Fighting Back (Harrow #2) (2 page)

‘Actually, yeah, that’s one way to look at it. How does California sound?’

‘Like my idea of hell,’ she said, withdrawing her hand before it got to the good stuff. ‘You’re not much of a comedian, tough guy.’

‘I’m not kidding. We’re going to California tomorrow.’

‘Oh no we’re not,’ she said.

‘We are.’

With her hands on the counter, Ivy used all of her weight to push her body back into his, giving her space to escape. After shoving him aside, she went to the sink and washed her hands, using the reprieve to subdue the strength of her reaction to what he’d said.

Tossing the towel aside, she turned to face him. ‘You’re going back to them?’

‘We,’ he said, trying to encroach on her, but she removed herself from his path and headed into the living room.

‘I am not going back to Maurice Stark, and what about Trystan?’

‘What about him?’ Dax asked, his face set in a frown. ‘You’re not afraid of him, you’re not fucking afraid of anyone.’

‘It’s the fucking part that I stick on. You didn’t tell me about what happened the night you walked away, at that midnight meeting, but I can guarantee no one floated their congratulations, did they?’

‘Maurice has taken care of it,’ Dax said. ‘Brad told me that Maurice has told everyone about us and told them to keep their hands off you.’

‘Oh well if Brad told you that then I guess it’s ok.’

‘Why would he lie?’

‘Why would he tell the truth?’ she demanded. ‘And Bruno, what about him?’

His eyes went one way and his chin went up while his tongue darted out to moisten half of his top lip, she didn’t like that tell, not one little bit.

‘Forget about him.’ Dax spoke in his company voice, in that blunt, intimidating tone, and then he went to the living room window. None of his actions were encouraging reassurance.

‘There’s too much going on here that you haven’t told me about,’ she said. ‘I can’t go back there.’

‘I can’t leave you here, if they want to divide us, then me going to California leaves you wide open.’

‘I thought you just said that Maurice had taken care of things for us. Either you trust the guy or you don’t.’

‘Fine, if you want to stay here, then stay here,’ he said. Whipping around, he began to march toward the bedroom, but she hurried over to block the head of the hallway.

‘You do still trust him? How can you—‘

‘Maurice never lied to me,’ Dax said. Grabbing her arm, he tried to wrench her aside, but she got hold of him to keep herself in his way.

‘Maurice didn’t tell you that he took care of it, Brad told you that he did. Do you trust him?’

‘Brad? No. I don’t trust that bastard.’

‘Then why should we get on a plane with him?’ she asked, reaching up to cup his cheek. ‘He’s manipulating you. Whatever he wants you to do, it can’t be worth the risk, can it?’

‘He doesn’t want me to do anything, Maurice wants to see me.’

‘Then he can get his ass on a plane and come here,’ she said, though she wasn’t keen on having Maurice Stark sniffing around in their new life.

‘He can’t get on a plane.’

‘Why not? Is immigration looking for him?’ Her joke fell on deaf ears, and he tried to look away again, so she slapped her other palm onto his other cheek. ‘What aren’t you telling me? How did Brad upset you like this?’

‘He’s sick.’

‘Brad?’

Dax shook his head. ‘Mauri is sick, he’s only got a few months.’

Lowering from her tiptoes, her hands fell away. In the same moment that they lost eye contact, he put a hand on her elbow to move her aside, and this time Ivy let him walk away from her. If Maurice Stark was sick then she could understand why Dax wanted to go and see him. He had acted as a father to Dax, and Dax had always respected him.

Letting go of his relationship with Mauri was the hardest part of Dax’s decision to be with her. Something had happened at the midnight meeting on the night that Dax left the Stark mansion for good. He had never told her about it, but she’d always suspected that there had been an exchange between her husband and his father figure that plagued Dax to this day.

Mauri had thoroughly trained Dax to follow his orders without question and for twenty years that was exactly what Dax had done… until he got entangled with her.

