The Complete Tempest World Box Set

by Mankin, Michelle

  I parted my lips and moaned when his tongue swept inside and rubbed against mine reminding me with each masterful stroke how very good it was between us, like I would ever be able to forget.

  My hands slid to his back and I un-tucked his shirt. I desperately wanted to touch his warm skin. Apparently, that was what he wanted too. He groaned deep into my mouth as my fingers ran over the hard contours of his masculine flesh, his muscles flexing to my touch. The kiss changed then, becoming more like a takeover, a conquest, hard and a little brutal.

  He walked me backward until I hit the wall, relentlessly pinching my nipples with his ringed fingers while his tongue wrecked wetted retribution inside my mouth. Maybe I shouldn’t have liked it rough like this, but with him I did. I so did.

  All of a sudden, he stopped, and I tried to catch my breath as he took a step back. “Ditch the clothes, babe,” he ordered his voice coarse, his gaze sweeping arrogantly over me. “I want you now, but I want you over there.” His chin pointed. “On your hands and knees. On the rug.”

  My eyes widened, partly turned on by his abrupt command and partly concerned. “Warren, I don’t know. It’s kind of cold in here, maybe…”

  “You won’t be cold for long.” He slid his ringed thumb over my lips. “Promise.” I loved how it felt when he did that. The familiar gentle gesture quieted my jangled nerves. “No more talking. We’re through talking. Words are a waste of fuckin’ time.” He unbuttoned a couple of his own buttons before seeming impatient with the pace of that method and reached back between his shoulder blades to draw his shirt over his head instead.

  True to his word, he spoke not another word and I watched spellbound as he purposefully strode to where he wanted me. His half naked body and his ass moving in his low slung jeans were that compelling of a show.

  When he turned back to face me, he raised a brow as if to say, “Clothes. Off. Now.”

  I slid my purse off my shoulder and tugged off my boots and socks, leaving them in the entry way before quickly tip toeing across the cold wood floors to join him. He stood arms crossed over his chest and waited, for some reason not offering to help me undress. My shirt I managed to get off easily, though my hair fell in my eyes and slid loose and heavy around my shoulders. Brushing it out of my way, I reached back to unclasp my bra. Feeling his watchful eyes on me made me clumsy and I fumbled with my jeans and the rest of my clothing.

  When I was finally naked, my hair hanging down to my waist soft like a silken mantle against my sensitive skin, I lifted my gaze to look at him. He was as glorious as ever. Wide shoulders, defined chest, toned abs. Hard and turned on, a beautiful proud male standing before me.

  My lips parted, and I sighed in approval. The stark need in him called out to the same in me. Empowered by his desire, I moved forward to assuage him.

  “Turn around,” he ordered gruffly before I could touch him.

  “Ok,” I whispered.

  As soon as I turned, I felt his hand land heavily between my shoulder blades. I shivered, imagining his gaze being hot and possessive as his hand traced the entire length of my spine, rings cold and flesh warm. He stopped at the curve of my ass. That one caress was all it took to make me ache to be his again.

  “On the ground.” His hands applied pressure on my rear, an insistent demand. I actually stumbled forward a step. His voice was different now, in a way I’d never heard before, in a way that should have given me pause had I stopped to think about it. But I wanted that connection with him so desperately that I immediately dropped to my knees.

  He didn’t slide in right behind me to cover my body like I was expecting. His delay stretched out long enough for me to feel cold and for my heart to do a nervous skitter. “Warren, why?” I tucked my hair behind my ear craning my neck to the side wondering what was going on with him.

  “Don’t,” he warned low as he dropped down behind me his legs a rough glide and his ringed hand on my neck preventing me from turning my head. A shiver as icy as the temperature in the room slid across my skin. If I’d been more experienced, I might’ve put all the clues together fast enough to prevent what happened next.

  I would soon wish that I had.

  “Tilt up,” he ordered in a gruff voice. When I complied, he squeezed my ass so hard it almost hurt. “This is gonna be quick. Just to take the edge off so I can take things slower when Missy and Dizzy get here.”

