CALLIE (The Naughty Ones Book 1)

by Kristina Weaver

  I sense a “but” coming and finish off my coffee with a growl as the hot liquid scalds my throat.

  “But…you’re better than the man you’ve become, and we both know it. If you can’t find it within yourself to be the right man for Nicolette—”

  “Butt out of my love life, Dad. Nic is mine, and she always has been. Whether or not I can forgive her for her treachery and get that happy ending you and Mom are so intent on, is none of your damned business. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

  “Wait! We haven’t talked about the family—”

  I end the call, knowing that I’m heading for trouble with my whole family and not caring a wit about it right now.

  Not only am I nowhere near resolving the obsession that is steadily growing for my fiancée, but I’ve also got to contend with the fact that my own parents are standing in her corner, just waiting for me to make a wrong move.

  The pressure is piling up and pushing at me from all directions, and I have the overwhelming urge to run and not look back. Ever. I can do it. Contrary to my father’s opinion of me and his assumption that I blew through my trust fund, I am rich in my own right, thanks to investments and some business in the past.

  So yeah, running will not be a problem for me. But it’s definitely something I can’t do if I want to prove to them that I’m more than a reckless playboy with a silver spoon shoved up his ass.

  Hence the pressure and this overwhelming need to fuck with Nic as much as she’s been fucking with my head since the day I laid eyes on her again.

  Goddamned woman!

  “Mr. James?”

  I grit my teeth against the guilt and the need to apologize, as Peggy’s stammering voice whispers over my intercom.

  “Yes, Peggy?”

  “Er, Miss Sharp is on line one for you, sir.”

  “Tell her I’m unavailable Peg and hold all calls for the rest of the day, please.”

  Why am I doing this? Simple. Nic needs to know that I am not available to her at the drop of a hat, and that no matter what happens henceforth, I am and will always be in control of our lives from here on out.

  I tell her what to eat. What to wear. How late she may rise in the morning. If she sees that as my way of caring for her all the better, but the truth is that I’m slowly but surely taking over her life so that by the time I have my ring on her finger and my seed in her belly she won’t be capable of forming a thought without my permission.

  That’s the only way I can think of to control this beast prowling beneath my skin, and I will do whatever I need to in order to regain control of myself. Where’s the happy, easy-going playboy who only thought about the simplest of pleasures in life?

  I want that guy back so that I can save myself, and I’ll get him back.

  Starting with my next plan.

  A half hour later I’m in the car and driving towards my destination, feeling some of the tension ease the closer the car gets.

  I’m taking control of my family.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Nico

  The feel of warm hands skating over my ass brings me awake with a jolt, and I smile into the pillow, relaxing into the feel of Law pushing up my nightgown to reveal my nakedness underneath. I forewent panties this time because after the doctor cleared me, I assumed he’d be home like a shot and sexing me up good. After waiting till almost ten o’clock, I must have fallen asleep, wrapped up in disappointment and not a little anger at the fact that the man has been ignoring me but for the commands he seems to bark at me whenever we’re alone.

  The only people he seems to give a shit about are his parents and Cody…who he dotes on so much. I was surprised to hear that he attended a hockey practice.

  Me? Nada. I wake up with instructions placed on the pillow beside my head telling me when I can get up, what to use in the shower, what to wear, and what to eat throughout the day.

  Don’t get me wrong, the man does not starve me. On the contrary, he seems to include a lot of food that—if not fattening—is definitely going to put some weight back on thanks to the quantities he deems appropriate.

  At first I was charmed, thinking that this is Law’s way of showing me that he loves me or at least cares for me. Imagine my surprise when I realized he’s just being a controlling douche.

  I thought about it a lot over the last two days since he’s been ignoring my calls and avoiding me, working so late that half the time I don’t see him unless I wake up to pee in the middle of the night.

  My conclusions are so against my feminist core that I laughed about it for a good thirty minutes…before I cried a little and then ate a whole tub of double chocolate fudge ice cream.

  I’m going to let it slide and just go with the flow. If he needs to do this to make himself feel better about whatever the heck is going on in his brain, that’s fine by me, as long as it gets us where we need to be.

  On the same page.

  Back to the hands though….

  “Law?” I mumble, gasping when one of his hands slips down the crack of my ass and zeroes in on my vagina with a rough glide that leaves me trembling.

  “Who else?” he purrs, spreading my legs to get better access to my core and the heated syrup now coating my lips.

  As his fingers start playing, I stretch and push my face into the pillow, muffling the moans that always come with his touch.

  “Don’t hide, Nic. Let me hear your screams, babe.”

  I shake my head and burrow deeper even as I lift my hips and spread my legs, my knees coming up beside me as he parts my sex and thrusts two fingers home…so deep I contract with joy.

  His touch—as he moves his hand and cups my sex from the front even as the fingers of his other hand keep thrusting—is hard and purposeful, letting me know that the gentle though dirty lover of before is long gone.

  This Law is aiming to show me who is boss, and God have mercy, I don’t have the strength to fight him—not when the dominant thrust and the skilled pinch of his fingers against my clit are so perfect.

  “Law.”

