Owning Beauty, page 1
Owning
Beauty
By
Stella Andrews
Copyrighted Material
Copyright © Stella Andrews 2020
Stella Andrews has asserted her rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes only.
18+ This book is for Adults only. If you are easily shocked and not a fan of sexual content then move away now.
18+
Contents
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Books by Stella Andrews
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Epilogue
Broken Beauty
Breaking Beauty
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Books by Stella Andrews
In the order written
Starred Books = Reaper Romance
The Highest Bidder (Logan & Samantha)
Rocked (Jax & Emily)
Daddy’s Girls (Ryder & Ashton) *
Twisted (Sam & Kitty) *
The Billion Dollar baby (Tyler & Sydney) *
Bodyguard (Jet & Lucy) *
Bad Decision (Max & Summer)
Flash (Flash & Jennifer) *
Country Girl (Tyson & Sunny) *
Breaking Beauty (Sebastian & Angel) *
Hard. Dominant. Overbearing & Insufferable.
The man I agreed to marry.
My biggest mistake has a name.
Tobias Moretti. Tall, dark and dangerous and the head of the largest crime family this area has ever seen.
Brooding, mysterious and so hot he melts the resolve of any woman he meets.
Did I mention he was rich? Then again, my billion-dollar inheritance may have something to do with the deal we just made.
Marry him and escape my hated past.
Play the trophy wife in public and then get on with my day – alone.
No other men and a life with everything I want - except love.
How can I miss what I never had in the first place?
At least I’d have my freedom – think again.
It turns out my freedom is the last thing I can have. Guarded by men in black suits and forbidden to go out alone.
A trapped bird in a cage filled with luxury.
Then it changes.
The terms of our contract have been re-written. He wants a wife in every sense of the word.
Yes, my biggest mistake wants it all. He wants to own my mind, body and soul and I don’t get a say in the matter.
Tobias.
I like to own the best that money can buy.
I like to surround myself with beauty and Art.
I want the best and don’t care how far I go to own it.
She’s about to discover that I always go a step too far.
She gave up everything to be my wife but there is still one valuable asset she owns that causes the feral beast in me to growl.
Her innocence.
My world is a dark and dangerous place full of nightmares that never go away.
My beauty is about to wake up and discover the prince who rescued her from the tower is a beast in disguise and she will hear me roar as I claim the innocence of my virgin bride.
Yes, I can live without love but I can’t live without that and nothing is going to stand in my way because what Tobias Moretti wants – he gets, over and over again.
1
ANASTASIA
I see them coming. The sleek, dark cars, rolling into the drive, one behind the other, here to seal my fate. Powerful machines that hide their occupants from a world that would be a much better place without them in it.
I watch with morbid fascination as they come to a slow stop and the passenger doors on each individual car open. Identical men in black suits step into the light, shielding their eyes from the glare of the sun with the blackest shade.
There’s a silent menace that surrounds them, and I shiver.
But they are not the ones here for me.
He is.
The man who has yet to show himself but I know lurks inside the middle car like a King closely guarded by his minions.
My fiancé.
My heart beats so fast I’m sure he can hear it and can probably taste my fear because it’s there, deep within me, growing by the second as I contemplate what a mistake I’ve just made.
I signed my life away to move from one prison to another.
“Anastasia, they’re here, get your things.”
I don’t turn around because my mother no longer calls the shots. She gave up that right when she engineered this sham of a marriage.
“Did you hear me, hurry, we don’t want to keep Mr. Moretti waiting.”
I carry on watching from the window and he still doesn’t emerge from the car. Can he see me? Of course, he can. I expect it amuses him to see his caged bird waiting to swap one cage for another. He is probably reveling in the moment he gains another possession to add to his pile.
The men stand with their backs to the cars as if waiting for orders, and they probably are.
“Anastasia, I said, hurry up—now.”
Mom’s voice is high and panicked. She won’t rest until I’m safely inside one of those black cars and out of her hair because I’m in no doubt she is scared. Any sane person would be when a monster comes calling. Not me, all I feel is curiosity.
She moves across and pulls my arm and I stumble a little. In a tight, angry voice, she whispers, “Don’t make me pull you out of here by your hair, you ungrateful child.”
I have no tears to waste on this pathetic excuse for a mother, so I snatch my arm back angrily and snarl, “Tell him to come and get me.”
