He would say yes if I asked. I was sure of it. He kept glancing back at me and practically glowed under my praise. I could feel the tension between us, but following through on it would be a mistake on so many levels.
Anyone close to me was constantly in danger. Emilio had amazing skills, but he wasn’t bulletproof, and my enemies would come after anyone they believed I cared about. I only dated people who exclusively knew my more sedate side. People who called me Thomas, not X. Knowing both sides of me… that was far more intimacy than I could handle and far more danger than I could willingly put Emilio in.
2
Emilio
Four Months Later
X’s hand moved slowly along my cock. It was torture, but I deserved it. I’d been bad.
I’d stalked him and broken through security measures only the very best could put in place. I knew who he was.
“I might never let you come,” he growled.
“Please. I need…”
“You need to learn your place.” His expression was dark. He looked nothing like he did when he was pictured in the media, restrained and refined. He was all raw alpha male, and I wanted him, no matter how angry he was.
“Please. I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”
He glared down at me, his green eyes darkened with lust. I groaned as he skimmed his palm over the head of my dick. “Damn right you will.”
“Just let me come, and I… I’ll be yours.”
“Mine to do with as I like?”
“Yes.”
He looked me up and down, seeming to consider it. “You may regret that promise.”
I shook my head frantically. “Never.”
He laughed. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
But I did. At least I hoped I did.
He tightened his grip on my cock and began moving his hand faster. The strokes were the perfect blend of pleasure and punishment. After making me wait so long, I had no doubt it was going to hurt to come, but I didn’t care. I wanted—needed—this. I needed to be used by him, to give myself to him.
“Don’t come until I give you permission.”
“I… I’m not—”
“You said you were mine to command. I expect you to obey.”
Oh God. I was so close, right there. He kept working me with tight, fast strokes. I fought the need for release. Pain and pressure built until I was sure I would die if I didn’t come, and I might die if I did.
“Now,” he demanded, voice firm as always.
Unconsciously, my body obeyed. Searing pleasure ran through me, and I cried out. “X, please. Need you.”
“I’m right here. You aren’t going to get away from me.”
My orgasm went on and on until I sank back into the mattress, exhausted.
I opened my eyes, almost expecting to see X in the room with me, but of course, it had just been a fantasy like all the others, like every time with him would be. He was the one problem I couldn’t conquer.
My computer beeped an alert, letting me know I had a priority-level message. I sat up and grabbed it, even though I wanted to keep basking in the afterglow of a powerful orgasm. If it was that good just thinking of him, how good would it be if we were actually—
The thought fled when I saw the message was from X. His men were in position at the house where Dennis Swain, a disgusting congressman who’d been part of a sex trafficking ring, was hiding out. I needed to kill his security system so they could move in.
I took a deep breath and shook off the last of the fog that had clouded my head when I came. I’d already made sure I could get into his system. It was almost too easy. That should have worried me, but I’d assumed he was overconfident. I was wrong. Terribly wrong.
Alarms started going off on my computer. Someone was trying to breach my firewalls, and… Oh fuck, they’d done it. They were deep in, and… Oh God, no!
My fingers flew over the keyboard, hoping I was wrong.
I wasn’t.
What I’d feared had happened. I’d been fighting to keep one step ahead of the hackers working for Swain. Now one of them, an enemy from my teen years, had discovered my online identity, and he was letting everyone know my hacker name and my location. It was all out there for my enemies and competitors to find.
So far it didn’t look like they had a picture of me. That wasn’t reassuring enough to keep my stomach from churning. What the fuck was I going to do? It wasn’t just me I had to think about. My foster siblings who’d been through hell with me were dependent on my support.
I kept clicking, searching, hoping things weren’t as bad as they looked. But they were even worse. The enemy, who conjured up memories of when I was poor and desperate, had also been feeding me misinformation. That likely meant Swain knew Giorgio and Leo were coming for him. Fuck!