The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set

by Hope, Camilla

  “I would never do anything to hurt her!” he said.

  “No, you just want her picture to whack off to you sick…” Danny began.

  “You’ll pay for that!” Peter snarled.

  Peter’s fingers curled into a fist but I pulled his arm back and pressed my body between the men.

  “You don’t want to hurt me, right?” I demanded, looking deep into Peter’s eyes.

  “Of course not! How could you even think that…?”

  “Then don’t smash my friend’s head in, okay?”

  Peter held back, and I heard Danny snicker as I wheeled around to face him.

  “And stop talking to him like that!” I screamed at Danny. “This man saved my life. And he… he only knew what I told him about my father. And if he was using a false name then he couldn’t have known…”

  My mind was too full and my tongue too tied to manage any other words. As my knees knocked together, I started to fall when Peter was quick to take me into his arms.

  “Caroline?”

  I suddenly felt dizzy and my legs gave out on me. Both men dashed to my side and their voices seemed far away as I struggled to keep a hold on reality.

  “I’ve got it,” Danny said as he tried to rip me from Peter’s arms.

  “And I’ve got her,” Peter said firmly.

  “Don’t you even try to…!”

  “Danny, please,” I muttered. “I need him with me.”

  I could feel Peter smirking over my head as he scooped me up and Danny opened the door to his bedroom. Peter moved fast to lay me down on the sheets as he sat at my side and held my hand.

  “Caroline?” he said softly.

  I sat up and swung my legs to the floor.

  “I’m okay now,” I said shakily.

  Sabrina struggled to my other side, and I smiled slowly.

  “He didn’t know,” I said. “No way would he ever have wanted this to happen to you, Bree.”

  Her eyes still seemed suspicious as she begged me for a chance to sleep, and Danny helped her onto the bed.

  “Maybe we should let her get some rest and you can come back in here and try to explain yourself. And then you can leave us the hell alone!” Danny said to Peter.

  I watched Peter sigh as he started to nod his head, and we walked back towards the other room, his strong arms supporting me. I clenched my fingers around his hand.

  “I need him to stay,” I said, my eyes pleading with Danny.

  Peter kept close, and as we reached the door to the bedroom I waved my worried friends away with a soft smile.

  “Please? Just do one thing for me. Danny?” I begged.

  “What is it?” Danny asked.

  “Promise me you’ll look after Bree,” I said.

  “You know I will,” he said. “But why would you…?”

  “Bree? Stick close to Danny. Okay?” I asked .

  Together they nodded, and I felt the fear coming off of them when I held Peter’s hand tighter, and I pushed the others away.

  “Caroline? Are you…?” Sabrina said.

  “I’m okay, Bree,” I said. “Stay with Danny. I’m just… I’m just so tired. I just can’t believe my father would…”

  Peter led me to the couch and we sat down together, his strong arms still around my shoulders. As I closed my eyes, I felt Peter fold me into his arms, and I heard the sound of his soft voice by way of a promise.

  “I won’t let anything happen to her,” he said to Danny who was standing in the doorway.

  “Because we’re right here in the next room,” Danny said.

  “I’m on warning. I get it,” Peter replied.

  I waited until I heard the door was closed and I was sure that we were alone.

  “Gypsy…”

  Peter curled closer, and I slowly lifted my eyes. As I studied his face, I asked him if he really had no idea.

  “Not a one,” he assured me. “I used to speak to Wallace on the phone but I never met him face to face. He wanted it that way. And I was always getting out at some point. Having you this close only makes me want that more.”

  “That’s what I thought,” I whispered.

  Chapter Three

  Peter kissed my hair, and I pressed my fingers to his chest as I sighed heavily.

  “So Danny’s right about it just being a small world?”

  “Crazy thing,” he said. “But… call it fate or whatever, I guess. All I know is…”

  His voice trailed off as he curled me closer to his body, and I desperately asked him what we were supposed to do now that my father was on the warpath.

