by Stella Rhys
How did your father pay off his debt? What did he have you do? I took a good minute mustering up the courage to ask one of those questions. My lips fumbled with nerves and when the words finally came out, they were so soft I wasn’t sure if Abram had even heard. Holding my legs in his lap, he stared forward, silent for a couple seconds.
“I was always athletic,” he said finally. I felt myself already hanging on his every word. “By high school, I was six-two and all muscle from staying at the gym every day to avoid going home. At this point, my dad and I shared this roach-infested apartment with two other families and there just wasn’t enough space for me. I was angry. Got into fights at school. Got suspended. Wound up living with the family that employed my dad as a driver. Gavin’s family. And it got better there but at that point, I’d already put two kids from school in the hospital and people were talking about it. Which should’ve upset my dad but it didn’t because all he could think about was how to get out of his hole. Every time I saw him there was a new cut or bruise or black eye on his face. He came home one night with this massive hematoma on his forehead, like there was another head growing out of it.”
“Because of the money he owed?”
Abram nodded. “Yeah, he was starting to get desperate. So he was actually pretty pleased when he realized that I was a solid fighter.”
No. I was fairly certain that I knew where the story was headed and prayed that Abram would prove my wrong – that he’d say something else. But he didn’t. Watching his own fingertips draw invisible lines on my legs, Abram stoically told me the story – that at sixteen, his father arranged his first fight at an underground ring far less glamorous than the one at the Monarch. He was there for laughs, expected to take a brutal loss against a nineteen-year-old MMA trainee from Queens. But as a high school sophomore, he wound up breaking his opponent’s arm, nose and ribs before walking away the shocking victor. And suddenly, he was fighting every weekend.
“I was always high on adrenaline. I was in tenth grade and knocking out grown men. The harder I hit, the more blood I drew, the happier everyone was and it made me an animal. I fed on the pain, the violence, all the shitty vices my dad turned me onto. I was a sixteen-year-old kid with the body and responsibilities of a man so they gave me everything from alcohol to drugs to women. As long as I kept performing, earning them money, I got anything I wanted. So every time I got in there I just flipped a switch, blacked out and I didn’t stop till I had someone lying in their own teeth.”
My stomach suddenly hurt but I took Abram’s hand. “You were young,” I murmured as his lip curled. I was comforting him over words he had yet to say but I didn’t need to hear them – I could sense that he hated himself for the fighting. For the confusing enjoyment he probably took from it at some point. “Abram, no teenage boy would’ve said no to that. You had your dad’s permission to beat people up and make him money. And save him from being hurt anymore. It wasn’t your fault, Abram. You were too young to control that kind of situation. He should’ve just known not to put it on you.” I tangled my fingers in his hair as he nodded, pulling his lips to mine. His mind was far away but he still kissed me softly.
“There were things that were my fault,” he murmured. “Things that I didn’t have to do. But I did.”
“Like what?”
Abram pulled away from me. He brushed the hair from my face, pain rolling like a lazy storm behind his blue eyes. “We’re not going to talk about this tonight.” I could tell it was a struggle but he cracked a smile. “If this is our first date, we’re going to do it right. We’re going to keep this conversation happy.”
“Okay.” Warmth buzzed over me as he kissed my neck. “Then tell me about something… you’re proud of. Tell me why you joined the Air Force.”
Abram paused, his lips just grazing my skin. I could feel them spreading into a smile. “To use my powers for good, so to speak,” he laughed. God, it was the deepest, most velvety sound in the world and it eased every ounce of tension from my body. “Gavin gave me the idea. He caught on to my fighting by the end of junior year, tried countless times to get me out of it, had his parents give my dad money that could pay off any debt he had a thousand times over. But an addict’s an addict.” Abram heaved a sigh and shook his head. “I have a feeling we’re not going to find a happy place if we stay anywhere on the topic of me,” he laughed.
