Aras

“You on top of things here?” I asked Ezekiel early the next morning.

“If you’re asking whether I’ll make sure your hostage doesn’t escape, then yes, I am on top of it,” he said.

“Good. I’ll be back in twenty-four hours,” I said.

I left then, not lingering, and also ignoring Ezekiel’s jab.

I was putting him in a fucked-up situation, but he owed me. And even more, he knew I would do the same for him.

I made my way to the garage, fighting with everything I had not to go back and check on Lake while she slept.

Check on her.

I allowed a grim smile to across my face.

I wouldn’t have been checking on her. I would have been feeding the obsession that seemed to grow every day.

Every moment, if I were being completely honest.

I hated it.

I had spent years with a singular focus, having the ability to push aside everything that didn’t in some way serve that focus.

Then she had come into the picture.

I’d tried to go on, business as usual, but that had been a massive failure. A sign of the weakness that I’d thought myself rid of.

But as annoying as that weakness was, I also loved every second I’d watched her, every moment I’d spent with her.

I’d never wanted an escape, but Lake had provided one. Watching her, imagining that this was a different world, that we were different people, gave me a respite I hadn’t known I needed.

It also gave me some small kernel of my existence that didn’t belong to Vlad and my hatred of him.

Eventually, that fantasy world I’d created with Lake would crash into reality, and I knew it wouldn’t survive. But for the moment, I ignored impending doom and focused on work.

The compound was a couple of hours outside of the city, far enough that I had the privacy necessary but close enough that I could be there to handle my other work.

It was a good thing that Yuri, the boss, wasn’t too hands-on.

As long as shit got done, he didn’t care what else we did.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He was maniacal about security, liked to give an air of nonchalance and distance, but I knew it was a facade.

No one stayed in Yuri’s position for as long as he had without being ruthless and without always, always watching.

Knowing that made what I was doing even more insane.

I had sworn to act only in the name of the business, and this was anything but that.

Every time I did something without Yuri’s sanction, I was putting my life further at risk.

I didn’t care.

Years ago, when I had officially become a part of Yuri’s crew, I had understood the bargain I was making.

I would give myself to the organization, do as I was told, when I was told. And in return I would learn everything I needed to destroy Vlad and eventually take his life.

And for years now, that bargain had held.

I had been eager, willing to take on any task, no matter how mundane or dangerous or bloody, if I thought it would teach me something I needed to know, give me a skill that would be helpful for me in the end.

It had been a tricky balance.

Yuri appreciated my initiative, but it was my responsibility to ensure that he never mistook initiative for ambition.

I had less than zero interest in taking Yuri’s place, but what I wanted and didn’t want didn’t matter. If he’d even had an inkling that I wanted to move up, had intentions to disrupt the order he had imposed, he wouldn’t have hesitated to kill me.

So I made sure he never had a reason to think that, and we continued on, both of us benefiting from the arrangement.

The drive to the city was quick and uneventful, and I jumped in to work, not wanting to stay any longer than I had to.

I went to the first stop, a dry cleaner, and picked up two manila envelopes nearly bursting with cash.

Went to the financial district and picked up the same.

Kept going until I had two duffel bags full of manila envelopes and the bills inside them.

Protection money, mostly, but some repayment of loans, other settling of debts owed to Yuri.

In a lot of ways, it was silly that I was doing this.

After all, Yuri’s organization was multinational, had fingers in every conceivable criminal activity.

That he wasted time and personnel to manage a small-scale protection and loansharking racket was silly.

But Yuri had insisted that there was no reason to let that money go elsewhere when someone like me, who was more than capable of handling it, was around.

I hadn’t tried to argue, didn’t care enough to, and knew that doing so would be futile. And besides, I didn’t care how he ran his organization or what task he gave me.

This was simply the means I had chosen to get to a particular end.

The other details didn’t matter.

I completed all of my pickups, save one, which I had put off till the end.

The last stop of this run was a construction site.

