Stranded For One Scandalous Week (Mills & Boon Modern) (Rebels, Brothers, Billionaires Book 1)

by Natalie Anderson

  ‘Of course,’ he answered.

  The staircase was so steep she could almost slide down it. At the bottom, Ash pulled open a heavy-looking steel door. Yet more lights flickered on as he walked through. Her heart still thudding, Merle followed.

  ‘Oh, wow.’ She gazed about the gleaming space in absolute astonishment. ‘Wow. This is...’

  ‘Insane?’ He circled around on the spot, shaking his head as he took in the set-up.

  This was no weird, prison-like cell or futuristic survival bunker. This was pure luxury—like a plush hotel penthouse.

  ‘You’d never know it was here.’ She wouldn’t have believed it possible. Not when above them was that perfect, smooth, manicured tennis lawn beside the pool. There were no tell-tale lumps or hollows giving away the secret beneath the ground.

  ‘Which is the point, right?’ He crossed the room.

  ‘It’s big.’ Merle slowly followed him across the smooth wooden floors that echoed the warm, coastal luxury of the mansion above ground. Cosy leather sofas furnished the room.

  ‘My father wouldn’t have anything less than opulent.’

  ‘How does it smell this fresh when we’re this far underground?’

  ‘Good maintenance,’ he muttered. ‘There’s a ventilation system. The control panel is in here...’

  Merle tuned out as she took in additional details herself. The wall carefully concealed a series of cupboards providing impressive storage space. Digital frames had lit up, creating ‘windows’ to a virtual garden. The kitchen was compact yet still luxurious. While every space was utilised, it wasn’t crammed. It was, she had to admit, absolutely stunning.

  ‘What was the man thinking, having this installed here?’ Ash’s growl impinged.

  ‘It is pretty unusual.’ She released a helpless laugh. ‘Did he think he was in danger or the end of the world was nigh?’

  ‘No.’ Ash shook his head. ‘I think it was the accessory du jour and he wanted to feel superior to his friends in his club. He’d hint and whisper but confirm nothing. My father did like keeping secrets.’

  Hearing underlying rancour in his tone, Merle stilled. That edge of emotion flickered in his eyes. It made him even more beautiful. Merle stiffened. Never had she thought a man beautiful before... The bunker no longer felt spacious. Or safe. It was scarily exciting.

  He rubbed his arm absently as he looked about the luxury lounge.

  ‘Are you cold?’ she unthinkingly observed aloud. ‘Maybe you should wear more clothes.’

  He snapped his head back and turned a wicked smile on her. ‘Don’t you like to swim?’ he teased and stepped towards her. ‘It’s very warm this afternoon.’

  It was extremely warm this afternoon. Truthfully, she was melting this second, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. She’d lost her ability to speak again and she just knew another scalding blush was mottling her skin.

  ‘You’re not a pool person? What about the beach?’ He cocked his head and chuckled at her. ‘Or is it just bubble baths for you?’

  ‘I didn’t want to disturb you,’ she muttered.

  ‘Too late, Merle.’ A heated glint flickered in his eyes. ‘But I’ve been hogging the pool, haven’t I?’

  ‘This is your home. I’m just working here.’

  ‘You’re also living here. You’re not supposed to work all day, you’re supposed to have breaks. If you like, I’ll vacate the pool area at a time that’s convenient to you.’

  She met his gaze, stilling when she saw seriousness stealing that glint away. Stupidly another wave of heat overwhelmed her—how could she find him even more attractive just because he was being almost human?

  She walked down the narrow corridor, more to escape him than to explore. But fascination and curiosity took hold as she ventured further into the pod. There was a bunk room gorgeously decorated in light colours, a sleek bathroom and beyond that a luxurious bedroom for two. The whole place was pristine and perfect and surprisingly cosy. It would be easy to forget you were deep underground. But then Ash followed her into the room and she remembered just how alone and isolated they were.

  ‘It’s better finished than most homes,’ she commented, purely to pierce the thickening atmosphere. Certainly it was nicer than the house she’d grown up in. ‘For a space likely never to be used, it’s extravagant, isn’t it?’

