Mad, Mad World

by J. D. Sloane

  “Harder,” Alicia whispered, her face flushed and open and Ronan let out a low moan as he dug his fingers into her throat, the smell of her cunt so close and sweet he could barely keep from slapping his hand over her mouth and fucking her until she wept. He watched her eyes fly open, her startled cry dying on her lips as he thrust inside her savagely and then dipped his face close to her cheek as he slid his fingers around the hard jut of her hips, watching her face with open fascination as her cunt dragged against him like a tight, wet fist.

  “Harder,” she sighed, her body quaking lightly as she arched towards him on the desk. “I can take it. Just like that. Don’t stop, don’t stop…”

  Ronan snapped his eyes towards her face as he heard her voice change and searched her face with sudden, hungry interest as her gold eyes fluttered open.

  “I’m not sure that’s a game you want to play, Alicia,” he said, his dark eyes twirling with a sudden, unchecked violence as he spoke above her lips. “Not with me.”

  He blinked slowly as Alicia licked her bottom lip and felt his last shred of restraint snap as she wrapped her hand around his cock, rubbing her against her open cunt with quick, thoughtless urgency.

  “I do,” Alicia said, her voice soft and tight. “It’s what you like, isn’t it? And I’ll be good, I promise. I’ll be anything you want…”

  Ronan broke her grip impatiently as he shoved her onto her stomach and dragged her back towards the edge of the desk as her heels hit the floor with a soft crack. He dug his fingers into the back of her neck, knocking her legs wider with a smooth turn of his leg and felt a wild jolt of hunger pulse through him as Alicia bent forward without being told, dragging her dress up around her hips as she rocked back on her heels. He dug his fingers into the soft curve of her neck as he held her against the desktop and forced himself inside her violently as Alicia cried out, dragging her body backwards as he kicked her legs farther apart. He closed his eyes as he felt her entire body shudder, forcing himself inside her in quick, brutal thrusts and bit back a low moan as he felt her rock her hips against him, her hands sliding against the glass as her face stiffened with pain.

  “Now tell me you want it,” he said, dragging his lips down the deep curve of her spine as he wrapped his arm around the front of her narrow shoulders. “Go ahead. Show Daddy what you’re good for.”

  “I want it,” Alicia said, her voice soft and rushed. “Please fuck me. I’ll be good, I’ll be good…”

  Ronan’s brow furrowed as he heard her let out a low, strangled moan and bent over her deeply as she tried to match his quick, brutal rhythm, thrusting inside her so violently her entire body shuddered.

  “I know you will,” he said against her ear, his voice dropping into an octave so low it barely qualified as human speech. “I do. That’s it. Now spread your legs wider for me. That’s a good girl. Just like that.”

  He watched her eyelids flutter wildly as her hands coiled around the front of the desk and listened to her pant beneath him as he pumped inside her quickly, gritting his teeth as he heard her whisper below her breath.

  “Please,” she sighed, her voice barely more than a gasp. “I’ll be good, I promise. I’ll be good, I’ll be good…”

  Ronan’s eyes widened as Alicia cried out, the sharp note of pain in her voice escalating his excitement in one sudden, frantic leap and he dragged her body against him as he rocked inside her quickly, pressing his forehead into the damp nest of her hair as he brought himself to a sudden, violent orgasm.

  Alicia shuddered a long sigh as she felt the weight of Ronan’s body against her, something achingly familiar about the way his lips whispered against the back of her neck and then opened her eyes as he stood up, rolling his shoulders slightly as he stepped away from her. She rocked back on her heels, dragging her skirt back down around her thighs and noticed him staring as she bit her bottom lip, following his body in the darkness as he headed for the bar above the fireplace.

  Alicia brushed her hair out of her eyes as Ronan poured himself another drink, his dark eyes dancing with some emotion she couldn’t place and swallowed hard as he stepped in front of the windows, the shadows burying his expression as neatly as a curtain drop.

