The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (235 page)

“One, I am not your sweetheart. Two, I’m sure you are capable of finding a bed, there are twelve bedrooms and I’m quite positive they each contain a bed and three, if you think I’m going to bow down to you during your house arrest, then you’re going to be extremely disappointed.”

I remained silent as I let my eyes roam slowly and leisurely over her remarkable body and as I lifted them back to her face I smirked at the flush that had covered her neck and face. “One, you are very much not a sweetheart, I agree. Two, I didn’t want to find myself in the wrong bed, namely your parents and three, I don’t expect or even want you to look after me.”

I stood and stalked the room towards her. Her breathing accelerated as I neared and the slight flare of her nostrils, evidence of her own arousal, gave me the courage I needed. “But I can promise that eventually you’ll definitely bow to me Grace Beaumont,” I whispered as I leant into her. “And furthermore, you
will
become my slave, but most certainly not in the kitchen.”

Her soft gasp made my throat hurt as I fought to control my hard on. I was positive if she released another I would come right there and then.

The electricity and tension between us was raw and so fucking powerful I couldn’t help myself when I grabbed her ponytail and yanked her head back. She hissed but didn’t pull away as she held my gaze with her own fierce glare. “You know it’s there, Beaumont. You feel it too, racing around your bloodstream and making you wet with want.”

Her lungs were working overtime as her chest heaved rapidly but her eyes gave away her lust, so did the way her teeth sank into her lower lip. I locked her down for an extra moment as I slightly clamped her earlobe with my teeth. She whimpered and I made myself physically relax my balls, “Soon, very soon darling, you’ll beg me to take hostage every bit of that stubborn discipline of yours. You’ll beg me to rule you under me, right underneath me, where you’ll feel every bit of
my
control and I can promise it will be more of a sweaty workout than this shit what you’re trying to relief your tension with.”

“Fuck you!” she spat eventually and shrugged out of my hold.

I had expected her fist so I was pleasantly surprised with how she’d disengaged from me. “You’re so full of yourself. I don’t fuck my job number, Mr Hamilton. You are here because I was forced to take you on to recoup my job, nothing more.”

She seemed flustered and I noticed the twitch in her thigh so I patted her cheek gently, smirking slightly when she moved her head away. “Oh, I know all that, but I also know your nipples are hard on your heavy breasts. Your pussy is wet with your arousal and your mind is currently displaying all sorts of different erotic images incorporating me fucking you hard and wild whilst you hold on tight to this bag.”

She swallowed and licked her lips. “Mr Hamilton, I suggest you go find one of those beds before you find that you take residence in a hospital one.”

I nodded, smirked and winked. “You know where to find me when you decide to let go of that tenacity.”

“And hell may actually freeze over.”

She turned back round and restarted her furious disagreement with the gym equipment. I hid my smile from her as I exited the room and listened to the loud grunts she made with her workout. I really hoped she made the same grunts when I fucked her, because I would fuck her. She knew it as well as I did.

Chapter Eight

Grace

I RATTLED THE iron gate, checking its sturdiness before I replaced the ivy and continued my joint run and perimeter check. The smells from Mona’s fried breakfast were wafting across the gardens and churning my stomach, driving me to run harder just to fight off the nausea.

Christ, I felt rough today and all I had wanted to do when the alarm woke me at six was turn over, pull the duvet over my head and refuse the day any access to me but I had a client to protect and the property wouldn’t safeguard itself.

I made it across the lawn and palmed the wall of the pool house as a dizzy current swept over me and my head started to pound cruelly causing my eyesight to blur.

Oh dear God! I was starting to sweat one of those horrible clammy sweats, where your whole body covers in goose bumps and your ears started to hum. I slid down the wall as the ground shifted beneath me and my head swan with hums and buzzes as the nausea won and I vomited everywhere violently.

I tried to take a breath and control the sickness but my body shuddered as another wave hit me and I threw up again.

“Okay, come on sweetheart. I’ve got you.”

I blinked up at Kade as he lifted me in his arms and held me against him before he strolled swiftly across the grounds and into the house, bounding up the stairs as if I weighed nothing and straight into my room where Mona was preparing my bed for me.

