House Of Aces (3 page)

Chapter 4

“
Mama-san, can Sabina stay the night with me? I want to explain some things to her and would like to take the chance to bond with her.”

My aunt considered me a moment before shooting me down. “Sabina has a lot to do tomorrow. She needs to wake up early and go to the salon, get her pictures taken and all that. She starts work Friday
, so that gives us only one day to get her ready.” She then shooed Sabina to go along with one of the security.

Before Sabina left, she came up to give me a hug. “See me again?”

Her broken English brought a genuine smile to my lips. “Count on it, sweetheart.”

I was about to step on
to the stairs when Vera appeared on the landing, looking hesitant as she descended before me. “I was with your uncle—I wanted to talk to him about the request—to be transferred,” she stammered, not meeting me in the eyes.

She really was serious about becoming an Ace. Why the fuck would she do
that? I didn’t understand. I just couldn’t. Did she change her tune because of Sabina? “I’m going to see Uncle now and tell him to forget about all of this shit.”

“It’s my life.”

Bullshit. “Yeah, and you’re well on your way to fuck it up again.”

Her eyes were cold
, indifferent. “It’s already fucked, so stay out of my business!”

Whoa.
That was the first time she had dared yell at me, especially when we were out in the open where anyone could see us. Hear us.

“Let’s go to my room. We need to talk about this.”

“I’m going to sleep.”

Oh
, she was going to play dirty with me? Not happening.

“The hell you are! You are going to give me a massage, my back is aching from falling earlier
. I must have pulled a muscle.” I needed to talk to her. If I had to use my position to get that done, so be it.

Her nose flared, looking like she was trying to calm her blood pressure down. “Fine. Let me go get washed and change.”

“Go get your clothes and take a bath in my room.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I’ll be waiting, Vera. Don’t waste any more time,” I said, giving her a quick, hard glance before walking away, dismissing her.

Taking my shoes off as I loosened my tie, I stretched my neck from left to right, releasing some tension. I
had just finished unbuttoning my shirt when Vera came through the door like an angel in a pair of short shorts and a black tank top. This was definitely one of the top looks for her. I loved it when she dressed up with makeup and heels, however I also loved her naked face with her short apparel.

My breathing stopped. My mind forgot about everything else and could only register her—Vera. Her tainted view of the world that opposed her child-like gullibility, her ability to always make me feel incredible, her laughs and the cute snorts she
made when she was spiraling out of control from laughter…

She was
my
Vera.

Just then, realization hit me like a ton of hot bricks. I might not be ready for her now, but I wanted her close to me. Knowing that she was safe and unharmed meant everything. I’d do anything to keep her safe.

“Would you like to take a bath first? I’m exhausted, if so let’s be quick if you don’t mind.”

“Sure.” Like I would argue
with the woman who quietly owned me.

Following her towards the bathroom, I tried to hold it together when she bent over to turn the water dials on the tub.
I was fucking hard
—the no sex for the past few days, blue-balled from a half-assed blowjob kind of hard.

Vera then poured scented oils into the bath while
I grabbed the tent in my pants and shifted it a bit, hoping to ease the ache that throbbed in my cock. It didn’t help.

“It’s ready.”

Carefully strolling towards her, I started to unbuckle my belt when she spun around and faced me.

“I’ll take care of it for you.”

There was no way I could hide the state I was in. Not like she hadn’t seen me naked anyway, but this time was different.

Holding my breath as I looked down on her undressing me, she didn’t even acknowledge my hard dick when she unzipped my pants. Nor did her expression change when she pushed my boxers down and my cock sprung a
n inch away from her face, almost touching her cheek.

“Do you need me to scrub your back?”

Her cold attitude was irritating the hell out of me.

“I do.” My eyes never left her
as I slowly got into the tub.

She turned off the dial when the water came to the level I preferred.

“I’ll wait for you in the bedroom. Call me when you need me.” Vera didn’t even glance at me before she left. It was just then that I heard her cell phone ring.

Who
is calling her this late?

Everything stopped as I tried to catch the conversation. She was whispering, which only got me even more curious.

As quietly as I could, I climbed out of the tub, pulling the Egyptian cotton towel off the rack before wrapping it around my hips while I walked towards the ajar door, eavesdropping from the tiny crack, just enough for me to comprehend her mysterious conversation.

“I’m ready.” She was frowning, softly chewing on her thumb as she stared at the carpet. “Next time. I promise I won’t back out this time.” She made a little laugh, like the caller was making a small joke.

If my blood was boiling before, it was now through the roof.

“It’s been so long. It’ll be perfect.” She sighed
like she was thinking about something nice.

“I can’t wait.” She listened to the caller, smiling like she used to smile at me—the smile that
had been reserved for only me.

When she hung up shortly afterwards, I was left reeling from the eviscerating pain that
had formed in my chest. After three gulping breaths, I came through the door, marching straight towards where she was sitting on the foot of the bed. I was more than ready to dig for answers.

“Who the fuck was that?”
I harshly demanded, trying to control myself from shaking with anger.

Her eyes flashed something I couldn’t pin down before her mask of indifference was back in place.
“No one who should concern you.”

I snapped. Grabbing the phone from her hand, I tried to unlock it.
All three times were unsuccessful. Growling at my failed attempts, I rigidly stared at her while she was provoking me to lose my shit.

