Chapter 26 Chapter Twenty-five
“Can you place your hand lower? We're aiming for pictures packed with seduction and desire.” The photographer said, waiting for me to do as he'd suggested.
But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Thayne always initiated body contact and intimacy. I couldn't tell if he would like or hate it.
Thayne, on the other hand, stood rock-still behind me as though he didn't want to have anything to do with me at all.
How was this supposed to work when he remained aloof the whole time?
Sasha said we had four weeks to run the PR ‘we are madly in love’ stunt. Four agonizing weeks.
Today was just the first day. At this rate, we would fail before we even started.
“Here, let me show you.” The photographer made the costly mistake of coming really close to me and lifting my arm to place it on his own chest.
“Like this, then you -"
Thayne grabbed him by the neck instantly, and the camera fell to the plush rug of the studio with a soft thud.
Sasha made a facepalm.
“You don't touch my woman." Thayne growled.
The photographer gasped for precious air, flailing his legs as Thayne lifted him off the ground.
“Yesyessir," he stuttered.
“Thayne," I called out, touching his arm tentatively.
“He touched you, Ara. It's a punishable crime." He said, his eyes blazing with unrestrained fire.
“He didn't know, please let him go."
He thought about it for a moment, then let go of the photographer who immediately doubled over and broke into fits of cough.
He stared at Thayne, wide-eyed.
Sasha urged him to go back to work, and he resumed without even bothering to alert us on when to switch poses.
"No one but me touches you, Ara,” Thayne murmured, pressing me against his stomach and burying his nose in my hair.
"But it's impo -”
"No one, Ara. The only hands I want touching you are mine.” His words were a hot whisper that immediately sent fire burning up my skin.
I was no longer skeptical about touching him.
I turned and trailed my fingers along the side of his neck.
“Okay, your royal aggressiveness." I told him.
He was struck by my boldness, his brow lifting slightly in surprise.
“Who was the caller back in the penthouse?" I asked him.
“No one worth worrying over.” He answered.
Then to Sasha, "We're done for today.”
I bit my lower lip. His change of mood was my fault. But I needed to know who the caller was. And I wouldn't stop trying to find out who it was and what the person had told him that caused him to agree to Sasha's plan.
Now, I had access to anything and everything on my new phone because Thayne had promised to enable the disabled features.
He'd kept his words, but that was just one down out of a million things.
I wanted to know what his father was up to, and why.
Our wedding was in three days now, and everytime I thought about it, my throat would immediately tighten.
As his security escorted us out of the popular Greenwich Photo Studio, I was alarmed when I saw the staggering number of journalists waiting for us to pass by.
“We can go through the back, sir. I arranged three of the convoys to wait around the back." Munroe said to Thayne whose hand was going around my waist in a public show of affection.
Munroe walked with a slight limp now, courtesy of Madison.
“No need. We need them to see. Hiding from them won't change anything. Can you two at least try to put on some form of PDA?” Sasha asked, pushing up her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
Thayne looked like he was going to argue, but then seemed to remember what he had at stake.
Perhaps it was this reason that caused him to stop without warning and kick out his leg for me to trip.
And I tripped. He caught me before I fell, but the way I'd fallen backwards made it seem as though we were on a dancefloor and he was dipping me.
“Maybe I should just claim you right here and now and see how that improves our madly-in-love ruse.” His voice was nearly inaudible over the chatter of journalists and the clicking of cameras.
But when his words registered, I lifted my chin and pretended to be unaffected by his proposal to fuck me in the open premises of Greenwich Photo Studio.
Deep inside, I was pissed that he'd gambled with my ankles by tripping me like that. What if he'd miscalculated?!
On the other side of the premises, Thayne's chopper was landing, waiting for us to climb in so we would be fly back to the penthouse where I would be dropped off and Thayne flown to Slade Corps headquarters.
However, all of that was forgotten when about one third of Thayne's security immediately stiffened, standing alert and touching the communication device they each had in their ears.
“Boss, we just received intel that Darius Reedson has your mother." Munroe let it drop like a bomb.
Sasha was too distracted with posting the pictures on our social media pages to notice that there was fire on the mountain.
His mother? That had to be bait, right? I'd only ever heard him mention his mother in his nightmare.
I knew she was alive and probably well, but I couldn't help but wonder how Darius could have found his mother if she was a secret hidden away from the public eye.
“He sent a video, boss." Munroe was shouting just so we could hear him over the loud noise coming from the chopper.
“What's in the video, Munroe?" Thayne shouted back.
"He's asking for a swap. Ara for your mother.”
My stomach formed a bottomless pit and my heart sank into it.
“Bastard piece of scum," Thayne cursed out aloud, clenching and unclenching his fists.
“What are your orders, sir?" Munroe asked.
Thayne removed his cufflinks first and tossed them roughly behind him.
He began to roll up the sleeves of his shirt.
“Fly Ara to the family villa. He won't be expecting me to send her there amidst all the chaos.” In a flash, he went from billionaire boss to mob boss.
I could only watch and stare, too confused to keep up with whatever was happening.
“Boss, using the chopper is safer for you. We can't -"
Thayne gave Munroe the don't-fuck-with-me eye that instantly shut him up.
“I said fly Ara to the family villa. I only need a handful of the others. I'll handle everything from here. I'm doing this my way.”
Munroe nodded obediently.
Thayne immediately began walking in the opposite direction where Munroe had said earlier that he'd arranged three convoys.
He was going to rescue his mother from the claws of a dirty drug lord without proper aid from his men?
He didn't turn once to look at me, and I silently wished he'd at least tell me something about his mother.
“Ma'am, we need to go now." Munroe reminded me when I spent too long watching Thayne's retreating back.
Not long after we turned our backs, we heard my name.
“Ara!"
We turned to find Thayne running back towards us.
When he reached us, he pulled me into him and kissed me long and slow.
“Wait for me in the villa. My men will protect you, I promise." He said after pulling away.
And with that, he turned and began running back to where he'd been heading to, his men barely keeping up with his athletic jog.
He'd just received a threat against his mother's life from Darius Reedson, and instead of flying away instantly, he'd kissed me like he really meant it before leaving?