by CR Robertson
Xavier stared at the door longingly.
“First baby?” the receptionist asked.
He nodded, panic still lurking in his eyes. I hiccupped, then started to laugh. This was the man who didn’t think twice about shooting someone, the man who’d killed Malcolm because he dared to touch me. The same man who couldn’t handle me crying over my favourite shoes.
“What the fuck?” he muttered darkly.
“Shush,” I said, covering my tummy with my hands. “No swearing in front of the baby.”
Xavier turned to the receptionist for help. She smiled benignly. “Doctor will call you when she’s ready.”
“She’d better be ready soon,” Xavier grated out, taking my arm to lead me to a chair in the waiting room.
I fell quiet, sitting watching him. He stared back at me.
“Finished?” he asked in a strained voice.
“I think so.” I glanced away to stare at the wall. “It’s still your fault.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You have to be nice to me since I’m the one getting too fat for my shoes and your baby is giving me funny hormones.”
His mouth gaped open in disbelief.
“Mr. and Mrs. Bartholomew?” A woman around my age stood looking at us expectantly. I was going to correct her about my title, but Xavier looked ready to strangle me already.
It was only when I was lying on the examination table with cold gel on my tummy that a wave of nostalgia hit me. I’d tried to avoid wanting my mum for years. Megan and I had each other at graduation and other significant events, but suddenly I needed my mum.
Xavier’s hand tightened on mine when a tear rolled down my cheek. “You doing okay?”
“Is it silly to want my mum when she’s been dead most of my life?”
“Nope. I feel the same every day about mine. She was the one woman who owned my heart. I like to think she found you to take over shouting and bossing me around.” He was trying to tell me I owned his heart now without saying the words in front of the doctor.
“Baby has a good, strong heartbeat.”
Our eyes moved to the screen and the tiniest little person in our life. A little flutter on the screen indicated the heart of our baby. Unconditional love blossomed in my chest for the tiny peanut-shaped person.
Xavier leaned closer to see the screen, his face filled with wonder. “Look at you, baby Bubble.”
If I didn’t already love the idiot, his expression would make me fall in love with him.
“Let me just check all your measurements and we’ll get your delivery date sorted and your chart started.”
Holy shit I was going to be a mum! The image on the screen made everything real. “We’re going to be parents,” I whispered.
“I can hardly wait,” Xavier said, pressing a kiss on my hand.
He made me feel safe and confident that we could do this. Suddenly the light at the end of the tunnel brightened and I could see a horizon with blue skies. It was no longer the lights of a train ready to hit me.
***
Chapter Seventeen
Xavier
If my jaw tightened any more, my back molars would shatter. My gaze moved rapidly over the screens in front of me, my fingers typing.
“You need to sleep,” Ash said from beside me.
“I can’t sleep when I’m in this mood, you know that.” Before I came down here, I made sure Cassandra was fast asleep and all my alarms were active.
Ash and I had already used my private gym next door to fight my demons in a sparring match. I still wanted to kill something. If Malcolm was still alive, I’d go and blow his brains out again.
Jordan picked Megan up not long after I left with Cassandra, taking her to collect what she needed from her apartment. I doubted anyone would target Megan, but Jordan was in a foul mood and none of us were going to interfere since we discovered he’d had a tracker on her for a while. There was enough crazy in my life with one pregnant woman.
Malcolm’s business partners arrived tomorrow. Jordan had traced who he thought they were from some of the business transactions, and they were evil men. The three of us were bad bastards but these men made us look almost angelic in comparison. They were slimy, perverted fuckers with appetites that made me want to puke in the nearest bin. Their reach was far and their allies plentiful. I had no idea what we were supposed to do with them.
I’d read all the files that Cassandra’s father had left, photographing some of them on my phone before replacing them in the safety deposit boxes. They’d been safe there all these years, so there was no point in moving them now.
When Malcolm mentioned the Doulton files, it shook a memory loose of Dad asking Cassandra if she’s included the Doulton files in her new modern computer system. At the time, I’d thought it was odd that he wanted to know about a specific file. Now it stunk like a ten-day old corpse lying in the middle of your living room that you were trying to step around.
Jordan had tracked down our jewel thieves and we had a plan to get them back. It would take some careful planning and a little subterfuge, but then what didn’t nowadays?
Add in the fact that our new business venture was opening soon, and I was back to being an insomniac. It was one of the reasons I made this apartment into an office.
“Want to talk about it?” Ash persisted, and I felt his gaze land on me.
I stopped typing and stared out the window that overlooked the city. “I’m worried I can’t keep them all safe. It’s not just one mess at the moment, we’re juggling several.” I started to tick them off on my fingers. “Malcolm and the sex deviants he was in business with. The jewel thieves who’ve also crossed Uncle Lucas. This Doulton fiasco.”
Groaning, I rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands.
“Don’t forget Michael,” Ash said.
“Fuck!”
“Could be worse. Your girlfriend could be pregnant and you’re planning a secret wedding she doesn’t know about.” He flashed me his best asshole grin.
“Thanks, you’re such a help,” I snarked.
