(Alpha Spies and Assassins #2) The Mogul - Alison Ryan

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THE MOGUL

ALISON RYAN

Contents Copyright Dedication Epigraph AUTHOR’S NOTE Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 ATLAS 1.

ATLAS

2. PIPER 3. ATLAS 4. PIPER 5. ATLAS 6. PIPER 7. ATLAS 8. PIPER 9. ATLAS 10. PIPER

11. ATLAS 12. PIPER 13. ATLAS 14. PIPER 15. ATLAS 16. PIPER 17. ATLAS 18. PIPER 19. ATLAS 20. PIPER 21. ATLAS 22. PIPER 23. ATLAS 24. PIPER 25. ATLAS 26. PIPER 27. ATLAS 28. PIPER 29. ATLAS 30. PIPER 31. ATLAS 32. PIPER 33. ATLAS 34. PIPER 35. ATLAS 36. PIPER 37. ATLAS 38. PIPER 39. ATLAS 40. PIPER 41. ATLAS 42. PIPER 43. ATLAS 44. PIPER 45. ATLAS 46. PIPER

47. ATLAS 48. PIPER 49. ATLAS 50. PIPER/VICKI 51. ATLAS 52. PIPER 53. ATLAS 54. PIPER 55. ATLAS/PAUL 56. PIPER 57. ATLAS 58. PIPER 59. PIPER 60. ATLAS 61. PIPER 62. ATLAS 63. PIPER 64. ATLAS 65. PIPER 66. ATLAS 67. PIPER 68. ATLAS 69. PIPER 70. ATLAS About the Author

Copyright © 2016 by Alison Ryan All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Cover Design: Shayne Rutherford @ Wicked Good Book Covers

You can also find Alison Ryan on Facebook and in the romance reader group, Book Boyfriend Central. Or email her at [email protected]. To get news on the newest releases and to win free stuff, sign up for the Alison Ryan Newsletter. Created with Vellum

To Greg. As always.

The course of true love never did run smooth. — A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The MOGUL is part 2 of a 2-book story. If you have not read The MENTOR yet, it is highly suggested you read that book first before diving into this one. Also, this book has a bonus book in the back, so The MOGUL will stop around the 30 % mark. Enjoy!

CHAPTER ONE

I t was the last thing I ever expected Nolan Weston to tell me.

“What do you mean?” I asked, sitting down on the edge of my bed. “My father is alive?” I was shaking from the revelation. I felt sick to my stomach. Either Nolan was lying to me now, which was completely fucked up, or he’d lied to me then, which was also completely fucked up. “Your father is alive and in hiding,” Nolan said. He was so matter-of-fact about it that I wanted to scream. “Hiding from what?” I snapped. “Me? The CIA? The IRS? The firm? I don’t understand, Nolan. You’ve watched me almost have a nervous breakdown over this. You seemed so genuinely distraught that he was gone… And now you’re standing here telling me he was never dead at all?” I shook my head. “It’s kind of scary how good you are at being whomever people need you to be, to get whatever you want out of them.” I watched him clench and unclench his fists, his eyes fixed on me. “That’s not what this is,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you. I shouldn’t even be telling you now. It’s because of how I feel about you that I’m telling you this, Camilla. I promised never to lie to you. And besides not telling you the truth about your father, I haven’t lied to you. Everything I have told you is true.” “Well, lying to me about my father being dead is a pretty big deception for me to get past,” I cried. “Why would you do that? Why would he do that?” “It’s complicated,” Nolan said. “I can’t tell you why. That’s his place alone to tell you.” “You said you wouldn’t lie to me anymore!” I yelled. “And you’re already doing it again!” “I’m not lying,” he said quietly. “But there are some things I can’t tell you. At least I’m honest about that. It’s for your own good, Camilla. I can’t let anything happen to you.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m really sick of people deciding what is or isn’t good for me.” I walked toward the door as I spoke. “I need you to tell me where he is. Take me to him.” Nolan shook his head. “That’s not happening. Not now, anyway. He doesn’t

know you even know this. I’m breaking protocol by telling you.” “Fine,” I said, pulling out my phone. “I’ll just call Jessa. She called me a couple of months ago to see what I wanted to do about the firm. She’ll tell me where he is. She works for me now, right?” I started scrolling through my phone, honestly not even sure I had her number, but hoping it would get Nolan to confess. Suddenly he yanked the phone out of my hands. “I can’t let you do that,” he said. “No one knows your father is alive. Especially not people at the firm. Only I know. And you. And, obviously, Richard.” I was furious now. “What the hell is going on?” I asked, my voice shaking with rage. “Why would my father pretend to be dead?” “Camilla, listen to me,” Nolan said, gently touching my shoulders. Even as angry as I was at him, his touch still raised goosebumps on my skin. My mind was filled with rage, but it wasn’t enough to convince my body that it shouldn’t have a raw, primal reaction to his touch. The same touch that had given me ecstasy beyond my wildest imagining. “You can’t know anything. The less you know, the better you’re protected. It’s ‘plausible deniability’. If you don’t know anything, you can’t be tricked or coerced into revealing something. And there are people who would do both, or worse, to get you to talk. Know that I’m not avoiding these questions to hide anything from you. I’m giving you the gift of blissful ignorance. In case you’re ever asked anything, you can honestly say you know nothing.” I cried, my shoulders shaking. “I was starting to move on,” I said. “I’d almost made peace with his death. I was starting to think of you less and less. I’m supposed to get on a plane tomorrow morning, on my way to a new life. And you waltz into this room and take that away from me. What the fuck, Nolan?” He stared at me for what felt like an eternity. I couldn’t read his thoughts, but I could see regret in his eyes. I could sense something in him that was still there from when I’d first loved him. And despite how stupid it was, part of me was desperate to trust him. I was desperate to believe he loved me and that those nights in Tahoe had meant as much to him as they’d meant to me. “I know,” he finally said. “It’s not fair. None of this is. Maybe it was a mistake to come, but I couldn’t let you… I couldn’t let you leave without telling you how I felt. I don’t want to take your dreams away from you, Camilla. I want you to be happy more than I want anything.” I wiped the tears from my eyes. “You made me happy,” I whispered. “And now that I know what happiness really is, it’s been hard for me to live without it.” “Camilla…” he said, pulling me toward him. God, the heat of his body against me. It was all I’d needed; all I’d been able to dream of for months. And here he was again. I would have given him anything he wanted. He touched my face, our eyes locked on each other.

“I want you so bad,” he said. “I’ve been dying without you, Camilla.” “I want to believe that,” I said. “You have no idea how much I want to know that’s true.” His mouth pressed against mine while his strong arms gathered me up, and I immediately wrapped my legs around his waist, accepting everything he gave me, my body aching for more. His kisses were answers. I moaned at the taste of him, the forbidden fruit I’d been missing all this time. “Let me show you,” he growled against my ear. “If my words won’t make you believe me, my body will.”

Everything was as it once was for a moment. He stripped me of my clothes, my defenses, and my soul. I accepted him back in without a fight. There was no chance that I’d ever be strong enough not to let Nolan Weston back inside me. He was the drug I was hopelessly addicted to, the human heroin I never had a hope of denying myself. I called out his name as I came for him, begging and crying for mercy for an hour as he did anything he wanted to my body. When we lay next to each other afterward on top of my bare mattress, neither of us could say anything. I listened to our breathing go from ragged back to normal. He’d released himself inside of me, just as I’d wanted. Having a part of him in me was a salve on my wounded heart. “Camilla,” he finally said. “I missed you so much.” Tears fell from the corners of my eyes into my hair. “Nolan, you about killed me,” I confessed. “You broke my heart.” “I know,” he said. “I will always hate myself for that.” I turned to look at him. He was staring up at the ceiling, his eyes sad. “Why?” I asked. “Who was on that phone call?” He turned over and pulled me toward him, kissing my head as he ran his hand down the side of my naked body. “Jessa,” he said. “I had to tell her those things so she wouldn’t be suspicious. She’s not someone who can be trusted. And being that I can’t know who in our firm is a mole, I can’t chance her knowing how I feel for you.” “Okay,” I said. “So, how would she know about us anyway?” He sighed. “You don’t want to know.” “What do you mean?” I said, pulling away for a moment. “Tell me.” “Your father’s house is bugged by the firm,” Nolan said. “Something I didn’t know until Jessa called me and wondered why I was sleeping with my dead boss’s daughter.” Holy. Shit. “So we were being spied on,” I said. “The entire time? Why? How could you not know this?”

“Believe it or not, I don’t know everything,” he said. I thought about all the things that had happened in Tahoe between Nolan and me. The thought of someone listening to us made me sick to my stomach. “This is so fucked up,” I said. “It just keeps getting worse and worse. And what do you mean, there’s a mole at the firm? Who? Why? I’m completely lost. You’re telling me so much at once…” Nolan pulled me close to him, his arms tightening around me as I sobbed into his chest. “Just promise me,” I cried. “That I can trust you. That all of this really is because you love me. Because my heart wants to believe that, but my brain is telling me to run from you as far and as fast as I can.” “If there is anything I can promise you,” he said, taking my face in his hands. “It’s that I will never let anything happen to you.” He kissed me again, long and deep. But despite how much I wanted to… I didn’t believe him.

CHAPTER TWO

“So take me to him.”

I said it the next morning at the Omni over room service breakfast. Nolan had taken me there after making love to me in my dorm room. Once we’d arrived at the hotel, I’d been too exhausted to do anything else. I just needed time for myself. To think. We’d slept in separate suites. But now we were eating breakfast in my bed, neither of us knowing exactly what would happen next. Nolan shook his head. “I can’t just take you to him. Do you know how many eyes are on me right now? Do you think it’s gone unnoticed by the firm that I came to your graduation? That we… spent the night together?” He leaned over me and grabbed a bagel. “They’re watching us. Closely. I can’t take you to Richard right now. I’m sorry, Camilla.” I sighed. “Well, what do you expect me to do? Forget that you told me? Live my life as if my father doesn’t exist? I mean, I know he was able to do that when he was ‘alive’, but I actually care about him and his well-being.” “What did I tell you? It’s complicated. This isn’t about missing your recital or your birthday party. This is his life. And yours.” Nolan looked at me, his eyes narrowed. “You have to let go of your anger toward him. It’s not his fault he was absent, Camilla. He didn’t have a choice.” “We all have choices,” I retorted. “He just chose something else over his child.” Nolan stood up, pacing at the foot of the bed. His shirt was off and he was wearing only boxer briefs. I watched his thigh muscles moving under his bronzed skin. Even as angry as I was at him, I wanted him so badly. I could tell he was frustrated with me. But I didn’t care. “Camilla, I’m not saying you can never see him,” he finally said. “You just can’t see him now. Honestly, we shouldn’t even be discussing this out loud. No one knows but us. If the wrong people were to find out the truth, we would all be in extreme danger.” He walked over to me. He stood above me and I craned my neck up to look into his eyes. He placed his hand against where my collar bone met my shoulder, tracing

the soft skin on my neck with his thumb. “Before anything else,” he said. “Your safety matters most. To me. And to your father. I feel like I’ve already let him down by falling for you. I can’t let him down by allowing you to be in any sort of peril or jeopardy. You’re everything to me.” I ran my hands up his taut stomach, up his muscled pectorals. The bulge in his briefs moved subtly as my palms explored his chest. “I want to trust you,” I whispered. “More than anything.” “You have to trust me,” he said, leaning down toward me, his mouth close to my own. “You trust me with your body. You let me have my way with you, you allow me to take you in ways no man has ever been lucky enough to. Why won’t you trust me with this? Why would I let you down now? What would be my motive?” I shook my head. “I have no idea. It scares me that I don’t have a choice when it comes to you, Nolan.” He smirked at me. “We all have choices, Camilla. A beautiful woman once told me that.” He laid me back on the bed, his large, rough hands running up my torso to my breasts, the nipples already rock hard, anticipating his every move. “Let me have you one more time,” he whispered against my neck, his hands already tracing down to my hip bones, pulling down my pajama pants. “Before we get on the plane.” “The plane?” I asked, suddenly not thinking about how badly I wanted him to fuck me. “Where are we going?” “Let me compromise with you,” he said, pulling me into his arms as he lay down next to me. “You go with me on this trip. And our next destination can be to where your father is. But I need you to come with me, Camilla. I can’t keep living without you.” I shook my head, so confused. “What kind of trip is this? And to where?” “Vancouver,” Nolan said, simply. “And it’s a business trip of sorts. We’re going to meet someone who can help us. Both of us. He has a lot to do with why your father had to go into hiding. And why it’s important for certain people to continue to believe he’s dead.” “Okay, you’ve convinced me. Who is this guy we’re going to see?” “The mogul,” Nolan said. And nothing else. His mouth had already begun its descent to my thighs. I no longer had any strength to resist him.

“We’ll leave tonight,” he’d said after our shower. I was still breathless from the things he’d done to me under the steam of four shower heads. My inner thighs quivered. I’d never come so many times in my life. “So a red eye flight?” I faux whined. “Is that all that was available?” Nolan smiled. “We’re flying private. Emerson can’t meet us until around midmorning tomorrow anyway. And I figured you’d need time to pack.”

“Emerson?” I asked as I wrapped a towel around myself. “Is he the mogul?” “Emerson Titan,” Nolan said. “And yes.” My eyes widened. “Is he a client of my father’s?” I asked. Emerson Titan was one of the richest men in the country. Maybe the world. He rubbed elbows with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. He had a reputation as a Santa Claus type if you believed the papers. He was the rarest of jewels; a billionaire with a heart of gold. Or so his amazing PR team led the world to believe. “A client and a very good friend,” Nolan replied. “And he’s the answer to everything.”

CHAPTER THREE

I watched him sleep.

It was still hard to believe he was back in my life. It was even harder to believe I’d allowed him back in so easily. But pretending to be hesitant would have been me lying to myself; as if I’d ever had a choice when it came to him. He was so handsome. Stubble marked his face. Nolan was someone who needed to shave daily. He was a man full of testosterone, someone who could have probably grown a mountain man’s beard in a week. My mind wandered and I imagined what he might look like with such a beard. Shirtless, chopping wood next to our cabin, deep in the woods somewhere. Maybe in the mountains around Lake Tahoe. He looked damn good. I squeezed my thighs together to stifle what the image in my brain was doing to my body. He laid in the compact bed of the plane, his muscled forearms crossed over his chest, his face so peaceful. How he could sleep right now, I would never know. I looked out the window into the night. It was cloudless as the Gulfstream glided through the sky. It was dark below, the occasional small city’s lights dotting the way. I wondered what state we were over now. I envied the people below us, all sleeping soundly, living lives of simplicity with the people they loved. I let my mind drift from Nolan the mountain man to Nolan the average Joe, wondering what it would be like to live in one of those houses with Nolan, Nolan the mechanic or carpenter or fireman. A “normal” kind of life of barbecues and, someday, PTA meetings. Only the dull ache Nolan’s cock left in my core reminded me that no life with him, no matter how mundane, could ever be “normal.” Still, it was something I would have done anything to have. Normalcy. Happiness. A life with a distinct lack of surprises. I thought of my father. Wherever he was, was he happy? Did he miss me? Would I ever really see him again? If Nolan said I would, I had to believe him. It was all that was getting me through this.

“Good morning, passengers,” the pilot’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Just letting you know we’re about 30 minutes from Vancouver and should be landing shortly.” The pilot’s voice shook me from a deep and dreamless sleep. I sat up in my chair, already regretting falling asleep in it. My neck and back were sore, my mind in a fog, adjusting to where I was. “Camilla.” His voice stirred me awake. “We’re almost there?” I said stretching. “I feel like we just left. I’m so tired.” “I promise, I’ll get you straight to the hotel and you can sleep all day if you want,” Nolan said. “No, I’m okay,” I said, sitting up. “I’ll be fine. The sooner we meet with Emerson Titan, the sooner I can see my father. I don’t want to waste any time on things like sleep.” “Camilla, being exhausted isn’t going to make things happen faster,” Nolan replied. “It’s just going to make time move much more slowly. Rest is going to be important.” I sighed. Sometimes he spoke to me like I was a girl, but when his hands and mouth were on my body I was all woman. His woman. Maybe. I didn’t know what we were to each other, to be honest. When we disembarked from the jet we were met by two tall, imposing men in sleek black suits and dark sunglasses. “What, we need the secret service while we’re here?” I asked. “To protect us?” Nolan shook his head as we headed to the waiting SUV. “They’re here to protect Emerson. They’re his men. He never leaves home without them. And he never meets anyone unless they’re escorted by these guys.” I stared at the bodyguards, their expressions revealing nothing. They were fortresses of men; the sorts of men I would want to be by my side if I was ever worried about the wrong kinds of people coming after me. We slid into the back seat of the black Range Rover, Nolan immediately putting his hand on my thigh, making goosebumps rise on my skin again. “You’ve never been in a safer vehicle than this one,” he said, as one of Emerson’s men slid into the driver’s seat. The sound of the locks going down made me jump. “Yeah? What is it, bullet proof?” I joked, grabbing on to his muscled arm as we began to drive off the tarmac. The driver still hadn’t spoken a word to us, despite clearly being able to hear our conversation. “More than that. It’s IED proof. It has a blast-proof undercarriage. The windshield can take a .308 caliber rifle that shoots armor-piercing rounds,” Nolan explained. “It’s pretty amazing how they do it. A company in South Carolina completely disassembles the vehicle and re-engineers everything they possibly can from the wheels up, with safety and security in mind. The added weight means the engine has to be modified as well, more powerful. It doesn’t come cheap. Oh. And it

has plenty of cup holders. Almost too many, really.” He winked at me. “It’s made especially for diplomats and billionaires. The President travels in limousines identical to this, although his have a few offensive capabilities that this one doesn’t. Classified stuff.” Suddenly, I was nervous. Why the hell did we need to travel in something like this? Nolan must have sensed my apprehension. “Don’t worry. This is just how Emerson rolls. We’re not in any danger at the moment.” At the moment. Great.

We arrived at the Four Seasons less than twenty minutes after disembarking. And fatigue was hitting me hard. I yawned next to Nolan as we pulled up, my head on his shoulder. He touched my cheek affectionately. “You’re so beautiful,” he said. I laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure I’m really beautiful right now. Exhausted and still wearing the same clothes as yesterday.” “You’re stunning,” he said, leaning over to whisper in my ear. “I can’t stop thinking about how quickly I need to get you alone in our suite.” I smiled, my heart thumping against my chest. Could he hear it? “Isn’t Emerson here?” I asked. Nolan nodded. “He’s somewhere in the vicinity. But we have time before we see him.” Suddenly, I wasn’t so tired anymore.

CHAPTER FOUR

N olan Weston both terrified and titillated me. It was that combination of fear and

complete desire that made sex with him something that I was sure no one else on this planet could ever have possibly experienced. As soon as we were in the royal suite at the Four Seasons, his hands were on me. The bulky men in suits were stationed outside of our door, but he had me pushed against it on the other side as his mouth traveled down my neck and to the low V of my blouse. “Fuck, I love your body,” he said, taking me in with his eyes. He ran his hands beneath me, taking handfuls of my ass like he owned it, then moving his fingertips up my sides as he kissed my neck. His hands met gently at my throat, cradling my chin for a moment and staring into my eyes before he pulled my breasts out of the cups of my bra. “I’m going to fuck you right now, Camilla. And though I was slow with you last night, there’s no way I can hold back this time.” He lifted me up, his hands under my ass as I wrapped my legs around him. “The question is, where? On the bed? On the floor? Against the window so the world can watch you writhe and scream for me?” I kissed him, long and deep. “I don’t care where. All of the above. Just don’t let go of me. Ever.”

The size of him. The feel. As he fucked me on the California king bed I could see us from the large full-length mirror that hung on the wall next to the bed. My body was all curves and smooth lines. I couldn’t help but admire the woman I had become as I watched the man of my filthiest dreams pound me from behind. His large hands were on my hips as he thrusted in and out of me. I looked flushed and heated; a lusty look in my eyes I couldn’t recognize. My hair was tousled, strewn wildly on the bed around my face. It was like looking at a stranger. I had never been more aroused. Is this why people taped themselves having sex? I guess I understood it now. I looked so young and he looked so much older, something that turned me on

even more. It made this feel so forbidden, being the ingénue under his skilled hands. I cried out as I came for him, my wetness gushing from me, lubricating the place where he continued his assault on my sex. “I can feel you coming,” he growled. “Only I can do that to your body. Say it, Camilla.” “Only you can make me come, Mr. Weston,” I pleaded. “I need more. Please.” “Don’t worry,” he said, flipping me onto my back, continuing his thrusting. “You’re getting fucked until you beg me to stop.” “So I guess you’ll be fucking me forever,” I said, my fingers digging into his shoulders. “Because I never want this to stop.” I mounted him an hour later, still needing him. He hadn’t come yet and I wanted his seed inside of me so badly. I had never been taken by a man with such absolute control, such orgasmic discipline. I knew I felt good to him, he told me as much, but somehow he could just fuck me and fuck me and never allow himself to release. I wanted to be marked by him. In every way. The look on his face as I rode him made me feel so satisfied in my own skills as his lover. It was a look of primal craving, but also intense love. His hands held my hips as I rolled them against him, his girth hitting me in the right places as I called out to him, letting him know the pleasure he was giving me. “I’m going to come inside you,” he said. “Do you want that?” “Yes!” I cried out. “More than anything.” He yelled out as he released and I could feel it inside of me. Warm and pulsing. I laid down on him, my ear against his chest. The sound of his heart pounding made me smile. I did that, I thought. I made his heart race. I made him come. I took the control from him. Nothing he could do could stop his body from responding to what mine commanded his to do.

I showered after a brief nap in his arms, invigorated by our lovemaking and still eager to see Emerson Titan. Nolan joined me and we kissed, our bodies slippery against each other. “I love you,” he said, running his hands up and down my wet, naked body. He said it with such conviction. “I love you more than anything, Nolan,” I said. He stared into my eyes for a long moment. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but I would have given anything to know. “I’m going to dry off and get dressed,” he said, giving me one last kiss on the mouth. “I hate to leave you when you look this sexy, but we should meet Emerson soon.” I nodded. “Yes. I’m ready to see him.” As he closed the glass shower door behind him, I wondered if he felt like this

after each time we made love. Because at that moment I felt like there was nothing I wouldn’t have done for him. All he’d ever have to do was ask. The power I gave him over me was not something I ever imagined I’d freely give to anyone. But that was how it was with Nolan. I was his, no matter what.

CHAPTER FIVE

E merson Titan was not the stereotypical billionaire mogul. He was a personality

as much as anything else. People magazine loved to run stories on him a couple of times a year. He graced the cover of Forbes several times every decade. He rubbed elbows with Hollywood’s elite, even more so than Wall Street’s. Of course, he was also a partial owner of one of the largest movie studios in Los Angeles, among his other investments. But he was someone who used that sort of influence for good. There were so many rumors about the pure, altruistic deeds of Emerson Titan. I had never heard anything negative about the man. He was America’s favorite rich guy. The people who worked for him were fiercely loyal because he treated them so well. And so when I met him, I was slightly star struck. In a conference room somewhere on the fourth floor of the Four Seasons, Emerson Titan sat at the end of a large, oval-shaped table that had enough seats for 20 people. He sat alone, flanked by more men in suits to match the ones who had walked with us from our room to here. As we entered the room and he noticed our presence, his face lit up. “Nolan Weston!” he said, a laugh at the edge of his deep voice. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” “It has,” Nolan said walking toward him, a hand extended. “No handshakes, my boy. This isn’t a business meeting,” Emerson dismissed his hand and hugged him, like he would a son. It was very obvious Nolan and Emerson shared a close friendship. Emerson’s eyes met mine as he pulled away from Nolan. “And this is Camilla. Richard’s girl.” When he said my father’s name his tone of voice changed. “I was so devastated to hear about his passing, Camilla. My condolences, child. Aren’t you a beautiful girl? You look so much like your mother.” I was surprised. “You knew my mother?” “Oh, yes,” he said, glancing at Nolan. “She was friends with my late wife.” He said nothing else. “Well, she’s dead too,” I said, and suddenly realized I’d turned this light moment into something heavier. I was a girl with two dead parents and for some

reason I’d decided to remind a stranger of this fact. Except one of them isn’t dead, I reminded myself. But he doesn’t know that. I don’t think. Emerson walked over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. He wasn’t as tall as Nolan. He was perhaps six-feet. But his presence was big and the way he looked at me made me want to cry into his shoulders. “I know,” Emerson said. “I’m so sorry. You have been through so much.” I nodded, blinking back tears. Nolan was next to me now, his hand grabbing my own. “Thanks for meeting with us, Emerson,” Nolan said. “We need to talk about something, but it has to be in a safe place with no one listening in.” Nolan looked at the men surrounding us. “No offense, guys.” As usual, the men in suits gave no expression or acknowledgment. “That serious?” Emerson asked, looking at Nolan. “You know, I usually don’t have this kind of security detail, but with what’s been happening with Atlas and with the people at Elixir…” “I know,” Nolan stopped him. “It’s a scary time. How is Atlas?” “Not great,” Emerson sighed. “Somehow his location was compromised. He and Piper have gone dark again. And she’s almost due. You heard about Odin, didn’t you?” Nolan nodded his head. Mine was spinning. I had no idea who they were talking about, it felt like they were speaking in code. “This can’t keep going on,” Nolan said. “We have to stop it.” “Trust me, no one wants an end to this more than I do,” Emerson said. “Okay. I’ll clear the room. I’ll have my men wait outside.” The five bodyguards that had surrounded Emerson as he sat at the table, and the two men who escorted us to the conference room, marched rigidly out the door. The last one to leave spoke to Emerson. “We’ll be right outside, sir. And the room is clean. We checked it before you entered.” “Thanks, Nigel,” Emerson said. And now we were alone with one of the most powerful men in the world. And I still didn’t know why.

CHAPTER SIX

“ W ho is Atlas?” I asked as we sat down.

“He’s my son,” Emerson said. “My eldest.” “Why is he in hiding?” I asked. Nolan cleared his throat. “Camilla, that’s really classified information, and not something you need to concern yourself with.” “No,” Emerson said, holding his hand up. “It’s fine. Though Nolan is right, the only reason I shouldn’t tell you is because it puts you in danger to have that knowledge. Something I wouldn’t do. Not to Richard’s daughter.” “You know my father,” I said, realizing I wasn’t speaking in the proper tense. “I mean… You knew him.” Emerson nodded. “Oh, yes. Your father was one of my most trusted advisors. I have been with his firm since its inception. When your grandfather still ran it.” My grandfather. Dad’s dad. I’d never met him. “It’s amazing the things I learn about him,” I muttered. “You knew him a hell of a lot better than I ever did.” Emerson looked at me, sadness marking his eyes. “He was a private man. He had to be in his line of work. I know he adored you. Richard thought you hung the moon.” A lump formed in my throat. Nolan spoke. “We’re here to talk about Richard. And to tell Camilla how you’re connected to him. She should know, Emerson.” Emerson looked at Nolan, his expression hesitant. “Why is that important now, Nolan? Richard has passed. And she’s in danger just by being his daughter. I won’t burden her with things that could get her killed. You should know better.” Nolan shook his head. “But we need your help. No one else can provide us with what you can.” “What are you talking about?” Emerson said, glancing over at me. “Richard isn’t dead,” Nolan said. “And Camilla needs to be with him. No one else knows he’s alive except the people in this room. And I want it to stay that way.” Emerson’s face went pale. It was clear to me that he really hadn’t known.

“Richard is alive?” Emerson asked, clearly puzzled. “But… he had a stroke. His body…” “It’s complicated, but I was able to make arrangements with the kind of people who are very good at making things look how you want them to look,” Nolan said. “Richard knew if he just pretended to be lost at sea, they’d never have believed it. They would have gone after Camilla to try to get him out of hiding. There had to be no doubt he was dead.” Nolan rested his arms on the table. “And clearly, it worked. You had no suspicions.” “No reservations at all,” Emerson said. “I don’t know whether to be relieved or to be frightened. Where is he?” “I think some things are best left unsaid,” Nolan replied. “For both our sakes.” Emerson nodded. “Yes. Very good then. How can I help?” “Well,” Nolan said, sitting back in the cushy conference room chair and stretching his arms. “We need to get them off our tail. So to speak. If I’m going to get Camilla to her father, I’m going to need your resources. I can’t use the firm’s.” “I see,” Emerson replied. “I’m guessing they’ve been compromised? Any idea who?” Nolan shook his head. “It could be all of them for all I know. I have my suspicions. Either way; I can’t use any of the firm’s resources. Not their planes, not any of their ground transportation. Not even my cell.” “Well, this situation certainly is dire, then,” Emerson said. “It’s bad, as bad as I’ve seen it, and I’ve been around for a while. Why, do you think, Nolan?” “Well, I think it’s related to your last deal,” Nolan replied. “Richard had his qualms about how it would be received by some of the other clients. We represent a lot of people who would lose out on a lot of money if certain projects backed by Titan money should somehow go through.” I interrupted, “Can you please fill me in on what the hell you’re talking about?” Emerson spoke, “I was… am… funding research for a ‘miracle drug’. The drug could conceivably reverse diabetes. The same medicine, or family of medicines, could also profoundly impact things like malaria. The research is promising. It’s shown immune-boosting properties that could help with a whole host of diseases and conditions. Help people cure themselves, so to speak.” My eyes widened. “Oh my God. That’s amazing. Why would that be such a scandalous thing? Wouldn’t that be… good?” “Believe it or not,” Emerson said, looking out past me toward something only he could see. “The right things- the good things- are not always the things that people with a lot of power want. Especially if it means they would lose money.” “But it would save lives,” I said, still not understanding. “Yes, countless lives,” Emerson agreed. “It would change so many things. But it would also make it so that the pharmaceutical companies’ stocks would plummet. A few very wealthy and powerful people would lose a lot of money.” “Well who the hell cares about that?” I said. “Okay, so someone is worth two billion dollars instead of four. I mean are there seriously people that fucking

greedy?” Nolan and Emerson exchanged looks. “She really has been sheltered,” Emerson said. For some reason this really pissed me off. “If sheltered means I haven’t been exposed to greedy dickheads who would rather people die in order to make a profit every quarter, then yes. I guess I am ‘sheltered’. Or what the rest of the world might refer to as ethical.” I glared at both of them. “This whole thing makes me sick.” To my surprise Emerson started to laugh, a big belly laugh that seemed to come from somewhere deep within. “Camilla Hunt! You’re my kind of girl. You are most definitely your father’s daughter alright. Yes, you’re right. There are some evil men in this world who don’t give a damn about anything but themselves. And that’s why it’s important people like me, you, your father, and Nolan exist. We decide to change the world anyway.” Emerson smiled. “Fuck ‘em.” “Well, what does this have to do with my father?” I asked, looking over at Nolan, who was now staring at me intensely. “Well, I’m not the only client with the firm,” Emerson explained. “Some of the very people who would profit the most from cures never being found to certain ailments and diseases are also people who are members of his firm. On the board of directors. Long-time clients. So there was a conflict of interest. A lot of the other clients felt like your father was betraying them by supporting my lobbying for this research. It was… messy.” I sat back in my chair, dumbfounded. “But I still don’t understand why he’d have to go into hiding,” I said. “I mean… You’re not in hiding.” “Well, not to sound arrogant,” Emerson started. “But me going into hiding would be much more difficult. I am a very visible man. There aren’t very many people who don’t know who I am. If I suddenly died under strange circumstances, the press would have a field day. I’d never be able to get away with it.” Emerson frowned. “But even I don’t completely understand why Richard did it. This is the first time I’m hearing this and even I’m confused, Camilla. I wish I had more answers for you.” I nodded. “Yes, I get that. I guess I just feel like I’m missing something.” Nolan interrupted, “Emerson, she’ll need a plane if she’s going to see Richard. And she can’t use anything connected to the firm. I’m getting her a burner phone as soon as we leave here. Can you arrange a flight for her that would be off the books?” Emerson nodded. “Of course, that part is easy. And I have a closet full of burner phones in my office. Let me send one of my people to grab one.” “That would be great,” Nolan said, standing up. “I can’t thank you enough for helping us out.” “I’d do anything for Richard,” Emerson said. “I’m so glad he’s still with us. I hope one day soon I can see him again… And thank him for the service he gave me over the years.” Emerson looked at me. “You have a good man for a father, Camilla.

One of the best men I have ever known.” Part of me wanted to cry; because he might as well have been talking about a stranger. All of these people knew my own father better than I did. They were all so loyal to him. They revered him. And I hardly knew him. “Where are we going?” I asked. “We’ll talk about that later,” Nolan replied. “Emerson, I’m guessing you need to go.” “Yes, I need to keep moving for now,” Emerson said. “I have a lot on my plate with Atlas and Odin. As always.” “Let me know if there is anything I can do to help,” Nolan said. “I owe you so much.” “You and the firm have done a lot for me,” Emerson said, patting Nolan on the shoulder. “It’s hard to part ways. But without Richard, there is no firm. Not for me. I hope you understand.” “Completely,” Nolan said. “We’ll head to the airport in a couple hours then?” Emerson nodded. “I’ll make the arrangements and text you. In code of course. I’ll make sure the pilot has a new cell for Camilla. Do you need one?” “I’ve taken care of that,” Nolan said, looking over at me. “Just want to take care of her now.” Emerson looked at me. “Camilla, it was good to finally meet you. Wish it was under better circumstances. Maybe another time. Send my best to Richard, will you?” I nodded. “Of course.” We all walked toward the conference room door. As soon as it was open we were surrounded by the men in suits again. “Goodbye,” Emerson Titan said as four men ensconced him. And suddenly, he was gone. And we were alone.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A s we walked back down to our room, I grabbed Nolan’s arm.

“Now will you tell me?” I asked. “You’ll know once you’re there,” Nolan said. “I just don’t want to take any risks. The pilot will know where to take you. That’s all that matters.” I stopped, suddenly hearing what he was saying. “You won’t be with me?” I asked. “Aren’t you coming? Don’t you want to see him too?” Nolan shook his head. “I can’t go with you on this flight. I need to distract whomever is following us. And I can guarantee you there are people following us. You’ll leave in a couple hours for the airport in one of Emerson’s cars. They’ll switch you in and out a couple of times before heading to the private airport where one of his anonymous jets will whisk you away to your first stop.” “My first stop?” I asked. We were in front of our suite’s entrance now, and suddenly I couldn’t stop thinking about what we’d been doing in there before our meeting with the mogul. “Is this all to distract?” “Yep,” Nolan said, opening the door for us. “It’s never been more important for you to be invisible, Camilla. I’m still not sure this is the right thing to do, but you’re understandably insistent on seeing him. So I’m making it happen.” He walked past me, loosening his tie as he did. “So what do we do now?” I asked, demurely. “I won’t be leaving for a few hours?” Nolan turned to look at me. “What do you want to do, Camilla?” I walked over to him slowly, unbuttoning my blouse as I did, starting from the top and working my way down. “You know what I want, Mr. Weston.” He stared at me, his eyes hungry with lust as I got closer and closer to him. “It’s about what I want though,” he said, his voice deepening. “Isn’t it?” I nodded. “Of course. I’m just here to submit to you. Completely.” He walked over to me, his gait confident, his fists clenched. I’d unbuttoned half my blouse and in one quick motion he’d torn it off me, exposing my nude teddy I’d decided to wear under my ensemble. It was all one piece made of lace and mesh, and I’d fantasized about being exposed to him in it, my ample breasts spilling out of

it, barely contained by the thin fabric. He was practically salivating. He lifted me up and my legs were wrapped around him. I could feel the hardness of him, even with his pants still on. “I’m going to fuck you senseless,” he rumbled into my ear. His voice was primal and urgent. I knew he would show me no mercy. He threw me down on the bed and I writhed as I watched him strip down to nothing, his cock angry. He stroked it with one large hand as he stared down at me. “Take all of your clothes off,” he said. “You’re so bad, Camilla. Wearing something like that. Is it crotchless?” It was. I opened my legs so he could see me, all of me. I could feel the wetness on my inner thighs. He sucked in a breath. “Fuck,” he muttered. “You’re going to be my complete undoing.”

His pounding was the most aggressive I’d ever taken from him. He treated my body like his fuck toy- something there only to give him pleasure. He was rough with me and I loved it; I wanted to be something he found so desirous that he couldn’t control the beast I knew was within him… The beast that was within all men like Nolan. I bent to his will and followed his every instruction. “Turn over,” he’d demand, smacking my ass. “Let me fuck you like the whore I want you to be for me. Only me, Camilla.” And if by whore he meant I was only his for the taking, then that’s what I would always be. To receive him was all I could ever want. If he wanted to fuck me like a whore, I would be a willing one. “Yes, Mr. Weston,” I panted. “I’m your whore. You own my body.” “That’s fucking right,” he said as he entered me, his cock so hard that I winced. “You’re my precious girl, Camilla. My concubine. My everything. I’ll fuck you and love you for the rest of my life. And you’ll never get me to stop. Right? If I want you, you’ll give me everything. I can fuck you how I please. Say it, Camilla.” “You can do with me as you wish,” I cried out, an earth shattering orgasm erupting from me. I could feel myself pulling his cock inside of me even further as I pulsated. “I’m coming so hard for you, Mr. Weston.” He yanked my hips back and started pumping me faster now, impossibly deeper. “I can feel it, Camilla. My good girl who I love to fuck. I can feel you coming for me. Your mentor. Your master. Your owner.” Oh my God. Was it bad that this turned me on? To be his good girl that he owned? I loved playing this part and being beneath his experienced hands, his eyes staring down at my body, a body that only belonged to him, would always belong to him. “I need your come, Mr. Weston,” I begged. “I’ll be so good for you. You can come

anywhere you want to. On me, in me. Just show me how much my body pleased you. It’s my only purpose!” I was crying out now, the waves of pleasure hitting me relentlessly as we played our game. This role was what I was born for. I’d never wanted someone so much. Even as he fucked me, I couldn’t get enough. I was delirious with want. He yelled out, a primitive sort of scream that came from deep within his soul. He slammed into me over and over and then I felt him release, the heat of it bringing me over the edge. We were truly one in that moment, his body filling me and mine taking all he could give me, wanting all of it, and more. Much more. Always.

We’d been completely spent over an hour later, both of us breathing hard as we lie next to one another on the bed, naked and sweaty. “That,” he said. “Was the best. Ever.” I rolled over and smiled at him. “The best sex ever? Really?” “Not just the best sex,” Nolan replied. “The best time. The best experience. The most amazing hour of my life. Bar none. No competition. You win, Camilla Hunt. You win so hard.” I laughed, so proud that I could be on that kind of pedestal. “I love you,” I said, without thinking. He turned to look at me. He touched my face but I could sense a sadness in his eyes. “I love you too. More than I’ve ever loved anyone.” I laid my head down on his chest, listening to his heart beat. It soothed me, that sound. “What will happen?” I asked. “After we see my dad? Will we come back here? Run the firm together? Flush out the moles?” I looked up at his face. He was staring at the ceiling, one arm crooked underneath his head. “I just don’t want this to end, Nolan. Ever. Is that crazy?” He shook his head but he wouldn’t look at me. “It’s not crazy at all to want to spend your life with someone you love.” I looked at him, my stomach suddenly hurting from anxiety. As always, Nolan wasn’t telling me everything. “If it were up to me,” he said. “And I have thought this so often you wouldn’t even believe it… I’d do what your dad did. Except I would escape to Vanuatu. Assume a new identity. The name of someone who was a huge part of the good parts of my childhood.” “Yeah?” I asked. “Who would that be?” He smirked at me. “I have to keep some secrets for myself. But you could figure it out. We talked about it before.” I playfully smacked his rock solid stomach. “You keep enough secrets as it is. How would I find you?” “I’d hope you’d be with me,” he said, running his hands through my hair.

“When it comes down to it… I hope you choose me.” “Always,” I said, suddenly understanding his solemn expression. How could he ever think I’d ever choose anything other than him?

About an hour later Nolan received a text from Emerson letting him know everything was good to go. “We should hurry though,” Nolan said. “They’re going to take you in an unmarked SUV. Four of them will leave the hotel at the same time and all four will go in different directions. All four will have a woman in them with your hair color and your build. But clearly only one will have Camilla Hunt in it. And we’re hoping, if someone is following you, that it throws them off. Either way, you won’t be taken to the plane until you’ve switched cars a few times.” I looked at him, tears suddenly stinging my eyes. “You won’t be with me?” “I can’t be,” he said, holding my face in both his hands. “I want to be. But for both of our safety, you need to go alone. But I won’t be far behind you. I have things to settle here before I go.” “And you still won’t tell me where?” I asked. “This is beyond frustrating, Nolan.” “I know,” he said. “But it’s what we need to do. I don’t want to compromise Richard’s whereabouts. But more than that, I don’t want to put you in any sort of danger. I won’t take even the most conservative of risks when it comes to you.” This was not what I wanted. I’d been apart from him for so long the last few months. I didn’t trust how long it would be until he was with me again. And he wasn’t looking me in the eyes when he spoke. A red flag. “Promise me,” I said. “Promise me you’ll meet me again. I won’t go anywhere else until I see you, Nolan. You can’t… Not again…” I was crying now. So weak. “I swear to God,” he said, pulling me to his chest. “You will see me again in the next 48-72 hours, Camilla. I would die before I broke that promise.” He tilted my chin up toward his face. “I need you more than you need me. You have no idea.” He kissed me then. It was a kiss full of passion and the promise of things to come. It was the truest thing he’d given me so far. And I believed him. Without question.

Thirty minutes later I ducked my head into a sleek, black Range Rover with tinted windows in the bowels of the parking garage. There were three men in the vehicle with me. The suits. They didn’t speak, but it was clear they were in on what was happening.

“We’re taking you to another hotel and garage,” the driver said to me, glancing at me in his rearview mirror. “There you’ll get into a Maybach with a different security team. After that they’ll tell you the next step. It might take a couple of transfers before we’re cleared to take you to the final destination. Please be patient, Miss Hunt.” I nodded. “Of course. Do what you have to do.” I wanted Nolan there with me. I was never more safe than when he was close by. I ached for his presence. A dark cloud would hang over me until I saw him again. That much I knew was true. At the next hotel I slid into a Maybach with curtained windows; a different driver and only one other man in a suit in the passenger side. “Hello, Miss Hunt,” the driver said. “Seems like we’ll need a couple more transfers before we take you to the airport.” “Okay,” I said. “That’s fine.” And they weren’t kidding. I hopped in and out of a total of six luxury vehicles before finally hopping into an older model Chevrolet Malibu of all things which finally took me to the private airport outside of Vancouver. I was exhausted. On the way up the tarmac to the waiting jet, the driver handed me a cell phone. “Mr. Titan wanted me to give you that,” he said. “It has only his number in it. In case of an emergency.” “What about Nolan’s?” I asked. The driver shook his head. “I don’t know anything about a Nolan. Just Mr. Titan. He asked that you text him once you’ve landed in Reykjavik.” Reykjavik? “Iceland?” I asked as he stopped the car. “That’s where I’m going?” “Yes, Miss Hunt,” the driver said as he hopped out of his seat and opened my car door. “You’ll get further instructions once you’ve landed. Good luck, Miss Hunt.” My sole piece of luggage was already being carried onto the jet by one of the pilots as I slowly walked toward the air stairs of the plane. A toothy, smiling stewardess greeted me, a tray with a flute of champagne balanced on her manicured hand. “Welcome,” she said. “We’re happy to have you aboard today.” I nodded, taking the champagne and downing it in one quick gulp. I placed the empty flute on her tray. “Thank you. Keep those coming. I’m going to need them.”

Iceland. It was definitely not on the list of places I’d expected to be going to any time soon. It had been on my list of places I’d like to see… eventually. I just never suspected I’d be in the situation I was in when I ultimately found my way there. As I settled into my seat I pulled out my iPad. It hadn’t been used since before I’d

left Charlottesville with Nolan, so I assumed it was safe to at least check my email on it while I was on the flight. After drinking three flutes of champagne I wasn’t completely thinking straight. And I had a long journey ahead of me. The pilot had mentioned it would take a little over 7 hours to get to our destination. So might as well play online. I opened up my Gmail account first to see if anyone had emailed me from school. I had some friends who were expecting me to be in Europe right now. We’d planned on hosteling a bit and splurging on luxury digs in the bigger cities. A couple of them had emailed me wondering where I was and why I wasn’t answering my text messages. But those weren’t the emails that had caught my eye. In the subject line: IMPORTANT. The sender? Jessa Ladson. The Hunt Group. I hesitated for a moment, suddenly sober. Why would Jessa be emailing me? If I opened the email, would they somehow be able to tell I was in a plane on my way to Iceland? Without thinking, I clicked on the subject which opened up the email in its entirety to me.

