Promises

by Aleatha Romig

  Sterling sat taller, taking me in, inch by inch. I lifted my hands above my head as the desire in his dark eyes seared my exposed skin. His gaze moved from my face downward. Time passed painfully slowly as my flesh pebbled with goose bumps from the heat of his stare. By the time he brought his eyes back to mine, my breaths were shallow and my core wet.

  That was what Sterling Sparrow could do, without a word or a touch. He made me want what only he’d ever given me, taking what he claimed and giving much more. My body was primed and yet we’d only begun. Tipping his face toward my neck, he sent a shiver through my nerves and up my spine.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said, his words warm puffs of breath on my scorched skin as he nuzzled his prickly chin against my collarbone. Running my fingers over his shoulders, my back arched as his kisses moved lower, taking one nipple into his mouth, pulling it taut, while caressing the other with his talented fingers.

  In his hands I was a prized instrument and he was the musician. Together we created a beautiful melody that rang through our bedroom with his words of adoration and my sounds of ecstasy.

  By the time his fingers found my core I wanted more. “Please...”

  That wasn’t how it was to be.

  As simply the instrument, I was at his disposal. It was the musician who orchestrated the tune. I was his to play, and like that prized instrument in the hands of a talented musician, he did, tuning me, winding me tighter and higher until I was his to arrange. Sterling moved me to my knees. With my weight forward on our pillows and my ass in the air, he spread my legs, dipping his fingers as I squirmed under his touch.

  “I love your sexy ass.”

  Taunting an opponent I could never beat, I wiggled it back and forth.

  “This is mine,” he said, with a light slap to my butt cheek. “And this,” he said, again dipping his fingers inside me. “Say it.”

  I lifted my head as my breasts swung and my voice came in ragged breaths. “Yes, Sterling. It’s yours.”

  Another rub over my ass as he continued the torture.

  “What’s mine?” he asked, leaning over me with one hand on my stomach keeping me in position.

  “Me, I’m yours.”

  Again, his fingers strummed my core as I added more notes to our song.

  “This pussy,” he corrected.

  I nodded.

  “Say it.”

  Oh God. I wanted him inside me.

  “Yes, my pussy is yours.”

  My entire body tensed as he took my essence, moving his finger to a place I’d never been touched. “Sterling.”

  “Relax, sunshine. Close your eyes and feel. Don’t think.”

  “I-I...” I did as he said, my eyes fluttering closed as I concentrated on his movements.

  Around and around he tantalized until my entire body was feeling his actions. Not only where he was touching, but everywhere, as if my tight ring of muscles was hardwired to nerves all throughout my entire being. My breaths stuttered as hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood to attention, tiny lightning rods ready for the strike.

  “This is mine too,” he declared.

  As I fought back the anxiety his proclamation created, the bed moved. I turned toward him, feeling the loss of his presence behind me. “What?”

  He opened the drawer of his bedside stand, where he kept the vibrator we’d tried. My eyes opened wide and heartbeat accelerated as he removed a different case. He didn’t need to tell me what it was because as soon as he removed it from the satin interior I knew.

  “Sterling...I’m not...”

  “Trust me.”

  Nodding, I lowered my forehead back to the pillows, nervous about what he was going to do, yet trusting him to do it. Again the bed shifted as something cool drizzled over my behind. Using one finger he resumed the circling.

  “Relax, Araneae. You were almost there. I told you that you are mine, all of you. This is part of you.”

  I let out a breath as I concentrated on his movements. Slower and slower he circled, the gel warming under his touch until I gasped as he breached the ring of muscles. “So fucking tight. I can’t wait for my cock to feel this.”

  “I-I...” Words weren’t forming.

  “Not today, sunshine. We’ll start with a butt plug. You need to stretch before you can handle me, and I want this to feel as good for you as it does for me.”

  Sterling’s words reassured me as once again the muscle was breached. This time I knew it wasn’t his finger, but the toy I’d seen him remove from the case.

