8. Renne
Renne
Silence in the car speaks for itself. I stare out the window as I wrap my head around Connor’s personality, while he drives through the city’s exciting nighttime scene.
I grew up in a small town with a single bar and no nightclubs.
We drove out to the city on the sea to party, mainly on yachts, because once you’re on private property on the ocean, nobody monitors what’s going on.
People danced till the early hours of the morning. Sometimes parties went on for days.
I loved the night scene. If I grew up in this city, I’d have had a ball. I’d never have been on that yacht either. Now in my thirties, this scene where I’d have to wear tall boots and barely-there skirts and skimpy shirts on cold nights like tonight isn’t for me anymore.
Maybe I grew up. Maybe Hanna aged me. I smile when I think about her cute face. I swear I could be having the worst day of my life, and the moment I see her, all is right in the world.
The smoke from Connor’s cigar tickles my throat and makes me cough.
He puts it out and opens both our windows. “Thanks,” I say.
“Welcome. I really wish your boyfriend did what I asked of him.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“You let him touch you between the legs.”
“Yeah, and?”
Connor purses his lips. “If he’s not your boyfriend, why did you let him touch you there?”
“Because it felt good.”
Connor glances at me. “You want to feel good?”
“Yes.” I shrug. “I don’t need a boyfriend. I just wanted some touching. It feels good. If you’re looking for reflective, thought-provoking answers, I don’t have any. I’m pretty simple that way.”
Connor drums the steering wheel with his thumb ring. “Would you let me touch you there?”
I sit up, my heart skipping a beat. “No?”
“That sounded like a question.”
It’s getting stuffy in here. Can we open the back windows too? “No,” I say, more firmly.
“Why not?”
Suddenly, my palms are sweaty. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe you’re not attracted to me,” he suggests.
As if. Connor Crossbow has the kind of vicious male beauty that feels like a dagger slicing through the heart. “I’m not attracted to you in any way.”
“That’s too bad.”
I glide my palms over my scrubs to dry them. “Are you… Are you attracted to me?” WHAT AM I DOING? This isn’t even flirting. This is something else. Connor is so different. Normal social conversations don’t work with him. He seeks the truth and returns to conversations with blunt truth of his own.
Most people can’t handle the truth. Maybe that’s his issue. Expecting people to accept the naked truth once it’s presented to them.
Connor nods. “Yeah, I think you’re hot. Do you want me to pull over?”
We’re climbing a twisty mountain road on the way to the manor. If anyone wasn’t going to the manor, they wouldn’t be on this road. On the news, they said the manor is more isolated than the original Crossbow mansion, the one that burned down. If he pulls over, it’ll be private.
The thick wild bushes block the view of the city down below.
The mountain rocks show nothing on the left.
“I don’t like unfinished business,” Connor says. “I must finish things. Complete them. All or nothing. Please answer me. Either way, I’m good. Just…just don’t leave me hanging when I ask you something.”
“I don’t know.”
Connor slows down even more. “I’m pierced.”
Fuck. “Okay.”
He hits the brakes and taps the car dashboard screen in front of him. A bunch of smaller screens pop up. It’s a surveillance system. I lean in to see what’s on it, and catch a whiff of his cologne. It’s a cold lavender-and-sandalwood scent that reminds me of winter.
Connor points. “This is us over here.”
“There are hundreds of cameras.” I narrow my eyes, thinking it’ll help me see better, but there’s too much to sort through even with him pointing out where we are.
“Three hundred seventy-three views. Tomorrow, there will be more.”
I regard him as he types one-handed on the screen as if it’s a piano.
He’s punching in numbers, codes, maybe. I have no idea.
The screen goes black, a single white dot pulsing in the top corner.
His hand flies over the dash, producing combinations of letters and numbers.
Is he coding something right now? On the fly like this?
“You run surveillance?” I ask. God, I sound dumb.
“Mmhm.”
“What are you doing now?”
“Isolating camera 67.”
“Six seven.”
Connor smiles. “Do something so I can see.”
I stick my hand out and wave.
“There’s no delay,” he says and sits back. “I want to make it fun.”
“Uh-oh. Now I’m scared.”
Connor bites his bottom lip, pulls it through his teeth. “I have masks in the back and can code the cameras to record in private. We can watch it later. What do you say?”
