Chapter 44: : Chapter 44

When she screams, it’s like music to my ears.

I want her to call me husband. Fuck, I never knew I wanted it so badly until I had her. But I do.

I fucking need it.

She goes limp in my arms, still wrapped around me, as my cum leaks out of her, mixed with her blood. I don’t know why, but lately, I’ve become more desperate to keep her by my side, as if she’s going to vanish any moment now. And that’s unnerving as fuck.

I like fucking her. Correction: I fucking love fucking her. I could eat that sweet pussy for days on end.

And I think she’d let me.

“You can put me down now,” she says weakly, not making any attempt at moving herself.

“I quite like where you are.”

“Oh my God, are you getting hard again?”

“Possibly.” I laugh as she pushes back, and I lift her up and place her down on her feet. She leans against the shower wall, looking me in the eyes.

“Our temporary truce is over,” she says with a smug expression as she runs her hands over her wet hair.

“Even though my cum is currently dripping out of your pussy? I can clean it up if you like.”

“I need to get myself checked now,” she says, shaking her head with a laugh. But it’s not fluttering like it usually is. I want to tug her back into me. It’s the same push and pull but different. She’s different right now, and I don’t know why.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some expensive watches to unpack and potentially accidentally smash.” She opens the shower door and steps out.

I smirk. “Do you want help unpacking your things?” I call out over the running water.

“No, fuck you.”

“You did that already,” I say loudly as I step back under the water. Through the frosted glass of the shower door, I can see her wrap a towel around herself before she exits into the bedroom.

My cock is already semi-hard thinking about her fine-ass fucking body.

“Um, Eli,” she calls out.

“I told you to call me husband,” I remind her.

“Eli!” she calls again, but this time her voice sounds off.

I shut off the water and step onto the bath mat. Not bothering with a towel, I hurry into the bedroom, dripping water as I go. I find her standing near the walk-in closet… and my father sitting on the bed.

“I heard rumors, son,” he says, staring at me unapologetically as he avoids looking at Jewel, who thankfully still has a towel wrapped around her.

“Go into the bathroom,” I growl to her, infuriated by my father’s intrusion. She nods and shuts the door behind her, but I can sense her standing on the other side of the door, listening in.

“I would never ever look at her,” my father says, disgusted by the idea. And I know that, but I also have a feeling I know why he’s here. The door opens again, and Jewel offers me a towel. I take it and wrap it around myself.

“Since when do you listen to rumors?” I grit out.

“When they involve my son and the woman he’s marrying.” He raises a brow at me. “There were some unsavory masked men on our turf lately. I handled matters, but what I wasn’t expecting was for the final member of the four to come clean after watching us torture his friends. He said there’s a target on your back and that it has something to do with the fiancée you’ve taken up.”

“Why didn’t you come to me about people snooping around our territory? I thought you were letting me handle things now,” I growl, irritated. Although my father is slowly loosening his hold on the reins of the family business, he still steps over boundaries that were established for his early retirement. I can’t effectively take over and do my job if he’s hiding things from me. However, I understand the irony since I do the same thing.

“I’m telling you about it now.” He gives me a stern look. “You are my son, but if you lie to me to get this business or are keeping anything from me that jeopardizes this family because of or for your fiancée, I’ll kill her myself,” he warns as he stands. Then he adds, “I could never hurt you or replace you. But her, I could.”

“What the fuck did you just say?” I square up to my father, and although I’m taller than him, he looks down his nose at me in the arrogant, cold way he looks at his subordinates.

“I am not one of your friends or cronies; you will speak to me with respect. I protect this family, and that’s your role as well. So it’s on good merit that I should think you’re handling whatever situation they might be talking about.”

“You never thought they were lying to you to disrupt our family affairs?”

He smirks then. “I consider all factors, which is why I’ve come directly to you.” He pushes past me, and it takes all my self-restraint not to pull him back and start beating my own father.

“Eli,” Jewel calls my name from the partially open door, and I see her shaking her head no.

My father doesn’t look back as he lets himself out, and I have nowhere to release this anger. Hearing anyone threaten Jewel is a sure way for them to find their way into a shallow grave.

“Your father wants me dead,” she says, stepping out in only the towel. “And if your father wants me dead…”

“It won’t happen,” I say definitely.

“Why?” she asks worriedly. It’s the first time I’ve seen doubt in her eyes. “Eli, he’s not wrong.”

I grab the back of her neck, pinning her in place and forcing her to look up at me. “If my father tries, I will stop him, even if I have to remove a few of his appendages in the process.”

She gasps. “Eli. We need to stop this before we get in too deep. You and I both know how this will end. Your family is trying to protect you, and you should be protecting them from people like me.”

“You’re not going anywhere. You’re going to be by my side.”

I love my father. But I can love him just as easily if he’s in the ground.

She looks agonized. “Eli, this is fake.”

My jaw tics. “But does it have to be?”

Her mouth opens and then closes.

I’m still furious, barely keeping it together. But one thing I’m certain of is I want this woman to be mine.

Not figuratively or temporarily.

Literally and permanently.

I want her engraved on my heart as much as she is on my skin.

“We’re not having this discussion.” She tries to push me away, but I grab her.

“So we figure out who your client is and take them out. It’s easy,” I say, and she looks at me like I’m a madman. “Tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way,” I insist.

She’s silent for a moment before she quietly says, “I will not be owned, and this has always been about business. Nothing personal.”

Liar.

I release my grip on her. “Sure.”

I storm past her, and she calls out, “Eli, where are you going?”

“Out.” I grab the first pair of pants and shirt I see. Once I’m dressed, I send out a group text. There are only three people who know about my arrangement with Jewel, and if one of them told my father, they’re going to pay in blood.