Camilla--It has been brought to our attention that you have been spending a lot of time with Nolan Weston, a former employee of The Hunt Group. Now, it’s truly none of our business how you spend your personal life, but we felt it was only fair to warn you of what you are dealing with when fraternizing with someone like Nolan. He is dangerous. Your father found this out too late, sadly. We have suspicions that Nolan was involved in his death, but nothing certain. We hate to bring up such a tragic subject with you, but we feel it is our due diligence to protect the owner of this firm. You do still hold a majority stake in it, after all. Therefore, we hold a huge stake in you. Nolan has most likely not told you everything about his past. It’s important you know about it, so I have included some attachments for you to peruse at your leisure. We understand you’re taking this time to travel the world and sow your oats, so to speak. We look forward to your return so that we may introduce you to the firm and your place in it. I am only an email or call away should you need me. -- Jessa Ladson

I wasn’t sure what to think. The fact that she mentioned Nolan being involved in the death of my father had her losing quite a bit of credibility with me. Unless Nolan had lied about him still being alive. But what would motivate him to do that? I shook my head. This was just part of the firm’s tactics to get me to turn on him. And there was no way that was happening. I clicked on the first attachment of three. They all appeared to be photos. What I saw next shattered my heart into a million pieces.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I t was a photo of Nolan in a suit next to an exotically beautiful woman in a wedding gown. They were posing together, their hands clasped and fingers entwined. At the bottom of the photo someone had written:

Mr. and Mrs. Nolan Weston. Married June 2010.

I wanted to throw up. Nolan was fucking married? I stared at the couple. They both looked so happy. Nolan’s eyes were so different than the eyes he had now. There was joy in them. Peace. I love you too. More than I’ve ever loved anyone. Why was I surprised he could lie so easily? It had been all he’d done since I’d known him. And now I was stuck on a plane over fucking Canada sobbing as I realized that everything I wanted was a big hoax. What was the purpose in doing this to me? I clicked on the next attachment. Another photo of him and his wife. It was a candid one, they were on a beach somewhere tropical. They were both laughing at something very funny, her head was thrown back and one hand was on her perfect stomach, her long dark hair billowing down her back. She was in a bikini and she had the body of a model. She was tall and lean and perfect. The photo could have been the ad for a luxury resort. They both looked like staged models. And again… He looked at her like he loved her. It was so painful to see. At the bottom of this photo: Nolan and Adrianna Weston, on their honeymoon at Copacabana Beach. So they’d honeymooned in Brazil. Of course. She looked like she was probably from there. I wondered if she was related to Giselle? I shook my head. I hated being so jealous. But it couldn’t be helped. I also hated

Jessa Ladson in that moment for sending me this. The third photo was them again. This time arm in arm as they walked down an urban sidewalk. Maybe New York City, I couldn’t tell. They were both bundled up in pea coats and scarves. She was clutching his arm as he pointed to something across the street. They looked Cosmopolitan and chic, like they didn’t have a care in the world. Fuck Nolan Weston. I threw my iPad across the plane. It hit the window with a smack which must have been loud because suddenly the stewardess was back in the cabin, a look of concern on her face. “Miss Hunt, is everything alright?” she asked looking around. “I heard a thud.” “It was me, throwing my iPad,” I replied. “Sorry.” “You have an iPad?” she asked, her voice suddenly concerned. “Did you just access anything online from it?” “Yes,” I replied. “I checked my email on it. Why?” Suddenly her flawless veneer was gone. “Where is it? We have to get rid of it. If you opened any emails on it the firm could easily track us now. Did you open any emails from The Hunt Group?” Her voice was stern, it reminded me of Nolan’s. “Yes,” I admitted, hanging my head. “I wasn’t thinking…” She didn’t bother to listen to me. She picked up the iPad and immediately went to the back of the cabin. “Miss Hunt,” she said. “Please buckle your seatbelt.” “What’s happening?” I asked. “We’re going to need to decrease the plane’s altitude and pull out the landing gear so I can open the door and throw this out.” She looked at me. “So please buckle up. I’ll be letting the pilot know.” “Who are you?” I asked, buckling my seatbelt with shaking hands. “And I’m sorry I fucked up. I’m… not used to this kind of thing.” She looked at me, a cool expression on her face. “I work for Emerson Titan. It’s okay. We’re trained to handle things like this. It’s good that you threw that iPad. Otherwise I never would have known. So whatever you saw, I’m grateful it upset you.” I sighed. Fantastic. Not only was I emotionally a mess, but I’d possibly screwed up this entire mission of getting me somewhere without the firm finding out about it. The stewardess was gone for a moment, speaking to the pilot. Suddenly I felt the plane moving down and the sound of the landing gear moving beneath us. “Why do we have to lower the landing gear?” I asked. She sighed. “The plane door won’t open when the cabin is pressurized and the landing gear is up. Safety protocol. We need to be at a lower altitude and once that happens, we can open the hatch quickly and toss the item out. It will be quick.” “Could it hurt someone?” I asked, feeling like such a horse’s ass for allowing

this to happen. “If you throw it out?” “We’re in a very barren part of Alberta at the moment,” she assured me. “No one will be hurt and no one will ever find this. Now, Miss Hunt. I’m going to ask you to please sit back. I’m giving you a sedative that will have you sleeping the rest of this flight. Okay?” I shook my head. “I don’t need that. I’m sorry I messed up.” She walked over to me. “This is not a choice I’m giving you.” Suddenly her very strong hands held me down and a syringe was plunging into my arm. “I’m sorry to do this,” she said. “You’ll sleep and once you’re awake, you’ll be in your hotel room.” “What will I remember?” I asked, already feeling the sleep hit. “I can’t forget what was in those emails…” I was asleep before I could hear her answer.

CHAPTER NINE

I t seemed like just a few minutes later I was awake.

This time I was in a plush bed, still wearing the clothes I’d had on when I boarded the plane. My head hurt a bit, but I guessed it was from being dehydrated. The room was dark and cool. The stillness and quiet freaked me out a bit. My eyes adjusted and I could see I was in a hotel room. I had no idea what time it was. The clock next to me said 8:30 but I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to whether it was morning or night. I slowly sat up and noticed there was a bottle of water on the nightstand. I opened and chugged it, hoping it would help with my sedation hangover. I was still pissed about that. Had it really been necessary? Memories of the last 12 waking hours flooded into my head at once. I could still see Nolan’s face with his wife. So that answered my last question I’d asked before passing out on the plane. I definitely hadn’t forgotten about the fucking emails.

After contemplating my situation for a few minutes I walked to the hotel room door. Something told me there would be suits on the other side of it. I was wrong. There was only one person. The stewardess. She was sitting in a chair, reading a magazine. She’d changed into a pair of linen pants and a button down. Her hair was down now. She looked less like a career day cut-out and more like someone who would work for Emerson. She looked up when I opened the door. “Ah. You’re awake,” she said, setting down the magazine. “How do you feel?” “Shitty,” I said. “What the hell was that about? With the needle?” She gave me a sympathetic look. “I know. Over the top, right? We did it so we could transfer you more easily. It sounds terrible… But we wanted to disembark without anyone seeing you.” “So?” I asked. “Tranquilizing me was the answer?” “Yes,” she replied, looking me in the eyes. “That way we could put you in a

large, ventilated chest of Louis Vuitton luggage. Your file said you were slightly claustrophobic, so we assumed it would be best. And it was. You have no memory of it, no one could possibly have seen you and now you’re safe.” I guffawed. “You put me in a piece of luggage? What the fuck?” She smirked. “Welcome to the world of espionage, Miss Hunt. Your father taught me everything I know.” I looked at her blinking. “You know him?” She nodded. “Yes. I owe him everything. He was my mentor. He trained me in Israel. Krav Maga. No one knows that better than Richard Hunt.” Hearing the word “mentor” made me think of Nolan. I wondered if this stewardess/super-spy had been “mentored” the same way Nolan had done for me. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to this strange world of moguls, mentors, spies, faked deaths, and bodyguards. UVA and the relative normalcy of college life seemed a million miles away. I sighed. “Yet someone else who knows more about my father than I do.” “I was very sorry to hear of his passing,” she said, solemnly. I looked at her, having almost forgotten people weren’t supposed to know he was alive. “Thanks,” I said. “What’s your name?” She shook her head. “We don’t give those out. Titan protocol.” “Of course,” I replied. “So anyway. Am I in prison now? Can I venture out beyond my room or what?” She nodded. “You can go anywhere you want. You’re presently at the Silica Hotel. It’s on the famous blue lagoon here in Grindavik.” “I thought we were flying to Reykjavik,” I said. “We’re in Iceland right?” “We flew into Reykjavik and then drove here. It was about a 40-minute excursion,” she replied. “Those were our instructions.” “I see,” I said. “So you’re not with the firm? Just with Emerson?” She nodded again. It was all she seemed to do. “Affirmative. And I’m to guard you until Mr. Weston arrives.” The sound of his name filled me with rage. Especially a woman saying it. When I called him that, it was in the heat of passion. Or what I thought was passion. Before I found out the truth about his marriage. “I don’t want to see him,” I said. “I’m going back into my room now.” “Very well,” she replied, not seeming to care or notice that I was upset. “I’ll be stationed here. I do have another partner with me, he’s sleeping until his shift.” I closed the door behind me without replying to this. I didn’t give a shit. I walked back toward the bed and threw myself on it, burying my sobs into one of the down pillows. Nolan. Married. Besides the news of my father’s passing, nothing had crushed me more than this.

CHAPTER TEN

I slept almost all of the first day away.

I’d woken up later that afternoon and thrown back the curtains. Sure enough, in the distance, I could see what I could only surmise was the blue lagoon. And blue it was, a chalky indigo that stood tranquil. I envied its peace. Beyond it, a jagged field of dark rocks. I could definitely relate to that. I’d ordered room service but barely been able to touch any of the food. It was a hot dog or pylsur, something I was told Iceland was a little famous for, and it was good. But it was hard to enjoy anything in the mood I was in. Life had lost its color. Again. I kept thinking about Adrianna. She was stunning, much more aesthetically suited to Nolan than someone who looked like me. Was he with her now? Was she a loose end he had to tie up? Or was I the loose end? Did she know about me? Doubtful. Why? And how? It scared me how easily he could lie and it disappointed me how easily I could fall for it. Over and over. No more.

The rest of the next day was spent in bed. I watched Icelandic television and sometimes stared out at the lagoon. During the day, the water filled with people, couples and families, people enjoying themselves. They’d leave Iceland with lifelong memories of the lagoon and the landscape. I was destined to leave hoping I’d picked up all the pieces of my shattered heart and stuffed them in my bag, not having left any slivers in the carpet or under the bed. Not that it seemed likely to ever put back together again. The stewardess/guard had been replaced by another suit, a gruff looking wall of a man. I stuck my head out at one point and he said nothing, just watched me. I wondered if Nolan was really coming. And my father… was he here? Or somewhere else? I felt guilty, I’d barely thought of my father since I’d gotten here. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about seeing him as I’d been before. I wasn’t keen to see

anyone, if I was honest with myself. I’d quickly fallen into such a dark depression over Nolan. It angered me that I’d allowed myself to be this woman. But I ached for him so much. And now I knew it had never been real. I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to show up or not. I was prepared to live and die in that hotel room by the lagoon. I just didn’t care about anything anymore.

On my third morning I heard a familiar voice in the hallway. Nolan was here. I looked awful. I’d lived in the same pair of yoga pants and white t-shirt for the most part, having only showered once to get the smell of lamb off me. (Iceland was famous for its lamb of all things. And for good reason- it was delicious.) My body was tense at the sound of him. Tears stung my eyes. I didn’t know what to expect when he walked through the door. But at least I’d have the chance to confront him, to let him know I wasn’t the most gullible fucking idiot on the planet, even if I felt like it. I could hear the sound of the key card sliding into the door. “Camilla,” he beckoned. “It’s me.” And of course he looked gorgeous. He was in a slate colored, Tom Ford suit, tailored perfectly to his body. He unbuttoned the jacket as he walked in, a smooth and sexy movement that made me want to jump into his arms. I knew that’s what he expected me to do when he saw me standing across the room near the window. As soon as he saw the expression on my face, he grew alarmed. “Camilla,” he said. “Baby, what’s wrong?” He rushed over to me now but I extended an arm out. “Don’t come near me,” I replied. “And don’t call me baby.” Confusion marked his face. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “I haven’t talked to you in almost three days. Did something happen that I don’t know about?” “Oh, I think you definitely know about it,” I spat my words at him. “Unless you forgot that you’re married.” He stopped in his tracks. His face completely changed. I’d expected to see coldness or to at least hear another lie spill out of his delicious mouth. I continued, “Oh yeah. Adrianna Weston. Your beautiful, supermodel fucking wife!” It was like I was stabbing him. He winced at my words. “Camilla,” he said. “Stop.” “Are you kidding me?” I yelled. “Stop making you feel like a complete asshole for fucking me while you’re married? What did you have to gain from that? You told me you wouldn’t lie to me anymore!” I was screaming which had caused the suit to come in.

Nolan held up his hand. “We’re fine. Just having a misunderstanding.” The suit was undeterred and advanced into the room, stopping just a few feet behind Nolan, making eye contact with me. I nodded that I was okay, but stopped short of asking him to leave. I returned my attention to Nolan and shook my head. “Fuck you, Nolan. You’re not talking your way out of this one. This was too much.” I was crying now. “You killed me once. But this has destroyed me. Why did you even come back for me, really? What’s in this for you?” I started to ask if my father was really still alive, but I caught myself. On the off-chance Nolan had told the truth about that, at least, I didn’t want to risk anything by talking about it in front of the Titan security man. I clung to a strand of hope that I’d see my father again. I clung to even less hope than that for a future with Nolan, that there could be some sort of explanation for his latest transgression. “Is it because of the firm? You can fucking have it, Nolan. I don’t want any of it! I don’t want this life! I want to disappear off the face of the earth and never be seen again. I want that Krav Maga bitch to give me another sedative that somehow wipes all memory I have of you. Because as much as I love you, right now I hate you even more.” I collapsed onto the floor and suddenly his arms were around me, pressing me against him. I wanted to scratch his eyes out, but I was too exhausted. “You have to tell me how you know about Adrianna,” he said calmly. I jerked my head up to look at him. “I don’t have to tell you shit,” I said. “It was Jessa. She emailed me photos.” Nolan pulled away from me for a moment. “You checked your email on the plane?” “Yes,” I said, scooting away from him. His touch was poison. “I know, it was dumb. The stewardess had to throw my iPad out the back of the plane to keep the firm from finding us.” He ran his hands through his hair. “That bitch.” “She’s not a bitch, she’s actually been really nice to me,” I said. “She didn’t even act all that angry that I’d used my iPad.” “Not her,” he said. “Jessa. She’s a stone cold bitch for sending you those photos.” “Why?” I asked. “Because they’re the truth? It doesn’t make her a bitch.” “It’s not the truth,” he said, quietly. “I’m not married. Not anymore.” I pulled my knees up to my chest. I had no idea what to say to that. I still didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. Which wouldn’t be far. “So you’re divorced,” I said. “You should have mentioned that.” “I’m not divorced,” he said, anger in his voice. “I’m a widower. Adrianna is dead.” My stomach dropped. He was right. If what he was saying was true, Jessa really was a bitch. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I… didn’t know.” He shook his head. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. You’ve done

nothing wrong.” He wasn’t looking at me though. His face was sad. It was one of the only times I’d seen true melancholy cross his handsome features. “How…” I started but then stopped. That was a terribly rude question. “She was killed,” Nolan said. “By the agency she worked for. They felt she had compromised her position by being with me. They’re rivals of the firm and they felt like she knew too much about them and would eventually double cross them. She wouldn’t have. She was leaving them… Trying to make a clean start with me. She didn’t want to have anything to do with international espionage anymore. She just wanted to be with me…” His voice trailed off. “Anyway, when she died, I was a wreck. I quit the firm for almost two years. Your father took care of me. He’d lost so much himself. There is a language of loss that only people who have dealt with a particular pain could understand.” Nolan looked at me. “You know it. You felt it when you thought your father was gone.” I nodded. “And when I thought you were gone. I felt so terrible… That pain, the confusion, the unanswered questions, it was so much worse for me.” Through my tears I watched the suit exit the room, closing the door quietly behind him, apparently satisfied as to my safety and my need for privacy with Nolan. He reached out to me and I fell into his arms, crying at his loss and my own. There was so much to mourn. I didn’t even know where to start. “Your father wanted to transition me slowly back into the firm,” Nolan whispered into my hair. “He assigned me to you. He wanted me to be in charge of his most precious person. And he never would have guessed she’d become the woman I would love above all others. Even Adrianna.” I looked at him, my eyes wide. “It’s true,” he said, looking at me. “It’s made me feel guilty so many times… I stopped thinking about her. I mean, I still think of her so often. She was a wonderful woman who I cared about so much. Someone I think you would have liked a lot. But nothing can compete with the desire and love I have for you, Camilla.” He kissed me gently on my forehead. “I’m torn over whether I should feel bad about that. But you lit a fire in me that had never been lit before. And every time I’m with you, every time I touch your body, it just stokes the flames further.” God. To hear those words. I kissed him back, softly. “Nolan. I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know…” “Of course not,” he said, pushing my hair off my face. “Not many people do. I’m not angry with you. I would have felt the same in your position.” We embraced and just held each other, his hand running through my hair. He kissed the top of my head and down to my temples. His kisses were softer than I’d become accustomed to, and I melted under each of them. He kissed my eyelids. The bridge of my nose. My cheeks. Just when I thought he’d finally kiss my mouth, he skipped it and went to my chin. Then my throat and up the side of my neck to just below and behind my ears. My body turned to jelly in

his arms and I had to put mine around his neck, interlocking my fingers behind his head just to remain standing. “You’re. (kiss) So. (kiss) Delicious. (kiss) Camilla.” The kisses on my neck started to include small bites, and I gasped as he placed a hand at the small of my back and pulled me tightly against him. His lips finally met mine, but the contact was fleeting. I whimpered in frustration as he captured my breath in his open mouth and retreated from my desperate lips. “Please kiss me, Nolan,” I begged. “Oh, but where, Camilla?” He spun me around and pushed me against the wall, taking my wrists in his hands and pulling them up over my head. He held them both in one of his large hands, and his free hand reached around the graze my stomach near my belly button, laid bare by my shirt being pulled up with my arms. His touch there jolted me like a cattle prod. “There are so many delicious places to kiss you. I should probably kiss them all, don’t you think?” He was kissing the back of my neck now, his index finger running maddeningly inside the waistband of my sweatpants. I struggled to free my wrists, wanting to tear his clothes off. And mine. But he was having none of it. “You’re very naughty, Camilla. Writhing like this. It seems you may need to be restrained.” He lifted the bottom of my t-shirt up, over my breasts and then my head, until it was up to where my wrists were. He twisted it into impromptu handcuffs, leaving me completely bare and exposed from the waist up. “Now, then. Let’s get back to kissing you.” I had never been more desperate to get fucked, to be taken, to climax, as I was as he slowly covered my shoulders and back with his mouth. He reached around and let his knuckles drag against my nipples, and I had to bit my bottom lip hard to keep from screaming and risk another interruption from the man in the suit outside our door. He held my wrists fast above my head and I felt him moving behind me, changing hands to remove his coat and then his tie and shirt. “Keep your hands right there above your head. Unless I tell you differently. Or you’ll be punished. Do you understand, Camilla?” He growled into my ear as his hand made a pass inside the front of my sweatpants, agonizingly close to the volcano my sex had become. But he didn’t touch it. “Yes, Mr. Weston,” I moaned in a husky voice with which I wasn’t familiar as belonging to me. “Good girl,” he replied, and out of the corner of my eye I watched him kick his pants and boxers away. He was naked. I felt him kneel behind me, kissing his way down my back again. When he

reached the top of my ass, he gently began to roll my sweatpants down, kissing across my beltline as he did so. With every half inch of flesh he slowly exposed, half a dozen kisses followed. “I was going to go all the way to the floor, but you’re just too delicious. I can’t wait any longer.” He rose to his feet and took hold of my wrists again. I felt his erection pressing against the small of my back. “Are you wet enough to take it, Camilla?” he asked, his breath hot on the back of my neck. “Please, Mr. Weston. I’ve never needed anything more!” “Good girl,” he replied, confidently. Something about him calling me that just electrified me. I swore I could feel his words fucking me before any part of him was inside. If he just kept touching me, kissing me, and calling me that, I was sure I’d climax without him ever entering me or touching my aching sex. But I’d never get the chance to find out. He squatted down behind me, just low enough, and I felt him, all at once, slide into me from behind. I accepted his girth easily, my entire body made of melted butter, designed for only one thing – pleasing Mr. Weston. He held my wrists in his right hand while his left came to rest on my hip. He slid into me again and again, and when he sensed I was close, his left hand rose to my throat, closing firmly around it. “Come for me, Camilla. Make me feel it,” Nolan commanded. If he’d offered me a billion dollars not to come, I couldn’t have possibly complied, I was so far gone. Oxygen was a luxury. Food and water were nice. My impending orgasm was an absolute necessity. If anything that happened to delay it, I’d surely die. But with Nolan’s glorious cock ravaging my body, I had nothing to fear. The trembling began in my thighs. The strength in my legs disappeared as what seemed like every drop of blood in my body raced to my core. Nolan’s grip on my arms, not to mention what felt like a baseball bat attached to his body lodged inside me, kept me from collapsing. My hips gyrated violently, thrashing and bucking, but he only went deeper. All the while, his fingers closed off the blood flow to my brain, amplifying my release a hundredfold. I’d never felt anything close to what Nolan was making me feel. Every time I thought it couldn’t get more intense, couldn’t feel better, somehow he took me to a new plateau. The orgasm lasted for what seemed like days, like bobbing in the ocean and being buffeted by waves, each one a new jolt of pleasure. The only thing keeping me tethered to reality was Nolan’s calm, authoritative voice, repeating my mantra over and over again. “Good girl. Good girl. Good girl.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

W hen my body finally stopped trembling and he released his hold on me, I slid

down the wall, my body much more liquid than solid. He scooped me up into his arms and carried me to the bed, placing me on my side and curling in behind me. I was drained. The emotional toll of the past few days, coupled with the soulshattering orgasm I’d had, left me all but empty. Nolan understood that my exhaustion was complete, that I couldn’t take any more of his devastating lovemaking. He wrapped me up in his arms and we slept, just like that, our fingers intertwined, my head on his bicep, his leg twisted up between mine. My contentment could not have been more complete. When I awoke, hours later, I thought I was in heaven. The white sheets around me, Nolan Weston’s arms around me, his stubbly chin between my shoulder blades. I wriggled and twisted and managed to roll over, wanting badly to see his handsome face and to finally kiss him in earnest. He woke up as I rolled, and when I was finally face to face with him, he was grinning. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered before we kissed. We cuddled and kissed and tickled, laughing softly. I felt his arousal swelling against my leg and I reached down, giving him a squeeze. “At your age, how much Viagra does it take to keep getting so many erections, Mr. Weston?” I asked, playfully, giving him long, slow strokes. “I could be a hundred and fifty years old and have no trouble getting it up for you, Camilla. You’re the sexiest woman on the planet.” We kissed again and again, and I opened my legs to receive him, but he stopped just short. “You insatiable little minx,” he teased. “Is this all you think about?” At the word “this”, he let just his tip slide into my opening before withdrawing. I moaned in frustration, lifting my hips, chasing his cock. “Yes! You know it is. Please!” He gave me the most wicked smile, staring into my eyes. “Security told me you’ve barely left the room. You haven’t even been to the lagoon yet. We’ll have dinner and then we must have a soak. After that, my body is yours. I’ll fuck you

until you beg me to stop. Deal?” I pouted petulantly. But what he suggested sounded fantastic. I hoped he couldn’t hear my stomach rumbling. And I’d been dying to get into the pool. “I’m going to make you beg me to stop,” I said. We dressed and went to dinner in the hotel, seafood so fresh we both figured it might just have been swimming in the North Atlantic that morning. We discussed the graduation trip I’d planned with my classmates, and no matter which European city I mentioned, he’d inevitably been there before. I made it my goal to somehow, someday, find a place on the globe where Nolan hadn’t visited, someplace we’d take in fresh, together, someplace that was just ours. After dinner, we went to our room to change. Nolan’s bag had been sent up while we ate, and when I stepped out of the bathroom wearing a robe over my bikini and spotted him in just his trunks, he looked so good that I was tempted to forego the Blue Lagoon and get right to the part where we resumed our morning activities. He was spectacular. He noticed my hungry stare and he ran a hand up his abs to his chest, stretching his arms in front of him so that every muscle rippled. I let my robe fall open, revealing the bikini I’d bought back at school but never had the confidence to wear, light green and Brazilian-cut, something I bought more as a goal item, something to inspire me to eat right and work out harder in the hopes of one day looking good enough to fit into properly. Judging by Nolan’s reaction, that day had arrived. “Oh my God, Camilla.” He walked across the room and put his hand on the small of my back, pulling me in for a kiss. “Do you want to give every man in Iceland a heart attack?” “You’re crazy,” I said. I couldn’t imagine wearing something so provocative in public, but on Nolan’s arm, I felt like I could conquer the world. “Shall we?” he asked, picking up his own robe from the bed. “We shall,” I replied, and we left our suite holding hands. It was evening, and the pool was mostly empty, just a few couples here and there. We had to pass through the lockers to enter, where a pre-soak shower was mandatory. I worked the special provided conditioner into my hair and tied it up in a messy bun. The water in the lagoon was supposed to be so mineral-rich that even with conditioner before and after and not letting hair get wet, it would still be damaged. I didn’t want to meet my father with breakable hair so I took no chances. There was a chill in the air despite it being early summer. The moon hung full and bright overhead. “Unfortunately, we’re here at the wrong time of year for the Aurora Borealis. I’ve never seen it from this part of Iceland,” he mused. “That just gives us a reason to come back, right?” I asked. “Indeed,” he replied, shedding his robe and rubbing his palms on his upper arms to stay warm. The water was a sort of turquoise, with wisps of steam rising from it.

I let my robe fall off my shoulders and set it on a chaise, shivering from the sudden cold. “I hope that water is as warm as they say it is,” I said as we strolled down the pier toward the pool. “You won’t be disappointed,” Nolan responded. We held hands and walked in together, the mineral-rich water sending jolts of warmth into our bodies as soon as our feet were submerged. Nolan watched my face as we got deeper and deeper into what amounted to the world’s largest hot tub. My joy must have been obvious, because he grinned at me as we both lowered ourselves neck-deep. “Oh, this is absolutely divine,” I said, looking up at the stars and feeling any and all tension in my body disappear. “Come on over this way. I’ll show you my favorite spot,” Nolan said, and we half-swam, half-duck-walked, depending on the depth, until we reached a small archway with a waterfall crashing down. Nolan backed up under the flow, sighing as he enjoyed the aquatic massage. I joined him, and suddenly I had my own favorite spot in the Blue Lagoon. In Keflavik. In Iceland. Whose life was this? The water pounded our backs and shoulders, and I relaxed and let my mind drift It was like the jets in a hot tub, but focused across my entire upper back. Between what Nolan did to my body, the incomparable meal we ate, and now this, I figured I must now hold some sort of world record for sustained bliss. Nolan led me back behind the waterfall, to a sort of hidden cove filled with steam. The heat was almost unbearable. He took my face in his hands and kissed me ravenously. “I could kiss you forever, Camilla. I am so deep in love with you that it terrifies me,” he said to me, our foreheads gently touching and his hands cradling my face. My arms were around his neck. “I love you, too, Nolan. More than anything I’ve ever loved. Or ever imagined I could love.” We kissed and kissed until the heat we were generating was far greater than what the Lagoon could ever provide. We swam and slid our way back to the pier, and Nolan got out first and brought a towel back to the water to keep the cool air from me. I couldn’t help but notice what all our kissing had done to him. “You’re so bad,” I scolded him for the public display of his arousal. “That’s why I need a good girl like you. An angel to balance my demons.” We stood and kissed under the stars before splitting up to shower and rinse away the minerals from the Lagoon. Even with such a healthy dose of conditioner and adding more for a second rinse, I could feel that my hair had become brittle. I’d attack it again in the morning. The night demanded I attack the body, and libido, of Nolan Weston. Once we returned to our suite, we couldn’t get out of our clothes fast enough. Hands and mouths were everywhere, and he wound up on his back in the center of the bed, his arousal jutting obscenely from his flat stomach. He placed both hands behind his head and propped his head up on a pile of

pillows. “I accept your challenge, Camilla. Make me beg you to stop.” “Yes sir, Mr. Weston,” I replied, in the sultriest voice I could summon. I climbed atop him, straddling his cock but not allowing him entry. I writhed atop him like a cat, melting my curves into and around his sharp edges, my breasts crushed against his muscular chest, kissing him hard. He started to reach for me, but I guided his hands back behind his head. “Those stay there.” His eyes widened and the hint of a smile crossed lifted the corners of his mouth. I could feel his hips lifting from the bed, trying to gain access to my sexual vault, but I wasn’t yet ready. I slid back down so that I was just below his cock, and I sat straight up, running my hands all over my body. I took hold of him at his base, pointing him straight toward the ceiling. I rose up so that I was positioned just above it, so that if I dropped down, I’d engulf him. And I began to touch myself. I held him still with one hand and rubbed myself wantonly with the other. In full view of my lover. The look of hopeful desperation on his face was priceless. As my first orgasm arrived, I watched him grit his teeth through my hazy eyes. I let myself sink down for just a moment, reminding him how it felt then I was off him again. His gasp was the sexiest sound I’d ever heard. I performed for him, mewing and moaning, making myself come as he trembled and groaned. I’d slide down onto his angry hardness, allowing him three and four thrusts, then lift myself off and move up to kiss him, running my fingertips up and down his sides. I thought he might weep. “Did you enjoy kissing my back earlier, Mr. Weston?” I asked him. His reply was ragged, breathless. “Yes, yes I did.” “And my ass? Do you like my ass, Mr. Weston?” “I fucking love your ass, Camilla. It’s perfect.” “Good. Then you’ll enjoy this view.” I rose up and kicked a leg across his body, turning around so that I faced away from him. I impaled myself on him, grinding down so he’d fill me completely. My orgasms came easily and rapidly, riding and bouncing on him, my hands drifting down to rake his inner thighs with my fingernails. When I let my hand slide further up and I took a gentle grip of his balls, he began to buck off the bed, up into me, pounding me as best he could. “Oh, Camilla, you’re so wicked. Oh fuck!” I squeezed harder and began to ride him more fervently, abandoning any pretense of being a civilized 21st century human being. I was wild, a primal, sexual being. Fucking on instinct. Having no need for language or logic. Needing only to come. And more than that needing to make my man come. To feel his eruption. “Come for me, Nolan. I want to feel you come. I know you want to. I’m going to force you to come.” He was shaking, incoherently groaning, and suddenly… I stopped. I lifted up and turned to see a look of complete confusion and shock on his face. I

almost felt bad for him. But a deal is a deal and he accepted my challenge. I was determined to win. I was facing him again, raised up just far enough that he could fucking nothing but air. “Let’s start again, shall we? That’s the beauty of being a woman; I can climax as many times as I want to. Can you stand it? Or will I get to hear the mighty Nolan Weston beg?” His head was rolling from side to side, but his willpower kept his hands behind his head. “Watch me, baby. Watch me come for you.” I lowered myself onto him, but did not move. I rubbed myself to orgasm again, with him inside me, my eyes locked on his the entire time. Each time he closed his eyes, I coaxed them back open. “You’ve told me I have beautiful eyes. Don’t you want to look at them? Watch me, you have to watch me. I want to be your good girl so bad. Watch me come, Mr. Weston.” His eyes flashed with something like rage and his nostrils flared as I continued my sexual siege on him. “Put your hands on my breasts, Mr. Weston. Feel how hard my nipples are for you. Help your good girl come.” He placed his hands on my breasts and mauled them, plucking at my nipples and taking great handfuls of the tender flesh. “Up and down. Please.” The words were barely above a whisper. “What did you say, Mr. Weston?” I feigned having not heard him, grinding my hips down onto his. “Fuck. Go up and down! Ride me Camilla, I need to come! Please!” He was nearly shouting. I’d never seen him so undignified. And I’d never been so aroused. I lay down on him and kissed him deeply, fucking him wildly, until we both climaxed together. I feared the power of his orgasm might force me off the bed completely, maybe to the ceiling, but his hands on my hips held me tight to his body. My own ecstasy was overwhelming. It would be impossible for two people to feel closer to one another than at that moment. Through gritted teeth, his soul spilled out through his voice just as he flooded me with his release. “I love you, Camilla. I love you forever. And longer.” Limp, sweaty, and exhausted, we collapsed onto the bed in each other’s arms, kissing our way into a well-deserved sleep.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Hours later, I woke up dying of thirst. Notices were posted all around the lagoon

advising bathers to rehydrate frequently, warnings we’d foolishly ignored in our haste to get back to the suite and get out of our clothes. I went to the minibar and downed a cold bottle of water, watching Nolan’s chest rise and fall in a sliver of moonlight that fortuitously found a gap in our curtains. I pulled out a second bottle and sat in a chair near the bed, feet curled up beneath me, just enjoying the moment. Despite the vigor of our lovemaking, the effect of the healing waters in the pool remained and had me feeling refreshed and alive. Aside from a dull ache deep within, in a place only Nolan could reach, I felt fantastic. And even that ache wasn’t something I minded terribly much. It was a constant reminder of the man who’d claimed me as his. I rose and went into the bathroom, the mirror revealing how much the minerals in the lagoon had done to wreck my hair. I decided the only remedy was to keep conditioning, so I started a shower, hopeful that I wouldn’t wake Nolan. I wanted him exactly where he was when I slid back into bed. The shower was glorious, and after conditioning and rinsing twice, I was ready to return to my dreams while I wrapped my naked body around the man even my wildest fantasies could never have imagined. With a my hair up inside a towel, I slipped quietly from the bathroom back into the bedroom. And into my worst nightmare. Nolan sat in the same chair where I’d been sitting, his hands behind the back of the chair. From the uncomfortable-looking position he was in, I surmised that he must be in some sort of restraints. Sitting on the sofa adjacent to the chair, just past the bed, with a gun in his hand pointed directly at Nolan, was the man in the suit, the security guard sent by Emerson Titan to watch over me. I shrieked and attempted to cover my nakedness, but the man with the gun corrected me. “Ah, ah, no sense in having modesty now. The whole hotel heard you two fucking earlier anyway. Come over here and turn on a light so I can take a good, long look at you.”

I’d heard him mutter a grand total of about four words the entire time I’d been in his presence, so his relative dissertation startled me almost as much as the content of his statement. I made no effort to uncover myself, nor to turn on a light, but instead looked to Nolan for reassurance. For help. For something. Anything. Nolan was stone-faced. He gave me the slightest of nods, but said nothing. “What is this? What’s going on?” I dug a thumbnail into my left palm to wake myself and make the entire horrible scenario disappear. It didn’t work. “What this is, is a job, Miss Hunt. But since Nolan Weston is involved, for me it’s also a bit personal. At least one of you knows where your father is hiding. Maybe both of you do. My job is to get that answer. Period. It doesn’t matter to me, or my employer, what I have to do to get the answer. Normally, I’d follow certain protocols. None of that Geneva Convention shit, but what I’d call ‘professional courtesy’. But when it comes to hurting Nolan, I don’t mind abandoning my principles. Now do as I say and walk over here and turn on a light so I can get a good look at you.” Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I could see fury smoldering in Nolan’s eyes. “He has the upper hand at the moment, Camilla. I’m sorry. I’m so sor- “ Nolan’s second “sorry” was cut short by the man in the suit backhanding him hard across the face. It startled me how quickly a man his size closed the distance to within striking range of Nolan. Nolan spit blood and took a deep breath, staring daggers through his assailant. Trembling, I lowered my hands and walked over to the wall and turned on the light. Only then did I notice that Nolan had a swollen lump beneath the eye on the other side of his face from where he’d just been hit. Despite the blood and bruises, there was still something dignified about him. I could see that he’d put on his underwear sometime during my shower or before, and that his hands were, indeed, bound behind the chair and to the chair. He must have been caught by surprise. He was completely immobilized. The large man in the suit walked over to where I stood and circled me slowly, a predator with cornered prey, unhurried. “Touch her and I’ll kill you,” Nolan hissed. “Painfully. You’re going to die anyway, but if you touch her, I’ll make it slow and excruciating.” The man chuckled and turned to Nolan. He put his gun into a holster inside his jacket, spreading his arms wide. “Go ahead and take your best shot, Weston.” He laughed again and turned back to me. “I’ll say this much for Nolan. He does have good taste in women. I think I might enjoy this more than I did Adrianna.” My eyes widened in horror. I looked to Nolan, who looked like a deflated balloon. He slumped in his chair, staring at something no one else could see. The man in the suit glanced at me, then at Nolan. “Oh, didn’t you get a coroner’s report on Adrianna? My DNA isn’t in any databases anyway.” He turned his attention back to me, looking down into my eyes. “Here’s how this is going to work. Nolan’s going to watch me have fun with you. Then he’s going to tell me where your father is. If he doesn’t, I’ll start removing

body parts, one from you, then one from him, until one of you decides to smarten up. All of this can be as painful as the two of you want it to be, but I promise that when I walk out of this room, I’ll have what I need. Now, Camilla, you climb up on the bed. Get on all fours. Nolan, pay attention. This is how a real man does it.” I felt bile rise in my throat. A panic attack was clawing at the edges of my psyche. This couldn’t be happening. None of it could be real. It was all too awful to contemplate. He tossed his sport coat onto the corner of the bed and loosened his tie. “My father is dead! I saw his body! He’s dead. You aren’t going to accomplish anything with this, you sadistic bastard!” The words tripped over each other as they spilled out of my mouth. I’d have said anything to save Nolan. To save myself. “Come on, Camilla, you’re smarter than that. It’s over. Unless you’ll enjoy it more if I have to force you, get up on the bed now.” “You have family somewhere. Someone you care about. Even monsters do. I’ll find them. I’ll find all of them. And you’ll watch as they suffer. One by one. I’ll save you for last.” It was Nolan’s voice, barely recognizable through his rage. The large man rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips. “You know what? After I get done with her, and you tell me what I need to know, I’m going to cut you loose and give you a chance. Killing you while you’re helpless won’t be nearly as satisfying as ending you with my bare hands while you try to stop me. While Camilla watches.” “Do it now, tough guy. Come on. You’re what, a decade younger than I am? At least fifty pounds heavier? And you couldn’t take me without sneaking in while I slept? You’re pathetic.” Nolan’s verbal jabs actually seemed to bother him. Nolan had him on the ropes and he knew it. “Are you impotent? Is that what makes you rape? Or did all the steroids make everything shrivel up so that you could never satisfy a woman? Did mommy not pay enough attention to you? Thumb sucker? Bed-wetter? What was it, you cretin? Did an uncle or older brother…” Another hard backhand interrupted Nolan, followed by a series of punches to his exposed midsection. “How many ribs do you think I just broke, Weston? Three, four?” Nolan took a series of deep breaths, clearly in distress. “Jo’burg. South Africa. That’s where Richard Hunt is. Turn me loose and I’ll give you the address of his safe house. And then face me man to man. You fucking coward.” The man narrowed his gaze, staring hard at Nolan for any sign of deception. He produced a phone and made a call. “Ladson. This is Nicholas. Richard Hunt is in Johannesburg. I’ll have details soon.” Ladson. Jessa Ladson. I’d had enough. He glanced at me, appraising me like livestock, then turned his attention back to Nolan. I grabbed the lamp off a side table behind me and swung it as hard as I could.

The lamp, a slender, green metallic piece, connected solidly with the back of his skull. He pitched forward, rolling over and winding up near Nolan’s feet. “Camilla! His pants pocket! The keys!” Nolan implored me to hurry. The giant wouldn’t stay stunned for long. My mind screamed at me to run, to get help, but Nolan’s voice won out. Forsaking my fear, I knelt and dug into the fallen man’s pockets as he started to sit up, holding the back of his head. “You little bitch.” He muttered to himself, looking at his hand, streaked with blood. My fumbling fingers hit metal in his pocket and yanked, hard. A small keyring popped out, and I bounced to my feet. Until an enormous hand captured my ankle and brought me crashing back down. “Not so fast,” he said, pulling me back into his clutches. I heard a sickening “thwack!” and the grip loosened. Nolan’s arms were bound, but his legs were not. He’d kicked the larger man viciously across the side of the head, and I was free once more. I scrambled behind Nolan, searching the ring for the proper key. A jagged little number fit the cuffs, and Nolan leapt from the chair just as the large man rose to his feet. Nolan’s hands found the man’s chest and he sprang into the air, a whirlwind motion that ended with his legs around the men’s neck, his momentum yanking them both backwards, crashing to the floor near the sofa. Nolan chopped at the bridge of Nicholas’s nose with the side of his hand, sending a spray of blood into the air. His legs remained tight around the giant’s neck, and holding him thus, he reached down and yanked the gun from his holster and slid it across the floor toward me. “Take the safety off. It’s the button on the side. If this goes badly, point and shoot.” I bent and picked the weapon up, reaching to the bed for a sheet with which to cover my nudity. Nolan retained his immobilizing hold on the man’s neck, fending off both his hands as Nicholas attempted to extricate himself. As his face turned deeper shades of red, Nicholas’s left arm wound up in Nolan’s clutches. He took hold of the wrist, slipped an arm beneath it at the elbow, and the result was quick and sure. Crack. “I can go on breaking things, Nicholas. I can squeeze with my legs and you’ll pass out. Then I can take you apart. Is that what you want?” The man shook his head, best he was able. “Who’s giving the orders? It’s not Jessa fucking Ladson. It’s coming from above her. Who is it?” Nolan took hold of the broken arm and twisted it, eliciting an agonized howl. “Turn on the television. And turn it up,” Nolan commanded. I did as I was told. “Give me a name, Nicholas.” Nolan’s thumb dug into a spot on Nicholas’s shoulder, and the large man thrashed, but stopped protesting when Nolan adjusted

and began to put more pressure on his neck with his leg lock. “QB, Weston. What the fuck are you going to do now?” Nolan looked ashen. “And Adrianna? Was that QB, too?” Nolan asked. “Fuck no, she was too small time to even be on his radar. Nice piece of ass, though.” Nolan raised a hand to strike when Nicholas summoned his last reserve of energy and somehow flipped over, dislodging Nolan from his neck. With what seemed like superhuman strength in his one good arm, he lifted and threw Nolan into the nearest wall. “Skirts will ruin us all. You fucked up because of Hunt’s daughter and I took this job to get into Jessa’s pants. You’d think we’d learn. Fuck it. You’re dead. I’ll get what else I need from Camilla. She doesn’t have the balls to shoot anybody.” Nicholas charged Nolan, his bulk crushing him up against the wall and pinning him there as he threw wild punches with his good arm and head-butted him over his left eye. I wanted to shoot, to end the nightmare, but Nolan was too close. I couldn’t risk it. I backed up against the wall and into… someone. I spun with the gun in my hand, only to have my arm intercepted and lifted out of the way by the woman I knew only as Krav Maga, my other security escort. She dispossessed me of the weapon, and I knew then that we were surely doomed. As Nicholas and Nolan exchanged blows, Krav Maga gave me a… smile? She flew across the room, landing a devastating series of strikes to the small of Nicholas’s back. The large man froze and staggered back, and Nolan delivered the deathblow directly to his throat. When it connected, the man collapsed straight down like I’d seen hotel towers fall in on themselves when imploded in Las Vegas. He crumpled, motionless and soundless. The room looked like a tornado had blown through it. Nolan’s face was puffy and battered, and he held his side as he limped toward me. We embraced, as I openly wept. I was vaguely aware that Krav Maga was on her phone. “Richard, there’s been a problem,” she said. Richard? How did she… I pulled back from Nolan, puzzled. He wiped blood from a gash on his eyebrow, glanced at Krav Maga and back to me, and nodded his head.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“H e called Jessa Ladson. She’ll have dispatched a team to Jo’burg by now. Set up a

welcoming committee.” Nolan was filling in Krav Maga on the events of the evening. “South Africa? Leonard and his team were in Pretoria last week. Hopefully they’re still nearby. I’ll arrange it. Are the two of you well enough to travel?” Krav Maga looked us up and down. “I just need to get cleaned up. I’ve got broken ribs. At least two. Everything else is superficial. Camilla?” Nolan looked over at me. I was completely shell-shocked, but physically unharmed. I managed a whisper. “I’m fine.” Krav Maga stepped out and returned moments later with a small bag. “Use the stuff in here. Be downstairs in thirty minutes. A car will be outside.” She took a long look around the room. “Nolan, don’t forget to leave a tip for the maids. You’ve trashed this place.” With that, she was gone. Nolan rose with a wheeze, and I helped him into the bathroom. I dabbed a wet washcloth to the injuries on his face, trying to make him presentable. “Get the bag, Camilla. Hurry.” I returned to the bathroom and gave him the duffel, which he unzipped, revealing changes of clothes for both of us, a wig for me, and a hat for him. A wallet and pocketbook were also inside, with Canadian identification and passports for both of us with new names. As we changed, I questioned Nolan about our benefactor. “Nolan, how did you do all that? Was that Krav Maga, too?” “No, aikido, mostly. I picked up some silat in Indonesia. I’ve trained all over the world.” “And who, or what, is ‘QB’?” My mind was flooded with questions. “Too much to get into right now. He’s a bad, bad guy. Well, not necessarily bad, but he has no scruples, no conscience. His moral compass points in only one direction; towards money. He’s at the top of the food chain. We need friends. Quickly.”

