Chapter Twenty-Two
Emerson
“I wish we didn’t have to leave,” I sighed, my head resting on Orion’s shoulder. We were on our way to Orion’s jet which would be taking us home and back to reality. “Responsibilities wait for us back in New York. And… complications.”
With one hand wrapped around my waist and the other balancing his phone, Orion shifted his focus to me. His brows pinched together. “Complications?” He studied me for a beat. “You mean Atlas?”
I wet my lips. “Yeah.”
Orion and I had been cocooned in a bubble the last few days. A heavenly, euphoric bubble. With him, the pressure of keeping it together, remaining in control, fighting my unforgiving thoughts… it was all gone.
With Orion, I was free. I didn’t have to think. I didn’t have to decide anything. I didn’t need to be alert and aware of everything.
My thoughts were always so loud, so consuming, but Orion silenced them. Being with him forced my mind to be quiet and peaceful because he was so damn demanding over every part of me.
And I love it.
Reality only threatened to pierce that bubble. Atlas would pierce the bubble.
“Atlas isn’t home for another three weeks,” Orion reminded me as the car came to a stop outside the De Luca Securities jet.
“But when he is?”
Orion smiled. He shoved his phone in his pocket and used his hand to cup my cheek, his thumb gently brushing over my bottom lip. I sighed contentedly, melting into his touch and the electrifying sparks that caressed my skin. “I told you, Tesoro. You’re mine now. Nothing will take you from me.”
“Atlas isn’t going to like it.”
“He doesn’t have to,” he said, his tone void of any concern. “He just has to accept it.”
The driver opened the passenger door and Orion stepped out, taking my hand and pulling me with him. The two pilots and cabin crew lined up along the jet, clearing a path for Orion and me to step onto the plush gray mat that read “ De Luca” in white italics and led us up the black aircraft steps.
“Mr. De Luca, Miss Fields,” the captain greeted with a nod of his head. The rest of the crew acknowledged us with polite smiles.
After returning their greetings, I let Orion guide me up the steps and into the plane. Sometimes, it was easy to forget just how much money Orion had .
Sure, he wore expensive Italian suits and designer loafers, had a $20,000 Cuban hanging around his neck, had a driver and security— who I never seem to see but he assures me is there— had house staff, and had an aura that screamed look at me, I’m rich as fuck , but it was easy to forget how rich was rich until you were boarding his private jet and saying hello to his personal crew.
The plane had white carpet with white leather seats along with black wood and a silver trim. It looked every bit the millions of dollars it probably cost him.
Leading me to a window seat, Orion reached over and fastened the seatbelt around my hips, tugging on the straps roughly to make sure it was secure.
Still leaning over me, his darkened eyes clashed with mine when a smirk drew on his lips. “No escaping now,” he whispered in a deep, rough tone.
I inhaled sharply. There was a hidden meaning behind those words. To anyone listening, he was talking about the seatbelt. But he and I both knew what he really meant: there was no escaping him.
But I wouldn’t even if I could.
It was not long before the plane took off and we began our ten-hour journey back to New York, and much to Orion’s reluctance, I continued firing question after question at him so I could understand the man beneath the lethal armor.
It was obvious to anyone who was paying attention that Orion despised talking about himself, but his hateful scowls and deep grunts didn’t quite have the same effect anymore.
Pretty sure he hates that more.
“My mother brought us here when I was eleven,” he said, and I braced myself because his tone and the tick in his jaw told me nothing about this story would be heart-warming. “She stole a trailer, and we lived in it for six months, parked in an abandoned warehouse in the Bronx. She got a job as a waitress in this shitty diner which the FDA eventually closed down, and she used the wages to buy drugs, while I looked after Avery and found us food.” Stole the food. “Anyway, I guess after six months we became too much of a burden, so she dropped us off at the 41 st Precinct and never looked back.”
“You never heard from her again?”
“No,” he said curtly. “Avery and I were put in the system and hopped from one foster family to the next, each worse than the last. She never attempted to find us, and I was never concerned with trying to find her. The day she left us was the day we stopped having a mother.”
“Orion, I—”
He cut me off with a look that translated to don’t you dare feel sorry for me, and although my heart was sinking, I gulped the words that threatened to spill back down like a bitter pill.
“It was a long time ago, Emmy.”
Orion’s mother was someone I’d never meet, but it didn’t stop me from hating her anyway. “Have you ever been back to Tropea?” I asked him, sensing his mother would be a topic we wouldn’t ever get further into, but that was more than okay. Behind the icy voice and the embers of anger darkening his sunburst eyes, there was a twelve-year-old boy who was deeply hurt by the woman who should have loved him unconditionally.
So, I changed the topic, not wanting to push him to share more than he was willing. I’d always wanted to go to Italy and knowing that was where Orion grew up made me even more infatuated with the idea. Though, I had a feeling it would be the last place he’d ever want to revisit.
