Chapter 3 #2
I turned to him, meeting his hardened gaze and tugging slightly to try and get out of his grasp.
“I asked what the reason for me coming over here was, only to be ignored by the brute barbarian you apparently are.” My words only made him hold on to me tighter, but I kept my expression sharp. “Are we done now?”
His jaw clicked, only slowly releasing when he took in a shuddering breath, cracking his neck to the side.
Finally—an emotion. Good for him.
“Not that,” he muttered. His voice sounded like he had just swallowed the smoothest whiskey and goosebumps broke out against my skin. “And quit with the pompous, bitch act. It’s annoying.”
You have got to be kidding me.
I said as much. “Are you fucking kidd—”
He cut me off, squeezing my wrist tighter. “What did you call me a minute ago?”
Anger seared through me. Now he was really acting like a brute barbarian. I was going to wake up with bruise marks on my wrist, of all places, tomorrow morning. I felt my teeth ground together from the realization.
When I admitted my love of pain to the class, this was not what I meant.
He pulled my wrist back behind my back, twisting my elbow until I grunted softly. One of his rough, calloused hands moved to my front until he was holding my throat in a solid grasp. I felt his chuckle, the breath hot, as he felt me gulp against him.
I would have never admitted this to anyone, but being held like that made the most depraved thoughts enter my head. I could feel my heart beating faster, maybe even begin beating elsewhere, and I swore he could feel it too as my thighs squeezed together on their own doing.
“What did you call me?” he whispered into my ear, repeating himself and squeezing the hand on my throat softly.
I gulped. I was still so fucking pissed—seething, probably vibrating, actually—but being a girl in this world meant you knew your limits, and my limits stopped at being withheld by the big, bad wolf.
“People are going to notice you holding me like this,” I whispered, forgoing any attempts to try and pull away from him.
I had a feeling that whatever was happening, whatever had fallen over the both of us, I wasn’t going to win.
And I was right. He pulled me closer to him until my back was flush against the soft material of his shirt.
We almost fit together like puzzle pieces.
I rolled my eyes at the thought. This was not the time to be poetic.
“See if I give a flying fuck, little girl. I’m not going to ask again.”
My subconscious thought back through the last few minutes. It was hard to think around him as he touched me, especially as the unique scent of his cedarwood, nearly geranium cologne hit my senses. It was almost intoxicating in its own right.
I was pissed not even five minutes ago, yet now I fought the urge to melt into him. The power of alpha-males was seriously something that needed scientific research.
Finally, expletives floated through my brain as I realized what Aureo was really asking for. My body went taunt against him and I cursed under my breath when his grip tightened even more, almost to the point that breathing was difficult.
He knew that I knew.
“I called you a merc,” I said, all of my bravado fading with fear and the most confusing sense of hot arousal in its tracks. His touch was searing, the calluses on his hands scraping against my flesh. I wanted it off me, but yet I wanted it to consume me at the same damn time.
Years ago, when I was still a young, dumb teenager, I overheard my father talking about Aureo in his study. It was merely days after Aureo had caught me losing my virginity and I was searching for any speck of dirt I could use against the new rider, regardless of the powershift between us.
He had told my father about me being with a boy. What else could I have done?
During that act of spying, me creeping up to the door and nearly putting my ear against the hard, oak wood, I heard my father call Aureo “odder than others,” and “akin to a goddamn mercenary.” I had tucked it away in my brain as a just in case knowledge box.
I had also tucked my tail in between my legs when my dad opened up the door and a tattooed arm jumped out to catch me right when I fell from the sudden disappearance of the wood.
A look akin to horrified confusion covered his face.
I had lied and told him I was about to knock on the door to ask what he wanted for dinner.
While I didn’t know if he bought it, neither of us ever brought up the topic again.
Until now.
Except, no Daddy dearest was in sight to save me now.
Aureo exhaled heavily behind me. The breath forced even more goosebumps to spread over my body, now covering the skin from the base of my neck to the insides of my wrists, and I knew he felt everything. “That’s right. Now, tell me why you called me that, little girl.”
