Chapter 29

29

Creed

I ’m lying flat on my back alone in bed, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness and straining my ears to hear what’s going on down the hallway. Thankfully, I don’t hear any screaming, so I assume that means that Oriana is still sound asleep.

Now that Oriana is with Zara, I need to make travel arrangements to send them as far away from New York City as possible.

And I fucking hate it.

As soon as we got home, I received a message from Dre and Tristan, saying they’d question the guards in one of our empty warehouses and save me the trouble. Then I sent Gideon Marino and Weston Bertelli a message, asking if they could meet with me tomorrow. Both have already responded with times that work for them.

I’m dreading saying goodbye to Zara and never seeing her again. The thought of losing her hurts almost as much losing my brother because I love her. It’s a different type of love, but just as strong. Zara feels like a part of me that’s been missing my entire life. I want to wake up every day and see her and come home to her every night. I’ve never thought about having kids before I met Zara, but since I have, I’d give anything to be a father and for her to be the mother of our children.

And I know that happy little family I’m suddenly craving is nothing but a pipe dream.

My bedroom door opens quietly, spilling the light from the living room in, before it shuts again. I sit up in surprise and reach over to turn on the bedside lamp before she hurts herself wandering around in the dark. “Is everything okay?”

“I just tucked Oriana into bed.” Zara moves to her side of the bed and starts undressing. Removing everything, even her bra and panties.

“You’re not going to stay in her room tonight?” I ask when she climbs up on the mattress next to me — completely naked.

“No.” I can hear the disappointment in her voice from just that one word. Even worse, I can see it on her beautiful face, the sadness in her eyes.

“Why not?”

“The nannies want me to spend some time with her tomorrow before she wakes up with me next to her.”

“I’m sorry.” I can’t imagine how much that hurt for Zara to hear. “And I’m sorry she doesn’t know you’re her mother.”

“It’s okay,” she lies as her fingertips reach over to stroke my arm and then my stomach before she climbs on top of me, her legs straddling mine. Her fingers thread through my hair, bringing her lips down to mine. My arms wrap around her. I groan at the feeling of her bare skin, from the top of her back down to her sweet ass.

“What are you doing, Zara?” I ask, since I know she’s excited, sad, and a million other things tonight .

“I want to thank you,” she says as her mouth moves lower to kiss my neck. “I want to thank you with my body and my mouth, because I can’t possibly find the words.”

She grips the waistband of my boxer briefs to tug them down, but I grab her hand to stop her, sliding her palm back up to my shoulder. “You don’t owe me anything, baby.”

“Oh,” she whispers, her eyes studying mine. “Is…is everything okay? Do you not want to…”

“Yes, god, yes I want to.” I hold her to me even tighter.

“Then what’s wrong?”

What’s wrong? I think it would be easier to give her a list of what’s right. Her. Us. That’s all that’s right at the moment.

I want her so much, but not like this. So, I tell her the one thing that’s most likely to make her hate me. “I’m going to have to kill Emilio’s four guards. Otherwise, they could run and tell him everything.”

Her hands grip my shoulder tighter. I brace myself for her rejection.

“I’m sorry you have to do that, especially for me.”

“What? No. That’s not…I don’t blame you,” I assure her. “But this is who I am, who I’ll always be. And I hate…I fucking hate being this person sometimes, the kind of man who has to kill anyone who is a threat to me or my family.”

“Well,” Zara starts with a heavy sigh. “Even when you hate yourself, I will still love you.”

Her words steal all the air from my lungs.

She loves me?

How? How the fuck could someone as good as her love me?

And why did she have to tell me this now when it won’t change anything? Sending her away while breaking my heart is nothing, but I can’t stand the thought of sending her away while her heart breaks.

Zara presses a kiss to my cheek. “You do what you have to do to protect your family. There’s nothing sexier than seeing you do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe. Do you want to feel how much I love your ruthlessness for me, for Oriana?” Taking my hand, she places it between her legs, brushing my fingertips over her clit, then lower to her entrance.

“Jesus,” I groan before easing a single finger inside of her. “You are soaking wet, micetta mia .” I add another finger, making her gasp. “Soaking wet just for me.”

“Yes. Only for you,” she whispers in my ear before she slides down my body, kissing my neck and chest. “Only for my big, scary husband.”

“What are you doing, baby?” I ask her again as my fingers slip free from her.

