Needing Arella

by Browning, Terri Anne

  Maybe then, I wouldn’t have had to wipe brains out of her hair, or nearly lost my mind all over again when she showed me the deep cut low on her belly where the sonofabitch had hurt her with a knife. The realization that I’d come so close to losing not only Arella but our little nugget made it hard to breathe. Trying to hold on to my control, I pushed it all down while we were at the hospital and on the drive home.

  I’d texted my parents at Arella’s request to reschedule our family dinner with the Stevensons. I hadn’t told them what was going on, and that was probably a good thing. My mom freaking out while Arella’s parents were already on edge would have been too much for my girl right then.

  Samuel pulled into the garage but didn’t immediately get out. I kissed Arella’s forehead, but she was still sound asleep. After she’d passed out in the ambulance on the ride to the hospital, she’d woken up a few times, but it had been difficult for her to keep her eyes open. The doctor had warned me that she might be exhausted for a few days, given the trauma she’d been through.

  “I’ll understand if you want to fire me, Mr. Moreitti,” Samuel said after a full minute had passed.

  “Braxton told me everything that happened.”

  I’d had to suffer through those details, but there was no way I could handle not knowing the specifics. I knew that Samuel had done everything he was supposed to. That he’d pointed a gun at Garon Steel’s head until the blade of the knife he’d used on her had been placed against her throat. He’d tried to distract Garon, talk to him, but all the deranged man had been focused on was Arella.

  Thankfully, Braxton had gotten an opening and been able to take him out.

  “You did a good job today. I’m thankful you kept a clear head and did what you could to protect her.” My arms tightened around her. “But expect a partner tomorrow. Maybe two. It’s not that you aren’t good at your job. I just don’t think I can let her go anywhere without me unless she has an army surrounding her now.”

  Samuel gave a stiff nod. “Yes, sir. I understand.”

  He got out and opened my door. I had to force myself to release Arella long enough to step out, and then I was lifting her into my arms and carrying her up to our apartment.

  The need to find us a house was even more urgent now. I had to get her out of this place so the memories of what had happened in that garage earlier didn’t haunt either one of us.

  “Jordan?” she mumbled sleepily as we entered the apartment.

  “Right here, baby,” I told her, kissing her forehead again. “We’re home.”

  Her eyes popped open. “Thank goodness. I want a shower so bad. I can’t go to bed with…” She broke off with a shudder.

  “Don’t worry, love. I’ll help you.” I carried her straight into the bathroom. Setting her on the sink, I carefully pulled off her shirt and then got rid of her pants, leaving her in only her bra and panties as I went to turn on the shower.

  The doctor had told us not to submerge her incision in water, but she could shower as long as she kept her back to the spray. While the water heated, I walked back to her. She opened her legs invitingly, and I stepped between them. But instead of kissing her as I could see she wanted, I only cupped my hand over her belly, reassuring myself that she and our baby were still there.

  Both of them were safe.

  “I’m really okay,” she murmured again, when the silence became too much for her. “You don’t have to worry about us now.”

  I pressed my forehead to hers. “If I’d lost you today, I wouldn’t be alive right now.”

  “Don’t say that,” she cried.

  “It’s the truth.” I cupped her face in both of my hands. “I don’t want to live in a world where you don’t exist. If I’d lost you—”

  “But you didn’t.” She took one of my hands and pressed it to her heart, letting me feel how fast it was beating. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I know, baby. Just…” I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply before slowly releasing it. “Just give me a little time to get a hold on what I’m feeling right now. I might be a little overbearing for a while. Don’t hold that against me.”

  She pushed on my chest until I pulled back enough for us to lock eyes. “I’m okay with you being overbearing. I’m even okay with you keeping me locked up in this apartment for a few days. But what I’ll never be okay with is you not kissing me.”

  I stroked my thumb over her bottom lip. “Once I kiss you, I won’t be able to stop, and you need to rest.”

