Chapter 49
OCTOBER 17 – FRIDAY 3:33 AM
N ash
I scrolled through the business reports and smirked. My father had put another five percent of Collier Enterprises up for purchase. Between my three shell companies, I’d gobbled it all up. Smoothing over the issues in Ireland would cost large sums to the families, but that was what he deserved for trusting someone as off the rails as Owen to do business for him. It was like dropping a crocodile in a pen of sheep. What the hell did he expect would happen?
My phone dinged, and I picked it up, smiling at the notification that the transfer was complete and the stock was mine. It vibrated again with a text from Mr. Genovese, who I labeled as G in my phone.
G: Is everything on schedule?
N: Yes, just as I promised. Purchased another lot tonight.
G: Good. Handcuffing him and proving you can handle your position is the smart play. Anything else you need?
N: What can you tell me about Christov Ivankov?
G: What do you want to know?
N: Is he a real threat? Dangerous?
G: Yes. Always has been.
Well, that was comforting. I waited for more, but nothing came. Tapping my chin, I thought of the next question while trying to dance around what I really wanted to know.
N: Did Yulianna really marry Christov?
G: Yes
N: Why do the newspapers say he’s dead?
There was a long pause and I wished that I had waited to have this discussion in person. I’d be able to see a lot more in his expressions, but the die was already cast. Little bubbles appeared and then disappeared.
G: Who are you asking for, yourself or Lilya?
N: Does it matter? When she wakes up, she’s going to want answers. She won’t stop hunting, which will put her in danger. I’m trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. She’s terribly annoying like that.
G: I can only tell you what I know and then what I suspect happened.
N: Okay
G: Yulianna ran from Christov with Lilya, or Ren as you call her, not long after her fourth birthday. Before she left, she shot Christov and his mistress, who had on more than one occasion tried to kill her. She’d managed to foil all of their attempts while she planned her escape.
I shook my head, confusion setting in.
N: Wait…Christov wanted to kill Yulianna and Ren before she left him?
G: At that point, it was just Yulianna. Now, I don’t know, considering I didn’t know he was alive.
Jesus Christ. I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, happier than ever that the hallway was filled with Mikhailov guards.
N: Okay, so he had a few screws loose then. I get that, but what about this rising-from-the-dead routine? How did he manage to stay hidden and why appear now?
G: I have no idea. But if I was going to guess, he or his family didn’t want Yulianna or anyone else to know that he lived. It’s much easier to hunt someone when they don’t think you’re after them.
Wasn’t that the truth?
G: I did some digging after your earlier call, and I found out that he’s been using an alias. He also had a son with his mistress before she died.
Great, another generation of insanity, just what we all needed. I cringed. The same could be said of me and Myles, and so many others. There was hope, it was just unlikely if Christov raised him.
N: What’s the name?
G: Yuriy Nikitovich. He and his son are in the US. Dean Henry assures me that he’s not enrolled at Wayward.
Well, that answered that question. Dean Henry knew about Christov. I wanted to curse and throw my phone, but I took a deep breath and focused. That name sounded familiar, but from where?
N: What’s the son’s name?
I ran through all the guys who worked for me, wondering if I’d hired this guy and didn’t even know he was the enemy in disguise.
G: Sabastian
My jaw dropped. Fucking Hawking Shores. That fucking piece of shit. I slammed my laptop closed. I knew I hated him for more than his fast swim times.
G: You still there?
N: Yes. I know who that is. I’ll take care of him.
G: Be careful, Nash. You already have enemies closing in on all sides. It might be best not to make a new one just yet.
Fuck he sounded like Dean Henry, but he was right. Before I shot him, I needed to know his plan so I could lure him into a trap.
N: I’ll collect more information first.
Locking my phone, I sat there in the darkness, staring at the glowing green numbers on the microwave in the kitchen. A door opened down the hallway and drew my attention to a yawning Ren. She rubbed her eyes but didn’t notice me. Slowly standing so I didn’t make any noise, I crept along behind her.
Ren moved over to the sink and grabbed a glass while I hid behind the partition and leered at her like a stalker. We really needed to work with her on situational awareness. After she drank her fill, I followed her back the way she came. I was about to make my move when she surprised me. Narrowly missing her fist, I managed to grab her wrist and yanked her into my body with a waltz-like spin.
She yelped, but I clamped my other hand over her mouth and pushed her up against the wall. Ren bit my finger, and I groaned. I fucking loved it when she did that.
“Nsssh?” Came the muffled question. “I’m gonna kwill ewe,” she mumbled, making me chuckle.
“You should be more careful, Princess. You never know what evil is lurking in the dark,” I whispered. Letting her go, she turned around and glared at me.
“What the hell is wrong with you,” she whispered through clenched teeth. Her hands balled into fists.