“So, we can trust her? The Krav Maga girl?”” “Emma? Absolutely,” Nolan reassured me. “I didn’t know her name, she wouldn’t tell me.” “Emma Sahar. She’s American-Israeli. She’s one of your father’s most trusted… employees.” “I thought she worked for Emerson Titan?” I asked, adjusting my blonde wig. “She does. Or she did. She’s with the firm now. Or what’s left of the firm that hasn’t been corrupted. I trust her with my life. And yours.” “She made a phone call earlier. I heard her say my father’s name. Was that him on the phone?” “Richard isn’t an uncommon name, Camilla.” I frowned, tired of the endless doublespeak and half-truths. Nolan relented. “Yes. She was speaking to your father. She’s part of the inner circle.” I tried to put together all the pieces of the puzzle that the past week had made of my life, but nothing fit. “The next plane you board will be met by him when it lands,” Nolan stated, gritting his teeth as he pulled on a shirt over his damaged torso. “In Johannesburg?” “Not exactly.” With that, Nolan and I (otherwise now known as Mr. and Mrs. Andre and Daphne Manley of Ottawa) proceeded down to the lobby to catch a ride to the airport.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

W hat is there to say to the woman who saved your life and the life of the man you love? “Thank you,” I said to Emma as we slid into the backseat of an SUV she was driving. “If you hadn’t been there…” “You would have shot the bastard,” she said, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. “I saw the look of rage in your eyes. You would have done it, Camilla.” I looked over at Nolan and his bloodied face. It killed me to see the damage that had been done to him, but I had never been so relieved to know someone was still alive. It had been absolutely terrifying being in that room with the monster that was Nicholas. Emma was right. I would have shot him. But I was glad I didn’t have to. Nolan had deserved the kill shot on that one. I hoped Nicholas was rotting in hell. I thought about what the monster had said about Adrianna. What he had done to her. The look in Nolan’s eyes when he’d heard the horrifying truth. I touched his leg tenderly. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “About Adrianna. It makes me sick…” Nolan raised his hand to stop me. “I can’t. Not now. I’ll think about it another time. It’s too much.” I nodded, understanding. We rode in silence as Emma drove us toward what I assumed was Reykjavik. The blonde wig I was wearing was itching my head. I held Nolan’s hand as I spoke. “So where are we going?” I asked. “Not Johannesburg?” Nolan shook his head. He was so solemn now, I assumed over the news about Adrianna. “No, Camilla. You’re going somewhere you’ve been before with your father. Where you first saw me years ago.” Salzburg. “What’s he doing there?” I asked. “You know your father well enough to know,” Nolan said, squeezing my hand. “Salzburg is his favorite city. And that trip with you was one of the great memories of his life. So he returned there under a new name and started a new life. And I

know he’ll be happy to see you.” “Us,” I corrected him. “He’ll be happy to see us, you mean. Right?” Nolan didn’t say anything. He just stared out the window as the Icelandic outback sped by our window. “Nolan!” I cried out. “You’re leaving me again?” He was squeezing my hand harder now. “You have to see Richard. And I can’t be with you. It’s too dangerous. Now that Nicholas is dead, they’re going to come after us with everything they have. I have to go into hiding.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Then I’ll go with you! I’ll be where you are. It’s not a hard choice for me. I don’t need to see my father. All I need is to be with you.” I was almost begging now. “Nolan, I lived without you for months and it almost killed me. I can’t go through that again. At least tell me where you’ll be!” I was sobbing now. Everything that had happened in the last 48 hours was catching up to me. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack. I could feel Emma’s eyes on me. “Camilla, Nolan is right,” she said. “There’s too much heat on us right now. I’ll go with you to Salzburg so you can meet with Richard. Nolan will contact you when he can.” I looked back at him. “This can’t be happening. Nolan… Please. I love you. I can’t even breathe without you. You promised me you would love me forever. And longer.” “And I will,” his eyes were on me now. “You’re the last face I see every night, Camilla. It’s been that way for years. Which is why I can’t go with you. As much as I hate to leave you again, I love you too much to put you in danger.” I was sobbing now against his shoulder. I understood it and I also didn’t. The thought of him being somewhere alone and on the run scared the shit out of me. If people like Nicholas worked for the firm I couldn’t even imagine what we were up against. I wept for the rest of the ride, the hair from my wig sticking to my cheeks. I felt completely ridiculous. I wanted to rip the wig off and just take our chances being ourselves, together. But I knew it was nonsensical; I had to see things as they were and not how I wanted them to be. Something I should have been used to by now.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Saying goodbye to him was hell.

Emma had somehow arranged travel for us on a small private jet under an alias. She assured me no one knew about this particular departure. As far as the IACO (the international aviation administration) knew, we were just a couple of Canadians on our way to Austria. I sat in the SUV on the tarmac with Nolan for a long time just letting him hold me. I was inconsolable. I just wanted to wake up and be back in our hotel near the blue lagoon with the monster, and all that had happened since, being a distant nightmare that I would forget as soon as I opened my eyes. Instead I was being forced to say goodbye. Maybe forever. I couldn’t know for sure. “You’re killing me,” he whispered into my ear as he stroked my hair. “You’re about to see your father. That should make you happy.” “Nothing will ever make me happy the way you do,” I said. “I resent him for putting us in this position.” “He didn’t,” Nolan replied. “Your dad is one of the few good men left in all of this. Don’t ever forget that. He would die for you. And so would I.” “I don’t want anyone to die for me!” I cried out. “I want to live for once! Really live! How will I ever see you again?” He took my face in his hands and stared into my eyes. “I have given you all the information you need,” he said. “If it’s safe, and your father will know when, you’ll find me at the one place we’ve both never been. Remember everything I have told you. Keep it in your heart, Camilla. That’s where I keep you. Forever.” He kissed me then, a long passionate kiss. The kind of kiss that’s the last one you’ll ever give someone. He let go of me then because he knew I’d never have the strength to do it myself. “Camilla,” I heard Emma say. “We have to go.” I hung my head. I wanted to be dragged out kicking and screaming. Because in my heart, that’s what was happening.

But I also wanted to be the woman my mentor could be proud of. With that in mind, I slid out of the car and didn’t look back as I walked up the air stairs into the cabin of the plane and off to a destiny I wasn’t sure I wanted any part of.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I almost asked Emma if she could sedate me for this flight as well. I thought about half-jokingly bringing it up, but I was too emotionally exhausted to even speak to her. Or anyone. Landing in Salzburg for the second time in my life was surreal. I couldn’t help but think about the first time I’d been on a plane to Europe, my father by my side. Where had Nolan been then? Was Adrianna still alive? Had he been happy? I missed him so much that it hurt. And as excited as I should have been to see my father, it was hard to muster up any sort of enthusiasm in light of what had happened around me. I was exhausted in every way a person could be exhausted. But it was time. To confront my father about the past and start planning for some kind of future. Even if that future might not be with Nolan Weston.

Emma and I drove away from the city proper. She was clearly an expert in the area and knew it well. We didn’t speak much. I appreciated that she wasn’t a chatty woman. It was the last thing I needed at the moment. We finally reached a lovely cottage in the country. It was a house that was made to look quaint on the outside, but that I suspected was very modernized on the inside. That tended to be what my father liked most about his homes. The veneer made you think one thing, while the inside was completely different. Like his life. And my own. As I slowly slid out of the passenger side seat I heard him. “Camilla.” I knew that voice anywhere. I turned around and there he was. My father. I had thought of this moment so many times. Even when I thought he was dead, I had imagined what I would have said if I’d just had five minutes. And once I knew he was alive, I would rehearse all the things I would say. I imagined them all coming out at once, everything rushing to get out before he was

gone again. Just like when I was a kid. On our rare visits, I would talk so much and so fast that he would laugh and have to tell me to slow down and catch my breath. But I was always afraid of not telling him everything he needed to know. Because I never knew when I would see him again. But curiously, I was speechless now. He looked the same, although he’d clearly dyed his hair. He’d always allowed it to gray but now it was dark brown. It made him look younger, like the father from my childhood. His face was different though. There were lines around his eyes and mouth and very distinct lines in his forehead. It was clear the last year had aged him. He looked ten years older than the last time I had seen him. His face didn’t match his young hair. “I’ve been hoping,” he said. “And wishing that you’d somehow find me.” I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes. “The only reason I did was because of Nolan. You weren’t going to tell me anything. You wanted me to think you were dead.” My father ran his hands through his hair. He was nervous. “I didn’t want any of this,” he waved his hand around. “For you. I feel like because of me, your life isn’t your own. And you didn’t ask for that, Camilla. And this was my weird way of giving you your life back. Because if I’m dead, they don’t need you anymore. There is no purpose in hurting you. You can’t be used as leverage.” I laughed, caustically. “But you left me the firm, Dad. So you just made your past become my future. How the hell does that make sense?” “Nolan was supposed to take care of that,” Dad said. “I wanted him to arrange it so you could be bought out. You could live the rest of your life with the kind of freedom most people only dream of. Somehow it didn’t work out. I had no idea what was happening at my own firm.” I nodded. “It’s a mess. Nolan and I are basically on the run. So many people want us dead.” Dad’s expression was scared for a moment. “Are you okay?” “No,” I replied. “But I will be. We’re going to be okay.” “We,” my father said. “You and Nolan?” I knew what he was asking. And suddenly I was his daughter again. “Yes,” I said. “I love him.” My father sighed. “He’s not good for you, Camilla. You’ll never be safe if you’re with him. Nolan is a dead man walking and he knows it.” “Yep,” I said. “It’s why he’s not here. He left me. Said it was for my best interests. Like someone else I know, he chose the firm over me.” I was trying my best not to shake. “But I’m used to it. If your own father doesn’t want you, who else would?” I wanted the words to hurt him, but as soon as I said them, they felt wrong on my tongue. “Camilla,” my father said. “How could you ever think that?”

“How could I not think that?” I raised my voice. “I saw you maybe twice a year most of my life. I was shipped off to boarding school before I even hit puberty. I was a loose end in your life. Do you know how that feels? To know you’re an inconvenience to your own father? To know his affection is out of obligation… That I was an obstacle in your life? It makes you feel worthless.” I had never said any of these things out loud to anyone. With those words came such a sense of release. And relief. My father, however, looked like he might cry. “I can completely understand why you would feel that way,” he said. “Actions are what matter. And I did not act like the father you deserved.” He paused for a moment as if he was gathering his thoughts. “But I won’t allow you to believe for even one second that you were an inconvenience. My job was the inconvenience, Camilla. You were the light in what was a very dark life. And I wanted nothing more than to quit the firm and stay with you forever. I missed out on so much. Every time I got to see you was like Christmas times a thousand. You are the greatest accomplishment of my life. Above anything else.” I was crying now. I wanted to believe him so much. “So why didn’t you just quit?” I asked. “If I was that important and you were that miserable?” He sighed. “As you have learned over the past few days… It’s not that easy with the firm. You don’t get to quit until it quits you. And that’s usually because you’re dead.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t always like that. We used to do good work for people I thought could make a positive difference in this world. But over the last decade things changed. The money that clients were willing to pay took over things and now it’s just a firm that represents people who aren’t interested in changing the world. They’re just interested in making a lot of money.” “So you’re saying you were trapped,” I said. “It was either continue running it…” “Or die. But that wasn’t even the thing I was most afraid of,” he said walking toward me. “I was most afraid of them hurting you. Like they hurt your mother.” I was confused now. “Mom died of cancer,” I said. “No,” he said. “She did have a brain tumor, yes. But it was benign and had she lived it would have been removed and she would have been fine.” I suddenly felt dizzy. Your entire life has been a huge lie. “She was murdered,” he spat out the words. “I’d told them, the firm, I wanted to leave. That I was willing to sell my majority stake, that I had no desire to run it anymore. I was under the illusion that I was in charge of my destiny. When they killed your mother they showed me how far they were willing to go.” I was shaking. It was too much. “How can this be true?” I uttered. “How could I have been so blind to my own life?”

“It was to protect you, Camilla,” he said reaching out for me. I pulled away. “The only one,” I said. “Who has ever protected me, has been Nolan. And now, I can’t even be with him. Because it all comes back to the fucking firm.” Now it was my father’s turn to be shocked. “Of course you can’t be with him,” he said. “First off, he’s way too old for you. And he’s connected to the firm, which means he’s connected to the same danger I was and still am. You being with him would put you in possibly more danger than being my daughter does.” I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anyway. He’s gone.” My father gave me a doubtful look. “Right. And where did he go?” “I have no idea,” I said. “We were in a dire predicament. The Krav Maga girl… I mean Emma… brought me to you and he left. He said he had to distract the firm so they wouldn’t know where we are. They think you’re in Johannesburg.” My father glanced over at Emma, who I just realized was still standing with us. I’d assumed she would leave or at least make herself scarce. “He knows,” Emma said. “I have kept him up to date with everything.” “What is she anyway?” I asked, waving at her. “I owe her my life, but I feel like there’s something I’m missing here.” The two exchanged glances. “I suppose it’s time you should know,” he said. “I wanted it to be a more gradual revelation. At least have lunch first before getting into the reason I’m here in Salzburg and the reason I had to make the firm think I was dead.” “Well, I think we’re past the point of small talk, Dad,” I said. “I’m not in the mood to sit and have tea and reminisce over old memories. I’m exhausted. I just need to know everything and then I need to somehow find Nolan. Because you might not think he’s good for me, but I know he’s the best thing for me. I love him. And more importantly he’s shown me he loves me. He’s risked so much…” I was crying now. “If you really, truly love me you will help me find him and you will help me finally find happiness. And that can only happen with Nolan, Dad. Like it or not.” My father walked over to me and grabbed me, embracing me with both arms as I cried into his shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just want you to be okay. But I should have been just as worried about you being happy. Maybe my way isn’t the way to make all of this work.” I nodded against his shoulder. “I just want to live a normal life that belongs just to me. I want a life that’s filled with truth and people who tell it.” He pulled me away for a second to look me in the eyes. “Well, my child,” he said. “That’s what you’ll get. If it’s the last thing I do. I’ll help you find Nolan.” I was shocked to hear him say it. Suddenly Emma spoke up. “He better,” she said. “Or he’d be the biggest hypocrite on the planet.” We both looked at her, shocked to hear her speak.

“Emma,” he smiled. “I guess you’d be right on that.” “What is she talking about?” I asked. “Why would you be a hypocrite?” “Because,” Dad said. “This is Emma. And she’s my wife.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Y our wife?” I said. “What are you talking about? Since when?”

They looked at one another, clearly not sure who should speak. My father took the reins. “Since 6 months ago,” he said. “Around the time you… found out.” “That you were dead?” I asked. I was dizzy from all the disclosure. “No offense to Emma here, but you made me think you were dead so you could run off and marry someone who, frankly, is too young for you. And you think Nolan is too old for me? How old is Emma, like 25?” “She just turned 30 actually,” he said, looking down. “I guess you’ve got me on that part. But it wasn’t because of Emma that I left you and the rest of the world. I love Emma very much, but I would never have left you if it wasn’t a very good reason.” Emma spoke, “I’ll go in and see if she’s awake.” “Who?” I asked as Emma walked away. “Who is she talking about?” “Your sister,” my father said. I suddenly fell to my knees. Sister?

“Camilla,” my father was next to me on the gravel driveway. I was leaning against the car that was still warm to the touch from the drive. “I hate that all of this is being revealed so quickly…” “I have a sister,” I said. “You and Emma…” “We had a baby. She was born in April. On April 8th to be exact,” he said, smiling. “Same day as your mother.” Tears stung my eyes. “She’s just a baby…” I said. “So… You found out Emma was pregnant…” “And I knew, it really had to be over. With the firm,” he said, his arm around me. I allowed myself to lean into his shoulder. “I couldn’t put her through what you went through. It’s been hard enough to live with myself knowing that I robbed you

of so much. I quite literally wanted to die before I could think about that happening to another one of my precious children.” I nodded. “It makes sense,” I said. “I just wish… I could have known. That you could have told me.” “I needed it to look as real as possible,” he said. “And that included your response to my death. It killed me to do that but it was to protect you and Hadley.” “Hadley?” I asked. “Is that her name?” He nodded. “Yep. It’s what we almost named you. Your mother talked me into Camilla because she said it would mean you’d grow up to be beautiful. And she was right. You did.” I smiled. “I have a baby sister. Can I see her?” He stood up, reaching a hand down for me to grab and hoisted me up. “I’ve been waiting for you to see her since the day I found out Emma was pregnant with her. Come on in. It’s long past time you were here.” I took his arm and we walked into the house. Together. And it felt as right as anything had felt in a long time. But even in that happy moment, a part of me still wished Nolan was here too. And I wondered and hoped, wherever he was, he was safe.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Hadley was perfection.

Bald as an eagle, with pink skin and incredibly blue eyes like Emma. She’d been fussy when we first walked into the room, but as soon as I had her in my arms she stopped her whining and became very calm. “She already adores you,” Emma said. “I can’t believe how quickly she’s already taken to you.” I smiled, looking at Emma. I could really see who she was now. She was young, but wise. I thought of how she’d burst into the hotel room to save me and Nolan. She’d risked so much for me and I didn’t even know her. And she was my father’s wife. And my sister’s mom. My dad had impregnated Krav Maga girl. I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity and beauty of it. “Emma,” I said. “Thank you. For saving me. For saving my dad. For bringing this baby into the world. I know we don’t know one another well, but I’m happy you exist. And that Hadley has you.” “And she has you,” Emma added. “Your father speaks of you so much that I feel like I know you very well. I only hope Hadley can grow up to be as smart, brave, and poised as her big sister.” We both looked down at Hadley who had closed her eyes. Never had I felt such peace. My mind drifted off to Nolan again, my heart sinking at the thought of him still out there alone. And then another thought hit me: what would it be like to hold a baby of my own? With the man I loved? Could it ever happen? If I felt this much love for Hadley, I couldn’t have imagined what I would feel for my own child. “Emma,” I said, tears in my eyes. “I love all of you so much. But I can’t stop thinking about him…” “I know,” Emma said, hugging me. “I was once you. Richard was my Nolan. And I would have done anything to have this life I have with him now.” She looked behind her to see if my father was listening. “Do you have any idea where he might have gone?” she whispered. “He told me

when he left the airport that he’d made arrangements to go somewhere he’d never been before. He said you’d know what he was talking about? And that you’d find him under the name of an old Cincinnati friend named Joe? He was very cryptic. Anyway, if you can figure this out… We will make it happen. Even if we have to leave our life here in Salzburg to get you there. You’re my family, Camilla. And you above any of us, deserve to be happy.” It might still have been fresh news, but at that moment I was so grateful my dad had found Emma. I could tell she would always be an important ally between us. I was grateful for that. But what could Nolan have meant? A place he’d never been before. A friend named Joe. My mind flashed back to our nights in Tahoe. Our passion in Vancouver. The love we’d made in Iceland. We’d whispered so many things to one another, confessed a lot. But I couldn’t hold onto what this clue meant. Until suddenly I did. “I know where he is,” I said. “If you can get me there, I would owe you so much. Is it really possible?” Emma nodded. “The firm might know Richard is alive, but they still don’t know where he is. And the mogul has his team watching us constantly. It’s like we’re in an invisible fortress here. We’re perfectly safe. Camilla, it’s time for you and Nolan both to find your happiness.” “Wait,” I said. “Emerson Titan knows you’re here?” “Yes,” she said. “He’s been in on this the whole time. We couldn’t do it without him. He’d even offered to buy your stake in the firm so we can all be free of it. He plans on shutting it down permanently. And possibly getting the FBI involved. Which is why Nolan had to run. And Camilla, I won’t lie. Once you’re where he is, it might be a while before you can come back to us. Selfishly that makes me not want you to go, but as a woman in love… I also understand what you have to do.” ‘Wow,” I replied. “Emerson Titan is one great actor. He convinced me he had no idea.” Emma laughed. “Well, he does hang out with some of Hollywood’s best. Maybe they taught him a thing or two.” “If you can get me there, I’d never forget this,” I said to Emma. “It’s all I want in the world. Besides being with Dad and Hadley. I can’t live without him, Emma.” “I know,” she said. “Let me talk to your dad. We’ll figure this out.” “Okay,” I said, relieved. “Thank you.” As she walked away with a sleeping Hadley in her arms, she turned around. “By the way,” she said. “Where are we sending you?” “Vanuatu,” I said, as I remembered an old conversation. “If it were up to me,” he’d said. “And I have thought this so often you wouldn’t even believe it… I’d do what your dad did. Except I would escape to Vanuatu. Assume a new identity. The name of someone who was a huge part of the good parts of my childhood.”

“Yeah?” I’d asked. “Who would that be?” He’d smirked at me. “I have to keep some secrets for myself. But you could figure it out. We talked about it before.” I’d playfully smacked his rock solid stomach. “You keep enough secrets as it is. How would I find you?” “I’d hope you’d be with me,” he’d said, running his hands through my hair. “When it comes down to it… I hope you choose me.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I t had been hard to say goodbye to Emma. Harder to say goodbye to my baby sister.

Hardest to say goodbye to my father. But at least this time it was on our own terms. “I love you,” I said, hugging him tight two days after my conversation with Emma. “I know you might not understand it, but I have to do this.” Dad hadn’t been a fan of me leaving. It had taken some long conversations to get him to agree to the whole thing. “Nolan is the closest thing I ever had to a son,” Dad said. “It’s not about him. It’s just… I’m your dad. And I worry about you. And when I’d get to see you again. Things are just really heated at the moment…” “I know,” I said. “But I have to be happy. A long time ago a very wise man once told me that I had to choose my life and make it what I wanted it to be.” I smiled at him. “That man was you. You taught me I had choices.” “Dammit,” he said. “I hate that my wisdom is now biting me in the ass.” We both laughed. “I choose Nolan,” I said. “But I also choose myself. For once. And I know that you hate it, but I also know you understand it.” He pulled me into his arms and kissed my head. “You’re always first in my heart, Camilla,” he said. “Always and forever.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

A s usual, the mogul pulled through.

Emerson Titan had arranged for me to fly to Vanuatu under a new alias that came with a fresh social security card, driver’s license, and even medical records. I’d gone from American, to Canadian, and back to American. He’d even arranged it so I kept my first name at least. Sort of. “Cami Bruner?” I asked as I sat in the plush seat of the Gulfstream jet he’d allowed me to borrow for the trip. Emerson himself had Skyped me to see me off. “What’s wrong with that?” the billionaire Santa Claus asked. “It’s a cute name.” “I prefer Camilla,” I said. “But of course I’m grateful. Thank you, Emerson. For everything.” “Don’t mention it, sweetheart,” he said. “Now, go find that man. Tell Nolan I’m here any time he needs me. I don’t expect to hear from either of you for a while, but you know where to find me.” I nodded and we both hung up. I turned off my cell phone and leaned back in my chair. Here goes nothing.

Vanuatu was an island made of dreams. As the plane descended I could see the crystal blue water surrounding the archipelago. So many tiny islands. And I knew Nolan had to be on one of them. I hadn’t considered that I might be wrong about where he’d gone or who he’d become. It just wasn’t an option for me to even consider. Nolan was strong and smart. There wasn’t a situation he couldn’t figure out. I knew the firm hadn’t gotten to him. And I knew him well enough to know Vanuatu was where he was. He’d taught me so much about myself and what I wanted. I thought back to the first phone call with him, after my father had “died.” He’d been so cold and aloof, but so composed.

He’d revealed himself to me in so many ways since then, but what had been most important had been the revealing of his own heart. And he’d done it with his story of growing up in Kentucky. The story of one of his first memories of both excitement over an event, and the cruel seizing of it by his father. The name of someone who was a huge part of the good parts of my childhood.

There are over 100 hotels on the islands of Vanuatu. How do I know this? Because I called almost every single one of them before I finally found him. As soon as the hotel front desk clerk had confirmed he was a guest, I’d hung up and hailed the first island cab I could find. My heart was racing in my chest. What would I even say? What if he wasn’t happy to see me? What if by some off chance this was all a ruse and someone like Nicholas would be waiting for me at the hotel instead? No way. No one would have figured out these clues except for me. It’s why he’d shared them. So this moment could happen. As soon as we reached The Havannah Hotel and Resort on the other side of the island, I could barely stand the wait any longer. I tipped the cabbie generously as I ran out of the car. And as luck would have it… “Camilla.” He was standing outside the main lobby, almost as if he’d been expecting me. He looked incredibly sexy in a pair of board shorts and no shirt, his tan shoulders and pectoral muscles glistening in the sun. “You mean Cami,” I said, holding out my hand as if I wanted him to shake it. “And you must be Joe Nuxhall.” He smiled and then before I knew it he’d grabbed my hand and yanked me toward him, his mouth meeting mine with a crushing kind of urgency and passion, taking me by surprise. He’d missed me. As much as I’d missed him. I whispered in his ear, “This is the old lefthander, rounding third and heading home.” He pulled away from me and for the first time since I’d known him, I could see actual tears in his eyes. “You found me,” he said. “I can’t believe it… You remembered.” “Of course I did,” I said, touching his handsome, rugged, unshaven face. “I could never forget anything you told me. I love you.” “But your dad…” he said. “Did you see him?” I nodded. “Yep. And I know about Emma. And my sister.” “I wanted to tell you so bad,” he said. “But I also wanted to protect you. I didn’t

know what to do. I can’t believe you’re fucking here!” He lifted me up and swung me around, making me laugh. I’d never been so full of happiness. As he placed me softly back down, he kissed me again, one full of passion and promise. “I love you, Camilla,” he said. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I hoped you’d find me, but I didn’t know when it would be.” “I could barely stand being away from you as long as I have been,” I said, wrapping my arms around him. I never wanted to let go. “I’m taking you to my room,” he said, picking me up again, cradling me in his massive arms. “I need to have you naked. Now.”

We made love for what seemed like days. Time stood still for us. We had nowhere to be and no one to answer to other than each other. His hands and his mouth were as I remembered. But he wouldn’t let me go at night when we’d finally fall asleep. And that was fine because I couldn’t bear the thought of him ever letting go of me again. One night, after an especially vigorous session of him fucking me in the lanai that was connected to his suite, I heard him whisper something. “Marry me, Camilla.” I stopped and stared at him. His intense gaze was on me. “I don’t have a ring,” he said. “But I can’t stand not being married to you anymore. I promised myself as soon as I saw you again, if I was ever lucky enough to see you again, that I would ask you. But we’ve been fucking for days and I haven’t wanted to come up for air.” He paused and smiled. “But now I can’t stop thinking about how much I want to be married to you. Or how much I want to put babies in you and watch them grow up as we get old and wrinkly in our little island house by the sea.” He looked at me nervously. “It’s not as exciting a life as the one we just left,” he admitted. “But it’s a simple life. And it would mean we’d be together. Always.” I was crying before he’d even finished, eagerly nodding my head. It was all I’d ever wanted him to ask. “Yes!” I cried out, throwing my arms around his neck. “There is nothing I want more in the world than to be yours.” I buried my head in his neck. “I always thought,” I said. “That I’d want a life of adventure, one that no one else could replicate even if they tried. And I found that as soon as you touched me, Nolan. I’ve never been the same.” “You were meant to be mine,” he whispered. “And I will always belong to you, Camilla. Until the day I die.” We kissed again, a kiss I knew would last forever and beyond. I’d finally gotten to choose.

And as long as the choice was mine, I would always choose him. My mentor.

THE END Thank you for reading the conclusion to Nolan and Camilla’s story. Want to read more about the actual mogul, Emerson Titan and his very hot, sexy son Atlas? Read on for a free bonus book of ATLAS on the following pages. For news on Alison Ryan books and giveaways, sign up for her newsletter! She gives away tons of free books and gift cards to her subscribers! And you can unsubscribe at any time.

ATLAS

1

ATLAS

“Sorry I’m late,” I said, insincerely. I didn’t give a damn that I’d made my father

wait almost an hour for me to show up. He wasn’t used to waiting for anyone. I needed to keep him humble. “Sure you are, Atlas,” my father, Emerson Titan, responded sarcastically. “You do this every month.” I shrugged, “Something came up. What’re you gonna do, right?” He cocked one eyebrow at me. He was very good at that little move and I could tell he wasn’t all that mad anyway. My guess is he’d had at least a few cocktails and at least one platter of raw oysters as he waited for me at Old Ebbitt Grill, his favorite place to have lunch in DC. We met here at least once every couple months to catch up on things. My old man liked to keep a close eye on my brothers and me. Which is kind of funny being that I’d dwarfed my father in height since the eighth grade. I had at least fifty pounds of muscle on him. People could have easily mistaken me for one of his myriad bodyguards. So it was funny he still thought of himself as my protector. “Anyway,” he started. “I haven’t heard from you much lately. How’s New York?” I smiled, taking a long swig of my bourbon and water, “Dad, I haven’t lived in New York in like three months. I told you that last time. I’m in San Fran mostly these days. Though I might head to London after Christmas.” Dad chuckled, “You’re too fast for me, son. But that’s the way to do it. Never stay in one place too long. See the world. Have some adventure.” A very cute waitress brought over another stack of raw oysters and Emerson smiled at her as she set them down. I looked at him, puzzled at his response, “You on something? You’re usually trying to convince me to settle down here in DC. What’s the deal?” Emerson shook his head, “I’ve given up on trying to convince you to do anything, Atlas. You’re contrarian to a fault. If I tell you I want something for you, you’ll always want the very opposite. So what’s a man to do?” Emerson sucked and then swallowed a large oyster. “I’ve learned to let my sons find out things on their

own. With plenty of financial backing, of course.” “You’ve been good to us, Dad,” I had to admit. Plenty of my wealthy friends had real assholes for fathers. I had done alright with mine. “I know it’s not always easy being a Titan,” he said. “Especially Atlas. You know, he carried the world on his shoulders.” I rolled my eyes, “Yes, Dad. I’m well aware.” I was my father’s oldest son and being that his last name was Titan he thought he was clever naming me Atlas. He also had a fascination with Nordic mythology, so he’d named my younger brother, Odin. We were the only sons of his who shared the same mother. She died of ovarian cancer when I was four and Odin was two. My mother was the one topic my father wouldn’t broach or discuss. With anyone. He’d been married four times, but his heart would always belong to her. “Well, I like to remind you,” he said as he sipped his gin martini. “Your name has predestined you, son. And you’ve lived up to it, thus far. I’m proud of you.” I was uncomfortable with his sudden demonstrative affections. It must’ve been all the martinis. “Yep,” I replied. I glanced around the restaurant, desperate to start a new topic. “So what’s going on today? You were pretty insistent on the time and place.” Dad smiled, “Well, I have a favor to ask.” I sighed. He’d been attempting to butter me up with all this talk of how proud he was of me. Now it made sense. Not that I doubted it was true, but it wasn’t like my father to say these things unless he wanted something. “What is it?” I asked as the waitress placed another bourbon next to me, quietly swiping the other one away. “Well, you remember Piper,” Dad said. “Maureen’s daughter.” “Maureen. Haven’t heard you mention her in a long while,” I said. Maureen Kipton. My father married her ten years ago when I was a junior at Georgetown. She was a small-time news anchor at the time, a hot little blonde he’d met at a gala hosted by Titan Enterprises. Maureen was a single mother to her daughter, Piper, who was twelve when her mom married my dad. I hadn’t paid much attention to either of them since I was off on my own by then. Their marriage had only lasted a couple of years. Once Maureen was promoted to the bigger leagues of network anchoring, she left my dad in the dust and shipped poor Piper off to boarding school. Now Maureen was one of the big time anchors on NBC, the journalist that always showed up to the latest national disaster or tragic event. I imagined it was hard for my dad to see her face all over the place, not that he would ever admit it. Dad had always held a soft spot for Piper. He’d paid her tuition in school, bought her a car when she got into American University, and been the father she’d never had in many ways. Dad never had a daughter and I think he liked to think of Piper as the closest thing he’d probably ever get to one. “Well, I don’t speak to Maureen much, but I keep an eye on Piper. Just like I do all my children,” he said, his voice getting serious. “And I’m worried about her.

She’s just getting out of a very toxic relationship, trying to move out of her apartment, and start a new life here in DC. Her mother is of no help being that she’s so absorbed with her own career trajectory and Piper has been left to emotionally fend for herself in many ways.” Dad looked up at me, “Her boyfriend was abusive. She hasn’t come out and said it, but I’ve had my people on him and on her for a while now. Piper has finally had enough but her ex doesn’t want to let her go easily.” “Look, I’m sorry about that, but what the hell does that have to do with me?” I asked. “I don’t even know Piper. I haven’t seen her since she was in high school.” Dad shook his head, “You’re an intimidating presence. With a certain set of skills that even all my money could never buy. You’re a man who could protect her, better than I can, better than any of my best men can. She just needs a safe place to stay for a while. With someone I trust, implicitly.” I narrowed my eyes at him, “This is way too much to ask of me. I’m not a fucking babysitter. Why don’t you just fly her off to some new city and help her start again a couple thousand miles from this douchebag?” Dad sighed, “He’s not your typical asshole, Atlas. Her ex-boyfriend is a US congressman. And he has means of finding her. It’s been a very ugly break up, Atlas. I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t serious.” This was ridiculous. I didn’t want to get involved in anything dramatic. I’d had enough crazy shit happen in my past, I didn’t need to add to the resume of fucked up things I’d dealt with in the last few years. Besides, it just seemed like an overreaction to a simple situation. Break ups happen. They’re usually terrible, that’s the name of the break up game. This congressman with the busted ego would get over this in a month or so. He’d find some other version of Piper and be on his merry way. I didn’t understand why I needed to get involved. But my father also rarely asked anything of me. He was one of the richest men in the United States yet he’d never been that guy who set expectations on my brothers and me. Despite the kind of corruption and cold familial relationships that run rampant among the one percent, our family had always been different. I was lucky to be his son and if he was really insistent on me doing this for him, well, fuck it. I would do it. “Fine,” I said. “What does this entail? And how long will it be? Believe it or not, I do have my own life happening outside of this city.”

2

PIPER

A ll I wanted to do was sleep.

It was almost impossible to get any in my current situation. But that’s what happens when your ex-boyfriend is an egomaniacal psychopath. When you dare to break up with him, he makes your life hell. I looked through the clothes spilling out of my suitcase. I was supposed to meet my ex-stepdad for lunch so he could help me figure out what the hell I should do about the pickle I was in. I winced as I bent down to pick up a pair of shorts. I had fresh bruises on my back from the last, and final, beating. I’d known then that if I didn’t leave, I would probably end up dead, eventually. And with my ex being who he was, he could make it look like it was an accident. Or just another random DC murder. To say I was terrified was putting it mildly. I’d graduated from American University four months prior. At a party that night I’d met him. I had no idea his political ties, he was just a big smile and a suit, but he was relentless in his pursuit of me. Now, I know this probably should have been a red flag. The first month was okay, but it soon turned ugly and I saw no way out. I still wasn’t sure how this could end well for me. He’d made it clear what he was capable of. I hadn’t known who else to go to for help that would actually have the means to protect me. My mother and I were basically estranged at the moment. I had no siblings or family other than her. My next best bet was Emerson Titan. He was my stepfather for two years when I was barely a teenager but even after my mother had moved on from him, he’d stuck around and stayed in my life. And he just so happened to be one of the ten richest men in America. Before my mother had charmed him, we’d been barely making it. She was just a local news anchor in Manassas, Virginia at the time. My father had long been out of the picture and my life had been a revolving door of father figures who couldn’t measure up to my mother’s impossible expectations. Suddenly Emerson Titan came into our lives and everything changed. Mostly for the better. And now here I was, waiting for him to text me. He’d put me up at the Four

Seasons with two of his guards at my door with instructions not to allow anyone into the room other than himself. It did help me feel safer but I couldn’t shake my anxiety. My ex had his ways and I found myself trusting no one. You have no idea who is on my team he’d whispered in my ear. I shuddered at the thought. My iPhone buzzed on the nightstand. I picked it up, my hands trembling from nerves. I had changed my cell number but it was habit for me to jump when it rang. But in this case it was just Emerson:

Take the car to Old Ebbitt. I’ll be waiting for you. Hungry? I’ll order something so it’s ready when you get here.

I texted back:

I wouldn’t mind the salmon salad. Thanks, be there soon.

Emerson sent a black Tesla to pick me up. As I settled into the back seat I looked around at the people walking on the sidewalk past the hotel, uneasily waiting for some kind of goon to appear to take me away to my doom. My heart raced. Once we were on the road I calmed down a bit. I knew that Emerson had eyes on me, something I was grateful for, but sometimes I wondered if even he was capable of going against the kind of power my ex held. It was a ten minute drive to Old Ebbitt, one of my favorite places to have lunch. Emerson had taken me there at least once a month while I was an undergrad at American. We’d catch up for a couple hours’ worth of Diet Cokes and sliders for me, and stacks of oysters and martinis for Emerson. He’d ask plenty of questions about my studies, about how Mom was doing, that sort of thing. I’d never told him how much those lunches meant to me back then. Back then? It wasn’t all that long ago, I thought. My life before my ex-boyfriend seemed a really long time ago when in reality it had only been a few months. At Old Ebbitt I stepped out and ducked into the restaurant quickly. The familiar mahogany bar was a welcome sight and I immediately saw Emerson across the way in our usual booth. But he wasn’t alone. Atlas. I hadn’t seen him in years but I immediately recognized his chiseled features and his discomfort at folding his tall body into a restaurant booth. He had one muscled leg extended out past the table. His shoulders were broad under his

tailored, collared shirt. His tie was loosened and his face was relaxed. He was still incredibly sexy, just like always. As a matter of fact, looking at him now, I knew he was the most gorgeous creature in all of DC. For a brief moment I forgot about my problems. Atlas Titan had that way about him. “Piper!” Emerson smiled, standing. He wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me so much that I winced involuntarily. Atlas looked at me funny then, and I tried to play it off like I was joking but the embrace really had hurt due to the bruises. But they didn’t know that. My ex always left them in places no one would see. “Hi, Emerson. Hello, Atlas,” I said. I scooted into the booth next to Emerson. I was across from Atlas now and it was hard not to stare. “Piper,” was all Atlas said. He was still looking at me, his gaze intense. He’d never shown much interest in me when I was younger and I wanted to squirm having his eyes on me like this. Did every woman feel like this around him? Hard to believe they didn’t. “I was just talking to Atlas about what’s been happening,” Emerson said. “And he’s agreed to stay with you for the time being. Until things cool down a bit.” I looked down at the salmon salad on the table, my cheeks flushed. It was embarrassing to know that Atlas knew about my break up. He must’ve thought I was a complete idiot for getting involved with someone who beat the shit out of me and threatened me almost daily. Atlas was so strong. He’d never been one to tolerate much weakness, according to his dad. Hell, the guy was an ex-Navy SEAL for god sakes. He’d seen things most people never see, had taken his body and mind to the edge of what most men are capable of and easily surpassed those limits. Did Atlas Titan even have limits? And even so, all I could think about was how that translated to the bedroom. Good Lord, what was wrong with me? “Oh,” I managed. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to impose on you, Atlas. I know you have so much going on in your own life, you don’t need to be my babysitter.” I looked up at him, meeting his eyes. “Not that I don’t appreciate it.” Atlas shook his head, “It’s no imposition, Piper. I’m glad to do it.” Emerson was staring at Atlas now, looking a little surprised at this response. “Well, good,” Emerson smiled. “I have you set up at the Four Seasons in the Royal Suite for the next few weeks. Plenty of room for both of you. There’s two bedrooms, a gym, an office, and if you need anything, concierge is available and my men will be at the ready.” Emerson took my hand. “You’re safe, my dear. I promise you that.” Tears stung my eyes and I pulled him into a hug, “Thank you, Emerson. I don’t know how I can ever thank you enough.” Emerson patted my cheek, “You thank me by being happy and building something new. You’re too young, beautiful, and smart to have this kind of trauma in your life.” I nodded. He was right. If only he knew what he’d now gotten Atlas into. As

much as I wanted to tell them to run from me, I couldn’t. I needed them. I needed Atlas Titan.

3

ATLAS

O f course Piper Kipton had to be fucking beautiful.

As soon as she strutted into Old Ebbitt, I knew this was bad news. Even in a simple pair of chinos and a cotton shirt, she couldn’t hide her curves. Every eye in the place was on her as soon as she started moving towards our table. Her brown hair fell in soft waves past her shoulders and there was fear in her large blue eyes. Fear I wanted to take away. I shook my head. No. There was no getting close to her. I was doing this to help my father. For whatever reason he only trusted me to take care of this, and it was something I took very seriously. As a son of Titan, my loyalty would always be to my father and my brothers. So in this case, it couldn’t be about Piper. I couldn’t even think about it. But that body. Jesus. While she ate and talked to my father, I tried my best not to stare at her. But I was also assessing the situation. I suspected bruises under her clothes. She’d looked like she was in pain when Dad hugged her. She was also incredibly skittish. A waitress dropped a tray and Piper had practically jumped out of her skin. I recognized it immediately. I’d seen it in too many of my buddies. Piper had PTSD. What monster had done this to her? That was my first order of business. I needed to know what I was up against, who Piper was up against. With my money and connections I could get out of most any bind. But I knew all too well the kind of binds you can’t buy your way out of. I guess my dad knew that too. It’s why he’d asked this of me. “So I guess we should go,” I interrupted. “I have some stuff I need to get done since I won’t be going back to San Francisco for a while.” Dad nodded, “Yes. Of course. Wrap up whatever you need to wrap up. I’ll go back with Piper and make sure everything is taken care of at the hotel.” I slapped my American Express on the table, “Sure thing. Be there in about an hour.” My father stood up to let Piper out of the booth. He looked at me and placed his hand on my shoulder, “Thanks, son. Glad I can always depend on you.”

I shrugged. I was always uncomfortable with endearments. “Atlas,” Piper said my name and my eyes couldn’t help but meet hers. “Thank you for doing this. I’ll do my best to stay out of your way. I know you have a whole other life you’re putting on hold. So… I don’t really know what to say. Except that I’m grateful.” Her eyes were the kind that make men lose track of their thoughts. I just gave her a nod and looked down at my phone, pretending that I had something more important to do other than stare at her perfect face all day.

After they left, I had my driver take me back to my townhouse in Dupont Circle. I’d bought it when I turned 18 and had access to my trust for the first time. It had served me well since my days at Georgetown. Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to it. I was rarely in DC these days, sometimes I only flew in just to see Dad, so it was kind of pointless to hold onto it. It had been on the market for about a month and my realtor had a few feelers at the moment. A bidding war was fine with me but it wasn’t sold yet. For now, it was still mine. I went upstairs to my bedroom where my laptop, chargers, and suitcase were. I quickly packed up my things and glanced down at my watch. Still had about thirty minutes before I needed to head over to The Four Seasons. I looked into the mirror over the fireplace in my room. I looked good today. I’m over six-foot-five-inches tall so most of the time I have to get my clothes tailored for me to look just right. My hair is cut fairly short. An old habit from my Navy days. I tried to see myself through Piper’s eyes. She’d looked as surprised to see me as I was to see how hot she’d grown up to be. Why do I care how Piper sees me? I thought to myself. Since when had I cared what any woman thought of me? I never had to consider it. I was an ex-Navy SEAL who also happened to be the heir of a billion dollar fortune. Wondering about whether women wanted me or not was not something I ever had to ponder. Spoiler alert: All women wanted me. That probably makes me sound like an arrogant jerk. But it wasn’t arrogance, it was just a fact. And while that may give most guys a chip on their shoulder, I didn’t really care much about it. Because being wanted didn’t change the fact that I’d never been able to find a woman I wanted back. I sighed. What was I getting myself into with Piper Kipton?

