by C. Lymari
He stretched out his hand to me, and everyone smiled at how loving my uncle was. I turned to my right and looked at Ren, maybe with pleading, as I took Silas’s hand. He looked at where my hand and Silas’s joined, but he didn’t stop me; he just let me go.
“You look beautiful,” Silas whispered in my ear as he led me to our table.
All I could feel was the knife between my legs. It begged to be used, and I knew just where to place it.
Ignoring Silas, I smiled at the people who were seated at our table. Silas took his seat, and as I went to grab mine, I noticed Ren was there pulling my chair back. The people at our table couldn’t stop staring at my chest, and for once, it had nothing to do with my tits. I was wearing a piece of jewelry; all of them would never know how it felt rested upon their stupid little hands.
My eyes crossed with Mattias, and he had his same loathing look. I smirked at him as I played with the Ember and polished the stone with my middle finger.
“I’m sorry to hear about your father, Miss Remington.”
I smiled at the old man. Mr. Sheppard was old, came from old money, lived for a good gala, young pussy, and donating money to important things, and adored his three kids most of all.
“My father is a strong man, so I have hope.”
I didn’t need to add what everyone at the table knew. The longer my father stayed in a coma, the slimmer his chances were of ever waking up.
The food came and went, and I was dying for a smoke. Something to take away the edge I was feeling at the moment. The mindless chatter, the fakeness, it was all getting to me, and I wanted to scream.
Silas got up and walked to the center to kick this thing off. He was going to do what my father had always done.
“How is everyone tonight?” he asked and smiled at the crowd. He charmed them, and they ate it up.
“As you all know, my…my brother can’t be with us.” Silas paused and looked at the room. It was hard, but I abstained from rolling my eyes. “He loves this gala, and he loves all of you. Hell, I do too—you guys keep us in business.”
Some people laughed; others gave a light clap.
“Now, my brother wouldn’t want us to be here moping him. He would want us to hope that he will get better. And I have hope fate will give my brother what he needs. What we all need… You see, my brother…he’d shed blood for this family, so I promise to shed mine as well.”
As far as speeches went, that was pretty fucking stupid. He then went on talking about our year in business, new branches, and stuff that had me wanting to pull my hairs out.
“For the real reason we are here today…Ember, or should I say the Embers.”
As Silas mentioned my name, everyone and their mother turned their head toward the table. I gave a small smile and a wave.
“Come here.” Silas waved me over like a dog.
I was walking his way when his words made me sick and want to vomit.
“Since my brother is not here, it’s up to me to take care of his little girl.”
I did not let his words hurt me, not right now. Yes, they haunted me, but for now, I had to put them out of my mind.
“Now today is also a very special day. My dear Ember turns twenty-five.” Silas’s hand came to where the jewel rested. “And who better to make her shine on this night than her namesake?”
People cheered and applauded, and I stayed next to Silas until he gave the last of his speech. When he was done, he put his hand around my waist and led me to talk to the investors. I tried not to think about the way Silas held me and instead focused on the heat at my back. Ren’s gaze was heavy like a cloak covering me in darkness.
When the tenth person asked me how I was feeling about my father, I told them I had to go powder my nose. I’m sure half of them thought I meant I was going to snort some coke, which wasn’t a bad idea. I held to my dress and walked past everyone, aware that it didn’t matter where I went, at least not tonight. I was a prisoner.
“Ember!” I heard Marcus shout.
I ignored him and kept walking to the grounds behind the gala’s museum. They were beautiful, flowers everywhere, statues and tranquility, something I wasn’t used to. I walked to the tall bushes, ignoring the shouts that came after me.
I ran until I was deep in the maze away from everyone, and it was just me and the darkness. I wasn’t like normal girls; the dark didn’t scare me. Everyone always showed their real face when they thought no one was watching. What I was scared of was looking in the mirror and seeing how pathetic I looked.
“Shut the fuck up,” I told Marcus, and pulled him back. “You screaming bloody murder isn’t helping anyone.”
He was pissed, but I was fucking livid right now.
“Well, she’s alone with a—”
“You think I don’t fucking know that? But you yelling for her to come back will only put her at risk.”
“No one would dare come here. We have top-notch—”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence, because I punched him. His arrogance was a downfall.
“Fuck.” Blood was spilling from his nose.
“Someone is always watching,” I spat at him before I left in the direction Ember had taken off to.
With my gun drawn, I made my way in, trying to do it as quickly and quietly as I could. Only Ember could be this fucking reckless. She was the most self-centered woman I had fucking met. I swore to God when I got my hands on her I was going to—fuck, I didn’t know if I wanted to fucking yell at her or fuck some sense into her.
I stopped dead in my tracks as the emotion—one I only ever read about but never truly felt—coursed through me. I was afraid. It was something I didn’t think I’d ever feel, at least not about someone else. Yet here I was in a fucking maze in a thousand-dollar suit hunting down a princess.
I was about to keep going when I saw her. Far in the corner, seated on a bench, her ridiculous dress too uncomfortable to sit down in, but somehow she managed. She didn’t even notice me come; she was too busy staring blindly forward. In her hand was a blunt, and the smell of grape filled the air.
