30. Chapter 30
Nico
“She’s going to run,” I said to Cruz as he dumped a stack of papers and the computer we’d liberated from Bruna into the Bentley.
“Yeah, she is,” he replied, his voice dripping with anticipation.
Oliver was going to have fun tracking down her associates and extorting them for the money they’d otherwise use to buy omegas. He enjoyed it as much as my bank account did.
The shoulder of Cruz’s jacket was silhouetted in the moonlight where Rosa crouched behind a tree off the side of the drive.
Now that we were away from the barn, her smoky rose scent teased me on the cool night air.
Her perfume was inescapable. It’d haunted me the entire time she’d been gone.
Those pheromones were why she had to be in the trunk.
My control was hanging by a thread. I was trying to keep her away from me, but the harder I tried, the harder she made it. She was dangerous. Addictive.
Every breath of her perfume dug the claws of our connection deeper, puncturing my flesh right down to bone.
My emotions bled through the last shreds of resistance.
This was why she needed to go back into the trunk.
This was why I could not be trusted with her.
I wanted to fuck her into oblivion, not kill her.
The brief embrace in the barn was nowhere near enough, but I had to stay away from her.
How the fuck was I supposed to follow my father’s orders when she was everything I’d ever wanted.
Seeing her in that cage had nearly brought me to my knees and had me wishing the circumstances were anything but what they were. Even the brief moment she cuddled into me before she realized what was happening was a moment of blissful clarity. She was my obsession, and it was only getting worse.
The bushes rustled from her hiding place, but the jacket hadn’t moved, so she hadn’t run yet, but I was expecting it. I was almost looking forward to chasing her down and pinning her in the dirt in that ridiculous gown. All she had to do was give me an excuse.
A flash of white across the meadow caught my attention. Predictable omega. A growl rumbled in my throat even as a smile played across my lips. She’d propped the jacket against the tree so it looked like she was still there and bolted, but her dress, even as dirty as it was, gave her away.
The primal instinct to chase flooded up my spine. “Cruz, circle around to the right. I’ll take the left.”
She wasn’t fast enough to outrun us, but she might be able to outthink us—if she was clever.
I sprinted into the woods, my strides devouring the space that separated where the flash of satin had been.
My feet crashed through the brush, and I saw it again.
When I reached the other side of the clearing, all that was left was a strip of white fabric tied to a branch, flapping in the breeze.
Cunning little fox.
I turned slowly, scenting the air, searching for any movement in the shadow of the trees. Then I heard it, the snap of a twig. I took off in that direction, gunning for my prey.
Rosalina
I tossed a pebble in the opposite direction, holding my breath for fear he might hear me. The fabric decoy had half worked, but I hadn’t put enough distance between us. He shot past my hiding place, chasing that errant sound, his strong shoulders flexing under his black dress shirt.
“I heard that, little omega. You’re going to regret this when I catch you,” Nico called into the darkness.
Chills rippled across my skin. Chills of nervous fear, but also excitement. Why did he have to be involved in this, and why did he have to smell so good? That brief moment in his arms after he’d freed me from the cage, I thought I’d been safe, only to realize he was behind this whole thing.
Who the fuck was this guy?
I eased back on my heels, thankful for the soft soled slippers that I’d managed to keep on my feet. When I couldn’t hear his footfalls anymore, I stood and tiptoed as quickly as I dared in the opposite direction.
The leaf litter wasn’t doing me any favors, rustling softly with every step.
Despite the dappled moonlight, it was impossible to pick my path with any precision.
I was betting on luck and a prayer as I moved through the underbrush.
Luck hadn’t been on my side for quite some time, so I didn’t know why I thought it would help me now.
I just had to make it to a road and flag down a car. I could do this.
When I took my next step, I heard a cracking, and the leaves shifted over the top of a hollow log.
Oh, fuck, I’m gonna fall. I wobbled, my arms flailing, trying to stay upright.
My breath seized.
They were going to find me.
I tried to catch myself, but my foot crunched through the rotten wood, and I crashed to my knees. I scrambled to my feet, but my slipper was caught. There was no time to worry about that as in the distance, an explosion of movement shattered the silence.
Shit. He was coming.
Leaving the wayward shoe behind, I grabbed the skirt of my dress and ran, leaping over fallen logs and darting between trees. Despite my best efforts, the pounding of heavy footfalls was getting closer. My pulse thrashed in my ears, and my lungs burned as I pushed my legs to keep going.
No, no, no. He couldn’t catch me. I was so close.
The trees opened into a small clearing, and I raced toward freedom. The glow of a traffic sign was just beyond it. Almost there.
Nico was faster.
His bourbon and clove scent surrounded me with warmth as his arms wrapped around my waist and took me to the ground. He twisted in the air so that I landed on top of him, but his arms were bands of steel. No matter how much I squirmed, I couldn’t get free.
“You’re mine now,” Nico said as he rolled on top of me.
As soon as his weight shifted, I redoubled my efforts, clawing and hitting the big alpha. “Let me go.” I swung at his face, and he snatched my wrist out of the air, pinning it to the ground.
