Vivid Avowed (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 3)

by Kaydence Snow

  As soon as the door clicked shut behind us, Alec picked me up and slammed me against the wall next to the door, crashing his lips to mine once again. I looped one arm around his shoulders and put the other at the back of his head, mushing his face closer to mine. Our teeth knocked. I wrapped my legs around his waist and rolled my hips. He rolled his back, and we found a rhythm, grinding against each other as our tongues fought for dominance.

  A few torturous minutes later, his hips stilled, and he pulled his mouth from mine.

  I made an incoherent sound of protest and shoved against his shoulder. “Alec, what the f—”

  “Shh.” His hand clapped over my mouth, and he fixed me with a hard look.

  Did he just shush me? I frowned, about to claw my way out of his grip, but then he gestured to the door with his head, and I heard voices. It must’ve been the same people we’d heard earlier. They were making their way past the door, their voices and footsteps muffled.

  I understood now why he’d stopped, but I still thought it was unnecessary to hold a hand over my mouth. So I bit him.

  He flinched but only slightly, and instead of giving me a disapproving scowl as I’d expected, he smirked at me. The naughty look, coupled with the lust in his hooded eyes, shot another pang of desire straight to my core. As if he felt the rush, Alec started moving his hips again, his arousal rubbing against me through our clothes.

  As the voices moved away, my eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I let my jaw go slack under Alec’s hand. I panted, feeling an orgasm building. The excitement of doing this somewhere we really shouldn’t only heightened every sensation. With my mouth open, it was easy to dart my tongue out and lick his palm. It tasted just a little salty but smelled like soap—clean.

  Alec dragged his fingers across my mouth, pulling my lips to the side, then stuck the tip of his finger into my mouth and let it catch on my bottom teeth. I wrapped my lips around it and sucked it in farther, opening my eyes to watch him. He groaned and leaned forward to bite my neck, then immediately licked and kissed the spot to take away the sting.

  He removed his finger and replaced it with his tongue. His big hand held my jaw, keeping my head pinned against the wall.

  I loved it when he tried to take charge. It made me want to give in to every demand his body made of mine . . . for about a second. Then it made me want to fight him. In the best way possible.

  I pushed hard against his shoulders, and he released me, letting me back down to my feet. My lips were throbbing—both of them—so I didn’t waste any time getting more of what I wanted.

  I had his belt undone in seconds, freeing his hard length and stroking it.

  “I want you inside me,” I panted.

  He groaned and reached under my dress to pull my panties down. I stepped out of my flats and underwear in one go.

  A desk chair in the corner caught my attention. It was an old one, on wheels and without armrests. I twisted out of Alec’s arms and took the few steps necessary to grab it and spin it around. “Sit.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You’re in my domain now. You don’t get to bark orders.”

  But he pushed his pants down over his hips and sat in the chair anyway. I smirked as I swung one leg over his lap and hovered above him. With my legs wide, I was completely exposed, and another thrill raced up my spine.

  Alec dragged a hand up from my knee, over my thigh, and right to the wetness between my legs. He pushed two fingers inside, and I gasped at the sudden intrusion, nearly losing my balance. I held on to his shoulders as he moved his fingers inside me, making me grind my hips against his hand.

  But I didn’t want to come on his hand. I wanted to come with his cock buried deep inside me. I shoved his hand away and reached for his rock-hard cock, holding it at the base. I teased myself with the tip, moving it up and down my folds, before sinking down onto him.

  He let out a growl that ended in a moan, leaning forward to lick my lips. His big hands held me tight against him, his legs spreading wide under me.

  I didn’t give either of us a chance to adjust, to get used to the heady sensation of complete connectedness—of feeling, seeing, hearing, breathing nothing but the other person. I started moving on top of him, rolling my hips as I used my legs to push up and down.

  I was on top. I was supposed to set the pace, but Alec fought me. His strong hands had a firm grip on my hips, and we once again battled for control. Eventually the battle settled into a dance—a hard, intense dance that had his cock sliding in and out of me, hitting a spot deep inside.

