Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
KAI
M y body is a furnace when I wake up, sweat coating my chest and forehead. But I don’t move. I’ve grown used to having Carter wrapped around me when I wake up. He told me I thrashed around a lot in the hospital and when I got back home, but I don’t remember. He said the only way to keep me calm through the night was if he held on to me. I’m not sure how true that is, but I find I don’t mind.
It’s been a week since I got jumped by those fucking cowards and had my wallet stolen, but I’m feeling almost at one hundred percent. I get headaches and dizziness when I stand too fast or do too much, but I’m on the mend.
My fucking husband won’t allow me to do much of anything by myself. He’s taken saying he owns me to heart. He’s bathed me, walked me to the bathroom, helped me downstairs for dinner that he cooked—he’s a terrible fucking cook and I let him know it so often he gets takeout—and changed my clothes. He’s been waiting on me hand and foot—though not without grumbling. If he seemed too happy about helping me, I’d think he was body snatched or something.
“Move,” I mutter, pushing against his arm, even though I liked how the warm weight felt around me.
I’m trying to get used to wanting more from Carter. Or at least admitting it. I’ve kept to myself for so long that letting someone in is hard. Especially because it’s Carter. He’s been on my shit list for so long, I can’t pinpoint exactly when our hatred for each other started.
But maybe he’s the person I need. He understands me, since he’s in the business too, the heir to a mafia family. I won’t have to explain the life to him. Won’t have to explain the danger or feel responsible for him in a way I would a civilian. Maybe I should try a bit harder. It’ll be difficult, since it’s Carter , but I want to try.
He releases a sleepy chuckle and rolls off me, looking up at the ceiling. “Good morning to you too.” He glances over at me. “How do you feel?”
I curl my lip to give him a snarky answer, but I tell myself to chill out. I’m supposed to be trying . “Better.” I touch the back of my head where the stitches are. There’s no pain there. “I think the stitches can come out today.”
“Let me see.” I turn over so Carter can look at where my head looks like I’m part Frankenstein. The soft brush of his fingers over my scalp makes me shiver. “Looks good. You want to go to the hospital and have them do it or for me to call our doc?”
“Call the doc.” I roll back over and glance at him. I study his expression—his clear, but still sleepy eyes, the plumpness of his mouth from just waking up and his dipped eyebrows from the sun beating down on him. He doesn’t look like he thinks me lying in his bed or him checking out my injury is weird. Even though everything about this situation is weird.
“Why are you being nice to me?” I blurt out.
It’s such a childish question, but I’m not sure how else to ask it. Carter was probably more into our beef than I was, seeking me out to start shit most times. But he’s rolling with not being so openly hostile, like it’s nothing. Like it’s easy .
He shrugs. “I saw you beat to shit last week. I didn’t like it. I take care of what I claim. That means your body and your feelings.” I scoff and turn away, but Carter turns my face back to him. “You don’t gotta believe me. You’ll see. Let’s get our day started. There’s something I need to show you.”
Sighing hard, I sit up and wait for the dizziness. When it doesn’t come, I stand and stretch, feeling so much better. My ribs are still sore and my bruises still healing, but it’s not as bad as it was. I feel like I can get back to work.
Over the past week while I’ve been recovering, Nico has been taking care of my business and anything else I needed doing. He’s invaluable as my right-hand man. I’m sure he’ll be relieved to know I’m almost at one hundred percent and he can go back to his own duties.
“Any word on the threats?”
“Nothing. Shit has been quiet since you got attacked. I’m starting to believe they may have been behind it.”
I shake my head carefully. “I don’t think so. None of the men seemed to recognize me and I don’t think they were affiliated. If it was whoever was after both our families, I think they would have gloated about having me cornered with no protection.”
Now that I think about my disappearing act, I realize how foolish I was. I let words put me in danger to almost be kidnapped or worse by someone that means the St. Clair’s and Whitlock’s no good. I could have gotten everyone killed because I didn’t use my fucking brain. That tanks my mood, taking away the good feeling I had because I didn’t wake up dizzy with a throbbing headache.
