“Ride me, Goddess.” My gravelly voice cuts into the blanket of silence settling over my bedroom. It mixes with the moonlight and the electrifying presence Aurora and I have created between us.
The goddess lifts her beautiful body onto mine, her silver hair shining, competing with the shimmer of the moon.
She bites back a smile when her clear blue eyes settle on me. I don’t know why she’s still trying to hide how much she’s enjoying me. I won’t tell her that there’s almost no point now.
This is us on round number eight.
Eight times, yet her skin still flushes with innocence.
I can’t help but think in art, so I imagine we look like a dark fantasy version of Hades and Persephone. But the contrast of shadows and silver and the redness of her cheeks, nipples, and lips give us the flair of a neo-noir painting.
I run my hands over the bareness of her silky-smooth thighs as she straddles me, impaling herself on my cock. Her sweet wetness and warmth wrap around me, luring me deeper and deeper into her body.
“Is this what you want?” she moans, her pupils dilating with lust.
“You know it is, Goddess.”
She starts moving her little hips over me, and I lose my mind all over again, my senses consumed by owning her one more time.
One more time?
No.
It won’t be.
I’ll keep going for as long as we can.
I don’t know what the hell time it is, but it’s still dark outside. As long as I have the cover of darkness, it means I don’t have to think about anything else besides her.
As her fuckable breasts with dusky-pink nipples bounce before my face, I
know I’ll come to suffer for this like a lost fool, but I couldn’t possibly entertain the idea of stopping yet.
So, I choose this.
I choose my pleasure, my poison, my downfall.
Voracious lust is calling the shots again, and all I can see are the colors of arousal and my power to keep her with me.
Every time I take her, I get to a point where I hate to love the potent surge of pleasure she gives me, and I almost feel she needs to suffer for it.
Suffer for making me feel things I haven’t felt in forever.
Suffer for the elation that fucking her brings me.
Suffer for being the first woman to sleep in this bed.
Aurora Wright has staked a claim on the dark soul lurking beneath my skin, and I can’t shift it.
Because I don’t want to.
Cupping her ass, I take back some of the control and grind into her.
She arches her back and moans hum from her entire body like the perfect chorus of angels.
“Knight!” she screams my name for the first time tonight. It’s a glorious sound.
“Scream my name again.” My demand is harsh yet desperate. I want to hear her again so I can commit the sound to memory the way a blind person would by touching a face.
“Knight! Knight! Knight!” She moans out, and I soak it all up.
Jesus Christ. I can’t get enough of this.
Consumed by greed to take more of her, I grab her waist and power up into her body like I’ve lost my shit, then I pick her off me and flip her so she’s on her hands and knees.
I settle behind her and plunge back in, shattering my last shred of control as I tighten my grip on her waist and fuck her like I never have before.
Nothing has ever felt so good in my life as her or this moment.
The walls of her pussy contract and expand, exploding around my length.
That happens several times before my own climax slams me outside of reality and I finally erupt inside her, filling her with my cum.
We both collapse into a sticky heap, her lithe, limp body pressed against mine.
Sliding out of her, I pull her close and turn her to face me so I can look at her.
Her eyes meet mine, and we kiss like it’s habit.
She runs her fingers along my jaw, feeling the scruff of my beard, then continues down, down, down to my chest and flutters over the line of Japanese characters tattooed on my abs.
I wonder if she can feel the scar beneath. The deepest one.
Maybe it’s been so long that it can’t be felt anymore. It was already fading when I decided to cover it up with art.
Some people keep theirs to remember what they did. I covered mine to forget, but at least I did it with a Samurai death poem about honor.
I felt I owed that part to myself.
It also seemed fitting at the time.
Whether or not Aurora can feel it, I’m sure she wouldn’t let on that she can.
That’s one more mystery about me I don’t want to talk about.
Eventually, her hand moves straight down to my cock.
I smile into her kiss, groaning long into her mouth as she strokes my length.
“You want me again, Goddess?” I lick over her lips.
“Yes,” she whispers.
Her confirmation makes me hard again, as if I didn’t just empty myself inside her seconds ago.
“I’m all yours.” I get on top of her, and she wraps her long legs around my waist as I slam back into her body.
I devour her again. And we don’t stop there.
We keep going.
The bright morning sun looks just as good on her as the moonlight did.
