Defiance (New Adult Romance) (Isaac & Maya) (8 page)

“Take a deep breath,” he rasps and my eyes widen. I know
that
voice, it looks like my little speech called forth my favorite Isaac of all. Gently, he tugs at my hair to pull me back, checking my reaction to see if that upset me. But there’s nothing timid in his eyes now, he’s ready to take what he wants as long as it doesn’t scare me. One day that little boy I want to hold so much will probably disappear forever and the only hidden Isaac that will remain is the one I’m looking at now. Even though I’ll miss his achingly adorable little kid face, I’ll be glad to see him go because there is nothing more beautiful than Isaac when he’s dripping with confidence and authority. He’s not cocky or hasty or impulsive, he’s the definition of absolute control. Control of himself, control of the situation, and it’s impossible to resist giving this perfect feral beast control of my body for as long as he wants it. I push all the air out of my lungs before I lock eyes with him, inhaling as deeply as I can as he evaluates me. God I hope I pass this test. “That was a lot better than I expected, Rookie.”

“Really?”

Isaac barely nods once, the corner of his mouth twisting up into that tilted smile that makes my heart race. His mouth crashes into mine, stifling my excited gasp as his hands reach under my shirt. I didn’t wear a bra just in case this very scenario unfolded, and to tempt him with a peek at the hardened nipples his fingers are working their magic on now. My spine arches as we both moan into our kiss and I pull my body closer to his, dragging my nails across the back of his neck.

“Stop wiggling around so much,” he orders, his lips darting all over my face. “If you pass out on me again, I swear I won’t fuck you for an entire month.”

“You’ll never make it that long,” I giggle, pulling my shirt over my head.

“I could…” His eyes keep dropping down to my breasts even though he tries to keep them locked with mine. “Okay, probably not,” he exhales, his head dipping down to suckle my nipples.

I groan, squeezing his torso with my legs as he toys with me. The things he can do with his tongue make me want to pleasure him with mine. “Let me suck on you now,” I gasp.

“Absolutely not,” he says, lifting his face to mine.

“Please,” I whine.

“Nope.” Why does he gain the ability to resist the word please when I need him to give in the most?

The muscles across his ribs flex deliciously as his arms raise up to take off his shirt. I just have to touch him, I can’t stop myself. Isaac watches me with that cocky smirk on his face as I slide my hands over every inch of his chiseled torso. It makes my breathing heavy and ragged so he doesn’t let me play for very long, forcing my hands into his and bringing them up to kiss my fingers.

Raising his eyebrows, he places my hands on his shoulders, wordlessly commanding me to keep them there as he undoes the button on my jeans
and unzips them. “Now lay down.” The cold of the stainless steel counter chills my back as I obey him. “No wiggling,” he says firmly, tweaking my nipples just a little too harshly. “Keep your breathing even.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“Whatever I want.” He jerks my jeans and panties down to my thighs quickly, lowering his head to kiss my navel. Slowly, he slides my pants off one leg at time, his fingers skimming across my skin as my clit starts to throb. Groaning, his lips slide up my inner thigh as he pushes them apart. “
Maya
,” he snarls against my flesh when I start to writhe in anticipation. “I told you to hold still.”

My apology turns into a gasp as his mouth clamps onto my clit, his hands wrapping around my hips and pulling me into his lapping tongue. There’s no gentle lead in, he’s too hungry for that and it takes every bit of will I have left to stop myself from bucking upwards. He devours me, pulling that aching bundle of nerves between his teeth until I yelp. His mouth is absolutely incredible. I’m the luckiest girl in the fucking world.

My legs rest heavy on his broad shoulders as he teases me, reaching up to pinch my nipples. He brings me to the brink once and lets me fall back down, his vivid eyes staring up at me from under his brow. I know he’d keep toying with me if he could, he loves to watch me pant and beg for it, but Isaac won’t indulge himself like that right now.

With a grunt, his tongue attacks me full force, his hands leaving my breasts to steady my hips as I scream out his name. The energy radiates from between my legs as it consumes my entire body and the world fades away until there’s nothing left except for that lapping tongue and the heat of his mouth.

There’s a touch of concern in his eyes when I raise my head, revealing that protective instinct that seldom disappears, even when he gets greedy like this. Propping myself up on my elbows, I beam at him, coaxing a relieved smile as he wipes his chin and comes up to kiss me. I taste myself on his tongue as it slides over mine, his arm snaking up my spine and his hand cupping my head to support my weight so I don’t have to. He kisses me softly, waiting for my breathing to slow, his erection pressing into my slit through his jeans.

“My turn,” he whispers against my lips. “Lay back down.”

I sneak a peek at him undoing his pants, freeing the giant dick that I
will
get my mouth on sooner rather than later. I lick my lips, asking him for permission with my eyes as he shakes his head no, jerking his chin up to tell me to lay down all the way. As soon as the tip of him presses against me, I just can’t help it, spreading my legs and scooting lower to get more of him.

