Page 61 of Unhinged Cravings
“Okay, so that is a bit older than me. Shit, fifteen years? I thought Riley was the only one into older men. With…” Her eyes went wide, and I saw her figuring it out, surprised she hadn’t earlier. “Wait. She told me Greyson was forty-five. How can you be the same age…unless…oh my God, you’re twins?” I’d never seen her eyes so large, and she reminded me of one of those caricatures artists drew at the fairs our parents used to take us to.
She took my face in her hands and moved my head back and forth, inspecting me.
“You won’t find any similarities except our eyes.”
“I thought you were his older brother.”
“I am. I claim those damn five minutes.”
She laughed, still looking for some sign that what she’d discovered was true. “That’s crazy. You look nothing alike.”
It was true. Only our eyes matched. I stood an inch taller, my build broader and more muscular—although I hadn’t seen my brother in twenty-five years—my hair was black like our father’s and his brown like our mother’s.
Her hand fell, her expression shifting, her eyes growing concerned and losing the wide-eyed excitement. “How do you not speak to your brother for decades when you’re twins? Isn’t there some kind of twin bond they talk about?”
There was and always had been, but I would never admit it and I had blocked it out the day I’d left. Refusing to admit that it seemed like I had ripped a part of myself apart that day, a part that had never healed, and so I had filled it with hate and anger.
“No,” I answered a bit too gruffly. “Come on. If you’re going to make me go down these stairs in the pitch black, then let’s get it over with.”
“Why don’t you have lights?” She kept staring at me as we walked and I rolled my shoulders, noticing the tension returning.
“Because lights show my enemy there’s another way into my house.”
“Like they couldn’t just come through the front door?”
I shot her a look and opened the gate.
I led the way, listening to her ramble on about twins and me and my brother. Each word reminded me of the regret that had been building since she had come into my life. The same that had reared its annoying head from time to time throughout my life but was now a steady aggravation. When we made it to the bottom, she ran to the water and dipped her toes in.
“Now what?” I asked, not having been down here at night in years. At times, the rush of the waves and the vastness of the oceancalled me, and I would stand in that same spot, wondering how my life had come to this. Lonely, corrupt, a tangled web I couldn’t escape even though I wanted to.
She lifted her shirt over her head. “Now I rinse the dried mess you left from my thighs, and you fuck me in the water.”
It was my turn to gape at her. The skirt came off along with the underwear and I looked up to make sure none of my men were watching her. It was too dark from where they stood, but still the moonlight left little to the imagination. She removed the clips from her hair and sent it tumbling before she plunged into the water.
“I thought you couldn’t swim,” I said, watching her move further from me and hating the fear that lanced my insides.
“I can’t, so you’d better come in and save me.”
She brought her finger up and beckoned for me to follow. If it was one thing I was learning about Ava, it was that she would challenge my routines and test me at every turn. My fearless wildcat.
Ignoring the voice that told me this was ridiculous, I stripped and made my way to her. Scooping her into my arms, I proceeded to do exactly what she’d suggested, taking her right there with the waves intensifying my every thrust and the moonlight illuminating her face as she climaxed for me.
Four days.That’s all I had left before my world went to hell. I raked my fingers through my hair. Who was I kidding? It had already gone to hell and Ava was the only light left in it. The voices on the other end of my phone continued to argue. I usually stayed out of disagreements between families that sat on the border of my province. Leaving it to them and hoping one would wipe the other out so I wouldn’t have to hear their bitching aboutstupid shit I couldn't care less about. This was how territory wars started. Someone looked at someone else the wrong way and feathers got ruffled. I would have just killed them both, but with my situation as fragile as it was, I didn’t have the men to deal with a takeover. In fact, it had been years since I’d even threatened such a thing. The threat still stood, but I hadn’t bothered stepping out of my province for another family’s territory. It wasn’t worth the trouble at this point.
The door to my office cracked open and Ava’s grin popped in. I’d left her in the main room, curled up on the couch when my phone rang. Her hair was rumpled, her shirt wrinkled, but it was the devious sparkle to her eyes that had me forgiving her for interrupting me during a call. She closed the door behind her, and I mouthed, “What are you doing, sweetheart?”
The grin lifted further, and she strutted over to me, her hips sashaying hypnotically. The shouting grew on the phone, and I shook my head at Ava. Gesture ignored, she pulled her shirt over her head, bumped my legs apart and dropped to her knees.
“Fuck,” I muttered, watching her undo my pants.
“You agree it was an undercut, Cade?” I heard on the other end. Damn if I did, but I really didn’t care because Ava’s mouth was now warming my cock, her tongue drifting under my shaft. I sank my hand into her hair.
“I think it was an attempt at an undercut that was more insulting than anything,” I answered, trying not to groan when she took me all the way and drew back with a gag. There was no way I would make it through this call if she kept it up, but I wasn’t about to stop her. “Stop pussyfooting around and just tell him you want a share of the market, Hansen.”
The line went silent except for the huff. I looked down to see Ava’s head bobbing up and down, her brown eyes on me. I pulled her hair, forcing her from me, and stood. She looked so sexy I just about came looking at her.
“You two figure it out and call me when youhave a solution. Otherwise, I’ll be the solution, and you won’t like it when I come out there and put your bodies in the river.” I hung up on them and tossed my phone onto the desk.
