ALAYNAI am like a sheet of paper in his arms, and he lays me on his bed while kissing my neck, my fingers tangling in his hair. We are both breathing hard, yearning, and can’t get enough of each other. This is something I always wanted but never got the chance to have.
We can’t stop kissing, sucking, and licking each other’s mouths on the softness of his bed—Brandon exudes power, control, and voracity, like a hungry lion eating its prey. The slurping sounds he makes are driving me insane. We smell of sex with our sweat mixing up. I’m already losing myself in his world.
My lips break from his, and I moan as his hand cups my pussy. “I like how you taste here, but I need to feel you again,” he says in a low, raspy voice.
“Mm, you’re still dressed,” I mention, biting my lip, my eyes fluttering. “I want to see you.”
Brandon raises his torso a little and chuckles. “Easy there, lioness.” He then steps out of the bed and displays his perfect build, his muscles flexed and defined. He runs his fingers over his dress shirt, undoing each button as if in slow motion. I watch him with longing, wanting to do it myself, but I feast my eyes on the most beautiful man on earth, stripping in front of me.
Expecting a smooth and perfect chest, like his face, I see instead that the keloid scar is still there, only it is smaller. Immediately, I sit up and touch him with my fingers.
“It’s still here?”
He shuts his eyes at every stroke. “I still have to undergo a few operations.”
I don’t answer. I trace the scar with my fingers.
“Say something,” he demands, his voice low and tight.
“You’re beautiful.” His scar didn’t matter to me before; it still doesn’t matter to me now. “You’re perfect.”
His eyes gleam. Gradually, he unbuckles his pants, teasing me with his penetrating gaze, then he peels his trousers down his thighs with his boxers, and his shaft rises. He is so hard—like stone. He’s big. I still wonder how it fits me.
I lie again, and I can’t help but run my finger over my cleft, my insides aching. I sigh in pleasure as my fantasies about him come to life. However, he crawls over me and grips my hand. “Your pleasure is all mine.”
He shoves himself between my legs, now utterly naked and glistening with sweat.
I let go of his grip and take his cock in my hand. In one stroke, his shaft feels like stone covered in velvet against my palm. His skin is hot.
“I want you,” I purr.
His biceps flex, and his breath hitches. “What are you doing to me?” he asks.
“I need you.”
He tenses. “Your eyes are suggesting something different.” He reaches for the bedside table and pulls the drawer open to grab a condom. He rips the packet open with his teeth and prudently draws the ring out.
He rolls the condom deftly on his erection and settles between my legs.
“But I’ll have it my way for now.” His raspy voice and his neediness make me so desperate to have him, but it’s like he can read my mind. He slides the head of his cock against my slit and rubs his thumb on my clit to tease me.
I grab his buttocks and beg him to thrust into me. “Please...”He chuckles. “Mine.”
In one slick thrust, he hits my deepest end. I whimper, losing myself. I cannot focus, having this ferocious drive and need for his cock. He is growing harder. Though there is minor discomfort and my muscles stiffen, I love how he feels inside me.
He starts an even more brutal rhythm than earlier, his balls slapping on my rear as his cock rubs deep into me. Our gazes locked.
I cry out in too much pleasure as I tighten more around him. I hold on to his shoulder as the orgasm explodes through me, starting with a radiating tremor in my core. I am quivering all over.
He holds my gaze, watching me as he possesses me, continuously ramming into me. In, in, in, in—until another orgasm slides through me.
He lowers his head and kisses me deeply as he fucks me. “I love how you feel,” he growls. His hips are slapping sounds against my thighs with each demanding lunge.
“Oh! This feels too good,” I murmur.
I watch him eagerly, needing to see how he loses himself, loses his control as he savagely races to his own climax.
I cry once more as I feel another orgasm with his cock pulsing inside of me.
“You’re so beautiful. I can’t believe I have you now.” He stares down at me, softly and affectionately. There’s nothing else I want for us to be but this way. Together. Skin to skin, flesh to flesh. “I can’t believe you’re spread like this for me.”
Brandon shuts his eyes, and his chest vibrates as the orgasm tears into him. His features harden then melt with vulnerability.
His head drops to the side of my neck, and we stay like that for a long time, reveling in each other’s aftershocks, my insides still pulsing. He brushes his thumb over my cheek and kisses me softly.
Brandon slides out of me, then leisurely pulls off the condom and disappears to the bathroom. It’s a very sensual sight. I’ve pictured this scene in my head over and over, but nothing beats the reality. My body, legs, and womb feel sore, but strangely, I desire more.
He comes back in a few minutes dressed in sweatpants and holding a cloth and gently wipes me dry; then, he wraps me in his shirt and boxers. I’m now clothed in his garments, smelling like him. He kisses my forehead and looks intensely into my eyes.
“Are you okay?” he whispers as he crawls back to my side.
I move next to him and bury my face in his chest. I love how he feels against me. He drapes his arms around me.
“Damn, I guess I won’t get enough of you,” he says roughly. “But you need rest. I have a phone call to make later.”
“But don’t you think we need to talk first?” I suggest. We need to clear more things about us. What are his plans now? Is this night only to relieve our unbearable sexual tension? Does he still want to keep me like this tomorrow or the next? How about Pauline? What help does he need from her?
“Whatever you’re thinking, stop. Because whenever you think that hard, you’re always coming to weird conclusions,” he says.
“I’m going back to my room then.”
“I told you, you’re staying with me tonight.” He must’ve felt my uneasiness; he cradles me to his side. “Okay. One more question, and you’ll take a rest.”
