Endgame

Chapter 5 Everett

EVERETT

As we wait for her parents to pick up the phone, Aurora tenses in my lap. Her eyes are wide as she stares at me.

She hasn’t just stopped fighting me. She’s seeking comfort.

From me.

I don’t get to wonder why when Winston picks up, his ugly face appearing on my screen. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Everett?”

His eyes are squinted, his face beet red, his jaw twitching. He’s unraveling, practically growling at me.

I drink in the sight.

“Winston.” The moment his name leaves my lips, his wife shoves her face into the frame, green eyes blazing. She opens her mouth to interrupt, but I’m not having it. “Molly.”

“She doesn’t belong to you,” she spits out.

Strange choice of words.

As strange as the fact that she looks incredibly put together. Not a blonde hair slips out of her low ponytail. Her mascara is immaculate.

Anyone who cares about their children would’ve cried by now. She or her husband should have red-rimmed eyes. Worry lines would’ve wrinkled the corners of their eyes.

Their hair would’ve stood out in every direction.

The Clarkes are simply inconvenienced. Upset that I took their…belonging.

“That’s where you’re wrong.” A reflex has me tightening my grip on Aurora. My arm flexes around her. A demonstration of power. That’s all there is to this touch. “She does belong to me. Our marriage will be officiated tomorrow. Aren’t you going to congratulate us?”

“You’re not marrying her,” Aurora’s dad growls.

“Shut up, Winston.”

Another strange thing happens. At my clipped voice, Aurora’s tense body relaxes.

She’s leaning into me.

The weight of her gaze is there, heavy and burdensome. Begging me to…what?

She’s still fucking with me. Still playing me. This has to be it.

So why does it feel real?

She should be running to them for help. They’re her parents.

Then again…

The first time I saw Aurora as a woman, not a girl, was at one of the Royalty meetings. She was nineteen then.

Her expression was closed off. Condescending.

It didn’t make her any less mesmerizing. That blue gown clung to her body like it was made just for her. My fingers itched to curl around her neck.

Under different circumstances, I might’ve even liked her.

I was definitely obsessed with her.

Begrudgingly, my enemy has been the only woman on my mind ever since. I haven’t touched another woman in all that time.

But that’s beside the point.

The point is, she didn’t talk to anyone. I finally notice now that she never did.

Not even her parents.

Fuck. What am I missing here?

Nothing. Goddamn nothing.

She’s using her body to manipulate me, and for a second there, I let my cock take over my sense of mission.

Never again.

The emotional wall I’ve erected between us reminds me of why I’m doing this in the first place. For who.

My family.

Mine is dead, and I’m here to ruin theirs.

Winston takes a moment to recover, his gaze darting between me and his deceitful daughter. “Don’t you dare tell me to shut up.”

“Giving me orders, Winston?” Fuck my attraction to her. Fuck that pang in my chest. This is about revenge. “That’s rich.”

I slide my hand up her stomach, brushing my fingertips over her blouse and feeling the light weight of breast in my palm.

Winston’s face grows even redder, if that’s possible. Her mother gasps.

Aurora buries her face in my chest. But the poor, humiliated thing is too slow to hide her mouth against my shirt, and now all three of us hear her moan.

The sound and my obscene touch elicit a growl from her dad.

Unfortunately, he isn’t enraged enough, so I keep going up, up, up.

My hand clasps around Aurora’s throat. I don’t choke her. Don’t demand a life for a life. There’ll be time for that.

After I’m done playing with her. After I stop feeling so fucking poisoned by years of hate.

“You better not damage her,” he warns.

“Damage how?” I tighten my hold like I’m about to kill her. No one has to know that I won’t.

She yelps, her head snapping up to look at me.

Despite the pain and humiliation, she searches for me.

Maybe it’s shame that stops her from turning to her parents.

Fuck if I care.

I really don’t.

This little brat is just as rotten, just as condescending as they are. She shouldn’t have lived her comfortable rich-girl life. Her adoptive dad should’ve spent years in prison.

Yet here she is. Here they all are.

Alive and, finally, under my thumb.

“She belongs to us.” The vein on his throat bulges as he repeats his nonsense. “Bring her back here.”

When did kids become anyone’s property?

Well, not my problem.

She isn’t theirs anymore. She’s my fiancée. Mine to ruin.

Mine.

“Do you, princess? Belong to them?” I stare down at her, my voice low and biting. She doesn’t answer right away. I twist her face toward her parents, forcing her to look. “Look at them. Then tell me.”

Still no answer. My grip tightens slightly.

“Answer me.” When she’s quiet for a beat too long, I shake her by her throat. “Answer me.”

