by Keta Kendric
I cared enough about her not to push too far, or spank too hard, or choke too tight, or bite too deep. However, when it came to pounding her pussy, I couldn’t control my brutality. Besides, the freak in her could take it.
My eyes followed her finger as she used it to paint her nipple with my cum. When she lifted the finger and eyed me as her hot pink tongue lapped up my cum, she set off another explosion of lust within me.
There were no questions asked when I gripped her hand and led her towards my bedroom. I’d decided. When Aaron came to pick Regina up in a few days, she wasn’t going with him, period. If I needed to tie her sexy ass up and hold her hostage, so fucking be it, that’s what I’d do.
I’d had a lot of sex in my time, had fucked and trained many subs, had fucked half of Florida and most of California, but none held a candle to Regina. She’d broken through and dragged me from my own controlling mentality and urged me to let the fuck go.
No woman had ever connected with me like this. Our physical connection during sex was undeniable. Hell, we were putting a new spin on the definition of chemistry. We’d also connected on an emotional level during sex, which scared the ever-loving fuck out of me, but I took it because there was no getting around it.
The mental connection and understanding we had for each other when we were levelheaded and not lust-drunk was another twist to our relationship that continued to amaze me. Regina was my own personal beast-slayer, and if I had my way, I wasn’t ever letting her go.
38
Regina
The last twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind of sex, bondage, dominance, and even hints of romance. My sore body was a testament to the obstacles Ansel had put me through, but I’d enjoyed every single moment of it.
My head bobbed atop his heaving chest as I gazed up at him. This time with him was surreal, one of the best experiences of my life. I’d never had a man that desired me this way—in every way.
“So… Sir, or Ansel,” I stated with a smirk. The lines between who we were from one moment to the next were a blur of confusion. The smile on his face amazed me.
“What?” he asked, his stare becoming a curious glint.
“It’s hard to believe that I can make you smile like that. It’s beautiful. Like a gift you’re giving back to me.”
He lifted a brow but didn’t comment, staring at me in that way that he did that kicked up my anxiousness. Since my head was on his chest, there wasn’t much I could do to hide my gaze from his.
I could never look into his eyes without squirming, so I stopped trying. I’m sure he’d figured out by now why his gaze made me so squirrelly. I’d fallen head over heels for the man. Not even the soft serenading voice of Sade in the background eased my tension.
“Is there anything else on me that you like more than my butt?” I questioned, talking to ease my anxiousness and to hide the truth in my gaze.
“Your eyes,” he answered without hesitation.
My forehead wrinkled. I slid my forearm under my chin as I continued to stare up at him. “My eyes are brown. Plain and boring like millions of other brown eyes in the world.”
He sat up, taking me up with him. He shook his head, and a stiff gaze surfaced like I’d offended his judgment.
His warm hand cupped my face. “Sometimes, you don’t see yourself at all.”
He slung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood. “Get up,” he ordered. I obeyed. Who was he right now, my Dom or my protector?
He gripped my arms and positioned me in front of him. We stood in front of his full-length mirror, butt ass naked. I knew better than to comment on any imperfection on my body because he’d let me have it.
He towered over me, pointing at the mirror. “Look into your eyes, Regina.”
I looked.
“Look how beautiful they are. They are not like anyone else’s brown eyes.”
He must have noticed the doubt in my gaze.
“Your brown eyes can tell a story in seconds. They are my most loyal and receptive supporters. They tell me everything I need to know and the secrets you try to hide from me. They are big, like large beautiful flowers emerging from living earth. They emit your sincerity and reflect your good spirit. When you smile, Regina, you make others smile too because it shines through your eyes. One smile, one radiant sparkle from your eyes, can give the sun a run for its money.”
I beamed under his praise. His words lifted my emotions before folding them into the warmth of a thousand embraces.
