Chapter Seven

Nex.

Marrying Cia Malone turned out to be the best decision I made in a long time. Fucking her proved to be a promising bonus and well worth the investment and headache caused by claiming her. Forcing Merrick to accept that I was his sister’s husband was one thing, paying off a debt his father owed to Harte was a different beast.

One I could handle but also a debt that would force me into a position I hadn’t desired to be in. Harte didn’t want to cross me but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t employ all his resources in complicating my life for cutting off his reach to Cia.

He wanted her, I had her, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I would be handing her over to him, ever. Refusing to do so meant I owed him or I had to kill him. Getting rid of Harte would upset the balance of power and force me to level things out.

Being in the middle of crime family business wasn’t a space I desired but that was where I was. Luckily, absorbing the debt now owed to Harte meant the Malones owed me. Merrick would assume marrying Cia cleared the debt, but he would be wrong. He’d learn just how wrong eventually. I hadn’t yet decided what I wanted.

“It’s nice in here.”

Cia was tucked in the corner of the sofa wearing a thick burgundy robe that emulated the color of blood. She had no idea how dangerous that was to a killer. The color against her soft brown skin had my dick thickening. Even after having been inside her for the past couple hours, I was ready to take her again.

“It’s a suite.”

She grinned behind her glass. “Not the suite, the decorations.”

She pointed to the tree and the glass panels that took up one side of the living room. “Merrick knows how much I love Christmas and marrying me off on Christmas Day is just about as bad as using me to pay a debt I didn’t accumulate.” She frowned and rolled those beautiful brown eyes.

“It’s just another day,”

I rasped after pouring a drink at the bar then joining her on the sofa. I sat in the center, body spread wide, extending one arm across the back while balancing my glass on my thigh.

“Then I guess that answers my next question, you didn’t ask them to do this?”

I snorted, lifted my drink, and enjoyed the warmth of the brown liquid as it smoothly glided down my throat. “No.”

“Not a holiday person?”

she teased with an arched brow.

“No.”

“Why not? Everyone loves the holidays.”

“Not everyone,”

I countered, finishing what was left of my drink. I leaned forward, placing the glass on the custom wood table that also held the overbearing presence of Christmas being two days away—garland circling three massive white candles next to snow globes filled with a snowy forest.

“Even if you don’t love the holidays, your family must.”

Years of being a loner for reasons beyond my control prepared me to control my reaction when others inquired about my family. A family that didn’t exist.

“No family. Just me.”

Our eyes met and hers narrowed in confusion before she offered a simple response that felt so damn weighted I found myself explaining right after it left her lips.

“Oh…”

Cia finished what was left of her wine. I confiscated the glass, placed it next to mine, and dragged her into my lap. I groaned, feeling the warmth of her pussy as she shifted, rubbing against my lap trying to get comfortable.

“I’m an only child. My mother died two years after I was born. I don’t know the story because my father never explained, but to my understanding, she was found in their apartment, badly beaten and the place was vandalized.”

“And your father?”

Her brows pinched.

“I killed him.”

My gaze didn’t falter and her lips parted on a gasp.

“You…”

I nodded. “He was a heartless man. I knew from an early age that it would be him or me. When I was sixteen years old, I learned that he was the one who killed my mother. So the decision was made… him.”

One drunken night, when he admitted that he should have killed me when he’d killed the bitch that made me, cost him his life.

“Is that why you ki…do what you do?”

I smirked at the way it bothered her. Her father and brother were no more ethically sound than me. Even if I was the one following through with the task, it was by orders they commissioned and paid for. She viewed them differently because of the love she shared with them. The thought shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. In her mind, my actions fell beneath the moral compass of theirs.

“No.”

“Then why do you ki…”

“Kill people?”

I arched a brow and she frowned, nodding. “It pays extremely well. If not me, someone else will take my place. That’s how the world works, Little Flame.”

“No it doesn’t.”

“With the world you were born into, yes it does.”

“And it doesn’t bother you?”

“Does it bother you?”

