Toni was the root of my problems, and we were going to have it out. I wanted answers and I hoped that those answers would finally clear my head.
For starters, I wanted to know why in the hell she hadn’t come clean about the problems with her brother. When they did background checks, just what did she think people were asking about? Whether or not she’d ever stolen a candy bar as a kid? No one fucking cared about stuff like that. Especially not for something like this. When trusting someone to work in your home, you needed to know if there was anything that might put your loved ones at risk.
I was good and worked up by the time I got home. Once I parked, however, I took a moment to pull it all back in. I didn't want to blow up around Isadora. I hadn’t seen her that morning, and I was almost positive she had some sort of paper due this week. I wanted to ask how she’d done. Then maybe I could talk her into going out. While she was getting ready, Toni and I could...talk.
My stomach clenched at the thought.
But Isadora wasn’t in the sitting parlor where she preferred to spend much of her time.
Toni was, though.
Toni was stretched out on one of the long, low couches and she looked completely bitable.
Standing in the shadows of the hall, I watched as she got up, frowned at a note she had on a pad of paper, and then tossed it down before she walked over to a bag and bent down. The narrow black skirt she wore pulled tight over her ass and again, the image from the other night at the club slammed into me.
Pushing that skirt up over her hips.
Dragging down her panties.
Wrapping that hair around my fist and holding her steady as I forced her to take my cock. I’d get her wet, so wet, and so ready –
She jerked upright and turned around, her eyes unerringly seeking me out.
I didn’t realize it, but I’d moved forward until I stood in the doorway.
Her eyes met mine and I saw something flash across them, then disappear. “Back to lurking in the shadows, are we, Mr. Lang?” she asked, giving me a saccharine smile that I was pretty sure was fake.
“Ash.”
Shit. Why had I told her to call me that? I'd made it clear when I first met her that she wasn't going to be calling me that.
I knew the answer, no matter how much I hated it.
I wanted to hear my name on her lips. I wanted to hear her moaning it, then sobbing it as she begged me to let her come.
She wouldn't beg.
I knew she wouldn’t. Wouldn't beg. Wouldn't submit. She wasn't a part of my world, and the separation had nothing to do with money or society.
“I’m sorry.” She moved back to where she’d dropped her notepad and sat down.
I heard the whisper of skin against skin, and my gaze dropped as she crossed her legs. Shit. I wanted to uncross them, push them wide, press my mouth against her...
I forced myself to pull my gaze back up.
She wasn’t even looking at me.
“Sorry?” I prodded, remembering what she'd said.
“Yes.” She gave me a distracted smile.
Her eyes were snapping, though. Snapping and hot. Fuck. It drove me out of my mind.
“I seem to remember you telling me that employees were supposed to call you Mr. Lang.”
“You work for Isadora, not me.”
Dammit. Why had I pointed that out?
Toni arched her eyebrows, a bemused look on her face. “You're right, I do. And Isadora doesn't seem to think it's a problem for me to call you Mr. Lang. And until she tells me otherwise, it's not going to happen. And I don’t see why she would change her mind.”
Her eyes laughed at me. “Do you?”
I wanted to bite her. I wanted to haul her out of the chair, turn her around and make every fantasy I’d had over the past week come true. Instead, I deliberately strode forward and put my briefcase down. As she watched, I gave her a cool smile.
“Very well, Ms. Gallagher.” She wanted to play it that way? Fine. “I tried being friendly. But that’s apparently not what you want.”
I took a file out of the briefcase and moved closer, sitting down on the heavy mahogany coffee table that was just a few feet in front of her. To her credit, she didn’t lean away when I crowded into her personal space. She held firm and steady. Again, I was overcome with the need to see just how far I could push her – how far I could take her – how far she could take me.
“I’ve done some research into your background.”
“I’m aware.” A smile cold as the arctic curved her lips. “But having someone follow me? Really? Wasn’t the background check done by Winter Enterprises enough?”
I was a bit surprised that she knew. Stanley Kowalski was good. He wouldn’t have slipped up. Unless he'd hired someone else to follow her and they'd messed up. But I kept my surprise hidden.
“Nothing is good enough when it comes to my sister.” Tapping the file against my thigh, I leaned in closer until she was just an inch away. Still, she didn't flinch. “I’ve got to admit, I’m not overly happy to have somebody who was arrested on felony drug charges so closely connected to my sister...Ms. Gallagher.”
Her face was blank for a moment.
Then her face went red and she surged upright. I moved with her, but the narrow space behind the coffee table didn’t provide for a lot of movement.
Shit. I probably just made a tactical error.
“You
ass
!” She planted her hands on my chest and shoved.
Hard
.
She was a lot stronger than she looked, and I’d had more than a few looks at that tight body. I half-stumbled, and while I struggled to regain my balance, she darted away, placing herself in the middle of the room and staring at me with sheer loathing, as if she couldn't stand to be in the same room as me.
My head was spinning.
She’d just
pushed
me.
People didn’t put their hands on me. No one ever put their hands on me. Not even when I'd been a scrawny little rich kid who preferred to play on his computer instead of joining the other boys outside.
A woman more than half my size had just pushed me.
“You are an
asshole
!” she said, her voice low and raw.
“I’m voicing valid concerns–”
“Fuck your concerns.” She jabbed a finger at me. “My brother was arrested on felony drug charges when he was eighteen. That was nearly ten years ago.”
