by Faye Pierce
Shame and humiliation burn in my cheeks as I stand before him, bared to his scrutiny. There’s something impossibly vulnerable about the way his eyes rake over me, his gaze darkening as he drinks in my wet skin and lands back on my eyes.
Leo pushes my wet hair over my shoulder. His head tilts to the side, and he moves closer to me. I hate that my breathing is growing shallower. “You’re getting blood in my bathwater…”
“And?” Leo runs his knuckles up the side of my neck, reddening the water that runs down me in rivets. His touch is impossibly soft as he runs his thumb over my lower lip.
“Is it bad?” I stutter, his thumb pushing over the corner of my mouth.
“Do you care?” he whispers.
Of course I care. I’ve always cared. It’s never been a good idea to be attracted to him. Caspian would kill me if he knew.
“If you say I’m a dead man anyway, why do you keep denying yourself? He can’t stop you now.” Leo’s hand drops away so suddenly I almost follow the contact. “I know you want me.”
Leo taps his fingers against my bare hip, slowly encompassing the bone with his hand and pulling me closer to him. “Perhaps I’m in the mood to turn my night around. Why don’t you tell me what you were picturing me doing to you earlier? I might fulfill your girly fantasies.”
“I don’t want you,” I lie, but my breathing is too labored to hide the truth. I’ve pictured him standing this close to me so many times. I have begged him to kiss me in my mind so many times over the years. “Get away from me.” My voice doesn’t even sound like me. That heat slowly creeping through me floods my whole system as his grip tightens.
“That’s the last lie I will allow you to tell me, Midnight.”
He can say my name like that again.
Leo pulls his shirt up and winces, revealing bruises and cuts all over his torso. My lips part in surprise and my brow knits. It looks painful, to the point that I’m not sure how he’s standing here and looking at me, let alone having a level conversation. His hand drops to his belt and undoes the buckle. “You have two choices, Midnight. You can get out of this tub and lay on the bed for me like a good girl, and I might reveal to you who I really am…or you can continue being a brat and I will punish you. Your choice.”
Leo’s belt comes loose from his slacks, and I know he means it. I swallow hard, and he lets my hip go. I step one hesitant foot out of the tub and consider for a very serious moment bolting for the door. It might be unlocked. He came in here so suddenly.
It might be. I look over my shoulder, and he’s watching me. Am I faster than him? I doubt it. Where will I go if I make it out of the door? I’m naked and wet, and I have no idea where we even are. Where would I go? We could be out in the middle of absolutely nowhere for all I know.
I stop a foot from the bed, and turn slowly back to see him.
The look Leo gives me as I sit on the edge of the bed is indescribable. Heavy and intense, it makes me feel...desired. It’s more potent than anything I’ve ever dreamt up before. Leo undoes the button on his pants, now wet with soapy water, and leaves them behind in the tub.
Leo’s in good shape. Knowing that and seeing him move so easily are different, his muscles contracting as if the need to be close to me erases all the pain he’s in. His hand finds my neck and pushes me back onto the bed. I gasp. His body above mine is intoxicating.
We move upward on the bed. He pushes my leg up and plants the heel of my foot on the mattress. His fingers trail up my ankle to the inside of my leg until he pushes my thighs apart. I should fight him. I should at least make a show of not wanting him. But it’s like he pulled a fantasy right out of my head. “Which part were you touching yourself to?” Leo whispers, breath gusting over my face.
Kiss me. Please kiss me.
“Was it this? Or was it me spanking you...or all of the above?” My hips lift toward him in spite of myself. Leo’s fingers find their goal, circling around my entrance at a torturously slow pace. “Look at me when I’m talking to you, Midnight.”
My eyes snap to him. Leo smiles, and I’m rewarded with his finger sinking inside of me.
“Don’t look away; don’t close your eyes,” Leo commands. He adds a second finger, the sweet stretch distracting me. Leo’s head dips to my jawline, and his lips brush a soft kiss over the skin there. He nudges my jaw upward, and his lips find the pulse point on my neck. He lavishes my skin with his lips and tongue while his fingers work inside of me. He kisses me everywhere he can reach, but I can’t summon the courage to touch him back. The guilt of enjoying myself is at war with how badly I want him. “Are you always this responsive?”
“W-what?”
“Don’t play dumb, little girl, I know you’ve had a boyfriend, remember? Sweet little boring Jake. So boring that he didn’t even have a parking ticket in his background check.” Leo pauses, something I don’t understand passing over his expression. “I hated when he touched you.”
Was Leo jealous?
“I admit, there were times I thought very seriously about breaking each, and every one of his fingers so that he would never have the privilege of touching you again. Thinking that he might be…” Leo broke off his sentence like the implications of what he and I might have done together was too much to consider. “Did he make your legs tremble like this?”
My body is coiling higher. I almost don’t understand what he’s saying.
“Did he satisfy you?”
“We-I’ve...never done it...this. I’ve never done this.” My breathing is coming in short ragged gasps.
