Just For You, Sir (Doms of Decadence) (15 page)

Jacey placed her hands on her hips. “All right, where is it?”

“Where is what?” he asked, his eyes wide with innocence.

“The baby monitor,” she said, walking around the room to look for it. Where had he hidden it this time? She’d made him remove it the second day. It was ridiculous for him to run up the stairs every time she needed to go to the bathroom. But there had been too many coincidences where he would turn up just as she started moving around. There had to be another monitor. She’d feel invaded if she hadn’t realized he’d done it out of concern.

He probably had a half dozen of them
. The nursery he’d set up for Holly’s baby was overflowing with stuff he’d bought, usually two of the same thing. He truly adored his sister-in-law, Holly, and Jacey got the feeling that Holly’s baby would be spoiled rotten.

Jacey
placed her hand over her stomach, thinking about everything she couldn’t afford to buy her own baby. But it would be loved and protected. She would do everything she could to ensure that.

“What’s wrong?” Derrick asked, placing his hand over hers. “Is it the baby? Are you in pain?”

“What? Oh no, I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“About what?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing.”

Derrick turned he
r toward him. He drew her closer, kissing her softly.

“Want to rethink that answer, sweetheart? We don’t have a lot of time before your doctor’s appointment, but I think I can squeeze in enough time to get you nicely hot and bothered before we get there. Could make the car ride over very interesting.”

She blushed. “You wouldn’t!”

He stared at her calmly. Oh God, he would. There had been a few times
in the past week where she’d brushed off his questions with vague answers. She’d soon learned how serious he was about her talking to him.

He was so
devious. Each time she’d brushed him off, he’d aroused her to the point of completion then refused to allow her orgasm. When she’d tried to take matters into her own hands, he’d tied her hands with silken ropes behind her back then started all over again.

She’d soon got the message.

“No, don’t,” she cried as he raised her t-shirt. “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! You should have been an interrogator.”

He chuckled
, but kept his hands cupped over her breasts. “I don’t think the Geneva Convention would approve of my techniques.”

“No, it goes above and beyond. I think a spanking would be less
torturous.”

“Just say the word, beautiful,” he told
her, his voice growing thick with desire. She glanced down at his pants where his erection pressed against them firmly.

She licked her lips.

He’d promised not to spank her until she was ready. Only the more he mentioned it, the hotter she grew.

“Damn it, Jacey. Don’t look at me like that. We don’t have time for a spanking or play. I don’t think you want to go the doctor with a red ass anyway. Tell me.”

Jacey drew in a deep breath. “Guess I was just thinking about everything I can’t give this baby.”

His gaze narrowed and she carried on quickly,
before he thought she was being greedy.

“But I can give
him or her a lot of love. And protection. I know that, it’s just…” she trailed off.

“I don’t want you worrying about what you can and can’t buy for this baby. You know
this baby won’t want for anything, don’t you?”

“Derrick, you can’t just buy us whatever we need.”

“Why not?”

“Because
…because I feel like I’m using you. You won’t even let me repay you by doing anything around here.”

“I pay people to do that,” he said arrogantly.
“Would you do them out of a job?”

“Of course not!” she replied indignantly. “I just wish I felt like I was contributing.”

He watched her for a moment. “Did you know that I grew up poor?”

“What? No.”
He’d shared very little of himself with her. Not that she could complain, there were still some big secrets she’d kept from him. For his own good, she justified, although she felt guiltier by the day for holding back.

He nodded. “Some days we barely had food on the table. My mother worked two jobs just to keep a roof over our heads. She worked
herself into an early grave. I always vowed that my children wouldn’t grow up in poverty, that my wife wouldn’t work herself half to death.”

Her breath caught.
“Derrick−”

“Then I let
Cara do just that. She was so tired from working hard all day, that she fell asleep in the bus and missed our stop. She didn’t want to pay for another ride, so she walked back from the stop. Three men jumped her, pulled her into an alley. They raped and killed her.”

Jacey was speechless.

“I should have been there to meet her at the bus stop each night. I should have demanded that she not work so hard. But we had very little money and she insisted. Cara died because I couldn’t take care of her.”

“No, Derrick, that’s not true.”

He watched her with hard eyes. “But I can take care of you and this baby. If you’ll let me.”

“Oh, Derrick, you already take good care of us. We don’t need your money as well.”

“What good is my money, if it doesn’t protect and care for the people I love?”

“Y-you love me?”

Ignoring her question, he glanced at his watch. “We’d better go. We’ll be late.”

***

Holly glanced over at Derrick as she sat on the examination table. He sat in a chair across the room, the look on his face pensive. The car ride over had been silent.

He loved her? Did he mean it? Was he regretting saying it and that’s why he’d gone silent
? Maybe he’d been remembering how much he loved Cara and his emotions had grown confused.

“Hello.” The doctor walked in, a friendly, older man. Derrick had
arranged the appointment, so she knew he must be very good at his job.

“You must be Jacey.” He walked over and shook her hand. “And Derrick.” He moved to Derrick who stood and shook his hand.

“Thanks for fitting us in, doctor,” Jacey said. Derrick hadn’t been happy that they’d had to wait until now to see him, but Jacey knew he must have pulled a few strings just to get her in at this late stage.

