by Kaylee, Katy
Although, come to think of it, she’d never been nervous. Not really. Sometimes something would slow her down, but if she saw a problem she dealt with it head on. Like a freight train. Or a steam engine. Nothing could stop her. Your best bet was to jump out of the way before she mowed you down too.
I had never even seen a glimmer of fear in her dark dove gray eyes until this very night. And I hated that I had something to do with it being there. A part of me though, a very distant, very primal, and very possessive part of me was howling in joy at seeing her again. And without a wedding ring on her left hand.
I was so distracted by her that it took me longer than it should have to realize what I held in my hands.
With that terrible feeling back in my gut I opened the flap of the envelope and drew out a stack of glossy eight by ten photographs.
As I stared down at them, my vision narrowed, going dark around the edges until the only thing that existed was the images I was holding.
Emotions tumbled through me so fast I could barely keep up. Panic. Surprise. Anger. Shock. That last one stuck with me the most as I flipped through the pictures. One after the other, photos of my men, of strangers that I had never seen before. And there on the second to last one, I couldn’t ignore my own profile, almost melting into the shadows as I oversaw a shipment.
“Where did you get these?” I ground the words out from between my teeth. I couldn’t help it. I could barely move my jaw at all it was clenched so tightly.
“Do you know these men, Aiden? Do you know who they are?” Her voice was breathless and waiting but I couldn’t answer her. I was still reeling. I had just flipped to the last photo and it was like a sucker punch to the gut.
There, standing in the center of the frame, was a man I would never forget. Because he was the man who had murdered my father ten years ago.
Suddenly, I was moving with all the force and grace in my much larger frame, crowding Elizabeth back against the wall. She stared at me with those big, gray eyes of hers, flinching when I slammed my hand against the wall. I was at the breaking point. I knew it. My vaunted control was being shredded by the images she’d showed me and the thought that she had been anywhere near the men featured in them.
“Where did you get those photos, Elizabeth?” I demanded, fighting to keep from shouting the question at her. She should have just answered. Instead, she tilted her chin up in that way she had of doing that said she wasn’t about to be intimidated by me. Challenge shone in her dove gray gaze.
“Back off, Aiden.” She shot back at me. There was a breathlessness that belied her words but she didn’t back down at all. It took everything inside me not to chain her wrists together over her head and claim her mouth with mine. To silence her words. or better yet, her hands tied to the posts of the bed. And her legs. Spread out and naked and taking every single thing I wanted to do to her, to show her, to wring every molecule of pleasure that I could from her body.
Taking a shuddering breath, I pushed myself back a few steps and turned around until I couldn’t see her. She played havoc with my control, tearing apart the most integral part of me. I knew I was dangerous. I knew how to hurt, how to kill. And I knew I had a temper that could explode if I didn’t keep it under control at all times. There was a wildness in me, a monster always clawing to get out and it was a constant battle with myself to keep it caged safely away.
But, fuck, she pushed me to my limit. With just a look. Just a handful of words.
I didn’t turn around to look at her as I spoke again.
“Tell me, Elizabeth. Please.”
The small intake of her breath told me that she knew how much that please cost me. I was the head of the Diorno family. I didn’t ask for anything, and I sure as hell didn’t beg.
“They were sent to me. From my sister.” Her soft voice whispered over me, soothing the beast inside with the gentleness I could hear within her.
“Almost a month ago, I was driving home from the lab and missed a call from my sister. When I listened to it…” She paused, taking a deep breath, “Most of it can’t even be made out, it’s all so muffled but I have one of our best technical analysts working on it. I called the cops but they said they didn’t have enough evidence to open a missing persons case. Then, a few days later, that envelope arrived.”
My hands trembled as I realized I still had the photos clenched in one hand and forced my fingers to relax.
“Was there anything else with them?”
“A note. From Leah.”
I could hear the sadness in her voice and it broke my heart.
“What did it say, tesoro?”
“She was a journalist. It just said that she was working on the biggest case of her career and she needed me to take care of them for her until she called. She said it was insurance.”
“So these are recent?” I had to force the question out, staring at the last photo as if I could burn it somehow with my gaze alone.
“Yeah. She’d been working on the case for the past year or so. Maybe a little less.”
The breath hissed from my lungs at her words.
“Why?” Elizabeth asked. I shook my head but couldn’t drag my eyes away from the photo.
“I know this man, that’s all.” I flicked a finger against the image, trying to keep my voice as casual as possible. Not sure how well I succeeded.
He was late into his fifties now, balding with bland, average features and a bland, average build. He wouldn’t be out of place in any restaurant, bar, gas station or corner store across the city. It’s what had made him so good at his job. Well, that, and the utter ruthlessness and willingness to do anything, no matter how gruesome, as long as the price was right.
“Redman.” It physically hurt to say his name out loud, but I kept the rest to myself. He was a ruthless killer. A hitman for the families until he went totally insane ten years ago. He slaughtered dozens in a killing spree before disappearing into thin air. Including my father.