The developer had run into some financial trouble and didn’t have enough money to complete the project. Yuri had been more than happy to provide all the funds necessary, had done so gleefully, in fact.

Just as the owner had gleefully taken it.

But now, more than two years later, that glee, and the payments, had started to slip.

Yuri wanted me to remind the developer of his and Yuri’s relationship and what would happen if that relationship changed.

I had scoped out the site before and walked through it like I belonged.

The few gathered workers didn’t even look in my direction, but when I reached the owner’s office, he most assuredly did.

“What the fuc—”

I had stepped into the office without knocking, something that apparently set the man off, but the minute he lifted his eyes and saw who I was, his words died in his throat. He also looked to have aged a few years just from looking at me.

That was good.

I didn’t care what people thought of me or what they didn’t think. But fear was often my friend.

It made the job faster, if more irritating.

One look at the man’s panicked expression, and I prepared for irritation, while at the same time pushing down my own annoyed sigh.

“Yuri sent you?”

“Where’s the envelope?” I asked, not responding to his question.

“Here,” the man—Robert Foster, according to the nameplate on the desk—said.

I took the envelope and pushed it into my back pocket.

“This is short,” I said.

“You didn’t even open it,” Robert said.

“It’s short. You really would try to do that?” I asked, tilting my head as though I was pondering the most intense question.

“Try to do what?” he asked, his voice a squeak.

“You would try to lie to me and steal from Yuri,” I said.

“No!” the man said, blood draining from his face.

“You’ve missed two payments already, and while Yuri is a very patient man, he won’t be taken advantage of,” I said.

“I—”

The man cut off when I shook my head.

“Don’t waste your breath,” I said, the implied you’re going to need it hanging in the air like a feather.

The man finally accepted what this situation was, and then, like they always did, he started to negotiate.

“What can I do to make it up?” he said.

Interesting approach. I often got anger, pleading, but this guy was clearly a dealer. But he was so far out of his league he couldn’t even begin to comprehend it.

“Yuri knows you’re just trying to make it,” I said.

“That’s all I’m doing,” the man said.

“He understands that, but you understand that he has business interests that he has to take care of. You understand that it would be very bad for him to be seen as more forgiving than he should be,” I said.

“What can I do?” the man asked.

I pulled a folded piece of paper out of my front pocket, unfolded it, and then tossed it on the desk.

“Sign this,” I said.

“What’s that?” he asked, his brows knotting with his frown.

I glared at him, which was answer enough.

He quickly scribbled his name, and I grabbed the piece of paper and refolded it once he was done.

He had given one of Yuri’s legion of shell companies ten percent ownership of the building and a seat on his board of directors.

Only a first step. By the time he was done, Yuri would own the building, and he’d own Robert too. The man should have just made the payments.

“So that’s it?” he asked, looking just this side of relieved.

“No,” I responded.

I moved quickly, grabbing the hammer that the man had carelessly tossed on his desk and bringing it down hard on his hand.

The sound of bones breaking was instant and louder the second time.

The man screamed, panic in his eyes.

But he certainly didn’t expect anyone to come and check on him.

And no one did.

I stayed put, watched him scream and writhe.

Not how I wanted to be spending my time, but I needed him to be calm for what I had to say next.

I had no doubt he was in excruciating pain, but when I saw something like sanity return to his expression, I spoke.

“Don’t ever steal from Yuri again,” I said.

With that, I turned and left the office.

I walked past the same group of guys who had been there on my way in, none of whom seemed concerned that their boss was screaming in the background.

I got to the car, drove to the appointed drop location, and handed off the cash and, most importantly to Yuri, the signed paper.

Once I was done, it was nearing eight at night.

A day’s work, and ordinarily I would have simply stayed somewhere in the city.

But not tonight.

I was back in the car and headed to the compound as soon as I possibly could.

When I arrived, I could see that Ezekiel was there, but I didn’t stop to talk to him.

Couldn’t.

Instead, I made my way back to the control room and bank of cameras, needing to see her just as much as I needed my next breath.

