Knox Brotherhood

by Knox, Elizabeth

  At one point, and I looked up at him to thank him for the great date. That was when he kissed me. He kissed me so deeply I was sure my parents could feel it from the grave. A tingle travelled all the way down to my toes as the kiss intensified, and his hand slid possessively down my back and over the hump of my ass before squeezing it. He kissed and nibbled down my neck and around my collarbone, rubbing his thumb gently on my right hip. I pulled back from the kiss, it wasn’t because he was a bad kisser – he was absolutely amazing, and any woman who caught this one would be lucky.

  Stefan pulled me against him; I could feel him growing against my belly as he discovered I was wearing a lacy pair of panties where the bottom of my ass cheeks hung down. His fingertips explored their shapes, “Stefan, stop” I told him. When he didn’t immediately comply, I shoved his chest back and stood up, taking a few steps backwards.

  “What’s the matter, sweetheart? I thought you were having a good time” I glared at him as the words slipped from his mouth.

  “I was until you decided to completely ignore my request” I growled out, he laughed as he rose from his position.

  “I was doing no such thing. You can’t deny you’re attracted to me. I bet you’re pooling between those legs of yours” He took a step towards me, on instinct I backed away from him – away from the ferociousness that was radiating off of him. In my one step backwards, Stefan had taken two more and grabbed my arm, his hand was wrapped around it so tightly that it hurt. “Ow! Stop it!” I told him, my face cringing as his grip tightened.

  “You were practically begging me to fuck you, Ana. The way you stare at me, that way your nose scrunches up when something is funny to you, all your body language was making me believe you wanted that,” Stefan said, he came closer to me, backing me up against the wall in the houseboat. “I know you do,” he whispered, nibbling on my neck his hand skimmed down my body over my dress.

  I felt defenseless, I felt so much in so little. All of a sudden fear rose up within me, I was not letting anything happen that I didn’t want to happen. I wouldn’t let Stefan rape me, that’s where it felt like this was headed. “Tell me you want me,” he begged of me, biting onto my skin below my neck. I was ashamed. I was frozen like a solid piece of ice.

  “I will not lie to you. What I want is to leave, I want to go home and get away from you!” I snapped, I didn’t know much about what I was doing, but I lifted my knee and aimed straight for his precious family jewels.

  “Don’t you ever fucking call me Ana!” I hissed out, he doubled over and groaned, I took that as my opportunity to escape, to leave him, and I did. I was lucky we had just pulled back into the dock. I didn’t have a way home, but I had my purse and some cash. I found the first taxi that I could, gave him fifty bucks and told him to take me home.

  When I walked through the first doorway that led to the high rise, I felt my emotions finally starting to get to me. I was over analyzing every single event that had taken place during my date with him. Even if I had looked like I wanted to – I didn’t. He should’ve respected it, and yet he didn’t, he touched me like I was his. Like he owned me, and he most certainly did not. I couldn’t help the tears that slowly slid down my cheeks; I was so close to experiencing what I had with Jonas. I didn’t think Stefan would stop if I hadn’t of kicked him in the nuts. I don’t think he would’ve stopped. God, If I had just cancelled the date. If I had just told Ion that I…

  I opened the second doorway into Ion’s high rise when I saw him coming down the stairwell, “No Dalca to walk his beloved home?” He hissed it out at me like I was a traitor.

  I didn’t need his snarky treatment. It was stupid of me to even go out with him today; I should’ve told him no, I should’ve told him that I’ve decided to peruse Ion – even if I haven’t told Ion that yet. Instead, I went and had a decent time up until he started touching me. Shivers ran through me at the thought of his hands back on me, how I told him to stop and he ignored me. At that moment, he reminded me of Jonas.

  I glared at Ion, he hadn’t even looked at me yet but the moment he did his face softened. “Draga, what happened? Are you hurt? Where is Dalca?”

