Deadly Desire (17 page)

“Maybe,” Chase admitted.

Set him off? What the hell was going on? All this dancing around the subject was making me tired. I just wanted someone to spell things out for me. Riddles and twisted words were no longer acceptable. Not after almost being kidnapped by a homicidal lunatic. Cynthia must have thought the same thing because she threw her hands in the air and stalked away.

“Come on, Emma,” Pierce said before heading out of the living room. I followed him silently down the hallway until we reached his bedroom. After motioning me inside, he shut the door and turned to me. Before I could open my mouth to question him further, his arms pulled me close. He pressed his mouth against my forehead and held me tight, his entire body shaking.

“Emma,” he said in a strained voice that sounded more emotional than I’d ever heard from him before. “I’m so glad you’re safe. I was terrified when I came home and found fire trucks and ambulances everywhere. Why didn’t you call me?”

I pulled back and looked up into his eyes, the full fear of the day finally shaking through me. It felt so good to be back in his arms where I was safe. I’d held back all of my emotions as long as I could, but I couldn’t stop them any longer. Tears streamed out of my eyes, running down my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t. The cops wouldn’t let me come upstairs to get my phone. They said they were going to call you, but I guess you got back before they could.”

His face softened, and he brushed the tears away from my hot skin. “Don’t apologize, Emma. None of this is your fault, and I can’t bear to see you cry.”

His lips were on me then, hot and hungry. His tongue dove into my mouth as his body pressed against me with a fierceness he’d never shown, not even in his playroom. Hands sliding down my back, he palmed my ass and pulled me tight against his perfect body. I groaned under his touch, and my eyelids fluttered shut.

This is what I needed to feel. I needed to drive the morning’s events from my mind by losing myself in Pierce’s touch.

Pierce pulled back and ripped my shirt over my head before unclasping my bra. My nipples went hard as he dropped his head to my breasts. His tongue swept across them, sending chill-bumps across every inch of my skin. After only moments, my thighs were so wet, all I could think about was how much I wanted his hard cock to push inside me. Desire for him drove me to the edge, so close I thought I might come right then and there.

“Pierce,” I gasped. “I want you.”

He pulled away just long enough to drop his pants to the floor, and in seconds, his hands were on me again, fumbling with the buttons on my jeans. Once undone, he pushed the rough material down my thighs and slipped his fingers into my wetness. Everything inside me ached, my lust overtaking my mind.

“You’re mine,” he growled as he lifted me from the floor and slammed my back against the door. “I will
never
let anyone point a gun at you again.”

His hard cock slid inside me, slowly and exquisitely as my entire body shuddered. He had never felt so good. Pierce gripped my hair in his free hand as he held my body off the ground with his other. Wrapping my legs around his hips, I began to rock against him. Every thrust of his perfect length into my wet sex brought waves and waves of pleasure. It was almost too much to bear, and soon, I was crying out as he pounded me against the hard door, his need for release consuming him as much as it consumed me.

When we had both finished, he didn’t let go. He carried me away from the door and eased onto the bed, my legs still wrapped tight around his waist. He sighed as he continued to kiss my lips, rubbing his hand across my butt. A part of me sparked with desire, but after everything that had happened, all my body could manage was sleep.

Pierce still held me when I woke, and I groggily twisted to face him. His eyes were clear and open wide. It looked like he hadn’t fallen asleep like I had, and guilt immediately flooded through me. He’d brought me in here to share the past with me, something I knew was very difficult for him. It wasn’t easy for Pierce to open up, and instead of listening to what he’d had to say, I’d passed out like it didn’t even matter.

I propped myself up on my elbow and gave him a sad smile. “I’m so sorry, Pierce. I didn’t mean to fall asleep—”

“Shh, Emma. You haven’t done anything wrong.” He smoothed my hair away from my face and pressed his warm palm against my cheek. “You don’t need to keep apologizing to me when you’ve done nothing except be perfect.”

My heart thumped hard in my chest, this time not from fear. The way he looked at me sent a shockwave of heat all the way down to my toes. Pierce Donovan, the coldest and most distant man I’d ever met, stared at me with such adoration that I could barely breathe.

“You are stunning,” he said. “Your eyes, your lips…” He moved his hand down to my chest, and I thought he would comment on my breasts or my nipples, but he didn’t say that at all. “Your heart.”

“Pierce,” I whispered, an emotion building up inside me I didn’t know I could feel, at least not toward him. I knew I should stop it, that I shouldn’t feel this way, not about this man and certainly not right now. But I couldn’t stop it. I was falling for him, and I’m sure it was written all over my face.

“I am so sorry I brought you into this,” he said with a sad smile, shifting higher on the bed so that his back rested against the headboard. “I should have known. Anything involving Chase has the chance to turn violent.”

“What do you mean?” I sat up and crossed my legs, wrapping the sheet around my naked body.

Pierce let out a heavy sigh. “He had a rough time in foster care. Well, we both did, but he had it far worse. The foster father I mentioned before, the one we both had, he was a terrible man. He left me alone when he got into a mood, but not Chase. I don’t know why. Maybe because I was a little older, I don’t know.”

Chills swept across my skin as his words sunk in. “When he got into a mood? You don’t mean…”

“He did terrible things to Chase,” Pierce said, staring down at his hands. “I tried to stop him. Most of the time, I couldn’t. Not until I was older and stronger. But then it seemed like such a stupid idea to stay. So…we ran off. It was just the two of us for a long, long time.”

