His Ransom 6 Page 3

  There was a pause on the other end. I thought for a second that Sean had hung up. Then he spoke again.

  “Alright,” he said. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re doing this so that Jake can have a family?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  There was a pause, and I thought I heard Sean tapping his fingers on the other end of the phone. One of Jake’s mannerisms.

  “You don’t know what kind of a family you’re getting yourself into,” he said. Then he hung up.

  When Jake came home that night, I had a secret to keep from him. Sean had told me that he would call me soon, from a different phone, once he had a plan in place. I didn’t know what he was planning, but I didn’t feel too frightened. Jake’s security team wasn’t going to let anything happen, I knew.

  But if I wanted Jake to see Sean for who he really was. If he had a brother, I wanted him to know about it.

  “Good news!” Jake said, walking through the door.

  “What is it?” I asked. For a second, I thought that Sean had called him to talk.

  “The negotiations are close to done,” Jake said. “They’re putting the contract through the lawyers tomorrow. So we have a whole day to ourselves!”

  “That’s wonderful!” I said. I leaned into his embrace as he hugged me tightly.

  “I was thinking we could head out to Versailles to see the gardens there. It’s a beautiful palace, and the art inside is incredible, but the gardens are really something else.”

  “Sounds great,” I said, nuzzling his hard chest. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I missed hugging him when he was gone all day. The feeling that he gave me when he curled me into his body, holding me like I was a precious, fragile thing. I missed his touch.

  “How was your day?” he asked.

  I shrugged.

  “Stayed in. Relaxed. It was boring.” I didn’t want to say anything about the phone call to his so-called brother. There wasn’t anything to say that he hadn’t heard already, anyway.

  “Well, then,” Jake said, pulling me up over his shoulder. “Let’s make things more exciting.”

  I squealed as he carried me all the way to the bedroom.

  Chapter Five

  “Here,” Jake said.

  I frowned. The brochure I’d been reading said to get off at a different stop. But Jake was already getting up, pulling his backpack over his shoulder.

  I followed him dutifully out to the train station we had stopped at. The platform here was nearly deserted. There were two old women who quickly stepped down the stairs and walked to the street. And there were the two security guards that Jake had asked to tag along discreetly, lounging around at the end of the platform.

  It was weird, being tailed by someone you had hired to tail you. The security guards seemed to be invisible, and then I’d turn around and see one of them glancing my way.

  Now, though, Jake was walking the other way, away from the guards.

  “Jake?” I scooted along behind him, frowning at the brochure. The train pulled away from the platform, presumably going to what was actually the palace at Versailles. “Uh, Jake, I don’t think this is the right—”

  “This is it. You said you were bored yesterday, right?” Jake asked.

  He jumped down from the platform right onto the rails. Then he reached up.

  “Come on,” he said.

  “When I said I was bored enough to jump in front of a train, I didn’t mean that literally,” I said. I crawled down and let him help me down to the rails.

  One security guard poked his head over the edge of the platform.

  “Sir?” he said.

  “We’re good,” Jake said, giving him the thumbs up. “Just wait for us on the platform, okay?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Wait,” I said, as Jake moved off to the side. “I’m not just going to yes-sir along here. What exactly are we doing?”

  “Look up here,” Jake said. He nodded ahead. I looked. The side of the railroad track was blocked off on both sides by a huge concrete wall. The wall was covered in graffiti and ivy. And Jake was—

  “Oh, heck no,” I said.

  “Hell yes,” he said, grinning as he pulled a can of paint out of his backpack. He tossed it to me and I caught it..

  “You said you were getting bored with art,” Jake said. “Let’s see if we can’t make things a little interesting. Next train comes in six minutes.”

  I raised my eyebrows, but I was already pulling off the cap of the can of what looked like purple paint, thinking about where my lettering would fit.

  My heart pounded as I painted alongside Jake. Six minutes. That was all I had.

