by Emma Roberts
He thrust shallowly into my mouth, sliding his long, thick shaft along my tongue, trying to get me just where he wanted me. I continued my ministrations until he was panting and his knees were shaking and threatening to go out from beneath him. Finally, he gently pulled me back by his grip on my hair and ordered, “Lay on the bed now, Mina. I’m not going to wait a second longer to fuck you.”
I obediently turned toward the bed, leaning my torso over the mattress, wiggling my ass enticingly in his direction. With a growl, he lined himself up and filled me in one fluid move.
“Holy…oh, Logan,” I hissed as he slammed home.
He set a pace that was brutal, fucking me like he’d never get another chance. I knew he planned to meet Isadora soon, and maybe that thought weighed as heavy on his mind as it did on mine. Maybe he was afraid he’d meet his end. But if it was an end, it would be the end of both of us. I wasn’t going to let him go without me.
It was a physical loss when he pulled all the way out of me. “Don’t stop,” I groaned.
Logan changed our positions, laying me with incredible tenderness on the bedspread. When he pushed into me again, he wrapped my legs around his waist and murmured into my ear, “I want to see your face when you come, Mina.”
And then he made love to me. He’d fucked me before, all need and blinding passion, perhaps brought on by a touch of fear. Now, his strokes were unhurried, and pushed me to unknown heights of pleasure. When I finally found my release, with him following right after, it was a moment so tender that tears filled my eyes. I pulled him closer, feeling his weight, unwilling to let go.
“I love you so much, Logan Farraday.”
“And I love you, Mina Farraday,” he said, a note of satisfaction in his voice.
“Never, ever leave me,” I whispered.
“I won’t.”
“Promise me, then. Promise me I can come with you tomorrow when you meet with Isadora.”
Logan stilled above me, and stared down at me with his deep blue eyes. His expression closed off and something cold flashed across it. Before I could make sense of what he could be thinking it was gone, and he was pulling away from me. “No.”
“Logan—”
“No, Mina. I can’t take you there. We have no idea what she has planned. She planted a bomb beneath your business, for Christ’s sake. It would have taken out the houses down the way too. She’s not above causing collateral damage. What if she has another one in her place of business? What if she decides it’s worth it to blow the place sky high in order to get rid of you?”
“Then she’d kill my husband and herself, and I just can’t sit back and watch that happen. Either you take me with you, or you sit this one out, Logan. I can’t stand it. I won’t lose you so soon after making you mine.” I pulled him closer to emphasize the point.
“But you’d let Keenan and Gideon die if that were the case?”
“I love you, Logan. Beyond the bounds of sanity. I can’t sit by and wait to see if you live. I’m coming with you, whether you like it or not.”
He huffed out a breath, opening his mouth to argue.
“If our roles were reversed, what would you do? Could you let me go without you?”
I read the surrender on his face before he even said a word. His shoulders slumped and he pulled me hard against his chest. His heartbeat thumped against my palm. I savored its beat, the reminder that somehow we were both alive and had pulled through what had been a nightmare.
“I couldn’t let you go alone,” he said finally, gritting his teeth. “Fine. You can come. But you’re staying out of sight, do you hear me? I don’t want her getting any ideas.”
“Deal,” I said quickly, sensing it was the best offer I was going to get. If I couldn’t orchestrate her downfall, at least I’d bear witness to it.
Logan leaned his forehead against mine and kissed my nose. “You’re stubborn and infuriating.”
“And?”
“And,” he paused to grin. The expression was so carefree and happy that it warmed me to my core. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
His hands slid along my body, reigniting the fire between us. I had a feeling there wouldn’t be much more talking for the rest of the evening. He claimed my mouth in a harsh kiss. His roughness thrilled me, sending pleasure rippling right to my toes.
“Fuck me, Logan,” I panted. “Now.”
He lifted one thick brow at me. “Are you sure? I could—”
“Now,” I ordered again.
