Even though I can’t see her face, her vigorous nod is obvious, and the mere acknowledgment of her kink almost sends me over the edge. Although her tendency to be an exhibitionist has been damn obvious, the way she interrupts my meetings to climb on my lap and
work me up in front of an audience. “Y-yes. I don’t know why, though,” she whimpers. “Tell me why.”
“Because you’re a tease. Because you want to make me go insane.” I’m hammering into her now, inching her up the lounge with the force of my thrusts. One of my forearms wedges itself under her hips and yanks them up, jerking them back into my blurred movements pumppumppumppumppump. “Because you’re perfect. Because I love you. I don’t care. I’ll find a way, angel. But you better remember this hot little cunt is only for Ramsey’s personal use. To get pleasure or give it. Understand me, Veda?”
“Yes.” She turns her face to the side, laying her cheek on the furniture. “I love you, too,” she breathes, her voice shaking, and those words push me over the line. My entire body stiffens as come shoots up the stalk of my dick, filling her pussy up with hot seed that acts as a lubricant as I fuck her like a dog, my peak endless. I’d never been loud during sex before Veda, but I moan so loud as ejaculate leaves my aching cock, I probably wake up half the neighborhood. I fucking shout, her pussy is such a masterpiece, tight and welcoming, milking me until I’m empty. Christ. I’m such a slave to this piece between her thighs, she could ask me for anything in the world and I would kill myself making sure it was served up to her on a silver platter.
Good thing she doesn’t have to ask. Because although it makes me more than a little on edge, I’m about to give her something she wants. Something she’s afraid to ask for. Ignoring the voice in the back of my mind telling me I’m kicking a hornet’s nest, I kiss her shoulder, her neck and cheek, turning us onto our sides where she immediately starts to drift off, as usual.
“Don’t you want your birthday gift before sleep steals you away, angel?”
Chapter Three
Veda rolls over onto her back beside me, excitement making her gorgeous blue eyes light up. My heart starts to boom in my ears because I can’t get enough of this side of her. The side that likes presents. I want to indulge it until the end of time. Last week, I contacted a real estate agent in the Hamptons because while I’ve never had any desire to live outside the city, I have an urge to fill a stable full of horses and allow Veda to pick one to use for riding lessons. I want to come home from work and find her lounging in a bikini by an outdoor pool, her skin golden from the sunshine. I want…rooms to fill with our children.
I’m anxious for the day when I can drive her out to whichever estate ends up fitting the bill, but today I’ll have to satisfy myself with another gift. One that’s less extravagant and more personal.
“I thought the party was my gift,” she whispers, sounding awestruck. “It should have been. This must have cost you—”
I press a finger over her lips and smirk, telling her once again without words that discussing the cost of anything with me is ridiculous. “Are you telling me you don’t want the gift?”
She sticks her tongue out. “I didn’t say that.” Turning onto her side, she runs her fingers up under my shirt, purring in the back of her throat. “What is it?”
Craving the feel of her skin, I run my fingertips up and down her side, smiling when goosebumps form beneath them. The gift I’m going to give her is important, though, so my smile fades in degrees. “How I brought you to live with me, angel—buying you from your father—I won’t apologize for bringing you home with me any way I could, but I shouldn’t have kept you in the dark.” I swallow hard. “I never had a good relationship with my father, so it was hard for me to understand missing someone the way you miss him now that I’ve sent him to work in the Netherlands.”
Underneath my shirt, her fingers have gone still and cold. Her eyes are wide, full of curiosity and…something else I can’t readily read. Apprehension, maybe. But that makes no sense, does it?
“That is, I didn’t understand missing anything or anyone until you, Veda. Now I understand what it’s like to be robbed of your presence.” A sour taste enters my mouth over the next part. “If missing your father resembles what I went through when you left, then I don’t want you to feel that way.” I cup the side of her face. “So go pack a bag. We’re leaving for Amsterdam in two hours.” I deliver a quick kiss to her nose. “You can sleep on the plane.”
She’s still as death for a few heavy beats. “You’re taking me to see my father?”
“Yes.” Despite the fact that I resent another man having any claim to Veda whatsoever, yes, I’m doing this for her. “Isn’t that what you want?”
“I do. I do.” But something about the too bright way she answers me is off. A lot of things are off, like the wild pulse at the base of her neck, the sudden clamminess of her hands beneath my shirt. “Th-thank you, Ramsey,” she whispers. “Such a generous gift. I don’t know what to say.”