  My voice is a gasp when he settles over my back and bites into the skin at my nape, his teeth only gentle enough to let me know he’s in charge. The move is so hot I feel my sex pulse around his fingers, and it’s all I can do not to beg him to touch me harder, deeper, to take me and make me his.

  I want him in me, filling me, branding me so deeply that not only will I know that I am his, but so will he.

  “That’s it, babe. You feel me hitting that spot? That’s where I’m putting my dick. I’m going to fill you so full you’ll feel me there all the time. You’ll remember everything I can do to you and crave the feel of my seed filling your sweet womb.”

  My arousal is so high at this point that just one tiny movement from either hand could set me off. He seems to sense this though and stops moving all together.

  I want to curse when he burrows into my neck, and I feel his smile against my skin. “No coming yet, Nic,” he says with a purr, sending chills down my spine as his raspy breath meets my ear. “You only come when I say, and I don’t want you coming till you feel me offload into you.”

  I feel his shift and cry out when he pushes home with a grunt, seating himself so deeply inside me I feel an edge of pain as he bumps up against my cervix. At this angle, he’s filling every inch of my tight heat to the point of pain, a good pain that only serves to ramp up my arousal and threatens to have me climaxing harder and faster than I have ever come in my life.

  “Laaaaw!”

  “That’s it, babe. Feel how deep my dick is, Nic? This is mine. I belong in you.”

  Another shiver wracks me, and I push back, wanting him deeper even though there’s nowhere to go. He’s bottomed out and so in that I feel his balls hit my clit with every small thrust he makes as he grinds into me.

  The friction, or lack thereof is maddening, and I grunt, reaching down to get to my clit. I know he said I can’t come yet, but I need to and I can’t—

  “Nahahah, Nic. Bad g
irl, babe.” He grabs my hands and pins them above us. “This is my show, and I run it.”

  He starts thrusting then, hard, and I can do nothing but lie beneath him and accept what he has to give me. The need to let go is riding me hard, but I somehow manage to hold off, letting him take control, letting him know that I’m with him every step of the way.

  The feeling is heady, and I wonder how I ever lived without this for so long. I’m no submissive in any real aspect of life, and I’m not about to walk that path, but I am so turned on by his aggression that I feel at peace even as my orgasm builds and threatens to erupt despite my efforts to stop it.

  “I can feel your sex pulsing, babe. You need to come, Nic?”

  “Yes,” I say, my voice strangled and breathless. The harder he fucks into me, the more it sends my face into the pillows with every hammer of his strong hips.

  “Good. I want you wild and begging before I let you take what you need.”

  “Oh God! Please!” I beg, fighting against myself even as the first warning ripple tingles low in my belly, signaling my impending orgasm.

  Another few hard thrusts later and I feel him ram so deep that I swear I feel him in my womb, before stiffening and releasing a stream of scalding hot seed.

  Just like that my control snaps and I come, screaming into the pillow as contractions overtake me and send me into a place I’ve never been before. When I finally come back down to earth, I’m lying on my stomach, my legs spread.

  Alone.

  I know this because I hear the door click shut quietly and then retreating footfalls.

  This is the part where I’m supposed to get pissed. Instead, I feel hot tears trickle down onto the pillow, as Minnie’s words echo in my head. If I was the one, if I was really the one whom Law wanted, I’m pretty sure he’d love me enough not to make me feel like a whore.

  That’s when I make my decision and fall asleep with a solid plan in mind.

  Love may not be everything it’s cracked up to be, but life is always what you make of it, and this time, I’m not willing to wait around for something that never existed.

  Chapter Thirty

  Law

  Things are going great, just as I planned, and as far as I’m concerned, my life has never been more under control. Nic is firmly in line and playing her part, and the business is even going so great that I hired Jared, another assistant, just to keep up with things.

  Wheeling and dealing may have not been my dream, but I can’t deny the rush I get every time I land a big deal or negotiate the hell out of a deal that was already fair to begin with.

  I’m enjoying knowing that I’ve not only cemented myself into a good place with the business, but that things are going so great that Dad and Nic have congratulated me on many occasions for my stellar performance.

  The only dark cloud was when Mom cancelled our impromptu nuptials on the grounds that she only has one daughter and she’s been dreaming of a magnificent wedding.

  Nic agreed, damn her. So now, instead of being married and having a solid hold on her, I’m sitting on my laurels waiting for them to set a date.

  I can still remember yesterday’s argument, and man, was it loud.

  “I’m not taking this shit a moment longer, Mom. The two of you need to set a freaking date and get on with things. It’s been two months, and I want to be married before we have another baby.”

  They’d both looked at me through narrowed eyes before sharing a look and then nodding. Nic looked away, avoiding my gaze, as my mom levelled a hard stare on me and told me to mind my manners or she’d box my ears so hard I’d hear bells ringing for days.

  “But Mom, be reasonable here. What if Nic’s already pregnant? Do you want another grandchild born—?”

  “If you know what’s good for you, boy, you won’t finish that sentence.”

  Now my mom is a tiny, unassuming scrap of a woman, but when she uses a certain tone, no man alive would risk his balls by defying her.

