He quickly disappeared onto the balcony, leaving the glass sliding door open an inch in his haste.
The bedroom light abruptly came on, and Ruby appeared in his line of vision. She stopped in front of her dresser, opened the top drawer, and pulled some items free.
Lincoln stood frozen to the spot as she gripped the hem of her T-shirt and lifted it over her head.
He almost swallowed his tongue when her perfect breasts sprang free. He’d never seen a more sensual body in all life. Not on television and certainly not in any magazine.
She tossed the T-shirt onto her bed and shimmied out of her shorts. She wore nothing more than a skimpy pair of white, lacy panties.
Hatred for her warred with a bone-deep desire to touch her, to smell her skin, to taste her—
What the hell am I doing?
An erection unlike any he’d ever had before throbbed behind the zipper of his jeans, a painful reminder of the weakness he’d allowed himself to fall prey to.
Damn her, he silently seethed, adjusting his steely shaft into a more comfortable position.
Ruby suddenly stilled, her gaze lifting to the mirror to peer at the very spot where Lincoln stood.
A soft gasp escaped her, and she snatched up a scrap of material to cover her breasts before spinning around to face the door.
The Beast swiftly sailed over the side of the balcony, landing lithely on his feet. He disappeared into the shadows before she had time to make it to the door.
Berating himself for taking such a risk, he slipped through the back allies of New Orleans, unable to remove the image of a half-nude Ruby from his mind.
Was she to be part of his curse? A temptation from the devil himself? How the hell could he want something he despised with a passion that tormented his very soul?
He arrived at the seawall a short time later and dropped silently into his boat before starting the engine and heading toward home.
Stiles met him at the boathouse on his return. “I’ll see to the boat, Mr. Barone. Your dinner is in the oven.”
Nodding his cloak-covered head, Lincoln strode past him without a word. None were needed. His staff knew better than to question him on his comings and goings.
Foregoing his dinner, Lincoln took the stairs two at a time to his room, nearly tripping over Satan in his haste.
The giant wolf lifted his head and made a whiny sound in the back of his throat. He got to his feet, slinked over to Lincoln’s side, and sniffed at his cloak.
“You smell her, don’t you?” He patted the wolf’s head. “I can still smell her myself.”
Jerking the cloak from his shoulders, Lincoln tossed it across the room and moved to the window.
His gaze touched on the lights sparkling across the river. Ruby was out there, amidst those lights, in those damn lacy, white panties.
A howl ripped from his throat before he could stop it, scaring the wolf at his feet and triggering Satan’s own howl.
Lincoln wasn’t sure how long he stood there before he spun away from the window, picked up the overturned mirror, and stood it back up.
A piece of glass fell to the floor where he’d broken it in his rage earlier.
He quickly snatched up the blanket he normally used to cover it, hesitating when he caught sight of his reflection in its damnable surface.
His heart hardened with rage at the man staring back at him.
Unable to stop himself, Lincoln dropped heavily onto the side of his bed and peered helplessly at his reflection.
Had he not been born cursed, his life would have been completely different. He could have had any woman he wanted. Doors of opportunity would have opened before him, and the light would have been his friend.
But he’d never know the light. Darkness had become a constant companion since the day he’d arrived screaming into the world.
An image of Ruby swimming in that pool floated through his mind, and he hardened instantly.
His hand went to the button on his jeans, and he released it without conscious thought. He slid the zipper down, releasing his aching erection from its confines.
Lincoln yanked his shirt over his head and tossed it behind him, his gaze never leaving his reflection in the mirror.
He lifted slightly and slid his jeans down his thighs before gripping his throbbing shaft.
Ruby, he silently groaned, picturing her in those lacy panties.
Tightening his hold, Lincoln stroked his fist up and down his great length, all the while imagining Ruby standing before him.
Her tiny waist, slightly rounded hips, and muscular thighs taunted him as he continued to pump his erection, never taking his gaze from his reflection.
