Conceited

by T. L Smith

  I pull away from him at that thought. Shaking my head, my hips stop rocking.

  Falcon watches my eyes and tips his head. “Come back to me, don’t go there.”

  His words make me look at him, and something shines in his eyes. Something I haven’t seen before, and it tells me he will protect me from everything and I won’t have to worry again. Not with him around. I want to ask him what he means, but I realize he never said it, I can only read it. And I can feel it in the way his hands wrap around me, pulling me to him in a protective cloak. By the way his lips find mine again in the most beautiful and soft way.

  I start moving my hips again, but he puts the brakes on, slowing me down to a strong but steady movement, so the build-up bites at my insides waiting ready to explode at a moment’s notice.

  “You’re all wrong for me,” I say against his lips.

  Falcon bites my lips and shakes his head. “But oh… so right.”

  My head drops back as the orgasm builds and I look up to the night sky. There’s no stars, it’s pure darkness right now. He pinches my nipple and a scream rips through my mouth and my world goes black as I take hold of his shoulders and continue to rock my hips. I feel him jerk inside of me and know he’s come too.

  When I sit up, he pulls me to him, wrapping me around him so all I can breathe and smell is him, as he lays down keeping me on top of him. I turn my head on its side and listen to his heart beating like crazy.

  Falcon’s hands start playing with my hair stroking and kissing the top of my head. “If every date’s like this, what the fuck have I been doing?”

  I tense up on him. Is that what he thinks? That he should start dating other women. I push up and off of him. He gives me an odd look and then when I look away, a man is standing on the beach. He has a dog with him and he’s staring at us. I quickly fall and reach for my dress, covering myself while Falcon turns around and sees the man. He gets up and with a few quick strides, completely naked, he’s now standing in front of the man. His hand goes to the man’s shirt, and I watch as he lifts him from the ground so his face is so close to his, and then the man and the dog run off. Falcon turns back to me with a look of smugness written on his face. I quickly pull the dress over my head and wonder what the fuck I’ve just done.

  I feel like I’m now missing a part of me and he’s holding it. I need to get away from him. Now.

  He steps over, confusion written all over his face. “Where’s the fire?”

  I look around for my shoes but don’t see them anywhere.

  “Raven?” he calls me by that nickname again. I’m trying to keep everything in, but it’s hard, so fucking hard. He throws his hands up in the air and that’s when I walk past him straight for the top of the beach. I need to get away from him before I let the tears fall.

  Standing at the top of the hill, there are cars there, but not mine. He had me picked up. Fuck! I didn’t think that one through.

  “Fucking hell, Raven. What the fuck are you doing?” He’s got his trousers on with nothing else, he doesn’t even have his shirt in his hands. He touches my shoulder, so I have to spin around to face him. I don’t want to look in his eyes, so I stare at the ground. “What, now you won’t even look at me? What was it I said?”

  My eyes squeeze shut. Oh God, he doesn’t even know. He has no idea that in a few words he made something special become not so special anymore. I turn around, pull up my cell, and call for a cab, but as I try to say the address the cell is torn from my ear and he’s holding it watching me.

  “This is ridiculous. Now I know why I stayed single.” His arm lifts and he runs his fingers through his hair still holding my cell. He waves and a black car, the same one that picked me up, pulls up to me while he hands my cell back to me. His face is full of defeat when I finally look up at him. “Have a nice life.” He turns his back to me and walks away.

  I release a heavy breath. That part of me that knew I shouldn’t have been his first, smiles at me and tells me I was right. The feeling of this happening was nagging at me, but I was hoping to prove it wrong. It wasn’t even exactly what he said—okay I lie, it was—it was the way he said it. Like he finally realized he’s been doing it wrong, and now he can do it the right way.

  With anyone.

  That statement made my skin crawl.

  Looking back when I’m in the car, I see no sign of him. Just an empty beach where I was only a few minutes ago extremely happy.

