Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
A scream nearly falls from my lips when a rush of cold air rushes over my body. After the events at the wedding, my brain immediately turns into fight mode. My body tenses as a hand clamps down on my mouth. I curse, attempting to kick and claw at the intruder.
“Calm down, firecracker.”
I immediately relax at the sound of my husband’s deep timbre.
“We need to talk,” he demands as he settles himself between my thighs.
“Fuck, Kenzo,” I snarl. “Couldn’t this have waited until morning?”
He shakes his head.
“No, it can’t.”
My head spins, and goose bumps light a path over my body as he caresses my skin lazily. I should pull away, end this now. Tell him no. He let his mistress disrespect me. Hell, he disrespects me by having a fucking mistress. But my body is paralyzed beneath his. Kenzo shifts slightly, his bulge rubbing against my pussy in a way that has tingles of fireworks dancing inside me. I turn my head in shame as I feel myself growing wet for him.
It’s embarrassing how easily my body comes alive at his touch.
Kenzo’s face hardens as he stares at me, and I can’t help but wonder what is on his mind.
“Well, get on with it please so I can get back to sleep.”
He cocks his head to the side.
“It’s our wedding night, wife ,” he reminds me. “Who said you are going to get any sleep?”
I snort. Unladylike, I know. “If you think for one second that you are getting anything from me, you’re wrong.” His face darkens like a storm cloud. “I’m not going to have sex with you while you’re openly cheating on me, husband . Should have thought about that before sleeping around on me and then inviting her to our”—I air quote this one—“wedding.”
“I’m not cheating on you, Evaline,” he tells me.
“Page seven of Elite Magazine says differently,” I remind him. “A very large, colorful reminder for the entire world to see.”
He lets out a low growl, running a hand down his face.
“She kissed me,” he admits with a tired sigh. “I didn’t kiss her back.”
“Likely story to tell on our wedding night when you want to fuck me,” I sneer. “That wasn’t the tune you were singing when I confronted you about it.”
His hand comes to wrap around my throat, but he doesn’t apply any pressure.
“I didn’t spin you any story that night,” he growls. “If I remember correctly, I didn’t say anything at all, because no matter what I said, you wouldn’t believe me.”
I remain quiet beneath him. There isn’t anything to say. Because at the end of the day, I don’t know if I can trust him or even if I want to.
“Now, we’ll get back to that in a second,” he says, his voice turning callous. “Why would someone want to kidnap you?”
My brows draw down in confusion. “What? I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me, Evaline.”
“I’m not lying,” I insist. “I have no idea why anyone would want to kidnap me.”
“Not even the man who helped you escape three years ago?” He slams his hand down on the bed beside my head. I startle beneath him. “Santiago Alvarez.”
I gulp, my eyes widening when he says the name.
“How do you know about that?”
“Your mother cloned your phone, Evaline,” he says. “She had all of your messages, including the ones to and from Alvarez.”
That explains so much about the last few months leading up to my escape. What a bitch.
My top teeth toy with my bottom lip as I struggle to figure out how to tell him about my escape. Alvarez funded my escape, but it came at a cost that I didn’t realize he would try to extract. I barely escaped him and his men.
“It doesn’t matter.” I try to brush it off. “I didn’t get away anyway, and now your family has their revenge…I suppose.”
Because that is what this sham of a marriage is all about. No wonder he has a mistress. He has no real investment in this union. Not like I thought he did. I had more playing power when I thought he relied on my family’s name. But it was never about that. It was all about revenge. It is all about revenge.
“This isn’t about that, Evaline.” He winces. “This is about someone shooting up our wedding and trying to kidnap you. I need to know if Alvarez is involved in it or not.”
“Why would you care if I was kidnapped?” I ask curiously. “I’d think that would be perfect for you. You’d get what you wanted, although I’m not sure how forcing me to marry you was really any kind of punishment against my mother for murdering your brother. The only one who is suffering any kind of punishment is me. So I figure you’d be happy. Then you could fuck your skank-ass mistress all you want.”
“You. Are. My. Wife.”
I shiver at his response. Each word is punctuated with a roll of his hips. The fire burning in his eyes melts something inside me. Kenzo drags his lips over my face, pressing kisses along my jaw and neck. Such gentleness from a dangerous man whose hands have spilled so much blood.
“You drive me fucking crazy.” His teeth nip at my lower lip, and I open for him. We kiss, our tongues fighting for dominance. “Tell me.” It’s a desperate plea, and when I look into his eyes, I see something I’ve never seen before.
Fear.
He was scared for me. Is still scared for me.
“Two months before our first attempted nuptials, my mother came to me.” It surprised the hell out of me since 99.9 percent of the time, she pretended I didn’t exist. “Told me that she never wanted me to marry you. That no matter how much money your family offered, she couldn’t go through with it knowing I would be unhappy.” Kenzo shoots me a skeptical look. I roll my eyes. “Yeah, shocker I know. For a minute, I thought she’d been body snatched.”
