The tone of her voice had me setting aside the bouquet, turning, dropping to my knee beside the bed, and clasping her hand in mine.
I brought it up, pressing it to my forehead as I closed my eyes. “Oh, mon amour, don’t you have any idea how far I will go to find you?”
She smiled, weakly.
“I know you protect what is yours,” she said, so low I almost missed it.
“Perri…Jannah…” I stumbled, wanting to reach her but not knowing the words. “It is so much more than that.”
“It is?” she whispered.
“Yes, of course.” I expressed, urgently, the straining in my voice evidence of how strongly I willed her to understand. “I want to give you shelter and safety, that’s true, and I want to make you mine. But only if you will have me.”
“S-so you don’t want me to go?” she looked hopeful, but also confused, as if it were inconceivable that I’d want her to stay.
“No, of course not! You have completely captured me. I would be lost without you! I can’t imagine that colors or tastes would hold any interest for me if you were gone. You have become my color; you are the only thing I want to flavor my world.” My eyes moistened at the thought of not having her.
She looked at me, more confident, but still so cautious.
“Then why did you discard me when my contract was canceled? You didn’t even say goodbye!”
“Oh, my love, because I needed you to feel independent, to feel you had the right to make any choice, without pressure.” I moved up, back onto the side of the bed and reached over to cradle her face with my hands. “The one thing I know about is power. Without being equals I could not have known why you made whatever choice you did. That is why I transferred your funds to you, so you would be on equal footing with me. So that I could trust whatever outcome.
“I needed you to know I would accept any decision you made. That you had full freedom to choose any future. I would be devastated if you chose to leave; I was devastated that you left, but I had to know. Loving you requires your consent.”
She pressed her hands to mine and then closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against one of my hands before placing a kiss in my palm.
She looked back at me, smiling softly, and said, “Loving me?”
Chapter 28
I pulled her up and into my arms, “Yes, loving you!”
Her arms curled around me and we stayed in the embrace until she pulled back to wipe away her tears.
This magnetic, explosively vibrant creature had swan-dived into my life and turned it on its head. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to make her happy!
“Michael, please hear me.” Her voice was still soft and a bit shaky, but her attention was focused. I looked at her, nodding.
“I left because you did not declare yourself. I saw that you had made all the proper and right arrangements, perfect, actually. But, you did not include any indication of your desires. Well, other than wanting to protect me.” I began to interrupt her, but she placed two fingers to my lips and continued. “I am not a woman accustomed to the ways of the world where these matters are concerned. I have only known love delivered on the wings of ownership. That is why The Brokerage appealed to me so much because it clearly stated I owned me.”
She dropped her fingers and continued.
“When that was gone and you disappeared in a cloud of smoke, especially with the formality of your arrangements for me – never including me in the strategy or decision – it was as if you were like every other man I had known. Making decisions for me. Only offering me protection if I stayed. No mention of the possibility that in staying, I’d have your heart too.”
I paled, now seeing how this all must have landed for her – how horribly wrong I’d presented it.
“I will not stay unless I am, as you call it, your equal.” She looked stern about this, and I stayed quiet, sensing she was not done.
“You will not get to make decisions about my life without consulting me.”
I nodded, solemnly.
“You will teach me to read and understand the state of your heart and you will always let me know what you want as well if you ever expect to win a place in my bed. I deserve no less.”
She looked down at her hands, then grinned, and looked up at me again.
“And, I want my money back.”
I threw my head back and laughed, delighted.
Then I scooped her into my arms and squeezed the life out of her before raining kisses on her face.
“Yes, yes! YES! Anything you want my love, anything you want!”
Chapter 29
That night she asked that I sleep with her, on top of the covers fully clothed, and I gratefully accepted.
We spooned all night, unable to break from away from one another.
I am not a praying man, but that night I prayed to whomever would listen, expressing my gratitude and requests for her further protection.
Chapter 30
I requested breakfast in bed, unwilling to share our newfound intimacy with curious eyes.
“Tell me about your brother and these Catacombs.”
Michael set his cup down and looked at me.
“I have never told anyone the details.”
I nodded, accepting the responsibility this required of me.
“Taylor helped arrange his entrance and assists with occasional communiqués, but otherwise, only The Brokerage knows.”
I watched him, waiting.
He nodded and then looked out the window. The memory must still be painful.
“He served in a different branch of the military than I; always wanting to maintain his independence. He was special ops, MSOT to be exact. Marine Special Operations Team. I was a special-ops, too, but on the Navy Seal side.” He shook his head and smiled slightly, remembering.
“Anyway, he left the service after a while, because he lost respect for his commanders. I have never found out all the details,” he glanced back at me, “but I do know it left a sour taste in his mouth.
“He floundered for a year or so, just drifted, drinking mostly.” He nodded and looked away again. “I felt like I kind of understood. It’s hard … living … knowing you left your brothers in the field, fighting and putting their lives on the line, and you’re not there to have their back.
