“I was afraid you’d receive the information that way …”
Mr. Lund’s voice fades to the background as a sharp pang seeps through one of my piercings. My attention shoots to Tessaas she tugs backward off me again, which feels so good and so bad at the same time. Her eyes widen in panic.
And that’s when it registers—there’s a tiny metal ball caressing the vein on the underside. Her tongue is pierced too.
Holy shit, are you stuck?
Understanding that frenzied telepathy, she nods and flattens her tongue with a sucking motion, trying to free herself, and I about lose it. The sensations are so contradictory; I can’t catch my breath. My fist tightens in her hair, holding her still and silently instructing her not to move.
I might be fucking psychic. I told her she’d be clinging to me. Shackling her tongue to my cock is a bit more extreme than I anticipated and kind of painful, but not unwelcome.
It does make me question my decision to go with captive bead rings for my Jacob’s ladder over the traditional barbells. I’ve always gotta be different.
“Did I lose you, Maddox?” Mr. Lund’s voice yanks me back to the call.
I swallow and shake my head. “No. I apologize. I’ve got a charley horse in my thigh.”
“Those are terrible,” he sympathizes in his booming tenor. “Stand up and walk that off, son.”
Ignoring the demeaning term ofson, which he would never use with Axel or Ryker, I center my breathing.
“I definitely can’t stand up right now. I’ll just work through the pain.” My eyes latch to Tessa’s for a half beat so she knows I won’t be able to stop this call, but as I return to my meeting, I extend some mild reassurance. “Let’s try to wrap this up quickly though, shall we?”
“Sure.” He lights a cigar, puffing on it a few times, a marked irritation stiffening his shoulders. “Can I assume you’re out because the Makarovs are involved?”
I could go that route. It’s a conflict of interest since Dimitri Makarov is a member here as well. And we don’t get involved in wars, unless it’s to arbitrate negotiations on neutral ground. But I need more information for my own personal interest.
“It certainly puts us in a precarious position. We aim to avoid any entanglement with our members being at odds as much as we can.” I cough, hoping it loosens the piercing situation, but it only pulls at it more, which has a searing twinge rocketing through my limbs.
Tessa wedges her finger inside her mouth in an attempt to free it, to no avail. It’s a tight fit. I’m not gonna lie; this is a quandary, but one I’d love to brag about. It’s like big-dick energy and my dream girl worshipping me, to the point of gluing herself to my cock—the unfortunate subject matter of the meeting aside.
I’m dizzy from the pain. And the pleasure. My entire body’s blood supply is rushing to my ensnared member. I’m getting dumber by the second.
Stars flit before my eyes, but I push on. “As I’m sure you’d suspect, peace among opposing families and organizations only occurs about fifty percent of the time. What happens off property isn’t our business. But for the sake of being certain we can’t help, what does the money have to do with him?”
“As you know, my family has always conducted a fair amount of business in New Orleans. Well, a couple of years ago, my grandson was at Mardi Gras—”
“Excuse me one second while I switch my Bluetooth on.” I turn off the camera and speaker for a beat, slip one earbud in since I should’ve had that in to begin with, and look at Tessa. “Two more minutes, baby. Are you okay?”
Her lips tremble around me, which feels divine and unholy and so fucked up. Even though she tried, I slide my finger inside her mouth, attempting to undo one of the piercings, but there’sno room to maneuver. It only crowds everything and tugs at both of us harder, causing us both to hiss. We’ll have to wait.
Palming her head, I do my best to try to relax her. “You may have shown up here to screw with me, but we’re a team right now. I know your jaw and tongue probably hurt. At least you’re only choking on half of me.” I waggle my brows. “Try not to move, okay?”
She murmurs her agreement, swallowing some saliva as a small stream of drool trickles down her chin and her eyes water. The simple act has my dick twitching and my fists tightening from the stabbing prickle. A stifled throaty laugh floats out of her.
“You think that’s funny, huh, you little demon?” I thumb away a few of her tears, my chest aching with a foreign heaviness. “You really are such a good girl. I’ll be fast, but I have to finish this.”
Flipping the screen back on and adjusting my earpiece so the rest of this call is only between Mr. Lund and myself, I apologize again. “Sorry about that. Technical difficulties.”
“Right,” he replies with a skeptical glare. “As I was saying, my grandson was going to Mardi Gras two and a half years ago, so he agreed to deliver a payment that we owed to the Makarov family to Dimitri’s son, Niko, who was also there that week. He made the handoff and went back to his friends. That was the same night Niko went missing.”
The room spins. The impending doom of the dominoes crashing around me makes me sweat.
“That is unfortunate timing,” I manage, my gaze briefly flicking to the sexy girl who can’t seem to stop torturing me by hollowing her cheeks.
Despite the sting, she’s going to make me come on this damn call, unless the terror of the mess we’re in keeps me grounded.
“It is,” he agrees. “But I wasn’t worried about that until recently. My grandson maintains that he paid Niko and went on his way. Dimitri accepted that initially. He even thought maybe his son had partied too hard and decided to stay away for a bit, which was something he was known to do. That’s why no investigation into his disappearance began for months.”