“Don’t say that,” I frowned. “I’ll find one.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I chewed my lip, trying to think of something to ask Abram that could in no way trace back to the gambling and fighting. But it was hard, especially as I realized that he eventually went on to recreate the exact world that turned him into a so-called animal. I couldn’t understand it and I wanted to. I wanted to know exactly what he’d done that was his fault. My head spun with a million questions that I failed to suppress. Luckily, I got outside help.
“Excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt,” our waitress swooped in with an apologetic smile. We looked up just as she laid a long wooden chopping board across our table. Arranged on top were strawberries, raspberries, whipped cream and what looked like three different ramekins of chocolate dipping sauce. “This is our aphrodisiac’s board. The table that bought this for you two wanted to remain anonymous but they did want me to tell the lady…” In the dim lighting, the waitress squinted at her notepad. “’Congratulations on that hunk of man. Since we can’t tap that, we’re going to make sure you get to do it in style. Enjoy.’” With a mortified smile, the waitress then bowed her head and hastily rushed away. I stared after her in awe. Then I burst into giggles.
“That’s amazing – did that just happen? Are strangers really looking out for my sex life?”
“Apparently. And they might have the right idea because I’m suddenly very interested in watching you wrap your lips around this.”
I turned to see Abram dipping a strawberry into the darkest of the chocolates, rolling it around till it was absolutely bathed and dripping. I shook my head slowly with a nervous smile. “I can’t eat that knowing there might be a table watching us.”
“I’m sure you can.”
I paused and bit my lip. “Fine. But quick.” Leaning forward, I parted my mouth for Abram. Heat flashed in my cheeks as I lifted my eyes to catch his dirty little smile before bringing the plump strawberry closer, finally touching its tip to my tongue. I bit down gingerly but gasped at the sensation of hot liquid dripping onto my chest. Abram laughed as I swallowed the bite, sliding his hand under my dress as he leaned in to kiss my lips.
“Say the word and I’ll lick that off your body right here.”
Just like that, instant throbbing. I clamped my thighs shut around his hand, electricity tingling over my skin. “You wouldn’t do that in public.”
“Try me.”
I held my breath as he closed his mouth over mine, the heat of his tongue commanding me. I dug my nails into his shoulder as he licked the sweetness inside of my mouth, giving low, rumbling groans just audible enough to drive me wild. But with a tug on my dress, I flinched. My eyes darted wide and I blinked at him, quickly taking in his chiseled jaw, crystal eyes and everything that told me he was Abram. Fuck, I cursed, realizing that his hand on my breast had flashed me with an image of Jesse. No. No, no, no.
“Are you alright?” Abram frowned.
“Yes,” I breathed hastily. “I just… it feels like we have an audience here and I just want to be in private with you.” I trailed my hand off his shoulder, looking him in the eye as I ran my fingers down his hard chest and six-pack before cupping his package. “I need to be alone with you now,” I murmured desperately. And I meant it. I didn’t care how vulgar it sounded – I needed to fuck Jesse out of my head.
The sound of my hunger had Abram’s entire body instantly rigid. Slapping a couple large bills onto the table, he slid my legs off his lap and clenched his jaw. Nodding out the door, he muttered, “Go fast.”
chapter ten
We only just ma
de it into the penthouse.
The elevator door barely closed before Abram had my dress in a puddle around my ankles. My arms around his neck, he lifted me right out of it, pulling my bare legs around his torso and running his tongue in a hot, torrid line along the curve of my neck. I let my head fall back, breathing out a moan as he tasted every inch of my skin like it was candy, licking along the underside of my jaw, getting me so incredibly hot that I had no idea where we were till I felt my knees hit the living room sofa. Straddling him, I tore at his belt, undoing it and breathing deep as his hands trailed from my neck to my naked breasts. My breath was short, staccato as I waited for a guilty flash of Jesse, and I thanked God when there was none.
