Guilty Pleasures (The Ladies of The Burling School Book 3) Read online

  Tamara wasn’t fooled. Willow never had been able to hide anything from Tamara. She could sometimes hide her worries from Lana, but Tam was too aware of…everything.

  “What else?” she demanded.

  Willow moved over to the couch so that Buddy could sit with her. Immediately, the little guy climbed onto her lap. He’d gained weight and had gotten all of his shots now. He was happy and healthy and loved chasing balls.

  “I rescued a puppy and adopted him.”

  “You mentioned that in your e-mail last week. You even sent us pictures. He’s adorable. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

  Willow laughed, leaning back against the cushions. Buddy climbed onto her chest, licking her chin enthusiastically. “I’m just…”

  Tamara gasped. “You met someone!”

  Willow sat up so quickly she almost knocked Buddy onto the floor. “What?” She hadn’t told either Lana or Tamara about Cooper. He was her secret. If she said anything, then…well, they might get the wrong impression.

  “Who is he and what does he do? I’ll have my security team do a background check on him.”

  Willow groaned, curling her arm around Buddy to try and keep him from licking her anymore. “You don’t need to do a background check. I’m just…It’s just an affair.”

  Tamara snorted. “You don’t do affairs.”

  Willow’s eyes closed. “I don’t do love either.”

  Tamara laughed. “You’ve always hoped for love in the past, even if you won’t admit it. But…” her tone softened, “this guy is special, isn’t he?”

  Willow winced. “Yes,” she finally admitted.

  “I’m coming to see you,” Tamara announced.

  “No! Really, I’m fine!” she asserted with as much firmness as she could muster.

  “You’re not fine. I’m calling Lana. She needs to know what’s going on.”

  Willow was both warmed and exasperated. “Seriously, Tam, I don’t need help. I just needed to talk with a friend.”

  Tamara hesitated. “Are you sure? Because I could be there in London in a few hours.”

  Willow smiled softly. “I know,” she replied. “And I promise, if things get worse, I’ll get on the first flight to visit you and you can make all the lemon drop martinis we can stand. We’ll watch cheesy romantic movies and you can tell me what a jerk Cooper is and, by the time I fly back home, I’ll feel one hundred percent better.”

  Tamara laughed because that was pretty similar to what she and Tam had done when Lana was struggling with Christoph, her now-husband who had kind of trapped her into marriage.

  “Okay fine!” Tamara laughed and Willow knew that her friend was shaking her head and still not convinced. “But you have to promise to tell me if things get to that point, okay?”

  “I promise!” she replied.

  “Fine. I’m calling Lana and telling her everything. So be on standby. You know that she’ll call you next.”

  Willow laughed, her heart expanding. She knew that her friends would jump on the first flight and…well, the first flight would most likely be their husbands’ private jets…to help her.

  “Thanks Tam,” she said. “I’d better go. I have to walk Buddy.”

  There was a pause before Tamara yelped, “Wait! Who is Buddy?”

  “My dog. The dog I mentioned in the email?” she said. “Remember? I found him trapped under a woodpile. I’ll send more pictures,” she promised, looking down at the puppy who was watching with his dark, sweet, understanding eyes. He already recognized his name, because his tiny tail started thumping. A moment later, he tried to climb back up so that he could lick her again.

  “Right. Sorry, I was focused on your pain and…yeah, the puppy is very cute. Not a very original name though. Why did you…” Someone must have called out to Tamara because she sighed. “Talk to you later.”

  “Will do!” Willow replied, then hung up the phone and put Buddy on the floor. Buddy danced around, excited at the possibility of playing. “At least one man loves me,” she said even as she tried to avoid Buddy’s eager tongue. She knew where that tongue had been and although she loved her puppy already, she didn’t love the way he licked his butt. Ewww!

  Chapter 14

  Lana leaned back from her canvas and tilted her head. She wasn’t looking at her latest painting, her gaze was thousands of miles away.

  “Something’s wrong,” she whispered.

