by Hart, Stella
“I love it when you fuck my ass, sir,” I said. “I love it when you stretch me out.”
“Do you want to come?”
“Yes,” I gasped.
“But you can’t, can you?”
“No,” I said with a whimper. I was so close to the edge I wanted to cry.
“Why not?”
“Because you own me,” I said. “You own my pleasure. I can’t come until you tell me.”
“Good girl.” He reached around to touch the sensitive bud of my clit as he drove deeply into me.
I cried out over and over, legs and arms almost collapsing as pleasure soared through me. I was incoherent, begging and pleading, breaking down into a purely animalistic state. I hated how Logan could do this to me so easily, but I loved it all the same. It felt so fucking good.
He pulled my head around to face him again. His mouth closed over mine, and I shut my eyes, losing myself to the sensation of his soft lips, heavy hands wandering over me, and the harsh sound of his breath as he thrust deeply inside me.
“Come for me,” he muttered. “I want to feel it.”
I did as he said, commanding myself to let go and come on his cock as he buried himself to the hilt in my ass. My eyes went wide as the climax rolled through me, and my limbs ached as I struggled to keep myself up.
Logan pulled out of me with a grunt, and I choked out a question. “Aren’t you going to come, sir?”
“No. I don’t need you for that,” he said. “But you do. I wanted to show you.”
With that, he turned and headed for the bathroom.
Tears pricked at my eyes despite the pleasure rocketing through me. That mind-blowing experience was nothing more than another cruel lesson about Logan’s domination and ownership of me.
I was wrong when I thought we couldn’t control our physical reactions to each other. He’d just proved to me that he was always in total control of himself, no matter what.
I wasn’t. I couldn’t come without him. Couldn’t even touch myself unless he was right there with me, watching and spurring me on. It simply didn’t work, because without him, I was numb.
I couldn’t stand the truth, painful and ugly as it was, but I had to face up to it.
Logan already owned me more than I ever thought possible.
5
Willow
Shivering, I wrapped my scarf tighter around my neck. Warm air was piping into the private elevator, but it didn’t help. I’d felt cold and shaky ever since my most recent ‘lesson’ from Logan, and the feeling showed no sign of dissipating anytime soon.
The elevator came to a smooth halt. I stepped out onto the ground floor with Logan by my side. Mal and Adam were back on my security detail now, and they were faithfully trailing behind us.
From what I’d overheard while Logan was on the phone to someone earlier, Adam was in a bit of trouble for leaving me alone outside the other night. However, the Thornes hadn’t fired him, because he’d raced off to help after being called up by Mal, which they could hardly fault him for. On top of that, he was also a loyal employee to them, and he’d never revealed anything about the fucked-up stuff that went on behind closed doors at Thorne House. That loyalty could be tested, however, if they let him go.
I wished they would, though. I wished they would fire both agents or do something else to piss them off, just so they’d snap and tell the world what this crazy family was doing to me. Then again, if they were ever let go, the Thornes would probably have them killed to ensure their permanent silence.
Sighing, I looked down at the marble tiles as I followed Logan across the lobby to the eastern wing of Wonderland’s ground floor. The Order had called a meeting for all members to discuss the recent data breach, and they were holding it in a lavish function room right here.
Usually, Order meetings were held at the underground headquarters in the secret D.C. tunnels, but for security reasons, they’d decided to host tonight’s event here instead. Those ‘security reasons’ mostly involved me. The data breach had only involved my secret confession, and with all the media furor and public outrage surrounding my family at the moment, the Order had deemed it unsafe for me to be roaming around the city.
Unbelievably, Wonderland was actually the safest place for me at the moment.
“Won’t your mom think it’s weird that she’s the only one home for dinner?” I asked, catching up to Logan. With Chuck in the high council for the Order, and Logan and me in the general membership, Elizabeth would be left all alone upstairs tonight.
Logan shook his head. “She went out to the city with some friends earlier,” he said. “She wouldn’t think it’s weird, anyway. Dad is busy most nights, so him being gone at dinnertime is nothing out of the ordinary. As for us, we could just say we decided to go out on a date if she ever wondered why we weren’t there.”
“Oh. Right.”
He put an arm out to stop me. “The meeting is in that room,” he said, pointing to our left. “We’re early, though, so I don’t know if we can go in yet.”
He told Mal and Adam to keep an eye on me while he went and spoke to the security guards standing outside the double doors of the function room. While he was gone, I cast my eyes around the expansive space, taking in the bright restaurants and bars on the other side.
A familiar face popped into my line of sight a moment later. Rowan Harris was standing by the glass window of a sports bar directly across from the function room. He held a half-empty beer schooner in one hand, and he seemed to be alone. He caught my eye in the same few seconds I noticed him, and he shot me a surprised look before smiling and raising one hand in a wave.
I waved back just as Logan returned to my side. “We can’t go in yet,” he said. “They said the high council is still setting things up with Q.”
My eyes widened. “Q is going to be at the meeting?”
Logan shook his head. “He’s going to be talking to us via video link.”
