North

by Vanessa Vale

I nodded.

  “What did Macon do?”

  I didn’t respond, so he lifted my chin so I had to look in his eyes. “What did he do?”

  “This talk… we did it out of order. Jock was first. He couldn’t do anything about the deal with your parents falling through. He learned something then, that there were no consequences if I stepped out of line. Nothing happened. I went to Harvard while he bided his time. Until the following year and South. Then East and West.”

  “Why didn’t you leave after that? Your brothers were gone. Never came back. You could’ve. You had your degrees. You could have gotten a job anywhere.”

  We could talk all night about all the ways Macon had controlled me. This was enough. He knew now why I didn’t trust. Why I’d accused him of wanting something from me.

  I cupped his jaw, felt the softness of his beard under my palm. “So many little cuts, Jed. They barely bleed. But they hurt just the same.”

  “I don’t know what the fuck that means.”

  “It means he cut me to pieces. Only the jaded, cold parts of me are left. I’m the ice princess, remember?”

  His eyes flared because he remembered his words.

  “It means I have to wonder why you’re here with me,” I continued. “What your motive is. Your plan. What you’re going to take from me.”

  He reached for the hem of my shirt and lifted it, slowly baring me to him. Then he shifted his knees so I slipped off. He carefully lowered me to the carpeted floor so I was kneeling before him.

  “I’m not taking, princess,” he said. “You’re giving. Willingly and because you want to. Because beneath all the shit that’s happened to you, you can tell a good thing. Something real.”

  “The ice princess and the fallen FBI man.”

  The corner of his mouth tipped up. “You read up on me.”

  I nodded, looking up at him. For some reason, being on the floor in front of him was… comforting. “What did you do?”

  “It didn’t say?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “I made deals with the bad guys. Do you believe that, princess? You, more than anyone else, should know that not everything you read is the truth.”

  “You want me to trust, but—” I’d given up my life for a guy rotten to the core. Was I falling for another?

  “What’s your gut tell you? You’re an expert on assholes. Think I’m like all the others?”

  Did I? I ached for him to be better than other men. The best. But what I’d read, the fact that he worked for Marshall…

  And yet I’d let him touch me within minutes at the wake. I’d let him inside me earlier. I was on my knees. Now I was questioning?

  “You and me, we can be broken together. Two pieces put together to make a whole.”

  He stroked my hair as I processed what he was saying.

  “You’re it, princess. I’m here for you. Trust.”

  I shook my head, because I desperately wanted to believe his words.

  “You’re on your knees, but you can get up right now. Kick me out. I’ll go. But I know me taking charge makes you hot.”

  “Jed,” I breathed. He was right in that. I loved it. Needed it. Craved the blank mind. The pleasure.

  He adjusted himself and the thick crown of his dick appeared in the open fly of his jeans, as if it couldn’t be contained.

  I wasn’t the only one that craved.

  “What makes you hot makes me hard. You’re my woman. Whatever you desire is mine to give.”

  “I’m not your woman,” I said right away, although hearing him say that was like a balm to an open wound. I wanted to believe him, to belong to someone. But I barely knew him, knew the bad things he’d done to be kicked out of the FBI. Did I replace one demanding man with another trying to rule my life?

  “You are. The second I saw you again you were mine. When you handed me those panties in your father’s office at the house surrounded by all those fucking animal heads, you gave yourself to me.”

  I stared up at him, leaned into his palm. The eyes were dark, fueled by all the secrets I unburdened. By the truth he seemed to be trying to get across to me over and over. He was so rugged and fierce, that calm intensity the opposite of Macon’s wild rages. He showed me that he could remain in control no matter what happened, that I didn’t have to fear him. Or this between us.

  “It’s time to make your choice, North. Either stand up and kick me out or suck my dick like a good girl.”

  9

  JED

  * * *

  I was a fucking hypocrite. I sat on North’s bed with my dick hanging out, the woman bare and on her knees before me. I was asking her to trust, to believe that I wouldn’t hurt her, wouldn’t be an asshole like her father and all the mean shit he’d pushed on her.