“Thank you,” I whispered because my voice had cracked into a thousand pieces and my heart had turned into mush. It took great effort to keep my emotions at bay and the burning behind my eyes under control. No one had ever expressed to me anything so inspiring. Those were the most beautiful words any man had spoken about me.
Ansel wasn’t going to let me have doubts about any parts of myself, not even my eyes. My gaze was glued to his in the mirror. There was more depth to him than I could have imagined. If I weren’t already, this moment would have tipped the scales in the direction of letting myself fall.
His voice and body delivered the Dom, his mind revealed the truth, and sometimes, if I searched hard enough, his eyes gave a glimpse into his heart. The ridiculous smile that spread across my face couldn’t be helped.
Ansel had climbed so far into my heart and mind, there was no way I could not love him. There was no use in me denying his effect on me. The evidence had become clearer. The stupid smile I could never wipe off my face, my body’s reaction to his every action, and him tucked in every corner of my mind. I carried a willingness to please him in whatever way he wanted, but he appeared to be more concerned with satisfying me than allowing me to please him.
He spun me around to face him. “Nothing about you is plain,” he stated as his creamy finger circled my dark nipple, making it pucker at the slightest touch. “No part of you is boring,” he continued as his fingers traced along the quivering flesh of my stomach until it reached the heat emanating down below. “If you are plain and boring like you think, why can’t I keep my hands off you?”
His question was laced with a heavy dose of lust that turned up the heat in my body. How could I not fall for this man? How could I not want to make him happy? I knew without any doubt that he could have been tougher on me, yet, there was an underlying care behind his actions that let me know he didn’t want to hurt me.
I was falling. No, scratch that, I’d fallen. The stars were swimming in my eyes. I was under Ansel’s spell, and I didn’t know how to break it. Did I even want to break it? The most pathetic part about the situation was, even if he never loved me back, I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel bad about my feelings for him.
39
Ansel
Two days of the best sex of my life had my fucking mind twisted. Another woman hadn’t crossed my mind since Regina had walked her fine ass through my door. My subs had been calling, they may even have been stalking my ass, but I didn’t want to hear their voices. I damn sure didn’t want to see them.
Regina and I hadn’t had any interruptions in the last forty-eight hours. My team hadn’t found any new leads, and no one else had shown up to present themselves as torture practice for us. For now, work took a backseat. When one of my managers called about me needing to take care of something, I told him, “I pay you enough to take care of it, so take care of it,” before I hung up on him.
I could make money anytime. What I couldn’t do was find another Regina. Aside from killing whoever was searching for her, the time we had together had become my greatest priority. I was afraid of becoming obsessed with Regina. This wasn’t a good situation for someone with my type of mentality. It wasn’t going to end well.
The hum of the elevator rising to my floor drew my lips into a tight smile. Aaron was on the way to pick up Regina. She’d expressed that she wasn’t going to leave me, but I sat with a nagging anxiousness looming over my shoulders, hoping she didn’t change her mind.
Genuine fear plagued
me, the first time I’d been afraid of losing someone. I’d hate to have to stalk Regina, snatch her up, and stash her in one of my secret hideaways.
“Be gone, demon,” I voiced in a low tone to the son-of-a-bitch in my head that led me to do bad things.
My ass was experiencing a lot of firsts with Regina. The first woman I’d enjoyed being around long-term. The first I’d chase if she left me. The first to know one of my darkest secrets. The first I’d by-passed fucking, to be intimate with. Me: intimate. Never saw that shit coming. We talked to each other. We fought to understand each other. I was starting to think we truly trusted each other.
The ding sounded, signaling the arrival of the elevator. The doors slid apart and out walked the beard.
Aaron had called several times, checking up on Regina. I ignored each of his calls and listened to the voicemails he’d leave cursing my ass out. I’d text him back, “Fuck off! We’re good.”
“Hey,” he greeted in a dry tone as he glanced around my apartment, searching for Regina. I like that my cousin kept his promises, but as far as Regina was concerned, I wouldn’t mind if he broke this one.
