by Pamela Ann
“Are you crazy? I asked you to marry me the other day! What the hell do you take me for, some fucking teenage kid who can’t keep his pants on for five minutes?” he argued. “And yes, goddamn it! You’re the best sex of my life, Cara. Happy now?” he snapped, eyes all fire, wild and downright beautiful.
Happy? He ought to be joking. “Then how did the lipstick get on your shirt, huh? And don’t pull that sobbing bullshit. I’m not that stupid!”
He looked crazed, enraged by how I was willing to fight him at every turn. “She cried, but not on me. The lipstick … Well, she kissed me and tried to seduce me—”
“You bastard!” I saw red. My hands and knees were on him … Well, I tried. My knees were quite trapped, but as for my hands, their attempts at hitting his chest and face seemed ineffective. The asshole was immovable. “Get off me, cheater!”
He hissed as I saw the scratch I left on his neck. It was raw and bleeding. But his dark fathomless pools were inches from my face, determined and unyielding. “I get you’re jealous, but I didn’t cheat on you. I stayed longer than I was supposed to because I wanted to make sure she really caught a flight back to New York. I’m sorry, but I did all of that because I don’t want to deal with this tomorrow or the next. I wanted to get it all out of the way so we can spend time together without any of this bullshit fucking with us like this.”
Right. It took twelve hours to achieve that? Uh-huh. “You slept with her, but you won’t admit it,” I spat back, not willing to let him off the hook.
“I fucking didn’t! What will make you believe me, huh?” River went ballistic. “Wanna smell my dick? Go ahead. I don’t fucking care! I’ve got nothing to hide. Here…” He paused as he began to unbuckle his jeans before effortlessly sliding them down along with his boxers.
I felt his profoundly engorged manhood sitting in between us. It was hot. Thick and oh so angry.
“No, no, no! Put that filthy dick back inside your pants! I don’t want to feel that monstrous two-timing fucker.”
“I didn’t do anything with Petra!” he grounded out, frustrated. “Why won’t you believe me? I don’t want her. I don’t want anyone else. I want you … I just want you.”
Torn, I tried to look away. His voice held so much pain. Every accusation I threw at him, he fought back with a vengeance. River wanted to stay. But how was it possible when I was this jealous? It sickened me to be this feeble, to be so insecure in my own skin, but this was how I was wired. “Even if I believe you now, I can’t trust you. Can’t you see that?”
“Cara…” he implored wholeheartedly. “We’ll be miserable without each other.”
His words rung true, but the argument was too feeble to convince me otherwise. “I was fine. I was fine until you came back.”
“That’s a lie, and you know it…” he fought back. And just before he could give me a chance to argue, the incorrigible man kissed me, the kind aimed to obliterate my resolve.
When he pulled up my dress while his thigh parted my thighs, I broke from his kiss to halt him from going any further.
“Don’t,” I whispered against his lips while my body trembled from his hungered touch.
“Another lie.”
“I don’t want you—”
“Bad liar … and I’m just going to prove to you how bad you are.” Without faltering, River lodged his cock between my legs enough for the tip of his shaft to part my folds, grazing against my clit. His head teased my button as his eyes held mine. “The more you hurt me, the more you hurt yourself. The same goes for me. Haven’t you realized that already?”
I let out a sharp gasp when the head slid below, poking through my entrance. It was just enough for my vaginal muscles to expand to accommodate his girth before immediately pulling back, tormenting me further.
“I’m sorry for making you wait. I really am. You have no idea how it hurts me to see you hurting, too. I don’t want you to be jealous of anyone. You’re it for me, Cara. Can’t you see that?”
He kept on yapping, yet all I could focus on was his cock. Why couldn’t he just fuck me already? This whole teasing game was driving me nuts. “I hate this.”
He chastely kissed me before he reassuringly said, “We’re working on things. It’s going to be tough. It will be tough, maybe one of the toughest things we’ll have to go through, but so what? It’s going to be worth it, babe. Every step of the way … As long we’re together, nothing is impossible.”
Biting down on my lips, I shut my eyes as I felt him push and expand my muscles, and when he pulled back once more, I blew a gasket. “For the love of God, stick it in! Fuck me already, goddamn it!” I shrilled like a banshee in heat, desperate to feel him inside me.
He froze, mouth hanging agape before he busted out laughing. “Did you hear anything I said?”
It was my turn to give him the evil eye. “You expect me to hear you when you’re provoking my pussy like that?”
He grinned from ear to ear before he tenderly looked down at me, dark eyes dancing as he roamed over my face. “I love you, petal. You know that, don’t you?”
He had finally said it. It had taken him another fight to say those three endearing words I’d been dying to hear. “Are you sure you’re not confused?” I hesitantly asked. I had to know for my own sake.
Kissing the tip of my nose, he grazed my cheek before breathing out, “I never stopped loving you. My heart doesn’t want anyone else but you.”
My heart expanded before I took his face and kissed him with my entirety. “All right, Yes … I’ll marry you.”
He frowned, eyeing me suspiciously. “Now’s not the greatest time to joke.”
