Chapter 30
Time is a constant—it’s impossible to stop and doesn’t care about you. It bows to no one, making it abundantly clear that nothing remains the same. And because I can’t even spend my time as I’d like, I’m reduced to being a spectator of my life.
While I see my friends daily at school, we never spend much time together. Eric’s always there. He even picks me up from the estate and drives me back from campus.
In the last week, I’ve come up with dozens of scenarios, and all of them end with him dead.
I am at the coffee shop on campus, waiting for my friends to join me. We haven’t had a girls’ night in a while, so this is the alternative we came up with. Dodging Eric on campus has become a damn feat. I don’t know how long it will take for him to find me here and intrude on the small time I spend with my friends.
As I sip from my cup of coffee, I glance at my phone, hoping to find a text from Hunter. The rational part of me reminds me that this is the best course of action, but I don’t know if I’ll survive the distance. Every thought involves him as if he’s my ultimate destination. Every heartbeat echoes with this mix of nostalgia and longing. Being away from him, my dreams have dimmed. My dark prince in his black armor brought so much light and color to my life that now everything is dull—like a fading painting.
The bell over the coffee shop door jingles, and Celine is the first to walk in, followed by Abi and Mia. A pang hits my chest so hard it makes breathing through the emotions lodged in my throat difficult.
“Eric was searching for you. I am so tempted to gouge his eyes out,” Celine mutters as she reaches me.
Abi sighs. “That violent streak is making an appearance more and more lately.”
“Weren’t you asking Blake about the best options to poison someone without doctors knowing what it is?” Celine asks Abi as they slip off their cardigans.
“This is the main topic in the house, each day finding a more creative way to kill Eric,” Mia shrugs as they sit down. It warms my numb core that they want me to return home just as badly.
Emotions overwhelm me. “I love you, girls.”
They all reply, “Love you too.”
“We’re coming over to stay at the estate. Fuck Eric and fuck whoever tries to keep us apart,” Celine says, and then they order their drinks.
“How is Hunter?” I ask, no one in particular, looking into my coffee cup as if it has all the answers.
The corners of Mia’s lips tip down. “It’s better not to know.”
“Please.”
“He locks himself mostly in the gym. He ruined two punching bags already,” she says.
I palm my chest in a failed attempt to soothe my battered heart.
“But the guys are there to keep him in check,” Celine adds quickly.
Abi purses her lips. “I can’t believe Eric has his own guards watching the perimeter to check if Hunter would come see you. He’s an heir to the Family.”
“Cassandra does that to appear weak and gain their trust,” I remind them.
Celine crosses her arms over her chest. “Fuck whoever thinks they are more powerful than us. We’re the Family.”
Once we embraced the legacy, we made it ours. We’ll defend it, and if anyone comes after us, none of us will take it lightly.
“By the time we’re done with the Whitneys, there won’t be anything left of his empire,” Abi says matter-of-factly.
That piques my interest. “How?”
Celine sips from her coffee mug, wearing a pleased expression. “Kaden and Hunter worked something out with my father. Hunter is very interested in showing the Whitneys the consequences of messing with him.”
I wouldn’t mess with any of them, and if they put their heads together, they’ll make the Whitneys wish they never wanted to be a part of the Family.
“I was thinking of taking the ATVs and just driving around the compound,” Abi says, switching the topic to something lighter.
Some fun wouldn’t hurt us. Chipping at the mug’s handle, all I can think of is erasing the distance between Hunter and me.
When it’s time to part for the day, I pause and say, “Please take care of him.” Because I can’t. Even if it kills me.
The girls nod in understanding, and I go back to my classes. As I walk, a warm gust of air caresses my nape, the feeling of being watched prickling my senses. I know it’s Hunter. Somehow, knowing he’s there makes this whole messed-up situation bearable.
I don’t seek him out, letting him do what he needs to do. It’s also my punishment for agreeing to do this.
While I am in class physically, my heart and mind are somewhere else entirely.
The moment the lecture ends, I am about to gather my stuff when I hear steps, blasting an icy shiver down my spine. I don’t have to look up to know who it is.
“Where were you?” Eric asks.
Through gritted teeth, I say, “With my friends.”
“I should be there as well. Your friends are my friends. We’re going to be a family soon.”
I can’t believe this guy. A headache stabs my temples, and I jab at them, rubbing with more force than necessary.
“What did they do to you? You seem upset.” He raises his hand to my face, but I take a step back.
The nerve of this guy. Every day is a renewed struggle not to tell him exactly what I think of him and assure him he’ll only have me in his twisted dreams.
