His to Master and Enjoy [The Billionaires and Their Playgrounds 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) (14 page)

He held her more tightly in his arms. “That doesn’t surprise me, baby. In some ways this country was better when a man sorted out his own problems, rather than involve the cops.”

Paige studied him intensely. “Yeah, I can just see you with a six-shooter hanging low on your hip, taking out anyone who pissed you off. A man like you was made for the Wild West. I reckon you’d have been known as the Caparelli Kid.”

Leon laughed. “It might not be such a bad idea to return to the old days after all. Anyway, I take it the intervention by the cops amounted to jack shit.” He felt his blood pressure rising again as he spoke. If the LAPD had done something when Paige first contacted them, then she wouldn’t have been forced to go through the living hell that followed.

She snuggled closer. “Things went quiet for a week or two, and he stopped stalking me. That short respite away from the stress and strain of it all was the tonic I needed, and I felt like I was returning to my old self. Until…” She suddenly broke off in midsentence, and he watched her beautiful face mirror the abhorrent memories forming in her brain. “Oh, Leon.”

“Shhh, it’s all right. He’s never gonna hurt you while I’m around. I can promise you that. Go on, baby. Until?”

“Until the phone calls started.”

Jesus Christ, this guy was unrelenting. If he could only have fifteen minutes alone in a room with this fuck head, he’d break every bone in his worthless body, before sending him into the next world.

“Phone calls?”

She shook her head. “The first dozen or so he never spoke, but I knew it was him. For some crazy reason he wanted to punish me, so the calls would come at all times of the day and night. He’d often ring me at three, four, or five o’clock in the morning in an attempt to undermine and intimidate me.”

“Sick prick.”

“But that was his big mistake, because when my back is against the wall, Leon, I’m able to rise to the challenge and come out fighting, and this time I was one step ahead of him. When he finally decided to speak, which I knew he eventually would, I taped the conversations before changing my number and handing over the evidence to the cops.”

“Clever girl.”

“It was a turning point of sorts, because the evidence against him was irrefutable. Even hardened cops were sickened by what he said to me in those calls. What he wanted to do to me.” Her lower lip quivered, and her words were halting and shaky. “I don’t want to go into details right now, if that’s okay with you.”

She’d opened up to him about almost everything now, but the fact that she wouldn’t reveal the contents of the calls meant they were particularly abhorrent. Wanting to kill this guy, he clenched his hands into fists. He’d hurt him real bad first as payback for Paige. Then he’d kill him—slowly.

She wiped away a tear. “I’m sorry for being such a girl, but anyway, this meant the cops could charge him with harassment. I was there at the court hearing, and had to give evidence, much of it of a very personal nature. Standing up in front of strangers and baring my soul is not something I’d want to go through ever again.

“When it came to the summing up, the judge described Nolan as a particularly sick and depraved individual who showed a complete lack of empathy for his victim. Me. He then placed a restraining injunction on him, banning him from coming within one mile of me or contacting me in any way. Judge Butler also said that any breach of these conditions would result in a lengthy custodial sentence. I felt like jumping to my feet and cheering when he passed judgment, but instead, I found myself quietly weeping with relief. Crazy things, emotions.

“I thought the threat of going to prison had finally scared him off and brought him to his senses, because for the next three months I heard nothing from him. I can’t tell you how relieved I felt at the time. It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.” She shrugged resignedly. “But of course we both know it didn’t end there.”

Leon sensed the main event was about to begin, because this ex-boyfriend of hers had continued to torment her. Even the threat of a spell behind bars with the murderers and sodomites as his cellmates hadn’t stopped him from coming back to terrorize Paige further.

He looked at her expectantly, and she sensed his expectation. “Leon, I’m not sure I can do this.”

He stroked her hair and softly cooed. “You can. Believe me, you can.”

