The Debt

by Jackie Ashenden

  Heat pulsed through me. To stay with him, in that lovely hotel by the sea, as his lover...

  I couldn’t think of a single reason why I shouldn’t. Not one.

  Sure you can...

  But I pushed the thought away before it could form. No, I could do with a couple of days in a nice hotel with a hot AF billionaire. I’d be returning to Australia pretty soon anyway, so why not take the chance while I could?

  And apart from anything else, I hadn’t had a holiday for ages.

  And when it comes to say goodbye?

  Then I’d say goodbye. It wouldn’t be a problem.

  ‘I would love to.’ I ignored the strange ache in my chest. ‘I can call the company and tell them not to schedule any jobs for me for the next week.’

  ‘That means you won’t get paid, though.’

  He was astute, I’d give him that. ‘No, but I’ve put some money aside to cover holidays and sick days.’

  His thumb brushed over my skin again. ‘Just a few days, yes?’

  I put my palm flat on his chest and reached up to kiss him. ‘That is an absolute, yes.’

  We didn’t leave the room immediately after that.

  I pushed him back onto the mattress and straddled him, indulging my need to touch him, and he let me. Then he found another condom from somewhere and made me ride him, and I loved the growls and curses I brought from him. Then, when we were sweaty and sated, I made him turn over so I could examine the beautiful Chinese tattoo that covered his back.

  He’d got it done after his first fight, he told me. Because one of the people who’d bet on him was a tattoo artist who’d won a lot of money and was so pleased he’d offered Ash a free tattoo.

  Luckily the artist was good and the tattoo amazing, and after I’d explored it thoroughly, as a reward for his patience, I made him turn over and lie there while I kissed my way down his body and turned the same attention I’d given his tattoo to his cock, taking it into my mouth and sucking him until he roared my name, his fingers clutching tight in my hair.

  After that, we thought we’d better move, which turned out to be problematic when I remembered that he’d basically ripped my dress from me and now it was nothing but emerald green bits of fabric on the floor.

  We solved the dilemma by Ash ripping down one of the silk curtains from the window and draping it sari-like around my naked body.

  I didn’t care what it looked like. There was something wild running through me, the same kind of recklessness I’d felt when I was driving one of the Pythons, wanting to go faster and uncaring about the consequences.

  The Little madness, my mother had called it once, slightly disapprovingly.

  But she wasn’t wrong. It was a kind of madness. As we left the suites, people stared at us, me in my improvised dress, and Ash in his rumpled tux, and I didn’t care.

  In fact, I enjoyed the attention, relishing it even more as Ash put his arm around my waist and pulled me tight against him, making no bones about the fact that I was his.

  And this time it was almost real. For the next few days at least, I was his.

  Ash took us back to the bar so he could firm up the deal with Delaney, acting as though him leaving abruptly and us both being away for a couple of hours hadn’t happened.

  Delaney was delighted and after a handshake and the numbers of their respective lawyers had been exchanged, we left the bar and headed towards the exit, both of us eager to get back to our hotel and resume what we’d started up in the private suites upstairs.

  Imogen stopped us as we left, murmuring something to Ash about the next club event that was supposed to be held at one of his new luxury hotels in Monte Carlo. Then she mentioned something about supercars, which made my ears prick up.

  ‘What do you mean the supplier fell through?’ Ash demanded.

  Imogen was frowning, her poise not quite what it had been when we’d met her at the beginning. ‘There was some production issue. The cars had to be recalled and they won’t be ready in time.’

  Ash flicked a glance at me. ‘I think I might know where to get some more.’

  Something moved like lightning through my whole body. Imogen had turned to look at me expectantly. ‘You know someone?’ she asked.

  ‘Actually, I do,’ I said, the wild recklessness still burning inside me. ‘My family makes hand-built supercars.’

  Imogen frowned. ‘We have a certain market—’

  ‘They meet the market,’ Ash interrupted flatly. ‘I’ve seen them. The club members will love them, I guarantee it.’