“
Hold. Still.
I mean it.” The commanding tone of his voice makes me squirt all over his thighs as he drives into me. “I never thought I’d say this, but you’re not allowed to come again tonight.”

Yeah, right.
Isaac’s hands grip my ass, pulling me into him as I cry out. He holds me firmly, my rear hanging off the counter while he bucks into me. I didn’t think he’d fuck me this hard for a while, I guess he can’t help it. Tossing his head back, his fingers dig into my flesh as he groans. His thrusts get faster and rougher, pinning my hips between his mania and the counter, trapping me in a way that I never want to escape. He’s finally indulging himself in my body and getting what he needs, each greedy plunge bringing me closer to somewhere that I’m not allowed to go.

I try to hold still on my back like he told me to, but I know that’s not what he really wants and I can’t stop myself. It takes all my strength to sit up. The exhausted muscles in my belly give out when I run out of inertia, so I throw my arms around his shoulders and squeeze until my chest is pressed against his. He doesn’t chastise me because he wanted me close like this, resting his forehead against mine as he fucks me faster. His eyes are so beautiful and fiery, his jaw clenched and square. I love giving him this. With a growl, he thrusts at full speed and shudders, forcing his tongue into my mouth as he releases. I try to stop myself but it’s useless and I shatter with him, his hungry kiss swallowing my unauthorized ecstatic moans.

Isaac lets out a laugh when I’m finished, gently lowering our bodies to the cold tiled floor. “I wanted to fuck you in a soft, warm bed,” he sighs. “What is it with us and kitchens?”

“I don’t know,” I giggle. “Sorry I came again.”

“Aw, Maya, you know I don’t care. Do you feel okay?”

“A little light headed,” I admit. “But, I’m fine. That was a pretty rough one, too.”

“Yeah, I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back once I got inside you again. Why do you think I’ve been so strict for the last few days?” The oven timer dings across the room as he covers my face and chest in slow, gentle kisses. “Are you hungry for real now?” he asks.

“A little bit, yeah.”

“If I get more than three bites of actual food into you, it was totally worth the risk of oxygen deprivation,” he laughs.

I force myself to eat five mouthfuls just to see that look of satisfaction on his face. After he thoroughly sanitizes the kitchen, we cuddle in a booth and look out at the city lights dancing on the water.

He gently asks me to call Piper again. It’s endearing that he’s so worried about her, but it’s better if I don’t. The longer I go without contacting her, the more likely she’ll be to take one of Jace’s calls. It’s cruel, but if I don’t play it this way, she’ll never speak to him again out of principle and she’ll regret that, even if she won’t admit it.

10

Jace

I call her constantly even though I know she won’t answer. There’s nothing else to do except keep trying. It rings over and over until I finally hear Piper’s voice, but it’s just a recording. I’d leave a message, but Isaac said that it’s not a very good idea and he’s right.

It’s been six days since that stupid party, nine since the last time I saw her. Maya won’t call her and as much as I appreciate her concern for our relationship and hope this little stunt works, it’s still a shitty thing to do and pisses me off.

My brain is accustomed to constantly thinking about Piper, but not like this. I keep seeing that shocked, heartbroken expression when I told her what I really was. That sinking feeling when I realized she was afraid of me won’t go away. I can’t eat, I can’t really sleep, my eyes close but I just lay there and wish I could feel her body next to mine. One day slowly blurs into the next, there’s no real start or stop. If I wasn’t keeping track, I’d swear it’s been a month since it all went to shit.

I don’t like where I live now, even though it’s technically a nicer place. I got used to having the perfect girl downstairs. I have a shit load of money too, but I don’t have anyone to spend it on. And I’m fucking bored out of my mind because the job is over. No more surveillance, no more club, and no more Piper.

Typically, I only let myself call twice in row, but I’m beyond desperate at this point and far too sleep deprived to use my better judgment. So after she doesn’t answer for the second time, I call for a third. Then a fourth. I break down and leave a message on the sixth, just a simple ‘please pick up.’ She can’t have forgotten my voice yet. The seventh one goes directly to voicemail, which means she either turned her phone off or maybe, just fucking maybe, she saw that I left a message and decided to listen to it.

The eighth call only rings twice before I hear a click. At first, I figure she just answered and hung up on me, but then I notice a shuffling sound and my heart starts to thump.

“Piper?” I say quietly. She doesn’t respond, but she’s there. I can feel her. “I miss you.” Piper makes a little choking sound. “I’m sorry. I miss you and I’m so fucking sorry.” Did she just laugh or sob? “Please say something, Pipes. Please.”

The line goes dead. I call back over and over, but she won’t answer. But she did pick up the phone, so I think that technically counts as progress.

