A Captive Situation (Kings of New York)

I was zoned out in the shower when a warm hand slid from my back to my front, and I was hauled against a very hard chest. Jake breathed out next to my ear, a low baritone that buzzed over my skin, “You think you’re going to put yourself in danger for me? If someone has a gun on me, you don’t throw yourself at them.”

Anger was vibrating out of him, and god, I closed my eyes, giving in. He was pissed.

I was exhausted from all the tension, the drama, the ups and downs, the uncertainties, and he was holding me to him, and I just gave in. Every bone in me melted.

I responded, breathless, “So you can do it, but I can’t?” I turned in his arms, put my arms around his shoulders, and I jumped.

Surprise flashed in his eyes, but he responded quickly. He caught me, and moved me against the wall, resting both of us there a moment. The water sliced down over us, but it was just us in that shower, that room, the building, the city. Everything else faded away. It was only us, and a shiver went through me at feeling myself in his arms, feeling him holding me. He’d put me in danger, but he yanked me right out. He’d killed for me.

I lifted my head, letting it rest against the shower tiles to look at him.

He held my gaze.

“You’ve kidnapped me twice.”

He winced.

I touched his chin, my hand cupping his jawline. “Just so you know, this . . .” I touched his chest, then mine. “This goes both ways.”

His eyes began sparking, almost glittering.noveldrama

I squeezed my legs around him. His hands slid to my ass, and one of his fingers grazed down my center. Another shiver wound its way through me. This one was delicious. It coated pleasure in its trail.

“What goes both ways, hmmm?” He began nuzzling into my neck, peppering soft kisses under my jawline and throat.

I closed my eyes, giving in to the sensations. “Yeah. Cause that’s the kind of girl I am. I’m not the kind that sits on the sidelines and whines or waits. I see an opening to help, I’m throwing myself in.”

His finger moved between my legs, his thumb pressing over my clit.

I trembled, my limbs starting to lose the ability to hold on to him.

His mouth clamped down on my throat.

I gasped, but he didn’t bite down. He just used his lips to mark me. Hard. His tongue swirled over his touch, before he growled, lifting his head. His finger slid inside of me as he spoke. “You’ve wound this spell over me, tying your life to mine, so, babe, if you get in the way between me and a bullet with my name on it, you stay back. You hear me?”

I was hearing him. A cocky little smirk tugged at my mouth because the question he should’ve been asking was if I would do what he said.

His eyes flashed, seeing my smirk. His other hand moved up, wrapping around my throat. “Oh. You think you’re funny, hmmm?”

So slowly, he applied pressure, pinning me in place, as he switched between my legs, and as his finger slid out, his cock thrust in.

I was almost purring. That felt so good.

His hand tightened, his finger moving so it was over my carotid. He was feeling the effect he was having as he began to fuck me. He felt how fast he could make my heartbeat race. He could feel when he began going harder, when he became rougher, how that was like putting a firework to my blood. It made me lose my shit for a second. I was mewling and writhing against him, needing more and more and more.

He was completely keeping me in place by that hand to my throat, but I could still breathe. It was a fucking possessive hold, and knowing he would kill for me made all of my organs and bones liquefy. He had that power over me. One touch, one look, and this need for him pumped so deep inside of me that it was carnal. He could strip me raw, and I’d just shiver, desperate for more.

He thrust up, jarring me against the tiles. His other hand wrapped around my hip, using that touch to anchor me so he could pound up into me at a deeper angle.

I groaned. “That’s so good.”

His hand squeezed before loosening. He dipped his mouth to my lips, grazing them. “You like when I fuck you?”

I sank my fingers into his shoulders.

“Yeah.” His mouth closed over mine, his tongue sliding inside. His hips were hitting against mine. Hard. He ripped his mouth back, his voice guttural. “You like when I fuck you.”

I squeezed him with my legs, rolling my hips with his.

We were both breathing hard. He curved over me, his forehead almost resting on my shoulder as he looked down to where we were coming together. His hand moved over, closer, his fingers splayed out. “Look at us, Sawyer. Look at how hot this is.” He moaned, moving faster inside of me. His breath caught, but he wasn’t looking away from us.

Me, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.

When he looked up to me, there was a wildness in his eyes, making them unfocused, and then they flashed before he stopped all the sudden moving in me. I reached for him, pulling him back to me. “Don’t stop.”