How is this possible? Could Redman really be back? The thought had a knife of fear shuddering down my spine. It had been ten years since anyone had seen him. Why was he back now? And more importantly, what the hell were members of the Diorno family doing running with the man?
It didn’t make sense. Unless someone had betrayed him. Unless someone had betrayed them all those years ago.
Duty. Responsibility. And above all, family. The values his father had drilled into me as a child hung like a heavy weight across my shoulders. But now there was only one question left.
What the hell was I going to do about it? I didn’t recognize the men in the other photos but that didn’t mean anything. I would find them. And then, I would find out exactly what they knew. By whatever means necessary. And I had a hell of a lot of means at my disposal.
Suddenly, a discordant sound broke through my murderous thoughts, pulling me back to the present and the dingy motel room.
With a jolt I realized she was crying. Elizabeth was crying. All the old instincts rose up inside, even after ten years. I had always hated to see her cry. It tore me up inside.
I went to the bed and sat gently on the edge next to her, at a total loss with how to help her, how to comfort her.
“Elizabeth, I…”
“I kept telling myself that Leah was alive. That she had to be alive. It was the only way I could keep going.” Elizabeth gasped through her tears. Her face was tilted down, but I could see the steady stream of moisture rolling across her flushed cheeks.
“She was so excited about the story she was investigating. She never told me the details, but she said it would be big. I just never thought…” Elizabeth drew in another shuddering breath, “Aiden, what if she discovered something dangerous? What if she got hurt? Leah is the only family I have left. Without her, I have no one.”
The heartbreak in her voice destroyed me but I didn’t know what to say. If it was true, if her sister really had gone after Redman, the chances were good that she would never be found again. Th
e chances were even better that she was at the bottom of the river.
“Hush, Elizabeth. It’ll be okay.” I tried to comfort her, moving to put my arm around her even though I didn’t have a clue what to say or do. I wasn’t used to being this unsure of myself. I was never unsure of myself.
“How will it be okay, Aiden?” As she asked the question, Elizabeth turned at looked at me. I sucked in a breath as our gazes crashed together. Hers looked like wet charcoal and all I wanted to do was take away the pain I saw in their depths.
I didn’t answer her with words. I was drowning in her gaze, lost in her agony. It pulled me close, a gravitational pull I had no hope of escaping. And if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t want to either.
Our lips met. The kiss was the barest breath of a touch, but it sent a storm raging through me as violent as the one still raging outside over my city.
Our lips met, and just like that, I was gone.
Chapter 5
Beth
His kiss was everything I remembered, and so much more. Aiden was all heat and fire. And explosion of desire and needs that called to that same deep seeded lust that was hidden away inside me.
It had been so long since I felt desired. Since I felt beautiful. Since I felt anything but grief and confusion and anger over everything that had happened. But in Aiden’s arms, it was all swept away. All I could focus on was him. He didn’t leave room for anything else.
And in that moment, drowning in grief and fear, that was exactly what I needed. I needed someone or something to cling to as the storm raged inside me, scouring me raw and bloody. Nothing I could do made it better, but Aiden’s kiss did. Aiden’s kiss ignited a wild fire inside me that burned everything else away and so, I clung hard to him. The only safe space in the middle of the tsunami threatening to shatter me into a million tiny pieces.
I tore at his clothes, focusing only on the heat, trying to ignore any other emotion and when the sadness or terror tried to rise to the surface, I just angled my head, drawing the kiss even deeper until Aiden invaded every part of me. Until the need clawing inside me was so vast that I couldn’t feel anything else. Just him.
There was a tiny voice that sounded in the back of my head, one that whispered that I was making a mistake. A very big mistake. But I ignored it, shoving it away just as I shoved away everything else.
The need inside me was much louder than that voice, and so much more ferocious. The feel of Aiden’s hands running over my semi-nude body was making my head spin and desire was tearing me apart inside.
There was an icy cold that had sunk deep inside me over the past weeks, ever since I had first gotten that terrible, cryptic voicemail and the photographs from my sister.
I had been completely frozen ever since. Numb inside and out, and Aiden was a fire that could finally free me, finally thaw me. He could make me feel alive again.
For this one, single moment, I just wanted to forget the grief, forget the fear and desperation. For this one moment, I just wanted to lose myself in him completely.
Besides, I knew better than the let my heart get involved this time. I would keep it locked up, safe and sound, just like I had learned to ten years ago. This wasn’t about love. I knew that. This was just about two people, needing to find release in each other’s arms. Nothing more. I wouldn’t let it be anything more.
We both went off like an explosion. One minute, sitting there frozen at the edge of the bed and the next tangled together so thoroughly that I had trouble stripping off his shirt, but I didn’t let it stop me.
We kissed, tearing at each other until I was down to my lacy boy shorts and still damp bra that I had been wearing underneath my soaked clothes.
Heat and fire and lust and desire. That’s what my whole world became as he took me over. Doing things to my body that had electric chills racing up my spine until it arched even harder into his body, hips pressed against hips.
Past and present merged together until I couldn’t separate the two as Aiden pulled my trembling body even closer until there was no air between us. Nothing but skin and sweat and the breath of my heated gasp.
