by Lana Lachlan
His eyes slid over Anna. “We met in a club. I just popped in for a drink and noticed Anna here. I take it you girls are all here for the Hen Night?”
Cristal tossed the olive stick on the table, leaned back in the seat to study him through narrowed eyes. “I didn’t know Julian went to clubs. Anyway, Blake Sutton, would you like to dance?”
She half-stood, then sat down again with a giggle. “Maybe not.”
“What about you and I dance, Anna?”
Anna stared at him numbly, searching for some excuse and knowing it wouldn’t matter what reason she offered. He’d come to collect his ransom and had no intention of going home empty-handed.
Jodie slid out of the booth and tugged Anna’s arm, laughing. “Go on, Anna. Next time you dance, you’ll be a married woman.”
Shakily, Anna stood to accompany Blake to the dance floor. As he drew her in, his mouth brushed her ear. “After we finish our dance, you’re going to make some excuse to your friends and leave with me. We’ll go to your apartment.”
Even the warmth of the club couldn’t stop her body from icing up. “I can’t leave my own bachelorette party.”
She felt his laugh vibrate against her cheek. “You don’t want that paparazzi guy to know about the doorman outside, do you?”
From over Blake’s shoulder she saw the reporter at the bar talking to a group, camera slung around his neck while he constantly scanned the crowd for celebrities. She had no escape. Blake Sutton had taken her life. And Julian’s.
He seemed to know she’d given up because he tapped her bottom as he escorted her back to the group, standing close while Anna made her excuses to leave. She was tired and felt sick from too many cocktails, she told her friends, but there was no need for them to call it a night as Blake would see her home. The girls were so woozy themselves, they didn’t notice her fear as they gathered up her gifts and kissed her goodnight.
Cristal gave Anna a hug. “I’ll call you tomorrow, girlfriend.”
Blake’s hand touched her elbow. “Let’s go, Anna.”
“Cristal…” Anna said in a sudden bid for help, but Cristal had already turned away to slide back into the booth and start on a new cocktail. Anna had never felt so alone.
Gage? He would see them leaving the club.
Blake had that covered as well. “We’ll leave by the back door.”
He walked her through the crowd and into the parking lot at the rear of the building where he put her in an SUV and told her to buckle up. As he fired the engine, she saw him smile in triumph.
“A man could get used to living in a place like this with a woman like you.”
Anna looked up from fixing Blake Sutton’s whiskey and soda, nauseous at the sight of him sprawled on her sofa as though this was a normal situation. An invitation upstairs for a drink. A few minutes of flirting followed by the move to the bedroom.
The drive to her apartment had been in silence as had the trip in the elevator to the fifteenth floor. Only when they were inside her apartment had he spoken and that was to ask for his drink. She’d made a deal with the devil and once you made a deal with the devil, you couldn’t cancel.
Still, she tried. “You don’t have to do this, Blake.”
“Shut up.”
He said it without any emotion as though she was nothing more than something he’d purchased and brought home to use. He gestured for his whiskey and Anna’s hand tightened around the glass, tempted to hurl it in his face. Instead, she put aside her own emotions and handed him the glass.
“Sit down, Anna.”
Anna sat at the far end of the sofa, repulsed by his aftershave wafting in the air between them. Some women would find him and his aftershave attractive. Presumably she hadn’t minded it that night when he’d spoken to her at the club. Now she loathed everything about him. His expensive suit, his slicked back blond hair and his eyes that looked strangely blank. And that smirk of his. That horrible smirk of victory. Cristal always called his type prowlers. At clubs, she would point them out. ‘Prowler at three o’clock’ she’d say, or ‘prowler going in for the kill at table six.’ They’d laugh about it.
“Tell me about the doorman, Annaliesa. Everything you and he did.”
This prowler intended to play with her. “I hardly know him. Now please return my phone and engagement ring.”
“How many times did he fuck you?”
Crossing her legs, she brushed an imaginary fleck of dust from her skirt. “You must have me mistaken with someone else. I want my phone.”
