It was Arabella’s turn to leave words unspoken. She didn’t have to tell me though; I already knew the type of man Jayce was, what he would have done to her had his hired thugs not turned on him before we arrived.
“Shh, I know.”
He would have enjoyed degrading her and then he would have raped her because he knew how important she was to me and how the knowledge of her violation would have destroyed me. He’d wanted Arabella dead, yes, but he’d also wanted me broken before he eventually killed me too.
I wrapped my arms around Arabella tight, saying a prayer of thanks to a God I’d never believed in. When you were in my line of work, you didn’t have the luxury of thinking of things like heaven or hell, god or the devil, because oftentimes you delivered people to their own private hells, played god with their lives, or were the devil they cursed in their sleep.
Arabella’s breathing became heavy as her body was overcome with the fatigue or her ordeal. Soon, she was asleep, quiet gusts of oxygen leaving her body in slow and steady pants against my chest. I raised my eyes to take in the small digital clock across from me. We had another two hours until we reached our destination. We could both use some sleep.
But first I dropped a kiss to her forehead and made her a promise. “No one is ever going to hurt you again,” I whispered. “No one will dare lay a hand on you once you’re my wife.”
Chapter Nine
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet
If you’d have told me six months ago that I’d be standing under a wrought iron arch draped with tropical flowers on a beach in the Caribbean waiting for Arabella to walk down the aisle to become my wife, I would have said you needed to lay off the crack pipe because you’d clearly lost your goddamned mind. And yet, here I was, doing exactly that.
Our path hadn’t been an easy one—in fact, it’d been the most difficult thing I’d ever gone through—but here we were, coming out on the other end, each of us stronger for having endured what we did.
In looking back on their life-altering moments, people often claimed they wouldn’t change their experience for anything in the world. Me? You bet your fucking life I would have. I’d give just about anything I owned to have spent my life with Arabella, for our baby to have grown up being spoiled rotten by both her parents.
But that wasn’t the hand we’d been dealt so we were doing our best to embrace the one we had instead.
“What are the chances all this wedding hoopla finally convinces CeeCee to accept Aleksei’s proposal?” Ben asked, his eyes landing on the crazy Russian who stood off to the side, his eyes scanning the shore for uninvited guests.
I chuckled because I actually knew the answer to his question. “Arabella said she’s going to make him sweat a little bit more before she says yes.”
“Damn, that’s cruel,” he replied, shaking his head. “Poor sap.”
The other inexplicable thing about my life? I now counted Aleksei Vasilyev among my closest friends. In fact, as the head of my personal security detail, I trusted the man with my life. I still thought he was the craziest motherfucker I’d ever known, but it appeared his devotion to Arabella’s cousin was smoothing out some of his rougher edges. Not so much, of course, that people didn’t shit their pants when he showed up on their doorstep asking for a word, but enough that I no longer worried about him going berserker in the line of duty.
“What about you?” I asked, notching my chin toward the leggy brunette Ben had brought as his date for the week. “Maria seems nice.”
His eyes sought her out and unless I was mistaken, the hungry look in them said Ben thought she was way more than nice. And yet he tried to play down his interest.
Shrugging he said, “She’s fun. We laugh.”
“You do more than laugh,” I teased. “I’m pretty sure there’s some screaming and moaning happening as well.”
The compound we’d rented for the wedding comprised a large main house flanked by two smaller guest cottages at the edge of the 10-acre private island. No amount of foliage between Ben’s cottage and our place had been able to dampen the sounds coming from them the night before.
Ben’s lips stretched into a wide smile. “She’s a fucking animal, man,” he admitted. “Completely insatiable.”
“We noticed,” I smirked.
“Fuck you,” he gloated, a note of pride in his voice. “It’s not like no one’s heard you and Arabella going at it in the middle of the afternoon.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, we’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding his head. “I’m happy for you guys. I mean it. You deserve to be happy.”
“Thanks,” I answered noncommittally.
The reality was I’d done a lot of really heinous things in my life—things that if there were a god, I was certainly going to hell for—so I wasn’t sure I necessarily deserved to be happy, but I wasn’t about to question my good fortune. After all, I knew how fleeting it could be.
One minute you were holding the love of your life in your arms and the next she could be gone. One minute you thought you were going to be a father, and the next you were learning you’d never have a child to call your own. One minute you could be aiming a gun at the woman who broke your heart, and the next you could be waiting to give her your last name.
One minute you could be thinking your brother was the world’s biggest asshole—but he was still your goddamn brother—and the next you could be burying him in the family plot. In the end, I hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger, but if things had gone differently I would have been. That Jayce had been the victim of his own fucked up maneuvering gave me some measure of peace since it proved my plan to take him down had been the right one, but it didn’t mean I didn’t feel the loss of him all the same. The last few years had been hard—he’d been my nemesis more often than not—but that didn’t negate the fact that he’d been my brother. My goddamn twin. Some days I felt like I was missing a limb, the phantom pains of his loss.
