“I said stop… I’m a police officer and have given you a clear directive. If you don’t comply immediately, I will arrest you.”
Jason heard Nathan chuckle. If he wasn’t so pissed off with this skinny kid—the one who couldn’t keep from prancing from foot to foot, showing just how nervous he was about the confrontation—Jason might have laughed too. But the reality of the situation Jason did not find amusing in the least.
This cop wouldn’t have a clue how to stop a real threat to Toni’s safety.
Jason just growled in the kid’s direction and directed Toni through the now opening lift door, checking first that the car was empty.
“He’s with me, Constable. I’m Nathan Haven, head of Mr. Grimaldi’s personal security.” As the lift doors closed, Jason glimpsed Nate holding out his identification.
“I hate coming here,” Toni’s voice was a whisper beside him.
“We stay until you tell me it’s time to go. Okay, luv?” Jason used his index finger under Toni’s chin to tilt her head up, so he could look into her face. “I do what you want. Remember that. Your father doesn’t have a say anymore. It’s me and you.” Jason brushed his lips quickly over Toni’s, heard her little sigh as their mouths connected and felt a sense of relief. It was the same sexy sound he had come to enjoy over the past weeks.
“Most people, including myself, find it difficult to go against my father’s wishes, Jason, so I will understand if you can’t hold up to that promise. Just don’t disappear without letting me know, okay?”
She still doesn’t get it. There’s no one on earth that could keep me from her side. Nate, Grimaldi… No one. I’m with her for as long as she wants.
Toni not wanting Jason around would be the only reason he’d go and it was a reason he hoped he didn’t have to face at all. He’d be happy to add the word forever when it came to Toni but Jason still feared that would never happen. Eventually Toni would see him for who he was—an uneducated ex-soldier with nothing to offer her and she would move on to some man more acquainted with her way of life.
The lift doors opened and Jason had his first glance at what it was like to be a Grimaldi, to live in that kind of world. The view from the floor-to-ceiling glass windows looked out over the city and harbor. It was spectacular. Turning his head to the side just a little so he could see more of the panoramic view, Jason let out a whistle.
“Okay, so the view is quite breathtaking. I’ll admit it.” Toni shrugged her shoulders. “Just not enough of a payoff for the rest of the visit. Just wait, you’ll see what I mean, Jason.”
“Miss Grimaldi, finally! Your father has been waiting for you all morning.”
A squirrelly looking man hurried toward Toni, and Jason automatically took a step in front of her, blocking the squirrel’s path. He felt Toni’s hand on his back as she stepped up beside him.
“Please, Charles, give me a break. You and my father knew exactly what time my plane touched down and how long it would take me to get here from the airport. Go be useful. Organize some coffee for Jason and me. Oh and, Charles, we’ll have it in Dad’s office.”
Jason watched on in amusement as Mr. Squirrel’s eyes grew round and a big blue vein popped up on the squirrel’s head. Jason thought the guy was going to blow a fuse. Toni had given him a bit of an earful. Jason had never really heard her stick up for herself like that. She never queried waiter mistakes or got annoyed if people pushed in front of her in a queue. She was normally so calm—perhaps a little timid. But this Toni was staring Mr. Squirrel down. Jason couldn’t help chuckle when the squirrel lowered his head and scurried away, muttering something inaudible.
“Way to go, luv. Don’t take shit from anyone. I’ve got your back.”
Toni turned to face him. “I wish you had me on my back.”
Jason nearly swallowed his tongue. His dick, in complete agreement with Toni, started to twitch, show its interest.
“Antoinette… Antoinette. I thought I heard your voice. Thank God you have returned, my darling daughter, where I can see for myself that you are safe.”
Frank Grimaldi in the flesh
,
as the average height but quite rounded figure rushed up to Toni and threw his arms around her.
“I’m so glad to see you, Antoinette. Thank you for coming here first from the airport and not home. I’m sure you are weary from the long flight but I needed to see you were safe with my own eyes,” Grimaldi gushed, and Jason swore he saw a tear in the old guy’s eye. This was not the greeting he had been expecting from Toni’s father, considering the way she had spoken of the man.
Grimaldi finally stopped hugging Toni and turned his attention toward Jason.
