The Dragon (G.O.N.Y. - Double Dragon) (15 page)

“You bastard.”

He released her hands to trail his fingers down her body. Making quick work of her pants, his hand was suddenly in her panties. As he stroked her already sensitive sex, he spoke, “Not a bastard. My parents were married.”

“Shut up, Ramsey!”

“Now you’re making sense.”

The kiss he gave her made her heart stop and then begin a rapid, ribcage-shattering pounding. When his finger slid into her, she winced but took it eagerly. She could feel her dew coating his finger, his hand. He pulled her pants to her knees and flipped her over. As he maneuvered her onto her knees, she squirmed. Big hands gripped her bottom and began to knead. She clenched down, ready to come just from him touching her the way she liked.

As he pressed up against her opening, she managed one moment of common sense. “Condom.”

“No.”

Jezebel frowned through her horny haze. “Ramsey ―”

“You’re already pregnant.”

So what? He’d probably slept with half of New York and South Korea by now and she wasn’t stupid enough to let him come into her without the added protection.“Ramsey!”

“You also said you wore condoms with
him
.”

“Did you wrap it up for every woman you screwed?” she bit out, feeling some of her need melt away.

“No.” Jezebel tried to scramble away but he held her firm. “That’s because I haven’t been with anyone since you.”

She froze. Was he lying? Why would he lie? He had nothing to gain, except sex which they’d already had. Still, he wanted more. “Don’t lie to me, Ramsey.”

“No more lies.” His hands continued their kneading as his cock traced up and down the length of her slit.

“No one?” She found that unbelievable. It had been almost four months after all, and Ramsey Stone was incredibly sexual. Add to that, he looked like a walking poster for GQ, had wealth at his disposal, Ramsey could have anyone. Women would have thrown themselves at him.

“No one.” He covered her, kissed her spine up to her neck. She shuddered, but remained tense in her thoughts. Her mind was telling her to halt it, that he could be lying, but her body, her body was demanding in its need. His lips pressed to her ear. “You don’t believe me?”

She shook her head.

“I was busy…” His hand travelled down her belly to her slick center and a finger began to tease her bud. Jezebel bit her lip to keep her cry in. “…just like you were during that year.” Her body loosened up. He was referring to her year of celibacy, something she’d told him only because she’d feared being hurt by him on their first night together. “Can I fuck you now?”

She nodded, then remembering he couldn’t see her, whispered, “Yes.”

The word was barely out before he stretched her wide. “Ooh!” His thrusts were shallow and quick but as she relaxed, allowing her body to go down until her head was resting against the bed, they grew deep and slow.

“Jezebel,” Ramsey moaned low, gripping her buttocks. “Baby…”

He slapped her ass. She whimpered even as her sex contracted involuntarily against his shaft. “Tell me how you feel.” She moaned. He spanked her again, dragging his hand over her hurt after he was done. “Tell me, baby, tell me how my cock…
your phal
…makes
my pussy
feel.”

“Oh God.” She shook her head. She wasn’t ready for this. The familiar intimacy of the dirty-talk propelled her backward, into a time where he was simply a spa-owner, her personal masseuse, and her lover.

“Tell me.”

“Good,” she moaned. “So good.”

“Just good?” He pulled out of her, and she whimpered in protest. His cock, now wet with her juices, brushed her buttocks. “Good is mediocre.”

“Ramsey…please…” In this moment, she didn’t care that she was begging for it. She needed him.

The bed dipped and Ramsey rolled her onto her back. He came over her, pushing her cotton tee up and feasting on her breasts. Despite resting directly between her legs, he made no move to penetrate her.

“You’re teasing me,” she accused, sliding her hands over his smooth, hard back and down to his buttocks.

He sucked her nipple and spoke with his mouth full. “I told you this is about me.”

When he finally came up for a kiss, she tried to wrap her legs around him. He moved away, rolling her onto her side and pulling her back to his front. Pushing one leg up, he found her slippery entrance from behind, sliding in with such ease it was almost as if she were made for him. In this position, he anchored her breasts, kneading them and pinching her nipples as he thrust into her.

Her orgasm came soon after but he continued on, moaning and grunting in her ear. “Fuck, Jez…so tight…missed this…missed my pussy…” She squeezed him, tightening her muscles to milk him. “Baby…don’t do that…over too soon…fuck!” Liquid fire brushed her insides, and behind her Ramsey shuddered as if releasing his final breath.