With a shrug, he sipped his drink. “Later. Gage would’ve had you that first night because you went back for more the next day. Then you went to the gym. Where did he take you on his bike?”
Blake Sutton had been following her from the start.
“Apparently, Miss Stuck Up likes the rough ones,” he went on with a sneer. “What did he do that kept you going back?”
Anna shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“C’mon, Ms. Cabot. Talk to me or you’ll never see your phone and ring again.” He gave a short laugh. “Or your fiancé for that matter.”
Anna regarded her tormentor steadily, determined not to be the mouse to his cat. Anna shook her head. Her throat felt so dry, her head so woozy, she didn’t know if she could even give him what he wanted.
“If you don’t intend to talk, Anna,” he said, standing up to place himself inches from her face. “Put your mouth to some other use.”
Anna looked up at him, struggling to remain calm. “I’d like to change before we do anything.”
He laughed dryly. “Undo your dress here.”
Though she knew it wouldn’t do any good, she tried again to reason with him, to appeal to his decency. “Don’t do this, Blake.”
Rather than softening him, the use of his name seemed to anger him. “Don’t fuck with me. Open your dress.”
Shaking life a leaf, Anna undid the bodice buttons, peeling back the top to give him his view. His eyes were glued to her bare breasts as he unzipped his pants. “Before we go to the bedroom, show me what you can do and don’t disappoint me.”
Anna looked at the floor as if the small act of defiance might stop the awful thing he wanted or delay it until she wasn’t so repulsed by him. “I…”
She was cut off by the doorbell.
Her first thought was that Cristal had arrived to see if things were okay. Except Cristal had to be buzzed up to her floor. It must be her neighbor, old Mrs. Jackson, having trouble with her cable again. A lifeline, at least for a few minutes.
“I have to get this,” Anna said, on her feet and down the hall before he could object.
Holding her dress together with one hand, she wrenched open her front door, ready to hurl herself into the safety of the hallway. It took her several seconds to register that her doorway was completely blocked by Gage.
“What in the hell are you playing at, girl?”
Anna pushed down her shock to snap into action. “How did you get up here?”
He looked past her down the passage. “I had a word with your doorman. Where’s Sutton?”
Gage’s dangerous expression had Anna helplessly trying to block him, terrified he’d barge in and ruin everything. “Go away.”
Before she could close the door, he picked her up and put her to one side as though she were a piece of furniture in his way. Striding past her, he’d disappeared into the lounge before Anna could catch up and when she got there, Blake Sutton was sprawled on the floor, his face covered in blood.
Anna shrieked but Gage didn’t seem to hear her. Dragging Sutton up, Gage slapped him before holding him up by the back of the collar.
“Your days of harassing women are over, asshole.”
Sutton, woozy from the punch, hung limply as Gage propelled him forward to face Anna. The man had gone as white as his business shirt and when he slumped, she thought he’d passed out.
Gage jerked him up. “If you ever come near her again, Sutton, you�
��ll regret it. And before I toss you out, apologize to Ms. Cabot.”
He looked at her, defeated. “I’m… I apologize, Ms. Cabot.”
The last Anna saw of Blake Sutton was Gage half carrying, half dragging him out of the lounge followed by the slam of the front door. Seconds later, Gage returned, his face so thunderous, Anna shook in fear herself.
“Why didn’t you go to the cops like I told you to?”
Anna didn’t know whether to be relieved at being saved or furious that things were now worse. “Do you realize what you’ve done, you…?”
That was all Anna managed to get out before his warning expression clamped her mouth shut. He advanced on her, his eyes unnervingly cool and calm for an angry man.
“Always the bratty princess not doing what she’s told.”
“You could’ve killed him.”
He flexed the fingers of his right hand as though checking they still worked “I gave the bastard a half-strength right hook and a bloodied nose. He’ll live.”
Still peeved, Anna picked up a cushion from the floor and tossed it on the sofa. “There was no need. I had everything under control.”
