22. Caden
Caden
I’d never wanted to kill someone so badly … and yet fuck them until they screamed my name.
My cock throbbed painfully against my zipper, aching at the sheer fucking audacity radiating off her in waves. She actually believed she held the upper hand, that I wasn’t already planning exactly how I’d destroy her the moment I got the chance.
“Last warning, Tempest,” I growled, my voice low.
Her eyes widened, lips parting on a shaky breath. The sight sent a fresh pulse of heat straight to my groin.
I wanted to push Aeris right to the fucking edge, to watch her body betray her completely, and prove beyond any doubt that I owned every trembling inch of her.
Her pleasure.
Her fear.
Her helpless fucking arousal that was dripping all over my ￡250k grand piano.
All of it belonged to me now.
“Lie the fuck back.”
But of course she couldn’t simply follow the command, and so, as I sat on the piano bench, I pulled her legs towards me until my face was exactly where I wanted it to be.
Aeris automatically leaned back, catching herself with her palms as I spread her knees.
Her pussy was flushed and glistening, bare to my gaze as her ripped underwear sat in my pocket.
She was right. I couldn’t hurt her. Not yet.
But I could ruin her in every other way.
I could make her beg, drip down my tongue and make her come so hard she forgets every clever word that had ever left that pretty mouth.
And tonight, I was going to show her exactly who was in charge.
“Fuck, you’re dripping,” I growled against her cunt, the vibration making her hips jerk. “Look at this greedy little pussy. Still weeping for me.”
“Wait,” she cried, trying to get away.
The first slow, deliberate lick dragged from her entrance all the way up to her swollen clit. “We’ve already established that you’re mine until I grow bored.”
Aeris tried to kick me, almost succeeding before I managed to pin her down.
A low, savage possessiveness surged through me, hot and violent. The thought that other men had tasted her, had ever buried their face between these thick thighs and made her fall apart on their tongue, lit something feral inside me.
I licked her again, slower this time, savouring every slick inch.
“That’s it,” I murmured, voice rough. “Spread those pretty thighs wider for me. Let me taste how much your body wants this even if your mouth keeps lying.”
I sucked her swollen clit into my mouth and flicked my tongue against it with ruthless precision, over and over, deliberately pushing her right to the edge of pain.
She moaned, a desperate sound that was sent straight to my cock.
“See? Such a filthy little liar,” I taunted between licks, sliding two thick fingers deep inside her tight, clenching heat. “Pretending you don’t want this while your cunt is sucking my fingers like it’s starving. So fucking wet for me.”
“Not for you,” she hissed, and I actually chuckled. I accidentally knocked the keys, my piano screeching as I devoured her, adding to the cacophony of her moans.
I think I was addicted, entirely taken in with the way she cried, the way her cunt clenched, and how her hips tried to wriggle away until I’d pinned them down.
Aeris cried out once more, her walls fluttering wildly when I curled my fingers against that sensitive spot inside her and sucked hard on her clit at the same time. Just as she was about to come, I sat back, watching her gasp and cry as I waited for her orgasm to fall away.
“Arsehole!” she growled, trying to press her legs shut, thighs trembling with fury.
But I wasn’t finished.
Reaching for my gun, I pressed the cold tip to her entrance. Aeris’s eyes widened the second she saw it, a sharp fearful inhale cutting through her snarl. She stilled, her breathing laboured as I slowly eased it inside.
“Look how well behaved you can be,” I mocked.
“Caden …”
I heard the panic in her voice, but rather than ease back I lowered my head between her spread thighs and dragged the flat of my tongue over her clit in one long, filthy stroke. Aeris cried out, back arching hard off the piano.
“Fuck …” Her voice cracked as I started fucking her slowly with the gun, sliding it in and out in shallow, controlled thrusts while my tongue worked her clit in tight, relentless circles.
I sucked the sensitive bundle of nerves into my mouth, flicking it mercilessly until her thighs shook violently around my head.
“I hate you,” she groaned, rocking against me.
I curled the barrel upward to rub against the spot that I knew would force her to fall.
“Come,” I growled, pumping hard, faster, my tongue working her clit without mercy. “Be a good girl and come on my tongue.”
She came with a sharp, shattered scream, hips grinding desperately against my face as her walls clenched rhythmically around my weapon.
Hot, slick arousal flooded my tongue, and I couldn’t stop.
I had to lick her through every pulsing wave, sucking and fucking her until she was gasping my name like it was the only word she still knew.
And even then I couldn’t stop. I kept fucking her through it with the gun, slow and deep, my tongue never leaving her clit, lashing and sucking until fresh tears of overwhelmed pleasure slipped down her cheeks.
