“We had a contract. It was your contract, Adrik. You were the one who made it very, very clear to me what the terms were from the moment I arrived at your compound. I was very careful to abide by the rules you set. You said there were to be no emotions between us. It was strictly business at all times. I was not to get sentimental.”
“You were to pay for your lessons with your body.”
She tried not to wince. He stated that overly loud, wanting Absinthe and everyone else to hear what she’d done and condemn her. She lifted her chin. “Those were your terms, Adrik. You laid it all out. I also had to clean your house and cook for you. I did those things all without sentiment. All without emotion. And at the end of the year, I left, just like you told me was required of me. I packed and I left without a word, because you said you didn’t want to see me ever again and I wasn’t to come back or contact you or give your name to anyone else. I’ve kept my end of the bargain.”
“Is that true, Adrik?” Absinthe asked, his tone mild in that way he had.
Scarlet wished he would touch her, but he faced Adrik, both hands free, his body relaxed, acting as if he wasn’t in any way worried about Adrik and his strange accusations. She wanted to warn him, but there was no way to make him understand that this didn’t make sense, at least not to her. Adrik very well could have taken Holden’s money and now be looking for a way to get her away from Absinthe and the others.
“Adrik, did the two of you have a contract? Did you set the terms, and did she fulfill those terms?”
Adrik shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Adrik, you want to give me a truthful answer. Did Scarlet fulfill the requirements of the contract you set for her?” Absinthe’s tone was lower than ever, but his voice carried across the sidewalk to the other man easily.
“Yes,” Adrik answered grudgingly.
“Are you working for Holden? You want to tell me the truth, Adrik.”
That velvet-soft voice could wrap a person up so easily. Scarlet felt the power and she found it irresistible. More, she found it darkly sensual. There was something about the combination of softness and power that stroked at her insides and her sex, making her want to do anything he said.
“I told you no. I want to take Scarlet back with me. She won’t love you, Absinthe, any more than she did me. She’ll tear you up and leave you a shell. She’s some kind of a curse. You won’t be able to get her out of your head.” He pushed his hand against his head as if it physically hurt.
“Adrik, have you been having headaches?”
“Since she’s been gone, all the time.”
“He had them while I was there. I used to massage his temples and his head for him. He would have these terrible fits of violence and then blinding headaches,” Scarlet whispered. “He wasn’t able to have sex most of the time and it made him so angry.”
“You want to go with Savage to see Steele and then you’ll do whatever Steele says is necessary. You know Destroyer. You knew him as Rurik Volkov. He will go with you and Savage. Gavriil will be at the clubhouse as well.”
Adrik rubbed his temples several times and shook his head. “You have to be careful, Absinthe. I came to tell you to be careful.”
Absinthe’s voice dropped another octave. He moved several steps closer to Adrik, reminding Scarlet of a wolf homing in on prey. She went to follow him, matching his footsteps, but Savage caught her wrist, preventing her. He ignored her glare, just giving his head a quick shake, barely sparing her a glance, his gaze fixed on Adrik and Absinthe. Not knowing how Absinthe’s talent worked, she remained still, watching as well, her hand dropping to a weapon, just in case Adrik became hostile.
Absinthe was very close to Adrik now. “I appreciate the warning. You came to tell Scarlet she was in danger. You wanted to warn both of us that we were in danger. You wanted to help us stop Holden from hurting her.”
Adrik nodded several times and rubbed his head. Absinthe very gently reached out and brushed his fingers over Adrik’s inner wrist. Scarlet stiffened, her breath hissing out in warning. Adrik hated to be touched unless he initiated the contact. He didn’t seem to notice, or Absinthe’s ability to exert mind control was so strong it was just plain scary. She knew Adrik was a strong man. What kind of power did Absinthe actually wield?
Her heart went wild, a crazy, almost out-of-control response to his abilities. What was wrong with her that seeing and hearing, just knowing what he could do made her weak for him? She watched him walk Adrik to his truck, open the door and help him into the passenger side, all the while talking in a low tone to him. The tattooed man he’d identified as Destroyer slid into the driver’s seat and started up the truck. Absinthe stayed on the sidewalk until the vehicle had disappeared down the street, Savage’s Harley following behind it.
Absinthe came straight to her, caught her hand and pulled her into his arms, tight against his chest. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. What was that? Why did you have him go to the clubhouse? He can be very violent, Absinthe.”
“Destroyer indicated something was very off with him. I thought it best before passing judgment to have Steele check him out, especially once you said he’d had headaches and violent outbursts and had problems having sex. It’s very possible he has a tumor, or some kind of medical condition.”
She would be thoroughly ashamed of herself if Absinthe had figured out that Adrik had a tumor in five minutes when she’d been with the man for a year. “Is Inez going to be all right?” She glanced back at the grocery store. “I liked her.”
“Everyone likes her. You can’t help it. Yeah, she’ll be fine.”
He straddled the Harley and placed her hand on his shoulder. Scarlet stepped on the foot peg, feeling like she was getting the hang of riding with him. The moment the bike roared to life, so did the fire between her legs that had started when Absinthe had spoken, showing his power so casually.