  It was enough to give my creativity the jump-start I needed, apparently. The image popped into my head without another thought. Lilacs—the kind Jake had put in the bathroom for me. I swept huge arcs of purple, color-blocking in the letters.

  It had been so long since I’d done any graffiti work. And to be doing this in Paris! There was a huge culture of street art here, and this was a terrific spot. I wondered if Jake had come out here to find just the perfect place. You could barely see us from the train platform, but there was a huge wall of concrete with nothing but a few smaller tags.

  Absolutely perfect for painting.

  I found myself getting back into the groove. I swung my paint up over the concrete in big swashes of color. Whenever I changed positions for the letters, I’d look over my shoulder to make sure nobody was coming. It felt great, like I was a kid again.

  Meanwhile, Jake was working quickly on his own piece. KAGE—that was his name in the graffiti world. I’d heard all about him before I’d met him. And now I was getting to watch him do his art up close and personal. It would have been thrilling enough, but I had my own piece I had to finish.

  And six minutes before the next train would smash us flat on the rails.

  Far away, I could see the security guards milling uncomfortably on the edge of the train platform.

  “I need black for my edging,” I called to Jake. He flipped me a can from his pack and went back to painting without missing a beat. I was in awe at how fast he was painting. I thought I’d had some experience throwing up my paintings quickly, but he was moving at lightning speed.

  I had to finish. I turned back to my own section of concrete and concentrated on filling in the right edges. My hand was almost as sure and steady as when I’d done this in the trainyards back in New York City, but I had to move faster here. Faster. Every nerve in my body stood on end as I worked.

  The letters were quick, hasty. A few drips started to form as I pressed the paint can too hard against the wall. Oh well. I left the drips on the edges and began to fill in the shadowing.

  “Almost done?” Jake asked.

  I looked over. He was putting the final touch on his letters.

  “Yeah,” I said, “Just give me a sec.”

  “I don’t think we have a sec,” Jake said. He stuffed the cans back into his backpack.

  It was then that I felt the rumbling of the rails beneath my feet.

  “Lacey, come on! We gotta go!”

  I felt Jake tugging on my arm as I heard the blast of a train horn. I finished the last shadow on the letters. Then I turned to the platform and ran.

  Chapter Six

  The train’s horn was so loud that it nearly burst my eardrums. Jake tossed his backpack up onto the platform, then boosted me up.

  The two security guards pulled me up and I tumbled down on the platform. I was breathless. My fingers were stained with spraypaint. My heart was pounding. And I’d never felt so alive.

  I looked back to see Jake scrambling up over the edge just in time. The train blared again as it rushed by, the rails clattering. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

  “Express line,” Jake said, brushing off his suit pants. “Forgot about that one.”

  “You should have told me. I would have worn jeans. You should have worn jeans!�
� I cried. There was dirt all down Jake’s shirt. I swiped my hand across his arm to get rid of the dirt marks.

  Jake shook his head.

  “We don’t want to look like hoodlums,” he said. “That’s a sure giveaway.”

  “Nice try. I have paint all over my fingers.”

  “Then you should be neater,” Jake scolded. He gave my butt a playful pinch. The train rushed past us and continued on.

  “Take a look at that,” Jake said.

  I looked up.

  Wow.

  My lettering looked great. It was the best lettering I’d done in… gosh, forever. And I hadn’t been practicing, either. All of the paintings I’d been working on were flowers and abstract pieces on canvas.

  “You’ve still got it,” Jake said, nudging me.

  “It looks good, doesn’t it? So does yours.”

  The lettering for KAGE was huge, a shining green block of letters next to my curved forms. It was as though the two names were showing off two different competing styles. Soft, organic letters next to Jake’s hard, square lines.

  Like a nature scene next to a cityscape. Both parts together made a contrast that showed off the details of each one.

  “It works,” I said. “It’s weird, but it works.”

  Jake put one arm around me and kissed the top of my head as he hugged me close.

