Sweet Seduction Stripped (Sweet Seduction, Book 7) Read online

When he enveloped me in an embrace I was trembling.

  "Baby, are you cold?" he whispered, kissing up the side of my neck.

  Jaxon had never been afraid of showing affection in public. A simple peck on the cheek would never do, he had to practically maul me. Lay claim, shout his possession to the world, while mentally banging fists against his chest like a caveman.

  Sala was so full of shit. He'd never share me.

  I'd already decided my best chance of defence was to play the "morning sickness" up. So, I mumbled, "I still feel a little queasy," as I forced myself to wrap my arms around his waist.

  "Baby, I'm gonna take good care of you today. You're my girl."

  Not anymore, but he didn't know that. I just had to remember to act as if I didn't either.

  "Come and take a load off while I finish up with Derek," Jaxon suggested, grasping my small hand in his bigger one. He had callouses, no doubt from hand to hand fist fights. Ric didn't have callouses. His hand had been smooth.

  And that wasn't the best way to forget I was no longer Jaxon's. The dawning comprehension that I may already belong to someone else.

  Now I really did feel a little nauseous. Good, bad and everything in between.

  "You look pale, baby. Did you eat breakfast?" Jaxon asked, helping me onto a stool beside his empty one. Taking such care of me, despite his lawyer waiting patiently to finish business, despite having to run a big corporate company, and a criminal underworld organisation.

  It was at times like this that Jaxon was an entirely different man from the one I'd seen in that picture. I'd not doubted the image was true. I'd even, if I was honest with myself, not been overly surprised. Shocked, but in a way it had made sense. The dark he had inside him. The way he had conducted himself.

  But why he'd continue to pretend failed to compute. I just didn't understand this man.

  And that, after everything I'd seen and heard, left me emotionally wrought.

  "I can't eat right now," I admitted, the truth, but it played in well with my ruse.

  "No good, baby," Jaxon growled, then lifted his chin to Max behind the bar. "Go find something nutritious for Amber to eat." His eyes darted down to mine, the smile one of pure possession. "She's gotta look after herself now. Eating for two."

  And that public admission brought about a lengthy groping session, one that didn't help my nausea, nor make Derek the lawyer turn away. He watched on with ill concealed lustful delight, even going so far as to adjust himself openly when Jaxon pulled my t-shirt collar aside and started feasting on my boobs.

  Humiliation wasn't something new for me. Entrapment and near pee inducing fear was.

  "J..Jaxon," I tried, my bottom lip trembling, my hands shaking as I attempted to get him to back off. His name a quaking stutter falling from my mouth.

  "All this is mine, baby," he said, wrapping his lips and tongue around a naked nipple. "Any time, any where, any how. You know that."

  The switch that flicked inside him so easily now was attached to detonation device. I did the only thing I could think of to do. I passed the bomb to someone else.

  "Jax," I said forcefully. "Derek's perving. It's creeping me out."

  It happened so fast. I'd known Jaxon could be quick. But one second his hot, wet tongue was lapping at my breast, the next Derek Marks was bleeding from a broken nose, crumpled on the floor.

  I should have felt bad. I'd intentionally used him to distract Jaxon. But I couldn't find it in my terror filled state to care for a scumbag lawyer who helped a criminal hide his crimes.

  Until Jaxon kicked the guy in the balls while he was too busy trying to stop the blood at his nose. The agonised scream that followed made me whimper. In fright. In compassion. With guilt.

  I gripped the edge of the bar top as Jaxon loomed over Marks, the lawyer curled up in the foetal position, as if that would protect him now. He realised the futility of his action when the cold hard metal of a gun muzzle rested against his cheek.

  This was the world I'd willingly stepped into and until today I hadn't really cared.

  I cared now.

  I was so shit scared.

  "You getting off on my woman?" Jaxon snarled, digging the gun muzzle harder into Derek's cheek. "Too fucking pathetic to get your own?" Spittle fell from his lips as the words grated off his tongue. "She's the mother of my fucking child, shithead. You look at her again and I will blow your fucking head off. Understand?"

