by C. Lymari
“You really need to start watching television, or at least google what they are talking about.”
“Google? That’s the worst form of information. It’s heavily monitored.”
Without warning, I was lifted again, and Gideon sat down and then put me in his lap.
“Edwin and Dallas refer to a show where the family was from Texas and produced oil.” I turned to look at Bas while I pretended like sitting in Gideon’s lap wasn’t doing something to me. People called them hormones. I thought they were stupid because it made me feel a bit like I had been drugged.
“Everyone knows Chicagoans don’t put ketchup on their hot dogs, which means someone spotted me there.” Bas picked up where Gideon left off. “And Cinderella refers to Katia.” That one made sense to me since he was the oil prince, and Katia had been adopted into her family, making her a rags-to-riches story.
“‘Found sleeping’ is her dead, and ‘threw diamonds and called it a day’ refers to the jewels on her tombstone and the fact that our families paid the press to make the story die down.”
“What’s the deal with this?” Bas asked, looking at me more seriously. I thought Gideon felt the moment I went stiff because he rubbed my leg soothingly, and at that moment, I was glad for his comfort because I was about to ruin Bastian’s life.
“I’ve been tracking the people connected to the trafficking rings, and there’s a woman who’s on the anonymous chats. She goes by Goldie, and she claimed that Katia’s adoption had been very shady.” I licked my lips.
“Daph,” Bas warned.
“I think she was a gift from people her father got in bed with. I also think whoever did that blackmailed him into cooperating with their agenda, and when he refused—”
“They had her killed,” Gideon finished as Bastian stormed out of the room.
Quickly I went through the files Goldie had and stored them all. The least I could do was give them to Bastian. This was his family, and I didn’t want to step on something that wasn’t for me to unveil. Besides, I already had enough problems of my own.
Through it all, Gideon held me. I was shaking by the time I closed the laptop.
“I forced him to watch. I injected him with a sedative so he wouldn’t talk and held him down as she got mutilated and raped. It’s not something you ever get used to seeing, but I had a part to play, and even though it killed me, I played it. I threw up after every meal for the following month, and sleep was an hour or two here and there, but a sick part of me was grateful that wasn’t me, that even as bad as it got, I was still semi-whole on the outside. And as for Bas, I broke him. I knew what wanting revenge was like, and I knew that if he didn’t see it through, he would get killed trying to expose something that he didn’t understand. He was like a child, while all I lost was my appetite.”
I was holding on to the table for support while I let some of the ugliness that consumed me pour out of me.
“Do you get it now?” I whispered. “I break everything even when I don’t want to.”
His arms around my waist got tighter like a steel band. “Don’t you get it? You can’t break something that’s been broken a long time ago.”
My breath hitched, but he continued.
“You’re willing to die for everything you believe in. I think that’s fucking stupid, but I also know it’s rare and beautiful. You care in ways most people will never do. You care so much that you would shed your blood for your cause, and I’m not going anywhere, Petal, because I won’t let you get away from me. I already told you that your beauty is in every lash you proudly display, in the defiance you carry in your eyes. Beauty is the way you live in hell and make me feel like I tasted paradise.”
“You really aren’t going anywhere, are you?” I sighed.
“Nope, not a chance in hell,” he said as he leaned in and kissed my nape. “Short hair suits you.”
“Come on.” I patted one of his hands that was around my waist. “I’ll do your physical.”
He kissed my nape again and let me go. And I thought I liked that about him. That he didn’t push when he knew I was at a breaking point. I still had a few hours for my decision, but I thought we both know where this would go.
With my back against the headboard, I put my hands around my knees as I watched the door and waited for what would happen. It was almost twelve, and Gideon had yet to make an appearance.
He liked seeing me at my weakest but not because he got a sick pleasure in seeing me fail but because he got off on the idea of protecting me. No one ever protected me. As much as my grandmother claimed to love me, she never did anything because she was too busy trying to get revenge.
The door creaked open, and tingles spread all over my body. I heard his footsteps as he came in, and soon his body came into view. Despite the scar on his eye, he was still gorgeous. If anything, it added to his appeal. He closed the door with one hand while with the other, he carried a box.
“I am terrified of what will happen…” I said, admitting the truth as soon as he walked through the door.
“That’s okay, Petal, nothing scares me,” he said as he came to stand by the edge of the bed.
“I haven’t given you an answer yet.” I stared defiantly at him. He smiled at me, all his teeth gleaming and victory dancing in his eyes.
“You were waiting for me. Had you wanted, you would have hidden out somewhere in this fucking castle, but you didn’t.”
He had a point.
“No one can know about us.” I hoped he saw that it wasn’t because I was ashamed but because we needed to be safe.
“Petal, shut the fuck up and get over here.” He watched me with keen eyes. I knew the only way to get to his side was by crawling to him.
The moment I removed my blanket and cast it to the side, I heard his intake of breath. He was right; I was never going to say no. People often forgot the fact that I was more than a killer. There were times where I hated being a woman, for it had brought me pain and suffering, but I knew the art of seduction.
