The Devil's Gate

by Rue Volley

  “I graduated top three percent of my class.”

  He shook my hand. “I know.”

  I looked down and then back up to him. “Is there anything you want to know about me, I mean—don’t take this the wrong way, but I expected to be interviewed for the job.”

  He laughed as he tapped my hand in his. “I know everything about you, Abi,” he said quietly as it sent a small wave of embarrassment over me.

  What did he mean by everything?

  “How?” I asked him as he smiled at Jack and then let my hand go. “Well, here at Ford we don’t interview people. We know everything about you before you get the acceptance letter to meet with an advisor here. I wanted to meet you myself once Jack told me that you were a special friend to him.”

  I sighed. “This isn’t because I know him—right?” I asked him as he shook his head at me.

  “Miss Watson. I am worth more than God, and this company is my life. I don’t hire just anyone to represent me.”

  I swallowed hard as I felt the tension ease up a little in my muscles.

  “Well—thank you so much. I will look for the email and get back with your assistant as soon as I can.”

  He nodded to me as Jack placed a hand on my back. “Now—I promised her some fine dining.”

  Mr. Ford smiled at the two of us. He waved his hands. “Go, it was so nice to see you again, Jack. It’s been too long; we should schedule a lunch.”

  “I agree, perhaps we could all get together next weekend.”

  “Perfect, have your assistant contact mine. Schedule it in before the world swallows us whole.”

  They both laughed and a firm handshake followed. I walked out with Jack, stunned and a bit confused. I could only hope that Mr. Ford, or “Lin” as Jack had called him, was completely honest with me. I was not a charity case and I wanted to get this job, but on my own.

  We entered the elevator, and the doors closed. I turned to face Jack as he stared straight ahead.

  “What the hell was that?”

  He grinned as he looked down and then turned to face me. “It wasn’t what you think.”

  “Oh yeah, Jack? When do people get jobs like this one with no interview? And meeting the owner, the owner Jack. That was Lincoln Ford.”

  Jack rubbed his lip with his thumb, and I tried to ignore it. “I know who he is, we went to school together, Abigail.”

  I lifted my arms and let them fall to my hips. “Oh great, of course you did.”

  Jack studied me and then decided to go on. “Listen to me. You had this, I just thought it would be nice if Lin saw you in person. That’s all. He was going to hire you already, that is how he works. He doesn’t waste time on anything.”

  “I heard him, but it seems funny that you were here, Jack, and what was up with that flash drive? What did you put on that?”

  He leaned to the side and let his shoulder rest on the wall of the elevator. He slid one hand in his pocket, never taking his eyes from mine. “The negotiation, the terms—your terms.”

  I laughed. “Oh great, well would you mind telling me what those are?”

  He reached out and cupped my cheek in his hand. I wanted to remain mad, but his touch distracted me. He knew it and that spurred me on to move back from him.

  “I am capable of setting my own terms, I can negotiate anything.”

  He stepped up to me as I moved back. We shifted in the elevator until I felt the wall to my back. He stopped and looked me over. His eyes leaving mine and studying my mouth, then my neck, tracing the heartbeat under my skin with his gaze. I touched my neck with my fingertips, and he looked back into my eyes.

  “Set them—now, Abigail.”

  I shook my head. “You already…” I pointed, and he took my hand, pulling my fingers to his lips and rubbing the tips of them against his soft skin. I sighed as I watched him.

  “No—with me,” he whispered.

  “I don’t know what you mean, Jack.”

  He grinned as he placed one of my fingers into his mouth. I could feel the warmth of his tongue envelope it. I closed my eyes, and the elevator stopped. Jack hit the emergency button so that the doors would not open. He stepped back up to me and placed my hand on his heart.

  “Tell me, what do you want with me, Abigail?”

  I looked at his face, so soft and inviting. His lips, full, kissable, mine.

  “I want to eat.”

  He smiled. “Me?”

  I grinned. “Food. I’m hungry, lightheaded.”

