Promises After Dark

Book 0: After Dark

by Sadie Matthews

Genres: Women's Fiction; Romance; Erotic & Steamy Romance

Synopsis

Intensity, sensuality, and seduction awaits in the final part of the provocative romantic After Dark trilogy that has left readers longing for more. Can a fractured love be salvaged? Parting with Dominic has left me broken in a way I could never have imagined. We held elation in the palm of our hands, but one misunderstanding brought it crashing down around us. Now the hurt and sadness follows me like a shadow and makes choosing the right path to take impossible. But one moment with him and the pulsing heat is singing in my blood again; his touch lights a fire that my body refuses to ever forget. I'm hopelessly lost in him. Finding our way back to one another will take trust and a leap of faith - only then we will know whether we have a chance at forever. If you were consumed by the first two books in the series, Promises After Dark will not disappoint... This is a pleasure we should all indulge in.

Release date: February 28, 2013

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Print pages: 368

Sample

Chapter Eight

Dominic sends me home that night in a chauffeur-driven car. The driver drops me back at our flat some time after 11 p.m. I’m utterly exhausted after everything that’s happened this week and I’m looking forward to a lazy weekend. Luckily, Laura is in exactly the same frame of mind, and we spend a fun couple of days in the cosy flat, making our plans for the trip to New York at the end of next week. We find a decent midtown hotel and start searching for good bars and places to eat.

‘We can do all our Christmas shopping as well!’ announces Laura.

‘We don’t want to bring too much stuff back,’ I say, always cautious. ‘And we don’t want to spend the entire time wondering what to buy for other people. This is our girly trip away, remember!’

We’ll compromise, we decide, with an hour or two in Bloomingdale’s to get some gifts. The rest of the time we’ll be pleasing ourselves and will do any panic shopping in the last few days before Christmas, once we’re back in London.

‘Did you tell Dominic about our trip?’ asks Laura. I’ve told her that I saw Dominic last night and that it looks as though it’s all back on.

‘Yes, but I explained that it’s a girls-only weekend so he didn’t get too jealous.’

‘Are you going to see him over Christmas?’

I shake my head. ‘I don’t think so. He’s going to be travelling over the holidays – schmoozing businessmen at various parties and getting them when they’re in a festive mood. I don’t know when I’ll see him again.’

‘I’m sure you’ll meet up afterwards,’ Laura says consolingly. ‘It’s brilliant that you guys are back together.’

I can’t help beaming at her. ‘I know. It’s fantastic.’

She laughs at my expression. ‘You’re such a barometer – when you’re happy with Dominic, you’re upright and perky, and when you’re not, you wilt and go sad. You’re definitely in perky mode. This bodes well for our trip!’

 

Laura’s right, I am happy – and not just because I’m feeling so sexually sated by Dominic. I’m full of hopes for the future and looking forward to the New York trip. But when I get back to work on Monday, it’s to find that Caroline is more solemn-faced than ever.

‘Mark’s had a setback over the weekend,’ she says when I arrive. ‘He’s caught an infection and it’s absolutely floored him.

‘Oh no,’ I say in dismay. ‘Poor Mark!’

‘He’s being pumped full of antibiotics at the moment. He’s not well at all.’

‘I was hoping to visit him today.’

Caroline shakes her head. ‘I’m afraid not. He’s not up to it. I’ll let you know when he can face visitors.’

I feel awful that I’m going to be going away on a jolly jaunt when my boss is so ill but Caroline gives that idea short shrift.

‘Don’t be silly, Mark would be delighted that you’re going to have fun. Besides, I know he takes trips to New York all the time. I’m sure that he’d consider it an advantage that you’re going to get to know the city.’

That’s a comfort and I do my best to concentrate on my work so that I can clear my desk in time for the trip away. The problem is that I have a new distraction: Dominic. Now that I have his new details, and now that having our correspondence spied on isn’t the issue it was when he worked for Andrei, the emails start arriving, one every hour or so, telling me where he is and where he’s planning to go. I enjoy the feeling of being so connected to him. Ever since we’ve met, Dominic has been prone to vanishing on me, and I realise that I’d half expected to hear nothing at all from him once we were apart. But now I get emails from the car on the way to the airport, from the VIP departure lounge, from the first-class cabin, just messages of a few words letting me know where he is and where he intends to go next.

Then I realise: Dominic is making sure I know his plans. Perhaps he’s being followed by one of Andrei’s men, and wants to ensure that his whereabouts are on record.

