The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan (27 page)

As he left the SICU, Declan couldn’t help but imagine the first limo driver had given her his phone number. If she had called him….No, he refused to think that way. Where would she go? Why hadn’t she called?

Because he told her not to call him at work unless it was an emergency.

His anxiety suddenly thinned as he realized he could just call her and ask her where she was spending the night—if she answered and didn’t tell him to fuck off.

As Declan pulled the phone off his hip, he remembered the family tracker he’d installed on all the phones. If she made it home, he wouldn’t call and disturb her sleep. Heading toward the residents’ beds, he clicked on the app. A moment later, he was looking at her location. She was nearby. Turning the corner, he spotted her lying on a bench near the door where one needed a scan card to enter.

Squatting down in front of her, he watched her nap. Even in her sleep there were lines of tension between her eyebrows. His little sub carried the weight of the world on her back. As much as he tried to ease her burden, she clung to every shred she could get a hold of. Christ, if she’d just stop fighting him—let him take care of everything.

He asked the bank manager to make sure to set up the banking app on her phone. He doubted she’d gone in to look at the balance just yet—then again maybe she didn’t realize that was her account and hers alone. He didn’t want her employed. He wanted her available when he was off work.

Declan chuckled remembering the way she thought she could spend only $200 today. He doubted she would have spent anywhere near as much had she not been shopping with Joseph. Every time she swiped the card, his phone buzzed with an alert. She’d spent over $400 at Victoria’s Secret alone. Declan wasn’t up on fashion enough to know w
here the trendy boutiques were but apparently Joseph’s friend knew where to go.

A strange pride filled his chest knowing he’d been able to provide these things for her without batting an eye. He probably shouldn’t take too much credit because it was his inheritance that gave him the capital to invest and make the money grow. He couldn’t believe his mother thought he was blowing through it. It was true between his education, town house and cars he’d spent about a million, but he’d also been investing and had income coming in from Gramp’s investments.

“Nyxie, baby, wake up.” He didn’t want to touch her for fear of triggering memories of her father yanking her out of the closet in a drunken rage. How terrifying to be asleep one moment and then grabbed and thrust into a world of screams and violence. Fucking small towns. Someone had to know. And if one person knew everyone knew because they all gossiped.

Declan stood up and walked away leaving her where she slept for the time being. He made his way to the nearest computer and began searching the records.

Her file wasn’t long but it confirmed her true birthday. Nyxie started kindergarten a month before her fourth birthday. It also showed she supposedly fell out of a tree and broken her humerus when she was three and re-broke it again, along with her clavicle, in a go-kart accident four months later.

Declan looked at the date of the second incident and knew it happened just before the start of the school year. Instinctively, he understood why Nyxie’s mom lied to get her into school early
and perhaps why the school went along with it. It was to protect her daughter while she worked. Warning bells should’ve been going off in the doctor’s head over the break to the humerus. How do you suffer either of those injuries without scrapes and scratches? Why was a three-year-old in a tree or a go-kart?

Declan searched his memory for her older sister’s name. When it didn’t come easily to mind, he searched for their mother. The last record of hers was Cody’s birth. If she had lived through Jack Carmichael’s attack, she hadn’t come to UMC for treatment.

He clicked back through the records and was appalled to find the woman hadn’t had prenatal care with either Cody or Nyxie and had given birth to Cody with a measurable blood alcohol level of .12. He wondered how she kept from getting him taken by CPS.

He read further and saw she claimed she didn’t know she was pregnant. Shaking his head, he went back further to the sister’s birth.
Melinda
. Amanda had barely turned fifteen when she had her first child. He Xed out of her file, and put in Melinda’s name. Her file was long and extensive and it ended with an MVA, DUI, LCDC. Motor vehicle accident, driving under the influence, Lubbock County Detention Center. As he worked his way back through her records, he found drug overdose, drug seeking, back pain, drug overdose, back pain, back pain, back pain, suicide attempt, Reina’s birth, concussion/alcohol poisoning, Lotus’s birth, suicide attempt. Broken ribs and sternum. Declan stopped and took a closer look. It was the same day Nyxie supposedly had the go-kart injury and he realized they’d both had been hurt that day. Broken sternum and broken ribs would be consistent with flying unrestrained into the steering wheel of a go kart. Of course, it was also consistent with having been booted in the chest.

Fuck, he himself had doubts about what happened.

After reading her file, Declan printed the records of Nyxie’s birth hoping it would help her obtain her birth certificate.

God, he thought his family was fucked up.

Returning to Nyxie’s side, he shot off a text to Junior to check to see if Melinda was still in jail for the DUI that landed her in the hospital.

He picked up her lavender overnight bag and purse. “Nyxie, it’s time to go to bed. Put your arms around my neck and I’ll carry you.”

Her eyes fluttered open as her pupils adjusted to the light.

“Sir,” her voice wavered. “The nurse wouldn’t let me stay.”

“Shh, put your arms around my neck and I’ll put you to bed.”

She reached her arms upward and stretched. “I can walk, I’m awake.”

His big hands encircle her wrists and put them around his neck. “Indulge me. Let’s pretend I’m the Dom and you’re the sub and you can pretend you’re doing what I asked.”

“Yes, sir.”

She tightened her grip and buried her face in the crook of his neck.

“I’m sorry for being so rude earlier.”

He lifted her easily into his arms. “I was in the wrong, baby. I should’ve told you and offered to sedate you if you thought you couldn’t handle it.”

She chuckled. “You’re so thoughtful.”

Declan juggled her a bit to slide his card and open the door. They quickly found themselves in ensconced in the same little room they shared before.

“Did you eat, Nyxie? My card didn’t send an alert that it had been used after I left you.”

