Thirty-Two Ella
THIRTY-TWO
Ella
“Out. Get out.” I shove Rosalie with all my strength as she opens the car door, and she falls to the ground, her skirt splitting up the side. “Get by the tire,” I order, panicking. The bright lights around the station don’t allow us to escape into the darkness.
Gunfire erupts all around us.
She grabs my arm and yanks me out, pulling me toward the tire. Then she calmly lifts a small gun from a strap at her thigh and levers up, shooting back.
Bullets pierce the trunk of the car, and I wrap my arm around her neck, dragging her down and out of the way. I look up, seeking shelter.
Justice is running full out toward us, blood on his cheek, firing toward the van as he moves.
The world stops. Holy crap. Danger and fury cascade from him, and his dark gaze remains on me. I can’t move.
Rosalie struggles beneath me. “Let go of my neck,” she croaks.
I release her. “Stay down.”
The wheels of the van screech as it turns the far corner, and then cars rev up in pursuit.
Justice reaches us and he crouches. “Are you okay?” He gently wipes dirt off my chin, his eyes a wild brown flecked with lighter tones.
“Yes.” I gulp as Rosalie sits up next to me.
Alexei’s men surround us. I can’t breathe.
Justice looks around. “Anybody hit?”
Police pour out of the station as reporters clamor toward us.
I don’t see any blood. There’s a lot of damage, especially to the cars, but nobody seems to be dying.
Justice must make the same determination, because he visually checks Rosalie over, nods, and then lifts me right off the ground, cradling me against his rock-hard chest.
“Hey,” I protest.
“Stop,” Rosalie says, jumping up and grabbing his arm.
He looks at her, then over his shoulder at the men behind her.
“Either shoot me or get the fuck out of my way.” He starts moving toward Wynd and his bullet-riddled vehicle, where his larger-than-large driver is already pulling away from the curb.
Steam hisses through the holes in the hood, and the vehicle seems to be limping, but it rolls toward us.
“Ella?” Rosalie asks.
I look over Justice’s shoulder to see her panicked face and wide eyes.
There’s a scratch on her chin. Had I almost just gotten her killed?
Tears fill my eyes, and I bat them away.
If I ask her, she’ll have her bodyguards shoot Justice.
Right here by the police station, and I think they’ll do it. “Justice?”
“I’m not letting go. Make a decision.” There’s no give in his voice or hold, and he keeps walking. Shoulders up, body relaxed, gait graceful as he tries to get us out of here before the police stop us.
I don’t want Rosalie hurt. “I’m fine, Rosy.” I make sure my voice is loud enough for the now-staring cops to hear. “Justice and I need to talk. I’ll call you later. I promise.”
She wavers and pushes strands of her dark hair away from her face.
Wynd opens the backdoor of the car and Justice slides inside, still holding me. The door is slammed shut, and the car peels away from the curb. Wynd must be staying to deal with the police.
“Take us to the bar while the house by the ocean is swept. I want the grounds completely searched,” Justice says to the driver.
I take several deep breaths and let myself lean into Justice’s strength. Just for a second. I can feel his steady heartbeat beneath my shoulder and I look up at his dark eyes. “How are you calm?”
He lifts one eyebrow. “That’s what you ask me?”
I blink. “Um, yeah.” Okay, so he’s pissed. Of course. Somebody just shot at him. At both of us. “What are you thinking?” Probably about revenge. But who was the shooter?
“That I didn’t spank you hard enough last time.”
The words take a second to register. Probably because the heat is roaring through my head, and the sound of my own blood boiling fills my ears. Wait a second. “What?” My brain feels like it’s surrounded by clouds. Filled by them. Buildings are flying by outside. How fast are we going? “Justice?”
He flips me to face him, my thighs falling on either side of his. One swipe of his hand down my front has buttons flying in every direction. I gasp, but he grabs the center of my bra and yanks me toward him, his knuckles brushing my breasts.
I really can’t breathe now. My nipples flare wide awake and shoot from relaxed to diamond hard. Just like that.
His mouth is close to mine, and his eyes blaze fire. Like the real kind.
