Blasphemous (30 page)

“I slept great! I’m excited for tonight. Jacques is taking me to a private viewing of The Louvre. How romantic is that?” She released a dreamy sigh before taking a seat across from mine, completely ignoring my existence.

“What time is Jacques picking you up?” Dimitris asked Emma whilst sipping his coffee.

“Six.”

“Jacques is a good friend, but be careful, okay? He likes to live in the moment. He’s untamable. He plays the field a lot, Emma, just to warn you.”

My stomach recoiled when I saw her give
Dimitris a knowing smile. “Who said I wanted to
tame
him? I like the rough and untamable ones.” Emma simply purred the words out of her lips.

Did she now? Bet she just loved it.

My jaw locked as I burned holes at the woman sitting across me as she chose a magazine, acting oblivious to the storm she was causing in me. When Dimitris excused himself to get the call from his lawyer, I didn’t waste any time venting out my damning thoughts. 

“You’re barely here a few days and you already plan to sleep your way around Paris?” I furiously hissed at her, shoving my coffee aside.

The witch just gave me a cat-like smile before she took a sip of her beverage and focused on the VOGUE magazine she’d been browsing.

“Damn it, Emma! Fucking talk to me!” I yelled, getting up from my seat. I was about to go around and try to force her talk to me, but I saw
Dimitris coming back out so I sat back down and simmered to a boiling point.

Just when
Dimitris was about to join us, her phone beeped. 

Emma checked it, sighing. “My appointment is ready. Time for a nice Brazilian, fellas. See you men in an hour for the interview.” With that, she sashayed her way out of there while my temper was getting the best of me.

“She was talking about Brazilian wax?
Why?
” Dimitris wondered out loud, looking at me before taking his seat.

To fuck with my head
. Emma was deviously good at that. She was punishing me for leaving her, for telling her to move on; and now, she was rubbing that in my face.

Chapter 29

“
When I think of you and long for you, swearing all I want is one kiss, I smile and laugh because the lie in that is neither of us would settle for just this.”

          
                            -Nicole Gillen

Emma

I was still riding my high when Bass saw me step out with Jacques four hours later.

After the fantastic tour of The Louvre and a quick stop at the Eiffel Tower before he finally took me to dine at Le
Meurice. We were now back at his place, enjoying a glass of red before he took me back to my hotel.

“Why do you like hanging out with me? I’m so boring,” I wondered out loud, studying his face before it went somber in a quick flash.

Jacques gave me half a smile before addressing my question. “I like being around you. You’re just so… untainted.”

Huh? “
Untainted?
”

“
Oui. You remind me of a woman I knew once,” Jacques murmured with absolute melancholy.

His tone made me feel sad. Who was the woman? Well, whoever it was, it was clear that she meant a great deal to him. Or at least she did once upon a time.

Licking my dry lips, I managed to squeak, curiosity getting the best of me. “What happened to her?”

“Life. Life finally happened. I see her from time to time, but she’s a different woman now. She’s just a shell of the woman who I once knew.” He looked away, pondering with a large frown on his face.

“Jacques? Do you think I’ll turn out like her?” I didn’t know why I had asked the question, but his tone made my stomach churn as if giving me a warning.

“I hope not, ma belle.”

An hour and a half later, Jacques dropped me off. I was lost in thought with our conversation earlier when I saw the elevator was halfway to shutting its door. I scurried in my three-inch heels to catch it in time.

When it parted wide-open, I was dumbstruck for a second when I found Bass inside the cart. 

“Emma,” he greeted me with grating politeness. I gave him a quick glance before I spun around, ignoring him while I stared at the gold-plated casing that held the buttons. Since we were staying on the same floor, all I had to do was keep myself sane for the next few minutes to come.

Exchanging pleasantries was not part of the agenda. When it came to Bass, I was irrational. Not to mention the bare fact that I was a hurting, still raw, I-want-to-stab-him-to-death bitter kind of ex. So, to keep him alive, I had to keep my mouth shut and pretend the world didn’t consist of a man named Bass Cole.

To keep myself entertained, I counted as the buttons lit up, indicating which floor we were passing through. When it hit past ten, the elevator halted into an abrupt stop, almost knocking me to my side before I managed to grab a hold of the metal bar. Before the bright white lights flickered and died. I sighed with relief when a tiny, yellow glow from one of the corners gave some light in the pitch-black surroundings.

My heart was pounding so loudly that it took me a second to realize that the speaker had a voice coming out of it. When the speaker boomed with rapid French, Bass instantly responded to it, careful not to touch me. Two minutes later, he strode back to his old post.

“They said that we should stay calm and they’ll get us out very shortly,” Bass murmured reassuringly.

Without turning back to face him, I gave a meek nod before leaning against the mirrored-wall.

“Do you mind if I play some music?” I heard him ask, but completely ignored him. “I’m taking your silence as a yes. Great, thanks,” he sarcastically added.

Shut the fuck up!
I screamed in my head.

The idiot chose to play One Republic’s
If I Lose Myself
. The lyrics grated on me, as if he was doing it on purpose. Come to think of it, he probably was trying to piss me off. I wanted to yank his device and stomp on it with my three-inch heels until it died.

“Can you change that song?” I barked at him, losing my composure. I wasn’t being full of myself, thinking the song was about me. What was fucking with my emotions right now was the thought of him listening to the music and thinking of Nikki.

“Ah! She talks! As you wish, madam.”

I really was so close to committing murder when he chose another fucking
emo song. Jason Mraz
I Won’t Give Up.
“What’s with the depressing music? Can you play something upbeat?”