The thought is a chilling one – but I already know that Andrei is tracking Dominic’s movements. Why would he suddenly have stopped doing that? I can’t help feeling afraid but I remember Dominic laughing at the idea that he might let Andrei’s actions affect him.

He’s doing nothing wrong, I remind myself. Andrei can’t do anything against him.

But I remember the warning James gave me when I first became involved with Dubrovski, telling me that Andrei had come to his fortune in murky, perhaps lawless ways, and that he thought I should be very careful before associating with him.

Images of Andrei flash in front of me: he’s elegant in his tailored suits, driving his smoke-grey Bentley convertible. He’s sophisticated in his tastes, loving his art collection and his beautiful apartments, and enjoying the finer things he can easily afford.

But once he was a bullet-headed orphan fighting his way to the top in the sleazy backstreets of Moscow. Boys like that get tough fast and they learn to take their opponents out without a shred of feeling because, unless they act first, they’ll be the ones left for dead in an alley.

No one would want to cross Andrei, I’m sure of that. And now the man I love has set himself up as his rival.

I want to be strong, as strong as Dominic, but I can’t help being afraid.

 

The next few days pass quickly as I prepare for the trip to New York. Andrei emails me the details of his apartment and says that his housekeeper will be expecting me to drop by at any time. I look up the address online and see that his apartment is in a luxurious block right on Central Park. I might not know New York, but I can guess that this is an extremely prestigious address. Maybe I’ll take Laura to see it and we can ooh and aah together at a glimpse of Manhattan life that we’d never normally see.

Mark is still too ill to receive visitors but Caroline tells me that the doctors are confident they’re getting on top of the infection. It’s been a setback but not something we should worry too much about. That’s a huge relief.

‘You go to New York and enjoy yourself,’ Caroline says with a smile as she watches me finishing up the last bits and pieces before I head off on the Thursday. ‘You can’t do anything here.’

‘Thanks, Caroline. Will you give Mark my love?’

‘Of course. Now off you go! You can tell me all about it on Tuesday.’

I leave the office that evening feeling excited. We’re actually going tomorrow! It’s going to be fun, I just know it. If only Mark were better, then life would be wonderful.

Except . . .

A disloyal little voice sounds in my head. I try to shush it but it pipes up before I can make it be quiet.

You’d prefer to be going to New York with Dominic.

Stop it! I’m going to have a fantastic time with Laura.

Yes, but with Dominic there would be romance and kisses and . . . sex. Lots of lovely, mind-blowing sex . . .

Sex isn’t everything, I scold myself. Friendship is pretty important too, remember? I tell myself that I owe Laura some time. She’s single and I’ve not exactly been the perfect flatmate over the last few months with Dominic – and Andrei – taking up so much of my time. This is payback. And I’m looking forward to sipping Cosmopolitans in some fancy bar – I just won’t expect the evening to end in multiple orgasms, that’s all.

I shiver as I remember the last, extraordinary orgasm I had with Dominic. With that little silver plug he’s taken me along another path I could never have imagined going down. I try to remember what I was like at the beginning of this extraordinary year: I was so inexperienced, thinking that my small-town boyfriend was the centre of the universe, and seriously considering settling down with him. Thank God for Hannah and her enormous tits! If she hadn’t tempted him into bed, we might never have broken up and I could be having boring sex with Adam for the rest of my life.

As I take the Underground home, I wonder where Dominic is at this moment. He emailed me this morning to say that his meetings in Montenegro had gone very well, but that he’s taken an unexpected trip to Klosters, the expensive skiing resort where millionaires like to gather for Christmas. He’ll be staying in a friend’s chalet while he socialises on the slopes and makes those all-important contacts, the ones who might be interested in putting some serious money into his investment fund.

 

It’s going to be full on. Skiing, après-ski, après-après-ski. Hard work, honey, but you know me, I’m the self-sacrificing type (or am I?). I’ll keep in touch. Enjoy New York, have fun with Laura. Take care.

D x x

 

I send back a reply full of excitement about our New York plans and telling him to enjoy himself skiing. It’s only later, as I’m letting myself into the flat, that I have a sudden pang of guilt. I haven’t told Dominic that I’m going to visit Andrei’s apartment while I’m in New York, or that Andrei’s offered me this new commission for next year. I’m cross with myself – what happened to no more secrets? I’ve promised that I’m going to be open and honest with Dominic now. There’s no point in keeping things to myself, it only leads to misunderstandings.

But there’s no real harm in it – after all, I’m not going to see Andrei. It’s just a look around his apartment to keep him happy. And if I’m honest, I’d like to see it, get a feel for the art he has there and work out what I might do with it, even though I’ve no intention of taking the job. And I’ll tell Dominic in my next email. Definitely.

