Chapter 16 – CARTER
16
CARTER
N ormally, driving along the oceanside highway was the highlight at the end of my workday.
Of course, it was harder to relax when I could hear Anna’s fists pounding against the trunk door. I should have bound her hands with my tie so she couldn’t hurt herself. She was already shaken up enough from earlier, and she was only going to upset herself more.
This wasn’t how I pictured bringing Anna to my home for the first time, but desperate times called for kidnapping the love of your life.
When Paulson called me this morning, telling me Anna had slipped out of his surveillance, I knew in my gut that something had gone wrong. Fortunately, Anna brought her phone with her, with all my tracking measures on it. I canceled all my meetings and drove right to her.
My hand tightened on the steering wheel as I remembered how I found her. Trembling and terrified, lost so far inside of herself that I could only see the phantom of her in her eyes. She didn’t have to tell me what happened; it was obvious that Jaden made a pass at her.
That he touched my little siren.
The rage I felt could have destroyed fucking worlds.
To be honest, I couldn’t remember if the filth was still breathing when I left.
I broke every finger on his right hand one by one.
By the time I broke the last one, he was delirious with pain and hyperventilating. His vocal cords too frayed to keep screaming. I might’ve left him like that if he hadn’t said what he did after I was finished.
“She’s just some rich slut, man,” he’d croaked as I turned to walk away. “Are you really going to go to prison for some?—”
I hadn’t let him finish repeating that heresy.
I wasn’t going to go to prison. I had friends in high places and powerful enemies in my back pocket. But I’d spend a life sentence behind bars if it meant I could systematically destroy every man who ever hurt her. Whoever touched her. Whoever had the fucking idiocy to think for one second that she belonged to them.
I’d go with a smile.
I left Jaden slumped and motionless on the floor, pausing only to make a quick call to my good pal Ruarc Monroe’s cleanup team before I left to follow my girl.
If Jaden survived and still had at least some mental capacity, he’d leave the state before I could come back and truly sate my frustrations.
But he’d have to wait.
Anna needed me.
I saw where she went in that studio and it wasn’t a good place. I remembered the darkest moments of our nights on the beach. The moments where she looked at the water like it might be a relief to walk into the midnight crosscurrent and let herself be taken under rather than go home.
After I brought her back from that place, she needed to be punished.
She couldn’t keep putting herself in danger.
She couldn’t keep slipping her guards.
And there was a part of me that wanted to punish her for more than that. I wanted to punish her for what she did six years ago.
Anna Vaughn acted like I ripped her heart out and walked away unscathed.
But no. When I ripped her heart out, I cut mine from my chest with it and buried them both in the sand. And every day I couldn’t find her was another day our hearts were left to decay in the dirt.
When I reached the road to my villa, I turned in smoothly. The gates opened automatically for my car, and my chest flooded with satisfaction when they closed behind me. Now, Anna was safe inside my impregnable security system. Nobody could hurt her here.
For now, Anna was all mine.
I parked and turned off the engine, but was greeted with silence. Apparently, Anna was done screaming and trying to destroy my three hundred thousand dollar car.
She was probably saving her energy to fight me off as soon as she was freed.
I opened the trunk, ready for her to start hissing and scratching. Instead, she ignored me entirely, reaching past my outstretched hand to grip the rim of the trunk and push herself to her feet.
Her hair was mussed, and her white dress was all twisted. Bedraggled as she looked, she still sneered at me like the queen she was.
“We’re at my villa,” I explained, retracting my hand. “Are you going to walk inside with me, or do I have to throw you over my shoulder again?”
“I’ll walk.”
I re-extended a hand to help step down but she ignored me again, stubbornly clambering out of the trunk and straightening her dress.
She stumbled a little on the landing, but brushed it off. Head high, she strolled right up to the front door of my villa with a stomp in every step.
I felt a rush of satisfaction, seeing Anna open the door to my home. It was her home, too, even if she didn’t know it yet. Everything I had was always going to be hers.
