Chapter Fourteen
COBY
I’ve been trapped in this room that I once thought beautiful for a week.
The first three days were spent banging and screaming at the door.
The only people I saw during that time were the staff who brought me food and books, restored the room after I tore it apart, changed my sheets that are thankfully no longer silk, and ignored my pleas for help.
Ocean hadn’t come to see me once.
He was too busy hunting down my best friend so he could…what? Kill her?
It was certainly the impression he’d given me right before he locked me in here again. So much for not being a prisoner. I spent my days reading but not hearing the story, eating but not tasting the food, and sleeping but not allowing my mind to rest.
That last part was the reason why it was early morning when I crawled back into bed from exhaustion after contemplating if I could survive jumping from the fortieth(?) floor.
Probably not.
I don’t remember falling asleep, so I had no idea how much time passed before I was woken up by a finger trailing softly down my cheek. A lone man stood over me, but I knew from the scent of the rich cologne who that man was.
My future husband.
“Ocean?” I slowly sat up and blinked until I was sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
It was definitely him. The moment sleep faded, the blurred edges of him sharpened into focus.
He was dressed in a dark blue hoodie and jeans, with an overgrown beard and tired eyes.
I subtly inched away from him. “You’re here. ”
“I missed you.” I stared back at him, dumbfounded. After threatening to hurt my friend and locking me in here for a week, all he had to say was that he missed me.
Rage filled me too fast to regulate before I lunged at him and started punching him in the head.
“Coby, stop this shit,” he ordered as he wrestled me under control.
“I haaaate youuuu!” I sobbed while lying on my back with my hands pinned to the bed. Ocean lay beside me, kissing my face.
“Shhh,” he quietly soothed. “It’s going to be okay, Coby.”
“No, it won’t,” I cried. “You’re taking her away from me.”
“So there ain’t no way forward?” he questioned as he searched my gaze. “We can’t get past this?”
I quieted my sorrow enough to ask, “Are you still looking for Hunter?” Dead silence stretched between us. “Then no, Ocean. We can’t get past this.” With a lump in my throat and a tearing in my chest, I said, “It’s o-over.”
His grip on my wrists loosened when he stiffened. “Over?”
“Yes.” I snatched my hands away. “I won’t marry you. I can’t even stand to look at your ass.” Gritting my teeth, I mushed his face. “This is all your fault. Why does Hunter have to die?”
“Coby—”
“No!”
Ocean stared at me in shock that swiftly turned to anger. “That’s it then? You don’t love me anymore?” He sounded genuinely curious and hurt while I stared at him in shock.
“I never told you that I loved you,” I denied hoarsely.
“You didn’t have to. It’s a feeling,” he explained arrogantly, throwing words spoken by a happier, stupider me back at me.
“And by the way, this isn’t all my fault,” he said as he stood from the bed.
I followed him until we were facing one another.
“Believe me, your bitch-ass brother carries a lot of the blame.”
“Don’t talk about Roshaun!”
“Fuck Roshaun!” Ocean roared. “He didn’t even hesitate to sell you out. Don’t you dare defend him to me unless you want me to find him and break his neck.”
Unwilling to face the truth, I did the only thing I could to hide from it.
I slapped the shit out of Ocean. He yanked me into him before pressing a hard kiss to my lips that made me whimper and wish things were different so I could beg him to never stop.
“Make that the last time you put your hands on me,” he warned before shoving me onto the bed.
Fuck that. He’d already pissed me off too much. I choose violence.
I kicked out at him as he went to leave, but Ocean’s reflexes were lethally quick. He grabbed my ankle and dragged me to the edge of the bed. I quickly flipped onto my stomach and tried to crawl away, but Ocean just flipped my ass right back over before ripping my nightgown clean off.
My skin burned where the straps broke, and my breasts jiggled from the force of the movement. I was so shocked I couldn’t move for several moments. Ocean didn’t miss a beat, though. He pushed his jeans and boxers down his thighs and then shoved my panties to the side.
“Goddamn,” Ocean growled appreciatively when I spread my thighs to show him my glistening pussy.
He ducked his head and spat on it nastily before lining up his thick, long dick with my opening.
There was no need to get me ready for him because I was already sopping wet, which he soon discovered the moment he pushed inside.