As a trickle of sweat slid down my spine from the jungle humidity, I glanced down at my watch. We weren’t on a schedule or anything, but whenever Arabella was out of my sight for too long, I became worried. I knew I had to let go of that fear—Arabella was a strong, capable woman who didn’t need me to hover over her every second of every day—but until I could close my eyes and not picture her hanging from that hook in the ceiling with blood snaking down her arms, I’d always go a little nuts when it came to her safety.
Ben chuckled next to me. “Relax dude. Ain’t no one on this island, save the six of us.”
“Yeah, I know,” I muttered. “But what the fuck is taking her so long?”
A minute later, I didn’t care that she’d kept me waiting practically all morning because when Arabella stepped onto the beach my jaw hit the sand. Arabella walked toward me wearing a garment that had no right to describe itself as a dress. It was really just two pieces of creamy white silk held together by a few thin straps that crisscrossed her body. Her hips swaying seductively with each step, the thin material skated over her skin, accentuating all her luscious curves. My heartbeat sounded loudly in my ears and I had to swallow down the lump in my throat.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered just as Arabella stepped in front of me and smiled.
“Let’s get this show on the road already,” she teased, the honeyed timbre of her voice sending tingles down my spine.
“You are the most gorgeous fucking woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, and thank Christ you’re all mine,” I growled, pulling her up against me as my lips crashed down on hers.
After a minute, an hour, or an eternity of kissing the woman I’d loved since I was still just a boy pretending to be a man, CeeCee loudly cleared her throat, drawing us back to the here and now.
“Um, what was I saying?” Arabella asked, her tinkli
ng laugh music to my ears.
“I think you were saying it’s time I pronounce you husband and wife,” Ben interjected.
“Yeah, that,” I agreed, never taking my eyes off my bride as I held her small hands in mine.
“Okay then,” my best friend began. “Do you, Xander St. John, take Arabella Wilson to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do.”
“Do you promise to love, honor, and cherish her for all the days of your life?”
“I do,” I answered, my voice cracking.
“And do you, Arabella Wilson, take Xander St. John to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do,” she answered, her eyes alight with joy.
“Do you promise to love, honor, and cherish him for all the days of your life?”
“I do,” she said.
“By the power vested in me by some cockamamie church on the Internet, I now pronounce you husband and wi—”
Crouching, I wrapped one arm around Arabella’s shoulder while the other went behind her knees and then I hoisted her into my arms and marched us toward the house where I was going to make love to my wife. Finally.
“Husband and wife!” Ben yelled as Arabella and I disappeared into the jungle.
* * *
Thank you for reading Xander. An author’s success depends on readers like you! If you liked this book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads.
What would you do for a million dollars?
THE CONTRACT
A MMF Forbidden Romance
When I signed over my body, I never meant to give away my heart.
The only thing I have of any value is the one thing ruthless billionaire Logan Davis is determined to own: my innocence. It was supposed to be a simple business transaction—payment for a wager gone wrong. One month in his bed, and I would walk away with one million dollars.
How hard could it be?
Unfortunately, I didn’t bank on the fire he ignited in my body or the feelings deep inside my heart. I never meant to lose my soul.
Not to Logan, and certainly not to his best friend, billionaire playboy Chase Donovan.
* * *
CHAPTER ONE
Caitriona
What was that old saying, again? Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.
Yeah, that one. It might sound cliché, but it was true.
At least, it was for me.
I’d had my whole life planned out. I was going to graduate from college, marry my boyfriend Steve in his father’s church, become something respectable like a nurse or a teacher, and then live happily ever after.
Except, you know … life.
So now, instead of sitting in the library studying for my next exam, I was parked next to Steve on a leather couch in an exclusive sex club somewhere in the middle of downtown.
I’d been so busy with school that I hadn’t noticed he’d turned into the type of person who blew all our money on hookers and blackjack.
Which was where I came in. Because it turned out I had something some people would pay handsomely for: my virginity.
“You can’t be serious?” My head swung between Steve and Janessa Carmichael, the sophisticated woman sitting across from us. On either side of her, two suited goons stood guard like silent sentries. “You want to sell my virginity?”
“Miss Patrick, I understand this probably isn’t how you planned to spend your afternoon.”
“You think?” I asked, shooting to my feet and turning on Steve. “I have an exam in two days!”
Steve rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “Trust me, I know. Your exams all are you ever talk about.”
“That’s because I have to get good grades to keep my scholarships. We’ve talked about this, and you said you understood.”
“I did, until you started ignoring me. It’s your fault we’re here in the first place.”
“How is it my fault you gambled away all my dad’s money?” I stood over him, my fists clenched and my chest sawing in and out with fury. I wasn’t a violent person, but I was a couple of seconds away from putting my hands around his neck and squeezing for all I was worth.