  Shock made my muscles tighten even as he glided smoothly inside me. I’d been ready for him from practically the very first touch in the entry way. “What’s going on, Warren?” I whispered as his words sank in. “Please tell me. I don’t understand.” Surely, he didn’t mean what I think he meant. Surely he wasn’t planning to share me with someone else?

  “I don’t know what you think this is between us.” He started to move, and he felt so good a low needy moan escaped my lips. “But you need to know how things are gonna be. You need to understand that you’ve got no power over me. You need to learn, and I’m going to show you.” His voice was dark and thick and he thrust in deeper as if emphasize his point.

  I could feel everything in this position. He was rock hard, the angle and friction so perfect that I began to yearn for release despite everything else. I would’ve even begged for him to do me harder if the words he said next hadn’t penetrated through my sexual haze. “I don’t want apologies. I don’t need your pity.” He was breathing hard. “I don’t want anything from you.”

  My desire ran completely cold. I got it. I understood now. I was being punished. Shut out. His words and the emotional detachment with which he delivered them were weapons he yielded with devastating results. I was totally defenseless against them. “All I need is this.” Another measured thrust. “Just this.” Another forceful stroke before he grunted his release behind me.

  Tears flooded my eyes. This was cruel. He’d twisted what had been beautiful between us, denying me the closeness we’d had before. He’d turned my desire against me, shaping it into something it should never be.

  I’d trusted him, and he had betrayed that trust. Wounds that had started to heal because of his tenderness and understanding, ripped wide open at the fragile seam, leaving me feeling exposed, and completely vulnerable to the toxicity he was serving up tonight. Something dark and insidious seemed to slither into the gap that had been created. I could feel it settling in deep beneath my sternum, like the injection of venom from a deadly viper.

  As soon as he pulled out, I scooted away from him, moving to the corner of the room wedging my naked body between a recliner and the wall. I wanted to be as far away from him and his meanness as possible.

  Stupid naïve foolish sheltered girl. I had fallen for the oldest myth in the books, underestimating the damage done to him and overestimating my ability to fix it. I should have left the party when I had the chance, but it was way too late now.

  I drew my knees up to my chest and dropped my mortified face onto them.

  There was silence, cold and chilling.

  Inside of me as well as inside the room, but I didn’t care. Not anymore.

  The doorbell rang, but it seemed as if it was too far away to matter.

  I heard voices, but they were far away, too.

  I started to shake on the outside, but inside I withdrew,

  And withdrew.

  And withdrew.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  War

  I sent Dizzy and Missy away.

  I don’t really even remember what I said to get rid of them. I just know it worked. They were gone.

  Horrified by what I had done and her response to it, I drug a trembling hand through my hair and went back to her. In the corner, broken, head bowed, arms wrapped around her waist, her hair a copper, gold and platinum curtain around her body. Still so beautiful it hurt to look at her.

  I’d ruined everything. Spoiled her beauty. Polluted her light with my darkness. Tainted the sweetness with my bitterness. I’d never felt so rotten in my entire life, not even when my father rejec
ted me, not even when I found out about Lace and Bryan, and that was before she started shaking.

  Fucking, fucking shit.

  Even across the room I could hear her teeth chattering.

  “Shaina.” I went to her, knelt in front of her and tentatively touched her shoulder. Her skin was cold. She didn’t even acknowledge me.

  Fuck me. Fuck me.

  I got up and grabbed the afghan off the couch and dropped down again beside her, pulling her into my lap and the cover up to her chin. I wrapped my arms around her. Tightening them even as I knew this would be my last time to hold her.

  I’d curse my soul to hell, but I felt like it was already there.

  I had complete clarity now. Finally saw myself as the complete bastard everyone else already knew that I was. I was a worthless son of a bitch. I didn’t deserve to breathe the same fuckin’ air as her let alone hold her, but I didn’t know what the fuck else to do.