Heading for the bedroom, she found him packing things into a suitcase that lay open on the bed. ‘Devil’s advocate,’ she said, ‘what if this is all a ruse just to get you back there?’

‘You’re not playing devil’s anything,’ he replied. ‘You’re your own advocate.’

‘Do you blame me? The last time I was with them—‘

‘Nothing sinister happened, I kept you safe.’

‘Yeah, the days I spent in the beach house basement were a ball, and Bruno—‘

‘You don’t have to worry about him,’ Dax said, zipping the partially filled case. ‘And I promised that you wouldn’t spend a night in that basement again, didn’t I? We’re going to my apartment in the city, you don’t have to go anywhere near the Starks.’

‘You know that it won’t work out that way,’ she said. ‘I want to support you, and we can’t show them weakness or they’ll jump all over it and use it to their advantage.’

‘So what is your problem?’ he asked. ‘You don’t trust me, is that it? You think that I’ll just hand you over to them if they ask?’

‘You’ve tried that before,’ she said.

‘I didn’t do it.’

‘No, you let me walk out of your apartment and we were separated for seven weeks.’

‘I stood up to them, that’s what happened at the midnight meeting. I told them to go to hell, that I wanted nothing to do with them.’

‘They obviously didn’t believe you,’ she said. ‘Otherwise, why are they here?’

‘Mauri knew he was sick, he’s known for a while, but he didn’t tell anyone. It’s part of the reason he wanted to see Trystan settled before he…’

Dax wouldn’t break down, he wouldn’t reveal just how losing Mauri would affect him. But Mauri had been the only consistent man in his life. Mauri was the man that Dax respected above all others. She couldn’t tell Dax not to go; she just had to hope that it was true and that this wasn’t some elaborate plan to hurt them again.

‘Did Bruno know?’

‘I don’t know.’

Fixated on the case, he balled his fists at his sides, which was the closest Dax would get to telling her he was upset. Crossing the room, she rubbed his back and pressed her lips to the dragon tattooed on his arm.

‘If you want to go then we’ll go,’ she said. ‘But don’t forget what I said to you at the garage.’

‘This is my last chance,’ he said, bringing his eyes to hers. ‘So you’re telling me if I fuck this up you’re going to leave me?’

‘I’m sort of used to the idea that you’re the only man allowed to touch me. If Bruno or Trystan lay their hands on me again—‘

‘Listen to me,’ he said. Twisting the quarter turn to face her, he took hold of her upper arms. ‘I know that you won’t admit to being scared, that you won’t give an inch. That stubborn, wilful front of yours—‘

‘Uh, Kettle? Pot is calling.’

‘I’m not going to let them hurt you.’

‘And how do I make you the same promise?’ she asked. ‘They’re hurting you already and most of them are still a continent away.’

‘I’ve been dealing with the Starks and their crew for twenty years, I can handle them now.’

‘You dealt with them while you were working with them and you were all on the same side. Neither is true anymore. What if they set you up with Rita or Fifi or—‘

‘Other women? You have nothing to worry about there, I won’t bow to their pressure, and we’re solid, babygirl. We’ve been together for almost five months, and the way I feel about you hasn’t changed. In that garage I told you I wouldn’t let you escape again, you made your choice my prison or theirs.’

‘Did you really think that you were holding me against my will? Did you doubt how I felt about you?’

‘I was used to Mauri being the one to tell me how it was, and when he told me that you were using me, it was easier to believe that and maintain the status quo than it was to believe you.’

‘Because I wanted to wreck your entire world.’

‘Which I don’t think I ever thanked you for,’ he said. With his index fingers, he touched her temples and traced down to move her hair back over her shoulders.

‘Thanked me?’ she asked. ‘You’re pleased that I…’

‘That we got together, yeah, I’m damn pleased about that.’

‘Good, maybe you won’t fuck it up this time,’ she said. ‘But if we get to a point where you have to make a choice, I’d appreciate it if you let me know if that choice involves dropping me.’

‘Not gonna happen,’ he said, pulling her body into his to hold her in his arms.