  Looking around, she located her purse by the door of her loft where she’d dumped it. She pulled out her phone, quickly dialing a number. “Tam?” she greeted, “What’s wrong?”

  Tamara, now Queen Tamara bin Casees of Tular after her marriage to Jurad bin Casees, Sheik of Tular, laughed through the phone. “I’m fine. Why? What’s going on in your corner of the world?”

  Lana looked out the big, curved window of her loft apartment, staring at the bright sunshine that warmed the beautiful city of Athens, Greece. “I don’t know what’s wrong, Tam. I just…I have a feeling that something isn’t right. I can’t put my finger on it but…as long as you’re okay.”

  “Well, I just got off the phone with Willow and, although she tried to convince me that she’s okay, I don’t think that’s true. She’s sad about something, I think it’s the guy she’s seeing.”

  Lana perked up. “Willow is seeing someone?” she asked, shocked. “Since when? And is it serious? Never mind,” she laughed, shaking her head at the question. “Willow doesn’t get serious.”

  “I think this guy is serious.”

  “No way!” Lana gasped. “Who is he?”

  “His name is Cooper Adams and he’s some sort of financial guru.”

  “I know of him. I’ve even met him. Christoph is a business acquaintance with Mr. Adams,” she explained, referring to her husband, Christoph Anastas.

  “Seriously?” Tamara asked. “Well, what do you know about him?”

  “He’s very handsome, in an English sort of way.”

  Tamara laughed at that. “I didn’t know that the English had a special brand of handsome, but go on. What’s he like personally?”

  “Very dark, if I remember correctly. But I know that Christoph approves of him, so he’s a good man. Honest.”

  “That’s good at least,” Tamara replied.

  “Yeah, but…he’s had a difficult life, Tam.”

  “Haven’t we all? Life isn’t easy. It’s always hard.”

  “For some of us. I had a pretty idyllic life until my father got it into his head to send me off to live with strange women who convinced me to pull the most horrible pranks on our dorm-mates.”

  Tamara laughed. “Yes, you and Willow were quite the innocents in those days,” she replied teasingly. “But in my defense, neither of you really fought against helping me once I suggested a prank. In fact, if I remember correctly, it was you and Willow who came up with the most complicated ideas.”

  Lana winced, but a smile formed on her features. “Whatever happened to those three?” she asked, referring to Cassandra Finnegan, Ella Flemming, and Naya Banks. The three of them had lived in the room across the hallway from Lana, Tamara, and Willow for four years and the six of them had gotten into some pretty serious peccadillos. If it hadn’t been for Ms. Dunworthy’s calming influence, they might have gotten into serious trouble.

  “I just read one of Ella’s news articles. She’s a famous investigative reporter now.”

  “Oh right. Didn’t she win an award for her story on the women in Likar last year?”

  “Yeah,” Tamara confirmed. “It was pretty amazing. I had no idea all that stuff was going on. I had Jurad read the article and he cut off funding to that government afterwards.” They went silent as they remembered the story about the abuses done to the women of Likar under the guise of religious fanaticism. It had been cruel and brutal, and would have gone unpunished if not for the brilliant skills of Ella Flemming.

  “I know that Cassy is a lawyer now,” Tamara said, breaking the pause. “She’s pretty good too. I don’t kn
ow about Naya though. She was the prim one of their trio.”

  “But smart. She was in some of my art classes,” Lana mentioned. “She was really good. I hope that she did something with her art. She was very talented. Spooky mind.”

  Tamara laughed. “Isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black?”

  Lana rolled her eyes and turned away from the window. “Right. Back to the original subject. I think I’ll give Willow a call.”

  “I think we should do better than that,” Tamara suggested. “I think we should pay her a visit. She’s in London fixing up her grandmother’s house.”

  “I’ve seen some of her renovations on her website. They look amazing! And I think you’re right. We should visit.” She glanced over at her easel. “But give me two days. Then we’ll fly over and find out what’s really going on with her.”

  “You’re going to figure things out and paint about it, aren’t you?”

