Nicky studied him for several seconds. “You’re still playing games with me, aren’t you,” she realized flatly. “There is no real job. There never was. You’re all the same, aren’t you? Rich, powerful bastards who treat the rest of humanity like cattle, to be played with for your amusement?”
“Because you’re obviously upset, I’m going to ignore those last insulting remarks—”
“Don’t bother; I’m leaving,” Nicky assured him scornfully as she gave a toss of her head and looked around the beautifully appointed and yet somehow sterile office. As cold as the man it belonged to. “Don’t you ever get lonely, locked away up here in your ivory tower? Don’t you ever want to feel, to be a part of what’s going on out there?” She nodded towards the huge picture windows where the London skyline lay stretched out before them.
Lucien felt a chill travel the length of his spine. “I assure you, I know better than most exactly what goes on ‘out there’.” He stood up restlessly before walking over to the wall of windows and looking out at the huge sprawl of buildings that made up England’s capitol.
From up here on the tenth floor it looked almost magical; Big Ben, the slowly rotating London Eye, the historical buildings, the gentle flow of the Thames under the ornate bridges.
From way up here, it wasn’t possible to see the drug dealers, the pimps and prostitutes, and the underworld violence.
But Lucien knew they were all there. He had always known they were all there. He had spent the last fifteen years trying to escape them and the memories associated with them.
“Lucien...?” Nicky wondered if she had gone too far with that last comment. The stiffness of Lucien’s shoulders, as he stared grimly out of the windows, seemed to say that she had.
Besides, who was she to criticize the choices this man made about his own life, when she couldn’t even claim her own name? “I’m sorry, that really was incredibly rude of me, when you’ve been completely honest with me from the beginning as to exactly where your interest in me lies.”
“An interest you still claim not to share?” His smile was mocking as he turned back to face her, all evidence of that bleakness having disappeared as he looked across at her in challenge.
Nicky would be lying to herself, as well as him, if she claimed not to have thought of this man—often—since she last saw him. Impossible not to think of the man who could arouse her so easily she had been begging for his touch in a public restaurant, albeit an empty one.
A man who’s piercing eyes seemed able to see into her very soul. To see and know her physical longings. To be able to see every shocking fantasy Nicky had ever had.
Most of which he had featured predominantly in since they last met.
She would also be lying if she said she hadn’t been tempted by Lucien that night. As she was tempted by him again now. Knew that if he had kissed her today, just once, then she would have capitulated and kissed him back. That a part of her longed, ached, to be desired in that raw, all-consuming way. To lay aside, if only for a short time, the burden of responsibility she had carried with her for the past six years.
That of keeping her brother and herself alive.
But she couldn’t do it.
She daren’t do it.
As if aware of her inner battle, Lucien’s derisive smile widened to a hard and confident grin. “The next time I see you, Nicky, I guarantee you won’t be leaving again until after I’ve taken you in every way you’ve ever fantasized of being taken.”
Nicky’s heart stuttered in her chest. “I thought you said if I walked away again now that I wouldn’t be allowed back in?” she reminded quietly.
Lucien crossed the room with soft and predatory steps, coming to a halt just inches away from her. “I don’t think you are angry this time, Nicky, just scared. Because we both know I could take you across that desk right now if I chose to do so.”
Nicky was again totally unnerved by his close proximity. “You’re very sure of yourself...”
“Am I?” He lifted his hand and ran his fingertips lightly against her cheek.
Nicky wanted to deny it. Wanted to tell Lucien he was wrong about her. Throw his accusations of desire back in his arrogant face.
But she couldn’t do it.
How could she, when even that lightest of caresses against her skin made her melt inside? At the same time as her skin felt so ultra-sensitive, her nipples ached inside her bra, and she could feel her channel swelling, moistening, the folds becoming slick and wet in readiness for—
For what?
For Lucien...
He was right, damn him; Nicky still wanted this man so much her body ached from fighting the desire she now felt just to give in. To let him do as he asked and lay her naked across that black marble desk and just take her. Any way he wanted.
“Then why don’t you just do it and get it over with?” she challenged achingly.
His lips curled into a smile. “Because, no matter what you might think to the contrary, first I want to hear from your own lips that you want me to,” he murmured throatily.
He didn’t know that already?
Was he blind?
Couldn’t Lucien see the longing in her eyes? The flush in her cheeks? The way her body was even now curving instinctively towards his?
Like a cat that wanted to entwine and rub itself sensuously against and all over him. To mark him as hers.
Except Lucien made it perfectly clear he had no intention of ever belonging to any woman. That any relationship between the two of them would only exist for as long as it took him to satisfy his desire for her, her reward being that he would give her that same satisfaction in return.
But could any woman, once branded by this man’s lovemaking, ever quench that desire enough to be able to let him go when the time came?
It was the fear that she wouldn’t be able to let go that held Nicky back from capitulating to this man’s every desire.