I’m sitting on the window bay, absorbing the last few minutes I have to admire Aurora’s beauty.
She’s wrapped in my sheets with her hair sprawled around her in a sexy mess, just like the fantasy. She still looks like a piece of art in my bed. And in my room.
Everything in here is so dark and dusky with rich colors of burgundy and Aegean blue, but her fairness adds light like a candle in a dark cave.
I want nothing more than to climb back in bed with her, wake her up, and spend the day making up for the last five weeks.
But I need to resist. If only for the sake of work. Both my absence and Jericho’s at the fundraiser did not go down well last night.
When I eventually looked at my phone, I saw the host of messages from my grandfather and Chelle asking me where I was.
I didn’t reply to Chelle, but I sent my grandfather a message letting him know I’d speak with him later. I phrased it that way to open the floor to talk to him about Jericho.
I’ve also decided it’s better to tell him I was absent last night because Aurora was sick. I hate lying to him, but no way in hell am I going to tell him I spent the night balls deep in my wife—wife-to-be—a woman we both know is supposed to be a pawn in my mission to secure my legacy.
Which leads me to the other reason I need to be careful. The one I keep coming back to—her.
Last night blew my mind, but even before I met Aurora, I knew she deserved better.
She deserves better than the raw hand life dished her with the loss of her mother, and she deserves better than me.
Going down this road is also not good for me. Although I feel like I’m past the point where I might have been able to turn back.
There’s a little knock on my door.
It’s either going to be Claude or Denise. It’s ten. They would have come up to check on me sooner, but I’m sure with the raucous noises Aurora and I made, they stayed away.
I pull on a T-shirt and walk to the door quietly, opening it with the same care.
Claude stands on the other side with an uneasy look on his face.
He knows Aurora is in here. As it was he who delivered that message to me last night, he’s probably also thinking that this is where attempting to drag my bride off kicking and screaming led me.
“Morning.” I step outside and close the door behind me so we can talk.
“Sorry to disturb you, but Aurora’s father is here to see you.”
Hearing her father is here cracks the glass around the sphere of existence Aurora and I have lived in since last night.
I give Claude a narrowed stare. “What’s he doing here?”
“He says he has paperwork. He went by Grayson Inc. earlier and was told you weren’t there, so he came here instead.”
Interesting.
William Wright is here to see me for paperwork.
All the paperwork that required us to sign in person was done weeks ago. The only thing I’m waiting for is the transfer of assets document for Sunset Cove. There was no need for him to bring me that when it could have been posted or couriered.
Unless he needed to speak to me. No doubt about his daughter. Maybe he wants to give me some parting wisdom before our nuptials, which are now only two days away.
“What should I tell him?” Claude asks.
“I’ll go see him. Where is he?”
“The grand hall. He was looking at the paintings.”
“Alright. I’ll head down in a few seconds.”
“Sure.”
Claude leaves, and I take those few seconds to gather my thoughts before I head downstairs to the hall. There I find William looking at the biggest painting, an artist’s rendition of Rembrandt’s The Storm on The Sea of Galilee.
The painting is close enough to the original and old enough to cost me five million in an auction in Italy.
On hearing my footsteps on the wooden floor, William looks at me and straightens.
He looks just as broken as he did weeks ago when we met in his office and we made the deal of destiny. In his hands is a small envelope.
“Morning,” he says first when I stop a few paces away.
“Good morning.”
“Sorry to drop by unannounced. This has all been finalized. It’s the assets document we were waiting for.” He holds out the envelope, and I take it.
“You know you didn’t have to go through the trouble of getting this to me.”
“I know.”
“But I’m assuming you want to speak with me.” I raise a questioning brow.
He nods, slowly, and glances over my shoulder, probably checking for Aurora.
“She’s sleeping,” I fill in.
His gaze snaps back to mine with suspicion in his eyes, as if my knowledge that Aurora is sleeping means something happened between us. It does, but I won’t tell him that he’s right.
“I suppose that’s better.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?” I sound less abrasive than I did when we first met.
“Aurora. How is she? How is she really?”
Aurora sees him a couple of times a week, so on the surface, that might be an odd question to ask. But I know every time she would have been in his presence, she would have slipped on a brave face so he wouldn’t worry.
“She’s okay. And I’ve still kept my silence.” That was a promise I didn’t need to keep. If I were as loathsome as I allow most to believe, Aurora would have known by now her father got mixed up with drugs, alcohol, gambling, the mafia, and shit.
