Chapter 22

Twenty-Two

CALUM

“Move.” With a little push between her shoulder blades, V stumbles toward the half stone wall on the west side of Strauss’s property. She hasn’t made a move to run, but if she did, I’m sure whomever her owners are would pick her up, which she doesn’t seem to want. In her mind, I’ll be more benevolent than them.

I consider which pieces of her I’d keep. Breasts, pussy… Her eyes, for sure.

“The restraints aren’t necessary,” she says with obvious chagrin.

Part of me hates the fact I put her in a straitjacket, knowing what she’s gone through. Remembering how I found her that first time makes me violently ill and feel like a sick bastard for doing this to her.

The other part of me wants to keep my head on my neck.

As we near the meeting spot at the edge of the woods, I check for the blips from FLAIR, but there are none. Vera shivers from head to toe as her head tilts back, gazing at the bowl of stars above us.

“You know, for someone who claims they are always hot, you seem cold most of the time.” For a moment, she stares straight in front of her, and I almost think she didn’t hear me.

“Maybe that’s just what I’ve always told myself to get through my training. Maybe I am cold natured.” A side of her lips kicks up. “Huh. I guess I learned something about myself.”

Why does that confession make me want to wrap my mouth around hers? Consume her? This utter magnetism toward what I believe is real is in a raging battle with my self-preservation, which has always been hanging on by a thread. It would be so easy for her to win me over, and her handlers knew that. Her admission pumps blood straight to my loins, but before I can act on it, a little red dot pops onto the screen, moving our way.

“Heads up.” I nod to the trees.

She flips to face where the figure emerges from the shadows, and strands of her red hair tickle my nose. But the person walking closer is no cloaked, hooded owl. From the sway of the hips and lithe steps, I’d say it’s Alpha. Because it is Alpha.

Involuntarily, a groan rumbles from my chest.

“What are you doing here?” Before she can reach us, I call out to her. She continues her path, stopping abruptly in front of V without looking at her.

“Well, hello to you, too, boss.” Finally, she lets her eyes drag over Vera. “They want her delivered to their headquarters. That’s what I was told on my reconnaissance mission.” With a bit of timidity on her face, she stares down at my puppet. “So, this is Zero. I thought you’d be more his type.”

She is my type. Zero is my type exactly, but Alpha doesn’t know that and that’s why Alpha was always wrong for me. Desperate and needy. Motherly.

Vera puts a bright smile on her face, and I wonder if it’s real. It looks genuine. Or maybe my ability to read her is fading. Her body doesn’t even falter. There’s a lightness to her aura that makes me think she’s exactly where she wants to be.

Focusing back on the topic at hand, I ask, “Where’s the headquarters?”

“Laurelwood.” Alpha flicks her eyes to me as she speaks, placing her hands on her hips as if what she said is final.

“Laurelwood? That’s all the way across the country.”

“I know. But my intel says their meeting place is in a deep grove between the sequoias in a local forest. I’ll ping you the location as you near the city. I’m sure they’ll have someone waiting for you when you arrive. I think they want her like this. Bound, but alive.”

Something inside me wants to rip the knife from my pocket and slash Alpha’s throat before she can react. It’s the way those icy blue eyes dance across my puppet like she’s nothing. My fingers itch to snatch the vials in my pocket, pierce her skin with the needle, and watch her suffer an excruciating death.

“How did you know we’d be here, Alpha?”

“It’s my job…sir.” Why did Delta just bowl over and allow Alpha to take it? Ugh, despite his respect, he certainly isn’t living up to being the top spy. I clench my jaw at the frustration. “Am I dismissed?”

I give her one nod, then study her frame as she walks away. She gives a few wiggles of her ass as if I’d suddenly apologize for every mean thing I’ve done to her, simp and beg her to take me back. I’m just not that into her.

A childlike air dances across the redhead next to me, and it fills me with wonder. Desire for her. That sparkle to her eyes is back and the plastic grin is replaced with genuineness. “So, road trip?”

My nostrils flare as I snort a laugh. “Hardly. We’ll take the plane again. Tomorrow.”

Loading her back into the Tesla, she squirms in her jacket and leans forward to gain some room. Sighing, I loosen the restraints along her back so she can hold her arms in front of her. I may regret this.

Flashing a pageant-winning smile, she flips her long hair back and says, “Wherever I am with you, I feel like I’m home.”

God, I want to shove my dick inside her. Fucking one’s assassin has to be a diagnosable condition, right?

