36. Aeris
Aeris
I couldn’t breathe.
Every breath was coming in staggered, like I couldn’t quite catch enough air without it wanting to rush out again. Staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I clamped my hands on the edge of the sink like it could somehow anchor me.
Tears burned down my cheeks, my expression tight. Angry.
Breathe.
I was thankful I was alone, that the bathroom was empty and I didn’t have anyone to witness me break. I couldn’t risk anyone seeing me less than perfect.
The pretty siren.
The deadly assassin.
The filthy whore Selene had turned me into.
Breathe.
The bathroom door clicked open beside me, and I jerked upright, swiping desperately underneath my eyes to reclaim some of my usual strength. To become the woman I was trained to be.
I cleared my throat and turned to leave, only to walk into the one man I didn’t want to see.
“Get out!” I snapped, all my earlier rage surging like vicious waves. “What are you even doing here?”
Caden stood there, towering over me with those eyes of ice.
Oh my God. How much had he overheard?
“Fuck you!” I shoved him hard, palms slamming into his chest. He didn’t budge, so I hit him again. Salt burned on my lips as the tears fell faster. “Why did it have to be you?”
Caden caught both my wrists in one hand and pulled me forward, crushing me against his chest. The soft, almost affectionate touch caught me off guard, my automatic reaction not to trust it. To tense, brace, and fight it with everything in me. To wait for the inevitable shift from gentle to cruel.
“You’re okay, Tempest,” he murmured, lips brushing my hair as he locked his arms around me. “I’ve got you.”
I fought him for one desperate heartbeat, then completely fell apart. A sob tore out of me as I fisted his shirt, clinging to him like he was the only solid thing keeping me afloat.
God, I hated him.
I hated the way he felt.
The way he held me.
How wrong it felt to betray him.
Caden held me tighter as I cried, one large hand cradling the back of my head while the other stroked slow circles down my spine. His heartbeat was strong and steady beneath my cheek, a brutal contrast to the chaos ripping through me.
I cried for my sister.
I cried for the girl I used to be.
I cried for every piece of myself I’d sold just to survive, all while Caden simply held me. Like I was fragile. Like he could put me back together.
Breathe.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I finally said, my anger fading to a simmer. I pushed, twisting myself under Caden’s arms until there was space between us. “I’m not allowed,” I lied.
“Not allowed to what?”
“You shouldn’t be here.” I glared up at him, jaw clenched so tight it ached. He stepped forward anyway, crowding me back against the sink. “You can’t be here.” Because if he was, then Selene’s plan was working.
“I can be wherever the fuck I want to be.”
“God, you’re insufferable.” I didn’t pull away when he cupped my jaw, his thumb gently wiping the dried tears from my cheeks. “Aren’t you supposed to be on a date right now?”
Caden’s upper lip curved, that infuriating dimple appearing. “Jealous, Tempest?”
I let out a shaky, bitter laugh. “In your dreams.”
“That’s the problem,” he rasped. “I can’t get you out of my fucking head.” His hand slid from my jaw to my throat, fingers wrapping around it with deliberate, possessive pressure.
I tried to shove him again, but there was no real force behind it. “Go back to your date, Caden,” I said, although there wasn’t much conviction behind the words.
“I can’t, not when you’re like this.”
“That’s a joke, right?” I let out a frustrated sound. “I don’t need you to save me.”
His fingers tightened, my pulse hammering against his palm. “Good. Because I’m not here to save you.” He leaned in closer, his expression cold like he could kill me without a second’s thought. “But I won’t stand here and do nothing as you break.”
“I wasn’t breaking,” I hissed, even though we both knew it was a lie. “I was handling it.”
“You were drowning. Just shut up and say thank you.”
Rage returned like wildfire. “Fuck you, you arrogant—”
The words died on my tongue as he suddenly yanked me forward, crushing his mouth to mine with a bruising, desperate force.
His hand released my throat only to fist into my hair, tugging my head back to better meet my lips. The air between us turned thick and electric. His body hard against mine, heat pouring off him in waves while shame and need twisted viciously inside me.
This wasn’t like the first kiss, which was overruled with anger and the need to win. This was different.
This was all-consuming.
He kissed me like he could make me forget, like his mouth could stop these tears from falling.
I yanked myself away and stared into Caden’s hooded, predatory eyes.
“What are you doing?” I whisper-shouted, my breathing hard.
“Why did Selene send Vivienne to seduce me, instead of you?” His head cocked slightly, studying me with that unnerving intensity.
My heart stuttered. “What?”
Planting both hands on the sink on either side of my hips, he caged me in. “Why is Vivienne out there trying to wrap her legs around me, when you’re her trained whore?”
He leaned in closer, his body heat pressing against me. But I wasn’t going to admit that I was supposed to seduce him, to use my body even as I fought with everything in me not to become what she’d tried to turn me into. Not to Caden, because I couldn’t get attached.
I couldn’t want him.
“I don’t—”
“Another poisonous lie,” he growled, cutting me off. His fingers dug into the edge of the sink, knuckles white. “Try again, Tempest.”
I swallowed hard, trapped between his body and the cold sink at my back. Managing to twist, I faced my reflection so I could wipe the makeup from beneath my eyes.
“Because if I did what she asked, I’d lose myself,” I finally whispered, my fingers brushing through my hair until they reached my favourite clip.
In one fluid motion, I pulled the razor-sharp blade free and pressed it to his throat.
Caden went very still.
“Now, you’re going to go back in there, and you’re going to pretend. Because if you don’t, you’ll ruin everything.” You’ll make me everything I didn’t want to be.
A single drop of blood pearled against the blade.
