by Measha Stone
Sidestepping the blatant land mine, he observed, “One class a semester will take you almost a lifetime to finish.”
She picked at the edge of the book, still not looking at him.
“Yeah, well, classes are expensive, and tips only get you so far, and most of what I had saved up went—” She shook her head, as though she just remembered his position. “To people like you. Are you going to let me go to class, or am I truly a prisoner here?”
He moved to put himself between her and the exit, bending his knee and resting his foot against the door.
“What if I need you while you’re gone?” he asked with a smile. Her attention darted to him at his question, and her cheeks heated. Good. The fire was still there.
“I think you have plenty of girls at your clubs who can see to whatever you need for the two hours I’m away.”
Completely true, but he didn’t want any of them. Not like he wanted her at that moment. The romper clung a little too tightly to her breasts. Other men would see it, and he hated them for it.
He could let her stew, but something in the way she glanced at him before returning to her books made him change his mind.
“You’ll have to miss class today. I don’t have a driver for you right now. Get your class schedule to Peter, and he’ll make sure to have someone ready for you.”
Her eyes lit up, and a gentle smile tugged the corners of her rosy lips upward. “Oh. I don’t need a driver. I’ll get a cab, or the bus. I can take the bus.”
“No,” he said and pushed off the door.
“But—”
“I said no, Ellie. Would you rather I said no to school altogether?” He didn’t wait for her answer but instead walked toward the main hallway.
She hadn’t moved from the spot he’d found her.
“Come here, Ellie.” He beckoned her with a crook of his finger. The exasperation in her expression stiffened his cock to the brink of pain. One eyeroll and he’d have no choice but to throw her ass over his knee for a solid spanking and a harder fucking.
He led her down the hallway way to his office. The place he had put his eyes on her the first time. The spot his fingers had penetrated her sweet pussy.
Once inside the room, he took the books from her and put them on his desk. She stood at the door, staring at him, quietly demanding to know what he wanted.
He wanted her. Naked and on her knees.
“I wanted to show you the artwork in here. I keep most of it in this office and some is in the dining room.” He pointed to the oil paintings on the walls.
Her gaze flittered over to the framed pieces, and she moved closer to one in particular. His favorite of the collection.
A scene depicting Samson and Delilah.
Tension eased away from her body as she took in the brush strokes and the darkened coloring. Her lips softened, and her gaze wandered over the scene. She lightly touched the frame but didn’t go near the canvas. Oils from her skin could damage the piece, a fact she would already know.
“This is beautiful. Samson and Delilah, right? Just like your clubs?” She continued her inspection of the piece.
After moving on to appreciate the other paintings on the same wall, depicting similar scenes, she pointed to the name scribbled on the bottom. “These are all by Janet Debouis? Do you know her?” She glanced over her shoulder at him.
“She was my mother.” He clenched his fists and released. Willing his body to ease off the tension. The throbbing the accountants started would blast into a migraine if he didn’t get control of himself.
“Your mother?” She read the name again.
“My father never married her,” he qualified for her. His father never did many things he should have, but not marrying his mother had been probably the most generous things he did for her.
“Oh.”
Most reaction he’d received upon sharing that bit of his history usually held more weight. She just brushed it off like he’d told her he had cereal for breakfast.
“She’s very talented. These are stunning.” She tilted her head, admiring the work.
“Yes, she was.” He emphasized the past tense, eliciting a glance from her. “She passed away five years ago.” Two years before his father had had the decency to keel over and give her the freedom she never had with him. Freedom to live her own life without his cruelty and disregard.
Sort of like the disregard he’d showed Ellie the night before when he tossed her from his room, but he wouldn’t think about those actions. This situation didn’t compare to his mother’s. His mother hadn’t offered herself to his father. She’d been forced, and continually forced throughout her life. Ellie had made her choice on her own.
Ellie’s expression softened. She didn’t pity him. She had lost her mother years, ago, too from what Peter told him. Understanding. For a brief moment, maybe she understood him.
She couldn’t, of course. He’d been an adult when his mother died. So, if she thought his mother’s death helped to make him the man standing in his office, she had it all wrong.
“The paintings in your club last night, were those painted by her as well?” she asked facing him again.
“Most of them. Others were purchased. Samson and Delilah was one of her favorite stories.” He hadn’t told anyone that little fact, ever. Shifting his weight to the other foot, he cleared his throat. “Anyway. I just thought you’d enjoy them. There are others throughout the house.”
“And in the secret wing?” she asked, perching herself on the arm of the loveseat, far enough away from him he couldn’t reach out and touch her, but close enough he could smell the apricot conditioner she’d used.
“You heard what happened to the cat with all that curiosity, right?” He pushed away from the desk.
“You have something hidden in there, something horrible and terrifying.” She cocked her head to her right and smiled. “Or, do you run a children’s hospital from the wing and don’t want anyone to know what a Good Samaritan you are?”
Ash picked up a file folder from his desk and opened it, needing to keep his eyes off her. She was being cute. And she looked sexy as hell when she acted cute. And if he kept watching her be cute, he’d bend her over and make her show him how fucking sexy she really was.