  “I’ll figure something out,” he said. “Even if it means that I have to go back to…”

  “No!” I cried shooting up quickly as I pressed my hand to his mouth. “Not when you… not when you worked so hard to break free of all of that. You can’t…”

  “Well I can’t have him beating up your friends,” he countered. “Or… or coming after you.”

  His face contorted, and I imagined him picturing all the horrible things that my father had done to me, the things that I had worked like mad to get past, burying them so deep only to have them spring back to the forefront of my mind in a vicious flash.

  But worse than that was the idea that Peter would give up everything that he had gained so far and go back. And the only reason for that was me.

  “Peter, I…”

  “Shhh,” he soothed as he stroked my hair and kissed my brow. “I just… we just need some time to figure this out. And we will, Gypsy. I promise you that.”

  “I… you’re right,” I finally said. “I trust you, Peter.”

  “Always?” he asked.

  “Forever,” I said as I smiled up at him.

  His kiss was light and sweet against my mouth, and I pulled him closer, savoring his taste. I clung to his face, desperate to make the moment last when Peter dragged his lips towards my ear, his kiss still gentle there as he smoothed his palm down my back.

  “I think… maybe it’s best if I leave you for a while,” he whispered.

  “Please, don’t,” I muttered into his neck as I trailed kisses up his neck, my fingers lost in his hair as he shook his head.

  “You’ll be safe here with your friends,” he assured me. “I can make a call. I’ll put a team together to watch the place and then…”

  “And then what?” I demanded as I pushed away from him and shifted to the edge of the bed. “Play right into my father’s hands?”

  At the nod of his head, I rolled my tongue against the inside of my cheek.

  “How long do you think it’ll take him to go back on his word?” I asked. “He’ll have you right where he wants you. And then… then he’ll find a way to come after me. Only this time won’t be like with Morgan. You’ll have no way to save me. Is that that what you really want, Peter?”

  “Don’t even talk like that…”

  “Then enough about leaving,” I said. “At least… please just stay with me tonight?”

  Before he could deny me the request, I stilled him with a sharp kiss and moved my hands to his fly. Knowing, hoping, that this would be enough to keep him at bay, I didn’t let him come up for air as I pressed him into the couch. His hardness grazed against my thighs, and Peter’s hold tightened as he flipped me to my back.

  “You don’t play fair, Gypsy,” he moaned when I relinquished his lips.

  “No way you’re thinking of leaving now, right?” I asked with a grin.

  Peter hiked up my dress, and I wrapped my limbs around his hips as he stripped his shirt away and brought my hands to his tightly muscled chest.

  “Guess a few more hours won’t make that much of a difference,” he said.

  Sighing with relief, I fondled his hard chest, and I smiled at the feel of his lips bathing my neck.

  “Gypsy, I… I…” Peter said raggedly.

  “Don’t talk, Peter,” I begged. “Just take me. Give me something to…”

  I fell into his mouth as he removed my dress
. Looking up at him with watering eyes, I focused on every line of his face, the sharp angle of his jaw, the smoky desire pouring from his dark eyes. His lips curled into a smile as his hands roamed over my entire body, and I arched forward to take in more of his touch when he suddenly slipped to my side. Denied his lust, my flesh still tingled at the feel of his fingers taking their time as they softly worked their way down my arms. He flattened his hand against my quaking middle, and I parted my legs, longing for his touch on my mound when he propped his body up on his elbow and twirled my hair in his free hand.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he swore. “I…”

  Peter lifted my ringed finger to his eyes, his nail grazing the band as the light in his eyes hit the diamond.

  “And as long as you wear this ring, you come first,” he continued. “You’re the only thing that matters to me.”

  He rested his head to my breasts, his tongue lapping at my flesh as I held his back and stared up at the ceiling. I whimpered as he moved down my body, and I blinked back tears. The only thing that mattered… In his hold, I didn’t feel like his property; I felt more precious than the diamond sitting on my hand, and a small part of my soul sighed. Peter would put me first and last, and I pictured any action that he might take beginning and ending with me.

