Stolen: A Bad Boy Romance (26 page)

Joanna

I rolled over to the find the bed empty, but that didn’t take away the luxury of it. No, I revelled in the blankets and the sunlight streaming in through the beautiful glass wall of the condo. I didn’t realize his bedroom had one too, last night we were far too busy for any of that. I just sighed and looked at it then around the room. It was empty. The whole apartment felt empty. No noise of someone moving about the place. No television or rustling of papers.

I felt empty.

I got up from the bed and looked down at the scene played out before me. My dress, that mask, his suit. It was all strewn about the place. The only evidence of what happened last night.

Of all the things, he made me feel.

I walked towards the bathroom and saw, in his chair, a set of neatly folded clothing and a note.

I picked it up and smiled when I saw his handwriting.

Have work this morning. Wanted to stay and hold you, but it couldn’t be helped. Fresh clothing for you. Stay as long as you like. I’d love to see you when I got home.

I remembered what he said “I want you to live for my pleasure.” The rush of feeling that hit me in my center knew I wanted it too. I shouldn’t, I should not have wanted it. I should not have wanted the touch of his lips against mine. Against me. I should’ve avoided him. I had half a mind to walk out of there right now and never look back.

But I knew in the end that I could fight and fight these feelings, but I wasn’t going to win. I was never going to win. I wanted to feel him. I wanted to see him.

I wanted to know exactly who he was.

I looked at the clothing he left for me. A long men’s t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants. I could get home in that, but I didn’t know if I wanted to. I touched the place the mask bit into my flesh last night and remembered the way he kissed my cheek.

I wanted to be right back there in that instant. Instead, I took his shirt to my face and breathed it in. I could still smell him, his detergent, his scent. Comfort complete.

Then I set it down and walked into the master bath, my jaw dropping as I looked around. It was better than most spas I’d ever been in. Bigger than my entire apartment. My eyes set sight on the giant tub, big enough to fit two or three people and I had to stop from salivating. Dear lord, it was gorgeous. I knew what I was going to do until he got home. Forget my papers, forget reading, hell, forget anything else but this tub for an hour or two.

Instead of the peace and quiet I was hoping for I heard a knock on the door, the angry pounding making me jump right out of my skin. I had half a mind to go out there and start yelling at them.

Then it occurred to me that I wasn't at my own place, and I probably had no idea who was out there. I probably also didn’t want to know who was out there.

I threw on the clothing Greyson left and padded to the door looking out of the peephole.

Motherfucker.

"Open the damn door, Joanna. I know you are in there." I saw the frown on my uncle's face and glared at the door. I didn't want him in here. I didn't want him anywhere near me.

"Go away," I said finally leaning against the door. "You can't be here."

It was the fucking home of his rival's son. Why would he even attempt to come here.

"You know I can go wherever the fuck I want. Now, you can either let me in, or I can have this conversation out in the middle of the foyer, and let the whole complex know what a whore you are." The bite of his anger stung. I didn't want to be in the path of it.

I opened the door, and crossed my arms, "that was totally unnecessary."

"But it got your attention." He said as he walked into the condo and looked around. "Well, I have to say, the motherfucker sure has good taste."

He sat down in a very expensive looking leather chair and crossed his legs, looking at me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

“I'm impressed. I told you to get to know them, to learn about them, and you made a beeline right for the next in line.” His vision narrowed. “It wasn’t what I expected, but we can certainly work with it.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The best way to get a permanent link to the damn Fitzgeralds. You. You will marry Greyson Fitzgerald.”

I crossed my arms and bit my lip. Marrying any man, especially not a future mob boss, was not on my agenda. I had a Ph.D. to finish, and I should’ve been at school even now writing papers and finishing my reading. I was already starting to get behind.

No, my plans had very little room for a man.

“I have no intention of marrying anyone.” I said, taking control of myself for the first time in days. “I’m not your lapdog, and I won’t do it.”

“You seem to forget what family you belong to,” Dennis stood, looming over me. He didn’t touch me, but he got so close I thought he would. “You belong to us. You work for us. You do what I want when I want, do you understand?”

