If I Dream

by K. M. Scott

  Quickly, I grabbed a sweater and opened the front door to my apartment. Looking left and right, I saw no one nearby, but I had a feeling whoever Oliver had watching me wasn’t far away. I didn’t care. If he or his goon asked where I was going, I’d tell the truth.

  My heart raced as I rushed down the stairs toward the main house. Soon I’d see Ryder, and no matter how long I had with him, at least those moments together would be happy.

  Barefoot, I ran down the back hallway where I’d made the fateful decision that night to end it all rather than marry a man I didn’t love and then turned the corner to see Ryder standing outside my father’s office. I slowed down to a walk to catch my breath and smiled, thrilled to finally see him after days apart.

  Just as I reached where he stood, my father walked out and stopped when he saw me. “Just who I wanted to see. You must be reading my mind, Serena.”

  My heart sank. Whatever Ryder had planned had been ruined. “You wanted me for something, Daddy?”

  “I did. Ryder here made a wonderful suggestion that I wholeheartedly agree with and I’m sure you will too. As your husband is away so much, he offered to drive you to your sister’s since her husband is out of town on business. Isn’t that a wonderful idea?”

  His words made my spirits soar. Wonderful wasn’t the word to describe his idea. Janelle’s house was no less than an hour away, more if I could claim beltway rush hour traffic, and that would give us at least a chance to be with each other on the way there and then maybe make a detour on the way back. Whatever way I looked at it, Ryder’s plan was perfect.

  “I love it! When do we leave?”

  My father’s eyes opened wide at my enthusiastic answer. “I’m surprised to see you so happy to comply with what I want, Serena. Being married must be doing wonders for you. You two can leave whenever Ryder’s ready.”

  “I’m ready now. Should I take the Mercedes?”

  “Fine. And Serena, don’t give Ryder a hard time. He’s one of my best men.”

  Standing on my tiptoes, I kissed my father on the cheek. “You can count on me to behave, Daddy. Whatever he says goes. See you later.”

  Completely surprised by my willingness to do what he wanted, my father sighed contentedly. “I like this new person you are now that you’re married. I’ll be sure to let Oliver know you’ll be back later tonight.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ryder grin in that way that always made me want him. I didn’t know how he’d figured out how to outmaneuver my father and I didn’t care. All I cared about was the two hours alone we’d have with my father’s blessing, and Oliver couldn’t say a thing about it.

  Ryder pulled the car down the long driveway from the main house and through the gates as I sat in the back seat dying to sit up there next to him. A few blocks from the house, I climbed into the passenger seat and turned to see him smiling at me.

  “I couldn’t let you just sit in that apartment all alone, so I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone.”

  Moving over to sit beside him, I slid my hand up his muscular thigh covered by the black dress pants he wore. “What two birds would that be?”

  He moaned as I palmed his already hard cock through the thin fabric and winced like he was in pain. “At least let me get a few miles away, Serena.”

  I pressed my lips to the shell of his ear and whispered, “No need. You drive and tell me about those two birds and I’ll do what I’ve wanted to do all day.”

  Another moan escaped from his throat when I unzipped his pants and slipped his thick cock out. I’d fantasized about sucking him off, and now that I had the chance, I wasn’t going to let it go by without taking advantage of it.

  Lowering my head, I wasted no time in taking that beautiful cock into my mouth. Every inch of Ryder was perfect as far as I was concerned, but this part was sublime. Long and thick, his cock was everything a woman could ask for.

  I gently sucked the crown between my lips and teased the very tip with my tongue as he buried his right hand in my hair and tugged.

  “Fuck, oh God, that feels so good,” he said on a moan that hit me deep inside where his cock would later in our drive.

  Wrapping my hand around him, I began in earnest to go down on him, slowly easing every delicious inch of him into my mouth until he filled it completely and then ever so slightly faster sliding my lips up his shaft until they reached the head, all the while flicking my tongue over the raised vein that ran the full length of his cock.

