Page 11

11

EVIE

I don’t want to get in Lochlan’s car. I’m perfectly capable of driving myself home, but here I am, standing by the passenger door with my arms crossed, glaring at him.

“I’m fine,” I snap, my voice tight. “I can drive myself.”

Lochlan doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t even look upset—just that determined look in his eyes. “No. I’m not letting you drive. Not today.”

My blood boils at how easily he dismisses me. “You’re being ridiculous.”

He shrugs, unfazed. “I’m not taking any chances. Get in the car.”

I roll my eyes but do what he says. There’s no point arguing with the way things are. I feel exposed, out of control. I can’t explain why, but this is how it is. The threat feels real, and part of me wants to feel safe, even if it means being pissed off at Lochlan.

The car engine roars to life, and we sit in silence for a few moments. The day presses down on me—everything’s happened so fast, so much to process. I’m still trying to wrap my head around what happened earlier. The video, the threats, my father… I don’t know what I’m dealing with, but I know I can’t back away. Not now.

Lochlan glances at me as he pulls into traffic, his jaw tight. “You okay? You were acting weird this morning.”

I stiffen, caught off guard. “I’m fine. Just… tired,” I lie, keeping my voice steady.

His gaze sharpens, but he doesn’t say anything else. The tension in the car thickens, and I feel like I’m suffocating. I want to tell him the truth, but I can’t. If he finds out about the threats against my father, he’ll pull me out of the office, and I can’t let that happen. I need to find out how deep my father’s ties go.

He lied to me the other day, told me what I wanted to hear. But my father is tied up in this thing somehow, even if it's Lochlan and his family who put him in the middle of the situation. That video only proves it, and now I'm stuck in a situation I didn’t ask for, having to protect my own father from something he won't ever see coming. I have to dig in deeper and find out how far it goes to see if there is a way I can save him.

"Well, you can tell me if you want. I'm not going to freak out or think you're weak." He steals glances at me as he drives, and my eyes track over to him curiously. Why would he say something like that unless he already knows what's happening? But if he knew what was happening he'd have stopped it by now, stepped in and nailed Darren Connelly to the wall.

"I'm fine," I say, letting my tone soften. It's not Lochlan's fault this is happening, and I have to be honest with myself. I feel safer with him in his car than being cut off by that creepy man. Maybe if he sees that Lochlan is with me every second of the day, he'll get the point. He has to know who Lochlan O'Rourke is.

"It's because we had sex?" He's so blunt, stopping at a red light and staring at me. His eyes bore into my skin, making me nervous and a bit flustered. With everything that happened at work, sex was the last thing I had on my mind. But now that he's brought it up, I find myself feeling warmer, kind of aroused.

I swallow away the tension of being forced to do something I wasn't pleased with and let his question sink in. When he left my apartment last week, he said I needed to bring my A-game next time. He obviously knows what he wants, but I don't, so it makes me curious to hear his thoughts. I muster a bit of boldness and say, "Yes, the sex…" It's a lame excuse, but he buys it and smirks at me, which embarrasses me a little.

"What did you mean by bringing my A-game?" This time, it's my turn to stare at him as he pulls away from the intersection and turns toward my father’s house.

"I mean, you went from a prowling vixen in your da's living room to a puppy on a leash. If you want to please me, you'll have to be a bit wild. I like the feisty ones. Why do you think I followed you back to your suite?" A smirk plays at his lips. I get the feeling he's asking for something, and if he wants the vixen, then I have to pull her out and pretend I know what I’m doing.

My core tightens. I'm sure my body is making loads of moisture as I angle my shoulders toward him. He's focused on driving, and I feel like the mood in this car just shifted. So he's being a bit overprotective by driving me around. At least I can have some fun with it. So I unhook my safety belt and lean over him, rubbing his groin. Surprisingly, I find a slight bulge that hardens under my touch.

"A vixen?" I purr, conjuring images of a woman clad in black leather with a whip and a man tied to a bed. I'm sure it's not what he's meaning, but it's all I can think. "You want to be dominated?" I whisper in his ear, and he chuckles.

"I want you to fight me a little. Make it interesting."

