Chapter 18
Liam
The ballroom is a cave of gold and glass. Crystal chandeliers hang like frozen teardrops, their light fracturing into a million diamonds against the walls. But the mirrors make this room dangerous. Floor-to-ceiling sheets of glass line every inch, leaving nowhere to hide.
I bring Lexie to the center of the room.
She’s trembling, not from cold, but from vulnerability.
I’ve stripped her slowly, methodically, leaving the pink dress in a pool of silk on the parquet floor.
Now, she stands naked, uniquely for me, her skin glowing pale and luminous under the lights.
Her sweet nipples stiffen, and my lungs nearly cave in at the sight of her.
“Turn to your right, Darlin’.”
She obeys, facing the wall of mirrors. I step up behind her, my chest pressing against her back, wrapping one arm around her waist to anchor her. She whimpers. But she doesn’t shrink. No, she focuses on me.
“The rules are simple.” I nip her jaw, catching her reflection. Wide-eyed, dark with anticipation. “You keep your eyes on mine. In the glass. You don’t look away. Not for a second. Only when I kiss you may you turn from the glass to me. But if you look away…the game ends.”
She turns her chin slightly toward me. “And…and if I win?”
“Every time you confess a trope you love,” I trail my free hand down her side, watching her shiver, “I reward you. We keep going until the mirror glass turns to fog.”
“Okay,” she breathes, spine arching. “Okay.”
“And one more thing.” When her brows lift, I add, “You will not come until I permit you.”
“Seems fair enough.”
With a low laugh, I command, “Then, tell me, Lexie. Give me one in your top five, other than aforementioned.”
Granting her a sample, I sweep the pads of my thumbs over her dainty nipples while I list a few. One bed. Mafia, naturally. Redemption arc. Forbidden love.
She hisses, but her focus doesn’t stray. “Fairytale retelling.” Warmth fills her cheeks.
“A classic.” I slide my hand over her stomach, dipping lower. My fingers tug at her trim nest of curls, then descend into her lips, approving of the wetness. She gasps, her hips bucking back against me. I reward her with a slow, deliberate stroke. “Next.”
“Enemies to lovers, Sir,” she pants, her hands coming up to grip my forearm at her waist.
“Mmm. We skipped the enemies part, didn’t we? Went straight to kidnapping.” I circle her clit, and she whimpers, her head falling back against my shoulder. But her eyes stay on mine. Good girl.
“Mmm,” she whimpers, her hips leaning forward. “Captor and captive.”
“Indeed.” I cup her breast. “No handcuffs anymore, Darlin’. But I’m still very much your captive.”
I capture her nipple, rolling the erect bud, thrilled by how she lurches.
“Oh, God! Arranged marriage,” she chokes out.
I bite the spot where her neck meets her shoulder. I slide a finger inside her, wet and tight. “The dowry would be steep, Lexie. Because I’d accept nothing less than every inch of ye.”
The game continues, a train of confessions and pleasure which fogs the glass just like I promised.
I unravel her until she’s a throbbing, dripping need in my arms. Sweat coats her curls to her cheeks.
Anytime she thrust her hips back to rub my cock, I spanked her, turning her ass a lovely shade of red.
But I need to know. I need to break the last wall between us.
I slow my hand, letting the tension coil tight in the room.
“This is important now, Elexia Carter.” My voice drops to the low register of the grave. “I need to know your thoughts…your feelings…on the virgin trope.”
She stiffens. In the mirror, I see the blood drain from her face. Tears well up in her eyes instantly, turning them into liquid glass.
“Liam,” she whispers, wistful emotion pouring through. “You know I’m not—”
I cut her off. With one hand, I grip her jaw, forcing her head back, and crash my mouth onto hers. I don’t give her a chance to spiral. I pump three fingers inside her, hard and deep, claiming her moan in one strike.
I pull my lips back just an inch, my fingers still buried in her heat. “I didn’t mean you, Lexie.”
Her expression shifts with raw emotion. She turns to stare at me in the reflection, her chest heaving. “L-Liam…you?”
“Disappointed?” I furrow my brows.
“No.”
I test her. Malice forms in my expression. Deepening my fingers, twisting my wrist, I harden my tone to ice. “Then why did you believe I would be disappointed by your lack thereof, Lexie?”
“I didn’t.”
I tighten my grip on her jaw. I add another finger, stretching her, steepling my spine until my muscles feel like granite against her back. I don’t believe her lie.
