Chapter 16 Orchid
SIXTEEN
ORCHID
The heat is still pulsing between my legs, slow and insistent, when I finally find the strength to push Poe away.
My hands shake as I press them flat against his chest, feeling the hard, rapid beat of his heart under my palms. His skin’s warm, slightly damp from the way we had been pressed together, and I can feel every breath he takes.
His mouth is slick and swollen from what he just did to me, lips shiny with my wetness, and his eyes are dark with raw lust mixed with something that looks dangerously close to real want.
For one weak, stupid second I almost pull him back in.
Almost thread my fingers through his hair and drag his mouth back to mine.
Almost let him stand up, strip this ridiculous black cocktail dress off my body, and finish what we started right here against the wall.
But reality crashes in like ice water dumped over my head.
I step back on unsteady legs, smoothing the dress down with trembling fingers.
The fabric clings to my sweat-damp skin.
My panties are still somewhere on the floor near the door.
My thighs are slick with my own arousal and his saliva.
My clit is still throbbing from the way his tongue had worked me over, slow and filthy and perfect.
My nipples are tight against the thin material of the dress, and every breath feels too loud in the sudden quiet.
“We’ve got to stop,” I say, my voice coming out hoarse and cracked. “This can’t happen. We can not do this.”
Poe stays on his knees for a long moment, looking up at me with those intense dark eyes.
His hair is messy from my hands, lips parted, chest still heaving.
Then he slowly rises to his feet, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand in a casual gesture that somehow makes everything feel even dirtier.
The corner of his lips curves into a small, knowing smile that twists something deep in my gut.
“I think I deserve a call to my sister now.”
The words hit like a slap across the face.
All the warm, floating pleasure that had been flooding my veins evaporates in an instant. My stomach drops hard. My chest tightens until it actually hurts to breathe, like someone has wrapped a band around my ribs and is pulling it tighter with every heartbeat.
Of course.
Of course that’s why he did this.
He doesn’t want me. He never wanted me. He wants his sister back.
I’m just the tool standing between him and Enley.
The enemy he’s willing to seduce, to drop to his knees for, to lick and suck and make moan until I fall apart, if it gets him one step closer to freeing her.
Every filthy word, every slow drag of his tongue, every time he called me baby and told me how wet I was…
it was all strategy. A calculated move in the game he’s playing to save his family.
I feel sick.
Mortification burns through me, hot and humiliating, flooding my cheeks and making my eyes sting.
How could I have let myself fall for it?
How could I have stood here panting and wet and trembling while he played me so perfectly?
I’m supposed to be the one in control. The enforcer.
The woman who never lets anyone close enough to hurt her, let alone get on their knees and worship her like that.
I’ve spent years building walls so thick no one could touch the real me, and in one reckless night I let him tear them down with nothing but his mouth and a few dirty words.
I force my mask back into place, walls slamming up so fast I almost feel dizzy from the whiplash. My voice comes out cold and steady, nothing like the breathless, moaning woman who had just ridden his face against the wall.
“You can call her in the morning.”
I don’t wait for his reaction. I don’t want to see whatever triumph or pity might be in his eyes.
I turn on my heel and rush up the stairs before he can see the way my eyes are stinging with unshed tears.
My heels click too loudly on the hardwood, echoing like accusations with every step.
The dress suddenly feels ridiculous and cheap, like a costume I never should’ve put on.
It clings to my skin in all the wrong ways now, a reminder of how easily I’d let myself believe the performance.
The second my bedroom door shuts behind me I lean back against it, pressing my forehead to the cool wood.
My legs are still weak, knees threatening to buckle.
My body’s still humming with the aftershocks of what he did to me, clit pulsing faintly, thighs sticky.
And my heart… my stupid, traitorous heart feels cracked wide open, raw and aching in a way I haven’t let it feel in years.
How could I have fallen for him?
Even a little. Even for a second.
He’s the prisoner. The mark. The man whose sister I’m helping keep hostage.
