Darkest Sin

by Ashton Blackthorne

  Amber eyed me worriedly as I hopped on the elevator.

  Del Frisco’s was as crowded as I expected it would be. Getting a table here is nearly impossible, but they always manage to work me in. It was the place in Manhattan to power lunch. Everyone who was anyone on Wall Street came here.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Blackthorne. Let me show you to your table.” The attractive blonde hostess led me to a corner table. It was where I liked to sit when I was discussing business.

  Handing me a leather backed menu, she poured me a glass of Pellegrino.

  “How’s business going, Mr. Blackthorne? I’m assuming quite well as usual.”

  I winked at her. She was quite pretty though a bit too young for my taste. She couldn’t have been more than twenty. I usually steered clear of women under twenty five. Younger women tended to expect more in terms of commitment than I was willing to give. Career oriented women over thirty tended to be safer. They appreciated a man who could give them what they needed without messy strings attached.

  “Business is great. Let Paulo know I’m here please and send him out when my party arrives.” I pressed a hundred dollar bill into her palm.

  She nodded and smiled, pleased with the large tip. Paulo was the waiter who took care of me every time I dined at Del Frisco’s.

  As I glanced through the menu, a stocky older gentleman in an outdated suit stopped at my table.

  “Well Ashton, this better be good. I had another lunch meeting scheduled at Crusoe’s.”

  Inwardly I rolled my eyes. No one over the age of sixty ever lunched at Crusoe’s except those who couldn’t get into the better restaurants. I glanced up at Martin who was easily approaching seventy.

  No wonder.

  “Martin, pleasure to see you. Have a seat. Take a look at the menu. I’m going to go with the filet myself, but the salmon is excellent as well.”

  Martin tossed the menu down.

  “You know I’m not interested in how good the food is here. You called me down here, so what is it you’re wanting?”

  Paulo marched up to the table with a tray holding two glasses and a bottle of Macallan.

  Placing the glasses in front of us, he poured them half full. Martin’s eyes drifted down to the liquor briefly before downing the whole glass and motioning for another.

  I merely sipped mine as I watched him.

  “Wow, this early in the day. I’m impressed.”

  Martin leaned back and sighed.

  “Spare me. Just because your father and I went way back doesn’t mean you and I are friends. Let’s get to the point.” He looked at his Rolex.

  “Do you have somewhere else to be?” I asked my voice thick with irritation.

  “Just golf at 2:00.”

  More like a nap at 2:00.

  My father and Martin had done business together for years. He was a slick old bastard as my father liked to say. My father never trusted him and neither did I. Still, I thought he may be behind the stock buy out at Vitalife.

  “Vitalife,” I uttered one word as I watched his reaction carefully.

  Martin shrugged.

  “What about it?”

  Paulo placed a cup of lobster bisque in front of me.

  I nodded to him as I paused to take a mouthful of the delicious soup.

  Deliberately, I swallowed and blotted my mouth with cloth napkin.

  “Someone bought several million dollars’ worth of shares yesterday.”

  Martin’s gray eyes flickered with a hint of interest.

  “So what? People buy and trade stocks every day. This is Wall Street, Ashton. I thought you went to Harvard you should know that unless your father bought your degree for you.”

  I eyed him with distaste as I finished my soup.

  “You know me better than anyone else on Wall Street because you knew my father. Only you would know how much I wanted to buy that company.”

  Martin finished his third glass of scotch. The old guy would be wasted by the time lunch was finished. He would never make that golf game. He’d pass out in the cab on the way home.

  Martin took a bit of his salmon.

  “You lend your interests more importance than they deserve. Why would I be targeting Vitalife?”

  I tore into my filet and viciously stabbed a piece and brought it to my mouth.

  “You know as well as I do Vitalife was going under. They were the only company in the world trying to manufacture this particular drug that successfully alleviates the pain of several types of cancer specifically pancreatic.”

  Martin smiled and nodded.

  “The cancer that killed your father.”

  “Yes.”

  “So that company not only stands to make you billions it could help people like your father.”

  “You got it.”

  Martin finished his salmon and tossed his cloth napkin down.

  “Ashton, I wish I could help you, but I don’t have the faintest idea of what you’re talking about. Vitalife wasn’t on my radar.”

  I was sick of fucking around with this guy.

  “The company that bought those shares goes by the name of H.L.’s Dream, LLC. And that happens to be the name of your yacht. Coincidence? I don’t think so.”

  Martin templed his fingers together beneath his chin.

  “Perhaps my company did buy those shares, but it wasn’t my idea.”

  I gripped the table as I glared at him.

  “Then whose was it?”

  “I’m not at liberty to discuss this further. If you need more information, you may contact my attorney.” Martin tossed a business card at me.

  I tore it in half and threw it on the table.

  “Bullshit, Martin! Cut the crap. Sell me back those shares!”

  He laughed.

  “Why the hell would I do that?”

  “Better check your own stock. Eagle has a new major stockholder.” His company, Eagle Enterprises was a decades-old fixture on Wall Street.