‘I should just ask you for a divorce now,’ she said, her lips squashed into his torso.

‘That’s not gonna happen either… You want me to pack for you?’

‘No,’ she said, pushing out of his arms and bending to unzip the case he’d put on the bed. ‘If I let you pack for me all I’ll end up with is lingerie and flip-flops.’

‘I trust you to handle it,’ he said, smacking her ass. ‘I’ll get the steaks on.’

He left the room and she flipped open the case then stared down at his strewn clothes. Going back to California and the Starks was going to test them and passing that test wasn’t guaranteed.

Dax released the California apartment door, letting it slide back into the frame with its own inertia. Ivy was a few feet in front of him and the breath she expelled made her body sag. Coming back here to California might be a huge mistake, but Mauri knew everything there was to know about Dax’s past. If he ever wanted to find out who his mother was or how she ended up with Bruno, then Mauri was the only one he could hope to get that information from.

Bruno couldn’t stand him and the animosity was mutual. If Dax tried to open communication between them, Bruno would delight in taunting him. Dax would never be able to trust the information that Bruno gave him.

Ivy didn’t move further into the apartment, she just stood in the entryway. Putting down the suitcase, he curled his hands around her shoulders and squeezed. During the flight, she hadn’t said a word and Dax did his best not to talk to Brad either. Serg was on the flight with them as well, the whole experience had been too surreal to pretend that they were all buddies or happy to be in the company of each other.

Serg used to be his number two, and Dax used that lingering façade of authority to question Serg on the other men and the state of the operation. Ivy kept her attention out of the window, her scowl remained fixed on the clouds outside the aircraft. He caught Serg glancing at her with either confusion or concern throughout the journey, but Dax doubted that sentiment reached too deep; after all Serg had been sent to spy on them and report back to Brad. Serg’s loyalty went as deep as the person with the deepest pockets could afford.

Now that they were alone in his California apartment, he could put her at ease. Kissing her head, he bent his knees and traced his lips down her neck to her shoulder. Nudging the strap of her dress away with his chin, he insinuated his hand around to peel back her dress to expose one breast, which he quickly took into his palm.

The weight in his groin increased but when he tried to turn her toward the bedroom, she wouldn’t move. Assuming that she was ignoring him because of another marital tradition, he bent to scoop her up, but she pushed him off and walked away from his lower arm, preventing him from lifting her.

‘I can get rid of that scowl if you loosen up a bit,’ he said. Being short with her probably wasn’t fair, she would be nervous about what was to come, but he was sick of seeing her spitting fury.

She went into the living room, so he followed her. When she got into the middle of the space, she spun around and held open her arms. From this distance it was tough to tell, but he was sure that her lower lashes were barricading a line of unshed tears. Crying was so unlike her that his own eyes widened, and he took a step back. Quelling his urge to retreat, he swallowed his discomfort and told himself to stay put and not run like a pussy, it was just a few lousy tears.

‘The last time we were here… I walked away, Dax, you wanted me to walk away from you.’

He had refused the invite for them to visit the Stark mansion because he thought that coming back to the apartment would calm her, this space was safe from the Starks. What he hadn’t taken account of was their past, this place was safe from others, but not safe from their demons.

‘You want to check into a hotel?’

Tipping her chin toward the ceiling, she sighed. ‘Forget it.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘What do you want me to do? If you don’t want to be here, then we’ll go somewhere else.’

‘You don’t give a fuck?’ she asked. ‘You really don’t think about what happened between us here?’

‘I think about what happened in the bedroom,’ he said.

‘No you don’t,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Because when we had sex in there you thought it was the last time that we would ever be intimate, you were going to turn me over to them.’

‘But I didn’t, did I?’

‘No, you didn’t,’ she said, going to the window. ‘I’m sorry, I know… I know, I need to get over this.’ Pulling the band out of her hair, she flicked it around her wrist in an expert move and ran her hands through her long, luxurious locks. ‘Ok.’

