Chapter 30 #2
“You’ll find out soon enough. Just know that you have never been other to me.”
Maybe that twisted smirk on his face and the soft caress of his fingers were supposed to be reassuring, but they only made the knot in my belly coil tighter and tighter and tug the edges of my stomach together.
“You know I should punish you, síbhean. You’ve been playing me.”
“Playing you?” I choked down my scoff like a dry pill. He was so good at twisting this all around.
“My naughty”—he squeezed my neck—“wicked”—pinched my nipple—“little fairy woman.” His fingers slipped into my panties and tapped my mound. “Do you know what naughty women get?”
“I bet you’re about to tell me,” I snapped.
With one jerk, he manhandled me around, my back to his chest, and bent me over the front of the couch.
“Hold onto the backrest, sweetheart, and keep this arse beautifully arched up.”
“Why would I do that?” I inhaled harshly, desire pumping through me.
He trailed a finger down my spine, all the way down to the dip between my butt cheeks.
“Because you want me.”
His palm slapped down on my ass. The sting washed away a bit of the hurt riling me up.
“Because you know I want you.”
Another swat clapped against my butt cheek and dragged me fully into the here and now. There was just us and my empty, clenching pussy, aching to be filled and pounded raw.
“Only you. I wouldn’t want any other but you.”
There was something about being a tenacious and independent woman and always proving that I was worthy of people’s respect and admiration that made it so easy to let loose in the bedroom when it was only the two of us.
I stayed bent over by choice, and he knew it.
Deciding to be vulnerable for him was a type of power on its own.
I let him pull the shirt over my hips. He kneaded my cheeks, spread them, then forced them shut again, wedging my panties between the cleft.
“Count these for me. Show me my strong woman bends for me and only me.”
Like a good girl, I counted all twenty extra slaps that fell and bit at my ass, then panted for more, my thighs rubbing together. None of the bullshit mattered in moments like this. Just us. Just this.
His hands soothed the scalding ache they’d caused, then dipped down to the crotch of my panties. His fingertips fluttered over the fabric, needling my sensitive skin with a desire for more, and glided through my arousal that soaked my panties all the way through.
“So wet, mo leannán.” My beloved.
That new pet name sent a spike of pleasure to my core, and I moaned, arching my back and rocking into his touch. The smell of my arousal leaked into the air around us.
“This tight little cunt’s all mine.”
His fingers nudged my panties aside and dipped through my folds. Never really filling me up, only teasing my sensitive skin. Back and forth, he tortured me, coiling me tighter and tighter.
“Tell me why you’re being punished.”
He pressed down on my bud, and a spark of electricity zapped against the knot of pleasure slowly tightening in my belly. If this was punishment, sign me up day and night. I rolled my hips against his touch, trying to force his fingers inside me.
“Tell me, and you’ll feel my cock.”
Again, those devilish fingers circled around my entrance. They massaged and stroked but never went where they were needed. Where I felt so empty and neglected. Where my body twined tighter and tighter and refused to unravel without him inside me. A staggered whimper escaped me.
“Use your words, mo leannán.”
Hearing that sweet pet name, twice in so many seconds, made me buck against him with a whimper.
“Because I hid something from you.”
A slap to my pussy shot me forward. “Aye, you did.”
The sound of his zipper coming down had me panting.
The feel of his silky, feverish cock against my slit sent tingles of anticipation through me.
Except he didn’t fuck me. The head of his shaft and hard piercing battered against my folds but stayed clear away.
One of his hands spread my lips, putting me on full display, while he stroked himself in harsh pulls I couldn’t help but watch over my shoulder.
“Cillian. Fuck me. Please.”
He groaned. “I love it when you beg so prettily.”
I backed up against him, but he thrust a finger inside me and shoved me forward. One finger wasn’t enough, but it was better than nothing, and I rocked against it.
“Please.”
He pumped himself faster. His mouth parted and twisted, a sign he was close. So much closer than I was.
