24. Chapter 24 #2
I shifted slightly in front of her, not wanting to make it obvious, and addressed him first. “You’re not talking to her.”
She went completely still behind me but Arthur’s expression didn’t change. He dipped his chin once in acknowledgment and averted his gaze again.
Addy leaned around my shoulder. “Excuse me? What do you mean he’s not talking to me?”
“Not tonight.” I shook my head and tugged at her hand.
“Rude. What if I want to talk to him?”
“Not the time, baby. We’re kind of on a schedule, remember?”
She studied me for a second; I could sense something recalibrating behind her eyes — awareness, perhaps?
“You’re serious.”
“I’m always serious when it’s about keeping you safe.”
That was the moment reality hit me. She still thought these were dock workers. Hired help. Normal people.
When in reality, they were mine. Loyal, vetted, hand-picked, and most importantly, silent.
Men I had chosen deliberately. Not the polished ones, not the ones with options.
The ones no one had wanted. Bastards with no names worth keeping; orphans who learned early on no one was coming for them; men who grew up understanding survival wasn’t a right — it was something you had to earn every single day.
Men like me.
Because those men didn’t forget who gave them a place. They didn’t question hierarchy or loyalty, not when they’d lived without both. They worked harder, fought dirtier, and stayed where you put them because leaving meant going back to nothing.
They didn’t ask questions. They didn’t repeat what they saw. They didn’t look twice at the girl standing too close to me.
But it only worked if she gave them nothing and treated them like she was supposed to. Every unnecessary word was a thread, and threads got pulled.
Addy didn’t see leverage when she smiled at strangers. She didn’t see how quickly attention turned into curiosity, curiosity into conversation, conversation into memory.
If she talked too freely, I didn’t lose control.
I lost containment, and containment was the only reason she’s standing here untouched.
My men stepped aside, clearing the way up the gangway without looking at her again.
Addy glanced between them and then back at me, lowering her voice. “Why do they all look like they could bench press a car?”
The corner of my mouth twitched traitorously. “They work out.”
“For what, exactly?”
I held her gaze and lifted my brows.
She squinted. “You’re not going to answer that.”
“No.” I pursed my lips.
Addy exhaled, sounding half-frustrated and half-breathless. “You are so weirdly calm about everything.”
“Yes.”
A beat of silence passed.
“Should I be concerned?”
I stepped closer, lowering my voice so only Addy could hear me. “You’re probably the only person on this boat who doesn’t have anything to fear. No one here will ever touch you.”
Her pulse flickered in her throat and I bit back a groan. I wanted to mark her pretty little neck. Sink my teeth into the sensitive flesh while my dick was buried in her tight cunt.
“That was intense,” she muttered, a blush spreading across her cheeks.
“It was honest.”
She searched my face for a hint of deception but found none.
The deck shifted beneath her feet as we boarded and she instantly grabbed my arm, her fingers digging in. I steadied her, sliding my hand to her waist and guiding her forward. Her body reacted before her pride did.
“I hate unstable surfaces,” she grumbled.
“Nothing I can really do about that, I’m afraid.”
She stared up at me. “How long will we be on this deathtrap?”
I chuckled at her dramatics. “Not too long.”
The interior lights had already been switched on, casting a warm, golden glow through the cabin windows.
Addy stepped inside slowly and stopped dead in her tracks.
The main cabin looked like a high-end apartment that had simply decided to float. Sleek leather seating was paired with dark wood. There was a bar built seamlessly into the wall, I knew to already be fully stocked.
Addy turned her head slowly, taking everything in with wide eyes.
“Why,” she asked faintly, “is there a staircase?”
“For the upper deck,” Kyrill answered, unhelpfully, popping out of nowhere and making her jump.
She pointed toward a hallway. “And what’s down there?”
“Bedrooms,” he explained.
Plural.
She spun toward me. “Bedrooms.”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know. Not like we’ve been on any boats recently, so this one’s as new to me as it is to you.”
“Yeah, right.” Addy scoffed, making me smile.
Her eyes drifted back to the bar, which was lined with crystal glasses and decanters containing the kind of liquor not coming with twist caps.
She approached it like she was inspecting an exhibition at a museum. “This is so fucking crazy.”
I closed the distance between us without rushing. “You’re overreacting.”
A hysterical little laugh burst out of her. “I’m underreacting. I should be screaming.”
“If it makes you feel better, go ahead.”
Addy turned to face me again, her eyes wide, but not with fear. Then she ran a hand through her long, dark hair.
“Do you have, like … staff?”
“No.”
“Crew?”
“No.”
“Rotational maritime associates?”
I stared at her while Kyrill made a choking sound behind me.
She stepped closer, lowering her voice dramatically. “If I open one of these doors and there’s drugs, firearms, or a body behind it, I’m jumping overboard.”
“You won’t.”
Not because there wouldn't be any, but because she wouldn’t find them.
“Why does that not reassure me in the slightest?” she huffed.
In the end, she walked down the hallway anyway, with me trailing behind her.
