Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(24)

She had, she knew, no choice.

She couldn’t back out.

Her hands gentled on his chest but her body stayed tense.

“All right Cash,” she said softly, “but I want to know, in detail, what you feel you’ve paid for.”

She didn’t really want to know. But she knew she had to know.

He rolled to his back, taking her with him and reached out an arm to turn on the bedside lamp.

She blinked at the sudden brightness even muted by the black shade and as she was doing this he rolled back. This time into her so his body was mostly on top of hers, his weight settling into her but somehow not all of it.

Their position meant his strong, heavy legs tangled naturally with hers and the intimacy of this was not lost on Abby. It felt strange and wonderful at the same time it felt very wrong.

His hand came up to rest against the side of her head, the tips of his fingers sifting into her hair at the temple.

Lying atop her she saw his hair was messier than normal, his black eyes sexier than normal and his face held a frighteningly determined expression.

This, she knew, did not bode well.

“In detail,” his voice came at her quietly but his words were ruthless, “I’ve paid for the right to put my hands and mouth on you. To kiss you, taste you, touch you, anywhere I like, everywhere I want, and do whatever the f**k else I want with you.”

Abby stopped breathing.

Cash kept talking. “I’ve also paid for the right to expect that you’ll do the same to me.”

After he said that, Abby fought against hyperventilating.

Cash on the other hand was completely calm. “I’ve paid for the right to make you come with my hands and my mouth as often as I like, whenever I like, wherever I like, given reason. I’ve also paid for the right to expect you to return the favour.”

“Cash,” Abby breathed.

Cash ignored her. “I’ve paid for the right to be familiar with you when I want, where I want and I’ll give detail to that too.”

She decided she didn’t want any more detail.

She didn’t have a choice, Cash kept going. “I’ll be touching you, kissing you, holding you and whatever the hell else I want to do with you in private and in public.”

Abby was back to pressing against his chest.

Cash was back to resisting her efforts.

He went on. “If I ask you a question, you answer it honestly. You don’t hold back and you don’t evade. I’ve paid quite generously for you to play the part of the devoted, adoring girlfriend. I’ve paid for you to play it convincingly, when we’re alone and when we aren’t, in all that being my girlfriend entails in these modern times. I’ve paid for it and I expect to get it and it’s what you’re going to give me.”

Abby stopped fighting because she was concentrating on breathing.

“Do you have any questions?” Cash asked, his tone polite, the underlying firmness of it resolute.

Abby, no longer having a voice, shook her head.

He’d been, she thought, pretty thorough.

“I’m giving you the chance to back out now, transfer the thirty K back into my account by close of business today and you’ll never see me again,” he told her, paused for a second then continued. “If you don’t back out, that means you agree to these terms for the length of our arrangement and we’ll not discuss this again. Is that understood?”

Abby, still not having a voice, nodded her head.

Cash, still calm, his face still hard, watched her.

Then he asked, “What’s your decision?”

Abby found her voice and whispered, “I need some time.”

“You’ve got two minutes,” Cash returned.

Abby felt her eyes grow round.

“That isn’t time!” she cried idiotically, because it was, just not much of it.

A muscle in his jaw leapt and Abby watched it with concern because it was an indication that he was not at all happy and she had a feeling that an unhappy Cash was a very bad thing.

He spoke. “We’ve already set the plan in motion. You back out now, I’m f**ked. I don’t have time.”

She had thought two days ago that she’d done something immensely stupid.

She’d been wrong.

It was catastrophically stupid.

But the truth of the matter was she needed the money. It meant security and freedom and it meant that she could keep hold of the only things left in her life, outside of Kieran and Jenny, that meant anything to her.

And if she backed out now, Cash was, indeed, f**ked.

And for some bizarre reason she didn’t like that idea either.

She made her decision. It terrified her but it was the only choice she had.

She asked so quietly her voice was barely discernable, “Do we have to start right now?”

Something intense and unfathomably deep flashed in his eyes at her words and Abby felt a corresponding emotion in the region of her heart.

“Yes,” he replied, her heart sank and he dipped his head to touch her mouth with his. “And no,” he went on, speaking against her lips and her heart leapt.

“What does that mean?” she whispered.

“Put your arms around me,” he commanded, his throaty, deep voice had grown gruff.

She did as he asked, sliding her hands from his chest, around his sides to wrap them around his back.