“You…you were…” I don’t have words. A broken, panicked sob wracks my body. “You—”
“Me.”
Cohen gestures to himself with a sweep of his arm. His cock is still out, softening between his legs. The spots of his come darken the velvet between his spread legs.
A burst of heat spreads over my face at the sight of him. It occurs to me that his come is all over my fingers, too.
With a desperate sound falling from my lips, I roughly wipe my hand on the settee, no longer caring about staining it. I’d rather burn the antique than sit on it a minute longer.
Shoving my arms back into my dress, I tug it into place. I can’t find the hidden zipper and after a minute of fumbling, I give up. I still feel exposed, even with my gown back on.
I stand to cross the room, needing to get as far away from Cohen as possible. My legs wobble and I make it two steps before I lose my balance and lean heavily on a chaise covered by a sheet. I don’t meet Cohen’s eyes as his self-satisfied laughter seeps into my bones.
“You okay there, baby? Did I fuck you so good you can barely walk?”
Shame washes over me. I enjoyed every second when I thought he was Colton.
Fuck, I even liked it at the end…when I pictured Cohen in those brief moments of insanity.
And I put him there in my head, didn’t I? A small part of me wanted it to be him behind the mask when I let the fantasy game go far enough.
I close my stinging eyes.
The cage I fought so hard to escape is slamming shut around me and I’m crashing against the bars.
Betrayal and guilt sit heavy on my tongue, the taste bitter and sour. I can’t believe I enjoyed what he did to me.
My stomach twists itself into knots.
Would I have allowed myself to succumb to this debauchery if I knew it was Cohen behind that mask from the start?
I’d like to think I wouldn’t, but I can’t deny how much my body is attuned to him, yearning for his touch even now. He violated my trust and consent, and heat still throbs deep in my belly for him to do it all over again.
The echo of his cock lingers inside me. My empty walls clench around the memory.
I take a shuddering breath. He won this game. He’s had his fun.
But Cohen doesn’t get to win our war.
I still won’t marry him.
Pushing up from the chair, I survey the tear in my gown, the slit ending above my hip instead of my thigh. I click my tongue as I graze my fingers over the ruined fabric.
Cohen rustles around in my periphery. When I look up, his cock is back in his pants and his shirt is buttoned.
“You can’t be mad,” he says.
I scoff. “I fucking well can! You don’t get to decide my feelings.”
The corners of his lips twitch up into a sardonic expression. “Oh, but I think I do.”
“Only in your dreams,” I snap.
Cohen makes a show of glancing around the room, leaning close to the settee to examine it with over-exaggerated dramatics.
“Hmm, I think what we just did together paints a very different picture.”
I wrap my arms around myself and squeeze my elbows. Cohen straightens and ambles over to me, eating up the distance I put between us in easy strides.
“I told you to say you were mine,” he breathes. He reaches up and brushes his crooked finger over my cheek. I jerk my head back and his lips thin into a flat line. He leans into my space and speaks slowly. “And then you said my name.”
My throat works as I swallow. Cohen takes my silence as permission to continue reasoning with me. He runs his fingers through my hair.
“You knew anyway, even with my disguise.”
I shake my head. Cohen sighs and his hand slips down to my neck. His thumb presses into the hollow of my throat to the point of discomfort and I go still. Cohen’s eyes flick back and forth over my face.
“You liked what I did to you.”
My eyes flutter shut. He’s got me there. There’s nothing I can say in my defense.
None of those orgasms or moans were fake.
He releases me and turns around. I grimace at the lump that lodges in my throat, my emotions threatening to spill over. As I blink a few hot tears slide down my cheeks.
I scan the room, looking for where Cohen flung my underwear as he bends to retrieve his white jacket. He dusts it off and slings it over his shoulder with two fingers hooked in the collar.
My underwear has vanished. I stand in the middle of the room with my hands propped on my hips. I could go without, but Cohen would know I was running around with nothing beneath my gown. I don’t think I can stomach his knowing smirk.
“Looking for these, princess?”
My gaze snaps to Cohen. Every inch of his posture radiates smugness.
His head is cocked to the side as he dangles the scrap of silver lace from his fingers.
“I’m not your fucking princess.” I take a step forward and he makes a discouraging click with his tongue.
“I’ll be keeping these.” He stuffs the crinkled bundle into his pocket and pats it.
A shriek of absolute rage works its way up my throat. I ball my hands into fists and glare at my monster of a fiancé.
“You won’t get away with this.”
“Annie—”
Surprise crosses Cohen’s face as I back up. His expression is the last thing I see before whirling around and storming from the room. I slam the door in his face as his footfalls chase after me.
My blood boils as I stalk back toward the sounds of the party. The countdown has started amongst the drunken revelry of ringing in the new year.
“Eleven…Ten…Nine…”
My New Year’s resolution? Destroying any last shred of everyone’s hope that I’ll marry Cohen Decker like a good puppet.
Ten
Cohen
“Annie!” I yell as I follow her.
She tosses a narrow-eyed look over her shoulder and whips around to rush down the hall.
