Claire: The Forced Virgin Of The Billionaire

Claire’s POV

We woke up bright and early and Azriel grumpily told me that he hated tea, that it tasted like dishwater, that instant coffee was sacrilege, and that it was even worse that I was trying to offer either to him when it was to be made by microwaving water, and that we needed to get a move-on quick because he needed real coffee ‘like now’. So we packed up and off we went, deciding that the next time we came we would bring a coffee maker and a few other staples to leave up here.

The drive back to the city was quiet; he seemed broody, even after he got a coffee. As we strolled in through the front door of the house and he turned his phone on, it made a long succession of text and voicemail alert noises. He scowled at the phone and if it weren’t an inanimate object it probably would’ve ran and hid at that scowl. He headed into the office without saying anything to me. A bodyguard I didn’t recognize carried the few bags we had upstairs and I wandered into the kitchen and got a glass of juice and then headed upstairs. My heart must’ve stopped briefly walking through the hall and remembering the dead bodies that had been lying there a few days ago. Now it looked like nothing had happened. The guard smiled at me and gave a business-like nod as we passed one another in the hall.

The carpeting was gone and instead there were gleaming hardwood floors. The bedroom doors were open. One of the doors looked the same but was bullet-free so a replacement door that was just the same must’ve been put in. Our bags had been dropped on the sofa. I got down onto my knees and looked under the bed. Sure enough, there were two guns and a knife up there. I got back to my feet and walked out onto the deck off the bedroom and now the backyard had a glass-looking fence that was at least 20 feet higher. You could still see the forest beyond the infinity pool but through glass. My heart sank at that. I wandered into the bathroom to run a bath, wondering where the bodies had gone. I’d never been asked to make a statement to the police about how we were interrupted in bed by gunfire. Clearly, the police hadn’t been involved in the clean-up and there’d been no investigation. I sank into bubbles trying to put it out of my mind.

Azriel’s POV

You’d think I’d been gone a month instead of 2 days with all the s**t that had piled up. Holy f**k! I got two quick calls taken care of and decided to handle the rest later. I headed upstairs and heard the bath running so my clothes were quickly off and when I opened the door in the buff she looked up from the tub and gave me a sexy smile. I climbed into the tub with her and we made what she’d called a soapy splashy mess.

When back in the bedroom, ready to get dressed while she unpacked, I heard my phone go off. My PI was calling. I decided to meet with him to discuss the additional information I’d found out from Dawson as well as follow up on the Earl stuff. I asked Claire to give me the photo of her Mom and my uncle and she found it for me in the basement. I kissed her goodbye and told her not to wait up but to talk to Rosita in the morning about packing for us for Vegas.

I made her promise to be no more than 2 feet away from her iPhone at any given time and then I had a quick chat with the 4 guys on the house, including my brother-in-law Jimmy who was gonna be my main house security guy, replacing Earl. Until I really knew all was good, I wasn’t taking any chances. Maybe when we got back I’d take her to the range and teach her how to shoot, too.

Claire’s POV

The rest of the evening was, thankfully, uneventful, except that Azriel didn’t come home. He texted me at midnight to ask if I was okay. Then he texted me again at 3:30 am, waking me, to say he’d be home in the morning. It sort of nagged at me and I didn’t sleep much after that.

I wondered if he was seeing another woman. Was he out somewhere giving someone else the ‘rough’ so that he could give me the ‘sweet’? I knew I’d have to swallow a lot being with him but if infidelity was one of those things, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. It’d revert to being a prison sentence for me and one I’d never stop trying to find my escape from.

At 7:30 in the morning I got up because there was no point continuing to lie there and torment myself. Rosita was up and about so she and I started to pack. I would’ve done it myself if I had a clue of how to pack for a vacation for him. She clearly knew what she was doing, what sorts of clothes we’d need, etc. She was being sweet and chatty and had tried to broach the topic of my and Azriel’s relationship,

“So, you two? Things better?”

I smiled and changed the subject, “Do I really need all these pairs of shoes for a short trip?”

She smirked, “You can talk to me. I’m like Fort Knox. You tell me somethin’ and it won’t go nowhere. I sat under interrogation for 6 hours once. I was in a hundred degree room and I had to pee. Still not a word.”

I found that hard to believe since she never shut the heck up — like ever. I didn’t even want to ask her why she was interrogated for 6 hours.

Azriel strode into the bedroom and saved me from the Rosita Inquisition. He came right to me and folded me into an embrace. Rosita left the room and shut the door.

He ran his hands up and down my back and his nose travelled from the nape of my neck up to my temple, then he kissed it, “Miss me?”

I stiffened.

He looked down at me, “Something wrong?”

I shrugged.

“Claire?” He had alarm in his voice.