I pressed my lips together as an urge to giggle overcame me. The thought of the secret supreme leader of the Order video-conferencing a meeting with his subordinate members seemed completely ludicrous to me.
“What’s so funny?” Logan asked, brows furrowing as he stared down at me. By now my shoulders were shaking with barely-concealed mirth.
“Sorry,” I said, trying my best to control myself. “It’s just the idea of Q Skyping with us. He’s meant to be the big, shadowy leader of an elite secret society, oozing with power and influence, and then he goes and does something as mundane as a video conference.”
I expected Logan to roll his eyes at my lowbrow sense of humor, but he grinned instead. It wasn’t one of the scornful smirks he liked to pull on me most of the time. It was a genuine smile, making his usually-cold gray eyes light up. “You’re right,” he said. “It does seem pretty ridiculous.”
“Why is he doing it?”
Logan shrugged. “He doesn’t want to be in the same room as all of us, I guess. Too risky. Someone could discover his identity.”
“Do you think anyone will ever find out who he is?”
“Doubt it. Not knowing is the point.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I murmured. I still thought it was really weird that no one in the Order knew who the leader was, even though the reasoning behind it had been explained to me before.
I looked across the room again to see Rowan still standing on the edge of the sports bar. He waved at me again and beckoned for me to go over to him.
I turned back to Logan. “Can I go and say hi to Rowan? He’s at Varsity,” I said, pointing toward the bar.
He frowned. “No. The meeting starts in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be quick,” I said. “Besides, he already saw me. It’ll look weird if I don’t go over and say hi, and I know you don’t want anyone to start suspecting anything about us for any reason.”
Logan scratched at his cheek, brows drawing together in a conflicted frown. Finally, he nodded. “Okay. Go say hi. I’ll give you five minutes
,” he said. He turned and waved a hand at Mal and Adam. “Go with her.”
I hurried across the lobby and walked into Varsity. It was mostly empty, aside from Rowan at his table and a few older men sitting up at the dark mahogany bar.
“Hey!” I said, approaching Rowan with a wide smile.
“Hey, you,” he replied, reaching out to give me a hug.
I closed my eyes as he wrapped his arms around me. “It’s so good to see you,” I said.
Rowan pulled back and frowned. “You okay?” he asked, probably wondering why I was acting so weird. We’d never really had the kind of friendship where we hugged and gushed over how much we missed each other.
I nodded and swallowed hard. “I’m fine. I just haven’t seen you in a while, that’s all.”
He lifted one brow. “Well, you’ve been busy with your new fiancé.”
My cheeks flushed. “Yeah. Sorry I didn’t tell you about that, by the way.”
He waved a hand. “It’s fine. I figured you must save all the relationship chatter for your girlfriends,” he said. “I have to say I was surprised, though. You always told me you hated Logan.”
I nodded, blush deepening. “Yeah. I know. It was all very… sudden.”
“Well, as long as you’re happy,” he said. He cocked his head to one side. “Are you?”
“Yes,” I replied. The lie felt like it was burning a hole in my tongue. “I’m very happy.”
He nodded slowly. “Then I’m happy for you.”
I changed the subject. “What are you doing here, anyway? Wonderland doesn’t really seem like your sort of place.”
He shrugged. “It’s not. I came here with a guy from work to watch the game tonight,” he said, nodding up at the widescreen TV on the other side of the bar. “He likes this place.”
“Oh. Where is he?”
“He had to go and make a call,” he replied. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“There was a fire at Thorne House, so Logan and I are staying here while the place gets fixed up.”
Rowan raised an eyebrow again. “I thought the Thornes owned a ton of houses.”
“They do, but Wonderland is the closest property to D.C. that’s actually available at the moment.”
“Ah. Right.” He nodded and took a quick sip of his beer. “How are you doing with all this scandal stuff, anyway?”
I sighed. “Not great.”
His brows pulled down, and he gently patted my shoulder. “Sorry. It really sucks.”
“Yup.”
“I don’t know if this will make you feel any better, but my parents and I think it’s all bullshit. Your mom didn’t do anything wrong.”
I gave him a watery smile. “Thanks. That means a lot.”
He waved a hand. “It’s nothing.”
“No, really. It’s so nice to hear someone being supportive, because I keep hearing everyone on the news ranting about how Mom and Jamie are definitely murderers, even though they don’t even know how Rutherford died yet. It’s like everyone’s already made up their minds, and the truth doesn’t matter.”
“Mob mentality,” Rowan said, rolling his eyes. “People love a scandal.”
“Yeah. I hate it.”
“Don’t worry. When they do the second autopsy, I bet they’ll discover Rutherford died of natural causes after all, and then this whole thing will blow over.”
“I hope so.”
Rowan lifted his eyes over my shoulder. “I think your fiancé is looking for you,” he said.
I looked around to see Logan tapping his watch on the other side of the lobby. “I better go,” I said, turning back to Rowan. “We have, uh… a dinner party to go to.”
“Okay. Have fun. I’ll see you later.”