 

Laura and I are both hyper with excitement that evening, checking our luggage over and over again, making sure we have passports and money, maps and guides, and all the bits and pieces we can’t travel without, from phone chargers to lip salve. We’re so keyed up that we open a celebratory bottle of wine and drink it very fast with our supper. So we open another and end up a bit drunk, chatting away until we realise with horror that it’s nearly midnight and we’re supposed to be up at four for the taxi that’s taking us to the airport. We tidy up and turn in, but I can’t get to sleep.

It’s weird but I’m so excited to be travelling like any other ordinary person. I’ve enjoyed my experience of the luxurious world of the very wealthy but it’s indelibly linked in my mind to ownership. I’ve only been given access to that world because I’ve worked for Andrei and I can only enjoy it on his terms. It’s not mine, or anything close to mine, so really, it’s no more meaningful than a fairground ride. Whereas my ticket to New York, and the hotel and everything else, has been paid for with money I’ve earned. I’m proud of that and I’m going to enjoy this trip a million times more because of it.

I don’t know what time I go to sleep but it feels like about five minutes before my alarm goes off. I drag my eyes open and groan, then force myself out of bed and into the shower. I meet Laura as I come out and she looks red-eyed and tired too.

‘We shouldn’t have had that wine last night,’ she says, heading into the bathroom.

‘Tell me about it! Taxi’s due in fifteen minutes.’ I think I’m going to feel awful, but as soon as I’m dressed in jeans, a sloppy T-shirt and a sharp dark green blazer and biker boots, I feel good again. A drink of water helps clear my head and just as Laura is bringing her bag into the hall we hear the beep from the taxi outside the flat.

‘Let’s go, sister!’ she says, her eyes bright.

‘You betcha!’ I smile back. This is fun already. I can’t wait for the adventure to begin.

 

We make the airport in excellent time because the roads out of London are deserted at this time of the morning. We’re excited and desperate for coffee by the time we arrive but we decide to check in first so that we can go through security and settle down in the departure area for a bit. We’re going to have a good hour or so to wait – plenty of time to have breakfast and browse in duty-free.

At the check-in desk we hand over our passports and cases. The woman behind the desk checks everything over, taps things into her computer and scans our passports. Then she looks up and smiles at us. ‘Good news, ladies. You’ve been upgraded.’

‘What?’ Laura exclaims.

‘Yes. Congratulations. You’re flying first class to JFK.’

‘Oh wow!’ Laura gives a little jump of pleasure and excitement.

‘Why?’ I say with a frown.

The woman looks at me, evidently surprised by my reaction. ‘I don’t know, I’m afraid. It’s just what it says on the computer here. You’re now first-class passengers. You wait for your flight in the first-class lounge.’

‘What’s wrong with you?’ asks Laura as we make our way to the VIP lounge. ‘Aren’t you excited that we’re upgraded? I’ve never travelled first class before!’

‘Of course I am,’ I say as heartily as I can, not wanting to spoil her pleasure. But the truth is, I’m a little upset. I can sense someone’s hand in this, and I feel as though my private trip has been invaded. I was proud that we were doing this alone. Now we’ve been given a little bonus that we’ve not earned or paid for.

Unless it’s just your lucky day . . .

Yeah, right!

 

The first-class lounge is nice, though. We take full advantage of the delicious food and steaming coffee on offer, then curl up on the sofas with a range of magazines to while away the time till our flight is called. When it does, we’re ushered through carpeted corridors and on to the plane before anyone else, turning left as we go on board. In first class, the luxury is in stark contrast to the cramped conditions in economy: vast comfortable seats that can be turned into beds at any time, a packet of expensive-brand toiletries plus slippers, masks and even a pair of silk pyjamas in case we want to change into something comfortable. And that’s before we’ve begun playing with our personal entertainment systems or ordering whatever we want from the menus.

‘I could live on here!’ Laura says ecstatically. ‘I can’t believe we’ve been so lucky.’

The pleasure on her face softens my hostility towards whoever decided to do this for us. Maybe it’s not such a bad gift. The problem is that I suspect Andrei is behind it and that makes it hard for me to enjoy it. He’s got a way of making me accept things from him that I don’t really want: nights in hotels, expensive dresses, jewels – and now this.

Relax, I tell myself as the plane begins to taxi down the runway. There’s nothing you can do about it. And in New York, you’ll be far away from Andrei. Just enjoy.

