“You were here, and then you weren’t. And then… then some monster…”
“I know! I saw!”
As the volume in his voice filled the room, I felt myself sinking into his arms, even though they were the last place in which I could or should hide. But I was powerless to break free of his grip as he sat me on the edge of the mattress.
“Now just calm down,” he cajoled me.
Without wanting to, I followed his orders. He released my back, and once again I thought of running. But even that idea was no longer a sure option of freedom. So what if Peter had dispatched the stranger? The man could still be lying in wait to capture me again and make me pay for his humiliation. I was trapped in more ways than one when Peter knelt at my side and covered both of my wrists in a single palm. I whimpered at the first feel of his touch, and he crept closer and ran his fingers down my cheek.
“The last thing I would ever want is to see you hurt,” he insisted. “I never should have left you.”
“Then… then why did you?”
Peter turned his head and simply shrugged his shoulders.
“Wanted to surprise you with some breakfast,” he said. “Not much of a cook. But I have a gold card.”
He waggled his eyebrows as he spoke. It would be so easy to forget and just hold him again. But the memory of the stranger’s hands still clung to my flesh like a grimy film. No way could I get back to the door. Even on his knees, Peter still loomed too large before me. But I couldn’t go back to his arms. Maybe I never should have found my way there in the first place. His hold seemed inviting, but I cowered when his fingers touched my hair and I crawled back to the pillows.
With no other choice, I hid under the sheets and pictured myself shrinking to the point where I became invisible. Not that I wanted to lose him or what he thought he was. But there was no way that I could con myself into believing that this was just a bad dream. The feel of the kitchen knife in my hand was still too real, and I stared at my fingers under the sheets. Would I have really killed him if the knife had found its way to the stranger’s heart? Shuddering at the thought, I tensed at the feel of Peter crawling into the bed. He turned me to my back and pulled the sheets from my face.
“Don’t!” I cried as he pulled the gun from his pants. “Please don’t shoot me!”
“Of course not, Caroline. What do you think I am?” he crooned. “I’m just setting it aside.”
He followed the words with the deed, but I still whimpered
“Caroline?”
My eyes closed again as his hand pressed against my cheek.
“Please don’t be afraid of me,” he implored. “I’m so sorry he was here.”
“Who was he? And how did he get in?” I asked as I started to melt into the hot, hard feel of his fingers.
“No one who’s ever going to bother you again,” he promised. “Not as long as I’m breathing.”
Lifting my lids, I studied his face. The anguish in his eyes betrayed his smile. As much as I wanted to hold him and put his fears to rest, I had seen too much. Maybe he could keep me safe through the space of the days when he was able to draw breath. But had he been weaker or slower on his feet, then today might have been his last.
“What happens when you can’t…?”
I started to struggle away from him when he gripped my arms. The force of his hold mingled with unspoken tenderness as he pulled me to his chest and held me tight.
“That’s never happening,” he whispered into my hair. “Because I’m the man that’s going to keep you close. All you have to do is believe that.”
When he kissed my neck and pushed his palm into the small of my back, I nearly relaxed. I almost believed him. His touch passed my sides and stroked my quivering legs. With nowhere else to go, I wrapped my legs around him as he kept kissing my hair and caressing my nervous arms.
“So you can stay with me,” he continued. “I want you to.”
My mouth nearly smiled in agreement when he gently eased me from his side and met my lips. I started to savor his kiss, my arms around his back, when I flashed back to other hands touching where they shouldn’t.
“What if I don’t want to?” I whispered.
Even before I could push him back, Peter caught my cue and found my eyes. His stare was kind and confused as he tried to touch my face, but I backed away from his hand, ready for him to grab my hair and pull my face back to his.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t want to see you scared.”
It was too late for that.
Peter relinquished some of his hold, and I eased my body from his, my knees to my chest as I wrapped my arms around my legs. He started to reach for me when I turned my head into my shoulder and sobbed softly. If he could push a gun into a man’s back, then maybe he was capable of anything. Should I try to make nice with him in the hope of saving my own skin?
I looked into his eyes again.
“There she is,” he murmured. “Good to see you back.”
Keeping my gaze on his, I saw him starting towards me, but when I flinched, he slid back to the edge of the bed and held his hands out where I could see them.
“Not until you’re ready,” he swore. “I… I know it must have been awful for you.”
“Awful? Awful?” I asked as I dropped my arms and stared him down. “A little more than that, Peter.”
“Caroline… I didn’t mean…”
He crawled forward, no doubt wanting to hold me again. But as he drew nearer, I forced myself to forget the warmth of his embrace. I felt nothing but cold hands, heard nothing but the stranger’s harsh voice. I saw nothing but the real knife that would had sliced me wide open if the man had had the chance. Had Peter saved me? Sure. But that didn’t explain…
“How do you know him?” I asked.
“I don’t know what…”
“And don’t lie to me!” I spat as I cut him off. “All that talk of how you never called him. But he thought that you needed him. Now why would he think that?”
