Puppet Master

Chapter Twenty Three

Monday morning brought with it a steaming cup of coffee, and a pair of hands she’d recently become very accustomed to gently nudging her awake.

Sunlight filtered through the pale curtains as her eyelids gently flickered open to see his tall, dark and impeccable frame crouched beside her, smoothing the platinum locks of her hair across the pillow. “Made you coffee, babe,” he teased, with a sexy chuckle to his voice that she’d also become rather accustomed to.

He’d stayed since Friday, and each morning he’d wake her like this, with her coffee just exactly as she liked it, and teasing her about her inability to wake up to an alarm, before climbing back into the bed next to her, stroking her hair as she woke up with the shot of caffeine, and murmuring sweet nothings in her ear.

Which obviously usually led to more sweet nothings, and a whole lot of sweeter something somethings.

“Monday’s arrived, babe, I’ve got to go.” She protested quietly, hoping for another round of early morning wake up calls, before she remembered that she wasn’t asking anything from him anymore, and quickly quietened.

Coolly, she moved to sit up against the headboard, and took a slow sip of her coffee, before raising a manicured eyebrow and looking up at him, oh so sexy in his dark suit. “Pretty dressed up for fixing cars aren’t you, Jay? What’s on the agenda for today?”

He took a seat at the edge of the bed, staring at her for a long, quiet moment, until she almost squirmed in discomfort. Sometimes, he could be so intense; his ice blue eyes could bore a hole through you faster than a hammer drill, as though they were just milling through every single corner of your soul.

“Promise me something, angel.” His voice was heavy, thick, just plain deadly serious, and she could only nod in response, her violet eyes flicking over every corner of his face, “I want you to stay safe. Just be careful over here in the city, it’s killing me that you’re on your own, and I’m not nearby. Come with me, today?”

He suddenly had both of her hands within one of his, and she was caught between staring into his – were they pleading? – eyes, and gazing longingly at her rapidly cooling cup of coffee, before she even had a chance to process what he was saying. She chuckled, shaking her head, and pulling free one of her hands to reach off for the mug at her bedside.

“Jayden, I’ve got so much to do today, it’s unreal. I can’t just drop everything to come with you!”

“Why not? The gallery don’t pay you enough anyway! And we could get a hotel for the night, cuddle up in a Jacuzzi, drink champagne all night ...” his lips were running across her neck temptingly, and she almost pulled him over into the bed before she saw the time flash up on her phone – so much for his early appointment, she wasn’t even sure she’d be able to make her own!

   “Jayden! I have to get ready for work! I’m not a sex slave you know!”

“Yes, you are,” he carried on with the kisses, despite her futile attempts to push him off her, was it really entirely necessary that his chest was so huge? He must be like four times the size of her! “You’re a very good one too. You’re my sex slave, Vittoria, we have previously discussed this. I’m tempted to demand that you come with me today. I may want this hot, sexy little body at some point today, and you have the audacity to deny me!” She chuckled, smoothly, watching him move around the room, collecting his things to put back into his overnight bag.