Chapter Eighteen

The flat is cold and dark when I arrive there in the early hours of the morning. My phone is dead. It’s long since run out of power and I haven’t charged it.

I’m curiously calm as I sit down on the sofa and plug my phone in. So it’s over. There will be a million things to think about soon, but before then I can only think over and over of my friend and the fact that he’s gone.

My phone flickers into life and starts charging up. After a while, messages and missed call notifications start arriving too. My mother has called several times, and I’ve missed a call from Laura as well. But there are several missed calls from Dominic and a series of messages, first wishing me a happy Christmas and then growing in agitation as I don’t reply.

 

Where are you, Beth? I’m seriously worried. Call me or I’ll be on the first plane out of here and coming to find you.

 

I check my watch. That was sent two hours ago. I quickly send a reply:

 

I’m so sorry. I’ve been in the hospital with Mark. He’s dead. I need you so much. Call me when you can. X x x

 

Then I huddle down on the sofa with a blanket over me, even though my bed is only down the hall. Somehow this seems like the right thing to do. I cry quietly, thinking of my friend, and at last I fall into an exhausted sleep, my phone in my hand so that when Dominic calls me, I’ll be able to answer right away.

I wake suddenly to the sound of knocking on the door. I’m confused again – why am I on the sofa in my clothes in the daytime? I look at my watch. It’s almost midday. What time did I go to sleep?

The pounding on the door sounds again, and I get up to answer it. I pull it open, blinking, and the next moment I’m engulfed in a huge hug, lifted off my feet with its force and pulled against a strong chest.

‘Beth, I’m so sorry. Oh Christ, I’m sorry.’

Dominic’s voice is in my ear, his arms are around me, his body is giving me the comfort I’ve craved so much over the last terrible hours. We stand for a long time, locked in our embrace, unable to say anything else to one another. I want to weep but I’m all cried out. It occurs to me that I must look a sight with swollen eyes and mussed-up hair but I know Dominic doesn’t care and neither do I. I need him so much at this moment and it’s a relief to lead him through to the sitting room and sit down with him, still pressed tight to him, his strong arm around me.

‘How did you get here?’ I ask, wonderingly. ‘You were in New York!’

‘When you didn’t answer I decided to get on a plane.’

‘On Christmas Day? How did you get a flight?’

He shrugs. ‘I chartered a plane. You can do anything if you really need to. And I had to find you and I’m glad I did.’ He holds my hands tightly. ‘Poor Mark. Can you tell me about it?’

I start to tell him the whole story and even though I thought I was cried out, I can’t help weeping as I describe those last hours in the hospital and how Mark took his final breath as I watched.

‘I saw his spirit go,’ I say, wiping my eyes with a tissue. ‘I just knew that he’d gone and that what was left behind wasn’t Mark.’

‘Hush,’ murmurs Dominic, his lips pressed against my hair. ‘He’s at peace now. Nothing can hurt him.’

‘I suppose that’s true,’ I say wretchedly. I lift my eyes to Dominic’s brown ones with their look of tender sympathy. ‘Andrei can’t do anything to him now.’

Dominic shakes his head. ‘No. I suppose Mark can still be investigated, but he’ll never know what Andrei was prepared to do to him, and how he was used.’

‘That’s the only good thing to come out of all of this.’ I sigh.

‘And what will happen to you now?’

‘Me?’

‘Your job with Mark.’

I blink. ‘Oh my goodness, I don’t know. I haven’t thought . . . It seems too soon. I have no idea what arrangements Mark will have made.’

Dominic hugs me again. ‘Don’t worry about that now. We’ll find out in due course.’

I inhale the delicious scent of his body as my nose presses against the softness of his jumper. ‘Did you really leave your Christmas just for me?’

‘Of course. Although no one was surprised, to be honest. I have a reputation for hot-headedness. I was sorry to leave Georgie but I didn’t much mind leaving Aunt Florence and the deadly dull cousins.’ He puts his hand under my chin and tilts my head up. ‘Listen, why don’t you come back with me? I promised Georgie I’d go with her to the New Year ball at some fancy house. Let’s go there together.’

I draw in a startled breath. New Year in New York with Dominic? It sounds amazing. ‘But,’ I say, ‘what about my family? I’m supposed to be at home with them. And what about Caroline? I don’t want to leave her.’

‘There’s nothing you can do at the moment,’ Dominic says. ‘Caroline will need you in a few days, when you’ve both recovered from the shock and you have to start sorting out the business. But nothing will happen now till after the new year, I promise. And as for your family – let’s go and see them now. I’ll come with you. I want to meet your parents anyway and now seems like a good time. I can ask for their permission to whisk you away to New York.’

