Page 37 of The Associate
I am going to go full glam now, just to make him wait a little longer and then have him speechless when I finally step out of this room.
I look at myself in the mirror and start working with my hair and make-up.You’re messing with the wrong girl, Viper. His nickname is a sarcastic sound in my head.
There is a knock on my bathroom door again. “Have you always been this impatient?” I call out to him.
“It was one thing my mother always hated about me as a kid,” he says through the door, tapping his head against it in a rhythmic thump. “And I am certain your father hated that about me, too. I was always fucking up his plans because I was trying to get to the end goal sooner, ya know, like speed running a mission.”
“Nothing has changed,” I challenge.
“When it comes to you, I am impatient, but I am also trying to keep my distance because I know I’ll fuck it all up when you see the true me.” He sighs, and my breath catches as I listen to his vulnerability. This is what I want from him. “I am patient when it comes to my targets, and —” he pauses.
I open the bathroom door and step out. “And what?”
He steps away from the wall. His eyes are hooded, scoping my curves in this dress as if seeing them for the first time. “And when you look like that, I want to kill every man that lays his eyes on you. When I look at you, I don’t want to hold back, I want to scream out to the world that you are mine. I never want to leave your side. I want to take you and run away to another town where I know we will be safe.” He steps closer to me, his hands gently settling on my waist.
I slide my hand up his stomach to rest on his chest. I can’t believe he’s saying this, but I love it.
“I don’t want anyone else or want this life, or any life for that matter, if I don’t have you by my side the whole way.”
He wraps his fingers around my hand on his chest, lifting it to his lips and kissing the back of it. His eyes are hooded and glassy.
I smile up at him. Even in the heels I am wearing, he still towers over me by at least nine inches. Placing my palms on either side of his face, I tilt his head further down so he is looking at me. “Even as a little girl, I knew that we were destined. You were training to be my father’s second and I am his only daughter and only child. I know that, when my mother left and took me with her, he put all his effort and love into you.”
“I wouldn’t call it love,” he interjects.
“It was in his eyes when he forced me home. He was proud of you then and probably still is now.” I pull his face closer to mine, his eyes closed. “I also want to apologise for what I did last night. Forcing your hand to kick off the plan.”
He opens his eyes, looking down at me. “What you may think of as love and pride is far from it, Genevieve. The man just deals with me because I am good at what I do.” A flicker of sadness crosses his features before he continues. “No, you did what was necessary. I was scared, I still am scared, honestly.” Shame pulls at his features as he looks away from me.
I smile sadly, pulling his lips to mine, and kiss him gently. “I know you feel like you’re running around in circles but you are a powerful man andyouwill be taking over my father’s position, whether it is now or twenty years from now, and you are going to need a strong woman by your side. I want to be that woman. I’m tired of running from this feeling. I don’t want to run anymore.”
“Then don’t,” he says, pulling back slightly, his gaze piercing into me, my heart galloping as I wait for what is going to happen next. “And I won’t either.”
His lips press against mine with a hunger I haven’t felt in any of the other kisses. This one is a claiming kiss, the others were just lust-filled.
My hand, with a mind of its own, rests against his chest and when he pulls away from me, we are both breathless. “Let’s go find this engagement ring, and tonight we will have dinner together and talk about what we want from this.” He presses a light kiss against my lips once more and all that remains after is the cold air in place of where he had stood. I guess it is time to go ring shopping.
Chapter 12
Genevieve
It’s only a thirty-minute drive to the jewellers, but ninety percent of it is silent. I still don’t know what to make of what happened earlier. He confessed everything and even if he thinks he is a monster, that is not how I see him. I see him as the teenager who looked after me when I was younger. I see him and all of his troubles. What my father has made him into is not who he is at heart. There is darkness within him, but when he is around me, that darkness is quiet. Almost gone.
Glancing in his direction, his eyes stay focused on the road. “Almost there,” he says, but I’m unsure if it is to me or to himself.
He is stuck in his own head. I can tell he is because I always have that same expression when I am overthinking everything too. The only time I feel normal and sure of my thoughts is when I am around Mason. He makes me feel safe, no matter what he thinks about himself.
I turn my head to look out the window.
This side of town is beautiful. It is an upper-class area where the rich and famous live. If you want something expensive, this is the place to go. My father told us that there would be no limit on the ring that we would be purchasing, so why not go to the top-of-the-line jewellers?
I catch a glimpse of a black Dodge Challenger with tinted windows behind us; just like our car, it stands out against the mundane looks of all the other cars around us. When we turn off the motorway and begin heading into the traffic of the streets, I keep my eye on the car. We turn left, the Challenger turns left too. When we make a right turn, it does too. Mason even misses one of the turns and performs a U-turn; after he has straightened up again, I glance in the passenger side mirror and the Challenger performs a U-turn too.
“Mason?” The sound of my voice brings him back out of wherever he has gone in his mind.
“Yeah?” He glances at me briefly before turning his eyes back to the road.
“I think we are being followed.” I look in the mirror again and the Black Challenger is still behind us, only a few cars back.
