Fractured Breaths

by Zoey Derrick

“I wouldn’t have the first clue how to begin something like that,” she says. Her voice is a mixture of excitement and fear.

  “You wouldn’t have to do it alone; we’d get people involved to help you. I know that Cami’s friends Derek and Dyson are well-versed in business, maybe we could enlist one of them to help get it off the ground.” I give her an encouraging smile. “I’ll even donate the seed money.”

  Her face lights up, but she doesn’t say anything. I can tell the wheels are turning in her mind about the offer and the idea I’ve planted in her head. I pull her close to me and wrap my arm around her shoulder. She snuggles into me and I kiss the top of her head. “You’d be great at it,” I whisper.

  She looks at me and smirks, “Yeah, I would, wouldn’t I?”

  “That’s my girl.” I kiss her again, this time on the lips. They’re soft and warm against mine and my cock stirs in my jeans.

  LIVIA

  “Why do they do that?” I ask Bryan as he gets up from the make-up chair.

  He laughs, “Because this much perfection takes magic.”

  I snort, “Hardly. It actually makes you look funny.”

  “But it shows on camera. Honestly, I would prefer this to having the images altered. At least this way the person you see in the magazines is the same person you’ll see on the streets. Why do you think I work out so much?”

  I shrug. “Well, I appreciate that you work out.”

  “Good.” He kisses the top of my head.

  “You keep that up and people are going to figure out we’re together.”

  “Fuck ‘em,” he retorts then kisses me again, this time on the lips.

  “Fiend,” I laugh.

  “The one and only,” he teases.

  “Now, go. Get this over with so we can do something productive.” I wink at him.

  He chuckles as he leaves the dressing room, Liam in tow. They disappear from the doorway then Liam comes back into view. “You coming or what?” he says with a smile.

  “Yup.” I grab my bag and follow them down the hall to the open studio.

  There are a ton of people milling about and someone, I’m guessing the photographer, is talking to Bryan.

  “It’s kind of fascinating to watch,” Liam whispers in my ear.

  “I bet,” I tell him back and they’re positioning Bryan in the middle of the white backdrop. “What is this for anyway?” I ask.

  “It’s a combination shoot. In this case, the photographer contacted Bryan about shooting several different shots. When they’re edited, with Bryan’s permission, he’ll turn around and sell them to magazines, newspapers, things like that. Christopher, the photographer, is Bryan’s primary photographer.”

  “I’m never going to learn all this,” I mutter.

  “Sure, you will, lass. It’s overwhelming at first, but you’ll get the hang of it.”

  “So what’s the shoot on Wednesday for?”

  “That’s for a specific magazine.”

  “Why don’t they just buy Christopher’s shots?” I ask, truly trying to understand all this.

  “Because some magazines, this one in particular, like to have exclusivity on the shots, whereas Christopher can sell one or all the shots he takes today. That translates to similar shots being distributed to different outlets.”

  “Oy.”

  Liam laughs, “The nice thing about today’s shots is Bryan has rights to the shots too. Should he choose to use a shot for an album or a publicity still, he pays Christopher for the shot and Bryan owns it. He can then use it as he pleases. Most of Bryan’s album covers are Christopher’s shots.”

  “They’ve been working together a long time,” I note.

  “That they have. They work well together. Surprisingly, these are the only shoots that Bryan enjoys doing.”

  “The background is pretty boring.” I tell Liam.

  He gives a short laugh. “It works as a green screen for Christopher to alter the background to whatever he desires. Sometimes it’s a living room or a bedroom, outside, against a car, a wall, things like that. Doing studio shots out in the elements can be pretty tricky and hit or miss. This way Christopher can sell the pose and change it up to meet the needs of the buying entity.”

  “Why aren’t you his assistant?” I tease.

  He laughs, “I am, you’re just sexier.”

  I nod and settle in to watch the magic happen.

