Page 83 of Sweet Possession
Anger flashed in his copper orbs, his lips pursing.“I don’t tend toregret things in my life because they’ve led me to where I am now. But I doregretevergetting involved with Lily. I should have listened to Nash when he warned me off. Don’t tell him I saidthatthough,”he said, winking and pulling a smile from me. He sighed heavily.“Cora, if there was a way to erase Lily from my past, I’d do it in a heartbeat. In fact, I’d erase every single woman I’ve been with right up to the day I met you. But I can’t. All I can do now is reassure youthatLily doesn’t mean anything to me. There’s only one woman I want for the rest of my life. The woman I love. The woman who is standing right here in my arms, where she belongs.”
Chapter 23
Fox
Cora and I talked for a little while longer after she’d told me whatAnnaliese had said to her. Thankfully, we moved into the bedroom, the two of us getting comfy on the bed while we spoke.
I knew it was going to take more than one night to rebuild herconfidence, what Annaliese had said to her had rocked her to her core, but I was determined to do everything in my power to help rid Cora’s demons.
Talking turned to kissing, kissing turned to the two of us stripping ourclothes off, and as I thrust slowly inside her, I whispered in her ear how much I loved her. How happy she made me. How I would do anything for her. She cried when we came together.
When the sun’s rays were beginning to rise, she finally fell asleep inmy arms.
I was too riled up to sleep though. Everything Annaliese had saidchurned over in my head, and the more I thought about it, the moreconvinced I wasthatLily was behind it. She’d put Annaliese up to sneaking into the party and confronting Cora.
I needed evidence though. Sure, I had the camera footage of Coraentering the bathroom, and Annaliese following a few seconds later. The two of them were in the bathroom for a few minutes before Annaliese walked out with a grin on her face like a cat who had caught a canary. Shortly after, Cora followed, looking like her world hadjustbeen flipped upside down.
Butthatwasn’t enough. Especially as Annaliese had denied Lily’sinvolvement, claimingthatshe acted on her own. I was going to be speaking to Lily about it regardless, but without any fucking proofthatshe’d breached her contract in some way, I’d be hard pushed to fire her without a lawsuit biting me on the ass.
Not disturbing Cora, I crept out of bed and cleared the glass up. I’dsmashed the vase of roses in a fit of rage when Nash sent me the security footage after I’d told him something had happened. The entire time, my mind went through what I was going to do about Lily.
But until I had spoken to her and gotten a feel for whether she knewwhat Annaliese had been up to, or if she had been kept in the dark, I couldn’t put any plans in motion.
There was no time like the present, and the sooner I dealt with thissituation, the better it would be for Cora.
Once I’d showered in the other bathroom and dressed, I dialedNash’s number.
“What the fuck, Fox? It’s noteven8 am,”he grumbled, his voice thickwith sleep.
“Need a favor,”I replied, not giving a shitthatI’d woken him.
“What?” he huffed.
“I need to head out to deal with Lily. Can you or Sav come to our suiteso Cora’s not alonewhen she wakes up?”
“Yeah, of course,”Nash replied, suddenly wide awake.“Give us fiveminutes.”
“How’s she doing?”Sav asked, taking the phone from Nash. The twoof them knewthatAnnaliese had followed Cora into the toilet and agreed with methatsomething must have happened in the bathroom.
Poor Sav was beside herself with worry, blaming herself for lettingCora go to the toilet on her own. I’d tried to reassure her, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of methatwas annoyed she hadn’t gone with Cora. All of this could have been avoided if Sav had stayed with her.
Thatwasn’t fair though, the only person to blame was Annaliese.
And maybe Lily.
“She’s okay, we talked earlier and straightened things out. I’ll fill youin later, right now, I need to deal with Lily.”
“Of course, we’ll get dressed and come over,”Sav replied eagerly.
Less than ten minutes later, I was in my car heading to Lily’sapartment after making Nash and Sav promise methatthey wouldn’t leave Cora alone, and would take her home once she woke up.
The closer I got to Lily’s place, the more my blood boiled. It didn’tmatter whether she’d put Annaliese up to cornering Cora or not, the fact remained the same. Annaliese had confronted Cora because Lily couldn’t get over us not being a thing anymore.
Tough shit. She needed to get over it, and quickly. I wouldn’t stand forher jealousy upsetting Cora a second time.
Lily’s apartment was a twenty-minute drive from the heart of Vegas.I’d only been there a couple of times, preferring Lily to come to mine whenever we’d fucked.
Once I’d parked up next to Lily’s car, I made my way to the communalentry and pressed the buzzer for apartment six. When there was noanswer after a few seconds, I pressed it again, this time holding it down for longer.
