by Dawn Ryder
Celeste hadn’t even finished closing her desk drawer when Marcus appeared in her office doorway with his hand out. One look at his face, and she realized she didn’t know her boss as well as she thought she did. There was a glint in his eyes that chilled her. A hardness she’d never seen.
She tightened her hand on her purse as she stared at his outstretched hand.
“I’m going to bug it,” he confirmed.
“Nartan called you.” She was stating the obvious.
“Caspian was released three days ago. If he’s already making contact with you—”
“It wasn’t contact,” she interrupted. “I’m not even sure it was him.”
Marcus covered the distance between the doorway and her desk, and held his open palm in front of her face. The look on his face offered her no hope of convincing him. She forced her hand to open and pulled her cell phone out of her purse. But she still hesitated about handing it over.
“Look at it as one of the perks of working for me.”
She made a low sound.
“Security net against your new relationship turning sour?”
She let out a grunt and handed over the phone.
“I liked number one better myself,” Marcus informed her. “Because I’d have had to chew you out for not telling me Caspian made contact with you.”
“I’m not sure it was him.”
Marcus pegged her with a hard look. “Yes you are.”
She was.
He made a crisp turn and she tried not to feel like she was being suffocated as he left with her cell phone in hand.
She was making excuses again. Hiding from the facts.
But there was still one hard truth she couldn’t ignore. Her training had taught her the self-respect she had sorely needed. She wasn’t sure if she could deal with being anyone’s possession.
Even Nartan’s.
***
The muscles in her neck started tightening as she drove back to Nartan’s. Her emotions were roiling in spite of her attempts to keep everything in perspective.
Nartan was waiting for her. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, watching the door to the garage when she came in. His tie was tossed on the counter beside him, the collar of his dress shirt open.
He was ready for a fight.
It irked the hell out of her that he knew her so well.
“Nartan, I know you’re feeling fiercely protective of me, but you had no business calling Marcus or Master Lee.” She dropped her purse on the kitchen table. “It’s my life. I should have been the one to share personal details. When and if I wanted to. I’m struggling enough with whatever this is between us. I really don’t want to be treated like a child or caged in or have someone else controlling my life. Been there, done that. It didn’t really work out so well for me.”
He hadn’t moved. Hadn’t shifted, hadn’t even narrowed his eyes.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?”
He shook his head slowly. Menacingly.
There was a promise etched into his expression and something dangerous flickering in his eyes. The sight should have sent her temper over the edge. Instead, all it did was make her feel hot and cold at the same time. She wanted to crawl into his skin somehow and be consumed by the fire they were both feeling.
He brought out something in her that she had never known was there. Some part of her that defied logic and thought. It was pure response, pure reaction.
He nodded before pushing away from the counter.
“Now do you have something to add?” she demanded.
His lips twitched, curving up arrogantly. She felt him closing the distance, awareness of him rippling along her skin.
She backed up.
It just happened, pure response to the animal bearing down on her.
He was hard and powerful, strength radiating off him. He reached out and cupped her hips, the hold sending a bolt of hunger through her pelvis.
“When it comes to your safety, Celeste, there is no discussion.”
He lifted her and she ended up slung over his shoulder. A sound escaped from her that was half scream, half squeal as he carried her down the hallway to his bedroom.
“Nartan, put me down, you caveman!” She couldn’t help it. She was on the verge of laughter, completely exasperated, and as turned on as she’d ever been, all at once. She really, really needed to get a grip. She was going to have to even out the power balance in this relationship somehow.
Her words bounced off the walls of the hallway but he never slackened his pace. He carried her through the double doors and deposited her on the huge bed.
“Did you hear me?”
He reached over and caught the bottom of her pants, pulling the loose martial-arts wear down her legs with one swift motion.
“I might ask you the same question, Celeste.”
She rolled away from him, ending up near the headboard as he tossed her pants aside and worked the buttons loose on his shirt before shrugging out of it. The sight of his body was distracting and amped up the heat licking its way through her insides.
“You didn’t ask me how I want to handle things.”
He opened his waistband and shucked his pants. “That’s right. I didn’t ask and I’m not apologizing.”
He was being as hard and razor sharp as she’d always suspected he might be. Completely in command of his world.
“You don’t have a shred of remorse for how controlling you’re being. You can’t just plan my life like an expansion of your empire.”
“Yes I can.” He put a knee down on the surface of the bed. She wanted to ignore his cock, but the rigid length drew her attention as he moved toward her. He crawled across the surface of the bed until he loomed over her, his heat warping around her as his scent filled her senses.
Intoxicating…
“And I will, Celeste.”
“Over my dead body,” she snarled, reaching out to close her hand around a fistful of his chest hair.
“Acceptable.” He scooped her up and hugged her to him as he rolled over and flattened her onto her back. “The ‘over your body’ part, that is.”
