Chapter 20

20

Aurora

Iknock out my final three orgasms quickly, and I wish I could say that I pulled on some of my many memories with others to get me there. It’s not the truth. No, it’s Malone’s ragged breathing in my ear that pushes me over the edge. The knowledge that she slipped her hand down her pants and fingered herself while on the phone with me. I shouldn’t have initiated that call, but there are a lot of things I shouldn’t have done in the last few days.

She doesn’t respond to my videos again.

I want to be smug about that, to believe that I rattled her. I’m not sure it’s the truth. Maybe she just tired of the game.

Thatwould be preferable. If Malone tires of me, it’s the best outcome for everyone, especially since I’m coming to terms with the fact that I won’t be following through on my plans for vengeance. If I’m not here to kill Malone, then I have no reason to be here.

Except… I don’t really want to leave.

Not yet.

The second I return to the Underworld, I have to deal with reality. The end of my contract. My plans for the future. My grief. It all hovers at the edge of my mind, ready to ambush me the second I cease being distracted.

I push the thoughts aside and pull on a pair of shorts and a sports bra. It’s time to go another round with Malone. I want to win today, to be the one to demand some kind of payment. Really, I just want to beat her. She’s too good, wins at everything, is too deadly. I want to prove that I’m able to stand on equal footing.

A child’s dream, foolish in the extreme.

A training accident would be a clever way to cover up her death…

A hiss stops me short. I look around the room, and catch sight of Rogue crouched beneath the couch, glaring at me with his eerie cat eyes. I glare right back. “I was only thinking about it. I’m not really going to do it.” I scrub my hands over my face. I should have listened to Allecto, just this once, when she told me not everyone is cut out for murder. Fires are different. Even fighting is different. It’s violence in the heat of the moment, the first lick of flame that translates into a pure bolt of power.

Even then, without some kind of outward motivation, I hesitate.

I pull my hair back and fasten it up away from my face. My mother should be motivation enough. She was in a coma for twenty years. Twenty years. I barely remember her from before that, only have flashes of images that I’m still not certain are real. She was never around, and my grandmother was so withdrawn, I used to comfort myself with imaging all the things my mother and I would do once I was old enough to join her. And then all those possible futures were gone in the space of a single fight, my fantasy of my mother boiled down to a harsh reality. There was no comfort in standing over her bed and watching a machine breathe for her. The spark that made her who she was gone long before I made the decision I did last week.

I’m still not sure if knowing that makes it better or worse.

I pull on a pair of shoes and stride to the door. Can you fail a person you barely remember? I don’t know if I’d be hesitating if Malone hurt one of my friends—Allecto or Tink or Meg. The fact that I’m not sure makes me feel worse. I’m a terrible daughter, and I’ve only gotten worse with each passing year.

Sara meets me at the elevator, and they’ve got a strange expression on their face. We step inside and go down two floors to the gym, and only then do they speak. “She’s on edge.”

“I don’t care.” It tastes like a lie on my tongue.

Sara snorts. “Sure, kid. Just be careful in there.” They step back into the elevator, and the doors close before I can formulate a response. What is there to say? Malone’s on edge. I am, too.

It’ll be a party.

The room looks the same as it did yesterday, the thick mat for sparring and the lights up bright. It’s also empty. After the slightest hesitation, I stride onto the mat and begin to warm up. Ten minutes later, I’m wondering where the hell Malone is. Not showing up would be a power play, but I can’t imagine she’d have Sara deliver dire warnings if she didn’t intend to be here.

My question is answered almost as soon as I consider it when the doors swing open and Malone stalks through. She’s changed out of her work clothes and into a pair of pants and a tank top. She snaps her fingers at me. “Let’s do this.”

“You don’t want to warm up?”

“No.” She’s on me before I can respond. Gods, she’s fast. And strong. I deflect a punch and the impact rattles me right down to my bones. It’s everything I can do to keep ahead of her, to keep some space between us while I frantically look for an opening.

It’s startlingly clear that the only reason I landed any blows yesterday was because I surprised her. She wasn’t expecting me to be as good as I am. Now, she’s not holding back. I suppose that’s a compliment, but it doesn’t feel like one when she lands a punch to my stomach that drives my breath from my lungs. “Fuck,” I wheeze.

One second I’m trying to get oxygen, the next I’m on my back with Malone sitting on my chest, her legs pinning my arms to my sides. “Fuck,” I repeat.

