Chapter Eleven – Laina
The dinner lasted entirely too long. By the time we finally drove home, it was well after eight. Night had fallen across the city. Needless to say, it was practically impossible to sit there in the backseat with Kieran, while Tessa and my dad were in the front.
Kieran for obvious reasons. Tessa because I now knew she was the root of all of my problems. And my dad, well… it wasn’t him.
It wasn’t him. Not too long ago I would’ve sworn up and down that my dad was the reason I was kidnapped. I would’ve staked my life on him being involved. I spent nearly the entire time in that room furious and hateful, and now it turned out I’d been directing my anger toward the wrong person.
It wasn’t my dad. It was Tessa. The thought still didn’t sound true, no matter how many times I repeated it to myself in my head.
And Kieran… Kieran was my Devil. Kieran and my kidnapper were one and the same, two sides of the same coin. One side was flirty, silly, and sarcastic, while the other side was dark and domineering, a little bit rough. Yet, there had been times when the other had shown through, when the two sides mixed.
I tried not to look at him too much during the drive home, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t glance at him at all. Now that I knew, it was like something compelled me to sneak glances at him every now and then.
Tessa was busy talking in the front seat, “It was so nice of Sylvester to come. And his donation—he topped everyone. I had no idea the Lucianos were doing so well still. It certainly does pay to have powerful friends, doesn’t it?”
My dad smiled at her. “I wasn’t expecting that, for sure, but I definitely won’t complain.”
Leaning around the seat, my step-mother, the woman who nearly had Kieran killed and wanted me dead, gave me a warm smile. “How are you feeling, Laina? You seemed off tonight.” Lying and putting on a smile apparently ran in the family bloodline where she and Kieran were concerned.
Seriously, she was good.
I gave her a smile of my own, hoping I could match even half of her skill. “I’m fine. It was just boring. Not exactly what I want to do on a Friday night.”
“Yes, I can imagine” was her dry response, and even though there was a lot I could’ve said, I let it drop. She could have the last word, for now. Whether she suspected Kieran had told me the truth, I didn’t know, but my guard would permanently be up.
My dad must not have sensed anything was the matter, because he sounded quite oblivious as he said, “Well, I’m just happy it went without a hitch and that we raised almost a quarter of a million dollars. Not too shabby, for something we threw together in less than a week!”
Tessa chuckled, and the sound made me itch. “Yes, honey. Imagine what we could do for your next campaign.” Though her words sounded innocent, if a bit greedy, I knew the underlying sentiment, what she wasn’t saying.
Two years ago, she tried to have me, a girl she hardly knew, killed, and it was a stroke of luck that Kieran couldn’t go through with it. Instead of killing me, he kept me somewhere she would never find me, and two years she thought she got away with it. She thought everything went according to plan… until I came strolling back, beaten and bruised, minus two fingers.
Even though my dad was now mayor, and support for him was through the roof, she still wanted me gone—and not only that, but she wanted it enough that she was willing to have her own brother killed in revenge. I mean, that’s some pretty screwed up shit.
Money. Money really made people do terrible things. It made them blind to empathy and the suffering of others. If only money didn’t rule the world, then maybe there wouldn’t be so many people who’d be willing to stab their loved ones in the back for it.
Their loved ones, strangers, girls who hadn’t even turned eighteen yet… the list went on.
The moment we arrived at the house, I headed straight to my bedroom. I shut the door, needing privacy. Needing something. What I really wanted to do was grab the sharp claws Fang made me, march to wherever Tessa was, and show her how I wasn’t afraid to use them and get a little bloody.
Instead, all I did was tear off the blond wig and throw it to the floor of my closet, sinking down to the small square ottoman in the center of it and burying my face in my hands. I worked on kicking my heels off.
What a night. What a long, ungodly night.
Kieran was my Devil, and he loved me.
The sound of someone entering my bedroom caused me to snap my head up and say, “I’m in here.” I knew it couldn’t be my dad or Tessa; Tessa had made it clear she wouldn’t try anything in the house, and my dad always knocked, so it had to be one of the guys: Mike or Kieran.
Whoever it was had heavy footsteps, so by the time he walked into my closet, I already knew who it was: Mike. The tall mountain of a man was never quiet as a mouse, unlike Kieran.
“Hey,” he spoke quietly. “You all right?”
