by CR Robertson
My thighs clamped together at that thought because he knew how to make me squirm. “You promised to show me your world, Zee. I can’t do that from inside this apartment.” I deliberately leaned against him and snaked my arms around him. “I want to try one of the fantasy rooms.”
His pupils dilated.
“I want to try one of the rooms with the mirrors that people can watch us as you claim me.”
His fingers tightened on my flesh.
My mouth opened against his as I whispered, “I want you to blindfold and suspend me and make me bend to your will.”
His hands slid under my ass to lift me so that my legs wrapped around his waist. “Stop fucking tempting me.”
My arms slid around his neck and I sucked his earlobe. “I want you to show the world that I belong to you alone.”
I knew his careful control snapped when my back slammed into the wall. His stormy blue eyes bored into mine, his lips within kissing distance. “When I’m finished with you, no one will doubt who you belong to.”
My stomach tightened and thighs clenched as his lips took mine with an intensity that set my panties on fire. Xavier bottled up his emotions, and I knew after tonight he needed to release them. He tended to do that through sex.
I gasped as he ripped my poor lace panties and my heart sped up.
Something told me I wouldn’t be able to stand in the morning.
***
Chapter Two
Xavier
Every one of those bastards who threatened my wife’s life were dead.
I would never apologise for keeping my family safe.
Cassandra thought that Jordan was the crazy fucker of our group. She was dead wrong. He may enjoy killing people, but I had no problem pulling a trigger or snapping a neck.
Returning from the toilet earlier, Michael had stopped me in the corridor.
“Find yourself a wife, Zee? I hope she doesn’t mind spending time by herself if you have to go away for a while,” he jeered, his top lip curling up. “Maybe I can keep her company…”
“Fuck off, Michael. I have no intention of going anywhere.”
His malicious smile had sealed his fate.
When the lights were out and darkness enveloped us, I killed one of the home invaders and used his gun to shoot Michael. He was already marked for death, and tonight was the perfect opportunity to carry out his execution.
Jordan had probably already worked out that I’d pulled the trigger, but there was no way he was threatening Cassandra and living to smirk about it. I’d pay for my sins in the afterlife, but Michael was definitely reaching there before me.
I stood at the window with a glass of whisky in my hand, contemplating life. Cassandra lay sleeping, her hair a glorious mess around her. Since she was pregnant, I couldn’t make her sleep with strong alcohol, but give my wife a few powerful orgasms and she was out like a light for hours.
Tugging my track bottoms on, I then set the alarms and exited the apartment through the secret passage at the back of our walk-in wardrobe. If I couldn’t sleep, then at least I could work. Jordan had beat me to it and was already sitting in front of a computer. He glanced up as I came in with my glass in my hand, saluting me with his own.
“Any idea who they were?” I asked, settling myself in the seat beside him and downing the last of my drink.
“Getting there,” Jordan replied. “Did you tie up our loose end tonight?”
My jaw tightened into a ball and I glared at the screen.
“Thought as much. You’re the only other person in that room who could have made that shot in the dark.” Jordan loaded another fingerprint photo from his phone and began to search through databases he had no legal right to be in.
My gaze moved to Jordan, who stopped what he was doing. He lifted a bottle from under the desk and filled both our glasses. “He was a prick. Fuck him.” Jordan raised his glass in a mock salute.
Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “He threatened Cas,” I finally spoke.
I’d never killed someone I knew before. They were normally nameless men who were the baddies. In the past few months, I’d decimated my record and dispatched Malcolm and now Michael.
“His actions had threatened all of us.” Jordan sneered, taking a long gulp. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he was involved in tonight’s little escapade. Michael’s never been brave enough to confront anyone before, yet tonight he faced a gunman?”
That hadn’t occurred to me. Michael had always been a coward.
A ping on the computer drew our attention. The dead men were on record for numerous misdemeanours but nothing like what they pulled tonight.
“Hired guns,” Jordan confirmed. “I doubt any of those men knew anything about the Council. I managed to grab the zip drive before the police arrived and put it in my shoe. Here’s the file names they wanted.”
I scanned the list on one of the screens. “Who the fuck is Doulton and why is everyone getting their panties in a twist about him?” I demanded, my hands forming fists.
“Anything in Cassandra’s father’s files?” Jordan asked.
He’d never queried what I saw in her safety deposit boxes before. I brought out my phone and flicked through the photographs of the documentation, finally handing it to him when I found the relevant images. His eyebrows lifted and he handed my phone back to me.
“I can see why people’s asses are eating their thongs. We need to keep low profiles after tonight in case anyone is watching us, but then we need to sort this situation out once and for all.” Jordan leaned back and rubbed his eyes. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”
The Doulton files pertained to priceless gemstones that had been catalogued from mines across the world. The Council had their fingers in gemstone pies, but those files detailed secret mines in South Africa. Whoever got their hands on those deeds was worth a kingdom. The money from it was going to an account in a tax haven. It was worth billions after all this time.
“Tell me about it. How’s Ash?”