  Lana grinned, already taking down one painting and putting up a clean canvas. “Absolutely!” she replied, taking her sketch pad and sitting down in the big, comfy chair that she used when planning out her designs.

  “Okay, include her puppy. She sent us pictures last week. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that she’s in love with this guy, but won’t admit it.”

  Lana’s charcoal pencil danced over her sketch pad. “Interesting,” she murmured and continued drawing.

  Vaguely, Lana heard her friend’s sigh in her ear. “You’re already lost in your drawings so I’m going to hang up on you,” Tamara announced.

  “Uh huh,” Lana said, not really paying any attention. A moment later, there was a beep as Tamara ended the call, but Lana was fully absorbed in her ideas.

  Chapter 15

  Willow felt the cold before she was fully awake. Since she’d gone to sleep with Cooper’s arms around her, warm, secure, and sated, she knew that something wasn’t right. Looking around, she noticed that it wasn’t quite morning. The vague, morning light told her the sun wasn’t even peeking over the horizon yet. Everything was dark. Definitely not time to wake up yet. Not even Cooper woke this early, she thought.

  Sitting up, she looked around, pushing her hair out of her eyes impatiently as she listened. “Buddy?” she whispered, worried when her tiny friend didn’t immediately try to jump onto the bed.

  She heard a soft sound and her heart wrenched, but then nothing. Silence.

  A sound of door opening came next and Willow knew that something was wrong!

  Grabbing Cooper’s shirt off the floor, she padded out of the bedroom, buttoning the shirt as she looked around for some sort of weapon. Too bad she and Cooper had gotten rid of those freaky dolls! She could have held one out in front of her like a satanic weapon! That would have caused any burglar or bad person to run screaming from the house.

  Live and learn, she thought as her eyes skimmed her surroundings. She didn’t see anything out of place. But nor did she see any other weapon. Maybe she could grab something from the kitchen, she told herself and tip toed down the stairs.

  She was just about to grab one of the knives off of the butcher block when she heard Cooper’s voice. He was talking to someone at, she glanced at the clock, four thirty in the morning? Who in the world would need a chat this time of night?

  Peering through the window, she squinted into the darkness. What she saw made her heart melt. Bending down low, Cooper was talking to Buddy. The dog looked confused as he looked around, obviously trying to find a place to relieve himself. But her tiny canine friend was still afraid of the dark. After his time in the weeds and logs, Willow couldn’t blame him, which was why she kept a night light on for him over his doggy bed.

  Something must have warned Cooper that Buddy needed a nighttime excursion and he’d snuck out of bed so that she didn’t wake up.

  But that wasn’t what melted her heart and send it tumbling over from I-think-I’m-in-love to I-love-him-with-all-my-heart. It was the soft, deep voice of Cooper soothing the puppy’s fears. As Willow watched, Cooper stoked Buddy’s ears, murmuring soft words of encouragement. He even patted a small patch of grass, showing the puppy a safe place to relieve himself. Buddy walked over, looked up at Cooper with his big, sad eyes, then did his business. Half a second later, Buddy jumped into Cooper’s arms, snuggling up to the big man’s bare chest.

  “Good boy,” Cooper soothed, petting him as he walked back inside.

  Not wanting to be caught with tears in her eyes, Willow hurried out of the kitchen and raced up the stairs. She dove under the covers, sighing with happiness before pretending to go back to sleep. A moment later, Cooper walked into the bedroom, placed Buddy back in his puppy bed, then moved over to the bed. He quietly slipped under the covers and slid his arm around her waist, pulling her back against his warm chest.

  “Hmm…since you’re already awake,” he mumbled, his hands slipping under the shirt that she’d forgotten to take off.

  Willow rolled over, wrapping her arms around his neck. “How did you know I was awake?” she asked, pressing a kiss to the middle of his chest. She put a hand on his shoulder, pressing him onto his back.

  “Because your feet are freezing,” he told her, pushing the shirt up and over her head, dumping it onto the floor beside the bed. His eyes moved over her figure, his hands following as he cupped her breasts.

