“I need money. My father is in debt –”
“And you’re being a good daughter, helping him get out of it?” His amusement seemed to mount. My jaw set.
“I’m trying.”
“I see.” He tilted his head. “So. Money. How much are we talking?”
“Eight hundred thousand dollars.” Mr. Adams let out a whistle.
“That’s a pretty price. And what are you going to do in exchange for nearly a million dollars’ worth of debt?”
Ah. Finally coming to the crux of the issue.
My heart, having beat at a steady, hard rhythm, felt like it was going to thump straight out of my body. I had made the choice, thought about it for weeks before concluding that this was what I needed to do. This, certainly, was the only way to save my father. He had nothing. I had nothing. Nothing to pawn to a broker, least, or that could be reasonably sold.
So, when I answered him, I answered with as much dignity as I could manage, and hoped the sureness with which I spoke belied the fact that I was the most afraid that I had ever been in my entire life.
“My company,” I said. “My… body. Whatever you would have of me. Whatever what you want for whatever it’s worth, for as long as it takes for my father’s debts to be erased. I just need it to be regular, so he’s paying and they see he’s paying, and they leave him alone.”
Mr. Adams regarded me for a while. I wondered if he truly needed to think about my offer – I had heard he’d take almost anything when it came to having women. And though I feared the results of him taking me up on the offer – the plea – I feared what would happen should he deny me even more. It was life and death, what rested on my shoulders. It was a heavy burden to bare and I could only hope that this man… this biker, mobster, thug of a man, would help me, even if only to see himself secure some sort of pleasure from it.
“Come here.” He beckoned me, quirking a finger over to him. I was hesitant to stand, but with no other options, what was I do to but go to him? I did so, steps hesitant. I stood before him, and he circled his fingers around, indicating that he wanted me to turn for him.
It was humiliating, but I did so. It felt like I was more a dog than a woman – an animal to be judged and appraised for its worth. When I turned back around to face him, Mr. Adams had a smirk on his face.
“You’re in luck, Elizabeth. I like what I see. Now how about a taste?”
That night was the first night that Nero Adams touched me.
Unexpected Enjoyment
Nero
“Hey boss, you got a moment?”
My eyes open, agitated. I had just laid my head down, finally getting a bit of time for rest. Not like oak wood was the most comfortable thing to lay your head on, but it was better than nothing and I was tired enough to ignore the fact that’d it’d likely leave my neck a little more than annoyed with me. That, however, was beside the point.
Aiden stood in the doorframe of my office, leaning against it as if he owned the place. He was my best friend, my right-hand man. He was the one person I’d go to hell and back for, though interrupting my might may have earned him a one-way ticket there from me. He had a wicked grin on his rounded face, and I got the distinct impression he was going to tell me something that I didn’t want to hear; anything with a Cheshire grin like that was enough of an indication of that.
“What do you want, Aiden? I just got to sleep.”
“That Elizabeth woman called. Said it was urgent.”
At that, I straightened up.
It’d been about a week since that bombshell of a desperate woman came walking into my bar. Wasn’t the first woman, probably wouldn’t be the last – but she had something about her that interested me. Despite offering herself to me, she still had one thing most women didn’t have by the time they came here: her pride. I could see her try to swallow it down, but the time we spent together that night showed me she’d choke on it before she took it down entirely. Most in her position were dead and hollow already, that’s what made it easy to get them to do whatever you wanted.
Elizabeth? She had fire.
“What was so urgent?” I couldn’t imagine that she was backing out of our deal, at least not this early with how badly she wanted to help her dear old dad.
“I need to work. Now.”
My brow rose. Well. That wasn’t what I was expecting. I smirked a bit.
“I didn’t realize that you were so eager?” I could hear her scoff on the other end. Ha. So she was irritated by me. Cute.
“I told you that I needed the money; I work, I get money, right? Look, I just –”
“Be over in an hour.”
I hung up, not giving her time to reply to me. That was probably an asshole thing to do, but oh well. She was giving me her time in exchange for my money. I figured I could afford to behave as I pleased. Besides; she seemed the type to bite back, even in her desperation, and I was interested in seeing just how hard she’d end up biting back for me when she got here.
Adrien left, after that. I decided that a nap just wasn’t going to happen. I was too awake now, too eager to see Elizabeth. I knew that it was cruel, to take advantage of people’s misfortunes. It wasn’t something to be proud of necessarily – but it was something that had to be done. My father had taught me that, taught me that sometimes the things that made us hate ourselves were the things that we needed to do to make the empire thrive. Thriving could mean a number of things: money, property, power. What I would have with Elizabeth would be just that: power. The power that had people coming to you when they were desperate, when they needed what you had the most. I’d lose money, perhaps, but what I would gain in return would be so much sweeter.
Besides. There was more to Elizabeth than a woman desperate to save her father’s life. I intended to figure out what exactly that was.
