Chapter 33
It felt like they’d gone to bed mere minutes before the phone rang. Noah groaned and cursed under his breath. Leia started to move away. He clamped her closer and inhaled her intoxicating smell.
“Leave it.” His mouth drifted over her collarbone.
“Can’t. It’ll drive me nuts.”
“Do I need to show you again who’s in charge here?” He nipped playfully at her shoulder.
Sexy, half-drowsy eyes met his. “Maybe. But after I answer the phone.” She smiled and reached for the handset. “Hello.”
She brushed her hair out of her eyes and squinted at the clock. He followed her gaze. 3.39a.m. Foreboding slammed into him. Almost nothing good came from a call at this time of the night. He sat up and hit the light remote.
In the silence, Snyder’s voice came through loud and clear. “Leia. My messages. Did you not receive them?” The man sounded like every picture Noah had seen of him—eerily, unnaturally calm.
Leia’s gaze shot to his. Shit. The messages she’d stuffed in her purse earlier…
“I did… Hang on a moment,” she replied.
Noah rose and padded to where she’d dropped her bag and pulled out the white and gold cards.
He looked down at them but nothing in them elicited a middle of the night phone call.
Frowning, he handed them to her. She read the first two, discarded them and moved on to the third. “I’ve got them here— No! ”
She dropped the phone as her eyes filled with icy horror.
“What the hell?”
She looked as if she’d been electrocuted.
“What’s wrong?”
Jaw locked, eyes wide, she shook her head.
Noah scooped up the phone from the floor. “What the hell did you say to her, Snyder?”
“You know who I am, so you won’t be offended if I tell you this is a private matter and none of your concern.”
“Leia is my concern so you better tell me what the hell is going on. Right now.”
“Mr. King?—”
“Noah, stop it.” Her whole body was shaking. She held out her hand to him, and he took it.
Gritting his teeth, he said into the phone, “I’ll call you back.”
He hung up and pulled her to his chest. “Baby, it’s okay. Whatever it is, you’re safe. I’ll protect you.” He rocked her until her shaking abated. He stared at the five message cards scattered around her. Four were messages for Leia to call Warren. The fifth had a name with a message.
He eased her away and cupped her face, willed her to stop shaking. “Sweetheart, who’s Stephen Willoughby?”
Her breath grew choppy, and a shaft of fear lanced his heart. “He’s—my stepfather.”
Shock slammed him. “ What? I thought he was dead!”
She shook her head so wildly her locks covered his arms. “My mom shot him. Then herself. She died. He survived.”
Christ . “So where’s he been all this time?”
“Locked up. He’s supposed to be serving ten to fifteen at Florida State Prison.”
Supposed to be .
They stared down at the message: Stephen Willoughby is out. Call. Warren.
The phone rang again. She answered it, her voice growing stronger with each question she fired at Snyder. When she hung up, he took her back in his arms.
“Aren’t they supposed to notify you about his release?” he asked.
“What does it matter? He’s out.” Another shudder raked her body. Then she pulled away.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going home.” She left the bed and headed for the dressing room.
Part of him was glad she wasn’t shaking with shock and fear. The other part of him wanted her to remain in his arms. Safe and warm.
“I’m sure I can catch a flight first thing.”
“You don’t have to. My plane will take too long to get here, but I’ll charter one to take us home.” He picked up the phone and dialed his assistant’s number.
She stopped. “You’re coming with me?”
He frowned. “You expect me to stay here? And, what, carry on with the trip without you?”
She bit her lip. “I’m sorry. That was stupid.”
He held the phone to his ear and caressed her cheek with his other hand. “You’re in shock so I’ll let this one slide. But you’re mine to protect now. Please don’t forget that.”
She gave him a weak smile and turned into his caress. When he curved his hand around her nape, her head dropped to his chest. The feeling was so sweet; he closed his eyes until the phone clicked.
“Maddie, I need a plane.” He gave her the instructions and hung up to find Leia’s gaze on him.
“You own a plane?”
He rubbed his nose against hers. “I own two. One for business, the other for pleasure. The business one is in KL getting a refit. The one for pleasure is flying my parents around Australia and New Zealand. It’s their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary this week.
Mom’s crazy about Lord Of The Rings . Almost as much as I am.
Remind me to speak Elvish to you sometime. ”
Noah kept his tone light, banked down the rage bubbling beneath his skin at the news that her attacker was still alive and breathing free air.
The shadows he’d thought were banished once and for all were back in her eyes. More than anything, he wanted to take her to bed and fuck her happy again.
Instead, he contented himself with a long, slow kiss before nudging her toward the dressing room. “Go get dressed. I’ll get someone to pack your things.”
She started to leave. Then stopped. “Noah, are you sure you’re okay with this? You don’t have to?—”
“Yes, I do.” The certainty came from deep within. Somewhere he didn’t bother to question.
She blinked and nodded. “Thank you.”
“Thank you for trusting me with this.” Heading for the living room, he placed a quick call back to Miami before calling reception.
He felt no guilt for putting the plan in place. Not when Leia’s safety was at stake.
They landed in MIA just before 8a.m. the next morning. Noah had wanted her to sleep on the flight, the cabin of the jet he’d hired more than adequate for a good night’s sleep. But she’d been too agitated.
In the end, he’d pulled her down on top of the sheets and kissed her for the better part of an hour before undressing and sliding slowly inside her. The gentle poignancy of the act had brought tears to her eyes and a little calm to her fraying senses.
But the thought that her stepfather was free, and possibly in Miami, never strayed far from her mind. Warren had called again, but she cut it short when he had nothing new to report.
Hell could wait just a little bit longer.
