by Ana Calin
“I’m going to admit one thing,” I say lasciviously. “I called Ramses up because of what I remembered about the viper farmer, but also because part of me hoped his presence would make you jealous.”
Nero grips my wrists, his jaw ticking. For a moment I think he’s going to push me away, but what he does is push me towards the bed slowly as he speaks. It seems he’s choosing his words carefully, his eyes burning like golden coals.
“I can’t tell you exactly how I feel about you, Princess. But the sexual attraction is so fucking out of this world, that even the smallest touch lights me up. I never thought this was even possible between two people, and I’m fucking five hundred years old.”
My body catches fire as Nero bends down and presses his carnal mouth to mine, his big hands caressing the gown off me. He’s kissing me wildly, pressing my now naked body to him, and cupping my ass with both his hands like he’s greedy for it. His tongue possesses my mouth, my breasts crushed against his concrete muscles, and cream trickles between my folds.
“Oh, how I want you, Princess,” he whispers, his warm breath in my face.
“Nero, you incredible beast,” I breathe, unable to control myself. I let my hands roam under the sides of his jacket, my palms splayed over his naked chest and downward. I lick my lips, watching what I’m doing as Nero tilts his head back with his eyes closed as if he’s enjoying the most exquisite sensation. I use the chance to open his fly with one hand, while my other hand enjoys his body like he’s candy.
I give in to my burning instincts and lick those muscles, going down to my knees. Nero grabs me under my armpits and tries to stop me, but it’s too late. I take his iron hard cock in my mouth, sliding down to his balls and sucking with all I got. I only stop to tell him exactly what I feel.
“I love sucking you off, you have the cock of a god.”
“Fuck, Princess.” He grabs my hair and pushes it into my mouth so hard that he cums, his seed bursting down my throat, his cock throbbing. He groans, and I’m sure everybody in the house can hear it, but I don’t give a damn. I squirm against my own thighs and cum as well, but that’s the crazy effect Nero Wolf has on me.
He scoops me in his arms and carries me to the bed, all the while kissing me deeply. His mouth stays firmly on mine as he parts my legs and pushes his rock solid cock inside of me. My eyes snap wide, my mouth disengaging from his.
“My God, how is that even possible?” I shriek, but Nero’s carnal mouth takes over mine again. He moans as he takes me like a master, pumping into me, my hands gliding down to cup his muscular butt, and drive him as deep as possible inside of me. I want to feel him flood every cell of my body.
If he can be so hard after I’ve just sucked him off, then he must be in lust with me, even if not in love, and that delights me. His huge cock slides over my sweet spot, building me up until I explode around him, my fingernails digging into his back under his suit jacket.
He drops exhausted by my side, wrapping his arms around me and inhaling the scent of my hair. I breathe in his masculine scent of wild forests, wanting to hold on to the moment forever. I want Nero Wolf to belong to me, I want to sleep in his arms and breathe in his scent every night for the rest of my life.
“Nero,” I whisper.
“Hm.” The sound of his voice and the way he caresses my naked body tells me he feels the same, but it could be just wishful thinking.
“What does Paola Valdez mean to you? I need to know.”
The caresses stop. “We used to sleep together. We’re not anymore.”
“Do you wish you were?”
“I wouldn’t be in your bed right now if I did.”
“Well, she sure wants to resume your affair.”
“What Paola and I had is in the past, and that’s where it’s going to stay. And I think she knows that.”
“You may be old and experienced Nero, but I see in regard to women you’re naïve. I can assure you she’d fuck the daylights out of you, she was drooling after you tonight.”
I feel his smile against my hair. “Naïve. Trust me, Princess, I’m anything but naïve.”
I look up, resting my chin on his chest. “So you don’t feel anything for her anymore? Lust, passion?”
He looks straight into my eyes as he says, “No,” and I believe him. Even if only for a moment.