I looked up into the bar, watching the strippers dance, and I heavily wished that I hadn’t walked over here.
I would have rather walked into an orgy down the hall than have dealt with that conversation.
I kept my voice resilient, though. He may know the effect he had on my body, but I would be damned if he knew the inside of my brain.
“Because you are, aren’t you? I heard my father call you one, years ago. An ex-con. A criminal. A mercenary.” I spit the last part out, unbothered by how angry my voice seemed, even when I was anything but.
Truthfully, I couldn’t care less if he was an ex-criminal. That would almost make me a hypocrite, considering the people I called my friends and family. I just needed to act the part now and having an attitude was the only way I knew how to do that.
Silence met me for a beat. “No, little devil. I am not a fucking mercenary.”
I blinked. “You’re not?”
“No, I’m not. Nor am I an ex-con. Yet.”
Oh shit.
“Yet?” I breathed out. I swore my heart began galloping to the sound of hooves in war.
That stupid, dry laugh sounded yet again as alarm bells blared through my head. I was down for a lot of kinky, disturbing things, but I drew a line at homicide.
He purred, and I swore I felt his tongue brush the underside of my ear. “I might be by the end of the night. Now, I think you need to get on your knees and apologize. You pissed me off and I’m tired of you wearing my patience down to nothing.”
That indignation I knew so well moments ago hit me again. Who the hell was he to ask me to get on my knees in a public bar? In my dad’s bar?
“Excuse me? Who do you think you are? I am not your puppet.”
“Oh, I beg to differ, little one. Now, I am getting extremely tired of repeating myself, but I will one last time. Get on your fucking knees.”
Adrenaline traveled throughout my entire nervous system like cocaine traveled through the bloodstream. Between his grip on my throat, his voice against my ear, and the lethality of his words—I was finding it extremely hard to breathe.
I was an independent woman, strong and fierce, but I also knew there was nothing wrong with being submissive for the right man.
And yet, I still wanted to push his buttons.
He expected a form of obedience from me when he hardly knew me.
I wanted to make his skin crawl in the heated way he forced mine to do, and I wanted it to be painful.
I nailed the last head of my coffin.
Or maybe…what I did was exactly what he wanted instead.
“Make me,” I rasped, watching as the clock ticked on the other side of the bar.
It looked emptier now than it had just moments ago and I had no clue as to why.
People normally didn’t begin leaving until three, sometimes four in the morning.
“You won’t. You said it yourself. You’ve kept a distance from me, apparently. You won’t make me do anything.”
Aureo released his grip on my wrist and I moaned softly from the release in pressure.
I twisted it back and forth, trying to ease any of the discomfort, but froze again when his now-free hand moved to the base of my hair and gripped it tight, tugging until my head was at a sharp angle on his shoulder.
I whimpered loudly as he spoke. “Are you sure you want me to do that, sweetheart? That could be a mistake. After all, I don’t normally fuck childish brats. ”
I seethed, trying to pull away from his grip.
He could make me out to be some innocent child all he wanted, but I knew myself better than anyone did.
I knew exactly how my thighs trembled when I touched myself.
I knew exactly how much pain I could take until I was screaming in euphoria.
And I knew exactly how to disassemble a man like him until he was nothing.
“Are you sure about that? It sure looks like you’re wanting to fuck one,” I spit, though smirked as I ran a palm over the bulge in his jeans. He flinched at my touch, his hand going to rub his jaw, only to hit the plastic on his face, making him growl.
He hummed against me, his chest nearly vibrating against my back. My head was still at that odd, almost painful angle, and his eyes danced in the most erotic tandem as they met mine.
I had sealed my fate then.
“I hoped that was gonna come out of that pretty mouth. Let’s see how pretty that mouth can really be.”
I was ready to snap at him again when he tugged me against him even more, making me take a step backwards. My back nearly bowed from the angle he kept me at.