“I thank you for that. Just so you know, I’ve continued my treatment, and while things are hard, I’m not in that place anymore. Obviously, I owe you a great debt for getting the worry of Falcone off my mind. It is a debt I will pay.”
“You’ve already paid.”
“No. Paying with my daughter, her trust, and her inheritance is not paying. I will repay everything. Just give me time to get back on my feet.”
I feel like I shouldn’t be shocked by his honor, but I am. “Is that what you came here to tell me?”
“No. I also wanted to talk about the wedding. Aurora is nervous about it. I am too. It might be business to you and mean nothing, but it means everything to me. She’s my daughter. On Saturday, when I give her to you, it will be worse than signing any contract.”
I take in the agony dulling his eyes. Strangely, it pulls on my insides.
“I need to ask one more favor.” He closes his hand into a fist and holds it by his side.
“What is it?”
“Please, don’t hurt her.”
It’s such a simple yet powerful request.
“No harm has come to her since she’s been in my care for the last six weeks, and I’m sure you can see she’s well taken care of.”
“That’s not exactly what I mean. She’s been through her fair share of life. Aurora is also one of the few people who still believe marriage means something. I know I might sound like a hypocrite saying that, but here I am. When she was supposed to marry Nathan, I knew he was a poor choice, but he knew her, so I didn’t have the additional worry.”
“And you think you will with me?”
“Mr. Grayson, I’m well versed in who you are and what men like you do. My daughter is the most precious thing in my world. Aurora came into my life when she was twelve because I didn’t know about her. I promised myself and her mother I would take care of her, but I haven’t.”
That gives me pause. All my research, and I never knew that part of Aurora’s past. It explains quite a lot, though. I expected a spoiled daddy’s little girl when I first met her, but she wasn’t even a little bit like that.
“I saved her and her mother,” William continues. “Literally. Both of them were a gunshot away from not being in my life.” Sadness fills his eyes and pierces me when I think of Aurora in that kind of danger at such a young age. “Through all of this, I’ve felt that Aurora might agree to do certain things because she may think she owes me. She doesn’t. A father’s first duty is to protect, no matter how long or short he’s known his child. I feel like I’ve failed her in so many ways, even when it came to her mother.”
“Why would you think that?”
“I never told her her mother was sick. She only knew when Susana dropped dead in front of her. Things have been awful since, and I’ve just kept making one bad choice after another.”
Knowing Aurora lost her mother in such a cruel, callous way unearths the familiar feeling of grief in what remains of my soul. I know what it’s like to see someone you love die.
No matter what, I never would have wanted that for her.
“All I’m asking is if you could respect her.” William nods with slow reflection. “Please don’t judge her based on my actions. She’s not like anyone else you’ll ever meet in this world.”
I might not have spent the entire six weeks with her, but I can believe him. I knew she was different to anyone I’d ever met within five minutes of speaking to her that first night at No. 11.
“You have my word. Your daughter will have my full respect.” I already sound like I’m taking my wedding vows.
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” He dips his head, and his expression appears lighter. “Well, I should get going. I won’t take up any more of your time. Thanks again.”
He turns to leave, but I think of one last thing I need to say to him. “William.”
He stops and looks back at me. “Yes.”
“Nathan. I hear he’s in touch.”
His expression dulls like an overcast sky before a downpour of torrential rain. “He has.”
“Let’s not kid ourselves. You know he wants more than that job he’s asking for.” I cut to the chase, also letting him know I’m keeping tabs on both of them.
“Yes. I know.”
“He’s not having your daughter.”
William searches my eyes as if he’s trying to see beyond the walls of my carefully placed barriers. “No?”
“No. If I don’t deserve her, neither does he. And for the record, if I were you, I wouldn’t hire him for anything. He might not be guilty of the same things as his father, but mark my word, he’s guilty of something. It’s just not on paper.”
He nods, understanding. “Message received, Knight Grayson.”
With another curt nod, he leaves, and I think about everything he said about Aurora.
She already has my respect, and I would never set out to intentionally hurt her, although as she once said, everything about me is wrong. Especially when it comes to Sunset Cove.
If I were a better man, I’d stop what I started last night in its tracks and never touch her again.
But I selfishly still want her for myself.
