Promise Me Forever (Top Shelf Romance)

by Kate Stewart

  “What’s your name?”

  “What?” The bewildered look on his face said I was crazy. I was crazy, but crazy was all I had to protect me.

  “I’m going to kill you the first chance I get. I prefer to know who I’m killing just in case hell asks questions at the gate.”

  He smirked. I didn’t expect that. “Lucas.”

  “Hi, Lucas. Did your mother or your father give you your name?”

  His hands tightened around my arms. Oh, boy. Did talk of Mommy and Daddy piss him off? Z, who watched us with a bored expression, had a similar reaction when I questioned him about his mother.

  “I wouldn’t know because I don’t know them.”

  So, they were both orphaned… “Don’t know them or don’t remember them?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “I think it does to you.”

  He studied me for a moment, and I wondered if he was actually considering it until I felt my body jerk. I looked down to see the button of my jeans undone. They were covering my lower body… and then they weren’t. I was staring at them lying twisted around my ankles when I felt the same being done to my shirt. The cool air touched my naked skin once my shirt was gone, and it woke me the fuck up. I bucked, but strong arms swiftly closed around me from behind.

  “We have six minutes,” I heard Z say—no breathe—against my neck. Jesus, when did he even move?

  “Let me go!” His hand shot up and muffled the sound of my scream.

  “You do not want him to come in here. We’re doing you a favor, Sprite.”

  “Don’t call me that!” I spoke into his hand, which muffled my voice.

  “Not now, Sprite. We’re trying to get you out of your clothes.”

  “Stop. Please!” More muffling. It was Lucas and Z who tore my clothes from my body, but it was Aaron’s smile I saw the moment he knew he had won. I didn’t realize I was crying until my tears were being wiped away by a gentle finger.

  “Shhh,” Lucas demanded.

  “We’re not going to hurt you,” Z softly assured.

  But I knew the warning behind it that went unspoken. They weren’t going to hurt me if I didn’t make them. Men like them don’t stay alive doing what they do without taking a few first.

  “Stop,” I tried again to no avail. They had already taken so much, a part of me wanted to just hand them the rest.

  But I wasn’t my father, and I wasn’t my mother. I wasn’t going to give up on my son and leave him behind to their mercy.

  “Your panties and bra are next,” Lucas announced.

  “Can you accept what is expected, or do we need to proceed?” Z questioned. I didn’t want to bare my body for them, but they were giving me a choice to endure their hands or be free of them. Feeling numb, I nodded.

  “Good girl. We’ll wait outside.”

  I wanted to tell them there was no need. I saw the contents of the box and knew Angel intended to parade me, naked, in front of his friends and company.

  They moved to the door and just before the door closed, I heard, “The clock is ticking, Mian Ross.”

  Z.

  “You have four minutes.”

  Lucas.

  I wanted to rage and tell them where they could stick their clock and do with their dinner, but I didn’t. I sunk down on the bare mattress and pulled the box closer to me. If they were warning me not to tempt Angel, then maybe, I should do exactly that. Maybe it was time I get my head in the game and play it better than the men who started it.

  Chapter 18

  ANGEL

  The wine glass I’d refilled was poised below my lips, and I had to anchor my feet to the floor when she appeared nine minutes and forty-three seconds later. The moment my gaze found her may have been the first time I ever lost at my own game.

  She was naked except for a silver mask and the pearls around the tempting column of her neck. I wanted her like this—vulnerable and humiliated. From the rigid way she held her body as she entered the dining room, I could tell I got my wish.

  I just wasn’t expecting a rock hard dick for my trouble. Z cleared his throat when my staring bordered on embarrassing. Lucas was too busy staring at her ass to notice the tension.

  Fuck me, but she was gorgeous. Everything about her was small from her pouty lips to the tiny pink toes resting on the marble floors. I could probably wrap my hands around her waist and have my fingers overlap. Her tits were small making her dusky pink nipples seem larger than normal. They looked slightly reddened, which made me wonder if she nursed the baby. Her stomach was still as taut as I remembered it, but I could also see the faint evidence of a few stretch marks on her otherwise unmarred skin. The marks didn’t detract from her beauty. It only made me hungrier… and curious.