I swallowed, hard. “I could take away your entire life in an instant and don’t think I wouldn’t hesitate to do it. You will do as you are told. You will.”

“You wouldn’t,” I sucked in a breath and looked at him with new eyes. He’d never threatened me before. I knew he was capable of it, but I just had never experienced it. I didn’t expect to.

“You have no idea what I am fucking capable of Joanna. Your father, you, it could all go up in smoke. Literally or figuratively, you decide.”

He’d kill me, kill my father if I didn’t do what he wanted. I might as well have handed him my throat on a platter if I said no.

“Well then, what choice do I have?” I asked.

“I thought you’d come around.”

I stared at him and watched as he turned around and walked out the door. “Expect your lover-boy to approach you about it soon. Got a deal in the works.”

I sat there, smoldering with anger until I could come up with a better plan. Then I grabbed my purse and ran out the door.

The only thing I could think to do was get the fuck out of here and back to my regular life. Maybe if I did this would all just go away.

Chapter Eight

Joanna

Words on a computer screen. That was what I needed. It was so much easier to concentrate on the economic influence of women in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century than it was to think about my own issues.

“Where is she?” The sound of that voice put me on edge. I could hear it all the way across the rows and rows of cubicles.

Greyson.

I didn’t want to stand up. I knew that if I did, if I went to him, he would look at me and think I’d jump at his every beck and call. I had work to do. I had a shit ton of it, honestly. And I didn’t want his interference.

So I sat there, and I let him come to me. I tried not to look peeved as he found my cubicle and glared at me.

“I thought you were going to wait for me at home?” he asked his voice low.

It didn’t matter, it still carried, and I was sure the entire office heard it. I blushed.

“I had work to do.”

The man furrowed his brow, actually furrowed it, at me.

“Come on, we’re leaving.” Greyson grabbed my wrist and pulled me up to him, but I pulled back, staying exactly where I was.

“I said I have work to do.”

“And we have things to discuss, or would you rather do it here?”

This was the second time in one day that someone was trying to boss me around, and I was getting sick to death of it. I rolled my eyes and stood up, shaking him off of me.

“I’m sick to death of men bossing me around. You can ask me to leave, you can wait until I’m done, you can do anything else, but you are not going to tell me what to do.”

He reached out for me, but this time he was not nearly as gentle. His pull was rough as he grabbed my arm and tugged me into his own body.

He intentionally, quietly, dipped his head down.

“You need to reassess who in the fuck you think you are talking to. I’m not your family. I’m not like anyone you have ever known. You will come with me, and you will do it now.”

Just the smallest trace of fear, mixed with arousal, flowed through me. I wasn’t finished with this argument, but what he said earlier resonated through me. I didn’t want my peers to be privy to my life outside of school. I was already enough of an outcast as it was.

“Where do you want to talk about this?” he asked as he caressed my curves with his other hand.

“Anywhere but here,” I admitted, my eyes low. I didn’t want to look into his or I might just snap.

“Good.” He purred as he grabbed my backpack and led me down the hallway and out the doors.

When we were finally outside I took in breath after breath of fresh air, gulping them in  through my mouth and counting to keep from being angry. To keep from melting away with embarrassment. My cheeks were flushed, and I could feel the anger blazing behind my eyes.

I still didn’t say anything, I just waited until we got into the car and away from the school. I didn’t want anyone I knew to see or hear me like this. It was too much. It was too crazy. I was being pulled off of fucking campus by a mobster with a bad attitude. Practically kidnapped.

What other fucking choice did I have?

“What exactly are you hoping to accomplish?” I asked as I looked him over. That suit, those lips, that hair. Fuck. It was hard to even acknowledge him without being overwhelmed by my attraction to him.

I watched his eyes glanced over me then back at the road.

“I had a visitor today,” he said, his fingers gripping the steering wheel. “My father came by to let me know just what he thought of our relationship.”

“Relationship?” I asked I thought it was just a couple of passion filled nights, but nothing more. Not until my uncle came by.

He just shrugged.

“I had a visitor too,” I admitted, chewing on the inside of my lip.

