Chapter 5
Waiting on Aurora to wake up was irritating, to say the least. When my men had first brought her here, I’d watched them carry her into the guest suite she’d temporarily call her bedroom.
After they’d left the room, I’d leaned against the door jamb and took in the sight of her.
Although I had seen her pictures, and had even caught her in passing, she was much more beautiful lying just feet from me.
I normally didn’t meet women this way, but she was no ordinary one.
In fact, this wasn’t even supposed to be a sexual conquest, but.
.. the thought of fucking her had crossed my mind more than once, and now seeing her spread out across the bed, I could think of little else.
It didn’t help her cause that her hoodie and shirt had ridden up her chest, revealing all the toned, tanned flesh the oversized clothing hid.
And I didn’t want to simply fuck her. The longer I stared, the more I wanted to strip her naked, then mark her gorgeous skin with my handprints.
And even my teeth. She was sleeping so peacefully that I found myself becoming entranced with her the longer I stared at the methodical rise and fall of her chest.
I wanted to disrupt that rhythmic peace and cause chaos within her. In fact, I wanted to make her breath hitch and catch in her throat as I thrust my cock deep inside of her. She had a fiancé, so likely not a virgin, which was for the best because I liked my sexual partners to be experienced.
As I pictured sex with Aurora, I wondered whether she’d cry out in pain as I stretched her, then moan in pleasure as I brought her to the edge and sent her careening over it.
“Fuck,” I muttered softly under my breath, before glancing down at my pants.
The very sight of her made me hard. And so far, she’d done nothing more than share the same air as me. Once she awakened, I suspected she’d be fit to be tied, and rightfully so. Her fight and anger would only make me even harder. Knowing that, I turned suddenly and returned to the other room.
After all, I had better places to be and much more interesting things to do than wait on the drugs to wear off, but I did want to make sure that she got settled in before leaving to do any of them.
Aurora needed to understand the ground rules, which would make the next step in my plan easier to carry out.
“God knows Cill and King are all over me to do this job right.” I scowled, even more perturbed that they still doubted me after all this time.
Ever since I was a boy, I’d done everything asked of me by any elder Brannington, yet during times like this, I felt like the lowest foot soldier in the organization instead of a rightful heir to the throne.
My entire life as I knew it had revolved around the Brannington Empire. Every fucking decision or choice I made in life was balanced against family duty and honor. I’d never been able to live a normal life, and the only saving grace was that normalcy was boring.
I had singular tastes and abnormal desires.
I was a loose cannon and had been for a while.
Because my name carried certain weight in particular places, I’d used it to party my way through high school and most of college.
From the age of fifteen through twenty, I barely remembered anything.
It was only when I’d been confronted with my destiny that I’d finally gotten my shit together and rounded out the last two years of school.
Since then, I’d been the model mobster, nephew, and leader.
I didn’t give in to any vices except the one needed most to center me.
For some, sex would do the trick, but not me.
Physical relief was great in the short term, but it did little to extinguish the flame inside of me, and one that’d been fueled at such a young age.
I still remembered being ripped from my mother’s arms in the dead of the night, then tortured by a man who’d claimed to love me.
My great-grandfather had been an evil man, but as I grew older, I’d come to understand him and his methods much more than I had when I’d just been an impressionable child.
The violence of the world I’d been thrust into had left its mark on me.
Now, I channeled the rage that helped me survive into my fists, and I used them often to bloody those who dared to oppose me.
I’d been tortured so thoroughly as a kid that I didn’t even recognize most pain anymore from the receiving end, but I got immense satisfaction in delivering it.
“I should’ve been at the club twenty minutes ago,” I said aloud to myself more than the two men nearby.
I glanced down at my watch and knew the qualifying fights had already started.
By the time I finally arrived, the better fights would’ve ended, and I’d be stuck observing with the other sadists gathered there to watch the blood spill.
A growl escaped me, knowing I should’ve been one of those making it happen.
“She was given the right amount of sedative,” Liam said to me.
I looked over at him and shrugged. “She’s likely a lightweight. Just my fucking luck.”
The Branningtons are no strangers to sedatives.
We sometimes had traitors in the ranks over the years, who were treated the same as most enemies.
If not beaten and killed on the spot, they’d be sedated, then moved somewhere to regain consciousness.
Once they did, until their deaths, they’d be relegated to the same sort of torture inflicted upon me during my youth, and likely the same type that Cillian had also been subjected to during his teen years as well.
Growing up, I’d heard stories about my uncles, so it hadn’t been a surprise when Cillian had gotten drunk one night and told me the story about how he and Reagan almost never happened.
No one would ever be able to tell by looking at them now that they’d suffered through any of what they had, but no one would ever look at me and think I’d been waterboarded, electrocuted, and worse during my training, either.
“She was going to call the police,” Conor added, and I let out a sharp exhale.
“We’ll need to keep her cell phone because I’m sure she probably told others she’d only be away for a few days. The last thing we need is the authorities breathing down our necks. She’ll never return to the life she once had, and we need to make that clear to her.”
“Agreed, boss. I should go and check on the girl now.”