  “Oh…God…Serena, I’m going to have to pull over,” he said in a voice that sounded like he was nearly there.

  But I liked the idea of how dangerous this all felt and looked up at him to protest. “No, keep going. I want you to come while you’re driving.”

  Ryder winced and looked back at the road. “You’re going to kill both of us.”

  Taking his cock back into my mouth, I moaned against his silky soft skin and hoped he wouldn’t truly kill us over a blowjob. Sliding my hand down his shaft, I cupped his balls and began to suck on the head like I knew he loved. It never failed to make him come hard, and I wanted that.

  He yanked my hair with each time I lowered my mouth to the base of his cock, pulling my head up fast so I barely had time to tease him with my tongue. Above me, I heard him groan and he lifted his hips off the seat, making his foot press down on the accelerator and pushing him back against the seat.

  Maybe this wasn’t the best idea.

  I didn’t care, though. Sliding my hand up and down his cock, I kept my mouth on the head and sucked hard to get him to that point of no return.

  “Right there…fuck…don’t stop. Suck it…”

  When he said things like that, I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t. I loved pleasing him, and knowing that I was about to give him pleasure like I’d never given to anyone else made me happier than almost anything else in the world. Only looking into his eyes as I rode his cock was better, but that would come later.

  For now, all I wanted was to taste him in my mouth and hear his beautiful moans as he came.

  I felt the first twitch of his cock against my tongue and knew he was seconds away. Tightening his hold on my hair, he exhaled deeply and came, spurting cum down my throat. I closed my lips around him so I didn’t lose a drop and sucked until nothing was left in him as he groaned with every thrust into my mouth.

  The car slowed and I sat up to see him pulling off onto a dirt road in a wooded area I remembered from parties in high school. Barely dusk, we ran the risk of being seen, but neither one of us cared.

  He parked the car and pulled me onto his lap to kiss me deep and long like everything he loved about me existed in my lips as he slid my shorts and panties down my left leg. In seconds, his cock was filling me for the second time that trip.

  “This is all I could think of all afternoon. I can’t stand the idea of you in that apartment waiting for him like he wants you to. I hate it.”

  Cradling his face, I kissed him and rocked my hips to take him deeper inside me to touch that spot only he had ever found. “Don’t talk about him. Don’t talk about that place. All I want to think of is you and me and how you feel when you’re inside me like this, Ryder.”

  He moved his hands to cup my ass, and lifting his hips, thrust hard into me. “I can’t help it. You’re all I think about. You’re my obsession, my addiction, and what he’s doing is killing me.”

  As I rode his cock, loving how he stretched me to take every perfect inch of him into me, I looked into his eyes and knew something would have to change. I couldn’t live without being with him like this, and he wasn’t going to let another man keep me from him.

  Even if he was my husband.

  Our hands grasped and clutched at the one another’s skin, marking us with the evidence of what we’d done, but I didn’t care. I needed him more than I needed safety and security, and if Oliver found out, so be it.

  If the choice was Ryder or him, there was no choice. He could do what he liked
to me. I wasn’t going to give up the only man I’d ever loved completely and without fear.

  Sinking his teeth into the soft skin of my shoulder, he thrust his cock into me one last time and I came apart and then seconds later reveled in the feel of him flooding me with his release. It was rough and careless and perfect, and if we didn’t get caught, I’d be desperate to feel him just like this again tomorrow.

  We sat silently catching our breath, still joined together, and I lay my head on his strong shoulder. Of all the places in the world I could be, none were better than right there in that car with him.

  Ryder gently stroked my hair down my back and whispered, “I would do anything to have you away from him. You know that?”

  I sat back and looked into his eyes, knowing how much truth there was in his words. He never left any room for doubt, and if I knew a way to make his wish come true, I would have.

  “I love you. Nothing will ever change that. Not this sham marriage my father forced on me. Not every horrible thing we’ve have to endure since the day we met. Nothing will change that I love you.”

