Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
TORI
H e leans back, looking shocked, his jaw tight, his eyes flaring with wild hunger. His rock-hard cock is coated in my release, his tip glimmering with a big dollop of precome.
“I don’t want to stop, silly,” I tell him, grabbing his arm and guiding him to the bed. “I can see how close you are. I want to be sexy for you.”
“You’re always sexy,” he growls.
“But like this…”
I guide him to his back and then climb on top of him. I’ve never had crippling body-image issues, but it’s not like I’ve ever been super confident, either. When I sit on him, reach down, and grab his thickness to guide it to my aching pussy, the flood of confidence is intoxicating.
I slide down his length, every inch of my sex aching as he grinds inside of me.
He growls, massaging my breasts as I begin to bounce. I feel my body shaking, and there’s a slight whisper of nerves, a tiny voice, but it’s easy to ignore it when I see how badly he wants me.
No, not wants. Needs . He’s staring like he’s been waiting his entire life for this moment.
I let myself go completely, bouncing up and down, grinding on his length and owning the pleasure, owning the moment. A wave of power washes over me. It feels like I sometimes do onstage, the crowd applauding, the emotion pulsing out of me.
The veins on his neck bulge, and his eyes open wide, staring in fascination as I prop my hands on his chest and bounce over and over. His length makes a searing path inside as he touches a place I’ve never experienced before: deep, hot, needy.
His lip twitches when he hears the quality of my breathy moans change. He sits up, smoothing his hands over my back. We rock together, his warm breath moving over my body, face, and neck. I’m sure I can feel his manhood expanding inside of me as the pleasure floods into him, causing me to fall over the edge with him.
“Oh, fuck,” he groans. “My perfect poet…”
“I love—the new—nickname…”
“Fuckkk.”
He falls back as his pleasure erupts, his hands molded to my hips as his cock pulses and his come fills me. I sink my hands into his chest again, leaving marks there, tattoos of possession.
Finally, he lets out a trembling gasp and pulls me on top of him, his wilting manhood slipping out of me. I slide into his embrace, putting my cheek against his naked chest, feeling and listening to his heartbeat.
“I never thought losing my virginity would feel so good,” I whisper.
He kisses the top of my head, squeezing my shoulder. “You were so damn sexy” He sighs when his cell phone rings. “It’s Gray, the head of the security team. I better get this.”
I tighten my grip against Alex’s bare stomach. Please don’t let Damien ruin this moment.
“What do you mean you can’t find her?” Alex growls. “You’re supposed to be the best security team in the goddamn city. So she slipped away, did she?”
He sits up, looking furious.
My phone buzzes from the floor, my coat pocket. Dread swirls through me as I reach down for it. It’s a text from Mom’s number with an image attached.
I almost don’t want to open it. It’d be easier to stay in this bedroom, to pretend none of this is happening. Terror threatens to paralyze me, but somehow, I know the text and phone call are related.
When I open the image, I almost drop my phone.
Mom, tied to a chair, blood smeared down the side of her face. She has a gag stuffed in her mouth.
A moment later, a text arrives with an address: a beach house less than a mile away. Then another text.
Unknown: If I see your security, the bitch gets it. Come here. Come alone. Come now.
My hand trembles as I show Alex the screen. He clenches his fist around his phone.
“We can’t tell them,” I whisper.
He grinds his teeth, then nods. “Gray, it’s all good,” he says. “Tori just heard from her mother. She’s fine. She just wanted some alone time. No, I won’t tell you where she is. You don’t need to sweat it.”
He hangs up.
“Fuck. What the hell is going on?”
“How would he get to her without the security seeing?”
“They’re probably only watching the front of the building,” he muses. “He could’ve used a back entrance. Or maybe he lured her out somehow. So much for the best goddamn agency in the city. Fuck .”
I put my hand on his chest. “We need to slow down. Think.”
My phone buzzes again.
