Penmort Castle (10 page)

His voice was
husky when she heard him ask quietly, “Abby, are you awake?”

She decided
immediately to feign sleep.

Cash was not
deceived.

“Abby,” he
called.

“Mm,” she
mumbled, hoping he would think she was
mostly
asleep.

Cash was still
not deceived.

His hand slid
across her belly to curl around the top of her hip and she felt his
face in her neck before he murmured, “Darling, I know you’re
awake.”

There was, she
had to admit, something about him calling her “darling” that she
liked way too damned much.

However, when
he said it into her neck while they were in bed, she liked it a
whole lot better which made it worse.

A lot
worse.

“Not entirely,”
she muttered her lie.

She was
completely awake and totally panicked.

She felt his
body laugh even though she didn’t hear it. His face came out of her
neck and his fingers put pressure on her hip to roll her to her
side and into him.

She lifted her
hands and pressed them against his chest as his face went to the
other side of her neck.

“Let’s see,”
his voice rumbled against her skin, “you sleep like a dead weight
pressed into me all night and all of a sudden your body jerks and
freezes and you pull away. I’m thinking you’re pretty fucking
awake.”

Abby was
stunned and not about the fact that he knew she was lying. “I slept
like that all night?”

“You rolled
into me five minutes after you drifted off and stayed there.”

Abby was even
more stunned. She was certain he fell asleep before her.

“Sorry,” she
mumbled.

His face went
away and although she couldn’t see him she felt his eyes on
her.

“Sorry about
what?” he asked.

“Sorry if I
bothered you while you were sleeping,” she told him. “And sorry if
I woke you up.”

His mouth came
to hers and he murmured, “Don’t be. I’m not.”

Then he brushed
his lips against hers softly and after his mouth trailed down her
cheek to her ear.

It occurred to
Abby at that moment that something was not quite right.

Then she felt
his tongue touch the skin under her ear.

Her belly
dipped.

“What are you
doing?” she asked, her voice breathy, her hands putting light
pressure on his chest.

“Tasting you,”
he whispered in her ear and she felt a happy tingle slide from her
ear downward.

Her hands on
his chest pressed harder. “Um, Cash, we have a deal,” she reminded
him.

“Yes,” he
murmured his mouth moving to trail along her jaw, “we do.”

She found
breathing was becoming difficult. “Cash, stop it.”

“No,” was his
surprising and terrifying answer.

She’d been
correct, something was definitely not right.

“Cash!” she
gave him a shove and his body stayed where it was but his head came
up.

“Abby,” he
returned patiently, his mouth had gone away but his face was close
and his hand at her hip had somewhere along the line become an arm
wrapped tightly around her waist.

“Are you
reneging on the deal?” she asked, her voice sharp.

“No.”

She pushed at
his chest again. “What do call this?”

At her push,
his arm got tighter and his other hand forced itself under her,
travelling up her back to sift into her hair and cup the back of
her head.

What Cash said
next made all the breath force itself rather painfully out of
Abby’s lungs.

“I agreed not
to fuck you until we went to the castle. I didn’t agree not to do
anything else.”

Abby thought
immediately this was not a fortuitous turn of events.

“Well I didn’t
agree to anything else,” she retorted angrily.

Anger, she
hoped, would hide her fear.

“You didn’t
stipulate against it either,” he replied.

This was
true.

“Then I do
now,” she told him.

His fingers
twisted in her hair.

This was not
painful. It was gentle and highly effective as it caused a
pleasurable tremor to slide from her scalp all the way through her
body.

“Abby,” he said
softly, “so far I’ve paid nineteen thousand nine hundred and ninety
nine pounds to spend approximately eleven hours with you, the
majority of that sleeping. Do you honestly believe I’d pay that
much to take you out to dinner and chat with you in my
kitchen?”

She had to
agree that sounded absurd.

Then again,
everything about this situation was absurd.

