Page 19 of Midnight Secrets

Jordan was laughing when I stepped back into the kitchen. “I would have loved to have seen Nigel’s face when you walked in with Lucy. The guy is fucking terrified of you at the best of times.”

Ash shrugged and put his hands into his pockets. “Nigel always did have a nervous disposition.”

The kettle whistled in the background and I handed Jordan my open tablet on the way past.

“I’ll email these across to myself and Ivan can use what he needs,” Jordan said, his concentration on the device in his hand. I was grateful that no one was looking at me right now because my walls were shaky and could fall at any moment.

On autopilot, I made the coffee, carrying it into the living area. The conversation around me didn’t register because everything inside me was shaking as if my centre of gravity had shifted.

When a respectable time had passed, I excused myself so I could go and hide in my room and analyse what had happen. As I turned to wave at the men, Ash’s eyes bored into mine and if felt like he could see inside my head. I could still feel the heat from his stare when I collapsed onto my bed, my skirt and jacket thrown over a chair. When my fingers dipped into my panties, I was soaking wet. Catarina openly talked in front of Sofia and me about giving herself an orgasm.

I’d never tried before, but as my fingers circled that mass of nerves, I visualised Ash and bit my lip to stop myself screaming his name when I came.

***

Chapter Eight

Ash

The darkness of the Council chamber suited my mood. Two weeks ago, I gave in to temptation and revealed my feelings to Lucrezia. She didn’t need this sort of shit, and there was no way I was good enough for a goddess like her. My life was littered with problems from my family and I vowed a long time ago that no one would be dragged into my miserable existence.

Her number taunted me from my phone and her stones burned a hole in my pocket. I should just put them in the hands of one of my couriers and get it over and done with. The conversation was nothing more than white noise until Xavier kicked me under the table.

I gave him my full attention because I had no fucking clue what was going on. “Matteus was just asking about our stocks and shares.”

No one ever asked about the financial side as long as their profits arrived in their accounts. Dad was being a dick about something. “What do you need to know?”

His smile reminded me of a shark ready to bite. “I wanted to know about our vested interest in the diamond mines.” In other words he’d heard I was looking at diamonds with Lucrezia. He was on a fishing mission and doing it in a meeting to try and trip me up.

“Those financials aren’t available for another few months. You need something in particular?” Like a place beside Grandpa in the family crypt?

“No, there just seems to be a lot of interest in diamonds lately,” he replied.

“I’ll take your word for that.” My expression was neutral because I would never let him know he rattled me. “Want me to talk to some contacts if you think there’s a problem in the market?”

His jaw tightened because his ruse wasn’t working.

“Unless you’re planning on buying your lovely wife another ring, maybe we should move on?” Jordan suggested. “Although, I have heard that that snotty fucker Nigel Billingham has been dipping his fingers into blood diamonds again. Maybe I should put him on our watch list for a while. Thanks for the reminder, Matteus.”

Jordan had a knack of defusing situations. He also possessed the ability to turn nothing into a huge argument. It depended on his mood. The anarchist tended to outweigh the peacemaker.

Dad scowled at him and he gave him his best fuck-me grin.

I didn’t need this right now with all the shit with my brother Michael hanging over my head. I wanted to shake him until some sense got knocked into that know-it-all head of his. A kill order from the Council meant you were marked for death. We were all frantically trying to find ways to save him, but he kept making the situation worse.

“Are we finished?” Xavier asked. “Because we have a flight scheduled to look at some properties in Krakow.”

Xavier’s father Hugh waved his hand. “Of course, look at the time. Have a safe journey and I look forward to seeing the shortlist for the next hotel.”

While in Krakow, we were looking for the next property for the Midnight Rooms as well, so it would be a busy few days.

“I have to stop off and see Uncle Lucas,” Xavier said when we were outside. “He has a problem he needs our help with.”

I wanted to groan in despair and scream with joy at the same time. “I need to go past my place on the way to the airport and collect Lucrezia’s stones. They arrived a few days ago and I was going to private courier them.”

Xavier slid me the side eye. “You seem to be getting very friendly with my cousin. I know she used to have a thing about you when she was younger, but I thought she’d grown out of that.”

Jordan gave Xavier a huge mischief-filled grin. “Nah, the two of them could hardly keep their eyes or their hands off each other in the kitchen a few weeks ago when they were supposed to be making coffee.”

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