She clenched her hands so tightly her fingernails dug into her palms and painfully pierced the skin, succeeding in breaking the sensual spell Lucien’s close proximity had been weaving about her senses.
She even managed to draw in a deep breath and step away from the touch of those lightly-caressing fingers. “I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you.”
Lucien chuckled softly as Nicky continued to exert that defiance he found so intriguing. A defiance he sincerely hoped she would bring to bed with her. The last thing he ever wanted was to tame this woman; it was her wildness, her defiance that drew him like a moth to a flame. “Don’t worry, Nicky; I can wait.”
“Till hell freezes over?”
“There you go again with those devil connotations.” He continued to smile. “You’ll be back, Nicky.” He sobered. “I guarantee it. And then we can both enjoy burning in those fires of hell together.”
And Lucien truly believed that to be the truth.
Then...
Chapter 4
Nicky stared down at the newspaper spread out in front of her on the breakfast bar in her ‘rabbit-hutch of an apartment’.
It couldn’t be true.
Could it?
The headline of the newspaper article seemed clear enough; Wynter Enterprises now owned Jenkins, Simmons and Simmons.
Coincidence?
Nicky felt a shiver of apprehension run down the length of her spine as she recalled how cold and merciless Lucien’s eyes had been in his office four days earlier, when she had told him what Lionel Jenkins had done to her.
Could this possibly be Lucien’s response? Was he really so powerful that he had been able to force the older man into not only selling his company, but as the article also stated, into ‘taking an early retirement and moving to his estate in Surrey?
Nicky thought back to when she and Lucien had dined completely alone together all those months ago. Because Lucien had made it happen. And if he could empty an exclusive restaurant like Petruccio’s just to satisfy his need for privacy, then she had no doubts that he was als
o capable of bringing enough pressure to bear on Lionel Jenkins to bring about the other man’s early retirement.
How scary was that?
Very, came the unequivocal answer.
And yet it was strangely arousing at the same time...
Nicky shifted uncomfortably on the barstool. What was wrong with her, that she could find the sort of power Lucien wielded arousing?
She just did, Nicky acknowledged with a pained wince. There was no rhyme or reason to it, she just did. She found it not only arousing, but also reassuring at the same time, because it demonstrated that Lucien was more than capable of taking care of what he considered to be his. And he had made it clear it was only a matter of time before that’s exactly what Nicky would become.
But was Lucien powerful enough to stand against someone like Jack Montgomery, if it should become necessary?
The boss of London’s underworld was a man few would ever want to oppose, let alone voluntarily go up against. Nicky and her brother had managed to stay off the man’s radar for six years now, but if that should change, if Montgomery should somehow discover who she was now and where she lived, would Lucien be able to protect her?
It wasn’t idle curiosity that made Nicky wonder that; she’d had a strange feeling, these past four days, that whenever she went out of her apartment she was being followed. It was just a feeling, and there was never anyone near who looked suspicious, or as if they might be following her, when she turned to look at the people around her. Nor had she seen the same face in the crowd two days in a row.
Yet the feeling persisted whenever Nicky stepped out of her apartment.
And yesterday, when she came back from visiting the job agency, she had even felt as if someone had been in her apartment while she was out. The lock wasn’t broken, there was nothing missing, and nothing seemed out of place. There had been no strange smell of aftershave or tobacco smoke. Nicky had just had a feeling as if someone had been in here.
No doubt she was allowing her imagination to run away with her. It was almost six years now since her father’s death, and Jack Montgomery hadn’t found her or Neil in that time, and there was no reason to suppose he ever would. Nor did she think having her followed was Jack Montgomery’s style; he was more likely to just have her dragged off the street and the answers beaten out of her, rather than having someone break into her apartment or instructed to follow her.
Even so, that feeling that someone had been in her apartment, combined with the one of being watched and followed, had filled her with a sense of unease.
As well as make her long to have someone take this burden from her shoulders, if only for a few days or weeks...
Lucien.
Could he do that? Would he want to do that?
Had he been responsible for Lionel Jenkins’ early retirement after buying the other man’s company?
And if so, was it possible it really had been because of her? Because the older man had tried to force her into having sex with him?
Lucien wasn’t a man who would ever need to use force or blackmail to have sex with any woman, and although he had been completely honest about what he wanted—her—on both occasions he had made it clear that the ultimate choice of a relationship between the two of them would be up to her. To a degree, the last time they met, he had told her that he wasn’t willing to have any sort of relationship with her until she had told him she wanted him too.
In Nicky’s mind there was no doubting that she wanted Lucien. Quite desperately, as it happened.
And if he had done this, if Lucien had truly had a hand in stopping Lionel Jenkins from blackmailing any more of his female employees into having sex with him, then she at least owed Lucien her thanks. And the gratitude of all the women who worked at Jenkins, Simmons and Simmons, who would no longer be easy prey for a sexual predator like Lionel Jenkins.
Nicky knew she also wanted, ached, to see Lucien again...
