King’s Ransom Read online

  Her eyes glowed even more and she’d gone even pinker, as if I was the man of her dreams and I’d just asked her out.

  ‘Don’t look so fucking pleased,’ I said harshly. ‘I’m not asking you to dance. I’m here to kidnap you.’

  That gorgeous mouth of hers dropped open. ‘Kidnap me?’ she echoed, looking astonished. Then, before I could speak, she grinned. ‘Oh, my God, that’s excellent!’

  CHAPTER TWO

  Imogen

  ‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN, “excellent”?’ Ajax King’s mesmerising blue eyes had narrowed into shards of ice and there was offence in his deep, rough voice.

  Weird. You’d have thought he’d be happy that I wanted to go with him without making a screaming fuss.

  Obviously not.

  Then again, I didn’t have time to be thinking about whether he’d be offended or not. All I was conscious of was finally—freaking finally!—here was the opportunity I’d been searching more than two years for.

  The opportunity to get away from my bloody father.

  My shuddering heartbeat was going hell for leather, adrenaline pulsing through me.

  ‘There’s no time,’ I said hurriedly, tilting my head to the side so I could see past his massive, broad figure to the door. ‘Dad’s other guys will notice I haven’t come back and they’ll come after me. So if we’re going to leave, we have to leave now.’

  ‘Now wait just a fucking minute—’

  But I had no fucking minutes to waste.

  I reached for his hand and pulled him over to the door. Or at least I tried to. Bit difficult when he wouldn’t let himself be pulled.

  Dammit.

  I turned back, fear beginning to thread through my excitement. ‘Please. If you’re going to kidnap me then you have to do it now. Come on!’ I tugged on his hand again.

  He didn’t move, only pinned me with those icy blue eyes. ‘You actually want me to kidnap you?’

  Seriously? He was asking me stupid questions now?

  ‘Would I be asking you to do it if I didn’t want you to?’ I pulled on his hand yet again. ‘Come on.’

  But it was like trying to pull on a mountain. The damn man wouldn’t budge.

  Fear tightened inside me. If we didn’t leave now the rest of my bodyguards were going to come looking and they’d find me. And then they’d try to stop me, and my chance of escape would be gone.

  I’d be back to living in my gilded cage, where I couldn’t move a muscle without five guards springing into action. Where I had to watch my behaviour so assiduously that it was easier to stay in than go out. It was a cage I hadn’t noticed get smaller and smaller as the years progressed. Not until the day I’d realised exactly what kind of man my father was and that if I stayed in the cage any longer I was going to get crushed.

  I’d go back to being powerless. Back to being used. Back to being so lonely it made my soul ache.

  No, I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t.

  Right here was my opportunity to escape and I was taking it.

  Ajax King was my father’s greatest enemy so who better to help me? He’d been watching me all evening—I’d noticed since I’d nothing else to do—and now I knew why.

  It couldn’t have been more perfect.

  Right then, someone knocked on the door and I froze, fear an iceberg floating in the centre of my chest.

  ‘Miss White?’ a male voice asked. ‘Are you in there?’

  Shit. It was Colin, one of my guards.

  I turned back to Ajax, standing near the vanity unit, so tall his head almost brushed the ceiling. He stared at me from underneath the cap he wore, his expression impassive. His rough features were intensely compelling. A sharp, hard jaw and strong blade of a nose. High cheekbones. Those deep set, amazing blue eyes. Not typically handsome. Very, very masculine, and the look he was giving me...

  I felt an odd flash of something. A crackle over my skin, like electricity. It was unexpected and strange so I ignored it, too worried about what he was going to do to pay attention to it.

  Would he change his mind? Give me back to them?

  I swallowed, my mouth dry, and I gave him a pleading look. Please help me. Please.

  ‘Miss White?’ Colin asked again, sharper this time. ‘Are you in there?’

  Ajax shot a glance at the door then back at me.

  Then suddenly he pulled me towards him so I was only inches away from his massive, muscular figure. He lowered his head, his mouth near my ear. ‘Do as I say,’ he murmured. ‘And I’ll get you out of here.’

  I blinked at the wall of white cotton in front of me. I hadn’t been this close to a man in years. Possibly I hadn’t been this close to a man ever.

  It was weird. He was very, very warm and he smelled good. A spicy, woody scent that for some reason made the iceberg in my chest start to melt and calmed my rising panic.

  ‘Now, put your arms out. And don’t say a word.’

  His breath on my skin made goosebumps rise along my neck and shoulders, that crackling sensation getting more intense.

  I didn’t have time to think about it so I put my arms out obediently. Quickly, he shrugged out of his black suit jacket and, before I could figure out what he was going to do with it, he’d put it on me.

  Nearly forgetting that I wasn’t supposed to speak, I opened my mouth to ask him what he was doing. But he whipped the cap off his head and put it on mine, then, with surprising skill for a guy, he coiled my hair up underneath so it wasn’t showing.

  I blinked up at him. Way, way up at him.

  His eyes were the most incredible blue. The pupils had a dark ring of midnight around them before lightening up towards the iris, a shade that was exactly the same as the sky on a perfect winter’s day. They were made even more noticeable by the straight black brows and thick black lashes that framed them.