  As thirty minutes became an hour and an hour became two, she eventually stopped shaking, but her breathing was shallow. She was in my arms, but so distant it frightened me.

  “Get off me,” she suddenly whispered. “Get off me. Get off me,” she chanted her voice gaining volume. “Get. Off. Me. Now!”

  “Ok.” Icy dread settled into permafrost deep inside my bones. The shaking she had done earlier, I swore I could still feel rattling my internal organs. I didn’t think the memory was ever going to go away. Hurting her hurt me in a way I had never anticipated. In a way that I knew would never heal.

  I watched her as I moved away. She wrapped the afghan around her body and returned my stare, accusation I rightly deserved burning from her beautiful eyes. That had been the reason I’d stopped her from looking at me while I had gone about doing what I had done. I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I wouldn’t have been able to say those horrible things if she’d been looking at me like this. As if I kicked puppies for shits and giggles.

  I had been so angry, so mad at her for not standing up for us in front of her father. All that right on the heels of the shit that had just gone down with Bryan and Lace. Then the stuff on the news, and then to see her at the party looking so chummy with Dizzy so soon after what I thought we’d shared. I’d gone from furious to full-on destruction mode, focusing all of it on her in a way I never should have. Not on her. Never on her. Not on the woman who had made me feel so much in so little time. But then Bryan was right. I was toxic to the people around me. Destroying what was good was the only way I knew.

  “I’m so sorry, Shaina. I…”

  “It doesn’t really matter, does it?” She laughed but it sounded hollow, completely wrong. Her eyes were wrong, too. There was no longer any sparkle left in them.

  “Of course it does.” Then the light dawned through my guilt ridden fog. I realized that she was giving me back the same words I’d given to her earlier when she’d tried to apologize. Wasn’t it a favorable sign that she was lashing out at me? We were making progress, weren’t we? This had to be a better than the coma routine that had scared the living hell out of me.

  “I want to go home.” She licked her dry lips but continued to give me that barren stare, a look that said nothing yet said everything all at the same time. I’d snuffed out that sweet light of hers treating her like she didn’t matter when in fact she was the only thing in my life that had ever mattered.

  “Ok. Sure. I’ll take you,” I made a placating gesture with my hands as if she’d run away. “Just let me get my keys.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “No I don’t want you anywhere the fuck near me. In fact the thought of it makes me vomit in my mouth. The fact that I am standing here breathing the same air as you makes me sick to my stomach. You are vile, Warren Jinkins. Less than human. What kind of messed up thoughts could ever go through your head to violate and degrade me the way you just did?”

  “I didn’t hear you saying no.” I was grasping for anything to turn this around. I’d never experienced regret like this. The weight of a fucking lifetime of my own horseshit felt like it had come crashing down on top of me. I was finding it difficult to breathe.

  “That’s just it, I didn’t, did I? I wanted you to touch me. To want me. To forgive me. And that just makes it all that much worse. I hate you. I wish I’d never met you. We had something. More than something. The spark of something better for both of us. But you’ve ruined it.”

  I couldn’t deny it. She was right. Eyes burning, I just nodded.

  “That’s what you do, though. You warned me. You spelled it out for me, but even knowing all those big words I was still too stupid and too in love with you to pay attention to what you were saying. Anyone you can’t control gets fucked over by you. Right? Lace…Bryan… your bandmates… and now me. Stupid me.” Her beautiful eyes that I’d never see look at me with fondness ever again, were loaded with accusation and locked with mine. “I thought the song would be enough. I thought you’d gotten your anger at me out of your system with that, but it wasn’t enough was it? You had to humiliate me in private, too. I should’ve known. I’ve seen how things are with Bryan and Lace. You’ve judged us all. But what about you, Warren? Who gets to decide your punishment? Who’s perfect enough to satisfy your sense of justice? Who’s strong enough to sift through all your sins to render your verdict?”

