Fraud (Antihero Inferno Book 2) Read online

  It bursts through me as violently as the storm above us, my knees closing on the sides of Gabriel’s head as his tongue slides inside me to tease the aftershocks from my body.

  Despite the rain, my body is burning up, my face flush and skin painfully tight. Every inch is sensitive to his touch, my heart practically beating in my throat.

  His mouth pulls away from my pussy, and he glances up at me with green eyes that are so full of heat they’re liquid. The look in his eyes alone is enough to trap me in place.

  It’s a mix of male satisfaction and utter possession. Of insanity mixed with the need to dominate. I’ve seen it only three times before - every time he’s kissed me.

  “You taste just as good as I thought you would. Just like the spoiled fucking princess you are.”

  There’s a rough edge to his voice that sends a shiver down my spine, a note of arrogant victory that makes me angry.

  “We should go inside,” I remind him, fear of the storm crawling up my spine.

  His lips curl into a teasing smirk. “You should shut up and flip over.”

  “What-“

  He grabs my hips again and flips my body around, his voice an aggressive command. “Get on your knees.”

  “I can’t.”

  The hood is so slippery that there is no way to latch on. Gabriel laughs behind me, guides my legs beneath me and then drags me down until my ass meets his hips.

  “Stay.”

  “Fuck off,” I answer, only because I won’t let him order me around.

  “I can’t. I’m too busy fucking you,” he argues as he unbuttons his jeans and shoves them to his ankles. When his cock pops free, he holds it against the crease of my ass cheeks, his arm wrapping around my chest to tug me back.

  His mouth presses to my ear.

  “Just so you know, I’ve wanted to fuck you every time you’ve pissed me off and pulled one of your stupid pranks. And when you’re mad, I want to shove my cock down your throat to shut you the fuck up.”

  God, he’s such an asshole.

  Turning so that our mouths are close together, I remind him, “Such pretty words from a man I’ll still hate in the morning. I plan on staying mad and getting even.”

  Green eyes lock to mine with every promise of what he plans to do to me, that charming smile of his stretching slowly.

  “I would expect nothing less, and I look forward to it. I also look forward to hearing my name on your aggravating lips right now.”

  One of his hands splays on my back to shove my chest to the car, while his other grabs my thigh to pull my legs apart.

  Locking that same hand over my hip, he thrusts inside me with a slow, smooth motion, another flash of lightning illuminating the sky.

  The car shakes beneath me, and I don’t know if it’s from the thunder above our heads or the ground opening to swallow us. What I do know is that Gabriel’s cock stretches me like I’ve never felt before. Fills me. Owns me.

  My mouth opens as a guttural moan pours out, the sound embarrassing for how carnal it is.

  “Fuck,” he growls beneath his breath and shoves my legs open wider, his thumb digging into the inner muscle of my thigh, his other hand gripped painfully over my hip to hold me in place as he claims my body with every hard thrust.

  The car rocks beneath me, and I can’t move one direction or the other. The metal is too slick, and it’s left me completely in Gabriel’s control.

  Knowing him, he’s done this on purpose. Since we’ve met, he’s always tried to control me.

  Another orgasm tears through me just as a bolt of lightning strikes close, the waves of pleasure colliding with the electricity in the air, my forehead pressed against the wet metal of the hood as my skin tingles, and I tremble in Gabriel’s hold.

  It takes effort to breathe, to think, to speak, but somehow I manage once the aftershocks of pleasure stop shuddering through me.

  “We need to get out of this storm.”

  “The storm can fuck off,” he growls as he jerks my body down, my ass tight to his hips. “I’m taking what’s always been mine.”

  That’s just like him, a man who believes he’s more powerful than a storm, an aggressive, challenging personality that doesn’t doubt he can tell the dark skies to clear and the seas to part and it will be done.

  His hand runs up the center of my body and over my throat, not hard enough to cut off my air, but forceful enough to hold my back in place against his chest, his hips still moving hard enough to rock the car beneath me.