“Not yet.” I moaned, grinding against the sole digit. “Please, not without me.”
His muscles corded, his jaw clenched, and he grunted as ropes of blistering, sticky cum painted my backside. I groaned in disappointment and slipped my hand between my legs to get myself there, still riding his finger.
“Uh-uh-uh.” He dragged my wrist behind my back, his mouth to my ear. “That would defeat your punishment. Naughty little secret keepers don’t get to come. They get stained in cum instead.”
With that, he shoved himself off me and stepped away.
“Now clean yourself off so we can go on that walk.”
I balked, slack-jawed, and teetered upright. “You’re joking. What the hell was that?”
“Take this as a lesson. I’m not a man to mess with, Alice. Not even by you.”
His cum ran over my panties and down the backs of my thighs while my insides quivered with need, but he tucked himself back in and zipped up his pants with a smug, disgustingly self-satisfied look. Mortification blistered my face.
“Oh, so that’s how it is?” I stomped after him through the kitchen and slammed my hand against the fridge door when he reached for a chilled water bottle. “How about the fact that Arthur and Smiles out there won’t let me leave without your approval? Is there a lesson in that too?”
“They’re here for your safety.”
“If that were the whole truth, they would guard me, not keep me locked in.”
“Oh, stop your fussing. You’re not a captive.”
“Great. Then I’ll change and leave. And neither they, nor you, have anything to say about it.”
As I turned to leave, he caught my arm and whirled me back around. Gone was any sign of the calm and ruthlessly collected man I met almost two months ago. Instead, a range of emotions colored his narrowed glare.
“That’s not how this works.”
“Let’s make one thing crystal clear. I’m here because I want to be. The moment that changes, I am out.”
“I won’t let you.”
I tossed my head back and laughed.
“Try me,” I seethed. “I’d do many things for you, but I’ll never ever be your prisoner.”
“You walk out there without me, you’ll be dead within a week.” His yelling soared to the rooftop, and it still didn’t match my fury.
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s a promise.”
I chuckled incredulously as my internal bullshit indicator surpassed its red-lined limit. To think, I’d been all worked up and worried about a name twenty minutes ago.
“How about we test your promise right now?”
I stormed into the bedroom and into the walk-in closet.
I tore a pair of shorts off a hanger and tugged them quickly up my legs, then shoved a pair of underwear, a shirt, my phone, laptop, and chargers into a tote purse.
Cillian watched placidly in the doorway, arms crossed, as if I wouldn’t subdue him if I had to.
A few vials of my concoctions clacked at the bottom of my purse, one filled with a temporary paralytic that might come in handy.
“How about I go out there right now and see how long I’ll live? I’ve only managed it for thirty years so far. A week can’t be that difficult.”
“You’re not leaving.”
My lips curled up, every one of my limbs tensing up for a fight, as I marched right up to him. “Say that to me again.”
He must have been able to tell how fed up I was, because his arms dropped, and an odd look scrunched his face.
“This is serious,” he said, trying to placate me.
“Move.”
“Alice, I have enemies.”
“Oh, that is big news,” I mocked. “No other criminal mastermind does.”
“Not like this.”
“Move, or I will make you.”
He clutched me by the arms and shook me. “Will you listen? This isn’t about some gangster with a gun.”
“No, it is about your own insecurities.”
“Jesus fecking Christ, woman. You’re so stubborn. Not everyone has a goddamn fucking serial killer after them.”
I wrestled against his hold, and he gave me another harsh shake.
“Did you hear me? A serial killer, Alice. A bleeding madwoman who gets off on killing any woman my brothers and I even get halfway involved with.”
My struggles slowed, and I frowned up at him, trying to gauge the veracity of his words. He forced our foreheads together. Fine lines creased around his eyes, as if this pained him.
“You go out there on your own, she’ll get you. By all accounts, the only reason you haven’t become her next victim is that I haven’t left your side. Don’t make me lose you too.”