I think about this for a second. It feels wrong to consider enjoying myself with everything that’s happened. ‘I don’t know . . . it feels disloyal to Mark.’

‘Mark always told you to grasp opportunities and enjoy yourself. He wouldn’t want you to mope. He’d be telling you that life is short and to seize it while you can.’ Dominic gives me a sweet smile and I feel sure he’s right.

‘Okay,’ I say, smiling back. ‘Let’s do it.’

 

My mother’s face when we arrive in a luxurious black Range Rover is something to behold. I’m not sure where Dominic keeps these cars but he seems to have access to whatever he needs wherever we are in the world, and the powerful vehicle makes easy work of the journey to Norfolk.

‘Beth, what on earth . . .?’ says Mum, coming out of the house, wiping her hands on a tea towel. My brothers are out and admiring the car almost before we’ve pulled to a stop, while my father eyes Dominic suspiciously. ‘I thought you were in London!’

‘I’ve come back.’ I smile at her. ‘I want you to meet Dominic. He’s my . . . boyfriend.’

It seems like a rather lame word to describe all Dominic is to me and what he’s meant, but I can’t think of any other.

Dominic steps forward, a smile on his face and at his most charming. ‘Hello, Mrs Villiers, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Beth’s told me so much about her family, I feel like I know you.’

‘Mmm,’ says my mother, slightly mollified. ‘She’s told me practically nothing about you. But I’m delighted to meet you. Please come in.’

As we go in, she puts her arm around me and gives me a half hug. ‘I was so sorry to hear about Mark, darling. We got your message. How very sad.’

‘Thanks, Mum,’ I whisper.

‘But . . . I’m very happy to meet Dominic.’ She glances over her shoulder to where Dominic is following as he chats to Dad. ‘I take it he’s the one who gave you that ring, and that rather special glow you’ve got about you?’

I nod.

‘I thought as much. He’s very welcome.’ She drops her voice down to a whisper. ‘And very dishy!’

‘Mum!’

‘Well, he is. I’m just saying. Now let’s get tea and you can tell me how long you’re staying.’

 

It’s so weird to see Dominic in my family home, like seeing a film star in the local supermarket or a famous landmark at the end of the road. It’s incongruous and yet I can’t help thinking, well, why not? Dominic seems to be enjoying himself and praises everything from the tea and my mother’s very good Christmas cake to the shed my father has in the garden, of which he’s given a guided tour.

Later, before he’s shown very firmly to the guest room, we have a moment together and I manage to thank him for charming my family so comprehensively. ‘It’s obvious they really like you!’

‘I really like them,’ he says. ‘And you have a lovely home – a proper home. You’re very lucky.’ He looks a little wistful. ‘Even while my parents were alive, we never had a home like this. Always diplomatic residences behind gates and barbed wire, peopled with servants and full of strangers. I always wanted something cosy and loving like this.’

I hug him, wishing I could give him everything he wants and needs. Then I remember what’s hanging over us. ‘So – did you fix up a meeting with Andrei in New York?’

He nods. ‘It’s the reason I need to get back. We’ll leave tomorrow if that’s all right.’

‘Of course. I just want to be with you.’

‘And I want to be with you. When all this is over, we can start our lives properly, okay?’ He reaches down and touches the ring around my finger. ‘Remember our promise?’

I nod and look into his gentle brown eyes. ‘I remember.’

 

Everything seems to run like clockwork the next day, even though I never see Dominic doing much more than tap an email or two into his phone. We leave home in the morning and arrive at the airport where a driver is waiting to take the Range Rover away. We’re quickly ushered through check in and into the first-class lounge and not long after that, we’re aboard a flight back to the States.

‘How do you do it?’ I ask, amused.

‘I have my ways,’ he says with a smile, and we settle down for the journey back. I feel I can relax a little and come to terms with some of what’s happened now that I’ve heard from Caroline. She tells me that she’ll be arranging Mark’s funeral for the first week of January and that when I get back to the office on the 2nd we can start working out what will happen next. She says nothing about her intentions, so I have no idea whether or not Mark’s business will be continuing. That means I might be out of a job. In fact, I think that’s the most likely scenario. And if Andrei’s money-laundering comes to light and Mark’s estate is investigated, that might not be such a bad thing.

We rest, watch films and chat all the way back to America, and Dominic tells me what he has planned.

‘We’ll stay at my rented apartment,’ he says, ‘although finding a more. . .