“Sounds like one big happy family,” she murmured.“Of sorts.”They arrived at the restaurant and the maître d’ immediately ushered them to the table always reserved for himself or Gabe or Jace when they chose to eat here.Josie sat across from Ash, but she didn’t fully relax. She was perched on the edge of her seat and her gaze kept darting left and right and beyond Ash. She looked ill at ease and like she’d rather be anywhere but here with him. His ego was taking one hell of a beating. Women didn’t normally have to be blackmailed in order to agree to a date with him.“Would you like wine?” he asked when a waiter immediately appeared.She shook her head. “No. Water will be fine. Thank you.”“Make that two,” Ash murmured to the waiter.“Don’t let me keep you from enjoying wine if that’s what you prefer,” she said. “I just don’t want to drink and then have to get back home. Alcohol makes me pretty fuzzy. Last thing I need to do is be stumbling around Manhattan after dark.”“So you can’t
Given time he’d prove himself to her. If she only gave him a chance.“Deep, dark secrets, huh. I fear you’re in for disappointment. I’m frightfully boring. I’m married to my business, and I despise my family almost as much as they despise me. My real family are my business partners and their women.”“Except that your sister came to see you recently. Have you reconciled?”This time he pulled his hand away, leaning back in his chair. His gaze went beyond Josie for a moment before he allowed it to drift back to her face.“I suppose you could say that. I’m not completely convinced of her sincerity as of yet. I’d like to think she’s finally making a break from the wolf pack, but only time will tell.”“What did they do? To you both?”Ash sighed. “Gave birth to us? Hell if I know. My mother has zero maternal instinct, and yet she had four of us. It baffles me that a woman that self-serving would continue to have children she considered a burden.”Josie’s nose wrinkled and her eyes flashed wi
“Now, tell me more about you. You’re an artist, obviously.”She nodded, not even tasting the food she put in her mouth. The steak smelled delicious and was so tender she could cut it with her fork. But the moment she put it on her tongue, the taste didn’t register. She was too preoccupied with Ash, and the proposition he’d put before her.“Are you able to make a living at it?” he asked.It was a personal question, but then Ash didn’t seem the sort of man who worried too much about propriety or boundaries.“More so now,” she said ruefully. “I’ve been able to make it. It’s not always easy. But I’ve tried regular nine-to-five jobs. I don’t have a passion for it. Not like I do for my art. I’ve sold a few pieces here and there and I design jewelry and sell it over the Internet. I make enough to pay my rent. Most times,” she added with a grimace. “This month was lean for me. Internet orders, which are usually steady, were down and I hadn’t sold any of the art I display in a gallery in the l
Her brow furrowed. “But you said this is who you are. What you are. How can you never have asked another woman for these things? I doubt you’ve been celibate forever.”He laughed. “No, indeed not. The women I’ve been with all knew the score. What I expected and what I’d take. But I never considered those actual relationships, because going in, she and I both knew it was very temporary. Hardly what I’d call an actual relationship.”“So I wouldn’t be temporary?” she asked, voicing perhaps her biggest fear. That he’d grow tired of her in a week’s time and simply move on to someone else.But then what was she expecting? What was she even asking for? Something long-term? How could she ask that of him when she wasn’t sure she wanted something more permanent? It was a huge leap to be making. It was possible that she wouldn’t be able to handle the demands he made. And yet, the idea of him only wanting a temporary fling unsettled her.“I can’t say with any authority what you’ll be, Josie,” he
Jace’s face crinkled in sympathy. “So what are you going to do?”“Well, I have plans tonight with Brittany, and you and Bethany if you can make it, but tomorrow I’m employing a full-court press. I’m done sitting back and being patient. If she’s going to tell me no, I at least want to hear it from her lips instead of enduring this prolonged silence.”“Good luck man. I hope it works out for you. And at the risk of being a total hypocrite since I got in your face for checking up on Bethany, have you checked Josie out?”Ash nodded. “Yeah, I did. After our first meeting in the park. No skeletons in her closet that I uncovered anyway.”“Okay, well, if there’s anything I can do, you know you only have to ask. If you get her to agree, we’ll have to hook up, and when Gabe and Mia get back from their honeymoon, we can all get together. You can introduce Josie to Mia and Bethany. They have a good group of girlfriends, and I’ll tell you from experience, when they have their girls’ nights out?” He
And it wasn’t that she was afraid of him. No, she knew instinctively, even as she was shrouded in fear over what had already happened to her, that this man would not hurt her. But he was angry. Angry didn’t even begin to describe what she saw in his eyes. And he absolutely looked capable of killing someone. She found herself not wanting to tell him, because she feared not him, but what he’d do.“Josie, answer me,” he said through his teeth. “Who. Did. This. To. You.”He wasn’t going to allow her not to tell him. And though she didn’t fear reprisal, she knew she absolutely had to obey him. He wouldn’t allow her to duck the question. She firmly believed he’d stand here all night, do whatever it took to get what he wanted.She closed her eyes and exhaled in a long, weary sigh, her shoulders sagging in defeat.“Michael,” she whispered, her voice so low she could barely hear it herself. Maybe she hadn’t even really voiced it.“Say that again?”The words whipped from his lips, snapping thro
Her smile broadened, her teeth flashing and an adorable dimple forming in her cheek. It fascinated him. Made him want to trace the indention and then follow it with his tongue.“I’m kind of getting that about you. I pity the person that ever tells you that you can’t do something.”“Yeah, that doesn’t go over too well,” he admitted.“I’ll try not to be the person who pisses you off by telling you no, then.”His smile faded and he stared intently into her eyes. “I hope to hell I never give you reason to tell me no. But if you do, Josie, understand. I won’t ignore that word. Unless it has something to do with your safety or well-being. Or if it means you walking away from me. No is a deal breaker. It means I stop whatever I’m doing. So use it wisely and only if you mean it. Because I take that word very seriously.”Her eyes went soft and she leaned further into him, her body molding so very temptingly to his. His balls ached, his dick was stiff as a board and his teeth were clenched tigh
“I told him that he couldn’t give me the things another man had promised me,” she whispered.Ash’s hold tightened further. “Go on.”“He freaked. I mean completely lost it. The words were barely out of my mouth when he slapped me. I was so shocked that I didn’t even know what to do. And then he was standing over me, where I’d fallen, and he hit me again. He wrapped his hands in my hair and accused me of cheating on him. Told me that he’d handled me far too gently. That if he’d been the way he should have with me this would have never happened, that I would have never cheated.”“Son of a bitch,” Ash ground out. “I’ll kill him for this.”She shook her head violently. “No! Ash, leave it alone. It’s done with. It’s over.”“The hell it is!”He calmed his breathing and forced the rage from his mind and eased his grip on her arm where his fingers had dug into her skin. She would wear no marks from him. None that weren’t given in passion and tenderness. None that she wouldn’t want to wear.“I