by JA Huss
“What secrets then? If the devil’s in the details, then give me details.”
Vincent lifts the waffles out of the waffle iron with a fork and plops them down on a plate. The delicious smell is in stark contrast to the conversation we’re having. It feels surreal. He spreads some butter over the little checkered pattern in the pastry, then dribbles maple syrup on top. His fingertips reach into a bag of powdered sugar and he flicks that over the syrup until it’s coated in white specks.
He walks the plate over to me and sets it down on the metal counter with a ting that rings through the room. “Fork?” he asks, holding one out for me.
“Thank you.” I take the fork and cut a little piece of waffle off as he leans over the counter and watches. I bring it to my mouth and for some reason, eating in front of him stirs me. My sex throbs for a moment as I take in the food and realize his gaze is trained on me. Only me. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
The smile wipes away the tense conversation and his eyes light up a bit. “Feed me.” And then he sends me a wicked grin that makes the throbbing grow.
I cut off another piece of waffle and bring it to his lips. “Tell me what secrets James kept.”
He opens his mouth and I place the food on his tongue, unable to stop watching his lips as they close around the fork. I pull it away and have to remind myself to breathe.
He points to the plate. “How about I feed you? You eat, and I’ll talk.”
I’m surprised it’s so easy to get the answers I’m looking for, but I’m in no position to argue, so I nod and hand him the fork.
He cuts off a piece of waffle and brings it to my mouth. I open for him, but at the last second he leans in and kisses me. He tastes like syrup and pastry. He tastes like breakfast with someone you love. He tastes like the life I wish I had. A normal life with no secrets. I’ve never wanted secrets. I’ve never wanted to know them. All my life I’ve been running from the facts, and now here I am, begging for them.
“You have to kiss me after every secret,” he whispers into my mouth. “You have to kiss me when I tell you these things or I won’t be able to do it.” And then he pulls back and brings the fork forward. I open my mouth for the food and he places it on my tongue until I grab it with my teeth and begin to chew.
“Say yes to that, Harper Tate, and I’ll tell you everything you think you want to know for the price of a kiss.”
I nod. I know the kiss is wrong, but it doesn’t feel wrong right now. It feels right in every way imaginable. “OK,” I whisper back.
“Nicola was given away when she was six. And James was the one who gave her away.” Vincent watches me for a reaction, but all I can do is stare into his eyes. “One knew he was never going to get a promise, so he asked James to give him his sister.”
“But… he told me that his mother and father gave her away. He told me—”
“He lied.” It cuts me off, that’s how forceful the declaration is. “He lies a lot, Harper. Even to you. Especially to you. He lies to himself too. The notebook was a lie, Harper. A delusional, fake world he talked himself into believing... because he couldn’t cope with the truth.”
The last few words come out soft. Almost a whisper. “What’s the truth, Vincent.”
He stares at me. Perhaps considering if this is a time to tell the truth or lie. But then he lets out a breath and I know what’s coming is the truth. “The truth that he got what he asked for. He chose that life and he got everything that came with it.”
“And his sister? What’s the truth about her?”
“James gave his sister away to One to pay his debt. That’s secret number one and now I get a kiss.” Vincent leans in and brushes his lips against mine. Softly. Like his words. Tenderly. Like his touch. It’s not demanding and harsh. It’s almost begging for forgiveness. “You don’t want James. You want Vincent.”
I push him back and shake my head. “He must’ve known she’d be taken care of, though. That One would take care of her.”
Vincent tries to smile and fails, so he cuts off another piece of waffle and feeds it to me instead. I chew slowly, trying to figure out what it is we’re doing here.
“Do you want more?”
“Yes,” I say. “If there’s more, I should know.”
He tips his chin up a little like that stung him. I’m sure he was counting on that driving a wedge between me and my love for James, but it can’t be the whole story. There has to be more.
“I need to hear it all,” I say. “If it’s all been a lie, then I need the truth. I can’t make decisions based on lies.”