  Not that he needs it, she thought swallowing hard as he ignored her as casually as a prostitute, his posture relaxed and careless. In jail, out of jail. Who knows what he’s thinking? The only time he seems even close to emotionally available is when I’m face down on the floor somewhere.

  Alicia bit the inside of her lip as Ronan stepped closer to the windows, the candlelight turning the movement into a sudden tumble of shadows across the ceiling. She saw him whisper something under his breath, his face once more so smooth and serene she could barely believe it had ever registered any emotion deeper than polite disinterest.

  And something tells me that’s exactly the way he likes it, too, she thought. Keeping all of his favorite toys locked up and at the ready.

  Ronan turned his head towards the window sill as his phone went off behind him and he searched her expression, his face so pale and beautiful it was almost painful to look at. She watched him turn away from her, his face becoming smooth and business like and picked up her bag, setting it down on the table as she brushed it open with her fingertips.

  “No, that wasn’t at all was I said,” Ronan said almost as soon as he answered, his low voice hardening with impatience. “Well that is sad to hear. Tell him that I’m very sorry to hear him say that. And that I hope his personal tragedy won’t have any unforeseen complications.”

  Alicia looked at Ronan quickly as she heard him say something in Russian and then glanced down at her bag, the edge of her newsroom ID tumbling out of the side. She leaned over as Ronan hung up, his face becoming a polite blank again, and felt his eyes pass over her curiously as she tugged it out of her purse.

  “I’m going to need some things,” she said, pitching it towards the only wastebasket in the room. “From my apartment at least.”

  Ronan cocked his head at her, his face shifting with a moment of irony as she plucked a cigarette out of her purse and planted it between her lips.

  “You really haven’t been in this business long enough if you think your apartment is still inbounds. I’ll have some things sent back to you. Until then the bedroom is down the hallway. So how about you do daddy a great big favor and try not to get into any more trouble for a little while, hmm? There’s a good girl.”

  “No one knows about the place, Ronan,” she said, passing her lighter in front of her face with a curt snap. “The lease was never even in my name.”

  “Oh no? Then whose apartment was it?”

  Alicia shot him a look of frustrated annoyance and let out a ragged sigh, shrugging as someone knocked at the door.

  “What difference does it make? No one knew about the place, okay? The only guy who ever did isn’t- in the picture anymore.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Ronan said, his voice low and mocking. “Dead?”

  “No, just not around. I haven’t seen him for years.”

  “So that must mean that the little woman is still in the picture.”

  Ronan laughed under his breath as his dark eyes twirled wildly for a moment.

  “Alicia, Alicia. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that it’s not nice to play with other people’s things?”

  Ronan flashed her a sudden savage smile, the kind that made him look like an actual movie star and then sighed as someone knocked at the door again his expression changing slightly as he made an impatient motion towards the hallway. Alicia’s brow furrowed as Ronan dismissed her casually and clutched her bag to her chest as he turned back towards the window.

  “It was a garden,” Ronan said behind her, his voice so low that she paused, glancing over her shoulder.

  “What was?”

  “On her back,” he said without turning around. “The tattoo.”

  “A garden?”

  “Hmm. That’s what she called
it.”

  Alicia’s swallowed hard as she watched him from the shadows, his skin bleached almost alabaster in the haze of moonlight around him.

  “Why did she do it?” She asked carefully.

  She waited for him to answer, her fingers twitching against her thigh and then took a quick drag of her cigarette as he remained silent, her brow furrowing as she headed for the hall.

  “I’m not promising you anything, Alicia,” Ronan said without turning around, his low, gravelly voice flat and polite. “Remember that. You asked for this party.”

  “Holly,” she said, stamping out her cigarette with a sharp crack of one heel as she tossed her hair away from her eyes. “Call me Holly.”

  Ronan rolled his tongue over his teeth in light irritation and smoothed the newspaper out on the table, reaching for his beer. He read through the first two articles briskly, shrugging in amusement as he came to the death toll at Connor Penitentiary.