We gripped hands and pulled each other into a brotherly hug.
“How’d it go? Any trouble?” he asked as his razor-sharp gaze zoomed in on my face.
I shrugged before taking my seat and waited for Aaron to relax his killer face and sit his ass down too. I loved my cousin, really, I did, but there were times when Aaron appeared to have just committed a mass murder. And he had the nerve to wonder why people were always staring upside his head. I finally answered him.
“A little trouble, but nothing I couldn’t handle.”
I gave a short monologue about what had happened in the past few weeks. Although he sat and listened intently, Aaron’s facial expressions revealed a story of death and destruction at his hands. If someone hurt Regina, they would have two crazy ass Knox men to contend with as well as an army of bloodthirsty killers better known as the friends.
“So, motherfuckers are still coming after her. Why didn’t you tell me when I tried to call your ass?”
A smile spread across my face. I’d given Regina a phone with Aaron and Megan’s numbers in it, and she hadn’t bothered them once.
The left corner of my lip pulled tight, preparing to answer his question. “Aaron, what the fuck do I look like? The help? It’s only a matter of time before we figure out who the fuck we’re dealing with, and I’ll do what I need to do. Handle the shit.”
Aaron, side-eyed me. “Your crazy ass was probably praying someone came after her so you’d have someone to kill. Where is she? I hope you haven’t been in here doing that Dom and submissive shit to her.”
He glanced around my quiet apartment before his hard gaze landed back on me.
“You know, cousin, I can’t remember if I uncuffed her from my headboard.” I was only half-joking with Aaron. Regina had gotten familiar with the headboards in my playroom and bedroom. I’d made the most of the time we had left, just in case she decided to go. I’d taken her to the gun range once more. I’d also given her another self-defense class where she hadn’t defended anything except her pussy from my dick.
Most of our time together over the last forty-eight hours had been spent with her tied up and me fucking her in every imaginable way I could think of.
“Ansel!” Aaron called, getting my attention. “Where the fuck is Regina?”
“I’m right here, August.” Her sweet voice rang out and kissed my eardrum. She strutted into the living room in a pair of my blue sweats and one of my white T-shirts. Her feet were bare, letting me know she wasn’t prepared to leave my ass.
Aaron stood to greet her, giving her a once over as she stepped closer. He gave her a quick hug. What he did next had me sitting there eyeballing his ass so hard, there was no way he didn’t sense my gaze punching his ass in the back of his neck.
That motherfucker stood his ass there and turned Regina all the way around, inspecting her. When he took her wrists and raised them, the scrapes from the handcuffs was on display. Aaron turned his head over his shoulder. The full force of his hard glare was cast down on me like two big ass blaring headlights had been flipped on bright.
“I’m okay, August,” Regina confirmed, pulling his attention away from me. “Ansel’s been a perfect gentleman.”
She had gone too damn far with the gentleman statement. Now, Aaron knew her ass was lying. My name and gentleman didn’t even sound right being in the same sentence.
“Are you ready?” he asked after he released a frustrated sigh.
“I’d like to stay with Ansel. He’s been taking good care of me.”
A shit-eating grin broke out on my face after hearing that statement.
“I bet he has,” Aaron mumbled under his breath as his gaze fell back on me. My grin remained, glad that Regina had decided not to leave.
“What did you do to her?” Aaron questioned me. “I know fucking cuff marks when I see them. And I know for fuck sure that you don’t even know what a fucking gentleman is.”
Aaron asked the wrong question. He should be asking what she’d done to me. Regina was the smoothest criminal I knew. She’d committed her robberies with caring ease and masterful subtlety.
She’d been stealing bits and pieces of me since the day I’d met her. She wasn’t harsh or demanding but determined to gradually take enough of me that I’d not want her to give anything back.
As for the cuff marks, I took more care in the way I bound her. Marks and bruises were a part of my world, but I wasn’t proud of the fact that I’d fucked up and let those cuffs bite into her wrist.