“Ruby,” he groaned, increasing his pace with punishing strokes. He hated himself for fantasizing about her, yet he felt powerless to stop it.
The sound of the doorbell ringing reached his ears, yanking him back to reality and the realization that he’d nearly gotten off thinking about his most hated enemy.
With a snarl of disgust, he released his now painful shaft and jumped to his feet.
He righted his jeans, yanked his shirt over his head, and tossed the blanket over the mirror.
Moving silently across his room, the Beast listened as Mrs. Tuff answered the front door. “May I help you?”
“I need to see Mr. Barone.”
Lincoln’s lips peeled back over his teeth at the sound of Ruby’s voice.
“At this hour?” Mrs. Tuff questioned nervously.
Ruby immediately shot back. “He can either see me now, or I’ll wait out here all night until he emerges in the morning. Either way, I’m not leaving until I speak with him.”
“Wait right here,” Mrs. Tuff stiffly responded.
Lincoln quickly snatched up his cloak and had it on before the housekeeper reached the top of the stairs.
“I heard,” he growled before she had a chance to announce his visitor.
Mrs. Tuff sniffed, staring at a place over his right shoulder. “What would you like me to tell her?”
“Send her to my study.”
That brought Mrs. Tuff’s gaze to his shadowed face. She squinted into the hood of his cloak, obviously attempting to see his eyes. “I’m sorry, did you say send her in?”
“You heard me. And we are not to be disturbed. No matter what you hear. Do I make myself clear?”
“Y-yes, sir,” she stammered, spinning on her heel and fleeing.
“Come, Satan.” Lincoln waited on the wolf to follow him out before striding across the hall to disappear into his study.
He rounded his desk, reached back to switch on a lamp behind him, and took a seat.
The light coming from behind him would ensure that he saw her face without her having the luxury of seeing his.
“Down, Satan.”
The giant wolf immediately trotted around the desk to lie at Lincoln’s feet.
Footsteps on the stairs sent Satan growling.
“Easy, boy. Stay.”
The vicious growling eased up some but didn’t stop all together.
Pulling the hood down low over his face, Lincoln hid his hands beneath the cloak’s thick material and leaned back in his chair to wait.
Chapter Nine
Ruby couldn’t believe she was actually in Lincoln Barone’s mansion.
Though she’d never seen him before, she knew he was a very powerful man in Louisiana. Not only did he own a several reputable shipping companies, but Barone’s Gentleman’s Club also belonged to him. And Barone’s happened to be the biggest, busiest high-end club in New Orleans.
“He’ll see you in his study,” the housekeeper bit out. “It’s the first door on your right at the top of the stairs.” With that, she disappeared around a corner, leaving Ruby to her own devices.
Glancing around nervously, Ruby rested her hand on the banister and slowly took the stairs to the top.
No sounds could be heard in the massive house. Not a television, radio, or voices of any kind.
Creepy, Ruby thought, taking in the intricate designs along the banister.
Pictures adorned the walls leading up to the second floor. Some were paintings and some portraits. Most were of a beautiful dark-haired woman with electric blue eyes. Ruby had never seen anyone with eyes so blue.
Others portrayed a handsome man at different stages in his life, smiling and holding onto the blue-eyed woman.
They must not have had children, Ruby concluded, noticing there were no kids in any of the photos. It also didn’t escape her that the blue-eyed woman wasn’t in the more recent pictures of the man.
Ruby stepped onto the second floor and hesitantly made her way to the first door on the right.
What she saw when she entered the room momentarily stunned her. She couldn’t seem to find her voice.
Someone sat behind a big cherrywood desk, wearing a cloak with the hood pulled low over their face. That was strange in itself, but nothing prepared her for the massive animal lying beneath the desk, showing its teeth and growling deep in its throat.
“Is that a timber wolf?” Ruby choked out, afraid like hell to move.
“Enough, Satan!” the cloaked man snapped.