“Get your schedule to Peter so you don’t miss any more classes. And the next time you’re on campus, get yourself registered for a few more. You’ll have the funds now to actually finish your degree.”
“Oh?” She straightened, her body stiffening before him. “You’ll just add it to my tab?” He could do without her damn snark when he was trying to do something decent. He could understand her suspicion. Being kind didn’t exactly sit easily with him either, but she could be graceful enough to hide her distaste for him.
“Exactly how much is my tab, anyway?” She advanced, stalking his desk, her eyes narrowed and her hands fisted. “After last night? How much did that little roll in your sheets deduct from the two hundred and fifty thousand?”
He ground his teeth, tossing the file folder onto the desk and leaning back in his chair. Fine. She wanted to be mad. She wanted to get herself all worked up. He could play the game. He would oblige her. Why not?
“How much to do you think it was worth?” he asked.
She frowned at him.
“Maybe we should put a menu together,” he suggested, standing again and moving at her, coming to stand right beside her.
Her gaze focused forward, at the bookshelves behind his desk.
“What do you think?” He brushed her hair over her shoulder, exposing the sensitive bit of her neck. If he kissed her there, bit down a little, would she moan for him?
“A thousand.” She announced spinning to meet his eyes. Fire burned in her features. The rose was back in her cheeks, her pupils large and round.
He grunted. “For one short fuck? You think mighty highly of yourself.” He would have paid ten times that much to relive the experience of thrusting his cock into her for the first time once
more.
“Fine. Just tell me, then.” Her shoulders slumped, triggering his irritation.
“Oh, well. Let’s see.” He ran this thumb over the vein in her neck pulsating with each beat of her heart. “There’s a lot of things. A thousand for a decent fuck seems fair. A few hundred for a good face fuck. Another hundred or so for a session with some of those toys in my drawer. More for some of the really dirty shit I want to do to you,”
He moved his caresses to her collarbone, trailing down to her breasts. Her chest expanded beneath his touch, but he wouldn’t fool himself into thinking it was lust. At least not entirely.
“What do you mean? Dirty?”
Of all the questions, he didn’t expect that one. Few people surprised him these days, yet Ellie seemed to find a way to do it every day.
“You want me to show you? Right now? In my office?”
She sighed. “It was just a question.”
First, he needed to get her out of the damn romper. And have it burned.
A knock on his door grated on him. When it opened before he’d answered, he got pissed.
“I’m busy,” he barked, ready to throw a fist in the face of whoever barged in on him.
Except it was Peter.
“Sorry.” But he didn’t appear sorry. He looked downright entertained. “One last thing to deal with for tomorrow night.”
Parties made the Annex one of the most sought-after business opportunities. Without it, potential buyers would have to thumb through a catalogue. And the day before and day of the party were the busiest. He didn’t always get deeply involved, leaving Peter to handle most of the work, but given Komisky’s little fuck up, Ash would have to get his hands dirty for this one.
“Fine. I’ll be there in a minute.” He glared at his cousin until he laughed and left them alone.
“There’s a party tomorrow? Here?” Ellie asked softly. Almost as if she had a good sense she wasn’t invited but hadn’t really been expecting to be anyway. He wondered how many times she’d been overlooked for a party or a date because she worked harder to unbury her father from his debts.
“It’s business. You don’t have to go.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, covering the beautiful swell he had just started getting ready to thrust himself into.
“I don’t really have anything else to do. Maybe I could help with serving drinks or something?” She smiled, but the lightness did nothing to reach up her eyes. She still stared him down with expectations and hurt. He could handle the first, but the second was new for him.
Even if he bothered to notice the emotion in one of his girls, it never weighed on him. An easy brush off. But Ellie wasn’t going anywhere. He’d already seen to that with his fucking plan to keep her. And now he’d given her a list of ways to pay off her father’s fuck up, all of which shrank her to basically being his whore.
Well, wasn’t that what he’d decided to make her when he agreed to her offer?
He raked his hands through his hair. He needed to get the hell away from her.
“No. You’ll stay in your room tomorrow night. I don’t want you even downstairs. You stay up there.” He walked to the door and flung it open. “There’s a laptop in my room, on the dresser. It’s for you, I meant to give it to you this morning after breakfast. Stream a video or something for now.”
Her hint of a smile dropped, as did her hands.
“I don’t mean to be such a fucking bother, Ash.” She snatched her books from the desk. “If you’d let me go to class today, I wouldn’t be in your hair to begin with.”
She marched past him, the scent of her body wash lingering in her wake.
He shouldn’t let her talk to him like that. He should squash her attitude and be done with it, but all he could do was grin at the sway of her ass as she stalked off. Even pissed, she moved perfectly.
She could have the afternoon. But, after dinner, he’d go into her room and show her again who ruled her. And she’d start ticking off some of the items on their list.
Right after dinner.