“Fuck, I really don’t ever want to miss you again,” Abram rasped as I tore at his belt. He groaned when I released his hard cock from its confines, immediately wrapping my fingers around him and stroking. Sitting back, his blazing eyes traveled slowly from my pumping hands to my stomach, my breasts, my collarbone and lips. “I don’t want to have to miss this body again.” He leaned forward into my neck, sucking my skin, trailing his hands down my waist and to my hips. “These sexy fucking thighs,” he pressed down on them hard, massaging his way to my ass and squeezing two greedy handfuls. Need pulsed in my sex as I felt him getting rock hard in my palms. “I don’t think you realize how much I want you, Isla. Every second of the day,” Abram murmured, reaching around my back. From behind, he slid his fingertips just along my wetness before slowly, gently pushing inside me. I moaned as he let out a low mmm. “This is all I want,” he whispered, his words slicing into the air. “Fuck everything else if I can just have this every day, every night.”
His words sent chills through me and yet I was burning hot. I rolled my head back, my long hair grazing the tops of his thighs as I gently bounced on his fingers. Abram sucked a sharp breath between his teeth.
“Christ, you’re so wet.”
I could only respond with a delirious hum from my lips. I was drunk off desire – drunk off the feeling of wanting Abram more than anything in the world and knowing that I could actually have him. It was a simple, incredible sensation. “Baby,” Abram whispered warningly as I lifted my hips off his lap to run his smooth helmet along my saturated pussy. His pulsing smoothness on my clit had me bucking forward, sending a million hot bursts of sensation through every nerve ending in my body. “Fuck, Isla, that feels too good…” Abram groaned, cursing with tortured pleasure as I teased us both, sinking myself down on just the tip of his cock. Holy shit. I’d never felt him like this before. Skin on skin, the fiercest gush of anticipation surged through my veins. I couldn’t control myself any longer. “Isla – ”
“I’m on the pill,” I breathed out, and with his growl, I slammed my hips down on him, our lips crashing together as his hot, hard cock filled me to the hilt. I gasped as his tongue swept voraciously over mine, swallowing my pleasured moans and absolutely claiming me as I’d so needed him to. His fingers tangled in my waves. He squeezed my thighs, sucked my nipples, kissed the swells of my breasts. He made my body his to please. And with hot, blissful gratitude, I rode him hard, swiveling my hips, plunging up and down on his thick shaft and grinning when he eventually stopped everything to simply watch my breasts bounce before him, utterly mesmerized. I felt like a goddess, especially when his gaze tore off my body to lock on my eyes, staring so deep inside me that I was sure he’d stripped the last of me bare. In that second, it felt like I belonged to him. And as I hurtled to an orgasm, his eyes never leaving me, his lips muttering yes and come for me, baby, it felt as if he belonged to me.
Under normal circumstances, I’d wonder if I was being absurd but after he came, ribbons of his pleasure on my belly and between my breasts, he kissed my lips softly and cleaned me off. And then as he lay with all his weight on top of me, exhausted as he murmured sweet words in my ear, I heard him say a few words that stopped my heart for a moment. Not those three words, but five that felt just as breathtakingly good.
“I just want this forever.”
~
The next morning, I awoke with Abram’s arm wrapped around my waist, his hand cupped under my breast. My eyes blinked open slowly, processing the sight of the Hudson River straight across from my eye line, outside the floor-to-ceiling window of his master bedroom. My mouth curled with content as I closed my eyes again, just for a few seconds, so I could revel in the moment. Apparently, bliss was waking up next to Abram. Only then did it dawn on me that I’d never slept a full night with him, or ever witnessed his sleep. I’d never seen his Spartan body at rest, or his eyes closed for more than a minute. Lifting my head off the pillow, I tried to turn just enough to witness it but he immediately stirred.
“Damn it,” I laughed, plopping my head back on the pillow. “Good morning,” I murmured as I felt him nuzzle the back of my neck, stroking his thumb back and forth over my nipple.
“Morning.” His voice still sounded like warm sleep. It was so cute I had to spin my whole body around and fully take him in. Pressed against his chest, a giggle bubbled to my lips. His messy hair was so damned cute. He tousled it all the more by raking his fingers through and yawning. “What time is it?” I let him reach for his phone on his nightstand. “Wow.”
“What?”
“Quarter past nine. I can’t remember the last time I slept in this late.”