He pulled away from me and I only had a moment to protest the cold absence of him before he was grabbing my hips in his rough, calloused grip, flipping me over so I was on my knees. He lifted my ass into the air and braced his hand on my back. The broad head of him pushed against my entrance. Pushed inside. Stretching me, even after the aerobic sex we’d just had.
I moaned. I was already soaked, but I knew Logan could take hours exploring my body, finding just the right way to make me come. I could feel every inch of him, the contours of his cock rubbing against the tender flesh inside me. I swore I could feel him pulse, and reveled in the sensation during a quiet moment when he was seated deep and neither of us moved.
Pulling back, he slammed hard into me, and I let out a soft cry of pleasure. He eased out, only to pummel back into me again. He set a driving pace, flinging me closer and closer to orgasm with every slap of his hips against mine.
Bowing his body over mine, he traced my clit with his broad fingers even as he fucked me. My legs trembled as he brought me to that quivering precipice. As the heat of Logan’s pleasure filled me, I screamed. My legs gave out when I came, and only Logan’s arm slung around my waist kept me from collapsing. We rode wave after wave together, basking in our newly joined state.
Logan rolled us both so we were on our sides, and we lay with our arms and legs entwined.
“Promise I can be there,” I said once I’d caught my breath.
“You can be there,” he said. “But don’t do anything like confront her.”
I grinned. “Are you calling me confrontational? I resent that remark.”
“You resemble it,” he shot back with a laugh. “Now sleep, Mina. We have a big day tomorrow.”
Chapter Eighteen
Logan
Isadora had been seen entering the building ten minutes ago. She was late, but Gideon had seen to it that we’d been shown to her office to wait for her. Keenan had settled himself into a plush leather armchair situated across from a teak executive desk. Gideon was settled in a chair he’d pulled over to the desk, and I was hovering near the door, waiting for her arrival. She wouldn’t be long now.
Isadora had taken a similar tack as my father, decorating her office in dark wood and distressed Italian leather furniture. I wondered if she’d been seduced by my father on one such sofa. Did it hold fond memories for her? Or did she loathe the old man as much as I’d come to in recent weeks? I couldn’t speculate about her motives, as they were still mystifying to me. She might have murdered her father. She had reasons to hate me. But Mina’s only connection to this was a job she’d done for Alastair Anwick years ago.
Footsteps clicked in the hall outside, a confident clack clack of heels that didn’t falter even as they reached the office door. There was the small swiping sound of a key card at the door and Anwick’s voice drifted through from the other side. She appeared to be on the phone with her PA.
“Yes, that’s right George. Inform them I’m back but not to call until ten. I have an important meeting with Owen Mason and I won’t tolerate interruptions.”
I smiled grimly. If she really knew who sat on the other side of the door, she’d be beating it back down the hallway as quickly as her ridiculous footwear would take her.
The knob jiggled and Isadora finally stepped inside her office, balking in the doorway as her gaze landed on three unwelcome men, instead of the one she’d been expecting. Her eyes zeroed in on me at once, narrowing infinitesimally.
“Mr. Farraday,” s
he said cautiously. “I wasn’t made aware of your presence on the premises.”
“Of course you weren’t. You would no doubt have barred me from entering the building. Fortunately, Gideon was able to get me security clearance.”
Isadora regarded her own son with naked contempt for just a few seconds before her jaw flexed. “You’ll have to forgive my bluntness, Mr. Farraday, but you aren’t scheduled. My time is very valuable and I’ll thank you to leave.”
“I don’t have to forgive shit. Especially not the shit you’ve pulled, Anwick. Take a seat.”
Isadora was a head shorter than I was. I had easily a hundred and fifty pounds on her. But she still gave me a combative once-over, obviously considering what she could get away with. I seized her elbow, and squeezed when she didn’t immediately move.
She harrumphed and toddled in her heels toward her desk. Isadora yanked her arm from my grasp when we reached her chair and sat primly behind the desk, smoothing invisible wrinkles from her skirt.
“You’re going to pay for that, Mr. Farraday,” she informed me coolly. “That was assault. And this little foray into my office is trespass.”
