My tears drying up when my brain moves to curiosity instead, and the smirk I see tugging at his face tells me I am not going to like the answer.
‘’I replaced you. Well, added to you, so when you come back, Joanne … My new girl is your co-hostess. Santagato is taken with her and as I rebuffed him on her too he thinks I’m just a possessive fuck. You’re not in his sights anymore, especially with your absence and my screwing Joanne a little publicly in the VIP lounge. It means he just thinks I don’t share my girls at all.’’ Alexi seems completely deadpan now with a tiny smug look in his eye as I completely churn around inside, my heart wrenching. I literally feel sick as tears sting, but I blink them away and swallow them all down hard.
Hating him more, wounded with the thought that he has slept with someone since he touched me. I know it’s stupid, and he’s been screwing women all along, but I don’t know, I
I don’t know what his business entails when he’s not and I would rather never find out, to be honest. Seeing glimpses of some of the men he deals with and knowing he never has his phone away from him at all hours, day or night, has given me a rough idea that his empire and responsibilities are huge.He carries a lot while still maintaining a dominant stance and unbreakable demeanour to his enemies all around, while they play nice to his face. No wonder he is such a psycho.I wouldn’t last five minutes doing what he does; it’s why he’s so good at manipulation and coercing people and situations. I can see why he is what he is, but it doesn’t make me forgive him in any way or swallow it any better. He’s cold because he is immune to suffering and death. He has probably killed his fair share of people in the last nineteen years since he first pulled that trigger, and I don’t doubt with every single one he lost a little b
It’s not like me to give a shit where someone else is concerned as long as I get paid, yet it hits a nerve and Alexi sees it too. ‘‘Watch it, London, soon you’ll be burning your bra and making poster boards. You might have to rethink the company you keep and where you work.’’ Sarcasm at its finest and I just exhale heavily at him.‘’Anything else?’’ I gloss over it, not willing to be picked apart or give him more fuel for the fire he started under me. I’m in no mood to fight with someone who doesn’t let you win, EVER.‘‘Room seven. We ordered a specific brand of champagne for it, make sure it’s the only room served with it and keep it topped up. Five grand a pop, so keep it's exclusive and bill him on top of his member rates for what he consumes. He’s also bringing a guest.’’‘‘Okay, so we have fifteen members and five male guests, twenty-five
Well, I have claws, and I am not against pissing on another feline! ‘’Well, whatever. I am going to enjoy watching you work the floor tonight after having it all to myself for a week, taking notes on what not to do.’’ The catty tone and narrowed eyes rile the bitch in me, and somehow, even with him watching on and finding this entertaining, I let my fire spike.If he brought her over here to push me and hurt me, he can go take a dive off a cliff.‘’Bringing in a stand-in when we have a lover’s tiff to run the club I helped build is not an achievement. You’re a pawn in the great Alexi’s mind games, and it’s obvious by your level of insults that he will grind you to dust in a matter of days. Good luck sweetheart. You don’t know what’s coming at you, and if you’re still standing here looking as good as this in six or seven months' time, then I might be impressed and consider you a worthy opponen
‘’Joanne’s here, I don’t need two of you tending, get upstairs and take the rest of the night off.’‘‘‘No! I won’t go upstairs and twiddle my thumbs till four a.m. I’m happy down here and I don’t care if your new toy is here, she’s not capable of replacing me and I don’t intend to let her.’’ I have a stubborn determination too, and he can back off and get a grip if he thinks he can send me to bed like a child. That woman may be sharing his bed but over my dead body is she also going to be sharing this club. We built this and we run it together without interference. I am done being bossed around, pushed and trampled on by this arsehole.‘’Since when has disobeying me ever been in your best interests?’’ Low tone, I’m in the danger zone. I really am sick of this little control method nowadays, so instead of sinking back like I normally would I flas
It happens so fast I don’t have time to think or breathe, and as I am rammed face first against a wall with a hard body biting at my back I can barely move. I’m knocked for six, instantly stunned as the doors slide shut, and I’m left with a complete stranger holding me captive. My heart starts hammering as my body turns cold.Why does this shit always happen to me?‘’Keep it quiet and I’ll be nice, Camilla.’’I have no idea who he is other than he’s the blonde rough guy I spotted earlier and I have no connection to him. I feel sick with that infernal constant terror I feel nowadays and yet the fact he knows my name makes it more intense.This isn’t random, he knows who I am. He also has me at an immediate disadvantage by pinning me face first against the wall and restraining me. Instant terror on its own, even if I did know him. A million scenarios run through my head from Rick paying this