When the idea to take Veda to Amsterdam came to me, I envisioned her jumping for joy, laying kisses all over my face. Instead, her face is pale, thoughts racing behind her eyes. Although, she’s smiling. It’s all wrong. And while I have a very strong inkling that I should cancel the trip…I also wonder if the answers to Veda’s wariness and constant secretive looks in my direction lie in Amsterdam. I certainly won’t get anything out of her, so I have no choice. Because I am going to find out what’s keeping her from trusting me, despite my assurances that I’ll never keep anything from her again. I sense her feelings for me. I know they’re strong and a little wild to match our combined natures, but something is holding her back.
I’ll stop at nothing to find out what it is. My gut is telling me unraveling the mystery of my girlfriend’s inner workings begins with boarding my jet.
“I have a few things to take care of in my office,” I say, laying a kiss on her forehead, her cheeks, her lips. “I’ll meet you downstairs in an hour?”
“Okay,” she murmurs. I think that’s all she’s going to say and begin to stand, but she pulls me back down on top of her without warning, her slight arms doing their best to band the full way around my back, but they don’t quite make it. “We don’t have to go anywhere, you know. It’s such a sweet, thoughtful gift, but I don’t want to be anywhere else in the world except right here with you.”
The note of panic lacing between the sincerity in her voice batters me in the sternum. I should call off the trip. Her reaction is nothing like I was anticipating, and she’s scared of something. Seeing her scared is like having my liver boiled in hot oil, but I can’t put to rest the premonition that whatever she’s hiding…maybe even the reason she returned to me…is on the other side of this trip. If we’re going to move on and have the kind of relationship I dream about with her, we have to face every obstacle in front of us.
“We will be together. We’ll just be in another country. It’s a couple of days to spend with your father and then we’ll be home.” I brush a stray blonde hair out of her face. “Is there something you want to tell me, angel? Whatever it is, we would be fine.”
“You say that, but…”
“But what?” I press, begging her to save us whatever shit is flying in our direction and be honest. Just like I’m being when I say, “There is nothing—nothing—that I would let come between us, Veda. I went mad when you left. I’m still half crazed just remembering what being without you felt like.” I brush my thumbs down her cheeks, letting them linger at the corners of her mouth. “If you tried to kill me in my sleep, I would still slide in beside you the next night. And the one after that. You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”
She turns her face into my hand, a degree of calm seeming to settle over her and something inside me breathes a sigh of relief over seeing her relaxed. “I really do love you, Ramsey. So much,” she murmurs, almost to herself. “We’ll be fine. We will.”
But as I slide off her body and gather her clothes, handing them to her so she can dress and follow me back into the house, that faraway look is back in her eyes.
* * *
Should I feel like a creep for watching Veda sleep on the plane?
Well, fuck it. I don’t care.
For most of the
seven-hour flight, I worked, speaking into the phone as quietly as possible so I wouldn’t wake up the angel where she slept, curled up on the white leather couch that lines the cabin wall. She was more fitful than usual, and by the time we land, there is a pit yawning wide in my stomach. But when I wake her, she stretches out like a lazy kitten and smiles so beautifully, I wonder if I imagined the foreboding I experienced back on the rooftop in Manhattan. It seems as though her birthday party took place a year ago rather than a matter of mere hours. Especially because it’s late afternoon in Amsterdam when we disembark the plane and I guide Veda into the waiting black chauffeured car.
“Are we staying with my father?” Her voice is bright, but she’s looking out the window, watching the various canals of the city whip past, so I can’t judge her expression.
“I thought I would give you the option.” Now I have her attention. She turns to face me with that rare lost and vulnerable look in her eyes that makes me want to roar at the driver to turn the car back around. She’s usually so confident and stubborn, full of bravado. “I’ve rented a house in the Jordaan district. He can visit us there and stay overnight on a separate floor. Or we can stay one night with him.” It’s my turn to look out the window. “I need to be present at all times, Veda. That might not be reasonable, but I’ve given up on seeing reason when it comes to you.”
She surprises me by lacing her fingers with mine on the seat. “I understand.” Her smile is almost thoughtful as she climbs onto my lap, bringing our joined hands to her mouth and kissing my knuckles. “I’m sorry about earlier. I was just caught off guard.” Her energy eases toward flirtatious, demure. “You can’t expect me to think straight after the things you do to me.”