He’s masculine perfection. Scarred warrior. And all mine.
To tease him, I flip on my tummy, arching my back and letting him admire my flaming ass. “Then paint the world with me,” I offer, flipping my hair over my shoulder.
He lets out a guttural sound that vibrates through me. “You’re going to kill me.”
But soon, I feel his weight settle over me. Mark's fingers coil in my hair, pulling back until I kneel on all fours. I twist my neck to look at him. Darkness left him and, in its place, savage need is staring back at me.
“So damn beautiful,” he whispers to himself as his two fingers dip into my soaking channel, spreading the wetness around. “So damn brave.” He thrusts, hitting my sensitive spot inside, and I moan as he plays with my pussy.
“Mark.” I gasp when he flips me over, spreading my legs wide-open.
His breath fans over my flesh, before his hot wet mouth encloses my swollen clit. Shit! My thoughts fracture. I curl my fingers in his soft hair, pulling him closer to my aching center and moving in tune with his mouth. I whimper, lost in the sensation spreading through me and stealing my capacity to breathe.
“Mark, I’m close, baby, please!” I beg, my voice sounding like a guttural plea. My muscles spasm, and my clit throbs just before the release shatters me to pieces.
But his fingers never stop moving, gently stroking my throbbing clit. I’m not sure if I want to kill him or ask for more.
“So many colors.” His words rattle deep in his throat as his mouth encloses my stony tip, driving me insane but not giving what I really want.
Release. Oblivion. Sweet shot of ecstasy.
Electricity rushes through me and every part of my body vibrates.
“Mark.” Breathless, I moan when his fingers curl inside of me. “I can’t . . .” I start to claw at his back from desperation.
It’s becoming too intense for me to handle the tornado he’s building.
“It’s only me who’s going to ever satisfy you, touch every secret part of you. Make you come undone and cradle you in my arms afterward.”
“Yes.” I moan as he wrecks me. “Please.”
Something dark floods his gaze at hearing my acceptance. With that deep and restless abyss looking at me, he asks, “What will you do, Cassandra, if you see the true me, the man who wants things from you as depraved as his degraded soul?” He stops, retreating his touch and leaving me incomplete.
He is wrong. He isn’t sick, degraded, or evil.
“I know what’s running through your head, Mark. You want to give me a man you think I’ll be capable of loving. I want the real you, the bad and good, dark and light, all of it. So, I could surrender all of me to you. No lies, no smoke screens, no shields, just us, vulnerable and exposed. That’s the only way I’m asking you to love me.”
He kneels on the bed in all his naked glory and pulls me to him. My fingers trace the road of scars marring his shoulders and chest until my hand rests on his heart, pulsing underneath my palm. Its ardent rhythm speeds up as if connecting us, two flawed equals. As if Mark is my perfect soul mate, and his flaws are familiar landmarks to me.
“You’re a beautiful melody I want to listen to every day, a perfect source of light I want to consume. I’ll ruin you, Lovebird. You’re perfect as you are.” He shuts his eyes and takes a shaky breath. “But that monster lives inside of me. I’ll never be able to purge him.”
22
Blind Love
~Mark~
That monster lives inside of me. I’ll never be able to purge him . . .
The things he made me do, the things he got me to be addicted to—they’re part of me now. Sometimes I’m afraid I’ll be just like him, feasting on innocence.
“You aren’t him, Mark. Your choices in life define you. So, who are you going to be? Monster or a warrior?” She challenges me as if knowing a long time ago I made my mind up about what kind of man I would be.
Fascinated, I watch her face glowing with desire and a body full of pale scars underneath me.
“Anything and everything you need me to be.”
She doesn’t understand I’m thirsty for someone to love me this much to weep rivers, when I’m just a whisper on the winds. I’ve never had this kind of love. Neither as a kid nor as an adult. And with her, I started to hope for everything. She fits in every crook and cranny of my broken soul, and I want to keep her. Her light, her fire, her pain, and her happiness.
