Shades of dominatioe rom.., p.63
Shades of Domination: Fifty by Fifty #2: A Billionaire Romance Boxed Set, page 63
“They were going to send me home,” I tell Jax. “Like I could go back there after all this!”
Jax careens down the road. The red blips concentrate on a spot well behind us. I’m betting that’s where my bracelet is. I squeal again. We fooled them!
“Would you stop with that damn noise?” Jax growls.
“I’m too excited!” I punch him on the arm. “What are we doing next? Where are we going? Did you find out where Klaus is? I want to meet him!”
With that, Jax jerks off the road and we’re back in the woods again.
21: Jax
I’m not sure what game Mia is playing, but I’m done going along.
I grab her by the neck and squeeze a spot that I know creates a screaming pain through her skull.
Her eyes go bright with pain, but she can’t easily speak while I’m doing this.
My voice is like ice. “Who killed Klaus? Was it you? Or Jovana? Or one of her people?”
I let go. She slumps forward so fast that her forehead bangs the dash.
I wait until I know she is recovered enough to hear me. “Who killed Klaus?” I ask again.
Her back shakes a little, and that annoying protective urge in me is pricked again. I ignore it. “Answer me,” I insist, “or I’ll do that again.”
She sucks in a long shuddering breath. “I—I thought I was special,” she manages to get out.
I grab her shoulder and drag her back against her seat. “I am aware that you have somehow managed to compromise the Vigilante information network. That is no small feat.” I pull my hand away. “That doesn’t tell me who killed Klaus.”
She turns her face to me, eyes wet with pain and fear. “Klaus is dead?”
If her training is this good, I need to know who did it, because her confusion, fear, and innocence are so convincing that I let go of her and sit back.
“He was killed at your safe house, six months ago. Both his record and the notification of his death were deleted.”
She shakes her head. “No. I was there with my aunt. That’s right when I arrived. Almost to the day.” Her eyes plead with me. “We were alone. Nobody was killed there. I never heard of the Vigilantes until you told me.”
I want to tear out my hair, a feeling I’m not used to. Interrogating difficult prisoners was something I used to do all the time. Why is this pathetic sniveling girl getting to me?
I reach to tap my watch, realize it was confiscated at the silo, and manually bring up the dash screen. “Encrypted message,” I say.
The display flashes red, then green. “Encryption initiated,” it says.
“Message to Sam and Colette. Klaus dead. Records deleted. Rendezvous in—” I glance at the countdown to when I have to give up the ID of the car. I can’t push it. “Thirty-six hours.” I give a set of coordinates that will put us near the safe house.
Mia sniffs. “They were going to send me home.” She rubs her neck. “But I didn’t want to go.”
I cut off the communication screen so that it won’t add her ramblings to my message. Her voice sounds so forlorn, so lost.
“All right, I’ll play,” I say. “Why didn’t you want to go home?”
Her green eyes search mine. She looks me over, my hair, the white shirt, now wet and sticking to me, my suit jacket still at the silo. They rest on my hand, which just caused her no small amount of pain.
“Because I want to be with you,” she says. “All the way. With you.”
22: Mia
There, I’ve said it.
Jax’s expression is unreadable. I’ve just bared my pathetic heart. That I want him. I want this life. I don’t want to go home. That he can tie me up. He can do anything he wants. I’m willing.
“Well?” I manage to ask.
The soft dings of the alarms suddenly increase in volume and speed.
Jax glances at the dash. “They’ve found us,” he says. “Damn it.”
He wrenches open his door and dashes around to the trunk. I can’t see what he’s doing with it open, so I climb out of the car, tangled in the heavy, cold, wet dress.
When I get around to the back, Jax is pulling a large gelatinous brick from the trunk. Attached to it is a circuit board with a blinking green light.
“Time to give you your life back,” he says to the brick and heaves it into the underbrush.
He slams the trunk.
“Well?” I ask again. “Will you keep me? I’ll do anything you say. Anything you want.”
He pauses for a second.
“You really have nothing to do with Jovana, do you?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “I don’t.” My heart accelerates. I think he might be agreeing.
“And you’re not trained in any way as an operative?”
“I have the shoes now,” I say, lifting my foot in the white sneaker. “I can start.”
He closes his eyes for a moment, and when they open again, they are glittering and hard.
“I can’t have an innocent civilian come with me,” he says. “I’m a fugitive. I’m already putting my comrades in danger.”
I take two steps closer to him. “Don’t send me back to Tennessee. That’s not where I belong. I can feel it.”
Jax shakes his head. “We’re done here. The Vigilantes obviously know you are a civilian. I’m not sure why they are protecting you, and it doesn’t matter.” He points into the woods where he threw the brick.
“You stay close to that, and they’ll come for you. They’ll take you home.”
