Page 20 of Dancing With Lies

The night carried on. The party got louder, even as people spread out over the yacht that he’d bought because it was so like the one his stepfather owned and Lincoln had loved. People started to get wilder and soon enough there was more noise than just the laughter and shouts of gleeful partygoers. There was the sound of passion from behind closed doors, and some not so private places hidden in the darkness around the boat.

Lincoln smiled as he saw Emily James pull her husband into a closet with a sensual grin Lincoln was sure he was never meant to see. He also saw Dylan James drop to his knees in front of her before the door closed. A beautiful couple that he might want to watch, but he wasn’t up for that tonight.

In truth, he’d lived a fairly vanilla life, although he’d explored sex with women along the way. One-night stands were not relationships though and meant he rarely got the chance to do anything more than the typical version of sex to be found in any American bedroom. He’d wanted to explore some of the bolder versions of sex, to delve into a different lifestyle, but that would mean a relationship with a partner and he wasn’t the relationship kind.

He could watch others though, when they allowed it. Kai had introduced him to a few clubs in New York and China, places where just about anything went and people were open, even eager, to be watched. Kai grew up in a different culture from the one Lincoln grew up in. His approach to sex was different from Lincoln’s. Sex was about enjoying the path to reaching orgasm, not the race to get to that orgasm.

Lincoln had taken that on board early in life and, yeah, his sex life was fairly tame when it existed, but he knew if he ever found anyone worth having a relationship with, he’d explore more options. He wondered for the first time how much of the world Chloe had explored. Did her line of work mean she had a lot of sex, that she was paid for sex? He knew that one didn’t always lead to the other, but had it with her?

She’d run away from him and been on her own since she was 18. She’d been a naïve young girl, unprotected, in a city where anything could and did happen. And how had she ended up in Myrtle Beach? He and Kai had been down there a thousand times to visit Kai’s house on the beach and enjoy the sand and surf, but he’d never run into her. How was that possible?

He knew anything was possible, especially if you made it your life’s work to hide from your old life. She’d done a good job and it was only by chance that he’d found her. If he hadn’t been invited to the Thompson’s gala, he might still be looking for her.

He settled against a teak rail and stared out at the water, lit only by moonlight. Silvery white light danced on the surface of the water, drawing his attention as the party turned subtle orgy began to wind down. It was after 3 am, he was near her room, and he was hoping she’d come out now, if she hadn’t fallen asleep already.

He turned when he heard quiet footsteps approach one of the tables strewn across the deck. It was the only one that still had a lit candle in a glass bowl. A woman with her hair down around her shoulders, dressed in tight black pants, a white cropped sweatshirt, and black stiletto ankle boots sat down at the table. He watched as she bent over the candle and blew it out. What was that about?

The candle wouldn’t roll off the table, so there was no danger of fire.

“Chloe?” He called out as he approached her and he saw her body jerk. How long had it been since she’d been called that name? It didn’t please her to be called that, he could see.

“Chloe is dead, Lincoln. Don’t call me that. Don’t ever call me that. She’s been dead for a long time.” She answered as she brushed her hair back from her face, clean of makeup now and so much more like the face he remembered.

She’d admitted who she was at least, he’d take that for now. “Can I sit down?”

“Please do.” She held her hand out to one of the empty chairs around the table and he took the one across from her. “How are you?”

“I’m good, how are you?” It wasn’t the speech he’d rehearsed in his head for a decade, but it was something, at least.

“Good. Did you know it was me when you hired me?” She didn’t beat around the bush, but then, she never had.

“I wasn’t totally sure, no,” he finally admitted.

He watched her, noted how she chewed over the information, and saw how her eyes narrowed. She had some kind of plan then.

She might not be Chloe anymore, but he knew she was in there somewhere. He just had to bring her back. If he could break through this hardened façade she’d built around herself. She’d obviously come up with some kind of plan and that’s why she was out here talking to him now.

“Listen, I need a favor.” She wrung her hands and leaned back in her chair before she came back towards him to put her elbows on the table. She was anxious about something and when she pulled her lip in between her teeth and went quiet he knew she was really stressing about it.

“If you’re about to ask me to keep this a secret, well, I can only do so much. People have been looking for you, you know?” He held his hands out in a ‘what can I do?’ fashion and shrugged.

“People, huh? Yeah, I know who those people are, and I don’t want anything to do with them. My life is fine, just the way it is.” Her New York accent, blunted by years in the south, came back in an instant.

“I know what you mean.” His life was fine the way it was, especially now that he’d found her. He didn’t want his life to change, not really, even if he was lonely. He wanted kids but he’d adopt if he had to one day. A wife wasn’t necessary at all, not to raise children.

“Right. I do want you to keep my secret, but that’s not all.” She paused, took a deep breath, and finally brought those soul-capturing blue eyes up to his. “I want you to loan me some money.”

“How much?” It was an automatic question, but he wasn’t expecting the answer.

“It’s a huge amount. 150 grand. But I don’t just want a loan, I have a watch, my mother’s Chopard watch. I’ll give it to you to hold until I can pay the money back.” She reached for her phone while his eyebrows reached for his hairline.

What did she need with 150 grand?

“This is it.” She handed him her phone and he saw the watch he’d caught a brief glimpse of the night her parents died. He remembered it well because of the unbelievable number of diamonds the impractical piece was covered with.

“Nobody will want it with a dead woman’s name engraved on it.” He replied without thinking. “Sorry.”

“No, you’re just being honest. I could pawn it back home, but that leaves a paper trail, questions might get raised, and I wouldn’t get what it’s worth.” Roxie sighed, as if she’d spent a whole lot of time finding out exactly what would happen before she even came to New York. He had a feeling that’s exactly what she’d done.