Before I could respond, Rika sidestepped me, stumbled to the door and hit the stop button. We ascended a second later. I waited for her to look at me, but she kept her gaze fixed on the floor, her grip firm on the rail lining the panel next to the door. Tempted to ask her what she was about to tell me, I took a step forward. She swayed and I realized she was trying to stay upright. The door swooshed open, curbing my attempt.
She teetered for a moment and when I reached out to steady her, she shoved my hand aside. “I can manage, thank you.” Her smile stayed but her eyes changed into piercing shards of blue and gray.
She was angry and I didn’t blame her. Even though she didn’t want me to, I followed her to the large black doors of the penthouse suite. She held onto the wall for support and I couldn’t help smiling at her sass despite being under the influence. When she stopped and shook her head to focus, the idea that she might’ve been drugged struck me in the chest like a poisoned dart. I tensed, every muscle burning with unbridled rage. Fisting my hands, I refrained from reaching out to her lest she pushed me away again.
Outside the doors, I waited while she fumbled in her purse. “Fuck it,” she muttered a moment later and pressed the buzzer. It opened almost immediately. “Hi,” she greeted Zayne with a childish exuberance before zipping past him on unsteady legs.
I watched her disappear around a corner before meeting Zayne’s less than friendly stare. He stepped aside, inviting me to enter. I shook my head, not sure how I’d react to their personal space. “I might be mistaken but I think she’s been roofied.”
A muscle in his jaw spasmed, and I watched his fists clench and unclench as he fought to remain calm. “Did he touch her?” His voice cracked like a whip, failing that attempt.
“As far as I can tell, no.” I understood what he was going through having barely managed to keep from killing the fucker. “Look, I could be wrong. She might just be drunk,” even though I uttered the words, my insides roiled at another what if. Something didn’t add up, though. The bouncer, Tia, and Zayne’s behaviors left me curious. “Why do I get the feeling you orchestrated this whole thing?” the question was out before I could stop it.
The shutters slammed down over his features, giving me nothing. No anger. No disbelief. Just a blank slate leaving the observer to paint a picture of what went on inside his head. “You seem like an intelligent man, Trent.” I didn’t miss the steel-lined tone. Either I’d hit a nerve or insulted him. “I suggest you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Although his words were quiet, his eyes told me he was a man who ate fear for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He was someone you’d do best to have as an ally. I pitied his enemy yet felt no intimidation. He’d have to try harder where Rika was concerned.
“Go check on her.” Hiding the desperation to demand he take me to her, I walked away.
It was only when I sat in my car, my fingers on the wheel in a white-knuckled grip, did I acknowledge one of Drake’s questions, if not the most important one. How far was I willing to go, to make her mine? Jealousy slithered inside me and I refused to acknowledge it, gritting my jaw as I maneuvered the car onto the main street, joining the rest of the night-lifers that partied until the early hours of the morning. The answer was non-negotiable. “I’ll do whatever the fuck it takes. Even if she belongs to you, Zayne.”
Zayne
AS I WATCHED TRENTwalking away, sour bile burned in the back of my throat, threatening to surface. Blood rushed through my veins, heating my body to beyond boiling. Someone was going to fucking pay.
Shoving aside those thoughts, for now, I focused on Ashrika. “Rika?” I walked into her bedroom, not bothering to knock. I’d been in there plenty of times either to say goodbye when I was leaving or to take care of her during an illness, but I’d never entered unannounced. Drunk or drugged, now was no time for a morality check. The sound of running water caught my ear and the door to her bathroom stood wide open. I paused at the threshold. “Angel?”
Hearing her moan, I stepped further in only to come to an abrupt halt. Her arms crossed over her chest, she stood under the shower, fully clothed with her long hair plastered to her face. I stared, drinking her in. Was it wrong that I burned with the need to caress her body, to make her mine, mark her until she begged me to stop? Perhaps years of pent-up sexual tension had done that to me. I was a man after all. She held the power to bring me to my knees, to make me beg. Only, I had no claim over her.
“What are you doing?” I reached around her and shut the water. Stepping back, I blinked like an idiot, forcing my gaze not to stray further than her chin.
“I’m hot.” Laughing, she pushed wet strands back from her face then dropped her hands to her sides.
My breath hitched and my gaze zoned in on her wet, transparent top. Dark brown nipples taut and visible strained against the soaked fabric as the streams of water caressed her luscious body. Once my gaze latched onto those, I could think of nothing else except how those flawless full breasts would taste in my mouth. Blood rushed to my dick.Fuck.Was it wrong that I had the sudden urge to force her to her knees and make her swallow my cock?
I couldn’t help but follow the path of her sexy as fuck body, noticing how the slither of flesh on her stomach peppered with goosebumps. Lowering my gaze, I traced the outline of her mound, the soaked fabric of her see-through white pants clung in all the right places, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Fuck me.
