His Heart (By His Command #9) (billionaire romance / romantic suspense)

by Ana W. Fawkes

  I nodded.

  He then dried his hand and arm off, then fixed his sleeve. I watched him take care of himself, working in silence. He then turned and leaned against the counter again, watching me.

  “May I ask about the meeting?” I asked as I started to shower again.

  The heat and moisture between my legs had me throbbing and tender. I knew Jonathan had done what he did to keep me thinking of him while he was gone.

  “You’ll understand soon enough,” was his response.

  I looked at him and left it at that.

  Jonathan had a meeting to go to... and I had a meeting of my own to tend to.

  -3-

  Jonathan kissed me and left. He always kissed me when he left. When he left the hotel room. When he left the room even. And it wasn’t a commanding kiss, the kind that stole my breath out of erotic need. They were gentle kisses, almost fluttering, the kind that stole my breath out of romantic desire.

  I licked my lips as I stood in a towel and watched Jonathan leave the hotel room.

  The second the door clicked, I rushed to the bedroom.

  I saw the black dress on the bed and froze for a second.

  It made me think of Katherine.

  How she had ended up wearing a dress Jonathan had ordered to be destroyed. How her curvy figure fit so perfectly into the dress, able to make a blind man even drool over her. I pulled the towel open and let it fall, then gazed upon my own body. I touched my sides, my hips, knowing I didn’t have the same curves as Katherine.

  But did that matter?

  I had Jonathan Black, right?

  Wasn’t it his fingers pleasuring me just a few minutes ago in the shower?

  I smiled and skipped the dress, opting for something a little more comfortable until it was time to interrupt Jonathan’s meeting in the lobby.

  I dressed and went to work.

  I stood in the kitchen of the hotel room and opened the drawers. I looked at the collection of standard utensils. The spoons would do nothing. The forks could hurt but probably not kill... or at least kill in the short window of time I’d have to find to take care of Katherine once and for all. The steak knives were okay, but they were too small. I needed something... big.

  I saw the knife block on the counter and smiled. For some reason I expected it to be a prop. I mean, we were in a hotel room, right? What hotel room needed so much of this stuff? I guess it was more of an apartment than a hotel, so it made sense to be furnished like this. Men like Jonathan Black spent a lot of time in hotels. They weren’t on vacation or looking for a place to stay, they quite honestly lived in these kinds of hotels for days and weeks.

  I touched the end of the knives and started pulling them out, one by one, laying them on the counter. I organized them from biggest to small, admiring the length of the blades, the jagged or smoothness of the blades, deciding which one I’d use to murder Katherine. Of course, the butcher’s knife seemed most logical.

  Right?

  That’s what they usually used in horror movies and other murderous, thrilling movies. It was the biggest knife with a vicious tip. I lifted the knife and imagined what it would feel like to jam that knife into Katherine.

  Then it occurred to me.

  Where would I stab her?

  If I hit the wrong spot and she was just hurt, I’d be dead. She could flee and come back to kill Jonathan and me without hesitation. The power of Katherine was something I didn’t take lightly and I wondered just how powerful she really was.

  I swung the knife one more time and then dropped it.

  I backed up and put my hands to my mouth.

  What the hell was I thinking?

  The thought attacked me again and again.

  Who was to say Jonathan didn’t plan on killing Katherine himself? That seemed more logical than me going to do it, right? If I just talked to Jonathan, expressed myself, maybe he’d take the action. He could get someone to do it. He could find a way to make Katherine disappear. Maybe he would even just give her the three billion dollars and be done with it.

  Then what?

  On some random day I’d find a cell phone in my pocket with another message? Another message demanding money or people would die? Because that’s how Katherine was. She didn’t just want three billion dollars. She wanted Jonathan to suffer. And the easiest way to make him suffer was through me. By messing with my mind.

  I looked at the knife again and an even more terrible thought came to me.

  What if I disappeared?

  If I was just gone... dead... then Katherine couldn’t use me anymore, could she? She’d be forced into hiding, to form another plan.

  I swallowed as the sick thoughts tried to make sense in my mind.