She knew he was arrogance personified. That he was cold. Spoke graphically of sex and the things he wanted to do to her.
The things he had done to her in Petruccio’s.
And every one of those things made her toes curl.
Everything about Lucien made her toes curl.
That wasn’t even including the way that he looked; the man had the appearance of a Greek god and the charismatic sex appeal to match; it was impossible to look at Lucien without thinking of sex.
And even while those looks were a definite plus, it was that ‘I’ll do what I damn well please and don’t anybody fuck with me’ attitude Lucien had that intrigued and tempted Nicky the most. He wasn’t afraid to say and do exactly what he wanted when he wanted. He wasn’t afraid—he wasn’t afraid—
He wasn’t afraid...
And Nicky—although she may take such care not show it outwardly, was afraid of everything. The past, the now, the future. She had been afraid for so long now that she carried it with her like a heavy cloak.
And she was tired of it.
So very tired.
“When did you last eat?”
Nicky blinked, her nerves already completely frazzled from finally having found the courage to come and see Lucien—a full twenty-four hours after reading that newspaper article about his having bought Lionel Jenkins’ company.
Although she hadn’t had to suffer through the same ritual as last time in order to get into the Wynter Enterprises building, or to be allowed up to Lucien’s office on the tenth floor.
As soon as she had pressed the buzzer the outer door had been opened automatically by the man seated behind the security desk. She hadn’t seen the man with the scar at his temple this time, but the man seated at the desk looked almost as intimidating, watching her through narrowed lids as she walked over to the elevator and stepped inside, pressing the button for the tenth floor.
The cool blonde had been sitting behind her desk today, giving Nicky a warm smile as she told her to go straight through to Lucien’s office.
Obviously because Lucien had left instructions that if—when?—Nicky returned, she was to be allowed to go straight in to see him.
He really was that confident she would come back.
Under the circumstances, the last thing Nicky had been prepared for, after gathering up her courage and knocking on the imposing door into Lucien’s inner sanctum, was to have him verbally attack her the moment she stepped into the room.
“I believe it’s polite to first say hello when someone comes to visit?” She eyed him irritably.
“When the fuck did you last eat?” Lucien was barely keeping his anger in check as he stood up from behind his desk; Nicky looked as if she had lost several pounds in weight since he last saw her five days ago. A fact she had tried, and failed, to hide beneath a baggy sweater and jeans.
The triumph he had felt, when security had rung up to his office a few minutes ago and told him that Miss McKenzie was on her way up, had now been replaced with anger at that obvious weight loss. Damn it, did Nicky hate the idea of coming to him for help so much she would rather starve to death?
“Come with me.” His fingers encircled one of her slender—too slender—wrists as he pulled her along behind him.
Nicky’s instinct was to resist that pull, at the same time as she couldn’t help but be drawn to how attractive—and more approachable—Lucien looked in a casual white shirt, unbuttoned at the throat, and soft, faded jeans that left very little to the imagination in regard to what was beneath them; obviously he hadn’t had any appointments today or been expecting to attend any business meetings.
She gave a shake of her head in an attempt to stop herself from staring. “Where are you taking me—” She broke off with a gasp as Lucien pressed an invisible button on the wall and a panel silently opened into the space beyond.
Was there a bedroom in there? Or maybe just a bed?
Did Lucien imagine, just because she had come back here, that she was also agreeing to have sex with him? “Lucien, I only wanted to—”
&nbs
p; “I’m through listening to what you ‘want’, Nicky, now I’m going to give you something that you need!” he growled uncompromisingly as he pulled her through the doorway and Nicky heard the panel close just as silently behind them, enclosing them in a carpeted hallway.
The door fitted so snugly that Nicky doubted she would be able to find her way out again. “Where are we?” she prompted nervously.
“My apartment,” Lucien bit out tersely.
His apartment was in the same building, on the very same floor, as his office? “You live here...?”
“Why not?” Lucien eyed her challengingly.
“But it says ‘Wynter Enterprises’ on the front of the building...”
He nodded. “Because I own the whole building.”
“Well I realize that but—you really do live here too?”
He gave a tight smile. “I really do, yes.”
Nicky stared up at him for several seconds. “Why?”
“Why not?” He shrugged. “The security here is excellent, I only use part of the top floor for business purposes anyway, so why shouldn’t I live here too?”
It made a certain sort of mad sense, if Nicky thought about it. “Is this another one of those ‘ensuring your privacy’ things?”
Lucien gave a humorless smile. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Nicky had many ‘problems’ with this particular man, but the most immediate one was the fact that she was now standing in his apartment.
That she was completely alone with Lucien in the complete privacy of his apartment...
“This way.” Lucien didn’t wait to see if she was following as he strode off down the carpeted hallway.
Probably because he knew she had little choice but to follow him; there was no door handle or button on the wall this side of the sliding panel that Nicky could see, and she could hardly continue to just stand here in the hallway.
Dark Alpha (ALPHA 2) Page 5