14. Bay
FOURTEEN
bay
My safe space doesn’t feel like one anymore when he enters. The soft click of my bedroom door only proves this is going to be a mentally taxing conversation. But I’d rather do it now, hoping he leaves to cool off, before I can climb into bed and plan my next move.
I pivot on my heel, locating Cairo right in my space, causing me to step backward from him, but his palm shoots out, and my ass hits the edge of my mattress with a slightly agitated bounce.
He’s on top of me in the next second, knees digging into the soft surface on either side of my hips and leaving me in a somewhat helpless and shitty position.
But when his lips crash violently into mine, it’s a reminder I finally pushed the silent, mysterious Forsaken boy into a full-blown fit of rage.
He doesn’t need words. Cairo is all about looks of disdain and actions.
I was warned about this.
Even with my zero fucks, I still pushed. He warned me of the consequences and now all bets are off.
His long fingers dip into the waistband of my shorts and begin mercilessly yanking the material over my hips. Cairo’s tongue demands entrance into my mouth, soliciting control of me.
“Sinatra,” I croon, between his fight for dominance and my pride of never giving in. “You’re not?—”
“Shut the fuck up,” he grinds out, biting on my lower lip in a show of his temper. “I’ve told you. I’ve told you a thousand fucking times by now.”
My palms find his chest, and I push a little to stop his assault on my mouth. “If you’ve got something to say?—”
“ How many times do I need to tell you to stop fucking around?”
Well, someone’s mad.
Long pieces of hair carelessly dangle over my forehead as his dark eyes bore a heated glower at me, and I’m torn between being sorry I pissed him off and sorry I didn’t kill Matteo.
Sure, he’d still bitch at me. But at least he wouldn’t have to worry about me having to do it anymore.
“There’s no magic number,” I reply honestly. “Just when I feel like it.”
His long fingers wrap around my jaw, causing my lips to part but it’s more than likely for him to keep me from uttering another reckless word.
“Why are you doing this to me? Why are you making me want to go to extremes to keep you safe?”
My brows knit because while that’s chivalrous and shit… “This isn’t your fight, Sinatra.” My teeth scrape against the inside of my mouth as I speak, but it reminds me of the pain I’m ready to endure just to get my hands on my ex. “You don’t have to play superhero?—”
“You’re fucking pregnant ,” he clips out, through pinned eyebrows. “You’re not going to lose that baby because you’re too busy staying tunnel-visioned on that asshole. You could’ve been killed. You’re not thinking right.”
I’m not fucking pregnant. Can you imagine?
His jaw sets. I’m clearly not picking up the message he’s putting down here because I won’t accept it.
I won’t allow it to be a thing.
“This ends now .”
“This ends when he’s dead ,” I shoot back as Cairo’s nostrils flare. “If you’d just?—”
“I’d give you anything if you’d give me a fucking minute to do it for you. Fuck .” His grip loosens and a deep frown casts over his features.
I hate putting it there. He doesn’t deserve it. He obviously gives a damn about what happens to me.
Unfortunately for him, however, I can’t get Levi’s vengeance out of my damn head.
It’s all I can think about. All I dream about because it’ll be the last one before the nightmares set in and they completely victimize me. I won’t have anything else to do but grieve his loss and be reminded he’s not here.
“What’s it gonna take, huh?” he poses, running his rough thumb along the edge of my cheek. “How does this work, exactly?”
It works when Levi’s alive.
I let out a small sigh instead. “How does what work?”
“How do I get you to listen to me?” Poor guy. Even Levi had a hard time with that. But even then, I still listened to him more than anyone else. “You’ve broken my trust. There are so many people who are going to want to take you down?—”
“There’s only one asshole?—”
“You’re the next heir of South Shore,” he flings out angrily, pressing the digit against my cheek into it. “You’re Roger’s daughter. And unless Levi changed some shit and left it to one of those stupid assholes of his, you’re it .”
“ No ,” I grind out immediately because that was a nice hard slap to the face. One I haven’t thought about, nor do I need to think… Fuck, we never talked about it, let alone alluded it’d happen one day.
He wouldn’t.
I was solely against joining up with anything since we were kids. Levi would never leave me The Nameless, right?
