Cunning (Infidelity #2) (9 page)

What is he thinking? And why does that question both scare and excite me?

WHEN I DIDN’T
speak or move, Nox demanded, “Come here. We didn’t do much talking last night. We have rules to discuss.”

Rules.
I rolled my eyes.

He was right. We hadn’t talked last night, not really. Walking to my side of the bed, I climbed in. With my robe still on, I mirrored Nox’s stance, pulling the covers over my waist and sitting against the headboard.

He reached for my hand and tugged. “
Here
, princess, means next to me, not three feet away on the other side of the bed.”

I scooted a little closer. “Nox—Mr. Demetri,” I corrected. “I don’t know what you want from me, but I think you should know, I don’t follow directions well.”
Especially when they’re delivered by assholes.
I didn’t say that last part.

He moved closer, removed the pillow from behind my head and laid me back. With his handsome face hovering above mine, he smoothed my unruly curls over the pillow. In the darkness, I saw the hint of a grin pulling at the corners of his lips, and my heart leapt with the hope of Nox, the man I’d known in Del Mar.

“I’m rather perceptive. I’ve noticed your flaws.” As if opening a present, Nox untied the sash from around my waist and exposed my nude body. The intensity of his gaze electrified my skin, peppering it with goose bumps and turning my nipples to pebbles. He sucked on his finger and then traced a circle over my areola. The glint came back to his pale eyes. “I’ve also noticed your assets.”

My back arched as his voice rumbled through me, awakening my tender core. No longer concerned about the punishment he’d delivered the night before, I felt my insides clench with the promise of more.

A moan echoed from my throat as he lowered his lips to one of my nipples. Sucking, he skillfully circled it with his tongue. His warm mouth pulled away leaving it slick, and then he blew, the contrast was almost painful.

“We’re going to discuss my rules. First, forget the
Mr. Demetri
. My name is Lennox or Nox in private.”

His torment of my neck, breasts, and tummy punctuated each statement. The stubble of his cheeks scratched while his teeth tantalized my taut skin.

“I want to hear that you’re listening,” he said. “Say ‘
Yes, Nox
.’”

My voice came in breaths. “After last night, I was expecting
Yes, sir
or maybe
Yes, master
?”

He bit my nipple, sending shockwaves directly to my core.

“Keep baiting me, princess.”

That was another direct order I planned to ignore.

“Yes, Nox. My name is Alexandria, but I prefer Alex.”

His lips moved lower. If he was trying to distract me, he was doing a good job.

“Where did Charli come from?”

“My middle name is Charles, after my grandfather.”

He nodded, delivering more abuse with his coarse stubble. “That’s good. I was concerned it was an outright lie. As I mentioned when we first met, truthfulness isn’t debatable. We both know what will happen if you lie to me.”

Shit!
His fingers joined the battle for my attentions. My legs willingly parted as I tried to concentrate on my answers.

“Oh! Y-Yes, Nox. I didn’t lie. It’s a nickname.”

“Tell me about Columbia.”

I didn’t want to talk about anything. My hips moved as his hands and lips moved in tandem, their rhythm monopolizing my thoughts.

“Columbia, Charli.” His reminder refocused my mind, though my body was lost to his ministrations.

“I-I start in less than two weeks.”

“What if I told you no?”

The euphoria he’d created evaporated. My body stiffened as I pulled away from his touch. “Y-You can’t.” My volume rose. “No. It was in my profile, my hard limits.” Panic washed over me. He
was
like Alton. “Karen said—”

“Stop,” Nox said, touching a finger to my lips. “Suck.”

Without thinking, my lips parted, allowing his finger access, covering my tongue with the taste of my own essence. His erection throbbed against my hip.

“I told you, your limits are now mine to define; however, I’m not saying no,” he whispered, his tone softening as he retrieved his finger.

“You’re not?”

“No. I think it’s fantastic that you’ve been accepted to Columbia Law. I just want to know how someone as intelligent as you obviously are, is stupid enough to work for Infidelity.”