“No,” he answered curtly. “It’s a place with nothing but shitty memories for me.”
My heart constricted even more. When you were raised with loving parents, it was easy to forget that others weren’t as fortunate. My parents didn’t choose to leave me and Atlas, but Orion’s did .
Of course, Orion’s dad hadn’t died on purpose. But he abused drugs to a dangerous level, knowing what the consequences of that could be. He didn’t choose to die per se, but he did make a choice, and with Orion in the house no less.
I squeezed the hand he was resting on my thigh. “We could make new ones.”
His hard eyes snapped to mine.
“Or not,” I added quickly, suddenly regretting sharing my thoughts. “I’m just saying if you ever did want to go back, you don’t have to go alone. I would go with you.”
He studied me for a beat, like he was reading my face in a language he couldn’t understand. God, those eyes. Those magnetic hazel-gray eyes that make me melt.
“You shouldn’t look at me like that,” he rasped, the edges of his sharp tone not as icy as he likely intended. There was a flicker of vulnerability swirling in his eyes that I’d never seen before, and it was enough to make my heart stop.
“Like what?”
“Like you see something that isn’t darkness.”
I reached out my hand, the tips of my fingers tracing his smooth jaw before settling in the back of his hair. My eyes locked with his, my gaze unwavering, wanting him to know I meant every word I was about to say. “I see the darkness, Orion. But I also see the beauty that you’re incapable of seeing.”
Orion was selective with those he let into his circle, but for those he did let in, his loyalty knew no bounds. He may not be the most patient or well-mannered person I’d ever met, but he was fiercely protective, passionate, attentive, and when his playful side surfaced… my heart was in for a world of trouble.
He blinked, and time seemed to stop for a moment. He watched me unnervingly, like he was waiting for something. But then, after a beat, his hand slid up to my seatbelt and he snapped it undone. He grasped my arm, yanking me to my feet, and pulled me towards the closed door at the back of the aisle .
I was barely through the door when it slammed shut behind me. He crowded me, pinning me against the door with his large frame. His eyes flared into gray storms, and he was looking at me like I was the next thing he planned to destroy. “That’s a pretty dress, Tesoro.”
Oh God, this man.
His voice did something absolutely unexplainable to me.
“Thank y—”
“Take it off.”
Hot.
I suddenly felt hot all over.
I blinked up at him, swallowing hard as heat rushed between my legs and the velvety tips of butterfly wings stroked the edges of my heart.
I did what he told me, slowly sliding the straps off my shoulders, letting the material fall in a pool around my feet while keeping my eyes cautiously trained on him.
He groaned, a dark, hungry look filtering across his face. Then in a swift movement, he lifted me and threw me on the king-sized bed that was pushed against the back wall.
Silky black sheets creased under me, and the recessed LED lights illuminated Orion’s features as he hovered on top of me. His eyes were so dark, endlessly dark like he’d swallowed all the light in my world. I ached for that darkness.
He brushed my hair out of my face, and whispered, “ Averti è avere le stelle .”
And then he kissed me.
He kissed me with all the power he could muster.
Like he was making up for all the seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, and years our lips hadn’t been touching. And I think maybe, if only for a second, the world around him no longer felt like it was burning.
Because it was now burning in mine.
And I welcomed it.
He pinned my arms above my head with one hand, and I arched my back into him. He nibbled down on my tongue and the sharp sting of pain quickly heightened my arousal. His other hand was everywhere, caressing every part of me, like it was studying every nook and cranny of my body, memorizing every curve of me. And then his fingers latched onto the corners of my thong and he pulled them down my legs. “Don’t move.”
My stomach fluttered, my hands still pinned above my head. “Okay.”
He smiled against my lips and sat up. “Good girl.”
I whimpered at his praise. Why? I didn’t know. But I knew I’d do some sick and twisted shit for Orion if he praised me for it. Because I wanted to please him. And when he called me a “good girl,” it felt like everything I did meant something to him.
I kept my arms above my head as I watched Orion open a drawer from the cabinet at the side of the bed. “What are you doing?” I asked. He pulled something from the drawer and turned back to me.
My eyes widened when he dangled a pair of handcuffs between us and a black, silky eye mask. “Do you trust me?”
Do I trust him?
The question was as ambiguous as the man who asked it, and while there were many things I had yet to learn about Orion, I did trust that he wouldn’t take advantage of my vulnerability. Despite the nagging voice driven from past experiences blaring in my mind like an air raid siren, Orion wasn’t Miles, and it didn’t require a high IQ to know that Orion was accustomed to taking what he wanted without permission, yet here he was seeking it anyway.
“Yes.”
He smiled, and I almost repeated myself just to see him do it again.
