Edge of Obsession (SKALS #3)

by Noir, Adriana

  Long, powerful fingers splayed across her back, sliding all the way up to the base of her neck to spear through her sable locks. His hand closed without warning. Using his newfound hold, Sebastian hauled her head back, wringing a gasp from her lips as he forced the slender column of her neck to bow.

  His body flattened against hers, his erection hard and unyielding as he rocked against her. Gooseflesh erupted as his hand settled across her throat and his deep growl wound through her.

  “You are mine. Every inch of you belongs to me, and tonight I am going to remind you of that in ways you never imagined. Do you give yourself to me, Taylor? Do you want to submit?”

  “Oh yes, Sebastian…please.” Her words came in a breathless pant.

  “Mmm. Good girl,” he whispered.

  He moved behind her and the soft rustle of clothing filled her ears, but it wasn’t his naked body that followed. It was the unexpectedly cool touch of silk as it wound around her wrist and cinched tight. Reaching around, he jerked her other hand back and bound it as well. There was a roughness and determination in his actions that scared her.

  “Seb?”

  “No talking. You claim you want me to take you, Taylor. Now you’re going to give yourself to me completely and without question.”

  The hard muscle of his thigh wedged between hers, keeping her pinned in place as he rummaged once again. This time, she dared a peek. Fear mingled with curiosity as he drew another silk tie from his pocket. Wordlessly, he wrapped it around her head and covered her eyes, casting her into blindness. She stumbled as he used the ties to pull her off the wall. His strong hands steadied her, guiding her as he led the way out of the dining room. Smooth wood gave way to the rougher stone floor of the foyer beneath her bare feet. Then plush carpeting sank beneath her toes, letting her know they were in the living room.

  Pressing on her shoulders, Sebastian forced her onto the edge of a couch cushion. Every little sound seemed amplified a million times over as her ears strained in an attempt to track his movements. Excitement rushed through her listening to him shed his clothes with a grunt of impatience. She frowned in confusion as the whisper of his feet against the carpet retreated, signaling his departure. Music drifted through the room and the sensual, haunting notes of Sigur Rós’ Untitled 7 washed over her. The CD was a favorite of his and often played in their bedroom. Seconds stretched into an endless eternity as she held her breath and waited for a sign from her lover.

  An unexpected shift of movement to her left startled her, wringing a surprised cry from her lips. Sebastian’s slow chuckle was music to her ears.

  “Looking for someone?”

  Any answer she had died as his fingers locked in her hair and drew her forward with a sharp jerk. The woodsy smell of his soap filled her nose, along with the dark, sensual aroma that was his and his alone. Desire lanced her as the velvety tip of his cock traced her lips, demanding entrance.

  “Open,” he ordered.

  Obeying, she drew him in deep, wringing a sharp inhale from her lover. The experience was completely different with her hands bound. Any semblance of control she had was gone. She was entirely at Sebastian’s mercy as he used the hold on her hair to guide her. She braced herself, fully expecting to gag, but he kept the pace slow and the drive of his hips steady.

  “Good girl,” he whispered, his blunt fingertips rubbing her scalp in praise.

  Warm bliss spiraled through her. Relaxing completely, she surrendered herself to the experience. There was love and there was trust. His uneven breaths and groans of pleasure were a soothing balm to her soul. All she could hear, all she could smell, all she could feel was Sebastian and the power he held. He was the only thing that existed. Pleasing him was all that mattered. She almost wept with frustration when he pulled free of her mouth with an audible plop.

  A firm grip hauled her to her feet. Her senses spun, and her body still mourned the loss of his as Sebastian led her to the far end of the room. A small quiver of anticipation wracked her as he lifted her up. She felt for him, but he stayed out of reach, the warm fan of his breath the only touch he gave. Frowning, Taylor shifted against the cool press of wood beneath her butt. She explored her surroundings, her curiosity heightening as her fingers danced over the soft stretch of felt behind her.

