Chapter 9
MAE
THE SHEER WHITE CURTAINS billow in the strong breeze as the storm approaches. Their dance to the sound of rolling thunder is a thing of beauty, like ghosts of lovers past reuniting. Amidst the smell of rain, there’s a scent of subtle citrus with a hint of spice, just enough of each to bend my will.
Damon.
In the lost shadows of the room behind me, he waits. “Take off your robe.” His voice, deep and rich in desire, rumbles in time with the distant crashing of waves.
The floorboards groan, my hesitation drawing him to his feet.
Holding my breath, I unloop the belt as the robe falls over my shoulders, the silk slipping down my body and pooling in a delicate heap.
“Turn around.”
The curtains continue their intimate dance, caressing my skin as I face him.
There he stands, cutting an imposing figure, watching the heavy rise and fall of my chest, knowing full well how he can completely have me at his mercy with a single command. Only when the sky momentarily illuminates do I see the wild hunger glinting dangerously in his eyes, lips ready to make a feast of me. But it’s what is wrapped taut around his left hand that soon draws my attention—Peter’s lucky blue tie.
“You’re safe,” he says as if knowing the hole in my studio door is from my husband’s fist. The threat of my timely demise lingers in the tempest air until he can deliver on his promise that later tonight—when he’s so far gone—there will be no hesitation in hitting his target.
“And what about you?” I whisper.
“What about me?”
“Am I safe from you?”
In an act that’s as methodical as it is intimidating, Damon unbuttons his shirt, pulling the material over broad shoulders before discarding it on the floor. His perfectly carved physique is showcased by sporadic flashes of light, exuding power that’s both magnificent to witness and terrifying to experience. When he advances slowly and towers over me, his presence steals my breath.
With a graze of his knuckles over my cheek, it could easily be mistaken for affection. “That depends on why you felt compelled to go down to the station.”
This is all too reminiscent of the conversation from a mere two hours ago, and I close my eyes against the weight of the accusation upon me. Tears spill, and one by one, they drop onto my bare breasts, his thumb wiping the dampness over my nipples until they harden in response.
“Open your eyes, sweetheart.” He waits until I comply and become lost in him again. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“You gave me no choice.”
He tuts. “Everything is a choice. You just made the wrong one.”
“I pleaded with you.”
“And here we find ourselves…” his lips graze mine, “… with me so badly wanting to hear you plead some more.”
It’s nearly impossible to fight the betrayal I feel when my body responds to such an admission. My mind, at least, will go into battle. “This isn’t fair.”
“No, it’s not. But there’s no going back, and we’re far from finished.”
“And when you’re done with me?”
“Sweetheart,” his light laugh toys with my resolve. “I don’t ever plan on being ‘done’ with you.” It’s a heady confession, one said with such ease as if Damon has long thought the sentiment. But that doesn’t mean it’s lacking control, which he proves when smoothing his hand through my hair, balling a handful into his fist. I wince as he holds me in place, his face perfectly mirroring the storm outside. “Tell me something, Mae, have you fucked your husband since the dinner party?”
The provocation and Peter’s recent assault surges pent-up anger through my veins. “Fuck you for asking such a thing!”
“Answer the damn question,” his deep growl serves as a warning. “Have. You. Fucked . Your. Husband?”
“You think I have a say? You think it’s within my power to stop him from fucking me?” Feeling his body tense with rage, I add, “The only reason why he didn’t rape me tonight was because he was already late for his meeting with you and Jason. But the moment he walks back through that door, I can’t stop him.”
It’s more than he bargained for. More insight into the fucked-up marriage of Peter and Mae Cooper than he knows what to do with. Incensed with the news, he asks, “Did that fucker hurt you?”
“Hurt?” The fragment of the smile on my face is nothing but a mark of defeat. “No, Peter doesn’t hurt me anymore. He destroys .”
Damon places two fingers under my chin, tilting my face to meet his once more, his thumb catching a tear slipping over my cheek. Something dangerous flashes in his eyes. “Then I’ll ensure that bastard never touches you again.”
The need to pull away from him to build my defenses is too great. “Don’t say things like that.”
“Why, what are you afraid of?”
“Everything. But right at this moment… you . Because I’d rather you hate me than pretend to care.”
“I don’t pretend anything, Mae.” The conviction in his tone speaks to the part of me that’s desperate to be revived. “Not when it comes to you. That son of a bitch won’t touch you ever again.”
