by C. Lymari
“Hey, you. Mr. Gunman.”
“His name is Ren,” I said, pretending not to care that my so-called friend was talking to my bodyguard. I tried to hide my satisfied smile when Ren kept driving without answering her.
Lilah, however, didn’t let that stop her. “Has anyone ever told you that you have a lovely shade of brond hair?”
My eyes went to the front of the car, where my gaze collided with Ren’s through the mirror. I couldn’t read him. And that bothered me more than I wanted to admit to myself.
Since I was young, I’d developed an instinct for reading people. My life was a revolving door of fake friends and conquests. As I got older, it got easier to tell why someone was in my life. The answers were always the same: influence, drugs, sex, money. Ren might work for me, but there was something he was hiding. I could practically smell it on him.
“It’s like blond but not too blond, you know?” Lilah’s question snapped me out of staring at him.
Ren didn’t bother to answer her; instead, he put up the partition.
“Rude!” Lilah screamed so Ren could more than hear her.
I turned to face her silently, glaring at her to not say more.
She smiled. “I like him.”
Of course she did.
“Lilah.” I leaned into her, careful to not be heard. Lilah did the same. “You aren’t allowed to fuck him.”
The ride to Hill Hotel was silent. Ren parked in my private parking. Once there, he opened the door to Lilah’s side of the car even though I was behind him.
Whatever.
Ren and Lilah took off in the opposite direction of my entrance. I got out of the car, slammed the door, and started walking to my elevator entrance. I needed a drink now that I was home. Maybe a line or a blunt. Remembering that I had hidden a tin with blunts in the phone box, I grabbed that first. It took me a minute to light up. Once I took a hit, I pressed the button to go up.
“Ember, hold the door!” Ren shouted.
You know what I didn’t do? I didn’t hold the fucking door.
“You’re doing a stellar job of protecting my friend,” the leggy blonde said as I walked her to her private entrance.
“Marcus is on cameras; if your friend had been in trouble, he would have paged me by now.”
“Hmm.” Ember’s friend made a face.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Marcus used to be Ember’s bodyguard. There’s a reason they’ve removed him.”
No wonder the fucker lost her in the five minutes she was in his care.
“I’m pretty sure you know the way to your place from here.” I pointed toward her elevator door. It was a few steps away when I left Ember’s friend and took off running in the other direction. Ember had a blunt in her fingers as she pressed the elevator button.
“Ember, hold the door!” I shouted.
Ember looked up, her brown eyes dark and intense. She smirked at me and pressed the button, closing the door before I could reach her.
“Son of a bitch.”
I’d grown up in the streets. The only person who’d ever mattered was myself, and now I was in charge of one of the most self-centered women I’d ever met.
By the time I walked out of the elevator door, I was fuming. It shouldn’t have taken me nearly ten minutes for the elevator to go down. Marcus was waiting for me in the lobby with a smirk on his face. “She spent ten minutes opening and closing the elevator doors. “
Of course she fucking did.
Marcus patted my shoulder as he passed me to go into the elevator. “An ember may be the last thing burning in a fire, but this Ember, she’s the blaze.”
I removed my shoulder so he would stop touching me, then walked into the penthouse. Ember was already on the kitchen island, dropping champagne into the bong and packing it.
“Didn’t you just smoke? The elevator reeked.”
“I put it out after a hit of it. I didn’t want to hotbox it,” she answered without looking at me.
“I looked everywhere for you today,” I said through gritted teeth. I watched her inhale and exhale the drugs in her system.
“Congratula—” She started to cough. “—tions.”
I took a step toward her, mad as fuck that I needed to be reduced to a glorified babysitter. My whole life, I’d been trying to make my way out of the gutters to stop people making me feel inferior, and this bitch did it on day one.
“Congratulations? Are you serious right now? I chased you around town, trying to make sure you were okay.” There was an edge to my voice.
Ember jumped down from the kitchen island. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
I stepped toward her. I towered over her; even in her heels, she was tiny. Breakable.
“Yeah?” I purred my words. “If I hadn’t been at the harbor, what would your friend have done?”
“Zeke is a dipshit.” She glared at me as if her so-called friend manhandling her was my problem.
“Well, dipshits are usually the ones who end up on the news for raping women,” I growled.
To her credit, Ember didn’t flinch or react. Instead, her eyes went vacant.
“Real monsters don’t get caught,” she mumbled, leaving me too dumbfounded to say anything else.
I watched her leave and didn’t say any more. Once she was gone, I went over to where she’d left her box and looked through her belongings, not able to hide my disgust. She had the world at her feet, and she was here tempting death.
The next day I was still in bed, contemplating if I needed this job, when the bedroom door opened. Ember walked in wearing a short dress and heels, her lips blood-red.
“Ah, look, you’re happy to see me.” She smirked at me, looking at my morning wood.
“I was hard, but then you walked into the room and killed my vibe,” I replied.
What the fuck was wrong with me, resorting to childish games?
Ember rolled her eyes at me. “I need to leave, so get let’s go.”