Elizabeth arrived, just shy of an hour and beautifully dressed. A deep green number that hugged her body. Just enough cleavage and thigh showing that it was sexy but not trashy – like she didn’t even have to try hard to be appealing. I could appreciate that. She came into my office, head high and eyes hard, like she was above her situation. She sat herself down after a small nod in greeting. I smiled, and got little response from her aside from a small scoff. That only made me smile more.
“Aw, don’t be so mean.” I said playfully. “You’re the one that asked to come over. What’s the hurry for? Surely you’re not so eager to continue where we left off the other night?”
Her face reddened, though her hard gaze didn’t waver.
“I told you, I came to you to work, not to sit around and wait for work. I don’t know about you, but I don’t play around when there’s something that I need.”
“Oh, and you need me, do you, Elizabeth?” The fury on her face was amusing.
“In a manner of speaking, yes. Are you done tormenting me? It’s enough that I had to come here to begin with, you could just take what you want and give me what I need and I can be done.”
I chuckled, shaking my head.
The first night she had come here, I’d taken a bit of a sampling of her. Didn’t have sex with her, no. Not the first time. But it was enough of a taste having her spread open on my desk, fingers between her legs making her squirm despite her reservations to know that I didn’t want to take it so… liberally with her, so to speak.
I stood up, straightening up my suit.
“I think our agreement was that I pay you for your company. Whatever it is that I want from you, right?” I waited for her to answer, and when she realized that I expected one, she grimaced.
“Right,” she said, grudgingly.
“Well, say I want to take you out for a little, rather than, ah, getting right down and dirty with it, hm?” Her eyes narrowed at me.
“You didn’t seem to have much of a problem with it the other night.” She sounded like she found me suspicious; at least she didn’t take me entirely at face value.
“Well no. I never pay for something I’ve not p
roperly sampled, Elizabeth. And…” I came around my desk, walked over to where she sat. Arms braced on each of the arms, I leaned over, face right in front of hers.
“If I recall, you weren’t really opposed to what I wanted when you came to me the other night, hm? My desk still smells like your satisfaction.”
She shoved at me, and I laughed. I held my hands up, giving concession.
“I tease, I tease. Come on. We’re going to eat and I’ll pay you for your company. Fair enough?”
I didn’t let her answer before I walked out of my office. I could hear her heels click on the floor as she followed behind me.
She didn’t talk to me much on our way out to lunch. I asked her all sorts of questions – what she liked to eat, where she liked to go, what she did for a living. All her answers were short, to the point, without any emotional give to them at all. For someone in her position, she was prickly; rather than piss me off, it amused me. I wanted to see how deep I could worm my way past all of that. If we were going to be spending a lot of time together, after all, I wanted to at least see how much I could get out of her before she bled me dry of money and went on her merry way.
I pulled into Chevalier’s, a little French restaurant just south of Ray’s. Elizabeth let herself out, not even waiting for me to round my car before he got out, straightening up her dress as she did. I eyed her, openly, enjoying the slight rise of her hem just under the line of her rear. I decided then that I was going to have some fun.
“I hope you like French,” I said, coming up beside her to take her arm in mine, have her pressed close to my side like she was mine for real and not just for show. She felt stiff beside me, before she relaxed just a little. I grinned as I led us to the front, the host nodding to me as I did.
“Mr. Adams. I’ll take you to your table.”
The fact that he knew exactly who I was seemed to surprise her. She looked up at me with a raised brow before muttering something to herself.
“What?” I said. “Can’t believe people at a fancy French place know who I am?”
“I’m surprised they let you in the front door,” she muttered.
At that, I laughed. We were seated, and I ordered a decent wine for the both of us. She didn’t seem to know what to think of the place; it was a classic French set-up, very well put together. In honesty it was one of my favorite places to bring company. I had the money and the taste for it, why not indulge? Her confusion was entertaining, and when the waiter came back with our drinks, I toasted to her.
“To you and your father’s good health.”
Her brow twitched at that, and it was really kind of cute. Nevertheless she drank, and we once more lapsed into silence.
“This is the first time that you’ve done something like this, huh?” I questioned, head tilted.
“I’ve been to restaurants before,” she said, words sharp as ever on her tongue.
“I don’t mean the restaurant, Elizabeth. I mean this arrangement. You’ve never prostituted yourself out, have you?”
She looked around, as if afraid that someone around would hear.
“Keep your voice down!” she urged. I only shrugged, taking another drink of my wine.
“We’re towards the back of the house, away from other tables. Even if we weren’t, no one would say a damn thing. They like my patronage here; also helps that I keep trouble off their backs, you know? Come on. Answer the question. It’s your first time doing something like this, isn’t it?”
Her eyes narrowed at me, suspicious. She sighed, eventually taking a drink of her wine.
“It is. Why do you ask?”
“Well, you seem to not be having a good time. Most women who do what you’re doing at least pretend like they’re not hating their life. It gets them better tips, you know? But that’s okay. I like you. I think I’ll be nice to you, even when you’re so stiff.” After all, she wasn’t always a stiff thing, was she…
I smiled a bit, and crooked my finger at her.
“Come sit beside me.”