Jason readied himself, sure that he was about to hear Grimaldi dismiss his services, now Toni was safely back in her father’s arms.
“Jason Beck, I presume,” Grimaldi said. “I’ve heard good reports about you from Mr. Haven. He says you are his best man. I’m hoping the last few weeks keeping my daughter safe have not tired you and that I can count on your continued services to keep my Antoinette out of harm’s way?”
Jason was stunned! He nearly didn’t see the hand Grimaldi held out to him.
The man wants to shake my hand—wonder if he’d feel the same way if he knew what other things I’ve done to his daughter.
Jason accepted Grimaldi’s outstretched offering.
“Nice to meet you, sir,” Jason said as they shook hands.
At least he’s got a firm grip.
“You have my personal guarantee. Toni is my top priority. No one is hurting her on my watch.”
This is not the way my dad behaves. What the hell is going on?
Toni couldn’t believe the way her father had hugged her. She couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d even touched her, let alone nearly crushed her ribs with the force of his embrace.
And now he was shaking Jason’s hands like they were friends. Frank Grimaldi hardly ever shook hands with anyone. Toni could remember a time, at some dinner party somewhere, when her father had left the Prime Minister hanging. Yet here he was pumping fists with her Jason. Of course her father was unaware of her relationship with the man he’d just begged to keep his daughter safe.
“Good to hear, Jason… That certainly is good to hear. Antoinette, come let your mother see you. She has been as worried as I.”
Toni was beginning to think she’d been transported to some kind of twilight zone. Her mother was in the office? She never came here. “Mother is here?” she blurted out.
Still finding it hard to imagine, she took off in the direction of her father’s inner sanctum to see for herself. She burst through the door and there indeed, Toni found her mother, Eva, sitting in one of the big leather chairs that were scattered about the room. Owner and CEO of Grimaldi Holdings, Frank Grimaldi’s office was a huge area that took up more than half the entire floor. “Hello, Mother.” Toni noticed it took her mother a considerable amount of effort to get to her feet as she rose slowly from the chair. “Mum, what’s wrong? They told me you didn’t get hurt in the accident.”
“Of course they did, dear. I didn’t want you to worry when you were so far away. It’s nothing really, bruised ribs and spleen from the seatbelt more than anything,” Toni’s mother explained as she patted Toni on the arm. “I will be fine, even better now I know you are home safely.”
This was getting really eerie—her parents were acting just like Toni had dreamed on many occasions they might. But this time it was no dream.
Jason must be thinking I’m a liar, whinging and moaning about how horrible my parents are to me. Seriously, have I gone mad or something? Am I dreaming this whole thing—Jason, the holiday, all this drama? Only one way to find out…
Toni pinched her own arm with her thumb and index finger. “Ouch!”
Jason pulled her hand away from her arm. “What are you doing, luv?” he asked, his voice full of concern.
“Just checking I’m awake. Nothing to worry about, Jason, just had a bit of a twilight zone moment.”
“Why don’t we all sit down,” her father said. “I heard you ask Charles to bring you some coffee. He should be here soon. There are some things we need to discuss, unfortunately.”
Toni, her mother and father sat. Jason remained standing beside the office doorway. Toni was just about to call him over, include him in the discussion that was about to take place, when her father beat her to it.
“Mr. Beck, please join us, have some coffee. You need to be part of this discussion as well.”
Toni wasn’t sure who was more shocked by the offer, her or Jason.
Now they were all seated, Toni’s father began to fill her in on what was happening at Grimaldi Holdings and the Cardona Mine, and, more important to Toni, what was being planned to help care for the families involved in the disaster at the mine site.
Chapter Twelve
Up to this point in his life, Jason had thought he had a concept of how the other half lived. He’d been wrong. Now having experienced life in the first-class section of a plane, standing on the floor that housed Grimaldi’s office in the building the man owned, and now seeing the mansion the family lived in—all in the space of one day—made his head spin. It was pure opulence. He could not even imagine the amount of money that would be needed to achieve such excess. It made the divide that he was sure existed between him and Toni even harder to ignore.
