CAPTOR (The Alpha Brotherhood) (Standalone Dark Billionaire New Adult Romance) (22 page)

Shane kneels in bed with me, resting his erection in the heat between my legs. But he slides the soft cloth over my eyes as his lips press against mine. The kiss deepens, his breaths becoming nearly as ragged as mine when he pushes inside of me.

I jerk when his hands cup my breasts, his arms pushing my bound extremities farther away from my body. But his mouth doesn’t leave mine as he gropes me, pinching and pulling at my nipples. My blindness enhances the rest of my senses. Every touch seems harsher. The sound of his breath is so crisp and clear. The sensation of his hard length filling me is incredible, his jagged hip bones poking into my soft flesh as I squirm and groan beneath him.

“I think I love you, too,” he whispers, thrusting faster as I gasp. “It’s the only explanation.”

I’d do anything to see his eyes right now, to be able to read his face. “The only explanation for what?”

“Why it feels like there’s something missing whenever you aren’t next to me.” His arms wrap tighter around my waist, pulling me closer. “Why I laugh instead of getting angry whenever you run this smart mouth.” He bites my lower lip, making me yelp before he slides his tongue across mine. “Why I let you get away with everything instead of trying to keep you in line. Everything except leaving me.”

His voice cracks on the last line of his confession. I can’t hug him properly, so I squeeze my bound arms and legs against his flanks, searching for his mouth with mine to kiss him. But it clamps down on my nipple instead. The blindfold has lifted slightly leaving a gap at the bottom so I can watch his suckling mouth toy with me, stretching my nipples far up from my breasts with his teeth.

“Is that why you like me tied up?” I moan as my spine arches. “So I can’t get away?”

“I like to you to be as vulnerable and exposed as I feel,” he breathes heatedly against my flesh. “And you’re fucking hot as hell.” He bucks into me deeply with a laugh as my muscles jerk at the incursion, but it’s inescapable. “You belong to me and you need to feel it.”

“Shane…” I groan as his body claims mine until I’m almost ready to shudder around him.

“There’s one thing I can’t understand, Z,” he says, withdrawing, leaving me panting and resisting the urge to beg for more.

“What?”

“Why I can’t get enough of this.” I watch his face disappear between my legs through the little gap. “You taste so fucking good,” he groans, latching on harder.

I was already teetering on the edge of oblivion and it doesn’t take long before I’m screaming and writhing, desperate to break free of my restraints to run my fingers through his hair. His mouth doesn’t leave when I’m done, savoring and teasing me. I’m too sensitive, whimpering and trying to scoot away, but Shane lifts my hips off the bed until I give up and let him have his way.

Another release approaches with a series of choppy little moans and squeaks. He pulls his face away at the most frustrating moment, his mouth spread wide into a satisfied grin. “Don’t come,” he taunts me, before his mouth latches onto me again.

How am I supposed to listen to that? He answer me by biting my clit. Hard. I let out a yelp, bucking upwards. Adrenaline works its way through my system, just enough to resist. Shane rises to his knees and drives inside me as I tremble, pulling the blindfold away as he starts to pound me, his eyes locked with mine.

His kiss captures my scream when I come, the spasms all concentrated between my legs as my immobilized body struggles to release some of the energy. A groan rumbles through his chest, vibrating against mine as his jaw clenches. Each thrust is deep and harsh through his climax, his nails digging into my ass as he holds me still.

He collapses on top of me, resting his face between my breasts as he slides out. My neck can barely bend enough, but I manage to plant a kiss on the top of his head. He exhales, his body going lax, crushing me to the bed.

These restraints have served their purpose I want them off, just so I can hold him. “Untie me.”

“Not yet.”

“Please. I need to touch you.”

“I’ll probably need to fuck you again.”

“Then do it with my arms around your neck. I’m not going anywhere, Shane.”

He lifts his face, his icy blue eyes filled with hesitation. “Ever?”

“Never.”