She knew me too well. “Last chance, Vera.”

“Or what?”
she barked back. Fire for fire.

If this were another man in my family, she would have been punished for her disobedience. “You fucking know that you’re not allowed to have boyfriends.” Vera with another guy? Not happening.

Vera stood up, looking fed up and about to march away from me when I held her by the hand, not willing to let this go.

“Don’t push your luck with me,” I warned.

I guessed something about my tone this time made her take me seriously.

“I met him online.”

Raging steam was coming off me from every pore on my body.

“We’ve been planning to see each other soon.”

She was under contract. She knew she was breaking rules, yet she didn’t care.

“How far did you get with this guy?” I asked, looking away from her face, feeling like I was being ripped open.

“He’s seen me naked… from video chat.”

The tenacious beast of pain definitely swallowed me whole. My fingers slipped away from her hand
as I was left with a feeling like a bomb had exploded inside me.

“You can go to your room now,” I managed to say before I went straight into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.

I ran the water in the sink, splashing my body with it, needing to clear my head—to help alleviate this sickening feeling that had seized me alive. Locking my jaws together, I stared into the mirror, quietly telling myself that I was better than this. But the image of Vera stripping for another guy—even on camera—felt like a fucking betrayal to me.

I was being a hypocrite, always fucking other girls on a nightly basis, not caring if Vera witnessed it or not.
Had she felt betrayed, too? She was always there to greet me in the morning, readily giving me praises for so long that I had never thought that she could belong to another man. She was always with me. I had taken that for granted.

Disgusted at myself, I turned the water off before walking back into the bedroom
. I was ready to forget this night had ever happened, however when I found her standing in the same spot I’d left her, every fiber in my body tensed.

“You’re angry with me.”

It was good of her to notice. Walking past her rigid form, I went straight into my walk-in closet, threw the towel on a nearby bench and then dressed myself with only navy blue silk pajama pants before I headed back out, still ignoring her as I went straight to the side of the bed.

“Ryan?” she sobbed, calling out to me.

I decided to sit on the bed, cocking my head to the side, feeling guilty for making her miserable.

“Ryan
, please, don’t hurt me like this.”

Hurt her…
? I was going through something larger than hurt at the moment.

“I fuck whoever I want. You even see me fuck them sometimes.” And not once
had I considered her feelings. “I guess, all I’m trying to say here is that—no one can stop you from doing anything.” If she wanted to have fun getting naked—maybe even playing with herself as the guy watched her, jerking off—well, it was her choice. “Do you want me to give consent when Uncle talks to me about you becoming an Ace?”

I heard her move towards me
. She stood in my view with tears brimming in her beautiful eyes. “It hurts to see you every single day and not have you. I thought that, if I stuck around, ignored the other women you took to bed, that you would see me someday. A couple years later, nothing’s changed.” She paused, gathering breath. “Tonight proved to me again that you’re out of my reach. Damaged women like me don’t get to have a man like you—a man that holds good inside.”

Staring at her while her words sunk in, Vera stepped closer before she hesitantly pressed her lips
to my cheek while breathing me in, as if she couldn’t get enough of me, as if she was ingraining me in her memory before walking away and never looking back. “Thank you for the friendship, Ryan,” she softly whispered.

My cheek leaned against hers, not ready to let it go—
let
her
go. “It scares me how I want you so fucking much, Vera.”

She pulled away, hurt etched across her face. “Don’t say that
. I don’t need to hear lies.” She swallowed. “It’s okay.” She wiped a tear that fell. “I will be okay. You’ll see.”

She tried to look brave, but it only made me go to her, wiping the tears away with the use of my thumbs. “Don’t cry. I can’t stand to see you cry.”

“I’m so sorry for ruining everything.”

“Vera.” I kissed her forehead, wanting to soothe her so that she would stop crying, yet it only made it worse. She was borderline howling at this point. “Shh,” I murmured against her cheek.

I thought she wasn’t going to stop, but after awhile, she did. She was angling her head, pressing her nose against my skin before she softly kissed my chin.

“Forgive me,” she said, confusing me for a bit before she kissed my lips. She devoured them to the point where it was starting to hurt.

Her hunger
awoke my own, licking at it with sweet fire as we both burned deeper into the kiss. It was punishing. It simply blew my mind. Both of us channeled our anger into the kiss, mesmerizing us to the inevitable.

She made a soft moan,
simply driving me out of control. Lifting her up, her body instantly clung on to me, deepening the kiss as I carried her over towards the bed. We tipped over, falling onto the mattress without breaking the kiss.

“Ryan,” she moaned my name, reaching inside
my pants to grab my cock, furiously stroking it.

Vera was doing everything right. I felt out of my element—out of control—as I pushed the top of her tank top
down to expose her breasts. Growling as I bit on one of her nipples, my hand was busy pulling her skimpy shorts down while my teeth and lips skillfully controlled her body.

With her legs apart, my body rubbed against her sweet cunt, feeling the warm
th permeating from her. I wanted so badly to rub my dick around it, but I knew it would be hard to hold back if I did. I was already having a tough time reigning in what my body was demanding.

“This body’s yours,” she choked out, delirious from desire. “I’m yours.”

Fuck.
I just need to fuck. Her.
Now
.

“I need—” I grunted out as I gripped the end of my shaft, not checking if she was wet enough to take me before plunging inside her.