Now she smoothed her hand down her red Fused Realms T-shirt and leather shorts and looked at Noah as the pilot exited the cockpit and started to lower the door. He caught her fingers and brought them to his lips. “I want to take you home with me. Keep you safe until all the shit goes away.”
She shook her head. “I need to see Warren.”
His jaw tightened, but he nodded.
Her inhale was shaky and insubstantial. “Hell, I’m already beginning to hate reality.”
He released her seatbelt and helped her up. “You came home to face the monsters. Go kick their asses and call me when you’re done. I’ll make you dinner, and we can crash after. Sound good?”
Her heart soared at the certainty in his voice. Maybe this reality thing wouldn’t be as harrowing as she feared it could be.
Dinner plans. Crashing into bed after. They all sounded like good, wholesome, relationship things that she could get on board with.
“Sounds good.”
He smiled, and she caught the hint of relief in his eyes. When he held out his hand for her, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to slide hers into his.
They walked down the short steps onto the tarmac and Noah stiffened. “What the hell?”
She looked from his face to the cars parked a short distance from the plane.
She recognized Warren’s sleek Jaguar straightaway.
He stood next to the back door, his tall, thin frame impeccably dressed in his favored Savile Row threads.
The other two cars—a dark red sports car and a Mercedes limo—were unfamiliar.
The back of the Mercedes opened, and she realized what Noah had reacted to.
The woman who alighted could easily have stepped off the pages of Vogue . Straight black hair fell in layered waves to her shoulders and her green dress, white and green Hermes scarf and high-heeled shoes matched so perfectly, it made her eyes hurt.
She swayed toward them and stopped at where Noah was frozen on the tarmac. “Noah.” Her voice was soft and sultry like a dawn breeze and she had an intimate smile that curved her lips like a dark secret.
Leia hated her on sight.
“What the hell are you doing here, Ashley?” Noah bit out.
Leia had never heard that tone before. He sounded like he was chewing frozen gravel.
“I would’ve thought it was obvious. I’m here to give you a ride home.”
“I’m more than capable of finding my own way home. And how the hell did you know what time I was landing?”
The hand clasping Leia’s trembled. She wasn’t sure whether it was from fury or another potentially more disturbing emotion.
“Your PA, Maddie, told me.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“You really should hire PAs with more grit, Noah. She buckled under pressure within minutes.”
Leia glanced at Noah and inhaled sharply. His face was a taut mask of ice, and a tic throbbed at his temple. She flexed her hand in his, desperate to get a reaction from him. But he seemed to have forgotten she existed.
She looked over to Warren and caught his cool regard. He wouldn’t approach. Their way had always been for her to go to him when she needed him. Never vice versa.
He said it was so she’d never have to feel he was impinging on her boundaries. Now she wondered if it was a power thing.
She flinched as Noah’s fingers tightened, and he sent her a sidelong glance of apology. When she tried to free herself, he held on tight.
“Ashley, I have nothing to say to you other than get the hell out of my way. If you have a burning need to communicate with me, contact my lawyers. Approach me like this again, and I’ll sue you for harassment.”
Her smile didn’t falter one iota, but her gaze flicked to Leia. “Are you going to introduce me to your little pixie?”
Anger flared through Leia. Lifting her free hand, she gave Ashley a two-fingered wave. “Little Pixie, Leia Michaels here. If we ever meet again, and I sincerely hope we don’t, you can call me Miss Michaels. And I’ll do my very best not to call you Rude Bitch.” She tacked on a false smile.
Ashley paled a little and her eyes narrowed.
Leia turned away from her. “Noah, I have to go. I’ll call you later.”
Noah’s inner smile at Leia’s response to Ashley’s rudeness died as he looked over at Warren Snyder.
He’d seen the way the other guy had looked at Leia as they approached.
Every hackle in his body rejected the idea of letting Leia leave with him.
Grabbing her arm, he walked her away from Ashley wishing they were back in that bubble Leia had been so afraid would burst once they came back.
Christ, how right she’d been. “Come home with me. Please,” he breathed.
“We can deal with this from my place.” He needed to halt this absurd spiral before he lost his mind.
Leia’s gaze flicked to Ashley, and her lips pursed. “Looks like you have your hands full with your own monsters. Besides, I really need to talk to Warren.”
He struggled not to curse. “My hands want to be full with only you. Call me as soon as you’re free and I’ll send a car to pick you up, okay?”
Her gaze strayed once more to Ashley and she lifted her brow. “You sure?”
He caught her chin in his hand. “No excuses, remember? Don’t think about her. She’s less than a minor inconvenience.”
She nodded. “She better be. You may have control in the bedroom but I’m trained in Bartitsu. I’ll break your arms in several places if you let any part of her touch you.”
He smiled at her fierce look. “I’ll consider myself adequately warned.”
She gave an answering smile that blew him away.
Considering the grenade the justice system had thrown into her life a few short hours ago, she was holding up pretty well.
Whereas he was fighting the very strong urge to beg her to come with him.
He contented himself with a short, hard kiss before he walked her to the Jaguar.
Warren Snyder eyed him, then held out his hand. “Thank you for bringing Leia home safely.”
Noah shook his hand and curved his arm around her shoulders. “No need to thank me. I protect what’s mine.”
Leia stiffened, but he didn’t care that he sounded like a mega-possessive SOB. If Leia objected to it later, they would work it out.
It was his turn to stiffen when Snyder’s gaze shifted to Leia. “We need to go, my dear. The lawyers are waiting.”
Noah’s hand cupped her nape for a long moment before he let her go. He turned to the valet holding the keys to his Maserati and saw Ashley.