My wicked kitten looks way too sexy to be stopped just yet. And then she dips her head, closing her sinful lips around the head of my cock. My thoughts fracture. Her tongue peeks out, trekking down my vein, grazing the path with her teeth on the way up. Fuck! My hand fists her hair and my hips surge forward of their own accord. Dammit, she isn’t playing fair.
“Because I’ll never hurt you,” I groan and throw one end of the handcuffs over the four-poster bed frame, as she sucks me harder.
Aren’t you on a mission?
I would laugh, but my lungs need air more.
Shit, she’s killing me and I want to die with her lips around me.
My hand grabs the frame, and I hold on for dear life as she moves up and down my length. My vision blurs from the feel of her mouth working me, pleasure building deep in my abdomen. I almost forget what I want her to know.
My fingers wind in her silky hair. “I want to protect you, love every single broken piece of you.”
She stills at my admission.
“I’d rather be in agony than see you in pain.” My cock slips out of her mouth as she looks at me with those big, vulnerable eyes. I lower to the ground in front of her, cupping her face so she could see my intent. “This is not about pain or seizing control from you. It’s about freedom. Emotional and physical. If you’re unsure or afraid, just tell me, and I’ll stop.”
She strokes my cheeks, gently pressing her lips to mine. “All I want is to be free, Mark.” She breathes out those words into my mouth like a prayer.
“Good.” I flip her around, smiling into her back as I pull her curvy behind framed in lace toward my cock. “Because I want you untamed like a storm.” I push her down onto all fours, fighting my own savage need.
She flips her messy hair over her shoulder, staring at me with burning desire I want to take control of. But then she smirks, arching her back, intending to rub herself against my hard as steel cock. I smack her butt in warning. She gasps, shocked, aroused, and mad, but as I massage the spot, I see the heat in her darkening gaze, begging for more.
Since I have her attention, I grab the lacy underwear and peel it from her round globes down her legs, admiring her glowing skin.
“I’ll bind you. Play with you until we both have no other choice but to fall.”
“You better know what you’re doing, because you haven’t seen a woman with no restraints.”
I laugh, and she leaps at me, tackling me to the bed.
Not waiting to get my breath back, I flip us over and restrain her hands above her head. Her eyes widen as she feels me, twitching between us.
“Caught you.”
My hand travels down her body, shaping her perfect breast, before capturing the tight bud through the lace with my mouth.
“Mark.” Her desperate plea is like an aphrodisiac coursing through my bloodstream. My hand slips between her legs to play with her wetness, teasing her. I stroke and finger her tight channel while she bucks underneath me.
“Please,” she gasps, eyes rolling back in her head as I hit a sweet spot inside of her.
“This is how it’s going to be, Cassandra. You’ll listen to my commands, and I’ll give you what you need.” I unclasp her bra, letting her round breasts spill free. And then, I pull her to sit with me, positioning her knees across my hips.
She arches her back as I stroke one rosy fat nipple into a stony peak. My other hand fists in her long hair as I take possession of those parted lips.
Even if I could kiss her all day long, it wouldn’t be enough. She tastes like my ultimate addiction. My salvation. I crave her like my next fix with an unwavering intensity that thrills me but also frightens me. It’s such a strange sensation to need someone this much, you can’t function without them.
I stand with her curled around my waist and bring her to the bedpost where the handcuffs are hanging.
“Lift your arms, Cassandra,” I order.
~Cassandra~
His deep, rasping command sends shivers down my spine. But I’m not afraid, no, I’m aroused beyond the point of caring. The only thing I need is his mouth on me, his cock buried deep inside of me. Moving and soothing the ache he’s building. My legs clutch his waist harder, and I give him a teasing stroke with my wet center just to see how much control this man has. Satisfying grunts rattle deep in his throat, shooting sparks of thick desire to my womb.
“Your hands,” he repeats.
Beyond curious about what he’s going to do, I stretch one up as he fastens the leather handcuff on it and does the same to the other wrist. I’ve never played these sensual games with anyone.
Mark’s eyes, burning with dark promise, bore into me. He has me chained and wet and beyond needy. And yet, he stands there, admiring his handiwork, letting my legs fall from his waist. I gasp, unable to touch the ground, only graze the surface with my toes as I swing from side to side.
“Mark, this isn’t working.”
But Mark’s roguish expression fixed on me darkens with intent. He circles around me and then he strikes my butt cheek with his palm. I screech, shocked when the ache turns into heat and disbelief into coiling need.
His firm body crowds me from behind, bringing me comfort. He massages the throbbing spot with gentle strokes, soothing the sting.
“Do you want me to stop? I’ll free you and hold you if that’s what you want. But I’m not here to abuse your body, but rather awaken, pleasure it. If this frightens you, I need to know.”
Before I can answer, his lips brush a sensitive spot on my neck, sending delicious shivers down my spine and straight to my throbbing clit. A thick desire courses through my veins mixed with heady anticipation. Mark’s dominant strength makes me feel things I want to savor and explore. I can almost taste the dark abandon. Even if my hands are bound and I have no ground to stand on, it beckons me.
