Tarnished Empire: A Standalone Enemies-to-Lovers Billionaire Romance

by Ava Harrison

  “We are fucked.”

  “Not necessarily. It could end at any minute. It could be a fast, tropical storm.”

  She gives me a look that tells me she isn’t buying what I’m selling. Good, because neither am I. By the look of the clouds …

  “It’s a hurricane, isn’t it?” She cuts into my inner thoughts with exactly what I was thinking.

  “The clouds looked that way.”

  “And how long do hurricanes last?” She levels me with a stare, a hard stare that demands me to be honest.

  “If it’s fast-moving, then a day or two, but typically, a week.”

  “And if it’s terrible …?”

  “Weeks.” My words hang heavy in the gloomy cave. “I’m going to blow out the fire,” I finally say.

  “Why?” But she knows why. Tonight, even with the storm battering outside, it’s not cold. We already used it to dry her clothes, the rest will have to naturally dry, but it’s not worth the risk. Since it’s almost time to sleep, we can’t waste it.

  “Okay,” she whispers.

  “Come here,” I say, and her mouth forms an O.

  “Without the fire, we will have to share the blanket.”

  If she wants to object, she doesn’t. Instead, she scoots over to me.

  This won’t be the first time we have slept next to each other. Normally, we take separate sides of the raft and gravitate toward each other in the middle of the night.

  When she’s beside me, I move to remove my shirt.

  “What are you doing?” she asks.

  “You’re naked under there. Let me give you my shirt at least.”

  She inclines her head and then nods. “That would be smart. Can’t really share a blanket if I’m naked.”

  “I mean, you could …”

  She laughs and reaches for my shirt. When our hands touch, I let my fingers linger longer than I should. She doesn’t pull away at first. Instead, she watches where we touch. Then she must snap out of the trance because she’s moving away so she can put my shirt on. While she dresses, I put out the fire, and then I’m back in the raft with her.

  “Thank you,” she says as she lets it drop over the blanket. Once she’s fully submerged in it, she lifts up, and the blanket drops away from her once naked body. “We should go to bed.” I open the blanket, and she slips in. My arm is around her shoulder, and she is tucked into my chest.

  “Sleep,” I say as I kiss her hair.

  She mumbles something, but I’m not sure what. It sounded like a thank you, but then I hear the soft inhale, and I know she’s asleep.

  Exhausted from the day.

  I’m not faring much better because with Phoenix in my arms, protected, I feel at peace. I listen to her breathing, and before long, my own breaths match hers, and I too succumb.

  33

  Phoenix

  It’s dark.

  There are so many people. My hand is in my mother’s hand as she walks up to a familiar man. Uncle Michael. He’s not my actual uncle, but he’s Daddy’s friend.

  “Sarah.” I hear my name, but I’m not sure where it’s coming from. My hand drops from my mother’s, and suddenly, I can’t see anyone. Everyone is too tall. I move to find a higher ground to see.

  Bang.

  Bang.

  Bang.

  Rapid sounds over and over. Dust and smoke fill the air.

  People scream.

  Where’s my mom? My dad.

  Then I see him.

  He’s on the floor, gun lifted in the air. His finger keeps moving, but nothing happens. In front of me, on the ground, is my dad’s other gun.

  He’s screaming for me to grab it. To fire. To save my mother. That’s when I see her. She’s lying on the floor, a man standing in front of her.

  Before I know it, I’m grabbing the gun, my small hands wrapping around it. My mom looks at me, begging me, pleading with me.

  I lift it, but I’m so scared.

  I can’t breathe. I can’t move.

  Frozen in place from fear.

  The man shoots my mom, then my dad, and I do nothing. Nothing but scream.

  My eyes open, but I can’t see anything. Where am I?

  “Shh,” I hear from beside me, and that’s when I notice the warm body holding me. The arms wrapped around me.

  “Where …?” I croak.

  “We’re still in the cave. Remember the storm?” he asks.

