Creed (The Marquette Family Book One) Read online

  “What were you thinking?” Shada asked.

  Marisa smiled, unrepentant. She seemed so much frailer than usual, but it could have been a figment of Shada’s imagination. Marisa was pale, with little color even in her usually rosy lips. “I had so much fun with Damen.”

  “He had you bowling!”

  “I didn’t lift any balls.”

  “Well, what was the point, then?”

  Marisa shrugged. “Just watching him do it for the both of us. He sucks. Bad.”

  Despite herself, Shada chuckled, but her fear returned. She bundled Marisa up and let Creed take them both home. When Damen tried to speak to her at their apartment door, she slammed it in his face.

  Marisa didn’t complain. In fact, she stayed silent, and Shada knew she was beat. Shada put her to bed with the intention of helping her to shower the next morning. All night, she sat at Marisa’s bedside and watched her in between nodding off herself. Over the next few days, she took off from work to care for her.

  Chapter Nine

  Shada slammed a pot on the stove and then forgot what the heck she intended to do with it. She stomped to the larder and wrenched the door open, as if that would hurt anyone. The vast store of food lay before her, but for the first time, nothing appealed. She went in anyway and grabbed random items. Putting them on the counter, she added eggs, peppers, and steak. She cracked the eggs into a bowl and crumbled half the shells in as well.

  “Damn it!” she screamed and threw the bowl into the sink. Good thing the bowl is made of stainless steel, she thought after the fact. Another try produced the same effect, and the clank of metal to metal did nothing to calm her rage.

  “Hey!”

  Shada scowled at Creed, not having realized he was there. She had hoped, with it being so late, no one would be around, and she could work out her frustrations alone. “Why are you here?” she demanded.

  He strode over to her and removed the tenth egg from her fingers. “I work here, remember? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Just leave me alone.”

  “I can’t do that.” He stepped closer. Her desire stirred, but it pissed her off, and she retreated. He followed and kissed her lips. A moan hovered in her throat, but she swallowed it. Somehow she managed to resist and turned her head. When she raised a hand to smack his face, he caught her wrist. She tried with the other hand, and he caught that one to jerk her against him. “You’ve done enough.”

  “What’s that’s supposed to mean?” She pulled on his hold. “Let me go, Creed.”

  “Not until you calm down.”

  “Fuck you.”

  He released her wrists and grabbed her shoulders to shake her. She fought as hard as she could, thrusting at his chest, beating against it like some lame little damsel from a romance. The more she did—and failed—the more her temper soared. Only exhaustion made her stop fighting him, and she panted, arms aching at her side.

  “Better?” he said, backing up.

  She said nothing.

  He touched her hair, and she spun away to look at the royal mess she had made of the kitchen. Still, she made no move to clean it up just yet. Her emotions were too raw.

  “She’s fine, Shada,” he said. “You told me so yourself this morning.”

  “I know.”

  “She’s been sleeping most of the time for a few days now, and you told me today was the first time she seemed back to normal.”

  “Normal.” Her laugh sounded more like a sob. “Everything you’re saying is true. Her doctor even said she’s okay, well, as much as can be expected.”

  “Then you need to unwind.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  She cut her eyes over at him. “Are you telling me I need a drink?”

  He didn’t answer but turned and headed down the hall to his office. She followed, and he let her in and shut the door behind them.

  “Creed?”

  “I don’t drink.”

  “You don’t?” She frowned, trying to recall if during any of the times they had all celebrated together she had seen him with a glass of wine. She couldn’t remember. “Because of your dad?”

  He shrugged. “Come here, Shada.”

  “Your brothers both drink.”

  He stood near his desk and held out his hand. “Now.”

  She wandered over to him, and he took her hand and whipped her around until she stumbled. He smacked her ass hard, and she cried out, loving it. The dress she had worn was thrust up to her waist, and he shredded her panties just as he had done before. She stared at them as they fluttered in pieces to the floor. Creed smacked her now-bare ass again, and the sting brought tears to her eyes. He stroked her skin there and squeezed. She leaned on the desk for support.