  Martin’s eyes widened with rage.

  “What the hell did you do?”

  I shrugged smiling.

  “Nothing except beat you at your own game. Sell me back my shares and I will make sure you get your shares in Eagle back.”

  Martin grimaced.

  “All right, Ashton. Consider it done. But there’s just one thing.”

  “What’s that, Martin?”

  “My company may have bought those shares, but I sold them an hour ago.”

  “Who did you sell them to?”

  Martin wobbled as he stood up.

  “I haven’t the faintest idea. Wish I could help you, but you said if I sold those shares you’d give me back mine. Well, they’ve already been sold.”

  “I meant to me, asshole.”

  Martin slipped his suit jacket on buttoning it.

  “I can’t give you what I don’t have. But check out the company-RJ Investments I believe was the name.”

  “Wait a minute. Why the hell did you buy the shares then sell them? They weren’t worth anything yet.”

  “Ask RJ Investments. Now, Ashton, I do have to be going. The salmon was delicious as you said it would be.”

  I slammed my fist on the table.

  Who the hell was RJ Investments?

  Four

  Ash

  The morning was eerily quiet in the huge house. The little boy rubbed his eyes as he awoke to the cold morning. He slid out of bed and stumbled over to the large bay window in his room. The window bench was padded and covered in toys and stuffed animals.

  Suddenly, he heard a car door slam. That was odd as it was quite early. His father was away on business and his mother never got out of bed before noon on Saturday. Dora was downstairs fixing breakfast for him as he could smell the bacon frying in the pan.

  Pressing his face to the glass, he breathed on it delighting in making his breath appear then wiping the moisture away. Snow was softly falling, the sky thick with gray clouds.

  Then his mother appeared carrying
two large suitcases. The car wasn’t hers. It was long and black like the kind his father used when he was leaving for the airport.

  Where was she going?

  The driver dressed in black came around to load the suitcases into the trunk. His mother was wearing a soft blue cashmere coat. Her long hair was pinned up. She looked beautiful as always.

  But she hadn’t told him goodbye.

  Dora was racing outside to speak with his mother. They spoke so low he couldn’t hear. The little boy struggled to push his window open. It opened with a loud crack causing both women to look up.

  “You can’t leave, Mrs. Blackthorne, you just can’t. What about Ashton? Does he even know?” Dora’s voice rose with anger. The small round elderly woman served not only as a housekeeper, but as Ashton’s nanny.

  “He’s too young to understand, Dora. Besides what I do is my business. I will call him later. Now I have a flight to catch.”

  Dora glanced up at him with tears in her eyes. She wrung her hands against her cloth apron. She seemed to be pleading with him for something but he couldn’t understand what was going on.

  His mother shoved Dora aside as she hopped into the long black car.

  Tears began welling in his eyes as he struggled for one last glimpse of his mother and yet, he was denied that as the windows of the car were tinted. He watched the car slowly drive down the private road with his face and hands pressed against cold glass tears pouring down his little face.

  His mommy was leaving.

  And she was never coming back.

  She’d left him like a broken toy forgotten on the shelf.

  His heart ached as he sat there the rest of the day never moving from that spot. Dora tried repeatedly to get him to play, to eat, anything to move from the window seat. But he sat there until he fell asleep late that night.

  She’d promised Dora she’d call.

  But she didn’t.

  That was the last time he ever saw or heard from his mother.

  Fuming from my lunch with Martin, I sped back to my office. As soon as I walked in, Amber was standing in front of my office with a smug smile on her beautiful face holding a blue folder.

  “How was lunch, Ash?”

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

  “Don’t ask. That slick old bastard pulled a fast one.”

  “So he was the one behind buying the shares of Vitalife?”

  I walked past her and sat down at my desk.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you get him to sell you the shares back?”

  “He said he doesn’t have them anymore.”

  Amber grinned and handed me the folder.

  “Let me guess…he sold them to RJ Investments.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Please, you know how. Right after you left Jeremy came storming into your office demanding to know who was behind RJ Investments. I did a little digging and turned up with this.”

  I opened the folder glancing over the documents.

  “Ronald James? How did you—“

  “—get this? Did you forget? I’m Amber. I can get anything.” She tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

  I dropped the folder smiling at her. Like I said, she was the best.

  “Ronald James. How do I know him?” I mused aloud thinking.

  Oh my God…

  “Veronica.” Both Amber and I said in unison.

  “Ash,” Amber whispered her hand flying to her mouth.

  I nodded closing my eyes briefly feeling the rage rising within me.

  “I need—“

  “—a minute?” Amber looked at me her eyes full of understanding.

  “Yes. Hold all my calls and keep Jeremy out of my office.”

  Amber smiled sympathetically and nodded closing the door.

  Veronica James. The most beautiful, intelligent, charming, and wonderful woman I’d ever met.

  And the most infuriating.

  I slammed my fist so hard on the desk the glass top cracked. Wrapping a tissue around my bleeding hand, I gazed out the window at the New York skyline.

  How could Veronica do this to me? Closing my eyes, I knew better than to ask myself that.

