The deadliest sin series.., p.81
The Deadliest Sin Series Complete Collection, page 81
I jerk my fingers free from her body and shove the gun between her legs, brushing the barrel along her bare thighs. My cock aches, straining against the confines of the hard zipper pressed against it, but that isn’t what she wants—not really. She’s had that over and over again, and it wasn’t enough for her. She needs something more.
Her entire body vibrates, her hands clinging to the front of my shirt. Delicate fingers curl tightly into the crisp material, and pure, unadulterated lust sparks in her eyes.
Mi cielo isn’t scared. The terror that should be present in the way she looks at me couldn’t be further from the truth of what I see there.
I nudge her wet slit with the barrel of the gun. “This is what you want? This kind of danger?” I lean in and brush my lips across hers gently, catching her gasp in my mouth while I press my weapon firmly against her clit. “You want to know that it will only take one twitch of my finger for this gun to go off?”
Her head drops back, and she releases a strangled groan. But she doesn’t ask me to stop. She doesn’t exhibit even one hint of fear. This is getting her off, being this close to death, having me so close to wanting to pull the trigger. Dancing the thin edge.
She’s far colder, more calculating, and more fucked up than I ever gave her credit for.
Brushing my lips against her ear, I inhale her scent. “Will you fuck me and pretend I’m my brother?”
Her entire body starts shaking, and I rub the barrel in circles around her most sensitive spot. She shifts slightly, clenching her legs together around my wrist and hand, then opening herself more, almost an invitation—one I’m more than willing to accept.
I slip the barrel inside her, and her eyes fly open to meet mine. Her whimper spurs me onward, and as I push it even deeper, I capture her gasp with a violent kiss. Her pussy clamping around the hard metal makes it twitch in my hand, and the feeling runs straight through me to my cock. I drag out the gun and push it back in again, never removing my finger from the trigger.
Kat likes playing games with life and death—her own, mine, Sofia’s, even Valentina’s and her unborn child’s. But that’s okay because this is one game I intend to win.
KAT
Heat spreads from my core out through all my shaking, tingling limbs. Clinging to the front of Rose’s shirt is the only thing that keeps me grounded in this world and my legs from collapsing out from under me—thin, crisp fabric my only lifeline to reality.
The way he reads me. The way he’s not afraid to give me exactly what I need and simultaneously fear the most. It’s too much and not enough at the same time. My heart and head can’t process the constant struggle. My body exists in a never-ending state of turmoil and bliss with this man. And tonight is the pinnacle. The ultimate reckoning.
I never knew this could exist. That it could be like this. Yet, here we are, toying with death and life and lust and love as if they’re things that can be easily replaced.
He withdraws the cool, hard metal from inside me and pushes the whole barrel back in, sending another jolt of pleasure coursing through me and pulling me even closer to the brink of madness. The knuckles of the hand wrapped around the grip and trigger brush the inside of my thigh with each stroke, vividly reminding me of how close he is to ending me.
What he’s doing would horrify anyone else. But not me. My heart thunders against my chest, threatening to explode the same way I would if he just twitched his damn finger. Dancing the line between love and hate, life and death, anger and lust, it’s almost too much to bear.
A low, needy moan climbs up my throat and into Rose’s mouth as his tongue lashes against mine with purpose.
Hungry.
Needy.
Fucking pissed off and on the edge of losing control.
He's right—one quick flinch of his hand would kill me. It would end everything in a split-second of gore I probably deserve. But I've never been more turned on my entire fucking life. Not even when Aleksander came home covered in Terrance’s blood after he killed him for me.
The Dragon tried to protect me from the danger, keep me locked away and pristine while Rose pushes me toward something no other man ever has, forces me to face my own demons and desires head-on with my eyes wide open. Though there are those who would look at the two men and see them as the same, that couldn’t be more wrong. One tried to keep me from his world; the other wants me to rule it with him.
I slide my shaky hands down between us to his belt and fumble with the buckle. It’s too late to go back now, too late to stop what I’ve become or undo what I’ve done to him.
He has every right to be angry and want to hurt me. And I’ll let him because even when it hurts, he gives me what I need. What I’m often not even capable of voicing. He can do what he will with me. I don't even care. I deserve it and so much more.
I finally manage to free Rose’s cock and take it in my hand, giving the hard length a firm stroke. He groans and pulls the gun from inside my cunt, letting it clatter to the floor beside us so he can lift my legs to wrap them around his waist. Digging my heels into his lower back, I capture his mouth with mine, needing that exchange of power that always occurs when we battle for dominance during a kiss.
After what I did, I never imagined I’d be in his arms again, and whether it’s the anger or the adrenaline or the lust coursing through him, the pain that plagued him the last time we were together seems to be long forgotten. Rather than wincing and being careful to ensure he doesn’t hurt himself, his entire focus is on this moment and the blaze burning between us, threatening to fully engulf everything human about us and reduce us to ashes on the floor.
