Bound For Me (16 page)

When she went into work Luca smiled at her. “Thanks so much, last night was a record for us.”

“Great.” What with the entertainment she and Connor had provided and all, everyone had been extra thirsty. She readied the bar, gave Dante another lesson. Tried to keep as busy as possible.

But there was the door-checking thing.
 

Every. Single. Time… that freaking door opened she looked up—her heart seizing.

Every. Single. Time… it wasn’t him, she breathed again.

Connor didn’t show for the entire shift.
She was
not
disappointed. It wasn’t like she’d been mentally sparring with him all day. Thinking up come-backs to imaginary accusations and flirts. Nope. None of that.
 

She worked hard, glaring at Luca when he dared ask if she was feeling alright. If she was okay for a ride home.

“I’ll be fine.” Back on her own. Just the way she liked it.

And the sooner she got the bar tidied, the sooner she’d be walking swiftly home alone again.

Two minutes
past
closing, Connor walked in. Damn doorman must’ve thought he was on staff or something.

“You serve him,” she told Luca.

“I don’t think that’s what he wants.”

“I don’t care if that’s not what he wants,” she snapped.

But Luca was already walking out to the kitchen.

“Traitor,” she called after him.

Connor stepped up to the bar. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Late?” She pressed her hands on the wood. “What are you late for?”

“A really cold reception.” He smiled. “I’ll take a beer.”

She turned and pulled one from the fridge.
 

But when she put the bottle on the bar she saw the swollen, bruised knuckles on his left hand. Her heart skidded as her blood turned to icy slush. “What did you do to yourself?”

He stretched out his fingers with a wince, then curled them round the bottle. “What do you think I did?”

She didn’t want to think. “I’m not a fan of violence.”

“Nor am I.”

She hesitated. “Was it...”

“The jerk who put that crap in your drink? Yes. It was.”

“Did you go after him?”

“Yes.”

Appalled, Savannah’s head spun. What had he been
thinking
? Those guys were psychopaths.

He really thought he was King of the Mountain, didn’t he? Like it was his freaking duty to take care of each of his subjects? “I didn’t need you going off to protect my honor.”

His lips twisted. “But I was honor bound to help you.”

Bound by
what
? “You can take your honor and shove it in a small, dark place.” She shook her head. “Violence doesn’t make it better.”

“I didn’t go for vengeance.” Connor took a sip of his beer and then sighed. “He jumped me. Got a few shots in before I laid him out.”

She stared disbelievingly at his perfect face. “Oh yeah, because that’s some black eye you’ve got there.”

“You want to see what I got?” He challenged her.

Suddenly she was nervous. But she couldn’t look away from his eyes.

“Come ‘round here and see.” He dared her to deny him.

But she couldn’t. She wanted to know.

Slowly she walked around the bar and over to the stool where he perched awkwardly.

He lifted the bottom of his tee. Shadows darkened the skin around his ribs, large purplish bruises. So many. She winced at the raw graze streaking down his side.

“He came at me from behind. Like the coward he is. Got a few kicks in before I could get to my feet and take him out.” He let go of the shirt and it dropped down.

But the bruises were imprinted on her brain.

“Where is he now?” It was pathetic, but she whispered. Her blood had run cold at the sight of the purple contusions covering his skin.

“In custody. They also got to check the closed circuit cameras from the street. Saw him with your drink bottle. They have the evidence they need to get him. For attacking me. And you.”

Relief was so strong, but it was swamped by an anger so extreme her knees shook. And she couldn’t dare speak.

“Self-defense,” he said. “But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel some satisfaction in knocking him out.” He lifted his beer and took a slow, deliberate sip before putting the bottle back on the wood. “I’ve never been as angry as I was when I saw you drugged like that. So yeah, part of me enjoyed taking him down. Like me less now?”

She didn’t answer. Didn’t know how to.

She wanted to touch his wounds. Caress them. Ease the aches away with gentle kisses.
 

He looked at her. “Doesn’t the knight get a reward from the princess, for his bravery?”

Freaking mind-reader. “Thuggery.”

“Just told you it was self-defense.”

“Just told me you enjoyed it.” She was the one employing all self-defensive measures now.

“I can’t bear thinking about what could have happened to you,” he muttered.

“Don’t.” She stepped close—unable to resist—and pressed her fingers to his mouth. “I don’t need your nightmares as well.”

“As well?” His frown deepened. “Savannah...”

“
Don’t
.” She dropped her hand.

But he stood and caught her fingers with his. “I wasn’t going to come here tonight. Told myself I should stay away until tomorrow. Daylight.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re dangerous.”

“Little old me?” She tried to joke. “You think I grow fangs when the moon appears?”

“Dangerous,” he repeated. “And so desirable you distract me.” His expression hardened. “Two separate issues. So perhaps we treat them separately.”

Separately? “Is that possible?”

“Definitely. Danger first.”

“Why am I dangerous?” Just this second she was struggling to remember why she was here.

“You’re the one who came looking for me.” he reminded her quietly. “What’s the mud?”

She paused, surprised.

“Don’t I have a right to know what you have on me?”

“You’ve read my father’s letters.”

“An illegible tirade from an inexperienced investor who didn’t do his duty. Have
you
read them?”

She shook her head. But she could imagine. She knew her father had his faults. But he’d been vulnerable. “Your father—”

“And by extension me?”