The black silk nightgown hit me just below the apex of my thighs. The moment I got on my hands and knees, I looked up. Gideon was coming out of his skin, his eyes bright and filled with lust, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He threw the box at the edge of the bed and waited for me to make my way toward him.
“Enjoy it because this is the last time I’ll ever cra—”
He pulled me by the back of my head as he bent to give me a kiss. “Trust me, baby, that image is going to be burned in my mind forever.”
I stared into his eyes as he picked the box again and handed it to me. I looked down at it. With shaky hands, I picked it up and shook it, trying to make out what was inside of it.
“What is it?” I asked as I pulled away and sat on my haunches.
“Proof that I won’t ever let anyone mess with you.”
My stomach dipped, and my curiosity piqued. I opened the lid of the box and dropped it on the bed. It was a good thing I didn’t have a weak stomach because any other woman would have screamed or thrown up.
“I told you that anyone who hurt you would end up dead.” I felt his fingers run soothingly across my cheek, calming the raging storm that was starting to take place inside my soul.
Slowly I reached for the finger that had been cut off, inspecting it, and it might be almost decaying, but I had a gut feeling who it belonged to.
“He’ll never lay another finger on you. He won’t get to touch you and caress you,” Gideon said as he tilted my chin so I could look at him. He then picked up a piece of meat that used to be pink but was now decaying. “He’ll never get to say another word to you. Lick or kiss you.” He threw the tongue back in the box, and last, he picked up the dismantled dick. “He sure as fuck will never get to rape you ever again,” he vowed as he threw the part back in the box.
I opened my mouth, but my lips quivered. The question I wanted to ask seemed so immense and out of reach. Eight years, and I never thought this day would come. I felt like I was
so complete but full of dread. Like my body would start shaking and fall apart. Invisible shackles that chained me for so long started snapping around me one by one.
“Is Yorovich…is he dead?”
Gideon looked at me with soft eyes, the brown like melted caramel, and I felt the intensity with which he looked wrap around me.
“He’s never going to hurt you ever again.”
As soon as he said those words, my hands came to my face, and I silently wept. I had lived with the idea that my servitude would be for decades. I never saw myself being released from my contract.
Gideon’s arms wrapped around me, bringing me to rest my head on his chest. His hand went down from my scalp down to where my hair ended, and he kept doing that over and over again, as he let me have my moment.
“I was supposed to go see him again in a few weeks,” I whispered.
He didn’t stop what he was doing when he answered. “I know.”
“He would send me messages that I would pay when he saw me again, and I feared what would happen to me when I went back to Chicago… I was sure he was planning on killing me.”
“Fuck that,” Gideon growled. “He was never going to get you again.” Gideon dragged me out of the bed until I was standing in front of him. “You want to know how he died?”
Biting my lip, I tilted my head because I wanted every detail and fact to know that he was indeed gone.
“With a fucking piece of wood up his arse and the fact that you were my woman fresh on his mind as he died.”
Standing on my tiptoes, I reached up so I could be a little closer to eye level with him. “Thank you.” I kissed his lips like I was his because, at the end of the day, I was. He gave me the choice to choose him before he told me about Yoro, letting me make up mind before I knew all the facts. “You have set me free.”
Letting go of him, I turned around for the box, and I brought it with me to the firepit.
I put in Yoro’s tongue first and watched as the flames made it disintegrate like it was nothing. Like he had been nothing. Next, I threw the finger, and I closed my eyes as the memory of him finger fucking me the first night he met me washed over me and let it go. Last I put his sex in the flames, and I watched it disappear, and I let him go. I let go of everything he had ever done to me go away.
He had never been my number one enemy; he was just another battle I had to conquer before I could move my final chess piece.
I was so grateful for my small victory. I didn’t think and ask how there was no retribution in his death, and that didn’t matter the moment I felt Gideon come and stand behind me.
“What are we going to do now, Petal?” he asked because he was in this with me. My war had now become his, and if I won, my kingdom would be ours.
Instead of answering him, I rose on my knees, and then I turned around. My eyes were at eye level with his waist as I reached for his jeans.
“Now, I’m going to do what every man forced me to do as a child, but I will do it because I want to—because it’s with you.”
“Stop,” he said as I reached for his already hard dick.
I didn’t listen to him. I ignored the memories, my teachings, and I was just in this moment with him. “I want to forget everyone else. I just want it to be you,” I said before I took him into my mouth.
“Fuck,” he hissed as his velvety feel glided down my tongue and hit the back of my throat. His hands came to my hair and petted me. He didn’t force me, just let me take him at my own pace.
Deep down, I was grateful.
My hands roamed his pelvic bone up to his abs. The way he groaned when I licked his tip, or how he cursed when I would deep-throat him had me trying to rub my thighs together so I could find relief.
“Fuck, Petal, stop,” he groaned as his dick got harder. I knew he was getting close, so I ignored him and kept going.
Pain shot through my nape up to my scalp as Gideon pulled my head back.
“When I tell you to do something, you fucking do it,” he spat through gritted teeth. He was done holding back, and I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling. He noticed the action, and his eyes got even darker. “Who do you belong to?”