  He merely nodded. Embarrassed, she realised that for him this wasn’t extravagant. He probably thought it sparse, given the luxury he was probably used to.

  ‘Anything archive-worthy?’ Ash asked.

  ‘I’m not sure.’ She glanced again at the concealed drawers and cupboards. If she were bolder, she’d check them out to see if anything was inside. But being down here was confusing her thinking. With Ash in the luxurious bedroom beside her, it felt as if the space was smaller. Intimate. Inescapable.

  Her gaze was unerringly drawn back to him. He was watching her. Too close. The temperature soared. Her lungs squeezed and she swivelled to nervously step past him. She needed to get upstairs so she could breathe again. It wasn’t that she was claustrophobic, she was just too close to him. All of her usual reticence and caution had evaporated and she was tempted to act...wantonly.

  It was imperative to put distance between them. Not because he was dangerous in a threatening way, more that he was too wicked and her own mind was turning towards temptation. She’d avoided temptation all of her life—but then, she’d never been confronted by anything or anyone who ignited it within her like this. But the current of awareness that sparked to life whenever Ash Castle so much as stepped into her line of sight wasn’t just unsettling, it was also unstoppable.

  ‘I’ll just...’ She breathed out, unable to regulate her racing heart. ‘I’ll just head back up.’

  She glanced over again and was instantly snared in the crucible of his attention. She lost time—she didn’t know how much—as she strived not to crumble beneath the intensity of his killer eye-contact. Her temperature climbed and her pulse skipped and worst of all she was so sure he knew. Yet seconds stopped in the heat of that stare.

  ‘I’ll be back up in a moment,’ he muttered eventually.

  Scalding humiliation flooded her as she scurried towards those steep stairs. That mortifying moment made her even more aware of her internal reaction to him. That raw physical response that was so strong, so primal. She had to get away and get herself under control. She climbed carefully, keeping her eyes fixed on each steep stair. But ten steps from the top she stopped, finally realising that there was no glow of sunlight shining down on her. No space where the hatch had been left open.

  ‘A-Ash?’ Sound struggled to emerge from her suddenly tight throat. ‘Ash?’

  ‘Yes?’ A second later he appeared on the bottom step. ‘What?’

  But he could already see. He took the stairs two at a time and in a blink was too close behind her. Her heart galloped as she heard his sharply inhaled breath.

  ‘Merle?’

  She could feel him only a step from her now but she couldn’t bear to face him as she admitted the awful truth. ‘I don’t think we can get out.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘MERLE...’ A LOW hum of laughter emanated from him. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I left it open. I know I left it open.’ Merle retreated down a few of the stairs to let Ash try the hatch, even though she was fatalistically certain he wasn’t going to be able to open it.

  ‘It must’ve closed automatically,’ he drawled.

  ‘Which means it must open automatically again, right?’ she rationalised, striving for calm. ‘With some other secret mechanism?’

  ‘Sure,’ he agreed, too equably.

  But there were no levers or buttons or anything near. ‘If this place is that high-tech...isn’t there some retinal scan that would unlock the door in seconds?’

  He glanced at her th
en, droll amusement oozing from him. ‘And if I had my dad’s eyeball in my pocket we could use that. Sadly, I don’t.’

  Why wasn’t he bothered by this the same way she was?

  Because he’s not bothered by you. Her subconscious whispered the biting truth. Or maybe it was because he knew exactly how to get them out and was merely teasing her?

  She narrowed her gaze on him. ‘So are we stuck in here for the next sixty years until the nuclear winter has passed?’

  ‘Would that be so terrible?’ His eyebrows lifted.

  Unable to maintain eye contact, Merle turned and went back downstairs, pretending she was calm but in reality far too aware of him a step behind. Dear heaven, she was stuck deep underground in a luxury doomsday bunker with billionaire Ashton Castle. Some might consider that a dream come true. But for Merle? In her current mode of uncontrolled inappropriate lust...it was a nightmare. She paced across the space that was growing smaller again with every second—where was it he’d said the control panel was?

  ‘I refuse to believe we’re stuck. Isn’t a bunker all about safety?’ Her tongue rattled ahead of her brain. ‘There must be a second way out—an emergency exit. What if there was a fire?’

