Absorbing White Read online

  “Do it, Elizabeth.” What the hell does that mean?

  Tara gasps and recoils away from him, feet scrabbling against the floor as she backs away hurriedly and casts her eyes to the floor in fear. I must look like a wild fucking banshee because she’s now cowering in the corner of the room. At least she’s not bloody moaning or giggling anymore, thank God. I might be able to think without that crap going on. God, I just want some time to think, and a fucking drink.

  “Put your sodding clothes on, Tara,” comes out of my mouth. Christ knows where it comes from, but I’m fed up with looking at her flawless body, with her endless legs. Anyway, she hasn’t really done anything wrong, has she? It’s the murdering bastard in my hands that has, the one who is now completely still between my thighs as I tighten my hold on him just in case he moves. I’m not even sure I’m processing what’s going on until I feel him flinch a little while my gaze follows Tara as she scuttles over to her uniform.

  “Are you going to use it, or shall I show you how?” he says. I feel the words rumbling through his back as a throaty chuckle leaves his mouth, his muscles shaking as if something amuses him again. “You’ll never know it, will you? Never feel it as I do… You’re still thinking too much, Elizabeth.”

  I’m utterly confused as to what the hell he’s talking about, and Tara’s still crawling around, trying to do up her shirt and pretend she’s bloody innocent in all of this, which she sort of is. I’m still fucking irritated with her, nonetheless. So I continue my watchful gaze of her, just in case she decides to do something ridiculously stupid like try to get me off him. That would be incredibly stupid of her, given the odd sensation that’s currently keeping me attached to him like some feral cat. I haven’t got a clue what any of this is, but I’m not letting go of him in a hurry. I can keep him here, keep him safe, keep me safe from him touching her again. I’m in control here, holding the blade to his throat. I’ve got the power, haven’t I? Well, I think I have.

  Oh my god, I can’t think again. I really need a drink.

  “I just want this to stop,” I say quietly as he turns his head around towards me. Those dark blue eyes hit me like a battering ram, and all thoughts of hatred and anger are suddenly replaced with that rush of love that always hits me so hard when he gazes at me. The rubber in my hand falters as logical thought seems to wind its way back into my brain. What am I doing? My fingers in his hair relax just for a second, and he uses the instant to his own advantage so successfully that before I’m aware what’s happened, I’m on the floor again beneath him. One of his strong hands is holding down the wrist that’s still grasping the knife in some sort of death grip.

  “Drop it,” he says as he continues with his detached stare.

  My arms are not complying in the slightest with any thought I have, of dropping the damn thing or not. I’m just lost in those eyes and that face again, just barely holding on to coherent thought of what’s going on around me. The floor abruptly jolts beneath me, which reminds me we’re in an aeroplane – his aeroplane. Alexander White’s aeroplane – the businessman, the murderer, the sadist. The love of my fucking life. Oh my god, what am I doing?

  Chapter 2

  Alexander

  “D rop it or fucking use it,” he said again as he gazed down on her. Christ, she looked good, all wild eyes and frustration as she stared back up at him in confusion. He eased the pressure off her wrist and allowed her a chance to take a swipe at him. She was the only one who would ever deserve a shot at it, and if that was what she wanted then so be it. His damaged soul was hers to keep, and if she chose to kill it completely then it was probably for the best.

  She continued to stare as he moved back a little and released his hold of her until she was lying on the floor beneath him. Her body still trembled, and her hair fanned out around her head as she lifted the blade towards him and then looked back at it in puzzlement for a second or two. Her body suddenly shifted as she scuttled backwards away from him and opened her grasp until the knife landed on the floor with a dull thud.

  “What the hell are you doing to me?” she hissed as her wide eyes glanced down at the offending object and then back at him.

  “Teaching you,” he replied indifferently as he put his cock away and stared back at her.

