Brutally His: A Dark Billionaire Romance

Chapter 18

“Open the door,” I demanded.

“Leave,” she said.

“Open the door. I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.”

She rolled her eyes, and I had to suppress the urge to remind her what happened to bad girls who mouthed off. The temptation to threaten her with another spanking was definitely there, but I didn’t want her to think that was why I was here.

There was no way I could lay my hands on her ass and not fuck her again.

But before that happened, we needed to talk.

She opened the door, and I first noticed the soft light coming from around the apartment. There was the warm, glowing light of single, spaced-out flames, and the cloying, sweet scent of cheap imitation vanilla. There were no lights on anywhere, just a handful of candles spread around the room.

My rage was instantaneous.

While I had been giving her space, she had called that piece of shit Doyle.

I twisted my right fist into my left palm. “Well, isn’t this a cozy, romantic setting. Am I interrupting a date with the detective? Did you try to hide him in the closet, or is he in the back bedroom?”

“There is no back bedroom. There is no front bedroom either,” she said, wrapping a large, worn blanket around herself, making me wonder what she could possibly have on underneath it.

Some scandalous, sexy lingerie for her date? Did he know that as he licked that pussy the little extra saltiness he would be tasting was me?

I ignored her and pushed my way into her home, looking for the detective or whatever man she was hiding there. All I could think was, how dare she have someone here for a date after having sex with me. The way she moaned and shook under me, the way her tight little pussy had clamped down around my cock while I fucked her, I would have thought she’d be too sore to take another lover so quickly.

Maybe she had this date planned. I didn’t know much about her. Maybe she was in a relationship, and he couldn’t satisfy her the way I could. I liked that thought. It made me feel stronger and possessive. I liked the idea that I could be taking her from a lesser man.

“Mr. Astrid, I told you no one else is here. Please leave,” she pleaded.

“Harrison,” I snapped back. “Where did you hide him?”

“Okay, fine, Harrison. There is nobody else in this apartment. It is just me. Now, what do you want?”

“I want to know why you’re not answering your phone.”

“Because the battery died,” she said, like it was obvious.

“Then you should plug it in and recharge it. It should be on. You should be reachable at all hours.”

I looked around some more, not really believing that she was alone. “Why are the lights all off?” My breath floated in front of my face. “And why is it so cold in here?”

I took another look around the apartment, not looking for a person, just taking in my surroundings. It was the saddest thing I had ever seen. The apartment looked like the beginning of a commercial asking for donations.

This brilliant, beautiful woman was living in squalor.

“Because my landlord decided that his tenants didn’t need electricity today.” She looked exhausted, like the fight in her had just drained out.

For a second, I felt guilty. Had I done that, had I been the one to break her?

No, I wasn’t the one who touched her electricity. I wasn’t the one freezing her out.

“What do you mean the landlord decided?” I asked.

“I mean, the landlord has been turning off the heat or the water or the electricity every couple of days for the last few months.”

“Why would your landlord turn off any of the utilities to the building? There are laws to protect you and other tenants from that. He could face not only fines but serious jail time for this type of abuse.”

“You think I don’t know that? I would bet money that even he knows it too, but that doesn’t mean he cares. We could take him to court, but nothing would ever come of it except I would lose what little shelter from the elements I have.”

She pulled the blanket tighter around her, and I realized she wasn’t hiding her clothes underneath. She was hiding the fact that she had my wool coat on, despite being inside.

She was cold.

This apartment was frigid, and I was in a tuxedo with a long cashmere coat over it. I was insulated from the elements, and I was cold. I could only imagine how cold she must have been.

This had to end now.

“Is there a specific reason he’s torturing his tenants?” I asked.

It could be an issue where the electricity pulled too much energy into the wiring, which needed to be updated. There were grants for older buildings that would handle that, but maybe he wasn’t aware. Or maybe a transformer needed to be fixed or there was something that could be handled quickly.

“Because he wants us to leave so he can sell it to some investor who’s going to flip it and turn it into overpriced condos. Probably already has a buyer or group of buyers lined up, some yuppies who think this is an up-and-coming neighborhood and are okay with the idea of gentrifying it.” She said it as if that was the most basic thing in the world and not extremely illegal. “Why are you here, Harrison?”

“So then, why do you still live here?” The question had to be asked.

“Because this is where I live, this is what I have to deal with, and this is what a lot of people who weren’t born with a trust fund have to deal with.”

“No, it’s not. What your landlord is doing is illegal. Just because you were born without privilege does not mean you have lesser rights than those of us who were. What’s his name?”

I asked this while looking around, taking my phone out of my breast pocket, ready to start the process to bring her landlord here immediately. It was hard not to notice how little she had in this apartment.

Paralegals did not earn a lot, but she should have been making more than to live like this. She should have been making more than enough to afford at least a warm studio in a better area, with a real kitchen and an actual bed.

She laughed.

Apparently, what I had said was hilarious. She actually doubled over laughing, clutching her stomach. After a few moments, she calmed down and wiped a tear from her eye.

“I’m not telling you his name. Now, please. Leave. You’ve seen how the other half lives. It’s terrible. Your little field trip to the other side of the tracks has concluded, and you can just leave me to it in peace.”

She shifted to stand directly in front of me like she was trying to keep my attention on her and not around the small room and the tattered, mismatched furniture that had probably already been battered and threadbare before she dragged it up the three stories to this shit hole.

“Okay, have it your way. Don’t tell me. I have resources to fix this on my own.”

I dialed Captain Raydar, knowing he would see this as another tip instead of the personal favor it was. After giving him the address, I told him I wanted the landlord found and brought to Eddie’s apartment in cuffs if necessary within the next fifteen minutes.

