Chapter Twenty-Four
A solitary scream pierced the stagnant air.
I huddled closer to my wolf, hugging the stuffed animal in my arms with all my might. The door to my hiding place was locked from the outside. I couldn’t get out. Tears streamed down my cheeks. The sound of crashing furniture could be heard from downstairs.
“Stupid bitch,” a woman screamed. She was closer now. The sound of her voice coming from my left, where the stairs were. “You had everything I wanted. Everything. Why couldn’t you just lose for once in your fucking life?”
“Stop.” My mother’s voice was shaky and terrified, but I could hear the sheer determination behind the terror. She didn’t want to die. She couldn’t. My mother wouldn’t leave me all alone. “What have I ever done to you? We were friends. Best friends.”
The other voice scoffed. It was dark, filled with a burning hatred. There was a soft lilt of an accent to her words. Like Mommas. “Please. I was never your friend. The only thing I wanted was what was promised to me.”
“And what was that, Mar?” mother asked tearfully.
“Liam and your empire.”
It was Momma’s turn to scoff. “Liam would never have you,” she sneered. “And no one but blood can inherit my empire.”
Mar laughed. It was dreadful and full of corruption. “Everything’s about to change, Kat.” The woman was still chuckling. “The McDonough empire is done for. No more of this ethics and value bullshit your father tried to implement.”
“You honestly support trafficking women and children?” My mother was disgusted with the thought.
“Why not?” the woman asked. “I was.” There was a pause.
“Didn’t know that, did you, little Kat?” Mar mocked. “There are plans in place that run far deeper than you will ever know. Soon, the world will belong to the corrupt, and those who stand in our way will perish.”
“You should really see to that god complex you’ve got going,” my mother snarled. The woman just laughed again.
“I am a god,” the woman whispered. “They call me Hera.”
“They should have called you delusional.”
That’s when my mother screamed again.
My head hurt like a fucking bitch.
Had I been mauled by a truck?
Mom!
Bolting upright, my chest was heaving, my body soaked with rain. Her scream still echoed in my ears. It was the kind of scream that bordered on terror. It had torn through the house and into my soul like a shard of glass. My eyes widened as I fought to take in air. I could feel my heart rate thundering like a wild drum against my rib cage.
Hands grabbed at me, and I cried out as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around me, pulling me into a warm chest.
“Shh. It’s okay, Red,” a voice whispered in my ear. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
Pine and leather enveloped me, and for a moment I allowed myself to relax into the familiarity of his body against mine. I clutched at the arm banded against my chest, holding me tight to him as I sobbed.
Problem was, I didn’t even know what I was crying about.
Remembering the last moments of my mother’s life. Something my psyche had apparently kept buried for all these years. Or the fact that the man I loved was holding me to him like a lifeline. As if I’d disappear if he let me go.
The man I’d thought was dead.
“Let me go,” I croaked. His arms tightened for a moment before releasing me. That was new. He rarely ever did as I asked, only doing what he wanted.
I pulled myself up from the ground, not bothering to dust myself off since I was still soaking wet and brushing at wet hay was as useless as mopping rain.
“Krasnyy,” he whispered.
“No.” I shook my head to clear my thoughts before facing him. Even wet and covered in dirt, he was still the most handsome man I had ever seen. Devilishly rogue. He looked like a fallen angel. The devil in a three-piece suit. “You don’t get to call me that.” Pain and sadness shredded at my insides.
How could he do this to me?
Leave me like that?
I really had meant nothing to him.
“No.” His voice was adamant, his face serious as he gazed down at me with an emotion I couldn’t quite pinpoint. “You mean everything to me.”
A mirthless laugh slipped past my dry, swollen lips. “Then why did you do it?” I nearly sobbed. “Why did you draw up those divorce papers? Why did you take Serena to the gala? Why did you let me believe you died?” By the end, I was screaming, my voice gravelly and hoarse. I pushed at his chest with every accusation, and he took it. He let me move him. The immovable force.
“I’m not going to apologize for the mistakes I made, Ava,” he whispered to me. “I made my choices, and I don’t regret them.”
His words were like a slap to the face, and I physically recoiled.
“What I do regret,” he told me, his eyes still soft as he stared down at me, allowing the space to stay between us. “Is not seeing that the mistakes I made hurt you so much and how much that hurt me.”
“You really expect me to believe that?” I bristled. The gall of this man. “Do you know how many times I opened myself up to you? Even after you forced me to marry you, I opened myself up to you. Even after you lied to me, I opened myself up to you. Hell, I even opened back up to you after you shut me out and called me a traitor. And you still, still shut me out again and again. The gala? That was the last straw, even if you hadn’t faked your death. And this time—there won’t be any fixing it.”
He smirked, pushing himself closer to me, invading my space with his warmth and smell.
“Do you honestly believe I am giving you a choice, Red?” His eyes sparked like thunderstorms. “Because I’m not.”
“Fuck you.” Turning on my heel, I dashed out of the barn toward my father’s Ferrari. The rain was pelting down from the sky, and within seconds, I was soaked to the core. I didn’t care. I was too hurt. Too angry.
Growling, I searched my pockets for the key fob, coming up empty.
“Looking for this?” I spun around to see him dangling the key fob in his hand, a smug smile stretched across his ugly mug.
Okay, it wasn’t ugly.
Not in the slightest.
No. I was pissed at him and not thinking about how handsome he was.
“Are you going to give me the key?” I asked, my voice dulled by the howling wind and rain. The fucker smirked and shook his head.
