King’s Ransom

by Ashenden, Jackie

  Her mouth turned up, giving me a smile that had no hesitancy in it whatsoever, the wariness draining from her clear gaze.

  And for a second I didn’t quite know what to do with that. I was her father’s mortal enemy. She had to know who I was—what I was. She should be cringing in fear, not giving me bright smiles like I was her best friend.

  ‘Yay.’ Her lips moved against my finger, brushing against my skin, the warmth of her breath making me catch mine. ‘I was hoping you’d say that. Where do you live?’

  Yay? What the fuck? And why the hell was I breathless? Luckily, physical attraction was the easiest appetite to control so I controlled it.

  I dropped my finger. ‘That doesn’t concern you right—’

  ‘What kind of house do you have? Does it have a pool? Is it by the sea?’

  ‘It’s not—’

  ‘Can I go outside? Does it have a view?’

  ‘You’re not going to—’

  ‘How long can I stay? Will you be there?’ Her eyes were glittering with excitement and there was a flush in her pale cheeks, the live wire spitting sparks.

  You’d think I’d just promised her the trip of a lifetime, not that I was going to hold her prisoner until her father did what I wanted.

  Losing patience, I stared hard at her. ‘Interrupt me again and there’ll be hell to pay.’

  Her lips pressed together obediently, but her eyes didn’t lose that excited sparkle. She didn’t even have the grace to look ashamed of herself. ‘I’m sorry. I always talk when I’m nervous.’ Then, clearly picking up on my irritation, she added, ‘I didn’t interrupt this time.’

  ‘This is a kidnapping. You do understand that, don’t you?’

  She laughed. ‘I know. And?’

  Laughing. She’d been kidnapped and now she was laughing. And, even worse, the husky, joyful sound sent a hot pulse down my spine, jump-starting something inside me. Something that had been dead a long time.

  Shit. Just what I didn’t want.

  I ignored the feeling and scowled. ‘You should be frightened of me.’

  An arrested expression crossed her face, as if the thought had never occurred to her. ‘Should I? I mean, I was a bit unsure a moment ago. But...’ Her forehead creased. ‘Do you want me to be?’

  The thing that had sprung to life inside me burned, her complete lack of fear for some reason more powerful than any aphrodisiac.

  Dammit. I wasn’t looking to be attracted to her, for fuck’s sake. That kind of shit only got in the way and I was not looking for distractions right now. Not that I ever had. My own desires were irrelevant when I had a goal in mind and I let nothing distract me from that goal.

  Including the bolt of electricity in human form sitting next to me.

  I fixed her with a ‘don’t fuck with me’ look. ‘Anyone ever tell you that you ask too many questions?’

  The colour in her cheeks deepened. ‘Kind of.’

  ‘Listen. You know who I am. You must have heard the rumours. They’re all true, understand? And yes, you should be scared. Because you have no idea what I’m going to do with you when I get you home.’

  ‘What are you going to do with me?’ She didn’t sound as if it worried her. At all.

  Christ. If ever a woman needed a lesson in proper kidnapping etiquette, it was this one.

  I leaned forward fractionally, letting my physical size intimidate her. ‘I’m going to ruin you, little one. That’s what I’m going to do.’

  Or at least I would if her father didn’t do what I wanted.

  Far from being intimidated, though, Imogen only frowned. As if I’d handed her a fascinating puzzle to work out. ‘Ruin me? Like...how?’

  This was ridiculous. Did I really have to explain a sexual threat?

  ‘Like this...’ I reached out again and this time I brushed my thumb along her lower lip to illustrate my point, because the day I had to explain myself was the day I’d hand in my scary motherfucker badge.

  Her mouth was just as soft and warm as it had been when I’d touched it not a minute or so earlier, and the burning thing in my gut flamed like a fucking firework.

  Mistake. You shouldn’t touch her.

  Bullshit. I didn’t make mistakes and I wasn’t a damn fifteen-year-old boy touching a woman for the first time. I could control myself. She had a pretty mouth but that was all. Pretty mouths were a dime a dozen and if I wanted one that badly, I’d find one. Later.

