“You seem to have all of the answers, King. Why don’t you tell me?” I whispered and gripped the edge of the desk behind me.
“I think you secretly crave the dark side of this world. I think it’s what brought you here that night. I think it’s what draws you to me in this very moment when you know how truly fucked up my world is.” He paused and ran his finger along my jaw, triggering another shudder. “Because you know, Mia, how dangerous I am; I could snap your neck in a simple heartbeat.”
I turned my face, and we were nose to nose, exchanging the air from our lungs, our lips an inch apart. “Then why don’t you, King? Because I’ll never be your obedient pet. You’ll never control my mind.”
He slipped his powerful hands to my waist and pressed his body firmly against mine. His stiff cock pressed into my stomach and sent a flood of scorching hunger spiraling through my body. “I don’t need tricks to control your mind when I can control your body.” He snaked one arm around the small of my back and pressed himself tighter to me. His warmth, his smell, his hardness were a seductive elixir.
He had to be the devil. He had to be. That was the only explanation that fit everything: his power over me, his strange abilities, his raw sexual energy.
I closed my eyes, wanting to resist the urge to run my hands up his chest, loosen his tie, and unbutton his shirt. I wanted to touch him. I wanted to feel the steely curves of muscles pressed against my naked flesh. I wanted to feel the weight of him on top of me, sweating, digging, and grinding. I wanted to hear the sound of his hard breath and deep primal groans in my ear as he thrust himself inside me.
King nuzzled my cheek, his breath steaming against my face like a bull about to charge. He leaned his chest into me, forcing me to sit on the desk. He pulled his head back and stared deeply into my eyes. I felt lost in the shimmering depths of silvers, grays, and pale blues of his gaze that seemed more like a dark ocean, swimming with mystery, framed by thick black lashes.
His hands moved from my hips to my knees and slowly opened them, hiking up my black dress.
He hit me with the full force of his lips and pushed himself against the juncture between my thighs, reminding me that I’d not worn any undergarments that night.
I nearly fell completely back onto the desk, but braced myself, propping my arms behind me. His lips and tongue were a fiery mess of smooth, soft roughness. He tasted like salt and whisky. He tasted better than any food or drink ever to touch my tongue. He tasted like pure male, pure lust, pure need.
With his one arm pillared at my side, King hovered over my tilted body and cupped the back of my head, smashing our mouths together in a powerful tangle of friction and motion. All I could think of was how I didn’t want this. I didn’t want this dark, ruthless man that was more like a deadly beast designed to break me. But I couldn’t stop what my body wanted.
I thrust against him with my heaving chest and backed him up, breaking the kiss. I sat upright, wanting more than anything to see him, all of him.
Our eyes locked, I slid my hands up his chest and loosened his black bow tie. Then one button, two buttons, three…The look on King’s face was intense and carnal, as if he might devour me while I desperately labored to strip him of his clothes.
Buttons finally worked free, I pulled his shirttails from his pants, where I caught the unmistakable outline of his massive cock thrusting against his zipper. He bent his head to mine and kissed me again. I shed his shirt and coat to the floor, leaving him bare from the waist up. He held my head tightly to his mouth, sensually working me with his tongue and full lips while my hands satisfied the urge to explore his body.
Broad shoulders, rounded ridges of well-defined pectoral muscles, arms swelling with thick biceps, every inch of King was lean, hard, menacing muscle. When my hands made their way to his rippled abdomen, I jerked back, wanting to drink him in with my eyes.
That’s when I again noticed the intricate tribal collar tattoo covering his collarbone and upper pecs.
I ran my fingers over the design. “What is this?”
“It’s nothing.” He brushed my hand away and returned to ravaging my mouth. His hands glided behind me and unzipped the back of my sleeveless black dress. He peeled it down, running his hot hands over my shoulders. Again he leaned into me, forcing me to tilt back on the desk so he could access my neck. His mouth slid and sucked and massaged its way down. His arm worked its way around my back and forced me to arch my chest into him.
