Chapter 28
28
Atlas
I got the call from my security team just as I was on the point of coming home after work. Apparently Rowan had walked out of the loft and gotten into a limo, which had then driven off. After I’d fired the lot of them for their uselessness, I went straight home in the vain hope that she’d have returned.
But she wasn’t there. I searched the entire loft, and it was only when I realized her phone was sitting on the coffee table in front of the sofa, her purse on the floor beside it, that the creeping dread finally got me in a chokehold.
I tore my phone from my pocket and hit Charlotte’s number, because of course she had to be the reason Rowan was gone.
“Where is she?” I demanded as soon as she answered, not bothering to hide the rage in my voice.
“I’ve just delivered her to Arcadia,” Charlotte said calmly. “I believe you and she have a meeting there tonight?”
“What the hell did you?—”
“She’ll tell you the whole story. Don’t worry, dear, you’re off the hook, but I’m afraid your little secret concerning the murder of Sir George and also the collapse of Blackwood Bank is out. I told her what kind of man you are, Atlas Blackwood. The same as your friend Tennyson.” Her voice was cold, her tone hard. “I’m going to leave it up to her whether she wants to stay with a man like you, bring her child up with a man like you. But she knows where to come if she decides otherwise. She’s safer with me than you.”
Fury was a hot coal in my chest, but I didn’t bother replying. I ended the call, then strode out of the loft to make my way to Arcadia.
When I got there, Andre, the front door guy, showed me to the back room through the bar, where the virginity auctions and other performances were usually held. The room was small and curtained off from the rest of the bar, and it contained a small dais that had been moved to the middle of the room, with chairs arranged around it. So people could see from every angle.
Rowan was already there, pale and lovely in her blue dress, standing with Caleb as he pointed out various things. Both of them looked at me as I strode in, Rowan expression hardening as she caught a glimpse of my expression. Caleb’s posture changed too, as he caught the same thing.
“I need to speak to Rowan alone,” I said roughly, barely keeping my fury in check.
Caleb glanced first at Rowan then at me. “She hasn’t quite made her mind up at this, Atlas,” he warned. “Be careful where you take it.”
AKA don’t force her into anything she didn’t want.
As if I would, the prick. “I’m always fucking careful,” I growled as he went past me, heading for the door.
“You have ten minutes,” he replied before sauntering out, closing the curtains to give us some privacy.
Rowan turned to face me, her shoulders square, her chin lifted. Determination blazed in her eyes and something else I didn’t recognize.
“You saw fucking Charlotte,” I ground out.
“Yes, I did,” she said without missing a beat. “Someone had to do something and talking to her directly was the best way to do it.”
I strode over to her, reaching out and taking her upper arms in an iron grip. The feel of her warm skin calmed me a little. “What the fuck were you thinking? I said I would handle it.”
She didn’t look away, facing my anger head on. “You were taking too long. Anyway, it’s been handled so now you don’t have to.”
I should have been relieved and I knew it, but it wasn’t relief that I felt, only a hot, possessive rage that had nowhere to go.
This is what you’ve been afraid would happen if you gave it any air. That monster in you.
I shoved the voice away, too angry to listen to it.
“She could have taken you away from me.” I held her tighter. “She could have taken you and the baby.”
Rowan searched my face, then unexpectedly her expression softened. “Yes, she could, but she didn’t, Atlas.” Her voice was cool and reassuring. “I’m here. I’m okay and so is the baby.”
But I didn’t want to be reassured or soothed like an over-dramatic teenager. What I wanted was to take Rowan and hide her away from everything and everyone, to keep her safe with me, and the baby too.
“Atlas,” she said softly. “Atlas, let go. You’re hurting me.”
Shock like ice water spilled down my spine. Fuck, was I that out of control? “We’ll discuss this later.” I forced myself to release her and step back. “Right now, we have other things to think about.”
“Perhaps this isn’t the right time?—”
“It’s happening,” I interrupted before I could stop myself. “You decided it was happening Rowan. You can’t pull out now.”
She stared at me for a long moment. “What would you do if I did?”
“Go fucking insane.” The words came out of me without thought and the worst part of it was they were true. Right now, the monster inside me was frantic, needing to claim her in the most primitive way possible, and I couldn’t fight it.
If she refused me I didn’t know what I would do.
Her expression gave nothing away, her gaze unreadable.
Pull yourself the fuck together.
Yeah, I had to. For her sake and my own.
