Her sweet breath was still warm on his neck and fuck if that didn’t increase his boner to the size of this 5-star hotel now. Thank fuck he was wearing a tux to conceal the monster but he had to down two glasses of ice-cold water to neutralize his temperature. A bit. Enough to survive this torture.
He hoped.
I like you best.
Just what exactly did she mean by that? Was she…?
Nah.
She’d always been a sweet, sweet kid, especially to him. Since the day they first met, when he took her for a spin on his dirt bike, she had treated him like her older brother. It was just his hyperactive imagination giving wrong interpretations to her innocent actions. But a big part of him wished he’d read it right. That she was finally feeling ‘unsisterly’ towards him, too.
It would really ease his conscience a lot if she did.
Damn, he had been with scores of women and he knew how to read female body language like the back of his hand. He would discern from just a simple look if a woman was interested in him, especially if she wanted to blow or ride his cock.
But his radar was totally down where Serena was concerned.
He couldn’t read her.
Or maybe…maybe he was just avoiding reading anything the past years and now that he wanted to read something, he was like entering an uncharted territory. Oh yeah, she was uncharted territory alright, and he was the only one allowed to explore it.
Christ. This was major.
Serena was a rite of passage. A gateway into a new world.
He was new to this and this was too important for him to mess up. He must not fail. He had to tread slowly, carefully.
She was dancing with Baron this time and his blood pressure took a reprieve, his mind swimming in the memories of her.
She was a skittish little filly when he first met her. She’d watched him warily with her big, long-lashed eyes, but he was there to conquer something and she came with the package. He had to include her in the plan from the get go.
He would visit her every weekend at her boarding school and she’d really warmed up to him quick. She was a very smart kid who loved to read. He liked to read, too. He would always buy her new books every time he’d visit her boarding school. Books that he’d read himself, and they would discuss them over picnics in her campus grounds, from the classics of Dante to the Game of Thrones.
His mother had taught him early on that the best and quickest way for a man to get smart was to read. Most successful people were educated in the best schools. They were dirt poor and education was just a dream for the likes of them. So he had to read every goddamn printed shit he could get his hands on, mostly from The Salvation Army.
His mother was a smart woman despite her lack of education. She got them where they were now, so far. It was up to him to further advance their interests.
He was surprised one day when Baron issued a letter of authority for him to attend important PTA meetings for Serena. A task he had taken to heart and enjoyed tremendously as it gave them more time to spend together.
When she turned 16, Serena shed most of her baby weight. Her natural beauty blossomed. But while she’d lost weight in some places, her chest and ass grew bigger. Bigger than he could have imagined. Holy fuck. How she turned out this way, he didn’t know. But he couldn’t complain.
He’d started having “unbrotherly” thoughts about her. How could he help it? No man probably could. Her figure was the stuff that made grown men weep and crawl. Knowing she was innocent, pure as the driven snow as the old poets would say, only added to the potency of her allure.
He’d felt ashamed and guilty of his carnal thoughts of her. But shame and guilt were not enough to stop him from jacking off to her vivid images in his mind. Even when he was inside another woman’s body, it was Serena’s face he saw. It was her tight little virgin pussy squeezing and grinding him towards orgasm.
He was glad Baron had put her in a boarding school under the watchful eyes of her teachers and their headmistresses at the dorm. He secretly asked them to report any incident of boys flirting with Serena or vice versa. Thankfully, none of that happened or he would have landed in jail for beating up some fumbling snotface.
She’d graduated from high school without any crushes, to his great relief.
Needless to say, he was already very territorial of her. Knowing how he felt about her, he didn’t want to think of the time when some guy would finally catch her eye and she’d fall in love and she would no longer want his company.
How would he deal if she fell in love and wanted to have a boyfriend?
The very thought of her having her first boyfriend was an absolute torture. It meant she’d be experiencing a lot of firsts with that guy.
First love.
First kiss.
First sex.
The very firsts he’d like to do with her.
But he couldn’t, of course. Not yet, anyway. It wasn’t the right time yet.
