MIATHE SOUND OF WATER dripping from the ceiling soared through my ears. The sound of my toes scratching the concrete that had been my friend for days, months, years added to the rhythm.And for a moment, I hummed. It was all I could do as I mingled the sounds together. Sounds that were meant to keep me sane even if I wanted to lose my mind on most days.On a day like this, Bryant missed his usual visit.A visit where he supplied his newfound comebacks and insults and not forgetting the food I fed off from the ground like a dog.I had fought him every single time.Every time he appeared in this dark room, thinking just because of the darkness I wouldn’t catch his scent, I would be ready for him.Ready like Flames taught me and I would attack him with everything I had with the little bit of lifeforce coursing through my veins.Last week he’d been here, I had caught the telltale of his heavy boots hitting the concrete, tailing around me, thinking of an attack and I had listened for him
FLAMES‘STAY CALM. SNAKES IS RUNNING TESTS’“It’s been TWO fucking hours”, I exhaled, hand on my hip, the other hand scrubbing the stressful lines on my forehead.The minute I walked in found Blaze hurdled on a corner assessing the woman who looked ready to attack at any moment. My heart fucking lunged.The room she was in—fuck, fuck that bastard—reeked acridly of sewage, damp socks, the ground itself was wet and she was fucking barefoot.Her clothes, the same shirt and jeans she was in when we separated hugged her body but they weren’t in the least bit clean. They were dirty, filled with claw marks, the thought of whose claw marks they were invaded my thoughts and I wanted to shoot everything and everyone.Some few plates lay scattered on the room, shattered, dirty.The blanket a few feet from her told me that was the only thing that shielded her from the cold, from fucking pneumonia and there she was, staring at me, at my direction really but not at me.Her lips curled up with frigh
MIA“I’LL SHOW YOU UP TO YOUR ROOM, ma’am”The butler, the housekeeper, whoever was in charge of the house here grabbed my hand and I let him.I didn’t like it in the least bit.I didn’t like using anyone for support, I didn’t like that certain uneasiness in their voices when they offered to help me.Even with the guys, Flames’ friends, I had felt it. I had felt that certain drop in their voices, that sound eyes made when eyelids clashed more than once, they all looked at me and had no clue how to treat me.Everything was over, I knew but how-how could this be my beginning?A life so desolate, a life where I was confined to the man I didn’t want near me, a life condemned to asking help from others, to rely on someone’s eyes.I hadn’t come to terms with that yet.I also hadn’t come to terms that Alessandro was in my life now. Permanently.And you know what? That was hard than being blind, because in all this messiness, he was the guy I wanted to turn to.But the guy I wanted to turn to
FLAMESI WATCHED AS SHE TALKED TO Carl, I listened to every word, had the patience of letting them be all buddy buddy with each other before I broke up the little reunion.I didn’t give two shits what my butler thought as I let her find her room all on her own.She wasn’t crippled and damn it I wanted her to understand that.All this, her sight, her fucking stubbornness, it was all fucking temporary, something that she’d cemented in her head and if she managed to maneuver her way around that, she wouldn’t feel weak, she wouldn’t be weak in the first place. I might have been evil, might have been a prick in teaching Mia how to fend for herself without any help but I wouldn’t just stand there, watch her ascend a flight of stairs without any help.I’d been behind her.Backing her from behind, cheering her on from behind as she took unsteady steps to a destination she couldn’t see.And when she’d missed a step, I was right behind her.I would always catch her. she might not have fancied
MIAHE WAS MARRYING ANOTHER WOMAN.Not to seem affected, the only reply that could come out of my mouth was…okay.Okay it was not like I was devastated or anything. This was what I wanted.He deserved a woman who was complete but why did it feel like a hot sword was cutting piece by piece of my insides?“To your right…no other right”I moved, my hand reaching for the cold countertop, to the barrel holding the wooden spoons and picking one out of it.“Thanks”“It’s nothing really. Any friend of my brother is a friend of mine”My smile fell.Saying we were friends was a bit of a stretch, friends didn’t know how you tasted, or fucked you till every time they came near you, you wanted to do it again and again.“We are not friends”, I clarified, walking my way back to where Lucy was.“Right, your situation is different, I’m judging from your accident”Her words made me still.“He told you about the accident?”“No…he’s too closed off to tell me anything. I picked it up on the way you move,
FLAMESFUCK LUCE.FUCK CARL.AND FUCK MOLLY AND ISSA.I wanted her to be fucking free, to be normal, to be happy but in a club full of delinquents and hungry men that was the last place a stunning blonde like her out to have been.My head spiraled as I mulled over that incredibly short dress she’d worn. Reaching mid-thigh, all leather and all black, add in the smoky stuff smudged against her eyelids and she was the most stunning woman in the room.Lucy had warned me to back off. The urge to fucking strangle my sister had never been this close.All this…inviting her to that party, becoming friends with Mia in the first place was some kind of torture targeted at me. For not being the brother she wanted and damn her because it fucking worked.I whipped my phone from my pocket, one glass still gripping the glass that had been my companion for the night.Downloading the forbid app that ate people’s minds away, I groaned looking at the red abomination they called Instagram. The last fucking