My captor bodily lifts me and tosses me right after it like a piece of lightweight rubbish and as I am hurled, half running as my legs hit the carpet, half falling and rolling with the force of it. I let out a muffled noise as I collide with floor again. I can still hear them as I stop dead, flailing like a dead fish and gather my wits.I crawl forward and get to my knees in a bid to get to the desk, pushing my minor pain aside. I don’t know what alarms the button triggers or if the arsehole out there will be alerted, but I am not going without a fight. Alexi showed me how to trip every silent alarm in this building and it’s my one chance of someone that Alexi trusts to come and find me.I hear him stalking in behind me and make a run for it as I get to my feet and kick off my last shoe, panic overtaking as adrenaline courses through my veins. Dashing forward as he tries to grab me and almost breaking my ankle with the awkward jolt forward I make, I skim ar
I hold the ice pack to my face and stare at my shaking hands aimlessly. Sat on the couch in the apartment and just trying so hard to process all that just went down.I jump when the door opens, nervy as hell and Alexi stalks in with Mico, he looks me over with a completely unreadable expression, and they both walk straight past to the kitchen.I have been sitting up here for an hour or two, no sense of time, no idea what was going on down there and I can’t get my head around anything. He brought me up here, handed me a strong drink and the ice pack then stroked my hair back from my face before leaving me alone. It was surreal, like another Alexi from another place, and then he went back down to take care of the mess he made.Alexi killed someone, right in front of me, because of me. I don’t even know what to do with that and I have no clue how to feel. I think I’m in severe shock, everything feels surreal and floaty and even though my face is t
I wake up in Alexi’s bed alone, memories of last night flitting through my head like it was all a dream from another place, another dimension and none of it was real at all.Alexi made love to me for hours. Not like before, not like anything I ever expected of him. Silent in the darkness of his room, my body surrendered, and he brought me to heights of pleasure over and over.No rush, no war between us, no pain, no punishment, no being held down or bound. No aggression, dominance or ownership, in fact, we never spoke at all. Just two people locked in getting pleasure from one another and all else faded away to unimportance. Alexi made me feel like he had an ability to be something more and gave me a taste of what it would be like to be loved by someone like him.Just a glimpse, the fact he can be gentle and considerate and fulfil a need when you don’t even know what it is. He made me feel better, he took my mind elsewhere, and not once did he put me
I’m standing staring at myself in the mirror, nerves eating away at me and fidgeting with my dress a little obsessively. It’s long, fitted, ivory, and very classy. A sleek, full-length, fishtailed number that looks great on my body, with my toned-down neutral face and minimal jewellery. Stomach in knots and anally checking my appearance like my life depends on it. Despite knowing, I look flawless. Déjà vu from the morning I met his mother and yet this is way worse. I’m terrified. “You look gorgeous, stop fretting.” Alexi’s voice comes from behind me and he sways to the side of me as he approaches. I stop him mid-step and lean my body against him gently. Backing myself against him. This is something I have been working on for a while now. Letting Alexi get behind me, touch me when standing there and leaning against him. He doesn’t object, just stands still recognising my attempt and lets me fall back against him gently. It’s stupid and weird, I guess, that it’
Soon as we get out the door Mico flanks me on one side with Alexi on the other and we are instantly surrounded by more Carrero security. Like a black wall that’s impenetrable and offers instant calm to my frazzled brain. Guiding us efficiently and shielding us from all angles. Overkill, but I guess I’m thankful for it.“What about the rest of her outfit?” Alexi asks as we walk briskly out of the building, the first to leave, but I can already hear chairs scraping as others depart, now we have. Some of them eager to walk away now they've found a resolution to this debacle.It’s weird how something that hung over us for months is tied up with a bow in one very brief sitting. I can’t get my head around the fact the threat is gone, and I no longer need to live under house arrest for any reason. A sudden lightness to my mood as the heavy weight of burden is lifted.“Most departed as soon as they heard their source of income w
They lead us to a large, carved, ugly wooden door depicting nude women mid-orgy, and I eye roll at the crassness. Suits Santagato to a T. Mico slides in front of us quickly, knocks on it several times in a coded bang while we wait silently and patiently. Tension making the air so thick I can almost cut it with a knife. I have to still my trembling body, clinging onto him for dear life, focusing on his warm hand encasing mine snugly as a form of grounding and I repeat the mantra ‘he will always protect me’ inside my head.It’s opened immediately and two men move aside as we are let into a dark, smoky room where several men are sitting at a long table. I cannot count how many there are, eyes scanning the crowded scene quickly as my focus tries to adjust rapidly. I swallow my breath, my heart plummets and I just let him take the lead.Alexi walks us in behind two of his men and Mico. I can tell at a glance which ones are the bosses, by their suits and gr