Instead, that evening, I lie on my back with a painful erection pointing straight to the painted ceiling, my arms bent behind my head while she dozes serenely on her side next to me in my bed. My own soap has replaced the lavender scent, but there’s a hint of that spring coming through, the scent of pure honesty. Her chest rises and falls in a steady rhythm, pushing her tits out of the tank top she wears to bed, giving me a peek at her pink nipples hardened underneath the thin fabric. It doesn’t help my libido that her wrists are bound, held to the bed frame above her. She’s peaceful. Like she belongs here. And she’s not lying at this moment.

Moving a hand to my shorts, I pull them down and expose the hot skin of my cock before slowly working it with my sweaty palm. I scoot up on the bed so my crotch is at the same level as her tranquil face. Imagining her wet, warm tongue all over the tip, my hand grips a bit harder, jerking in an erratic motion, thumbing over the end with a shudder of my hips.

A tiny sigh escapes her parted lips, but she remains blissfully unaware of what I’m doing. The thought of her being so innocent, a spy trying to murder me, but now at my complete mercy, just like she was in the doll room, makes me want to explode. Firming my strokes, I remember her tight hole and the feeling of making her mine until I know I’m going to launch my release.

Stifling my yell of ecstasy, I erupt in my hand for the first few ribbons of my hot load but turn my hips so some lands on my puppet’s pink freckled cheek. Her breasts continue their steady rise and fall as my cock throbs in my hand. Every fiber in my being relaxes until I press the still engorged, slick head of my dick on her slightly opened mouth, feeding her my cum while she rests unaware. It will dry, claiming her lips with my coating. Maybe her tongue will understand what was left there in the middle of the night.

Pretty soon, I won’t be able to resist doing this to her pussy, too.

What if I just left my genes inside her every night? I’m supposed to produce an heir. If I just fucked her while she was tied up like this and maybe drugged for compliance, I could get her pregnant with my child. Maybe more than one. I am a twin… She could have two babies for me at once. And then as soon as she gave birth, I could fuck her again, just keep her knocked up so she wouldn’t want to kill me. If she had my children for years straight, never having another period…she could be my little breeding puppet.

I’m so very conscious my father’s sickness lives within me, infecting my DNA that maybe I’ve lost a conscience. Maybe once I find out the answers from Herodius, that should be it for me. If I can leave something positive for the people of West Side, then I could go. Extinguish this lineage once and for all. Livia got the best part of us. And now with her mingling with Max, they have a chance to escape this. I don’t think I ever had a choice.

The next morning,the chauffeur opens the car door for us as I wait patiently for my puppet to scoot out, her wrists bound together with soft restraints. Grasping one of her delicate hands in mine, I help her to a stand, then onto the private plane.

Practically skipping to the end of the hallway like she’s at her own home, she flops into a seat in the small living area and places her arms on the table with a wide grin on her face, nose crinkling. Crackles of electricity spark the air as the energy of excitement dances around her.

“You seem chipper,” I tell her wearily.

“I am! I sleep so good in your bed. Plus, Monet makes amazing meals.”

Rolling my eyes, I recall our chef’s delight at breakfast, setting a plate of bacon in front of V and making a snarky comment about having someone to cook “real food” for now that Livia has gone.

“What do you normally do on flights like this? We’ll be flying all day, won’t we?”

“And some tonight.” Thinking about tying her to the bed in the stateroom and my plans to leave a lasting legacy inside of her makes the blood pool inside my cock. “To be frank, I usually just watch you.”

Leafy green eyes bounce over to my face as she scans me, reading my expression. “Oh. Like, at work and stuff?”

“Like everywhere.”  Freckled skin tightens around her neck as she swallows.

“It’s strange thinking about you watching me all the time, but I knew it. I got used to it. Now, I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t watching me, like my own guardian angel.”

Gripping my eyelids tightly shut, I huff a sarcastic laugh. “I’m anything but.”

“No, you are.” The gentle feel of her thumb stroking over the back of my hand makes me open my eyes again.

“Because I pulled you out of a dungeon that my father put you in, then set you off into the cold night by yourself? Because I shot an eight-year-old girl in the head? Or was it because I locked you up in that same fucking dungeon? Oh, but this time, I drugged you and forced myself on you after.” Like the fucking poison I am, I spit out the truth like venom. But her face remains soft, her fingers struggling to reach toward me.

“Cal, you thought I was trying to kill you. I’m a spy, remember? And you did rescue me. And my friend down there, too. She wasn’t going to survive, and you helped ease her pain. I was there, remember? And you didn’t force yourself on me, ever. I’ve wanted you. I told you that. I still want you.”

With a guttural scoff, I shake my head. “Because you were trained to.”

Pounding her tied fists on the table with a loud bang, I snap my attention to her as she bursts out, “Because I get that fucking choice and I choose you. You’re the first goddamn thing I ever wanted for myself. Let me fucking have it!” The volume of her voice has risen higher than I ever thought was possible for her. Tears flood her eyes as her skin flares red, a huffed breath escaping her mouth as she pants with anger. Her outburst gives me pause. Could she be real? And yet…

“I don’t believe you.” Everybody lies.