“You’ll answer me?”
“Mm.”
“Truthfully?”
“Yes, Alayna.” He chuckles. “I will.”
I blink, thinking carefully. I should be wise with the question, and I refuse to ask more about Pauline because he’ll only answer me the same thing; I’ll be wasting the opportunity.
I clear my throat. “One question, um...” I sigh. “If you cared for me like you said you did, why didn’t you answer my calls or reply to any of my texts when you were in Athens?” I guess that’s not a hard question, though my heart is drumming fast.
He frowns. “All right.” He leans back on the headboard and stares at the ceiling. “I was an asshole, wasn’t I?” He laughs, but the humor doesn’t touch his eyes. “Because it was my first attempt at trying to stay away from you. Only the truth, right?”
My body stiffens. But I keep listening.
“I was in the thick of my enemies, Alayna. Every move, every word I said, they were watching me. Ears and eyes everywhere. I couldn’t let anyone know more about you. I can’t afford to cause you any more trouble.”
“But they already know about me.”
“I suppose.” He shifts his head to me and sniffs my hair. “But If I let them believe that you’re not with me anymore, they will leave you alone.”
I shake my head incredulously. He failed because his enemies“But they didn’t because you brought Pauline here. They came after me because you took her from your cousin.” I push myself up to sit, but Brandon yanks me back to his side.
“This is why I’m rectifying my mistake, at least to you,” he whispers. “I was wrong, but I don’t regret what I did.”
I nod. “You won’t give her to them.” It isn’t a question.
He told me Pauline was abused. He didn’t tell me how, but I know exactly how it feels to be in that situation. No woman deserves to be treated like some sex toy or a punching bag, so I cannot argue with that. No woman would lie or joke about something like that either, so I truly understand her. But it doesn’t mean I accept her hostile behavior toward me.
Nonetheless, his reason dispels the cause of my paranoia and discomfort in the past year. Every day, I’d stare at my phone or my computer, waiting for his reply. Numerous unwanted thoughts came to me. Questions. Assumptions. Does he still want me? Love me? Did he perhaps find another woman?
But at the end of the day, he only wants to protect me.
“Now, did I answer your question right?”
I bite my lips, smiling. “M-yeah.”
“Satisfied?”
“Yes.” I tuck myself more on his chest and inhale his scent. I feel so good and relaxed now.
“Good. Now try to get some sleep.”
“Hmm.” I close my eyes and try to relax in his arms, letting all the unwanted thoughts out, breathing slowly as I do.
BRANDON“I’m going to be quick,” I say over the phone as soon as I’m a few feet away from Alayna; she’s now sound asleep. “What’s up?”
“We have a lead,” Wolf announces. “I met Phoenix today, and his birds brought useful news, but he needs assurance before confiding anything.”
Phoenix is another mob leader who operates in Westchester, the Bronx, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Wolf briefed me about him and the others. Phoenix is one of the oldest among the eight and operates a large multibillion-dollar enterprise of smuggled guns. He also runs a loan shark and illegal gambling operation. I see nothing else interesting about them, but I must hear what Wolf has to say.
“I need assurance too, Jason,” I say firmly. “These people are the real“I’ve had a truce with him for as long as I can remember, but my Wolves don’t exercise their operation, I’m sure you know that. But Phoenix and I work together with shipment“Tell me about this lead first.”
“Phoenix has a connection with Italians, and Italians have some information from Europe, including Greeks. Another gang holds a treaty with them, which we believe it’s who you are looking for, and they’re here in the US. Phoenix’s birds might get access from an insider.”
My cousin. But Silvanus probably knows we’re hot on his trail. If he’s smart, he won’t make this too easy, unless...“Or maybe he’s just an idiot walking into a pit of fire.”
“What do you suggest then?”
“Phoenix is the veteran here, and he’ll know what to do, but it comes with a price.”
“What does he want?”
“He wants shipment access in Florida. It’s bigger than we have in New Jersey.”
I pause, considering the deal. I have been their benefactor for years, and Jason would always report to me whenever he had a move to make, which made him earn my trust.
“You know the rules. It’s up to you now, Jason,” I say, not giving him much choice since he knows we need Phoenix’s involvement.
“Roger.”
We hang up.
We’re closer now, but still not close enough to find Oliver. He has been missing for too long. I have heard nothing from his abductor, and now I know why. Silvanus is luring me; he wants me to chase him, crawl over to him, and beg him to let Oliver go. Either that or he wants me to make a desperate move so he can get Pauline back, but I won’t bargain. Not while I’m trying to get her parents to side with me. He probably thinks he’s one step ahead, but I will be ten ahead of him.
I return to the bed and plant a kiss on Alayna’s temple. She must’ve felt my presence since she tucks herself against me and breathes softly. She has no idea how much I longed for her and how every day without her was torture.
But I had to make things right. My enemies targeted her and her family because of me, just because I wasn’t careful. All my wrong choices are coming home to roost—losing Oliver, and almost losing her to Cassius.
I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was saving her if I stayed away. But something has changed—something about what the twins said.
She’s not being targeted just because of me, but because they needed something else. It’s probably the same reason why she ended up working in my house. It’s because of Annette. Alayna is the only person besides us who knows more about her. At the right time, I know I’ll be asking her about it.
But for now, I need to earn her trust again. Show her that I wish to keep her by my side. I want to spoil her, give her pleasure, and love her more than anything else. I can only do that if she allows me. In the next few days, I know we’ll need to sit and talk about it. I know that gradually I’ll have to tell her everything...