She was falling into a doze when his low voice pulled her from it. “I’m sorry.”

“Hm?”

Ramsey shifted and slid from her. Jezebel bit her lip to keep from moaning at the loss. “I’m sorry I lied to you, hurt you, and made you do things you wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t come into your life. I never meant to put you in any of those situations.”

She rolled in his arms, and he pulled her tight against him.

“You pushed me away when I needed you.”

He sighed, and in it, she sensed his regret almost as if he’d said it aloud.  “I know. I thought I was protecting you. I didn’t know you were pregnant.”

She had many other questions, but exhaustion pressed her hard. The questions would have to wait until later. With a nod, she managed, “Thank you…for apologizing.”

His hands slid into her hair and gently massaged her scalp. She was halfway to sleep when he pulled her from it yet again. “Jezebel?”

“Hmm?”

“How many times did you sleep with him?”

“What?”

“I’m curious.”

She shook her head. Curiosity had nothing to do with it. He was jealous. She could lie and give him a number but she also remembered him telling her there had been no others. It was possible that he’d lied, considering he was good at that, but she believed him. Maybe that made her stupid, but she did and was too tired to question it tonight.

“I didn’t.”

Her massage stopped. “What?”

“ I didn’t sleep with Brandon. I just let you believe I had.” She sighed and snuggled into his body. “I’m tired.”

The scalp massage started again but this time he pressed his lips to her forehead. “Sleep.”

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
 

―
Aristotle

Ramsey was right, Jezebel thought with a quick glance at a stoic and badly bruised Bastian, the other guy did look worse.

When she’d awoken this morning, naked, alone, sore and hungry, Jezebel hadn’t had time to fully think about what had happened last night and early this morning. Her stomach had begun a vicious cramping and she’d barely managed to slip into an oversized t-shirt and pajama bottoms from her stocked closet, before she was making her way to the kitchen. She’d intended on grabbing a plate and taking it back to her room, but someone called her name before she entered the kitchen. She’d found Ramsey and Hannah seated around the dining table, looking proper and put together as if it wasn’t just after eight in the morning and they weren’t at home. After joining them and gorging herself on a full plate of eggs, bacon made the way she loved it,
galbi,
and round pancakes, Jezebel had felt self-consciousness kick in. Before she could excuse herself, Bastian and Sarah showed up. Later, Vince and last, Delilah arrived.

All the while, Hannah spoke, engaging everyone as they arrived and keeping the conversation going. With her stomach full, Jezebel could finally think about last night and Ramsey. It shouldn’t have happened but it had. Although she’d told him it changed nothing, even now, she could feel the nervous flutters in her belly when he looked at her. He wasn’t even doing anything to warrant it. He was just staring at her, eyes fixed on hers as he sipped from his porcelain mug. She knew it contained coffee because that was what Ramsey Stone drank in the morning: black with no sugar. When she looked away, hoping he’d take a hint and stop staring at her, she turned back to find him still staring, but this time his lips were upturned in a smirk.

“…Jezebel…?”

She jumped at both the question and Hannah calling her name. “I’m sorry.” She hastily looked away from Ramsey to his smiling mother. “I didn’t hear the question.”

Hannah nodded in understanding. “I asked if you slept well last night? There was a thunderstorm. Sarah and I were just talking about it.”

A thunderstorm? Jezebel shook her head. She’d slept through whatever storms they’d had. All she remembered was falling into a heap of exhaustion after Ramsey did what he’d done to her body. She hastily looked to, then away from him, and could tell from the easy warmth in his eyes that he was smiling behind the coffee cup and moustache.

“What about you, Delilah?”

Turning to her sister, Jezebel almost blanched. Delilah was glaring at her, almost as if she knew what had transpired last night. Did she? Jezebel wondered. Their rooms were right next to each other. It was possible her sister had heard… Jezebel’s cheeks heated and she was suddenly very interested in the pieces of egg she hadn’t consumed that lay around her plate.

“I heard it,” her sister muttered in a sardonic tone. “I’m surprised you didn’t as it was quite loud.”

When Jezebel looked at her sister, Delilah lifted a brow in challenge and scowled. Jezebel knew then her sister wasn’t talking about the same storm as Hannah.