Her face crinkles with defeat as the droplets of pain spill over onto her pert cheeks. Gazing up at me through wet lashes, her eyebrows raise as she asks, “If you did… If you did believe me, would you…” Catching her breath, she continues. “Would you want me, too?”

My whole life flashes before my eyes. Never have I wanted something as desperately as that vision of the holidays in my mind, of her round belly hanging stockings on the fireplace. Of laughter around the dining table. Getting into fights over the toilet paper roll. Vacations to wherever we want while the nannies watch our children. The vision is so painful, it’s worse than death. It’s something I’ll never have. And one I don’t deserve.

I’m damaged irreparably.

And instead of telling my enemy all that, all those weaknesses she could exploit, I turn it back on her. “Who are you? You ask if I want you. I don’t even know you. You don’t even know you.”

Wiping her face with a thumb while her wrists are held together, she clears her throat. “I guess I can learn that. I am learning that, Cal. But I know I want you and that I like steak and your bed. Some of your classical music sets my teeth on edge. Skee-ball was actually really fun, and I think I could be good at racing games if I practiced. Being outside at night, under the stars, that’s something that brings me comfort. Before Donovan’s people found me, I had been wandering through the woods for days, living off berries and drinking from streams. Sleeping on beds of pine needles. The smell is something that immediately makes me feel like home. Your eyes match the color of the leaves I surrounded myself with for warmth.” The sound of her voice is like a soothing serenade, and I want to revel in the words she says. But if I do, that could just be falling into her trap. Oh, how desperate I am to cut her strings. Let her be free.

Taking a long breath in, she continues. “Listen, I know I can’t be with you, with you. Like, you’re supposed to marry royalty or some mafia princess or something. Probably promised away to someone graceful and tall who didn’t get raped by your father.” I swallow hard as she says those words, a lump preventing it from going down easy. “But I can be a mistress! I could be whatever you need. I just want to be near you.”

All those times I imagined slitting a throat or cutting out a kidney were calculated, measured responses. Fuck, even when I slowly skinned my father piece by piece, it took weeks until his heart finally gave out. That was an education in how to keep someone alive for a slow, agonizing death. I didn’t even have to crack a book; my own voodoo dummy was there to play with in the doll room. Each day I went down to the basement, I had come up with a new way to torture him for the next twelve hours. Waterboarding, bamboo shoots, drugs to the brink of death, then back to life again. Skinning, maiming, removing parts, causing him to hallucinate, burning, leeches, rodents…so many things I used to rid his sickness from the world. To try to rectify the wrongs he had set forth on our family name.

But now… Now, for maybe the first time in my life, I fucking lose it.

Standing up, I walk over to the tray of glassware and bar decanters. Picking one up, I hurl it across the room until it shatters into an innumerable number of pieces, each sparkling with the bright lights from rays of sun coming through the windows. As soon as that one is done, I feel a bit better, so I keep going. The next one lands on the TV, which is plastic, so only gets sprayed with bourbon down the front, and the thickness of the decanter is too heavy to shatter. Not good enough.

Picking up the tray, I launch it like a Frisbee while screaming in rage. Trying to take out one of my tanks huddling near the door. He’s saying something, but I can’t hear him, my blood rushing through my ears too loudly.

Before I can rear back another glass, my arm is caught by small fingers around the bicep. Spinning violently, I catch Jane by her throat and push her against the nearest wall, her wrapped hands coming up to grip my forearms. Her eyes spread out wide as she struggles.

“Let’s get something perfectly straight. You are no one’s mistress.”

Struggling to croak out something, she sucks in a breath as I allow my grip to relax.

“I want to play Mario Kart,” squeaks out of her mouth.

I’m stunned and blink back tears. “What?”

“I want to play Mario Kart. Can we?”

Rage dissipates to confusion. The rapid pulse slows to a hardening thud in my veins. “O-okay.”

As if she’s a little girl again, she bounces on her toes as I drop my hold on her. She wanders to the sofa and sits, grabbing a controller in her hands and nodding to the seat next to her. “You gonna play me or what?” Watching her hold it so delicately makes the tension in my shoulders relax.

“Yeah…” Eyeing my tank, he slowly edges his way back down the hall. Once I settle on the couch, I prop my feet on the edge of the coffee table and start up the game.

Throughout the first one, she almost drives off the map several times, laughing every time she does. I have to help her with the controls. By the third game, she’s doing better, but still struggling.

“I’d beat you easily if I didn’t have these cuffs on, trust me.”

