“We need to talk,” he says finally, his voice low and sensual.
“I’ll do whatever you want,” I breathe, feeling that tingling warmth flooding every bit of my body.
His pupils spasm and I feel my breath catch in my throat. How does he have such a profound effect on me? It’s not even anything he’s doing or saying, there’s just something about him that leaves me trembling like a desperate little horny bitch. I love it.
I want him to kiss me. Hell, I want him to do more. I want him to prove that whatever this is between us isn’t just lust. It’s mostly lust, sure, but there’s something else, some connection that’s undeniable.
But he steps back.
And every bit of my being silently screams at him to come back.
“We’re going to lunch,” he says, the words clearly an order, not a request.
I nod, wondering if I should ask if I need to change. I’d never expected to leave my room like this. It’s the situation that’s leaving me looking totally whorish and underdressed.
“Should I change?” I ask, and he looks me over.
After a moment, he shakes his head. Heat colors my cheeks as I think about stepping out in public like this. I mean, the shorts aren’t see through white, but they are short. And I’m not wearing a bra under this, so every little effect he has on my body will be obvious. Or if I get cold, I guess.
Something tells me it’s not a good idea to cross him. His mood seems to have shifted to business. There’s still a heat to him, but the sensuality is subdued. He moves around the room quickly before walking over to me again.
He grabs my ass and pulls me toward his hip. The movement is sexy as hell, but until my feet hit the floor, I’m unaware my legs are asleep. I almost fall.
He holds me tight to his body as the fire of pins and needles elicit a gasp from my lips. The pain is intense, but his hands on me, his kindness not to let me crumple at his feet helps ease the torture.
After a few moments, he leans away and I balance just fine on my own with only a little help from the counter. With his hand in mine, he leads me out of the room and locks it up behind him. I look around, expecting to see Zac. But he seems to be really gone. Finally. I thought I’d never get rid of him. Hell, a small part of me is still sure he’s around somewhere.
We walk down the hallway and I find myself wanting to ask him questions. Questions about Cami, about the drama they were talking about. Then again, I’m pretty sure that it was all some kind of role play. But the story is so fantastic I want to know more.
In the lobby, he leads me toward the door. We step into sunshine and he leads me across the street to a little place I was wanting to try but didn’t have the courage to risk. It looks like a dive, but the smell lingering around the place is amazing.
We step in and the scent hits me full force. It’s incredible, like garlic and grilled steak. As he leads me to a booth near the corner, I wonder how many times he’s been here. I sit across from him and he studies me as I look at the menu.
“Order whatever you like,” he says, and I notice how intense his tone is.
“Thanks,” I say, surprised. I didn’t expect him to feed me, but I’m not going to complain. “What’s good here?”
“I get the steak,” he says, and I realize that’s likely why he’s not even looking at the menu. He already knows what he wants. I look over the options, wondering when he’s going to start talking. He seems to be watching me, studying me like he’s debating where to start.
“I’ll try the steak,” I say, putting the menu down to stare at him. “I’m sorry I was listening to you,” I say, needing to explain myself. “I was bored to tears, and your role play or whatever was interesting.”
His eyes narrow a little bit.
“And I’m sorry I stopped you from having sex.” My cheeks burn red hot. He’s staring at me, but I can’t quite make out his expression.
I push forward, needing to fill the silence. “You know, if you’d asked me to go out with you, I’d have said yes.” I mean it as a joke, but he doesn’t respond.
It's driving me up the wall. “So, Cami seemed like a neat girl. Why did she run out early on you?” I ask, not really expecting an answer.
He doesn’t disappoint.
So I try from another angle. “So, do you role play like that often?”
I fall silent as a waitress walks up. Her eyes stay locked on Connor as he orders. Even when he’s done, she refuses to look at me or ask me what I’d like. Annoyed by the blatant insult, I make a joke. “Clearly she doesn’t want a tip, she wants the tip.”
Connor’s gaze meets mine and I see something quite like a smile struggling to cross his lips. “What did you want, love?” he asks me and my heart nearly stops with the endearment.
Chapter 18
Connor
“Order whatever you like,” I tell her as she studies the menu. The part of my brain telling me to use this leverage on her takes a backseat.
She seems shocked, as if she didn’t expect me to say that. “Thanks,” she says, “What’s good here?”
“I get the steak,” I tell her. As she looks over the choices, she seems totally at ease, not like a girl who’s sitting with a guy who might kidnap and harm her. This looks and feels like a date, not like I forced her to come with me, dressed in clothing that I know leaves her feeling a bit uncomfortable.
“I’ll try the steak,” she says, setting the menu flat on the table before her. There’s a bit of shame in her eyes as she talks. “I’m sorry I was listening to you. I was bored to tears, and your role play or whatever was interesting.”
Role play. She thinks it’s a sex thing. No wonder she’s been practically purring with desire.
She blushes a little and looks down before meeting my stare again. “And I’m sorry I stopped you from having sex.”
How much is she going to say while this desperate to keep the quiet from falling between us?
“You know, if you’d asked me to go out with you, I’d have said yes.”
