Mine To Hold (3 page)

Just from his hand?
Such a simple
touch…

“And we will get to this part,” he murmured
as his fingers tightened around hers. “Then you’ll have to
choose…if you want to keep working for me or if you want to fuck
me.”

***

He had Claire Kramer, and he wasn’t letting
her go.

Noah York was used to getting what he wanted
in life, and for the last few months, he’d wanted her.

Noah led Claire to the room he’d arranged for
her. She probably didn’t know that he’d had that room—a suite also
on the same floor with his—cleared out when he’d gotten her call.
He and Claire now occupied the only two suites on that floor.

He needed her close. He’d have her close.

And, eventually, he would get exactly what he
wanted from her.

He’d watched her that morning as she stood
outside, the wind sending her blonde hair flying around her
shoulders. He’d been afraid that Claire wasn’t going to walk into
his hotel.

Come to me, Claire. Come to me.

Then she had.

He opened the door to her suite. Heard her
soft gasp. Good. That sound better mean she liked the place.

“There is no way I can afford this!” Claire
turned in a circle as her eyes swept around the suite. “Give me
another room. This hotel is huge, just put me—”

“I need my assistant nearby,” he said
smoothly. “I do business at all hours, just like I told you. This
floor is reserved for me and my associates.” A partial lie. “If
you’re going to work for me,” Noah added, “you really do need to
start learning how to follow my orders.”

She bit her lower lip. That lip was sexy and
full, and he’d like to be the one biting it.

“Staying close is an order,” he told her as
his stare swept over her once more.

In the past, he’d gone more for the
dark-haired beauties. But Claire—Claire with her blonde hair and
blue eyes—she was different for him. Her heart-shaped face kept
catching his gaze. Those high cheeks, that small nose. When the
light hit her hair just right, she almost looked like an angel.

One who’d fallen so very far.

Claire had lush curves that he couldn’t wait
to explore. Rounded hips and tempting breasts that he knew would be
perfect for his hands.

But
not yet.

Because Claire still feared him. He had to
work past that fear.

He would.

“I’ll get your things brought over from the
Hamlet,” he told her, aware that his voice had hardened. He
couldn’t help it. When he thought of Claire and sex, his response
was immediate.

“I only have one bag there.” Her shoulders
lifted in a faint shrug. “I’ve learned to travel light over the
years.”

Because she’d been forced to do so.

Things were going to change for Claire. Noah
believed in protecting what was his.

Claire, you don’t know it yet, but you will
be mine.

“I don’t need you to get the bag, though,”
Claire said as she notched up her chin. “I’m perfectly capable of
doing that on my own.” She cast one more nervous glance around the
suite. “I’ll…um…I’ll go do that now, and I’ll come back and get
settled. That way, I can get started working this afternoon.” Her
eyelashes—so long—flickered. “If that’s okay with you?”

“I’ll come with you to the Hamlet.” He wasn’t
ready to let her out of his sight yet. The last time he’d done
that, when he’d thought she might want a little time to grieve
privately in Chicago, Claire had vanished.

It had taken him weeks to track her down.
Claire had a talent for disappearing. He wasn’t about to let her
use that talent again.

Instead of arguing with him, Claire surprised
him then. She smiled.

Noah stiffened.

Claire’s smile was slow, beginning with a
faint curve of her lips. The smile spread, showing a dimple in each
cheek. He’d never noticed those dimples before.

Because Claire had never smiled for me
before.

And her eyes lit with her smile. Shined even
brighter.

“It’s going to be okay now,” she said.

He couldn’t speak. Noah just nodded. Hell,
yes, he’d make sure that everything was okay for Claire.

She’d already suffered enough.

***

Claire wasn’t embarrassed by the sight of the
Hamlet Hotel. She’d stayed in far worse places in the course of her
life.

Even once, for five terrible months, in a
place where her other roommates would scream for hours and
hours.

Claire shoved that memory into the back of
her mind. All of the memories from Shady Pines deserved to stay
back in the darkness.

