Page 34 of Cruel Pawn (Cruel Duet #1)

Arden

T he squeal of hinges woke me, and I shot upright with panic clamouring in my chest. Disbelief was the next to strike as I fought the covers tangled around my legs, because Aegi didn’t open doors, which meant one of two things—an assassin had found a way in, or my future wife had found a way out.

A rapid scan of the cottage showed it was empty of anyone but me and my baby. The world slowed for a second, silence stretching on. A smile crossed my face. My girl had run.

“You’re a fool if you think I won’t chase you, my pretty poison,” I laughed, a warning she wasn’t around to hear.

I didn’t rush as I dressed in a tight cotton shirt and sweats—my second favourite pair, which meant she’d stolen my faves. I got a rush from that, not gonna lie. Even better, a pair of shoes were missing.

“Oh, Priya,” I murmured, strapping a knife to my arm just in case any assassins decided to breach the grounds around the cottage again.

I was still furious about the first, and a little jealous that my girl got to kill him before I could make him scream.

I would have taught him to never even look at her before his heart stilled, but oh well.

He was dead, and that was the most important thing.

“You have no idea how serious I am about keeping you.”

Aegi made a low, questioning noise, watching as I fastened my running shoes.

“Exactly,” I agreed, pointing at her. “There’s nowhere to run. Nowhere she can escape me. And she has no idea how much I love to chase.”

Or what I’d do when I found her. Priya had waved a red flag at a bull, and after unleashing myself last night, I was even more devoted to her. She didn’t get to own me, control me, take all of me, then run. She was afraid, but there was no need to fear the devil when he loved the bones of you.

Her alias might have been the Rook, but I wondered if she knew mine.

I wondered if she knew the Pawn was a ruse, a trick to lure my victims close.

That was why I had a crown inked around my bicep—I was a king, a ruler, a power player masquerading as a pawn.

And my pretty Rook might have beaten a pawn, but she was no match for a king.

“There’s nowhere to run, my opera,” I called through the dense trees that stretched in all directions, filling the air with a loamy, fresh scent.

She’d put enough distance between us that I couldn’t be sure she heard my voice, but I taunted her, nonetheless.

I wanted her heart racing, her eyes widening, and goosebumps covering her chest under the shirt she must have stolen from me.

I got a kick out of seeing her in my clothes, my hindbrain fucking purring at the sight, at the thought of her wearing my scent like perfume, informing every other person on the planet that she was mine.

Not that she’d encounter anyone on her panicked run through the woods.

There was no soul here but us, unless you counted the officiant I had tied up in the outhouse.

I wondered how long it would take Priya to realise how quiet it was, how eerily abandoned, how remote.

A smile crossed my face when I pictured her reaction as she found the edge of the woods.

“Run, run, pretty Priya. If I catch you, the things I’ll do to you will make your toes curl.”

I made sure to find every twig underfoot and pictured my future wife flinching at every snap.

It was wishful thinking because she was cool-headed and calculated under pressure and by fucking god, did I love that about her.

But I wanted to torment her a little for thinking she could run from me.

I knew she would, of course. That’s why I brought her here, where it was completely secure.

“You’ll never escape me, my opera,” I shouted, one glance at my phone where I had the tracking app open showing I was closer now. Enough for her to hear me. I grinned. “There’s nowhere you can run that I won’t find you. I’ll chase you to the ends of the Earth, Priya McFadyen.”

If I knew her, she was muttering about that not being her name. Oh, but how wrong you are, my opera. Very, very soon it will be your name.

I just had to catch her first.

“Did you have time to clean up before you ran?” I called, unable to hold back a huge smile. “Or is my cum still all over that gorgeous cunt? Can you feel me dripping out of you as you run?”

A glance at the app and my smile sharpened into a smirk. The little blinking dot that was my future wife was stationary. “Do you think you can hide?”

Was her body doused in adrenaline like mine?

Was she afraid, or was she giddy to be caught?

My bet was on both. Because she had no idea what I’d do when I caught her.

She’d presume I’d be angry, as if I hadn’t been waiting for her to break free since we got here.