  “Yes,” he said. “I think we go well together. Wouldn’t you say?”

  The security guards that Jake had hired kept closer to us from then on. I guessed that Jake paid them well enough that they weren’t going to turn us in, but they kept looking at us strangely. I suppose most billionaires don’t jump off of train platforms to paint graffiti.

  We walked through the palace of Versailles. The art was… well, I guess it was nice. Stuffy. All of that French nobility. There were multiple oil paintings of Louis the Fourteenth’s dogs. I mean, I like dogs and everything, but there’s a limit. I wondered idly how much Louis had paid for that painting. I wondered if there was a court painter whose job it was to follow the dogs around and get good sketches.

  When we got to the gardens, though, I breathed in a sigh of relief. The lawns spread out for as far as the eye could see, the hedges pruned in perfectly aligned rows and sleek circles. The gardens had a look that was almost magical. The honeyed light made everything seem crisp and clear in the cool air.

  “We’ll come back when it’s later this spring,” Jake said. “I’m sure the trees are beautiful then.”

  “They’re beautiful now,” I said. “This reminds me of my childhood.”

  “All the green?”

  “That too. But it’s the air, mostly.” I breathed in deeply. “Can’t you taste it? It’s so nice to be out of the city out here. Everything just feels fresh.”

  Jake squeezed my hand and I grinned at him. The security guards were hanging back farther. I guess they didn’t think we were going to get in trouble out here in the gardens.

  “Is that why you feel so stuffy in New York City?”

  “Maybe,” I admitted. “It’s nice to be close to everything, especially where you live. But I think I’ll always need to take vacations out to the countryside.”

  “Hmm. So would you prefer Iowa to Versailles?” he asked jokingly.

  I laughed.

  “Well, Iowa does have some pretty amazing corn mazes. I bet it could give Versailles a run for its money.”

  “I bet. Anyway, the royalty here got their heads cut off for spending so much money building extravagant gardens.”

  “It’s nice that they’re open to the public now,” I said. “Thanks, Louis the Fourteenth.”

  We walked through the mazes of hedges. There was one labyrinth in a back corner of the garden. Jake pulled me through the hedge opening.

  “It says here that this is where Louis used to meet with one of his mistresses.”

  “Is that so?” Jake wrapped me in his arms and began to feel my body through the fabric. His hands slid down against my hips, squeezing not-so-chastely. I squirmed away, still reading the pamphlet.

  “Hey now,” I said. “These are public labyrinths.”

  “Oh come on, Lacey. Let’s recreate history.”

  “What do you mean—ahh!”

  Jake swept me up in his arms.

  “Come on, my mistress,” he said. “I’m going to ravish you.”

  “Jake! The guards,” I said, craning my neck back to see if they were still following.

  “I winked at one of them,” Jake said. “Don’t worry, it’s a secret wink. I think they understand.”

  “You think—”

  But then I couldn’t say anything else. Jake had set me down on the grassy lawn in the middle of the labyrinth, and he was kissing me, cutting off any of my protests.

  I pushed at his chest with my hands, and he pinned them back over my head easily.

  “Jake!”

  “Lacey,” he said, kissing at my cheeks, my neck. His one hand was holding my wrists back over my head, and his other hand fumbled at his zipper.

  “We’re going to get in so much trouble if we get caught!”

  “Then we won’t get caught. Just like Louis and his mistress.”

  “But—ohh!”

  I gasped as he slipped his hand under the hem of my dress and between my thighs. Immediately my body responded to his touch, growing instantly slick.

  “My lovely mistress,” Jake said, an evil grin on his face. “My temptation.”

  “Okay, okay,” I said, pulling him close to me. It only took one kiss from him to set my body afire. My legs parted to allow him entrance.

  “Don’t worry,” he said again, a teasing lilt in his voice. His cock pressed against my aching slit. “I’ll make it quick.”

