Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
The raw pain and remorse in his voice undid something in her.
It was a tsunami of acceptance, terror, anger—although not directed at Nathan—and a certainty that if she really was about to lose complete control of her body without hope of rescue, then she needed to be in charge one last time.
“I’m sorry, blondie,” he said softly, the warmth of his breath soothing against her skin as he kept his forehead pressed to hers. “I wish I could get you out, but there’s no way to do it without blowing my cover, and if I blow my cover then—”
“Then a whole lot more people than me will get hurt,” she finished for him.
Emma understood Nathan’s dilemma, and it was clear that it was a dilemma for him.
There was no doubt that he was conflicted and that if he saw a way to get her out without risking everything he’d been working toward, he’d do it in a heartbeat.
None of that changed the fact that it sucked majorly to be her.
Because Nathan had been her only chance of rescue, her only chance of finding a way out.
If he couldn’t give that to her, there was nothing else coming.
The cops obviously knew about the trafficking ring, and were already working to bring them down, but if they needed an undercover operative to do that, it was clear they needed intel they didn't have.
Which meant her future was bleak.
Worse than bleak.
Almost so dark and horrific that she thought about asking Nathan to just kill her and spare her from it.
Would he kill her if she asked?
It would likely go against his moral code, but if he really was a good guy at heart, and she’d known from the first moment he was different from the others, it was how she’d been able to get on her knees for him and not the others, then he should be able to give her this one kindness.
A finger under her chin nudged her face up, and she blinked to clear the mistiness in her eyes she hadn't even realized was there.
“You're different, the way your eyes blazed when they looked at me that first morning. You were angry, I was used to angry, but you were smart, too. You ate because you knew you needed to keep your strength up. I admired that intelligence mixed with bravery. It’s dangerous for you to know too much, but I find a way to get them all out.”
“The other women?” she asked.
“Yeah. I tell them the truth when they’re sold, and I tag them so the company I work for can find a way to get to them.”
“You're not a cop?”
“No. I work for Prey Security, but the cops are aware of Azure and our operation here. It was decided that Prey would have a better chance of ending the ring for good rather than just taking a couple of the bottom feeders and leaving the head intact, because we’re …
less legally constrained in what we can do.
” The light brown eyes looking down at her grew fierce, and Nathan’s grip on her chin tightened.
“But I won't let you get sold. I won't put you through that even if I have a plan in place to get you out afterward.”
“But if you can't get me out now, and you don’t want me to be sold, where does that leave us?” It was on the tip of Emma’s tongue to follow through on her idea and ask Nathan to perform a mercy killing when he spoke.
“I was at a meeting with my boss,” he said, his tone urgent now.
They both knew they didn't have long before someone found them. “He knew something was off with me, and I told him about you. He said if we need to, he’ll get me a drug that will simulate death. I can frame an incident that gets out of hand, make it look like I lost control and killed you, the drugs will make you seem dead to anyone who checks, then I’ll plant a tracker so even if someone else disposes of your body, Prey will be able to find you, get to you. ”
“That sounds a heck of a lot better than my plan, which was just to ask you to kill me for real.”
Nathan growled at her words, a low, dangerous, ruthless sound, and the arm banded under her backside hiked her up so they were eye to eye. “I would never kill you.”
“It would have been kinder than letting me be sold.”
“I’ll figure out a way to get you out of here in one piece.”
“But not before they hurt me worse than they have already.” That was her reality, and even learning she wasn't alone there, that she had someone on her side, someone who cared about her and what happened to her, didn't change that.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Nathan murmured.
“I hate that you were dragged into this.
I hate knowing I won't be able to save everyone here. I don’t ask my boss for follow-ups on the women who are sold.
I know some of them Prey wouldn't be able to get to in time, but if I focus too much on that, on knowing I failed them, that I couldn’t save them, then I can't breathe.”
