by Madison Faye
“Why are you here?” he seethed.
Angel started to tremble. What was happening? No, it can’t be.
“Oh, and I see you couldn’t wait to replace me!” the woman spat out.
“We have not been together for more than a year. Also you are one to speak of carrying on with someone else,” he countered.
“Yes, and I did get the final papers.”
“So? Why are you here? I paid you more than well to go away.”
Angel thought she might pass out. She grabbed Bastien’s arm as she huffed out a great gasp of air and now, she hid behind his hard body. No… this cannot be right!
“So… who is this hussy?” the woman who was obviously his ex-wife asked with a sneering tone.
As if being protective, Bastien held Angel behind him with just one strong arm. “No one who needs to meet the likes of you.”
Angel heard her huff.
“I just wanted to say goodbye. I am leaving Europe,” his ex announced haughtily.
Bastien shrugged. “So? Au revoir!” He slammed the door in her face. The metal clanged with a boom from the force he used.
Angel slumped down.
Bastien turned and caught her.
“Oh, God!” she yelled.
He looked concerned. “I am sorry you had to hear that.”
“I-I…”Angel gulped for air.
“Angel?” he asked as he carried her to the huge leather sofa. “Qu’est-ce que c’est? What is it?”
“Y-you…” She couldn’t get the words out.
He sighed as he grasped her hands and rubbed them as if to get the warmth back into them. “I know that was unpleasant. But she’s gone now. She’s been gone for a long time.”
Angel shook her head. Her throat had swelled up and indeed, her body had gone cold.
“You look so pale…” He cupped his hands around her face.
“You’re—you’re m-my stepdad!”
His eyes widened. “What?”
Nodding, tears slipped down her cheeks. “You were married to my mother.”
“You are Claire’s daughter?” He took a deep breath and let it out. “I knew the world was small but this is infinitesimal.”
Angel started to laugh. She’d been lusting after her stepfather. Oh, it couldn’t be worse than this.
He rubbed her arms and sighed. “It makes no difference.”
Her eyes rounded. “What?”
He shrugged. “We are divorced.” He stared at her. “I had arguments about you with her, in fact.”
Angel sat up with a stunned curiosity.
“That she didn’t care about you and your sister. What happened to you or where you were.”
“W-why did you m-marry her?” The stuttering question popped out before she could stop it.
He lowered his head. “I wasn’t fooled by her if that is your meaning. I have an astute sense about people.”
Angel shook her head. “That is not an answer.”
“My father.”
Angel was lost again.
“My father was with her.” He sighed.
“Oh, my God! This just gets worse and worse!” She stood up.
Grabbing her hands, he looked into her eyes. “She got pregnant by my father. He wouldn’t marry her. He is like this. Irresponsible and carefree. It is his main fault or failing in life, I should say. Rather than handle the… what do you say, public courts and paparazzi… I made a deal with her.”
Angel felt shame course through her. Knowing her mother, she had set it all up. She could see now that Bastien was wealthy. Her mother would have gone after both men to get the money. Now, him hiding his wealth from her made sense. He should be distrustful if he’d known her mother! Then it hit her… “How? How could she be pregnant?”
He tilted his head at her. “You do know the doves and bees and the…”
“Birds and the bees, you mean?” Angel let out a hysterical laugh.
He smiled.
Her stomach fluttered at his smile. God, he is beautiful. Can a man be beaut—then realization dawned all over again. I am in love with my stepfather!
As if he knew her thoughts, he stepped close to her. “I am not married to her anymore. It is ok.”
Gulping for air, Angel tried to push her shock away. She had another sibling! “W-where is the baby?”
He shrugged. “With nannies, I assume. However, my father is now negotiating to get the child back into our family.”
Angel felt sick. Her mother would sell the child too—for the love of a buck.
Bastien took her hand. “We shall go out tomorrow, or maybe the next day, oui? Tonight was quite the shock for us both.”
Angel trembled all over. “Y-yes. Maybe that would be better.” Fear pushed at her. She may never get her sweet Frenchman now. This might be too big of a hurdle to traverse. Why? How could one woman cause so much misery? Well, her mother never figured that her daughter would fall in love with her husband. Angel started to laugh at the outrageous scenario.
Bastien stared at her.
“I-I’m sorry. It’s what I do when—when the shit hits the fan. When the world turns upside down!” She shrugged and let out another long laugh. “I laugh!” She barely got out the words. “I mean—I have been living with the man who was married to my mother all while…” Her voice trailed away. All while I’ve lusted after him. Fantasized about him, longed to… Grasping the black silk in both hands, she raised her dress as she took off into a run to her bedroom.
“Angel!” Bastien called after her.
Chapter Nine
A whole two days passed as Angel got used to the idea of it all. Her lofty aspirations of having Bastien as some kind of lover, versus the fact he’d been her stepdad. It seemed so wrong to her. Then it came to her he’d been with—her mother! This she had trouble getting past. It was some kind of twisted love triangle thing that seemed to have lost its shape and became a blown-up ball of something like an incest-in-law type of shape when you added the fact that his father had a child with her mother. The whole situation gave her more than a headache. It gave her a brain freeze.