“Dio, Elizabeth. You’re killing me.” Aiden groaned, and this time I didn’t correct him about my name. I was too busy making my way down his body. But I could see the truth of his words. It was evident in the way his hard fingers clasped the bed covers and the way his arms trembled from holding himself back.
He forced himself to stay still, remain passive as I trailed kissed down the muscles of his pecs, the rippling ones of his abs. And he hated it. Every second that I was in control was both heaven and hell for him, but I reveled in it.
I could see just how close he was to the edge of losing that control of his, and I wanted it. I wanted him just as wild and abandoned as I was.
He was completely naked, bared before me like some sort of delicious looking present and I didn’t hesitate as I drew my mouth even lower. In one smooth motion I sucked his already rock hard cock in between my lips and was rewarded by Aiden’s hiss of pained pleasure.
It sounded like a kettle giving off steam. But I wasn’t ready for him to blow yet. Not even close.
I drew his silken hardness as far as I could into my mouth, swallowing and flicking my tongue around the sensitive underside of his flared head and Aiden sank his hands into my hair, still striving for some semblance of control.
I moved my mouth hard, faster, bringing him right to edge until his fingers tightened almost painfully on my pale blond locks.
“Tesoro.” He whispered like a prayer and the all too familiar word sent me into a tailspin. He used to call me that. It meant sweetheart in Italian.
“I can’t wait,” Aiden said, already pulling me up to meet his body as he spun me around to land on the bed. He barely stopped to grab a condom and roll it on before he was back. “I need you now. Right fucking now.”
He locked my wrists in one hand and bound them over my head, chaining me in place with his body. It was exactly what I wanted. What I needed. To be taken. For Aiden to give me everything he could, and more.
Before I could take a breath to beg him to hurry, his hard length was sliding inside me. I was already so wet and ready for him but still, my body had to adjust to him as he filled me. It was almost too much, and not nearly enough.
He stayed like that for a long moment, as deep inside me as he could go, holding himself perfectly still except for the fine tremble of his arm.
“Please, Aiden.” I begged him, beyond any sense of shame or embarrassment. I wanted him just as much as he wanted me. That’s all we were in that moment, desire distilled into two bodies. “Please. Fuck me.”
The words hit him like a whip and I watched his icy blue eyes burn brighter than any flame.
“Your wish, tesoro,” He growled. And then he was moving, pounding his hips against mine as he drove inside me over and over again.
I bucked wildly beneath him, writhing as pleasure arced through my body in waves that blinded me. I squeezed my eyes shut, panting Aiden’s name but I wasn’t even aware of it.
Finally, it all became too much and on the tip of a cry I came apart, shattered as sensation flew through my body. My pussy clenched tight on Aiden’s thick cock causing aftershock after aftershock as he drove a few last times into my overwrought body.
I was sobbing out his name when I finally felt him shudder above me, burying his face in the curve of my neck as his orgasm wracked him.
Contentment and lethargy curled inside me and I couldn’t have moved a muscle even if I wanted to. My entire body felt like jelly. I was still trembling, my body still imprinted with the feel of him as he slid to one side off of the bed.
I watched him through heavy lidded eyes, admiring the graceful, predatory movements of his muscled body. He was like a jungle cat, stalking it’s prey.
He already caught me, I thought to myself, a small satisfied grin on my face. Aiden threw away the condom and was back a moment later, an oddly serious look on his own ha
ndsome face.
He laid a gentle kiss on my shoulder before sweeping my spent body up in his arms.
“What are you doing?” I asked in confusion, suddenly all too aware of the extra weight I had put on since the last time we had seen each other, back in college.
He didn’t seem to notice at all, walking me towards the bathroom as if I weighted nothing at all to him.
“You are soaking wet and shivering. You’re freezing cara mia. I don’t want you catching a cold because of me.” He didn’t look down at her as he spoke, but he still wore that serious expression, “I’m going to run you a bath.”
I let out a husky laugh at that, “I’m not shivering from the cold, Aiden.” That was an understatement. I still didn’t trust my legs to hold me up after the pleasure that had torn through my body. “Besides, there’s no bathtub. It’s just a shower.”
Aiden shot me a heated look at my words, “Then I’m going to run you a shower,” He growled, and I bit back a small smile. I’d forgotten how thoughtful he could be. The smile slowly faded. It would have broken my heart all over again if it hadn’t already been shattered into a million pieces by my sister’s disappearance.
He had to prop me up as he leaned in and started the shower, waiting until the small, spartan bathroom filled with steam before helping me in. I sighed as the hot water sluiced over my body, and tilted my head, watching as Aiden took an uncertain step back.
It was so unusual to see that in him. Uncertainty. In the time I’d known him, uncertain wasn’t even a word in his vocabulary, and he’d only seemed to grow more sure of himself as the years had passed between us.
Before I could stop myself, my hand reached towards him.
“Don’t go.”
He gave me a long look, heat flaring in the blue of his eyes.
“Tesoro, if you ask me to stay, I’m not going to be able to resist temptation.”