Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
T he red carpet event is a necessity.
It’s a showing of a release by one of the production companies owned by Stanic Maxim, and if we don’t make an appearance, then hell will rain down on us. Celeste all but promised retaliation, and despite such a tight deadline to begin with, we’ve got to carve out the time for the song and dance.
It’s going to be a bitch to plaster on a smile and pretend life is perfect. The press is going to have a field day about this regardless, as I’ll be showing up as Empire’s plus-one.
Tapping my foot against the floor, I wait for Empire to acknowledge me. Wait for her to say something about the ear nip. She says nothing.
“Nine,” I repeat, the walls of the trailer closing in around us.
If I stay any longer, then I’m going to do something. I’ve got too much pent-up energy, too much aggression, to keep my hands to myself. Dealing with Celeste and watching the shit show on set only makes me more tense.
I spent my time at rehearsal torn between watching Empire make a fool of herself and getting the details of the evening set up.
One of my grunts delivered a Giorgio Armani Privé antique rose silk gown to her parents’ mansion, and the stylists would be on hand waiting for her arrival. Dinner would have to wait for a bit, until we get to the showing.
I rush back to my apartment and change into the suit I’d had delivered during my absence.
This would have gone a whole lot smoother with Sherry around to handle the details. She’s a fucking whiz at those things, always says it comes from her many years of experience. Experience doing what, though, she’s never told me.
Normally I give her a vague idea of what I want, when I need it, and she delivers. Never complains. Never tells me to shove it up my ass or says the responsibility is too much.
It adds an air of mystery to every interaction, and honestly, I’ve come to appreciate Sherry more than I’ve ever admitted to myself.
Absence does make the heart grow fonder.
I wonder what it says about me and Empire. I lean against the closed door of the town car, the driver waiting inside. I don’t want any absence from her. In fact, every second I spend in her company only makes my heart beat fucking faster. Like I’m constantly poised on the edge of dropping dead.
Can lust kill you?
If so, I’m in a prime position to find out.
Nine on the dot, the front door opens up, Empire leaning hard against the glass to prop herself up. Her body is angled oddly. Alarm bells clang inside my head. She’s perfect, her hair a riot of blonde curls and her makeup perfection. The stylist went with a smoky eye and a nude lip to really show off the dress—
She’s not wearing the dress I picked out for her. I narrow my eyes, taking her in in all her woozy glory.
Empire trips over her own feet on her way to the car, the heels adding six extra inches to her height. The train of the dress she picked instead tangles around the ice-pick heels, and she stumbles forward. The train might be massive, but the front of the skirt is cut to midthigh length. High enough that if she moves wrong, the entire world will see whatever panties she’s wearing.
My dick twitches at the thought before rage blots out the rest of my better judgment.
What happened to the dress I sent over?
This one is the wrong shade of green for her coloring, a bit too yellow for her skin tone. Chosen, no doubt, to fucking taunt my high-handedness.
I hustle forward and grab for her when she lists forward dangerously. “What did you do?” It comes out much harsher than I want.
She snarls at me, her cheeks red, too flushed to be from makeup alone. “Shove off, Marcus.”
She’s slurring her words again, and reality crashes down. Fuck me, did she seriously get drunk again before tonight’s viewing?
“Wow, very succinct of you.” I practically force her into the back seat and grab the seat belt, pulling it tight before she’s had a chance to get comfortable. “What did you do, break into a liquor store? I can’t leave you alone for a second.”
“Would it be more succinct to tell you to go fuck yourself?” She settles back in the seat, fixing her hair that doesn’t need to be fixed. She adjusts herself, pulling the strap tighter across her breasts, the cut of this dress showing more cleavage than the one I picked out.
Tits and ass. That’s what this city is about, isn’t it?
The thought of Empire on display for every Tom, Dick, and fucking Harry fills me with fury.
“Bitchy and belligerent isn’t a good look for you,” I add.
She scoffs, the sound loud enough for me to hear even outside the car. “Scolding me isn’t going to get you your way this time. I told you I don’t want to do this.”
I round the car and open the opposite door. “I told you that you don’t have a choice,” I say, dropping into the seat beside her. Two taps have the driver pulling away from the house. “This is part of what we have to do with the regime change. Fighting against it will only get you hurt.”
She tips her head back and laughs. “Hurt? I live there. I can handle anything.”
“Except your liquor, apparently.” My voice is dry and dies in the back of my throat when she rests her hand on my leg.
I’ll never know what the fuck happened to me in the next five seconds.
Not when Empire flips over, the seat belt gone as she maneuvers those long legs on either side of my hips. Suddenly she’s on my lap with my dick hardening to full mast.
She’s got me caged now.
Not like I want to go anywhere. She’s close enough for me to smell the alcohol on her breath and see the way her eyes go dark with desire. The heat already between us flips up to full blast as she presses her tits to my chest.
“What are you going to do now, Marcus?” she whispers. “You want to scold me again? Tell me what a bad girl I’ve been?”
She gets in my face, nipping her teeth in the air in front of my chin. It takes everything I’ve got, control hard won, to keep my hands where they are instead of touching her. My fingers clench, and my tendons tighten. Stay still .