The muscles stretched tight across his stomach twitch with every heaving breath he takes as he unknots the ropes. He falls into my arms a quivering heap of frantic kisses, letting out a soft moan every time I skim my fingers across his skin.

By morning, he’s fucked me so many times that I’m swollen and sore, but I let him have me once more before I tell him that it hurts. He already knew and he likes it that way. He wanted me to prove my loyalty.

Shane carries me into the white and silver bedroom and we sleep with our sweaty, exhausted bodies intertwined. And he’s there when I wake up this time, still resting peacefully in my embrace.

Shane

I open my eyes to Z’s grinning face. “Were you watching me sleep?” I ask.

“Kind of creepy, isn’t it?” she replies, winking at me.

“Actually, no.” If anything it’s flattering, not that I’ll tell her. Still, my cheeks pinch when I smile back at her. I don’t know if I’ve ever used those muscles before last night.

“I guess you wouldn’t, given your track record.”

“Watching you sleep is probably the least creepy thing I’ve done to you so far, Zoey.”

“That’s true.” She stretches her arms over her head as she yawns, her shirt lifting to reveal the small of her back. I kiss it, winding my arm around her stomach and inhaling against her skin. I love the way she smells after sex.

Z rests her hand on my ribs, leaning back into me as my desire to stay with her grapples with my obligations. I have to leave her again in a few hours. I should already be gone.

There’s an irritated message from Maddox when I check my phone, but he handled today’s meeting well enough. That’s what he’s here for, I don’t know why he gets so upset. Oh, that’s right. I do. It’s a strange, twisted satisfaction to hold his success in the palm of my hand the way someone once held mine.

Until he blew his fucking brains all over the ceiling of his office, while he was getting a blowjob from his assistant, no less. I always thought that last part was in poor taste. No one fought me on the helpful ‘no fraternization’ policy at the company when I took over. It was always messy business fucking employees anyway.

I’ll never understand why Kevin took his own life and I tried not to take it personally. I’d never do that anyway, let alone to Maddox. I’ve grown fond of the kid and left him with more than his share of responsibilities. Zoey is the ultimate distraction, horrible for business. How am I supposed to work 90 hour weeks when she’s right upstairs?

I could start effectively delegating to other employees. That’s how Adam has time for an actual life. It’s never been much of a temptation before. 

“I’m starving,” Z remarks, pouting at me. “And I really need to pee. Like, since an hour ago. I was afraid you’d lose your shit if you woke up and I wasn’t here.”

I probably would have. The beautiful little disruption to my carefully calculated existence scampers out of bed, the flesh of her bare ass bouncing in perfect rhythm with her tits. Yes, I definitely need to learn to delegate. How do I tell her that I’m leaving today, though? Zoey crawls back into my arms, nuzzling against my chest.

“I want to go outside,” she requests.

“Why? It’s freezing out there.”

“I don’t even know what state I’m in.”

“A state of undress,” I tease her.

“So are you,” she shoots back, peeking under the sheets. “Seriously. Where the hell am I?”

“Michigan.”

“You took me to fucking Michigan!” Her eyes widen in outrage. “No wonder it’s brutally cold out there.”

“It’s November. It’s not much better in the city.”

“So, what, this is your summer home, right? I want to see it.”

“Weekend home.”

“Do you have any orchards or gardens?”

“There’s nothing to see yet. I bought the place a few months ago. Besides, you said you were hungry.”

Zoey’s smile falls away. “You’re abandoning me here again, aren’t you?”

She squirms out of my arms when I don’t answer her, pulling on a robe and walking through the door into the workshop. Her workshop. It’s not like I’m leaving her with nothing to do.

I tell myself that I won’t play the game, but I only make it five seconds before I’m chasing after her. She’s kneeling in front of a cooled kiln, already having fired up another one. The tiles she’s removed are various unappealing shades of brown and Zoey’s defeated expression torments me.

I squat behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and resting my chin on her shoulder. “I won’t go.” I really need to, but I can’t.

