Corrupt Empire Series: A Dark Romance Boxset

by Sarah Bailey

  “I love you,” she whispered. “I love you more than I can ever express in words.”

  I looked down at her. Tears welled in her doe eyes. The sight of it crushed me.

  “I don’t want to be a part of them any longer. I can’t. Not after what I saw.”

  I stroked her wet hair, my heart fracturing with each word.

  “What did you see, princess?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

  She reached up, pulling me down so she could kiss me. It was tentative, almost sweet. The profound relief I felt slammed into me like a sack of bricks. I had her in my arms. She shifted, her hand sliding under my t-shirt and brushing across my stomach. The other curled around my neck, anchoring me to her. I could feel the wetness on her cheeks as tears ran down her face.

  “Aiden, please make love to me,” she whispered against my lips.

  “Princess…”

  “Please, please don’t say no.”

  How the fuck could I when she was practically vibrating with sadness, crying in my mouth and asking me to take her pain away? What the hell had she seen?

  I let her pull my t-shirt off me, her hands running over my bare chest sending sparks down my skin. I held her face and kissed her cheeks, her nose, her eyes, tasting the saltiness of her tears on my lips.

  “I love you, Avery,” I told her.

  She choked out a sob, a fresh set of tears spilling down her face.

  “Shh, shh, don’t cry.”

  “Aiden, it was horrible. What he showed me was awful. I can’t. I can’t do this anymore. Please.”

  I captured her mouth again, swallowing her words. I couldn’t stand to hear how upset she was, to know what she’d been through caused her so much fucking misery. My hands went to her towel, tugging it from her body. I trailed my fingers down her bare spine. She arched into me, her hands gripping my shoulders.

  My mouth left hers. I trailed kisses down her jaw and neck. Across her collarbone, down her chest until I met her breasts. Taking a nipple in my mouth, I sucked and nipped it lightly knowing she needed a gentle touch rather than a rough one. She asked me to make love to her.

  She mewled softly, clutching me tighter. Fuck. That noise. Everything about this girl gave me fucking heart palpitations and made my dick hard. I pulled her into my lap, grinding her against my thoroughly confined and aching cock.

  “Aiden,” she moaned.

  She fucking knew what that did to me. My hand on her hip fell between her legs, stroking her pussy. Wet already. It was as if being close to each other was the spark, igniting the flame which constantly burnt between us.

  “Please, Aiden, I need you.”

  I shifted her back slightly so I could reach my jeans. Her doe eyes held mine as I fumbled with the button and the zip. Finally freeing myself, I shoved my jeans and boxers down my thighs and pulled her back towards me. I held my cock as she sunk down on me slowly, inch by inch. She let out an agonising cross between a sob and a moan. It broke my fucking heart.

  She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in it as she rose and fell on my cock. I didn’t know what else to do but hold her, kiss her and let her take what she needed from me.

  “I love you,” I whispered against her skin. “I’m here. I’ve got you. I’m never letting you go. I love you. I love you so much.”

  She cried into my shoulder, gut-wrenching sobs echoing around the hallway, but not once did she stop in her rhythm. I didn’t know if this was fucking helping her or not. I didn’t know what else she needed. That feeling of helplessness struck me again. I pressed my face into her hair.

  “Avery, please, please don’t cry.”

  “I can’t… I can’t stop.”

  “Princess.”

  “They all need to die, Aiden. All of them. They’re monsters.”

  Her words chilled me to the bone. I never expected her to want people dead. She knew I would take their lives, but to have her actually express wanting it to happen was a new one on me.

  “Is that what you need from me? To end them.”

  “Yes.”

  I kissed her hair. It would be better on my conscience than hers. I was already a killer. More bodies wouldn’t make a difference to me. The pricks deserved it anyway after what they’d done.

  “Okay, princess. We’ll end them. I’ll make sure they can’t hurt anyone else. Okay?”

  She nodded, pulling away from my shoulder. I wiped her tears from her face with my thumb. She took my hand and looked down at my bruised knuckles, her brow furrowing.

  “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t hurt anyone. I took out my frustration on the bag.”

  She kissed each knuckle one by one before grabbing my other hand and kissing those knuckles too. Caring for me even though she was suffering herself. That was Avery all over. My girl. Such a fucking selfless soul.

  “You’re the one who needs taking care of, not me.”

  She smiled. The world fucking stopped along with my heart.

  “We take care of each other.”

  She was right, as usual. Avery soothed my broken soul and I gave her all of me in return. I’d never let her go. Never again would I ruin things between us or ask her to do something she wasn’t comfortable with.

  She rocked her hips back and forth against mine. Her heat and the tightness of her causing me to groan. Fuck. Winding her hands into my hair, she kissed me again. This time it wasn’t tentative or sweet. It was desperate and all-consuming. Her tongue melded with mine, her movements increasing as she rose and fell on me again. Fuck. I gripped one of her hips, whilst my other hand drove between her legs, fingers finding her clit.