“You’re distracted.” She glares. “You put up more of a fight yesterday.”

It takes several long moments before I can breathe well enough to answer. “You’re extra motivated this time.” Even though part of me demands I let it go, I can’t quite seem to help myself. “Rough day?”

“Something like that.” Malone shifts back so that she’s perched on my hips and plants her hands on either side of my head. “I win.”

I should leave it at that, let us chase the heat flaring in her green eyes. I can’t quite manage it. “We can talk about it, if you want.” Why am I offering this? Why am I craving knowing what’s going on inside her head? I don’t even know anymore.

She studies my expression. “Maybe later.” Malone dips her fingers beneath the straps of my sports bra and pulls them over my shoulders and down to free my breasts. She leaves it there, further trapping my arms. I could get out of it easily enough, but that’s not the point. It feels like intense bondage.

She palms my breasts, expression intense. “You’ll be naked for the rest of the day.”

“Okay,” I manage.

Malone pinches my nipple. “Try that again with a little more respect.”

I nibble my bottom lip. “Yes, Mistress.”

“Better.” She circles my nipples with her thumbs. Pleasure tightens my stomach, and I have to fight not to moan. Malone traces my breasts as if memorizing them. It’s too much and not enough and, gods, being studied by this woman is its own kind of foreplay. She leans down and drags her tongue along the curve of my breast.

I’m still trying to settle into the touch when she moves. She shifts off me and flips me onto my stomach. With my arms trapped at my side, I can’t catch myself and end up with my face pressed to the mat. She urges my ass into the air and yanks my shorts down my thighs to just below my knees. The position is far too vulnerable, but she places a hand on the back of my neck, keeping me still.

Malone strokes her free hand over my ass and down to squeeze my thighs, urging them wide. The move tightens my shorts around my shins, once again creating the feeling of bondage without actually being bound.

“I’m going to beat you tonight. Welt this pert little ass.” She squeezes my ass. “But first…” Malone palms my pussy and spears two fingers into me. I can hear how wet I am, and my skin heats, though I can’t begin to say if it’s in embarrassment or desire.

She strokes me idly, as if she doesn’t have me pinned to the mat in the middle of a brightly lit gym. As if she has all the time in the world and intends to make use of it.

The door opens, and I tense, but Malone doesn’t stop the slow slide of her fingers in and out of my pussy. From my position, I can see Sara nearly miss a step before they continue into the room. They glance at me, and I can’t help picturing how I must look right now. My face and bare breasts pressed against the mat, my ass in the air, Malone’s fingers buried inside me. A little slut, that’s all I am, because I swear I get wetter knowing we have an audience.

Sara clears their throat and focuses on the woman currently finger fucking me. “There’s a small issue with one of our shipments. The one that was late.”

“How small?” She sounds perfectly normal, as if she’s sitting behind her desk instead of down on the floor with me. How often does she fuck in front of her people? This isn’t the first time; despite Sara’s initial surprise, they don’t seem the least bit uncomfortable with this situation.

“I can handle it. But I figured you’d like to know. We were missing about ten percent of the promised goods.”

I might as well not even be here for all they’re paying attention to me. Humiliation heats my skin, desire chasing on its heels. Malone only makes it worse when she wedges a third finger into me and uses her thumb to stroke my clit. I bite my lips hard to keep from moaning. Gods, if they don’t end this conversation soon, I’m going to come all over her hand in front of Sara while they give their report.

I want to.

Fuck, I want to.

“Ten percent,” Malone muses. “That’s bold of them to think we wouldn’t notice.”

“I expect they did realize we’d notice and hoped to provoke a reaction.”

“Agreed.” She doesn’t pick up her pace, just keeps idly fucking me. “Very well. Make an example. Nothing deadly; it’s not worth the headache. But ensure they know we won’t allow this ‘mistake’ again.”

I’m shaking. I can’t seem to stop. I bite my lip so hard, I taste blood, but I can’t stop the whimper that slips free. Sara glances down at me again, expression still unreadable. “Will you be available if things get messy?”

“Of course.” Malone picks up her pace the slightest bit, edging me closer and closer to coming. “If that’s all?”

“It is.” Sara ducks their head and moves to the door. They pause before leaving. “Want me to lock this behind me?”

“No.”

