Heartless: Merciless Book 2

by Winters, W.

  With a look of shock and gratitude, she leans in closer to me and starts to speak but I press my finger against her lips, silencing her and halting her movements.

  Fear is power. And every day, I fear her never loving me more than the day before. I’ve given her the power and I don’t know how I let that happen.

  “I will call your father and you’ll listen only. Is that clear?”

  Although she nods, she doesn’t speak until I move my finger away. “Yes, Carter.”

  It occurs to me how little she obeys unless she has hope. I instantly regret telling her I would call her prick of a father.

  I need to give her hope in something else. Because when this war is over, her father will be dead, and she’ll have to find forgiveness or be miserable and hate me forever.

  Chapter 23

  Aria

  I don’t know how I slept at all.

  I keep wondering if he’s really going to do it. If Carter is going to call my father and if he does, what would he say? I almost ask Carter if I can call Nikolai, just to tell him I'm safe but I don't know how Carter would react, and I don't want to push him when he's given me this hope.

  If my father knew Carter gave me Stephan to kill, literally forced to stay put with a knife placed in my hand, wouldn’t that offer some sort of truce between them?

  My hands are shaking so much from the anticipation and anxiety of what they’ll say that the picture in front of me is blank, not from lack of inspiration, but from the inability to create even a simple line.

  An hour has passed with me sitting on the floor of Carter’s office, listening to the tapping of keys and the steady tick-tock of the clock. All the while, I can’t focus on anything. Not a damn thing except for when Carter’s going to call him like he said he would.

  Glancing up at Carter, I catch his gaze and I know the look in my eyes is pleading and expectant.

  “You need more.” Carter’s voice is deep and low, and it booms through the office. Or, maybe it’s just that I’m on high alert and everything is thrumming to life as I wait for what’s to come.

  My throat tightens, feeling the dejection once again for the one thing that could change everything, but I stand on shaking legs and go to him.

  It doesn’t escape me that he has me under control again. That my only desire is to obey him, so he’ll give me what he claimed he would. He may have given me false hope.

  My heart flickers like a candle so close to its flame going out. He wouldn’t do that to me. I refuse to believe it. I know he feels something for me. He must. I can feel it in the very marrow of my bones.

  Carter pushes the phone farther away from him, an old desk phone, and I stare at it as I hear him push the laptop and stacks of papers out of the way.

  It’s right there. Just call him.

  Pat, pat, he pats the top of the desk and I take the hint, lying on my belly, knowing he’s going to lift the dark red chiffon dress up my thighs and bare my backside to him.

  My cheek presses against the hard desk and I can feel my heart hammer against it. Gripping on to the edge of the desk, I wait for the cool gel to hit my sore ass. There aren’t any bruises this time, but somehow it hurts more. This morning I nearly cried waking up to the pain until Carter used the ointment.

  Sucking in a deep breath, my eyes close and I feel Carter rub the soothing balm into my hot skin. It’s tender still, but even more so, it makes me crave more of his touch.

  A soft hum of gratitude and want leaves my lips, and it’s met with a rough chuckle from Carter. Opening my eyes, I glance up at him, although I have to push the lock of hair out of my face.

  My heart does that flickering again.

  “It looks much better than how it was last night and this morning.”

  “It feels better now too,” I tell him easily, watching his expression as he pays close attention to where he’s rubbing the balm.

  “You didn’t tell me the entire truth last night,” Carter says before opening a drawer and then closing it. My heart thumps once, thinking of what I left out but having nothing come to mind.

  I don’t know if he just put the gel back or if he’s taken something else out.

  Before I can answer, Carter tells me, “You forgot to mention your birthday.”

  He finally meets my gaze and there’s a softness there that I hardly ever see from him, but it’s the side I pine for most.

  “I didn’t think it was important,” I try to speak, but my words are whispered. Of every reason I’m breaking apart, that fact is meaningless and even speaking it as if it could contribute to this pain is disrespectful to the tragedies that surround us.

  He’s gentle as he repositions me on the desk but doesn’t pull my dress back down. It’s bunched at my hips and that’s what I’m thinking about when I hear the first cuff open and look up at the feel of metal grazing the skin on my wrists.

  “Your other hand,” Carter commands and I give it to him although I’m riddled with a slight fear.

  “Carter?” His name comes out as a question as he handcuffs me to two metal loops on the side of his desk. Again, he repositions me, sliding my body down so I’m stretched on my belly across his desk.

  “I don’t have a gift for you at the moment,” he says absently as he steps away from me, leaving the cool air to hit my ass which is still very much exposed to him. “But I’ll have to find something nice for you.”

  The flicker instantly morphs into a thrumming with a slight fear of the unknown.

  I try to turn around and look at him as he fiddles with something on the shelf. I don’t see what he has but whatever it is, he has it in his hand.

  “Carter, I’m sorry.” My first instinct is to beg my way out of another punishment. My ass is still so sore. But even as the adrenaline spikes through me, I can’t imagine he’d do it. That he’d punish me for not telling him it was my birthday. “Please,” I whimper.