She whimpers, taking a few jagged breaths. “Sir…forgive me, please, for the unintentional implication. It was not a reflection of my perception of you. It was an expression of my loss and regret that I could not save that part of myself…for you. Liam.”
The words hit me like a physical blow. Cruel. Beautiful. Shattering.
I retrieve my fingers, stepping back just enough to scrub a hand down my face. “Fuck, Lexie. Fuckfuckfuck.” When will I stop underestimating her?
I spin her around. I don’t care about the mirror anymore. I trap her against the glass, boxing her in with my arms.
“Elexia Claire Carter,” I growl, seizing her throat, gentle. “You are my savior. My salvation. And therefore, you have saved everything that could ever matter to me.”
I kiss her then. Hard. Fierce. Desperate. I take her hand and guide it down, forcing her to cup my length through my trousers. I throb against her palm, heavy and aching.
Flushed and quivering, she tightens her hold. Christ, my balls draw up.
“The only lips that have ever touched this dick,” I rasp against her mouth, “have been the upper variety…until that night in the library.”
Her swollen lips part. “You mean when I…?”
She trails off, her eyes flicking down before snapping back to mine.
I nod firmly. “God, Darlin’. When you pulled me closer until your entrance sucked me in…fuck, I knew I saw God that night. Except it was a Goddess. Feminine Divine made flesh. The same Goddess standin’ before me now.”
Pulse hammering, I lean my forehead against hers. “And this mortal husk of a man, with his dark past and his bloody hands…he knows he could only ever worship at one sacred church. The one right between these thighs.”
I cup her mound, feeling the heat radiate through her.
Tremors shudder her limbs. Cocking my head, I let a small, dangerous smirk curve my lips. “Well now, Luv. What do you think of the trope of worship?”
She glows, blushing a deep crimson. “Liam, you gave me a religious experience already. I would be more than honored to do the same for you.”
“But?”
Without removing her hand from where I’m throbbing against her palm, she slides her other hand up my chest. Her fingers glide over my jaw, settling on my cheek. A muscle jumps under her touch.
“But there is one other trope I love more than worship,” she whispers. “More than redemption. More than forbidden love. The ultimate trope to span all romances—even if people believe it only exists in fairytales.”
“And what is that, Darlin’?”
She bites her lower lip. She leans in to kiss me. My cock jerks so hard it hurts. I’ve never been this rock-hard for a woman in my life.
But just as her lips part to reveal the secret, I touch my fingers to her mouth and shake my head. “No. Not yet, Lexie.” I pull back, breath labored. “Goddessfuck, I want you with all my heart, but I’ll not be taking you here today. And not just because I’ll break the mirror if I try.”
I brush a thumb over her trembling bottom lip. “You’re going to keep that ultimate trope to yourself. You’re going to hold onto it like a secret. And once I learn the secret…Once I speak it out loud, then, Elexia Carter, I’ll bury myself inside you so hard and deep, like a key to a lock.”
I lean in, addicted to her oceanic gray orbs, and whisper the promise against her damp skin.
“We’ll be fused so strong together, Luv, that secret will have nowhere else to go but stay sealed between us forever.
And then, you’ll know. We made something powerful enough for the storybooks real.
Because it was meant to be real. For us. ”
I kiss her once more—soft, lingering—before pulling away.
“Now, face the mirror again,” I direct her, then move, preparing my belt, my hand, and my tongue. “I’m goin’ to lick ye, Lexie. And I’ll be lickin’ ye until ye scream so loud and high, it can crack every mirror in this ballroom.”
I don’t stop until her head drops between her shoulders, and her eyes roll back.
I worship her, licking her taut nipples, circling her clit, and plunging my fingers in and out of her pussy until I drink her fluids like a fountain.
She fists my hair and shatters around me, her cries of pleasure echoing through the room like a symphony written for one listener only—me.
My first call was to Claire Ryan.
Given this calculated risk, I wasn’t about to leave my girl alone. Not even with O’Connell’s world-class security. And thanks to his security and aid, I was able to determine dear old Uncle Eamon was honest in his vow.
I check the tablet. The drones circle the property, silent as owls on a search mission.
Nothing. No body signatures. Clear.
The scent of damp earth and rot fills the estate air. This was my childhood home—after my father tore my world apart. The shadow of the manor looms like a tombstone against the moonlit sky. I clench my hand into a white-knuckled fist.
