by Sienna Snow
It was raw, nothing like any time before.
As our orgasms rose, our movement grew unsteady, and his thrusts became harder.
I stared into his eyes, and without thinking, I said, "I love you."
He cupped the back of my head and ran a thumb over my lip and then down my throat. "I know. I've always known."
"I'm glad one of us was aware of it."
He smiled and pulled me against him as he pumped into my quivering pussy.
"Hagen, I'm close."
"I know. But before you go over, I have to make something clear."
"This isn’t the time for a discussion. It’s the time for fucking." I bore down on his cock as he drove up.
He lifted me, so I no longer had leverage.
"What are you doing?"
He ignored me and pushed his girth deep.
"You will never put yourself between me and someone who threatens your safety."
Thrust.
"You will protect what's mine."
Thrust.
"If anything happens to you, I will not hesitate to become the devil people believe me to be."
Thrust.
"You are mine."
Thrust, thrust.
"Do I make myself clear?"
Thrust.
My mind whirled with the depth of emotion in his words.
He stopped moving, making me cry out.
"I didn't hear your answer."
I clutched his shoulders. "Hagen, please. I'm almost there."
"No. Not until you answer me."
"Yes, I hear you. I'm yours. I'm yours. I've always been yours."
With the next thrust, we both erupted.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hagen
* * *
AROUND TWO IN THE MORNING, I gave up on trying to sleep. Starlight slept peacefully against my chest, and for the first time in my life, it felt like there was a person out there who was mine.
Hearing her tell me she loved me was indescribable. It also scared the shit out of me. For years, I'd known she had feelings for me. Just as I'd known I had to stay away from her.
She was all that was good and decent. And I was soiled by a hard life that had me involved in more than one situation that, if found out, could land me in jail for the rest of my life, or worse, dead.
I'd gotten out of that life, but it had this way of following me. Dealing with Kapok was only one of a long line of incidences where I’d had to rely on my old skills to handle things.
It had taken every fucking microscopic speck of my strength not to kill Kapok when he called Starlight a whore. The fucker wouldn't be messing with Starlight again.
Instead of shooting him and dumping his body as my instincts had screamed to do, I'd had a long chat with Kapok's boss, Josef Petrov. Petrov was the Russian version of Draco. They were friends inasmuch as two monsters could be friends. There was a mutual respect of each other and their territories—Vegas being Draco's.
Petrov knew my ties to Draco were as solid as ever, and an insult to me was one to Draco. The fact Kapok had insulted Starlight made it very clear that an unforgettable slight had occurred, especially since Starlight was favored by Draco. Petrov assured me that he'd take care of Kapok, which meant Kapok was being shipped, either to Siberia or to the afterlife.
I should've felt some remorse for essentially orchestrating Kapok's death sentence. But the bastard had gone out of his way to hurt Starlight.
And no one fucking hurt Starlight.
Next on the list was Dara, but my plan required Adrian's cooperation.
I glanced at Starlight’s limp, satiated body draped over mine and felt my cock go from death to full salute.
This woman was mine.
Shit.
When had I started believing she could truly be mine? She had this way about her that kept me on my toes. She was nothing like I’d pegged her to be. She was far bolder and more daring than I could ever imagine. She was everything I could want in a woman.
I knew I'd said she was the only one who could break us up, but that hadn't meant I wouldn't kidnap her to convince her otherwise.
She owned a piece of my soul, she always had. I'd wanted her before she truly understood what a man like me craved.
She made me wish I was a better man, someone deserving of her, and for some reason she didn’t see my faults.
Starlight shifted, and I held in a groan as her naked thigh grazed my straining dick. All I'd have to do was shift her and bury myself deep inside her delicious cunt.
No. I'd taken her hard. She needed the rest.
I gently moved her to the pillow next to me and rolled out of bed. After draping the covers over her beautiful body, I walked into the living room.
Picking up my phone, I began to skim the messages that had come through over the past few hours. Most were updates from the various clubs, but then my gaze landed on one that had me pausing.
Collin Lykaios.
What the hell did the man want?
I hadn't spoken to him in years, and now he was contacting me?
I tapped his name and couldn't believe what I was reading.
Collin: Son, we need to talk. There are things we need to discuss. There are too many mistakes I've made for you to forgive me. I only hope you will hear me out and let me do something to protect the one person you care about most.
Starlight.
I dialed Collin's number, not caring it was two in the morning.
Collin answered on the first ring. "Son."
I clenched my teeth. He'd never called me that—idiot, disappointment, and a waste of space were his usual M.O.
"What do you need to say?"
There was a sigh. "Dara contacted me as a buyer for Kipos."
"That's not news. She contacted us too."
"Don't buy it, no matter what. And for God's sake, don't let Persephone sign anything to sell it."
"Why not?" I ran a frustrated hand over my face and stared into the night.
"Dara is under investigation for using the company as a means to transport illegal plant products into Europe and the United States, meaning drugs."
