by CR Robertson
“There’s nothing illegal about thoughts,” I said in a low tone.
My heart stumbled over its beat when he kissed the side of my neck. “In some countries, what I’m thinking about is definitely against the law.”
Unconsciously, my legs widened so his body pressed into the cradle of my thighs and I arched my back slightly. “We’re both consenting adults.”
His hips ground into mine. “You’re forbidden fruit that tempts men to sin.”
“We have an orchard out back.”
Ash’s head slowly came up until his gaze was locked with mine. My breath caught in my throat and the world came to a stop around us. I didn’t care about right or wrong, or what people thought. All that mattered was here and now. His head closed the distance between us and his lips found mine. I had no idea what to do, but he led the way, dragging me into the world of sensation with him.
His tongue flicked against the seam of my lips and I moaned, which allowed him entry to my mouth. Ash devoured me, his mouth controlling mine; his tongue delved into the recesses of my mouth, destroying my willpower. My fingertips dug into his hands to give myself something to cling to, my leg snaking around his, as I followed his mouth in this erotic dance.
Every wall of resistance around me crumbled into a heap at my feet and I succumbed to sensation alone. His hands released my wrists to cup my face and tilt my head so he could consume me more deeply. My fingers found the shorter hair at the nape of his neck while I clung to him. When his lips finally left mine, both of us were breathing heavily, and my lips felt tender and swollen.
“Shit, I shouldn’t have done that,” Ash muttered, his thumb swiping across my bottom lip.
“Which part?” I asked breathlessly. “The dragging me in here, pinning me to the wall, or kissing me?”
A faint smile touched his full lips. “All of them.”
“You’ve shared your germs with me now and infected me. I guess the fact that I haven’t collapsed means I’m not allergic to you so you can do that again.”
He tipped my head back in a gesture that was becoming ever more familiar. “Are you always such a smartass?”
“Only when I’ve been infected by someone else’s germs.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “You’re going to cause me horrendous fucking trouble.”
I blinked, not knowing how to reply. Even my little demon was too stunned to react right now.
A noise in the corridor outside made Ash push me further into the wall and cover me with his hard body. I didn’t want to point out that a guy of six-foot-two didn’t exactly blend into the wall. Instead, I relished the feel of his body on mine.
“I have your diamonds,” he finally said when he determined the threat had passed. “I’ll need to give them to you because I’m not carrying them to Krakow with me.”
“Turn left at the top of the stairs, my room is the second along. Meet me at ten tonight and that way you avoid the guards patrolling the house—and Papa.”
He glared at me as if he was going to throttle me. “Lucrezia,” he growled in a tone that made my insides tighten.
“What?” I asked with my eyes wide. “I thought you had a package for me?”
His hand grasped my throat and I gasped. “I am not the sort of man that you should pin your hopes on, Lucrezia. My life is filled with pain and suffering. The only way to keep someone like you safe, is to stay away from you.”
My fingers curled around his at my throat. “And if I don’t agree?”
“Then the two of us will end up burning each other.”
The flames of his seduction caressed my skin and I found myself leaning in to his touch. “Ten o’clock,” I said, my fingers peeling his hand from my throat. “Last chance, Ash.”
I didn’t look back as I walked out of the room with my back straight. Papa didn’t raise a weakling. If I backed down now, Ash would think he could walk all over me.
Inside the private refuge of my room, my back slid down the door because my legs gave way. He was the one man I shouldn’t desire, but the only one who made me feel. I wanted Ash more than I’d ever needed anything before. One thing I discovered in life was that if you wanted something, you had to claim it before anyone else took it.
Ash was mine and I would claw the eyes out of anyone who tried to take him from me.
***
Chapter Ten
Ash
I was fucked.
There was a reason I hadn’t kissed anyone in so long I could barely remember the last time. Emotions. They were pesky, nasty little fuckers that took over your mind and demanded you submit to their every whim.
The moment my lips touched Lucrezia’s, I knew that I’d crossed a line. I could fuck a hundred women and walk away without a backward glance, but her huge eyes watching me and the way her body fitted against mine made me break every rule I possessed and kiss her.
Now, I was sitting here staring out into the darkness of the Tuscan night with my mind in turmoil. If I went to her room with that box of stones, I would be tempted to do something that couldn’t be undone.
Like that kiss.
The sensation of her lips on mine still lingered, her floral scent intoxicating me, and the way her fingers moved into my hair made the hairs at the back of my neck rise in memory. Yeah, I was in trouble and it was the kind that a loaded gun couldn’t fix.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Xavier said from his lounger. He was a different person here, more relaxed and approachable.
I sighed. “Just contemplating Dad’s latest crimes against humanity.” He was an asshole I blamed on everything when I didn’t want to discuss what was really on my mind. “He has another mistress tucked away. I noticed the regular debits going out of his account and hope this one won’t turn up at the family home demanding money for another child he has spawned.”
