Chapter 14 – CARTER
14
CARTER
“ M r. Cole! I didn’t expect to see you here.”
An older woman who managed a hotel I owned approached me. I couldn’t recall her name, but it didn’t matter. I had no intention of talking to her.
She hovered several feet away, waiting for me to acknowledge her greeting. I glared at her and saw her face go pale. With a respectful nod, she backed away into the crowd of elegant guests.
I managed to scare away anyone who dared to try and sit down at my table. When I found out Hudson Vaughn had RSVPed to a charity dinner gala, I dropped a hundred thousand on a table of my own. I didn’t bother trying to fill it with guests, or even showing up for the meal.
All the action I was interested in started after dessert was served.
That was when guests would start to mingle. A band would play, people would dance. Then, I’d finally get the chance to sneak away with the reason I’d come tonight.
I spotted Anna the minute I entered. Her hair was lacquered into frozen curls falling over one slender shoulder. Her long-sleeved deep red gown covered every inch of skin, but hugged her figure perfectly. I couldn’t stop staring at the curve of her peachy ass. I could still remember how it felt under my hands a few days ago.
Fuck, it had been too long since I touched her.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one admiring her. Every straight rich asshole in this whole goddamned estate was staring at my girl. I made a mental list of names, noting anyone who needed their eyeballs plucked out.
Anna tucked her hand into her father’s arm while he led her through the crowd. Hudson stopped to speak with every single man under fifty, cutting short conversations with women and married couples. It couldn’t be more obvious what he wanted. He planned to marry his daughter off to whoever made the most advantageous match.
I stared as the pair stopped to talk with a tech CEO who recently graced the cover of Time Magazine. He had a reputation as a Silicon Valley playboy, and he obviously wanted Anna as his next conquest. The way he looked at her body, I was surprised his eyes didn’t pop out of his head.
It was enough to make me want to destroy him.
Fortunately for him, Anna didn’t even notice. She kept looking back at me, rage shining in her green eyes. Clearly, she was still angry that I’d gotten her to admit who hurt her.
Good. Better she be angry at me than flirtatious with anyone else.
I planned to hunt her down, but this was better. I’d wait for her to come to me.
Even when Vaughn introduced Anna to a gold-mining heir and a French ambassador, I barely felt a prick of jealousy. Those men seemed not even to exist to her. They were just obstacles, keeping her busy while she searched for a way to evade her father and come for me.
I leaned back in my chair, satisfied. My cock hardened in my pants every time I caught her emerald eyes flashing at me from across the room.
Anna and I meeting was inevitable, just like everything between us was.
We were like magnets. Always had been. While she was away she’d flipped her magnetic poles to keep me away, but they were turned back now and there was no separating us.
Finally, Vaughn left Anna alone with a real estate titan from Dubai. No doubt, he hoped the two of them would hit it off in Hudson’s absence.
Instead, Anna turned away immediately and stormed right to my table. I gazed up at her furious face, my hands steepled in my lap.
“You have some nerve, Carter,” she snapped at me.
I shot her an innocent look. “What have I done this time? I’m afraid I can’t remember. Take a seat. I’m happy to discuss it.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to have this conversation in public.”
I raised my brows in approval. “I didn’t realize you were so eager to be alone with me.”
She huffed. “You wish. Get up, quick, before my dad comes back.”
Anna grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet. I had more than enough strength to escape her grasp, but there was something delicious about letting her have the reins.
She brought us to a hallway off the main ballroom. It was huge, made of marble and spotted with statues. Our footsteps echoed off the high ceiling. A set of velvet ropes clearly marked where the venue planned for guests to stop, but Anna lifted her skirts and stepped over it.
“What if they catch us?” I whispered jokingly.
“Then you’ll pay them off. That’s what you do these days, isn’t it?”
She put her hands on her hips in a gesture of disapproval. It only brought my attention to the curve of them, making me grin at her.
The truth was, I’d give away half my fortune in an instant for a stolen moment with Anna.
She huffed, then turned into a small alcove housing an antique settee. I followed. No one looking down the hallway would see us, but we could still hear the band’s music drifting up the hall. Anna turned to me, her face a pretty pink from her misplaced rage.
“You had me followed,” she said accusingly.
Ah. So she figured it out.
I thought she was just angry about me finger-fucking her into revealing her secrets. My security detail already reported back what happened to me, with reassurances that Anna was unharmed and only a little shaken up.
I’d been chomping at the bit to see that truth for myself, and this was my first opportunity to do that. The first time she’d left the Vaughn estate since it happened.
They reported she had no idea I sent them, but unsurprisingly, she was clever enough to figure it out anyway.
“Are you even going to deny it?” she pressed.
“No.”