We entered the foyer, and I saw Anna’s eyes catch on the white sculptural art hanging from the ceiling. With her photographer’s eye, I knew she’d be entranced by my substantial art collection. I grinned, thinking about the massive paintings, sculptures, and lightwork waiting for her.
Ignoring the staircase going upstairs, Anna moved forward into the living room which I barely ever used. Nobody came to my house. I didn’t have friends— nobody I trusted enough to invite here. I didn’t bring women here either. Didn’t want them getting the idea that they might be welcome to come back.
Yet I knew Anna would love it. Subconsciously, I built the whole place with her in mind just as I built myself. Laying brick after brick with red-stained mortar until I was everything Hudson Vaughn told me I would never be and more.
As Anna looked at the architecture, I could hear the gasp she tried to swallow. She was impressed, even if she didn’t want to be. Her heels clacked on the wooden floor, as she slowly made her way further inside, looking up at the ceiling and moldings. Her eyes widened as she took in the warm wood, the walls of windows with seaside views, the luxurious couches of butter-soft leather.
Before I bought this villa, I visited all the most expensive homes in the city with my architect and decorator. I’d even gotten a look at Hudson Vaughn’s house while he and Michelle were traveling. I might not have Anna’s eye for design, but I had a mission.
Whatever they had, I wanted better.
I bought the biggest property available on the same beach as the Vaughns then ordered my team to build the most spectacular home in town. The result was a modern, luxurious villa with extensive balconies. Looking out the window to the right, I could see my infinity pool and personal tennis court. To the left, the stone garden and closed-in gazebo big enough to fit a football team for dinner.
And right ahead of us, through the bay windows: the beach. Just how we left it six years ago.
Anna took it all in thoughtfully.
“Big house,” she said noncommittally, an edge still in her voice. “People might think you’re compensating for something.”
A smile tugged at my lips.
“I think you know that I’m well-equipped in all areas,” I said, brushing my hand over her lower back.
Anna leapt back at the touch. She gasped in a shaky breath, and the blood drained from her face.
I frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Anna didn’t answer. She stumbled back another few steps, her green eyes fixed on some distant spot. It was like she’d collapsed in on herself again and I promised myself that if the fucker who touched her in that studio wasn’t dead, I’d go back there and finish him the first chance I got.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on him. I had to take care of my little siren.
“Sit down,” I told her gently. “Let me get you a glass of water.”
She sank down on the couch while I moved quickly to the kitchen and filled her a glass.
Anna’s eyes were squeezed shut when I returned. She was trying to force back her tears, but I wanted them to fall. She should trust me enough to be fragile in front of me. I knelt in front of her and pressed the glass of water into her hands.
“Drink.”
She took a deep breath and obeyed, but not before cutting me a sharp glare.
I rubbed my thumb over her knee in soft, comforting circles and this time she didn’t pull away.
“I know you’re going to anyway, but please don’t,” she whispered.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t lecture me about trusting Jaden. I already feel like enough of an idiot without you?—”
“You weren’t an idiot.”
I surged up onto the couch and pulled her into my lap, wrapping my arms around her. She sunk into my embrace, tucking her face into the crook of my arm.
She sobbed silently, soaking the fabric of my shirt.
“You weren’t an idiot,” I repeated firmly. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“But I always do this. I trust the wrong people, and they take advantage,” her voice was so low, I could barely hear it. “And it’s your fault.”
I hugged her tighter to me and she sniffed, digging her fingernails into my arm like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to pull me closer or hurt me. I was fine with either as long as she didn’t leave.
She sniffed. “It all started with you .”
Something in my stomach tightened because I knew she could be right. I broke her heart just like I was told to and then she went off trying to fill the void I left behind with anyone who could put a temporary bandage on the pain.
I did this.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered into her hair. “I’m sorry, Anna.”
I should have known that her reaction was about more than just the photographer. She was still processing memories of the asshole who abused her.