  She cried out with a combination of shock and pain as Sebastian tugged the lacy scrap between her thighs and gave it a sharp wrench. The thin fabric abraded her skin, before giving way. The sound of rending fabric filled her ears as the matching demi cups followed suit and her breasts spilled free. Sebastian tore the rest away with equal impatience, the onslaught as frightening as it was frustrating.

  “Dammit, Sebby!”

  Taylor could almost feel his gaze fly up from the tattered remains of his handiwork to bore into her. The weight was inescapable. Though unseen, it was heavy enough to steal her breath. Her heartbeat drummed a little faster as she realized her mistake. Both of them.

  “You are treading a very fine line, darling,” he whispered against her ear, making her jump. “You belong to me, and I will do as I please. That includes ripping away whatever obstacles you chose to place before me. The decision is yours, but I would much rather it be cries of pleasure I wring from your lips tonight.”

  A low moan escaped her as he kissed a path across her jaw. One hand settled over her throat in a reminder of his control. The other pinched a nipple into a stiff peak and twisted as he claimed her lips with a maddening tenderness. She found herself rocking helplessly against the pool table in an attempt to find friction until his strong hands snared her hips and tugged them to the edge. She struggled to keep her balance. Madness threatened as he rubbed his cock along her slit, slicking the way. His finger traced the rim of her clit, but never touched the desperate nub.

  She thrashed her head in pleading, her lips following suit. Sebastian paused above her. Gripping her thighs, he opened her to him even more, and her lofty cry filled the room when he finally thrust inside her. He plunged slowly at first, only teasing her with the promise of things to come.

  He kept her bordering on the brink forever. Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more of the deep, languid tempo, his hands spanned her hipbones, his grip bruising as he picked up the pace. The sharp slap of flesh echoed around them along with Sebastian’s menacing growls of satisfaction as he drove into her. He claimed her with wild, animalistic hunger, his long, thick length stabbing fast and true. Pleasure mingled with the most delicious pain, both driving her closer and closer to the edge.

  She wanted nothing more than to see the bliss carving his handsome face. To be robbed of it was torture. She tried to imagine it, but a sharp yank to her hair wrested her from her fantasies and jerked her back to the present. His voice came in a guttural command against her ear.

  “Come for me.”

  One hand left her hip and he ground the pad of his thumb against her clit in a forceful swirl. Taylor tumbled against the table, her back arching as she pressed into the rhythmic roll of his thumb and the heavy drive of his cock. The urgent plea in her throat turned into one of keening desperation. Her body stiffened, snapping off the table as wave after wave of pleasure battered her. She was drowning. Drowning in herself and drowning in him. Colors exploded behind her eyes and all traces of air fled her lungs as Sebastian fucked her even harder. His thumb never stopped its merciless administrations and her shell-shocked system refused to switch off. Release kept coming, throb after throb, until her voice was hoarse from her sobs.

  Slamming into her a final time, Sebastian stilled and shuddered with a triumphant roar. He kissed the side of her face as his nimble fingers worked to pull the blindfold free. It took a few seconds for her vision to adjust. By the time she could decipher shapes, Sebastian had already untied her hands. She winced as he rubbed them between his and the blood came rushing back in a surge of pins and needles.

  Still sweaty and flushed, he donned a lopsided grin. “You weren’t supposed to lay on them, baby.”


  “I didn’t know. I cou--I couldn’t help it.” Blinking, she tried to get the room to stop spinning and some of the cloudy haze still blanketing the room.

  Sebastian scooped her off the ledge of the pool table and eased her onto the plush cushions of the chaise lounge. She glanced up, searching his face, as he smoothed the damp hair off her forehead.

  “I’ll clear the dining room and put things away. Stay here. You’re going to need all the energy you can get. I’m far from finished with you,” he warned.

  She couldn’t contain her tired smile. “You have an insatiable appetite, Sebby. It’s a wonder I can still walk most days.”

  His husky laughter rolled through the room. “That I do, baby. You have no one to blame but yourself though,” he mused, tracing the ridge of her bottom lip. “I was never like this until I met you. I could always take women or leave them. But you I can never get enough of. I can never get my fill.”

