Imani realized that he’d ensured that their powerful guests knew why they were there and that he now expected them to protect and support his wife. She thought his thinking was delusional, and that was why, three hours after being married and having a light lunch with their guests, who had all left by late afternoon, she ensured Colt knew exactly what he’d gotten himself and his family into. She still had no idea where Sarah was, but she assumed that her friend was sulking in her room.
“My dad was a renowned physicist and biochemist who worked for the American government. The people coming after me think I have the notes to a top-secret project he’d been working on before he died.”
“What kind of project?” Colt asked.
“He was the lead scientist with a group of other scientists who were tasked with creating a bio solution that could act as a nerve agent.”
Colt frowned in outrage. “What the hell was our government doing creating a weapon like that?”
“They weren’t creating it to use it. As far as I could tell, they were creating it to try to replicate the agent currently being used in the genocide in other countries. They were going to replicate it and create an antidote. The thing is that not only did they create the solution and the antidote they also created an agent that was the most powerful in the world.”
“Shit!” For the first time since she’d known him, Colt lost his customary cool to gape at her as though the weight of the world had just landed on his shoulders. “Tell me that they’re wrong and you don’t have this agent.”
Imani smiled grimly. “I showed an affinity for math and science at an early age. My dad started taking me into the lab with him. He was extremely proud of how quickly I grasped the complex mathematical formulae, and he thought that someday I would be able to fully understand his work.” She started to get emotional at the thought of her father’s patience with her endless questions. He never raised his voice or got tired of explaining anything to her. She fingered the locket on the necklace that she never took off as she told Colt about the conversations she used to have with her dad.
“How old were you when your father was killed? Did they ever find out who did it?”
She turned away from him. It was difficult for her to talk about that night. “My family was killed when I was eight years old, and no, they never found who was after the formulae. Even before my family was all buried, I was given a new identity and placed into foster care, but it was a friend of my dad who made sure I was settled with a family who could protect me.” She’d cried for months after her family was murdered. The question that continued to haunt her and still did was: Why had she survived, and not her family? She was determined that their deaths wouldn’t have been in vain. And now that the possible perpetrator seemed to want to come after her, she had to bring him down too.
“How did you end up at Cornell?” Colt frowned in confusion.
Imani smiled. “Did you miss the part about me being really smart? I got scholarships. However, on my eighteenth birthday, I inherited my parents’ estate. Both of my parents came from money, and they’d made money of their own too. I also had my own investments. People paid a lot of money for certain things I created. And I’m really good at creating shit. That came in handy when I had to go to grad school.”
“You still haven’t said whether you have your father’s formula and why the hell it has all of these motherfuckers salivating for it.”
“I’m getting to that, but first I wanted to tell you about the new shield I made for you.”
“I only care that you now have a shield for yourself,” Colt muttered.
“I haven’t told you what your shield can do.” Imani laughed. “I was thinking that if Tony Stark can do it, why can’t I?”
“Tony Stark?”
“Iron Man,” Imani said hesitantly, not sure of whether he was into things like that.
“I know who Iron Man is. I’m just hoping like hell you didn’t build me such a ridiculous contraption.”
Imani grinned. “Nothing so ostentatious. In fact, it’s a contraption no one will see coming, fits more like Black Panther than Iron Man.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s probably better that I show you instead of telling you.”
“This is not exactly how I envisaged spending my wedding night.”
“Well, it’s not night as yet, and Sarah is already not speaking to me. We go up to your bed before eight p.m., she’ll probably have a coronary.”
“About that…” Colt breathed in deeply. “I’m sorry about her defection. I thought she’d understand.”
“Well, she might’ve fallen for your story about wanting to protect me”—Imani sighed—“except that I’d just finished telling her that I had a crush on you. So, she’s thinking that I manipulated you into helping me to get into your pants.”
“That’s an interesting thought.” Colt smirked. “Whenever you’re ready to get into my pants, just say the word. I’m all for letting her think you’re abusing my poor body. And I can’t wait to consummate this marriage. And don’t care if it’s in daylight or in the dark.”
“Why aren’t you hearing me?” She reached up on the tips of her toes and grabbed his shirt as close to the collar as she could. “Sarah hates me!”
“Sarah needs to deal with her own relationship and stop messing with mine.”
Imani stilled. “And exactly what relationship are you talking about?”
Colt raised an eyebrow. “You’ve forgotten what I am?”
She stared at him in shock. “You know about Tony?”
“Of course, I do,” Colt scoffed. “Tony came to me during her freshman year of college. I almost put a bullet in his ass. And then I remembered how I reacted to you, so I had to cut him some slack.” He shrugged his shoulders as if to say “what the hell?”
“Tony encouraged her to finish school and kept her out of most of the wild partying that she’d been doing before she left. He was a stabilizing force, and I had no moral ground to stand on. I was already having inappropriate thoughts of someone even younger. Who the fuck am I to judge?”
“I can’t believe you’ve known all along. Sarah is terrified to death to tell you.” Imani laughed at the irony of it.