“Nothing,” I say, walking away, but he soon catches up with me.
“My mother told me you haven’t gotten back to her about going wedding dress shopping.”
“There’s still time.” We haven’t even been engaged for one damn week.
“I’m her only son. She wants a wedding everyone else could only dream of for me.”
He’s a narcissist of the worst kind. Not that I am aware of a better type, which makes this whole ordeal even harder to deal with—selfish and always thinking only of himself.
“Then she could pick whatever she deems good enough for her son,” I say, plastering a sugary smile on my face.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you don’t even want to get married.”
Oh, I do—but not to you.
I bite my tongue so hard to keep from saying it that I taste blood. His delusion knows no end. The moment we’re in his car, I count the minutes until I can finally be rid of him for the day. The short drive is the only blessing. I crank up the volume of the music to be sure he doesn’t even try to chat me up. I tune him out, but it’s only after he leaves me at the estate that I breathe a sigh of relief.
Samuel lets me in. I take the stairs to my room and get back to work. I’ll find Felix, even if it costs me my sanity. Focusing on this task keeps me from curling into a ball of dejection on the floor.
The screen lights up, and my fingers bring the codes to life. For the next hour, I hone the face-detecting program, expanding its search deeper and wider.
As I work, my mind keeps drifting to Hunter. Even though we talk every night on the phone before we go to bed, and I wake up to him still on the line, I’m terrified. Terrified the rift between us will widen to the point where I can’t bridge it anymore. I miss Hunter terribly. Needing to feel him close, I change into a pair of leggings and a top, then head to the training complex.
After Felix escaped, Cassandra closed the other tunnel on the property. But she went further and had an entirely new one built in the last several months. Only a handful of people have access to those tunnels now. And I know every one of them because she made me program our fingertips and biometrics into the panel.
I take the tunnel that leads to the fighting complex. I even miss the brutal and strenuous fighting lessons with him. His scent. His kisses—everything about him.
I try to do the parkour without getting killed. I survive the first and second simulation. In the third, I am shot, and in the fourth, I am taken down. There are six more to go that are even more difficult. A groan of frustration ripples through the space.
“Run,” Hunter’s deep voice takes me by surprise. I whip my head around, trying to locate him.
With a dose of adrenaline hitting my bloodstream, I forget to ask how he knew I was here, but I don’t even care.
Taking off, I feel alive for the first time this week. He doesn’t make it easy for me to detect him, and my belly flutters, the anticipation making my insides go into a tizzy.
“What happens when you catch me?” I ask breathlessly.
“Kitten, we both know what will happen.” He’s so self-assured. It’s so hot, I am burning up for him.
“So arrogant.” I love to tease him, knowing what it does to him. He’ll make me pay by fucking me hard.
“Facts. I bet that pussy of yours is soaked. I’m going to pound it raw when I catch you.”
And he will catch me. That’s a certainty. But I don’t want to make it too easy for him.
I move stealthily through the complex when a hand suddenly covers my mouth, dragging me back.
“Ugh,” I groan against his palm. That was fast, but it only shows his desperation.
He bites into my neck and nibbles to soothe the afflicted skin. The sensation only amps the fiery passion between us.
“Should I give you another chance?”
I nod, prolonging the inevitable. This predator-and-prey chase we have going on stokes the desire between us, fanning the flames even higher. How I want us to burn and melt together as one.
“My girl needs a hard fuck, apparently. The longer I have to chase what’s mine, the rougher I’ll take you,” he growls.
“I think I am getting fucked hard, anyway.”
A slap lands on my ass before I sprint off. While I am breaking a sweat running and trying to come up with a strategy, I have no idea where he is. But not for long because suddenly, he’s at my back, gripping my arms with one hand as he backs my front into a wall. The thump resonates around the silent complex, showcasing I am at the mercy of my captor.
“Brace yourself,” his deep voice awakens butterflies and sends them on a rampage in my belly.
He shoves my leggings down, kicks my legs apart, and drives inside me in one hard thrust. My fingers dig into the rigid surface of the wall. I feel him everywhere, just like the tingles skittering over my skin.
Every hard pump feels like it’s a reminder of who I belong to. A rivulet of moans flows out of my mouth as I give in to the bliss of having him inside me. His hard breathing, in perfect sync with his deep thrusts, fuels me. Maybe it’s the rush of sensations after days apart or his ability to wrench all the pleasure out of me. Maybe it’s just him and I together—all explosive, but it doesn’t take long for me to come.
