Chapter Seventeen: Laina

Mike didn’t get the light, of course, so I had to get out of bed and shut it off myself. It was fine, because when I did that, I also took off my bra before crawling back into bed. I lay there in the darkness, thinking about what I told him in the bathroom at the hospital, replaying our conversation here.

The feeling of Mike’s arms around me was the opposite of the worst thing in the world. He was so big, so strong; I felt safe with him, like his body could shield me from anything. And he was so warm, too.

I wasn’t stupid. I knew he’d pulled himself away because things had been seconds from turning into more. Honestly, I’d kind of hoped they would, if only to distract myself from the current shit show that was my life.

Would it be so bad to drown myself in Mike?

I rolled onto my side, and my eyes closed for a while, but then I checked my phone. I hadn’t really checked it all day. Being locked in a room for two years without one had made me a lot less dependent on checking it at all hours of the day.

Kelly had texted me multiple times, saying she heard about what happened and asking if Kieran was all right. Eh, I’d respond to her tomorrow. Right now, I wasn’t feeling very sociable, and I didn’t want to talk about it. The day’s events were still too vivid in my mind.

Maybe I hoped I’d see a message from my Devil, but the messages from Kelly were all that was there. My Devil had been silent after his mysterious texts before.

It wasn’t him today. I knew it in my core. There was no way he’d be stupid enough to get caught, not after having me for two years, not after being so careful about the kidnapping. That meant it had to be someone else, but who?

And why?

Why would anyone want to kill me? Was it just because I was my dad’s daughter? I supposed it could be someone hired by his political rivals, wanting to hurt him by killing me right after he got me back. Whoever it was, whatever the reason was, the bullet was definitely pointed at me and not at my dad, unless the guy’s aim was that awful.

I didn’t know what time I heard footsteps in the hall, but I was wide awake. Sleep just wouldn’t come. I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened. Kieran… I needed him to be all right. I needed… well, at this point I wasn’t too sure what I needed beyond that.

I heard the muffled sounds of voices in the hall, which I took to mean Tessa and my dad were home. Neither one came to check on me, and as soon as I heard their voices, they were gone, to their own bedroom on the far end of the hall.

Tossing and turning didn’t bring sleep, nor did it help me get drowsy. My mind was wired; I couldn’t fall asleep, no matter what I did.

Though it might be a mistake, I decided to get up. My feet shuffled to my door in the darkness, and I pushed out into the hall. I wandered to Kieran’s room, stepping inside it. The curtains on the windows were open, so the moonlight streamed into the room, giving me enough silver light that I could see the outline of everything, including his bed.

I walked to his bed, running my right hand over it. The sheets were messy. He never made the bed after he got up. How long would it be until he was here again? How long until he was sleeping in this bed at night? All this time I’d found him so insufferable… when in reality, I’d been fighting feelings for the guy.

The more I thought about him, the more I felt like crying again, so I left his room. My feet took me wherever they wanted, my body aimless.

Or, that’s what I’d thought, until I found myself in front of Mike’s room.

The door was closed, blocking me from waltzing inside. My eyes spotted a bit of light shining through the crack beneath the door. Was Mike up, too? Was I not the only one who couldn’t sleep?

Hmm. It was probably a bad idea for me to go in there, after what almost happened earlier, and yet my hand went for the handle all the same. I didn’t care if it was a bad idea. I just didn’t care.

Moving without a sound, I pushed into the room, finding Mike was sitting on his bed with the lamp on the nightstand on, reading a book. A smile grew on my face when I saw, and that smile only broadened when Mike’s eyes glanced up.

“What are you reading?” I asked, quietly closing the door behind me and moseying over to his bed. It was a rather large book with a picture of some kind of food dish on the front.

“Oh, uh, a cookbook,” he muttered, closing it as he coughed. He sounded a bit awkward, almost like he was embarrassed to be caught reading a cookbook, especially so late at night. Hey, at least it wasn’t a spicy romance. Then I’d have some questions.

Like, where the heck did he find a spicy romance book in this house, and could I borrow it when he was done?

I sat on the edge of the bed, fiddling with the hem of my shorts. “Do people normally read cookbooks so late at night?” I grinned as I watched him set the book on his nightstand and run a hand through his hair.

“Probably not. I… couldn’t sleep.”

“I can’t sleep either,” I told him. For a few moments after that, we stared at each other, neither one of us saying anything more. It was like we both had other things on our minds, but nothing we wanted to admit to out loud.

Mike’s long legs were beneath the sheets, his upper half propped up by a pillow. His shirt was off, and I did my best not to stare at the muscles on him, but it was a losing battle. He was a very muscular man, let’s just say. Very tall, very wide, and very, very strong.

