A Kingpin Love Affair (12 page)

Isabella

Everything about today
felt off, at least from the moment we pulled into the parking lot of that abandoned parking lot. The air around me filled with tension and danger. The man in the backseat oozed money—his suit, even his smell. He reminded me of the man Jared had said Alzerro was before he found Bree, not just that, but he reminded me of everything I wanted to distance myself from. I fidgeted with my hands nervously, feeling as if the man in the back seat was staring straight through to my heart as if he could see the fear within me.

Jared held my hand, attempting to soothe me. It worked until it came time to drop the man off. It was when Jared removed his hand from mine the fear slithered its way back into me. I felt naked and cold without him.

I could feel the man in the back seat glaring at me, his eyes practically burning my skin. I was rooted in place while I waited the minuscule amount of seconds it took Jared to get to his door and let him out. The entire three seconds I felt he had something he wanted to say—as if there were unsaid words floating between the two of us.

“Thank you,” he said to Jared. I didn’t miss the fact he had spoken Russian in the backseat. I knew better than to dismiss something that big. When Jared got back in the car, I tried to seem unaffected by the man’s presence but the thing was, I couldn’t shake it.

“I thought I could grill out tonight. We could sit on the porch swing and eat dinner together.” I could feel Jared’s hand on my own but felt disconnected from him. I was putting up a wall, shielding myself from the destruction I felt was going to take place soon.

“That…” I paused. “That sounds great.” I faked a smile, not wanting him to know just how alone I was truly feeling.

He was worried about me. I could see it on his face, yet he failed to let it hinder him. Instead, he pushed it away just as I gripped his hand in mine. I didn’t need him asking more questions or wanting to delve deeper into things. I knew I was a hypocrite for doing this, for failing to tell him what my instincts were telling me, but I needed to protect him.

He had finally opened up to someone, and there was no way in hell I would take that away from him. As we drove back to the house, I searched my mind for a memory, a picture, anything to tell me who the man was.

Then something hit me. It could’ve been the smell that still lingered in the car or the way his voice sounded in Russian as I replayed it over and over again in my mind. The repeating forced a memory to come forward.

“Which one is mine?” a male voice asked. I didn’t move. I knew better. I had heard many of the other girls beat for moving.

“This one right here.” One of the men gripped my arm pulling me up onto my unsteady legs. It had been days since they removed the bag from my head. They only ever removed it when we ate. One girl told me it was easier for the men if they didn’t have to see our faces all the time.

“She is so tiny,” the man commented. I could feel his hand on my waist, his fingers lingering on my skin. His scent engulfed me, reminding me of high-end collagen. He had money—that much was true.

“Most of them are, sir. We buy them as is and due to certain circumstances, we cannot offer them everything needed. Sometimes we have to discipline them. As you can see, some of them have flesh wounds and bruises. It comes with the territory.” I had seen death many times over since I was sold. They didn’t care if we lived or died. Only the ones worth a pretty penny survived.

I could feel the air around me grow tense. It was thickening making it harder to breathe. I stood very still, afraid if I moved even an inch, I would be backhanded, and maybe even have my chance at freedom taken from me.

“You’re to treat her with respect. She is more expensive than any of the others you’re holding. I paid far more than anyone else,” the man growled. There was violence in his voice, and it consumed me.

“Yes… yes, sir,” the man stuttered over his words as if he were afraid of my soon to be owner, which made me wonder if I should be, as well.

“Good. I want no ill harm to come to her, and if I find out that any has, blood will be shed in her honor.” There was no lightheartedness to his words. He cupped my cheek and whispered near my ear, his breath fresh and sweet.

“Дитя, ты в порядке с предприятием.” I didn’t know what he had said, but I did know it did very little to soothe me. I knew better than to hope the place I would be taken to would be much better than this one.

“Protect her at all cost. Otherwise, it’s your life that will be taken.” Those were the last words he had said before his footsteps sounded off in the distance.

“Izzy…” Jared called my name. His hand was gripping mine as if he wanted to keep me here with him forever. It was as if he knew and understood I was going to drift far away.

“Yes?” I turned to him. The memory had felt so real—as if I was truly there again enduring the pains of my past.

“Are you okay? You seemed lost in thought for a second there.” It was then I noticed we were parked in his driveway. His other hand lifted up, cupping my cheek just as the man in my memory had.

“Everything is okay now, no one can hurt you. I promise you that. I would die before I let anything happen to you.” What Jared was saying was supposed to comfort me, talk me off that cliff of insecurity, but it didn’t. I knew what the future held. I could feel it in my bones. The uncertainty of it all.

“I know, and thank you for that.” I placed a kiss on his lips, wanting him to know although my mind was elsewhere, he impacted me in so many ways, ways words would never be able to describe.

“You have no idea how much you have changed me for the better.” His words weighed heavily on my mind as we got out of the car and headed into the house.
I took small steps, knowing closing the front door of the house would be when I needed to clear my mind. I didn’t want to worry Jared any more than he already was. Alzerro had him protecting me, but he also had the stuff of his own going on.