She hugged him tighter, pressing her body closer to his. She had questions for him, all kinds of questions about what he would want from her sexually, but part of her didn’t want to ask them. She wanted to be alone with him and just find out what he would demand of her. She found the idea of him demanding something from her exciting, even thrilling.
If he really partied around his friends, and initially, when he’d first told her that his friends might be around them when they were having sex, she had rejected the idea of it out of hand. Absolutely not. It wouldn’t happen. Never. She wasn’t going to take that chance. Now, knowing about the members of Torpedo Ink and their past together, she wasn’t certain what she thought. The idea of being completely safe and having Absinthe commanding her to do things for him was shockingly sexy, so much so that her body grew slick with heat just thinking about what he might demand or do.
Scarlet found the drive up to the house just as breathtaking as she had the first time they’d driven up that winding road, even knowing what to expect. The house was an incredible find. She couldn’t imagine anyone not loving it. She also knew it must have to cost an impossible amount of money. Absinthe didn’t volunteer where he’d gotten his money, but she stole hers, plain and simple, and she always had plenty to live on.
She made a mental note to herself to make certain that Joan was taken care of. She’d set it in motion already, putting money in a trust for the teen that would pay out only if Brenda cooperated. If Brenda rehired Alison as a housekeeper and treated Joan right, under Scarlet’s watchful eye she would receive money to live on. Scarlet had plenty of cameras installed in the house to make certain she could see if Brenda complied. The evidence that Brenda had sold her teenage daughter to a pedophile would be turned over to the DA immediately if she didn’t. She would be receiving that good news any day now along with the news that her benefactor had died in a house explosion.
Scarlet helped Absinthe put the groceries away, familiarizing herself with the kitchen. She’d always wanted a home of her own. She wasn’t the best cook in the world, but she was willing to learn fo
r him. He didn’t seem to care that she couldn’t cook, and he’d told her it didn’t matter. She was big on reading and there were thousands of cookbooks. He said his sister Alena was a dynamite chef.
Since they’d entered the house, he hadn’t said much at all, only to indicate where he wanted things to be put. He was very precise about where each item belonged. She found herself looking around. She noticed his bedroom had been very neat. Every room had been. She’d put it down to the fact that he’d told her he didn’t really stay there often, but now she thought it was because he couldn’t take chaos.
“You really do pick up other people’s emotions and feel their demons, for want of a better word, don’t you?” She needed to understand him.
“Don’t you?”
She frowned, following him from the kitchen down the open space to the door leading to the U-shaped area of the house where the bedrooms were. Did she feel other people’s emotions? “Not really. Yours to some extent because we have an unusual connection, but I don’t have that with anyone else.”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “I like that it’s only me you have that connection with. I wish I only had it with you. I can’t be in the same room sometimes with too many people and I really don’t like touching people. There are times when I think my head is going to come apart. You take all that craziness away for me. I didn’t think it was possible.”
Scarlet felt an explosion of happiness blossoming up from her deepest core. It happened very fast and was so strong it shook her. She loved that she did that for him. She wanted to do so much more for him.
As if he could read her mind, and she was fairly certain he could, he kept talking as he walked. “I didn’t think there was a woman alive who could make my cock so fucking hard without me commanding it to become that way until I walked into that library.”
She loved that too. Absinthe stated it so casually and that made his declaration all the more real. He walked to the master bedroom and opened the door, stepping back to allow her to precede him. The moment she walked in, her heart began to beat overtime again in anticipation. She had no idea that just the thought of what Absinthe might say or do would be so exciting to her. She spotted her bags on the floor just inside the door and leaned down to pick them up.
“Run us a bath, baby,” he said, removing the bags from her hands.
She nodded and started to turn toward the master bath.
“Strip first. You don’t need clothes in here. I have clothes I like you to wear in the bedroom, or nothing at all. You have the most beautiful body I’ve ever fuckin’ seen.”
He hadn’t pushed her into obeying him, but she wanted to. She had that weird proclivity she couldn’t quite overcome. She found it strange that she didn’t have the same thing in other areas of her life, only when it came to sex, and especially when it came to Absinthe, a thousand times stronger when it came to him.
“You have a problem with what I just asked of you?” The question came low, no judgment, no animosity or anger, just a simple query.
She shook her head. She didn’t. She stood uncertainly in the middle of the room, waiting, but he just walked to the door that he’d told her earlier led to the closet. He leaned one hip against it and folded his arms across his chest, his eyes on her. Her mouth went dry. Her heart did that strange acceleration she found promoted a thundering through her body that led straight to her sex.
Her hands shook as she shimmied out of her jeans and underwear. His eyes drifted over her body as she removed her top and bra. She looked around a little helplessly as if she didn’t know what to do with her clothes.
“There’s a hamper in the other room. I like the bathwater very hot, miledi.”