  “How are you doing?” he asked.

  “I-I don’t know.”

  He pushed it slowly, bit by bit, in bearable increments.

  “I-it feels...different.”

  “It’s all the way in,” he said. “Can you hold it there?”

  My core clenched at the odd sensation beside it. “I-I think so.”

  I let out a loud shrill as the plug within me began to vibrate. “Oh, fuck, Sterling...”

  He didn’t answer as he leaned over me, kissing my neck and shoulder blades. His lips moved down my back, creating a trail down my spine as the toy continued to move. With tiny explosions throughout my nervous system I was losing all sense of what was happening.

  As Sterling’s cock joined the party, I pushed back, wanting him to fill me.

  So full.

  My lungs fought for breath as he stilled, letting me adjust to his size as the toy continued to vibrate.

  “Oh God. This is...” I couldn’t find words adequate to describe the sensation.

  “Holy shit,” he said, holding onto my hips. “Fuck, Araneae. It’s vibrating my cock.”

  Thrust by thrust we fell into our own rhythm. My skin dampened as perspiration coated it, yet my mind was centered on what he and the toy were doing, lifting me higher beyond the ninety-seventh floor up to the clouds. His grasp of my hips tightened as he slammed into me over and over. All at once, my core clamped down and fireworks detonated behind my closed eyes. Complete annihilation. Like no other orgasm before it, my world disappeared as my insides convulsed and I screamed out his name.

  Rendered useless, my body collapsed.

  Lifting me and rolling me to my back, Sterling kissed my lips before continuing and bringing my body slowly back to life. The toy was still in place, yet it was the man making love to me that had my full attention. Peering up at his handsome face, I marveled at his intensity. The muscles of his jaw clenched as his biceps bulged under the strain. My hands roamed over his broad shoulders and chest, following the indentations of his definition as once again my core tightened.

  I couldn’t believe I could have another orgasm, not after the last one—and not so soon.

  And then as the room filled with his guttural roar, the cords of his neck strained, and his hips stilled, my back arched as a fresh wave washed through me. Not as intense as the one before, yet this one lingered as Sterling’s cock throbbed and my body held him tight.

  A smile filled both of our faces as our unity broke and he stopped the vibration and eased out the plug. Taking it to the bathroom, he returned with a wet cloth and took care of me. Once he was done, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him back to the bed. “That was...” My smile grew.

  “Better than I imagined,” he said.

  “What? You’ve never done that?”

  His grin grew as his dark gaze sparkled my direction. “No. I made it up for our date.” He shrugged. “But once the idea was set, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

  There was something about being the first one to experience that with him that filled my chest with warmth and pride. Still, I wanted to be clear. “I’m never wearing that out of this room. So put that idea out of your head.”

  “The other vibrator?”

  He was talking about the one with the remote control. I shrugged. “No promises.”

  “That’s better than a flat no.”

  My nose scrunched. “And I don’t know about the other thing.
You’re kind of big.”

  His finger caressed my cheek again. “Sunshine, we have forever. There’s no rush.”

  “Are you going to tell me more about last night?” I asked.

  Sterling nodded. “Yes. Let’s get cleaned up and lunch first. I’m hungry.”

  “Lunch?” I looked at the clock. “Oh, jeez. It’s nearly noon.”

  He offered me his hand to stand from the bed. “That’s why I said lunch.”

  Sterling

  I was struck by the reality that all five of us were back in the kitchen eating sandwiches and salads as if the entire world hadn’t been ready to implode the night before. Araneae and Lorna were saying something and smiling. Reid told me that Lorna had taken Araneae to their apartment last night. And while I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, I liked that she hadn’t been alone. I recalled the first time we’d left Lorna on lockdown. She was a tough lady, yet we hadn’t considered her fear. To us, she was safe. Since then, Reid’s done his best to keep her connected when things go south.

  The two ladies were saying something about chess. I’d need to ask Araneae if she played.