“I know that,” he says, looking back down at the food. “That’s why I’m here.”
“So tell me the rest.”
“One trained her to fight. He trained her to kill. He trained her to lie, and steal, and cheat. He turned her into one of us. But before any of that could happen, the little girl needed to be comforted. She was ripped from her home. She was ripped from her family. She did nothing but cry for weeks. For months. And James was the one who settled her down.”
“How?” I picture this lost little girl, crying for her family. Locked away somewhere dark and scary.
“He told her lies, Harper. He lied to her for years and years. He told her how she would go home one day and see her family. He told her she’d live like a princess if she obeyed. He told her everything her little girl heart wanted to hear.”
“How old was James when he did this?”
Vincent shrugs as he presumably counts back the years. “It started at sixteen and went on until he was eighteen or nineteen, at least.”
“And that Nicola I met the other day? She’s the one?”
Vincent stares at me but says nothing.
“Because she looked fine to me. She sounded like a snooty rich girl, in fact. You said she’s an assassin. Good for her, I guess. So is Nick. So is James. It’s just a job, Vincent. Isn’t that what they always tell us? Everyone in the Company has a job. I have a job. I have to marry you and have babies. Did you ever ask me if I wanted to have babies? What if I don’t want to run board meetings? What if I’d rather be a marine biologist? Or a dog trainer? Maybe I’d rather be anything but this fucking girl sitting in this stupid industrial kitchen. Maybe Nicola has a better life as an assassin. Did you ever ask her? Maybe James did the right thing, getting her away from that wicked mother. Did that ever occur to you?”
I stare at him and he smiles as he leans in for a kiss. “You really are a lionfish, you know that?” And then his tongue slips in and his hand slides around my neck to keep me from pulling back. I open my mouth to him, responding to his request, and he moans and wraps his arms all the way around me. He scoots the stool closer to him, one hand sliding under to grab my ass, the other clasping me firmly by the neck. “I want you so fucking bad. I want to flip you over and fuck you right now.”
I squirm away and place a hand on his chest, but he grabs my wrists and yanks them behind my back. “That was a secret, so I get a kiss.” I turn my head when he tries and then he lets go and steps back. “You’re cheating.”
“You’re cheating,” I say back. “That wasn’t a secret. I want another one. Maybe I’m just a cold-hearted bitch, but boo fucking hoo for your sister. She doesn’t look so bad. I mean, I was trained by my brother too. What’s the difference? I was given to you. What’s the difference? So she got different parents? From what I can tell, that bitch of a mother of yours does not deserve children.”
He’s shaking his head the whole time I’m talking and so when I stop, I expect a protest. But he gives me silence instead. He looks away, then back, then away again. “One beat her,” he finally admits.
I swallow down that bitter truth. “Well, I’m sorry for that, of course. I’m sorry for that. No one deserves to get beaten. But One strangled me unconscious last week. I was drugged. Overdosed, in fact. So it looks like One does not discriminate when it comes to who he wants to abuse. And if the guy is one of the oldest, more seasoned assassins, then t
hat means if he wanted your sister, he would have her. With or without help from James.” I stop talking and just stare at him. “Next.”
Vincent breaks a smile at that response. “You want more kisses, don’t you?”
I laugh under my breath. “No, I just want to know more about James. I want to know everything about James.”
“It’s all bad stuff, Harper. Why would you want to know? Why him? When I’m right here? Why bother with damaged when you can have perfect?”
“No one’s perfect, Vincent. You can’t tell me you grew up in this fucked-up family and came out perfect. It doesn’t matter how nice things look on the outside, it’s a lie. And we both know it.”
“He drowned our father. He tried to kill our father, but he failed.”
Now that has my attention.
Vincent nods. “He is the one who drowned him, Harper. James held him under the water for so long he came back to life brain-damaged—”
“I don’t care.”
Vincent looks at me and shakes his head. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I don’t care.”