Bastien walked into the kitchen as she was getting herself something to drink. “We need to talk.”
Here it comes. Since he found out that I’m Claire’s daughter, he will want me gone. Who could blame him? Look at what her mother had done.
He sat next to her on the stool and took her hand.
Stifling the tremble at his merest touch, Angel steeled herself for the Talk.
“I know this new revelation about me being your stepfather is bothering you. But this makes no difference to me, cher.”
Shaking her head, Angel stared at him.
“I feel the same about you. Nothing can change that.”
Her eyes widened as she held her breath. Annndddd what do you feel about me? Instead of stating it out loud, she bit her lip to allow him to finish.
“We owe it to ourselves to let the past go.” He gazed into her eyes. “All of it.”
Angel opened her mouth to say something.
Leaning forward, he captured her words, as his mouth possessed hers.
Her body melted so instantly she thought she would melt right off the stool onto the floor in a puddle of goo. Her heart pounded in her ears as he lavished her tongue expertly. Her body flushed with heat and her panties of course were moist in an instant.
He pulled his face away. “See?”
Her tongue lapped at her upper lip to get the last of his flavor. God, he does taste as good as he looks and smells. Shaking her head, she asked, “What?”
He laughed a little. “Did that feel like a fatherly kiss?”
Angel allowed a smile to emerge. “No.”
He patted her leg. “So, we go out like we planned and let this all go.”
Angel could only stare at this conundrum of a man. His kiss had made her hot. Maybe it wouldn’t matter what he did to her? She could do this. She wanted him so badly, she would do this.
“Now, go and put on that how do you say… slinky, hot dress I got for you.”
She cocked her head at him. “Only if you don that leather again.”
Bastien stared at her then laughed hardily. “Oui, sweet Angel. You have a deal, I shall wear that.” He got up and went to his bedroom.
* * *
Bastien pulled the blue Jaguar up to the curb.
Angel had said nothing about the car she’d never seen before. She wanted to make jokes about what else he may have up his lofty sleeve, but somehow, she knew by his silence that he was preoccupied by something. Since, his speech about the stepfather and her mother thing, it couldn’t be that. He seemed far away somehow, distanced by a distraction that she’d never seen in him before. Is he nervous about the club, my showy dress? Is he about to dump me off on one of his many staff members? She was crushing her little black clutch purse and realized she may just break the little bag as she let go of it some.
Her eyes rose up to the flashing sign above them. Blinking, she leaned forward and peered up. The sign had the same design as Bastien’s tattoo. Instantly, she remembered where she’d seen it. She couldn’t breathe. Brandon had taken her here the first night they were in Paris. It was a kink club, full of dancers and people in leather. Her stomach dropped as she turned to look at the very silent Bastien. She must have looked completely stunned.
Bastien seemed to take a deep breath as he stared back.
“You own the Mine clubs?” Her voice squeaked with shock.
Bastien grinned. “Oui.” He shrugged as his door opened and a valet stood waiting.
Angel gasped as her door opened and an attendant stood there. She turned to look for Bastien and he wasn’t in his seat. A hand grabbed her arm and she gazed up at Bastien who was now at the curb to help her from the car.
He escorted her across the walk as the crowd of people standing in line, parted like the Red Sea in front of them. An awed silence fell over everyone.
People gaped, while others stared avidly at Bastien. Women seemed to stick their breasts out and some men openly gawked with little gasps of seeming awe.
Angel remained in complete shock as he moved her along and even the doorman’s face seemed to pale as Bastien neared.
Bastien nodded his head slightly at the visibly nervous hulking bouncer and took her inside. The noise was immediately loud and Angel didn’t even react, since her wide eyes were glued to the man who held her arm. She didn’t know what to think. He’d hidden a lot of things all these days. But this was so monumental that she was speechless. Why? Was it because she’d confessed to loving domination that first night? Then, he didn’t know how to broach the subject? He owned the kinkiest clubs ever known to Europe! They were nothing but dark, erotic places, full of trolling masters and willing slaves. Live sex scenes would play out on various stages.
Bastien pulled her to the elevator’s glass doors. He moved her in and she still held her peace. Mostly because of shock, but wonder crept in too. Is he one? Did he…? Oh! Suddenly without warning, even for herself, she tossed her head back and laughed uproariously. Her too sweet, caring savior was the BDSM king of France! Oh! Her mind whirled as tears of hilarity rolled down her cheeks.
Bastien’s hold on her arm became a tight grip.
Still laughing, she finally looked over at him.
The glass doors closed and he gazed back at her.
All she could do was laugh, though she might have cried if she’d thought of it. All that time of self-recrimination and doubt, when he knew the life at its most cellular level? His wealth came from the peddling of it, the procurement of a dominant and subservient sexual business.
“Why do you laugh?” he asked.
No, the man did not just ask that! She swiped her tears away. “I just can’t believe it!”
Bastien looked straight ahead. “It is a business. I don’t see what—?”
Angel sucked in her breath. “You don’t see?” Her laughter started again.
He grabbed her up. “What is with the laughing?” His eyes were angry for sure now.