I had realized how much he meant to me, and I couldn’t let him go. He was right. The more I hurt him, I was only inflicting more pain on myself. These past few days had taught me how good it could be for us. And as much as I hated to admit it, our baby would have a better chance in life with the two of us in the picture, pouring love and attention, support, and a limitless supply of kisses over it.
“I’ll marry you tomorrow, next week—whenever you want.” Brushing his forehead, I felt the sadness from earlier disappearing from the unadulterated bliss. “Make me your wife. I want to be yours and no one else’s. You make me happy. You’re the only thing that makes me happy these days.”
He appeared choked up as he longingly gazed onto me. “Are you sure? ’Cause if you take this back tomorrow, I might not be able to forgive you.”
My heart swelled. “Definitely sure. With my all, with all that I am, I’m sure you’re the one I want to spend my life with.”
“You’re definitely gonna get some dicking down now!” he laughed as he slowly made love to me.
My complete submission to be his, to be his wife, his partner, made our mating more intense. It felt just like before, as if there was an unbreakable bond between us. An unspoken vow of trust, honesty, and commitment. Through thick and thin, we’d face the world together. United as one. As a family. As man and wife.
Maldives—a beautiful gem in the middle of the Indian Ocean, springing with coconut trees, thriving coral reefs—had been our perfect getaway from the rest of the world. We were tempted to get married right then and there, but before we managed to ask for information, River always pulled back because he wanted to do it properly in a church with our friends as witnesses … the whole shebang.
So, we finally set the date for a month. As for our living situation, we’d live in the first house he had gotten for us. Since it had remained unused all these years, it was the perfect place to raise our budding family. My lease was up in two months, so moving in with him made perfect sense. Besides, there was so much to be done for the nursery and preparing for the birth.
I’d already booked an appointment the day after we got back to find out the baby’s sex. While he was excited, the baby still daunted me. There was still a lot of gray area about motherhood that petrified me. Most, I had kept to myself. There was still a lot of things I had to come to terms,
but I tried to have River’s optimism. His positive outlook somewhat rubbed off on me.
While we were away, River asked Anton to oversee the moving of my things from my apartment into our house in Westlake Village.
I’d been there once, during the night at that, so arriving in the morning was a totally different story. I thought the house was amazing then, but now, seeing it in bright daylight, it was truly stunning. Our family home. Ours. His and mine.
It’d take some getting used to, referencing us this way. But each time I did, pure unadulterated happiness would take over me. Funny how it was only a month ago when I was beyond hopeless, lost with no direction to go on.
Look at me now…
River had to drop by Ari’s house since he randomly decided to cancel his entire South America, Asia, and Australia leg of the tour. As much as I wanted us to go into the house together for the first time, I knew work came first—well, in this instance, it was a priority. He’d been cocooned with me in the Maldives, so River had to deal with the business side of things the second he got back. I couldn’t blame Ari for needing him immediately.
Speaking of which, I had yet to disclose what his manager had done. However, I hoped Ari had the balls to confront River and confess what he had done before I broached it myself.
The driver took care of the luggage, and with my own set of keys, I entered the house. I strolled about the place, enthralled, giddy as I looked at every section, every room, not as a house, but as a place we’d call home for the years to come. I could see our baby, several more, laughing as they ran through the hallways, chaos running amuck in the kitchen with spaghetti sauce splatters on the table and spilled milk on the floor with a big dog barking as it chased the children around the house.
My imagination carried on as I stopped in the kitchen, parched and in dire need of something quenching.
Everything was just as it had been when I had seen it last. Framed pictures of us before our teenage years could be seen in every corner of the house. I had never thought I could ever be this happy.
Sighing dreamily, I cracked the Fiji bottle open before taking a careful sip, and then a brutal force hit me in the back of the head, blacking me out completely.
I was in and out of consciousness while someone dragged me by my ankle before drastically pulling me upwards into a sitting position.
A strangled groan escaped me as I tried to peel my eyelids open, but they were too heavy to lift. I could feel everything, I realized as the unmistakable throb behind my head intensified. But what made me panic the most was recognizing I couldn’t move a damn muscle. I was made physically paralyzed yet wide awake.
Terror seized me as I tried to fight back, urging my body to move, yet no matter how hard I tried, I was rendered incapacitated while my attacker stood closely next to me. I was leaning on something cold, something flat, before I felt the most excruciating pain in my life—a sharp blade smoothly stabbed into my abdomen before the attacker drew it out without hesitation, eliciting a blood-curdling scream from me. Then it went for the other side of my hip, killing me slowly. I could feel hot blood soaking my shirt as my heart pounded so fast, so wild, my head felt faint from the simultaneous barrage of pain and helplessness I was going through.
And just when I thought I was taking my last breath…
“I win,” she said mere inches away before I felt my body slump against the flat surface. Without anything to balance me, my body slid off to the side before my head hit the cold marble floor.
The impact blacked me out of consciousness while life slowly drained away from my disabled body.
Unapologetic Series
CHECKMATE
coming soon
SIGN-UP FOR CHECKMATE NOTFIER
for any changes, updates & releases for this specific book.