  Suddenly, everything clears in my hazy mind.

  The storm. Running for cover. Needing to put out the fire.

  Alaric.

  Holding me.

  Keeping me safe.

  Yet again.

  He’s mumbling something to me. Speaking into my hair as he gently strokes me, kisses me.

  The gentleness he has shown me these past few days has my emotions amplifying.

  Here I am, someone he thinks he should hate, and time and time again, he has put my needs first and taken care of me before everything else.

  “You’re okay,” he says.

  A sob breaks through my lips.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” he asks before kissing my locks again.

  “No.”

  I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to talk about the dream of the last time I saw my parents. The last time I held my mom’s hand. That I could have saved them.

  I want to pretend none of it happened and not think about how that one moment shaped the rest of my life.

  I want to feel alive. I have been dead inside since they died, but now as I look my own mortality in the eyes, I can’t let this be it.

  Without allowing me to second-guess myself, I turn my head.

  Still in his arms, I stare up at him. My eyes have adjusted to the darkness, and although I can’t see him clearly, I can see his shadow.

  Maybe this is for the best.

  In the dark, I can be anyone I want to be.

  Even the woman who finds comfort in Alaric’s arms.

  I move closer, securing my hands around his neck, and lean in until my lips fan his.

  “What are you doing?” He breathes out, and the oxygen he expels tickles my lips.

  “Forgetting,” I say in truth, and he doesn’t seem to object.

  “You sure you want this?” His voice is deep and husky.

  I lean in. “I do.”

  “Right answer, dove.” Without a second thought, he crushes his lips to mine.

  I open to him, allowing him to kiss me with a vigor I have never felt before. We are all teeth and tongue, moaning into each other’s mouth. I have never kissed like this before.

  It’s not like the kiss on the boat. This one is primal.

  He drags me on top of him until I’m straddling his lap. His hands run up my body, tugging at the bottom of his shirt. He pulls it up, never breaking from me, and exposes my breasts to him.

  Time has no relevance when we kiss. I get lost in his mouth on mine. Seconds and then minutes pass, but we don’t stop. We just get hungrier, more desperate. Until eventually, his hands move from where he’s cupping my breast to lift the material.

  Once the top is off, he pulls away. It’s dark in the cave. I can’t see much, but I can feel his desire and lust through each touch of his hands on me. Leaning forward, he presses his lips to the hollow of my neck and then works his way down.

  He trails a line across my collarbone, grazing his teeth against my skin until he reaches my nipple.

  With a swipe of the tongue, he makes me groan. He licks and tastes, and then a growl emanates from his mouth as he moves toward the other breast.

  We continue this wicked dance until I’m grinding myself against him. He’s hard and ready for me. The only thought now consuming my mind is what he will feel like.

  He licks and sucks until my head falls back in ecstasy, and then I feel his arms bracketing around me, flipping me over until I’m on my back.

  He hovers above me, his chest heaving.

  “I need to be inside you.” He groans, and
I want nothing more.

  With Alaric’s shirt removed from my body, only his pants separate us.

  In the dark, my hands search, and when I find the drawstring, I untie it.

  It’s not elegant as I try to maneuver.

  It’s hungry kisses. Desperate touches. Primal needs.

  It’s perfection.

  When I feel him lift, I know he’s rid himself of the pants.

  I wait for him to crawl up my body. Instead, he fumbles more, and I’m not sure what he’s doing.

  But when the small flashlight illuminates the cave, I look at him.

  What I see in his eyes takes my breath away.

  “I wanted to see you.” Then he’s spreading my legs. Leaning up on my elbows, I watch as he crawls up my body but then stops.

  His nose touches the inside of my thighs, and he looks up at me from where he’s perched. “I wanted to see you when I did this.” And then he looks up, a wicked gleam in his eye.

  I moan my approval and lift my hips. He lifts my legs over his shoulders, and then he’s going in, taking his tongue to my core in one long swipe. I gasp in pleasure.

