Best of 2017

by Alexa Riley

  Gwen lies on the bed with her back to me. With a sigh, I crawl in beside her and hug her. “Don’t be mad, sis.”

  She sniffles. “She’ll think we’re disgusting. How could you bring her here?”

  Guilt shoots through me. “Violet’s different. She’s going to be a part of this family one day. I don’t want to start something with secrets. Everything is out in the open.”

  She rolls onto her back and regards me with a tear-stained face that reminds me of when she was younger. “Does she know what’s in the chest?”

  I frown. “There’s just stuff in there.”

  “What kind of stuff?”

  “Nothing important,” I huff.

  Her nostrils flare. “She must not be that important then.”

  When Gwen gets upset, she goes on the offensive and says things that are meant to sting. Luckily, I’ve played these games a thousand times with her.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, changing the subject.

  “Mom just scared me,” she admits with a choked sob. “When she called me, she was disoriented.” A tear leaks out of her eye. “She’s been falling a lot lately but mostly she seems to be forgetting things.” Another tear races out. “People.”

  “What do you mean?” I demand, worry creeping its way through me.

  “She hasn’t recognized me a couple of times.”

  I frown and look past her out the dark window. “Gwen…”

  “I know.”

  “I’ll call tomorrow.”

  She sniffles. “I’m not like her.”

  Oh, baby sister, but you’re exactly the same.

  “I know.” Lies.

  “I’m just messy. Artists are messy,” she assures me. “I can clean it all up whenever I want.”

  I smile. “Of course you can.”

  Her eyes fall closed. “Maybe I should see Dr. Ward again.”

  Hope blossoms in my chest. “She was one of the few people you liked.”

  “But she made me angry,” she whispers, her eyes flying open.

  I smirk at her. “I make you angry all the time and you don’t fire me.”

  “I wish I could sometimes,” she teases, amusement flickering in her eyes.

  “I’ll call Dr. Ward and set it up.” I lean forward and kiss her forehead. “Thank you.”

  She nods and sniffles again. “I can’t face Violet right now, though.”

  “It’s okay,” I assure her. “Can you look after Mom tonight for me? I’d like to go home and finish what I started with my girlfriend.” I waggle my eyebrows to tease her.

  A groan escapes her. “Gross. And girlfriend?” Her eyebrow lifts playfully. “That was awfully quick.”

  I shrug as I climb back off the bad. “Since when do I ever take my time with anything?”

  “Since never.”

  “Damn straight.”

  “ARE YOU SURE?” I ask as I wrap one of my thick plush towels around Violet’s perfect body.

  She laughs. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “I think I like you here at my place,” I tell her with a grin. “My bed is bigger anyway. More room to fuck you on.”

  “Honestly, Gray!” she squeaks. “You’re always so crude.”

  “You like it,” I argue as I saunter my naked ass out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. I’m just pulling back the covers when I notice her stop in front of the chest.

  “What’s in there?”

  All happiness and playfulness fade away. “Nothing important.”

  Her eyes narrow at me. “I care about unimportant things too.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I tell her, scowling. “Trust me. It doesn’t matter.”

  Hurt flashes in her eyes. As much as I want to open up to her, I don’t want to about this. At least not this early on.

  “Open it,” she whispers.

  “No.”

  Fire flashes in her eyes as she kneels and starts fiddling with the lock.

  “Stop,” I growl. If she tries too hard, she’ll figure out the combination. It’s the same as her debit card PIN number. I know this because I made them the same.

  She starts turning the dial, ignoring me.

  “Goddammit, Violet,” I snap. “It’s none of your fucking business.”

  My words cause her back to stiffen. The towel loosens and slides down her back to her hips. Her smooth flesh calls to me but it reddens quickly with her anger. She jerks her gaze over her shoulder.

  “I want to go home.”

  My heart sinks and I fall to my knees behind her. “No,” I tell her as I hug her middle and pull her bare back against my clean chest. “Stay.”

  “I’ll stay if you tell me what’s inside.”

  I growl when she tosses away the towel and rubs her naked ass against my hardening cock. “No.”

  “Please,” she begs, her voice breathless.

  “Nothing inside that chest matters,” I reply as my hands roam her silky body. “All that matters to me anymore is you.”

  To prove my point, I guide my dick inside her. She grips the chest and lets out a needy moan. I tangle my fingers in her wet hair, pulling her head back, as I drive hard into her.

  “Gray,” she hisses.

  My balls slap against her pussy with every thrust. She’s tight and clean and fucking mine. As I fuck her, I stick my thumb into my mouth to wet it. When I push it against her tight asshole, she lets out a whimper.

  “Touch your clit,” I order, my voice low and husky.

  She obeys but her ass clenches. “It’s going to hurt.”

  “What happened was a long time ago,” I assure her, my tone gentle. “I’m going to make you feel good.”

  Trust—such a beautiful little bird—gets released from her cage. She relaxes and allows me access. As promised, I ease my thumb inside her tight channel. My thrusting slows until I’ve got my thumb all the way inside her.

  “You okay, little quitter?”

  “Yes…”

  “Yes but?”

  “I’m still scared.”