“No.”
When she smiled, I waited to see what would come out of her mouth.
“I’m sure the first thing they teach you in dog school is to obey your master.” She pointed a finger at me. “You, dog.” Then one at herself. “Me, master.”
The blood that was in my dick earlier boiled all over my body.
When she snapped her fingers, I forced myself to keep my face impassive.
“Let’s. Go.” She walked out of the room without looking back.
I dressed quickly, grabbing my guns, and when I came out, Ember was smoking a cigarette in the lobby. I got close to her, and the only thing I could smell was tobacco. Since she was going to make me do everything, I pressed the elevator button while I stared at her nose in the elevator reflection. No sign of cocaine, but who knew?
“Are you telling me where we’re going?” I asked her.
“Does it fucking matter? You do as I say,” she told me as we stepped into the elevator.
I smirked at her. “It matters in the way that if I see someone trying to kill you, I’ll stop them or not. Then again, a little spilled blood never hurt anyone.”
Ember stared at me, and I took the cigarette from her lips and took a drag from it just as the elevator opened again.
I got in the Maybach, waiting for her to come in. Since I didn’t open the door for her, she glared at me.
“This is the part where you tell me where I’m taking you.”
She didn’t answer me. Instead she typed an address on the GPS. I drove around the city, trying not to stare at her; she looked so different than she did on my screen when I’d researched her. Still, she was dumb and naïve.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” I said when the GPS took us to McDonald’s.
Ember ignored me. “Park right there.”
I did as she said, surprised the diamond princess was going to get out and not use the drive-through. Not even a minute later, workers started to come out, holding Happy Mea
“Thank you.” She waved goodbye.
She then put in another address, and I followed the directions until we were in the underground parking for the biggest children’s hospital in the state.
Once out, Ember grabbed her purse, and she gave me a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I’ll be on the twentieth floor.”
Then the bitch walked away, leaving me with all the fucking food. I stood there watching her go when I pulled my burner phone out.
“Yeah?”
“It’s me,” I said.
“Took you long enough, asshole,” Pam said.
“I know. Things are going to be harder than I thought.”
When Pam didn’t answer immediately, I knew that wasn’t a good sign.
“It better not be because you have a hard-on for that little bitch, because I swear to God—”
“You swear what, Pam?” I growled. “Don’t forget where we stand. Just because I have a soft spot for you, it doesn’t mean—”
“I’m sorry. Yeah, look, be careful okay, asshole? There’s a reason why everything is so shady, and I’m worried.”
“I got to go. I don’t have time for your sentimental bullshit.”
I hung up, then took all the boxes to the twentieth floor.
When I finally made it to the correct floor, the staff helped me. I had one box when they led down the hall. The room was big with a bunch of kids, all of them sick, but they were smiling. In the center of them all was Ember, and she was smiling at them. The light hit her, and the choker at her neck seemed like it glowed.
I’d done more than my fair share of research on Ember, and not once did I come across her visits to sickly kids. Fund-raisers to raise money for bullshit events for other rich people, yes, I’d seen her plastered all over, but this I didn’t have a clue about, which made me curious, and I wondered if I should pull in a favor.
I walked toward Ember, and I got to listen to the conversation she was having with a little boy.
“Tell you what—you don’t give up, you keep strong, and I’ll get you a dog as a gift.” When Ember smiled, the little kid got twinkles in his eyes.
“Do you have dogs?”
Ember cast me a side glance. “I have one. It’s not all that great, Dion, but nothing I can do about it.”
“Sometimes it’s not the dog but its master. Dogs know when their master is a fraud, a failure; they can smell weakness, and let me tell you something…” I leaned close to her ear and whispered, “You reek of it.”
Ember stopped breathing for a second, her hands going to the diamonds at her neck, and then she walked away. Everyone loved to point out flaws until it was their own.
“Daddy, please let me come with you,” I begged my father when he came to kiss and hug me goodbye before his trip to Africa.
He gave a sad smile. “I’m sorry, princess. I wish I could.”
Right. He always wished he could.
I waved goodbye to my father.
“It’s okay, Ember. I’m keeping you company,” Uncle Silas said.
He wasn’t much older than me, just five years. I was eight, and he was thirteen. My grandparents had adopted him a few years back, but now Grandma was sick, and Grandpa was leaving with my dad on his trip.
“You think my daddy loves me?”
“How could anyone not love you?”
In my twenty-four years, I realized that love was also a weapon in the game of life. People used it, lied for it, stole for it. Some even killed for it. But in the end, it was a weapon nonetheless.
I reached for my nightstand, trying to find some joints, when my hand touched the cold surface of my laptop. Instantly, there was a chill in my body. The last time I’d touched it was when I made the mistake of logging into places I had no business being in.
Since I was in skimpy shorts and a tank top, I grabbed a long robe before I made my way out of my room. The hallways were dark, but for the first time, I felt an icy feeling go down my spine. I looked around, but found nothing. Shaking my head, I made my way outside. Once I was there, I grabbed the lighter and lit up my joint. I walked all the way to the edge of my building, dragging a chair with me. The fence was a little high for safety measures. I stood on top of the chair and looked down at the world. The people down below couldn’t see me, and they didn’t matter to me.