“Please,” I whisper it so quietly, begging him to stop questioning, to just take what I’m offering him. He surely understands my reasons. I close my eyes when he finally leans up and pulls one end of the strap and tugs it off my wrist slowly. The material sliding coldly and making me shiver. Eyes on what he’s doing, and I exhale, appeased that we are still going ahead even if a part of me dies a little inside. Like an idiot because I started this.I wait with bated breath for the dreaded feel of leather on my skin, but nothing happens. Anticipation makes me tetchy, heightening my senses to alarming levels and I notice every noise and sensation. I'm antsy and I can’t stand it anymore.Instead, the slide of the one around my neck startles me and I gulp in air, jumping slightly, realising he might start with leashing me and tying me after he gets a makeshift collar on me. A lot of men like Alexi like to have you leashed and tied up for full c
Teeth, tongues, lips, coming together of a rather aggressive game of tonsil tennis as his hands slide up my body and I wrap my legs around his waist. Moaning quietly with the way he ignites every nerve ending in me. Body tingling and on fire within seconds as I rub myself against the button and rough zip on his trousers, pushing myself into a fevered frenzy of longing.There is no real foreplay, just a sudden need to consummate our passion right here and now and I reach down and unbutton him so he can spring free from the confines of fabric. Alexi feels me out, probing my warmth with his fingers, finding me wet and willing and doesn’t waste time on formalities.He slides into me soon as he leans back over me and presses down on me as he does so, so our bodies fit snugly and muffle my moans of pleasure as they overtake me. Snug as a hand in a glove, he fills me up in the best kind of way, spreading that pulsating, gorgeously good feeling up through my pelvis and i
These are things people figure out before they marry someone, and here we are, already invested and now I’m thinking about the fact I should have told him this already.Babies! Not a fucking chance in hell. He won’t know, unless he did read all my journals, but even then. I wouldn’t say it was obvious from those diary excerpts that my inability to have kids was permanent or even a blessing. I went over the abortion and such and the after-effects and recovery, but I don’t think I ever spelt it out, in black and white, that my body no longer produces eggs for any chance of fertilisation.How do you tell the man cradling a newborn like he was born to do so if that’s where his hopes lie then it won’t happen with me?How do I tell him that I can’t give him this and wouldn’t want to even if I could? Is this what he wants?The happy 2.4 children, family home a
It’s not the expected outcome; grown woman turning to childish puppy dog mush, pawing at her angry husband like a devious minx; I find myself eye rolling at the lamest form of female manipulation there is.“You knew? You met her?” Accusatory tone as she tries to regain some footing. Alexi sighs loudly and I glance his way to see him turn and butt himself against the table, throwing me an unreadable look before he downs another drink and I try not to count how many that is. By the look of his sudden lack of trying, I guess he has been prone to scenes like this before, where his father had to steamroll in to defend him, and Alexi mentally goes off on a cruise and leaves him to it. I just stand here like an idiot, a third wheel and in no way wanting to witness this shit.“He’s my son. He has no secrets from me, he never did. Unlike you, he confides in me and comes to me often!” It’s putting her in her place and any other mother mi
The house is huge and beautiful like some sort of movie set for the lifestyle of the rich and famous. A towering white mansion set in a beautiful green manicured garden like some modern painting. Set in the sunny Hamptons, near the coast in a very picturesque area that comprises of nothing but huge grand houses, that just spew wealth. I can see why the Carreros reign supreme here. It’s like the real housewives of Orange County.Their home a show house for sure, completely devoid of lived in family life and we are let in by a maid who ushers us into a sitting room in what appears to be a deserted house until she runs off to find our host. Marble entranceway not dissimilar to that of Alexi’s nearby abode, huge sweeping staircase in a flawless neutral palette. It’s glossy magazine worthy with massive professional vases of floral arrangements dotted at key points on expensive furniture around the edges of the room.I find it odd that Alexi is being treate
“I can’t do this, Lexi.” My heart is hammering through my chest and I have checked my appearance three dozen times in the full-length mirror of the bedroom we stayed in for the rest of the night. Obsessed with my appearance as anxiety strangles the life out of me. Trying to focus on something I can control and getting a little preoccupied with its importance.We were busy most of last night, making up for our strained day with lots of gentle lovemaking, kissing and caresses, and I’m aglow with his attention today. Cheeks flushed, skin dewy, and a twinkling happiness in my eyes I’ve never seen before. I felt completely chilled when I got up this morning, well almost completely. That was until he dumped this little announcement on me that we’re having a cosy family brunch at Mummy’s house.Ugh. Last night was a repeat of the night he first made love to me, after the failed kidnapping at the club. Only without him