“What?”
Mom’s voice is shocked and I smile inside. “Come and get you, are you mad? Nobody asks Mr. Moretti to do anything, don’t be a fool, Anastasia and just get your things and go, they’re waiting.”
“I said, tell him to come and get me.”
I stare out of the window and take some pleasure in picturing him inside his car, having to wait. I’m guessing he never has to wait. In fact, I’m surprised he’s even here at all. He could have sent a car and carried on with his day. Maybe he has but then again, I know he’s there, watching me from behind the tinted glass, probably growing more irritated by the second and it amuses me to play with the last shred of power I hold.
So, I stare at the middle car and giggle inside as I’m tempted to give him my middle finger. Then again, how would that look? His new wife setting in place the tone of their relationship before it’s even got off the ground.
“Anastasia, honey, please, don’t make me ask him.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not right, he may change his mind and then where would we be?”
I shrug. “We would be fine.”
A gentle voice says softly, “Honey, are you ok?”
The tears prick like acid behind my eyes as the only woman I love inside these walls voices her concern. Martha, my former nanny, and now our housekeeper enters the room.
“I’m fine.” I inject a little warmth into my voice because she has earned it over the years. She’s been more like a mother to Angel and me and deserves some respect. “Can you ask Mr. Moretti to come and collect my cases, please Martha?”
My mom’s sharp intake of breath makes me smile inside and I can only imagine the look they share as Martha leaves the room as quietly as she entered it.
Mom hisses, “You always were a difficult child, there’s no reasoning with you when you’re in one of your moods. If this all goes wrong, it’s your fault you ungrateful bitch.”
Once again, I say nothing because I’m tired. Tired of trying to live up to her high expectations. Tired of trying to win her approval by allowing her to push me around and tired of life. Am I being difficult, hell yeah, because this is the last p
The door slams and I breathe a sigh of relief. She’s gone.
Pressing my face to the window, I don’t care if he sees me. He must know this isn’t my choice, and yet he is still seeing it through. I’m not stupid, even though they all think I am. I fight the bitterness that’s sat with me my whole life. Now I have something of value a man such as him wants, and this is the trade-off. Marry Tobias Moretti and he gains control of my shares in Johnson’s plastics, a company formed by my father and now ran by my sister and her boyfriend Sebastian Stone - my former fiancé. Yes, life’s a bitch and I had the misfortune to be raised by the biggest one of all. Mirabelle Johnson, widow of Harvey Johnson, a vile man whose only pleasure in life was making money and screwing around behind his wife’s back. How ironic that his daughter will marry a man exactly like him because this marriage is an arrangement. A business deal that sets me free from my mom and free to live my own solitary life away from her.
I doubt I’ll even see my husband much, which is fine by me because I don’t even know the man. Only what I discovered when I stalked him online.
Tobias Moretti, tall, dark and dangerous and the head of the largest crime family this area has ever seen. He hides behind respectability, buying up failing businesses and turning them around. But it’s well known that the real business he runs is underground. Nobody messes with the Moretti family—they would be a fool if they did. Which is why I feel the excitement building inside as I make the man himself wait and listen to my immature demands.
Martha walks across the drive toward the middle car and I see her talking urgently to one of the men in suits. I can only imagine her apologetic request and my heart hardens. How dare they wait outside without even the courtesy of pretending to care for my feelings?
The man knocks on the window of the middle car and I watch the window lower and he leans down and speaks to the person inside. I hold my breath as my heart beats frantically inside and feel the excitement grip me as I picture his anger. Will he come? This will be interesting.
Then the man straightens up and I watch in disbelief as he reaches for the handle and the door opens. My mouth goes dry as a leg swings out, closely followed by a man dressed in a well-tailored suit. He looks up and our eyes meet across the distance, and there’s no mistaking the power in those eyes. Two dark pools of danger defy the sun and stare right at me. The man they belong to makes my soul weep and my heart pound mercilessly inside me. You’re a fool. My inner voice mocks me as I stare at the man I’m to call my husband and I see the promise in those eyes.
As my heart beats furiously, my legs tremble and my breath hitches, I know that man is dangerous and now I’m in more trouble than I ever thought possible.