Then Sara is gone. The door barely swings shut behind them when Malone withdraws her fingers and gives my pussy a slap harsh enough to jolt me. “You’re holding out.”

“No, Mistress,” I grind out.

“Liar.” She rubs my clit, and I can’t help sobbing out my exhale. “This pussy is mine for the duration. If I want you to come in front of Sara, then you come in front of Sara. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Mistress,” I whisper. The rebuke, the humiliation, only makes this hotter. I arch my back a little, a subtle offering that she notices immediately. She picks up her pace, hurtling toward an orgasm that’s already curling my toes. I moan. “Mistress, please let me come.”

“I shouldn’t.” She still sounds like she’s musing even as she works my body. “I should leave you hanging on the edge after that little bit of defiance. You think you’re in charge, Aurora, but you are most assuredly not.”

“Please.”

“Oh, very well.”

My orgasm crests, washing away everything but this woman. How does she do this every time? How does she manage to break me into minuscule pieces? We’re not even doing anything particularly intense when it comes to kink, at least not on the surface, but everything is intense with Malone involved. She breathes intensity, and I crave the taste.

She eases me onto my back. My shorts are tangled around my ankles and my legs splayed, and the look she gives my pussy… I lick my lips. “Malone.”

“You’re terrible at following rules. Absolutely horrid.” She parts my pussy with her thumbs, resuming that idle touch that is somehow even hotter than when she’s driving me to orgasm. She touches me like she owns me, and in this moment, I’m not sure she’s wrong.

She considers me. “I would like a picture of this.”

It takes me several long beats to realize she’s asking permission. I should say no. The videos are bad enough; giving her yet more ammunition is a mistake. But I’m already nodding. “Yes.” A small, fierce part of me gets off on the knowledge that Malone will be undoubtedly fucking herself while she looks at this picture sometime in the future, after this assignation has long since passed.

If that’s not power, what is?

She already lives rent-free in my head. Forgive the fuck out of me if I want to return the favor, even in this small way.

Malone pulls her phone out of a pocket tucked into the leg of her pants and lifts it. “Gods, Aurora. You’re sin personified.”

“I don’t believe in sin.”

“Neither do I.” She clicks a few pictures and then leans forward and pushes two fingers into me. Another click of a picture. Malone licks her lips. “Yes, this will do.” She hooks my pants and pulls them the rest of the way off me and then does the same with my bra. “Come along.”

I expect her to head for the exit, but she moves to a door on the other side of the room. It leads to a hallway that looks like one in every other high-end gym in existence. Malone bypasses the locker rooms and walks to a door with a narrow window.

The sauna.

Malone points to the door. “Wait for me in there.”

I obey. I don’t even consider arguing, not when the idea of letting heat work its way into my tired body sounds like a little slice of heaven right now. I know that’s not all that’s on the menu, and it only makes my anticipation grow. The sauna is a square room with a wooden bench seat in a U-shape against three of the walls.

A few minutes later, Malone returns, wrapped in a white towel. She perches on the bench next to me and lets out a long sigh. She closes her eyes and rests her head against the wall. “Relax.”

Relax. Is that supposed to be a joke? How am I supposed to relax when a mostly naked Malone is sitting six inches away?

I shift to face her. Now is the time to put some distance between us, to accept the boon of silence she’s obviously intent on offering me. Except… I don’t want to. “Malone.”

“You are outstandingly terrible at following orders.”

She’s not wrong. And yet, I can’t seem to stop myself from reaching out and running my finger along her sharp collarbones. Her skin is already dewy with sweat, just like mine, and I find the sight intoxicating.

“Aurora.”

I ignore the warning in her tone and skate my fingers down to the spot where her towel is tucked into a fastening over her chest. The tiniest of tugs, and it slithers free.

“Aurora.” She opens her eyes. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know.” I shift to my knees in front of her and part the towel, pushing it aside to bare her body. Malone isn’t flawless, for all that she’s so gorgeous, it actually hurts to look at her. There’s a small scattering of scars on her torso and one on her thigh that looks like it might have been a bullet wound. But, gods, the strength poised in her narrow frame. I place my hands on her thighs and coast them up her hips and sides, inching closer.

“You don’t know.” She arches a brow, but I don’t miss the way she parts her legs a little more to make room for me.

“No.” I lean forward and rub my face over her breasts. Even after coming so much today, I’m practically shaking with need from being this close to her. “I just…need you right now.”