  “Hush,” he says, and his voice is calming as he lays a hand down on my lower back. His touch is an instant salve to my nerves. The rough pads of his thumbs rub soothing circles and that alone calms me. “This is for pleasure, songbird.”

  A slick oil drizzling between my ass crack makes me jump, but I’m held down by his hand and the cuffs. Again, he chuckles, deep and low at me, ever amused but I love it.

  I love that sound.

  “I need to spread you, and then you need to push back,” he commands, and I force myself to swallow, feeling the pressure of a cool metal object press against my forbidden hole. I’m instantly hot and tense. The nerve endings come alive and the heat spreads like wildfire through my body and along my skin.

  The thrumming intensifies, my heart slamming and lust consuming the ounce of fear that lingers.

  A shudder of pleasure and a hint of stinging pain make me clench everything, but the second the tension is gone, Carter pushes the plug deeper inside of me. Oh. My. God.

  I can barely breathe as the new sensation takes over. My nipples pebble and rub against the desk as I squirm beneath his ministrations. He fucks me with the butt plug, pushing it in and out, over and over.

  “Carter,” I moan and then whimper, feeling close to cumming so soon. I feel so full. So hot. The little hairs on the back of my neck rise as my head thrashes.

  “Your cunt is clenching around nothing,” Carter observes, and his deep voice forces my eyes open. Just as I feel the need to raise my ass higher, Carter pushes the plug in deeper and stops everything, leaving me feeling full and hot and on the edge of desire.

  “Arch your back,” Carter demands as he presses his fingers against my inner thigh, spreading my legs for him even though they tremble with the threat of an orgasm so close.

  I swear I can feel it in my pussy. The arousal is there even though I’m so aware that nothing’s inside of me… not there.

  The metal of the cuffs digs into my skin, my ass is in the air, and each wrist bound to the desk. A soft moan escapes and the heated blushes rise up my face to my crown as Carter b
rushes his fingers across my clit and then up and down my pussy. “Should I tell your father the truth?” he asks me.

  “Should I tell him I wanted you so badly that I was willing to start a war to keep you?”

  While his words force a moan from me, they push my emotions over the edge.

  It wasn’t me he wanted.

  The little voice in the back of my head reminds me, and I have to close my eyes tightly, pushing away the immediate sadness and dejection.

  I feel tense and on edge in more ways than one. The swell of both emotion and lust beg me to tell him, but Carter’s silent and his touch absent. I force my eyes open to see him watching me. His dark eyes staring deep into mine, searching for something.

  I know I should tell him, but if he knew the girl who banged on the door calling out that she was in need wasn’t me, would he want me still? I can’t bear for that answer to be no.

  “Do I need to gag you?” Carter asks. My heart hammers and my pulse quickens.

  “For what?” I ask in return, but then immediately assure him, “I can be quiet,” for whatever he’s thinking. I’ll do anything he asks.

  “It’s time to call your father,” he tells me, and a mask slips over his face. An expression of indifference that makes the angular lines of his jaw look that much sharper. I can see the moment he changes into the Carter I first knew and hated. It happens right before my eyes; I see the darkness take over.

  “You can stay on edge for it.” His voice is a hum of both desire and amusement. “Think about how good it’s going to feel when I fuck you and finally let you cum.”

  Chapter 24

  Carter

  All I can think about as the phone rings, is how much control I’m going to need not to fuck Aria senseless until she’s screaming my name while her father is on the line.

  I press the numbers slowly, one at a time, remembering the look of absolute agony on her face when I mentioned starting a war for her. I didn’t mean for it to break her.

  It’s only the truth.

  Putting the phone on speaker, the tension boils inside of me as the phone rings and Aria struggles on the desk.

  Ring.

  I trail my finger down her backside all the way to her knee, and she whimpers. “Hush,” I tell her, watching goosebumps form along her smooth skin.

  Ring.

  “You don’t want your father to hear you,” I say and don’t bother to whisper. The sound of her breathing hitching begs me to look into her eyes. They’re pleading with me, and I swear I’ll try to give her something from this call.

  Something that will help her.

  I’ll show her what kind of a man her father is.

  Ring.

  The third ring is only partial, followed by a low click and a pause before I hear the voice of my enemy. “Cross,” he answers the phone.

  Anger erupts up my throat at the sound of his voice. I can only concentrate on Aria’s tempting body sprawled on my desk to calm me. Oh, and she does. Letting my fingers delight in her soft touch, I drag them up her wet lips and slowly push against the plug in her ass.

  The suppressed moan tugs a sick smile onto my face as I answer, “Talvery.”

  Continuing to fuck her ass with the plug and reveling in the faint sounds of the metal clinking as Aria tries her damnedest to both hold still and quiet the sounds of pleasure gathering inside of her and threatening to go off at any moment, I speak clearly, “I thought you may want to have a conversation?”

  There’s silence on the other end as Aria’s lips form a perfect O and her lower back and thighs tremble. She’s so fucking close. Slipping a finger inside of her cunt, I use enough pressure to get her off.

  “Maybe about my arrangements with your daughter?”

  Her leg raises and slams down on the desk, twice. Two loud slams that jostle the phone as her face scrunches and she bites into her lip.

  That’s once.

