I gaped in his wake.
“Do not be surprised. Most people are cowards. You cannot trust them to stay when danger is involved. It does not matter if they once claimed to love you,” Han informed me with a smirk. Then he strolled out the door himself.
By the time I gathered my stuff and made it to the parking lot, Han was nowhere to be seen. Just Chen. He waited right outside the office instead of in his usual discreet space toward the back of the parking lot. And the car was idling as if he’d been given precise instructions to meet me right there.
Han had appeared out of nowhere, then left me to get home by myself without any explanation whatsoever.
I got in the car, and neither Chen nor I said a word as he ferried me back to the penthouse.
We were also silent in the elevator before he got off on the seventh floor. I already knew he had plans to meet up with Dexter tonight for a family barbecue at his parent’s place. A huge milestone for what had started as a fun, temporary relationship. But instead of talking about it, Chen departed with a wordless wave, leaving me to continue to the top floor.
However, I knew without him telling me that Han was in the penthouse. Chen never let me go up to the top floor alone unless he was already there.
I found Han at the lanai’s glass doors when I walked into the penthouse, doing that modern Fae King kingdom survey again. He had a tumbler with clear white liquid in one hand, and on the other side of the glass, all sorts of beautiful fireworks were popping off. But I didn’t linger to watch, just beelined to my room.
And the Fae King didn’t even look up as I rushed toward a much-needed, long, hot shower.
The shower put me in a better mood. By the time it was done, I decided I’d grab a beer from the fridge and go out to the lanai to watch the fireworks popping off all over the island.
Thank goodness, I had my camp clothes to change into afterward now, I thought as I walked into the closet, toweling off my wet curls. I don’t know what I would have done if I still only had a skimpy towel to cover my—
I stopped short when I entered the walk-in closet. All my camp shirts and surf suits…they were gone. Again!
21
JAZZ
“You freaking asshole!” Forget the towel. I charged out of the room, not caring that I was as naked as the day I was born.
Han turned with his glass raised like I was an incoming train he’d been expecting. I realized he probably hadn’t bothered to acknowledge my arrival earlier because he’d known I’d be right back.
He took a sip of whatever he was drinking and had the nerve to look weary as he answered, “I’ve had a long day, Jasmine. Accept your punishment and return to your room. There is no need for further drama.”
I choked so hard on indignation, I was surprised I could even speak to answer, “Oh, I’m so sorry that you’re tired after your long day of threatening to hurt ex-boyfriends and stealing shit that doesn’t belong to you! But no, we’re doing this! Who the hell do you think you are?”
As angry as I was, he took another sip of his drink before answering, “I’m the man you still haven’t paid back. The one who gets to decide what goes where in my home. And as for your ex….”
He shrugged. “I had no intention of hurting him. I simply wanted you to understand that he is a coward who does not value your protection.”
“I don’t need protection!” I screeched at him. “There’s been no sign of K Diamond whatsoever, and for all I know, you didn’t even fall out with him. Maybe you’re some psycho who only brought me here to play your sick mind games.”
A new heat flashed behind his almost black eyes. “You think this is a game? You think I want you here, want such responsibility for you? That I would do this if I didn’t honestly think your association with me put you in danger while I’m still on this island?”
My answer came back as naked and raw as my current state of dress. “No, I think you’re an asshole who doesn’t actually know how to talk to a girl who doesn’t immediately fall simpering into your arms. So you brought me here because of some supposed danger from a dude I haven’t talked to in almost a year because you can’t admit that you just want to fuck me.”
That hit a nerve. He threw his glass, sending it flying with one brutal swipe.
“Go to your room!” he roared over the sound of it shattering somewhere in the distance. “That’s an order.”
Another order. The ugliness of it made me sneer, made me want to throw ugliness right back. “Fine, I’ll go to my room. But fuck me first.”
He stilled. And I had been spouting off at the mouth before—just trying to make him as angry at me as I was at him. But I knew at that moment that I had gotten his real motive for bringing me here right.
His eyes darkened to black, the Fae King transforming into a ravenous wolf.
So I doubled down, testing. “Yeah, c’mon. Let’s do it. Let’s go to your room and bang again—oh, wait. Nobody’s allowed in your room because intimacy isn’t something you know how to do.”
“It’s not something I want to do,” he corrected. His voice hinted at a rage barely kept in check.
“Whatever, dude. If that’s how you want to spin being completely broken and fucked up, go for it. We can do this in my room. Then you can let me go home for another six months until you get the urge to fuck me again. And when that happens, instead of acting like a big baby about it, we can just do it again without any of this K Diamond bullshit. Like adults.”
He said nothing, and the rage and hunger began to recede from his expression. Not because it was no longer there, I sensed. This was the Fae King, putting back on his cold mask.
And I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand that he was retreating into his cold Fae King routine while I was trembling with rage.
So I shoved him. “What? You’re scared to take me up on my offer?”
I shoved him again. “Scared I’ll get even further under your skin if you do?”