Once inside, Jared found himself searching the fridge for food to make for dinner. I couldn’t think of anything else but him as I stared, watching his every move.

“Keep staring at me like that and I’ll bend you right over this island.” He smirked, looking up from the veggies he had grabbed out of the fridge. I smiled innocently, pulling the top of my dress down to expose my bra covered breasts. As I rounded the island, I caught the sound of the knife hitting the counter and Jared’s footsteps right behind me. I stood very still as his hand worked its way from my shoulder down to the top of my breast.

“Do you want to be fucked on this counter?” he asked curiously, his mouth against my neck. His lips were causing my mind to drift away, and the current was about to take me out to sea.

Instead of answering him, I pulled the side of my dress up revealing the secret I hadn’t told him about yet. His other hand slid up my thigh giving way to what it was I was hiding. With a light push, I landed against the countertop, my breasts reacting to the coldness of the marble beneath me.

“No panties?” he said shocked, his finger slipping in between my folds. I released a sigh from my throat as the pleasure overwhelmed me.

“I did it for you,” I moaned as he hovered over me, his lips sucking on my earlobe. My eyes drifted closed just as his finger slipped into me. I was sore from the night before, but the pleasure seemed to override the pain as he slowly slipped in and out of me.

“You’re far more than I ever deserved, far more than I ever needed.” He was speaking to my heart taking me closer and closer to the finish line with every push of his thick digit inside of me.

“Come for me,” he growled into my ear, his teeth sinking into my sensitive flesh once again. His hand cupped my sex as his free hand lifted one of my legs off the ground while he continued to pump in and out of me. The intensity of his movements with the raspy panting of his voice caused my core to clench. My legs tingled and my back arched as pleasure moved through me.

“So fucking beautiful. You’re soaked for me. Now I can fuck you like I’ve wanted to all day long.” He grunted as he undid his pants.
I could hear the clanking of his belt as it fell to the floor. I was ready for him, ready to be possessed.

“Give me every last inch of you,” I whimpered, feeling deep inside of me that this might be our last time together, and if that was so, I wanted to remember this moment for the rest of my life.

His cock pressed against my entrance as he lifted me, pushing me further onto the counter causing the items upon it to fall to the floor, without a care in the world.

“You’re mine,” he hissed out, his hand landing heavily on the back of my neck as he pressed my front down and pulled my ass up. I sighed as he slammed into me without warning. His balls slapping against my clit with so much intensity, I almost came just from the friction alone.

“It will always be you,” I spoke, my breath hot against my skin as I tried to muffle my screams. His nails bit into my flesh as if he understood the finality that this last session had between us.

“Every time you move, I want you to feel me. Every time you finger yourself, I want you to think about my cock deep inside of you.” His hips gyrated as my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

“I’m going to come,” I screamed. It was then I felt him pull out of me, the absence of him making me grow cold.

“No. You come when I say you can.” I felt his cock slip back into me, only to be pulled back out and slipped in between my ass cheeks.

“Please...” I begged as I tried to dig my nails into the counter. It was the singular beg that pushed him over the edge allowing me to have what he was giving me.

His hands gripped my flesh hard as he pushed me harder to the edge of the counter. I could feel his cock, but whimpered as it slipped away from my entrance.

“You want to come, you’re going to have to ride me,” he growled, placing his cock at my entrance. That was the only warning I needed. I slammed myself back into him, our flesh slapping against one another’s echoing throughout the house.

“Ride it, baby…” Jared’s voice turned dark as his hand pulled my hair tightly against my scalp. It was with that pleasure and pain that I came. My pussy clenched around him like a vice as I rode out each wave of pleasure. The waves grew bigger and bigger as he took over pumping into me until there was nothing left of the two of us.

It was at that moment I realized I loved him and I wanted a future with him—but it was all too late.

Death was coming for us.

Jared

I couldn’t get
enough of her. The way her eyes drifted closed when she came all over my cock. The darkness in them when she bit her lip and looked up at me with desires she didn’t even understand. She was innocence and danger all wrapped in one. She was alluring at best.

Isabella held a powerful spell over me, one that could easily take my heart on a frantic roller coaster ride. One could say I was falling for her, but if I were honest, I had already fallen for her. Alzerro was right, she was beyond worth letting go of my fears and worries.

As the days passed, I felt myself growing closer to her, as she seemed to be growing further away from me. Not in a sense that she was distant, but I could tell there was something festering in her mind. My cock was hungry for her at every passing glance, so much so I had fucked her three different times in the past twenty-four hours. However, now I sat awake in the chair across from the bed in her bedroom while she slept under the lights I had hung up for her.

She looked so small in the bed under a sea of white blankets. Her hair was a dismantled mess of blackness and her lips were parted ever so slightly as if she were fully worked over.
I bet she was having the best sleep of her life.

