I nodded toward the Champagne. “You’re presumptuous enough already. Where’s my single malt?”
“Oh, shut up.” He kissed my forehead lazily. “What was going on earlier?”
Ugh. “With Matt?”
“Yes.” He reached for his glass. “And Felix.”
“How do you know Ai–I mean, him?” I said, cringing at my feeble attempt to protect Aidan.
“He was in some of your agency pictures. I haven’t hired him, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m surprised that he’s friendly with Matt.”
“I introduced them. Don’t worry…I haven’t seduced Matt away to the wonderful world of whoring.”
“Led him somewhere else though, didn’t you?” He ran a fingertip along my bare arm, leaving goose pimples in his wake. “He’s very stubborn.”
“Why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“The first night you hired me,” I said softly. “Why? And why did you involve him?”
“I wondered when you’d ask me that.” The sheets rustled as he stretched his legs. “Do you want the simple version or the complicated one?”
“What do you think?”
“There have been other call girls…though I expect you know that,” he began, kneading my shoulders. “You…well. You always seemed like such a good little worker bee, Leila. Do you have any idea what it was like when I found you on that website?”
Something like the moment I stepped into that hotel room and laid eyes on my boss and colleague, maybe? “Go on.”
“I’ve not met a woman who wants what I want. Not without throwing money at her first. I know your parents have problems, but I knew it even before you said…” Soft kisses along my collar bone. “You weren’t doing this just for the money.”
“There are events you can go to for this type of thing,” I said dryly. “Have a quick Google and knock yourself out.”
“Oh, come on. You don’t want to sign up for all the safe and sane shite any more than I do. Because we’re not.” They were playful, those words, but he meant every one of them. “Besides, if it’s so easy, why haven’t you been to one?”
I–well.
“I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure it’s risk aware, not...shite.”
He drummed his fingers over my nipple. “Some people do all this stuff with rules. Each to their own and whatever. But we can’t just go out to a meeting and pretend we’re like them, that what we did is okay. I’ve got no interest in that, Leila. There’s only so much you can be aware of when you’re dicking about with a huge knife.”
“Like you haven’t been practicing on oranges, Mr Merchant.”
“Oh yes. I am Joe, fuckwit at law and mutilator of citrus tits. Of course. Don’t pull that face.” He brushed my bottom lip. “You know what I mean.”
”I’d like it if you shut up now.”
He squeezed me between his thighs. “You like it all being fucked. Being afraid. I liked it, too. It’s the whole reason we did that.”
“I like having a safety word.”
“Only because you know I’ll honour it.”
Yes, yes. That. But...“You digressed. Tell me about Matt.”
“Ah. Well. He would moan a lot about the girl he was seeing, after a few drinks. What was her name?”
“Niamh.”
“Niamh. I suggested many times that he get over himself and hire a girl. He would dissect that relationship until we were all sick of hearing about it. He might as well just cut to the chase. He disagreed.”
“He would.” I smiled faintly.
“And then…then I found you, and I wondered if you would be the one to break him.”
“So you were doing it for his own good,” I mused. “I think your pants are on fire, Joe.”
He laughed. “I’d seen the pair of you flirting. I wanted to watch you fuck.” His hands slid to my breasts. “I didn’t know he’d decide to fight for territory afterward.”
“Human nature, I suppose.”
“Don’t give me that. People credit nature with way too much–jealousy, violence, sex.” His tone solidified. “They might be chemical, but they aren’t inevitable. I fucking hate the caveman excuse.”
“Said by the biggest alpha going,” I teased.
“If that’s what you want to call it. Doesn’t make me any more of an ape.”
“You’re a wolf, if I remember correctly.”
“I’m a lot of things.” He smiled. “I choose most of them.”
“Joe…I’m still dizzy and now you’re drugging me with drink. Can we skip the whole free will debate until tomorrow?”
“It’s pointless anyway. Still. Makes a change from being asked what I’m…” He paused to inject sarcasm. “Thinking.”
“What are you thinking?”
“That I neglected these. They’re unmarked.” He squeezed my breasts and I mewed, arching my back.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Not what Isobel wanted to hear.”
That name chilled my throat. It was awkward talking about Isobel at all, let alone negatively when I felt so responsible for her.
“You wanted to know what happened between us,” said Joseph. “Remember?”
“I think you offered, actually.” I teased along his inner thigh with a nail. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, though.”
“And I’d know if you were lying. Always do.”
“Tell me, then.”
It was his turn to shrug and my breasts sailed upward in his hands.