  “You fill me plenty, Special Agent Baas. Plenty and then some.”

  He chortled under his breath and rocked to his feet. “Silly girl. Enjoy the break. I expect you ready again and waiting for me when I return.”

  CHAPTER 6 ~

  Moonlight spilled through the windows, bathing the study in a soft, silvery glow. Reluctance lined his forehead as Sebastian turned the flash drive in his fingers. He’d worn himself out earlier, but even the exhausting extent of their lovemaking had not been enough to lure him to sleep. Rest remained elusive. A taunting beast. His heart felt heavy as the cycle of the past continued to plague him. There had been a time when he’d believed the years of service and dedication he’d poured into SKALS had counted for something in Marx’s eyes. Now, he was no longer sure.

  Growling beneath his breath, he flipped his laptop open and downed the rest of his scotch as he waited for the system to fire. A few seconds later, he jammed the key into the USB slot and braced himself. Josh was right. Some things he didn’t need to see, but as true as that was, he needed answers. Answers only the flash drive could give.

  His stomach knotted as he watched the first of the blinding explosions detonate in his yard and Laychee’s men descend on his former security team in a shadowy horde. Gunfire ensued—most of it one sided due to the staggering effects of the flash bangs and, within a matter of seconds, the bastards engulfed his home. Bile rose, scalding his throat as the footage cut to the inside of the house and he watched Taylor try to scramble for safety. The only comfort he had was the pride he felt watching her fight back.

  Even that dimmed beneath the crippling bite of anguish. As brave as she’d been, as hard as she’d tried, it hadn’t been enough. None of it had. Not his promises. Not the security. Not her fighting with every ounce of strength she had.

  Swallowing against the uncomfortable surge of emotion, he watched them haul her into his study. A cold chill raced down his spine as he watched Laychee leer over her, and later, the men he’d seen on the video call in the warehouse. His teeth cut into the sides of his cheeks and flooded his mouth with the sweet coppery tang of blood as the rest of the puzzle slowly started to fall into place.

  The neurotoxins they’d injected her with were a cold move. Completely paralyzed, she’d been unable to move, but the horror in her eyes was unmistakable. She was like a butterfly caught in a deadly spider’s clutches: alive, but mostly dead, and all too aware of the cruelty they inflicted. His fists balled, the short crescents of his nails biting deep into his palms as they beat her, but what happened next damn near destroyed him.

  One of the men trailed the barrel of a pistol up the inside of Taylor’s thigh until it disappeared beneath the bloody and tattered hem of her tee. His insides burned as if they’d been doused in gasoline. Clamping a hand over his mouth, Sebastian dropped against the back of his chair. He ripped his gaze away, unable to bear the sight of them violating her. His breath came in labored spurts. It took him a moment to realize the anguished noises flooding the room came from his own throat.

  Gouging his palms against his closed lids, he fought to keep the tears at bay. Dinner threatened to resurface and his heart shattered. She didn’t deserve that. No one did. Rape wasn’t an uncommon form of torture, but it was one he’d always abstained from. Being inside a woman was far too personal, the connection existent no matter how fleeting. What those men did to Taylor wasn’t subjective. It was sick and brutal. Even by his standards.

  It took everything he had not to hurl the laptop across the room. Knowing what they did was too much. Whatever Josh had done, whatever gruesome ends those men had met, it wouldn’t be enough. Nothing would. He launched his glass into the mantel with a heated snarl. Minutes ticked by as he struggled to get himself back under control. For a moment, he regretted not watching the tapes before he’d visited Dominic. At least then, he would have had the satisfaction of knowing someone still suffered every ounce of humiliation and torture Taylor had endured. Dead or not, the son-of-a-bitch could count himself a very lucky man.

  Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Sebastian glanced up in time to see Henderson stagger into frame and prop himself up against the doorway. Despite the blood running down his face, the guard managed to get two shots off before taking a hit to his midsection. He caught the third assailant on his way down.