Unknown: Tick tock…
“Why is he doing this?” I snap. “Okay, so Mom cheated on his dad. Fine. But to go this far? Isn’t that just insane? Pathetic? Deluded?”
“It’s all those things and more,” Alex says. “But the sad fact is, there are insane, pathetic, and deluded people in this world who will happily hurt others to make themselves feel better.”
“I have to go to her,” I say. “I can’t just leave her there.”
“I’m not letting you go alone,” Alex growls.
“You saw the text?—”
“I can’t let you go alone,” he snaps. “Get that out of your head. If I let you go alone and something happened to you, I’d never forgive myself. That’s not happening. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together.”
“He can’t see you,” I whisper. “He can’t know you’re there. You’ll have to let me go into that house alone…”
When he shakes his head, I grab his hands and squeeze them tightly. “My mom isn’t perfect. We’ve had our problems. I won’t pretend otherwise, but if I lost her…” I shudder, tears welling in my eyes. “I can’t lose her. You have to let me save her.”
“You’re not going alone,” he snaps.
“Then we need to think of a compromise and think fast,” I snap. “I can’t let him do this. Mom is the only family I’ve got left.”
He grinds his teeth.
“Listen,” I say. “You say you’ll never forgive yourself if something happens to me. I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to Mom.”
“I’m going to be there,” he growls. “Let me see that address.”
I show him my phone.
He sighs darkly. “I don’t like this, Tori, but if we’re going to do it, I might have an idea. He doesn’t want to see any security, but he can’t police who uses the beach. I’ll put on some running gear and a hoodie so he won’t know it’s me and jog up and down the beach nearby. Lure him to the back porch…”
I nod quickly, my heart pounding as I mentally prepare for this. “Okay, we can do that.”
“And if you need me, scream, okay?” he says urgently. “I’ll be in there in two seconds flat. I’ll tear his arms from his goddamn body if he even thinks about hurting you.”
“What are you going to tell the security?” I ask.
“I’ll tell them I want them to stay here, watch the front and the back of the property, to make sure nobody can hurt Elliot. I’ll say we want some alone time. I hired them so they won’t press the issue. But Tori?—”
“I know. You don’t like this.”
“That’s a goddamn understatement.”
“What other choice do we have?” I say. “If I don’t go, he could kill her.”
“If you go, he could kill you,” he counters.
“That’s a risk I have to take. For Mom. You’d do the same for Elliot.”
“You’ve got me there,” he snarls. “Goddamn it. Remember, I’ll be nearby. And if you’re not out in five minutes, I’m coming in anyway.”
“Alex…”
“No,” he snaps. “I’m not arguing that point.”
“What if it takes longer?—”
“Enough, Tori,” he says firmly. “Five minutes is already too much time to be alone with that psycho. You wanted a compromise. This is your compromise.”
He’s not going to give in, is he?
“Fine, let’s do this. But I’ll need a change of clothes; I’ve only got my coat and underwear.”
“I’ll loan you something,” he says. “But it’s going to be baggy.”
A surreal feeling hits me as I walk up to the entrance of the beach house. I know Alex is jogging up and down the beach behind the property, but that doesn’t do much for the nerves and the fear twisting through me.
For Mom , I remind myself.
The door swings open before I can ring the bell. Damien holds a gun in one hand. He’s got his other clutched to his chest, probably from where Alex snapped it the last time he tried to pull some crap.
“You did the right thing coming alone,” Damien says smugly.
“What do you want?” I hiss, thinking that ten seconds have already passed.
I know that Alex will be counting down. He was livid about putting me in harm’s way. But he didn’t have a choice. If he’d refused, I would’ve come here anyway, with or without him.
Damien steps aside, nodding into the house.
“Where’s the big bad wolf?” he says, laughing in a self-assured way.
I rush to the center of the room, where Mom is tied to a chair. I glide my hands over her body, checking for injuries. Apart from the knock on her head, she seems unharmed.
“Where are your goons, huh?” I snap, spinning to him, letting anger rule me, which probably isn’t the best idea.