I noticed a scar on his torso, and I pointed to it. “What’s that?”

He looked down at himself, running a finger along the white, risen skin. “I got shot a while back.” His mouth thinned into a line, his eyes back on me, as if sensing my mind had gone to Kieran when he’d said that. “It was touch and go for a while, although I wasn’t taken to a hospital.”

I scooted closer to him, eyes on the scar still as I asked, “Why not?”

“Long story.”

“I have time.” Time was all I had tonight, apparently, because I sure as hell didn’t have sleep. Listening to the story of how Mike was shot would at least help me pass the time—and the mere fact that he was here now, fine, might help me believe the same could be said for Kieran soon enough.

Mike swallowed, and his gaze shifted toward the door, like he half-expected someone else to walk in and catch us. I thought he might tell me to go back to my own room, but in the end, he surprised me by saying, “All right.”

I couldn’t fight the smile that grew, and I hopped off the bed and tugged down the sheets so I could crawl under the covers and sit beside him. The bed was a king, so even with his large frame, there was enough room.

“What are you doing?” he asked with quiet urgency, apparently shocked at the fact that I wanted to get cozy next to him.

“I’m getting ready for story time,” I said, scooting to his side. My leg touched his beneath the sheets, finding he was wearing sweats. No shirt with his sweatpants. Huh. Too bad the big light wasn’t on in the room, so I could get a nice, long look.

Mike mumbled, “You don’t have to be this close.”

“No, but I want to.” I nudged his left arm so I could lean against his side with that arm draped over my shoulder. Mike let out a grumbling breath, but he said nothing else, letting me cuddle against his body as he lowered his arm around me. I was still smiling as I leaned my cheek against his chest. “So, start from the beginning.”

Mike did just that. To my surprise, the story involved Lola. It was the story of how Lola had gotten herself caught up with the Luciano crime family by killing its youngest son, how she soon enough found herself embroiled in a turf war with another high-profile mobster family, the DeLucas.

I half-listened to the story, mostly because with my head on his chest, it was all too easy to lose myself to the warmth seeping from his skin into mine. Even though I wasn’t above his heart, I still swore I could hear it beating, too.

Carl DeLuca had been overthrown by his own daughter, who wanted to use Lola as a weapon. She’d had some of her guys shoot up Mike’s and Viper’s place, and that had been when Mike got hit. Other places got hit too, not just their apartment. They had to flee out of the city to regroup, because a lot of hirelings had betrayed them to side with the family they thought would win this mafia war.

So that was why Mike didn’t go to the hospital. He couldn’t. They were too nervous that the DeLuca woman would have her men go and finish the job.

As the story went on, as Mike told me about how Lola fought the DeLuca woman one-on-one, we both drifted down. We’d started sitting up against his bedframe, but by the end of the story, we were laying down. I cuddled against his side, my head resting on his arm, while Mike lay on his back, dividing his time between staring at the ceiling and looking at me.

Once the story was finished, I smiled and said, “Wow, you can talk a lot when you want to.”

He grumbled out, “I don’t see the point of talking when nothing’s really being said.”

“I like your voice though. It’s low, deep, soothing.” My right hand rested on the side of his chest. “I like listening to you talk, even if you’re not talking about anything.” I angled my head up to look at him, my hand finding the scar from the bullet and tracing circled around it.

His other hand came down upon mine, flattening it and stopping me from drawing shapes on his skin. “Stop,” he breathed out.

“Stop what? I’m not doing anything.”

“You should go back to bed.”

“I don’t want to. I like it here, with you.” Since I was laying on my side, it was easy to lift a leg and drape it over his. Well, over his thigh, really. It was so easy to feel small when I was with him, but I knew he’d never hurt me.

Mike swallowed hard. “You should go.” I didn’t know who he was trying to convince: himself or me. But it didn’t matter, because I wasn’t going anywhere. I was quite comfortable with him, and the only way I’d be taken out of this room was if I was dragged, kicking and screaming.

Or, I guess, if Mike got up, tossed me over his shoulder, and carried me to my own bed—which he could do easily. Hmm. I think I’d like to see him try.

“I don’t want to go,” I whispered.

“If your father catches you in my bed, he’ll—”

“He won’t do anything, because Sylvester’s support means more to him than I do.”

“I wish you wouldn’t say that.” The hand he’d placed on mine to stop me from tracing shapes on his skin curled around it. He was now holding my hand instead of just holding it down. “Your father loves you, just… in his own way, I think.”

The last thing I wanted to talk about was my dad, and I let out a long sigh. “Why do you want me to go so bad? Don’t you like me?” The question nearly got caught in my throat, but I managed to say it all the same.