I took a silent breath. “I need you,” I said bluntly. “I need you to give this to me. Of your own free will. I need you to choose me, Rowan. Because the two of us together, that wasn’t a choice either of us would have made if not for Charlotte Hamilton. And I need you to show me that I am your choice. Over anyone else.”
Her gaze was opaque, her hair a glossy fall of black, and it wasn’t until then that I realized the truth of what I’d just said. That I wanted her to choose me and not because of a contract, but because she wanted me. I hadn’t given her much reason to make that choice, but still.
So much for owning her. She owns you.
“Okay,” she said after what felt like forever. “Okay, Atlas.”
This time it was relief that I felt and it came with it a choking, complicated mix of desire, satisfaction and primitive triumph. I was on the point of reaching out to grab her when abruptly the lights flickered then began to dim.
Looked like our cue.
Rowan’s gaze was steady as it met mine, and when I held out my hand to her, she took it. Her fingers were cool, but not icy, and she let me lead her to the dais and help her up onto it. A couch had been put in the middle and I positioned us in front of it, with her standing in front of me, facing the audience.
She trembled a little as people began to file into the room, but she didn’t say a word and her chin was raised. And beneath the hot rush of my desire, came a surge of gratitude to her for giving me this, as well as an iron resolve to make this as good for her as it would be for me.
People were now sitting in the gathered chairs, whispering as they settled in and at the back I saw Ten with Zara pulled into his lap.
I put my hands gently on Rowan’s shoulders, using my touch to give her some reassurance, and I stared at the audience in front of us, daring them to look away from the beautiful woman in front of them.
Rowan was here and she was safe, and she was mine. She’d chosen me and here she was, giving me this fantasy. My fantasy.
People quietened and the curtains were pulled across the doorway.
All eyes were on us. On the woman standing in front of me, because while this might be my fantasy, this was about her. About how beautiful, sensual and passionate she was, and how everyone needed to know and to see that. To want her. And to understand that only I was allowed to touch her. No one else. Just me. I was her choice.
The silence stretched and I let it, Rowan’s breathing getting faster and faster. Then just when it was at screaming point, I gripped the hem of her dress and began to ease it up. I could feel the anticipation in the room beginning to build so I went slowly, bending my head as I did so, nuzzling at the scented warmth of her neck and whispering in her ear, “Lift your arms for me, beauty.”
She hesitated only a moment, but then slowly, she lifted them, allowing me to draw the fabric up and over her head, before letting it fall to the floor.
A ripple of admiring sound went around the room, and it didn’t surprise me. Rowan was beautiful. Then again, beauty alone wasn’t enough for the jaded palates sitting watching us, they needed more just like I did.
Luckily, more was standing right in front of me.
I reached for the clasp of her bra and undid it, and as her hands rose instinctively to cover her breasts, I slid the straps down her arms and put my hands over hers. Her fingers were still cold, so I kissed the side of her neck, nuzzling her then nipping her gently, where she was sensitive. “You’re beautiful,” I murmured. “Let them see you. Let them want you. They can’t touch you, remember. They can only dream of touching you. I’m the only one who gets to do that.”
She let out a hitched breath and the resistance went out of her, and as it did, I pulled her hands away, letting her bra fall to the floor. Another appreciative murmur ran around the room, but this time I didn’t give them pause. I slid my hands into the waistband of her panties and tugged them down her lovely thighs. Then I came down into a crouch behind her, pulling them all the way down, and getting her to step out of them. She’d put a hand coyly in front of her pussy, so as I rose to my feet again, I reach to grab first one wrist then the other, pulling her arms behind her and holding her crossed wrists in the small of her back.
“You’re mine,” I murmured in her ear. “So let them look. Let them admire what they want but can never have.”
She stood there naked, trembling just a little, her lashes lowered. I kept her wrists behind her and used my free hand to lift her chin, so she was staring out at the crowd. “Look at them, beauty. You’re reducing them to nothing more than desire,” I whispered. “All these rich fucks in their chairs. You can be vulnerable with them and they can’t do a thing about it, because they can never touch you. They can never have you. And your desire will make them your slaves.”
And just like that her back straightened, her jaw firming in my hand. Goosebumps rose over her bare skin, but there were no more shakes.
I released her hands and gripped her hips, pulled her back as I sat down on the couch with her in my lap.
“Time to make them kneel before you,” I said.
Then adjusting her legs, I hooked her knees around the outside of my own and I spread them, taking her legs wide with them.