“Yes. It’s her choice. No one else’s,” he said.
Lowering my arms, I watched Danny’s head bob as a chorus of yeses poured out of his lips.
“Okay then. We’ll see you soon.”
He ended the call with first a proud smile and then a goofy grin.
“So… so is he really coming?” I nervously asked.
“Like he could stay away.”
I started to fall into Danny when he held me back and shook his head.
“Get pretty, Caroline.”
“Why? If he wants me, he wants me. However I might look.”
“But I only paint goddesses,” Danny said seriously.
Bowing my head with a conciliatory smile, I stood up straight and glanced towards his bedroom.
“Have I got time for a quick shower?” I asked.
“Sure, that would be a start.”
“And then what? You want me au naturel?” I asked.
Danny seemed tempted by the suggestion, but then he clapped his hands together.
“I’ve got a much better idea,” he said excitedly.
Chapter Six
“I look ridiculous,” I grumbled.
Once I was clean and dried, I stepped back to Danny’s canvases without a stitch of clothing and no makeup. He deemed it a perfect look as he twisted my hair atop my head and gently kissed my neck.
“Let’s put the point on it,” he said.
Waiting and trusting him, he draped a silk scarf around my breasts and a matching piece of fabric between my legs.
“I look like I’m trying to survive on a desert island or something,” I complained.
“Your lines are perfect, Caroline. I’ve always loved painting them.”
“But this looks like I’m trying to hide something. And I’m…” I started.
“Now she shows her true feelings for the high roller,” Danny laughed.
I blushed under the weight of Danny’s words, but before I returned to the stool, he took note of my discomfort and revealed all of my flesh again.
“But just in case it goes bad, you have to have some protection,” he added.
Danny covered me with a sheet and pushed the silk to the small of my back.
“Give him a taste,” Danny said. “And give me something to work with while we wait.”
“Time is money,” I said with a grin.
“And who knows? Maybe I’ll get another masterpiece out of this.”
Danny smiled as he sketched, and I stared at my hands as I kept my ear turned towards the door. He said he was coming. He’d have to at least be kind of curious to see what had happened to me. Shuddering at the sound of a door opening and closing somewhere, Latin rhythms filled the air, and I rolled my eyes towards Danny.
“Does Alonzo only have that one track ready to play?”
Danny bounced to the beat as his hand danced across the page.
“It is kind of catchy,” he confessed. “I’m used to it by now. Aren’t you?”
That was part of the problem. In no way was it a distasteful tune, but the thought of having to live with it as I hid behind Danny’s closed door and lurked in shadows for the rest of my life was not in my plan. Glancing at the clock, the minute hand made its rounds again and again. Assuming that Peter was home when he received the call or racing through city blocks in Brett’s stealth car, his return was taking far too long. And he would have told Danny if he couldn’t get to the studio in a matter of minutes. So what was he doing? Torturing me by making me wait? If so, mission accomplished. And maybe I deserved that and more. But his absence was starting to hurt, and I tapped my bare toes to the stool, my leg quivering until Danny left his pad and steadied my shoulders.
“Calm down,” he said. “Your man is coming.”
“You sound so sure,” I said uncertainly.
“I heard his voice,” Danny continued. “He… he sounded like…”
“Like what?” I asked as my fingers moved past his and gripped the end of his brush. He started to pull away, but my hold was tight as I forced his gaze to mine.
“Is it just a joke?” I said.
“Caroline, you know I would never do that to you!”
“Fine! But did he even sound interested? He just sent flowers. I…”
“I what?”
Loosening my hold on Danny’s hand, I was stunned to see Peter standing in the doorway. How had I not heard him enter the studio? The pulsing beat from the other side of the wall was not helping matters. But still he had sneaked in, and I pulled the sheet closer to my body as Danny gave me a quick wink and dropped his brush.
“Mr. Barton! You came! So great to see you again.”
Peter tentatively shook Danny’s hand even as his gaze searched for mine. Our eyes locked for a second, and I thought I saw nothing but joy in his stare before his dark pools clouded over, and he looked back to Danny.
“This your subject?” Peter asked.
I bristled at the sound of him speaking about me like I was nothing more than something he could buy. Was that the new plan? I sit for Danny, he would drop another couple of thousand, and then I’d have nowhere else to run and hide but his brownstone?
“I would hope I’m a little more to you than that,” I challenged.
Peter tensed and started to move closer as Danny waved his hands in the air and ran interference.
“We all think that, Caroline,” Danny said. “You’re my model and I…”
Peter pushed Danny back and stood before me. I felt his eyes lingering up the sheet. His stare stopped at my concealed breasts, and his fingers moved forward to pull and uncover my skin when his hand came to a halt, and he cocked his head to the side.
“And what a model,” he said, his words meant only for my ears. “I’ve spent many an hour just gazing at her likeness and hoping she’d come back to me.”
My heart fluttered, and when I saw his clean shaven face free of any bruises, I started to touch his cheek.
“Even sent her flowers,” Peter continued.