  Macon may have been devious and ruthless, using his own daughter as a pawn, but she knew what he was. She remembered me from all those years ago, but that was it. Taking the time today to research me meant she was interested and wanted to be informed. To know the full picture before going deeper with me.

  Yet it was all lies. She thought I was a fallen FBI agent. Disgraced. Down on my luck and working for Marshall to pay the bills. She thought all that and was right here with me. I’d told her not everything she read was the truth. It was all I could give her, the only clue that I wasn’t what she thought.

  I hadn’t lied, but I sure as shit hadn’t told her the truth.

  I couldn’t.

  We were the same, she and I. I was taking her innocence on faith, and she was doing the same with mine. Except I wasn’t innocent. I wasn’t what she thought.

  I was investigating her. She would learn the truth about me, that she was my job, thinking I didn’t trust her to be innocent.

  I believed in her innocence, and I’d told my boss that. She didn’t work in gray areas. The FBI was black and white, meaning no evidence that proved North’s innocence meant she was as good as guilty.

  North wouldn’t do the shit Macon had. The woman who knelt before me was bare to me in all ways. I just had to prove her lack of guilt to my boss. That was the only way we could both be free.

  North came up onto her knees. For a split second, I thought she was going to stand, to walk away. But she only raised up so she could lick the drop of pre-cum from my dick.

  My hand went to the back of her head and I tugged on her hair, forced her to meet my eyes as I lifted my hips, pushed my jeans down with my other hand.

  My full length sprang free and was inches from North’s face. Yet I kept my eyes on her. I saw everything there in those blue depths. Trust, desire, the need to please.

  “My dirty princess.” I slid my hand around, cupped her jaw, ran my thumb over her plump lower lip. Then I guided her to my dick and she took me in her mouth.

  Fuck, I’d never seen anything hotter in my life. North, her hair mussed from my fingers, her eyes on mine as she hollowed her cheeks and took me into her mouth. I was too big for her to take all of me, but she sure as shit tried.

  My hips bucked involuntarily, and I went too deep. Her eyes watered and she pulled back, breathing through her nose. I took her hand, wrapped her fingers around my base and let her at it again. She was voracious, drawing hot, wet pulls on me as if trying to suck the cum from my balls.

  She’d do it too if she kept at it. And not for long.

  I pulled her off me and she looked up at me with surprise, then confusion, then worry. As if I wasn’t satisfied.

  Taking her hand, which had been on my thigh, I stood, helping her to her feet. Then pointed. “Bed. Now.”

  “But—”

  “Unless your pussy’s sore from earlier, I’m taking it again.” I went over to the side of her bed, pointed at the end table. “Got some toys in here?”

  She nodded. I took that as permission to open the drawer. Besides a paperback, a packet of tissues and a tube of lip balm, I found her stash. Those battery-operated boyfriends that got her off.

  I pointed at the bed again, w
aited for her to crawl her way up from the bottom.

  I picked up the small vibrator, lipstick sized, dropped it on the bed right beside where she laid down. Her light hair fanned out across her pillow. Next I grabbed the larger vibrator, which had some kind of suction thing on the end.

  I lifted the big dildo last, realistic with a thick vein running up the underside, but supersized as if molded from a porn star’s dick. “You take this one for a ride?”

  She nodded, her cheeks flushing so prettily. The pink color spread down her neck and to the swells of her breasts.

  I tossed it over my shoulder where it thudded on the carpet. “The only dick getting in that pussy from now on is mine.”

  Grabbing the second condom from my back pocket—thank fuck I’d been hopeful enough to bring two—I dropped it on the bed, then pushed off my pants.

  Crawling over her, I set my hand by her head, leaned down and kissed her. Fuck she was sweet. I didn’t linger on her lips, but kissed my way down her body, taking a minute to suck on her plump nipples, feeling them harden against my tongue. Then lower still, pushing her legs wide so I could settle between them.

