by Wade, Maddie
She immediately stopped at his words. “Ice Queens don’t get burned,” she replied softly, and it made him sad that she thought that way.
“How about we go and grab a coffee and you tell me why you were stalking me.” He held up a hand as she began to deny it. “Don’t lie or it will piss me off.”
Pax looked him dead in the eye as if assessing him and deciding what to do. She seemed to decide it was worth a shot and nodded. “Fine. Know anywhere open at this time of the morning?” she asked as they walked back towards town.
“Yes, I know the perfect place.” He winked, not able to resist flirting with her. It’s only flirting. What harm could that cause?
A few minutes later, Blake led her up to the front door of his flat and stopped to insert the key.
“This is your place!” she stated rather than asked making him wonder what else she knew about him.
He turned to her, key still in the lock. “Worried you won’t be able to keep your hands off me?” he asked with a grin.
Pax rolled her eyes and sighed making her chest heave in a very distracting way. “Child,” she admonished as she waved him to get on with it.
She acted like she was unaffected by him, but he knew she wasn’t. Blake knew for a fact that if he kissed her, she would go up in flames for him and that wasn’t him being a conceited ass as she put it. That was, in fact, the chemistry between them. The chemistry that had been there from day one. It was how he knew it would burn hot and fast, and things that burned too hot either burned out quickly or consumed you. He didn’t want either of those things to happen with Pax. Plus, he liked her. She was fun to flirt with, intelligent, and smart. He didn’t want things to be awkward between them.
Pushing open the door for his flat, he threw his keys in a bowl that sat on a table by the door and walked straight to the coffee pot, flipping the switch and grabbing two cups down from the cupboard overhead. He saw Pax discreetly checking out his place and wondered what she thought of it. He turned as she ran her hands over the back of the sofa and the soft wool blanket that was draped there.
“This is not what I expected.” She looked down her straight nose at him, her hazel eyes twinkling with delight and just a touch of mischief.
He swept his hand out to encompass the open plan living space. “Yeah, well, I have two sisters and a mother who love to decorate so blame them. I just paid the bill.”
The kitchen was white gloss cabinets with a black tile floor and dark aubergine splashbacks. An island unit separated the kitchen from the living area. Pale wood covered the floor with two deep cream fabric couches covered in cushions of cream, purple, and damson sitting opposite each other. A black and glass coffee table sat in the middle with a natural wicker footstool beside it. The double floor-to-ceiling windows were bay in style and had a cushioned seat where he could sit and watch the world go by or just think. Heavy mushroom coloured curtains hung there held back by black hooks.
“I like it!” She walked around then let out a squeak when she almost tripped over something on the floor. Pax bent and picked it up, holding out the small, pink toy guitar for him, one perfectly arched brow raised. “I didn’t know you played.” A smile played at the edges of her lips.
“Oh yeah, I’m just waiting for a call from my music producer and then we’re taking this thing global.” He smirked as he took the guitar from her hand and played ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ on it.
“Very impressive,” she said nodding her head. “I can see how you will become a huge rock star with that talent.”
He placed the guitar on the coffee table with a grin and walked back towards the kitchen to pour coffee into two mugs. “Coffee and one sugar, right?”
“Yes, please,” she answered stepping towards him to take the coffee.
Blake moved to the couch and plopped down on the end while she sat in the one opposite him and gave her a cheeky grin. “So tell me why you were stalking me in the park this morning apart from the obvious of wanting to check out my form?”
“I need your help.”
“I guessed that bit, Pax. But how exactly do you need my help and why me?”
Pax placed her coffee on the low table and leaned forward, giving him a perfect view of her cleavage which he really didn’t need right now. Pulling his mind from the gutter he concentrated on her face and for the first time since he had met her, he saw a vulnerability that he’d always suspected was there, but she’d never lowered her guard enough to show him.
Blake waited, knowing that his silence would help her to open up and tell him what she needed. The room was silent as he watched her wrestle with whatever it was that was going on in that beautiful head of hers. He sipped his coffee and watched as she stood and paced to the window, looking out at the world that was starting to emerge and start the working day.
He kept his eyes off her long legs, and instead watched the curve of her neck as she dropped her head and then seemed to straighten, pulling herself together. Her body language suggested she had come to a decision. She glanced back at him and found his eyes. Hers were focused and determined—a look he liked on her just as much as the soft looks she gave her friends. He hoped to earn one of those himself one day.
“I need you to help me put my father behind bars.”
Chapter Two
Grace Paxton watched as Blake’s eyes flared wide for a second before he got control of himself and locked his reaction down tight. Slowly, he placed his mug on the table and walked towards her. She tried not to let her eyes trail down the perfect form of his body. Muscular and tall without being bulky, he prowled like a big cat; his movements controlled and powerful.
It made her breath hitch as she watched him. Blake was cover model handsome, golden blond hair, and sexy, almost electric blue eyes that always seemed to twinkle as if he had a hidden secret and would share it with you if you let him in. He was precisely Pax’s type on paper and that was exactly why she couldn’t let herself be drawn into his sphere.
