Wicked Liar by Faith Summers

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dominic

I get Candace to my apartment, thankful she doesn’t try to argue. She doesn’t say anything at all. That alone should tell me everything.

She’s in one of her moods. That means I’m not going to get anything out of her tonight. I expected her to at least ask the question of why I wasn’t taken her back to her apartment, but she remained silent the entire time.

I get out of the car first and help her out, cursing myself when I look at her slender legs on show, and her ass in those lace panties. I should have made her put on the dress. Would she have listened? Probably because right now she’s following orders. Not mine. Massimo’s.

I’m almost jealous, but I’ll have my say very soon and she’ll have to listen to me whether she likes it or not. I don’t think she quite realizes yet that that fifteen million I just paid down says I actually own her fine ass. So she can sulk all she wants.

I want to find out what’s going on here, but I won’t be mistaken for a good man and simply let her off the hook. I plan to work this little debacle of ours to my full advantage.

Massimo and Tristan should be five or ten minutes behind us. I want to get her inside and question her before they get here and start questioning me. I know they weren’t expecting me to throw down so much money.

I wasn’t expecting to do shit like that either, but I’d do it all the fuck again to see the look on that motherfucking bastard’s stupid face. Jacques Belmont didn't know what the fuck hit him when he looked at me. That dumb fuck really thought I was going to allow him to outbid me. And on my family’s damn yacht too. He has balls though. I have to give him some credit. The asshole looked like he would go all night but the secret threat of not getting initiated in the Syndicate is what cut him down.

If I didn’t know Massimo’s plans for him I would have allowed him to take than next bid then kill his ass.

As for Massimo and Tristan’s presence. I brought them along because I knew Candace would have fought me off. I also did that as a sign of clearing the air and having no secret shit between us. I went to the auction to win, so it was better they came and see what was happening rather than hear it and go crazy on my ass.

Candace keeps her head straight as I walk her into the elevator and leans against the wall as we go up.

Her cheeks flush when I glue my eyes to her body and she pulls my jacket around her tighter, covering her breasts. As if that’s the only part of her body I want to admire.

Purposely, I drop my gaze to her ass. Perfect as it is, I’m not thinking about her ass. I’m thinking of her pussy. She was tight the other night. Virginal tight.

She flashes me a look that verges on to a cold, hard stare as if that’s supposed to make me stop looking at her.

It won’t. Here’s where I’ll the reminder of who I am, what I am, and what I want.

I keep looking until the elevator stops and the doors ding open right into my living room.

I give her credit for the balls she’s exhibiting right now in this stare-off.

“Go inside, Candace,” I tell her.

Biting down on her teeth, she turns and follows my orders. Good. It’s a start.

“We're going upstairs,” I instruct her.

We go upstairs and as she walks through the opened doors of my bedroom, I can see she’s trying her best not to look impressed but failing.

The room is large and spacious with a king-sized wooden bed placed in the center and polished floorboards. A wall of shelves house all my books I've collected over the years, right from elementary school to M.I.T. Then there's the archway that leads on to the balcony.

She's been to my apartment before, but never in my bedroom. I used to wonder what she'd look like tangled in my sheets with her naked body in my bed. I'll find out soon enough.

I walk over to my chest of drawers and dig around until I find one of my old college t-shirts.

“Put this on.” I hand it to her and she takes it.

I almost laugh when she turns her back to me and takes off my jacket. The dress she drops to the ground and I wonder what the hell possessed her to do this shit tonight.

I got to the auction when it started. I was standing in the back right in the shadows watching it all play out. I never act too quickly. It’s so I can assess people and see what their motives are.

Since Candace looked desperate, and stripped, I'm assuming this has to do with money. That's why most women enter that type of auction. I'm just mad as fuck that she thought she had to do that.

She pulls on my t-shirt and it swallows her up, stopping just above her knees. When she climbs out of the six-inch heels she becomes herself again, and I have to look down at the little woman before me.

I pull the wooden chair from behind my desk and set it next to her.

“Sit down.”

She sits and there’s a youthful, childlike presence to her when she instinctively reaches for her hair and starts braiding the silky ends.

“What did you need the money for?” I ask and that’s when she stops and her beautiful autumn eyes meet mine.

“Nothing,” she answers which is no surprise.

“Why did you take part in the auction?”

“No reason.”

Jesus Christ…

“No reason? Do I look like a fucking idiot to you? Baby, if you didn’t need a shitload of money, why did you go into that auction? You took off your clothes.” Fucking hell I don’t know how I didn’t die when she did that. I still don’t know.

She swivels her head toward the window in a look of defeat.

“Candace talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“I’m not in trouble.”

“So why?”

“Nothing.” Her gaze hardens up again. “I want to go home.”

“No.”

She looks back to me with fire in her eyes. “You can’t keep me here.”

“Fifteen million says differently.”

“You asshole!"

"Doll, unless if you want me to fuck your perfect ass, I would avoid that word." It's the temptation that's making me crazy. She’s sexier when she’s angry and more so when I shock her. Right now she's both and fucking turning me on something wicked.