I clenched my teeth to halt my reply. Our gazes locked. Nox was only inches away—our noses nearly touched as he awaited my response.

The muscles in his neck strained. “Answer me.”

I was probably poking the proverbial beehive, but I couldn’t stop myself. “You’re a hypocrite. You’re awfully high and mighty for a
client
.”

“What?” he asked, pulling up as if to see me more clearly.

“You act like Infidelity is bad.”

“It is.”

“Then why are you one of its clients?”

Nox shook his head and ran a hand over his stubble. “What I do is none of your business. What you do is mine.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Sorry, princess. Life’s not fair.”

Reaching under my shoulders, Nox lay back and rolled us both until I was lying on top of him, skin to skin, nothing separating us. Unexpectedly, he swatted my behind.

“Ouch!” I squealed, though the sting was more of shock than pain.

Nox raised his brow. “I told you, I don’t repeat myself. I’ll spank you harder if you don’t answer my damn questions the first time.”

Not wanting to look into his pale eyes as I told him my story, I lowered my cheek to his chest and began, “I graduated from Stanford last spring. I’d always wanted to be an attorney. I wanted to do something good. When I was young, I believed in fairytales—until I didn’t.

“Even when I knew they weren’t real and couldn’t happen to me, I still liked them. In them, the good people always won. Even though I learned that wasn’t true in real life, I wanted to make it true.

“That’s why I want to practice law. I want to help defenseless people—people who can’t help themselves…”
Something I couldn’t accomplish when I was the one who was defenseless.
“…and I want to stop the bad people. I imagined that one day my career would be my own fairytale.”

When Nox didn’t respond, I took a deep breath and continued, “I worked hard at Stanford.” Remembering our last conversation, I added, “I was honest when I told you I didn’t sleep around. I mostly studied. Chelsea gave me a hard time, but I think my dedication helped her, too.”

“Your sister?” His chest vibrated with his words.

I looked back to his eyes and braced myself for another swat to my ass. “No.”

The spank didn’t come, although a question did. “No?”

I shook my head. “No. Chelsea is my best friend. We call each other sister, but it’s not biological. We met our freshman year at Stanford.”

“Interesting,” Nox said. “We’ll talk more about that another time. Now back to Columbia and Infidelity.”

I settled against his chest again and sighed. “I graduated with honors and was accepted to two of the top law schools in the country, Columbia and Yale. When I was young, my grandparents created a trust fund for me. It was supposed to pay for my education. I thought it would last through law school, beyond even.”

“But it didn’t? What happened?”

I wasn’t ready to get that personal, not yet. I shrugged. “Bad investments, I don’t know the details. I was just informed that my first semester was paid, but that was all. No living expenses, nothing.”

“All right, that would be shocking, but surely you had other options. Student loans?”

I fought the onslaught of emotion that this subject evoked. Everything was still too raw; my mother’s actions still hurt. I couldn’t deal with that and Nox’s accusing tone. He had no way of knowing that I’d only learned of the loss less than a week ago or that the money wasn’t really gone, only being held hostage by my family. “I-I…” I took a ragged breath as I desperately tried to suppress the tears I’d allowed to flow after his punishment yesterday. “…please. I was without options. Everything I’d worked for…” A renegade tear slipped onto his chest. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Nox’s strong arms embraced me, wrapping around me and cradling me against his chest. I became lost in him, overwhelmed by the beating of his heart, warmth of his skin, and masculine scent. We lingered unmoving for what seemed like ages. Beyond the heavy curtains of the hotel suite, darkness gave way to dawn.

And then as if a switch had been flipped, Nox’s body stiffened and he rolled me back to the bed. With his head propped on his elbow, he stared at me.

“Listen and listen carefully.”

Welcome back, Mr. Demetri.

“Here are my new rules…”

It was surreal how he morphed from one man to the other. In his arms, I was Charli, and he was Nox. Listening to him now, he was Mr. Demetri, and I was his whore. The dichotomy both frightened and reassured me.

