Fighting Fate

by Scarlett Finn

  ‘What’s this?’ she asked, rising from her crouch. ‘Why do you have these?’

  ‘They’re mine,’ he said as though they held no significance.

  ‘Why did you bring them? What use do you have for them on our wedding night?’

  Having never considered herself an insecure person, this unfamiliar wave of timidity and doubt came with a flourish of nausea.

  ‘I plan to be prepared,’ he said.

  ‘For kidnapping other women or—‘

  ‘None of your business,’ he said. ‘I do what I want and I don’t answer to you.’

  ‘No, you answer to the man behind the curtain. You have all of this respect for Mauri Stark, but all I see is him sending you out to get your hands dirty. I haven’t seen him do any work at all. He’s taught you to subjugate and—‘

  ‘What’s Mauri got to do with this?’

  ‘You feel the need to go back there, to apologise for falling in love with me! I mean how dare you think that—‘

  Storming over to her, Dax snatched the zip ties and tossed them onto the bed. ‘We’re going back there, if I have to sling you into the trunk of the car and—‘

  ‘No! We are not going back to those people. I was dragged to that beach house and held prisoner so that you and your buddy could make me into the perfect wife for… for him. But it didn’t turn out that way, did it? You were my only sanctuary,’ she said, uninvited tears burned her eyes, but she grit her teeth and carried on, determined not to let them fall. ‘I don’t know why you let me in, why you chose to show me mercy when—‘

  ‘Ah, hell,’ he said, turning his back on her. ‘Don’t get into all that romantic hero bullshit. You were a decent lay who—‘

  ‘That doesn’t explain this, now,’ she said, moving across the room and around his body so that he had to look her in the face. ‘You married me! You brought me here to marry me for a sole reason: to prevent Trystan from marrying me. You’ve made it impossible for him to do it because my name is already on a piece of paper with yours.’

  ‘Yeah, I get it, we did the commitment bullshit already, now strip down for me, put on a show.’

  Backing up to sit in a corner arm chair, his relaxed pose was one of a man waiting to be entertained, and in a far more intimate way that a standard lap dance. ‘I’m not going back there, Dax,’ Ivy said, unwilling to let the issue go as he wanted her to.

  ‘I already told you, I’ll go to the mansion and—‘

  ‘No. I’m not going back to California to watch you turn yourself inside out for them. It’s not worth it.’

  ‘It’s not worth it for you maybe,’ he said. ‘But after everything I’ve done for you—‘

  Tilting her head she let out a whine, ‘Aww, yes, thank you so much for making me strip naked in front of strangers and parade around doing your chores. I especially loved the part where you left me down in that dungeon to rot for days, happily allowing your buddy to grope and ogle me to his heart’s content. Is that what I have to look forward to in my future?’

  ‘It’s not gonna be like that, babygirl. I’m gonna talk to Mauri and to make him see that—‘

  ‘I’ve heard this before, Dax,’ she said, shirking her sarcasm. ‘You weren’t man enough to stand up to him then, how can I believe that you will be now? For whatever reason you’re afraid of him—‘

  ‘I am not afraid!’

  ‘Whatever, Dax,’ she said, crouching to pick up her shoes. Before she’d stood upright again he was out of his seat and coming toward her.

  ‘What the fuck do you think you need those for?’

  ‘I’m going to take a walk,’ she said.

  ‘No you’re not,’ he said, lashing out to grab her wrist.

  Ivy tried to pull away but his strength was far superior. ‘I am not your captive anymore, Dax. You’re going to have to learn that you won’t always know where I am. We won’t always exist in the same space. Let me go, please.’

  ‘I told you that you’d never be free,’ he snarled and with one yank her body clashed into his.

  He got hold of her other wrist and because she knew she couldn’t pull free, she tried to back away. But he followed, carrying on until she fell backwards over the sports bag she’d discarded on the floor.