“He finally decided it was time to get a job, so he joined a private military, the largest one in the world.” His shoulders and jaw tensed. “While he was deployed in Afghanistan, he witnessed something. Something involving his previous commanders, senior leaders at the company he was working for, and many of their men. It was so disturbing that he went AWOL right then and there. He spent the next six months trying to report it, but all he got for his trouble was death threats.
“And, it got our mother killed.”
Chapter 31
I was stunned. It was if I, too, had experienced her loss. I wanted to double over in pain, but could not move, the look of overwhelming sadness on his face kept me still. I could not imagine what he must have been through.
I reached out and placed my hand on his arm, wanting him to feel me, here. If we had not been sitting cross-legged on the bed with our meal between us, I would have moved to sit beside him. Instead, I just offered my strength.
He nodded at me and then looked down.
After a minute I asked softly, “Did he enter The Catacombs to protect you?”
He looked up, quickly, and said, “No. He did it to find those responsible, and he has sworn not to come out until he does.”
I nodded, feeling so many mixed emotions. Grateful they had each other, sad that they were separated, sad that they had lost their mother so tragically, and happy that I had these two strong men in my life, even if one of them was a stranger.
“Will we be joining him?” I asked, knowing I was, at that moment, pledging my life to him for the foreseeable future.
Chapter 32
My heart leapt. She was willing to go!
“No,” I
shook my head, “our paths may cross at some point but we must enter The Catacombs alone.”
Chapter 33
“I will want to leave as quickly as possible. No more delays.”
“I’ve already made the arrangements through Taylor in the hopes you would agree.” He replied.
“Thank you. I offer you my agreement.” He smiled at me, but I looked at him more seriously. “On one condition. That you stay in the same room with me at all times, save when I am in the ladies’ room, in which case you remain immediately outside.”
He nodded and grinned, but I continued. “That means if you go to get us food, I go to get us food with you. If I sleep in a bed, you sleep in it with me.” I paused, and then added, “And if I shower, you shower with me.”
His head whipped around and he looked directly at me, wanting to be certain he heard me correctly.
“Yes,” I shrugged. “You have already seen the goods,” I winked, reminding him he was granted an unobstructed view, the night of the auction when he purchased me. “Now you will get to touch me. Although my maidenhead remains intact.”
He grinned wide, and said, “On my honor.”
“Good. We shall begin now. I want to shower before we enter the skull-lined crypts and tunnels of this mysterious Catacombs.” I grinned as I stood up and dropped my clothes, before winking at him and heading into the bath.
Chapter 34
I stepped into the large, glass-walled shower, reaching forward to test the temperature before moving under the stream. With my hand still outstretched I looked over my shoulder and gave him my sexiest grin, taking in his eyes devouring my body.
As his pants dropped, I cast my eyes down, realizing the impact I had on him. I raised my eyes to meet his, both of us smiling.
I reached for the bar of soap, monogrammed with his initials, likely brought over from the ship, and placed it under the water. Michael moved in behind me and gently touched my hips. I leaned back against him, loving the power of his sculpted body.
He lifted my hair and kissed my neck gently, both hands encasing my hips. I smiled, deliriously happy.
I turned around, making direct eye contact as my sudsy hands went around his hardness.
His shocked look was my reward. I knew he loved my boldness and I welcomed feeling its return. This was the first time in my life I had been allowed to set my own rules, and, Brokerage or no, I was determined to make a life that was all mine.
He lifted his arms to the shower walls, bracing himself as he closed his eyes. I moved over and around him, unsure what would feel good and what wouldn’t. I just let myself get lost in the luxuriousness of the silky suds contrasting with the hard, now throbbing heat and smoothness of his skin.
Once, when I was in college, I had gone to pick up my best friend, earlier than expected, for our study session. When I walked in, I discovered she was watching a video clip someone had “sent her” of two people having sex. I was never sure if that was the true story, but I convinced her to leave it on. We skipped our study session that night, as I sat enrapt, asking her if that was really how it was done.
I tried one of the techniques now; stroking with both hands moving in the same direction. But it was difficult at this angle so I dropped to my knees. The same position I was in when I had first met him, alone.
Here, beneath him, I saw him as a god. A man who would respect me enough to let me worship him. A man who needed my strength, from a woman who would surrender to him and challenge him. A woman who was his equal.
He opened his smoldering eyes, his look intense with desire. Then he groaned. I watched his face, knew by the thrust of his hips that each stroke brought him closer.
He suddenly brought his hands down and around mine. Clasping me tighter, our grip around his hardness firm, as he used us to stroke himself. The water pummeled my back and soaked my hair. It ran over my shoulders and down over my breasts, running off my hardened nipples. He watched my face, mouth open in want, then my nipples, then my mouth.
Urgency was in every movement. Faster and faster he drove us, as I surrendered to a desire I could never have fathomed.
