Fighting Fate (10 page)

Rocking his foot, he made her body oscillate and though he witnessed a wince of pain cross her expression he kept going.

‘You wanted to get me off, what if this is what it takes?’ he asked. ‘What if I want to roll you over and piss all over you until you stink of me? Then whip those hefty tits ‘til they’re crimson, would you let me do that?’

‘Is this a test?’ she asked. ‘Like you said earlier, to find out what I’ll do for you?’

Dragging his boot off her, he rolled her onto her back and squatted down over her. ‘You’ll do anything your damn well told by me. If I tell you to spend all night buck naked serving beer to me and my friends, you’ll do it. If I deny you the right to use the bathroom until you piss all over yourself, you’ll do it.’

‘What’s with the sudden obsession with peeing?’

‘Still don’t know when to quit, Minx.’

Despite blanching with discomfort, she pushed up onto her elbows. ‘And you worry too much.’

‘It’s in the job description.’

‘Of thug for hire?’ she asked. ‘I’d think it’s just your job to show up and kick the shit out of the person your boss points at.’

‘In my line of work you can never trust anyone to watch your back. Sometimes you have to assume that everything will go to shit.’

‘And if life has taught me one thing it’s that you never know what is around the corner. I didn’t choose to be here and I don’t think that you did either.’

‘I wasn’t the one who planned to bring you here, or the one to decide what we did with you now that you are here.’

Extending his legs, he came back to full height and offered her a hand, which she took so he could haul her to her feet.

‘I know that,’ she said. ‘But I’m happy you’re the one sharing my bed and not him.’

‘Bruno? He can’t get it up,’ Dax revealed. ‘He’s Mauri’s right hand man, he trusts him with everything.’

‘But Mauri doesn’t trust you?’ she asked

‘He trusts me, Brad and Trystan are another story.’

‘You said something, that night in Vegas, about teaching me a lesson about my attitude.’

‘I think I just did,’ Dax said, taking her hand and lifting it above her head to make her twirl one-eighty. ‘I do love punishing that ass.’

‘Do you spank me so hard because I won’t let you fuck it?’

‘I could fuck it if I wanted to,’ he said, stroking the cheeks.

‘Are you Trystan’s bodyguard?’

‘In a way, though more like his mess fixer and problem solver. You’re not the first person he’s pissed off while he’s high.’

A wash of guilt prickled him when she reacted to a spot he caressed on her ass. Crouching to his haunches again he began to cover the red handprints he’d put there with kisses.

‘What are you doing?’ she laughed and twisted to rest a hand on his head.

‘Would you ever tell me to stop? When I hurt you—‘

‘You don’t hurt me,’ she said, rotating all the way to crouch facing him, taking both of his hands. ‘I’m… trouble. I know I’m difficult, but… I’ve never met a man who rises to it, embraces it… not like you do. I didn’t know I wanted a man who would challenge me… until you found me.’

‘Don’t,’ he said, shaking his head and bringing them both up to full height. ‘Don’t think this is more than it is. You’re my prisoner, here against your will and—‘

‘Where would I go?’ she asked. ‘I know we won’t be here forever, I know there’s a deadline. Bruno is a pig, but… I’ll put up with that if it means I have the chance to be close to you.’

Every curse word that Dax knew ran through his mind in new combinations until he’d exhausted them all. In coming to terms with his own growing attachment to this female he hadn’t figured how she might be feeling about him. Women fancied his body and were attracted to the glamour he could show them through Stark money, but then he’d had his share of the Stark female groupies too.

But for someone to care about him, it was so unimaginable that it hadn’t occurred to him. Maybe he thought this girl would be happy knocking boots with him for a while, but he hadn’t figured that she’d link him to any kind of emotion. Most of the women he knew always had ulterior motives of the practical, or material, variety. The others he kicked to the kerb long before they could latch on.

‘I’m using you for sex,’ he stated.

‘I know. I’m using you too. What woman wouldn’t want to use that body?’ Locking her fingers between his, she altered the angle of her hands so that her palms pressed down on his. ‘Lift me up.’ She locked her elbows.

‘Why?’ he asked at the same time he bent his knees then straightened, taking her off the floor and balancing her miniscule weight using his upper body strength alone.

She dipped her head to kiss him and with the taste of her tongue he forgot all about tomorrow’s worries and began to traverse to the bed.

