Claire: The Forced Virgin Of The Billionaire

He put his phone down and put both arms around me and gave me a squeeze and then kissed my forehead. Against it he said, “I will make sure that they can never hurt you again, baby. I promise.”

I nodded.

He tipped my chin up so that I had to look at his face. His handsome strong jaw, his stormy blue eyes, his beautiful mouth.

“I don’t make promises lightly. You should know that. But I promise you I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. Okay?”

“Okay.” I closed my eyes and laid on him while we quietly watched TV for the next little while.

Drake’s POV

I texted Stan and told him to call me from a secure line the next day at 9:am to find out about provisions made for her. He called me back a few hours after that to say that Uncle had listed himself for her and since Azriel and I were his heirs it’d default to Azriel if something happened to me.

Stan asked me about the upcoming partner summit and I told him I’d get back to him in a few days with an update about whether or not Azriel and I would attend. He said he’d attend for us if we couldn’t make it. Then he and I discussed some of the business he was working on dealing with for us.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Stan was proving himself to be valuable, at least. We needed to keep him busy and on our payroll so that he’d be loyal. At least I hoped he would be. I had to play my hand close to the vest in case he wasn’t. I considered asking him about Lisa and why he’d never said anything about the fact that she’d come from Kruna but decided to talk that over with my brother first, to ensure he and I were on the same page about how to play that.

If Stan couldn’t be trusted I didn’t want him to know I had suspicions. Maybe Stan didn’t even know. Uncle never let anyone in the world have all of his truth. You got bits and pieces, no matter how close to him you thought you were.

Things were shaping up alright with a few other areas but Azriel would help when he arrived and that’d make things a little easier on me. He was arriving the next day.

Lisa would be spending time with Angel in the afternoon and then we were all having dinner at Luciana’s and Ed’s after Azriel & Claire arrived. After dinner Azriel and I could sit down and strategize about Kruna and a few other matters.

Lisa arrived just before noon. She came in with food from the restaurant for them for lunch.

Angel was sitting on a sofa when I answered the door and Leese and I hugged and then she went right to Angel and opened her arms while I put the food on the island.

Angel stood stiffly and let Lisa embrace her. She looked to me with her l*p trembling. She held it together.

“You okay, baby?” I leaned over and put my arm around her shoulder as Lisa let go of her.

She nodded.

“I’m going to the office and then I’ll be back to pick you up later for dinner at my sister’s. Okay?”

She nodded and put her arms around me and sank in. I kissed her.

Lisa gave me a smile and I left the two of them alone.

Angel’s POV

Lisa and I sat quietly for a few minutes after Drake left.

“Wanna grab food?” she finally said, “I’m just so starving all the time so I brought salads in case you’re watching what you eat but I also brought stuffed cannelloni and bruschetta for me and for you, too, in case you’re not.”

“Mmm,” I said, “I’ve eaten non-stop since I got here. No salad for me, thanks.”

She gave me a knowing smile, “Food back there was not good. I was a glutton my first few months out.”

I pushed the pang away at the mention of there, “I don’t even want to step on the scale. I’m afraid of what I’ll see.”

She nodded, “Throw that fucker off the balcony. You owe it to yourself to never step on a scale again.”

I smiled big at her. The morning ritual with Cleo at Kruna included weighing us as well as inspecting for adequate grooming and hygiene.

“I, unfortunately, have an OB/GYN who wants me on the scale at every appointment.”

“At least you’ll get something awesome out of the deal at the end,” I said.

She put her hand to her belly and she beamed with joy, “Yeah.”

We walked to the island and unpacked the food.

We ate quietly but there wasn’t any real awkwardness. Afterwards, she said, “I am here if you ever want to talk. I don’t know if I’d have any real words of wisdom for you but if you have questions or want to talk about anything, I’m here. I was there nearly six years and I’ve been out over two so if I can help, let me know. Even if you just wanna talk, vent, whatever.”

“Same,” I said.

She broke into tears.

I panicked a little and then rounded the island to go to her and put my arm around her and she put her head on my shoulder and started sobbing.

“I’m su-supposed to be here h-helping you,” she sniffled.

I patted her back gently, not sure how to reply.

“I’ve had a really good life since getting out. Tom was amazing to me. I loved my life with him so much. I’m so glad that I get to have a piece of him, you know? This baby? I can’t wait to be a mother and have someone to really love.

And it’s so hard because I miss him and what we had but no one wants to talk about him because of some of the things he did but I was his and he treated me like gold.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” I said.

“And I get to have his baby and I get to stay here. Drake and Azriel are making it so that I don’t have to go back and now I have you, you’ll be like a sister of the heart, someone who knows my secrets.

Secrets I haven’t been able to tell my best friends, Tess and Luc, because of what it’d make them think of their father.”

She was crying harder, “f*****g pregnancy hormones,” she said while wiping her eyes with her napkin.

“It’s okay.”

“I’ve been holding it all in. Tom and I never talked after the wedding about Kruna.” She whispered the word Kruna like it was a dirty word.

“He told me on our wedding night that it ceased to exist for me. And that was an order. He wanted to pretend it didn’t exist so that I could be healthy, move on, you know? I got to bury it and pretend the cover story was the actual truth. But now meeting you and knowing Drake and Azriel know,” she sniffled. I passed her another napkin from the napkin holder on the counter.