  He dropped to his knees behind her and kissed one cheek. “If you want to calm down, I’ll help you,” he said.

  Calm down? He drove her to the brink of an orgasm with a few kisses and a spanking. How was that calming her? Yet his actions had eased a little of the frustration. If they continued, she might find release—emotionally and physically.

  “Now you ask me?” she teased. “After you’ve destroyed my panties? I need to bill you for all my clothes.”

  “I’ll give you whatever you want.”

  She bit her lip. He was serious, the way he looked up at her. She might have been higher than him at that moment, but she sensed his strength and control. Even from that position, he held all the cards.

  Shada forced her gaze from his and peered at the window. Heavy curtains kept anyone who might be passing in the alley from seeing in. Out in the restaurant, all lay in silence, now that she’d stopped slamming pots and pans.

  “I’m not looking to be any man’s mistress.”

  Creed bumped the insides of her legs, and she spread them wider. He ran a hand over her dripping pussy, up past it to her belly, and down again to cup her mound. A pulse started in her core. She swallowed.

  “You already belong to me, and we both know it.”

  She turned to face him and started to walk away. He stood and caught her around the waist, spun her to face the desk, and cornered her with his large frame. A hand on either side of her hips trapped her even more, and she licked her lips. Her heart raced, and the blood pulsing in her ears made it hard to hear.

  Creed reached around and raised her chin with one finger. He kissed her lips, parted them with the tip of his tongue, and dipped inside for an instant. When he drew away, she almost whined in disappointment.

  Creed tapped a finger on her mouth. “These lips are mine.” He grazed her pussy with two fingers. “This pussy is mine.” He placed a hand across the front of her hips to protect her from the desk and smacked her ass. She bumped against his arm, whimpered, and grabbed onto him for support. “This ass is mine.”

  She said nothing. Emotion bubbled up inside, and her pussy clenched so much with need she couldn’t find words to speak.

  “Now, you can say our word, but you damn sure better say it fast, Shada. Because when I open my pants, I’m going to put my dick in you.”

  “R-right here?” She never thought he could take her to greater heights than he had the night they’d had sex for the first time.

  He threaded his fingers into her pussy and stroked in and out. She was so wet, her juices coated his digits, and she moaned, arching her back and pressing her ass into his crotch.

  “Do you want to tell me no, baby?”

  How could anyone tell him no? “I…no…”

  He pushed his fingers inside her and left them there, his palm flat on her mound. “No is not our word, Shada. What’s our word?”

  She forgot.

  “Shada?” The crackle of a condom packet sounded in the room. She felt his movements as he raised a hand to tear it open with his teeth. Her pussy pulsed around his fingers, but he didn’t move them. He kept them buried deep inside her, and she couldn’t help thinking about what she would feel next. His cock, all thick and hard, would s
oon replace his hand. She wanted it bad. She wanted him to spank her some more and, when he fucked her, to pump until her pussy ached.

  Dragon. The word popped into her head. She bit her tongue, refusing to utter the word. Creed’s hand abandoned her, and she could have wept. “No,” she whispered.

  The condom snapped into place, and he held her hip with one hand. The other, he used to guide the tip of his shaft to her opening. Shada went up onto her toes and arched until her ass cheeks spread. Creed pierced her moist entrance and groaned. He slid in an inch at a time, driving her crazy.

  “All of it,” she begged. “Give it to me, Creed.”

  “You’ll get it when I say, not before.”

  She pushed back on him, but he pressed her forward, pinning her against the desk. He thrust aside papers and pens, and the rest of the items on his desk tumbled to the floor. With a large hand in the center of her back, he forced her to lie on the wooden surface. Her breasts flattened and her nipples tight, she shut her eyes and waited.

