Brody touched my knee, bringing my thoughts out of the pits of hell and back to the ONE Bal Harbour Resort suite. “Hey, we have a copy of the contract. We don’t need to go through the whole thing tonight. Besides, this is sick-assed shit and you’ve had a rough day.” His eyes widened as his hands went up in surrender. “I’m sorry, Vik. I don’t need to know what you went through, or what he made you do, but just being here, sitting next to you… you’re different than you were this afternoon. I feel you pulling away. Don’t give him that power.”
My neck straightened. “I’m not. That’s why I went to the law firm. I’m not giving him the power. If I had, I’d be home right now.”
“Home with him? Why?”
“He called me, after…” I blinked unnecessarily. “…I yelled at him. I can almost tell you the number of times I’ve yelled during our entire marriage. Honestly, there haven’t been many. It’s just that he made me a promise. From the very beginning of this
sick-assed
thing…” I motioned toward the contract and emphasized Brody’s words. “…he made me a promise and today he broke it.”
“And you’re surprised? A man who made you sign a contract like this… you’re surprised he broke a promise?”
My chin fell to my chest. “Stupid, isn’t it?”
Warmth enveloped me as strong arms pulled me closer. “No, Vik. It’s not stupid and you’re not stupid. You were tricked into marrying the devil. It’s only natural that you’d try to justify his actions and hold on to any shred of moral high ground.”
Inhaling Brody’s fresh clean scent, I allowed myself to melt against his chest. His words, tone, and actions were exactly what any normal woman would want to hear. But then again, I wasn’t normal. How could I be? I’d been told since before I could remember that I was venom. If there were even a small part of me that had feelings for Brody, the best thing I could do for him was to keep my distance. Then again, I needed his help, at least until the nightmare named Stewart Harrington was buried deeper than my memories.
“Stop it,” Brody commanded.
My eyes widened. “Stop what?”
“You’re still doing it. You’re retreating to wherever you go in that beautiful head of yours.”
He was right. It was safer there. I could control the world in there.
“Vik? Look at me.”
Clearing away the fog of broken promises, I peered into the tranquil aquamarine of his gaze.
“That’s it. Now, stop thinking about anyone or anything else: live in the here and now, with me.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I need to go home. I’m sure Stewart’s asleep by now, but if I’m not there when he wakes, he’ll ask questions.”
“When you spoke, what did you tell him you were going to do?”
“I said I wasn’t going home right away. I told him I was going to go out with Val.”
Brody’s brows peaked expectantly. “Do you ever spend the night at your sister’s?”
I couldn’t stop the smile. “I have, but not often. Stewart doesn’t approve.”
“But… you yelled at him, right?”
I nodded.
“He knows you’re mad?”
“Yes, I made that pretty clear.”
“Why aren’t you with Val?” he asked.
“She has rounds at the hospital tonight. I remember her saying that she’s covering for some other doctors, ones who’ll be covering for her while she’s in Uganda.”
“Uganda?” Brody repeated.
“Yes, that’s her latest project. With the help of the Harrington Society, she’s been and will continue to bring cancer treatment to remote villages. It’s pretty remarkable. She’s organized a big network. There are volunteers there all the time, but as the administrator of the grant, she has to be the one to monitor and help with transporting the necessary drugs.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“She assured me that there are more dangerous areas of the world,” I replied, remembering how I’d asked Val the same question. “That doesn’t mean I don’t worry about her. I asked her why she couldn’t offer the same services here in the United States. There are still millions of people here who can’t afford the necessary treatment. Especially with Stewart’s diagnosis, it made sense. Why not start Harrington Cancer Clinics in the US?”
“Great idea. What did she say?”
“She laughed and told me she’d get a grant proposal to me as soon as she could.”
“I love the way your beautiful eyes glow when you talk about your sister.”
“She’s the only good thing to come out of this.”
“No, she’s not,” Brody said matter-of-factly.
Pressing my lips together, I didn’t respond.
“How many people has she helped through the Harrington Society?”
“Hundreds, maybe thousands. But who’s to say she wouldn’t have done that—”
“You’re doing it again, Vik. Don’t sell yourself short. You made a deal with the devil and managed to promote good. Damn, beautiful, you’re the one who deserves sainthood.”