He blinked away that haze, focusing, and a lazy grin tugged at his mouth. His hand inched further down, finding my clit again, and he began rubbing it. As he did, he started moving in rhythm, with slow and purposeful strokes.

Fuck. Jesus.

It was building, waiting.

Rising.

He bucked up against me harder, jostling against the wall. His eyes were heated, watching me as he was going to make me come apart under his touch. “Jake,” I groaned, raking my nails down his chest.

“Are you going to put yourself between me and a gun next time?”

He paused in his ministrations.

Oh. Oh! I saw what he was doing. I moved my hips harder over him, working us all by myself.

He growled, his hand dropping from my throat to my other hip, and he tried to hold me in place.

I moved under his hands.

“Sawyer,” he snarled, but his eyes glazed over. He bit back another moan.

“What?” I gasped, going harder, raising my entire bottom half of my body so I was fucking him instead.

His eyes fluttered because I knew how good it was feeling. It was going to send me soaring in a minute.

Another growl erupted from him, and he pulled out of me.

“What—” I yelped, but he turned me again, my front was pressed against the wall, and he kicked my legs apart, making me almost vulnerable to him. But I felt him press against my opening, and he slid inside, one of his arms wrapped around my front, hugging me to him. As he began thrusting up, power rippling from him, he began tasting my throat, over his mark, and he was deepening it. His other hand splayed out again over my stomach, sliding down, and he began rubbing me.

I wasn’t going to be able to hold out. My body was already shaking from the onslaught of sensations.

“Jake,” I panted, my head resting against his shoulder.

“Don’t do that again for me, babe. I couldn’t handle it if you got hurt.”

I was never going to agree to that, and when he slowed in his thrusts, he could sense the resistance in me. “Fuck,” he cursed, but then he rested his forehead under my shoulder blades. His hands moved to hold me on both sides of my hips, and he thundered into me.

My release crashed inside of me, exploding, and I screamed from the power of it. It ripped me in half, making even my toes curl. My entire body lifted up from its ferocity. Then, as I was a shaking mess, all the strength in me gave out from my climax. The aftershocks continued to wash over me in waves. Jake gave in himself, fucking me fast and hard, holding me in place for himself.

I squeezed him, and he erupted inside of me. A roar came from him. He lifted me in place, pressing both of us against the wall, and he kept moving in me, drawing out the last of both of our releases.

I was out of breath, and my mind was scrambled, but that was some of the best sex I would ever have in my life.

I wanted to do it again.

Jake slowly eased out of me and my knees buckled. I slid down the shower wall, but his arm held me in place, still wrapped around my waist. He picked me up, carrying me to the bed.

“Jake, the bed. I’ll soak it.”

“I don’t care.” He laid me down but disappeared, going back into the bathroom and returning with some towels. Spreading them out on the mattress, he moved me over them, joining me. As soon as he did, he tugged me into his arms.

His head lifted, nuzzling into my neck before he breathed me in. “You smell like cupcakes.”

I grinned against his chest, loving this. “That must be my natural scent because your girlfriend’s shampoo was some tea-smelling stuff.”

His arms tightened around me. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

I propped my chin on his chest, stretching languidly over him. “Then what is she to you?”

“Laila was a hookup that I kept going back to because she was convenient.” He tilted my chin up. “She’s the past.” A different expression switched over his face, tightening in regret. “But you do need to know that I am divorced.”

I tensed. He’d been married?

He frowned, feeling that. “What’s going on in your head?”

I shook my head. “You were married?” I hesitated, then saw where my nails had cut into him. I smoothed a hand over them. They were my mark, just as he had marked me. A satisfied feeling of possessiveness rose in me. Good. I liked seeing my mark on him.

He ran his thumb over his mark on me as well, but he was frowning, and I knew his mind had slipped away to what he needed to tell me.

“I—”

His eyes fell to mine, growing clear again. “What?”

“I found a picture.” I bit down on my bottom lip. What if I shouldn’t bring that up? What if I was opening a door to a vault that should’ve been left locked up? But he told me that he was divorced . . .

“Stop that.” He touched my lip, making me release my lip. “I told you. If someone bites you, it’s me. It’s only me.” He leaned down, his mouth fusing with mine.

