by CR Robertson
“Yeah. Zee is having a fit because you are in London and not under his control.”
She flinched. “Why do the men in my family feel the need to control me?”
“All done?”
She nodded. “Harold said he’ll email me when he has the prototypes.”
“Anywhere else you need to visit?”
She flushed and ducked her head low before waving to Harold and tugging me out. Now I was intrigued. “I made an appointment with Catarina’s doctor in Harley Street.”
My eyebrows rose. “Are you ill?”
“No.” She stared at the ground and shuffled her feet. “Cat gets the birth control shot every few months when she is in London.”
Now I understood.
“I’ve never been active before, so didn’t need to worry about precautions.”
The thought of her on birth control terrified and excited me because there was nothing more that I wanted than to be inside her without a barrier between us.
Her brow furrowed when she looked up at me. “Is that okay?”
“It’s your body, Lucrezia, and it’s your decision if you want us to have sex without condoms.” I tried to remain cool because it had never been anyone’s decision but mine in the past. No semen, no pregnancy no matter what the woman said.
We were at the car and she got in and sat staring at her hands. “It’s just that last night I wanted…” Her voice trailed off.
“Me too.” I lifted one of her hands.
“Ash?” She stared up at me. “I’m terrified of needles.”
My lips twitched into the semblance of a smile. “I’ll hold your hand.”
Relief washed over her face. “Thank you.”
She’d just handed me the keys to the cookie jar and was thanking me? Lucrezia had awoken the possessive beast inside me that craved her with an intensity that terrified me. I had no idea what would happen once he marked her as his completely.
The doctor took her away for an exam and came back with a pale Lucrezia. She sat beside me and grabbed my hand automatically. The doctor rubbed her arm with a medical wipe before plunging a needle into her upper arm.
She smiled reassuringly at Lucrezia. “Give it a few days and you’re good to go.”
“Let’s grab some dinner,” I said on the way to the car. “You look like you could do with something sweet to eat.”
Her head landed on my shoulder. “It’s been a long day.”
“You want to go home?”
She shook her head. “I want to go on a real date.”
I couldn’t remember a time I’d gone on a date. I’d met women at parties, but never took them to the event. “A date,” I repeated.
“Yeah, when two people go out because they want to get to know one another, or just to spend time together.”
“Anything in particular you want to do?” I asked because I had zero ideas.
“A moonlit walk, dancing in the park, eating ice cream beside a pond. You know? A date.”
“You’re a cheap date. I thought you’d want champagne and roses.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Champagne is worse than wine and roses fade.”
“Expensive jewellery?” I teased.
“Already got that.”
I turned, my arms circling her waist. “What is it that you want?”
Her head slowly came up so that her gaze met mine. The look on her face engraved itself in my soul. “All I want is you.”
No one had ever wanted just me before. I tended to be the consolatory prize for women wanting Xavier or Jordan since I was the boring accountant. Lucrezia was choosing me over both of them and that activated my possessive gene. I tugged her closer. “You already have me.”
A tiny triumphant smile curved her full lips. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “In that case, how about a quick dinner and a movie? I’ve never been to the cinema before.”
The more time I spent with Lucrezia, the more she surprised me. We had dinner in a small Mexican restaurant before heading to the cinema for her to pick whatever she wanted to watch. She filled a pick ’n mix bag with just about everything on the display stand and then ordered popcorn and drinks.
The guy behind the desk kept throwing her covert looks before I stepped in front of her and gave him my best death glare. If there hadn’t been a queue, I would have dragged him over the counter and punched him for the way he was looking at her.
She took such joy in everything, including settling herself in the cinema.
“You’ll be sick.” I nodded at her bag of gummy worms and cola bottles.
She grinned and held out the bag. “Want one?”
Rolling my eyes at her, I grabbed a worm and shoved it in my mouth. The weight of my responsibilities slowly lifted off me as we sat and ate crap while the trailers rolled past. She was burrowing deeper and deeper into my soul with every moment. If I didn’t find an escape route soon, I would never be able to let her go, and I didn’t know whether she would be my salvation or damnation.
***
Chapter Twenty
Lucrezia
I woke this morning to Ash’s cock moving in slow strokes deep inside me until my back arched and I screamed my release.
Now I sat with Xavier and Jordan glaring at me as if I’d eaten the last gummy bear. What the hell was up with everyone lately? “Can I make everyone tea?” I asked to diffuse the tension in the room. We were in the main living room in Ash’s townhouse, the sun cascading through the picture window to illuminate the bookshelves.
“Is he taking advantage of you?” Xavier demanded, his jaw so tight, I swear he was about to break a molar.
“Who?” I deliberately acted stupid.
Xavier moved his malignant stare to Ash.
A giggle broke free at his expression. “Seriously?” I laughed. “Ash is helping me with my business. That’s why Jordan has drawn up contracts because I feel so guilty about taking up so much of his time.”
Jordan gave an ominous growl that would make most people run.
“What?” I asked him. “Do you think Ash is pinning me to the wall and ravishing me?” That was exactly what he did this morning in the shower. I was counting down the days to not having to carry condoms everywhere.