“Oh my goodness, you look shocking.” She flustered as she briskly pulled me upright and shoved a bucket under my chin to catch the latest torrent that projected from my ailing body.

“What the hell did you put in the casserole, Mona?” I tried to joke but she stared at me and I cowered slightly, “Joking.”

She blinked rapidly then turned to Kade. “Out, go on. I need to get her undressed. Go boil some lemonade and fetch me some towels.”

His brow lifted as he cast a glance at me then frowned, “I’d really like to care for her, Mrs Hardy, if you’d let me.”

What the hell?

She glared at him with narrow eyes and even through my raging fever and sickness, I smiled. “I beg your pardon? Grace needs a mother figure right now, and you Mr Hamilton are definitely not a motherly figure. Now, go boil some lemonade and fetch me some towels, please.”

He stared for a moment then saluted like a soldier and I couldn’t quite hold back the snort. He’d soon learn that Mona took no shit from anyone.

He shifted his eyes and winked at me before he left the room and proceeded to take on his mission.

“That boy is after you, pet.” Mona said bluntly as she pulled off my shirt and tugged on a vest. I just looked at her as fatigue took over and I slumped down into the embrace of the soft covers. “But he’s up to no good.”

I frowned at her. Mona had always been one of those optimistic people who saw the good in everything and everyone, so for her to cast a warning had my attention, “Sorry, nanny?”

She smiled warmly as I reverted back to my childhood title for her. “You mark my words, my darling. Nanny feels it in her bones.”

I just nodded; my weary body was unable to give her anything more but her words circulated around my head as sleep took me under.

* * *

I could hear mumbled voices as a slight raise in tones filtered through my ears. My head was still pounding and I remained silent as my eyes refused to open to the light in the room.

“But she needs them, Mr Hamilton. I can’t leave her, you must go.”

“But she’ll go nuclear on me if I leave the house, surely you know this?”

“I don’t care. She needs the anti-sickness medication; otherwise she’ll not get any rest.”

There was a pregnant pause as they both refused to back down but I heard Kade eventually sigh, “Fine, I’ll fetch them.”

I groaned and tried to lift myself up but my body refused to move and I had to force the words from my mouth, “NO!”

I felt Mona’s hand slip into mine as she patted my arm, “He won’t be gone for long, pet.”

“No,” I ordered again as I prised my heavy eyelids open. “He doesn’t leave the house, Mona. Final word.”

She pulled in a hefty breath then snatched her hand out of mine. I frowned at her anger. It was rare anything ever got a rise out of her and I wondered if she actually believed that Kade would hurt me. “I’ll be fine, nanny.”

And on cue, again came the sickness, just to prove me wrong. Kade shot over, pulling me upright swiftly as he pulled my hair back and let me launch at the bucket. “Okay Beaumont, let it out.”

I rolled my eyes as I heaved but there was a tone to his voice that showed all of his determination to take care of me.

“Mrs Hardy, can’t you fetch the pills? She can’t carry on like this.” Kade asked as one of his hands swept up and down my back softly. I’m not even sure he was aware he was doing it but the action made me feel slightly better, the rhythm calming my mind as the regularity of it relaxed my stomach slightly.

I shook my head and grumbled that I was fine before another round of illness commenced and I moaned in annoyance. “Oh, be a big girl, Beaumont. Mona’s going for that medication, aren’t you Mona.” It was said as a statement and not a question and I lifted my eyes to see a hatred in Mona’s eyes that I had never witness in all the thirty one years I had known her.

“Mona?” I asked during a much appreciated break.

She blinked as though to break herself from the spell and smiled softly at me, “It’s okay, pet. I’ll go.”

I nodded as I dropped back against the pillow and groaned. I hated being ill, I’d rather be in pain and I pouted sulkily at Kade when Mona left the room.

He laughed loudly as he swept a cloth across my forehead, “Oh don’t be such a baby. You kick ass, sweetheart, I’m sure you can cope with a stomach bug.”

I sighed and closed my eyes as he gently wiped across my face with the newly cooled cloth. “I’ll let you into a secret, Beaumont.”

I opened my eyes and gazed at him as his eyes tracked the route of the cloth. He watched it for a while and I lifted a brow, “Go on.”

