I was trying to think of a way to tell him no when all I really wanted to say was yes, but the sounds of the doors opening grabbed all of our attention. We turned toward the commotion to find one of Mason's men standing there, looking red and worried.
“Mr. Sharp, I need to talk to you.”
Mason's gaze met mine, and the expression there was so torn, so pained, it physically hurt me. Finally, he dragged his stare away as he asked, “What's wrong?”
“Mila is gone.” The man gasped, breathless with exertion.
“What the fuck do you mean!? I told you to watch her. Where did she go?” Mason shouted.
The man visibly paled. “We don't know, sir. Though there were signs of a struggle in her apartment, most of her things are gone.”
Mason’s face went from angry to ice cold in a moment, the latter being much more frightening. “I don’t think there’s any reason to panic,” he looked at me as he said this, clearly trying to comfort me. “She probably left on her own, seeing as her things are gone.” He turned to the man, “And what the fuck were you doing instead of watching her?”
“I fell asleep,” he admitted with a deep blush.
“And the cameras?” Mason stepped toward the man, stopping when he felt the resistance of my hand holding his.
“The feed was cut. There's no record of what happened,” he gulped.
“Get out of my sight. This is the last time you'll fuck up with me, Josh. If we don't find that girl in one piece, I'm going to do to you whatever they did to her.” Josh turned and left, nearly running from the chapel to get out of the way of Mason’s wrath.
Our wedding party stared at us in question. “Let’s go see what happened,” he told them all, ending our celebration with only five words.
Mason nearly dragged me out of the chapel. Pure fear flooded my system, and I wanted to cry for not knowing where Mila was. She had been through so much. The idea that someone might do those things to her again, orworse,made me want to vomit. I disagreed that she left on her own.
He pulled me into the stretch limo with the cans rattling from the back. My wedding and reception were things of the past. He shut the door before anyone could follow us and ordered the driver to pull away.
“Mason, what are you doing?”
“We have the time it takes to drive back to the house before our wedding is over and we have to deal with this. I'm pissed, scared senseless, and not sure if she ran or the syndicate took her. I'm afraid this is an escalation from Christmas and that all-out war is coming, but right now, none of that matters.”
He slid his hands into the elaborate braids in my hair, yanking me to his lips. “You are my wife,mine, and I’m going to fuck you like the world isn’t falling apart around us.”
All I could do was moan into his mouth in response. The worldwasfalling around us, and all we had was a car ride, but I was sure as fuck going to make it count.
“You're mine too. Now fuck me.”
“My pleasure.”
His mouth and hands were all I could feel as he worked the buttons loose on my gown. He surprised me with how efficiently he undid the row of pearl buttons along the back, which,incidentally, matched the pearls in my panties.
I was dripping wet. Those pearls had done exactly as he’d hoped and worked me into a near frenzy. I was desperate for the man I had just tied myself to.
“If I knew it would take this long to take it off, I would have told the designer to put in a fucking zipper.” He growled against my skin, his teeth catching on my throat in punishment. As ifIwere keeping him from what he wanted.
“Forget taking the whole thing off,” I launched myself forward, kissing him hard. “Please fuck me. I need you rightnow.” I grabbed at my skirt, frantically pulling it up. He helped me, bunching it around my thighs to expose the glistening pearls rubbing over my clit.
He reached out, stroking the place they parted me with reverence, “You wore them for me. You are such a good girl.” his praise splashed over me like gasoline on a fire, engulfing me in flames. I couldn't get onto him fast enough, couldn’t get him deep enough inside me. He held himself in position while I worked myself down on his cock. His thick length was always hard to take at first, but I was so aroused the twinge of discomfort felt like a stroke of pure lust.
He gripped my hips, shoving me down and forcing me to take the last inches of him. I cried out, not giving a shit about the driver, the world around us, or anything but the sensation of his thick cock filling me. He watched me as he worked my hips, lightly thrusting up into me to drive his strokes deeper. The pearls rolled back and forth between us, creating the most delicious pressure on my clit. Thankfully, I was so wet everything moved freely.
“I love you, Claire,” the intensity of his emotion burned in his eyes, and despite my love for him, it made me uncomfortable. I'd never made love before, and it felt like that's what he was trying to do.
One of his strong hands left my hip to wrap tightly around my throat, just cutting off my breath. His other hand moved my hips while he picked up a little of the slack by pistoning into me.
“Look at me, Claire.”
And I did, feeling his ownership of me more intensely than I ever had.