  He leaned into my ear. “Are you sure it’s the lack of food?”

  I sighed as I closed my eyes. Of course it wasn’t, it was him, doing something I never expected for him to do. Setting terms seemed to be a significant step in a new direction for us, and I wanted a clear head to set any at all. His lips grazed my ear and then lowered to my neck. I leaned my head as his mouth rested gently against my skin. Everything about him completed me. The way he held me, the touch of his hand, his control and demeanor. Perhaps my obsession with him was because I had never felt as if I had been in control. With him, I felt his power over me but I also felt something new, a power I was building within myself. Brick by brick, kiss by kiss. Step by step, he was taking me there. Walking me toward the woman I knew I could be. One who believed in herself just as much without the education or drive to find a career. As a human being, carnal, with needs. Needs to feel passion toward someone and have it returned to them ten-fold.

  “Jack, I…”

  He kissed me, the kiss devouring my words, ceasing my ability to finally say what I needed to say to him. His hand cupped my face and then he reached down and grabbed my wrist. He pulled it up over my head and then my second hand followed, he held them both as he let his free hand touch my neck, slowly lowering over my left breast. He lingered, his fingers tightening as my nipple hardened through my sheer bra. I moaned, shifting from one foot to the other. He stopped as his eyes studied me.

  “Everything you do excites me, Abigail; it makes me want you so badly I can barely contain myself. I can still taste you on my tongue.”

  I took a much-needed breath as his hand lowered and he stopped right at the waist of my high skirt. He slid his hand behind me and grabbed my ass, pulling me forward as I cried out. He was so hard it instantly made me wet. The muscles in my stomach tightened as he pressed against me. I wanted to feel him in my hand again; I jerked on my wrists, but he smiled as his grip tightened.

  “Let me feel you,” I whispered to him.

  He shook his head. “When I say and only then.”

  I closed my eyes as he leaned in and kissed my neck, forcing my chin upward. His nails started to dig into my skin on my wrist as he kissed me.

  “Jack,” I said half out of breath.

  “I want you to…” I paused.

  He stopped kissing my neck and looked at me. “What, Abigail, what do you want?”

  I glanced down, and he grinned. “Do you? Do you need me there?”

  I nodded to him as he lifted me up against the elevator wall and spread my legs around him. My heart raced in my chest. The mixture of adrenaline and hunger was making me dizzy. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he leaned against me. His hard cock pressing against my humming clit. I grit my teeth as he rotated his hips, slowly and purposeful. Taunting me.

  “Jack, please,” I said as I arched my back. He cupped my ass in his hands as he studied my expression.

  “Abigail…calm down, make it last. Let the orgasm rise slowly.”

  I leaned in and kissed him. My lips pressing against his as my tongue found its way into his mouth. He moaned as my passion spread through him like a wildfire. My body trembled; I ached for him, I ached for his release and my own. I needed it as badly as I needed the air to breathe.

  He reached between us and slid my panties aside, sliding one finger into me as I rolled my eyes, then two, and then three. Once again, he was careful to not go too far. He must be saving me for when he would finally decide to penetrate me fully. I want
ed him to, right here, right now.

  “You feel so good, I can’t imagine what it will be like when you take all of me inside of you. Do you want me to take you, Abigail?” I nodded to him as my eyes became glossier by the moment. Of course I wanted him, I wanted him more than anything else in this world.

  I moaned as his fingers barely moved. Again he savored me, everything about me.

  He pulled his fingers out of me and brought them to his lips. He tasted me as he locked his eyes onto mine. He let his fingers linger on his tongue. I couldn’t help but watch him. Then he lowered as he held me up against the wall. He placed my legs over his shoulders as he leaned in and spread my lips apart. He grinned and then gently bit my clit. I cried out as my back lay pressed against the wall. He growled, biting me so gently that it only sent waves of pleasure up over my stomach and settling in my breasts. I reached up and grabbed them, squeezing as he stared up at me.

  “Yes, baby, feel me,” he whispered, his heated breath tickling me; then he bit me again and I hissed. The mixture of pain and pleasure engulfing my senses.