  It wasn’t long before the orgasm bubbled up again. It had been building since the frenzied kiss on the stairs. I’d been close when he’d had me against the wall, grinding into me. I’d been close when he’d buried his fingers inside me and played me like a stringed instrument. And I was fucking close as I bounced and ground on top of him.

  He shoved one of his hands up my dress, pulling my bra out of the way to knead my breast.

  The combined sensations, coupled with the knowledge that someone could walk in at any moment, had me crying out as I finally gave in to the climax. It washed over me, making my vision blur as every muscle in my body tensed. I rocked against him and bit his neck, hard, and he responded with a grunt that sounded like a mixture of pain and pleasure. I relaxed some of the pressure of my teeth and licked the skin between them.

  Alec’s hips were still rocking under me, his movements erratic and desperate. I used his shoulders to balance and, with shaky legs, met his movements with mine, bringing him to release.

  He did that sexy as fuck growling moan again as his head dropped back and his chest heaved.

  After a few moments, he pulled me against him and buried his head in my neck. I nuzzled his jaw and smiled. This was exactly what we needed. We started out shouting at each other and getting riled up, frustrated, hurt. And we ended up in each other’s arms, planting soft kisses all over each other’s faces, caressing and holding and showing our devotion.

  After one last lingering kiss to my lips, Alec craned his neck, then used his legs to push the wheelie chair over to a side table with a box of tissues. It was only once I had a wad of tissues in my hand that he let me up. We cleaned up as best we could and started fixing our clothes.

  “Is there a bathroom on this level? I don’t want to get a UTI.” I looked around—all I saw were rows and rows of servers.

  Alec chuckled as he zipped up his pants. “Don’t know. But the level above does.”

  “Don’t laugh, you dick. UTIs hurt like a . . .” I caught sight of a camera near the ceiling, high up in a corner.

  “Alec!” I hurriedly pulled my underwear up the rest of the way and fixed my dress.

  “What?” His attention was on his phone.

  “There’s a fucking camera?” I gestured to the item, my tone half question, half chastisement.

  He glanced at it and then smirked at me. “We’re in the most secure area of the most secure building in Manhattan—except maybe the cells below. Of course there are cameras, precious.”

  “Fuck. Alec!” How was he so relaxed about this? Yes, the risk of getting caught had given me a thrill, but I didn’t actually want strangers to watch me having sex. The other guys, maybe . . .

  Alec wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Relax. I’m on it.”

  He put the phone to his ear, and I covered my face with my hands, leaning into him. I was close enough to hear the ringing on the other end and Charlie’s voice as he answered. “What’s up, dickhead?”

  “Hey, jerk-off.” Alec’s teasing tone turned serious in the very next word. “I need you to make some security footage disappear.”

  “Shoot.”

  “HQ. Main server room on subbasement level 1. The past twenty minutes should do it.”

  Charlie sighed. “Seriously? Do you have any idea the kind of security I have to get through?”

  “You saying you can’t do it?”

  “No!” Charlie sounded outraged. “Of course I can d
o it. I’m just saying it won’t be easy and you owe me one.”

  “Good. Also, I need you to do it without looking at the footage.”

  There was a pause on the other end. “Alec, what’s going on?”

  At his worried tone, I piped in. “Hey, Charlie.”

  “Eve?”

  “Yeah. Don’t stress, OK? He’s just trying to prevent some poor Melior Group minion from getting an eyeful of my bare ass.”

  There was another pause, and then Charlie started laughing, big infectious guffaws that had Alec and I both chuckling despite ourselves.

  When he finally calmed down, he spoke between giggles. “You two horny fuckers are lucky I’m in the building. This would be way harder if I was trying to do it remotely, and the fact that . . . hmmm.”

  Alec stiffened, his arm around me tightening. “Charlie?”

  “Meet me in Gabe’s office.” The line went dead.