Clearing my throat, I think back to that time and try to remember some of the details. “She said the new DA had a case against you, and he wanted to help me escape. He’d give me a new identity, and it would be like Evaline LaMontagne never existed. I grew up in this society, and I knew that nothing comes without a cost, but he never gave me one. Until the day of the wedding, right after I ran…”
Swallowing back the sob rising in my throat, I bring my hands up to cover my face. Kenzo doesn’t let me hide, though. He grips my wrists, dragging my arms back to my sides, and frames my face with his. His forehead grazes mine, and he stares directly in my eyes.
“It’s all right,” he whispers, his thumbs caressing my cheeks. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
But I can’t be. Not when the only reason he married me was for revenge. My mother killed his brother, and I’m the one paying the price. It isn’t fair. But when he holds me like this, gazing into my eyes, I feel like he cares. Truly cares.
I’ll never love you.
Those words once made me so angry, but now all I feel is a deep melancholic sadness for something I’ve always wanted but will never have. Of course he will never love me. I’m a daily reminder of his loss. Even if he was just a baby, Haruto was his family.
“We were supposed to meet at a designated time, but I was early,” I say shakily. “It was at a shipping yard not far from the church. They didn’t notice me at first. They weren’t expecting me for at least another hour.” I pause as the painful memories push to the surface. “They were loading women into the truck. Most of them were beaten and naked. More than half of them were younger than I was. I ducked behind a container so that none of them would see me. I just needed to wait for the right time to leave. Then they’d never know I was there.”
“They didn’t see you?”
I shake my head, a tear tracking down my cheek. “Santiago was there, walking with a woman I didn’t get a good look at. They were laughing about setting me up. My mother had actually been trying to save me. She thought Alvarez was some white knight who wanted to help, but he’d just planned on selling me. They’d planned it.”
“Who?”
“The woman and Alvarez,” I tell him. “She paid him to lure me to the shipping yard. Said he could keep any profit he made off me. He told her he already had someone lined up. Someone that would make me pay for my sins. So I ran.”
“Did they see you as you were leaving?”
I shake my head. “I don’t think so. No one came after me.”
“And you’re sure you didn’t notice any details about the woman?” he presses. “No identifying marks? Didn’t recognize her voice?” I shake my head.
“Not that I can remember. Her voice was soft, and I could barely hear anything she said. All I heard was her laugh. Otherwise, she looked like a normal woman. Shoes, a dress, black hair, I think, but it was tucked under a hat.”
My husband nods, accepting my answer. Silence follows as we stare at one another in the dark. There is just enough light through the windows for us to see each other. We don’t speak. We simply let our hands roam over one another’s bodies.
“I’ve never slept with Saori,” he whispers. “My mother is the one who keeps inviting her.”
His mother? But why?
“Saori was meant to one day marry my brother,” he says with a sigh. “My mother was never happy about the arrangement my father made with yours. She didn’t see it as punishment. She comes from a very old line of Yakuza loyalists. Old-school justice. Something my father was trying to leave behind.”
“Doesn’t seem very nice,” I mutter, disappointed that the bonding moment I thought we had in the dressing room before the rehearsal meant nothing. She was simply buttering me up before Saori came to humiliate me.
“I’ve made sure that Saori is blacklisted from all events,” he tells me. “She might not have instigated anything, but she insulted you, and I’ve done far worse to people for much less.”
“I find that kind of sexy,” I purr seductively, running my tongue along his bottom lip.
He raises a brow at me. “Really?”
I push at his briefs. He came to bed in nothing but his underwear, and in less than a minute, I have them off him and his erection pushing inside me. It stretches me with a sharp pinch as he fills me in one thrust.
“You are wearing far too many clothes, wife.” He pulls the thin nightie over my head and tosses it. “New rule. No clothes in bed.” The laugh that leaves me melds into a moan as he pulls out and thrusts back in.
“Fuck,” he groans as he moves again. “Such a tight little pussy.”
I arch my back, begging for more. There is something about him stretching me and hearing his moans of pleasure that fulfills me in a way I never thought possible.
“That’s it, utsukushī bakuchiku .” I love it when he calls me beautiful firecracker. The muscles of his neck flex as he stares down at me. “Take all of your husband’s cock.” Watching him grow closer to his release stirs my own pleasure. The fall is coming, and I grab on to his biceps, lifting myself as the moment hits me. He groans my name as his body jerks, only sending me falling harder into the abyss.
We’re panting and sweating but satiated.
He rolls onto his back, bringing me with him, tucking me in close to his side. Tonight, we are simply husband and wife. Tomorrow, however, will start something entirely new.
If only this moment of peace could last.
But I know just as well as anyone that what goes up must come down.