“I’m not
comfortable with this,” she declared even though she wasn’t
entirely certain what “this” was. She was, however, relatively
certain she was uncomfortable with it.

“Do you want to
back out?” he asked even as his arms grew tighter.

“I think I do,”
she responded, even though all of a sudden she wasn’t certain she
did.

“Then you can
pay me back thirty K and we’ll call it off.”

Her body seized
and her mind flew through quick calculations of the money she’d
already spent and the money she likely needed.

The original
ten grand she’d asked for was the bare minimum of what she needed
to take off the pressure of her debt and get current (and this was
before she knew she needed major work done to the only usable
bathroom in the house). She’d intended on selling some heirlooms,
finding a job and hoping to stay on top of things.

The fifty
thousand he’d already paid her would get her entirely out of debt
as well as allow her to do some much needed updating to Gram’s
house.

The two hundred
thousand would allow her to fix up the house so it was thoroughly
restored. It would allow her to keep Gram’s lovingly conserved
collections of vintage clothing and priceless (to Abby) family
heirlooms. And it would give her a generous nest egg allowing Abby
time to decide what she wanted to be when she grew up.

She had, she
knew, no choice.

She couldn’t
back out.

Her hands
gentled on his chest but her body stayed tense.

“All right
Cash,” she said softly, “but I want to know, in detail, what you
feel you’ve paid for.”

She didn’t
really
want
to know. But she knew she
had
to
know.

He rolled to
his back, taking her with him and reached out an arm to turn on the
bedside lamp.

She blinked at
the sudden brightness even muted by the black shade and as she was
doing this he rolled back. This time into her so his body was
mostly on top of hers, his weight settling into her but somehow not
all of it.

Their position
meant his strong, heavy legs tangled naturally with hers and the
intimacy of this was not lost on Abby. It felt strange and
wonderful at the same time it felt very wrong.

His hand came
up to rest against the side of her head, the tips of his fingers
sifting into her hair at the temple.

Lying atop her
she saw his hair was messier than normal, his black eyes sexier
than normal and his face held a frighteningly determined
expression.

This, she knew,
did not bode well.

“In detail,”
his voice came at her quietly but his words were ruthless, “I’ve
paid for the right to put my hands and mouth on you. To kiss you,
taste you, touch you, anywhere I like, everywhere I want, and do
whatever the fuck else I want with you.”

Abby stopped
breathing.

Cash kept
talking. “I’ve also paid for the right to expect that you’ll do the
same to me.”

After he said
that, Abby fought against hyperventilating.

Cash on the
other hand was completely calm. “I’ve paid for the right to make
you come with my hands and my mouth as often as I like, whenever I
like, wherever I like, given reason. I’ve also paid for the right
to expect you to return the favour.”

“Cash,” Abby
breathed.

Cash ignored
her. “I’ve paid for the right to be familiar with you when I want,
where I want and I’ll give detail to that too.”

She decided she
didn’t want any more detail.

She didn’t have
a choice, Cash kept going. “I’ll be touching you, kissing you,
holding you and whatever the hell else I want to do with you in
private and in public.”

Abby was back
to pressing against his chest.

Cash was back
to resisting her efforts.

He went on. “If
I ask you a question, you answer it honestly. You don’t hold back
and you don’t evade. I’ve paid quite generously for you to play the
part of the devoted, adoring girlfriend. I’ve paid for you to play
it convincingly, when we’re alone and when we aren’t, in all that
being my girlfriend entails in these modern times. I’ve paid for it
and I expect to get it and it’s what you’re going to give me.”

Abby stopped
fighting because she was concentrating on breathing.

“Do you have
any questions?” Cash asked, his tone polite, the underlying
firmness of it resolute.

Abby, no longer
having a voice, shook her head.

He’d been, she
thought, pretty thorough.