When she entered university, things started to get worse for him. Thankfully. she didn’t want to go farther away for uni. He’d suspected it had more to do with him than her father. He didn’t even know until that moment that he was unconsciously competing with Baron for Serena’s affection. It immensely pleased him to know that Serena would miss him if she went away for uni more than she would her own father.
But university also meant something else. In this environment, she’d have all the opportunity to meet young men her age.
His anxiety over this escalated towards paranoia.
True enough, his greatest fear came too soon, in the form of Harry Goldwyn, a real estate tycoon’s son.
Harry was good-looking, a varsity athlete, the quarterback of the football team, the very stuff young trust fund girls were looking for in a boyfriend and husband. Harry had spotted Serena on her first day at uni and the fuckface immediately fixated on her like a lovesick puppy. Among the insanely rich, the rule applied in reverse, too. Young trust fund boys were also in a constant look out for someone of their kind who would help advance their family’s business interests and Serena was a major prize catch.
When he saw Harry laughing with Serena on campus the first time, he wanted to show the dipshit how to play football without any padding.
He’d more than once let Serena know, albeit indirectly that he found Harry a show-off. She’d laughed in his face and chose Harry to be her escort on her 18th birthday party. A move that peeved him no end but he tried so hard to hide.
And here he was now, in this fucking birthday bash, his current fuck buddy groping him under the table but his eyes were on Serena all night as she and Harry danced again, like Cinderella and fucking Prince Charming, while Baron watched with approval. He hoped the old man wasn’t thinking of venturing into the real estate business.
That would be bad for HIS business.
Serena was his. It was a given the moment he laid eyes on her. But how he would go about it, he didn’t know. Well, he knew but he had never been more scared to do something like that in his life.
Crossing the line.
That sacred line.
He felt like a fucking schoolboy where Serena was concerned.
Awkward. Insecure. Unsure.
He wished they weren’t close. He wished they weren’t friends. He wished now that he hadn’t melted like a fucking ice scream under the summer heat the moment he laid eyes on her.
The line would be easier to cross if all of that was not on the equation.
He hated what he was feeling right now. The helplessness, as if he was watching a treasure he’d been protecting all his life being snatched away. It was all he could do not to march in on them and beat the shit out of Harry and drag Serena away from her own party.
His mother’s voice rang inside his head like the ominous sound of a siren before disaster struck.
“You must act soon. That boy Harry might beat you to the fucking treasure, you slacker ass.”
He’d glanced at his mother with annoyance. She looked like a respectable matron in her elegant, expensive gown, acted like Baron’s perfect wife and hostess in front of other people, but when they were alone, Karina would revert back to her old ways in Vegas.
“What do you want me to do? Rape her?”
Karina snorted. “I’m sure you can find ways to seduce that kitten to your bed. You can barely zip your pants with all those runway sluts and they’re all worthless to our plans. You’ve been wasting your energy on the wrong pussies and it’s time to get your fucking shit together, you hear me!”
“Why don’t you work on your old man, mother? Is your game not good enough to make all your dreams come true? You don’t need me to do anything. You got us this far. You can get us all the way to the bank,” he’d shot back.
He’d earned a slap from that.
“I deserve better than that from you, you ingrate,” she said coldly.
He’d bowed his head. His mother was really something else. But she’d taught him all the necessary tools to survive this wretched life. He owed her big.
“Look at me.” She’d framed his face in her palms, her eyes, deep pools of burning ambition and steely determination. Qualities she’d passed on to him.
“Have you forgotten why we’re here, Ray? Are you softening towards our enemies? Let me remind you again. We’re here for only one thing. Get everything and take them to the cleaners. This is our best and only chance. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. It’s finally here. Take what’s rightfully yours. Don’t fail us.”
Take what is rightfully yours.
He knew Karina was right.
Early this year, Baron had finally hinted at recommending him to the board as the next CEO of Levin Pictures Corporation. For seven long years he had worked his way up the ladder. With the stiff competition and with the dirty politics going on within the corporation, his position was as precarious as a boat out into the stormy sea full of blood-thirsty pirates out to hijack it. He had the boat, but he had to have the pier, too. A safe, permanent docking place.
But timing was everything.
It had to happen like it was the most natural thing in the world.