“So this is where you spend your nights,” he muttered as he took in the size of her bedroom, a floor space that would encompass his own home twice.
“Yep. Pretty hideous, isn’t it? I had nothing to do with the gaudy décor. That was all Mum,” Toni replied. “I just never could be bothered arguing with her about it. It does have a nice big bed, though,” she added with a smile that made Jason’s insides quiver. “Wanna try it out?”
“Don’t tease me, luv. Just the mention of you and bed has me thinking dirty, wicked thoughts. But this is your father’s house—what if someone walks in? How do you think he will feel about me and you—?”
“Stop right there, Jason,” Toni cut in, her hands pushed against his chest. “I don’t care what my father thinks. It has been one hell of a day, and I need to feel your arms around me. I want the touch of your body next to mine, reminding me that some things in my life are the same as they were yesterday. Please don’t push me away. I can see it in your face that you are uncomfortable with what my family has. I don’t care about any of it. I never have. Don’t you see that?”
Jason could not deny Toni or himself any longer. He swept her up in his arms. “I’m trying, baby. I really am. I think my fragile male ego is finding it all hard to deal with,” he said, trying to make light of his concerns as he carried her to the bed. “One thing I do know is I want to touch you, have wanted to get you naked and sprawled out on a bed since the moment I saw you all dressed up for me back in London. It seems like a lifetime ago.”
He’d hardly lowered Toni to her bed before she was up on her knees, her fingers moving frantically as she tried to undo his belt buckle. He covered her hands with his own. “Let’s make a deal. I’ll ditch my clothes if you take care of yours. Last one naked is at the other’s mercy.” The words were barely out of his mouth before Toni was scrambling to get out of her top.
Jason couldn’t decide if he wanted to win this bet or not. Usually he took the dominant role in any sexual encounter—it was just in his nature to stay in control—but everything about Toni had Jason tied up on knots. She made him feel things he’d never experienced before, emotions so unexplainable they churned up his guts, made his heart feel like it was about to explode inside his chest. That was even before his dick entered into the equation.
Jason levered off his boots one by one then stripped out of his clothes, before leaving the discarded items in a heap on the floor. He crawled toward her on the bed. “You are so fucking hot, Toni. I lose my mind whenever I even think of you naked, but nothing compares to seeing you that way. I just gotta get me a taste of that sweet honey of yours. Spread those legs, sugar, and let me feast on that warm, sweet cunt.” Jason hoped the crudeness of his words didn’t offend Toni.
If we’re going to try to build on this, there’s no point hiding who I am or how hot seeing her naked gets me.
As he buried his head between her thighs and swiped his tongue along her wet opening Jason realized he’d had no reason for concern. Toni was just as hot for him as he was for her. He could taste how his words had affected her. The rich, exotic tang of her arousal filled his mouth as he drank it in. Looking up over the curve of her stomach, he could see she was enjoying him tongue-fucking her cunt by the pleasure that shone in her heavy-lidded eyes.
“I’m so close… Pl…ea…se,” she cried out, her voice a breathless stammer.
Jason plunged two fingers into her pussy, curling them so he could tease behind her clit as he pressed his tongue flat onto the sensitive nub. He built her up over and over again before stopping at the last moment, not giving her the chance to fall. His mouth was dripping with her arousal as he continued the sensual assault on her body. His cock and balls ached with the need to be inside her but Jason was determined to keep Toni on the edge for as long as he could so that when she did explode, it would be the best orgasm of her life—one he hoped would ruin her for any other man, his efforts and his love for her never to be outdone.
He was trying to send her insane. Toni didn’t know whether to cry or demand that Jason give her the relief she craved, but it felt so good. Each time he built her up, teased her with the promise of an orgasm before denying her at the final hurdle, Toni thought she would scream, convinced that the torment would be too much for her to bear. Until his wicked tongue and magical fingers would again begin to move and she would be teetering up on the edge of that sweet abyss once more.
“No more, Jason, please. I can’t take any more.”
Jason must have heard the desperation in her voice. This time as Toni began her ascent he did not stop. Waves of pleasure rocketed through her pussy, her nipples contracted, tiny stars formed before her eyes. The sensations went on for so long Toni thought she would never recover. It was delicious.