Chapter Eleven
Nex.
“What the fuck were you thinking? That’s my sister.”
Merrick threw his arm out to the side, pointing to the car Cia was in.
“I’m well aware, but let’s be clear, she’s also my wife.”
“Then act like it. She shouldn’t have been here.”
I arched a brow. “You demanded I bring her.”
He flinched. “Only because I expected her to be leaving with me and not agreeing to stay married to your morally flawed ass.”
I smirked. “Are you insisting that part of me is now a problem? Because I’m more than aware of how much you’ve paid for the talents that my morally flawed ass has to offer.”
“Killing people is one thing, but being married to my sister… Fuck…”
he yelled.
“Get over it. She’s my wife and, as of now, has no plans of divorcing me.”
Even if she wanted, I would refuse. “We need to focus on more important things like deciding how to navigate this thing with Harte.”
“You don’t have to worry. I have it covered.”
I angled my head to the side. “You must not have understood my point. Marrying Cia changes everything. We are now equal partners in this. Your father will step down and you and I will be presiding over Malone and Harte business moving forward.”
“That’s not possible.”
“It’s very possible and it’s what the fuck is happening. With what we just did, she’s at risk. Whether they know it’s us with certainty that killed him, they’ll assume it was the minute everyone realizes Ciana’s my wife. She’ll be at risk which means she’ll be paying the price for decisions we made. The power has shifted between three families. What used to be Harte, Arlo, and Malone is now Barrett, Arlo, and Malone. It will shift again if Arlo can’t accept what the new structure looks like…”
I glared at Merrick, communicating exactly what I meant. Arlo would suffer the same fate if he didn’t accept the new hierarchy Merrick and I had created.
Merrick nodded tightly with understanding. “Fine. We’ll deal with this later. Right now I need to handle them.”
“Yeah, you do that,”
I mused. “I have to take care of my wife.”
Merrick frowned his disapproval but didn’t stop me when I walked away. As soon as I made it to the car, I wanted to fucking murder him too for delaying me when I saw the state the Cia was in. She was having a panic attack, which made sense. She’d just witnessed two dead bodies, one of which I was responsible for.
Her hand was over her chest as she gasped for air. I wasn’t sure she realized I was in the car until my hands gripped the side of her face and I brought her eyes to mine. “Fuck, Little Flame. You’re okay. I need you to relax.”
Her eyes narrowed but she kept gasping which worried the shit out of me. So I did the first thing that came to mind and kissed her. She froze and tried to jerk away, but when I gripped her face tighter, she resisted for a few seconds more and eventually relaxed into the kiss. I pulled her closer while I leaned over the console until she grabbed my wrist and jerked away.
“I couldn’t breathe.”
I nodded. “Panic attack.”
She attempted to shift her eyes toward the issue but I gripped her face again and kept them locked on me. “Don’t look out there. Keep your eyes on me.”
“Yeah. Can we go?”
“We can. Are you okay?”
“No, you lied, Nex. You promised no ‘bring your wife to work’ moments; yet here we are.”
I smirked when she pulled away and plopped against the seat, cutting me a side glance before she closed her eyes.
“This wasn’t exactly work so I didn’t lie, but regardless, I’ll still make it up to you.”
And I would!
###
I sank into my wife with a groan of satisfaction. Yeah, definitely no outs. She was mine for better or worse, until death do us part, and I had no plans on leaving this earth anytime soon. Neither would she.
When we returned to our hotel, I did as promised and began the process of making up for Cia having witnessed me kill a man. I thought she would resist, want space, tell me to get the hell away from her, but I was pleasantly surprised when I began undressing her and she let me.
I made her come multiple times on my tongue then spread her open, sliding into her pussy, enjoying the way her lids fluttered and she arched away from the mattress. So fucking beautiful and so fucking mine.
I took my time. Even if she admitted her preference was when I fucked her hard and fast, that wasn’t what she needed right now nor was it what I wanted. My strokes were slow, easy, and languid. My eyes remained on hers, even as I explored her mouth with my tongue at the same pace I rocked into her.
The way she spasmed around my dick had me barely holding on. My thrusts were lazy, dragging from her pulsing core only to thrust back in deeper each time I rocked my hips forward.
Cia’s mouth dropped open and I smirked at the trembles of her neck as she moaned through approval of my depth and pace. When she lifted her hips and arched her back from the mattress again, I plowed into her, thrusting deep until I bottomed out. She gripped me tightly, causing every nerve ending in my dick to thrive and pulse.
“I can’t, this is…oh fuck…”
She came hard, and the start of hers forced mine. I shifted my angle to make sure I brushed her clit while I continued thrusting into her with long, hard plunges until her body jerked and her hips were bucking against me. Not letting up until her body gave out and sank into the mattress.
When I was completely empty, I rolled over onto my back, bringing her with me. Cia shifted, relaxing on my chest, draping one of her legs over mine, giving me the warmth of her pussy against my thigh.
“I’m still mad at you,”
she mumbled, bringing a smile to my face.
“Do you want a divorce?”
“No.”
I kissed her forehead again. “Then you can be mad at me all you want.”
“You’re working with my brother.”
“Yeah, I am.”
“You said you didn’t want that kind of power and control.”
I frowned, lowering my eyes to hers. “I don’t but there has to be balance. They’ll never allow things to remain with just Merrick and Arlo. We fucked up the balance with what happened today. Someone has to take Harte’s place.”
“Did Merrick ask you to be the one to do it?”
I grunted. “No, the last thing he wants is to be tied to me with your family’s business dealings. However, what he wants even less is for it to be someone else. Anyone else. I’m the best choice he has.”
She nodded in understanding. “So what now…”
I frowned a bit. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to spend Christmas here but I don’t think I’m ready to spend it with my family either.”
She frowned and worried her bottom lip before she added, “And you don’t celebrate Christmas…”
“I’ll celebrate whatever my wife wants me to celebrate.”
She groaned into my shoulder. “You’re totally going to overdo it with the wife thing, aren’t you?”
I pinched her chin and tilted it enough to gain access to her lips which I brushed mine over. “Have you seen my wife? Why the hell wouldn’t I?”
She smiled and I kissed her slowly, trying to wrap my mind around how I’d ended up here, with Cia Malone as my wife and becoming one third of the power who controlled Diamond Falls. Two things I’d never desired. One of which I could take or leave; the other I refused to fucking let go of, ever. Based on the way she kissed me back, I would assert Cia felt the same.
Merry fucking Christmas to me…
“When can we leave?”
I reached for my phone and lifted it from the nightstand. “I’ll call and set up a flight. It might take a few hours for them to get us on the schedule.”
“Hmm, I guess I might need to think of something to keep us occupied until then…”
While I dialed I kept my eyes on my wife as she eased down my body and disappeared under the covers. I felt her hands on my dick first, then her mouth. And fuck me, we might not make it home for Christmas because there was no way in hell I could complete this call with my dick down her throat.