  Her words hit the target. Dead center. Burned like a motherfucker, and I found myself shooting back when I should’ve shut my fuckin’ mouth. Should’ve admired her for giving it to me good like that, the way I deserved. “So you think that you’re up for the task, Sweetness?” My voice sounded as raw and desperate as I was. “What with the way you walk around like a breathing mausoleum? You’re whole life revolves around a dead girl. Don’t you think you need to wake up and join the world of the living before you pass judgment on me?”

  She was silent. Her head dropped, her shoulders sagged.

  “Sweetness, I’m sorry.” Instant regret slammed into me when I saw the hurt my words caused. Hadn’t I done enough? Why the fuck couldn’t I keep my mouth shut? Those things were true, but I never should have said them like that. “I didn’t…”

  “You’re right,” she whispered, and I heard her pull in a broken breath. She lifted her chin, a darkness creeping over her pretty face. She reached behind her head and fire burned inside my throat when I realized too late what she was doing. She held out her sister’s necklace. “Here. Take it.” Her hand tremble matched her voice as she offered it to me. “I insist.”

  “No,” I shook my head. “No,” I repeated my voice a gruff rumble.

  “Fine. Then I’ll just leave it here.” The chain slid between her fingers, the pendant hitting the floor with barely a sound. “I can’t wear it anymore. I tainted her memory being with you. I want you to look at it and always remember what you did to me. What you lost. I wish… I wish I’d never stopped you from jumping off that bridge. The way you treated me tonight. The way you made me feel, I wish I’d already jumped before you got there.”

  No. My God. “No, Shaina,” I whispered.

  After slam dunking my heart to the pavement and grinding it under her heel, she stood and straightened her shoulders, throwing the tail end of the afghan over her shoulder as if it were a royal robe. Even though she was forever gone from me, which was the least that I deserved, I couldn’t help but admire her dignity. She was a survivor and so far above me, so good, so sweet, so bright, that her departure from my life would plunge my world into even deeper darkness than it’d been in before.

  Treyall was right. Shaina Bentley was the real deal. She wasn’t weak. Her kindness was her beauty and her generous heart her strength. Treasures I should have protected. Instead I let all of it slip through my fingers like her necklace had slipped through hers.

  She retrieved her purse from the entryway floor. “Alex,” she said into it after a few finger swipes over the display of her cell. “I’m in trouble.” Her lip quivered and her eyes filled. “Can you come get me? Please.”

  Her chin
dropped. “Yes.” She nodded and her gorgeous hair tumbled across her paled face. “I’m in Southside.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “What’s the address?” she rasped, obviously it pained her to have to ask me for anything.

  I should’ve given her the world. I should’ve groveled at her feet. Instead, I gave her what she requested knowing it would be the very last thing she’d ever take from me.

  She quietly relayed the information to Alex.

  “He’ll be here in twenty minutes,” she explained in a wooden tone after she ended the call. She couldn’t even bear to look at me. She slid her phone back into her purse and pulled on her clothes, shielding her nakedness from me beneath the afghan, but not the tears that streaked her face.

  I pretended not to see them as I watched them silently fall, but each one made the fist around my throat squeeze tighter making it difficult for me to breathe. I looked away staring at the bare walls of my childhood home feeling like they were closing in on me and wishing there was some way for me to right the wrong, some way for me to give her back the dignity I’d so ruthlessly stolen.

  I didn’t come up with anything and those moments watching her and waiting for Alex to arrive felt like the longest minutes of my entire life.

  Though we were both tense and expecting it, the loud bang on the door exactly twenty minute later made both of us jump.

  “Open the fucking door!” Treyall shouted.

  She struggled with the latches that were old and rusty and often got stuck. She cursed under her breath.

  “Let me.” Her spine stiffened as I reached around her, popped them, and threw the door wide. Shaina ran through and flew straight into his open arms. His gaze met mine over her head. His blue eyes blazed with accusation like twin flame throwers.

  “This isn’t over, Jinkins. I’ll be back.”

  Maintaining eye contact, I said with resignation, “You know where to find me.”