Page 47 of Forbidden Confessions, Volume 2 (The Forbidden Volumes #1)

Ridge

P redictably, Kristi’s eyes widen with horror. Her pale skin goes even paler. “W-would you really kill me?”

What a damn clusterfuck this night has turned into.

I need to tell her. Everything. After I walked away from her at the start of the New Year without explanation, I didn’t dare look back.

Of course she doesn’t trust me anymore. I don’t blame her.

If nothing else, she must be confused. The me she sees now isn’t the me she met when my brother married her best friend.

Coming clean is the only chance I have of getting her to trust me enough to follow my lead.

That’s the only way we both get out of here alive.

“No.”

But now comes the tough part. We’re being watched, and I have to make this look good.

I hope like fuck Kristi forgives me someday…but I’m prepared for the fact she may not.

Wrapping my fist in her long red tresses—the hair I still dream of wrapping around my fingers while I fuck her hoarse—I shove her back to the bed. She lands with a startled oomph. I follow her down, covering her body with mine, spreading her legs with my knees and making myself at home.

She’s not in the sparkling red dress she wore the night we met.

She’s also not wearing sky-high heels, spangly bracelets, that spicy-floral perfume that drove me mad, the makeup that accentuated her blue eyes, or the soft curls that swished around her shoulders.

Tonight, she’s in jeans, tennis shoes, and a khaki long-sleeved T-shirt.

She’s not wearing any jewelry and almost no makeup.

Her hair hangs free in gentle waves. And instead of flirtatious, she looks terrified.

I’ve missed her. And I want her more now than I did the first time I laid eyes on her.

It’s not a helpful fucking development.

Also unsurprisingly, she fights me, bucking and screeching, pushing and shoving at me. “Get off!”

I take her wrists in my grip and flatten them against the mattress at the same time I use my legs to pin her immobile beneath me. Fuck, she looks pretty and feels so goddamn good, but I have to focus.

“No. You’re mine now, whether you wish otherwise or not. Give me your fucking mouth.”

Her eyes widen, indignant. “I will not. I’m?—”

I cut her off by crushing her lips under mine and pushing my way inside.

As I surge deep, she stiffens and writhes, doing her damnedest to buck me off.

But she’s got nowhere to go. After thirty seconds, she realizes that terrible reality and turns limp underneath me.

Another few seconds later, and she’s almost kissing me back.

“Good girl,” I whisper against her lips.

“Fuck you.”

So Kristi has backbone? The night we met at Rand and Sophie’s wedding, she was shy and sweet. I loved the hell out of coaxing her, unwrapping her, worshipping her…and her surrendering completely to me. But this side of my girl with fight? I like it. We’re going to need it.

“We’ll do a lot of that tonight, Little Red. I’m going to wear out that pussy. When you’re sore and tired and wrung out, I’m just going to fuck you again.”

She looks incensed. “Hell no. You can’t?—”

“I can. Don’t you get it yet? There’s no stopping this now. Whether it goes down easy or hard is up to you.”

I expect a couple of reactions. More fighting. Maybe some mudslinging or name calling. What I don’t expect is Kristi to burst into tears.

Aw, fuck .

When she does her best to buck me off again, I grab fistfuls of her fiery hair and force her to meet my stare. “What the hell?”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

Tightening my grip, I lower my lips to murmur in her ear.

“I need you to listen carefully and understand what I’m about to tell you.

Or we’re both dead. There are video cameras in this room, and they’re probably set to record.

It’s why I scared you, so you’d keep fighting.

But I’m not who you have to worry about.

I would never hurt you, Little Red. I’ve missed you way too fucking much. ”

A gasp escapes her lips. “What are you saying? You’re in danger, too?”

“I will be if I can’t convince the mobsters watching us that I’m one of them.”

“But you’re not?”

The note of hope in her voice gives me a reason to believe I can get through to her. “I’m undercover, trying to break open their sex ring. You walked into the middle of it, and I have to figure out how to get you the fuck out of it.”