I willed him to use me; willed him to show me the depth of his desire for me; willed him to surrender to his own needs as I watched and waited, urging him onward.
“Baby, it’s time for you to move out of the way. Baby, hurry.” He pleaded.
“No.” I stared at him, needing this. “I want you to mark me. Show me how much I affect you. Show me I am the only one you will seek surrender from. Show me this. Let me feel all of your power. All of your masculinity. All of the most private parts of you. Make me yours. Right now. Right here.”
I kneeled up, moving closer. Unwilling to be chattel even on my knees. If I were going to surrender to him, then he must surrender his desire first. He must take this risk. He must want me enough to own me, to mark me, to make me his, even as I declare I am my own person. That who he is belongs to me. In all the ways I want it.
I was now jackhammering up and down on his cock. Ripping it out of him as I kicked off his hands and steered solo. I looked up at him, mouth open, breasts, and nether regions bared, and willed him to release himself on me as my body ached, and wetted, in intense desire.
With one last thrust, his hands reaching out as if to grab my head to bury himself in my throat, he floundered -- unanchored from the wall, or time, or space as he let go.
His release splattered my smiling face, my breasts, my hair, my shoulders, and the space behind me – everywhere – and he growled out his orgasm, his hips thrust forward and his head, falling back.
He was mine. And I was going into The Catacombs, as his.
The Catacombs II
An Obsessed Billionaire Romance Series
(Book 3)
By
Camille Alexander
Copyright © 2020
Introduction
In this third installment of the Obsessed Billionaire series, following The Brokerage and The Catacombs, our beautiful young heiress and her dashing, dynamic billionaire not only enter the early stages of a romance, as equals, but they also begin to show us what life in The Catacombs entails.
The Catacombs, shrouded in mystery for more than 200 years, is everywhere and nowhere all at once. It is how the ultra-elite escape danger, leave their cloistered lives, or when they want to experience unimaginable adventures in absolute privacy. No one discusses its location; no one discusses its access points, or who has entered or left. Discretion is its cornerstone.
Michael and Perri leave their lives behind to take on new identities in order to be together and to escape and hide from the men Perri’s father hired to find them.
Not only does this couple need time to get to know each other better, they need time to consider how best to approach, and hopefully resolve, things with her father– a volatile, proud king from the Middle East and a longstanding friend of Michael’s. A man who is, ultimately, angered that someone bought a year of his daughter’s life and her virginity, at the anonymous Brokerage. Her identity when he purchased her – unbeknownst to Michael at the time – does not change the fact that her father had plans for her arranged marriage and does not believe his daughter to be the owner of her fate. Her consensual entrance to the Brokerage and subsequent purchase makes no difference to him; it is an affront to his rule of her and a betrayal of Michael’s friendship.
To make matters worse, the king, who kept her hidden from everyone, including his friend Michael, since birth, risks losing his power and his country’s peace if she is discovered.
So, the lovers leave everything. They cannot rejoin the familiar world until they succeed in resolving the tensions that could overturn an entire country; the number growing hard to contain: Perri’s existence, her freedom as well as her purchase, and now, her choice to stay with Michael.
That means lives with no servants, no security guards, and no familiar faces, places, or resources.
They will each have access to their individua
l wealth through a trusted mediator but must be careful to avoid the notoriety that comes with spending it in the lavish ways they are accustomed.
The Catacombs require invisibility. It is a witness protection program equivalent, for the mega-rich.
Can they live without the worldly comforts they have always known?
Can they make their way through foreign, unfamiliar places while adopting pedestrian lives?
Can they avoid attention and detection?
Or will it all come crashing down around them, putting both their lives in danger?
Can they trust that all they own – Michael’s properties, investments, superyacht, and their great personal wealth – will be safe in the hands of others?
Will they ever feel safe?
There is no way to be certain of anything … once you enter the second book of The Catacombs, and the third book of the Obsessed Billionaire series.
Chapter 1
Taylor caught my eye and waited, until I nodded, before bringing in the woman that would introduce Perri and myself to the rules of The Catacombs.
I rose as she approached. Perri remained seated and watched her cross the space, cautious or suspicious it seemed, I could not tell which.
“How do you do,” I greeted her as I extended my hand. “Thank you for coming on such short notice. I am-”
“Please, no introductions,” she interrupted me stiffly. “Discretion begins immediately.”
I nodded and glanced at Perri as I gestured for the Catacombs officer to have a seat and join us. Perri showed no signs of diffidence, curiosity, or excitement, making it difficult for me to read her.
“I have with me your credit cards, initial transportation details, and some related paperwork such as business documents and other bits that you will need. Your passports will be given to you later.” She looked from me to Perri and back again as Taylor stood at the periphery of the room and listened.
The Obsessed Billionaire: Boxed Set (Complete Vols. 1-5, A Billionaire Romance Series) Page 7