“This is late? It’s still very much morning.”
“I know. I just haven’t slept a full night in a long time.”
“Why not?”
Abram smiled with bleary amusement, watching me lay on my side and get comfortable on my pillow. “I want to, I just can’t. I usually wake up after three hours. But I guess you’re my lucky charm.”
“Ah.” I smiled, trailing my fingertips along his tanned skin. It looked flat-out lick-able against the stark white sheets. “So this body was built on three hours of sleep a night. Imagine what you could do with a full eight.”
He watched me trace the deep lines of his six-pack. “I guess we’ll need you in bed with me from now on so I can find out.” I looked up at him, biting my lip to suppress what would be a horrifically dorky smile. Abram laughed, pulling me onto his hard chest and pushing back my messy morning hair. He gazed at me. “Jesus.”
“What?”
“I genuinely didn’t think this was a real thing.”
“What was a real thing?”
“Waking up looking perfect.”
I tried to smirk at him but instead blushed so hard I had to turn away. Abram laughed, tipping my face back toward him. I chewed my lip, forcing myself to let him look at me. As much as I loved it, Abram’s undivided attention – his blue eyes flickering with a thousand secret thoughts I couldn’t read – was overwhelming. It didn’t feel like the smiley, lazy gazes I used to have with Evan in the morning, when we were still doing okay. It was intense, as if Abram could see something inside me that even I didn’t know about. But for the sake of appearing like a mature adult woman, I didn’t avert my gaze. Whatever he was doing, I let him do it. I wondered if he could feel my rising pulse against his chest because suddenly, he gave me a break, cracking a smile and gently stroking my hair.
“We’re off today,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Nate and I are going to see if Jesse can follow through with his promise today. He said he was going to get Stefan’s location.”
“Are you skeptical?”
“Yes. But the guy who made Stefan’s new papers works close to the Toro Family, so the reality is that he’s more likely to hand over the information to Jesse. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”
“Fair enough. So you’re saying Jesse’s gone all day and you and I have no plans whatsoever?” I lifted an eyebrow, suddenly very excited by this news.
“Kind of.” Abram grinned as he got up, treating me to the spectacular view of his undressed body, the muscles in his traps and shoulders rippling as he rolled his neck to stretch. “There’s an event tonight that we�
�ll need to attend.”
I watched him disappear into the bathroom. “We?” His chuckle came back at me.
“I. They definitely expect me because it’ll be right here in the hotel, and I’ll be making a speech. But I’d be happy if you came with me.”
I grinned like an idiot. “I’d love to,” I called back, masking the giddiness in my voice. But I could really get used to this – waking up in Abram’s bed, laying tangled in his luxurious sheets and calling back and forth to each other about the plans for the day, like an actual normal couple.
Or semi-normal at least. My heart twisted a bit when I heard what the event was.
“They have one of these galas every year for their schools and for the library. But this year, obviously, it’s in honor of Gavin,” Abram murmured as he returned to bed, sitting up against the headboard. He watched with a little smile as I climbed into his lap, my long hair tumbling down my shoulders. He pushed the waves behind my back, pulling me closer by my waist. “I haven’t seen his parents much since the funeral.”
“Why not?”
Abram heaved a sigh, his bare chest warm against mine. “You know who they are. They’ve been famous all these years for being everyone’s beacon of hope – these positive guiding lights. So when Gavin died, as distraught as they were, they tried to keep that up. To be positive. Not talking about how he died or who killed him, just trying to celebrate his life. And that wasn’t quite my agenda. Not after what they put him through.” I watched the familiar darkness crawl into Abram’s eyes – the same one I had seen the night he’d first told me about Gavin’s torture and death.
“Can you tell me your best memory of him?” I blurted my question, blinking at how sudden it was. But I was just desperate to pull Abram out of that dark place before he sunk too far in. I had bad memories associated with that look. It meant he was reliving Gavin’s torture, cut by cut, second by second. Aside from that, the last time I’d seen it on Abram’s face, he had disappeared on me. “The funniest memory you have of him – that will always be a happy one in your mind.”