by K L Clare
Compassion filled his eyes, and he dismissed my misguided aggression. “I’m sorry. I should have been.”
My throat began to close up. Tears would fall if I didn’t move on. I blinked them away and changed the subject. “Have you told Will to keep anything else from me? If there’s something more, I want to know now. Tell me now.”
Ethan looked at Will, a wide grin spreading from his mouth to his eyes. “There’s nothing more, Ellie.”
They both grinned, compelling me to narrow my eyes in warning. “There is nothing funny about this. Stop it—both of you.”
“I’ll keep nothing else from you. No more secrets,” Will said low in my ear as he wound his arms around me.
Ethan winked and strode back to the pool table. He and Thomas became dark silhouettes against the gray afternoon light that flooded through the bank of windows.
Will leaned in and sealed his mouth over mine. The tenderness of his kiss was intoxicating. He lingered at my lips and didn’t care that his brothers watched. Maybe that was the point.
A dreamy sigh slipped out as I gave his face a gentle push away from mine. “I promised to spend time with the girls. Lissie will be waiting for me.”
“Take them out for a walk. Stay in the east and south gardens.”
“It’s okay—I can go outside?”
“I need to get some work done, make some client calls, but I’ll send out a few of the Six.”
“You’ll be watching the security monitors when you should be working,” I teased.
My defender, my brilliant lover, conceded with a nod. The boys’ club talk began no sooner than I’d left a kiss on his cheek and headed upstairs to find Lissie and Chelsea.
“Christ, how lovely. I see why you’ve gone mad,” I heard Ethan say.
“Don’t stir up the fucking beast. I want to play cards tonight,” Thomas snapped back at him.
* * *
The exterior of the weapons room was deceiving. It never occurred to me it was anything more than a storage room. Will placed his hand to the electronic pad on the wall, and the door slid open with a whoosh. We stepped into a narrow but deep, cavernous room. The door slid shut on its own with another gust of air. It was time for my first shooting lesson.
“Ready to do this?”
“I’m ready,” I said.
The first area where we stood was the weapons vault. There were shotguns, rifles, handguns, and daggers hanging on walls and resting on shelves. He pointed out the licensed weapons. The pistols he planned for us to shoot were illegal, as were most of the weapons.
Nothing he showed me in that room mattered. Nothing he did or said registered in my mind as a deal breaker, nor did it scare me. My feelings for Will were absolute. His cutthroat tactics, his crimes—his sins—couldn’t change that. Maybe I was sick. I’d considered the idea once before. Maybe it was love. I’d never been in love before, but I’d heard it was blinding that way.
We passed heavy wooden worktables and metal stools that ran along the north and south walls before we reached four steps that led down into the shooting pit. There was one large, central worktable in the pit and targets positioned at different distances and angles.
Forty slight clicks echoed through the pit as Will filled the magazines with ten rounds each and then inserted one into the Glock he’d bought for me. He released the slide, and it sprung forward into its locked position.
“There’s no manual safety on this pistol. It’s automatically disengaged when the trigger is pulled, reengaged when the trigger is released.”
“How safe is that?” I bit my lip and fidgeted.
“Quite safe. It won’t fire unless you pull the trigger. Keep your finger off the trigger unless you mean to pull it, Elle.” He pointed to the parts of the gun as he explained everything.
“Got it,” I said, taking mental notes.
“Christ. This is mad.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I do. It’s just this isn’t what I wanted for you.” He stared at me. “Watch me first.”
He picked up his much larger Glock and positioned himself in front of the target. His feet were spread the width of his squared shoulders, and his arms were extended with soft elbows and locked wrists. His T-shirt clung as he moved and flexed, highlighting sheets of hard muscle beneath. Those low-rise jeans hugged the curve of his perfect posterior and muscular thighs.
I reveled in every detail.
He looked over his shoulder and shook his head at my flirty smile.
I winked.
The corners of his mouth twitched, and then he turned and fired fifteen times—the magazine in his gun holding more rounds than mine. He created one jagged hole in the center of the target.
It was my turn. Will positioned me and stood against my backside to guide me. He adjusted the earmuffs he’d put on my head and placed my finger outside the guard, keeping his on top. “Pull once.” His finger moved mine to the trigger.
I pulled. And flinched. I might have closed my eyes.
He slid his hands back and rested them on my shoulders. “Don’t close your eyes. Use the sight. Do it again.”
I fired again. The second time wasn’t as intimidating. I fired three times more without hesitation.
His hands moved down to my hips, and he briefly pressed his lips to my neck. “Empty it.”
I pulled the trigger five times.
Will reached around my body to remove the empty magazine and insert another. He kissed my neck again and pointed to a different target. When his hands were back on my hips, I aimed and fired ten rounds. After the fourth repetition, he pulled the pistol from my hands.
My head was light—I was high.
He caught me as I jumped into his arms and smashed my mouth to his, demanding his kiss. Only he could claim me with a single kiss. He set me on the table, pushed my legs open wide as he leaned in, and pulled me firmly against the growing bulge in his jeans.
I kissed his throat, growing more intoxicated as his pulse leaped beneath my lips.