  “Stop—please, take me, all of me, Jack, stop teasing me,” I whispered.

  My chest rose and fell. He parted his full, slightly swollen lips and spoke in a tone that mesmerized me. “You know that I would never do anything that you didn’t beg me to do to you Abigail.”

  My voice cracked. “Make me come.”

  My body shook, my thoughts piled one on top of the other as he leaned in and lapped at my clit. His finger slid into my ass, then two, as I bucked my hips, he would lick then bite, and then lick my clit again. The mingling of pain and pleasure taking me to a place that I had never experienced before.

  “Do you feel me, Abigail?”

  My moaning became louder and louder. I nodded, unable to speak.

  I cried out as his teeth caused an orgasm to rise in me, I arched my back and would have screamed, but it took hold of me, more powerful than anything I had ever experienced before. My legs shook; the muscles trembling deep inside my skin. The animal released in me.

  “Yes! Yes!” I finally cried out.

  Jack began to moan as I lowered in front of him. I undid his pants very quickly as he was unable to even stop me. I reached in and took a hold of him, so large in my hand that my fingers could not reach around his girth. I stroked him and he closed his eyes, his lip quivered, his jaw tensed up, and he reached down, trying to stop me, but I refused. I lowered as he rose up and stood before me. His size no longer scared me. All I could think about was how he would taste on my tongue. I wanted it more than anything else in the world. I wanted to make him come as hard as he had allowed me too.

  I opened my mouth and took the tip of him into me, slowly moving him back, further and further, his moaning matching my movements. I could only take a little over half of him before I had swallowed what I could. I moved him out and back in, continuously stroking as I enjoyed his pleasure rising in him. I needed to feel his release.

  I reached down and fingered at my clit as I quickened my pace. My moaning excited him, and he backed us up and started to move his hips forward and back as he carefully used my mouth. I could feel the wall to my back, and he jerked both of my wrists up, holding them against it as he continued to pump in and out, in and out. I looked up at him as he stared down at me. He grit his teeth, and I could feel the twitching rise, he was about to come, and I wasn’t going to let him stop this time. I jerked my handsfree and grabbed him, shoving him forward, and he slammed his hands against the wall above me. His head fell back as he cried out. He pulled a small razor out of his pocket and cut into his thumb, sucking on it as he tasted the blood. A deep growl rising in his throat. He may be losing control and I wanted it, I wanted to see what Jack truly could be with me. I couldn’t stop,and the thought of him coming in my mouth only excited me more. He took the edge of his thumb from his lips. “Baby—wait, please.” His begging egged me on, made me suck harder, faster—taking him deeper than I thought that I could. I felt him explode inside of my mouth, his heat racing down my throat. I took it all, every bit that he had to give me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  EVERYTHING FEELS LIKE THE LAST TIME

  I stared forward like a deer in headlights. Hair a mess, jacket ruffled, skin glowing. Jack tapped his glass with a spoon, and I looked at him. My eyes were glossy, let’s be honest, I was a hot mess. I took a breath and grabbed the glass of water and chugged it down, not even pausing as the waiter stood there. Jack’s smile spoke volumes. He eyed the waiter and then his menu.

  “Chicken.” The waiter nodded to him as I set my glass down and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I must look like a heathen. He picked up the clear container and filled my glass again as the lemon swirled inside of it. I fingered the glass and then blinked a couple of times.

  “What?” I said as Jack laughed and tapped the table with his fingers.

  He placed a hand to his chin. “I ordered food.”

  “Oh—okay, yeah, that’s good. Food is good.”

  He bit his lip and nodded to the waiter. “Bring more water, I think she needs it.” He nodded and walked away as Jack studied my face. “You look incredibly beautiful.”

  I let my eyes go to his. “What?”

  He lifted his fingers from his chin and then let them return. “Beautiful, you look so beautiful.”

