Chapter 5 Mia
MIA
The heavy black fountain pen Elias gave me feels like a weapon in my hand. The cold metal anchors my grip with absolute permanence.
It scratches against the paper of the ledger, a rhythmic friction sounding too loud in the pressurized silence of the Vault. My spreadsheets on the screen blur into a neon headache. I keep writing. Stopping means looking at him.
And if I look at him, I’m going to climb him like a tree.
Elias paces behind me. Turning around isn't necessary to track his location. The sheer mass of him sucks the oxygen out of the room with every heavy thud of his boots on the concrete floor. A storm brews inside him, pressing hard against the glass.
"Stop counting," I demand, my throat dry after two hours without water.
The heavy boots halt. "I’m not counting."
"You are. Tracking my breaths makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up."
"Then breathe slower, Mia. Twenty-two inhales a minute is inefficient."
Spinning my chair around abruptly brings us face-to-face. "Inefficient? We just fed a ghost ledger to a sophisticated AI that’s been eating your club’s assets for eight months. A fast pulse is standard operating procedure."
Elias crowds the wall of filing cabinets, arms banded over his massive chest. The black t-shirt strains against his biceps, the fabric threatening to snap with his next inhale. Gray eyes lock onto my face with unblinking focus. A wolf deciding which limb to tear off first stares back at me.
"The upload is at ninety-eight percent," he murmurs, the low rumble vibrating through the steel floor and straight into my thighs. "Once it hits a hundred, the algorithm will chase its own tail for weeks. We bought time."
"We bought survival," I correct. Standing up stretches out the tight coil in my spine, giving the buzzing energy under my skin somewhere to go. My legs wobble, betraying the heavy ache pooling between my thighs. "Now we wait for the Feds to realize they’ve been chasing a phantom."
"We wait," he agrees, closing the distance by a single stride. The small space turns that simple movement into a declaration of war.
Thick air crackles around us, charged with heavy static. The tension becomes a physical weight, pressing the air from my lungs.
Skin and muscle remember the bruising grind of his hips pinning me against the cabinet a few hours ago. The phantom pressure of his hard cock remains branded on my stomach. Stopping took immense discipline. The Treasurer balances the books. The Treasurer doesn't make mistakes.
Looking at him now, blown pupils and a jaw clenched tight enough to snap iron tell a different story. Discipline won't hold much longer.
"Elias," I whisper.
Another heavy boot steps forward. "Mia."
Then the world ends.
A dull thump resonates from the ceiling through miles of dirt and concrete above us. The unmistakable shockwave of an explosion shakes the floorboards before a second blast hits. Rapid-fire pops of automatic gunfire filter down the ventilation shafts in muffled succession.
"Siege," Elias barks.
The lights die entirely, cutting off my response.
Pitch blackness slams into the room, creating an absolute void.
The steady vibration of the processors cuts out, quickly replaced by the high-pitched whine of backup generators kicking into gear.
Overhead bulbs remain entirely dead. Eerie blue shadows stretch from the dying glow of my laptop screen before the monitor flickers into nothingness as the lockdown protocol severs external power.
"Elias?" My throat constricts, my lungs seizing as the air turns to lead. Reaching out, my fingers grasp only empty space. "What’s happening?"
"Stay still." The deep command echoes off the surrounding walls.
"I can’t see anything."
"I know."
The distinctive snick of a latch opening precedes the heavy rustle of fabric. A soft whine of electronics powering up pierces the heavy silence.
"Talk to me."
"Costa," he spits. "Hitting the compound triggered the Vault’s security protocol. The heavy doors just sealed us in. We have no power and zero exits until the threat is neutralized."
My pulse hammers a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Men with automatic weapons are tearing apart the floors above us. The heavy metal box surrounding us is our only defense.
"We’re blind," I manage to force out through trembling lips.
"You are," Elias counters. "I’m not."
All movement stops.
Invisible heat radiates from his moving form. The pacing transforms into a predator's stalk. Boot steps land softer against the concrete, perfectly controlled.
"What do you mean?" I ask, backing up until my hips connect hard with the edge of the steel worktable.
"Night vision," he murmurs right in front of my face. "Standard issue for the Vault emergency kit. My sight is perfect, Mia."
The skin along my spine tightens into rigid gooseflesh. His augmented gaze tracks the rapid rise and fall of my chest. He can read my dilated pupils, uncovering the desperate hunger I haven’t been able to hide for the last twenty-six hours.