  Creed rewarded her for rushing him with a spanking. She curled her fingers around the edge of the desk as an orgasm began to build. The thwack of his palm meeting her flesh sent desire higher.

  “Creed,” she whispered.

  He massaged her ass cheeks and pulled them wide. Gently, his cock wove between her folds, and he sank deep into her pussy. She shook from head to toe. With her ass still stinging from the spanking, Creed began pumping into her. He moved slow and easy at first, but almost right away, he picked up the pace. Her lover knew what they both enjoyed.

  “Do you want it faster, baby?” he asked.

  “Yes!”

  “Do you need my cock?”

  “Yes, please,” she begged.

  “Raise your knee.”

  She placed a hand at her side to brace herself and then raised one knee onto the desk. Creed thrust harder. She screamed in delight. He pounded deeper. Her core muscles contracted, driving her higher and higher. Surely, she couldn’t get any wetter than she already was, and yet her body felt as if it would combust any second. Creed leaned over her and reached with one hand to the opposite side of the desk. He used the leverage to pound harder. She cried out his name. Their bodies slapped together again and again, the noises they made adding to the pleasure. Ecstasy took her mind and made it impossible to think. All she could do was feel him, love how he ravaged her pussy and claimed it as his own.

  “Play with your clit,” he ordered and pulled her back a little so she could reach the bud. While he kept up his rhythm, Shada pinched her clit between her thumb and forefinger. She gave it a tug and rubbed over the surface. An orgasm roared through her body. She called out to him. He didn’t slow down but encouraged her to do it again. In between small pauses, during which she was too sensitive to touch, she brought herself to orgasm several times. At last, Creed thrust into her and held himself in to the hilt. He muttered something, and then she felt the pulse. He had come.

  After a moment to catch his breath, Creed pulled out. He helped her to rise and drew her into his arms, facing him. Shada welcomed his tongue into her mouth and his strong embrace. “You’re calmer now, aren’t you?”

  “I might be,” she joked.

  He brushed a hand over her thigh, and she wondered what condition her dress lay in. The last time he had ruined her clothes, she’d gone home in some oversized ones of his. She’d taken her only change of clothes home to wash and had forgotten to bring them back today.

  “Who’s here?” came a booming voice down the hall.

  Shada and Creed froze. Fear tightened her belly. For some reason, Rene had showed up at the restaurant. Oh hell, she didn’t want him to see her in the state she was in, and there wasn’t a doubt in her mind the office smelled like sex.

  Creed held up a finger to her lips and then darted to the door. He locked it and shut off the lights. The office was plunged into total darkness.

  “Creed?” she whispered.

  “Open the curtains, Shada,” came the low reply.

  She managed to get around the desk and pull back the curtain. Moonlight illuminated the office enough for her to see him standing near the door. He gestured for her to come to him, and she hurried over. As soon as she reached him, Creed tugged her to his chest and kissed her lips. A sound outside the door made them freeze again. She started to speak, but Creed covered her mouth. Her heart hammered so loud, it was a wonder Rene didn’t hear it through the door.

  Rene moved away, but she heard him fussing in French. She didn’t understand a word, but he must be pissed at the mess in the kitchen. “I’m going out there. I don’t want him to think I left it that way.”

  Creed pulled her hand off the doorknob. “You can explain it to him later, when I’m finished with you.”

  She grinned in the darkness, scarcely able to see his face but sure his eyes glittered with lust. Nothing could dampen it, including the risk of discovery. Meanwhile, she felt like she might collapse with nerves.

  “We can’t do it again, with Rene so close.”

  Another condom appeared from nowhere, it seemed. She started to pull away. He caught her. Creed put her silently against the door, legs spread, the head of his cock against her pussy. The man was already hard again.

  Or maybe he never went soft.

  “Are you telling me no?”

  Damn him. She moaned. “Creed, you know I can’t tell you no.”