I leaned back in the chair, the beer in my hand cool and heavy. I had forced myself through the ringer, never living a life that was all that satisfying. I was fake. Ever since I found out about Bree years ago. I lost touch with things, with people and with my feelings. Isabella brought back those feelings. She made me aware of what I was missing in my life.

I took a drink of my beer, my heart pounding in my chest.

The last woman I had ever truly loved left me.

My fists clenched as sweat formed on my brow.

Stop. Don’t think about it.

I ran my fingers through my hair, my head in my hands. Don’t think about the past. Don’t allow it to take you under.

I watched as she walked away from me. I watched as she went to the car. That was the last day I ever saw her. Her smiling face turned toward me as she got into the car and drove down the driveway. I should’ve been with her that day.

“Stop…” I whispered helplessly to myself. I couldn’t relive the past when I had so much to live for in the future. I lifted my eyes to Isabella. I had her. I had this life.

“Jared?”
I could hear her voice as if it were real—as if she were truly here with me. I knew she wasn’t though—I knew that because she was dead.

“You’re not real.” I pushed the voice away, not wanting to hear what it had to say. I just wanted it out of my head.

“I want you to know that I loved you more than life itself. That when I passed over, my only thought was if you could make it without your mommy.”
I squeezed my eyes closed. No, no!

“Life has a way of changing things, people really. My death should’ve made you stronger, not weaker.”

I placed my hands over my ears.

“I love you, Jared, but it’s time to let go. Let the past be the past. Find love and happiness with someone else. I want you to love with all your heart and never let go. I want you to love as if you have no fears, nothing to live for but the heartbeat of the person next to you. Remember where you came from and tell your father I love him. He’s done an excellent job of raising you.”

“It’s not real, it’s not real,” I repeated it in my mind, yet I could hear her voice over my own thoughts.

“Please…” I begged, wanting it to stop.

“I love you, Jared,”
she whispered into the air, the feeling of mist against my cheek surged through my body.

When I opened my eyes, my beer bottle had fallen to the floor, my head leaned against the wall behind me, my eyes focusing in on the ceiling above me. There was wetness against my cheek trailing down my face, so I lifted my hand and wiped it away.

Tears?
How could I be crying—better yet, why?

“Remember me…”
The wind howled outside the window. Memories of my mother invaded my mind, and without warning, I found myself going into the living room to pull out old photo albums from our time spent together.

Blowing the dust off them, I opened the first one. An old picture was on the front page, worn from the years. It was one of my mom, dad, and me. A smile had formed out of nowhere and my heart swelled, filling with so much love.

I flipped further through the album, my fingers moving of their own accord. From my first steps to my first lost tooth to a picture of my mother and I walking into the sunset. Through the pictures, I traveled back in time.

Tears fell from my eyes without hesitation.

Tears from a funeral I never cried at.

Tears for a mother who I had lost all too soon.

Tears for a man who spent years being someone he wasn’t.

I continued to flip through the photos, watching every memory I had with her come to life right on the pages. It was when Isabella’s hand rested on my shoulder that I realized just how caught up in the memories I truly was. I hadn’t even heard her enter the room.

“I’m sorry for waking you,” I said gruffly closing the photo album and wiping away any remaining tears that had stained my cheeks.

“Shhh…” Her voice caused my eyes to drift closed. She crawled up onto the couch next to me, her body molding to my own. Her warmth enclosed me, causing the darkness inside of me to brighten just a little bit.

I smiled knowing the reason I was changing had everything to do with her. Still, a new fear was finding a way to the surface. I could feel her pulling away from me and I wasn’t sure why. Every time I asked if something was wrong, she had said no.

“I think…” I started to talk and then stopped. Was I ready to tell her I was starting to fall in love with her? Or that I was already in love with her? We hardly knew one another. At least we hardly knew the good in one another. We knew all the flaws and the damage that had been done, but we didn’t know any of the good.

“What?” She blinked, staring up at me. She was beautiful, full lashes, plump lips and a face that didn’t need makeup to enhance its features.

“I think I’m in love with you.” The second I let the words out, I could see the wheel inside of her head moving. What was she thinking? Did she feel the same way? Only our breathing could be heard as she sat beside me, unmoving. I wondered if she was going to speak or if her heart was feeling the same anxiety mine was.

“Jared, you make me feel something I never have in my entire life. You make my heart beat faster than it ever has, and you make me feel normal. Whole. Not only that but loved. To me, you’re the home I never had.”

Tears formed in her eyes. We were two halves of a whole set out on a journey to find one another through the darkness of life. It didn’t matter that our paths were littered with different things, obstacles, or struggles. All that mattered was we had found one another at the end of the tunnel.

“You’re mine,” I whispered to her as I pulled her body into my own. It had taken me a long time to realize this, but she was the one thing I never knew I wanted.

To me, she was everything I had ever needed.