Chapter 11 #2
They all wanted revenge.
“Jared?” North asked as Jared helped him up. “Are you all right?”
“You mean over the lies you’re telling me?”
He didn’t believe that North would betray him. He was his one constant. The single person Jared relied on.
North couldn’t betray him. Or Jared might just fall apart.
But even if North hadn’t admitted that there was something he was keeping from Jared, he’d known it in the way he was disappearing.
Sometimes he did that. But he usually told Jared where he was going and when he’d be back.
Not this time.
He’d been gone and Jared had had no idea when he’d be back or where he was.
Fuck.
He’d been worried about the secretive bastard. Even though North could take care of himself.
Jared was a possessive asshole. He knew he could be smothering. He tried not to do it to North, knowing that he didn’t like him taking charge around outside of play.
Jared had planned to just talk to him, but then he’d caught the scent of something sweet.
Like strawberries and cream.
And it had gone straight to his dick. Something he really hadn’t liked.
North smelled like he’d been holding something delicious.
Without permission.
And why did that smell turn Jared on so much?
Those were questions he’d had rolling around in his brain as he’d wrapped his hand around North’s neck, squeezing tight.
He knew that North liked that sort of rough play. But he’d also been completely intoxicated by that scent.
North wouldn’t cheat on him. North couldn’t tolerate most people.
Just Jared.
He was the only one that North allowed close.
Except this woman must have been close in order to get her scent on him.
So who was she?
Yeah. Those questions were going to burn a hole in his gut.
“I will tell you soon. And when I do . . . well, you might hate me. But you’ll also like what I have for you.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, North. What have you done?”
North shrugged. “What had to be done.”
“Why won’t you tell me now?”
“I’m not quite ready.”
Yeah. Jared didn’t like that either. But he decided to keep quiet.
For the moment.
With North, you couldn’t force him to do anything. And if you tried, it could backfire on you.
So he’d wait and he’d bide his time.
He expected North would cave soon. The guy couldn’t go that long without coming, right?
“Go shower,” Jared ordered in a harsher voice than he’d intended.
North stood with a nod and headed into the bathroom. Jared watched him for a long moment, studying his sexy sub.
He was all lean muscle and grace. North was a good actor. He liked to pretend to be mild-mannered and weak in front of others.
But Jared had seen him murder a man with his bare hands without breaking into a sweat.
He picked up North’s clothes and held them to his nose, sniffing. There was something about this scent.
Glancing down, he took in his already firm cock. He hadn’t recovered this quickly since he was a teenager.
That was interesting.
Dropping North’s clothes, Jared followed him into the bathroom. Stripping, he stepped into the shower behind the other man and grabbed his ass cheeks, squeezing before slapping them hard.
“Hands on the shower wall,” Jared ordered as he grabbed some lube they kept in the shower and squirted it onto his hand.
North groaned as Jared reached around and started to pump his cock.
“What is it, boy? Do you need to come?”
“Yes,” North groaned.
“That’s unfortunate for you, isn’t it? Because you don’t get to come until you tell me why you smelled like a woman had been rubbing against you.” Jared slapped his ass cheek with his free hand, making North stiffen.
Then he bit down sharply on the lobe of his ear.
“Fuck,” North said.
Yeah, his boy liked a bit of pain with his pleasure.
Not that he was getting too much pleasure.
“Bend over,” Jared ordered.
“Christ, you’re going to kill me.”
“That would be too simple. I’m going to torture you until you spill your secret.”
“And then you’ll likely kill me,” North muttered.
“North, for fuck’s sake, what have you done?” Jared demanded.
North just shook his head and bent over. Jared lubed his fingers again and pressed two deep into the other man’s ass, making him moan.
Jared knew that North could stay absolutely quiet if he wanted. That he could easily pretend to be unaffected.
That he gave him some real reactions was a testament to how much North felt for him.
Even if he’d never admit it.
He moved his fingers in and out of the other man’s ass.
Fuck. He couldn’t wait much longer. Withdrawing his fingers, he washed them off in the water then coated his cock in lube.
Then he pushed the head of his dick against North’s back hole. Staring down at his cock he watched as he pushed himself between North’s ass cheeks.
The other man sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, forcing himself to relax as Jared pushed his way deep inside him.
Fuck.
It felt so damn good. Why was it always like this? On the cusp of being too good.
Maybe because you don’t deserve anything good.
Then again, North would deeply object to being called good. That was maybe part of the reason that Jared allowed himself to have North.
He was a lot like Jared.
Without morals.
Dark and dangerous.
Without any concerns about following the law or being a good person.
Another part of it was that he knew North could take care of himself. Nothing would harm him because North wouldn’t allow it.
North still did dangerous things. Stuff that Jared hated. If he could, he’d keep him locked up at home.
Safe and secure.
But North had threatened to leave him the one and only time he’d tried that.
Now, Jared knew better.
That was why Jared couldn’t have anyone else in his life. No one soft or sweet or innocent.
No. He’d never have that in his life again.
And Beltran was going to pay for taking that from him. He was going to die.
Only then could the stain on Jared’s soul be erased. Or at least lessened.
“You know how much you mean to me, right?” Jared asked, unable to stop himself.
He grasped hold of North’s hips as he drove himself in and out of his ass.