I gave him a quick hug before returning to Logan’s side with Mal and Adam. “Thanks for letting me talk to my friend,” I murmured, clasping my hands in front of me.
Logan dipped his chin in a brief nod. “It’s fine,” he said curtly. “The meeting is going to start soon. We should head in.”
The doors outside the function room were open now. I recognized various Order members as they stepped inside. Logan and I followed them into the enormous wood-paneled room and found our places at one of the round tables scattered throughout the space. It was close to a platform with velvet-lined chairs which had been set up for the high council on the right side. An enormous TV screen hung on the wall behind the platform. Right now, it was blank, but I assumed that was where Q would appear when he deigned to speak to us.
Ten minutes later, the room was packed with hundreds of Order members. One of the council members rose and headed to the microphone in the center of the platform.
“Thank you for coming, everyone. Tonight’s meeting is of the utmost importance,” she said. She gestured at the seats behind her. “As you can see, not all of our high council members are present tonight.”
With a frown, I realized what she was talking about. There were only ten council members on the platform, even though there were fifteen of them altogether. Chuck Thorne was one of the missing ones.
“Where’s your dad?” I asked Logan in a low voice.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I thought he’d be here.” He looked around. “I haven’t seen your dad yet, either.”
I quickly scanned the rest of the room with a frown. Logan was right. My father was nowhere to be seen amongst the other seated members. “Weird,” I murmured.
The woman behind the microphone cleared her throat and kept going. “The missing council members are helping our leader, Q,” she said. “He wanted to address us tonight, so he asked us to set up a video link.”
She turned to grab a small black remote from one of the other council members. When she clicked a button, the screen behind them flared to life, and several people gasped as Q appeared.
He was dressed in a thick black cloak, and his face was covered by a twisted black and red carnival mask with enormous curling horns protruding from the top. The sight sent a violent chill down my spine.
The camera zoomed out slightly to show that he was sitting on a throne carved out of dark wood, crested with red jewels and decorative metalwork forming the Order’s symbol—the Eye of Providence. It appeared to be situated in a dim grotto with jagged stone teeth descending from the shadows above.
Our vision was mostly confined to a circle of flickering orange light cast by a series of flaming torches around the throne, but I could make out a few silhouettes standing by the edge; presumably the council members who’d met with Q to help him set up the video link.
“Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming at such short notice,” he finally said, lifting one black-gloved hand. His deep voice was unrecognizable, distorted by some sort of device which made him sound like a robot.
“Wow,” I muttered under my breath. He really, really didn’t want anyone to know who he was.
“It’s a shame we have to meet under these circumstances,” Q went on, lowering his hand. “But as you all know, our society was recently affected by a very serious data breach. One of our own had her confession revealed to the world. Willow Rhoades, please stand up.”
He lifted both hands, palms facing upward. I did as he said, pulling myself up on shaky legs. Every Order member in the room turned to face me. Some appeared sympathetic, while others—like Logan—were merely apathetic.
“I, along with my esteemed council, have spent the last five days searching for the perpetrator of this heinous crime,” Q went on. “We haven’t discovered the source yet, but I can assure you, we will in due time. Until then, we must rise up in support of Willow. She is our sister, and she did not deserve to experience such an egregious abuse of her trust.”
An agreeable murmur echoed through the function room as the vast majority of the Order members nodded.
“Willow, I am truly sorry. If there is anything I can do to help you through this time, all you have to do is let me know through one of the high council members,” Q co
ntinued. “Again, I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
I pursed my lips and nodded, wishing I could reach right into the screen and rip off Q’s mask so I could see his eyes and the truth in their dark depths.
Was he really sorry? I doubted it.
If he cared about anything other than his own agenda, whatever that may be, he wouldn’t have brokered the contract which forced me into a permanent relationship with Logan.
Q lowered his hands again. “You may sit,” he said, dipping his head.
I gratefully sank back into my chair. My face felt like it was on fire.
“Councilwoman Meyer, please address the society,” Q said, tilting his head to one side.
The woman behind the microphone nodded and turned back to the crowd. “As our venerated leader has already stated, we have been trying our hardest to locate the source of the security breach. What we know so far is that a computer hacker managed to get through our encryptions, giving him access to the data on our servers. Our system was—and still is—meant to be unhackable, so we have our best minds working on the issue, trying to figure out how the hack could’ve possibly occurred.”
“Does that mean this hacker has everything?” someone called out, their voice panicky and shrill.
The councilwoman shook her head. “We know you’re probably all afraid right now, but we can assure you that Willow’s confession file was the only one accessed and read by the hacker. Our IT employees have ways of checking these things.”
A collective sigh of relief went around the room.
“But what if the hacker gets in again?” another member asked, eyes narrowed.
“That won’t happen. Our employees have taken the temporary measure of disabling the entire system, so it’s all offline now, and it will remain that way until we know exactly what happened. I repeat: no one else is at risk of having their confession leaked to the world.”
A younger member stood up, timidly holding one hand in the air. The councilwoman pointed at him. “Do you have a question?”