  I watch with rapt attention as Christopher poses Bryan. He moves around him, taking one shot after another. It’s so quiet in the room you can hear a pin drop, or in this case the shutter of the camera, and that’s about it. This place really needs some music.

  Bryan smiles and he changes positions to sit on a stool. He looks sexy as fuck.

  It’s another hour before Bryan and Christopher finish the shoot. They spend another fifteen minutes looking at things on a computer. I observed from over their shoulders as Christopher’s assistant did some mock-ups with some of the backgrounds they wanted to use. Some of the poses, that didn’t make much sense as Christopher was shooting them, now make perfect sense when put onto the background images.

  Satisfied, Bryan is released from the shoot. He comes to me and whispers, “I need to get this crap off, come with me?”

  I nod and follow him. Liam’s not far behind us as we head to the dressing room he changed in earlier. He opens the door and ushers me inside before entering and closing the door. The next thing I know, I’m being pressed against the back of the door. Bryan’s body heat consumes me and sends tiny pulses of pleasure to my pussy.

  His lips press to mine. His breathing is already ragged before he gets too deep into it. He pulls back and says, “You’re so fucking sexy.” He smiles. “I couldn’t keep my eyes off you. Now it’s time to put my hands all over you,” he growls and grabs my hand, pulling me toward the bathroom.

  “What are you doing?” I scoff playfully.

  “You,” he states in a way that tells me arguing isn’t worth it.

  “I’m not getting in the shower with you,” I tease him back. “This takes too long to make perfect.”

  “Oh no, no shower for you, shower for me.” He unbuttons my jeans and lowers them to my ankles with my panties tucked inside. “Turn around,” he tells me. “I want you to watch.”

  I do as he’s asked and turn around; looking at my half-naked self in the mirror while he unbuttons his pants and pushes them down to his thighs. Then he grips his cock in his hand before sliding it from my clit back toward my entrance. “Jesus,” he groans, “You’re soaking wet.”

  I smirk into the mirror, his eyes meet mine. “What can I say, that was fucking hot.”

  “Oh yeah?” He lifts an eyebrow that begs for further explanation.

  “Oh yeah. It’s not hard imagining you posing naked.”

  “And what would you have me do totally naked?” he asks as he slips the head of his cock just barely inside me.

  My eyes roll up and my mouth falls slack. “I’d lay you out on the floor and climb on top of you,” I tell him.

  “What else?” he says as he pushes inside me a little more.

  “I’d squat over you, with my hands on your stomach, and my arms just wide enough for you to watch that big, fat cock entering my pussy as I bounced up and down on you,” I moan as he slams inside me.

  “Watch yourself, gorgeous. Watch what you look like while I slide my cock inside you.”

  I moan and fight to close my eyes as he pulls himself out and he slides back inside. This time harder and faster than the last.

  I’m curious where this animal came from, but my pussy is clenching repeatedly around the intrusion that’s slipping in and out of my body and the pleasure is so much that all rational thought leaves my mind. My eyes are crazy and unfocused in the mirror. I find his eyes, trying desperately to find something I can hang on to and his eyes narrow slightly as the pleasure he’s taking from my body registers for him.

  I start to move my hips in time with him. I bite my lower lip to st
op myself from crying out and my orgasm rushes to the surface as he starts to pound into me harder and deeper. I adjust my legs to as wide as they’ll go trapped in my jeans and he groans behind me. The angle change makes my pussy clamp down hard on his cock.

  He pushes through it. My orgasm overcomes me as he reaches around me and pinches my clit between his fingers. I explode and the woman looking back at me in the mirror has a look of pure bliss written on her face as Bryan pours himself inside me.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Another Clue.

  LIVIA

  I clean myself up while Bryan showers. I realized as he was unloading inside me that all the flirting and pent up promises of pleasure got to be too much for both of us, he just took control and acted on it. It was quick and it was carnal. Everything I didn’t know I needed.

