My mouth hung open in desperate need.
He stood and before I could make the connection, he came at me. He gripped the base of his shaft and thrust at me, entering me with enough force that I started to come all over again. He was deep and steady, allowing my tender insides to throb and pull at him. His hands held my hips and he gently moved a few times, the tightness of my body doing the rest of the work.
He growled and thrust deep again and I felt him begin to climax.
The need and release poured from Jonathan into me. My body convulsed and I tried to sit up but couldn’t. I held the bed sheets and stared down at my body, seeing how Jonathan had penetrated me. My cries were weak but the pleasure racing through my body was anything but.
When I finally fell back to the bed, Jonathan began to slowly fuck me. We were both completely done but he wanted to keep going to ease both of us down.
It was perfect.
He then climbed the bed and had me rest with my head to his chest. I listened to his heartbeat this time and smiled.
It was back to normal.
“How do you feel?” I whispered.
“Alive,” Jonathan replied. “With you, Isabella Grace, I’m alive.”
A few minutes later, the entire room relaxed and I saw Jonathan Black had fallen asleep. I patted his chest and smiled again. In a daring move, I kissed his chin. I had to. After all we had been through and all he said.
I moved from the bed and dressed myself. I wanted to climb back in bed with Jonathan but when I looked at the door, I had the feeling again. The feeling of dread and death. I reminded myself Jonathan and I were on an airplane and everything was okay. Even still, when I touched the door, I felt fear attack me.
I opened the door and stepped from the bedroom.
I made it three steps before I froze at the sound of hands clapping.
“Well, that was quite the show...”
I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.
How could this be?
Right there, sitting in what was Jonathan Black’s seat, in a sexy black dress...
“Katherine,” I whispered.
-6-
Katherine had her legs crossed as she looked at her black fingernails. She messed with the middle one on her left hand and let out a long sigh.
“Some things are best left done on our own, aren’t they?”
She looked at me so casually, like we were old friends catching up over a cup of coffee. It meant nothing that we were thousands of feet in the air on Jonathan Black’s private jet or that she wasn’t supposed to be there.
“Katherine... how? Why?”
“Look at these nails,” Katherine said.
She held her hands out.
“I see,” I said.
“No, Isabella Grace, come close to me. Look.”
Something about Katherine’s tone and her beady eyes were beady didn’t make me fear for my own life as much as I feared for Jonathan’s life. It had been mere hours since Jonathan lay on his death bed. But I stepped forward.
I looked at her nails and nodded. “I see them, like I said.”
“One looks different, right?”
“One... what?”
“One hand. Come on, Isabella Grace, stay with me.”
“Yes, I see it. Left hand.”
I hoped that was the answer Katherine was looking for. But seriously the left hand did look a little different. A little messed up and chipped. I’d be upset too if I paid to have my nails done and they were messed up.
I wanted to tell Katherine that. Maybe it’d be a way to crack the ice between us. But before I could speak, her left hand was at my face, gripping my cheeks. Those same nails dug into my cheek with such force that my eyes instantly began to water. I tried to scream but Katherine’s cold stare stole my breath.
“Listen to me,” Katherine growled. “The things running through your mind are just the beginning of what’s waiting for you and Jonathan. I want my money.”
“He just woke up,” I said, as my lips were still pinched. “He almost died.”
“I knew what I was doing,” Katherine said. “Come. Sit.”
She pulled at me and I went along with her. I sat in the seat closest to Katherine. She let me go and I touched my face, already knowing I’d find blood. She had done a number and I was honestly afraid.
“I knew what I had given him,” Katherine said. “Who do you think I am? Some idiot?”
“Never,” I said. “I mean, the doctor knew just what to do...”
“Because it had been done before,” Katherine said. “I know everything, Isabella Grace. Not a day has gone by in years that Jonathan Black hasn’t occupied my mind.”
I felt my lip trying to curl.
I could say the same thing only it wasn’t based in years. And that was one thing Katherine had that I didn’t. Time. And that was something I could never get. I could never get time. I could never go back in time. I could never take that time away from Katherine.
“The days are counting down though,” Katherine said. “And I only say that to you as a friend.”
“A friend,” I whispered.
“Honestly. A friend. If you weren’t so damn beautiful I would have killed you both already. That, and because Jonathan’s worthless father doesn’t know where the money is.”
“I can’t believe you...”
“Sweetheart, why do you think he’s in prison?”
I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t know why John Black had taken the fall for Jonathan on two counts of murder.
Katherine leaned towards me and rested her chin on her hand. She looked dangerous and angelic at the same time.
“He knew what I was capable of,” Katherine said. “He’d rather be in prison than face me.”
I let that sink in and it scared me more than ever.
“Keep that in mind,” Katherine said. “Because things are now going to get intense.”
“Intense?” I asked.
“Sure. I have to prove it to you, Isabella Grace, don’t I?”
“No,” I said. “I understand. But we’re in the air. When we land... Jonathan and I...”
“I’m killing Kellen,” Katherine said. Her tone was still so casual and she went back to paying attention to her nails.
