Beautifully Forgotten by L.A. Fiore Page A

Don’t come to me when you see how much you lost out on.”
    “Believe me, I won’t.”
    Dane closed the door at her back and leaned up against it.
    “What was that all about?” Lena asked.
    “You don’t want to know, trust me.”

    Trace watched Ember talking with her father and uncle.
    They were having their monthly dinner party, an event that Trace found he actually enjoyed. His focus moved to the older men’s faces and knew it wasn’t going to be long before both of them made their way over to him. Hugging was something he still hadn’t gotten accustomed to, but Ember and her family did it often.
    She laughed and brushed a rogue lock of hair from her face, her wedding rings sparkling on her finger. Possession filled him and he started over to her just as his cell phone buzzed with an incoming call. He was about to let it go to voice mail, determined to pull his wife into his office for a few minutes of privacy, but something made him reach for it.
    “Trace,” he said.
    “We need to talk.”
    Anger surged in him even as apprehension filled him. It was Heidi, and this was the fourth time she’d called him this week.
    He moved down the hall to his office and shut the door behind him. “I told you to stop calling me.”
    “I need money.”
    Trace’s heart stopped as a moment of guilt twisted his gut. He hardened his tone. “Not my problem.”
    “It will be if you don’t help me.”
    “How exactly?”
    “How’s Ember?”
    Rage burned through him, but his voice was controlled when he said, “You are playing a very dangerous game, Heidi. Stay the fuck out of my life and away from my wife.”
    “You’ve never told her about us. Why?” Her voice turned pouty before she said, “I think there’s a part of you that misses me.”
    “Don’t flatter yourself.”
    “I need money and you’ll give it to me or I’ll tell her everything.”
    “You tell my wife anything and I’ll make sure they never find the body. You hear me?”
    She was silent for a moment, but when Heidi finally spoke up her voice was less sure. “Two thousand by next Friday.”
    She hung up, but she knew damn well that he’d pay it. He had deluded himself into believing that his past was finally in the past. Since he’d married Ember, everything seemed to have settled. But Heidi was never going to go away and so once again his past was staring him in the fucking face.
    He took a few minutes to calm down. Hearing a light knock on the door, he tried to school his expression just as Ember appeared.
    “Hey, are you okay?”
    “Yeah, sorry, a business thing.”
    She studied him a moment before she asked, “You sure everything is okay?”
    “Everything’s fine.” And then to change the subject, he said, “You look beautiful tonight.”
    He touched her hair, needed to feel those silky strands beneath his fingers. Even after everything they’d been through, she blushed over a compliment.
    “Thank you.”
    She smiled and pressed her mouth to his. His arms tightened around her just as she said, “Our guests are going to start talking.”
    “Let them fucking talk,” he said as he pulled her in for another kiss. He was tempted to push her up against the wall and sink himself into her, but the thought of her father and uncle in the other room dampened his ardor. She knew where his thoughts were, and not just because he was as hard as a pike.
    “I’m feeling the need for a back washing later,” she whispered.
    “Oh hell yeah.” He kissed her hard and then put some distance between them before he threw caution to the wind.
    He started for the door. “A back washing, a front washing . . .” He looked back at her, only to see her blushing.
    “Don’t do that, sweetheart, or we aren’t leaving this room.”
    “How do you do that?”
    “What?” he asked.
    “Turn it on so fast.”
    “It’s not fast, Ember, I want you twenty-four seven.”
    “Now I need to splash my face with cold water.”
    “You do that and I’ll go stick