I felt in awe of the woman in my arms. She was so goddamn brave, trying to rebuild her own life after what she’d been through. Strong enough to put herself back in the cage she left knowing she could leave again when she needed to.
A week ago, I watched with fury as she crawled back to her father, letting him parade her around, lie about where she’d been, try to marry her off to men who were pathetically unworthy of her.
Now, I knew how much she needed me. I would protect her from everything.
I held Anna tight until her tears stopped flowing. Her breaths slowed, and her body relaxed against mine. Even after she stopped crying, she made no attempt to move.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Better,” she said, sighing as he pulled out of my embrace. “But I’m not going to thank you. Not after you threw me in your trunk. I can’t believe you did that.”
Then she really wasn’t going to believe this.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” I echoed. “Because I’m going to need to punish you for that little stunt this morning.”
Her whole body stiffened.
“I’m not punishing you for trusting Jaden,” I said, stroking her hair. “But I will have to punish you for evading your bodyguards. For going off on your own after I warned you that you needed protecting.”
“Punish me?” Her eyes narrowed and when I didn’t balk, they widened. “You’re serious.”
“Yes, Anna.”
Her throat bobbed and she worried the edge of her dress between her fingers.
She wasn’t refusing, I realized with a lick of electricity flicking down my spine, a column of white fire that went straight to my greedy cock.
She wants this.
Maybe even needs it.
“Do you trust me?”
A little knot formed between her brows, but she didn’t answer me.
I felt myself frown.
She might not be able to trust me with her heart just yet, but as I drew the back of my index finger down her arm, provoking a shiver, I knew she understood my meaning.
Do you trust me with your body?
Anna nodded tentatively, flinching as if admitting it in that small motion was some sort of betrayal of herself when in fact it was acceptance. I just needed to show her.
I reached out to push her hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear before wrapping my fingers around the back of her neck, guiding her to bend forward until she was lying over my lap.
Her back arched with anticipation, her hips propped up over my thighs while her face sunk into the couch cushion at my side.
I dragged up the hem of her sundress to pile at the small of her back and as the air kissed her round ass, she sucked in a gasp and curled her fingers into the sofa cushions.
Unlike the dangerous lace number she hid beneath her clothes at the last charity event, this time my Anna wore sensible taupe briefs. No sexy underwear for her business meeting, where she didn’t expect to see me .
Such a good girl.
I hummed in approval while I dragged my hand over the juicy curve of her ass. Anna shivered when I drew the tip of my index finger along the line of where the silky panties met her upper thigh.
“I’m going to punish you now, Anna. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she replies, her voice muffled by the cushions.
I hooked my fingers over the edge of her panties and slowly dragged them down to puddle around her thighs. Her pretty little pussy was already glistening for me, inviting my fingers to trace it.
But that would have to wait.
My cock jumped beneath her and I knew she felt it as she twitched, arching her back further, pressing her face tighter to the cushions.
I raised my hand and brought it down on her left cheek, the satisfying slap of my palm cracking on her ass dragging a groan from my throat.
Anna winced at the impact, but otherwise sat silently. That wouldn’t do.
“I want to hear you, Anna,” I purred. “I need to know the message is sinking in.”
I spanked her again on the other cheek. This time, she let out a small yelp. My cock throbbed at the sound. I know she could feel how hard I was getting against her stomach.
“There you go, little siren.”
I rubbed out the sting, satisfied as her pale flesh started to bloom with red.
I hit her again and she gasped before moaning loudly.
With each blow, Anna was louder, releasing all the pain and fear as she let go.
She stopped tensing between strikes, her muscles relaxing the more I painted her cheeks red.
She looked so gorgeous, so alive . Her pussy was so wet, I could see her juices leaking onto her thighs. Onto my designer sofa.
Fuck, I wanted to bury my face between her legs and stay there for days. I loved her like this, all messy and undone.
I was tempted not to let her go. I could force her to stay in my villa and let me take care of her. I’d get her all the photography supplies she needed and keep her safe from her ex. At night, I’d fill her pretty cunt with my cum again and again. Just breed her until my seed took and her belly swelled.