  What would it be like to breed Mian Ross?

  “Our food will get cold if you two continue to eye fuck each other,” Z broke in. He sounded bored, but the bulge in his pants suggested otherwise. When he took his place at the table, I turned my attention back to Mian.

  “Sit.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I have three simple rules and doing as I say is number one.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “And the others?”

  “Don’t test me.” I paused until I could feel her anticipation and fear. “And don’t lie to me.” One of the benefits of her naked state was the ability to see her entire body flush and tremble. There was nothing for her to hide behind.

  “If you think—”

  “I don’t think, Mian. I command.”

  “Command your puppets. Do not command me. My father—”

  “Is in prison,” I reminded. She used to wield her father’s influence over mine when we were kids when she couldn’t get her way. When she batted those lashes at her father or even at me, I was reminded that she was my ticket into the business.

  “And yours is dead,” she countered, snapping me back to the present. I was out of my chair and moving down the long dining table, but I wasn’t quick enough. She lunged forward and grabbed a knife from the place setting that was meant for her. My jaw clenched. Milly didn’t have the foresight not to give Mian a knife. I doubted Mian had found an ally in the stubborn woman so easily. “Stay the fuck away from me, or I will gut you.”

  Lucas had never moved from his place behind her. He moved closer, but she didn’t seem to notice, so I planted my feet and crossed my arms. I could feel a smile trying to break free, and just for the hell of it, I let it free. He was almost on her. I just had to keep her attention on me, which had never been hard whenever we were in the same room together.

  “Don’t believe me?” she sneered.

  “Oh, I believe you, which is why Lucas here is going to stop you.” I nodded, and he effortlessly grabbed her around the waist, pulling her naked body into him at the same time, grabbing her wrist and tightening his grip until she cried out and dropped the knife.

  “Easy does it,” he cooed in her ear. He gently lowered her into her seat and pushed the chair in. He leaned down and whispered in her ear low enough to keep it between them. Whatever he’d said caused her mouth to part and her eyes to lose focus and glisten. I kept my expression blank and made a mental note to ask him what he’d said to her later.

  Z looked from me to her and said, “Now can we eat dinner?”

  “Fuck you.”

  Z’s smile was wide, but his eyes had darkened as he leaned forward to rest his forearms on the table and trap Mian with his gaze. “Maybe you will.”

  She sneered at him. “God, you’re delusional if you think I’ll touch you.”

  “That’s enough,” I ordered before he could continue their game. Z wouldn’t hesitate to scare her for his own amusement, and for some reason, that bothered me even though I needed her to be scared and helpless.

  “Sure thing, boss.” He nodded and dove into his food. Mian just stared back at me.

  “Eat.”

  “I said I wasn’t hungry.”

  “And I said to eat.”

&n
bsp; “I don’t trust you.”

  “I don’t give a fuck. Eat before I have Lucas shove the food down your throat.”

  “It would be good practice, sweetheart.” Even though I told them they wouldn’t touch her, it didn’t stop them from taunting her with the promise of sex. She shot Lucas a murderous glare and then picked up her fork. There was a moment of hesitation, and I was pretty sure we were all holding our breath to see what she would do with it. When she smirked and stabbed her fork in her salad, I knew she played us. She tested us to see if she could evoke the same fear as we forced from her.

  She had no fucking idea.

  Z had already completely wiped his plate and dug in the dishes placed in the middle for seconds when I finally relaxed enough to eat. I had taken no more than a bite of the chicken when a cry rang out.

  “Oh, my God.” She stood up, her chair scraping the floors, and toppling in her haste. “Where is he?” she growled but didn’t wait around for an answer. She took off in the direction of his cries. I set down my fork and nodded to Z since he was the quickest, and he gave chase.