Would she have? I remember the fear in her eyes when I’d cornered her in her apartment. Back then, she hadn’t rationalized what I was doing next door. She hadn’t decided it was a sex game. She’d still thought it was terrifying.
But she keeps talking. “So, Cami seemed like a neat girl. Why did she run out early on you?”
She barely hesitates, but I’m not going to answer anyway. I’m still torn between telling her it’s not a sex thing and letting her go on believing I’m the kind of guy who gets off on kidnapping and rape fantasies.
I don’t.
But then again, why the fuck to I care what this girl thinks?
But like a dog with a bone, she’s not done. “So, do you role play like that often?”
* * *
She finally stops talking and her eyes travel past me. I know the waitress is here, but I’m totally focused on Jane for a moment. When I look up at the woman, I see the look in her eyes.
“Steak, rare, with mushrooms. Fries on the side instead of a baked potatoes. Blue cheese salad.” She nods and I wait for her to turn to Jane, who’s not stupid. She knows what’s going on. And she’s not about to take it sitting down.
“Clearly she doesn’t want a tip, she wants the tip,” Jane says, and I see the anger in the waitresses eyes.
I glance over at Jane. She’s fucking amazing. “What did you want, love?” I ask her. And I see that look of beautiful shock cross her features. Her heart seems to skip a beat before beginning to race at the base of her throat.
“Um…” she says, her tongue unable to form words for a moment as she gathers herself. “The same as you’re having,” she says and I look up at the waitress. The woman nods and leaves.
“She’s going to spit in my food.” Jane sounds rueful and I shake my head.
“No, she won’t.”
“How do you know?” Jane asks, and I stare at her. As if realizing she’s asking a stupid question, she looks down, her pretty eyes flustered
.
“So, how often did you role play a bad break up with that douche?” I ask her and her eyes snap up to mine, shock flashing like lighting in them.
“That’s not funny,” she says, but I see the smile breaking across her face like the sun coming out from the clouds. And just like that, she’s giggling. Maybe it’s the stress of the day, maybe she’s actually amused, but her reaction is infectious. And I smile.
It’s a relief she doesn’t know the truth.
Or is it?
If she knew the truth, she’d be the first person who’d actually had a real peek into the fucked up realm of my life. I mean, sure, my brothers have their women, but each of them only know bits and pieces of the whole story, I’m sure. I doubt that Kieran told Emma that his ex-wife was stalking him as recently as this year. I doubt that Kyle told Victoria the whole story about Kieran killing dad.
I mean, it’s a cluster fuck and it gets exhausting holding everything together by myself. But then again, I also don’t want to drag anyone else into the mess of my life. Especially not this shiny, bright human being who’s clearly got more problems that she’d like anyone to know about.
“My dad loves him,” she says softly, her eyes staring at something past me. I sense sadness in her voice as she speaks. Everything in her says her father is letting her down, and I agree. Her bastard ex is a total waste of oxygen.
She’s silent as the waitress comes and drops off waters for us. When we’re mostly alone again, she talks quietly. “I don’t know why. I feel like Zac was only dating me to get at my family money.”
“He was,” I tell her and she looks up at me in shock. I elaborate, “He told me I wouldn’t get your money.”
She lowers her head in shame. “I’d give it all away if it meant I could trust that anyone would love me for who I am.”
The words echo around in my soul. I’d give almost anything to find someone who would accept me for who I am. “It wasn’t role play,” I tell her, and she looks up at me in shock.
“I kidnapped Cami. I did it to find out if she was a threat to my family.” The words flow out and I expect her to stare at me like I’m the monster I am.
“Is that why you were asking her if she was going to kidnap Olivia?” She asks, and I realize she heard a lot more than she was letting on.
I nod.
“Well,” she says after taking a sip of her water. “I think you went about it all wrong, but I can’t fault you for protecting a child who can’t defend herself.”
“The law would,” I say, but she shakes her head, her pretty lips pursing a little.
“The law would also tell you that it’s twenty four hours before you can report someone missing. A lot can happen in twenty four hours.” She sounds as if she has zero faith in the whole system, and I find that surprising. Typically people who grow up with money feel like the law is perfect because they can always buy their way into the cop’s pockets.
“It took her four hours last time to snatch Olivia and wreck the car. Olivia almost died,” I say, feeling the same sensations I’d felt when Kieran called me to tell me Olivia was going to die.
“I would have killed her,” Jane says, her eyes lit with a fire that I recognize.
Chapter 19
Jane
“I would have killed her.” How did he not kill her? She got off light if all he did was kidnap her to make sure she wasn’t going to do something so stupid again. “So, is Olivia-”
“My niece,” he says and I nod. That makes sense.
It feels like my turn. “I never cheated on Zac. He was just always sure I was going to.” The words ache in my throat as I correct myself, “Except the kisses with you, I mean.”
Connor’s eyes light with heat and I feel my heart begin to pound in my chest.
I want to kiss him again. Like we’re drawn together by ropes ever tightening around us and slowly pulling us together, we move toward one another.
