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‘I’m too tired to deal with your bratty ass right now. But don’t think I won’t keep track for later.’
‘You love my bratty ass,’ I said with a smirk before realising what I said. I stuttered as I tried to backtrack. ‘I mean, not love. Obviously. Just... You know... Like...’
Alec laughed, giving me another glimpse of those glorious dimples. My face heated as he pulled me against him.
‘It’s a mighty fine ass. I won’t lie. Even better when it’s as red as your cheeks are now.’
‘I still can’t believe you spanked me.’
‘You needed it. Look how well behaved you were after it, mewling in my lap like a kitten.’
I squirmed next to him, trying to bury my face in my hands. He gripped my wrists and pulled them from my cheeks, tilting my chin up toward him. ‘Never be ashamed of enjoying yourself, Esther. You were perfect.’
I swallowed hard as he brushed his lips against mine, electricity jolting through me. Leaning into the kiss, I opened my mouth, hunting for a swipe of his tongue. Despite the exhaustion, his kisses instantly set me alight, made me need more of him. It was dangerous how crazy he made me feel for him with the barest of touches.
He broke the kiss and leant his forehead against mine, his breath as quick as my pulse. ‘Fuck Esther, I’d love to pin you down here and fuck you until we both can’t take any more, but I’m too hot, too tired and I need a shower pretty bad.’
‘Me too,’ I admitted, a little disappointed that his claiming my mouth had stopped. He was like a drug that I just couldn’t get enough of. Was it because I knew our time together would be short-lived?
Alec pulled my head down into his lap, toying with my hair as I closed my eyes. The touch soothed me, connecting us even if he was too tired for anything more.
‘Talk to me, Esther. Tell me about your dreams. What do you want out of life?’
‘I didn’t have any.’
‘You must have had something you wanted to do when you grew up?’
‘Dreams aren’t for women in our family businesses. What’s the point in a dream when you will just get shuttled off to wherever the men in your family want to put you? We are mostly ornamental. There to shop and host parties and say the right things to the right people. To charm but be aloof. To let people think we could be attainable, but having no actual choice in who it will be who claims us. Careers are out of the question. Charitable work can be seen as favourable, but knowing that half of the charities are owned by my father’s corrupt pals kind of ruined my desire to help them raise funds.’
He continued to play with my hair; the sensation sending delicious waves of pleasure down my spine.
‘What about you?’ I asked.
‘I was chock full of dreams. I’d get out of care and become an actor, or an astronaut, or a lawyer. I’d have my own home with my own belongings that would fill more than a trash bag. I’d be successful and have a place to call my own. I’d have a picture perfect family who I’d love fiercely and protect with everything I had. I didn’t realise that most people who became those things had people helping them, backing them and supporting them. I failed school pretty miserably because I was rarely there. I fell into the only crowd that would accept an isolated orphan with ill-fitting, dirty clothes and anger issues. They welcomed me because they could use me to do the things they didn’t want to, and I did them because having someone need me was addictive. Then my dreams fell away. I couldn’t get a respectable job. I couldn’t expect a woman to attach herself to me when I spent my days torturing people for money. She’d just be another target. I couldn’t have children knowing that any day things could go wrong and I could be taken out, leaving them like my parents left me. It’s probably better to have never had dreams. They just sit in the back of my mind like discarded, long deflated balloons. Reminding me I was a stupid kid with no idea.’
‘You should make them pay, the people who did this to you.’
‘I’ve thought about it, but there are too many to count, and it’s too easily tied back to me. Going forward is the only way. And I have my house. It’s the one thing I’ve achieved.’
We fell back into a peaceful silence as my eyes grew heavy, the caressing of his hand in my hair lulling me into a daze. I must have drifted off as I startled awake when I head voices. Through groggy lids I saw a car, and an older woman chatting to Alec.
Sitting up, I watched as they spoke with the odd word of understanding and a fair amount of gesticulating. I rubbed at my eyes to clear the sleep from them as I stood, my feet aching all over again.
‘We’ve caught ourselves a lift,’ Alec said, gathering up my shoes and his bag and taking me by the arm, helping me toward the car. ‘I think she’s going to the next biggest town, but I’m not a hundred percent sure. It’s got to be better than hobbling, though.’
Soon enough the world trundled by us as the older woman babbled at us in Spanish, neither of us understanding but both entirely thankful for her hospitality.
* * *
The townshe dropped us in was a good-sized one, but despite our best searching, there was no sign of an internet café, being that everyone used their phones. Alec used the last of our money to pay for a crappy hotel room above a seedy-looking club. Normally I would have turned my nose up at such a skeevy place, but when I saw we had a bath, a shower and a big, soft bed, I could have cried. Even better, Alec had wrangled us both breakfast and supper for both days, and as it was a two-day minimum stay, I could rest my feet properly. Two days longer until I had to go home, too.
I had a quick shower while Alec washed our clothes above the bath, the cheap shampoo feeling wonderful as I scrubbed it into my dirty hair. The hot water cascaded over my shoulders, washing away the days worth or dirt and grime and left me feeling like a new person.
I left Alec to shower after me, towelling off my hair and finding my brush in his bag, pulling it through the tangles as I flicked on the TV. The only thing I understood was the music channels, so I put one of them on, filling the room with noughties tunes. The street beneath the window was fairly busy, the night filled with people eating at the outdoor tables that dotted the sides of the road. Music drifted up and mingled with the songs from the TV.
When Alec emerged from the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, a whole heap of tingles shot through me. His tattoos wrapped around his torso, dark against his fairer skin and I wanted to touch each and every one.
‘Put your eyes back in their sockets, Princess,’ he said with a laugh as a loud knock sounded at the door.