  “No,” she growled, and the sound was so sexy, my cock nearly broke through the seam of my slacks. “What I need is for my man to fuck me until neither one of us can keep our eyes open.”

  “Baby, let me get you clean first.” I lifted her and carried her into the shower.

  Washing her from head to toe without pushing her up against the wall of the stall and fucking her until she couldn’t remember anything but me took a willpower I didn’t even know I possessed. It was even harder when she pouted up at me, whining for a kiss.

  Once we were both clean, I turned off the water and wrapped a towel around my waist before grabbing another to dry her with. When she was no longer dripping, I carried her to our bed and placed her carefully in the center. “Are you hungry?” It was getting late, and we hadn’t eaten anything all evening.

  “Yes,” she snapped and grabbed hold of my towel. It disappeared over her shoulder, and then she was pulling me down onto the bed beside her.

  “I need to feed you,” I tried to argue. I needed her so fucking badly, but if I touched her at that moment, kissed her as she was begging for, I knew I would lose control.

  “I need you,” she bit out and pushed me onto my back with surprising strength. Tossing her damp hair over her shoulder, she straddled me. Her drenched pussy brushed over my straining cock as she bent her head and touched her lips to mine ever so softly. “I need to feel you inside me. I need you to erase all the bad memories of this day and replace them with every part of you surrounding me. I need you to remind us both that I’m here and safe.”

  “I could hurt you.” I was losing what hold I had on my control with each passing second. “What if I pop one of your stitches?”

  “You’re hurting me right now,” she whispered with a quaver in her voice. “I ache for you, and you’re denying me what I need the most in the world. Why, Jordan? Why? Don’t you want me?” She pressed herself against my cock harder. “I can feel how much your body wants me, but do your heart and head not want me anymore?”

  “No, baby, no.” Carefully, I cupped her ass and rolled us so I was between her spread thighs. She wrapped her legs around me, trapping me, as if she thought I would leave her if she didn’t. Brushing the hair back from her face, I saw the glitter of tears in her eyes and groaned. The sight of her crying was pure agony to me. “I want every inch of you—body, heart, and soul. I’m just scared…”

  “Of what?” she asked as a tear spilled over her lashes. “I promise, if anything hurts, I’ll let you know.”

  “I don’t want to scare you,” I confessed. “Braxton told me that Garon tried to kiss you. That you were scared of him.”

  “I was scared of him,” she admitted with a tiny nod, another tear spilling over and sliding down her pale cheek. “But I don’t have to worry about him trying to hurt me again. He’s gone now, unable to hurt me or anyone else ever again. And even if he weren’t dead, it wouldn’t matter. Because there is nothing you could ever do that would scare me, Jordan.” She arched her hips, rubbing herself against my shaft. “You could hold me down and fuck me as hard as you wanted right this minute, and I would only beg you for more.”

  “Baby,” I groaned, feeling the last thread of my control starting to snap.

  “I need you inside me, Jordan,” she whimpered. “I need you to show me how much you love me. How much it hurts not to be beside me every second of the day. I need you to own my body.”

  “Fuck,” I roared, and I thrust into her h
ot, wild heat.

  “Yes,” she screamed, her head tossed back in ecstasy. “That’s it, babe. I belong to you. Every inch of me is yours. Own me. Please, own me.”

  I tried to be gentle, but I no longer had control over my own body. Once I felt her sweet pussy squeezing around my shaft, I was lost.

  She begged me to own her, but we both knew she was the one who owned me.

  Twenty-Eight

  Jordan

  It was almost a week later before I could even bring myself to let Arella out of bed, let alone out of the apartment. During that time, I told Barrick to get me two more guards for Arella. I didn’t plan on not being with her when she did leave the apartment, but I knew she would eventually have to go somewhere without me, and I needed a small army protecting her when that happened.

  After our first week of self-imposed lockdown, we didn’t have much alone time. Between her parents and mine, her siblings, and then Mia, Elliot, Taylor, and Palmer popping in almost every day, we were rarely left alone.

