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  I can’t allow that yet, so I did the only sensible thing and crushed two mild sedatives into her orange juice. Now she’s fast asleep in her rickety bed and oblivious to my plans.

  First of which had been getting her brother sat down and in the loop as far as my tolerances are concerned. I’d let him know in no uncertain terms that if he so much as raised his voice to my woman again, I’d ship him off so fast his head would spin.

  Sure, I feel bad for him, and ironically, I want to help him, even knowing I’m shite with kids—this one reminds me of myself not too long ago—but I can’t have him harming my baby a moment longer.

  He’d agreed, somewhat fearfully, because the kid’s smart enough to know when he’s outgunned, and I’d sent him off to school with the hope that he’d stay in line long enough for me to trick Ashley into loving me.

  Now I just have to convince my dick that seducing a woman in her condition isn’t the way to go. You’d think the sight of her unkempt hair and runny nose would turn me off the whole arousal thing.

  But no. Apparently my dick doesn’t care if she’s half dead; he still wants her.

  “Wake up, Ash,” I whisper, running a hand over her fevered brow long enough to pull her from her restless slumber. “You need to eat something and take your medicine, love.”

  Her marvelous gray eyes flutter open and she smiles sweetly, her groggy muddle not worn off yet. I know she’d be glaring daggers at me otherwise.

  “Lucian?”

  Ah, the smile slips immediately, replaced by a scowl when her mind clears and she remembers that we are indeed no longer teenage friends, and that I’ve strong armed my way back into her life.

  “You need to eat and get dressed, love. I’ve made an appointment with a new therapist, and she wants to see us about Benjamin’s case today.”

  It’s unfair of me to use her love for her brother, I know, but, as I really have no other angle to use at this point—her flight the other night has convinced me that plain seduction won’t work—I have to use what’s at my disposal.

  I run three companies and oversee my own charity. I haven’t reached where I am by playing fair yet, so using the only weakness she has is my only choice right now.

  “Therapist? But he has—”

  “The doctor we’re going to see specializes in these sorts of cases. You know, with children from broken homes.”

  Bloody awkward having to phrase it that way, but it beats my initial assessment of ‘being abandoned by your loser father’.

  “Luc—”

  “Right then. Eat your soup and have a bath, love. I’ll be back to help you with your medicine in twenty minutes.”

  I leave before the sight of her unclothed body can unleash the animal prowling beneath my skin. Forgive me, but when that sheet slipped, revealing her large breasts capped by peachy pink nipples, I’d gotten hard.

  At least I’m not falling on her like an untried youth. Although, for a moment there, I’d been bleeding close to saying to hell with this gentlemanly farce I’m playing and doing just that.

  I’m hard as a pike and ravenous after seven years of lusting after a ghost. I want in Ashley so badly I ache with it. Shite, walking away last night after I’d undressed her and seen the curvy perfection of her body had been a testament to my willpower.

  But, sap that I am, I’ve decided to let her have at least a day to get her situation squared before I take what’s mine.

  I’m a gentleman.

  Sometimes.

  Chapter Five

  After an hour and a half of nonstop talking, something I’d not wanted to do in front of Lucian, but apparently had no choice about, I’m slumped in the backseat of his car, doing everything in my power not to cry and make my already pale face look worse.

  The therapist had been honest to the point of pain and laid it all out for me. Ben needed a shit load of help, as well as more stability than I could currently offer him.

  I want to cry just knowing that I’ve messed things up this badly with him, but most of all I wanna find my old man and beat him half to death before murdering him stone dead.

  “Shh, love, everything will be fine. I swear.”

  I’m shocked to find that I’ve been weeping silent tears, and even more flabbergasted when the big, cold Brit beside me shifts me onto his lap and strokes reassuringly at my hair, something I haven’t felt since Mom died.

  “But she said—”

  “She said we have to get him to her tomorrow and rearrange your life a little, love. That’s all,” he murmurs, rubbing a soothing hand down my hair.

  “But—but there’s nothing that I can do about any of the stuff she was saying, Lucian,” I wail, shoving my face into his neck. “I mean, sure I do need to spend more time with Ben, and yeah, maybe refusing to talk about Wesley wasn’t my brightest moment, but I can’t just do it all. I need to work. I have to make enough money to keep us in a house and…and the shitty discount food Ben hates so much.”

  Okay, I know I’m being a total shlub and that yes, although I totally despise Lucian for past crimes, I need him right now. I have no one, absolutely no one to help me or even just to talk to about this, since Randy walked out last night, and I’m just so tired of doing all of this shit alone.

  I know, because I’m not stupid, that whatever hand Lucian is playing here, I’m going to end up either screwed or heartbroken or both, but right now, at this moment in time, I can’t make myself give a damn.

  I need him, and if he’s willing to help me I will pay whatever price I have to. Ben needs it, and I… Well, I need it too, if I’m being honest.

  “Shh, love, don’t cry,” I hear him murmur sweetly as that stroking never stops.

  His body is rock hard and tense beneath me though, so I figure whatever I’ve just said has pissed him off a bit.

  “You’ve done the best with a really shite situation, love. Don’t ever feel bad about giving everything you have.”