‘When we get back to the city, can I come and see you fight?’

‘Not a chance,’ he said, lowering her onto the bed. When she was lying down he knelt astride her to grab the neck of his tee-shirt and haul it off.

‘Why not?’ she asked, sitting up to stroke his chest with such esteem that he felt the need to puff himself up. ‘Women aren’t allowed?’

‘They’re allowed, though most of them are in bikinis or hooker boots.’

‘I think I could handle that.’

He stood up to shirk his jeans. ‘I’m still not taking you.’

‘Why not?’

‘You’re too much of a distraction,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be focused on the fight if I was more concerned about you being out in the crowd getting hit on.’

‘I can take care of myself.’

‘So you’ve said in the past,’ he said, snatching her foot when it moved towards his cock. ‘But there’s no fighting allowed outside the ring. It will get you barred, or worse.’

‘That means that even if you were in the crowd with me and I got hit on there would be nothing you could do about it.’

‘Oh, there’s plenty I could do, babygirl,’ he said, imagining the ways he would make a man pay for ogling, or upsetting, his female.

‘Can I ask you a question?’ she asked, opening her arms to him when he came down on top of her.

‘I wish I knew a way to make you stop asking them.’ Except he sort of did know a way and he proved it by tracing his lips on her jaw, over the tiny scar he’d seen there, and her creamy neck. ‘What is it?’

‘What would you do for me?’

This made him falter. ‘What?’

‘You asked me earlier, in the shower, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. So I’m asking, what would you do for me?’

‘Win,’ he said and then did the most effective thing he knew to keep her quiet, he kissed her.

They’d spent far longer naked than they should have. While she was with Dax she didn’t have to worry about disobeying Bruno’s commands, this felt real, and she wanted to stay in their private shelter for as long as they could. Regardless of whatever the hierarchy was in their day jobs, where she was concerned Dax overruled Bruno every time.

After sex, they’d showered – where there was more sex – then he’d brought her back to bed and told her to wait while he went into the closet.

‘If you hate the shirt I picked out, I will iron another for you,’ she called out, wondering why he had gone into the walk-in closet they shared, but denied her entry.

A few seconds later he came back out of the closet and tossed a ball of material at her. ‘Put that on.’

Unwinding the blue fabric that was almost the colour of his eyes, she fathomed that it was a short, backless, cowl neck dress that would show off plenty of bosom without attaining slutty levels.

‘I’m grateful that I won’t be nude,’ she said. ‘Do I get underwear?’

‘No,’ he said, yanking on a fresh pair of jeans and then donning the shirt she had selected for him.

Music was already blaring from downstairs, meaning the party had started without them. She quickly dried her hair, knowing it would settle in waves, and Dax was kind enough to reveal a makeup kit in one of the dresser drawers.

For the first time in a month, she felt like a real, ordinary woman again. Slathering on the gloss, she finished then spun to face him where he stood, waiting by the door.

‘What do you think?’

‘Great, whatever, can we get out of this room?’

He could’ve left at any time, but he waited so that she wouldn’t have to enter the party alone, although he didn’t explicitly say that.

‘One second,’ she said, approaching him and unbuttoning his shirt from the top.

‘Why are you doing that?’ he asked. The obvious tent in his jeans betrayed his lack of offense at her actions. ‘I’ll give you more sex later.’

She spread her palms on his chest, opening his shirt as much as she could. ‘It’s going to be hot down there.’

‘It’s California, but it’s night time.’

‘Things might get intense downstairs, or I might get anxious and need a distraction, and this is it.’ She kissed the width of his chest.

‘If I get anxious will you flash your tits at me and let me kiss them?’

He took her hands out of his shirt, but didn’t button it, so he was obviously happy for her to have her distraction.

‘Yeah,’ she said, much to his surprise. ‘If you bring me up here first.’

‘Whatever, let’s go.’

‘Wait. What should I expect down there?’

‘You’re not expected to fuck any guy or suck any cock, except mine,’ he said, taking a front length of her hair between his first two fingers.

‘That’s it? That’s the only information you can give me?’

‘Expect everything else to go wrong,’ he shrugged. ‘Do as you’re told, don’t contradict anyone, and make every guy down there want you.’

Trust Dax to drop a bomb like that at the last second. ‘What? How am I supposed to do that?’

‘Just walk in the room, babygirl. Every guy will have a hard-on.’

