Page 58 of Midnight Revelations

“My driving isn’t that bad,” Ash teased, taking his helmet off. He unclipped mine and tugged it off. My legs were shaking too badly to stand, and my stomach was still protesting at the movement of the bike. His finger under my chin tipped my face up to allow him to study me.

“I’ve never been on a bike before,” I admitted.

“I guessed that.” His eyebrow quirked as if he was amused. I scowled and his lips tilted in a grin.

“Fuck off,” I muttered, slowly climbing off the massive beast before it collapsed and squashed me.

Ash grabbed my waist to steady me. “It takes a while to get used to.” His phone rang and he lifted it to his ear. “Yeah? I found her, she’s with me now. She wandered off to a park again. I’ll tell her that you’re not amused. Okay.”

I managed to walk on wobbly legs to the door leading into the house. The kitchen was as I left it, and I went in search of food since I hadn’t managed to stomach any breakfast. Ash found me putting croissant dough from pre-prepared tubes I’d bought into the oven. He stood with his hip against the counter and watched me pour water into the kettle.

“I don’t have any milk,” he said.

“There is some in ice cube trays in the freezer.”

His eyebrows rose but he opened the freezer. “How did I not know I had milk? I’ve been drinking my coffee black.”

“Then you should have answered your phone and I could have told you,” I sassed.

Ash sighed. “Lucrezia, it’s not that I didn’t want to. As I suspected, my phone had been pinged, probably by Dad. Jordan got us all new encrypted phones.”

I turned around to face him, my arms folding across my chest. “And you couldn’t text then?”

He glanced away, that stubborn tick forming on his jaw. “I was trying to keep you safe.”

“I’d say that was a massive fail.”

His attention cut to me. “Lucrezia…” he growled a warning.

“No,” I interrupted. “You don’t get to make all the decisions for us, Ash. I am so angry at you right now for putting me through all of this.”

His brow furrowed and his hands landed on his hips.

I should have heeded his warning, but I was on a roll and pissed as hell. “I had to look at Poppy constantly hanging on your arm,” I ranted. “That woman had her breasts pressed to you every opportunity she found. I’m surprised you don’t have nipple indentations on you.”

He opened his mouth, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “You let me see those images of you two having sex in your apartment and never let me know that it wasn’t you. Did you even consider how I was feeling? You made me promise to trust you, yet all you’ve done is hurt and ignore me.”

His head tilted to the side. “Have you finished?”

I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I stared out the window angrily because if I looked at him I would be lost in his gaze.

Ash’s arms caged around me to capture me against the counter, his breath fanning my cheek. “How the fuck was I supposed to know you read the gossip pages? You never mentioned them before. Dad dropped you into a conversation and I did everything in my power to convince him that you meant nothing to me. My dick refuses to work for anyone else and Poppy was more than a little frustrated and dragged poor Aaron into my apartment to fuck him senseless.”

A smug sense of satisfaction washed over me that his dick was on strike around other women. Maybe our childhood cupcake theory was correct and since I licked him, he was mine.

“I should really put you over my knee and spank that sexy ass of yours for the stunt you pulled today.” Was it wrong that his statement made my panties damp? “And don’t even get me started on last night with that fucker Ivan. He should have taken the hint the last time he came near you.”

Ash’s tongue traced up my neck and his teeth bit down on my earlobe. His hands slipped down my stomach and his fingers popped the button on the front of my jeans.

“What are you doing?” I gasped.

“Introducing you to angry make-up sex.”

Did my knees just tremble?

“You have been a really bad girl,” he continued in that deep, husky tone. I moaned when his fingers slipped into my panties. It had been too long since I felt his caress.

“Ash,” I moaned. “Please.”

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