So, I arch my back and stroke his hard length with my ass, needing him to show me his sensual side. To know the man who captured my heart and asked me to trust him with my body. I need all of him, the dark, the light, bad and good. I’m greedy with a hunger to welcome this man’s needs in every hue possible.
He gasps. “Naughty of you to play with me.” And then he strikes my ass, again and again, changing the intensity and strength of his calculated blows.
Mark makes me feel everything in high color. But soon, it propels me into this space. There every blow blasts through me, and my chest starts to burn, exploding in an array of sensations inside of me.
“Open your eyes, Cassandra, I’m here with you. You’re not alone.”
His hand slides down to my apex and rubs the wetness between his fingers as I fall into his dark gaze. He slips a finger inside my soaking channel and then another, curling them inside until I see stars, and my body sparks to life. I feel the peak, swelling inside of me, but then like a wave of the sea ebbing away from the shore, it also retreats from me. I feel raw, exposed, and he isn’t done wrecking me.
“Please, Mark.” I need him to finish this sweet torture, or I’ll shatter like a glass that I’ll never be able to mend back again.
“I’m here.” He kisses me until I forget who I am. “You’re mine. I got you.”
I fall into the sensations he’s creating, weaving into an accord. My body’s fluid in his arms when he lifts me. I coil around his waist, desperate for him.
“Breathe,” he whispers, reaching between us, positioning himself at my entrance and slowly easing into me. His burning ambers hold my gaze, drinking my responses as inch by inch he slips in my wet pussy.
“Mark.” My eyes roll in my head, enjoying the fullness and burning sensation his cock leaves.
“You feel like my own piece of heaven, sweetheart.”
Before I can respond, he pulls out and plunges in as if he’s rewriting me, leaving a trail of pleasure, electrifying my womb, coiling into the storm ready to burst from me. With every thrust, my body hums and tightens, and gasps become moans from an incredible high he’s taking me to.
&
nbsp; “Mark, I need . . .”
“I know.” He captures my plea with his lips, tasting my desperation.
I tremble from the tension, but my body isn’t able to let go, as if it’s attuned to his every whim. But then I begin to burn, and my chest becomes too tight to draw in a breath.
“Come, come for me now!” he demands.
And it slips. My control breaks apart.
I explode and my soul shatters into a thousand lights behind my eyelids. His mouth captures my screams as he thrusts harder, faster, changing the pace and making my insides vibrate with another wave chasing the first one.
We both detonate at the same time and I collapse spent into his sweaty chest. My loose limbs slide off from his waist, but he catches me around the waist and undoes the restraints before taking us to bed.
“Sleep, little bird. You are safe.”
My mind shuts down, and I slip away, nestled in his embrace.
17
Ghosts from the Past
~Mark~
I jerk awake. Sweat drips from my forehead and my heart pumps in acute awareness. My neck prickles and my muscles tighten sensing a threat. Not to wake up my bird sleeping curled next to me, I twist my head to look around. Nothing. Just a soft hum from the conditioning system greets my ears. But I can’t shake the feeling that someone’s watching us.
Something’s wrong.
Careful not to wake her up, I slip from her embrace. I kiss her hairline and brush the sweaty strands of her hair from the angelic face.
My instincts lead me out of the bedroom to the open living space where I find the door open to the private elevator. My throat tightens with unease, and I grab my phone from the sofa, dialing the security.
“We have a breach. You need to get here now!” I retrieve my gun from under the secret drawer and go to look around.
When the door to the elevator lights up, I let them in, and everyone spreads as the protocol demands. But there are no signs of an intruder. Afterward, the team gathers in my kitchen, and I close the door to our bedroom to talk to them.
“Someone was here. My elevator was open.” No one asks me if I forgot to close it, because they know I didn’t. With these men I train and work, they know me. I’m obsessed with security and I never disregard it. This compulsion manifested during my fucked-up childhood. I learned to sleep with one eye open, have a weapon next to me, and never turn my back on people I don’t trust. Anticipate the worst-case scenario. Shit, I got sloppy. And in the world I came from, you pay the price for this.
“I could dust for fingerprints and pass it to our friend to check if the system can identify the intruder, but chances are slim,” Tom assures me, and I nod, knowing he’s right.
“Whoever it was knew the code or had the card to get here.”
“We’ll look into it. Do you want us to look through the camera feeds?” Lee holds my gaze because he knows I have a woman in my bed. My insides boil that he even suggested it. But I need to know. Not knowing is not an option.
“We might get a glimpse of an intruder if we analyze the records. You know we work discreet, sir.”
I nod, and they grab my laptop to access the camera feeds.
My hands ball into tight fists, my blood boiling with anger. Whoever you are, this won’t end well for you.
I’m about to lose my temper, but Higgins walks in with rigid shoulders and an alert expression, and I know something else has happened. “What is it?” I bark.
“Mark, the Cades received the video from an anonymous sender just ten minutes ago. They’re demanding to talk.”
“What video?”
He pushes the tablet my way to let me see it. The video starts to play, and my insides explode with rage. I launch it into the wall so hard the device breaks apart.
“Fuck!” I roar.