  “Shit.” Alec pocketed the phone and led the way to the elevator.

  As we stepped inside, I took his hand and gave him a worried look. “Alec? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing good. Gabe’s office is soundproofed and the only place we can speak freely.” He gave me a pointed look, and I pressed my lips together.

  As we walked through the halls and past offices and desks, it suddenly felt as if every person was watching us, every wall had someone on the other side listening in.

  We reached Tyler’s door at the same time Charlie did. He was dressed simply in black jeans and a gray sweater, a laptop tucked under his arm, his expression blank.

  We let ourselves in without knocking. Tyler lifted curious eyes at the intrusion, took in our serious expressions, and stood up from his chair.

  Alec locked the door as Charlie dropped the laptop on Tyler’s desk and propped his hands on his hips.

  Tyler didn’t speak. Didn’t ask unnecessary questions. He just let Charlie talk.

  “Something’s not right. When I went in to get rid of the server room footage, I noticed something off.”

  “In what way?” Tyler pressed. He didn’t question the fact that Charlie was erasing security footage, which made me wonder how often he did this for them. How many secrets did they have?

  “I’m not the only one that’s been in the system, which isn’t surprising in itself, but I’m the only one that goes in and out undetected. The others I can track. I can see what they’ve done, changed, erased. With enough digging, I can find out who it was. But I think I just found evidence of someone else—someone as discreet as me.”

  “What?” Tyler’s eyes widened as he leaned on the desk. “Do we have a breach? Should I be initiating protocols?”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I need to do a little more digging, but so far, from what I can see, they’re not taking anything. They’re not copying data, trying to access the encrypted files. They’re doing the same thing I was doing—deleting security footage, maybe security pass logs as well.”

  Behind me, Alec cursed under his breath.

  “It doesn’t make sense. It’s like they’re trying to cover their tracks, but they haven’t actually done anything.”

  “It makes perfect fucking sense,” Alec growled. He and Tyler exchanged a hard look.

  Tyler hung his head and sighed. “This is worse than an external attack, a hacking attempt. This sounds like an inside job.”

  “Fuck.” Charlie sank into a chair and dropped his head into his hands. “I wouldn’t have even seen it if these two hadn’t decided to have a quickie in the server room and needed me to cover it up.”

  Tyler shot us an amused look before getting back to business. “All right. Charlie, I need you to keep digging—get me as much information as you can. You have complete access to my office. From now on, we work under the assumption that this building is no longer secure. Keep this between us. Stick to the secure channels—text only. And we discuss this in secure rooms. That’s this office, my office at Bradford Hills Institute, and my study at the manor. Alec, update Uncle Luce when you get back. I’m going to fill in Ethan and Josh, but Charlie, I think we should keep Dot out of it.”

  “Agreed.” Charlie’s focus was already on his screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

  “I think you can trust Dot, guys. She wouldn’t blab about something like this.” I crossed my arms. Keeping things from people was kind of a sore spot for me.

  “It’s not that we don’t trust her.” Tyler smiled at me warmly. “It’s that it’s safer if she’s kept out of it. For her.”

  Grudgingly, I nodded. I’d happened to be right next to Alec when this all happened, but would they have told me had I not been? I had the clearance now. Tyler would certainly have discussed it with me had I pressed for information, but they would’ve probably preferred to keep me out of it, just like Dot. Because it was “safer.”

  Well, I was there, and I did hear. I couldn’t undo that. All I could do was focus on the issue at hand and try to be useful if I could be. All I could do was prove they didn’t need to keep hiding things to protect me.

  Twenty

  I’d been to Dot and Charlie’s house dozens of times. I’d had sleepovers with Dot, been around for dinner, hung out with Olivia and Henry. Yet as we drove in Tyler’s Escalade toward their house, a bit of nervousness still twisted my gut.

  Josh took my hand. “What’s going on?”

  I glanced toward the front—Ty and Alec were engaged in a soft conversation as Tyler drove through the leafy streets of Bradford Hills.

