Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
S AINT
Hell, does she look good. My eyes eat her up, and my body heats. Before, my heartbeat was racing because of adrenaline. Now, it’s racing for a whole different reason. Emerald’s hair is piled on her head, and those green eyes that have haunted me since she first vanished without a trace narrow. “Time to take you home. Get your stuff together.”
I can tell she’s far from thrilled about my fake fiancée plan, but that’s the least of my worries right now. I don’t know what it is about her that makes me feel so out of control. She’s complicated, like a game of chess. She’s a play I want to conquer, a game I want to win. But she doesn't trust me after all the lies I’ve told. She probably doesn't even like me now that I’ve pulled this stunt to make her my fiancée. Turning on my heel, I stand in the doorway, arms crossed over my chest. My eyes watch as a few bodies across the parking lot enter their rooms. I take stock of everything. Keeping my surroundings in focus at all times.
I can see her looking toward the bathroom. “Don’t even think about the bathroom window. You’ll get yourself stuck, and we’re on a timetable,” I clip without turning to face her.
She huffs, and I smirk. The relief running through me right now is its own high, but it’s battling with my bubbling agitation. We’re not safe yet. She pulls her hair out from the bun as she tugs on some warmer clothes clothes. Greedily, I take her in. The flare of her hips, the curves of her legs, the way her jeans cling to her thighs. I turn my face back to the hallway.
“Ready,” she says.
“Good. Let’s go.”
The car ride is tense and thick with things neither of us is going to say. Fine by me. Because it’s enough to just have her in that seat across from me. Alive. Breathing.
I know she’s worried about returning to New York. Terrified that it’ll put the kids in danger. But I’ll never let anything happen to her or those kids.
Inhaling sharply, my hand tightens on the steering wheel as her chocolate mint scent fills my nostrils.
I keep a close eye on her as I drive. Given any opportunity, she’s gonna take off again—and I’m fucking tired.
Tired of worrying.
Tired of not sleeping, knowing that she could be lying in a ditch.
Tired of feeling helpless and out of control…
As I drive, I tell her my plans. “We’ll stay at a hotel tonight. I have a house in Venetiville, and we can move in there tomorrow. But this evening, I’m having people work through the night to get some rooms furnished for the kids. It’s already late, and the kids will be asleep by now, so we’ll swing by and pick them up tomorrow.”
“We have to live together?” I hear the shock in her voice.
“You’re my fiancée now, and you’re moving in with me. That’s the only way I can keep you safe.”
She opens her mouth to protest but then stops herself, knowing from the hard look on my face that I’m not going to take no for an answer.
We drive in silence for a while until Emerald finally says something. “I’ve missed Milena, Giulietta, and Jaspar. So much . That’s the only good thing about coming back to New York—that I’ll be with them again and be able to take care of them.”
* * *
When we get to the hotel, I show her the room I booked. It’s a gorgeous suite, but there’s only one bedroom…and one bed.
“We’re having, um, separate rooms, right?” she asks.
“No. I need to keep an eye on you at night.”
Her mouth drops open, but seeing that I’m not going to change my mind, she takes her bag and heads into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
When I hear the taps turn on, I drag a hand down my face. It’ll be a miracle if she doesn’t shove me off the bed tonight as soon as I’m asleep.
Laying back, I stare at the ceiling. I hear a splash which must be her getting into the tub, and after a few minutes, the scent of bath oils drifts under the bathroom door into the bedroom.
I try to use my work emails to distract me from the thought of her soaking in the tub, all naked, wet, and slippery…
After thirty minutes, she still hasn’t reappeared, and I’m starting to wonder what she’s up to. “Emerald?” I call out.
But there’s no answer.
I get up and prowl toward the bathroom door. “Emerald? I knock on the door.
But when there’s still no response, a sense of unease prickles within me, and I fling open the door.
And I see why she didn’t answer. She’s got earbuds in and is listening to music. She’s standing in the tub, her back to me, just about to get out.
Her whole gorgeous body is on show.
She glances over her shoulder and blushes as she sees me watching. “Oh…I’ll be out in a minute.” Her back is still to me as she reaches for a towel.