A part of me wanted to fall into his chest and fold him into my arms, just tell him all the ways that I’d been going crazy without him. How I couldn’t think of anything else but his hands and where they were, what they were doing if they weren’t on my body? I nearly pressed my palm to his cheek but at the last minute I lowered my eyes.
“But nothing after that,” I whispered.
“Excuse me?” Peter challenged.
Looking up at him again, I saw his jaw clench and his lip quiver. So he was in pain. Good. The feeling was more than mutual, and I uncovered my breasts as I touched my fingers to my soft mounds.
“You… you knew where I was,” I started. “But just that one move?”
Forgetting Danny’s presence, Peter licked his lips as he nearly touched my sensitive flesh. I was more than ready for the return of his fingers when he pushed back and slammed his hands into his pockets.
“You knew where to find me,” he spat. “Maybe you couldn’t run off quick enough, but I’d wager you could have figured the way back.”
“Like I’d want to go replay that scene,” I started. “What if your friend came back and tried to mess around with me again?”
“Guys, we…” I heard Danny trying to interrupt.
Peter waved Danny off, and even as I flinched, I offered no resistance as he cupped my chin in his hand and peered into my eyes.
“I told you that I’d dealt with that,” he whispered. “You didn’t have to be scared. You… you didn’t have to run.”
He leaned forward, his lips ready to crush against mine. I nearly met his kiss, desperate to taste his mouth again, but I drew back and shook my head.
“No way to be sure,” I said.
“Because you didn’t give me a chance to tell you the whole story.”
Peter’s mouth drew close to my ear, and my body braced under the weight of his whisper as the warm air from his mouth flooded my mind and started to course through my veins.
“It’s
all over,” he promised. “It can’t happen again.”
I found his eyes again, and Peter smiled as he stroked my cheeks.
“That’s it?” I asked incredulously. “That’s the rest of the story?”
“Old story, Caroline. The book is now closed. All I want with you is a fresh start.”
He nearly found my lips when I pushed back and stared at him hard.
“So that’s all you’re giving me?” I asked.
“Caroline!” Danny said. “The man is here and he…”
“No. I need more than that,” I stubbornly demanded.
Peter’s face fell, and I waited for the truth of the tale when he suddenly stepped back and crossed his arms across his chest.
“There was more,” he said. “And now there isn’t, so it doesn’t matter. So you shouldn’t even be thinking about it.”
“Oh I shouldn’t? I shouldn’t think of what it felt like to have a knife to my neck as someone beat the shit out of you?”
Danny started to speak, but when I touched his arm, he held back and followed my stare as I looked hard into Peter’s eyes.
“You ran away,” he said. “And because of that a lot has changed. So you don’t need to concern yourself with it.”
Stepping closer to Peter’s side, Danny kept his hand in mine, his laughter breaking the silence passing between us.
“Man might have a point,” Danny said. “Keep the past buried. Time for you two to just move forward.”
Peter grinned and slapped Danny’s back.
“First sensible thing that anyone’s said since I arrived,” Peter said.
“Oh really?” I challenged. “So you’re not going to tell me?”
“Caroline, I see no need to go into this any further.”
“You bastard!”
My flattened palm crashed against his cheek. Danny was there to catch him as he fell back, and I started to pull the sheet back over my body, longing to hide in the darker corners of his studio when I heard Danny’s sharp cry hit the air.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I yelled.
Peter had Danny by his collar. Thinking that he might hurt my friend, I started towards his paintings when Danny pressed his palm into the air and silently held me off. Pausing where I stood, I watched with flaring nostrils as Peter ignored me and kept all of his focus on Danny.
“I’m still paying for her likeness,” Peter said. “And I intend to leave here with at least that much.”
The feel of his eyes on the sheet, the knowledge that he had to be thinking of what was underneath, even though his hands and his kiss knew every curve of my flesh, caused me to tense.
“You’re leaving here with nothing,” I said.
I was nearly out of the room when I felt a hand on my arm.
“Get your hands off me!” I shouted.
But it was Danny who held my arm, not Peter.
“Caroline? Hold up,” he said.
Danny kept me in place as his eyes darted between the pair of us. Peter waited with a smug smirk, and I started forward to hit him again when Danny lifted me off the ground and pushed my body back to the stool.
“You’re going to at least talk to him,” Danny started. “Consider that the price for your room and board.”
I started to object, to tell him that I had assumed he was helping me out of the goodness of his heart when his eyes flashed back to Peter, and he wagged his finger in his face.
“But you cool it, too,” he insisted. “Play nice. Or I don’t care how much green you got in your wallet. I won’t think twice about giving you a refund.”
Danny held his fist in the air and it looked like he was ready to strike Peter right here and now, but he held back as he started to leave the loft.
“Danny, where are you going?” I asked, pleading with my eyes for him not to leave me alone with Peter.
“Just gonna be neighborly and listen to the beats. But no worries,” he said as he slapped his palm to the walls. “They’re real thin and if you need help, you just call.”
