Blackmailed by the Beast

Published by Evernight Publishing at Smashwords

http://www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2012 Sam Crescent

ISBN:
978-1-927368-40-4

Cover Artist: LF Designs

Editor: Dana Horbach

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or
distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this
book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without
written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and
places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

I would like to thank a fellow writer and friend,
Delilah Hunt. You helped me to finish this and gave me the
encouragement I needed to send it in. My family is always so
supportive and obviously without you guys I wouldn't do this.
Finally, to the Evernight team. You are all amazing and I hope this
is the first book of many. 

Unlikely Love, 1

Sam Crescent

Copyright © 2012

Chapter One

Lily Jones glanced down
over the gardens, enjoying the view she'd seen for the past
twenty-one years of her life. The only piece of furniture
destroying the usual perfect scenery was the man who stood off to
the side of the pond, currently talking into a mobile phone. God,
how she hated him with his money, power, and general attitude of “I
own everything and everyone.” How could anyone wish to be near
him?

Her short conversations
with him revolved around the power of money. According to him,
every person had his price. Some were harder to find the price than
others.

Yeah, he was a
good-looking man and filthy rich, but what else was there to Wayne
Brown? His jet-black hair had some length to it but didn’t obstruct
his sight like some men’s seemed to. His green eyes were completely
out of place against the darkness of his hair. Wayne was tall—he
crowded around her when they were next to each other—and always
clean-shaven. The main problem, Wayne knew his effect on the
opposite sex, and it made him cocky.

Lily jumped back from
the curtain as he glanced up to her window, a smirk on his face. He
seemed to look right into her eyes even though she was behind the
curtain. The distance was no barrier between them. She saw the mock
smile appear on his features, and she cursed herself for the time
spent dwelling on why he was there in the first place. Shaking her
head against the confusing thoughts, Lily made her way out of the
room and down into the comfort of the kitchen.

Tessa, the family cook,
had been laid off a few months ago, and Lily was grateful she’d
started to take cookery classes, otherwise they’d have all been
screwed. Her father didn’t even know what a kitchen looked like.
Her mother refused to break a nail, and her older sister sneered at
the slave work. Slave work that kept her well-fed. Unfortunately,
feeding them had turned to her. It was not difficult provided they
liked the simple dishes she could cook, but they all expected some
French masterpiece.

What had happened to
their family to fall on such bad times? Lily’s birth had been a
mistake to the family, as her parents and sister liked to tell her.
The money troubles started long before then.

The thoughts depressed
her. Lily got up from her knees, smoothed out the creases in her
dress, and went down to the kitchen. Dinner would be expected in
over an hour, and she’d rather be in the kitchen, with her troubled
thoughts, than looking out the window at the man who gave her
troubled sleep.

As always, the kitchen
was empty, and she got around to prepare the equipment she’d need
for dinner. She took the potatoes to the sink full of water. Lily
turned to the sink, peeling the dirty potatoes. She jumped out of
her skin as Wayne stood on the other side staring in through the
window. He smiled and waved at her, and Lily frowned. The blush
already spread up to her cheeks from her neck. It was humiliating
being affected this way by a man twelve years older than she.

She finished the
potatoes and tried not to look out at him. She knew he was still
there, could sense him like a second skin. Lily put the peeled and
washed potatoes into a sieve and took them to the tabletop in the
centre of the room, purposefully showing him her back. She tried to
think of good things, walks on the beach, snow at Christmas,
twinkling fairy lights. Lily would do anything to take her mind
away from the man outside.

“What’s for dinner?”
His deep masculine voice spoke right next to her ear, making her
shriek and the potato, she’d been about to cut, shot across the
room.

“You do know it’s
polite to knock,” she said as she retrieved the spud and gave it a
good wash.

“You saw me, Lily. I
figured you’d heard me.” Wayne stood in her space, refusing to
move. She placed the spud in with the others and placed them on the
hob to boil. “Why are you in kitchen doing the cooking?”

“Do you want to be
fed?” she snapped.

“Where is Tessa, the
cook I was promised?” Today she couldn’t deal with him. His cologne
was strong and far from being unpleasant. Her pussy was already
reacting, her cream dripping into her panties.
This is
mortifying. No other man can make my body react the way he
can..