“I’m giving you
the chance to back out now, transfer the thirty K back into my
account by close of business today and you’ll never see me again,”
he told her, paused for a second then continued. “If you don’t back
out, that means you agree to these terms for the length of our
arrangement and we’ll not discuss this again. Is that
understood?”

Abby, still not
having a voice, nodded her head.

Cash, still
calm, his face still hard, watched her.

Then he asked,
“What’s your decision?”

Abby found her
voice and whispered, “I need some time.”

“You’ve got two
minutes,” Cash returned.

Abby felt her
eyes grow round.

“That isn’t
time!” she cried idiotically, because it was, just not much of
it.

A muscle in his
jaw leapt and Abby watched it with concern because it was an
indication that he was not at all happy and she had a feeling that
an unhappy Cash was a very bad thing.

He spoke.
“We’ve already set the plan in motion. You back out now, I’m
fucked. I don’t have time.”

She had thought
two days ago that she’d done something immensely stupid.

She’d been
wrong.

It was
catastrophically stupid.

But the truth
of the matter was she needed the money. It meant security and
freedom and it meant that she could keep hold of the only things
left in her life, outside of Kieran and Jenny, that meant anything
to her.

And if she
backed out now, Cash was, indeed, fucked.

And for some
bizarre reason she didn’t like that idea either.

She made her
decision. It terrified her but it was the only choice she had.

She asked so
quietly her voice was barely discernable, “Do we have to start
right now?”

Something
intense and unfathomably deep flashed in his eyes at her words and
Abby felt a corresponding emotion in the region of her heart.

“Yes,” he
replied, her heart sank and he dipped his head to touch her mouth
with his. “And no,” he went on, speaking against her lips and her
heart leapt.

“What does that
mean?” she whispered.

“Put your arms
around me,” he commanded, his throaty, deep voice had grown
gruff.

She did as he
asked, sliding her hands from his chest, around his sides to wrap
them around his back.

“Now, Abby,” he
started, “I’m going to kiss you and you’re going to kiss me back.
Then you’re going to go back to sleep and I’m going to work. Then
tonight, after you make me dinner again, we’ll begin.”

Without giving
her a chance to reply, he did as he said he’d do, his head slanting
and his mouth opening over hers.

The minute his
tongue touched her own, her body liquefied and even though she
didn’t will herself to do so, she kissed him back. One of her hands
slid up his spine to plunge her fingers into his thick hair, the
other arm wrapped tighter around his waist.

The kiss was
shattering, tearing through her, hot, sweet and wet. It was long,
it was hard and it was unbelievably, delectably thorough.

She’d never
experienced anything like its fiery intensity.

Never.

Not with
Ben.

Not in her
dreams.

Not in her
whole, damned life.

When his mouth
disengaged the only thing Abby could think was that she wanted
more.

A lot more.

Everything.

But she didn’t
get it. Instead, his eyes moved over her face and they were blazing
as fiery hot as his kiss. Something he found in her face made his
expression shift to a soft satisfaction before his head bent and he
kissed her neck below her ear.

“Go back to
sleep,” he murmured there then without another word, he was gone,
knifing away from her out of bed. He flicked the covers back over
her, turned off the light and headed to the bathroom.

Abby lay in
stunned silence, listening to the shower and knowing that there was
a very good possibility that she’d never sleep again. She thought
there was a slim chance she might spontaneously combust. And she
realised with a flash of guilt that mixed with heady longing that
she felt wetness between her legs and an arousal the intensity of
which she’d never experienced in her life.

And if you told
Abigail Butler that she would turn and curl her arms around Cash
Fraser’s pillow, tucking it to her body and smelling his cologne
combined with the scent that was all him, and she’d fall promptly
to sleep after her latest drama, she would have laughed in your
face.

But that was
just what she did.

* * * * *

Dressed and
ready for work, Cash walked into his dark bedroom, his eyes on
Abby’s form in his bed.

He was very
pleased to note that she’d not lied during the negotiations in the
pub.