“Yeah well, Sarah needs to learn a lesson about telling the truth.”
“Although there’s still so much you’re going to learn about your ward, you still don’t have the moral ground, honey.”
“I think I do actually. I’m the guardian. I don’t owe her an explanation.”
“And that right there is why Sarah is going to hate me forever.” Imani sighed dramatically. “Damn, today I became the evil stepmother.”
“And I became the stereotypical old man with young hot wife.”
“Hey, hot brilliant wife to you, buddy!” She frowned suddenly. “Sarah also said that you have several lovers in the city.”
“You thought this and married me anyway?” Colt couldn’t believe she was asking him something like that when she’d just told him that she trusted him, that she loved him. She would see the displeasure on his face. He held her gaze coolly.
“At first, I was blinded by jealousy, even thinking that you must have been with them when you didn’t call me during the week. But then you asked me earlier if I trusted you. I do trust you. You’re a man of honor.”
Colt still wasn’t satisfied. “You trust me and what? Why did you marry me, Imani?”
“You know why I married you.”
Colt smirked, knowing full well why she was refusing to say it. He had every intention of making her admit her feelings for him again before the night was out.
***
Imani placed a watch on his wrist, and the band automatically self-adjusted and fastened to his wrist.
“What’s this?”
“It’s your new shield.” She smiled at his frown of confusion. “I built it a few years ago. However, I’ve been tweaking it for the p
ast year.”
“Not sure how a watch becomes a shield, but if you say it does, I believe you. However, you do realize that, by creating things like this, men like Lippman will continue coming after you.”
“Thank you. As you can see, I don’t care about men like Lippman. I build what I want for whom I want. Why don’t you take off that jacket before we proceed?”
“Now we’re talkin’,” Colt teased. “I’m perfectly willing to take it all off if we’re beginning our wedding night.”
Imani rolled her eyes. “I’m sure we can do this without you removing your clothes.”
“I don’t mind taking off as many clothes as you want,” he insisted with a smirk and discarded his suit jacket as he did so.
“Seriously, don’t remove anything.” Imani stood behind the tall glass table that housed her laptop. “I want you to appreciate what this shield feels like. Go ahead and press that first button on the side of the watch.”
“Speaking of buttons…” His gaze glistened with wicked intent as he walked toward her instead of activating the button Imani instructed him to.
“Colt, this is important.”
“So is my having my wife under me. You’re still in your wedding dress and tiara. I should help you with that.” He meticulously took the tiara and pins from hair, causing the heavy weight of it to tumble down her back in an array of thick glossy curls. “Hmm,” he murmured in appreciation as he hooked his arm around her waist, pulled her to him, and inhaled the fragrance of her hair. He tossed the pins and tiara to the carpet carelessly.
“Colt…” Her breathless protest was in no way convincing. He was hard and pulsing against her belly, causing her to become instantly wet and reeling with need. She couldn’t remember what she’d been trying to show him.
“Did I tell you how beautiful you are in this dress?” He bent his head and gave her a probing kiss. “And I know you’re even more beautiful without the dress.” He kissed her again, this time sliding his tongue to curl around hers.
She moaned at the familiar taste of him. It was always stunning how swiftly his kisses could ignite her senses. And even as he deepened the kiss, raw need licked throughout every pore in her body. She could barely form a thought. The cool air on her skin was the first inkling she had that he’d been busy divesting her of the dress he’d just praised. A maid had come and collected her veil when they’d sat down to lunch. Given the weight of the veil and the gown, Imani was certain it must have cost the earth. And now Colt was chucking it to the carpeted floor as though it were just dirty laundry.
“My beautiful wife,” he hissed as he gazed down at her in an ivory lace demi-cut strapless bra and matching floral-lace string bikini panty. The bits of material only enhanced the generous swell of her breasts and taut globes of her ass.
His arousal was blatant and unapologetic. The butterflies in her stomach intensified at the sight.
He cupped her face and held her gaze. With a feral look in his eyes, his need, his lust was so visceral that she trembled as it fired her own.
“Today you became officially mine to God and man,” he whispered. “Nothing has made me happier.”
“Yes,” she whispered shakily and trembled harder, not ever seeing him this raw, this virile. His uncompromising intent to marry her, no matter the objection of his family, made her giddy with love for him.
He lifted her high in his arms.
She eagerly wound her arms around his neck and kissed with all the love she’d been suppressing and refusing to repeat out loud. She kissed him for all the times she’d wanted to and couldn’t. And she kissed him, savoring his possession. The hardness of his body against her soft skin further inflamed the desire that surged deep in her pelvis. She wanted him with a bone-deep need that was as painful as it was pleasurable. She wanted him fast and hard.
He didn’t disappoint, as he seemed to want the same.