  “I…” I try to form words, but I can’t. With me spread out before him like his own personal feast, it’s difficult. My entire body quivers, courtesy of his tongue.

  I press myself closer to his mouth, and the bastard laughs. His fingers part me, and he is pumping one and then two fingers in and out, causing my body to shake against him.

  He mutters something, but I can’t understand it. There’s too much sensation as he continues to suck me into his mouth at the same time, building the pressure with each moment that passes.

  My eyes flutter closed. Tingles run down my spine. Muscles tighten and tremble. My hands fist his hair, and my body starts to shake as I’m about to tip over the edge.

  He stops.

  “What are you doing?” I groan.

  “I want to feel you come.” He grows serious for a second, and I can see the giant elephant in the room.

  “I’m clean. I don’t sleep around,” I practically beg.

  “Me too.”

  It might seem reckless, but I’m desperate for the connection only he can give me right now.

  “I’ll pull out,” he adds.

  “You don’t have to do that. I’m on the shot.”

  That must be enough for him because he grins at me like the Cheshire cat before starting to tease me where I need him most.

  “You like this, dove?” he grits through clenched teeth. He’s as desperate as I am.

  “Yes,” I answer, and then with a slow and steady thrust of his hips, he’s inside me. It might be dark, and I might not be able to see anything, but I wish I could. I wish I could watch as he enters me then pulls back out.

  He cups my backside and angles my body upward, slamming into me again and entering me fully, reaching deeper than I thought possible. He pulls back out before pounding back in. His strokes grow harder with each new thrust of his hips, and as I moan beneath him, his pace quickens.

  I’ve never felt anything like this before. My nerve endings are on fire, igniting from within me. I feel myself being set ablaze, and then I’m falling over the edge. Alaric grits his teeth as he thrusts once, twice, and on the third pump, he pours himself into me.

  Together, we both try to catch our breaths, and when we do, Alaric moves from on top of me. I miss his warmth instantly, but when he lies next to me and pulls me in his arms, my eyes grow heavy.

  Once again, he kisses my head.

  And once again, he says, “Sleep.”

  And like every time before, in the arms of my enemy, and the man who saved my life so many times—I do.

  A warm heat causes my eyelids to flutter. I open my eyes to see that Alaric has started the fire.

  I’m still in the raft, covered only by the small blanket.

  Naked.

  Last night plays in my mind on a loop, over and over again.

  My cheeks warm and not from the fire now flaring next to me.

  He hasn’t noticed me yet, but I see him. He’s going through the bag, pulling out a fish to cook.

  Eating fish for breakfast might have at one point seemed gross, but now my stomach groans and my mouth waters to eat.

  I watch as the muscles in his back flex.

  I could watch him all day.

  Probably will because there isn’t anything else to do here.

  Not that I’m complaining. He is rather gorgeous.

  The memory of him being inside me has been branded into my brain. I can still feel him wrapped around me.

  As if he can hear me thinking about him, he turns around. At first, his face is passive, but when he sees I’m awake, he smirks.

  “Good morning,” he draws out.

  “Morning,” I respond.

  He puts down the fish and makes his way over to me. I’m shocked when he leans down to where I am and kisses me on the lips.

  That wasn’t something I expected. It’s not that I thought he would go back to being a dick. He hasn’t been a dick since we got to the island, but I also didn’t think this would be a thing between us again.

  I guess what I expected was for him to pretend nothing happened. It would have probably upset me, but I’d understand. Last night was different. I needed comfort, and he gave it to me, but today, in the light of a new day, I expected nothing.

  He pulls back and smiles down at me. No one is more handsome than this man is when he smiles.

  Sinful.

  My heart beats like a drum, each beat reminding me how dangerous this man is to my health. I would have never thought that before, but now that I see the real him, I know that he’s like the sun—beautiful, but if you get too close, deadly.

  The problem is, no matter what I know, I still want to get burned.