  “I can’t do it, I won’t do it,” I tell Chad, shaking my head and tipping the bottle of alcohol to my lips. “I had a moment of weakness. He jumped on it and I gave in to him, to the possibility that he could be different with me. Am I that stupid?”

  He groans. “You’re becoming one of those book characters you read about. You know the ones, where they fight over stupid things.” My mouth drops open then shuts. “Don’t even deny it. You should have said something right then and there, not let it brew in your head, so you can make it a thousand times worse than he probably meant. Give him a chance, it’s new to him.”

  “You’re defending him?” I ask, bottle in hand.

  “I’m fighting for you since you don’t seem to want to do it.” He gets up from the bed, grabs my cell and passes it to me. “Ring him, don’t be silly. Tell him what you told me, how he hurt your feelings and you were lost in the moment. It’s not that hard, Ariel. I see the way you look at him. Even you claim to hate him, but no woman in their right mind looks at a man she hates the way you look at him.” He grabs the bottle and walks out of the room, only looking back once as he goes. I flick through my cell, and his number shows up. My eyes linger on the presents he gave me, the ones that somehow resemble us—from a necklace of a Raven to a glass statue of a Falcon. I put the cell back down staring at it. I can’t do this. Avoiding the call, I go to my emails. There’s one email I don’t recognize and it reads Urgent and confidential.

  Opening it my heart drops.

  * * *

  Ariel,

  * * *

  Tom here. Please keep this email between us. Confidential. It has to be discreet. I’m emailing you from my personal account as I can’t seem to utter the words when you’re in front of me. I saw the way you looked at him that night—you know him. And I’m afraid to ask how much you know him. So, this is me taking the ball from my court and handing it to you. I figured if I had to tell anyone a secret, it’s best I told you.

  * * *

  You know who the guy is, and you seemed to dislike him quite a lot. So much so that you stormed off after our first meeting. I don’t know his name, he never gave it to me, but I’m sure you do.

  * * *

  I want to make something very clear, Ariel. Very clear. They are dangerous. If you publish who they are I’m afraid of what will happen to you. Fuck! I’m afraid of what will happen to me.

  * * *

  Please delete this email after you’ve read it, and don’t contact me again.

  * * *

  Tom

  * * *

  My heart drops, my head hurts.

  And everything I ate comes up all over my bed.

  21

  Falcon

  Women, fucking women. I shake my head as I set foot in the club the next night. It’s busy and everyone has a place they need to be, except me. I should be out, looking for new clients. I have their names on lists, places they will be frequenting, but the last place I want to be is out there where Ariel could possibly be. At least in here, I know I’m safe and she will never be around.

  “Do you not have somewhere you need to be?” Darby asks shaking his head. He’s taking the cash at the bar and watching over the place.

  “How’s the wife?”

  He pauses, then snarls at me. “Fuck off.” He walks out from behind the bar and goes to the door that leads up to our offices above, where we can watch over the place. I look around, the girls all have a client, one in each bed. Legs spread and fucking. This is one of my favorite places to be—the moans, the pleasure that’s
in this place. If you didn’t have a stick up your ass it would be heaven because no two women ever make the same sound. Each scream, each rip of pleasure is different, it’s intoxicating. I make my way to the offices and straight into Darby’s room. Creed is off and only comes in once a week right now because El needs him with the baby. Echo’s usually on a computer or with Storm somewhere, so that leaves Darby and me. And let’s face it, I’m not here as much as he is. He lives and breathes Crimson Elite, it’s his heaven.

  “I told you to fuck off,” he says before I even enter. He doesn’t look up from his computer, he just goes about his work.

  “Have you sorted it yet?”

  His eyes zoom in on me as he assesses me to see if I really care before he answers. When he can see I’m serious he does. “No. I don’t want a fucking kid.” And there is the answer, but we also know Darby won’t turn his own kid away. He may be ruthless in business, but he isn’t the asshole everyone thinks he is either.

