Chapter 20
Twenty
X ander
“Have you spoken to her?” Theo asked, stalking toward me.
I paused a few feet from Nerine’s library and folded my arms across my chest. “Obviously not, since I’m out here and not in there with her.”
“You need to get to the bottom of this before the ladies get to the house.”
“I know this, Mr. Piss and Vinegar.”
Theo ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “The bullshit she pulled this morning is not okay. I would have handled it by now if it wasn’t for you.”
“No, you would have made it into a nuclear war. Something’s up, and Nerine needs to work through it. The last thing she needs is a fight. Your way isn’t going to work.”
“Then do your counselor, best-friend, I’m-a-softy-in-the-body-of-a-sumo-wrestler thing.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re a jackass. You only wish you looked like me with your skinny ass.”
“You keep believing that fairytale. Now go fix it. And remind her that this sneaking-out-of-bed shit has to end. I bet it has to do with whatever that fucker Stratos said to her at the funeral. I knew there was more to it than she told us.”
“No, there’s more to her withdrawing than a simple conversation or threat from Stratos.”
“Well, what the fuck are you waiting for? Get in there.”
I shook my head, turning toward the library doors. “Go make yourself useful and check on the ETA for the Angelos ladies.”
Instead of knocking, I turned the knob and walked in.
Nerine sat behind her desk in the now-renovated library, her fingers flying over the keyboard of her laptop.
“It’s two in the afternoon, Nerine.”
She said nothing, keeping her focus on her screen and typing away. She bit her lip, and a crease formed between her brows.
“What are you doing?” I strode in her direction. “You’ve been locked in here all day.”
“Wrong. I signed those shipping contracts after you brought me back the renegotiated terms I’d outlined.”
I held in the urge to growl.
Yeah, she’d signed them while barely sparing Theo and me a glance.
Nerine’s version of negotiation sat on par with her father’s methods. She read through every line and then completely redlined, gutted, and overhauled the contract. Then she expected me and Theo to get the deal finalized with terms favorable to the family’s position as much as possible.
What made me laugh was that she thought using hardline tactics would work in her relationship with Theo and me.
She’d had the nerve to tell us, “We will not mix the personal aspect of our relationship with our business one. Is that clear?”
That declaration only ended up getting her fucked nonstop until she passed out from exhaustion in the early morning hours.
“What is going on with you, Angel?”
A line formed between her brows, but she stayed quiet.
I set my palms on the mahogany desktop and peered at her over her screen. “Are you going to answer my question?”
“No,” she muttered.
“Nerine, this brat shit is Theo’s kink. Not mine.”
That made her gaze flicker upward, but she continued to work.
Grabbing her laptop, I closed the lid and put it on a side table behind me.
“I was trying to finish something. Once I finish my work, we can talk about us.”
“Meaning?”
“The parameters of our relationship.”
Parameters? Was she kidding me?
Something had spooked her, and I planned to get to the bottom of it.
“Ignoring me is rude. So is giving me half-ass answers. Aren’t you the one who keeps lecturing me about my Neanderthal ways?” She glared at me, and I continued, “Now tell me what’s gotten up your ass.”
“You mean outside of you and Theo.” A slight flush crept up her cheeks, replacing her frown, and immediately my cock jumped. “Ignore that I said that.”
“Why? If I recall, you’re the one who demands it.”
She licked her lips and stood, setting a hand on her hip. With the long blue dress she wore in the same shade as her eyes and her hair in a messy bun, she gave the image of a disappointed schoolteacher.
Except for the flare of heat in her irises as she reacted to my perusal of her body.
“Keep looking at me like that, and I’ll lay you out on your desk.”
The desire to lift her hem and eat her pussy until she gasped my name pushed at the back of my mind. Then, maybe the irritation would disappear from her features, and she’d reveal the root of her worry.
She lifted her chin. “Did you forget there is a separation between our work and personal lives?”
“Both parts of our lives are very much entwined.” I moved in her direction, crowding her against her desk. “It’s you who hasn’t grasped the reality of our situation.”