  “Go fuck yourself, Ion,” I told him, it came out as a defeated whisper. It’s exactly what I was, defeated. I was a ball of exhaustion and fear, thrown through exactly the right hoop. Ion didn’t listen, not that I told him anything directly anyway, but he came down those last few steps in record time and flew up to me.

  “Why is your arm red?” He snapped, I cringed at the tone of his voice. He surveyed my arm, his concerned gaze looking up to me.

  “Can we not do this now?” I begged of him, feeling tears flowing down the sides of my face.

  He didn’t speak for a moment. Instead, he stared, I don’t know what he was looking for. “We won’t. Not now, but later we will discuss this.” I nodded at his statement; I would tell him what transpired during my date. I just couldn’t right now – I couldn’t possibly with all of the emotion flowing through my body.

  He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips to my forehead, right against my hairline. “You will never cry because of another man ever again. I don’t know what happened tonight, and I will find out my beautiful, precious, draga. Right now, it is not important, you are. Are you okay?”

  I sighed heavily, stepping closer into Ion’s embrace. “I am now,” I confessed, he held me against him, rubbing my back with his strong hands, humming a song that I instantly recognized – it was something my mother hummed to me as a child, a song that I hummed to Bianca when she was a baby.

  “hai lulutu?” I muttered against his chest; he nodded chuckling.

  I took a step away from him, “I’m going to go take care of Puff.”

  “She’s already fast asleep love. I read our little Puff four stories tonight before she finally hit the hay.” I glanced up at him the moment he said ‘our.' He’s been treating Bianca with such love and affection. If you were a stranger and saw her with him, or vice versa you’d never know that they aren’t blood. You’d naturally assume he was her father.

  “You said ‘our.'” I watched his face on how he’d take my observation, he smiled at me, taking a couple steps until he was against me. My heartrate increased to a million miles a second as he brushed his thumb against my cheekbone and tilted my jaw to look up at him.

  “I did, you’re very observant love. You have been mine since the day you were born, we both know that to me, that means that Bianca is also mine. She may not be my flesh and blood, but she is my daughter, as you are my wife. She is our Puff, our little girl. She will have a father who loves and cherishes her to the fullest extent, and my love for her will only compare to the love I have for her mother” I didn’t know what to say. If there was ever a defining moment in my relationship with Ion, this would be it. I finally understood why my father chose Ion.

  It clicked all at once.

  He holds the ability to rule with fairness; he has a firm hand when is necessary and his heart is golden. My father recognized this, even with Ion being so young, he knew the man that he’d grow to be.

  “Did you say what I think you just said?” I asked him, looking up into his eyes.

  “Yes.” It was one word, but it meant so much more. “Come, let’s go to bed my little draga, you’ve had a long day, let me hold you.” I didn’t answer him, I simply rose up on my tippy toes and kissed him softly on the lips. When I came home, I may have been emotional, but Ion took all of it away.

  “Da, drag” I whispered ‘yes, honey’ in Romanian to him. His lips curved up against mine, I didn’t know what we were doing or how this was going to work. I just knew one thing, there’s no way in hell it could get worse.

  CHAPTER 14

  Ion

  I was beyond pissed when the doorbell rang, and I found none other than Stefan Dalca standing there. I should have known of all the clan leaders he might have been the one to actually turn out as a threat. He had served the mob well and was close to me in age. I d
idn’t make Ana speak to me about what happened last night, our relationship had made a turn for the better, and I wasn’t going to do anything to give her a reason to pull back. I held her all night long, keeping her close to me, wanting her to realize that nothing would harm her while I stand by her side.

  Luckily, Mariana was still in bed, so she wouldn’t be subject to witnessing my wrath. “I would expect you would know better than to mess with me Dalca,” I told him, glaring down at the bouquet of flowers he held in his hands. “You know for a fact she has been promised to me, and she will be mine. In fact, she is mine. I would just love to know what send my little draga home to me in tears last night. Would you happen to know what that was about?” I waited a moment for him to speak, the fool did no such thing “No matter, she came back crying to the man who protects her. I held my little draga tight in my arms, where she belongs.” I kept referring to Ana as my beloved on purpose; I want Dalca to get the message – she is mine.

