“And that’s what I want you to do this time. Lie down on your back, your legs bent at the knee and spread shoulder width apart.”
I did as he said. I made my way up to the pillows and rested my head before getting into position, taking my time to prolong the inevitable.
He followed up with, “Play with yourself.”
I had a feeling this would be his request and to my amazement, I wasn’t opposed. I had never had someone watch me bring pleasure to my own body, but there was always a first time for everything. My hand, which had been resting beside me, moved to touch my breasts, and I watched him as he looked at me, his eyes concentrating on the motions I was making. With one final squeeze, my hand left my breast and slid down my stomach, past my belly button and reaching my thighs. His eyes followed me every step of the way and I knew I was driving him as wild as I felt.
I let my fingertips dance along my thighs, and it took a couple of seconds before they made their way to my mound. I played with my trimmed dark curls before my fingers touched my clit.
If I wasn’t in tune with my body and didn’t know that I was aroused, the wetness that I felt when my hand reached my center would have told the tale. I heard a moan leave my lips as I played with my clitoris, a sound I hadn’t realized was sitting on them. My eyelids grew heavier as I tried to keep my eyes on Damien. I wanted to watch his reaction, to see if he was getting closer and closer to the edge.
I found him clutching the glass of whiskey. I wanted to tell him he should probably put the glass down before he cut himself, but I couldn’t say the words. Almost as if he could read my mind, he walked away from the door, placed the glass down on the dresser, and walked back over to the door to close it. That was when I made my move. I took my finger that had been rubbing my clit and stuck it between my folds.
Damien let out a small groan that sounded as if he was trying his damndest to restrain himself. His sound and his apparent desire to watch this show encouraged me to continue. Plus, I wanted this now more than anything.
I added another finger and increased my tempo and my eyes drifted closed, fully immersing myself in the pleasure my fingers were giving me. I heard something in the background, but I didn’t care.
“Stop.”
His voice was throaty, but I couldn’t. I was too far gone. My finger rapidly moved in and out of me. My hands stopped when I felt a dip in the bed, and I knew I wasn’t alone. I pulled my fingers out of myself and opened my eyes to find Damien kneeling on the bed, completely naked, stroking his cock.
“Do you enjoy making me lose control?” His question was a rhetorical one as he leaned forward and grabbed the hand that had been pleasing me. He stuck my index finger in his mouth and groaned. “I need to taste you again, but right now, I need to be inside of you. Open wider.”
I did as he requested and shivered with anticipation when I felt his condom-covered dick at my entrance. Had I tuned out him ripping the condom package? The seconds felt like minutes as he rubbed himself against my folds, teasing me as anticipation continued to build.
“I swear if you don’t—”
Apparently at that moment, he'd had enough of waiting too, because he entered me slowly with a groan. A breathless sigh left my lips when he started picking up pace, and I was grateful that I didn’t have to tell him to do so or how much more I wanted him. After all, I wasn’t sure I could form the words. I met each one of his thrusts with ones of my own as we both feverishly tried to go over the edge.
A fog took over my brain as our movements fell into a primal rhythm. His growl lifted the daze I found myself in. It took a moment before my gaze found his, but when it did, I found devilishly hungry eyes staring back at me. It was as if his eyes had put me under a spell because I couldn’t look away. Not now. Not ever.
He took that opportunity to switch up the pace once more, going even faster, as if it was a matter of life or death.
“Um—ah, I’m so close,” I screamed, not recognizing my own voice as he plowed into me.
His motions became more erratic, and I screamed again, the sensations from everything proving to be too much for me to control anything. My climax hit me like a ton of bricks, and it didn’t take him long to follow behind me, roaring as he rode the waves of pleasure.
The only thing that could be heard were our labored breaths as we tried to calm our racing hearts. Damien rested his head in the crook of my neck as we slowly but surely found our center of gravity once more. After a few more seconds, he dragged himself out of me and I immediately missed the feeling of our union.
We looked into each other’s eyes, but didn’t say a word, sharing a moment without making a sound.
10
Anais
“I need to get out of here,” I said to Ellie. “Being cooped up in here is bad for my mental health.” Having a scheduled video call with her was nice, but I needed more.
“I’m sure being stuck in the house is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the list of things affecting your mental health. I mean, you saw your father get shot, for goodness’ sake.”
“That’s true, but I feel like I’m going insane because I’m stuck in here. Heck, I’d even take going into the office as long as it meant I got to leave here for a few hours. I think I’m going to see if I can go down the street to pick up some groceries.”
“Doesn’t he have people on staff that do that?”
“Yes, but I’m more than capable of doing it myself and it would get me out of the house for a bit. Hell, I’ll even take shopping online and picking it up at this point; I want fresh air.”
“Do it. Speaking of getting out of the house, I want to come back to New York City. I miss my life. I miss being able to go to work, hanging out with you, furthering my career. A lot of what I hear now is my parents complaining about said career.”