  I could hear her screaming her son’s name, and then, suddenly, her screams stopped. Mian was sharp-tongued and spoiled, but I never expected her to have any true fight in her. When she was brought back, he pushed her in my direction but stayed close behind her.

  “Do you hear your son crying for you?” I asked unnecessarily as I rose to my feet. I wanted to torture her in the only way that would allow me without touching her. I could barely restrain myself being in the same room with her.

  I expected tears. I expected begging. She exploded. “All of this… for a fucking watch?” Her scream echoed around us while her son’s cries grew louder in the distance. “I knew you were an asshole, but I never took you for a materialistic asshole.” She shook her head in disgust. “It will take some time, but I’ll pay you back somehow. I swear.”

  I would have snorted at the fact that she thought I was doing this to be an asshole. My father’s murder had made me much worse, and she was about to find out how much.

  “Your story checked out. The unlucky bastard who bought my father’s watch was very adamant it was his only business with you. Unfortunately, you and I both know it’s not a fucking watch I’m after.”

  “Then what you’re after has nothing to do with me because… I… don’t… have it!”

  I stalked her and then grabbed her shoulder and forced her over the table before pulling my gun and pressing it against her skull. She wiggled her tight little ass against my dick, and I knew she felt what she had done to me when she gasped. “No more lies. Where’s the fucking book?”

  Her back stiffened. It wasn’t the reaction of someone who didn’t know of my family’s legacy and prosperity of our fortune. But then she blurted, “Oh, God. That’s even worse. You’re after a book?”

  “You’re a terrible fucking liar, Mian.” I slid the hammer back and smiled when she trembled at the sound of the click. “What are you willing to do to have your son back?”

  She turned her head just enough for me to see the fire in her eyes. “Kill you. That’s what I’m willing to do.” Damn, that just made me harder. “I don’t have this book you’re looking for so you should just kill me now because I won’t hesitate.” She pressed her head back against the gun, and I was tempted—so fucking tempted—to just blow her brains out and be done with it.

  “I would never make dying easy for you,” I assured. My free hand slid to my mother’s pearls around her neck. I tugged the necklace until it bit into her skin just enough to scare her. “You should know better than that.”

  There was a large bead of sweat that rolled from the top of her spine to the middle. Leaning forward, I licked up the droplet and felt her full-body shiver. She tasted salty and sweet.

  “What are you doing?” She wiggled to free herself.

  “Tasting you.” That earned me another shiver.

  “Why?” she yelled. I didn’t answer because I didn’t know why. I heard her long exhale and pulled the necklace tighter until her air supply was cut off. She began to struggle in earnest. All her struggling did was to make my dick even harder, and that’s when the lightbulb lit.

  I knew exactly how to be the monster Mian Ross could fear.

  I handed the gun to Z and grabbed her wrists. Stretching them in front of her, I put all of my weight on her back and ground my hips against her bare ass.

  “Let me go,” she gasped when she finished sucking in air.

  “Why would I do that?” I whispered in her ear. “You’ve been begging for my dick inside you since you were fourteen…” I transferred her wrists into one hand and used my right to trail down her side. “…you’re legal now.”

  “I don’t want this,” she cried.

  I kicked her legs apart. “Then tell me what I want to know.”

  “I can’t!”

  “Sure you can.” Kissing her shoulder, I freed one hand to unzip my pants and free my dick.

  “Angel, please.” She was trembling uncontrollably now, and her fierceness had been replaced my timidity. “I really don’t know anything.”

  “Sure you do.” I pressed against her and felt the tight entrance to her sex part. I could feel my restraint slipping. I only wanted to scare her into talking, but now that I felt her, I wasn’t sure how I could stop. “After I’m done with you, Lucas and Z will have a turn.” I pushed my hips against her to taunt her when a sorrow-filled cry shook me to my core.

  I tore away from her.

  Lucas, who had been lazily watching us, sat up.

  I heard Z curse behind me.

  We each have tortured many men for information in painful, unimaginable ways. We were immune to begging, cries, and screams.

  But never have we ever heard anything like this.