“Myself,” I hissed as he pulled my hair even harder.
“Who are you kneeling for?” he mocked.
Something was most definitely wrong with me, and I was more than okay with it, but our little power struggle had me turned on. I wanted—no, I needed him like I had never needed him before.
When he saw I wasn’t going to answer, he let go of my hair and pulled me by my underarms, and I immediately wrapped my legs around his waist as his hands came to my ass and he squeezed me. The moment his hardness made contact with the slickness between my legs, I moaned.
Gideon laughed. “I feel the heat of your pussy, how you keep rubbing against my cock. I own you, Petal.” His sardonic voice had me digging my nails into his strong shoulders. He didn’t say more as he walked us back to the bed.
When we were at the edge of the bed, he removed one of his hands from my bottom and took one of my own. “You know what, baby,” he said softly as he stared into my eyes. “You own this.” He glided our joint hands down to the ridge of his pants. “And whether you want it or not, you own this too.”
He pressed the palm of my hand to his chest, and I felt the way his heart beat for me. “I don’t stand for anything anymore, but I’ll stand for you. I don’t have faith in people, but I do have faith in you. If it comes between you getting what you always wanted at the cost of my life, then I will lay my life down for you, Petal, and consider it a life well lived.”
“No,” I urged as soon as he said the last part. I couldn’t even fathom getting my throne at the cost of his head—not anymore. “I don’t want to get to the top by sacrificing your life…” The thumping of his heart sped up even faster. The calling of life and want, all pumping furiously through his body.
I rested my forehead on his, and when it got too much to keep staring into his eyes, I closed them. “Please make me forget everything that was done to me.”
The room went silent, and the only noise was of the fire and the flames over a bone.
“I’m going to fuck you so hard, Petal, you won’t be able to walk straight for a week.”
Gideon’s smoky tone was laced with arousal. I took his hand and brought it to the top of my leg and slowly slid it up to my center. The heat of my pussy met our joint hands instantly.
“I need you,” I moaned as he took control and rubbed his thumb against my clit.
“Fuck yeah, you do.” His voice went all husky and his eyes like burning gold.
He threw me on the bed, and my body bounced with the force. He removed his shirt and flung it and then his pants until he was naked.
“I’m going to fuck you so many times until your pussy is raw from my thrusts and you’re soaking in my cum. Your moans will be loud enough to make this castle crumble. I don’t give a fuck who hears you. I want everyone to know you are mine.” He got on the bed and made his way to me. “That this pussy only gets wet for me.”
He grabbed me by my ankles and dragged me toward him.
His hands came to my thighs and slowly caressed them. His hands moved higher and higher at an unbelievably slow speed.
I whimpered when his thumbs touched my apex.
“Do you need me here, Petal?”
I bit my lips and spread my legs as wide as they went. His nose flared, and he let out a low growl. Three fingers entered me without warning, and I threw my head back with a low scream. It felt so good that it hurt.
“Should I make you come like this?” he asked in a cold voice as he thrust back in, and with his index finger, he touched my G-spot.
“Yes,” I begged.
He laughed.
“Or like this,” he said before his mouth was on my pussy and his tongue flicking my clit without mercy.
He was making it difficult to breathe. I felt how tense my whole body was getting, like I was ready to snap
at any moment.
He stopped licking me, and I felt his lips give a soft kiss to my clit before he took it in his teeth and bit. He had to hold my belly down because my back arched, and a loud gasp left my mouth.
Slowly he kept adding more pressure, and I felt the buildup between my legs. When he let go, he blew on my pussy before he sat up and smiled at me.
“You’re fucking shaking already,” he said in awe.
He stroked his dick, and I watched him. He brought the tip and rubbed it against my folds and then the head against my clit.
“You want me bad, don’t you, baby?”
I bit my lip and closed my eyes because everything was becoming too much. He pulled back enough that I felt his loss.
“Look at me, Daphne,” he said, sounding annoyed. When I opened my eyes, he had my nightgown fisted in his hands. “Don’t fucking hide from me anymore.”
He pulled the material, ripping it in half, and pulled it away from me. “You’re fucking beautiful and you’re mine.”
I knew he asked me to keep my eyes open, but I couldn’t—it was too much for me to process without getting overwhelmed. His mouth came to my neck, and he licked and kissed all the scars and wounds until he made his way to my breast. He licked and sucked, and my hands went to his head as he brought one of his thumbs down to my clit.
“Please,” I begged, and he laughed. His hand roamed my body, curving to my ass. His finger traced over the puckered skin.
“Have you ever been fucked here?” His eyes were shining brightly, waiting for my answer.
When I nodded, he held his breath for a second before he asked his second question.
“Did you want it?” His voice came out gruff.
When I shook my head, I saw the way his eyes burned with anger, and then that’s when he slammed into me. His hands held on to my hips like a vice, and he thrust violently into me.
The noises coming out of my mouth should have embarrassed me, but I was at a point where I didn’t care anymore. It was just him and I.