Page 31 of Midnight Secrets

I rolled my eyes at her and moved onto my back to stare at the ceiling. Her head appeared to stare upside down at me a few moments later.

“You defiled Minnie Mouse. She has stuff all over her.” Her indignant tone brought a smile to my lips as she learned closer. “I don’t think Mickey can ejaculate because in all the years they’ve been together there has been no baby mice.”

A laugh escaped at the idea of the beloved children’s characters getting frisky.

“Please, Ash, I don’t have many good things in my life. You’re one of the few that I’ve found.” She sat beside me and peered at me. “Since you’re my business partner, I need your phone number.”

“Business partner?” My eyebrows rose fractionally.

“Someone paid for those diamonds. I doubt you bought them for me as a gift.”

There was no way I was telling her what they cost me. This fiery little woman would move heaven and earth to repay me. “You want me as a business partner?”

Her smile made my heart ache. “You’re the only one who understands.”

If she kept this up she would end up breaking my miserable heart. “I don’t try to have sex with my business partners,” I replied and raised an eyebrow.

“How many female business partners do you have?”

I threw her the stink eye. “One, apparently.”

She squealed and threw herself at me, pressing kisses to my face. I couldn’t help myself smiling at her nonsense. No one ever treated me like this. I’d expected sulky temper tantrums, not someone who threw herself at me again and again with joy on her face. Lucrezia was a refreshing change to what surrounded me in my world.

“Fine!” I lifted her off me and set her on the floor while I stood up. “I need to get dressed, because if your papa finds me in here and you covered in my cum, he’ll kill both of us.”

She twisted and lifted the bottom of that damned nightdress, flashing a quick glimpse of her pussy. Fuck my life, she was going to end up being the death of me.

***

Chapter Thirteen

Lucrezia

I watched from the window upstairs as the three motorbikes drove down the driveway and out of my life. When he emerged from my bathroom with a towel around his waist, Ash had his blank expression back in place. There was no point in trying to tear those walls down since I knew how much effort they were to erect.

During breakfast, I sat with my head down as I normally did and pretended that I hadn’t just spent the night with Ash in my bed. Nothing could take that away from me, and I planned to keep destroying his resistance every time I saw him. Now that we were business partners, he wouldn’t be able to avoid me.

I refused to stand in the hall and wave them off with Papa, so instead I crept up to my room and said my own personal goodbye. For a brief moment, before he snapped his visor down, Ash’s eyes had met mine and my heart formed a lump in my throat. I lifted my hand in a silent farewell and he nodded once.

The rest of the day was spent assessing and arranging the stones into the different collections they would be in. My sketchbook sat beside me as the jewels themselves gave me inspiration.

Madison brought me something to eat, glancing at the designs for a moment before her eagle sharp gaze moved to me. “Are you okay?”

“He confuses me,” I admitted. “The man who visits and sits at our dining table is not the man I see.”

“We all wear masks to hide our insecurities. I remember the first summer Ash arrived here.” She sat on the end of my bed. “He was sixteen or seventeen and arrived with Xavier with the weight of the world on his shoulders and his body covered in bruises. His father is a monster, and he tried to mould Ash into his image. The problem was that there was too much of his mother in him for Matteus to achieve that.”

I sat beside her and crossed my legs the way I always sat when we chatted in my room. “He listens to me. The new sketches are based on what he was telling me he saw in New York. He gave me ideas about the displays I need to create for my collection, and he has people sorting out the advertising in the background.” I stared down at my hands for a few moments. “But there’s nothing I can do for him in return.”

Madison nudged me with her shoulder. “A man like Ash doesn’t need money or power. He has both in abundance. What he needs is someone to save his soul from the darkness.”

“What?” She had my full attention.

“My Colin had darkness in his soul. He always said that my light kept his demons away. If anyone is filled with light, it is you, Lucrezia. You don’t need to give him material possessions, you need to give him a reason to exist.”

Her words stayed with me as night cloaked the estate. Sofia chatted on about her course at university when I phoned her to try and keep my mind occupied. She was in love with her security detail Mario and was planning to seduce him. Part of me wanted to share what had happened with Ash because we told each other everything, but the other part of me hugged my experience close to my chest to keep it safe.

Three days passed, and when Papa flew out for a meeting, I began to work with the base metals for the designs. It created a horrendous smell in the kitchen, but Madison and Francis ensured I was left alone. My phone stared at me in accusation because Ash’s number had been in it for days, tempting me.

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