  “Teaching me what, Alex? How to bloody hate you?” she replied with her eyes shifting towards the slut at the back of the room. It had been an interesting choice of manipulation, but it had definitely worked. Elizabeth Scott was unquestionably a jealous woman, and regardless of the situation, she’d reacted just as a woman in love would. Viciously. “What is all this? I don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve, Alex.”

  Would she ever? Christ, he hoped so.

  He stood back up and looked down on her as he kicked the blade across the floor to her again. She just sneered at it and shuffled her sexy arse away.

  “Who did you want to kill more, Elizabeth?” She frowned and glared up at him, probably in disgust.

  “I didn’t want to kill anybody. I’m not a butcher. You, however, might want to check the mirror.”

  He smirked at her as Tara did some fucking stupid gasp behind him. Whore. Her opinion wasn’t welcome in the slightest.

  “It felt good though, didn’t it? Hmm? That sudden feeling of control, that feeling of absolute power and hatred?”

  She screwed her beautiful face up and stared down at the knife again in repulsion. She could deny it as much as she liked, but she’d felt it. That moral decency of hers may have brought her back from the brink, but she’d had a snippet of the sensation he’d craved every day since the first time it found him. Or since he found it.

  She shook her head and grabbed onto the table to pull herself up, then stood there in all her stunning beauty and placed a hand on her hip. He tilted his head at the move. She was either about to launch herself at him again or make him feel something he wasn’t prepared to tolerate at the moment. He watched as her fingers flicked on her hipbone, presumably thinking of some emotional response to even the score to some degree.

  “Regardless of who you are, or what you have done, I will never hate you, Alex. So I suggest you just try real honesty and we’ll see where that goes, shall we?”

  No, she wouldn’t, would she? And real honesty was what he was trying to give her. He shook his head slightly and looked back down at the blade on the floor with a snort of amusement.

  “Pick it up again, Elizabeth,” he said. Tara gasped again.

  “Mr. White, shouldn’t we tie her up or something? She’s clearly delusional. Why would you ask her to do that?” He flicked a quick sneer over his shoulder at her and raised a brow. Had the whore just dared to speak? She bowed her head slightly and shut her mouth, so he turned back to the real woman in the room. Elizabeth just stood there staring at him, her brow mirroring his own as she slowly turned her head towards the back of the room, her face full of contempt, and opened her lips.

  “You can keep your bloody mouth closed,” she scathed as she briefly glanced at the knife again and continued to tap her fingers against her hip.

  “I wasn’t talking to you, psycho,” came racing back as Tara arrived beside him and offered him some rope. When the fuck she’d got it was anyone’s guess.

  “Alex, can you at least remove this bitch before I do something I’ll regret?”

  Definitely not. That could be the first interesting moment of the night. To see her purposely let that demon loose might be the best thing for all of them.

  “Who the hell do you think you-”

  “Oh, piss off! I’m the only woman who means a damn thing in this room, honey, so get your arse out of my face before I grab that knife and cause some real damage.”

  His other brow shot up as he watched the woman he loved sneer and land both hands on her hips. It appeared rage was working efficiently again. His cock instantly leapt to attention at the venom that was beginning to drip from her tongue as he studied her body with intense interest. Tara, quite stupidly, took
a step towards her.

  “You’re a fucking nutter. I’ll rip the hair from your head, and-”

  That was enough. Nobody called the love of his life a psycho and a nutter, and certainly not a common slut. In one swift move, he’d pushed the whore to the floor and had her head pinned to the carpet.

  “Quite appropriately proven, I think. You should know your place, Tara,” Elizabeth said from above him. His head shot up to look at her as she crossed her arms and licked her lips with a wry smile. Clever bitch. Had she just goaded him into that? Who the fuck was in control here?

  It wasn’t her.

  “Elizabeth, pick the knife up,” he said again.

  “No,” she replied instantly, still with her brow raised.

  “Pick it up or I’ll make you.”

  “Why? And we’ve talked about this forcing rubbish. It doesn’t work with me.”

  “Just pick it up.”