“Tessa was laid off,
and my father said he couldn’t afford her anymore.”
It’s not
your sham,
she chanted to herself, and maybe one day she could
look back and believe it.

“The cooking fell to
you?”

“Obviously.” Lily moved
away from him to go to the fridge. She got out the mincemeat and
the fresh tomatoes she’d picked from the small vegetable garden she
maintained. Anything to keep expenses down.

“Your mother or
sister?”

Lily laughed, the sound
instant, as if his statement had been the most hilarious thing
she’d heard. In a way, it was. Trying to imagine the posh, stern
women in the kitchen was quite funny. She pictured a caricature of
her mother looking at a carrot and wondering what to do with
it.

“Ah, there you are.”
Her older sister, Stephanie, walked in, destroying the image. Lily
turned away. The false happiness would make any strong-stomached
person want to throw up.

“Why does Lily do all
the cooking?” Shocked, Lily looked at Wayne. He seemed to be
furious.

“She does it so well.”
Her sister laughed. She moved closer to run a hand down his chest.
Jealousy spiked through Lily, fast and sharp. Not liking the
emotion one bit, she turned away and continued to pull stuff out of
the fridge.

“You mean, you and the
rest can’t be bothered, so treat the youngest like a slave.” Wayne
growled at her sister. Lily was amazed. Every other man who spoke
to Stephanie did so with the intention of getting in her bed. Wayne
didn’t act like that. It was almost as if he regarded her as a pest
rather than a potential lover. Biting her lip, Lilly watched him
disappear out of the kitchen. The moment he was gone, Stephanie
turned all of her malice toward her. Her true character brought to
the surface.

“This is your fault,
bitch. You’ve been spreading lies about us, about me.”

Lily shook her head.
When Stephanie got into one of her rages, she looked ugly from the
inside out. “No, I’ve not said anything,” Lily said. Stephanie
latched onto her. Her nails cut into her arms. Her skin was
delicate and she knew she’d bruise in a few hours from the rough
contact.

“He’s my meal ticket
out of here, away from all of this shit. You ruin anything. I’ll
make you pay for the rest of your life.” Stephanie thrust her away
and charged out of the kitchen. Lily cried out as she collapsed
against the counter, knocking off the bowl of tomatoes that fell
onto the floor. Trying to stem the flow of tears threatening to
come up, she moved to the side and chopped onions. If Wayne decided
to come back and check on her, she could mask the tears with the
onions.

She was the cook,
cleaner, and general house staff. Her job was to serve, not to be
part of the family. For the longest time, Lily had been the
outsider, the youngest born who was more interested in books than
fancy parties and boys.

Mum, Dad, and Stephanie
were the true family. She just wished she knew what had gone wrong
for them to hate her so much—from a young girl to the adult she was
now.

****

Wayne watched the
sister brutalize Lily. The fears on the young girl’s face calling
to the protector in him. She didn’t deserve this life—to cook,
clean, and beg for the little bit of attention they gave her. He
made sure Stephanie
didn’t
see him hiding behind the curtain, and for
that, he was glad.
She
would suffer and so would the rest of her family.

He glanced back to look
at the girl he’d come to cherish. Wayne had first seen her at a
ball. He requested the presence of Jones family to join him. It was
a charity banquet, and Lily had only been nineteen at the time. The
moment she entered the great hall, his heart had stopped. For the
entire evening, he’d tried to approach her, talk to her. Every time
he got close, someone or something got in the way. Eventually he
conceded defeat as he watched her leave with her family. Wayne had
made it his passion to find out more about the quiet, startling
beauty who captured his attention like no other woman.

After so many parties
and events, Wayne got the chance to be near Lily to talk, but every
conversation ended with talks about money. There was no chance to
explore all he wanted to know about her.

Her family’s dire
situation had come to his attention by accident. He’d overheard a
conversation at the bank, and a few discussions with some friends
and business associates. There was a hefty sum of money needed to
buy their debt, and all he had to do was put the wheels in motion
for the Jones’s family.

Two years on and he had
everything he desired at his fingertips: money, power, and the
upper hand. He knew Lily's thoughts about him were less than
appealing from the way she tried to avoid him, and the expressions
on her face gave her away. In fact, she spent most of the time
trying to steer clear of him, after today, no more.

Wayne Brown wanted her,
and he intended to have her.