"Fuck. She's trying to set Starlight up to take the fall for the company. That’s why she fired her."
"Yes. You were only an excuse."
"How do you know all this?"
"I can't reveal my sources."
"Of course, you can't."
His voice grew solemn. "Son. I—"
"Stop calling me that," I snapped. “I haven't been that for fifteen years. Now cut to the chase and tell me why you feel the need to protect me and what's mine."
"I made mistakes with all three of you, but most of all you. My only excuse was that I let circumstances in my life rule how I reacted with you boys. I’m ashamed of how I handled things with you."
"Yeah, throwing a rebellious seventeen-year-old out onto the streets was a great reaction to drinking with his friends underaged."
"I looked for you every day for months, but you disappeared. No matter who I contacted, they couldn’t help me. I nearly went out of my mind with worry. I swear to you that I regretted what happened immediately."
"Bullshit. I lived in shelters for three months before Draco found me."
"Draco hid you until he had you desperate enough to go work for him. When I found out, I did everything in my power to get you back. But by then you were in his world and he viewed you as the payment for the debt I owed him. I let you go because I had no choice. It was the only way to protect you and your brothers."
"Let me repeat. That's bullshit. Draco was more of a father to me than you ever were."
"Ask him." The sound of ice clinking in a glass echoed over the line. "Draco will admit what he did."
"If that’s true, then what did he have on you that he’d retaliate by taking me?"
"It's no longer important. I'll let you go. Just know that old age has taught me family is the most important thing in a man’s life."
Collin hung up.
What the fuck just happened?
I had to get to the bottom of this.
Hagen
* * *
A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER, I entered one of Draco’s private clubs and headed directly to where he held court tonight. A group of men were in the middle of an animated discussion as scantily clad women sat on their laps.
Draco saw me approach.
"Hagen, this is a surprise."
"Oyabun, we need to talk."
He lifted a brow at the edge in my voice, but instead of saying anything, he nodded and rose without a word to the group around him.
After we entered the private office, he turned to study me.
"Tell me it isn't true."
"First you need to tell me what we are discussing."
"Did Collin try to find me? Did you make it impossible for him? Did you plan to take me the second you heard about my fight with Collin? Did you force his hand in how he handled my brothers?"
Draco moved to a long sofa against the dark mahogany walls.
"Yes. You were payment for a debt your father refused to pay me."
“And my brothers? Did you make Collin destroy Pierce and Zack’s childhoods too?”
“I wouldn’t say destroy, but it was more that I influenced him to sever ties with his precious sons to protect his eldest and clear the debt he owed me.”
It took all my strength not to sway at the slap of the answer.
"What was the debt?”
"One of his partners, Victor Anthony, swindled me out of nearly fifty million. I required payment for the debt, and your father stood in the way."
I had a feeling I knew what he was about to tell me.
"You were going to take Anthony's daughters as payment. For prostitution?"
The thought of what would have happened to Henna and Anaya made my stomach turn. He would have destroyed the beautiful, intelligent women they were by exposing them to the world of prostitution.
I'd never liked focusing on the darker side of Draco's business, prostitution being a big part of it. I'd worked for him for years and had gotten so much shit for avoiding that aspect of Draco’s business. Now I was thankful for my choice.
"No, I only required one. And again no, the girl would have been a companion to my granddaughter. She was lonely as the only girl among so many boys. Eventually, Anthony’s daughter would have married one of my grandsons, and the debt would be complete. The girl wouldn't have had a hard life. Besides, I wasn’t the only one after Anthony’s family as payment for his betrayal. If others had gotten their hands on either of the girls, more than likely they’d have been dead. I was the better option all around.”
“I still don’t understand. How did Collin stand in the way?”
“He hid the girls and their mother. They’d disappeared until a few years ago. Do you realize how different your life would have been if only Collin had chosen between the older girl and the one who belonged to your mother?"
The confusion must have shown on my face because he continued. "Don't tell me you had no idea that your mother had a long-running affair with Anthony? Zacharias is not Rhea’s youngest child. Anaya Anthony is."
Hagen
* * *
I WALKED through the next few days in a daze. I avoided all contact with Starlight or my brothers. Instead, I immersed myself in the last-minute logistics of Ida's grand opening.
It helped that Starlight's team had arrived and kept her company for the most part. The reports I had gotten said she had each of the women roped into moonlighting as lab assistants.
The only time I had any contact with Starlight was when I buried my cock deep inside her when I'd finish for the night with the clubs. She'd be in bed sleeping, always naked, always ready for me.
Avoiding Zack and Pierce was another story. We ran multiple businesses together. Therefore, I'd resorted to emails, text messages, and having my managers go to meetings.
I knew I was a pussy, but how does one tell his brothers that the mother we'd idolized had had a long-running affair with our father's best friend and then given birth to our sister during the time she’d left us with Yia Yia for five months to travel the world with her friends?
I had no doubt in my mind Draco had told me the truth. He had no need to lie. He always said the reality is more lethal than fabrications.
