Chapter 14
Well now I’m goddamned pissed.
She wants out, does she?
The screaming and the crying and the blame, I can take, to a certain extent. I”ve been listening to Empire bitch since I started working for her mother, and the whining usually tapered off into silence, which would lead to apathy before finally, resolution.
She always knows when she’s going overboard and reels herself in. It might take days for it to happen, but never in all her tantrums have I heard her say anything about quitting. She’s never given any indication that she wants out of this life. And why should she?
She’s got it made.
She’s got the house, the money, the career without having to do anything other than exist and look pretty. To make matters worse, she’s got talent coming out of her fingernails.
But the lack of gratitude and the pity party have gone on for long enough, and if I hear one more word out of her mouth—
I’ve spent my entire life getting out of the mud and fighting tooth and nail to get to this point, only for her to throw it all away, and my career with hers. No. No.
“You don’t have a choice,” I grind out. Her tear-stained face tugs at my heart, and I force it to the side to focus on the anger. “I’m your guardian. You have to deal with me until you’re twenty-two. Until then, you’re going to do what I fucking say if I have to strap a leash around your neck and drag you to the shoot.” I step closer, heat rolling off me in waves. “You have a promising career ahead of you. I won’t let you throw it away because you got your feelings hurt.”
“My feelings hurt?” she repeats.
“People are going to talk about your parents. Get used to it, Empire. You want to walk away because Parker is an asshole? Tough shit! I can be an asshole too.”
Rather than backing off the way I partly hope she will, Empire steps forward, still sniveling and crying like the tantrum throwing toddler she is and half out of her dress, the ruined designer gown I painstakingly picked out for her for tonight.
“Oh really?” She slams her palms against my chest. “I’m just your ward and you’re my guardian?”
I harden myself to the look in her eyes. “Yeah, that’s right,” I throw back.
“Do you kiss all your wards now? Is that how it’s going to be?”
“Stop being selfish.”
She slaps me again. “I’ll stop being selfish when you stop treating me this way, when you stop being an asshole. Oh, you can’t. You just admitted it! So what are we going to do now?”
My jaw clenches painfully. “Back the fuck up, Empire.”
It’s everything I can do to keep from losing it, the shit from the last week pressing down on me, making it harder and harder to maintain control, to be the adult in this situation instead of lose it entirely, say fuck it to everything and everyone and get in the car.
No destination. Just a blinding need to escape rather than deal with my problems in a rational way.
Especially when she’s crying, looking like a heartbroken teen angel, and I’m clearly failing her.
“If you want to play the ward and guardian card, then I’m game,” she’s saying. “But you know what you did. You know what you did earlier today, and you know what you did at the opening.”
Her breath comes in shallow gasps. She tries to slap me across the face again, and I catch her hand before she makes contact. My cheek already stings from the last slap, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to let her get away with it again.
I push her back until she hits the wall and crowd her there, making sure there’s no escape as I push into her, containing her, feeling the way she shakes. I feel every inch of her body. Why do I want her so badly? Why do I want to possess her when she gets under my skin in the worst possible way?
She is spoiled. She is a brat, and she’s young enough to be my daughter.
Is it because I know it’s a bad idea and we’re not good together? Is it because she’s the child of my old friends, forbidden? Any woman in that category will automatically be more appealing to a man like me.
“Listen to me very carefully,” I say in a measured tone, glaring at her. “You belong to me, at least for four more years. What I say goes. I will look out for you. I will protect you.” I will touch you. “But if you make it hard for me, then there will be consequences.”
She’s shaking. Good. I want her trembling and silent. I want her teeth biting down on her lower lip while she struggles to compose herself. My cock twitches, and her eyes widen. She feels me too.
“By the time you turn twenty-two, I’ll have made you a star, with your permission or without it,” I reply. “Until then, you do what I say and nothing else.”
“You have a lot of nerve talking to me—” she starts.
I cut her off, my hand over her mouth when she tries to keep arguing with me. I didn’t think it possible for her eyes to get any wider, but the whites overshadow everything now, her makeup smeared. “Do not breathe another word, or I will lose my cool.” Anger rides me hard. “You’ve already said too much as it is. Do you understand what a big fucking deal it is that a director of Parker’s status wants to take a chance on you as his lead? It’s huge. And no other actress without a single goddamn credit to her name will have the kind of contract I negotiated for you. A little fucking gratitude.”
Her brows furrow, her eyes gob smacked and her mouth working against my palm like she has more to say. Any words are muffled, thank God.
“It’s not much to ask for, considering the lengths I’ve gone to for you.” It’s all for her.