I snorted in amusement, though it wasn’t terribly funny. “I’ll admit you’ve got brass balls, Anwick. Talking about legality after everything you’ve done? That’s just rich.”
A chilly little smile crept onto her lips. It didn’t match the innocent tone of her voice. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve just gotten back from vacation.”
“From France,” Keenan mused. “I suppose it’s just a coincidence you were seen attending one of Sylvian Ancel’s parties just before he was busted as the head of a human-trafficking ring.”
The smile slipped off her face. We’d caught her off guard. Good.
Isadora’s hand strayed toward a button on her phone, no doubt about to summon security to escort us out.
“Don’t bother,” I said, slipping into the last remaining chair in the office. “It’s been disconnected. And I wouldn’t go for that gun in your desk drawer either. I’ve removed the bullets.”
Isadora’s hand froze and she regarded me with outright dislike for the first time since entering the office.
I stared back coolly. It was hard to believe I’d once held her in high regard. Past the sleek, well-put-together facade, she was just a heartless, stone-cold bitch. The frosty concentration it took to run a company had only been made possible by the violent streak of psychopathy she kept well-hidden. How else could she have murdered her father, or sold an innocent woman into sexual slavery without batting an eyelash?
“Well, nothing can be proven. I’m sure it was just coincidence,” she said breezily. “It’s shocking, the sort of things people get into these days. You think you know a person.”
“Indeed,” Gideon said, his voice holding an edge of hurt.
This confrontation was going to be hardest on him. This was his mother, no matter how short a time he’d known her. How would he fare now, knowing that she was a murderer? Wondering if that was in his blood? The thought would be enough to keep a man up at night.
“I thought I knew you, Isadora. I’m disappointed to learn otherwise,” Gideon finished.
Isadora’s expression flickered, real concern showing on her face. She did care what Gideon thought. Interesting.
“If you’re done accusing me of trumped-up charges, I have work to do,” she said, turning to her computer. I had to admire the absolute steel balls it took her to turn her back on three men she knew could and would crush her flat.
“That’s not all,” I said with another cold smile. “We also know you killed your father. We know you did it because of Mina. We know that’s why you sold her to traffickers, why you blackmailed her.”
I was fishing. I had no idea how the two were connected.
But by the fearful light in Isadora’s gaze, they were absolutely were connected. Gideon had been right.
Her lips pressed together into a stiff line until they went white with rage. Her glittering green eyes bugged and color rose into her cheeks. “She deserved it, the little slut!” she finally burst out, her voice more of a shriek than anything else.
I rested my chin on the tips of my fingertips, considering her. “Oh?”
That was all the prompting she needed.
“Mina deserved it. And you deserved it too, you bastard. Do you know what your father did to me? I wasn’t even legal yet. I was attending your mother’s funeral with my parents. Sixteen years old, and Alden seemed like a god to me. So strong. So powerful. So handsome. He wasn’t a man—he was a storm of grief and anger, and he took it out on my body, right there in the back of the funeral home that night. I never once thought to tell him no, or to put a condom on. Little girls weren’t as well-educated about sex in those days.”
She paused, shivering at the memory. “And then I found out I was pregnant two months later. And do you know what your sainted father did then?”
I had a pretty good idea, but I just raised a brow at her, indicating she continue.
“He’d already moved on to his secretary. Had no use for me. Told me to fuck off and find the quarterback who’d really gotten me pregnant and beg him for childcare because he wasn’t giving anything to me.” Tears sprang into her eyes.
I tried to keep the stony mask on my face in place. Isadora Anwick didn’t deserve my pity after what she’d done. She’d exhausted every ounce of empathy I could muster when she’d sold Mina to the traffickers, forget the blackmail. Still, I hadn’t realized there were still depths to plumb when it came to my father’s cruelty. Isadora’s story made what he’d done to all the other women look like a cakewalk.