4

PIPER

E merson had my things moved to the Royal suite at The Four Seasons before we’d

even arrived back in the Tesla. My anxiety had waned a small bit but I couldn’t help but feel nervous as we took the elevator up to the room. “So, Atlas doesn’t mind staying with me?” I asked Emerson. We were flanked by two large bodyguards but neither of them could hold a candle to Atlas in height or muscle. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, not since we’d left Old Ebbitt. “Of course not,” Emerson assured me. “I’m sure he thinks of you like a sister.” I cringed inwardly. That’s not how I wanted him to think of me. I certainly didn’t have any sort of brotherly feelings towards him. I never had. We’d barely been step-siblings in the short time our parents were married. He’d been in college and I was just a kid. But really, should I have had any thoughts about Atlas? I was in a deep enough mess with one man. I didn’t need to involve anyone else in my melodramatic life. Besides, I doubted I was Atlas’s type. I couldn’t imagine what woman was, but it certainly wasn’t me. Atlas was special. And I was just broken. We entered the suite and I gasped. It was like something out of a movie; a sprawling living room with a large flat screen over a fireplace and a grand piano in the corner of the room next to floor to ceiling windows. “Wow,” I said. “This is beautiful.” Emerson smiled, “More importantly, it’s safe. The windows are bullet resistant. World leaders and dignitaries usually stay here.” I nodded, slowly turning around to see the room from every angle. “There are two bedrooms,” Emerson explained. “And lady’s choice of which one you’d prefer, my dear.” I shook my head, “I’ll let Atlas choose. I’m sure both are gorgeous.” Emerson looked at his watch, “Well, I hate to leave you but I have to fly to Sydney tonight. Hell of a flight. My men will stay here and Atlas should be here in the next half hour. Will you be okay?” I honestly hated the thought of him leaving. No one made me more comfortable

than Emerson Titan. It was a depressing thought but this man probably cared about me more than my own mother did. “Of course,” I answered, waving my hand. “I mean, bullet proof glass? It couldn’t get much safer than that. This is all so much more than you had to do.” Emerson pulled me into his embrace, “Nonsense, my child. I’m happy to do it. Now, try to get some rest. Feel free to order whatever you’d like from room service or the spa. They give a great in-room massage. I know from experience." He winked at me and I laughed. “Maybe I’ll do that,” I said. “Bye, Emerson. Text me when you’ve landed in Sydney.” “Oh, I will, sweetheart. You’re in good hands with Atlas.” As Emerson closed the door behind him, I let out a breath. Atlas. Just the thought of seeing him again made my body rigid with anticipation. What was wrong with me? I was in hiding from a crazed mad man, my life in shambles, and all I could think about was Atlas Titan. My ex-stepbrother. I decided I needed to get my mind off of him and everything else I was going through. Both of the bedrooms in the Royal Suite were sensational. I was happy with either, but one came with a larger bathroom so I gave that one to Atlas. I didn’t want to seem selfish and somehow it seemed like he should get the bigger space for what he was doing for me. I decided I needed a long bath. I could soak the aches and pains away and take my mind to another place altogether. Far from the hell I’d fallen into.

5

ATLAS

M y driver dropped me off at The Four Seasons a little after three o’clock. I’d

changed into something more casual; a pair of loose fitting khakis and an untucked t-shirt. The arms of the shirt were tight around my biceps, an occupational hazard I’d had to deal with since high school. I was too tall to sit comfortably in confined spaces and too muscular to fit into your average t-shirt. As I took the elevator up to the suite, my mind drifted off to the list of things I still needed to get wrapped up with my office in San Francisco. I was head of operations for a start-up that my brothers and I were trying to get off the ground and although I didn’t have to necessarily be physically present for most things, it was still inconvenient for me to be gone for an indeterminate amount of time. As I opened the door to our suite I’d expected to see Piper sitting on the couch watching television but there was no one in the living room. “She’s in here?” I asked the guard at the door. “Yes, sir,” he said. “Your father just left about fifteen minutes ago for Sydney.” I nodded and shut the door behind me. As I slowly walked into the room I could hear music faintly playing. Curious, I peeked into the open door of one of the bedrooms. I was greeted by a perfectly made king sized bed. The music wasn’t coming from this one. I walked past the grand piano and the large sectional of the living room and across to the other room. The music was louder now. It seemed to be coming from the bathroom. Piper’s suitcase was spilled out on the bed. I noticed the bathroom door was slightly open and before I could think better of it, I was looking in. I sucked in a breath at the sight. Piper was laid out in an enormous bathtub filled with suds. Her head was against the back of the tub, her long hair spilling over the side as she ran a wash cloth up and down her naked body. Her incredible body. Her large breasts dipped in and out of the water, her nipples hard and dark as she ran her hands down herself, down to her mysterious parts still hidden under the bubbles. One tan leg hung over the side, the water from it dripping onto the marble floors. Her eyes were closed as she touched herself, slow music playing from speakers above the vanity mirror in the bathroom.

I was hard as a rock as I watched her, my cock straining against my belt. I’d never seen something so erotic, beautiful, and innocent all at the same time. As she sat up to wash her back, I saw the bruises and my arousal turned to rage. I’d never understood a man’s need to demonstrate his power on the helpless, but to think of Piper being at the hands of that kind of evil made something in my chest move. I slowly walked away, realizing how terribly awkward it would be if she caught me spying on her. I wasn’t usually a creeper, but Piper Kipton was one of those women who it was impossible to look away from.

Back in what I assumed was my own bedroom, I unpacked my stuff. Not that there was much. I would call concierge in a little bit to have them pick up the clothes I was having flown over on the Gulfstream with my assistant. It wasn’t easy for me to just go into any department store and buy new clothes, everything had to be tailored and customized, so it was just quicker to have my stuff flown over from San Fran. Hopefully it would be here by evening. Meanwhile, I waited a good hour before going out into the living room. Dad had Piper and I exchange numbers before leaving the restaurant, and I texted Piper that I was here so she wouldn’t be frightened if she heard someone roaming around the suite. She’d texted back a thank you and that she was taking a bath but that she would be out shortly. Fuck, how badly I wanted to be watching her again, her hands drifting to the places I longed to explore. I shook my head. I had to stop thinking about her like that. Otherwise, it would make this entire ordeal even more difficult than it already was.

6

PIPER

I couldn’t help but think of Atlas as I soaked my worries and fears away,

temporarily. It probably didn’t help that I had selected my “Sexy Music” playlist as I ran my hands up and down my body. The thought of him slowly taking that tie off and unbuttoning his shirt as he watched me writhing naked on a bed, waiting for him, had me incredibly aroused. My hands drifted down to my clit and I closed my eyes, thinking about his body above me, supported by those massive arms, his large cock penetrating me… I came easily under the water and I almost audibly gasped his name as my iPhone buzzed on the floor next to me. I’d put it under a towel to keep it from getting wet. My face flushed, I dried my hands before picking it up. It was him. He was here.

Just wanted you to know I was in the suite in case you heard someone moving around. Didn’t want you to freak out. Doing work in my room.

I texted back:

Thank you, Atlas. I’m taking a bath, be out in a bit. I won’t bother you, I know you probably have a lot of work to do.

My body tensed up knowing he was so close to me while I lay here naked in the tub. I rolled my eyes. What is wrong with you? I thought. The last thing you need is another complicated relationship in your life. And this is Atlas. He’s probably seen supermodels naked and begging him for sex. He only sees you as a weird, pseudo-

sister figure. Still. Thoughts were harmless, right? I allowed my imagination to drift again along with my hands.

Once I was dressed I wandered out into the living room to see if Atlas was out of his room yet. He wasn’t, but his door was open and I could see him at his desk typing away on his laptop. “Hi,” I said, timidly. “I was thinking of ordering something from room service, want anything?” He glanced over at me. “Not yet. Actually I needed to ask you a couple questions.” My stomach dropped a bit. His tone was all business, almost like I was in trouble, and I walked over to him slowly. “Okay,” I said. “Sure. Ask away.” “What’s the name of your ex-boyfriend?” Atlas asked. “Dad’s on a flight to Sydney and he must have his phone off or he doesn’t have WiFi so I couldn’t ask him. Sorry to bring it up.” I looked down at my naked feet. I really needed a pedicure, “His name is Spencer Cameron. He’s a Virginia congressman.” Atlas’s hands froze above the keyboard. “Spencer Cameron?” he repeated. “What do you know about him, Piper?” The question confused me but Atlas was incredibly serious so I knew I should answer anything he requested me to. “I know he’s a congressman and that he was born in North Carolina,” I said. “He went to the Naval Academy and then trained to be a SEAL…” My voice drifted off, a realization hitting me. “Did you happen to know him?” I asked. “I forgot you were probably both SEALs at the same time.” Atlas stood up and was looking out the window of his room. “Yes,” Atlas said. “And this all just got a lot more complicated.”

7

ATLAS

Spencer fucking Cameron.

I hadn’t heard that name in years, something I was satisfied with, being that the last time we’d been around one another we’d come to blows over his mistreatment of a girl. And now here he was, back in my life, but the girl he’d mistreated this time was someone closer to me. Just knowing her ex was Spencer made me look at things differently. There was little Piper had to share with me when it came to him. I knew Spencer Cameron all too well. We’d been in the same BUD/S class as SEALs in training. Spent Hell Week together, watched our friends DOR (Drop On Request. In other words, quit), ringing the bell one after another that entire week until we were two of a handful remaining who could say they made it. Our Navy careers had run parallel until they didn’t, and I was asked to do a different kind of work before finally getting out and entering civilian life once again. Spencer got out a couple years after me and entered politics, something appropriate for a slime ball like him. He’d always hated me, never understood why a rich kid would want the Trident, but I was never one to respond to his bullshit because all SEALs want the Trident for their own reasons. The only thing that matters at the end of the day is that you were made out of something special enough to attain it. Once I made it, people didn’t give a shit that I was a Titan. They just knew I was a SEAL and that I had done all that needed to be done to make it happen. My money had nothing to do with it. You can’t buy your way into being a SEAL. It’s the great equalizer. One night after graduating BUD/S, I caught Spencer getting rough with a girl in an alley next to the hotel we were staying at. He’d met her in a club, and when she’d balked at coming up to his room, he got violent. I’d known he was a complete douchebag, but I hadn’t known he was capable of hurting a woman. I’d immediately punched him hard in the face, allowing the poor girl to get away from him but not before we got into a huge fight that had to be broken up by our fellow SEALs. The thought of him hurting Piper though? I couldn’t handle it. “How did you meet him?” I asked, trying to keep my cool.

She looked at me, her large eyes filled with tears, “We met at a graduation party my roommate threw for all of us. He was at the hotel at a different event and he saw me across the reception hall and asked for my phone number. I declined at first, he just didn’t seem like my type. And there was something off about him, something I couldn’t put my finger on.” “You should have listened to your intuition,” he said. “Go on.” “Well, he somehow got my number. He said he ‘had his ways.’ And after relentless calls I agreed to go out to dinner with him. And he was so charming and polite and asked me so many questions about myself…” “So he knows you used to be a Titan,” I said. “So to speak, I mean.” She nodded, “Yes, I mentioned that. He seemed fascinated with it but he never mentioned knowing you. He was just so intent on knowing everything about me and seemed to genuinely care about how I felt about things and what I thought. At least, he did for about a month.” “Okay,” I said. “Then it got physical?” The thought of him touching her at all made me want to break something. “That’s the thing,” she blushed. “This is really personal, Atlas. I’m so sorry.” “It’s okay,” I said. “I should know everything so we can have a plan.” “Well, we couldn’t get physical,” she slowly said. “He had… issues.” I wanted to laugh, but of course I didn’t. Spencer Cameron was impotent. It explained so much. It also thrilled me to know she’d never slept with him. I hated to admit that to myself, but it was true. “Anyway, it was like once I knew that about him, it made him angry. And so he started shoving me around. Threatening to ruin my life and my mom’s career. Then he would apologize and send me exorbitant presents. It just got super weird so I tried to stay busy with my work at the Capitol and volunteer stuff. But he became more paranoid that I was cheating on him and seeing other men. He would somehow sneak into my apartment and when I got home…” Her voice caught. “He would ‘punish’ me.” My heart thumped in my chest. I would fucking kill him. “It got so bad that I was missing work. I was scared all the time. He would tell me he always had eyes on me and always would. That as a congressman he had power that I couldn’t fathom. And he also said if I wasn’t going to be with him, I would deeply regret it. He wouldn’t let me humiliate him.” She was crying now. “I can’t talk about this, I’m sorry.” My inclination was to grab her and hold her but I shook off the temptation. I wasn’t that guy and I didn’t want to give her the wrong idea. She already felt vulnerable and taken advantage of. I wouldn’t contribute to that. My job was to be her oak. To protect her, even from myself.

8

PIPER

Spilling my guts about Spencer had taken a lot out of me. It brought back my

anxiety and my fear and although Atlas didn’t mean to upset me, I couldn’t help but have a small breakdown. He must think I’m crazy. If he did, he didn’t act like it. It was hard to read him, he was so clipped and professional. “It’s going to be alright, Piper,” Atlas said. “Spencer can’t touch you here. We’ve got bodyguards, a suite that requires passing layers of access to gain entry to and…” he paused. “If any of those things fail, you’ve got me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” Looking at him, I believed it. But he wouldn’t make eye contact with me. He’s lost respect for me, I thought. Because I got wrapped up with someone like Spencer Cameron. There was an awkward moment where I didn’t know whether to hug him and thank him, or to simply walk away and let him go about his business. His fists were clenched next to his laptop and he was obviously tense. I decided to let him have some time to himself. Tears stung my eyes as I slowly backed out of the room but I didn’t want him to see me crying all the time. Atlas made me wish I could be stronger like him. “I’m going to unpack,” I said, turning. “Let me know if you want me to order you food.” “Thanks,” he said, not looking at me. I felt dismissed. I closed his door and retreated to my room. I threw myself on the bed, wrapping my arms around my knees. I hoped the goose-filled pillow covered up the sound of my sobbing.

Once I was feeling more in control of my emotions, I took a long shower, changed into a low cut silk blouse and jean skirt, and placed a call to room service for a club sandwich and sweet potato fries. I was tempted to order up a bottle of wine with it,

but thought maybe getting drunk the first night wasn’t a good look for me. When I went into the living room I noticed Atlas on the couch, his long body stretched out. The television was on, but his eyes were closed. I sat in the chair across from him, just staring. How did it feel to be this attractive? I always wondered that. Atlas had the body of a Nordic god, the face of a runway model, and a voice with a deep timbre that gave me goosebumps when he said my name. I looked at his mouth, wondering what it would be like to kiss it or to have it kissing me in places no one else had before. His arms were crossed and his forearm muscles bulged out, his biceps as well with veins running down his arms like rivers. He had large hands that I pictured holding onto me as I rode… “Uh, Piper?” Kill me, he was awake. And he’d just caught me staring at him as I had a sex daydream about him. I. Wanted. To. Die. “Yes. Sorry,” I must have been three shades of red. “I was just… Seeing what you were up to.” He looked at me funny for a moment but, thankfully, smiled, “Just snoozing. I didn’t sleep much last night.” “Me either,” I confessed. “I’m sure we’ll both get much better sleep tonight.” Awkward. “I ordered a sandwich,” I suddenly said, desperate to fill the silence. “That’s nice,” he replied, staring at his phone. “Yep,” I said. Jesus. I was the most boring human being alive. I couldn’t think of a single interesting thing to say. I stared at the television for a few minutes. He’d put it on the news and suddenly my mother’s face was on the screen, looking earnest and concerned about some murder that had happened in Alexandria. She was the last face I wanted to see right now. My blood pressure was rising with each second. “Can we switch the channel?” I asked. Atlas looked up and noticed why I was eager to watch something else. “Sorry, Piper,” he said and switched it to ESPN. “I wasn’t even paying attention.” “Its fine,” I said, my heart rate slowing now that she was gone. “Things not going well with you two?” he asked, his eyes on me. Goosebumps rose on my arms. “They’re never really well with us,” I said. “But lately, we’ve entered the estrangement phase of our dysfunctional relationship.” He looked up from his phone, actual concern marking his face. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, genuinely. I shrugged. It was what it was. He sat up now, his gaze on me yet again. “I need to go meet a friend to discuss some business,” he stretched his arms above his head. “I won’t be gone long.” “You’re leaving me here?” I asked. “By myself?”

Atlas looked at me for a long moment. “Actually,” he said. “You should come with me. It’ll be good for you to see this.” “Okay. Can I get my sandwich first?” He smiled, “Sure. I’m going to check and see if my dad’s people brought over my SUV. I think it’s best if I drive you to this particular meeting place myself.”

Atlas steered his Navigator into a part of D.C. I’d never visited, an area that would have terrified me if I wasn’t in his company. We pulled up in front of what looked like something out of a magazine article about Afghanistan, a building that looked as if a bomb had been dropped on it. A nondescript door remained intact with a small sign hanging above it that read “Mullins.” Atlas parked and reached into the backseat for his gym bag. I waited for him to come around and let me out, as I was a little nervous to get out of the SUV without him right next to me. I was jumpy as hell. We crossed the street and he must have sensed my apprehension regarding the neighborhood, “Relax. You’re safer here even than at the Four Seasons. SWAT won’t even come into this neighborhood. None of Spencer’s people would even make it to this door, let alone through it.” I had my doubts, even with Superman escorting me. Atlas opened the door, revealing a narrow flight of stairs heading straight down. “Ladies first,” Atlas insisted, and I descended into where I could hear a cacophony of male voices. As we reached the bottom, the sound was displaced in my brain by the smell. An aroma of what could well have been distilled testosterone filled the air. We were in a sprawling subterranean gym which seemed completely devoid of ventilation. Men lifted weights and pounded on heavy bags. Two boxing rings sat in a far corner and a martial arts cage filled the center of the room. Activity was everywhere. Heads turned and the room buzzed, I figured due to the presence of a woman, but I quickly realized the pointing fingers were aimed toward Atlas rather than me. An older man in gray sweats strolled over to greet Atlas with a fist bump and a nod. “Atlas Titan,” the man said. “It’s been a while. Good to have you back.” “Thanks. Lester, this is Piper. She needs a stool.” Lester put two fingers in his mouth and did that whistle that all coaches instinctively seem able to do, and one of the younger men near the boxing ring ambled over to us. “Elijah, this is Miss Piper. Set her up with a stool and a bottle of water over by the cage. She’s going to watch Atlas work out.” Lester spoke to the fighter he’d summoned over and then turned to Atlas. “Start you off with five? In the cage? Standard rotation?”

Atlas nodded. “Try not to put anybody in the hospital this time, big fella.” Lester slapped Atlas on the back and I followed Elijah over towards the cage while Atlas and his gym bag disappeared through a door marked as the locker room. I looked around the room, my nose never quite adjusting to the unmistakably male smell surrounding me. The man introduced to me as Lester had gathered, and was busy instructing, a group of five large and menacing-looking men near the entrance to the cage. A wiry man in a black t-shirt paced inside the octagonal structure. I shifted on the stool and flicked a piece of lint off my skirt before looking up to the startling sight of a shirtless Atlas Titan entering the cage. As muscular and tough as many of the men in the gym looked, there was something different about Atlas. His body was chiseled from granite, flawless perfection save for an assortment of scars, the nastiest a jagged, ripping piece on the right side of his abdomen. Atlas was clad only in green shorts and gloves that were smaller than those used for boxing, gloves like I’d seen the few times a UFC fight had been televised at a party during my college days. I was mesmerized by the physique of Atlas Titan as I watched him bounce on the balls of his feet and shadow box in the corner. The man he’d joined in the cage spoke briefly to him, and Lester sent in one of his fighters - a Hispanic guy with a shaved head, closer to my 5’8 than Atlas’s 6’5, but with muscular bulk that put him near Atlas in terms of weight. The two men touched gloves and immediately began throwing punches, the resident fighter trying to get in close to Atlas and push him against the side of the cage. Atlas responded by slamming his knee into the shorter man’s midsection before taking hold of his arm and twisting him to the mat, falling atop his prone form. Before I even realized what happened, the referee in black slapped the mat and motioned towards the cage door. The fallen fighter rolled away as Atlas rose to his feet and a lanky AfricanAmerican man charged into the cage and began kicking wildly at my protector. Atlas parried the blows as his first opponent left the octagon rubbing his damaged elbow. The second man fared no better, as Atlas caught one of the kicks in the cradle of his arm and drove the man to the mat with a lunging shoulder charge. Once on the ground, Atlas finished him off with a series of punches before the referee intervened. The second man to face Atlas was replaced instantly by a third, but he was erased by Atlas slamming his body to the mat as if he were weightless, followed by Atlas applying a choke hold. Watching a sweaty, shirtless Atlas Titan move about the cage like a panther, all fluid muscle, punctuated by explosive aggression, had me fidgeting on my stool. Whatever previous arousal he’d inspired in me paled in comparison to what he had me feeling now. I sipped from the cold bottle of water Elijah had handed me and

wiped my brow with it. The fourth opponent Atlas faced was even bigger than he was. He looked like an NBA player. His reach exceeded Atlas’s long arms, and he teed off, landing punches to both sides of the handsome face of the son of Titan. When Atlas moved in close and the two thickly-muscled bodies collided, it was as if two bull elephants were vying for territory. I noticed that nearly every man in the gym had stopped working out to observe the action for which I had a front-row seat. Amid the din of voices, including Lester shouting orders, Elijah leaned close and spoke into my ear. “That’s Marshall Appling. He’s from Georgia. They call him the Stone Mountain. He’s gonna be UFC champ one day. Your boyfriend better be careful he don’t get killed in there.” Before I could offer a protest about my relationship status, Atlas and the mountain of a man in the cage with him crashed to the mat, scrambling for position. Atlas wound up on his back, fending off an avalanche of punches from above. A trickle of blood flowed from near Atlas’s left eye and it occurred to me that while each of his opponents wore headgear, he wore none. I leaned forward on my stool, wanting to scream for the man to stop beating on Atlas, but just as things looked darkest, he turned the tables. Suddenly Atlas arched his back and rolled, spinning away from the larger man and back to his feet. The two men came together again, grappling for position before Atlas asserted his dominance. Two knees to the ribs and a punch to the same spot staggered the larger man, and Atlas moved in for the kill. The takedown was merciless, a slam that knocked all the air from Marshall Appling’s lungs, ending their contest. A fifth man attacked Atlas immediately, but it was no contest. I watched the SEAL, feeling more and more like my SEAL, throw a high kick that ended the fight instantly despite the protective headgear. Lester bounced into the cage, offering Atlas a bottle of water and a towel to wipe the blood from his brow. I was close enough to the cage to hear Atlas speak after he removed his mouthpiece. “Thanks, Lester. I’ll be staying in D.C. a while. I’ll come back next week. Make it seven next time, yeah?” Lester shook his head in disbelief and responded affirmatively. As Atlas left the cage, the audience resumed their workouts. “He’ll be out in a minute, Miss Piper,” Elijah told me before heading back to what he’d been doing before we arrived. I’d just watched Atlas conquer five men without a break in between, five men who were apparently accomplished fighters, one a potential UFC champion. Maybe it wasn’t us who should watch out for Spencer Cameron. If anything, it looked like Spencer should watch out for Atlas Titan.

9

ATLAS

I ’d brought her with me to show her she had nothing to fear. At least, not with me

around. But it hadn’t been my original reason for visiting Lester Mullins’ gym. After seeing Piper naked in the bath, I couldn’t get my mind off of her. As much as I wanted to, it was impossible, and having a good fight in the ring helped me release the aggression I desperately wanted to release on her body. When I came out of the locker room I could tell she saw me differently. The look in her eyes was unlike before, but what I had intended as squashing the sexual tension between us seemed to only inflame it. I recognized the flash in her eyes as desire and I had to swallow hard before speaking. “So, that was fun,” I smiled. I rarely was lost for words but Piper Kipton had something over me. I couldn’t look at her directly. “That was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed,” she said. She touched my arm and my heart raced. What the fuck is wrong with me? I thought. I pulled away from her touch, knowing that it probably looked rude to her, but I was intent on staying distant. Getting involved with me would only make her life harder than it already was. I could tell it hurt her, something that killed me to do, but I had to look at this for what it was and not what I wanted it to be. Even after one day with her I knew we were in trouble. We drove in silence back to The Four Seasons, not even the sound of the radio to distract us. Finally, she spoke. “Atlas,” she slowly said. “Do I disgust you?” Well, that hadn’t been what I expected her to say. “What?” I asked. “Why would you think that?” She looked down at her lap, “I just figured you must think I’m a complete idiot falling into this kind of mess. And you don’t strike me as someone that tolerates weakness in people. And I must look pathetic to you.” I pulled the Navigator over into an empty lot. I threw it into park and stared at

her for a long moment, trying to decide how much I should reveal. “Piper,” I said. “You do the very opposite of disgust me. And I don’t think you’re pathetic. What’s pathetic is a man bullying and threatening a beautiful woman just because he can’t have her. Spencer Cameron is who I’m disgusted with. Not you. But Piper, I can’t let myself get too close to you. It’s not good for either of us. Believe me.” I looked out the window. “So if I come off as aloof, don’t take it personally. I’m just trying to protect you from all things that would do you harm. Even if that’s myself.” I wasn’t sure what I expected her to say back to me but suddenly she was inches from me, her arms wrapped around my neck. “Atlas,” she whispered. “You don’t have to worry about me when it comes to you. I trust you.” I slowly pulled her arms away, “No, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. Piper, you shouldn’t trust anyone. And if you knew the thoughts I was having about you, you wouldn’t trust me either.” She stared at me, her beautiful mouth slightly open and despite how monumentally stupid it was, I leaned over and kissed her. Her lips pressed hard against mine, pouty and soft. “Atlas…” she moaned against my mouth, her slender hands sliding up my chest. “It’s fine, really.” I shook my head, “It’s not fine.” She crawled across the middle of the front console and straddled me, her ass resting against the steering wheel. Her large blue eyes were on me now and I could hear us both breathing. I was hard as a rock beneath her. “It’s okay,” she said. “I want you, too.” “Don’t tell me that,” I growled. “You don’t know what you’re saying.” She ran her fingers down my chest and then my arms, “You were beautiful up there. You’re a warrior, Atlas. You’re like no one I’ve ever known.” I pushed her long hair behind her ear, “That might be true, but it’s not necessarily a good thing, Piper.” She laid her head against my chest. The scent of her shampoo wafted into my nostrils, making my heart ache. She was so beautiful, it about killed me trying to be a dick to her and act like I didn’t want anything to do with her. “Get on your side of the car,” I said. “We need to get back. I shouldn’t have kissed you.” Now she really was hurt. But I had to hurt her to help her. I shifted the car into drive and pulled back onto the road toward The Four Seasons.

We pulled up to valet and Piper was out of the car before I even had time to hand the keys over to the doorman. I could sense she was crying and though I was tempted to console her, I knew it was better for her to hate me than to feel

anything else. She was waiting at the elevator, her face covered by her hands. When it dinged open a couple came out and we both entered, standing on opposite sides of the small space. As the doors closed I spoke. “I’m sorry,” I said. She let out a small sob, “I’m just scared and I need to feel something besides fear. And even if it’s a bad idea, it would at least be something to make me feel good again. For the first time in a long time.” I stared at her, surprised at how honest she was being. “It doesn’t have to be more than that, Atlas,” she whispered. “I just need to feel good. I haven’t in a long time. And I’m hurting so bad.” As the elevator doors opened and we entered the foyer to the Royal Suite, I heard myself relenting. “Okay, Piper,” I said. “But remember that you asked for this.”

10

PIPER

He’d pushed me against the wall of the living room. I could feel his need as his

crotch pressed up against me. “Are you sure you want this?” he asked, his voice low. His mouth was next to my ear, his hot breath tickling my neck. My nipples ached they were so hard and desperate for his mouth and hands to be on them. “I’ve never been surer of anything,” I said. “Please. I’ve wanted you since we got here. I can’t think of anything else.” His large hands gripped my waist and he lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his chiseled torso, my arms around his neck. Our eyes met and we paused for a moment, the only sounds were both of us panting, both in desperate heat. The desire between us was so thick, I almost felt like I could reach out and touch it. “What a coincidence,” he said. “I haven’t been able to think of anything else either.” Our mouths met, eager and wanting. His tongue danced with mine, his lips so delicious I couldn’t help but take the bottom one in my teeth. He growled. “That’s how you want it,” he said. “That’s how I want to take you, Piper. This won’t be gentle.” “I don’t want it to be,” I whispered. “You can do anything you want to me. I mean it.” He pulled my blouse over my head, one large hand holding me under my ass. “You’re not wearing panties, Piper,” he observed. “That’s very bad.” “I was hopeful,” I said. “Hopeful you’d notice and want to fuck me.” He looked at me, his eyes full of primal lust, “You can’t say that, Piper. It makes me very hard.” “Good,” I said. “That’s all I want you to be around me.” “Piper,” he said, in a tone that made me wet. I could listen to him say my name all day. “Atlas,” I begged. “Please, fuck me. However you want. Use my body for your own pleasure. I promise to be good for you. I’ll come when you command, I’ll let you have me from any position. Just please don’t stop. Ever.” For a moment something different flashed across his eyes. It looked like

hesitation and it scared me to know that this could stop when it was the only thing I wanted in the entire world. More than I had wanted anything and anyone. “It will change everything,” he warned. “And it can mean nothing. The work I’ve done, I’ve had to learn to turn my emotions off. People have to be expendable resources. Do you understand?” My heart dropped. I didn’t understand, I knew I’d never be able to. And even so, even knowing my heart could potentially be shattered to pieces, I didn’t care. Even if it was one night, I could make it burn in my memory for the rest of my life. It could fuel me when I was lonely without him. “I understand,” I lied. “All I want is you. It can be whatever you want.” He kissed me harder now, both hands cupping my naked ass, my skirt pushed up around my hips. He carried me to the bed. Above me he started unbuttoning his shirt, and loosening his tie. It was better than my fantasy I’d had in the tub that first day, he was so much more perfect than I could have imagined. He slowly pulled off his shirt, revealing what I’d been dying to see again since he emerged from the locker room once again dressed in his GQ best. His abs were beyond ripped. Even with the tapestry of mysterious scars, they were beautiful. I counted each ripple, starting from the bottom. Eight, four on each side that led to his heaving pectorals muscles that already had a sheen of sweat on them. I longed to run my hands up his body, all the way up to his well-muscled shoulders, and deltoids the likes of which I’d only see on the cover of Men’s Health magazine. He was carved out of the best stuff the universe had to offer in the shape of a man. And I was about to have him all to myself. I unsnapped my bra and pulled off my skirt, laying completely naked before him, feeling vulnerable but also ill with anticipation. He stared at me, his eyes raking over my body. My breasts were heaving and my nipples had never been so hard. I could feel how wet my inner thighs were. My entire body was ready for him, begging to be taken. He undid his belt in a quick motion, his pants falling to the floor revealing a pair of boxer briefs. I could see how hard he was and I gasped at the girth and size of the growing erection that was straining even above the waist band of his underwear. Suddenly, I was nervous. I wasn’t sure I could handle all he had to offer. He smirked, knowing I was looking and that I was enthralled with what I saw. This man knew what he was doing to me. “Piper,” he commanded. “Remove my boxers.” I looked at him, my eyes betraying my apprehension. His expression softened for a moment, “This is the point of no return. After this, there’s no stopping it.” I nodded my head, “I want this.” I sat up and looked up at him. I’d never wanted to please someone so much in my life. I wished I’d done a million things differently to make me worthy of this moment but I was in it, in it deep no matter how lacking I felt in it. But the way he

looked at me made me think he was already satisfied, just being with me. I put my fingers inside the waist band of his underwear, slowly running my hands up and down his torso. He sucked in a breath and his cock twitched beneath my hands. “Piper, don’t fucking tease me,” he scowled. “I can’t take much more. I’ve been waiting to fuck you and I can’t wait much longer.” I pulled the briefs down and he quickly kicked them off. Now he was naked before me, his large cock throbbing straight up against his taut and toned abs. It matched the rest of him; hard, thick, and angry. I needed it. I laid down on the bed, spreading my legs for him, touching the spot I wanted him to go. He was above me now, his arms supporting his weight. I felt small, and helpless underneath him, completely at his mercy. There was no other place I could have ever wanted to be. He kissed my neck as his calloused knuckles grazed my stiffened nipples, making me moan with pleasure. His hands felt so good against my skin, rough and experienced and I felt so much at once that it was hard not to tremble in his presence. He whispered in my ear, “Are you ready?” I nodded eagerly, “Very ready.” Though he said he wouldn’t be gentle with me, he was at first. He pushed himself inside of me, slowly, splitting me and opening me up. I was filled with his massive size and I yelped at the pain, though it subsided quickly as my body lubricated and welcomed him. “Fuck,” he said. “You feel so fucking good.” This made me whimper from pleasure, feeling how good my body made him feel. I raised my hips, wanting him to match my rhythm, needing him to fuck me hard but slow, so I could savor every thrust. “No, I don’t want it gentle, baby,” he said, grabbing my hips. “I need to pound that pussy. Very badly. It feels too fucking good right now and if I go too slowly, you’ll make me come.” He leaned down to whisper to me as he kept fucking me. “And we don’t want that, do we? You don’t want me to come until I’ve had you for a very long time. Right, Piper?” I nodded, biting my lip as his pace quickened. He was in control of our every movement and I was grateful to be the submissive one, the one under his command. His cock pistoned in and out of me harder and faster until I cried out his name as I climaxed, never slowing him down, even as the waves of pleasure crashed on me and my clit became sensitive to his touch. He didn’t care. Atlas was using me for his own pleasure, I was his fuck doll, just the woman whose body he used to get his release. But even so, his hands didn’t neglect any part of my body and he beckoned me after each orgasm, letting me know how much it meant to him to give me pleasure.

“That’s right, baby,” he bellowed. “Come for me, like the good girl you are. It feels good to make you come. You were made for me to fuck.” This turned me on more than anything else he could say. Just knowing he loved this as much as I did made me want to give him more and more of myself. He took me from behind as I held onto the upholstered headboard, crying out for him as I came, begging him for more. He ran his hands up my back, the bruises now very faint and I noticed he slowed down to kiss them and run his tongue along my spine. “I will fucking kill the man who did this to you,” he said. “I promise. He will never hurt you again.” Tears stung my eyes and I nodded as he continued to take my body. I was grateful I had never given it to anyone else like this, only Atlas got to fuck me like the whore I wanted to be for him. It was a couple of hours of hard fucking before he slowed down his pace. He took me as we had begun, in the missionary position, me beneath him. His eyes were sleepy now, or maybe they were sad. He stared into mine as he fucked me and I reached out to touch his face, not caring what it looked like or felt like. I needed him to know it was all so much more to me. “Come inside me,” I whispered. “I need to feel you inside of me.” He looked at me, surprised, but it made him touch my face and then kiss me, long and hard as he quickened his pace again. “Only if you look right at me, Piper,” he demanded. “So you can see what your body made me do.” It was a few moments later after I had another climax, my body limp from the exertion of his lovemaking, that he finally emptied all of his aggression inside of me, his orgasm long and drawn out as he called out my name into the night. I squeezed my thighs around him as he finished inside me, not wanting to let go of him or anything he had spilled into me. He held me as he gave a few last pumps inside of me, sweat dripping from his brow onto me. We stared at one another for a moment, neither knowing what to say.

We’d both fallen asleep soon after that, completely exhausted both physically and emotionally. Part of me wanted to cry, knowing that as soon as the sun came up, things would be different. This can mean nothing, he’d said. We get this out of our systems to break the sexual tension brewing between us. Why had I agreed to that? Because I’d wanted him so bad, I would have agreed to anything he asked. I woke up before him and watched him sleep. He was on his stomach, his thick arms shoved under his pillow, still naked under the sheets.

I couldn’t help it. I slid my hand under them and touched his back. It was smooth but solid, dense with muscle. Even sleeping, I could feel the strength in him and I was wet again thinking about the previous night. My fingertips traced the nasty scar on his side. My touch roused him and he looked at me blinking. “Good morning,” I said. “Good morning,” he responded. “What are you doing?” His tone was curious, not accusatory and I blushed. “I wanted to touch you one last time,” I confessed. He didn’t say anything for a moment. Just stared at me, a strange look on his face. He was thinking of something. I held the sheet to my chest, my tousled hair falling over the side of my shoulder. “You look beautiful,” he finally said. “But you already know that.” I shook my head, “I must look like a mess.” He pulled up the sheet and showed me how pleased he was with how I looked. “You have me hard again, Piper,” he said, suddenly pulling me beneath him. Before I knew it, he was inside me again. I clutched his shoulders as he kissed me long and hard. “I need you again,” he whispered. “It just felt too fucking good for it to be only one time.” He was slower this time, his hands under my ass using it as leverage to enter me. We didn’t say anything, just made love. It wasn’t fucking this time. He stared at me the entire time, and each time I was close to climaxing he would kiss me as I called his name into his mouth. Finally he started thrusting faster, after he’d taken all he could take, and I felt him flood his load inside of me, growling into my ear as he finished. “Fuck,” he said. “What have you done to me?” He looked at me like he expected an answer, but I had none for him.

11

ATLAS

W e were in serious trouble.

While Piper took a shower that morning I went over the night’s events in my head. It was rare that anything could stop me in my tracks and ever make me doubt my decisions. But my night with Piper was one of those times. As much as I had enjoyed every second of fucking her beautiful body, I knew it had been a bad idea to let it go that far. I knew that for her it was more than just sex. And even though I knew it was more to me than that too, I couldn’t allow myself to show it. It would only give her hope that this could work. And as much as I wished I could give her what she wanted, I knew that I couldn’t. I’d learned that long ago. But God I wanted her. I’d planned on being aloof this morning, ordering breakfast and trying my best to pretend it never happened and that we could now move forward. But the second I had seen her sleepy face and post-sex hair, all I could think about was how much I wanted her again. I couldn’t resist. Even now, just thinking about her in the shower made my cock twitch. I walked into the steamed up master bathroom with its rainfall shower head. Her back was to me as she washed her hair. Her ass looked absolutely perfect, and slick from the water. “I’m coming in,” I said. She turned around, her eyes bright. “Please do,” she said. God, her smile would be the fucking end of me. There was no point in pretending I was there to get clean. I lifted her up, holding her ass in my hands as she wrapped her beautiful, wet legs around me. I entered her immediately and she gasped. “Yes,” she spurred me on. “Against the wall. But Atlas, I’m so sore, please go easy. I can’t take it too hard.” “My cock will decide how hard you need it,” I said, staring directly into her eyes. I knew that once I started thrusting, she’d feel and look too good to obey her request for mercy. I pressed her against the marble walls of the shower and fucked her relentlessly standing up, her nails digging into my back. She was so slippery and perfect and even though I had just come less than twenty minutes ago, I almost

did again, she felt that damn good. Instead I put her down and kneeled in front of her. “What…” she started but my mouth was on her sex before she could finish her sentence. She tasted like heaven and she came from my mouth even more easily and fervently than she did from my cock, something that pleased me to no end. I could have knelt in that shower for the rest of my life and eaten her pussy, but now my erection was painful and I knew I had to bury it inside her again. We fucked all over the suite that morning. What started in the shower moved to the bathroom sink, then the floor, then the walk in closet. Just because. The only place in the suite it seemed I hadn’t enjoyed her body was the gym, and I had plenty of ideas how to repurpose the equipment there for maximum pleasure. I took her bent over the sofa in the living room, went down on her in the office and finally finished inside her in her bed, right around lunch time. Which was perfect because I was starving. I made her eat her room service salad naked in front of me, her legs spread as I cut into a piece of prime rib. I’d never felt more like a caveman eating my big hunk of meat while my woman sat naked in front of me, because I commanded her to. She was so eager to please me, so innocent in her desire for me, that it pulled at my soul. I wanted to fuck her, love her, save her. I’d never had such a need to protect and possess someone, yet I knew it was all a terrifically horrible idea. Piper was my poison. Every man has one, I just had always thought I was above that. Not anymore.

12

PIPER

I t all felt like a dream. Something I would wake up from any second.

After lunch we’d made love in my bed again, his mouth and hands exploring every inch of me, even the parts I didn’t know were desperate to be explored. Coming for him was easy, and pleasing him was my new mission in life. The dull ache in my sex would have slowed me down, made me ask for respite from any other man. But I could refuse Atlas nothing. Finally, after the constant fucking had us both completely spent, we decided to have dinner downstairs at the hotel restaurant. “Room service is already getting old,” he’d said. “Wear something sexy. Or I can have someone go out for something if you don’t have anything you like.” I shook my head, “I think I have something you’d like.” It was the quintessential little black dress, and the way his eyes looked at me when I came out of the bathroom an hour later, I knew I’d done well. “I’m tempted to just rip that off you right now,” he said. I was looking in the mirror and he was behind me. He bent down to kiss my neck and ran a large hand down the front of me, making my nipples hard. “I’m tempted to let you,” I murmured, closing my eyes as his hand slipped underneath the sweetheart neckline of my dress. Who needed food? All that would satiate me was him. He stopped in the middle of his groping and my eyes fluttered open. “Piper,” he said, staring at a piece of paper on my vanity. “Who left that note?” “What note?” I asked. “There’s a piece of stationary on your vanity,” he said. He picked it up, eyeing it suspiciously, but slowly handing it over to me. It was from the stationary that rested on the foyer table, right outside the front door. I turned to look at it and when I saw what it said I immediately screamed.

I warned you, Piper. You don’t know who is on my team.

13

ATLAS

“Y ou had one fucking job!”

As soon as I saw the note, I knew we had a problem. It was clear that someone within my father’s security staff had either allowed Spencer Cameron into our room (probably while we were at Mullins’) or had left this note at his order. Either way, someone was getting fired. And if I had my way, they’d also be in a world of very literal pain. Piper lay crumbled on the floor of the bedroom, sobbing and shaking. I’d held her at first, while boiling with rage. It was clearer to me than ever that no one could be trusted. Not even the people who worked for my father. The man I was now screaming at looked completely confused and ready to shit his pants. Which showed just how useful he wasn’t. If I could shake him this badly, how the hell was he supposed to protect Piper? “We’re getting the fuck out of here,” I directed. “Piper, get dressed.” “I am,” she said, still crying. “We were going to dinner.” She sat in a heap in her black cocktail dress, mascara running down her cheeks, her hair now all over the place. She looked pitiful, beautiful, and vulnerable. My heart was torn up, knowing how scared she must be. “Well, change into something more comfortable,” I said. “And pack up what you can as fast as you can.” I looked over at the man I had just been screaming at, who was now joined by a second man. “Mr. Titan gave strict instructions. Piper Kipton is supposed to stay at the Four Seasons,” he said. “Well, plans change. We’re leaving and we’re not telling any of you assholes where we’re going. In the meantime, I’ll be getting security footage to find out how this room was compromised. If either of you had anything to do with this, you’ll never work in this field again. You’ll be lucky to be making eight dollars an hour as a security guard at Tyson's’ Corner.” I towered above both men. It was a fucking joke they were here at all. Clearly, even if they had nothing to do with the threat, they’d been unable to prevent it from happening. But right now they didn’t matter. Only Piper did.

Neither of them responded, so I turned away, dismissive of them and their incompetence. Piper was pulling on a pair of leggings under her dress. I walked over to her and cradled her head in my hand, pulling her to my chest. “It’s going to be okay,” I assured her. “I’m not going to let him anywhere near you.” She nodded, “I know you won’t. But I doubt everything will be okay.” “Don’t doubt me when I say it will be,” I pulled her back, my hand under her chin, directing her eyes to look into mine. “I promise, Piper.”

I made a few phone calls. The first one was to my father. “Atlas,” he said. “Is everything okay?” “It’s fine. But we need to leave. It’s been made clear to us we’re not as safe here as you might have thought. You either have a mole on your security team or someone who can’t do their job. Either way, we’ve been compromised. So I’m taking her somewhere else. And I’m not telling anyone where.” I heard my father sigh on the other end of the phone, “This worries me. Do you need a plane?” “I’ve got that handled,” I said. “But you need to find out what happened. I don’t have time, I just want to get somewhere so that Piper can feel comfortable. She’s a fucking mess.” “Poor child,” Dad replied. “I’m glad she has you. Let me know where you end up touching down.” “I will.” We hung up and I immediately made a call to someone I hadn’t spoken to in a long time. “It’s Atlas,” I said to the voice on the other end. They didn’t reply, which I had expected. I envisioned shock and a jaw drop. Also, it was 400 AM in Dubai. “I’m going to need your help,” I continued. “That favor you owe me? Well, I’m calling you to collect on it.”

14

PIPER

K nowing Spencer Cameron had somehow gotten into the suite, and into my life,

made me sick to my stomach. I could hear Atlas’s angry voice yelling at one of Emerson’s bodyguards. The loud beating of my heart filled my ears. I could hear little else. I knew I was close to having a panic attack, one of many I’d had the last month. Part of me knew I needed to get my ass up and get an Ativan into me as soon as possible. And I needed to stay within Atlas’s sight. I didn’t want him to be more than a foot away from me at all times. But I couldn’t move. The fear was weighing me down. Suddenly Atlas was back next to me, holding me, assuring me it would all be alright. He instructed me to change, to pack my things. He promised to take me away, to ensure Spencer would never find me. I was shaking so badly I could barely hold it together as I threw all my toiletries in my purse. My scattered clothes were stuffed into my suitcase. I’d pulled on a pair of leggings but still wore my strapless cocktail dress. Atlas must have been able to tell I was spiraling. “Baby,” he took my face in his large hands, made me look him in his gorgeous, intense eyes. “Stay with me. You’re okay. He’s trying to scare you. We’re getting you out of here and I’m not telling anyone where I’m taking you. Okay? He will never know.” I looked at Atlas, so badly wanting to believe him. But didn’t he know? There’d be a pilot. Maybe Spencer knew him. There’d be flight attendants. People at the airport. If we tried to get away in a rental, there’d be people who had to rent us the car. If we fled in Atlas’s car, we’d have to fill up at a gas station, where more people could spot us. Spencer Cameron had eyes all over this city. “Take me away,” I choked out. “Away from DC. It’s our only chance.” Atlas nodded, his eyes softening, “Not a problem. I’m taking us a world away from this city and his eyes. Just trust me, Piper. Can you do that?” I nodded, knowing it’s what he needed me to say. And I did trust Atlas. I just didn’t trust anyone else.