  Wonderland rules, boys, he thought, smirking slightly as he skimmed the long column of names along the right side of the page, most with a picture and a brief eulogy. No silver medals for second place in this town. Just a cheap tombstone with your name on it and about two inches of copy at the bottom of page three. Chalk it up to poor life choices. And a sad lack of big picture thinking on your part.

  He flipped back to the front page, staring down at a tiny two-line mention of the judge who had sentenced him almost six months ago and then turned his head as Alicia walked into the kitchen, glancing at him with a coy little grin as he did a quick double take.

  “Your friend Magda definitely has an eye for fashion,” she said, reaching into the fridge as his dark eyes rolled down to her high satin heels, tied several inches above her ankles. “What? Does she owe you a favor or something?”

  Ronan looked over her dress, the tight blue-green fabric ending just above the knee and took in the low V-neck front approvingly for a moment as Alicia pulled out a beer, tucking her hair behind one ear before snapping the cap off with a quick twist of her wrist.

  “She owes me a few favors,” he said, following her with his eyes as she walked around the table. “Come over here, Holly. I want to see you in the light.”

  Alicia raised her brows and then gave him a girlish grin, putting her hand on her waist as she turned around in front of him. Ronan reached out to touch the sheer corset in the middle of the dress and then tugged at the velvet bow as his dark eyes twirled, his hands closing around her narrow waist as he looked her over from head to toe.

  “You look very nice,” he said, some ugly, half-buried need bubbling close to the surface as Alicia gave her hair a prissy toss and then shrugged down at him.

  “Oh thanks. I do what I can.”

  Ronan ran his hands down the sides of her skirt, the fabric sliding beneath his fingers smoothly enough to make him grit his teeth and then glanced up as he noticed the high side slit up her right thigh, watching her face change as he slid his hand inside it. His eyes narrowed as he dragged his fingers up the smooth black fabric of her thong and snapped the thin lace band against her hip, pulling his hand away as his jaw shifted with annoyance.

  “I thought I told you about that,” he said, his low voice curt and careless as he scanned the paper without looking up. “Am I really going to have to start repeating myself already? Take them off.”

  Alicia took a step away from him and then turned her head towards the door as someone knocked, looking down at Ronan swiftly as he tipped his eyes towards the hall.

  “Did you leave the door unlocked?” She asked.

  “I did,” Ronan said, his eyes sweeping down her body with a deliberate kind of interest. “We’re expecting company. So. Unless you want to do this for an audience, I suggest you take. Them. Off.”

  Alicia tilted her head at him, the stubbornness in her face igniting him in all the wrong ways and brushed his paper aside, raising his brows at her he heard the double doors in the front hall slam shut.

  “It’s a good thing you limited your brushes with prostitution to the white-collar set,” Ronan said, his low voice curling with sudden, violent amusement as he rapped his fingers across the table with an impatient crack. “I don’t think you would’ve lasted long on the streets with that attitude.”

  Alicia blinked quickly as he leaned over the table, his dark eyes starting to spin with a slow unhealthy light.

  “And if you really think I won’t make you undress in front of company, you don’t know me very well,” he said cheerfully. “Maybe you do need a refresher course on our arrangement, Holly. Your choice. Better decide now.”

  Alicia’s face darkened as they darted over his face and then slid hands beneath her skirt, hooking the gossamer sides of her lace underwear with her fingers as he gave her an irritated snap.

  “No,” Ronan said, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling briefly as he eased back in his chair. “Nicer than that.”

  Alicia looked up at him with a flash of swift, bright dislike and he smirked as she buried it smoothly, tipping her chin up at him as she slid them slowly down her thighs. He felt a quick pang of hunger rush through him as the high slit of her dress twitched open at the crotch and rolled his jaw at her slightly as she lowered her head, her round gold eyes becoming cool and calculating.

  “Better?” She asked, drawing the word out until he felt the sudden desire to shove her face down against table and watch her face change in one smooth, frantic leap.

