by Winters, W.
“You didn’t come for her.” I have to swallow the spiked ball growing in my throat. “How long have you known?”
When he doesn’t reply, the edge of hate comes on thicker and I say, “I know Romano spilling a little secret wasn’t what tipped you off.”
Her face crumples and I lean forward, kissing every inch of the curve of her waist.
“Give her a message for me,” Talvery says, but I ignore him in preference for the sweet sounds of gratitude I can barely hear from Aria.
“I couldn’t tell her before this, but I’m telling her right now.”
“I’m listening,” I tell him, only to mute the phone again as I kiss Aria’s reddened skin on her ass and gently move the butt plug in and out once again. She’s so close already.
“Tell her I said, ‘Stay quiet while I’m gone and stay in her room.’”
Unmuting the phone, I answer him quickly, “I’ll be sure to let her know,” and then hang up the phone, done with him and this conversation. And ready to hear her scream my name.
Moving her legs off the desk and fueled by her gasp and the sounds of her nails scratching along the desk, I unleash my cock and shove myself all the way in her to the hilt.
“Fuck, yes,” I groan as my limbs tingle. “Fuck, I need you,” I whisper along her back as I lower my lips to kiss along her skin. I stay still inside of her, letting her adjust and waiting to make sure she feels nothing but pleasure.
“You have no idea how much I want him to know you scream my name every night.”
“Is he—” Aria asks before throwing her head back with a strangled cry of pleasure as I slam inside of her again.
Still, she turns to look at the phone, with her face scrunched and struggling to stay quiet, and I know she’s wondering if he can hear.
Even as my cock is inside of her heat, she worries.
I won’t fucking allow it.
I bang the phone down over and over, so she can hear. One hand on the phone, the other with a bruising grip on her hip. I fuck her in time with the violent banging until she can register the dead tone.
Shoving the phone off the desk, I tell her, “He doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters.” My words come out with a hard grunt as her pussy spasms around my thick length. “There’s only us,” I push the words out, pistoning my hips and feeling my balls draw up once again.
As I pound into her, I ask her, “How does it feel to have your ass and pussy filled at the same time?”
“Carter,” she whimpers my name as she cums again. And then again. As I ride through her pleasure, each one harder and stronger than the last, I beg my body not to give in.
I want to stay in this moment forever. Her chained to my desk, feeling nothing but the heat of my desire and the thrill of me fucking her until her legs are weak and shaking.
But I have to. And on the third time her cunt grips my dick with her orgasm, I thrust myself as deep inside of her as I can, and cum harder than I ever have in my life.
I’m breathless when I pull the plug from her, giving her yet another wave of pleasure. I’m panting when I uncuff her and pull her into my lap to feel her heated skin tremble against mine.
The sound of our mingled breathing doesn’t last long. Aria’s hair tickles along my shoulder as she pulls away from me, reaching for the phone.
Her shoulders shake with her ragged breath and her eyes look lost in the distance.
“It’s fine,” I tell her, the swell of rage and worse, disappointment, brewing inside of me.
“Can I call him back?” Her question is immediate and laced with a mix of fear and worry. “Just me, please?” she begs me in a broken whisper.
Watching her swallow, I gauge her desperation that seemingly came from nowhere.
“I don’t trust your father,” I tell her honestly.
“You can trust me,” she suggests weakly, the pleading tone still present.
I give her silence as I search her gaze and the desperation transforms to anger when she adds, “You didn’t have to taunt him like that,” but her voice cracks.
She’s worried. Something’s wrong
“Please let me call him back,” she begs again. “I promise it’s okay. I just want to tell him I’m all right.” She worries her bottom lip between her teeth as she looks me in the eyes, both of her hands gripping on to me.
“No, what’s wrong?” She won’t look me in the eye at my response, so I grab her chin, forcing her eyes up and searching for the truth inside of them.
“Why does it have to be like this?” Her words crack, and tears leak from the corners of her eyes.
“What the hell happened?” My eyes narrow as I watch her lose it. Losing every ounce of composure. “What’s wrong?”
“I love you,” she answers with pain. “I’m sorry,” she whimpers, wiping her eyes and trying to get away from me and out of my hold.
“I would never hurt you,” I tell her as my heart races, knowing I can’t give her the same words back. “You know that?” Going over everything that happened, all I can think is that it’s the way I spoke about how she came to me. The way we started and the arrogance I showed. “The way I was talking-”
She stops me, pressing her fingers to my lips, “I would never hurt you either.”
My phone going off distracts me; the message is from Jase. You need to see this, now.
Pressing a kiss to her soft lips, I try to end her worries. She attempts to deepen it, but I pull away, pressing my forehead to hers and wishing I didn’t have to leave her right now.
I whisper against her lips, “Wait for me in the bedroom.” I open my eyes to see the longing in hers and a well of emotion that knows no depths.
She only nods, loosening her grip as I set her down on the ground and stand up with her.
“I have something to take care of and then I’ll come to you,” I tell her, but her expression is absent of accepting a thing I’m telling her. One day she’ll understand that I’ll take care of everything so long as she trusts me to.