“Mmmm…No bra,” I heard him whisper right before his mouth made contact with my nipple. The sharp suction turned the throbbing ache between my legs into a scorching wave of carnal defeat. There was no going back. I had to give into the rush of wanting something that I shouldn’t, into the rush of holding something so volatile and dangerous close to my skin.
“No underwear either,” I said. My hands reached for his belt and began unfastening.
“I find that very arousing.” His hand journeyed under the hem of my dress and began stroking me with a thick finger. I froze for a moment and groaned, as did he, but then my body quickly answered the urge to rock against his hand.
“That’s right,” he said when I widened my legs further for him.
Oh my God, the way he touched me was pure sin. I had never wanted a man so badly.
Wait. “Condom,” I breathed the word.
King slid his free hand over my tattoo and whispered. “No need for that, Mia.” Then his sinful mouth returned to mine.
No need. No need. The thought of protection evaporated from my mind like a wisp of smoke. Just get him inside me.
The phone on the desk rang, jarring me for a moment, but there was no stopping the momentum, the burning necessity deep inside that begged for King to take me right there on top of that goddamned desk.
King broke our kiss. “I need to answer that.”
“No.” I pulled his mouth back down to mine. I would evaporate into nothing if he stopped.
He reached for the phone and held it to his ear, only stopping our frantic kissing and grinding for a moment to say, “Yeah?”
He kissed me some more.
“Fine,” he said to whomever it was, then hung up the phone, returning his hand to that heated, throbbing spot between my legs.
I unzipped his pants and gripped him in my hands, savoring the feel of his insane thickness, of his length, of his pulsing, velvety hardness.
Our mouths furiously licked and bit and sucked while I tried to angle the head of his cock to my slick and ready entrance. I was already about to explode. One or two strokes and I’d be done.
Then a tiny thought flickered through my mind. No one called this office. Ever.
“Who was it?” I panted.
“No one.”
He rubbed the tip of himself over my sensitive bud and groaned again. “You feel so hot, so warm, so—”
“How can it be no one?” I again panted. My mind didn’t want to let it go despite what his hands were doing: Wetting the tip of his large shaft, paving the way for the hard thrust I expected him to deliver.
“No one,” he growled.
God, I need this so badly. So badly. Him inside me.
“I can tell you later,” he added. “After I punish you.”
I froze and looked into his eyes. The raw, primal expression could’ve been interpreted as lust or possession tinged with anger.
My mind scrambled through the situation and thoughts that conflicted with the physical demands screaming from my body. “Wait. What did you say?”
He smiled like a lusty wolf, unsure if it wanted to fuck its prey or eat it. It reminded me of that night in Edinburgh at the hotel. King had had the exact same look in his eyes. The effect was colder than any bucket of ice water.
“Oh my god.” I frantically began pushing his heavy frame off me. “Get off of me. Get off of me.”
He glared in silence and then slowly pulled back.
“Is this just some punishment?” I spat.
“Is there any other
possible way to interpret this in your mind?”
Oh my god. Oh my god. I started to hyperventilate. “No. I-I guess not.”
I quickly pulled up the straps of my dress and hopped from the desk, turning my back to straighten myself out. I guessed he was doing the same.
“I can’t believe this,” I scorned myself, fumbling with the zipper at the back of my dress. “What was I thinking?”
Don’t cry, Mia. Don’t cry. But that’s what part of me wanted to do. How could I be so stupid? How could I forget who I was dealing with?
“I gave you specific instructions for the party, Mia. You disobeyed me.” King zipped up the back of my dress and rested his hands on my bare shoulders. The gesture was thoughtful and intimate, like a husband would do for his wife. How dare he?
“Don’t touch me.”
He spun me around and gazed into my eyes with a look of confusion. “Why are you so upset?”
“Just leave,” I fumed.
“It’s my office. And you owe me a punishment.”