And I can’t stop staring. I can see her full ass, beautiful hips, those thick thighs, and all those gorgeous curves. Every bit of her is goddamn perfect.
But that’s not what I’m staring at.
There’s something else that my gaze is glued to.
That I can’t stop staring at.
The breath sticks in my throat.
Because on her back is a mark.
A mark in the shape of a buckle.
A fucking belt buckle.
What the fuck? Anger roars to life inside me and races through my veins. “Who the hell did that to you, Emerald?”
When she realizes what I’m staring at, the flush on her cheeks deepens, and she quickly wraps the towel around herself before climbing out.
“ Emerald ?”
“It was my mom’s boyfriend, Enzo. He did it the night before we moved out. He was drunk and…” She shrugs, but I can see it’s very painful for her to talk about it.
I’m speechless for a few moments. The fucking coward. “The bastard. If he ever lays a finger on you again?—”
“He won’t. We moved out the next day. Honestly, if I knew he was capable of lashing out with a belt, I would have moved us in with a friend before that. My blood runs cold every time I think of what could have happened to the kids. Before I left, I told him if he ever tried something like that again, I still had a key to the apartment. And that I had a serum I’d inject him with while he slept, and it would shrivel his dick to the size of a pea.”
My eyes widen into saucers. “Where the hell did you get a serum like that?”
She shrugs. “From the drugstore.”
I’m silent for a few moments. “You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not. I really did get a serum from there.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.”
“Jesus,” I mutter.
“Although it was actually a vitamin B12 booster shot,” she adds.
I burst out laughing.
She gives a smile. “I just wish I’d thought to threaten something similar when he slapped my sister, Milena. At least I was able to keep that from happening again.”
And with that, Emerald walks past me and into the bedroom. “All yours.”
She moves to rifle through her bag as I stand in the doorway.
My eyes roam over every curve now on display as she bends.
Bobby Fischer, Alexander Alekhine, Anatoly Karpov , Magnus Carlsen. I chant the names of the greatest chess players in my head in an attempt to distract myself from my thoughts of Emerald.
Shaking my head, I walk over to turn on the water. And one cold shower later, I emerge to find Emerald sitting on the bed, dressed in sleep shorts and a tee, and flipping through the channels on the TV. I’m wearing boxers and my black T-shirt is thrown over my shoulder. I don’t say anything as I rub my hair with the towel, sitting down on the edge of the bed that I assume is now considered my side.
Her gaze is glued to some infomercial.
I lie back against the pillows, my arm tucked behind my head, closing my eyes to rest them. It’s been a long goddamn day, and I can feel the exhaustion weighing me down, but I’ll be damned if I fall asleep before her and give her the chance to skip out on me and get into more trouble.
I look over at her and see her watching me. There’s a look in her eyes and a subtle hitch in her breathing.
I reach over and roll her onto her back, trapping her beneath my body. My hand roaming her exposed calves, inching higher and higher.
She’s expecting me to carry on upward, but instead I haul her to her feet.
I drag her over to face the huge floor to ceiling windows which offers a beautiful view of the city around us. We’re only on the seventh floor, so we can see the people below who are still out enjoying the bars and restaurants at this late hour.
She’s so damn sexy. And the last taste of her I got started an addiction that I have to chase.
I grip her T-shirt and tug it over her head. I want her naked. Naked and writhing for my tongue.
“Saint, someone might see…”
“Let me take care of you, baby…” My lips chart a path over her throat.
“Saint,” she whimpers as I unhook her bra and lick over her perfect tits, swirling my tongue around her hard nipples.
She moans, and I nip her with my teeth while dragging her shorts down her legs.
“Those moans are all mine, understand?” I continue licking and kissing down her belly as I kneel on the floor in front of her.
Her head falls back, and I glance up at her. Her cheeks are flushed pink, her dark hair tumbles down her back, and her green eyes are on me as she grips my shoulders.
I press a kiss to her hip, then nip her again.
She whimpers. “Saint…”
I drag her thong down, smoothing my hands over her silky-soft thighs, then up to her bare ass, digging my fingers in.
Her eyes flit briefly to the full-length window in front of her.