She hesitated, once more looking around, as if someone would spring out of nowhere, point a finger at her, and yell ‘whore!’ but nothing of the sort happened and she sighed. Standing gracefully, she walked over to my side of our table, pulling out a chair to sit closer to me.
“May I ask why you want me to sit so close to you when you wanted lunch with me?”
“Look. I’m not all bad, you know? I don’t want you to suffer while you’re with me. It’s not gonna be fun for either of us in this situation. Yeah, I get access to you whenever I want, but I kinda like my women… ah. In the moment, you know? Loosen up, will ya? Let me show you.”
Before she could speak, I slid my hand along her thigh, just under the hem of that damn short dress that she wore. She jumped, surprised, and looked around again – I was starting to believe that was a habit of hers.
“We’re in public!” she hissed lowly. “You’re going to get us caught.” I chuckled.
“Not if you don’t make a sound, princess. Hush. Enjoy it. It doesn’t have to feel like work if you pretend like it’s all for fun.”
It was maybe a little cruel, trying to groom her to like it. But hell… she was gorgeous, and I wanted her to stop being so uptight about the situation. She could still have her pride and sell her body to me… mostly.
My hand slid up further, pushing past the hem of her dress, between her thighs. Her skin was so hot there, radiating from beneath her panties and bit my lip as I skimmed over them, right at her covered lips.
She gasped, thighs clenching against my fingers. I shook my head tsking.
“You do that, and people will definitely know what’s going on.”
I continued to stroke her there, letting her panties go from warm to wet. Her legs shook, though she at least did a good job of trying not to move. Even when our waiter came back, pad out to take our order, the only thing that indicated something was going on was the blush on her face. I don’t know if the waiter paid attention to where my hand was, and I didn’t really care. He said nothing to alert her if he did, and he wouldn’t say a thing to anyone else, either.
When he left, I nuzzled on her neck, placing a kiss there.
“See. Not so bad, is it?” I nudged against her panties, slipping a finger against slick folds.
Her thighs parted.
I could see the struggle in her face as she bit her lip. Did she let me continue? Did she stop me? The pleasure was evident with how warm and wet she was, and when I slid my finger past her entrance into her womanhood, she let a soft gasp – but she didn’t stop me. I took that as permission to continue, sliding deeper and deeper until my finger hit its limit. Her walls fluttered around the intrusion, her sex clenching, as if she wanted to keep me inside her.
I honestly liked that idea, probably more than I should have.
It was one finger, then another. I worked four into her, letting my thumb circle and brush against the bud atop the folds of her sex. That made her really gasp, and before I could get her spilling her satisfaction all over the dining room chair, she stood up suddenly, panting, face red.
“I need to go to the bathroom!”
She stood, hastily, adjusting her dress and hurrying to the restrooms. I smirked a bit, giving her a bit of time before I stood, and followed.
I didn’t really care about entering the bathroom after her. She stood at the sink, patting water at her cheeks. My head tilted at her frazzled demeanor, and I locked the bathroom behind me.
“Now, that was getting to the good part. Why’d you run away.”
She looked over, and even with her agitation her eyes were glazed over in arousal. I knew it.
“You’re going to get us caught,” she repeated. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do but –”
I strode over, pulling her from the sink to press her against the wall. She seemed surprised about the action, her mouth closing as she watched me warily.
“I’m just trying to get you to enjoy yourself whi
le you’re with me. I think it’ll be beneficial to the both of us.”
I lifted her up, her legs spread wide around my hips, my body keeping her wedged against the wall. She gasped, but with the way her legs went around my waist, I knew she wasn’t going to protest – at least not seriously. Once more my hand fell between her legs, shoving the fabric aside to expose her dripping lips. Before she could say anymore about us being in public, I kissed her, biting at her lips as I freed myself from my pants.
I wanted to play with her a little more before I really got into it. The hand that had toyed with her slipped once more between her thighs before she could protest anymore, and slid into her sex once more. She was still wet, practically soaked. She whined against my mouth as I moved my fingers in her the same way I would if I had my length in her. It made her tremble wildly against me, gasping and groaning against my mouth as I work my fingers.
“Oh, oh – !”
Her sex tightened around my fingers, letting me know of her completion. She still continued to rock her hips against me, still kept moving and moving.
It was then that I decided I wanted to taste her.
I let her down, getting on my knees. She wobbled a bit, but I held her against the wall as I kept her legs spread. Her folds were dripping, her satisfaction clear and inviting to my wanting mouth. I licked at her, slipping tongue between her lips to clean it all up, wanting every drop of it on my tongue before I slid my tongue fully inside her.
Her hands found my hair, tugging, gasping, pulling. I don’t know if she could tell what she was trying to do – pull me away because it was too much, or keep me shoved between her legs because it felt so good. Either way, I wasn’t leaving anytime soon. I loved the taste of her, the feel of her. She was so clean and sweet and I couldn’t help but love the delicious little tremble in her body when my mouth worked over the little pleasure nub that had her tugging my hair to pull me up.
Bad, Very Bad Shifters- The Complete Mega Bundle Page 89