“Save your sermon for someone who cares,” she said when I got closer.
“How did you know it was me? It could have been someone else.”
She gave a humorless chuckle but didn’t look at me. “Ever since you came into my life, you became like a fucking shadow. Following me around, judging me, wrapping around my being like a cloak. Everywhere I go, there you are. Even when you aren’t, I feel your stare. I feel your want.” She turned to look at me with defiance. “So now the question is, what are you going to do about it?”
The question here was, what wasn’t I going to do? I was too busy walking toward her that I didn’t notice what I’d stepped on until I felt something under my foot. Upon seeing the blood-like red, I stepped away. I crouched, and in my hand, I held a gem people would kill for. The Ember would solve all my problems and then some.
The chain that held the jewel was broken, from where Ember pulled it to get it off her body.
“When I’m done with you, you’re going to hate me,” I said, looking up at her.
“When you’re done with me, you’ll be like everyone who came before you—nonexistent.”
My jaw felt tense and rigid. She might be right, but I would make sure that once I was gone, she would be ruined. With that thought in mind, I put the diamond in my pocket, and then while I was still crouched, I took out the knife I had strapped on the side of my leg. I moved it up to my sleeve slowly before I rose. When Ember licked her lips, I lost it and the skin I had been wearing shed off me, revealing the man I was within.
I was in front of her within seconds, and she tried to remain still. The rise and fall of her chest was a giveaway of the nerves she was feeling, along with the little beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
“Everything you think you know about me, forget it. You don’t know me. What you should know about me—” I leaned toward her, my mouth brushing the shell of her ear, my to
Her eyes snapped open at the same moment the dress ripped at the seams. She was going to talk, but I held on to her jaw, and I fucking kissed her like she held the key to heaven and I had just been sentenced to hell.
Ember used all her strength and pushed me back. I fell flat on the grass, and she used the opportunity to straddle me.
“You do what I say, dog.”
Not saying anything, I put the knife to the side, and since the material was fine and already ripped, I finished tearing her dress all the way to her waist. The skirt came off, and she was left in the bodice that snapped at her cunt along with the makeshift garter I’d made her. Curving one of my arms around her waist, I flipped us over, laying her on top of the torn-off material.
“You don’t get a say, Ember. Not when it’s my dick that’s going to sink into your soaked pussy.”
My body dwarfed hers, and it turned me on to have the upper hand. She had the world at her fingertips, except for me. With my knee, I spread her legs, leaving her open to my mercy. My cock was painfully hard, and I was going to cross a line, knowing I’d be damning everyone else.
I put my hands on either side of her head and looked at her. She was a rare beauty, and like any man, I coveted it. I bent my head until my forehead touched hers. Her pupils were dilated, and it had nothing to do with the weed.
“You’re going to let me own this tonight?” I asked in a gruff voice as I thrust against her.
Ember whimpered as my dick made contact with her pussy. I leaned to kiss her jaw, then sucked the skin on her neck. When she threw her head back, I took that as permission. I sucked all around her neck, aware I was making a collar of my own, marring her neck and rearranging her blood.
“Ren,” Ember huffed, but I ignored her.
She seemed to hold her breath when I finally made it down to her center. I gave her pussy a gentle bite, and instead of removing the bodice, I kissed her thigh where she had the scalpel strapped.
Grabbing the scalpel, I removed it from the garter. Ember watched me with wide eyes as I took off the cap, revealing the obsidian tip. She bit her lip but didn’t say a word.
“I’d suggest you don’t move, princess,” I told her as I brought the edge of the knife to where the apex of her thigh met her pussy.
“Ren,” Ember whispered, trying hard to lie still.
Slowly I let her feel the sharp edge against the side of her sensitive flesh, laying it flat against her skin. Her soft moan had my head snapping to her face. My nostrils flared when I noticed she was even more turned on than before.
Bringing my attention back to her pussy, I started to slice the scalpel across the cloth, ripping it off, careful not to cut her. As her center came into view, I could see how fucking soaked she was. Not that the wet bodice wasn’t an indication. Once I had sliced across her pussy, I brought my thumb and stroked her slit, then applied pressure to her clit.
Ember moaned, almost jumping out of her skin by the contact.
“Careful,” I scolded her. “I might nick you.”
She seethed. “Then stop playing with me.”
I bent my head to her pussy, holding her stare, and I gave her a wicked grin. “Trust me, Ember, I haven’t even begun.”
The first taste of her was just as I knew it would be—addicting and forbidden all at once. Her wetness coated my tongue, and I wanted to lap her up and lick away her essence. I wanted to consume her so she would be a part of me.
I didn’t want these thoughts. I didn’t want her, but I did fucking need her.
I sucked her clit into my mouth, and that’s when she screamed, her hand coming to my hair, gripping it, making my scalp burn as she rode my face.
I wanted to cause her some amount of pain, like she was beginning to cause me. She was still riding her high, her pussy still spasming, so I grabbed the scalpel and made a small cut on her thigh.