She had dated her fair share of blond, blue-eyed hunks and every single one of them had let her down. Either in the bedroom, where their looks was all they had going for them, and she discovered the hard way they were ‘two pump chumps’ who were finished before she even got started, or they had commitment issues. Then, it wasn’t her, it was them. So she had sworn off good looking men. She would find herself an average guy with a boring job who would worship her.
She almost laughed out loud at that, realising as Blake came to stand almost in front of her that she would eat a regular, average guy for breakfast and be bored within a month. Blake though, posed too much threat to her. Not physically. No, he would never lay a finger on a woman in anger. Blake loved women and she knew from the file and background check she had done that he was protective of his younger sister and his four-year-old niece.
No, Blake would break her heart if she let him in because he wanted to fuck and run, and she wanted a family one day. All his cheeky cocky attitude and his cute sweetness were dangerous though because it made her forget who he was, and that was a manwhore.
“I’m sorry, Pax. I must be losing my hearing because I thought you said you wanted to put your father in jail.”
He was standing too close, the scent of manly sweat mixed with his deodorant making her head spin. Stepping around him and moving back to the couch and picking up her coffee she took a sip using it as a shield to hide how he made her feel. “Yes, that’s what I said.”
Blake leaned against the window frame and she saw him take the weight off his left knee and wondered what had happened. “Why?”
She dragged her eyes from his powerful legs up past his folded arms to his face which had just the smallest of frowns on it. “Because he’s a criminal and he killed my best friend and now he’s a threat to another child. I won’t stand by and let him do it again.”
Pax felt the familiar ache in her chest as she thought about Benny. He had been her best friend in school and later her first boyfriend. Then he wa
s gone. Taken by the other man she adored—her father, her hero, and now her enemy.
“Okay, back up. Your dad killed your best friend and now he plans to kill again, and you want to stop him. Is that correct?”
“Yes, but it’s complicated.” He had no idea just how fucking complicated it was.
“I bet it fucking is.” He raised an eyebrow which suggested he wanted more details.
Pax sighed. “My father is Robert Paxton. He owns Sana Pharmaceuticals. He and I are estranged shall we say.”
“Go on,” Blake said.
His full attention on her made her uncomfortable and Pax hated asking for help especially his. “You have to understand; I was a complete daddy’s girl growing up. He was my hero. I’m an only child and he and my mother doted on me, gave me anything I wanted. I was naive and stupid.”
“You were young and innocent and trusted your parents. No shame in that, Pax,” he said sweetly.
She looked up at him and saw nothing but understanding in his eyes. Blake was a good guy despite his man slut ways and good looks, and that was the problem. It was easy to keep the simmering sexual tension at bay when the guy was an asshole but when he was sweet; yeah so much harder. “Yeah, maybe. Anyway to cut this long story short, when I was seventeen my best friend and high school boyfriend, Benny was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He went through rounds of chemo and radiation as the tumour was inoperable. My father offered him a trial of a new drug they had been developing for cancer patients and Benny jumped at it.”
“I’m hearing something you’re not saying here, Pax.”
“The drug killed him. I know he was going to die anyway, but the side effects of the drug caused kidney failure which led to pressure on his heart. He died a horrible death, but my father covered it up, deleted all evidence of the drug trial, and paid his parents off. I confronted him about it, and we had a terrible fight.” Pax looked up clearing her throat of the emotion that had come from nowhere. “Needless to say my father and I don’t speak. I go back once a year for Thanksgiving for my mom, who has no idea or pretends not to know, and that is the extent of our relationship now.”
“And why now? Why do you want him locked up now and not then?” Blake’s tone wasn’t judgemental, but more someone trying to understand.
“When I left, I said I wouldn’t come after him because I loved him if he promised not to do it again.” She gave a humourless laugh and shrugged. “Again, naive and honestly, I didn’t have the skills or knowledge to bring a company or man of his magnitude down.”
“Come on, Pax. Enough with the half-answers. If you want me to help, I need everything from you.”
Blake moved to sit beside her. Pax couldn’t help the feeling he meant more than just information. A shiver worked its way through her which he noticed as his eyes moved over her skin. “You’re cold. Let me get you a hoodie.” He stood abruptly and left the room.
Pax rose too and rubbed her arms. The sweat from the run had cooled and the cooler air in the flat made her feel cold.
Blake walked out of what she assumed was the bedroom with a dark blue hoodie in his hands and shoved it towards her. “Here take this.”
The material was soft and worn and clearly a favourite of his. She murmured her thanks and slipped it over her head taking in his familiar scent and fighting the urge to bury her nose in it or rub her cheek in the soft fabric. She was tall but it fell to her thighs, leaving her looking half naked and slightly daft.
“Right, let’s have the rest,” he said pouring them both fresh coffees adding milk and sugar to hers without a reminder.
“My father is doing a trial on a very high profile child and I know for a fact that he doesn’t have it going through the MHRA and the FDA turned it down based on the high number of negative side effects and their frequency.”