All I did was stare up at him. Given everything, he should already know the answer. Still, he stood there, a few feet away, waiting, clearly expectant. If I said nothing, he’d never leave… although, maybe that wouldn’t be a terrible thing tonight.
His lips were tugged in a frown, his usual expression when he looked at me, although there was something different about it this time. A heaviness that didn’t used to be there. That expression, combined with the fact he still wore a suit, made me feel certain things.
The man could fill in a suit, okay? He wore the clothes like no one else could, all thick, solid muscle beneath the fabric.
When I didn’t say a word, Mike lowered to the ground. Even kneeling before me, he was still a giant in comparison. Regardless of what he was doing or how he was standing, I always felt so small near him, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. If anything, it made me feel protected.
“Damn it, Laina,” he whispered. “Why do you have to be so complicated?” Softer, he asked, “Why couldn’t this be a simple job?”
As much as I wished I had answers for him, I didn’t, so all I did was shrug, and when I did, the frown on his face lessened in its intensity, and he sighed hard.
“I want to kill him,” he muttered. “I want to empty a mag into him, but I know you won’t let me. I—” He paused, grinding his teeth somewhat, like whatever he was about to say didn’t want to come out. “—it kills me knowing he was the one who took you. Whether you see it or not, what he did was wrong. It was wrong, and he doesn’t deserve your affection.”
I couldn’t blame him for feeling like that, but at the same time, I could never bring myself to hate Kieran or what he did. Truly, he opened my eyes—until tonight, I’d thought he was opening my eyes to the sins of my dad, but we were all wrong every now and then.
He went on, “I should stay in your room tonight, to make sure you’re safe.”
“To make sure I’m safe, or to stop Kieran from sneaking in when you’re not around?” As I voiced the question, I watched his hazel gaze narrow at me, and I knew I hit the mark, dead-center.
Mike closed his eyes and turned his head, and though he said not another word, I could practically feel the weight of his thoughts. He couldn’t argue with me, because I was right. The truth about Kieran and what he did was out in the open, and now he felt as if his mistrust for the man was well-placed.
I scooted to the edge of the ottoman, bunching up my dress a bit in the process. Call me psychic, but there was more he wanted to say. Tonight was already a night of truths, so why not just dive right in, hmm? I wasn’t going to let him avoid me any longer.
I reached for his face, setting a hand on the cheek turned away from me and forcing him to turn back toward me, and when I did, he cracked his eyelids open and stared at me from beneath heavy lashes.
“What are you—” Mike took my wrist in his hand and forced it away from his face. “Don’t.”
“No,” I stated with a huff. “You don’t.”
His frown deepened, and after a few moments of intense eye contact, he released my hand and started to get up, like he was going to leave just like that. Things got too intense between us and he was ready to bail and go back to pretending I was nothing but a job to him—but you know what? I was so tired of that game.
I didn’t let him stand. When I realized he was getting up, I grabbed his tie and pulled him back down. He clearly wasn’t anticipating the move, because his guard wasn’t up and he came straight back down to his knees.
“No,” I whispered. “I’m not going to let you keep running away from me.”
“I wasn’t running. I was going to get out of these damn clothes and take a shower—”
“No.” My fingers curled around the end of the tie tighter. “No, you were running, just like you’ve been doing since that night. Why, Mike? Why do you act like being close to me is the worst thing in the world?”
His mouth pursed, and for a moment I didn’t think he was going to answer, but it turned out he was simply taking his time. “I’m not… being close to you isn’t the worst thing in the world, okay? It’s not. It’s the opposite.” His nostrils flared, like he was pissed at himself for saying this. “It’s the opposite, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my line of work, it’s that the best things in life never last. They’re always taken from you too damn soon.”
My heart skipped a beat hearing him say it. In other words, he was scared to lose me. He didn’t want to lose me. “So, what? That mindset is supposed to stop you from having anything good, ever? Nothing lasts forever. Spoiler alert: we all die at the end. But that doesn’t matter. The only thing that should matter is—”
Something stopped me from saying it, but the words were right there, on the tip of my tongue: the only thing that should matter is finding people you love and surrounding yourself with them. What was life if you were always alone? What was the point of anything when you deprived yourself of everything that made you happy?
No life I wanted to live, and no life Mike should live, either.
He swallowed, and he was so close to me I could see his Adam’s apple move. “Let me go, Laina.” A plea. He was as good as begging me to release him by letting go of his tie, when in reality he could easily overpower me and stand, or even undo the tie and let it fall away from his neck.
