Chapter 9
9
A s simple as that. As if giving myself over to my stalker completely is a reasonable thing to do. It strikes me all over again that he’s here . In my apartment. If Luke were here...
I look at my bedroom door. Was it closed earlier? I’m not sure. Surely Luke would have said something if he’d come home and found me sleeping on the couch? But no, I’m thinking about this as if he’s still my boyfriend. He’s not. We’re basically glorified roommates.
Wolf grabs my chin in a painful grip and turns my face back to him. Or to his mask. “Looking for your boyfriend to save you?”
“No, of course not.”
He fucks me slowly with his fingers, even as he holds me captive with his hand on my jaw. “Liar. We haven’t talked about him yet.”
Fear licks at me, threatening to smother my desire. “Wolf.” It’s difficult to talk with him holding me like this, but I force my way through it. “Leave him alone.”
He’s silent for several beats, the only sound the slick, wet slide of his gloved fingers inside me. “The others had your pussy. He’s different. He had your heart. When I deal with him, I’m going to make it hurt.”
“N—”
He shifts his grip, covering my mouth and stopping my protest. He leans forward, pressing me back onto the couch hard and pinning me there with his bigger body. “You don’t get to tell me no, Red. Not about this.”
My body coils tight, but I fight against the feeling with everything I have. I speak softly against his palm. “Not him, Wolf. He’s an innocent in all this.”
“Innocent.” He makes a growling sound that has my toes curling despite myself. “Even now you’re arguing for his life. You’ve been riding his cock for years, sleeping next to him, giving him all those little moments that should have been mine.”
“Wolf, please.” I may not want to stay in a relationship with Luke, but that doesn’t mean I want something bad to happen to him. “Please don’t hurt him. I’ll do anything.”
“Anything.” Again, he makes that sound that’s almost a growl. “Fine, Red. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll leave him alone if you do one thing for me.”
Relief makes me dizzy. “Okay.”
“So eager to save him.” He yanks his fingers out of me and flips me onto my stomach before I can do more than whimper. He drags down my panties with rough hands and forces my knees wide.
Not that he has to do much forcing.
I’m already tilting my hips, offering him my pussy, when he reaches between my thighs to palm me roughly. The leather of his glove slides decadently against my pussy lips. Then his weight is at my back, his low voice in my ear. “Would you let me fuck you right here while he’s sleeping in the next room, knowing that if you get too loud and wake him up, I’ll slit his throat and then go right back to fucking you?”
I shudder, and not even I can tell if in anticipation or terror. If I had any sense, I would try to convince him not to do this. I wouldn’t be rocking my pussy against his palm, so wet that I’m dripping all over his hand and wrist.
“Yes,” I whisper. I could tell myself that this is something I’m simply enduring to keep Luke safe, but it’s a dirty lie. The ugly truth is that I’ve been panting after Wolf’s cock ever since I started engaging with his stalking, taunting him, seeing just how far he’d push it. How far he’d push me .
“You going to let me take you bare, baby?”
Distantly, alarm bells clang through my head, but I ignore them. I’m on birth control. It will be fine. Probably. “Yes.”
“What a good little martyr.” He pinches my clit hard enough to make me jerk, but I manage to swallow a whimper at the last moment. Luke is a freakishly light sleeper. It won’t take much to wake him.
Then Wolf’s hand is gone. I hold my breath as his zipper rings achingly loud in the silence of the room. He grips the back of my neck and presses me harder to the couch, bending me down farther. His blunt cock head nudges my entrance, and I barely have a moment to tense before he shoves his entire length inside me.
I bury my face in the couch cushion, bite down to keep from screaming. It’s too much, and yet I’ve never been so close to coming from penetration alone. He’s big . Broad and long and normally the kind of size I need plenty of foreplay to take.
Wolf doesn’t give me time to adjust. He withdraws almost all the way and spears me again. Gods help me, but I have to bite down another scream. I tense, wanting to shove back onto him, but his hand on my neck keeps me in place.
On the third devastating stroke, he doesn’t immediately withdraw. Instead he snakes one hand around my hip to idly stroke my clit as he grinds slowly into me. His voice is low in my ear and barely distorted by the mask he wears. “Go ahead, baby. Scream your way through that orgasm.”
I lift my head enough to gasp, “No.”
“You know you come so much harder when someone is dying for that pussy.” He shifts the movement of his cock inside me, rubbing against my G-spot with each movement. “Show me your teeth, baby. Show him your teeth.”
It’s more tempting than it should be. I’m not the monster here, and yet I am nearly far gone enough to give Wolf exactly what he wants. To scream my way through an orgasm and sentence Luke to death.
I can’t .
