All Hail

by J Bree

  I smirk and open my mouth to snark back at him but he hooks his arms around my legs and drags me further down my bed, away from the pillows and so I’m completely trapped underneath him. I feel freaking tiny when he cages me with his arms, his chest close to double the width of mine and when he covers me completely, I feel a deep sense of safety there.

  He came for me when he didn’t have to. He wanted to die for me, not once has he blamed me for any of the choices I’ve been forced to make and every step of the way he’s trusted me to make the right moves against our enemies. He’s protected me without locking me in a tower and throwing away the key.

  He wants me for more than my money or my connections. He wants me, I’m sure of it.

  I don’t wait for him to kiss me. I grab his face with both of my hands and I kiss him the way he always does, as if my life is ending and he’s all I need to die with. My hips lift from the bed without me even thinking about it, desperate for the weight of him and empty without him.

  He grunts and leans on one hand to use the other to slip two fingers into me, groaning as I clench around them.

  I mumble against his lips, “Fuck me.”

  It’s a relief to only feel a good stretch as he fills me, no pain or guilt or anything, only the delicious full feeling and when he groans and nips at the skin on my neck like he’s holding back I hook my legs around his waist to pull him in deeper until his hips are flush with mine.

  He holds still for a second and my eyes narrow up at him until he huffs out a breath at me and says, “Lemme enjoy it this time, you’re too fucking tight and I need a second so I don’t ruin it.”

  I scoff at him and he grins at me, kissing me again. When he finally starts to move, his hips are relentless, pushing and grinding into me slowly at first but then it’s like he loses himself in the feeling. Then he really does pound into me until I feel like I can’t breathe in all of the best ways.

  My body writhes under his, it’s impossible to stay still, and when his hand slips between our bodies to circle over my clit I shatter, my eyes rolling back into my head as I come apart at the seams and clamp down around him like I never want to let him go.

  He grunts and bites my lip as he comes, gentle enough that he doesn’t break the skin but I feel the sting of it anyway.

  He pulls out of me but when he collapses onto the bed beside me he tucks me in close to his chest, completely disregarding the mess I’m in as his cum drips down my leg.

  Miraculously, I stay calm about it. Probably because I’m still riding the high of my orgasms and somewhere in my brain, I know I’ll be able to talk him into sharing a shower with me before we sleep.

  “Count me in on your plans of eating me out every night. It was much better than I thought it would be.”

  Aodhan scoffs at me. “You thought I’d be shit at it? Thanks, Queenie, you know how to sweet talk your man.”

  My man, Jesus H. Christ. “No, I meant I didn’t expect to enjoy cunnilingus that much. I always thought it’d be too… wet.”

  Aodhan’s arm tenses around me. “There goes my afterglow. You mean to tell me that asshole didn’t go down on you? He just fucked you at a gala and didn’t even make sure you enjoyed it? What exactly is the history between you two, Queenie? I’m a little fucking confused and I can’t exactly ask Harley about your dating life. He’d rage out and break something, probably my face, and I like it too much to have it rearranged.”

  I sigh and lean back in the bed, trying not to feel so uncomfortable at talking about this because… he just ate me out and fucked me so hard my legs are still shaking, I doubt this is any more revealing than that.

  “I dated a bit in high school after Atticus rejected me. I made out with a few guys and… there was one guy I thought about having sex with. I went as far as giving him a blow job but then he cheated on me with the worst fucking whore in the school so I broke up with him.”

  Aodhan grumbles under his breath, his fingers stroking over the soft skin of my stomach. “What a fucking idiot. Tell me your brother beat the life outta him.”

  I don’t talk about this with anyone… ever. But it feels like that little bubble is around us both again so nothing outside of us exists. “He didn’t take the break up well. Ash and Harley tormented him, which he deserved, but in typical asshole fashion he cornered me in the bathroom and tried to rape me. He said I was a tease because he would have never cheated on me if I hadn’t led him on.”

  Aodhan’s entire body freezes until he’s barely breathing but I continue, better to get the whole story out and into the air so I won’t ever have to speak about it again, “So he cornered me in the upperclassmen bathroom and there’s no way I could fight him off. He was a football player and my brother had done everything in his power to make sure I never had to get physical with anyone. I’m a dancer so I have upper body strength but it was like no matter how hard I pushed against him, he’d push back twice as hard. I was terrified… and then suddenly he was shoved away from me and I was so relieved because I knew only my brother or Harley or Blaise would have come to my rescue like that. I was safe if one of them had found me.”

  He tugs me over until I’m lying on my side facing him, his arm over my hip keeping me close. “You’re lucky they did.”

  I give him a rueful smile. “They didn’t. The scholarship student I’d spent the entire year terrorizing did. See, my psychotic older brother had become obsessed with her and no matter what I did, this girl wouldn’t drop out. I threw everything I had at her and she just dodged it all. Or endured it, the stuff that Joey did to her… she just kept going. She was the last person I would have expected to help me but she didn’t hesitate. Not once. She took him to the ground and knocked him out like she was some sort of trained killer… we’ve been best friends ever since and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”

  Aodhan nods and a slow smile stretches over his lips. “The Wolf and the Queen, Mounts Bay doesn’t stand a chance.”