He rolls his eyes at me. I turn back to Mom, taking the gag from her mouth. She sucks in a breath. “Your man scared his goons away,” Mom says bitterly.
“Enough of that,” Damien snaps, striding over.
“Why are we here?” I demand. “I know Mom made a mistake, but hurting us won’t turn back time. People cheat, Damien. It’s wrong. I hate it. I’d never do it, but it’s a fact of life. You don’t kidnap people. You don’t stalk people because somebody cheated on your dad. Can’t you see how warped that is?”
“You think I’m some evil piece of shit, don’t you?” he says wearily, as though he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders. He walks over to the couch and drops down, resting the gun against his knee. In my head, the seconds tick by.
What if Alex storms in here before I get a chance to lure Damien to the porch? What if my man smashes through the window when the gun is still aimed at me?
Why did this have to happen now when my body is still sizzling from what we did?
“You’ve kidnapped an innocent woman,” I snap. “You stalked her daughter to a bar and got a job there just to?—”
He laughs, shaking his head. “You’re not that special, Tori. I got a job there because I needed a damn job because my dad made me promise to try and stick to the straight and narrow before he died. Before he died .” He glares at Mom. “You heard that, didn’t you, Monica? My dad died because of what you did to him.”
Mom sniffles. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”
Mom, you don’t owe him an apology , I almost say, but then I think better of it. Antagonizing him probably isn’t the best idea.
“We Kents have a reputation, it’s true,” Damien says. “But we’re not as bad as people like to make out. We’ve got fingers in pies, but only because that’s the only way to make some damn money in this city. At least, it was before Dad… Monica, tell your daughter why my father took his own life.”
I gasp.
Mom shudders, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I didn’t plan on any of this. He was so intense, so possessive…”
In the back of my head, I think about Alex, how intense and possessive he is, and how much I like it.
Focus, Tori .
“You cheated on my dad,” Damien says. “You got rid of his child. The pain was so bad, he took his own life.” Damien speaks numbly, but there’s emotion beneath the surface. It almost makes me feel sorry for the lunatic.
“Mom,” I whisper.
Mom sobs, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I’m just so sorry. Please, if you’re going to hurt anyone, hurt me. Tori has nothing to do with this.”
“I was going to make Tori love me,” Damien says in a distant voice. “When I realized who she was, that was my plan. Woo the bitch. Make the bitch love me. Break her heart. But you, Tori, you were so damn stubborn. Now, I’m going to simplify things.”
He stands up, aiming the gun at me. “Stick that gag back in her mouth.”
Terror seizes me. I want to tell him to go to hell, but it’s difficult to summon any words with the cold barrel of a gun aimed at me.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” I whisper, picking up the gag.
She shudders. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
“It’s going to be okay,” I assure her. “You’ve made mistakes, but you’re not a bad person.”
“Ha,” Damien grunts. Once I’ve replaced the gag, Damien strides up to me and nudges me with the gun. “On the kitchen counter, there’s a glass of water. Drink it.”
I urge myself to grab the gun, yank it from his grasp, to do something. When I told Alex I needed to come here, I thought I might be able to force myself to take action. It all seemed so much more possible when I wasn’t one trigger pull away from the final act.
Walking to the counter, I look down at the water, little bits of white powder floating in it.
“What’s in it?” I ask.
“Drink,” he orders. “Or I’ll make you watch me kill your mother.”
What choice do I have?
Oh, God, this was a mistake.
My hand trembles as I raise the glass and drink down the thick liquid, granules of powder sliding down my throat. Instantly, my vision grows hazy, and my balance feels off.
I stumble. Damien laughs and guides me to the couch, pushing me down.
“You’re going to watch us make sweet, sweet love, Monica,” Damien growls as I try to claw onto consciousness. “I want you to think of my father every single fucking second. I want you to think of what you did to him, what you did to me . I want you to remember. This is all your fault.”
I open my mouth to scream, but no noise comes out.
Then everything goes black.