Ash glanced up from his phone, and his lips twitched. “Would that be before or after breakfast?”
“Before. One cannot be ravished on a full stomach.”
Xavier rolled his eyes at us and looked away. “I’m just trying to look out for you and keep you safe.”
“So is Ash,” I pointed out. “Without him I wouldn’t have any stones, or a goldsmith, and he was the one who got me a space at the IJS. Does that sound like someone who is taking advantage of me?”
“You don’t understand the real world,” Xavier replied.
My back straightened and my inner feminist reared her head. “No, I don’t. Unfortunately, because I was born with a vagina, I was deemed incapable of making decisions or being treated like an adult in this family. Who I have sex with is nothing to do with you, Xavier. Are you going to list all the unfortunate women you have taken advantage of on one-night stands?”
“Lucy!”
“Fuck off, Xavier!” I was so angry I could slap him. To save myself the pain in my hand since he was solid muscle, I stormed out of the room and down the corridor to the kitchen. They may not want tea, but the act of making it would calm me down.
Several minutes and raised voices later, I heard the door slam to the townhouse. Strong arms surrounded my waist and Ash propped his chin on top of my head. “Xavier is taking a walk.”
Papa would be ashamed of my behaviour, but today I refused to apologise.
“Do you know, this is the first time they’ve been here,” Ash continued in idle conversation. “I normally used this house to sit and contemplate life in.”
I turned in the cradle of his arms. “Did I overreact?”
He shrugged. “I’ve seen worse. Jay killed a man once for bl
eeding on his boots.”
“Blood can be difficult to get out of leather.”
“So I hear.”
It was such a random conversation that it dragged me out of my temper tantrum. I gave him a tentative smile. “Sorry, I’ve run out of nerves for being treated like a child.”
“Zee’s heart is in the right place. You and your sisters are the closest thing he has to a sibling.”
“Is us being together really that bad?” I asked.
He stared out the window. “I don’t think so, but then Zee knows the man I used to be.”
Every opportunity Ash got he tried to make himself look bad or push me away. I refused to go because I had seen the man behind the mask and he was worth the risk.
“People change,” I said. “A few months ago I was hiding in the safe room in Tuscany and making jewellery far from where the world could see me. Now I have a business and a partner who helps me.”
His arms tightened slightly.
“Ash, you make me a stronger person and I want to believe that I do the same for you.”
He let out a shaky breath. “I’m not a good person, Angel. Blood taints my hands and darkness pollutes my soul. You need someone who can give you the life you deserve, not a life looking over your shoulder.”
“Ash…”
“Hear me out, Lucrezia. Do you want your children hidden behind a high wall the same as you have been?”
No, I didn’t, but that also didn’t mean that Ash would be the same as Papa. The way he treated me now already proved that. Ash showed me a level of respect that I’d never experienced before.
“Do you live behind a high wall?”
He reverted to his normal stony silence when he didn’t want to concede an argument. It gave me hope because he agreed with me, he just wouldn’t admit it.
The kettle started to boil in the background, breaking us out of our silent war of eyeballing each other. Ash stood with his hip braced against the counter and watched me moving around his kitchen. We’d gone shopping earlier and filled the cupboards with supplies that Ash didn’t have since he was rarely here.
I hadn’t made friends with his oven yet, so we’d bought cookies and cupcakes from a local bakery. It was only when Jordan spoke that I realised he’d joined us.
“This scene of domesticity would send Lucas hunting for his shotgun,” Jordan drawled.
My back straightened and I searched for the right words to rebuke him.
“Fuck off, Jay. She’s making tea unless you’d like to do it.”
I swallowed my comment since Ash had stepped in. A chair scraped across the tiled floor and Jordan sank into it.
“So what’s really going on?” he asked.
“Lucrezia is here to sort out arrangements for the jewellery show,” Ash replied dryly.
“Why is she staying here and why did none of the rest of us know she was coming?” Jordan continued to probe.
I slowly spun until I faced him, making eye contact. “There were three of you in the restaurant that day when I asked for help. Three of you came to Papa’s house and listened to my problem. Only one of you took the time to help.”
Jordan sat and stared at me in silence for several moments, assessing the situation. He eventually moved his attention to Ash. “Maybe I’ve misjudged you.”
I folded my arms. “Maybe you and Zee should apologise for being dicks,” I replied. “Ash has been there for me every step of the way, helping me.”
Jordan never looked anything other than confident, but right now he was uncomfortable. His jaw was tight and his brow furrowed. “You’re right, Lucy. You needed us and we weren’t there.”
I shrugged and returned to making tea. It was nothing new. Sofia was the brains of the family and Catarina was the looks. I was merely the obedient one who sat when she was told and smiled on instruction. That obedience was beginning to ebb away as a rebellion mounted inside me.
“Just leave it, Jay. Everything is sorted,” Ash said.
“Which brings me to the contract,” Jay replied, pushing his fingers through his hair. “Why do you really want one?”
“I told you. If I’m going to do this, then I want to do it right. Ash has put a lot of capital on the table and he needs reimbursed for that. Maybe it’ll take a year or so or sooner for him to be repaid, but I refuse to be a charity case.”
