by CR Robertson
“Uncle Lucas would kill him,” Xavier said, pushing himself to his feet.
Jordan trailed his fingers through his hair. “Maybe I should have another look at him…”
“Leave the man alone,” Xavier snapped. “Maybe he just takes his job seriously. Has Sofia complained?”
“No,” Jordan replied. “But when has Sofia ever complained?”
Xavier grasped Jordan’s shoulder. “You need to stop seeing threats and ghosts everywhere you look.”
Shaking my head, I wandered past them. I still thought that shit sounded shady. From an early age, I was taught never to trust someone who followed the rules. They were generally creating mischief behind their façade of decency.
The shower pounded down on my flesh, massaging out all the knots that had formed there from the stress of today. I braced my hands on the tiles and closed my eyes. An image formed in my head of a woman who had shocked the fuck out of me today. When had Lucrezia grown up—and why had I never noticed?
My balls pleaded with my unruly dick not to even think about her, but he disobeyed and hardened at the memory of her image. I stroked his length, visualising every single piece of her from the tip of her head, past her breasts that had peeked out from that silk blouse, to her curved ass and long legs that deserved to be wrapped around my waist as I thrust balls-deep into her.
I groaned when I shot my load against the pristine white tiles. Lucas Black would shoot me for even imaging her naked in bed, but for the first time in too long, I was interested in someone. She drew me to her like a moth to the flame that would destroy it. But the exquisite burn before you combusted would be worth the deadly result.
***
Chapter Five
Lucrezia
When Papa was back in the UK, he had business meetings every single night. It allowed him to go home to Tuscany and hibernate for months before he had to return and sort out his business again. Xavier had his mum’s share in the distillery and dealt with a lot of the problems to save Papa from travelling, but he liked to interfere whenever he was back.
Catarina popped the little black box into her bag for Harmony, the necklace she bought already around her throat.
“Was that not supposed to be for Harmony?” I asked, nodding at the delicate roses that I’d spent hours carving.
My sister gave me that narrowed eye look that brought men to their knees. “I’m entitled to nice jewellery. You’re wearing a new piece every week.”
I honestly never realised that she noticed what I wore. I tended to wear my new collection as I created it so I could tweak it along the design pathway. My polished smile appeared on my lips. “You love shoes the way I love jewellery.” I shrugged and moved into the living room away from her assessing gaze.
“What was your meeting today?” She followed me into the room.
“I invested some of my trust fund into shares and I was to meet with my accountant. He wasn’t feeling very well and rearranged our meeting. Nothing very exciting, I’m afraid.”
She stared at me as if trying to see inside my head, but every day at school I had learned to hide my reactions until only a porcelain exterior remained. No one ever saw the real me because she was terrified of everything, even though she craved affection.
“You sure you don’t want to come to the party?”
I shook my head. “Wish Harmony a happy birthday. I’ll maybe crash it next year.”
Catarina never followed social protocols and would happily crash someone’s birthday. It went against all the etiquette that had been drilled into me from an early age.
“Cat, it’s time to go.” Her security detail Tom stood watching her from the door. His gaze contained a possessive ownership that would anger Papa. I’d heard the noises from her room, but it was her decision who she allowed into her bed.
“Have a great night,” I said with a wave, sitting down and lifting my Kindle to put an end to her questioning.
“Don’t wait up!” Her outside persona was in place as she linked her arm through Tom’s.
As soon as she was out the door, I immediately sprang into action and ran upstairs to change out of my pyjamas. I’d deliberately put them on earlier because she tended to like to drag me along behind her. Jeans and a T-shirt would be fine since there was no one to impress, my hair dragged up into a messy bun on top of my head. I’d started to panic the longer she loitered in the hall that Xavier would arrive and spark her curiosity.
“You okay?” Francis asked when I wandered back downstairs.
“Yeah, I just hate asking for help with my business,” I admitted.
“There is no point in having someone like Xavier Bartholomew as a cousin and going this alone.”
My lips twitched. “You make him sound scary.”
“Have you ever seen him and his friends in a boardroom?”
“Nope.”
“I have. They act cool and then turn into vultures when no one is looking.” He squeezed my arm. “You’ve made the right decision.”
Sofia and Catarina got hot security guards, and I got another father figure who watched out for me and helped me when I was stuck. Instead of waiting for Xavier in the living room, I went into the kitchen. Madison had taught me to bake from an early age because she was normally in the kitchen and I was lost and in need of someone to care for me.
I reverted into my old habit of baking muffins. All the guards loved their chocolatey goodness. My apron was a silly pink frilly creation that I bought on impulse last time I was in London. I hit the button for music to flood the kitchen while I moved seamlessly around, cutting and mixing until I filled cupcake cases and popped them into the oven.
“I never, in all my life, thought I’d see one of the glamourous Black sisters covered in flour.” Xavier stood with his hip braced on the doorframe with a smile playing on his lips.
“You came!” I automatically moved into his arms and held on tight. You never knew how much you needed help until it arrived in your home.