Those beautiful browns narrowed. “My opinion doesn’t matter.”

I could see the conflict, even though she attempted to remain neutral.

“You’re my wife. Your opinion of me matters.”

I pinched her chin and brought her face close to mine.

“I’m not your real wife.”

I smirked. “The orgasms I graciously provided were very real.”

Cia shifted on my lap. The warmth of her pussy pressed firmly against my very hard dick. “They were real but sex doesn’t equate to marriage.”

“In our situation, it does. That was our deal. Marriage in name and my bed. According to our terms, you are my very real wife, Little Flame. Unless you plan on reneging on our deal?”

She chewed the corner of her lip and smiled softly when she released it. “No, I’m not reneging.”

She smirked mischievously. “You’re a much better option than Warren, so I might as well ride this out.”

Or ride me…

I chuckled, gripping her neck to bring Cia in for a kiss. “Might as well.”

She shifted her hips, rocking forward so she was positioned directly on my dick. “Well, just in case you’re not clear, your wife loves Christmas so you’ll have to indulge me.”

Cia grinned deviously and I slipped one hand beneath the robe between her thighs and used the other to palm her breast, massaging a little before focusing my attention on her nipple, pinching hard.

“Then I suppose it’s only right that I hand over the proper gift.”

I reached between her thighs and stroked her slick, warm pussy, fully prepared to initiate another round, but she surprised me when her fingers dipped into my briefs, firmly grasped my dick, and tugged it free.

“Or… I could give you the proper gift.”

Cia smiled seductively and I leaned back, deciding to allow her the space to take charge. I welcomed the idea of my wife being sexually assertive. She stroked me a few times then lifted enough to guide me inside.

Fuck me.

My eyes narrowed on the point of our connection, watching my dick slide into her pussy. I was so damn hard I didn’t know how long I would survive. Her slick, tight walls stretched to accommodate me and Cia groaned her approval while I placed my hands at her waist to help guide her down.

Once I was fully seated, she gasped, inhaling to fill her lungs completely then exhaling slowly. Her lids fluttered, but then a smile surfaced, pulling one from me. I yanked her robe open and pressed my palms to her stomach, slowly guiding them up her ribs until I reached her breasts. One hand pinched her left nipple, the other continued north until I reached her neck. I grazed the pads of my fingers over the length of it before my fingers tightened firmly and I jutted my hips upward.

Cia moaned again, this time I felt it vibrate from her throat and she slowly began to move. The careful circular motion forced her to sink deeper and it felt so fucking amazing that my ability to let her lead no longer existed. My hands were at her hips and I lifted my wife, bringing her back down so forcefully that my dick slid in deeper. Her walls pulsated and gripped around me until I lifted her again, only to meet her midway with a firm thrust when I brought her down.

“This was my present not yours,”

she hummed and narrowed her hooded eyes before rolling her hips more aggressively.

“I’m impatient,”

I admitted. She smiled, moving faster, rocking harder while I met her motion by thrusting up. My hands moved again—one at her throat, the other between her thighs. I pulled her forward, pushing my tongue into her mouth, and working her clit with the same intensity.

My body tightened and my dick pulsed, preparing for a release while Cia sucked on my tongue, grinding frantically against me, chasing her high.

“Fuck me, Little Flame, hard…”

I demanded and she did. She bounced on my dick with her lips parted, eyes locked on mine while her body trembled uncontrollably. She tried her best to wait me out but failed miserably. I smirked, watching her struggle to hold herself together as she moved up and down my dick until she lost the fight. The orgasm pushed through her.

The beauty of her release was just what I needed to cross the finish line. I gripped her neck firmly, bringing her mouth back to mine and kissing her while I exploded. After a few minutes she pulled away, sucked in a deep inhale, and dropped on my shoulder completely spent. I caressed her back, working the last bit of tension from her body, knowing I could never get enough of this woman.

How in the fuck was I going to survive Ciana Barrett without losing every bit of myself?

The answer was simple…

I wouldn’t.