by CR Robertson
His fingers weaved themselves with mine as he tugged me beside him to return to the hall. Jordan’s attention snapped in our direction and Ash jerked his head in the direction of the door. Without a word, Jordan moved toward it. Something told me that Nigel was going to find it difficult to walk tomorrow.
Monica was waiting for me, and Ash nonchalantly stood behind me talking to people who were viewing all the displays. His easy manner put people at ease and was in direct contrast to the man who’d overpowered Nigel in the hall.
“I think you’re supposed to wander around and view the other displays to make friends with the other artists.” His voice vibrated against the sensitive skin where my shoulder met my throat to send shivers rippling down my back.
Taking a deep breath, I pulled all my armour in place and linked my fingers through his. If I was having to go and meet new people, he could do his part as my business partner and be there too. Some of the other artists looked at me as if I’d crawled out from under a rock, some of the others chatted to me about their nerves of being here, while a few others commented on my display.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the models will be wearing some of the signature pieces of the artists, so please take time to watch the fashion parade,” Fred announced and people started to take their positions closer to the red carpet. I had to help Monica change her jewellery a few times, so headed to my display area to ensure the next set was ready.
As I moved away, Ash lifted my arm and kissed the pulse at my wrist. “No wandering off.”
The rest of the night passed in a blur with jewellery store owners and private collectors appearing. This was the part of a business that needed someone with financial or legal knowledge. Ash and Jordan both kept talking and typing into their phones, arranging meetings for a business that was over after tonight.
I knew that I would have a model working for me tonight, so I had crafted a thank you gift for Monica. It was a necklace using the same metalwork as the collection but with semi-precious gemstones that I had carefully selected.
“Thank you so much for being such a beautiful model. I made you a gift.” I pressed the velvet box into her hands with a smile.
“You’re a very talented artist. I wish you lots of success.” She nodded at Ash. “It looks like your boyfriend is already sorting that success out for you.”
It was at that moment Ash decided to look up, his eyes meeting mine. There was a vulnerability there before he masked it again and glanced away.
“Some girls get all the luck.” Monica sighed. “A fabulous career and a hot man who adores you. Thanks again.” She held the box up and moved away.
I was more confused than ever and waves of exhaustion washed over me. I knew what I wanted, it was the same as I’d always wanted. The problem was that I just didn’t know how to convince Ash to take a chance on us.
***
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ash
That moment from the hall replayed over and over in my head like a steam train coming into the station. I wanted to go out there and finish what I’d started and kill that sanctimonious fucker who dared to touch what belonged to me.
Tonight Lucrezia reminded me of a rare and delicate orchid. Her beauty and innocence shone into the room more than any floodlight here. Men watched her and women envied her. Throughout it all, she never once seemed to realise the amount of attention she gained or the number of photographs taken of her.
Lucas Black may not have known of his daughter’s career before this, but by tomorrow morning, he would be more than aware and baying for blood.
“Nigel has been dealt with,” Jordan said from beside me in a low voice.
I raised one eyebrow in question. “Hopefully, he’s still in the land of the living.”
“Unfortunately, yes. If he annoys me again, that will not continue to be the case.”
I nodded once and moved my attention to the next person who wanted to place an order for Lucrezia’s designs. Jordan and I had made it known with Fred’s help that Lucrezia was shy and all orders or enquiries were to go through us. It stopped the vultures from flirting with her as well.
The night had been more than a success, and Seth nudged me on the way past. “I expect to see you soon, Ash.” The asshole would be wanting another car at this rate.
“Lucrezia is exhausted,” I said to Jordan. “I’ll take her home.”
“I’ll ensure the assets are secured. What do you want done with the display?”
I studied it for a moment because its creation had been cathartic for me. “Have it sent to my townhouse. I’ve no idea if Lucrezia wants anything off it.” I was probably going to keep it just so I could torment myself with it every single day.
She was pale, the events of tonight starting to take their toll on her. I touched her arm. “Time to go.”
Relief flooded her features and she went to retrieve her cape. We never left anything where bugs would be placed on it, so our security details held it with the rest of our stuff. Lucrezia wasn’t used to this life, and it was yet another reason why I should let her go free to find the happily ever after she deserved.
When she moved away from Jordan and me, I watched men flock to her and the panic flare in her eyes. Lucas thought he had been keeping his daughters safe, but all he had done was leave them innocent to this life and unable to defend themselves.
I surged forward to take my place at her side, my arm snaking around her waist. Yeah, I noticed the covert looks at my familiar body language with her, and the way she instinctively leaned in to me. No, I didn’t give a fuck because they needed to piss right off and stop looking at her breasts. I picked that dress to showcase her necklace. Now I was kicking myself. I should have ordered her a polo neck or a halter neck.
Watching her from the corner of my eye, I texted our chauffeur to bring the limousine around to collect us. He was the same driver I used to bring her to my warehouse that day she arrived because he was on our safe list and had been vetted by Jordan personally.