She rose from the car—Noah’s car, a sleek
limo that had been waiting outside of York Towers. She cleared her
throat and told him, “You know, this car really doesn’t seem to
belong here.”

Noah had exited a few moments before her. He
glanced her way. “
You
don’t belong here. You should’ve come
to me as soon as you arrived in New York.”

That statement had her frowning. How did he
know when she’d arrived in New York?

He took her elbow. Claire stiffened. “You
know I don’t—”

“Like to be touched,” he finished grimly.
“Yes, I know, but, Claire, you have to get used to me.” He nodded
to his driver. Claire wondered if the hulking guy was also a body
guard.

She knew a few secrets about Noah’s past.
Enough to tell her that the man hadn’t always worn fancy suits. He
knew how to fight.

How to kill.

“We’re getting in and out as fast as we can.”
He led her into the building. Growled when he found out that she
was on the first floor. “Open access to anyone,” he snapped.

The room had been cheap, so she’d taken
it.

They hurried past the desk clerk. Turned the
corner and—

Her door was ajar. Room one-oh-four. Claire
stopped.

Noah immediately stilled beside her. “What is
it?”

Claire shook her head, fighting the surge of
fear she’d felt. If she wasn’t careful, Claire found that fear
could creep up on her far too often. “I think the maid is in
there.”

He advanced. Claire tried to hurry with him,
but Noah pushed her behind him.

He entered the room first. His body tensed.
“It’s not a damn maid.”

She peered over his shoulder. Her clothes
were tossed around the room. They’d been…slashed? Torn apart? “No,”
Claire whispered. Dammit, those clothes were all she had! Fury had
her shoving past Noah.

He grabbed her and wrapped his arms around
her stomach. “Don’t! The bastard could still be in here.” He pushed
her back once more. Then he stalked forward. He yanked open the
closet. Checked the bathroom.

Claire stood in the doorway. The room was
wrecked. The mirror was shattered. Chunks of glass littered the
floor. The overturned mattress slumped against the small
nightstand.

My things…they’re all—

Her gaze fell on the floor. On the picture
frame that had been smashed. Claire rushed forward and grabbed it.
Broken glass bit into her fingers.

Her family stared back up at her.
Her
mom
. Claire had her mom’s blonde hair.
Her dad
. Claire
had his blue eyes. Her parents were both smiling. And Claire—Claire
was standing next to her sister, Sara.

Claire had been fifteen years old then.

She’d been happy.

“Claire!”

Her head snapped up at Noah’s call. Her hold
tightened on the frame.

He stalked toward her. “You were supposed to
stay in the hall.”

She shook her head. “He’s not here
anymore.”

“Dammit, you’re bleeding.”

“It’s just a cut.” Her voice sounded so
hollow. “Nothing to-to worry about.”

“Christ, Claire, there’s plenty to
worry
about. Some asshole broke into your room. Destroyed
your things. And now you’re hurt.”

A small wound, nothing more. She’d suffered
plenty worse. But he took the frame from her and led her into the
matchbox-sized bathroom. He put her hand under the rush of water in
the sink. “Here,” Noah said, “let’s push up your sleeves…”

Because she was still so shocked by the
savagery in her room, it took Claire a moment too long to react to
his words.

He pushed up her sleeves.

Claire glanced down. Saw the white scars on
each wrist. “No!” She jerked away from him but Claire knew it was
too late. He’d seen those marks. “I’m fine.” Her voice was stronger
now. She whirled to face Noah. “
I’m fine
.”

His gaze held hers.

“I need the frame. The picture.” Her voice
was softer now. “Nothing else matters.” It couldn’t matter. It was
all gone.

She brushed past him.

“
What in the hell happened here?”
At
that bellow, Claire looked toward the doorway. The Hamlet’s Hotel
manager—a man with thinning hair and small, dark eyes—glared at
her. “Did you have a party? We don’t allow—”

Noah was across that room in an instant. He
grabbed the manager and shoved him up against the thin wall of the
room. “Does it look like a damn party?”

The manager’s small eyes got very big.