“Why don’t you just take me with you back to the city?” Because it will be too easy for her to escape. I remain silent, but she read my mind, shrugging me off. “What the hell do I need to do to make you trust me? And don’t you dare say anything about sex.”

“I wasn’t going to.” Our connection is far, far beyond that now. “How about making me breakfast?” I suggest.

“Seriously?”

“I like the way you scramble eggs. They’re perfect every time.”

“Is that where you see this going? I’ll be some sex slave housewife alone in the woods waiting for you to visit?”

“I wouldn’t use those terms.”

“But that’s what you want.”

“I’m sure in time I’ll—”

Zoey rolls her eyes, huffing and flying through the door that leads to the kitchen. Goddammit. I follow her in there, resisting the urge to tan her hide, but she’s pulling the eggs I requested out of the fridge. “We only have three,” she tells me. “You can have them.”

“We’ll make up the difference with sausage.”

“We’re out of sausage. And ham. The bread is moldy too,” she scoffs, like she knows I’m about to suggest making egg sandwiches. “Because you left me here for eight fucking days.” Zoey plops down at the kitchen table, crossing her arms. Her expressions is indeed irritated, but her lips are trembling and her eyes are glassy. I can’t do this.

“We’ll go into town,” I suggest.

“Want me to wear a blindfold so I can’t make my way there myself after you leave?”

“The thought crossed my mind.” Based on her glare, that was not the right thing to say. “I was joking, Z.”

“Because that would be so out of character for you.”

“Zoey—”

“What’ll it take, Shane?” she asks. My anger flares when she interrupts me, but it’s getting easier to let it go. “Just tell me what I need to do.”

“You’re fine. Everything is fine.”

“Bullshit. I’m a captive again, in case you haven’t noticed. This time there are bars and steel plates on the windows. I let you fuck me until it’s hard to walk, I told you that I loved you and you haven’t really said it back, I—”

“Yes, I did.”

“No, you said you think you love me when I couldn’t even look at your face.” She’s right. And I can’t make the words come out of my mouth. “What do you want from me?” she demands. “Name one nonsexual thing I can do.”

“Live with me.”

“I do. And since you restrict my every movement since we met, I can’t prove that I’ll voluntarily live with you. In the city. I actually like it there and I want to go back.”

My heart skips a beat. That’s where I want her to be, too. But she’s right, the egomaniacal part of me needs something else. “Your arm.”

“What about it?” she murmurs, her good hand circling her bad wrist.

“Let me take you to have it reset properly.”

“You want me to break my arm?”

“No, I want to change your life,” I confess. “You’ve changed mine. Drastically. And now you hold a power over me that I can barely comprehend.”

“Yeah, right,” she scoffs.

I take a seat next to her, gently pulling her arm away from her chest and bringing the damaged hand to my lips. I inhale against her skin, summoning the courage to say the three words I never thought would leave my mouth. “I love you.” They roll off my tongue in a gasp as a weight lifts off my shoulders. “I didn’t think I was capable of that. I thought that part of me died in that place. But it was just tied up and beaten in a corner somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind. You found it. You healed it. I want to heal you.”

Her mouth drops open, inviting me to kiss it. Z drags her fingers across my neck and a shudder travels up my spine like it always does, but it isn’t lust. We break apart, allowing me to stare into her eyes. The green in them almost disappears when her pupils are this big.

“I love these eyes,” I say, startling myself with my honesty. “I love these lips. I love this skin.” What the hell has gotten into me? “And I love these hands most of all.” I squeeze them in mine. “They let you immortalize your soul in the world. They allow me to look into your beautiful mind. You’re so young, you can work around it now. But I will be with you forever.” For the love of God, man. Regain control of your tongue. “I will have to watch as the pain gets worse until they’re as stiff and fragile as your art. Which means I’ll be watching a part of you die.”

Zoey blinks at me in disbelief, but a tiny, hesitant smile brightens her face. Maybe an uncontrollable direct line from your heart to your mouth isn’t such an awful thing.