“You’ve never…” Leo’s words trail off. His fingers still for only a moment before he picks up the pace again, and I shake my head.
“No, never.”
“You waited for me?”
I can’t answer that. I cannot tell him how many times I’ve dreamt about this exact thing. I look to the canopy of the bed, and he stops moving. My thighs tighten, and I snap back to him, “No, please.” My legs are shaking. After this afternoon and the bathtub, I’m half insane with need for release.
“Answer the question, Midnight. Did you want me to be your first?”
I pull my bottom lip between my teeth. Leo pulls his fingers from me, and I groan at the emptiness, my hips wanton with the desire for closeness, to be nearer to him.
He pinches at my clit, and my vision blurs with stars. “Now. Midnight.”
I nod, frustration blurring my vision. “Yes! Okay! Yes, I wanted you to be my first!” I want to hit him. I want to shove him away from me. I want to scream at him—and then he kisses me. His mouth covers mine possessively, not waiting or asking for permission as he claims my lips as his own.
His fingers find my center again. His other arm finds mine and lifts it in silent command, or perhaps a request, to touch him.
I don’t need to be asked twice. My fingers push up into his blonde hair as I savor his lips on mine. He tastes better than anything I could ever have imagined. The weight of him on top of me is almost more than I can stand. Then he adds another finger inside me to pair with his thumb’s ministrations, and I’m catapulted over the end, his name on my lips a desperate cry for more as I shatter apart.
I barely notice the shift of him over me as he rids himself of his underwear, but I have risen from my small death as his fingers are replaced by something larger. Hard, insistent, that final measure to claim me. To own my body as he pushes inside of me without warning.
“Fuck, Midnight,” he groans as he sinks inside of me. It hurts—I can feel myself stretching around him as he moves slowly. Each measured movement of his hips seems painful for how carefully he’s trying not to hurt me.
“It’s okay...please,” I whisper, and he doesn’t need to be asked twice. My knees lift to encircle his hips. If I’m going to hell, I might as well enjoy my ride with this fallen angel on the way there. “Leo!” I cry out, and his arm bands around my lower back, lifting me. The depth is mind-blowing. It’s like I was made for him. His pace is unyielding, and I wan
t every bit of it. I want everything he can give me and then more.
I lose myself in his touch. I lose track of how high my body coils. I am convinced I half lose my mind as we chase that bliss together. My heart aches, and my body burns for him. I could kiss Leo forever. I refuse to allow myself to think of anything beyond tonight, beyond this, beyond us together. My hands explore every part of him I can reach, fingers trailing down scars I’ve memorized so long ago. I know how he got most of them, but others I want to ask him about. But I don't dare burst the bubble we’ve formed for ourselves.
Leo leaves me for only a moment to flip me onto my stomach. He pulls my hips back toward him and slams inside of me again. He lifts my body until it’s molded to him, his arm belted around my torso and holding my neck firmly. The other reaches around my stomach as his fingers slide down to my most sensitive part.
I reach behind me to pull him close.
“You belong with me Midnight,” he groans into my ear, and my head falls heavy onto his shoulder. His teeth close on the shell of my ear. I can’t breathe. I’m so close. His pace is unrelenting, and I don’t want it any other way. “You belong to me, Midnight. You were always meant for me.” Leo’s grip on my throat tightens. “Isn’t that right, little girl?”
“Yes,” I gasp.
“You belong to me, don’t you, Midnight?”
“Yes!”
“I can do whatever I want to your perfect little body, from now until I’m done with you because you belong to me...don’t you, Midnight? All of these years, you’ve always been mine. I’ve known it too, waiting for this, waiting for you to surrender to me. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted.”
I can hardly think straight. My body is shuttering. I’m fully at his mercy, held to this world by him and him alone. Oxygen thins, and my body is teetering over the edge. I nod; I am prepared to beg, to give him anything to release me.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, my property, my good little girl. Swear it, Midnight.”
My hand shifts to his wrist as he yanks me back to him. “I swear, please, I’m yours.” I nod, “I’m yours.”
It’s true. I’ve always been his, only his. We are lost to oblivion together as we orgasm in unison, his heat filling me. Spasms of pleasure rip through me over and over again. I don’t know how long I ride those waves, how long his skilled fingers keep me there, or when he finally allows sleep to claim my exhausted, spent body. I’m just aware of the bliss of being in his arms as my very last waking thought.
Chapter Six
Midnight
My bed is cold when I wake up.
My hands spread to the rumpled sheets on either side of me in search of Leo. There are no sounds of running water, there’s no steady breathing of a body beside me. I press my hand into my eye to rub the sleep away. How long have I been out? It feels like I’ve been out for a long, long time. My torso stretches, back arching as I lift my arms up over my head in a languid stretch.
Everything hurts. There’s a deep ache stemming from my core down my legs and throughout my limbs, and a tender pulse between my legs. A smile finds my face without permission.