“Anytime.” He shrugged.
“We discovered anything new?” Jordan asked as the door closed, alerting us to his presence.
“Nah, these fuckers seem to have several rocks that they hide under,” Ash replied.
“And we’re only working on assumptions of who they are,” I muttered. “Considering we didn’t know Malcolm was into the flesh trade, they’re all probably flying under the radar.”
“What about the financial trail?” Jordan demanded. His hair was sticking up as if he’d been running his hands through it for hours in frustration.
“I think I’ve managed to clean most of the trails up,” Ash confirmed. “He hadn’t been overly clever about his transfers since he never thought any of us would be looking into it.”
“I never liked him,” Jordan grated out. “It’s always the quiet ones that are up to creepy stuff in the dark corners.”
“How’s Megan?” I asked innocently.
He glared at me for several seconds. “She keeps leaving her crap all over my apartment.” Jordan was a clean freak who thrived on order. From what I’d seen, Megan was the chaos to that order.
“Welcome to my world of bras everyfreakingwhere. I swear that Cas deliberately takes them out of her drawer and hangs them around the place like decorations. And I won’t even mention the long hairs.”
“Maybe I should shave Meg’s head,” Jordan contemplated out loud.
Ash and I shared a look because we knew that Jordan wouldn’t think twice about doing it if he thought it would keep his living space tidy.
A red light flashed on the far wall and a siren sounded from the mantlepiece.
“Fuck!” I opened the top drawer beside me and pulled out the Glock I had there.
Jordan pulled a gun from the back of his belt.
Ash stared at me and I nodded to the drawer beside him.
A secret staircase led from a panel beside the window in th
is apartment to another hidden panel in the back of the wardrobe in my apartment. My thumbprint on the scanner opened the door to allow us all in.
Voices echoed from the living room as we silently prowled closer.
“Ten million is a lot of money. Think about it,” Dad said.
“I’ve already told you that money has nothing to do with what Zee and I have. We’re having a baby. Do you really expect me to walk away just because you wave cash under my nose?”
“That could buy you your own law firm,” he argued. “I’ll have a contract drawn up that gives Xavier full custody of the child.”
The tension in my jaw radiated through my body until my temper snapped. “Enough!” I roared, stomping through the door. “Are you fucking serious?”
Dad and Cassandra’s eyes turned to me in shock before Dad’s narrowed at Cassandra in accusation. “You said Xavier was out.”
Her brow furrowed and she fiddled with the hem of her top. “He was.”
“I own several floors of this building,” I retorted. “There are escape routes built in between rooms. What the fuck are you doing, Dad?”
“Saving you from making a mistake. I’ve been in negotiations with some of the other families we’re associated with about brokering a marriage between our families.” He straightened and folded his arms across his chest.
Jordan and Ash stepped out, their expressions serious. “I assume this includes most of the families?” Ash asked.
“It makes sense to consolidate our interests,” Dad replied defiantly.
“Cassandra’s father was a member of the Council,” I pointed out.
Dad stared at her. “She would have been eligible if she’d been raised in our world. But she’s spent years forging her own path and becoming feral and detached from our mission.”
Cassandra gasped and stepped back as if he’d slapped her across the face with his insult.
“Fuck this,” I muttered, suddenly tired when not ten minutes ago I was complaining about being an insomniac. “Get out, Dad.”
He eyed me. “No. All the arrangements have been made. You can cancel your little gathering on Friday. I’ve already spoken to the relevant parties tonight. At this dangerous time, we need all our assets together.”
I would never put a hand on Dad, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t let Jordan or Ash do it. My gaze moved to them and I motioned they remove him with a jerk of my chin. Without thinking, I tugged Cassandra against me, my chin on top of her head. “I wanted you to be a part of our lives, Dad. That can’t happen if I don’t trust you.”
Cassandra relaxed, her arms slowly moving around my waist. Did she really think I would walk away from her?
“There will be no cancellation of my plans. The only amendment will be your absence. Get him out of my sight.”
Jordan and Ash flanked him to usher him to the door.
“I haven’t finished what I wanted to say,” he hissed.
“You’ve said enough,” Ash replied in a low voice. “Zee’s spent years broken because your trophy wives pawed him from an early age. Could you just not have been happy that he found someone he wanted to be with?”
Jordan pushed him from the room, but I’d already turned my back on what was happening.
“What gathering did he want you to cancel?” Cassandra asked in a low voice.
I groaned and arched my back to peer down at her. “I guess it isn’t a secret anymore. We’re getting married on Friday. Megan helped me pick you a dress based on what you had talked about growing up.”
She stared up at me without blinking.
“The renovation on our house is nearly complete, and I had a nursery added to the plans.” Now I was starting to ramble. “You can pick all the colour schemes for the rooms when the builders have finished.”
I swallowed, trying to think of something else to fill the awkward silence.
“Say something, Cas.”
“Friday is my sister’s birthday.” Her eyes filled with tears.
“Ah, shit. I’m sorry, baby.”