  I begin slowly sliding my thumb in and out of her in unison with my cock that’s inside her cunt. Soon, she’s rocking against me, very much into our little ass play.

  “When it comes to me, you have nothing to fear. Ever,” I vow. “Every single thought. Every goddamned action revolves around you. I don’t think you understand how much you’ve embedded yourself inside me.”

  She moans in response. “Gray…”

  “Nobody else will ever have you because you’re mine,” I bite out as impending pleasure begins to settle in my balls. “Say it, baby. Tell me who you belong to.”

  “You,” she whispers without hesitation.

  Pride surges through me. I’m not the most normal guy on the block. I’m obsessive to a fault and possessive as fuck. I don’t quite understand her quickness to give in to me but I feed off it.

  “I’m going to protect you, and when you let me, I’m going to love you. I’m going to stamp myself all over your heart and your pussy. You’re going to wear my ring and take my last name. Why, Violet?”

  She cries out when I slap her ass. “Because I’m yours.”

  “Fucking right you are. And I’m going to come inside your pretty little cunt. No more goddamned condoms.” I growl. “Why, Violet?” When she doesn’t answer, I slap her ass again.

  “Because I’m yours.”

  “Good girl,” I praise. “No more morning-after pills.”

  She shudders as an orgasm ripples through her. Her body seems to choke the hell out of my cock. I’m grunting, my thrusts ragged and uneven, as I desperately try not to come too soon. “How did you know—” she starts.

  “No more morning-after pills,” I hiss, interrupting her. “Why, Violet?”

  “B-Because I’m yours,” she murmurs, her entire body still quivering.

  “If you get knocked up, it’s going to be okay. Why, Violet?”

  When she doesn’t respond, I reach around and swat her hand away so I can massage her c
lit. She starts shuddering wildly from the overdose of pleasure.

  “Why, Violet?”

  “Because I’m yours.”

  Her words send me over the edge, and I come with a feral growl. This seems to set her off again because she screams my name as her body seizes wildly with pleasure. I slide my thumb out of her ass and admire how her hole clenches back tight. One day I’ll show her how good it will feel to have all of me there. My cock throbs out the rest of my release. As soon as I’ve given her all I have, I slide out and watch with fucking glee as my white seed runs back out of her glistening red cunt. It drips on the floor, pooling between her knees.

  “Jesus fucking Christ, you’re hot,” I tell her, pride rippling from my voice.

  “When you talk dirty, you’re pretty hot too,” she admits, peeking at me over her shoulder. Her eyes are hooded and her cheeks are rosy from exertion. I pin her with a serious stare.

  “I meant every word, baby.”

  Her plump lips part open. She starts to say something but then closes her mouth. “I’m tired.”

  I snag her towel and clean her up. When I scoop her into my arms, she regards me with a soft look that makes me want to climb inside her head.

  “This is happening,” I tell her, my forehead resting against hers. “We are happening. I want this.” Her eyes remain slightly guarded, but I see the flicker of hope.

  She wants this too.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  VIOLET

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE how beautiful it is here,” I murmur as I sip my wine. I’m still in my swimsuit from earlier, but my feet are propped up on the balcony edge as I stare out into the ocean without a care in the world. This was supposed to be work, but for the past four days, we’ve done nothing but play.

  “It sure is,” Gray replies, his voice husky.

  When I turn to look at him, I find him staring. My body begins to heat from the inside out. We’ve been seeing each other in some capacity for a little over a week now. He’s such a whirlwind that I lose all sense of time and reality. It feels like much longer.

  “I always dreamed of having a place like this. A place to take my family one day. A place where the mother was involved and the father wasn’t a giant asshole. A place where the kids would look forward to visiting every summer.” He threads his fingers behind his head as he stares off into the ocean. His dark hair is messy and flutters in the wind. I find myself fixated on the way his biceps bulge from that position. “Now I own such a place.”

  “That you do,” I tell him, a hint of dreaminess in my voice.

  He turns his heated, intense gaze on me. “All I need is the family.”

  Once again, my throat and cheeks heat. When he says these powerful things to me, I just fall deeper in a hole that he’s dug for me. I just hope he doesn’t bury me one day.

  “One day maybe you will,” I offer and gulp down the rest of my wine.

  “Come here.”

  He pats his thigh and flashes me a grin that looks entirely too good on him. Despite being much older than me, he remains fit and has a young, vulnerable edge about him that I find myself drawn to. His intensity, though, is that of an ancient god. Unwavering and dominant.

  I stand from the lounge chair and then straddle his lap. He’s only wearing a pair of swim trunks so the moment I sit on him, his hard length presses against the place I want him most.

  “I want to make this our thing,” he says, as he reaches behind me to tug at the string of my bikini top. The material slinks away from my breasts. “This”—he motions at the resort and to the beach—“should be our thing.”

  His words.

  His implications.

  They’re all too much.

  Desperately, I cling to them. For so long, I’ve craved just what he’s offering. But it doesn’t seem real. A fairytale. A dream that he’s woven for me while he fucks me beyond sanity. What happens when it all goes up in a poof of smoke? Where does that leave me?