  ‘Well, we need them in a month in Monaco. That’s not a lot of time.’

  I could feel my excitement deflating slightly. Of course it wasn’t. Not when the cars were built in Australia and we’d need to ship them.

  ‘Not a problem,’ Ash put in again. ‘We’ll get them to you.’ His gaze burned as he looked at me. ‘I can work it so we’ll meet the deadline.’

  Imogen gazed at the pair of us sceptically. ‘I’m not so sure. But seeing as how I don’t have a lot of choice... Fine. I’ll need to be kept in the loop, though, since I’ll have to adjust the marketing.’

  ‘No problem. Give me a couple of days to sort a few things and I’ll get back to you with the details.’

  This appeared to satisfy Imogen and a minute or two later, I found myself being tugged along as Ash pulled me towards the entrance.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?’ I asked worriedly as we walked.

  ‘Taking advantage of an opportunity.’ The blue of his eyes burned incandescent and not with anger this time, but with excitement. And I could suddenly see why his mother would have given him all her money—why many people did. When he was like this, he was mesmerising.

  ‘An opportunity? I can’t get a bunch of cars to Monaco in a month,’ I protested. ‘Not when we have to ship them from Aus.’

  ‘Don’t limit your thinking, Miss Little.’ He flashed me a grin as the limo came for us. ‘We don’t need to ship them from Australia, not when I have a factory in France. We can build them there and drive them to fucking Monaco.’

  I stared at him in shock. ‘What? You just happen to have a factory vacant in France? Really?’

  ‘I have lots of different companies doing different things. And yes, one of those things is a factory in France that just happens to be vacant. Or rather, it produces automotive parts and I’m sure we can make a few adjustments for your Pythons.’ He frowned and I could almost see him sorting through all sorts of ideas and plans, weeding the wheat from the chaff. ‘I’m happy to fly your father and any engineers he might want to bring out. In fact, I’ll get Petra to contact him. No, scratch that, I’ll contact him myself.’ He had his phone out already, his thumb moving swiftly over the screen, obviously typing out some notes to himself.

  I kept on staring, dumbfounded at how quickly he moved when he wanted to. ‘But I—’

  ‘Unless you want to call him?’ Ash suddenly lifted his gaze to mine. ‘After all, you were the one who came here to solve his debt problem. If this works out, he’ll be making some returns even sooner than we anticipated.’

  It was true. But the thought of talking to Dad felt wrong. I would be excited and he wouldn’t. He’d try and damp it down somehow, turn a big deal into something small. And I didn’t want small. Not yet. Right now, I wanted to enjoy the excitement of it all.

  ‘You can tell him,’ I said. ‘He’ll like that you called him directly.’

  Ash scowled. ‘He should be fucking grateful that I thought of him at all. And I only did because of you.’

  I flushed, feeling a little disloyal at how pleased that made me, but feeling it anyway. ‘I think he will be,’ I said. ‘Anyway, I’ll be helping—’

  ‘No, you won’t.’ Ash’s eyes gleamed as he waved away the chauffeur, opening the door to the limo for me himself. ‘I’ve thought of
something else that you’ll be doing.’

  ‘Oh? And what’s that?’

  There was a hot, feral light gleaming in his eyes. ‘Get in the car, Miss Little. Monaco can wait, but my cock can’t.’

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Ash

  IT TURNED OUT to be longer than a few days in Dubai.

  It soon turned into a week.

  Yes, we had stuff to organise but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be managed via email and phone. The rest of the time we spent either lounging naked beside the suite’s private pool and sipping cocktails, or in the bedroom fucking each other senseless. Or sitting comfortably in the suite’s lounge, just talking.

  A couple of times we went out into the city and I showed Ellie around since I’d been to Dubai a lot. She wasn’t at all fazed by the heat and loved the cultural differences, the markets, as well as the high-tech luxury playgrounds. We even spent a night in the desert, in a well-appointed tent, where I made her scream at the stars high above us.

