Their Kitten: Chapter 24

She has some fucking nerve acting the way she did.

After Talon told me what happened at the apartment, it takes everything in me not to go up there and lose my shit on her. After everything we’ve done for her, everything Talon did for her, and she treats him like that? Ungrateful little bitch.

I look up from my desk to see Talon moping around at his. He’s been sulking for days, which has been doing nothing but further pissing me off. Cleo isn’t even worth the fucking energy. This is the perfect opportunity to tell him, “I told you so,” because I knew something like this would eventually happen.

This is the same woman who refuses to tell us why she left us all those years ago, so I don’t know why it’s surprising to him that she’s trying to run again. It’s for the best anyway. She has her money so she can go about her life, and we can continue on with ours, just as we’d done before she came back and fucked up our lives yet again.

I leave the office around lunchtime, not even bothering to tell Talon because he’s too busy being sad over a bitch who isn’t worth the energy. I want to talk to her myself to see if she’ll say the same things to me as she did to him. I want to see if she can look me in my eyes and tell me that being with us was a mistake, that seeing us again was a mistake. I want her to tell me to my face that everything we’ve done lately meant nothing and that she wishes it never happened.

My hand tightens on the steering wheel. A part of me feels as if I’m setting myself up for rejection and failure. Whatever the hell happened between her and Talon triggered her so badly that she reacted that way, which only makes it easy to assume that I’m going to stumble upon an empty apartment when I get there.

A storm of negative emotions swirls in my chest as I get closer to the apartment building. My brain tries to account for every kind of conversation we’ll have, but I’m navigating uncharted waters. The same way Cleo left us all those years ago is the same way she could do that now. And no matter how pissed off I am at her, I don’t think I’m ready to accept her walking out on us again.

I quickly park my car and make my way up to her apartment, using the master key without bothering to knock. She looks up in surprise and then scowls when she sees that it’s me.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she snaps as she jumps to her feet from the floor.

“What the hell is your goddamn problem?” I fire back at her. “All that shit you said to Talon? After everything he’s done for you? Everything we’ve both done for you?”

“No one asked you to do anything.” She pushes me, but I barely move. “You’re the one who took it upon yourselves to insert yourselves into my life. You could’ve left me alone after that first encounter at the club, but no. You decided to keep pursuing. You decided to keep bothering me, breaking into my apartment and shit.”

“You didn’t try very hard to reject the help, either.” I glare at her. “You can say whatever you want to me because I don’t give a fuck about you. But the way you treated Talon is fucked up, and you know it.”

“You need to get out.” She moves past me and heads for the door, opening it. “Get out.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” I fold my arms across my chest and stare at her. “You have a lot of fucking nerve to act as you are. You act as if we didn’t give you this place. We could’ve been assholes and left you to fend for yourself.”

“I would’ve been better off.”

“Oh?” I lift an eyebrow. “So, what, I should’ve just let your landlord have his way with you, then?” I chuckle bitterly and shake my head. “Then again, lying on your back to get what you want seems to be what you’re good at.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“You’re a fucking bastard!” She storms across the room with tears in her eyes and raises her hand to slap me, but I catch her wrist. “Let go of me!”

I let go of her with a shove, and she stumbles a few feet. Angry tears stream down her face as her chest rises and falls, and I almost feel bad. I don’t want my anger to get the best of me and make me say things I’ll regret, but she’s so fucking stubborn and difficult for no reason.

So many situations could’ve been avoided had she just communicated properly. Her telling us her identity long ago would’ve saved us all a lot of grief. Her telling us whatever the hell happened between her and Talon would have avoided this petty fight. All we are doing is throwing more gas on a flame that’s already spiraling out of the control, and we’ll all soon burn with it.

Cleo wipes her face and glares at me. “Just like I told Talon, I want you to leave, and I don’t want to see either of you again,” she says through clenched teeth.

“Luckily, I don’t give a fuck about what you want.”

“I can call the police.”

“And tell them what, exactly?”

“That you refuse to leave my apartment?”

“Where’s your signed lease agreement saying this is your apartment?” I cock my head to the side. “Oh, right. You don’t fucking have one because we were generous enough to let you stay here. So you can’t make me leave if I don’t want to.”

“I hate you.”

“You’re not the first whore to say that when they don’t get their way,” I muse with a cocky grin. Hurt flashes in her eyes, and she shoves me.

“And you’re a desperate fuck who apparently can’t get women, since you have to pay to sleep with one.” She glares at me. “And considering that you’re a piece of shit, I’m not surprised you’re still single.”

“Sticks and stones,” I say with a faux yawn. “Really? That’s the best you can come up with?”

She shoves me again, and I push her against the wall out of reflex. Her eyes widen in surprise, fear glistening in her irises as she looks up at me. Her chest rises and falls quickly as short breaths fall from her lips. She’s so fucking infuriating, but so beautiful and tempting. The annoyance running through my blood wants to make her eat her words and suffer, but my body has other ideas.

I crash my lips to hers before I can stop myself. I’m fully prepared for her to push me away, but she only fists my hair and pulls me closer. I hate the control she has over me. I hate that I want her, that I can’t stay away even if I want to. I try to mask the desire with anger and hate, but it always bleeds through.

We clumsily make our way to her bedroom, discarding articles of clothing along the way. My body vibrates with the need to cause a little pain, to make her hurt the way she hurt my brother. The way she’s bound to hurt me. I reach between her legs and stroke her clit as I kiss her deeply, her moans and whimpers of pleasure raising goosebumps on my arms. It’s times like this where I wish she was someone else. The chemistry we have is off the charts, but I know it’s dangerous to get emotionally invested in a runner. And even knowing that, it didn’t stop me from becoming addicted to her and her body.

I bend Cleo over the bed and she cries out when I push into her from behind, but I don’t give her time to adjust. I thrust hard and fast, my hand squeezing the back of her neck as I hold her face-down into the pillows. All the built-up anger and frustration of our conversation melts with each stroke I put inside of her.

“So fucking ungrateful,” I mutter, to which she responds with high-pitched moans. Talon would probably kill me if he knew what I’m currently doing, and I wouldn’t blame him. There’s something Cleo isn’t telling us, and all she’s doing is setting us up for heartbreak yet again. It’s probably selfish that I’m here fucking here instead of getting answers, but she’s almost like a drug. As much as I want to detox myself from her, the cravings come back and then I’m balls deep inside of her again.

“Tristan,” she whines.

I grit my teeth but don’t verbally respond to her. My tongue wants to lash out in anger, so I instead focus on the impending orgasm on the horizon. I reach around her and rub small circles around her clit, groaning when her walls squeeze around me.

“That’s it, Kitten,” I moan. “Be a good little slut for me.”

She moans and arches her back a little more, causing me to sink deeper. Tingling starts at the crown of my head until it slowly takes over my whole body. I tighten my grip on her hips as I thrust a little faster, my breaths coming in fast as I feel myself right on the edge. Cleo shrieks, and her entire body tightens, her walls squeezing and tugging on my cock until I explode inside of her.

The room falls silent aside from her soft pants. I slowly pull out of her, regret and dread quickly replacing the lust and euphoria that just came with my orgasm. I haven’t been in too many situations where I don’t have control, but Cleo is unpredictable.

I have to find a way to push her away before she completely consumes me. I won’t give her the chance to break me a second time.