  “You do realize you only figured out I exist a week ago. Now you’re ready to impregnate me and run off into the sunset. You don’t live in the real world.” This is why they call him Mad Max. “We’re just having fun.”

  His blue eyes darken to a shade of navy as he tugs the upper string behind my neck. My top falls between us baring me to him. “I live in the world I create,” he tells me, his words fiery with need. “And in my world, it’s you and me.”

  I bite on my bottom lip and regard the handsome man. Was this how it was with Vaughn in the beginning? I don’t remember him being this dedicated or consumed. Intense and possessive, yes. But never…sweet and passionate. Gray is just…different.

  “We’re moving way too fast,” I try, though the fight is gone the moment he tugs my bikini bottoms to the side and slides the tip of his finger along my clit.

  He leans forward to capture my breast between his teeth. His eyes lift to find mine. They’re blazing with emotions I want to peel back and discover. Truth is, I love the way he looks at me as though I’m the only thing in his life that matters. With his tongue darting across my flesh and his teeth biting into me, I’m overcome with need. He’s never looked hotter than he does in this moment, with his messy hair and wild eyes. His finger expertly strokes me to the point I’m practically dripping with desire.

  “Oh, God…” I whimper.

  He suckles away the pain from his bite and then breathes against me. “Tell me what I need to hear.”

  I grip his hair and tilt my head back. The balcony is private considering it’s the penthouse suite, so I throw caution to the wind and let myself free.

  “I’m yours,” I tell him as I rock against his finger that massages me only from the outside despite my need to have him on the inside.

  “Tell me this is more than fun,” he growls, nipping at my skin. “Tell me this is our world and you want it just as much as I do.”

  When he talks to me like this, I lose all sense of right and wrong. There is no reality with him.

  “Yes,” I assure him, my body quivering with pleasure. “Our world.”

  His finger speeds up its motion until I lose it. The world darkens around me as an explosive orgasm surges through me, obliterating every nerve ending in my body. I’m still shuddering when he pulls his hand from my bottoms to tug his cock from his trunks. Once it’s out and standing upright between us, he lifts my hips and once again pushes my bikini bottoms to the side. This time, he impales me with his cock. His strong hands on my hips control our rhythm. All I can do is latch my lips to his and enjoy the ride.

  Our kiss is all consuming and powerful.

  We kiss as though the other holds the key to our future and happiness.

  I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t want what Gray is offering. I’m dying to let him suck me into his storm and never let go. When he owns me from the inside, the answer is always yes.

  “That’s it, baby,” he groans against my mouth. “Take this thick cock because it belongs to you.”

  Damn him and his crazy dirty talk that drives me wild.

  Like the good girl I am, I ride him as if I own him. I use his cock to pull out the pleasure I crave and need. Arching my back, I position myself so he hits me against my G-spot. Zings of bliss pulsate through me.

  “Beg me to come inside you, Violet. Fucking beg me to put a baby inside you,” he snarls, his teeth nipping at my breasts. “Beg me.”

  His words are insane. A game of pretend. Apparently, I like these games.

  “Yes,” I plead. “I want it. I want all of it.”

  “You’re going to carry my kid in your sexy little stomach, aren’t you?” he demands.

  “Mmmhmmm.”

  “Say the words, Violet.”

  “I want your baby.”

  He nips at me again. “We’re going to be a family. Promise me.”

  “Yes,” I whine as my body tightens with another impending orgasm. “I promise.”

  The moment my climax shudders through me, he loses control. His bite on
my breast feels as though he broke the skin, but I don’t even care because his heat surges inside of me carrying with it all of his promises.

  I’m so fucked in the head by this man.

  He’s going to tear my world apart. Deep down, I know this. I can feel it down to my toes.

  And yet…

  “Don’t break me,” I beg, my lips finding the shell of his ear. “Please don’t break me.”

  He hugs me tight and growls his fierce proclamation that I want to believe so badly. “I won’t break you. Fucking never.”

  “IN TWO MONTHS, I have to go to Hong Kong for business,” Gray says, his finger tracing softly up and down my bare stomach in the dark.

  “I’m jealous,” I tease and smile.

  “I want you to come with me,” he tells me with a chuckle. “You’re the VP, after all.”

  I stiffen. “I won’t be working for you then. I only have one week left.”

  His hand stops moving and I’m glad I can’t see his expression. “But I thought…”

  “That just because we’re seeing each other right now that I’d give up my prior commitments?”

  He pulls away and flips on the lamp. When he turns back, his nostrils flare with anger. “I promoted you. I assumed you were staying.”

  The money is way better than what Sean is offering.

  And I’d be doing what I know.

  But I’d be spending every waking moment with Gray’s undivided attention on me. What happens when this blazing flame of his flickers out? Will I be cast aside and forgotten again? If so, and I chose to stay at Maxwell, I’d have passed up an opportunity for a career change.

  “Gray,” I start but am interrupted when he jerks out of the bed.

  “I need to make a phone call,” he growls before slamming the bedroom door.

  I sit up and bring the sheet up over my bare breast. He did not take that well at all. Butterflies take flight in my belly as my nerves threaten to consume me. I snag my phone from the end table and text Sean.