  She hesitated for a second before glancing at the knife and moving a step towards it. Her arm reached forward, but something stopped her again as she slowly swivelled her head back towards him.

  “How will you make me? Hurting me won’t work, Alex, and you wouldn’t do that anyway.”

  His fingers gripped the back of Tara’s head tighter. If there was one thing he could count on here it was Miss Scott’s sense of right and wrong, so he lifted the blonde hair until Elizabeth could see her face.

  “You’re right, Elizabeth, but hurting her will.”

  He heard the gulp of panic as Tara stiffened in his hand. She never had been one for any real sense of pain. Mildly amusing and reasonably decent entertainment, but a serious masochist she was not. Hi angel’s face didn’t change in the slightest as she continued to gaze at him quietly. She’d now resumed her cross-armed stance and seemed to be contemplating her next move, so he stood and dragged Tara to her feet sharply. The yelp of pain coming from her mouth instantly tore straight through his love’s apparent calm. She couldn’t stop the flinch that followed, or the look of care that took over her face.

  “Alex, you can’t be serious. Let her go,” she said cautiously as she carefully unwrapped her arms and took a small step towards them. He wrenched Tara’s head to the side and downward until she was balanced at an awkward angle, which had her damn near screaming in pain and scrabbling her hands around for something to hold on to.

  “Mr. White, please. I can’t...”

  “Alex, let her go for God’s sake. Just stop it. You’re hurting her.”

  “I’m not going to ask you again, Elizabeth.”

  Nonchalance seemed to return to her face after a small staring contest. That may have worked before, but it really wasn’t going to help her now. If she tried to reason with him at the moment, it simply wasn’t going to go her way. The whole point of this was that she learned to hate. She thought she knew him, but she didn’t know this version.

  “Oh, screw you and your threats. You can’t do it, can you? I can see you, Alex. You made me see you. So if you’re trying to manipulate me, you shouldn’t bother. I know all your little games, and you’re not really going to hurt her.”

  Two quick strides and he was dragging a screaming Tara to the bedroom, her feet tumbling around beneath her as she tried to keep herself upright and hold onto his wrist to ease the pressure on her hair. Adrenalin flooded his already eager system as he listened to the gasps of panic and the moans of pain coming from behind him.

  “Alex, stop it,” Elizabeth’s voice shouted as he rounded the corner and kicked open the bolt on the floor.

  “Get down, Tara,” he said as he released her head and sensed he kneel at his feet. Two swift latches later and the pole slid from its concealment and locked into place on the floor.

  Elizabeth crashed into the room and glared at him. Before she could open her beautiful mouth, he grabbed at her and reached for the sheet on the bed. Her face screwed up in confusion, but she apparently got the idea because she began shoving at him as he wound the cloth around her arms and manoeuvred her backwards towards the pole. This seemed to bring all sort of venom to the forefront as she realised what he was doing.

  “Fuck off. You’re not tying me up in this mood.” Too late, because three twists later, she was encased by the arms and restrained against the pole. He slowly walked behind her and pulled the sheet ends together to cross them in front of her body, then returned to stand in front of her. Clearly she wasn’t amused. His dick was.

  “Open your legs, Elizabeth. It’s for your benefit.” She scowled at him and looked down at Tara. He’d forgotten she was there, to be honest. There was only one thing his mind was currently focused on, and it had nothing to do with the slut at his feet. Seeing Elizabeth here again, wrapped with makeshift bindings and ready to fight him, was almost more than he could stand. That blue satin swirling up and down her pale skin was enough to send any man insane, let alone one as fucked up as he was. She shook her head and stared him down. “Fine. When you’re ready to do as you’re told, let me know.”

  With that said, he tied the end of sheet around her knees to hold them closed and started to take off his shirt.

  “Alex, just stop this. If you want to talk then we’ll talk, but this is ridiculous. Tara, just get up and leave the room, will you?”