“Don’t do this to yourself, Caroline,” he said. “You don’t want to know…”
As soon as he was close enough to touch, I tensed my palm and slapped him hard. Peter winced under my blow, but he didn’t move away. Watching him try to recover, I waited until he returned to the place where he could meet my eyes, and as soon as he was there, I pushed past the sheets and grabbed his face.
“What I want is to know who you really are,” I insisted. “Because you haven’t been straight with me so far. And I think that I…”
“Caroline, I just…” Peter interrupted.
“I think that I deserve to know…”
Gasping at the sight of Peter moving to his knees, I shrunk back at the feel of him hovering over me. There was a darkness in his stare, a look that could kill and it sent a shiver up my spine. He could still hurt me now. And again I pictured the stranger still lying in wait to cart my limp form away. But Peter touched my cheek, his hand gentle as my hair poured between his fingers.
“Of course you do,” he said. “And I want to tell you everything.”
My heart lifted in the hope that he was about to show me something behind his hard curtain, and I pressed my hand to his chest. Peter sighed as his fingers curled around mine. I started to settle into his hold, my eyes on his mouth as I waited for him to speak. But even as his lips parted, there was nothing but silence. I could give him the benefit of some doubt for the moment. But forever was a different story.
“Then just tell me,” I pleaded. “Who are you?”
Peter hung his head, and I sighed at the sight of his lean neck just waiting for my hands. I was about to touch him when he lifted his eyes to mine.
“I’m the same man that you met on the balcony,” he smiled.
“Peter, don’t do that.”
I started to twist away from him when he caught me in his arms and forced my body close to his chest.
“What are you doing? Just tell me who you are!” I demanded.
<
br /> “I don’t want to hurt you,” he swore. “That’s the last thing that I would ever want to do…”
“But he was here!” I said as I cut him off. “Some strange, scarred man with a knife. Do you know what he was going to do to me? Do you?”
“I get it, okay!” he screamed as he pulled away from me in frustration. I thought that he would move back to the edge of the bed, but he pushed closer to me and stroked my face.
“I’ll tell you what I can,” he said. “Will that be enough?”
I waited without nodding as his shoulders sagged. My fingers danced close to his face, but before I could touch his cheeks, he lifted his eyes and met my gaze.
“I’ve had to do some things that I’m not proud of,” he started. “Territory comes with some questionable characters. And the less you know about it the safer you will be. I can’t tell you any more than that.”
After seeing the man in the flesh and his scar, the bit about the questionable characters was an understatement.
“But I never wanted you to be involved.” he said. “And I never invited him into my home. Not on this night, this day.”
Peter’s eyes fell shut, and I felt the heat of his breath as he moved close to kiss me. His lips were almost on mine when I shifted away from him and shook my head.
“It still happened,” I started. “And I could have been hurt. Don’t you understand that?”
“Caroline...” he groaned.
He made his move, and I felt faint as his lips felt warm and sighed against mine. I started to sink into his kiss, his arms strong as they folded around my body. But there was too much that was still unspoken. Part of me wanted to hear the whole story and even give him a chance to explain. But what happened then? From the start, I had sensed that the man had secrets, and if I fell into the space of his shadows, would there ever be any way of getting out? Would I even want to?
“I… I don’t know if I can…”
“Just let me take care of you,” he said. “I can do it. I just need the chance.”
Could I let him? I liked the feel of his mouth, loved the feel of his arm as it fell across my back and pulled me closer. Feeling the pounding of his heart, I started to imagine a world where I could just live in his arms and never ask another question. The feel of his flesh was so smooth against my hands. I could give him the chance. Maybe he even deserved it.
“Oh, Peter,” I sighed.
My hands tugged at his shirt, and I pulled hard, wanting nothing more than to see his rippling muscles and to feel every inch of his hardness. As soon as his shirt was off his back, I started to kiss his pecs, my hands moving towards his waist. The leather of his belt hit my fingers, and I started to let it loose, his jeans slipping away from his thighs.
And then I gasped as I surveyed the wreckage.
“You’re… you’re hurt,” I murmured.
He followed the line of my eyes and met my hands as I touched his battered shin. The flesh was already discolored, and when I dared to push past his fingers and touch his skin, he winced under my touch.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“It’s really nothing,” he tried to assure me. “Caroline, I…”
I shook my head as I kept his hand on my leg.
“But it’s not nothing,” I started. “There are things that you’re still not telling me. Don’t you… don’t you trust me?”
Our eyes locked, and Peter quickly nodded his head as he tried to take my face in his hands.
“Of course I do,” he said. “But it’s… it’s all in the past. And you don’t want to know, really you don’t.”
“I’m not sure if I believe you.”
“I’m telling you that it’s all in the past and nothing for you to worry about,” Peter said firmly.
He kissed me again, and I sighed at the feel of his hands roaming over my naked frame. His fingers pushed between my legs, and I sighed as he touched my soft folds. But now there was no push. He just grazed his short nails against my soft flesh. I still moaned when he touched me there, and he suddenly cradled my head with the back of his hand as he brought his eyes back to mine, his breath hot and heavy as it poured across my face.
“Tell me you’ll stay,” he whispered. “I only want that. I want to keep you close.”