“Hey, I’m feeling sentimental.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes, and, when he didn’t shut the crooning voice off, I snapped,  “For the love of God, can you turn that fucking thing off?”

The silence was welcomed by my nerves.

Counting from one to ten, I tried to calm myself. I wasn’t about to have a breakdown here. I wasn’t going to allow it. My head rested on the side of the panel as I tried to massage my temples.

“How have you been, Emma?” he murmured, huskily. His voice sent tingles all over my body. With my eyes shut, it was easy to get lost in his raspy, bedroom tone. However, he continued to butcher my sanity. “Oh, I forgot. You just keep silence when it’s convenient for you.
You were good at that
and still are, apparently.”

Oh, he was back to that again. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone for fuck’s sake? I spun around and faced him like a possessed woman. “
Are you blind?
You know, you really need to learn when to back off and shut your stupid mouth.
Isn’t it obvious that I don’t want to talk to you?
Isn’t it clear that I don’t give a rat’s ass about you? I. Don’t. Care.”

“So Greece,
us
, you coming to my house at three in the morning, all meant nothing to you?” Bass looked at me squarely. His demeanor matched mine.

That was eight months ago! “It did at one point, but I realized that it was just a sex phase. Each woman goes through that. I know
much better
now.”

“Love and lust are both different, Emma,” he hissed, almost close to me. “When you combine both it’s… explosive.”

I busted out an evil, dry laugh. Oooh, my claws were out. “
You think you’re that great?
I think not. I’ve had better. You’re mediocre at best.”

Bass thundered like I was tipping him slowly to lose his temper. “You’re skirting on a subject that’s explosive to men, Emma.”

An evil smile pasted on my unperturbed face. “Who cares? Do men care if a woman is tight or loose? It’s the same thing.
Who cares if your stud-moves aren’t that spectacular?
”

He paused before he arched that hot brow of his, smoldering like a sex god before my eyes. “You’re the first to make such complaints.”

The effect pooled in between my thighs. Cursing inwardly at my treacherous body, I flashed an irritated look at the über-confident man about his sexual prowess. “Oh, right. I bet Nikki praised you all night long, didn’t she?” I snorted in disgust. “Bass!
Oh, oh, oh
, Bass! You’re so good. Harder, please, Bass! Bass, Bass, Bass! KINDLY FUCK OFF!”

Instead of the expected anger after I mocked him, I found him studying my body, my breasts in particular, before he raised those deadly eyes to me. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you sounded like a jealous girlfriend.”

“FUCK! YOU!” I threw my purse at him, so hard, but he inevitably caught it before it hit the floor.

“Why are you getting so worked up? Did I hit a sore spot?” Bass smirked before smiling sexily at me.

That movie star smile was out to murder my pleading vagina. I’d rather die than admit that, though. Nope, over my dead body. Instead, I growled at him like a savage woman ready to kill.

His eyes went to my fists before he raised his perfect brow at me. “Ready for a combat?
Hit me
. Hit me if it makes you feel better.”

“Don’t tempt me, Bass.” My body was shaking from rage. From wanting to claw those spellbinding eyes. From wanting him to just leave me alone. Most of all, from the thrill it was giving me and the effect it had on my body.

“Hit me.” When he saw that I didn’t make a move. Something flashed in his eyes and he smiled like the devil himself. “
Is the thought of me with another woman making you crazy?
Or is it the thought of me falling in love again that makes you go nuts? Is it because you want to be the only woman, Emma?”

I shot towards him and hit him, mad. “I don’t care! Go fuck yourself. I’ve had something better than you! You are nothing to me,” I said with little composure as I growled against his stupid form.

He made an animalistic sound before slamming my back against the mirrored wall. “
Oh, did you now?
” Bass was menacing as he caged me in between his hands. “Is that what you did tonight, Emma,
getting to know a French cock better?
”

When I didn’t answer him after two seconds, he lost it. “Fucking answer me!” he bellowed, making my ears ring.

“No, I didn’t,” I responded calmly, even though I was panicking inside.

“Why do you make me suffer by throwing men in my face? You know how it will make me feel and yet you still goad me to the point of no return. You tell me you don’t care about me, yet I’ve barely touched you and your body quakes against mine. Why’s that, Emma? Is it because you’re remembering me now? You remember how I can make this body go under my spell?”

It was a sick, twisted thing, but this was what we did to each other.

Stay the hell out of my space.
I started to panic when Bass was so close and with a mood that was too familiar to me.

It was predatory, determined, and ruthless. If he tried something, I had a slim chance of surviving. “No, I don’t remember any of it. I’m quaking because you’re drunk and making me nervous.”

My entire existence overheated when his thumb grazed the bottom of my lip. I badly wanted to move and run, but Bass’s spell had been cast upon me, his subject, and there was nowhere to go. Like a spider unto his prey, once captured and bitten, you stay there—paralyzed into a state of shock—but knew what was happening around you.

“Your lips are quivering, anticipating my kiss. Is that what you want? For me to kiss you until we are both senselessly craving each other? These lips told me how much you loved me, tasted me, fucked me—milked every drop of my come until I was spent.” Both of our breathing hitched as he continued to torture and murder all of my senses. “But you know what I really loved about it, Emma? You simply tasted like my forever.” I think he waited for me to answer his question, but I was utterly incoherent.

When he lowered his head and brushed his lips against mine, testing my resistance, I was putty in his hands. He kissed me hungrily at first then slowly, as if making love to my mouth. “Emma,” he whispered, loaded with emotions.