In bed with Havoc

CHAPTER TWENTY

RYDER

Alina's actual reason for coming had nothing to do with medicine.

The examination was real though because Ava's injuries needed checking and I wasn't going to skip that, but the bag Alina left on the counter in my office before she walked out contained something more useful than medical supplies. Printed intercepted information pulled from three different hospital systems across two countries, patient intake records about my enemies, financial transfers hidden as insurance claims, and two names I hadn't been able to confirm until tonight.

Alina ran the most quietly effective intelligence network I'd ever worked with and it operated entirely through the healthcare network because nobody looked twice at medical paperwork and she'd been feeding me information through that system for four years and she was the closest thing I had to an ace that Vargas didn't know existed.

She was not now and had never been anything else.

I knew that.

But Ava didn't know this because she had jumped to conclusions which was funny. I watched her face all through the examination and couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction after what she did the other day by the pool with Marcus. We were even now. It was fun seeing her so riled up so I wasn't even going to try correcting her impression.

Gabe appeared at the doorway with an expression that said “you're an idiot.” And surely, he didn't hesitate to voice it out.

"She thinks you're sleeping with Alina," he said.

"I know."

"You let her think that."

"I just didn't say anything."

"That's the same thing." He came into the office and sat down then crossed his arms. "Why?

I looked out the window. Outside the estate grounds were dark and quiet while the perimeter lights ran their slow cycle along the walls and everything was exactly as it should be. I was just distracting myself from answering his question because admitting it out loud was worse.

"You liked it," he said, finally, "seeing her react."

"Maybe that's better," I said.

"Better for who?"

I didn't answer him.

“Anything on Vargas since the breach?” I deflected.

He sighed but let it pass. “no. He has been very silent and good at staying under our radar."

I frowned. This was deeply concerning because a silent enemy was an unpredictable one.

Gabe of course had to bring Ava back into the conversation "You're going to push her away doing this."

"I'm already the man who pushed her away. Not much further to go."

"That's not funny."

"I wasn't joking."

He was quiet for a moment but before he could say anything, I turned from the window and pulled up the monitor on the desk, searched and found her feed and she was pacing, four steps one way and four steps back, her hair loose and her arms crossed tight against her chest and she was talking to herself. I wondered what she was saying, she was probably scolding herself.

I smiled slightly, muttering, “brat.”

"She's going to leave the second she can," Gabe said.

"I know." My smile dropped. Sometimes I wanted to throttle Gabe.

"The threat assessment gives her maybe another week before she starts finding real exits. She's already mapped the blind spots on the east side, I saw her doing it yesterday."

"I know that too." She hated me so much that no matter what I did she wont stay even if it risks her life. That's a whole different level of hate and I had a feeling there was something I didn't know.

"What are you going to do about it?"

I watched her pace. She stopped at the window, looked out outside with that tight expression I had watched her wear for five years to protect herself. It was all my fault.

"What I always do…" I said.

Gabe waited.

"Nothing."

He was done with me as he stood up, grabbed his radio then walked out with a pitiful look on his face.

“I don’t want your pity.” I called out after him.

"One day that's going to cost you something you can't get back," he said.

"Already has."

He paused. “I hate seeing you like this.”

I said nothing.

He left. Ava also stopped pacing and laid down on her bed.

“That's enough.” I told myself, face palming then turned off the monitor. Unwillingly, the thought of her body forced its way into my head.

“Stop it.” I hit my forehead. She deserved better than my perverted thoughts.

I exhaled through my nose to control myself as I tried to shove the image away. Failed.

My mind slid, traitorously, to the afternoon by the pool. She’d been wearing that black bikini. The fabric had clung to every curve of her body, the ties at her hips so thin I could’ve snapped them with my teeth.

And then she stretched with her arms overhead, spine arching, breasts lifting until the triangles of fabric strained. Then she’d bent at the waist to adjust the towel on the lounger, ass presented like an offering, the bottoms riding up just enough to show the lower curve of her cheeks. The guard’s posture had stiffened, I’d seen his throat work. I’d felt the need to murder burn through me.

“f**k…” I was spiraling down a rabbit hole of lust and wasn't sure I was going to get out of it.

