Then he put
the SUV in drive and mashed the gas. We rammed the gate, hard, metal scraping
metal. The gate was bent but not broken. Eli backed up several feet,
then
rammed it even harder. The gate burst loose, swinging
wildly from its hinges. Eli never even slowed down.

“Jesus,” I said. “A little warning would be
nice.”

“Consider yourself warned,” Eli said.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Maurice is going to
be so ticked at you. And I am NOT taking the blame for this one.”

Eli turned to me and grinned. “One-oh-three
Chestnut Avenue.”

“Let me guess. Maurice’s address?”

“Maurice’s address.”

So Eli was planning to pay back Maurice, too. I
admired Eli’s intentions, but they seemed a bit on the optimistic side. If we
got caught, he would never be able to repay Maurice and the other innocent
bystanders we had “borrowed” from.

We drove for what felt like a long time,
then
crested another hill, and then I saw the lake. Its
crystal-blue water filled the deep valley below, lapping the base of a series
of dramatic rocky cliffs. Mountains ringed the lake on all sides. Yes indeed,
this was one secluded getaway spot—and the perfect hiding place for my
mother, if she was here.

At the edge of the lake was a chateau built all
of
stone.
To me, it resembled a European castle. It
was three stories tall, with large windows and a steep roof. The sight of it
took my breath away.

“God,” I said. “It’s beautiful.”

Eli snorted. “Looks can be deceiving,” he said.
“Just look at your mother. Hell, look at you, for that matter. A little brat in
a woman’s body.”

My feelings were hurt until Eli grinned, and I
realized he was joking. He reached over and brushed a strand of hair out of my
eyes. Then he tucked the strand behind my ear, and his hand cupped the back of
my neck. He squeezed, and it felt so warm and nice.

“Thank you for taking this journey with me,
Avery. There is no way I could have done any of this without you.”

“I know,” I smiled. “Just don’t forget me when
you’re back on top.”

“Never,” he said, and I believed him with all my
heart.

We parked in a well-concealed spot behind some
brush and scrubby trees a few hundred yards up the road, and approached the
chateau on foot. Overgrown forest lined the drive leading up to the chateau,
and we hugged the shadows in case anyone was watching from one of the top-floor
windows.

When we were close enough we jogged the rest of
the way up the steps, right to the front door. Eli turned the knob, and to his
surprise the door opened. It
creaked
as it swung wide,
revealing the faded glory of the Rutherford clan’s forgotten chateau. We
stepped inside a darkly cavernous room with a double staircase near the back
wall. Life-sized murals adorned the walls. Some of the men bore a striking
resemblance to Eli. The room was filled with the kind of fancy and
delicate-looking antique furniture that no one in their right mind would want
to use.

“This place gives me the creeps,” I said.

Eli shushed me. “We’ll start at the bottom and
work our way up,” he whispered.

Eli was obviously excited, striding across the
floor with a real sense of purpose. But I had a feeling we would not find what
we were looking for. To me, it looked like no one had visited the lake home in
months. Maybe years. But I went along with him, like a good girl.

Eli found a flashlight in a hall closet,
then
led me to a hidden stairwell down to the basement. The
bomb shelter door had been left ajar. Eli flicked on the flashlight, the beam
casting a slant of yellow light in the darkness.

The bomb shelter was seriously creepy. I wanted
to turn around right then, but Eli walked into the darkened room, shining his
light this way and that. It was like a regular living room from a home in the
1960s, with brightly colored furniture and shag carpeting, but the walls were
lined with gallon cans of every kind of preserved food you could imagine. I
nearly gagged when I saw the gallon of potted meat. It was all so weird. I
couldn’t imagine being stuck in this place, eating all that old food. I might
have to take my chances with the bomb.

“Nothing’s changed since I was a kid,” Eli said.

Eli made a sweep of the bomb-shelter living
room, then the kitchen and three modest bedrooms. I trailed close behind,
trying not to bump into things.

“Let’s check the other floors,” he said.

We did. We saw a tasteful parlor and a library
with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. I pulled out one of the books, and its pages
crumbled in my fingers.

The dining room was big as a banquet hall, and
there was a fully stocked kitchen, but no recent signs of human presence.

Leaving behind the ground level, we ascended the
staircase to the second and third floors, entering the bedrooms one by one,
with their overstuffed beds, chests-of-drawers of dark and rich-smelling wood.
We found miscellaneous items of furniture that varied from one room to the next,
but still no evidence that a real-live person had occupied any of these rooms
in years. The entire chateau was like a very expensive an exquisitely preserved
dollhouse.

