by Sam Mariano
Confronting Marlena is probably more urgent than getting my dick sucked.
It’s the easiest out of all my decisions, so I head over to the apartment complex Rafe owns to pay her a visit.
Her greenish eyes register no small amount of surprise when she sees me on the other side of the door. “Hey, Sin.”
I smile. “Marlena. Can I come in?”
“Um…” She must sense that I’m onto her, because last time I stood on this doorstop, she wanted me to come inside. Now she’s glancing back in the apartment like she’s searching for an excuse to tell me no.
I save her the trouble, taking a step forward and pushing on the door. “I’m gonna come in.”
God, her eyes are expressive. She’s nervous, but she forces a smile and attempts to pick up where she left off. “I like it when you’re bossy.”
“That’s not gonna last long,” I tell her, shoving the door shut and turning to face her, my eyes hard. “Tell me why I’m here, Marlena.”
Fear jumps in her eyes and she backs up. Her gaze flits across the room briefly to a little table. I wanna know what’s over there, so I walk backward, keeping an eye on her.
Taking a few nervous steps forward, she says, “We could go to my bedroom and talk there.”
I check behind the table. I’m more than a little surprised to find a gun stashed back there.
Well, shit.
Just in case she’s more dangerous than I expected her to be, I straighten and stare at her. Then I pull out my own gun, because while I like to be cocky sometimes, I don’t like to be so cocky I get my ass shot.
Marlena gasps, backing up against the wall. Her hand shoots out and she reaches for the doorknob, but before she can throw the door open and run, I’m there, shoving it closed.
“Help!” she screams, before I get the door all the way shut.
Glaring at her, I say, “Now that wasn’t too fucking smart, was it?” Grabbing her by the hair, I yank her back, ignoring her yelp, and lock my arm around her neck.
“Sin, please,” she begs, her hands coming to my arm, trying to claw it away from her neck. I ignore her, leaning over to look out the window, make sure there was no one around to hear her. She continues to waste her breath. “I really liked you, Sin. I really do. Please don’t hurt me. I didn’t want to do it. She made me. I tried to talk her out of it. I told her it was too far. I swear to God, I never wanted to hurt Laurel.”
My blood runs cold, but she can’t see my face. Even if she could, I doubt she’d know I’m surprised, but I’m doubly glad anyway. “No?”
Her breath hitches and she shakes her head, still struggling pointlessly against my hold. “I didn’t. I swear to God.”
“Then why the fuck did you do it?” I’m vague, since I’m not entirely sure what she’s talking about, but angry, because she needs to think I do.
“I don’t know,” she wails. “Cassandra was so angry that Rafe got her pregnant. It ruined everything and she had to go with plan B. It’s over now, I swear. That was only when they thought Laurel came with Rafe. Now that Gio knows you like her, he’d never hurt her. I’m so sorry. We hoped you wouldn’t find out.”
“Cassandra’s fucking Gio, why the fuck did she care if Rafe knocked up Laurel?”
“Gio was just her insurance plan,” Marlena says, somewhat defensive. “She started fucking him so she had a back-up, but she doesn’t really care about him. She wanted to marry Rafe, but she doesn’t love him either.”
I’m starting to get a weird feeling here. “Who does she love?”
“Me.”
Oh, Christ.
Sighing, I tell her, “I’ve got some bad news for you, dipshit. Cassandra only loves Cassandra. Far as I know, she’s not even into girls. She’s using your dumb ass, just like she’s using them.”
“No, she isn’t,” she objects, spirited rather than afraid now, in the kind of brave burst that only afflicts the truly devoted as they defend their hero. Her hero sucks, unfortunately for her. “Cassandra only uses people because she has to. They both deserved it. They don’t even deserve to touch her, and they get to. She’s wonderful. She’s so smart and strong and…. Sure, sometimes she does bad things, but everyone does. She’s the most fascinating person I’ve ever met, Sin. I think you’ve misjudged her.”