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I’m just a little nervous. It feels really . . . formal or something?”

  “It’s just dinner.” Josh squeezed my hand. “There just happens to be more of us tonight.”

  We were on our way to Sunday dinner. Lucian and Ethan were being driven in the car behind us, a Melior Group vehicle with armed guards led the way, and one brought up the rear. Jamie and Marcus had to work, but Kyo was going to be there too, representing Dot’s harem for the night. She’d been referring to each of the men as her “boyfriend,” and none of them were seeing other people. It wasn’t uncommon for Variants to be in polyamorous relationships, but whenever I asked her how it was going with them, she insisted they “weren’t putting a label on it.” I called bullshit every time. They worshipped the ground she walked on, and now Kyo was coming to family dinner—shit was getting serious.

  When we pulled up, the big metal gates opened to admit the cavalcade of cars, and we drove to the main house.

  As the driver of the car behind us lowered Lucian in his wheelchair, we all headed toward the front door. Another pang of nervous uncertainty shot through me—should we knock?

  Ethan bounded up the stairs, beating us all there, and let himself straight in. He left the door wide open as he disappeared toward the kitchen, yelling about basting the turkey or something. I chuckled, some of the tension easing. He’d really wanted to do the cooking but had to work on an assignment, and Olivia had ended up having the dinner catered.

  We spilled into the large kitchen and dining area, everyone saying hello and hugging. Henry uncorked several bottles of wine, and Alec handed me a glass.

  “Thanks.” I smiled and brought it to my lips. I’d never really had wine and wasn’t sure if I liked it, but as the burgundy liquid hit my tongue, I moaned a little in surprise and appreciation.

  Alec smirked at me. “I’m starting to think you have expensive taste.”

  “Why?” I took another sip.

  “That’s a Chateau Margaux Merlot.” When I gave him a blank look, he elaborated. “It’s, on average, one hundred and fifty dollars per bottle, depending on vintage.”

  “Holy shit.” My eyes widened at the unassuming liquid in my glass, and Alec took a slow sip of his own.

  After a moment I shrugged and kept drinking. I hadn’t grown up with drivers and houses with bedrooms in the double digits, but they had, and there was nothing wrong wi
th enjoying the finer things in life. Galileo knows, we’d all had enough shit to deal with—we deserved it.

  “We used to do this every Sunday when we were kids.” Alec had one hand in his pocket, the other holding his wine glass as he looked out over the room of laughing, talking people—our family.

  I frowned. “I thought Olivia and Henry didn’t move here until after my mom and I left?”

  “They didn’t.” Alec wrapped an arm around my middle in an uncharacteristically sweet gesture, and I melted into his side.

  It was Lucian who answered me. He pulled his wheelchair up beside us and gave me a warm smile. “Your mom was close with my sisters and Josh’s and Tyler’s mothers. They were all like a big family by the time I moved back here from the UK. The Sunday dinners were a regular occurrence. It was actually at a Sunday dinner that we first met—that we first realized we were connected.”

  I sat down on the arm of the couch so I could see him better, and Alec’s arm moved from my waist to my shoulders.

  Lucian kept speaking. “The dinners were a bit more somber after you and your mother left, and then the accident in Japan . . .”

  “We stopped doing the dinners after our parents died,” Alec finished for him. “It used to be, like, twenty people, massive amounts of food, and all kinds of ruckus. Then all of a sudden, it was just us. It wasn’t the same.”

  “Olivia and Henry moved back a few months after that. The plan was for Alec and Ethan to move in with them, but by that stage all the boys were staying with me, and they didn’t want to be separated.” Lucian gave Alec the kind of nostalgic look a father might give his son. “But we did pick the Sunday dinners back up. It was more sporadic than it had been before, but even when Alec and Tyler were hanging around The Hole, getting their asses beat, they showed up for the dinners. They sulked and hardly spoke to anyone, but they still showed up.”