“Ready,” I announced softly once I was done.
Vaughn took my bag from me and slung it over his shoulder. Another gun peeked out from under his jacket with the movement, and I shivered at the reminder of the risks he’d taken to break into my parents’ home to get me out. I’d always felt safe, knowing they had security looking out for us, but it had begun to feel as though the guards were there to keep tabs on me more than anything else lately.
“We can’t go out the gate,” I warned. “There’s a guard manning it.”
“You’re too damn cute,” he laughed. “The guards are a nuisance, but they aren’t good enough to be a real concern considering some of the places I’ve had to get in and out of.”
“Sorry, I forgot you were a super soldier for a minute there,” I grumbled as he led me to the largest window in my room.
“I’m also not alone,” he added before pressing a finger to his ear. “Confirm our exit is clear.”
The answer must have been what he’d wanted to hear because he nodded in satisfaction. Then he dropped my bag on the floor, pulled off the pack on his back and unzipped it to yank out a red and white fire escape ladder.
“You really did think of everything.”
“I didn’t want to run the risk of having you rappel out, so this was our first option.” He helped me climb out the window. “Down you go. I’ll be right behind you.”
The next ten minutes were a blur of activity. Climbing down the ladder. Running across the back lawn with Vaughn. Having him hoist me over the wall like I barely weighed a thing. Racing back to his house in his Lexus. It felt as though I was starring in an action movie, playing the damsel in distress to Vaughn’s hero. Only this wasn’t pretend. It was real life. And I was ready for the answers Vaughn had promised me.
Chapter 9
Vaughn
“I’ll answer as many of your questions as I can, but first—” I lowered my head and captured her lips with mine, driving her towards the couch as I kissed her. Pressing her down against the cushions, I quickly followed. Raising her arms above her head, I trapped them in one fist as I pressed a leg between hers. The heat from her pussy burned through her jeans and mine, scorching my thigh. I couldn’t wait to feel her wrapped around my cock. Over and over again, for the rest of our lives if I had my way. And I damn well intended to.
The kiss turned wild, my tongue invading her mouth between nibbles at her lips. Carissa pushed against my hold, making me tighten my grip as a deep growl crept up my throat before I tore my mouth from hers.
“Three days,” I breathed against her throat. “It’s too long for me to go without tasting your lips. Without hearing your voice. Feeling your body underneath mine. It only took me one night, and I’m completely addicted to you.”
“Phones go both ways,” she panted. “You could have called me anytime you wanted. Or returned my text and asked me out again.”
“I did call, Carissa. More than once. Your phone went straight to voicemail each time, after only one ring. You sure you kept it charged?”
“Yes.” She pushed against my chest, and I reluctantly let her go. The thing with her phone could be a potential complication which needed to be resolved right away, as much as I’d prefer to take her to my room and fuck the hell out of her.
“Let me see your phone,” I asked her, digging mine out of my pocket to pull up my outbound calls so she could see the ones I made to her. She looked as confused as I was when she looked down at my phone. “The phone rang exactly once, and then there was an automated message telling me that the number called wasn't available. The call went to voicemail, and I left you a message each time.”
“I didn’t get a voicemail notification.”
I pulled up my texts and showed her the screen again. “Just like I didn’t get your messages. Someone didn’t want us talking to each other.”
“Probably my parents,” she sighed as she got up to cross the room and pull her phone out of her bag to hand it to me. “They’re trying to fix me up with a business associate of my father’s. The morning after our date, I made it clear I wasn’t interested in him. I needed a reason they’d understand, and you were it. Although, even if you weren’t in the picture, I wouldn’t want to be with him because there’s just something about him that creeps me out.”
“Your instincts are good. Alexander Bellamy isn’t a good guy.” I was distracted by my search of her voicemail box and didn’t realize what my response gave away. “Aha! Found ‘em. My voicemails are in your blocked messages folder. Your parents must have used a parental control of some kind to block my number from incoming and outgoing calls and messages.”
“I didn’t mention his name.” Her voice was shaky and had my head coming up quickly, only to find her staring at me in shock. She backed away a step, but I snagged her wrist to prevent her from going far.
“Don’t,” I whispered. The fear shining from her dark eyes tore me up inside. I knew I could be a scary motherfucker, but I never wanted to do anything to destroy the trust which had shone from them earlier. “I’m not the bad guy here, Carissa. Alexander Bellamy is. He’s the reason I’m in town. He’s the head of a human trafficking ring I’m hunting down.”
“Wait. What? No! That’s not possible.”
“It took me a while to find the trail to him because he’s good at hiding his tracks, but I have irrefutable proof. Payments, travel dates, communication with his lackeys.”
“But my parents—”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about the lump sum payments Bellamy had made to her father over the last year and a half, the last one on the day she’d returned home. It was enough that she was safely out of their reach for the time-being. She’d been put through enough already; I didn’t want to add to her troubles when I didn’t even know what the payments meant, yet. “Bellamy managed to fool everyone. He’s been tied to the trafficking ring for years, and there hasn’t been the tiniest whisper about it.”
