On Her Terms (Premiere Companions Book 2) by Doris O'Connor Page A

her.
    “Meaning?” he asked, looking more forbidding than ever.
    “Nothing, nothing at all. This is not getting us anywhere. Go and have your shower, you…”
    Her words trailed off when she noticed he wasn’t hard anymore. Why was this subject so important to him? She looked up at him to find him assessing her. It was disconcerting to say the least, because, gone was the passionate and affectionate man she had given her virginity to. This man she almost didn’t recognize, considering the cool disdain he showed her, and a horrible suspicion dawned on her.
    “I was right before wasn’t I? Did Papa send you? Are you working for him, or perhaps Jamison?”
    Had she blinked she would have missed it, but it was there in his eyes, a brief flicker of something, before the man in front of her schooled his face into an expressionless mask. One that she recognized only too well. It was the same professional mantle that her bodyguards adopted around her.
    “No, I’m not working for either man, though I’m familiar with them and will be working with Don Cabrizi in the future.”
    Her heart splintered into a gazillion pieces at that bit of news, but she’d be damned if she let him see how much those words affected her. Surely this shouldn’t hurt so much? When had he become so important to her? This was a simple business transaction after all.
    “I see, well if you don’t mind. I want to be on my own now. You’ve done what you were paid to do, so, I would appreciate it, if you just left.”
    She put her hand up to ward off anything else he was likely to say, and much to her relief he nodded.
    “Very well, but I’m not going anywhere but out of this bathroom. You paid me for the whole night, after all.”
    He stalked from the room and slammed the bathroom shut with so much force the light fittings rattled, and Nicole took hold of the bar of luxury soap in the holder on the wall and threw it at the door. It made a satisfyingly loud plop, before it slid down the door and across the marble tiles, leaving a slimy trail behind.
    To hide her tears of frustration Nicole slid all the way under the bubbles.
    Damn the man. Damn every blasted man in her acquaintance for that matter.
    ****
    Jamie wasn’t at all surprised to hear the thud of something hitting the back of the door he had just slammed behind him. She was a Cabrizi, after all, and her father’s temper was legendary. It stood to reason that his only daughter had inherited said temper, even if she hadn’t shown it openly until now.
    Besides it took tremendous guts to defy the Don and her fiancé in the way that she had done. Either man would be furious at her deception, and in truth Jamie, too, could have easily hit someone right now. He settled for punching some cushions into submission instead, and then took himself off to have that shower. By the time he re-emerged, his mind was clearer and he had his plan of action. There was no fucking way he’d leave things between them as they were. A phone call to housekeeping and to the restaurant took care of that aspect of his plan, and he settled for waiting for her to come out. As time passed and no furious Nicoletta Cabrizi appeared, he put his ear to the door. Not a sound could be heard, and when he opened the door as silently as he could, he wasn’t entirely surprised to find her fast asleep in the bath.
    The water had cooled considerably, and goosebumps chased each other across her naked flesh. Skin which still held faint marks of his flogging.  His cock stirred in his pants at the sight of her red, swollen nipples and the visible crescent shaped mark of his bite on her neck. His lips twitched in wry amusement of what the fancy schmancy wedding planner the Don had hired for his daughter’s wedding would make of that. No doubt the man would have one of his overly camp hissy fits and tut about the need to cover it up. As far as Jamie was concerned, that bite looked good on her. Let her protest all she wanted, demean