Gage’s incredulous eyes on her open dress had her scrambling to explain. “Yes I did. I thought you were my neighbor otherwise I wouldn’t have opened the door.”
His eyes skipped up to meet hers. “Did he hurt you?”
Anna melted a little at how worried he looked with his brow so low and his mouth in a tense line. As usual he hadn’t trimmed his stubble beard and his white shirt, speckled with Blake Sutton’s blood, was open and his shirttails had come out of his pants. God, he was magnificent.
She shivered. “No, he didn’t hurt me.”
Relief washed over his features, but Anna didn’t feel relieved. “He’ll take the photos to the media now.”
“You should’ve called me,” he rumbled, directing a steely gaze at her before she could argue the point. “Why didn’t you?”
Anna didn’t hold back on her petulance. “You told me to stay away, remember? Anyway, I was only ever fast food to you.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Like the women you have delivered to your house, you immoral jerk. That’s all I ever was to you. A pizza!”
She thought the hard line of his mouth softened to a smile but maybe not because his eyes were steelier than ever. “You are definitely not fast food, princess.”
“You’re horrible,” she sniveled. “And you’ve ruined my wedding.”
“Trust me, Ms. Cabot, your wedding will be fine. I take it Frankland is away again?”
Anna nodded. “Until tomorrow night.”
She hadn’t told Julian anything about Sutton but would have to tell him soon. Her blackmailer could come back for his night but for now, she had a reprieve.
When she opened her mouth to thank Gage for helping her, he cut in. “You never do what you’re told, do you, babe?”
Maybe it was the relief that Sutton was gone or the effects of the alcohol or just plain exhaustion. Or maybe it was being called babe that overwhelmed Anna and made her legs fold and her head spin into darkness. She woke up on her bed with a pillow under her head and Gage sitting beside her, looking down at her in his calm way.
“Welcome back, princess.”
Anna tested her ability to move by trying to sit up, but he pushed her down gently. “Take it easy for a few minutes.”
She relaxed back onto her pillows, grateful for Gage’s quieting reassurance. Against the backdrop of her bedroom’s frills and lace and white furniture, his rugged beauty made him more of a fantasy than ever. Gage had given her a violent sexual awakening—the beginnings of a want beyond anything she’d ever known. Again and again, she’d returned to Gage, knowing it could never lead to anything. And still, she wanted him.
“How are you, Anna?”
Curling on to her side, she laid her hand on the pillow and rested her cheek in her palm, feeling small and feminine and safe with the brute. She’d always think of him as the brute.
“Fine.”
His eyes softened as they searched hers for the truth. “I don’t think so. Your fiancé needs to take better care of his woman.”
Miserably, Anna dropped her gaze. “He just so busy with his work.”
Gage shifted his weight a little, splaying his fingers over her white silk bedspread. Anna thought about how his hand covered most of her bottom when he punished her. Quickly, she put her mind to something less bruising, less sexual, less arousing.
“Gage, how did you know Blake Sutton had spoken to me in the club tonight?”
“I saw him go in shortly after you arrived. The way he looked at me, like he wanted me to know what would happen, that’s when I knew. I had someone keep an eye on the back door as he wouldn’t risk bringing you out the front.”
“And how did you know my address?”
“The reporter in the club has it.”
She wasn’t surprised. The media knew most things about her life despite her efforts not to draw attention to herself. She remembered the reporter asking if he could take a few photos of her wedding. Naturally, she’d declined and politely insisted that he not ask again.
“I guess I should thank him.”
“He also told me he has footage of you with Sutton and his friends. At the time, he didn’t think anything of it, but he’ll check the tape to see if it shows your drink being spiked. One way or the other, Sutton’s finished.”
Relief threaded through her that she would never have to face him again. After the wedding, she would invite that wonderful reporter to lunch and offer him an exclusive interview.
She smiled at Gage. “Thank you for… for helping me.”