‘Ok, what?’ he asked. Ivy was a great woman, the best he’d met, but she was still a woman, and one that often left him at a loss about what was going on in that head of hers.

‘Ok,’ she said, turning away from the window. ‘Just ok.’ Hooking her thumbs under the straps of her dress, she pulled it down, wiggling out of her panties in the same manoeuvre. ‘Come over here and fuck me.’

If that was a power play, it worked. He didn’t care that she’d refused him in the hallway, not now that she stood in his living room completely naked asking for action.

Shirking out of his clothes on his journey to her, he swooped down to pick her up, and she coiled her legs around his waist and welcomed his mouth. Directing them toward the couch, she broke their kiss and patted his shoulders.

‘No, there,’ she said, pointing at the window she’d been looking out of a moment before.

Glancing at that spot and then back at her, he arched a brow. ‘You want me to fuck you against the window when it’s broad daylight outside?’

‘There’s a curtain over it,’ she said, but the flimsy gauze wouldn’t endure the experience or conceal much of it either.

Still, he wasn’t modest and whatever her reasoning, he was still going to get his. Carrying her back to where they had been, she squealed and arched her body into his when her back touched the cold glass separated from her flesh by only the sheer material of the curtain. The investment in heat reflecting glass and the expensive air-conditioning in the apartment had been worth it, she couldn’t get any closer to him unless she crawled inside his skin.

‘You want to put on a show, Minx?’ he asked, avoiding her mouth when she tried to kiss him again.

Now that he had her propped on the glass, he could free his hand. He curled it around her chin to push her head as far back as it could go. The strained column of her throat brought heat to the weight hanging in his groin. Licking the length of her gullet, he kissed his way back down while shoving her weight higher. Her knees closed on his ribs, but her chest was now level with his mouth, so he didn’t miss the breath that she squeezed out of him.

Closing his lips around her nipple, he hummed his approval, and the vibrations made her exhale her own want. The agreeable audio pleased him, but not as much as the well of moisture building on his torso from between her legs. It didn’t take much to get her going. Keeping her chin up, he kissed the dark peaks of her breasts and rubbed his face between them.

His wife’s cans could get a guy hard from twenty feet away, he’d caught glimpses of it happening. Only he was allowed this close to her, and possessing her was more of a turn on than the actual taste of her. This was his, she was his, and he wouldn’t let any guy threaten that again.

‘Dax,’ she whispered, tightening her legs, she tried to wriggle.

With his hands under her thighs, he backed off enough to let her body slide down the glass, which strained the flimsy curtain at her back.

‘You want something, Minx?’

‘Only you.’

This time, she kissed him, and the plunge of her tongue on his gave him the impetus to ease his hips away. With a guiding hand, he surged forward and pushed his dick into her. Her kiss froze to release a breathy squeak, which made him smile.

Taking over the kiss, he fucked his way into her. Grabbing her hips, he tilted them to slam himself in deeper, working her clit at the same time. She was holding onto him for her life now, her circled arms around his neck got tighter, crushing her breasts into him.

When he withdrew, she eased back but they never let the head of his cock leave her opening, then she pitched forward matching his fervour with her own.

The closer she came to orgasm, the faster her breathing became. Her head thumped back against the window, the kiss forgotten, her lips only moved to utter words of her impending bliss. Driving on, he sped up and locked her pelvis on the glass.

Pounding into the slippery passageway she offered to only him, he drove in, smacking the head of his dick deep. That sweet meeting spot where their bodies dovetailed together gave him his life’s purpose, he had never wanted a woman with the same need she cloaked him in. Every time he slid into her was a gift, and he wasn’t going to give it up.

Gasping his name, she cursed and began to quake around him, squeezing his dick so tight that he couldn’t move. To prevent himself from calling out, he locked his jaw while she milked the burst of his seed for every last drop, wringing him dry.

This was an interlude, and he planned to continue fucking her for the rest of the day and into the night until she’d forgotten all about what happened the last time they occupied this apartment.