‘That I’m not supposed to attend to, right?’

‘Be sexy, be flirty, but don’t cross the line into slutty. You’ll have them all drooling, that’s what we want. But you make sure they know that you’re my female and you love it. You’ll have to adore me, let them think you’re infatuated.’

‘Addicted to your dick?’ she asked, not fooled.

‘Right on.’

‘Oh, you’re going to pay for this later,’ she mumbled, but she followed him out of the bedroom and down to the party.

She didn’t stay long in Dax’s wake, or even in his company. The music was constant, the alcohol was flowing, and lines of coke were available on the bar at the outer deck. Twenty guys had shown up and they’d brought a posse of women who were happy to show off their figures around the pool when one man suggested skinny-dipping.

Dax was on a lounger, flanked by women and surrounded by men. Though she didn’t see him talk much, most of the partygoers were just happy to be in Dax’s presence. Bruno took up another corner of the back patio, he had more women adoring him than men, but she figured that was by his request.

Ivy, on the other hand, wasn’t here to enjoy the party at all. As soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs Dax wandered off because Bruno had commandeered her. He told her to keep the guests happy. Her job was to be hostess, she topped off glasses, and cooked at the grill. She stocked the fridge, made cocktails and cleaned up the messes. All of her work experience to date came in handy.

The party guests were getting louder, but because they were in the middle of nowhere there were no neighbours to bother, so it didn’t matter. By the time they reached the wee hours the party was still going strong and didn’t appear to be letting up any time soon.

For the first time all night when she entered the kitchen it was empty and she was alone. Halfway through her task of filling the canapé trays she glanced at the kitchen door and wondered if anyone would notice her making a break for it. If she was lucky enough to find the front door unlocked, as she never had before, then she could get a head start.

Just then, someone came in off the back deck into the kitchen and her opportunity was gone. ‘Do you need any help?’

She hadn’t expected the tall stranger to ask her that, nor did she expect him to come around the island to her side.

‘No,’ she said, happier to be occupied than have to mingle. ‘I’m almost finished.’

‘I’ve seen you running around tonight. You haven’t had a chance to sit still. Let someone help you and you might have a chance to enjoy yourself tonight.’

His hand covered hers when she reached for the box of crackers. ‘I’m happy to stay busy.’

‘You’re quite the pick,’ he said.

All night people had been making comments such as this. Their statements included things like, ‘he’s a lucky guy,’ and, ‘I see why you were chosen.’ She just assumed they were talking about her and Dax.

‘Dax knows what he wants,’ she said, finishing her task. There were daiquiris and margaritas to mix but when the stranger discarded his drink and rested back on the counter, he was in her way. 

‘Dax does what he’s told. He didn’t pick you.’

‘I don’t know what—‘

‘I know what’s going on, everyone here does, and you won’t catch a break like this again.’

Meeting his green eyes, she forgot about the task ahead. ‘Who are you?’

‘Your chance to get out,’ he said. ‘I’m your chance at freedom, probably your last one.’

‘Maybe you’re not as clued in as you think,’ she said, thinking of the deadline.

‘If you want to get out of here, you have to come with me. Now.’

‘You expect us just to turn around and walk out of here?’

‘Yes,’ he said, twining his fingers between hers. ‘This time tomorrow you could be far away from here and never have to see Bruno or Dax again.’

Except she was sure that she wanted Dax in her life. ‘Is this a test? To see if escape is in my mind.’

‘No test and there’s no time to waste. Do you want to be free?’

Freedom sounded like bliss, but she wanted it with Dax, not with this person. ‘I can’t just walk away from him.’

‘Dax doesn’t want you. Don’t make the mistake of falling for him. He’s here to fuck you into shape and to win your trust and obedience. And by the sounds of things he’s doing a damn good job of it. Being with you, here, wasn’t his choice but if he succeeds in this mission and makes you compliant, he moves up in the organisation.’

‘What?’

‘Those guys out there worship him because he used to be one of them. Hell is where Dax came from and he’s done everything Mauri ever asked of him to make sure that he never ends up back there. To him, you’re a stepping stone, nothing more.’

‘And you’re here to save me? Forgive me if I don’t believe it,’ she said, but when she tried to remove her hand from his, he increased his grip and tugged her body to his, smoothing his disused fingers down her cheek.