  Dax’s muscles bulged as they contracted to seize her weight, though his act of catching her wasn’t altruistic. He hauled her up and slammed her into the closet, wrenching her upstretched arms so high that the tips of her toes almost didn’t touch the floor.

  ‘Let me go,’ she whispered, sensing that this was about more than them being physically apart.

  ‘No,’ he huffed with a sullen edge. ‘You’re mine. You stay. You go where I go.’

  ‘You can’t truly love me until you trust me, Dax. You have to be able to watch me walk out that door and know that I’ll come back to you.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do you think that I’m going to run away? I’m not. If I didn’t want to be with you then I wouldn’t have married you.’

  ‘Vegas is a dangerous place.’

  ‘Uh-uh,’ she said with a shake of her head, but her shoulders were beginning to burn. ‘That excuse won’t fly with me, I can take care of myself, Dax.’

  ‘Like you did the last time we were in Vegas together?’

  ‘I got myself out of there, without help from you or any of your friends… Now let me go.’ Ivy tried to tug down her arms, but she had no chance of freeing herself. The discomfort in her shoulders was building and gashes of searing agony flitted the length of her arms.

  ‘You’re not walking out that door.’

  ‘I am.’

  This had become a battle of wills, whoever gave in now would struggle to claw back power in enough time to have a say about whether or not they journeyed back to California.

  ‘You’re gonna stay here, put on a show for me as you strip down, then you’re gonna open your legs for me and spend the rest of the night screaming my name.’

  ‘Don’t hold your breath,’ she murmured.

  Undeterred, and perhaps in an attempt to win the war, he squashed his mouth over hers and probed her mouth with his tongue. The usual frisson of arousal zipped through her bones, but this punishing kiss was one of power, he was trying to exert authority over her and she realised then that she had to break through this conditioned behaviour. He’d been taught to be tough, to be the best, to overpower and crush an opponent, she had to teach him that they were on the same side and that not everyone was his enemy.

  The only person he seemed to trust was Mauri and she couldn’t see why at all. Although she had never witnessed them interact, Ivy couldn’t imagine what Mauri Stark had done to deserve such reverence; she had quite the towering idol to compete with.

  ‘No,’ she said, but when he squatted to wrench her up, her legs twined around his hips.

  She told herself that this manoeuvre was to offer relief to her aching arms, but in truth she just wanted to feel the reassuring bulge insisting itself against the yielding flesh of her centre. Giving in to him would be easy, she could let him fuck her here, or let him take her to the bed for a slower joining, but teaching him that she could be distracted by sex set a dangerous precedent, so she tried to push him away, but his grasp remained steadfast.

  ‘Your body wants it,’ he said, sucking just above her pulse point. ‘My naughty Minx wants me to take control, you want me to force you, to jam my dick up into you. What you want babygirl is a dose of my sweet medicine right deep inside that dripping pussy. That will cure this defiance.’

  ‘You don’t want me compliant,’ she said, flipping his sentiment back onto him. ‘If I whimpered and whinnied and bowed down to worship you and your dick, you’d get bored, you said it yourself.’

  But what he wanted right now was to keep her here, to make her forget her declaration that she was leaving this room and him alone in it. Getting some air, having freedom of movement, was her given right, and until Dax and his colleagues had been in her life it was something she
had taken for granted.

  Her freewill was the most important thing in the world to her. It sickened her to watch how her mother and sister pandered to the men in their lives just because both were so insecure and so firm in the belief that they needed a man to be a complete person; that somehow they wouldn’t survive without one.

  Ivy didn’t need a man to survive; she had been happy working hard and paying her own way. She knew that she could make it on her own, except now she didn’t want to. Since meeting Dax and experiencing what they had together she had learned one vital distinction that separated her from her mother and sister. Ivy didn’t need Dax, she wanted him.

  Tilting her chin, she rested her cheek on his, rubbing back and forth as she whispered. ‘You want my mouth all over you, physically and mentally. I challenge you and that’s what turns you on, tough guy.’

  ‘You’re no challenge,’ he said.