I shook my head, then grabbed his arm to stop him. “No, let me.”
“One of our faces might be less frightening to her,” Conor said.
“As opposed to mine.” I chuckled, then wiped my expression clear of any amusement. “It’s better she meet me now rather than later.”
“Very well,” Liam said, and he stepped off to the side.
I heard Conor say something to him, but neither man would ever question a decision or order from me.
They were my right-hand men, and that sort of responsibility had been born from a combination of trust and respect.
It was also a result of obedience, and I knew these men would lay down on their own swords for me if I so asked them to do it.
I returned to the bedroom, only this time she had shifted. She was no longer lying on her back, but rather on her side. I moved farther into the room and circled the bed. Her long legs moved slightly, so I knew it’d only be minutes before those gorgeous blue eyes finally opened.
Once they did, I could get on with my night. Moving to the closet door, I rested against its jamb, then crossed my arms as I stared down at her. The seconds ticked by, and with every couple that did, she began to move more.
A slight groan escaped her lips until the moment I’d been waiting for arrived. Conor and Liam moved to the doorway of the room and I glanced over at them, only turning when I heard a sharp gasp.
I looked back over at her, then grinned at the terrified expression on her face.
Her fear was palpable, especially when she quickly scrambled upright and crawled backward against the bedframe.
From there, she turned to the door and saw the other two men, both of which were taller and bulkier than me.
“W-where am I?” she asked. “And who the hell are you?”
I smirked. “I guess you could say that I’m your keeper.”
“I don’t need a keeper,” she answered defiantly, even trying to square her shoulders in false bravado.
“Perhaps not, but consider this your lucky night because you’ve got one anyway.”
“Where is Drake?”
“Drake?” I asked aloud to my men as I turned toward them. “Do either of you know him?”
“No, boss,” they both said in unison.
“He’s looking for me. I was supposed to meet him, then I was... I went downstairs... There was a car and...” Her voice kept trailing off as she tried to formulate a complete thought. She then turned toward Liam. “You,” she spat out as she pointed at him. “It was you.”
“Actually,” I said as I moved in closer. “They were acting on my orders.”
She got up on her knees and thrust her hands out in front of her. “Don’t you dare come any closer to me.”
A chuckle escaped my lips. “Or what?”
“I-I don’t know what you’re hoping to accomplish by this, but it won’t work. If it’s money you want, I can get it for you, but anything else...”
“Anything else is what, Aurora?” I asked when her voice trailed off once more.
“How do you know my name?”
I moved onto the bed and sat on the edge. “I know many things about you. At this point, I probably know more about you than you do yourself.”
“Doubtful,” she retorted as she tried to inject more bravado into her voice. “This night has been fun and all, but you’re going to get in a lot of trouble once I get out of—”
“You’re not leaving here until I say so, which will be no time soon.
And after you do leave, it won’t be to anywhere you want to go.
” At her shocked gasp, I spun around and tried to touch her, but she flung both hands toward me as she tried fighting me off.
My dick, as expected, hardened more, and I quickly pulled her legs out from under her, then straddled her once she was on her back.
“P-please. My parents... Drake... They’ll give you whatever you want if you just let me go.”
“You’re not leaving,” I said once more. “Your life as you know it is over.”
She began to push at my chest before realizing I was an unmovable object.
“Get off me!” She attempted an escape once more, and I quickly dodged her flailing arms, which was all she could do.
There was no way she could dislodge me from atop her, so I didn’t have to worry about those long legs of hers trying to inflict any damage.
“No,” I replied, earning a frustrated growl from her.
Her chest was now rising and falling in rapid heaves, and I knew without touching her that her pulse was also racing. She was scared, and that terror was even greater than I’d initially anticipated.
I leaned over her and she spat on me. It took me a nanosecond or two to register what she did until she started to speak. “If you know what’s good for you, then you’ll—”
I swiped the wetness off my cheek, then brought my hand to her throat. She immediately tried to loosen my grip with both of her hands, only causing me to squeeze her neck tighter. Her cerulean eyes widened, and upon realizing her attempts were futile, she eventually dropped her hands to the side.
Her eyes now welled up with tears and her lips quivered slightly. The things I could do to this woman to make her react the same way as she bounced on my cock did enter my thoughts, but my current state of anger overruled my libido.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll accept that your life as you knew it is now over.
Your fate belongs to me right now, but it’ll change soon enough.
Unfortunately for you, it won’t be for the better.
” Her tears continued to fall even as I loosened my grip.
“Now, unless you want me to make you cry and gasp for a different reason, I suggest you calm the hell down.”
She glared at me, and her body relaxed.
“I’m going to remove my hand, and you will settle down, yes?”
She gave a shaky nod, which was good enough right now. I first loosened, then removed my hand. After, she sucked large mouthfuls of oxygen into her mouth as I rocked back on my heels.
“Where am I?” she asked me softly. “Can’t you at least tell me that?”
“You’re in Boston. How long that remains is yet to be seen.”
“W-who are you?”
“That isn’t important. Just know I can be your worst nightmare if pushed.”