  The thought brought a dark shadow to my lighter thoughts. Would it seem odd to buy a new board for our bedroom if she wanted to play even though I had the set in my office? Would I need to tell her why I couldn’t move those pieces on the board in my office? It had been an ongoing game with Mason, and since he’s been gone, the pieces haven’t moved. For nearly six years they’ve sat exactly as they were. Lorna’s feather duster was the only thing that touched them.

  I’d worry about that after this deal with McFadden was settled.

  After Carlos’s men shot up the trailer, confirmed the men inside weren’t part of their cartel, and delivered Louisa to the Sparrows, two Sparrows went back to the trailer for cleanup. Leaving dead or nearly dead bodies lying around was never good. In Chicago they could easily be moved to a believable location, adding to the veil of deception that worked to create Chicago dwellers’ false sense of security.

  Boulder was different.

  When our men arrived, the man who’d spoken on the phone was dead, a gunshot wound to his temple, his phone destroyed, and a gun in his lifeless hand. The cartel was good. They’d left him wounded and ready for questioning. Maybe they weren’t that good because, somehow, he’d found a gun and taken his own life. It was a sure sign that he’d rather die by his own hand than go through our questioning or McFadden’s punishment for losing Louisa.

  The young kid who was the one going to the couriers wasn’t as resourceful. According to his ID, his name was Ricky. Ricky had been shot in both knees, so moving was impossible. Yet he was alive. There’s something about the thought of lying in the wilderness, your body a smorgasbord for rats and other vermin, that helped you do what you could to survive and get out.

  Too bad for him, he thought that would happen with his cooperation.

  It didn’t take too much persuasion by the Sparrows to get Ricky to sing. He didn’t know the name of the client, only his instructions through his partner. The kid had helped nab the Toneys, shooting them both up with a tranquilizer after placing a rag with chloroform over their sleeping mouths.

  That was part of the reason we insisted on transporting Louisa to the hospital. While Dr. Moore assessed that she and the baby would be fine, both with strong heartbeats, I wasn’t willing to take any chances that the drugs caused harm.

  The tranquilizer was why Jason had no memory of the abduction. The temperature in the storage unit caused his dehydration. It truly seemed he was as lucky as Louisa. If he’d been left in that container longer, his body would have shut down.

  Ricky said they snuck into the Toneys’ house near eleven at night to drug them. The van arrived a little later—the one Reid saw on the neighbor’s video doorbell. The client instructed them to ditch the husband, saying he was only interested in the woman.

  Ricky wasn’t even sure of his partner’s name. The man had only hired him for this job, but he recalled hearing someone on the phone call him Sly.

  While the kid would no longer be alive to experience the vermin invasion, that didn’t change the fact that as we ate lunch, Ricky was now feed for Colorado’s wildlife. It would more than likely begin with bigger prey: cougars, black bears, or wildcats. As a species, the felines were more carnivore than the bears, but meat was meat. Eventually, the smaller vermin and insects would finish the process.

  It was no different than what would have happened to him if the job had gone the way Sly planned. The only reason to hire a nobody in another town was to set them up for the fall and silence them before they had a chance to rat you out. Ricky’s future was set the minute he agreed to work with Sly.

  As a rule of thumb, don’t accept a criminal endeavor for promised cash from a stranger. It was a good rule to follow.

  With the kid’s phone and Sly’s—though it was destroyed—Reid was certain he could confirm the connection to McFadden. He’d already gotten a hit on the man’s voice on the phone call: Sylvester Hicks, a McFadden capo.

  That meant that the client Sly mentioned was McFadden, and he wouldn’t let this drop until Araneae produced the evidence.

  “I spoke with Louisa,” Araneae said to Lorna. “She’s confused but healthy. I felt bad not telling her that it happened because of me. She doesn’t know why she would be kidnapped and is eternally grateful that you...” She looked around the table at Patrick, Reid, and I. “...were able to jump in and help.” She turned to me. “I told her that I was coming down soon.”