He couldn’t have been more wrong. Sainthood was not in my future. Well, unless the devil had an apprenticeship program. I mean, he did start out an angel. I chuckled. Perhaps the devil did have a program. Unfortunately for him, I’d been a very good student.
“You’re doing it again.” His tone was demanding, as he proclaimed, “Stay with me.”
“I can’t.”
“Not the night, though I want that. Stay here in this suite, with the ocean view.” He gestured toward the windows. “Stay here. Don’t go back into the darkness.”
If he only understood: that was where I was born and where I’d lived. It was who I was. Nothing he could do or say would change that.
“If Stewart’s already asleep,” Brody began, “give me two hours. I’ll search the contract tomorrow and text you. We’ll work out another time and place to discuss it. Just, please, give me two hours tonight.”
My lips quirked to a one-sided grin. “Why, Mr. Phillips? What could we possibly do in two hours?”
Lifting my hand, Brody stood. “Come with me, Victoria, let me show you.”
My gaze fluttered toward the floor. “I-I don’t…”
“Please,” he implored. “No sex. Let me hold you. Just the two of us, in the light.”
The anxious twisting in my stomach told me what I already knew: I should leave. I shouldn’t allow my darkness to pollute his light. However, before I could argue, Brody had arranged the bed pillows and pulled me toward his broad chest. The beating of his heart echoed in my emptiness. It resonated with an ache more painful than the shame I used to feel from the warehouse or Stewart’s comments.
That humiliation was no longer present. It had been, but I’d learned to shut myself off. It was like this afternoon. My body engaged in the activities instructed by the voice through the headphones, but my mind and my heart were shielded. As Brody continued to whisper loving things, the pain within me grew. Shouldn’t I like this? Maybe my heart wasn’t shielded; maybe it was dead?
Then again, can an organ ache if it no longer existed?
I lifted my face to his and ran my fingers through his soft, short hair. In the natural light from the open windows, the hint of strawberry that graced his blonde was difficult to distinguish. Lifting my chin, I kissed his lips. The innocent connection deepened as our tongues united.
“Whoa,” he protested, pulling away. “I’m being a gentleman here. What are you doing?”
Sitting back on my heels, I reached for the hem of my sundress and pulled it over my head. In one dramatic gesture, I threw it to the floor in a pile of silk. Wearing nothing but my panties, I palmed my heavy breasts, exposing and twisting my taut nipples. “Mr. Phillips,” I began breathily, “you now have less than two hours to make me forget everything. I want you to fuck me so good that everything else in the world goes away. I want my only thoughts to be of you deep inside me.” I lifted my brow, as I reached for his hand and placed it over my breast. When our eyes met, I asked, “Do you accept the challenge?”
From the look of his slacks, the tenting growing higher by the moment, and the sultry expression emerging from where moments ago I’d seen compassion and concern, I knew he did.
“Vik, I want you to know that I think of you as more than a fuck—”
I put one finger on his lips. “Brody, right now, I want to be fucked. I want to be fucked by someone who I can see and hear. I want to be the person in control of my movements and responses. I want
you
to fuck
me
. Fuck me like no one else has ever fucked me.” My thumbs found the waistband of my panties. “Will you please do that for me?”
Unfastening his belt, he smiled my direction and said, “All but one thing. Just for the record, I’m in control of your responses.” Before I could refute, he continued, “I’m not going to tell you what they are, but you’ll know it was me who brought them on. I’m not stopping until I get what I want. Fuck the damn two-hour time limit.” With my panties gone, Brody pushed me back against the large mattress and climbed my body, raining kisses from my breasts to my lips. “That is the challenge I accept.”
I could do this. I could spread my legs and disappear. It was my specialty, my survival technique.
“One more thing,” he said, grasping my chin and moving my eyes to his. “You’re going to stay with me. I want to watch you come.”
I needed to leave to escape. This connection wasn’t what I wanted. “I-I don’t…”
“Vik, right here.” He calmly demanded as he pointed to his eyes. “Look right here.”
When I did, his hand slid down my stomach. The path he’d traveled tingled from the warmth of his touch and ignited my skin. I reached for his shoulders as one then two fingers slid inside of me. In and out. With my gaze set on him and my hands holding him tight, my hips moved to his rhythm.