I lunge for him. “But I don’t want to go home! I don’t have a home! I have no one!”
I’m not going to let him go. I can’t.
He hesitates a second, and my hope surges. He’s changing his mind. He’ll let me come with him.
“You have no choice, Mia,” he says and pushes me away. “This is not the life for you.” He heads around to his door.
I won’t accept that.
I have to do something. He’ll drive away, and then I’ll never find him again.
He gets in the car and is about to pull the door closed when I leap for it, blocking it with my body.
“Mia, step away,” he says.
I’ve never done anything like what I’m about to do. I don’t even know how. But I know Jax feels something for me. I have to show him that we’re supposed to do this together, that he found me for a reason.
I’ll seduce him. I’ll be the persuasive woman that I was in my letters.
The letters. I glance behind Jax into the backseat. The red bondage rope is still strewn all over it from where I dug through my bag.
Without any hesitation, I jerk my sweater dress up to my waist to give my legs room to move. Jax looks down in surprise at the exposed red thong.
I throw a leg over him and straddle his body. I reach around him, far enough to grab the rope.
Then I’m back.
Jax puts his hands on my waist to lift me away. This gives me the perfect opportunity to wrap his arms in the rope and tie the fastest slipknot ever made. Before he can protest, I’ve got his arms over his head, four more knots locking him to the headrest. His elbows frame his face.
“Nicely done,” he says bitterly. “You want the Vigilantes to catch me, then?”
I swallow hard. I can hear the beeping of the alarm. I ignore it. I have faith that Jax can get us out of any jam.
I put my hands on his cheeks. His stubble isn’t rough, like I thought, but soft. It cushions my palms.
His eyes are dark, a stormy gray-blue. I look at his lips. I’m going to have them. Twice he almost kissed me, but didn’t. This time, I’m not going to let him get away.
I lean in, and we connect. His mouth is warm and softer than I expected. At first he just sits there and lets me move over his lips. I remember the bulge of him between us at the hotel, and I grind against his body.
His chest stills, and I know he’s feeling this. His face relaxes beneath my hands. Now his mouth moves across mine, and he’s kissing me instead of the other way around. His tongue slides between my lips and I automatically open.
I tilt my head to take him in as deeply as I can and a small groan escapes from my throat. I don’t feel cold anymore, not at all, and heat blasts through my body as I move against him. He maneuvers away from my mouth, his lips on my jaw, my neck. I’m utterly lost, drowning in his attention, fire licking through me everywhere we touch.
The ropes fall into our laps and I realize he’s worked himself free. I want to laugh, thinking my silly knots could hold someone like Jax. His arms come around me and press me hard against him. Our mouths find each other again and I want to scream about this feeling I have as we dive into each other again.
His hands stroke my back, my ribs, and come down to my bared thighs. He spreads me wider so I can feel him, hard and erect, pushing up against me. I don’t want anything between us. I want out of this heavy dress, to see him, to feel his skin.
The entire car lights up red inside. “Perimeter surrounded,” the car voice says. “Security breach complete in fifteen seconds.” It begins a countdown.
Jax breaks the kiss. “I hope this is what you wanted,” he says. “Because we’re about to get caught.”
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A Beautiful & Dark
OBSESSION
Anna Antonia
Copyright © 2015 by Anna Antonia
All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from DelSin Publishing, LLC. DelSin Publishing, LLC and the author assume no liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Originally published as “Mad for the Billionaire” under the pen name Charlotte DeCorte. This edition has been expanded with new material not previously found in the original work.
1
Present Day and Time
My legs shook. I placed my hands on the bathroom counter and leaned closer to my reflection. Flushed cheeks and fever-bright eyes suggested I was either sick or had just been fucked out of my mind.
It wasn’t an either/or but an actual both.
What was I thinking to start this up now? It was too soon after seeing Alexander again. I thought I had changed enough to be different or evolved to not be so vulnerable and attached to him. I thought I could handle it.
I was wrong. Already I couldn’t imagine going back to a life without him.
The bathroom door opened. Alexander walked in, dark gaze inscrutable, white shirt unbuttoned, and ice-blue tie unknotted and barely hanging on. His swollen lips were proof of how ravenous and desperate I’d been in kissing him. Red scratch marks scored his broad chest while a small bruise marred his gorgeous abdominals.
My mouth dried, making it difficult to swallow. I tightened my fingers on the granite counter, trying in vain to stop the animalistic lust threatening to once more make me a violent bitch in heat.
“Are you all right, Sophia? You ran out so quickly.”
Alexander’s husky voice sent tremors throughout my body. My half-smile belied the struggle I suffered to keep my traitorous hands to myself. “I’m fine, Alexander.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I turned my attention away from him and focused on rearranging my clothes. My pale-pink bra did have a slight tear but would fortunately hold up long enough to get me out of the building.