“Then love me the way you desire, and I love you the way you need to be loved. Don’t hide from me and I won’t hide from you.” Those words falling from her swollen red lips are an aphrodisiac, coursing with a thousand volts through my veins. I’m afraid to trust her naivety, but I’m helpless not to.
“Even if I bound you.” Not breaking eye contact, I cup her full breast, molding it in my hand. “Even if I take your freedom away.” I suck her nipple until she gasps, arching her back and stroking her pussy. My cock pulse between us. “Even if I take you hard, deep and fast and won’t let you up for air until you reach the stars.” I rise to meet her dark with lust gaze.
Instead of being afraid, she arches her perfect eyebrow. Stubbornness shines in her dilated pupils like a gaping chasm for me to discover.
“Stop trying to frighten me, Mark. Show me instead.”
I can’t help it. I attack those plump lips, drinking her responses as our mouths stroke, taste, and explore. Cassandra’s body moves in sync, creating perfect friction between us.
“Perhaps one day, I’ll show you my darkness. But right now, I want to taste your sweet rapture without dark thrills to get us high,” I assure her.
My hand travels down her belly to her wet center, weeping to be filled. I stroke the bundle of nerves and her mouth parts as I curl my fingers inside her weeping pussy.
“I want to get lost in your wet softness, feast on your cries for more, and drink my name falling from your lips, Cassandra.”
“Mark,” she gasps and fucks my fingers, craving release.
“This is mine. A storm I created and I’ll be the one to control it,” I purr, relishing in her growing desperation, then she pulls and tugs my hair, trying to ride the sensations building inside of her.
~Cassandra~
Mark’s claiming me. My body knows it. My heart feels it. And my mind seeks it.
My cries echo in the room and the scent of arousal saturates the air. When my pelvic muscles start to spasm, he plunges his cock into my wet pussy, filling me to the brim.
“Fuck, this is so damn perfect,” he rasps and groans, flipping me on my back and hauling one leg up to his shoulder. “You’re my paradise. Let’s make me your sin.”
My mouth parts and eyes roll in the back of my head when he changes the angle, hitting a sweet spot inside.
Mark's eyes are wild and full of savage hunger as he thrusts. Curving his hips so he can hit my clit when he slams back inside.
“Mark.” Everything inside of me throbs like he awakened every nerve ending.
His formidable body moves like he’s rewriting something in me. His tenacious energy courses through me, sculpting, shaping, and enslaving like the bird he loves to call me.
“Please,” I gasp a plea, scratching his back.
But he kisses my parted lips, sweetly coaxing my body.
“Come,” he demands, setting me off with that one word. And I come apart like a comet with a stardust tail, falling to the Earth.
His mouth captures my screams, drinking my moans and shaping them into small cries.
Mark rests his sweaty forehead against mine. Tenderness glimmers in the whiskey depths, but if I burst them open, the secrets ooze out of them.
“You are mine now,” he declares.
“And you are at home, Mark,” I counter, winding my hands around him.
He kisses my bruised lips, and we curl together, letting blissful exhaustion drag us to sleep.
The ringing phone rouses me from a deep slumber. I open my eyes and let them adjust to my surroun
dings. Mark softly snores into the pillow next to me. I chuckle internally, thinking how relaxed he looks. Not to wake him, I slip from under his arm and grab his T-shirt to cover myself. Padding into the kitchen, I find my bag and rummage through it, trying to find my smartphone.
“Leif, what is it?” I answer.
“Hi, are you with Mark?” His tone is too solemn for my liking.
“Yeah,” I whisper, closing the bedroom door. “What’s going on?” I demand.
“It would be better if you come home. We need to talk about Mark.”
23
Twisted Games
~Cassandra~
“Sure, give me an hour.” My pulse beats in my throat, sensing the storm about to erupt.