“I’m gonna take a shower in my room,” I tell Carter grumpily and take a step towards the door.
His hand wraps around my waist, pulling me back against him. He’s taller and not as wide as me, but he’s still hard and strong. I lean into him, sighing when he keeps me upright. God, my head is so fucked up when it comes to Carter. I like how he touches me and how he takes care of me, but my mind is still stuck on him being my enemy. I’m not supposed to like anything he does, just because he’s a Whitlock.
But there’s no denying that my body lights up when he touches me. When he’s near, I feel a tingle all over my skin, an awareness to him that I’ve never felt for anyone else. I’m so fucking confused and I don’t know who to talk to about it. No one I know is married to their enemy and is confused by his touch and his nearness.
Carter bends to my ear and says, “I don’t think so. You could fall and hurt yourself. You’ll shower in here while I shave, and I’ll get in after you. Unless you want me to help wash your back.” His lips land on my shoulder and the crook of my neck. The wetness of his tongue makes me shiver when it darts out to taste me.
“You can,” slips from my mouth before I think too much about it. Even if I’m trying to figure out if I like him as a person, I know I like his body against mine.
I feel his smile against my skin as he wraps himself tighter around me. “I’ll wash your back if you wash mine.”
“Ugh,” I groan, squirming out of his arms. “Let go. We have to get to work, right?” His chuckle makes a flush bloom over my skin.
Even though I’m not dizzy, I still take it slow, taking my time to get to the bathroom and start the shower. I undress and step under the warm spray, sighing when the hot water splashes across my body. I’ve been relegated to sponge baths from Carter for the past week. It’s nice to stand under my own steam and have the water beat down on me.
The shower door opens and cool breeze wafts in before Carter closes it. I stare at Carter’s naked body. I’ve seen him with just his underwear on, but never his entire body naked as the day he was born.
Fuck, Carter is a work of art. Tattooed everywhere above the waist and more littered here and there on his legs. Muscles ripple under tan flesh. My eyes take him in, stopping when I get to his cock. It’s big. Bigger than I remember and hard as a rock, sticking straight out at me. I swallow the saliva that pools in my mouth.
He looks like he tastes good. His large dick and heavy balls bob in the air, as if taunting me.
“See something you like?” Carter asks, stopping just out of reach. This shower is large enough and has enough shower heads that he could stay on his side and I stay on mine, but it’s obvious Carter isn’t having any of that.
I take another lazy perusal of his body, not missing an inch of skin. I do like what I see. There’s no denying how fucking sexy he is.
After staring at his body for an indescribable amount of time, I raise my gaze to his eyes. “Yes.”
Carter raises an eyebrow, a teasing smile curving his lips. “Yeah? Show me.”
I close the distance between us and lower myself to my knees. Looking up at him, I sit back on my heels and open my mouth. I’m taking a chance by lowering myself before Carter so readily. So easily. My brain is telling me not to kneel for him, but my body wants it. I want him in my mouth. But will he give me shit about it? Will he fuck with me for giving myself over to him?
The filthy smile and flash of heat in those azure eyes wipes away all my apprehension. He’s not taunting me, he’s reveling in me being on my knees for him. Something unfurls in my chest. It’s the first time I’ve felt like I’ve done something right. The first time I feel like someone might be… proud of me.
Carter steps forward, dragging his fingers in my hair. “Look at you. So pretty on your knees for me.” A jolt goes through me at his compliment and my dick lengthens impossibly fast.
Pretty? I’m not sure why my body reacted the way it did to that one word. It’s simple really. Six tiny letters, but they do something to me that I didn’t think possible. My cheeks warm and I feel the warmth spread all the way down my chest. I’m probably beet red, and it has nothing to do with the temperature of the shower.
Carter catches my reaction, tilting his head to the side. “You like being pretty for me?”