  Then it came to me that even if I was dead, Katherine wouldn’t stop. Jonathan would be lost and heartbroken and that would maybe give her a chance to swoop in. It would become easier. She would play into his emotions and get everything she wanted... maybe even including him.

  I tried to think about that for a second.

  Katherine and her amazing body. Her sultry curves touching Jonathan Black’s perfect body...

  I growled.

  I lunged forward and grabbed the knife. My hand had a fist around it, my knuckles white.

  I can do this.

  I could. I really thought it then.

  I could do this.

  Just stab her.

  Kill her.

  I put all the knives away and calmed myself. I had to remain calm. I had to keep my head clear and wait for the right moment for everything to come together. It had been days since our last encounter with Katherine.

  But I knew she was still lingering.

  Either across the street in a hotel room or right in the very same hotel as us. She was there. I could feel it. I could... smell it even.

  I hated her so much.

  I paced the hotel room, really getting into the mindset to kill.

  I could do it, but I wasn’t sure a knife would be the weapon of choice. It was too risky if I stabbed the wrong spot, or I missed. What if I didn’t have the strength to really get her?

  Before I could send myself into a panic, I rushed into the bedroom and stared at Jonathan’s side of the room. I always believed he had the means to protect us and now I wanted to find the proof of it.

  I started with the dressers and came up with nothing. Then I went to the closet, doing my best to move things without actually disturbing them. I didn’t want to touch a thing and have Jonathan know I was in his closet. I didn’t want to lose his trust and I didn’t want to confess what I planned on doing.

  This was my idea.

  This would be my execution.

  And it would all be for Jonathan Black.

  I’d show him her body. I’d hold his hand. I’d kiss him.

  That would be the moment we would finally come together as one, once and for all. All enemies eliminated.

  I dug through his belts and that’s where the payoff came. At the bottom of the belts, I saw it. I glimmer of it at first. I then began to take the belts out of the drawer, like black leather snakes, their metal pieces clanking together. I dropped them all to the floor, knowing I’d have to roll each one up with the precision that had once been done.

  I didn’t care.

  I needed to get to the bottom of the drawer.

  And when I finally did, I touched it.

  I touched the gun.

  That’s what I was looking for.

  A gun.

  I was almost afraid to pick it up, fearing I would do something and shoot by accident. But if I was going to kill Katherine I’d need to learn how to hold it, right? I’d need to learn how to shoot, or at least look like I knew what I was doing.

  I lifted the handgun and let it rest in the palm of my hand. I swallowed a few times. The closet suddenly felt like I was standing on the surface of the sun. It all started to make sense then I knew what I would do to Katherine. I visualized it and as I put the gun back into the draw
er, I started to make my peace with the decision. I needed to calm my nerves and now move to the next step of my plan.

  And that was finding Katherine.

  I rolled up the belts and covered the gun just as everything had been when I entered the closet. I got a drink and let myself slip deep into thought. I thought about Jonathan Black and all we had been through. What started as an obsession and fantasy had now turned into this. The ultimate example of love and life. Everything coming together perfectly.

  I really did love him.

  Not just in the erotic fantasy way... not just because he pleasured me, tied me up, commanded my body... he had stolen my heart.

  And I’d make sure nobody stole his or hurt his ever again.

  The time had finally come to dress and go see Jonathan.

  My eyes were burning with murderous intent and I needed to rid that look, for now.

  As I dressed, I thought about Katherine. About how she’d no longer be a problem.

  And I smiled the entire time.

  -4-

  I exited the elevator feeling confident. The elevator ride seemed extra slow, which was great. I had closed my eyes and taken a few deep breaths, completely removing myself from the situation upstairs. I felt like I was now two people, two different sides of Isabella Grace. Almost like Katherine. I’d match her sexiness and craziness all at once.

  The soft, sweet, desperately innocent side of myself was reserved for Jonathan Black and all his love and need. The crazy bitch that churned inside me was all for Katherine.

  I smiled as I walked through the lobby and turned to enter the dining area at the restaurant in the hotel. I paused for a second and looked around, not seeing Jonathan Black at first. He wasn’t tucked away in a corner like usual.

  Jonathan sat at a table in the open.

  The wide open in fact.