Damon cups my face and draws me to him, his lips offering the tenderness I seek. I wrap my arms around his neck, my bare breasts pressing against his firm muscles. Every inch of me wants to be entertained by his touch, and I can tell by the way his tongue strokes mine and the heat radiating off his body that the feeling is mutual. When I pull away, breathless, I say, “You were supposed to be with him.”
His smile from above says it all. “I was never meant to be with him.”
This was nothing more than a smooth operation to find me alone.
“Did you come here to get me naked just to remind me of the role you want me to perfect?”
He kisses down my cheek to my neck, the sensation of his stubble against my skin igniting all the sensations. “If I remember correctly, you disrobed with very little persuasion.”
Damn him.
“Is that how you’re going to play it?”
I feel Damon’s desire, and it does things to me. Things I shouldn’t permit, but I will. “I love when you vex me, sweetheart.”
His mouth returns to mine, dragging his teeth over my bottom lip, the wickedness of what’s to come throughout the night sending a thrill of anticipation through me.
“I came here because not seeing you has been driving me fucking insane.”
“Not because you wanted to see me on my knees, broken and willing to sign my life away?”
“I don’t want you broken.” The corners of his mouth turn again. “But, I do want you on your knees for a very different reason.” His soft lips graze mine when he murmurs his throaty command. “Kneel, sweetheart.”
I hate to leave his kiss where I find comfort, but there’s also no fight when I sink to the floor. He looks down at me, stroking my hair and brushing loose tendrils behind my ear. Then I watch, mesmerized by Damon’s strong, corded hands unbuckling his belt. Such a simple act that’s so provocative on him yet so vile on Peter. Within moments, his jeans and underwear are kicked aside, his rock-hard cock pulsing with need.
“Open that pretty mouth.”
I do so, and my lips part even further when his huge, velvety tip fills my mouth. After a few careful thrusts, he sinks as deep as he can possibly go before I can’t take any more. He holds me in place, gently rocking his hips as he fucks my mouth. He groans a low, torturous rumble, muscles tensing and flexing, his head dropping back in pleasure.
“Good girl.” He practically growls as my tongue traces the veins of his cock, fingers flexing in my hair the more he battles the sensation. When I slide my mouth back over the smooth head, he hisses through his teeth, and moments later, he pulls out, his chest heaving.
For a long, unguarded moment, Damon simply looks down at me, and I up at him. Something dangerously raw flickers in my heart, similar to that in his eyes. When he draws me to my feet, and our naked bodies mold against the other, it doesn’t feel wrong. We’re two pieces, so distinctively different, but somehow and somewhat unexpectedly, we’re a perfect fit.
He kisses me like I’m his obsession, and I wonder what he’ll think when discovering that he, too, is mine.
Damon effortlessly lifts me so my legs wrap around his waist, and he carries me to the bed where I’m lowered down, my body positioned neatly under his. Then, as he wraps my wrists with Peter’s lucky tie, I watch the fluidity of his movements, strong arms, and ink sporadically illuminated by flashes of lightning. It should be terrifying, and in a way, it is. But with Damon, even as he pins my hands above my head before securing the tie to the bed pole, there’s nowhere else I want to be except completely at his mercy.
~
DAMON
“This isn’t all for my pleasure.”
Spreading her legs wide open, I position myself in between and slide my tongue over her clit. She sighs in response, her back perfectly arching off the bed.
A sweet whimper is followed by a gasp when I lick her pussy, taunting her clit and pushing two fingers inside. Mae is wet but still tight as a vice, and it takes a few thrusts to break through. Once there, she wriggles and writhes, determined to escape me when the mounting pressure becomes too much to bear. She pants, desperate to release, thighs clenching around my face.
Fucking heaven .
There’s no place I’d rather be, so adding to her torture, I deepen each thrust.
“You seem hot and bothered, sweetheart.” I smile against her pussy while grazing my teeth over her clit.
“Damon, please, keep go—” Mae’s hips twist as she pushes her groin against my mouth, the orgasm she’s been teetering on now tearing through her. Broken cries fill the night as she finally surrenders to me and, most importantly, to herself. Lightning illuminates the bedroom, and for the briefest moment, it showcases her body’s afterglow and ultimate betrayal. The biting of her full bottom lip and her breasts heaving as she regains her breath is spectacularly captured in a heartbeat.