I shrugged and walked away. “Not even God knows,” I said.
It was safer to put space between us, but Ren couldn’t be a normal girl and stomp off angry. She just kept coming at you. I felt her following me and pretended that I didn’t care as I flopped down on the couch.
“Fine, what are you doing awake? Let’s start with that.”
“Just doing a little illegal insider trading. How about yourself,” I asked, leaning back with my hands behind my head.
“Something far less nefarious, apparently,” she said. “Wait, it’s not even four in the morning.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I said.
Ren looked like she wanted to leap on me. Fuck, that wasn’t a bad idea.
“Do you always have to be such an asshole?”
“Do you always have to state the obvious?”
She crossed her arms. I loved her furious expression and the way her long hair draped over her shoulders. There was a sliver of light coming in through the curtain that made her hair glow. Something was wrong with my head because even that was a fucking turn-on.
“You’re impossible. I give up. I’m going back to bed,” Ren said, unfolding her arms.
I should’ve let her walk away.
But I never claimed to be smart when it came to her. I grabbed her wrist, and with a quick tug, she squeaked like a mouse and landed, straddling my lap. Gripping her ass, I pulled her closer. Ren’s eyes went wide as she came into contact with my cock. I’d been hard since she stepped outside the bedroom. It didn’t help that we were both wearing flimsy boxers with easy access.
“Nash,” she growled at me, and I had to push aside the surging need enough to think properly.
“I know. We can’t do this.”
My mouth watered with her hard nipples in my face. The little peaks practically called my name as they poked through her tank top. It was painful, but I let her go, figuring that she would jump up and run away. But she didn’t.
“You really need to go,” I said.
Ren didn’t move. Instead, her eyes roamed over my face. Incapable of keeping my hands to myself for very long, I ran them through her hair before cupping her face.
“You should go. I want you so bad. I don’t trust myself,” I whispered, drawing her lips closer to mine.
She didn’t fight me, though her eyes called me every swear in the book. As soon as our lips touched, I knew there was no way I was letting her leave this couch—even if all we did was sleep. I’d spent countless nights awake, staring at my ceiling and thinking of her. Wishing I could go back and fix what I fucked up in Seattle.
“I hate her, Nash,” Ren said. Softly moaning as I kissed her deeper, teasing her tongue with mine. “Why are you doing this? Anyone else….”
“I can’t marry Vicky,” I said, avoiding the emotion bubbling in my chest like a deadly pit of quicksand ready to trap us both.
“What are you saying,” Ren asked, her fingers doodling on the back of my neck and driving me near crazy.
“I’m saying…I don’t want her.”
“That’s not enough when you sign a contract, Nash.”
“I don’t love her.”
“You don’t love her, and you don’t want her?”
I shook my head, and Ren licked her lips. God, that was fucking sexy.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying,” Ren asked.
Her body melted into mine as we kissed. I broke away, panting, and touched my forehead to hers.
“I’m saying that I don’t love her, and I can’t marry her. Don’t make me spell it out….”
Ren smiled before kissing me again.
My whole body tingled as she wiggled on my lap, and I slid my hands under her top and over her soft, heated skin. For so long, I’d promised myself that I would never travel down this path again. Never venture near it, no matter what the hell happened, and it had been easy. Girls came and went, but not Princess.
My mistake was that very first touch. I hadn’t realized the danger the little, white-haired beauty posed. She unwittingly lured me in and was very aptly named. Lilya…like the lily-of-the-valley, she was as beautiful as she was deadly. And like a slow-moving toxin, she spread through my system until no antidote could save me. Ren moaned into my mouth and dug her nails into my shoulders. She might as well be clawing into my soul because no matter what I did or tried, I couldn’t escape her clutches.
One by one, my pieces fell. My last holdout was the cold stone wall of Liam, but even he crumbled under her touch. I was left alone and longing as I bobbed along on an ice floe of my own making.
“Do you want me, Princess?”
“I’m scared to say yes,” she admitted, and I knew exactly what she meant. She held way too much power over me.
Gripping a handful of hair, I peeled her off me. Her chest heaved, and I traced my fingers up the center of her body. Ren shuddered under my touch as I pushed her top out of the way and softly played over one nipple and then the other.
“You fucking terrify me. Does that make us even?”
“Yes,” she breathed and then moaned as I licked a line over her ribcage to her nipple.
My cock strained in my boxers, and the semblance of control that I clung to slipped away as she threaded her fingers through my hair.
Taking a deep breath, I opened my fist, and she slowly sat up. If I’d thought for even a second that there was a way out for me…it died as her liquid-silver eyes locked with mine.
“You’re mine, Princess. I meant it the first time I said it.”
She picked up my arm and traced my newest tattoo.