Yanking at my ponytail, he pulls me flush to his chest. It’s all about control, and I happily relinquish it to him. He can fuck me however he wants; I can take him. Rotating his hips, he hits even deeper inside of me.
“I should punish you for denying what’s mine.” He drives into me so hard and fast I see freaking stars.
“Punish me then.”
Literally between two hard walls, I can only stand here and take it—his animalistic side. An angry beast who was denied his mating. I meet him thrust for thrust, delirious as he continues fucking me. If this is punishment, we might have a problem because I’d only crave more.
He groans half in pleasure, half in frustration as he comes a bit, then pulls out.
Pushing me to my knees, he commands, “Open.”
He plunges inside my mouth past my gag reflex until he reaches the back of my throat. This is not lovemaking at all. It’s raw fucking. Tears stream down my cheeks, the gagging sounds adding to the frenzy.
“Look at my kitten choking on my cock. Such a pretty mess for me.”
I must look like one, all flushed and teary, slobbering on his cock. I take my first full breath when he pulls out. Panting, I look at him as he traces the contour of my lips with the head of his cock.
It’s the first time in a while that he’s looked at me for more than a few seconds. There’s a battle going on behind his eyes. He fucks me like it’s the last time. The disconnect kills me.
As if our eyes locked is too much for him, he pushes back in, fucking my mouth until he comes some more.
“Swallow,” he orders.
I do, in a trance.
“Hunter?” I don’t even know what I’m asking of him, but it goes deeper than assurance.
“Such a good girl for me who sucks me so well, as if she’s my custom-made slut.”
Dragging me up, he pushes me against the wall again, but I turn around to face him. Raising on my toes, I palm his face and kiss him, wanting him here with me. It’s like he’s on a mission, fucking me with everything in him but keeping me out. I need him to look at me, be with me. There’s no hiding. I am his, and he is mine.
“Please.”
“Please what, Bailey?” Lifting me by my ass, he pins my hands above my head.
“I don’t want to lose you…”
“You never will. No more talking. Time for fucking.”
He guides his steel-hard cock to my entrance, spearing inside of me. He stays like that until I think my pussy will never forget how his cock feels inside of me.
“You feel so good. Do I feel good?” I rasp.
His answer is a low groan. He buries his head in my neck and continues to fuck me like a savage let loose.
“I won’t come until you look me in the eye,” I say, praying for a bit of self-control.
“Shall we test that?”
He’s unyielding, and this is a challenge I won’t win. He has turned my body into his plaything,
He pulls out slowly and then pushes back in inch by formidable inch, driving me insane when massaging my walls. He teases my pussy until I can’t do anything, helpless in chasing my pleasure.
“You’re not playing fair,” I whine.
“Drench my cock, angel.”
And when he draws out of me, leaving just the tip at my entrance, I do just that, erupting like a hose, spraying his cock.
“Just like that. Fuck, that’s so hot.”
My legs tremble with the intense orgasm, and I pant heavily.
He bites into my bottom lip, sucking it between his lips, and then he thrusts back inside of me. His eyes lock on mine, brewing a gray storm. He pistons inside of me, and my eyes roll back in their sockets. Again and again, he drives into me. It’s hard to keep eye contact until he comes for the last time. It’s only then he releases my hands.
Even after the intense experience, there’s a faraway look etched in his gaze, and he’s uncharacteristically silent. This is all I get, a punishing fuck after one week apart.
“I can hear your thinking, Bailey.”
“And what do you think I am thinking?” I snap, suddenly angry at him.
“You’re pissed at me?” he asks, sounding contrite.
“What was that, Hunter?”
He avoids looking at me. We’re a total mess. I don’t know how to fix us.
“You want to fuck me out of your system?”
His hard gaze pins me. “I could fuck you for the rest of my damn life, and I wouldn’t be able to fuck you out of my system. You’re embedded in my life’s fabric.” He digs a finger into his temple, his expression tortured. “Ruling every thought.”
He slams his palm against his chest. “Owning every heartbeat.”
He shakes his head as if trying to clear his thoughts. “I desperately wanted to fuck myself into you, not myself out of you, angel…”
I sniffle, the pain he emanates killing me softly. “You’re mad at me. Admit it.”
The sigh he emanates is soul-crushing. “I am. That doesn’t mean I don’t love you with everything in me.”
“Good, but if you ever try to hide from me again when you’re balls deep inside of me, I am going to bite your dick off. I am yours and you are mine. Got it?”
“I love when my kitten shows her claws,” he says, forcing some cheer into the moment.