When I disconnect the call, I message my bodyguards to get ready. Pulling on my ripped blouse and pants, I grab a pen and write a note for Mark. Before I go, I brush my lips against his hair, drawing his scent in my lungs. His naked form draped against the sheets beckons me back to bed, but I refrain needing to figure out what’s going on.
I depart Mark’s condo and slip into my waiting car.
“Take me home, please.”
The driver nods and starts the car as the bodyguard sitting next to him speaks into his headset, reporting my whereabouts to the team.
The ringing phone startles me again. “Cassandra Cade.”
“How are you, Cassandra?” The baritone chuckle sends insects crawling up my skin, and my insides churn. “Last time I saw you, you were . . . off balance.” His suggestive tone’s consuming the clarity from my brain.
“Mr. Belington, what a surprise to hear from you again.” I swallow the vomit rising up my throat and take rigid breaths to keep myself from losing my wits. “How can I help?” I force myself to ask, shuddering at my own stupidity to play brave with this pervert.
Only fear keeps me from shouting, threatening him back. He has something I don’t want anyone to see. He has me in his palms, and he knows it.
“Cassandra, it’s the other way around. It’s me who can help you.”
I clear my throat, afraid he’s audacious enough to suggest . . .
“I think Mark and I can manage, sir.”
He laughs, and it obliterates my shame.
This time I burn with anger, slowly filling me with strength.
“Oh, Mrs. Cade, the boy you have in your bed will never be brave enough to show you the heights of true dominance. You’ll see soon what I mean.”
The frost seeps into my soul as if someone sucked all the heat from the car. His words are like daggers flying straight to my guts.
“Is this why you’re calling, so you can proposition me?”
“Not quite. Although I have a proposition you won’t be able to refuse. After all, Mrs. Cade, you are a businesswoman, aren’t you?”
“I am, but I don’t sell my body, Mr. Belington. I don’t bargain with my soul or heart.” I catch my reflection in the window. My pupils are dilated, and my face looks pale as a ghost.
“With the right amount of motivation, I might sway your work ethics, Cassandra.”
I stay silent because with every sentence he leaves a trail of thick poison coursing through my system.
“There’s nothing in this world that’s off-limits. Everyone can be convinced or bought for the right price. We’re all afraid of the aftermaths the truth might trigger, like dirty secrets we hide, the decadent pleasure we love to sample.”
My eyes shut closed, and I press the button to open the window. A gust of air hits my face, bringing the welcoming chaos from outside. Just keep him talking. I remind myself. Perhaps if I figure out what he wants, I could deal with him and end this mess.
“And what’s your ace, Mr. Belington? What are you going to use to persuade me?” Gathering courage, I ask, needing to know what he intends to do with the video.
“You could buy incriminating evidence, exposing your deviant tastes from me, Cassandra.” That one sentence, loaded with insinuation, hangs heavily in the air.
“No.” My rejection’s out before I have time to digest the consequences of pissing him off.
“Well, we still have time to change your mind.” His voice sounds harder like he’s gritting his teeth. “I’m calling about something else. Since you failed to open your mail, I thought I would give you a few pointers.”
My gaze fastens on a black envelope protruding from the bag next to me. I pick it up. That kid gave it to me just before I met Lester outside. Could it have been arranged? I catch one of the bodyguards eyeing my hands, but he says nothing.
“Mr. Belington, could you please tell me what this is all about?”
“Patience, Cassandra. In the future, learn some manners or I’ll teach you . . .”
“You seem to have a rich imagination and twisted perception of me. I have no time for this. I’m afraid my family needs my attention.”
“Oh, but this is exactly about them. I thought I should give you a heads-up about your family’s dark tastes for money and power. Open the envelope, Mrs. Cade, and find out for yourself.”
I rip the seal and pull out the papers.
“What’s this?” I whisper, trying to read everything at once.
He chuckles, and it aggravates me even more.