Her lip curled as she stared at me and I almost wanted to take a step back. I'd never been looked at like that by anyone. I'd had admiration. Jealousy. Mostly admiration. Never that look of disgust.
“You…” She shook her head. “Fuck, Lang. You’re a piece of work. Although, all things considered, I guess I can see why you think everybody is scum. After all,
you
are.”
“Now, that’s enough.” I took a step toward her, my temper stretched to the snapping point.
“No, it’s not enough! He was a kid. A stupid kid, and he came clean. He testified.” Her hands clenched into fists as she glared at me. “It all but tore our family apart, and I’m not going to stand here while some pretty boy born with a silver spoon in his mouth judges
me
for something my brother did as a kid.”
I gaped at her, trying to figure out just where I’d lost ground here.
She took a step toward me. The light in her eyes should have warned me.
“Now if you want to talk about questionable actions, we could talk about you following me to the club the other night,” she said, her voice silky. “You do realize stalking is illegal, right, Mr. Lang?”
I swallowed hard and tried not to look like I'd done it at all. “It was hardly stalking.”
Except it sort of was.
“Really?” She cocked her eyebrow, a derisive smile tugging up the corner of her mouth.
Damn her. I wanted to take that lower lip between my teeth, suck on it. Bite it. Nibble on it. Make her moan.
She sidled a little closer, and now she was near enough that I could have fisted my hand in her hair – exactly the way I’d fantasized.
“Then what would you call it, Mr. Lang? You just happened to be going the same way I was? Visiting the same club? Staring at me numerous times because you...what? Mistook me for somebody else?”
“Ash,” I corrected her, ignoring the rest. If she called me
Mr. Lang
one more time...
She clucked her tongue. “I’ve already explained that, Mr. Lang–”
I snapped.
Without thinking, I grabbed her upper arms and pulled her to me.
The slight weight of her crashed into my chest and I let go of one arm, shoved my freed hand into her long, silken strands of hair. Still staring at her, I twisted the heavy strands around my hand and wrist, cranking her head back until she had no choice but to look up at me.
There was a look in her eyes, expectant. Waiting.
Challenging.
“Ash,” I said again, my voice rough.
Then I lowered my head and kissed her, exactly as I’d wanted to almost from the first second I'd seen her.
Chapter 10
Toni
Oh. Shit.
Those two words circled around in my head as his mouth closed over mine.
He didn’t kiss me though.
Not exactly.
And a hell of a not exactly.
His tongue slid across my lower lip.
Then he caught it between his teeth and bit down, lightly. When he sucked it between his teeth, I felt my legs go a little weak. I moaned, and he wrapped his other arm around my waist. I was in trouble.
I was in so much trouble.
His knee pushed between my thighs as he lifted his head a little. “Open your mouth,” he whispered. It didn't matter how soft he'd spoken. There was no doubt it was a command.
With a slow blink, I tilted my head back and studied him.
Was he serious?
When his mouth came back to mine, I didn’t open. At least not right away. When his tongue probed my lips, I resisted long enough to let him know I wasn't going to just do what he said. Then he started to tease me, taunt me, into relaxing, and that was when I opened. But it wasn't because he told me to, and I intended for him to know it. I caught his tongue between my teeth and bit him, then sucked on him.
It drew a harsh, ragged moan from him, and he jerked me up into his arms, lifting me off my feet.
Blazing green eyes met mine as he half-staggered, half-walked to the nearest chair. He fell backward on to it while his hands slid over the narrow skirt I’d worn that morning. There was no fumbling, no hesitation, in his touch.
And I was doing touching of my own. Through his dress pants, he felt thick and hard, making my stomach tighten. I slid my hand up, then back down his chest to his crotch, closing my fingers around him as best as I could.
He arched into my touch, and then grabbed my hand, curling my fingers tighter around him until I knew it had to be just this edge of painful. Still, I tightened them even more, and leaned down to bite his chin, run the tip of my tongue along his bottom lip.
He growled and yanked my head up, kissing me again.
It was a rough, hungry kiss, and it filled every empty, aching spot inside me.
Shit.
His hands went to my hips, and he hauled me closer. It threw me off balance and I grabbed his shoulders, steadying myself. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction, and I shivered as he caught my hips, dragging me up and down over his cock. My skirt had ridden up, and my panties were no protection from how wet he was making me.
The slacks he wore, something pricey and elegant, were starting to show my arousal. I thought maybe I should get embarrassed about that. Isadora would be coming in soon.
But I didn’t care.
I didn’t care about anything except the way he felt, the way his body felt beneath me, against me.
And his mouth –
I cried out when he sat up and closed his mouth over my breast. Through the material of my bra and blouse, I could feel him. Wet tongue, the sharp edge of his teeth.
There was nothing subtle, nothing hesitant or reluctant.
He didn’t even slow to ask permission.
He just
took
.
I should have been appalled.
But when he flipped me over onto my back and pressed me into the couch, I wasn’t appalled.
I was...turned on.
So fucking turned on.
He moved between my thighs and started to rock his hips against me.
I shuddered.
One big hand cupped my ass, and I couldn’t stop the startled whimper when he moved his fingers, partially exposing the crevice between my cheeks.
“I want to feel you, hot and wet, and wrapped around my dick,” Ash said against my lips. “I want to hear you, begging and desperate, screaming my name as you come.”
I bit his lower lip.