“Then send her away, Nero. I just.... She makes me uncomfortable. It’s something about the way she looks at people, and the way she looks at you.”
His face turns from relaxed, even a little high, to forbidding.
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Please don’t ask me that. I promise you that by the time this is over you’ll know, but I can’t let Paola leave Darkwood Falls just yet.”
My cheeks light up. “This woman won’t stop until she gets into your bed, Nero. If you and I are going to continue what we have, whatever you want to call it, I won’t be just one of the women in your life. I will be The One, even if only for a little while, until my mate shows up.” I pause, my lips puckering. “Or yours.”
He brushes a red tendril behind my ear. “I can’t get rid of her, Princess, not yet. I got her here for a reason, and I still need her.”
I frown. “But it was Theodore who got her here, not you. And he did it in order to use her against you in some way.”
Nero smiles, and I see the deeper wisdom behind the face of a young god. “I know.”
I sit up, staring down at him, feeling dignified even though I’m naked. “You mean you steered this entire thing? Her arrival here?”
He brushes the side of my breast with his finger, and pulls me back into his arms. His cock is hard for me again, but as much as I desire him, I don’t think I can make love to him again. I’m exhausted, and sore inside.
“Like I said, Princess, don’t ask me questions that I can’t answer just yet. Trust me for a little while.”
“Trust you,” I whisper, relaxing in his embrace against my better judgment.
Princess
WHEN I WAKE UP NERO is no longer here, of course. The high window is open, the curtains blowing in the pleasant breeze, and I can’t repress a smile. I caress the place by my side where he slept, and I know he hasn’t been gone long. The sheets are still warm.
I lie back down and put my cheek on his pillow, breathing in his scent and getting that cozy sensation I did last night, when I fell asleep in his arms.
I walk down the stairs to breakfast singing, my hand sweeping the banister. I know Nero isn’t in love with me the way I am with him, so madly and inexplicably, but he’s in lust, and he can’t keep his hands off me. I’ll take it for now, and I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts, making the best of it.
But I stop in my tracks when I see Dad at the breakfast table in his wheelchair, glowering at me like he wants to ground my ass for the rest of my life.
I head to the table, stiff as I take my usual seat across from him. The butler comes with more sausages and boiled eggs, placing them on the table and then lingering with his hands behind his back. But Dad waves him away. When he leaves, the man looks at me like he caught me on the wrong foot, too.
“One of the mayor’s people offered to take me home last night.” Dad cuts a sausage with his fork like he wants to kill it, and pops it into his mouth. “While getting ready for bed, thinking you weren’t here, I heard a man’s groans of pleasure echoing through the halls. It was faint, but I know what I heard. Now I can’t help but wonder—were you here with the mayor last night, Princess?”
My throat constricts, and I have trouble swallowing the food in my throat.
“I didn’t know you were home.” I sound like somebody is strangling me.
“Was it the mayor?”
Hell, I can’t lie to him. I look down at my plate. “Yes.”
His fork clatters on the table. “Damn it, Princess. I told you Nero Wolf was a dangerous man. He is a beast! How could you give yourself to him?” He coughs, clutching the nap
kin and taking it to his mouth.
I lean over the table, reaching out to take his hand but he leans away.
“Dad, before Nero came to this town you were afraid that Sullivan might try to hurt you. You were afraid he might even try to murder you, since he doesn’t need you to finance his campaigns anymore. Nero and his people can free you of his terror once and for all, believe me. You and everybody else who fear Sullivan.”
“Free us?” He coughs again in his napkin, but he’s determined to continue. “Nero Wolf and his lot aren’t any better than Sullivan and his people. You heard what he did to the headmaster and the teachers from the orphanage where he grew up. When he’s done with us, he’s going to murder us all.”
“You don’t know what it was like for Nero and his brothers at the orphanage, Dad, what those people did to them.”
“Oh, and you do? How, because he told you, right? And you just believed him.”