Lucrezia was pale and a little shaky as we left. If I was to guess, she hadn’t eaten again. Francis had phoned me to tell me she hadn’t left her room and had been refusing to eat. For an hour, I sat and fumed at his phone call thinking that she’d made her own bed and could lie in it. But Lucrezia had found the last remnants of my humanity and there was no way I could ever watch her suffer. So, I recruited Jordan in my mission and stormed around there to drag her out of bed.
Her eyes were huge as she sat and watched me in the back of the limo. “What?” I glanced up from my phone.
She shook her head and quickly looked away.
“Just spit it out, Lucrezia, then you can stop staring at me as if I’ve ruined your life.”
She swallowed. “Why are you still here? Why not just sell the pieces and let me go? Those diamonds won’t lose their value raw or set in jewellery.”
I studied her frailty, her vulnerability calling to me. She was the only woman who dared to walk away from me and the only woman I had ever followed. The Midnight Rooms had made me lazy because there was a ready supply of willing women who wanted nothing in return and didn’t plan out your life together just because you fucked them.
What remained of my conscience screamed that I should let her go and allow her to remain the Lucrezia that still retained some of her innocence of this life. But my conscience was overpowered by the beast inside me that claimed her and her polka dot panties long ago. All those men circling tonight just reinforced that possessiveness.
“I don’t give a fuck about the diamonds,” I replied with a shrug. “They were pocket change to me. It was you who insisted on a contract so that you bound yourself to me.”
Her eyes fluttered closed for a few seconds. “You need to let me go, Ash.”
“Why?”
Her eyes flew open to stare at me, her tongue darting nervously across her lips.
“Every time I told you that we couldn’t be together, you flung yourself at me. Then when I fi
nally give you a place in my life, you ran as fast as your legs could take you.” It was twisted and cruel, but I wanted her to see what she’d done to me. Ever since I was a child, I never let anyone close to me except Xavier and Jordan. If I didn’t care, then father couldn’t take it from me.
“If I tell you what happened, will you let me go?” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
Considering that she belonged to me, I had no intention of agreeing to any such ridiculous plan.
Taking my silence as consent, she began in a shaky voice. “I spent hours worrying about you that night you left the house with a gun. That was the night that I realised I was in love with you. Then you came home and told me again that we could never be together. I could stay and have sex with you until my heart was at risk, Ash. Now I need to protect myself.”
Technically, protecting her was my job. She kept poking the beast and now she had his attention.
Lucrezia continued to babble in the background about how she needed her freedom and she deserved someone who could love her in return. I let her get all her frustrations out of her system since she seemed to have worked herself up to give her speech.
“Are you listening to me?” she demanded, giving me the stink eye.
“Yep. You were debating your future and how you wanted to experiment with other art forms to enhance your jewellery making.”
Her eyes narrowed at me because she obviously hadn’t expected me to have been listening to her. I’d had years of people screaming at me or lecturing me to be able to multitask around the background noise.
I set my phone down and gave her my full attention. “You have my undivided attention.”
Now that I was staring at her, she clamped her lips together. Those bright red lips had been driving me crazy all night and deserved to be wrapped around my dick. The car slowed and the discreet light above the door illuminated to let me know we had arrived. I climbed out of the car and held my hand out. Her expression froze when she saw we were at my townhouse. She tried to climb back into the limousine only I grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her over my shoulder. The vehicle smoothly took off from outside the house.
“Put me down!” Lucrezia almost shouted.
“No. You had your rant, so you can sit your ass in a chair and listen to what I have to say.”
The more she wiggled that ass in my face, the more turned on I became. Her dress was riding up and legs rubbing against my groin did little to help the situation. I dumped my furious little bundle of bad temper on the sofa to glare up at me.
“You can’t just abduct me!”
“Who says I can’t?” I asked, my arms folding across my chest. She chewed the side of her mouth and cowered back into the chair. Body language was a subtle weapon that I was well versed in.
Her gaze moved to the door and back to me. I could almost see the tiny cogs in her head trying to work out her escape route.
“I train every single day and you’re wearing stilettoes. Want me to give you a head start?” She sank further back into the chair and pouted at me. “Keep pouting and I’ll give your lips a job.”
Her eyes turned into saucers, her fingers grasping the seat on either side of her as if she expected a hurricane to come in and attack her. My temper may well erupt at any moment and fulfil her prophecy. She slowly brought her arms up to cross defensively across her chest. All it did was make her breasts bulge above her arms.
How the fuck was I supposed to discipline her when she looked like a bad man’s fantasy? There were definitely no pure thoughts in my head right now.
“I told you what my life was like, Lucrezia, and you told me you could handle it. I explained why I avoided relationships and you insisted that we could succeed. You don’t get to be the only one who has feelings. This isn’t a dictatorship where you get to decide who gets to fall in love and who is left behind. It doesn’t work like that.”
Her head tilted to the side. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that in the middle of this chaos, you weren’t the only one who fell in love.”