  “I am not messing with you at all, Petran. I am only helping her pursue her options, one of them being myself. I enjoy her company, and last time I checked, you are the one who let the reins loose enough so that she could enjoy her time with another man.” I wanted to shoot out his knee cap for that, for being right. I should never have done that, even to prove a point. It was causing everything to take a detour. We needed to get back on track with the wedding plans, and I needed to take over the clans. Period.

  I grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him inside my home. It’s better to do this behind closed doors then in a public setting. I threw him on the ground, against the marble in my foyer. “I want to know what you did to my beloved, Dalca. I’m not asking.”

  “What I did to her?” Dalca laughed, “You’re acting as I harmed her in some way, which is absolutely atrocious.”

  “I will ask you one more time before I start beating you. What did you do to my Ana?”

  “I did nothing to her!” Dalca roared, “I took her out on a lovely date.”

  “Ion….” I looked up to see Ana standing at the top of the stairwell in a white silk robe, she looked like a vision, like an angel come from the heavens. How did such a thing come into my life? Into this life.

  “Draga, Dalca came by. I was trying to understand what made you so upset last night, so I asked Dalca. He said he did nothing, is that true?” I watched her expression as the words left my mouth, I didn’t have to be close to her to know that was nothing but a lie, to see the glassiness in her eyes reappear.

  “He did nothing?” She hissed, I’d never seen her fly down the stairs so fast. I’ve seen Ana become furious. When Bianca was missing she was a woman on a mission – but this, this is something else entirely. “You said you did nothing?” She screamed at him, “You are despicable.”

  “What happened, love?” I asked her

  “I didn’t do anything to you, Ana!” Stefan growled out. In lightning speed, I watched as the woman I’m about to marry move across the room and slap Dalca right across the face. I won’t lie, that move made me hard. “I told you not to call me that,” She hissed at him.

  “He was trying to get me to fuck him, and when I told him no he didn’t listen, so I shoved him and tried to get off the boat. Only, he grabbed my arm and pinned me up against a wall.” That was the mark on her. “He kept touching me after I told him that.

  “Dalca,” I warned, kneeling and shaking my finger at him, “You made a very, very big mistake.”

  “I didn’t do anything to her; I was trashed, I didn’t even fuck her.”

  “You think that will get you out of this? That you are trashed makes everything okay?” I ask him, but he doesn’t comment. He’s not as dumb as I think, but he’s pretty fucking stupid. “How’d you get away love?” I ask her, looking up to my vision in white.

  “I kneed him in the balls and made a run for it.” I rose, wrapped my hand around the back of Ana’s neck and kissed her softly. “Good girl. Now run upstairs and go back to bed. It’s still early. Don’t come downstairs for a bit, understand?”

  “Y-yes, I u-understand,” She whispered, her voice shaking.

  “Do not worry my love. I will take care of everything.”

  “Y-you aren’t going to k-kill him, r-right?” I laughed at her comment. She’s a riot.

  “No love. Unfortunately, I can’t kill Dalca. That would be a bit of an issue I think. I won’t lie and say he doesn’t deserve it for touching what isn’t his, though.” I pressed one last kiss to her soft lips, “Now go, love.” She nodded and went back up the stairwell. I won’t continue my chat with Dalca until she was out of earshot.

  “I could do many things to you, things that you deserve, but I am not a fool. I know I must keep the peace between the clans and that means the Petran’s and the Dalca’s as well. I will warn you, Dalca. You will not look at my wife, you will not breathe in her direction, and if I so much as see you within her proximity, I will personally be the one to put a bullet between these two fucking beady eyes.” I said through gritted teeth, tapping his forehead.

  “You forget one thing, Ion,” Dalca growled. I looked down at him. My position was thought out; he needed to know that I would always be the one in power. I will always be above him; there is no competing with me because it is all preordained. “Mariana isn’t your wife.”