“I haven’t been worshipping my angel of death nearly as often as he deserves. Tonight, I want to spend hours pleasuring you,” she tells me as she tugs down my boxer briefs, this time without my intervention, freeing my half-hard shaft.

Resisting Zara has become nearly impossible. With her mouth moving down to my cock, I’m not sure if I can stop her this time if she goes any further.

“Jesus, baby. You don’t owe me anything...especially this.” I tell her again just before her lips place a kiss on my head. Her tongue swipes along my slit. I gather her long curls into a makeshift ponytail as her mouth lowers halfway down my shaft and comes back up again. I try one last time to let her know I’m not expecting anything from her — ever — before I lose the ability to form coherent words. “You don’t have to do this or anything else to thank me. I told you...I don’t deserve any pleasure.”

When Zara’s mouth leaves me, I want to shoot myself in the face for encouraging her to stop.

“Yes, you do deserve it. Now shut up and let me do this. Unless...unless you don’t want me and are trying to be nice by saying I don’t deserve any pleasure .” She lowers her voice in imitation of me, making me smile. “Creed?” she asks, when I don’t respond.

“Of course I want you, especially your mouth, but —”

“Then shut up.” She reaches up and slaps her palm to my lips. After shushing me again, the gorgeous woman’s mouth resumes its descent again. Up and down, she licks and sucks me so damn good.

I’ll never be deserving of her pleasuring me, but I let her keep going while I hold her hair. My fingers tighten in the strands the closer I get to release. Just when I can’t take another second of her incredible mouth, I grab underneath her arms and haul her up until she’s straddling my lap again. Grasping the sides of her face, I bring her lips to mine in a crushing kiss.

I don’t want to finish in her mouth. I can’t.

We both know where this is headed. I need to finally have her, take her, fill her up just once and make her mine in every way. Hell, I don’t even know if she’s on birth control, and I don’t fucking care. I hope she’s not.

Getting her pregnant before sending her away, before I go off to prison for three years, is the last thing I should be thinking about, but I can’t help myself. I could endure all of that, even die a happy man if her belly were to swell with my baby.

Zara seems just as eager to finally have me inside of her. Our hands get in each other’s way, trying to shuck my boxer briefs all the way off my legs so Zara can line me up.

“No condom?” I whisper before it’s too late, rather than be the selfish asshole I want to be.

“No condom,” she agrees as she sinks a few inches down on me. “ Ohh! ” she cries out in pleasure and then huffs a laugh. “That’s… a lot. Wow. Give me…give me a minute.”

I give her a minute or ten to work her sweet pussy all the way down. Her whimpers and constant commentary about my size bring me close to the edge before she finally starts to ride me .

“God. Damn. Zara. Nothing has ever felt as good as your tight, slick pussy clenching around me.”

I love watching Zara’s face, staring into her eyes while our bodies begin to move together a little faster. It’s perfection. Her arms tightly wind around my neck to hold on. My own curl around her back, as if neither of us can get close enough.

“ Tu sei mia. Tu sei mia .” I have to let her go tomorrow, but tonight, she’s mine.

After the warm-up her mouth gave me, it doesn’t take long for me to ache for a release. I hold off for as long as I can, trying not to thrust up into Zara, but allow her to take me as deep or fast as she needs to find her own pleasure.

When her mouth opens against mine on a gasp, I feel her spasm around me, taking me over the edge with her.

“Uh! Oh! Yes!” she whispers as we ride out the tremors together.

She gushes all over me, and I realize what an asshole I was for not licking her first.

Not wanting to let even a drop go to waste, I lie down flat on my back and pull Zara’s body up my own until she’s straddling my face.

My greedy tongue lashes against her flesh, licking up my cum and hers combined. Then I focus just the tip on her clit until her entire body quakes above me. Holding onto the top of the headboard, she cries out my name as her thighs clench around my head.

My wife is so fucking sexy. I’ll never get enough of her. Never. Even if I could keep her.

Lifting her off me, I lay her back on the mattress and hover over her. “How does your pussy feel?”

“Tingly.” She smiles up at me.

“Good tingly? Or are you sore?”

“You mean...to go again?” she asks. “Like right now?” Her eyes widen in surprise when they lower to my swollen cock. “I thought you finished. ”

“I did,” I say while kissing her lips, letting her taste us both on them.

“I’m not sure if I can move yet,” she replies.

“Then I’ll do all the work.”