  “You son of a bitch,” Talvery sneers at me, oblivious to what I’ve just done to his daughter.

  Aria’s eyes pop open, although her face is still flushed and she’s struggling to breathe quietly.

  “Don’t you know you should have more respect for women than that?” I tell Talvery and drag my fingers back down to Aria’s clit. The shiver that runs through her makes it all the more thrilling.

  “How did you get her?” Talvery’s question makes me pause, taking my fingers away from her to consider his question. His first question. Not whether or not she’s well or safe, but how did I get her.

  Two options exist. He knows of the informant and wants it verified, or he truly has no idea.

  “She was a gift,” I explain to him evenly, my eyes narrowing on the phone and waiting for his response to give me more insight.

  The sound of Aria’s sharp inhale reminds me of my songbird, and that she’s listening. Leaning forward, I plant a kiss on her thigh, one meant to soothe whatever pained thoughts are running through her head.

  “From Romano?” he asks me, breathing heavier into the phone. “Is that what you expect me to believe?” he sneers, and Aria raises her head on the desk, ready to object and speak up, but I silence her, gripping her chin and shaking my head once. I know my expression is hard as fucking stone, which is what makes her flinch, but she cannot be allowed to speak to him.

  I won’t let her be any more involved in this war than she already is.

  “You can believe what you want. You asked a question. I answered.”

  She’s tense on the desk and she’s facing away from me, trying to look at the phone, as if there’s anything there to see.

  She scissors her legs, to turn her body so she can see the phone, and again my lips tug into a smile when she moans softly.

  He can’t hear her as he tells me, “I’ve been informed.”

  I don’t give him much thought. I know what he’s been told, and he can go fuck himself with that misinformation, while I fuck his daughter.

  I move back to her ass, teasing her and fucking her with the plug. Her nails scratch against the table as she tries to fight the desire to moan out loud.

  I hit mute for just a moment, ready to hear that sweet sound I love. Her father continues although he can’t hear us in return.

  “What’d you do to her?”

  I whisper to Aria, grabbing her ass with my other hand and forcing that beautiful sound to spill from her lips. The mix of intense pleasure and sting of pain too much for her to control. “Look at me while I fuck your ass, Aria.” Her eyes widen with fear and I smirk as I explain, “He can’t hear you, but I’m unmuting now, so be quiet, songbird.”

  Those beautiful lips part with both a sigh of relief and then a quiet whimper of pleasure as I go back to teasing her pretty little cunt. Her eyes nearly close, but she whips them open, obeying my last command to look at me.

  “I’ll kill you if you touched her.” Talvery issues a false threat as I unmute the conversation.

  “How could I not touch her?” I ask him.

  I hear a small whimper of protest from Aria and feel like a prick that I’m goading her father in front of her.

  With apprehension coiling in the pit of my stomach, I speak. “I’ve given her everything she needs. She’s having hard days.” Although her father is listening, these words are just for her as I add, “She seems to be fitting in well, and at times she even seems happy.”

  Her hazel eyes soften and nearly gloss over, her eyes never faltering from my gaze.

  “What do you want, Cross?” Talvery’s harsh and bitter voice forces my jaw to clench.

  I think about telling him how she told me she loves me. But repeating those words to him and using them like that would be a travesty.

  She’s calmer, wide-eyed and waiting with bated breath for my answer.

  “Just to talk. I have someone here who wanted to hear your voice.”

  I push my fingers into her tight cunt and my thumb presses against the butt plug. The clinking of the handcuffs is loud enough for Talvery to
hear and knowing that, a conceited grin stretches across my face.

  “Let me speak to her,” he says but his demand is pathetic. I’d never do anything because he ordered it. I’d go through hell just to spite him.

  “She’s a little tied up at the moment,” I tell him, feeling the arrogance surge inside of me, but wanting to contain it enough to keep it from hurting my Aria. I circle her clit ruthlessly, knowing she gets off so easily with this touch. I’d rather she be in such blinding pleasure that she can’t hear or even comprehend the conversation.

  “I’ll fucking kill you,” he says, and he doesn’t hide the anger in his voice.

  “You keep trying to do that,” I retort and the anger seeps into my voice with every passing moment. And although concern is clearly written on Aria’s expression, her thighs tremble with the upcoming release and her teeth sink into her bottom lip so hard she’ll be tasting blood if she bites any harder.

  I mute the conversation again for only a second to command her, “Cum for me, Aria.” And then finger fuck her harder.

  Her back bows and a soft, strangled cry slips by her lips just as I tell Talvery, “I promise I’m being good to her. I know how to treat a woman.”

  At my words, she cums, hard and violently. Her entire body showing the tremors of pleasure that race through her.

  “Did Romano tell you what she did?” I ask Talvery, more to remind myself. This strong woman is mine. I’m fucking proud to have her as mine.

  “Stephan?” Talvery asks as Aria’s eyes meet mine and I whisper harshly in response, irritated by his interruption, “Yes.”

  Breathing heavily, Aria tries to look up; she tries to will the phone to give her more of a response from her father.

  But nothing comes.

  There’s nothing but silence on the other line.

  And I hate him for it. Truly hate him for the tears he brings to her eyes.