I breathed him in, and breathed in the kiss. If we could be like this forever? I wanted that. Except not with the kidnapped girl. Let’s work toward not kidnapping people.

He nipped me one last time before lifting his head. “You found a picture?”

My heart speared, but I just asked him. “Do you have kids?”

His eyes held mine a moment before he nodded. “I have a boy.”

“You have a son?” He was his son. I’d been right. My mouth went soft, remembering the picture I found. “How old?”

“He’s seventeen.”

I pushed up. “How old were you when you had him?”

“We were eighteen. Young.”

I did the math in my head, and I wasn’t a math person. My eyes got big, so big. “You’re thirty-five?”

His eyes narrowed. “Yeah . . .”

I was a cougar. A total cougar. “I’m older than you.”

I’d never been the older woman.

I was now the older woman.

I didn’t know how I felt about this. “I’m like your sugar mama.”

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You’re a year older than me. And this is not a sugar-mama situation.”

Okay. We were back to being serious. I told my inner cougar to take a nap. Scooting to his side, I moved so I was facing him, my legs crossed in front of me. It gave me some breathing room, but Jake sat up and pulled me onto his lap, straddling him. His back was against the headboard, and his hands fell to my thighs, tracing up and down.

He didn’t just have a son. I noted, “You have a young adult.”

“Tab and I were high school sweethearts. We tried. Or I tried. We got married at the courthouse, but it was over almost before it ever got started. Her family was pissed about the marriage. They didn’t approve of my family.”

“They knew about your family’s business?”

His mouth tugged up in a half-hearted grin. With the lines under his eyes and the shadows in them, the half grin looked sad. “Everyone did where we lived. My family likes to operate out of Maine because it’s easy to be remote up there. They don’t use the usual protection tax, stuff like that. The locals are left alone and in return they leave us alone. My family specializes in transportation and storage. Some of our warehouses have things a lot of governments would love to get their hands on, but it’s kept under wraps.”

“What sort of things?” I traced my hands down his chest, lingering on his stomach. His muscles shifted under my touch, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was frowning at my shoulder, lost in thought.

“Things I don’t want to tell you. Things used in wars. Other things.” The shadows doubled in his gaze.

My stomach dipped.

He smoothed a hand back up the side of my thigh, his fingers sinking into my skin. “Tab was . . .” He hesitated, a shadow flitting over his face. “Tab was my escape. I was still—Jesus. I have to tell you all of it to make you understand.”

The air grew thick. Tense.

I quieted, knowing this was important. I reached for his hand.

He didn’t look at me, instead focusing on our hands. “First time I killed someone, I was twelve.”

Pain sliced through me.

He continued, his voice hoarse, “My dad found out when I was fourteen, and he didn’t agree with the direction my uncles wanted me to go with the business.”

“The Mafia business?”

His eyes lifted, haunted. “I was being trained to be their personal assassin. Not just their assassin, but one that they could sell my services for others.”

My heart shattered.

“When my dad found out, he left the family business.” He was so rigid. “I didn’t, though.”

“What? How?”

“With my family leaving the business, they were pissed. They exiled them, effectively cutting them off from everything. I could see it was hurting my mom not to be able to talk to my other aunts. Some of them were close. So I went to my uncle and struck a deal. I’d continue my services if they’d ease up on some of the restrictions.”

“Your dad didn’t know?”

“No. It got better, a little bit. But I needed a cover for why I was leaving the house all the time. Tab and I started dating early in high school. She didn’t know what was going on. She just knew I did something for my family off the books and thought it was cool. We were dating, but I mostly used her as a cover in the beginning. After a bit, it grew more real. She became my escape in a lot of ways. I hated lying to my parents. I hated doing what my uncles were making me do, but my mom was happy. Then . . . Tab got pregnant and I did what I had to do.”

“What happened?”

“Tab’s dad had political ambitions. He was a judge back then. He’s also a piece of shit as a husband, father, and person. He found out and went crazy. He forced her to divorce me after EJ was born.”

“Did you fight it? Did you want the marriage?”

His eyes lifted to mine, a stark expression in them. “No.” He sighed again. “I didn’t want to be married, to be honest. We’d been together for three years in high school.”

“Your family was against the marriage too?”