“That’s it. Stay with me. Oh, baby, you’re getting so wet for me…”
Lifting my hands toward the headboard, I refused to listen as Brody continued to talk. I hadn’t gotten wet for anyone, not even Stewart, in years. That was what lubricant was for. Most of the
friends
were too stupid or too self-centered to know. Most probably gave themselves kudos for how easily their puny, condom-wrapped dicks slid inside. Little did they realize that the mere thought of their presence turned my body to dust. Sometimes I imagined that dust blowing away…
The way his aquamarine gaze penetrated, I knew this was different. I’d cleaned myself well at the warehouse. I was truly aroused.
“Vik, I’m going to use a condom.”
Refocusing on his words, I nodded. It didn’t matter. I wouldn’t get pregnant. Stewart required monthly birth control injections as one of the clauses of the contract. I’d recently learned they weren’t necessary, at least not where he was concerned. At one of his doctor’s appointments, I’d accidentally found out that, years before our marriage, he’d undergone a vasectomy. Apparently, it wasn’t something he felt the need to share. I presumed that the shots were added protection against accidents that could occur during his little shows.
“Oh!” I stared into the depth of his gaze as the head of Brody’s hard cock pressed against my entrance. Despite the wetness, with each inch, his cock pushed the limits of my core. The delicious fullness demanded my attention as I readjusted my hips, encouraging him to fill me to the brink. Again, I reached for his shoulders, longing for that connection. My small hands caressed his rippled muscles, as he fulfilled my request. The scent of musk permeated the suite replacing his fresh aftershave, drawing me toward him. He didn’t speak, but sounds of lust and approval filled my ears, capturing all of my senses.
His hips bucked harder and faster as I fell into his rhythm. Reaching for my ass and supporting us on his elbows, he pulled me closer, until finding where one of us began and the other one ended was beyond comprehension. We were one. Sounds escaped my lips as his heavy balls slapped against my ass.
“You feel so good. I-I…” Brody murmured as his eyes glazed, and he let go of my ass and found my clit.
As he fondled the swollen bundle of nerves, the suite around us disappeared. It had been so long since I’d had a real orgasm, the overwhelming sensation took me by surprise as fireworks ignited and flashes of light electrified my body from within. I couldn’t let go of him, fearful that if I did, I’d be washed away in the waves of pleasure flowing from my fingers to my toes.
Pounding into me, Brody found his release as he let out a roar that echoed through the suite. When the final ripple of unbridled pleasure subsided, Brody kissed my forehead and rubbed his cheek against mine. “You’re incredible.”
Smiling, I moved my hips, sending messages to where we were still connected. “I don’t think that was me.”
His expression lightened as the small lines came to the corners of his eyes. In a smooth flip, I found myself on top, straddling him, his cock still buried deep inside of me. “I’m pretty sure there’s no one else here. It was all you.” He lifted my hips slightly and lowered me. The friction brought life back to where it had begun to descend. I moved to adjust as he stretched my already pleased core.
“That’s it Vik. Keep moving. I don’t believe my time is up.”
I leaned back, allowing him to fondle my breasts. Skillfully, Brody twisted and taunted the already hard nubs, his ample fingers bringing both sparks of pain and waves of pleasure. Each sensation moved from my breasts to my core, magnifying each thrust of his hips. With the building tension, I questioned my ability to remain upright. As if reading my mind, his fingers entwined with mine, supporting and holding me as I enjoyed the mounting friction. The wildfire that had exploded earlier re-ignited, burning a path that threatened the destruction of my finely constructed walls.
The suite filled with clamor as primal sounds escaped my open lips and Brody, too, growled above the din. We continued to move as one until our words and noises reached their peak.
“Fuck! Vik, you’re so fucking hot!”
His back arched and fingers dug into my flesh as his cock throbbed within me. Unable to hold back, the walls of my core milked and contracted while satisfied sighs stilled our movements and quieted the suite. Like a cloud of peace, the room—hell, the world—fell into a climax-induced calm.
Unable to face the aquamarine that saw inside of me, I fell, shattered beyond repair, onto his chest. As I reeled with my reality, strong arms enveloped my shoulders. It had been unlike any orgasm I could remember. Surely, I wasn’t whole. I couldn’t be. In the depths of my haze, I knew that I was no more than a million disassociated pieces vulnerable to the winds of life.