The image of her with my baby in her practically made me feral, my veins burning and teeth grinding with unspent desire.
When I delivered her the final spank, Anna shrieked my name, her voice watery as it echoed against the high ceilings. I lightly massaged her ass.
“You took that so well,” I told her. “Your ass looks gorgeous, all pink for me. How do you feel?”
“I feel…calm,” she said, betraying herself with a sniffle. “Why do I feel calm?”
“Of course you do, baby.”
I duck my head to press a kiss between her shoulder blades. “This is right . We’re right together.”
She turned her head to the side, and I could see that little knot trying to reform between her eyes. I ached to smooth it back out.
Stop doubting us, little siren.
For one fleeting second I thought she was going to say something else. Ask me a question I wasn’t sure I could answer. One she hadn’t asked me since she rematerialized in my life.
Why.
Why did I break her heart?
Before she could summon up the courage to ask questions I couldn’t answer, I wiped an errant tear from her cheek. “Now, it’s time for your reward.”
“I get a reward?”
I could hear the teasing in her voice.
“Yes.”
I parted her legs with my hands and finally let myself touch her wet cunt.
Anna gasped, her thighs instinctively trying to close around my hand. I took my time exploring every crease, watching as my fingers got wetter until they glistened with her arousal.
Without warning, I plunged two fingers inside her.
She keened, her back arching at the sensation as I began to pump my fingers slowly in and out. Her pussy gripped me tight, trying to keep me deep inside her. I watched my Anna wriggle and moan deliciously while I finger-fucked her.
“Show me,” I muttered. “Come on my fingers and show me how much you love me touching you.”
I hooked a finger downward to press against the raised spot inside her, and Anna’s eyes turned down, fluttering to nothing but slits as she took the pleasure I gave just as well as she took her punishment.
Her little sounds started to bloom into a crescendo, and I pushed her there, working her sweet little cunt until it was a tool of my destruction just as much as it was an instrument of hers.
“That’s my good fucking girl. So fucking wet for me. I can feel you milking my fingers, little siren.”
The more I talked, the more I felt her walls shudder flex around my fingers. She liked this. Good. Because I would never tire of praising my future wife.
Her gasps turned to cries and she squirmed against the force of her pleasure, trying to escape it.
I leaned my forearm across her back, pressing her down, holding her still while I finger fucked her pussy until she was screaming.
“Oh god, Carter!”
Her thighs clenched, and I felt the exact moment she came, her slippery cunt squeezing me tight, spasming, quivering as she fought through her orgasm, legs shaking.
Mine . I gave that to her.
And I wasn’t stopping there.
No fucking way.
I barely gave her half a minute to come down before pulling her up for a rough kiss on the mouth.
Guiding her off my lap and shakily to her feet, I leaned over my knees to watch her. “Take your dress off.”
I shrugged out of my jacket and tossed it away, steepling my fingers against my lips as her bright eyes flicked over me, drinking me in as if I were a dream personified.
If she didn’t take that dress off right fucking?—
She reached behind her neck to unzip the top before reaching for the hem to pull it up over her head, revealing inch by inch more and more of my territory.
A landscape I fully fucking intended to capture, cultivate, and build my forever home on.
I undid the buttons on my shirt and pulled it off. Her gaze felt like a physical touch as she traced the lines of my muscles and the shadows of my tattoos.
“You’re beautiful,” she said, sounding dazed.
I smirked. My body was muscular, but it was also scarred. Some of the scars Anna had already seen, remnants of my childhood. Others were fresher, thicker. I had lived a violent life, and my skin was the proof of it.
Her brows lowered as she took in some of the ink on my right arm and I wondered if she was putting together their meaning.
The ship heading into a storm, like the lyrics of the song she declared our song when we were seventeen.
The shattered diamond for the one time she joked about wishing she could smash every diamond her father insisted on buying her and forcing her to wear.
The jellyfish that stung me when we took a midnight swim and she insisted she had to pee on it or I would die.