I cupped her face, and her blue irises darkened, worry and uncertainty coasting the edges and mixing with the desire.
We no longer had to hide the desire we shared. Well, not in the house, anyway.
“Talk to me. What has you riled up?”
She tried to turn her face, but I held her firm.
“This is moving too fast. I need to get my bearings. I was single for all of a few days before we jumped into bed.”
“Oh no, you don’t. You aren’t going to block us out. The three of us are a set. Always have been and always will be. Andraius is no longer in the picture. You’re free of him. He is buried and gone.”
“Are you kidding me?” She pushed me away. “A set, my ass. You and Theo refuse to address whatever happened between the two of you. You still want more than friendship and pretend otherwise.”
Releasing a frustrated breath, I said, “I fucked up, and he can’t forgive me. What do you want me to do? I’d change it if I could.”
Gripping the back of my neck, I paced for a second and continued, “Theo and I aren’t the topic of discussion right now. We’re talking about you and your refusal to see that you are free from the cage of the last five years.”
“I swear to God, you’re delusional.” She threw up her hands. “I’m not free. I’m the Angelos now. I have more on my shoulders than before. You want to know what I was doing?”
I folded my arms, waiting for her to say her piece.
She pointed to the laptop behind me. “I was responding to a message from Tobias since my conversation with him at the funeral wasn’t enough to get it through to his thick head. You’re lucky I pressed send before you snatched my laptop.”
I hated admitting when Theo was right. Stratos was going to be a problem.
“What did you tell him?”
“What do you think I told him? I told him in as friendly a way as possible without starting a war that just because I don’t have a dick doesn’t mean I can’t handle the organization Papa raised me to run. I don’t need the help of any fucking Stratos. They’re the reason we’re in this mess in the first place.”
“So, in other words, you told him to take his offer and stick it up his ass.”
“I said I was friendly, dammit. My words were curt but to the point. Apparently, I wasn’t clear at the funeral, so I had to emphasize that I have things under control and plenty of advisers I trust. And considering the circumstances in which a Stratos murdered my father and brother, I will not now nor ever require assistance from any Stratos.”
I closed my eyes and then just shook my head before I started laughing.
“What the hell is so funny?”
“You are more like Theios Peter than you even know. Well, except your approach is a bit more refined. I wouldn’t say nice. But more along the no-nonsense business way of handling things.”
The irritation on her face turned into a murderous scowl. “Would you rather I told Tobias to fuck off with his offer and that the only allies I need or want are the ones who aren’t backstabbing pieces of shit?”
I lifted my hands as if in surrender. “No, you handled it the right way. But don’t expect the dickhead to give up. He doesn’t understand eloquent conversations.”
“Then you will deliver the follow-up message.” She lifted a brow. “I’m sure he will understand your methods of communication.”
“Flexing your power?” I gripped her hips again, bringing her body flush to mine.
“I know when to pull out the big guns.” She set her palms on my chest, then glided one hand between our bodies to my straining cock, cupping it in her palm. “This isn’t the first offer of assistance I received in the last few days, Xander. I refuse to show any weakness. Once I convey a message, the second one will come through my people, meaning you and Theo.”
“You don’t have to prove anything.”
“Of course I do. All of the powerful families are circling and testing me. When we meet at the end of the month, they will all know I’m not someone they can fuck around with.”
She stroked me through my jeans in perfect, measured movements, causing precum to weep into my boxers. All these years without her, and now all I could think about was bending her over the nearest surface and burying myself inside her.
“Does that mean you trust us?” I looked down into her mesmerizing eyes.
“Of course I do. It’s only ever been the two of you.”
“Then what was all that about it moving too fast?”
“I get scared. Worried. I don’t want anything to fall back on the two of you because of me.”
I narrowed my gaze. “What are you talking about?”
“How have you not heard the rumors? You and Theo have your fingers on the pulse of everything.”
I’d heard more than my share of rumors, from Nerine hiring international assassins to do the deed to Andraius dying in bed with one of his mistresses and Theo and I staging it to look like a hit.