I exhaled smoke, and when I turned around, I found Ren standing by the door.
“If you jump, there’s no way in hell I’ll jump after you,” Ren said in a lazy drawl.
Tomorrow was my family’s dinner, and I was feeling reckless. I turned around, sliding down to the chair, aware that my robe was now hanging open at the sides. Slowly I started to bend one of my legs, and Ren followed the movement. It wasn’t cold, but it was chilly, and I knew my nipples had pebbled.
Ren knew it too. His eyes raked over my body, stopping at my center, and I could feel myself get wet. I wondered if he could see it through the satin cloth.
“Inside. Now,” he demanded in a gruff tone.
Instead of answering, I took another hit, then threw my head back and let out the thick smoke. The stench of marijuana and blueberry was in the air. When I brought my head back down, I opened my eyes and saw Ren had taken a seat on a chaise.
There were a million things I could have said to him, but instead, I went with the truth.
“You ever wonder what would happen if you died? Like if you were to die tomorrow, what would the people around you do? Would they cry? Be shocked? How long would they mourn, and how quickly would they forget you?”
Ren leaned back on the chair, his gaze leaving me and scanning the area around us. “Are you afraid of being forgotten?”
Something in my chest tightened like it was trying to suffocate me. It was probably my insecurities. Those bitches loved to taunt me.
“How can you forget someone you barely know exists?” I mused.
In my mother’s culture, people started praying immediately for your immortal soul after death. They prayed for nine days, then for the next nine years on the anniversary of your death. When I died, who would pray for me? Who would even remember me?
Ren stayed quiet, and I started to feel uncomfortable with my overshare. There was something dark and alluring about him that I wanted to reach and maybe be consumed by. After all, darkness would be welcome to the invisible shackles I found myself in. In the dark, no one gave a fuck what was right or wrong.
“I’m surprised you aren’t bitching at me about getting killed,” I said, mainly to try to move past my verbal diarrhea from earlier.
“Your back is to the fence, so no one can get you from behind. From this point the only one who can kill you is me,” he rasped.
For a second, I contemplated his words, wondering if he was capable of doing that to me.
“You need to relax,” I told him.
“I relax, you end up dead.”
I rolled my eyes at him and got up from my seat. He was starting to be as paranoid as my father.
“Tell you what. You take a hit, and I’ll go to bed like a good little girl. Just relax,” I said.
Ren gave me a questioning look, but ultimately he nodded. He extended his hand so I could pass the joint, but instead, I took it, which surprised him. I moved to him and watched the way his body stilled as I straddled him. I wasn’t stupid, and I knew that if he wanted, he could have stopped me at any given moment. There was a part of him that wanted me.
They always did.
“What are you doing?” He looked straight at me, and not at my body, or the way that I had yet to sink into his lap.
“My Kush, my rules,” I whispered as I sank into his lap.
He. Was. Hard.
And I fed off that kind of knowledge. My pussy was on his dick, and I leaned back to take a hit, then rolled my hips, making my eyes flutter, but glad I didn’t moan. Ren’s chest rose and fell. His blue eyes looked like the ocean—beautiful, but deadly. I lowered my mouth to him, and Ren opened his. We didn’t kiss, but our lips touched, and I felt that graze of our mouths straight to my core. I pressed my face closer to his, and I shotgunned the smoke into his mouth. Ren inhaled it, then threw his head back and let it out.
I was mesmerized by his beauty. It wasn’t prim and proper; it was rugged, lethal, and dirty. Once again, I was attracted to his throat and the way his tendons flexed. He lowered his head and wordlessly took the joint from me. He brought it to his lips, inhaling, then throwing the joint away. His hands came to my waist, his fingers digging into my hips. He got up, and before I could wrap my legs around his waist, he laid me on the chaise. He took my hands and lifted them above my head, then thrust his hips into my pussy, and when I moaned, he put his mouth on me and blew the smoke.
I started to cough, feeling like I was choking.
With his hard dick still pressed against my now obviously wet pussy, he whispered in my ear. “Are you always this easy, princess?”
I glared at him, my throat still burning from the smoke.
“Your little pussy is drenched, and I barely touched you.” He smirked at me. “I’m not going to fuck you.”
He then walked into the house, not looking back at me. My cheeks flamed, and I was glad for the night because at least it felt like I could hide my shame in the darkness.
I was annoyed, pissed, but mainly horny when I made it to my room. The first thing I did was check my phone, and I wished I hadn’t.
In two days, you’re mine.
Wasn’t I always?
I felt that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, the one you get before a big test—well, no, that was a lie; I never gave a shit about mundane things like that—as I pressed call on the number.
“This is a lovely surprise,” he mused. “You never call anymore.”
“What’s so important about this dinner?” I questioned.
“Can’t we just see you, baby girl?” Silas questioned.
“Don’t call me that,” I bit out.
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