He didn’t move the first two times. It was like shoving a heavy marble statue. So I threw my whole body into the next shove, as I said, “Scared you can’t handle—”
I never got to the end of that sentence. One moment I was shoving him, and the next, he was shoving my entire body into the lanai glass, plastering it against the cool surface with one arm twisted behind me.
“Is this what you wanted?” he growled into my ear. “For me to lose control? For me to take what you’re offering like an animal.”
“You are an animal,” I informed him, still defiant, even with the side of my face pressed into the glass. “I just want you to admit it instead of playing games with my clothes.”
A beat of silence. Then his hand found the front of me. And that was all it took for me to realize my mistake…a few seconds and a lot of shoves too late.
I’d thought this had simply been about getting him to fess up to his real motives for keeping me here, of giving him what he wanted so that he could let me go. But his touch…
It made me moan, made me realize… I wanted him too, even though I didn’t want to. I’d been in denial about that, just like he had.
Behind me, Han spoke my secret epiphany out loud. “The truth is so important to you. But you haven’t admitted to yourself that you want me, too. Did you like what I did to you in the car, Jasmine? Did you enjoy riding my fingers? Being controlled and told what to do?”
He played with me as he asked these questions, his hand grazing over the sensitive bundles of nerves between my legs in a way that sent waves of pleasure arcing through my body.
I clamped down on my lips to keep from crying out, to keep from admitting that the answer to all of his questions was yes.
“Your pussy is wet and hungry… she is angry at me for denying her. Tell me, Jasmine….”
His other hand fisted around my ponytail, pulled my head back. “Do you want to come?”
Pride…pride…I grabbed onto the last shred of mine with one fingertip.
And that allowed me to s
hake my head with my lips still clamped, denying his words, even as I clenched around his fingertips.
“Of course, you don’t want to come,” he said with a bemused chuckle and loosened his grip on my hair.
But then he asked, “Do you need to come, Jasmine?”
And my fingertip grip on my pride slipped. Oh my God… I couldn’t stop myself. I nodded. I nodded.
“That’s what I thought. You can’t deny your pussy. She wants this. She needs it.” He whispered these words into my ear, his tone filthy and cruel. “But you complain so much about the things I make you do, so I’ll give you this choice. My fingers or my cock? Which one does she need?”
Again, I didn’t say anything. But my body wasn’t so circumspect. My hips ground my ass into his erection. Wanting…needing more.
But the cruel Fae King refused to accept that as an answer.
“Choose out loud,” he commanded. His voice was an icy wind in my ear.
So I gave him an answer, small and meek.
And he gripped my ponytail, even tighter than before. “Say that again. I didn’t hear you. And I’m not sure I heard a please.”
“Fuck me with your cock,” I said again. A little louder, a little clearer. I’d been the winner just a few moments before. But now, my body burned, inflamed with a need that came out at a breathy, “Please.”
Another beat of silence. And I began to fear that I’d misread this situation. He’d taken back control so easily. Maybe he was just playing with me. Maybe he had so many girls to choose from, he didn’t even want—
He kicked my legs apart, and there came another shove. This one put him deep inside of me, all the way to the hilt. I let out a surprised gasp and scratched at the glass as my pussy struggled and clenched around the skin-covered steel bar he put inside of me…trying to decide if this was too much even as it clamored for more.
And did I think he was in total control?
He lost whatever grip he had on himself in the next moment. He took me hard and fast against the glass. No more ruthless teasing. No more cold, calculated demands. His voice devolved into angry grunts as he drove himself in and out of me with one hand fisted in my hair and the other gripping my waist.
I hated him. Hated what he did to me and how my body responded.
But as he would say, yet…
He fucked me from behind like an animal, and I came like one underneath him, crying out and clamping down around the cock, I hadn’t realized I needed until he made me beg.
I came helplessly all over the glass. The orgasm was so intense. I doubt I would have been able to stand through it if not for Han holding me up from behind.
He didn’t last much longer after that. A couple of sloppy thrusts, then he yelled out something in Cantonese before he came too with an angry roar.
He emptied inside of me, just like on Valentine’s night. But this time, I could feel his cum, jetting into me in warm, heavy spurts. Until he finally deflated behind me, his angry, pumping hips coming to a final stop.
The hand gripping my hair loosened. “Condom.”
The one word let me know just how far gone I was underneath him. I’d forgotten a condom. We both had.
“It’s okay,” I said, reeling back in my senses. “I have a birth control implant. And I haven’t been with anyone since you back in February. But we should both get tested, considering your um…popularity with women.”
I swallowed, hating the weird, jealous feeling the thought of him and other women riled inside of me.
And he slammed his hand into the glass beside my head. His anger vibrated it so hard, I was afraid he might shatter it.
Shatter me.
But no…
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice raw and guttural.
With those two words, he pulled out. And by the time I turned around to face him, he was all zipped up and smoothing back his ink-black hair.
I’d whipped the towel off before coming out here to confront him, but now I deeply regretted leaving it behind.
I could only imagine the picture we made standing there. Han fully dressed and me naked with his cum running down my leg.
“I haven’t been with anyone since February either,” he told me, his voice quiet. “And I just had my annual physical. I’m clean.”