One minute she was being held high in his arms, and the next she felt his lips around the taut tip of her breast with a strong suction and his hard length buried deep in her moist heat. The muscles in his shoulders and back rippled beneath her fingers as she held on to him. His turquoise gaze was feverish with molten desire as he drove up into her slow and deep, over and over again, and then hard and fast until she went hoarse with the raw cries of need he dragged from her. Too soon, he rode them into a blistering release that drew a harsh roar from deep in his throat that ricocheted throughout the room.
Chapter Fourteen
“Do you feel married now?” Colt asked with a cocky grin.
Imani rolled her eyes. “Are you going to get off me any time soon?” In truth, as much as she was loving the sex, she was exhausted, and he was insatiable. After they’d made love in her lab, he’d taken her to his room. They’d barely crossed the threshold before he had her pinned against the wall next to the door and he was buried deep in her again.
“Why did you marry me?” he’d asked more than once during the night. And every time, he was able to wring the words “I love you” from her lips. He seemed to want her all over again every time she said it.
From the wall of the bedroom, he’d picked her up and taken her to his super-sized king bed, where he’d thoroughly fucked her again. This time he’d taken his time to properly take off her clothes and shoes, which he’d hastily put on her before they’d left her lab. He leisurely took off his clothes, making her shiver with stunning desire at the sight of his beautiful chiseled body and his hard-as-steel cock.
He’d let her sleep for a few minutes after that before lifting her from the warm covers, insisting that he wanted to properly bathe his wife. She should’ve known right then to run back to her old bedroom.
He had given her a bath all right, but then he’d ruined the soothing effect by pulling her into his lap and fucking her until more than half of the water from the hot tub was on the bathroom floor. Of course then, they had to take a shower. She’d thought he was finally done, because she’d made it from the shower unscathed, even getting a gentle towel dry from him. Perhaps she shouldn’t have bent to pick up the towel when he dropped it to the floor. Because then he may not have slid a finger into her slit and flicked her sensitive nub, and she wouldn’t have instantly soaked his finger with her essence. Next thing she knew he had a large palm at the base of her spine to keep her in place as he drilled his bruising length up into her. And she loved every minute of it.
It must have been her evil twin that had cheered him on, demanding he pound her harder, faster. It was also her twin who’d climbed on top of him later in the early dark hours of the morning and ridden him like he hadn’t just fucked her brains out hours before.
Now her snatch was slightly swollen and a whole hell-a sore after he’d woken her up with his hard shaft buried in her sleek opening and his lips fastened on the beaded tip of her breast.
“When a man marries a woman as fine as you, he’d die a happy man if he gets to wake up every morning with his hot-as-hell wife under him,” Colt teased.
“It’s not even morning yet,” Imani grouched. It was still dark out.
“My bad.” He grinned and rolled off her. Snagging an arm around her waist, he pulled her back against his chest. “I couldn’t sleep,” he admitted quietly.
“Why?” Imani snuggled against him sleepily.
“I didn’t want our wedding night to end.” He tightened his arm around her. “Yesterday and last night has been the best. You’ve made me a very happy man, Mrs. Ragnarson.”
She turned in his arms, wanting to see his eyes when he said such outrageous things. “Do you mean that?” She was more than skeptical of his confession. After all, they hadn’t married for love, at least he hadn’t married her for love. She felt as if she’d loved him forever.
Instead of answering her, he kissed her tenderly. He’d barely raised his lips from hers before the sound of the house alarm shattered the early morning tranquility. “What the fuck?” He sprang from the bed. “I had
the housekeeper put your clothes in the closet. Get dressed!”
The sound of rapid gunfire had them pulling on their clothes with even more urgency.
“Stay here,” he ordered. “I will send Sarah to you. She will guide you to our safe room. This time, follow instructions!”
Imani didn’t bother answering him. She was too busy looking around for the watch she’d given him, as it was now missing from his wrist. “Where’s the watch I gave you?”
“I don’t have time for that right now, Imani.” He opened a hidden trap door that looked as though it was part of the wall. He retrieved the gun she’d made for him and his original shield. “Just do as I asked,” he muttered impatiently.
“Make time, dammit. This is very important.” She stilled suddenly. “The bathroom,” she breathed out with relief as realization dawned and she ran to retrieve it. “Please wear this and be safe,” Imani insisted as she watched the band automatically tighten around his wrist.
“You never got around to telling me how to use it.”
Another round of gunfire filled the air, sounding as though it was getting closer.
“And we don’t have time now.” He frowned down at what looked like a simple watch.
“Just press the button. The suit is intuitive and responds to whatever you need.”
“You said you had a suit as well.”
“Don’t worry about me. You press the button and you will know where everyone in this house is, and so will I.” She whispered the last part to herself. When it looked as if he would leave the room without activating the shield, she blocked his exit and grabbed his wrist again. “Ready or not, you’re being suited,” she growled and activated the shield herself.
Colt made it down the stairs in time to witness the loud explosion that blew out his front door. He marveled at the strength of his new shield, as neither the power nor sound of the explosion bothered him in the least. If he’d been without it, a blast like that would have at least taken an arm or leg from his body, if not killed him, and the sound would have rendered him at least temporarily deaf.
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