I shifted in my chair as the images kept flooding my mind, c**k already thickening against the zipper of my trousers. I hated how predictable I’d become. I also hated that she could do this to me from two floors away, fully clothed and fully out of reach.

My hand moved before I could talk myself out of it.

I palmed myself through the fabric roughly. The pleasure made me hiss, I needed more. I unzipped, shoved trousers and briefs down just far enough to let my c**k spring free. It was very hard and already leaking with precum at the tip

I wrapped my fist around the base and squeezed hard, trying to punish the need out of it. It didn’t work.

I closed my eyes.

“f**k, Ava…”

There she was again in my mind, running her hands down her sides, thumbs hooking under the waistband of the bottoms, tugging them higher making the fabric had pulled tight against her p***y. I could see the outline of her lips, the faint peek of her slit. My mouth started to water.

In my mind she walked to the pool’s edge, hips swaying, dipped one toe in, then another then bent again, this time to scoop water into her palms. When she straightened, droplets ran down her stomach, stopping at the dip of her navel, sliding lower until they disappeared beneath the bikini line. She’d shivered, just a little, enough to make her n*****s bead against the wet fabric.

I stroked myself slowly at first from root to tip, thumb circling the head, spreading the precum until my fist glided slick and easy. My breathing turned ragged.

I pictured her turning fully toward me then, eyes locked on the terrace then she reached behind her back, fingers finding the tie of her top with one pull and the knot gave way and her breasts spilled free, her dark n*****s pointed in the air.

She cupped them, lifted them, thumbs brushing the peaks until she gasped. My grip tightened as I pumped faster, hips lifting off the chair in shallow thrusts.

In the fantasy she didn’t stop. She hooked her thumbs into the bottoms next then dragged them down her thighs, slowly, letting me see every inch of skin revealed. The bikini got stuck briefly at the widest part of her hips, then slid free. She stepped out of them, kicked them aside.

She was completely f*****g naked in broad daylight with a guard twenty feet away and me watching like a man already damned.

She’d walked into the water until it was at her waist, turned her back to me again then bent at the waist, hands braced on the pool’s edge, ass up, legs spread just enough that I could see the pink flush of her p***y, glistening—not from the water but from her own wetness.

I groaned low in my throat. My free hand gripped the armrest so hard the leather creaked.

I imagined walking down the terrace, stripping as I went, reaching her in the water then grabbing her hips and spinning her to face me. After that I lifted her onto the edge of the pool so her ass sat on the warm stone, legs dangling in the water, spreading her thighs wide, her cunt open— swollen and dripping. I’d drag the head of my c**k through her folds, teasing her and coating myself in her slick until she whimpered.

“Please,” she’d breathe in the fantasy. “Ryder—please.”

I’d slam into her with one brutal thrust, burying myself to the hilt. Her back arched, breasts bouncing, nails raking down my shoulders. I f**k her hard as she cried out, loud enough the guard would hear, loud enough the whole estate would know exactly who she belonged to.

My fist flew now, slick with precum, the wet sound obscene in the quiet office. My balls drew up tight as I threw my head back.

“Ava…”

I pictured her coming. Walls fluttering, squeezing me like a fist, head thrown back, throat exposed, moaning my out loud. I followed right after, spilling inside her, marking her in the most primitive way I knew how.

The fantasy ended and I was back to reality alone, c**k throbbing in my hand with just my own ragged breathing and the ache that never quite left.

I came immediately with hot, thick ropes of c*m spilling over my fist, splattering across my stomach, the edge of the desk. My hips jerked, a low, guttural sound tore out of me—half relief, half rage.

I sat there afterward, chest heaving, c*m cooling on my skin, the room silent except for the faint hum of the air conditioning.

Disgust followed fast. Not at her but at myself. She deserved more than a man who would j******f to fantasies about her.

I wiped my hand on the handkerchief from my pocket, tucked myself away and zipped up. The wet spot on my shirt would stain but I didn’t care.

My phone buzzed on the desk with the call from an unknown number. I frowned, that number was only known by a few people.

I let it ring twice and I considered ignoring it. Then I answered.

“Hello, Ryder.” a woman said on the other side. “I heard you found something you lost. We should talk.”

Melissa f*****g Grant.

My grip on the phone tightened until my knuckles whitened.

“What do you want?”