Paige shifted uneasily on the bed. “Memory is such a double-edged sword. We all love to recall and relive happy memories from our past. Our first bike. Our first boyfriend. Our first car. But remembering can sometimes bring back painful realities that we’d like to forget.” She lowered her head and in a whisper said, “This is one of those times.”

“I know, baby.”

“But you don’t, Leon. You don’t.”

“Tell me. Let me share your pain and despair.”

He heard her draw in a huge gulp of air before releasing a heart-wrenching sob.

“He branded me, Leon, like a steer, he branded me.”

Leon felt a cold chill run the length of his body as he visualized what Paige had gone through. His emotions were as fucked up as hers. He so wanted to soothe and protect her, and erase the painful memory from her mind as he cradled her in his arms. Instead, almost like an out-of-body experience, he watched himself rise from the bed, then pace up and down like a caged tiger before repeatedly smashing his fist into the solid stone wall of the villa. The blood ran unchecked down his hand and arm before dripping onto the floor. He guessed it was broken, but he didn’t feel a fucking thing.

Stunned, Paige watched horrified as Leon smashed his fist against the wall once more. The sound it made was sickening, and she heard the unmistakable crack of breaking bones. It made her want to heave, but she managed to force the rising bile back down. He felt her pain, because he loved her so much. That was the biggest gift a man could ever give to a woman. Leon was a passionate guy, so she’d seen him angry before, but never so consumed with rage as he was now. His cheeks were flushed, his breathing fast, and despite his physical strength and fitness, she feared he could keel over with a coronary at any moment. For his own good, she needed to calm him down. It was obvious from his aggressive body language that his thoughts were focused on Nolan, because he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists, as though he wanted to beat the living shit out of him.

All things being equal, she’d want him to. She’d encourage him even. Nolan had wrecked her life, and she wanted payback. The only thing stopping her from goading Leon into killing him would be the unavoidable consequence that the man she loved would end up behind bars for the rest of his life. It would be a hollow victory.

Galvanizing herself into action, she leaped from the bed, rushed to the bathroom, and pulled a towel from the rack. After running it under the cold tap and then wringing it out, she hurried back to Leon.

A sizeable pool of blood stained the rug beneath his feet, and he stood with his forehead pressed against the cool stone wall.

Paige stroked a hand down his naked back. “Leon, are you okay?”

He turned his head to look at her, his eyes darkened pits brimming with anger, although his voice was surprisingly calm. “Am I okay, baby? It doesn’t matter about me. It’s you that’s important.”

Without asking, she took hold of his damaged hand and wrapped the damp towel around it. Within seconds the blood showed through.

“I need to know everything, however unpleasant.”

“I want to tell you, Leon, but I’m afraid you’ll—”

“Kill him? Rip his fucking heart out with my bare hands?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I can’t promise you I won’t, but he’s not here right now. So it’s quite safe to tell me.”

The bloodstained towel wrapped around his hand had unraveled so she tucked the loose end back in. “You need to go to hospital.”

“It’s nothing.”

Typical Leon. The man was bleeding badly, but he dismissed his injury, passing it off as a mere scratch.

“Come back to bed, please.” Pleading always worked well and would hopefully appeal to his dominant nature.

“Okay.” He seemed to be calming down, and after kissing her gently on the lips, said, “And then you can tell me everything.”

She nodded. “I won’t hold anything back, Leon, but what I tell you won’t be pretty.”

They lay naked together on the bed, her head resting in the crook of his shoulder, her body turned so her legs and arms wrapped around him. She heard his heart beat. It was slower now, and she thanked God for that.

Leon feathered his fingers through her hair. “I’m quite calm. Go on.”

She took a deep breath. This would be painful for them both. “It was fourteen months ago.” She forced an ironic laugh. “To the very day to be exact. I’d returned home from work, and everything seemed normal, just as it had for the previous three months. I was starting to feel like my old self again, and my life with Nolan was becoming a distant memory. Anyway, after putting on my pajamas, I settled down to watch an old black-and-white movie, one with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I wasn’t alone.” She tried to lighten the mood, knowing full well that it wouldn’t work. “Because I had a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for company.”

