Chapter 16

The following afternoon, Ares was off camera, listening to the people on the video chat drone on about stock prices of one of the many companies that Volso had shares in. He usually enjoyed hearing how the money was moving. Numbers always made sense. They never changed and were a constant in his life. That was what was comforting about them.

Now, he was struggling to pay attention. After waking up with a drowsy Zia in his bed, he was starting to reassess everything he thought he knew about himself. He had willingly left her curled up in sheets to wake at her own leisure. In his apartments. Alone. After everything she did to it last time. He must be losing his mind.

He had to learn about who she really was because he had the terrifying realization that he was falling in love with her.

He didn"t think he knew how to do "love" as a concept at all. He thought it had been beaten out of him. He understood the respect and loyalty he had to Corven; even a measure of that passed over to his siblings.

Zia was something else. She was like trying to pin down a hurricane or something equally as elemental. Vicious and vulnerable, sweet and sinful, she was smart in a way Ares was hopelessly drawn to.

She had seen him at his worst the night before and hadn"t looked away. She had tended his wounds carefully and then fucked his soul out of his body. How could he not fall in love with a woman like that? It was one more problem he really didn"t need, but he was helpless to fight against.

He needed to have an honest conversation with Corven about Camille and Erik, but most of all, about Zia"s true parentage and just how adopted she was.

Ares wanted her. He didn"t care if all of Inferno talked about him hooking up with his so-called cousin. When he set his mind to something, it would take the earth shattering to stop him from getting it.

The door to Ares"s office opened, and he looked up to snap at the person disturbing him, only to find it was Zia in a cute red sundress. She had put a red bow in her extra bouncy ponytail today, and he knew she"d done it just to piss him off.

Ares made sure he was muted with his screen off before he said, "I"m in a meeting."

"Don"t mind me. I can wait," Zia said, walking about the room. She picked up a polished ball of onyx he had on his desk and put it down in the wrong spot before she opened up the lids of his fountain pens and then put them back on the wrong pens.

"I see what you"re doing," Ares growled.

Zia pointed at herself. "Me? I"m not doing anything. Just looking at how you keep your office. Very...minimalist."

"Mess with my things, and I"ll throw you over this desk and fuck your throat raw," he snarled softly. She blushed and opened her mouth. "Don"t. I need to take this." Ares hit the unmute button. "No, I don"t think we should move forward with that portfolio. It"s bleeding employees in their management teams at the moment. Something is happening, and until I know what, I"m not putting money in it."

Zia looked Ares dead in the eye before knocking his small tub of pencils and highlighters off the side of the desk.

Oops, she mouthed. She turned to pick them up, but Ares was quicker. He hit mute and dragged her backwards over his desk until she was looking at him upside with wide brown eyes.

"What did I fucking say?" he hissed rubbing his thumb over her soft lips. Zia opened hermouth and licked him. "Fuck, you came to play, did you?"

"A girl has to make her own fun and games sometimes, and annoying you is my favorite thing to do," she said and sank her teeth into his thumb hard enough to draw blood. Crimson flashed in her pretty brown eyes as she sucked on the cut.

"Fun and games it is." Ares stood, pulled his dick free, and ran his crown across her lips. "Open up, and I"ll show you how I like to play."

Zia responded by flicking her tongue out over his tip and then opened her mouth to take him. Ares"s hand gripped the edge of his desk, the other trailing over the smooth column of her throat to where her cleavage peeked out of the top of her dress. She was laid out like a luscious sacrifice, just for him. The hot, wet heat of her mouth was heaven and hell all at once.

"I hope you had a big breath," he said and squeezed her breast so hard, she groaned around him. He thrust into her mouth, far enough that she gagged. He didn"t let up. She knew what she was doing when she decided to interrupt his day.

He had warned her what would happen. Zia took it. She grabbed onto his hip with one hand, the other cupped his balls and gave them a soft squeeze to remind him just who had the power in the situation. Fucking hell, this beautiful fucking woman.

"Ares? Are you there?" a voice said from the computer.

Ares ran a finger over Zia"s cheek and then held his dick in her mouth as he hit the unmute. "Yes, I"m here. I"m happy to go ahead with the acquisition with the tech company out of Athens. Just make sure we secure all their IP as a part of the deal." He hit mute again and stroked this hand over Zia"s throat, before pulling free from her. Her eyes were hazy, and her mouth was swollen.

"Not done with you yet, missy," he said, and pulled her off the desk. He sat on his chair and tugged her into his lap. He ran his hands up her thighs, nuzzling her neck.

"Ares…"she whispered, and it was all he needed to lose his mind. He pulled up her dress and grinned like a fiend.

"You"re not even wearing panties. You really did come in here to get the fucking you needed, didn"t you?" he growled.

Zia guided his dick to her soaked pussy. "I do love it when a plan comes together."

