29. Malone
TWENTY-NINE
Scarlett melts like butter as our lips attack each other with feral hunger. She’s decadent and not good for me at all, definitely not for my heart. She makes it beat with erratic intensity and brings out the wrong kind of chaos in me.
Still, I kiss her.
I kiss her because I need to and want to.
Because it’s all I can think of doing in this moment. I can’t tell her who I work for. It wouldn’t even matter. She has no idea who the Knights are.
The kiss is a deep, bone-melting one, full of sex and passion and anger, all wrapped up in the delicate web of desire. It draws out secrets, our wants. It exposes things I’d rather keep hidden.
And if it’s that for me, then the way she clings, how her tongue slides over mine, how her lips move on mine, shows it’s so much more for Scarlett.
I kiss my way down her throat, to suckle her pulse point, and she moans, hands biting into me.
Slowly, I make my way around to the other side and kiss my way back up to her ear where I suck the lobe into my mouth, and the sound she makes… fuck, it arrows right down to my dick.
“No!” The word is full of regret, and I let her push me back, just a little because I know this is a “no” where she means it, and there are actual lines I don’t cross.
But I do slip my hand down to her ass, pressing the spot where I know she’s tender. She gasps, a sharp sound that brims with need and want, and it crumbles her. Just a little.
She sways into me before steadying herself.
“I told you I’ll trust you in this,” she says. “And I know it could come down to that trust in saving my cousin. But what if me putting trust in you hurts her? What if?—?”
“Scarlett. You trust me. Enough to help.” I think she does, but I need to push through this, through her wavering. Touching her, no matter how much I want to, might hinder me right now.
So I keep my hands to myself.
“You know more about me than anyone outside my work colleagues.”
She nods. “What are you?”
“Whatever I need to be to get the job done.” Those are honest words.
“I’m the job?”
I hesitate. “Yeah. But things got complicated. I didn’t mean to touch you. Then again, I didn’t expect you to be you.”
Goddammit, the truth keeps breaking free, like pieces of an iceberg, and I’m the fucking sum of climate change. I don’t mean touching her, I mean liking her. But I keep that part to myself.
Because I didn’t fucking mean to end up liking her, wanting her like I do.
“You…” She closes her eyes. “You’re not fair.”
“I’m not trying to be. I need your trust. We’re gonna have to play some games here, and being fair, which is me giving you time, isn’t something I can do. Basically, you’re in or out. And if you’re out…” I study her.
Leave it hanging there in the air.
The unsaid part.
I could mean if she’s out, then I’ll pack her up and send her back to her fucking asshole father who only used her as a bargaining chip. Or I could just do this on my own. Tie her up and keep her here as my captive. Hand her over to the Knights to keep under a cushy lock and key, but one she won’t be able to escape.
I wait.
Each and every possibility of what I mean crosses her expressive face, and I want to be extremely unfair and seduce her into it all.
But I think since I kissed her in that warehouse, the seduction gets me only so far. She needs a different kind of seduction.
My words used by her fucking brain to seduce herself into believing me and handing over all her trust.
Whoever has her cousin… it stands to reason it’s someone in the sex industry. And it’s all fucking connected to that damn client list. They don’t want money. Not physical cash. They want the worth of what’s on that list.
And right now, I can’t even rule out my own fucking client.
“You’ll shut me out, send me packing? Lock me up?” She stares, her hands fisting. “What?”
“What do you think?”
“You won’t let me go, will you?” There’s no fear, just acceptance she hit on the right answer. And so it is.
Anything that gets her on board is the right fucking answer.
This time I close the gap, put my hand around her throat, and I apply the slightest pressure. She relaxes. She’s exquisite. Perfect. For me.
Fuck my life.
“I’ll have to keep you somewhere safe, Scarlett. Out of the way. I can’t afford my cover being blown. And I can’t risk you.”
“I wouldn’t—” She stops, her fingers on my arm, sliding up. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Amelia. Including acting like you’re not JM. I don’t even know who Malone West is.”
“Me.”
“I mean…”
“This is my place, but not where I live. And it’s not about you doing something deliberately. You need to trust me and keep acting as you were. My fiancée who’s from a different class than me, someone who’s exactly as you’ve been behaving and carrying yourself.”
“I can do that,” she says quietly. “I need to help.”
“So you’ll trust me. Do what I say?”
“Yes,” she whispers, her gaze fixated on my mouth.
There’s a for now hidden, but it’s going to have to do. It’s bare truth, and I’ll take it.
I lower my mouth and kiss her again, then pull back slightly. “Did I mention how fucking hot it was when you hit him?”
“Yes.” And this time, she surges into me, her mouth hungry, and I open for the kiss, twisting it to take control as I devour her deep and dirty.
We’re both panting as I break away to kick off my shoes and unload her gun. Then I take out mine and she makes a tiny sound.
“That…”
“My gun. My preferred gun.”
She bites her lips, a little hungry, a little wary. “It?—”
“If you want the specs, I’ll give them to you.” I unload mine, too. Just in case she takes it upon herself to do something stupid.
“No. It’s just… professional-looking.”
I eye her. “It’s a gun.”
Next, I get my phone. I check it, put it on vibrate, and shove it in my back pocket. “Text your uncle. Tell him I’ll be in touch tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” She shakes her head.
“Tomorrow. I need to wait until whoever took Amelia contacts me. It’s a game, Scarlett. One where I need them to come to me. And they will.”
The next morning I sit on the couch and drink my coffee, dressed in one of JM’s suits, ready to go into the office in a few hours. The office at the club. I need to be seen there, at least going in.
Scarlett’s still sleeping.
I shift, extremely uncomfortable on the cushion as I rest my feet on the coffee table in front of me.
I spent the night.
What I want to say is I did it to form the bond, solidify the trust I need. But I didn’t.
I stayed because I wanted to.
We had sex. She needed comfort and I gave it to her. Slow and dreamy, a few hours ago. That… that’s something I don’t do. For me, it’s kink-based, rough, hard and I like it that way. So what the fuck am I doing with her? Vanilla? Jesus fucking Christ. I don’t know why I like it.
But that’s a lie. I do. I like it because I like her.
I love fucking her.
In any way. And I’ll take vanilla occasionally. When I instigate it. This is still a power exchange, a power play.
I shove those thoughts out of my head as I read through the report of the person Smith sent out to look for a good time to break into the office. But I’m getting the feeling it might be better to just walk in with Scarlett. And maybe her father being out on business, or whatever the prick’s doing, is the perfect opportunity for that.
Grant, whom I did speak to, is in a frenzied state. Though there’s something about it I don’t like. He’s worried about the business, and yes, he’s worried about his kid, but I thought I’d have to convince him to keep the cops out and me in. But he’s fine with me handling it. He’s angry it happened, tried to lay blame at my feet, but…
Maybe both brothers are fucking pricks.
I ended the conversation. Told him to sit tight, and I’d be in touch when I have something, but that wheels are in motion.
Which they are.
“Any word?”
I glance up at Scarlett. She’s in one of the pretty, sexy dresses I got her.
“Not yet,” I say. “But with these things, when they want something and are trying to stir emotions to stop people thinking so they can get whatever the fuck it is they want? This is what people do.”
“And that means what?” She hovers, then sits and reaches out for my coffee. I think about putting her in her place, but I don’t. I let her take it. This is also part of the game.
“It means I get to play it my way and your cousin stays safe.”
She nods. “What’s the plan?”
“Go to work, and as soon as they contact me, I’ll let you know.” I meet her gaze. “If you hear anything, you let me know.”
She’s silent a long time. And then she says, “Anything you need. I’m ready for all of it.”