I still remember my mother’s blood on my palms. The way the light left her soul. Rage from that night rises despite my fulfilled vengeance.
I stow the device and walk toward the family mausoleum, a gothic monstrosity of gray stone and iron gates.
Uncle Eamon waits by the entrance. He’s dressed in a bespoke charcoal overcoat, every bit the patriarch, like my father. But far too comfortable.
“You look good, Liam,” he says with an easy, practiced warmth. “All things considered. The city’s been whispering about your demise for a week.”
“Then the city’s full of idiots,” I growl, stopping ten paces away. My own tactical jacket feels heavy, my hand hovering near the grip of my piece. “I want answers, Eamon.”
Eamon sighs. Something resembling pity shadows his features. “The Manager. O’Malley’s gone rogue, Liam. He sees your ‘evolution’ as a betrayal of everything your father built. He’s been stirring the pot with the Old Guard, telling them you’re soft. And you’re wanting to retire on their dime.”
“And you?” I narrow my eyes. “Whose side are you on?”
“Family first, always.” Eamon steps closer into the moonlight. “But you’ve been careless. Street cameras clocked the license plate of that gray sedan you were spotted in. O’Malley didn’t just get the car; he got the name and location of the little florist who stitched you up.”
The world goes cold. A predatory snarl claws at my throat, but I force it down. I shrug, playing it flat and dismissive. “A means to an end.” But my soul screams to fly back to the manor and wrap Lexie in steel. “She was useful. Nothing more.”
A swift breeze chills, feeding the tension. Eamon studies me, searching for the crack in my armor. I don’t give it to him.
“Good,” he notes. “Because I can try and get the heat off ye for a bit. Tell ‘em she’s just a loose end you’ll be tying up yourself. But O’Malley…he needs to be dealt with, Liam. The Cartel is out for blood.”
“Then we make an example,” I say, veins filled with icy intent. “If I have to throw O’Malley’s still-bloody head at the feet of the Old Guard to show ‘em I haven’t lost my edge, then that’s what I’ll do. And I’ll deliver his parts to the cartel. One by one.”
Eamon nods, a slow, dark smile spreading across his face. “Spoken like a Donovan. Cut off the head of the snake, Liam. It’s the only way to purge the venom.”
“And I’ve the proof of how my new investments are already paying off.
Fools don’t understand how the true power doesn’t lie in drugs and human flesh anymore.
” I turn to the side but keep monitoring Eamon, marking him as I convey, “It’s in 1’s and 0’s.
It’s in the double-sided coin of the massive data centers—the five corporations spending the equivalent of 3/4 of our military defense budget on AI technology—and my equal investments in green energy companies and lobbyists. ”
“Very shrewd, Liam.”
“Returns will come in the billions, Eamon. See the word spreads.”
I turn and walk away before I can wrap my hands around his throat just for mentioning Lexie’s name. I have to protect her. I’ll burn the world to ash before I let one speck of me rot touch her.
I check for a tail three times on the drive back, winding through the back towns around the Hamptons. Not one car on my ass. Not one familiar face.
By the time I reach O’Connell’s manor, the adrenaline is a dull roar in my ears. I need to see her. I need to know she’s real.
I slip into my bedroom, the only light coming from the moon filtering through the curtains. Lexie is waiting for me in the center of the bed, a dream made of silk and moonlight. She’s wearing a sheer chemise, sheer, intentional. Her curls sprawl across the pillows like a copper halo.
“Liam…” she whispers, stirring.
As I sit on the edge of the mattress and kick off my boots, she turns closer. Her presence is a balm, pulling the jagged edges of my soul back together.
She reaches out, touching my chest. Her soft eyes search mine, full of a concern that makes my heart ache.
“You look tired.” She leans in until her lips brush mine, anchoring me. “And stressed. What’s going on?
Nostrils flaring with a sigh, I brush a thumb across her cheek, then kiss her brow. “Never too tired for you, Darlin’.”
I give her all my attention, knowing I can’t keep her in the dark anymore.
“It’s time I shared somethin’ from me past, Lexie,” I say, my voice rough with a decade of silence. “Somethin’ I haven’t shared with anyone. And the reason…” I pause, my gaze flicking down to where her hand rests over my heart. “The reason my dick hasn’t touched any pussy but yours.”
She doesn’t flinch. She just scoots closer, pressing her body against mine, and holds me here with a fierce, quiet loyalty.
“I’m listening.”