I needed to push her right to the edge of vulnerability, to watch her shatter and break apart until there was nothing left.
She’d never looked so beautiful, so ruined.
Her hair cascading around her, dark-red against black with wild strands clinging to the sweat on her neck and shoulders. Her eyes, heavy-lidded and blown wide, staring at me with a haze of lingering pleasure and pure, glittering anger.
She didn’t react when I pulled out the gun to lean over her, my body caging hers. The heat of her skin bled into mine, her chest still rising and falling in shallow, uneven breaths.
“Still think you have the upper hand, Tempest?”
A sharp alarm suddenly cut through the air, and it took me a moment to recognise it.
Someone was coming up in the lift.
Someone who had my fucking code.
I manage to sit back just as the lift dinged, Aeris slipping from the piano with a surprising amount of grace just as the doors opened, and out stepped my father.
“What is she doing here?” he snarled, his suit wrinkled and his face tired as if he’d come straight from the police station. “They’re investigating my finances because of you!”
“Penance for your past,” Aeris said, having regained some of her composure. “Besides, isn’t it your job to make the money look legit?” She shot me a glare, one I almost laughed at as she passed my father towards the lift.
My eyes followed her, and just as she made it to the lift, I crossed the room. She stiffened a little when my hand shot out and held the doors, leaning forward just as she tilted her head back.
“This isn’t over,” I said, my voice dropping. “If I have any sense that you’re going to betray us, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”
Aeris smiled, and I wanted nothing more than to smear that lipstick across her face. Pissed off that I hadn’t already. “You have a little something on your face, Prince.”
Clenching my teeth I stepped back, only allowing her to run away because I was ready to chase.
“Caden?” Dad barked behind me as I wiped at my jaw with my sleeve. “This is serious.”
I turned back, but rather than face my father I went back to the piano. It was second nature to play, my fingers moving across the keys without much thought as my eyes landed on the wetness left on the lid.
My cock twitched.
Fuck.
“Caden, you need to be more careful. You know who she is, how easily she can—”
“What did you do?” I asked calmly, continuing to play.
“Excuse me?”
“Penance for your past,” I repeated slowly. “So, what the fuck did you do?”
“Language,” Dad hissed, stepping in beside me. “Look, she came to me, said she was interested in moving money. I didn’t know she was recording—”
The piano keys screamed as I slammed my hands down.
“Dad!”
“It was a long time ago,” he said finally, dragging a hand down his face. “A mistake.”
I turned to him slowly. “A mistake?”
“This was before you and Sebastian had any reputation.” His voice hardened, defensive.
“I didn’t have a choice. I was still building a name and couldn’t turn down a job.
Your grandfather had burned through everything, every last penny, and what I had myself had always gone to taking care of your mother. That job paid our mortgage, Caden.”
“What did you do?” I demanded.
His nostrils flared, tension pulling tight across his face. “I moved money. That’s it. I made sure it couldn’t be traced. Cleaned it. Hired who I was told to hire and paid who I was told to pay.”
A pause.
“I had nothing to do with what came after.”
My stomach twisted. “What came after?”
His jaw locked. “Aeris and her sister,” he said, quieter now. “They were taken while walking home from school.”
Taken.
Ice settled heavily on my chest.
“Was she hurt?” I asked, my voice strained.
Dad blinked. “What? How would I—”
“Was she hurt?” I repeated, sharper this time. The mere idea of a young, innocent Aeris being taken sent pure rage vibrating through my blood.
“I don’t know the full details,” he admitted. “The girls were taken as leverage. Picked up on their way to school and held until the ransom was paid. It was meant to force their father’s hand.”
“But he didn’t give in,” I said, the pieces falling into place.
Dad met my gaze, something uneasy flickering there. “Apparently not.”
“What happened to her sister?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t even know it was Aeris, not until she confronted me in my office.”
I let out a slow breath, my hands curling into fists at my sides. Shit. Using my father to get to us was one thing, but revenge turned this into something far more dangerous.
“You’re lucky,” I said quietly, the calm in my voice forced. “She has a habit of killing men she doesn’t like.”
Dad’s lip curled in a sneer. “Don’t act so high and mighty. You would’ve done the same in my position. We can’t have anyone digging into this.”
“If you’d covered your tracks properly, there’d be nothing to find.”
He stared at me, eyes hard. “Then what the hell are you going to do about her?”
I held his gaze, the storm inside me raging hotter with every second. Clearly Aeris kept her secrets locked tight against her chest, and I intended to tear them free, every last one, until there wasn’t a single shadow left in her that wasn’t mine.