Oh. He’s mad at me. The whole leaving with Rosy and not with him situation. And he’d just ripped my shirt with his driver in the front seat. There’s no divider. “Um.” My gaze drops to Justice’s lips. Full and firm.
His fingers twist, tightening my bra painfully.
I suck in air and lean closer to him, instinctively trying to ease the pressure. “I don’t like the caveman act,” I croak.
Something changes in his eyes. Like a hidden monster flicking closer to the surface. “Don’t you, now?” His voice is silky. Challenging. Pissed.
I’d swallow but my throat is dry. Completely. “No.” I try to make my voice firm, but I’m still breathy. Who wouldn’t be? The guy’s deadly. “We have enough going on right now,” I whisper. “Let’s deal with all of that.” Like with whoever’s trying to kill us.
He pulls me even closer. “I’m dealing with you. First.”
Oh, God. What does that mean? His free hand somehow releases the button and zipper on my jeans in another smooth motion.
Before I can protest, he has two fingers inside my panties, sliding them inside me.
Not gently. He seems to like to do this.
I suck in air and move against him, already wet.
Heat fills my face at that. Dark red spirals beneath his cheekbones at the same time.
I stare at him, my mouth opening. The driver is right there. We’re speeding way too fast through town. His fingers are inside me.
“Say my name,” he whispers, his heated breath warming my mouth.
“Justice,” I whisper instantly, overcome.
Triumph and hunger glitter in those eyes now along with pleasure. At the sound of my voice. His name. The situation, probably. “If this is what it takes to make you obey, I’m all in.” He scrapes his nail across my clit.
I bite my lip to keep from crying out. Panic fills me along with the most erotic sense of danger. My clit has a mind of its own as I move against his hand.
“Who owns you?” His mouth is on mine now, and I can feel his lips move.
I shake my head, holding my breath. I won’t give him that. Not here. Not now.
The car lurches to a stop, and my shoulders relax.
I realize a second too late that there is no safety.
Somebody outside the car opens the door and Justice moves us out and into the drilling rain, his fingers still inside me.
He tosses me over his shoulder, his fingers working now, his other hand now on my back, keeping me in place.
Rain drills us and chills me. I try to struggle, and he adds a third finger to the others, stretching me painfully. Then we’re inside.
“Don’t disturb us,” he orders.
Oh, man. He really doesn’t care who sees us doing anything. Everything. Doesn’t care a whit.
I’m flopped over his back, my hair covering my face, and I don’t look up from a worn wooden floor.
Don’t want to know who sees. The smell of peanuts fills my head.
We move into another room and he kicks the door shut with one foot.
He leans forward, and a bunch of papers and notebooks as well as a laptop crash to the floor.
He flips me over onto my back and I land on a desk, shoulders and then my head as he rips off my jeans and panties. He crouches and his mouth is on me. Hard. His thumbs dig into my thighs, spreading them, and then he sucks my clit into his heated mouth.
Fire lashes through me. I cry out, an old desk chilling my butt.
It’s not enough. Too much. I can’t think.
He nips and licks, not gentle, bringing me to the brink.
Right to the edge. Then he backs off. Once and then again.
I’m sweating, moving, needing. I can’t think.
My ears tingle. His grip is bruising, and his mouth deadly.
He lifts up, his chin on my clit, as he releases my thighs. “Keep them open or I’ll spank your pussy until you’re raw.”
A mini orgasm nearly takes me and my thighs tremble. But I stay still. So I don’t see his hand move until it’s clasped around my neck, partially raising me.
I grab his solid arm out of instinct.
“Hands. Down.” There’s no give in his tone, and his face looks carved from rock. Hunger glows in his eyes along with that darkness that terrifies me. Yet I’ve never wanted anyone or anything this badly.
I dig my nails into his forearm.
His fingers tighten on my neck until my air is cut off. Tears fill my eyes and I scratch him, fighting. He doesn’t relent. Finally, the room swimming around me, I drop my arms to the desk. His hold relaxes.
I suck in air, gasping, my body on fire. The orgasm to end all orgasms hovers right there, out of my reach. As if my body is waiting for his command.