We rode alone in Atlas’s Navigator to Dulles. Atlas had changed into a dark t-shirt and jeans, a large duffel bag thrown in the back of the car next to my suitcase. We hadn’t spoken much since leaving. I was trying my best to seem calm and strong, but inside I was a frightened mess. “Where are we going?” I finally asked. He glanced over at me. “Far. Out of the country,” he said. “The only people who know are me and the pilot, who happens to be an old Navy buddy of mine. No flight attendants on this journey. The less people Spencer can bribe, the better. Not that he’ll even know about this flight. It’s off the record, so to speak.” “Oh,” I said. “How did you pull that off?” “Money,” he said. “How else? And knowing the right person.” I sat back, looking out the window at the darkness blurring by. My heart wasn’t pounding out of my chest anymore. I’d taken an Ativan which had calmed me for the moment, but more than that, I had Atlas. I knew as long as I was with him, I was okay. After all, Spencer hadn’t planted that note while Atlas was around. “As long as we’re getting out of DC,” I said. I leaned into the soft leather seat of Atlas’s SUV and closed my eyes. “We’re almost there,” he said. “So don’t fall asleep on me quite yet.” “I’m not,” I replied. “I just was hoping to open them and somehow have dreamt all of this.”

15

ATLAS

W e were taking a Gulfstream G650 to the Middle East. It hadn’t been easy to do

this quietly and without attracting attention, but somehow I’d been able to pull it off by calling in some favors. If Spencer Cameron somehow figured this plan out, the only explanation would be that he had psychic abilities. And there was nothing I could do about that. The plan was to stay in Dubai a couple of days and meet up with my father in London. From there, I wasn’t sure what happened next. The best thing to do was just to have Piper stay far from DC for as long as possible until Spencer’s ego could deflate and he could move on to someone else. Otherwise, I wasn’t sure what else there was to do at the moment. As soon as I’d found out Spencer was involved in this shit, I knew we were up against something bigger than just his obsession with Piper. It was too much of a coincidence and we had too much of a history. Somehow I knew, this was about me. And the past. But there was no use in telling Piper that. The less she knew, the better.

Our pilot was Malcolm Chambers. We’d crossed paths at Coronado years ago and I’d always liked the guy. I knew he was the best man to get us to our destination. And fortunately he happened to be in Baltimore visiting his wife’s parents, so it hadn’t been difficult to bribe him into taking us to where we needed to go. “Thanks for doing this,” I said to him as Piper and I climbed up the air stairs into the cabin of the jet. “I know it was short notice as hell.” Malcolm smiled, “I’d rather be pretty much anywhere in the world other than my in-laws. Really you’re doing me the favor by giving me an excuse to get out of there.” I laughed, “I appreciate it all the same. And we’re good? With the discretion and all?” Malcolm nodded, “I don’t know how you did it, but yes. As far as the FAA is concerned, this flight never happened.”

“Good,” I said. “If it’s okay we’re just going to go to sleep. See you in, what? About twelve hours?” “Yep. And no problem,” Malcolm replied. “Next stop, Al Garhoud.”

Just as I’d requested, food had been brought onto the plane. Breakfast stuff for the morning, snacks for at night. I’d assumed we’d crash once we were in the air. The jet had a double bed in the rear of it, along with sofas that turned into twins. Piper had collapsed into one of the large leather seats as we took off, her knuckles white as she clutched the arm rests. “You okay?” I asked. “Flying scares the shit out of me,” she confessed. “I’ve never flown in this type of plane before.” “No?” I asked, surprised. “My dad never flew you and Maureen private?” Piper shook her head, “Not me at least. They were barely together long enough for me to partake in this kind of lifestyle. And I was away at school for most of it. I’ve never even flown first class. My mom is cheap as shit.” I smiled, not sure what else to say to that. I’d never been a huge fan of Maureen Kipton. As we reached cruising altitude I could see Piper’s shoulders relaxing. She’d stopped clutching the seat as if her life depended on it and was staring out the window at the night. “At least it’s a clear night,” she observed. “I guess I should get ready to sleep.” I nodded, “Yeah, you can have the back room. There’s a double bed and a bathroom back there.” “Where are you going to sleep?” she asked. “Out here,” I said, waving towards one of the sofas. “I’m not going to bed quite yet, I have some work to do.” “Okay,” she said, sounding down. “Goodnight then.” “Goodnight, Piper.”

16

PIPER

I ’d hoped to fall asleep in Atlas Titan’s strong arms.

But he seemed distracted by things, and not interested in going to bed or being with me anytime soon. Before all of the craziness of the note, we’d been in such a good place. I’d never felt so close to someone and my body craved his again. Nothing would have relaxed me more than a few orgasms brought on by the incredible sex only Atlas could give me. Maybe he was underwhelmed by me. Ugh, I thought. Or maybe he’s thinking about how he can keep you safe. You know, the job his father asked him to do. He told you it couldn’t mean anything. So why are you surprised? But I knew it meant something to him. I could feel it. The way he looked at me as we climaxed together- it wasn’t the way you looked at someone who meant nothing to you. Every kiss, every touch, had been him wanting me to feel good. He’d treated my body like it was something he couldn’t get enough of. He’d told me as much in no uncertain terms. So what if that was in the middle of his own orgasm? Good grief. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about. But all I could think about was him. I decided I needed a shower. A cold one.

It was strange to know I was showering on a plane. But I enjoyed every second of it and I couldn’t help touching myself, imagining Atlas in there with me, like he’d been earlier today. The water made my body slick and as I thought of his thick, muscled body thrusting into me, I came, audibly calling out his name, wishing so badly he could hear me and know what I needed from him. But no such luck. Once I was done showering I wrapped a towel around myself and put on the soft slippers that had been waiting for me at the foot of the bed. I peeked out into the main cabin to see what Atlas was up to. He was on his laptop, typing away, completely oblivious to the girl in the rear who wanted him so badly. And even though I’d been completely exhausted before take-off, I was now

curiously wide-awake and alert. I also felt completely at ease knowing with every minute I was getting impossibly far from DC and Spencer’s sadism. And I had Atlas completely to myself. I pulled on my oversized American University t-shirt and wrapped a towel around my head. If he wasn’t going to come to me, I would go to him. “I can’t sleep,” I sighed, flopping into the seat next to him. I slowly crossed my legs, hoping he’d get a peek and see that there was nothing underneath my shirt. He glanced at me and if he’d seen anything, he showed no response. “You should really try to,” he said, as he continued to look at his screen. “The jet lag is going to be rough. Dubai is nine hours ahead of us.” Stop being so pragmatic and fuck me! I wanted to scream. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll try. Shouldn’t you be following your own advice?” He looked up at me then, “I don’t need a lot of sleep. I’ll be fine.” “Why are we going to Dubai anyway?” I asked, leaning closer to him, hoping the smell of me might grasp his attention. “It’s far away. And I know people there that will make sure we’re never bothered,” he said. “You’ll probably be a little bored cooped up in a hotel suite but it’s just for a couple days until Dad’s done in Australia.” “I could never be bored around you,” I cooed. Good Lord I sounded so obvious. And desperate. But I was desperate. For his body. He looked at me now, a funny look on his face. “What are you doing?” he asked. I wasn’t sure what to say. “I just thought,” I started. “You know… Before the note…” He closed his laptop and turned to me. I had his full attention now, but suddenly I wasn’t sure if I wanted it. “Piper,” he said. “We can’t keep doing that. I told you, it was a one-time deal. Get our sexual tension out in the open, take it out on one another for a night and a day. But I can’t get involved with you. You’re already in a complicated enough situation. My job is to keep you safe and out of harm’s way.” Tears stung my eyes. I know he’d been honest and upfront about this but I’d stupidly thought maybe he could change his mind. “You’re right,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. I won’t bother you about it anymore.” I stood up but my t-shirt had somehow gotten stuck on the arm rest. It folded up at my stomach showing him exactly how bare I was underneath it. His face was now inches away from my naked ass. I was mortified. I quickly pulled the shirt away from my seat and yanked back over myself. I thought I heard him suck in a breath but I couldn’t be sure since I was quickly walking back towards my bed before he could see my tears fall.

17

ATLAS

F uck. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath that t-shirt.

A man can only be so strong around a woman like Piper Kipton. Especially when she’s wearing a t-shirt and nothing else. Her perfect, tan, luscious ass had been inches from my face. I could smell her need and my cock had immediately hardened beneath my belt. She’d walked away quickly. I should have just let her go. Even knowing I had hurt her again, I should have just let it go and ended it there. Continuing this was a bad idea. Especially when it was clear to me that it would be almost impossible for this to mean nothing to me. That killed me. I wasn’t just trying to protect Piper. I was also trying to protect myself. But I stood up and slowly followed her back to the rear of the cabin. She’d closed the door behind her that separated the room from the rest of the plane, and I found her lying face down on the bed, her ass up, and her t-shirt having ridden up her beautiful body. She was about to get exactly what she wanted. “Piper,” I said. “You’re only wearing a t-shirt.” She turned over, clearly surprised to see me standing there. Her large blues eyes were red and I could tell she was crying. “Yes,” she said, her voice shaking. “So what?” “So,” I said, approaching the bed. “You did that on purpose. To torture me. Right?” She shook her head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But the hint of a smirk was on her beautiful face. I kneeled beside the bed, “You know exactly what I’m talking about. And now you’re going to pay for it. Lay on your back and spread your legs.” She eagerly turned onto her back, her delicious thighs opening up to reveal her pussy to me. It glistened with her arousal, her inner thighs coated in her wetness. I was going to fuck the shit out of her. But I needed to make her beg first. I undid the buckle of my jeans and pulled them off. My cock was hard and the head of it peeked over my boxer briefs. She

stared at it and gasped. I pulled off my t-shirt and watched her taking in my body. “Take your shirt off, Piper,” I commanded. She pulled it off and threw it across the cabin. “Here,” she said. “All of this is yours, Atlas.” “I know that,” I said. “I can have you any fucking time I want. Right, Piper?” She nodded, vigorously. “Any time. You own every part of me.” “Especially your pussy. Say it, Piper.” “Especially my pussy. You can have it any time you want.” I nodded, “Good girl. I can have any of you, any time I want. Any position. As hard as I want. Your body was made just for me to fuck. Right?” She cried out, her hands wandering down to her sex, but I leaned down and yanked them above her head, pinning her to the bed. “No,” I growled. “Only I get to touch you there. And fuck you. Understand?” She nodded, “Yes. Whatever you say.” Her nipples were dark and hard beneath my chest. With one hand still pinning her arms above her, I let the knuckles of my other hand lightly graze one. She cried out, writhing beneath me. “Baby, that feels so good,” she said. “Please, the other one too.” I grazed the other stiff nipple with the back of my calloused hands. She cried out again. “I could come just from your touch,” she said. “You come when I say you can,” I reminded her. “Got it?” She nodded, whimpering, “Of course. You know what’s best.” “That’s fucking right,” I said. “I know what’s best for your body.” I ran my tongue from her collar bone down to her left nipple. I released her hands but directed her to keep them above her head. “If you don’t,” I said. “I’ll tie you up. And I won’t let you come.” She was writhing and breathless. “Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll do anything you say.” I put one hand between her legs while my other one teased her nipple, tracing the outside of it, not daring to touch the hardened middle. She squirmed beneath me, so eager for me to give her release. She had the most exquisite body I’d ever seen. It was lush and full, her breasts large, her waist small and curved in all the right places. I finally ran my tongue over the hardest part of her left nipple, and she sighed with relief. She was soaking wet on my hand and I slipped a finger inside of her, making her yelp. “You’re going to come for me now,” I demanded. “But it will be the first of many if I have my way with you.” With one finger inside of her and my thumb massaging her clit, she came for me quickly as I sucked hard on her nipple, softly biting it as her orgasm faded. My cock was possibly harder than it had ever been in my life, and it needed her warmth wrapped around it. “How much do you want me to fuck you?” I asked her. She was looking up at me with her beautiful eyes and she smiled sweetly.

“I’ve never wanted something so much in my life,” she whispered. “Please fuck me, Atlas. As hard as you want.” I pushed myself inside of her, and as wet as she was, she was still so fucking tight. I growled from the pleasure she was already giving me and I immediately began to pound her, to punish her for feeling so damn good and being so unbelievably beautiful. “God,” she called out. “I need you all the time, Atlas. No one else can do this to me but you.” Her hands were on my face and the way she looked at me as I fucked her made me feel something I had never felt for a woman in my entire life. I’d never wanted to give someone the same amount of pleasure they gave me. There was nothing I wouldn’t have done for Piper Kipton at that moment – at any moment, I was starting to realize. She was mine, but I was as much hers and that realization made me just want to fuck her harder, to somehow dismiss it. That feeling scared me more than anything else. I switched positions. While still inside her I lifted her up and on top of me, so she could ride me and I could explore her body. “Ride me,” I instructed. “Come for me while I watch.” I thought she’d bounce up and down on me fast but Piper had other things in mind. She wanted to take it slow, her hips moving seductively, her breasts bouncing slowly, her cries of desire and satisfaction making me want to erupt inside her. “I’m coming for you, Atlas,” she called out as she screamed out her orgasm, panting as she lay on top of me. I wasn’t finished with her. Not even close. I lifted her up and off me, placing her face down on the bed and yanking her hips up so I could take her from behind. Her absolutely perfect ass beckoned me to plow it, but that would wait for another time. For now, I just needed to finish deep inside her, mark her with my seed. “It’s my time to come, Piper,” I barked. “And you will be the good girl who takes it, no matter how hard and fast I fuck you. Right?” She trembled from anticipation beneath me, “Yes, Atlas. I’ll be your very good girl.” I entered her and sucked in a breath. From this position she was tighter than ever, and I knew it wouldn’t take me long to unload myself into her. Not with her tightness and this beautiful view. Her long, wavy brown hair fanned out over her back and I wanted to yank it so badly, to really let her know who the fucking alpha was. But as I fucked her I suddenly had the urge to see her face as I came inside her. What the fuck was wrong with me? Here she was, her ass against me, crying out my name, telling me how much she loved to fuck me, and I wanted to look at her and have some sort of intimate moment with her. Fuck my life, what was this woman doing to me? I turned her over, surprise marking her face.

“Did I not feel good?” she asked. “I came for you, like you wanted.” “You felt too good,” I said, sliding into her again. “I wanted you to look at me when I come. So you can see what your body made me do.” Her eyes softened and she kissed me, a long lingering kiss, that lasted into my climax where I screamed her name against her lips, giving her everything I had inside of me. Whether I wanted to or not.

18

PIPER

I t was everything I’d wanted.

Afterwards he’d fallen into a deep sleep, something I took immense pride in. I’d gone into the bathroom to clean myself up, my pelvis sore from his size and girth. As I looked at myself in the mirror I barely recognized myself. My hair was tousled. Was this what Cosmo magazine meant by sex hair? My cheeks were flushed and I couldn’t help but admire the curves of my body in the mirror. I’d always been so critical of my curves and the thickness of my ass and thighs. But if it made Atlas respond like that? Maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. I pulled on a pair of clean leggings and a tank top and turned off the light in the bathroom. When I walked back into the room I could see Atlas was naked on top of the sheets. I took in his body. All rippled abs, muscular arms, and his legs that looked like they were carved out granite. His thigh muscles especially drove me wild. He was the sexiest man alive. There was no way there existed any man on earth that could compare to my Atlas. My Atlas? I thought. Slow down, crazy. Getting a little possessive. But I couldn’t help it. I was under his spell and maybe he didn’t realize it, but everything I’d told him was true. I was his for the taking and always would be. I slid into the bed next to him. He stirred for a moment, opening his eyes to look at me. “Hi,” he said, half smiling. “Hi,” I said, touching his cheek. It was rough like sandpaper. It made me shiver. He was all man. “So that was fantastic,” he said, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in towards him. I wasn’t a super slender or tiny girl, but next to him I felt so small and submissive. I’d never felt like more of a woman than when I was with him. “I thought so,” I replied, burrowing myself into him. “I’ve never experienced anything like what I do with you.” He stoked my hair, his lips pressed against my forehead, “You’re trouble for me, Piper Kipton. Big trouble.” I smiled underneath his chin, “Is that a good thing?” He laughed, “Probably not. It makes everything more complicated.”

I ran my hand up his thigh, wrapping my hand around his manhood which immediately started growing hard in my hand. “Piper,” he warned. “Don’t start something you’re not prepared to finish.”

An hour later after he’d made vigorous love to me on the chaise at the foot of our bed, we were finally naked and asleep. We were halfway to Dubai by then, and part of me was anxious, wondering if we’d be as safe as he’d claimed we’d be. Spencer was something of a power player in the House. His family was old southern money and his father had gone to college with the President. He knew people and was capable of getting anything he wanted- unless it was me. I didn’t doubt that his clout went beyond the confines of DC but I also believed in Atlas. If he said he’d never find us, than I believed Spencer would never find us. I slept soundly against Atlas’s chest. It was the best sleep I’d gotten in ages, a dreamless and deep sleep against the rise and fall of his pectorals. When I came and he stared into my eyes I’d wanted to tell him how much he already meant to me, even this short amount of time. That I truly wanted to be whatever he needed me to be, whether that was his great love, his mistress, his concubine. I was tied to him, always. No one would ever replace him, no matter how long I lived. I’d die an old woman and his name would be the last word I’d say out loud. Hours later the pilot spoke to us over the loudspeaker in our room. “We’re here, Atlas,” he said. “I’ll be landing in about 30 minutes. Hope you’ve had a relaxing flight.” Atlas stirred next to me, his eyes blinking, a look of confusion on his face as if he didn’t remember where he was for a moment. He caught me staring down at him, the thin sheet from the bed draped around me. His hand wrapped around my neck and he pulled me in for a kiss, passionate and yearning and I pulled the sheet over us both as I straddled his torso, his hard cock easily entering me, making me sigh at the pleasure of being filled by him again. “Ride me,” he commanded. “Let me watch your body come. Show me how much you need me, Piper.” I cried out immediately, my orgasm pulsing through me violently as I bucked on top of him, never wanting him to withdraw from my slick opening. “Fuck,” he growled. “You’re so fucking perfect. You feel so damn good, I can’t think of anything else but doing this. All fucking day and night.” I rolled my hips slowly, touching my own breasts, his hands traveling up my taut stomach as I continued to ride him, wanting so badly to feel his release. “Piper, I’m about to come inside you,” he warned. “Can you handle it?” “Baby, I need it more than you know,” I begged. “Please. Every drop of it.” He held my hips down, making me wince at his strength and he yelled out “Piper!” as he filled me with his seed and I immediately touched his face as I

slowed my movement to enjoy the feel of him pulsing inside me. “I…” he started but then stopped himself. I longed to know what he’d planned to say but he’d shaken himself out of the moment and sat up with me still on his lap, his massive arms wrapped around my body, both of us panting. “That was incredible,” he whispered, kissing my neck. I pulled his face towards mine and we gazed into one another’s eyes for a moment as our heartbeats slowed back to a normal rhythm. “You’re so good to me,” I said. “I never want this to end.” He looked at me for a long moment, not saying anything. His eyes looked sad and I wondered what he was thinking at that moment. I would have given anything to know. “We need to get ready,” he said, gently lifting me up so he could climb out of the bed. He threw on his boxer briefs and a pair of jeans. I sat there, startled at his quick ability to leave an intimate moment. I guess it showed on my face. “I’m sorry,” he said leaning over and kissing my forehead. “But I just want us to be ready when he lands. Okay? We can talk more at the hotel.” I nodded, “Sure. I’ll get dressed.” Atlas had a fortress surrounding him, emotionally. It would come down when we were in bed but it would go back up just as swiftly once it was over. And that broke my heart.

19

ATLAS

I was getting in deeper and deeper. What was wrong with me?

What I should have done was sleep in the main cabin. Even after being so tempted, I should have been stronger. But Piper was my Achilles heel. I couldn’t possibly ever say no to her. Not with that body and those large eyes, pleading with me to ravage her. What man could resist? And as fantastic as she was in the bedroom, there was this beguiling innocence about her. She was so new to everything, so excited and eager to please me. I’d never been so turned on by a woman in my life. And even now, even knowing this couldn’t keep happening, I couldn’t stop thinking about the next time we were alone. I was hard just thinking about it. But I had to keep my head in the game. We were in Dubai now. And Piper didn’t know that I had business to take care of, outside of being her protector. Nothing came before her, but I was hoping I could squeeze an important meeting in while I was here. I needed to find out more about what Spencer had been up to the last few years.

“Now, Piper,” I said as we began our descent to Al Garhoud. “There are a couple of things we need to go over. Have you been to Dubai before?” She shook her head, “No. I’ve only been to Europe and it was in college for a week.” “Okay,” I said. “Dubai has certain customs. They’re archaic but they’re very strict about them. Do you have a long dress or skirt?” “I have a maxi dress,” she said. “Should I wear that?” “Yes. And a cardigan over it, if possible,” I said. “Women have to be dressed modestly here or they get harassed. Also, we can’t show affection at all in public. It could get us thrown in jail. Not that it should matter much, we’ll be in our room mostly. But just in case. Don’t be hurt that I can’t hold your hand or touch you.” I smiled, “As much as I’ll want to. I can’t. Okay?”

“Got it,” she said, but I could tell she was nervous. “Look,” I said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “None of this is probably going to even pertain to us. But I want you to be prepared. So get changed real quick and everything else will be fine.” “Sure,” she said. “Anything else?” “Yeah,” I said, feeling awkward all of a sudden. “If anyone asks, you’re my wife.”

20

PIPER

W hat had he just said?

“Your wife?” I asked. “Why?” “It’s against the law to stay in a suite with a woman who isn’t your wife. Or at least to…” He paused a moment. “You know, have sexual congress with one.” He smirked. I laughed, “Oh, I see. Wow that is very archaic. And slightly misogynistic.” “Such is the Middle East. Though I find it to have a unique charm. Not that many people agree with me. But yes, it’s not the best place to bring a date.” I wondered to myself how many times Atlas had been here before and if he’d ever brought any other “wives” with him. I shook the thought away. Thoughts like that would drive me insane. I quickly changed into my long floral dress and as I stepped out of the room Atlas advised me to buckle up. The landing was a soft one and Malcom, our pilot, spoke again over the loud speaker, “Welcome to Dubai, folks. Hope you have a lovely visit on the shores of the Arabian Gulf.”

The Burj Al Arab is one of the most famous pieces of modern architecture in the world, and driving towards it in a Rolls Royce was like something out of a James Bond movie. It rose like a beacon in the desert, a tall silver sail shaped oasis on the water. “That’s where we’re staying?” I asked. “I’ve seen it on TV but it’s really something else in person.” Atlas was scrolling through his phone and nodded, “Yeah. It’s alright.” I rolled my eyes. I guessed when you were a Titan, it took a lot to impress you. Check-in could be done from our room so we took a private elevator to our suite on the 28th floor. Four members of what I assumed were concierge services greeted us at the door to a suite that was six times the size of my apartment in DC.

“Welcome to Burj Al Arab,” said one of the gentlemen. “We hope you enjoy your stay Mr. and Mrs. Titan. We are your butler staff and are at your service 24 hours a day. Just let us know of anything you need.” Atlas didn’t say much. His cold exterior was back and he waved the man away, “We’re fine for now, we’d just like some privacy. We’ve had a long flight. We’ll let you know if we need anything.” The man bowed his head and briskly walked away, the three others trailing him quickly from behind. I wandered around the expansive living room of our suite, admiring the mosaic tiles of the flooring and the rich colors of the drapery and upholstered furniture. It was the most beautiful hotel room I’d ever been in. “This doesn’t seem like such a terrible place to hide,” I noted, glancing over at Atlas who was still on his phone, frowning at the screen. “What do you think?” “I think it’s a little over the top,” he replied. “But I’m glad you like it.” I wanted to tell him that as long as he was here, I’d be happy even if it was a Motel 6. But he was off in his own world again, thinking about other things. Our time on the plane had already become a distant memory.

21

ATLAS

I was distracted by some texts I’d received from the person I would be meeting with here in Dubai. As much as I wanted to enjoy this moment with Piper, I couldn’t. There were still things yet to be handled, along with the assurance that we were hidden away from the searching eyes of Spencer Cameron and his mercenary thugs. My father also texted me:

The security footage at The Four Seasons is conveniently missing about four hours of footage from yesterday afternoon. I’ve let them know we will no longer be using them for our business or personal needs. Still working on finding out more.

This news didn’t surprise me. I texted back:

Not a shock. Glad to be out of there before anything more serious could happen. Look forward to meeting up in a couple days. Let me know if anything else comes up.

Spencer Cameron wasn’t fucking around. There was no telling who was connected to him. I had a hunch there were people on my father’s payroll feeding him information, something that made me glad I’d told no one other than Dad where we’d be. No one could be trusted. “Atlas.” I looked up at the sound of her voice and inhaled a quick breath. Piper was completely naked and standing in the doorway that led to the master bathroom of our suite. “I just wanted you to know,” she said, coyly. “There’s an enormous tub in here.

And I was thinking of running a bath to get the travel stench off me. Care to join me?” One hand rested on a curvy hip. My eyes wandered up her tan and muscles calves, up her succulent thighs, to her bare sex. They raked up her flat stomach up to her large breasts, the nipples hard, and finally to her beautiful face, a shy expression marking it. I could tell this wasn’t something Piper was used to doinginitiating. “You are a very bad girl, Piper,” I said, placing my phone down and immediately unbuckling my pants. “You can’t do that to me. A man can only handle so much.” She shook her head, “I don’t know what you mean, Atlas.” I laughed, “Sure you don’t. I hope you’re prepared for what I’m about to give you.” I picked her up and she wrapped her arms around my neck, our mouths meeting yet again, her urge evident. “I couldn’t help it,” she whispered. “I can’t get enough.” I didn’t say it out loud but in my head I thought: Me either, baby. And that’s bad news for both of us.

22

PIPER

M aking love to Atlas wasn’t just about the physical pleasure of having his body. I

was addicted to giving to him as much as I took, and within those moments, I knew he felt the same. He’d taken me to the bed instead of the tub, something I had no problem with. As he ran his hands up and down my body I moaned at his touch, wanting him to know how completely I desired him above anything else. “I need to taste you,” he said. He was naked now, his hard body standing above me, the desert’s setting sun behind him, casting shadows around the room. My breath caught at his perfection. There wasn’t a single flaw on him. Even his scars were beautiful. His erection taunted me and I sat up to take him in my mouth, my eyes never leaving his. He groaned, obviously loving the feel of me on him, something that gave me great satisfaction. I took him in my mouth as deep as possible, wanting to be completely submissive to any physical want he had. His hand rested behind my head and he balled my long hair into his fist, pushing me up and down on his massive girth. “No,” he finally choked out. “Not like this. I need to be inside you. Lay back and open yourself to me.” I did as I was told and suddenly he was above me, his gorgeous body supported by his muscular arms. He kissed me long and hard as he entered me and though I had expected him to pound and take, he was slow this time, running his hands down the curves of my torso as he had me. “You’re so beautiful,” he said, making me arch my back to meet his rhythm. “I can’t stop wanting to fuck you, Piper. Does it feel good to get fucked so much?” “Yes,” I gasped, my climax surprising me with its intensity. “Only by you. My body can only do this for you.” “Fucking right,” he said, quickening his pace. “You’re mine. I own you.” He pressed his hands into my lower back, angling me so he could penetrate me more deeply. I cried out at the pleasure, he was hitting spots I didn’t even know I had. “Atlas!” I called to him. “I’m coming so hard!” He was panting now, fucking me with all his strength, growling. “I’m going to

come too.” He screamed out, all of his need being met by my body. I kissed his face as he slowly stopped pumping inside me, his mouth, his sandpaper cheeks, and his eyelids. He wouldn’t stop staring at me, his heartbeat was rapid against mine. “I love you,” he whispered. I stared at him, my eyes wide. It wasn’t what I’d expected at all and as he said it I could tell he’d even shocked himself. But his face softened and he said it again. “I love you so much,” he whispered, kissing my neck, running his rough hands up the side of my body. “I’d die for you, Piper. Kill for you. And all I want to do is live to make you feel good. And safe.” Tears touched my cheeks, “I love you more than anything, Atlas.” He smiled, putting his hand on my face, making small circles with his fingers against my cheeks, “How is that possible? We’ve been together barely 3 days.” “Close proximity,” I said. “It speeds things up. And who couldn’t love you, Atlas?” He stared at me for a long moment, his expression blank, “As long as you do, that’s all that matters.”

23

ATLAS

I ’d never told any woman I loved her. I’d never told any person at all that I loved

them. But it had come out after the best orgasm of my life. And even then, I’d known without a doubt that I’d meant every word. What the fuck was I going to do now? She asked me how anyone couldn’t love me. But I could have easily asked her the same thing. She was so fucking beautiful and pure, something no one was worthy of touching or possessing, including myself. I owned the world, I could have anything I wanted, but she was the only thing I’d ever desire and truly need again. I’d ordered dinner brought to our room. We showered together, unable to resist touching, we’d christened the massive walk-in shower with our mind blowing sex. She wouldn’t stop saying she loved me. It was like she’d been holding back and it made me smile, knowing this sweet girl felt so much for me, even without me deserving it. “I love you,” she cried out as she came from my mouth in the shower. It made me want to keep going and never stop. “I love you too,” I said, my hands under her ass now, lifting her up to fuck her against the wall. When we finally came out of the bathroom, dinner had been set up by our butlers, though they were nowhere to be seen. I wondered if they’d heard us. I didn’t see how they couldn’t, Piper’s screams were the best kind a man wants to hear- loud and satisfied. But now they we weren’t in bed, it was somewhat awkward to be doing something as basic as eating a meal in one another’s presence. She was in an oversized cashmere bathrobe the hotel provided while I ate in a pair of workout shorts, shirtless. We silently ate, both of us ravenous having not had a decent meal since yesterday. “So what happens tomorrow?” she asked. I glanced over at her, “I have to meet with someone. But otherwise, there are no plans. We’ll leave for London in a couple days to see Dad.” “And then?” she asked. I wasn’t sure what answer she was looking for.

“Well, by then I’m hoping we have some sort of idea what to do about this Spencer situation,” I said. “It’s part of the reason I have a meeting here.” Piper sat back, “Who here would have anything to do with Spencer?” I looked at her, unsure of how much I should tell her. The less she knew, the better. “Spencer, like me, has a complicated past,” I said. “And it follows us everywhere. I’m hoping I can find out some things to help us in our current situation gain some power against him.” “So blackmail material,” she said. Piper Kipton was no dummy. “Something like that,” I said. “But it’s nothing for you to worry about. Let me handle it and you worry about staying relaxed.” She smiled, “You’re the best anti-anxiety med that exists.” She looked so fucking cute all wrapped in her robe, her pretty French pedicured toes peeking out. Her skin was all pink from the sex and the hot shower and it made my heart ache, she was so perfect. I thought about what I’d told her earlier. A large part of me wanted to take it back, not because I hadn’t meant it, but because my love for her was only a detriment in this situation. Once she knew who I really was, she’d never want to be near me again. But it was impossible to remember the stakes when I was close to her. Ever since she’d walked into Old Ebbitt, she’d owned me. Even more than I owned her.

24

PIPER

E ven now, I could feel him holding back from me.

It was why I craved intimacy with him so much. It’s when the wall came down and his heart broke open for me to see. He held me like he never wanted to let me go and made me feel so incredibly wanted and desired. I was hooked on his gaze, the look he’d give me right after he’d come inside me. I couldn’t get enough of it. I knew I was probably the only on who’d ever seen it. I hoped. But now that we were finishing up our dinner of couscous and lamb, he was distant again; texting on his phone and looking out at the night sky over the gulf. “Are you tired?” I asked. “We could watch a movie.” He smiled thinly and shook his head, “Someone is visiting soon. I’ll meet with them in the salon. But order any movie you want, and have the butler bring you dessert.” I frowned, “Will you be away long?” “Not sure,” he said. “But I’ll just be in the other room. If you need anything, just send for me.” Who could be meeting him here in the middle of the evening? I knew it wasn’t my place to ask and if he’d wanted me to know, he’d tell me. All I wanted was a typical evening with him, followed by not so typical sex. Was that too much to ask? I felt like an indignant and jealous girlfriend. Not a great look. So I tried to hide my disappointment. “Okay,” I said, trying to sound cheery. “I’ll order some popcorn and M&Ms and rent a movie. Hope your meeting goes okay.” “I’m sure it will,” he walked over and kissed me on the head. “Save me a spot next to you, okay?” “Of course,” I replied pulling him down to kiss me deeper. I wanted him to remember what was waiting for him.

After an hour of watching a very unfunny buddy-cop comedy, I was bored and

missing Atlas. I’d also gorged on way too much candy and salt, making me feel less than stellar. Atlas had been gone way too long for my liking. Who was he meeting up with anyway? I decided it wouldn’t hurt to peek in on him. I pulled on a pair of leggings and a t-shirt. I turned the volume down on the television and softly padded through the living room and the foyer to the salon that sat on the other side of the suite. The door to it was closed, but not all the way. There was a convenient crack, large enough for me to spy on what was happening inside. As soon as I looked in, I immediately wished I hadn’t. Atlas stood facing a window and an incredibly statuesque and beautiful woman stood next to him. Her hand was on his back and they were speaking in hushed voices, their heads close together in what appeared to be an intimate exchange. I could hear what they were saying, but barely. I only caught every other word. “… You know I’d do anything…” She had a heavy accent, one I couldn’t identify. “I just know there’s a connection…” he replied. “Maybe if we…” she said, her hand still on his back. He shook his head at her response, “No… It has to be more…” I had assumed he’d be meeting with a man. Someone in a business suit without the perfect legs and ass that this woman was sporting in a pencil skirt that clung to her supermodel curves. I slowly walked away from the salon and back to the cold sheets of my bed, my stomach in knots. Was she his ex-girlfriend? Did he still love her? Was she from here? Maybe Atlas was one of those men that had women in different ports of call all over the world. It would make sense. But he’d told me he loved me. I hated being jealous. It wasn’t like me, but the thought of him ever wanting anyone but me made me want to throw myself off the pointy top of the Burj Al Arab. Ever since I’d been with him I’d barely thought of Spencer Cameron. And I hadn’t been afraid at all once we’d gotten on the plane to Dubai. But now I was a different kind of afraid. I was afraid I was the type of girl that could never be enough for someone like Atlas Titan.

25

ATLAS

T he meeting hadn’t gone well.

I’d crept back into the bedroom a couple hours after leaving Piper, expecting to find her asleep. I longed to feel her body against mine, to have her again and fall asleep with her as close to me as humanly possible. But my mind was also on other things. Spencer Cameron was still searching for us. And some of our mutual colleagues were now in on what was happening. And sure enough it was about much more than Piper. In a way she was just a red herring, a pawn in his game to get back at me for what happened years ago. And what was worse, he’d hurt her. Just to get to me. He knew my father would call me to protect her. I suspected he’d known what he would do long before he’d first gotten her phone number at their first encounter. The anger in me over that was hard to contain. He’d used the woman I loved to bait me. And it was working. How he could have predicted I’d react this way, was hard to know. I suspected he hadn’t expected for me to fall for her as I had, he assumed I was just protecting the closest thing any of my brothers and I had to a sister. Not that I’d ever had any sisterly thoughts about Piper Kipton, even when she actually was my stepsister. But either way, the game had begun. Spencer Cameron was in this for the highest of stakes. I’d taken something from him long ago and now it was time for him to extract his revenge. And he was more than happy to use Piper to do it. She needed to know. I couldn’t hide what was happening any longer. Piper needed to know exactly who I was and what we were dealing with. I wasn’t the man she thought I was. I might have been on the right side of a wrong in this case, but there were so many wrongs in my past, I found it hard to believe she could ever see past them. The room was pitch black. I figured she was asleep, I knew she had to be spent from the last couple days of travel and stress. I would do everything in my power to make sure she got rest. Tomorrow we’d eat at Al Mahara. I’d wine and dine her, show her how I felt, something I wasn’t fantastic at. I was better at expressing it on her naked body, something I intended on having one more time tonight before

falling into a deep sleep. I stripped my clothes off, already hard thinking about being inside her again. The room was barely lit but I reached the bed, waiting to hear her movement, hoping she was awake enough for me to love one more time. But as I reached across the bed, I felt nothing. Her side was empty. That was strange. The light in the bathroom was still on so I walked in there, thinking maybe she was taking a bath. But as I walked in I could only hear the echoing of my footsteps against the mosaic tiles. My heart started pounding. I flipped on a lamp and yelled for one of the butlers. No one came. Now, I knew it was bad. I called out her name, “Piper!” There was no answer. Piper Kipton had vanished.

26

PIPER

A fter spying on Atlas, I crawled back into bed, keeping the television on for

company. I’ve never been someone who likes the dark. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to actually fall asleep until he was back. Thoughts swirled around in my head. Who was that woman? It was clear they were familiar with each other. Before I could think too much about it, I felt a presence in the room. My body stiffened, waiting to feel the weight of his body on the bed, his powerful arms around me, pulling me into his embrace to explain where he’d been and with whom. Instead I heard an unfamiliar voice. “Mrs. Titan,” it said in a heavy accent. “There’s been an emergency, we need to evacuate you. I need you to come with me, please.” I looked over and one of our butlers was standing there and my heart started to thump. “Why?” I asked. “I’d rather wait for At- I mean, my husband. I would prefer to wait for my husband to come back,” I said. “Of course. He’s down in the lobby, waiting for you. Something urgent has come up and he sent me to get you,” the man said, clearly impatient. “But you must hurry.” Something wasn’t right. What the man said made no sense, and besides, Atlas would have come for me himself. He wouldn’t send a stranger, especially in the circumstances we were in. He had told me to trust no one. “No,” I said, defiantly. I sat up in bed, ready to bolt for the door if the man made a move toward me. “I’d rather stay here. I don’t feel…” Suddenly, a damp cloth was over my mouth. I tried to scream but it was muffled by whoever was behind me and it didn’t matter anyway, the cloth was soaked in something that made me woozy and then… everything went black.

I woke up in a plush bed, a silk pillowcase under my cheek. My vision was blurry

and I had a terrible headache and dry mouth. I sat up, groggy, not remembering what had happened for a moment. I looked around to get a hold of my surroundings. The lighting was low and dim, and it was quiet. It looked like a high-end luxury hotel room, except the door to the room was heavy steel with bars across a small window that looked out into darkness. My last memory with the butler flooded back into my mind and I started to shake uncontrollably. “You’re okay, Piper,” a voice said. I jumped, not realizing someone was in the room with me. It was a woman; the same woman I had just seen Atlas with moments before I was attacked. “I’m not okay,” I said, touching my temple. “I feel hungover. Where’s Atlas? Why am I here? You were with him earlier, where did he go?” She looked at me, surprised. “How did you know I was with him?” she asked, curious. She didn’t seem uncomfortable at all. She was striking in her appearance. Olive skin, dark, wavy hair, and large, brown eyes. She was slender, long legs and arms. She had the build of someone straight off the runway. Confidence dripped from her pores. “It doesn’t matter,” I said, not wanting to admit I’d been spying. “What’s going on?” “Atlas will be here soon,” she said. “Do you want something to drink?” I did, desperately, but I didn’t trust her or anything she gave me to consume. “I’m fine,” I said. “It’s bottled water. Sealed.” She tossed me an Evian. “No tampering.” I sighed and tore the top off, taking a long and anxious chug. It helped. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I said nothing. No one could use anything against me if I was silent. “How much do you know about Atlas?” the woman said, her voice smooth and seductive. “Not much, I’m guessing?” “Enough,” I said. “Enough.” She repeated it to me, seemingly amused. “I can assure you, you don’t know enough. Atlas Titan is much more than he seems.” “Aren’t we all?” I retorted. “I feel like you’re exactly how you seem,” the woman said. She sounded so smug. It annoyed the shit out of me. “And how’s that?” I asked. “You seem out of your element,” she observed. “In need of a hero. I can relate. I was once that way. And Atlas Titan saved me too.” My face flushed with embarrassment and anger. Was she flaunting the fact she’d been with him? I couldn’t let her get a rise out of me. “How nice for you,” I responded. “So what do you want from me? What are we waiting for?” “For Atlas to come find you,” she said. “Because he’s most certainly looking.”

27

ATLAS

I was in a panic. This wasn’t a normal sensation for me. I had been in some hot

spots in my past- the life threatening kind, but that had been just about me. Or my team. It was much easier when it was just your life on the line. Or lives of men and women who were trained like I had been; prepared for anything. But Piper. She didn’t belong in this world, didn’t deserve any of this. I couldn’t let anything happen to her, yet I already had. She was gone and I had no inkling where she was or what could have happened. There’s no way this is Spencer, I thought. That would be impossible. No one knows we’re here. I stood in the middle of the room and I willed myself to think. If Piper had exited the suite, the staff should have reported it to me. If she left under duress, they should have alerted me. Yet I hadn’t received a call or heard a knock on the door. Of course. Because they were in on it. I started pacing the floor, figuring out my next move, when my cell phone buzzed. I looked down and it was Zahra’s number. Zahra was who I had just been in the meeting with. She was the one who’d repaid an old debt by bringing me and Piper here. Why was she calling me? “Not a good time,” I answered. “Piper is…” “I know,” a man’s voice said on the other end. Definitely not Zahra. “Who the fuck is this?” I growled. “Where is she?” “She’s safe. For now. You need to do exactly what you’re told or that may not be the case in the next few hours,” the deep voice said on the other end. Rage. It was almost blinding me. “I’m listening,” I coldly replied.

28

PIPER

“So you know my name,” I said to the woman. “Might as well tell me yours. And

why you’re in here with me.” “I’m Zahra,” she said. “And I’m in here because I’m just as trapped as you are.” “And why is that?” I asked. She averted her eyes from me. “Because I know too much. You should stop asking too many questions, by the way. If you don’t know anything, you’re less likely to be killed.” She sighed. “Except in your case it won’t matter. Because you’re Atlas’s weakness. He’s never had one before. They’ll use you against him.” I was still stuck on her saying the word killed. “Why do they even want anything to do with us?” I asked. “Is this about Spencer?” Zahra looked at me, her expression soft for a moment. She almost looked like she felt bad for me. “Like I said,” she replied. “The less you talk, the better.”

We stayed in the room for another hour. Maybe more, maybe less. There were no clocks, no way to tell what time it was. Oddly enough, I felt very calm. I don’t know if it was shock or just my body’s way of defending itself, by shrouding me in numbness, but I wasn’t on the floor sobbing like I had been back in DC. Atlas would find me. He’d get me out of this mess. I was positive this had to relate to Spencer. I wasn’t sure how, but all roads to hell seemed to be paved by him. But why the kidnapping? And who was this Zahra woman? As if she was reading my mind, she spoke. “You’re a bargaining chip. If you stay quiet, you might have a chance. But they’re going to want something from Atlas. For you to be safe, he will have to pay.” “Ransom?” I asked, completely confused. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “If only. That would be easy.”

29

ATLAS

I ’d agreed to be blindfolded. A first.

I was directed to go downstairs and into a corner of the garage, facing the wall. Several men approached me from behind, frisking me and placing a hood over my head before placing me in a truck. My senses told me I was in an older vehicle, maybe a Jeep Cherokee, and we were going off the beaten desert path if the jolts and bumps we were hitting were any indication. I hadn’t been seat belted in and I jostled around in the back. Two men sat on each side of me. They weren’t as large as me, but they were close. I also sensed they were armed. The agreement was that I would say nothing, do nothing, hurt no one, and they would bring me to Piper. None of this seemed like Spencer. My gut told me this was about something else entirely. And I had a feeling that was very bad. For all of us.