  Once Garon Steel’s death hit the news, my parents had found out what happened. And when they couldn’t reach me, they called Lana and Drake. During that first call, Lana must have let slip that Arella was pregnant, and the two of them had been at our place every day since I’d first let either of them through the door.

  My girl was disappointed that she hadn’t gotten to surprise them with our baby announcement, but part of me was glad I didn’t have to keep it from my mom and dad until she was ready to have our dinner with all the parents.

  “You know,” Arella murmured as she tucked her feet up under her on the couch. “Garon can’t do that villainess movie now. I mean, maybe he can do his own version in hell where he’s rotting right now, but not here in the real world.”

  I wrapped my arm around her, glad she could speak about her uncle without it bothering her. I’d worried that seeing him die right in front of her would leave some lingering psychological damage, but so far, she’d been recovering from the trauma of it all like a champ. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” she murmured and climbed onto my lap. Thankfully, we had the place all to ourselves this evening. “Winston Cline emailed me earlier, saying something about taking on all of Garon’s open projects. I’m going to assume that the movie Garon wanted you to back him on will be one of them.” She stroked her index finger down my nose. “And if you can talk Winston into waiting until after the baby is born and I’ve lost the weight I’m already putting on, I’d be okay with taking on the lead role in the franchise.”

  I dropped my hand to her belly. “If that’s what you want, my love. I’m on board with whatever you say.”

  She tilted her head back. “Is that one house Peter was talking about still on the market?”

  “Be more specific, baby. Poor Peter has talked about a lot of houses with us,” I reminded her with a smirk.

  Arella bit her lip for a moment before releasing it. “The house near Mia. The mansion with twenty-thousand square feet.”

  I started tracing little circles on her belly. “You said it was too much house for us.”

  “I did,” she agreed. “But then I started thinking about all the kids we want. And then how much your parents and mine will constantly be at our house visiting. Then I thought about how sometimes I want to suck your dick or have you fuck me at crazy times of the day.” She pouted. “And they are always around. If we lived there, and they were in the house, I could take you to the opposite side of the house and still be as loud as I want while you—”

  I grabbed my phone before she could even finish that last sentence. Peter picked up on the second ring. “Is that house in Beverly Hills still available?” I demanded while Arella buried her face in my neck and giggled.

  “There are three people in a bidding war over it, actually. It’s already two million over the asking price,” the real estate agent informed me.

  “Tell the owners I’ll pay them double what they are asking.”

  Stunned silence filled my ear before he spoke in a strangled voice. “I’ll… Um, I will let them know. Expect my call.”

  I hung up without responding and dropped the phone onto the couch beside us. “It’s ours,” I told her.

  “I heard,” she giggled again. The sound warmed something deep inside me that only she could touch. “Good thing my fiancé is a billionaire, or I might have to do a few more movies before this little nugget arrives so we can afford such an expensive home.”

  “Baby, if you wanted a house the size of the moon on top of Mount Everest, I would make it happen,” I vowed.

  She cuddled close, her breathing starting to even out, and I thought she was falling asleep until she jumped to her feet. “Oh my goodness! I can’t wait to start decorating our home. I have so many ideas for the living room. And our bedroom…”

  I sat back, smiling as she paced back and forth in front of me, telling me all about her ideas for our new house. The animation on her face, the way her blue-gray eyes danced with happiness and excitement, only made my heart feel like it was going to fly right out of my chest. Every time she turned to pace in the opposite direction, the light would catch on her engagement ring, and the possessive monster deep inside me purred in contentment.

  That ring, and the baby bump that would be showing soon enough, told the world who this woman belonged to.

  “Don’t tire yourself out too much decorating the house, baby,” I warned. “We still have a wedding to plan.”

  “Our moms are helping with that already,” she said with a wave of her hand. “And Aunt Emmie has already found us a venue. I just need to find the perfect dress, and then we’re all set.”

