I thought if I could play as a whore, the man would buy it. If he was here to hurt Jonathan, he wouldn’t hurt a whore, would he?
“He did the same thing to me for years,” the man said. “Not quite like this, not literally, but he left money on the dresser and cuffed me away from it. Teasing me. Showing me. Commanding me. How do you stand it? I know I couldn’t.”
“I do what I’m told,” I replied.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said. “I wish I could see your eyes.”
“Take off the blindfold then.”
He laughed.
His hands touched my sides and I wiggled my hands and body. That only made the man enjoy it more so I stopped. When his hands climbed over my breasts, I put my head back and let out a desperate moan. A growling moan. A hate filled moan.
“Just stop this,” I said. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want Black to feel pain,” the man said. “Real pain. The pain he caused me and everyone else in his life. He’s a worthless man, a worthless human. The only thing he has is money. Nothing else but money.”
I felt the words pelting me, much like in the cab. I didn’t want to believe a thing, I wanted to stay committed to Jonathan Black’s request to trust him… and I tried… I really tried… but this was the second time in a day that I was threatened by some enemy of his.
“Why don’t you come with me, sweetheart? Come with me. I can treat you right. Show you the world, show you something beyond handcuffs and blindfolds. Is this what you really want out of your life? I’d shower you with roses, gentle kisses…”
“You don’t know me,” I said. “Get away from me. If Jonathan comes back…”
“Oh, Jonathan? Really? Nobody calls him Jonathan. So, you’re not a whore, are you? You’re really
his
?”
Fuck.
I’d put myself in a corner – handcuffed in a corner – over one word.
“I’m… I’m…”
The man stood and put his lips to mine, his tongue fluttering in my mouth. I pressed my head forward, trying to push him away as hard as I could. I screamed but it was muffled by his mouth on mine. He pulled away and let out a cackle of a laugh that ignited a flame inside of me that I’d never felt before. It was the fight or flight instinct kicking in. I obviously couldn’t
flight
out of the situation, so I had to fight.
My chances felt shattered when he took a gun from his suit jacket.
Another gun.
I wanted to cry and maybe should have, but I couldn’t get rid of the horrid taste in my mouth.
As he started to move the gun, my eyes were intent on it, through the inch of sight from the blindfold moving.
I knew I wasn’t going to be able to reach the gun right then so I did the next best thing possible… I kicked my foot up and when I felt it connect, I knew I had hit him square in the knee. The hit took him off guard and he feel to his knee, yelling in pain. He didn’t have his finger on the trigger of the gun and his head fell back for a second as he yelled. When he looked at me, I almost froze at the sight of his face, but my foot was swinging again. I kicked his wrist, sending the gun out of his hand. I wanted to follow it but I was stuck on his face.
“Oh my,” I said as I tried to swing my foot again.
This time, he grabbed my foot and twisted then pushed, sending me backwards.
I cried out for help and then watched as he stood over me. His face was red and in pain, but I knew that face. I’d remember it forever.
“Tell Black that I got what he wanted,” the man said. “And if you stay with him long enough, you’ll end up like the rest…”
He blew me a kiss and then was gone.
I held my breath, trying to listen to hear if he was going to find the gun and kill me. I exhaled when the door to the hotel room shut again.
“Jonathan,” I whispered, my heart in fear for myself, but aching for him.
I needed him to come save me and I needed to tell him who was in the room.
-11-
I could feel his body shaking
. My head rested perfectly in the bend of his elbow, feeling comfortable against his muscle. His other arm wrapped tight around my body, his hand open and flat against my back.
“Isabella Grace…”
Jonathan had come back in a fit of rage. When he tore through the door, I felt my nerves tense, thinking the other man was back. He saw me on the floor and started to scream. He took the blindfold away and took the cuffs off, and just held me.
“He didn’t hurt me,” I whispered. “He took the money though…”
“Of course he did,” Jonathan growled. “Of course he did.”
“Jonathan… your meeting…”
“It was a joke. I was set up.”
“Set up?”
“It was already disbanded.”
“It was him,” I said. “He was here.”
“Who was here?”