Reaching over her arms, I tug on one of the Velcro strips and loosen them from her arms, letting the fabric fall to the floor. She rubs her skin where they left pink marks. Part of me knows this will just make it easier for her to slaughter me.

Part of me doesn’t care.

“That better?”

“Yep. I wanna do Rainbow Road now.” Her white teeth flash as she nods at the screen. Such a beaming smile for a slayer.

A smirk forms on my lips. “You’ll just fall off the edge.”

Her mouth opens in shock, but she quickly closes it and focuses on the screen with narrowed eyes. “No, I won’t. Watch me.”

And like a fucking shark, she beats me with a jump in the air, arms outstretched in victory, then a jab of her finger in my face until I pull her into me. Our noses almost meeting. Her smile falters as she stares at my lips, and I capture hers into a tight embrace. And we’re falling. Falling onto the cushions together, making out like teenagers.

My fingers snake through her thick hair as I lay on top of her, putting one thigh between her legs while hers dig into my back. Her hips writhe against me as the moans of her pleasure heat my ear, making me harder than I thought possible. Just when I think I should stop, that this is not safe for me and probably causing some more trauma for her, she pulls her head back and blinks.

“Please show me again, Cal. I want you inside me. If I’m not your mistress, then make me yours again.”

If I can just pretend that she’s not a spy with a mission to end me, if I can loosen her restraints and go into the fantasy with her now… Pretend she doesn’t have an IUD. Like I can fill this plane with us without repercussions. Make love to my wife like we’re on a vacation to a tropical island I buy her.

And keeping that in mind, I kiss down her neck, suckling everywhere my mouth meets, pulling the skin up into a bruising mark. “Mine.” Reaching her jeans, I undo the top button with my teeth as her exposed stomach dips, a small giggle escaping her blush lips, swelled from where I was just sucking on them. Simultaneously, I reach up and guide her T-shirt over her body as she helps me lift off mine. We scoot her pants down her thighs until her musky scent fills my nose, making me ravenously hungry for her pussy.

“I’m not going to stop eating this cunt. It’s going to be my favorite meal.”

My face dives in between her legs as she kicks off the last of her jeans. Squirming a hand up her chest, I wiggle my fingers underneath her bra to massage her soft breast, tweaking the nipple while I let my tongue travel from the back to the front. A loud moan leaves her open mouth.

“Cal! Oh my god.”

“Yes, that’s me now. God and master.” She helps me out by tossing her bra off to the side, then grips my head with her thighs and rides my nose while I flick on her clit repeatedly before latching on, even gripping it with my teeth. As I pull the bead inside my mouth, I continue to writhe the tip of my tongue against it, then slip a finger inside her hole.

“Please,” she begs for nothing in particular.

The softness of her thick thighs muffles my voice. “Please what, puppet?”

“Please fuck me. Please, Cal.”

I shake my head forcefully into her pussy as she cries out. “Not yet.” Grasping her ass, I sit up and lift her to my mouth, continuing to work her with licks, flicks, and sucks until a quake quivers through her muscles and her back arches in the air. With a scream of my name, she comes on my face, squirting all over it with a steady stream of her arousal, dampening my skin, her cum dripping down my chin and onto my bare chest.

Fuck. The fact she is a squirter and I didn’t know makes me irresistibly hard. Standing, I strip the rest of my clothes before sitting back down, my erection jutting up into the air. As I extend my arms across the back of the leather sofa, I raise my eyebrows in an invitation.

“I want you to take control. Come ride this dick. Use it. I want to watch as you unravel all over my lap.”

With just a second’s hesitation, she gets up and jumps on for a ride. Sinking down slowly, her moisture coats my dick until she’s completely seated on me while we both groan in ecstasy. Her tits bounce in my face and, before I can think, my teeth make their way to a nipple and bite down as she moves her hips over my cock with a whimper.

“You like pain?”

Her lust-filled eyes find mine. “I-I think so.”

Taking the other nipple into my mouth, I clamp down with my teeth while grabbing handfuls of her generous ass, guiding her rhythm over me. Every downward stroke, I spank her with a hard smack, causing a choked gasp to leave her chest. Each upstroke, I latch down on her nipple. Just when I wonder if it’s all too much, she places her hand over mine and says, “Harder.”

Oh shit. I’m going to come so quick if she keeps saying that. Lacing her fingers through my hair, she guides my head back to her breast and my teeth embrace it. Her pace picks up steam, her clit bumping my belly with every beat, spreading her wetness all over me. The sound of my palm striking her ass fills the air of the cabin, and it isn’t long before her pussy clenches down into an almost suffocating grip on my cock. She tosses her head back and screams with pleasure, and the sight of her breathtaking beauty, so real and so true, makes me pump my hips up once and explode everything inside her…

Hoping it’s twins.