Lochlan speaks so confidently, I'm not sure what to think. "Fight you?" I ask, finding that my hand has stopped massaging his swelling dick as he pulls into the driveway and rounds the house to park by my apartment.

"Yeah," he says as he slides the car in park. He grabs my wrist and tightens his grip hard around it, then presses a kiss to the inside of my palm. "Fight me."

"You want to rape me?" I swallow hard, sensing my eyebrows rising. What the hell am I getting myself into?

"Do you want to be raped?" The way his words rumble in this throat makes me shudder. He’s getting off on this, and it’s pushing buttons for me too.

"Of course not…" I can barely breathe. He turns me on so much, but it sounds to me like he wants things I have no clue how to give him or whether I even want them.

"Can I show you?" he asks, and I get the feeling I don't have a choice.

I nod, backing away. My hand fumbles for the door handle behind me as he climbs out and rounds the car. Before I'm even on my feet, he is there, hefting me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

His grip is tight, unforgiving as he knees open the door to my apartment. He kicks it shut behind us and growls, "This is your safe word." And he drops the keys from his car into my hand. "If you want me to stop, you use it, understand?"

“Yes… keys…” I nod, finally finding my voice as he sets me down on the couch in my living room. "I understand," I pant out, still shaking like a leaf in his presence. This Lochlan is nothing like the man I've been with the past few days. He's predatory, primal, and I like it more than I should.

Then, before I can process what’s happening, my wrists are tethered above my head by his tie. Lochlan’s dark gaze meets mine, sending a spike of fear slashing through me. I tense, trying to draw my knees up, but his body presses me down, his hand reaching up the front of my shirt. This feels very much like a man having his way and not making love, and I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel. But I’m sure it’s not fear.

"Relax," he growls, though there's a calming underlying current in his voice. "I won't hurt you. If you want me to stop, you say ‘keys’. Got it?” His teeth sink into my neck, and I whimper as a flood of endorphins shoots through my body to my core. It makes my knees fall apart for him, my body arch into his.

The mixture of fear and arousal is like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and the hairs on my arms stand on end. The sexual tension thickens as he reaches for my shirt, yanking it open roughly and exposing my bra which he rips off without a second thought. His hands are everywhere, fondling, squeezing, prodding, and I find myself arching into his touches. My moans are low and needy, my back digging into the couch as he straddles me.

“Lochlan,” I moan out, unsure whether it’s consent or a plea for him to stop. Maybe a bit of both.

When he backs away and jerks my slacks off me without even unbuttoning them, I hear the fabric tear and gasp. My feet lash out and kick at him unintentionally, and he grabs me by the ankles and pins them to the bed with one knee.

“That’s it. Like that,” he purrs as he carefully unbuttons his shirt.

“Feck,” I hiss breathlessly. He wants me to kick him? I don’t know what’s happening.

When he’s shirtless, I find myself staring at the perfect six-pack he’s carved for himself and for a moment, I’m speechless. Before I can gather my thoughts, Lochlan has loosened his pants enough to free his hard length. My eyes widen when he grips himself, stroking once… twice… and a third time before he shoves his pants down and kicks them off.

“Stay off me,” I whimper, sounding more timid and afraid than anything else. He eats it up.

“And if I don’t?” he asks as he crawls across the bed, wrestling my squirming legs to the mattress. He spreads my knees wide, pressing them to the bed on either side of me, exposing my core to his hot breath.

“I… I’ll…” I’m supposed to fight this? But fuck, I want it. That mouth on my core. I want him.

“You’ll what? Say it.” Lochlan leans down and bites my clit. Literally bites it until I’m hissing and yelping. My hips buck upward and I writhe.

“Fecking stop it!” I groan, not at all meaning it, but the more I fight him, the better it gets. I jerk at the restraints, try to unpin my knees, but he’s so strong. “Don’t do that. Stop!” My shout makes him chuckle.

“Precious,” he says, blowing a steady stream of breath over my moisture, which makes me shiver.

“Mother of God, get off me.” This time, when I jerk my hips upward, my pelvis knocks into his face and he smirks, wiping my juices off his chin. His hand comes down in a hard slap to my core. It stings and then burns, and I gasp and suck in a breath.