I hate this shit.
I don’t want to be a part of this shit.
“Didn’t think of that, did you?” he mutters a bit more softly. “There are so many fucking people who are gonna want you dead when news breaks out all over the place about Levi.”
The mention of my best friend’s name again has me squirming from underneath him and deeper into the middle of my bed.
I’m done talking about this.
It’s one thing to be pissed. It’s another that I could give a shit about other people right now.
Too many responsibilities, too much bullshit, and way too many problems.
Then there’s the whole assassination thing.
“You’re on a suicide mission,” Cairo continues through my silence. “And you’re going to destroy more lives if you die.”
“I’m not gonna die,” I retort, even though we both know that’s not for certain. That’s not set in stone. I can’t predict that in any way, shape, or form.
“You’re so fuckin’ confident about that, aren’t you, Little T?” He threads those long fingers in my hair, still locking me in place to gaze up at those dark brown eyes. “Well, let me tell you what I’m secure in believing.” He lowers his face, his lips only one more exhale away. The smell of mint fills my nostrils and settles comfortably in my chest. “I’m going to fuck you into remembering what you gave me, what you promised, and what you can expect in return if you keep playing with me. I’m a patient man, but I’m reaching my limit with you. And I’m about to lose my entire shit if you don’t give me something to hold on to . Something that shows me you’re not totally gone and I’m not losing you.”
Oh, for the love of God…
He’s fucking me up.
Cairo isn’t like Torin, with how he throws rationality out the window and becomes reckless and uncalculated.
No, he’ll latch on to those two things, think about the pros and cons, then act.
He reaches in unexpectedly and gives you his vulnerability. And when a strong man who wasn’t a fan of you before hands out his feelings, you’d be a dumbass to ignore them.
In fact, you can’t.
Because Cairo Black fastens himself to you, and you’re his breakfast, lunch, and dinner whenever he sees fit.
You are what he wants you to be, whether you fight it, hope for it, or flat-out despise it.
“I need an answer to that, Little T.”
It shouldn’t be this hard, but it is. I don’t want to break a promise to Cairo because I don’t think I have many more strikes left on my card before he turns on me.
“To which part?” I mutter.
“All of it.”
I press my lips together, thinking of how to word it so I can construe it later if I need to. But it’s black and white.
I want Matteo dead, and I’m not going to rest until I’m done.
“I don’t know what you want from me,” I answer honestly. “I can’t function?—”
“Redirect your anger on me. I will take every punch you throw and every shitty little comment you make, but I can’t deal with you going rogue. You’re not always going to be so lucky. And he’s banking on it.”
He’s not wrong.
Without Levi, I’m one limb gone, and my sounding board isn’t here.
He’d kill me if I got killed in the process.
“Fair enough,” he hedges through unresponsiveness, releasing my face and using the freedom of his fingers to finish his previous work.
Cairo removes himself from the bed, taking my shorts and panties in one brutish yank down my legs before he reaches for me. Clasping his grip around my forearm, he yanks me up and onto my feet, just to twirl me around and shove me back onto the mattress.
I fall to my palms while the air from the room brushes along my bare skin. Then I’m greeted by Cairo’s warm tongue lashing against my pussy and straight to my clit.
A needy groan sprints from my lips as Cairo makes his point of…punishment?
Not my definition; however, I’m not entirely complaining either.
Cairo doesn’t let me down, drawing my sensitive nub in between his lips, each time slower than before. A slow and deliberate way to get me to focus on him and not my obsession with offing Matteo De Leon.
One second, I’m enjoying the way he’s worshipping me from behind, and the next, I’m shoved onto my stomach, arms sprawled out over my head before he slaps my ass with an unforgiving sting.
My teeth grit against each other for the cheap shot when Cairo’s forearm is wrapping around my middle and getting me back to my knees.
Then he’s entering me with one unforgiving, hard thrust.
No warning or taunting words to get me ready for his hard cock.
His flat palm pushes on the base of my spine to get me to lower myself with my ass in the air as he furiously pumps in and out, unleashing all the growing frustration I’ve caused.
With my mouth agape, trying to catch my breath, Cairo doesn’t let up. Fucking me like a doll he has no problem breaking.