  Her eyes went huge as I touched her. ‘Oh...’ The word was warm, exhaled against my skin. ‘That kind of ruin.’

  So she understood. Good.

  Yet she still didn’t look scared. Wary, yes, but there was definitely no fear in her expression.

  Hell. What did I have to do? Pull a gun? A knife? A fucking bomb?

  ‘So how exactly do you ruin someone sexually these days?’ she went on, her eyes alight with interest. ‘It’s a bit nineteenth century, if you know what I mean. Virginity isn’t the big thing it used to be.’

  ‘That’s it?’ I dropped my finger from her mouth, ignoring the warmth that lingered on my skin. ‘That’s your response?’

  ‘Should it be different?’ A crease appeared between her brows. ‘If you’re going to ruin me or whatever—’ she waved her hand as if the ‘whatever’ was negligible and not the threat it very much was ‘—I’d like to know how you’re going to do it. Seeing as how I have a vested interest and all.’

  ‘Screwing you, that’s how I’ll do it,’ I growled, my patience starting to run even thinner than it was already, hoping that would quell her.

  ‘Oh, sure.’ She shrugged, very much unquelled. ‘Screwing goes without saying. But I’d still like to know how that ruins me.’

  Shit, this woman was either simple or...she was playing me.

  I was beginning to suspect it was the latter and if that was the case, she’d regret it. I could play that game better than she ever could.

  ‘You’re a virgin—’

  ‘Hey, how do you know that?’

  ‘Interrupt me one more time and I’ll give you back to your father’s men.’

  Her mouth closed up tight. Interesting. She really didn’t want to go back. I filed that fact away for future reference.

  ‘As I was saying,’ I went on. ‘You’re a virgin and your father has been guarding that very jealously for a long time. You may not think it’s important, but it is for him because if he wants to make alliances with potential friends, he’s going to use you and your pretty hymen to do it. But how will that work when his virginal daughter has been in the hands of his enemy? Make no mistake. The ruin I’m talking about will make you mine and mine completely, and once you’re mine you’ll be useless to anyone else, including him.’

  Emotion shifted in her eyes, gone so fast I wasn’t sure what it was. Not fear, something more complicated than that.

  This girl seemed open and sincere, but maybe she wasn’t. Maybe there was more to her than there appeared.

  The curiosity I thought I’d crushed earlier smouldered back into life, making me want to know exactly what more there was.

  I’d always enjoyed a complicated woman—I was a man who got bored easily—and I hadn’t had complicated for longer than I cared to remember.

  But no. This wasn’t about what I wanted and never had been.

  Imogen took a soft breath, the fabric of her strapless white dress pulling tight across a pair of quite frankly beautiful little tits. The dress moulded to her generous hips too, outlining her rounded thighs.

  Nice. Very nice. Not usually my type—tall, athletic women handled me better than small kittens like this one. But she was soft and strokeable, and undeniably sexy. What would she be like in bed?

  Fucking wildfire.

  Another pulse of heat burned through me, making my cock twitch.

  ‘So what does tha
t mean exactly?’ She frowned. ‘Am I a threat or a tool for you?’

  ‘Both.’ I ignored the heat in my groin. ‘I want your father to leave Sydney. Only when he’s gone will I let you go.’

  She glanced down at where her hands clutched at her seat belt, a lock of pale hair falling out from underneath the cap I’d put on her head and down over her shoulder. It gleamed like watered silk in the light coming through the windows. Pretty.

  What would it feel like coiled around your finger?

  Nothing. Because I wasn’t going to touch it.

  ‘That still doesn’t really explain this ruin thing,’ she said. ‘And you haven’t said what it involves exactly.’

  ‘What do you want? A fucking diagram?’

  A flash of green glinted from underneath her pale lashes. ‘Actually, that would be super helpful. Especially since I don’t know anything about fucking.’

  The heat I was trying to ignore burned a little hotter. Was she...flirting with me? Toying with me? If so, she was playing a dangerous game.