Rooted to the spot inside the door, Ruby stared at the hooded figure for several heartbeats before switching her gaze back to the beast known as Satan. “He… Will it… Is he going to—”
“Sit down, Miss Atwood, and don’t make any sudden movements.”
Ruby backed up a step. “I’ll just come back at a later time.”
“Sit!” the man practically roared, scaring Ruby into the chair in front of the desk.
Her heart pounded so hard she was sure that Satan would hear it and rip the beating organ clean from her chest.
“How do you know my name?” Ruby whispered, hating the fear that resonated in her voice.
The hooded man ignored her question, nodding instead to the papers she carried in her hand. “Is that the deed to your house?”
Ruby’s mouth dropped open. She laid the papers on his desk and sucked in great gulps of precious oxygen. “It is. How did you—”
“I assure you, the documents are legal, Miss Atwood.”
“I’m sure they are,” Ruby shot back, her voice gaining strength. “That’s not why I’ve come.”
He merely sat there, still as a stone, watching her from beneath that dark hood.
Clearing her throat, Ruby glanced at the timber wolf beneath the desk and shifted in her seat. “I read over the papers, Mr. Barone. I’m assuming you’re Mr. Barone?”
At his slight nod, she continued. “I understand that it’s legal. I’m here to ask you if we can work out some kind of payment arrangement. I can’t lose my home. It’s been in my family for years.”
“Your father should have thought of that before he gambled it away, Miss Atwood. He obviously didn’t care how many years it had been in the family.”
Ruby swallowed hard. The raspy growl of the man’s voice sent chills up her spine. She would give anything to be able to see his face, to look him in the eye as she pleaded with him. “I’m aware of that, sir. But you have to understand, Daddy was an addict. Gambling was his weakness. Please don’t make my little brother and I have to suffer any more than we already have.”
“He made the deal, Ruby. A debt is a debt.”
The use of her first name caught Ruby off guard. “H-how…?” She swallowed and tried again. “Have we met before?”
“No. But I know who you are. You’re Charles Atwood’s daughter. Agatha Atwood’s granddaughter.”
A strange foreboding came over Ruby. The tone of Barone’s voice indicated anger, resentment…malice. But why would it be directed at her? She’d never done anything to him. In fact, he held all the cards as she saw it.
She inhaled a fortifying breath and tried again. “Look, Mr. Barone. All I’m asking for is a bit more time. I feel certain that if you would extend the thirty days—”
“There will be no extension,” he interrupted, his voice brooking no argument.
Anger reared its ugly head. Ruby had always battled with her unpredictable temper, and now was no exception. “So, you’re going to take our home, just like that?”
She suddenly stood, snatching up the papers with jerky movements. The wolf growling beneath the desk barely penetrated her rage-filled mind. “We’ll see about that, asshole. You can sit in your creepy mansion, dressed like the Grim Reaper with your scary wolf all you want! But I’ll be damned if I’ll let you intimidate me. I’ll have your money to you by the due date. You won’t get my house, you freak!”
Spinning on her heel, Ruby turned to go.
But his next words stopped her. “We may be able to work something out.”
Ruby stopped in the doorway, her back still to him. “And what might that be?”
“You spend the remainder of the month with me.”
Certain she’d heard him wrong, Ruby slowly turned to face him. “Pardon?”
“You heard me. You belong to me for one month, to do with as I please. Not only will the house remain yours, but the money your father lost, the six-hundred-fifty-thousand will be returned to you as well.”
Ruby’s mouth opened and closed. She blinked a couple of times and stared at him in disbelief. “You want me to be your whore?”
“Call it what you will, Miss Atwood. I believe it’s a reasonable offer. One month with me, for the money and the house. That’s well over a million dollars.”
“Money that was mine to begin with!” Ruby snapped, shocked and beyond livid. “You can take your deal and shove it up your arrogant ass, Mr. Barone. I may be a lot of things, but a whore damn sure isn’t one of them.”