Cassandra shook her head. “I think it’s a beautiful way to remember her.” She stretched up to kiss me. “But I need to see my dress before Meg turns me into a meringue for the day.”
I expected an argument and her to be indignant that I’d overstepped some invisible boundary. Grabbing a key from a key safe inside the wardrobe, I took her through the hidden panel to the back staircase.
“I’ll programme your biometrics into the sensor in case you need to escape,” I told her when she stared at the hidden door with her mouth open.
One of the rooms two floors down had all the wedding paraphernalia stored in it. I hadn’t looked at her dress that was in the bedroom. Cassandra silently wandered around, lifting some of the decorations. She disappeared into the bedroom to view the dresses Megan had hung in there. The flowers were ordered, and stylist booked to do their hair and makeup.
“Megan did not order that dress,” she said when she came out a while later.
My lips tipped up in a vague smile. “I might have adapted the design slightly to suit you.” Megan had indeed gone for the faerytale princess dress. I told the dress designer what I thought would suit Cassandra and gave her photographs of the bride-to-be to work from.
She crawled onto my lap, her head resting on my shoulder. “You’ve been busy.”
“I wanted to give you a day to remember. After all, you’re giving up a lot to marry me.”
“Such as?”
My jaw tightened. “Ten million pounds to start with.”
“He’s just trying to protect you, Zee. You’re all he has and now he has to share your affection.”
“You won’t be able to work at your law firm anymore because of the security risk, especially now you’re pregnant. They’ll target what is worth the most to me. My ring on your finger paints a target on your back.”
Cassandra took in a staggered breath, her hand tightening on my T-shirt. “Yeah, I figured that out. I just didn’t know how soon all this would swing into action.”
“Yesterday would be preferable, especially since we seem to have enemies breathing down our necks everywhere I look.”
She smoothed the frown between my brows with her finger. “You worry too much.”
My eyes locked with hers. “I don’t worry enough.”
“Can I play around with the wedding details?” She chewed the corner of her lip, but excitement lurked in her eyes. Her reaction to getting married on Friday lifted some of the burden off my shoulders.
“Do whatever you need. The wedding planner’s number is on the kitchen counter. She has all the arrangements. Most things are changeable at the moment, except the dress. The designer can take it in or let it out depending on what you need, but I don’t think she can do much else to it.”
“I love my dress.” She wiggled on my lap so she could straddle my hips and kiss me.
My hands cupped her ass to hold her steady. “I just wanted it to be perfect for you. Normally, weddings take months to organise, but Bubble changed the timescale.”
Cassandra pouted, her expression contemplative. “How did you know your dad was in our home earlier?”
“Every door and window are alarmed. I’ll show you where the panic buttons are and organise access to the emergency exits.”
She frowned. “Would we not be safer staying instead of moving?”
“There’ll be security at both locations, but I want a home for our family, somewhere our children can have pets.”
“Children?” Cassandra arched a playful eyebrow.
“Definitely children,” I confirmed. “I told you months ago that you were it for me and I meant it. We both know that you’re too good for me, but I’ve claimed you, so you’ll just have to buckle in while I take us on this marital ride.”
Her full lips tipped up in a grin. “You’re getting very bossy, mister.”
“You have no idea,” I muttered against her mouth. “Wait until our wedding night, and you�
�ve promised to love and obey…”
“Yeah, we can scrap that bit.”
“No way, baby. I want you to know that every time I tell you to get on your knees ready for me that you made a vow to do that.” I was already hard thinking about her saying the words to legally bind her to me. “You’re mine, now and always, just as I belong only to you.”
Our gazes locked in a battle of wills. The inner dominant in me wouldn’t back down on this. I craved her submitting to me in every way, and that included telling the world that she agreed to be mine and do everything I commanded.
“I can say the words, but that doesn’t mean I’ll obey.”
My hand grasped around her neck, putting just enough pressure on her throat to make her eyes widen and her mouth to fall open. “You’ll obey, Cassandra. We both know you can fight and pout, but inside that bedroom, you’re mine alone to control.”
I felt her try to swallow, her pupils dilating in arousal. She wanted to argue, but we both knew that I was telling the truth. She’d belonged to me in the darkness of The Midnight Rooms, but from the moment I saw her in the light, she was mine alone to enjoy. There would be no sharing her with other men in any of our clubs. I didn’t care if I had to fit a chastity belt on her and keep the key.
She leaned forward into my hand. “I think you need to remind me what you mean.”
A dark smile crossed my lips. “I’d love to.”
We didn’t make it back to our apartment. Instead Cassandra knelt on the sofa with her elbows braced on the back, screaming her release as I pounded into her.
At least this wedding den and reorganising our big day would keep her busy while I had to go and face this new unseen enemy tomorrow.
My teeth bit into her shoulder as she arched back into me. Both of us tended to mark each other during sex. I knew she’d feel my teeth on her flesh hours from now, the same way her nail marks on my back reminded me of her when I was sitting in meetings.
“Zee,” she gasped, her legs widening.
My hand around her throat brought her to sit on her knees, my cock lodged deep in her core. “You going to promise to obey?” I asked softly in her ear.