“Why don’t you fill me in?”
“Rumors are swirling that you and Theo took out Andraius for me because you are my lovers and wanted him out of the way so you could have me.”
“That was our original plan,” I admitted. “And there is a lot of truth to those statements.”
“Can you be serious for a moment?”
“Where did you hear these rumors?”
“The first time was from Tobias at the funeral.”
Sneaky bastard. Fucker should have kept his mouth shut. He wanted to see if he could throw her off-kilter.
“Let me guess. He added that you should watch out for Theo and me since we planned to take your seat.”
Instead of confirming outright, she said, “I told him I believed in your unquestioning loyalty to the Angelos family.”
“Our loyalty is to you before anything else. I wasn’t around to protect you before. I am now.”
“Others are saying the same things, Xander.”
“I like this one. It’s not about us taking your seat but about us wanting you.” I smirked. “I guess you were wrong about the figurehead bit. It’s the power of your pussy that has done your bidding.”
“Will you get serious? I don’t want anyone to retaliate on you or Theo.”
“Nothing will happen to us. Until someone confronts us to our faces, it is all hearsay. And I doubt anyone has the guts to say anything.”
“Why aren’t you worried about this?”
“Because I won’t bow down to cowards ever again. The things I had to do after the coup haunt me more than you will ever know. It went against everything I believed. I failed you once, and it will never happen again.”
“You didn’t fail me, Xander.”
I covered her mouth with my fingers. “I accept the truth of my actions. You forgave me. That’s all I can ask.”
At least I’d gained the forgiveness of one person in my life. With luck, someday the other one would find it in his heart to accept my apology.
She dropped her head against my chest, and her arms slid around my waist.
We stayed like that for a few minutes before she said, “I never stopped. I pretended to, but it was always there. That was why I was so angry.”
Closing my eyes, I soaked in the meaning behind her words. “Is it so hard to say the words?”
She lifted her head. “I worry that if I say them, something will happen to take what we have away again.”
No matter how much I wanted to assure her nothing would happen to separate the three of us, I couldn’t guarantee it. Believing something like that was impossible, especially after all we’d lived through in the last few years.
“Isn’t it better to have said them instead of keeping them inside?”
She lifted onto tiptoes and whispered over my lips, “I love you.”
“I never thought I’d hear you say that again.”
I hoisted her up by her thighs, gathered the skirt of her dress in my arms, and then wrapped her legs around my waist. She grabbed hold of my shoulders.
“I’m hardheaded. It took me a few seconds to admit I never stopped loving two possessive, obsessive men with insatiable appetites.”
I pressed her back to a bookshelf and settled my erection along the damp cleft of her underwear.
“Now that I have you accepting of your circumstances in life, we need to clear something up.”
A crease formed between her brows, but she smirked. “Go right ahead.”
Instead of jumping into the discussion, I ground my cock against her clit and took her mouth.
A moan escaped from deep in her throat, and she met the demands of my hips with hers.
Her fingernails scored through my hair, down the back of my neck, and across my shoulders. The heat and wetness of her soaked through her underwear, driving up my need for her.
Just when I knew she teetered on the cusp of desperation, I pulled back.
“What are you doing?” she gasped, panic etched all over her features.
“I’m making something clear.”
“Please, make it quick.”
“You will not hold things back from us. Is that clear?”
She nodded, so I continued, “I am your lover. I didn’t kill your husband, and neither did Theo. But you know that.”
Fear flashed across her face, and she opened her lips as if to say something. Before she could utter a word, I pressed my mouth to hers.
“You’re ours to protect at all costs and keep safe,” I murmured.
“Are you sure this is the risk you want to take?”
“Cleaning up a mess is low on the scale of unsavory things my hands have done.” I glanced over my shoulder. “The carpet was due for an update anyway. The activities of the other week only sped up the timetable.”
“I believe your numerous hours in the Caves have given you a twisted sense of humor.”
I shrugged. “Maybe, but you get off on how I handle things in the Caves, so that’s all that matters.”