  He sank inside her. She started to cry out, but he covered her mouth. A wonderful pounding began again, and Shada decided to put off until tomorrow thinking about whether Rene could identify where the steady thump against the door had come from. All she cared about right now was pleasing her man and being pleasured by him the rest of the night.

  * * * *

  In the light of day—well, four o’ clock might not be the light of day, but it was technically another day—Shada questioned whether she’d lost her everlasting mind. She did her best to clean up in the bathroom off Creed’s office, and then she tossed her panties in a grocery bag before stuffing them under a pile of papers in his trashcan. Her pussy was sore, again, and Creed had left her alone to go speak with Rene, who had never left the restaurant. How the heck was she going to show her face out there? This was crazy. Her obsession with Creed had to have some boundaries, some freaking rules.

  When she forced herself to go to the kitchen, her muttered, “Morning,” to Rene was met with a grunted response. He didn’t even turn around. She saw that the mess she had made was now gone, and she grimaced. “Um, sorry about the state of the kitchen. I meant to clean it up before anyone else arrived.”

  No comment.

  “Well, I’m not due in until this afternoon, so I’m going home,” she said. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Bonjou.”

  She sighed and walked out to the main dining room. Before she reached the front door, Creed called to her, and she glanced back. He approached her, looking remarkably fresh for someone who hadn’t slept all night. She was pretty sure she looked a hot mess.

  “I want to talk to you,” he said.

  “Not now, Creed. I’m tired, and I probably stink.”

  He grinned. “You don’t. You smell like—”

  “Don’t even. What did you want to talk about?”

  “Us.”

  Butterflies stirred in her stomach. Did he expect her to get any sleep before her shift? “There’s not really anything to talk about.”

  “There is. How about ten, my office?”

  “Don’t you have to prepare for the lunchtime rush?” She was so glad she had the time off today. The prep for dinner was all she was responsible for. Tomorrow, Rene was off, and she would be the one in charge. She looked forward to it.

  “I’m adjusting my schedule to suit yours. Besides, all I do is put out an occasional fire.”

  She smirked. “Please, you know you’re more valuable than that.”

  He touched her cheek with the back of his knuckles, and a shiver ran down her spine. “Th
anks. So ten?”

  “Fine, but not your office. A café or something.”

  He agreed to meet her at Marquette’s and then for the two of them to walk over to the café on Royal. She left him then and headed home. First, she checked on Marisa and found her sister sleeping peacefully. Afterward, she showered and dropped naked into her own bed. Brushing her bare skin, the sheets were a reminder of how Creed’s hands had felt doing the same thing. She shut her eyes, and images of their office adventure came flooding back. And then there was his insistence that they talk about them. There was no “us” as far as she knew, except he had called her body his earlier. Maybe he wasn’t ready to stop having sex with her. She didn’t blame him. They were good together, physically, and she’d be lying if she said she had had enough. If a woman could get enough of Creed’s body, Shada knew nothing of it.

  Rather than sleeping, she lay awake all morning, going over and over what she wanted if Creed said he wanted a standing arrangement between them. Could that be it? She’d said she was no man’s mistress, because she didn’t like the connotations of it. Yet in this day and age, it wasn’t about the man alone, about meeting his needs. Hell, Creed could be her paramour. She laughed at the ridiculousness of it, especially since neither of them were married.

  At nine, Shada climbed out of bed in defeat. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and dressed. Marisa met her in the kitchen, and Shada kissed the top of her sister’s head. “Hungry?”

  “Not really, but since I know you’ll lecture me on the importance of keeping my strength up, I’ll have bacon and eggs, please.”

  Shada eyed her sister. “Someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”

  Marisa groaned. “I’m sorry. I’m just…”

  “What?” Shada sank down into a chair opposite Marisa and took her hands. “You don’t usually get up without me waking you. Did you sleep badly?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Sis, you’re starting to worry me.”

  Marisa groaned and pulled her hands from Shada’s. “I’m in a foul mood because I feel like I have to tell you something.”