Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
SANTIAGO
Every now and then, he looks at her, which is to be expected—she is one of the most gorgeous and charming women I’ve ever come across.
But what worries me is how, when he does, his response flickers from one extreme to the other.
It’s a seesaw of inconsistency that goes from him being seemingly offended by her very existence, to him eyeing her like she’s a ripe forbidden fruit he wants to feast on.
That is concerning, but what also worries me is how aware he is of his own conflict.
When he catches himself doing it, his scent blows out, and his influence spikes until it all but disappears under a cloak of control.
And it’s in the aftermath that he lashes out at her, cursing in a run of harsh, unintelligible words.
Kade has immediately caught on to the instability of the Russian.
The volatile nature of the Alpha made Kade position himself, none too subtly, between him and Quinn.
Kade even went so far as unbuttoning his suit jacket for easy access to his holstered gun.
His threat hangs in the air like her aromatic scent. She’s like a vanilla wonderland.
If Quinn is aware of the posturing going on, and it’s all but impossible to pretend the Russian isn’t being unstable as all fuck, she’s ignoring it and continues to answer his inane and endless run of questions.
She’s articulate in her explanation and has been since the first time he asked, not getting emotional or caught up in explaining herself perfectly, but he keeps asking the same question repeatedly in different ways.
I’m not sure if he’s waiting for her to trip herself up, or if he’s looking for a different answer.
“Please”—she turns herself into his path as he walks around the spot where Kade killed one of the men—“I need a moment.”
I stay on the edge of the room, waiting to see what she needs a break from, and then my stomach bottoms out as she turns without waiting for his approval and marches straight at me.
“You, get here now,” she hisses as she passes, walking until we’re so far away from the Russian and the cop that the air is clear of their mingling scents so all I breathe is her.
Without waiting, she is in my face. “Just stop.” Her finger jabs towards me like a poisonous dart, completely disarming because if anyone else had ever even thought of disrespecting me like that, I would have ripped their fingers clean off.
With her, though, the poison she aimed at me has me locked up like a statue, waiting with bated breath to hear what I’ve done.
Her mouth is taut with tension. “If you can’t pull this off, you need to pretend to call Victor and ask to be replaced. Have you not heard the saying, ‘Choose your battles wisely’?”
Okay, that, I wasn’t expecting. But at her insistence, I pull my head out of my ass and see what I’ve been missing because I’ve been so caught up in him.
I think back to our interactions and feel like a fool.
My mind is full of snapshots, each showing me, without question, she can and is reading the Alpha’s emotions as well as she is mine.
A pool of something that feels like repentance bubbles in my blood—until light catches the engagement ring, stealing my focus.
I’m drawn back to the last time I was alone with her, which are far nicer images than anything to do with him.
Snatching her hand as it hovers in the air, I move like the wind, gentle but forceful, backing her until she is pinned against the wall. The thrum of her heartbeat picks up each time I rub my thumb over the pulse point on her wrist.
Moving her hand so the light refracts off the endless facets of the oversized diamond, I pull her hand up to my nose and take a long, steady, dragging sniff.
“My scent is fading from this ugly fucking ring. When you take a shower, leave it on your bedside table, and I will have it back to you by the time you are done, saturated again by my come.”
I finally look past her hand, to her pretty blue eyes. Along the way, I nearly get deterred by the endless freckles dancing over her pale skin, until my attention is diverted to the way she’s biting her lip.
She’s fighting a smile. But she can’t hide the heat in her scent from me, until she somehow does. “Honestly, Santiago, if you can’t do this, admit defeat, tap out, and get someone else here. Because if you think he’s a handful, you’ve got no hope against Bambi.”
“Who. The. Fuck?” I hiss, falling into her a bit. Checking that the corridors are clear and the alcove we’re hiding from is free from any cameras, I use my hips to hold her in place, leaning down to whisper in her ear. “Say again?”
She wiggles under me, but it’s not by way of a fight to free herself; it’s a roll of her hips as she succumbs for a blip in time to her being an Omega, and me being an Alpha, and us having a very brief history of incredible orgasms.
“Jesus, I need to get laid,” she admits. Her words are not loud enough for anyone but me to hear.
“Surely, you have…”
Quinn stops me speaking with a press of her fingers against my mouth. Then I show her what a bad decision she made when I suck on her fingers as inappropriately as possible.
Her blue eyes darken to a dangerous color, sparkling in her desire.
And then she does it again, making all the bonds we share, the desire we want to explore, disappear.
With a shake of her head, she pretends I’m not doing exactly what I did to her pearly clit too many times over the course of the precious day we shared.
“This tells me you’ve made your decision, Santiago.
I have to say, I thought it would be Kade who wouldn’t be able to handle shifting from lovers to working with each other.
I get it, though. I feel an insatiable pull towards you, but I’m choosing differently.
Make sure you heard that with your big Alpha brain—I’m choosing differently.
I’m choosing me.” Her breathing shudders, and she blows a massive plume of her scent into my face before going on.
“I need to go back to him and deal with the mess in the kitchen before Sergey and his harem get back.”
That stops me dead in my dirty-as fuck-tracks. “What?”