He’s everything I’m supposed to use and discard when the job is done.
Yet somewhere between the ridiculous pool party where he played the perfect husband, the sweaty training session in the backyard where our bodies kept brushing, and the way he looked at me tonight in this black dress like I was the only woman alive, I let myself want him.
Let myself imagine what it would feel like if he actually saw me.
If he actually cared. If this thing burning between us was real instead of just another weapon in his fight to save Enley.
Stupid. So fucking stupid.
I kick off my heels, the sharp sound satisfying as they clatter across the floor.
I rip the dress over my head in one angry motion and toss it into the corner like it burned me.
Then I pull on an oversized t-shirt that swallows me whole, the soft cotton a small comfort against my still-sensitive skin.
I grab the encrypted phone from my nightstand with shaking hands and dial the only number I can trust right now.
Marlo answers on the second ring, voice brisk. “Talk fast.”
I sink onto the edge of the bed, curling my free arm around my waist like I can hold myself together.
My voice comes out barely above a whisper, cracked and raw.
“I’m falling for him. Poe. I let things go too far tonight.
He… he went down on me right in the entryway.
I almost let him fuck me. I wanted him to.
God, Marlo, I wanted him so bad I could barely think straight. ”
There’s a long, heavy silence on the other end. When Marlo speaks again her voice is sharp and low, edged with steel. “Bottle that shit up right now. That cannot happen. You hear me? Lock it down.”
“I know it’s wrong,” I say, pressing a hand hard to my chest like I can physically push the feelings down into nothing. “I know.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Marlo cuts in, harsher than I’ve ever heard her.
“You can’t afford to mess this up now. Not when you’re so close.
Everything you’ve worked for, every sacrifice, every night you stayed quiet and played the perfect little enforcer, every time you smiled when you wanted to scream, it’s almost within reach.
Falling for Poe will only complicate things.
It’ll ruin everything. You let him in and he will use it against you.
He will use you to save his sister and then walk away without a second thought, leaving you with nothing but the ashes of what you built.
And if Serafina were to find out. She’d fucking kill you. ”
Her words land like stones in my stomach, heavy and bruising.
She’s right.
She takes a deep breath in, and lets it out slowly. “There’s more. Poe’s friends… they’re closing in on your location. Somehow they found you. I think he must have contacted them. I don’t know how, but they’re coming.”
“What do we do? Should we leave?”
Marlo curses softly under her breath. “No, stay put for now. But, Orchid, you need to keep Poe in line. You make sure he finishes that hack before they get there. Do not let feelings get in the way. Not now. Not when you’re this close to the endgame.
You’ve sacrificed too much to let a man with dark eyes and a talented tongue derail you. ”
I nod even though she can’t see me. My throat feels raw, like I’ve been screaming. “I will. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t.” Her voice softens just a fraction at the end. “You’ve come too far to lose it all over pretty words and a good orgasm. Lock it down, Orchid. Lock it down tight.”
The line goes dead.
I drop the phone onto the bed and bury my face in my hands, shoulders shaking.
She’s right. I can’t afford this. Not the wanting. Not the softness. Not the stupid, dangerous hope that Poe might actually see me as more than the enemy holding the key to his sister’s cage.
He only cares about freeing Enley. That’s all he’s ever cared about. The kiss in the car, the way he dropped to his knees in the entryway, the filthy things he whispered while his tongue was inside me… it was all a performance. A tool. Just like I’m a tool to Serafina.
I curl up on the bed, still tasting him on my lips, still feeling the ghost of his tongue between my legs, the memory of his fingers curling inside me, and let the humiliation settle deep in my bones like poison.
Tomorrow I’ll be colder.
I’ll be the enforcer again, the one who never lets anyone close.
And I’ll make sure Poe finishes that hack, no matter what it costs me or how much it hurts.
Because I’ve worked too hard, sacrificed too much, bled in silence for too long, to let one man with dark eyes and dirty words ruin everything I have left.