  Mouth to my ear, his voice is rough and barely controlled, his cock sliding into my body with dominating force and long, strong strokes. He’s fucking me while hating me, controlling me while punishing me, taking out all the rage he feels on the one person he’s always fought.

  “Do you remember the time you filled my car with eggs in the school parking lot?”

  I smile, but lose the ability to hold the expression when his fingers pinch my nipple hard, and his cock pushes deeper inside me.

  “How the hell did you do that?”

  It wasn’t easy...or cheap. But he deserved it for convincing our eighty-year-old physics teacher that I wanted to fuck him and was secretly sending him panties and used sex toys for six weeks.

  It was impossible to convince the school it wasn’t me when I was called into a three-hour meeting with a female psychologist and child services. Mr. Granger never looked at me normally again for the rest of the year. I still want to vomit just thinking about it.

  All of this was before that night at his house, when our pranks were funny but not yet cruel.

  “I remember,” I breathe out, my lips parting to drag in air as his cock sinks inside me again.

  His strokes become slow and tortuous, a reminder that he’s inside my body and can take his time enjoying what he does to me.

  He grins. “You stood on the other end of the parking lot laughing, and I almost marched over to bend you over and fuck you in front of the entire junior class.”

  Another hard thrust inside drives a moan up my throat, his fingers tightening down in response to the sound, the trees surrounding us creaking as a hard gust of wind rips at their branches.

  Gabriel’s voice drops lower, becomes dangerous, his mask slipping again. “And I wanted to fuck you the night you saw me get my ass kicked by my friends’ fathers. I wanted to hurt you for stealing that truth from me.”

  He’s hurting me now. Punishing me. But not in a way that bruises my face. More in a way that slices to the bone. Gabriel’s taking what’s always been his, even when we both know it won’t last.

  I already know that tomorrow we’ll be back to what it’s always been. Everybody else will see the jokester, the laidback charmer, the well-mannered gentleman he pretends to be.

  They’ll see Fraud.

  And I’ll look beyond that mask to watch him hurt me all over again.

  Barely able to speak with another orgasm threatening to rip me apart, I say, “You’ll ruin me for it eventually.”

  Voice a dangerous whisper, he’s panting against my ear, his hips moving faster, harder, driving his cock deeper as he grins against my cheek.

  “I ruined you a long time ago. You just don’t know it yet.”

  His hand releases my throat to splay over my back and shove me down again, his other hand holding my hip in place as he drives both of us to a dizzying release.

  Cold rain runs down my back as he pulls out, the hot spurt of his climax running down the back of my leg.

  Gabriel doesn’t give me time to catch my breath before flipping me around again to lock his mouth over mine, his tongue sweeping into my mouth as his fingers fist my hair.

  Our chests press together as rain slides between us, Gabriel’s fingers clamping onto my hip to pull me tighter to him as mine slide over the hard muscle of his shoulders.

  Another crack of lightning fills the sky, thunder rolling in answer behind it. The storm is so close that the buzz of electricity is tingling over my skin.


  Breaking the kiss, he pins his forehead to mine, his bright green eyes capturing my gaze. “We should go inside now.”

  I laugh. “You think?”

  He drags me down the hood until my feet hit the muddy ground. “Wait. I need my stuff.”

  Shaking his head, Gabriel yanks on my hand to drag me to the house. “Now is not the time to worry about your eighty bags of crap.”

  I roll my eyes, but follow regardless. When we reach the front door, he opens it for me, and I pause to see how big the interior is.

  “You have a nice place.”

  His chest presses to my back, his head dropping so he can speak against my ear. “It’s not mine. This is Sawyer’s house.”

  Confusion tugs my brows together. “Then why are we here?”

  “Because there’s no way in hell I’ll let you know where I live.”

  His palm slaps my ass before he shoves me inside.