  ‘Bigger than the one currently burning you up, you mean?’ He watched her walk back and forth with undisguised amusement.

  She gritted her teeth. She wasn’t panicking and becoming hysterical. Okay, yes, she was panicking. Not because she thought they were going to be stuck in here for ever and die. It was a more intense issue terrifying her. It was the intimacy of being in here with him. And that amused look on his face? A sudden suspicion struck. ‘You did this deliberately, didn’t you?’

  He oh-so-slowly, oh-too-innocently widened his gorgeous amber eyes. ‘I wasn’t the one who shut the door.’

  A wave of indignation swamped her. ‘I didn’t.’

  He laughed.

  She glared back at him. ‘It’s not funny.’

  ‘The look on your face is. Honestly, what do you think I’m going to do?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she snapped.

  It wasn’t what he was going to do. She didn’t think for a second he’d actually make a move on her—not without her explicit acquiescence or invitation. No, the problem was the appalling desire that kept bubbling up from where she’d tried to shove it.

  ‘If it’s not me, then what is it? Are you claustrophobic?’

  ‘No,’ she muttered, trying to haul her wits together. ‘It’s nothing major. I’m just...’

  ‘You don’t trust yourself to be alone with me any more?’

  She stilled and glared at him. Of all the arrogant—unfortunately accurate—things to suggest.

  ‘You said yourself you’ve been avoiding me.’ His smile broadened. ‘And...’ He waved a hand at her boiler suit.

  She sighed dramatically. ‘My clothing choice has nothing to do with you or anyone else. I find it comfortable to work in.’

  ‘No shorts on a hot day?’

  ‘I’m usually in a dusty warehouse.’ She was suddenly determined to somehow flip this so he was the one feeling as if he was the bug beneath the magnifying glass in the sun and about to frizzle to death. Make him feel desperate to escape the bunker. ‘Do you ever wear anything other than black swim shorts?’

  He laughed. ‘I do, as it happens. When I’m at work I wear a suit.’

  ‘It’s very considerate of you to cover up all your muscles so your poor workers aren’t distracted.’

  He glanced at the spark in her eye. ‘Why, Merle, stop it, you’ll make me blush.’

  ‘Is that possible?’

  ‘Probably not.’ He grinned.

  What was she thinking, talking to him like this? It didn’t help that she was starving. She’d not had lunch for fear of running into him and somehow the afternoon had slid away from her. Eager for distraction, she opened the first of the many sleek cupboards in the kitchen area. To her amazement—and relief—there were packets and packets of food. ‘Oh, wow, these supplies are amazing.’

  ‘Amazing?’ He sounded appalled. ‘It’s all tins and bottles.’

  ‘It could be worse.’ She shot him a sideways look. ‘There could be instant noodles.’

  ‘True. That would be terrible.’

  ‘You’ve obviously never cooked them properly.’ She pulled out a tin of peanuts and opened it. The sooner she stabilised her blood sugar, the sooner she got a grip on her crazy hot thinking, right? And if she stuffed her mouth full she’d stop saying things she really shouldn’t. And usually wouldn’t, but for Ash Castle’s influence.

  ‘Are you hungry?’ He was still watching her with unconcealed amusement. ‘I guess that’s not surprising, given you’ve not been eating anything decent.’

  She paused chewing long enough to shoot him another death look.

  ‘Instant noodles are for starving students,’ he opined. ‘This is not the place for them. I won’t allow it.’

  ‘You won’t allow it?’

  ‘It’s unnecessary. Didn’t you notice the delivery arrive earlier?’ he asked. ‘Or are you only interested in the contents of the wine cellar?’

  Heat flooded her. ‘Mr Castle said—’

  ‘I know what Leo said.’ Ash rolled his eyes. ‘I also know that if you’d had any idea of the cost you would never have opened it.’ He cocked his head. ‘Have dinner with me tonight.’

  She nearly choked on the next nut. ‘Dinner?’

  ‘Yes. Dinner,’ he repeated calmly. ‘I refuse to work round the clock and definitely not on the weekend. And it’s silly for us to avoid each other completely and waste resources cooking two separate meals.’