Priya was not the sort of woman to be caged.

That was why I loved her. My deadly opera, my pretty killer, my beautiful destruction.

And I had no doubt what I actually had planned for today would frighten her far more than my rage.

“Come out, come out, my darling Priya, my clever Rook.”

It had felt like a victory when I found that name, during those awful months we were apart.

The Rook, a mercenary with a kill sheet as long as a shopping receipt.

Professional, clean, and so good at her job she was a ghost even among killers.

Her victims were so varied, methods always different, weapons never the same, that even the police hadn’t connected most of her victims.

I stopped crunching leaves and softened my steps, placing them carefully, soundlessly.

I was close now, and I didn’t want to startle my prey from her hiding hole until I was ready.

The GPS tracker led me right to her. I was honestly surprised she hadn’t found it and cut it out of the shoe.

Maybe she underestimated my determination to keep her. Or maybe she wanted to be kept.

I don’t know what gave me away. Maybe a shadow, or maybe my opera had exceptional, superhero-level hearing, because the second I came within five steps of the tree she hid behind, she shot out like a bullet.

I grinned, pausing for a moment to watch her. Her black hair was unbound, streaming behind her, and she wore my clothes. I got a kick out of that, even as I was sad that her glorious, golden legs were hidden.

“You can run, my opera,” I called, breaking into a sprint. “But you know I’m faster. You know I’ll catch you, and trap you, and devour you.”

She didn’t waste breath to reply, and that only filled me with a warm sense of pride. Damn, my girl was good. Sadly for Priya, she was running right to the edge of the forest, and she was not about to like what she found.

I increased my pace, ready to catch her, already itching to feel the warmth and softness of her in my hands. Would she fight me? I groaned. God, I hoped so. There was something about Priya giving me everything that was so fucking hot. Her, and only her.

I glanced at my phone and smiled. I broke out of the tree line in time to witness a spectacular scream.

Priya yelled so loudly she threw her head back, her spine arching beautifully as frustration poured from her.

I waited a few steps away while she got it out of her system, admiring the water that rushed up onto the muddy bank she stood on, the rising sun turning the water to a sparkling gold that reflected on my future wife so perfectly.

When her voice died, I crept closer, my heart thumping hard. When I was close enough, I pounced, taking her to the ground, cushioning her fall as much as I could.

“You psychotic fucking bastard,” she snarled, struggling, writhing that plush ass against my cock and tearing a deep groan from my throat.

“Keep doing that and I’ll cum in my pants before I even get inside you.”

“You think I’m going to fuck you?” she demanded with an unhinged laugh that gave me butterflies. “I’m going to kill you, Arden McFadyen. Tell me this isn’t a private fucking island.”

I kissed the back of her head while she tried to fight me, smothering a smile. “I did warn you, there was no escaping me.”

“We’re surrounded by water,” she hissed, throwing her head back suddenly.

White pain blanked out my vision for a moment, my nose crunching under the impact of her skull, but if she thought pain and a broken nose would unseat me, my girl didn’t know me very well.

“But you left somehow. Where’s the boat? ”

“It comes once a week,” I said, conveniently leaving out that a single text or call would summon it, too.

Priya screamed, a hoarse, growling sound of rage.

“I told you,” I said, my voice thick with blood, my nose smashed to bits. I’d care about that later. “For always and ever. You’re mine, and I fucking mean that. All mine, for all time.”

I pressed my chest against her back, keeping her pinned while I worked a hand between my hips and her ass, yanking down her sweatpants then mine.

“Arden,” she bit out. “Don’t you fucking dare. I swear, if you put your dick inside me right now, I will—”

I gave my cock a single stroke before I found the dripping wet heat between her thighs—goddamn, she was soaked—and sank all the way in. I bit my lip hard, probably drawing more blood, and my eyes crossed as she came instantly.

“Oh, Priya,” I purred, grinding my cock deep. Her pussy strangled the life out of my shaft over and over. “You’re such a liar.”

Her breath hitched, a gasp ripped from her with a deep throb of her cunt around my cock. My girl was holding back her moans.