I drop my head, intending to bury it in the couch cushion again, but Wolf gets there before me. His forearm, sweatshirt shoved up, meets my mouth just as I bite down. And I don’t stop. I bite him through my orgasm, my body taking over. Maybe part of me wants to punish him too. To make him hurt even a little for exposing this feral part of me that I’ve worked so hard to keep under lock and key.
Wave after wave of orgasm crests and crests again as he fucks me roughly. The slap of flesh against flesh fills the room, and I’m aware enough to distantly wonder if that will be enough to wake Luke.
I’m too far gone to stop.
When Wolf finally orgasms, he pulls out of me, and then his come is hitting my bare ass in achingly hot lashes. He eases his arm from my mouth, and I’m horrified to note the coppery taste of blood on my tongue.
He moves my hair off the back of my neck and nips me there. “Big teeth indeed, Red.”
“Wolf—”
“I’m going to text you an address. Be there at seven tomorrow night. Go to the side door. There’s a skeleton key on the knocker. If you don’t show, I’ll consider our deal null and void and take out my frustration on your little boyfriend. After you fucked around at the club the other night, and the bar last night, I have a lot of frustration.”
I blink open my eyes, not quite sure when I closed them. “What are you talking about? What address? I just fucked you. That’s our deal.”
“That was pleasure, baby. This is business. You wanted to know what it would take to leave him alone. It’s this.” He gives the nape of my neck one last light bite, and then he rises.
Without his weight at my back, I feel vulnerable in a way I’m not prepared to deal with. I sit up, pull off my shirt, and wipe down my ass, watching him fix his pants. If I hoped to catch a glimpse of his face, I’m out of luck: he’s already got the mask back in place. “What’s at the address?”
“You’ll find out tomorrow night.” He seems to study me for a long moment, and if I were even a little romantic, I might think he’s committing the sight of me naked to memory. “Don’t try to call my bluff. I don’t bluff.”
“You didn’t hurt Tatiana. Or Zayne.”
He stills. “That mercy was good investment on our future that I’m already starting to regret. Don’t make me change my mind.”
I could pretend I’m debating going, but we both know I’ll show up exactly where he wants me to. I would even without the threat against Luke, about the renewed one against Zayne and Tatiana. I’ve never felt as seen as I do with Wolf, and it’s a terrible thing, but I can’t stop myself from seeking that feeling out again and again.
Wolf moves past me, and a few seconds later, I hear the front door close. I make myself count to ten slowly, and then a second time, before I rise and pad to the bedroom door to crack it open.
The bed is empty.
Luke never came home.
I don’t know if Wolf was just fucking with me or if he didn’t know Luke wasn’t here. I guess it doesn’t matter. Luke is safe. I’ll make sure he stays safe. But that’s not why I’m going to...
My phone buzzes, and I walk back to the coffee table to look at the text from Wolf. It’s an address, but not one in Carver City. “What the fuck?”
A second text quickly follows.
Wolf
Check your front door.
“You motherfucker.” I stalk to the door and fling it open. There’s no one there. Instead there’s a package sitting unassumingly on the floor of the hallway.
I scoop it up, take the time to lock the door again—for all the good it will do—and head back to the coffee table to see what he’s up to now. The box is high-quality. When I lift the lid off, there’s black tissue paper with a ribbon around it. I undo the ribbon and fold back the paper, and... “Damn, Wolf, you have good taste.”
I lift the dress up and whistle under my breath. It’s short and sheer with ropes of pearls sewn into the fabric. I’d like to think the pearls cover the necessary bits, but I’m sure the truth is that they’ll act more as a frame for my breasts and pussy. I check the rest of the box, not finding any undergarments. There are, however, strappy heels. In my favorite brand. In my size. Because what kind of stalker would he be if he didn’t know my shoe size?
Fancy.
Wolf
Change into it tomorrow after you arrive at the address. ONLY it.
I gave my word.
The next morning, I find a flight and hotel confirmation in my inbox. That motherfucker thought of everything and left nothing to chance.
This is probably a trap. Heirs don’t travel much and for good reason. There may be peace in Carver City, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t outside threats who look at our prosperous city and want to take a bite out of it for themselves.
It’s possible that Wolf is associated with one of those entities. Probable, even. This might all be some elaborate plan to get me out from under my parents’ protection and then use me as leverage to get what they want.
I google the address Wolf gave me, not expecting to find anything, but there are a few hits of interest. One is a forum thread that... “Holy shit.”
The poster alleges that the Black Rose Auction is held at that address annually. “No way.” I’ve heard of the auction, of course. Everyone has. Or at least everyone in our line of business, with ties to the shadows. It’s kind of an open secret, an auction where people with money and connections can come to bid on items they don’t necessarily want to be attached to publicly.
Sometimes those items are people.
I am NOT going to be an auction item.