  She rolled her eyes towards the outer hall as she heard the doorknob turn quietly in the other room and then let her underwear drop to her ankles, raising her brows at him as she stepped out of them with a smooth shiver of her ankles. He cocked his head to one side, leaning forward over the table to watch her pick them up and then smoothed his face out into one of polite disinterest as Jaxson stepped into the small, coved kitchen area.

  “Someone order Thai?” He asked, tapping a large paper bag as his handsome face lit up in a friendly smirk.

  “That depends,” Ronan said, letting out a low sigh as he pulled his paper back in front of him. “Did you make the improvements I asked for?”

  “All of them,” he said, setting the bag down in the middle of the table as he shrugged off his jacket. “Hey, Holly. The guys cleared out everything last night. And we set up that equipment on the top floor, just like you wanted.”

  “Oh, don’t listen to him, Jaxson,” Alicia said wrapping her arms around Ronan’s neck as she gave Jaxson a friendly grin. “We’re absolutely famished.”

  Ronan raised his brows as he glanced back at her and felt a pang of grudging amusement as Alicia dropped her panties on top of his paper, giving Jaxson a broad wink. He brushed his knuckle across his lips, watching Jaxson’s expression become a sudden embarrassed blank and then shrugged as Alicia walked over to the counter, pocketing her thong in his jacket with a careless swipe of one hand.

  “Your, ah, suite’s looking really good, too,” Jaxson said, clearing his throat as Alicia walked back to the table with a six-pack and pulled up a chair. “Two big rooms for you. French doors to the pool area…”

  “There’s a pool?” Alicia asked opening up the bag. “I thought the place used to be a hospital or something?”

  “Yeah, it did. It was a psychiatric ward once upon a time. But like a nice psychiatric ward. For rich crazy people. There’s a whole rec room upstairs. That’s what we’re using for your room right now. It looks like it used to have pool tables and everything.”

  “Save me the hard sell, Jaxson,” Ronan said, his expression shifting with an amused kind of annoyance as Jaxson sat down at the table. “I’ll make up my mind when I see it.”

  “That’s all I’m asking,” Jaxson said, kicking another bag at his feet as he raised his brows in Ronan’s direction.

  “Is that what I think it is?”

  “The Christmas spirit is alive and well in this town, Ronan. Alek’s people even gave us a discount.”

  Ronan unzipped
the bag and whistled under his breath as he stuck his hand in and brought out small white handgun, its body dull and plastic looking in the low interior light.

  “And why would he do that?”

  “He’s celebrating,” Jaxson said, giving him a rare wide smile. “It looks like the defense’s last witness had a crisis of conscience. They found him hanging from his showerhead in the witness protection room they had him holed up in.”

  Ronan laughed and checked the chamber with a tug of one hand as Alicia passed the box of noodles over to Jaxson without turning her head.

  “Well, Christmas miracles all around then,” Ronan said, turning the paper towards Jaxson as Alicia handed him another beer. “It looks like our good friend Judge Husk is finally getting out of the hospital.”

  “What was he in for?”

  “Who knows?” Ronan said, scratching the back of his neck. “But the word on the street is that he’ll be up and at ‘em by Monday morning. Ready to fill up that docket of his with all the noble public defense money can buy.”

  “Now the trick will just be the court house,” Jaxson said, taking a drink. “And that’s going to be a fucking trick. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather take him at home?”

  Ronan shook his head as he took a bite from his plate, his face darkening with irritation as Alicia glanced at the paper over his shoulder.

  “Gated community. The parking garage will be easier, believe me. He’ll never see us coming.”

  “Maybe. But I still think there might be another way. That parking lot is going to be hot when we leave. Maybe if we tail him for a few days, get a sense of his routine…”

  “Well, I’m open to suggestions, Jaxson,” Ronan said, his low voice so careless and friendly Jaxson snapped his mouth shut mid-sentence. “Really. Just shout out a better idea whenever you have one. I like to think of our little enterprise here as a truly. Collaborative. Effort.”