Disconnecting the call, I turned to my stubborn little paralegal. “Pack a bag. Now.”

I watched as her mouth opened, then closed, opened, and then closed again, like she was searching for something to say.

“Don’t argue with me,” I said. “Pack your things, or I will.”

Clutching the edges, she crossed her arms within the blanket. “You can’t just waltz in here and demand I move. That’s not how this works. You are my boss, not my father or my boyfriend. In fact, you’re not even my boss anymore. I quit, remember?”

“Nice try. I’ll drag you out of here naked under that coat if necessary. I’m more than capable of providing a wardrobe…” My gaze scanned over her. “And anything else you may need.”

She winced. “Thanks, but I don’t need a sugar daddy.”

Fuck. Instant hard on. Just the idea of those pretty lips calling me her daddy as I spanked her ass and pulled her hair had me so aroused, I was almost willing to fuck her on the floor.

I grabbed her chin and lifted her face to mine. “I wouldn’t test me, little one. Hearing you call me daddy while my cock is buried deep inside of you is just the kind of dirty kink I get off on.”

She gasped and stared up at me, speechless. Good. My patience was wearing thin. It had already been a long, unproductive day.

To be honest, I had never understood why men liked having their women call them daddy. It always felt a bit creepy, but how her cheeks reddened made it worth it. I rather liked the idea of providing for her, protecting her like she was mine. Not my child, obviously, but I liked the idea of punishing her and spoiling her and being the one she came to for everything.

She still stood there, not moving, so I started prowling around her apartment, grabbing clothes and other things, shoving them into the worn tote bag that was on the floor.

“Tonight, we’re getting you moved into a new place. Tomorrow morning, you are taking my black card, and you will go to Saks, and you’ll buy a new wardrobe that is suitable to be a paralegal at my desk.”

“The hell I am. I’m not letting you treat me like some bought and paid for whore. I didn’t even use that card to buy lunch.”

Her arms folded in front of her chest, and she stuck out her jaw like being stubborn was some sort of virtue.

Really, she looked like a petulant child. Maybe I would have her call me daddy.

“Only I’m allowed to call you my dirty little whore and only when I’m fucking you. If I hear you refer to yourself as a whore again, I’ll take off my belt, understood?”

She tilted her head to the side. “What’s the matter? Does the truth hurt?”

I tossed what I had been holding to the floor and stormed toward her.

She backed up so quickly she slammed against the wall by the window. The flash of red, blue, and white lights from the cop cars below played across her pale face.

“No, but that cute, insubordinate ass of yours is about to hurt.”

“Stop saying such things!”

Before I could respond, there was a loud bang on her door.

I opened it to see a very short, round man in a ripped, formerly white tank top and tragically threadbare jeans.

“Bitch, you called the police on me?” he barked, pointing his finger past me at Eddie. “The electricity will be out for the rest of the week and I’ll be sure to let the other tenants know you’re to blame.”

“Are you the owner of this building?” I asked.

I had intended to be reasonable. I was just going to name-drop a few people and tell him that he had a week to clean this shit up before they came to inspect. Then I saw his smug, arrogant, filthy, shameless demeanor. He really was doing this intentionally and acting like he was going to get away with it, probably because he had for so long.

Fuck this guy. This wasn’t a landlord struggling. This was a slumlord.

As soon as I finished the case against the O’Murphy clan, I was coming after slumlords with a vengeance.

“Yes, and you’re trespassing cuz you’re not on the fucking lease for this apartment.”

The foul odor radiating from his mouth was enough to turn my stomach and make me want to take a step back.

“Do you know who I am?” I asked. “Or better yet, do you know how many laws this building is in violation of, and that’s before you even count the very illegal tactics to force your residents out?”

“I don’t care who the fuck you are. I don’t care if you’re some cop or some spoiled little pussy-bitch who watched one too many episodes of Suits, and now thinks they know the law.”

“I’m a district attorney. And I will not rest until you spend the rest of your life behind bars.”

Anger ran through my veins. Anger at my mother, my friends and their fucked-up connections, and at my fucking paralegal who still wasn’t packing.

Luckily for me, I had the perfect target in front of me.

“I ain’t doing shit. Your little girlfriend’s getting kicked out cuz she ain’t on the lease. And if you think having those cops parked outside is intimidating me, you can fuck off.”

“No, she is leaving voluntarily, and you are going to spend the next several months in court, where I will personally make your life a living hell. By the time I am done with you, the city of New York will own this building and you won’t get a penny. In fact, you are going to spend the rest of your miserable little life paying off the fees I throw at you.”

“You can’t do?—”

“I can, and I will.” I took a step closer to the filthy rat of a man in front of me, holding my breath as I spoke. “You had better hope no one dies or even gets so much as the fucking sniffles while you’ve had the heat off, or I will make sure you are charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Do you hear me?”

The color in the man’s pock-marked face drained, and he took a few steps back while he looked around, his mouth opening and closing like he was trying to find the words to explain or excuse this atrocity.

“Expect a visit from the housing authority. Turn the fucking electricity back on. Now.” I slammed the door in his face, turned to look at Eddie, and yelled, “Why aren’t you packed yet?”

“Did you seriously just get me kicked out of my apartment? I have nowhere else to go.”

“I have already explained that I have an apartment lined up for you.”

“And I explained I’m not going to stay at your place and be your whore. I’m not going to be your dirty little secret. I’m not going to be your little kept woman in a hotel room.”

I rolled my eyes and looked at her. “Stop being so dramatic. We’re leaving now. I’m not putting you in a hotel or my apartment. There is somewhere else I can let you stay while I get this shit show sorted.”

“You can’t just?—”

Her words were cut off when I gave up, picked her up, threw her over my shoulder, and carried her out of the building.