  I took a deep breath, not responding, and by the expression on her face, if we were alone she’d be pushing the matter. It wasn’t that I disagreed. It was that first we needed to bring this old wives’ tale to an end.

  “I think it’s time for a one-on-one with McFadden,” I said, trustful of everyone listening.

  Araneae’s eyes opened wide. “Not if it’s dangerous, you’re not.”

  “Sunshine, it’s like gasoline and matches, but we can’t go on grasping at straws. Last night we learned that he believes you have the evidence from your father. You know you don’t. I know you don’t.” I motioned around the table. “We all know that. The subject even came up with your mother. She said she doesn’t believe it exists. That leaves McFadden. I need to find out why he’s so hell-bent on this.”

  Lorna shrugged. “I’d bet it has something to do with his candidacy for president.”

  We all looked her direction.

  “What? I’m more than a pretty face,” she said. “I listen. I also have news apps I follow. There’s speculation he’s announcing soon.”

  Reid shook his head. “You’re definitely a beautiful face, but, babe, it’s the end of August. Midterms are coming in November. No one announces this early. It would be over two years ahead of the election.”

  “I’m just telling you what people are saying,” she said. “I may not get out much, but I stay informed. The senator wants to get out in front of the pack. There won’t be an incumbent in the next race. His campaign manager leaked that it’s McFadden’s time.”

  Reid, Patrick, and I stared at one another as wheels turned in all of our heads.

  “It would make sense,” Patrick finally said, “that he wants confirmation the evidence exists or doesn’t exist before the announcement.”

  I ran my hand through my still-damp hair—from our shower earlier—and turned to Araneae. Her long yellow hair was also damp and braided over one shoulder. With very little makeup and the remains of the sun’s tan from the yacht, she was absolutely radiant.

  We had to get this figured out before McFadden pulled another power play. I looked to Patrick and Reid. “After we finish eating, we’ll go downstairs and brainstorm. I think Lorna’s onto something.”

  Araneae turned my way. “We also need to talk about my upcoming one-on-one.”

  I shook my head. “You lost me.”

  “With my...” She let out a breath. “...mother.”

  I look
ed to Patrick. “We need a secure location. Either my office or hers.”

  “Hello,” Araneae said. “You two are doing it again. Don’t make my decisions for me.” When no one responded, she added, “Maybe I could invite her here?”

  My jaw clenched. There were too many damn fires happening.

  “No,” Araneae said, turning to Lorna, “I can’t because I can’t operate the damn elevator.”

  Lorna turned my way. “If you don’t give her access to the elevator soon, she’s going to stab you in your sleep.”

  Araneae laughed, covering her lips. “I almost spit out my salad.”

  Reaching under the table, I squeezed her knee. “I think I’m safe.”

  “How about to access A?” Lorna pushed.

  “Lorna,” Reid said in a tone I recognized, “not your battle.”

  “Like hell. I have money riding on this.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” everyone said in chorus.

  “Not to the garage until this is settled with McFadden,” I said, looking directly to Araneae. “You will stay with one of us at all times when you leave this apartment.” I turned to Lorna. “A is your floor—all of yours. I’ll leave that up to you, but all three of you have to agree.”

  Lorna turned to Araneae. “You have a yes from me.” Both women turned to Reid.

  “Look at you two ganging up,” Reid teased. “I don’t have a fucking choice in this, do I?”

  Lorna shook her head.

  “Fine by me,” he said.

  We all turned to Patrick as his hands went in the air. “Oh hell no.”

  “No?” Lorna and Araneae questioned together.

  “Oh hell no, I’m not standing in the way,” Patrick clarified. “I have to spend most of the day with Ms. Hawkins. Having her mad at me is scary.”

  Araneae smiled, tipping her head with all the sweetness she could muster. “You’re the scary one.”

  Patrick grinned. “I don’t think you’ve met the woman who thought I tricked her into going to the distribution center. She’s one tough cookie.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Araneae said. “My glass tower just grew a bit.”