***
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lucrezia
My mouth fell open and my heart stopped beating as time stood still around me. Was that his way of telling me that he was in love with me without saying the words? My tongue tried to moisten my lips and his gaze dropped to the action.
“Are you trying to say you love me?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “People tend to lie. Actions tend to speak louder.”
Every step of the way, Ash had been the only one to support me. He gave without expecting anything in return. The freedom he granted never came with a price tag attached to it or a condition. What we had was the first real experience of my life.
I slowly stood on shaky legs. “So what does all this mean?”
“No idea, Angel. By tomorrow, Lucas will descend like the wrath of God releasing his plagues upon the unworthy. All this will come to an end.” He lifted his arms as if to indicate the house.
“In other words, I’ll be taken back to Tuscany and locked in my room again.”
“Probably.”
I took a step closer. “Can I not stay here?”
“Shit’s about to get real and none of us will be safe.” He glanced away. “I don’t want you to go but the only way to ensure you survive is for you to be locked in that room every night at ten.”
“And if you don’t survive?”
“Then you get to find some dumb fuck who can’t find your G-spot and live happily ever after.”
I took another step and he glared down at me. “And if I don’t want that?”
“Then you better get on your knees and start to pray.”
Deciding to deliberately misunderstand him, I sunk slowly to my knees, thankful for the slit in the dress to save me falling over. He never moved, but his gaze bored into mine. My fingers unbuttoned and unzipped his trousers to find his already hard cock straining to get out to me.
I flicked my tongue over the tip while my fingers slipped around his girth. Ash’s jaw tightening was his only reaction. I slowly pumped his length as I used my tongue on his tip, taking as much of him as I could to the back of my throat with my cheeks hollowed. His teeth bit into his bottom lip when I suddenly sucked before lightly dragging my teeth down his cock to the tip.
He groaned when I rubbed that sensitive area behind his balls, his hand fisting in my hair as he continued to stare into my eyes. “You keep going and I won’t be able to hang on any longer.”
I deliberately moved my tongue around his head.
Ash leaned down and hauled me up under my arms, spinning me to push me over the arm of the sofa. He shoved my beautiful dress up, stopping when he exposed my black lace top hold up stockings and cotton panties.
His chuckle fanned my cheek when he bent over me. “Big girl panties?”
“Jordan said I had to put my big girl panties on and act like an adult.” My underwear had BIG GIRL PANTIES printed across the ass and a hand at either hip to depict them being pulled up.
“Fuck me.” Ash laughed.
“I think technically you’re supposed to be fucking me.”
My pussy was already chewing on my panties because she was desperate for that delicious stretch and filling that only Ash could provide. Right now I would kill anyone who stopped me getting what I needed.
“Horny?” He sucked my earlobe and my stomach clenched.
“Little bit.”
His weight lifted off me and he started to zip up his trousers. “Fancy some supper?”
My mouth fell open and I snapped it shut. “Get your cock over here now and fuck me, Ash, or you’ll finally meet my crazy side.”
His lips twitched as he prowled toward me. I almost screamed in relief when he dragged my panties down and kicked my legs apart. He surged into me without any warning and my nails gripped the leather of the sofa. His hips moved at a bruising pace and I knew this was my punishment for running away. His hands
grasped my waist to pull me back into every thrust until my core was on fire with the friction. I was helpless lying over the sofa, so I closed my eyes and rode the waves of emotion, letting him take me on the next part of our journey.
Pressure built in delicious pulses deep in my stomach, and my back arched to get more attention on my front wall. Ash rotated his hips and drew a moan from me. He changed the angle of his thrusts until I was standing on my tiptoes, my fingers holding on to prevent myself from toppling over.
My orgasm hit in a sudden explosive detonation that left me twitching and gasping. He thickened inside me, joining me a few seconds later, his heat spurting into me. Ash collapsed on top of me for a few moments before he pulled out and brought us to our feet together.
Cum trickled down the inside of my leg. I tried to pull my dress up to avoid the thick, viscous fluid. “My dress.”
Ash rolled his eyes, unzipped the back, and helped tug it over my head. His eyes darkened as they roamed over my body. “I think I prefer you dressed like this.”
My eyebrow arched. “In stockings?”
He shook his head slowly. “Expensive jewels and my cum.”
“You do know that this stuff running down my leg isn’t sexy?” I queried.
The expression on his face as his teeth bit into his lip when he looked at it said otherwise. His finger traced the outline of my breast.
His phone rang and distracted him, so I crept into the toilet under the stairs in the hall and tried to clean myself up before pulling his hooded top on to cover my ass. I left my stilettos and stockings in the corner. Ash paced in the living room, so I wandered into the kitchen and made scrambled eggs and toast for us. It was too long since I felt like eating.
“Tea and toast?” he queried a few minutes later.
I winked. “Best keep your strength up since Papa will be arriving tomorrow.”
His grin made my stomach flip.