“I had a sandwich in the cafeteria and paid cash. Your credit card alerted you every time I used it? Are you mad at me? I know it was a lot of money. I have the receipts if you want me to take it all back.”

“Mad? Why would I be angry with you? You did exactly what I asked.”

Her wide-eyed look of sweet innocence turned him on as it always did. She truly appreciated her experience and the clothing. He loved the way she bore no sense of entitlement—it was a trait he sorely lacked.

“After I nearly hyperventilated over the total at Victoria’s Secret, Joseph and Treshaun wouldn’t let the cashiers tell me how much my totals were.”

“I’m glad.”

“Sir, I’m sorry about sending you the dirty picture. I just wanted you to know I was wearing a bra so you wouldn’t worry about me changing in the dressing rooms all day. It never occurred to me that it would distract you.”

He grinned at her and put one finger in the front of her dress. Pulling it away from her body, he peered inside the square neckline at her breasts

“Is that one of those push-up bras?”

“Is it?” she said looking down. “No I think this is just a padded bra. Did you know those women just walk in on you without knocking? I think one of them saw a mark on my butt because she told me there’s a place on 50th Street that sells fetish wear. I don’t remember the name.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to see you in that stuff. I’ve never understood the leather and latex thing that goes with the lifestyle.”

He reached for her bag to see if she brought a nightgown. Hopefully, she wasn’t planning on sleeping in the kitty T-shirt he’d sent her shopping in. He nearly cringed when he saw periwinkle inside, but it wasn’t the T-shirt. It was a spaghetti strap camisole made of silk and a matching pair of tap shorts.

“Nyxie, you’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? I’m going to want to have my hands all over you, feeling you, touching you through the silk.”

“You don’t like it?”

He laughed at her plaintive tone. “I like it too much,”

Declan pulled away, lifted his scrub shirt over his head and handed it to her. “What was I thinking? You’re nearly irresistible in that ugly polyester uniform. We’re going to have to save all the pretty frilly stuff for home.”

Nyxie stood up and pulled her dress over her head revealing her slight frame dressed only in her bra, panties and sandals.

Noticing her bra strap was twisted; Declan reached up and straightened it, then ran his finger forward until he touched the top of her breast.

“Are you going to sleep in your bra?”

“I hadn’t planned on it.”

As she tried to remember how t
o open the front closure on the bra, Declan sat on the edge of the bed and maneuvered her between his legs. Her new panties were white cotton in a boy cut with lace at the top and bottom. He put his finger in the waistband and ran his finger from one hip to the other

“This isn’t the set I asked you to buy for
Tuesday
, is it?”

“No, sir, those are at your house.”

But as his fingers return to the middle and began tugging downward, Nyxie grabbed his wrist. “I hope you won’t get mad. I didn’t really know what they were talking about. Joseph and Treshaun kept telling everyone my boyfriend was a doctor and I needed the full treatment. By the time I figured out what they were talking about, I was too embarrassed to admit I didn’t understand before, so I let the woman do it.”

She released her hold and he pulled the elastic down to expose the bare skin.

“Are you angry?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Mixed emotions. I…. How do I explain this?” He pulled her closer and kissed her abdomen just below her navel. “One of the things I’m most looking forward to is seeing your sexual growth. I want to share in every stage from your sweet innocence to where it leads. I find something very appealing in a young woman who doesn’t know what a Brazilian wax is and is probably blissfully unaware that many women remove their pubic hair. It feels like you jumped ahead. Or you might equate this to buying a paper fan and when you opened it the first time, you found the paper had torn off and you realized you weren’t going to get to use it. And even though when you bought the cheap fan, you knew you’d probably only get a few uses before it tore, you’re still disappointed.”

She sank her fingers into his hair. “God, I wish I knew you in high school. You have a way of explaining things that helps me understand things clearly. I could’ve used your help in algebra.”

Declan set her back and rose to his feet. “We wouldn’t have gotten any studying done, I can assure you,” he said with a sexy rasp. “Come on let’s go to bed before a trauma comes in.”

Nyxie giggled as she dropped her bra on a chair and pulled his shirt on over her panties. It smelled like him all spicy and clean. Her eyes closed momentarily as she allowed the scent to surround her. It was as if he had his arms around her without touching her.

As Nyxie bent to remove her sandals, a folded sheet of paper fell out of the breast pocket of his shirt.

“Oh, I bet you don’t want to lose this. Do you want me to put it on the table with your phone?”

“Put it in your purse. That’s a copy of the hospital records when you were born. Maybe it’ll help you get your birth certificate.”

Nyxie suddenly became animated, grinning from ear-to-ear. “I forgot to tell you. I got my learner’s license today. I didn’t need my birth certificate at all. I hope you don’t mind but I asked the driver if she could take me to Chimera Flats. They took my W-2 and my Social Security card as ID.”

He laughed at her excitement. “Congratulations. What birthday did you put on it?”

“August 30. Did you find proof?”

“Yeah, you’re only 21. But I think I know why your mother did it. You started school with a broken arm and collarbone, didn’t you?”

Her smile fell a little flat before disappearing completely. “You read my medical records?”

His eyes met hers and held. It was not hard to look at her doe eyes and imagine what she looked like as a toddler. Her big brown eyes would have look
ed even bigger and her cheeks would have been as chubby as a cherub, but he doubted she ever had much to smile about.

“Your mother was protecting you while she was at work—unless you’re going to tell me you and Melinda really were in a go-kart crash.”

She shook her head. “I’ve never even seen a go-kart up close.”

Declan nodded and pulled back the covers for her. She climbed in and scooted to the edge of the narrow bed. A moment later, the lights were off and his warm body sidled up next to her. As he threaded his arm under her and reach for her wrist, she stopped him.