  There was only one issue: spending time with Ellie only made me want to spend even more time with Ellie.

  Her honesty and directness I already knew about, but I soon got to know her dry sense of humour, too. She was ridiculously easy to tease and blushed adorably when I did, which meant I spent quite a lot of time teasing her. To which she responded in kind.

  Apparently—or so she told me—I was easy to tease, too, though my response wasn’t to blush. It was to take her to the floor and have my way with her, which meant she ended up on the floor quite a lot, given how much she liked teasing me in return.

  I also managed to slowly draw her out about her electric supercar project, which she was very reluctant to talk about. I soon found out why—her father thought it was nonsense. Which incensed me, since I thought it was brilliant. No, I thought it was visionary.

  I made no bones about my opinion, too, and though it took a couple of days and several rounds of convincing in bed, soon she was telling me in intricate detail about the five-year design process she’d gone through to get the car to the prototype stage.

  Her passion for it shone in her eyes, coming slowly but surely, like the sun rising.

  ‘I honestly don’t understand why your father wouldn’t even contemplate a prototype,’ I said on our last night as we watched the sunset from the pool area. ‘Why is that?’

  She was lying on one of the sun loungers, her naked body gone a lovely deep gold after days in the sun, the sunset gilding her like a statue. She sighed, swirling the tall glass of lemon, lime and bitters she liked drinking in the evening. ‘He prefers internal combustion engines. He thought the technology wasn’t good enough to get the kinds of speeds people like these days.’

  I’d already talked to Oliver Little at length, a laconic Australian who’d been pleased to hear the news I’d given him of the Australis coup in Monaco, though not overly effusive about it. He and a couple of his sons were already in France getting the factory I’d set aside as a Python workshop up and running.

  He hadn’t mentioned Ellie once in any of the conversations I’d had with him, and I could imagine him not knowing how to deal with his ebullient and honest daughter, whose passions ran deep and yet bubbled up no matter how hard she tried to keep them down.

  ‘Yet you kept working on it,’ I said.

  Her eyes gleamed. ‘Yes, of course. I wasn’t going to give it up just because he didn’t like it. Electricity is where the automotive industry is heading and he really needs to get with the programme.’

  I liked how stubborn she was, rising to every challenge that was set to her.

  No, I loved it.

  The real challenge is going to be letting her go afterwards.

  Sadly, it was. Because no matter how much I liked spending time with her, the days of our affair were numbered. I had other things to do and so did she, and there was no room in my life for more than what we had right now. There never had been. I wasn’t a man built for relationships. Not given how severely I’d mismanaged the few relationships I did have.

  She’d told me it wasn’t too late, but she didn’t understand. Of course it was too late. The money I’d lost for Mum was gone and with it her trust in me. And as for Seb...twelve years of me being a bastard would be too much for anyone, let alone him.

  It had been tempting to throw the gift of the islands back in his face, but Delaney had been so thrilled at selling them to me that I hadn’t been able to refuse.

  Careful. You’re getting soft.

  The rays of the setting sun slid over Ellie’s tanned and golden skin, bringing out the gold lights in her brown hair. It was damp and had dried with a slight wave to it, and lying there naked, toying with her glass, a smile playing around her lovely mouth, she looked like a goddess.

  No, fuck, I wasn’t soft. I was hard. Especially looking at her.

  Oh, really? And the surprise you organised for her in London isn’t soft?

  No, it wasn’t. It was a parting gift, nothing more.

  Tomorrow we would leave and I was absolutely fucking fine with that.

  A strange feeling of pressure pushed against my heart, an ache that I couldn’t seem to get rid of.

  I ignored it.

  ‘Speaking of the programme,’ I said, a part of me reluctant to broach the topic, but knowing I needed to. ‘We’re leaving tomorrow, remember?’

  Instantly the light that had been in her eyes died and she looked away, fussing with her drink. ‘Oh, yes, of course.’