  She rode me harder as I stroked her. Her body vibrated with need. I felt her climax building inside her, the heat of her pussy reaching fucking boiling point. I grunted from the effort of holding back my own. This was about what she needed, not me.

  She pulled away from me, burying her face in my neck as she shook. Her fingers dug into my shoulder. I could feel each clench and pulse as she came apart.

  “Aiden. Oh fuck, Aiden.”

  Hearing my name on her lips was my complete undoing. I grunted, holding onto her hip and pressing deep inside her as I came too.

  We stayed locked in each other’s arms for a long moment after I’d collapsed against the wall, taking her with me.

  Her lips pressed a kiss to my jaw.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “No, but I feel a little better now.”

  I stroked her hair, kissing the top of her head.

  “Why don’t you dry your hair and get dressed. I’ll make you some tea and you can tell me in your own time what happened.”

  She kissed my jaw again.

  “Okay.”

  She shifted off me, grabbing the towel from the floor and going back in the bathroom. I used my discarded t-shirt to clean up before standing and pulling my boxers and jeans back up. I dumped my t-shirt in the wash basket in the bedroom before going through into the kitchen. Flipping the kettle on, I pulled out two mugs and put tea bags in them.

  When I was done, I took the mugs through into the living room, set them down on the coffee table and sat on the sofa. A few minutes later, she walked in with her hair tied up in a loose bun dressed in pyjamas. There were little birds printed all over the bottoms. She sat down on the sofa next to me, curling her legs up underneath her.

  I picked up a mug and handed it to her. She took a sip, smiling a little over the rim of the mug. I leant over and kissed her forehead.

  “You’re so good to me,” she whispered.

  I wasn’t all the time, but when she really needed me, I put my shit aside and tried to be the man she deserved.

  “I love you.”

  It was that simple. Love drove me to keep her safe and happy. Love was changing me. She was the reason for my existence in this fucked up world.

  “I don’t know who took m
e. All he wanted was a conversation and he showed me things I really didn’t want to see.”

  “A conversation?”

  She nodded.

  “He hid his voice, it was some kind of robotic thing instead which was weird. He seemed very interested in our relationship. He knew things… intimate details. He talked about you like he knew you. It scared me. He said he’d been keeping you under surveillance.”

  I picked up my own mug and gulped down half of it to try and settle my fucking nerves. What the actual fuck?

  “Then he started talking about your mother, asking me if you’d told me who killed her. He said you were there the night she died. He told me to ask you who you think it was and what happened. And then… and then he showed me something, I don’t know if I can repeat what it was.”

  My suspicions about who it was burnt in my lungs. I put the mug down, afraid I’d throw it at the wall. It was him. It had to be. Fuck. This was the worst fucking thing that could’ve happened.

  “Tell me.”

  She looked away.

  “He showed me a video of my father… I… Aiden, I can’t. It’s too much.”

  I reached out, cupping her face and stroking her cheek with my thumb. I had to know. I had to fucking know what she saw.

  “Tell me.”

  “It… it was my parents and your mother,” she whispered. “He… he whipped her and then he was going to… to… and I couldn’t look. I threw up over myself and the floor and made him turn it off.”

  My stomach dropped along with my hand. He’d made her sit through that. She started talking about what else he’d made her watch, but I was only half listening. There was video evidence of what Mitchell had done to her. How could I have never known this? I’d found his journal, which went into depth about how he’d used her, but a video. Fuck.

  “Then he let me go, he said we’d meet again but the next time he’d tell me everything. I don’t understand, Aiden. None of it makes any sense. I don’t know why he’d show me all that stuff when he’s involved in it. He was awful. He kept calling me darling, but he didn’t pronounce it like that. He kept dropping the g, it was like darlin’.”

  “Take it darlin’.”

  “Don’t lie darlin’.”

  Her words snapped me back to the present. I looked at her. The dread in my chest worsened. The knowledge of who had taken an interest in her burnt through me. I’d known he would never leave me alone. Hell, I’d fucking known he was probably keeping an eye on me just as I was him. And now he was threatening everything. He’d proven to me just how fucking untouchable he was by taking her. The girl he knew I loved.

  “Because he could. That’s what he does.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “You… you know who it is.”

  I took a breath. I could no longer ignore my suspicions. It was the only logical explanation.

  “Yes.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I told you one day he’d come after me and perhaps you.”

  She put her mug down on the coffee table and shuffled closer to me, wrapping a hand around my neck whilst the other cupped my cheek.

  “Your… sperm donor?”

  If this wasn’t such a serious conversation, I would’ve smiled at the term she’d used. It was apt. I’d never call him, my father. He hadn’t earnt that right. He was no one’s fucking father. A monster in a fucking shiny suit with slicked-back hair and soulless eyes.

  “Yes… Rick Morgan.”

  “Why have I heard that name before?”

  “Because he’s the CEO of The Harris Corporation in the US.”

  “My family does business with them regularly.”

  “Yes, they do and I can’t do a fucking thing about him. He’s dangerous. Far more so than Chuck and Frazier. You want to know why he knows so much about me? About us? Well, there you go. He has his fingers in too many pies.”