“Yeah, what I have found myself a part of really does defy belief. I won’t waste your time.” She pushes her hips to shove me off, feeling how hard I am and ignoring it in a way that twists my sensibilities into something akin to rejection.
But fuck that. She’s not allowed to reject this bond we share. She also misinterpreted my actions. Admittedly, I didn’t give her a lot to go on.
“I am not going anywhere.” I groan, pushing my cock against her body. The swell of my knot makes the movement ever so pleasurable.
“It’s not really a choice. You’re endangering me by your very actions.” On a soft moan, she returns the pressure with an undulation of her hips.
“Such as?”
There’s a playful grin, marred by a serious look in her eyes. “You don’t think dry humping me against the wall rates high on the scale of things guards-slash-men-slash-Alphas should not do to the fiancée of Sergey Petrov?”
“Him? Pfft. He is an annoyance, Quinn. I’ll start a fucking war as a way of dealing with him.”
She rolls her eyes, highlighting how goddamn pretty they are before getting more serious by the second.
“See? This is why I have a staunch policy of no Latinos in my life. Ever. Period. You’re so fucking emotional.
Romantically so, or perhaps it's tragically so. Either way, Santiago, your reasoning doesn’t cut it, nor does it change my decision. ”
“You think I’m romantic?”
She closes her eyes and thuds her head against the wall, sweet, heated frustration tainting the air.
Keeping them closed, she speaks between each little thud.
“It doesn’t matter what I think. Don’t you get that?
What we were was amazing. What we will be going forward is not that.
If you care for me at all, you will walk away. ”
I wait for her to open her eyes, and when she does, they’re full of pleading emotion.
“The problem is, Quinn, I don’t just care for you.
You are my Omega. And I’m sure you figured that out the first time you came on my knot.
I am not walking away. I won’t ever be able to walk away.
And one day, I will bend you over and fuck your ass so hard the truth will spill from your lips, along with desperate begging for me to let you come.
Until then, no one will watch you closer and more carefully than I will.
“Now, I’m going to use your bathroom, then spill the contents of my swollen balls over your sheets. When I rejoin you, I am there as your Alpha. My role in your life doesn’t change just because you’re marrying some fucking Russian. Give me your ring. Now.”
It feels like a gamble, and perhaps it is, but perhaps not, because even though I ambushed her life, she doesn’t argue or try to talk me out of it. She slides the ring off her finger without fuss before watching me walk off. I feel her eyes on my back, as obvious as the sun rising in the east.
Each step away is like a nail hammered in to strengthen the foundation of what we share.
Her bedroom is strangely empty of her things.
Looking in the walk-in wardrobe, her suitcases are lined up in a neat row, but none of her clothing is unpacked or hung up.
The bathroom doesn’t contain any beauty products, and despite Quinn being breathtakingly stunning, her having nothing on any of the shelves or in the drawers starts to piss me off.
I helped her with her luggage and saw inside her overnight bags; she had more than enough.
As I step into the bathroom, my mind is full of things I’ll buy for her, but the ache in my knot, the constant throb of my cock, means I start to spoil my Omega differently.
Walking naked back into her bedroom, I ruin her neatly made bed, but the intense scent of her, knowing she was naked within the sheets has precome beading.
I don’t need to close my eyes to visualize her, perhaps because I told her what I was going to do, but it feels like she’s here watching me fist my cock.
My hand runs up and down my length in long, hard tugs.
I twist my hold when I reach the end of my dick before increasing the pressure as I slide my hand back down.
A soft shtick has my breathing getting heavier.
She’s inside my head, her scent wrapping around me.
Sitting up on my knees, I lean one hand against the wall and fuck my fist like I’d like to fuck her.
My hips buck, my legs cramp with tension, and the bottom of my stomach pools with pleasure.
Without meaning to, I pick up speed, the rocking of the bed adding to the moment.
The only thing that would make it better is apparently the one thing I can’t have.
“Quinn.” I groan her name right as my arousal peaks, flooding my system.
My knot swells and aches in a mix of pleasure and pain.
Her ring falls from my palm, bouncing right into the center of her sheets.
My hand beats faster, chasing the peak, and the knife edge I’ve been skirting since I first had her back in the hotel slices through me.
I come so hard I see stars, right over her bed linens, even hitting her pillow. And over his ring, which is as satisfying as climaxing.
Is it a bit fucked up that I masturbated on her bed, thinking of her? It depends which way you look at it.
Would I ever admit what I just did to Ronin or Valentine? No way in hell. Which is alarming in some ways, because previously I’ve shared a lot with them. But I already know I wouldn’t tell them much at all about Quinn. The thought of sharing even my memories of her has my tension rising.
Considering the knot block she has on me, would I shoot my load over where she sleeps or her ring again? Abso-fucking-lutely. And probably as often as possible.
I meant what I said to her. After a shower, I’m going back as her Alpha.
I will protect Quinn with my dying breath. I will do everything in my power to ensure she succeeds at doing exactly what she wants. But it will happen with her knowing, emphatically, that I want it all with her.
This bond of ours isn't finished; it’s only just beginning.