Relief crashed over my senses. “Seriously?” I couldn’t hide my shock.
“I wouldn’t lie about that,” he answered, his voice harsh. He scraped a hand over his face. “I wouldn’t.”
“Han, I wasn’t accusing you of lying. I was just surprised, is all,” I began to say, suddenly as full of apology now as I’d been full of anger a few minutes ago. “I didn’t….”
“Go to your room,” he said before I could finish that sentence. “That’s an order.”
He ordered me to my room. And in the end, that’s what I did, too confused by what had just happened not to obey.
That night I dreamed of surfing, of wiping out on easy waves, again and again, no matter what tactics I tried.
And when I woke up, I found a gorgeous carry-on waiting just inside my door. It had DELSEY stamped into its supple leather handles. I didn’t know the brand, but I knew it was nicer than the set I’d brought from Sears just by looking at it.
Inside I found all my stuff. Every rash guard, every t-shirt, every surf suit and bikini he’d taken.
At first, I thought that meant that he was letting me go home. Since I’d showered again last night after our, ah…encounter, I got dressed quickly and started packing my things. I guess I could be a little late to camp if it meant getting out of here.
But halfway through packing, a knock sounded on the door. It was Chen.
“Hey, what’s going on,” he asked. “Got worried when you didn’t meet us downstairs.”
“Oh, I thought maybe I’d drive myself today because I was going home afterward. Han or somebody gave me a suitcase….”
Chen glanced at me, glanced over my shoulder at the open suitcase on my bed. Then he said, “No. That’s not happening.”
Chen then escorted me downstairs, where I discovered why he said “meet us” instead of “meet me” earlier.
Bui, the Vietnamese ST, sat in the front passenger seat where I usually did.
“You got two of us to hang out with from now on,” Chen joked, holding open the car’s back door for me.
So he was keeping me…and punishing me by doubling my guard. Maybe.
Actually, I wasn’t sure what any of this meant. Or last night.
But even more confusing than that…
For some reason—some reason I didn’t dare to name—I couldn’t get upset that this time, he didn’t send me away.
22
HAN
Han stayed away from her after that Fourth of July.
She was just a little surfer girl. No money, no influence, no power whatsoever. But she’d scared him, baited him until he lost control. And thus, won the game he had never admitted to playing with her—even to himself. Not until she forced the conversation.
He had 99% of the power in their relationship, but she held the portion that counted. Power over him. So he stayed away.
And as it turned out, she was correct about Kuang Jr. After the meeting with his half-brother, he waited and had not one, but two men watch over her. However, the 24K Dragon’s son never made a move.
He found out in late July why when Victor and Phantom called him yet again to suggest he come home.
Apparently, the 24K Dragon hadn’t taken Victor seriously when he ended the engagement. After letting a few months pass, he’d called another meeting and offered to let bygones be bygones… which had put Victor in the very awkward position of having to say no again.
Phantom shook his head on their three-way FaceTime call shortly after the second no. “Kuang was insulted back in April. Now he’s full-on pissed. No telling what that son of his will do. Now that the GC deal is done, you probably want to get back to make sure that DE package is ready for deli
very.”
More code. Now that the Golden Circle deal was done, they wanted him to come home to handle the deal he’d set up when he’d spent December and January in Delaware.
But that deal wasn’t due until September. Plus, Han had several more inquiries from other organizations in countries where quality weed was hard to grow and illegal but still very much desired. And quite a few of the mahi’ai who’d said no to him before had changed their minds after hearing how seamlessly the Golden Circle deal went down. Chen had acquired a local boyfriend and had already volunteered to stay in Hawaii and snakehead for The Silent Triad, but he’d need training, so that would take a few more months….
Back in April, Han had gone along with Victor’s and Phantom’s suggestion to come home before abruptly changing his mind. This time he didn’t even pretend to consider it. “I still have got a few packages left to deliver before I go, and I’ve got a real chance to establish us here. So I need to stay for a couple more months.”
Victor and Phantom didn’t look that much alike for cousins. Victor had inherited his mother’s gorgeous looks, and it tempered out the hard slabs of his face. Phantom’s father, who was the brother of Victor’s father, had not married with beauty in mind, and therefore, in his words, “I get to keep all my pretty in my big dick and my even bigger wallet, like a real man.”
But after Han told them he would be staying in Hawaii, the same heavy frown crossed their faces.
“It is not safe,” Victor pointed out, signing since he couldn’t talk. “I’m worried about you, brother.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Phantom agreed. “And I’m not about that worrying shit, so it’s time for you to come home.”
They went back and forth with each other until finally agreeing to a new system. From now on, Han would text them every day to let them know he was okay. It made Han feel like a kid with parents who didn’t trust him to take care of himself, but in the end, he agreed just to end the conversation.
The call was a lot for the first thing in his afternoon version of the morning. And instead of going straight to the gym as he usually did, he made himself a tropical smoothie and went to stand at the glass to look out at the ocean as he’d been doing more and more since a certain surfer girl came to live with him.
HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake: 50 Loving States, Delaware (Ruthless Triad Book 4) Page 15