Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
MADS
I wake back up to this world to a rush of pain lighting up my spine only to find Domhn balls deep in my ass.
I have no idea where we are—or how long it’s fucking been since I’ve last been let out. Last I knew, I was running away for Donny’s own good, and now his hair is an inch longer, and oh yeah, he’s fucking me in the ass more deeply than I knew was even fucking possible.
Mmmm. Ohhh, god.
I arch my back and wrap my legs around his back, relishing the weight and feel of him stuffing me so full.
“Fingers,” I demand.
First things first.
His fingers immediately come to my clit.
Oh! Fuck! I’m so sensitive.
God, that’s good. So beyond good.
“Inside me, too,” I pant, already on the edge of coming, and I can tell it won’t be my first orgasm of the night. Since when has Anna been able to fuck Domhn? The thought makes me furious, but then other memories start to drip in as I dig at the wall between us.
That little bitch tried to get rid of me!
Fucking whore!
“Oh god, Donny, give it to me harder,” I cry.
But my words somehow flip some opposite switch. Domhnall freezes above me, eyes dark in the moonlit room.
“What?”
“You haven’t called me Donny in forever.”
I glare up at him. “I’ll call you whatever you want me too if you’ll finish fucking my ass and give me the hardest orgasm I’ve ever had in my goddamned life. Now are you gonna choke me, too, or fucking what?”
His gaze softens, and a wicked smile takes over his face.
Then one hand slides my T-shirt up my chest, exposing my breasts more fully to the cool night air before his fingers settle around my throat and start to squeeze.
“Your wish is my command.”
My head falls back to the pillow as he steals my air and really starts thrusting, hips grinding in that way that hits my clit while he fucks me deep and much rougher now.
Pleasure lights like sparking rockets behind my eyelids.
Goddamn.
I’ve missed you, love.
Domhnall wants to shower with me after the enthusiastic, rough sex that woke me. His eyes are still dark with that delicious hint of danger I love so much, his skin flushed from exertion.
“Let me join you,” he murmurs, voice still rough with desire despite how thoroughly I’ve exhausted him. His fingers brush my hip, leaving trails of fire across my skin.
“No,” I whisper back, pressing a kiss to his jawline, tasting salt and that unique flavor that’s purely him. “You should sleep. I’ll just wash off and be right back.”
I take longer than necessary in the shower, letting scalding water sluice over my body, washing away his delicious sticky cum.
He’d been such a messy, messy boy tonight.
I shiver remembering his grip on my hips, the way he’d growled in my ear before spilling himself deep inside me, then again an hour later when I’d pushed him past what he thought he could give.
The bathroom fills with steam, clouding the mirror and cocooning me in a private world of heat and falling water. I press my forehead against the cool tile, allowing myself one moment of weakness before reality crashes back.
I’ve been gone too long.
My face hardens as I peek back in the bedroom after my extended shower.
Yep, he’s finally asleep. He came twice, and I suspect once before I even woke up, so I figured he’d be out like a light.
His broad chest rises and falls in the steady rhythm of deep sleep, one arm flung across the space where I should be.
Something in my chest twists at the sight of him—vulnerable, trusting, completely unaware of the storm brewing around us.
I slide the door shut with excruciating care, then wipe off the fogged-up mirror with my towel, creating a clear circle in the condensation.
I stare hard at the face reflected back at me.
“What the fuck did you do to me, bitch?” I hiss at my reflection, though I’m not speaking to myself. I’ve been catching only fragmented glimpses through spotty memory, but now I relent and open a little space to let her out.
With her comes much clearer floods of memory, like a dam breaking in my mind.
I see exactly what Anna did with that fucking hypnotist to try to get rid of me for good.
The sessions, the techniques, the careful way she worked to erase me.
To eradicate me like I’m some fucking cancer instead of the part of us that’s kept us alive all these years.
“What?” the face in the mirror says back, Anna’s softer expression briefly overtaking mine. “You would have done it if you’d thought of it first.”
“You whore.” I slap her—slap us—feeling a sharp sting across my cheek. Then wince at the pain.
“Why are you hitting yourself?” she asks in a childish voice, mocking me.
I slap her again, harder this time, ignoring the fresh burst of pain. My palm leaves an angry red imprint on our cheek.
“Oh, stop it,” she says, impatience creeping into her tone. “Punishing me doesn’t do anything but hurt you. Get over it. We’ve got to work together.”
