Page 43 of Midnight Secrets

He tugged me into the bathroom and climbed into the bath first when it had filled, helping me sit between his legs. The pads of his fingers caressed me, his lips kissing trails over my shoulders until I relaxed into him.

Ash was silent so long that dread unfurled in my stomach.

“Please don’t regret this, Ash,” I whispered.

“I don’t regret it, Angel. I’m trying to work out what to do about us.”

I leaned back into his strength. “Is there an us?” It was needy and pathetic, but right now I was insecure because he held all the cards.

His growl against my neck made the hairs there stand to attention. “Do you think I would let another man touch you?”

I had hoped he wouldn’t, but as this was my first relationship, and I had no idea of what I was doing. “I don’t want any other man to touch me.”

“We need to be careful,” he said, pressing a kiss to the side of my throat. “I live in a world filled with enemies. Your papa hides behind his walls in Tuscany with a private army around him, but we live in the middle of the war here. Emotions make you weak, relationships give our enemies a target.”

I was beginning to see the world through his eyes and it wasn’t a pleasant place.

“Xavier keeps Cassandra hidden by staying at her apartment, so no one knows she exists.”

“Is Xavier dating someone?” I asked and stretched to make myself comfortable. His cock thickened under my ass.

“Yeah, but it’s early days and he’s keeping it private.”

“I’m family,” I pointed out.

“Are you going to ring him and tell him that I just took your virginity?”

“No, why would I?”

His silence spoke louder than words. Xavier and I weren’t that close. I saw him at holidays or when Papa sent for him. He wasn’t the one who helped me when I asked him, Ash did.

“Does that make me your dirty secret?” I asked.

“Technically, since we’re in the bath, you’re my clean secret.”

I laughed and clung to his arm as I sunk further into the bubbles.

I closed my eyes and allowed myself to enjoy this moment together. Ash was my future, I was as sure of it as I was of my own name. The only problem was that I needed Ash to realise that we belonged together. Every time he got lost in his own head, he rationalised everything until he decided he wasn’t good enough for me. I needed to stay close enough to him so that he didn’t descend into the darkness of his own personal Hell.

***

Chapter Seventeen

Ash

I waited for the regrets to appear and my conscience to chastise me. It didn’t happen. The woman sleeping on top of me had silenced all my demons. We woke a few hours ago and had slow, sleepy sex until she dug those nails into my ass when she climaxed.

Xavier, Jordan, and I were Doms in the Twilight Rooms and no subs there would ever dare to mark my skin, never mind claw at me with her nails or bite me. Lucrezia gave herself to pleasure, abandoning all her inhibitions to sacrifice herself at the altar of desire.

She’d blown my mind and that was a hard thing to do with someone who’d experienced a lifetime of pleasure across the globe. I’d thought there was nothing new to experience, but last night I discovered my boredom was nothing to do with sex but the people involved.

Lucrezia had reached inside my chest, found my cold hard heart, and made it feel again. She was the virgin, but she’d taught me a lesson last night.

I smiled at the ceiling at the thought of her ridiculous underwear. Even in the Midnight Rooms where you could see nothing, the women arrived in designer silk and lace. Lucrezia had wandered into my life in pussy panties. Sexy wasn’t the body or the underwear, but the person wearing them. She was slowly wrapping me around her little finger and I wasn’t sure if I loved it or hated it.

“You’re thinking too hard,” Lucrezia said huskily from beside me.

“What makes you say that?”

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