Chapter 6
Lila
Marcus gives me a second to come down from everything, and it's only when my head is clearer that I realize he said something about discussing a plan of action for dealing with my father.
"So what is this about a plan? Do you have something that might actually get through my father's thick skull?"
Adjusting in the bed, which includes grabbing at his straining erection behind his fly—one that I need to get my hands on at some point—Marcus nods, chuckling.
"Sure, I guess now's as good a time as any to have this conversation.
" He shakes his head, his eyes dropping to the bed between us for a moment before he meets mine again.
"Thanks to my job, I have some connections with the FBI.
If I can get your father to come clean, I might be able to call in a favor and offer some witness protection.
They've been trying to get their hands on Cilento for years now.
They might be more than willing to offer protection and a new identity if he's willing to come clean about what happened. "
"I'm not so sure how my dad will feel about that. You heard him. The company is everything to him. He's not going to want to pretend he's up and disappeared and leave that company to someone else."
Marcus hauls me into his lap, and my oversensitive skin brushes over the thickness underneath his zipper. I let out a tiny whimper, but he tucks my hair behind my ear and looks at me like he's very comfortable.
"That might be the case, princess, but he's going to have to realize that something needs to change here.
If he continues with what he's doing, he might not just lose you—which apparently he's not that concerned about—but he might also lose his company.
Of course, Cilento will make that happen by use of a bullet, not blackmail. "
Gripping my hips, Marcus moves them in a circle, making me grind down against his lap like it's nothing. He's continuing to have this conversation while he uses me to stimulate himself.
There's something so frantic and desperate and damn hot about what he's doing.
I help him, rolling my hips and moving back and forth as I rub my still-sensitive pussy against his cock.
"You really think that Cilento will have someone kill my father?"
Marcus groans, his eyes rolling back into his head as he drops it against the headboard. His fingers dig into my hips harder, and I can tell that this is working something profound in him.
"Yes, I do. Ugh. Keep moving like that, princess, and I'll tell you more about my plan."
Smirking, I move quicker, rubbing harder, circling in tiny, tiny rotations. I can only get a vague idea of how big Marcus is with these jeans between us.
But if that is anything to go by, Marcus is enormous.
I own some "personal care items," but he's putting them to shame right now. Part of me wonders if I'm even going to be able to take him.
"When are you going to talk to my father and bring this up?"
"Tomorrow. Tonight's not the night to bring this up. Tensions are too high. Ugh." Marcus groans again. Gripping me even tighter, he lets out a deep moan. "Damn it, princess. You've got me so hard. You should probably—"
His words falter as I rub harder and quicker, even more than I was, giving everything I have to riding Marcus over his jeans. He made me orgasm with my panties still on, and I think it's time to return the favor.
It only takes a few more circling thrusts before Marcus yanks me forward, crashing his lips against mine. I feel his hips buck beneath me, and there is a bloom of warmth right on my pussy.
Oh my god, I did that. I made Marcus come from just rubbing on him.
I'm beaming when Marcus pulls back and looks at me, utterly destroyed. He shakes his head, the exhaustion melting into a grin.
"Well, that's a fucking first." We both chuckle lightly, and he kisses me, softer this time.
"I think it's time we both get cleaned up.
And I'll talk to your father first thing in the morning.
We'll figure this out, Lila, even if I have to march down to Cilento's house myself and beat the crap out of him until he listens. "
Smiling up at him, I nod. Then I slide back, getting up off of him and heading toward my bathroom.
"I have first dibs. See you after the shower."
When I'm out of the shower, I lie on the bed waiting for Marcus to get cleaned up too. He doesn't take long, and he exits the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips, another in his hand, scrubbing his hair. He offers me a smile and lays down in the bed next to me.
"I feel like I don't know a lot about you.
Which is 100% accurate." I giggle a little, nudging at him with my knee when he snuggles in next to my side, resting his chin on my chest. "Tell me how you got into this business of protecting people and intimidating people by being a big, scary man who works for a mysterious company. "
Marcus laughs, but there's this twinge of pain beneath his eyes that I recognize. It mirrors my own, and I lift his chin up so that he looks at me. Holding his stare, I offer a silent look of openness, of being willing to listen to whatever he has to say.
"Well, that's a bit of a messy story, but I suppose it starts with the fact that this wasn't the plan.
I didn't grow up with much. Very different than your current situation.
And the plan had been to just go into the military so that I could make enough money to survive and be strong enough to protect myself from my mother's abusive boyfriends. "
My stomach drops, and my eyebrows shoot up. Resting my hand on Marcus's shoulder, I squeeze it lightly, hoping that he takes the quiet act of empathy and compassion for what it is.
I don't pity him. It's not that. I know that it was hard. I know that growing up that way is painful and messy. I can recognize the distance between a parent who's not there and their child.
Neither of my parents is physically abusive, but neglectful is putting it lightly.
"Yeah, it wasn't pretty, but the military sort of gave me a place where I felt useful.
You get close to the people who are near you, in your unit.
And you become a little family of your own.
Which makes it even shittier when you realize that your boss, the man you've been looking up to for years, set you up to fail.
"Some bullshit undercover mission ends up getting me in serious trouble. I almost died. And several of the men who were with me did. Turns out he was working for the other side. And now I work for a company where I only have to rely on myself. It seems safer that way."
Marcus's stare is distant, finding the middle distance, and I know what he feels. Pain for everything that happened in the past.
That kind of betrayal from someone who was supposed to be there for you, from someone that you looked up to as a father figure—I can guess how painful that is because I'm getting a tiny taste of it right now.
Sure, my father hasn't literally set me up to die. At least not directly.
Or has he?