He reaches down, aligns his cock, and drives into me in one aggressive thrust, driving me harder against the wall. While his lips steal every exhale, his hand moves up to tighten around my throat.
“Open your eyes, mi cielo!” He drags back his hips and plunges into me again, so hard, it feels like he’s cementing himself there permanently.
Maybe that’s what he’s trying to do—leave a permanent mark on me so I’m incapable of ever forgetting what we had together. As easily as I've managed to push what happened with Michael from my head, that can never happen with this man. He will haunt me until my dying day, which very well might be today. That isn’t off the table by any means.
Anything might happen when this ends…a race where we’re rapidly approaching the finish line.
His strokes reach a relentless pace, and he increases the pressure on my throat until a murky, dark warmth encroaches on the edges of my vision. He withdraws from me and slams in again, pushing me closer and closer to the point of no return. Hanging in this space between the harsh reality of what I've done and the beautiful possibility of what could have been. But reality in the form of my orgasm crashes over me so intensely, my heart stalls in my chest.
Rose mumbles something in Spanish while lights flash against my closed lids, but my brain isn't working well enough for me to translate it, nor do I care. He eliminates any ability to care about anything else when he drives into me harder than I ever knew possible, his hold on my neck so tight, I can’t suck in a breath.
The strange mix of pleasure and pain drag out another orgasm that I didn't even know was possible. My entire body vibrates and jerks, hands clinging to the back of his neck, nails scoring his skin. He finally screams and empties himself into my pussy in short, hot bursts and collapses against me, pinning me to the wall just as the darkness starts to envelop me.
He lowers me slowly, brushing his lips up my neck, over my cheek, and across my mouth until I’m standing on wobbly legs. His warm breath that smells vaguely of scotch tickles my nose, making me hungry for his kiss again. But I don’t lean forward to take what I want. Instead, we stand, staring at each other for what feels like forever. Until his eyes darken even more…
“¡Mierda!” He withdraws from inside me, his rage building again—if ever dissipated.
A feeling of emptiness and loss floods me, and he pushes away from the wall and leans down. The breath I just regained catches in my throat when I realize what he’s doing. My legs wobble again, so violently I lean back against the wall to stop from falling over.
He grabs the gun from the floor before slowly rising to face me again, his hand curled firmly around it. That source of pleasure only moments ago will also be the vehicle of my demise. “It’s time, mi cielo.”
KAT
His knuckles whiten where he tightly grips the gun at this side. The fury he felt when he walked in the door downstairs hasn’t abated. In fact, it may have only enraged him more to have given in to me like that, to have shown his weakness for me and my body despite his wrath.
But clarity seems to be returning to his hard, dark gaze more and more with every passing second we stand in silence. The lust that fogged them over the last several minutes has been replaced with determination. He came here on a mission—one he intends to complete.
I won’t stop him from doing whatever he feels needs to be done, but not before he knows everything. Not until I give him the chance to make the right decision. He can’t be in the dark anymore. It’s too painful for him…and for me.
It’s time for the truth. “Before you do whatever it is you think you have to do, there’s something you need to hear first.”
His eyes narrow on me, and he takes a step forward, flexing his free hand at his side like he’s restraining himself from lashing out—either with it or the gun in the other hand. “I don't want any empty apologies or platitudes, Kat. I don't want anything you have to give me.”
I raise an eyebrow and tug my dress back down my thighs. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
Rose could react to this in a number of ways. Using that gun in his hand for its intended purpose is just as likely as him being thrilled with what I’m about to reveal. If he sees this as the opening it could be, then I have a chance of not only getting out of this alive but also with my plan intact. But if he can’t see past what I’ve done to the reasons that justify my actions, then this will all be for naught.
I move around him, prepared to have him lash out and stop me, but he lets me walk to where my phone sits on the top of my desk. This is it—the moment I find out if my gamble was worth it. Placing my bets on the winning horse wasn’t too far off base. I just pray he understands.
Turning to face him, I hit play.
“Well, well, well, look what the Kat dragged in…” Felipe's voice floats through the room like a ghost, its presence heavy.
Rose’s eyes widen, and he snarls and takes a step toward me. “What the fuck is that?”
I close the distance between us, holding out the phone toward him. “A recording of my entire conversation with your brother, including when I got him to drop the act and partner with me in my stand against you.”
He snatches it from my hand and hits play, listening intently to every word Felipe and I shared during our clandestine meeting. His gaze jerks back to me several times, but he paces while he takes it all in—phone in one hand and gun in the other, fingers flexing and curling around it with each step.
“I look forward to our partnership, Kat.”
“As do I, Father.”
Felipe's low chuckle sends a chill through me now, just as it did when I was sitting across from him only a few days ago, making the deal that could either break everything or set us up for the ultimate victory in the future.
Rose turns back to me, shaking his head. “I don't understand. Why are you telling me this, letting me listen to it?”
“Because I need you to understand I didn't have any other choice. This is war, Rose. It has been since the day you and Michael set foot in Chicago. Intentional or not, you two started a conflict that is still raging now and is only going to get worse when you both sought to move in and expand here, regardless of who you took out in the process.”
