Chapter Twenty-Three
I could barely breathe. My chest ached from my racing heart, one which was filled with equal parts fear, excitement, and pleasure because Kingston was right.
No one had ever made me come the way he did, and no one else ever would.
In such a short time, he’d not only stolen my life, but my sanity, because deep in my subconscious, I couldn’t trust this man.
This monster. I’d killed his brother, and there was no way to come back from that.
His grandfather had said as much to Kingston when we were in Ireland, readying to say our vows.
I had suspected that their talk had been a last ditch attempt to make him choose another bride, but he went through with it anyway.
If Ronan Brannington had been successful, I would’ve been on my own, still trying to evade the long reach of the Armenian Mafia, and Aram Grigoryan, to be more specific.
Kingston found his own orgasm, then pulled out of me.
As my foot returned to the elevator floor, I reached for the arm rail and clutched it tightly as I tried to regain my composure.
My breathing was heavy and erratic, and I could barely think or hear anything outside of the rapid beating of my heart.
And all I could feel was the slow trickle of his cum as it dripped down the inside of my thighs.
As the elevator began its ascent once more, I moved and immediately felt the pain from his cock.
Although we’d fucked like rabbits since getting together, I had yet to fully acclimate to his size, or the piercings, which never failed to cause me internal pain.
They also drove me to the brink of pleasure, so I’d take a hard pounding every day to keep this post-orgasmic bliss alive.
The sound of his zipper had me straightening, and I turned around. His blue eyes were navy in color, and that same sense of self-loathing filled those orbs as he stared over at me. “I might hate you and what you make me feel, but I’ve never hated myself for it,” I pointed out.
“What?” he asked just as the elevator came to a stop.
The doors opened, and I shrugged at him. “You heard me, and you know fully well what I meant. Which room is ours, because I need to go clean up before rejoining the party?”
“We’re going back downstairs now,” he said, then blocked my exit from the elevator.
“I need to go clean up, Kingston. You need to move out of my way.”
He looked down at my legs, then swiped one finger through the sticky trail of cum. Before I could anticipate his next move, he thrust it toward my face, and my head fell back to thwart him.
He advanced on me, and in seconds, he had his finger in my mouth. “Does it taste like him?”
“You’re deranged,” I said upon realizing that he was still jealous of a man I’d accompanied to a few events and had done nothing more than to allow him to kiss my cheek a few times.
“And you’re a filthy whore,” he said to me, then looked over his shoulder. In horror, I then watched him slam the button again, which sent the elevator on its descent.
“I can’t go back down there without cleaning myself up,” I said to him. “Please, at least allow me that little bit of dignity.”
“Dignity, like trust, is earned, and you’ve done nothing to gain either.
” The elevator came to a stop, and he pulled me out of it.
“You’re now going to walk around this party with me and mingle, all while our cum drips down your goddamned legs, puisín.
This will leave no doubt in your mind, or anyone else’s, that I own you.
Every part of you is mine, at least until you give me what I need. ”
I knew he was talking about a baby, that was all he ever talked about, and as the elevator doors closed behind us, I flinched.
He pulled me away from it and toward the partygoers.
This has been an act of dominance fueled by irrational jealousy.
While the thought of walking around with his cum dripping down my legs might have been hot another time, I knew what this was.
He’d meant to humiliate me, and essentially had.
That much was confirmed when I caught the stares of a few people, even catching the way they would point and whisper when we walked by.
I closed my eyes once or twice throughout the next hour as he forced me to remain at his side.
Eventually, his cousin did pull him away, and once he left me a small window to escape, I took it.
Rushing to the bathroom, I thoroughly cleaned my thighs and legs, then splashed some cold water onto my face.
It was still flushed, no doubt from his performance in the elevator, and despite how angry it made me, my body betrayed me once more as it so often did where he was concerned. The ache in my core intensified, and now I had the same look in my eyes that he often had in his.
“Self loathing is quite the bitch,” I muttered to myself as I touched up my makeup, then headed back out to the party.
Once out there, I didn’t immediately see Kingston, but I did see several waiters with trays of drinks.
Kingston had made me promise I wouldn’t have any more alcohol, but he was not around, and even if he was. ..
I grabbed a margarita from the tray, then took a large sip of it.
The drink was stronger than I was used to, and I sighed upon realizing I would need to find another crutch to settle me because he was right as far as drinking and being pregnant was concerned.
Luckily for me, I was not yet with child, so I took another large sip before heading to the bar.
Kingston could find me there if he so chose to.
I took a seat, and as the man beside me turned, he smiled at me. “I’ve not seen you around these parts,” he said to me.