“Someone broke into her room because the
security at your hotel is shit.” Noah’s voice vibrated with fury.
“He got in here, and he wrecked Ms. Kramer’s things. If she’d been
here, he could have
hurt
her.”

“I-I know you,” the manager gasped out as his
eyes widened with recognition. “You’re Noah York!”

In this town, most people knew him. Or, knew
of
Noah.

“Call the police,” Noah snarled at him. “Call
them now. I’m sure they have this place’s address memorized.” He
let the guy go. The man stumbled away.

Noah focused on Claire once more. She held
the frame in her hands. He rolled back his shoulders and demanded,
“Has this ever happened to you before?”

Having her place trashed? Unfortunately, it
had. Claire nodded.

His jaw hardened. “How many times?”

“It hasn’t happened since I lived at home,
back in Alabama.” She never let her southern drawl slip out. She’d
worked hard to lose her past.

But the past wouldn’t let go.

“At first, people blamed me,” Claire
confessed quietly. At first? That was a lie. Claire knew that too
many still blamed her for what happened down in Alabama. “The house
was trashed a few times back then.” Goosebumps were on her arms.
“This—this was just a break-in.” It
couldn’t
be related to
her past. “The thieves must have realized I’d taken my purse, that
nothing valuable was left behind, so they trashed the place.”

His eyes glittered.

“It was just a break-in,” Claire repeated,
willing herself to believe those words. “Like you said, the police
have this address memorized. Crimes happen here all the time.”

“I don’t want you ever coming back here,” he
gritted out the words.

She looked around the room. “There’s no
reason to come back. Not anymore.” But it looked as if she’d be
starting her new job with just the clothes on her back.

And with the memory of her past rushing
through her mind.

***

He watched as the police came. They would
find no clues in that dank, little hotel room. Nothing that could
be tied back to him.

He never left clues behind.

Claire was there. Broken Claire Kramer. She
stood in front of the Hamlet, clutching tight to her photo.

Nothing was left of Claire’s family. They
were all bones in the ground. She was alone.

Except…
who is that guy with her?

Because there was a man near Claire. A man
who let his body brush against hers. A man who wrapped his arms
around Claire’s shoulders even as the man seemed to bark orders to
the cops.

No, no, no!
Claire didn’t get to turn
to another. That wasn’t how this worked.

And Claire…Claire didn’t
like
to be
touched.

Only that man was touching her.

That man was also loading Claire into the
back of a big, dark limo.

What in the hell?

Rage pulsed within him. He’d made sure that
Claire was at the end of her rope. He’d pushed and pushed her. She
should have been falling apart then.

Just like she did before.

No white knight was supposed to ride to
Claire’s rescue. That damn well wouldn’t happen. Claire Kramer
deserved to be punished for her crimes.

And no matter what, he would see to it that
she
was
punished. She’d suffer, just as Claire had made
others suffer.

Punishing Claire was his job, and he was
very, very good at that job.

Chapter Two

The knock at her door woke Claire the next
morning. She rolled over, pushing away the memory of blood and
death and gunshots, and a quick glance at the bedside clock showed
her that it was six a.m.

Claire had slept in a hotel robe last night.
There hadn’t exactly been tons of options for her. So as she rose
from the bed, Claire secured the robe once more and hurried toward
that demanding knock.

She glanced through the peep-hole and saw
Noah standing on the other side of the door.

He wasn’t alone.

Her hand automatically flew up to try and
smooth down her hair. She had to look like hell. She had to—

“Open the door, Claire.”

How had he known that she was standing
there?

Claire opened the door. Noah immediately
pushed his way inside. “Bring in all the clothes. Put them in her
closet.”

Two men hurried in after him. They were both
wearing York Towers jackets, with the distinctive YT emblem, and
both men were also carrying armfuls of bags.

The names displayed on those bags told her
that the items inside had come with a very hefty price tag.

“Noah, what did you do?”

He stood close to her. Not touching, but
still making her too aware of the warmth that always clung to him.
His gaze was on the frame near her bed. She…liked to keep it
close.