  I hum under my breath quietly as I think, an annoyingly resistant habit of mine. “I’ve been considering that… about how exactly we’re going to keep the Twelve under our control. We already have three members in the family, the Butcher backs us… as well as other big players. Atticus is our ally and, no matter how much Ash hates it, he’ll stay an ally because of me. I’m sure of that. The Boar is a wild card. The Tiger has always sided with Atticus and Lips but it’s not exactly an alliance. There’s too much uncertainty.”

  Aodhan frowns and pulls me closer. “This sounds like you want to sponsor someone. Whoever it is, I’ll put them forward for you. Name it and it’s yours, Queenie. No matter what.”

  I huff at him. “And what if I name myself? What if I want a seat at the table?”

  He leans forward to press our lips together, his tongue darting out until the stroke of it over mine has me ready for round two.

  He pulls away and murmurs to me, “I’m not going to stop you from doing anything, Queenie. If you’re sure you can walk into the Game and take your opponents out then go ahead. I doubt Ash will be so happy about that, or Harley. Fuck, Illi will probably throw down over it too.”

  I giggle at him. “So you’re fine with it because everyone else will stop me and do your dirty work for you?”

  He smirks at me, biting my lip before sucking on it like he wants to distract me. His fingers trail up to my necklace and he pulls back to look at it again where it hangs on my naked chest. “There’s room in there for another diamond you know. If he ever gets his head out of his ass.”

  I startle and blink away tears as I look him over. “Please tell me you’re joking? You’re giving me up for the Crow?”

  He huffs and grabs my wrists, pulling me until I’m straddling his waist. My heart thumps a little but it’s different here, the room is dark and clean and mine. There’s no place here for the ghosts of the Jackal.

  “I’m not giving you up for fucking anything, Queenie. Nothing would make me let you go… but if you want him as well, then
I can live with that. I want your heart to be whole, not torn in half.”

  I clutch at the necklace in my hand. My words come out thready, “Atticus won’t share. I’m surprised you would.”

  He shrugs. “I’ve watched Harley share for months… he doesn’t look like he’s suffering. I think he found someone worth it and, Aves, you’re fucking worth it. If Atticus doesn’t see it that way then that’s his loss.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Falling asleep in clean sheets after a shower with Aodhan is just as perfect as I thought it would be.

  Waking up to him eating me out again is even better.

  I want nothing more than to spend the day in bed with him and to just enjoy being together. While forgetting about everything that’s happening around us is the dream, it’s also almost impossible to do with my phone buzzing constantly with a slew of messages from informants and Illi checking in on me.

  I texted Lips before falling asleep last night and the smugness in her was radiating through the three word sentences she replied to me with.

  Aodhan kisses me and heads to the shower while I start sorting through all of the information that came through while we slept. There’s nothing really interesting until I get to the guest list of the birthday dinner the Ford sisters are throwing for their decrepit ninety-something-year-old father.

  There’s a lot of names likely to be present that will be useful to me but I have my sights set on Olivia Bromburg specifically.

  Her husband is in the DEA and with the Jackal’s product flooding the streets of the Bay that makes him very useful to me. I’ve never met him, I only know him from the gossip, and there’s no time like the present to go looking for some more leads.

  I decide to go with my strengths and I tell Illi that Aodhan will be escorting me to the high society dinner.

  It’s a very murky truth.

  Technically, he is escorting me there… and then he’s going to wait for me outside the building where he can come and rescue me if something goes terribly wrong.

  When I tell him about my plans he gives me the same crooked smile he always does and says, “Good thing I would rather drink bleach than eat snails with rich dicks or I’d be a pretty fucking offended that you don’t wanna be seen at parties with me.”

  I roll my eyes at him and stalk out of my closet in my lingerie and heels. The dress I’m wearing for the night is tricky to get on by yourself and I had called Aodhan up to my bedroom early so he could help me into it.

  The problem there is that the moment he sees me in the strapless and very tiny lingerie it’s very clear that he has other ideas for how we should be spending the night.

  “I don’t have time for whatever you’re thinking about and I definitely don’t have time to reassure you that the real reason I don’t want you to attend the dinner is because the women there are like vultures and they’ll be all over you the moment you walk in.”

  He doesn’t move from where he’s sitting on the chaise lounge at the end of my bed, his elbows on his knees and his eyes eating every inch of my skin up.

  I continue like he’s replied to me, fussing with my curls in the mirror like I ever have the chance of being happy with them. “I don’t mind taking Illi in there with me because the women seem to be able to smell the ‘happily married serial killer’ on him and leave him alone. Well, they still stare at him like they want to fuck his brains out but none of them actually approach him to do it.”

  I step back into my closet to grab the dress and when I walk back out into the bedroom Aodhan is still sitting there staring at me.

  I roll my eyes at him. “My tits aren’t that great, can we focus?”

  He scowls at me and when I hand him the hanger with the dress, he stares at it like I handed him a ticking bomb. “What the fuck even is this? Where are the sleeves?”

  I roll my eyes and then spend ten minutes explaining to him how we’re getting the thin sheets of fabric not only on my body but securing them there so I don’t accidentally flash anyone my tits.