‘Stranger,’ she said, still panting. With her open palms, she lifted his head from where it rested on hers so that she could look him in the eye.

‘What?’ he asked.

She smoothed his hair away from his forehead. ‘I won’t let them have you. I won’t let them take you away from this, I promise.’

Here he was worried about her feeling like she was losing control of their relationship; while all the time she was formulating ways to hold onto him.

‘I’m going nowhere, babygirl.’

Sliding out of her body, he carried her to the couch and laid her down, then he stood up to examine her flushed skin. Her neck was reddened where his stubble had abraded her and the rest of her form was still in the midst of a fever from their union.

His eye caught on the diamond she wore on her hand, which rested on her abdomen. Kneeling beside her, he picked up her hand and kissed the stone. He’d never considered marriage before Ivy. The women in his past were never around long enough for him to develop any kind of feelings. His dedication was to the Starks back then and that had been enough for him.

‘You’re not with me,’ she said, sitting up to run her fingers into his hair again. ‘You get that glare on your face, and I know that you’re thinking about Mauri. Are you worried about losing him?’

‘I worry about what he’ll take with him,’ Dax said, sticking an arm under her legs, he lifted them to sit on the couch underneath her stems. Dropping onto his side, he laid his spine along the back of the couch and kept Ivy angled against him. ‘And about what will happen to the organisation when he’s not around.’

‘You still care about that? About the Stark name?’

‘Sure,’ he said. ‘It’s instinct I guess.’

‘So what will happen? Brad is going to take over, right?’

‘That should be what happens, least that’s what Brad’s always thought,’ he said, fondling her breast.

‘But you don’t think that it will?’

Dax shrugged and slid lower to suck her nipple into a tight pebble. ‘Bruno won’t just roll over, Brad won’t give him the same respect that Mauri does.’

‘What about Trystan?’

‘He’s already pissed,’ Dax said. ‘After we left, he apparently went off on a crazy bender. Mauri’s had him locked up in the mansion.’

‘Do you think they’ve…? Is there another woman for him? Has someone been abducted to take my place?’

‘Maybe,’ Dax said, having not considered that. ‘It’s a possibility, but…’

‘But?’

‘It didn’t work with you and maybe Mauri re-thought their approach. I don’t know. I’ll find out when I go over there.’

‘Which will be when?’ she asked. In time with her question, his cell phone rang.

The post-coital intimacy was shattered and her expression cooled. ‘It could be nothing,’ he said.

Extricating himself from their snug position, he climbed off the couch to snag his jeans, which he’d kicked off in the middle of the room. Removing his phone from his pocket, he recognised the number that came up.

‘Hello?’

‘Come over to the house,’ Brad said down the phone line. ‘Mauri wants you to join him for dinner.’

‘I’m having dinner with my wife, thanks.’

‘Bring her,’ Brad said. ‘Mauri’s invited you both.’

‘No, I’m not bringing her over there. Sitting around the table as a happy family is a crock of shit. If Mauri wants to see me then I’ll come over, just me, for a sit down with him. I think we have a lot to talk about and we don’t need you bastards listening in.’

‘Ok,’ Brad said.

He hadn’t gone away to check anything with Mauri, and the old man wasn’t dead yet, so he wouldn’t like Brad speaking for him. That meant that either Dax was on speakerphone and Mauri was right there, or that Mauri knew Dax would tell him where to stick his dinner invitation. Dax would put his money on the latter, Mauri wasn’t the type to skulk.

‘I’ll be over in less than an hour.’

‘You’re eager,’ Brad said. ‘For a guy who didn’t want to come at all.’

‘Eager to get it over with,’ Dax said. ‘Tell Mauri to be ready.’

Hanging up, he put his phone on the dining table, which stood between the entry way and the open plan kitchen, then he turned around to see Ivy was now sitting up on the couch.

‘You’re going over there?’ she asked.

‘Yeah. Mauri wants to talk.’

‘I have to shower,’ she said, rising from the couch to head for the bedroom.