At the Billionaire's Pleasure 5 (Anything for Love) (BDSM Billionaire Series) (2 page)

"If I had killed you when I had originally planned, Carrie, David would have felt guilty. It would have hurt him, there is no doubt about that. But now. If I bide my time, take my time and make my plans and kill you when I'm good and ready it will hurt David a great deal more. He wants to protect you. I don't really understand it myself, I've never had the overwhelming urge to protect others..."

He stared off into the distance as though looking at something only he could see. "If I take you from him now. Kill you when he is at his most vigilante. When every fibre of his being is striving to protect you, that's what will do the most damage to him. David is a proud, arrogant man, one could say. This would finish him."

My fingers closed around the small button and I began frantically pressing the call button. Faintly I could hear the buzzer sounding in the nurses’ station. Robert pressed his face in close to mine once more, nuzzling at my ear and grazing his teeth down along the line of my jaw.

"We could have some fun before I... Well you know... It doesn't have to be all pain and suffering. I must admit to being quite intrigued as to what it is that David sees in you. You're not my type, but there is something about you..." He pressed his lips against my ear and I cringed away from his hot breath. "I'd be very interested in exploring what it is about you that David finds intriguing..."

The door opened and I caught sight of a small nurse bustling into the room. She pushed the usual medication trolley ahead of her. Her gaze was focused on the chart that lay across the top of the cart and she didn't see Robert immediately. But he saw her. I felt his stiffen, all of his relaxed bravado instantly disappeared and the tension practically dripped off him.

"Now, Miss Grant, what appears to be the matter?"

I struggled in Robert's grip as the nurse turned her attention from the chart to me in the bed. Surprise and shock froze her to the spot. "What's going on!" She exclaimed.

Robert pressed his clammy lips to my forehead and kissed me. Before springing away from the bed. The nurse turned to run, to escape and no doubt raise the alarm. But Robert knew he needed time to escape. Grabbing the small dainty woman he slammed her head first into the wall. Her body crumpled in a heap to the floor as he dashed from the room leaving me struggling to get out of the bed and help the fallen nurse.

He hadn't even given her a chance to scream in surprise and the fact that she was lying on the floor so still sent panic trembling through me. He had tried to kill me once before. But what if my summoning help had caused him to kill someone completely innocent? Someone who had nothing to do with the situation. How would I ever reconcile that within myself?

Dropping to my knees I pressed my fingers
against the woman's neck and w
as relieved to feel a pulse. I crawled to the door, the adrenaline still coursing through my body. Pulling it open I tried to stand but instead slid out into the halls and collapsed back onto my knees.

"Help!" I found my voice just as I began to sob. The hall quickly became a hive of activity. Nurses, doctors, and orderlies quickly rushing to my aide but I directed them to my room and the fallen woman. My sobbing was threatening to overwhelm my voice and my body had started to shake uncontrollably.

"Get, David... Please, get, David..." I wasn't sure if they understood my pleas for the only man who had ever made me feel safe in my life. I was picked up and carried to a separate room. The doctor examining me and asking questions in an attempt to figure out what had happened. But in my head the only thing I could think about was how I wanted David to come and hold me in his arms. I was certain that if he did I would be safe.

Part of me knew how stupid it was to think that way. David hadn't protected me from Robert either time he had chosen to attack me. But it didn't stop me from being sure that if I could just feel David's arms around me that nothing could ever touch me.

"Where is she?" The sound of his voice roused me from whatever shocked trance I was slipping into. He burst through the security men who had spent their time trying to question me, and swept me up into his arms.

I couldn't stop the tears, they rolled from my eyes, hot and heavy. The scent of David's cologne enveloped me in its warm heady aroma and washed away the acrid smell of Robert that seemed determined to linger on my skin.

David wound his fingers into my dark hair and gently tilted my head back. His eyes were filled with pain and anguish and it hurt me to see him in such a state.

"I'm alright." I whispered the words but I knew he heard me. I could see the slight flinching of his eyes and I could imagine what he was thinking in his head. He was blaming himself. It was as clear to me as though he had announced it to the entire room.

"What happened?" David pressed his lips against mine in a soft, almost chaste kiss. It was filled with unformed words and unspoken emotion but for the first time I was with David, I understood his feelings for me. Words were not necessary for the feelings he held for me. I knew at some point he would tell me but it would be when he was ready and not a moment sooner. A thought popped into my head then. Perhaps he didn't even fully understand what he felt for me? It was possible. After everything that had happened it wasn't impossible to think that David had not yet had time to fully figure out what he was feeling.

"I woke up and he was just there. I don't know how he got in. I presume he just walked in... But... At first I thought it might have been you. I knew it was too early but I never for a second thought it could ever be him. He gave me a fright..."

"I should have been there. I should never have left you alone... I just thought with the time that had passed and the fact that he had never attempted to come near you sooner... Well I thought maybe he had fled the country... I should have known better..."

David spun away from me and slammed his fist down on the counter in the corner of the room. The security men moved towards him as though afraid he might do more. But I waved them back as I hopped down from the examination bed I was sitting on. The last thing David needed right now was to deal with anymore trouble.

I moved to him and wrapped my arms tight around his waist, moving into his embrace and pressing my head against his chest. "David, this is not your fault. I told you to leave. I need you strong, not tired and grumpy. One of us injured is enough. And anyway, if he didn't come today he would simply have found another time to do it. Perhaps when I was back at my own apartment, alone and unable to call anyone for help..."

David's arms tightened around me as I spoke. The thought hadn't even occurred to me before now. I was incredibly lucky. What if he had targeted me when I was alone in my apartment? There would have been no one to interrupt if he had done that. He could have done anything he wanted... The thought sent a shiver chasing down my spine.