  He gets very scowly at the thought. “Are you sure you’re not willing to take Illi with you? I’d feel better knowing he’d stab anyone that gets flashed if I do a shit job of getting this thing to stay the fuck on you. Don’t you have any like… normal shit to wear? Something with straps and zips and shit?”

  I huff at him and then I lift my arms for him to slide the pieces of lace where they need to go. By the time I’m slipping my shoes on I’m confident the couture gown is going to stay put. White lace is difficult to pull off without looking like a wedding gown but this piece is very obviously a statement piece of art draped over my body like it was made for me.

  It was.

  I have spent many hours discussing my fashion needs with Vera.

  Aodhan drives me over in my Bentley, bitching and biting his lip at me the whole way when I have to slide the dress right up to be able to sit until the tiny triangle of my panties is on full display to him.

  “Rich parties might sound as boring as fuck but the dress code has me tempted to go,” he mumbles and I pinch his thigh playfully.

  “And which socialite are you hoping to see?”

  He smirks. “There’s this gorgeous one who wears a lot of white. On anyone else it would probably look like they were aiming for innocent but on this girl? Fuck, she looks like she’s about to take you the hell out, Black Widow style, and I’m ready to die whatever death she’s giving out.”

  He’s laying it on a little thick but I’ll take it, really anything to get me through the drive over there without dissolving into my nerves. I can tell he’s just trying to distract me and I appreciate it.

  When we finally pull up and I maneuver myself out of the car without his help, though he tries and I shut him down pretty fast, he huffs as he stares up at the building.

  “Are you sure I can leave you here? If something happens to you, I’ll be fucking furious, Queenie.”

  I roll my eyes and lean down to give him the barest of pecks on the cheek. “I’ll call you every hour I’m in there but I’m only planning on being there for one… two at the most. I promise.”

  He nods and when I straighten up, he drives over to park and wait for me. It’s very sweet.

  The party is being held at a gentleman’s club out in the middle of nowhere.

  It’s a terrible venue and chosen because of the Ford family’s close ties to the place but there’s only one section of the building women are even allowed to enter so I’m escorted to the elevator by one of the valets and he waits there with me until the doors open, seeing me inside and then pushing the buttons to the right floor for me like I’m unable to do it myself.

  When the doors open, I roll my shoulders back and walk into the room with the same confidence I do everything in my life. There are whispers around the room but nothing too terrible. After I find myself a drink, I slowly work my way around the room greeting the women and men in attendance until I find who I’m looking for.

  My mark for the night, Olivia is flirting with Samuel Washington, another doctor who was on my father’s roster for the prescription drugs he would use sometimes in his torture. I give him a disapproving glance before turning my body to him in a move that is very clearly a dismissal and he stalks off without a word. We’ve interacted a handful of times in the past so he knows exactly what I’m capable of.

  Olivia blinks at me and then glances around like she’s trying to find an escape from me but there’s not a single person in this room who is dumb enough to try. Atticus isn’t here tonight and the Amanda nightmare of a woman is nowhere in sight.

  “Avery, what a lovely surprise to see you here tonight. It’s been some time since I’ve seen a Beaumont attending a party in this circuit.”

  I force a smile onto my face at her, honey sweet and with none of my usual cutting ice. “I admit I haven’t found much reason to attend lately but I’ve had some openings in my schedule and thought I should pop my head in. There are still the same boring women goss
iping about nothing, not really my style. And you? Have you been loyal to your lovely little friends?”

  Olivia herself is an oil magnate’s daughter and his sole heir. This in itself should ensure that the women here are nice to her because nothing gets you higher up the ladder quite like an impending inheritance, but ten years ago when she married her high school sweetheart she’d taken a tumble down the socialite ladder.

  Christopher Bromburg’s family are rich, successful, and very new money.

  The type of new money that wears flashy labels and talks about their salaries over the dinner table. I heard his father bought a yacht and named it Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems which, besides being fucking stupid, is the cringey type of bragging that the upper society hates to see.

  Christopher is an agent in the DEA Office of National Security Intelligence and though he loves his family, he is nothing like them. He married for love and having the very docile Olivia in his bed is exactly what that very intelligent and, frankly, boring agent wanted.

  She’s the key to getting that man on my roster.

  Olivia cringes a little and glances over at the other women but they’re all watching us with a sort of horror, like there isn’t anything quite as terrifying as me taking an interest in her.

  I think it’s hilarious and the desperation wafting off them all is enough to choke on. Every last one of them is trapped in an unhappy marriage with men who need a bucketload of Viagra to fuck them and really they’re just jealous that Olivia is married to a man who doesn’t stray from her after every little bleach blonde whore that crosses his path.

  It’s pathetic.

  “Richard Ford is an old friend of my father, it was important to him that I attend. I don’t intend on staying long,” Olivia says, taking a sip of the champagne in her hand.

  It’s a very diplomatic answer, one that I don’t have it in me to give back to her. “Why would anyone stay here for longer than it takes to down a drink? What the hell is Jessamine wearing? She looks abhorrent. Did Christopher attend with you?”