  “You’ll make a great father.”

  He takes a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll bite. What do you want?” He sits back waiting and watching me.

  I shrug my shoulders. “Who said I want anything?”

  “Did you hear about Tom?” I nod my head giving no indication I care. “So, is it all handled now?” he asks referring to Ariel.

  “Yes.” My cell starts buzzing, but when I pull it out and see her name flash across the screen, I ignore and slide it back in my trouser pocket. “And don’t change the subject.”

  “I don’t want to discuss my personal life with a renowned male whore.”

  My hand touches my heart, and my head drops back. “You cut me deep, so very deep.” He shakes his head. “But I’m not the one who knocked some bitch up,” I say. He throws the nearest thing at me, a coffee mug, and I just manage to duck before it hits me.

  “Woahhh.” Turning, I see Echo, shaking his head at the door.

  “Watch your mouth, Falcon, or I’ll do something to shut it.”

  I hold up my hands and back away. With a smile I leave him with two parting words, “Yes, Daddy.”

  He growls loudly and I manage to get out of the room before anything lands on my head. Walking back the same way I came in, Echo stops me.

  “Go and talk to Creed.” I shake my head. “Something’s eating at you, and you two have some sort of fucked-up bond. Go, before you get yourself killed.”

  I flip him off. Creed and my bond is all about me pissing him off and making him see the truth, like with El. He had trouble understanding his feelings toward her when I saw it clear as day, so he just needed a little push. He maybe didn’t want my kind of push but it worked.

  “Falcon.” Bethany stops me, she’s in charge of the girls along with Creed. “Creed’s been busy, I need help.”

  “I’m listening.”

  She looks me over then shakes her head. “Maybe I should wait for him.” She goes to walk off.

  “Bethany, what do you need?”

  She stops and turns back to me. “One of the girls is covered in bruises, she’s saying it isn’t from here, but if it is and she’s lying, she’s protecting him.”

  “I’ll look into it.”

  She tells me her name and I go straight back up the stairs. Echo’s at his computer doing whatever the fuck it is he does with those things.

  “I need you to check out Lauren’s latest clients, check the footage from the last week.”

  “She has four clients a week, one’s a regular,” Echo says, rolling the information off from the top of his head. He’s good at what he does.

  “Tell me who’s been hurting her, or if she’s coming in with it already.”

  He nods, completely understanding what I’m talking about.

  “You know Creed does all this, I don’t have to do any of this shit.”

  “He isn’t here, is he?”

  “Go to him,” he says going back to the computer.

  “Fuck you, and call me when you find out.”

  “Echo called,” Creed says opening the front door of his house.

  “Of course, he did.”

  El walks out holding Annabelle and places her in my arms.

  “I just have to grab some things then we’re going to visit Ma.” She walks off and Creed watches us as Annabelle sleeps in my arms.

  “He’s concerned.”

  “I’m fine,” I lie.

  “Okay, who was the last woman you fucked?”

  I look down at Annabelle. “Should we be talking like that in front of her?”

  Creed turns as El walks back in to say, “No, you shouldn’t. Thank you, Falcon.”

  She takes her from my arms and gives me a wave and Creed a kiss before she walks out leaving us both alone.

  “Does she have your balls in her purse?” I ask him smiling. He doesn’t smile back, instead shuts the door as he walks in.

  Creed doesn’t answer as he starts pouring me a drink.

  “Bethany came up to me before I left, one of the girls has bruises.”

  “It’s Lauren, isn’t it?” I nod, not surprised he already knows. He pours himself a drink and shakes his head. “It’s Malcom. He’s going to have to be dealt with.” My eyes go wide in recognition of who it is who’s hurting her.

  “Echo’s looking at the footage to make sure.”

  Creed shakes his head. “Nope, it’s Malcom, I already know,” he says ending the conversation.