  Ah, so he’s still tripping off Ben’s insults about my ability to provide. Well, I can’t say I blame him. After getting myself together this afternoon I’d finally allowed my temper loose, and know what? I take umbrage to the little brat’s insults.

  Sure, some of the stuff I buy isn’t anywhere close to gourmet, but in my book, if your belly’s full and you’re not living in a cardboard box, you’re better off than most.

  “What am I gonna do, Lucian?” I ask, pulling myself together enough to slide back to the seat and fix my hair and face. “I can’t afford any of this, and if I drop one of my jobs I’ll have to let the house go. It’s the only place Ben has left where he remembers Mom and Dad together.”

  “Well, he’s going to have to adjust when you move in with me, and that’s that. There’s no use holding onto it anymore.”

  That floors me a little and I pull back, ready to blast him. No way in hell am I moving in with—

  Didn’t you say you were willing to pay the price?

  “What…what do you want, Lucian?” I ask tremulously, only barely managing to curtail a shiver when he leans in and plants a feather light kiss on my trembling lips.

  Arousal, fierce and swift, hits me, and I gasp, giving him the opening his tongue needs to thrust in for a leisurely taste. When I don’t pull back, because honestly, how can I when his mouth is so wet and tasty, he takes it as encouragement and goes deeper.

  When I come to my senses, many minutes later, I’m straddling his lap and grinding into him with an urgency that leaves me wet and so needy I groan when he pulls away and lowers me back to the seat.

  I’d be really embarrassed and ashamed if not for the fact that Lucian himself is tense and most obviously aroused. It’s horrible, but as I lick my lips and look at him, I’m fiercely glad to see him reach down to readjust himself, his face a mixture of angry need and steely control.

  Another reason to be happy is that I now know what he wants.

  Let me be honest here: I’m not about to complain about bartering my body for the help I need
, not when the fact of the matter is, I’m gonna be winning on both fronts.

  I want him, hatred or not, and if I get everything I need, and him, well, that’s me finally catching a break.

  “Jesus Christ, you had better get well soon, Ashley,” he growls, giving me a heated stare. “Now, let’s review so that when we get to your house we’re on the same page. You and Ben are moving in with me. No, I can see you’re going to argue, so listen first,” he says quietly.

  “You and I both know that it’s only a matter of time before you either lose that house or your brother. To that end, I am willing to agree with that head shrink. Benjamin needs stability. The only way to get that is for you to be stable enough to give him the time he needs with you. That means no working two or three jobs just to keep your head above water.”

  His face is so hard when he says it that I shrink back a little just to avoid whatever the hell anger he’s dealing with. That stuff is practically pouring off him in waves.

  “Also, and I hesitate to say this because I don’t want to hurt you, but as hard as you’ve been trying, you’re failing miserably. Now, now, Ashley, love, don’t look at me that way. I meant no offense.”

  No offense! That asshole wants to sit there all cool and calm—I can’t believe he’s able to be so controlled while I’m sitting here trying to get my vagina under wraps—telling me that my piddly efforts are as good as worthless!

  Did I say I wanted him? Well I freaking well don’t!

  “And then there’s the issue of the cost of getting him treated and into a new school where his reputation for bullying won’t affect his education. To get everything done I’ll need you to start packing and call that pit you’ve been slaving in. Quit. Today.”

  By this time we’re at my house, and I can’t respond to a thing before he’s pulling me out of the car and up to the door. A wave of dizziness hits me as I open it and step in.

  “Whoa. You okay, love?” he asks, grabbing my elbow.

  No. Yes. I can’t really say. For one thing, I still feel like crap, thanks to the mutated disease I have, and for another, I feel like I just stepped out of the freaking bus and into the twilight zone.

  I’m a practical girl, thanks to the huge mess my life had become after Mom’s death, but even being that, I still can’t wrap my head around this all. It’s too fast and—

  “I don’t want to move in with you. I’m not a whore to be bought, Lucian Jasper.”

  It’s out before I can call it back, and I watch as the sweet concern on his face morphs into something so hard and cold I take a step back in fear.

  “Never use that word again. Ever. You understand?” he snarls, pulling me close with a hand twisted in my hair. “Nod yes. Good girl. Now then. It’s a good thing you don’t just want sex, because I plan to do a lot more than own your body. Go get packed. I’ll collect Ben, and then I’ll be by to get you.”

  “But—”

  He turns at the door and looks at me with a blank expression that gives me the total willies. More than his angry face did, and I swallow back the lump rising in my throat.

  Sure I want him, and for damn sure I could really use his help with my shitty life, but I just can’t seem to deal with the thought of living with him. What happens if I stop hating him and then he chucks us out?

  What happens if I lose my hard won independence and grit only to be abandoned just like before?

  I can’t deal with that; I know myself. So it would be better to just get everything out on the table before I walk down a path that I know I won’t be in any shape to return from.

  “Ashley, love, let me make this very clear for you before you say another word. You either do as I tell you, or I can place a call to that social worker you’ve been dealing with and tell her exactly how bad Benjamin has become. Your choice. I’ll be back soon.”