  Her expression was pensive, her body tense.

  “He doesn’t have any kids with his wife.”

  “No. Technically I’m his only offspring. I doubt she knows about my existence. He repeatedly raped my mother and knocked her up. That isn’t the type of thing a man like him wants to be made public.”

  She was silent, looking at me with heart-rending sorrow. She didn’t pity me or feel sorry for me. She just felt empathy. I was the spawn of a monster. Just like her in so many ways.

  “I don’t want you to worry about him, princess.” I stroked her hair. “He won’t harm you.”

  “How do you know?”

  I sighed.

  “Because I’m his son, Avery. Even if he’s a psychopathic cunt, that still means something to him. After my mother died, Tina took care of me. He gave her the money to raise me, not your family.”

  “What happened that night?”

  I looked away. Talking about the night she died was too fucking much for me. Not after the revelation he was back and he’d taken Avery. And my mind was a mess regarding it. I didn’t know what to think. I was no longer sure I knew who really killed her.

  “I can’t, princess. Not now.”

  She caught my face again and kissed me before leaning her forehead against mine.

  “It’s okay. I understand. You don’t have to.”

  “I don’t deserve you.”

  She smiled, putting her hand on my heart.

  “All I could think about whilst I was gone is how much I wanted to be back in your arms. How much I need you. How much I love you. I don’t want to be a Daniels any more, Aiden. I’m done with my family. After what he made me watch. All those men. I can’t be a part of it. I don’t want that associated with me.”

  “What are you saying?”

  There were so many emotions flittering across her expression, I couldn’t keep up. I understood why she didn’t want that associated with her name, but what was she trying to tell me?

  “You love me, right?”

  “Yes, more than anything.”

  “And you want me yours forever.”

  “You know that.”

  She took my hand with her free one, slipping her fingers through mine and rubbing one of my bruised knuckles with her thumb.

  “If I could, I’d tattoo your name across my heart. A permanent mark. And I’d tattoo the word soulmate below it because that’s what you are even if I don’t believe in bullshit like that.”

  Her doe eyes held so much. The love she felt for me poured out of them into mine.

  “I vow to love you until the day I fade from this world, Aiden,” she whispered.

  The way she’d worded it felt like she was trying to communicate something significant to me.

  “Vow?”

  “I want to make many vows to you, but for now, I just vow to love you.”

  She wants… Wait, hold on… Avery… she wants to…

  Avery wanted something I wasn’t sure I could give her.

  She wanted to marry me.

  She wanted to be my wife.

  That’s what she was trying to tell me.

  And I couldn’t fucking speak any longer.

  So instead of indicating I’d read between the lines and knew what the fuck she was talking about, I took the fucking coward’s way out. I cupped her face with my free hand and kissed her. I did it because I couldn’t deal with what she was trying to tell me. I couldn’t go there right now. That was the biggest fucking commitment you could make to another person.

  I wasn’t ready.

  Not now.

  Not when everything was so fucked up in our lives. We had no idea if we had a future or if everything would crash and burn.

  So I kissed Avery.

  The girl I loved.

  The conversation about commitment would just have to wait until I knew for sure I could give her everything she deserved.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Avery

  I’d been looking forward to my first official day as the owner of Daniels Holdings before the
weekend, but after I’d been kidnapped and returned, nothing felt the same.

  John was sat on the sofas by the coffee table, fiddling with a tablet whilst keeping an eye on the door. I didn’t much mind having him in here. My uncle had left not long ago after he’d seen for himself I was back safely. He’d been pleased I’d accepted I needed protection.

  Ed was starting today. After I’d spoken to him on Friday, he was eager to get stuck in. I wasn’t sure what he’d been doing before, but he’d dropped his other job at the drop of a hat. I was glad I didn’t have to wait to have him start. Having someone I didn’t hate would make me feel less alone here. He’d be up later when he’d gone through some paperwork with HR.

  I sat back in my chair and stared at my computer screen. There were too many emails I had to deal with and I just couldn’t think straight. Last night had been weird. The whole weekend had been a bit of a nightmare, but it was what I said to Aiden which bothered me the most. He hadn’t said anything. Did he think I wanted more from our relationship? Was he freaking out?

  I sighed. I had no idea.

  “That’s a big sigh. Everything okay?”

  I looked up, finding John giving me a smile. He’d put his tablet down.

  “Yeah, I’m just tired.”

  Liar. You’re worried about you and Aiden, Rick and everything else in between.

  “You had a tough weekend.”

  That was stating the obvious. No one wanted to get knocked out by whatever drugs they’d given me for an entire day. Then be shown a bunch of horrifying videos which proved just how sick their family was.

  I rubbed my forehead. I’d explained to John what happened on the way to work like Aiden asked me to. I hadn’t asked him if he knew Rick or had met him. I was curious about the man but not enough to pry just yet. Didn’t think Aiden would want me to considering he told me not to worry about Rick.

  “You can say that again. Are you sure you’re okay with this whole protection gig? I can get my uncle to pick someone else.”