Almost in a daze, I nod slowly. God, I hope he doesn’t use this to embarrass me. But I’m too far gone to worry about it right now.
“Good,” he murmurs, sliding his dick across my tongue. “I like you being pretty for me. I like you on your knees for me. Close your mouth around me.” I do what he says, sucking on the head of his cock. A groan leaves me when his precum floods my mouth.
God, he tastes so fucking good. I want more.
Grabbing the base of his cock, I start to bob my head up and down, sucking him deeper and deeper until my nose presses against his trimmed pubes.
“Fuck,” Carter says when my throat spasms as I gag. “Deep throating me, baby? Fuck yes.”
Carter rocks into my mouth, pulling more groans from deep within me that I didn’t think were there.
All my life, I’ve been the aggressive one, the one to fuck someone’s throat or take them hard. Even when I bottomed, I was always in charge, always the one running the show. With Carter, it’s the complete opposite and I can’t get enough. I didn’t know this side of me existed and it scares the shit out of me, making me more wary of opening myself up to Carter. But it feels so fucking good.
Something else that will do my head in when I really think about it.
His fingers tangle in my hair, the digits stroking across my scalp as he fucks into my face. I clamp my mouth tighter around him, bobbing my head as I raise my hand to stroke him from base to tip. Carter hisses, using his fingers in my hair to tip my head back. “Your mouth is fucking deadly, my pretty baby. You’re gonna make me come. Slow down.”
I don’t slow down. I want to taste him. My prize is the eruption of his pleasure, and I want it on my tongue, down my throat, warming my belly.
While maintaining eye contact with him—so I can see the expressions on his face as I bring him pleasure—I drag my tongue up the underside of his cock, flicking it over the small space just below his cockhead. Carter’s eyes darken, and he bites his lip, dragging the plump flesh into his mouth.
I pull his dick from between my lips and slap it against my tongue, moaning as the heavy weight lands over and over.
“Filthy boy,” he murmurs, soft pants leaving his mouth. “I’m going to come if you keep this up.”
“That’s what I’m counting on,” I tell him in a scratchy voice from his rough throat fucking.
Engulfing his dick in my mouth once more, I suck on him faster, wanting to draw that release from him. I need it like my next breath.
Carter gets a better grip on my hair—being careful of my stitches—and thrusts harder into my face. My throat will be sore from how he’s fucking it, but I don’t care. His spend will make it better.
Looking up at him, I see how the muscles of his neck stand out in sharp relief and how the veins in his arms are engorged from how he’s gripping at my head. His chest rises and falls quickly and sharp groans leave his throat. His curses fill the air, wrapping around me like a hug.
For the first time in a long time, I feel powerful. I feel like I hold someone’s pleasure in my hands. It’s the first time I’ve needed to drive someone wild.
“You gonna swallow for me?” He asks, picking up the pace. “Want to taste me?”
I flick my eyes up to him, hoping he understands that yes, I fucking want it.
He does.
A curse leaves his throat, and that’s my only warning. Then my mouth is flooded with his release, the thick, salty taste coating my tongue. I swallow quickly, trying to catch it all, but some still escapes.
His release goes on and on, the eruptions making me giddy with lust.
Even when he’s done blowing his load, I still suckle at him, trying to draw out more of his delicious flavor. Carter hisses but lets me keep going until I’ve had my fill.
When I pull him from between my lips, Carter drags me to my feet and slams his mouth down on mine. I whimper, wrapping my arms around him as I let him plunder my mouth.
One of his strong hands drops to my hard dick and tugs on me, jerking me off roughly. It’s exactly what I need.
Not even a minute later, I’m moaning into the kiss and spraying Carter’s thigh with my spunk. He hums in my mouth, nipping at my bottom lip as he pulls away.
My breath saws in and out of my lungs and I feel dizzy for a reason other than my concussion. What did Carter just do to me? I submitted to him, readily and freely and enjoyed myself so much that I could barely contain my orgasm. I’m still flying high on him calling me pretty. No one has ever said anything like that to me. And it sounded like Carter meant it, that it wasn’t something he said to get me to suck his dick.