“Nope. You won’t distract me by pretending we’re okay. We’re not.”
His chest pants with a heavy breath. “This is killing me.”
I take his hands in mine, wanting to erase the distance. “Tell me. Talk to me. Please.”
“I’d rather be dead than stay away from you. You want the truth? Can you handle it?”
No, I don’t think I can. I still need to hear it, though.
He shuts his eyes for a moment, but he can’t hide his anguish from me. “I am unstable. I can’t find my place. I can’t fucking sleep. Every muscle in my body aches, starting with the one that is only yours. I am going through the motions. I am back to gray because the rainbow in my life is so near, yet so far from me. I am lost. Is that what you want to hear? That I am a fucking lost man without you?”
What is there to say to that? I can’t make it better. Not even that hard fuck helped him. Doubts take over, and I hug myself, knowing I can’t do a thing to ease him. That hurts the most. I am not his peace—I have always been his chaos.
Even though there’s some space between our bodies, an invisible thread binds us together, firmly wrapped around our hearts. A continent could separate us, but our souls wouldn’t perceive the distance.
“Nope, kitten. I stripped myself bare for you. Your turn. Talk to me,” he insists.
“You’re regretting falling in love, right? Because without you loving me, you would be all right.”
He cages me in, his palms resting on each side of my face. “Bloody hell, Bailey.”
“Just admit it.”
He splays his palms, cupping each side of my face as he leans in, resting his forehead on mine.
“I can’t admit it because it would be a lie. Stop thinking this shit.” He inhales deeply. “The only right thing in my life is your love. Loving you is the truth of my life.”
“You’re not there and when you’re not there, I am lost too,” I confess.
He lifts me off the ground, my legs and arms crossing around his back and neck. If I could embed myself into him, I would. We’re like yin and yang; we come only in pairs.
In his arms, I whisper, “I don’t want the distance. I can’t bear it… I don’t think I will survive it intact if you’re cold toward me.”
He buries his head in my neck, inhaling me before peppering kisses all over my face. “I’m burning for you. This distance is so bloody hard, it’s messing with my head.”
I know. Stop being so damn selfish.
“I caused the rift between us.”
“There’s no rift, you hear me? I’d build a bridge between us with my bare hands.”
I need to pull myself together and be strong, for both our sakes. Walking back through the tunnel, I expect him to kiss me goodbye, but he comes inside the estate with me.
“I have it from here.” I don’t want to make it even harder for him. Even with our emotional but productive breakdown, our situation hasn’t changed. I’m still engaged.
“Don’t send me away, Bailey. There’s nothing there for me. I need my home. My place is next to you.”
Emotions choke me up; it’s impossible to form words. So, I take his hand and kiss the back of his palm. “I won’t. Nothing and no one will keep me away from you ever again. Together?”
He does the same, and I feel his kiss on my palm in my entire body, our eyes locked just like our hearts. “If our love sets the world on fire, then I’ll gladly let it burn with you by my side. All I care about is being with you. Together.”
Samuel comes our way, interrupting our moment. “Miss Fairchild. Mister Prescott, Ma’am would like a word with you two.”
Once we’re in her office, she looks at our hands clasped together, showing our unity and our irrevocable decision.
Her lips twitch. “I won the bet against your father, Hunter. I said you’d make it no further than a week. He said you’d last longer. So?”
“Ma’am, don’t make us stay apart,” I beg her.
Steepling her hands on her desk, she says, “You two understand the consequences if you make one mistake?”
Glancing at each other, we answer in unison, “Yes.”
“Be careful. Don’t get caught.”
She’s so freaking great. Unable to contain myself, I run to her and hug her. Filled with gratitude, I squeal, thanking her again and again.
“You deserve only the best, Bailey.”
“Thank you, Ma’am,” Hunter says, voice thick with emotions, and that clouded expression clears.
She waves her hand toward the door. “Now leave before I change my mind.”
She doesn’t have to tell us twice. We dash through the door, taking the stairs to my room.
“Am I dreaming?” he asks once we’re inside. Cupping my face, he takes my mouth in a toe-curling, passionate kiss. Bright silver and a softer expression greet me when we part with a gasp.
“If you are, we share the same dream,” I murmur.
His brows draw together in deep thought. “She sounded way too happy… She knows more than she’s letting on.”
Tired of thinking, all I care about at this moment is that we’re together. “Maybe she’s happy her matchmaking plans worked.”
He pushes me toward the bed, where I fall back with a squeal.
“We’ll find out at dinner tomorrow, but until then, let me fuck this pussy of mine properly.”