  “Jed,” she breathed.

  While it was just getting dark out, the room wasn’t, her bedside lamp was on as well as the one by the window where I’d found her. I could see all of her, and this close, her pussy was wet, swollen from the hard fuck earlier, and all mine.

  Reaching out, I grabbed the small lipstick vibrator. “This one first.”

  She looked down at me and frowned. “Um… what?”

  “You’re going to use this one first and I’m going to watch.”

  “No way.”

  I raised my hand, brought it down on her pussy in a light slap.

  Her eyes flared wide and her back arched. A moan escaped her lips. I watched her closely, ensuring this was something she’d like. Yeah, it had been a test, but I had a feeling she’d get off on it, the slight bite of pain, the reprimand. It got her attention and got her out of her head. Her focus was all on me now, and her tingling pussy.

  “Get busy, princess, or I’ll spank your pussy again.” Her eyes flared and a puff of air escaped her lips. “Not sure which you’d like better.”

  I raised my hand, but she grabbed the vibrator, twisted it so it began to buzz, and set it on her clit.

  Her eyes fell closed and her knees flared wide.

  My dick was leaking pre-cum all over her blanket. Just watching her use a vibe in just the way that got her off.

  Fuck me.

  I got my fingers involved, sliding one, then two into her as she kept at it.

  “Don’t come,” I warned.

  Her eyes flew open, and she looked at me with fury. I grinned. “You’ll wait, princess.”

  I took her hand and set it back over her clit, then let go.

  She might wait, but I couldn’t. I shifted to my knees and slid the condom on as I watched her shift and writhe on her bed, lost.

  I grabbed her hips, lined up at her entrance and thrust deep.

  “Jed!” she cried.

  I set her hand back on her clit, felt the vibrations in my dick as I began to fuck her. “Good girl. Come for me.”

  Her inner walls clamped down as she came, completely uninhibited. Wild.

  I was going to come just watching her, and the feel of her milking my dick was enough to set me off, but I held back, let her come down from her pleasure.

  I grabbed the little vibe from her hand, tossed it to the side. Grabbed the other vibrator next.

  She stared at the thing wide eyed. “Oh no. I can’t. Not with you in me too.”

  I thrust deep and her eyes fell closed.

  “I’m not leaving you behind, princess.” I set a ruthless pace, her bed slamming against the wall. “You’ve got one more in you. How are you going to come?”

  She looked away.

  I reached up, turned her face back so she met my eyes. I was buried deep, sweating, but I’d have all of her or none at all.

  “What do you need? I’ll give it to you.”

  She blinked.

  “Just you and me.”

  Licking her lips, she reached out, grabbed the mini-vibe again. “Flip me over,” she whispered.

  I pulled out—fuck, that was hard to do—then helped her over onto all fours, then lowered her cheek to the bed so her ass was up. I could see all of her. All. Pink, swollen, wet. Grabbing her hips, I lined up, then slid into her in a slow, delicious stroke. I groaned at how deep I could go.

  She moaned, then reached back to hand me the vibrator. “You.”

  I took it from her and took a second to understand. She clenched her butt, the muscles going taut, then relaxing. Her little rosebud also winked at me.

  Ah.

  She’d liked it when I’d touched her ass earlier. Fuck, the idea of taking that hole, claiming it as mine made my balls draw up. But she didn’t want that. Yet. I hadn’t told her that was an option. She was told to come with the vibrator and this was how.

  It was still humming away so I ran it around where I was filling her, getting the tip of it coated in her juices. Then I sat it at her back entrance.

  She startled, clenched. Cried out.

  I set a hand beside her head, curved over her as I kept the little vibe just resting on that blatantly virgin hole. “Such a dirty princess. Does that feel good?” I murmured by her ear.

  She nodded, then reached beneath herself and began fingering her clit.

  “Such a good girl.”

  I got busy then because I couldn’t hold back any longer. My woman was getting what she needed and by the way a sheen of sweat bloomed across her bare back, her inner walls squeezing and releasing, she was close to coming.