  ‘You don’t seem the type who has to worry about wasting resources.’

  ‘I’m doing my bit for the planet, Merle,’ he countered limpidly. ‘It’s always better to share.’

  His echo of last night’s words made her skin sizzle. But last night she’d turned and walked out on him without replying. His soft, mocking laughter had trailed her all the way up the stairs to her room. Now she had no choice but to stay and face him. To better him with her own wits. Somehow.

  ‘Say you’ll have dinner with me and I’ll be inspired to remember the code to open that door,’ he said.

  So he did know the code. She ground the nuts between her teeth, hard. ‘There’s a century’s worth of food in here,’ she said after swallowing. ‘I don’t need your dinner. I can just stay put.’

  His eyes glinted. ‘You’d choose to be stuck with me for ever? Isn’t that a hellish proposition?’

  It was an appallingly appealing proposition. Since when had she become a masochist—to want to remain stuck inside a spacious yet small-feeling safe room that was so not safe—at least not for her peace of mind. Or her libido. Or her self-control.

  ‘Besides,’ he added, ‘there’s no fresh food. I do like it fresh, sweetheart.’

  Merle summoned the little self-control she had left. ‘Are you really going to keep me locked in here until I agree to have dinner with you? Doesn’t that seem a little coercive? I wouldn’t have thought you’d have to resort to abduction tactics.’

  ‘Abduction?’ That wicked glint flared in his gaze. ‘Asking for a dinner date is nothing,’ he said softly. ‘It could be far worse. I could demand a kiss for the key code.’

  She stilled. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’

  ‘I’m not the one afraid to be daring, sweetheart.’

  He was the most aggravating man alive. This was what he wanted—for her to rise to his provocation. Well, perhaps she would—just not in the way he wanted. Couldn’t she teach him a lesson? Admittedly, she had little likelihood of success. She was a lamb against a lion. But there was something beyond irresistible about the prospect of putting him in his place.

  ‘Merle?’ He leaned against the counter as he watched her staring at him. ‘W
hat are you thinking?’

  His hands were loose, his expression neutral, but his awareness had flared. She felt it too. It locked them both into position—on edge. Ready.

  ‘I’m thinking...’ she mused softly, ‘that who dares, wins.’

  ‘Do you dare?’ he drawled. ‘Is that what I can see in your eyes?’

  He was so bold. And somehow she was emboldened. Because she’d pull back at the last moment. She’d tease him and win.

  ‘What you can see,’ she said softly, ‘is frustration with your insistence on strutting around in nothing but...’ She gestured at his swim shorts.

  His eyebrows skyrocketed and she felt a ridiculous pleasure that she’d surprised him. She’d surprised herself too. And quite liked it.

  ‘Then look the other way,’ Ash taunted. ‘I’m not going to change the way I dress for you, sweetheart. Just as I don’t expect you to change the way you dress for me.’

  A molten sensation stormed through her. She was never dressing for him, or anyone. She refused to think about what he thought of her appearance. She already knew he loathed her coverall.

  ‘It’s not appropriate,’ she argued anyway.

  ‘I’m on holiday at a beach house, Merle,’ he said blandly. ‘I’ve been in the pool most of the day.’

  Yes, she was acutely aware of that fact.

  ‘This whole thing isn’t appropriate,’ she continued, on a roll now. ‘You’re my employer.’

  ‘I most definitely am not,’ he answered instantly. ‘Leo is paying you. I have nothing to do with that.’

  She met his fierce gaze and his lips curved in an inviting smile.

  ‘Come closer, Merle. I dare you.’

  ‘Do you really think I’ll respond to such little provocation?’

  His shoulders lifted and, despite that lazily wicked smile, intensity burned in his eyes. ‘Beats me, but I really hope so.’

  That absolute honesty stole the wind from her sails.

  ‘You would have to be the most outrageous man I’ve ever met,’ she said, breathing out in annoyance.

  ‘Yeah? I bet I’m also the most honest. And here’s my truth, Merle. I’ve been thinking about kissing you every bit as much as you’ve been thinking about kissing me.’