I call again in the morning a little earlier than I normally do, hoping that she’ll be too sleepy to remember that she hates me. Two calls turns into three, which turns into ten and I would just give up, but I can’t. If Piper answered once, she’ll do it again. Eventually. C’mon lucky number eleven.

“Hi,” she whispers after a few seconds of silence.

“Hi, Piper.” Fuck, what do I say now? I guess apologizing profusely can’t hurt. “Look, I’m—”

“Sorry?” she interrupts me. “Yeah, I heard you the first time. That’s not why I’m taking your call.”

“Oh.”

“Do you know where she is?” Holy shit, I wasn’t prepared for her voice to sound this horrible.

“Maya? She’s okay. Isaac has her.”

Piper sighs in relief. I wonder what she thought happened. “Isaac
has
her. What the hell does that even mean?”

“It means they’re staying at a hotel downtown.”

“And she’s okay?” Piper croaks.

“Yeah. He brought in a doctor that first day. She did have pneumonia and she’s on antibiotics now. She looks pretty good, the black eye is basically gone.”

“You saw her?”

“Yesterday. I tried to convince her to call you, but she wouldn’t budge.”

“Why?” Piper asks. She sounds so distraught, this is awful.

“She said you’ll eventually pick up for me if she didn’t. Obviously, she was right, but I think she’s kind of embarrassed too because of the whole… spying on you thing. And because your father knows about… you know, that weird kinky shit.”

“He won’t tell me anything.
Anything
. He won’t even take my calls.” Piper hardly ever cries. All I can think about when she does is making it stop. There’s nothing I can do now. “I don’t understand,” she whispers. “I just don’t understand.”

“Isaac went to see your father after I told him what Luke did. They came up with some sort of arrangement for Maya to meet him at that party and if she wanted to go, she could.”

“That just doesn’t make any sense. You’re sure you saw her, you’re positive that she’s with Isaac, not shipped off to some nunnery or something, if those still exist. Or locked away in a psych ward?” Piper’s vivid imagination is certainly not a blessing right now. She sounds so terrified and confused. I can’t imagine what she must be going through.

“I’m positive. 100%,” I try to assure her, but she doesn’t trust me. “I should have taken a picture or something. Maya is safe Pipes,
I swear on my life. She’s okay.”
And I will force her to fucking call you. This is bullshit.

“I still don’t get it. Why would my father help Isaac?”

“Uh… look they don’t want me to tell you this, but I don’t give a shit. Your dad is working with the FBI or some agency that’s investigating Isaac’s father. Baron Kavanagh. You know who that is, right?”

“Isaac’s father is Baron fucking Kavanagh?” she exclaims.

“Yes.”

“Holy shit, that guy is really fucking creepy.”
I really hope you have no idea just how creepy.
“Holy fucking shit. No wonder Maya would never tell me his last name. So, what, they’re like working together now?”

“I don’t really know the whole story. Isaac doesn’t either, he refuses to see that investigator while Maya’s still sick and… okay, you can’t say anything about this. Not for me, or Isaac, or Maya, but for your dad. He doesn’t want Isaac to go in yet anyway because there are some loose ends to tie up, whatever the fuck that means.
It sounds a little shady, but maybe it’s not. I really don’t know. Some sort of business deal with your father, Baron, and Gloria that went down a long time ago.”

“Gloria? Gloria
Monroe
? What the fuck does she have to do with anything?” Shit. Piper is clearly not a fan of Glory’s. I guess I shouldn’t have just tossed that name out there.

“I don’t know but… that’s the woman Isaac’s been living with. She’s sort of his step mom, I guess you could say.”

“What?” Piper yells. I’ve been waiting for that to happen. “Maya is going to freak the fuck out when she hears that. I mean, totally freak her shit. That woman… God, what a fucking cunt.”

Yeah, you could definitely say that.
“Maya knows,” I say softly. “She’s known the whole time.”

“Are you fucking kidding?”

“Isaac didn’t realize they knew each other. He was the one in the dark about that part, actually.”

Piper chokes out a sob that rips me to shreds. “No, I’m the one in the dark, Jace,” she snaps, trying to sound angry, but I hear nothing but heartbreak. “I’m the one in the fucking dark.”

I tell her that I’m sorry even though I know she can’t hear me because she already hung up the phone. I thought I’d feel better if I got to talk to her, but that just made it worse, probably for both of us. I didn’t get a chance to explain anything, not that I really could. She’ll probably never answer again now that she knows where Maya is. I guess that was it, all I’ll ever get.

For the next hour, I bounce around this new apartment that doesn’t feel at all like home and never will. It’s so fucking difficult not to call her back, but Piper probably just calmed down and I don’t want to torture her,
I’ve done enough damage as it is.

The phone rings in my hand the moment I just can’t take it anymore and decide to call one last time. It’s her.