“He wasn’t lying, Dad, I know that for a fact.”
“Jesus Christ, how could you sleep with him, Princess, knowing what he’s capable of? He used wolves on those people, hell hounds for all we know! That bestiality could turn against you, my daughter, anytime!
I inhale deeply, keeping the ton of things I want to say on the tip of my tongue. There’s no point arguing with him on this one, I have to put this differently.
“He sure won’t leave Darkwood Falls with half of the elite’s money, because he’s got much more than he needs. And he isn’t the puppet of shady organizations, like Sullivan.”
“No matter what, you shouldn’t trust Nero Wolf.”
“Dad, whatever you’re afraid of, Nero can help.”
“Help? Jesus, Princess, you’re so naïve. Even if that were so, we’d be confined to this town for the rest of our lives, because otherwise Sullivan and his people would kill every man or woman of Darkwood Falls as soon as they step into another town. And while it wouldn’t be so bad for me, because I’m an old man and a cripple, it would be a death sentence for you, my daughter. And for your mother who, as you can see, spends months out there, on the pretense that she’s attending social events and fashion shows.”
“Pretense?”
“Oh come on, Princess, don’t tell me you never imagined she was sleeping with other men.” I want to say something, but he stops me. “Not that I blame her. I haven’t been able to deliver in a long time, and she’s no longer young or stupid enough to get pregnant or catch a disease if she has sex with other men. But I love her, believe me, more than my own life. She gave me many marvelous years, and she gave me you. I won’t have her exposed to Sullivan and his goons out there. Sullivan wants Nero Wolf gone from this town at all costs, and I will help him. After that, you’ll all be free.”
“No, Dad, we won’t be. It’ll be the other way around. If we don’t let Nero and his wolves help us, Sullivan and those backing him up will retake the town, and wipe it out, after they take over everybody’s money and power. They won’t risk being overthrown again.”
Dad frowns, the skin on his old face creasing. “Nero’s wolves? What do you mean?”
So Dad doesn’t know about werewolves and serpent shifters. And it’s not like I can enlighten him about it, no matter how much I want to. He’s old and ill, such things would either give him a heart attack, or shake his trust in me so badly that I might never be able to save it.
“I mean his people. I said wolves because of his last name.”
I push my chair back and hurry to Dad’s side, sitting down. I look him straight in the face.
“Dad, I’m sorry I have to tell you this, but it’s necessary—I’m in love with Nero. I don’t know if he feels the same, but I know he would never hurt me, and I trust him. Please, for my sake, just give him a chance.”
Dad shakes his head. “My sweet girl, I understand your fascination with him. He is a magnificent beast of a man, and his attention can be addictive, but don’t fool yourself. Men like Nero Wolf don’t fall in love. They use women, drain them of connections, influence and money, then they toss them away like used rags. I won’t watch that beast do with my daughter what he did with Paola Valdez.”
“What did he do with Paola?”
“He destroyed her soul.”
“And how do you know that?” I fold my arms across my chest. “Don’t tell me she made confessions to you.”
“Actually she did. After you and him disappeared from the party last night Paola came to me, seeking consolation. She was a scorned woman, and I was the father of her rival, so she felt a strange connection. I did, too, to be honest. We were both hurting.”
“You were hurting because of her,” I say between my teeth. ‘You wouldn’t have even known I was with Nero if she hadn’t told you, because I left the party with Ramses. If she knew about Nero and me, it’s because she followed us, and then she came straight to you with a strategy.”
“That may be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that you did give yourself to Nero Wolf last night.”
I press my lips together. There’s nothing I can say about that.
“We talked a lot, Paola and I. Actually she drank booze and talked, I listened. She told me she had accepted Theodore’s invitation because she’d been hoping to rekindle things with Nero, but apparently he was still a player and a hunter. She told me he was a hustler who makes women feel terribly desired until he gets what he wants from them—support for his business or lobbying ambitions, money for new ventures he doesn’t want to risk his own for or, like now in your case, support against his enemies, people who stand in his way. He’s very ambitious, shrewd and deadly. He’s incredibly handsome, and he knows it, using it to manipulate women, then break their hearts like he did with Paola.” He touches my chin gently. “And you, my daughter, will be next.”
