So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.’”
My breath catches and my cheeks flush as he quotes Shakespeare at me, his tone hushed, reminding me of the first time he told me he loved me on Halloween.
“Whispering sweet nothings already, eh, boy?!” Chad shouts from across the table, my eyes darting up in time to see him lick his fucking lips again as he looks at me, and effectively dousing all my warm and fuzzies.Wanker.
“Chad,” Julian snaps out, my head turning to see him with narrowed grey eyes, staring at the other man.
“Apologies, Julian,” Chad murmurs, looking quickly down in an act of submission.What the fuck is going on?
“Let’s eat,” Julian announces, his tone light as if he didn’t just tell off his business partner and long-term friend.
Ash squeezes my hand before letting go and picking up his cutlery to eat. I look at my plate, noticing a seafood starter, then stare panicked at my cutlery, having no fucking clue which ones to use.
“Outside in, sweetie,” a soft voice says to my left, and I turn with a grateful smile as Jannet, Jax’s mum, picks up her own smaller set of cutlery from the outside and pointedly looks at mine.
“Thanks,” I chuckle, copying her. “I was a little lost.”
“It’s a small thing in return for the kindness that you’ve shown my boy,” she whispers, her hands shaking, making the fork scrape lightly on the plate. “For helping him to...get clean.” She speaks the last part so quietly, if I weren’t already leaning in, I would have missed it.
My heart aches for her, tears springing to my eyes. Although I hope I would never be under the thumb of a man, to the point that I let him get my son addicted to drugs, I don’t blame her for being unable to stop it. By all accounts, she is the victim of domestic abuse, and you can see it clearly in the way she holds herself, like her very soul is injured.
“I love him,” I confess to her, just as quietly as she spoke to me. “I love them all, and would do so much more for them.”
“I know,” she whispers back. “And they clearly love you in return. I could see it the moment you walked in. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for what is about to come.”
My heart throbs at her words, my breathing quickening as visions of a bloodbath fills my mind's eye. Before I can respond, Julian stands up, hitting his wine glass gently with a fork, the tinkling sound halting all speech in the room.
“Before we move onto the main course of the evening, I have a little announcement to make,” he says, his face wreathed in smiles as he turns to look at me. Ash’s grip on my hand becomes bruising at the same time my brows furrow. “Asher?”
Ash lets go of my hand, turning in his chair to face me as he reaches into his trouser pocket. He’s wearing a tux like the others, but I barely register that as my vision zeros in on the small black velvet box that he’s holding out in front of him.
“Lilly Darling,” he starts, opening the box, and I see the twinkle of a diamond and ruby inside. “Will you make me the happiest of all men, and do me the greatest honour, of becoming my wife?”
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
LILLY
Istare at the unusual glittering diamond and ruby ring, nestled in deep crimson silk, dumfounded. The sound of a chair crashing to the floor behind me registers, along with a growled curse, but it’s as if it’s all far away, in some other place.
“Marry you?” I whisper, finally looking up into Ash’s face. His steel eyes are swirling, a myriad of emotions running through them, but the overarching one is a plea, begging me to trust him. My brows draw down, my head shaking slightly. “Why?” I ask, but this time I look at Julian. After all, he’s the one behind this, the puppetmaster. “Why do you want me to marry Ash?”
He smirks at me, and I want to fucking punch his perfectly straight teeth out of his devil’s mouth.
“How was your little trip to London, Darling?” he asks instead, tipping his head to one side like a snake contemplating its prey. I hate that he uses my surname like a term of endearment. Shivers cascade over me as I’m trapped in his predator’s leer, and in my peripheral vision, I see Ash stiffen further until he’s become the Ice Knight everyone knows him to be. “You didn’t think we wouldn’t know about your jaunt, did you?” And then Julian tsks at me like a naughty wayward child, and my blood boils at the fucking audacity of this man. “That somehow, we wouldn’t know about those bonds and shares inourcompany your mother had hidden away.”
I can feel my face go cold, the blood draining from it, and no doubt leaving me pale and terrified looking. And I am. I’m fucking scared shitless at what this means.
“Now,” he starts, stepping out from his space and coming slowly, menacingly, towards me, leering eyes holding mine. “We can’t have a slip of a girl like you, who knows nothing about the work that has gone into Black Knight Corporation to make it the great enterprise that it is today, holding us to ransom. At first, I thought that we could just...dispose of you, like we usually do to things that get in our way,” A growl sounds behind me—Jax, no doubt—but my eyes are full of the crazed grey of Julian’s, unable to look away. “But then, everything goes to your uncle, as your next of kin, and that doesn’t help us much either.”