He smiled and caught my eye, “I always wanted to be a nurse.”

“Really?”

He nodded and smiled sadly, “My parents thought it was stupid.” He shrugged and grimaced as if embarrassed by his confession, “Which it is really.”

“No it’s not. I think it’s an admirable job. It takes patience though and I’m afraid, that’s something you do lack.”

He smirked at me as he wrung the cloth in the bowl beside him and continued his tending. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t sweating any longer. “That’s due to the dominant trait in me; it makes me demand things and appreciate when they are delivered swiftly.”

I watched him as he kept his eyes anywhere than on mine until I eventually lifted my hand and settled it over his to halt his nursing. “Thank you, that’s much better.”

He smiled happily at me before he stood from the bed and went into the en-suite to change the water. “When was the last time you saw Mona?” he shouted from the bathroom above the noise of the water.

I sighed and thought back, “God, it must be at least two years now.”

He nodded as he came back in but his face was pensive and I tilted my head in question, “What?”

He shook his head as his lips bowed, “Nothing.”

I could tell he was pondering something and I shuffled back up the bed, resting my body against the headboard as I watched him pull out some shorts from one of my drawers. “Come on Kade, tell me.”

His eyes shot to mine and I quirked a brow at his sudden shift. “You called me Kade.”

I shrugged with an amused expression, bewildered by the delight on his face, “So I did. Aren’t you easy to please.”

His happiness dropped as his brow creased with anguish and he pulled the duvet back. “Come on, out of the sweats and into shorts. You’re running a temperature and the thick joggers won’t help.”

I lifted my hips so he could slide my trousers down and smirked when he forced his eyes to follow the route of my clothing. He was struggling to keep his eyes off my lady bits and I nearly fisted the air in victory when I caught his quick glance. He coughed slightly to cover the move before he pulled up the shorts.

“I so saw you peek.” I teased.

He didn’t look at me but a smile twisted his lips. “Sweetheart, I’m a man. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have worried about my sexuality if I hadn’t looked.”

I snorted. “I don’t have a problem with you being gay.”

His eyes widened as he perched beside me on the bed and tilted his head cockily. “Oh come on, Grace,” I smiled inwardly as he also called me by my first name. “I think you know by now that it’s not just blokes that make my dick hard.”

I swallowed noisily, giving him reason to wear that bloody self-assured smirk again. The conversation was steering into forbidden territory again and I slid a little across the bed as his masculine muskiness started the persistent throb in my belly again.

I licked my dry lips and then his words actually clicked and I stared wide eyed at him. “Oh god, are you bi-sexual?”

“Yes, you have a problem with that?” He seemed defensive but my jaw dropped as things started to shift in my head and slot into place.

“Oh my god, you fucked Mason as well as Ava, didn’t you.”

His eyes narrowed and he shot off the bed.

Whoa! He was suddenly like a different person and if I could have stuffed my last words back into my mouth, I would have eaten them whole. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m open-minded.”

He clenched his jaw as his hands formed angry fists and his eyes shot fire at me. “Keep out of things you don’t understand, Beaumont!”

Okay, we were now back to surnames and I sighed in annoyance. “Why do you have to be so defensive? I am not bothered what your sex life entails. What you do, or should I say
who
you do, is none of my concern.”

He scoffed with an overwhelming smugness and I shook my head in bewilderment at his hostility when he leant in towards me. “Are you sure about that?”

“What the hell, Kade? What is your problem with me?”

He looked like a deer caught in the headlights with my question but he shook his head rapidly and stormed from the room.

“I think you need to get laid!” I shouted after him but I stared at the door with utter puzzlement at his complete attitude switch with the mention of Mason. A thought occurred to me and I groaned as the truth of his situation hit me like a wrecking ball. He was in love with Ava Fox.

“Holy shit, bad choice” I offered to the door, knowing he wasn’t there or couldn’t hear me. Even I knew Ava would never leave Mason and I shook my head at Kade’s poor choice of woman to fall in love with.

The tightness in my gut was nothing, it wasn’t jealousy. It was just this damn bug and I knew it was the illness that was causing the slight ache in my chest too.