Could this be true? Has Nero given other women the same passionate love he’s given me? Doubt darkens my mind. Could it be that Nero is only using me, even if only for sexual pleasure until he gets enough of me?
Nero
PAOLA PUSHES THE DOORS to my office open, prancing inside, one stilettoed foot in front of the other. Princess runs behind her.
“Hey, you can’t just barge in there.”
“Get out.” Paola barks over her shoulder.
Princess’s eyes shoot at me for yay or nay, and I nod. “It’s all right.”
Princess doesn’t like it, I can tell. She’s been aloof all day, getting out of my path every time I tried to approach. Watching her in her red office dress got me hot like a teenager with a permanent boner, and I wanted to take her right here on my desk, but she avoided me.
“Fuck you, Nero!” Paola bursts, slapping her hands on my desk. “You didn’t have Theodore invite me to Darkwood Falls because you missed me, but because you wanted to use me against Sullivan. Had you fucked me, you would have done it thinking of your secretary.”
“Keep your voice down.” I walk around the desk to where Paola stands. “I don’t want Princess getting that idea.”
“You mean you don’t want her to know that you’re stalking her. Yes, I noticed the way you stared at her last night. You wanted to throw her on her back and bury your face in her pussy.”
My cock twitches at those words. I stop an inch from Paola, looking down into her furious eyes.
“Princess wants me and only me in this world, while you would have made do with any one of my brothers.”
“Oh, is that the reason why you refused to fall in love with me? Because I love to fuck?”
“Because you’re not capable of deep feelings.”
“Oh, and that red-headed brat who looks like Tinkerbell is? You’ve known her only a few weeks, you think you already know what’s inside her heart?”
I glower at her, maddened by her attack against Princess. I’d never hurt a woman, but the more I look at this one the more I despise her. I bend my face down to her, fierce. I’m burning to tell her that I love Princess, that I imprinted on her, but if she’s in with the serpents like I alway
s suspected, that would be a death sentence for Princess.
“I’ve never been in love with you or anybody, and I’m not in love with Princess now. I fucked her, I admit it, and it was good, real good. I’d bend her over my desk and bang her again, that’s true as well. But it’s not like I’d do that with her any more than I’d do it with you.”
My words are meant at pushing her away, angering her because I’d bang her or any other woman just the same, but they achieve the opposite. She calms down and gives me a hooded gaze, sex in her eyes. What I said actually turned her on.
“Then why don’t you do it?” She reaches for the hem of her impeccable white blouse and lifts it over her head, now standing in front of me only in her bra.
“Paola, what are you doing?”
“Come on. Bend me over your desk and fuck me. You know how much I love a big dick in my ass. Imagine you’re driving that python of a cock inside Tinkerbell while you do it, I don’t care.”
She unzips her pencil skirt while she talks, pushing it down. She turns around and bends over the desk, giving me a provocative look over her shoulder and reaching behind to grab my cock. It’s slack. Like I expected, imprinting on Princess rendered me useless for other women. The only one my cock will ever stand at attention for is Princess, the need for her taking over my heart like a fucking disease, like an obsession.
There are no words to describe the disappointment on Paola’s face.
“What is it, Nero? Am I not sexy enough for you anymore?” She knits her dark eyebrows. “Do me a favor, old lover—think of Princess Skye with her legs open right here, on your desk.”
My cock twitches in her hand, lengthening and hardening. Fuck, the slightest thought of Princess is enough to make me horny. Rage and ambition transform Paola’s face. She lets go of my cock and pushes her hand between her legs, starting to work on herself, releasing a loud moan.
