4

Chapter 4

Aria's POV

"What the FUCK!" he roared as he jerked upright‚ grabbing my waist and shoving me off him.

I stumbled off the bed and hit the wall while my thighs were still shaking. He stood on the other side of the room‚ breathing hard‚ staring at me as if he had just seen a ghost.

Well I fucking have‚ cause the man I'd just been fucking was no other person than my Alpha stepfather.

My mother's husband.

Kael Stone.

And my fucking professor!

"Aria?!" he shouted‚ his eyes wide with horror as he grabbed a pillow and held it in front of himself.

"Kael?!" I shouted back‚ crossing my arms over my chest as if that would undo the last hour of what we'd just done.

We stared at each other across the room. Both of us naked. Both of us breathing hard. Both of us dripping with sweat and each other's cum. The bass was still thumping through the walls as if the rest of the club had no idea that the world had just ended inside this VIP room.

"What the fuck are you doing here?!" he demanded.

"What the fuck are YOU doing here?!" I fired back. "You're supposed to be at home fighting with my mother!"

"I left! I needed to—" He stopped and dragged his hand over his face. "That's not the point. The point is we just— we just fucking—" He couldn't even say it.

"Had sex‚" I finished for him‚ and saying it out loud made my stomach flip in the worst way possible. "We just had sex. A lot of it."

"Jesus Christ." He turned away from me and put both hands on the back of his head while he paced. "Jesus fucking Christ‚ Aria."

"Don't say my name like that!" I snapped because hearing my name in his mouth right now was doing something to my brain that I wasn't ready to process. That same mouth had been between my legs twenty minutes ago and I wanted to throw up and cry and scream all at the same time.

"How was I supposed to know it was you?!" he yelled‚ turning back to face me. "You were wearing a mask! You came up to me! You sat on my lap and—"

"You didn't exactly push me off‚ did you?!" I shouted‚ feeling my face burn. "You could have said no at any point! You carried me to this room! You—you—" I gestured at the destroyed bed between us. "You did ALL of that!"

"So did you!"

We both went quiet. He was right. I did. I did all of it willingly‚ eagerly‚ and enthusiastically. Multiple times.

Oh God. I was going to be sick.

“Are you—” He looked at me and then looked away fast‚ as if just now remembering that I was completely naked. “Is this something you do often? Sneaking off to places like this with random men and fucking them?”

"Excuse me?!" I stared at him with my mouth open. "Are you seriously asking me that right now? I'm twenty years old‚ Kael. I'm single. I can fuck whoever I want. The better question is what are YOU doing at a sex club when you're married to my mother?"

"I came here to drink!" he shot back. "That's it! I came here to drink and be alone and not think about the fact that my wife has been fucking another man in a hotel every Thursday for two months!"

"And then you fucked her daughter instead! Great alternative!"

He stared at me and I stared at him and the silence between us was so heavy that it felt like the walls were closing in. His cum was still dripping down my inner thigh. I could still taste him in my mouth from when I'd been on my knees in front of him. And the worst part‚ the absolute worst part‚ was that even now‚ even standing here in the middle of this nightmare‚ my body was still humming from what he'd done to it.

That man had made me cum harder than anyone ever had in my life. And he was my stepfather.

I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

"Okay‚" Kael said finally‚ pressing his palms together in front of his mouth like he was trying to physically hold himself together. "Okay. We need to get dressed. Right now."

I nodded because I couldn't argue with that. I grabbed my dress off the floor with shaking hands and pulled it on as fast as I could‚ not bothering with my bra or underwear because I just needed to be covered. I could feel his cum still warm on my thighs as I zipped up the back of my dress and I tried not to think about it. I tried so hard not to think about it.

Kael got dressed too‚ pulling on his pants and his shirt without looking at me. His hands were shaking. I could see them trembling as he buttoned his shirt and grabbed his jacket off the floor.

When we were both dressed we stood on opposite sides of the room again‚ and the bed between us looked like a crime scene. Sheets twisted‚ pillows on the floor‚ the air still thick with the smell of sweat and sex.

"This never happened‚" Kael said‚ and his voice was steady but his eyes weren't. "Do you understand me? This never happened."

"But it did happen‚" I said quietly.

"No." He stepped toward me and his jaw was so tight that I could see the muscle in his cheek twitching. "It didn't. