For the Night: Complete Box Set (71 page)

‘What man?’ she replied, sounding confused. ‘There
is no man.’

‘You screamed, Summer.’ I jerked my head around,
as I heard the noise of laughter drifting up the corridor through our open
door.

‘I found a box on the floor outside, I thought it
was from you. I just carried it in and opened it, that’s why I cried out, it
was one of
those
boxes, here! I was so shocked. How could he know we
were here? What room we were in?’ Her voice was shaking and I blew out a deep
breath before turning around to face her, kissing her forehead before
positioning her in the corner as I whipped out my mobile. ‘Lucas, you’re really
bleeding,’ she gasped, as she reached up to try to touch my face. I pushed her
hand away. I didn’t have time, the threat was still real.

‘I’ll be fine, I thought he was up here with you.
Give me a minute, I want the suite swept and the key cards changed once we know
that we’re alone.’ I turned my back on her, making sure I had line of sight of
the entrance and the inner door through to our suite, protecting her behind me,
as I barked orders at the receptionist. I noticed that Summer had dropped the
box on the floor, it was a fucking box from Parkers, in
Paris.
They
didn’t even have a branch here. There were more roses, which were lying on the
floor next to it and another card, which she didn’t seem to have opened. I was
told to stay on the line until hotel security made it to us. I could hear
Summer breathing too fast behind me, I’d scared her. Fuck, I’d scared myself
and my bloody ribs were killing me every time I took a breath. I wiped away the
blood that was trickling into my eye and winced when her hands slunk around my
waist, as she pressed up behind me, holding me tightly. She went to let go,
when she realised I was in pain, but I grabbed her hands with my free one,
keeping her there. I wanted her as close as possible, forever.

I was impressed at how fast the team of three
burst in, Tasers at the ready. Two of them went to search our suite, while the
other rang the paramedics, despite my insistence that I was fine. When we were
given the all clear, someone was sent up to change re-code our room cards and
the lock. Summer quickly gathered up the roses and shoved them with the card
back in the box, putting it in our lounge, before she disappeared to the
bathroom and came back with a wet towel, dabbing at my face as I insisted to
the hotel team that we didn’t need the Police calling. On that they relented,
but when the Hotel manager appeared, with the paramedics in tow, he and Summer
wouldn’t listen to my objections that I was fine. I grimaced as they opened my
shirt and examined my ribs, more at how upset Summer was as she watched them
with me, than the pain of having them press them. I was told I’d probably
broken a couple of them and also needed stitches in the cut to my temple, but I
wouldn’t hear of going to the hospital. Summer sighed and disappeared into the
bedroom as they patched me up on the spot and gave me some painkillers, with me
apologising profusely for all of the fuss.

I closed the main door as the last of our visitors
left. My shoulders slumped and I gripped my side again. Some fucking romantic
night this had turned out to be.

‘Lucas,’ came Summer’s voice behind me as she
gently touched my shoulder. I could tell she was crying without even looking
around. ‘Please come and lie down, I’m so worried about you.’

‘I was worried about you, angel. I’ll be fine now,
because I know that you’re safe.’

‘I can’t believe you ran all the way up.’

‘I thought you were in danger, Summer. I’d have
run up as many as it took.’

‘It’s forty floors,’ she pointed out.

‘I know,’ I laughed, then moaned and clutched my side
again. She carefully turned me around and screwed up her face as she looked at
my temple. ‘How bad does it look?’

‘You’ll have a black eye in the morning, it’s
swelling and bruising now, but even with that scar you’re going to end up with,
I think you’ll still be the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.’

‘You’ll like my scar?’

‘Indiana Jones looked seriously hot with the one
on his chin, as do you with that one under yours, which you’ve never told me
how you got by the way.’

‘I was distracted playing hockey and got hit by a
puck. Damn lucky it didn’t break my jaw and this scar is all I have to show for
it,’ I smiled as I reached for her hand, blowing out a deep breath as I did.
Every bloody movement hurt.

‘Come on, I need to get you to bed.’

‘There’s an offer I can’t refuse,’ I replied,
trying to lighten the mood, noticing she’d changed into her lounging clothes.

‘Well there’s not going to be any of that for some
time, with your ribs broken. Come on, my hero.’ She stripped me and helped me
into the large bed, biting her lip as she fought the tears when I grimaced, as
I lay back against the pillows and she tucked me in.

‘What about my surprise?’ I asked, as I caught her
hand and kissed it.

‘It will have to wait for another time,’ she
sighed as she kissed my forehead gently and ran her fingers through my hair.
She offered me the painkillers with a glass of water and I knocked them back
quickly.

‘What was it?’

‘Me, in a red bow this time, ready to present
myself to you, Sir, but it seems that bows and I don’t have much luck,’ she
smiled ruefully, reminding me of the time she’d been tied up in a blue bow at
Christmas and had fallen asleep. God damn it, the first time she was planning
on offering herself to me submissively and it was out of the question.

‘Then as soon as I’m better, you’re going to wrap
yourself up in both colours and I’ll give you double the pleasure.’

‘No sex until you’ve been seen at hospital when we
get home and we know how bad it is and how long it will take for you to heal.’

‘Damn it, Summer,’ I groaned. The thought of no
sex for weeks hurt far more than my head and ribs.

‘We made it fourteen months once, we can make it a
couple more.’

‘You’ll be lucky if I give it a couple of weeks,
angel. Nothing’s stopping me from pleasuring you. Take my mind of sex. Tell me
about the package, so I can ring Ian and Mason in the morning.’

‘It was the same, sort of. Roses in a black satin
lined box, but one of them was red, not black. I was so excited about getting
ready for you, and finding a present that I thought was from you, that I didn’t
even notice it was a Parkers’ box or the black ribbon around it.’

‘Three again?’

‘No,’ she frowned, going silent as she seemed to
be processing something.

‘What? What is it?’

‘There were only two.’

‘And?’

‘The first box had five, second box was four, then
three, now two. It’s … it’s a countdown,’ she nodded as she looked at me, her
blue eyes wide with fear.

‘Shit, I can’t believe we didn’t piece that
together before now. What did the card say?’

‘I still haven’t opened it, I was too upset about
you.’

‘Go and get it. I’ll open it just in case,’ I
added, not wanting to risk her seeing more photographs of me with Yasmin
fucking Taylor or any of the other clients this Mr. Black had somehow managed
to capture me with. I’d been to the 710 club with Dan and met with Lacey
Armstrong, the owner, who’d been mortified at the breach. She assured me that
her cameras were merely for security in the event of any client being hurt, or
property damage being done and she had a team of staff who reviewed and deleted
the footage the following day. There was therefore a small window of
opportunity for someone to have discovered that I’d even entered the club, to
being able to hack into the feed, find me and keep a copy of that recording.
I’d rung Ian while we’d been on the premises and he’d hacked into her system
within minutes. She’d immediately agreed to pay out for a state of the art
system, which he’d have his team install, that he insisted had better layers of
security than the Pentagon had. He said he should know as Davenport
Technologies designed this particular firewall and used it themselves. I’d
realised that someone had to have been following me that night, and reported
that I’d entered the club to whoever had the skills to access Lacey’s system.
I’d tried to be vigilant the moment I found that out, but in London, every time
Summer and I went anywhere, virtually everyone was watching. I wasn’t trained
to pick out one face in a crowd. Summer returned, holding the envelope by the
edges, just like I’d told her to do. She handed it to me and sat down on the
floor, resting her head against my hip. I patted the bed beside me. ‘Come and
sit here with me.’

‘I don’t want to hurt you, I can sleep on the sofa
tonight.’

‘Like hell you will,’ I hissed. ‘This arsehole is
not
coming between us, Summer. I don’t care how many broken ribs I may have, I’m
not sleeping without you next to me tonight. I won’t be able to sleep without
you.’

‘Lucas,’ she smiled. ‘I’m not a furry teddy bear
and you’re not five years old.’

‘I’ll worry about you if you’re not in bed with
me.’

‘I’ll be right outside, we can leave the double
doors open.’

‘No,’ I shot back forcefully. ‘You’re either in
bed with me, or I’m on the sofa with you. Your choice, but don’t for a second
think that there’s any alternative. Don’t argue with me.’

‘Ok,’ she relented, with a resigned shake of her
head. She closed her eyes as I opened the envelope and I wondered if she was
imagining what I’d done with Yasmin again. I let out a sigh of relief to see there
were no photos this time. ‘What does it say?’ she asked, her eyes still tightly
shut.

‘Read for yourself,’ I advised, as I tried not to
get even more worked up about it.

She looked back up at me after reading it, then
gracefully stood up and disappeared into the lounge, as I pinched the top of my
nose. This had to fucking stop. He was right, letting him leak that photo and
my escorting history could ruin her. I’d already tracked down Yasmin and warned
her, she was furious, but there wasn’t a lot I could do. She’d already shacked
up with one of the guys who’d fucked her that night, DB another premiership
player, so it wasn’t like her exposure would end her relationship, but no way
was I prepared to walk away from Summer. My head was pounding, I could barely
see out of the one eye now, but suddenly everything was painfully clear. The
next note that arrived would be our final one, then his next step would be to
expose me and it would be her that ended up suffering. Through no fault of her
own. There was only one way it could end, if we couldn’t pin this bastard down.
If I couldn’t walk away from her, she’d have no choice but to walk away from
me. Just thinking it felt like someone had pierced my heart with a spear of
ice.

Summer

I left him in the bedroom and grabbed my phone, I
knew it was late, but that was what agents were for, to deal with crises and
there was no doubt that we were in the middle of one. I’d never asked Brian for
anything, and I knew that he was making good money off me now, so it was time
for him to step up, regardless of what time it was back in London. I was
thankful when he answered and I paced the lounge as I spoke in a low tone, to
make sure Lucas couldn’t hear me, as I explained what I needed him to do. He
wasn’t exactly over the moon with my suggestion, I wasn’t either, but I
couldn’t see any alternative. I walked away from Lucas or it came out, they
weren’t exactly great options. Much as Lucas would want to do the right thing,
I knew how much he loved me, I didn’t think he’d be able to leave me, so I had
to be strong, I had to fix this. Brian tried objecting again, but I told him
that if he couldn’t do as I asked then I’d find another agent who could. Being
around the domineering Lucas Steel had toughened me up, I wasn’t a bitch by any
stretch of the imagination, but I was nobody’s fool either. Brian soon backed
down and apologised and said he’d get on the case on Monday, draw up a proposal
and then we’d meet before deciding what to do. I hung up and went to pour
myself a stiff drink. I was going to need it, I knew Lucas was going to be
furious, but I didn’t have a choice. He’d been calling for me for the last few
minutes to return to bed. Each call had his voice rising and the urgency in it
increasing. I needed to face him or he’d hurt himself by getting up to come
looking for me.