Villainess (19 page)

“I’m not really sure I know what that is anymore,” Theo grumbled.

“To make her the perfect assassin, of course. Or the woman behind the assassins, in her case. And she’ll be able to see possible outcomes, cut off problems before they start with her visions. She’ll be able to manipulate and control. She’ll be our ultimate weapon. Soon we’ll move her on to the last test.”

“Which is?”

“Her getting caught of course. Let’s see how she deals with that. And Theo—try harder to fight your little…crush on her. I’d hate for you to get in the way.”

“It’s just sex. And part of the process. You know that.”

“Don’t lie to me even if you’re lying to yourself. I see the way you look at her now. She’s getting to you. Remember that’s just part of her abilities. It isn’t real.”

I blinked back my room into focus, my nostrils flaring.
I’m supposed to be here.
Whoever was holding my leash, the same people who’d been fucking with me from the beginning, were testing me.
But why?
To see if I could get out of it—to see if I could survive?
That was the only thing that made even the tiniest bit of sense and yet it still made none at all, at least not really. Why go through all that time and effort and then just throw me to the wolves?

And what about Jonah? I’d seen his face. He was always meant to be a part of this. Was it possible to change the future, or had I already?
New plan. I need to get the hell out of here. Screw facing the music. I’m not playing this game anymore. And when I get out of here, I’ll show whoever it is that I’m not weak. I’ll make them pay for what they’ve done.

I picked up the queen of hearts card, having dropped it without realizing it.
If this is who they wanted to create, then I’ll show them a queen of hearts.

Off with all of their heads.

Theo

I ran my finger over the grainy image of Leila’s sleeping face. I didn’t know why I’d taken the picture. I guess some part of me really had grown attached to her. I hated her for it. And yet… she was my creation. If she was a villainess like she believed, then I was the villain and she belonged with me. I blanked my phone and stuffed it in my pocket.
It’s not real. What you feel for her isn’t real.

“Doctor Ella Ruddize, long time no see.” Her olive skin paled as she jerked her head up to meet my gaze. “We have a few things to discuss.” I made myself comfortable across the desk from her. “Having trouble remembering me?”

“N-no. It’s just, you look different, and I wasn’t expecting you.” She pushed her brunette hair behind her ears.

I smirked. “No one ever is.” I ran my hand over my buzzed hair. I did look different. The look I’d presented to Leila had been a part of the act. Hell, I even talked different around her. She had to believe the character I’d created, and she did. No one knew the real me. Not even myself sometimes. I was that good.

“What can I do for you?” Her lower lip quivered as if she was even afraid to say my name.
Maybe she is
. It wouldn’t be a completely unwarranted reaction. Fortunately for her, she wasn’t a major player in the game, and if she didn’t get in my way she’d walk out relatively unscathed.

“Leila Lovett. I’m here to talk to you about what’s been going on with her.”

“What business is it of yours?”

I cracked my knuckles, laughing when she shrank further away from me. “I decide what is and isn’t my business. It’s not a coincidence that she ended up here, just like some of my other…projects.”

“Oh—I didn’t realize. I didn’t know.”

“Now you do.”

“So what do you want me to do about it—about her?” Her eyes narrowed and her lips tipped up slightly.

Ah, so she doesn’t like Leila.
No surprise there since she was fucking Jonah Yoshihara. Ella had to at least suspect. “I want you to not interfere with her and Jonah. No matter what you see going on between them.”

“What?” Her voice cracked. “You can’t be serious.” Anger flushed her face as her mind processed the meaning of what I’d said.

“That’s right. Let Jonah keep fucking Leila. Look the other way. Because if you don’t…” I stood, slamming my fist against her desk. I laughed again when she started to tremble. “You don’t want to find out what will happen to you if you don’t follow my instructions.”

With that I strode out of her office. Ella wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, but she wasn’t stupid either. She knew what happened to her predecessor when he tried to tell me no.

I smiled to myself. Things were going along perfectly according to schedule. I just had one more stop to make before I could sit back and relax… Let all of my hard work reap the benefits I’d been waiting years for.

Jonah

Kristoph had told me with no uncertain words that I should run—not walk, as fast as humanly possible away from Leila. When I’d refused, he’d begrudgingly agreed to help me help her. He didn’t want anyone to know of his involvement though, because he was convinced that I was most likely signing my death warrant. Me, I didn’t care anymore. I couldn’t just leave Leila. I’d become a psychiatrist to not only understand the human brain, but to help people. There was no one who currently needed my help more than Leila.

I stood from my desk as Matt hustled Leila into my office. Kristoph wouldn’t be joining us until tonight. “Thanks, Matt.” His eyes narrowed briefly on me before nodding, and shutting the door behind him.

“Hey, Doc.” Leila started for the couch but I cut her off, sweeping her up in my arms.

“I turned the camera off.”

“But I thought it was too risky to keep doing that, and in the daytime, no less. If—”

“I’m being reckless, I know. But I can’t seem to help myself with you.”

I slammed my lips into hers, forcing her mouth open to accept my tongue. She went languid in my arms, conforming her soft body to fit against all the hard lines of mine. She hitched her right leg up around my hip, gyrating her damp core against my painfully hard dick. We stumbled backwards, and she fell underneath me on the couch.

“What are we even doing?” Leila asked as she fumbled with my belt.