Jordan gave a bitter laugh. “I slipped him a sleeping tablet so he should be out like a light. He lives in his head too much already. Better that he sleeps before facing funeral arrangements.”
I nodded and pushed myself to my feet. “I’m gonna check on Cas and make sure she’s resting.”
“Fucking glad I insisted Megan stay at home tonight,” Jordan muttered. “All those bullets flying from assholes who couldn’t hold a gun properly. Who the fuck aims at the ceiling?”
“Cas will be joining her in future. My nerves won’t cope with any more surprises like tonight. If she’s locked in the apartment, it would take a small army to get to her.”
Jordan waved as I wandered wearily to the door. I heard the clink of the glass bottle being set on the desk. Jordan was obviously planning on drinking himself into oblivion. Lucky bastard. I would join him, only I had other responsibilities.
Cassandra stretched when I strolled back into the bedroom, turning toward me. “Planning a war?” she queried, her voice husky from sleep.
My lips twitched. “Maybe? We seem to be surrounded by bad men with evil intentions.”
“As opposed to bad men with good intentions?” She arched an eyebrow.
Yeah, she was talking about me and the guys, but I would never apologise for what I had to do to keep her safe. Instead, I distracted her by kissing those pouty lips that were designed to kiss mine for the rest of our lives. My hand splayed protectively across her stomach, and her fingers found mine.
Eventually, she pulled back, her cheeks flushed, and lips swollen. “Are we going to talk about tonight?”
My teeth bit into my bottom lip. There was nothing I needed or wanted to say.
“We can’t keep pretending, Zee. Who were those men?”
Instead of answering, I walked into the main living area in search of another drink. Cassandra padded out behind me, dressed only in her ridiculous bumblebee onesie. I honestly thought they only made those things for kids
.
Her fingers wrapped around my wrist and drew it away from the bottle. “You drink too much already.”
Some days, whisky was the only thing that made my mind numb enough to deal with the shit show of my life.
Her head rested on my back. “Talk to me.”
“What do you want me to say, Cas?”
“I was so worried when you disappeared into the darkness, Zee. Terrified of what might happen to you, frightened in case a stray bullet hit our baby.”
I spun so quickly that she nearly fell. My hands grabbed her arms and held her as I stared down at her. “I need to send you into hiding until this is over.”
“No.” Her simple answer confused me.
“It’s not a negotiation, Cas. You’re right, people were killed tonight, others could have suffered the same fate. I need to make sure you and Bubble are safe.”
She stood on her tiptoes, her lips so close that I felt her breath mingling with mine. “We need to show the world that we’re a team. Nothing will divide us, Zee.”
My hands found her face, tipping her head back. “I can’t do what I need to do if I’m constantly worried about you.”
“And I refuse to stay at home and not know what’s happening.” Her hands linked around my waist. “We promised each other for better or worse. This is the latter of that statement and we’ll only survive it if we stick together.”
I wanted to tie her to my bed so I knew where she was, lock her far from the prying eyes of the world because terror was too small a word for what I experienced tonight. I was fucking petrified when those men burst in. She had carved the cold, dead heart out of my chest and replaced it with vibrancy and light. In a few months, Cassandra had become the centre of my universe, my one true North that guided me home.
“Please, baby,” I pleaded. “I can’t lose you.”
She let out a long sigh and dragged me over to the sofa beside the window. Her tiny hand pushed my chest until I sat down, and she crawled onto my lap to straddle my hips with her legs.
“You’re not going to lose me, because you’re going to keep me beside you.” I went to open my mouth to protest, but she placed a finger on my lips. “The only place I’m safe is with you, and the only person I trust to protect me is you.”
I glared at her in the hope that she would cower back. Instead, she wrapped her arms around my neck and snuggled tighter to me.
“Your scary face doesn’t frighten me anymore,” she whispered against my lips, pressing a barely-there kiss on them.
I groaned, my fingers digging into her hips. “Can you not just pretend that I’m a terrible husband who terrifies you and do what I ask?”
“Nope.” She made the p pop.
“Cas…”
“Zee…”
Once upon a time, I held power in this relationship. I was a feral beast who could do what he wanted, until this feisty little woman tamed me. She knew I rarely refused her anything and if I did there was a good reason behind it.
“You are driving me in-fucking-sane,” I muttered darkly.
“I’m sure that was somewhere in our vows,” she sassed back.
“I doubt it, but I definitely remember you promising to obey me.”
“Did I?” She gave me her best pretend innocent look. “I don’t remember that.”
She squealed when I grabbed her and rolled her under me suddenly. “Maybe I should remind you?”
Her hand slipped into the front of my training bottoms to slowly stroke my dick. My eyes nearly crossed, and my knees definitely felt a bit shaky. Pregnancy hormones meant that she was horny most of the time and she rarely needed me to put any work in to get her ready. I’d gone from wanting no kids to now wanting a big family, and keeping her pregnant was starting to have its advantages.
“There a reason you’re playing with my dick?” I asked, nuzzling her throat and kissing up to that sensitive spot that resided behind her ear.
“I was trying to get my own way.” Her neck arched and legs slowly came up around my waist.