Lola’s and Fang’s advice about him rose in the back of my mind. Mike had spent nearly his entire life following orders, never chasing anything for himself, and now he was at the point where going after something he wanted felt wrong.
And so, I told him the only thing I could as the determination set in my blood: “No.”
Mike’s only response was to breathe harder, for his chest to rise and fall and his hands to clench against the carpet. For the first time in a long time, his stare fell to my mouth—but only for a split second before he attempted to regain his composure and say, “Yes.”
“No.” This time the word was firmer, more of an order. “I’m not going to let you go.” I gave the tie a tug, pulling the man a few inches closer to me. “Stop pretending like I don’t exist. Stop acting like that night was a mistake.”
I ran my other hand down the side of his square jaw, watching as he sighed and leaned into the hand. He didn’t say a word, but his shoulders were a little less rigid, his posture a little less straight.
Screw it. I was done dancing around it. Tonight was a night of truths, and so I’d tell him my truth—and I’d do it without words.
What was my truth? I needed him. I’d gone from being annoyed with him being thrust upon me to depending on him, and now I needed him, plain and simple. My life was a whirlwind of complication, but having someone like Mike helped ground me.
I pulled on the tie one last time, colliding my lips with his as the hand on his face curled around to the back of his head. His lips were just as firm and eager as they’d been that night, only now there was a bigger urgency behind them. He kissed me like he needed to steal the air from my lungs and make it his own. He’d become a man on a mission, and that mission was to kiss me so hard my toes curled.
He didn’t try to pull away. His pathetic attempts at begging me to let him go must’ve been a last-ditch effort on his part, because the moment our lips met, he kissed me with the intensity of a thousand suns and brought his hands to my lower back, holding onto me in a way he never had before.
It was crazy to me how different it was kissing Mike compared to Fang or Kieran. Mike had a surprisingly tender touch considering he was roughly the size of a freaking boulder, with hands to match.
Speaking of those hands… they moved off my lower back and went to my legs, moving up my outer thighs and bunching up my dress as they went. With my dress practically up to my ass, it let him spread my legs, and after he spread them he scooted right between them, holding the rest of my body tightly against his chest. He was so close I didn’t need to keep hold of his tie anymore, so I let it go as I worked on blindly loosening it.
Loosen the tie, undo a few buttons on his shirt beneath that suit jacket, all so I could touch his chest and run my hands along the solid muscle resting there.
Mike had similar thoughts as we kissed. Now that my legs were wrapped around his torso, his hands roamed my back, finding the zipper to the dress. His fingers fumbled for the tiny thing, but soon enough he was pulling the zipper down and making the dress clinging to my body loosen. My bra came off less than five seconds later, my chest spilling out as he pulled the undone bra off me and tossed it aside.
His mouth left mine, his neck bending so that he could nuzzle against the crook of my neck. I breathed out his name, “Mike. I need you.”
One arm remained curled around my back while his other hand moved to my chest, cupping a tit and making me arch my back when his fingers toyed with a nipple, pebbling it into a point so hard it could cut glass.
He shuddered against me when I said his name, and I let one of my hands fall down his chest. Over his clothes, past his belt, where something hard bulged. Where he’d stopped me that night, he didn’t stop me this time, didn’t go to pull my hand away. He only moaned against my neck, and it was the moan of a man that had held himself back for far too long.
I had to stop touching him over his pants when his head dipped lower. He spread his knees to get himself to a good height before he took one of my nipples into his mouth and sucked hard, so hard I had to moan and throw my head back.
Mike showered one tit with attention, and then went to do the same to the other. On my thighs, I could feel his hands roaming. His fingers hooked around my panties and pulled them down my legs. Off they went, until I wore nothing but a bunched-up dress with every private part of me exposed to him.
His wide chest hummed as he tore his mouth off my nipple and went even lower on my body. He had to practically sit on the ground to be at a good height for it, but the man did not utter a single complaint. He spread my thighs, and he was seconds from going in when his gaze spotted the bite mark on my inner thigh. Based on the sound he made right then, I could tell he wasn’t happy.
He looked up at me, wordlessly asking me, why ?
All I could do was smile at him and bat my eyelashes a bit extra while saying, “I asked for it.” When he still only stared up at me, I added, “Don’t let it stop you from telling me just how badly you want me.”
