Under His Skin (For His Pleasure, Book 20)

 
 
 
Under His Skin (For His Pleasure, Book 20)

By Kelly Favor

© 2014 All Rights Reserved

Easton was standing in his hotel room,
watching Kennedy with a look of disbelief on his face as she told him all of her
secrets.

In this room, just hours ago, Easton had
made love to her for the first time—had taken her virginity.
 
And now, in this very same room, their
relationship was coming to a quick and painful end.

Kennedy was vaguely aware of this
depressing fact as she told Easton everything he would want to know about her
recent activities.
 

She left nothing out.

Easton listened closely to what Kennedy
told him, hardly asking a question as she came clean about everything she’d
been doing for the past couple of days.
 
She told him about how she’d figured out that Sheri was married to
Easton’s brother Dean, and then had been able to trace Dean’s financial
problems through her online detective work.
 

Kennedy explained how she’d learned that
Dean owed a lot of money to creditors.

She told Easton about driving out to
Dean’s bar and seeing him beaten up by a frightening beast of a man—A man
who practically climbed inside her car when he saw her taking pictures of the
event.

“Here, let me show you,” Kennedy said,
walking to where Easton stood in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist,
having just gotten out of the shower.
 
He was dripping water, his hair still plastered to his head.

The water beaded, slid down his head and
onto his muscular shoulders, then down his arms and spattered the floor where
he stood.

Kennedy showed him her phone with the
pictures on it and Easton took it from her hand. He slowly scrolled through the
ones that showed the guys from the delivery truck taking stuff from his
brother’s bar, and then even more slowly as he got to the pictures of the man
who was apparently known as Jimmy “The Muscle” DeLuca.

Finally, Easton gave the phone back to
her.
 
“That does look like Jimmy
DeLuca,” was all he said.

“You know him?”
 
Kennedy asked, fighting hard not to let
her emotions overcome her, trying to have a calm and detached conversation when
really what she wanted was for Easton to tell her that everything was okay and
he didn’t hate her.
 

“He’s infamous around these parts,”
Easton said.
 
He slowly met
Kennedy’s panicked gaze.
 
“So it
looks like you’ve dug up some major dirt on my brother.
 
Who do you plan on selling it to?
 
The Enquirer?
 
The Globe?”

Tears came unbidden to her eyes as his
words landed with brutal effect.
 
“I’m not going to sell this,” she said.
 
“I’m not going to tell anybody.
 
And I didn’t sell any other story to The
Globe, either, Easton.”

Easton practically rolled his eyes at
her.
 
“Sure you didn’t, Kennedy.”

“I never did.
 
But I know the person who leaked the
story about me being Nicole’s sister, and I’m furious with him.”

“Him?”
 
Easton said.
 
His eyes bore into her.
 
“Who is he?”

Kennedy pictured Blake as he’d appeared
in her apartment last, confessing his true love for her, seeming to be erratic
and out of touch with reality.
 
Then
she recalled the letter he’d left under her door, and how he’d clearly thought
he knew how to protect her better than she could protect herself.
 

It had to be Blake who’d leaked her story
to the tabloids—there was simply no other person that had the knowledge
and the motive.

“You have to promise that you won’t do
anything to him,” Kennedy said.
 
“He’s just a fool.”

Easton’s face was turning red.
 
“Who is this guy you keep talking about,
Kennedy?”

“He’s my neighbor.
 
You’ve met him once, briefly,” she said
softly.

“Wait, was that the guy I saw you with outside
your apartment the other day?
 
What
was his name, the mousy little fucker?”

“His name’s Blake,” Kennedy said.
 

Easton stared at her.
 
“You told
that guy
about everything?”

She looked down at the floor.
 
“Yeah.”

“Everything, Kennedy?”
 

She licked her lips.
 
“I—I thought I could trust
him—“

“Not about us, though.
 
You
didn’t
tell him about me and you, Kennedy.”

She didn’t speak for a long moment.
 
“I told him about us,” she
admitted.
 
“Not the specifics…”

Easton turned and walked away from her
and went into the bathroom.
 
His
back muscles flexed as he stomped away from her and then the door slammed shut
so hard that it rattled the pictures hanging on the wall, and Kennedy’s entire
body was left shaking in his wake.

 
Kennedy got fully dressed, feeling strange now wearing the same outfit
that had seemed sexy not so long ago.
 
Now her tawdry getup seemed pathetic and useless.

Easton hated her, despised her, and thought
she was less than nothing.
 
He
believed she was a drama queen that sold her stories to the highest bidder, not
caring about the damage those stories would do to anyone else.

In reality, nothing could have been
further from the truth, but Kennedy knew there was no way to prove that to
Easton.

Blake,
why did you stab me in the back? Why did I have to be so dumb as to trust you
with the details of my life?

Kennedy dried her tears as she slowly
looked around the room, taking everything in for the last time.

She wanted to remember this night she’d
shared with Easton, the way he’d touched her, looked in her eyes, and even made
love to her.
 