  I pack. Of course I do, because as many years as I’ve been apart from him, I know the man all too well. Lucian Jasper, heir to the Jasper throne and fortune, is nothing if not a force of his own.

  The man is determined, ruthless, and most of all just downright mean when he feels thwarted. I’d seen it in the eighteen-year-old boy who’d swept me off my feet and beaten the hell out of Tommy Banner when he’d tried fondling me at school.

  I see it even more in the man who’s decided, for whatever reason, that I am his newest toy.

  The only thing I don’t quite know how to handle is the fact that I’m still very attracted to him, even knowing that he’s about to chew me up and spit me out.

  Chapter Six

  Luc

  I feel somewhat…I can’t say guilty as I leave Ashley standing in her home, sick and frightened. Hell no! I feel no guilt. I’ve wanted her for what feels like an eternity, and now that I have her over a proverbial barrel I have no intentions of stepping back just to spare her delicate feelings.

  What I feel, though, is a slight twinge of remorse for pushing her so hard when she’s obviously sick and in need of a lot more care than I’ve given her thus far.

  I plan to remedy that as soon as I have her under my roof and in my bed. Not for sex, not yet, even though my dick is screaming obscenities at me right now.

  No, for the first time in my life I feel the need to get a woman into my bed for the sole purpose of healing the strain that her battered life has wrought for three years.

  I want to pamper her and make her whole, return all that fire I remember so well before taking what I consider my property. I just need to get my lust under control long enough to make that happen.

  Not going to be easy though, not after the taste I’d had in the car. Bloody hell, I almost threw all caution out the window the moment she’d crawled all over me and started rubbing her wet heat on my boy.

  I wanted, want, to throw her down beneath me and own her sex in the most primal way. I want to stamp my mark on her and make sure every swinging dick in the world knows that she belongs to me and me alone.

  I know exactly how I’m going to do it, too; I just need to control myself long enough to get her healthy.

  “Why are you here?”

  Have I mentioned that this kid rubs me the wrong way while awakening every protective instinct I have? Well, he does. I’m caught between the urge to yell at him and soothe his innocent little heart all at the same time, an emotion I’ve had for only one other living being, and she happens to share my blood.

  I can’t say what this boy…no, that’s a lie, I know that this boy is a good one. I see it in the way he looks at my woman when he thinks no one’s looking, as if she’s the beginning and end, his life raft amidst a stormy sea.

  Yeah, the kid is good; he just needs a good kick under the bum to get him back on track. I plan to be the foot that gets his arse in line.

  At least, that’s what I want, if Ashley doesn’t go all mama bear on me and tear me a new one.

  “Tone,” I warn, signaling to Harry to drive. “Now then, before we go home I’d like to have a man to man talk with you,” I say, watching his little lip scrunch defiantly.

  “What d’ya want?”

  Patience, Luc. The child needs strength now, not another set down.

  “I would like for you to drop the attitude long enough to listen. I am aware that your useless father was so weak he ran away from his responsibilities like a girl.”

  I won’t sugarcoat his father’s actions just to spare his feelings. Better he know how I feel from the start, and from the look on his face I suspect he feels the same way, if not more disgusted with his parent than I am.

  “Ash says I can’t talk about him that way.”

  “She’s a woman. They tend to think with their hearts instead of their heads the way we men do. She still remembers your father as being a loving man. You and I know different,” I say, watching him straighten up like a weight has been lifted.

  So that’s the way it is. I suspect that most of his anger stems from Ashley’s need to keep her father’s memory as clean as she can for a boy who needs an outl
et, not a bloody fairy tale.

  “Yeah, chicks don’t understand things the way we do,” he sighs, sitting back with a huff.

  I restrain my smile and give him my best stern look.

  “I am aware that what you must feel after that sort of abandonment is painful, and I am aware that having your sister work more than she sees you must be…frustrating, but I am telling you now, before we start, that she has done her level best to keep it all together because she loves you and wants to keep you.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  The lip on this pup.

  “Yes. And no, I will not allow you to start bad mouthing her right now, so keep it to yourself, pup. What I want you to understand is this: if you cannot keep a civil tongue in your head while speaking to Ashley, I will ship you off to boarding school so fast your little head will spin. She is sick and exhausted; she needs a calm, restful time now to recuperate.”

  “She’s just being—”

  I hold up a finger in warning and steel myself against his trembling lip. You think I’m being too harsh, but the truth is that I have every intention of this child being mine; I just can’t have him breaking down my woman.

  “Uh, I told you to be quiet. Now then, like I said, you will be kind to her or shut it. Understood? Good. When we get to your house we will pack whatever it is you need and then go to your new home. Ashley isn’t exactly on board with all this, so I’m going to need your help getting her settled in.”

  “We’re moving?”

  “Yes, to the home I bought us. It has a pool and a yard.”

  When his face lights up I know I have him. Bribery is a child’s game, after all, and I know exactly how to wield that particular weapon against any opponent.

  And no, I feel no guilt using my worldly wealth to get a child on my side. If it works, it’s what I’ll use.

  “A pool? Oh, man! I swam once when our school took us to the public pool and it was awesome!”