I started to curl closer to his side, forgetting everything, just ready to accept his offer when I pictured the most recent scene repeating itself time and time again.
“No,” I said. “I’m sorry but I don’t think that I can.”
His lips were at my breasts, and as he suckled my soft flesh, I arched my back and whined into the air. It should have come out as a scream for him to stop. Whatever he was into, whoever he was, a darkness suddenly mingled with the sunlight passing through the window. And yet my skin tingled at the feel of his mouth racing down my legs, his fingers kneading my limbs as he moaned into my middle. With trembling arms, I started to act without thinking, ready to embrace his broad back when my eyes opened wide and I shook my head against the pillows.
“No,” I whispered. “This won’t work.”
“Don’t talk, Caroline,” he implored as his hands grabbed my hair and he tried to steady my quivering face. “Just let me make love to you.”
“No, I don’t want this,” I managed. “It’s too much. Too much that I don’t understand.”
“But I’m telling you that it won’t happen again,” Peter said with an impatient sigh. “Why won’t you believe me?”
“Damn right it won’t happen again. Because I’m not staying. Now… now will you please just let me go?”
My lips trembled around the words, and I bit my lip as a stony expression crossed his stubbled face. He pressed his hands into my shoulders, and my heart swelled with fear at the thought that I had made the wrong call. His sweet words and sweeter touch aside, I had evidence that he could be brutal, bordering on lethal if he was contradicted. And here I was, a captive under his chest. Would he do anything to keep me from leaving? Even…
“You look so scared,” he finally said with a soft frown. “That’s not how I want to see you - painted or in the flesh.”
Rolling away from me, he sat on the edge of the bed with his shoulders slumped. Was it really that easy to cut and run? A part of me wondered why he wasn’t fighting harder to keep me close. But I couldn’t waste another moment second guessing his change of heart. Sliding off the bed, I collected the discarded Missoni in my shaking arms and dressed quickly. Fully clothed again, I started to leave the room.
“Caroline?”
The sound of my name leaving his lips caused me to stop in my tracks, and I barely looked over my shoulder as he pressed his palms to the bed and stared up at me.
“If I explained all of it,” he said, “would that put your mind at ease?”
His version of a peace offering was beyond tempting. As much as I wanted to flee, my arms still ached to hold him, to feel his lips back on my body. Maybe the other side of the story was far less complicated than it looked. Maybe the stranger was a bi-product of a past from which he was disentangling himself. Did he deserve a second chance? Was I strong enough to give it to him?
“Well?” he asked.
I started back into the room, my hand outstretched to touch him. But as soon as my fingers grazed against the edge of his cheeks, I swiftly drew my hand back and shook my head again.
“I can’t,” I said sadly. “It’s too much. I’m… I’m sorry.”
Turning on my heel, I couldn’t bear to meet his eyes again as I hurried out into the light of day, never looking back as tears of pain and confusion streamed down my flushed face.
Chapter Four
“Hey! What… what the hell happened to you?”
I had hailed a cab, and it had taken me two tries to choke out a destination. Knowing what my father would say and how he would act, a part of me fearing that he might connect the dots and send someone after Peter to cause him further harm, I finally managed to mutter Sabrina’s address and
folded my knees to my chest. The driver cast me a quick look before shrugging his shoulders and simply pulling the car away from the curb.
As soon as he made the move, I found my eyes glancing out the back window, half-expecting to see Peter charging out of his brownstone with his fists flailing and a renewed rage in his eyes. I could almost feel him banging on the cab doors and forcing them open as he pulled my limp body from the leather seat and dragged me back to his stoop. Would the driver climb from behind his wheel and try to assist me in my moment of distress? Or would he just hit the gas and get the hell out before he got mixed up in the scene?
But as we turned the corner, there was no sign of Peter. I found myself still looking behind for several blocks. Could he be summoning Brett, ready to hop in the car that brought me to his door and track me down that way? It seemed more his style; why run when he could ride? My heart caught in my throat when I swore that it was Brett’s car following close behind, but as the cabbie zigged, the other car zagged. He wasn’t coming after me. Sure it was my choice to leave. But I still sort of hoped…
“Caroline? Answer me,” Sabrina demanded.
The look in Sabrina’s eyes was far superior to any mirror. Even without her questioning stare, I knew that I looked a mess. I wanted to tell her everything that had happened, but as soon as I opened my mouth, nothing but a ragged sob came out.
“Jesus Christ,” Sabrina murmured.
Now it would come. The ‘I told you so’. She had warned me against the night with Peter. The night wasn’t the problem; the night was everything that I had ever wanted with a man and more. But the morning…
“Come on,” Sabrina said as she folded her arm around my shoulders and led me towards her bedroom. Leaning against her to keep from falling, I managed a few steps on wobbly legs until she had me at her bed and eased my body to the mattress.
“Whatever that jerk did, there’s no sense in crying about it. Unless… Caroline?”
Kneeling before me, she took my hands in hers and gently pushed my chin away from my heaving chest.
“Did that creep put his hands on you?”
Nothing wrong with that.
“Bree, I just want to forget about it…”
The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set Page 10