"Unbelievable." Ares grabbed her hands and put them on the edge of the desk for her to hang onto before lifting the back of her dress up. He took a good look at her gorgeous ass and then watched as her wet pussy took him in bit by bit.

"Fuck, Ares, you feel so good inside of me," Zia admitted and thrust back against him. "I woke up and you were gone and I hated it."

"Next time I"ll make sure I fuck you before I leave for work."

"What makes you think there will be a next time?" she asked.

"You wouldn"t be here otherwise. And this pussy of yours doesn"t lie," he said in her ear and circled his fingers over her clit. Zia writhed, her nails leaving scratches in the paper on his desk.

"Fuck, I hate you sometimes."

Ares laughed and squeezed her luscious ass. "I hate you too. Now, ride me. Show me how much you missed me."

"I only missed your dick," she murmured and fucked him hard, her hips rolling.

Ares kept a hand on her waist to keep them steady as she pounded herself on his dick over and over. She was dirty and delightful, and he was going to do so many bad things to keep her. Ares held her down on him, pulled the silk square from his pocket, and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Shhh, I need to do something," he said and nipped her throat. He hit the unmute button. "I"m sorry everyone, I"ve had something else land on my desk that needs my immediate attention. Let"s pick this up next week, Thursday." He hung up on them and bent Zia over his desk. "My turn." He rolled his hips in a deep slow circle that had her knocking the rest of the ornaments off his desk and spitting out the pocket square.

"Oh, Hera"s tits, right there, Ares, do it again," Zia begged breathlessly.

Ares did again just to make her moan. He licked his finger and brushed it over the pucker of her ass, and she pushed back against him, a sweet, strangled sound coming out of her.

"That"s what I needed to hear. You want to come in here with no panties on and make me crazy? You deserve everything you get."

Zia laughed. "You"re right. I do deserve to have all my holes filled until I"m coming so hard, I black out. Carry on."

"Gods, woman, you"re something else." Ares"s teasing mood vanished, and he began to fuck her with his dick and fingers hard enough to make the desk shake. She was going to have bruises on her hips, and he didn"t feel even a little bad about it.

"Bite me, Ares. Oh fuck, please before I lose it," Zia begged.

Ares sank his fangs into the curve of her shoulder and began to come with the first hit of blood on his tongue. She was in his veins and melding to his bones, his orgasm shaking him to his core like it always did when it was with her. It was a primal force, knocking down all the walls inside of him that he had forgotten existed. He came back to reality with Zia sobbing his name through her own release. Ares pulled his fangs from her and laid gentle kisses over her shoulders.

"Come on, let"s get you cleaned up. You"re a fucking mess," he crooned softly. He freed himself from her and took a long, smug look at the state he"d put her in and the sight of his come wet on her thighs.

"I don"t think I can move," Zia said dreamily.

Ares picked her up and carried her into the bathroom. He placed her on the counter before wetting a hand towel with warm water.

"Spread them," he said and stepped between her thighs.

Zia did as she was told without sassing him for once. Ares cleaned her up with gentle swipes. She watched him with a dreamy, faintly amused expression on her face.

"So are your days always this exciting? I"m starting to understand why you work so much," she teased once he had cleaned himself up and straightened his suit.

"Only since you turned up in my life," Ares admitted. He cupped her face and kissed her, soft but deeply possessive. She had brought this new side out in him, and he didn"t know how to put it away again. He didn"t even know if he wanted to.

Ares"s phone buzzed angrily in his jacket pocket. He was about to toss the phone into the toilet to shut it up when he saw the number. "Shit, it"s my PI. I have to answer this." Zia mimed zipping her lips. Ares huffed out a laugh and answered. "Someone better be dead."

"Ares! Fuck, man. I"m in trouble. I found Mars. He"s back in Inferno!I think he saw me," Samuel babbled. "Fuck! Get over here at sundown, and I"ll have everything ready for you. After that I"m leaving for a few weeks. You don"t pay me enough to deal with your psycho family!" The phone went dead, and Ares went cold, then hot, then cold again.

Mars is back in Inferno.

Zia pushed off the counter. "We need to go."

"We? Zia, I can"t…"Ares began.

Zia grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket. "Look at me. Whatever is about to happen, you"re going to need backup. I have weapons training, and I"m good in a fight."

"Zia, if Mars is there… You don"t know what he"s like," Ares replied, his voice shaken. He needed to get a grip on the old fear threading through him. He wasn"t the scared little boy anymore, and Mars had been the one to run away from him that fateful night, not the other way around.

"I have a good idea about what he put you through and that"s enough for me. You helped me with my monster, so I"m going to help you with yours," Zia said. She kissed him hard before letting him go and heading for the door. "Pick up your feet, Volso. You"re not doing this alone, and I"m going to need my knives."

Ares followed her, a small smile on his face. No, he wasn"t alone anymore. Mars needed to be dealt with once and for all, and Zia was the only one he trusted to have his back and not put a dagger in it.