2
ANASTASIA
He walks to the door and I see my mom waiting there, almost bowing her apology. She stands to the side as he sweeps past her, closely followed by the man who stood outside his car. Turning away from the window, I question my own sanity as I wait to see what happens next and am almost tempted to hide under my bed until the monster goes away because I’m in no doubt at all, that man is the biggest monster around here and I’ve just angered him.
I hear footsteps on the staircase and swallow hard. In just three seconds he will be here, what have I done?
My mouth dries and I lick my lips in anticipation of our first meeting. What will he say - what will I say? I would be a fool to say anything at all, but at this moment, I feel more alive than I have ever felt before. What will happen?
There’s a gentle knock on the door and I try to inject some power in my voice and say, “The door is open.”
As it opens, I set my face to my usual blank expression and look with morbid curiosity as the monster enters the tower.
“Anastasia.”
His voice is deep and slightly husky, and the man that stands in my doorway fills it with an authority that is hard to ignore. My breath hitches as I take my first look at the man I have only seen on the screen, and I almost take a step back as I feel the full force of him. It’s as if he fills the room with energy, power and so much danger I can taste it from here. He must be six feet tall, with black, sleek hair and the darkest eyes I have ever seen. He’s clean shaven and his aftershave wafts toward me like a potion designed to trap a woman’s soul.
He is staring at me with an expression I can’t quite read, and I feel like a moth caught in a flame because something about this man burns me up inside. What is this feeling; I’ve never felt it before?
Just for a moment, we stand, neither one of us saying a word as we adjust to the situation. Then he takes me by surprise and moves across to my bed and pats the space beside him.
“Sit.”
He nods and from the tone of his voice, he expects me to obey and yet the way he said it was different to how I imagined. It was almost—kind.
So, I do as he says because from the look in his eyes, he has something to say that I am intrigued to hear.
I sit on the edge of the bed as far away from him as possible and stare at my hands like a naughty child. I can’t look at him because this situation is the strangest I’ve ever been in.
Then he speaks. “You’re angry, why?”
For a moment I don’t answer him because now he’s said it, I feel a little foolish. This man isn’t used to childish games, and in that one sentence has reduced my demands to those of a petulant child.
I say in a low voice. “Is it too much to ask that you come to my door like a gentleman and call for me properly? I’m not a delivery. I’m a person with feelings and deserve a little respect.”
He is silent, and I wait with a morbid curiosity to see what he says.
Then he says wearily, “Anastasia, we have a business deal. You know that. This is not a relationship like any normal one. We are not lovers, we are strangers. The fact I’m here at all is all the respect you need. We both know what this is and I’m curious to know why you think otherwise?”
The anger starts building as I measure my response. What an asshole.
Standing, I move across to the window and once again look down on the circus that’s arrived outside my door. The sadness overcomes me as I see what this is. He’s right, of course, it is a business arrangement, after all and I knew that.
“Ok.”
“Ok what?”
I can sense the irritation in the room and sigh.
“Ok, I’ll come. You’re right, Mr. Moretti, this is a business arrangement. I have something you want and you are my way out of this god forsaken place but I do have a few conditions first.”
I turn around and stare at him with a bravery I don’t feel inside as I see the storm in his eyes. “Name them.”
“I want my freedom.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“A simple word, Anastasia, that I know you understand the meaning of. You ask for freedom, but that will never happen. Let me explain. My world is a dangerous place to be. In agreeing to live in it, you leave any hope of freedom at the door. I have many enemies and you will be an attractive target for them. You have the freedom of my home, but outside you will never be alone. I have assigned a guard to protect you when you leave my walls and so, any freedom you enjoy now will be left inside this room. Any more demands—Anastasia?”
I just stare at him in disbelief as he taps his foot, indicting his impatience to get this over with. It just angers me more and I snap, “I want my own room.”
“Agreed.”
“I want my own car.”
“Agreed.”
“I want to start my own business.”
“This is not Christmas, Anastasia and I’m not Santa. These demands are nothing short of stalling for time, so let me lay it on the line. I have no interest in what you do with your time when I don’t demand it. You will have an allowance outside of your own income from Johnson’s plastics that you can give away for all I care. The only thing I want from you is to be my wife in public. That is your job, Anastasia, be the perfect wife in company and in private you can do what the hell you like, however, let me warn you that does not include other men, do I make myself clear?”