She tapped Aaron’s arm to regain his attention. “I’m okay, August. I’d like to stay.”
They glared at each other for a paused moment before Aaron nodded his head at her. “Okay, but call me if you want to leave, and I’ll come and get you. I told you I’d take care of you, and I meant that shit.”
“I know, August, and I believe you. Ansel also said he’d take care of me, and he has been.”
That’s my girl. Tell that big fucking woolly mammoth how good I’ve been taking care of you.
She gave Aaron another quick hug before she glanced at me. Our gazes locked and didn’t break until she walked her sexy ass away and retreated back towards the hall that led to my bedroom. My gaze remained on her, but I could sense my cousin’s gaze upside my head.
“What?” I asked, shrugging.
His gaze raked accusingly over me before he shook a finger in my direction.
“You gave me shit about Megan, and your ass is plum fucking gone. Regina is like the people-whisperer, but I don’t know how she pulled this shit off, especially with your crazy ass.”
“What in the fuck are you talking about, Aaron? You took on a fucking cartel over Megan. Died and came back to life for her. Me and Doc, let’s just say, we understand each other.”
Aaron shook his head at me, lips pinched and stretched like he pitied me or something. His headshaking and hard gaze remained on me for a paused moment before he retook his seat on the couch.
“Yeah, you understand each other all right. Your fucking ass is gone, and you don’t even know it yet. Trust me, that’s one habit you can’t break. One addiction you can’t fight. One obstacle you can’t overcome. I can’t wait until you figure it out and it knocks you on your arrogant ass.”
“Whatever,” I stated flatly. “If you’re finished with my intervention, let me fill you in on the motherfuckers we encountered that tried to take her. You were around her family and the crew that worked for them longer than anybody. Maybe you can see an angle we missed.”
Aaron nodded, but the smirk on his face irked the shit out of me. That bearded bastard acted like he knew some shit I didn’t. I cared for Regina, so the fuck what? It didn’t mean I’d be marching my ass down to the justice of the peace to marry her.
“How’s Megan?” I asked, wiping that fucking grin right off his face. All anyone needed to do was mentio
n Megan, and his ass turned into a different person.
“She’s good, has gotten back into her writing. She would have come today, but she’s a little tired.”
“Um hmm,” I murmured as I folded my arms over my chest. Megan and Aaron appeared to be polar opposites, but they were each other’s air. They also fucked like rabbits on Red Bull. My cousin was one of the most vicious motherfuckers I knew. But, seeing the way he loved Megan led me to believe anything was possible.
40
Ansel
I’d spent most of yesterday evening with Aaron and the crew. Me and the gang, including D remotely, caught him up on everything we’d gathered on the group that had attempted to snatch Regina.
Aaron had come up empty, and even D hadn’t been able to pull any tricks from his digital magic hat to give us any new leads. I’d even sat Regina in front of the surveillance we’d gathered to see if she could clue something in. For now, sharp eyes and trigger fingers were our first-line of defense against an enemy we couldn’t yet identify.
Lately, work had been getting my middle finger. I’d show up and not get shit done. My heart wasn’t in it.
Like now, instead of going over boring ass accounting reports, my mind lingered on Regina. After I backed away from my desk and took out my phone, I pulled up the camera feeds. I needed to see her face to ensure she was okay. She sat in her second favorite spot near the pool, letting her feet drag through the water. For a moment all I could concentrate on was how fucking sexy she looked in that green bathing suit until my scanning eyes landed on her face.
Usually, the pool and the view of the city enticed her to smile, but my face drew into a tight frown at the level of sadness her slumped body carried. I zoomed the camera in for a better view.
Why are you so sad, Regina?
The longer I stared at her, the more concerned I became. This was how she’d been when I’d first met her, stressed and sad-faced all the time. Now that I knew the reason behind her sadness, I sought to shelter her from it. The torture she’d suffered at the hands of her cousin haunted her. I certainly understood why.