by Raven Dark
And she would be removed from my life, exorcised from it like every other woman was once I was through with them, but not now. In a couple of hours, I would have to put on my bad man’s hat and put on the hurt for an old man who didn’t deserve it. I’d have to, because if I didn’t, my father would do it, and he wouldn’t be so nice about it. When I worked, this woman wouldn’t exist. Nothing would, except the mission. For now, this was my time, in the one place my father had no power over me. Here, there was only her.
“Will you leave me now, Sir?” She lifted her head, and the worry in those big blue eyes cut at my heart. Silvery moonbeams shone through the window that took up one wall and danced across her soft skin. Damn it, she’d be the death of me. She didn’t ask me to stay, didn’t beg. Fuck, she deserved better, someone she would never have to ask.
Stripping, I let her see the body she’d wanted to see before, and the molten desire that pooled in her gaze made me feel like a king. Her eyes drank in my ripped frame, my half hard cock, as if she wanted to eat it all over again. It hardened to a steel rod and I almost let her. No way would I let her know the real reason I was still there, that it was too hard to walk out on that perfection.
“I don’t do morning afters, but a lady shouldn’t be cast aside on her first time either.” It wasn’t a lie, I did feel that way, even if I rarely followed the rule.
“Such a gentleman.” She smirked.
If I hadn’t seen the worry in her eyes a moment ago at being cast aside, I’d have thought it didn’t bother her one bit to know I’d be gone before the dawn touched her skin.
“No. I’m definitely not that.” I took off my diamond watch, the one she’d commented on before, and set it on the night table beside the bed. The diamonds glittered, catching her attention.
“Exactly how much money do you make?”
I snorted at her rudeness, secretly loving her boldness. I jerked my chin at her, and with it, threw an equally forbidden question at her. “How old are you, Anika?”
“Fair enough.”
I crawled in bed beside her and pulled the blankets up over us. “Roll over on your side, with your back to me.”
“Bossy.”
“Always.”
She obeyed and let me slip my arm around her waist so her back pressed against my chest. Then she turned her head, looking up at me while I gently pushed her slightly damp curls from her shoulder and cheek. “I like it.”
“Yeah?” I ran my tongue along the line of her shoulder, loving her shiver against me, the soft way she moaned and rubbed her ass against my cock. “To answer your question, I make enough money that everything can be bought for the right price, and nothing is off limits to me.”
She made a needy sound and pressed harder into me. I didn’t get her. She hated my money, but at the same time, the power aroused her. More juxtaposition. I let her squirm until I became too hard to stand it, then stilled her hip. “Unless you want my cock in that gorgeous ass, stop that.”
“But you’re making me crazy again, Sir.”
I nibbled her ear and sucked on her neck. She panted and ran her hand into the side of my hair until I grabbed her wrist. “Behave, girl. I was nice before because it was your first time. You don’t get the same courtesy twice.”
“This is torture.”
Something in the desperation of her voice convinced me to have mercy on her. I pulled her closer and nuzzled her neck with a long groan. “Are you sore?”
“Is that concern for me I hear?”
“Answer me.”
“A little, but it feels good. I like knowing what you did to me.”
I smiled against her skin. “I could get used to this, angel.”
“Me too.” She sounded just as regretful as me. “But we can’t. You don’t want it, and I can’t risk it.”
I pulled back and turned her chin up. “What kind of trouble are you in?”
“This won’t last, so why do you care?”
The hint of acid in her tone made my brows raise, but she was right. I shouldn’t have cared. It wasn’t supposed to matter. Caring was for men into commitment. Into forevers. Still, the obvious desire to keep me at a distance, to never allow anyone in, awakened a protective instinct in me I didn’t like. I shut the infernal emotions down.
“I don’t. Care, I mean. I just don’t like when a woman keeps things from me.” There. Now it was about control, not about protecting her.
“Right. You’re such a tough bad boy.” She turned her face into the pillow and giggled, shoulders shaking.