“We were badly matched at the most base level. My fault though, utterly mine. I don’t even know why I bothered trying to change her…I didn’t care enough as it was.” He sprinkled Champagne across my nipple, fingers swirling, and I gave a low moan. “She didn’t really want to be corrupted. She did it all for me. My grandmother–she’s more like my mother, really–she sent me her engagement ring recently so I could have it reset. She doesn’t know about Isobel, but she wants me to use it when...well. You know.”
“Isobel thought it was for her,” I said.
“She was livid.”
More of the prickly liquid now, painted down toward my naval.
“Even then, when I said I’d never marry her, she wouldn’t give up. I had to give her a catalogue of grotesque reasons to finish with me.”
“She said you told her about using prostitutes.”
“Mmm. It’s a dirty word, that, isn’t it?” He pushed a cold, damp hand between my thighs and I bucked against it as he parted me. My Chairman of the Whored.
Charlotte sunk away, now, as if a great ocean swayed between her voice and my ears. Maybe it was the blood swilling, or the wounds that knitted above. She lay sated. Content.
“Do you know what the most ridiculous thing was?” he asked.
“Mmph.”
“She was pissed because it was an emerald. Apparently, they’re vulgar these days. She didn’t understand why I hadn’t bought a diamond.” He chuckled. “And that was before she realized it wasn’t for her. Bitch. It’s probably worth more than anything from fucking Tiffany.”
“And what's that pet name she was using for you, the scary German one?”
“What, schneemann?” He scratched a temple. “It means snowman. That kind of passive-aggressive shit was pretty typical, actually.”
“Meanie.”
“She’s ignorant.”
“You’re mean to lots of people. Matt, Poppy…oh.” He twisted cold fingers inside me.
“Maybe I know things about Matt and Poppy that you don’t.”
“Is Poppy whoring too?” I panted.
He laughed. “Fuck, I hope not.”
“You really are mean.”
In one sharp manoeuvre, he climbed up and pinned me to the bed. The vanquished chocolate box tumbled to the floor in a little heap of paper cases and a swish of cool air.
“I’m honest.” He spread my legs with a jerk of his knee. “Nothing more honest than this.”
; “Not the kind of thing I’d expect a man who doesn’t believe in human nature to say.”
He entered me then, a rough stroke that filled me effortlessly. “Well,” he mumbled, shoving down on my branded belly. God, that smarted. “Since I’m being honest…maybe Matt isn’t the only one up for a fight.”
I’d wanted everything to change tonight–to be shaped anew by the sodden sheets and the man who wrought their tempests.
It’s happening, happening.
“It’s all a game to you,” I said, testing him. “The fighting. You like it.”
“No, it’s not a game, Leila. It’s just necessary.”
He soldered hands to my hips, held me still while I took him. I couldn’t buck to meet his force, but my flesh swelled in effort all the same.
“What do you mean?”
A whisper flooded my ear. “And this, it feels necessary. Don’t you think?”
Honestly? Yes.
I didn’t care what it made me.
One last gasp, and Charlotte flashed a grin in the darkness: I’m still in your blood.
She and I were a phoenix in the wreckage. Headed toward a happy ending, perhaps–one besides the circles spilling into my belly. And Joseph soared atop me, inside me, on his way to an unspoken war.
Where you moonlight, you will find wolves, and your world will burn beneath them.
I lay naked in the embers. Held the man made of flames.
Close your eyes. It’s not all right...but maybe it will be okay.
It all makes sense, now. I am like him. A hunter.
The world has teeth and so do I.
END
The story concludes in BREAKING JOSEPH, out now.
Books by Lucy V. Morgan
Breaking Leila
Breaking Joseph
Twisted Summer
Beautiful Mess
A Cliché Too Far series
Tousle Me
Quest for You (coming 2014)
Acknowledgements
I had so much kind input with this project. Thank you to Christa, Kenny and Steve, who all offered invaluable advice and suggestions. Thank you to the lawyers who proofread for me.
These books have been through quite the journey from a little online series years back to a much bigger release. If at any time we have conversed about these works, thank you so much for your time and your comments. I value each and every one.
Books can be dangerous things to write. This one was certainly a double-edged sword, but I’ve had so much support despite everything. You know who you are.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lucy V. Morgan writes sharp contemporary fiction, usually with a liberal splatter of filth. She lives in England, where she also works as an editor. She spends her spare time consuming lebkuchen, working through her TBR pile, and pretending she's an urban fantasy heroine in body combat classes.
She shares lots of teasers on Facebook, so you should look her up right this minute, really, shouldn’t you?
www.lucyvmorgan.com
www.facebook.com/LucyVMorganAuthor
@Rhiannon_Edits
[email protected]
Breaking Leila Page 29