He hooked her underwear and pulled it off with one swift motion.
“Damn it, Nartan. This is important to me.”
He lowered himself onto her, capturing her wrists and pinning them above her head. “I assure you, it’s far more important to me. You aren’t part of my world, you’re the very heart of it. There is no life without you. Only a vessel without a pulse.”
His tone was fierce and his words more tender than any flowery compliment she’d ever heard. For a moment, she stared into his eyes, watching the way they glittered with emotion so deep that tears flooded hers. He nodded and leaned over to kiss away one tear that escaped to slide down her cheek.
She twisted her hands, trying to break free because she needed to touch him. Needed to hold him. He tore her top from her, earning a satisfied purr from her before she pressed back against him, eager and desperate to connect with him.
Desperate.
***
An hour later, Celeste rolled over in his bed and looked at him.
“Sex maniac,” she accused, in a teasing tone.
“Demanding bitch,” he countered.
She laughed and rolled over and onto her feet. “I still haven’t seen the entire house.”
“Another excellent reason for you to work for me. All the commuting time could be put to better use.”
“We’d never get out of bed.” She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Nartan was across the hall, pulling on a pair of loose jeans.
After her shower, he met her in the hallway and walked with her out into the kitchen. “Dinner will be here in a few. Someone is driving it over.”
He took a moment to adjust the l
ighting, keeping it nice and low. The patio doors were pushed all the way open, letting the ocean air in. “Did Marcus notice the Lambo?”
“I think that’s a test of manhood. If he didn’t, he’ll have to turn in one of his tattoos.” She curled up in a large leather recliner.
Nartan settled into another one and grinned at her. She was still tingling from the mind-blowing sex they’d just shared. “I still wish you had talked to me first about calling Marcus.”
“Would you have told him yourself?”
It was a hard question. She wanted to say yes, but a glitter in Nartan’s eyes made her hesitate.
“Most likely not.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “You refused to testify against Caspian.”
“That was then.”
“And now I’m a part of your life,” Nartan said. “Which just might tip the scales inside Caspian’s head. He thinks of you as a possession, and when he learns you have another man in your life, he could turn violent. He wouldn’t be the first man to do that.”
She opened her mouth to argue but realized she didn’t have any valid points. His logic was sound.
He offered her a smug look. “But if you’d like to…discuss my position in your life again…I will be happy to make time.”
She took on as disapproving a look as she could, considering she was still buzzing from afterglow. “Using sex to settle differences of opinion isn’t very healthy.”
“More fun than therapy.” His lips curved into a wolfish smile. “Much, much, more fun.”
Celeste snorted.
“I spent a fortune on a security package today,” Nartan informed her. “By the end of the month, there will be a full gate on the road.”
She didn’t care for the resigned look that took possession of his face.
“You don’t have to do—”
“Yes I do,” he cut her off. “And Tarak is right. I should have done it sooner. I’m not living in a shack on a worthless piece of dirt anymore. It will be tasteful and mostly out of sight.”
“You like your open spaces.”
He nodded and glanced at the way the sections of wall were slid back like French doors to allow the boundary of the house to blend seamlessly with the environment. “You’re not the only one who needs to make mental adjustments. I can’t keep sleeping with half the house wide open and an open road leading to it. Besides you and me, I need to think of my horses. Some drunken idiots could get the idea to take a moonlight ride and injure them.”
“We’ll do it for the horses,” she teased softly, grateful because it gave her a chance to sidestep feeling trapped.
“Life is the only thing that can’t be replaced.” He offered her a hand and led her out into the main house. “The rest of it is just stuff that can be replaced.”
Their dinner arrived with the addition of a fresh, raw salmon head with bone still attached. Nartan set it aside and laughed when she stared at it.
“It’s an offering,” he explained.
“Excuse me?”
He slid their dinner into the oven and punched a few buttons. “Indian bird feeder and mouse trap.”
He jerked his head toward the door and she followed him, taking a moment to slip her shoes on before following him across the yard toward the corral.
He pointed up to the barn’s eaves. “I had nesting spots built in for hawks or eagles, maybe owls. They’d have just used the eaves, but I don’t want the nests falling.”
A few feet below where the roof peaked, there were three boxes with round poles extending from them. Nartan took the fish and laid it on a six-foot-high pole that had a small flat board nailed to the top of it, just long enough for the fish to fit without hanging over the edges.
“The horse feed will attract rodents, no matter how well kept the corral is. So I’m encouraging some raptors to claim this as their territory.”
He clasped her hand and turned her back toward the house.
“I think that might be illegal.”
“Better than putting out poison.” Nartan kicked off his shoes when they reached the open back of the house. “Hawks die all the time from eating poisoned rodents. Look at it as a housewarming gift. I won’t feed them every day. They’d get weak. And I can’t have rats in my barn.”