“My cousin Sammie disappeared from this casino last night. Her mother called me frantically this morning and asked me to come help find her. She’s barely eighteen.”

Shit .

“I think I know where she is.” Well, where she was. When I leave here, I’ll have to find out if she’s still in her cage in the third-level basement, been moved to a room on this floor…or in the bed of the man who paid to have her abducted and brought to him like a sacrifice.

“You do?” She grips me tighter, finally looking at me like I’m not a monster.

“About five feet tall? Wavy, dark hair?”

Kristi nods frantically. “Yes. Where is she? What will happen to her?”

If I tell Kristi now, she’ll only freak. “Let me deal with that.”

“No. I need answers so I can call my aunt. Give me back my phone.”

I shake my head. “I’ve told you all I can. You’ll have to trust me for now.”

“After everything, how can I?”

“What are your more appealing options?”

And we’ve been talking too long. Anyone watching this footage will wonder what the fuck is happening.

Why isn’t this new captive fighting me more?

And why haven’t I ripped off her clothes and forced my cock between her legs?

Donzelli thinks I’m discerning, and that will work in my favor.

But he won’t respect me allowing anyone, especially someone trying to blow apart our operation, any kind of leverage.

I have to make everyone believe I’m shutting her down and taking over. Now. It will look a shitload more realistic if Kristi believes it, too.

“Apparently none, and you’re enjoying that,” she hurls at me.

Not really. But I smile for the cameras as I grip both of her wrists in my hand, pin her to the dusty duvet, then work my free hand beneath her baggy T-shirt to curl my fingers around her ribs.

She stiffens. “Don’t touch me until you help Sammie!”

Ignoring her demand, I push the khaki shirt up her torso, revealing her beige bra.

It’s not meant to be sexy. Modest lace trims the underwires with a little pink bow in between.

But the cups only cover half her lush tits, and the thin straps at her shoulders have a hell of a time restraining the bounty God gave her.

It’s both predictable and horrible fucking timing, but I get harder. My head swims in her scent. “Red…”

“Stop!” She wriggles and fights.

But I’ve got her pinned too well. She’s not going anywhere, and she uses up most of her strength over the next few minutes figuring that out before falling limply to the bed again.

“You done?” I demand.

“I hate you.” She sniffles.

Yeah, I figured. That shouldn’t bother me as much as it does. But I’ll have to sort that out later.

Now my hand has a mind of its own, wandering up to the band of her bra…before cupping one of her mouthwateringly full tits. “God. I’ve missed touching these.”

I’ve missed licking them, too. I bend and string kisses across her swell before burying my face in her cleavage.

Holy shit, I loved these the night I spent paying homage to their beauty and perfection. I’d almost swear they’ve gotten bigger since then, but I’m sure that’s because I’ve missed them so damn much.

“Don’t touch me!” She wriggles, trying to work free.

I snap. I know I should let her struggle for the camera, but it’s bugging the hell out of me. “I’m trying to help you.”

“By mauling me?”

“By marking you as mine. Unless you want me to leave you to the mercy of Sal, Rudy, and Paulie, none of whom will hesitate to rape you? Your call. Me or them.”

She swallows and searches my face, her blue eyes dilated with fear. I see the pulse beating at her neck. “They’re really mobsters?”

“Yep. And they’re really running a sex ring that you and your cousin are about to get swept into, unless you play along.”

She hesitates, searching my face like she’s looking for answers. “I don’t like you. And I still don’t trust you.”

“But better the devil you know?”

“Something like that.”

“Excellent. So we’re on the same page? We’re going to fuck now. For the cameras.” That’s not the only reason…but best not to mention that.

“Fine.” She grumbles. “But be quick.”

Good thing I have a healthy ego, but I still can’t help needling her. “You don’t sound too happy. I don’t know why. You weren’t shy about telling me how much you liked it the first time. Or the second. Or the third…”

In fact, Ransom was in the room next to hers that night, and he complained the following morning that Kristi had been too loud for him to get a lick of sleep.