  Realization struck Sebastian with a physical force. His breath faltered and shame spread clear down to his core. He’d almost taken the guy out when he caught Taylor giving him a cup of coffee. He’d almost eliminated the only thing that kept her alive. The thought numbed him and, pinching the bridge of his nose, he winced. That small act of mercy had been his only saving grace. If not for Henderson, Taylor would have died.

  Frowning, Sebastian pushed those thoughts aside and keyed into the security system’s data logs. Only two automated calls had left the house that night. One had triggered the application on his phone. The other bounced back as unreturned from headquarters. His brow furrowed at the lack of response. It wasn’t concrete enough to peg anything as deliberate on Marx’s end, but it did nothing to lower the red flags of caution either. Had Josh placed a call requesting backup by then, or was there another reason there had been no response?

  “Seb?”

  His head snapped up at the lilting notes of Taylor’s voice. Doing his best to pull himself back together, he tried to force a reassuring smile. “Yeah, baby?”

  “What are you doing? Why aren’t you in bed?”

  One side of his mouth lifted in a rueful tilt. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  He shut the laptop and stood before carefully picking his way over the shards of broken glass and making his way to where she stood. Worry shone in Taylor’s grey eyes, dimming them to a shade of dark iron as she took in the sharp slivers on the floor.

  “What happened?”

  “It’s nothing, Taylor. I’ll take care of it. Go back to bed. I will be right up.”

  She bit her lip, doubt and uncertainty lining her face.

  “Now, Taylor,” he directed.

  Images of the men assaulting her on the floor slammed through him without warning. Guilt and shame battered him as he wondered how she could even bear to set foot in that room. Sebastian slammed his eyes shut. He was going to get sick. Plowing a hand through his hair, he staggered back a step and turned away. Taylor rushed to his side, her hands fluttering over his back in a frantic show of concern.

  “I’m all right,” he said, twisting out of her reach. “Just stop it and get out of here before you cut your feet.”

  “Please don’t push me away. Don’t shut me out. Talk to me, Seb. Tell me what’s wrong so I can help fix it.”

  A half-crazed laugh bubbled from his lips. Turning, he regarded her with a questioning tilt of his head.

  “Fix it? No, Taylor. There is no fixing it. If I had any decency left in me at all, I would tell you to run as fast and far away from me as you could, but I can’t, and I don’t.” He shook his head. “Even that wouldn’t help. There’s nowhere to hide. No way to escape and I just can’t keep do
ing this!”

  The last words left him in a frustrated roar. Whirling, he cleared the desktop with a furious sweep of his arm. Taylor cried out. Terror branded her face as she stumbled away, her hands raised in entreaty. His heart ached at the sight of her, but he had no words of comfort to give. He was too empty and consumed with rage. When she finally spoke, her voice was so quiet he had to strain to hear it.

  “Seb…you’re scaring me. Please talk to me. I need to know that we’re okay.”

  He flung his arms open in hopeless exasperation. “Nothing is okay, Taylor. Nothing. Everything is so screwed up right now, and I don’t see a way out of any of it. Not for you, and not for me. Is that what you wanted to hear? Does that make you feel better?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He refused to answer. He couldn’t. The reality of it all hurt too much. He’d already dragged her too far into the cesspool surrounding his life as it was.

  “Do you still love me?” she asked, her voice breaking.

  His eyes snapped to hers and flared with disbelief. How the hell could she even ask that? Rage clouded his vision, drenching the room in a dim, red haze. Then, her words sank in. Crossing the room, he reached for her only to have her inch away, doubt and accusations contorting her face. His instincts threatened to get the better of him, the desperate, innate need to capture and subdue anything that tried to escape. Before those impulses could strengthen, he lunged and caught Taylor in his arms. She stiffened, twisting in her efforts to break free.

  “Stop it,” he growled, crushing her against his chest. Her fists balled. Sensing her intentions, he tightened his grip. Her struggling was bad enough. Hitting him was a surefire way to trigger every vile instinct SKALS had ever installed. “I said stop!”