I scrambled through the camera views, stopped when I came to her.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed, her face turned away from me, though I could see the tension in her shoulders.

She was worried, something that only made sense.

But she also seemed…comfortable.

I didn’t know if that was the right word, couldn’t quite give a voice to whatever it was I thought I saw in her.

One thing was certain. Now that I had seen her, I felt whole again.

That should have scared me.

That did scare me.

But I also couldn’t deny it, or deny the fact that it didn’t matter.

Seeing her made it feel like an anvil had been lifted off my chest.

It didn’t make sense, and it wasn’t something I liked, but it also wasn’t something I could control.

I wanted to understand it, but understanding it meant I would no longer have it.

And I wanted that, wanted her.

I had no room for either in my life, knew that eventually that this would all end, and poorly, if I knew my luck.

But knowing that changed nothing at all.

I stared at the screen, the image as sharp as it could possibly be but in no way comparable to the woman in the flesh.

I wanted to go to her, fought down the urge to do just that.

Instead I reached out, stroked my fingers along the TV screen.

It was almost like she knew I was there. She shifted, looked over her shoulder directly at the camera.

She couldn’t see me, but it still felt like her eyes were locked with mine. Maybe I was just desperate for connection, desperate for her, but as I stared at the screen, I knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Before I could try to talk myself out of it, I was moving, made it to her room in record time.

When I opened the door, her eyes were on me. She looked happy…relieved, both emotions only becoming clearer when she smiled.

“I’m glad you’re back,” she whispered.

“I am too,” I responded as I closed the door behind me.

I’d only been gone since morning, but I’d been away from her for far too long, felt indescribable relief at seeing her.

Could only imagine how I would feel when I touched her again.

She stood, the sexy black gown I’d given her pooling around her thighs. I breathed out hard, again hit with how beautiful she was.

Lake didn’t carry herself like she was beautiful, and I somehow knew that she would reject the idea. But she was, her lush curves everything I’d never been smart enough to dream of, that special something about her that I couldn’t name only adding to her allure.

“You came to say good night?” she asked.

She gave me another smile, and I realized then that I had been staring at her. From the tightness in my facial muscles, I knew my gaze was intense, knew Lake hadn’t missed that, just as she hadn’t missed the energy that was flowing off me.

That restlessness, the unease that had plagued me before, had shifted, become all-encompassing desire that only Lake inspired, that only she could satiate.

“No,” I said, finally responding to her earlier question. “I didn’t come to say good night.”

She lowered her brows, her question clear. But I waited for her to speak.

“Wh-what did you come for?” she asked.

I couldn’t tell if her little stutter was because of nerves, but at least some of it was caused by desire.

I could see it in the way her breath sped, the way she stood a little bit taller, the way her nipples pebbled under the thin gown.

“You,” I said.

She inhaled sharply, gave me another nervous smile. I didn’t return the expression and instead walked toward her slowly, remembering how I had done so the first time we were together. I’d been driven then, my desire for her something that surprised me but something I hadn’t been able to ignore.

It was the same now, but also so very different.

Because then, I’d been infatuated, intrigued.

Now, I was so much more. I knew what it was like to touch her, taste her. Knew that despite my best efforts, Lake had a hold on me, one I wasn’t so sure I wanted to shake.

I came to a stop in front of her and looked down. Couldn’t help but remember the first time I’d seen her, how terrified she had been.

She wasn’t now.

The need in her eyes humbled me and fueled me, not that I needed more encouragement. I wanted this woman with every fiber of my being, and at least in this moment, I would have her.

I lifted my hand slowly, moving inch by inch until my thumb grazed her breast. Her nipple immediately puckered, pulled tight against the thin fabric, and Lake arched her back, leaning in to my touch.

The desire, the need, to take her had left me light-headed, but I kept tight on my control and teased her nipple with patience I didn’t feel.

Just that touch had set Lake off, and I watched as her breath deepened and she curled her fingers tight into a fist.

