MIAI SUCKED IN A BREATH, ELECTRIC CURRENT COURSING UNDER MY SKIN as Ethan placed his hands on my belly helping me ward through the water like a graceful swan even though I felt like a pig wiggling in mud.I didn’t think I would like dancing or cooking or painting but with being free I wanted a splash of all of them.I never had to make a choice in my life. Never had the freedom to do anything I liked and this was my chance to do so.And in a week of training with a dancing instructor who might have been the sweetest man I knew, I was blowing it because of the silly heart that wept for someone who wasn’t mine.“It’s a hard technique. No one can get it in a week”, Ethan’s smooth voice hit my shoulder and I could tell he meant well but I wasn’t even trying to master said technique.“I know”“You don’t have to beat yourself around about it”“I know!”I shouted; Ethan let go of me as my feet floated inside the pool all awkwardly.“Okay, what’s really going on? You have been acting weird a
FLAMESI JUTTED OUT MY CHIN AT Blaze telling him to do whatever the fuck he wanted to the punk kneeling on the tarmac who was scared as shit with his hands tied to the back.I knew I didn’t like Ethan fucking Townsend when I saw him at that party, a couple of tweaks here and there and surprise surprise, he was Booger Eddie’s best friend.Getting that voicemail was as easy as piecing a gun back together, tracing him back to my house at ten fucking pm however was something I hadn’t anticipated.Calling Carl was helpless, calling the house too was useless, so imagine my surprise when I pulled up the camera feeds of my house watching Mia-through night vision lens-sneaking her little ass past the kitchen and tiptoeing across the garden where Townsend was waiting for her.I was with Blaze at the moment, having a couple of drinks. With a five-minute head start, a few shortcuts and we were able to cut the bastard off the road before he even did some stupid shit with Mia.I opened the driver’s
MIA‘I’M SORRY’And sorry for what exactly? Everything that happened to him as a kid?Or for not knowing what right answer to give him?Revenge was never the solution. Sleeping with Tonia, using her before he did whatever the fuck his revenge entailed wasn’t the best course of action.But was I really in the position to say that? Did I not feel like I wanted to avenge my father’s death after learning the truth?Did I not feel the need to take revenge on Andro for Elise’s death for years?“Don’t do that. I don’t need pity because pity is for good people who go through shit when they’ve done nothing wrong”, he spoke hard, I could hear his nails dig into the steering wheel, listening to that noise leather made when someone was scratching it.“I’m not good people”“I don’t know what to say then”“Don’t say anything then”After everything we had been through tonight, hardly saying anything would make me go insane.Ethan was a douche bag and I knew Blaze was the sort that would kill a man,
FLAMES‘PASS ME THE SALT’, she stretched out her hand in my direction and instead I handed her the melted butter in a bottle.At this fucking rate, we might as well have been eating salt and less meat.If she seasoned the damn patties with more salt, I would lose it like I did with Carl. The butter behind me sizzled and I turned around placing each bacon strip in the pan before adding the vodka sauce that had more vodka and less fucking sauce.She would love it.“You are obsessed with control, aren’t you?”She asked behind me, I didn’t have to turn around to know she’d figured out I gave her butter and not salt.“When it comes to your health? Yes, I am, Tonelli”Yes, I fucking was.“They need more salt”“it’s done, no more seasoning”, I grunted flipping the strips with the pair of tongs in my hand.Her perfume, the smell of bacon and fruits lingering in the air, now this was what breakfast should have looked like.Better yet I would have paid for anything just to wake up next to her.
FLAMES“CHECK UP ON HER, YOU WANNA DO SLEEPOVERS OR SOME SHIT, DO IT. INVITE MOLLY AND ISSA IF YOU WANT TO”“Okay I’ll leave right now, Ale I heard about Tonia. I don’t like her with everything she’s done to me and Dee but I didn’t wish her dead- ““I know. Get to Mia I might be gone for a while”“How gone are we talking about Ale? What are you planning to do?”“I’ll call you later Luce”I hung up, it didn’t take seconds before a fisted hand sprung from my right.I evaded the punch.My assaulter tumbled messily in front of me before his wife leapt from behind holding him by the arm to avoid his inevitable fall.“You did this”Howard regained his composure, two buttons of his plaid sweater vest popping and clanging to the white floor.“Let’s all take a breath, Howard. I understand where you are coming from- “Howard cut my father’s words short cackling bitterly.“You understand where I am coming from Albert? Do you really? You and your fucking son caused all this and best believe this
MIA“HE DID NOT!”Their eyes were on me and not even my lack of sight could hide the blush and embarrassment that tinted my cheeks.“He did? Now that is just adorable”, Molly gushed, I dug my nails into the satin dress I was holding.“I thought of it as more of disgusting than adorable”, I spoke, pushing what happened in the morning to the back of my mind.“Me and you both, Mia. Me and you both. I just never pictured Ale and tampons in a sentence let alone in a scenario and the fact that he is my brother makes it more gross”Another dress flew to my face, I pulled it away stacking it to the other bunch of dresses hung on my arm.“Say what you will but Alessandro has fallen hard for her and who would have thought? I mean he was hot when we were kids but he seemed like the type that would never settle down or fall for anyone”Despite Molly’s gushiness over the tampon situation, I felt like butting in and saying he wasn’t in love with me. He’d never love anyone as much as he did my siste
FLAMESI LOST CONTROL.Mia. Blood. Memories. Anger clawing pieces and pieces of me I wanted to hurt something, to fucking kill something.Mia.My eyes shot open so fast as yesterday’s events invaded my mind. I recalled half of it and the other half of it…fuck was lost like it always was when I lapsed into one of them episodes.The white ceiling was a fucking giveaway I wasn’t in my room. Add to the fact that it was cherry blossom engraved and I had a fucking hint of where my ass was resting at the moment.It smelled like her. Her warm scent was all over the place and when I cocked my head to the side—just slightly to catch the subtle purrs of her snores, I couldn’t take the sight that was in front of me.Laying on my right shoulder, her voluminous blonde hair sprawled across my stretched arm, her lips parted ever so often with a purr.Those lips of hers-the plump upper lip and the smaller one formed a cute pout and the more I ran it by my head the more I realized how fucking smitten I
MIA“AI MAMA, WORK IT”I pouted my lips, swept my hair out of the way blowing a kiss in Lucy’s direction.“You are doing great”, Issa hurrahed, I laughed feeling the two-piece bikini on me up my confidence.If you would have told me this was what we would be doing on a sleepover, I wouldn’t have believed it.Me trying out every bikini Lucy had designed for her pop-up business, the girls cheering me on like I had a killer body which exactly wasn’t the case.I had scars, healing ones but still even with the makeup hiding them someone was bound to notice and that’s the fucking thing, I didn’t care.I loved this. Being comfortable in my own skin and having friends who liked me just as much as I liked them.“Okay take five”, Lucy shouted. I stopped posing taking three steps to the right where the ottoman was. And on top of the ottoman was the loose cover I picked up covering myself with it.It took a minute before I felt Molly’s hand on my wrist guiding me to the floor where the other ladi
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