She lifted her gaze to his and her entire body flushed with heat. The lines in his face were carved with pure carnal desire, all for her. He was completely focused on her. He had a way of looking at her she’d never experienced with any other man and she couldn’t quite explain. It was as if when his crystal eyes moved over her body, dwelling on her breasts and drifting farther down, brushing her skin with those strange blue wicked flames, she felt them licking at her skin. He seemed to see right through her, branding her bones, claiming her, until she felt so completely his, she didn’t know how she could explain it to herself let alone to someone else. He was in her mind, moving there, stroking and caressing, whispering even, until she wanted to please him and do anything he asked of her.
Absinthe had power in him. So much it shocked her. She’d witnessed that power when he spoke to Adrik and yet she’d put herself in his hands. She should be afraid of him. She was intimidated. She was standing in the middle of the room naked, without a single weapon, knowing he was a trained assassin and had a voice that could command someone to do his bidding, yet she was putting herself in his hands. She began trembling, her entire body shaking almost to the point she could barely stand. What was wrong with her?
Absinthe straightened slowly, walked over to her with his easy, measured step and stopped right in front of her. He leaned down, framed her face in both hands and took her mouth. Instantly there was an explosion low and wicked. Flames leapt. Fire rushed through her veins like some terrible drug. She wound her arms around his neck, needing to hang on to something solid when he was transporting her to a place she hadn’t known existed.
He lifted his head. “You’re safe with me, Scarlet. You’re always safe with me. We’re going to make good partners.”
She could get lost in his eyes. They were so strange, really, like two crystals that could see inward, not outward. She liked that he used the word partner. She wanted to be considered a partner. She was more than a plaything in a bedroom. If she gave herself to him of her own free will and did as he asked sexually, that was one kind of partnership. Outside of that, she wanted to be considered on equal footing at all times, otherwise they would never work.
“Keep giving me your trust.”
“You haven’t said what you need from me sexually other than you want to be able to tell me what to do and that sometimes your club might be around us when you do that.” She felt the breath he took and that gave her pause. He was worried she wouldn’t like what he would ask of her.
He took another deep breath. “I know, baby. Some things, in our bedroom, might be difficult for you, and I’ll understand if you can’t do them for me.”
But he would still need them. That was unspoken between them. She got that. He dropped his arms and turned away from her, but she caught the expression on his face and for the first time, the real concern in his mind. He was definitely worried that she would leave him over his sexual needs, whatever they were. Absinthe was reluctant to disclose them to her until he had pulled her in deeper.
She contemplated that while she ran the bathwater. His hesitancy gave her more confidence than ever. That glimpse into his mind actually let her see just how much he really wanted her. All along she had been certain a man like him couldn’t possibly really want her or fall in love with her because—well—she wasn’t that lovable. In spite of what he’d told her about grief, she still was that seventeen-year-old in an adult prison hearing that her beloved sister had committed suicide and her mother and stepfather had followed suit, leaving her alone. She’d been grief stricken, horrified, terrified of being alone. And she’d wondered why she hadn’t been enough for her mother to live for. Now, it seemed, she was enough for Absinthe. More than enough. For him, she was everything.
The door to the closet was open when she had the bath ready. She walked through and stopped dead in her tracks. The closet was nearly the size of her former house. It was that enormous. Really it was two separate closets. Absinthe sat on a long low bench, his shirt off and his jeans open, working on the cords of his motorcycle boots.
“Kneel down, Scarlet,” he said immediately and leaned back, indicating she take over.
That little thrill went through her. Her stomach did a slow roll and her sex fluttered, heat rushing through her veins to pool low. She dropp
ed to her knees in front of him, deftly loosening the laces.
“Pull them off.”
That was much more difficult, and she couldn’t do it from the position she was in. She looked up at him after struggling for a moment or two with the first boot. “I’m going to have to stand.”
He smiled at her. His smiles were never completely genuine. She was beginning to know him, mostly through the connection that was getting stronger. She realized the more they touched, the stronger they established a bridge between them. Her brain had always worked fast, but she had thought of it in terms of speed in learning academics. She had quick reflexes, which allowed for physical capabilities as well. This was something else altogether.
She wanted to be able to make him really smile. To find a way. She hadn’t seen him smile at any of his fellow club members either. She knew if she could have a genuine laugh, one completely real, it would be a gift. “I don’t know what you want me to do,” she admitted.
“You didn’t ask, baby.”
That voice, so gentle, played over her skin so gently it felt like the touch of fingers. She wondered if that was part of his gift. Could he do that? Make a sound feel like an actual physical stroke? She stood up, graceful because she had good balance and for him, she wanted to be as sensual as possible.
She tugged and removed first one boot and then the other. Before she could strip away his socks, he reached out and slipped his fingers through the tight red curls adorning her mound.
“Love the fire in these curls, ledi. You’re my little sexy kiska. We’re going to trim them down, but never get rid of them. I like them far too much.”
Absinthe stroked caresses through the red hair, and each time the pads of his fingers moved confidently over her curls, they dipped lower to her lips and clit as if he owned that part of her. Every word he spoke sent flames licking at her sensitive skin right along with his touch, as if his tongue held fire and he could turn her body into an inferno anytime he wanted.
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