by Sarah Bailey
“What kind of drink?”
“What do you like?”
“You’ll say they’re girl drinks.”
I snorted.
“Well, do you drink gin and tonic?”
She nodded against my chest.
“That’s sort of girly, but I’ll let you off.”
She turned her head, looking down at the two plates on the counter.
“That looks good.”
It wasn’t particularly fancy. Sticky sesame chicken with stir fry vegetables and rice. A healthier version than what you might get from a takeaway. I wasn’t one for eating crap.
“We should really eat it before it gets cold.”
She pulled away from me and took the plates to the table whilst I fixed her a drink. I snagged a beer from the fridge and popped the cap off with the bottle opener. Setting the drinks down, I sat with her. She was quiet for the first five minutes. Fiddling with her glass, she looked up at me.
“Aiden… Will you tell me what’s happening in the outside world?”
“What do you want to know?”
“How is… I mean things must be all over the place.”
I took a swig from my beer before setting it down and leaning back.
“They are. It’s all over the news, as are you.”
“What do they think happened to me?”
“All they know is you’re missing.”
She looked down at her plate.
“Your uncle has people looking for you.”
Her doe eyes met mine again, her expression hardening.
“Uncle Charlie? I bet he’s pissed off more than anything else. How do you know about what he’s doing?”
I frowned. It didn’t sound like she had any love for Chuck.
“What makes you think he’s pissed off?”
“He hates that my dad’s Will made sure I would inherit the company and their money in the event of his death. The board signed off on it. Nothing he can do about it from a legal standpoint. So ergo, he kind of hates me, but I don’t care. He’s a dick.”
I smiled, unable to help myself. If Avery hated her uncle, then it would make things easier.
“What did he ever do to you?”
Her eyes flashed with pain for a moment.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she muttered. “And you didn’t tell me how you know my uncle.”
I made a note to make sure I found out what had gone on between Chuck and her. If he’d done anything to hurt her, I’d seriously consider putting a bullet in the fucker’s head right now. I knew he had some sick perversions. His death needed to be drawn out.
I wished I could’ve drawn out Mitchell and Kathleen’s deaths, but I’d had to settle for quick and painless. The only person who’d been hurt was the girl in front of me.
“I know everyone in your family.”
She stared at me with confusion written all over her face.
“Even the ones from my great aunt’s side?”
“Even them.”
Her great aunt, Matilda, was dead just like her grandfather, Nicholas Daniels. Her daughter and two sons were alive. The men, Troy and Arthur, were just as deeply involved as Mitchell and Chuck. The sick family business.
“How?”
“I think you know enough, for now, Avery.”
I was done with her questions. She wasn’t ready for the truth. Not after her little breakdown earlier. I couldn’t shatter her illusions about her parents and the rest of her family just yet.
She looked as though she might argue for a moment, but she picked up her fork and started eating again. I did the same.
I could feel her eyes on me every so often. I wondered what she was thinking. How she’d processed what I told her.
She set her knife and fork down when she was done. I’d long finished and was sipping my beer.
“I’m tired,” she whispered.
“Finish your drink and you can go to bed.”
“Are you going to put me back in the cell?”
“No.”
Her brow furrowed, but she didn’t ask me where I’d put her instead. I wasn’t sure what she’d think when she discovered I intended her to sleep in my bed. With me. I needed to keep an eye on her. It was the only way.
I stood up and gathered the plates. Pulling open the dishwasher, I stacked all the dirty dishes and took her glass when she was done.
“Can I have some water, please? To go to bed with, I mean.”
“The glasses are in the cupboard above the sink.”
I watched her select one and pour herself some water. She held it to her chest and looked at me with expectation written all over her face. I took her by the arm and walked out. She followed me into my bedroom. Her eyes went wide as she took in where we were. I took her glass from her and set it on the bedside table on the right-hand side of the bed.
“Go brush your teeth, dry your hair and come back here, understand?” I said.
She nodded slowly before shuffling back out the way we’d come. I pulled back the covers for her before stalking out the room. I went back into the cell, picking up all the discarded chocolate wrappers and everything else she’d left all over the floor, stuffing them back into the bag before I picked up the bucket. I left it outside the bathroom door because she was still in there and dumped the bag in the kitchen to deal with in the morning.
Stalking back down the hall, I snagged my laptop from the sofa in the living room where I’d left it. I still had things to do. I found the bucket was gone when I walked back out into the hall. She’d dealt with it. Good girl.
Avery was standing in the middle of the room when I got back. Her eyes darted around, taking in her surroundings.
On one side, I had big built-in cupboards behind sliding doors. I’d put the clothes I’d bought her in one of them. My king size bed took up most of the back wall. A huge window with the curtains drawn on the left-hand side. The walls were deep blue and the furniture black. The headboard on my bed was welded metal. Perfect for handcuffs, chains and rope, which I most definitely should not be thinking about right now. Not when she was about to get in my bed.