  He closed his eyes and exhaled, knitting his brows. “I think about things sometimes, Serena. Bad things.”

  A feeling of terror struck me. Bad things? What did he mean?

  “What kind of bad things?” I asked, fearing the answer I’d hear. Did he mean that he thought about us not seeing each other?

  Slowly, he opened his eyes and stared up at me with a look so intense it made my breath catch in my chest. Terrified, I waited for him to speak.

  But he kissed me instead, a whispersoft kiss that I feared would be followed by the news that he couldn’t do this anymore with me. Before I spoke, he said in a faraway voice, “I think about if he just wasn’t around anymore.”

  I knew full well what he meant. Ryder spent his days convincing people to do my father’s bidding, and I knew how he did it. I’d never asked if he’d ever done anything more than threaten people, and I didn’t want to think of him having to do that just to please my father.

  But I didn’t want him to be that man for me.

  “Don’t say that. There will be a way for us to be together. I promise. I don’t want your hands dirty when it comes to him.”

  “I would do anything to be with you, Serena. Do you understand me? Anything.”

  I shook my head and then kissed him to stop him from talking. No matter what he did for my father, I couldn’t bear the thought of tainting what we were, even if it meant I’d be free.

  There had to be another way.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ryder

  I watched Serena walk into the main house and back to her life with him, hating how powerless I was to do anything to end our misery. As I pulled the Mercedes into the garage, all I could think about was how shitty he acted when I brought her shoes to her. It wasn’t bad enough he forced her to wear things she hated, but then to act like someone being kind to her was some kind of criminal act pissed me off.

  Taking a deep breath, I tried to put the thoughts of hurting him out of my mind, but like usual, they returned with a vengeance. I hadn’t lied to her when I said I’d do anything to be with her. I would, even if it meant getting rid of him.

  My work for her father forced me to do things like that more often than even I wanted to admit, so why would offing her husband be any worse? At least then I’d be making someone’s life better.

  Two lives, actually. If she wasn’t married to Oliver, maybe she and I could be together. Robert seemed to genuinely like me after all this time working for him, so maybe he’d let her be with me.

  Not that I had anything like her husband to offer. I had little money, no family to speak of, and no social connections. On second thought, maybe he’d just marry her off to another bastard with cash if I got rid of the first one.

  Disgusted at how trapped both Serena and I were in this world of Robert Erickson’s, I turned the car off and hung up the keys in the lockbox before heading back into the house. It didn’t help to have pipe dreams. They never came true anyway.

  I braced myself for whatever might come my way as I stepped into his office, but I found it empty. Since it wasn’t even ten yet, he probably hadn’t left to see his latest girlfriend. Not really interested in where he might be, I waited around for a minute and left, happy to get a reprieve from him.

  My happiness was short lived, though. I hadn’t gotten twenty steps away from the office before I heard him bark my name.

  “Ryder! Get into my office! Now!”

  Quickly, my mind raced to come up with what he could be angry about. I hadn’t done anything to piss him off in ages, unless sleeping with his daughter was counted, but he didn’t know about that.

  Or did he?

  It was just like Robert to devise a way to trick someone into showing what they were up to, and having me drive Serena to her sister’s suddenly seemed like far less than a great idea I’d had and more like the way he’d used to find out what we’d been up to. As I hurried to his office, I scrambled to think up a lie that would work, but if he knew about us, there was no lie that could get me out of the trouble I’d be in.

  Taking a deep breath, I checked my clothes for any evidence of what Serena and I had done in the car and then told myself to calm the fuck down. If worst came to worst, Robert was old and definitely in worse shape than I was, so I could probably take him, assuming he didn’t just blow my head off.

  Nothing like that threat hanging over your head as you went to face your boss whose daughter you’d been fucking behind his back.

  I took a step into his office and saw him over by the bar pouring himself his favorite drink. I still had no idea what the hell the branch was in his bourbon and branch. Maybe I could distract him by asking about it.