I run a shaky hand over my disheveled hair falling out of the tight bun that once contained it. Over the last few days, I’ve gone over what I would say to Rose when he showed up at least a thousand times. But this is so much harder than I ever imagined it would be.
“And my first priority was…is to protect Jeton. Valentina had me backed into a corner in Albania. I didn't have a choice if I wanted to get Jet out of there. I did what I had to do, and I’d do it again. But I never betrayed you. I never could. And I never intended to hurt your pride or make you question my loyalty. All this”—I wave at the phone—“going to Felipe…it was all part of my plan to convince Valentina and your brother that we weren't aligned any longer. I thought I might have a shot to get him to open up to me about his plans if I agreed to help him and he knew that I had given you to the Marconis. And you heard what's on that recording. What he intends to do…”
He glances down at the phone and shakes his head. “I still can't believe he thinks he'll succeed. That he thinks the other families are just going to let this happen.”
I take a tentative step toward him and pull the phone from his hand. The tips of my fingers brush his palm, and a little jolt rolls through me and straight between my legs where the evidence of what we just did still lingers. “This isn’t everything. It can't be. Your brother is too smart to tell me his entire plan and reveal any aces he has up his sleeve. He doesn't trust me. Even if he is pretending to. I think we both know that. But with time…he will. Or I’ll find a way to get him to talk.”
Rose is on me so fast, I don't have time to back away or prepare myself for what’s coming. He grabs my wrist and drags me up against him. A low growl vibrates in his chest where we’re pressed together. “He will not fucking touch you. Do you hear me, mi cielo? You do whatever you have to but not that. Never that. You are mine, Kat. Mine.” His words rumble through me, falling from his lips with more passion than I’ve ever seen from him. “It will be hard enough staying away from you and Jet to keep up appearances without having to think about what you're doing with Felipe behind closed doors.”
It takes me a moment to process his words. “You believe me? That I never meant to betray you?”
He releases my wrist and cups my cheek in his palm, harshly dragging my face up to his. “You did betray me, mi cielo. By not telling me what was going on, by not giving me any choice in the matter. But you have the rest your life to pay for your sins. We've only just started your penance.”
KAT
I should've known Rose would make me pay in every way imaginable—with my mind, my body, and my soul. He ran me hard and left me weak and shaking. Worked me up and brought me crashing back down so many times in the last few hours that I lost track.
And he will do it all over again the second he has the chance.
If I didn't have to meet with Superintendent Canon, I think Rose would've kept me in my room indefinitely. But in order for this plan to work, in order for everyone to believe we’ve broken our partnership and stand on opposite sides, certain steps must be taken. Sacrifices must be made. Like staying away from each other to ensure no one suspects we are still one joined force.
Watching him leave this morning felt like witnessing a part of me walk away. Yet, after everything we’ve been through together, I know we can make it through anything as long as we have faith in each other. It may have wavered when I turned Rose over to Valentina. It put a kernel of doubt into his head. But I’ve regained the trust I broke by having faith in him. We’re on more solid ground now after what happened last night than we ever have been.
Our future in Chicago may not be known, but one thing is certain—it will be with us together.
Eventually…
If Valentina believes Rose cut ties with me after what I did and Felipe believes I've chosen to align myself with him because he's most likely to win this brotherly battle, then that makes us even more powerful. No one will know what we’re planning in secret or how determined we are to ensure our success.
Considering how angry the Russians and Irish are after the attack I orchestrated against them, it's only a matter of time before Valerian strikes again and Galen comes for vengeance, too. I'm not naïve enough to think the head of the Irish mob is just sitting around, twiddling his thumbs after I stole a massive gun shipment from him. He's planning something big, and I need to be ready for it.
But the shoot-out with Valerian at the airport and then what Cutter and Valentina’s other men did at Rose’s compound just left us in a precarious position where law enforcement is concerned.
My agreement with the superintendent of the City of Chicago Police Department to keep things that occur in my territory under wraps doesn’t do me any good when he doesn't have jurisdiction over the airport or where Rose’s mansion sits. And Arden’s hacks on databases for both departments have proven fruitless. While it's clear they're looking for us for questioning, there's little, if any, information about what evidence they may have to actually charge us with anything.
Which is why this meeting today is so important. Regardless of whether it's his jurisdiction or not, Superintendent Canon can assist me in getting information no one else is privy to. He can prepare me—and Rose when I inform him—for what’s coming if, or when, we get brought in.
But he appears none too pleased with having to attend this meeting today. He climbs into the back of the SUV next to me and scowls. “You’re a wanted woman, Kat. I can't be seen with you.”
I incline my head and offer him a tight smile. “I understand your precarious position, Superintendent Canon, but we need to talk in person. Too many open ears in your department.”
He releases an annoyed sigh. “What do you want, Kat? I already helped cover up the fact that your men were seen fleeing the scene of the attack on Galen McGinnis’ shipment. I don’t know what else I can do.”