Everyone thinks of the desert as arid and hot, but at night temperatures can plummet. As soon as we reached our destination and I was led out of the car, blowing sand stung my neck below the hood and a chill went up my back. That cold wind blowing through the Arabian night meant we were out somewhere open and desolate. The tall skyscrapers and buildings in Dubai would have blocked this kind of wind. Shit. Not good. I heard the loud screech of something heavy being dragged. A door. Made of sturdy metal; steel most likely. I’d expected to go either through it or up it. Instead we went down narrow stairs. Once we were at the bottom, my hood was removed. Who I saw standing there shocked me. “Malcolm?” It was Malcolm Chambers, the pilot who brought us to Dubai. Except now he stood in front of me in Banana Republic casual attire, looking a lot more debonair

than he had just hours before. “Hello, Atlas,” he smiled. “Nice to see you again.” “I would normally say the same,” I replied. “Understandable,” he nodded. “I know this is all a big shock. Care to follow me?” He started walking down the narrow hallway. “Do I have a choice?” I asked, glancing at the two men one either side of me. I was pretty sure they were the ones who had been in the vehicle with me and, sure enough, they had AK-47’s slung over their shoulders. Malcolm chuckled in a way that didn’t sound anything like the Malcolm I had known during our Coronado days. “Not really,” he said. “You do want to see Piper, right?”

She was in a cell, but it was one of the most glamorous ones I’d ever seen. It was basically the inside of a luxury hotel room with a steel door. But as soon as I saw her, relief flooded through me, though I tried not to show any emotion, knowing Malcolm and his thug buddies were watching me closely for any reaction, anything they might use against me. It was best they didn’t realize how much I cared about Piper. It would keep her safer. So although she leapt into my arms, I played cold with her. “I’m glad you’re okay,” I said, flatly. A flash of hurt went across her large eyes and she stepped back. “I’m fine,” she responded. “I’ve made tons of friends. Or really just one. Zahra here.” I looked over. What the fuck was Zahra doing here?

30

PIPER

He didn’t even seem relieved to find me alive.

Think, I thought. About what Zahra said. He can’t look like he cares about me too much. I hoped that’s what it was. The memory of seeing him with her was still on my mind. Which was ridiculous because we had more important things happening at the moment. Like the fact we were being held against our will and had no idea why. Suddenly I realized I knew one of the other men in the room with us. “Aren’t you our pilot?” I asked. I glanced at Atlas. “Good memory, Piper,” the man said. “I’m Malcolm and yes, I was your pilot. I flew you right to where Zahra told me to. You met Zahra, right? Did she fill you in on her resume? Her story? No?” I looked over at Zahra, who was still sitting in the upholstered chair that was at the foot of the bed I’d been lying in. She looked at Malcolm like she wanted to kill him. If expressions were weapons, hers would have been lethal. “She doesn’t need to know who I am or what we do,” she said through clenched teeth. “She has nothing to do with this.” Atlas spoke up, “Zahra’s right. Piper’s just a girl who my father is making me babysit. Whatever you need me for has nothing to do with her. She’s just a liability. Let her go. Take her back to my father so he can deal with her petty drama.” My heart was thumping so loud I was sure the whole room could hear it. Now I knew Atlas was playing us down in order to save me. I was terrified to be separated from him again. Malcolm laughed, “Just a girl you’re looking after as a favor? Right. Video doesn’t lie, Atlas.” Behind us there was a flat screen television, something I hadn’t noticed while speaking with Zahra. Malcolm pointed a remote from his pocket at it and it was on. A large muscled figure filled the screen and the familiar sound of Atlas’s voice, beckoning me to come for him. It was a video of us taken just hours prior. “Not like this. I need to be inside you again. Lay back and open yourself to me.” “I can’t stop wanting to fuck you, Piper. Does it feel good to get fucked so

much?” “Yes. Only by you. My body can only do this for you.” The video had been taken from the side and from up above. There had been mirrors on the ceiling and on the walls. I wanted to be sick. I’d never felt so violated. Someone had been watching us making love. My face was red from shame and Atlas’s fists were clenched as he stood next to me. “You’re fucking dead,” he bellowed. “What the fuck do you want, Malcolm? And Zahra?” His anger was pointed towards her now. “You set me up.” Zahra had tears in her eyes and she vehemently shook her head, “No, Atlas. That wasn’t my intention. I didn’t have a choice…” I looked back and forth between them, not understanding at all what was going on. Meanwhile, the video played on, drawing the attention of Malcolm’s muscle and making me want to curl up and die. Malcolm was laughing at the entire scene. “This is great,” he cackled. “So much awkwardness.” He mercifully turned the television off, right in the middle of one of my loud climaxes. I had fallen onto the bed by then, so humiliated by what the entire room had just witnessed. “Are you with Spencer then?” I croaked out. “Is this part of his plan?” Malcolm looked at me confused, “What? No. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Malcolm looked at Atlas. “She really doesn’t know anything about you, does she?” Atlas stood next to me, expressionless and stoic. He had taken my hand by then and was squeezing it so hard that it hurt, but I was afraid to pull away from him. “No,” he said. “She doesn’t. Which is why you don’t need to keep her here. This is a little melodramatic don’t you think? If you needed to see me, you knew where I was. You didn’t need to resort to this shit. And I’m not employed anymore. You both know that.” He was glaring at Zahra now who was looking away from him. It was clear she couldn’t bear to make eye contact with him. Malcolm gave a sinister smile, “Oh, I think it’s very important she stay here. She’s clearly a fantastic motivation tool. But really, you two should talk. She needs to know, Atlas. And once she knows, we can get down to business. And then you can both be on your merry way.” Malcolm looked over at Zahra, “And you. You’re needed by Headquarters. Your job is done. Come with me. We’ll leave these two to get reacquainted.” Zahra looked over at both of us, her face pained and apologetic. “I’m sorry, Atlas,” she said. “They said they’d hurt…” “Shut up, Zahra,” Malcolm commanded. “You’re needed elsewhere.” She stood and followed the two armed men who’d accompanied Malcolm and Atlas into the room. Part of me felt bad for her. She was clearly just as much of a prisoner in this scenario as we were.

Malcolm turned around one more time. “Oh and just so you know,” he grinned. “There are no cameras in here. So if you need to get reacquainted, please feel free.” “You’re fucking sick, Malcolm,” Atlas said. “But a great actor. I can’t believe how well you hid your true, fucked up self.” Malcolm’s smile vanished for a moment. “You know we have to, Atlas. No one knows who we are or what we’re capable of. Including each other.” And with that the steel door to the cell was shut and we were alone.

31

ATLAS

O nce the door slammed shut, Piper melted down. She had stayed so strong when

everyone was in the room with us, but now she collapsed into my arms and wept. “What the hell is going on?” she cried. “If this isn’t about Spencer than why do they want you? Tell me. Why is this happening?” I sighed. Fuck. Where did I start? What was okay to tell her? And more importantly: Would she ever be able to love me if she knew who I really was and what I had done? “My guess is they want me on assignment,” I said. Better to be ambiguous. “What? Like a journalist?” she asked. “Not exactly,” I answered. Not at all, I thought. “Piper, once you know you can’t un-know. And if I tell you what’s happening, it could possibly put you in more danger than you are already in. But I’m also hesitant to reveal who I am because you’ll never look at me the same again.” I tilted her chin so her eyes could meet mine. “And the thought of you not loving me anymore isn’t something I would handle very well.” She kissed me softly, and touched my cheek. Even in the stressful situation we currently found ourselves in, my cock twitched at her mere touch. “I couldn’t possibly ever not love you,” she said. “No matter what you tell me.” I sighed, “Piper, that’s just dumb. What if I was about to tell you I had killed people? For money? For promotion? You could still love me?” I was presenting it as if it wasn’t a possibility when it was exactly what I was trying to avoid telling her. Except about the money. I had never needed to do much of anything for that. “If you killed people,” she whispered. “There must have been a good reason. You were a SEAL. You had to protect yourself and your teammates.” I shook my head, “It was after the SEALs.” She looked at me, the realization that what I was saying was true, that I had killed people. Her eyes grew large. “Why?” she asked. “Why would you have to kill anyone?” “When I was a SEAL,” I began. “I was recruited. By the Special Activities Division of the CIA. A few of my buddies and me. We thought it would be a great

way to keep doing what we loved, protecting our nation’s freedoms, protecting our citizens from the bad guys.” I paused. “But it was so much more than that. Working for the Special Operations Group, or SOG for short, was basically like working for a secret society. No one knows the measures that are taken to keep the machine that is our country working. We were asked to do what it took to control hostile situations in foreign countries. Particularly here in the Middle East. This is a place I spent a great deal of my time.” Piper looked at me, her eyes still concerned, but not disgusted. But she still didn’t know. “I had to kill many people. Some of them were bad. Hell, most of them were some of the worst people you could ever hope to meet. The kind you see in movies, the men you see blowing up buildings and strapping bombs to little kids. But as the job went on and I learned more about what SOG was really after, I realized that sometimes I was forced to kill people who weren’t corrupt people. They were just inconveniences for people higher up the chain.” I looked at her, knowing this is when she might want to run. When she should want to run, not that she was capable of doing that at the moment. “Some of my assignments became more domestic,” I said slowly. “I wasn’t always expected to kill your average terrorist or covert operator from a foreign bad land. Soon I was getting assignments to kill American citizens. People who were getting in the way.” “Of what?” she asked. “Most of the time I wasn’t even aware of that,” I admitted. “I was given an assignment and I was expected to get the job done. No questions asked. And none needed. Until I did need them. Until I began losing my friends who were dying in the line of duty, doing a job so covert that their deaths couldn’t even be acknowledged by the very country and administration they were serving.” She grabbed my hand, “That’s not your fault, Atlas. You were doing your job. Your sworn duty.” I looked up at the ceiling, “I used to tell myself that. On the nights when it was impossible to sleep. But it was me lying to myself.” There were times I’d had to seduce women in order to gain trust or information, but somehow that seemed worse now, worse even than the times I’d had to make problems (people) “go away,” as my bosses put it, and I didn’t dare reveal that to Piper. Piper touched my face, the love and worry in her expression not one of repugnance or even disappointment. She was sad for me. Something I usually would have hated, because I didn’t need pity. But as long as she didn’t hate me, that was what mattered most. “But you don’t do it anymore, right?” she asked. “You work in San Francisco with your brothers. You’re out of that life. You got out.” I looked at her, wishing that was true. “You’re never really out, Piper,” I said. “I know a lot of things about a lot of

people. That’s not something you retire from. It’s understood that you’re always on call, always in the reserve for when you’re needed. I’ve been resisting it for a long time. Which has been easy because I’m connected and loaded and protected by the Titan name. And I’ve never had anything they could hurt me with. Nothing they could use over my head.” I pulled her towards me and kissed her. It was impossible to be near her and not show her how I felt, something that was foreign and also badly hidden. It was why we were in this mess. “But I guess when I called Zahra to get us away from DC, that’s when they knew they had an opportunity. A chance to bring me back into the fold. They could use you, as a weapon against me,” I said. “I just never expected… Zahra is a very old friend, someone who I thought I could trust.” “Was she…” Piper started and then stopped. “Never mind. It’s none of my business.” “Was she someone I was with? Like I’m with you?” I said. “No way. Zahra is the widow of one of my best friends. She also happens to be a spy and someone who is also in this line of work. She’s Mossad though.” “Oh,” Piper said. “Israeli special forces?” “Yep,” I said. “She’s a friend, nothing else. Or she was a friend. They must have used her son to blackmail her. Which, if that’s the case, I can’t hold it against her. I mean, they’re doing the same thing to me.” “So once Zahra knew you were on your way here she told them,” Piper said. “This is so fucked up. What could they possibly want you to do?” “I don’t know,” I said. “Or I do know. I just don’t want to think about it.”

32

PIPER

I t was a lot to take in.

Atlas was an assassin. A government assassin, the kind that crazy conspiracy theorists would write my mother about, begging her to do an expose on the dark underbelly of government affairs. They’d point to the scientist who claimed he’d developed a cure for cancer, only to disappear. Or the guy who could make a car run on rainwater who committed suicide when he couldn’t get anyone to invest in his idea. She’d shake her head and laugh. “People would be disappointed to know it’s really not that deep,” Mom would haughtily say. “Some people just like to believe they know things no one else knows. They watch too many Jason Bourne movies.” But this was real. Atlas was Jason Bourne. Or a version of him anyway. A hotter version, who demanded that I beg him for permission to climax. God, I thought. Even now I couldn’t stop thinking about sex with him. “So what do we do?” I asked. “Will they come back?” “Yeah,” he said. “They’re just fucking with me. But I doubt they’re back until morning. Which in here is hard to tell when that will be.” I nodded, “True. But there’s no way I can sleep. No possible way.” He laid back onto the bed and opened his arms up, motioning for me to let him hold me. I was more than happy to oblige. I pressed my body against the hardness of his, breathing in his scent, never wanting to be more than this far away from him ever again. “Piper,” he said. “When I realized you were gone… I almost went insane. If not for you, I would have murdered our butler staff. But I was afraid if I did anything drastic, I would lose my chance of making sure you were okay. It scared me, the thought of anyone hurting you.” I looked up at him, “I looked for you. I missed you and I went to the salon. I saw you with Zahra, she had her hand on your back and I assumed… I’m so stupid. When I came back I was told you wanted me to meet you in the lobby. When I refused they must have chloroformed me. I woke up here and Zahra was here.” He was clutching me now, his large hands pressing against the curve of my

lower back. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I was talking to her about Spencer. She knows some of his people and we were trying to figure out why he’s after you and if it has anything to do with me. But now I know it was all a ruse. Fuck.” He laid his head back and closed his eyes. His chiseled features took my breath away. He was handsome and rugged and also beautiful. I loved him in the worst kind of way, the kind that’s uncontrollable and outside of myself. “I love you,” I said. “I’m just glad to be with you again.” I was straddling him now and I could feel his hardness through his pants. “I know this is impractical and probably incredibly stupid,” I said. “But I need you, Atlas. I need to feel something that isn’t stress or fear. And when you’re loving my body, I feel safe. I need to feel safe, baby.” He looked at me for a long moment and I thought for sure he was going to push me off of him, that we couldn’t do this right now. But instead his hands slid up my thighs and then up my camisole tank top to the peaks of my breasts where the nipples were already waiting for him. They were stiff and his fingers brushed against them I gasped. “Please,” I whispered. “Just for a moment.” “It can never be just a moment,” he said, picking me up by my hips and rolling me onto my back. He hooked his fingers into the elastic of my leggings and pulled them down. “No panties underneath,” he said. “Lay back. I know how to relax you.” His tongue started in the middle of my torso and traveled further and further down, slowly passing my hip bones before it reached my vulva. His lips brushed against my clit and my back arched, wanting desperately to come in his mouth, over and over again. I heard him inhale deeply through his nose and then I felt him exhale all over my aching sex. He inhaled the aroma of my arousal again and held it, making eye contact with me. “Fuck, I love the smell of your pussy. Just that scent alone turns me into a wild animal.” I whimpered as he kissed me softly right where my thighs met my pelvis. Reverential kisses. Passionate. He moved down my inner thighs, covering them with kisses, his stubble scratching at the tender flesh there, sending me into a frenzy of desperation. “Atlas, please, please do it, I need it, don’t make me wait I need it so badly. Please…” Between kisses, he spoke to me, his voice impossibly deeper than normal and just above a whisper. “Piper, I’ll decide what your body needs and when. Remember that. But right now I want you to be perfectly still. And silent. If we make any noise, we may get an audience. So no matter what, don’t make a sound. I’ll give you what you need, when you need it. Understand?”

With that, his eyes met mine. I bit my bottom lip to keep from jumping out of my skin and nodded at him before laying my head back and closing my eyes, trying to forget where and why we were and just focusing on Atlas and his magnificent mouth.

33

ATLAS

I could stay there between her legs forever and be perfectly content. The view, the

taste, the fragrance, it was an aphrodisiac cocktail like nothing I’d ever experienced before. The way Piper’s body responded to my tongue made me throb from deep inside. I was so hard I felt like I could hammer nails through bricks with my cock if asked to. She’d agreed to remain motionless and silent, and although following my orders was the most prudent course of action given our circumstance, I intended to do everything in my power to force her to mutiny. I continued to kiss, lick, and nibble all around her opening, feeling the muscles in her legs tensing and feeling her hips rolling in small circles despite her effort to keep still. I glanced up to see her eyes tightly shut and her mouth open, her head rolling slowly across the pillow. I pulled back and blew softly on her clit, which was standing erect and angry. When I watched her lick her own lips, involuntarily, I imagined, I lost the ability to resist any longer. I had to taste what I was smelling. My tongue went flat across the width of her labia, dragging slowly from the bottom to the top of her cleft. I paused at her clit, swirling my tongue around it before repeating the full motion of my tongue twice and then three times. She was softly shaking and mewing almost imperceptibly when I captured her entire vulva in my mouth, forming a seal. My tongue was moving wildly inside her, but aside from that, we were both as stationary as if sitting for a portrait. The volcano threatening to erupt inside her was her precious secret. My tongue became a U shape around her bud, massaging it and coaxing her to surrender to the pleasure I hoped she was feeling.

34

PIPER

I wanted to make Atlas proud, to prove myself to him, to follow his commands, but

he was making it impossible. His hands on my waist were all that kept me from thrashing and bucking against his face, and I was biting my own tongue so hard to keep from screaming that the flavor of my saliva became slightly metallic. When my orgasm commenced, it took full control of my body. My hands flew to Atlas, my fingers tangled in his wavy brown hair to hold him in place. At that moment, despite our obvious difference in size and strength, I think the adrenaline rush I experienced could have overpowered him and held him there even if he’d wanted to disengage. But he obviously had no intention of stopping. I felt the gush of fluid as I climaxed, and I feared he might be close to drowning, such was the intensity of what I was experiencing. My body felt a physical impact as I came, as if a runaway sexual locomotive had impacted my very soul. Try as I might, silence wasn’t an option. I yanked the pillow from beneath my head and used it to muffle my screams, shouting his name into the silk over and over again. “Atlas! Atlas! ATLAS!” My body felt like jelly when he finished, and I was only vaguely aware that he had risen to his feet and then climbed atop me on the bed. His voice guided me down off the cloud I was on and his hand cradling my face focused me on the present time and place. “Piper, I’m going to fuck you now. Don’t make a sound. It’s going to be slow and deep.”

35

ATLAS

B elieve it or not, I hadn’t planned to do anything more than go down on Piper to

help her relax. No matter how much it might thrill Malcolm and his thugs to see my naked ass, I didn’t intend to give them the pleasure again. But Piper’s body was irresistible. When she reached her crescendo, it had taken nearly all of my strength to hold her fast to the bed. My cock couldn’t be denied a moment longer. I reminded Piper of my earlier instructions to her and she nodded her assent. I felt harder and thicker than I had ever felt, and I tingled all over with the need to be inside her. I feared that my arousal might be such that I’d come instantly upon entering her. The dreamy, post-orgasmic glaze over her beautiful eyes made my job no easier. Despite her wetness, I was met with resistance at first, and had to adjust the angle of my hips and probe hesitantly to find the access my cock demanded of her. Once I found it, we locked eyes and I buried myself inside her. Deep inside, I felt the remnants of her climax as her muscles still twitched and clutched at me. My arms wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her body tightly against me as I kissed her. Our kisses were voracious, punctuated by the powerful throbs of my cock lodged in her core. I pulled away so I could stare into her eyes as I gave her a second thrust. Arms hooked under her shoulders, hands on the back of her head, my eyes staring directly into her soul, I withdrew and slowly entered her again. And again. And again. In the time it would normally take me to hammer in and out of her a hundred times, I’d given her only four thrusts. Yet we were both trembling, walking a silent tightrope together. Again. This time, when I’d entered her my cock had pressed firmly at the top of her opening before sliding mercifully inside, and we both knew our destination was close at hand. A final slow plunge and our lips met as I emptied myself into her.

36

PIPER

A s powerful as the climax I’d just experienced all over the perfect face of Atlas

Titan may have been, scant moments later it was surpassed. His girth and deliberate, yet relentless thrusts returned me to the precipice in record time. His expert kissing and maddeningly slow pace kept me suspended there, at his mercy. When I felt his orgasm begin, however, my own followed immediately. Spurred on by his frantic mouth mashed on mine, we swallowed each other’s screams as my legs wrapped around the backs of his thighs. If the danger we were in was as real as it seemed, and our lives indeed hung in the balance, I could die knowing I’d received the most unimaginable, indescribable pleasure a man can give a woman. And if I had to face death, I’d do it hand in hand with the one man I’d ever met who might just look the grim reaper in the eye and scare that old bag of bones right back into the pit of Hell.

37

ATLAS

A s I had guessed, they came for us hours later.

It was hard to predict how long we’d been asleep without having a clock, but my body surmised it was about three hours. Not long enough to get any sort of real rest. Malcolm and his goons entered loudly, all laughing as we sat up. Fortunately I had made Piper get dressed, knowing they could spring in on us at any moment. “Have a good night’s sleep?” Malcolm smirked. “You know, we really don’t have cameras in here. But we do have audio. And I was disappointed not to hear a damn thing from here last night. I was so hoping you’d give me something to entertain myself with. But I’m guessing after your discussion, Piper here wasn’t in the mood.” I didn’t bother replying. It was a pathetic attempt to bait me. “You’re such a creep,” Piper suddenly said. “I mean, seriously. It’s probably time you got laid if you’re getting your sad kicks by listening to two people sleep.” Malcolm hadn’t expected her to speak. Neither had I. I was proud of my girl. “You need to learn when to speak and when to shut it, Piper Kipton,” Malcolm said, ominously. “Atlas only skimmed the surface of the things people like he and I are capable of. So watch it.” I stood up, towering over him. He looked up at me but there was no panic in his eyes. Only amusement. He knew he held all the cards. “So I guess you’re ready to finally find out why Headquarters brought you here,” Malcolm said, still giving an icy stare at Piper. “I’ve been waiting for this all night! It’s like Christmas morning.” “Yeah, in Psychopathland,” Piper muttered under her breath. Fortunately, Malcolm didn’t seem to hear her. He really did seem almost giddy about the news he was about to break. “But before we get to the good part,” he said. “We’re going to need to move you again. You understand. Gotta keep this location as under wraps as possible. Hold still, it will only hurt for a second.” Suddenly, before we knew it, the men with guns moved towards us, holding long

hypodermic needles, the length of a forearm. Piper screamed. “Anything but that!” But it was too late and I knew it. They injected her in her neck and within seconds she was out. I was next. I glared at Malcolm as I received mine. My last thoughts were of how much I couldn’t wait until I could kill him.

I’m not a dreamer. It’s just not me. But while in my unconscious state my subconscious went to its safest place. Piper. Always Piper. We were walking past the fountains in Rome. There was no telling how we’d gotten there, but like in all dreams, it just made sense. As we passed one of the fountains, a tourist pushed by us and somehow knocked Piper into the water that was next to us. When I turned to pummel them, they were inexplicably gone. So instead I pulled Piper out. She was soaking wet and her little white shirt was completely see through now. She laughed it off, but I could see fear in her eyes. She was shaken and so I led us back to our hotel which apparently was just a short walk away. By the time we reached our room she was very upset. We entered the room and I held her tight to my chest. She was trembling in my arms. My want for her was not as great as my need to comfort her, so I continued to hold her, the pace of her heartbeat slowing from rapid back to normal against my skin. “Atlas,” she cried. “I’m so scared.” “You don’t need to be. I’m not letting you out of my sight,” I assured her. “No more meetings. Not without you next to me. I’m so sorry I allowed this to happen. She shook her head, “You can’t blame yourself. You didn’t know.” She ran her hand up my chest and to my face. Our eyes met, hers filled with tears and mine with concern. “I love you,” she said. “Don’t leave me again.” I kissed her then, long and hard, her pouty lips soft against mine, making me hard inside my pants. She must have sensed it. She stepped back and against the wet material of her tshirt her nipples were hard, begging for my mouth to be on them. “I need you inside me,” she whispered. “I need to feel good, Atlas. I need release. The kind only you can give me.” I pulled her to me and ran the back of my right hand knuckles across her breasts making her gasp. She threw her head back and closed her eyes and my mouth was on her neck, tracing my tongue down to her clavicle. I yanked her shorts down as she pulled her wet t-shirt over her head. Fuck, the sight of her body was torturing me yet again. It was wet from the

fountain and her skin was slippery under my hands. I lifted her up and she wrapped her delicious thighs around my waist, her arms around my neck as she gave me soft kisses against my cheeks. “Tell me you love me again,” I said into her ear. “It makes me hard when you tell me that.” “I love you, Atlas,” she said. “More than I’ve ever loved anything in this world.” We fell back onto the bed, kissing with fervor and passion. She tasted so damn good, smelled amazing, the sound of her saying my name made me more aroused than I even thought possible. I stood, to quickly pull off my shirt, and unbuckled my belt so I could get rid of my pants just as fast. My cock needed to be buried inside of her as soon as possible. Her body was my home. I fucked her slowly for the next hour, whispering her name and telling her everything I felt about her body, her beauty, her soul. For the first time in my entire life I held nothing back. She came for me loudly, screaming out my name as I thrusted, her pussy tight and wet, allowing me to slide in and out of her easily. “I love your pussy,” I told her. “It’s fucking heaven.” “I was built just for you,” she replied, arching her back as she climaxed. “Built for you to fuck. Built for you to do whatever you want to me.” I picked up the pace, pounding her harder as she cried out. I braced myself against the head board with one arm, her writhing body beneath me, taking all I was giving her, unmercifully. I wanted to fuck her hard enough that she’d feel it tomorrow. That when she sat down to eat breakfast she’d wince and remember that Atlas Titan fucked her so well and that she’d never want anyone else to take her ever again. “I’m coming!” she yelled to me. “I’ve never come this hard, baby. God!” “I’m not done,” I growled. “Not even close to done with you.” I flipped her over and took her from behind, fast and hard, my body dripping in sweat from exertion and pleasure. I could have come at any time, she felt so damn good, but I wanted to hold out and give her what she needed. “I love to come for you,” she cooed as I ran one hand down the curve of her ass and up her back. “I’m yours, Atlas. Forever. I will never want anyone else but you until I die. Fuck! You’re going to make me so sore.” “Good,” I bellowed. “I want you to remember who you belong to.” She came again, her cries muffled by the pillow she had buried her beautiful face in. I was close to coming inside her but I wanted to look in her eyes when I did. What was wrong with me? Piper had turned me into another man. “I need to look at you when I come,” I commanded. “Turn over. I need more of you first.” Her body was slick with sweat but I could see her nipples were still hard, even after having multiple orgasms. She still wanted me, was clearly desperate for it. I don’t know how, but she was insatiable. “Have me as much as you want,” she said. “You know I can’t say no to you. Even

if I should.” I slowed down my thrusting for a moment, kissing her lips as she sighed and whimpered under me. “I love you,” I said. “I’ve never told another woman that.” We stared at one another for a long beat, my confession sitting between us. No one had ever had me this opened up. Not even close. No one but her. “Good,” she said. “I want to be the only woman you ever say it to.”

38

PIPER

W e woke up on the couch in a mahogany office that overlooked the ocean. We

were in a room with floor to ceiling windows all along one wall, and the office was part of a building that towered above the rest of Dubai. Atlas had stirred before me, his hand meeting mine. “Baby,” he whispered. “Are you okay?” “My head hurts,” I said. “But I’m okay. I feel like we were only out a second but now we’re…Well, I don’t know.” “Headquarters,” Atlas sighed. “Dubai is headquarters. And he’s my old boss.” Atlas was pointing across the room to a man I hadn’t noticed. He was smiling behind an expansive desk, a wide and charismatic smile. He had a thick mane of white hair and a thick, but trimmed, white beard. He reminded me of Santa Claus, or at least someone who could have been related to him. “That’s right,” the man said, his voice curiously friendly and lacking the sinister quality of Malcolm’s. Now that I had my bearings I could see that Malcolm was in the room too, sitting on a chaise in the corner, a malicious smirk on his face. “Okay,” I said. “I’m not sure what else to say.” “There’s nothing to say, sweet girl,” the man said. “It’s what I have to say that matters, by the way. And then how Atlas responds is what will really be the most telling. But anyway, I’m being incredibly rude. My name is QB. Because that’s what I am here. The QB. The one who calls the shots.” QB looked at Atlas. “And Atlas Titan is one of my most prized receivers. And he’s come home again. Something that delights me more than he’ll ever know.” “Wish I could say the same, Boss,” Atlas muttered, holding his head in his hands. “Was the tranquilizing really necessary? It’s a fucking hell of hangover.” “You can thank Malcolm for that,” QB said, standing up and walking from behind his massive executive desk. He was a short man, stout, but sturdy. He stared at me a moment, smiling. “Piper Kipton,” QB said. “You’re very beautiful. I can see why Atlas fell so hard for you. We knew it as soon as our people saw him lay eyes on you for the first time at Old Ebbitt. Spencer had his doubts that you’d be able to seduce Atlas but look at you! You sure did. He hasn’t been able to keep his hands off you since that very

day.” My jaw had to be on the floor. How did he know all of this? And Spencer? He was involved. Atlas was just as surprised. “What the fuck? Spencer? He’s with you? You hate him. You called him a sniveling swine that wouldn’t be able to pour piss out of a boot. When the fuck did you recruit him?” “After you left,” QB said coldly. “He was more than happy to take your place. And he’s done well for us. And will continue to do well for us as he rises through Congress and then the Senate. In ten years that boy will be on the ticket for the big show. He’s ended up being much more useful than I ever imagined.” I didn’t know what to say. Spencer Cameron was part of SOG. I thought back to the months before, when we’d met. How he’d always seemed to know where I was, even when I didn’t tell him. How he came out of nowhere to ask me out in the first place. Spencer had never wanted me. He’d wanted Atlas. I was a pawn in a bigger game. I’d fallen right into the trap. But how could they have predicted Atlas would fall for me? How could they have known? I myself still didn’t understand how I was worthy of the great Atlas Titan. Two days ago I would have wept. Broken down right in front of everyone. But I wouldn’t. Not now. I had to be strong and I had to be like Atlas. I too had to hold the heavens on my shoulders. To keep us from sliding straight into hell.

39

ATLAS

“E nough of the games, Boss,” I said. I was done. I just needed to know what the

fuck they needed from me so I could move on. If they needed me to kill someone in order to keep them from killing Piper? Well, so be it. What was one more soul on my tally? I had no chance of going anywhere good after this life anyway. But I could still save her. I could still at least do that. “You’re right,” QB said. “No more games. It’s time to get down to brass tacks.” QB moved toward Piper and I was immediately on alert. He took her by the shoulders and patted them. She stiffened beneath his wrinkled touch. I wanted to slice him open right then. “Piper here,” he said. “She represents your choice. We have a job for you. The most difficult job of your life, but the man we’ve assigned you to is a very difficult man to get to. He’s beyond rich, surrounded by security, and he’s fucking harder to get to than the president.” A rolodex of names went through my head of who it could be. Senators, Governors, dignitaries, cabinet members, hedge funders, corporate big wigs. There were many possibilities but this was clearly personal. An assignment only for me. To remind me I was still under the thumb of Headquarters. That at the end of the day I was a killer. Before anything else. “Okay fine,” I said. “You’ve got me. Who’s the poor schmuck that I have to murder so you’ll leave me the fuck alone.” QB’s wide smile brought caused a chill to go up my spine. He smoothed Piper’s hair down making her flinch. “You know him very well, Atlas.” QB walked around Piper’s chair and stood in front of me. “Your assignment is your father, Atlas. You are to kill Emerson Titan or Piper dies. And if you don’t do it, they both die anyway.” Piper’s scream echoed across the room. It sounded far away. I could barely hear it over the destruction of what was left of my already broken spirit.

40

PIPER

P resent-Day… I clung to the thick right biceps of Atlas Titan with my left hand and with my right I had a death grip on the cold steel of a tiny, yellow buoy bobbing in the water. We were somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, I knew that much, but otherwise I was completely lost, out of breath, soaked to the bone, and shivering. Atlas scanned the horizon and his eyes locked on a plume of black smoke off to the right of us, the distance impossible to gauge with nothing but water in every direction. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, but the events of the past few hours finally caught up to me and I was sobbing. Atlas turned his attention to me and wrapped himself around me in a comforting, protective hug. “Shhhh. Piper, I’m going to get us out of this. You have to trust me. You’ve done great so far. I have a plan.” He punctuated his words with tender kisses on my forehead and the bridge of my nose, his stubbly face tickling mine. It was then that I noticed he’d lost his shirt somewhere and that he was bleeding. He had a gash across his left shoulder and another had ripped through his pants and his left thigh. “Oh my God, Atlas, are you okay?” I tried to mask the fear in my voice, but I knew I was doing a poor job of it. I was completely terrified. “I’ll be fine. A few more scars to add to my collection, that’s all. But we got lucky. Those guys probably expected quite a meal. A few more minutes and we’d have been dinner.” Atlas pointed just a few feet out into the sparkling blue where a pair of sinister dorsal fins knifed through the water. I gasped and felt faint, my weight collapsing against Atlas. “Hey, easy, everything out here isn’t so scary, Piper. Look over there.” Atlas motioned out in the opposite direction of where the plume of smoke was softly dissipating and I gasped again, but this time a gasp of joyous surprise. “Those are right whales, if I’m not mistaken. A mother and calf.”

I watched as the immense shapes glided through the water, oblivious to us and to the sharks who menaced us, circling closer, trying to decide if we were worth the trouble. “Sit right here in the center, Piper. You’ll be safest there.” I climbed into the middle of a yellow metallic disk, maybe ten feet across, and pulled my knees to my chest. I marveled at the shirtless Atlas Titan as he went to work on a small control panel on one of the three columns that went from the perimeter of the disk to an antenna array in the center. He’d produced a small knife he was using to pry open the box and then he began exploring the wires inside. His muscles rippled with each motion, seawater dripping down his delicious abs. “North Carolina should be…hmm…” He looked up at the sky and then pointed into the distance. “That way. This is a weather buoy. I should be able to send a message if I can get these wires to do what I want them to do. Not exactly the proper tools, but if there’s one thing SEAL training stresses, it’s improvisation.” “Atlas, Spencer, is he…” My voice cracked. Not out of concern for Spencer so much as my mind’s inability to cope with the events since waking up in that office back in Dubai. “He’ll never hurt you or anyone else ever again. I promise you that. But this isn’t over. The Coast Guard are on their way here right now. Hell, once they realize a Senator was on board, the Navy will be heading this way, too. Air Force, whatever’s in the area. Which means it’s imperative that I get this message out and we disappear. You’re a great swimmer, but I don’t think either of us can go one hundred and fifty miles right now, do you?” Atlas looked so magnificent I’d have believed him if he told me he was going to jump in the water and swim clear back across the Atlantic to the coast of France. He pulled several wires free, stripping them with his blade and twisting them together. He touched two bundles of wires together in a series of tapping motions. “Morse code,” he explained. “Hopefully somebody nearby will recognize it and rescue us before the military does – if not, we’re probably better off trying our luck with them.” Atlas motioned toward the sharks, five in number now.

41

ATLAS

T wenty-four hours ago… (Dubai) I rose to my feet, trembling with rage. I wasn’t sure who I wanted to defenestrate more – Malcolm or QB, but I’d already made up my mind that they were both going out the window, bulletproof glass or not, and going to be splattered all over the pavement in about five seconds. Before I could take a step, however, Malcolm reminded me who was in charge. “Easy, big fella,” he commanded, fingering the trigger of a .50 caliber Desert Eagle. As fast as I was, there was no way I could get to either one of them before I had a hole through me large enough to drive a bus through. I stared long and hard at QB, knowing full well that no amount of macho posturing was going to intimidate him. He smiled as he spoke. “I’ll give you, hmm, what seems fair…seventy-two hours to complete the job? It’s not like you need to plan infiltration. Do it any way you want to. We’ll hold onto Piper, call it an insurance policy. As soon as the job is done, we’ll release her and you two lovebirds can be reunited. If, after three days your father is still walking around, I’ll assign the work to someone else. And you’ll still be reunited with Piper, but she won’t be nearly as pretty. Oh, or breathing, but you know how this works.” QB made it sound like he was sending me to the grocery store to pick up a gallon of milk and not to assassinate my own father under threat of having the woman I loved meet a gruesome demise. Piper was frantic, choking back sobs, and I felt my own throat closing and my heart racing. “Why? Why, dammit? My father has nothing to do with this world. And Piper certainly doesn’t.” QB smiled, playing up the wise, kindly old man charade. “Oh, Atlas, you know there’s never a ‘why.’ There’s simply an order and a good soldier who obeys the order. But it’s not personal, if that’s what you mean.” Malcolm spoke up from his hiding place behind the cannon in his hand. “Let’s just say that your father has made some large investments into industries

developing technology that threaten the fortunes of some very influential people.” I wasn’t sure precisely where my dad invested all of his money, but I recalled seeing more than one prospectus for companies innovating in alternative energy sources. I knew how this game worked. I’d played it. Offers to acquire the companies or stifle the research had probably been made and rejected, thanks to the financial backing of Emerson Titan. Killing my father was an intimidation tactic. Rather than go after a dozen scientists and startup CEOs, just cut off their funding when they’re at their most vulnerable. Early days, when ideas outnumber patents and everything that looks great on paper has yet to go into profitable production. QB quieted Malcolm’s outburst with a wave of his hand. “Now Atlas, Piper will be leaving us. Say your farewells. Whether this goodbye is the permanent kind or you’ll be seeing each other soon is entirely up to you.” A door opening behind us caused Piper and I to both turn our heads to witness the arrival of a smiling Spencer Cameron. “Hello, Boss.” Spencer greeted QB warmly, turning on the full politician’s charm. He nodded to Malcolm, who returned the silent gesture. “And hello to you, Piper. It’s wonderful to see you again.” Spencer stood just out of my reach, in a position that afforded Malcolm a clear shot at me if I threatened any of them in any way. I turned my attention to Piper, who looking like she might vomit at any moment. I only had a few minutes left. I had to tell her as much as possible before they took her away from me. “Piper, look at me. Look in my eyes. I can’t do anything to stop them from taking you out of this room right now. But I promise you. I guarantee you. I will get you out of this. And every man in this room who’s threatened you will pay for it. We’re going to be apart for a while. A short while. But I will save you. Do you believe me?” Piper wiped a tear from her cheek and nodded her head. I took her face in my hands and kissed her, a kiss I never wanted to break. And then she was gone, along with Spencer and QB, leaving me alone in the room with Malcolm and his gun. “We’ll give them a few minutes to be on their merry way, Atlas. Then I’ll leave you alone. You have some work to do, probably some calls to make.” Malcolm reached in his pocket and produced a phone, my phone, and tossed it to me, casually. I couldn’t use it; he knew I knew that anything I did on that phone would go directly back to QB, but they hoped I might slip up out of desperation. Malcolm glanced at his own phone, cracked a smile, and stood up, his gun pointed at me the entire time. “This is where we say goodbye, big fella. But no kiss for me, thanks. Don’t forget, the clock is running.” With that, he was gone. And there I sat, in Dubai, with nothing but the clothes on my back and a bugged phone. Oh, and an order to kill my own father. Under threat that the woman I loved would be killed should I fail.

I hadn’t felt so lost, broken, or hopeless since the early days of SEAL BUD/S training. But if could make it through that, I would make it through this. Or die trying.

42

PIPER

P resent-Day… “Listen carefully, Piper. I’m going to need you to be brave for me. If this is going to work, you’ll have to do exactly as I say. Okay?” As if I could refuse anything a glistening, shirtless Atlas Titan asked of me anyway, I nodded in the affirmative. “I’ve sent out an S.O.S. If we’re lucky, there’s a fishing vessel nearby without too many men aboard. If there is, we’re going to hijack it. Nobody knows I was on that plane, and I doubt there’s any record of you being there, either. If we can get to shore, we disappear. They’ll know a man and a woman were fished out of the ocean, maybe even connect the dots that we were survivors of the crash. But they won’t know who we are. So if it can be avoided, we leave no fingerprints behind. I need your shirt. We’ve got to wipe this buoy down. A beautiful woman in just a bra is going to be more distracting to our rescuers, anyway. Can you do this?” I didn’t relish the thought of being discovered in just my bra, but what Atlas said made sense, and I pulled the soaking wet garment up and over my shoulders. The hungry way Atlas stared at me made me blush. “You can’t look at me like that!” “Like what, Piper?” “Like a hungry, salivating lion. Like you want to devour me.” “You’re very perceptive. That’s exactly what I want to do.” Staring at the eye-level bulge in his ripped, blood-stained pants gave me the same desire. The shudder I felt had nothing at all to do with cold ocean water or exposure. “Do you hear that? From over there.” Atlas pointed over my right shoulder, and focusing my ears I heard the faint hum of an engine over the sound of lapping waves. “Is that a boat?” I asked. We both looked up at a jet flying high overhead, but once it passed, the sound of an approaching vessel was unmistakable. “When they get close enough, wave them down. I’m going below deck.”

“What do you…below? Atlas, you can’t! There are sharks all over the place!” “I’ll be fine. We need the element of surprise if this is going to work. I’ll swim across and board the boat while everybody’s fixated on you. And believe me, they’ll definitely be fixated on such a sexy damsel in distress. Once I’m aboard, follow my lead. We commandeer the vessel and get it back to shore. No names once we’re on board, and try not to touch anything if you can help it. We want to get off and disappear. Leave no trace. I’m going in the water now; they’ll be able to see us before we see them. I don’t want to give them any reason to believe you’re anything but alone. Kiss me.” Clumsily, I straightened up as much as I could in the center of the buoy, throwing my arms around the thick, muscled neck of Atlas Titan. He kissed me hard, his hand at the small of my back, pulling me in as tight as possible. It was a kiss I never wanted to break, not only because the man I loved was going to be jumping, bleeding, into shark-infested waters, but simply because Atlas was such a fantastic kisser. When the kiss finally ended, he stared into my soul with those impossible eyes of his. “I love you, Piper.” “I love you too, Atlas.” With that, he used my shirt to wipe down the panel where he’d been working, then the struts on the buoy. Finally, he tossed the shirt back to me and I tucked it into the waistband of my pants. He turned to me one last time, knife in hand. “Do you like sushi?” His levity facing death caught me off-guard, and I couldn’t help but laugh, nodding enthusiastically. There was a splash, and suddenly the fins that had been circling us seemed to disappear all at once. And I was alone. On the horizon, a boat approached.

43

ATLAS

T wenty-four hours Ago… Seeing Spencer made my skin crawl, and knowing he again had Piper at his mercy turned my stomach. If I could get near him, I intended to kill him. With my bare hands, if need be. But to get near him, and Piper, I had to get to them before they left the country. My father needed protection, needed to be warned, but Piper needed saving more. I knew anything I did on my phone would be intercepted, but being able to read a message and being able to decipher it are two entirely different things. I brought up my brother Odin’s name on my phone, and said a silent prayer that he hadn’t forgotten. We hadn’t had reason to use “Titanese” in many years, but I banked on him remembering. Growing up, my three brothers and I loved playing cops and robbers, army, hide and go seek, and a game we made up called “manhunt.” Manhunt had a fluid set of rules, but it was a game that would sometimes run for days and even weeks. We’d include our nannies, friends, and whoever else could help us achieve our imaginary objectives. Very cat and mouse, spy vs spy, full of intrigue and espionage. Double agents were everywhere, traps and disguises could be elaborate, and at times, messages had to be left. I credit Manhunt for guiding my life not only in the direction of the military, but into special ops and then black ops. Odin and I developed an intricate code, a language we called “Titanese.” It wasn’t a spoken language, but we used it to leave notes, write messages in snow, mud, and sand, and to get our stories straight when we needed out of a jam with our folks or a teacher. By high school we’d perfected it to the point we could write messages back and forth in plain view of others, adults or peers, and nobody could read a word of it. I sent him a text message in our secret code explaining, succinctly as I could, the situation I was in, and asked that he contact our father. I ended the message in plain English: To whom it may concern: Get right with the Lord. I’m coming.

Within minutes, my phone buzzed. Odin. “10-4.” He’d received the message, my father would take the necessary steps to beef up his security, and I could focus on Piper. And my prey.

