Waylen’s bodyguards all point their guns at Andrew, but Andrew is a powerful man with guards of his own. Two groups of people face-off, pointing guns at each other.
“Leilani? Who is she?” Andrew asks, casting an intriguing glance at Leilani.
Leilani gives him a look that seems to say cut the crap and get me out of here already. Andrew approaches one of his bodyguards slowly and takes the man’s gun. With a swift motion, he presses it into Leilani’s lower back.
“Sorry, Waylen. Lion Queen here says she doesn’t know you,” Andrew laughs, “So I have to take her with me.”
The gun makes a quiet click as Andrew releases the safety.
“Waylen, tell your boys to back up ten meters,” Andrew orders.
“Sir—” Robert objects.
The butler is infuriated by Andrew’s arrogance and he wants to charge and attack him immediately.
Waylen stops him, “Do as he says.”
Andrew doesn’t stand a chance in a gunfight: his men are outnumbered. Waylen is concerned that he has Leilani and won’t risk hurting her.
Andrew laughs smugly, “Thanks for your cooperation, Mr. Bamford.”
Then he holds Leilani by her shoulder, keeping the gun pressed firmly to her back as he passes Waylen and his bodyguards. Leilani suddenly stops a few meters from Waylen and glances at him.
“My dear husband, I’ve already given you the room key,” she says flirtatiously, “Don’t let my kind gesture go to waste. It just so happens that you have a beauty on your arm and I have a good-looking man by my side. I hope we all have fun.”
“Leilani Bamford!”
Waylen’s roar echoes through the empty nightclub. The power of the scream contains all the pain from his broken heart.
Leilani knows she has just challenged Waylen’s superiority. He’s lost a lot of dignity seeing his wife purchased and taken hostage by another man, but he didn’t consider her self-esteem back in the private room. She’s sick of his overbearingness and wants to take him down a notch and diminish his power over her. She needs him to understand that he can’t do anything about the divorce even if he has tons of men on his payroll, even if he uses women like Lisa to make her jealous.
“So you guys go way back?” Andrew asks with a half-smile, “Leilani Bamford? You’re his wife?”
“Put down the gun,” Leilani snaps.
With a swift motion, she reaches backward with her right hand and snatches the gun from Andrew. Andrew’s men look on in amazement. They can’t believe Leilani just took Andrew’s gun away. She’s the second person to ever take a weapon from their boss. By the time they stop at Andrew’s presidential suite, Leilani is done dealing with him.
“Look, you’ve paid me back what you owed me,” she says matter-of-factly, “Now I want you to remember that we don’t know each other.”
Leilani’s hair is still messy from the battle with the lion, but her large eyes shine like mirrors or diamonds under the light. Andrew lowers his head and the mole flashes making him look like a thoroughly flirtatious and dissipated man.
“What if I don’t let you go?” he asks.
Leilani places the gun against Andrew’s chest, alarming his bodyguards. They all point their guns at Leilani. Andrew frowns as the gun nudges the wound by his heart. In spite of the pain, he casually puts his hands in his pockets, completely immune to the threat on his life.
“I think I’ve paid more than what I owe you,” he says as his eyes gleam, “So how do you plan to pay me back?”
…
“Sir, they entered the room together,” Robert reports.
Robert knows he’s walking on thin ice just by saying this and his voice betrays his lack of confidence. He never would have expected Leilani to willingly and blatantly go to another man’s hotel room—not after Waylen agreed to the divorce.
Waylen feels fresh pain tears at his heart. In a rage of pain, he kicks Robert in the shin. The man falls over and lance kicks him again in the face. He gets up despite the pain and walks to Waylen’s side again, a trickle of blood flows from his mouth.
Waylen has snapped. It’s one thing if Leilani can’t love him back, but he refuses to allow her to become another man’s woman. The thought that Leilani might already be on Andrew’s bed letting him caress her makes him half insane.
He gathers his bodyguards and rushes to Andrew’s presidential suite. Waylen’s men quickly overpower the bodyguards Andrew has stationed outside the door. He kicks the door open and enters the room with his gun drawn.
The Swarovski diamond light leaves no corner in the room unseen. Andrew reclines on the couch in a bathrobe. He hasn’t tied it tightly, revealing his vigorous chest muscles and the gauze over his wound. His legs are crossed and he drops magazine over his lap. He smiles calmly at Waylen.
“Mr. Bamford, are you interested in my girl?” he asks with amus.e.m.e.nt.
“Your girl my ass,” Waylen tosses his gun to Robert and strides over to Andrew, “She’s Mrs. Bamford, my wife.”
“Wow, she neglected to tell me that,” Andrew smirks.
Andrew’s casual answer brings ice to Waylen’s eyes.
“Mr. Clifford, show some respect. Don’t forget that we’ve subdued your guys,” Robert warns.
Andrew isn’t armed and toying with Waylen when he’s in one of his icy moods could prove fatal for the other man. Suddenly footsteps come from outside the door and dozens of Andrew’s bodyguards rush in to surround Waylen and his men. Robert presses the gun to Andrew’s temple. Andrew snaps his fingers and his men retreat outside.
“Where is Mrs. Bamford?” Waylen asks.
“Where do you think a woman would be before she seeks pleasure with a man?” Andrew says provokingly.
Though Robert has his gun against Andrew’s temple, the man picks up the magazine and begins browsing through it as if nothing unusual has happened.
Waylen strides over to the bathroom and kicks the door open.
A woman screams from within the bathroom. Waylen’s bodyguards all turn around in silent agreement. They know it’s best not to watch what happens next. The bathroom is filled with hot steam And water pours down from the ceiling like rain. Everything glows in the soft, warm light of the room.
A n.a.k.e.d woman holds her arms across her chest to cover her b.r.e.a.s.ts though her back is to the door. Slowly she sinks to the floor and curls up in a corner of the tub in shock and embarrassment.
Waylen walks in stomping across the floor with all the fury of an avenging angel. His gorgeous face is cast into profound shadows under the light. The woman has her back to Waylen and water brushes trickle down her hair and the pristine lines of her back. Waylen is furious.
“Is Leilani so eager to clean herself up for a night with Andrew?” he thinks, “Why is she so nice to this man but so cruel to me?”
Waylen stomps on the floor so hard he almost shatters the tiles. He grabs her shoulder and exerts a tremendous force to turn her around and push her up against the shower wall.
The woman screams and the warm water drenches Waylen. He wipes the water from his eyes and sees a woman he doesn’t recognize holding her chest and screaming in terror.
“Mr. Bamford,” her voice is innocent and anxious, like that of a young girl.
“Where is Leilani?” Waylen asks, glaring at her with a mixture of rage and relief.
The woman is half-frozen with fear but she manages to shake her head.
“I don’t know,” she stammers.
Waylen frowns viciously. He seems to recognize her face from somewhere, but he can’t figure out where. He pushes her away and she slowly sinks to a seated position. Waylen glances quickly around the bathroom and determines that there’s no hiding place.
“Sir, we’ve finished searching the room,” Robert says, “There is no sign of Mrs. Bamford.”
Robert grabs a plush, white towel and hands it over to Waylen to dry his hair with. Waylen stalks out of the room with a foul expression on his face.
“Go to the staff dormitory and look for her there,” he commands.
The storm is getting worse and worse. It’s impossible to leave Pleasure city under such conditions so Waylen knows Leilani can’t have gotten far.
“Mr. Bamford, take care,” Andrew says lightly but threateningly.
Waylen can’t help but frown upon hearing the other man’s voice. He feels like Andrew has taken and dirtied something that belongs to him.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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