I turned my head and looked into his eyes, his eyes of rage and hate. His eyes that looked like a crushed little boy, someone who had just been picked on by a bully.
“Your partner, the guy with the company. It was Oliver Rush who did this.”
As Jonathan’s nostrils flared, his grip tightened on me.
“Why didn’t you scream for help?”
“I thought it was you as first. But the blindfold moved and I saw him…”
“He touched you? Where?”
“He tried to touch between my legs. He touched my breasts, over my shirt. And he kissed me. But I kicked him, kicked the gun out of his hand…”
“The gun?”
I nodded, my eyes filling with tears. “He had a gun, but I stopped him.”
“Son of a bitch,” Jonathan said. “He took all the money from the company and now this. He set me up for this. He knew I’d be here, he knew…”
Jonathan lost his own words. A man that sexy and powerful left with no words filled me with fear. The wheels were turning in his mind and the mind of a man like Jonathan Black was not the mind of a normal man.
“What did he do?” I asked.
“He liquated everything, took all the cash, left me with the rest.”
“He took the money on the dresser too,” I said again, because to me, twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money.
Jonathan shook his head. “That’s nothing. He took two billion from me.”
I gasped.
Two billion dollars…
“And it’s not the money I care about,” Jonathan said. “It’s the principle. And now this, with you.”
“I’m fine,” I said.
Jonathan looked down at me. “I have to make this up to you. I cuffed you and blindfolded you for your trust… for you to show me your trust…”
“I trust you, with my life,” I said.
“How did he get in here?” Jonathan asked.
“He said to ask you… you’re the know it all…”
“A breach,” Jonathan said. “There’s a breach in my group then. Someone inside, being paid off. First, it’s Cresh in the cab, and now Rush, here. But he’s gone too far. We’re going to make this right, Isabella Grace.”
“How?”
“I’m going to take back what’s mine. Tell me what you want me to do to him. Tell me. This is your one chance to tell me something.”
I had nothing to say. The look in Jonathan’s eyes told me he was serious. He would do anything, if I just said it.
Anything.
“Keep looking at me,” Jonathan said. “Don’t stop looking at me.”
“I need you,” I said.
It was the only thing that came to mind.
“Of course you do, I’m still in control, aren’t I?”
“Of course you are,” I said.
And it was true, Jonathan Black was in control, more than ever right now. I needed him to hold me, touch me, take away the memory of Oliver Rush touching me and tasting my mouth. I needed him to protect me… and I… I needed to know Jonathan. All of him. I needed to experience it all, no matter where the path took us.
“I know what I have to do,” Jonathan said. “I know how to make this right again.”
I swallowed and closed my eyes. I knew I could have kept my mouth shut and let him talk himself out of what he was going to say. But I didn’t. Having Jonathan hold me in his strong arms gave me a sense of confidence too. A controlled confidence.
I responded to him with a simple question, “How?”
He responded with a serious answer.
“I’m going to kill him.”
My heart jolted and my body shook for a second. Jonathan didn’t gently console me either. His hands were stiff and intent.
I opened my eyes and looked at him.
He was serious.
I opened my mouth to perhaps plead with him – I don’t know – but Jonathan put his mouth to mine. He washed away the horrible taste of Oliver Rush with a simple kiss of his own. As he kissed me, my body pressed against his and I wanted nothing more than to melt into him and just be with him. Every moment of every day.
He broke the kiss and repeated his words.
“I’m going to kill him.”
Then ran one of his fingers along my lips and his eyes were so focused on me, I had a hard time breathing. His stare was bold and erotic.
And sexy.
“Oh, Isabella Grace,” he whispered, “I’m going to kill Oliver Rush… and you’re going to help me.”
Don’t miss what happens next in
BY HIS COMMAND #3:
His Desire
Isabella Grace wants nothing more than to be in the strong arms of Jonathan Black. She wants him to hold her forever. She wants to forget about almost being attacked and she wants to forget what Jonathan told her…
“I’m going to kill Oliver Rush… and you’re going to help me.”
She hopes that he was speaking out of anger, caught up in the moment. Isabella quickly learns that when Jonathan Black says something, he fully intends on making it happen.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First electronic edition October 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Ana W. Fawkes
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.