Owned (Office Intrigue Book 8) by Nicole Edwards (year 2 reading books TXT) 📗

skin with my thumb. “Talon has it structured that way because of the frequent guests who come here.”

“Guests?”

“Potential Owners,” I explained. “But it’s a private resort.”

Ransom frowned.

Evidently Talon hadn’t explained the details of what transpired here on the island of sin and debauchery.

Because I had no intention of going into detail—not my place—I shifted the topic. “There’s a kitchen staff on duty twenty-four seven. You can order pretty much anything at any time. There are possessions to tend to anything else you might need. Laundry, cleaning. They rotate shifts and handle all chores.”

“Have you eaten dinner?” he asked, peering up at me as he rubbed the spot where I’d secured the cotton ball with medical tape.

“I have not,” I said.

“Good. You’ll have dinner with me.”

My gaze shot to his face and I swallowed hard. The polite refusal was sitting on the tip of my tongue, but it remained there when those brown eyes seemed to peer into my soul.

“Very nice,” Ransom said, his voice pitched low as he stood. “I like when you don’t argue.”

Since I hadn’t moved back, we were nearly chest to chest, and because he was a few inches taller than my six feet, I had to peer up slightly to hold his gaze.

“Have I mentioned I missed you?” Ransom’s thumb brushed my chin, rasping against the two-day beard growth, his gaze skimming my face as though he was taking it all in once again.

When his eyes met mine, I found myself holding my breath. I knew he wasn’t looking for an answer because it was a rhetorical question. I seriously doubted he could hear the pounding of my heart, but the rapid blood flow was currently filling my ears.

I forced myself to take a step back, focused on my breathing, prayed I didn’t faint because, yeah, he had a way about him that made me light-headed.

“I’ll show you to your villa,” I said, turning away, reminding myself of all the reasons I could not let this man get under my skin again. Hell, it had taken me nearly a decade to get over him.

“Jasper.”

I stopped at the door, peered over my shoulder.

“I did,” he said. “Miss you.”

I hated that my heart lurched at his admission.

Oh, who the hell was I kidding? I would never get over Ransom Bishop.

Not ever.

Which meant things were about to get really, really awkward.

*

RANSOM

While every muscle in my body ached from the collision with the tree, I did feel immensely better. The headache was now manageable, my shoulder, too. That didn’t stop me from laying it on thick in an effort to get Jasper to stick around after he dutifully showed me to the villa he said Talon had assigned to me.

“Am I getting special treatment?” I asked when he led me into the two-story, stand-alone structure that blended into the surrounding foliage as though it had been here since the island formed.

“Talon said you were to be treated as a member of the staff.”

Oh, really? “And staff members get their own place?”

Jasper didn’t look at me when he nodded. “They do, yes.”

“I assume you have one of these, too,” I said, motioning around the open and airy space that was far bigger than it appeared from the outside. Hell, from out there, it looked modest. That changed drastically on the inside. I doubted anything had been spared when building this spacious villa with what appeared to be a second-floor loft and no walls on the main floor.

“I do, yes.” Jasper didn’t look at me when he spoke. “Next to yours, actually.”

“So we’re neighbors?”

“I guess.”

I walked through the living space, across the white ash hardwood flooring, toward the retractable wall of windows that lined the back of the house.

“There’s a pool out there,” Jasper stated. “It’s shared by these six villas, which Talon’s reserved for those who work here.”

“Who stays in them?”

“Cody and I are the only permanent residents at the moment. Tiegan’s got one, Zion another, but they’re rarely in theirs because they travel so often.”

“Guests don’t stay in them?”

Jasper did glance my way briefly. “No. The guests stay in the Owners’ Retreat.”

I continued to stare at him, waiting for him to make eye contact.

He didn’t.

“Do I make you nervous?” I asked, taking a step toward him.

His Adam’s apple bobbed slowly as he swallowed, those celadon-green eyes finally shifting to my face. “No.”

A smile pulled at my lips and I let him see it. “Why does that sound like a lie?”

Jasper swallowed again, but I had to give him props because he remained rooted to the floor even as I invaded his personal space.

“How did you end up here?” I asked. “With Talon. How’d he find you?”

“At a club.”

“Not Dichotomy. I would’ve seen you there.”

Jasper shook his head. “No. A different one.”

“Fetish club?”

His nod was barely discernible.

“In Chicago?”

His eyes flared slightly. “Yes.”

“So you came back?”

There was something in Jasper’s eyes, something I couldn’t quite make out.

“But you never came back to me?”

I knew he wouldn’t answer the question. And if he did, I doubted I would like the reason, because if I had known Jasper Tate had been back in Chicago, there was no doubt in my mind I would’ve tracked him down. As it was, it’d taken tremendous restraint over the years for me not to search for him, to see what he was doing. The only thing that kept me from it was the fact Jasper had left me, not the other way around, and I was respecting his wishes.

I stepped forward, bringing our chests together.

“Where’s your sling?” he asked, huffing. “You have to—”

I cut him off by gripping his jaw firmly. “You can’t run from me this time, Jasper.”

He inhaled sharply, his eyes searching mine before he finally whispered, “I’m not running.”

But he wanted to. It was written across his too-handsome face. Jasper had never been good at masking his emotions.

I lowered my voice. “Tell me something, Doc. When’s the last time someone tied you up and used you for their own personal pleasure?”

Just as I expected, his