  Of course, it was Veronica. She knew me better than Amber. Better than I knew myself.

  It was a crisp fall day. The trees were bursting with color-red, gold, and orange leaves which rained down as the cool autumn wind whipped through them.

  It was my first year of Harvard Business School. I had just graduated in the spring and had spent the summer interning at my father, Ashler Blackthorne’s firm.

  My father was also a Harvard grad. After completing business school, he had taken the small real estate firm he’d purchased and built it into an empire. Growing up in a wealthy home, I was accustomed to the finer things. I had had a nanny, Dora, who I adored. My mother, Debra left when I was very young to be with another man leaving deep scars within me.

  I never heard from her again.

  My father had many girlfriends over the years, but I’d forgotten most of them except one.

  Rita.

  She was a stunning woman, a former model my father adored. He had hoped that Rita would be like a mother to me. Rita had a daughter who was three years older than me. But one day my father and Rita got into a terrible fight and I never saw Rita or her daughter again.

  Except for that one time.

  One fateful time….

  After that night, I was again left alone with my father.

  My father and I became very close after that. He started introducing me to the business world teaching many of the finer points of investing and growing a business. He was grooming me to attend Harvard as he had and to take over his business someday.

  I had the typical college experience joining a fraternity and partying. I traveled the world on summer breaks meeting and enjoying many different women.

  But this year was different. After a summer of working instead of traveling, I had discovered that I didn’t wish to follow my father into the real estate business. I wanted to be an investment banker and have my own investment firm.

  I was starting the fall ready to be serious. The time for partying like an immature brat was over. I planned to have fun, but it was time to think of the future.

  Walking into the crowded auditorium, I took a seat ready to begin the path to my professional life.

  “Do you have an extra pen? I forgot mine.” The most sensual, throaty voice I’d ever heard whispered.

  I turned to my right. There sat the most incredibly beautiful woman I’d ever seen. (And mind you, I’d traveled the world). She had long silky hair like spun gold. Her eyes were an incredible shade of blue that reminded me of the Caribbean. Her face was divinely sculpted as if by Michelangelo himself. Her lips were shiny with a touch of pink gloss sensual and full. Her long legs were luscious as her high heel shoe dangled from her foot. Her breasts were luscious, clearly evident in her tight pink sweater.

  I scrambled looking through my backpack.

  “Here.” I handed her the pen. Our fingers touched and I felt as though I’d been shocked.

  “Thanks.” She flashed her beautiful smile at me. My heart thudded. No one woman had ever had this effect on me before. I was usually calm and collected around women. I’d always had my pick. But this woman was different.

  Her name was Veronica.

  She winked at me and I felt faint. As the class went on, I noticed her giving me several shy glances. I’d been told by many women how attractive I am. The classic tall, dark and handsome with a well-toned body.

  Since we shared many classes, we began studying together. Harvard Business School was quite grueling even for the best students, so we ended up sharing many long nights together.

  Many hot nights…

  Glancing outside, I saw how dark it had become. Amber was still at her desk working. Everyone else had gone home. I looked down at the name Ronald James. Veronica’s father.

  Damn Veronica. />
  It was our first anniversary. I could tell from the way Veronica acted she thought I’d forgotten. It was a special day to me too and there was no way I’d ever forget it.

  Over the past year, not only had Veronica and I had incredibly hot, sexy times, but she’d become much more to me than just another conquest. I looked forward to seeing her every day, walking to class with her, even just sitting around her small Boston apartment binge watching TV. Ever since we’d been together, I barely glanced at other women. They couldn’t compare to her.

  I’d been planning a special night at my beach house in Hyannis. I’d commissioned construction on a very special room. For weeks, I’d kept Veronica away from my house as contractors worked night and day.

  Tonight was the night I’d not only pledge my devotion to her, but I would unveil my secret passions, desires and cravings to her.

  My desire to keep her as my submissive.

  Veronica knew I liked to play ‘spanking’ games, but she had no idea how dark my desires really were.

  And tonight she would get the first taste of what being my submissive would entail.

  Veronica’s blue eyes followed me. She watched as I walked over to the wall where I kept my whips, floggers, and riding crop hung. Her eyes widened as I selected my favorite riding crop. It was made of the finest leather and all black. I ran my hand up and down the length.

  “Ash, what are you going to do with that?” Her voice shook as I approached her, crop in hand.

  “You really didn’t think I had a dungeon constructed in my house just for show, did you? I want to enjoy playing in here with you. I think you will enjoy it as well.”

  Veronica’s face turned pale. She looked at me with wide, frightened eyes.

  “Are you serious? Are you some kind of sadist?”

  I shrugged, enjoying her apprehension.

  “You might say that, but I’m really more of a Dom.”

  “Dom?” Veronica looked confused.

  “Dominant. I enjoy taking control.” With that, I grabbed her by the back of the neck. She leaned forward her long blonde hair spilled over my hand. I could smell the intoxicating scent of her perfume. She shook beneath my grip. I could hear her breath coming harder and faster. I sensed her excitement.