  So was I. It was like a freight train, my orgasm, unable to stop for anything. I gritted my teeth and held off, pressing the vibe a little more intently against her sensitive flesh.

  She cried out, deep and low as she came, her body tensing, then gushing satisfaction all over my dick. I thrust hard once, then twice, holding myself deep as I filled the condom. My fingers gripped her hips as I ensured that vibe and my dick hit every hot spot.

  Only when she slumped into her blanket did I twist the vibrator off and toss it aside, pulled out and tucked her into the bed. I took care of the condom in the bathroom and she didn’t even move.

  I smiled as I fixed the sheet and blankets around us, tucked her into my arms. She’d given herself to me. Fully. Completely. She might not even realize it yet. I’d seen the real North. Every inch of her and I wouldn’t let her retreat now. No fucking way.

  10

  NORTH

  * * *

  I woke up like usual at five to crappy weather. And an empty bed. I reached out to touch the pillow where Jed had slept. Cold. I sat up, saw that his clothes weren’t strewn on the floor.

  He’d snuck out in the night. That meant several things. One, no one set the house alarm or Jed was a ninja and could sneak past it. Two, he’d left me sometime after he pretty much orgasmed me into unconsciousness.

  I didn’t think he’d gone out to get batteries for my vibrators we’d used. Or coffee, since the nearest town was ten miles away. He could be in the kitchen trying to figure out how to make some with Macon’s fancy machine, but no. He wasn’t here. I could… sense it.

  He had a presence, some kind of magnetic pull that I couldn’t resist.

  I went to the window, naked, and looked out at the rain. The sky was starting to lighten, but there would be no sun. A gust of wind had water pummeling the window. The helicopter would be grounded so I’d be driving in today, which meant I had to skip my usual exercise.

  Turning on the shower, I realized I didn’t care. My muscles were a little achy, in some places more than others. I’d had my workout the night before. I stepped under the hot spray. Closed my eyes.

  All I could see was Jed. His piercing stare, his drive to know all my secrets. To get me to reveal them to him. I hadn’t uttered the truth of what Maco
n had done. Ever.

  Until him.

  South, East, and West were going to want to talk. To strangle me for keeping them in the dark all these years. Then they were going to want to know what Jed was to me, because not only had the guy been the one to get me to talk, they had to know he’d spent the night.

  Or at least part of it.

  I’d never once had a man at the house, not that my brothers were around to know that.

  Why was I drawn to Jed? Why did I bare my soul to him? My body too.

  I’d gotten on my knees for him. Let him order me around. Take control.

  And I barely knew anything about him except what I’d learned from the workup on him. I knew about his family. That he went into the FBI. I pretty much had his bio until he was twenty-seven, when I’d seen him at his family’s barbecue. The rest I got from the report. He’d worked at the FBI until a few months ago. Fired. Laid off. Something like that because of disciplinary action.

  That didn’t seem like the Jed I knew. But he worked for Marshall now. Shady characters flocked to shady characters.

  But Jed wasn’t shady. Was he? Nothing he’d said while we were together made me think that at all. Perhaps the opposite, too honorable. Was I falling for a guy like Macon? Was I replacing one asshole in my life for another? Was he giving me attention because he wanted something from me? I’d asked him that over and over and every single time he’d gotten pissed. Then chipped away a little more at my secrets. Even the dirty, kinky ones. While he kept his quiet.

  Except he’d said he wanted me. All of me. That I was his. That my pussy was his. He touched me in so many different ways. Arms wrapped around me protectively. An ass spanking to get me to talk. A pussy spanking to remind me who was in control. Fingers skillfully finding my g-spot with the need to satisfy. His dick fucking me to make me submit, to dominate, to rule.

  I’d signed the contract with Marshall. If that was Jed’s sole motivation of coming to the wake, which he’d admitted, then he’d be done with me. I’d know all of it had been for a reason other than… than what? Love?