  Marks nodded his head furiously, blood, saliva and tears landing in wet splats on the polished wooden floor.

  "Fucking miserable piece of shit," Jaxon growled, thankfully putting his weapon away. The movement quick and efficient, as though he'd done it a million times before.

  A shudder racked through my frame at the reminder of what had been happening behind my back, in front of my blind eyes. How had I not seen the truth? What the hell was wrong with me?

  "Baby, shhh," Jaxon murmured, tucking some of my hair behind my ear.

  His hands cupped my jaw, lifting my face up to his. I hadn't realised I'd been silently crying, tears trickling down my cheeks. I blinked up at the monster before me, my body quivering, my heart palpitating and my mind trying to shut down.

  "I'll never let anyone hurt you," he whispered, kissing the tracks of my tears. "I'll always be here to protect you," he added, softly brushing his lips across mine.

  I was so numb, so lost, so alone, that I didn't even flinch.

  "Tell me," he demanded softly. "Tell me, baby, I gotta hear the words."

  I knew what he wanted. I knew I had to say them. And as the words left my lips I felt a part of me just switch off, collapse. Fail.

  "I love you," I rasped, my throat threatening to close.

  "Yeah, baby," he agreed. "I'm your man and you're my girl, right?"

  I nodded, no longer feeling a thing.

  "Give your man a kiss, then," he ordered, his fingers tightening over my cheeks.

  I followed the command meekly, receiving a growl of contentment from the back of his throat as I pressed my lips to his. Jaxon gripped my hair, pulled back on it to tilt my head, and with his free hand forced my jaw open, so his tongue could delve inside.

  I thought I'd stopped feeling. Oh, how very wrong I was.

  Rage and disgust consumed me, I reacted by biting his bottom lip and drawing blood.

  Kiss me, would he? The lying, manipulative, murderous bastard.

  My back was pressed up against the bar top, my neck exposed with a harsh tug on my hair and then his lips were there; bruising, marking, biting, breaking skin and blood vessels, leaving his signature behind.

  He pulled back panting, his eyes a steel-blue, bordering on grey. One more sharp tug on my hair, his face marred with a furious passion and then he began slowly laughing. It built, a crescendo of sound that filled me with absolute terror.

  Oh, dear God. I had to escape. I had to run. I had to leave now or this madman would lose what tenuous hold he had on his sanity and slice a knife across my neck, put a bullet in my brain. Right then, in that second, I wasn't thinking about my ailing father and what would befall him. I wasn't thinking about ASI's attempts to bring a devious man to his knees and save lives. I wasn't thinking of anyone else but me. Selfishly. Greedily. Desperately.

  The will to survive was too great to contemplate anyone else's agendas but mine.

  Escape. Freedom. As far from this insanity and horror that I could get.

  As far from Jaxon Harding and this world that I could get.

  "Baby, you make me burn," Jaxon purred, finally reining in his laughter. "You set my blood alight. All I wanna do is fuck you hard when you get your claws out."

  He stepped closer. The movement ominous and a threat, his features only amused and lustful. I couldn't get an accurate reading on this man. The only answer I had was he was crazy. Out of his fucking mind. Mad.

  "You bite me one more time," he murmured, "and I won't be held accountable for my response. Wanna bend you over that stool and take my time, but I g
ot business and you look like shit, and your addictive pussy is just gonna have to wait until tonight. When I can spend those heated hours right before dawn feasting on your body, making you scream my name loud enough for the whole damn city to hear. Spilling myself inside you until you're so full up I gotta coat your body with me instead."

  A visual I could do without, but thankfully because it was all spoken, my mind didn't file the imagery away as it would an actual picture or the written word. My shaking hand wrapped around the brutal marks he'd left on my neck, my blurry eyes held his accepting the challenge for what it was.

  Escape tonight or he would make me pay. In his bed.

  Fuck ASI and Eric Shaw. Fuck this city and the people harmed by Jaxon Harding. And, I'm going straight to hell anyway, fuck the last few months of my dear father's life.

  I had to pray God would one day forgive me, because I sure as hell wouldn't be able to after tonight.