Mike waited a moment before whispering, “You make it hard. You make everything so much harder than it needs to be.”

My eyebrows came together. I lifted my head up off his arm, propping myself up on my elbow to stare at him. “What does that even mean?” Of course, I had an idea of what it could mean, but I really wanted to hear him say it.

“It means—” Mike paused as the hand holding mine on his chest moved to cup my face. The very second his rough hand moved to my face, I let out a flutter of a sigh. “—you’re more tempting than you have any right to be, Laina. You’re infuriating, you’re brash, and you’re so young. Too young for me.”

“I don’t think I’m too young.”

“Okay, then I’m too old.”

I grinned. “I don’t think you’re too old.”

The hand on my face fell away as he sat up, causing the leg I’d draped over him to fall off him. “You’re a job. It’s never smart to get involved with a job. It makes people not think straight. It means more mistakes—”

Slow to sit up with him, I lightly touched his arm with my left hand. Gently, of course, because the ghostly sensations from my missing fingers bothered me more than I wanted to admit. The scab still itched too, but I tried my best not to pay attention to it. “Sounds like a whole bunch of excuses to me.”

His head whipped in my direction. Thanks to the lamp still being on, I could see the glare on his face as he huffed, “They’re not excuses. They’re facts.”

“Are they?” The question came out a lot breathier than I intended, but maybe that was a good thing, because after that, Mike just looked at me. He looked at me like he couldn’t figure me out, like he waged an internal war with himself.

“You only want me as a distraction,” he muttered. “That’s not why I want you… and that’s why going further than this is a mistake—”

“Who said you’re only a distraction? You’re strong and gentle and… and I feel safe when I’m with you, Mike. You’re not just a distraction. You’re not just anything.” I moved around him, crawling onto his lap, and he didn’t push me off, didn’t turn away. I sat with my legs off to the side, gazing up at him, wanting to know what he’d say next.

He breathed hard. One of his hands ran up my leg, slowly curling around it to the back of my thigh, where my shorts ended just below the curve of my ass. “You have a problem with the word no, don’t you?”

I chuckled softly, unhurriedly moving my arms to drape them around his neck. “I am a politician’s daughter, so… the word’s not really in my vocabulary.”

“I should pick you up and take you to your room. I should put you to bed.”

Leaning forward, I pressed my chest against him as I whispered, “Or you could put me to bed right here.” My body was so warm, my nipples pebbled against the tank top I wore. Surely he had to feel them pressed against him like that.

“I can’t.” Even though his words said he couldn’t, it sounded like he could. Beneath his sweatpants, something had started to stir, so I’d say he definitely could.

Moving my legs so I could straddle his lap, I whispered, “You can.”

Both his hands found their way to my ass, each cupping a cheek. “I shouldn’t.”

Certain parts of me were aching with need; I didn’t know how he could hold himself back like this. I sure as hell didn’t understand it, given the growing hardness beneath me. “You should,” I whispered back. “I want you to.”

I wasn’t thinking about the future or what it held. Right now, I could only think about the man whose lap I was on, the way his hands massaged my ass, how he was looking at me like he still wanted to tell me no.

“What are you doing to me?” Mike breathed out the question.

I didn’t get the chance to answer him, because in the next moment, he’d picked me up and flipped me, placing my head on his pillow and holding his body over mine. His stubbled face came down, his mouth meeting mine in a display that told me how weak I made him. All heat and desire, he kissed me like he wanted to swallow me whole, ravage every single part of me until I couldn’t think straight.

And I was here for it. I was here for every single part of that.

My lips matched his urgency, his body coming down on mine, once again making me feel so small. With the height difference, it was my legs that could feel the erection poking against them, my legs that got the brunt of it as his mouth continued to devour me.

His kisses weren’t violent, but they were firm. They took hold of everything I was and heated me up to the core. My thighs squeezed together in need, every part of me on fire. As he continued to kiss me, his hands worked their way up my shirt, finding my tits and pawing at them.

Mike didn’t make a comment about my lack of bra, but his chest did rumble in appreciation. He pulled his face away from mine, yanking up my tank to expose my tits in the dim lamp light. His hazel eyes watched me squirm as his thumbs ran over my hardened nipples.

I moaned when he tweaked them harder, my heart pounding away rapidly in my chest. The half-lidded look Mike currently gave me made me want him even more. I had no idea he could look so damned sexy.

Because he wasn’t coming back down to me, I leaned up and grabbed his face, pressing my mouth against his once more. His hands fell away from my chest, dropping to my shorts. His mouth fell to my shoulder, and he panted against me as he worked to slide them down and get them off me. My tank top was lifted up over my shoulders next, and then I lay under him, completely naked.