My parents will kill me. If this is what Wolf intends, to auction off the only daughter of Beast, Gaeton, and Isabelle Belmonte, the heir to the Belmonte territory... there’s no way people won’t find out. That everyone won’t find out. My shame will be on full display, and if I do it wearing this dress?
No. Absolutely not.
I glare at my phone, but other than the notification under my message changing to read , nothing happens. He doesn’t even try to text back.
I’m serious, Wolf. I’m not doing this. It’s too far.
Thirty seconds later, a picture comes in, and my heart drops into my stomach. It’s of Luke. He’s sitting at his favorite coffee shop, bent over his laptop with a look of concentration on his face. When he works, he’s completely oblivious to the world around him. Wolf could slit his throat, and he’d never see the man coming.
Wolf doesn’t reiterate his threat, but he doesn’t have to. He’s close enough to take this picture, so he’s close enough to follow through on his threat.
I swallow hard, feeling sick.
I hate you.
Wolf
See you soon, baby.
I lie and tell my family that I’m not feeling well, ignore their pointed questions about why the fuck I’m not home, and dodge some well-meaning texts from Michelle and Zayne. Then I’m at the airport and boarding a plane. Wolf booked me first class, but I can’t bring myself to appreciate it. Or the driver and car waiting for me when I land. He’s thought of every detail... and I’ve done nothing but think .
I may feel seen by Wolf in a way I’ve never experienced before, but that doesn’t mean I know him. I don’t know what he looks like. He says he wants me, but it’s easy to lie. It’s not like I’ve challenged him in any meaningful way. I let him fuck me bare, for gods’ sake.
The city shifts around me as we leave its limits and head into the countryside. The longer I go without hearing from him, the worse I feel. Even as I tell myself not to be so weak, I can’t help reaching for my phone. This time, I don’t bother to text. I call him.
He doesn’t make me wait long before he answers. “You’re making good time.”
I look around, even though I know there’s nothing to see. “Who are you, Wolf?”
He’s silent for a beat. “You’ll find out at the auction.”
My heart skips a beat. “What?”
“Come on, baby. You didn’t think I’d send you to the auction and let someone else take you, did you?”
Honestly, I hadn’t been sure what to think. I settle back in the seat, telling myself I’m seven different kinds of foolish for being comforted by his words. He hasn’t given me anything . Trusting him is downright suicidal. “And here I thought you were serving me up to whoever you work for.”
“You’re mine, Ruby.”
I jolt at him saying my name again. Not baby. Not Red. Ruby . I clear my throat. “Why all the song and dance? You already had me. Thoroughly.” I don’t know why I ask. He’s held his information close from the first moment we started interacting. There’s no reason for him to be explicit now.
“Because you’re mine,” he repeats. “And it’s time everyone knows it.”
Oh. Oh . “So this is you pissing on my foot.”
“No, baby. This is a declaration of intention. After I take you in the auction, everyone who’s worth a damn in our world will know who you belong to. No more sneaking around. No more games. No pretending you’re just a good girl who’s been forced into being bad.”
My chest feels too tight. “My parents are going to find out. You know that, right? It doesn’t matter what you intend . They’ll string you up and skin you alive.”
Wolf, the bastard, chuckles. “Then I guess I better make you fall in love with me so you’ll intervene on my behalf.”
The rushing in my head almost convinces me that I misheard him. Lust, yes. But he’s asking for love ? Maybe I should have seen the writing on the wall with how possessive he is, how jealous. This was only going to end one of two ways—with one of us dead or with us together.
It’s still outrageous that he’s just saying this shit. “I haven’t even seen your face. We’ve barely had a single conversation. You can’t honestly expect me to fall in love just because you’re good at getting me off.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, baby. We don’t need all the pussyfooting and small talk. We see each other.” There’s a sound in the background, and he clears his throat. “Don’t fuck with the Concierge. They won’t find your mouthing off as cute as I do.”
“Wolf—”
“See you soon.” He hangs up, leaving me spinning out. Nothing about this experience has been what I expected, but looking back, I can admit that my short-sightedness is to blame. I’ve been reacting to him in the moment, when it’s clear he had a plan from the beginning. I wonder what he would have done if I hadn’t slept with Rafe that first night. I’d bet good money he had a different angle of approach. Bastard .
The car turns off the main road, and I stare at the sprawling estate. We have money, but this opulence is on a different level. The place is obviously a private residence, but it’s easily two or three times the size of my aunt’s estate, and the grounds seem to stretch forever. I even catch sight of a boathouse in the distance, perched on the edge of a large lake.
We bypass the main entrance and circle around to the side, just like Wolf instructed. The driver doesn’t speak a word as they hold the door open for me and set my bag on the ground next to the door with the skeleton key knocker. I’m still deciding if I’m supposed to thank them when they get back in the car and drive off without looking back.
“Well, I guess that answers that.” There’s no going back now. I march to the door and knock.