“Do you really think that…” Her jaw trembles as her watering eyes spill over. “That it’s possible?”

“I know it is. If the doctors weren’t so reputable, I’d have brought you in there unconscious and just had it done.”

“You are completely out of your mind, you know that right?” she laughs.

“Certifiably insane for you, yes.”

She shakes her head at me, rolling her eyes. “Alright. Let’s do it. If you take me home with you tonight.”

“Done,” I answer quickly. I don’t have it in me to leave her anyway, I need her too much. “And when you’ve healed, I want you to apply to a new school. The Art Institute. It’s where you want to be anyway.”

“Let’s just take this one step at a time.”

“Why on earth would we do that when rushing things is working out so well?”

“Because I want to actually get in myself, Shane. Not because of strings my rich boyfriend pulls.”

“Agreed.” There’s a layer of surprise in my voice that she notices when I respond. That thought hadn’t even crossed my mine. There’s no way she won’t get in, her portfolio is incredible, especially considering her lack of training.

“Then let’s go get breakfast,” she whispers.

********

I abhor hospitals, especially the smell. I suppose everyone does. I’m not the only person who has watched the light in their loved one’s eyes disappear as that line goes flat and burns that horrible electronic tone into your ears forever.

“I thought I was scared the first time you fucked me,” Zoey says.

I force a smile. “You liked that well enough,” I reply.

The room we’re in is more like a luxury hotel, but she’s still a patient. The sight of her in that hospital gown with tubes coming out of her arm turns my stomach. But it’s a queen sized bed for a reason. I crawl into it so I can hold her and whisper encouragements as I kiss her cheek.

I did the same thing the last time I was in a hospital, but I was a quarter the size I am now. I push that awful memory back down where it belongs and concentrate on the way stroking Z’s hair feels on my fingertips.

Then they take her away. That part is viciously familiar too.

It’s a three hour surgery, then at least an hour in recovery. I’d vowed to stay here the entire time, but I don’t think I’ll make it. Zoey begged me not to anyway. Still, I can’t step through the elevator doors when they open. I won’t leave her. I linger by the exit, hoping my disgust for the place will inspire my rationality to return. Why did I have to do research on anesthesia last night?

The doors open again and I’m standing face to face with my brother. “You are extremely pale, Shane,” Maddox says, stepping toward me.

“What are you doing here?”

“You aren’t actually going to make me use the words emotional support, are you?” he laughs. “Can’t we just pretend there’s a crisis at the office? Over lunch?”

“I can’t eat anything.”

“That does not surprise me. Let’s get out of here anyway.”

“I can’t do that either,” I whisper.

“Alright then,” he replies, resting his hand on my shoulder. “Waiting room it is.”

“I don’t need you here,” I snap. “I’m fine.”

“You hate hospitals.”

“How the hell do you…”

“Know that?” Maddox finishes my sentence. “You used to drink way too much. And you’re a real talker.”

“I am?”

“You are.” Thankfully, he’s pouring a cup of coffee when my wobbling legs give out as I attempt to gracefully take a seat. It ends up more like a fall.

“So what have I told you?” I ask.

“Enough that I got worried and came here.”

“Great.” I take a sip of the coffee he got for me. “Is there a crisis at the office? Or any other kind of distraction?”

“There’s usually a crisis at the office. She’s the distraction, Shane.”

“I’ve been around a lot more the last week.”

“Thank God. But how long will this go on? Adam is practically a ghost, I never see him either. There’s more than a dozen projects on hold.”

“I think we should recruit more talent,” I suggest.

“What?”

“I’m talking about running this company instead of this company running me.”

“Companies,” he corrects me.

“Exactly. My priorities have shifted.”

“That is excessively obvious.” Maddox leans back in his seat and rubs his neck. “First it was ruining Marlowe. That made sense to me. At least it was marginally profitable, too. This I do not understand. You finally tracked down the sad little girl you thought would haunt you forever. You pulled her out of her horrible life and scrubbed that stain off your conscience. Now what?”