  “If you’re sure.”

  His eyes stare at me intensely as he speaks, “I’m sure.”

  “You handled him, didn’t you?” I ask, and he knows I’m talking about Tom.

  He brings his drink to his lips as he watches me over the brim of the glass. “Is it going to be a problem if I did?”

  I shake my head. “What do I care?” I say throwing my hands up in the air.

  “Oh, you care, you care what she’ll think if she ever discovers the truth,” Creed says. “Have fun with that,” he jokes.

  I remember how El reacted when she found out what Creed did, it didn’t go well for either of them. But look at them now, maybe there’s hope after all.

  “And stop pissing off D, you know he doesn’t fuck around.”

  “He had it coming, he’s easy to manipulate,” I say smiling, remembering how easily he bites. Creed, on the other hand, used to be next to impossible to piss off until El.

  “You can sign your own death warrant…” He pauses, pushing a drink toward me. “What do you plan to do with Ariel?”

  “Nothing.”

  He waits, but I don’t say anything further.

  “So, you’ve had your fill, now you are done?”

  I nod my head. “Pretty much. What else is there to do? I don’t want fucking kids. I like my life, why do I need a woman in it?”

  “You can have a man in it if that makes you happy,” Creed says smirking.

  “Ha-ha smart ass. I like to fuck. She likes feelings. Obviously it can’t work.”

  “So, you’re throwing in the towel.” He shakes his head. “And here I thought you were a man who follows through.”

  “Fuck you.” I turn walking straight out of his door, slamming it on my way out. Just as I get out the front, a beautiful woman with long black hair is standing there. Eyes full of fire as she walks up to me, her hand connects fast with my face, then she brings her knee up and slams it into my cock. I buckle over in pain, not expecting that, at all.

  “Fuck, Raven! I didn’t say you were a bad lay. What the fuck was that for?” When I manage to look up, her eyes are still on fire, her lips are in a tight line as she watches me.

  “Do you plan to kill me, too?” Her words are thrown out at me. I look behind me to see Creed standing on his front porch. Fuck!

  “We will talk about this somewhere private.” She looks past me to Creed, flips him off and storms away. I manage to stand, my balls in my hand as I do.

  “I would handle that, and fast if I were you.” He walks back inside and closes the door.

>   I watch as she drives off and shake my head.

  Fuck! Handling her was so much easier when we were younger.

  22

  Ariel ‘Raven’

  I see him behind me, he’s following me. As he should be. I smile when I pull up and get out of the car, waiting for him to follow. He’s reluctant, coming at me slowly and steady with a calmness about him. He should be worried, the asshole. When he reaches me it’s hard not to see him for what he is—a beautiful fucking man. Instead, I try to see him for what he really is—a killer.

  “Ariel, let’s talk about this. Calmly.” He looks over my shoulder then back to me.

  “Talk, Falcon.” I don’t comment on how he used my real name instead of the one he’s called me forever. I wait to see what excuse he will come up with.

  “You’re mad at me.”

  I roll my eyes. “That’s stating the patently clear, Captain Obvious.”

  “But do you really want me to go to jail? What would you tell my mother?”

  Oh, that’s a low blow, trying to pull his mother into this. He knows I love his family.

  “Hell, what would Tracey say?”

  I cross my hands over my chest and try to keep myself from yelling at him. “Yes. What would she say when she finds out what you do?” He looks down then back to me. “She knows, doesn’t she?” I say realizing when he doesn’t answer.

  “She does.”

  I shake my head. “I bet your parents don’t know, do they, they would have your head.”

  He steps closer, but I hold out my hand to stop him from coming any nearer. He looks behind me again. “We need to go somewhere else and discuss this, please?”

  I laugh, it’s fake. “You don’t think the police station is good enough?” I ask him.

  He looks behind me again. Then back to me. “No. No, I don’t.” His eyes look around again before he gazes back to me. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”