“Shhh, bella. Remember how much you liked the last time I had you pinned under me?” He grabbed my other wrist and added it to the first one, both trapped securely in his left hand.
I did remember, and my body did, too, and the slick spot growing in my panties was a reminder that I didn’t need. I turned my head to the side, not wanting him to see the spark of molten want igniting in my eyes.
“It smells like you do.” Nico leaned in, running his nose up my neck, inhaling my scent like it was his last breath.
I really, really did, but that memory wasn’t helping me escape. It was distracting me into a compliant haze. His tongue followed the same path up to my ear, where his teeth nipped at the sensitive skin. I bit back a whimper and bucked my hips in a half-hearted attempt at getting him off me.
“You want me just as badly as I want you, don’t you, Rosa? I can’t stop thinking about that night at my club. Your slick is still all over my sheets, your scent has me hostage,” he growled against my neck, and I felt it down to my toes.
His comment was so similar to the way I was a prisoner to his memory, wearing the dress from his nightclub like armor. The way his hoodie drove me to madness. We were both struggling with the same addiction, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be free.
His free hand dropped out of sight, and cool night air swept over my leg as he ripped the slit in my dress up to my hip.
A needy sigh whispered past my lips as I pulled against his grip, but it only tightened, grinding the bones of my wrists together.
His smell filled my lungs, warm and comforting, and my thighs fell open against my better judgment.
His warm breath washed over my neck. “That’s my good girl.”
My whole body went liquid, utterly betraying me, and a shiver rippled down my spine.
He shouldn’t feel so good. My soul desperately screamed for him.
I stopped straining against his hold and rolled my hips along the firm ridge swelling in his pants.
My fingertips tingled to touch him, but he wouldn’t let me go.
He unfastened his pants, freeing himself from the fabric, and a needy moan poured unbidden past my lips, thick as honey.
With a yank, my tiny lace panties broke. He tossed them aside, and then the scalding heat of his length slid between my slick-coated thighs. I needed him inside me, but all he did was tease, rubbing himself over my clit but not pressing forward.
I whimpered, curling my leg over his hip, trying to change the angle.
“What is it, Rosa? You want more, bella?” he murmured against my lips.
I nipped at his own plush, teasing mounds. His rigid length slid over my slick center, and I arched my back again, desperate for the heady stretch of his cock inside me.
“Please…” I groaned, wanting more contact. Whatever he wanted, I would give him. I couldn’t breathe without him. There was nothing I wouldn’t agree to if only he would fuck me like I wanted.
His wide, slick-coated crown caught on my entrance, and I thought I’d die from the anticipation as he nudged forward, sinking into my waiting heat, inch by torturous inch.
I looked down my body, watching him disappear into me.
My hungry muscles fluttered and clenched as he took his time, making sure I felt every second of the burning heat and stinging stretch.
My eyes found his, and our gazes clashed.
Neither of us planned on our night turning out like this.
We both hated it, but we were desperate for it.
And then he bottomed out. My body went taut like a bowstring waiting to be plucked, and he started moving.
Each forceful thrust shoved me across the dirt until he let go of my wrists and anchored my hips in a bruising grip.
He broke eye contact as his tempo increased and his knot thickened. My unbound screams punctuated his thrusts. That unmatched stretch of his girth was pushing me toward the edge of a cliff I ached for.
I wanted him to stop, but I never wanted him to stop. I hated him for taking me, but I loved what he did when he was doing it.
My orgasm crashed over me, and my whole body contracted around him.
Everything trembled and pleasure surged, but he didn’t push his knot in.
Instead, he grabbed it with his free hand, milking it.
Hot, thick ropes of cum spilled inside my clenching passage, but he held his knot back.
I sobbed at the loss. My body was still crying out for him.
Slick and cum mingled on my thighs, but I craved more, and from the look of frustration on his face, he did, too.
The crunch of dead grass under someone’s feet broke our staring contest. He looked away first, and I followed suit, finding Cruz casually walking out of the woods.
“Backup is here. We need to get moving,” Cruz said, lingering at the edge of the trees.
I glared daggers up at Nico, and when he pulled away, having not knotted me properly, I punched him in the chest. “I hate you.”
He didn’t even flinch at my meager attempt to hit him, but his brows pulled together at my words.
“If you hate me so much, why is it my name you scream when you come?” In a blink, his expression was blank, and he was dragging himself to his feet, tucking his cock back in his pants, and offering a hand for me to take.
Absolutely not.
He kidnapped me and then didn’t even have the decency to knot me properly.
I batted his hand away and stood up on my own.
My dress was already a mess, but now it barely qualified as a rag.
Cruz didn’t seem to mind as his eyes trailed down my body, his nostrils flaring slightly.
Even if he hadn’t witnessed what had just happened, he certainly would’ve smelled it.
I tugged the neck of my dress up, to no avail, and headed across the clearing toward Cruz. I tried to hide it, but I winced every other step because I’d lost my fucking slipper in a rotten log and had been running through the forest with only one shoe.
When I passed Cruz, he scooped me up in a bridal carry and headed back into the trees. I grumbled my displeasure, but this was better than walking on tender feet, even if it did wound my pride a little. At least it wasn’t Nico.
Fuck him.