There was very little ink on my body that wasn’t in some way tied to her . Each tattoo reminded me of my goal, kept my eyes on the prize: become a man even more powerful than Hudson Vaughn. A man he couldn’t touch. A man who could protect his daughter better than any other man on this fucking planet.
It felt obscene to be shirtless next to Anna, with her perfect posture and willowy figure. But she bore marks of violence, too. The bruises on her back were almost healed, but still yellow. Her wrists were red from the ropes that had tied them.
She wouldn’t scar, not physically. With time, her skin would heal. But she would carry that violence with her for the rest of her life.
The urge to imprison her in my villa surged up again. Here, no one could hurt her.
No one except me.
With her dress discarded, Anna kicked off her panties and unhooked the matching sensible bra, her breasts dropping into soft, heavy peaks that I wanted to get my mouth on more than I wanted air.
Her hands were on me before I could get my pants off.
“I wanted to touch you before,” she said, sliding onto my lap, drawing her fingernails over my heart. “But you wouldn’t let me.”
“You can touch me now,” I promised. This was her reward and I wouldn’t put a limit on it. Not like the others. “Everywhere. As much as you want.”
She did, her hands slowly mapping my body, teaching me lessons in patience I didn’t ask to learn, but would swallow if it meant I could keep her once I was a learned man.
My little siren lingered on every scar she’d never seen. It was almost like she’d memorized me as I once was, and wanted to remap everything she missed.
When she ran her fingers down the V of my hip bones, I gritted my teeth to stop myself from grabbing her. It was her turn to use me just how she wanted.
Anna started undoing my belt, her movements painfully slow. If it weren’t for her own quickened breath, I’d think she was torturing me. Finally, she loosened the buckle and undid the button underneath. She pulled down my pants and underwear, my cock springing free, hard as granite for her.
“What does this symbol mean?” she asked, tracing the sharp intertwined lines at the base of my cock, making me clench my teeth.
I smirked at her. If she didn’t see it, it meant she wasn’t ready to. “I’ll tell you sometime.”
She bit her lip and looked up at me through her lashes.
“Tell me what you want, Anna, and it’s yours.”
A muscle in her jaw ticked and something desperate and vulnerable crossed her eyes.
“You.”
That was all I needed to hear. I pushed us up to standing, wrapping her legs around my waist, using my cock like a shelf under her warm, wet cunt to hold her up as I pressed her against the glass windows overlooking the beach and stole a vicious kiss from her lips, biting her lower lip until I heard her whimper.
Fuck. I would never get tired of kissing her.
Grabbing her wrists, I let her legs drop and spun her to face the water, grabbing onto the swell of her hips.
“You see our beach?” I muttered, nipping her ear.
“Yes,” she said with a hitch in her voice. “It hasn’t changed.”
“Nothing really does.”
Lining up my cock, I slowly slid inside her. We both groaned at the friction.
Nothing had changed. Anna and I are just as good together as we ever were, just as right.
She was still mine.
I took my time pulling out and easing back in, filling her.
She stretched beautifully around me and made small little sighs and whimpers.
Once, it took a substantial amount of work to get my length fully buried in her heat. That first time and the times after it, we’d needed to work it in inch by delicious inch. It was torture and I spent most nights without her training for our next encounter with my fist and her image painted on the back of my eyelids.
But now…
Now she took me so well. Every thick inch with only little whimpers of pain-laced pleasure as she adjusted. As I hit that spot so deep in her I doubted any other man had ever touched it.
Watching my cock slide in and out of her made my thighs shake and my back tense with the need to plant that fucking flag on conquered ground, but I held back.
In front of us, the ocean crashed against the sand in huge, unstoppable waves. That beach was an intrinsic part of Anna and I, and neither of us could ever rip it out. We were violence and force, water clashing with the earth. Elemental.
Inevitable.
Her walls trembled around me and I knew she was close. I lowered my hand between us to strum her clit, and my fingers were instantly soaked in her.