“He stalked you, Harper. He lied to you about being your promise. He knew the Admiral took that offer back. He stalked you all growing up. He’s dangerous and one day he’s gonna get you killed.”
“I don’t care.”
“He’s evil, Harper. He’s got no soul. He’s got no conscience—”
“I don’t care.”
Vincent reaches out and snatches my hand. I gasp from the sudden movement, and then again when I realize he’s placed it over his hard cock. “James used you to get this party. He’s using you to get revenge. You know what Come means? Come get me. Come here. Come find me. It’s a calling card to bring people together so they can be killed. You’re the fucking bait! Just like James was born to kill, you were born to be bait. So your father can kill. So my mother can kill. And he knows that. He set you up.”
“I don’t care, I said. I don’t fucking care.”
His hand squeezes mine, making me grip him. Or maybe I just want to grip him. His cock is just as big as James’. And when I look up, his eyes, his hair, his body—all of it says James to me.
He’s lifting my shirt off over my head before I even realize he’s not forcing me to cup his dick anymore. Yet I still hold it firm in my grasp. He flicks a nipple and then his mouth covers it, biting and twisting.
“Fuck,” he says as he brings his mouth to my neck. “I’m gonna fuck you unless you put up a fight. You understand? I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t wait any longer.”
I fully intend to pull back and put a stop to this, but then he slaps my tit, making it sting and bounce against my flesh. I’m shocked. Too shocked to even react, and then he does it again. He grabs my chin and holds it just a little bit too tight. Just enough to make the wetness that’s been building between my legs explode. “Oh, God,” I moan.
“James likes it rough, Harper. Do you want it rough? Vincent will fuck you nicely.”
“I want it rough. I like it rough,” I call out. “I want it hard. I want it so fucking hard.”
He scoops me up in his arms and carries me out of the kitchen.
Chapter Seventy-Eight - Harper
He sets me down in the hallway and backs me up against the wall. “Fuck,” he says, pausing to take a deep breath. “I need to know if this is what you want, Harper. I can’t go on unless I know you want to fuck me as bad as I want to fuck you.”
His head is bowed and his hair falls forward, obscuring his eyes. His chest is rising and falling rapidly, like his heart is beating as fast as mine.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t want him, I want James. But he’s all I have right now.
“Just tell me,” he says urgently. “Just tell me what you’re thinking. Right now.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
He bumps his forehead to mine, still looking down at the floor. “Just say it. I need to hear the truth.”
I’m so horny. My fingers dip between my legs and I start rubbing myself in small circles. If I could just get this release, I could think clearly again. I know it. If I could—
Vincent removes my hand and brings my fingers to his mouth. He looks me in the eye as he sucks on them, then kisses the tips and places my hand over his heart. “Feel me. Can you feel me? I need to know what you’re thinking. I need to know once and for all if you’ll be mine.” And then he takes my hand and places it over my heart. I feel the same staccato rhythm as his.
This is too much, my heart says. But I can’t lie. “I’m in love with James, Vincent. I am. I’m sorry. I know you look like him and Jesus, you act so much like him sometimes. But you’re not him.”
He stares at me for a moment and then he turns me around and hugs my body tightly to his. “But you need to get off? You need the release? Because I’ll do that for you, Harper. I’ll take away all this tension so you can think straight again.”
Before I can answer, one hand slips between my folds and begins to rub while the other one grabs my breast fiercely. So hard I moan from the pain. He lets go and slaps it again. And when his finger slides inside me, I’m so wet I can barely feel him. “More,” I moan. “More.”
Two more fingers enter my pussy and he dips his mouth down to my neck and whispers in my ear as he plays me like an instrument. “You’re so pretty. You’re so pretty, Harper. I want to fuck your pretty pussy so bad right now, you have no idea. I want to stuff my cock in your ass and make you squeeze it when you come.”
Holy fuck. “I’m gonna come right now.”