I take every demanding thrust, each deep irritation he makes sure to impose on me, and I’m butter against my comforter.
“Open your legs wider for me,” he demands, but he barely gets the words out before Cairo fists my hair and forces me roughly back into his chest. “Tonight was the last time you do this to me.” He leans into my ear. “I told you he was yours. His death, the way he screams, his blood—everything. I will give that to you. But I just need one minute of you not running around like a psycho bitch in order to get it done. Can you do that for me, or is that too hard for your stubborn ass to manage?”
My resolve is slowly being chipped away by Cairo’s thick cock inside me, working its magic and demanding my answers. His flex is authority, loyalty, and lack of beating around the bush.
It’s the promise he made to me that he’d give me what I want.
“Give me time,” he says against the shell of my ear, sending a wave of goosebumps pebbling against my skin. “This isn’t a walk in the park, or it would’ve been done already.”
“It was for me.”
He thrusts so deep inside me I gasp from the intrusion and the sliver of pain it causes. Cairo’s fingers wrap around my throat again, but he gives me enough air to answer if needed.
“I am the King of Wharf Bay. And I’m currently in South Shore, babysitting you and ensuring Ellie and Mae have a sister to return to. You will not fucking move again. Because if you do, Bay…I will literally chain you to me. And that means I can and will do this at every waking moment.”
“I don’t believe you,” I croak out because he’d have to be out of his damn mind.
I wouldn’t want to be chained to myself. I’m a walking and talking disaster.
“Then try me,” he mutters along the shell of my ear, sending a needy whimper from my throat. “ Move .”
I can’t challenge him back because I’m not feeling very strong right now.
And I don’t want to stop this .
It’s mindless; I don’t have to do anything but receive. To take whatever punishment Cairo wants to lay out. To maybe have some rationality knocked into me and him soak up some resentment I’ve been harboring for days.
Leaning into him, I rest my head on his shoulder and press back against his hard body as he continues to fuck me.
“Don’t play the victim card,” he whispers. “I think you’ve made it clear what your intentions are and who you are in this scenario by hunting De Leon down tonight.”
A small smile slithers across my face. “Do you think he knows, though? Did I get my point across?”
“I swear to God, you’re going to stroke me out.” If he hasn’t realized it yet, I’m really gung-ho about my ambitions. Tunnel vision is a real thing when it comes to something I want to accomplish. “You can’t die.”
I bob my head as he goes deeper, feeling my breaths catch with each thrust. “I won’t.”
“You ran down De Leon tonight in the middle of a fucking cruise and almost got yourself lit up by several AKs. Wanna try again?”
Well fucking played.
When he says it like it is… Sure, I mean, of course, it sounds fucking nuts. It sounds like someone is one screw loose of a full set.
“You’d do well if you left me alone. I told Oz the same thing. There’s nothing here for you.”
“Think so?”
“Know so.”
“Well…you’re wrong, Little T.” His body bows forward a bit and his chest brushes up against mine. “You’d be my first. I’ve never, in my life, chased a woman down, but now I can see the appeal. I can fuck you into submission and have you listening to me before the night’s out. I don’t think you have it in you to deny me. I believe you want me just as much as I want to punish you for all the shit you’ve put me through. I think you’d want me to.”
My blood buzzes with a mixture of excitement and stubbornness at his mild threat. At the things he’s thought about doing to me since I don’t have a brain cell to rub together and heed what he’s saying.
I want to.
Cairo has more pull in this world. I’m just taking every opportunity given to me to do it myself.
“You need to stop.” I blink and Cairo’s dark brown eyes bore into me like never before. He might see my appeal, but he hasn’t experienced how brutally relentless I am. “I want you to tell me you understand.”
“I understand you’re asking me the world,” I deadpan, receiving a soft caress of Cairo’s fingers along the column of my throat.
“Then what do you want me to do? Beg?”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” He turns my face to look at him, and I find his eyes vacant, to which I add, “No…I don’t.”
“That’s a shame, Little T.” His lips heave into a toe-curling smirk that immediately raises a few red flags. “Because that’s exactly what you’re gonna be doing tonight.”