Without warning, I flip her onto her stomach, pull her up onto her knees, and use my thumbs to spread her ass cheeks apart. “Fuck, yes. That’s what I’ve been craving.”

“Creed,” Zara mutters, her face pressed to the mattress.

“What? I want to look at this beauty for a few minutes before I turn the whitest ass I’ve ever seen red.” I run a finger down her slit, making Zara moan. While she’s distracted, I swat her cheek with my other hand, loving her gasp.

“God, that’s so damn sexy, watching your ass jiggle for me. I swear it’s calling to me, wanting my hands and mouth on it.”

Leaning down, I sink my teeth into the meaty part, not hard enough to hurt or leave a mark, but just to taste the perfection.

“Creed!” Zara huffs in annoyance.

I tease her clit with the brushing of my fingers to make her squirm, then take myself in my hand, lining my head up to sink into her heaven again.

I easily glide inside her wet heat, all the way to the hilt.

“Fucking hell, you take every inch of me so damn good, baby.” I swear it feels like I’m deeper than I was when she was riding me.

I give her a moment to adjust to my size at this angle while gathering her hair again. Tugging her head back, I lean forward and kiss her cheek. “Let me see you work that ass up and down a few times before I pound you into the mattress.”

“Yes, sir,” she replies before her walls clench and she begins to move. I watch my cock disappear and reappear from her depths three whole times before I lose it.

Gripping her hip with my free hand, I hold her in place as I slam in deep, over and over again, loving the way her ass moves. “God, yes.” I slap her cheek. “I would fucking kill for this ass.’ ”

“You…already…have.” Zara sounds nearly as out of breath as I am.

Needing her to get there with me again, I reach around and press my palm to her pelvis, holding her still as I pump my hips faster. My fingertips barely graze her bundle of nerves, and she explodes in a cry of my name and god’s.

My fingers tighten in her hair as I shove deep one final time before spilling inside her. The tremors are more intense this time than before. When they begin to lessen, I swivel my hips, trying to wring out every last drop of pleasure.

I’m soaking wet, cum dripping off my balls from our releases. It’s by far the messiest round of sex I’ve ever had because I’ve never been stupid enough to shove inside a woman without a condom.

But I trust Zara. And I think she trusts me as well. I want to put my baby in her so damn bad.

I press my lips to her shoulder, then her neck as she lies still underneath me, head down, ass still up in the air. “Are you okay?”

“So…good,” she replies in a slur that makes me smile.

Fuck. I’m so damn screwed.

I’m falling for Zara, have been since the first night I saw her and then convinced her to marry me. And I think she may feel something for me too. She told me tonight that she loved me, and I want to believe her.

But it doesn’t really matter, since I have to let her go soon.

I got her daughter back for her like I promised. Now it’s time to make travel arrangements to get them out of the city and away from Emilio.

“Why haven’t we…done that before?” Zara asks.

Because you started out as my captive, and I threatened your life to make you my wife.

If I’d fucked her before, I’d have been taking advantage of her.

But how is it much different now when she’s only in my bed, underneath me, because she thinks she owes me for getting Oriana back?

“I needed to fuck my wife at least once.” I place one last kiss over a freckle on her shoulder. “Now, I can let you go.”

There’s a long pause before Zara says, “Let me go?” Turning over, she looks up at me. “When were you planning on telling me you think Oriana and I have to leave the city?”

“I thought it was obvious,” I say, even though the truth is I’ve tried to avoid thinking about it.

“Obvious. Right.”

“I’m going to try to get you on a ship tomorrow.”

“A ship ?”

“A cargo ship is the safest way to get you out of the country without detection.”

“And it has to be tomorrow? You’re not even going to ask me what I want?”

“It doesn’t matter what you want, micetta mia .”

Zara scoffs as I move to sit with my back against the headboard.

I watch as she slides off the bed and stumbles around, pulling on her clothes. Her cheeks, face, and ass are the brightest shade of red I’ve ever seen from sex and her fury.

Fuck.

I don’t want her to leave, especially not right now. I want to hold her all night, possibly for the last night, which is exactly why it’s best that she should go. I don’t like upsetting her, but it’ll be easier to convince her to leave if she hates me.

Zara slips out the door without another word, softly shutting it behind her. I’m guessing she wanted to slam it as hard as possible, but she didn’t because her daughter is sleeping down the hall thanks to me.