by Emelia Blair
I feel the air on my swollen clit as he parts the fabric and then traces the wet slit of my pussy.
“We’ve barely done anything and you’re already so wet. What a dirty girl.” He’s shoving two fingers into me.
My inner muscles clench around the thick digits in response to his words. I should not be so turned on so much by his words. My mouth releases a wanton sound at the way he’s moving his fingers in me. I can feel them scissoring inside of me, making me writhe, unable to handle the blinding pleasure. “Jace,” I plead, not knowing how else to ask him to take mercy on me. He’s being deliberately slow and my voice is husky, filled with need, “I thought you said this was going to be a quickie.”
His free hand raises up to clench in my hair as he tugs it back.
I let out a gasp at the rough treatment as I feel the movement go directly to my pussy, and I tighten around his fingers.
“You really do like it rough,” he breathes against my neck as he gently bites my jaw, wicked excitement in his voice.
My body is arched under him and I want nothing more than his fat cock inside of me but he doesn’t seem to be in the mood to comply, taking his time while driving me insane bit by bit. A rush of desperation overcomes me and I move back on his fingers, seeking my pleasure. My hips move on his fingers.
He withdraws them immediately, delivering a punishing slap on my ass. “Did I say you could move?”
His stern voice makes me freeze. My eyes meet his as his hand tightens in my hair, and I want to glare at him but I can’t muster up the will to, his gaze is commanding and dominating, making me want to give in.
He holds up his drenched fingers and raises a brow. “Clean them off.”
He’s never been this forceful before, and the cruder he is, the more I want to go along with it. Keeping his words in mind that this is our space, I open my lips and feel him thrust his fingers in my mouth.
Tasting myself on his fingers as I clean them with my tongue is making me quiver with need. I suck and lick till there’s nothing of myself left on his fingers. But he doesn’t take them out. Instead, he hooks them in my mouth and I feel him release my hair and fumble with something.
The sound of something tearing and then a second later, I feel his hard length entering me.
My back arches and I let out a shocked cry, as I feel the way he invades me so thoroughly.
He’s not careful or slow about it, just a long hard thrust that makes me mewl out. His fingers leave my mouth and he reaches around and pulls up my shirt, dragging down my bra, even as he thrusts into me again. His fingers roughly pinch my nipple and the over stimulation has me jerking and crying out. “Be…” I don’t finish my sentence because I don’t want him to be gentle. No, I prefer this aggressive treatment, where he’s not treating me as if I’m something fragile.
His fingers are cruelly pinching my nipples as he slowly pulls his cock out completely till only the blunt head is left in and then thrusts in all the way, and I have to bite my lip to keep the mortifying sounds from escaping.
“No,” Jace growls. “I want to hear you. One day I’m going to record you and then show you how wanton you get when I feed you my cock.”
He’s balls deep inside of me and the sounds of flesh slapping flesh can be heard in the office as he fucks me so brutally, and yet, it’s making me even more aroused. “Why are you being like this today?” I groan as he trails his hand down my stomach, my skin burning with the contact.
He finds my clit and pinches it, making me buck and writhe in his hold, sobbing now, my pleas incoherent.
“Because you like it.” His words are a growl as he torments my clit and fucks me slowly but so deeply.
I can feel the head of his cock hitting my womb. My muscles are stretching around his fat cock and I have a feeling it will be easy to get addicted to his dick. I feel so full, as he hits all the right buttons. I can no longer figure how to close my mouth, the most mortifying sounds escaping my lips as I keep moaning, both my pussy and my clit being thoroughly abused by this man. He picks up speed and no matter how hard I try not to, my screams increase in volume.
His name is a chant on my lips, a plea for relief, begging him with words that have no meaning.
When I come, I nearly black out but he doesn’t stop, forcing himself through the muscles squeezing him, and he’s going at plundering me steadily. He’s pounding into me now and all I can do is hold on for dear life as he thoroughly destroys me, turning me into a pleading mess, where I can’t tell where he ends and I begin.
My next orgasm hits me so viciously that I scream out his name and his fingers tighten on my clit, making me see stars as I slump into his chest. He tenses behind me, and with a final hard thrust, he too, let’s go.
When I come to my senses, my clothes are being adjusted, gently, and I’m turned around.
Jace places a tender kiss on my lips as he pulls me along with him to the couch and then into his lap. His kisses are now soft and sweet.
I bathe in the loving affection that’s so different from the way he’s just destroyed me. I sink into him, my heart overflowing with an emotion I can’t identify. He brings me down from my high slowly, holding me in his arms like I’m the most cherished thing in the world to him.
His fingers play with my hair. “Still mad at me?”
My eyes are closed and I want to purr like a cat under his addictive touch. “Yes.”
The pad of his thumb brushes my cheek. “I’m sorry I raised my voice at you.”
“Liar.”
He chuckles and his fingers start combing through my hair.
I’ve dwindled down into laying on him, half sprawled over his lap, my body thrumming with delicious satisfaction.
“Halley?”
I hum in response.
His other hand pokes my cheek. “Look at me.”