  “Oh, thank you. Thanks, you do, too.” I said as I took one more drink of water and set it back down on the table. I leaned up toward him. “That was, I don’t even know what that was.”

  He sighed, remaining calm, enjoying his ability to rattle me. “Let’s call it an introduction, to me.”

  My eyebrow rose as I leaned back in my chair. More water came and I nodded to the waiter and then trained my gaze on Jack. He took a slow breath and then leaned up, still taking me all in.

  “Promise me that every time I make you come, you will look just as you do now.”

  I blushed, he enjoyed it as he always did. I was starting to understand my appeal to him. I was probably something he had never had before and for a man with wealth and power, that was saying everything. “Did we—are we getting food?”

  He nodded, keeping his sarcastic smirk masked with his fingers. “Yes. I ordered for us.”

  “Oh, good. No fish, right?”

  He shook his head. “You hate seafood.”

  I bit my lip and relaxed a little bit more.

  He touched my hand, and I set my glass down, not even realizing that I was drinking all of my water yet again. His fingers moved slowly against my skin. So tender and yet the beast lurked beneath them. I hadn’t even scratched the surface with him, I knew this now.

  “I want to show you something,” he said. I watched his lips and remembered them quivering as I took him in and out of my mouth.

  “What?”

  He turned my hand over in his and stared at my lines again. His eyes followed the curve of my skin, and his finger traced it. The electricity between us could power the city lights on a Saturday night.

  “Let it be a surprise.”

  I watched his finger move along my palm. “I hate surprises.”

  He stopped and looked up at me. “If that were true then you would hate me.”

  I sighed. He was right. I didn’t hate them as much as I claimed to. “Alright, surprise me.”

  The food arrived and he let my hand go as the plate was lowered down in front of him. Mine followed and I could smell the delicious aroma rising from it. I looked at his plate, my smile quickly followed.

  He tilted his head as he picked up his knife and fork. “What?” he asked.

  I took a bite and mmm’d without any control over it, I was famished.

  I pointed my fork at his plate. “Food, you do eat.”

  He paused and laughed under his breath. “Yes, I do.”

  “No,” I swallowed and cut into my chicken again. I held a small piece up and stared at it. “Avery and I—well, she made a checklist for you and this is one of the
m.”

  He took a bite and chewed, he stopped and then swallowed it. I grinned at him and took another bite. I chewed, quickly swallowing it and feeling my strength returning to me. I waved my fork around as I nodded then set it down next to my plate.

  “I think I have to,” he said as I laughed and shook my head.

  I took a sip of my water as I started to feel somewhat normal again. “No—it’s a vampire checklist.” I stopped, remembering the razor in his hand, the way he tasted his own blood right before he came.

  He stopped eating and lowered his utensils to the sides of his plate. “What?”

  “Vampire—she wrote out this ridiculous list.”

  He got up. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.”

  I nodded to him as he left me there wondering what the hell I said wrong yet again.

  Jack returned to the table, but his openness to me had shifted. He was so strange in that way. We could feel as if we were bonding one minute and the next he was the same mysterious creature that first enticed me to find out more.

  I leaned forward as he started to eat again. “Jack, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

  He looked up at me. His expression relaxed.

  “I had to do that, to distract myself, the cutting, I mean.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Distract you from what? You—you know.” I waved my fork as my voice dropped to a whisper. He set his fork and knife down and leaned back.

  “It was that or throw you on the floor of that elevator and fuck you until you begged for mercy.”

  I swallowed hard and then dropped my fork on my plate. It clanged as the woman behind us eyed me. He enjoyed flustering me. Revelling in my nervous reactions to him. He could unravel me with words just as well as he could with his touch. To me, they were one in the same.

  There was no more eating for me. He paid for our meals and then took me home. I got out of the limo as he half-grinned at me; I was relieved. It was the first sign of his softer side since the word vampire had been muttered at dinner. I moved my purse and the checklist fell out. He picked it up, his eyes carefully reading through it. The edge of his lip curled and I knew that he was amused. “So, let’s see. I can agree with number nine.”