“Are you making fun of me?” I jerked her face up to mine. She fought a smile. I gripped her jaw, dipping my head to possess her mouth. She turned her head away a little, her eyes dancing. Playing with me. I tightened my grip and captured her mouth with mine, ravaging it until she groaned and relaxed into the kiss. Deliciously submissive.
When I lifted my head, she turned around and snuggled into my chest, looking up at me. “When will you leave, Sir?”
I sighed. How long was it appropriate to hold a woman before I could get up and leave without destroying this moment? Guilt and loss twisted in my chest.
“I don’t know.” I kissed the top of her head. “Go to sleep. When you wake up, I’ll be gone.”
Was I reassuring her, or warning her? Maybe both. I didn’t know why, but I knew she needed this to be temporary as much as me. Perhaps I was letting her know that she wouldn’t have to worry about expecting more from her than was safe to give. Or maybe I was reminding my latest conquest of my rules. Fuck, I hated what I was.
She murmured something into my chest I couldn’t make out and wrapped her arms around me. She felt fabulous, like her mix of soft and hard was made for me, curvy and toned in all the right places. I wrapped her in my arms and listened to her breathing grow even in sleep.
When I was sure she was out, I slipped out from under her and took a quick shower, then dressed. A hasty comb through my hair and a tightening of my tie, and I was almost ready to go. I went to the night table beside the bed and unlocked the top drawer. Then I made the mistake of looking at the beauty laid out in my bed, wrapped in my silk white sheets.
Fuck she was gorgeous. Made for life at my side, or under me. Damn it, being inside her was supposed to get her out of my system, and instead she was inside me deeper, in my blood like a drug. I was in trouble. A man like me couldn’t live two lives, a good, gentle man with his lady one moment and a bad man who used, manipulated and hurt others the next.
I shook my head and opened the drawer, took out the Glock lying inside. Slipped in a fresh magazine, and put the gun in the holster at my hip. Then I bent over the bed and gave her smooth cheek the softest caress of my lips I could.
“I won’t ruin you, angel. I can’t.”
She stirred, murmured what sounded like some kind of endearment, and buried herself deeper under the blankets. Everything in me screamed to stay with her, to forget tonight’s horrible obligation and remain the honest man she needed. I buried the conflict deep and covered my gun with my blazer. Then I left the hotel without looking back.
I won’t ruin her.
Two minutes tied to the chair under the harsh lights of his kitchen and Paris was almost sobbing. I stood a few feet from him and set the wrench from his toolbox on his counter, then wiped his blood off my hands meticulously with a rag.
Damn the man. I’d hoped he’d make this easy, refusing to pay back the money he’d stolen from the company flat out. Had he done that, I could have made it quick and easy on him and shot him dead. Instead, he babbled about having the money in a week, give him time. Well, no, first, he’d denied he’d taken it, which is why his blood stained my hands.
I knew a lot of people thought I loved this part of working for my father. I didn’t. I hated hurting people. Dark crimson ran down the side of the old man’s wrinkled face from his temple, staining the white collar of his shirt. That shirt would never come clean again.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Davros. I tell you, I
have no money. I had to fire half my staff this morning to cover other bills. I have to do all my repair work on this place myself.”
“I hear you, Mr. Paris. I do.” I set the bloodstained rag aside and his eyes fixated on my hands. “But stealing is stealing. You steal from my father, you steal from me.”
“I know. I said I was sorry. I—”
I crossed the space between us and pushed on his chest until he sat back in the chair, his head lulling. Glazed with pain, his eyes rolled, as if he were trying to keep conscious. “I find no pleasure in this, Mr. Paris—”
“Yes you do, you sick son of a bitch.”
I shook my head and wrapped my hand around his throat. Squeezing just enough to cut off his air. “No. That’s my father’s thing, hurting others. I prefer to negotiate like a gentleman.”
He struggled for breath, and I prayed he’d give in, just end this so I wouldn’t have to feel his life fade as he grew weaker. God, what would my angel think of me now if she saw this? My gut clenched.
