Eyes Wide Open (The Blackstone Affair 3)

Prologue

2012 July

London

I watch. I remember what she felt like. How she moved and sounded. All of it—everything about her.

She doesn’t see me, though. It bothered me at first, but now I know it doesn’t matter because she will. Soon enough she will see me.

Fate came along and put her in my path all those years ago and fate made another appearance when that plane went down. I never forgot about sweet Brynne Bennett. Never. I’ve thought about her for years, I just never imagined we’d meet again. I knew she left the States and moved to London, but it wasn’t until I saw her modeling photographs that I realized just how much I wanted to find her again.

Now I have.

The fates have aligned. Everything has come together. I can get my due and have her in the process. Brynne deserves this. She’s a treasure. A rare jewel in the crown. Something to savor and enjoy for as long as I want.

We are all pawns. She as much as I. Pawns in a game I did not invent, but one I can certainly play. I’m fighting for equity. This is my opportunity of a lifetime and I won’t let it, or her, slip through my hands. Brynne just comes as a value added, and I look forward to the time when I can show her just how much I’ve missed her and our time together.

In my defense, I did try to get her to help me directly. I would have wooed her and been nice. She would have been happy to see me again. I know she would have been. Those assholes didn’t deserve her, and they certainly earned what they got. Doesn’t matter now, though. They’re out of the equation and that makes it better for me. In the end I’ll be the sole beneficiary anyway.

Now, Blackstone is another story. That bastard came along and swooped her up and into his life. I know he turned her head with his good looks and money, and it’s a damn shame too, because without him it all would have gone off without a hitch.

Blackstone ruined my initial plans, but not everything. He’s got good instincts, though, I’ll give him that. I thought I had her in the bag when he went out to have a smoke behind the building at that charity gala. I couldn’t believe my luck. He was outside. She was inside. Alarm goes off like clockwork. My only mistake was that I didn’t expect him to have her cell phone. That was a definite surprise. But still, I wanted him to know about me. He should know. I had her years before he did.

Then something happened that must have worked in his favor. I’m not sure why, but Brynne wasn’t where she should have been and she didn’t come out like she was supposed to. If she’d had her cell when my message came through I’m certain we’d be together right now, picking up where we left off seven years ago.

I lost her in the mayhem . . . and in the process, my golden opportunity. This is very displeasing to me. Some punishment will have to be delivered in order to restore the balance of things to their rightful place in the world. It’s not a problem, though. Everything will all come around to my way in time.

Blackstone has her well protected now, but I’m working on him too. He doesn’t have all the answers, and I’ll be sure to throw a few more tidbits his way to confuse him. My specialty.

No, I’m not giving up. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve yet, and I can be very patient. There is still plenty of time to make my move, and I’m getting closer all the time.

Closer.

I didn’t know it at the time, but when those fools chose that song they were dead on. It is perfect. Just perfect.

1

? Ethan’s eyes held on to me as he mastered my body, his grip firm on my hips, his thick flesh filling me up and moving inside me, his mouth all over me, his teeth on my skin.

All of this from the man who had broken though the walls I’d built and captured me. They were demonstrations of touch and pleasure, a means of cementing the connection between us, of keeping me close to him. It was his way. He didn’t need to worry, though.

Ethan had me.

Despite the whole mess tonight, he had me in his arms and underneath him, his commanding strength taking charge in the way it’d been from the beginning. Holding me safe. That night on the street when he’d coaxed me into his car and the later phone calls demanding I acknowledge him were just the start of my understanding of Ethan Blackstone. There was so much more to the man than I ever imagined back then.

I wasn’t going anywhere. I was in love with him.

“I want my cock in you all night long,” he rasped, his blue eyes flashing against the moonlight as he moved. Looming over me, he plied my body in every which way as the light shone on our naked flesh through the balcony window. Hands, mouth, cock, tongue, teeth, fingers—he used them all.

Ethan said things to me like that during sex. Shocking stuff that made me hotter than hell, nourishing my confidence, and showing me how much he wanted me. It was precisely what I needed. Ethan was my answer, and he knew exactly what I craved. I don’t know how he understood me so well, but he did without a doubt. Tonight had confirmed that message loud and clear. I guess I could finally admit that I was in need of another person in order to be happy.

That other person was Ethan.

I’d let someone in. The hard shell around my heart had been compromised, and very thoroughly too. Ethan had done it. He’d worked on me, and pushed me and demanded my attention. He never gave up on me and loved me in spite of my cavern of emotional issues. Ethan did all that for me. And now I could revel in the fact that I was loved by a man whom I loved in return.

“Eyes on me, baby,” he commanded on a harsh breath. “You know I have to have your eyes when I take you!” His hand had moved up to grip my hair and he tugged. He never hurt me when he pulled it, though. Ethan knew just how much pressure to exert and was fully aware it sent me over the edge. I did know about his need for my eyes being on him and I held onto his fiery blues with everything I had.

But Ethan knew more about me than I knew about him.

“You’re going to come first!” he gritted out, thrusting deep and hard, finding the sensitive spot within me needed to accomplish his directive.

As I felt the pressure build I let myself go to that perfect place of ecstasy, pinned beneath Ethan’s body, which was burrowed in mine, his blue eyes just inches above me. He took my mouth as the orgasm ripped into me, filling another part of me, making me accept more of him, binding us together more deeply.

His orgasm followed mine within seconds. I could always tell he was close from how he tightened to inhuman hardness right as he was about to come. The feeling was out of this world and intensely empowering. That I could pull such a reaction from him and elicit such feeling in another person did something to me. Something that healed me a little bit each time it happened—I kept getting better inside my head because of Ethan and the ways he showed his love for me. I had some hope about myself that I could be happy and live a normal life.

Ethan had given me that.

“Tell me, baby,” he exhaled in a harsh whisper, but I could hear the vulnerability that accompanied the boldness. Ethan wasn’t without his own insecurities, he was just a mortal like the rest of us.

“Always yours!” I truly meant my words as I felt him let go inside me.

When I opened my eyes sometime later, I realized I must have dozed a bit. Ethan had rearranged us halfway on our sides, but we were still joined together. He liked to stay buried inside me for a while afterward. I didn’t mind, because it was something he desired and I loved making him happy.

I just wish he’d tell me more about his dark place. He was afraid to share and while it bothered me, I mostly understood his fear. I often wondered if his reasons for needing to touch me all the time and possess me so thoroughly during sex, and afterward too, had something to do with his time as a prisoner. They tortured him and scarred him and hurt him. It pained me just remembering how he’d been that night when his dreams woke him up in a panic.

I trailed my fingers over his shoulder and back. I imagined the angel wings of his tattoo and the words below them. And I felt the scars too. Ethan flicked his eyes open and pegged me hard. “Why wings? They’re beautiful, you know.”

“The wings reminded me of my mum,” he said after a moment or two of silence, “and they covered over many of the scars.”

I leaned forward, kissing his lips with a soft touch. I cupped his jaw and decided to take the plunge. I didn’t want to scare Ethan away from talking to me if he was in a mood, but figured I had to try again at some point. “And the quote? Why that one?”