Thank God it’s Friday and a three day weekend. Everyone’s probably gone home by now.
I didn’t relish the idea of having to do the “walk of shame”. Never, ever had I dated someone from work much less had sex with the same someone at my workplace. Just like that I tossed my ethics aside for him just as I always had. The instinct to run wiped out all my promises to him.
Nothing had changed. I was still the same unstable basket case when it came to him and that meant I absolutely could not stay here with Alexander. I had to get my head on straight, force some distance until I could get myself together. I needed time. Time to figure out how to start again with the only man I’ve ever loved.
I had to leave. Now.
My urgings surfaced too late. Alexander came over and deliberately stood behind me. He placed his large hands on my shoulders and squeezed.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
My arms fell to my sides, leaving my crimson dress shirt half-buttoned. I dared to look at our reflection. The history between us laid stagnant, still water contaminated by poison-sweet memories. His presence swarmed me, disturbing that murky, dark pool by bringing our shared dysfunctional past back to life.
Once upon a time I would’ve happily died for this man and turned myself inside out just so I could stay by his side just a little bit longer. Alexander was everything to me. The stars above never shined brighter than the ones in his sky-black gaze. Food was sweeter and life was better when by his side.
I was obsessed.
What a stupid, stupid girl I was to think I could once again be around Alexander and stay immune. To be stronger. I still wanted him as badly as ever. I’d give up my soul just like that to be with him forever.
Run. Run. Run.
Alexander towered over me as he had since we were kids. Dark hair tumbled over his smooth brow. I wanted to turn around so I could stand on tip-toe and brush it back. It was a beautiful habit between us. He tumbled, I surged. Denied, my fingers throbbed. They tapped against the cold stone, clacking their disappointment in rhythmic complaint.
It hurt to be this close to him again and still so far away.
“I’m not thinking of anything important. Just thinking.”
“Don’t lie.” Anger edged his tone. “I told you once you opened this door between us there would be no going back. I meant it, Sophia. I’m not going to let you run away from me or from us.”
My core clenched. I couldn’t help but respond to his words physically. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just…” My voice trailed off. I didn’t have to say I already regretted my impulse. I knew I disappointed him with my behavior.
“What?”
I had to tell him the truth, especially when he looked at me like that. “We shouldn’t have done that, Alexander. Not yet, not when I feel this way for you.”
Humor dripped heavy, banishing the anger from his gaze. “Why not?”
“Because…”
“Don’t look down, Sophia. Look up and say it.”
I obeyed out of habit and more than a little longing. His mirror stare didn’t allow mine to escape. Alexander’s eyes gleamed defiant, haunted with old memories and mine wounded from the very same ones. His brooding glare brought back humid afternoons, sweat staining every inch of skin, air so heavy it damned near hurt to breathe.
This was the man who taught me how to yearn for someone so badly I’d just about kill to have him look my way. Alexander taught me how to love, how to come, and how to die inside.
He was so very dangerous to me and to the glass tower I had built to keep safe from my past, from my weaknesses. Alexander and all my sad memories attached to him were going to be my undoing. I didn’t want him to see me like this, weak and grasping for crumbs of attention.
Helpless, hopeless, and still so very enamored with having Alexander right there with me, I repeated it again. “We shouldn’t have done that.”
“Tell me why we shouldn’t have done something that is so very natural and right between us? Something that never died no matter what lies you’ve spun to convince yourself otherwise. Tell me so I can know you.”
I glared at our reflection, hating the even tone that still had the power to make me feel like the stupid girl I once was, back then in a compressed world so different from this one.
“Back then” was simple when I tagged after him, hidden in the shadows, hoping Alexander would notice me and maybe come to love me like I’d always loved him.
Those thoughts hurt as much as they comforted. His silken touch dragged me back to our present.
“Sophia, answer me.”
“You know why. Don’t make me say it.”
“No, I don’t. So say it.”
His elegant, aristocratic southern drawl demanded obedience. Mine rebelled, slipping into the sharp twang that betrayed my humble origins. High-pitched and angry like a swarm of feral bees, I spat, “What’s there worth saying, Alexander? You know the words, heard them a million times over! I haven’t changed! You got that? I. Still. Haven’t. Changed.”
Like a broken record, my recriminations flooded the inside of my head.
I loved you. You made all my teenage dreams come true when you went out with me. Then you dumped me senior year and it nearly destroyed me. Like an idiot I started up with you again at UNC, thinking it was Fate’s way of righting all the things that went wrong for us. Instead we treated each other like shit so I dumped you first. Done.
And I’m afraid we’ll do it all over again.
He didn’t respond to my anger. He said in a firm clear voice, “Instead of worrying about what you think is wrong with you, why don’t you try something new?”