He nodded, his gaze falling back to my chest, slowly descending. “My parents were okay with it. They wanted to support me, do what they could, but Tab’s father went to my uncles and promised to use all his resources to go after the family if they didn’t make me go through with the divorce. They . . . forced my hand. Said they would tell my parents what I’d been doing for them. I . . . I think my uncles were picking their battles, and I guess I did too. I didn’t love her enough to go against my family, or hers. When Tab realized I wasn’t going to fight it, she took off to California. Took EJ with her.”

“She took your son from you? Did you follow her?”

His hand ran to the back of my thigh, pulling me tighter against him. “At first, yeah. I moved into a place down the block and got a job. My uncles left me alone, and things were okay. I enjoyed having the freedom, but then my parents were in a car accident.”

“Jake,” I murmured, my palm against his chest again.

“They didn’t make it, and there was Justin. He was still a teenager. My uncles offered to take him in, but fuck if I was going to let them brainwash him to be like them. I knew what they would do to him, so I went back to raise him. Tab refused to come with me. That was when her father asked for a meeting. He was powerful by then, and he threatened me. Said he could make my family’s life hell if I didn’t agree to leave Tab and my son alone. I didn’t believe him, told him to fuck off. Nothing and no one was going to come between my son and me, you know? I was young and pissed. My parents just died. I’d already divorced her, but there was no way I was going to give up being a part of my son’s life. I didn’t give a fuck what he said. The family didn’t rally around us after my parents’ death. They died while they were exiled so the family didn’t see it any other way. Even in death, they were still exiled.

“My mental state wasn’t too stable, I guess you could say. I didn’t care whatever Tab’s dad had on my family, until he showed me a file. At first I thought he knew about what I’d done for them, but it was a lot of circumstantial evidence on my uncles. Nothing that they couldn’t have fought against themselves, but then he pulled out a photo of a young girl.”

I waited for him to keep going. He didn’t, too lost in the past.

“Who was the girl?”

His gaze jerked up to me, the same haunted expression floated in and took hold. “My dad had an affair. He’d been financially supporting the woman and the little girl. My dad’s daughter. Tab’s father had everything. Who the mother was. Where they lived. The money trail.”

“You have a sister?”

His eyes darkened. “I took over the payments. The mother doesn’t know my dad is dead. She just knows the money shows up in her account every month and she seems okay with it.”

“That’s why you stayed away from your son? Tabitha’s dad blackmailed you?”

“No. There’s more.” He pulled me further against him, both of his hands gripping behind me, beginning to roll me over him. Back and forth. “Tab was there. I didn’t know that. She’d left EJ in California with her aunt, and came because she knew her dad was going to make this play. I told her dad to go to hell, but when he was threatening to expose my sister, Justin showed up.” He stopped, swallowing thickly. Those shadows seemed to flit across his face. He was tormented. One of his hands shook on my hip before clamping down once more. “Justin was not in a good mindset either. He knew about the mob business, but Justin, he—he wasn’t like me or the rest. He was good. He was always good. Popular. Athletic. He was the definition of a golden boy, but he came to the house and overheard the last part. He lost it when he heard Tabitha’s dad threaten to expose our sister to the rest of the family. We would’ve been fine with her. We would’ve loved her. I do love her, but exposing her would’ve put her on our uncles’ radar. Justin knew what would happen if that occurred. They would’ve forced her and her mother into our family. Girls in the Mafia are sometimes married off for an alliance. My uncles back then liked to still do that. Her life would’ve been ruined. Justin, he—” He stopped again, his chest rising sharply. “Justin killed him.”

“What?” I froze.

“Tab was there, saw the whole thing.”

I was starting to put the pieces together with a sinking feeling. “Tab’s father didn’t blackmail you to stay away from your son because—”

His eyes held mine, so tortured, so lost. “Tab did. She threatened to expose our sister and Justin.”

“It was her dad. Wasn’t she—I mean—”

“Wasn’t she grief-stricken?” An ugly laugh came from him. “No. Like I said, her dad was a piece of shit, but Tab capitalized on what happened.” His hands held me firm, yanking me to him, crushing my chest to his, but his gaze was focused behind me. I didn’t think he was still in this room. He was back there, in his past. “She had video footage. She threatened to expose Justin for what he did, and expose our sister if I didn’t stay away from her and EJ until he turned eighteen. I started to tell her to go fuck herself, but then I got a good look at Justin. He wasn’t there. There was an unhinged look in his eyes, and he took off after that. I had to go after him. I didn’t know what he was going to do.”

