Page 13 of Lethal Salvation

“I’ll leave you to it. Gideon, don’t forget that file on Macey’s I asked for. I have a contact that might be able to get us some inside information.” His gaze slid to Nadia again and he licked his lips. “Perhaps have Nadia reach out to my secretary and arrange a time we can meet and discuss it.”

“I will.” He’d do nothing of the sort.

As Carter walked away, he kept his eyes on him, not trusting that snake in the grass in the slightest. As Carter was swallowed up by the throngs of women, clawing for his attention, he relaxed and looked down at Nadia.

She was still nestled under his arm, her body warm and soft against his much harder one and he liked it. He didn’t want to. He wasn’t a clingy cuddler and they weren’t a couple or even fucking. Mostly they hated each other but he’d opened a door with her, by having Carter believe they were sleeping together and perhaps going down this route would be more fun than fighting with her. Maybe, just maybe, they could get this desire he felt and he knew she felt out of their system in a safe way without any feelings getting hurt.

“Well, I see being a dick runs in the family.”

His chuckle made her pull back so she could see his face clearly, but he kept his arms around her waist, loving the feel of her there. “Tell me, Nadia, do you ever turn off this snippy side of your personality?”

Her lips twitched as if she wanted to smile but she fought it and won.

“No.”

“Hmm, perhaps it’s a good thing. Your fiery side makes my dick hard.”

He took her hand and placed it over the bulge in his trousers. He knew he was pushing his luck, and the likelihood of a slap across the face was becoming more possible with every second, but when she touched him, he couldn’t stop the groan or the flex of his hips, especially when she tightened her palm on his cock and squeezed. As if all the air was drawn from the room, she stepped closer, her hand still closed around his aching cock and he couldn’t look away. Her lips moved over Gideon’s cheek in the lightest caress before she let go and moved away.

“Goodnight, Gideon.”

He watched her walk away, his eyes on her until he could no longer see her and then swung his gaze across the room to see his brother watching him carefully. Shrugging, he gave him a ‘what can you do’ look and made as if to follow her.

He didn’t though, instead calling his driver, Saul, to pick him up.

In the back of the limo, which was how he always travelled, he poured himself a whiskey from the small bar in the back and knocked it back, savouring the burn in his throat. Tonight hadn’t gone as he’d planned, and he hated that. Proper planning prevented piss poor performance, everyone knew that, and it was one of the earliest lessons his father had taught him.

Yet Nadia turning up had disrupted everything. Seeing her in the club, her body on display, not in a slutty way but in a way that drove men fucking crazy, was bad enough. But then really seeing her for the first time with her tattoos uncovered, fuck, he’d had no idea she was inked like that. She clearly covered up at work, whether that was as a way of keeping that part of herself private from the job she was really doing or because she knew it would make her that much more recognisable, he didn’t know. He suspected it was a bit of both.

The car drew to a stop outside his building, and he got out. “See you in the morning, Saul.”

“Goodnight, Mr Cavendish.”

He took the stairs, needing to burn off some of the energy tingling beneath his skin. Reaching the door to his penthouse, he let himself in and headed straight for the bar. Another two inches of whiskey didn’t help so he took the bottle and headed for the balcony.

Sinking down on the couch he had there, he let the beauty of the night settle over his skin. The bright lights of London twinkled; the hum of traffic way down below mingled with the other sounds of the night. The murmur of voices and life told of a city that never seemed to settle.

He loved it here, the vibrancy, the feeling of being in the middle of life somehow. It was the place he came to clear his mind but tonight it was full of her. What was it about her that made him so unstable, made him act so out of character?

His mind flitted over the memory of seeing her tattoos. He had them, one on his chest, the other on his right shoulder and bicep, but she had more, and they were stunning. Not detracting from her beauty but adding another layer to it and she was brave with them. Not scared to have them where they were most visible. Her arms, her neck, and shoulder and one that had teased him with a glimpse on her thigh.

It went against his earlier theory of why she covered them. A private person wouldn’t have ink in places that made people ask questions, at least not a woman. He knew she was confident, a ball buster, and the thought made him smile again as he now sipped the whiskey.

Nadia was more complex than he’d first thought. He’d underestimated her, seeing what she allowed him to see. He realised now that there was more to her and fuck if it didn’t make him want to strip all those layers back until he exposed the soft side of herself she kept for those she trusted with it.

Yet he knew, if he got to her soft underbelly, where she was vulnerable, he’d be incapable of doing anything with it. He wasn’t made for commitment, he was too busy, too demanding, and he didn’t believe in letting anyone see his weaknesses. So why was he suddenly so desperate to expose hers for himself?

Was it because he saw her as a worthy adversary or was it because she held the key to eradicating this weight from his shoulders and freeing him and Damon from the shadow of Carter and Marsha?

As the sky began to turn from the dark pitch of night to the navy of coming daylight, he still had no answers. Standing, he felt exhaustion move over him. Not just from his night of deep thinking but from years of not sleeping properly and holding the company up on his shoulders.

It would be nice to have a partner in this, someone who could ease the burden and share the weight but that involved trust and he couldn’t take that risk again. He’d trusted his mother not to leave him and she had.

As he shucked his clothes and crawled into his huge bed and lay looking at the ceiling, he thought of his mother and her sweetness, but also her strength. She’d fought cancer and lost but she’d fought and fought until one day there was no fight left and she’d been gone in the blink of an eye. He’d never let someone have that kind of power over him again.

As he closed his eyes, it wasn’t his mother’s face he saw though, it was Nadia’s when she looked at him when he’d defended her to Carter as if she was really seeing him for the first time.

It made him feel warm, his chest heavy and tingly and he liked it. So much so he knew he’d need to shut that down and quick. Whatever they had or didn’t have, the priority was taking down Carter. Not this wild attraction to the girl with rose tattoos.