“You think so?” Her voice grew huskier and more unsteady.
“I know so.” I cupped her through her soaked underwear and slid two fingers past the gusset to her swollen pussy lips, circling and teasing.
Her nails dug into the fabric of my shirt, and she threw her head back, closing her eyes. “Xander.”
“Are you sore?”
“A little,” she admitted.
I pressed my digits into her channel a fraction, forcing her hips to lift to gain better penetration. “Does that mean your cunt is off limits for a few days?”
“Hell no,” she exclaimed as she opened her lids. “I was a virgin, and it didn’t stop you and Theo from fucking me nonstop. You aren’t making an exception now.”
I reached for the opening of my jeans and freed my cock.
Keeping her underwear to the side, I positioned my hard dick at the opening of her dripping pussy.
“I thought you said we were moving too fast and you’d only been single for a few days.”
She leaned forward and bit my lower lip, wicked intent on her face. “Who said I wasn’t still single?”
I slammed into her. “I did.”
“Oh, God,” she cried out as her body bowed. “Xander, you’re going to kill me.”
“No, I’m going to fuck you. Fuck you so hard that you understand you are very taken.”
I adjust my stance, positioning her closer to a lamp anchored to a wall. “Grab hold of the post above you.”
Her breath came out in rapid pants while her breasts heaved as she reached up, wrapping her fingers around the metal.
I pulled out and thrust back in as soon as she secured herself. I pounded into her. I wanted her to feel the sting on her shoulders from the books behind her. I wanted her to buck into the relentless pace I’d set. I wanted her to drown my cock in her delicious, juicy arousal.
My attention moved down my body to where I tunneled in and out of her fucking perfect cunt. I loved the way her pink and swollen lips glistened and that delicate pearl at the apex poked out from arousal, and how all her cream coated every inch of my cock.
Fucking magical to watch that beautiful pussy taking all of me, letting me destroy her, mark her, give her my cum.
I played on a knife’s edge by not using protection, but if she had mine or Theo’s kid, so be it. She belonged to us anyway.
God, the thought of her round with my child had my cock growing harder. Fuck, I wanted that more than I realized.
I thumbed over her clit, and she called out my name. Her neck arched, and her hair tumbled free of the knot from atop her head. Disheveled, flushed, lost in the climb to pleasure, the woman was a fucking goddess.
I circled her sensitive bundle of nerves and felt her pussy muscles quiver and contract around my pistoning cock.
“Yes. There. Right there.” She bit her lip and clutched at the metal in her hands.
She met each roll of my hips with hers. The rhythm was smooth and completely in sync.
All of a sudden, her body seized up, growing rigid, and her cunt clamped down on me in a vise grip. Without realizing it, she released the post and grabbed hold of me, her back bowed and her pussy grinding against my cock. She worked me with her spasms and squeezes.
As her orgasm waned, I carried her to the sofa and leveraged her on the end. We held each other’s gazes as I let my beast out, fucking into her, not caring if I broke the antique furniture. I needed to fill her. Mark her from the inside. This was primal.
Where the hell had it come from?
I knew. It was when Nerine said she was single.
Without thinking, I grabbed hold of her neck. Her eyes widened, and then a smile settled on her lips, no fear at all.
It was time to tell Theo to stop holding back with her.
“You are not single. Is that clear?”
“The world will think I am.”
“I only care what you think. You belong to us.” I hammered my hips into her, the threads of my release working up my spine as my balls drew up.
“Why does it matter?”
I clenched my jaw. “It fucking matters.”
“Fine. I’m not single. I’m yours.”
“You’re mine and Theo’s forever. Say it.”
“I’m yours and Theo’s forever. Oh fuck, I’m coming again.”
Her cunt fisted my cock in a hard spasm, and it was all over for me. My ejaculation shot through me, and I spurted into Nerine in hot, hard jets. I felt the relief through my whole body. There was nothing fucking like it.
I loved this woman, and I could only hope that she truly accepted that we were in this together.