“Good.” He pressed a soft kiss against my lips. “Because I want you bound and at my mercy while I make you mine with every scream that comes from that pretty little mouth.”
My pulse started racing, my breathing ragged. But beyond the fear of the unknown, I was more than willing to give myself to him. To surrender to him, and free myself from the burdens that haunted me with every waking thought, because being at Orion’s mercy is the most at peace I’d felt in years.
He dropped the handcuffs and blindfold on the bed and gripped my hips, suddenly flipping me over so I was lying on my chest.
“Hands behind your back.”
I reached my hands down to my back, and he crossed my wrists over before the coldness of the handcuffs caressed my skin and I heard the sound of metal clicking.
Then his hand ran down my face and neck, pausing at my pulse. It was racing faster than ever, a sacrament only for him. Then he dropped his hand and darkness covered my eyes, taking away my sight.
“Jesus Christ,” he growled, the heat in his voice sending heat rippling between my legs. “If you could see yourself like this. Fucking beautiful.” His voice was rougher than it was a second ago and all I could do was moan in acceptance for whatever he planned to do with me.
Then he slapped my ass, making me jump and cry out. I went to sit up, but his hands pressed against my back, shoving me back down. I felt the dip of the bed when he moved backward and spread my legs, running his hands up my thighs.
My hips jumped when I suddenly felt his tongue dart out and lick my clit. Electric sparks ignited at the contact, my head spinning out into space and crashing against the pillow.
“Orion,” I breathed out, almost coming right then and there .
He pushed in a finger as his teeth scraped over my clit, before his tongue swirled back over me, and there was no stopping the loud moan escaping me. God, I hope the cabin crew can’t hear us.
His hum of approval fell on my skin. I whimpered, and his tongue started to swirl circles over my clit, sending my body straight into a frenzy as I struggled against the handcuffs. “Orion,” I gasped.
“So fucking sweet,” he growled, before sinking his teeth into my thigh, making me flinch with a soft cry.
His tongue descended on me again, his palms falling on the insides of my thighs, making sure I kept them open. I groaned, lifting my hips and pushing further into him, urging him to go faster, deeper, and when he did, my mouth parted, the cry ready to fall on my lips, and just like Orion said, I screamed his name into the pillow below me while earth-shattering pleasure caressed my skin from head to toe, and I no longer cared who heard me.
My body went lax and I could feel him shuffling behind me. I cried out when he slapped my ass again, making me jump. “Put my ass in the air,” he commanded.
Wiggling the best I could, I got up on my knees and spread them as wide as I could. Despite just coming, my pussy was pulsing, begging to be fucked.
Then I heard his zipper. And in less than a beat, he thrust his hard dick into me, stretching me with his large size and making me scream. It hurt. But in the most delicious heavenly way.
I whimpered over the sound of his strangled groan. He shoved my legs farther apart with his, leaned over my back, fisted my hair, and yanked my face back, fucking me roughly until we were both coming, tears were running down my face and my throat got sore from screaming his name.
It had been five days since Orion and I returned to New York.
I’d never been so sore in my life. We’d done nothing but have sex since we got back, making the most of having the apartment to ourselves before Atlas came home .
This thing between us, whatever it was, was addictive.
Orion is addictive.
Being with him was intoxicating, in the very best way. Orion endorsed my fantasies while awakening desires in me that I didn’t know my body was craving. Little by little, the trauma-enforced boundaries I’d built crumbled into ash, and with every brush of Orion’s touch, the impenetrable hold Miles had on me got weaker.
The voice in my head no longer begged to stay in the comfort of what we knew and trusted, instead choosing to break free of Miles’ harrowing shackles and trusting Orion to take the lead .
And honestly, I had the best orgasm of my life when he welcomed me into the world of asphyxiation. The release of control, and surrendering to him, was incredible.
I was always so in my head. It was exhausting. Draining, even.
But with Orion, when I let him dominate me, I was giving myself over to him in a way where I had no control. All I could do was take what he gave. But it was still my choice to do that.
For some, giving up control may seem like Hell. But it wasn’t Hell if you liked the way it burned.
I could relinquish my burdens, and let Orion do all the thinking for me.
It was freeing .
The freest I’d felt since my parents died.
And I got the impression the difference in me was noticeable because right now, Clover was watching me through suspicious eyes as she sipped her margarita. “You look different.”
I chuckled, holding her gaze. “I have a tan.”
“No,” she leaned closer, our noses almost touching. “That’s not it.”
“Well—”
“You got laid!” she burst out, far too loudly, and despite the music blaring in the background, everyone in the bar seemed to have heard and were now staring at us through judgmental eyes.
I pressed my lips together to stifle my laugh. “Nice, Clover. Real nice.” I rolled my eyes. She was bouncing on her chair like an excited puppy, eagerly waiting for the details.
