Crewe walked into the courtyard at that moment, announcing the end of my ten minutes.
I pretended my brother was still on the line. “Well, I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
Crewe sat on the bench beside me and draped his arm over the back of the chair.
“Love you too.” I pulled the phone from my ear and acted like I hit the end button. Now I had to pretend that I didn’t just get myself into a nightmare. Joseph was organizing his own plan to sneak me out of the opening, but I wasn’t sure if Crewe was as soft as I hoped he was. If he did feel something for me, he might be ticked that I was taken away. I really had no idea.
I handed the phone back. “Thanks for letting me call him.”
“Yeah.” He dropped it into his pocket. “Didn’t see the harm.”
There was a lot of harm in it, actually.
“I might let you call him again sometime.”
“That would be nice.”
“What did you guys talk about?”
Nothing I could share. “He told me he had a date the other night. Said he liked her, but it could never go anywhere…because of what he does. It was the first time we’ve ever spoken and he was honest with me. Kinda feels like I’m talking to another person.”
Crewe nodded like he understood. “It must be a drastic change.”
“Insurance salesman…” I shook my head. “I should have known that was bogus. Too boring for a guy like him.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “If someone wants to hide something, they will.”
“So what exactly happened with the two of you?” I knew the basics, not the specifics.
“He crossed me,” he said coldly. “That’s about it.”
“What intelligence did he want?”
“He wanted to know more about the leader of Austria. He never told me why.”
I couldn’t wrap my mind around that. Joseph was involved in criminal affairs. He bought intelligence for millions of dollars and used it in horrible ways. It was like I didn’t know my brother at all.
“We made the deal. He brought the money, and my men brought the paperwork. I didn’t check the money because I think it’s rude to assume you’re making a deal with a crook. But an hour later, I realized the bills were fake. And that’s when I launched my attack.” He stared across the courtyard and into the darkness up ahead. The lights from the castle allowed us to see the stone walkways and flowers. “I can’t let people get away with stuff like that. People talk. Everyone in my universe knows I’ve taken you as payment. Now no one else will fuck with me.”
I shook my head. “What did he think was gonna happen? That you weren’t gonna notice?”
He shrugged. “Possibly thought I wouldn’t notice for a day or two. And he assumed he would be off the radar so I couldn’t find him again. Ironically, I was never planning on going after him. I’m a man who finds information, and it didn’t take long for me to find out about you. Stupid mistake on his part.” His hand returned to the back of my hair, and he massaged my scalp with his fingertips. “But I think I came out ahead in the deal. You’re worth more than four million dollars.”
It was a sweet thing to say in a very twisted way.
He turned my face in his direction and leaned in to kiss me. It was full of affection and kindness rather than possession. That was how he always kissed me, with gentleness. “Ready for dinner?”
It took a second for me to answer the question because that kiss was still heavy in my mind. “Yeah…” I leaned in farther and kissed him again, wanting more of that affection he lavished me with. Letting me call my brother was a compassionate thing to do, especially since my intentions were anything but innocent. I felt a twinge of guilt for what I had done, especially since Joseph was moving forward with a plan I never agreed to.
Crewe kissed me back with the same passion, his hand gliding up my neck until his thumb rested just behind my ear. “You wanna skip dinner?”
“No, I’m starving. But let’s postpone it.”
He smiled against my mouth. “Sounds good to me.”
I crawled on my hands and knees on the bed and looked at him over my shoulder.
He moved on top of me and pressed his chest to my back, his skin warm and his physique powerful. His lips moved down my neck until they found my mouth. He kissed me hard as he rubbed his cock between my ass cheeks.
My pussy was soaked, and I was eager for him to be inside me. I loved his kisses and his caresses, but the foreplay had gone on long enough. I didn’t need much to get my engine revving, not when it came to Crewe.