Isadora dabbed at her eyes furiously. “Of course, I know now it was Alden’s fear of legal action—statutory rape. There was no way he would have provided monetarily for Gideon until I was eighteen. The baby would have been two by then. It was easier to write me off as a whore than admit his own fault. He knew damn well that I was a virgin.”
Her eyes grew faraway and her hand dropped to her belly. “My parents threatened to cut me off when I didn’t tell them who the father was. I would have been penniless. A no one. A joke. And even though I loved the baby, circumstances wouldn’t let me keep it. I had to give him away.”
She turned imploring eyes toward Gideon, whose was strained to his limit. What a gut punch this meeting must have been for him. What must it be like to find out your father had all but raped an underaged girl and forced her into an untenable position with her parents? To find that she’d given you away in order to preserve her trust, rather than provide a home for you?
“You can forgive me for that, can’t you?” She blinked at Gideon.
“For that, yes,” he said quietly. “But not the rest. Not what you did to Mina.”
Isadora’s face hardened. “She deserved it. You have no idea what she did to me. What she almost stole from me.”
“Enlighten me then,” Gideon shot back. “What did she do? We know she dated your father briefly. On an assignment. You had to know that wasn’t real. He was paying her fifteen thousand every two months.”
Isadora’s laugh was hollow and bitter. “She preyed on my father just after his divorce. Took his money and made him fall in love with her. He was obsessed with her from the moment he laid eyes on her. He kept everything she ever gave to him. He even kept a lock of her hair on his dresser. He couldn’t see that she was just using him. No, he wanted to marry her. He was just like Alden Farraday, looking for a piece of young flesh. But he was too stupid to just use her for what he wanted. No. He was going to make her my stepmother!” Her voice had risen to a shriek, but the gist of what she was saying was clear.
Even though I despised her for what she’d done to Mina, I couldn’t help but empathize a tiny amount. How furious would I have been if my father had brought back his young secretary and installed her as my stepmother? He’d at least been intelligent enough to know how much that would have upset his family life.
<
br /> I shook my head with a rueful smile. Mina was just too desirable for her own good. That made three men she’d enticed to fall head over heels in love with her. But she was Mina Farraday now. I wasn’t going to let anyone steal her away from me.
“So you killed him for it,” Keenan finished for her. “The autopsy revealed heavy metal poisoning. What did you do? Sprinkle lead into his omelet every morning?”
“Cadmium, actually,” Isadora said with a smirk. “Less obvious. Hardly anyone looks for it as a cause of heavy metal poisoning.”
I brought my hands together in a slow clap, mocking her confession. “So clever. You must have been pretty damn proud of yourself.”
Isadora straightened her spine and once again smoothed her skirts. “I was, actually. Did you know the doddering old man was going to give her everything? She’d spun him a story about being cut off by her parents and he planned to leave his entire fortune to her after he passed. No thought for what I’d inherit. Everything was going to go to her. That bitch was going to ruin everything. I needed that money to find my son and bring him back to me. And the old man was going to steal that from me too. He had to die.”
“But it wasn’t enough just to kill him, was it?” I asked. “Even though you’d inherited it all. The company, the fortune, the stocks and bonds, everything, it still wasn’t enough, was it?”
“No. It wasn’t.” Isadora slammed her fist down on the desk. “I wanted that little bitch to know the agony of having everything stolen from her. She made my father betray me. She used her sway over him to get what she wanted. He was going to leave me, his own daughter destitute. Tell me how that is fucking fair. So yes, I poisoned him. Every man in my life betrayed me and I hated them all for it. After the deed was done, I waited. I had to be patient to get the timing right to torment both of you at once. I wanted you and your father ruined and her dead. Now that Mina’s gone, I’ll be getting rid of those pesky Hustler girls too.”
She picked up a remote and waggled it at us with a grin. “And that’s why you’ll all be leaving. I have a bomb planted beneath Hustler headquarters. If you don’t get out in the next five minutes, I’ll blow it sky-high. I doubt thirteen working women are up and about yet this morning. Do you really want to be culpable for the deaths of so many, Mr. Farraday?”