“Pierce, I had no idea,” I gasped, my eyes beginning to swim with tears. No kid should ever have to go through something like that, and it shed so much light onto why Pierce was the way he was now. Closing himself off was probably the only way he was able to survive all those horrible years.

“Chase and I stuck together, but when he got older, the consequences of the abuse started to show.” Pierce rose his eyes to mine, and I could see so much pain there. “When something upsets him…he doesn’t know what else to do. He doesn’t mean to, Emma, it just happens, and he always feels even worse after he does these things. He’s been better in the last few years though. I think starting a family gave him the stability he always needed, but I’m worried all that will go away now that his wife has turned against us all.”

I breathed out a long sigh and tried to make sense of all this new information. I’d known there was a history, and I’d known there was something he had been hiding from the world, but this was so far outside what I’d expected that I wasn’t sure how to respond.

“The case with Alison Meadows, the one you settled,” I said. “You were protecting Chase, weren’t you?”

“I’d told him that day that I thought I saw Rachel with another man. He flipped out.” Pierce nodded, his entire face crumbling with sadness. “He did a terrible thing, but he immediately regretted every moment of it. I had to protect his face from getting plastered all over the newspapers. Our foster father is still looking for him. He wants to kill him. And even though he might not recognize him now that he’s grown up, I have to do whatever I can to keep that asshole from connecting the dots.”

“Pierce,” I said, sliding my hand around his. I knew it wasn’t my place, but I had to say what was on my mind. “I know you want to protect him, but maybe the best thing would be for him to get help. And you could afford to get him the best care possible. He sounds like he’s not entirely stable, and what if you’re right? What if this Rachel thing sets him off again?”

“If it were going to set him off, it already would have,” Pierce said with a heavy sigh. “Somehow, he’s fine. He’s not drinking or smoking, and he hasn’t gone off the deep end into a pit of self-loathing. The tone of his voice changes when he flips the switch, but right now he still sounds like my little brother.”

“Are you sure?” I frowned. “Could he just be trying to hide it from you?”

“Emma.” Pierce squeezed my hands and gave me a smile. “You don’t need to worry about Chase. Despite all his explosions, he’s never done anything to me, and he wouldn’t do anything to someone I care about.”

A smile tickled my lips despite myself, and my heart resumed its frantic pace. “Someone you care about, huh? Not just someone you’re protecting because you feel guilty about getting her involved?”

“I do feel guilty about getting you involved, but…” he said as he slowly began to remove the sheet from my shoulders. The material dropped to the bed, putting my naked body on display. My breasts ached for his lips, and my thighs begged to be wrapped around him again. All it took was that one heated look from him, and nothing else in the world existed but the two of us.

“But what?” I asked.

“I do care about you, Emma.” He shifted my body onto his hips, spreading my thighs to open my pussy for his ready cock. “I can’t help myself. Whatever it is you’ve done to me, I don’t want you to stop.”

He slid inside me and held my body close. Everything about the feel of him seemed brand new. The way his hands gently caressed my back, the way he stared into my eyes. His lips brushed across my neck, and he took me as slowly and softly as he could. Pierce and I had already had sex many times, but this didn’t feel like a meaningless fuck. A way to pass the time. A way for him to get off with another random girl he’d forget in two weeks.

It felt like much more.

Emma’s body drove me wild with desire. She rode my cock, her breasts bouncing. The way she dropped back her head and moaned made the need to come almost impossible to ignore. But I held on, focused on her pleasure. She was dripping wet, tightening and tightening with each and every thrust. Feelings rose up inside me I’d never felt before, things I couldn’t voice but that I could show her with my body.

This girl was going to be the end of me, and I couldn’t help but love every moment of it. I didn’t want the wall built around my heart anymore. I didn’t want the goddamn playroom of toys. I didn’t want a one-night stand ever again. I just wanted this girl, over and over, in my bed, staring at me like I was the best man in the world.

We came as one, and afterwards, she fell asleep once again in my arms. I drew soft circles on her back as her breath deepened. She looked so peaceful with her hair and hands splayed across my chest. I hated that we couldn’t stay like this forever. The situation with Rachel wasn’t over with yet. She had gotten away, and I knew she’d try to strike again. Next time, it could be at Chase. Or she might go for Emma again.

The only way to keep everyone safe was for all of us to stay locked up inside this apartment, but for how long? Until Rachel was found and caught, Emma would be living in constant fear. And no one could get on with their lives.

I eased out from underneath Emma and dropped a kiss on her forehead before putting on my suit. In the living room, I found Chase and Cynthia both perched tensely on the couch. When I strode toward them, Chase looked up and frowned.

“You’re actually fucking the private investigator you hired to follow my wife?” Chase shook his head in disgust, tipping back his cowboy hat to glare up at me. “Honestly, Pierce, I thought you’d have learned how to keep your dick in your pants by now. Rachel said she bet you were sleeping with that girl, but I didn’t believe it. I thought surely there were some lines you wouldn’t cross. The private investigator? Really?”

I frowned. Chase’s mental state was apparently deteriorating, just as Emma had worried. “When did Rachel mention this to you?”

Chase glanced away, his jaw clenching. “It doesn’t matter.”