King (Endgame Book 1)

by Riley Ashby

  “I don't know if I'm the kind of girl who does soft,” she said, biting my lip. I resisted the urge to clap my hand over her mouth, drive into her and make her swallow her screams. Flip her on her stomach and rut into her like a wild animal marking her as mine and only mine.

  “There will be time for that,” I promised. I forced her to kiss me slowly and slipped a finger inside her again. She sighed and yielded to my rhythm. Her hands drifted to my waistband. With swift movements she undid my belt and zipper then rushed to help me shed my remaining clothing.

  I was trying to memorize the feel of her folds across my fingers. “All this wetness, just for me?” I murmured into her mouth as I kissed her again. It was pointless to fight against the urge. “You’re being so good. Taking all my orders. And I’m going to make you scream for it.”

  Her breath trembled but her hands were sure as they roamed my body, nails grazing softly across my chest. She kissed the faint red marks before they disappeared back into my skin. I wanted to feel her dig in, leaving indentations in my flesh, angry red lines that would linger long after the orgasms I was going to give her.

  I froze as her fingers finally closed around my cock. I was rock hard, ready to come in her hands. She kept her eyes closed as she traced her fingers along the length, pushing into the slit and smiling when I sucked in a sharp breath. She put her thumb against the bead of precum that had gathered there and swirled it around my tip.

  This was murder.

  It was life.

  Following her lead, I let her push me onto my back as she trailed kisses down my chest, over my navel, lingering at the base of my cock. A strangled sound left my throat as she ran her tongue up my length to the head.

  “You taste good,” she said, and I opened my eyes in time to see her lick more precum from the tip. I groaned.

  I thought in her eagerness she would take me right away, but she teased me instead with another languid lick up my length. My hands formed fists around the sheets, grasping bunches of fabric to stop myself from flying at her.

  “Put it in your mouth,” I growled. The smile on her face said that was exactly what she wanted—for me to beg her.

  I grabbed her by the hair and wrenched her face up to look at me. “Don’t get cocky, my pet. This is the last time you’ll hear me beg.”

  I pressed her face back into my crotch, and she opened her mouth willingly. She closed her lips around me and finally took my entire cock into her mouth. I touched the back of her throat, but somehow she kept going until I felt the fierce suction of her lips around my base.

  “Have you ever done this before?” I was lost in the bliss of her warm mouth. I could barely form a coherent sentence.

  She left me cold to answer my question. “Would you believe that I haven't?”

  I couldn't answer, only shook my head as she swallowed me again. My hips moved of their own accord to plunge myself deeper into her mouth, and she gagged slightly when I finally pushed too deep. But she didn’t stop, just pulled back to take a breath and then took all of me again. She was insatiable, starving for me, and I was selfish enough to give her everything she asked for.

  I was writhing in the most exquisite mixture of pleasure and pain. I never wanted her to stop sucking me, never wanted to live without the sensation of her tongue around the head of my cock. But my mouth watered to taste her again and kiss every inch of her pink, wet folds. My fingers twitched to press against her clit and feel her shake beneath me as she came. My cock throbbed to be buried inside her.

  Reaching down, I grabbed her hair and dragged her face to mine. I kissed her deeply, tasting faint saltiness from my precum on her lips.

  “Get on my dick.”

  She bit my lip again. “Now who's in a hurry?”

  I growled and grabbed her hips, trying to push her onto me. “Don't act coy now. I'm coming in your mouth later.”

  She bit her lip and sat, leaning back and lowering herself over me. Before she could seat herself all the way, I grabbed her shoulders. “I don’t want you to worry, Sophie. I’m healthy. And we’ll get you the pill tomorrow. I’m dying to feel you bare, but I’ll put on a condom if you want.”

  She only paused for a moment. Her eyes bore into me as she slowly lowered her body. Then they closed in ecstasy as I filled her. My heart thundered. She was trusting me, trusting what I told her, even though I could have commanded her. She chose it. She chose me.

  That feeling was almost as glorious as her pussy. Every muscle rippled as she opened wider to accept me inside her. I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood the first time she clamped around my girth.

  She stopped partway down my shaft.

  “I don't … I don't think I can take any more.” She panted, hands against my chest, nails digging in while she acclimated to my presence inside her. She would have to get used to it because I planned on spending a lot more time there.

  “Breathe,” I whispered, gripping her hips and holding them in place as I started to move my own. I let a thumb drift lower and press against her clit as I raised into her, working deeper inch by inch and causing her to gasp as she finally slid to my hilt.

  She had so much power over me, and she didn’t even realize it. She looked like a goddess with her hair wild and mussed, her breasts perky and nipples red from my mouth. I was captivated.

  “Yes.” I had to bite the word through my teeth. She was smothering me, her trembling walls gripping me so tightly I was afraid to move. “How are you this tight?”

  She couldn't answer, just moaned as she managed to begin moving in time with me. With each thrust she cried louder and louder, her face a mask of agony and bliss as I impaled her completely. My cockhead pressed against the entrance to her womb. I began to stroke her clit more firmly as my pleasure grew toward a climax I had never experienced before. I sat up without warning and pulled her against my chest, pushing even deeper within her than I thought was possible. I needed to feel her tremble against me when we came.