He knows the type of man that Cilento is, how violence runs in his veins. The more I understand what's going on, the more I know that it is very likely that Cilento planned on kidnapping me at the least, if not murdering me at the most.
My blood runs cold, and Marcus picks up on my tension. He swivels his face toward mine, and we connect to each other in this moment of feeling so let down by the men who were supposed to be there for us.
"I know it's not the same, but I do understand. My father has offered me up to the wolves, and I don't know how to handle that information."
Reaching out, Marcus cups my cheek, offering me a look of sympathy. That's what it is that we share between us beyond this spark. We share an understanding of the other person's pain.
"Your situation isn't set in stone yet, Lila. We can do something about this. Tomorrow morning I'll go talk to your father, and we'll get this sorted one way or the other."
I wrap my fingers around his face and meet his stare with everything I have. "I know this is new and strange and not what either of us planned. But I'm glad you're here. Would you stay again? Here in the bed?"
A genuine smile that goes right through my heart lights up Marcus's face. "Of course, princess. I'll be right here."
It's morning now, and I'm hanging out in the library while I wait for Marcus to get back from talking things out with my father. I want to hold onto hope that the situation will go well, but I'm struggling to manage it.
Burying myself in one of the hundreds of books that I've already read in this house seems to be the best use of my time. This library hasn't been updated since before I was born, and throughout my life, I've read every book in here.
Thankfully, I can read on my phone as well, but right now, one of those books that I usually pick for their suspense, intrigue, and action doesn't seem like the best idea.
As I flip the page in the book I'm reading, movement down the hall catches my attention. I have an open view of it from where I'm sitting, and the hall leads to my father's office.
At first, I wonder if it's Marcus coming back, but then I see the blonde hair, and my stomach turns to lead.
"Kyle? What the hell are you doing here?" I stand up from the oversized ottoman and head into the hallway. My father's protégé stops and turns around, eyeing me harshly. "You can't go in there right now. He's in a meeting."
Kyle saunters up with that ridiculous smirk plastered all over his face, and not for the first time, I wish that I had the balls to smack it off.
His eyes trace down my body, and I regret the leggings I'm wearing. I know they show every curve of my ass, and between that and the low V of my top, Kyle's lecherous gaze itches my skin.
"Well, if it isn't my future wife. I have important business to discuss with your father, and I'm sure whatever meeting he's in right now can wait."
"It can't, Kyle. He's discussing things with the new security."
"That fucking oaf from before? Well, I'm sure I should be there for that discussion, seeing as I'm going to be the man of this house someday."
Even though it's made of lead, my stomach is roiling, threatening to upchuck the cup of coffee I made for myself this morning.
Snagging Kyle by the sleeve, I draw him into the library. I keep my voice low because I don't want to disturb the meeting going on in my father's office.
"You need to get that thought out of your head. I'm not marrying you, Kyle. You need my consent for that, and you don't have it. So just leave."
In a move that has that nausea pooling in my gut all the harder, Kyle's expression drops.
He always has this effortless surfer boy smile on his face. Still, the man I'm looking at now looks like he's taken off that pretty boy exterior and is showing me who he really is.
His eyes are cold and empty, seeming to look through me and down at me at the same time. There is calculation and fury behind his eyes.
I've seen American Psycho a few times now, and this echoes the main character before and after he's had his break. There's the corporate yuppie Kyle, and there's the one I'm looking at now.
And this one scares the shit out of me.
"You need to do as you're told, bitch. Your role here is simply to be my wife, secure this job for me, and keep quiet. I've had enough of your resistance. This has been planned for years, and you will not jeopardize my opportunity to get a founding stake in this company."
I can see why my father likes Kyle so much. He's just as much of a piece of shit as my father is. He is using me for his own gains, like I am a chess piece to be moved around.
Backing up instinctively, I start to speak. "How dare you—"
But Kyle grabs my arm, his fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. I can't move, and the pain zings through my bicep.
"I can do whatever I want. Your father might be king of this castle, but I'm the prince, and when he's gone, I'm taking over. Don't make me ugly you up so that no one else will want you."
I'm flabbergasted by what Kyle is saying. I know I need to respond, to say something back to him, to get myself out of here, but I'm frozen.
I hate my stupid body for the way that it trembles. I hate my eyes for the way they burn as I keep the tears at bay.
"Let go of me." I'm still trying to keep my voice down, and I don't know why. "Let go!"
Yanking at his hold, I can't get free, and I start to stumble backward.
Just as I think I'm going to fall and Kyle is going to pin me down to the floor and do god knows what, Marcus appears.
He shoves his way between the two of us, snatching Kyle's fingers back off my arm and wrenching them backward.
"Ah! You fucking prick. You're gonna break my fingers!"
Marcus shoves Kyle away. "You're lucky I don't break your neck."
The sneer on Kyle's face drops when he sees the expression on Marcus. The way my bodyguard stares him down promises a slow and painful death.
"Reginald will hear all about this. You'll be flat on your ass before the day is out. Mark my words!"
Kyle runs off, his tail firmly tucked between his legs. But my heart is pounding, and I can't get over how it felt to have him grab me like that.
I had no idea what he planned to do, what he might do if I ended up on that floor with him above me. Some part of me knows that he would have no problem forcing himself on me.
"Lila, are you okay?" Marcus stands in front of me, gripping my shoulders. "Princess, can you talk to me?"
But I can't. I don't know what happened to any of my words, but they're gone. I'm at a loss for words.
"It's all right, princess. I've got you. Let's get back to your room."
Pulling me against his side, Marcus leads me down the hallway. All I can do is follow along after him.
And I try not to think about what would have happened if he hadn't come when he did.