The corners of his lips quirked into a slight smile, a smile so faint you might not even know it was there; but I saw it, and I knew I’d pushed him past the point of pulling back. He was so lost in me he didn’t have the wherewithal to be jealous or upset that Fang had permanently marked my body with his bite.
Mike said not a single word as he dove right in, lowering his mouth to my apex and worshipping me in much the same way he had that night. His tongue flicked against my clit before he sucked hard on it, and I moaned, unable to keep the sound inside. Hot, carnal pleasure rose within me, a dominating force that made me foggy-brained and desperate for more.
I brought a hand to the back of his head, weaving my fingers through his hair as he ate me out. Just like that, my body was at a fever pitch; I couldn’t think straight. My hips began to move, grinding myself against his mouth. He was at home between my spread thighs. His tongue lapped at me with a hungry greed; he could play my body like a fiddle.
My breath caught and my thighs clenched around his head, the key sign that I was close to losing it. I bit my bottom lip to try to stop myself from crying out, but when the pleasure became too much, I was a bit too loud.
Let’s just say it was a good thing my dad’s room wasn’t right next door.
The orgasm took hold of me with a possessive force, causing my body to spasm and my clit to swell. Mike’s mouth kept up its work, guiding me through the release while simultaneously making it last longer than it should’ve. Every muscle in my body was on fire, my heart working overdrive in my chest. I saw stars before I closed my eyes.
He labored to pull his mouth off me, and when he lifted his head I managed to crack my eyes open and watch him lick his lips, as if I was the best thing he’d ever tasted. That, combined with the look he was giving me from between my thighs, was the sexiest thing I’d seen in my life.
I didn’t want to let him go just yet. I wanted more.
I scooted off the ottoman, landing on his lap, which I could easily straddle thanks to my dress being nothing more than a heap of fabric around my waist. I kissed him before he could say anything else, before he could do anything else—now was the time when he typically regained his composure and pushed me away, tried to tell me I was nothing more than a job.
Maybe that’s what I’d been in the beginning, but now? We were far past that point.
So, while I kissed him, I reached for his belt between us and worked on undoing it. My Devil, Kieran, had taken me at the party, and now I was going to take Mike whether he wanted me to or not. I wasn’t going to give him a choice.
Thankfully he didn’t try to argue with me, not as I undid his belt and not as I reached beneath his pants, into his boxer briefs, and pulled him out. I wasn’t an expert on pulling a man’s dick out, so it wasn’t all smooth-sailing, but soon enough his cock was out.
And, yes, it was very proportional to the rest of him. You know what they said: big man, big shoes, big hands, big cock.
Girthy son of a bitch, too.
I pulled my mouth off Mike’s to pant, our gazes locking as I positioned him below me, and then, without an ounce of hesitation, I sunk down on him and took him in, inch after inch until my body was full and I could take no more of him.
Mike groaned as his cock filled me, his hands resting on my thighs before curving around to my ass. I was on his lap, straddling him, his cock nestled inside of me. With this position, I set the pace—but before I did any such thing, I needed my pussy to get used to the new, thick addition.
God, he could kill someone with it. Seriously, that thing would be considered a dangerous weapon in most countries. A part of me didn’t even think it’d fit.
As soon as my core had stretched to accompany his girth, I rocked up and down slowly, spearing myself with his cock while he watched with heavy lids. He stared at my face for a while, but eventually his gaze dropped to my heaving chest, and then even lower. His cock twitched inside of me; he must’ve liked the sight of his length disappearing inside of me.
I clung to him as I rode him, picking up speed as I closed my eyes and let my body guide me. I moved faster, bouncing on his cock quicker, and he let out a manly, husky sound that reverberated deep within me: approval. Everything I was doing, I was doing right.
“Fuck,” he murmured, the word spoken in a way I’d never heard it before. “You’re…” The man almost sounded out of breath. “…you’re fucking perfect.” He leaned his head against mine. “You’re so fucking perfect, you make me lose my goddamned mind.”
“I know the feeling,” I whispered back, and then I angled his face toward me and kissed him again.
Something in him must’ve shifted, because when I kissed him, he started to move. He held onto me, his cock still plunged deep in me, and picked me up and laid me on the floor, onto my back. With the change in position, he had to tear his mouth off mine; the man was truly too freaking tall.