“What?” I asked.
“Right now, I’m killing Kellen. As we speak. It’s quite amazing.”
“How?”
I look around the plane, expecting to see yet another surprise. It didn’t. It was just Katherine and I.
“He’s not here,” Katherine said. “But where he is, he’s dying.”
“Why would you kill Kellen? What purpose?”
Katherine smiled. I shouldn’t have asked, I should have just thought about it.
There was always a reason. For everything.
“You’ll figure everything out soon,” Katherine said. “But for now, you must make a choice... to save Kellen or let him go.”
“Save Kellen? Me?”
“When this plane lands, you’ll have thirty minutes to get to Kellen and save him.”
“What did you do?”
“His air is being cut off, little by little,” Katherine said. “When he wakes, he’ll begin to panic. That’ll only make things worse. Won’t it? Does panicking do any good?”
I opened my mouth but Katherine cut me off.
“Panicking like telling Jonathan about me... how did that turn out?”
I looked away.
Katherine had me, again.
“You want me to save Kellen,” I said. “An enemy of Jonathan.”
Katherine clapped. “Not just that. I could care less about that... you just need to choose. I don’t want you to save Kellen. He means nothing to me. Just another pretty boy with a big wallet and a small... well... you know...”
Katherine winked and I began to blush.
She was vicious.
“So, the choice is yours.” Katherine stood from her seat and looked at her nails. “I guess this is my fault.
I did attack Kellen right after getting my nails done. But, oh well, once I have my three billion, everything will work out just fine. Won’t it, Isabella Grace?”
“I...”
“Think about Kellen. Make your decision.”
Katherine walked towards the cockpit of the plane. I couldn’t believe it when I saw her enter the cockpit. She sat down like nothing else mattered.
And that’s when it clicked...
Why Katherine chose Kellen.
He was Jonathan’s newest and greatest enemy. Maybe somewhere inside of Jonathan he wanted Kellen dead. And if that were true, he would want it done by his own hands. Not someone else’s. Especially at the hands of Katherine.
My heart pounded.
It made sense.
I had to leave Jonathan Black, for a little while.
I had to save Kellen’s life.
-7-
When we landed and Jonathan woke, I had to sit on the bed with him and explain what had happened. His face turned a deep shade of red and when he grabbed my wrist I thought he was going to break it.
“You didn’t wake me then?” he growled.
“Mr. Black, I tried...”
And I honestly had tried. I maybe could have poured ice cold water over his face but I was just remembering what the doctor had said. That Jonathan needed rest. That he was going to be exhausted. Not to mention what Katherine would do then if I pulled Jonathan into another situation.
I sat confused and hurt.
“She’s on my plane?” Jonathan asked.
“She was co-piloting,” I said. “She was waiting for me...”
Jonathan hurried from the bed. When he stood I watched him stumble. He put his left hand out and when it hit the wall, it looked like his entire arm collapsed. He fell into the wall, his forehead resting against it. I cried his name and hurried to his aid. I touched his sides.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Just... woozy. When are we landing?”
“We did land,” I said. “Five minutes ago. I’ve been trying to wake...”
Jonathan threw an elbow, not meaning to hit or hurt me, but to move me. To find his own balance. To find Katherine.
He took two stumbling steps and then opened the bedroom door. He stormed out of the bedroom and after a few seconds I heard him let out a series of curses. His voice was of a man possessed, a man that was scarier than anything I had ever experienced in my life.
And worse yet, I saw something hanging on the bedroom door.
A black coat.
My heart sank as I walked to it.
The coat hadn’t been there an hour ago. Someone had put it there. And I knew just by looking at it that it wasn’t one of Jonathan’s coats. I took the coat down and brought it to the bed. I checked the pockets, and sure thing, in the left breast pocket, I found a cell phone.
A black cell phone.
I pressed a button and the screen lit up.
A text message.
From... ‘K’...
I opened the message.
He’s still dying. No Jonathan. Only you.
I looked over my shoulder and Jonathan was still gone.
I wrote back to Katherine, moving as fast as I could, fearing the results if Jonathan caught me texting her.
Where is he?
I left the jacket on the bed and took the phone. I left the room and hoped that Jonathan would sell the plane - or burn it. I never wanted to be on that plane again. In fact, I wanted to never be anywhere Katherine had been. When I saw Jonathan appear from the cockpit I realized my last thought was false. There was one place I would be that Katherine had been... Jonathan. Only I would have him until death. It would be the only way to take me away from him forever.
The phone vibrated as Jonathan spoke.
“It’s all clear,” he said. “She must have had a car waiting.”
He took a step and leaned to the left, seeking something to balance on.
“Let’s get back to the hotel,” I said. “Then we can figure out what to do next. Get food. Get wine.”
“Get revenge,” Jonathan added.
Thankfully, when we left the plane, the limo waiting thankfully was waiting only a few feet away. Jonathan didn’t have to do much walking which was good. He had no balance and he looked tired, famished, and too annoyed to function. We got into the limo and it started to drive. It actually took off with a little more speed than I had anticipated. I gripped the door handle and Jonathan’s leg. My heart jumped and I expected Katherine to turn around and secretly be the driver.