“Because you’re an arrogant, dismissive, assholish?—”

“I get the picture. Tell you what. Why don’t you just take your anger out on me?

You should enjoy that, and it will look convincing for whoever’s watching.

” Then I’ll leave here and make it clear to everyone that Kristi is mine while I look for Sammie and search Paulie’s room in the basement.

But even if I find Kristi’s cousin, I have to figure out how I’ll get the two of them out of the hotel without blowing my cover or losing all the goodwill I’ve spent years earning from Donzelli.

“There’s no way I’m just going to roll over and give you my…” She bites her lip.

“Pussy?”

Her lips purse. “Among other things. I’m going to fight every minute of this.”

“You do that.” And I’ll do what I need to .

I slide one hand under her and find the thin strap bisecting her back and the lone clasp doing the yeoman’s work of securing her luscious breasts in their cups. With a flick of my fingers, I unhook it.

She gasps. Obviously, she wasn’t expecting that.

And as much as I hate to share her with any of the perverts watching us on camera, I don’t see a way around it. So I ignore the surveillance and focus on my woman.

She glares at me. “You’re way too good at that.”

That’s not why she’s mad. “Are you pissed at me because I didn’t call you after that night? Or because you decided to hate me in the last nine weeks, but your body didn’t get the memo?” I shove her bra up, exposing her tits, and drag my thumb across the dead giveaway of her stiff nipple.

“I’m not aroused. It’s cold in here.”

“Bullshit.” It’s been pushing eighty degrees in Vegas most of the week, and there’s no air conditioning piping into these eighth-floor rooms. “You like it.”

“I do not.”

“And you like me.” I pinch the hard tip.

Her body jolts and her breath catches. “You’re wrong.”

“You’re a liar.” I let go of her pinned wrists just long enough to grab her shirt and bra in my fists, then jerk them over her head, leaving her bare from the waist up. “God, you’re as fucking pretty as I remember.”

Kristi shoves at my shoulders. “Get your hands off me!”

This again? “The night we met, Soph told me you were sweet and shy. She didn’t tell me you’re stubborn as hell.”

“I’m only that way with you.”

I grin. “So I bring out your good side?”

“You don’t bring out anything but my temper. We shouldn’t be wasting time fooling around when Sammie?—”

“Have you spent the last three years with these animals? I have,” I growl.

“Do you know what they’re capable of? What they’ve got planned?

How far they’re willing to go for power?

I do. Paulie thinks he gunned down Ransom in a parking lot tonight.

He was celebrating with champagne and a laugh.

So I’m telling you right now that, unless I give them a reason not to, these animals will think nothing of using you and Sammie for their fun, then pumping you full of bullets before digging you a shallow grave in the desert for the coyotes to find. ”

Kristi goes mute in horror. Good. I can’t be any more stark and clear about the stakes. She needs to stop being angry with me for all the wrong reasons and focus.

“Finally got your attention?”

She nods miserably. “Bastard.”

Yeah, yeah . “Like I’ve never heard that before.

What’s going to make you feel better, Little Red?

You want to hear that I hated leaving you that morning?

I did. I resented the shit out of this assignment when I had to tiptoe out on you at five a.m. on New Year’s Day.

Want to know if I’ve thought of you since then?

All the goddamn time. I expected to want you that night, but I didn’t expect to fall for you.

I certainly didn’t expect to come back to Vegas, determined to wrap up this multi-year op so I could find you again because I’m not fucking interested in anyone but you. ”

She swallows, then sends me a suspicious scowl. “You’re just saying that to get me to cooperate.”

Of course she thinks that. In her shoes, I would, too. “I’m not. Now shut up. I’m going to make you scream. I know you’re going to be pissed at me for a while, but try not to hate me, huh? It’s going to make our next fifty years together really rough.”

As far as I’m concerned, more conversation is somewhere between pointless and dangerous. Besides, Fate has given me another night with Kristi well before I thought I’d have one again. Better believe I’m going to take it and make sure that, despite this fucked-up op, she knows she’s mine.