“A certain uncle?” he asked.

“Yeah. What options do we have?” I asked. I swear his jaw clenched once I said it, his teeth grinding before he dare speak.

Was he seriously considering going through with it? Did he… did he want me? No, that wasn't it. He was upset about the situation. He had to be.

“We don’t have any options, Joanna. As much as I fucking wish it wasn’t the case, it looks like you are stuck with me. At least for now.”

Shit. He really didn’t fucking want me. Tears stung my eyes, and I turned to look out of the window, shifting so that he couldn’t see my face at all, just the back of my head.

I don’t know why I gave a shit. I don’t know why I cared at all.

“When?” I asked, swallowing hard. Fuck, my voice trembled.

“Got a text from my mother, she’s working out a schedule.”

Silence. That was all that filled the fucking car. Nothing but silence.

When we pulled up to his condo, I hesitated, not wanting to get out of the car. “Just-just take me home. I want to go home.”

“Your stuff has been moved in here. You can’t go back there.”

What? It had only been a fucking day. A few hours. How the fuck did he get all my shit out.

His men. My uncle’s men. Ugh.

“Why?” I asked, my brow furrowed.

“It wouldn’t look good to have you up in that shitty rat’s nest of an apartment, not when you could be living with me.” It made sense. I didn’t fucking like it, but it made sense. I needed to look the part for everyone else. It was why I’d always been so glad not to be involved with all of that shit. It was why I wanted nothing to do with my uncle or that side of the family.

Still, I was feeling downright petulant.

“It didn’t matter before,” I challenged, crossing my arms. He got out of the car and opened the door for me.

Fuck. He looked so angry.

“Right, when you were the daughter of a fuck up. When your dad couldn’t even manage to do simple jobs, so rather than kill him they threw him away, and you along with it.” His brutal honesty stung. It fucking hurt. I didn’t know why the fuck he said it, but I snapped.

“I don’t know why you think you have the right to fucking say nasty shit to me. It’s not like I want to be here. It’s not like I’m enjoying this.”

The man grabbed me and pulled me out of the fucking car, dragging my body across his. “That’s not what it seemed like last night,” he caressed the curve of my breast right there in public, his hand hard as he grabbed it and gave it a painful squeeze.

The kind that made me squeeze my thighs together. He saw me shift, saw me squeeze my knees together and grinned. “Is that getting a reaction out of you?” he asked as he dipped his hand into my skirt and panties, cupping me as he slipped a finger into my slit. Yeah, I was wet as hell. And I was totally scandalized. He was doing this in public!

“Greyson,” I protested, but it fell on deaf ears, he just slid his finger in and out of me. He closed the car door and pinned me up against it.

“Tell me you don’t want this, just a little bit. Tell me you aren’t wet as fuck,” he breathed into my ear.

I couldn’t tell him those things, I couldn’t even utter them. The truth of the matter was, it would be nothing but lies.

So I just swallowed my tongue and avoided his gaze.

“In the car or in the Condo. Choose, now,” he whispered it into my ear and then kissed my lobe, his tongue flicking it at the very end.

“Condo,” I answered, letting out a long breath. “Condo.”

Fuck. I couldn’t resist him. There was nothing I could do to resist him, even if I wanted to. I hated this arrangement, hated that he was forced to be with me, that a man like him would be trapped, but there was nothing I could do about that. All I could do was enjoy exactly what I was experiencing.

He was so fucking strong, the way he pulled me up the stairs and to the elevators. But it didn’t wait that long. We were kissing before I knew it, his hands on my neck, in my hair, pulling ever so slightly; my body pressed hard up against him. We were in the room before I realized it, and he was staring at me.

Those wolf-like eyes on me. He wanted something from me.

“Take off your top,” he commanded. “I want to watch you undress.” He pushed me towards the center of the room and grinned at me. “Now, baby.”

“Is this what you want?” I asked as I pulled my shirt off and unhooked my bra.  I dropped it onto the floor and stepped towards him.

“Oh, no.” His eyes flashed. “It is not all that I wanted. Not at all.”