“Need you,” Will said, using my hair to pull me back to his mouth.
Ethan cleared his throat.
Will dropped his head and splayed his hands against the table, one on each side of me. His cheek brushed mine, the friction of his scruff sending a shock of pleasure through me.
“What do you want, Ethan?” he snapped.
“The door has a lock,” Ethan said. “Next time you might use it. Dan Jones insists on a face-to-face today, so I’m leaving in ten. Decide what next week looks like so plans can be made. I’ll be back in the morning.”
Will glared over my shoulder at his brother. “You already know what it looks like.”
“Sure about that?”
“Stop talking about me as if I’m not here,” I said.
Will straightened his back and pulled me from the table. He stared at me through narrowed eyes. “My answer hasn’t changed.”
“Nor has mine. I want to go. Thomas and Ben could take me shopping while you’re working.” I volunteered them only because I knew if Will were to come around, that’s how it would go down anyway.
The door whooshed, but neither of us looked in that direction.
“Shopping?”
“Yes, shopping. And I’ll be overwhelmed with nightmares without you.”
“You still have them when I’m here.”
He was right. I shrugged.
“How do you expect me to accomplish anything if I’m distracted with worry? Billions move through the firm, and I need to—Jesus Christ. You’re asking me to leave you in a public house, and worse, on the streets of London. I won’t do it.”
“Thomas and Ben protect me when you can’t. And what about the Six? Here or there . . . what difference does it make?”
He planted his feet wide and crossed his arms over his chest. His tone became acerbic and measured. “I can control this fucking environment, that’s the difference, woman. I said no.”
I walked away and he let me. Whe
n I glanced back, he’d started cleaning the guns.
* * *
We didn’t speak until late that evening. We were at an impasse, and one of us needed to give in, but it hadn’t yet become clear who that would be.
Will slipped into bed behind me after spending the rest of the day in the training center. He pulled me close and wrapped himself around me. “Don’t be angry with me,” he rasped in my ear after pushing my hair aside. “I watched a man nearly take your life. I can’t stomach the idea another might get that close. I won’t lose you, Elle.” His words were as tender as the warm kiss he placed on my neck.
A tear fell onto my pillow. I squeezed my eyes tightly and swallowed hard to push back the rest. I understood where he was coming from. My rigid body relaxed into his heat, and my hand slipped into his, lacing our fingers.
I recalled his mother’s lesson from a few days earlier in the kitchen. At the time, I had assumed she was disciplining Will. But the lesson was meant for me, and her message was suddenly clear: he’ll get what he wants because that’s who he is, but you must be strong enough to make him work for it so that he never takes you for granted.
Only a mother could steer a daughter that way, through coarse waters she’d already navigated. Mary had no daughters, and I didn’t have a mother, so it was a first for us both. Lissie’s face flashed through my mind. She’d need that from me.
I quelled my desire to turn to Will and give him his win. He’d get his victory in the morning.
He kissed my shoulder before we drifted to sleep in a tangle of arms and legs.
23
I had planned to catch Will before he went to the gym, but he hadn’t woken me, so I’d missed him. The morning staff was in my room conducting their usual routine.
“Mrs. Bates, I’d rather have breakfast with the girls this morning,” I said.
She stared at me with her hands on her hips. “With the children, you say?” The large Irish woman took sass from nobody, and she was as traditional as she was stubborn—perfect for Will and his brothers but not so much for me.
Her eyes softened. “Go on then, dearest. Go to the children. The lads should be cleared out by this time.”
I rushed down to the kitchen, where Lissie, Chelsea, and I polished off every pancake and slice of bacon put in front of us after we made smiley faces with fruit and pats of butter.
The kitchen was clearly the heart of Eastridge—the one space that made the mansion feel like a home—and though it was the largest kitchen I’d ever seen, it was still inviting and warm.
I kissed both girls and hurried from the table . . . and bounced off Will’s chest after pushing through the door.
“Will, I—”
His hands gripped my bottom and jerked me up against him. Desire seemed to surge through his body, and the fire in his eyes burned into me. I held on as he swept us from the hall to the privacy of the drawing room. In a flash, my back was flush against the wall as his mouth covered mine, taking what was his. I surrendered, falling deep into his fierce affection.
“You’re avoiding me,” he said close to my ear before sucking hard on my butterfly.
I panted, laboring to catch my breath. “I was just going to look for you.”
“Guess we should talk about this.”
“Yes, but . . . I can’t think. Put me down.”
As soon as he allowed me to slide to my feet, I ducked beneath his arm and moved to the bank of southern windows. I basked in the late-morning sunshine, touching my swollen lips, wanting more of his bruising kisses.
He stared at my mouth before making his way to the chesterfield and his stack of newspapers. “You’ll do as you’re told when necessary?” His tone was sharp but layered with resolve. He was giving in, even though it displeased him to do so.
I was still high and pleasantly surprised, but I was also annoyed. He would read everything on my face, so I turned and searched the lush landscape for my doe. What would she tell me to do?
A newspaper thumped as it hit the table, and his scent reached out for me. “Elle.” He was coming closer. “You must agree.”