  Whipping around, he carted her to the bed, but instead of taking them down onto it as they were, he sat and wrangled her around to lie over his knee. Slinging her dress up out of the way, he took hold of the mono-line of her G-string and with a single pull, he snapped the feeble thread. His large palm covered one cheek, he squeezed her then skimmed it across to the other cheek. If all he was going to do was caress her then there was no need to remove her underwear, but their horns were locked in a battle for superiority and tearing off her panties had been his opening act of dominance.

  Straightening her body, Ivy was about to roll away but he brought his thick thigh around and locked her legs between his, so her ass was presented and she could do nothing to release herself.

  ‘It’s nice owning something as sweet as this,’ he said, pinching her cheek where it met her inner thigh.

  ‘You married me for my ass?’ she asked. ‘What if I get fat and lazy some day?’

  ‘Not gonna happen,’ he said, loosening his clamp on her legs enough to grant himself access to her sensitised centre. ‘I’m gonna be part of your work out every day.’

  ‘We’re married now,’ she said, struggling to prop her head up on her hand because her body hung limp over his leg, ‘I’m allowed to say that I have a headache.’

  ‘Say it all you want, it’s not going to stop me from doing this.’

  She was going to ask what bending her over his knee was supposed to achieve in combatting a headache when his fingertip glided into her. It only went as far as the first knuckle but it was enough to remind her of his occupying force.

  ‘I said no, Dax, what does that mean to you?’

  ‘That I’m not trying hard enough.’

  Her sarcasm was lost on him, or his distraction was too great for him to appreciate it because when he spoke in that dull murmur a jet of arousal cascaded through her with the force of haphazard shrapnel impaling her body. As much as she hated him for having such an intense power over her, she loved him for it too.

  His casual words were enough to send her off-balance enough to forget that they were fighting, to forget everything, and to make her surrender her to him without choice, which was exactly what she didn’t want.

  Dax lifted her and shifted their positions, laying her on the very edge of the bed, he pushed her knees up to part her legs wide. When he knelt on the floor between her thighs, Ivy knew it was his plan to eat her before he fucked her. He licked his fingers and ran them through her pussy, up and down a few times then he slapped her vulva and lowered his head. If she let his mouth close over her there was no way that she would ever be able to walk away.

  Seeing an opportunity, Ivy pushed her heels into the bed and levered herself backwards, away from him. Crawling the width of the bed, she sought out her shoes and managed to reach their strewn position and pull them on before she chanced looking at him.

  ‘I have to do this, Dax,’ she said, watching him maintain his position, kneeling where she’d left him.

  Still on his knees, he dropped his elbows to the mattress, examining her with his clear expression. ‘Did you come with me just to get away from them?’

  ‘What?’ she said, pierced by hurt at his implication. ‘No.’

  ‘If you did then you need to tell me now. An annulment is still possible if we both deny…’

  ‘Dax,’ she said, moving to the door. ‘I promise you that by the end of tonight you’re going to know what true love is, because by the end of tonight you’re going to trust me.’

  ‘If you walk out of here then I’ll never see you again.’

  Her hand fell to the door handle and a horrifying thought struck her. ‘You would leave me just because I go for a walk?’

  ‘If you walk out of here, I don’t believe that you’ll come back.’

  Warmed and reassured, despite his clear belief in her betrayal, Ivy smiled. ‘I’m going to teach you to trust me, and you’re going to see that love doesn’t come with stipulations, not like those Mauri put on you. You think that you owe him something because he took care of you and yes, that was nice of him. But he wasn’t selfless, he did it for a reason, he did it because he wanted to make you into this man, a man who would do anything for him, no matter how distasteful.’

  ‘I wouldn’t do anything for him,’ Dax said. ‘There are conditions on my regard for him too.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘I wouldn’t let him keep the woman I wanted… I wouldn’t let him hurt you.’

