Read Online Hide and Seek by James Patterson - Free Book Online

secretive affair for the past four weeks. She couldn't get enough of Will, and was sure he felt the same way about her.
He couldn't be faking that
, the former high-fashion model reassured herself during an occasional “blue” moment.
    “I missed you, I want you, I need you,” Melanie announced when they reached the master suite with its commanding view of a topiary garden and water terrace. “What do you
need
? What do you
want
?”
    He seemed bemused by the question. He wandered around the spacious suite, searching through Melanie's dresser drawers and her huge walk-in closet. He selected several dresses, evening gowns, lingerie, stockings, shoes, and laid them all out on the bed and floor.
    “May I ask what you're up to, Will?” Melanie pouted just a little. “I didn't know you had a fetish for my clothing.”
    “As a matter of fact, I do. Will you model for me? I've never seen you in any of these lovely getups. I'd very much like to.”
    Melanie smiled. She loved his imagination, his games, his need to play. He wasn't another empty-headed player like so many others she'd sampled in the past. Will had also lived up to his reputation as a sensational lover. She now thoroughly understood this “Blond Arrow” business. She was obsessed with him, and couldn't imagine any healthy woman who wouldn't be. He was
that damn good
.
    She tried on Karl Lagerfeld evening dresses, a black dress by Jil Sander, sandals by Chloé. Will sat on the bed, gloriously naked, playing with himself, and watching her every move.
    She already knew that he could keep himself hard for hours. If he had a problem in the sack, it was climaxing. So far, he hadn't with her. It was something to look forward to, no?
    She was wearing a red gown and a lustrous pearl choker when she found that she couldn't stand it any longer. She scampered across the floor toward Will and his beautiful
arrow
.
    “Please, please,
please me
!” she laughed and swooned in a theatrical fashion. “Let me fall on your sword.”
    Will didn't let her take off the Carolina Herrera, worth thousands of dollars. Not even her Ernesto Esposito pumps. He used the Hermés scarfs and nylons to tie Melanie to the bedposts. Then he made love to her for several hours. He helped her come so many times that he finally lost count. He didn't climax himself.
    Sir Charles Wellsfleet arrived at the estate in Somerset around eleven that evening. He'd had a frightfully long day of meetings in London, and expected to find Melanie asleep in the bedroom, as usual.
    His wife was wide-awake, however. Her eyes were like huge blue marbles, and she looked as though she had been sobbing for days. She was still tied to the bedposts with the scarfs and nylons, wearing nothing but the choker. Her face was puffy, but as pale as the pearls. The expensive Italian lingerie was strewn about the bed along with the shoes and the torn Herrera gown.
    That summer, Will was transferred from Sir Charles's team. The press suspected everything except the truth: Will had tired of Melanie. The Blond Arrow needed to move on to a much larger stage.

CHAPTER 21
    W ILL INVITED HIS brother, Palmer, to his Chelsea apartment one afternoon before the new season began. Though it was expensively furnished, the living space seemed sterile, almost as if no one lived there. A Maggie Bradford record played softly, soothingly, in the background.
    “I need your help,” Will said, sipping the expensive brandy he had poured for them. Actually, it was his fourth or fifth brandy, and the third time he'd played the same record.
    Palmer looked at his brother, surprised.
Will never seemed to need anything, from anyone
. “How could I possibly help
you
, Will?”
    “I need a manager. I think you'd be perfect. I've thought about it a lot, actually.”
    “A manager! I thought Jacob Golding did that.”
    “He handles my business affairs. I mean a personal manager. Someone to look after me. Keep me out of trouble.”
I'm starting to scare