“I can't open my eyes,” I complain. “I don’t have to look at you to hear you.”
“Yes, you do.” He pokes me again.
I scowl, now deliberately not opening them. “No, I don’t.”
He pulls up my eyelid in response.
I bat his hand away and open my eyes to glare at him. “What?”
He grins at me.
Damnit, he’s so boyishly charming that my heart crumbles under that look and I have to struggle to maintain the heavy frown.
“Are you still mad at me?”
He laughs when I try to swing my fist at him and catches it, pressing a kiss on my bunched fingers. Then his expression turns serious. “Halley, if you ever decide that you just want to take the money and the identities and leave, take me with you.”
His words take me by surprise and I study him. “I wasn’t thinking of leaving—Why would you leave your job and your family for me? I thought you had a long-term plan.”
He shrugs, one arm stretched over the back of the couch, with his other hand stroking my cheek. “I did. But I never factored you into them, and now, they all seem meaningless without you.”
Something burns in my chest at the open honesty he’s showing me. But then he’s always been this way with me. His moods, his words, his way of caring for me, he doesn’t hide himself, showing everything he is and everything he has. “We haven’t known each other for that long,” I say, watching the expressions on his face.
Now he seems to withdraw, his tone careful as he says, “If you need time to think—”
“No!” I nearly sit up before relaxing. “That’s not what I meant. I—Jace, I’ve never been in any sort of relationship. So, all these feelings, I don’t have anything to compare them to.”
His eyes light up.
The happiness in those brown eyes reach out and warm the deep recesses of my soul.
“Do you see me in your life in five years?” he asks. “If you imagine your future right now, do you see a place for me in it?”
I don’t have to close my eyes to imagine it. I’ve always admired him, and at some point, those feelings of admiration transformed into s
omething else. The way he stood up for me, the way he went out of his way to take care of me, the manner with which he treats my opinions, like a partner rather than a subordinate, they’ve kept endearing me to him. This man has inserted himself into my life, standing next to me, helping me deal with my emotional baggage. He’s stood by my side through every step of this journey, holding out his hand to me every time I fall and hurt my heart. “Yes.” My answer is faint and low.
Jace smiles. “That’s enough for me. You can take as much time as you want to sort through your feelings. But I think I’m in love with you already.”
A slow flush creeps up on my face. “W-what?”
He curls a strand of my hair around his finger. “It hit me last night when I was in my apartment, thinking that maybe your mother had a good reason to tell you to run, rather than go to the police or something. I stood in the middle of my apartment, planning out our future together rather than just yours. I already knew that where you went, I would go. I don’t think I can let you go now, Halley.”
My heart is drumming between my ears and I feel something wet slide down the side of my face.
Jace’s smile fades into a frown. “Wait…Why are you crying?”
I sniffle, rubbing my eyes. “I don’t know.”
He laughs then and drags me closer.
We stay like that for a while. I’m aware that I haven’t responded to his feelings and I need to soon.
But right now, we’re both content like this.
15
Jace
“Jet Stalinski was your father?”
Halley is leaning against my legs as she works on her laptop. “That’s what Uncle Raymond suspects. But he says that my mom never denied or accepted that fact. I never knew my mom ran away from home to come live here.”
“You might have family out there,” I say, slowly, one eye on what Kendall and Tracy are doing in there.
A week has passed, slow in its movement. So this weekend Kendall invited me and Halley over. I hadn’t been expecting to see Elise and Lana here as well.
Lucas is watching a tennis game with Duke, Tracy’s husband and Caleb’s closest friend. Sophie is chewing on his tie with apt concentration. Oliver and Caleb are on the balcony discussing something amongst themselves.
I tug at Halley’s hair, idly. “I didn’t know this would turn out to be a whole gathering.”
She glances up at me.
I see her rainbow colored hairband with the small unicorn horn standing out. I don’t know where she got it from but it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. I grin, flicking at it. I love how strange this woman can be sometimes.
“Stop it.” She pinches me.
I wince.
“I checked for family,” she informs me. “And I have none. My grandparents passed away a year after Mom left. Car accident.” She glances around the room, and smiles. “It’s all right. I don’t mind it. It’s quite nice like this.”
Tracy’s son runs past us towards Elise and Lana, who are looking at some catalogues. Lana is heavily pregnant now and on maternity leave while Oliver could not be happier.
“What are you doing?” I ask her.
Halley has been working on something for a few days and she’s always glued to her laptop.
“I found Uncle Raymond’s old phone that he loved so much. It got water damaged and it’s positively ancient. He was devastated when he lost all the data, so I created this program that might help me recover everything.” She shoots me a look. “His birthday is coming up and I want to do this for him. Mia got him an antique record player. I might use your laptop though; its processor is faster.”
I study the back of her head as she returns to her work. “Sure.” I pause. “What did Cameron get him?” Cameron has been a touchy subject ever since our little heated discussion and Halley hasn’t brought him up ever since.
She stiffens before she says, softly, “I haven’t heard from him. Mia said he took a leave of absence and went back home to sort out some legal matters.”
That’s not suspicious, I think to myself, wryly.