She’s absurdly beautiful.
Mae’s moans are soft and sated when I lick and suck off every last drop of cum. Then, crawling up her body, I kiss the mouth I can’t seem to get enough of, wanting every inch of her, and knowing full well that sharing is no longer an option. The sanctity of her marriage means as much to me as it does to her husband. Sweet fuck all.
Not for the first time, Mae tastes herself on my lips, but tonight, she turns away, awash with humiliation. “Why are you doing this?” I sense the question isn’t completely directed at me because, since the last time I saw her, she’s that little bit more broken.
I loathe the fight evaporating from her pretty eyes, so I’ll say and do just about anything to bring it back.
“Because I can’t stay away from you.” My mouth travels down her neck, biting just hard enough to cause a ripple of goose bumps over her skin. “And because you were given one instruction, Mae.” I spread her legs farther apart with my knee. “You willingly placed the contract in jeopardy by convincing Peter out of accepting, and you tried removing yourself from the equation. Then…” I smile at her sharp intake of breath, “… you paid LAPD a visit. To tell them what, sweetheart?” Tracing Mae’s collarbone, my lips a feather’s touch, I move down to her breasts and tease her hardened nipples, rolling them with my tongue. “To tell them you’re opposed to the five-point eight-million-dollar contract offered to your husband? Or that a man you’ve just met has given you more orgasms in a week than you’ve ever had?”
Mae’s tears glisten like diamonds. She pulls at the restraints and cries in pain when it tightens around her slender wrists. “Damon, I don’t want to be a game to you.”
I graze her trembling lips with mine. “You’re not. But if you were, you’re a game I’m not going to lose, sweetheart.” I kiss without apology, and I’m about to fuck without remorse. Sinking my raging cock deep inside her pussy, I relish her cry and how it cuts through the night, warring with the thunder rolling above us.
~
MAE
“Do you want me to stop?”
I’m flipped onto my stomach, the tie cutting into my wrists. With my pussy throbbing from the last ten minutes of savagery, Damon now pushes his throbbing cock into me from behind.
Fuck!
It hurts so bad but feels so damn good. “God… no.”
“I didn’t think so. You look like a goddess no matter which way I give it,” he murmurs against my ear. “But it drives me crazy hearing you moan and plead when I take you slow.” To prove his point, Damon fucks me with an unbearable, rhythmic grind that sees his groan rumble between us. This feels as torturous for him as it does for me, my clit enduring the bed’s friction. When he hears my panting and sees my fingers tearing into the pillow, Damon does the unthinkable and spreads my legs wider to sink himself deeper than I could ever imagine.
“Damon, please …”
He responds by brushing my long hair over one shoulder so he can ravage my neck. His teeth bite into sensitive flesh, lips kissing and sucking, quick to soothe the pain he artfully inflicts. It’s his mouth grazing my ear and the sordid promise he whispers that sends me over the edge. “It’s just you and me this time, sweetheart. No one else is watching what I do to you.”
I can’t escape, and I wouldn’t want to if I could.
My climax is violent and unforgiving, and the sound escaping my mouth is one I don’t recognize. It’s a cry for help, a plea for mercy, and of terrifying ecstasy.
Damon’s groan roars to life when I clench around him, the muscles and thick veins in his arms pulsing, strong hands balling into fists under his weight the harder he rolls his hips.
A shudder tears through me, and I’m left quivering beneath the man who is far from done.
My hands are freed from Peter’s tie, the raw skin on my wrists stinging. Damon flips me onto my back, drags me by both ankles to the bed’s edge, and draws me to my feet. Cupping the back of my neck, I’m caught under the weight of his stare, an unmistakable emotion tethering us together.
His intention is clear.
From now on, I am his.
And he is mine.
Damon pulls me higher so I’m forced onto the tips of my toes, my face angled to his. “I want every part of you, Mae,” he says, dragging his teeth over my bottom lip. “Your tears, your laugh, your rage. Every damn bit.”
“And if I can’t give it to you?”
“You know as well as I do that’s simply not an option.”
Each step of Damon’s has me needing to match his stride until we’re past the caress of the billowing curtains and out onto the balcony, where I feel small puddles beneath my feet. There’s a chill in the air, and it tingles my flushed skin. For now, the rain has eased, and the ominous clouds have parted briefly to expose the silver moon. Damon turns me around to face the new storm brewing out at sea, his chest to my back.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asks, his lips nuzzling into the crook of my neck. I can’t even be entirely sure he’s talking about the view.
