Page 16 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part Two
As soon as he had me writhing on the bed, begging to come, he climbed up between my thighs and kissed my lips as I rolled against him. I was chasing that orgasm that was just out of reach.
“Hendrick,” I whined, and the fucker laughed at me. At some point, he’d wiggled out of his clothes, giving my hands unimpeded access to all that beautiful golden skin. His muscles flexed as he held me up, kissing along my cheeks and jaw, down along the column of my throat.
I gripped his hair in my hand, tugging his head back until he was looking at me with those hooded bedroom eyes.
“If you don’t get inside me now, I’m going to lose my fucking mind.”
He had the audacity to laugh. “Ah, Viva, your mind is already gone.” But he curled his body and thrust into me hard, making me let out a muffled scream against his shoulder. “But I’m right there with you, baby.”
He fucked me gloriously, hitting my G-spot with unerring accuracy, our bodies slapping together in a steady rhythm.
“Oh fuck, Drix,” I moaned.
He grabbed my left thigh, dragging it over his shoulder so he could go deeper, and I saw stars. I came on a scream. Hendrick grabbed my other leg and put it over his other shoulder, bending me in half as he fucked me fast and deep, until he too shuddered out his own orgasm.
My legs slid to the sides, and he collapsed onto my chest, our combined sweat making us stick together. “God, I missed you, Viva. Don’t leave again?”
I stroked my fingers through his hair, my chest still heaving as my legs shook with the residual effects of that fucking orgasm. It was hard to think of anything outside of this moment, but I must have murmured something reassuring, because he buried his face in my neck and sighed happily.
Eventually, he rolled off me and off the bed, walking into the ensuite to get rid of the condom I hadn’t even realized he’d put on. Fuck, apparently I hadn’t learned to be less irresponsible. Evan was right—I needed to get the pill, or an IUD or something ASAP, before this marriage got a lot more permanent than a simple divorce could handle.
Hendrick returned with a bottle of water and a smile. “Have I told you how goddamn beautiful you are?”
I laughed, taking the bottle and sucking down half the contents. The fact my throat felt rough was probably testament to the fact that I’d screamed a lot more than I thought I did. Eesh, I hoped the guys were still downstairs drinking.
“Not in the last hour, anyway.”
“You’re so fucking beautiful. I’m blessed that you even let me between those thighs.”
He pulled back the blankets, and I slid in. His room was basically bare except for a suitcase and a bed. This place was a blank slate for us all.
But I could admit that I didn’t really understand what the hell was going on. I understood that Hendrick’s father was a psycho, and that he wanted Hendrick’s money for his campaign, but that was about it.
When I was safely wrapped in Hendrick’s arms, I whispered against his chest. “Tell me something good that happened in your life. Has it all been bad?”
Hendrick was silent, his hand running up and down my spine. “No, Viva. It hasn’t all been bad. Most of it has been good. Like once, when I was eight, my nanny had a family emergency and instead of asking permission to leave, she just took me with her. She took me to the Bronx, where her elderly father had fallen in the bathroom and hurt his hip. He was fine, but it stressed out her mother. While my nanny got him all fixed up, her mother taught me to make empanadas using her family’s secret recipe. She let me roll the dough and taught me how to fill them. Even though they were a mess, she praised me in Spanish. I barely spoke it, but my nanny had been teaching me in secret. It was one of the best afternoons of my life.”
I smiled against his chest. “What happened to your nanny?”
Drix tensed slightly. “I caught my father trying to rape her when I was twelve. I stabbed him with a letter opener, and she ran and never came back. My dad sent me to my first institution the next day.”
Fuck. Holy fuck.
“God, Drix. I’m so sorry.”
He stroked his hand down my hair, until it tangled in my curls. “It was a long time ago.”
I paused, kissing his chest softly, trying to reassure him that shit would never be that bad again. We wouldn’t let it—not me, nor Otto, nor Sampson. Definitely not Evan. We had his back now. We were his family.
“What happened to her after that?”
He shrugged. “After I got out of the institution, I stole my father’s credit card, withdrew ten thousand dollars and hopped on a bus to the Bronx. I slid that wad of cash under their door and ran away. I never heard from her again, but I hope it was enough for her to take care of her family until she found a new job.”
I tilted my head back so I could kiss his chin. “You’re a good man, Hendrick Kenley.”
I knew then and there that I’d made the right decision. That I would protect what was left of that vulnerable boy who’d protected his nanny, even though it would change the course of his life forever. Who’d made sure she didn’t starve. Who’d tried to right the wrongs of his father, even though they weren’t his to right.
He was a victim of Ted Kenley, just as much as his nanny had been. Hendrick might have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but that spoon was coated in poison, and I knew that soon, Hendrick Kenley would choke.