Last night flashes before my eyes. The room still smells of sex, so it can’t be that long that I’ve been asleep. My smile deepens as I struggle to sit upright. My body protests the movement after Leo’s rough lovemaking.
That was what it was. I’m absolutely certain of it. He might not have said it in so many words, but he…we…
Guilt lances through my happy bubble, and I hug my knees to my bare chest. I pull the sheet from the bed and wrap it around my shoulders, staring off at the space where a window might have been once. How can I be happy about this? How can I have allowed such a thing to happen? What, because I wanted him? Because I’ve dreamed about him for so long that a single bit of attention undoes me? It doesn’t matter that last night was a fantasy come true. I can’t allow myself to be a slave to my hormones like this! I should know better. I should be better.
But, the way he looked at me…
The way his lips felt over my own…
My fingers press into the swollen skin of my mouth, and I can still feel him.
Where is he? Last night I should have asked more questions. He was so unguarded, drinking; I should have pushed for information. If I had a brain I would have asked where he had been, what he was fighting over, what his plans were. I’ve listened to Caspian theorize about interrogation techniques so many times; I know better than this.
Caspian, oh god, Caspian.
In any other world, I could be over the moon about this. Even if Leo was just my brother’s right-hand man, we could make it work. I’ve dreamt about that too...but now, he isn’t my brother’s best friend, he’s the man who betrayed my family and kidnapped me.
Oh god, what have I done?
I bend forward, my face in my hands, willing myself to process the racetrack of thoughts my mind is.
Leo hasn’t told me anything. I have no idea what he plans to do with Caspian, or Valeria—they have a damned child. A child. Leo won’t hurt a child, will he? I’ve watched Leo and little Lukas together. I can’t deny that it endeared me to the man. Most things that Leo did seemed so kind, so loyal. I never would have imagined that we would be here; then again, I never thought that last night would actually be possible either.
So, what does that mean for me?
I wanted him to do those things to me. I want almost nothing more than for Leo to come right back in here and do them again. Does this make me a traitor too? Remembering the bottle of liquor Leo brought into my room last night, I pull the sheets from my bed, taking comfort in the tight way I wrap them around myself as I pad back into the bathroom.
Droplets of blood linger on the tile, leading a trail to the door where Leo came in last night. Nobody’s cleaned anything up which means that Leo ordered them to let me sleep. Which is oddly kind of him. It also means I have no breakfast yet...or it is closer to lunch now? I wrap my fingers around the liquor bottle and bring it to my lips. I don’t have any idea what the future is going to hold for me, but it feels like everything’s changing.
Caspian always tells me that the life he leads isn’t for me. He tells me that I’m not meant to make the choices he does. I’ve asked him countless times why he feels that it’s okay for him to put his life in danger, but not mine. I want to help, but I’ve given up fighting for the right to be included. He always just tells me that I’ve suffered enough, that I’ve already sacrificed enough because of him.
I’ve never asked Leo for anything.
I’ve never had the chance to. The interactions we’ve had before now almost always had Caspian playing chaperone. Leo isn’t a man I can gossip to, or tell the small details of my life. I assumed that Caspian’s opinion on how I need to lead my life was something Leo agreed with. I couldn’t use him to leverage myself against Caspian. Before now, I thought that nothing could have ever broken my men apart.
My men.
Can I even call them that? Caspian is never going to forgive me. If he finds out what I’ve done, he’s never going to allow me to live it down. He might just kill me himself for literally sleeping with the enemy.
Leo’s clothes are still floating in the bathwater as I reach in to unplug the drain. What a picture the two of us made last night. I’ve never seen Leo that injured before, and he didn’t tell me what happened. I hope Caspian wasn’t there, and if Caspian was the one who Leo was fighting with, that Caspian kicked Leo’s ass for me. I’m torn because I want them both safe. Even now, they mean so much to me that the idea of them fighting hurts.
The realization that I don’t even really know what they do dawns on me, so I drink again. It’s nothing legal. The sheer number of people that move in and out of my home aren’t there to give charity. I think the truth of the matter is that Caspian told me not to ask, so I didn’t. I’ve always had such blind faith in him. Cas always took care of me, provided for me even when our parents didn’t. Caspian paid for my educati
on; he ensured I had the very best doctors to rely on after my accident. I owe my brother so much, and I don’t know if he’s ever going to forgive me for this.
He must be out of his mind with worry. He’s blaming himself and likely doing something stupid in the effort to find me, and here I am, fucking his traitorous best friend.
Tears threaten to choke me, so I drink more, but the bottle isn’t going to last me forever.
If I ask Leo, will he tell me the truth? Will he be honest with me? He’s already speaking more freely with me. I never even considered that perhaps Caspian might stop him from telling me too much before now.
I might have a chance here. I might have a real chance to get the information that I need, and maybe, just maybe, if I play my cards right, I can help bridge this gap. Whatever it is that Leo is so upset about, I can help him figure it out. Caspian isn’t the sort of man to injure his friends. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt people that he considers to be family. That, I am absolutely certain of.