  As she walked in front of me again, I grabbed her by the hips and lifted her onto my lap once again. “How about helping me decide where to go on our honeymoon, then. Where does my beautiful bride want to go?”

  “I don’t care,” she said with a shrug. “Because wherever we end up, I don’t plan on us seeing more than the hotel room for the most part.”

  “Oh yeah?” I murmured, tugging her pajama bottoms down so I could feel the warm flesh of her luscious ass. “And why is that, my bride?”

  She smiled coyly. “Because I’m going to spend the entire honeymoon fucking my husband until he’s brain-dead from lack of blood supply to his big head.”

  “How is that different from any other day?” I teased.

  She lowered her head until her lips were ghosting over mine. “Because then you will be all mine. Completely at my mercy. With my ring on your finger, tying you to me for the rest of our lives.”

  I caught the back of her head, taking the kiss she was trying to deny me. When I let her up for air, I lightly smacked her perfect ass. “Again, other than the ring, how is that different from any other day?” I stroked over the flesh I’d just marked. “I can put a ring on right now if you want. We don’t have to have the ceremony for me to wear the ring that will show the world I belong to you just as much as you belong to me.”

  Her eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Yes, really. Whatever ring you want, I’ll never take it off.”

  “What if the ring I want you to wear isn’t really a ring?” She started nibbling on her bottom lip again, and with a groan, I used my thumb to tug the tortured flesh free.

  “Then you need to tell me what it is so I can make it happen, baby.”

  “Well…”

  “Arella,” I bit out. “Tell me, and we’ll go get it right now.”

  “It’s just that I don’t know how you would feel about…needles.” She looked at me through her lashes. “You don’t have any ink, and I’d never really asked if that was because you don’t want to mark your skin or if you just had an aversion to needles.”

  “A tattoo?” She nodded. “You want me to get a ring tattoo?”

  “Only if you want to. It’s just so much more permanent than a regular ring. You can never take it off… Well, I guess you could if you had it lasered off, but—”

  I kisse
d her again to stop her rambling. This woman was so endearingly precious that I would have let her talk me into inking my entire body if that were what she told me she wanted.

  Lifting my head, I tucked her hair back behind her ear. “Your name will look perfect inked around my finger,” I told her. “Do you think your cousin Lyric will do it for me if we fly up tonight?”

  “He kind of loves me, so I’m sure it won’t be a problem,” she said with a smile that lit up the room.

  “No one could ever love you as much as I do,” I growled, that possessive monster roaring to life. “Now, go pack an overnight bag. We’ll fly up and be back by tomorrow night.”

  Epilogue

  Arella

  “Deep breath,” the nurse instructed. Her touch was gentle on my bare back, soothing and calming my frayed nerves as the anesthesiologist worked on placing the epidural in position.

  I was two weeks past my due date, and I still hadn’t started dilating on my own, so my doctor had scheduled me for an induction. I’d already had fluids through an IV for over an hour and they were about to give me the meds that would get things started, but before all the fun pain started, they’d asked if I wanted an epidural or not.

  Um, yeah, I might have a high pain tolerance, but I wasn’t brave enough to go through all that discomfort without drugs, so the epidural had been part of my birthing plan from day one. I didn’t really care that my mother had birthed five babies completely naturally, or that my cousin Lyric’s wife Mila had nearly ripped herself in half pushing her twin sons out with not a single drop of drugs.

  That was great and I applauded them, but I wasn’t either of them. This was my experience, and I wanted to enjoy it without screaming and shouting at the people I loved in the throes of agonizing pain.

  Plus, I didn’t want to have to put Jordan through watching me go through that. It would only make this miserable for us both.

  Once the epidural was in place and I was able to lie back on my big comfy hospital bed, surrounded by my own pillows, the nurse let Jordan and our moms back into the room. Apparently after one too many fainting spells from bystanders, the birthing center’s policy was no one but the patient and medical staff in the room while an epidural was being administered.