  I smirked at Dalca, raising my hand to summon one of my guards, “Gene here is going to show you the errors of your ways.”

  ***

  I met Mariana in the kitchen after I told her it was okay to come downstairs. Gene had taken care of Dalca, and I could be sure he’d never come around Mariana ever again.

  Ana paused and looked at me as if knowing I would have something to say, although I didn’t, so I let her speak. “You know, you could have saved yourself all of this trouble had you just told me no to dating any of them in the first place. I did ask you what to do,” she told me.

  Hmm, here we are. Our first fight. She sounded tired. I didn’t want to say anything that would admit guilt to her, though. Even if she as right in a way, it had probably been a good idea to appease the clans. I had let it get too far though. It wasn’t a mistake I was about to make again, or admit.

  “You’re not going to get sympathy or an apology from me. You have never been raised to think you would be with anyone other than me, Ana. You were always bound to be mine, and I yours.” I stormed up to her, wrapping my hand around her waist and pulling her body against mine forcefully. I wanted her to remember what she had felt for me before, what I had hoped she was feeling for me now.

  At first, she was clearly resistant, pushing away from me and looking anywhere but into my eyes, but our bodies had connected. That wasn’t something you just forgot. Even I could not forget it as her heat overwhelmed me.

  I waited until she relaxed in my arms to let go and move a few inches away. “I hope you wanted a big wedding,” I told her. “Because that’s exactly what you’re going to get. You’re going to be Mariana Petran.”

  I wasn’t mad at Mariana.

  I was furious that I couldn’t kill Dalca, he did deserve that fate after hurting my Ana. I decided to go to the gym and take out all of my frustrations on the equipment.

  CHAPTER 15

  Ion

  "I need to set some ground rules, Ion."

  Mariana was somehow angry and in my face again. Her mood swings were giving me whiplash, but I guess I would have to get used to it considering the plans were already underway to make her my wife. If I was honest with myself, at least she didn’t make life boring.

  "Last time I checked, this was my house with my rules. You don’t make the rules. You belong to me based on a contract. It is out of the goodness of my black heart that I take any of your requests into consideration," I answered, trying to maintain at least the look that I was in charge.

  "I will be freer here than I was with Jonas. I know that my father gave me to you for a reason. There has to be some good quality underneath all of this." She waved her
arm over my body as if I knew what she meant. She didn’t seem to have the right words on her tongue to describe me. "I want to be equal partners here. I understand that you are to be the leader of the clans, and I am fine with that, it’s what I’ve expected my entire life. But in this house, in this relationship, we must be even. If you want me to marry you, then you will do this," she demanded, making me award her with a slight smirk. I wasn't sure what she could or would threaten if I didn’t give her what she wanted, but the way her eyebrows went up when she was upset and how close she was to me in her anger, was a real turn on.

  "And what exactly are you going to do?" I asked out of sheer curiosity.

  She scoffed, looking offended that I didn’t know the answer. "Without my cooperation, you get nothing, Ion. You have to have me in order to take the throne, and I am sure there are plenty of leaders out there more than happy to have me instead. Not that I would take them up on their offers. But I could hide my daughter and kill myself. The claim would be gone, and Bianca would never have to know this world the way I have."

  She was bluffing, she had no idea I could see this in her eyes, but she was. She would do no such thing; the woman thinks I can’t see the way she’s growing towards me. I can, and it’s about damn time that she is.

  The pain was showing again, and I realized that I had been a bit of an ass, even if it was for the sake of control. Control I was promised but had gone to hell in a handbasket since her capture. My heartstrings were way too easily pulled by this woman. It was all right for me to be so attracted to her fire, but I didn’t know if I should let myself be lured in otherwise. This was supposed to be about power and benefiting from the arrangement my father and hers made for us so long ago. I was my father’s son, and I couldn’t let feelings get in the way of what was mine.