His gaze hasn’t left mine. Then his fingers tighten again, taking the air. My nails curve against the worn desk, but I don’t lift them. Not again. I can’t breathe. Approval fills his eyes. He marginally relaxes his hold. My very life is in his hand. One hand. “Beg me.”
The order barely permeates. “Please.” For air? For an orgasm? For life? Maybe for all three?
He stands and pulls me upright at the same time. “My jeans. Now.”
I’m like a robot, obeying commands. Can’t think. Can only feel. I release his button and pull down his zipper. He’s rock hard behind the jeans. Commando. I push them down as far as I can and he takes care of the rest, releasing my neck to tear off his shirt.
It occurs to me that I can move back.
He watches me as if reading my mind.
I don’t move. The long span of his chest, muscled and cut, fills my view. Bullet holes, a couple of them, knife wounds, and whip marks are evident. Beauty and death, all in front of me. The symbol of Malice Media is tattooed over the myriad of scars there.
He slides a hand between my legs, cupping my butt, and lifts me. With one hand. His other grasps my hips and flips me, leaving me on my hands and knees on the desk.
“Um.”
Grasping both of my hips, bruising me, he shoves inside me with one hard push. To the hilt. I cry out, pain and pleasure swamping me, his hands keeping me from falling forward.
He grasps my hair and jerks my head back, leaning over until his mouth is at my ear. “One sound only from you. My name. Only. Understand?”
Tears fill my eyes. If he doesn’t start moving, I will plan his death. With a lot of pain. I’m smart enough not to say that. “Yes.”
“Say it.” That hand releases my hair and wraps around my neck, his thumb tight against my trachea.
“Justice,” I moan.
He starts to move then, hard, in and out, hammering with full control, one hand on my hip yanking me back into him. The other hand stays in place. Controlling my breathing. My life.
The pounding is loud in the small office, flesh against flesh. Electricity zings through me, and I’m helpless in his grip. Slowly, his fingers tighten. I’m climbing, so fast, so hard, but I can’t breathe.
My vision darkens from the edges. I dig my hands into the desk, trying to push against him. To breathe. I’m so close.
He releases my neck and I explode. I scream his name, live wires edged with barbed wire uncoiling inside me, ripping through every nerve, taking me over.
My head drops as the fire-tipped waves pummel through me, taking me somewhere else.
Don’t know where. I shudder wildly, coming down, just as he clamps himself deep inside me, his body jerking behind me.
I gasp in air, panting, tears sliding from my eyes.
He stops. Still inside me.
Wow. Just wow. What just happened?
He withdraws and turns me over, facing him, my butt on the old desk.
My body jerks in aftershocks. One broad hand grasps my neck, gently this time, as he leans over and pulls me to him, placing a kiss on my trembling mouth.
He looks primal, like an animal stripped to its nature, appeased.
For now. “You’re never leaving me again. Tell me you understand.”
“Justice—”
He cuts off my air and then relents. “Tell me.”
He’s demanding forever. Not giving me a choice. I know who he is. Do I want to go back to life without him? Without this? Oh, he scares the shit out of me, but when the bullets were flying earlier, he ran through them to get to me. To protect me.
“I’ll keep you safe, Ella. Anybody comes for you, they die and they die bloody. Hard. You’re mine.” It’s like he can read my mind. His grip is still there. Enough to remind me. “I’m not going back. Neither are you. I’m also not waiting for you to reason it out. Now tell me.”
I lick my lips and enjoy how his eyes flare.
I’m ready to take a chance. A risk. I don’t want to be alone anymore.
I don’t want to be without him. “Fine, but I want romance. Fun. True partnership where you completely let me in.” My mouth is running now, and I hope I’m being clear with what I want and need.
I figure this is the only chance I’ll get to make sure he understands.
“I want it all, Justice.” All of him? Yeah, I’ll take that.
“You can have it all. Your place is here. With me.”
“Okay.” I exhale slowly. I haven’t had a place in way too long, and this one is seriously sexy. “Also, once in a while, I want gentle.”
Now one dark eyebrow rises. “That was.”