AceI glanced over at her. Her expression was disapproving. A little line creased her alabaster forehead, and her mouth was pursed into an ungenerous pucker.“You have a problem with this?” i asked, entertained by her show of humanity.“It doesn’t really seem fair to just fire someone if they don’t get a BlackBerry charger to you in time.”"As an employer, I have to make sure my employees are up to my standards Cyn, and as my wife you will have to learn this things because sometimes I won't be around and you willhave to deal with them."The crease between her brows deepened. “I guess I’m a walking example of the lows one has to stoop to in order to make it in the business world.”He laughed darkly. “Just treat everyone the way you treat me and you will have no trouble being ruthless.”“There’s a thought.” she added sarcastically. I watched as her expression changed from one of recalcitrance to one of wonder.The car eased around the last curve and the villa came into view.The Ano La
Ace.I couldn’t help but be impressed with Cyn’s performance over dinner. She came across as bright, confident and witty. James Preston was eating from the palm of her hand in a matter of minutes. The older man was completely taken in by her charm and intelligence. Which i knewshould please him. Instead, primal possessiveness surged through me.I moved closer to Cyn , wrapping my arm around her delicate waist and drawing her to me, smoothing my fingers along her silk covered flesh.I felt a slight tremor race through her body at the light contact.“So, Ace ,” James said, sliding nearer to his own wife, “I understand you find it old fashioned of me to have a vested interest in what will become of the resort when I retire and sell out. But I built it up from theground. This was my first great success and it has sentimental meaning to me. I want to be sure that I’m passing it on to someone who will preserve the integrity of the property.”“And I intend to. I will be keeping it privatel
Cyn. Everything he had said was true, my job was to be his wife and act like an idiot. It stung, I considered myself more, but who really cared. My own father sold me. Maybe I should just stop resisting the inevitable and do as he said.I would just ignore the fact that he has a girlfriend the woman that he was actually in love with. There would be no disaster. I could control myself. The problem was that I wasn't entirely certain i wanted to control myself.I leapt from the car the moment it came to a stop in front of the villa, needing desperately to put some distance between Ace and me so that i could clear my head.I felt rather than heard him enter the room behind me. “I will sleep on the couch,” i offered quickly. “You are a lot…bigger than I am.”He shrugged. “Suit yourself. I have some work to finish up before I head to bed. I will be in the office.”“Did the BlackBerry charger show up?” I asked trying to lighten up the mood. He chuckled, the sound spreading through me l
Cyn. I sat on the bed uncomfortably as I waited for him to grab a condom from his stuff How long does it take to get a condom? I wondered as I sat back with a shee around my body, I was starting to feel uncomfortable and arkward just sitting there naked. "Sorry, it took me so long." he said from the door, still in nothing but his boxers. He sat beside me, his leg brushing against mine, sending a flurry of butterflies erupting into flight inside my belly. His hand lowered, and once more, he tugged on the blankets before expelling air from his lungs. He didn’t rip them out of my hands, choosing to lean over me to retrieve the cup and wine.He poured me a glass of wine and handed it over to me, I hadn't expected this night to end up in this way at all. He offered me the wine, and I reached to grab the cup as he pulled the covers away from my body, smiling in victory. My lips touched the glass wine and his eyes slid down my naked body with a hunger that consumed my thoughts.I had wa
Ace.I hated leaving her after what we had shared, she had her wolf now and she knew what I had known all along, I was her mate just as much as she was mine.She wanted to mark me, but how could I let her when my heart belonged to someone else. Someone I could not stop thinking about, someone I was dreading to see again. My ex fiancé Kaya. I hadn't seen her since London, since she found out I was married. I had tried to explain to her, make her understand I was marrying Cyn just to make my father happy. But she never believed me, she knew Cyn was my mate and she was not willing to fight the mate bond. "Sir." Paul said pulling me out of my head. “Call me when it’s ready,” I said, handing him the file I was holding. “They want to see it as soon as possible.”“No problem,” he said, skirting off to his desk.It was way past office hours, but I needed the distraction, being back here, in my home town. Knowing she was also here. I walked into my office, kicking the door closed with the
Ace.I sat there for a while, and for the first time in a long time, I really didn't know what to do. I hated being powerless.I was an alpha of the most feared pack around the south, I was arguably one of the richest man, with all types of connections, but I couldn’t help her. I hated feeling helpless. I had five missed calls from Cyn and the more she called the more irritated I became. Why on earth was she blowing me up? I had given her everything, she had everything what else could she possibly want from me "What?" I almost yelled to the phone after she called me the tenth time, unable to ignore it anymore. I could hear here breathing nervously on the other side, but she didn't say anything. "What do you want Cyn? What could you possibly want from me that is making you blow me up?" "it's just that I woke up and you were gone, I wanted to know where you went.""Thats none of your business Cyn, whatever I do or go or don't go is none of your fucking business. Your business is