“Hello?”

She starts sobbing right away and I listen to her silently until I start to tear up myself. “So I have to move,” she tells me, her voice cracking.

“You do?”

“My father insists that it’s not safe here and he’s probably right. I came home and all my stuff was already packed up. Most of Maya’s was gone.”

“What?”

“Yeah. My whole life is just… gone. I couldn’t even find AJ. I thought that you might have taken her in case Luke came back, or maybe I was just looking for an excuse to go upstairs to see you. So I did,” she chokes, her voice growing high pitched and a little frantic. “I knocked on your door, but it was hanging open. I guess you’re gone, too. It’s like you were never even there.”

“I didn’t want to leave, Piper. I had to.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t want to get you in trouble with your parents. We just found out about that whole investigation thing, we had no fucking idea the entire time. And if your father realizes who I am… I told Isaac I shouldn’t have moved in there in the first place. It was always way too risky.”

“Do you do what Isaac does?” she asks shakily. “Is this some kind of sick game you play?”

“I don’t do that shit, Pipes. You like it rougher and weirder than I do, you know that.”

“No, I don’t fucking know that!” she growls. “I don’t fucking know
you.
”

“Yes, you do. I left some stuff out, but—”

“Left some stuff out? Seriously? That’s a colossal understatement, Jace, if that’s even your real fucking name.”

“It is,” I croak. “Piper, of course it’s my real name.”

“If you don’t… do that weird Master/slave bullshit, how the hell do you even know Isaac? Maya said that’s basically his whole life, not that I can believe a single word that comes out of her mouth either, I suppose.”

I really don’t want to talk about this, but I don’t have a choice. “We’ve been friends since we were kids. I lied to you, okay, I admit that. But not about me, just about the situation. My mom really is a gold digging, home wrecking whore and my dad really is an ancient geezer, he honestly is 87 fucking years old.” I take a deep breath because I sound way too frustrated, I’m nearly yelling. I can’t blame her for not believing me. “He was Baron’s mentor back in the day, I guess you’d call it. Isaac’s family was around a lot even though my father has been retired since I was a baby. That’s how we know each other. Maya wasn’t lying, that pretty much is his entire life, it’s
so
fucked up. But I am not involved with that in any way whatsoever. Even if I wanted to be, which I sincerely do not, I couldn’t. As far as I know, my dad has no idea about any of that shit because…”

“Because what?” Piper whispers. She doesn’t sound so angry anymore, I wonder if she can hear that I’m sort of crying like a little bitch right now.

“Because Baron’s not the same when he’s around my father. He pretends that he’s a normal family kind of guy, but he is a fucking freak show. Creepy doesn’t even cover it. I’ve never told anybody this,” I murmur. “I’ve never told anyone a lot of the stuff that you know about me, Piper. I swear. I didn’t like Isaac very much at first. There wasn’t anything wrong with him, he was just annoying, I guess, probably because he’s two and a half years younger than me. My cousins were around a lot, a few of them were really little like Isaac’s brothers and he was too young to tag along with me and the older kids, so he just floated between the groups. One day my cousin Tina told him to get lost, she was really mean and it pissed me off. I felt bad after a while so I went to find him. Isaac was playing with the little kids and I almost left, but then I saw his dad storm up to him out of nowhere. He dragged him away by his arm, it looked odd, so I followed them. Baron was interrogating him, threatening him really, asking if he was touching the little kids, saying a bunch of shit that I only halfway understood. It was beyond fucking strange. And Isaac… he just froze.”

“Jesus,” she spits in disgust.

“He was always so lively, but he looked completely dead in the eyes. I had to do something, so I started calling his name and pretended we were looking for him. Baron dropped the creepy shit right away, it’s like I saw a different person. From then on, I sort of took Isaac under my wing whenever he was around. We went to the same school for a while and I did it there, too. He’s like my little brother. He didn’t voluntarily get into that shit when he was 18, he was fucking born into it in the sickest, saddest way possible. I’m not a real sentimental guy, I’m a total fucking asshole really which I’m sure you know, but Isaac is a soft spot for me. Nobody should go through that shit. So when he told me that he fell in love with Maya and he was afraid Luke would hurt her and that he needed my help, I had to help him. I wasn’t going to let him lose the one fucking thing he’s always wanted.”

Piper sighs raggedly into my ear. “How do I know that any of this is true? How do I know you’re not some fantastic actor and this isn’t an elaborate con?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “Maybe if I could tell you face to face.”

“I can’t,” she squeals, starting to cry again. “I just can’t.”

“I want to tell you that I’m sorry, and I am, but I don’t regret anything. At all. We didn’t have a choice, we did what we had to do. Luke showed up at your fucking house in a goddamn rape van and the cops did
nothing.
We finally got some evidence, made the call, and nothing happened because your dad blocked it.”