Page 26 of The Tower (Billionaire Brothers Grimm #1)

Eighteen

Sleeping Beauty

T he comforter was light, filled with down so that it slid silently over her bare skin as he pulled it off, leaving her clad only in the yellow and orange light that streamed in through the window. She looked younger in sleep, as if the harshness of the world hadn’t yet caught up to her.

Except it had. To Sasha, the world had always been a hard, dark place.

Only one of many things they had in common.

She was curled up on her side, her knees up, one hand tucked under the pillow, her breathing slow and easy. He moved closer, his fingers drawn to touch her as if he was a magnet and she was steel, and it was a matter of physics—not choice—to move, to touch, to stroke.

The caress was light, little more than a feather-soft touch on her smooth, pale skin.

She would be pale, of course. With both agoraphobia and her fear of heights, he knew she went outside only when she had to.

And even if she’d wanted to, her father would never let her use a tanning bed.

Fairy tale princesses were pale and blonde, after all.

She sighed, the sound barely a whisper of breath, but he pulled his hand away, caressing her only with his eyes as he memorized every plane and curve of her body.

He shouldn’t want her like this .

He’d been raised to hate her, so perhaps that’s why she’d always fascinated him. When your despised father tells you the name of your vilest enemy, isn’t that the one to whom you’re drawn?

At thirty-four, he was eight years older than Sasha, and he could remember the day his father stormed into the residential kitchen in Grimm Tower where the whole family had been staying for a summer in the city.

Elias had slapped a newspaper down open to a picture of a woman and a newborn under the headline JUST ONE DAY OLD—THE HEIRESS TO THE REED FORTUNE.

His father had told Liam and each of his brothers, including five-year-old Leo, to look at the picture of the little bitch and the bitch’s mother. It was those two whom the Grimm boys needed to destroy because the Reeds were untrustworthy, vile, and despicable.

It was that last word Liam remembered most distinctly. He knew it only from Daffy Duck.

Two years later, he’d asked his father what exactly the Reed family had done, but all Elias would tell him was that Victor Reed was the vilest kind of man—and dangerous, too. Considering what Liam knew of his own father by the time he was ten, he figured that Victor Reed must be monstrous indeed.

When Elias finally told him—with quite a bit of glee—that Victor had killed Liam’s mother, Liam knew that his opinion of Victor Reed was dead on the money. And that opinion hadn’t changed over the passing years.

No, his fingertips danced softly over Sasha’s hip, then stroked the curve of her ass.

The daughter of his vilest enemy moaned and shifted, and Liam froze, unsure if he wanted her to wake or to stay lost in sleep.

Either way, he craved her. Already his cock was hard simply from looking and stroking.

He’d go mad if he thought about being inside her.

So why torment himself? She was his, wasn’t she? She’d agreed to everything.

Everything .

And so far, he hadn’t even come close to taking payment. Besides, considering the rescue from her father’s goons, he figured Sasha owed him a little extra.

The thought made him chuckle. As if she heard him, she rolled over, now on her back, her head turned against the pillow held tight in one arm.

He’d been wrong about his cock. It hadn’t been hard before. That had been a poor excuse for an erection.

Now he was fucking hard.

And damned if he wasn’t going to take what was his.

He shed his clothes silently, never taking his eyes off her sleeping form.

Finally, he would claim her. Mark her as his.

He’d almost come earlier just from the way her cunt had tightened around his fingers as if begging him to stay inside her.

He wanted her to wake up with him buried deep inside her. To hear her soft moans and loud cries of pleasure, so familiar from his forays into Elysium. But those had been stolen moments. These would be real.

He wanted it all. And then he wanted to take her even higher.

“Damn,” said a soft voice behind him. “Did I miss the early show?”

Liam turned to face his little brother, who was leaning against the doorjamb. “Funny.” He grabbed his trousers off the floor, then moved into the connecting room, pushing Leo further inside. Then he tugged the door to the bedroom closed, leaving only a crack so he’d hear if Sasha woke up.

“I could have sworn you gave up B-and-E,” he said, sliding on his pants before settling into the overstuffed chair.

Leo snorted as he took a seat on the couch, his boot-covered feet landing hard on the polished coffee table. “Nah, just cut back. And if you didn’t want my company, you should have put the chain on the door.”

“And that would have kept you out?”

“Hell no. But it might have bought you another minute or two.” He lifted his chin, indicating the door beyond which Sasha slept. “That was quite a show. Tell me what you’re up to.”

“And I’m required to do that because why?”

Leo spread his hands and flashed his most charming smile. “Hello? Because it’s me. And because I helped you out tonight. And because you’re an impulsive SOB who needs to be held in check, and?—”

“I’m impulsive?”

Leo waved the words away. “I’m the youngest. I’ve got a rep for being reckless, careless, all that shit. If I go and burn down Nevada, folks’ll just nod and say, ‘Well, what did you expect from Leo?’”

“You’ve got a grudge against Nevada?”

Leo wrinkled his nose. “It’s all the buffets. Any state with that many buffet meals has some serious issues.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“And you can’t keep changing the subject. When did you dip your toe into the high-risk yet often profitable vocation of kidnapping? Because both Victor Reed and Desmond Bane are losing their shit in the media.”

“I know,” Liam said. “Delightful, isn’t it?”

“It’s a pretty sweet sound, sure. But I thought you hated Sasha Reed.”

“And I thought you knew that there are a lot of ways to manipulate a woman. Sex sits pretty high on that list.”

Leo grinned. “So, we done with the sparring?”