“Maybe,” she conceded. “Your father sells a dream to people who can never achieve it. For so much money. He preys on vulnerable people. He stands up there doing his speeches, making out like he’s the ‘Oracle of Summerhill’ or something. Don’t you have enough money?”

“So you came here to see if it’s all true?”

She nodded.
“I want to see if it’s as amazing and perfect as it appears in the ‘be like me’ seminars he charges a fortune for.
He makes it sound like it’s this magical place where nothing goes wrong… where it’s perfect. And that anyone can achieve it.”

“But you don’t think that’s true?”

“Of course it’s not. It’s a fairytale.”

He leaned closer, so close she could feel the strength emanating from him. Wounded warrior or not. “So you’re not a believer in the happy-ever-after, then?”

“No.”

“And you don’t think Summerhill can possibly be all that?”

She shook her head.

“Come to the Lodge tomorrow. You can ask me anything, see anything. Access all areas.”

“Why would you do that?”

“As I’ve already said, I have nothing to hide,” he answered. “Do you? Anything you’re not telling me?”

She shook her head. Nothing that was relevant.

“I think we can get this cleared up pretty quickly,” he said. “My father loves giving after dinner speeches…”

“And being paid lots of money to do so.”

“But that’s not illegal. Everyone knows you should get professional advice. No one is going to give a damn about some guy who made some poor investment decisions. That’s not my father’s fault.”

That was the point. No one did give a damn. That’s what made it so wrong.

“Come see it properly for yourself. Then judge.”

She did want to see it. From a personal angle and a professional one. For so long her father had held it up as the ultimate.

“I think you’re going to be disappointed. Because Summerhill is everything my father says it is.”

“Okay. I’ll come tomorrow.”

“Then that just leaves the desire,” he ran his finger across her wrist. “Don’t try to deny it.”

No. And maybe if she could get the desire out of the way, she could concentrate on the real issue. But she didn’t trust him. “You think I’ll say yes to you now in thanks? Reward the weary warrior?”

He winced. “So tough. Are you really unfazed by what happened?”

Of course she wasn’t. “I don’t think about it.”

He looked disbelieving. “How do you stop yourself from thinking about it?”

“I think about other things.”

“Such as?”

She hesitated. Remembered his outrageous tease with the ice last night. And decided to push play. “You.”

“How you’re going to make me pay?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I think about you. Naked. Chained to my bed.”

He drew in a deep breath. “I can see how thinking about that might be better.” He leaned his head from side to side, stretching his muscles. “I can work with the idea, but I vote for silk cords over steel chains.”

She shook her head. “I like the fantasy better than reality.”

“Just
thinking
is enough?” His eyebrows skyrocketed.

She shrugged.

“The reality is better. We both know this.”

“Connor?” Footsteps sounded, coming nearer.

“Go away Luca. I’m seducing your bartender.”

“Savannah?”

“Go away Luca. I’m turning down this customer.”

Luca laughed. “Good luck with that.” Footsteps sounded, retreating. “Both of you.”

“You slept with me to try to disarm me,” she said to Connor as soon as she was sure Luca had left.

“Not true and as you rightly pointed out this morning, it wouldn’t work anyway,” he said. “Your thirst for vengeance aside, you want me. And I want you. There’s no denying the chemistry. You make out you’re teasing, but you know you mean it.”

“You only wanted once,” she reminded him.

“I changed my mind.”

“It was the chains, wasn’t it.”

“No. I’d changed my mind the second you left my car the other night. It wasn’t enough. I want more.”

“More sex.”

“Absolutely more sex. Lots more. We have ourselves a situation, Savannah. If you don’t face a situation and resolve it. It can become an obsession.”

Her skin chilled. “You don’t want to be obsessed with me?” She tried to make a joke of it.

But
she
was the one who’d get obsessed. It was in the blood.

“I can’t afford to be obsessed by anyone. There’s too much else I have to do.”

Work? She didn’t want to believe that of him—that he was actually an honest hard worker. That he’d fought to get to where he was. That he had some decency. She’d wanted to blame him for her father’s fuck-ups. But getting to know him? Already she suspected he wasn’t all the villain she’d imagined. “Why don’t you jack off?”

“You think I haven’t?” he laughed under his breath. “I close my eyes. I see you. But it’s not the same. I don’t want to touch myself, I want to touch you. So I’m proposing an arrangement.”

“An arrangement?” She cocked her head. “What do I get out of it? Think carefully before you answer.”

“I’m not crass enough to offer you money. Or access to my father. Your access to all things Summerhill is already a given and is separate from this.”

“But if it’s just sex you’re offering, I can get that anytime. From others.”

His nostrils thinned. “Like playing with fire, don’t you?” He leaned in close. “This isn’t just sex. This is blow your mind. Best ever. However you want it. Dirty, hard, hot, fast. You want to be the boss of me? You want to best me? In
this
you can.”

Heat speared through her. Challenge. Power. Desire. “You’ll fulfil my sexual fantasies?”

“Every one.”

He was a walking, talking fantasy already. As far as an ‘arrangement’ went, it didn’t seem a bad deal. “Confident, aren’t you,” she drawled.

“You already know I can please you.”

She sent him a look.

“You don’t want a relationship either,” he added with a laugh. “You don’t trust easily. Not enough to let go. Not often. And this isn’t going to involve emotions, Sugar.”

Saw a lot, didn’t he? It made her wary—she wanted to ensure there was a balance of power. “This isn’t just about pleasing
me
, why is it so important to you?” she challenged.