He didn’t smile back. “You disobeyed me, Annaliesa.”
“I didn’t mean to,” she said submissively. “Really, I didn’t.”
As she spoke, he looked down at her open bodice. Anna saw the color mounting in his cheeks, saw his struggle to return his gaze to hers. “Frankland is going to have his hands full with his new wife. The next time he goes away, make sure you go with him.”
Piqued, Anna tried to poke him in the chest, but he caught her hand. His grip was firmer than necessary, his expression more commanding than required. Anna shivered, not with apprehension but with a dangerous need.
His hand dropped hers as though to hold it would be risky for both of them. “Girl, don’t go getting all wet on me.”
“Is what I feel for you wrong, Gage?”
He pushed back a tendril of her hair that had fallen over her cheek. “It’s not wrong, Anna. But it’s not right either, you know that.”
Anna looked down at her engagement ring, twirling it around with her thumb, wishing it wasn’t there to remind her of her destiny.
She heard Gage sigh. “What am I going to do with you?”
Whatever pleases you, she thought on a prick of desire.
“You’re a naughty girl.”
Naughty enough to be spanked?
It would be dangerous and unthinkable and self-destructive. As soon as Julian arrived home tomorrow night, he would want to make love. He would see the marks on her body and start asking questions that she couldn’t answer and if he guessed the answer himself, what could she say?
But Anna couldn’t resist the dark ecstasy for one last time. And it wasn’t only Gage’s domination she craved. She craved the man. The man who was completely out of place in her bedroom and her life. But that’s what she would always love about him.
Love? Dare she even think the word?
“Gage.” It was a beg, a demand, a terrible wild hunger. And he knew because he put his hands on the bed, one on each side of her body to pin his gaze to hers. “I’m not marking you, girl. Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”
His tone had changed, Anna realized, and when his eyes met hers, she saw the familiar desire but also longing. She’d seen anger, lust, frustration and shades of humor in Gage’s gra
y eyes but not this emotion. Anna’s heart ignited with her own longing.
“Show me, Gage.”
He closed his eyes as if she’d become forbidden to him. “Anna, this is crazy.”
“I don’t care.”
She reached for his shirt buttons, but he caught her wrists, pinning her arms to her sides. “I’ll do it. It’s covered in blood.”
He stood to strip and Anna watched breathlessly as his body came into view—the tattoos and scars and abdominal muscles and the long muscular legs now braced as if to support the huge erection straining up. Throughout, his eyes were on hers and Anna couldn’t help but play it up for him, peeling down her dress and lying back to arrange herself for her lover. But even with his obvious desire she saw his hesitation and Anna, determined to love him, reached out. He lay beside her, took her outstretched arms in one hand and held them in a powerful grip over her head while his other hand rested on her stomach.
“Close your eyes, princess.”
Even being called princess now made her feel special… wanted. Loved.
As she shuddered, she felt Gage’s finger slip inside her body, curving in its search for her sensitive spot. Instinctively, Anna shifted her hips to help him.
“Right on, girl.”
With Gage’s fingertip caressing her G-spot, his thumb on her clit and his hand restraining her wrists, Anna fell into something close to a trance. With closed eyes she felt his tongue licking around her nipple, drawing it out between his lips to bite gently before circling again. The constant motion of his mouth combined with his finger causing such incredible friction deep in her pussy radiated heat outward, upward, everywhere she had nerves and skin. Her climax came in a slow burn of energy, seeping through every cell in her body, curling her toes into the bedspread as she rose to the exquisite spasms. When she forced open her eyes, exhausted and mindlessly happy, he looked at her quietly.
“You’re so beautiful, Anna.”
“So are you,” she whispered, running her fingers over his chest tattoos that she still couldn’t figure out. Something industrial? Machine cogs, perhaps? One day in the future, if it ever happened, she would ask him what they meant. But for now all she needed was him. Looping her arms around his neck, Anna buried her face in his woody-scented throat and loved him in the best way she knew how.