“Turn around,” he ordered. A shuddering breath escaped as I, for the first time that night, finally did something he requested.
He probably would have broken my back if I kept up any stubborn trade.
He kept the grab on my hair tight, though finally let go of my throat, just for a moment.
I nearly choked as I took mouthfuls of air back into my lungs.
He moved his free hand to cup my jaw and I frowned when his eyes softened in the slightest way.
“You’ve been bad tonight, baby. Fuck, you’ve been bad the past four years. What should I do about that, huh?”
I shrugged.
Silent piss off’s were a specialty of mine lately.
He smirked, but only shook his head. “I think you need an attitude adjustment, little Phoebe.”
“Fuck you,” I spit out, trying to reel my head back. Did he truly think I was a seven-year-old girl who had forgotten to do her homework? If he wasn’t going to touch me in a way that I liked, then I wasn’t going to respect him.
That softness that coated his features seconds ago hardened into something akin to fury, disappointment, and buried lust, nearly making me stagger back.
He stared at me a moment longer before he sat down, promptly shoving me to my knees in the process.
They cracked as they hit the ground and I ground my teeth together, keeping the whimper from falling out of my mouth.
I didn’t know if I wanted to gag from touching this floor, deck him for manhandling me, or weep at his feet like the horny siren in me screamed to do from the manhandling. Yet, everything in me seemed to freeze when he reached behind his back and pulled out a gun.
A fucking gun.
His finger wrapped around the trigger, just as his other hand took off the goddamned safety.
Fuck.
Double, triple, quadruple fuck.
Why did I have to have a mouth?
God? It’s me again.
He pointed the pistol to the ceiling and my heart nearly gave out entirely when it fired. I heard a scream and the thuds of a few drunken people tripping over their own feet. I’m sure proper terror was flowing through them more than ever.
My ears were ringing, and I didn’t know if it was from disbelief or fear.
Debris fell from the ceiling and I knew that if I didn’t die from the man in front of me, I might if concrete started falling on my damn head.
“Get out,” Aureo snarled as he kept a firm grip on my shoulder. For a short few seconds, I had completely forgotten about everyone around me. It took the sound of dozens of feet and rushed whispers for me to truly realize how we were the complete focal point of attention now.
I was going to die tomorrow, if I didn’t tonight.
My father was going to auction me off. That was it.
He repeated himself again, exactly as the music in the entire bar went out. The sounds of people's footsteps sprinting out mixed with the sound of my heartbeat in a crushing rhythm.
“Out!”
Fuck me, he sounded like a mad-man. I knew I should have held onto the fear clouding my brain as tight as I possibly could.
Yet the disturbed part of my brain couldn’t help but feel hot.
To know that I was the cause of that change in him, until his eyes looked as crazed as he sounded, made an ache develop in both my head and in between my thighs.
It had been way too long since I’d had good sex.
I heard Ero’s voice behind me, as timid as a grown man’s voice could be. I didn’t dare take my eyes off of Aureo’s to check. “Are you gonna be okay, Phoebe?”
Aureo snared. “She’ll be fine. You know that.”
“I asked her,” Ero persisted—well, nearly growled, actually.
My head hurt. And fuck, I was getting really tired of alpha-males being growly and having pissing contests.
Why I answered the way I did, I didn't know at the time. I should have admitted myself into a mental institution, honestly.
Any sane woman would have begged Eros to drag them out of the situation I found myself in.
But the sting Aureo had already delivered me a few times so far?
I needed more of it.
I craved to see what he really wanted to do to me.
My voice shook, but I answered nonetheless. “Uh…uh, yeah. I’ll be okay. I promise,” I started, then hesitated. “If you find my body tomorrow, make sure my dad tears Aureo’s balls off.”
Ero chuckled behind me. “Will do, kid.”
I heard him hesitate, likely looking at Aureo for something, though his footsteps sounded moments later.
An infinity later, the door slammed, the club was stock empty, and we were fully alone.
I gulped.
What the fuck have I gotten myself into?