  Nic looked ready to spit obscenities at me, and Mom’s mouth was so pinched I feared for her cheeks if she sucked them any harder.

  “Now get this straight, boy. We’re planning a wedding. We’ll be ready when we’re ready and not a day before, so you can take your cheeky ass on to work and leave us in peace. Unless you would like to plan the wedding of my dreams while Nico and I take a well-deserved spa week?”

  Er, no, not happening, and not because I can’t rock planning a wedding. I am a rock star and could probably do that shit with one hand tied behind my back while running James at the same time. (Here’s where I pat my own back in admiration.) However, Dad will kill me if Mom is gone that long—not to mention that Cody will kick my ass, too.

  That kid. An animal when he’s annoyed.

  But if the looks didn’t prove it, his cheeky temperament would. Cody is a James through and through, and so like me I pity my poor mother having to raise a kid like me.

  So now, here I sit at work, king of all I survey, feeling at peace and content for the first time in a while, and I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop because—damn me—if that’s not the way that shit works in my life.

  That’s one of the reasons I haven’t allowed myself to settle for so long, because as soon as I relax and allow myself to feel happy, the bitch comes crashing down and I’m left feeling worse than if I never allowed the contentment at all.

  “Earth to Law.”

  I look up to see Justin Grove, an old friend of mine from Monaco, stroll into my office, a huge grin lining his handsome face, and I frown. I like the guy and spent three months with him exploring Mongolia and some of Siberia, playing at being an adventurer.

  But the guy is very slick, and he’s a part of my past that I don’t need intruding on my life right now. Admittedly, I’m not enthused about him showing up here, because it reminds me of a freedom I no longer have, and it scares me to think that one wrong move could mean I lose what I have now.

  But the temptation to be free again is not exactly a small thing to fight, and this shit is not helping.

  “Justin. Long time no see, man.”

  No sense in being rude—even though my first inclination is to boot his ass out of the building and run home to see my family to re-solidify my vow, a vow I made to myself to drop my shit and settle, no matter how trapped I feel.

  See, this is the part that I didn’t expect…fighting two halves of myself that are in such opposition that it’s hard to catch a breath.

  The guy saunters in; his dark, good looks, coupled with his green eyes, obviously got him in despite Peggy being sixty and happily married.

  I’ve seen this guy in action and no fucking way am I taking him anywhere near my Nic. I’ll kill the bastard if he so much as smiles her way. And I’ll definitely cut his dick off if my girl smiles back, which is bound to happen since the guy left the womb dripping in old world charm.

  “You look less than enthused to see me, old friend,” he muses, crossing an ankle at his knee, his mouth smiling sardonically at my scowl and my clenched fists.

  Goddammit, why now? Another month or so and I’d be married and chained to Nic. Why couldn’t the asshole wait to reconnect until after I’m married and tied down.

  “Not at all. Just wondering what brings the great Justin Groves to this neck of the woods.”

  He laughs at me and shrugs a shoulder in that smarmy way of his that I used to find amusing but now do not. The man looks like a slimy snake, relaxed, and at ease with himself despite not working a day in his life. His most lauded accomplishment is that he is a lothario and nothing more.

  Is this what Nic sees when she looks at me? I wonder. I feel my skin crawl at the thought of being compared to this guy. I can’t believe I was chomping at the bit just a moment ago.

  “Miss Sharp, he’s in a meeting!”

  My heart falls when my office door bursts open and my girl walks in looking like a million bucks, her curves and abundant cleavage spilling forth in a grey jersey dress that does nothin
g to hide her attributes.

  Justin turns, raises a brow, and starts smirking, causing my blood to start boiling.

  “Getting ahold of you is like trying to phone the President of the United States. I need to…oh hi! Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have just barged in,” Nic says, smiling a little sheepishly when she spots Justin lazing back in his seat.

  Her smile falters when her eyes meet mine, and I can almost see what I must look like. My jaw is clenched so hard I have no doubt she can see the muscle ticking there, and I’m breathing hard enough that my nostrils must be flaring like a rabid stallion.

  “Er, I’ll just come back?” she stammers, giving Justin another look as she starts backing away towards the door.

  “Oh nonsense! A beautiful woman should never be kept waiting.”

  I rise when Justin does and almost vault over my desk when he grabs Nic’s hand and raises it to his lips, his green eyes sending out a million messages that I know so well since I used that same oozing charm on many a female.

  Nic titters and blushes, her eyes dancing with mirth, as he steers her toward the sitting area and plays the gallant, putting his paws all over my woman.

  “Who is this lovely morsel you’re hiding from us, Law?”

  Swear to God, the Groves are about to lose their one and only heir, and I’m not kidding. I could beat him to death and hide his body without an ounce of guilt if the fuck doesn’t get his mitts off of what’s mine.

  Nic being Nic immediately senses my tension and smiles tremulously while Justin continues to scoot so close he’s practically sitting in her lap.

  “My fiancée, Grove. So I suggest you stop trying to look at her tits and move the fuck back.”

  What the—? I’m jealous? I haven’t been jealous a day in my life, and I hate the feeling. As rage and uncertainty pool in my gut, I grind my jaw and saunter over, giving Justin a hard glare.