“What drug?”
“It’s called RXA 1 and it’s used for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It’s used to make the thickened heart contract more, allowing the heart not to have to work so hard.”
“Okay. I don’t see an issue so far.”
“RXA 1 is around half the price of other similar drugs to produce and get to market so it has huge profit margins. The scope to make billions is extraordinary.”
“Yes, but that’s part of drugs companies. They make money and we get what we need.”
“Not when then the drug causes kidney and liver failure in over half its patients and the results are being fudged.” She was disgusted and hardly able to believe what her father was willing to do to people to make money.
“Wow. So, I have two questions. One, how do you know all this because it certainly isn’t in the public domain and two, who is the high profile child?”
Pax looked away knowing that this might be the killer. “I know because I have someone inside my father’s company. It may have escaped your notice, but I’m not the same naive child that left my father’s home. I have skills now and contacts, and when I got wind of this a few years ago, I contacted a friend in the USA who was happy to do some digging for me.”
“And this friend,” he said not sounding entirely happy with her response, “are they still providing information?”
“No. I lost contact about three months ago.” That was also another worry she had to get answers too.
“I see. And the child?”
She took a deep breath knowing it was now or never. “It’s Princess Louisa.”
The room went silent as she watched a tiny nerve tick in Blake’s cheek. The only sign that her words had any impact on him at all.
“Why me?” His voice had dropped to a frosty level that made her glad she had the hoodie on. He was not the sweet, flirty, sexy guy now. He was cold, controlled, and lethal and that was what she needed.
“Because you have an association with the Palace, know their ways. I plan to go undercover as a nanny and get as much information as I can. Time is tight and I need to start working this as soon as I can.”
She didn’t add that she had been receiving death threats. No need for him to know about that just yet, plus, she was sure it was a ploy. Her father was an ass, but he wouldn’t hurt her.
He watched her then shook his head. “No. I’m sorry, Pax, I can’t help you.”
He moved towards the door and Pax followed, her heart sinking as she realised her last hope was fading and she would have to do this alone. Zenobi was spread out on jobs all over the world. The only reason Roz allowed her to work this was as the face of the Athena Art Gallery, she was in the office the most and had time.
Pax had skills, but she was not an operative like the others were. She had some training in hand to hand and weapons, but she wasn’t like Mustique or Bebe. Her skill lay in her organisation and information capabilities. She made sure the girls had what they needed to run a successful op including contacts, safe houses, and equipment. She handled the contingencies, the travel, she was instrumental in the success of things, and she could handle some undercover work but not deep cover like Siren or Lili.
Moving slowly to the door she stopped, and made him look at her, locking her disappointment down tight so he could never see how much his saying no had cost her. “I thought more of you than that, Blake. I saw a good man, a man that cared under all that bravado. I guess I was wrong. I won’t make that mistake again.” She stepped into the hall stopping suddenly to whip the hoodie over her head and throw it at him. “Goodbye, Blake.”
As she walked away, and knowing he was watching, she put extra sway into her hips. He wouldn’t know how much it hurt to ask for help when that was something she never did, and have it kicked back in her face. That was another lesson she learned this morning—not to ask anyone for anything. Then she never had to say thank you or be disappointed when the answer was no.
Chapter Three
Blake leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest watching as Pax proudly walked away. He could see she was trying to hide the disappointment he knew she felt at his re
fusal to help her. He waited until she was out of sight and then moved inside, the hoodie hanging from his hand. He slammed the door and tried to figure out exactly what it was he was feeling.
His chest felt heavy and his gut churned—he felt suffocated and he didn’t like it one bit because he realised it was guilt. He felt guilty for not helping her. But he couldn’t go back into that world. A world where lies were the norm and people would stab their own brother to get ahead. He had been reminded of it working Evelyn’s case and he didn’t want to get any closer to the royal family than he had to.
It had been the only stipulation he’d had when he’d signed on with Jack and Eidolon and discovered the Palace would be a big contract for them. He didn’t directly have anything to do with that side of Eidolon. Nobody knew why and nobody could ever know. It would destroy so many lives and for nothing. That part of his life was over, and he wouldn’t go back.
He couldn’t help the niggle in the back of his head that told him he was making a big mistake though. Pax didn’t seem the type to ask for help and yet she had. Not from her friends but from him. It made no sense to him and that was another reason he wouldn’t get involved—she was hiding something from him. That both pissed him off and intrigued him equally.
He moved towards his bedroom, which unlike the rest of the flat was completely his design and style. Dark grey walls, pale distressed wood floor, black bedding, and black and white prints on the wall with an orange chair in the corner near the window. It suited him. Masculine, clean, and understated.
Tossing the hoodie in his hand on the bed, he shed his shorts and t-shirt and threw them in the general direction of the laundry basket as he stepped into the glass shower stall in his en-suite and turned the dial on the shower. The cold spray hit him like needles of ice as he waited for it to heat a little, enjoying the cooling water on his heated skin.