Seeing him above me, still fully-clothed, did something to me. If I thought his face between my thighs was the sexiest sight I’d ever seen, this knocked it out of the park. Knowing he was inside me, while still wearing that suit with a few buttons undone and his tie loosened, made me pant with need, like a cat in heat.
Mike held himself over me, and without saying a word, he thrusted into me, bearing his body down upon me while filling me up to the brink. He took charge, he set his own pace. With every pump into me, every haggard sigh from his lips, I knew he’d been a man dying for release, a man who’d never dreamt he could have what he wanted most.
Me.
Really, it was his fault he didn’t have me before. He could’ve.
Although, I guessed, in a way it was fitting we waited until now. Before, I was still confused. I didn’t exactly know what I wanted, or who I wanted. I was acting out, trying to find myself—something I didn’t need to do anymore. I knew who I was, who I wanted to be, and I knew who I wanted at my side.
His body rocked against mine, plunging his cock so deep into me I cried out. The way he looked down at me was unlike any other look he’d ever given me. It told me I was everything, I was his world, I’d somehow wormed my way inside of him so deeply he could never disentangle himself from me. I was as much inside him as he was physically inside me right now.
He fucked me like I was a tender flower and he was my gardener, the man in charge of taking care of me. He didn’t go too hard, lest he risk snapping me in half. A low groan came from his throat, a sound unlike any others—and a few moments later, I discovered why that was.
Mike tried to pull out of me, but I stopped him by grabbing his sides and whispering, “Don’t. I’m on the pill. Stay inside.” Now it was my turn to beg him, to beg him to come inside of me instead of anywhere else.
He was unable to argue with me, his own release too demanding. He pumped his cock deep into my core with a low, animalistic grunt, and a slight warmth filled me as he emptied himself in my pussy, filling me up in a way he never had before.
And it was perfect.
He was slow in pulling out of me, and he rolled himself onto his back next to me, staring at the ceiling of my walk-in closet. His wide chest rose and fell with breaths harder than I’d ever heard. “Well,” he paused, “shit.”
I grinned, turning my head so I could stare at his face. “You can say that again.”
Mike’s head rolled to the side, and his hazel eyes met mine. A shadow of a smile tugged at his mouth, and he whispered, “Well, shit.” Though I was as good as paralyzed with the remnants of pleasure still lingering inside of me, he stuffed himself away and fixed his pants and belt before sitting up. He ran a hand through his hair. “I should… shower.” As he said that, he kept his gaze averted from my mostly naked body.
“You could stay,” I told him.
“We shouldn’t push our luck just yet.” He swallowed hard, as if forcing himself away from me was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his life. “Your father is still awake. We shouldn’t draw more attention from him. I don’t think he’d appreciate me being with you.”
I propped myself up and lazily pulled up the dress so it at least covered my tits. It still hung loose since I didn’t rezip it, but at least it was enough to get Mike to look at me again as I reached for his arm. My fingers curled around his thick bicep as much as they could while I whispered, “Maybe not, but it’s not his decision.”
He set one of his hands atop mine, and he leaned down to me and placed a gentle kiss on the top of my head. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about this.” His hand fell to my inner thigh, grazing where Fang had left a mark on me. “We’ll talk about that later.”
All I did was give him a pout, and it was enough to soften his steely exterior.
With a sigh, he whispered, “You’ll drive me crazy yet, but I should go.” As he stood up, I stood up with him, watching as he made sure his suit wasn’t wrinkled and that his pants didn’t reveal too much of a leftover bulge. He started for the door, but just before he reached it, he stopped and looked back at me, like he had to get one last look of me, undone, before braving the world beyond this closet.
Once he was gone, I couldn’t help but grin to myself as I changed into my pajamas. I didn’t bother putting in my colored contacts; I’d just do it in the morning. After flipping off the lights, I crawled into bed. My body was still alive, humming after that spontaneous session with Mike.
I felt good about it. Not a single part of me regretted it. I’d been on a journey of self-discovery since leaving that house—really, ever since waking up and finding the key to my shackles. I’d emerged from that house a bitter, furious girl who held nothing but resentment in her heart, and now…
Now I was someone who could stare into darkness without blinking, someone who could get her hands bloody and not flinch. I knew the truth now: the truth about who was behind my kidnapping, who wanted me dead, and the truth about Kieran.
What a wild ride it had been, and as I lay there in the dark, reminiscing about how everything had changed, I knew the ride wasn’t over yet.