“Will you ever tell me why you’re such a fucking disaster,” Ren asked.
I smirked at the question. “One day…I promise. One day.”
“You better go,” I said, nodding toward the bedroom she’d been in with Myles and Blake. “I don’t want to be blamed for you caving and hating yourself for it.”
Ren looked downright devious as she smiled, and I no longer knew if I had rubbed off on her or if she had on me.
“You’d be blamed no matter what,” she said, making me smile.
My eyes rolled back in my head as she slipped her hand under the waistband of my boxers and gripped my shaft.
“Fuck,” I said and lifted my hips high enough to free myself.
“Shh,” she whispered against my lips.
“I don’t care if they hear,” I said.
“But I do.”
Pulling back enough that I could look into her eyes, I tried to decipher what that meant.
“Do you not want this? If so, you need to stop touching me and run. Lock a door, maybe two.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not what I mean. I want this moment to be us, no interruptions, no one trying to join, just…us. I’m too emotionally beaten right now for anything more.”
Smoothing back her hair, I slowly wound it around my wrist and kissed her hard. She couldn’t have said anything sweeter to my ears. I was a greedy fucking prick, and I wanted her all to myself. That was never going to happen, but for right now, she was mine. All mine.
“I’ll be quiet,” I said and then bit my lip.
The sneaky witch moved the flowy boxers out of the way and positioned herself over my cock. My head fell back, and my fingers dug into her hips as she lowered the rest of the way down. She was so goddamn tight.
“Oh god, Nash. I hate you so much for doing this to me,” she breathed in my ear.
“The feeling is mutual, Princess.”
Ren wrapped her arms around my neck, and I slowly devoured her mouth, trying to tell her through touch all the secrets I was keeping. I couldn’t just tell her how I felt, so I kissed her softer than ever before. It killed me that showing any feelings toward her put her in more danger. None of the words that should’ve been said between us came out. I wanted to keep things like this for as long as possible. No walls, no bitterness or anger, and nothing else mattered.
Even though it wasn’t my nature, I let Ren pick the pace and shuddered every time she bounced on my dick. At this angle, I was buried so much deeper, and her whimpers of pleasure would be engrained in my brain forever.
Ren’s pussy squeezed me, and her body shook as she moaned in my ear. She came around my cock, soaking me, and I wrapped my arms around her tighter as I rode out her orgasm.
“That’s it…do it again…come all over me again,” I growled low even as my body tensed.
Ren collapsed with her head on my shoulder as her body went lax. “I can’t,” she breathed.
“You can,” I said and rolled us over so she was on her back.
“Oh god,” Princess gasped as I fucked her faster.
“You’re getting too loud, Princess,” I teased, pressing my hand over her mouth. I thrust into her again, and her whole body twitched.
“Fuck you feel incredible.” Her moans grew louder under my hand as I pumped into her hard enough to drive her into the cushions.
“You drive me insane, Princess,” I growled and forced her head to the side so I could bite down on the soft skin of her throat. She shivered, nails digging into my bare arms, and unable to hold it back anymore, I came, groaning into the side of her neck as she came with me. Ren’s body flexed up into mine, her eyes fluttering closed. There was no sexier sight.
All the pent-up anger, fear, and worry evaporated. It might only be for a minute or five. However long this feeling lasted, I was going to ride the wave. My hand slid from Ren’s mouth, and she gasped but held me just as tight as when we first started.
Releasing her neck, I kissed my mark and glared at the stunning necklace that Liam had gotten her. Fucker put a collar on her. I knew what that meant, and picturing Princess on her knees while he ordered her around made me want to kill him as much as it turned me on.
“You’re staying right here with me for the rest of the night,” I said, pulling my boxers back up into place.
“But….”
“No fucking buts. You’re mine tonight. You’ll probably find a well-deserved reason to hate me tomorrow, so for tonight, you stay with me.”
She snickered. “That’s probably true.”
Reaching for a blanket, I laid on my back. Ren wiggled down between me and the back of the couch with her head on my chest and an arm wrapped around my waist.
“You’re not going to tell me that I’m a mistake in two hours, are you,” she asked, making me smile.
“No. You were never a mistake. A pain in my fucking ass, yes, but never a mistake.”
Princess yawned. “Okay…I can live with being a pain in your ass,” she mumbled, and then I felt her relax as she fell asleep.
Mr. Genovese might kill me, but I couldn’t stay away from her. I just couldn’t, and I’d deal with the consequences even if it meant him putting a gun to my head. I could handle almost anything else, but not that, I couldn’t lie to her, not anymore. Halloween. I just had to make it to Halloween.
My eyes grew heavy, and for only the second time in years, I felt real sleep pulling at me and sucking me under as I held Ren.