But she goes just the same and I watch her walk away from me as I stand outside the office door, wondering if she holds the same opinion of her father now that she did hours ago.
She glances behind her one last time, giving me a sad smile before disappearing around the corner to the stairwell.
I don’t make it down the hall before Jase is up the stairs, full steam in his gait until he lifts his head and sees me.
“We need to talk.” Jase’s voice carries down the hall with an edge of urgency. “Now.”
“What’s going on?” I ask him, feeling my forehead crease and the adrenaline pumping harder.
“There’s been a breach. Looks like we’re going to have company.” His eyes reflect the welcome of a challenge and my lips curl up in agreement.
“Talvery?” I ask him, wondering if her father was already in motion before the call, or if he stupidly acted off impulse.
Jase nods, but worry lines his expression. “There are only six.”
“Six men?” I question. “Talvery isn’t that fucking stupid.”
“One’s an informant and probably how they got past the first gate. Two are her blood.”
“You think someone helped him?” I question Jase, thinking the informant was aided by someone he’s spoken to, but he shakes his head quickly.
“We were alerted the second they were spotted. Where’s Aria?” Jase questions and I’m quick to answer, “She’s safe in my bedroom. She won’t leave.”
My throat dries and tightens, thinking about them stealing her, but worry and fear will only bring my downfall.
“There’s no way he thought he could succeed in doing anything but sending his own men to be killed with only six.”
“There’s definitely something off,” he adds and pulls up the feed on his phone. Six men along the inner tower, fully armored. I watch with him as he asks me, “We could question them?”
My chest tightens as I recognize the face of one man. “Nikolai.”
<
br /> He dared to come here. To try to take what’s mine? Anger fills my blood and a seething mix of jealousy and vengeance turns my vision red.
“I was thinking we eliminate the three that don’t matter but bring the cousins and Nikolai in for questioning.” His statement is spoken in a low voice as he looks behind us, back to where Aria waits for me.
I lick my lips, knowing that Talvery is fully aware all six would die in an attempt to infiltrate and kill us, to rescue Aria.
“Nikolai is foolish and desperate. If he came because he knew she was here, I could see him only being followed by a few men.”
“They’re all high ranking,” I say quickly, knowing each one of them. Recognizing a few who have killed on my streets.
“There’s no way they came without Talvery knowing.”
“Did they come to kill? Or to take her?” I ask Jase but had I waited for a second longer, I wouldn’t have had to ask at all. I watch as one of them drops a grenade on the edge of the garage, followed by another a few feet farther down. They came to kill.
“They left explosives lining the gate. A scan shows they have enough on the bags strapped to their backs for the entire estate if they could get through it.” My lips twitch with menace. “The same as before?” I ask Jase, remembering the site of the ash and rubble my former home was made to be. “You think it’s the same men?”
Jase and I share a look, but he doesn’t answer me verbally.
A call to Jase’s phone replaces the surveillance on his phone. The moment he answers, my own phone rings to life in my pocket.
“It’s Aria,” Jase tells me before I answer my phone. He doesn’t hide the nervousness as he tells me, “She’s not staying in the bedroom.”
“Where is she going?” I ask him, but then realize it doesn’t matter. If she sees, she’ll have to choose.
“Let her be, let her come if she chooses.” My heart races as Jase tells them my orders and my phone dies in my hand. She’ll see what they’re capable of and what I need to stop, what I need to protect.
Let her see, let her choose.
“Have them kill the three, now.” My voice is hard although inside tremors of rage grow. The three bodies will drop the second the command is given, leaving the other three scrambling but trapped on our estate. “Bring the other three to me.”
Chapter 25
Aria
If only Carter would let me call my father or go to him. My skin pricks with goosebumps that won’t leave and the constant chill I feel is at odds with the heat boiling my blood.
I can convince my father that there’s another way.
I heard what he said. The message for me. He was speaking in code. He’s coming. In only hours, my father is coming for me.
Stay quiet while I’m gone and stay in your room.
My father would tell me that before leaving for the night when we were on lockdown, but only when he would be gone for a few hours. If it was any longer than that, he’d have me go to the safe house.
There’s no way those words were a coincidence. I’m sure of it. He wouldn’t have said it if he wasn’t coming for me. He wouldn’t have said those words if something wasn’t happening by tonight.
My heart hasn’t stopped racing. My throat is tight with guilt and fear. It can’t happen like this. I don’t know exactly what he’s planning, but those are words said in times of war. Something bad is going to happen. I know it. I can feel it in the pit of my stomach. It’s going to change everything.
I can do something. But I need time that I don’t have.
Pacing up and down the corridor to Carter’s wing in the estate, I try to formulate an excuse for my father or a reason that would justify Carter not reacting to my father’s threats. I can’t go into the bedroom and just wait. I refuse to simply stand by.
The conversation that was just had on the phone repeats itself over and over again in my head and I start to debate if I heard my father right.
Tension squeezes my chest so tightly I can’t breathe.