She opened the first door to reveal a bedroom with a large, perfectly made bed in neutral tones, highlighted with subtle lighting. Beyond lay a private bathroom looking nicer than her entire apartment.
Closing the door gently, she went on to open the next one.
Another bedroom.
Addy turned back toward me slowly. “So this was all planned?”
“Yeah.”
She squinted at me. “Are you secretly extremely wealthy?”
“No.”
Technically, I didn’t have a single penny to my name right now, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have access to money.
“You hesitated!”
“Did I?” I asked lazily, smiling at the way her cute face was scrunched up as she pointed accusingly at me.
“You so did.”
“If you say so, baby.” I shrugged.
Addy studied my face for another long second, then asked cautiously, “You’re not, like … in witness protection and they messed up the budget, right?”
I snorted. “Nah.”
She exhaled. “Because if you are, I need to know now. I don’t have the emotional stamina to testify.”
“You wouldn’t qualify,” I explained calmly.
She slow-blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“You wouldn’t qualify.”
“For witness protection?”
“Yes.”
Her mouth fell open. “Why not?”
“You talk too much.”
Kyrill lost it completely and Addy stared at me in disbelief. “That is incredibly rude.”
“So, you don’t talk a lot?”
She folded her arms. “I could be mysterious.”
“You lasted seven minutes.”
“That’s not fair. All of this is aggressively sketchy. It’s my first time being kidnapped. I’m allowed to have questions.”
“You’re not being kidnapped.” I chuckled. “You came willingly, remember?”
“You mean you got me cock-drunk and took advantage of my delirium,” she argued.
“Maybe. Still doesn’t mean I kidnapped you.”
“Oh sure, because manipulation and coercion are so much better than kidnapping?”
I stepped closer, close enough to force her to tilt her head back slightly to look at me.
“No one is coming for you,” I said evenly. “Not the feds, not witness protection. No. One.”
Her brows rose. “Is that supposed to be comforting or threatening? It’s kinda unclear.”
“Comforting, for sure.”
Addy searched my face again, trying to find the crack in it, a lie or some instability.
Only, there wasn’t one — just certainty.
Her shoulders lowered a fraction.
“This is insane.”
“Not really.”
She ran a hand through her hair. “And I’m still here.”
“If it makes you feel better, you can tell yourself I didn’t leave you a choice.”
She hesitated for a moment longer before stepping further into the open lounge area and running her fingers lightly along the back of the sofa, as though she needed physical proof it was real.
The engine hummed to life beneath us, low and steady. The dock lights began to drift backward as the boat eased away from shore. Florida became a strip of glow against the horizon, shrinking in increments.
Addy stood near the railing for a moment, her hair caught by the wind. She was quiet in a way I hadn’t seen yet tonight. No jokes, no sass, no endless questions. She just watched the shoreline disappear, while I watched her.
Finally, she turned to look at me and the humor had gone from her face, replaced with a thoughtful and somber expression.
“We’re in your world now, aren’t we?”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
“Are you sure about this?”
I couldn’t tell her that, from this point on, whatever happened would be as new to me as it was to her. I’d proved myself to the Bratva in prison and secured my position, but I had zero experience of leading my men on the outside.
The only thing I was certain of was I would keep her safe, no matter what.
“Yes,” I lied but if she noticed, she didn’t call me out on it.
The tension settled between us then, thick and heavy with everything left unsaid. Addy stepped closer, seemingly unaware she had done so, her shoulder brushing my arm again. This time, she didn’t fill the silence. She just watched me.
And for the first time since we left her apartment, I felt something other than control or thrill or possession.
It was fear. Not of losing her — she’d have to kill me to get rid of me — but of the world taking notice of her. Of someone else realizing what I already knew.
My little devil was both a liability and the reason my fucking heart was beating now. She was trapped on my boat with no way out, and my patience, which had been hanging by a thread, finally snapped.
Circling her waist with my arm, I yanked her flush against my body. Her shocked gaze snapped up to meet mine.
“What—”
“Time’s up. I’ve been dreaming about making you mine for months now, and I refuse to wait any longer.”
Her lips parted as her breathing picked up. I lifted her up by the waist, her hard nipples now showing through the shirt and pressing against my torso, and walked with her to the nearest bedroom.
Fuck, I can’t wait anymore.
Keeping my gaze locked to hers, I dipped down and crushed my mouth to hers. Addy whimpered, and I swallowed the sound greedily, licking the seam of her lips until she parted them for me.
I couldn’t stop the moan from climbing up my throat as her curious tongue darted out to play with mine, tasting myself on her, just like I hoped I would. So fucking hot. Turning our heads, I devoured her with deep, sensual strokes of my tongue and only pulled back when my dick throbbed painfully.
“We’ve got hours at sea, Little Devil,” I rasped in her ear. “I’m going to wreck this pussy, going to make it fucking mine so you’ll have zero doubts who you belong to.”
I kicked the door shut and let her slide down my front along the rigid length of my cock, my gaze pinned to her hungrily.
“Now, strip for me.”