  I moaned as he pushed himself into me with one thrust. Biting my lip, I let myself sink into the grass. The sunlight was warm on my skin, but Jake was warmer, and I wrapped my arms around him to pull him in deeper.

  “Christ, Lacey,” he said. His breath hissed through his teeth. “You’re so goddamn tight.”

  He began to rock between my legs, working his swollen cock deeper. Beads of sweat formed at his brow. I could feel his skin growing slick against mine. I arched back against the grass and twined my legs up around him, pulling him into me.

  Deeper, deeper. He rocked back and forth, pressing into me. I could feel my nerves firing as his weight slid over me.

  “Ohh,” I moaned. The grass was cool against my lower back, my dress bunched at my waist.

  Jake rolled his hips into me and I cried out, clenching around his thick cock. Every inch of my body felt like it was being stretched out.

  He moved faster now, rocking harder and harder into me. I urged him on, biting back my cries as he drove me hard into the ground. He was still holding my arms down, and I twisted in his grasp as he pushed me farther, farther…

  “Ahhhh!” I bit his shoulder as my orgasm exploded through me, but I couldn’t contain the shriek of pleasure that burst from my lips. I writhed under him, bucking my hips as he thrust into me, sinking deep into my flesh.

  I closed my eyes, but I could still see explosions of sunlight as I shuddered. The jolt of my orgasm sent him over the edge, and his hips rolled again, a long, slow roll that pierced me to my core.

  “God… God…” I groaned. Above me, Jake tensed. His eyes met mine, and I could see the orgasm overtaking him. His eyelashes fluttered and he breathed in, a sharp breath. His cock jerked once, then again, spilling into me. I clenched him tight to see the way his lips parted.

  “Ohh,” he moaned, letting his body roll into his orgasm.

  It was only a second more and then he pulled back. My eyes refocused on the scene around us—hedges that could hide us, but not forever.

  “You’re my favorite mistress,” Jake said, a catch in his breath as he eased out of me. He pulled his pants back up and I tried to smooth my dress and hair back down.

  “I bet you say that to all your mistresses,” I teased.


  “Maybe. But I mean it with you.”

  “Oh?”

  “Here,” Jake said. “Let me prove my affections to you.” He sat up on the lawn.

  “How?”

  “I’m going to get us a cup of hot chocolate,” he said, his eyes sparkling. “I saw a snack stand just a little ways back. You can lie down here and recover while I go.”

  “I do need a bit of recovery time,” I said, plopping myself back down on the grass. The sun felt so nice and warm on my arms in the chilly air.

  Jake left me in the middle of the labyrinth with a kiss and a squeeze. I sighed with pleasure when he had gone. Today was perfect. Painting graffiti on the side of the train platform… walking through beautifully manicured gardens… having a secret tryst with Jake in the labyrinth… nothing could make this day any better.

  My phone rang. I groaned as I sat up and riffled through my purse to turn it off. But when I saw the screen, all of my tension came rushing back to my nerves.

  It was Sean.

  Chapter Seven

  “Sean?”

  I put the phone to my ear, casting my eyes around for Jake. I got to my feet and headed to the labyrinth entrance.

  “Are you ready to meet?”

  “We’re—no, not right away. We’re in Versailles,” I said. I walked quickly to the entrance and looked around for Jake.

  “Versailles? Are you kidding me?” Sean sounded ticked off.

  “He took me to the gardens.” My eyes flickered down the garden path to the ice cream stand. Fortunately, there was a line, and Jake was standing politely as the tourist in front of him counted out the foreign coins. “He’s coming back soon. What do I say?”

  “Tell him that I want to meet you both under the Eiffel Tower.”

  “The Eiffel Tower?”

  I ducked back into the labyrinth. I didn’t want any of the security guards to overhear. We were going to have to ditch them before we got there to meet Sean.

  “Yes.”

  “But there’s so many people there. How will we find you?”

  “I’ll call you when you’re closer to give you more directions.”