  I held on to myself for as long as I could. Every ripple of her inner walls was an earthquake threatening to knock loose my self-control. She slid up and down so easily, soaking wet from desire. I wanted to taste her again. My mouth watered at the thought.

  This was why she had come here, why I had brought her to my home. We were meant to be like this, joined, one person, one mind in pleasure and insanity as we thrust against each other. She gripped my shoulders to hold me close. Her nipples raked against my chest before I finally reached out to pinch one. As her head fell back with a cry, I clamped my teeth over the soft skin of her neck and sucked. The moan she made nearly set me off. My balls tightened, drew up, begging to release.

  “Come with me, Sophie.” Her eyes flew open and held me transfixed. She clenched around me one final time, and I bit her shoulder as I finally fell over the edge. Her fingernails in my back broke the skin, and her shaking around me told me we were one in this as well. I saw colors I didn’t know existed; fire and ice rippled across my skin in alternating extremes. Sophie buried her face in my neck, breathing hard, moaning as we slowly came down.

  We panted together for an interminable moment; maybe hours, maybe only seconds passed before she moved to lift off me.

  “Not a chance,” I said, rolling her to her back once more.

  She kept making these small keening noises, little whimpers that made me grow instantly hard again. I never even pulled out of her.

  “Again?” she whispered. Her voice trembled but her eyes shone with anticipation.

  “Settle in, darling.” I licked her throat once more. I was obsessed with that hollow space. “We are nowhere near done.”

  He didn't let me leave for the rest of the night. He held me tight against his chest, twining his legs with mine and parting my thighs. He convinced me with his fingers, his tongue, his cock to spend the whole night with him. I awoke to him grinding against me, half hard again against the small of my back.

  “You are insatiable,” I muttered, rubbing the sleep from my
eyes as he turned me to face him.

  “I'm a lot of things when it comes to you.” He kissed the hollow at the base of my throat again. It seemed a favorite spot of his. “Right now, I need to be inside you.”

  When we were done, he held me in a long kiss before pulling out. “I'll get you the morning-after pill,” he said, looking at me seriously as he hovered over me. That loose curl fell over his forehead. I resisted the urge to push it away.

  I gave a sarcastic laugh. “I think I'll need more than one.”

  He cupped my chin affectionately as he rose, pulling a robe around him and tossing one to me as well. “You should probably start birth control.” He looked at me cautiously as he said this, checking my reaction. I shrugged.

  “Sure. I just need to get to a doctor.”

  “I'll have Halloway write you a script.” He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, not quite all the way. The sound of running water filled the air as I shrugged into the robe several sizes too big for me, sleeves hanging down around my knees. There was laughter in his eyes when he emerged from the bathroom fully dressed.

  “Get dressed and come to my office,” he said, wrapping my hair around his wrist and tilting my head back. “You're with me today.” With a kiss on my pulse point, he glided from the room.

  I took the passages back to my room, not wanting to suffer any knowing glances from staff members in the hallway. I was sure they all knew where I had spent the night—Castel and Karen would, for sure—but I would like to avoid their eyes for as long as I could.

  Back in my room, the reality of the past several hours began to sink in. I had slept with the man who was essentially my kidnapper. One could argue in a court of law I had come willingly, but it was under duress. Was this Stockholm Syndrome? I couldn't even begin to fathom how to move forward in this relationship, whatever kind of relationship it was.

  God, did I just make the biggest mistake of my life?

  I tried to get dressed but couldn't decide on what to wear. The dress and heels that were required still seemed far too formal, even more so in the light of what had happened between us under cover of darkness. But I knew from experience that I couldn’t run down to his office in shorts and a T-shirt. The more time that passed, the harder it was figure out what to put on my body and the more anxious I became. I could feel my stomach rumbling for food, but my feet had rooted to the ground. My heart felt like it was racing, but when I touched my pulse, it was normal beneath my fingertips.

  I had made this big deal with myself to keep my feelings and urges in check. I still didn’t think I could trust this man. There were things he was hiding from me, deliberately locking me out of his world when at the same time he demanded everything I had to give. I knew this would be an unbalanced relationship, but was there a way for me to be happy in it anyway? It didn’t seem possible.

  I had to tell him to stop. Tell him last night was a mistake, even though I was the one who went to him, even though waking up this morning was the most content I’d felt in months. Years.

  Since the first time Dad had come home drunk on a weeknight.

  I didn’t hear the door open or the muffled footsteps that must have crossed the carpet to where I was standing. A fist was at the back of my head, fingers twining into my hair and pulling me back gently.

  “Stop thinking,” Ellery murmured, leaning down to kiss me. I turned to face him, my lips never leaving his. “You're fine. We're fine. Everything is fine.” He pulled back and looked at me.

  “I'm more confused than I was before.” My thumbnail went to my mouth briefly before he pulled it away.

  “That's why you're not allowed to think,” he said. “Sit on the bed.”

  As I obeyed, he eyed the clothes in the closet and picked out a low-cut yellow dress and some low-heeled shoes. Then he helped me dress. As the zipper closed over my spine, his lips found the back of my neck. It was just a whisper of a touch, but it re-centered me. I took a breath then grabbed his hand.