“You sleep here,” I said, pointing at where I’d drawn the covers back.
“Um… with you?”
“Yes with me.”
A blush crept up her neck and face, all the way to the tips of her ears.
“You did tell me you didn’t want to be alone, did you not?”
She nodded.
“I’m not going to bite, Avery. Just get in bed.”
She shuffled over to it and crawled in, settling the covers over herself. She hadn’t had a bed in three weeks.
I left my laptop on my side of the bed before going over to the cupboards. I unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it off. I had a t-shirt on underneath. I dumped the shirt in the washing basket before unbuckling my belt. I took off my trousers before tugging on a pair of shorts. I sat on the end of the bed to take my socks off, which went in the basket too.
I eyed Avery who was still huddled under the covers, not looking at me. Picking up the laptop, I leant against the headboard with my pillows tucked up behind me and set about getting some work done.
An hour later, I was sick of looking at lines of code so I turned it off and dumped my laptop on the floor beside the bed. Pulling the covers back, I got in and lay down, switching off the lamp which I’d left on.
Despite the size of the bed putting space between us, I could feel the heat radiating off her. And I was drawn to it. Drawn to her.
“Are you asleep?” I asked.
“No,” she replied.
“What’s wrong?”
“It feels weird being in a bed. I don’t even know how long it’s been.”
“Three weeks.”
It didn’t matter to me if she knew how long it had been or not. I imagined her sense of time was a little skewed.
“It feels like longer.”
“Come here.”
I wasn’t sure why I said that, but she needed to rest. It took a minute before she shifted towards me.
“Turn around,” I told her.
She did as I asked, but yelped when I tugged her against my front, wrapping my arm around her waist. Her whole body went rigid.
“What are you doing?” she squeaked.
“What does it look like?”
She didn’t reply. It was pretty obvious what I was doing. Fucking holding her so she could relax and go to sleep. Except this was making it increasingly difficult for me to think straight. Her arse was right up against my crotch, making my cock twitch.
“Relax,” I whispered in her ear. “You said you needed me, Avery. I’m giving you what you asked for.”
A moment later, she wriggled against me before settling down. That wriggling was the last fucking straw. My cock went ramrod straight. Neither of us said anything, but I knew she could feel it pressing into her behind. Everything about this was torture. Having her so close. The way her hair smelt of coconut. Her subtle curves moulding to my body in a way no other woman had. It wasn’t as though I held women like this. I’d certainly fucked them in this position before, but cuddling wasn’t something I did.
Avery’s breathing didn’t settle down, if anything it came faster. My thumb trailed a circle around her stomach. She shifted again, my cock digging further into her.
Fuck.
I wanted to pull her shorts down and bury my cock in her. Never had I felt such a desperate need for another person in my life.
I buried my face in her neck, trying to tamp down on the urges coursing through me.
“Aiden,” she whispered.
“Hmm?”
“I… I can’t sleep.”
“Why not?”
She shifted. This time I realised she was pressing back against me.
What the fuck?
Avery wasn’t going to verbally acknowledge that my cock was digging into her arse. The tension between us was palpable. I wanted to see her face, see her expression. I needed it. Needed to know it wasn’t just me.
I grabbed her by the waist and forced her to turn around. Her eyes met mine as I dragged her against me. I pressed myself between her legs, not caring that I’d trapped one underneath me. I could feel her heat on my cock through our clothes.
Her doe eyes were wide in the low light streaming in from a gap in the curtain. Her lips parted but she didn’t make a sound. Her tits were pressed up against my chest, her nipples pebbled. Fuck I wanted to touch them, but I wouldn’t.
I gripped her hip and ground into her, pressing my dick against her pussy. She didn’t tell me to stop. Her hand snaked around my back. Avery fucking wanted me as much as I wanted her. I saw it in her eyes as we stared at each other.
I moved again. Avery began to match my rhythm, her hand moving to clutch my waist. Neither of us said anything. I wanted her to come. I needed her to. The sick part of me wanted to prove she was really mine. To prove I commanded her body and she wanted only me.
Me in her head.
Me between her legs.
Avery was fucking mine.
My cock was so hard and her heat drove me fucking crazy. I was in two minds about ripping her clothes off so I could fuck her properly. If I did that, who knew if either of us could come back from it. I couldn’t give in to that temptation. Dry humping her was already a stupid idea to begin with. Stopping would be impossible.
My name left her lips, almost masked by a groan. That fucking sent me right over the edge. I pressed harder into her.
“Come for me, Avery,” I growled. “Fucking come on my cock.”
Her eyes didn’t leave mine. She bit down on her lip, her fingers digging into my waist.
“I want to hear you,” I told her.
She released her lip, bucking against me as she moaned.
“Aiden,” she breathed. “Harder.”
I ground into her, the pressure between us reaching boiling point. Her cry of pleasure echoed around my skull. She rocked against me, her body trembling all over. The sight of her coming on me was like fucking magic. She was beautiful. So fucking beautiful.