Nothing I do is ever fucking good enough for her. Did she have any idea how hard it had been for me to negotiate her contract? The lengths I’d gone to when I wanted to break down too? But there was no backsliding, not in my life and not in this job.
I finally let her go, scoffing and shaking my head, utterly exhausted.
She waits for only a beat before launching into me again. “What do you want me to do, Marcus? Huh?” Empire holds her arms out to her side. “Do you want me to get down on my knees and thank you? Is that what you’re angling for? Because I am grateful.”
“Getting on your knees would be a fantastic start.” I can’t look at her. “Saying thank you would be even better.”
“I’ve said thank you. A million times,” she insists.
“Not in my hearing. I tried to go over the contract with you, and you barely lifted your head.” It cut deeper than I can admit.
“Then you must not be paying attention.” Every word out of her mouth stokes the fire inside of me.
“I paid enough attention to get you out of the premiere before we even made it inside! How can you say I left you there, that I didn’t protect you?”
“Parker put his hands on me,” she says through gritted teeth.
“Yeah? And he’s not the only one.” Time to teach the brat a lesson.
I grab her by the back of the head, hard enough to have her yelping at the flash of pain as my fingers tangle in her updo, forcing her down to her knees in front of me exactly the way she’d stated before. She protests the entire time, craning her head against my hold to look up at me with eyes that are wide, wet, and not even a little scared of me. Her curses are more for show than out of any real protest at the movement.
Her eyes give her away.
Tearstained, sure, but curious and full of desire.
Heat rises inside of me.
“Unzip me,” I demand. “Now.”
She blinks instead of answering before her pink tongue darts out to lick her lips. “What are you talking about?”
“Open my goddamn pants, Empire. I won’t tell you again.”
On her knees is exactly where she should be, but only if she’s in front of me.
I’ve never seen such a tantalizing expression on her face—a little worried and eager all at the same time. She pauses for another beat, another breath, before she reaches forward to the zipper of my slacks.
I tighten my hold when she stops, her hands drifting over the bulge in my boxers.
“Marcus—” she starts.
“Take me out and open your mouth. Wide.”
I expect her to fight me at least a bit, automatically if for no other reason, to tell me I’m out of my mind and there’s no way she’s sucking me off. Instead, she licks her lips again, and my cock twitches underneath her palm. She flicks open the button and takes the zipper between her thumb and index finger to drag it down. She finally takes my dick out, holding the tip gingerly in one hand while she tugs at the fabric with the other.
“Open your mouth,” I growl.
I tug her head back, and she meets my eyes, slowly prying her jaws open, staring at me in challenge. I take my cock in hand and shove it between her lips, touching the tip to her tongue and sliding along to wet myself with her saliva. Her eyes bulge, and it’s all the incentive I need.
Once she’s got her lips wrapped around me and the sensation of her hot mouth is enough to drive me out of my mind, I slide my other hand into her hair.
“That’s it,” I coax. Pulling out of her mouth just enough to have her breathless before I thrust back inside.
I want her to belong to me. Even when I pull back and she sucks in a breath, I want her to be mine. I yank her head forward, and her breathing hitches as I fill her mouth. Another inch, and she’s choking on me, her body convulsing and her hands on my hips to push me back a step.
“You’re going to let me fuck your mouth, you little brat.” I won’t go further, won’t mark my territory the way I want to by sliding between her legs and claiming her cunt for my own. The look on her face is priceless, though.
I pull her head forward and shove my cock against the back of her throat until she’s moaning incoherently. Gagged. Her tongue flicks against the underside of my cock, and I start to fuck her face with fast hard thrusts. My balls tighten. It’s been too damn long, much too long since I’ve had release inside someone else.
A mouth, a cunt, an ass. Anyone will do, but staring at Empire this way throws me right to the edge.
She’s beautiful. Her lips are so pink and lush, her makeup smearing and her eyes wider than before. I knew she”d be this beautiful looking at me. I’m not going to last much longer.
Staring at her, I pull out and grip my cock with my free hand, stroking it until the orgasm almost knocks me over. The force of it is enough to have me leaning forward to keep myself in place against the wall as I come all over her face. The groan burns the back of my throat.
And I wonder if I’ll always remember this moment: Empire Stone on her knees with my cum all over her face. It drips along the lines of her cheek, down her nose, on her chin, speckling her skin in a clearer way than the tears.
I tuck my dick back into my pants and zip up, adjusting myself one final time.
“Come on.” I reach for her, and she doesn’t move. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
She swallows before she nods, her body shaking, her cheeks red, and no doubt entirely soaked between her legs.
I groan, tucking the thought away for later. If I check…I’m a goner.