  “What if this is wrong?” The words flew from my lips of their own accord; I never made the decision to speak. I remembered what had happened the last time I tried to express my reservations to him. “I don’t know you. I’m not here of my own accord. And you have something going on, things you don’t want me involved in. What kind of life are you going to expect me to live? What kind of existence could we possibly have together?”

  “What could be wrong about the way you begged for me last night?” The words sent a quiver straight to my sex. And it was true, nothing had felt wrong last night. His fingers entwined with mine, weaving ivy through the gaps in my mortar. “Things won’t be like this forever. We’re in the endgame now, and then things will change for all of us drastically.”

  What did he mean by all of us? Castel? Karen?

  He breathed deep, his chest expanding, as he pulled me closer. “You think you’re the one made of stone, Sophie McDermott, but I hadn’t been able to see farther than six inches in front of me until you walked into my home with a duffel bag that looks older than you are. You think you’re the weak one for having your emotions, but you’ve completely upended my well-ordered world.”

  The kiss was softer than something I ever thought him capable of, a mere flutter of butterfly wings on my lips. I leaned into him, aching for more, but he held me an inch too far away. “And you get me to say shit like that out loud. Come on, let's get you fed. I know how women get when they’re hungry.”

  I had no protests as he led me away.

  He didn't have me sit in his lap but fed me bites across his desk while making jokes about the quality of my vegan food compared to his eggs and bacon. Soon I was smiling again. When the dishes were cleared, a small pill appeared beside my water. Ellery squeezed my hand as I swallowed it.

  “Halloway wrote you a long-term prescription too. It'll be here this afternoon.”

  I slid around the desk to sit on his lap, my arms hooked around his neck like a chain. “It means more time with you. I'm happy.”

  He kissed my nose. “I'm glad to hear that. Now, sit quietly while I work.”

  “Do you want me to kneel?”

  His smile was knowing as he replied. “No, you spent enough time on your knees last night.”

  I choked on my coffee.

  We took a break around midday and went outside, tossing sticks and balls for the dogs as we strolled hand in hand across the expansive lawn. He elaborated on some of his work, a bouquet of words about stocks and bonds and investments that I couldn't follow no matter how hard I tried.

  “I wish I knew as much about anything as you did about stocks.”

  He gave a low laugh. “I've got almost ten years on you, and a lot of luck. College and a few years in the business, and you'll be a formidable force.”

  I bit my lip. He stopped and tugged on my hand to pull me back to him.

  “What's wrong?”

  I shook my head. “I'm never going to college, Ellery. I'm not interested in decades of student loan debt, and it’s been years since I graduated. I won’t qualify for any scholarships.”

  His face, at first so confused, resolved into a puddle of understanding. “That's easy, Sophie. You can go to whatever school you want. I'll fund it.”

  I was so overcome that I jerked back my hand and turned away. Here was the truth of it. Maybe not Stockholm Syndrome, but … fuck, a sugar baby?! This was worse than I could have imagined. He lured me to him and now he was paying me.

  “That’s not what I wanted. That’s not what the deal was.”

  “Sophie—”

  “Don’t speak to me like—”

  “Sophia.” His voice was a whip that commanded me to face him, which I did without thinking. His face was stern, the same expression that had greeted me the first day I walked into his office. “If you want college, you'll go to college. I don't care where or what it costs. I'll take care of it.”

  “That's not what this is,” I spat back. “We already talked about this. I
don't want more debt. I don't want to owe anyone anything more than I already do.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I charged ahead, certain that if he uttered even one syllable, I'd be silenced. “I'm not some toy you're going to keep around to fuck and toss presents at.”

  This was what I had been waiting for. I knew he had to slip up sometime. When I first came here, I was only going to be used as a gambling chip, and I was still just that. It didn’t matter I was in his vault instead of someone else’s; the results were the same. My entire existence was an investment.

  I wasn't meeting his eyes, focusing instead on the ground, but his hand around my neck forced my gaze to his. That moss green sucked me in like it always did, like it had the first day. Every attempt to fight him, to pull back, ended the same way, with me in the palm of his hand.

  “That's not why I’m offering you this,” he whispered, echoing my argument. “Sophie, you could walk out of here today and I'd still pay for whatever education you want. I’ll buy you a house in Beverly Hills and a kennel full of rescue dogs to fill it.” He pressed his lips against mine, and my mouth opened subconsciously. He kissed me softly, but possessively, his tongue in my mouth reminding me that I belonged to him. My futile attempts at rebellion would be tolerated only so far as they could be quickly crushed underfoot.

  “You'll take my money, and you'll go to school. You'll see. You still don't trust me, but you will.” We pressed our foreheads together. I forced myself to take slow breaths, push down the bubbling … whatever it was in my chest. The dogs bumped into our legs, confused about why we had stopped playing. I broke away to throw the ball again, anything to get myself some space, but Ellery didn't let go of my waist.

  “If you go, though, I’ll make sure you come back to me,” he said, brushing his lips on my ear. “You're too far right now.”