  As I cleaned up, I realized I felt more centered, and secure. Not to mention my anxiety level has dropped dramatically and I’m not sure if it’s a result of the post-orgasmic bliss or if it’s because I let myself go for a little while.

  When he’s done in the shower, he gets dressed in a more casual pair of jeans and his usual t-shirt with a zip-up hoodie. It’s late summer in New York so the weather is warm during the day and cooler at night. None of us know what to expect when we reach my mother’s grave.

  We leave the studio after Bryan says a final good-bye to Christopher. Liam drives while Bryan and I sit in the back. His arm is wrapped around me as Liam navigates the New York City traffic. Due to the time of day, nearly four, traffic is quite heavy and Liam’s rather flustered until we hit the bridge and cross into Brooklyn. My home.

  “It hasn’t changed a bit,” I mutter as I look at the Brooklyn skyline and memories of living in New York City come flooding back to me.

  The closer we draw to Brooklyn, the harder it is to hold back the emotions that have been threatening since we got here yesterday. “I miss it here,” I confess in a soft voice.

  Bryan squeezes me a little tighter, pulling me closer to his side.

  “There’s just something about being in a big city. Especially this one,” I add.

  “I’ve never lived here, but I understand the appeal.” Bryan rests his head against mine.

  “You’re either a New Yorker or you’re not. There is no middle ground with this city. The traffic is a mess, the subways are crowded and everything is ridiculously expensive, but it has a certain magic to it,” Liam chimes in from the front.

  “Were you born here, Liam?” I ask.

  “No, lass. Declan and I were born in Scotland. Our parents brought us here when I was five, Declan was two. But we moved to the city and until I met Bryan, I’d barely been out of it.” His voice carries a tone of reminiscence with it and I completely understand why he’d feel that way.

  “Do you miss it?” Bryan asks him.

  “Sometimes, but I don’t miss the constant going and going. I get enough of that with you. But it’s different because I get to go different places, do different things that I probably never would have done otherwise.” Liam’s accent is a pleasant thing to listen to, I love listening to him talk. His voice has a very soothing, fatherly quality to it. “I couldn’t live here again, that much I know for sure.”

  “No?” I question.

  “Nah, I’m too old for this shit,” he laughs.

  “How old are you?” I ask.

  “Old enough to be friends with your father.” He winks at me through the rearview mirror.

  “Well, he would have been fifty-one this year,” I say with a taunting tone to my voice.

  “Your father was older than I am, lass.”

  “Regardless, you look good for your age. Whatever that is,” I giggle.

  We spend the rest of the ride in silence. Bryan’s arm and body heat is an ever-present reminder that no matter what happens tonight, I have him by my side. I find comfort in knowing I don’t have to face this alone. No matter how much I want to think this blissful feeling is only temporary, he’s become an addiction for me. I don’t know how I would go through the rest of my life if I didn’t have him with me.

  No matter the obstacles, he’s proven time and time again that he’s not going anywhere.

  I look up at him from where I sit at his side and his eyes meet mine. I mouth, “I love you.”. His lips turn up in a wide smile and he kisses my lips gently.

  “I love you,” he whispers against my lips before kissing me again.

  Declan is waiting for us in the parking lot when we arrive at the cemetery. He hasn’t been here long because he’s pulling something from his trunk when we pull up next to him. There are no other cars in the parking lot which makes me feel better about being here. The nagging feeling that something’s about to happen hasn’t gone away and I’ve been on edge all day. I wonder if Liam is feeling it too. He hasn’t left me alone all day, regardless of where we’ve been.

  I guess he's really going to make good on his promise to protect me always.

  “You ready for this?” Bryan asks as Liam gets out of the car.

  I sit up straight and look at him before shrugging. “I think so. You’d think after all this time it wouldn’t be so hard.”

  “Most people have had a chance to grieve their losses, you haven’t.”

  “I grieved for my mother. Well, as much as a three-year-old could,” I tell him. “By the time I was old enough to realize other kids had moms and dads, I was content to just have my dad, so it never bothered me. It’s his grave I’m more worried about seeing,” I admit honestly.