  “Same here, Peter. I… oh!”

  I gasped aloud at the feel of his tongue circling my clit. In one moment, he was almost inside me, but then, just as quickly he swapped his pursuit for sweet kisses, and I tugged at his hair, not knowing what I wanted more when my heart felt as if it would explode in my chest when he didn’t… because I needed…. I needed him inside me, hard and pulsing. I needed to feel him release his seed inside me and make me his.

  “Peter… please…”

  Stretching forward to find his mouth, I could taste myself on his lips, his tongue, and Peter surrounded my body with his arms as he slipped into my quivering pussy with a gentle thrust.

  “Don’t think you can pull this card every time,” he teased as he pulsed inside me. “Come morning, we have to come up with a real game plan.”

  “Of course,” I whispered. “Whatever you say. Just… oh God, please give me something…”

  “I want to give you everything, Gypsy.”

  Forcing my eyes to stay open, I watched the curl of his mouth and felt the stream of his breath beating down on my breasts. Whenever he slowed his pursuit, I clenched my muscles and wildly whipped my head about the cushions.

  “More,” I moaned. “I need you now… always… I…”

  At the moment when he started to release inside me, my body throbbed, and I summoned the strength to take him into my arms, my soul shattering as we climaxed together. My hands trembled against his back, and I dug my nails into his skin as he sighed into my breasts and pulled me towards his chest. Lying on top of him, my hands searched his face, and I silently vowed that whatever might happen, I would always be able to press my fingers into the air and see him, feel him. I…

  “How is it possible?” he interrupted my thoughts.

  “How is… what do you mean?”

  “You have the sun in your hair even in the middle of the night,” he purred as he played with a lock of my hair and brought it to his lips. “I’m not worthy of it. Not by a long shot.”

  “Yes you are, Peter,” I promised him. “You’re more than worthy of everything that I’m going to do for you.”

  “I like the sound of that, Gypsy.”

  He curled me back to the couch. As he pulled his piece away, he kissed me softly and started to wrap me in the blanket that Danny had brought in for Sabrina.

  “No,” I said. “I need your arms. I need you to hold me.”

  “Anything to keep you warm.”

  Resting in his embrace, I felt his breath calming in his chest, and I touched his heart as I slowly looked up into his eyes.

  “Can we… can we sleep now?” I asked. “Figure it all out in the morning?”

  “That sounds good to me,” he said on the back of another kiss. “We’ll find a way to make it all work. You and me, right?”

  “Yes, Peter. Of course.”

  Peter covered us both with the blanket and my eyes fluttered shut as I lay in his arms, and I bit down on my lip as he stroked my back and kept kissing my hair. Waiting and wondering if his hold would ever come to any kind of rest, I held my breath until I was certain that he had slipped into sleep. Once I was sure that he was content, I pushed my palm to the air leaving his lips and letting it pass through my fingers. Something else that I could cling to and bring to my mind when I…

  It had to be now.

  Taking great care to leave his arms as slowly as I could, praying that I would not rouse him, I dressed as quickly as I dared and looked around the room before turning my attention back to his sleeping form. Knowing that this would kill him when he finally woke up, I nearly thought better of my plan. But what other way was there to protect him?

  “Peter?” I whispered.

  My fingers hesitated above his sleeping head, and I wanted to kiss him one last time but I fought the need to touch him. He had to stay sleeping until…

  I moved to Danny’s work station and tore a piece of sketch paper from the pad. The pencil was dull as I marked the page, and as soon as the deed was done, I looked to my hand and the diamond twinkling on my finger. The thought of removing it was like ripping my hand from my arm, but l’d take the pain if it meant that Peter would be safe.

  “I have to do this,” I said sadly. “It’s my problem to face.”

