Getting into the auction wasn’t as hard as I thought. I let them believe I was ready to finally take them up on their invitation. I’ve steadily declined for several months rolling. They were all too happy to throw the doors open for me.
I feel like shit Nova found out the hard way there are few friends in this world. My crew and I dropped the ball on letting that fucking prick Jacob down at Diablo’s dive bar where she works shuffle her off to the Volkovs. A mistake he’ll pay for.
But at least I have her now.
I leave instructions with Rage to care for Avery, the other woman’s freedom I secured and head up two flights of stairs. I pass Fergie in the hallway. “Keep everyone on the main level. This might get loud.”
“She’s got fight in her, Ares, but she’s scared too.” I stop and turn and get a sharp red nail in my chest along with a key. “You hear me? I don’t like this.”
I know this rattles her morals but none of us are saints here. “I know, Fergie. I know. But this was the only way.”
She waves a wrinkly hand through curling cigarette smoke. And says in a voice raspy from her pack-a-day habit, “You’re wrong. But like all stupid men, you’ll have to learn that the hard way.” Only Fergie takes me head-on and I do nothing about it but stand there and take it. And with that I’m left looking back at her as she leaves me on the third floor with trouble in a white dress on my hands.
I slip the key Fergie gave me into the lock and make sure to slam the door behind me giving my bride time to accept my presence in the room. She jumps where she stands on the far side, making her dress sway around her legs. It’s an ugly behemoth at best and my fingers itch to lower the zipper, slide the thing off her, and put her into something I paid for.
I move across the room and the closer I get the stronger the urge I have to rip the Volkov brothers limb from limb.
“Stop. Don’t come any closer. Leave me. I’ll kill you.”
I smirk. She’s got a smart mouth, that’s for damn sure. She can’t see me through the thick sack over her head so she’s jumping around like she’s done a few lines of coke in the past hour.
“Da, my little she-devil. I believe you. Given the chance. But that’s big talk for a woman who’s tied and bagged.” I reach for the black bag and yank it off her head. Fiery blue eyes laser in on me through a curtain of white hair. Solid iron pierces my heart and for a moment, I don’t breathe. This close I can appreciate the beautiful unblemished porcelain skin that matches the light hair. A spattering of freckles splashes over her bare shoulders. Perhaps not the most favorable aspect in a woman’s opinion, but I find them irresistible to look away from. The flush of red to her cheeks brings out the hints of deep blue specs in her eyes. The contrast between the two shades is every bit as hypnotizing as music to a cobra. Kissable full lips blush a deep red probably from biting them on the ride over. I want to nibble at those creamy shoulders to see if she’s as sweet as she looks. It’s all I can do to stop myself from stripping this dress off to see all those curves again under a new light. No part of me doubts she’ll be more than a handful in and out of bed.
Damn if I don’t love a woman who makes me work for it. And she’s beautiful.
Therein lies the problem. Too beautiful. I’m tempted to let her walk. She doesn’t deserve the shit she’s gone through. I can find another way to take down the Volkov brothers. But my options are few and far between. I reconsider each of them, but no. I’m on a timetable which means she’s in this whether she likes it or not. We both are. I don’t have time to rework my angles.
She stays.
Carpet cushions my steps as I slowly make my way closer. She jumps when I reach for her tied hands.
“But I don’t plan on giving you that chance, Nova Masters.”
She must have given them hell with how tight they knotted the rope. I loosen the knot and slowly unwind the rough length from her wrists and halfway up her arms. Welts pucker her perfect skin.
Son-of-a-bitches marked my property.I clench my teeth at the direction of my irrational thoughts. Ire hits me head-on for the pain she must have felt. I get to the final knot and drop the rope on the floor unceremoniously, her defiant glare locked with mine.
In that second I realize my error.
Piercing Xena warrior cries tear through the room and a force of grit, determination and all-woman power plows into me.
Her bellow of rage catches me off guard and so does her next move. I receive a dainty but pretty damn strong shoulder right beneath the rib cage and the next ten seconds are punctuated with a searing pain that leaves me blind.
Lamps, magazines, bowls of loose change, and about thirty other items I keep on nearby tables all go crashing to the floor. Sparks and an electrical hiss tell me I’ll be lucky if the house doesn’t catch on fire.
I grunt, double over and we both tumble. A look of almost comical horror dashes over her flushed face. I tuck her smaller frame and the masses of her wedding dress into me and roll our combined weight, taking the unforgiving edge of a nightstand to the ribs. I’ve always wanted to visit space and right that second there are so many stars dancing across my vision it’s like I took a direct flight.
“Humph.” The carpet is not as forgiving as you think. We both land with a thump and I grit through the burn of pain shooting through me. We come to a rolling stop in the middle of the floor, her pinned beneath my substantial body. My arms are still around her and I know my weight has to be crushing her but fuck if I can move.
“Hold the hell up, woman,” I groan as she wiggles and thrashes under me. “Keep moving like that and we are going to have a completely different problem.”
Every inch she rotates those hips puts her core in direct contact with my cock. I’m only human here.
“What the hell is your problem? I just paid so you could get out of that place. Now you want to go back?”
I’m talking into her shoulder and my words are muffled.
She sets off on another wave of fighting and scrambling. I shoot up but keep her locked in place by crouching over her. Creamy legs wrap around my middle and well, to anyone looking on it would look like a totally different scenario happening here.