  My heart gave a weird thump.

  I didn’t know much about him, only that my father hated his guts because Dad and Augustus King had been rivals until Augustus had finally gone to jail. Dad had been hoping that once Augustus had gone he’d be able to grab what was left of his empire and take it for himself—he was nothing if not opportunistic.

  But apparently Ajax King kept getting in the way.

  Maybe that was why I hadn’t screamed when Ajax had appeared in the bathroom. Why I’d believed him when he said he wouldn’t hurt me.

  He might have once been the heir to the biggest crime empire in Sydney, but he wasn’t now and any enemy of my father was a friend of mine.

  Of course, I hadn’t been thinking straight when he’d appeared in the doorway and clearly I wasn’t thinking straight now if all it took to make my heart thump was one look into his eyes.

  Forgetting that I’d promised not to speak, I opened my mouth to ask him what was going on but, before I could, he bent and picked me up in his arms.

  My stomach dropped away, the world lurching around me; every question I’d been going to ask vanished from my head.

  I’d never been held by a man. Couldn’t remember the last time I’d been held, full stop.

  Had it been this hot? Because that’s all I was conscious of. An intense, stunning heat surrounding me. From the hard torso I was lying against and the strong arms locked around me. It made something restless and antsy inside me go utterly still.

  I caught my breath.

  ‘Hide your face against my chest,’ Ajax murmured before heading straight to the door.

  My brain didn’t seem able to process the instruction. Hide my face? Why? And what was he doing? Didn’t he know that—

  There was a sudden crash as he kicked the door open and I caught one glimpse of Colin and the other guy—a new guard whose name I could never remember—and instinctively I turned away, hiding my face against Ajax’s broad chest, just like he’d told me to.

  The cotton of
his shirt had been warmed by the hot skin beneath it and his scent filled my senses. Sandalwood, maybe, and...cedar? I’d taught myself about perfumes once and remembered the scents. Anyway, it was amazing. I pressed my cheek against the fabric, feeling firm muscle beneath it, and inhaled, the smell of him going straight to my head.

  ‘What?’ Ajax demanded, his deep voice making his chest vibrate against my cheek. ‘Get the fuck out of my way.’

  Silence.

  I should have been paying attention to what was happening, but being in his arms was way too distracting.

  The warmth of his body was soaking through the stupid white cocktail frock Dad had insisted I wear tonight, and I was conscious of how hard he was. Like he’d been carved out of rock, not muscle and bone.

  The restless thing inside me had curled up and gone to sleep, as if it felt safe. As if it knew that he would protect me if anything went wrong, which was strange since I knew that men in general weren’t particularly safe to be around.

  ‘We’re looking for Miss Imogen White,’ Colin was saying. ‘She was in the—’

  ‘Don’t know, don’t give a fuck,’ Ajax said casually, continuing to walk with me in his arms down the corridor. ‘Go check the damn bathroom yourself. There’s no one in there now.’

  ‘But you must have—’

  ‘If you hadn’t noticed, I’m busy.’

  There was more silence after that and, given that Ajax hadn’t stopped, it must have meant my guards hadn’t realised it was me in his arms. The suit jacket and cap now made sense; he’d been trying to hide my identity.

  I’d relaxed totally against him, but curiosity stole through me and I began to turn my head, only to have him say gruffly, ‘Keep your head where it is. We’re not out of the building yet.’

  I nodded and closed my eyes, inhaling warmth and spice and the faint smell of laundry powder from his shirt. His heart was beating beneath my ear and I could hear the rhythm of it, steady and strong and sure.

  Like him.

  Odd thing to think about a man I’d only just met and didn’t know. Maybe I was drunk. Maybe I was high. On him and his magical scent. Whatever, I accepted the thought without protest.

  Not that it mattered. He could have been Jack the Ripper and I would have been okay with it if he could get me out of the building without being seen.

  The thought of freedom being so close made excitement surge through me and if I hadn’t been held so securely in his arms I would have wriggled.

  Keeping still was something I found difficult at the best of times, but most especially when I was excited or angry or sad.

  A fidgety chatterbox, all the nannies had said about me.

  A mess, said my father, looking at me with the disapproval that used to cut me so badly when I was a kid and longing for his attention.

  My mother had died when I was born and if she hadn’t, things would have been different. Dad would have been different. But she had and he wasn’t, and all I remember wanting was his love.

  He didn’t like my insatiable curiosity or the way I couldn’t stop moving. I used to try to stay still, to not piss him off by jogging my leg or humming or asking questions, or any of the other things I did that irritated him, but it had always been a constant battle.

  But it wasn’t until I was eighteen that my inability to check myself had consequences. Terrible consequences.

  Since then I’d tried to stay in the box Dad had put me in, but the fight against my restless nature was never-ending and quite frankly exhausting.

  I didn’t feel exhausted now, though. Now I could have lain quiet and still in Ajax’s arms all day.

  I rubbed my cheek absently against the cotton of his shirt, wanting to get closer to him, and he made a growling sound. ‘Fuck’s sake, don’t move until I tell you. Your hair will come down and people will see it and they’ll guess who you are.’