“For now. And thanks for the help tonight.”

“Anytime,” Leo said, and Liam knew he meant it. In his entire family, Leo was the only one who would come through for him without question or hesitation.

“From where I was standing, it looked like you’re a little sweet on the girl. Don’t suppose you noticed she’s a Reed.”

Liam met Leo’s gaze dead on. “So’s Ruby, more or less. I guess you’re saying you felt nothing for her.”

“Got it in one,” Leo said, his animated face turning to stone. “She was just a good time that went very, very bad.”

“Uh-huh.”

Leo recrossed his arms. “So what’s the deal? You steal her out from under Reed’s nose at the gala, and then what? Tell me the endgame.”

“Another time,” he said.

“Dude, don’t leave me hanging.”

“I’ve got her father in the crosshairs. That’s all I’ll say,” he added, wondering why he was hesitant to talk to Leo about how Sasha fit into his plans, especially since, of all his friends and family, Leo was the only one he could truly talk to.

But not about her. Not about this. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

Before Leo could prod him again, Liam stood to pour a drink. “Tell me about Elias,” he said, bringing Leo a whiskey and keeping one for himself. He stood by the window, too wired now to sit still.

“Really? You’re changing the topic of conversation to Daddy Dearest? Do you even care?”

“Not really. Do you?”

“Hell, no. The man’s the biggest prick alive.”

Liam nodded slowly. “So he’s still alive.”

Leo shrugged. “Depends on your definition. They’ve got a medical team working round the clock, but the prognosis isn’t good. Marge and Alex are keeping it out of the media, of course. I considered tossing a bomb to The Times, but the idea of losing my inheritance gives me gas.”

“Nice. Thanks for that imagery.”

“You could leak it,” Leo said. “Nothing stopping you. Your inheritance is a joke.”

Liam tossed his hands up. “And he hits another homer.”

“Oh, please, like you haven’t already wrapped your head around that unfortunate reality and flipped Elias a double-fingered bird.”

About that, Liam really couldn’t argue.

“Like you even need family money. You’re raking it in with RS-Cyberwerx,” Leo added, referring to Liam’s cybersecurity company, named in honor of his mother, Rebecca Strait.

Liam stayed silent, but his little brother wasn’t wrong. And there was some irony in the fact that the most lucrative jobs tended to skirt the edge of the law.

Like father, like son, like brothers.

“So come on, man,” Leo pressed. “Throw me a bone. You kidnapped her and now you’re fucking her. Some sort of runaway bride thing?”

“I didn’t kidnap her but keep that under your hat. She’s here voluntarily.”

“Because you’re fucking her?”

“You’re starting to sound like the older brother, and I really can’t countenance that.”

Leo grinned, flashing the smile that had let him get away with murder for his entire life.

“Not an answer.”

Liam would never trust his other brothers to hold his plan close to the vest. Hell, they’d probably tell Reed just to fuck Liam over. Leo, however, was a good egg. Not necessarily a good man—on that, the jury was still out, but who the hell was Liam to criticize?

More importantly, Liam would trust his little brother with his life, rap sheet and all.

So he told him. Keeping it short and simple, he explained about Reed’s deal with Desmond Bane and how Sasha was the price. About how Reed had killed Sasha’s mother. And about the experimental meds he’d been feeding Sasha for years.

“The man’s a menace,” he concluded. “And with Sasha on board, we can take him down.”

“And this has nothing to do with your mom? With Victor Reed killing her?”

“Of course, it does,” Liam snapped. “You think I won’t release the balloons on Rebecca’s behalf when Reed’s name is smeared and his ass is in jail?

Of course, I will. Hell, maybe vindicating her death is my primary motivation.

I honestly don’t know. All I know is that he’s a worm that deserves to be trampled on. ”

“And Sasha Reed is the boot you’re wearing to do the stomping?”

Liam grimaced. “Not loving the imagery, but you’re not wrong.”

“ Just the boot?”

Liam shrugged. “Don’t know what you mean,” he lied, unwilling to let his little brother know how much he craved the woman sleeping in the other room.

What would be the point? It’s not as if they’d ride off into the sunset on a white steed.

And why the hell would he want to get twisted up with the Reed family?

But for now, he could have her. And that’s exactly what he intended to do. After all, fair was fair. Once he was done, she’d be free of her father. Until then, he’d extract payment for his services.

And once Victor was behind bars, Liam would go his merry way. Because even if a future was possible with Victor Reed’s daughter, Sasha deserved someone a hell of a lot better than him.

With a sigh, he returned his attention to Leo. “You need to go. If Alex or Marge find out you’re with me, it won’t be pretty.”

Leo shrugged. Unlike Liam, the baby of the family had his mother and older brother wrapped around his finger.

And that was despite a long list of fathers angry about their defiled daughters, store owners pissed about their stolen merchandise, and police with raised hackles about everything but Leo’s breathing.

“Just watch yourself, ok?” Leo said.

“There’s irony. You telling me to watch myself.”

“Yeah, well, you have that look.”

“I have a look?”

“When you’re trying to figure something out,” he explained. “Like some unsolvable cybersecurity problem you’re tackling at RSC.”

“There are no unsolvable problems.”

“Yeah, well, then it’s the look you get before you remember that and find an answer.”

Liam chuckled. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Can’t help it, bro. I know you’re just using her to turn the knife in Reed’s belly, and I respect that. But be careful. Fucking around with Victor Reed’s daughter? It could get messy.”

“Don’t worry,” Liam said. But what he didn’t tell Leo was that it already was.