He had to choose between his brother and sister, or his son.

He began kneading my thighs, moving me over him again. I wasn’t sure if he was aware of his ministrations.

“Jake,” I murmured softly.

I wished I could’ve been there. I wished I could’ve done something for him, reason with Tabitha, help watch over Justin. Anything. “What happened after all of that?”

“Justin’s good. Every part of his DNA is, just, good. What he did, on top of the grief from losing our parents . . . By the time I found him, he’d snapped. His mind broke. He didn’t remember what he did. He didn’t remember anything, not even hearing about our new sister.”

“He had no idea what he’d done?”

He shook his head, his head angling so he could see me better. His hand lifted, cupping the side of my face. His thumb smoothed over my cheek. “I took it as a sign. If this was the sort of shit that could happen to my brother, maybe Tab was right? I should stay away from EJ so this wouldn’t happen to him either.”

I sank back on his legs, catching his hands and holding them in mine. He looked down at them.

I stated, “So you stayed out of your son’s life.”

“I took care of Justin.”

Right. His brother and sister, or his son. “I’m so sorry, Jake.”

“I took Justin away from there. By that time, my uncles were starting to circle us. They wanted me back killing for them, and if I didn’t, they were going to take Justin away too. That’s when I had enough. We moved to the city, and I enrolled in the police academy. We had other family down here. Some were cops. They helped take care of Justin.”

“Did he ever remember anything of what he did?”

He shook his head. “If he did, he never said.”

“And your Mafia family? They left you alone?”

Another harsh-sounding laugh sounded from him. His gaze was fixated on my lips, and he raised a thumb, tracing it over my bottom lip. “No. They wouldn’t totally let us go. I had my mother’s inheritance now and her shares in our family’s business. It’s a front for the business, but my uncles wanted those shares. I wasn’t about to give them up. I had to give them something so they felt like they could control us.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s when I became a dirty cop.”

My heart paused, stricken.

He was waiting for my reaction. His hand fell from my mouth.

God. My chest ached at seeing everything that was haunting him. Too many ghosts surrounded him.

He frowned, slightly. “Aren’t you going to say something? Condemn me? Tell me what a piece of shit I am?”

Wordlessly, I shook my head. I saw how he condemned himself. He did it enough for both of us. Reaching for his hand, I took it in mine and held it between both of my hands.

His eyes fell to watch what I was doing.

Softly, gently, I said, “You were between so many walls. Justin. Your sister. Your parents. Your uncles. Tabitha. Your son. It kept squeezing you and squeezing you. You were alone?”

The side of his mouth dipped down. “I had Justin.”

“No. You were caring for, supporting, and protecting Justin. Who was protecting you?”

He swallowed starkly, his Adam’s apple jutting up and down sharply.

This man who was underneath me, who sat between my legs—he’d been just a boy when his world fell apart. He had monsters trying to take away who he loved on all sides. So he reached for what he could to protect himself.

He got a badge.

He rasped out, in a rough confession, “I started taking bribes from Ashton Walden as a way to help protect Justin and myself from my own family. His family was powerful enough to go against mine. Ashton got enjoyment out of taunting my uncles, that he now had me and they didn’t.”

“Wouldn’t it—” I didn’t even like thinking this way, but . . . “Why didn’t they have you killed?”

He laughed, softly. “They tried a few times. It never worked, and by then, I was too insulated. By law enforcement and with Ashton’s family. Enough people knew that if something happened to me, who it would’ve been.”

Another piece fit together.

“I just cared that they left Justin alone, which they finally did.”

“He never knew, did he?”

“No.” His eyes were so dark, almost black, when he added, “I’m done staying away from my son. I stayed away because of Justin and my sister. Then I stayed to find Justin’s killer. When this contract is gone, there’s nothing keeping me away anymore.”

“What about your sister?”

“Tab and I will have a conversation about that. I’m not going to let that happen, either, but that alone isn’t going to keep me away any longer.” He caught my chin and pulled me to him. His eyes studied my face. I didn’t know what he was searching for, but I held my hand over his.

“We just need to get rid of the contract first.”

“Damn straight,” he said softly.

“How are you going to do that?”

“I’m going to let the world burn.”