The heat from her pussy is all-encompassing. Fuck me, I want to bury myself inside that heat.
“What if I tell you I’m not going tonight? I’m not going to let you dress me up like your tart and parade me around for people to see,” she adds.
Whatever she’s playing at, she’s got me by the balls. If I move, if I so much as breathe, then I’m going to touch her, and then all bets are off.
“You did a great job dressing yourself like a tart,” I mutter.
Longing builds in my chest, my cock hardening to the point of pain when she pushes against me. Arching those hips strategically and circling me. My mouth goes dry. I practically swallow my tongue.
“You fucking like it.”
I growl, “Spoiled brat.”
She tries to push against me like she’s the dominant one here. Fine. With a growl, I push her off me, her body splayed across my lap like a gift. Her ass underneath the damn bustle shifts enticingly.
I yank her hair and use it to force her exactly where I want her. It’s awkward, strange, and I’ve got her exactly where I want her.
Empire yelps, but I refuse to let go of her hair.
A small flick of fabric bares her ass to me, the train up against the small of her back and her legs kicking out into the open air. She’s mewling, complaining without merit, and wearing a goddamn thong that’s basically nothing. My pulse whooshes in my ears, cock throbbing with need and making it difficult to think about anything except her.
My blood boils for her.
How long have I been fighting to convince myself she was better off without me? That this is nothing but physical and she means nothing outside of that?
What harm will it do to push the envelope a little further?
Growling, gripping her hair possessively, I bring my left palm down on her ass hard. Her cheek jiggles, and my mouth waters.
“Is this what you hoped for? By pushing me this way?” I redden her ass. An easy thing to do with the barely there dress she’s got on. “Is this what you want, Em? You want me to spank you like you’re a bad girl?”
“Yes.”
I barely hear her answer through the roaring of blood in my ears. Damn, this is better than a porn. Better than any other woman I’ve had on my lap.
I push her down even farther, my cock pressing against her belly. She swallows over a gasp, then groans when I slide my fingers between her legs against the wetness of her panties.
She’s dripping wet already. The crotch is soaked, and she shivers when I start to stroke her with my thumb.
“Marcus, please.”
“Shut your mouth.” It’s not a request, and Empire falls silent, but she wiggles, a physical request for more. For everything.
The outside world might as well not exist. Even the driver on the other side of the partition. There’s only the heat between her legs and the way her pussy clenches around my finger when I slip it beneath her panties.
Her keening mewls get louder as I stroke her, holding her in place while I take my pleasure.
“You are so fucking hot.” The sweet heat of her pussy is a dream, and my dick is so hard I’m afraid I’m going to come in my pants.
That’s a look for the red carpet, all right.
“Marcus, please.” She arches again, her ass close enough for me to bite.
To take a piece out of her, here in our stolen moment…
I’m panting hard and not sure whether she wants me to stop or continue. Sliding my finger in and out of her tight hole, I add a second one along with the first and crook both to glide against her pulsing muscles.
There’s something beautiful about the combination of pleasure and pain, and Empire knows it now. I slap her ass again before shoving my fingers inside harder. Even as she glares defiantly at me over her shoulder like she’d rather be in any other place than here.
“I know this is what you want. You’re not going to get it.” As abruptly as I fingered her, I withdraw, lingering just above her entrance until she sucks in a breath. Watching me hungrily.
I catch a flash of myself in the reflection from the window, the street lights outside providing a snapshot of us. A frozen tableau of a perfect peachy ass lifted in the air, her wetness dripping down her legs and my fingers glistening, poised to fill her again.My expression is unreadable.
“You’re not going to do anything about it.” Empire wiggles her ass, drawing my attention back to her. “You’re all talk and no game. You act like you’re this horrible man who uses people, but you never actually do it. You’re only good for talk.”
She knows exactly how to press my buttons. We stare at each other.
“You’re not fucking wrong.”
Feelings aren’t something I’m used to acknowledging, and right now, it would be so easy to forget them. Forget everything and take what I want from her. We’re alone in the back of the car for a reason.
I can slam into her like this—a quick angle change is all it would take. Take her from behind and let lust dominate my actions. I can use her the way she wants to be used and press her face into the leather, watching the way the orgasm screws her face while I come inside her wet hot cunt.
Instead, I bend down, biting her ass hard enough to leave an imprint of teeth. Empire moans as I lick the area and tease the top of her panties without ever moving forward a second time. The smell of her desire intoxicates me.
The car slows, and the red carpet filters into view, nearly blocked by the press of so many bodies in one spot. Shuddering, trying to get myself under control, I pull Empire back into her seat, straightening her dress and cleaning her up. A small tear worked its way free from her eyes.
“The next time I tell you to do something, you do it,” I warn, snarling in her ear.
It’s work to ignore the flash of defiance in her eyes and all the ways I’d love to fuck it out of her.
“You’re going to wear the dress, smile for the cameras, and act like you don’t have a goddamn care in the world. Now grab a mint and get yourself together.”
There’s no waiting for her to respond. Once she’s gotten herself under control, it’s time for the show to begin, and I escort her out toward the party like I’m not on the edge of losing my shit and fucking her stupid.