  “Understood. I won’t pretend to understand what you’re feeling because I’ve not lost a parent, but I’m here, no matter what.”

  His voice is filled with conviction, conveying to me that the words he speaks are the truth. I smile and nod that I understand his words and he opens the door and slides out of the car. Once he’s out, he offers me his hand and I take it. Once outside the car, I hear Liam and Declan talking.

  “What do you mean?”

  “See for yourself,” Declan says and he hands Liam something as Bryan and I come around the SUV.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  Liam’s worry-filled eyes meet mine. “We need to get this done and get out of here.” His voice is shaky.

  “Liam? What’s going on?” I leave Bryan’s side and walk over to see what he’s looking at. It’s a photograph.

  I take it from his hands and study it. “This was yesterday.”

  “Aye, lass.”

  “The van,” I breathe.

  I look back at the grainy image taken from behind a window and through another window, but it’s clearly Bryan, Liam and I as we left the storage unit yesterday, just before I noticed the van.

  “Where did this come from?” Bryan asks.

  “That’s complicated, but it was an intercepted email to an email account belonging to Ricci.”

  “Who sent it?” I ask.

  “His nephew, Victor Ricci.”

  “And where is Victor?” I snap.

  “Until now, we had no confirmation that Victor was an active member of the family. He was barely sixteen when we took down the business and he had no ties to the family besides a name. Or at least that’s what we thought,” Declan explains. “After we intercepted this, we went back through some recent letters Vito had received in prison. At the time, none of them sparked much of a concern because there was little context to go on. Now we believe Victor is looking for something.” Declan pulls a file folder out of the trunk of his car. “These are the letters, I printed them off. I thought maybe Livia could help us with them. See if she can put any type of context to them.”

  “I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that,” I tell Declan. “I was never ‘part’ of the family.”

  “You might be surprised at what you see when you read them,” Declan says. “Right now my concern is that Victor had eyes or ears on that storage unit because it was the one place they couldn’t touch.”

  “Is there any indication
they know what was in that unit?” Liam asks.

  Declan shakes his head and shrugs. “I have no idea. For all they know, you pulled some family memorabilia from that unit, but I’m taking precautions just in case.”

  “What kind?” Liam asks.

  “I have three agents stationed at your hotel. I’m assigning myself and another agent to accompany the three of you during your stay in New York. I’ve been in touch with the Nashville field office and they’re working on a team to keep an eye on your residence, Bryan. If Victor Ricci wants that book, he’s got a lot of people to go through first.”

  Fear lances through my body. My body tenses and I’m starting to freak out. “Breathe, Livia,” Liam says calmly.

  “Why? Why does this shit keep happening to me?” I growl. “I should have never come back here. I should have never gone to that unit or meddled in business I don’t belong fucking with,” I ramble.

  “Livia, calm down,” Bryan says as he steps in front of me and forces me to look at him. “We’ve got this, alright? Nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t let it. Liam won’t, Declan won’t. Please. Take a deep breath.”

  I fight to pull air into my lungs. After a couple of attempts, I’m able to pull in a deep breath and hold it for a minute.

  “We’re not alone here,” Declan says and my eyes go wide and meet his.

  “What do you mean, we’re not alone here?” I snap.

  “Livia, relax,” Liam reminds me.

  Declan leans around Bryan and tells me, “I have eight different agents surrounding this place. They have solid eyes on every corner of the cemetery and even us right now.” He moves around Bryan to stand next to me. Like Liam and Bryan, Declan is tall, significantly taller than my five foot eight inch frame, and he has to look down at me to make eye contact. “I may have fucked up in the past, both with your handling and how things have been handled since then, but I assure you, on my life, that I will let absolutely nothing happen to you. Please trust that.”

  “I’m trying,” I breathe.

  “That’s all we ask,” Declan says with a small smile. “Now, shall we get to work so we can get out of here?”