Her lips made that beautiful surprised O they always did when I did or said something that shocked her. I wanted to push her to her knees and shove my cock into that perfect circle until she saw stars.
“At least have the fucking decency to look sorry, asshole.”
My Anna finally learned how to deliver a curse without blushing. I knew she had it in her. I smirked.
“Why should I? I don’t regret it.”
She scowled. “You invaded my privacy. You basically stalked me, Carter.”
I stepped closer, glaring down at her. “And the men I hired saved you from being attacked.” I caressed her jaw. “You should be grateful, little siren.”
“Grateful!”
She tore away from my touch.
“You tyrannical, manipulative prick!”
She poked me in the chest.
“You haven’t been in my life in years . And in case you forgot, you broke up with me. You don’t just get to reappear and have me followed !”
I grabbed the hand poking me and pulled it against my chest. “Yes, I do. Because you’re mine, Anna. You always have been. Remember?”
I pushed down the sleeve of her gown to reveal a small rope burn on her slender wrist. I ran my thumb over the reddened skin, and she winced. Fury burned in my chest.
“Those assholes shouldn’t have gotten close enough to touch you,” I growled.
I’d need to be more careful. My men should’ve gotten there faster. They should’ve seen the others coming a mile away. If they couldn’t do their job properly, I’d just have to do it myself. Then I really would be her ‘stalker.’
The thought didn’t perturb me one bit. She belonged to me and I had every right to protect what was mine.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, trying to yank her hand away. “Let me go, Carter. You can’t keep doing this. I’m not yours.”
I grabbed her by the neck and kissed her. I was as possessive and claiming as I wanted to be, forcing her lips to part for me. I nipped at her lips and beat back her tongue even as she fought me.
Her claws sank into my shoulders, but they weren’t trying to scare me away. No. They were pulling me in. She couldn’t lie to me; she craved this version of me. The version who would take whatever he wanted. Who would force her to do what she wanted instead of what was expected of her.
I ripped my mouth away from hers. “Still think you’re not mine? Because you let me kiss you like I own you.”
“You’re delusional,” she said. The dazed-looking expression on her face betrayed her. I could read exactly what she wanted.
And I was ready to take advantage.
She was terrified to admit it to herself. That I was what she wanted. That this twisted love was why she came home.
Anna Vaughn couldn’t accept that she would never be her father’s puppet because she craved the sorts of things a life spent in a gilded cage couldn’t give her.
She read my stare and as those lips parted, I brushed my thumb up her jaw until it rested against her lips. They parted, just slightly. Just enough.
And I grinned as I sank the digit into her mouth, sliding the pad of my thumb over her tongue, pushing into the back of her throat.
Her eyes rolled back and a soft curse left my lips as I pushed her down until she was seated on the settee.
She went without more protest than a single gasping breath as my thumb left her mouth, blinking as if waking from a dream.
“I’m so fucking angry with you,” she said, her voice breathy as her hands clutched the edges of the seat cushions.
“I know,” I crooned, tilting her chin up. “I want to see those pretty green eyes looking up at me.”
She glared at me, and I thought she would defy me. She looked equal parts regal and wrathful, like a deposed queen kneeling to her conqueror. The image made my mouth water.
“I hate you.”
“I know.”
This time when her lips parted for me, I pushed my two middle fingers past them, gliding them over her tongue.
Her knuckles turned white.
I drank in the sight of her. The feel of her tongue on my fingers as I thrust them deeper, testing how far she could go. Her eyes rolled back again and I knew she loved this just as much as I did. Love and hate. They were one and the same for us.
A tightrope we walked on, getting closer to each other with every careful, balanced step.
She looked like sex personified as she tipped her head back, taking my fingers into her throat.
Every muscle in my body tightened as I felt the hot press of her throat closing around my fingers. I groaned, a curse pushing through my clenched teeth as I wrapped my other hand around her pretty neck and squeezed.
She moaned around my fingers, gagging lightly.
The little siren knew what this would do to me. She knew how deliciously gorgeous she’d look. Fuck, she was trying to seduce me, to take back control.
I unbuttoned my pants, pulling out my cock for her. It was already rock hard, pre-cum gathering on the tip for her.
Her dazed eyes drank me in, studying every inch of my length as she licked her lips. Her gaze caught on the small tattoo inked into my hilt. I didn’t give her time to figure out what it meant. I snaked a hand around her neck and twisted my fingers into her hair, pressing my tip against her lips. She opened for me, such a good fucking girl.
Her hot little mouth sucked me in and I shuddered as her tongue ran over the underside of my shaft. Her eyes lifted to meet mine, still ablaze with passion concealed as loathing.
I reached down and peeled her left hand from the settee, placing it on my thigh.
“Tap my leg twice if you need me to stop,” I said, gritting my teeth. “I’m going to fuck that tight little throat until it’s so raw you can’t even say my name.”