Fuck.
It felt so damn good.
“You shouldn’t,” North gritted out.
“That doesn’t change the fact that you do. So you better fucking take care of yourself, North. I expect you to always come back to me. Understand? There is no leaving me. You. Are. Mine.”
“Jared,” North warned.
“No. I don’t give a fuck if that goes against your beliefs. If you think I shouldn’t care. If you don’t care if you live or die. I fucking care. And you get yourself hurt or killed; I will fucking torture you in the afterlife. Get me?”
“Yeah,” North groaned. “I understand you. But you need to understand that you cannot coddle and smother me. I’m not delicate. I’m not weak or without my own skills.”
“I know. That’s why I let myself care about you. Because I know you’re fucking hard to kill.”
That didn’t mean something couldn’t happen to him.
Jared moved faster. “Things are ramping up with the search for Beltran. You need to keep safe.”
You need to let me keep you safe.
The words were unspoken but heard between them.
“Beltran is in a different country.”
“You know that’s no barrier to him getting what he wants.”
“He doesn’t know about our relationship. No one does.”
“Not true. I’m certain that Tabby knows.” Not that he was worried about his cousin sharing his secrets. She was the only other person he cared about other than this man. And he had things in place should shit fire up. “That means others might too.”
Yeah.
“And he might target you because of that. Fuck, that feels good.”
“I need to come.”
Slap! Slap!
He smacked the side of North’s thigh. “You don’t get to come.”
“You fucking bastard,” North told him in a flat voice.
“That’s me. Do you need me to rub your dick?”
“What? No, I do fucking not,” North told him.
“Promise me that you’re being careful.”
“Jared,” North warned.
Jared knew he was close to the edge of what North would tolerate from him.
“I know. I get it. But I cannot lose you and you know why.”
If he did, Jared might lose what part of his sanity he had left.
Definitely any of his humanity.
Losing his people had changed him. Warped him. It had left him cold and unfeeling.
Except when it came to him. North.
Or when it came to his cousin, Tabby.
Or her.
No. He wasn’t thinking about her. Angie wouldn’t be a part of his life. She was exactly the sort of entanglement that he was trying to avoid.
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” North told him. “Stop fucking worrying.”
He couldn’t help it.
Especially when North was hiding things from him.
Jared decided to let it drop before he drove North away from him and instead he concentrated of fucking him with hard, fast strokes until his balls tightened and he fell over the edge with a cry.
He closed his eyes, letting the pleasure wash through him.
Fuck.
Finally, he stepped back and washed his body, his dick. He wanted to wash North, to take the other man into his arms and hug him tight.
But he knew that wouldn’t be well received.
North wasn’t a cuddly-feely guy.
They finished in the shower, then he got dressed in his boxers and pants. They were basically alone in the house; there would be a guard at each door and then more roaming the grounds.
But he didn’t allow them in the house.
This was their private space. The only other people in here regularly were Rex, their cook. And Mary, who came to clean once a week.
After giving North a quick smack on the ass and saying good night, he headed down the hall to his bedroom.
But this didn’t feel like it was over.
Not at all.
North brought out his phone as soon as Jared left.
Fuck.
He had come close to telling Jared what was going on. That man knew how to push all of his buttons. He’d come closer than anyone had before to making North lose control.
And he’d been fucking tortured before. Waterboarded, sliced open, he’d experienced electrical shocks.
Nothing had brought him closer to cracking than Jared and his edict that North wasn’t to come.
How was he going to survive this?
At this point he wasn’t even sure why he was keeping her locked up, away from Jared.
Maybe he should just hand her over? But it didn’t feel right yet. He needed her to submit first. To know that she wasn’t going to run.
At least that’s what he told himself.
Christ. He lay back on the bed and held onto his shaft. His cock felt so hard and his balls were aching. He tapped the app for the cameras in her . . . apartment.
Okay, it was a basement dungeon.
And she was his prisoner.
Who was currently still awake and reading one of the books he’d left for her. What was she still doing awake at two in the morning? She looked exhausted.
And he hadn’t been lying before when he’d told her that she looked like a stiff wind might knock her over. Yet, the food he’d left her seemed to be untouched.
How had the sleeping pills worn off so quickly? He figured she’d be out all night.
He hit the button for the speaker without thought.
“What are you doing awake? And why haven’t you eaten?”
She seemed to jump, glancing around with a frown. And then she held up her hand, with the middle finger raised. She moved her hand around, probably to ensure that he got a good look at her reply. Then she lowered her hand and continued reading.
This brat.
His hand actually flexed as though imagining that it was spanking her butt.
Fuck.
That wasn’t him. He didn’t Top sassy brats. And he certainly didn’t punish them.
His punishments tended to involve far more than just pain. And they certainly did not come with aftercare.
“Go to sleep. And eat your dinner.”
He left the app before he could say anything more.
His finger hovered over the app that he had buried deep in his phone.
The secure messaging service that Jared knew nothing about. He opened the message, praying that it had changed.
Because this message was the main drive for him bringing Angie here.
V: You are being reactivated. Your new order is to kill Jared Bartolli.
Yep. He’d brought Angie here so that Jared would have someone to love when North had to disappear.
Because there was no disobeying an order.
And there was no way he could kill Jared.