44

PIPER

P resent-Day… I felt the entire buoy move once and then twice, jerks from below, and then a red slick covered the top of the water a few feet out. The blood froze in my veins as I was waited for something, anything, to breach the surface. When the shredded body of a dying shark bobbed to the surface, quickly attacked and torn to pieces by two others, I exhaled. When the face of my lover broke through the waves, I wept. He was fighting for his life, for my life. Despite the situation, I’d never felt more protected. While the bloody water ballet continued behind me, I rose to my feet and swung my shirt overhead, trying to get the attention of the fishing vessel bearing down on my location. Within minutes, it was alongside me, five wide-eyed men staring at me in disbelief. If I’d turned into a mermaid right at that moment, I don’t think any of them would have been surprised. I’d last seen Atlas over two minutes ago, and I feared the worst. I was grateful for the rescue, but part of me wanted to beg the rough-hewn fishermen to search for Atlas, to save him as well. They pulled me aboard, covering me with blankets, asking a thousand questions at once. Where had I come from? How did I send that message? Was I part of whatever crashed out there? I had to be. What was it? Who was I? I kept repeating “je ne comprends pas l'anglais,” hoping none of them had taken enough high school French to recognize my laughable command of the language. Just then, the attention of the crew turned to a loud thud below deck, where one of their number had gone to tend to something. Two men went to investigate, but instead of either of them returning, it was Atlas who climbed the ladder and squared off with the burly first mate. The captain bolted for the cabin, and, I assumed, the radio, which I couldn’t let happen. Channeling my inner Atlas, I stuck out a leg, sending him crashing to the deck as he moved past me. I leapt onto his

back, doing my best to delay him until Atlas was finished. I turned just in time to see a right hand uppercut send the man Atlas was fighting to the floor, and I locked eyes with my protector. A smile crossed his face, the smile of a delighted child, and I caught a glimpse of Atlas as a little boy. “I should have let you fight the sharks, you wildcat!” Atlas exclaimed. The captain shrugged me off, but by then Atlas stood between him and the cabin and his shoulders slumped in resignation. “Relax, friend. All we need is a ride back to shore. A nice, quiet ride. No radio, no phone calls. Just get us to solid ground and you and your crew are free to go. I can pilot this craft. Any funny business and all five of you can put on life vests and try your luck with the sharks. So sit back and relax. I apologize for the wasted day. Hope you catch lots of fish tomorrow. Oh, and I’ll need that big fella’s shirt.” Atlas pointed at the man sprawled on the deck who he’d knocked out last. The captain looked equal parts confused and relieved and tended to his men. Atlas collected their phones and anything they could use as weapons and placed them in the hold, pointing us toward the shore.

45

ATLAS

E ighteen hours ago… If I knew QB, he was already in the air. Despite the craziness that closed the airport and choked most commerce in the city, he was a man who always found a way. I might luck into him, but he’d likely have to wait for another time and place. Malcolm and Spencer, however, were still around. I could smell them. The thought of what they might be doing to Piper had me ready to burn the entire city down in order to stop them, but if I was to save her, precision was the order of the day. I hated to resort to petty theft, but I did what was necessary to put a few dirhams in my pocket, some food in my belly, and get my hands on some parachutes and a weapon. The dust storms would have the airport closed until at least the next morning, giving me time to stake things out, find Malcolm’s plane, and find a way on board. Odin sent word that dad was bunkered and in no danger. I only wished I had such assurance regarding Piper. A stolen Bentley and a bluff got me onto the airfield as a driver. I hoped to avoid direct confrontation until I was face to face with Spencer or Malcolm, but an overzealous airport security guard discovered me sneaking around the private jets and I had to send him to his seventy-two-virgin eternal reward. I regretted what I had to do, but nothing and no one was going to keep me from Piper. I spirited myself aboard after watching Malcolm’s plane receive its final preflight inspection and fueling. I stashed the parachute I’d been able to acquire under the bed, where I hoped it wouldn’t be discovered, and I hid myself in the rear lavatory. With any luck, we’d be in the air before anyone had reason to use it. If I was facing off against Spencer and Malcolm, and potentially some security, it wouldn’t hurt to have the element of surprise on my side. Not to mention the fact that once we were in the air it was almost a certainty that any combat would be hand to hand. None of them were likely to be foolish enough to discharge a firearm in a pressurized cabin. All I had to do now was wait.

46

PIPER

P resent-Day… “You’ve got to be the sexiest pirate who ever sailed the Seven Seas, Piper Kipton.” The adrenaline rush of the past few hours had mercifully waned, and being by Atlas’s side as a salt spray hit stung our skin was absolutely perfect. He’d been texting his brother, Odin, to plan our next move once we made landfall, but now his arm was around my waist, pulling me tight against him. I was silently grateful for the fact that he hadn’t yet put on the shirt he’d borrowed from the first mate. Watching his pecs rise and fall with each breath and his arms ripple as he operated the boat was heavenly. “Atlas, are you alright? This cut on your shoulder looks really bad.” The wound looked like it could have been caused by an axe, wide and deep, although mercifully it had stopped bleeding. “I’m sure they’ve got some fishing line on board somewhere if you’d like to sew it shut for me.” Atlas grinned as he said it, studying the gash. “Ought to make for a nice scar. And a good story. When we get to wherever we’re going to bivouac tonight, I’ll glue it shut.” I cringed at the thought, but somehow, in this death-defying superhero world of Atlas Titan, it all made sense. Food? Sleep? Pain? Fear? Those things were irrelevant. All Atlas needed, improbable as it seemed, was me. Oh, and a tube of superglue.

47

ATLAS

T en hours ago… Tricks I learned in SEAL training helped to keep me awake as I waited, but I was grateful for the extra room afforded in the bathroom of a luxury jet as opposed to a regular plane. Stuffing myself into even a First Class bathroom would have been like cramming an elephant into a phone booth, and the ensuing cramps would have left me stiff and unable to fight as effectively as I’d need to. I stretched and kept repeating the Preamble to the Constitution to myself. It was something I’d memorized in fourth grade, somehow in the tranquility and posterity, it had always helped me focus. After a few hours I heard voices out in the cabin, and I pressed my ear to the door to listen for the one sound I was desperate for, the melodic tone of Piper Kipton. Hunting knife in hand, held just as the Navajo instructor at SEAL school taught me, I willed my ears to collect everything they could. The voices I picked up spoke Arabic, but they were too muffled and my Arabic too rusty to decipher much. From what I could gather, they were stocking the plane with food and drink, doing last minute prep. I prayed, for their sakes, that they wouldn’t discover me. Soon, everything grew silent, but not for long. More voices, this time speaking English. Three, or maybe four male voices, one probably Spencer, and finally, unmistakably, the sweet sound of Piper. Her voice sounded exhausted, defeated, and I wanted desperately to rescue her right at that moment. But if my plan was going to work, I had to wait until we were in the air. Once I killed Spencer, a sitting United States Congressman, there would be no turning back and very few places I could expect to hide. Doing it here and expecting to escape was unrealistic. Not that my plan really sounded like it made much more sense, but it at least gave us a chance. The engine roared to life and I felt us taxi and then leave the ground. I hadn’t heard anything since that initial flurry, meaning everyone was probably in the main cabin, belted into their seats.

Once we reached cruising altitude, I heard voices again, close to my position. Only two, in the bedroom right outside my door. Spencer and Piper. “Malcolm tells me Atlas fucked you right here, right on this bed. You whore. Did you enjoy it?” “Shut up, you bastard!” “You aren’t nearly as prissy as I remember you. Cavorting with that pig seems to have turned you into trash as well. Would you like to watch the tape? It might turn you on. Then we could have some fun. Let’s get comfortable and I’ll put it on the screen here. Malcolm sent it to me, I just haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. “Fuck you, Spencer!” “Ha. Well, yeah, that’s the idea, bitch.” I’d heard enough. We weren’t quite as far out as I wanted to be, but I couldn’t leave her in the clutches of that monster another moment. Blade in hand, I slid the door open as silently as I could, just in time to watch Spencer force Piper onto her back on the bed. She looked revolted and terrified. I wasn’t going to give him a chance to use her as any sort of hostage, so I dove across the bed, my shoulder knocking him off and onto the floor. Piper looked as though she’d seen a ghost, but the surprise on her face was nothing compared to the shock expressed by Spencer Cameron. I rose to my feet, pulling Piper up and around behind me. I didn’t want her to see what was going to happen next, nor did I want her to get hurt. “Take this,” I said, handing her my knife. “Go into the bathroom and lock the door. Don’t come out, no matter what you hear. Do you understand?” She squeezed my hand with all her might, but made no sound. I glanced back to see her nodding, her eyes wet with tears. “Go. Now!” Spencer was staring me down, trying to decide if he could reach the main cabin before I could reach him, I guessed. I heard the bathroom door click behind me and I circled toward the cabin door. “You and I have unfinished business, you piece of shit,” I said, my voice shaking with rage. “I’m a United States fucking congressman, Atlas. I travel with security. We’re on a plane. In what possible scenario does this end well for you? We’re going to land in D.C, Piper will be my plaything until I tire of her, or until QB sends word to take her out. There’s no other conceivable outcome.” “Conceive this, motherfucker!” With that, I charged Spencer Cameron, throwing away stealth and the element of surprise for anyone else who might be on board. He had to pay, and the bill was due immediately.

48

PIPER

P resent-Day… Atlas encouraged me to rest, promising me food and a real bed once we reached North Carolina. Our destination was someplace called Morehead City, and he’d made arrangements with his brother, Odin, to have transportation waiting for us there. I lay on the bench behind Atlas, wrapped in a blanket, dozing periodically. Whenever I opened my eyes, I saw Atlas, stone-faced and stalwart, steering the boat under the stars. I lost track of time, but eventually we reached land under cover of night. Atlas expertly steered us into place at the dock and we disembarked. Things were a blur, Atlas talking and sneaking us through everyone and everything until we were in a midnight blue SUV and on the road. Atlas had pulled a fob from atop one of the tires to get us inside and he reached under his seat, producing a satchel with a key inside. The bag also contained a handgun and a wallet filled with cash and, somehow, South Carolina driver’s licenses for both of us. The fakes looked perfectly legitimate, identifying us as Paul and Victoria Porter of James Island, SC. “Study these, memorize them. They might keep us alive. And out of prison. They’re our identities for the time being,” Atlas instructed. “How did, I mean, did Odin do this?” “Yep. But don’t use his name again. You’re Vicki and I’m Paul. Use those names only. We’re married. We don’t have a backstory yet, so don’t refer to any brothers, sisters, kids, no family at all. Just Paul and Vicki. Got it?” Atlas was all business, taking an authoritarian tone that made me tingle all over. The fact that we were supposed to be playing at being married had me anxious to consummate. I was exhausted and starving, and I thought Atlas must feel the same way, but he showed no sign of distress, and the highway stretched behind us in the darkness as he drove. Atlas scanned the radio dial, finding a news station where breathless

announcers described the ongoing search for survivors of a plane crash off the coast of North Carolina. And a missing congressman believed to have been aboard. After an hour on the road, Atlas pulled over in a rest area populated with sleeping truckers and got out, going in the back of the SUV for a duffel bag filled with clothes. We each changed, him into khaki pants, dress shoes and a navy blue button down that stretched tight across his chest. For me it was a blue and white maxi dress with flats and a white shrug. I caught sight of myself in the rest area mirror and thought I looked absolutely awful, my hair was a mess and I looked like I hadn’t slept in a week. When Atlas saw me, however, his reaction was one of unmitigated lust. “Good Lord, Vicki. You’re gorgeous. As good as that dress looks on you, I can’t wait to get it off.” The ‘Vicki’ caught me by surprise, but it clicked and I did my best to impress my man. “Thank you, Mr. Porter.” “Good girl,” he replied, giving me half a smile and a deep kiss against the side of the truck before we commenced our journey.

49

ATLAS

T en hours ago… Spencer was tough, and no slouch in a fight, but my rage was overwhelming. I was all over him, slamming him up against the wall and then to the floor, my fists hammering down through his defenses. He attempted to sweep me, but no jiu-jitsu was going to counteract the hurricane he’d brought down upon himself. I felt his jaw break under my right hand, and his nose sprayed blood when a left fist connected, but my advantage was short-lived. The commotion inevitably drew the attention of Spencer’s security, who probably thought their boss was getting a little too rough with Piper and that they ought to intervene before he did permanent damage. Instead, they found him flat on his back, bloodied and beaten, with a barbarian straddling his chest. In an instant, they were upon me. Two men, unknown to me, one the size of a sequoia, dwarfing my 6’4, and the other shorter than me, but stocky, Latin. The bigger of the two tossed me across the bed like I was a toddler while the other man tended to Spencer. Spencer sat up, spat blood, and managed to hiss through his damaged jaw. “Don’t kill him. He needs to suffer. Apolinar, get Malcolm. Monte, beat him until he can’t stand up anymore.” “Only way out of this for you is a parachute, slim,” I growled. Monte grinned, said nothing, and, moving much more quickly than I expected a man his size to do, rushed me. I managed to sidestep his lunge, grabbing an arm and accelerating his headfirst trip into the wall. Unfazed, his hand found my throat and he leaned me over the bed, smashing his elbow onto my cheekbone and then his fist into my ribcage. I attacked his wrist, escaping the choke with an aikido move and struggling back to my feet. Suddenly we were joined in the room by Malcolm and Apolinar, Spencer’s other bodyguard. Malcolm chuckled in disbelief. “You’re full of surprises, Titan. I’m afraid you aren’t going to have nearly as much fun as the last time you were in this room. I’ve

trained with these two – they’re going to tear you apart.” Spencer rubbed his jaw and wiped blood from his face with a towel, joining Malcolm by the door to watch the show. “Want me to get Piper out here to watch this?” Malcolm asked, but Spencer waved him off. I backed into the corner, knowing this would be a fight for my life. Not sparring with UFC fighters, not MMA, this was combat. To the death. To save my life and Piper’s. I’d never felt such a surge of primal energy, and I used it to do the last thing any of them expected. I attacked.

50

PIPER/VICKI

P resent-Day After stopping for toiletries at a truck stop and for breakfast, where Paul Porter ate a stack of pancakes and mountain of bacon that would sate a college football team, we pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript mom and pop motel near Florence, SC. My “husband” checked us in, and we collapsed on the king bed in the most Spartan of motel rooms. “It’s not the Four Seasons, but it’ll do for a day or two, don’t you think?” I nodded my agreement and we both lay for a few minutes and just stared at the ceiling, enjoying our respite. “I only wish we had that shower like at the Four Seasons. I’m dying for one. And I bet you could use one, too.” “I bought some shampoo, it’s in the bag. Go take a long one. I want you to wash off everything that’s happened the past few days,” Atlas told me. “I need to do something about this shoulder, anyway.” He sat up and peeled the blue shirt off, grabbing a towel leaning over the sink. He gritted his teeth, pouring an entire small bottle of hydrogen peroxide into the wound, wincing as it bubbled and burned. As promised, he followed the cleaning agent with a tube of superglue, holding his arm up to close the wound as tightly as possible while the glue set. Atlas noticed my wide-eyed shock and did his best to comfort me. “It’s not ideal, but it’ll stay clean this way until I can get some proper stitches.” He then kicked off his shoes and wriggled out of his pants, tending to the smaller injury on his thigh in the same fashion. “I’m starting to look like a damn jigsaw puzzle,” Atlas remarked, admiring his handiwork in the mirror. “An Atlas Titan- sorry- Paul Porter jigsaw puzzled would undoubtedly be a bestseller with the ladies,” I joked, moving and standing on tiptoes to kiss him. “I’m going to take that shower, don’t go anywhere.” “I’ll be right here,” he assured me, laying on the bed in just his boxers.

I took a glorious shower, despite the lack of water pressure and water that never got quite as hot as I’d have liked. Just being freshly-scrubbed and clean had never felt better. Emerging from the bathroom, I found Atlas as I’d left him, but sleeping peacefully. His right arm was bent above him, hand behind his head, his left hand resting on his ridiculous abs. His left leg lay straight and his right was bent at the knee. Despite his magnificent musculature, my eyes were shamelessly drawn to only one place – the bulge in his boxers. I slithered up alongside him on the bed, ditching the towel I’d had wrapped around me. I reached into the opening on his underwear, pulling forth his soft manhood. I gave it a gentle squeeze, watching for a reaction from him. I’d never been a huge fan of giving oral – receiving it, sure, and Atlas was a master – but at that moment I wanted nothing more than to give Atlas all the pleasure I could possibly muster. He’d gone to superhuman lengths to rescue me, done things I’d have thought impossible to do, and put himself and his family in grave danger, all for me. I’d do anything for him. As I positioned my face closer to where my hand held him, a musky scent of overwhelming masculinity filled my nose and I let out a whimper. I engulfed him with my mouth, rolling him across my tongue. Instantly, I felt his cock begin to thicken, harden, and grow. My gaze rose to watch his face, and his eyelids appeared to flutter as his lips parted slightly. He continued to swell in my mouth and extend into the back of my throat, and I was determined not to release him until I had absolutely no other option. I did nothing but let the warm wetness of my mouth bring him to full arousal, motionless as the blood from his pounding heart raced to fill his impressive cock. The room was silent but for his ragged breathing. My eyes began to water as his cock pulsed in my mouth, laying heavy on my tongue and releasing sticky sweet fluid. His throat made contented sounds as I finally, slowly withdrew. Atlas hadn’t yet reached a full erection and already he was too large for my thumb and index finger to touch while I held his shaft. I stared in wonderment at his cock before again taking him in my mouth, just the head this time, my tongue swirling all around it and probing at his opening. The rest of his body began to react, his abs and quads flexing and relaxing, his hips writhing. His eyelids fluttered, he was in that hazy place between asleep and awake, his mouth wide open, his mind not sure if he was dreaming, but his body fully aware that his glorious cock was being eagerly sucked by the woman he loved. I was soaking wet, and not only because I’d just left the shower. I took him as deeply as I could into my throat half a dozen times, releasing him with a gasp before straddling him so as to satisfy the burning, aching need he’d carved out so deep in my soul. I held him in my hand, biting my bottom lip as I guided him to my opening. Servicing him had aroused me so much that he slid inside easily, with none of the

pain his size had caused me in our previous encounters. As I sank down fully and placed my hands on his pecs to steady myself, his eyes opened and focused on mine. “Fuck, Piper. I’ve missed you.” I placed a single finger to his lips to quiet him. “Shhh. Baby, this is all for you. I just want you to relax. Let me make you feel good.” Atlas showed me his palms and gave me a sheepish smile, signifying his surrender. He placed both hands behind his head, elbows out to the side, and stared into my eyes. Fuck, his arms looked good like that. I rode him slowly, sensuously, writhing on his cock, completely impaled, making circles with my hips. Leaning forward, I was able to deliciously grind my clit against his pubic bone as we melted into an intense, nearly silent, sexual dance. My hands roamed across his chest and his arms, careful to avoid his damaged shoulder. My first climax snuck up on me, so focused was I on my lover and his body. When it first took me, I whimpered, and Atlas sensed it, taking my face in his hands and kissing me passionately as I trembled through it. It seemed to build exponentially, like one of those firework rockets that explodes several times as it ascends before showering sparks everywhere. As it finally waned, Atlas broke the kiss and whispered in my ear. “Piper, you’re so sexy. I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful.” My body was on autopilot, and it would have taken the National Guard and a crane to remove me from atop Mount Atlas. I rode him in earnest and his hands were everywhere, kneading my breasts, caressing my face, and traveling down past my stomach to where his thumb found my pulsing clit. I wasn’t sure how much my hair was wet from the shower and how much from sweat, and I didn’t care. The spasms ripped through me, and at some point my intention of demonstrating my gratitude to Atlas by utilizing everything in my body to give him pleasure turned to a selfish desperation on my part to never stop coming. To his credit, Atlas, battered, bruised and exhausted, was more than willing to have my thrashing body bucking and grinding all over him. And somehow he was able to contain his own climax despite my best efforts to rip it from his balls. Eventually, my body turned liquid, my vaginal muscles cramping from the workout, my legs and abs exhausted, and I collapsed on him, panting. “Oh my God that was…indescribable. You…you’re… I can hardly look at you,” I said, struggling to catch my breath. “Thank you. I need to take a break.” I began to slide to the side of him, but he caught me before I’d completely disengaged from his cock. “I don’t,” he fairly growled at me, in a deep, commanding voice. And suddenly his hands were on my hips and he’d plunged his entire length back inside me. I yelped as he held me fast against him, lifting his hips from the bed to thrust up and into me.

My body was no longer subject to my own whims, and I was merely a rag doll as he placed a hand on the small of my back and the other behind my head, pulling me in for a hungry kiss. The room blurred and a dull ache radiated from my sex to my extremities. My exhaustion had me near tears. I struggled for words and only just managed to transfer a sentence from my mind to my vocal chords. “I can’t take it… so sore… I don’t think I can come anymore…” “Yes you can. And you will.” Atlas’s words sent chills down my spine before he rolled me gently onto my back. He wasted no time in entering me once more, but his thrusts were slow and methodical. He kissed my face tenderly, my eyelids, my cheeks, and then down to my throat. He stopped kissing me just long enough to give me one last command. “I know you have one more orgasm in your sexy body for me, Piper. I’m not going to stop fucking you until you give it to me.” His pace and angle of penetration changed as he lifted my ankles onto his shoulders, palms on my thighs. He was so deep I thought he might emerge through my throat. His eyes never left mine. “Come for me. I’ll use your orgasm to have mine. Do it, my darling. Come so hard all over my cock.” I was frantic, I wanted to please him so much, wanted to feel him erupting inside me, but I was spent. Empty emotionally, physically, and sexually. But if I’d learned anything about Atlas Titan, it was that he was a man who would not be denied. If he set his mind to something, it was inevitable. The universe itself seemed to bend to his indomitable will. What chance did my pussy have? The rhythm with which he fucked me increased, and before long he was pounding me with full force and it happened. Impossibly, it happened. From reserves I didn’t know I had, I felt a gush down there and every muscle from my heart to the tips of my toes seemed to contract at once, a violent orgasm against which nothing I’d experienced could compare. I gritted my teeth and our noses mashed together, eyes staring lasers through each other as he erupted inside me. We were feral, sexual animals, each drop of sweat and ripple of muscle spurring us on to undreamt of heights. We kissed until he mercifully withdrew, sweeping me up into his arms, cradling me as I shivered there atop the blanket. Sleep took us both, and with no alarm clock and the room paid for two days, neither of us minded a bit or were at all eager to separate our sweaty, naked bodies from the tangled mess we’d made of them.

51

ATLAS

T en hours ago… I leapt, putting a foot on the bed for an extra boost, and flew through the air toward the giant. My target was his throat, an attack he partially parried, but my forehead connected with his left eye. If I was lucky, he’d have a fractured orbital bone and impaired vision. Anything to buy me space and time. He was staggered but still on his feet so I quickly dropped and kicked at the knee of Apolinar, the shorter man, knocking him off his. I was aware of Malcolm and Spencer behind me, and I’d need to keep them within my peripheral vision, but so far they seemed intent to spectate. The seven footer, Monte, grabbed for me and I let him lift me, allowing me to kick his partner across the jaw. I attacked pressure points on the big man, jabbing and chopping, using techniques that would never be allowed in a regulated professional fight, but he just kept coming. I was like a quarterback trailing by a touchdown late in the game needing to go the length of the field. Short passes were out the window, the time for conservative play-calling over. It was time to spread the field and go for broke. I felt Apolinar behind me and kicked him again, this time my heel into his groin. Monte and I were exchanging haymakers, both of us shrugging off shots that would drop a rhinoceros. Everything I hit him with was full power, but all he did was smile at me. “This isn’t Mullins’ Gym, Atlas. This is the big leagues,” Malcolm’s mocking voice and laughter echoed through the small space. Apolinar was back on his feet, and he was ready for me this time. He aimed for my kidneys, battering them with punches while my attention was on his partner. The shots were crippling, dropping me to a knee, and for the first time I realized this might be it. The endless hours training, working out, becoming a SEAL, it might all end on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic. My money couldn’t save me, and there was no airstrike to call in. The element of surprise was gone, and I had no more tricks up my sleeve. If I could stand the pain, and deliver my own, I had a chance. If I blacked out, I’d never wake up again. Put up or shut up, one of the

instructors at SEAL school used to say. Kicks came from the front and the back, and my attempts to fend them off couldn’t last long. “Don’t kill him yet. Your boss deserves to get a little payback, fellas.” It was the sound of Malcolm’s voice, and then over the grunts and impacts I heard a door close. Evidently, he’d returned to the cockpit. My ribcage felt like it was on fire, as I’d had to abandon it to protect my face from the boots of Monte and Apolinar. I tried to get to my feet, to create some distance, but they were having none of it, and I was sprawled on the carpet in short order. Just as they had me in dire straits, the kicks stopped and I was being pulled to my feet, held on both sides by Spencer Cameron’s thugs. He stood in front of me, sizing me up. “I should have wasted you in Dushanbe, rich boy,” he said, coldly. “You remember Dushanbe, don’t you? I had a good thing going there with the locals. But no, noble Atlas had to save the day. And was saving a few Tajik sluts really worth it, now? It’s going to cost you your life. And Piper’s and your father’s. So you’re ultimately happy trading those three lives for some Tajik girls who nobody would have known or cared were missing, anyway?” I thrashed against my captors, but they held fast. I wasn’t going anywhere. Spencer produced a knife, pressing the flat of blade to my cheek. “This girl here is so sharp I swear she can split atoms. Picked her up in Nagoya. One of these days I’m going to get over there and sample a geisha girl, see what all the fuss is about. But I can vouch for Japanese knives. They’re top-notch, wouldn’t you agree?” With that, he plunged the blade into my left thigh. It wasn’t any sort of precision attack, not aimed for my femoral artery, more an exploratory stab, designed to inflict pain and get me bleeding. He withdrew the blade and watched me for a reaction, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “Maybe if I carve a little off the shoulder…” Spencer left the sentence hanging in the air, swiftly slicing into my shoulder, and this time I grunted and recoiled, trying to escape the knife. “Ah, you see there? The mighty Atlas Titan can feel pain after all.” Spencer smirked and cleaned the blade on my shirt. “Why don’t we get your girlfriend out here to watch this, after all, what do you say, big fella?” I knew no amount of protestation would change his mind, so I remained silent. I just hoped the changing dynamic in the room would give me an opening.

52

PIPER

P resent-Day… I woke up to find that while we slept Atlas had rolled onto his back and I’d wrapped myself around him. My knee was bent up across his thigh and my arm across his chest. I just lay there and stared at him for a long while, sunlight streaming in around the edges of the curtains. I rolled as quietly as I could to the edge of the bed and sat up, stretching and yawning softly. It was hard to believe that this was my life, that I was some sort of a fugitive, or at the very least a “person of interest” in the investigation into the death of Spencer Cameron. Malcolm and Spencer were gone, but with QB still out there, what would the future be like for me? For us? Were Atlas and I really an “us”? I went through the duffel bag and found a pair of jeans and a light green t-shirt my size. I put them on, finding that, naturally, they fit perfectly. I just finished tying my hair back in a loose ponytail when my “husband” startled me by sneaking up on me and whispering in my ear. “I don’t know why you bothered getting dressed. You know those clothes are just coming right back off, don’t you?” I turned to find the glorious sight of a naked Atlas Titan standing there, halferect. I reached down and took him in my hands, pumping him to full hardness as he stood silently, both of us watching my hands on his manhood. “Just what kind of girl do you think I am, Mr. Porter?” I asked, batting my eyelashes and feigning innocence, never mind the hard cock my hands were busy stroking. “The kind I love falling asleep with and waking up to,” he replied, taking my face in his hands and kissing me, long and deep, my hands leaving his cock only to move down to his balls, giving them a gentle squeeze and tug. Atlas gasped and looked at me with surprise. “I thought you were supposed to be so tough. And little old me has you by the balls,” I laughed mischievously and retained my grip. My right hand pumped his shaft while my left rolled and pulled at his balls, causing him to moan, a sound that

went directly from my ears to my clit. As I continued to work on him with both hands, he reached down and unbuttoned my jeans, working them down over my hips. He reached between my legs, finding me wet, and pressed his thumb to my clit, circling it slowly as I increased the speed on his cock and pressure on his balls. “Fuck, Piper, my balls. What are you…oh!” He threw his head back as I gave a long pull and then released them. His cock was drooling out precum everywhere, making him slick in my hand. The way he’d pounded me last night, after the wicked way I woke him up with my mouth and then my pussy, had me feeling naughty. I took his tightening balls in my hand again as he refocused on my eyes. “Remember when I told you I needed a break last night? But you made me keep fucking you?” I punctuated my question with another pull and release, buckling his knees momentarily. His voice was hoarse. “Yes. Yes, I do.” “Well, you made me come hard. Very hard. And now I’m all sore down there because of this.” At the word ‘this,’ I let go of his cock and gave it a slap. Not hard enough to really hurt, but not playful either. Enough to show I meant business. And, as always, I kept a firm grip on his precious balls. He still had a hand between my legs, but he was so flustered he’d forgotten to keep working on my needy clit. “But my balls. Oh fuck, my fucking balls.” I squeezed harder. “They feel really good in my hands, Atlas. I don’t think I ever want to let them go. Lay back on the bed.” He stumbled backward, both my hands on him. It was awkward, but I let him sit on the edge of the bed and then lay back as I moved to a position straddling him, facing his feet. I pointed his wonderful cock toward the ceiling and mounted it, my back to him, and soon had both hands on his balls as I rode. His hands were on my hips and then massaging my back as I shamelessly fucked him, seeking my orgasm like a drunk needing a cocktail in the morning to stave off a hangover. The position was good for me, hitting every spot inside that needed hitting, and my climax wasn’t long in arriving. I bit my lip through it, shuddering as he reached up and took a handful of my hair, pulling it back as I shook. “I can feel you coming. Tell me how good it is” He commanded. I fought to regain my composure, the hair-pulling and dirty talk driving me to a place beyond where his cock had already taken me. “So fucking good. So good I need you all the time,” I said through gritted teeth. “What do you need, Piper? Tell me exactly what you need.” He was lifting his hips and had a hand at the curve where my ass meets the small of my back to make me drop onto him harder and faster. My hair was now wrapped around his fist, my head back as I rode him. “I need to get fucked. I need your cock, I need your mouth, I need……Oh!” The first orgasm became a second, my body unable to cope with what I was

saying and feeling and all my endorphins released at once. “That’s my good girl. Tell me your name.” I was confused by the question at first, but I realized he was testing me. “Vicki Porter. I’m Vicki and you’re Paul.” He was rotating his hips beneath me, changing his point of attack as I came again and again for him. He made me recite our address on James Island and both our birthdays. “Very good. Do you want your reward?” “I want it! I want you, I need you, oh fuck yes!” With that he erupted inside me, my hands gently caressing his balls as he emptied them into my eager body. I fell back into his arms, dismounting him and laying down next to him, nuzzling into his chest. He held me a long while, kissing my face and head. Finally, reluctantly, we separated and Atlas took a well-deserved shower. Once he was out, we dressed and packed up our things. He checked in with Odin and found that while we slept, search teams had discovered wreckage from the downed plane and were reporting the tragic death of United States Congressman Spencer Cameron. Conspiracy theorists were already coming out of the woodwork with the supposed reasons he was on that plane in the first place, who it belonged to, and what business he had in Dubai. No mention had been made in the media regarding any survivors or mysterious people plucked from a weather buoy nearby. Which, as Atlas explained, didn’t exactly mean the authorities weren’t searching for a couple who met our description, rather that they were likely keeping it quiet so as not to alert us and drive us further underground. We returned to our SUV and hit the road, destination unknown. “Odin is working on a semi-permanent place for us to lay low for a while. I can disappear easily. I could drop in on some Kurds I know or call in a favor in half a dozen places all over the world and I’d never be found. But I have you to consider,” Atlas explained as we reached the outskirts of Columbia, South Carolina. “How much danger are we really in? And what about your father?” I asked. “Well, two people were pulled out of the water near a plane crash that killed a Congressman, right? So naturally those two people are being looked for. The cover we have is top shelf. I’m not so worried about that side of things, as long as we’re careful. There’s no record of either of us being on that plane, so barring some C.S.I.-level detective work, we have nothing to worry about. QB is an entirely different kettle of fish. He isn’t motivated by things as petty as revenge, so I don’t think he has a team of hitters out there looking for us solely because we eliminated two of his soldiers. But in his chess game, we’re pieces he might decide he needs to use again, or eliminate. There’s no telling with him. I’d like to think that with an extra layer or two of security that my father can resume his life in the not too distant future. He’s connected, in his own way, just as high up as QB is. They’re like two mob bosses in the old days. For one to make a move on the other is to invite all-out war and the accompanying bloodshed. He knows that if anything happens

to my father, he’ll be the one who’ll be looking for a cave in which to hide. “That said, I don’t want to make things easy for him, either. What would you think about going dark with me for a while?” What Atlas didn’t know, although I think he could have guessed, is that I’d go anywhere with him. No matter the danger, I was his for as long as he’d have me. “What do you mean by ‘dark’?” I asked. “I mean we’d go somewhere and start a new life. A quiet life. We’d have very little, or maybe no, contact with our family and friends. I can’t say for exactly how long. I’d work to make it as cushy as possible, after all you’re used to a certain level of comfort and opulence. And I have the money to do it. But we might be isolated. It wouldn’t be the Four Seasons. But it also wouldn’t be the place we just stayed, either.” Atlas lay a hand in my lap, which I took and squeezed. I said with no hesitation, “There’s nowhere I feel safer than with you.” We bypassed Columbia and were headed toward Augusta, Georgia, and beyond that Atlanta. I held my “husband’s” hand and hummed along with the Cranberries on the radio.

53

ATLAS

T en hours ago… Spencer knocked on the door and beckoned for Piper, but he got no reply. He motioned for Apolinar to force entry, and Monte wrapped me up from behind. I made no effort to resist during the exchange, hoping to lull everyone into letting their guard down. The bleeding was already draining my strength, so I wanted to conserve what I had left for a final burst. With two kicks, Spencer’s man was inside, and after a brief struggle he emerged holding a terrified Piper. She shrieked at the sight of my blood. I locked eyes with her and tried to send her some sort of telepathic message of calm and bravery. Spencer put his arm around Piper’s shoulders and spoke to her in his smarmy tone, trying to sound tough despite the obvious pain in his jaw. “This is who you were counting on to protect you? This? You poor thing. Anyway, he couldn’t save you, but maybe you can save him. All you have to do is get down on your knees and beg. Beg me not to kill him. And I’ll consider it. While you’re down there, I’m sure you can figure out a way to convince me. I mean really convince me. You’re a clever girl. And a pretty one. I’m sure you’ll think of something. But don’t forget, you may have to convince these gentlemen as well, and they may require you to go the extra mile.” Spencer was pushing my buttons and reveling in it. My eyes met Piper’s again and I shook my head slowly from side to side. I wouldn’t allow her to ask anything of Spencer Cameron, let alone beg or subject herself to any of his vile fantasies. I didn’t want her in the crossfire, but I’d had enough. I stomped down on the giant’s foot, raking his shin with my heel as I did so and I jumped as high as I could, my skull smashing into his chin. His grip loosened enough that I was able to spring toward Apolinar, and before he could react I kicked his stomach and as he bent forward captured his head between my arm and right side. With all my might I yanked backwards, and immediately the life left his body. At the first sign of my resistance, Spencer had backed out of the room with Piper, leaving me alone with Monte.

He rushed me again as before, his sheer bulk overpowering me and sending me crashing into the wall. I landed near his partner and noticed the knife I’d lent to Piper in a sheath on his boot. Before Monte could react, I snatched and threw it, and from such short range against a target so massive, I made no mistake. The steel sunk into his right eye and dropped him instantly. He was a screaming, gurgling mess, but his pain was short-lived. I cut his throat and approached the door quietly, trying to assess what might await me on the other side. Hearing nothing, I opened it slowly. Spencer and Piper sat at a table in the main cabin with two other men, pale, bookworm types. Congressional aides of some sort, I surmised. “Piper. Now!” I barked. One of Spencer’s terrified aides lost control of his bladder, but remained seated. Spencer shook his head in disbelief and tossed back a shot of what looked like whiskey. “Let’s think this through, Atlas. Come sit and have a drink. You’re assaulted a Congressman and, I’m guessing, murdered two men just now. What does killing the rest of us gain you?” “A clean conscience,” I stated, flatly. “Be that as it may, wherever and whenever you land, they’ll take you into custody. And you’ll be held accountable for this mess. You and Piper here might just get mixed up in it as well. Or, I can work it all out so you two walk away. Just sit back and relax and we’ll land in D.C. and you two will get in a limo and we’ll never see each other again.” “Except when you run for President, right? And Piper has to see your face all over the place. No. That’s not happening. This ends now. You end right now. I’ll worry about D.C. when we get there.” “I’m sorry that the two of you ever got mixed up with this psychopath, I truly I am,” I addressed Spencer’s aides. “But you’re collateral damage. I care about one person on this plane, and that’s her.” I pointed at Piper. Spencer, in his madman’s hubris, seemed shocked that I wasn’t willing to forgive and forget. I wanted badly to flip the table over and yank him out of his chair, but it was bolted down and I doubted at my best that I could move it. Instead, I appealed to Spencer’s arrogance. “I’m a man of my word, right Spencer? ‘Noble Atlas,’ you called me. I’ll stand here and give you three free shots. Come on, show some honor, you’re a fucking SEAL. You get three shots to put me down. I won’t resist. I’ve had the shit kicked out of me, I’m bleeding all over the place, it shouldn’t be hard for you. You like beating up women, try a man for a change. Three freebies. Be a man. Knock me out, if you can. Impress your buddies here. And just imagine, Piper will probably swoon. Or has your impotence spread to your fists?” Rage boiled in Spencer’s eyes. He knew what my word meant to me. I’d give him exactly what I promised. And his conceit was such that when I mentioned his impotence in front of his two subordinates and Piper, he couldn’t resist. He rose and strode over to me, fists balled. “I’m going to knock you out, fuck your

girlfriend, and be in my apartment tonight with a Georgetown coed and a bottle of 1985 Latour, Titan.” He swung three times, rapid-fire. A left to the jaw, a right to my midsection, and a right to the temple. They landed heavily, but I was beyond pain. When he finished, I rubbed my jaw and spit blood. We locked up in a grappler’s embrace, vying for leverage. I spun him over my hip and to the floor, cranking his arm back as he scrambled for my legs. I twisted until I felt something snap, all the while he punched at the bleeding wound on my thigh. I reached my feet first and drove a knee into his jaw and felt the fight drain away. He scrambled back into the bedroom, but there was nowhere he could hide.

54

PIPER

T en hours ago… I watched Spencer Cameron crawl back through the door with Atlas in pursuit, and then the door slammed behind them. We heard a crash and moments later Atlas emerged, stone-faced, carrying a backpack he tossed to the side. “Leave your phones and all your devices on the table. Go back there. Don’t come out until we land. You stay here with me. I need you.” Spencer’s aides nodded frantically, emptying their pockets. The taller of the two rushed to the bedroom, making a wailing sound at what he discovered behind the door. The shorter man stood idly by, awaiting further instruction. Atlas turned to me, concern on his face. “Are you alright?” I nodded and felt tears on my cheeks. “This isn’t over. The pilot, Malcolm, is as guilty and dangerous as the rest of them. I’ll deal with him. You don’t go back into that bedroom, understand?” I nodded again. “But don’t we need him to fly the plane?” “Piper, I had my pilot’s license at fourteen. I don’t have much time in this type, but I can handle it. You’re safe now. Trust me.” With that, he kissed my forehead and then my lips and strode toward the cockpit door, motioning for Spencer’s aide to join him. Atlas whispered in the man’s ear and stood back. The man rapped his knuckles on the door, calling out to Malcolm. “Sir, Mr. Cameron needs you back here, right away.” Atlas pushed him aside and waited at the door for Malcolm to emerge. As he crossed the threshold, Atlas crushed him with an overhand right, sending him crashing to the floor. Atlas smothered him immediately, a forearm on his throat. “Zarah. Is she safe?” Atlas’s face was an inch from Malcolm’s, which was a mask of surprise and not a small amount of fear. “Really? Right in front of your girlfriend you ask about another woman?” There was an almost imperceptible shift in their positions as Malcolm tried some sort of escape, but Atlas was having none of it and slammed the downed

man’s head onto the floor. “Don’t waste the few breaths you have left by trying to goad me into a mistake. You picked the wrong side in a war. It happens. Won’t happen again for you, but you aren’t the first, won’t be the last. Now then. Zarah.” “She’s as fucked as you are,” Malcolm raised an eyebrow in my direction. The fear I’d felt when I boarded the plane was gone, replaced by blinding rage. I rose and walked over to where Atlas had Malcolm pinned and I kicked, as hard as I could, right into Malcolm’s exposed crotch. I’m not sure who the move took more by surprise, Atlas or Malcolm, but there was no doubt who it hurt more. Malcolm looked like he might vomit and his face turned a shade of red I’d never seen before. Atlas pulled Malcolm to his unsteady feet and got him in some sort of a chokehold, walking him to the back of the plane. “Get in there!” He barked at Spencer’s assistant, who meekly followed the order. “Piper, sit down and put on a seatbelt. I’ll be right back. Autopilot will keep us in the air, but we might hit turbulence.” With that, all three men disappeared into the bedroom and I sat down, grabbing a nearby bottle of whiskey and chugging a mouthful, and once the burn passed, another, larger one.

55

ATLAS/PAUL

P resent-Day… We drove through Augusta, the sun shining down through the windshield onto Piper’s bare feet that were up on the dash. If we didn’t have an appointment, I’d have had no choice but to find a barn somewhere we could park behind so I could devour her. Every inch of her body turned me on. Instead, I settled for holding her hand, letting Siri, on Paul Porter’s new iPhone, guide us to our destination. Odin arranged for us to meet a Mr. Marlin Hubbard in Shady Dale, Georgia, midway between Atlanta and Augusta. As the highway gave way to a county road and then a dirt road, the bumpiness woke Piper from a light nap. “Where are we? What’s going on?” she asked, her voice sweet and sleepy. “We’re going to meet our four new best friends. You’ll see. I don’t want to spoil it for you,” I explained, giving her hand a squeeze and bringing it to my face where I covered it with kisses. We rounded a bend and pulled up at the fence outside a sprawling compound with trailers, outbuildings, barns, shipping containers, and animal pens haphazardly strewn about. Shortly, a golf cart driven by a heavy-set man wearing a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and a white ponytail arrived at the gate. “You Porter?” he asked. “If you’re Hubbard,” I replied. “Follow me and park in the gravel over by the barn with the green roof.” His Georgia twang was so thick I could barely make it out. Piper looked at me with some concern, eyeing the shotgun hanging on the back of the cart, and we both shrugged and got back in our SUV. Our host motioned for us to follow him around behind the barn to where four enormous dogs lounged in the shade. He gave some gruff, unintelligible commands, and the dogs came to attention, sitting up in a way that reminded me of inspection during my military days. “Let ‘em smell y’all. Walk right up, don’t be bashful, ma’am.”

My “wife” and I approached the creatures who looked more wolf than dog, black and gray coats with steely eyes. Piper seemed hesitant, but the dogs were completely docile, sniffing and gently licking our hands. “They’ll handle the cold, just like I told Mr. Nickle. You won’t find better animals at any price. Keep ‘em fed and exercised and they’ll rip anybody to shreds who means to do you harm,” Marlin Hubbard explained. “And they’ll know us? Just like this?” I asked. “Mr. Porter, let me explain something to you. You want potatoes? Go to Idaho. The best whiskey? Tennessee. But if you want dogs to keep you and your young bride from any Earthly harm? Then you come to Shady Dale, Georgia, and you see Marlin Hubbard. Savvy?” “Yes, sir. And Mr. Nickle is handling payment and transport?” “They’ll be where you need ‘em when you need ‘em. This here’s VZ. He’s the alpha.” Hubbard grabbed the largest dog by the snout, lifting its top lip to reveal a menacing set of teeth. “The others are Ronnie, Stevie, and Johnny.” “VZ?” I asked, and Piper laughed. “Van Zant. As in Lynyrd Skynyrd. Am I right?” she asked. “I’ll be damned. That’s a keeper right there, Mr. Porter.” Marlin Hubbard smiled for the first time since we’d arrived, evidently impressed by more than just Piper’s ass, which he’d been ogling since we parked the truck and she got out. We said our goodbyes and got back on the road, and as I expected, Piper had questions. I was happy to answer them. “Those dogs are a layer of security. Where we’re going, we’ll be pretty isolated. But there’s no system that can’t be hacked, no cameras or alarms that can’t be defeated. Those dogs, however, are the best money can buy. They’re hybrids. A good friend of mine, a guy I went through SEAL school with, is named Barrett Evers. His brother, Durham, lives in Atlanta. Odin has been working with Durham to get us spirited away. We’ve been using the whole Six Degrees thing, brothers and assistants, to obscure what Barrett’s been doing to help, just in case of prying eyes.” She seemed satisfied with that, but she was dying to know what the endgame was, where we’d be going. “Did the guy with the dogs say something about cold weather?” she asked. “He did. Ever been to Alaska?”