“So?” She pushed, her brow lined with curiosity. “Was it that real estate hottie Avery set you up with?”
Theon.
“No…” I drawled, taking a big swig of my drink when Clover frowned in confusion. Even though I wanted to speak with Atlas first, looking at Clover made me realize how unrealistic that was. Atlas wasn’t home for another three weeks, and while we may have been able to hold off a suspecting Avery, I couldn’t lie to my best friend. “Orion.”
Well, there goes waiting to tell Atlas.
Clover’s jaw practically collided with the table. We stared at each other for a stretched-out second, her trying to process the news and me anxiously tapping my foot against the bar stool.
“What about what he said at the office?”
After Orion’s confusing outburst at De Luca Securities, I’d rang Clover on my way home and told her everything. I shrugged, sheepishly. “Guess he changed his mind.”
And then, the corners of her lips twitched up and we were both suddenly laughing like a pair of crazy people.
“Tell me everything ,” she demanded, shuffling in her seat to get comfortable. “Don’t you dare miss a single detail. ”
So, I did. Starting from the insufferable journey to Santorini, right until I left to meet up with her. It had been a whirlwind forthree weeks since Atlas left, to say the least.
And I was pretty certain the whirlwind would continue when Orion realized I changed my outfit after he left.
“Holy shit.”
All I could say was “I know” followed by a dreamy sigh.
“I knew something would happen between you both. When he saw you with that guy at the bar, he looked like he was gonna explode.” Clover chortled at the memory, popping an olive in her mouth. “Do you think Avery put you both in a room on purpose?”
“Probably,” I laughed. Avery seemed to know far more than she let on. “I’m sure that’s why she tried setting me up with Theon too. I should thank her for that, actually. I had the best sex of my life that night. Well, every night since.”
Clover’s lips tugged into an amused smirk, her brow arching as her eyes narrowed. “Damn, that good, huh?”
I nodded, hiding my bottom lip between my teeth. “Have you ever tried breath play?”
She blinked, looking at me like she was seeing me for the first time. “No,” she dragged out the word, skepticism etching into the grooves of her face. “ But I’ve heard it’s hot as fuck.”
I blew out a deep breath, a familiar heat traveled between my legs at the reminder. “One hundred percent, you need to try it.”
“On it.” She nodded. “You know Atlas is gonna be pissed, right?”
“Yeah.” I drummed my fingers against my glass, the thought had been on my mind since we returned. “He’s my brother, and I love him more than anything. He’s done so much for me, and I’d hate to hurt him. But can he really be that pissed when he’s done the same thing?”
Clover tilted her head. She looked at me with furrowed brows, as if she had no clue what I was talking about. Guess I missed out on a detail. “How so?”
“Avery and Atlas,” I told her. “They were a thing before she married Jonah.”
“What?” Clover choked, her eyes bulging out of their sockets, before she broke out into a shocked laugh. “This shit just keeps getting better and better. Did Orion know?”
“Nope, but he does now.”
“Ah, shit. How did he take it?”
Way better than I thought he would. “Honestly? He was more pissed that he’d been distancing himself from me out of respect for Atlas when it seems he didn’t need to.”
“I get that.” Clover pursed her lips, casually shrugging her shoulder. “But you know Atlas isn’t going to see it that way, right? After what happened with Miles, if you ever spoke to another guy again it would be too soon.”
“That’s what I’m concerned about.” Dread settled in the pit of my stomach, clawing at me from the inside out. “God, I feel sick.”
“You’re not pregnant, are you?”
A brief rush of sadness filled me, but I pushed it aside.
“You’ve got to stop accusing me of being pregnant every time I feel nauseous.”
Clover flashed me an amused smile, before brushing me off with a wave of her hand. “Maybe because he already knows Orion so well, it won’t be too bad?”
Again, that’s what I was concerned about. Orion didn’t exactly have the cleanest rap sheet, and I had a feeling Atlas knew his history.
Maybe that should scare me, but it didn’t. I only knew bits and pieces about Orion’s upbringing, and from what I did know, the people who hurt him deserved everything they got.
Why should Orion apologize for being the person he became? No one apologized for making him that way. We all have our demons; he just chose to feed his.
After all, black hearts weren’t born black. They were burned. And maybe Orion was bad, but when he smiled, it was impossible not to see the good in him.
I twisted my lips and ran my hand through my hair. “That might not work in this case.”
“Why not?”
“Orion…” I hesitated, trying to choose my words wisely. “Let’s just say his past has made him slightly unethical in his tactics for handling… issues. But you know, the more I understand him, the more his red flags aren’t looking so red anymore.”
“Bitch, that’s called being color-blind,” Clover joked, casting me a laughing glance. “But I’ve never seen you so happy, and I’m sure Atlas will agree.”
We exchanged a knowing look. Atlas will not agree.