His eyes are locked on my lips and I can’t think of anything I’d rather have. It feels good to air the uglier things in life with someone and still feel a connection with them. There’s something about him that seems so real, and yes, he’s terrifying. He still kidnapped that woman. He is a monster.
But I find it hard to fault him given all the available information.
The waitress walks up and I pull back, feeling awkward as she places our food before us. It smells amazing, though, and I hear my stomach rumble. I don’t think I’ve eaten anything today. Everything just kind of went crazy and I missed some important life needs.
Once we’re alone again, I realize what’s been nagging in the back of my skull for the better part of the day. “Wait, is your brother Kieran Knight?”
Connor’s whole body goes still, but his eyes lock on me like I’m brandishing a dangerous weapon.
But I push on. “I remember hearing something on Facebook. He took his kid and ran or something like that.”
I realize I know him. “I’m Jane Snow.” I remember the knights. The boys were nobodies form nothing who all of a sudden took the city by storm. Kieran owns half the city. He’s got real estate everywhere. Kyle went smaller and became a vet – the best and I think only one in town. And Connor, the one who managed to become wealthy even though no one seems to know how.
“So what do you do?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.
He doesn’t seem too excited to talk about himself so personally. “You heard right. He took Olivia and ran with her. He wanted to start over because Cami was so strung out.”
“You know,” I say, taking a bite of a fry, “I’m lucky. I never really had family drama. Not really. I mean, dad’s overbearing sometimes, but they love me.”
Connor cuts a bite of steak as he answers me. “I envy you that.” The clipped answer tells me that there’s more to it than he’s giving me.
“Honestly,” I say, hoping he’ll just tell me whatever he’d like but doesn’t feel pressured to share, “Zac is my worst drama to date. He’s just all kinds of crazy. The whole tracking my phone thing, the jealousy, the need to try to control and manipulate me, it drives me nuts.”
Then again, that’s what Connor has been doing. He pretty much kidnapped me, he tried to use fear to make me do what he wanted, and that isn’t negated by the fact that I wanted to come. He was doing what he knew to be despicable and he continued.
But if I was worried someone would kill someone I love, wouldn’t I do the same? And for me, I’m sure he was certain I’d call the cops on him or something that might ruin his whole life. And I need to put his fear to rest.
“As far as I’m concerned, it was a weird sex thing and none of my business,” I say softly and he looks at me while chewing. That’s all I’m going to say about it, though. I’m not going to try to force feed him that I’m not going to call the cops.
“ I’m enjoying myself. Thank you for the date,” I say, wanting to make sure he’s aware, though not wanting to spell it out.
“It’s my pleasure,” he growls, and I close my eyes.
“You know,” I say, hoping he’ll talk again, “Your voice was pretty much the whole reason I was listening at the wall. It’s… so incredible,” I say, unable to actually quantify what it is about his voice that turns me on so.
When I open my eyes again, he’s studying me.
I decide to change the subject. “So, how is she not in jail if she nearly killed Olivia?” I ask, curious.
The pain in Connor’s eyes is clear as he responds. “The court decided to get her into some rehab programs and give her community service instead of jail. They thought she needed help, not jail.”
“That’s some shit,” I say, feeling myself getting unreasonably angry. I know this isn’t my battle, it isn’t my life or my family, but such a miscarriage of justice is hard to swallow, especially when a child’s life was nearly destroyed because of it.
“Is she okay now?” I ask, hoping he doesn’t get upset at my prying.
“She made a fu
ll recovery. That’s nothing to the emotional scars, but physically, she’s good.” He dunks a fry in the house made fry sauce and I follow suit. The food is delicious, it tastes like homemade fries, the steak is perfectly seasoned and cooked, and the mushrooms are so firm I’m sure they spent minimal time in the pan.
“Well, that’s a consolation,” I mutter, still seething internally. How could a court let a woman go after almost killing her child? “You know, if the dad had done that he’d be jailed for the rest of his damn life,” I say, hating the double standard. The world treats fathers like they’re second class citizens. But mothers? The whole world seems to treat them like they can do no wrong.
Maybe I’ll get it someday. Maybe if I become a mom, I’ll understand why it’s so important to people to keep mothers and children together while still feeling like they can toss a father away and see no harm.
It still seems like a load of crap.
Connor reaches out and his hand covers mine. The warmth of it helps ease some of the fury pounding in my blood. I stare at his hand, seeing how huge it looks over mine and my heart begins to thunder for another reason. One that has nothing to do with anger at a broken system.
Chapter 20
Connor
It feels right to be comforting her. I see the anger in her eyes and know the feeling well. I’ve raged against the unfairness of it for longer than I care to admit. And while I find comfort that she feels the same way, I feel bad that she’s now facing the frustration I’ve felt. I wouldn’t wish it on an enemy, much less someone who’s pretty fucking amazing.
Because she is.
As she stares at my hand on hers, I see the excitement in her expression taking over and shoving the anger right out the way. When her gaze meets mine, I feel that same crash of desperation and need I felt before from her.
It’s sexy as hell.
Billionaire Bash: The Complete Steele Series Page 55