I gave her no more warning before I shoved my cock deep into her mouth. She gagged at the intrusion, saliva swelling at the corners of her lips. Her nails bit down into my thigh, but she didn’t tap.
This quickly, I could only fit half of my length into her mouth. I grabbed her gold tipped curls, refusing to let her pull away.
“ Uh, uh ,” I chastised her. “Breathe through your nose, baby. You can take it.”
I could see her trying to collect herself, taking a long slow breath in. Both hands now on either of my thighs loosened their grip, and her throat relaxed enough for me to slide in another centimeter.
“Good,” I praised her. “That’s so good, Anna.”
I eased back for her to take another sip of air before pushing back in an extra centimeter.
“That’s it,” I crooned, caressing her face as her eyes glassed over with unshed tears at my intrusion. “Just another few inches.”
I could go slow. For her. Just this once.
“Wider,” I coached her. “Good girl. Relax your throat. Yes, just like that.”
My fingers in her hair tightened and it was a fight for my life to keep from coming down her throat right there as she moved her throat, allowing me past that little dam and into absolute heaven.
“Fuck,” I hissed and I couldn’t hold it back anymore.
I shoved into her mouth, forcing the last two inches in until her lips met my groin and she was silent save for the tiniest choking sound as her throat flexed and spasmed against my cock.
It took everything in me to pull out, to analyze her expression, taking in the dopey look in her tear-filled eyes and the way her mouth watered for more of me.
It was all I needed.
I pushed back in, harder now, faster. Anna opened wide for me as I pistoned my hips at a brutal rate. Her mouth filled with saliva, lubricating my slide and spilling over her bottom lip. Tears swelled at the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall.
But she never tapped out.
My beautiful fucking disaster.
I could see how hard she was working to take me, shifting the muscles of her throat, relaxing them. After a minute, her eyes grew hazy. She was drifting into another world, where all she had to do was submit to me and take what I gave her. It made her throat open even more for me.
I groaned loudly, shoving deeper. Her face was a sloppy mess, with her lipstick smeared all over my cock and tears streaming down the side of her face, messing up her make-up. I dragged a finger through her tears and brought it to my mouth, sucking in the salt taste of her.
Her eyes flashed with eagerness. I could still read her after all these years. She loved being used and praised for it.
I could sure as fuck give that to her.
Wrapping a hand around her throat, I forced my entire cock down her throat and stopped. Her muscles milked my tip so sweetly, it took all my strength not to come. Her eyes widened as she struggled to breathe, and I could see the panic in her face.
“It’s okay,” I soothed her. “Just a few more seconds. You can take it.”
I could see her relaxing, accepting it.
Trusting me .
I pulled out and she gasped for breath, her face covered in tears and smeared make-up. She looked so fucking sexy like that, I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to have her. I had to feel that perfect pussy wrapped around my cock right fucking now.
I lifted her and pushed her against the wall, her cheek pressed against the wallpaper. I yanked up her skirt over her hips so I could press my fingers against her panties.
“You’re fucking soaked for me, Anna,” I whispered against her neck.
Tearing her panties to the side, I spread the moisture and circled her clit. “Admit it,” I hissed. “You missed me. You missed this .”
Anna whimpered and arched her back to press her breasts against the wall. She was so needy, desperate for pressure against her nipples.
I ripped her panties off, the lace disintegrating in my hands. I lined up my cock with her entrance, teasing her with the tip.
“Say it,” I growled against her ear, remembering that first time. The way she wanted me so bad. How I’d said maybe we should wait but she was so eager to give herself to me. She wanted me to be her first and her last.
“Please,” she begged, just like she did that first time, but now there was no blush in her cheeks. No shy smile in her eyes as she pulled my hips to press against hers.
I want it to be you, she said, biting her lip in the cold sand. I always want it to be you.
Slowly, I sank into her. Her perfect pussy felt unreal, as hot and tight as it was our first time.
She whimpered underneath me as I stretched her wide.
“ Shh ,” I murmured. “They’ll hear you. Everyone in high society is right down the hall. You don’t want them to know I’ve got perfect Anna Vaughn split open on my cock.”
I emphasized the words with a hard thrust, bottoming out inside her. Anna squealed loudly before clamping her lips tight.
I would like nothing more than for every person at this stupid fucking gala to hear her cry out my name as she came on my cock.
“Go on, Anna,” I growled, feeling her juices seep down, staining the wallpaper and my thighs. “Let them hear you. Let them see who you belong to.”
She whimpered, keeping her lips pressed tight.
I pounded into her. I could feel her tight velvet sheath squeezing me as I slammed into it, over and over. She couldn’t hold back her whimpers and they grew louder with every one of my punishing thrusts.