  “Go upstairs, and get a shower before you freeze to death.”

  Looking forward to it, I leave a muddy path of footprints on my way to the stairs.

  Turning back to him before I climb the first step, I ask, “Aren’t you coming?”

  He shakes his head. “Not immediately. I’ll be up in a little while.”

  I don’t trust him, but taking a hot shower is a lot more appealing than standing here naked and cold just to argue with him. Not that the view from my end is all that bad. Gabriel doesn’t seem to have the slightest issue being naked in front of me. But then, that’s to be expected when your body is perfectly carved without one flaw to be seen.

  Running upstairs, I marvel at the skylights that run the long halls. From the outside, this place looks old and rustic, but on the inside, it’s a breathtaking mix of sleek lines and muted colors, modern touches of glass and chrome blending perfectly with accents in jewel-toned colors.

  Everything is pristine in its placement, without any clutter that mars the tranquil and open feel.

  This isn’t something I’d expect from Sawyer, which can only mean Gabriel was lying...again.

  After peeking in several different rooms, I finally find the master suite and quickly pad barefoot through the room into the bathroom.

  The shower is fully open with no glass or doors to encase it. The grey stone looks natural while dark wood benches are the perfect accent.

  Rather than a showerhead stuck in the wall, I flip the handle and look up to see a large rain showerhead above me. To be honest, I’m a little sick of rain at the moment, but at least this water is warm and isn’t mixed with lightning.

  Not that the storm outside has eased any. One wall of the bathroom is a large window looking out over the woods. Every couple of minutes it lights up just before thunder booms.

  I spend at least a half hour thawing out beneath the spray of water. Once clean, I step out and wrap a large towel around my body, my steps hesitant as I walk out into the master bedroom.

  Gabriel is nowhere in sight, but that doesn’t mean anything.

  A piece of paper on the ground catches my attention, the words printed in large bold print confirming the liar had been here.

  You’re not sleeping in this room. Walk to the door.

  Okay. I take it as a hint.

  I walk to the bedroom door and see another note in the hallway.

  Walk this way.

  Following that, I come to another note.

  Keep going.

  This is a bit ridiculous. He could have shown me to a different room. I come to another note.

  Almost there. A few more steps.

  Another note is a few feet away.

  Turn left.

  Doing as I’m told, I turn and push a door open into a large guest bedroom.

  My bags are stacked in the center of it.

  All seventeen of them.

  Walking up to them, I find another note on top.

  I pick it up and laugh.

  This is your room for the night. Stay here. If you try anything stupid, you’ll live to regret it.

  Gabriel

  The storm continues late into the night, the constant flash of lightning illuminating the skies as close thunder shakes the walls around me.

  After getting a shower and thawing myself out, I spend the next few hours staring out the large window in my bedroom, my eyes focused on the trees in the distance while the house is so quiet you can hear a pin drop.

  The silence doesn’t bother me, and given that Ivy is here, I prefer it. There’s no possible way to lock her in her room, although I’d given it some thought. Tying her down would probably be a little over the top considering I just finished fucking her on the hood of my car as an affront to the world around us.

  It was stupid of me to have sex with her. That wasn’t the plan, and the fact that we ended up naked beneath a fucking lightning storm on top of a car only proves we’re not capable of rational thought when we’re together.

  Or maybe that’s just me.

  Ivy mentioned going inside, but I was too focused on finishing something I’d started years ago to worry about the suggestion.

  Unfortunately, my attraction to her is undeniable. It’s also unfortunate that with the attraction comes memory, and with that memory comes a side to myself that I’d rather nobody know.

  Obviously, the guys know the truth because they have the same issues themselves, but nobody on the outside knows.

  Nobody except Ivy.

  It’s been this way since the beginning, and if I believed in things like destiny, I would assume fate took two of the most fucked up strings she could find and tied them together at the worst point possible.