I’m gonna throw up if she keeps talking about this game-playing little cunt like she’s the next Messiah, I swear to Christ. “Just so I have your official confession, that night at the club when you showed up in the dress, you tampered with Laurel’s drinking glass, correct?”
Marlena hesitates. She hesitates for-fucking-ever. At this rate, Cassandra’s going to have a dozen new lovers to manipulate by the time this chick opens her fucking mouth and tells me what I need to hear.
“It’s okay,” I assure her, affecting a more soothing tone. “I don’t blame you. I know how this works, I’ve seen it before. You got mixed up with the wrong people. I get it. They told you to poison some fucking girl, you did what you were told. I just need to hear you say it.”
Since I have my arm wrapped so tightly around her neck, I feel it when she swallows. I know she’s afraid to trust me, but Marlena isn’t versed in this life. She has no idea who to trust and who not to. She can’t tell the bad guys she can trust from the worse ones she can’t. She might be Cassandra’s star pawn right now, but that’s because of her doe eyes and the nice ass she admittedly possesses. Once she has what she wants from her, Cassandra would throw this poor girl to the wolves. Meanwhile, this lovesick little fool would die defending Cassandra’s make-believe honor.
Jesus, I hate that woman.
More than any other woman I’m currently thinking about, until the pawn finally decides she can trust me. Thickly, she says, “I did. I’m so sorry.”
Nodding grimly, I bring my other arm around her body to support her weight, then I snap her neck.
“I appreciate your honesty,” I murmur, as her limp body falls to the ground. Sighing as I look down at her and debate how to get her body out of here without being seen, I tell her, “Unfortunately for you, Laurel wasn’t just some fucking girl.”
She’s my fucking girl, and as long as I’m breathing, nobody goes after her and lives to tell the story.
Nobody.
31
Laurel
I’m getting used to Rafe going to his clubs without me.
Juanita made me some dinner before she left earlier, but now I have peace and quiet. Since I’ve had such difficulty sleeping at night, I do everything I can to establish a peaceful nighttime routine. I’ve put my cell phone on charge already. I read that the screen makes it difficult to fall asleep if you’re playing on your phone right up to bed time, so tonight I’m screen-free for an hour before bedtime.
I make myself some sleepy time tea and bring the novel I picked out for tonight—Dreamcatcher by Nikki Reid. Rafe and I were supposed to go to the bookstore to pick out a baby book every week, but he never mentioned it this week and we definitely never stepped foot inside a bookstore. Since things have been a little weird between us but I wanted to make sure the baby got a new book, I took matters into my own hands and ordered online. While I was shopping, I decided I deserved a few new books to keep me company on these quiet nights, too.
While I drink my tea at the island counter, I decide to start reading. I run my hand over the lovely cover and caress the spine. The cover photo is a shot from behind of a blue-haired bride with a dreamcatcher tattoo on her shoulder—super pretty. Carly tells me I’m creepy with books. She’s always on me about switching to a Kindle, but I can’t fondle the cover of my book if it’s trapped inside an e-reader. I love the feel of books, the smell of them, the ability to fan the pages and see the entire story yet to come. I’ll never give them up, no matter how creepy Carly accuses me of being.
Opening the front cover, I flip past the title and dedication pages and settle in to start chapter one. I get sucked in right away and forget about the tea. I only planned to read for a
n hour while I relaxed myself for bed, but before long I realize reading may have been a bad idea. Instead of wanting to sleep, I’m thinking I may end up staying awake even longer so I can figure out why the bride just abandoned the groom she’s crazy about at the altar!
I turn the page to start the next chapter, but freeze when I feel a disturbance in the room. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I swallow.
“Rafe?” I ask hopefully.
I hear a metallic click, then a hard, “Try again.”
My heart tumbles right out of its cavity. “Sin.”
“There you go. Sorry to disappoint,” he murmurs, an edge of attitude in his tone.
I can’t help the faint smile that steals across my lips as I mark my page and close my book. “I’m not disappointed. What are you doing here?” I start to turn so I can face him, but before I can, he moves closer, his chest pressing against my back. Then he places one hand on my shoulder to anchor me, and brings the other one up near my head.
