AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nod. “Thank you for your help. I just desperately need sleep right now,” I say.
“Very well. Text or yell if you need anything,” Nick says as he closes the door behind me.
Finally by myself, but it doesn’t bring the peace that I crave. I remember Jay rescuing me from the madman, threatening his life with his gun unless he let me go. I remember Jay capturing me in his arms and taking me away. I remember him whispering into my ear, making sure that I was okay and everything that happened afterward.
I slide out of my clothes, letting them pile onto the floor as I climb into bed and pull the sheets and comforter around me.
35
JAY
It iswith the gravest of resolve that I don’t stop that fucking plane and try talking my angel into staying with me, forcing her hand if I need to, but her sister’s words keep ringing in my head. “She doesn’t think you care about her. I told her that you do. Hell, anyone can see that you’re crazy about her, but that’s not what she feels, and she’s been through a lot over the years.”
As many lovers as she’s had, she has held out giving anyone her special gift, and she wanted to give it to me, and I turned her down. The look on her face before I walked out of the room will always haunt me, but as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take what she had saved and damn if that’s why she thinks that I don’t want her for my very own. I turned down the most precious gift she had to offer to a lover.
I head back into my room, the one that still has the scent of my angel on the sheets, slide into the chair behind the desk, and get busy putting plans in place to ensure her safety and capture her for my very own. Nick is with her, and I trust him with my life. He keeps in constant contact, assuring me that she is okay and sleeping soundly. Our intel units haven’t come across any chatter that would lead us to believe that the Chicago Family is onto her today, but they’ve been coming after her, and until I talk to Bernatelli again personally, I want her completely safeguarded.
I send a note, and the fucker keeps me waiting, but if he thinks I’ll back down, he doesn’t have a clue. In the meantime, our security team has surrounded Sasha to ensure she is safe, and Nick is giving me hour-by-hour reports.
I allow Bernatelli two excruciatingly long and painful days before my patience is done. I send him a message with the results of the DNA test proving that he is Sasha’s father, along with a headline Cassie has provided that suggests his involvement with the murder of the caretaker’s son reported to be their father. It lets him know in no uncertain terms that if he doesn’t rein in his goons, his love affair with the daughter of the head of the Russian Mafia will be splashed all over social media and chat rooms of the underground. The Bratva will come for him, they will have to uphold their honor.
In less than five minutes flat I receive an answer and know that all of his teams have been alerted and will now back the fuck off. I can finally breathe easier, knowing my angel is no longer on the mafia’s hit list, and this time I know it’s true because we have documented confirmation. Anyone that disobeys, even looks at her wrong, will be killed on the spot.
I send a text to Nick to find out how she’s doing and wait patiently as he begins typing a message back to me.
She’s safe, but not so good. Sasha acts like she’s fine during the day, going to practice and stuff, but she’s got bags underneath her eyes and looks terrible. You need to get this shit worked out or watch her yourself.
Just keep her safe, please.
She doesn’t think I care about her in any way except sex, or our chemistry, and that is on me. But I am a very patient man, trained in identifying an objective and developing very strategic plans to ensure the end game is achieved. In my world, nothing is left to chance, and in the next three hours, I prepare myself for what’s to come and get on a plane to Chicago with the people that mean the most to me.
* * *
The curtain rises,and my chest tightens as my angel finally glides onto the stage. For the next hour, my eyes track her and follow the production, never for a moment losing sight of her beautiful body as she floats over the stage.
When the curtain closes, the cast receives a standing ovation, and the thundering applause brings her and her team back onto the stage. On cue, my security detail delivers flowers to her, placing the beautifully wrapped stems of the forty-eight long-stemmed perfect red roses entwined with baby’s breath into her outstretched arms so that I can watch her reaction through the camera link they’ve uploaded to my phone.
My eyes don’t leave my phone, watching every breath she takes and every single emotion that passes over her face as she realizes they are from me. She bows for the crowd and then rises up, and I can tell exactly when she sees the note nestled into the stems and she’s searching the audience for me. If she had the advantage of the light not pouring directly into her eyes, I’m sure she would find me in the crowd, but instead, she bows again with the group and then heads backstage.
She reaches her dressing room and pulls out the note tucked into the stems, unwrapping it and rereading it. I watch with nervous anticipation as tears begin to gather in her beautiful eyes. I thought she would be happy, and my chest tightens as more tears continue to fall from her bright blue eyes and slide down her prominent cheeks.
“You were here,”she says barely above a whisper, wiping her eyes as she caresses the message I’ve sent. I was, and still am, Angel. I watch her bring it towards her, and when her heart-shaped lips touch the note, my dick hardens on the spot. It makes the anticipation of the night I’ve planned and the risks of either winning or losing her just so much harder to think about.
36
SASHA
The dance,it is the only thing that has kept me sane in the last few days, able to keep Jay out of my thoughts, at least by day, but it will no longer work because the man I can’t stop thinking about is here, in this very arts center. He must have deliberately found out where I would be performing and had flowers sent. I couldn’t see him, but I felt him. The palpable energy focused on my heated skin.
I slip under the luxurious jet streams of the double-headed shower, letting the warmth of the water and silkiness of the body wash take me away from everything that I’ve been thinking. I slide the towel around my body, and fasten it in front, letting it hang down the length of my body. I investigate the dress in the bag hanging from my dressing room closet, the one that Jay had delivered during my performance and wants me to wear tonight.
When I’m ready and dressed, I spin around admiring the short black dress with the open back, so low it dips just above the curve of my ass. I slide into the Jimmy Choos that he’s sent over with the ensemble and gasp. Everything fits like it was tailor-made for me. Just like on every other night of a performance, I go and congratulate the cast before making my escape. As I head into the crisp night air of the windy city, the solitude surrounds me and reminds me of all the nights that this feeling of loneliness after a production led me to try to find someone that made me feel just a little bit better about myself.
A hookup hasn’t even crossed my mind since I met Jay, but dammit, the loneliness and heartbreak of missing him has not eased at all. The sex is scorching between us, but I know in my heart that if I allow myself a repeat with Jay, I will end up feeling used and unworthy. I inhale deeply, knowing that I am walking away from a night of ecstasy at his hands, but also that I am guarding my heart. If I go home with him for a night of sex, my heart will hurt even more tomorrow.
A cab driver pulls to the curb and rolls down the passenger window to see if I need a ride, but the hand on my nape catches me off guard, and I spin around to face Jay watching me intently with those deep hazel eyes.
“Angel, I told you to congratulate your cast and wait for me. You didn’t spend much time with your team,” Jay says.