She panted when she came down from her high. I could feel her heart hammering in her chest where it was pressed against mine. I wasn’t fucking done with her yet. And it seemed she wasn’t done with me either. She pressed herself against me. My dick got harder, pulsating wildly. I needed to come so fucking bad. I needed her.
I ground harder and faster until I felt the familiar tug that signalled I was on the edge. I pulled away from her, rolling over and grabbing the tissues off the bedside table. Whipping out my cock, I managed to catch the hot spurts in the tissues rather than coming in my shorts like a horny teenager.
Cleaning up, I moved away and chucked the tissues in the bin before crawling back into bed next to her. I flipped her over and tugged her back against my front again. Her breathing became soft and steady. She was asleep.
I’d had a long day and having her close soothed me. Her steady heartbeat thudding against her chest lulled me into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Seven
Avery
The sunlight streamed in through the gap in the curtains. I woke up disoriented and confused. I was too hot. Opening my eyes, I found my limbs tangled up with Aiden’s. He was still asleep. I could tell by his steady breathing.
Fucking hell. Last night. Last fucking night. The memory made my face burn. I couldn’t believe I’d actually encouraged it. Wanted it. Wanted him. Feeling his cock digging into my bum made me lose all my stupid common sense.
It hadn’t been enough. Even though I’d come so hard I thought I was going to pass out. No. The sick, sick part of me wanted Aiden to fuck me for real. Wanted him to tear my clothes off.
Touch me.
Kiss me.
Bite me.
Fuck me.
I stifled a groan. How could I? Especially to Peter. We’d never had the conversation about exclusivity, but it still wasn’t right. Aiden was the man who’d murdered my parents. I couldn’t afford to forget that. Not even when I’d told him I was his. I hated that it was true.
When I felt him shift against me, I knew he was awake. His free hand ran down my side and lower until he’d cupped my bum. I froze, stiffening.
“Did you sleep okay?” he murmured.
“Yes.”
He raised his head, staring down at me with a frown.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re tense.”
I spluttered, unable to form words. How could I say anything when I’d dry humped his dick last night like it was going out of business?
“Don’t bullshit me right now, Avery.”
“I can’t. This, I don’t even know what the fuck this is, but I can’t.”
His brow furrowed further.
“Can’t what?”
“What happened between us last night. That. I can’t do that.”
His eyes flashed with anger.
“I wasn’t fucking asking you to do anything. Do you think just because we helped each other out that it meant something? Let me be clear. It didn’t.”
Except I knew he was lying. It meant a whole fucking great deal of things. Things neither of us wanted to admit.
He tore away from me, stalking out of the bed. Pulling open one of the sliding doors of his cupboards, he pointed at it.
“Your stuff is in there. Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen.”
He pulled a few things out of his own cupboard before storming out of the room. Holy shit. I’d really pissed him off. A part of me wanted to run after him and take back what I’d said. The idiotic part of me. The other part was angry.
How fucking dare he say that to me? Meaningless? I’d show him meaningless. He fucking well wanted me as much as I wanted him. I remembered the way he’d said my name. Told me to come o
n his cock.
I jumped out of bed and dressed, leaving my pyjamas folded neatly on the pillow. It was time I gave that man a piece of my mind.
Walking into the kitchen, I found him fully dressed with a glass of his protein shake in his hand.
“What happened wasn’t meaningless,” I said. “You can’t just pretend nothing is going on when it suits you.”
He didn’t turn around, but his back stiffened.
“Can’t I? You seemed to be doing it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I shouldn’t have believed the fucking scared girl act you pulled on me yesterday.”
I froze, my limbs locking up. It hadn’t been an act at all. I was still half terrified I’d see my dad again. And still entirely grateful to the man in front of me for comforting me when I needed it.
“I told you the truth. Do you seriously think I’d make shit like that up? I’m not a fucking masochist, Aiden. I didn’t want to have hallucinations of my own father which by the way is entirely your fault that I even saw him die in the first place.”
He turned to me very slowly. Grey eyes full of unrepressed violence. That gaze rendered me completely unable to say another word.
“Your father fucking deserved it. In fact, I wish I’d fucking made it worse for him. So don’t you start with who’s to blame here. If anyone is responsible, it’s him and the rest of your sick fucking family.”
What the hell had they done to him to make him hate us so much? Did my ‘sick family’ as he’d called it include me?
Did he hate me?
The thought of it made my heart stop. I didn’t want Aiden to hate me. I wanted him to know me. To see me without the Daniels name attached. Just me. Avery.
“What did they do to you?” I whispered. “I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to understand.”
All my need to challenge him fled. Having all his anger directed at me hurt. It fucking hurt. My chest felt tight and my gut twisted.
“Do you…?”
“Do I what?”
I flinched at his tone. All the coldness I’d seen him display the first time we’d met was back.