  I’d gone too far.

  Shame, disgust, and anger all took turns fucking me up. I never wanted to rape her. A part of me hoped she’d see past my game and challenge me as she always had. I felt sick to my stomach for the first time since I took over after my father had died. I made her think I would rape her before killing her and when I’d gone too far, snapping my control, and turning the game into reality, I released a demon inside her, and she passed out to escape it.

  I had Z carry her unconscious body back to her room while I locked myself in my office to think. Something had happened to her. I was more sure of it than I was of my next breath.

  “She’s tougher than you thought,” Z laughed and bit into a roll from dinner. His stomach was a bottomless pit. He never stopped eating. “You underestimated her.”

  “We can break her,” I said unconvincingly.

  “It sounds as if we already did,” Lucas pointed out. His eyes were closed as he rested his head against the back of the couch. “She sounded pretty broken to me.”

  I could still hear her broken cry an hour later.

  “What were you thinking?” Lucas questioned. “Fucking her isn’t part of the plan, remember?”

  “Not if she wants it,” I reminded and felt my stomach turn. Taking pussy that hadn’t been offered to me wasn’t my cup of tea.

  “That much was clear,” he remarked. I detected the jealousy in his tone. I didn’t miss the heated glances throughout dinner. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her body either, and even now, I was still seeing her. I remembered the ramrod position of her spine, her hardened nipples, and the distrustful glances she kept gifting me as she picked over her food. She’d barely eaten a quarter of her food, and I too exhausted, decided if she chose to starve herself, I wouldn’t care. I’d never get my book, but she’d never save her son either.

  From the state we found them in, it might have been safer for them both to be with us. They were barely surviving with no money, no food, and no security. The report my team gave told me she’d just left a pawnshop when I gave the command to take her. It must have been where she’d gotten money to get here, and now I knew what she’d sold to get it.

  Mian was a sm
art girl. If she stole the book, then she knew its value, which meant she was either more desperate for money than we’d thought or… she was telling the truth and sold a fucking watch instead of my family’s legacy.

  “We’re in this together,” Lucas growled. I looked away from nothing in particular and found them watching me with hard gazes. “Whatever you’re thinking, we need to know.”

  “You went inside your head again,” Z clarified.

  “She should be awake by now.” I pushed my chair back and rose to my feet, and they followed as I made my way to her room.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Z questioned. “Remember why we’re here.”

  Because I can’t have her.

  “I’m sure,” I answered. She must have heard us coming because a tiny squeak penetrated through the bedroom. I could hear her shuffling. To hide? To find a weapon?

  I fingered the key from my suit pants and unlocked the door. There was no sign of her when the door opened, so I cautiously stepped inside. “Are you really hiding when there’s nowhere to go?”

  “Maybe I’m just waiting for you to make a wrong move,” she countered through the darkness.

  “There’s nothing here you can use to take out all three of us.” I took another step inside.

  “Just your own stupidity. With the three of you put together, I might as well be armed with an atomic bomb.”

  “Fuck this,” I heard behind me. The light flickered on, and my eyes immediately found her sitting in the far corner with her knees to her chest. I instantly noticed the absence of the mask and necklace. She was completely naked without them since Z had taken her clothes. Finally, our gazes clashed and she smirked with triumph.

  “Three bad men scared of one little girl.”

  I decided not to play her games. I came here for one thing, and I am going to get it. “Come here.”

  “And if I don’t, you’ll beat me.” She rolled her eyes, and I would have believed she wasn't afraid if her body hadn’t trembled.

  “That would be showing you mercy." I disarmed her with a smile. "Come. Here.” I pointed to the spot between the black Italian leather covering my feet. She followed my finger and then lazily let her gaze travel back to my face. “I’m not going to ask again,” I forced through my teeth when she didn’t move. I made it to the count of three in my head, and then I watched, feeling my entire body tighten, as she impatiently rose to her feet. “No.” She froze and stared back. Confusion clouded her eyes until I ordered, “Crawl.”