It was just a regular limo driver and we had a normal ride to the hotel.
However, two men held the doors open for us and we rode the elevators in silence. I looked down a few times at Jonathan’s hand, his fingers lingering so close to mine. I thought about all the romantic things he had said to me and I wondered (and worried) if he meant any of it. It could have been the poison making him say crazy things. Or maybe the poison had opened his mind enough that he spoke the truth to me.
The elevator doors opened and we walked to the room. I slipped my arm around Jonathan’s arm and made sure he didn’t fall. We successfully made it into the hotel room where Jonathan promptly went to the couch and collapsed. He did so in such a graceful fashion that I pretended nothing was wrong.
“I’m sort of hungry,” I whispered.
“Yes,” Jonathan said. “We’ll get food first.”
Jonathan ordered as I snuck into the bathroom, pretending to need to use it. That’s when I checked the cell phone.
The message from Katherine read a number and nothing else.
251.
Room 251?
I opened my mouth to ask something as though someone was with me. I was about to text Katherine back when it finally hit me.
Kellen was in the same hotel as Jonathan and I.
I slipped the phone back into my pocket and left the bathroom. When I walked to the couch I noticed Jonathan was asleep.
I didn’t have time to wait for food.
And I didn’t have time for anything really. If Katherine was telling the truth - and so far her record with me remained unblemished - Kellen was slowly dying. If Kellen died at the hands of Katherine and not Jonathan, that would be the end of Jonathan. He’d flip. He’d lose all control.
I kissed the top of Jonathan’s head and paused for a second to admire how he looked when sleeping. How his face still looked stern. How I knew he was still thinking. Still processing. Still planning. His face was beautiful, intense and almost scary. But I knew the capabilities of his mind. Of his hands. Of his body.
And I had to save it.
I had to keep Jonathan Black level.
And I had to do something about Katherine. Maybe just standing up to her would chase her away. Maybe she sought fear over money. Jonathan would never give her a penny. Even if it meant dying because of it.
The thought made me shiver as I snuck to use the phone to call room service. I told them to please hold the order for another hour, that Mr. Black and I were napping and were not to be disturbed. The man on the other end of the line had the cheery sound of a person who won the lottery... and it was because they were on the line with Jonathan Black’s room.
I put the phone down and I left the room, running to the elevators.
I had the general idea of the hotel setup and found Kellen’s room with no problem. When I got off on his floor I saw a trashcan in the corner of the elevator area and I threw the cell phone out.
I wanted nothing more to do with Katherine.
I’d save Kellen, for Jonathan’s sake, and then it would be up to Jonathan to decide what to do. I’d tell him and then it would be done.
At Kellen’s door there was a Do Not Disturb sign hanging from the door handle. Even the smallest gestures from Katherine were laced with lethal intentions.
I pushed on the door handle and the door was open. How, I didn’t know. I rushed into the room and looked around. It was clean and eerily perfect. The bedroom door wa
s open and I saw something that looked all too familiar.
A pair of black shoes pointing in the air.
-8-
When I walked into the room, I screamed at the sight of Kellen.
He was tied to the bed with ropes and chains, the worst of it being a thin black leather belt strapped across his neck. It was tight and I understood what Katherine had done. She made it so tight that it was just cutting off Kellen’s air. Any movement he made, any sound he made, made the belt tighter on his neck. The panic would set in and that’s when Kellen would die. He’d thrash and scream to death.
When he saw me, his eyes widened.
He whispered, “Help me... Isabella Grace...”
“What did you do?” I asked. “Did you talk to her?”
“She said she was working for Jonathan. I knew it was a lie. She always lied to me.”
Kellen coughed and his face turned red. He tried to move his head and the belt cut tighter against his throat.
I grabbed the belt and fought with it for a few seconds. I was finally able to loosen it enough to open it. I pulled it off the bed and threw it. I fell to my knees next to the bed and let out a cry. Kellen coughed and began to thank me.
“Isabella Grace,” he said. “You saved me. You came for me.”
“Not for you,” I said, forcing myself to stand. “For him. For Jonathan Black.”
“He wanted me alive?”
“I don’t know. But I know he didn’t want you dead at her hands.”
“She attacked me,” Kellen said. “Does she actually work for him? I thought he finally set me up. I never thought he’d be that crazy.”
“Crazy?” I asked and laughed. “You don’t know crazy, Kellen. Katherine does not work for Jonathan Black. If he has something to take care of, he does it in person.”
I don’t know why but I started to get angry. I was loud, annoyed, and defending Jonathan. Something about the idea of Jonathan not being able to handle his own business really bothered me.
“I’m sorry,” Kellen said. “Can you get the rest of these undone?”
I looked at Kellen on the bed and had the urge to walk away. If I walked away, Kellen would live. He’d have a hell of a time getting out of the bed but he’d make it.
His Confession (By His Command #8) Page 4