“Cuss at me,” he says, crawling closer, stroking himself.

“Feck you,” I hiss, playing his vixen. “I hate you and your damn dick. Let me go, Lochlan. Feck off.”

“That’s more like it.” He grins, positioning the head of his dick against my slick entrance. “Now, let’s try this again.”

“No,” I start to say, bucking my hips from side to side. I writhe so violently that he has to stop stroking himself to hold me down. It’s hot, and it makes the way he glides through my moisture even more arousing. I’m so turned on, I could explode as soon as he’s in me.

“Yes” he growls, sliding in just the crown and then retreating. My entire body stiffens, arches upward to meet him. “You want more, don’t you? Admit it. Or do I have to prove it to you?”

“Get the feck off me,” I pant out, shaking with desire and a need I don’t understand. He smirks knowingly as he shoves his length deep inside, balls to cunt in one powerful thrust, and I scream from the sudden invasion.

“Christ,” I moan, tugging on the restraints again before giving up and allowing him to set the pace. His hand comes down on the side of my ass, and I whimper, almost blurting out my safe word, but not quite ready to end the pleasure. I teeter on an edge I never thought I’d see between blinding pleasure and terror, and when his hand wraps around my neck, my eyes shoot wide open.

“That’s a good girl,” Lochlan says, rewarding me with a smack to my behind that sends bolts of electricity straight to my core. “Say something really nasty to me.”

His fingers tighten. My eyes flutter shut. I grunt out, “You’re an animal. Filthy dog.” The heat starts low in my core, swirling and pulsing until it detonates. My body explodes in waves of pleasure. His grip loosens on my neck, and his hand slaps my ass again, so hard that this time, I see stars.

The orgasm rolls over me like a tidal wave, and I’m screaming into the couch pillow, arching debauchedly against him when he releases with a guttural groan of his own. His hips pump more slowly. His heart pounds in his chest. I can barely breathe as he kisses me softly, then slides his hand up my arms.

I lie there panting, sweat coated, and spent while Lochlan gently unties me from the headboard. When he pulls out, I feel his sex drain onto the mattress, but I'm so spent I can't move. He backs away, dresses slowly, stares at my sex—still spread open to his view.

"If we're doing this, you're mine. Do you understand? I don't share." He slides his arms into his shirt, does the buttons up, and drapes his tie around his neck.

Whatever "this" is, I like it. Even if his kink is dominating a woman to the brink of insanity, pushing me to the point of fear and terror then sucking me into his pleasure… I can take it. I enjoy it, and it's way more exciting than Elvin Murphy. I nod, but I don't tell him that I'm betrothed. I think he knows it, but I'm not sure what he'll think of it when I tell him I have to stop fucking him to get married. If he won't share me, I don’t see it lasting after my nuptials.

"Fine," I say curtly, hoping it's the right response.

Lochlan stiffens, squares his shoulders, and narrows his eyes, then nods. If he wants a vixen, it's what I'll be. "And tell no one."

"Of course. Do I look stupid?" I roll to my side, closing my sex off to his view. He smirks.

"You're too innocent to be a bitch, Evie. I like you the way you are. Just remember how to please me in bed, and we'll do fine." I'm surprised when he leans over the bed and offers a lingering kiss. I don't push it away. I'm smitten by him. Something about him, even with his domineering nature, is so captivating.

"Stay," I whisper, hoping to entice him to more pleasure. Maybe good conversation.

"Tomorrow," he says, and he walks away.

I'm frustrated, but there's nothing to be done with a man like that. He'll do what he wants when he wants, and all I can hope is that at some point, he wants me.

When the sound of his car engine fades into the distance, I fish my purse off the floor where it dropped when Lochlan threw me on the bed and I take out that burner phone. I send the message that the cargo was shipped, and I’m glad it's over.

I'm not sure what else that man is going to require from me, but he surely can't expect me to keep this charade up with Lochlan breathing down my neck. I just want to find out why Darren thinks my father is a criminal and make him stop threatening my family. And I want my da to be safe and not in prison. It's just a matter of how deep the rabbit hole goes.