“How interesting,” Hannah chimed. “I didn’t hear a thing.” She clucked her tongue. “Ramsey? Bastian? Vince? You three are light sleepers, aren’t you? Did you hear anything last night?”

Vince was the first to answer, shaking his head in the negative and smirking as if he had a secret. Jezebel blanched. She hoped it wasn’t the same secret Delilah had.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Bastian muttered.

At his side, Sarah added, “That’s because you took two aspirin before sleep― ”

She halted and looked down at her barely touched plate when Bastian glared at her.

“And you, Ramsey?” Hannah continued, but not before passing her younger son a veiled glare that spoke volumes.

“I might have heard something,” he answered, allowing his gaze to roam the people seated at the table, pausing seconds longer on her. “But I was preoccupied so I wouldn’t have dwelled on it.”

“Ah,” Hannah muttered with a smile and slight shake of her head. “Well, I guess it’s now official; I’m old.”

“
Omma
…” Ramsey began, his smirk giving way to a half smile. “You’ll never be old.”

Hannah shook her head but smiled, as if this was a normal’s day banter between the two of them. Minutes later, Jezebel excused herself. Between Ramsey’s intense stares and Delilah’s fierce scowls, she felt the need to get away from it all. Plus, she needed a shower.

She’d barely made it to the spiral staircase when she heard Delilah calling her name. Jezebel slowed down but continued to walk up the stairs. When she was next to her, her sister hissed, “You slept with him!”

“We’ll talk about this in my bedroom.” Jezebel struggled to remain calm.

Once they got there, Delilah’s voice rose and when she spoke this time, it was an accusation, “You slept with Ramsey!”

“That’s none of your business,” Jezebel retorted in kind, making her way to the bathroom. She was pushing it closed when her sister came barging through.

“None of my bus―oh, let me see: I willingly followed my sister into Witness Protection because she got involved with a psychopath gangster who knocked her up, almost got her killed, and now here she is, sleeping with him again as if the past months didn’t even happen. Right it’s none of my business.”

“Lilah…it happened.” She shrugged, and walked to the standing shower. Turning it on, she adjusted the temperature.

“So, what, now you two are back together?” Delilah dragged her hand over her short cropped hair.

“We had sex. That’s it.” Jezebel grabbed the wide-toothed comb in the shower caddy and pulled it through her hair. She grimaced at the breakage, but pulled it up into a bun, and placed a shower cap over her head.

“Oh,
that’s it
? You had sex, so no more sex for the two of you? It was a one-time thing and now you hate him again?”

“I’d like to take a shower.”

At her sister’s round-eyed stare, Jezebel pointed to the door. “Without you standing in the bathroom yelling at me like I’m a child.”

“In case you forgot, you’re having a baby―”

“I didn’t forget,” she quipped. “Sex is how we made him, remember?”

“Oh, this is funny?” Her sister laughed, a harsh bark of hollowness that seemed close to hysteria.

Deciding it had gone on long enough, Jezebel approached Delilah and touched her arm. “Lilah, calm down. Stress isn’t good for you. We’re safe here. I know what I’m doing.”

“Like you knew what you were doing when you got involved with him?”

“I didn’t then,” Jezebel conceded. “But my eyes are open now. Give me credit for being smart enough to make the right decisions.”

Before her eyes, her sister’s anger evaporated as concern overrode it. “I’m just worried, Jez. He’s not good for you. You don’t have any kind of future with him.”

“I don’t have a future with him but my child does,” she reminded Delilah pointedly.

“What?” Her sister blinked furiously and shook her head. “You can’t be serious, Jez! He’s dangerous! We’re only here temporarily and then―”

“Then what, Lilah? When this threat is gone, do we go back into witness protection? Hire armed bodyguards to watch our every move? Stand by the baby’s crib as he sleeps? What? What do we do next?”

Her sister inhaled sharply and looked away.

Jezebel calmed herself. “Look, I know that you’re just concerned and I love you even more for it, but I know what I’m doing. This is not like the last time. I know what he is and what he’s capable of.” She didn’t. Not quite, but Jezebel had every intention of finding out today.

Her sister sighed and nodded. “I just don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“And that’s why I love you.”

When Delilah finally left, Jezebel stripped out of her clothes, opened the glass door, and moved into the shower. As the warm spray washed away residue from the day and last night, Jezebel braced against the stone-tiles and sighed. She’d have to speak to Ramsey soon, but for now, she’d just brace here and pretend her life was much simpler than it actually was.

