by Emma Slate
Without a word, he showed my necklace to Genevieve.
“Eden?” she asked me, but without removing her eyes from Hadrian.
“I’d like to give my key to Hadrian,” I said.
“All right.” Genevieve’s gaze slid to mine. She waited for a moment to see if I was sure, and then nodded. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
Hadrian’s hand tightened ever so slightly on mine and he turned, all but dragging me away. I looked over my shoulder at Genevieve and Annika. Their eyes were trained on me.
I wasn’t able to hold their gazes long since the man who’d claimed me marched us from the room.
Nothing had been decided between us. What he liked. What he expected. I wore a rose gold key. I was a novice. He knew what the key’s patina meant…right?
“Where are we going?” I asked, breathless.
Hadrian looked at me and instantly slowed his trek. “Sorry. I forget that I’m a beast compared to you.”
I blinked. “A beast?”
He flashed an arrogant grin. “My size.”
“I—oh, you mean your stride.”
We walked through a long hallway until we came to a door. He turned the knob and suddenly we were outside underneath the stars. I gulped a breath, feeling my lungs expand.
Lit torches had been staked throughout the grounds to illuminate the garden pathway. Groomed and manicured bushes added to the pristine luxury of the estate.
“Why are we out here?” I asked. “Why aren’t we inside? There are plenty of rooms…”
He looked out over the gardens as he replied, “I wanted to take you someplace intimate.”
Hadrian’s head turned and the intensity of his eyes had me sucking in a breath.
I was lost in his gaze. My skin felt stretched too tight. I wanted to throw myself against him, beg him to make me forget why I was really here with him.
“Hadrian,” I whispered, an aching plea of acceptance.
His mouth sealed over mine as he dropped his hand to wrap it around my waist. He assaulted my senses. He pillaged my mouth like a conquering warrior sacking a city.
My heart leapt into my throat and my breathing turned shallow. I needed more of him.
I reached up to grasp the lapels of his jacket and dragged myself closer.
“Eden,” he murmured against my mouth.
The name of my persona on his lips reminded me that this wasn’t real. But I wanted him anyway.
I wanted to spend the night with Hadrian, circumstances be damned.
“Take me to bed, Hadrian,” I whispered back.
“Are you sure?”
I nodded.
“No. Say the words.”
“I’m sure.”
He slowly let me go and then took my hand again, leading me into a garden maze. We wandered through it in silence, his hand solid against mine adding to the charged air between us. He seemed to know where he was going but didn’t clue me in.
The maze opened into a large flat area to reveal a glass gazebo. Hadrian came to a halt and I sidled up next to him, looking at him with silent longing.
Though it was dark, the torches around the maze cast dim light into the gazebo.
I saw three shadowy figures moving on the other side of the glass, like dancers on a stage. They glided together. Arms twining around necks, fingers plowing into hair, heads thrown back in pleasure.
A sound escaped my throat, dragging Hadrian’s attention to me. His eyes glimmered with desire as he gently pulled me to stand in front of him. The heat of him was at my back and more warmth traveled through my body when Hadrian’s fingers splayed across my shoulder, rooting me in place.
My eyes had adjusted to the flickering light of the torches that illuminated the gazebo, and I watched the scene unfold.
Two men. One woman. They circled her like they were wolves and she a sheep. They were tall, well built. Attractive. One had dark hair, the other light. Two devils, intent on debauchery and seduction. Their gazes were riveted on the woman, who turned her face toward the glass, and when she did, I knew instantly who it was.
The girl called Raven.
Her face was a picture of languid sensuality. As if she had all the time in the world, as if she wanted nothing more than to be their conquest.
Raven held out both arms and the men came to her. The dark-haired one stood in front of her and brushed the hair away from her neck to kiss the curve of her shoulder.
The blond cared nothing for kissing and moved behind her. He hiked her dress up and questing fingers sought the place between her legs.
I swallowed, shrinking back against the wall of Hadrian’s chest, wondering why my gaze was riveted to the erotic scene. I felt like I shouldn’t be watching such a display of abandon. In the real world, what they shared would have been private, but here…I couldn’t look away.
A dull pulse took up residence between my thighs and my nipples hardened.
Hadrian’s hand gently slid from my shoulder to the top of my chest and into my cocktail dress. He held my heavy breast in his palm and his thumb skated across my nipple.
Raven placed her hand on the dark-haired man’s shoulder and gently pushed him down. He dropped to his knees and soon his face was between her legs and he guided her underwear to the side and began to taste her.
The blond, not to be outdone, ran his fingers down the front of her dress, slipping beneath the fabric to caress her breasts, tweaking the tips of her nipples.
Like Hadrian was doing to me now.
Raven’s face was a mask of pleasure, intimate, on the verge of coming.
Hadrian pinched my nipple, causing me to inhale and a sharp needle of desire pierced me between my legs.
The blond man turned Raven’s chin and sealed his lips over hers, driving his tongue into her mouth. She reached around his neck to pull him closer.
I watched the three of them slowly sink to the floor like they were one entity. They all grasped for each other’s clothing; buttons popped on white starched shirts, zippers were lowered, but Raven was the only one who found herself almost entirely naked. Only her lace white thong and heels remained.
