SWNOVELS Ruthless Heir: Chapter 8
The second I see Bianca’s big shimmering eyes, a small knot of guilt tightens in my gut.
She hasn’t eaten solid food in almost two days now, and I just made her wait another hour—and for what? So I could jerk off until my veins bulged and my toes curled?
No. It wasn’t just so I could jerk off. It was so I could control myself when I returned with her food. I needed to free myself of the desire that invaded my mind earlier. I needed to furiously stroke it away. Expel it from my throbbing cock in stream after stream of thick creamy cum.
Sure, I might have clogged the drain in my shower, but it was worth it. My head is clear and my mind is sharp.
In about an hour, I’ll be walking into an all-important meeting, and I’m not sure I would have been able to pull myself back out of this bedroom if I hadn’t relieved myself first.
Now, at least, I have a chance.
“Eat this,” I mumble to Bianca.
The tray I’ve brought up from the kitchen is filled with all sorts of food. A cold cut sandwich, a bowl of soup I just heated up, some sliced fruit, a pitcher of fresh glacial water, and even some fucking cookies.
Bianca doesn’t look like she eats much, but this might have to last her a while.
I’m not so sure when I’ll make it back to feed her again. And I’m certainly not letting her out of this room.
She has enough of my respect now for me to understand that giving her even the slightest bit of space is dangerous. She’ll take full advantage of any slip up.
It’s why she kissed me back, after all.
“I’m not hungry,” Bianca stubbornly lies, yanking her bedsheet up to her shoulders so I can’t get another look at her delectable little body.
It’s for the best. Even just the glimpse of her naked collarbone has me half-hard again.
“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over your rumbling stomach,” I tease, clenching my fist in a futile attempt to divert blood from my already growing cock.
“You must be hearing things,” Bianca quickly replies. “Maybe you’re losing your mind?”
If only she knew the half of it. I’ve been through so much over the past month. But somehow, none of it compares to that fucking kiss we just shared.
It threw everything upside down.
Nothing in my life has ever felt as real as that one burning moment. It was too much.
I had to pull away. But here I am, back at the scene of the crime—like a fucking psychopath.
“The world has lost its mind,” I grumble down at her. Her plump lower lip is trembling again.
Fucking hell…
“You don’t need to tell me.”
“Then what do I need to tell you? That you’re not going to survive this if you don’t eat?”
“You need to tell me what ‘this’ is first.”
“This is none of your business.”
“Excuse me?” Bianca croaks. “How the hell is this none of my business? Am I not involved in my own kidnapping?”
“Who said you were kidnapped?”
“You really have a shit memory, don’t you?” my fiery captive sneers. “Or was I dreaming when you said that you’d committed your entire adult life to capturing me?”
“Kidnapping someone is different than capturing them,” I respond, unable to help myself. “Unless you think of yourself as a child?”
“Fuck your semantic bullshit. I don’t want to hear it.”
“What do you want to hear?”
“The truth. I want to know what the fuck is happening.”
“No you don’t,” I warn her.
“Try me.”
“Eat,” I insist, turning my back to the bed. “If all of that food is gone by the time I return, then I will take it as a sign you’re serious about playing with the big boys.”
“… You should have died in that cellar,” Bianca hisses in response. “The second I recognized you, I should have told my father and watched as he cut your throat.”
The sudden savagery in her voice yanks my gaze back over my shoulder.
“You should have,” I quietly agree, my eyes tightening into slits as I consider the levels of depravity this little princess could be capable of. Fuck. I can’t wait to test her limits. “… But then who would have given you your first kiss?”
Just like that, the ruthless mask is torn from her face, revealing the scared, fragile girl beneath it all.
The guilt returns to my gut. The dark curiosity fades away.
“I… I’ve been kissed before,” she mumbles, her plump bottom lip dropping.
My cock lifts in response. Those thick pillow lips would have to stretch so thin to fit me inside…
“You’ve been kissed like that before?” I meet her.
“I…I…” The truth of my taunt hits her like a speeding train, and she can’t even finish her thought.
It’s clear to me that she can’t think straight while the searing memory of our kiss runs wild through her mind.
Welcome to the club, honey.
“That’s what I thought,” I say. Running a hand through my hair, I turn back towards the door and head for the hallway.
“Where are you going?” Bianca calls after me.
“Now that is none of your business,” I smile, stopping in the doorway for one last look at my captive princess.
She looks like a fucking angel. Perfect in every way. So innocent. So fragile.
So broken.
My heart sinks as I realize that I don’t actually like seeing her broken like this. Maybe I’ve gone too far again.
It’s that fire of hers that really turns me on. The warrior queen hiding behind the sheltered princess. That’s what I want to uncover.
I’m just not so sure I’ll be able to rip it out of Bianca without shattering her first.
Still, the thought occupies my mind, and for a moment, we just stare at each other, unsure of what to do next.
But then I snap to.
I’ve got shit to do. Important fucking shit.
Like doing whatever I can to keep her safe.
Because I’m not the only one after the Byrne princess. But I might be the only one who’s determined to keep her alive.
Slamming the bedroom door shut behind me, I sever our glance.
Still, those shimmering blue doe-eyes linger in my mind. Even as I step down the cold, lonely hallway ahead.
Bianca isn’t the only one in this house who’s unsure about what the hell is happening.
Drago hasn’t been honest with me. Not completely.
And I’m about to go find out just what the fuck he’s hiding.
“Be careful, Gabe,” Tytus warns. “You know how Drago deals with dissention.”
“Who said anything about dissention?” I grumble. “I’m just looking for answers.”
“We’ve already told you everything we know,” Roz points out, racing to keep up with us.