This is going all wrong and I’m stuck between wanting to drop to my knees before her—a first for me because I normally only want to tower over her—and punching a wall. I didn’t like that look on her face right before she left the room.
Even worse, I’m the one that caused it.
All I wanted to do was show her I care about her. My plan went to shit faster than cinderblock shoes sink in the river.
“Annie, just wait a second!”
I catch her arm and yank her back against my body, burying my nose in her hair and breathing in her perfume mingled with her sweat.
Annie struggles against my hold and I lock my arms around her. She digs her nails into my arms, kicking up a vicious fit.
“Calm down,” I mutter against the back of her head.
Annie snarls and squirms in frustration.
I lean out of range before she cracks me in the chin with her skull. “Easy. Jesus.”
Annie tires out, her breathing harsh as she stills in my arms.
“Three…two…one…Happy New Year!”
The party explodes in cheers down the hall and the band plays Auld Lang Syne, distracting both of us for a moment.
Off by mere minutes. No sweet midnight kisses for me.
“Come on.” I glance around, reluctant to take her to the only room I know in the vicinity that’s unlocked. I don’t think she’ll appreciate taking her back to the spot we fucked in. “We can’t talk here.”
Prepared to drag her with me, I’m a little shocked when she comes willingly. Pleasantly so. Maybe this whole shitshow is salvageable. I loosen my iron grip on her so she can’t whine to her daddy later that I manhandled her.
Well. Any more than she wanted me to when I was fucking her.
I suck in a subtle breath as we wander down the hall and I have to tell my dick to calm down as it stiffens at the memory of her cries. She was incredible. I want to fuck her like that every day for the rest of my life.
I’ll worship a
t the altar of her body to pull those sweet mewls from her as I ravage her perfect little cunt with my mouth.
Licking my lips, I make a turn in the opposite direction at the juncture in the hall, away from the room we were in before. I glance over at my fiancée.
Annie’s face is blank, but I catch the fire dancing in her gaze. She looks like molten precious metal with her hazel eyes and her blonde hair.
My golden queen.
We find an empty alcove far enough away that the sounds of the party are muffled.
I spin her to face me and cup her shoulders to keep her from running off again.
“What were you going to do back there?” I ask.
Annie levels me with an unimpressed glare. I want to snort. She always gets worked up like this.
I love and hate her attitude problem. I can’t stop the surge of an answering belligerence in my blood, ready to meet her sour attitude with one of my own.
“What’s wrong, princess? Are you pissed because you enjoyed it so much?” I tip my head to the side and dare her to look away. “I knew you would. I told you, you were made for me.”
“I liked it when I thought it was Colton,” Annie spits, fighting to shrug my hands from her shoulders. I dig them in and she bares her clenched teeth. “I’d rather fuck anyone else, any other man that’s not you!”
She sets me off, making me lose my temper. For a minute I forget that I regret duping her, even if it was for her own good. I growl and shake her by the shoulders hard enough to jostle her. I have half a mind to shred her dress with one good tug and fuck her against this wall to remind her who she belongs to.
“You’re lying to me and to yourself,” I grit out. “Should we go for round two to jog your memory?”
I pin her body against the wall with mine and grind my erection into her stomach. My hand goes to her ripped slit and slips inside to roam over her bare skin beneath, grabbing a handful of her ass. She gasps and tries to buck me off.
“Feel that? It doesn’t matter to me if you struggle. It gets me hard as fuck,” I croon against the shell of her ear. I grin humorlessly when she shivers. “I’ll still give you what you need. If you’re good, I’ll make you come again.”
“Don’t—” She breaks off with a wet, shuddery breath. “Don’t you dare touch me without my permission.”
“Who says I need your permission to take what I want?”
Another broken sound escapes her and a thrill shoots straight to my dick at the fear shining in her eyes.
That’s right, baby. You’re all mine and I can do anything I want.
Taking some pity on her, I remove my hand from beneath her skirt. I don’t actually want to hurt her, just make sure she knows I could.
I trace her trembling lower lip and press my thumb into her mouth.
A tear spills down her cheek, smearing her already messed up makeup. She sucks my thumb with tentative licks.
“Good girl,” I murmur, stroking my thumb against her tongue.
I let her continue for a minute until some of the tension bleeds from her body. I pull my thumb out and give her a quick kiss.
When I pull back, she watches me warily.
Sighing, I explain myself. “I came up with this whole plan…” I wave my hand at my shirt. I left my jacket in the other room when she ran off. “I wanted to show you I wasn’t like my dad.”
She narrows her eyes. “By deceiving me?”
I push out a harsh breath and try to reel in the burst of anger.
“No,” I say slowly. “I’m nothing like him. Or my cousins or uncle. I want to do things differently than the way they run the whole operation.” The look in her eyes tells me she doesn’t believe that for a second. “I only wanted to show you that we could be good together.”
Annie makes another attempt to buck me away from her. When I don’t move, she stomps on my foot. I grunt and lean more of my weight into her.
“God damn, Annie.”
“You are such a fucking asshole!” Annie shouts. “You manipulated me into sleeping with you after tormenting me all the time with your stupid tricks! I am not your toy, Cohen, I am a person!”