  "Eat," Jaxon commanded, bringing my attention to the sandwiches and fruit juice Max had unearthed and placed on the bar top at my back. I hadn't seen the guy come back in the room, I had to assume he waited until Jaxon had finished his crazy caveman display before re-entering. Derek Marks would have been a big enough lesson on that front.

  My eyes skipped over the still curled form of the lawyer on the ground, but I couldn't afford to get distracted now.

  Escape was all I thought as I resumed my seat.

  Escape was all I thought as I forced the cardboard-like tasteless sandwich down my throat.

  Escape was all I thought as I followed it with the juice.

  I could do this. I could wait until Jaxon was distracted and run. I would. I should have done it before, not let a three year on-line relationship with a man whose green eyes called to me change my mind.

  Not let familial obligations complicate my decision.

  Oh, fuck. My dad.

  Guilt invaded me. Stole stealthily and corruptly into my mind. Washed away conviction, trampled on resolve, and left me confused yet again.

  I'm not a bad person. I've just made bad choices. And now I was paying for my crimes.

  Who would make Jaxon pay?

  I watched as he organised someone to remove the broken form of his lawyer from the clubroom floor, as he directed the cleaning up of the man's blood, spit and tears. And I was ready for him when he returned to my side, anger still bubbling under his surface, lust a quick come-on away.

  I blew out a measured breath and slipped down from the stool to walk the short distance towards him.

  "I think I need to go home and get some rest," I suggested, hoping with all my might that I could really act.

  "Baby," he chastised with a soft shake of his head. "I'm not letting you out of my sight. Every damn time I do, you get in trouble."

  Yeah, I thought as much. He knew exactly where I'd been this morning. And suddenly it all felt impossible. Completely and utterly unavoidable.

  Hopeless.

  I was trapped with the devil's minion and his pitchfork was at my throat.

  Jaxon grinned. That grin. A bubble of hysteria welled up my body, swelled in my chest and lodged in my windpipe. I couldn't breathe.

  "It's all good, baby," Jaxon insisted, as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and started to lead me off the clubroom floor and out the back; towards his office where no one would interrupt him or be overly concerned if I screamed.

  "Jaxon, I'm really not feeling good," I tried. The things you'll do and say to save your skin. It seemed a pretty pathetic attempt, those six words. But they were all I could manage.

  "What are you so afraid of, Amber?" he asked, opening up the door to his office.

  Sleek black, white and silver met my eyes. Sharp edged metal framed and glass topped furniture, with modern architecturally designed chairs. All of it a bold statement; a ruler's domain.

  "The truth?" he whispered, leading me to a sofa, the only soft surface in the entire harsh looking room.

  I sank into the piece with trepidation.

  "Baby," he said on another laugh. His amusement at my predicament making the entire experience seem a little surreal. "I'm not the bad guy," he added, making me cock my head and stare at the lunatic warily.

  He pulled up a chair and sat down in front of me, slightly elevated from my position, legs crossed, suit jacket straightened, a model of business perfection. A lion dressed up as a lamb.

  I didn't trust him. I had no idea what he'd say or do next. I did not understand this man.

  "Amber, it's not me you should be worried about," he said evenly. "I'm on the right side of the law."

  The snort almost escaped before I could stop it. He truly believed this drivel. He really thought he wasn't doing a thing wrong.

  "Baby," he said, leaning forward, making me sink further into the sofa as I cringed. "You got no reason to fear me, I'm the knight in shining armour here."

  Bloody hell, I wasn't sure I could take much more of this.

  "Now, your friends at that café you visited," he announced, finally laying his cards on the table.

  Here we go, this was it. His threat to kill each and every one of them because I'd walked inside the shop's door.

  "Now they're the ones breaking the law, Amber baby," he surprised the crap out of me by saying. "And I got the proof right here."

  He reached over to his desk and spun the laptop sitting on it around, so the screen faced us both.

  "Baby, they're the terrorists. And with my help the law's gonna bring them down."

  I looked up at an image on the screen. An image, that once seen could never be forgotten. In it was Eric and another man I didn't recognise. Ric looked younger, buffer, and was covered in camouflage gear, top to bottom; fatigues and that muck they smear on their cheeks. As well as the red of blood.