***

“So you finally gave Bastian the beating he deserved.”

Ramsey walked over to the large desk in his office and took a seat in the comfortable leather chair behind it.  Instead of answering the question, he addressed Vince, who leaned against the closed door. “I need you to find out what the FBI is planning to do about Jezebel’s disappearance.”

When Vince only continued to stare at him, Ramsey added, “Jezebel called Erickson yesterday. She told him where she was.”

His cousin lifted a brow, waited the space of two heartbeats, and then shrugged. “The FBI doesn’t have jurisdiction in South Korea.”

“No, but if they think she’s an important enough witness, they might come after her.” Ramsey doubted it, particularly with the charges against him dropped, but one never knew just how desperate the feds were. Plus, she was a potential witness against him, the only one they currently had. Maybe they would engage international agencies. He was reminded of the call he had to place to his lawyers.

Deciding to change the subject to more pressing matters, Ramsey asked, “Did you set up the meetings?”

Vince nodded.

“In Gwangju?”

He nodded again.

Ramsey had been very specific that the men come to him. It was half-test, half-security. Most of the leaders of these organizations would have little problem coming into his territory, particularly as they would be travelling with envoys, unless they were guilty of something. To add to that, Ramsey wanted to be close enough to Jezebel to get to her in minutes if it was necessary. He couldn’t do that if he was in Seoul or any of the other provinces.

“When?”

“I put them in your calendars,” Vince replied with ease. He moved forward, stopping before one of the chairs to take a seat and make himself comfortable. “The meeting with Kwan is tomorrow morning at 10.”

Ramsey leaned back in the chair. “Did he confirm?”

“Last night.”

Ramsey lifted a brow. “Did you tell him where we’re meeting?”

Marital relation or no, Sarah’s father was not welcome in his home until Ramsey was certain he had nothing do with Lily’s death and wasn’t plotting against him. If Jezebel wasn’t there, he might have risked it, but he refused to bring any possible threat close to her.

“I did.” Vince scratched his chin lazily. “I spoke with his nephew. He was insulted.”

“And Kwan?”

“I assume he shares his nephew’s feelings. It’s the first time in decades he wasn’t invited to your home.”

Ramsey expected no less from a man who’d done nothing wrong. It was insulting to have a family home and not invite marital family into it. Additionally, Kwan was an elder, his grandfather’s trusted friend and colleague. His culture dictated he show respect for that status. Ramsey didn’t care.

“Where are we meeting?”

“The Coffee Shop.”  The Coffee Shop was another of his family-owned establishments. It was small, catering to a capacity of 50 guests, and featured coffees from all over the world. Because Gwangju was mostly a working class province, the establishment didn’t rake in profits like some of his other businesses, but it still served a purpose. Millions of dollars had passed through the business during his grandfather’s reign, money that came in dirty and left whistle clean.

“Good. Thank you.”

Ramsey slid the chair closer to his desk and turned on the computer at his side. As it booted, he noticed Vince hadn’t moved, and was still staring at him, one brow half-raised and a slight smirk on his lips.

“Yes?”

“What did he do this time?”

Ramsey didn’t discuss his brother outside of Bastian’s presence. He’d spoken to Hannah about their relationship before because she was his mother and wouldn’t allow him to brush the conversation aside. Vince had observed, and come to his own conclusions about them.

“Did you set up security for tomorrow?”

His cousin nodded. “Four of ours will be in The Coffee Shop before we get there, and we’ll be taking another four over.”

Ramsey didn’t expect any public violence but he could never be too cautious. As he nodded, Vince stood and turned to the door. “You’re staying here tomorrow.”

Vince turned to face him. “What?”

“When I meet with Kwan, you’ll be here.”

Brows furrowing, his cousin shook his head.

“I need you to stay with the women while I’m gone.”

Understanding dawned, but his cousin still shook his head. “That’s not necessary. I have the security system wired to my phone and I’ve already called in reinforcements for tomorrow. Twelve extras will be working the grounds.”

“Extras?” He frowned. Along with Vince, he’d handpicked the men who currently secured the grounds of his estate.

“I vetted them,” Vince assured. “They’re all from families loyal to ours, families that have benefited in some way from that affiliation.”

Even as he nodded, Ramsey spoke, “You’re still staying. She doesn’t leave your sight until I return.”