“You lying sack of shit. You Davroses are all the same. Lying, cheating, manipulative scum. Thugs in pressed suits.”
“Mr. Paris,” I drawled, tightening my grip a little until he gagged. “Why would you do that? Why would you insult me, forcing me to make this worse?” I made my voice cold, indifferent.
I released him and backed up. He sputtered a laugh and shook his head, sending a few drops of blood across the immaculate kitchen floor. I took out my gun and cocked it, firing a single shot, inches from his foot. Paris cried out and jolted, trying to move away. The chair fell over, sending him crashing on his side. Smoke billowed up from the blackened spot on the linoleum where the bullet struck.
“No more insults.”
He nodded, sobbing again. “I understand. Please don’t shoot me. Please, just give me the week.”
Sympathy tugged at me and I shut it down before I crossed to him and pulled the chair up, righting him. This is why I would never allow myself to work directly for Gavini, or marry Gala, and thus become a Don by marriage. If I did, I’d end up doing this kind of thing much more often than I was now.
When Paris looked at me, pleading, I grabbed his throat one more time, putting on just enough of a squeeze that he struggled for air. “If I were to let this transgression slide, Mr. Paris, what kind of man would I be? What would that do to my father’s reputation?”
“Please…don’t…”
I kept my eyes on the back wall, shutting out the feel of his throat working hard, his breathing becoming choked. “Everyone would become a thief. You understand?” I left out the obvious. If I let people get away with stealing from us, Gavini would gut us.
“Ye—yes. I understand…please let me go…”
I loosened my hand, but kept it at his throat. “My father would crack your skull. Leave you unable to work for months. I won’t cause you unnecessary pain.”
“I understand. Thank you, Mr. Davros. I’ll pay you everything I owe. Just don’t hurt me anymore.”
I took my hand away and nodded. Then I holstered my gun. “See that you do. Next time, this place, and you, go up in smoke.”
He was still crying, rambling something about paying me back when I turned and left the garage. Darkness lay across the city like a blanket of black. David stood waiting at the limo, down a side street.
David knew everything about the darker side of my work, or near enough, and he rarely batted an eye. Sometimes I wondered how he remained loyal to me, how he didn’t just cut and run when things got particularly bloody. It wasn’t fear. I didn’t think the man was capable of fear. He’d been my driver, my protection, my right hand man since I was twenty-four, when I hired him to replace the protection detail my father had hired for me years before.
Hands clasped in front of him, David nodded to me as I approached the car. “All taken care of, sir?”
I nodded and scowled at the skyline. “My father will be happy. For now.”
Once we were both inside the car, he looked over his shoulder at me. “You had to do it, sir. The lesser of two evils.”
“I know. But I don’t have to like it.” I leaned forward. “David, how do you do it?”
“Do what, Mr. Davros?”
“Let me do the bad shit and just smile and nod like it’s business as usual?”
“I do it because I know you’re only doing what you must, sir. Someone has to have your back.”
I couldn’t help a smile. The car roared to life and I clapped him on the shoulder.
“To the Lion’s Head, sir?”
The angel I’d left lying naked in my bed filled my mind and my dick twitched, even as guilt ate at me for what I’d just done. If she was lucky, she’d have woken up while I was gone, and if she was smart, she’d have left the room before I returned. Half of me hoped the hell she had left, while the other half hoped she was still there, still naked, still wet for me.
A better man would have left her there, going elsewhere to spend the rest of the night. Keeping her safe, protecting her from the hazards of my world. But I was not that man.
“Yes. But keep the car ready. I won’t stay the night.”
“Very good, sir.”
My thoughts spun with the unanswered questions that lingered about Anika and I ran my hand over my jaw, staring out the window without seeing the skyline. “She’s running from something, David. Something even scarier than me.”
“Agreed, sir. Whatever it is, we’ll find out.”
I leaned back and closed my eyes, letting my mind fill with thoughts of the woman I shouldn’t have. Yes, we would find out everything.