After days, my father decides to come. After weeks of me being missing, he’s finally coming for me. And there’s nothing I can do to stop him.
My hands are shaking horribly, and it does nothing but piss me off. Forming a fist, I slam it into the wall. How could he do this to me?
Both of them.
Carter’s not innocent. He knew that conversation would piss my father off. He was goading him, practically laughing in my father’s face.
And I took pleasure in it.
Every bit of that pleasure I wanted. There’s something sick and twisted about how I craved Carter pushing me to the edge while my father spat hate at him.
Carter has proven there’s a side to me that desires depravity and a sense of justice that’s sinful and warped.
I should have known better. We were playing with fire but after weeks of being with Carter, of being his, of growing to love him made me feel invincible beside him.
I’ve always been foolish like that.
Brushing the hair away from my face, I rid myself of the regret and focus on the now and the present.
I have to tell Carter, but I don’t know how I can save my father if I do. And I know it won’t be my father coming. He won’t storm Carter’s castle. It’ll be hired men, or worse, Nikolai. Telling Carter will only ensure that his guns will be ready and whoever is coming will be killed before they even come close.
“Fuck.” The word slips from my lips in a strangled breath.
I was so full of hope, so eager to have this call happen, and instead, my worst nightmare has come to life. I’ve brought the war to me and to Carter’s doorstep.
A moment of clarity comes over me, and my eyes whip open.
I start moving before the thought is even clear.
He’s not in the office. Carter is not in the office where the phone is. And I don’t remember him locking the door.
I’m well aware that Carter has cameras everywhere, and that’s why I walk as if nothing’s wrong. My shoulders are square, and I try to keep my expression impassive even though tears prick at my eyes and my chest hiccups with the need to break down.
These men will kill me before they get a chance to kill each other.
The doorknob rattles under my grip, but it turns, and the door pushes open easily. I don’t waste any time, knowing Carter will come if he sees me, and I fall to my knees, gathering the phone still carelessly tossed on the floor from earlier.
My finger shakes as I press the buttons, but I do it. I grip the phone with both hands as I hold it to my ear and watch the door. If he doesn’t know already, he’ll know soon enough.
Ring, ring.
Every pause of the ring grips my heart harder.
My throat feels as if it’s closed up, clogged by something unseen when the call goes dead. Not unanswered, but dead.
Clank! I slam the phone down over and over again, just as Carter did before, feeling the heat of anxiety roll over my skin. My teeth are clenched as I slam it down again before bracing myself over the desk.
Deep breaths. I need to stay calm and find a way.
Not another second passes. Not another tense breath heaves from me before I pick up the phone and hit redial again.
To no avail.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, the clock on Carter’s office wall taunts me. Showing nearly fifty minutes have passed since Carter left me.
The only other number I know by heart is Nikolai’s. I don’t know if he would listen. Or if my father would listen to Nikolai. I don’t know anything for certain, but still, I dial in his number.
One number at a time.
And he doesn’t answer.
The phone goes to voicemail, but the inbox is full. A ball of barbed wire seems to unwind in my throat as hopelessness steals the breath from me. With every breath, I swallow more of it and it pains my chest. My fingers dig into my shirt right over my heart, gripping and trying to pull the spiked pain away. But it only grows.
Tick-tock. Tic
k-tock.
I try my father’s number again, putting it on speaker this time, giving up any pretense I had before. If Carter walks in, I’ll tell him everything. There’s not any other light of hope left in the dark clouds that settle around me.
With the sound of the dead tone coming from the phone, I set the phone down, politely resting it in its cradle, and collapse into Carter’s seat.
I try Carter’s computer. It’s password protected.
I type in Tyler. Rejected.
Cross. Rejected. I would try birthdays and old exes if I knew any. But I don’t have a damn thing to work with.
My mind wars with itself, the stakes growing higher and higher as the seconds pass. Pulling open his drawer and flipping through files I try to find anything that could hint at his password, but I come up with nothing.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
The clock plays tricks on me. An hour and a half has passed.
My pulse is so fast; I can’t hear anything else. I feel dizzy and lightheaded as I stand up and I have to brace myself to keep from falling over. The desk feels so cold and hard and the edges of it sharper than they did before.
I squeeze them so tightly that I think I may have cut myself but when I look down, there’s been no blood shed.
“I have to tell him,” I whisper to no one.
I can’t balance myself as I walk. I have to rest my head against the wall for only a moment to catch my breath and think of the right words to say, the only words to say.
My father is coming. Men are coming to kill you.
I fight back the rush of oncoming tears and force myself to move. Or maybe only to rescue me.
I shut the door behind me and take in a shuddering breath.
I walk down the hall toward the stairwell, feeling cold and numb.
Deep breaths, one foot in front of the other. That’s how I’ll end my father’s life and all those who stand with him. My cousins, my uncles. Nikolai.
God help me, please.
I pray as I grip the railing tightly and take each step carefully as my knees feel weaker.
Show me what to do. Please.
I’m halfway down the second set of stairs, toward the back half of the estate I never venture to, when I hear a gun cock. I freeze.