Rather than move away, Caden leaned further forward until his hard cock pressed into my stomach.
My body betrayed me instantly, heat pooling low despite the adrenaline screaming through my veins.
“Are you really going to use a blade against me, Tempest?” His eyes flared with something feral.
“Caden,” I warned, voice shaking. “I will cut you.”
He leaned in even more, the blade biting deeper. Another drop of blood welled up and slid down his skin like a dark invitation.
“Then this’ll just have to be a taster of what I do to you later.”
I frowned at him, but before I could contemplate his warning he’d twisted my wrist, forcing me to drop the knife before slamming his lips back to mine.
This kiss was violent, messy, starving—all teeth, tongue, and raw need. I moaned into his mouth, hating myself for it, but unable to stop. I don’t know where my knife fell, not caring that someone could walk in on us when his hands were on me.
He spun me around, my hands slapping against the full body mirror on the wall before he pressed his body flush against my back, forcing me to face our joint reflection.
Then he pressed the knife against my throat.
The sharp edge kissed my skin, cold and unforgiving.
“Look at yourself,” he ordered, voice a low rumble as he yanked my dress up over my hips. “Look how fucking beautiful you are when you’re falling apart for me.”
My eyes were wild, lips swollen, cheeks flushed. Behind me, Caden looked every bit the dangerous predator he was. Blood on his throat, eyes dark with lust even as he pressed the blade to my skin—not cutting, exactly, but there.
“Want to tell me why you’re on a date?” he growled, my dress getting higher until I felt his erection against my bare skin. “When I’ve already told you you’re mine.”
“It isn’t a date,” I whispered, barely containing my moan when he tugged my thong to the side and rubbed his thumb against my clit. “It’s an assignment.”
“Does this assignment make you wet?” His finger found my entrance, and I pressed heavier against the glass for stability.
“No,” I managed to reply, groaning when he teased a second, thick finger. “I always hate it.”
“Hate killing them?”
“Hate fucking them.”
Caden stilled, his fingers still buried inside me. His eyes turned arctic in the mirror, and I took it as a small victory. But then he leaned down, pressing his lips against my ear.
“I’m going to fuck you, Tempest. I’m going to make you ache for days, and then I’m going to return you to your date with my cum running down your thighs.”
A violent shiver tore through me, uncontrollable and humiliating.
He was so much bigger, his body swallowing mine.
I couldn’t look away, not from the way his fingers thrust between my legs or the way he watched. Even the sound of my arousal was obscene, heightened by the blade at my throat.
I knew I should push him away, not let this go any further when Vivienne was only in the other room waiting for him to return.
Instead, I met his gaze in the mirror, feeling this thrill at taking what I wanted.
“Then do it,” I whispered, daring him. Needing him to help me forget, if only for this moment. To make me feel normal.
Caden’s eyes burned, his fingers pumping so slowly it was driving me crazy. “Beg.”
I tried to wrestle away, the sharp sting of the knife keeping me immobile. I watched the line of red drip down my throat, his thumb circling my clit with maddening precision. The cut was barely a scratch, and yet it pushed my arousal into the stratosphere.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
His fingers slowed even more. Teasing me. Denying me.
I groaned, hips rolling shamelessly, chasing his touch.
Caden’s voice dropped to a low, filthy rasp. “I said beg, Tempest.”
I bit down hard on my lip until I tasted blood, fighting the word clawing its way on my tongue. Every rational part of me screamed not to do it. Not to give him that power. Not to break so easily for the man that wanted me to beg.
But my body was burning, my pussy clenching desperately around his fingers, aching.
He was the only man who had ever made me feel like this.
My voice cracked. “Please …”
I tensed in anticipation as he pulled his fingers free, only for him to press his lips to my ear.
“Please what?”
I was going to kill him.
Glaring at him in the reflection, I forced the words through clenched teeth. “Please fuck me.”
Caden smirked. “Good girl.”
I gasped as he freed himself and thrust into me in one brutal stroke, burying his cock to the hilt. The sudden stretch tore a broken moan from my throat, the blade pressing harder against my neck with the movement.
“Oh God—”
“Eyes on the mirror,” he growled, one hand fisting my hair to keep my head up while the other held the knife steady against my throat. “I want you to watch while I fuck you.”
He didn’t give me time to adjust, my body forced to stretch around his size. The ache and pain making me feel present, in the moment.
He fucked me hard and deep, every time the blade biting a little more into my skin, just enough to sting. Just enough to remind me how easily he could end me.
And I was soaked.
“Look how pretty you look with a knife to your throat,” he rasped, eyes locked on mine in the mirror. “My dangerous little siren, dripping down my cock.”
The mirror offered a merciless, unobscured view of every depraved thing he was doing to me. His powerful body swallowing mine, his thick cock stretching me open, his hand holding the knife.
The danger, the pleasure, the raw possession—it was all too much. Moans spilled from my lips as he fucked me harder, taking pleasure from my body. He seemed to hit the right spot each time, sending lightning through me without even touching my clit.
“Caden—” I choked out, an orgasm approaching at rapid speed, making me clench around him.
“Say it,” he demanded, teeth grazing my ear. “Tell me who you belong to while I ruin this tight cunt.” He slowed down at my silence, my orgasm teetering on the edge.
“Please!” I whimpered, pushing back against him desperately.
His fist tightened painfully against my scalp. “Say. It.”
“You,” I gasped, my eyes clashing with his before they drifted again, fixed on the way his powerful body dominated mine, on the knife glinting at my throat, and on the desperate, wrecked expression on my own face. “I belong to you.”
Caden groaned, deep and guttural, and drove into me even harder, chasing his own release.
“Good fucking girl.”