It had been everything
she’d imagined, and in the end, she wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

But now it was over and she’d lost
Easton’s trust due to her own mistakes and also the bitter jealousy of Blake,
who’d tried to wreak havoc on her life in order to satisfy some delusional
belief he had about her.

Whoever was to blame, the fact remained
that it was over between her and Easton.
 
All that was left now was to accept it as gracefully as possible and
leave.

She left the bedroom and walked into the
large living area, making her way towards the exit.
 
But just as she was turning the handle
on the hotel room door, she heard the bathroom door opening.

“Kennedy?” Easton’s voice called out.

She stopped, his voice still able to
command her at will.
 
“I’m out
here,” she called back to him.

Easton walked out of the bedroom and saw
her.
 
He was wearing jeans and a white
tank top that showed off his huge biceps and chest muscles.
 
“You’re leaving?” he said.

“You clearly don’t want me around.”
 
Her voice trailed off and she shrugged,
feeling dismal.

Easton stared at her.
 
His eyes watched her closely, studying
her.
 
“I never told you to go
anywhere,” he said gruffly.
 
“What
makes you think you can just leave without so much as a word?”

“I…I didn’t—you went in the
bathroom, you seemed incredibly angry.”

“I am angry.
 
So what?”

“So, I thought this was what you wanted.”

Easton shook his head.
 
“Maybe next time you should ask me what
I want instead of assuming things.”

Kennedy nodded.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
I should’ve asked what you wanted me to
do.”

Easton’s body was tense and his eyes were
wary.
 
“You’ve really made a mess of
everything, Kennedy.”

 
“I know.
 
I’m not sure what I can do to make up
for it.
 
That’s why I should
probably just go.
 
You can’t even
stand to look at me.”

“The truth is, I can’t trust you enough
to let you out of my sight,” Easton replied.
 
He shook his head in disgust.
 
“So you can’t leave.”

Kennedy couldn’t help but feel relieved
in some bizarre way that Easton didn’t want her to go.
 
Even though his reason for wanting to
keep her nearby was because he couldn’t trust her, she was still grateful that
she would have more time with him.

Any time spent with Easton was like gold
to her.

His response was such a relief to her
that she almost broke down in tears, sobbing.
 
Somehow she held it together, but it was
difficult not to show her emotions.

“I’ll do whatever you want me to,” she
told him.

“Obviously that’s not true,” Easton
said.
 
“You knew I didn’t want you getting
involved with my sister-in-law or knowing her reasons for contacting me, which
is why I never told you her name or what her relationship was to me.
 
And yet you still insisted on snooping
around, digging and digging until you found what you wanted to find.”

“I had a feeling that she was in trouble,
and I thought that might affect you.
 
I wanted to help,” Kennedy said, trying to explain.
 
But as the words left her lips, she
realized she’d made a mistake.

“Spare me your help,” Easton said, his
expression one of contempt.
 
“You’ve
practically ruined my career and now you’re working on screwing up the rest of
my life. Perhaps we could all use a little less generosity from you,
Kennedy.
 
Stop spreading the wealth,
because everything you touch turns to shit.”

The way he was staring at her with such
hatred was almost too much.
 
But she
knew she deserved his wrath.
 
So she
kept her pain and sadness inside, although her body was shaking.

“I appreciate your patience,” she said,
“considering what a terrible burden I’ve been for you to bear.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not trying to patronize you, I
swear.”

He pointed at her.
 
“I can’t stand listening to you whine,
and I can’t trust you to be out of my sight for even a second.
 
So now you’ve forced me to take drastic
action.” Easton reached out and grabbed her arm, his hand wrapping around her
bicep.
 
“Come with me.”

He led her over to the large mahogany
desk and slid the chair away from it.
 
“Sit down,” he commanded.

She sat down immediately, staring
straight ahead, knowing that a wrong comment or even movement at this point
could make him snap and throw her out of his life for good.
 

“You’re going sit here and not make a
damn sound.”

She nodded her head that she understood.

Easton glared at her for a long
time.
 
“Actually, I’m going to make
sure of that.
 
I’m going to make
sure that you don’t move from this spot and ensure you keep your mouth shut,
Kennedy.
 
Because I sure as hell
can’t trust you to restrain yourself.”
 

He walked into the bedroom and then all Kennedy
could hear was rustling noises, like he was searching for something in there.

Easton came back out of the bedroom and
he was carrying something, but Kennedy kept her head straight, eyes staring at
the wall in front of her.
 
She only
caught a blurred glimpse of him from her peripheral vision, and so she was
completely at a loss about what he was planning to do next.
 

She didn’t want to risk making him even
angrier, so she didn’t dare move a muscle.

“This will make sure you shut that big
mouth of yours,” he said, his voice husky.
 
And then he was shoving a rubber ball in her mouth, and tying it around
the back of her head.
 
It had a
large leather strap that pressed against her cheeks and kept the ball locked in
place.

She inhaled through her nostrils, feeling
vaguely panicked, as if her oxygen was being cut off, even though she could
breathe just fine.

“Now put your hands behind your back,”
Easton said darkly.

Kennedy did as she was told, and then she
felt cold, hard manacles being clamped over her wrists.