With that, he was gone. The room was full of nothing but Peter and the heat of his breath as he took a few steps closer to my side, stopping just short of my body as he extended his hand.
“So we should talk,” he said. “Don’t you agree?”
Sighing and still scared, I took his hand in mine. I knew the way to the couch, the place where I had been crashing without him, and we sat in silence as I tapped my toes to the floor.
Chapter Seven
I kept quiet as Peter curled his finger around my wrist. The sheet granted my arms no cover, and Peter’s touch easily made its way up my limbs. As soon as his hand neared my shoulders, I had no choice but to tremble at his nearness.
“Caroline?”
But I couldn’t pull away as he wrapped his arm around my back, his lips at my ear as he spoke softly.
“I am sorry, okay?” he whispered.
“You’re just saying that,” I said. “Danny has you running scared.”
“I’m not. I’m not scared of Danny.”
“You should be,” I continued. “His neighbor’s a bruiser. And this time no one’s going to touch me.”
He started to speak again, but I felt him draw back and saw him hang his head.
“I… okay. I shouldn’t have left you alone in the first place. I used to get visits from his type occasionally and I should have thought before I left you alone.”
“You should have told me what you were all about from the start,” I insisted.
“Jesus Christ!” he bellowed “I tried!”
Peter pressed me to the couch, and I wriggled against the force of his hold as the music from the other room fell silent. I could almost see Danny with his ear pressed to the wall, and I groaned into the cushions as I averted my eyes from Peter’s face.
“It’s all good, Danny,” I said, far louder than I had to. “Just go back to the dancing or whatever.”
It took a few seconds, but soon the music started again, and I sighed as Peter relinquished his hold and shifted his body to the far end of the couch.
“Cards on the table, Caroline,” Peter started. “Ask me all you want to know.”
I hesitated around the opening, but Peter made no other move except to look into my eyes. As I kept the sheet close to my body, I sat up straight and inched closer to his side, my eyes on Danny’s image of the drowning man as I slowly spoke.
“Who was he?” I started. “The man with the scar?”
Hearing Peter take a deep breath, I waited until he finally spoke.
“His name is Swanson,” Peter started. “He was a business associate. Note the past tense. I promise you that.”
“So you’re not with him anymore?” I asked.
“No way,” Peter promised. “Look, I cut some corners to get one restaurant or another up and running.”
“Corners?” I asked.
“Take a cheap shipment here, hire some illegals there. I’m not saying I’m proud of any of it. But you do what you have to do.”
I got it. My father would have smirked and called him a dirty bird, but sometimes people had to scrape and claw, and I wasn’t about to fault him for that. I started to meet his eyes when another name crossed my mind.
“Wallace? What does he have to do with this?” I asked.
Peter’s jaw clenched, and I watched him smooth his hands down his face as he shook his head under his palms.
“Damn,” he muttered. “Had a feeling his name would come up. Caroline, I…”
“Cards on the table, you said,” I reminded him. “Here’s your chance.”
He nodded slowly and groaned heavily before he spoke.
“I did some deals with the man,” he said slowly.
“So he helped you cut the corners?” I asked.
Peter started to clam up, and I turned my eyes away with a sad sigh. This wasn’t going to be the full story, far from it. The man obviously hoped that he just had to drop a few breadcrumbs, pray that I’d
swallow them whole, wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, and act like a madman hadn’t busted in on our morning.
“Wallace… was one of my backers,” Peter explained. “He helped me out with some startup cash. There… was a time when he thought I wouldn’t be able to pay him back.”
Okay, so this was a little more along the lines of what I wanted to hear from him, and I started to touch his leg when I drew back and pressed the sheet closer to my body.
“And why would he think a thing like that?” I asked.
Peter flashed me a wicked grin as he arched his eyebrows.
“Let’s just say that there were days when I was more interested in the waitresses than what or if they were serving.”
“So… so you were a flirt,” I said.
“Would you have expected anything less of me?” he asked.
“No, no I suppose not,” I conceded.
Standing slowly, I moved to the window and glanced down at the street below. It sort of made sense. Swanson had implied that he was only trying to keep Peter’s head in the game. And when he was with me, he obviously wasn’t focusing on orders and dinner specials.
“But why… why the all-out assault?” I asked. “If it’s past tense…”
“It is now,” Peter swore as he leapt up and pulled me into his arms, stopping just short of kissing me as his dark eyes held my gaze. “As soon as you were gone, I made a point to settle my debts with the man. And believe me when I say that he won’t be sending any of his people to bother you or me ever again.”
“Truly?” I asked. “You did all that for me?”
“I’d do anything for you,” he said as he lifted his hand and started to touch my face.
“Was that before or after you turned Brett into a florist that makes deliveries?”
“After,” he said with a dry smile. “Of course you had to get your gift first.”
Laughing with mirth, I fell into his arms and moaned at the feel of his fingers running down my cheeks. His lips drew close to my neck, but again I flinched.
. “What more do I have to say, Caroline?” he groaned. “It’s the whole story. Can’t you please just believe me?”
The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set Page 12