The Dare Collection April 2019. Nicola Marsh
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me close to his chest. ‘Sleep,’ he murmured roughly in my ear. ‘You’ve earned it.’
He was warm and his big body wrapped around me made me feel safe. And, even though I didn’t want to, I found myself falling into sleep all the same.
I slept like the bloody dead.
So deeply that when I finally opened my eyes again I wasn’t sure where I was. At least not until I reached for the big masculine body that I somehow knew would be beside me, only to find it gone.
I cracked open an eye, wondering why I was so annoyed.
The other side of the bed was empty. And then I remembered.
Ajax.
Pleasure swept through me, a sweet, sensual ripple that reminded me of the night before and all the things we’d done. All the things I’d done. My body felt like it had been put through its paces, muscles aching in unusual places and most especially between my legs.
But it wasn’t a bad hurt. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded more because I was even hungrier for him now than I had been the night before.
Was it normal to want someone like that, even after a night of having sex with them? Or was that just him?
You already know the answer to that one.
I scowled at the thought, just as Ajax walked out of the en suite bathroom wearing nothing but a pair of low-slung jeans and carrying a black T-shirt in one hand.
‘Good morning, little one,’ he said in that deep, husky voice of his. ‘Or is it not so good, judging by that scowl?’
I lay there for a moment, staring at him. He must have had a shower because I could see the moisture on his skin, a drop sliding down one pec and slowly over the cut lines of his abs.
My mouth watered. I wanted to lick that drop off his skin and then lick the rest of him as well.
‘You weren’t here,’ I said. ‘That’s what I was scowling about.’
A flame glowed in his eyes as he took in my obvious appreciation. ‘I had a shower. Some of us have things to do today.’
‘I could have joined you.’ Only just missing a pout, I sat up. ‘You should have woken me up.’
‘I didn’t want to wake you.’ He moved over to the side of the bed and reached out, gently pushing a strand of my hair behind my ear, making me shiver as his fingertips brushed my skin. ‘Stay here and I’ll bring you breakfast.’
Oh, yes. Breakfast. Suddenly I was starving.
‘Breakfast in bed?’ I asked hopefully.
‘Of course.’
‘With you?’
The flame in his eyes flickered, his hand dropping away. ‘Not this morning.’
Disappointment gathered inside me. ‘It would just be for half an hour. Not long. I could eat really fast—’
‘Your father wants to see you, Imogen.’
The words cut across me like a whip.
Suddenly I wasn’t hungry any more.
‘Oh.’ All the good feelings I had were slipping away, leaving me with nothing but a core of ice.
I didn’t want to see Dad. He was going to be so angry and that anger wouldn’t be directed at Ajax. It would be directed at me. For shirking my duty, for the debt I owed to my mother’s memory.
Why do you care? What can he do to you anyway?
I couldn’t help caring; that was the problem. Dad was one thing, but I cared about my mother too. She’d died to give birth to me and that was a sacrifice I could never repay. It hurt. Every day, it hurt.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ajax said, watching me. ‘I should have told you last night, but we got...distracted. He wants to make sure that you’re okay and that I haven’t touched you.’
‘Uh, well, you kind of have now.’ Restlessness filled me, the need to move becoming almost overwhelming. I shifted, hauling the sheet around me, but Ajax was suddenly there in front of me, his hand reaching out, a finger beneath my chin, tipping my head back.
‘What are you afraid of?’ he asked. ‘I won’t let him take you.’
I swallowed, my throat gone tight. ‘I’m not afraid.’
It was a lie and we both knew it.
‘He can’t touch you, Imogen. I’ll make sure of it. All you have to do is tell him you’re okay, and we’re out of there.’
But being taken by Dad wasn’t what I was afraid of. It was that I’d let him make me feel like shit again, let him use me again, and all because I couldn’t bear the weight of the debt I owed.
‘What about a video of me or something?’ At least in a video I wouldn’t have to see that contempt in his eyes. ‘Would that be enough?’
‘Talking to you was a condition of him leaving the city and taking some of his friends with him.’
Oh. Damn.
‘So, hypothetically, what would happen if I don’t see him?’ I tried to sound casual, to not make it into a big deal.
The look on Ajax’s face hardened. ‘He might make himself difficult. Which means I’ll be forced to take more extreme measures.’
My heart caught. ‘What “extreme measures”?’
His expression become even more wintry, his eyes pale as frost. ‘That all depends on how difficult he turns out to be.’
Okay, perhaps I didn’t want to know what his ‘extreme measures’ were, nor did I want to put him in the position of having to take them.
‘You don’t need to do that,’ I said quietly.
But the ice in Ajax’s gaze glittered. ‘Your father is a liability, Imogen, make no mistake. He’s a threat to this city. And the safety of this city and the people in it come before everything.’
Conviction vibrated in his voice and I found myself staring at him, unable to look away. ‘What do you mean, the safety of this city?’
He lifted his head, somehow becoming taller, broader. Stronger. ‘My father hurt a lot of people. He murdered them, stole from them. It took me years to bring that motherfucker down and I’ve spent the last five mopping up the rest of the mess he left.’ Beneath the ice in his eyes, a ferocious belief burned. ‘No one else is going to take his place. Believe me, I will never allow another Augustus King to rise.’
The words were more than a promise. They were a vow.
‘Wow, you’re kind of like Batman,’ I said, not a little impressed. ‘Why?’
His expression twisted and for a second I glimpsed a terrible rage burning deep inside him. ‘Why? Why do you think? It was my father who nearly ruined it.’
‘So? That doesn’t mean you have to clean it up.’
His expression became shuttered. ‘Someone has to.’
‘But why you?’ I wasn’t arguing with him. I genuinely wanted to know.
‘Because there is no one else.’ Turning away, he pulled on his T-shirt, covering up all those beautiful muscles and ink. ‘Stay in bed,’ he ordered as he stalked towards the door. ‘Breakfast will be here in ten.’
Then he was gone, leaving me alone.
Ajax