“N-no.” She casts her eyes down. Her pulse is deliciously quick. “No.”

“Aurora,” her mother warns.

Aurora’s shame is as exquisite as her parents’ indignance. I tilt her face up, my lips brushing her ear. “Who do you belong to, then?”

When I pull back, I see her blinking furiously. Tears line her eyes. Her teeth gnash.

“You.”

“Louder.”

Aurora surprises the hell out of me by clearing her throat and straightening her back as much as I allow.

She’s slipping back into the sharp, calculating version of herself I saw in court. In the Royalty meetings.

This unbroken version of her undermines everything I’ve worked for.

And goddammit, it’s hot as hell.

“You.” The word is a growl.

She says it more to them than to me. Like she’s relieved to be out of their reach.

This poisonous family’s business is none of my concern.

Molly scoffs, walking away from us. Winston doesn’t pay attention to his wife. “You’re going to pay for this.”

You’re going to pay for this.

Again, Aurora’s parents use the wrong phrasing.

No Why are you doing this? or If you want to hurt us, take one of us instead.

“See, I don’t think so.” I move my hand up Aurora’s jaw to the back of her head, until I’m tugging on her bun.

Her hair is soft. Her hot body is a distraction I try hard to set aside.

“What I’m going to do is marry this pretty little thing tomorrow at our bi-monthly meeting.

A few hours later, I’m going to fuck her vir—wait. Princess, are you a virgin?”

I haven’t considered it before, but now I need to know if another man has taken her cunt.

I’m not being territorial. I’m really not.

This is just another layer of my revenge plan.

Her dad says nothing.

I wouldn’t have been able to hear him anyway, because his daughter has stolen my entire attention. With her lips that part and close several times. With how she squirms in my lap, hardening my cock.

I want that to be all mine. All of her.

“Aurora.” Winston scoffs. “Keep your mouth shut. Don’t embarrass us.”

“I am,” she says, sounding as invested in hurting her father as I am. “I’m a virgin.”

“Good girl.” I shouldn’t be rubbing her nape. Her eyes shouldn’t flutter at the rough touch. But since our contact turns her father into a human tomato, I allow it. “As I was saying. I’m going to fuck her virgin cunt. That’s what’s going to happen.”

“We’ll see about that.”

His threats might work on young girls. On his employees.

I’m neither of those.

“Before you hang up, future father-in-law.”

Aurora gasps when I tug on her silky hair.

“Here’s a preview for tomorrow.”

Time stills as I twist my fiancée’s face to mine. I’m vicious, goddamn ruthless about tugging on her roots. On inhaling her sweet scent.

Please, stop, she mouths, wanting the words to reach me and only me.

I’m not in the mood to entertain her, even less so with my cock throbbing. With my temples pounding from wanting to ruin both her and him so bad.

“No.”

One breath. Then I crush my lips to hers while holding the phone up for her dad to see. Giving him a taste of my nightmares.

Taking what’s mine.

She screams into my mouth. Screams louder when my teeth pierce her bottom lip. I lean into the kiss, licking her delicious blood off her.

Fuck, she tastes good. Even her fists that pound against my chest feel like something else.

Like more.

I want that elusive more. More kissing, more biting, more taking from her.

I do it until the air in the room shifts.

Until Aurora gives in. She moans into my mouth. Opens her lips wider.

She’s hesitant and so sweet that I can’t help but rub my tongue against hers. Gently.

The background noise from the other line is silenced. Winston must’ve ended the call.

Now will be a good time to stop kissing her. I’ve gotten what I wanted. Winston, pissed. Aurora, hurt.

Wish I could. Lost in this moment, I drop my phone on the bed. Aurora’s cheeks are soft in my palms, the grip on her allowing me to change the angle of her face. To steal more of her.

The spoiled princess digs her fingers into my shirt as her tongue keeps testing, trying.

As if she’s never been kissed before.

I bite her, and she groans. She’s still surrendering to me. Still searching for me.

Fuck, I’m enjoying this.

This can’t be happening.

One more taste, and I flip her over onto her back. Aurora is pinned beneath me, whimpering, panting.

I really have to stop. I should leave her wanting.

Dammit. I—God, one more. Another one.

The more we kiss, the more I realize just how beautifully inexperienced she is.

I want out of this room.

I want to crawl under her skin.

Both of us are at war with one another. Lips clashing. Tongues fighting.

Her skirt is in the goddamn way. I shove it up her waist, push her knees apart, and settle between her legs.

Aurora is following my lead, and it turns me right the fuck on.

She loves the angry way I kiss her. The harsh bite of my fingers. When I sink my teeth into her bottom lip, her breath hitches before she moans Yes.