What a strange reality he lived in. “You’re sick. You know that, don’t you?” I seethed with disgust.
“Yes, I do. And don’t ever think for a moment, Mia, that I won’t follow through on my threats. Or that I am capable of feeling anything for anyone.”
I lifted my chin, pride welding my words. “You’re lying to yourself, King. You feel lots of things: hate, disgust, the need to hurt others and make them suffer. What happened in your life to make you like this?”
He tilted his head, and I expected him to say something cruel, something to deflect my words and reestablish his power over me. Instead, he smiled affectionately and ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “The call was your brother.”
My heart stopped. “Huh?”
“Your brother. He has made a deal with me. That’s where I was earlier while you were making a fucking mess of things at the party.”
I blinked and tried to comprehend. “That was Justin on the phone?”
He nodded yes and waited with what looked like cautious curiosity for my reaction.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I screamed. “Why didn’t you let me speak to him?”
King ran his hands through his now disheveled, thick, black hair. He looked uncomfortable. King was uncomfortable. That never happened.
“Oh no. What? What aren’t you telling me?” I asked.
He turned away and went to recover his shirt and jacket from the floor.
“King! I’m talking to you.”
He calmly shrugged on his shirt, and as he did, I again noticed the sharp grooves of scar tissue on his back. Yes, something horrible had been done to this man to make him this way.
“What do you want to know? Your brother is alive.” He buttoned his shirt. “You should be pleased.”
“Where is he? What happened to him?” I asked.
King continued to button.
“Would you turn around and look at me?” I demanded.
King did, but the hard emotion in his eyes was not what I wanted to see. It frightened me.
He cleared his throat. “Your brother doesn’t wish to see you.”
I pointed to my chest. “Me?”
“Your brother offered me the Artifact in exchange for a clean slate.” King’s steely, cold eyes met mine. “He wants nothing to do with you, your family, or his past. He’s asking me for a new identity, money to live on, and a disappearing act so that anyone searching for him will believe he’s dead.”
King’s words crushed me. That couldn’t be right. “Why?”
“Your brother got mixed up with Vaughn. He offered Justin a sizeable payment plus unlimited funding for his work in exchange for a lifelong contract.”
“And Justin took the deal?” I couldn’t believe it. Justin had never been about money. Ever. He was the least greedy person I’d ever known.
King nodded. “Yes. In addition, Vaughn would get dibs on anything Justin unearthed.”
“Why would Justin do that?”
King approached me and placed his hands on my arms. “Justin did not know who he was aligning himself with. But once he found the Artifact and realized it was something powerful, he ran.”
“And Justin’s team? Why were they killed?”
“I’m sure it was Vaughn’s retribution.”
“Why would Vaughn’s men threaten me to stop looking for Justin?”
“I do not know. Maybe he didn’t want to risk Justin receiving help from friends or family members. It’s easier to track someone down when they have no resources.”
Wouldn’t Vaughn have had more luck taking me as leverage? King’s guess didn’t make sense, but then again, nothing in this strange world did.
“But Justin can’t be serious. He can’t really mean he never wants to see me again.” The tears began to trickle from my eyes.
“I wish I could tell you otherwise, Miss Turner; however, I cannot.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I can’t believe Justin would do this.”
“Maybe your brother is not the man you thought.”
“What are you trying to say?” I asked.
“Your brother may not have been aware of who Vaughn really was, but he still agreed to the deal. One that equated to stealing.” King held up his hand. “Not that I’m opposed to such activities—after all, one must do what they have to in this world—but your brother was not an innocent child.”
“I don’t care what he did. He’s still my brother, and I love him.”
“I am sure you do, but that doesn’t change anything.”
“I want to see him.”
“I cannot do that. I accepted your brother’s offer, and I must uphold his terms. This is how things operate in our world.”
I pushed King’s chest, but it had no impact. “Negotiate new terms,” I demanded.
He crossed his thick arms. “No.”