I gasp as the hard, unforgiving barrel of Sin’s gun presses against my temple and I go still.
What the fuck is happening?
Even though I know this is Sin, and I know he would never hurt me, fear slices through me.
It’s Sin, I tell myself. My heart knows that, but my brain and my body respond to the threat—to the dangerous, loaded weapon of a hardened killer currently pressed against the side of my fucking head.
“Sin, what are you doing?” I ask shakily.
I can feel his breath on the back of my neck, the heat from his chest rolling off his body. His lips brush the shell of my ear and I jerk.
“Get off the stool, Laurel.”
“This isn’t funny,” I tell him, forcing a nervous laugh. “This isn’t funny. Please put the gun away. I don’t know what this is, but I don’t… I don’t get the joke.”
His voice is low in my ear as he drags the barrel of his gun down the side of my face. I shudder at the cool feel of the metal, such a contrast to his heat at my back. “Does it feel like I’m joking, Laurel?”
It doesn’t, but he has to be. Maybe it’s foolish to trust this man who burned me once before, but I trust him enough to know he wouldn’t do something like this. This has to be some kind of game I just don’t understand.
Whether it is or not, his fingers dig into my arm as he drags me off the stool, keeping the gun trained on me. I don’t want to fall, so I force my shaky legs to work and I let him escort me out of the kitchen.
“Can we please talk about this?” I ask as we walk. Swallowing again, I try to look back at him. “Why are you… why are you doing this?”
“You wanna know why, Laurel? I’ll tell you why.” He abruptly stops walking and yanks me back against his hard body. My stupid body melts against him like it can’t decide if this is more scary or hot. The only hand that’s not keeping me captive is the one with the gun, so he uses that instead of his finger to fondle me. The way he drags the barrel over my breasts is already borderline erotic, then he uses it to nudge open my robe and a tickle of lust hits me. It only ratchets up at the gruff impatience in his voice as he tells me, “First, take off this flimsy fucking thing.”
God, I love his voice. I don’t know what’s going on, but I know Sin wouldn’t hurt me. If I’m wrong, then I’ll die believing that until the very last moment.
We’re in the family room at the back of the house—the one we never use. There are elegant, untouched furnishings—a black couch with silver pillows that are only touched when Juanita periodically fluffs them. A big, soft-looking rug in front of it.
I want to ask a million questions, but I’m afraid to. My back is still to him so I can’t see his face—does it look the way it did the night I knelt for him? I didn’t know what to think that night, either, but this time there’s a gun. That sort of intensifies things.
“Now,” he says.
My mind races as I reach for the belt of my robe to untie it.
“Slowly,” he snaps.
I gasp at the sharpness of his command and take a deep breath, nodding my head. My nerves are shot, but I work the soft, knotted belt loose and slowly let each end drop in front of me.
Keeping my tone low and as even as possible, so as not to startle the man with the gun, I ask, “Why are you doing this? Is this some kind of test? Or game? Are we roleplaying?”
“Don’t ask again,” he says, simply. “Turn around and look at me while you take the robe off.”
He lets me step away from him slowly. I turn just as slowly, no sudden movements, and meet his dark gaze. My heart gives for a split second, forgetting the weapon and the circumstances, seeing only the eyes of the man I’m meant to kneel for. My heart squeezes and my gaze drops to the gun. He still has it trained on me, and I still don’t understand why.
He told me to take the robe off, so I push the robe over my shoulders and let it slide off my body. The room is so quiet, I can hear the soft material hit the floor. Hear the roar of blood raging through my veins, the pounding of my heart.
Using the gun to gesture to the couch, Sin says, “Grab that pillow.”
My gaze darts to the couch and I see the silver pillow. I step sideways and grab it, then look to Sin for direction.
“Put it on the ground.”
“Where?”
“Just on the fucking ground.”
I don’t know what he wants, so I just drop it right there on the ground by the couch.