  The day I met Ivy was the same day I was used to teach Tanner to walk the line.

  I hadn’t lied to Luca when I told her that story, hadn’t fudged the truth to make it more digestible. I was used as an example of how all of us would obey, and then I was driven to another house and walked out to keep Ivy company while our fathers were conducting business.

  Back then, Ivy’s father was still an attorney, his pockets lined by questionable cash. He wasn’t yet in the political spotlight where he had to better hide his true connection to some of our families.

  Can you imagine what it’s like to be bruised and bloodied only to be shoved in front of another person whose life is lived on a cushioned pedestal?

  There she was, the spoiled princess, in her pretty blue dress with her white hair tied back in ribbons and two popsicles in her hand.

  And there I was, the broken prince, with a busted lip and no outlet for my anger.

  Ivy saw the truth that day.

  I hated her immediately.

  She became my outlet.

  Not that she was a victim from that day forward. Ivy gives as good as she gets, which is why this war has lasted so long.

  The thing with opponents is that, while you hate them for the competition they become, you also respect them for the same thing. There is no competition if a person is weaker than you in any way, but that could never be said about Ivy.

  Of course it would be her that night at the party. Our dads were pissed off that we’d bucked the system again, and they’d used me to get a message across.

  What Ivy saw wasn’t a regular occurrence, only one that happened when we didn’t immediately bow to their demands and march to their orders.

  For weeks after that, I’d believed Ivy had started the fire at my house. I’d struck out as a result. Our games became crueler, and when the investigative report came back that lightning had been the cause, it was too late by that point to stop what I’d started.

  The only thing that finally stopped the war was going off to college. But while the distance between us put an end to the pranks, it did nothing to end the feud...or the attraction.

  “By any chance, did you bring our clothes inside when you grabbed my bags?”

  Turning at the sound of her voice, I slip my hands into my pockets and try not to notice how good she looks in a pair of yoga pants and a ragged t-shirt. Ivy
’s hair is loose around her face, the shape of her body barely hidden by her clothes.

  My eyes lift when I finish memorizing every detail about her, and she cocks a brow to let me know she caught me.

  I smile at that.

  “Do I look like your personal errand boy? If so, please let me know, and I’ll update my resume.”

  Ivy doesn’t walk past the doorway into my bedroom. She just stands there claiming the right to enter my space without actually doing it.

  “No. You still look like the aggravating nightmare of a man I’ve always known. No updates necessary. Plus, I wouldn’t give you a good reference. As far as employees go, you’re hostile and don’t follow orders. But I would like those clothes. So where are they?”

  Pushing away from the wall, I cross the room to approach her. She doesn’t back away or show any sign of fear to have me closer. If anything, she squares her shoulders, but her eyes soften, a look I’m not yet familiar with.

  I step up to within an inch of her, our eyes dancing and breath colliding. Ivy’s back is pressed to the doorframe, her knee brushing mine as she stares at me silently.

  “As far as bosses go, you’re overly demanding and have unreasonable expectations. Plus the benefits package you offer sucks.”

  Her lips curl.

  “You didn’t appear to have a problem with my benefits package just a few hours ago on the hood of your car.”

  My gaze drops to her sassy mouth.

  “That may be so, but I think certain items should be added to that package to make it more appealing.”

  “What items are those?”

  My eyes lift to hers. “The promise of your lips on my cock.”

  She doesn’t have the chance to respond before I wrap my hand over the back of her head and tug her mouth to mine. Her body melts against my chest the second our tongues slide together, my fingers fisting her hair as her hands run over my shoulders.

  Not wasting any time, I pull the front of her yoga pants out to slip a hand beneath them, my thumb punishing her clit as I push two fingers inside her and find she’s hot and ready, swollen and so fucking wet that my dick is instantly hard.

  She moans into my mouth, her teeth biting down on my lip, refusing to let go for a few seconds. I tease the inner walls of her cunt, and her head falls back.