“If you think that I’m going to settle for tasting you off my fingers again, you’re about to find out exactly how wrong you are,” I warn.
And those gorgeous green eyes return to me as I dip my head and lick over her bare mound, pressing a lingering kiss to her slit and aching to sink my tongue into that space.
“Spread wide open for me,” I command her.
Emerald looks me in the eye and slowly obeys, parting her thighs.
I give her a lick too soft to do anything but tease her, but she’s so wet that I taste her anyway.
“Wider,” I order. “I want to worship your pussy with my tongue.”
Her legs spread more.
But it’s still not enough for me.
I grab her right leg and yank her knee over my shoulder.
“Saint!” she gasps. “I mean, I’m not used to ...”
“A man having his face in your pussy?” I ask while tracing her pussy lips with the lightest touch.
She whimpers as my fingers spread her open.
“You better get used to me being here. Because this is a view I’ll kill for.”
“Fuck, Saint…”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to do with my tongue, baby.”
She grips my hair as I bury my face between her legs.
She’s wet. Hot. Perfect.
“But the lights…they’re still on…” Her voice trails off as her head arches back and hips roll against me as I slip my tongue inside her as far as I can and swirl around her entrance.
I give her a long lick and meet her dazed eyes. “I don’t care who the fuck sees you in ecstasy with my head here. And once I finish with you, you won’t even have enough energy to worry about that.”
And that’s what I do as I keep eating her out. Each of her moans is a reward, just like her heel digging into my back as she claws my hair, pulling me tighter against her pussy, grinding until I graze my teeth over her clit, making her mewl with pleasure.
Emerald’s going to learn that I finish what I start, and that means more than making her come just once. I’m not stopping until her legs are shaking and she can’t hold herself up anymore.
Every lick drags her closer to her ecstasy, her grip in my hair tightening as I lap and suck her clit. She tastes so damn good—and even better than she did off my fingers.
Her first orgasm is faster than I expect. She cries out my name, panting. And when she begins to come down, I start feasting all over again.
I don’t want to waste a drop of her pleasure. I want her wetness coating my face with every reminder I can have of her orgasms.
She tightens her hold on me and rides my tongue, panting and whimpering as she takes everything I give her.
She nearly curls over me with her second orgasm. Her legs shake, her hips grind against my mouth. I don’t need to breathe, don’t need to rest. I just need to be the source of every ounce of pleasure she knows.
“Saint, three is too many, I can’t—” But her protests die as her moans take over.
If she’s never gotten the pleasure of coming multiple times, I’m going to make it her new baseline. I’m not stopping until she can’t think. She won’t be able to worry about who might see us here. She won’t be able to focus on anything else. She’ll have me, right here, devoted to her pleasure, and that’s all she needs.
Because there’s one thing I know—that she deserves a hell of a lot more than she’s gotten, and I’m going to be the man who gives it to her.
After another orgasm, she loses her footing, and I catch her in my arms so she’s straddling me. My face is slick, but I lick her wetness from my lips as she watches me, flushed with wild eyes.
“See what good girls get when they behave?” I growl.
I set her on the floor in front of the window. And rolling on a condom, I back her up against the window and thrust my whole length into her in one swift movement, groaning out with pleasure. “Emerald…”
It takes every inch of self-restraint to stop myself from fucking her like an animal.
Hands braced on the window either side of her head, I look down at her. Watching her eyes flutter close, her luscious lips part.
She’s tight, warm, perfect. Mine .
The rhythm I set is slow, tentative, controlled. But then she grasps my shoulders and moves against me. We groan in unison.
“I want…” Her peaked nipples scrape against my chest.
“Anything you want, baby, I’ll give it to you.” I’m going to give it all to her.
My hips snap forward, faster now. Again and again, harder and harder until her cries fill the space and mingle with the sound of our labored breathing.
My pace grows frantic, needy, desperate.
Pumping into her, the soft moans and pants of my name on her tongue drive me wild.
She’s possessing me as hard and fast as I’m possessing her. “You’re mine, baby,” I whisper against her ear as I feel how tightly she clenches around me.
