And then he stopped. His head dipped to close his mouth over mine, and with a hunger I'd never felt, his moth devoured me. His warm tongue sweeping through, I tried to keep up, but then I felt it. Something new. Something indescribable. His fingers inside of me. In and out, sweeping and pressing against the detonator to my pleasure.
I slammed my eyes shut, panting his name over and over again, there was a crescendo building. An explosive, mind-bending crescendo, and I knew I couldn't control it.
“Let me feel you, bird. Let me forever make you feel like this,” Jax growled into my ear.
And that was all it took. Everything between my legs contracted and spasmed, and my nails clawed at the back of Jax's neck. I had to bury my face into his shirt to muffle the noises coming from me.
“Ella,” came a distorted voice.
I couldn't speak or move. Jax removed his fingers and rearranged my panties, and I could feel a smile against my cheek as he never let me go. My chest heaved and huffed; it as needy for oxygen as I was for this man.
“Ella!” The voice came again. This time clearer. Much, much clearer.
Jax pulled away and looked forward again into the eyes of a very angry Marnie.
Tears blurred my vision. Oh, no.
“Marine-” I whimpered.
She held up a hand and tried to reign in her anger. “Your husband is looking for you, Ella,” she seethed.
Jax sighed. “Be mad at me, not Ella, for Christ's sake.”
Marnie shot her eyes at the man beside me, a look of incredulity on her face. “Oh, I'm fucking angry at you, too, don't you worry about that.” Marnie stormed forwards and grabbed my arm, not hard but firm enough for me to not argue. Before leaving, she addressed Jax again. “I don't know if you've noticed, or you're just incapable of not thinking with your dick, but Ella doesn't live as a free woman. Her husband has fucking abused and hurt her for less than this, and you will get her killed. Back the fuck off, Murdoch, or I'll make sure you do. Got it?”
“Marnie, please, I'm just as guilty.” I half-whispered half-shouted. “I wanted him, this, too.”
Marnie straightened, helping me to my face and gave a small, sad shake of her head. “Ella, you are far too naive, too vulnerable to know what you want or need from a man. Let alone a fucking Murdoch.”
“She's smarter than you give her credit for,” Jax growled. It seemed he was growling a lot recently.
I just wanted the earth to open up, to surrender to the darkness it would promise me. How could I have been so stupid? Take such a risk on tonight of all nights? I cried. Tears were streaming. Heart aching. Mind whirring.
“I'm warning you, Jaxon. You don't get to waltz in here and get the one person I love killed. You just don't. So keep your fucking distance.”
And with that, Marnie hurried me through The Mansion to her parlor, where I couldn't stop crying, and she spoke no more of what she saw.
Silly, stupid, Ella.
There was a weird kind of calm when the last few guests left, when the staff was hurrying from the building, when the last of the alcohol had been drunk, and tonight, that silence had been the worst I'd ever heard. Vladimir, Marnie, Jozef, and I sat at a table next to the stage. The men were in high spirits: drunk and stoned, but Marnie hasn't said a single word to me since ushering me away from Jaxon, and now she sat here swigging champagne from a bottle, actively avoiding my eye.
That was okay. I was exhausted. I just wanted to sleep.
My body was still riding through the clouds, thanks to Jax. My lips tingled, and I prayed that the scratch of his beard hadn't left a mark, and despite knowing just how stupid the entire night had been, I missed him so.
And Marnie. Would she keep this quiet? Or was it something far too big for her to contain?
My brain ached, and I held my head in my hands.
“Something on your mind, Ella?” Vladimir asked, his deep voice slicing the air and drowning out the soft music playing through the speakers.
I looked up and gave him my award-worthy smile. “Just tired,” which wasn't a complete lie.
Vladimir unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and grinned at me. Jozef leaned into his ear to whisper something, and for once, I wasn't even the slightest bit curious. I just wanted my bed.
“Well, you have been busy this evening, haven't you, sweet wife?” His words sent a chill through my spine, and I looked at Marnie, brows pinched, and then quickly back at Vladimir. “However, you didn't make a fool of me nowhere near as much as I thought you would. Perhaps you can teach an old dog new tricks.” Vladimir and Jozef laughed, clinking glasses, the sound drowning out Marnie's scoff.
Pushing back, the chair scraped against the floor, and Marnie grabbed the half-empty bottle of champagne and downed several mouthfuls down. When she finished, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looked between the three of us.
“I'm going to bed; are you coming, Jozef?”
Jozef shook Vladimir's hand and quietly escorted Marnie out of the room, leaving me alone with my husband.
The silence was profound. In my thirteen years as his captive, I never found a way to decipher his moods or guess what I may have done to upset him, and tonight, for the first time, I thought I knew.
“People seemed to enjoy themselves tonight; all the girls sold for a good amount I hear?” I asked, voice trembling, eyes downcast.
Vladimir sipped his scotch, and his lips smacked as he spoke. “They did, Ella. Our profit went beyond my wildest imagination; it's incredible how much a man will pay for pure and submissive pussy.” My husband's sweaty palm reached out to grip my neck. His fingers dug into the skin, and I fought the grimace.
“But the night's not over yet, sweet wife, I have a rather important job for you.” Vlad's hand moved to my throat, his thumb skirting over my windpipe, and I swallowed hard.
A job for me? At this time of night?
“The Murdoch has been making noise about seeing his...friend.” His black eyes bulged from the sockets when his hand moved farther down my throat, between my breasts. “You do this for me, Ella, you do what I want to my standards.... and I'll think about letting you keep that photograph of my daughter.”
I couldn't even obsess over his usage of the word my, he was trying to provoke me, trying to set me up for failure before I'd done what he had asked, and this time I was not prepared to fail. I'd have chewed off my leg to have something to remind me that she was real and that she was mine.
With my heart fluttering in an unknown rhythm, I nodded.
He smiled, releasing me so he could stand. “Good, then come with me.”
Vladimir led me through a maze of corridors I'd never seen before, a winding trail of dark and dim hallways that all looked the same. There was nothing I recognized about this part of The Mansion, and it was impossible to concentrate knowing that, if this went well, I'd soon have a piece of my heart back with me. Pigs were flying. Hell had frozen over. At last.
Eventually, we came to a set of black double doors, and there was a red P painted across the opening, so half was on the left door, the other half on the right door. Beneath that, though, was a word that made my blood run icy through my body. "Morgue."
I gasped upon seeing it. “Vladimir, why...”