Xavier lifted his glass to his lips and took a long sip. “He should do what Dad did and have a vasectomy. It would remove the need for all these paternity tests.”
“He should just get it cut off before it falls off,” I muttered as my mood descended further into darkness. The last mistress swore that the daughter was his and the little girl he’d always wanted. The paternity test revealed she’d been lying and she’d been entertaining gentlemen callers in the apartment Dad had been paying for.
Xavier laughed. “His taste in women is as bad as Dad’s. That’s why he ensured that there would be no paternity issues.”
Lucas groaned. “Hugh found the love of his life and Matteus stood before God and declared his fidelity. Death does not erode those vows.”
Twenty years after his wife died, and he was still in love with her. We could all aspire to that type of devotion. In all the times I’d spent with him he never even looked at another woman.
Xavier drained his glass and filled it again from the decanter on the ground beside him. He held it out to me and I shook my head because I needed to keep it clear. “Dad has been searching for what he had with Mum from the day she died.”
“My dad doesn’t have that excuse,” I said. Mum had created the social life he wanted, given him the heirs he demanded, and rarely complained at his horrendous behaviour. It was only when I took over as the family accountant that I had been able to help her and gave her some freedom away from his tyranny.
“True,” Xavier agreed. “But it also means that you’ll never treat a woman the way he does your mum.”
I didn’t need the responsibility for anyone else on my shoulders. I was carrying the weight of Mum and my brothers there already. When I became too big for him to defeat in the fighting ring, he turned his attention to my younger brothers. Michael was the only exception because he was as twisted as Dad. Both of them had the cruel genes of the family.
“Sometimes I think maybe I should stay single the rest of my life,” I replied.
“Nonsense!” Lucas almost shouted from where he sat puffing on his cigar. “Men like us are born with fire in our souls. When we find the woman t
hat inflames that fire, we cannot resist them the same as those moths over there that are perishing in the flames.”
It sounded like a horrendous punishment the way he described love.
“You should really work on your description,” Xavier said. “You make love sound like our damnation.”
Lucas turned to face us. “My Isabella was my angel from the first moment I saw her. She walked into the room and I wondered how I had never seen her before. All other women evaporated from my view from that day, and she was the only one I saw.”
“Not everyone gets love at first sight,” Xavier said.
“I don’t care what the poets and artists say,” Lucas continued. “You know they are the right person because nothing else feels right. You sense it deep inside where all truths hide.” He tapped his chest.
The problem was that he described the moment Lucrezia walked into the restaurant. All the other women around me faded into insignificance. My dick wasn’t interested when I took him to the Midnight Rooms because he was sniffing around what he couldn’t have.
The clock inside in the hall chimed and I counted. Ten. All my plans of staying away and avoiding Lucrezia evaporated. I could no more stay away from her than those poor incinerated moths at the brazier could avoid the flames.
I left the others contemplating life and stepped inside. The box was still in the bottom of my bag. My finger traced along its edge as I stood staring out the patio windows of my room. Everything was more complicated than it needed to be. Normally, if someone interested me, I fucked her until she was out of my system and moved on. Lucrezia was different because I was emotionally invested before she interested me.
Dad had eligible brides picked out for each of his sons, women who would help him climb the social ladder. Bland women who would be expected to open their legs and provide heirs and then run our home. None of the candidates he’d mentioned so far remotely interested me.
A rap at my door summoned me from my turbulent thoughts. I turned just as the door opened and Lucrezia slipped in. My eyebrows rose and my hand tightened around the box.
“This was the only way I was ever going to get my diamonds.” She nodded to the black box in my hand.
“I was on my way,” I defended. Technically, I’d been stalling, but with so much at stake, who could blame me?
She was dressed in long silk black trousers with red flowers on them and a red vest top. Her outfit was casual but accentuated every one of her assets at the same time. Her hair was in a long ponytail at the top of her head, the way the subs in the Twilight Rooms tended to wear it to allowed their Dom to use it as a tool during sex.
Lucrezia continued to stare at me wordlessly.
“I thought you were going to show me some of your designs,” I said, holding the box out toward her.
“I keep my designs in my work room.” Her head dipped and her reaction intrigued me.
I shrugged and put my hands in my pockets when she took the box and opened it. The diamonds inside were stunning, but they paled in comparison to the woman holding them.
“Catarina loves diamonds,” Lucrezia said idly. “She can tell a fake a mile away and takes great delight and telling everyone when someone is wearing fake stones to a party. Unfortunately, she has never taken the time to identify quality. You could have a single perfect diamond that is worth more than an entire tiara of low-grade stones. These are more beautiful than I remember.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. She summed up my thoughts perfectly.
“Why don’t you show me what’s about to happen to them.” I nodded to the diamond she held between her fingers up to the light. “It seems fitting since I was there at the beginning of their journey.”
Lucrezia studied me for several seconds and I felt stripped bare to her appraisal. She chewed the side of her mouth. “You need to be careful. The guards will be touring inside the house soon. If they catch you in our wing of the house, they’ll go mad.”