  This wasn’t a date and I wasn’t some harmless boy desperate to kiss her hand. I was the oldest and most feared son of one of Sydney’s worst criminals, and I had things in my past that would wipe that expression off her face. That would make her look at me as if I was the devil himself.

  Maybe it was time she learned that this wasn’t a fun night out and that I wasn’t some tame house cat she could stroke, who’d curl up in her lap. I was a wolf and I’d eat this Red Riding Hood alive.

  ‘You really want to know?’ I leaned right into her space, getting a kick out of the way she had to press herself against the window to keep the distance between us. ‘Are you sure?’

  Her eyes went wide, her sulky, pouty mouth opening. And for a second I thought I saw fear there, but then it was gone and something else glittered in the green depths of her gaze.

  Yet more excitement.

  Shit.

  ‘Seriously, I am so sure.’ Her voice was on the edge of husky. ‘Tell me, Ajax. I’d really like to know how you’re going to ruin me.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Imogen

  HE WAS VERY CLOSE, inches away. His broad shoulders blocked out the streetlights coming through the opposite window of the van, his body in that pristine white shirt and black suit trousers, a hard wall of muscle in front of me.

  And his eyes. Electric blue, so vivid against his olive skin. Fascinating in a way I couldn’t describe.

  He was so compelling. He made my heart shudder behind my ribs for reasons I didn’t understand.

  This talk of being ruined... It was all I could think about.

  Since I’d been taught at home by tutors, I’d never gone to high school, never dated. I’d never had a teenage crush, except once, on a guy I’d seen through the window of the car while I was on my way somewhere. I’d constructed a whole set of dreamy fantasies around him for at least a week until I’d lost interest in the whole idea.

  If I’d had any girlfriends I’d have discussed my lack of a sex life with them. But I didn’t even have girlfriends.

  What I did have, though, was an insatiable curiosity about pretty much everything, including all the things I wasn’t allowed to have.

  Such as sex.

  I’d learned how to get around the blocks Dad had put on my Internet years ago and I’d looked stuff up. Sexy stuff. Enough to have an idea of what I might like when it came to men.

  One thing I hadn’t realised, though, was that looking at sex on a computer screen was very different to having an actual man right in front of you, looking at you so intently it made you want to burst into flames.

  Like me, right now, with him.

  ‘S-so,’ I stuttered, unable to keep quiet, my heart racing. ‘You know, how does it happen? Do I have to take my clothes off? Do you touch me or—’

  ‘I don’t have to touch you to ruin you, little one,’ he said in that dark, deep voice I felt right down low inside me.

  Okay, wow. That was...intense.

  My heartbeat ratcheted up another notch. ‘That’s a bit patronising, you know. The whole little one thing.’

  God knows why I was arguing with him. Probably stupid given my situation and the fact that me not being afraid of him clearly annoyed him.

  But too bad. I wasn’t afraid. He might think that all of this would frighten me, but what he didn’t understand was that I didn’t see this as a kidnapping. No, this was a rescue.

  He’d bloody well saved me.

  And, for all his talk of ruining me, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Not a man who’d carried me so gently; close to his chest; holding me as if I were precious.

  He was scowling now, not liking that I was arguing, and maybe I was completely crazy but I loved how growly and fierce he was, though I didn’t really know why. Maybe it was simply the fact that I could get a reaction from him. Me. The sheltered virgin who could never sit still. Who was of no use to anyone except as a tool.

  You’re Ajax’s tool now.

  Yeah, but it felt different somehow. For a start, Ajax was a complete stranger. Unlike my dad, he wasn’t supposed to love me and I wasn’t supposed to love him. I could push back at him with impunity and it wouldn’t matter.

  ‘I don’t give a shit whether it’s patronising or not,’ he said. ‘You’re my prisoner and I’ll call you whatever the fuck I want.’ He paused, his gaze like a searchlight finding all my secrets, all my hidden desires. ‘Besides,’ he added, ‘I think you like it.’