“What you know isn’t enough,” I tell her. “And it’s definitely not the full story. Why the hell would Drago be so reckless with Bianca’s life? I’ve spent years trying to capture her alive. And he just orders an all-out attack on her motorcade? She was fucking shot, Roz. No matter how we all feel about Bianca Byrne, someday she’ll be my wife. The mother of my heir. The key to my kingdom…”
“Our kingdom,” Roz corrects.
“You know what I mean.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be an all-out attack,” Tytus jumps in. “Just an ambush. But I guess Krol got excited. You know how that bastard can be.”
“I swear to god, if Drago tries to pin this shit on Krol…”
“He will. As he should,” Roz says. “Everyone—including us—were following Krol’s commands. He led the operation. He gave the orders. He told us not to leave any survivors.”
“No survivors?” I growl, fists tightening as I march forward down the vast, overgrown subterranean tunnel.
“Except you and Bianca, of course,” Tytus is quick to recover.
The deeper we descend into the darkness of this abandoned subway route, the brighter my rage becomes.
Roz and Tytus are my friends. Hell, they’re more than just friends. They’re my adopted family. If anyone was supposed to have my back, it’s them.
Instead, they followed Krol’s every command, staying just far enough away from the ambush to ensure there wasn’t a single friendly face to help me the fuck out.
“I’m sorry we weren’t there until the end,” Roz says. “We were just following orders.”
“Orders to come in after the battle and pick up the two corpses with tracking devices on them?” I snidely ask.
“We’re not lying when we say there wasn’t a bounty on your head,” Roz tries to assure me.
“Or on hers,” Tytus adds.
Fuck. I believe them. Up until two days ago, I usually didn’t question my orders much either.
But then Bianca started bleeding, and we shared that first delirious kiss…
“It’s alright. I’m not angry at you two,” I try to assure them, even if I am frustrated as fuck. “It’s Drago I’m pissed at. It’s Krol I want to kill.”
“Well, then let’s stop here and take a second to calm the fuck down,” Roz warns. “Fighting those two isn’t going to settle anything.”
“I’m not going to fight anyone,” I lie, entirely ready to split Krol’s skull open.
“Then what are you planning to do?”
“I’m planning to get answers.”
“And if they don’t give you any?”
“Then I plan to keep the Byrne princess completely for myself,” I growl, knowing full well that no matter what happens next, I will be keeping Bianca anyway.
“You know Drago won’t let you do that,” Roz mumbles.
“I’m well aware.”
“So what will you do when he tells you to fuck off?”
“I’ll tell him to come find me.”
“Fucking hell,” Tytus grumbles, stopping just ahead of me. Turning around, the giant blocks me from continuing forward. “You know you’re putting us in a world of shit too? What do you think will happen to us if Drago finds out we helped you dissolve Roz’s trackers?”
“I don’t want to stand around in this depressing fucking tunnel all day, Ty,” I bark. Still, I stop in my tracks before I can crash into his hulking body.
Tytus and I have fought before. It’s not pretty. There’s no point in getting into it here. Especially not with Bianca waiting back home for me.
No one knows about the place I’m keeping her. The grey house is my little secret. A piece of property that I’ve managed to keep hidden from everyone else—even Drago.
“He won’t believe that we don’t know where you’re keeping her,” Roz says from behind me.
“But you don’t know,” I remind her. “After you helped me, you dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, remember?”
“It doesn’t matter what the truth is,” Roz sighs. “Drago won’t believe it.”
Her breathy voice swirls through the darkness as I stand between my two oldest friends. They’re right to be worried. Both about the plan going awry and of Drago’s wrath.
“I’ll make sure nothing happens to you guys,” I say.
“We can look after ourselves,” Roz and Tytus both reply at the exact same time.
“It’s you we’re worried about,” Roz says.
“We’re worried you’ve become a little too obsessed with the girl,” Tytus adds.
That sets a fucking nuclear reactor off inside of me. “Look, it wasn’t my idea to involve Bianca fucking Byrne in all of this shit,” I remind them. “We were barely adults when Drago came up with this stupid fucking plan. When he made me fake my age and go to a fucking preppy California high school to play popular kid in a desperate attempt to get close to Ray Byrne’s daughter. It wasn’t my idea to come back to her either, not after all these years. I’m not obsessed with the girl,” I lie. “I’m following orders, just like you two were. Fuck. If I’m obsessed with anything, it’s with what she can bring me.”
“Everything,” Tytus nods. “She can bring us everything.”
“But only if she remains alive,” I huff. Leaning down, I roll up my pant leg, revealing my bandaged wound. It doesn’t hurt anymore, but it will leave a scar. A memory that I will have forever. “Only if I remain alive.”
My point is well served, and I can see the look of determination come across Tytus’ rugged face.
“We’ll back you up,” Roz says from behind me. “You know we always will.
Tytus nods in agreement.
“But don’t expect this to go well,” Roz warns, referring to the meeting I’ve requested with our leader, serpent of the shadows, ghost of the old country, the feared Dragomir fucking Raclaw.
“I never expect anything to go well,” I grumble.
That draws a stifled laugh from both Tytus and Roz.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Tytus says. Shaking his head, he turns those broad shoulders around and starts moving again.
Without another word, I follow him into the darkness, ready for the fight of my life.
Whatever happens, it will be well worth it.
Bianca is mine. And mine only. Mine to imprison. Mine to tease. Mine to kiss and fuck and impregnate.
Mine to marry.
And mine to protect.
Even Drago Raclaw needs to learn that.
And I’m about to make sure he knows just how fucking serious I am.