“Not a problem.
I’m only sorry I couldn’t fit you in earlier. After everything your fiancé has done for this hospital it was the least we could do.” He flipped open her file.

“I have your records from the hospital. How are you feeling after the bronchitis? Still coughing?”

She shook her head. “No, I feel fine.”

He asked a whole range of questions. His nurse had already taken her vitals and he discussed the need to raise her body weight. Derrick remained silent, but she knew he was taking in each word.

“Well, how about we do an ultrasound?”

Jacey nodded.

“Lie back.” He squirted some gel on her tummy after lowering her jeans.

Derrick came over to her side and Jacey held out her hand, grateful when he took it. She couldn’t help but feel nervous, worried they might find something wrong
with the baby.

“And there
is your baby.”

Jacey let out a soft gasp. In grainy black and white, there was her baby. The doctor took some measurements while Jacey just stared at the baby growing inside her.

“There we go, two arms, two legs and everything looks fine. We’ll do some blood tests too and get you back here in a few weeks. But at the moment, other than making sure you get plenty of good food and rest I don’t anticipate any issues.”

He wiped the gel off her stomach.

“Thank you,” Jacey said as the printer spat out two images of her baby.

“You’re welcome.” The doctor smiled as Derrick helped her up, and guided her to the door. “See you soon.”

They stopped at reception to make another appointment. As they walked to the car, Jacey bit her lip.

Derrick helped her into the car, before moving around to his own seat.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Hmm?”

“You’re worrying about something. You’ve gone very quiet.”

“So have you,” she accused
. “Are you angry with me?”

Shocked, he stared at her. “Angry? No, why?”

“You seem angry. I know you didn’t mean it when you said you loved me, you were just thinking about Cara−”

He clasped her cheeks and she grew quiet. “You listen to me. I was not thinking of
Cara. I mean, I was, but not when I told you I love you. I love you, Jacey.”

“Really?” she whispered.

“Really.”

“I love you, too.”

“Then you’ll let me look after you and the baby,” he said with firmly. “If you’re mine, this baby is mine. I will claim it as mine. Unless you don’t want that.”

She took a deep breath. “Are you sure?”

“Oh yes.”

She leaned over, throwing her arms around him. He kissed her. “You’re going to make a great daddy.”

He grinned. “I like the sound of that.”

“It’s costing you a lot of money, though
, me not having health insurance and everything.”

“Like I said before, my money means nothing if I can’t use it to look after you. Besides, once we’re married you’ll have all the health care and insurance you could ever possible need.”

“You want to marry me?”

“Well,
this isn’t exactly how I thought to propose. But yes, I want you and this baby to have my name.”

“We can’t get married, though
, because if I file for a divorce then he’s going to know where I am.”

“
I want to marry you. I want you and this baby to carry my name. I know you must be worried he’ll ask for custody of your child but I won’t allow that. I will find everything I need to protect you and this baby.”

“
You just don’t understand, Derrick. You don’t know what he’s like. The lengths he’s capable of going to.”

“
Because you won’t talk to me. I won’t allow him near you. Look, Jacey, I know you’re terrified, but you can’t live like this forever. You have to trust that I will take care of you and the baby.”

“I know you think I’m overreacting, that I’m being silly
−”

“He terrori
zed you, abused you, it’s okay to be afraid, Jacey. But the sooner we do this, the sooner you can see that he can’t hurt you anymore.”

“Damn it, Derrick, will you just listen to me!”

Derrick stared at her in shock and she was a bit surprised by the anger in her voice.

“I am not being over-dramatic. I am not making him out to be worse than he is.
While I remain hidden, we’re safe, you, me and the baby. If he finds out where I am, he won’t hesitate to kill us.”

“So do you have a plan on how to get to her?” Stephan asked his brother impatiently.

“We’re watching
Ashdown’s house around the clock. We’ll get her eventually.”

“Eventually isn’t good enough,” Stephan said angrily. “Just go in there and grab her.”

“He’s got a shitload of security. I’m sure we can get around it, but we go in without a plan and we’re toast. If you don’t think we’re doing our job properly, you could just come here and grab her yourself, brother,” Evan said silkily and Stephan knew he’d crossed a line with his stepbrother.

“
Evan, I’m sorry,” Stephan said, injecting his voice with just the right amount of apology. “Of course you know your job, I’m just impatient to get my hands on her.”

“As am I
, you’re not the only one in deep shit if she speaks, Stephan,” Evan said.

“You’re quite right.” Only
Evan didn’t stand to lose nearly as much as Stephan did. He was a nobody. There would be a bit of bad press, but Stephan had witnesses lined up, prepared to swear that Evan’s issues stemmed from abuse suffered prior to his moving in with Stephan’s father. No way was Stephan going down for his assistant’s death. No way in hell.

To ensure that,
he was willing to get rid of anybody who stood in his way, including his wife. So far, he’d managed to hide her absence by telling everyone she’d gone to Europe on vacation. But that excuse wouldn’t last forever.

“You realize taking
out Ashdown isn’t going to be that easy,” Evan said. “I’ve been looking into him, he’s got a lot of powerful connections. If Jacinta tells him the truth he could ruin you.”

“She won’t tell him. She knows he’s a dead man if she does.”

Evan chuckled. “Too bad she doesn’t know he’s a dead man either way.”

***