“Our contracts bind you to that person in business until a mutual agreement is reached to buy the other person out or they can close the entire thing down.” Jordan continued to watch me with that eerie calm that saw everything.
I turned to Ash with a sigh. “Are you planning on ripping me off or closing my business?”
His lips twitched. “If I closed it down then I wouldn’t get a return on my investment. I didn’t want this contract, you did.”
I put my hands on my hips and glared at Jordan. “So as an independent officer of the law, what do you suggest?”
A wicked grin appeared on his face. “I can’t represent you since I’m already in business with him.” He nodded at Ash.
“Is that what you’re going to tell Papa?”
The grin disappeared off his face. “We’re businessmen, Lucy. Our contracts are designed to protect us from unscrupulous people. If you both want, I’ll make a more flexible contract.”
I shrugged, tired of the conversation. “I don’t care. Considering that he helped me of his own free will and has never asked for anything back in compensation, I’d say I can trust Ash.”
“Are you making coffee?” Jordan asked.
“Nope, I prefer tea.” Normally his question would have pre-empted me to put the kettle on again to make coffee. I could almost feel his eyes boring into me, so I faced him with a fake smile on my lips. “Cookie?”
Jordan narrowed his eyes at Ash. “What have you done to Lucrezia?”
His laugh soothed my tattered nerves. “Nothing. Maybe you just didn’t see her before.”
Lifting my mug of tea and a cookie, I left the men in the kitchen to fend for themselves. Xavier was in the living room, staring out the window. He spun around when I walked in.
“Uncle Lucas trusts me to protect you and your sisters. Ash is my oldest friend, so I know him better than anyone else in the world.”
I held my hand up to stop him. “I’ve heard this lecture from Ash, so you can save it. He tortures himself enough without any help from the rest of us. I know he considers himself damned because of his father and not good enough to be anywhere near me. Does that cover it or is there some other heinous act you want to bring to my attention?” I dunked the cookie into my tea before biting into it.
“No, I think that covers it.”
“Great. Now, can I go to my room, or would you like to search it for any unsuitable males lurking under the bed?”
“Lucy, be reasonable.”
“No, Zee, put yourself into my shoes and tell me the way you’re treating me is fair.”
He glared at me and his arms came up to fold over his broad chest. I refused to look away or sit demurely as I had in the past. If Ash could treat me like an equal, then my cousin could as well.
“When did you grow up?” he finally said.
“We’ve all grown up, Zee. Papa can’t keep us locked away forever. Catarina is already rebelling, Sofia is at university. All I want is to be allowed to create a business doing what I love. Is that too much to ask?”
He slowly shook his head. “No. It was something I tried to discuss with Uncle Lucas a few years ago and he shot me down.”
I took a step forward. “Ash is the first person who took the time to listen to my dreams. He helped me when I had no one else to turn to. Please don’t spoil this for me.”
Xavier moved to me, his arm engulfing my head to hug me. I gripped my mug tighter. “I’ll do my best with Uncle Lucas, but I can’t promise anything.”
“Thank you.” I rested my head against him. “Are you coming to the show?”
He released me to smile down at me. �
��I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
I wiped away the tear that escaped and gave him a shaky return smile.
“Can we come in?” Jordan asked from the doorway.
“Yeah, Lucrezia was getting crumbs on me anyway,” Xavier replied. “She was just about to tell us all about her plans for the show. We’ll need extra security on site and some eyes in there before hand.”
“On it,” Jordan said. “I’ll make sure to add it to my personal list. Have you considered tagging your pieces so no one tries to exchange or steal them?”
My eyes widened in horror. “Who would do that?”
“It’s a jewellery show with lots of rare and expensive diamonds on display.” Jordan shook his head at me in disgust. “It’s the perfect place for con men and thieves. Tagging your more expensive pieces will ensure we know where they are.”
I shot a look at Ash. “Are they always like this?”
“I’m afraid so. You have several million pounds worth of stones sitting upstairs. I probably should have activated the alarms earlier when we went shopping.” He flashed a wry smile that made my heart skip a beat.
“I need coffee,” Jordan snapped. “Or a glass of something stronger. Whatever I can find first in that kitchen. When did you buy this place?”
Ash shrugged. “A few years ago when I was sorting out a property for Mum in the area. It made financial sense.”
I knew Ash well enough to know this wasn’t an investment. Until I came along, this had been where he hid from the world when his demons became too much to fight.
“There’s a bottle of Papa’s scotch in the second cupboard to the right when you go into the kitchen,” I said automatically.
Jordan rolled his eyes at Ash. “First they take over the kitchen. Next thing you know your house will be invaded with cushions like Xavier’s apartment. Then comes the colourful knick-knacks with no purpose.”
Ash smiled and sat back in his chair. “The place could do with a little colour.”
The guys fell into chatting about security and I slowly relaxed, leaving them a while later to go and organise my designs on the velvet-lined table upstairs. I tied my hair in a messy bun and put my special magnifying glasses on to twist some of the thin golden fibres into a spider’s web.