Ace.They let me see her after I spoke to the doctor. Nurse Franklin came and led the way down the hall to a room situated just a few feet from the nurses’ station. She touched the door, then turned to look at me.“She is got a cast on her right leg and bandages on her arms. There is an IV and a heart monitor that is attached to a machine that is set to notify us if her heart rate changes.”I nodded. “Okay.”“And her head is wrapped in bandages. Her eyes are bruised, and there is a significant amount of swelling to her face.” She touched my arm lightly. “She won’t be recognizable.”“I will know her.” I said as if trying to convince her. I would know Kaya anywhere.As I looked at her laying there completely disoriented and immobile, my mind drifted again. ***“You know absolutely nothing about me.” She said smiling, that huge smile of hers with dimples. “I know you are an amazing artist.” I said truthfully. “You use that word a lot.”“What word?”“Amazing.”“Only with you.”She gla
Ace.“How is she?” Paul asked over the phone. I glanced at the electronic monitor that showed Kaya’s steady heartbeat.“Stable. I think.”“Wow.” I could hear Paul shuffling papers on the other end of the line. “Is there someone I can call? What about her parents? Her brother?”“Not yet. I want to have something positive to tell them.” I said remembering how we had even ended up with me being her emergency contact. I didn't know if she had told her family about the break up, and the fact that I had married someone else when I had promised to marry their daughter. I had to have some good news to call them with. “You don’t think they should know now?” Paul asked, and I could feel the confusion in his voice. “There is no reason to upset them until there is something to upset them about. The doctors don’t even know what is going to happen in the next twenty four hours. I would hate to get her parents on a plane if it turns out she is going to be home, safe and sound, by the time they
Cyn. Nine Months LaterI started to laugh as my little sister twerked her way down the aisle of my parent’s Baptist church. If Daddy walked in and saw that, there would be hell to pay.Ace pulled me back against his chest as he, too, laughed, a rumbling laugh that came from deep in his chest. I loved to hear him laugh like that.“Do you dare me to do that during the ceremony tomorrow?” Shelly asked.“I’ll pay you five hundred dollars if you do,” Charlie called to her.I smacked my brother on the arm.“What?”“Don’t encourage her.”“Hey, someone’s got to inject a little levity into this whole affair.And it can’t be at my wedding because if you think our parents are bad, wait until you meet Vanessa’s.”“When’s Vanessa going to be here?”“In the morning.”“Cutting it close.”Ace’s arms tightened around my waist, his hands wrapping around my swollen belly. “I think we all are, aren’t we?”I groaned. This whole wedding thing wasn’t my idea. It was my dad’s. He insisted that we be married
AceCyn was taking so long getting the ice cream that I finally went to find her. As I was coming down the stairs, I thought I heard voices. And then I turned the corner into the sitting room just as a gun fired.All I could thing was, Fuck!Margaret was on the floor with Cyn tangled up next to her, and they were struggling over this damn big gun. I reached in, tried to untangle them and get one or both up on their feet. And then Margaret pressed the barrel of the gun against Cyn’s side and wrapped her finger around the trigger. I did the only thing I could think of and that was to grab her wrist and yank. I felt something give and then the gun went off.The next thing I know, Margaret’s on her feet, the gun pointed at my chest. There’s blood, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from. And Cyn is still on the floor.“Why, Ace?” Margaret asked, her wrist limp where I broke it trying to pull her away from Cyn. She calmly changed hands, holding the gun with her other hand now. She pointed
CynI curled up in the bed next to Ace and took another bite of pizza.“I’m sorry,” I said, as I nibbled at a slice of pepperoni.“For what?”“For not remembering you. For putting you through that whole ordeal.”“It’s not like it was your fault.”“It must have been hard, though, living here with me when I didn’t even know who you were.”He reached over and rubbed a smear of grease off my chin. “It was rough,” he said, his eyes softening as he studied my face, “being near you and not feeling free to touch you.”“It must have been surreal.”“It was…difficult.” He chuckled a little as he picked at his own piece of pizza. “I thought it was all over when your parents showed up and demanded that you go home with them.”“Yeah?”“I thought for sure that you would agree to go. I mean, I was standing there, imagining you and your mom in the spare room packing your things while your dad lectured me about forcing myself on you after you made it clear that you no longer wanted me.”“He would have,