  I saw the back of a man’s head... and neck rolls. Jonathan sat across from the man. They were talking and when Jonathan saw me, he smiled. He actually smiled. And it wasn’t a forced smile either. It was something that happened when he saw me. It made my heart beat a little faster, beating solely for him more than ever.

  He really did love me.

  I walked slow and with conviction to the table. The closer I approached I began to hear the man’s voice speaking to Jonathan.

  “The deal is simple once executed,” he said.

  The word executed made me shiver.

  “I’m figuring everything can and will go pretty smooth,” he continued. “We’ll keep minimal distraction in the case, I’m sure you understand that. The key though, Mr. Black, will be yourself. Your conduct. Your ability to remain calm, see the bigger picture waiting...”

  “As always,” Jonathan said.

  “Just think of calm seas ahead, right?”

  Jonathan nodded. “As long as nobody ends up buried...”

  That didn’t sound good.

  I stopped walking once I was next to Jonathan. He stood and took hold of my arm, eyeing me up and down for a second.

  “Isabella Grace, this is our good friend, Mr. Denninbraugh,” he said.

  I had heard the name and seen the man before. He was in the hotel room not that long ago, talking about a deal with Jonathan.

  “Hello,” I said quietly, and maybe even a little seductively.

  “Ah, yes,” Mr. Denninbraugh said as he stood. “The beautiful Isabella Grace.”

  I quietly gasped for a second. Had he really called me beautiful right in front of Jonathan Black? That was a taboo move, but Jonathan surprisingly didn’t say or do a thing.

  I shook hands with Mr. Denninbraugh and he smiled.

  “We were just talking business,” he said. “The usual.”

  “Yes,” Jonathan said. “Big moves are coming. Big moves.”

  The way Jonathan said it - big moves - made me nervous.

  “I assure you, Mr. Black, your company will benefit greatly,” he said. “That’s the key to survival, is it not? The ability to adapt and react, maybe not in that order but together, yes.”

  “I agree,” Jonathan said. “You can’t stand like a stick in the mud. Eventually someone will run you over or you’ll just slowly sink, consumed by your own ignorance and the perils of time.”

  “Spoken like a true businessman,” Mr. Denninbraugh boasted. “Now, if you don’t mind, Mr. Black, Ms. Grace, I must go make the final arrangements here...”

  Mr. Denninbraugh reached into his pocket and Jonathan took his wrist with force. My heart jumped. I expected something to happen.

  “Please,” Jonathan said. “I own all of this. You don’t pay.”

  “Of course,” Mr. Denninbraugh said. “Thank you.”

  “A true act of thankfulness is given in action not word,” Jonathan said.

  He let go of Mr. Denninbraugh’s wrist and Jonathan touched my back and led me away from the table. We didn’t speak a word as we walked. Jonathan led me to the end of the dining area and then pointed to the right. I noticed a little hallway and looked up at him for clarification.

  “That’s where we’re going to enjoy a meal before I leave,” he said.

  “Leave?” I asked.

  Jonathan nodded. “I have some business to handle, Isabella Grace. But you’ll be safe in our hotel room.”

  “What about...”

  Jonathan touched my face, stealing my words and breath. “We will sit and talk first.”

  I left it at that.

  We were seated at a private table in a private room. We didn’t need to order food because the menu had been preselected for us. I ate a light meal and Jonathan enjoyed a drink of scotch while he ate. I could see it in his eyes as the scotch went to work.

  He was calm.

  Relaxed.

  Loose.

  Dare I say it... excited?

  Something big was happening and I knew I’d find out as it happened. I had enough to worry about.

  “Isabella Grace,” Jonathan said, “there is something about people and enemies that you need to understand. They come and go, don’t they? They writhe in their own filth of jealousy and try to steal from us. They steal more than money, don’t they? They steal time, something not even I could buy. They steal the mind, which wastes time and money.”

  I nodded. I loved when Jonathan spoke to me like that. It was almost poetic and romantic.

  “Mr. Denninbraugh and I have some papers to take care of. Nothing to worry about. A private car will take me to his office and back. I will personally select my driver as I approach the car. Nothing will happen to me.”