She consumes me so thoroughly as my hips continue to move against hers. Until she explodes around me, her pussy clenching around me so hard. “Oh, Saint…”
“I know, baby. I got you,” I growl into her neck. The knowledge that I did this to her is nearly as intoxicating as the taste of her on my tongue.
“Saint…”
Maybe it’s the way she says my name, like some prayer on her kiss-swollen lips. Maybe it’s the way she clings and claws at me just as desperate for this as I am. Or maybe it’s just because it’s Emerald and no one has ever done to me what she has. But it pushes me over the edge.
My entire body tenses over her as absolute pleasure consumes me from the inside out. I give one more final pump into her, and I feel her tighten and shatter around me all over again, her pussy milking every last drop of cum out of me.
Panting hard, I brush the strands of hair from her forehead and temple, kissing it before I carry her to the bed. And I take her in—the soft sheen of perspiration, the flush along her neck and tits, the satisfied look in her green eyes.
That warmth inside me, that comforting sensation in my chest, soothes over my whole body. There’s no doubt in my mind now. I’m going to find a way to keep her. One way or another.
* * *
“You’ve got your brooding expression going on,” Emerald says the next morning. She’s still in her robe, and we’re sitting on the plush couches in the suite’s living room and drinking coffee.
“I’m just thinking.”
“About?”
“Everything. My mind never stops.” I scrub a hand down my face. Emerald shifts in the seat, and my eyes roam over her body, her luscious curves drawing my attention like honey to a bee.
She looks at me. “So, we just announce we’re engaged now, and then what? We just hope Carmine gets the message I’m off limits?”
“Oh, trust me, he’ll know. But from now on, you don’t go anywhere without me or my men to guard you. No one knows that this is fake except for you and me, so you need to be careful what you say in front of my men. We need word to spread fast, so we’ll have to be seen out and about. What man doesn’t want to show the world the woman he’s in love with, especially when she looks like you?”
Her cheeks heat, and she shifts a little. “Okay…”
“Okay?”
“I guess that’ll work.”
“You’ll have to give a little more conviction than that, Emerald.”
Her nose scrunches. “I’m not very good at lying. I mean, you’ve told me that yourself often enough. I’m just not sure if I can be convincing enough.”
I sigh. “You’re right. You are terrible at telling lies. So, let me make this easy for you by laying down some rules.” Because this plan has to work. I have to keep her safe no matter what. And I don’t know why, but I want to see her smiling that beautiful smile of hers again…
“Rules?”
“Yeah, I’ve got three rules for you. One, when we’re in public, you do as I tell you and don’t answer back with any smart comments.” She frowns at me. “Two, you act like you can’t keep your hands to yourself around me.” Her jaw drops slightly. “And three, you let anyone else touch you, I put a bullet through their fucking brain.” And she snorts. Actually snorts . “Look, Carmine has to think you’re important to me. This isn’t how things usually happen, so questions are going to get asked. Which means making him think we’re hopelessly in love will only work if we make it look real. The outside world and Carmine only get to see the show we put on. Kissing, hands on the waist, fingers in the hair, arms around you type of stuff.”
“Okay, I need to make it look real,” she says slowly, although she still doesn’t look convinced by my plan.
“From now on, we’ll have to attend Imperiosi events together and go out on dates. Once we start that, Carmine will keep his distance, and I can figure out a way to take the fucker out for good. Expect to go out a lot the next couple weeks. There’s a lot of bullshit events we’ll be expected to go to. That should buy us a little time.”
Another hum leaves her, and I swallow down a curse. It’s better this way, I remind myself. All this can ever be is fake. Not because I don’t want it to be real. But because I’m not capable of it. When I originally told Christian I wanted her, I hadn't thought it through. And when it came to telling her, I couldn't do it, and all I could actually give her was a fake engagement to keep Carmine away from her.
I watch Emerald from the corner of my eye. And that cold dead beating thing in my chest thumps and clenches all at once. To know what she’s thinking at a time like this would be invaluable. But as good as I am at reading people, at knowing how they’ll react, Emerald is a conundrum I can’t solve. No matter how hard I try.
But if this is the closest to getting something I can’t have, then I’ll fucking take it.