The Dare Collection April 2019. Nicola Marsh
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my prisoner,’ I said flatly. ‘Prisoners are lucky to get food and water, let alone computers, libraries, pools and loud music.’
‘No need to be a bastard.’
‘I’m your kidnapper. What the fuck do you expect?’
She stared at me, her green eyes sharp. ‘I know why you’re angry. You’re annoyed because you wanted me to come and say hi to you, right?’
Caught off guard, I couldn’t think of a single response.
‘Because all you had to do was say,’ Imogen charged on, not waiting for me to speak anyway. ‘I was around. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.’
Holy shit. The bloody woman thought I’d been hanging around waiting for her to approach me?
She’s right though.
No. Why would I do that? If I wanted something and it didn’t interfere with my plans I went the hell out and got it. I didn’t wait.
But you wanted her and did nothing.
‘Like I said, I’ve been busy.’ I gave her a hard stare. ‘And I still am so turn your fucking music down so I can concentrate.’
She searched my face, her expression turning into something like...understanding. ‘It’s okay, I get it,’ she said, even though I had no idea what she was talking about. ‘But you told me not to hold back and I didn’t. So why are you doing the same thing now?’
‘Holding back?’ I shoved my hands into my pockets, the need to grab her needling at me like an itch I couldn’t scratch. ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’
She let out a sigh, like I was being particularly dense, then closed the distance between us, reaching out to brush her fingers over the fly of my jeans. ‘You’re hard, Ajax.’
I stilled, her touch electric, stealing my breath. It took every ounce of will I had not to take my hands out of my pockets and take her on the pool tiles.
You can’t. You can never have what you want.
‘I told you all I’d give you was a couple of hours,’ I forced out between gritted teeth, ignoring the voice in my head. ‘And I fucking meant it.’
‘I know. But...you still want me.’
I couldn’t deny it, not when the evidence was pressing hard against the front of my jeans. ‘I told you that what I want doesn’t matter.’
A crease appeared between her brows. ‘And I told you that it does. Seriously, Ajax. How does us having sex interfere with the safety of this city? My virginity is gone and you’re dealing with the medical proof. Dad’s never going to know. So what’s the problem?’
The problem was the catch, and there was always a catch. I’d learned that particular lesson in my time as my father’s heir and learned it well.
I’d wanted to protect my brothers, but doing so would have exposed me and then Dad would have taken me down instead of vice versa. More people would have got hurt. And he would have ruled Sydney unchecked.
Sacrifices had to be made and I was the one who’d make them.
There was no room for selfishness in my plans.
It’s great how noble you can make yourself sound.
My jaw tightened.
Imogen shrugged. ‘Oh, well, your loss.’ Reaching around behind herself, she tugged at the tie of her bikini top and I wasn’t sure what she was doing until the whole thing loosened. ‘But you know where I’ll be if you change your mind.’ Pulling the fabric free, she dropped the top on the ground, her perfect little tits bare. ‘I’ll be in the pool.’ Pushing her bikini bottoms down, she stepped out of them then straightened, giving me a look from underneath her lashes. ‘Naked.’
Then she strolled to the side of the pool and dived in.
Every muscle in my body tensed.
The gall of the woman. Stripping naked and swimming in my pool like she didn’t give a fuck. Like I wasn’t standing there aching to get my hands on her and hadn’t been aching for the past two days straight.
Like I hadn’t been using bullshit excuses to stay away from her, when all I really wanted was to take her to bed and keep her there for the next week straight.
You think a prick like you can ever have what he wants?
I shoved the thought from my head, stalking over to the pool, drawn relentlessly by the woman in it.
She was floating on her back with her arms out, her hair moving like silky golden kelp around her head. Her eyes were closed, her naked body the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Pale skin, golden hair, soft pink nipples...
Shit, if there was a catch, I couldn’t find it. And since when had I ever made sex into such a big deal?
Her arms moved lazily in the water and she hummed a song I didn’t recognise, oblivious to me standing on the side of the pool wrestling with my fucking conscience.
It was just sex. No big deal. Her virginity was gone and I was handling that. Taking her to bed wasn’t the start of that slippery slope, the one that led back to the violence of the days I’d left behind. Anyway, she wanted me and who was I to deny her what she wanted? What we both wanted?
I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
I took a moment to kick off my shoes, then I dived in after her.
Imogen
I HEARD THE SPLASH, felt the spray over my face and the movement of the water as Ajax dived in. And my heartbeat accelerated, adrenaline coursing through me.
Yes. My gamble had paid off.
For the past couple of days I’d been hanging out by the pool, hoping he’d come. Hoping that seeing me in my bikini might make him do...something.
Because ever since he’d walked out the morning after we’d slept together, he’d been avoiding me. And I hadn’t been able to get him out of my head.
I hadn’t expected that. I’d thought that once I’d got my little piece of revenge, that would be it. I’d be satisfied. But apparently that’s not how it worked with Ajax.
One night had done nothing to put out the fire of my curiosity.
He hadn’t been around so I’d used the laptop he’d provided to distract me, but all I found myself doing was surfing the Net looking for anything I could find on him. There were old news stories about his father’s arrest and how they’d eventually caught Augustus due to some dodgy financial business dealings. Ajax had been involved with the takedown and I obsessively read everything about it, watched all the interviews that featured him. There weren’t many, but in each one his expression was hard, his eyes glittering. He looked dangerous and mean, and said virtually nothing.
I couldn’t stop watching.
The media viewed him with suspicion and, to be fair, he hadn’t done anything to change their viewpoint. But I wondered why not. Because the man the media had painted him as—the violent heir who’d somehow managed to avoid conviction—was not the man who’d cupped my face as I’d cried, who’d held me close while I’d slept. Who’d insisted that protecting his brothers and his city came before anything else, including himself.
I wanted to know that man quite desperately. It consumed me.
I’d had intense passions like this before—the tropical fish I’d been obsessed with once as a kid that I’d lost interest in a couple of