Irritated by his shift from desirous to stern, I faced him and pushed back, punishing him. “Define ‘when necessary’ if you think you can.”
He cursed under his breath and raked his hair. “It’s quite simple. Obey when I ask something of you.”
“I think what you mean is, I should trust your direction if exposed to danger.”
“When. Not if. The threat is substantial, though you still deny it.”
I wasn’t in denial, not after what happened on the beach at Lords Point. I shook my head and whispered, “I don’t.”
We stood unmoving for several moments. Our stares were an even match. We did that a lot, let our eyes beat into each other. In those moments, words meant nothing. They didn’t exist.
Through my eyes, he dove beneath the surface of his fear and mine and found something buried that neither of us could live with. My death at the hands of our enemy terrified us, but beneath that trepidation lurked something else: irreparable change—the consequence of my necessary imprisonment. Confinement would alter me. I would suffer a slow and painful emotional death. It would leave behind nothing more than an empty shell. We’d never make it as a couple that way. I’d never make it that way.
We remained still without words and together understood what we hadn’t been able to reconcile as individuals, that living was more than assuring breath. We knew what we were up against. The risk of future encounters with assassins was unavoidable.
“All right. I get it,” he said, breaking the silence. “I’ll do whatever it takes to give you as much freedom as I can.”
It was a rare gift, his ability to decode the messages hidden on my pages. The vulnerability of it was unsettling, but it was also one of the things I loved most about him. He could reach me where no one ever had.
I closed the gap between us and wound my arms around his neck. “Thank you, Will.” The words and the flood of tears choked me. I buried my face in his shirt and waited for the thundering of his heart to reset me.
He protected my exposed soul in his arms and waited with me, his words softer than usual. “The thought of losing you . . . it rouses the brutality, drives me mad.”
In a day, my life had become mired in grief, confusion, and fear. I was thrust into a world of death and violence. Sometimes the struggle to rise above it was so heavy that it overwhelmed me to the point of near destruction. I’d lost myself to its darkness once. There was only one thing solid enough to pull me out and keep me out—Will’s belief in my strength.
“Who won?”
“Fuck off, Ethan,” Will said.
I lifted my face and kissed Will’s neck. He and Ethan would discuss security detail for London and then move on to business. I didn’t want any part of it, so I headed to my room.
“How does she do that?” I heard Ethan ask.
“She’s stubborn.” Will never shared what went on between us. Our relationship was ours alone, and he didn’t care what anyone thought.
“And so the king of stubborn learns to compromise. I like it.”
“Don’t press me, brother. You won’t be afforded the same.”
“You aren’t fooling anyone—there’s more to it than you say. The depth between the two of you is, well, impressive. Don’t let her go, brother.” Ethan hesitated. I heard the rustle of newspaper. “She’s quite worth the trouble. I see that now. And, Christ, those eyes.”
“You better never touch her, Ethan.”
“I think we’re all quite clear on that point.”
I ran up the stairs, away from the sound of their pissing match. The Hastings brothers were aggressive males—all four of them. It was like living with a pack of wolves in which the males continued to battle for alpha position. Ethan yielded to his brothers more than I imagined Will might. But when it came down to it, sibling rivalry and egos were set aside, and the eldest male was given his due.
Will
soon texted me: Bond Street
It was just two words, but I knew exactly what it meant. I dove onto the bed with my tablet and grew giddy from the search results, realizing he’d set us up in the heart of an upscale shopping district. Jimmy Choo appeared as one of the listed retailers, and I grinned. Shoes and me, we had a thing.
When we’d left the States, I brought with me what I had had at the cottage and the clothing and shoes Will had grabbed for Lissie and me when he’d picked up our passports, but it wasn’t a lot compared to my well-stocked closet back home. He’d offered to take me back to Stonington for more on our way to the airport, but I had refused.
“I’ll buy you whatever you want in London,” he’d promised. It was a sincere gesture of pure intent. I had no doubt even then that he would give me the moon—rip it to pieces with his bare hands and lay it at my feet, if that’s what I wanted.
“Thank you. . . . Your protection is more than enough. I can take care of myself otherwise,” I had said.
He’d let it drop there, but the spark in his eyes had warned me that wouldn’t be the end of it. It also stirred within me something on a deeper level, reminding me that I was falling for an ambitious man who was driven by winning, and no price would be too high to pay when he desired something.
24
Our bags were packed, and everyone was gathered in the hall as we prepared to leave for London that evening in four cars.
“We’ll go in my car—just you and me,” Will said, a sexy smile curving his mouth. “Ethan will take care of security logistics when we arrive at the hotel. You and I will have dinner.”
I bit my bottom lip to keep from squealing. “Is this . . . have you planned a date?”
“Yes.” His cocky wink made my stomach flutter. “I’ll need to run some numbers later with Ethan, but you first, baby.” He grabbed our bags and went out to bring the car around.
Will had vowed to give me something close to normal, and that’s exactly what he was doing. He tucked me into his sleek black Jag like a gentleman and jumped in, wasting no time as he sped down the ridge for Old London Road.