“Your tits are so sensitive,” I whispered, my own voice tight.

“Mm-hmm,” she responded, arching her back deeper into my touch, her lids lowering.

I loved her reaction, wanted more of it, so I tweaked and teased her nipples until she squirmed in front of me.

“Take the gown off,” I growled.

If Lake was bothered by my tone, it didn’t show. She responded immediately, pulling the gown over her head and then dropping her arms to her sides, waiting.

I’d never really gotten off bossing women around in bed, but something about the quiet submission in Lake’s stance made the dominant, possessive side of me that I hadn’t even known was there rise up.

“Lie down and spread your legs,” I said, and as before, Lake wasted no time in complying.

I watched her as she lay on the bed, saw only a moment’s hesitation before she spread her legs wide, revealing her wet pussy and hard clit to me.

I wanted to devour her, decided in that second that I would, but I walked toward her slowly, causally, removing my clothing as I went.

I made a conscious effort to keep my body loose, my movements unhurried, but I wasn’t fooling her, not when my cock was so hard it slapped against my thigh with every step, my crown angry red and slick with precum.

Still, I moved slowly as I crawled between her legs, not stopping until my face was at the apex of her thighs. I could feel her heat, smell her desire, taste it when I swiped my tongue along her slit.

Lake rocked off the bed, but I used my arm to keep her in place.

And then I feasted.

Licked and sucked every inch of her pussy, swallowed every drop of her cream.

When I moved lower to circle her tight back hole with my tongue, Lake let out a low moan and came as hard as I had ever seen her.

“I’m going to fuck you there,” I said, my face still buried in her sex.

“Yes,” came her instant reply as she tightened her grip on my shoulders.

“But not now,” I added, sliding up her body until we were face-to-face.

I stared down at her until she opened her eyes and looked at me.

The pure bliss in her gaze made my cock jump, reminding me of my own need. But still, I didn’t rush. I just stared at her, stroked my fingers along her hair line, marveling at the woman who had made me feel alive for the first time in as long as I could remember.

“Aras…” she whispered, a slight smile turning her lips, desire burning in her eyes.

“You want me to fuck you?” I asked.

She nodded quickly, the embarrassment I could see in her face endearing, especially since I’d seen how bold she could sometimes be.

“Say it,” I demanded.

“I-I want you to fuck me,” she whispered, rocking her hips against me to emphasis the point.

“Put me inside you,” I said.

She let out a little chuckle, but I saw the way her eyes sparked. She moved her hand between our bodies and wrapped it around my shaft.

She pumped her hand down my length once, again, seeming to enjoy the sensation as much as I was.

I’d started this game, was going to finish it, but not if I let Lake have her way.

“I want to come inside you, but that won’t happen if you keep that up. Put me inside you now, Lake,” I commanded.

She stroked my shaft one last time but then lined me up against her entrance and slowly fed my length into her pussy. She spread her thighs wider, rocked her hips down at the same time, pulling me deeper and deeper. Didn’t stop until I filled her completely.

I stayed still for a moment, the sucking pull of her tightness making it impossible to do anything but. When I thrust softly, Lake moaned, wrapped her legs around my hips.

At that moment, my control snapped. The feel of her soft body under mine, her thighs cradling my hips, her pussy squeezing my cock sent me into overdrive.

I thrust hard, harder, so hard that the bed rocked. And Lake moved with me, giving back all I threw at her and more.

My cock tightened and my vision began to blur at the edges, and when Lake kissed my shoulder and clamped her walls down even tighter, I came, emptying jet after of cum inside her.

I still had enough of my wits about me to reach between us and tease her clit, and when I spurted a final time, Lake came again, crying out her pleasure on a deep moan.

The urge to kiss her was almost overwhelming, but I didn’t. Even after all we had shared, kissing would have meant more to me than I wanted to admit, would have revealed feelings I didn’t even understand.

So I didn’t. But I held her tight, taking what I could of this moment, hoping it would be enough.