“Always, little cousin. That’s what I’m here for.”
It was only then that I realised that the kitchen was filled with more than just my cousin. Ash and Jordan were sitting at the table watching me.
“Hey, guys,” I said, straightening my apron, suddenly aware of my appearance.
“I hope there’s enough for us,” Jordan teased, nodding toward the oven.
I bit into my bottom lip, my shyness reappearing.
“You know these guys come as part of the deal,” Xavier said. “If you need something, then we’re here to help.”
His hand landed on the bottom of my back to push me toward the table.
“Why don’t you tell us what’s up,” Ash said and my attention fell on him. Every time I saw him he stole my breath and made my heart skip over its beat. He was the only man who commanded me with his presence. Sofia told me that Mama always said she knew from the first time she saw Papa that she loved him. Maybe it was a genetic fault?
I slowly lowered myself into a chair and clasped my hands together in my lap. Xavier sat beside me, his presence reassuring me.
“Spill,” he commanded.
“I don’t know where to start,” I confessed.
“The beginning helps,” Ash said and the tone he used made me look at him.
I was lost, his blue eyes blazing into mine. My teeth chewed the side of my mouth. “One of my suppliers is being difficult because I’m a woman,” I blurted out.
“What?” Xavier shouted in my ear. “Please tell me you aren’t involved in drugs!”
“What? No!” I spun to face him before returning to Ash. “I make jewellery and had a diamond consignment with my name on it. The supplier keeps selling to someone else.”
His gaze moved to Xavier for a split second before his eyes bored into mine again. “Does he keep upping the price before he does it?”
I nodded, tears building up behind my eyes.
“That’s a common tactic. There is no other buyer. He’s trying t
o see how much he can get out of you.” Ash placed his hands in front of him on the table and continued to stare at me. His fingers were long and tanned, his nails short and neat. “What time is the meeting tomorrow?”
“Ten,” I whispered.
“I can’t believe you thought Lucy had a drug problem,” Jordan bickered in the background.
“Fuck off,” Xavier retaliated. “I’m allowed to worry.”
“Are we going to see this jewellery?” Ash asked. He was the only one to take an interest in my original problem.
My tablet was on the table from when I’d been using it earlier. It contained pictures of all my pieces on display. I opened the file and handed it to him, my stomach tying itself in knots as he scanned through the images.
“These are good. Do you have a marketing team?”
“No,” I confessed. “Just a few jewellers I approached.”
“That’s why the suppliers are taking advantage of you. No businessman does everything himself. It’s the reason the three of us work together. No one actually knows who owns our businesses. It also means one of us can play hardball for the team.”
I started to relax as he took control.
“Jay, are you still in contact with that web designer?”
“Yeah, why?”
Ash passed the tablet to Xavier. “Phone him and tell him we need a site designed ASAP including a brand image.”
Jordan peered over Xavier’s shoulder. “You make everything yourself?”
“Yeah, I spent my time sketching images and then started to create them. It took me years of practice and study to learn to meld all the metals with the stones to set them in position.”
“That’s why you used to buy all those crystals,” Ash said and my heartrate picked up. Why did he have to be the one person who noticed those small details that meant the world to me?
“These are good,” Xavier said in a surprised tone.
This was why I didn’t want people to know what I did. They tended to judge me based on who they thought I was because they didn’t take the time to know me.
“What stones have you ordered?” Ash asked, ignoring the last comment.
“Diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. They were to be the central pieces of my new collections, to be accompanied by other less valuable stones. I’ve been planning the designs for them for the past six months.” Suddenly I felt weary with the constant worry about this situation.
“Who’s the supplier?” Ash asked.
“Billingham’s. The jewellery store who suggested a more expensive collection put me in touch with them.” The more questions he asked, the dumber I felt because I was starting to see that by trying to be independent, I’d been foolish.
Xavier groaned and sat back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. “He saw you coming a mile away. The guy who runs that place is a shark in dolphin fins. I would never advise anyone to buy from him, he was caught a few years ago with blood diamonds.”
I spun in my chair in horror because I would never get involved with those sorts of stones.
“It’s okay,” Ash said in that tone that soothed me. “You won’t have to go to the meeting alone, neither will you be buying any of his stones.”
“I have a meeting tomorrow morning with Dad,” Xavier said.
Jordan glanced up from his phone. “You’ll need to push back the meeting as I promised Lucas I would help him vet some new recruits in the morning.”
“Fine.” Ash looked at me with his jaw tight. “I’ll go. Money and investment are my role in this trio, anyway.”
“Ash does know more about diamonds than I do,” Xavier admitted. “And when it comes to a spreadsheet and finances, he’s the shark disguised as a dolphin.”
This was not going as I planned. Xavier was supposed to come here tonight and offer me some brotherly advice and then I would go to my meeting tomorrow and be the businesswoman I envisaged in my head.
“Honestly, I don’t want to be any trouble. I’ll get Francis to cancel the meeting and look for another supplier.”
“Don’t be silly,” Xavier said. “Ash deals with bullies like this all the time. I wish I could be there now to see their faces when he wanders in.”