‘I don’t want you to forget this conversation, Ivy. Now there’s no hope for you. You’ve passed the point of no return.’

‘What’s going on?’

She whipped around to see Dax enter the kitchen, a suspicious scowl spread on his face. ‘Nothing,’ she said, returning to her canapé job only to be reminded too late that the tray was full because she’d actually completed the task.

‘I was just getting to know Ivy. She’s some woman.’ Ivy realised for the first time that this stranger was using her name.

‘Ivy,’ Dax said, locking his eyes on hers and obviously thinking of earlier, upstairs, when she’d smiled at his tattoo.

‘Geez, Dax, you’ve been fucking the woman for how long and you never asked her name?’ The stranger laughed and rounded the isle to pat Dax’s shoulder. ‘That’s what I love about you, man, you could never be confused for a guy who cares. Dax takes not giving a shit about anything except himself to a new level, Ivy, wouldn’t you agree?’

‘Thanks for the input,’ Dax said. Before she could question him on the statement, the stranger began to head for the exit.

‘You’ve got that thing to do,’ the stranger said to Dax, taking on a sterner air.

‘I’m on it,’ Dax nodded then the stranger was gone. ‘You just can’t behave yourself, can you?’

‘What?’ she asked, set off-kilter by Dax’s new anger.

Storming toward her, he swept an arm across the counter sending all her neatly trayed snacks cascading over the floor.

‘I just—‘His grip on her arm jolted her in front of him and he crouched to slide his palms up the backs of her thighs under her dress. ‘What are you doing?’

Bringing his lips to the shell of her ear, he whispered, ‘What do you get when you’re a naughty girl?’

‘You’re not going to—‘The buzz of his hand slapping her ass cheek shut her up.

‘You know that I like to hear the answer. What do you get, Minx?’

‘A spanking.’

‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Bend over the counter like a good girl.’

‘No, Dax, not here. Please don’t—‘

Shoving her down over the counter to gather up her skirt, he exposed her ass. From here she could see the door to the back deck where the party was going on and anyone could walk in at any minute.

‘Still looks tender,’ he said, smoothing his hand on her butt with increasing pressure.

His hushed, throaty timbre didn’t give her confidence in them not being discovered. ‘That’s because you already gave me a hiding earlier. Haven’t you noticed that I haven’t sat down all night?’

His hand left her and came back with a harsh thwack sending a spear of pleasure into her guts. ‘Oh, Dax, not here,’ she whispered but he hit her again.

‘Worried that you might get overexcited?’ he asked. ‘Spread your legs. Get them further apart.’

‘Dax—‘

‘Do it.’

Hearing his increased volume, then getting another smack, she didn’t take the risk of refusing him again. His hand skimmed down until his finger dipped between her folds.

‘Fuck, you’re wet…’ The strangled groan that accompanied the words confused and stimulated her. As opposed to angry, he sounded juiced up and agonized all at once.

‘Do you want me to apologise for that too?’

‘Just tell me that Brad wasn’t the one who—‘

‘Who? Your creepy friend? He didn’t turn me on, he freaked me out… and I don’t think he likes you very much.’

‘No, but he trusts me and that’s all I need from him.’

‘I thought he wasn’t coming tonight.’

‘Change of plans, and you need to stop listening in to conversations that don’t concern you.’

‘There’s not much else to do around here,’ she said and he spanked her. Their casual conversation had made her forget she was half-naked, presenting for him.

‘Watch your mouth, Minx.’

‘We could slip away. Go upstairs, you could let me apologise—‘

‘I have something to do,’ he said, taking up position behind her. ‘And I don’t know why this matters to me but… I need to hear you say that you trust me.’

‘You need my trust before you fuck me? Since when?’

‘That’s the thing, babygirl… you’re not the one I’ll be fucking.’

‘Ready?’

A blonde wearing a green satin dress came in and Dax tugged down Ivy’s skirt to conceal her body again. ‘Didn’t I tell you to wait out there?’ Dax said to the blonde.

‘I’m impatient,’ the green dress girl pouted. ‘You promised me an intimate tour. Not many girls get that offer from the great Dax Harrow.’

‘Wait here, for real this time,’ he said. ‘I have to get this out of our way first.’

Ivy could see the attraction and awe glittering from the size two woman in the green dress and heard the unspoken promise in Dax’s tone. He was going to have sex with this woman and the “this” that he had to get out of the way was her.