  Placing the ring upon my hastily scribbled note I grabbed my purse and the burner phone before taking my leave of the loft. When I felt confident that I had placed enough distance between myself and Peter, who was hopefully still lost in the throes of a sweet dream, I huddled in a corner and returned the last call as my legs shivered above my feet.

  “So, Barton? You ready to play?”

  The sound of my father’s voice made me feel as if ants had burrowed into my flesh as they crawled every which way under my skin.

  “No, Daddy,” I hissed. “It’s me.”

  The light gasp that passed through the phone did nothing to comfort me, and I was almost ready to head back to Danny’s and hide in the security that was Peter’s arms when my father’s laugh pinned me to the wall at my back.

  “He have you doing his dirty work?” my father questioned. “Typical of the cowardly bastard that he is!”

  “No,” I said. “He doesn’t even know that I’m talking to you right now.”

  “How’s that?” my father asked. “Thought you wanted me to stay away from you. Have a change of heart, did you?”

  I wanted to wretch at the thought of what I was about to walk back into with my eyes wide open. He’d waste no time in dressing me down. Maybe in undressing me altogether. But if it kept him away from Peter, I’d suffer anything that he might dole out and keep Peter’s face in my mind’s eye and the memory of his breath dotting my flesh.

  “If I… if I come back,” I started, “will you leave him alone?”

  Clinging to naked hope as I clutched the phone tighter in my hand, I could see my father’s eyes dancing around the possibility of having me back under his complete power, and as much as it shredded my soul, I needed him to say the right thing and go along with my plan.

  “That remains to be seen,” he said.

  Shit.

  “This… this is a one-time offer,” I said. “You… you get to have me. All of me all to yourself. But you have to leave Peter alone.”

  “Man’s made me a lot of money,” he challenged. “What do I get from you?”

  The sound of his lips smacking together filled me with an unspeakable dread. But this was the only way.

  “I… I know how much it killed you to lose Mom,” I said. “It changed you. And I… I’ll help you get the good feelings back if you just… if you swear to me that Peter’s off limits from this moment on.”

  My father gr
oaned as he considered my request, and I pictured him touching himself, his perverse mind hung up on all the things that he would do to me if… when… he had me back under his complete power.

  “What’s to say this isn’t some scheme you cooked up with Barton?” he sneered. “I’d be an even bigger fool if I…”

  “Because he would never want me anywhere near you! And when he finds out that I’ve come back to you he will never go near me ever again!” I cried knowing that the words I spoke were nothing but the truth. “But I’m… I’m ready to give you what you want. Just please leave him alone.”

  His silence was deafening, and my heart raced up into my throat until I thought it might burst through my brain and pour from my mouth in crimson waves when he finally started to speak again.

  “Think you can find your way back home?” he asked, his voice gentler now.

  “I…”

  It was the last place that I ever wanted to go back to, but I nodded into my chest and resigned myself to my fate.

  “Yes, Daddy.” I said. “I know what to do.”

  Chapter Four

  Peter’s mind was full of nothing but Caroline as he turned towards her on the couch. Not knowing how he could bring himself to leave her, he wanted to take her back into his arms and hold her close. He knew that he would have to find some way to put her off the scent until he came up with a way to go back to her father. Although it would mean leaving her on her own, and just the idea was more than he could stand, he knew that her friends would take care of her. Perhaps, he thought, she might go back to Harrison where Nellie and her wiles would keep watch. He had no idea how long would they would be apart. But he would get back to her. He needed her and he needed to believe that they would be together again someday.

  “Gypsy…” he whispered.

  Opening his eyes, expecting to see her lying just beyond his arms, Peter shot up straight when he found the couch empty. Looking for her in every corner of the room, he told himself that she must have gone for a drink or a breath of fresh air, nothing more than that. He felt space next to him and it was stone cold. Feeling the panic start to rise, he realized that she must have left the couch some while ago.