Ash rolled his eyes at Xavier as the timer on the oven sounded and I pushed myself to my feet. How did I end up, after five years of avoiding him, being left with Ash tomorrow morning?
“I’m meeting Lucas at nine,” Jordan said from behind me. “I doubt Cat will be awake before noon, so that allows you and Lucy time to leave without anyone asking too many questions since she wants to keep her business private.”
I placed the muffins on the cooling tray before my hands gripped the side of the counter in dismay. I had prided myself in how well I’d been doing with starting up my own business. A shadow loomed beside me and I looked up to find deep blue eyes watching me.
“We all need help occasionally, even the three of us.” Ash stared down at me. “No business is an island. If you can use the Bartholomew name to open doors, then take advantage of Zee. People know him in this world and wouldn’t double cross anyone associated with him.”
My eyes dropped to the chocolate muffins cooling on the counter. “I feel stupid now.”
“Why? Because you started your own business from nothing? Because you spent time to train in a profession that you obviously are good at? Or because some asshole tried to take advantage of you? That’s on him, by the way, not you.”
He grabbed a muffin and winked at me before going back to join the others at the table.
“You’ll burn your mouth on that,” I chided him.
He shoved a piece is his mouth with a grin. “Worth it.”
That heralded the end of business talk, and the other two demanded muffins. We were in the living room watching the latest vampire movie on Netflix when Papa arrived back.
“Is this a welcoming committee?” he asked from the doorway.
“Lucrezia was making muffins,” Xavier said. “We smelt them on the other side of London.”
That was one of my cousin’s talents, he was able to deflect by using the truth. He was a master of hiding what he didn’t want the rest of the world to know. The man sitting here now was not the man who was portrayed as a playboy billionaire.
Papa smiled. “She’s always conspiring with Madison in the kitchen. What flavour?”
“Double chocolate,” Jordan answered without looking away from the woman having her neck ripped open by the vampire.
I shuddered and glanced away from the huge screen on the wall to find Ash watching me. The angel on my right shoulder screamed for me to look away, but that demon who lived on my left shoulder demanded I sit my ass where it was and be brave. His eyes reminded me of bright blue lapis lazuli with flecks of green in them. They darkened when he was angry and the green turned to gold.
He was the only man who made my heart beat faster and tingles to appear on my skin. Right now my panties felt too tight and damp. What the hell was wrong with me?
Papa wandered into the room with a muffin and a glass of milk. He was the leader of an international crime organisation and he still had a glass of milk every night. Since he was home, my role as hostess had thankfully come to an end. I slowly stood and moved across the room, stopping to kiss his cheek.
“Goodnight, everyone.” I waved at the door, refusing to look around because if my eyes locked with Ash’s again I would want to crawl into his lap and sleep there.
Even lying in bed, I couldn’t get Ash out of my mind. I had put all my teenage feelings about him down to adolescent hormones about one of the few men I had regular interaction with. Over the years, I avoided him because I felt awkward and tongue-tied in his presence. Tonight, he was the only one who understood me. He saw through the mask I wore and found a vulnerability I kept cloaked from the world.
That terrified me more than anything ever had before.
For years, I had hidden behind my façade. If I spent too much time aroun
d Ash, he would see more than I wanted him to. Under the calm exterior I had polished was someone who was terrified of everything. As a girl, I adored him. As a woman, he excited me in a way I hadn’t experienced before. Ash didn’t have the power to hurt me, he had the potential to destroy me.
***
Chapter Six
Ash
What the fuck was I doing?
I never should have gone anywhere near Lucrezia after my reaction to her yesterday at lunch. Instead, I actually volunteered to be here this morning to take her to this meeting. Lucrezia sat in the kitchen sipping a cup of coffee and watching me over its rim. Her eyes were huge and she looked pale as if she hadn’t slept last night.
Her security detail Francis came into the kitchen at nine-thirty. “Ready?”
“I’ll take Lucrezia in my car,” I said. “Walking in with a security detail makes them think she’s playing at being a businesswoman who isn’t strong enough to look after herself.”
His eyes moved to Lucrezia, who continued to stare at me as if I was going to bite her. If she kept watching me like that, I might be tempted to.
I set my cup down and checked my watch. “Grab your stuff and we’ll leave in ten.”
Every twitching muscle of Francis said he wanted to say something to me but he knew his place in the household. Lucas Black adopted Jordan and me alongside his nephew as surrogate nephews. He relied on us to sort out problems that no one else could fix for him, since hired guns tended to talk at some stage.
Lucrezia went through her routine of collecting the cups and putting them in the sink before silently leaving the room.
“Spit it out,” I said to Francis when she was gone.
He turned to face me. “She’s an innocent soul who needs protecting. I thought Xavier could have discreetly gone and spoken to the suppliers without her knowing when I suggested she ask for help. Now this is becoming complicated.”
My eyebrow arched. “Do you think I would let anyone hurt her?”
“I think men like you swallow women like Lucrezia whole without caring about the consequences.”