Something woke me.
I jerked my head up from the pillow. Half darkness filled the hotel room, silvery moonlight playing across the carpet. I felt the area of the bed beside me. Empty. Cold.
He was gone.
Disappointment stabbed at me and I rolled over onto my back. It shouldn’t have stung that he’d left me. Not only had he made it clear what his intentions were, but I’d made it equally clear I had my own rules about anything permanent with a guy. Still, waking up to find myself alone before the sun was even up somehow made my chest tighten.
I looked over at the clock, glowing neon in the half darkness. 3:00 am. He’d wasted no time getting away. My heart constricted tighter. Then my gaze fell on that fabulous gold and diamond watch he’d been wearing earlier. It sat on the nightstand beside the clock.
Why the heck would he leave something like that here? That thing must have cost enough to buy a house. Or a farm.
I swallowed, eyes widening at the thought that slid through my mind. Jesus Christ, had things gotten that desperate that I would even think of stealing from him?
Never, ever had I stolen from anyone, even when the mob threatened us and it might have seemed like our only way out. I’d never committed a crime of any kind. It bothered me to think he probably wouldn’t miss the watch. If he made the kind of fortune he claimed, he could buy a dozen more like it without batting an eye.
Resentment fisted my heart. I bet he would never have had to worry about losing his livelihood, or being forced to go to dangerous men for help like my father had been when I was a baby. I pressed my lips together, willing back the tears of helplessness for my father, for myself, the anger at such ugliness in my thoughts. Fuck, what was wrong with me?
I snatched up the watch and stared at the diamonds, letting the sparkling stones burn themselves into my brain. The urge to throw the watch across the room hit me and I slapped it down on the stand again. Then I whipped off the covers and padded to the bathroom.
After a long, hot shower, I crawled back into the warmth of the bed. I shivered, wishing he was there, wishing I could snuggle into his warmth. Damn. I wasn’t supposed to need him. It wasn’t safe.
How easy it would have been to leave, to flee in a cab and never look back. I shook my head. This man didn’t deserve my anger. Wealth didn’t mean he was like the men who were after us, or like Davros. God, what would m
y dad say if he knew I’d spent the night with the kind of men he taught me to hate on principle?
The faint beep of the key card in the door sounded from the other room. I sat up, squinting. “Sir?”
He came into the bedroom, already pulling off his silky black tie. The boyish, satisfied smile that tugged at his lips when he saw me melted away my anger, the gentleness in his eyes warming me.
“Hi,” I whispered.
“You’re still here.”
Did I imagine the warning in his voice along with the sparkle in his eyes? The look said I’d have been better off running.
“Should I have left?” This was his hotel room after all.
“That’s not what I meant. You missed your chance to escape.” The low growl made my pussy tingle.
“Where did you go?” At three in the morning, there wasn’t a lot he could be up to. My father had a saying I couldn’t help thinking of. Certain hours were made for trouble.
The regret in his eyes puzzled me, then a moment later it was gone. “None of your business.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be turned on by his reply, or annoyed. This man had a way of saying things that imparted a natural possession and ownership of me I loved. I was there to please him, not to dig into his personal life. The trouble was, that same distance that made me feel so owned also made me feel shut out, and drove home the lack of closeness between us. That we’d both agreed on that distance didn’t make it sting less.
His eyes softened, as if he saw something in my expression that told him I needed reassurance. “No names, no personal information, remember?”
“I remember, Sir.”
“Turn over on your stomach.”
“Why?” A smirk twisted my mouth.
“Because I want you from behind.” He crossed the room in two long treads, grabbed my wrist and spun me onto my stomach. My blood heated and I sighed into the pillow, squirming into the mattress.
“Fuck, Sir, you’re so hot.”
The drawer on the stand beside my head opened and I heard something thump as he set whatever it was inside. I lifted my head, but by the time I saw his hand, there was only a key in it, with which he locked the drawer. What was he hiding in there?