part0068

She took my hand, almost without thinking. As though knowing I was her boss made a difference, changed things between us. I didn’t care why she did it, so long as she didn’t question me. She stared at me, intense emotion flashing through those dark, gorgeous eyes of hers. She couldn’t seem to stop looking at me, her eyes glued to my face now that she knew where it was. Elation exploded through my chest and I crushed her hand in mine.

I wanted to fuck her again and again until she begged for mercy, begged me to stop. She was everything to me and finally I could have her, keep her, worship her. Hand her the world and everything in it on a silver platter.

I released her hand for just a moment. Reaching past her I tugged a short, white silk robe off a nearby hanger. “Lose the sheet,” I said gruffly. She hesitated, but when I held the robe up for her to see, she dropped the sheet and quickly stepped forward allowing me to wrap her in the sweetly-scented material. When I’d purchased it, I had the saleslady package it in lavender spritzed tissue paper. In anticipation of Nola’s imminent arrival, I’d unwrapped it that very morning, holding it to my face and breathing deeply, imagining it enveloping her soft skin. Now, she looked like an angel in the clingy white material, her dark hair falling in a messy cloud around her shoulders.

I tied the belt around her middle, took her hand and pulled her from the closet. She came willingly, though I watched for any signs that she might attack or try to run. My Nola was a wonderful and wily woman. I wasn’t quite ready to relax in her presence yet. Not until we’d established boundaries and I’d seen some sign that she was willing to accept the life I was offering.

I checked the clock as I led her past the bedroom and guest suites toward the kitchen and living room area. We were right on time. Lights illuminated our path as we walked. Nola looked up, her mouth opening in awe as she took in the luxury surrounding us. Her fingers drifted out to touch the rough edge of my Gerhard Richter. As if sensing the value of the painting she snatched her hand away.

I ran my palm down her arm from her shoulder to her wrist and linked my fingers through hers. I lifted our joined hands and pressed the pads of her fingertips lightly against the canvas. “What do you see?” I asked, bending to speak in her ear.

She didn’t say anything for a second as she studied the painting. Then she shifted back a little, subconsciously leaning against me to give herself more room. “I see colours,” she said, low and sweet. “I see… so many colours but thrown together with severity. It’s barbaric, but it’s also quite beautiful.” She twisted around to look up at me, then she frowned, as if remembering that there was no face for her to see. “What do you see, Mr. Shy?”

“Rasputin,” I corrected her. “And I see profit. A painting that commands a price far higher than its worth. Which is why it’s in my home. It’ll find a new place soon enough when I find a buyer willing to pay my price.”

“Oh,” she said, almost disappointed.

“Unless you’d rather we keep it. If you like that sort of thing then consider it a gift, doll.”

She tilted her head to the side and thought about it. “And how much is that particular painting worth, Mr… Rasputin?”

“Around 46 million, give or take.”

She didn’t even pause, she straightened and said, “Sell it.”

I laughed out loud. Probably the first spontaneous laugh I’d enjoyed in years, if ever. This woman was more than worthy of my love. She was a fucking goddess. She would walk by my side and complete my future. I stepped toward her, took her face in my hands and kissed her. She didn’t protest. She didn’t have the opportunity to protest. She brought her hands up. Hovering in the air for a moment, uncertain, before settling them against my side. It only took a few seconds before her light squeeze became a hug, her arms wrapping completely around me. I smelled lavender and Nola. I wanted to drown in her.

I held her against me and kissed her, passionately, lovingly for as long as I dared. Now was not the time for more fucking around, though I would have loved nothing more than to lay her down on the couch and take her again. Unfortunately, we needed to work through some business first. Then we could settle into our dream life together.

“Nola,” I whispered against her lips. She moaned and reached an arm up to wrap around my head and tug me back in for more kissing. I smiled and forced her arm back down. “Ah, Nola, doll,” I said, holding her against me and walking her several steps toward the floor to ceiling windows. Her dreamy gaze was still on me. “I want you to watch something.” I tapped the glass until she turned her head and looked. She gasped in awe at the spread of city lights, like a blanket laid out at her feet, flowing out from beneath my high-rise tower. I pointed into the distance. “Look there.”

I could feel from the tension in her body and the slight intake of breath the moment she saw it. She turned completely in the loose cage of my arms to face the window. She stared hard at the orange glow in the distance.

“What is it?” she asked in a whisper.

“I think you know.”

“Fire,” she said.

“Yes,” I confirmed her suspicion.

She pressed a hand against the glass and watched the flickering light in the distance, creating a glowing halo on the horizon. “Why are you showing me this?” she asked, turning her head in my direction, but not taking her eyes from the scene in front of her. I didn’t answer. She was a smart girl, she’d work it out. After a moment, she answered her own question. “That’s my building, isn’t it?”

She made a small, angry sound. The hand pressed against the window balled into a fist. “Why?!” she asked sharply, her eyes now glued to the scene in front of her. “Why would you do such a thing? What about my neighbors, and… and all of my things? You’re a monster!”

“I’ve never pretended to be otherwise, Nola,” I said calmly, though her words were a knife to the gut. I wanted to sever her ties to the past, not foster her hatred. I relented somewhat. “I gave your neighbors the option to leave before my men set the fire. And any of your belongings that had sentimental value were removed and put into storage hours ago.” I took her shoulders and turned her toward me. When she refused to look up, I tilted her chin, forcing her to look into the shadowy nothingness that should’ve been my face. “I know what’s important to my doll. I will always take the appropriate steps to secure your happiness.”