“Thanks,” she said, “It’s so hard. Part of me wants to keep it buried and another part is so glad that I have people in my life who know the truth, who know who I really am. My name isn’t Monalisa. My name is Shayla. I’ve said that name twice in five years, you know? Only twice.

But that’s who I am. I should be Shayla Clarke, not Lisa Clarke. My mother is dead. My father is dead. My husband is dead. But I have this family here and half of them don’t know who I really am.”

I nodded.

“What’s your real name?”

I shook my head, “I can’t.”

“You’re not ready.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready. They said if I ever uttered that name again…”

I let that hang, unable to finish that sentence.

“I know,” she said and was quiet for a minute, “When I told Drake my name the day he confronted me to tell me he knew the truth I felt my whole body shiver. Like they could hear me say it and would swoop in any second and take me back.”

I shuddered.

“Want to tell me your story?” she asked.

“No.”

“It’s okay. Do you want to know mine?”

“No.”

She could’ve gotten upset at that but she didn’t. She nodded and patted my shoulder, “Ever want to, you’ve got me. You ever want to ask me questions, do it. You ever want to sit and pick over the bones of the bad guys? I’m all for talking smack.”

I was quiet for a beat and then, “I could maybe do that,” came out in a whisper.

She laughed.

I laughed.

“You wanna start?” she invited.

I shrugged and winced, “I don’t know if I can even…”

“C’mon, it’ll be therapeutic for us both,” she dabbed at her eyes.

I chewed my l*p for a second and then I mouthed, “Cleopatra.”

“Cleo? f*****g demon b***h,” Lisa said.

“Oh my god!” I breathed and covered my mouth, my whole body tense.

She sat up straighter and with her palms she pulled her cheeks back so that her skin was super tight and she pursed her lips, “You? You up two pounds you fat pig. Oh my god, two pounds! You f*****g cow, you. You drink too much c*m you dumb b***h, you?”

She did Cleo to a tee. I laughed so hard it hurt. I hadn’t laughed like that in 2 years.

“That’s her to a tee. Oh man. Rafe,” I whispered.

“Small d**k, huge stupid diamond earrings. Sweats profusely while you do him.”

I cackled, “So much sweat.”

She shivered and took a gulp of her water.

“Orianna,” I said softly, feeling so naughty and a little bit scared that somehow Orianna would know about this conversation.

“Oh f**k,” She threw her hand over her forehead, “That Domme could make me come just looking at me. Holy f**k. Is it wrong that my n*****s just got hard thinking about her?”

I snorted, “She could make anyone come. And if you didn’t come on demand, you were sorry.”

“Lola,” she said and she smiled with what looked like fondness, which I found odd.

I shook my head, “She finally retired. She works in laundry.”

“Seriously?”

I nodded.

“She was such a w***e,” Lisa said.

I snorted, “She really liked attention, didn’t she?”

“I hated being paired with her for threesomes. She had to yell the loudest, had to suck harder, had to come longer, you know?”

“Oh, I know.” This was fun.

“Donavan,” she said and opened her mouth about to say something bad about him.

I threw my hands over my ears and shut my eyes tight, “No!” I shrieked.

I felt her hands on my wrists gently, “Hey? Sorry…”

“Oh god.” I was on my knees on the kitchen floor, “Oh god. Oh god.”

“Oh f**k! I’m so sorry!” she said.

I was sobbing and my hands were back over my eyes.

“Angel, I’m sorry!”

I couldn’t get myself together. I buried my face in my knees and then I was sobbing uncontrollably on the kitchen floor.

“What can I do? Can I get you something?”

I couldn’t answer. I saw his face, I heard his voice, I felt the lash of his belt, the bite of the shackles. I smelled the stench of death. I couldn’t stop crying. I gagged a few times, bile rising in my throat. It’d been more than a year since I saw his corpse but the mere mention of his name and I was a total mess.

The tears wouldn’t stop, the shaking wouldn’t stop. Lisa reached over to touch my shoulder but I completely lost it. “Don’t, don’t, don’t.” I scurried to the corner. It felt like I was back in that room, chained to that bed, smelling that smell, feeling his cold body against mine.

I heard Lisa on the phone.

“Drake, can you come back? I talked about someone at the resort and it triggered an anxiety attack or something. She’s on the kitchen floor. No, just crying and rocking. Okay. Angel? He’s coming. It’s okay.”

Drake’s POV

I burst into the apartment and Lisa was standing at the sink with a helpless look on her face and when I got closer I saw that Angel was huddled in a ball on the kitchen floor against the corner cupboard. I reached down and touched her and she flinched.

“Baby, it’s okay. You okay?” I scooped her up and gave Lisa a nod, “I’ve got this. Can you wait a few?”

She nodded.

“We’ll talk in a few minutes,” I said and took Angel, who was holding herself and shaking hard with her eyes shut tight and took her into the bedroom and got her on the bed.

“Baby?”

“Oh god, oh god, oh god.”

“Angel!” I got louder. She didn’t reply. She curled into a ball on her side on the bed.

“What is it, baby?”

She took handfuls of her hair into her hands and the pain on her face hit me right in the gut.

“Help,” she pleaded in a small voice.

“What can I do?”

“Help. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…”

I reached over and took her wrists away from her ears and pinned them over her head.

“Need me to make you come, baby? Will that help?”

She nodded a little and was shuddering from all the crying.

“Lay down.” I sat.

“I need it to hurt, Master. Can you please make it hurt first?”

What the f**k?