  ‘But he is hurting me,’ she said. ‘Watching him push you, a wounded animal, into these corners and torturing you into doing his bidding, that hurts me. And I won’t stand by and let him tie you into ever tighter knots. I love you and I wouldn’t ask you to do anything which could cause you pain.’

  ‘Like walking away from the only family I’ve ever known?’ he asked.

  ‘If you tell me that it’s a deal breaker then I’ll come with you. But they’re going to tear us apart, Dax, and they’ll love watching every minute of it.’

  ‘I won’t let them do that.’

  ‘Yeah, you will,’ she said. ‘Today proved it to me. You couldn’t just tell Mauri how you felt and then propose to me like any other guy would. You couldn’t even trust yourself to bust up the wedding to stop Trystan from having me. You brought me here to marry me because that piece of paper that we both signed is the barrier to Trystan marrying me; it is the force that won’t allow Mauri to talk you out of your feelings. No one could talk me out of loving you, I didn’t need a piece of paper to back me up.’

  ‘So why did you sign it?’ he sneered. ‘If I’m such a weak, pathetic mess—‘

  ‘Because I love you, Dax, and I couldn’t walk away from you. I’ll always do whatever makes life easier for you, no matter the personal cost. Putting someone ahead of yourself, ahead of your own wants and needs, that’s love. If this was about me having a simple dislike of Mauri then I wouldn’t hesitate in coming back with you. I don’t want to go back there because of what they’ll do to you, not what they’ll do to me.’

  ‘No one will hurt you.’

  ‘We’ll see, Dax… There are all kinds of hurt.’

  She opened the door and he sprang up to his feet. ‘Ivy,’ he whispered, he so rarely used her name.

  ‘I will come back to you, Dax. You’re going to know love and trust because I’m going to keep giving you both until you recognise them. I will come back.’

  This discussion could go on all night, but she knew actions would teach Dax what he needed to know about her and so she walked out of the door before he could say anything else. Striding down the corridor she half expected to hear him following her, but he didn’t. She got down the stairs and out onto the Strip, then she took a long breath of the sticky air.

  Until she was out there she hadn’t had a destination in mind. This was her old town and there were old haunts that she could visit. In the meantime, she had one person she very desperately wanted to see. Knowing that there may never be another opportunity, Ivy turned away from the hotel containing her husband and marched on with determination in her gait.


  Chapter Nineteen

  Her expedition took her longer than she had anticipated, partly because she had no money and therefore couldn’t use a cab, and also because it took her longer to locate the person that she was looking for than she had hoped.

  After all of her reassurances to Dax that she would come back to him, she didn’t want to be gone for too long. Playing games with his insecurities would be cruel, Ivy would never consider being so malicious to the man she loved. Proving to him that she was true to her word and coming back to him of her own volition, without coercion, was going to go a long way towards showing him that he was secure with her.

  When she got back to the hotel she couldn’t get into the room because she had no key. Knocking didn’t rouse Dax, but she knew how deep a sleeper he was, so she wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t awoken by her rapping. Giving the receptionist a song and dance story, Ivy was granted access by another key card and eventually got into the room. Anticipating that she would be able to wake Dax up with an intimate act, she stripped down and crawled into what turned out to be an empty bed.

  Clambering out of bed and turning on all of the lights, she explored every corner of their room and found that Dax had indeed left her here. The sports bag was gone from the closet, but there were clothes on the bathroom floor so she guessed that he hadn’t checked out; the receptionist certainly hadn’t implied that he had. That left Ivy with the possibility that Dax had simply split, leaving her to pay the room tab with her non-existent cash.

  Now that the shoe was on the other foot, she didn’t like being the insecure party, unaware of her love’s location or if he was coming back; she had new clarity as to Dax’s objections. Not sure if he would come back, Ivy considered the idea of going out to look for him, but quickly dismissed it. Vegas wasn’t a place where you could easily find anyone, often locating an exit or an elevator to get to your room was hard enough let alone trying to locate someone in a melee of noise and constantly moving bodies.