MIAI HAVE A COUSIN, BORN BLIND, IT DIDN’T STOP HER FROM RUNNING TRACK.You can be anything you want, Mia and no one can convince you otherwise.Ethan Lochan had been great company for the night. After Tonia had assaulted me with a few mean words that diminished the brave front I had put up, the last thing I expected was to land in the men’s washroom and find a good guy like Ethan to show me the way out.And I don’t know it was nice having someone to talk to albeit a stranger about my condition.While my friends-Lucy’s friends didn’t ask much about me being blind to which I was grateful, the stinging feel of losing my eyesight still lurked in my heart, throbbing every time I heard someone speak and I couldn’t make out which face was which or who was who and with Ethan...I guess it was easy to talk to a stranger who understood my condition rather than told the people close to me.And the night with Ethan had been remarkable, the best night I’d had since I received ‘the whole I don’t t
FLAMES‘WHAT DO YOU SEE CARL?’I puffed out smoke from my mouth. It had been a while since I smoked this shit but circumstances called for it, I guess.Jostled by the question, putting down the newspaper next to the mahogany tray between us, his eyes looked dead ahead like mine had since the punk arrived in my fucking mansion.“Why, Sir, I don’t know. She looks happier than she did days ago”Right.“And why is that?”“I suppose it has to do with whatever she’s doing right now”, Carl uttered with balmy enthusiasm.I didn’t say shit as I held my cigarette between my fingers, taking in the smoke with the hope it would block the sight in front of me.Mia’s neon backless, tiny bikini was the only good thing happening today. She had braided her hair into two pig tails and that sight was worth a thousand words.Innocent, cute, the only color in my black and white morning.Her smile couldn’t have gotten wider as she butterflied her way in my pool from one end to another, laughing, chucking, g
A FEW YEARS LATER“YEAH, yeah…fuck”I moaned loving the feel of him moving in and out of me while he enjoyed the show like he always had.He let me take over at times and this was one of those times where I sat in his arms, his hands on my back as I bounced my titties off his dick.The bad thing about it is that it didn’t feel half as satisfying like when he had control over everything and he knew that.“Had enough?” he asked, I slapped his cheek.“Fine you win you can take over”He chuckled,“I thought you would never ask”Holding me in place, my head towering his and our eyes locked on each other, he slipped his dick in me again taking control over everything.Then just as fast and rough as he always was, he thrust once in me and I could feel him all the way in my womb, all the way in to my hilt hitting that spot that only he could reach.“That felt good, didn’t it?”“Don’t gloat, just make love to me like how I like it”His thrusts increased, stretching my insides, forcing my walls
FLAMES“WE ARE GOING BACK to Austin, Texas”, Bates spoke over the phone.“Miami’s not good enough for your playboy ass?”I would miss him but I also knew Miami was never the kind of forever he wanted for him or for Cannon’s kid.“My playboy ways are over Flames. It wounds me that you think I’m still the same fucker you are”“Fuck off”, I laughed and he laughed too and together we were drawn back to our days when it was just me being fucking grumpy at everything and him being the annoying little fucker that buzzed in my ear like a pesky mosquito.“There’s still room for you in B&A, YOU KNOW that”“I know but the kid’s been a lot and I think it’s time I put down my Glock and focus on what matters”“Yeah and what is that?”“Family. I might have a family of two but I love it because it’s so much than I ever had when I was a kid”It was the first time he was admitting that even if we all knew his life story. I could particularly relate to the word family because soon enough I was starting
MIAI LAUGHED.Andro twirled me around bringing me back to his arms as we danced the morning away.The song we were dancing to was something between the lines of ‘baby mama’ and ‘I’ve been pregnant FOR way too long’.“You did not tell me you could dance like that, mister”, I poked my FINGER on his bare chest and what I felt was a brick of hardened muscles.“I’m a man full of surprises”, He said cockily, hands on my waist, eyes so glued to mine I felt like a mushy mud puddle.“Do the guys know you dance?” I teased, he hit me back with a hard,“No”“It’s not a bad thing if a man dances, that doesn’t mean you are weak”“It doesn’t but the last thing I want is for my men to think I’m weak. Believe it or not, they look up to me and I’m the glue that holds them together. If they know I dance or I have a weak spot for anything, they’ll relax and that’s the last thing they should be doing”“I’m I your weak spot?”I was.I knew I was.He had assured me of that in the last few days I had almost