Is that what he wants, to elicit two such different emotions?

“…three more days, then you’ll move into my apartment.”

My pulse quickened again. “Where do you live?”

“Westchester County.”

“I-I have classes. I have an apartment near campus. Maybe we could work…”

Nox shook his head. “No. My rules. Break your lease.”

“B-But that’s too far away…”

“Arguing isn’t permitted.”

My heart thumped against my chest.
Westchester County
…
how?

“Yes, Mr. Demetri.” I hoped he heard the dripping sarcasm.

His eyes narrowed, twisting my insides. “I should punish you for that.”

Okay, he heard it.

“Perhaps there’s another…” I didn’t know what to ask or what to say.

“I also have an apartment on West 77th.”

Oh thank God.

“It’s where you’ll stay—where we’ll stay.” He wasn’t giving me a choice. “I rarely go to the house in Westchester. The apartment is closer to my office, and it’s not far from Columbia. I’ll get you a driver and a car.”

I shook my head. “I don’t like drivers.”

“You don’t?” he asked with a smirk. “Was Isaac so offensive? He’s usually pretty quiet.”

I wasn’t thinking of Isaac, but his response made me smile. “No, Isaac was fine.”

“Well, princess, how many drivers have you known?”

Nox didn’t know me at all. If he wanted to believe this money thing was new to me, I wasn’t going to burst his bubble. “It just seems like that would be intrusive. I mean, as if I was being watched.”

“Oh, you will be.”

“What?”

“You
will
be watched.”

His words prickled my skin. Everything he said had a definitive edge, almost daring me to question. This time I took the bait. “W-Why?”

“Because you’re mine.”

“I’m yours for the next year. I know that. What does that have to do with my being watched?”

“Exactly what I said. I don’t make an investment without protecting it. You’re mine. From what I’ve seen, you’ve demonstrated your inability to make reasonable judgments. For the next year, your decisions, your safety, and even your sensibility are all up to me.”

“Nox, I’m not a child.”

“No, Charli, you’re not. If you were, I’d ground your round ass to this suite and make you write a thousand times that signing that agreement with Infidelity was stupid. Maybe by the time you were done, you’d understand it to be true.”

I pressed my lips together to stop my rebuttal. He was a goddamned client. His hypocritical view didn’t make sense. Placing my hand against his chest, I tried another approach. “I can take the subway or the bus.” I willed my sarcasm to stay hidden. “Despite your lack of respect for my decision-making skills, I can manage mass transportation. I earned an A in my urban planning class at Stanford.”
Okay, the last part was a bit much.

“This isn’t debatable. I’m involved in some dangerous things. If you’re in the public eye as my…” He paused. “…
companion
, then you need to be protected. We’re not discussing it. Besides, it’s already begun. It started yesterday.”

“I-I don’t like that.”

“Too bad. I didn’t ask you. I bought—”

“I know,” I quipped. “You bought me.”

“My security detail is excellent. Most of the time you won’t even know they’re around.” Nox scoffed. “Well, last night, they did almost blow their cover in the bar. Chad was about to get more than he bargained for.”

“Yesterday? So you knew? You knew I didn’t go to the spa?”

Nox nodded as his forehead wrinkled. “I knew. I wasn’t aware of how far you’d strayed from my orders.” He reached for my chin and pinched it between his thumb and finger. “Remember that. Think about it the next time you decide to go rogue. I’ll have a fuck’n GPS tracker placed in you if I need to. Don’t push this.”

I swallowed. Security that sees without being seen—the Montague staff all over again. My stomach twisted. This would be a dream for most people. This was what Patrick enjoyed. Hell, Chelsea would be in heaven. I hated it. It was what I left in Savannah. “Nox, can we please talk about this?”

“No. Keep me informed of your schedule and I’ll do the same. You have things you need to do for school—get them done. Just remember we’re a couple. Don’t do anything that would make people question that. Your freedoms are yours until you squander them.”