I tore her t-shirt over her head, momentarily dazed by the voluptuous curves of her breasts. I ran my thumbs over her pebbled nibbles, her back arching into my caress. “I think that’s pretty obvious, don’t you?”

“But why? What’s the point? It isn’t going anywhere—us—it can’t.”

I dipped my head to suck one nipple into my mouth, mumbling against her skin. “Is that what you want, to be with me?”

“Yes,” she hissed with pleasure. “I told you…I want to own you.”

“Why? Why me?” I’d thought from the beginning that she was merely using me to further her cause. And I was okay with that. Or I had been before I’d developed feelings for her beyond lust.

She palmed the back of my head, stilling me, and I lifted my gaze to meet hers. “Because you’re everything I never thought I could have.”

Leila and I didn’t really make sense. Not really. Or maybe we did. Just because I was a doctor of the mind, didn’t mean I didn’t have needs too. Needs that had gone too long without being met. I was the type of man who needed a woman who could stand beside me, not behind me. Leila was a challenge, and she always would be, no matter her mental state. The women who’d come before Leila… Like Ella. They were all content to acquiesce to me. They would break where Leila would merely bend. I could bend too, for the right woman.

Am I really suggesting that Leila’s the right woman? Yes. Yes. I am.
Who knew if it was her pheromones, or the way her face was shaped, the hip to waist ratio… whatever kind of nonsense my mind wanted to use to rationalize. Whatever it was. She’d gotten to me from the very first moment I’d laid eyes on her.

I continued my slow descent down Leila’s body, a nip and a kiss at a time. Having her underneath me was right. None of the rest mattered. Her taste, her scent…all of her was perfect to me.

“Mmmm…yes,” she moaned as I stripped her completely, plunging my tongue into her sweet pussy.

“Come here.” Leila tugged me by my ears and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What? Not happy with my performance?”

“I want you in me. Now.” She arched her pelvis at me, and I dipped my head to suck on her clit. “Please, Jonah, fuck me with more than your goddamn tongue.”

I stepped out of my boxers, wrapping her legs over my shoulders. I slid into her in one quick move, both of us groaning in unison. Her fingers dug into my ass as she urged me to move. I stared down at her beautiful face as I rotated my hips.

There was a loud rap at my door and the handle jiggled demonstratively. “Shit.” I pulled out of Leila and stumbled back, wildly searching for my discarded clothes. Luckily they hadn’t been tossed all over the room.

“So not fair,” Leila muttered as he tugged her t-shirt and pants back on.

“At least you won’t have blue balls.” I shifted my dick in my pants, grimacing.

“Girls get violet vagina. It’s a thing just as much as blue balls. Or purple pussy, I haven’t decided which term I like better.” Leila perched herself on the edge of the couch, smoothing her hair.

I gave myself the once over before yanking the door open. “Yes?” I growled. “I’m in the middle of a session.”

Ella stood on the other side of the door, her face flushed with fury. “Why is the door locked?”

“Because obviously no one wants to respect the privacy of my sessions. You would have just walked in again? What if I was in the middle of hypnotizing Leila?”

Ella crossed her arms over her chest, glaring. “Were you? Having a hypnotherapy session?”

I wasn’t going to play this game with her again. “What do you want, Ella?”

“The camera is out in here? Did you turn it off?”

Shit. Shit. Shit. How much did she see?
“Yes, I did. I don’t want you spying on me.”

“Well it’s back on now. Don’t do it again.” With that she spun on her heel and left.

I shut the door and leaned against it, unsure of what just happened. “Either we’re extremely lucky, or Ella is planning on blackmailing me with footage later.” My stomach sank. What exactly was she up to?

“You shouldn’t be so reckless.”

I went to my desk and sat. “We’ll have to finish up what we started tonight before Kristoph gets here.”

“Where is the camera? I’ve never asked.”

“In the corner of the room.” I jerked my head in its direction.

She turned her head to look. “Ah, I see it now. It’s so tiny.”

“It’s not a secret.”

Leila twirled some of her hair, her face pensive. “So it only can see from that angle?” She got up, slowly making her way over to the corner of my desk, all the while keeping her gaze on the camera.

“Yes.” I shifted in my seat, unsure of what she was up to.

She came to perch on the corner of my desk, her back to the camera. “Okay then.” She slipped her hand down the front of her pants.

“What are you doing?” I choked out.

“I told you, I have purple pussy, or violet vagina. I can’t sit here like this. It’s not fair.”

My cock swelled instantly, and I barely resisted the urge to throw her down and take her right there on my desk. “What about me?”

“What—about—“ She moaned softly. “—you?”

“I have blue balls.”

A few more flicks of her wrist and she moaned loudly, her thighs shaking. She reached her fingers towards me. “Wanna taste?”

I glanced at the camera and grimaced. “You think this is funny?”

She shrugged. “No. But I have been known to enjoy teasing once in a while.” She pushed off of my desk, sashaying over to the window.

I got up a few moments later, keeping my back to the camera, and my erection hidden from its view. “I’m going to fuck you so hard later, you won’t be able to walk for a week.”

“A week? Well then.” She wrapped her arms around her middle and stared out the window. “I need to get out of here, Jonah. You and I both know it.”

“Yes. That’s why Kristoph is going to treat you. If we can—”