Challenge accepted.

I snapped my hips into her ass, dragging out fast for another rough thrust. On the third, she moaned. On the fourth, she groaned, “Oh god.” On the fifth, deeper, rougher, she cried my name.

“You pretend to hate this,” I said, still tasting my own blood. “You pretend to hate me. But you fucking love it, don’t you?”

She didn’t answer, refused to. I clasped my hand to her throat, arching her up against me, straining until my lips pressed to her forehead.

“You don’t want to leave me, my opera. You’d miss this cock. You’d miss the way it splits you open and makes you come so many times your pretty eyes roll back.”

Her breaths came faster, shallow now. Oh, she was right on the edge.

“I would miss everything about you,” I told her, my voice a little ragged. “I wouldn’t know how to survive without you. My entire existence now revolves around you, my beautiful future wife.”

“Shut up,” she ground out, teeth clenched.

“Why?” I kept my thrusts fast and powerful even if my thighs threatened to give out soon. “Because every word I speak pushes you closer to drenching my cock in more cum? Because this sweet little pussy lives for praise and affection?”

She shook her head, but a tremor ran through her body. “I just want to go home.”

“No one knows how to love you at home, Priya. Only I can love you like this. Only I can fuck you like this.” She’d admitted the same to me last night but got spooked this morning.

I brushed a kiss to the arch of her ear.

“I love every last part of you, my opera—the sweetness, the fire, the venom, the bloodlust, the aching heart that’s desperate for love.

All of it. I love every last bit, Priya, so stop running. ”

“Can’t.”

My heart pulled tight. My perfect girl didn’t know how to be loved. “Don’t worry, my opera. You can run. I’ll always chase you, and your pussy gets the treat of being fucked every time I catch you.”

I expected more fighting, but Priya reached up and dug her fingernails into my arm, holding on tight. Like she was begging me to keep my promises.

“You are mine, from now until death,” I swore, my voice tight as I fought the heat boiling up in my balls, the perfect ripple and grip of her pussy around me so damn good that I had to hold myself in her for a long moment, just to feel that heaven on every damn inch.

“Fuck,” I groaned as her cunt choked my dick. “You’re so fucking good for me. No one could ever take this cock better.”

“Arden,” she breathed with a little hitch in her breath that drove me wild.

“You don’t want to leave,” I said through gritted teeth, so damn close. “Say it.”

“I don’t want to leave,” she echoed in the sexiest whine. “Arden, please, fuck—”

Her pussy tightened in a vice grip around my cock, then she detonated with all the beauty and ferocity of a dying star. Her voice echoed around the high trees, filling my ears with my favourite music, then my moans joined hers as the perfect suction of her pussy dragged me over the edge with her.

I moulded my body to Priya’s, feeling every shudder that worked through her, hearing every gasp and groan. I rolled my hips in shallow motions, drawing out every last moan, until she was wrung out.

I kissed the arch of her ear and couldn’t resist taunting, “This sweet pussy is overflowing with my cum, and you’re not on birth control anymore. How long until you’re not just my future wife, but the mother of my future child?”

She swatted at my thigh with a weak hand, bringing a deeper smile to my face. “Shut up.”

“Why? Because you just throbbed around my cock at the thought of my breeding you?”

“Arden, I swear to fucking god.”

“Well, I am a god of fucking, so that’s appropriate.”

“Shut up, or I’ll stab you with a twig.”

I snorted, turning her face so I could kiss her. The angle was all off, but I was addicted to every last taste of her, so I wasn’t about to be deterred. She tasted like heaven and damnation, sin and sweetness.

“So fucking good for me,” I praised, and was honoured by her moaning and softening beneath me. Meanwhile, I was growing hard again. Miraculously fast, because Priya was nothing if not a miracle worker. “What was it you said last night? Give me one more.”

“Arden,” she warned adorably, as if a single thrust didn’t make her teeth sink into her bottom lip and her inner muscles clamp possessively around my dick.

“One more round, then I’ll give you a surprise.”

She lit up at the mention of a surprise, but I wondered if she’d be as excited when she found out what I had waiting for her.