He pulled their dinner from the oven and slid a plate toward her.
“The horses are important to you.”
He sat down across from her and started attacking his dinner. “Horses represent wealth and strength.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ll need a few if I ever convince you to marry me.”
Celeste smiled. “With a horse?”
He nodded. “Disappointed I’m not the diamond-ring-on-bended-knee sort?”
She toyed with her wineglass. “No. Caspian made the grand display.” She worried her lower lip as she imagined Nartan offering a horse. “I think I like your idea better. I know I enjoyed the ending to Sabra’s wedding reception.”
“Why?”
She drew in a deep breath. “It seemed…honest. Like it really reflected who Tarak was as a person.”
The topic felt too serious. They ate in silence for the next few minutes. Nartan glanced up, looking past her before pointing.
She turned her head and stared at where they’d left the fish. There was a flutter of wings as a bird of prey landed on it.
“Wow,” she muttered. The raptor looked around before lowering its hooked beak to tear into the flesh of the fish.
“That’s a chick,” Nartan informed her. They eased closer to the door, moving slowly. “You can tell by the feathers. Chicks have to find their own territory.”
“Looks like your housewarming present is being received well.”
He draped an arm across her back as they watched the raptor eating. “If the bird stays, it’s an omen of good luck. A sign of life wanting to be here.”
He leaned over and kissed her, pulling her tightly against him.
They spent the last hours of the evening laughing and talking and ended up back in bed before long. Their need for each other was only growing deeper and harder to resist. Even Celeste’s will to question it was crumbling.
And she found herself rather pleased about it all.
***
“You know, it’s killing me not to know about the Lambo.” Marcus finally broke down a week later.
“It’s Nartan’s.”
“No kidding,” her boss responded dryly. But he pegged her with a hard look. “And here I was thinking that your boss is a hell of a guy for giving you a bonus.”
“I’m okay, boss man.”
He nodded. “Let me know if that changes.”
“I will.”
A little tingle stroked her nape, but it had to be because Nartan had been right. Marcus was her crutch. She’d taken the job because she knew he would help keep her safe, and he was safe himself.
After class she sent a text to Nartan.
Need to pick up mail and more clothes.
A moment later he responded.
Get the mail, forget the clothes.
She laughed and drove toward her townhome. It looked silent and lonely. When she walked through the door, the feeling of welcome was missing.
You’re absolutely insane, Celeste.
She’d known Nartan for only the better part of a month. But her feelings were real. She had no desire to stay in the townhome, and not because of the luxury waiting at Nartan’s home. It was the fact that he was there. Her phone vibrated with an incoming text.
Stop at Angelino’s.
She smiled, feeling giddy and excited. She raced up the stairs and showered. When she returned to the driveway, she had her mail in a bag and several more suits. She slid behind the wheel of the sleek sports car and swung out of the driveway without a second thought.
Traffic ha
d eased, but in Southern California, the roads were never empty. She pulled up in front of Angelino’s and grinned when the valet jumped. Another car pulled in behind her, but she didn’t pay it any attention. She walked toward the entry doors and inside. Nartan was in his element, watching the half-full dining room as one of his senior staff members leaned close to him to ask a question.
What the man did for a suit should be outlawed.
Or patented and bottled.
Tonight it was a slate-black wool that complemented his dark hair. His tie was the same shade of ocean blue as his eyes. He caught sight of her, and his business face cracked with a smile. He held out his hand to her. Behind him, two women looked over to see what had gained his attention. Their makeup was perfect and their hair looked salon fresh. With ample, obviously enhanced cleavage and ultra slim thighs, they clearly spent their days ensuring that their assets were in prime condition.
The diamonds sparkling around their necks made it plain that they were also very good at getting top dollar for their efforts. They narrowed their eyes as she drew closer and it became evident that Nartan was waiting for her. She shot them a hard look that caught Nartan’s attention. He turned his head and they instantly smiled at him.
Celeste slid her hand along his forearm and reclaimed his attention. He raised his eyebrows at her before escorting her across the restaurant toward the private section. The maître d’ standing there opened one of the sliding sections of wall for them. Inside was a smaller number of guests, every one of them having paid well in excess of fifty grand for a membership. They were celebrities and high-profile business professionals. Nartan took her through to the most exclusive dining rooms his establishment had to offer, the private rooms that overlooked the Southern California coastline.
He pulled her into his embrace the moment they entered one of the private rooms. “Damned professional image,” he complained before sealing her mouth beneath a hard kiss. She indulged herself in the moment, stroking her hands beneath his tie. Her need for him never seemed to diminish. It peaked and flowed, as constant as the tide.
“I missed you,” she whispered before disengaging herself from his embrace. He pulled out a chair for her. “Are we actually going to make it through dinner?”