“Carter,” she gasped. “I’m going to…”
“I know, baby.” I kissed her neck roughly. “Me, too.”
Anna came violently at the admission, clenching around my cock as she threw her head back onto my shoulder and brokenly moaned a string of curses.
That was all I needed to fall over the edge with her, my spend pumping into her in strong spurts. I groaned and lowered my face to her neck, burying my face in her trademark scent as I rode the aftershocks of the quake still quieting inside me.
I summoned enough strength to pull out of her with a grimace, wishing I could stay buried in her forever.
Carrying her over to the couch, I pulled her down onto the cushions with me, tucking her in against my chest, contouring my body to hers.
She still fit so perfectly against me, her head tucked just under my chin. We lay there quietly until our breaths synced. I waited to soften, but my cock barely lost any of its steel as we lay like that.
I felt our releases leaking out of her where she was pressed to my upper thigh and suppressed a scowl. Shifting, I reached to steer my cock back between her thighs.
She wriggled, sighing sleepily. “Carter, I?—”
“Shh,” I whispered against her neck. “Just let me keep it in a little longer.”
My little siren didn’t protest again as I slipped back into her warmth, not allowing myself to give in to the urge to take her again. I envisioned the wide head of my cock pushing my seed as deep as it could go, keeping it there for as long as it needed to stay to fulfill its purpose.
I wanted to ask her if she was on birth control, but I wasn’t sure what I’d do if I didn’t like the answer. Was it the pill? Did she keep it on her? Maybe in her purse in the chauffeur’s car? I could get rid of it. But what if it was one of those IUDs?
Could I pull it out without her noticing?
I shivered at the thought, mixed feelings of disgust at myself and primal satisfaction warring for dominion.
“What are you thinking?,” Anna murmured, shifting slightly so I could see her face but not enough to dislodge my cock.
“You’re perfect.”
I propped myself up on an elbow to study her in the aftermath. Her skin was pretty and flushed, our joined bodies glistening with sweat and her release. I could see the liquid rolling down onto her thighs, a mix of both our cum. I frowned, pulling my cock out only long enough to catch the roll of pearlescent liquid with my tip and push it back up inside her.
Her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”
“I want you to keep my seed inside you,” I said honestly.
“Why?” she asked, raising a brow, sounding amused. Unworried.
IUD then. Must be.
I didn’t answer; she wasn’t ready to hear the truth yet.
Anna sighed, apparently writing it off as just some new facet of my obsession with her. She played with her hair and gazed out at the ocean while I angled my hips to better lock my hilt against her and wondered what the chances were of getting pregnant with one of those things inside her.
“Oh shit,” she said, trying to move, but I held her against me, not letting her go. Not yet. “Carter, my photos. When you picked me up I dropped them all over the?—”
“I got them.”
“You what?”
“I picked them up after I put you in the trunk. They’re in my car.”
She sagged back down against me, falling silent for a minute before breaking the silence again.
“Are you going to keep me here?” she asked, her voice distant, as if she wouldn’t be all that opposed to it.
I refused to let myself hope.
She looked wary, uncertain of what she wanted my answer to be.
I was tempted to drag her up to my bedroom, throw her in and lock the door. I could keep her forever, making sure she’s safe, from her ex’s hired kidnappers and her father’s manipulative plans.
But that’s not how I wanted her. I wanted Anna to choose me. Like I chose her.
Already, she was drawing closer to me. She’d let me see her broken, vulnerable, and crying. She’d let me spank her. Inevitably, she’d figure out that I was what she needed.
“You can stay here as long as you want,” I offered.
Anna bit her lower lip. “I think I want to go home.”
The fire in my veins turned to ice, and I shielded the still regrowing thing in my chest from the frost.
“Dad has security there, and I…I need some time to think. I won’t slip your bodyguards again the next time I go out.”
Letting my relief chip away at my disappointment, I dipped my head and nodded against her cheek, sighing. “I’ll drive you home, then,” I vowed. “In a little while.”