"You are such a bastard," she sneers.

"Yes, we both know that though. Tell me what's going on Candace. There’s no way you’re going to convince me that you did that auction for fun.”

I'm met with silence, which now makes me worry. It’s not like her at all to be so secretive. I don’t have a clue what this is about. Which means it’s one more thing to add to the ever-growing list of shit.

“I have a right to do what I want whenever I want. It’s my body.”

"Well, for the next thirty days and thirty nights I own you, so it looks like I just took those rights."

"This is ridiculous. You think this is the way to win me back?"

"You bet your ass it is." I give her a maddening smile and she seethes.

Downstairs, I hear footsteps and know that Massimo and Tristan have arrived. I turn and walk away from her and when I close the door then lock it her hurried footsteps echo against the floorboards.

“Dominic! Did you just lock me in here?” she wails on the other side frantically trying the handle. It circles from left to right as she twists it.

I don’t answer. She can stay there until I figure out what I’m doing with her.

When she starts banging on the door I make my way downstairs.

Massimo and Tristan are in the living room waiting for me. Both wear cautious expressions on their faces when I enter.

I’m not really sure what to say to them, but I know the fact that they’re here and they know I’ve brought Candace back with me like my winning prize is going to cause disagreement. The only thing I have on my side is that the two went ape shit when I told them what was going on.

“What did she say?” Massimo asks.

“Not a God damn thing.”

They exchange worried glances.

“Nothing at all?” Tristan prods.

“She said she's not in trouble. I'm not sure if I believe that."

"She must have needed the money," Tristan intones.

"So why didn't she ask us," Massimo snaps.

"Maybe she needed a ton of money and didn't want to ask."

"She has the money now," I cut in before the two can continue arguing. "More money than she can stand."

Massimo grits his teeth and draws in a breath, assuming his boss face when he looks back at me. “Dominic, what do you intend to do with her?”

Here we go. “What do you think?” I taunt with a smirk.

“Dominic, don’t play with me. This is Candace. It’s messy when it comes to you two.”

“I’m not playing with you and I’m well aware of the messy situation between me and her."

“I'm taking her back to mine.” He glances up the stairs.

“You’re not taking her anywhere,” I reply, shocking him.

“Remember who the fuck you’re talking to Dominic,” he snarls. “Don’t think I’m some idiot who doesn’t know you’ll use this to your advantage to get her back.”

“Of course I'm fucking going to use this to my advantage, and there’s not a damn thing either of you will do about it. How fucking dare you come at me? Especially you,” I throw back.

“Why especially me?”

“Massimo, remember how you went about getting Emelia. Jesus Christ, you made her father give her to you as debt repayment and tried to take her inheritance. Fucking hell.” I don’t bother to say anything to Tristan. I give him a pass because at least he hasn’t challenged me.

If he did I’d gladly remind him how he kidnapped Isabella and took her to his island in an attempt to lure her father out of hiding.

Neither of them, from one to the next can tell me shit.

Massimo backs down realizing I’m right. “Don’t you dare hurt her Dominic?”

“I won’t.”

“Dominic.” Worry clouds his eyes.

“What?”

“You’re not using drugs again are you?”

There’s no point being offended. It’s not his fault he has to ask me that question. It’s mine.

Of course, he would ask me that. I’ve been away for two years and close to two years before that I led a secret life they weren’t apart of. Tristan cuts him a glance though I appreciate because he trusts me when I promise to never touch that shit again.

“I’m not using Massimo. You don’t have to worry about that ever again and I assure you I’m not gonna hurt Candace. I’m being serious as fuck here.”

His face softens. "What are you going to do?"

"The same fucking thing you'd do if you'd just bought a woman for fifteen million dollars, Boss," I answer and his eyes go wide. "My way though. The two of you both know she still loves me so you don't have a right to tell me I can't have a chance to fix things with her. If something's going on, I'll find out what it is. Aside from that, with all the shit going on in our lives, we don't need her running around getting herself in trouble, and selling her body for sex. Don't think our enemies don't know she's important to us. She's important to me. She's safe if she's with me. What I do aside from that is private."

That's all they need to know. If some other bastard had thrown down fifteen million dollars, they wouldn't question him, so I'm putting a stop to any further questions.

"Okay?" I ask with raised brows.

They both look at each other then back at me. When they both nod, the tension leaves my shoulders.

“I’m trusting you, Dominic,” Massimo warns.

I answer with a curt nod.

“Call us if anything more happens,” Tristan says.

“I will.”

They leave and I lower to sit on the sofa.

When I think of what Candace did, I want to breathe fire. I'm enraged that only yesterday she told me she didn't want to be with me and today's here with this... I don't know whatever the fuck it is. It just leads me to think something is definitely going on with her.

But ... whatever it is, gave me my way. The damn auction was my savior and opened the door with an answer to how I'd get my chance with her. We're in the middle of shit with our enemies, but I can't think of a better medicine for me than thirty days and thirty nights of Candace Ricci.

I want her back, and I don't plan to fail this time.

This time she will be mine.

Heart, mind, body, and soul.

Everything.

I want it all.