  “I’m going to make fish,” he says, and it’s just what I need to pull me out of my wicked thoughts.

  “Sounds delicious.” I laugh before looking toward the mouth of the cave. “Is it still raining?”

  Please say no. Please say no, I chant over and over. Maybe that will make it come true.

  “Unfortunately, I don’t have good news.”

  I suck my lips into my mouth. That means we are stuck in here longer.

  “I kind of need …”

  “To go to the bathroom?”

  “Yeah.” I grimace.

  “Right outside the cave, it leads to the lake. If you keep close to the rock, you can go in the lake or on the ground beside it. You won’t get that wet because of the overhang of rocks. Plus, the trees give a big canopy.”

  “Is it safe?”

  “For lengthy periods of time, no. But there isn’t any lightning right now. It should be safe. The winds are powerful. Also, you can go farther in the cave if that makes you feel better. We have a little toilet paper left, and you can use some water we collected if you want to rinse.”

  “Can we risk the supplies?”

  “We still have the lake. If worse comes to worst, I can collect more and purify it.”

  “I’ll use the cave,” I decide. No part of me has any desire to trudge through a storm right now. Maybe after, I’ll wash off really quickly.

  I grab the large jug of purified water and the flashlight and set off to walk deeper into the cave.

  It feels kind of awkward, so I turn around and walk straight back to where he was.

  “If this is our home for the next few days, I can’t make it smell like pee,” I admit. “That’s gross.”

  “I feel that. Here, I’ll walk you to the grass and then turn around. That way, you aren’t by yourself.”

  “You’d do that … for me?”

  Cue smile.

  Cue butterflies.

  This is not good.

  The way he makes me feel can’t possibly be good for my health.

  It doesn’t stop the enormous grin from spreading across my face or the way my insides warm as he takes my hand and leads me out of the cave.


  It’s still raining, but he’s right. The rocks from the cave opening block most of the rain. Beside the opening to the left, there are rocks and grass. The lake is on the other side, a few feet away.

  “You sure it won’t get worse? No lightning?”

  “I’m not sure of anything. But right now, the biggest issue is the wind. No lightning.”

  “Okay, ground it is. I’ll be back.”

  Dropping his hand, I walk over to the grass. No longer under the rocks, the rain beats down on me. I had thrown on my tank and panties before walking out here, but that was stupid. Now, both are drenched, and I’ll be spending the rest of the day naked again.

  I guess I can think of worse things to do.

  I take care of my business, and once I’m done, I head back to Alaric.

  “If I have time, I want to jump in really quickly. Do I have time?”

  Alaric looks up at the sky.

  Dark gray storm clouds hover low in the sky, and the air smells sweet as remnants of the rain linger on the surface of the rocks.

  My gaze skims over the distance. The rain seems to be slowing down, but the trees are still fiercely whipping around. But as long as I don’t hear thunder, and I don’t see lightning, it should be safe.

  “You have a few. If we see anything suspicious, we’ll get out. If the wind gets too strong …”

  “We’ll get out.”

  “If we stay behind the waterfall, it will be okay. The rocks will cover most of everything.”

  “Sounds like a plan, but I would like to brush my teeth and get soap.”

  “Stay here.” He walks away and comes back a minute later. “Hand.”

  I oblige.

  He places a slight drop of toothpaste on my finger. Although it’s not a lot, I’m happy for this luxury. I rub it on my tongue and teeth before spitting it out. After that, he throws the toothpaste back into the cave and then hands me the soap.

  “Strip here. Soap up and then go into the waterfall.”

  “Here?” My eyes go wide. “You want me to get naked.”

  “Dove … I have already seen you naked.” He steps closer, his body touching mine. His hand reaches out and brackets around me, pulling me flush against him, and I feel the evidence of a now growing erection. “I have seen you, tasted you, and been inside you. I couldn’t be more familiar with your body if I tried, and trust me—I intend to try many, many times. Bathing together hardly seems a problem.”