Draco's admission had damaged something between us. Collin hadn't abandoned me as I'd believed. I'd been a pawn to Draco. It was just the luck of the draw that Draco grew attached to me and decided to raise me as he did his children and grandchildren.
Then, if my fucked-up family life wasn't enough shit on my shoulders, I had to tell Penny she couldn't sell Kipos, no matter what.
God, I hoped Adrian had his plans in order. He needed to know what was happening under his mother’s watch. The crazy part was he hadn't seemed fazed when I'd relayed what Collin had discovered. It was more like he was annoyed.
"Here's another, Mr. Lykaios." The bartender pushed a tumbler in my direction as I sat at a hidden bar in the Nyx nightclub.
I sipped my drink and watched the club dancers get into position for the guest DJ who'd host tonight's events at the club. The place was packed from celebrities to high rollers.
A text came through on my phone.
Starlight: If you don't come up here and tell me what the fuck is going on with you, I swear I will leave. It takes two people for a relationship, and from where I see it, you don't want to be in one.
Immediately another came in.
Starlight: I get that you’re freaked out that I said I loved you but avoiding me for five fucking days is not the way to handle it. You either come up here this minute, or I'm packing my bags and heading to Henna's. She moved into her new condo, and she has plenty of room for me.
I cringed. I was in for it.
Wait a second, did she say she was leaving me?
The hell she was.
She was the one woman who challenged me, surprised me, and made me feel more than I ever knew I could.
I pushed back from the bar and tried to maneuver around a few enthusiastic patrons.
One smiled in my direction while her friends ordered the signature cocktail for the evening, the Fiery Night.
"Hey, aren't you Hagen Lykaios?"
I didn't confirm but said, "Have a good night, ladies."
Another women blocked my way, setting a hand on my chest. “Remember me, stranger? It’s been a long time.”
I groaned inside. I’d dated, no, fucked, Pamala Green about five years ago. She was a well-known fashion model who’d made headlines for all her high-profile relationships with wealthy men. Me being one of them.
She was one of the few exes I avoided at all costs. She was clingy and an all-around headache. Outside of the fact she was pretty to look at, she was a complete bitch.
The last thing I needed was for Starlight to see Pamala hanging onto me. It would make the shithole I was swimming in ten times worse.
"Come on, sexy. You remember we were good together. I can show you a really good time."
Typically I'd have been a bit gentler, but I had priorities and she wasn’t one of them.
I jerked Pamala’s hand from my body. "Thank you for the offer, but I have a girlfriend."
"I saw your pictures in the newspaper. She’s pretty but not your usual type. More on the homely side, not the type of outgoing woman you need.”
I glared at her, not wanting to act on the urge to throw her out of my club. “Good night, Pamala. I’m sure you can find someone else to keep you company.”
“She doesn't have to know." Pamala batted her eyelashes, stepping in my path.
What the fuck had I seen in this woman?
"I'd know." My voice grew cold. "And I don't cheat. Now I suggest you enjoy the club with your friends while I take care of other matters."
I walked around Pamala and her friends but came to an abrupt halt.
Starlight stood a few feet from me. She wasn't looking at
me but shooting daggers at Pamala behind me.
"Starlight." I moved into her line of sight, slid one hand around her waist, and kissed her forehead. "I was just coming up."
"I can see that."
I picked up her clenched fist and kissed her knuckles. "Let's go home, baby."
She stayed quiet as we left the club and the whole way back to our home.
As we entered the penthouse, I knew without a doubt the incident at the club hadn't helped her anger.
I moved to the bar, poured two fingers of Firewater Reserve and shot it back, letting the smooth liquid warm my body.
Setting the glass down, I turned. "Starlight. I fucked up again."
She stared at me and without a word came toward me, pushing me back against the wall with a palm to my throat, and covered my mouth with hers.
I reacted without thinking and met her demands with my own. I pushed my tongue past her lips, drowning in her sweet taste.
"You’re mine. Do I make myself clear? I do not share," she gritted out and trailed her cheek along my stubble-covered jaw like a cat leaving her scent.
"Is that so?"
She pulled back, eyes blazing a piercing green that almost looked black.
"Did I stutter?"
If that's how she wanted to play, then we'd play. Before she could move, I reversed our positions and had her pinned to the glass wall with the Vegas sky behind us.
Surprise crossed her face, as did unbridled lust.
"Let me make something clear to you. No one touches you either. I own you."
Temper flared in her gaze, and she responded by biting my lower lip and drawing blood. "Then that better mean I'm the only one who fucks you or gets to take you home for a good time."
"Is that an ultimatum?"
My girl was jealous. If she only knew the only woman I saw was her.
"Yes," she bit out. "You're not the only one who’s possessive."
I couldn't help but smile.
How had the situation gone from me preparing to grovel to this? I knew better than to question luck when it appeared.
“Don’t laugh at me. I’m serious,” she growled and tried to bite my lip again.