56

PIPER

P revious Day Atlas wasn’t long in returning to me, but his mood seemed somber. He was all business, and my few attempts at conversation were rebuffed. Whatever happened in that bedroom saddened him. I had to remind myself that just a few short days ago, when I’d first met Malcolm, he’d been introduced to me as a close friend of Atlas’s. The betrayal and the evident finality of whatever occurred in the back of the plane had hurt Atlas deeply. “Have you ever gone skydiving?” he asked as we sat in the cockpit. The idea was on my bucket list, but I hadn’t yet built up the courage. I shook my head. “I have a parachute. We’re going to jump out of this plane. I’m going to crash it and hope that any evidence of us having been here will wind up on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. I’ll get us rescued and we’ll have to count on Odin to figure it out from there. It won’t be long now, let’s go over the parachute.” With that, we went back into the main cabin and Atlas explained how he’d hold me and what I had to do. I looked out the window and down at the water below, the sun had risen enough to make the vast blue water visible again, and I burst into tears. Everything caught up with me at once. Atlas picked me up in his muscular embrace, holding me and kissing my head. “You can do this, Piper. All the shit that you’ve been through these past few days and weeks since you met that scumbag will be in a watery grave and you can move on with your life.” I was reassured more by his powerful arms and deep voice than his words. I didn’t want to move on with “my” life. I hoped to move on with “our” life. But this was an Atlas back in “soldier mode,” where the mission and the precision with which it was carried out determined whether we’d live or die. Once my mini-panic attack passed, Atlas returned to the cockpit. The plane jerked hard to the left and then made a strange rumbling sound before the ride got very bumpy.

He returned to me wearing the parachute. “It’s almost time. I’ll be holding you the whole way. Stay as close to me as you can and pull the cord like I showed you when I tell you to. Everything will be fine. This plane is going down, but we’ll be clear of it. When we hit the water we’ll probably become separated. Try not to get tangled up in the chute, I’ll ditch it as quickly as I can and get back to you. I know you can do this. Look into my eyes, Piper. I know it. Swim like hell to me and we’ll stay together. There’s a weather buoy down there, I’ll get us as close to it as I can. I know it seems impossible out in the middle of all that blue, but it’s out there. The weather is cooperating so far, hopefully it’ll stay that way. Ready?” I inhaled deeply and nodded my head, balling my hands into fists to make them stop shaking. Atlas took my face in his hands and kissed me as deeply as I’d ever been kissed, then wrapped his arm around my waist. “Nothing can make me let go of you. You know that, right? Nothing.” I nodded and forced a smile. Atlas popped the emergency door and suddenly we were flying. The wind whipped our clothing wildly and I kept my eyes pressed as tightly shut as I did as a little girl when I could have sworn I heard a sound in my closet in the middle of the night. The drone of the plane’s engines grew faint as we dropped like a stone toward what seemed like certain death to me. My frozen panic was broken by the voice of Atlas in my ear. “Pull! Do it now!” I forced my eyes open and fumbled for the ripcord, only getting a firm grip after what seemed like several minutes had passed, and I pulled with all my might. My stomach fell through the soles of my feet as our free fall ended and we seemed to fly right back up from whence we came. Our controlled descent wasn’t nearly as peaceful as movies had led me to believe, but it definitely beat the “dropping like a stone” portion of our trip. As we rehearsed, I wrapped my arms around Atlas’s waist and his legs encircled me as he held the chute to guide us toward where he thought the buoy must be. Hitting the water was altogether unpleasant. It jolted my back and my lungs felt emptied of all their precious oxygen. I bobbed to the surface to the voice of Atlas over the water. “Deep breaths, Piper! Take deep breaths! Breathe and swim to my voice.” I followed the plan Atlas laid out upstairs, laying on my back and taking the deepest breaths I could. The panic was gone, replaced by determination. Who did the Atlantic Ocean think she was, separating me from my man? I kicked and kicked, following his voice, and before long we were reunited. We took inventory of our extremities and found ourselves undamaged by the jump. Atlas surveyed the sky and we watched the plane descend, on fire as it hit the water. We were alone in what seemed like an endless, rolling carpet of blue, the horizon unbroken in any direction save for the plume of smoke rising from where

the plane crashed. Atlas led our swim, the longest I’d ever done in one shot, especially in open water. With him urging me on, I felt like a mermaid cutting through the water. Exhausted and freezing, we finally arrived at the buoy.

57

ATLAS

P resent Day Durham Evers put us up in his version of a safe house for three days, a condo in Buckhead that I surmised was a place he took girls he met when he didn’t want to get serious, but wanted some action. It was nice to rest and relax in the opulent surroundings Piper deserved. We caught up on the news, the search for more wreckage or survivors having been called off. Durham had meals prepared by his personal chef delivered, but besides television and food, we did our best to give the springs in Durham’s bed a more strenuous workout than he and his parade of trollops ever could. On the third day, we got word that our new ‘home” was ready, and we boarded the first of a series of flights, first to New York, then Kansas City, back to Atlanta, where we checked into a motel near the airport, then Toronto, Vancouver, and finally Juneau. If anybody was following Paul and Vicki Porter, they’d have given up out of sheer exhaustion. From Juneau we took a short flight on a small plane to Ketchikan, where we were met by a tall fellow who introduced himself as Harold Nickle. “Mr. and Mrs. Porter, pleased to finally make your acquaintance in person,” he said, shaking both our hands. “If you’re ready, we can go out to Kilgore now.” We were both eager to see our new home, so we made our way to the dock where a pair of boats awaited us. “I’m told you can pilot your own boat, Mr. Porter?” Harold asked. “I can, sure, but I think I’ll let my wife take her out. What do you say, darling?” She laughed, “Just this once I think I’ll enjoy the scenery and let you do the heavy lifting, dear.” “This is Ujarak. He’ll come by once a week with whatever you need from the mainland. Or more or less often, as you require. All his contact information is in these phones. They’re completely safe.” Harold handed us brand new phones after introducing us to a middle-aged Inuit man. Ujarak’s stoic manner didn’t lend itself to conversation, so I shook his hand

as we set out in a pair of speedboats, Ujarak piloting the lead, Piper and I following. The scenery really was breathtaking, the water surrounded by tree-covered mountains dusted with snow even though we’d left temperatures in the 80s back in Georgia. Our trip took just under an hour, navigating through channels between barrier islands and around fishing boats before arriving at a dock cut out of the particularly steep stone shoreline of one of the more isolated pieces of real estate we’d ever seen. We tied off the boats and Harold Nickle took on the role of tour guide. “Welcome to Kilgore Island. This dock is the only way on and off, so you’ll have no uninvited visitors. It’s a bit like a castle in that regard. The trees across the channel in that direction are the southern tip of Tongass National Forest. The house is right this way.” No sooner did we leave the dock area, locking the gate behind us, when we were encircled by four snarling wolves. VZ and his pack remained at a distance, baring their teeth, until catching our scent on the wind and approaching with tails wagging, VZ stopping to sit next to me while his brothers rolled and showed their bellies. “They’ve met Ujarak. I pity anyone else who tries to visit you unannounced,” Harold explained as Piper got down on one knee to pet the dog I thought I remembered as Ronnie. We walked up a stone path through the trees to what looked like a ski lodge dumped smack in the middle of the thickest forest I’d ever seen. The house had wraparound porches on the ground floor and the second story. I glanced over at Piper, whose jaw hung open in astonishment. “We’re going to live here?” “That’s the plan. But let’s see the inside of the house before we make any hasty decisions,” I joked. Inside, Harold showed us a home that the finest interior decorators in the Pacific Northwest had poured their hearts and souls into. No detail was too small, and the natural wood flowed from room to room. The master bedroom had enormous his and hers walk-in closets that had been filled with designer duds for all seasons. I thought we might never get Piper out of her closet to show her the rest of the house. She was floored. Downstairs, Harold showed us a heated indoor pool and a gym that would have left an NFL team envious. The kitchen was equipped to create gourmet meals, and the subzero freezer was stocked with various cuts of meat. The fridge, of course, was absolutely loaded. Harold explained that security cameras were hidden throughout the forest and he showed us an underground “safe room,” should we wind up facing any danger we, VZ’s pack, and the small arsenal of weapons on the property couldn’t handle. Before long, Harold and our new friend departed and we were alone on Kilgore with our wolf pack.

Sitting on rocking chairs on the upstairs porch, we watched their boat leave. “Well, what do you think?” I asked.

58

PIPER

“I think,” I replied. “That there’s no Starbucks.” I pouted playfully.

Atlas rolled his eyes. “But I also think,” I stood up and pulled off the bulky sweater I’d been wearing, revealing my lacy red bra. “That we ought to break in that gorgeous bed in the master.” “You read my mind,” he replied, tossing aside his own shirt and following me inside. The days became weeks and then months, and we settled into a routine, although a life as fantastic as ours makes the word “routine” seem inadequate. Spencer had a well-attended funeral, and the internet was rife with theories regarding his death. Atlas (We’d abandoned Paul and Vicki except when Ujarak came by) and I worked out each morning, both in the gym and the bed…or one of the couches…or the kitchen floor. Wherever the mood struck us, really. The sex was glorious, as we both seemed to revel in taking the other to higher and higher plateaus of ecstasy. We learned the rhythms of the water, the habits of the wildlife, and we weathered what at first seemed like thousand-year storms, but in reality were simply weekly occurrences on the Alaskan frontier. Watching Atlas chop firewood, shirtless when the weather permitted, was nearly a religious experience. I was left breathless and nearly as sweaty as he was just from enjoying seeing him play lumberjack. We both arrived on Kilgore decidedly novices in the kitchen, but when we could take our hands off each other long enough, we used our free time, assortment of cookbooks, and YouTube to become culinary experts. I also learned to give Atlas a straight-razor shave, something that had him wiggling and whining like a toddler getting a haircut the first time I attempted it. The nicks I left behind were more than worth seeing the child-like side of him. We heard nothing more from or about QB, despite Atlas occasionally putting feelers out on the dark web for any news on his former boss. His father had long since returned, uneventfully, to his old life. Until we knew QB was out of the picture, either dead or his version of “retired,”

we’d always have reason to look over our shoulders. But for now, we’d leave that to VZ. Odin and the other Titan brothers assumed Atlas’s responsibilities at their startup and we had a life people don’t bother to dream about, because we don’t visit heaven until after we die, and who in their right mind dreams about dying? One day, Ujarak had just dropped off food for us and the pack, along with a stack of magazines and a new axe for “Paul” when I felt the first kick. We’d been talking about dipping our toes in the water of returning to the “real world” by taking a trip to San Francisco to visit Atlas’s family when I realized how late I was. I sent word to Ujarak to include some pregnancy tests in his next delivery, and the two lines were instant and unmistakable. Atlas broke down and wept at the news, which, of course, had me bawling. The love we made that night was the slowest and sweetest imaginable, with the French doors to the master bedroom wide open to the elements. The fireplace burned hot on one side of us and a wild wind whipped flurries across the porch and scattered them on the floor around our bed on the other side. We lay in bed kissing for the longest time, Atlas whispering despite our solitude. “You’re going to be so beautiful when you start to show. And glow. I won’t even be able to look at you.” Between every other word he kissed my neck, down to my shoulders. I reached between my legs to quench the thirst building there, but he noticed my hand moving below the blankets and he pulled it away. “Let me handle that,” he whispered, his hand grazing me so lightly it felt more like a breeze than physical contact. I bit my lip to keep from screaming. He disappeared under the thick bedding, kissing his way down my body, seeming not to want to miss a single pore. By the time he arrived between my legs, the sheets were absolutely ruined. I’d discarded everything atop the bed, leaving the icy breeze coming in to turn my nipples to stone and raising goosebumps all over my body. Despite my writhing desperation, Atlas refused to lick me where I needed it most, instead kissing his way down my legs, his hands all over my ass and then around to my hips and back up my stomach, grazing my nipples as his face again approached my sex. Tears rolled down my cheeks, so desperate was the furnace between my legs for his touch. Finally, he made contact, a long, slow lick going from as deep between the cheeks of my ass as he could reach all the way up to my clit. His groan of appreciation for my flavor made me shudder, and I put both hands into his hair and urged his face deeper. He French kissed my sex as if it were my mouth, his tongue exploring everywhere it could, lapping me up and making me squirm and beg. “My clit Atlas, my fucking clit, PLEASE!” His contented hum prepared me for what was next, his lips wrapped around my swollen bud, massaging and sucking it into a thermonuclear detonation in my soul. The orgasm left me trembling and babbling, trying to tell him how much I loved

him. He drove his cock into me during the climax, stretching my vaginal muscles mid-spasm until I thought they’d surely tear. He plunged in methodically and purposefully. He was so hard it felt like an iron bar was splitting me in half, but every time the pain became too great he seemed to sense it and withdrew, sliding back in slowly and kissing me hard on the mouth. His pace wasn’t enough to give me the frequent orgasms to which I had become accustomed, and instead he just kept me on a low boil, the fire burning to our left surpassed only by the heat inside me. The wind whipped harder now, and snowflakes actually landed on our skin, melting instantly. “Atlas, please, baby. Please make me come. Don’t make me beg again. Please, I’ll be so good for you. I’ll come so hard, I can’t take you torturing me like this!” I pleaded with him, and my heels on the small of his back spurred him on to finish the job. His pace quickened and soon I was biting his shoulder so hard I drew blood right near the scar Spencer had given him. He paid it no mind, pounding me until I felt like my bones and muscles had become jelly. He resumed his slow thrusts again, but I pulled him to my mouth for a kiss and whispered in his ear, “I need it now more than ever.” With snow swirling around our sweaty bodies, Atlas emptied his magnificent body into me and we slept just like that, joined below the waist and tangled up until morning. By then, the fire had gone out and the snow was inches high on the porch and just inside our bedroom, but beneath the covers we’d pulled back onto the bed, it felt like a tropical summer. “After I make you come again, I’m going to cut down the tree from which I’ll build his crib,” he said, smiling. “You must mean her crib,” I replied. Atlas rolled his eyes and kissed me, and I could feel him hardening again between my legs. Despite what we’d been through I knew this much- no one would ever love someone as much as I would always love Atlas.

59

PIPER

O nce the novelty of my pregnancy wore off, and the limits of Atlas’s carpentry

skills became evident (he couldn’t be good at everything – I feared for the safety of any child who slept in the crib he admirably tried to build), we agreed that we’d need to contact someone for help getting everything we would need for the baby and for our peace of mind. Ujarak, our man on the mainland, could certainly provide tangible things such as diapers and a crib, but I longed for some measure of normalcy as my nesting urges kicked in. We needed a doctor. I wanted to hear a heartbeat and see ultrasound images. After breakfast one morning, I walked in on Atlas opening up Craigslist and placing an ad in the “M/M Missed Connections” section for Durham, North Carolina. Catching my eye, and sensing my obvious confusion, he laughed heartily. “Piper, there was this guy I saw at Duke last time I was there. He was so handsome. I just hope he remembers me.” I felt my face twist up in a playful scowl and I slid my body, still slender enough to fit between him and the keyboard, (though not for long at the rate my belly was swelling) onto his lap to watch what he was typing. I could feel his bulge growing as I settled onto his lap, and I reached down between our legs and gave him a squeeze. “Let’s see just how serious you are about this Blue Devil of yours,” I joked. Atlas began typing: “HOW CAN WE EVER EXPECT TO SEE WHAT’S INSIDE WHEN WE’RE OUT IN THE COLD? CAN U HELP? TRACTOR. TOASTER.” “What in the world did I just read?” I asked, completely bewildered, spinning around on his lap to face him. “That’s one of the ways I contact the outside world,” Atlas explained. “Durham Evers, one of the guys who helped us after the plane crash, the guy whose house we’re living in, checks that same section of Craigslist periodically. I included some code words to verify that it’s me leaving the ad, and the rest is sort of doublespeak, just me dropping a hint. Hopefully he’ll get the message and set things up from his end.”

I was impressed yet again by Atlas’s resourcefulness. “As long as we somehow get somebody to check on our little bundle here, you can flirt with your buddy Durham through Craigslist all you want,” I teased. “The only one I want to flirt with is you, Piper. And actually, you’re the only one I ever want to flirt with for the rest of our lives.” My jaw fell open as Atlas stood, lifting me off his lap and depositing me back on the chair before dropping to one knee. “I had to guess on the size, and as you might surmise, the stores here don’t have the best selection, but I hope you’ll like it.” From somewhere, Atlas produced a diamond, and tears rolled down my face.

60

ATLAS

P iper had been napping the last time Ujarak visited us, and I’d taken the

opportunity to make a very special request. I needed an engagement ring. “The biggest one you can find,” I’d instructed. He’d only nodded. I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. The way I’d lived my life up until Piper left little room for a family. I’d never considered the possibility of children. Nieces and nephews, sure. I figured my brother Odin would make a great dad. But the things I’d done, and would probably have to do more of in the future, precluded me from being any kind of father. Or so I thought. From the moment Piper discovered that she was pregnant, everything changed for me. If I’d been in love before, and I surely was, that love grew exponentially with the promise of a new member of our family. And my need to protect Piper was even more profound. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. Especially now that she was carrying our child. How we’d raise a child in such a bizarre set of circumstances eluded me, but I knew that I was a better man with Piper by my side and that the two of us could do anything, as long as we had each other. I dropped to one knee, trying to play it cool, but completely out of my element; and losing my composure. “Piper, I love you and I want to spend the rest (my voice cracked) of my life with you. Will you marry me?” Tears streamed down her face, and I wasn’t sure she’d actually even seen the diamond, but she jumped into my arms and kissed me, the word “yes” spilling out of her mouth over and over again. Once our celebration was over, we set out to plan our wedding, an event that would be more a matter of legal paperwork than any sort of traditional celebration. We promised each other that once our lives returned to “normal” that we’d have the big wedding she’d always dreamt of.

61

PIPER

D urham Evers received the message left for him by Atlas, and the next time

Ujarak visited, he brought with him some medical equipment, including an ultrasound machine. Atlas arranged a time, and explained to me that I’d be under a sort of “virtual doctor’s care” for the time being. We read up on our machine and got ourselves comfortable with it and one day, during breakfast, Atlas informed me that I had a doctor’s appointment later that morning. At the appointed time, I lay back on a bed in one of our guest rooms, and Atlas fired up his laptop. Within minutes, we were on Skype from Charleston, South Carolina, with Charlotte DeGraff, an obstetrician who had delivered Durham’s niece, Thisbe. If she was trusted by the Evers family, that was good enough for Atlas. Our ultrasound machine was set up to display its readings on Dr. DeGraff’s laptop, and she’d go over the results in real time. She asked me some questions regarding my health, family history, diet, exercise, and general baby-related queries. Satisfied with my answers, she asked if we were ready to see our baby. “Yes!” Atlas and I answered, in unison. Atlas performed like a seasoned ultrasound veteran, smearing gel all over my tummy and moving the wand around as directed via Skype. The doctor pointed out the baby’s head and feet, but Atlas seemed preoccupied as he stared at the screen. “What’s the matter, babe?” I asked. “Well, I’m searching, but, and correct me if I’m wrong, doc, I’m not seeing a penis.” The doctor and I both laughed. “No, no you aren’t, Mr. Titan. Can you guess why that might be?” Dr. DeGraff asked. Atlas hung his head in mock defeat. “I don’t suppose you’ll let our little girl become a SEAL, eh Piper?” “She can be whatever she wants to be, of course, but she’ll be way too pretty to

be a SEAL.” I replied. “Only if she favors her mother,” Atlas said, leaning over my goop-covered stomach to kiss me. We finished up with the doctor and made arrangements to get blood and urine samples analyzed by a lab in Juneau, then scheduled a follow up Skype appointment in two weeks. Atlas shut the laptop as I wiped the gel from my body. I closed my robe and straddled his lap and gave him a deep kiss. My eyes met his. “You’re going to be so good with a little girl. My heart might just melt and run all the way down to the soles of my feet the first time I watch you hold her.” I touched his face, never remembering what life was like before this. I’d never been so happy. “I love you, Piper. I can’t wait,” he said, kissing me again. “You know, I read something interesting the other day,” I mentioned casually, still astride his lap in just my robe, he in pajama pants and a tight t-shirt. “What’s that?” he asked. “I read that during pregnancy, it’s very important to have lots of sex. Something in the hormones lets the baby know she’s loved and coming into a world with a stable relationship between father and mother.” “Is that a fact?” Atlas asked, and I could feel him throb below me as a single finger traced a line from my chin to down between my breasts. I began to let the robe I was wearing fall from my shoulders when we heard it. The peaceful Spring morning erupted into a cacophony of barking, snarling dogs.

Our pack barked whenever Ujarak came to visit, and we recognized their sounds of play and happy recognition when they’d see us, but this was different. VZ and company were barking and snarling in an aggressive fashion that indicated that some sort of danger was present. Atlas lifted me off him and barked orders, reverting instantly to his military background. “Safe room! Now! And let Ujarak know we have a problem. Turn on the monitors down there, keep that door locked. You open the door for nobody but me. Understand?” I nodded and scampered down the stairs, just as we’d drilled repeatedly since our first few days on the island. I wanted so badly for Atlas to be with me, but I understood that he didn’t want to be trapped, that he wanted to be the aggressor, and that he didn’t want to leave our dogs to fend for themselves. We’d truly grown to love them during our months in Alaska, and the thought of any of them being hurt tore my heart in half. The last I saw of Atlas was him slipping on a pair of boots and arming himself from a closet off the kitchen that we kept stocked in case of emergencies. If he were

anyone else, I’d fear he’d be cold, as all he had on were flimsy pajama pants and a t-shirt, but Atlas Titan wasn’t bothered by things like that. I reached the bottom of the stairs and punched in my code on the keypad next to the mammoth bookshelf there. The shelf whirled and slid to the right, revealing a short passageway with a heavy door at the end that looked like it belonged on a bank vault. The lights came on in the hallway as motion sensors detected me, and I heard the shelf close behind me, but not before I heard several gunshots. A second code gave access to the vault, and I slipped inside. A wall of monitors, like a miniature NASA control room, came to life at the touch of a button. I scanned them desperately for a look at Atlas or any our dogs. Three of the screens were dark, meaning something had happened to three of the cameras in the woods. I saw movement on one and touched it, moving its picture to the larger image in the center. On it, I saw the horrific sight of snow splattered with blood, although whatever had moved was now gone from the picture. On another I saw a heavily armed man in camouflage running through the trees. Nowhere, however, could I see Atlas or any of our dogs. I called Ujarak on our secure line and left him a brief message: “This is Vicki; we have a security breach.” Letting someone know we were in trouble felt good, but outside of calling in an air strike, we were going to have to handle this threat alone. I kept going back to the camera inside the house, but all was quiet. I could only watch and wait.

62

ATLAS

I was woefully unprepared. Dressed in pajama pants and boots, I had no protection

from the elements and nowhere to hold weapons. I had a small caliber handgun and tactical knife in my boots, and I’d grabbed an assault rifle from the closet, but I had caches of weapons and supplies hidden in the woods, so I wasn’t worried about being able to neutralize the threat once I identified it. A side door nearest the trees afforded the best cover, and I melted into the forest on full alert. From the forest on the opposite side of the house, near where we’d first heard the dogs, came several reports of small arms fire, snarling, and the sound of a man screaming. Confirmation that we were indeed under attack, by animals of the twolegged variety, and that VZ and his pack had engaged the enemy. I believed in Piper, we’d drilled enough that I knew she’d reached our safe room, so I didn’t fear for her. Even if whoever was out here burned the entire house down, that fortified room would remain. She had a satellite phone, ample food and water, and weapons, if it came to that. We’d scouted every inch of the island, and I knew all the best hiding places and vantage points. I climbed a small incline and wedged myself between a tree and a boulder where I had a perfect view of the front of the house. I saw no movement and started circling around so I could check on the dogs, who’d grown strangely silent. I made my way over to where I’d stashed a rifle with a sniper’s scope. I’d almost reached it when I spotted the first of them. Dressed in forest green camo and carrying an assault rifle of his own, he paused by the trunk of a large tree and signaled to someone I couldn’t see. We were nowhere near the dock, so I wasn’t sure how they’d gotten on the island. I hadn’t heard any aircraft, and besides, parachuting onto our island, unless it was right up near the house, would be a good way to get impaled on a tree branch. I crept over to my hidden rifle and silently readied myself. I had a clear shot at the first man I’d spotted, but his partner, or partners, were still out of sight and I didn’t want to risk giving away my position until I had more intel. I steadied myself and slowed my breathing, noticing for the first time that it was

actually cold outside and wishing I’d grabbed a coat. I watched my target emerge from the trees and sprint to the house using a zigzag pattern. I could have taken him out, but I knew he wouldn’t find Piper. I’d wait for his friend before I made my move.

63

PIPER

A sawed-off shotgun lay across my lap. Atlas had trained me to handle and shoot

a variety of weapons during our time in hiding, and this was the one he believed had the most stopping power at close range. Nobody was on any of the cameras inside the house yet, but they were getting closer. I spotted Atlas, he’d gone to higher ground, just as he taught me, and he’d gotten to his sniper rifle. I could see him watching the front of the house, and on another camera I saw the man he must have been watching sprint toward the house, but he stopped short before entering. He was somewhere on the wraparound porch, I surmised, as he’d disappeared from view but hadn’t shown up inside yet. I scrolled from camera to camera, noting two more go dark, ones that I recognized as in the woods near the dock. That meant our intruders were either extremely fast, or that there were more than just the ones that had encountered VZ and the rest of our security team. Suddenly, I gasped and brought a hand to my mouth, as Ronnie, one of our wolf hybrids, limped into view one on of my monitors, his coat and muzzle splattered with blood. I couldn’t be sure whose blood it was, but he’d clearly sustained a serious injury to the left rear leg. Tears stung my eyes as I wondered what had become of the rest of the pack and my fingers squeezed the twin barrels of the gun in my lap. These bastards, whoever they were, would pay dearly.

64

ATLAS

T he man I’d watched approach the house disappeared entirely, taking the porch

around to the other side of the house. My guess was that he was doing reconnaissance, trying to determine where we were. I crept around from tree to tree until I spotted the man in the woods whom the first had been signaling. He appeared uninjured, so my guess was that their team was at last three men. The dogs must be incapacitated, but from the sound of the struggle, they’d gotten their jaws on at least one of these assholes. No matter how tough you were, or what kind of body armor you were wearing, those dogs were vicious and equipped to inflict terrible damage. A few times when I was roughhousing with them, things had gotten out of hand and they’d left gashes and ugly bruises on me without ever meaning to. Watching a bit longer, I waited for the second man to emerge into the kill zone. When I saw him lock his gaze toward the porch and nod, I knew the first man was giving him a signal, probably to approach. That’s when I lined up his right knee in my sights and squeezed the trigger. I’d be leaving him alive, and armed, but I hoped his injury would flush out any unseen members of his team. The man’s knee exploded, and he dropped with a scream, clutching at what was left of his right leg. I immediately scrambled into deeper cover, and not a moment too soon, as the fallen man fired his weapon blindly into the woods, strafing my previous position. I surveyed my surroundings, deciding how best to approach the house and take out the man on the porch, since my gambit of shooting to injure hadn’t brought him into view. As I began to move toward the house, I heard movement to my left and I rolled, pulling and raising the pistol from my boot in one fluid motion. I identified another man in similar camo to the two near the house and I put him down with a quick three shot burst, two to the chest and one to the head. I reached him quickly, finding that my first two shots had been stopped by his Kevlar vest. I took off his jacket and put it on. A bit snug, but it would keep me warm, allow me to better blend with my surroundings, and perhaps give me the element of surprise if I was mistaken for a member if the assault team. I checked him for tattoos and found indications that he was Bosnian special forces. No doubt retired,

his team taking this job as mercenaries. This was a serious threat. Silently, I made my way down the hill and into the clearing near the house. The man I’d hit in the knee was no threat, barely conscious, so I was left to search out his partner. Just then, the bone-jarring jolt of a Taser dropped me to my knees. I struggled to rise, but a second blast of electricity separated me from my senses. Somehow, I’d missed at least one bad guy. The dogs were incapacitated at best, dead at worst, and now Piper would be all alone.

65

PIPER

A tlas was down.

I watched the scene unfold on our security cameras, Atlas shooting the man in front of the house and then killing the man who snuck up on him. Despite losing another camera, I watched as an unseen assailant, moving through the trees like a ghost, came up behind Atlas and zapped him. I don’t know a better word for it than that. I wanted to scream at my man to turn around, but I knew I was in a soundproof room and it wouldn’t do a bit of good. Instead, I fought back tears and bit my lip until I tasted blood. I’d lost sight of Ronnie, but I’d found the first man to breach the house. He was moving from room to room carefully, looking for us. Through the kitchen to the dining room, poking his head into the bathroom and then moving up the stairs. I was shaking with rage. My attention was torn between Atlas and the intruder. Atlas had been handcuffed and leaned up against a tree sitting down, a cord tied around his throat and the trunk. He wasn’t moving. The man in the house concluded his upstairs search, pausing in our bedroom. I watched him open a dresser drawer, my underwear drawer, and lift out a pair of my panties with his knife before stuffing the trophy in his pack. My blood boiled as the violation just got deeper and deeper. I dropped my robe and changed into something more appropriate for close quarters combat; black yoga pants and a black t-shirt, obviously put in this room before my pregnancy, as it barely stretched to cover my belly. I tucked a handgun into the back of my pants and grabbed extra ammo for the shotgun. The man with Atlas appeared to be trying to revive him. The pervert who took my panties was moving in the direction of the stairs. I watched him pause and bring a hand to his ear, probably getting news from his partner outside regarding Atlas’s capture. Atlas had given me clear orders, and I knew the room I was in was as close to impenetrable as it got, but I’d spent months training with Atlas Titan. And I was carrying his daughter in my womb. I had to act.

Saying a silent prayer asking God to protect my baby, I took a final look at the monitor and exited the safe room and past the bookcase. The sliding wall made a sound, but I hoped it was quiet enough to allow me to catch whomever came down the stairs completely unaware.

66

ATLAS

I woke up bound to a tree, hands cuffed, and head pounding. A rat-faced man in his

forties with dark hair sneered at me and spoke in heavily-accented English. “The girl. Where is she? You get chance now to tell me and things maybe go, eh, not so bad for you. But you lie to me, you try to hide her, things get very bad. For both of you.” I couldn’t imagine they had any genuine interest in Piper, she was simply a loose end they needed to trim. I’d done enough of this kind of work to know that I was probably supposed to be brought in alive, if possible, but that she was expendable. “Untie me and I’ll take you right to her,” I answered. “Nice try, Titan. Only place you go is nice boat ride. Or Hell. Your choice. She already made her decision by picking you. Very bad decision, no?” “Who’s paying you, scumbag? And how did you get onto my island? Where are my dogs?” I was working the cuffs, trying every trick I knew, but making no progress. I wanted to keep him talking, agitate him, get him to make a mistake. The unmistakable sound of a shotgun blast from inside the house, followed by a second, interrupted our conversation. “Ah, that sounds like the wildcat now,” my captor said, his attention on the house and then on his earpiece, as he spoke in rapid-fire what I guessed was Bosnian into a microphone extending to near his mouth. “She’s got some pretty sharp claws,” I said. “Nobody answering you on that radio, is there? I’ll make you a deal. Untie me now and I’ll let you swim for it. Best offer you’re going to get.” He looked unsure as to how to proceed and didn’t seem to be receiving any instructions in his earpiece. “You go back to sleep now,” he stated flatly, hitting me with the taser again. Everything went black.

67

PIPER

He was big, every bit the mass of Atlas, but a sawed-off shotgun at point blank

range put him flat on his back. His foot hit the bottom step just as I pulled the trigger. His body armor kept him intact, but all the fight in him was gone. I’d been shooting with Atlas for months, but only at targets. Approaching him, my weapon again ready to fire, I vomited. Whether the baby was to blame or the fact that I’d just shot someone, I didn’t know. I got near enough to see that he was still breathing, and his big body was blocking the stairs. I kept my gun trained on him, and when he began to sit up, I pulled the trigger again. The result this time was a mess, and there was no doubt he was dead. I fought back tears and reloaded, moving back into my safe room to check the monitors. I sat down and realized that my hands were shaking. I pulled my knees up to me as tightly as my pregnant belly would allow and I let myself cry. I was terrified. I’d killed a man. I felt no remorse, but neither did I enjoy the experience. How did Atlas do it? I watched Atlas receive another blast from the taser, and his head hung down as he blacked out again. Movement got my attention on one of the remaining outside monitors. It was VZ, walking in a curious, haphazard manner. He had blood on his muzzle like Ronnie had, but he didn’t have an obvious injury. He looked more drunk than anything. My best guess was that he was shaking off the effects of a tranquilizer. VZ stopped and sniffed, then bolted. I lost sight of him, but then found him again as he reunited with Ronnie. The two of them touched noses and Ronnie nuzzled against VZ. The alpha dog sniffed at Ronnie’s leg and licked away some of the blood around his mouth before they both broke into a trot, Ronnie admirably trying to keep pace, and they disappeared off-camera. They broke back into view moments later, right in front of the house. The victim of Atlas and his sniper rifle stood no chance. I had to turn away, despite my hatred of the men who’d attacked us, as the attack by the dogs was more vicious and primal than anything I’d ever seen. When I looked again, Ronnie was laying down next to what was left of the man they’d attacked. He was clearly suffering, and I wanted to weep for him, but no

more tears would come. My emotional roller coaster had descended into rage. The last man standing, the one who had taken Atlas down, was alone now, and I was in the head space now to join VZ in taking him apart. I gathered up my shotgun and watched the snarling pack leader slowly circling the house while the remaining bad guy circled away, almost on the direct opposite side of the house. He’d reach the side entrance from which Atlas exited soon, and I was determined to stop him then and there. Stepping over the man at the bottom of the stairs, I climbed them by twos, a thought popping into my head. I wonder if Dr. DeGraff has ever had a patient kill someone while they were pregnant? I have to be the first. I hope. I stayed low and moved into the kitchen. From upstairs, I could hear VZ angrily growling and barking, but the bad guy was missing. Suddenly, VZ went silent and I heard automatic weapon fire. I raced to the side door to see the man in camouflage rolling on the ground with our alpha dog, jamming his gun sideways into VZ’s mouth and struggling to protect himself from the wolf’s gnashing teeth. Just as VZ assumed a dominant position, I stepped through the door and leveled my shotgun at the man’s head. I gave VZ a command to cease his attack, which he did, but he remained in place, snarling over his enemy’s prone form. “Toss your weapon into the woods or I give the attack command, you piece of shit!” I spat at him, and a quick glance in my direction was all it took to let him know I meant business. His eyes darted from mine, to the barrels of my weapon, to VZ’s bared teeth, and back to my eyes. He flung his weapon toward the trees and put both hands up in front of his face. “Easy, boy,” I reminded the leader of our pack. He hadn’t stopped snarling, and it seemed he might resume his attack at any moment. “You handcuffed Atlas in the woods. The key. Slowly.” He made a great show of using just his fingertips to open a pouch at his waist and retrieve a small set of keys, holding them up to dangle. “Throw them over here. At my feet.” His throw was weak, it seemed intentionally so, landing just out of his reach but in a place that would require me to get closer to him than I wanted to. The debate in my mind was ended for me. Before I knew what was happening, the two missing members of our quartet of wolf hybrids, Stevie and Johnny, came tearing around the corner of the house. Evidently, whatever sedative was used to put them down had worn off. I didn’t have time to give a command, and the man on the ground had time only to shriek. The dogs were consumed with bloodlust, and their attack was brutal. I managed to use the barrel of my weapon to drag the keys from the fracas, and I made my way into the woods in search of Atlas.

68

ATLAS

I awoke to a tongue.

Whimpering and licking my face, my eyelids fluttered open to find a bloodsoaked Ronnie, his breath ragged and his movements lurching, painful lunges. When it was apparent that I was awake, he nuzzled himself into my neck and then lay down across my lap. I wanted desperately to wrap my arms around him, to pet him, to somehow ease his pain, but all I could do was whisper to him. “Good boy. You’re such a good boy. I’m so proud of you. Good, good boy.” I heard gunshots from down by the house, a dog barking, and voices, but I was too far away to make them out. I hoped my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me when I heard Piper’s voice, which seemed to carry an authoritative tone. Ronnie whimpered and shook, and then fell silent on my lap. The tears which burned behind my eyes became pure, white-hot rage. I pulled so hard at my cuffs that I was sure both shoulders would dislocate if I applied any more measurable force. My wrist bled, I could feel that, as did my throat, from trying to escape there as well. Suddenly, a frenzy of activity echoed up from down below, a scream and the sound of wolves going completely feral. I turned my head as far as I was able in the direction of the sound, which began to die down, and then I heard someone approaching. I saw her before she saw me, Piper dressed as a special ops badass. A pregnant badass, but still. When she was close enough to make eye contact with me, she saw Ronnie’s blood-stained, lifeless body stretched out across me. “Oh, no,” she said in a quiet voice. She approached slowly dropping to her knees. “Is he…?” I nodded grimly. “I think so. He revived me. He came up here to lick my face and say goodbye.” Just then, we were joined by our fallen comrade’s brothers, who circled from a distance and then came closer, sniffing and licking tentatively as Piper cut me loose and released my wrists.

Once they were convinced of what happened, VZ’s nose went skyward and she called loudly to a moon that was still hours from appearing in the sky. Soon, a chorus joined in, a choir that included my voice and Piper’s. We sat there a good, long while, the five of us. “Before it gets too dark, I’ve got to do recon. Make sure we didn’t miss anything. Figure out what happened,” I told Piper, brushing hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. “I need to stay with you. I don’t care what happens, what we see, I’m not leaving your side,” she said to me. I nodded and we gathered up our weapons, hitting another cache nearby that included water and Powerbars, and we headed out to explore what was left of our sanctuary.

69

PIPER

W e moved off into the woods alone, just the two of us. The dogs wouldn’t leave

Ronnie’s side. The gate to our dock was open, a small motorized vessel moored next to our speedboat. We locked the gate and moved to where we first heard the commotion. One the far side of the island, we found three small gliders. Atlas surmised that the men had hiked to the craggy overlook across the water and waited for the wind to be right to make their silent approach. They must have encountered the dogs right away, because near where their gear was stashed, the bloody remains of a man in camo was found. He held a large knife in his hand, probably the weapon that started the bleed that ended Ronny’s life. The hand was no longer attached to its owner. After neutralizing the animals, they opened the gate, allowing two more men to join the fray. Atlas meticulously examined everything he could get his hands on, and on the body of the man in the house, the one I’d killed, he found a thumb drive. We retreated into our safe room and found the drive empty but for a .wav file. Opening it, we heard a voice we both recognized: QB. “Well, Paul and Vicki, if you’re hearing this, then my Bosnians failed. I had such high hopes for them. They were eager and well-equipped, but you’re a different kettle of fish, Atlas. “I just wanted to let you know I hadn’t forgotten you, either of you, and that you still have a lot to answer for. I’ll be in touch.” With that, the room fell silent. “What does this mean, baby? Are we still in danger?” I pressed Atlas for information, although I knew that he probably only knew what I did. “It means,” he replied, “that yes, we’re in definite danger. We can run, but from this guy we can’t hide. Clearly.” “So what’s next for us? And for her?” I asked, rubbing my belly to emphasize the question. “Best I can figure; we stay down here tonight. In the morning, we pack what we

can carry and we get the hell off this island. Did Ujarak ever reply to your message?” I shook my head. “He may be compromised,” Atlas explained. “We have burner phones. Tomorrow, I’ll make a few calls, try to plan something. In the meantime, I’ll send word to Durham.” I watched him log into his same M/M Missed Connections page, fruitlessly scanning for a new message and leaving one of his own. “Haven’t heard from U, fear the worst. Not sure you can EVER forgive me for what happened. Houseguests turned hostile. Sad news for common friend in Georgia as well. Times one. Tractor. Toaster.” Atlas sighed and logged off. He turned and looked at me with that look. “You disobeyed me, Piper. I told you specifically to stay in this room.” I wasn’t sure if he was truly angry, if the stress of the day had gotten the best of him, or if he was playing at something. “Thanks to my ‘disobedience,’ we’re both alive right now, don’t you think?” I replied. His eyes were intense, and I could tell he needed to destress. I knew I did. “But if you disagree, by all means, punish me.” I pulled off the shirt and bra I’d picked up earlier in the safe room and then made a show of peeling the yoga pants down and kicking them away, leaving me completely naked. I climbed onto the bed on all fours, with my ass in the air facing him. His voice was deepened by lust. “You’ve never been as sexy, Piper. Pregnancy has turned your body into this lush playground for me.” As he spoke, he moved behind me and ran his fingertips from the crevice of the backs of my knees slowly up my hamstrings. His thumbs caressed the place where my legs met my ass, and he spread me open gently, making me gasp as I buried my face in a pillow. He repeated the motion several times, opening and closing me, all the time having an intimate view of my most private areas. “You’re very wet, Piper. Tell me why.” “Because I need it, Atlas, my body needs it so bad.” I pleaded with him desperately. And it was true. As nonsensical as it was, I needed Atlas’s body. I needed to feel pleasure to numb myself from all the uncertainty we were now faced with. He reached down and cupped my sex, massaging it with slow steady pressure. “You have to tell me more. Tell me exactly what your curvy, delicious body needs.” “It needs you, Atlas, I need you to fuck me. Please.” “You should have just said so in the first place, Piper. When you need this,” At the word ‘this’, he plunged into me, burying what may as well have been a

telephone pole into my core. “All you have to do is ask.” My hands clawed at the sheets, balling them up, and I screamed into the pillow as he gave me a barrage of hard, deep thrusts. As suddenly as it began, he stopped, leaving himself just barely inside me. “I want to believe you, Piper, I really do, but I need more convincing. Show me how badly you need it.” His command sent chills down my spine. I looked back over my shoulder and into his eyes. He was standing stone still, hands on his hips, his cock perpendicular to his body, at rest inside me. He flexed both his pecs. I surrendered completely to the most magnificent man I’d ever known. My hips bucked back against him, my body doing all the work, determined to demonstrate just how fully he owned my body and every bit of my sexual need. I rolled and rocked, reaching back to touch myself as I worked his length with every fiber of my being. My orgasms came easily, one crashing into the next, my entire universe centered on the waves of pleasure. “Remember when you told me how your body needed my seed? To keep the baby happy and healthy?” “Yes!” I screamed like a wild banshee. He took hold of my hips and quickened his pace, no longer content to let me control the speed and depth. His knees pushed mine wider apart and he lifted and pulled back, hitting me in a secret place, deep inside. I felt his hand in my hair, forcing my back to arch so that my eyes could meet his. “I love you, Piper!” he shouted, emptying himself into my overcharged body, giving me the medicine I craved so deeply. When he finally finished, he rolled behind me, wrapping his powerful arms around my shoulders, pushing my hair aside so he could kiss the back of my neck as we dozed off to sleep.

70

ATLAS

T he next morning, we took steaks out to the dogs, who hadn’t yet left the side of

their fallen. They stayed by him all night, and even when we approached, they growled softly lest we get too close. Piper moved into their midst, kneeling down to hug and kiss Ronnie. The others meekly licked at her hands, eagerly accepting the offered food. I dug a grave near the house, no mean feat given the cold climate and rocky terrain. I’d let the shovel snap before I stopped digging, however. VZ stood vigil until the last bit of dirt was placed on the grave, then he lay down right on top, regal, daring anyone to move him. Durham received our message, and verified our worst fear, Ujarak had been found dead, the official story a suicide. Unofficially, Durham’s people believed he’d been killed, possibly tortured first for information regarding our security. He was a good man, and we mourned his passing. Late that afternoon, Harold Nickle arrived with a team of “cleaners,” men who could perform the function indicated by their job titles and eliminate any sign of the previous day’s violence, including making the bodies of the Bosnians disappear. More than simply janitors, they could be counted on to be thorough and discreet. They’d repair or replace the sabotaged cameras, and make the entire place as good as new. Escorted by Harold and two members of his security detail, we took our boat back to Ketchikan and were spirited into a private jet bound for Juneau and beyond. VZ, Johnny, and Stevie stayed with us, paying special attention to Piper. They knew she was pregnant, and they weren’t about to lose another member of our peculiar family. “Where are we heading, Harold?” I asked as we climbed into the sky over the Alaskan capital. “Home, Mr. Porter. According to your identification, you’re from near Charleston, correct? South Carolina?” “Yes, but…” Harold cut me off. “Odin’s already in Charleston, your other brothers will meet us there. A strategy session, sir. To put this entire affair to bed. Speaking of which, we’re at altitude

now if you’d like to avail yourselves of the bedroom, it’s all yours.” I rose, shaking his hand and thanking him. I took Piper’s hand in mine and we strolled to the back of the jet, our pack in tow. I had to admit, I was angry at myself. I’d let my guard down, made myself believe we were out of harm’s way. But as long as QB was alive, we would never be truly safe. It was time to finally settle the score of a game that had run long past overtime. And with the rage I felt over losing Ronnie and almost losing Piper, I didn’t fear for myself. I feared for the man who was responsible. Because he was as good as dead.

To be concluded in ODIN, out this Fall. A guaranteed HEA, plenty of steam, a baby, and hot new Titan brothers galore… For news on Odin’s release and other Alison Ryan books, sign up for the newsletter! No spam, just fun. Unsubscribe at any time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alison Ryan is a romance author who lives with her husband and sons in a southern kind of heaven. She loves books about love, watching too much Bravo, and good bourbon. Not always in that order. @AlisonRyanBooks AlisonRyanBooks alisonryanbooks.com [email protected]