Chapter 91 Cheating Kitten
Chapter 91 Cheating Kitten
I sat back against the leather seat, my hands gripping her waist to keep her from completely falling off my thighs, but my mind was operating at a cold, calculating 100 miles an hour.
She was lying. Every single word spilling out of her mouth was a desperate, unhinged fucking fabrication. Yellow taxis? Climbing over back gates? Sneaking past my guards? It was completely laughable, but the fact that she was trying this hard to spin a web of absolute bullshit told me everything I needed to know.
Celene was protecting someone.
My fingers dug slightly deeper into her skin as she rolled her hips against mine, a low, frustrated whimper escaping her lips as she buried her face back into my neck. I could feel the heat radiating off her, the raw, erratic rhythm of her heart hammering against my chest.
But as much as my own body was screaming at me to give in to the friction, the puzzle pieces in my head weren't clicking, and it was driving me fucking insane.
How the hell did she get out of the house?
The security footage being wiped meant it was an inside job, or someone with high-level access. I ran through the timeline again. The second I had received that text message with the photo of her outside the club, I had called my mother. Isabella was already home. Safely tucked away in her wing of the estate, completely oblivious.
And when I told her Celene was missing, her shock and panic had been genuine...she clearly didn’t have a goddamn clue where Celene was.
Which meant Celene hadn't slipped out with her. She was with someone else. Someone powerful enough to bypass my main gate sensors, someone clever enough to wipe my feeds, and someone Celene was willing to risk my wrath to protect. The thought made my blood boil...
"Cole... please," she whimpered against my jaw, her lips catching mine in a messy, frantic smear of a kiss.
She was using the drug now. I could see the subtle shift in her eyes, I could see the desperate, panicked edge that definitely wasn't just from the aphrodisiac, but from the fear of being caught in her own lies.
She was throwing her body at me, grinding her core directly against the aching hardness in my jeans, weaponizing her desire to make me shut the fuck up.
A dark, dangerous smirk tugged at my lips as I caught her upper lip between my teeth, biting down just hard enough to make her gasp before I swallowed her whimper.
Clever girl, I thought, my hands sliding down to cup her bare thighs, lifting her slightly just to grind her back down against me. If she wanted to play the unhinged, drugged-up kitten to escape Paimon's interrogation, I would let her pretend for now. We were minutes away from the estate anyway.
But whoever she was covering for better start praying. Because once I got this drug out of her system, I was going to unearth the truth...and God help whoever put my woman in that fucking room.
The limousine came to a halt in front of the mansion, and I didn't waste a second. Ripping my leather jacket tightly around Celene to shield her from the cool night air, I scooped her up into my arms. By the time we crossed the threshold of the house, she was completely gone, entirely high off the relentless wave of the aphrodisiac.
She was a feverish, twisting weight in my arms, whispering incoherent, desperate things into my neck as I carried her up the grand staircase. Her skin was scorching right through her dress, her hands clutching weakly but frantically at my vest.
I kicked open the bedroom door, strode over to the massive bed, and laid her down as gently as I could on the cool sheets.
The second her back hit the mattress, she whimpered, the sudden loss of my body heat sending a shiver through her. She reached up, her fingers hooking into my shirt with a surprising, drug-fueled strength, trying to drag me down onto the mattress with her.
"Don't go... Cole, please, it's too hot," she cried out, her dark afro curls fanning across the pillows as she arched her back, her legs tangling in the lacy dress. "Stay here. Take it away."
Every protective and predatory instinct in my gut slammed together, urging me to climb right over her and give her exactly what she was begging for. But I forced my hands over her wrists, gently but firmly unhooking her fingers from my clothes and pinning them to the bed for a brief second.
"Hey. Look at me, Babygirl," I murmured, my voice deep, heavy, and rough with my own strained control. I leaned down, pressing a firm, lingering kiss to her burning forehead. "I'm not leaving you. I promise you I will be right back. Just breathe for me."
She let out a frustrated, ragged groan, her hips rolling helplessly against the sheets as I stepped away. I adjusted my tactical vest, forcing down the brutal ache between my thighs, and turned on my heel.
The moment I stepped out into the hallway and pulled the heavy bedroom door shut behind me, I ran right into my mother was standing there.
She looked completely shaken, her hands clasped tightly in front of her as she paced the hardwood floor. The second she heard the door click, her head snapped up, her eyes wide with a heavy, frantic concern.
"Cole," she breathed, rushing toward me, her voice trembling. "How is she? Oh my God, Cole, is Celene okay? What did they do to her?"
I ran a tired hand over my face, the heavy adrenaline of the night finally starting to curdle into an exhausted, dangerous edge.
"I found her...she's alive," I growled, my voice low so it wouldn't carry through the room door. "But her ex was there...the bastard drugged her with a high-grade aphrodisiac..cI don't want to even think about what he planned to do to her...she's inside burning alive, and the worst part is, the little tiger is lying straight to my fucking face."
My mother’s breath hitched, her hand flying to her mouth. "Lying? About what?"
"About how she left this house. About how my security cameras magically went dark for two hours," I snapped, my jaw clenching as the fury flared back up.
"She’s spinning these insane, unhinged stories about yellow taxis and climbing back fences. She is clearly, intentionally covering for someone, Mom. And I’m going to find out who the fuck it is."
My mother went entirely still. The panic in her eyes shifted, morphing into something tightly controlled, a calculated mask that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. She stepped closer, her voice dropping into a tense, suggestive whisper.
"Cole... if she's lying to you to protect someone after being found in a place like that... have you considered the alternative?" Isabella asked, her eyes searching mine with a heavy, forced gravity. "What if she's seeing someone else?"
I stiffened, my eyes narrowing into slits. "What the hell are you saying?"
"I'm saying... maybe she has a true love out there, Cole," Isabella pressed, her tone smooth, planting the seeds with a mother’s quiet caution. "I'm not saying I'm correct, but think about it. She was thrust into our world, into your world. What if the person Celene truly loves... is the person trying to hurt you? What if she's protecting the man who wants you dead?"
If you've read up to this point? Tell me what you think...I'll love to hear your thoughts, your ideas and predictions...