Now Sin steps closer. My skin burns as his gaze drops, raking across my uncovered breasts. I already took my bra off for the night, so the only thing that stops me from being completely naked is a pair of panties.
I feel completely naked as Sin moves closer, so close he towers over me. I feel small and fragile—he’s the one I’m supposed to turn to for protection, but right now he’s what I need protecting from. He stops in front of me, but he’s so close, I can feel his heat—this time on the front of my body.
“Now, listen to me very carefully, Laurel. You don’t want anyone to get hurt, right?”
I shake my head, unable to formulate words. There’s a lump in my throat, and I’m torn between fear and sadness. This can’t really be happening. Sin can’t be bad.
I mean, not worse than I already know he is.
His tone is briefly comforting as he says, “No. I don’t either. So it’s very important that you listen to what I’m about to say to you, and fucking remember it. Something is going to happen right now that you don’t want.” I stare at the ground, because I can’t look up at him. “You can fight me, but it won’t stop me. I can do whatever I want to you, and do you know why?”
I swallow, refusing to answer.
His tone hardens and he nudges under my chin with the gun. “I’m fucking talking to you.”
“No,” I blurt, meeting his gaze. “I don’t know why.”
Lifting his eyebrows, he says, “Because I’m the asshole with the gun. Now, if you play by my rules, nobody has to get to hurt. Here’s what’s gonna happen. You wanna hear?”
I nod.
“You’re gonna do whatever I tell you to do, and you’re gonna do it nicely. You’re gonna do it with enthusiasm. You’re going to convince me you want it—even though you don’t.”
My pulse quickens and I meet his gaze, a sudden feeling of understanding sweeping over me. I know what he’s here for now, and while so much of me would love to give it to him, Rafe’s shadowy threats ring in my ears every time I even fantasize about doing anything naughty with Sin. “Sin, I want to, but I can’t. We can’t—”
He grabs a fistful of my hair and shoves my head down, pressing the barrel of his gun against my forehead as I cry out. “It’s time for you to listen, Laurel. No talking. I know how fucking hard it is for you to keep your mouth shut, but just give me a minute.”
I draw in a hitching gasp, on instinct reaching for his side and holding on. As my fingers dig into his side, alerting him to real fear, he eases the gun away from my forehead.
; Coincidence? I have an awful feeling that I know what he’s doing, but he doesn’t want me to talk, so I keep quiet.
“You’re going to do everything I tell you to do. You’re going to let me take whatever I want. You don’t want this, and you can beg me to stop, but I won’t listen. If anyone ever finds out about this, if anyone ever asks, you did beg me to stop and I ignored you. Understand? Open that pretty little mouth right now and tell me you don’t want this.”
I swallow audibly before forcing that lie past my lips. “I don’t want this.”
“Good girl.” Everything inside me goes soft at those words from his mouth, at the tender reassurance in his tone.
As much as I do want this, I don’t want to put him in danger. I want to play scary, sexy games with him, but more than that, I want to protect him.
“Sin…”
“No. We’re back to no talking, Laurel. Keep that pretty mouth shut until I tell you to open it again. Nod once if you understand.”
I nod once.
“Okay. When all this is over with, after I’ve taken what I want from you, you’re going to put your skimpy little robe back on and go about the rest of your night. You are not going to tell anybody what I did here, do you know why? Because then someone will get hurt. I don’t mean someone’s feelings, either. If you care about Rafe, if you want to keep him safe, you keep your fucking mouth shut. He comes after me, he won’t come back.”
My heart drops at the threat. I don’t think he means it, but I do know he’s capable, so it’s actually not impossible.
I know that Sin knows my safe word, and I’m tempted to use it, but I can’t get it out of my mouth. I’m not sure if I’m more afraid to utter it because he might stop, or because he might not. I’m 90% sure this isn’t real, but what if I’m wrong? I do remember him asking me if I’d fight him if he fucked me, so I was mentally prepared for him to be into some kinky shit. I haven’t explored that kind of play, but I would try it out with him. I didn’t think a gun would be involved, I just imagined him pinning me down, making me helpless with his body…