  He pulled the remainder of his shirt off and stared at her. There was no need to look at Tara. She wouldn’t be moving anywhere; she knew better. And of course, those beautiful eyes just kept drilling into him. Elizabeth had learnt well to not look away. Standing up to him was becoming second nature to her, not a flicker on her face as she held that chin up and bored holes right through him all over again. He ran his tongue over his teeth and pushed the need to kiss her lips away.

  “Tara, stand up and take your clothes off.”

  Elizabeth’s eyes flicked to Tara as she instantly stood and began peeling her skirt away. He never removed his gaze from her face. He didn’t want to look away from it at all, didn’t want one other female form to ever get in between them, but this had to be done. It would be enough to repulse her, and that would be the beginning of true hatred.

  “Carry on with what I asked of you earlier,” he said. Elizabeth’s eyes widened but still remained transfixed on his. “She can’t fight back this time.”

  “You dick,” Elizabeth snarled as she tugged at her restraints. “How dare you? Have I not given you everything? You’re the psycho here. And, Tara, don’t you fucking touch me.”

  He glanced down at the diamonds sparkling on her wrist as she wrenched at the sheet and chuckled to himself. She definitely wouldn’t ever be owned by anyone. With a few strides, he reached inside his jacket pocket and removed the matching necklace. He’d said he’d never leave her, and he meant it.

  Tara scuttled out of his way as he lifted the choker to Elizabeth’s throat and wrapped it around her skin. She twisted her head in every available direction to dislodge it but it was no use. He latched it together and took a step away again. She stared back at him, this time in disbelief.

  “Oh my god, you are delusional, aren’t you? Do you think I want this around my neck? I don’t want any of this. Let me out of this.” He smiled and made himself comfortable on the bed.

  “You told me I could make the decisions about what we need. You need this.”

  “What? You think this is morally acceptable? I’ve just found out you’re a… well, you know…” She stuttered as she shot a look at Tara. “And you think you still have the right to tell me what to do? I might still care, Alex, but you’re pushing the damn boundaries of reason here.”

  He smiled again. She was still trying to protect him. After everything she’d been through so far, she still wouldn’t say the words directly.

  “I’m a what, Elizabeth?” Her eyes shifted again. He couldn’t give damn about Tara. She could easily be paid off, or disposed of. He couldn’t have cared less. The whore had no proof anyway. Elizabeth’s eyes looked towards the floor as her mouth moved around unspoken words. “Louder, Elizabeth.
Say it.”

  She shook her head and continued with her downward gaze, then appeared to mumble something about Phillips beneath her breath. He sneered at the mention of the man. He still didn’t understand why she’d been talking to him in the first place. She may not have wanted the man, but why she knew him was irritating as hell. “What did you say?”

  She shook her head again and sighed out a breath.

  “Alex, please... I just want to go home. I’m so tired,” she replied. Good. Hate would descend more rapidly that way. There was no way she’d ever give up completely. He’d seen that fire in her. She just needed to let it back out again.

  “Talking of Aiden Phillips, why were you with him? Do you want him as well as Pascal? I’m sure I can arrange it. Three seems a little greedy if I’m honest. However, you know I’ll give you anything you want.” Her face flew back upwards. Apparently he’d hit a nerve.

  “What the fuck sort of question is that? Really?” she said as a scowl of annoyance flashed across her face again.

  “Well, do you?”

  “I can’t believe you’re even suggesting... Are you insane? You’re the one who wants that, not me. I’m not even discussing this with you, not unless you let me out of this, anyway. I don’t know what this odd mood is you’ve got going on, but you need to let me out of this and then we can try and figure-”

  “Tara, start at the floor and work your way up,” he cut in.

  “No,” she near shouted as she glared at Tara. He wasn’t entirely sure who she’d aimed the comment at. “Stop! Don’t... Alex, please, stop her. You... Stop, I don’t want this.”

  “Aiden Phillips?”

  “Okay, okay! No, I don’t want him at all. He’s evil or something. I don’t even really know him,” she replied as she inched her feet away from Tara whose head was hovering around them.