AceI wanted her to stay at the house, but she refused. She clung to my hand as we walked into the restaurant, so tight that my bones were rubbing together. She was scared So was I.I spotted him at a table closest to the kitchen, a busy area that was a little concerning. I wasn’t sure how we could talk freely with all the traffic that was going past there, but, then again, it seemed logical. Everyone was so busy going about their own business that they wouldn’t even remember that much about us, let alone overhear much of our conversation.I don’t think I would be good at this terrorist stuff. I was too honest.The man Colin Francis. stood as we approached the table.“Cyn,” he said with genuine affection in his voice. “How are you?”Cyn smiled politely. “Good, thank you.”“And Ace.” He studied my face for a minute, then offered his hand with a polite smile. I shook it because I didn’t know what else to do.He gestured for us to take a seat. Cyn snatched my hand under the table once we
CynI wanted to stay there for…well, forever. I didn’t want him to let me go. I didn’t want his kiss to stop lingering against my lips. I wanted to feel his heart pounding under his shirt and the heat of his skin, the heat that proved just how alive he was, to forever warm me up. He was my reasonfor getting out of bed in the morning and for facing life with a smile and a little skip in my step.“I love you,” he whispered against my lips.“I love you, too.”He ran his finger along the angle of my jaw. “I kind of like your hair like this. I can see every inch of your face all the time.”I groaned. “You would.”“Don’t you like it?”I laughed. “I should go to the hospital for all my haircuts.”He chuckled before pressing his lips to my forehead.“You look like a pixie. Or a little fairy.”“Gee, thanks.”“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”I ran my hand up his chest again before letting it slide down, hooking my fingers under the waist of his slacks.“If you like it, I would go bald. Wear a
AceCyn was hiding something from me. I wasn’t sure what it was, and I didn’t like it. But I told myself she wouldn’t do it if she didn’t think it was important.I watched her pace the porch outside the back doors, the way that boot caused her just the slightest limp. Two months ago, the doctor said she would have a definitive limp if she ever woke up. Her recovery was remarkable, but everything about Cyn had always been remarkable.“How can you be with the woman who might send me to jail?”“How can you be with the man who got us all into this position in the first place?”My mom crossed her arms over her chest, a defiant look taking over the attractive features that once made her a very beautiful woman. Now she was tired. A very tired and broken woman.“I trusted that Grant would do the right thing.”“And I know that Cyn’s only doing what she thinks will protect us all.”“She almost went to the press with paperwork that shows Grant was working with terrorists. If it didn’t send him t
CynI had dreams about her even when I didn’t know who she was.Dreams that I knew now were a mixture of memory and something else, something angry inside of me.As I came out of my coma, I dreamed I was in a dress shop with a dark-haired woman I didn’t know. I remembered thinking this woman had betrayed me even though I couldn’t say if she had been a friend or a foe.And then again, later, I had the same dream. But this time we were arguingabout Ace, about the marriage I hadn’t learned about until the day Ace and I went to get our marriage license.We did fight about it. Not in a bridal shop. My mind had mixed that up for some reason. But the words had been the same.“I can’t believe you would betray me that way! Why wouldn’t you tell me something like that? I thought we were friends. You were supposed to be a part of my wedding, for God’s sakes!”“It wasn’t my place to tell you. Ace should have done it.”“But we worked together all this time”“I thought he’d already told you. I tho
Ace “Mom.”I wasn’t downstairs five minutes when the doorbell rang and my mom shoved past me.“What are you doing, Ace ? Why do you have that woman in this house again?”“Hi, Mom. Glad to see you. Come on in.”She whirled around and looked at me as if I had lost my mind.“Answer my question. Margaret tells me she has been here for weeks and younever bothered to tell anyone. She says you wouldn’t have told her if it weren’t for the fact that Cyn was still working on that damn mural thing at the center.”“Cyn was in an accident. She cracked her skull and was in a coma for a little more than two weeks.”“Months ago.”“And she woke up with amnesia.”“So you say. But how do we know it’s true? After what she did…”“She didn’t actually do anything.”My mom glared at me as if I’d said that the sky was green. She shook her head, pacing the length of the room, pausing briefly at the back doors. When she lifted her hand to touch the cool glass, I could see that it was shaking.“You are worried
CynI must have fallen asleep. I rolled over and Ace was gone. I could hear the water in the shower running and the slight buzz of a cellphone vibrating. It took me a minute to realize the cellphone was in the pocket of my sweats. I leaned over the bed and grabbed them, freeing the cellphone just before the call would have been sent to voice mail.“Hello?”“I didn’t think you were going to answer!”“Sorry. I got a little distracted.”Paul cleared his throat, his imagination clearly supplying information I hadn’t. “Yes, well,” he mumbled as he cleared his throatagain, “he has agreed to meet with you today.”“Good.”“He’ll meet you at Conti’s. Do you know where that is?”“Yes, I think so.”“Two o’clock.”“Thank you, paul.”“Be careful, Cyn. The last time you went to meet with this guy…”“I know. I will be careful.”I disconnected the call just as Ace appeared in the bathroom doorway, nothing but a towel around his waist.“Who was that?”“Paul.”I climbed out of bed and went to him, kis