With a deep breath, I stepped away and counted down from ten. When I was finished, I turned back to Janessa. “Can you repeat the details of the deal he made with you?”
It made zero sense that I was considering going through with this, but what choice did I have? If these people didn’t get their money, they’d hurt Steve. Today’s revelations had hurt me, but that didn’t mean I wanted him laid up in traction in some hospital somewhere—or worse.
“I want to know exactly what I’m signing up for,” I added, my shoulders thrown back and my chin raised high. If I was going to prostitute myself, I wasn’t going to do it with my head bowed in shame. I would not let Steve’s bad choices ruin me.
They just might free you, a naughty voice in the back of my head whispered. I could practically see the tiny devil on my shoulder rubbing its hands with anticipation.
Sliding a bundle of papers across her desk, Janessa inclined her head toward the chair in front of me. “Please, take a seat, and we can go over the contract.”
When I dropped down into it, Steve stood from the couch and moved toward me.
“I don’t want him here,” I said, before he could sit next to me.
Janessa tilted her head, and one of her goons leaned forward. After a few words in his ear, he stepped out from behind her desk and gestured toward Steve. “Please come with me, Mr. Parker.”
Steve’s head whipped frantically between me, Janessa, and the behemoth making his way around the desk. The other goon waited patiently in front of the door. “You can’t do this, Cait. You love me. You have to make sure they don’t hurt me.”
When I stayed silent, Steve’s words turned angry, destroying any hope I had that he might still be the sweet boy I’d fallen in love with when I was just fourteen. “You slut! I hope whoever buys you fucks you hard and leaves you—” He didn’t have a chance to finish his vile sentence before they tossed him out the door, leaving me alone with Janessa.
A few seconds ticked by while I absorbed his words. They hurt, but I was done being hurt by Steve. He’d shown his true colors today, and I needed to move on.
“What now?” I eventually asked, rubbing my sweating palms up and down my jean-clad thighs.
Janessa’s red lips twitched, and she leaned forward, her hands clasped in front of her. Her manicure, like her lipstick, was impeccable. “I’m a successful businesswoman, and you’re an enchanting girl who is in possession of something formidable men will give their fortunes to possess.”
“I don’t get it,” I said, my mind still trying to grasp how I’d ended up here. “If you’re going to pay for sex, wouldn’t you want it to at least be good? I’ve never even given a hand job.”
Not for lack of trying though. Steve had been hell-bent on keeping me “completely pure” until our wedding night—another thing I’d never been able to understand.
Janessa chuckled and shook her head. “Can I ask you something, Miss Patrick?”
I gulped and nodded. “Of course.”
“Why did you agree to pay Mr. Parker’s debt? He’s obviously not the man you hoped.”
I shrugged and looked away, my cheeks turning pink.
The truth was, there was a very good reason I hadn’t walked out the second I’d learned about Steve’s debt, and it had nothing to do with my loyalty to him. But I couldn’t bring myself to voice the words aloud. The filthy, dirty, scandalous words.
She laughed, and her mask dropped, revealing a look of genuine pleasure. “Oh, that’s going to do wonders for your price on the auction block.”
I chewed my bottom lip, my face growing redder by the second. My lips slammed shut and my gaze dropped to the carpet at my feet.
“Eyes up, Miss Patrick,” she said, recalling my attention. “If that blush means what I think it does, I know exactly why you’re still
here, and I promise you, there’s nothing wrong with your desires.”
Who was this woman? At first, I’d thought she was the devil disguised in a Prada suit, but now, I wondered if she wasn’t actually my fairy godmother.
Slowly, I raised my eyes and let her see all the wickedness I’d kept hidden from the world. Somehow, I knew she would understand my dark, lustful thoughts and give me the power to own them.
“Do you remember what Steve said just before you had him thrown out?” I asked.
“Of course.” Her red lips spread into a knowing grin.
“I want that.” My neck grew hot, and my panties grew damp beneath my jeans. “When I close my eyes at night, that’s what I dream about.”
“What else do you dream about, my tempting little virgin?”
“I … I dream about a man who knows what my body craves before I do. Someone who will take me to the edge of what I can endure. A man who will give me pleasure unlike anything I’ve ever known.”
Just saying the words out loud was a rush unlike anything I’d ever known.
“Hmm,” she mused, tapping steepled fingers against her lips and then flipping over the top page of the stack of papers in front of her. “Why don't we take a look at the contract. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
The sudden shift in conversation was like a bucket of cold water tossed over my steaming head. I could still feel my clit throbbing between my legs. I was so damn horny, and I hadn’t even touched myself.
With my eyes fixed on the document, I began reading. The first few pages were standard legalese, but as I flipped the pages, things got interesting. My eyes flew over the words, and my heart sped up.
“I thought Steve’s debt was a hundred thousand dollars?”
Secrets and Lies: A Forbidden Mafia Romance Page 10