“Why not? Because I don’t have anything to persuade you with or trade you for?”
He shook his head. “That is not the reason.”
“Then tell me! Why not?” I wailed.
He didn’t say anything. Instead, he pierced me with his iron gaze.
“You want me to finish what we started on this desk, is that it?” I yelled and felt the dark office fill with energy so heavy that I could barely breathe. “You want me to submit to your punishment to save him?”
He ground his teeth. “I won’t deny that the idea of fucking you over that desk makes my cock hard. But your submitting will not change my position.”
King was admitting to wanting me? I mean, I knew he did, but he was admitting it.
This was when my brain hit a deep, dark, emotional pothole. King never said or did anything without a reason. He didn’t waste a moment of his beautiful, precious time if it did not please him or drive him closer to his ultimate goal, which meant that those sexually explicit words had been said to take the fight from my angry sails. Hadn’t they?
I clenched my fists and resisted the bait. “Why won’t you talk my brother out of this?”
“Because,” he tugged at his crisp white cuffs peeking out from beneath the sleeves of his tuxedo jacket, “your brother does not deserve saving. He’s not a good man, nor will he ever be. And I want the Artifact. Therefore my reneging on the deal with your brother simply to appease you serves no purpose. And finally, you will submit to me anyway, Miss Turner. You want to fuck me as badly, if not more, than I want to fuck you. I’m willing to wait—makes life more interesting. Don’t you agree?”
Rage sparked my vision. King was the master of mental chess, and he was trying to use sex to get under my skin, to distract me from the real issue, but I couldn’t let him. As for his accusations of Justin being unworthy, all I saw was that my brother wanted to find a way out of his mess while insulating his family. If I could get King to see past his greed, then perhaps I could get him to see there was another way. “Haven’t you ever cared about anyone or anything, King?”
“Do not be ridiculous, Miss Turner. I care about many things; your brother is simply not one of them.”
I laughed bitterly. Again, it was all about getting this Artifact. “Hell, King. I don’t know what happened to you, but it must’ve been bad. I really pity you.”
“Have you ever thought for a moment that, perhaps, the reason I am this way is because I once had someone just like your brother in my life?”
It was a confession I hadn’t expected from King, but if someone he loved hurt him, it might explain why he was so tainted. “I’m sorry that someone caused you pain. I truly am. But Justin isn’t like that. He made a stupid mistake, and now he’s about to make another by shutting the door on the people who love him. All I’m asking is to have a discussion with him, to find out if there’s another way to resolve the trouble he’s in.”
King sighed with impatience. “Miss Turner, this is what you are failing to understand. Yes, there is another way. However, it would require making a deal with Vaughn. Is this a path you are willing to go down?”
Shit. Shit. Shit. King was right. If Vaughn was the one Justin needed to hide from, then there were no deals to be made.
“No. But why can’t something be done about Vaughn?” I asked.
“As in kill him?”
I looked at King, but didn’t respond. He knew what I meant, and he likely knew that I wasn’t the sort of person to say those sorts of things out loud. Still, I thought them. Oh, Lord. I thought them.
“It’s not so simple. He is a member of 10 Club. Why do you think I left him alive on both occasions?”
I supposed I had wondered why King hadn’t killed him. “Don’t tell me those people object to murder?”
“Not at all. They simply object to members openly murdering each other. Not to say it doesn’t happen all the time, but one must make a superficial effort to respect the laws and cover their tracks. At the moment, I would be the obvious culprit.” King pretended to look at his watch and then grabbed his tie. “I am late. I must leave now. You will need to stay with Mack until I return.”
“Why do you always do that?”
“Do what?” I watched King make a quick, but perfect knot with his bow tie. I tried not to think about why he was re-dressing himself or how, even now, even after what just happened between us, I still couldn’t help looking at the man and feeling something I shouldn’t. Perhaps King was right; a part of me was just as dark as him. That part was drawn to him and eventually going to cave to its desires to have him physically.