She narrows her eyes at me.
I immediately pretend to look innocent. “Oh? When does Mia say he’ll be back?”
Halley watches me with unnerving stillness, which is something I’ve discovered she does when I know I’m about to get into trouble. Finally, she says, “She just got a message from him, saying he’ll be too busy to call her and she’s not heard back from him since.”
I find the whole situation odd but choose not to comment on it.
We haven’t uncovered anything else so far and the frustration is getting to Halley. Her fingers, which were moving on the keyboard, stop and she stares at the screen before sighing. “Uncle Raymond came over a few days ago.”
Raymond still doesn’t know about us and I’m grateful, because I know he won’t be happy about me dating his niece when she was my intern. “What did he say?”
Halley doesn’t speak for a minute, and then she finally says, “He thinks I should take the money and leave. That I should sell the house and go abroad.”
My fingers tighten on the arm of the sofa I’m sitting on and I deliberately keep my voice calm as I ask, “Are you considering it?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice is small.
My heart clenches in my chest. “Come sit with me.”
She closes the laptop, and setting it aside, she sits down next to me, her eyes troubled. “I talked to Detective Felix. He wanted to know if I had heard from that other detective. His partner was kicked off the case, the one who kept harassing me, and he didn’t show up to work the day after Cameron took a leave.”
I curl my hands around her small ones. “You’re sure?”
“I don’t know what’s going on anymore, Jace. I’m starting to think that Uncle Raymond might have a point.”
My heart sinks at her words. “You’ve already decided, haven’t you?”
She looks at me, sadly. “I can’t keep doing this. I have so many questions and no answers. On one hand, I think Jet Stalinski may be alive. But if he is and he is my father, why did he kill Hashem? What was his relationship with my mother? And what does Cam have to do with all of this? I found Jet’s brother’s email address and I sent him an email this morning, with my number and yours. Maybe he might have some answers.” She leans her head against my chest.
I bury my fingers in her hair, not able to take the defeated expression on her face.
“My nightmares are becoming worse,” she whispers. “You saw how I woke up screaming last night. That woman’s voice in my head, it doesn’t stop. I don’t recognize the voice. Is that a memory or just a nightmare?”
I freeze at her words, and cup her face to lift it so that her eyes meet mine. I study her, my blood running cold. “You think it could be a memory?”
She nods, reluctantly, there’s a fission of fear in her beautiful eyes. “I- I don’t want it to be one, Jace. Because the woman in my dreams, the way she screams, it’s like someone is ripping her apart with their hands.” Her skin is cold as she reveals this to me and her eyes shimmer with tears. “I don’t want to imagine my mom dying such a gruesome death. I think I just want to leave now. I don’t want to look into this matter anymore.”
I recall the way she tensed up when we had gone down the road near her house, the way she nearly screamed to turn around, and I have a very bad feeling that Lily never managed to turn the car around. “When did—How long have you been thinking this?”
Halley gives me a stark look. “Ever since we returned, my nightmares have grown worse. It makes no sense because at some point they should stop, and then I just started thinking, what if these are not just nightmares but my memories from that night?”
I caress her cheek, tenderly. “Why didn’t you say anything, Halley? You didn’t have to go through this alone.”
She bites her lower lip, and her words are hoarse, “I thought—Saying them aloud would have made it all the more real and I
didn’t want it to be. Oh, God. I don’t want that to be true.”
I firm my jaw. “Fine. When do you want to leave? I’ll make my arrangements.”
“You’ll really leave everything and come with me?” a sliver of wonder vibrates in her tone.
I nod, feeling exasperated. “How am I supposed to live here when you’re not here? There’s no point.”
She takes a shuddering breath and leans her forehead against mine. “I’m going tomorrow to pack up the house with Uncle Raymond. He said he already has a buyer waiting who’s been vying for the house for a few years.”
My chest is tight at the idea of leaving Kendall but I also can’t imagine living without Halley, so I kiss her gently. “Then we’ll deal with this one step at a time. But that means we have to tell Raymond about our relationship.”
Halley winces at this.
I can understand why.
However, it turns out that her uncle’s reaction would have to wait because when my sister finds out what the plan is, she goes white as a sheet then pushes her chair back and walks away from the dinner table, going to the balcony and shutting the door behind her.
I’m about to get up but Caleb shakes his head, saying quietly, “Give her a minute.”
Halley’s matter has become known to this small group of people that have become an important part of my life over these past two years. Lana looks stressed out and Elise and Tracy have stopped eating.
It’s Oliver who breaks the silence and he speaks directly to Halley, “Caleb has been looking into this but I don’t disagree with your decision to leave for a while. Whoever this person is, right now he’s murdering people on your behalf but he can turn on you just as quickly. Hiding out for a while isn’t the worst idea. But if he’s as patient as you suspect he is, then it’s very likely that he will wait you out or figure out a way to follow you. The only way out is to resolve this once and for all.”
Halley swallows heavily then asks, “And what if it’s not?”
Caleb pushes his chair back and stands up, saying calmly, “It will. This matter has spilled over into my family now.”