  And in his hand was a gun, muzzle flaring.

  The guy he was firing at with his empty hands raised and fear in his eyes.

  Chapter 12

  Fuck, You Are So Good At That, Amber

  "Check it out," Jaxon instructed. Calm. Sure. Confident. "You know how to pull these things apart, that beautiful big brain of yours, baby. Take a look. Test it to see if it's a fake."

  He was being too pushy. I already knew it wasn't a fake for that fact alone. But the need to verify was so great, I almost moved from my seat, went to the laptop, and started typing in a line of code currently streaming behind my closed eyelids.

  I shook my head instead and said, "Who is he?"

  The relief at my voice sounding steady and honest made it easier to breathe.

  "His name is Eric Shaw and he works for Anscombe Securities and Investigations," Jaxon said, but the underlying rage in his words was too great to ignore.

  He knew all right. He knew I'd been inside Sweet Seduction. And he knew who I had talked to for way too long.

  "Is that meant to mean something to me?" I asked, purposely flicking my hair out of my eyes as though I was bored.

  "Baby," he growled. "You're being played."

  Of all the things Jaxon could have said that was not expected. I was being played by Ric.

  The urge to laugh was compelling. Knowing it would not be approved of right now kept me silent and ensured my lips stayed pressed in a thin line.

  "Fucking hell, Amber!" Jason exploded. "You think I don't know where you go, who you talk to, what you do?" His laugh was half crazed. "I own you, baby. Every inch of that motherfucking body and every thing it is capable of. Pleasing me. Sucking my cock, riding it, taking it. Giving me what I want and need. And that includes your quick mind and oh so clever fingers on a keyboard. You think I paid for that fancy arse degree for the hell of it? I have great plans for you, baby, and they do not include letting Nick Fucking Anscombe get his greedy fucking hands on you!"

  Who the hell was Nick Anscombe?

  "Now, get off that fucking luscious arse of yours and get over here, test this fucking image, and find out the truth."

  "Why?" I found myself saying. "I belie
ve you," I added, trying to think on the spot. "There's no need, Jax. I trust you. You say they're bad guys, then they're bad guys. What's to check?"

  He was on me in an instant. I screamed, it surprised me so. He gripped my upper arm, hauled me off the couch and slammed my body down in the chair he'd been sitting on, directly in front of the laptop screen.

  "Do it!" he growled in my ear, not releasing his grip. "I wanna watch as the truth slaps you in the fucking face."

  My fingers trembled as I lifted them to the keyboard, my eyes soaking in every feature on Ric's face in the full screen image displayed before me. Anger, pain and regret. I shook my head. I didn't want this confirmed. It had to be Photoshopped. He may not have been grinning, but he sure as hell looked like he was about to kill a man.

  Just like Jaxon.

  I wasn't sure I could handle another shock as world altering as that. I'd shared my life with Jaxon, but it wasn't until that moment that I realised I'd shared my head with RiC3.1415.

  And I was already beginning to share my heart with Eric Shaw.

  I didn't want to do this, but Jaxon's hold was tightening, the blood being cut off to my right arm, and the knowledge he had a gun on his body and wasn't afraid to pull it, had me typing in the code, chewing on my bottom lip, while I prayed silently inside my head.

  It took three minutes for the programme I'd written to run its course.

  The result: The image was legitimate, not faked.

  My Ric held a gun to someone's head. And fired off a round.

  "You see, baby," Jaxon said softly, soothingly. His hand running down my hair, no longer gripping my upper arm. "He's a bad man. And so are the men he works for. It's my job to bring them in."

  Bring them in, what strange phrasing. Eric had said bring him down. I'd have expected the same words from Jaxon.

  "They've been running rampant in this city for too long, baby. Their time is coming to an end. And you're gonna help me. Help the cops, too. Bring this thing to its conclusion, like it should have been years ago now."

  He was losing me. I couldn't think straight to save myself. Too much information. Too much horrific information. I wasn't sure I could take another hit just yet.