  “Ah, not very stealthy of me.”

  “Buddy started to whine,” he explained, lifting up as he covered one of her nipples with his hot mouth. His hands moved lower, cupping her bottom and pulling her to a better position over his growing erection. “He’s fine now.”

  “Yes. Fine!” she gasped when his tongue lashed at her nipple before he moved to the other. Willow couldn’t stop her hands from exploring his arms and shoulders, down his back…anywhere she could feel his warm skin. She loved him, she thought. All of those silly mental protestations that this was just an affair were ridiculous. Who wouldn’t fall in love with a man as amazing as Cooper?

  With that, she pressed him back against the mattress, her red hair falling around them like a curtain as she kissed him, silently telling him her newly understood feelings. When they were both groaning, she pulled her mouth away and started kissing his neck, his shoulders, tasting the skin there before moving lower. She gave equal attention to his nipples until she heard him hiss, and only then did she move lower. His abdomen fascinated her and she let her fingers trail over each of the ridges, kissing and tasting, even nipping occasionally. She found another spot where he was slightly ticklish, before moving lower still.

  For a long moment, she let her warm breath tease his erection. Looking up at him, she found he was watching her and Willow realized that he was holding his breath. With a smile, one that she had no idea fired up his blood, she lowered her mouth a millimeter at a time. When her mouth finally closed over his erection, she heard him mutter something under his breath and glanced back up at him. For a moment, his head pressed against the pillow, but when her mouth started moving, he lifted his head, watching her in the dim light.

  Cooper bit back a curse at how good her mouth felt. Willow didn’t have a whole lot of experience doing this, but what she lacked in experience, she more than made up for in enthusiasm. In no time at all, her efforts had him so close to the edge that he could barely stop himself. It was only by sheer force of willpower that he stopped her, lifting her up and bringing her body up his own. “Here,” he snapped, handing her the condom. “Put this on me!”

  She smiled, fumbling with the condom wrapper. He almost roared when her soft fingers rolled it down his hard, aching shaft. In fact, it felt so good, he had to finish the process himself. After that, he lifted her hips and poised her over the tip of his erection, looking up into her eyes as he lowered her down, filling her up.

  Willow leaned forward, bracing her hands against his chest and he loved those hands. He loved them wrapped around his shaft or on his shoulders or anywhere on his body. He didn’t care where she touched him, he just wanted her hands on his
bare skin like this forever.

  And her hair! Damn, he loved the way her hair danced with every movement of her soft, round hips against his erection. She found a movement that she liked and he watched her breasts and hair sway, the combined visual stimulation making his control a perilous thing. He supposed it was a good thing that the lights weren’t on. Otherwise, this would all be over far too quickly.

  Then again, feeling her muscles clenching around him with each thrust, his mind pictured everything vividly. He didn’t really need the lights because he’d remembered what she looked like from only hours ago. And it was hot! She was sexy as hell and he…his control was slipping and she wasn’t there yet.

  Smoothing his hands down her stomach, he pressed his thumb against her nub. “No!” she gasped and tried to pull his hand away but he only laughed and grabbed her wrist. “Yes,” he urged. As he showed her what he was doing, she actually held his wrist there, pressing his fingers against that nub and showing him what gave her the most pleasure. It took her only a few minutes before she was gasping and… he felt her body tighten and pinched her nipple ever so slightly. That was all it took to send her over the edge. Thankfully, he was able to hold out until she was nearly done and then he let his own control go, allowing himself thrust into her again and again as pleasure ripped through him in almost continuous waves.

  When it was all over, Willow collapsed over him, draping her body across his chest and he wrapped his arms around her, cradling her gently as they both worked to get their breathing back under control. He pulled the comforter over them and rolled her to his side. With a gentle kiss, he moved out of her, stepping into the bathroom to clean up before climbing back into bed. For the second time in less than an hour, he slipped under the covers and pulled Willow into his arms.