HOT. THAT SOUNDS HOT. “I don’t know.” I want to. I want to so badly, but that sounds dangerous. And fun.
“I can make you come in under a minute,” he says, his voice dropping an octave. “Nobody will know. Just us. Out here in the middle of nowhere. Recording our porn. With ski masks and none of the fancy premeditated crap.” He bites his bottom lip. “Come on, baby, say you want to have fun with me.”
“Okay.”
“You won’t regret this.” He grins and steps out of the car. The trunk is popped open, then closed. Connor opens the car door for me. He holds up two balaclavas and says. “Put this on, then press the blue button on the screen.”
I do as he asks. When I get out of the car, we’re both wearing masks that cover our mouths. We face each other, and I become painfully aware that I’ve been working for the last twelve hours. He’s freshly showered, his hair still a little wet.
Neither of us moves.
His blue eyes shine brightly in the moonlight. My breasts tingle, anticipating his touch. Strong hands grab my hips, and Connor presses me against the car the same way he pressed Pete. There’s a bulge in his pants, and I wonder if it’s me or violence that turned him on.
“You make me want you,” he says. The ski masks cover our mouths, which is a blessing because Connor presses his lips over mine as he tugs the drawstring of my scrubs.
“We should pull over to the side of the road,” I say. “Instead of parking in the middle.”
“Why?”
“So…” My pants slide down my legs, followed by my underwear. Connor wedges his hand between my legs. A long finger probes my entrance before it slips inside me.
I suck in a breath. He pumps me for a few seconds, and I almost come on his fingers from the sudden rush of excitement. That would be embarrassing. Luck is on my side tonight because Connor withdraws his finger. He pulls down his mask so he can lick the digit.
“I fucking knew it. Tastes like cherry blossom. Your shampoo.”
My shampoo? I frown, but I don’t have time to think about what he said because Connor kneels and removes my right sneaker. He takes the pants off my right leg, but keeps the other sneaker on, so my pants are bunched around one ankle.
He lifts my right leg and puts it on his left shoulder.
With his balaclava pulled down, his mouth is exposed.
Blue eyes look up at me as he leans in toward my mound. I can feel the heat crawling across my face.
“Under a minute, remember?” he asks, warm breath caressing my folds.
“I remember.”
“I need a little more pressure.” He hands me his gun. I try to refuse, but he holds my wrist. “You don’t have to pull the trigger. But you can, if you want to. Just be sure you hold it at my temple while I’m eating you out.”
“Connor, I really…”
He strikes his watch and says, “Let’s do this.
” He latches on to my clit and sucks it inside his mouth.
Two long fingers slide into me and pump, stroking places in my channel that make me want to beg him to fuck me.
I hold the barrel of the gun at his temple, but quickly dump it on the seat behind me so I can rest my hands on his head.
He sucks my clit and flicks his tongue fast, building up my orgasm, mini tremors already starting to shake the leg I stand on.
My knee buckles, so now he has to hold me up as I grip his hair with both hands to keep his face pressed against my pussy.
“Connor,” I whisper.
He grunts.
“Connor, I’m coming.”
He growls into my clit. It makes it vibrate.
And that does it. A scream rips out of me. Stars play behind my eyes, and when I throw back my head and look up, the full moon is shining brightly. It makes me feel untamed, stroking that wild part of me I’ve always known existed, and, even as Ekatia, I couldn’t resist.
It’s the same kind of wildness that made me go to the party on a yacht.
The same wildness that’s not afraid to raise a baby on her own.
The same wildness that’s letting the most dangerous man in the city eat her out in the middle of the road. And record it.
It’s Renne wild.
And Renne can’t exist because Ekatia must exist. For Hanna. She has to do it for Hanna.
Connor wipes the rest of my orgasm from my thigh. As he stands, he licks his fingers. “Tell me I’m your daddy.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. I laugh like a crazy person while my pants are down, standing there in one shoe. Connor laughs with me and helps me with my clothes. He puts my sneaker back on as if I’m damned Cinderella and he’s some prince.
He is a prince.
Prince of the underworld.
Connor gets in the car, and we continue driving. “You keeping the mask?”
I remove it and put it over his thigh. “This was a one-time thing.”
“Okay.”
“We can’t do this again.”
“Okay,” he repeats.
That was easy. “Okay?”
“Yeah. I’m still pierced.”