Placing one of her hands over Nathan’s heart, she offered him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Because you're a good man.”
“Like you told me earlier, I'm here, I'm one of them.”
“No, not one of them, never one of them. Can you give me one thing before we go back out there?”
“If I could, blondie, I'd give you the world.” His fingers left her chin, and he swept a lock of tangled hair behind her ear.
“I don’t need the world, I just need …” Emma trailed off, running her tongue over her bottom lip as she contemplated how to ask for something that to Nathan was going to sound bizarre.
“I mean it, sweetheart, you can ask me for anything, and if I can, I’ll give it to you.”
“An orgasm,” she blurted out.
“An orgasm?”
“I know it sounds weird, but … that’s what Mateo was going to do to me, force orgasms on me.
I know … I accept … I'm going to lose parts of myself here I won't be able to get back, but I want one last time where I’m in charge. Please,” she whispered.
Weird or not, she needed this, needed to pretend one last time that her body was her own before she lost it forever.
“Told you already, I won't have you when you can't consent, when you don’t really want me—”
“That’s the thing, though, I do really want you,” she interrupted.
“Still doesn’t change the issue of consent, blondie,” he said softly, but he kept balancing her with one arm under her butt, while his other hand slipped between their bodies, and lightly swept across her center.
She would have sworn there was no way she could feel arousal in this place.
Her body could be forced to do what it had been designed to do, but it would never be something she wanted.
But it was different with Nathan. Nathan wasn't one of them, he was there to bring them down, to save the innocents.
Nathan had stepped in to protect her multiple times, and he was there now, offering her a brief reprieve.
“But I can give you this,” he said as he continued to brush his fingers over her sensitive flesh.
Teasing her entrance by circling it, he nudged a fingertip just inside before removing it and shifting to her bud to circle it with gentle pressure. Sensations began to build, each circular motion got a little harder, a little faster.
Slowly, that pleasure inside her grew. It started low in her belly, a slight tingling, a mere hint of what was to come.
Nathan’s head dipped, and he closed his lips around one of her nipples, sucking hard, his tongue lashing at the pebbled bud. His fingers never let up, working her higher and higher, until she was a coil ready to spring.
Because she knew that crying out her pleasure would alert everyone to their location, as that pressure was about to crack, spiral throughout her with the last orgasm that she might ever have that was just hers, Emma pressed her face into Nathan’s neck.
There were no guarantees that Nathan’s plan to fake her death would work, but at least he was giving her this.
“Fly for me, blondie. Let me see how gorgeous you are when you fall apart.”
The words accompanied by his teeth scraping across her hardened nipple, as his fingers tugged on her bundle of nerves, was all she needed, and she sank her teeth into Nathan’s skin to muffle what would have been her screams of pleasure as a powerful orgasm imploded inside her.
It stole her breath, and Nathan continuing to work her bud as she rode out the wave of pleasure, made it feel like it went on and on forever, almost like it could carry her away to a better place than the one she was trapped in.
Before she could catch her breath, there was a sound outside the door to their hiding spot, and the next thing Emma knew, she was on her knees before him. His jeans were unzipped, his hard length sprang free, and they were both bathed in light as the door was yanked open.
August 3rd
3:03 P.M.
A scuffle outside the door was the only warning Nathan got.
He didn’t take a moment to worry about the consequences of what he was about to do, or explain to Emma why it had to go down this way.
If this was going to work, she was going to have to trust him, and he was going to have to trust her.
All they had to do was get through the next couple of days until he had his next meeting with Falcon.
Then he’d get the drugs, they’d fake her death, and get her out of there.
Then he could refocus all his energy on finding what they needed to get to the head of Azure and destroy the ring from the inside out.
Dropping Emma to the ground, he unzipped himself and released his throbbing erection a split second before the door was flung open.
Tangling his fingers in Emma’s hair, he made sure he wasn't holding her hard enough to hurt her, but enough that he could tilt her head back.