“I know and I miss you, but we both know you need to stay in Jersey for now. We don’t know when this shooter might strike again.” Guilt crowded my brain again because Ellie had to uproot her life because of her connection to me. “I’m so sorry that this has happened.”
“Stop apologizing. Outside of me having to be careful and have a security guard, my parents are pretty happy that I’m home now. They’ve been trying to convince me to stop being a massage therapist, but other than that it hasn’t been bad.”
Her words did little to extinguish my guilt. I should have taken more care of Ellie’s feelings considering all the changes she was having to make instead of focusing on me.
“How are you holding up?”
“I didn’t expect to be back at home with my parents, but seriously, I didn't realize how long it had been since I visited them. At least I had somewhere to go until this blows over, so I can’t complain too much.”
“Yeah. Thank you for willingly doing so. I know this isn’t what you wanted, but right now we don’t know what is going on. Hopefully, Damien finds out some more information about what’s going on and then you can come back here, even if it means having someone watching the apartment while you’re there.”
“I hope so too because I miss being in the city. I felt like we were finally hitting our goals and that there was nowhere for us to go but up. Now, it’s like we’ve hit a stumbling block. Side note, has Damien asked you anymore about his new ‘engagement’ deal?”
Damien’s proposal felt like a boulder sitting on my shoulders. I felt as if I was going to have to give him another part of myself in order to fake this relationship with him.
“Not really. It’s been four days since he told me about this fucked up deal, and he hasn’t mentioned it yet, so I haven’t said anything either. He’s given me some space and that’s been helpful, but honestly, I’ve been more focused on my dad than anything else. I’m still visiting my parents every day.”
“How’s he doing?”
“Good. He should be released within the next couple of days as long as everything continues going well. I’m happy about it, but it also makes me nervous because s
omeone tried to hunt him down. What if they try again?”
“True. Any word from the police on any evidence they’ve found?”
“Not much yet, but it’s still in the early stages. They’ve been keeping my parents up to date on their progress and my mom summarizes it for me. Damien has little faith in the police being able to solve this case, so he told me that he is putting feelers out there for more information. My key priority is figuring out how to keep both of my parents safe once my dad’s out of the hospital.”
“Is that something you could talk with Damien about?” Ellie asked before I heard shuffling on the other end.
“Eh. I probably should and—”
“Hold on a second.”
I could hear Ellie talking to someone in the background as I waited for her to return to our conversation. I tapped my fingers on the table as I waited for her to return.
“Oh shit.”
“What’s wrong?”
Ellie glanced to the side before looking at me. “My mom was on her computer and found a post on social media related to your father."
My heart dropped. “Can you send me a link to it? Does the post have any interaction?”
Ellie reached off screen and when she moved her hand back into frame, she was holding a phone. “Not much interaction but, I’ll send you the link.”
“Thanks so much.”
“I’m going to sign off because I have a couple of things I need to do around the house, but I’ll be in touch. Sending you the link now.”
“Ah, okay. Well, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Yep, I’ll text you. Let me know if anything changes.”
“Sounds good. Bye.”
I ended the video chat and thought about what I should do next. I could start trying to catch up on work, but to be honest, I didn’t want to. After all, I had taken time off so I should be off. My phone buzzed and I clicked the link that Ellie sent me. It had the same headline as the post that I found several days ago, with a link redirecting to the blog. Who was trying to make sure that news of this spread?
“Screw this,” I mumbled before I grabbed my phone and sent a quick message to Kingston. I needed to get out or all of this was going to drive me up a wall.
Me: I would like to go grocery shopping. Is that possible? There’s a store only a couple of blocks away. We could walk there.
Kingston: Ask Damien about that.
I growled. There was no way I was asking Damien for permission to leave the house. I had no problem informing him about what I was going to do, but asking him? Hell no. Maybe there was a compromise that could be reached. I would let him know I wanted to go grocery shopping, and that the security team was organizing it, and that would be it. Instead of sending him a text message, I risked him not being in a meeting and called him. A phone call would be easier and quicker.
“Anais,” he said after the phone rang once. The way he said my name gave me goosebumps.
“Hey, I can’t remember if I shared this with you or not, but someone has been trying to connect the dots about my father’s shooting to his money troubles. I’ll send you what I’ve found. Probably should be told to the police too.”
Damien was silent for a moment before he said, “Yes, send it to me.”
“Should we be concerned about it?”
“No. I’ll look into it. Anything else?”
I told myself to take Damien at his word, but I still had a nagging feeling about it. Getting out into the fresh air would help with that. “Also, I’m going to go grocery shopping to get out of the house. I’ll take security with me.”
“You know you can just order delivery or have Lucy grab it?”
I rolled my eyes. No shit. “I know that. I’ve done that. But that’s not what I want to do right now. I want to breathe in some fresh air and stretch my legs a bit. Just being out in society instead of trapped in this bubble that has become my life would be beneficial to me.”