I laugh without amusement, the sound harsh and brittle in the steamy bathroom. “Burn in hell, bitch.”
“We’re not alone in here,” she says suddenly, her voice dropping to an urgent whisper. “I met another alter.”
That stops me cold. “What?” I bite out, my fingers curling around the edge of the sink.
“You went away, and another alter came out. I think someone came to the house and tried to hurt us. She...” Anna’s face in the mirror blinks and looks down, a flicker of genuine fear crossing her features. “She—the new alter—killed them.”
I feel my eyebrows lift, genuine surprise replacing anger. “No shit?”
Anna glares back at me in the mirror, her expression both disgusted and frightened. “No shit. She calls herself Red, and apparently, she killed some guy and chopped him up into tiny pieces. She used Domhn’s power tools, for Christ’s sake. God knows what she did with the body.”
“Hopefully she’s smart enough to hide it where no one will find it,” I muse, mind already calculating probabilities and contingencies. “Was she sloppy?”
Anna breathes out in frustration, but shakes her head tightly. “No. The opposite. Cold and calculated.”
I can’t help the grin that spreads across my face. “Sounds like my kind of girl.”
“She’s a murderer,” Anna says, her voice trembling with righteous indignation.
I shrug, droplets of water sliding down my bare shoulders.
“Not if she was being attacked. And we wouldn’t have even been in that position if you hadn’t been such a fucking idiot and gone back to where we had a giant target painted on us.
” My voice rises slightly before I force it back down, conscious of Domhnall sleeping just beyond the door.
“I was taking care of business and getting us out of there. It was just a matter of time before someone else from the past tracked us down. Frankly, I’m surprised there haven’t been more. ”
“Why do you think we’re out here in the middle of nowhere on a ‘surprise early honeymoon?’” She makes air quotes, her mouth twisting bitterly.
“At least you did one thing right. Well, two things,” I concede grudgingly. “You’ve been trying to get me back, haven’t you?”
She nods sourly, crossing our arms over our naked chest, goosebumps rising on our skin as the heat from the shower begins to dissipate.
“Well, now I’m here. And we’ve got to run like we should have in the first place.”
She drops her arms, her expression shifting to something almost pleading. “Not so fast. We can’t spend our whole lives running. Why don’t we just tell Domhn what’s going on? His whole business is security, he could—”
“No,” I cut her off, my voice like a knife.
“That’s exactly why we can’t involve him.
Donny’s gone white hat these days. We can’t drag him back into the black.
” I inhale sharply, the weight of what I’m about to say pressing down on me.
“If we do this, we do it the right way. You know who the fuck we’re dealing with.
There’s not a chance in hell I’m dragging Donny into any of this shit. ”
She sighs, her shoulders slumping in defeat. Then nods. “I know you’re right. I just...”
Her eyes in the mirror drift past me to the slight crack in the bathroom door, to where Domhnall sleeps distantly in the bed behind us. In the dim light, his profile is sharp and perfect, one arm still stretched across the empty space where I should be.
He’s beautiful, and so much more than perfect. Everything I never thought I could have. Everything I don’t deserve but somehow got anyway. For a little while.
I have to force a hardness that’s all pretense, because I have to be the strong one. That’s why Anna’s been calling to me and trying to pull me back out of the darkness.
She needs me to be the strong one.
It’s not just my role.
It’s who I am.
Strong, reckless, mad Madison. The one who gets things done and doesn’t weep about it afterward.
“We leave. Now,” I say, my voice leaving no room for argument.
I see the horror and pain in the mirror, and I don’t know if it’s Anna or me, but then I ruthlessly cut off the connection to her and take full control again. Her stupid fucking emotions are a liability we can’t afford right now.
I move through the bathroom silently, grabbing the plush hotel robe and slipping it on. I don’t pack a bag this time—we’re on borrowed time as it is.
I just change quickly into a pair of jeans and shirt, then take my purse with the fake passport and a wallet stuffed full of money I’ve been stashing away for exactly this scenario. I leave my phone and everything else behind. I need to be untraceable, a ghost sliding through the world.
I’m quiet as a mouse as I exit our suite, closing the door so slowly there’s barely any click as it latches shut behind me. My heart pounds in my ears, drowning out everything else as I move down the hallway, placing each bare foot with calculated precision.