“The night we met,” she whispered softly. “You said you were there on business. Which means you were there for him, doesn’t it? He had the winning bid for me in the bachelorette auction, right up until the moment you placed yours. Is that why you bid so high? To get his attention?”
She tried to yank her arm away from me, but I refused to let go. Not when she was looking so devastated.
“Carissa, no.”
She shook her head wildly, tears streaming down her face. “It could have been any other girl up there, and you would have done the same thing. It had nothing to do with me,” she cried. “I’m such an idiot. And a horrible person because I’m not sure what bothers me the most—knowing my parents were trying to marry me off to a human trafficker or realizing you’ve been pretending with me the whole time.”
She was standing right in front of me, but she wasn’t listening to what I was saying. I needed to do something to pull her out of her mental tailspin. To get her to hear me when I explained how much she’d come to mean to me in such a short amount of time. So I tossed her over my shoulder and carried her into my bedroom, tossing her on my mattress and falling on top of her.
Resting most of my weight on my forearms, which were braced on either side of her head, I stared down at her gorgeous face. Her eyes were rimmed with red and her cheeks wet from her tears, but she was no less beautiful to me.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Carissa. Bellamy’s interest in you is what first caught my attention.” Her body flinched beneath mine, and she squeezed her eyes shut. “But it’s not why I bid as high as I did. That was all you.” Her eyes popped back open, and there was a spark of hope in her gaze. “My reaction to you was completely unexpected. For the first time in my life, I experienced a flash of jealousy when you spun around and all the men in that room got to see exactly how low your dress dipped—all the way down your spine to just above your tight ass.”
Her hands, which had been pushing against my chest, flexed into my muscles so she was holding me instead. I had her co
mplete attention, and I wasn’t going to waste it.
“If it had been any other girl up on that stage, anyone but you, I might have outbid Bellamy by the smallest of margins to try to keep her safe. But I wouldn’t have dragged her behind those curtains to hide her from other men’s gazes. I wouldn’t have tossed the date provided by the charity out the window to plan the perfect one myself.”
“It really was perfect,” she agreed softly.
“Only because it was our date, Carissa. Because it was you and me together.” I dropped my forehead down against hers. “As dark as my reason was for being at that gala, it brought me to you. And I’m grateful as fuck for it because you were meant to be mine. When you left here three nights ago, I told you I was giving you time to decide what you want because once you gave yourself to me, you’d be mine. But I was wrong—you’re already mine. You’ve been mine all along.”
“Then show me I’m yours.”
The husky sound of her voice was the only invitation I needed. I tunneled my hands under her shirt, shoving it up over her head and tossing it on the floor. When I popped the catch of her bra, her tits popped out. They were fucking perfect. I couldn’t resist the temptation and sucked one of the hard, pink peaks into my mouth while my hand palmed the other side, clenching the round and creamy swell of her tit. I nibbled and sucked, while she moaned and shivered beneath me.
I wanted another taste of her pussy more than I needed my next breath, so I slid down her body. I made quick work of the button and zipper on her jeans, yanking them down her legs until she was able to kick them off. Once they were on the floor, she was laying beneath me in the tiniest pair of black lace panties which were soaked clear through with the proof of her arousal. They ripped away easily when I tugged at the seams. With nothing in my way anymore, I opened her pussy lips wide and licked up the center.
“This pussy is mine,” I moaned.
I went after her like a starving man—licking and sucking, plunging my tongue inside her, and stretching out her tight, little pussy with one of my fingertips. With her fingers clenched against my scalp and her hips jerking up and down, I stiffened my tongue and drove it inside her until her orgasm ripped through her. I kept at it, leisurely licking her as her body melted bonelessly into my mattress.
My cock was as hard as a spike, but it didn’t matter. I’d already gotten what I needed tonight. Carissa safe and sound, in my bed—right where she belonged. Forever.
Chapter 10
Carissa
I woke up disoriented, in a strange bedroom I didn’t recognize at first. Then it all came rushing back to me. My parents were trying to marry me off to the head of a human trafficking ring, and I still had somehow managed to drift off to sleep after Vaughn gave me a mind-blowing orgasm.
“Morning, beautiful.”
I yanked the sheet up to cover myself and shifted to look towards the door. Vaughn was standing there, dressed in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms. They rode low on his hips, showing off the muscled V below his six-pack abs.
“Morning,” I gulped, my gaze jerking up to his face when he laughed.
“I hardly think it’s fair for you to cover up your chest while you sit there ogling mine.”
“It’s as fair as the fact that you’ve seen me completely naked, and this is the most I’ve gotten to see you,” I retorted.
“That’s easily rectified,” he murmured as he walked towards the bed. When he was only inches from me, standing so close I could reach out and touch him, he hooked his fingers in the waistband of his pajama pants and pulled them down his legs.
“Holy fucking shit,” I breathed out. I’d never seen a guy’s dick up close and in person. It was long and thick, pointing up towards his stomach. Veins stood out on either side, and it was almost a deep red color. I reached out and wrapped my fingers around his length, shocked by how big he actually was. “There’s no way this monster dick is ever going to fit inside me.”