“You need to try a bit harder, baby.” If Cassandra was going to get her own way, then I was determined to make her work for it. Pushing myself up on my arms, I stared down at her to see how far she’d submit.
Her eyebrow slowly raised and she bit the corner of her full lip. “What are your terms?” she asked, her legs constricting at my hips.
“You still haven’t given me that ass.” She’d been adamant in the past, which was why I never pushed her on it. It may be the only card left for me to play to make her stay at home.
Her hand wrapped around my dick and began to pump him into life. “Is this the bit that you try to convince me you’re really not that big?”
A salacious smile spread my lips. “I have plenty of lube.”
“And what do I get in this negotiation?”
Considering that I slept with her every night, Cassandra really knew how to yank my chain. I was beginning to lose focus. “A mind-blowing orgasm?”
“I get those several times a day when you’re at home,” she pointed out like a smartass.
A devious plan sprang into my mind. “Hmmm. But what if those became unavailable?”
Cassandra’s head jerked back. “You wouldn’t,” she dared me.
I bounced my eyebrows up and down a few times. “And you with your pregnancy hormones needing my dick several times a day.”
“I’ll buy a vibrator…” Her thumb nail flicked over the tip of my dick and I almost hissed.
Grinning, I slipped down between her legs and brought her to the edge. When her hips tipped up and her hands formed fists, I stopped and crawled back over her again. “Ready to negotiate?”
“Bastard,” she hissed.
My entire adult life, I’d fucked and walked away. This game intrigued me.
“I’ve gone through a sex drought before,” Cassandra warned.
“Yeah, but that pussy of yours has become greedy since she’s been getting so much cream.”
“No masturbation,” she said. “And that includes when you’re in the shower where you think I won’t see the evidence of it.”
I smirked. There was no way she’d last longer than me in this sex-depriving game. “I’ll make sure the shower heads are glued in place.”
She glared at me like she hated me. My heartrate kicked up a notch.
“You’ll be on your knees begging in a day,” Cassandra pouted.
“It’ll be you on your knees, baby, begging to take my dick between those full lips of yours for a protein shot.”
“Never,” she vowed.
“Bring it on.” We crashed together in a frenzy of mouths until I pulled back. “Uh, uh. uh… No cheating and trying to seduce me, you little minx. The first to cave and demand sex loses.”
“I hate you,” Cassandra whispered, her cheeks flaring red.
“No, you don’t.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “But you will in a few days.”
A thrill of excitement trickled down my spine. I’d participated in a lot of sexual games over the years, but never anything like this. I would win, and when I did, she wouldn’t be able to walk for a week.
***
Chapter Three
Cassandra
Three days.
Three whole days of celibacy and I was ready to wait until he was asleep and tie him to the bed just so I could ride him until I found that elusive orgasm.
The bastard was humming in the kitchen as he prepared dinner. I looked up from my Kindle, narrowing my eyes. Had he been doing the five-finger shuffle when I wasn’t watching?
I’d gone years in the past without a lover. Years in which it never even occurred to me to masturbate. Since I wasn’t allowed sex, now the only thing I could think about was sex. It was everywhere, tempting me with mental images and the remembered sensation of Xavier touching me.
My eyes focused on his hands chopping and I wanted them on my body. His fingers gripped his bottle of beer and brought it to his lips. It shouldn’t be e
rotic or make me think of stroking his cock, but my mouth fell open.
As if sensing my eyes on him, he turned and rested his hip on the counter, cocking an eyebrow at me in question. “Need something, baby?”
“Nope,” I snapped. “I would love a beer, but your dick got me fat and pregnant.”
A panty-dropping, salacious smile widened his lips. “If I recall, we were both involved in the process. It’s not all the fault of my dick. Maybe you should have a chat with your ovaries?”
There was something about Xavier that made the intelligent woman disappear and the hormone-driven asshole who let him have sex with me without a condom take over. Right now, I was on edge, and watching him wander around in nothing but low-riding jeans was making my pussy chew on my panties.
“My ovaries are currently busy and refuse to negotiate with penile terrorists.”
His deep chuckle washed over me, and he returned to cooking.
He deliberately wrapped me up in his arms every night and went to sleep with his erection digging into my ass. Nine inches of hard, throbbing cock ready for me to impale myself on and I was on a cock diet. It was worse than depriving myself of chocolate for lent.
He was deliberately baiting me, and he wasn’t going to win. I refused to sit in this apartment, under house arrest, while he was a target for anyone with a gun out there. Wandering over, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed a kiss to the middle of his spine. He stiffened before pretending to relax.
“Dinner shouldn’t be long. Wanna set the table?” He threw a smile at me over his shoulder, but my bad bitch wanted to play.
“I’m good here.” I kissed him again. “I was cold and lonely over there, and you’re always warm, so I’m stealing your heat.”
He stunned me when he spun around, lifted me under the ass, and plopped me on the counter. Yes! I nearly screamed because I needed him so badly. My heart stuttered over its beat when he snaked those muscular arms around me and settled his head on my shoulder.
“Better?” he asked, his lips grazing my ear.
My mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