  I stilled obediently. ‘Who do they think I am now then?’

  ‘Some girl I’m carrying back to my cave to screw.’

  The words travelled down my spine like an electric shock. ‘Really? Do you often carry girls out of balls to screw?’

  ‘You can stop talking now.’

  ‘But what about—’

  ‘Quiet.’

  There was a note of deep authority in his voice that calmed me, not that I needed extra calming right now. I was so calm I was nearly catatonic, lulled by his heat and the feeling of being held gently and carefully. As if I was something precious he didn’t want to drop.

  A large group of people passed by us, their conversation loud, and then cooler air brushed against my bare legs, the glare of neon and streetlights illuminating the white of Ajax’s shirt.

  We must be outside.

  It felt like we were walking down some steps and I could hear cars.

  Regret gripped me. Being outside meant he was going to put me down and I would lose his heat and that blissful sense of peace.

  I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay here, in his arms, against his hard chest, listening to the certainty of his heartbeat.

  There was the sound of a car door opening and his arms were loosening, and sure enough I was being let go and bundled into the back of a featureless black van.

  ‘Go,’ Ajax ordered the driver as he climbed in behind me, slamming the door closed. Then he pushed me down onto one of the bench seats, grabbed a seat belt and buckled me in as the van took off in a screech of tyres.

  I clutched the seat belt as the van lurched, while Ajax sat down himself and did his own belt up.

  The warmth that had held me so safe and still was seeping away, making me feel cold, the restless part of me stirring to life again.

  ‘Please tell me that’s it.’ I stared out the window as the building receded behind us, my heart racing, waiting for my guards to come spilling out. ‘Please tell me they’re not going to come after us.’

  ‘Oh, they might come after us,’ Ajax replied with infuriating calm. ‘But locating us is going to be a different matter.’

  I turned to find his gaze on mine, satisfaction gleaming in his icy blue eyes.

  My breath caught again.

  He was sitting in a casual, arrogant sprawl, long legs outstretched, the material of his shirt pulled tight across his muscled shoulders and chest, as if he didn’t care that he was taking up as much room as possible. As if he was expecting me to move if I didn’t like it, but he certainly wasn’t going to.

  He was like a king on his throne, staring at me as if I was a new country he’d just conquered.

  Through the remains of the warmth left over from his touch, a shiver shot through me.

  And all of a sudden it crashed down on me what had just happened and what it meant.

  I was free of my father, but I wasn’t free. Not when I’d been kidnapped by Sydney’s baddest billionaire.

  And I had no idea what he was going to do with me.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Ajax

  I SAW THE moment the realisation hit her. The realisation of exactly what she’d got herself into. And, for the first time, wariness crept into her gaze.

  It wasn’t fear, but I’d take wariness and about fucking time.

  She’d been curled up in my arms, all warm and soft, relaxing as if I was her own personal hero all set to save her. And that shit wasn’t happening. Not when I wasn’t anyone’s goddamn hero.

  Especially not when all I could think about was that tempting mouth of hers with that fascinating little mole just above her top lip. I wanted to kiss it. I wanted to lick it. I wanted to bite her bottom lip then suck gently on it, watch it get even redder and fuller than it was already.

  Not that I would. She might be proving to be unexpectedly tempting, but I had a plan and I wasn’t going to deviate from it. Not when her continued virginity was such an important part.

  S
he stared at me, that mesmerising energy she threw off still crackling all around her.

  It was good that she was wary. Because I was dangerous.

  Everyone treated me with caution, the more nervous giving me a wide berth. It was a reputation I cultivated because if there was one thing Dad had taught me, it was that fear kept people in line better than being nice ever did.

  And people had to fear me. I didn’t want another Augustus King rising in this city and fear of what I might do to any pretenders to Dad’s empty throne kept the more ambitious at bay.

  ‘So,’ Imogen said, her long delicate fingers clutching at her seat belt. ‘This is fun.’ Then she had the gall to smile—a bit uncertain but a smile nonetheless. ‘Do I get to know where you’re taking me? And what you want with me? What about Dad? Won’t he be—’

  I put a finger across her velvety pink mouth, silencing her, purely because I could.

  Her eyes widened.

  She looked ridiculously cute swamped by my jacket, with the cap pulled down over her pale hair, staring at me with those big green eyes.

  I could still feel the imprint of her in my arms, the warmth of her body nestled against my chest. She’d rested there so quietly, yet I’d felt that live wire quality to her, a subtle vibration that had somehow crawled under my skin and stayed there. It made me think that she wasn’t the fragile little thing she’d first seemed. Certainly, when she’d pulled at my hand back up there in the bathroom, there had been a surprising strength to her grip. And even now, after I’d kidnapped her, I could see a glimmer of determination beneath the wariness in her gaze.

  Curiosity flickered into life inside me, smouldering alongside the undeniable physical attraction. But I crushed both. Hard. She was a tool, a means to an end, and I couldn’t afford any distractions, not now.

  ‘We’re going to my house.’ I let my finger linger on her lips a fraction, to show her I meant business. Nothing to do with how soft they felt. ‘And I’m going to keep you there a little while.’