As she lifted her head to look at him, she saw his stony-faced expression. However, to let her know he was right there with her, he continued to feather his fingers through her hair. “Go on, baby.”

A tightness in her chest began to constrict her breathing as she recalled the exact moment her life changed for the worse. “I’d been asleep. I don’t know how long, but I suddenly found my dreams interrupted when I couldn’t breathe properly. I remember…oh God…I remember trying to get a breath out that just wouldn’t come. I tried and tried until my heart felt like it was going to burst with the effort. Feeling frightened, I remember opening my eyes, and seeing a shadow in the darkness towering above me. I couldn’t breathe, I just couldn’t breathe, Leon.” Even though there was nothing restricting her airways now, she felt the same symptoms of panic as she tried to relay the frightening episode.

“Shhh, slow deep breaths, baby. Hold for a few seconds then slowly release.”

She followed Leon’s prescription to the letter, and after a half minute or so of therapy, she felt able to continue. “It was then I realized that the reason I couldn’t breathe was because Nolan was in my apartment and held a hand over my nose and mouth. He then hunkered down by my side and whispered threateningly in my ear, ‘You didn’t think I’d gone away, did you, Paige?’” She shivered involuntarily. “The way he said those words, Leon, they’ll haunt me forever.” She hated doing this, fucking hated it. It brought back memories that she desperately wanted gone, but she’d come this far and she wasn’t about to quit now. Summoning up every ounce of courage in her armory, she continued, “The sick bastard then sat astride me, ruthlessly took hold of my arms, and handcuffed my wrists to the bedstead. I was so frightened, but when I tried to scream, the sound just wouldn’t come out. When something finally did, he punched me full in the face, breaking my nose, before forcing a ball gag into my mouth and securing the clasp behind my head. The blood ran down the back of my throat, and I thought I would choke.” She shook her head. “He didn’t care. I wasn’t a human being to him.”

Leon’s body stiffened beside her, and she knew his undiluted anger was rising to the surface again.

Trying to placate him, she stroked his arm and said, “What’s done is done, Leon. I suppose in a way I should feel sorry for him, because he was clearly mentally disturbed. Had to be, because no right-thinking person would act in such a way.”

He grunted indignantly. “Spare me the wishy-washy liberal crap, Paige. You don’t think that any more than I do. Extermination of vermin like him would do everyone a favor.”

She sighed out loud. “You’re right, I can never forgive him either. He then ripped my pajama top open, exposing my breasts.”

“Bastard.”

“I thought he was going to rape me then, but…”

“Did he?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Well, I suppose that’s something.”

“Instead, he turned on the light so I could see exactly what he was doing.” She brushed a tear from her eye. “I didn’t want to see what he was about to show me, and it took a second or two for my eyes to acclimatize, but when they did, I saw that Nolan had a gleeful smile to his face. Not gleeful as in happy, you understand, but gleeful as in mad, disturbed, deranged.

“I knew from the look in his eyes that he couldn’t be reasoned with. He’d completely flipped. The blood from my nose ran down my cheeks and onto the pillow, but he didn’t care. Nolan thought it was funny. He knelt down by the side of the bed and whispered in my ear, ‘But you always liked to be handcuffed and gagged. It always turned you on in the past, Paige.’ He then shook his head and mocked, ‘You just can’t please some people.’”

“Crazy sick fucker.” Leon’s hands had clenched into fists again, and she knew if he were ever to meet Nolan, one of them would end up dead.

Paige shuddered at the thought of life without Leon. The loss would be unbearable.

“He then took hold of my face and squeezed it with his fingers and thumb. God it hurt, but I couldn’t cry out because of the ball gag he’d forced into my mouth. It stretched my jaw painfully wide.” She paused for a moment or two before saying, “I’m not a religious woman, never have been, but I prayed to God that night, because I felt sure he was gonna kill me right there and then.”