Angel swallowed and stopped laughing. “I—?” What? she asked herself. I sat for days beating myself up at how decent you were and what trash I was! All the while, you lived this life? But the answer never came to her lips as she stared into sweet Bastien’s eyes. They were gleaming and his grip was tight on her arms. The expression he wore was more than stony, it was—yes, the look of someone who was used to power, used to people doing as he said, when he said. How is it that I never knew it for what it truly was?
The quiet power he carried all along was something she’d misread, as he’d only been kind and warm to her. “You really did have Brandon enslaved!” Her shock was so complete that she was entirely breathless.
Bastien’s eyes did flash with a brief fury as he tilted his head at her. “Of course. Bien sûr, I did not even have to pay for it. I am owed so many favors that it was just another business transaction.”
Gulping, Angel couldn’t believe how dumb she’d been. “Then—he r-really is a slave?”
Bastien sighed with disgust. “The man deserved worse. I had contemplated having him castrated, but that would have been too merciful for such a cretin. He is now on his knees somewhere, skillfully swallowing the cocks he earned so well.” His eyes calmed. “For the eight damaged spots that I counted on your lovely body? He shall souffrir a much deserved reaming—for eight long, cum-swallowing years.”
Angel’s stunned astonishment was complete now and she let out a nervous leftover titter.
The elevator door opened. He took her elbow and smoothly steered her out to the hallway. “Please try to compose yourself, as I wished for you to meet—” He halted as he gazed down the hall.
A man had stepped out into the hallway.
Angel peered at him and her eyes widened.
“My adopted father,” Bastien finished.
Angel began to shake as her knees gave way. No. Not this. No.
Chapter Ten
Angel’s body slumped down entirely.
Bastien turned and held her up.
She was staring at the man who moved toward them. Dev? The hallway spun around her and she stared back over at Bastien.
He looked a bit alarmed, but like usual, he seemed to keep his cool.
“Bon jour, Bastien!” Devareaux called. He grabbed Bastien by the upper arms and squeezed.
Angel was a slumping bag of winded shock as she gaped.
“Where have you been hiding yourself?” Dev asked while entirely ignoring Angel.
Bastien shrugged. “Vacation.”
Dev swiveled his gaze over to Angel. “And is this the vacation, oui?”
Angel stood frozen. He doesn’t even recognize me!
“Yes, oui. I guess you could say that.” Bastien smiled.
His father reached out and took her limp hand. He bowed close and gently kissed her palm.
Angel stood like a statue.
At her rude-like behavior, Bastien cleared his throat with impatience. “This is Angel.”
The older Frenchman’s eyes seemed to flicker at the name. “Yes, indeed. An angel.”
She almost snatched her hand back from his grip.
With her actions, Bastien stiffened a little. “She seems to be feeling unwell just now, though.”
Devareaux grinned. “Ah, the fair sex. What can you do?”
Angel swung her still stunned gaze over at Bastien.
He gave a slight smile. “Well, I am going to take her home. I will call you.” He turned her around and they got back into the elevator.
Angel couldn’t talk. Even if she could, what was she going to say? I have obsessed over your father for three long years? He mastered me? I compared every man I met with him? She bit down on her lip, afraid to look over at him. Then the final nail in that complicated coffin? He fathered a child with my mother! Her breathing got shallow. Before this all it was… was her being attracted to a now ex-stepfather. But this? She felt sick all rig
ht.
He stood calmly and as she peeked over, his expression looked unaffected, serene as usual.
Maybe he does just think I had a relapse. Maybe he was protecting me by not bringing me here before?
They made it through the loud crowd and out to the front.
Everyone stared at them. Angel was a nervous mess and so thankful that no one stared at her, just at Bastien.
The valet drove up with the Jag and Angel was full of relief, because her legs were like jelly.
Bastien gently helped her into the car, went around, got in and he drove from the curb.
A strained silence reined during the short ride. Angel now realized how unimportant she’d been to Dev, as he hadn’t even remembered her in the slightest way. Instead of feeling devastated and hurt by this stunning realization, it seemed to release her from the fascination she’d clung to for so long. Now she concluded that those feelings were infatuation and an obsessive insanity. What she felt for Bastien was so much more, and they’d never even had sex. Her bond with this wonderful sexy man was like no other she’d ever experienced.
Her gaze swung over to peek at Bastien. She knew why she was silent, but she wondered what he might be thinking. She really had no idea and most times, she could only guess at what he thought about. He always seemed so reserved and composed. So different from anyone she’d ever known. After this most recent revelation of the Mine clubs, she was wondering if she had truly misjudged him all along. His kindness was so real though, his easygoing nature was perhaps a big part of him, along with the powerful executive persona.
Fears that she was only too used to living with came crashing back to her though. She’d looked crazy and unhinged just now in that hallway, while meeting his father. She was rude and acted like a fool.
Bastien parked the car and got out while not a word had been uttered.
Angel waited as he opened the door, and swung her legs out and went to step down.
Leaning his body over, he reached in and scooped her up.
She started with a jolt of surprise, as he hadn’t done that in a long while.