"Are you cold?" David picked me up from the floor as though I weighed nothing. All thoughts of Robert disappeared from my mind as David pressed me close against his body. I knew what his body could do to me. The way he could make me feel with just the touch of his hands. I longed to trace my fingers across his bare chest, to watch the excitement light up his eyes as I followed my fingers with my tongue.

"Carrie?" I snapped my gaze back to David's. He still looked concerned but I could tell that he knew exactly what I was thinking about. It was as though he could read my mind. With him near me, my thoughts were never my own. I didn't mind, it was comforting to think that the man that held me in his arms knew me well enough to know exactly what I was thinking.

He carried me back to the bed and sat me on the edge. I looked down at my bare feet and it slowly began to sink in that I was still in my hospital gown. No slippers, no robe. It was at that moment that I was grateful that the gown wasn't the usual open backed affair.

"You're all flushed. What were you thinking about?" He tilted my face up to his. Gently he stroked his fingers down along my jaw line until they ran down the side of my neck to the wide neckline of the hospital gown.

"You know what I was thinking. I was thinking about you and what you can do to me... The things you make me feel with your hands and your body..." I trailed off as the heat built within my core.

David's laugh startled me. "Carrie, you're not even out of the hospital and you were just attacked and that is what you were thinking? If I had known all those months that I watched you tottering around my office just how insatiable you truly are I would have built up the courage to take you a lot sooner..."

I blushed and ducked my head, letting my dark hair fall across my face like a curtain. He had watched me for a while. He had liked me for some time and he had needed courage to approach me. I found it a little hard to believe. David Ashcroft was a man that got what he wanted. He didn't pussy-foot around situations and he certainly didn't need to build up courage to take what he wanted. It was part of the reason he was so successful in business.

"I don't believe you..." The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. I wasn't sure if it was the shock or if I was simply getting braver around David that made me say it. He instantly stopped laughing. His grip on my chin tightened as he lifted my face up to look at his.

His expression was all business and I knew he wanted answers. He didn't even need to open his mouth to ask me what I meant. I could simply tell from the look in his eyes, the set of his jaw and the way his fingers brushed ever tightening circles on my chin.

"I mean, you're David Ashcroft. Business man extraordinaire. You don't need to build up courage for anything let alone asking someone like me out..."

For a moment David's expression was one of utter confusion. Until finally he seemed to understand what I was saying. "You think I didn't struggle with the idea of asking you out?"

I tried to duck my chin down again but this time David was having none of it. He held my face tight and forced me to meet his gaze.

"Yes, that is exactly what I think. The only thing that might have been a struggle would be asking someone who looks like me out... I'm not exactly you're typical type... I don't exactly fit the supermodel mould you seemed drawn to..."

"So you think that because I dated slim women in the past that you can automatically put me in a little box. That you know how I think or how I feel or how much courage I need to build up in order to ask out the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on in my life?"

My mouth dropped open and the air caught in my lungs... There had to be a mistake... There was no way he could possibly think of me in that way... It just wasn't possible. Men didn't see me like that. I wasn't beautiful and I certainly wasn't the most beautiful woman they could lay their eyes on... I remembered back over the parade of beauties I had been witness to. Each one of them would leave me far behind in the beauty stakes and yet not one of them seemed to last much longer than one date...

Infact if memory served me correctly many of the dates had been business functions of some type or other. And there was often occasions where David had rung the women up to cancel before the date ever happened. He had been a very gracious gentleman, sending them apology flowers and little gifts but he was the one date wonder... Or at least that is how I had known him... That was until he asked me to go to the bathroom and remove panties, starting our own little affair.

"You can't mean that... I'm not..."

"Not what, Carrie? Not beautiful? Don't give me that bullshit. You know how I see you. You know I find you irresistible. It is for that very reason that you are even alive. I couldn't stay away from you that evening. I had business to finish up, calls to make. But seeing you in that dress and knowing what lay beneath it was enough to have me call off all of my business plans for that evening and follow you down to the beach. If I hadn't... Or if I had just gone down with you in the first place... Gad damn it, Carrie, but you frustrate me sometimes."

He turned away from me and moved to the door.

"David, I..."

"Just don't say another word. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to show you what I think of you and how beautiful I really believe you are but I'm going to have to figure out a way..."

He stalked out of the room and pulled one of the security guards with him. "I need to talk to your manager. What happened here today is unacceptable... I want Miss Grant moved immediately..."

His voice faded away as he moved down the hall. I wrapped my arms around my body and shivered. It was all far too much to believe. Robert and David and everything that had happened. Part of me wished that what had occurred with Robert had been a dream but I knew better. I also knew that the moment I tried to close my eyes and sleep that his face would haunt me.

The things he had said to me. The way he had threatened me... I hadn't told David but I knew I was going to have to. But after everything that had just happened between us and the way he was blaming himself for what had happened in the first place, I was unsure how I could tell him. What if he blamed himself even more? And worse how far would he go to protect me? The last thing I wanted was David getting himself into trouble with the law because of me or getting hurt because of something Robert did.

I chewed my lip nervously as I waited for someone to come and tell me I could go back to my room. If David was moving me out of the hospital then where was he taking me to? I could only assume it wasn't back to the island hotel. Perhaps he was taking me back to the city and my own apartment. A sigh of relief escaped me as I imagined curling up on my own sofa with a large glass of wine. If I needed anything right now it was own familiar surroundings. I was worried about Robert and what he planned to do but a naive part of me hoped he had, had enough. Today in the hospital and the close call he had encountered might have been enough to frighten him off. I hoped it was true. But it was a very small hope.