“I’ll take my chances.” My lips twitched at her virginal alarm at being caught with a man in her room. In my world, virgins were a rarity and her behaviour was a refreshing change to the women who were constantly trying to get in my pants.
I watched as Lucrezia stealthily opened the door and looked left and right before waving me forward. Her actions amused me, but I played along. She grabbed my hand, nearly running down the hallway in her bare feet, and dragged me into her bedroom.
“I thought we were going to your workroom,” I said, my brow furrowing.
“We are.” Lucrezia went to a panel beside her four-poster bed and slid it to the side to reveal a pad that she typed a passcode into. It opened to reveal a safe room. Was she seriously telling me that she created all that jewellery in this tiny room?
Inside was a bed along the back, but she’d converted the remainder of the space into a workspace.
“How do you work in here?” I asked. “There’s no natural light.”
“When Papa is away, Madison allows me to use the utility area, especially for any of the processes that creates smoke.”
This woman was trapped in a gilded cage, sneaking around to try and create a career for herself. I studied the table covered in metal tools and magnified eyeglasses. It must be horrendous for her in this cramped condition working on intricate details on her designs. A notebook rested beside where she obviously sat with her delicate sketches on it.
“Lucrezia.” She turned to peer up at me with those huge brown eyes. “You’re going to be working with diamonds and sapphires. You need a proper workspace to complete your designs for the IJS.”
Her bottom lip trembled before she bit into it. “I won’t let you down,” she said in a low, hurt tone.
That was just insulting. I didn’t do any of this for gratitude.
I reacted without thinking, tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. “I wouldn’t have gotten you a place if I didn’t believe in you.” I cast another look around her working area. “But you need somewhere with enough light to be able to complete your work. Those artists you’re competing against have entire studios dedicated to their work.”
Her shoulders slumped in defeat.
“No!” I commanded and her head snapped up to search my face. “You don’t get to give up because I pointed out that you need to stop hiding. Sofia was allowed to go and study at university. All you’re asking for is a room with all the equipment in it that you need to complete your work.”
“Papa says he will find us husbands so that we don’t need to work.”
Fuck it all to hell and back. Now she’d gone and activated that jealous monster inside me. The thought of any man touching her made me burn with rage. I stepped forward and she retreated until her back was against the wall.
“You don’t need a husband to claim your place in this world, Lucrezia.”
Her head tilted back, and one of her hands landed on my waist.
“Most of the husbands I know are overrated pompous assholes who use their wives to produce heirs and host their dinner parties.”
“Papa takes me as his guest to dinners to prepare me for what lies ahead.”
My head dipped until my lips skimmed her ear. “What do you want in a relationship?” I asked.
Her forehead rested on my shoulder. “I want a man who would destroy the world for me. Someone who loves me so much that he would defy Papa just to claim me. I need a man who puts me at the centre of his world because he’s in the middle of mine.”
“That’s quite a list.”
Her head shook and her hair caressed the side of my face. “I just want to be loved and be allowed to love freely.”
She made me yearn for things that I shouldn’t.
A loud beep sounded in her room and her body froze. “What was that?” I asked.
“Shit!” I lifted my head to look at her because her expletive was out of character. “I told you to come at ten. That beep means that all the security systems have activated. I can’t leave my r
oom without setting off an alarm.”
“What?” I stared toward the door of the safe room. “How the hell am I supposed to get back to my room?”
“You don’t unless you want to explain what you’re doing here to Papa. The windows are alarmed as well.”
“Seriously?” I demanded. It was like medieval times when daughters were locked away from the horny knights set to besmirch their honour.
“Yep. Welcome to my life. Don’t worry, I’ll sleep on the daybed in here. I sometimes sleep in here because the door is closed when the alarms come online.”
I was starting to view her life in a different light and it wasn’t a charming one.
Sighing, I dragged her out of the room before we both got stuck in there for the night. “I think we’re both grown up enough to sleep in your king-size bed.”
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened before they moved to the bed in question. “Um.”
“Do you promise not to ravish me?” I teased.
Her cheeks were on fire and she couldn’t look me in the eye. My fingers under her chin lifted her gaze.
“We’re trapped in this room together unless you want to explain to Lucas what I’m doing here and why you’ve converted that room into a workspace.” Her eyes darted to the side. “Then we need to make the best of the situation. I have my phone, and I’m sure my teeth will cope for one night without being brushed.”
“Will you not be uncomfortable sleeping in your clothes?”
She really was far too innocent for a man like me… “I sleep most nights in my boxers anyway.”
If her cheeks got any hotter, they would set the curtains on fire.
I leaned down to whisper in her ear. “No taking advantage of me.”
Lucrezia practically ran into the bathroom as if the hounds of hell were chasing her. Fuck my life. How did I end up in this situation? Why did no one tell me that Lucas had alarms on all the girls’ rooms?