CREATED BY JUTOH - PLEASE REGISTER TO REMOVE THIS LINE
CHAPTER TEN
Ellie found a bench in the back of the gardens, well hidden behind a rose bush, where she could be alone but still see the comings and goings of the secret wing. She couldn’t get anyone in the household to even hint at what went on behind the forbidden door. Though she could hardly be surprised. Everyone was Ash’s employee, and surely to defy him would mean getting fired—or worse.
Yet, still she couldn’t help but keep wondering what went on in there. The window blinds were closed, but she could make out shadows moving behind them on the upper floor and a small handful of times on the first floor.
She easily made out Ash’s shadow and figured it was his room, since he remained in it for a long duration. No one had the physique he had. She could peg him from blocks away, with his broad shoulders, and strong back.
His strength should frighten her, and the fierceness of his scowl shouldn’t make her hungry with need the way it did. But he didn’t scare her, and when he pinned her with a glare, she wanted to touch him, to trace the lines in his forehead and wipe them away.
None of it made any sense to her. And things needed to make sense if she was going to find a way to repay what her father owed so she could return to her life. She had offered her life for her fathers, but the money was what Ash wanted. Once she could get hold of that, she could return to The Cafe, back to school, and back to the few friends she had in her life.
“You look awfully serious for a woman sitting in a rose garden on such a beautiful night.” Peter’s voice startled her, and she dropped the pencil she’d been holding over her pad of paper.
“You scared me.” She picked up the pencil and frowned up at him.
Peter had a build similar to Ash’s, just as hard everywhere but he didn’t quite meet Ash’s height. Standing over her in the rose garden though, he was just as menacing.
“I doubt many things scare you,” he remarked. “What are you up to out here?” He leaned over her to peer at the pad of paper. She hadn’t gotten much accomplished once she noticed all the movement in Ash’s office, she’d been staring at the secret wing contemplating all the evil things going on behind those windows.
“Just playing around.” She snapped the pad shut and held it close to her chest.
“Hmm.” Peter glanced over his shoulder at the house. “Good view here, I suppose.”
Did every man in this damn place have the capability to read her thoughts?
“Did you want something?”
“No, not really.” He shrugged. “The rest of your things were brought over, and I was wondering if we missed anything.”
“Did you go to get my stuff? You were in my apartment?” She quickly thought back to the state of the room before she’d left it last, but couldn’t recall. Had she folded the last load of laundry, or were her panties and bras still strewn across her bed?
“I went with my men.” He nodded. “Small place.”
It was home, and damn him for commenting.
“Well, we can’t all be loan sharks and thieves.”
“No, some of us need to be the idiots who take loans from the sharks and thieves,” he flung at her.
Her father was one of those idiots. She wouldn’t deny it.
She toyed with the edges of her sketch pad. “Was my father there when you went?”
Peter stared at her with a blank expression for a long moment before he answered. “Yes.”
“You didn’t hurt him, did you?” She shot up from her seat. He father wouldn’t have let them in to go through the apartment; in his stubbornness, he would have tried to stop them.
“No one got hurt,” he assured her. “He’s fine, Ellie. I promise you.” If so much sympathy hadn’t played on his features, she might have been able to just forget it.
“Did you talk with him? Is he really okay? Who’s helping him with the café?”
&nbs
p; Peter’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t talk with him other than to assure him you were safe and wouldn’t be harmed.”
Harmed. No. Just whored out. She could feel the heat build on her face. Her father had witnessed Ash touch her the first night. He’d been forced to see the Ash fondle her in a way no father should have to see.
“Do yourself a favor. The faster you obey Ash, the faster you give over to him, the quicker he’ll let you talk with your father, maybe even see him.”
Ellie backed up a step. Give over? Submit to him?
“He’s not the monster you think he is, but he is determined to have your obedience. Give him what he wants, and you’ll be rewarded.”
“Rewarded? Like some little girl who gets a gold star for doing well at school?” Everyone around her was insane.
“Fight him if you want. He’ll win, either way.” Peter glanced back at the house. “He never loses.”
She didn’t doubt that. Bullies rarely lost. Not because they were stronger, but because they were willing to do horrible things in order to get what they wanted. Even if it meant hurting someone else.
“What’s in the wing? He called it the Annex. What is it?” She’d googled it with the laptop Ash gave her, but found nothing.
Peter frowned. “Like a dog with a bone, you are. Leave it be, Ellie.”
Ellie was taking a breath, getting ready to ask more questions, when Ash stepped into the garden. And he wasn’t alone.
A woman, nearly his own height, her body manufactured by Mattel strode at his side. Her long, flowing blonde hair covered her shoulders with perfect curls and highlights. Even from where Ellie stood she could see the shimmering lipstick on her full lips.
Ash’s arm was linked with hers. His eyes searched the gardens and stilled when he found Ellie’s. His stare tore the breath from her.
Peter followed her gaze and mumbled a curse.
Ash had smelled of lavender the night before. Had he been in the gardens with Barbie before coming up to fuck her?
“Stay right here, Ellie.” Peter pointed the bench she’d vacated and made his way over to Ash.
Ash’s eyes narrowed in on Peter as he approached. He couldn’t be upset they had been talking. Not when he had that woman on his arm.