I had no idea if he was fucking with me, because I was sure the entire party had seen Kingston fuck me like some cheap, voyeuristic harlot in the glass elevator. In the off chance that we really had not been that entertaining, I smiled at him.
“I’m new to the city, and?—”
“Ekaterina,” I heard, and thankful the familiar voice behind me was not Kingston, I swirled around on my barstool. “I’m headed back to Washington D.C., but I wanted to make sure to let you know that it was great seeing you again.”
“It was nice to see you, too, Caleb,” I said to him.
He leaned in and kissed my cheek the same way he had in the past, then he left. I turned back around and picked up my drink. The guy beside me was looking intently over at me. After flashing a polite smile at him, I took another few sips of my margarita.
The man’s gaze remained on me to the point that it made me nervous.
Fidgeting slightly, I then turned back around.
“A glass of water,” I said to the bartender.
I knew I needed to get rid of any evidence of this drink before Kingston lost what was left of his mind.
I suspected it was very little considering what we had just done.
The glass was set down in front of me, and I picked it up and gulped down about a third of it before placing it down onto the bar top.
It was time to find my husband and, hopefully, go upstairs.
That desire was upped the moment I stepped off the stool and nearly toppled over.
The drink must’ve been stronger than I had thought.
Deciding to hide my previous drink, I picked up the glass of water, then moved away from the bar.
I had gotten no more than a few steps when the room began to spin.
While I had often dealt with spells of lightheadedness over the years, this one was different.
Maybe it was the heat from the multitude of lights shining brightly overhead, or the fact that I had eaten very little today, or maybe something more nefarious.
As I turned and looked back at the bar, the man who had been beside me smirked before heading in my direction.
Had this bastard put something in my drink?
As it got harder to move my feet, I quickly decided that assumption was likely correct.
Kingston would kill the man if he so much as touched me.
Hell, he had wanted to do the same to Caleb, who had just been engaging in conversation.
And by the time he was done gutting this druggie loser, he would likely kill me, too.
I turned to run, but before I could do so, I hit a brick wall, or at least a wall of muscle that was as hard as a brick.
The glass that was in my hand fell to the floor and shattered, but I didn’t give a damn.
I had never been happier to see Kingston in all of my life as I was right now.
Clutching the lapels of his tuxedo jacket, I clung to him.
“Where have you been?” he asked me.
“I had to go to the bathroom, then I came over to get a glass of water,” I said to him, hoping and praying that he believed the part about my drink.
“Cillian told me there’s a problem.”
“A problem?” I asked. Had his cousin caught me?
“A girl’s been found drugged at this party. He believes it is one of the guests at fault,” he said in such a low tone that I would hear him but not anyone else.
“That’s terrible,” I said, and I meant it. Maybe even more so now, as the dizziness began to morph into something worse.
I was becoming overheated as well, and that was confirmed when I looked down and saw the thin coat of perspiration that seemed to cover my entire body. As hot as I was, I was also shivering. Kingston caught it, then looked down at me with concern.
“Are you okay, puisín?”
“Yes, of course. It’s just really hot in here. Could we go outside for a breath of fresh air?”
“Sure,” he said, and I did my best to keep up with his long strides as he led me out into the courtyard. “Let’s go to that bench over there,” he said as he pointed to one just across from us.
He released my hand, and I watched as he moved over to it and sat.
This was one of those cement ones with no sides or backs.
Involuntarily, the ache inside of me let its presence be known, and I had to squeeze my thighs together in hopes of alleviating it.
When it didn’t work, I walked slowly over to Kingston, then crawled onto his lap, which surprised the both of us.
“Puisín?” he asked in question.
I wrapped my arms around him. “Fuck me, Kingston. Right here and right now.” To show him how serious I was, I began to release the buttons on his dress shirt, managing to free two of them before his hands came down over mine.
“What’s wrong with you, Ekaterina?”
“I want my husband to finish what he started earlier. Is that so surprising?”
“Seeing how you hated me right after, I would say so.”
“I could never hate you,” I said to him as I ground myself against him. When he didn’t immediately begin to ravish me, I leaned in and kissed my way up his neck and over his chin. Right before I could fuse my mouth to his, he grabbed me by the throat and held me at arm’s length.
“If looks could’ve killed, I would’ve been dead before the elevator came to a stop, and now you’re trying to seduce me out in the open where anyone could see. What gives?”
“Obviously not you,” I muttered before continuing. “I need you, Kingston,” I attempted to get closer, but was unsuccessful. When I tried again, the universe started to spin, and I would’ve toppled completely over had Kingston not still had a grasp on me.