  I went red. Sadly, I did like it. I’d never had anyone refer to me as anything but Imogen and being called little one made me think of being curled up in his arms, safe.

  Not knowing what to say, I frowned instead.

  He smiled, all satisfied like he’d won a point off me. ‘Of course you do. But that’s not what you wanted to talk about, is it?’

  ‘You were going to tell me how you can ruin me without touching me,’ I reminded him. ‘How does that work? Is it possible to screw someone without touching them? Do you just talk at me? I mean, maybe I don’t know how these things go, but—’

  He leaned forward even more, making the rest of what I’d been going to say catch in my throat.

  The glass of the window was cold against the back of my head, the door handle jabbing my spine painfully. Yet those sensations seemed quite distant, even irrelevant.

  There was only Ajax and his electrifying blue gaze.

  ‘It’s very simple.’ His voice brushed over my skin like soft black fur. ‘First I’d get you to lift up your dress. Then I’d tell you to spread your legs and pull your knickers to the side.’ The words became even deeper, even rougher. ‘Then I’d get you to slide your fingers over your pussy, rubbing that little clit in exactly the way I tell you to, and not stopping until you come. Hard. While I watch.’

  All my breath had vanished, my heartbeat out of control. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his. My cheeks had to be scarlet and there was a definite pressure between my thighs. A pulse. An ache.

  Those things he said were shocking and yet...they made me hot and restless and I...wanted to do them.

  Except I had a suspicion that he hadn’t said them to get me off. He’d said them to frighten me.

  Unfortunately for him, fear was the last thing I felt right now.

  And it hit me in that moment that Ajax King wasn’t a choice my father would ever have made for me. It was why I’d been at that stupid ball in the first place, to meet a guy that Dad had decided might be a potential ally. To charm him, be the bait in the honey trap Dad had set up.

  Ajax telling me that Dad was using me wasn’t anything I didn’t know. I’d figured out what my purpose was for Dad after what had happened with Cam, and it wasn’t simply to be his treasured daughter.

  I was the Princess, the prize he’d use to set various people off against each othe
r, and whom he’d award to whoever was the strongest.

  It was like a medieval marriage bargain, where I got no say and my feelings on the subject were irrelevant.

  Dad didn’t care whether I wanted to be used like that or not. The only aspect of me he cared about was the debt I owed him for being the cause of Mum’s death.

  A debt I had no choice but to try and repay, even though it wasn’t my fault.

  But I had a choice now.

  I could try and escape, or I could choose to be ruined by Ajax King, Dad’s most hated enemy.

  Dad would be so pissed.

  It was perfect.

  ‘Okay,’ I said thickly. ‘Do you want me to do those things now? Or should I wait till we get to your place?’

  He blinked. Rapidly. ‘You did hear what I said, didn’t you?’

  ‘Uh, yeah. A bit difficult not to hear, to be honest.’

  ‘And you understood what I wanted you to do?’

  ‘Of course. I’m not stupid.’ I swallowed, my throat dry. Oh, I wanted to touch him. Feel that hard chest I’d been held against, test all that delicious muscle with my hands.

  I had a whole folder of hot guys on my computer at home, inspiration pics for when I got too lonely. But having the reality right in front me...

  He was so intent, studying me as if he’d never seen anything like me in all his life. ‘This doesn’t frighten you at all, does it?’

  ‘No,’ I said honestly. ‘I’m sorry, but it doesn’t.’

  His straight black brows drew down. ‘Why not? It should.’

  ‘Well, it might if I didn’t want to do it. But...’ I stopped, belatedly self-conscious about what I was admitting to. I was attracted to him, but he might not feel the same way about me. After all, he didn’t know me from a bar of soap. ‘It’s okay, you know,’ I went on in a rush. ‘You don’t have to ruin me if you don’t want to. I mean, you might not actually want me and I don’t have any experience and—’

  ‘Quiet,’ Ajax said for the second time that night, the note of authority in his voice making me fall silent. ‘You really have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about. If you think playing with a man like me is a good—’