Eli and I came to the second-to-last door. Eli
paused in front of the door, then skipped it and entered the final room at the
end of the hall. His decision to bypass the door puzzled me, but I said
nothing. We walked inside a bedroom that was larger and more opulent than all
the rest. This was clearly the master suite. Still, though, it was deserted.

As we left, Eli shut the door behind him,
then
turned to face the door he had passed over moments
before. Something was holding him back. I placed my hand on his shoulder and
felt him trembling ever so faintly. “What is it, Eli?” I asked.

“My mother’s room,” he said, not moving.

“Let me,” I said. “I’ll go in. You stay here.”

Eli took a deep breath, but he didn’t step
aside. Instead, he opened the door and walked in, electing to confront his
demons. Late-afternoon sunlight was shafting through a west-facing window,
illuminating the small but tasteful room. There was a canopy bed and a small
wooden desk, and a rocking chair beside a window overlooking the lake. I
imagined Eli as a small child being rocked to sleep by his mother.

“We searched the whole house,” Eli said.
“There’s nowhere else. I … I need to think.”

“There, there,” I said, guiding Eli to sit on
the edge of the bed. His body seemed drained of its power, and he sat without
protest. I could tell his mind was torn between two conflicting thoughts—of
my mother’s whereabouts, and memories of his own mother, long dead.

“She was very beautiful, you know,” he said. “I
remember her face so clearly—her smile, the way she laughed. I was always
doing little things to make her smile. When she died it’s like a piece of me
died, too.”

I was sitting next to Eli on his mother’s bed. I
hugged his waist, and he held me in his arms. I looked up and saw there were
tears in his eyes. I wiped one from his cheek. For some reason, my simple
action made him smile through his sadness. He touched my forehead, brushing my
hair out of my eyes just as he had done earlier in the truck, again tucking the
loose strand behind my ear. I loved the gentle touch of Eli’s fingertips.

“When I look at you, sometimes I think of her,”
he said. “You are lovely, just like she was.”

Eli’s touch and his words made me love him more
than ever. They were like a magnet drawing us closer. Eli held my face in his
hands as we gazed into each other’s eyes.

“I love you, Avery,” he said.

Eli leaned in and lightly kissed my forehead. I
craned my neck, yearning for more, and I felt his kiss land softly on my cheek.
My eyes closed as I breathed in his familiar scent, my lips curling into a
smile. Then his mouth moved from my cheek, and I felt him next to my mouth, his
lips brushing my lips, grazing them softly, gently. His lips moved slowly and
lightly, like a man tasting forbidden fruit. Eli’s hands explored my hips.

“I tried to ignore my feelings for you, but I
can’t. Not any longer,” he said.

It might have been a sin, a father seeking
comfort in his only daughter, but no god would strike us down for the love we
shared. My lips parted slightly, and I could taste him. It only made me hungry
for more. Eli dipped his tongue between my lips, filling me with excitement.
The way his tongue fell in and out of my mouth, I felt a stirring between my
legs and a need to feel something more inside my mouth. I wanted to taste Eli’s
manhood, to feel him sliding between my lips and dominating my mouth as I
swallowed every delectable inch of him. Just thinking about it made me wet.

I pushed Eli away. “I have a present for you,” I
said with a girlish grin.

Eli’s eyes widened with surprise as I fell to my
knees, bowing before him. I ran my hands up and down his thighs, then over his
crotch, touching the hard bump that was already forming there. I fumbled with
the button of Eli’s jeans, greedy for his cock. Eli impatiently unsnapped the
button as I tugged at the zipper, exposing Eli’s underwear. It was bulging
beyond belief, barely containing Eli’s manhood.

He reached into his drawers, and the next thing
I knew, he had pulled out the most magnificent cock I had ever seen. It was
semi-hard and already as big around as my arm. And long. That kind of girth, I
wasn’t sure if it would even fit between my lips. My eyes widened with terror,
even as I licked my lips, my mouth watering with anticipation.

Even if I got him into my mouth, my biggest fear
was whether he would fit where I ultimately wanted him to fill me the most.

I wrapped both of my hands around his manhood,
my small fingers not quite reaching all the way around his girth. I stroked him
as he grew before my eyes. My lips kissed the tip, my tongue lapping the
swollen head,
then
licking down his long, meaty shaft.
He was salty and delicious, and my tongue ran up the shaft and back to the tip
as I lapped him up.

Eli groaned with pleasure. With my hands
gripping his shaft, I playfully nibbled his tip,
then
opened as wide as I could to guide it between my lips, hoping he didn’t mind
the teeth. I savored the feeling of his throbbing head as it filled up my
mouth, easing farther in. The way his cock dominated me, I couldn’t think of
anything beside my desire to suck him off and drink down his cum.