‘You’re lying.’
‘No, I’m not,’ Trystan said. ‘Dad signed Bruno’s share of the will over to Dax, Bruno took off a few days ago after he and Dad had this huge blow out about it, we haven’t seen Bruno since. You better watch your back, Lucky, Bruno holds a grudge.’
‘Like someone else I know,’ she said, trying to pass his arm, but he brought his hand to her hair and stroked downward until his fingers reached her breast. Unable to hit him, or use her hands in any way because she was still using her dress as a shield for her body, Ivy remained tense and used her tone to convey her disgust. ‘Get the hell off of me.’
‘Dax isn’t here to save you now, Lucky,’ he breathed, leaning in to whisper in her ear. ‘You’re all alone, why don’t you drop that dress? You give me what I want and all the trouble goes away.’
‘You’re the only trouble here,’ she said. As much as she wanted to push him away, Ivy didn’t want to touch his body with her own for fear he would take it as an invitation.
‘You give yourself to me once, and Dax can have everything that he wants. He can have the family back, he can have the life that he was supposed to have, the life that you stole from him.’
The stifling weight of Trystan’s body vanished. Bewildered by the sudden turn of events, Ivy opened her eyes to witness Dax hitting Trystan so hard that he staggered back and hit the floor, unconscious. This was another first-hand example of why living with a fighter could be advantageous.
‘Did he touch you?’ Dax had hold of her now, but he couldn’t capture her attention, the prone man spread out on the floor behind them transfixed her.
‘Dax,’ she whispered, he’d come in and taken care of business like it was nothing to him. Still caught in the adrenaline of having Trystan up close, it took her a few seconds to rest her hands on Dax’s arms, and be reassured that she was back where she was supposed to be.
‘Tell me,’ he demanded, shaking her, forcing her attention onto him.
‘Yes,’ she said but dug her fingers into his arms to stop him from going back to Trystan to finish the job. ‘His hands on me were enough to make me feel sick, but he didn’t… he didn’t assault me.’
Pushing Dax aside, she dropped to her knees beside Trystan to check that he still had a pulse. Sorry that he did, she got back to her feet and stood over him with her hands on her hips.
‘What do we do with him now?’ she asked.
‘He’ll wake up soon,’ Dax said. ‘Get dressed. We’re getting out of here.’
‘You can’t… I mean… are you just going to leave him like that?’
‘Are you sorry I hit him?’ Dax asked, snatching her dress from the floor. He bent so he could lift her feet into it, then he pulled it up and forced her arms into the garment.
‘Dax,’ she said, grabbing his arm when he tried to pass her. ‘What did Mauri say?’
‘That he’d have your things brought over to our apartment. I already told him that we weren’t staying.’
‘You’re sure?’ she asked, touching his jaw. ‘You’re sure that you’re ready to walk away from this, from the Starks, and the fortune that Mauri is offering.’
Linking his fingers with hers, he lowered her hand away from his face. ‘I’ve got my fortune right here.’ He kissed the back of her hand, waited while she slipped on her shoes, then they went back downstairs.
Dax knew his way around, and they exited the building through a side door, which prevented them from having to run the gauntlet of party guests. Mauri would figure out that they were gone eventually, probably sooner rather than later.
Ivy was proud of her husband for making such a bold decision, and he didn’t seem uncertain of it at all. But something told her that the Starks weren’t about to give up on their prized asset quite as easily as Dax had given up on them.
Chapter Twelve
Spending the rest of the night at Dax’s apartment was stress-free for the first time. It had been a long night, so by the time they got back from the Stark mansion there was nothing else to do but go to bed. Making love with Dax had been slow. Much of the tension that he’d carried over the last few days had waned, and he didn’t mind taking his time to explore all of her.
It was reassuring when Dax slept in the following day. This was just like at home where she would get up and work out then shower and tidy up before making breakfast. Today, it was almost noon by the time Dax fumbled his way out of bed and into the shower. Ivy had already eaten and cleared up, but she brewed a fresh pot of coffee for him, which was ready by the time he joined her.
‘Good morning,’ he grumbled and slugged great hulking mouthfuls of his coffee until the mug was empty, after which he held it out to her for a refill.
‘Afternoon actually,’ she said. She couldn’t even blame jetlag for his late hour because his shift at the club didn’t usually start until late afternoon, and if he was still on Eastern Time then he should’ve woken up earlier as opposed to later. ‘You missed your work out.’
‘Do we have plans today?’ he asked, accepting the mug she handed over.
‘No, but—‘
‘Then I’ll do it this afternoon, I could use a run.’
‘I thought we might be leaving LA today.’
He cleared his throat and yawned while placing himself on a stool at the other side of the breakfast bar. ‘I thought I’d call a realtor, get this place on the market.’
‘So we never have to come back. You’re serious about this, aren’t you?’
‘And you’re not?’ he asked, taking another mouthful of coffee then setting the mug aside. ‘I know that you want to get out of here. We can leave tomorrow, I’ll tie up my loose ends and—‘
‘What loose ends?’
‘You don’t have your shit from Mauri yet, do you? I’ll get it. I have to pack everything in the storage unit, we can have it shipped cross-country. And there’s my bike… unless you want to ride bitch back east?’
‘Uh, no,’ she said. Ivy loved his bike, but after more than three thousand miles on the back of it, she might feel differently. ‘So do you want me to start packing the apartment?’
‘Can if you want,’ he said. ‘But I figure we’ll just sell it furnished, let the new owners figure out what they want to keep.’
‘There’s nothing in here that you’re attached to?’
‘You,’ he said. Snagging her wrist when she came out of the kitchen, he pulled her into the space between his open thighs. ‘How do you feel about last night?’
She’d had some time this morning to think about everything that had happened at the Stark mansion. Time to think about what they were sacrificing by shunning the family who had saved Dax in childhood only to dragoon him into fulfilling their own nefarious needs later in his life. To say that she was angry at Mauri and the Starks for what they had put Dax through was an understatement.
Trotting out his mother and Ivy’s sister had been a low blow meant to manipulate the couple. Maurice Stark didn’t think about anyone other than himself. He would do whatever he had to in order to get what he wanted, which in this case was Dax.
‘I don’t like that my sister is staying in Mauri’s house,’ Ivy said. ‘She has no idea what’s going on or what the Starks are capable of.’
She and her sister hadn’t seen each other for years. Although they weren’t close, Ivy would never wish her sister harm.
‘We can get her out,’ Dax said.
Rosie did what Rosie wanted to and no one would tell her different. ‘She won’t do what we tell her to, she’s headstrong.’
‘I never would’ve guessed,’ he said, brushing her hair aside to kiss her neck. ‘Must run in your family.’
‘I’m a delight compared to my sister,’ she teased.
‘I love strong women, I’m sure she’s a scream.’
‘Her chest is smaller than mine,’ Ivy said, arching her back to present her breasts with a smile. He kissed the top of her cleavage, but his hands snaked around to cup her ass.