MIAI’D HALF THOUGHT THAT WATCHING a chick flick with a stone-faced guy was the last thing I would have to face for the day but no.Right now, I wasn’t in the room with Pindrop seated on the couch and half explaining the things about the movie that he didn’t understand. That was too good of a gift to ask from God.So instead, He brought this man and trust me hell hath no fury like a scorned Alessandro Petrakis.“Thirty-three calls, fifty messages, five bouquet of flowers and nothing. I had to rush all the way home because my heavily pregnant woman is throwing a tantrum so tell me what’s wrong right fucking now or I’ll show you just how much agony you put me through for not answering my calls”He thundered; I didn’t flinch because this was how he acted when he was mad.I was mad too; I had no right to be but I was because he—he was in Germany with my sister.Alessandro’s eyes searched mine, the bowl of fruit salad resting on top of my bump shook with my hands.I wasn’t scared of him.R
FLAMESEVERY time I landed my ass in this summit there was always the rare occasion, that one I would have to listen in on bullshit conversations about leadership or two, pretend the suit I wore to this function wasn’t choking the life out of me.And the suit was really fucking tighter than the last one I had worn last month.Seated next to the CEO of Alpha security didn’t help my cause either.Elliot Guzman listened to every goddamn word the host spoke, pausing for a second to jot down what he found important and what he needed to change in his firm.The dude was so uptight, I had hated Alpha security the minute I met its leader. And there was that rivalry between us that we both failed to acknowledge.While Guzman scribbled shit in his dandy notebook, my hands itched on my screen.The fuckers I had told to keep an eye on Mia had been MIA. AND WHEN THEY DID TEXT me right this second, they sent a picture of them enjoying pizza with…was that?The fucking guy from Mia’s apartment? The f
MIAI HAD BURNT A LOT OF BRIDGES with him by leaving him but he was here, he was asking how I felt, he was massaging my feet, he was listening, he was acting jealous even if he would have rather died than admitted that and name any woman who would have resisted that.I hadn’t had him for too long and something in my mind and heart—like a kill switch just snapped and I went in for the big prize.A shudder racked my whole body when our lips connected.Sparks might have buzzed and scintillated between us as I took more of his scent, as my fingers found his terse jaw and as uncomfortable as it was I had to move and so I moved.Onto his lap, dry humping against his crotch like a wanton.And maybe I was a wanton woman for wanting him to do dirty things to me a few feet away from the kitchen counter where I had caught Lucy and Blaze going at it like cats on heat.But that’s the thing, I didn’t care.I wanted him.I loved him.He smelled so nice, he looked nice.All muscle and brawn, all hand
FLAMES“HOW’D I DO?”Rakkon’s grin was so wide I could see it beyond the screens and it chuffed me.“Don’t gloat just bring them home”, I sighed getting off the comms.I had one man down and one family to break the news to and honestly this was the part of the job I hated. To have a family entrust me with their delinquent only for him to wind up dead.“I’ll make the call”, Blaze appeared behind me, understanding wedged between his usual cold stale aura.And if the lady’s perfume he had on was any indication, I might have got the hint he was fucking someone in the parking lot before he showed his ass here.I didn’t have time to think about that. Hey whatever kept him happy was fine by me.“I’ll check on Mia”Holy gave me a curt nod of understanding, Blaze stood beside me with that hard and blunt face he wore like a mask.“Word of caution though, your sister’s here”I turned to him with a gutted look.Lucy. Here? Fuck. I thought she was home for the summer after months of attending show
MIA“SAY SOMETHING, ANYTHING”He’d freaked out the minute we stepped into the parking lot and even when we got inside his car the situation hadn’t changed.“I don’t- “The ringing of his phone from the dashboard cut him short and he picked it up faster than I had ever seen him. To avoid the conversation and mostly to avoid the news.I was the one who should have been shocked anyway.I was the woman who was going to push three of his babies out of me and that…would hurt like a fucking bitch.“Situation? What do you mean one of them got fucking shot? They are bloody rookies they should have had someone looking after them. Ooh, right.I’m not going to grovel at the kid, Holy. He made a mistake, granted I shouldn’t have fired him but he needed a time out to cool off. Yeah, call him in, loop him in on the situation and get him on the field. Well, he’s re-hired damn it!”And when he had thrown his phone somewhere in the back seat like soggy spaghetti he didn’t like, I was still there locked
FLAMESTHE TEAL COTTON AND LACE CHEMISE STOPPING MIDTHIGH ON HER didn’t make her look less pregnant but she did look fucking gorgeous and it took every fiber in me not to give in to the feral urges.And my favorite thing in the world I had discovered was placing my hand on Mia’s tummy, protecting the kid in there and sort of assuring him his daddy got this.Mia’s face snored in front of mine, I pulled the covers even higher to cover her sleeping body.“I would have dropped anything for you, Mia. Anything you would have asked me of, I would have given you but you left as if we were nothing, I was nothing and damn it I want to hurt you too but how can I when you are giving me the most precious gift a man like me doesn’t deserve”A child.A bouncy baby girl.The thought brought a smile to my face and I grinned in the dark.The clock to Mia’s right on my nightstand read 0300 hrs. I hadn’t slept a fucking wink and I would have gladly put the blame on little miss snores next to me but someh