He bites me on the shoulder and that’s all I need to push me over the edge. The pain of his mouth. The pleasure of his fingers. The hard bulge pushing up against my ass as he forces my face into the wall.
“Come,” he commands. “Come right now, Harper.”
I couldn’t stop it if I tried. I’m gone. I’m blown. My self-control is over. My back buckles as his whole hand slaps against my pussy. I come, and come again. Wave after wave of trembling pleasure spills out of me. By the time I’m done, I can no longer stand and I drop to my knees.
Vincent’s hands are on my head, urging me to turn around. I plop down on my butt and turn to face him, my back pressing up against the hallway wall. I look up in his eyes and then my gaze goes to his hand on his cock. The bulge underneath his trousers is huge. It’s hard. And his face looks like he needs a release.
But he doesn’t ask me. He just waits.
My hands go to his belt and I unbuckle it, letting the slack sides fall down his thighs. I unbutton him, and then drag the zipper down. I reach inside and pull his cock out.
It’s so big. Just as big as I remember. “James,” I say before I remember this is not James.
I expect Vincent to get angry for mixing him up, but he doesn’t even notice. He just urges my mouth forward with slight pressure on my head. “Take it, Harper. Take all of it.”
I open my mouth and he pushes his dick past my lips until it crashes against my soft palate, making me gag. “Breathe,” he whispers. “Just breathe.”
I listen. I watch him. My eyes never leave his as he begins to rock his hips forward and back. And each time his tip hits that sensitive spot that makes me want to gag, he pets my hair. “You’re so pretty. You’re so fucking pretty. Your pretty mouth swallowing my cock, Harper. It drives me wild.”
I moan at his dirty words and this makes him throw his head back and force himself inside me even harder. “Take it, Harper. Take it.”
I open wider. I flatten my tongue against his long, thick shaft. And I take all of him. He pumps a few more times and then he lets off a roar that signals his release. His dick pulses inside my mouth—once, twice, three times—and then the salty liquid is pouring down my throat.
I swallow and swallow again. And then I feel him relax and withdraw.
My eyes are closed now, but they open when he bends down so his mouth can touch mine in a soft kiss. “I’m gonna take your pretty pu
ssy next, Harper Tate. And then that ass.”
Then he stands up and tucks his dick back inside his pants.
And walks away.
Chapter Seventy-Nine - Harper
The next morning I wake early. When I check the clock it says five-eighteen. Did I really suck off Vincent in the hallway last night? How fucking humiliating. After he made those dirty remarks about me and James. How he said he saw us. And then he took me out of the kitchen on purpose, so he could fuck my mouth in the hall.
I’m filled with rage. And shame. And regret.
Jesus Christ. I might as well just be with him since I just fucked everything up with James. I highly doubt he’s the forgiving type. Good God, for all I know he’ll kill me for what I did last night.
Insane, they say.
I mean, yeah, I can certainly see it. You have to be insane to kill people like that. And the whole prisoner-of-war thing. Vincent gave me a lot of information last night. A lot of bad information about James. He wants me to hate James. At the very least, he wants me to fear James.
And I do fear James. I do. I fear that he will find out what I did last night and never want me again. I fear that he’s dead somewhere. That the Company got to him and killed him before he could come back to me.
I fear that I’ve made a mistake that will change my life forever. A mistake that can’t be undone.
And Vincent’s confession about Nicola. If he’s been as forthcoming with her about how she ended up as Number Two as he was with me, well, I can imagine she hates James. In fact, I can’t think of a single person alive who doesn’t hate James aside from me.
My heart sinks. My life feels like it’s over. I hate this Company. I hate this house. I want to go back to the desert and fuck in the heat. I want the Hummer. And Sasha.
That makes me cry.
Sasha is dead. And no amount of wanting will bring her back.
And now I come full-circle, thinking James is the devil. An evil demon who kills on command. Because he shot a little girl in cold blood.
I need to get out of here.