Handsome, cute, sexy, hot as fuck. I heard it all and it was nice. But being called pretty by a man like Carter hit different. I don’t think it’s a feeling I’ll forget anytime soon.
He nips my bottom lip once more, then pulls back to look into my eyes. “How’s your head?”
I giggle. Actually fucking giggle and it makes Carter’s eyes grow wide with surprise and a bit of heat. “Fuzzy as fuck. I think I need to lie down.”
Carter curses and turns the water off. “Fuck, Kai. Why didn’t you say something?”
I wave him off. “I’m good, Carter. Jesus. I just…my head is floaty. Not in a bad way.” I open eyes I didn’t know I closed. “That was…different.”
A crooked smile graces his face, crinkling the corners of his bright eyes. “Different bad?”
Despite not wanting to show Carter everything, I shake my head slowly. “No. Not bad.”
His smile turns self-assured as he turns the water back on. “I aim to please, pretty baby.” I gasp at his words. He hasn’t called me any pet names outside of sex. Again, he’s doing my head in. “Let me wash you. Then we really gotta work.”
Carter quickly cleans us up. By the time I get out of the shower, I’m dizzy again. He sits me on the bed and helps me get dressed while I rest. When I’m dressed, the room is no longer spinning, and I can stand without swaying.
Even still, Carter wraps his arm around my waist and walks me down to his office. I pull out my phone and call Nico so I can check in with him. I haven’t seen much of him besides giving him orders on what I needed done while I was laid up in bed. He tells me he’ll catch up with me when he’s done doing bitch work for Pop, which makes me roll my eyes.
I haven’t talked to Pop since that day in the casino. Looks like he took what Carter said to heart and won’t talk to me. A pang goes through my chest that he wouldn’t even fight for me, but I also chide myself because I should know that Charles St. Clair will do nothing he doesn’t want to do. He hates me and always will. I need to let him go just as he’s already let me go.
Rummaging on his desk, Carter pulls a folder from a pile of papers and hands it to me as I sit down in a vacant chair. “I know you don’t like me looking through shit with your family, but I don’t listen to anything you say. So…” He sits down and laughs when I glare at him. “Just look. You’ll appreciate me being nosey.”
After glaring at him for a few more moments, I flick the folder open and look at the paperwork inside. My eyebrows dip as I read “Deed of Ownership” on the first page. I look down the page and see my name, beside Indigo Arc Casino.
“What is this?” I ask, glancing up at Carter.
“It’s the deed for the Indigo. I wanted to see if you had any legal recourse to rebuild the casino with your construction company by going around Charlie or bidding on it. While I was looking, I found the deed. It’s yours, Kai. You don’t have to ask for shit. You can rebuild or you can outsource it. But the casino belongs to you, not Charlie. The other three, larger casinos are in Charlie’s name and there’s nothing you can do to touch those. But this one,” he taps his index finger on the folder in my hand, “is yours to do with what you want.”
A swirl of emotions riots in my belly. What the fuck was Pop thinking? Why would he put the casino in my name but not tell me? Why would he pretend it wasn’t mine? What’s his end game? I’ll have to call him and figure this shit out. Pop is so confusing, doing shit without telling anyone. That’s not good for business.
I toss the papers on his desk and shake my head. “Well, I guess when I get in touch with Pop, I’ll let him know I’ll be rebuilding the casino, since it’s mine.”
Carter hums in agreement. “I don’t know shit about construction, but I’m willing to help with the money aspect. Make sure your funds going to the right places and the right people.”
I frown. “I’ll need that, since I have to kill one or more of my accountants for stealing from me.”
Mischief fills his eyes, and I find myself smiling at him. “Want help with that too?”
“Nah. Whoever it is, they’re mine. But you’re welcome to watch.”
“Perfect,” he says, rubbing his hands together.