  The pressure in my chest became painful. ‘We need to leave it here, Ellie.’

  Her gaze came to mine then flicked away again. ‘What happens in Dubai stays in Dubai, you mean?’

  ‘Yes.’ The word sounded heavy and there was a part of me that hated the finality in it. ‘It was only ever meant to be a few days and it’s been a week already.’

  She looked down at her drink again, her lashes lowered, the light catching in the small golden strands. ‘Sure.’ Her lashes lifted again and she looked at me. ‘No drama.’ Her mouth curved in a smile that for some reason made the twisting sensation in my chest twist tighter. It wasn’t forced. It was completely natural and somehow that made it worse. ‘It’s been great, Ash. I mean...really great.’

  This was her brave face, wasn’t it? I knew. I could see the currents of pain in her green eyes. The currents she couldn’t quite hide. She was so laid-back and easy-going on the surface, but underneath there were passions in her that were vast and powerful.

  Passions like mine.

  I met her gaze, bearing her pain, ignoring the way it echoed inside me. ‘Better than great. Even sensational wouldn’t cover it.’ I let her see how much I meant it then went on, ‘But all good things must come to an end.’

  She gave a small laugh that sounded less like amusement than any laugh I’d ever heard. ‘I guess they must.’ After a second she lifted her glass and drained it, putting it down on the little table next to her. ‘One question I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why do you talk the way you do? You don’t sound like a guy brought up on a council estate.’

  My pretty little thing. She was always curious about me, wasn’t she? ‘It made school easier. And then I found out that it puts people off balance. I’m scarred and rough and yet I talk like an aristocrat. People find it very confronting.’

  Her gaze was direct. ‘It must get boring confronting people all the time. Don’t you ever get tired of it?’

  I felt something shift inside me. Something I didn’t particularly want to pay attention to. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Your whole life, Ash. It’s basically one big fight, isn’t it? Against your brother. Against your mother. Against your father. Against the entire world, really. Don’t you ever want to stop proving yourself to everyone all the time?’

  I didn’t know why all the muscles in my body tightened, as if I’d just taken a b
low. ‘I’m not proving myself to anyone,’ I snapped, scowling. ‘I’m being who I am. And if people can’t accept that then that’s their problem.’

  Ellie rose gracefully from the lounger, and my cock, ever hungry for her, hardened.

  She came over to me, glancing down at my unapologetic hard-on, then back up at me. ‘I accept you for who you are. Even when you’re being rigid and uncompromising and arrogant.’

  ‘You especially like me when I’m rigid.’ I reached out and grabbed her hand, guiding it down to my aching cock to prove my point. ‘Stop trying to pick a fight with me and do something else with that sassy mouth of yours.’

  Her fingers closed around me and the combative light left her eyes and she smiled. But there was something wistful in her smile. Something painful.

  She doesn’t want this to end.

  No. Which made it even more imperative that we end it. Because the longer this went on, the worse it would be for her when it came to a close.

  And for you, too.

  Maybe. It would hurt a little. But I was good at bearing pain. It was like a gut punch. At first it would take the air from your lungs and you’d fight to breathe, and then, once you could, the pain would set in. But it never lasted. Pain never did.

  Only anger, right?

  No. I was starting to see another way. And so I used it on her and the pain she was trying to mask, pulling her down with me on the lounger.

  And as the sun went down, I used pleasure to make her forget.

  At least for a while.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Ellie

  THE FLIGHT BACK to London was miserable, even though I tried to tell myself I was fine with it. That of course I was going to be feeling slightly sad about our affair ending, but it was only post-holiday blues. Soon it would pass.

  I had lots to look forward to, after all: the unexpected thrill of the Monaco opportunity and the chance for a new market for Australis.

  I was planning on going to France when I got back to London and visiting Dad at the new workshop Ash had set up. I wanted to check it out and see what Dad thought of the opportunity.