Seeing her blood spilling seemed to bring us both down to reality. I couldn’t let her have control, and she shouldn’t trust me. Licking the bit of blood that spilled, I hoped it disgusted her into pushing me away, but instead, she leaned up to grab my face so I could kiss her.
Before I gave her my lips, as I held the scalpel to her neck where my hickeys started to form, I asked her, “Do I scare you, Ember?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Marcus
Watching another man run after the woman I was in love with was hard, and I had to remind myself that it wasn’t my job to protect her anymore. Hell, at one point, I would have done it for free. Ember was so much more than what she showed the world. She was all the ugly things everyone knew, but under that, she was also beautiful, and I wasn’t talking skin-deep. I meant actions-speak-louder-than-words beautiful.
So yeah, it sucked watching the new guy run after her. I wasn’t stupid; I saw the way he looked at her. Just like all of us that got too close to her, he wanted her.
I checked my watch for the tenth time, and neither of them had come out. They’d been gone for long enough, people would begin to wonder where Ember had taken off to, mainly because she carried her family’s jewel. Just as I was going to take a step toward the maze, Silas stepped out of the door, looking like death himself.
“Where the fuck is she?”
“She’s in there, sir.”
Silas’s jaw ticked. I didn’t like him much—hell, no one really did. He had his own guards. Something about his adoptive trust issues and creating his own family. Except the men he had in his employment all had questionable morals.
“Why the fuck would you leave her alone?”
“I didn’t. She’s with Ren.”
“With whom?” His voice dropped an octave, sounding dangerous.
I stood straighter before I answered. “Her bodyguard.”
Rage seemed to come off Silas in waves, and I bit back my tongue to stop myself from saying something inappropriate.
“Take me to them.”
Nodding, I did as he asked. I walked ahead of him, scanning the maze in case there was danger.
Silas’s phone started ringing, and he fell back a bit.
“Are you sure?” he said. “Don’t let the media get a hold of this yet. And start making all the preparations. I want to start making arrangements for the funeral as soon as possible.”
My stomach sank from the news that could only mean that Michael Remington had died. Ember would be devastated. Before I could think of ways to be there for her, my blood ran cold when I turned the corner.
Ember was on the floor, her dress ripped off and blood between her legs as Ren lay on top of her with a blade to her neck. I didn’t think—I pulled my gun out and aimed.
Ember
They say you see life flash before your eyes before you die. That somehow hanging in the balance of life and death makes time still, as if time would wait for us mere mortals, but it was true.
I was mesmerized, ready to hand over my soul to Ren freaking Falcon, when I heard a guttural shout. My head turned to the side. I saw Marcus angry, but most of all hurt, and even as his gun was aimed toward where Ren and I lay on the floor, my eyes were on Silas.
Angry didn’t begin to cover it. Whatever pleasure I was feeling moments before was now replaced with fear that clung to my skin and clawed at my bones. Looking into Silas’s dark eyes, there was no hiding from the truth that Ren was different. Something he knew from the start and I’d tried to deny.
The blast from the gun made my ears ring, and for a moment, I wished it had pierced me, and maybe I’d be free.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Are. You. Okay?” Ren breathed in a barely controlled voice.
That was when I noticed he had pressed his weight on top of me. When I turned back toward Marcus and Silas, I saw Marcus was thrown to the side and Silas a few feet away from him. I didn’t need them to tell me Silas had stopped Marcus from shooting Ren. One, because he didn’t want him to hurt me accidentally. And two, because Silas would want to kill him. Get rid of him, or I will. Those words he had said came back to haunt me.
Before I could get myself together and find the words to deny or beg, security rushed into our hidden corner.
“What’s going on here?” someone said, but I didn’t pay attention.
“This man was raping my niece when we got here,” Silas said through gritted teeth. His rage was not in concern for me, but because someone else had touched me.
“It’s true,” Marcus said, sending a hateful look toward Ren. “He had a knife to her throat.”
That’s when everyone looked at Ren and me, and I knew it wasn’t hard to believe. Looking at Silas’s eyes, I knew I had hell to pay if I spoke up. I was going to open my mouth, but when Silas did, he brought a piece of my world crashing down.
“I need you to handle this, Gio. Sammy is dead.”
Another piece I didn’t know I still had chipped off and disintegrated. Silas was letting me know I was fucked. I bowed my head, not wanting to let anyone see the hurt. I gave myself a moment but snapped out of it when I heard the shuffling of the men coming for Ren. I looked up at him, but he was unusually calm. Either he knew he was fucked or was waiting for me to say something. He didn’t even look at me; his eyes were on Silas.
“Tell them the truth, Ember,” he said, low and controlled.
“This man raped my niece. Someone take him out of here,” Silas said over him.
I looked at Ren, and I begged forgiveness with my gaze. The words he wanted to hear, I could never say. I was nothing but prey in this tangled game. Gio was more than happy to make comply, and when I didn’t say anything, I saw the way Ren’s eyes became frosty. Moments ago, they burned with lust, and now they were ice. I turned my head to the side, and the metal from the scalpel caught my eyes. I wrapped the tuxedo around myself, bending a bit so I could pick up the small knife.
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