He pulled himself off me again, kneeling between my legs. His rough, calloused hands pushed my thighs apart so he could see the most intimate part of me, a part of me no one had seen before. Kieran had touched me there, but he hadn’t seen me without my clothes on. Never before had I been laid bare before someone else.

Mike’s gaze landed on my apex, on what must’ve been a slick pink entrance. His chest rumbled with a single word: “Fuck.” He had to have known before that he lost whatever battle of wills he’d been trying to win with me, but that word must’ve been his acceptance.

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s impolite to stare?” I murmured. The way Mike looked at me, I didn’t feel broken. I didn’t feel scarred and ugly. No, he stared at me like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life, like nothing else before had mattered. I was the only one. Me. I had him hooked and I wouldn’t let him go.

“I’ll tell you what’s impolite,” Mike spoke, his large frame coming down on mine as his hands roamed over every inch on my body. His mouth nuzzled the crook of my neck, making me squirm again. “All the things I want to do to you. There ain’t nothing polite about any of it.”

As much as I wanted to throw it all away and feel that hard dick inside me, I also knew my birth control wasn’t fully effective yet. It was difficult for me to tell him that. “I’m on the pill, but I just started it. It’s not—” God, I hated how awkward I sounded.

Mike nodded against my neck, his lips giving me a single kiss. “That’s okay.” His head moved, and he left a trail of kisses down my body. Along my collarbone, between my tits, on each nipple, then further down over my stomach. Any place those lips touched me, tingles followed suit, small zaps of pleasure-filled electricity that made me feel so alive.

It was only when his whole body shifted on the bed that I realized what his goal was. He’d kissed his way down to my clit. His tongue flicked out and lapped at it, instantly drawing a moan out of me. Around and around his tongue went, applying pressure, until his mouth latched on and he started to suck on it .

I writhed and moaned, unable to help myself. The very moment that mouth went down there, I about lost it. I’d never felt something so amazing before. My body was on cloud nine, even before orgasming, something I didn’t know was possible.

God, it just felt so damned good.

“Mike,” I breathed out his name, moving my right hand to the back of his head, fingers weaving through his hair. “That feels so good. Don’t stop.”

That mouth finally found its purpose between my legs, his tongue working on overdrive to push me over the edge. Every flick of that tongue, every single time he sucked harder; I could feel it in every part of my body, that invisible pressure threatening to choke me.

My hips began to rock, like I was riding his mouth and his tongue, chasing the release building deep within my core. “Don’t stop. Don’t—”

Any other words I might’ve said were stolen out of my lungs by a powerful moan. The orgasm hit me, ten times more powerful than the one I’d had before. My toes clenched, my fingers spasmed, and every single muscle in my body cried out in unison with me.

My whole body was on fire, every nerve in me yearning for more. I used the hand on Mike’s head to pull him up, and he let me. I pulled him up to me and crashed my mouth on his again, moaning into the kiss, never wanting this night to end.

I was safe here, with him. I couldn’t say that about out there. Someone was after me, and no one knew who.

As I kissed him, my right hand drifted down his side, to the waistband of his sweats. Mike abruptly pulled his mouth off mine, whispering a hard, “Don’t.” The firmness in his voice surprised me. I mean, it was obvious he was aroused; I’d felt his hard dick this entire time poking at me through his sweats.

“But—” I wanted to argue with him, still quite breathless from that orgasm.

Mike leaned his forehead on mine. “No. Not like this. Not here, not tonight.” Denying me after all that… it seemed wrong, and it must’ve shown on my face, because he added, “You said it yourself. If we go further than this, if I let you—” He couldn’t say it. “I won’t want to hold back, Laina. I’ll want to make you mine in every sense of the word.”

So if I went for his dick, he’d want to fuck me, basically, and he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back. I guess it made sense.

Sort of.

“Fine,” I spoke, pouting a bit. Mike rolled off me, laying on his side, but he kept a hand on me, curling it around my waist and pulling me closer to him. I rolled into his chest, laying on my side with him, and the hand on my waist now found its home on my back. “But, just so you know, this is your one get out of jail free card.”

He made a sound I’d never heard from him before. It originated in his chest, low and manly. He was laughing. Not laughing laughing; more like chuckling, but still. I’d never heard him do it before.

“You are ridiculous,” he told me, and I had nothing to say in my defense.

He was right, of course. I was ridiculous.

Nestling against him, having him hold me, my naked chest against him, it was nice. The last thing I felt was a sense of guilt, and I hoped Mike was the same. I didn’t regret any of this.

I let my eyelids fall and, soon enough, sleep took me. When morning came, I had to roll out of his bed, throw on my clothes, and tiptoe across the hall before anyone else woke up.

It was probably best not to take chances.