  “What’s up, boss?” I said as casually as a condemned man would.

  “What happened this evening?” he snapped as he turned around so fast an ice cube leaped out of his glass.

  So much for trying to distract him with questions about his drink. “This evening? You mean when I took Serena to Janelle’s? Nothing. The car ran fine, we didn’t hit much traffic, and we made pretty good time, if I do say so myself.”

  I was rambling. I knew it, but I couldn’t tell if he did. Stopping to take a breath, I waited for him to say something, praying to God his next words didn’t involve anything about what we did in the car on the way there and on the way back.

  He gulped down a mouthful of his drink and cleared his throat. “Well, her husband is fit to be tied. Something about you holding her shoes the other night and him forbidding her to be around you. Do you know anything about this?”

  Feeling like the walls of his office were beginning to close in around me, I took a deep breath and answered, “I did take Serena’s shoes to her the other night. I found them outside in the garden and thought she might want them.”

  Twisting his face into a grimace, Robert said, “And this has that little shit all hot and bothered? You should have heard him. I had to remind him that no matter what he thought he was in this house, nobody raises their voice to me.”

  “I don’t know,” I said in my best kiss-ass tone. “I don’t interact with him much.”

  What I wanted to say was that I thought the son of a bitch needed a good beating to teach him how to behave, but I knew better than to do that. Saying anything against Oliver could tip my hand and show how I felt about Serena, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.

  “I’m not happy with the idea that he’s forbidding my daughter to do anything. I didn’t marry her to him to make her some goddamned prisoner.”

  The irony that Robert ignored or wasn’t able to see never ceased to amaze me. It was just a few short months ago that he kept Serena a prisoner for all intents and purposes and had me serve as her jailer. Now her husband doing even less bothered him.

  Amazing.

  Not that I wanted to defend the little shit. As far as I was concerned, if Robert sent him packing
tonight, I’d be the happiest man in the world.

  Seated behind his desk, he swirled the ice in his glass for a moment as he thought and then said, “But I have a vested interest in that marriage working, so I guess we have to appease him whenever we can. From now on, you aren’t to be around Serena unless you’re in this office. Do you understand?”

  My chest tightened as his words filtered into my brain. Disrespecting her husband’s wishes never gave me a second thought, but now that Robert had decreed I had to stay away from her, I felt like my world was falling away beneath me.

  I couldn’t show him that, though, so I forced a stony expression and nodded. “As you wish, boss.”

  For a few moments, he seemed pleased by the result of our talk, but then he knitted his brows and looked at me and I had a feeling I should have gotten the hell out of there before that.

  “That night I found the two of you together right after you moved in here. You know I know what you two were up to.”

  I couldn’t look him in the eyes, so I hung my head and stared down at my shoes. He’d never mentioned that night even once since then, and I’d hoped I’d paid my penance with the beating I took from the behemoth he forced me to fight right after he shipped Serena off to her uncle’s in Italy. Now that he’d brought it up finally, I had a feeling I still had more to repent for.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Look at me, son,” he ordered.

  Reluctantly, I lifted my head and did as he commanded. I’d expected to see that same surly expression he’d worn when I looked away, but instead he sat there smiling at me. I had no idea what the hell could be so amusing to him, but I had a feeling I’d find out soon enough.

  “I told you Serena would take to you like she took to all the strays she brought home. Remember me saying that?”

  I did, and being reminded that I was little more than a stray he’d brought home still stung years after coming to that house.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Serena is like her mother, Ryder. You see, with Janelle, you know what you get. She’s all on the surface. She wants a comfortable life and she’s willing to do whatever it takes for that to happen. But Serena, she’s not like her sister or me. She and her mother need something more than security. It’s never enough with those two. I knew when I married her to Oliver she wouldn’t be happy. She thinks marriage and love are synonymous, but you and I know differently, don’t we?”