The blond lay on his back, pumping his massive erection. Raven eagerly crawled toward him and took him into her waiting, wet mouth. His face screwed up into a picture of desire as his fingers plowed through her already tangled locks.
The dark-haired man watched his acquaintance being pleasured and reached into his pocket for a condom. He tore the wrapper off and then sheathed his impressive length. He positioned himself behind Raven, spreading her legs wider as he nudged aside her scrap of underwear. Soon, he was guiding himself inside of her.
Raven lost her rhythm as she was being filled by the dark-haired man and the erection in her mouth sprang free.
The blond coerced her to him and reached out to play with her nipples. She went back to devouring him, her body shaking and shuddering.
Hadrian’s other hand slid down my waist to pull up the fabric of my dress. His fingers slipped across the lace garter I wore and danced across my skin to the apex of my thighs.
I instinctively widened my stance.
His fingers dipped inside my French lace panties and gently began to stroke me.
My gaze was still riveted on the erogenous picture. My breathing was heavy as I watched the blond empty himself into Raven’s eager mouth.
The dark-haired man continued to thrust into Raven from behind and eventually, his face grew taut as he came.
Hadrian continued to tease me between my legs as his fingers played with my nipple. I pressed back against him, unable to ask for what I wanted, but unable to stop the call of desire that crowed through my blood.
The three players in the gazebo collapsed to the ground. Raven reached for both of them, her arm sliding around the blond’s neck.
After a few moments, they collected their clothing, but didn’t bother to dress. They plodded from the gazebo, no doubt to find a bed so they could pleasure each other until dawn.
It wasn’t until they’d gone and we were alone that Hadrian murmured against my ear, “You liked watching them. I know you did.”
I didn’t reply. Instead I closed my eyes and focused on his hands and the desire they were eliciting.
“Want me to stop? I’ll stop.”
“No,” I whispered. “Don’t stop.”
“Then tell me you liked watching them.”
I’d never wanted to come more in my life. Every stroke from him caused a new tremor to race between the juncture of my thighs.
“I liked watching them.”
No sooner had the words spilled from my lips than Hadrian slid a large finger into my waiting, welcoming body.
He said something in a foreign language.
I focused on the feeling of him inside me. It wasn’t enough. I wanted more.
His finger was ruthless as he thrust it in and out of me. And when he added another finger, my violent orgasm made me clamp around him as all the stress of the evening and my primal instincts came together in a fantastic release. My legs turned to jelly, and I would’ve sunk to the ground, but Hadrian braced me against the wall of his chest.
He left his fingers inside of me until I stopped quivering, and only then did he leave my body. Before I could say a word, he scooped me up into his arms and carried me off into the night.
Chapter Ten
My cheek rubbed against Hadrian’s lapel as I breathed in the spicy, aromatic scent that clung to his skin. I wondered what he smelled like beneath the cologne.
I was in a post orgasmic, catatonic state. It was the only logical explanation for why I was doing what I was doing.
He hadn’t said anything after he’d lifted me into his arms. Instead, he’d carted me like I weighed nothing as he walked around the glass gazebo and eventually entered the other side of the garden maze.
“Where are you taking me?” I finally asked, my voice coming out low and strained. Like I’d spent hours screaming my pleasure.
“To the carriage house,” he said.
His brogue was sinful, a potent caress.
We finally came to the end of the maze and I saw a structure—far larger than the gazebo—made of wood and brick.
Hadrian managed to open the door with me still in his arms and then gently set me down onto the floor. He closed the door, standing in front of it for a moment, staring at me.
I looked everywhere but at him, taking in the gas fireplace and the expensive leather furniture in the overtly masculine living room.
“It’s nice, but what is this place?” I asked.
“It used to be a carriage house, but it’s been converted to a small guest house.”
“Are we allowed to be in here?”
“I’m…an associate of the man who owns The Mansion. He won’t mind.”
Though the carriage house appeared small by The Mansion’s standards, it was just as grand. An expensive rug covered the floor of the front room. Artwork hung on the walls and ornate trinkets adorned the mantle of an elegant fireplace.
Without a word, Hadrian brushed past me into the living room and went to a silver and glass bar cart.
“Drink?” he asked.
“Ah, I’m not supposed to drink on nights that I work.”
“I won’t tell.” He picked up a crystal decanter and poured two glasses of amber liquid.
He stalked toward me, glasses in hand, and gave me one and then clinked his glass against mine.
“Saluti,” I murmured before taking a small sip. It burned and made my eyes water.
I quickly set the drink aside, resolving not to touch it again.
Hadrian saw my reaction and grinned before taking a hearty sip of his drink.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded, pressing my hand to my chest. “I think it singed my throat.”
“Brandy.”
“Yuck. Maybe it’s an acquired taste.”
He chuckled at my reaction. “Do you speak Italian?” he queried, peering at me with interest.
I’d let my guard down for a mere moment, and part of my past had barreled its way into my present.
I might’ve been going by the name Eden, but I still was very much Sterling. Sterling who spoke fluent Italian.