My palms hit the smooth surface of the island as I try to calm my temper. I was never a person easily affected by such things. I lived through the worst. But this is something even I can’t stomach.
“Mark.” Her soft voice reaches me. Fuck! I failed to protect her, and now she might suffer for my mistakes. A sick feeling coils my guts in tight knots as I turn to look at her. “What’s going on?”
I squeeze my eyes shut, needing to find balance and curb the need to hide her from my past. To put as much distance between her and the monsters, so she would never know this world I came from. This never should have happened. I should have known better.
Her hand lands on my bare arm and I stiffen. “Mark, look at me,” she softly demands, and I give in. I pull her away from the team to talk privately while they work.
“Someone got in here,” I admit to her, watching her face become ashen. “I need to know who it was. We’re going through camera feeds right now.” I trace her features, twisting with confusion and eyes widening as she realizes what that means.
“Do they have to?”
“They filmed us.” I regret my words as soon as they leave my mouth, but I can’t leave her thinking these measures are unnecessary.
“What?” Her skin pales. I don’t think she can survive the humiliation and public exposure if this recording gets out. It will destroy her.
“How do you know this, Mark?” Cassandra asks the question I hoped not to answer.
I grasp her naked shoulders, looking straight into her eyes and meaning every word.
“We’ll find him. Trust me, I won’t stop until the bastard is found. I’ll use every resource to get it back.”
“Stop talking like you’re going to kill him or throw him to the crocodiles.”
Not a bad idea.
A smile tugs at the corner of my lips as she graces me with a stern look, like a mother would to misbehaving kids.
“He took something that belongs to me. Believe me, Cassandra, he’s going to suffer for this.”
She snorts but then clutches her sheet closer to her chest.
“I better get dressed.” Before she goes to change, she pauses by the door to the bedroom. Her eyebrows crease, her lips parting to speak. “Do we have cameras in your bedroom?”
“Not in the bedroom,” I admit the truth, hating the glint of mistrust in her eyes.
Cassandra turns around and without a single word exits the living room. I follow. She methodically retrieves her dress and underwear, avoiding my gaze altogether.
“Talk to me.” I close the door to get some privacy. “Tell me what’s going on in your head right now.” Her ability to compartmentalize is making me nervous.
“Someone broke in and filmed us having sex. How do you think I feel? You’re clearly convinced this person has malicious intents since you have tons of security analyzing everything like a forensic team would examine a murder scene. So, I ask myself what I’m doing with you because my decisions will impact not only my life but also my children.” Tears pour down her cheeks as she looks at me, clutching her clothes to her chest.
Desperation grips me as I reach her in a few strides and cup her face, looking straight into her pale eyes. I’m ready to give her everything just to keep her.
“Beside successful business at Fading Ink, I have a growing marketing company in the States, and I also invest in many other successful venues. I’m no hitman, but when you have money, certain people try to seize control and use you for their benefits. Let’s put it this way. I learned to live in a world of wealth, know how to play political games, and survive corporate sharks. Sometimes business and the criminal world is the same thing. Just the game is more refined, resourceful, and secretive, but nevertheless corrupted and dark.”
“Perhaps you should talk to the Cades. They could help, Mark . . .”
A sarcastic snicker leaves my mouth as I stride to the window.
“Mark?”
I twist to look at her. Confusion, hurt, and denial filter through her eyes. “After they tried so hard to keep their name clean?” She recoils when it clicks what I try to tell her. I grasp her wrists, pulling her closer.
It’s hard to
understand, but to some extent, we all have our hands muddied to survive thirst for power. It doesn’t care if money’s bloody or clean, it cares only about the benefits it provides. It’s a beast you must feed. If it’s starved, you become prey to every other predator out there. Just like someone in the Middle East tried to fuck me over and failed. You always have to think a few steps ahead to come out on top.
“I don’t want to hurt you or change how you feel about your family. Just know this. The Cades aren’t as innocent or honorable as they pretend to be. Lucas and Leif didn’t turn their backs on business just because. They’ll do what benefits their family.”
Her hand falls from my wrist to her sides. This is my fault. I put that empty look in her eyes. Shit! And I haven’t told her that Darren saw the tape yet.
I bet he’s combing through contacts trying to get to the bottom of this. She is their family member, and to allow anyone else to gain the upper hand would mean they’re losing their stand.
But they might also use this against her.
“Until we know what they want, we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Go, take a shower, and I’ll make breakfast and coffee. We need to talk strategy and find a way to keep you safe. Just stay with me, okay?”
Cassandra nods, but she looks far too numb from the shock and way too withdrawn for my liking to cope with this on her own.
~Cassandra~
Dressed up, I sit on the edge of the bed we slept together in just an hour ago. My mind reels from the things Mark told me. Can it be true? I’ve never seen anything illegal as I worked at the bank, but I also never had this kind of clearance to see those accounts.
“I want you to stay away from the bank.”
“Why?” I huffed, annoyed.
But Logan grabbed my shoulders, looking straight into my eyes. “There are people I don’t trust. Give me time to deal with the situation, okay? I don’t want you to be part of it all. We have babies to think about, life to plan.”
Tangled IN LIES (Book#3, IN YOU) Page 18