And it dawned on me again that I had her. That she was mine.
Every part of her.
This ass. These glorious tits. Her perfect cunt.
And every sound out of her beautiful mouth.
Those were mine, too.
Mine .
I clamped my hand over her mouth, silencing her.
“Did you hear me, Anna?” I muttered. “I meant it when I said you were mine. That means this pussy is mine. All your sweet little cries, they’re mine, too. I’m the only one who gets to hear them. All of you is just for me.”
Her inner walls fluttered, and I knew she was close. I needed her to come on my cock. Shoving my other hand under her skirts, I found her clit and caressed it.
“Come for me, Anna,” I demanded.
With a shudder, she obeyed. Her pussy gripped me like a vise, impossibly wet and snug. I followed her right over the edge, my spend filling her in hot spurts. For a few moments, the whole world vanished. The only things left on earth were Anna and me.
We stayed there together, breathing hard while we came back down. I could feel the mixture of our release seeping out of her, coating her thighs. I had the sick urge to shove it back inside her.
We didn’t talk about birth control, and I didn’t waste time worrying about getting Anna pregnant. But now that her womb was full of my seed, I found that I liked the idea. Anna’s belly round with my child, letting anyone who saw her know she was mine.
She couldn’t leave me then.
She and I were always destined for each other. Nothing would tie us together more permanently than a baby that looked just like us. The image of her holding our baby sent a wave of something terrifyingly primal through me.
Both Anna and I came from fucked-up families, but that didn’t mean that we couldn’t create something better.
Of course, Anna wasn’t ready to think about that yet. She could barely admit that she belonged to me. Her future was already written in stone, but I’d wait for her to see it for herself.
Reluctantly, I pulled my softening cock out of her. I let her pull away from the wall and turned her around so I could give her the sweet, gentle kiss she’d earned.
“Go to the bathroom and wash your face,” I murmured.
“God.” Anna raised her hands to her face. “I must look terrible.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You look so fucking perfect.”
So fucking mine .
“I don’t want anyone seeing that but me. But you keep this inside of you.”
I gripped her pussy in my palm, making her thighs squeeze. “I want it dripping down your legs all night. No matter how many men look at you, I’m the one whose seed is in you. Remember that.”
She blushed and looked away from me, her jaw clenching. “This was a mistake, Carter. We’re never doing that again.”
“That’s not your decision to make.” I brushed her hair back from her face. “You don’t seem to get it, Anna. You made me a promise. You’re mine. That means you’re mine to take care of, and you’re mine to fuck, and you’re mine to love.”
She scowled at me. “Do you even know what that word means? I don’t want you, and I don’t want your bodyguards. If they keep following me around, I’ll call the police.”
“You think the police can help you?” I laughed loudly. “You don’t become as rich as I am without having the boys in blue in your back pocket. You aren’t safe, Anna, the bodyguards stay. End of discussion.”
Something in her hard look softened. “Look, I know I got attacked, but it was random. Just some guys who probably recognized me from the papers and wanted a ransom. Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. I’ll be more careful, just please, call off your dogs.”
She still didn’t know that her ex had every seedy motherfucker on the west coast on the lookout for her. It was better that way—knowing Anna, she’d probably walk right into his lair to demand he cut it out. She was too soft-hearted to know when someone was dangerous.
The fact that she’d just let me fuck her was proof of that.
“Here.”
I pulled a burner phone out of my pocket and shoved it into her hand. “This has my security team’s numbers in it. If you don’t want them following you, you can call them and tell them where you’re going to be before you get there so they can position themselves discreetly. You won’t even know they’re there.”
“ Carter .”
I smiled. “Yes, Anna?”
I wanted to give her the illusion of choice, but she looked so furious, I half expected her to hiss at me like a wet cat. Instead, she just shoved me back.
“I need you to leave me alone, okay? I can’t—we can’t keep doing this. Tell your security team to back off. And stop following me to charity events. It’s pathetic.”
With that, she spun on her heel and stomped away. I followed at a distance to make sure she made it to the bathroom unseen. I wasn’t above knocking someone out to expunge the memory of her sex painted face from their minds. That was my face.
My chest swelled with satisfaction. Anna might be furious with me, but I just realized she took the phone. And my seed was still deep inside her.
Was she on the pill?
Would she leave my cum inside her like I told her to or would she try to clean it out? I almost wanted to push my way into the women’s bathroom to make sure she did as she was told, but that was…
That was fucking crazy, even for me.
I pushed my hands through my hair, gripping it at the root to try to pull the thoughts from my head.
I didn’t even want kids. Never really had.
But something changed tonight. As soon as I came inside her, I knew there was nothing in the world that would stop me from planting myself in her so permanently that she could never tear out the roots.