“Your little pussy is so tight, it might take some work. But it’ll fit perfectly.” My hand clenched around him, and his hips jerked forward. “I can hardly wait to feel your wet heat wrapped around me. Your walls pulsing as you come all over my cock.”
“If you want me so much, why did you wait?”
“Because I had to be sure you were ready for that step. Your needs come first. Always.”
If I hadn’t already been falling in love with Vaughn, I surely would have started to in that moment.
“What if I needed to give you the same pleasure you’ve given me already. Twice.”
“I’d say we’re not keeping score, but I’m all yours. You want to touch me, to taste me? Go for it.”
The tip of his dick was glistening with pre-come, and I ran my fingers through it, slipping and sliding around. His hand came down to cover mine, tightening my grip around him. Then he moved my hand slowly up and down, going from the base up to the tip, then back down again. After a few strokes, he let go and watched as I worked his cock. The desire burning bright in his eyes, while his hips jerked in time with my strokes, filled me with a sense of awe. But it wasn’t enough. I wanted more.
“You said I could taste you. Can I really?”
“Hell yeah, you can,” he groaned.
I crawled off the bed, and dropped to my knees in front of him. Keeping a firm grip on the base of his dick, I flicked my tongue around the tip before sucking him as deep as I could go.
“Fuck!” He reached out to cup my neck, groaning as I swallowed. “You keep that up, beautiful, and I’m going to fill your mouth with my come.”
It had sounded like he’d meant it as a warning, but it only spurred me on. I wanted to send him over the edge, and when I hummed my agreement around his length, his hips jerked in response. I kept going until he plunged deep into my mouth and groaned with his release. With his hand wrapped around my neck, I swallowed him down.
“That mouth of yours,” he groaned as he pulled out. “Dangerous.”
Pressing a kiss to my lips, he pulled me close for a hug before lifting me up and tossing me onto the bed to return the favor. So much for not keeping track, but I wasn’t about to argue.
***
We spent four blissful days pretending the outside world didn’t exist. Going to bed wrapped in each other’s arms, and waking up the same way. Finding new ways to drive each other crazy with desire, while Vaughn worked on ‘getting me ready’ for actual sex. And then it was all blown to hell by one phone call.
I knew it was bad the moment his expression closed down. The light dimmed from his eyes, and his tone held no warmth when he told the caller to wait.
“I need to take this in the other room, beautiful.”
“Okay,” I agreed. Then I went and sat down in one of the chairs by the wall of windows and waited for him to return. I stared at the yard without really seeing anything. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he came up behind me and set his hands on my shoulders.
I tilted my head back, unsurprised to find him dressed like he’d been the night he’d come for me. “What happened?”
“Gaige was finally able to confirm that there’s nobody higher up than Bellamy. It’s the one piece of intel I’d been waiting on before I could take action.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked the question I wasn’t sure I wanted an answer to. Vaughn had been brutally honest with me about most things, but he’d avoided any mention of the specifics related to his business. Considering the kind of money he had and the lack of any reference to Alexander Bellamy serving time in jail for his crimes, I had a feeling he’d side-stepped the topic because the answer was going to be a tough one for me to accept.
“I’m going to do what the Army taught me,” he answered, his hands tightening on my shoulders as he spoke. “I’m going to eliminate the threat. Permanently.”
My head dropped forward as my breath caught in my throat and my vision became blurry when his words registered. I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say. How to rea
ct to the knowledge that I was falling in love with a man who killed people for a living.
“I’m leaving someone behind to keep you safe. Her name is Sera. If anything goes wrong, do what she tells you. She’ll make sure you stay protected.”
He dropped a kiss onto the top of my head before he started to move away. Reaching out, I grabbed one of his hands and lifted it to my cheek. My emotions were a jumbled mess, but I couldn’t let him go into danger without saying anything. “Keep yourself safe, too,” I whispered.
“For you, always.”
I didn’t turn when he walked away. Or at the sound of low murmuring in the other room. I stayed put when the door closed behind him. And when Sera came into the room and introduced herself to me, I remained frozen, unable to talk, as she settled into the chair next to me. We sat like that for hours before she spoke.
“Guys like Vaughn, they don’t expect to find love. They think they don’t deserve it. That the sacrifices they’ve made for others somehow make them unworthy of a good woman. And with the path Vaughn took when he left the military, it has to be even more difficult for him to believe he’s good enough for you. Not because he doesn’t have enough money, because he does, but I think he’s worried you’ll think it’s dirty money. I get it. I really do. What he does probably isn’t the best way to earn a living, but he’s not a monster. The men he goes after are, though. He’s saved countless lives, both in and out of the Army.”
“Like mine.”
“Considering the kind of guy Bellamy is, yeah. He saved you, too. It’s why my team is here, because he’s done everything in his power to keep you safe.”
“I’m falling in love with him. May already be in love with him. But he’s a killer. I shouldn’t want to be with him, right?”
Sell Your Soul (Body & Soul Book 3) Page 5