“Ah, fuck, Coby.” He laughed, but the sound became strangled when I tightened around his invading length.
“Why are you so wet, baby? Huh? You missed me?”
Keeping my attitude, I refused to respond, so he started going ham on my pussy right there at the edge of the bed. I clutched at his arms and tried to stifle my cries, but it was impossible with how hard he was fucking me.
“Ocean, ocean,” I eventually whimpered when the pleasure building inside became too intense to keep quiet.
“Ocean, ocean,” he mocked in a high falsetto. “Nah, you gon’ take this fucking dick however I give it to you,” he said as he lifted me up until he was standing with me wrapped around him. “You wanted it, remember?”
Nodding, I stared at him, but he wasn’t moved by my pleas or my tears.
Why was I crying when it felt so good? Because it also felt like betrayal. Hunter would never understand why I gave in because she didn’t know what it was like to be caught in Ocean’s vortex. The storm might calm or retreat for a while, but there was no true way to be free once caught.
And Ocean knew everything I was feeling inside and was forcing me to face it, so I did.
At least for a while.
Moaning deep in my throat, all I could do was hold on as he made me fuck him back. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I impaled myself on his dick until I came with a cry while Ocean watched me with a dark possession in his eyes that both terrified and elated me.
He didn’t even come. He just set me down once I was done acting a fool on the dick and then made me clean my juices off him with a warm, soapy rag that I got from the ensuite.
Once his dick was come-free, Ocean carefully stuffed his erection back inside his jeans with a pinch in his brows that confused me.
He’d rather be in pain than come for me? The rejection stung enough to revive my anger.
“Don’t get it twisted,” I said as I pulled my robe on. “This changes nothing. I’m done with you.”
Ocean stared at me for a long, long while. “So you want to leave me and go back to Hunter?” he asked calmly.
I shrugged and lied through my teeth. “Of course I do.”
Ocean inhaled sharply, and then his expression crumpled before he quickly looked away.
Feeling his devastation crash into mine, I wanted to take the words back, but it was already too late.
All trace of emotion had been wiped from Ocean’s face when he gathered himself enough to look at me again.
And even though he was standing close enough to touch, he never felt more unreachable.
“All right then.”
Convinced I was hearing things (or maybe hoping I was), I asked, “W-what?”
“I’ll take you back to Hunter,” he repeated.
“Ocean, please try to understand—”
“Do you want to marry me or not?” he snapped.
The chill in his eyes had me afraid to answer, but I knew he’d never hurt me, so I forced myself to shake my head while feeling my heart tear in two at the lie.
Of course, I wanted to marry him, but how could I, knowing it meant Hunter had to die?
How could he love me, knowing I was fine with giving up my soulmate?
I wouldn’t be the woman he was so determined to possess because if Hunter died, so would I.
“So let’s go. There’s no need to drag this out.” Ocean walked away, and I was left gaping at his back until the door slammed behind him.
I was going home.
He was letting me go home.
Why didn’t it make me feel better?
Still unable to believe Ocean was willing to let me go so easily after all his talk and thinly veiled threats, I stepped out of my bedroom empty-handed and wearing only the clothes I wore the night Ocean took me on my back.
I went downstairs and found him waiting by the elevator with Abel, who watched me with his brows raised like he was surprised I’d actually shown up.
I rolled my eyes at his ass since I still hadn’t forgiven him for how he was coming at me that night.
Abel had been surprisingly gentle when he left me in my room, but I didn’t give a damn.
Neither he nor Ocean had apologized for declaring war on my bestie.
“Okay,” I said sadly. “I’m ready to go.”
Bold words for someone whose sore pussy was a constant reminder of what we just did.
There was an emotional dissonance in Ocean’s dark brown eyes as he stared at me before tearing his gaze away and nodding curtly at Abel.
The bodyguard swore something under his breath and then pressed the button for the elevator.
The three of us stepped inside when it opened immediately, and the elevator quickly became stifling as we rode down in silence.
The lobby was mostly empty when we passed through.
It was so goddamn cold outside, I gasped the moment we stepped through the glass door because I was far from dressed for the weather in my tiny black shorts and green sequin corset. Warmth surrounded me a moment later, and I looked up in surprise to see that Ocean had given me his coat.
“Th-thank you.”