"Is that fair?"
"Fairness is irrelevant."
Heavy fingers grip my waist.
A harsh gasp rips out of me. The searing heat of his palm burns through the thin cotton of my cardigan, sliding up my ribcage to let a rough, calloused thumb trace the underwire of my bra before he squeezes my tits, marking the pale skin through the fabric.
I’m already drenched, my pussy throbbing in time with the gunfire above, desperate for the weight of him to crush me.
The pitch black forces my other senses into overdrive.
Leather and sharp, heavy sweat fill my lungs.
Ragged breathing replaces his usually controlled rhythm.
"Your pulse is racing," he observes, the statement hanging heavy in the dark.
"Yes."
"Because of the breach upstairs?"
"Yes."
The opposite hand clamps down on my hip, biting into the flesh hard enough to bruise. "Good. That adrenaline keeps you alive. Forget about the intruders. Nothing penetrates these walls. This room becomes a tomb for anyone trying to breach the door."
"They aren't the ones making me tremble right now," I admit into the dark void.
Furnace heat radiates from his face inches from mine. Rough lips brush the shell of my ear, sending a jolt of electricity straight to my clit. "Then who is causing that spike in your heart rate, little accountant?"
"You."
A deep rumble vibrates his solid chest against my soft curves. "Smart girl."
The dark silhouette shifts abruptly.
Calloused hands abandon my body, instantly bringing a rush of cold air to my skin. A violent crash shatters the silence. Heavy ledgers and the metal laptop get swept violently off the steel table, hitting the concrete floor with a chaotic clatter echoing off the walls.
"Elias—the files!" I protest, my vocal cords straining.
"Fuck the files," he snarls.
Iron grips my waist, lifting me effortlessly off the floor to slam me onto the surface. The cold steel bites into my thighs, a sharp contrast to his searing heat pressing between my parted knees.
"You’ve been destroying my focus for two days, little auditor. Every time you click that pen or chew your bottom lip until it’s bruised and red, you’re asking for this. You’re already mine, and your pussy is currently screaming for me to prove it."
"Elias." Reaching out, my palms collide with the solid rock of his shoulders.
Thick muscle bundles tight under the fabric.
Sliding my hands up his thick neck lets me tangle my fingers into the strands of his hair.
The total blindness demands constant physical contact to prove he's actually standing right here.
"Restraint was the initial plan," he rasps, his hot mouth finding the sensitive junction of my neck and shoulder.
Teeth bite down hard into the tendon. A loud cry tears from my throat as my spine arches off the table.
"Waiting until we exited the Vault seemed appropriate.
Courting you over dinner. But you ruined my math. "
Wet kisses drag up my throat, the coarse stubble scraping my skin raw. "You look stunning in this green tint, Mia. Your pupils are completely blown out. Biting that swollen lip again. Waiting for my cock?"
"Yes," I breathe. "Yes, damn it."
The punishing capture of my mouth launches a total raid on my senses.
A thick tongue sweeps past my teeth to ruthlessly taste the roof of my mouth.
Black coffee and salt coat my tastebuds.
Gripping his hair tight, I kiss him back with desperate force, letting the violent inferno between us burn away the sounds of the gunfire above.
A heavy grip tangles in the roots of my hair, tilting my head back to force the kiss deeper.
The opposite hand violently rips at the buttons of my cardigan.
Plastic pieces ping off the steel table to scatter across the concrete floor.
The ruined fabric falls away to expose my heated skin to the cool air.
Tearing his mouth away, the loud rip of heavy cotton fabric echoes in the dark. A massive, hair-roughened chest immediately crushes against my sensitive tits. My nipples peak into tight buds, begging for the rough friction of his pecs.
"You’re mine," he commands directly against my mouth. "Confirm it."
"I’m yours."
"Not just for the audit. Not just for a seventy-two-hour lock-in.
" Grabbing my wrist, he guides my palm down past the cold metal of his belt buckle to the thick, pulsing ridge of his cock straining against the heavy denim.
"Forever. Temporary isn't in my vocabulary. I balance the ledgers, Mia. You’re the only asset that makes the math work. "
"Elias, please," I beg, my hips bucking instinctively toward his thick length.
The loud jingle of the heavy metal buckle echoes sharply off the walls. The harsh drag of the zipper quickly gives way to the heat of his bare skin.