Hunter can be so commanding sometimes. If you are enjoying the story, consider leaving a gem or two in appreciation. Thank you :)
[Vanessa]The door closes behind me and I’m standing alone in a room that feels so out of time it's like I'm entering a time capsule, not an office. Stepping the rest of the way inside, I lock the door. Even though this room is hidden, that doesn’t mean someone couldn’t come back here at any moment. Even dressed as a maid I can’t think of a single good reason for me to be here without receiving specific orders to do so–it’s not like I’m dusting a parlor or sorting silverware in the kitchen. Nobody will believe that I simply took a wrong turn and somehow ended up in Mr. Debrassy’s secret antique office.Cautiously, I ease myself behind the old desk and chair. A maid wouldn’t be seated at the desk even if I were sent here to clean, but that doesn’t matter at this point. I’m here, I’m in, and it’s time to get the job done so I can get back to my family and get the hell out of here. In my pocket, I have a small device, no bigger than my thumb, that Lisa handed off to me along with the d
[Mr. Debrassy]She is a masterpiece. The perfect woman, trained and molded to be my perfect wife. And now, after years of careful cultivation, she’s ready to take her place by my side. She was 14 when I started shaping her, and 16 when her womanhood ripened, when she took a chance at ruining her beauty just to get closer to my worst enemy. It was that evening, after Grant made her his ward, her face bandaged and broken, that I made her mine for the first time. She welcomed me eagerly, craving my embrace. These last 5 years she’s been the perfect mole. Her original mission had been to seduce Hunter, to take his fortune from him, to break him when he discovered that all of his heirs were actually mine. But then he found Vanessa Vandersteele. He thought I wouldn’t recognize her, and wouldn't find out the truth. He’s a fool. Hunter’s always underestimated me. I can’t wait to show him how much he was wrong. Especially now that his woman is pregnant. I plan on breaking him slowly as he wat
[Hunter]Other than myself, my niece Olivia Grant is the last surviving member of my family. Everyone else is gone, my parents, my grandparents, my sister. I’ve been her sole caregiver for the last three years, ever since my sister Jane was murdered along with her DA husband and left on my doorstep as a warning. That day, I contacted the Westside Thorns. I had just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, and I had hoped to live a life free of violence, at least for a little while. But I was pulled back into the violent gang world, forced to use my influence as Hazardous, heir to Mafia King Gideon “Goldfinch” Rose. He had trained me, raised me side by side with his daughter and son when my own parents rejected me for being “too much trouble.” And now I was calling in a favor–my niece had gone missing and she needed to be found. “You won’t owe us anything,” Angelique, aka “Blue Angel” and leader of the ThornBrides, had promised. “You just need to take your place by my side, as my
[Hunter]Desmond Debrassy and I have been enemies since the first day we met, when he came to live with his grandfather here in New York City. He was such a condescending jerk, the kind of person who always had to prove he had all the answers and that he was always right. And that was before he had the power of his own mini gang of hooligans trailing after him. We were both from exceptionally rich families, all of us at the academy were, but for some reason he felt a need to prove he was so much better. And tonight is no different. Yes, it is a costume party, and all of New York’s elite are present, showing off their wealth and beauty in designer finery, but even in that Debrassy had to be the most extravagant, flashy, and impossibly ornate. Tonight he’s wearing a custom-tailored designer suit of the finest silk, hand embroidered and beaded with red and white scales of hand cut gemstone beads like the scales of a jeweled dragon. At each of his shoulders are larger canary diamonds cut
[Hunter]With her hand demurely placed over her heart, Lisa bats her lashes at Adam. “There is no game, Mr. Wright. I agreed to come out with you as your date, but we’re business associates, nothing else. I’m a free woman, and I’ve made no promises to you.” “Really,” his eyes flash dangerously, his lips twisted between playful and truly angry. "Because I feel there have been quite a few implied promises, wouldn’t you say so?”“I don’t know what you mean,” Lisa plays the innocent so perfectly even I’m almost convinced. “Adam, Mr. Wright, we’re friends, right? Good friends,” she adds, smiling sweetly. “Shouldn’t you want my happiness?” “Mein Freund, you are right,” he kisses her palm gently. “My apologies. I let my heart get in front of my head. Don’t blame me for being a bit worried about you.”“I am truly touched,” Lisa places a calm hand on his shoulder. “Thank you for your concern.”Adam’s gaze looks to her hand, and then to her face. “Please don't tease me," he wags a finger as on
[Hunter]Watching my Vanessa leave the room dressed as a maid is both terrifying and sexy. The short skirt rides so high I can see halfway to Heaven and I want nothing more than to pull her back into the room and make love to her again. If we were back home and not in the inner sanctum of the enemy, that’s exactly what I’d do. But tonight, I have to let her go even as every instinct in me is saying no. I don’t like this plan–it has too many places where it can fail. What if the disguises malfunction? What if there is an alarm that we didn’t notice and couldn’t disable in time? What if…“Hey Boss,” Lisa touches my shoulder with her gloved hand, her mask held firmly with the auction paddle in her other hand. “It’s show time.” She turns to look in the mirror, adjusting her blonde wig to cover the last of her cherry red hair. A moment later, she puts on the mask and her appearance wavers for a moment until she becomes a split in image of my wife.“You’re right,” I stand up a bit straig