“Yet, I’m not happy right now, Rasputin,” she said tartly, then wrinkled her nose. “What kind of a name is that anyway? Rasputin? What were your parents thinking? No one names their kids that.”

I chuckled. “I don’t have parents. Gave myself the name. Thought it sounded interesting and the historical figure, Grigori Rasputin, was an influential mystic at the turn of the 20th century. Some people believed he could make himself disappear at will and thus managed to escape his own murder. Bullshit, of course, but I enjoy the mythology.”

She looked at me with a frown, deep in thought. After a moment, she murmured, “You don’t have parents? How is that possible? Everyone has parents.”

“I don’t,” I said shortly. It wasn’t something I enjoyed dwelling on. Though I knew I wasn’t ‘normal’, I was still pretty sure I was human, and people needed contact. Something I’d been deprived of my entire existence. “Just woke up one day like this.”

She opened her mouth to say something else, but I was done with this line of questioning. And if she was finished watching her old life burn then I had something else to show her. I took her by the elbow and steered her away from the window toward the living room. “Come with me, doll. I have something for you to see.”

She followed my lead, but laughed bitterly and said, “So far I’m 50/50 on your little surprises. I liked the clothes and jewels, I must admit. Not so much the show of power by burning my apartment building to the ground.”

I tilted my head in a slight nod of agreement. Life with me wouldn’t always be to Nola’s liking, I was sure of that. But she would get used to it. “You have to see what I’m capable of.”

“Sending your thugs out with a gas can and a matchbook?” she said tartly. “I’m not impressed, Rasputin.”

I gave her a light shove, sending her tumbling back onto the sofa. She let out an annoyed growl but stayed where she landed when I kept a restraining hand on her shoulder. She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, staring at the wall through narrowed eyes. She was so fucking beautiful when she was mad.

I picked up the remote control and pressed a button. A panel opened, revealing my TV. Another press of a button turned the TV on. Nola had shifted on the couch to face the TV and was now watching with fascination. I turned the screen on and pressed play on the video feed I’d prepared in preparation for this moment. It had taken work to get to the bottom of this puzzle, had meant splicing a few grainy video feeds that were at opposing angles, but the final product had finally shown the theft.

“Magda!” she gasped as the other woman’s face appeared on the screen.

The camera then zoomed out to show both women, Magda standing behind Nola, pointing at something, distracting the younger waitress. When Nola’s attention shifted, Magda moved her body so she was blocking the camera’s view, then reached beneath the counter and swiped Nola’s tip bag. A few seconds later, she reached into the register as Nola was making change for someone and grabbed a handful of bills.

What neither women knew was that their boss had installed another camera straight above the bar area, hidden in the racks of glasses.

“You knew it was her,” I said gruffly, startling Nola from her trance-like focus on the TV. “No one else was behind the bar with you. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Her gaze swung toward me and she blinked. Then she shrugged. “It would’ve been my word against hers. And she has seniority in every way, including knowing the camera angles. I knew I could never prove she’d done it.” She licked her lips, her voice dropping to a near whisper. “I thought I was going to lose my job… maybe more. Stealing from you, from Mr. Shy, well, it could be a death sentence.”

I walked toward her and dropped to my knees in front of her next to the sofa. I took her thighs in my hands and pushed, opening her up, making room for myself between her legs. She began trembling. I kneaded her hips and legs through the silk of her robe, occasionally brushing bare skin as the robe opened, giving me delicious peeks of bare pussy and plump, smooth inner thigh.

“Stealing from me is extremely dangerous,” I said in a low voice. “Some might say… fatal.” She made a strangled sound in her throat and gripped the couch as though her life depended on it. “Shhh, my love, you have nothing to worry about. You will always be safe with me.”

“I will?” she asked breathlessly.

I moved her robe to either side of her legs and slid my hands inside, savouring in the soft warmth of her. I knew without a doubt, now that I’ve had my Nola, that I would not be able to go long without her touch. She called to me, like a siren’s wail, only hers was sweet and silent and would last forever.

“Yes,” I assured her. “I love you, Nola. I want only to protect you from harm.”

“Oh my god,” she breathed, her dark eyes wide on my invisible face. She lifted shaking fingers and placed them against my cheek, tracing her thumb over my nose and across my lips. I grinned and pressed a kiss against her passing fingers. She smiled.

I took her hand and lowered it. “You may not have stolen from me, but someone else did. And she stole from the woman I love. This won’t be allowed to pass,” I said grimly. “You understand how things work in my world, Nola?”

“Yes,” she whispered, lowering her lashes.

She knew what had to happen, but would she approve? Probably not. Nola was a lovely, kind woman, capable of nurturing and love. She wouldn’t like the idea that anything related to her got someone else hurt, even if she couldn’t stop the outcome. I leaned over and kissed her cheek, whispering, “I’m sorry,” in her ear.

She looked up with a frown. “Why?” she asked sharply. “That leathery old bitch stole from us, she’s long past her expiry date. In fact, I want to be there when she gets what’s coming to her. If you want this thing between us to work out, then you better let me watch while you mete out some street justice. Got it?”