“Did you think it was really going to be so easy? That I would just forget about you walking out when I asked you to stay?” I could see the excitement in his eyes and I knew he was looking for an excuse for what came next.

“Yes, but it wasn’t an order,” I said, my voice full of snark. I was feeling awfully bold for a half naked woman with a hand at her throat. “I don’t have to do as you ask.”

He wasn’t going to choke me. Kiss me, yes, but not choke me.

I had to believe that.

“Oh, I think we both know that you do. If not as my woman, then as my employee, after all.”  He was too lost in  his lust to realize what he’d just said.

My breasts heaved as I looked him in the eyes. “Is this all this is to you, nothing more than just an exchange of services?” I questioned.

Fuck, he didn’t like that. He released his grip on me.

“Take off your skirt and panties.” Those dark eyes would tolerate no argument, so I did as I was told. “Good, now turn around and put your hands against the wall.”

It wasn’t a wall it was a window. A large, wall-like window. Anyone could see me from here. Hell, some of the neighbors didn’t even need to use binoculars.

It was like he wanted it that way.

“Everyone will know you belong to me, Joanna. Do you understand?” He said slowly. “You belong to me.”

No one owns me. No one. I wanted to say that, I wanted to be defiant. But I didn’t. I just stood there, my ass sticking out my hands against the wall, both of my legs spread.

It was so humiliating.

“I don’t like being talked back to, Joanna. I hate it. I’m in charge of an entire sector of the family, and I will brook no disrespect.” I could hear him tsk. “Now you’re going to get punished. And you're going to count them.”

“What?” I asked, but the moment I asked the question the hand connected with my ass. Fuck.

“Count.”

“One,” I said wincing. Except it didn’t hurt. It felt fucking good. Another “Two.” Another. “Three.” I kept counting until he got to ten.

And I was slick as fuck. Oh dammit. How the hell did it feel good? The heat radiating off of my ass, probably handprint shaped, and it felt absolutely delicious. I shifted and bent a little lower.

“Fuck, you are so wet you are glistening.” He reached towards me, his hands sliding between my thighs. It was slick; there was no doubt, and the way his fingers found my opening in seconds only made it worse.

I actually moaned and pressed my breasts up against the window.

“No matter how much you resist, you want me,” he whispered as he bent down towards my ear. “Admit it.”

“I want you,” it wasn’t hard to admit, the evidence was right there for him to see. To feel.

So I wasn’t surprised when he turned me over and pressed my back against the wall.

He undid each button of his oxford shirt with a single hand while he threaded his other through my hair, pulling on the threads at the base of my skull.

It felt so damn good to be manhandled. I slid my hands to his belt buckle and unlatched it, pulling it off before I unbuttoned his pants and pushed them as far down as I could reach.

“What are you doing, Jo?” he asked, his velvet cadence driving me just that much more insane.

“I’m going to suck your cock,” I said, earnestly as I bent down onto my knees, his hand still tangled in my hair.

He pulled a little tighter, and I moaned.

I gripped his boxer briefs and pulled them down, his cock standing at attention in front of my very face. I was no stranger to it at this point, but I was always shocked at how fucking huge he was.

And the urge to try to fit it all in my mouth. I grabbed it by the base and moved my hand up and down it, and then I took the head of it into my mouth. I let my tongue swirl around him before I looked up to see him standing there, staring down at me.

“Damn, Jo. That feels fucking amazing.” His eyes fluttered, and he gripped me just a little bit tighter.

So I licked down further and slid him in and out of my mouth, my throat taking as much of him as I could. Damn, he was big. I whined, but I took him in a little bit deeper. I could feel his hand on the back of my head pushing me forward. Fuck. He was forcing more of himself on me, and I was trying to take it all.

But I couldn’t.  I choked a little and pushed back. His hand was there, holding me. Oh dear God, he was making me choke on his cock. Finally, he let me off of him, and I pulled back away from him.

“What, baby?” he asked as he looked down at me. “What do you want?”

“You,” I panted. “I want you.”

“All you had to do was ask.” He pulled me up and grabbed me by the hips, lifting me against that very cold, very real glass.