With that, she stalked from the room. She didn’t slow until she reached the ferry that would take her back across the river to the French Quarters.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. The ferry closed ten minutes ago,” a tall, lanky man with thinning hair informed her.
Ruby sighed in irritation. “Can you make an exception this once? I’ll pay extra.”
“I wish I could, but unfortunately everything we do is monitored.”
Glancing around the shoreline, Ruby pulled her cell phone from her pocket and called for a cab.
After rattling off the address, she returned the phone to her jeans pocket and glanced up the hill to Lincoln Barone’s house. A lone figure stood in the upstairs window.
It suddenly moved, disappearing from view like a phantom.
Ruby shivered and took a seat on a nearby bench to wait on her cab to show, thoughts of her conversation with Barone playing through her mind.
He wanted her to be his whore.
The sheer arrogance of the man astounded her. But his audacity is what took the cake.
What kind of a man would make such an assumption?
A very rich one, Ruby silently acknowledged with a frown. A man with more money than sense.
The ferry captain finished locking up for the night and trailed over to where Ruby sat. “I live just about a mile inland. You’re welcome to walk with me. We can call you a cab once we reach my place.”
There was something about the man Ruby didn’t trust. Maybe it was the close set of his beady eyes, or the way his gaze remained glued to her chest when he spoke.
Ruby pasted on a brave smile. “Thank you, but my cab should be here any minute.”
“It’s not safe to sit out here alone in the dark,” he persisted.
Looking him square in the eyes, Ruby lied. “I have a weapon. Like I said, I’ll be fine.”
He glanced down toward her pockets before shrugging. “Suit yourself. But don’t say I didn’t try.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Ruby responded with a calmness she didn’t feel, “but I’ll be fine.”
More than a little relieved to see him stride off up the hill, Ruby felt her shoulders relax.
She got to her feet and glanced at her watch. It had been fifteen minutes since she’d called for a cab.
Ruby began t
o pace along the river’s edge, her gaze scanning the trees for any sign of movement, when two men stepped from the shadows and split up, moving to either side of her.
Taking a step back, Ruby let her gaze touch on every possible route of escape, her mind freezing up in terror. “Stay back!”
“Don’t run, sweetheart,” one of the men taunted. “We just wanna talk.”
Ruby spun on her heel and darted to the right, running with every ounce of strength she had, only to be slammed into from behind. Her feet flew out from under her, and she sailed through the air with her hands out in front of her.
The weight of her attacker landed on her back, knocking the wind from her lungs with a force that nearly knocked her unconscious.
Agony sliced through her body, taking what little breath she had left.
A hand wrapped around her ponytail, jerking her head painfully to the side. “What do we have here?”
“Go to hell,” Ruby croaked, barely able to get the words out through her chattering teeth.
“Oh, she’s a feisty one, Lester.”
The one known as Lester shifted his weight and ground his erection against Ruby’s ass.
Ruby went wild, kicking and clawing with every ounce of strength she possessed, to no avail.
“I like my women wild,” Lester sneered, reaching beneath her to pop the button free on her jeans.
Tears of terror sprang to Ruby’s eyes. No matter how hard she fought, she couldn’t free herself from her assailant’s hold.
The scream that had been trapped in her lungs burst free as the man on her back rose up and jerked her jeans down her hips.
A howl split the night, followed by a snarl and the most vicious growl Ruby had ever heard.
Lester was suddenly yanked from her back and tossed to the side as if he weighed nothing.
Ruby lifted her head in time to see a robed figure grip her attacker by the collar and snatch him to his feet.
Satan sailed through the air, slamming into her assailant’s partner. They rolled down the hill in a tangle of snarling arms and limbs.
The screams coming from the man in Satan’s grasp would haunt Ruby for the rest of her life. But nothing prepared her for the power the robed figure unleashed on Lester.
Ruby and the Beast: A Beauty and the Beast Novel Page 4
