Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
GEMMA
Conversation stopped. Heads turned to stare. You didn’t talk to the Horsemen without prior permission, let alone slap the head.
I didn’t give a shit. What was he gonna do, kill me?
“Are you fucking kidding me?” You’re out here kissing some random chick. “I’ve got three assholes ruining my life.”
Grim dragged his hand across the spot I slapped on his jaw, a small smile playing on his lips. Slowly his eyes found mine. A dangerous humor ignited the dark depths. Like a shark in the water thinking my cage was so cute, as if it could protect me.
“And that’s my problem, why?”
A shiver ran up my spine.
I swallowed. “It’s clearly your doing.”
I was tall. Taller than all the girls at my school. I towered at a cool five-ten. But with Grim, I had to crane my neck to see into his eyes.
“You—”
He gripped my chin, cutting me off. I sucked in a breath as he dragged his thumb across my bottom lip, pulling it down to see my teeth.
“Go home, Gemma.”
He released me and fell back into the couch. Spiky hot liquid filled my chest. Indignation? Maybe. Or maybe it was the girls who immediately draped themselves over him.
I inhaled, finding calm. Practicing that bullshit breathing my therapist used to make me do.
Breathe one…two…three—
Fuck this.
“How much do they know about what happened that night?” I asked.
He stilled before slowly finding my eyes. “Enough.”
I laughed. “Enough. All right. Do they know you fucked me? Do they know you’re still touching me? What about the bodies—”
Before I knew it, he was in front of me, his mass shoving me farther and farther back until I nearly tripped.
“Do you like your world?” he gritted. “Do you like your pretty things and the stupid shit you think is power? Then go home, stop digging.”
“I have more important things to deal with right now than your fucking Horsemen.”
He laughed. “I’m sure you do, Rich Girl.” A slight smirk pulled his gaze narrower, like he could see through me to things I hadn’t even noticed about myself.
“Oh, and what’s that supposed to mean?”
“You got real important shit, huh? What rich loser you gonna marry? What party you gonna throw? What bitch you gotta backstab this week? Yeah, real. Important. Shit.” He emphasized each word by stepping closer, until I was forced back against the balcony’s private bar.
Grim looked me up and down, then scoffed and stepped off, as if he’d discovered some huge, damning insight about me.
“As opposed to you?” I asked. “Your life is so goddamn meaningful? All the drugs you sell, all the people you kill, you’re really making an impact, Grim.”
Grim pressed his thumb between his lips, bottom teeth biting the flesh in an annoyingly distracting way. He didn’t say a word, eyes roaming up and down my body.
And I felt like a thing.
I got hungry because of it, no…famished. Achy and hot and twisted. All because of those dark eyes, sharpening on me like I was just another shiny damned soul for Grim Reyes to collect.
Of course, I didn’t let him know.
I was Gemma fucking Crowne, he’d have to rip that bloody from my teeth.
“You should have left me in the ocean.”
“You don’t get to barter with death. Tough shit.”
“Everyone knows you saved me, but nobody knows I didn’t want you to. That I didn’t want this contract. Isn’t that kind of against the rules?” Still caged, I leaned closer, lips nearly touching. “Why are you keeping such a big secret, Grim? Do you care about me?”
He leaned closer, until I could practically taste his heady, earthy scent. His eyes dropped to my lips, and the air between us solidified into something about to snap. My back bit into the counter as his lips almost touched mine, goose bumps igniting a hot, shivering trail down my spine.
“You wanna know why I saved you? You wanna know why I lied? Why I’m still lying?” The heat of his breath brushed my lips with each word. “Every day you live is another day you suffer.”
Icy cold drenched my insides.
He stepped off. “So I’m gonna keep you, Rich Girl. But don’t read too much into it.”
He found his way back to the couch and resumed making out, jaw flexing with the effort. Grim eyed me through the kiss, while the other woman started to rub his cock.
A cool sort of certainty replaced the fire in my veins.
Fine.
I walked to the other side of the room, hoisting myself up on a stool. I took a cue from my sister, Abby, and opened my legs wide, revealing that I wore no panties to the entire floor.
Almost instantly he sat up, rigid, shaking the girls off him.
I shrugged back into the bar, spreading my legs wider. He ground his jaw, the muscle twitching, as if realizing my ploy.
For a moment it looked like he might actually kill everyone.
He stood up and in two quick strides yanked me off the stool. He gripped my bicep, pulling me closer. I thought he was gonna tear into me, yell at me, rip me apart.
But then he was inside me.
One finger, two, sliding in and out of me in a punishing thrust. That careful line we toed obliterated in an instant.
There was something in his stare that defied his savage thrusts.
A longing ache peeked through like sunlight in winter.
I drowned in it, in the promise his eyes carried, a burden his lips would never release.
His eyes only broke from mine when a whimper slipped from my lips, dropping to my mouth.
Kiss me.
But even as he hit every perfect spot, he still wouldn’t fucking kiss me. The only thing keeping me from falling to a puddle was his grip on my bicep, holding me up as he fucked me with his fingers.
This was the first time in years that he’d touched me, and I knew in the starving, immutable part of my soul I couldn’t wait another five.
The rough pad of his thumb rubbed my clit in delirious friction. I closed my eyes, falling into the moment. His fingers in my cunt, stretching and deep. The ache in his eyes seared into my brain. His unhinged breath falling fast and hot against my cheek.
It wasn’t enough.
I needed all of him.
I arched into it, into him filling me up in a way I’d craved.
I was going to come. Come while a bunch of strangers watched.
“Open your eyes,” Grim commanded. “Look at me when I let you come.”
My eyes flew open.
“Good girl,” Grim said, voice oddly warm through his growl. A new kind of pleasure twisted and dripped hot into my bones. The kind that came only from Grim’s praise. That throbbing, hot wire in my gut snapped. My head fell to his chest as fireworks exploded through my blood.
The last thing I saw before I came was the hungry, crooked grin curving Grim’s lips.
Grim’s hand found the back of my neck and held me against his chest, thumb rubbing circles in my skin. I steadied my breathing, focusing on the concentric motion.
Grim took forever removing his fingers from inside me. Too slow. Like he wanted me to feel his absence. Somehow that was more intimate than what had just happened seconds ago.
He tilted my chin up with sticky fingers, forcing me to meet his gaze, and I found myself standing up on tiptoes.
Our lips nearly touched when he said, “She’s had enough for tonight.”
I was still so lost in him. Stuck in the daze of Grim’s praise, of him touching me in the way I’d craved for years. So I didn’t notice the change, didn’t see the mask fall back into place. Didn’t register what he’d said until someone grabbed my elbow.
Security.
Grim stepped off and returned to the couch, not bothering to look back. The security guard gripped my elbow, trying to push me toward the stairs. I wrestled with every emotion. Shame, humiliation—desire.
I yanked my arm free as Grim reached the couch, and yelled, “This was the last time.”
He paused, looking over his shoulder so I could see his smirk.
“I’m not fucking joking,” I said.
He dragged the two fingers he’d just used to fuck me across his bottom lip, as if thinking hard. “Whatever you say, Rich Girl.”