He was silent for a moment and I wondered if he was going to say no. Technically, I hadn’t asked him, so even if he said no, I would just say screw it and find a way out of this building.
“Fine. Kingston will be waiting for you. There’s a credit card with your name on it in the guest room.”
“Damien, I can pay for my own groceries.” I hadn’t paid for food since my father was shot because Lucy did most of the cooking for us, and if I needed a snack, the kitchen was usually fully stocked. My goal was just to grab a couple of things and to get out of the house. I released a sigh of relief. Although I had to go out with security, at least I’d be outside mingling with society. I wasn’t going to use that credit card, however. “Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay.” He paused again. “Anais?”
“Yes?”
“It’s a good thing you asked instead of just going. I would hate to have to spank that ass, even though we both know you like it when I punish you.”
Before I could snap back at him that I was telling and not asking him, I heard a click on his end, letting me know that he had ended the call.
“Asshole. Asshole!” I exclaimed.
I took a deep breath before I headed into the guest room to change to go outside for something other than traveling to the hospital. It didn’t take me long to throw on a sweatshirt and walk back out to the living room to grab a pair of sneakers and a coat.
Once I was dressed, there was a knock on the door, and I grabbed my purse and smiled at Kingston before we headed to the lobby. I closed my eyes as I enjoyed the feel of the cool crisp breeze on my face that lightly whipped my hair. Carter joined us and together, the three of us walked down the street. The number of people in the store reminded me of how I used to view this as a chore just a month ago. Now, it seemed like a treat.
Carter offered to push the cart for me and once I was done gathering the items I wanted, I got in line with the two beefy men on either side of me. When we were the next people in line, Carter made his way up to the conveyor belt, and Kingston stayed behind me as I hung back a bit to check out the snacks and candies that were stationed right before the register. That was when I saw the magazine.
A blurry picture of me and him entering his apartment building was on the cover. The text in bright yellow letters said: Settling Down? Damien’s Journey to Love. I stepped back in shock. Kingston saw my face and stepped over to look at the tabloids. I heard him mumble a cussword under his breath, but he did his best not to draw attention to us. It would be hard to recognize me, but clearly Kingston wasn’t taking any chances. He grabbed a couple of the magazines and tossed them onto the conveyor belt, and I walked over to Carter so that I could pay at the register. When the magazines moved toward the register, Carter raised an eyebrow and scanned the covers without reaction. Carter monitored me until I was finished paying for the groceries, which Kingston grabbed.
Once we were out of the store and back on the street, both Carter and Kingston scrutinized the general perimeter of where we were and the three of us hurried back to the apartment. As soon as we got inside, Kingston pulled out his phone and tapped the screen, before pressing it to his ear.
“Hey, Damien. We have a problem.”
11
Damien
I put the phone down and knew Anais was raging. I'd tossed that comment out there before I hung up because I knew that it would get her.
A knock on my door dragged my attention away from the conversation. “Come in.”
Melissa, my assistant, opened the door and stepped inside. “Your next meeting is here. Also, Jon Moretti has called twice already today.”
“Send Quincy in and if Jon calls one more time, direct the call to me.” Jon had already sent me a couple of emails since the dinner, and I told him that I would get back to him when I had time for a follow-up. Clearly, he hadn’t gotten that message.
Melissa spun on her heel and left the room and was soon replaced by Quincy. I wrote a note to myself and Quincy stood in the doorway for a few moments. I alread
y knew this meeting would be a quick one. I slowly placed the pen down on my desk and looked up at the frumpy man in front of me. His eyes darted around my office, refusing to land on me. This would be too easy.
“Have a seat.” I gestured to the seat in front of my desk.
He scrambled over to the seat, further wrinkling the suit he had on. “I’m not stepping in to settle a score that you have with the Vitale family.” Quincy came into my office last week on behalf of his boss asking if I would step in to help squash the increased tensions between the two factions.
First, I was already annoyed that Quincy’s boss hadn’t asked me himself, instead wasting my time with his underling. Second, this wasn’t my business, and they could figure it out amongst themselves. If it crossed into my business interests, then we would have a problem.
“I can’t go back to my boss with that answer.”
“Excuse me?” I stood up from my desk and folded my hands over my chest. I saw a slight tremble run through his body as a smirk grew on my face.
“I—I didn’t mean to offend. It’s just that—”
“Then take my message back to your boss before it changes to one that ends with you in a body bag on his doorstep.”
Quincy scurried out of my office just before my phone rang.
“Kingston.”
“Hey, Damien. We have a problem.”
12
Anais
Kingston and Carter worked on trying to figure out how the photo was taken while we waited for Damien. The desire to throw a meal together in order to add some normalcy back to my life went out the window. Would things ever be normal again?
Scarred Empire: An Enemies to Lovers Dark Billionaire Romance (Broken Cross Book 2) Page 6