“This is a proof, Cassandra. The Cades are selling you to gain more power. You see, the Cades love their money, and you’re a great bargaining trophy. You, after all, killed their son, inherited his empire, have the other two sons at your beck and call. Helen wants to get rid of you, and Darren will give her everything she desires. We, men, have our own weaknesses, and she is his.”
After the pause, he adds, “This is my offering to you. Next time you’ll have to pay for the gifts I bestow on you. I advise you to think about our friendship. You might need my protection in the future. The Cades are bent on destroying you, but I can protect you.”
The phone clicks and the line disconnects. I gape at the papers I’m holding because he managed to slip through the cracks I’ve never managed to get rid of.
Tears gather in my eyes as I read through the paperwork. My therapy reports, admission to psychiatric clinic papers, neighbors’ statements. There’s even testimony from a window company that came to fix broken windows after I ripped the house apart. And to top the insult there are photos from the recording Belington made. My hands shake as a sob wracks through me as I realize they were gathering evidence to gain the custody of my children. And also seize the inheritance. They don’t care about me.
“Adam, please take me to the Royal Gardens.”
He nods and changes directions.
I’m going to confront Helen and see how rotten the apples on this tree are. She’s wrong to think I’ll let them do this. After our private chat in the café, I thought we’re turning a new leaf, but this was just another play.
“Miss, you’d probably want to change. The club is very exclusive and has a strict dress code,” he points out as subtle as possible.
I just don’t care. No, my blood boils with anger and the things I still need to settle with my mother-in-law. The other night, we were beginning to scratch the surface, but today we’ll dive in deep.
I give Adam my determined stare, and he resumes his driving. I’m a Cade, and whether she likes it or not, I’ll demand my place to be acknowledged. But if she thinks I’ll allow her to threaten my family, she’s going to taste my flavor of vengeance. No one goes after my kids and gets away with it. No, she and I have to finally settle this score.
My phone buzzes in my palm and I answer it, “Cassandra.”
“You’re gone. I thought you were going to spend the night?” His raspy voice warms my heart I didn’t know was encased in ice until now.
“I’m going to Royal Gardens to see Helen, and later, I’ll go home to my babies. They need help with a school project.” It isn’t a lie but not the whole truth either.
I can’t let him know that my family’s trying to rip my children away from me. Right now, I don’t know which e
nemy I’ll be fighting first. His or mine. Because if they go after my kids, they’ll be interested in releasing the video to the press. That means I’ll have to make a deal with Belington before my in-laws make a move, and Mark won’t be happy.
My nose prickles with needles, and tears gather in my eyes as I yearn to bury my face in his muscular chest. But I breathe through the longing and steel myself for the hard conversation with the family’s matriarch.
“Your blouse . . . I ripped it. I have a few things I ordered for you at home.”
“I know, I saw it, but she probably has some clothes over there I can borrow. I promise I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Cassandra, is everything all right? Have I done something to hurt you?” I clutch the phone away from my mouth, so he won’t hear my voice tremble.
“No, Mark, I enjoyed our time. You don’t need to worry about it.” I cast my gaze to the driver, who’s conveniently pretending not to listen. “Let me handle my family, and I’ll call you when I’m done. Perhaps you can come to spend the night at my house. We could watch a movie. I’ll make dinner.”
“I’ll come as soon as I finish a few things. You sure you don’t need me with you?”
I do need you.
“I’ll be all right. Helen doesn’t bite, you know?” I joke, feeling my guts twist and my forehead dot with cold sweat, thinking about the evidence Belington managed to leave me. I’m no longer sure I know who Logan’s family is.
“Then I’ll see you soon. Be careful of her sharp manicured nails.”
I chuckle and disconnect the call, just as the car stops.
“Miss, would you like a jacket?” Adam’s partner sitting next to him, asks, but I shake my head and open the door.
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Tangled IN LIES (Book#3, IN YOU) Page 23