“Yes,” I whisper in return, closing my eyes as a fist wraps through my hair and a throbbing cock slides inside me.
A whimper is met by a smile brushing my cheek. “My turn, sweetheart.”
There, bathed in the hedonistic glow of the moon, I’m fucked without compromise against the wooden railing, my body yielding to his every demand. As lightning strikes far out at sea and mist glistens on our skin, I wonder how I’m expected to survive the tempest that is Damon Shaw.
~
DAMON
“Damon, what the fuck is going on?”
It’s three-thirty in the morning, and Jason is wide awake, sitting in the semi-darkness of the living room, having returned home a few hours ago after dumping Peter God knows where. Practically hurling his half-drunk scotch on the glass coffee table which I’m surprised doesn’t shatter, he follows me up the stairs.
“Fucking hell, is she breathing?”
Of course, he is referring to Mae wrapped in a blanket and fast asleep in my arms, her pretty head resting against my chest.
“Keep it down. You’ll wake her.”
“I don’t give a fuck if I wake the whole of China, what the hell is she doing here?”
Stopping outside the spare room where I know she’ll be comfortable, I turn back to my brother. “Open the door.”
“No. She’s not staying.”
“ Open the fucking door!”
My brother’s black, formidable eyes could easily scare the shit out of any other opponent, but not me. “We had a plan, Damon, and you’re fucking it by going rogue.”
“And there’s good reason for it. Now get the damn door before I kick the bastard open.”
Jason considers further arguing the point, then cursing me to hell, he turns the handle and steps into the dark room. He switches on the lamp while I place Mae on the bed, then joins my side. In silence, we watch while she sleeps peacefully as if in a deep coma. And I can’t blame her. Five hours of fucking, and she passed out from exhaustion after her final violent climax, which saw her shuddering beneath me.
God, it was beautiful.
“What in the hell did you do to her?”
Crossing my arms, I think back on every sweet moan she gave me. “Everything.”
“Well, it looks like you did everything three times over.”
Inhaling sharply, I consider the possibility. “You could be right.”
“Well, that’s just great, isn’t it?”
“Why are you so pressed?”
As if he’s talking through barred teeth, he replies curtly. “I think it’s obvious.”
“Well, remember your manners for when she wakes up because she’s staying.”
“ Staying?” Hearing my brother’s voice raise the slightest octave has me fighting a smile. “What the fuck does that even mean, Damon? She can’t stay.”
“She can, and she is, and while I’d much prefer her in my own bed, I suspect she may not be so fond of me over the next few days, at least until the business negotiations are complete.”
“She’s not supposed to be fond of you at all, Damon.”
I think of every single moment she’s either screamed or murmured my name while in the throes of climax. “I suspect that ship has sailed.”
Jason pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’re making a monumental mistake.”
“The mistake would be in leaving her at the house.”
“It’s where she belongs.”
“Not after hearing about what that cunt does to her.” We barely even skimmed the surface of the confession, but it’s enough for me never to have Mae step foot back into the house again while he’s there. I kept my rage simmering just below the surface for her sake until she felt safe enough to be vulnerable with me. But the words, ‘the moment he walks back through that door, I can’t stop him,’ play over in my head because Peter will pay for what he’s done to her and for what he continues to threaten to do. And to think, had I not called the meeting, that fucker would now be sleeping soundly after raping his wife. “I’ll tell you everything I know in the morning,” I say to Jason as I drag a hand over my face. “Go to bed. You looked as fucked as I feel.”
“How the hell do you expect me to get any rest knowing everything we’ve worked hard for is set to implode because you can’t control your dick or your emotions?”
Switching gears, I reason with his cantankerous side. “Besides the immense satisfaction I derive from it, I’m simply fucking the argument out of her.”
With a skeptical eye, I suspect he can see through my bullshit. “You’re certainly fucking something out of her. Though I dare say it’s more her soul than argument. Just ensure she’s still compliant in a week’s time when we fly to Dubai.”
“We needn’t worry.” Staring down at Mae, her blonde hair looking more like a halo, I detest the words coming from my mouth because they’re said purely to placate Jason’s greatest fear. “The best wars are won by exploiting your enemy’s weakness.”