“Eden?” he prompted. “When I ask you a question, I expect an answer.”
I did not like his tone or his high-handedness. And I did not like the fact that he’d had his fingers inside of me not ten minutes ago and now he treated me like he owned me.
But for the night, he did.
“Yes. I speak Italian,” I gritted out.
I tore my gaze from his and stepped away, moving further into the living room and pretending to understand the artwork I was seeing.
Now that we were inside the carriage house, in privacy, I expected Hadrian to rip my clothes off me and drive his body into mine. But he hadn’t made a move to touch me.
I was primed for him, and our conversation felt forced and awkward since I knew what was coming.
“You look exhausted,” he said finally.
I startled. “I’m not.”
“Eden,” he began. “You don’t need to lie to me. If you’re tired, you’re tired.”
“Okay, I’m tired.”
“Then let me show you upstairs.”
I frowned but nodded. He was a strange man, Hadrian. Alpha. Mysterious. Demanding. He had played my body like an expert and then seemed done with it, all at once.
“You look confused,” he said, setting his glass down on a dark wood end table and stalking toward me.
“Don’t you want more?” I blurted out.
He arched a brow but said nothing as he clasped my hand and led me up the wooden staircase. We walked down the hallway, past two bedrooms and a bathroom, to the last door.
“Master bedroom.” He waved me inside. I stepped in and looked around, my gaze landing on the large ornate sleigh bed.
What sorts of things will he do to me?
A shiver of want raced down my spine in anticipation. I turned in time to see him fling his bowtie onto the chair in the corner and then he went for the cufflinks at his wrists. He set them on the bedside table.
My gaze was riveted on the column of his strong throat that was now revealed. He shrugged out of the crisp linen he wore, tossing his shirt on the chair.
“Do I want more?” he asked, picking up the thread of my question. “Aye, Eden. I want more. I want more than you’re willing to give—but I said I wouldn’t press you to do anything you didn’t want to do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t. Christ, you’re only twenty-five years old.”
“What does age have to do with anything?” I demanded.
“A lot. I’m twelve years older than you are. Your life is just getting started and you don’t even realize it yet.”
“And you’ve got one foot in the grave?” I frowned. “I still don’t get what you’re saying to me, Hadrian.”
He shifted so that he was standing right in front of me. He took my hand and placed it on his fly. “This is what you do to me when you say my name and look at me with those wide, innocent eyes.”
“I’m not innocent,” I protested. “And frankly, I’m offended that you think I am.”
He let out a rumbly laugh. “So you’re pissed that I’m calling you innocent? Would you rather I call you something else?”
I yanked my hand away from him, anger in my cheeks. “What is all this? Are you feeling a stab of guilt because you bought a woman for the night?”
“I have no guilt over that, believe me. And for the sake of honesty, you should know I didn’t have plans to procure a Rex girl this evening.”
“Procure?” I shook my head. “So I was an impulse purchase?”
“Is that how you view yourself? As something to buy?”
“It doesn’t matter how I view myself. It only matters that you want me.”
“I disagree. It matters very much how you view yourself. Be
cause if you were honest about it, then maybe you’d be honest about how you feel about what’s happening between us tonight.”
Oh, I wanted Hadrian Rhys. And I wanted him in a way that I’d never wanted anything in my life. I wanted to feel his raw, unrestrained power as he thrust inside me. I wanted him so deep that I’d be sore in the morning.
But I also wanted to remain aloof, detached—and Hadrian was doing everything in his power to make this something it wasn’t. He wanted us connected in a way that wasn’t allowed, and I remembered what Gen had told me; these men were alpha males who thrived on the chase.
Hadrian was pushing for more than I wanted to give, and it was hard to resist.
Entangled. That’s what we were becoming.
If I’d chosen another man tonight, he would have been different. He would’ve wanted the fantasy and sexual satisfaction. I doubted he would’ve cared to spend any time discussing anything else.
Maybe that was my mistake, choosing a man I already desired. I thought it would’ve been safer, but there was no going back, and I refused to be a coward.
I reached up to the pins in my hair and I tugged them free so that my dark locks fell in large waves across my shoulders. And with my gaze trained on his, I removed my dress, letting it drop to the floor. I stood in front of him in nothing more than crystal beaded ballet slippers and French lace undergarments with garters.
He took a long time staring at me, his gaze slowly traveling from the top of my head down to my feet.
Hadrian was bare-chested, muscled arms by his sides with his fists clenched.
I approached him slowly and when I was standing in front of him, I grazed my fingers across the fair skin of his chest.
“Do you ever see the sun?” I asked, my breath teasing his flesh.
His muscles bunched beneath my fingers and I flattened my palm, wondering if I could absorb his power by mere touch.
“I’m from Shetland.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means I’m descended from Vikings and Celts,” he explained. “I’m fair skinned by nature.”
“I should’ve known you were a modern-day Viking,” I murmured.
My fingers danced across his body to skim over a thick, angry red scar that cut along the right side of his ribcage. It was clearly an old wound and was now healed, but even I could tell it had been deep.