“Okay then.” I flipped him off and began my long walk back to civilization. Fuck him.
“Where do you think you’re going, Mrs. Dashkov?” The wind had dampened his steps, and I hadn’t heard him approach. “I’m not done with you yet.”
“Go to hell,” I spat at him.
“Only if you’re there with me, baby.” He smiled down at me.
“Sure,” I told him sweetly. “I’ll be the one roasting you on a spit.”
“I love it when you talk dirty to me,” he growled before his hand shot out to grab the back of my neck. His mouth came down on mine with enough passion and fury that it honestly might have melted the polar ice caps. Excitement and desire rippled through me as his tongue forayed into my mouth, taking no prisoners, and leaving nothing unexplored.
Okay, I was mad at him, sure. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t indulge in a little hate sex.
That’s normal.
Right?
Whatever. My mind didn’t seem to care any longer when one hand drifted behind my neck, pulling me closer and deepening the kiss.
“Fuck, baby,” he breathed when he pulled back. “You taste so good.” He nipped at my earlobe. “Just like I remember.”
“Stop talking and fuck me,” I snarled, thrusting my hips against his jean-clad erection. He chuckled darkly.
“You don’t make the choices here, Red.” His voice dipped seductively low, and a spark of desire shot straight through me. I shivered. “I might need to remind you of who owns you.”
“No one owns me.”
Yeah, that might have sounded more believable if it hadn’t come out like a breathy moan. In my defense, his hand had slid into my jeans and sunk directly into my pussy. I hadn’t felt him pop the button to them.
Fuck, I was already soaking, and the smug grin that stretched across his face told me he knew it, too.
Suddenly, he removed his fingers from my aching pussy and flipped me around, pressing me against the trunk of my father’s car. Seconds later, his fingers returned to their original position as he placed a hot kiss to my shoulder blade. I bucked against his hand, desperate for more, but I wasn’t in control here. Just how he wanted it to be.
Matthias’s hard length was crushed against my lower back, and I salivated at the thought of having his cock stuffed inside me, replacing his fingers. Unfortunately, he seemed content to keep the slow, torturous pace of his finger banging. So I did what any woman would do. I reached my hand back and rubbed his length.
He stiffened but didn’t stop teasing me with his fingers.
“Come one, wolfie,” I egged him on, applying just a little more pressure. He groaned and scraped his teeth over my neck. “Show me what you say I’ve been missing.” I screamed when his free hand twisted my right nipple harshly.
“This is my show, baby.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
“Fucking hell,” he muttered to himself when I squeezed him tightly again. Matthias could have easily removed my hand and kept it immobile, but he hadn’t. That was something to file away for later for future Ava to deal with.
His withdrew his fingers again and shucked my jeans and underwear down to pool at my ankles. “Put your hands on the trunk, baby,” he commanded, “and don’t move them.”
My pussy clenched at the low tone in his voice and the hint of punishment he laced into it. The Ferrari trunk was slightly higher and squarer than the hood. The noise of the rain dropping against the car and the howling wind through the open grass and tree-lined forest knocked out any subtle sounds.
The sensory deprivation had my body on edge, waiting for his next move. It wasn’t until Matthias’s hard cock stroked against my clit that I realized he had undone his pants.
“Matthias,” I whimpered, pushing back against him, begging him to fill me. The fucker chuckled, then slapped my ass. I’m not ashamed to say that I moaned like a wanton whore as he did it again and again until my ass was no doubt a pretty shade of cherry red. The heat of my ass was intensified by the icy raindrops, providing that needed bite of pain.
He filled me with one forceful thrust, making me scream out his name. Matthias didn’t give me any time to adjust before he grabbed my hips and started fucking me with reckless abandon.
His body slammed into mine again and again, his massive cock stretching me as he struck my ass, groaning as my cunt pulsed around him.
“You love that, don’t you?” he whispered in my ear. “My dirty Little Red loves having her ass spanked.”
Fuck.
“It’s been too long, baby,” he groaned. “This isn’t going to be long.” Which was perfectly fine with me. I was already standing at the edge of a precipice, and when he tweaked my nipple through my drenched silk shirt, I cracked.
“Such a good girl,” he cooed in my ear. “Taking me like a fucking champ.”
“Matthias.” I could barely get his name out before he pinched my oversensitive clit and sent me spiraling over the edge again, bringing him along with me. We fell, shattering against the rocks into a million pieces, just like our marriage. Our love. We were never meant to be, and I knew that.
“I love it when you scream my name,” he breathed. “Moan it. Curse it. You’re mine, Ava Dashkov and I will prove that to you repeatedly until you believe it.”
“You don’t need to prove it,” I whispered brokenly. “Because it’s never going to happen, Matthias. You broke me, and there isn’t any way I’m going to allow you to do it again.”
“We’ll see about that, my little psycho.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke. We stood, leaning against one another, relishing in each other’s warmth as the rain continued to pour down around us, our breaths heavy and ragged. I leaned my head against one of the arms bracketing me and just let myself relish the fact that he was alive.
With a reluctant sigh, he withdrew, tucking himself away. He bent down and shimmied my panties and jeans up my legs, buttoning me back in place. The evidence of our union lost in the deluge around us.
Then he kissed me.
Soft and slow. Full of sorrow and affection. He’d never kissed me like that before. Like I was precious. Like he loved me.
Nope, I wasn’t ready to analyze that just yet.