I open my mouth to reply, but she cuts me off.
“You completely violated me,” she accuses with a poisonous hiss.
My lip curls up and I squeeze her upper arms.
“You fucking begged me to do it!”
“I didn’t know it was you!”
“You said I’d have to make you,” I say, throwing her statement from the other day back in her face. “You practically threw yourself on my dick. What was it you said?” I pause, pretending to recall. My next words come out in a low, deadly voice. “Oh yeah. I need to feel you inside me.”
Her expression freezes in a mask of indignant disbelief.
“So, yeah. I made you, all right.” I narrow my eyes and press our foreheads together. “And you begged for it.”
Now the tears fall freely from Annie’s clumped lashes.
The red haze fades from the edges of my vision and the outrage seeps out of me with a sigh. My mouth flattens and I swipe my thumbs beneath her eyes, smearing her makeup more as I wipe away the tears. Annie hiccups and turns her face away from me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell or hurt you. I’m still that guy, Annie.”
I will her to believe me. I did all of this for her, to show her that marrying me wouldn’t be the end of the world. I need her.
Swallowing past the tightness in my throat becomes difficult. As I look at the girl I’m supposed to marry, the one I want to marry, reality crashes around me.
For the first time, it feels like I might have pushed Annie too far. Taunting her and riling her up to get a rise out of her is a sick addiction of mine. But is it worth it when I could really lose her over this?
Not a fucking chance.
My pride is one thing. It’s the armor I shroud myself with. But a life without Annie in it?
That’s the scariest thought that’s ever crossed my mind.
Eleven
Annabeth
I’m vibrating with the need to get away from him right now. On the outside I might appear rational and collected, but on the inside a hurricane of emotion ravages me.
Cohen is no better than my father scheming to get ahead and get everything he wants. Cohen takes without asking, just like my father.
No matter what excuses he believes, he’s exactly like everyone else.
“You need to let me go,” I demand. “Immediately.”
Cohen’s eyes flit back and forth over my face. Then he sighs and steps back, hands up.
He’s a good actor. I almost believe the regretful expression he plays up.
“I’m sorry,” he repeats.
Ignoring him, I sidestep and walk away with my head held high. I don’t care that I probably look like a hot mess. It doesn’t even matter that I barely feel a shred of the bravado I broadcast as I make my escape.
Cohen follows me. His footsteps echo as I weave through quiet halls the further we get from the main ballroom.
As I turn another corner, I glance back at him. He does nothing. He keeps his distance, trailing at a sedate pace with his hands in his pockets.
“Fuck off,” I snap as I quicken my gait.
He keeps even with me with ease, his long legs outmatching my shorter ones. Toddling along in expensive heels doesn’t help, either. These things were designed to look good and that’s it. They suck for footwear as I try to make my getaway.
Cohen scoffs at my demand. “Don’t mind me. You’ll probably only believe me if I say I just want to make sure my investment doesn’t damage herself.”
“Ugh!”
I hate him all over again. For being such a dick. For lying to me. For worming his way beneath my skin.
The cold air hits me when I make it outside the maze of a mansion. I have no idea where we are—still in New York? Jersey?—but it feels good against my skin. It clears my head, even as I shiver from the chill.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I cross the gravel drive to the valet stand. I arrived with Dad and Charity in a limo, but I can’t wait around for our driver. The kid working the valet booth isn’t around, but there’s a set of keys left out.
A muffled squeal of victory escapes me. I swipe them and click the button, praying for a nearby car.
Several feet down the drive there’s a manicured lawn doubling as a parking lot for those that brought their toys out for the evening. A sleek black Lexus LC beeps twice, the headlights flashing.
I send my thanks to whatever deity took pity on me.
What’s a little grand theft auto amongst dirty billionaires and mobsters?
I don’t check behind me for Cohen. I think I lost him between the old service kitchen and a study. That, or he hung back on purpose when I found the solarium leading outside. Maybe he finally got it through his thick skull that I need to get far away from him.
The gravel is hell to walk on in stilettos, but I make it to the car and slide into the driver’s seat.
“God, does a giant drive this thing?” I grumble.
It feels like I’ve climbed into the trunk. I fumble around and find the seat adjustment and get the Lexus started.
Seat warmers in the buttery leather start working right away and I hum, leaning into the embrace of the seat. Now that I have a free minute, I find my hidden zipper and close it so I’m five percent less of a hot mess express.
Once I get out of here, I’ll check the registration to get the owner’s car back to them. For now, the only thing on my mind is a hasty getaway.
I pull out onto the gravel drive and pause, holding my foot down on the brake. I wasn’t kidding when I said I have no idea where I am right now. This estate is out in the middle of nowhere. It’s pitch black out and the estate is surrounded by nothing but trees and back roads. I wasn’t paying much attention on the way in, too busy untying the knots of dread in my stomach on the way to my engagement party.
I spend a minute fiddling with the console screen, but I can’t make the GPS work. A frustrated huff blows out of me. I tap my manicured nails against the wheel.
Unmasked Heart Page 6
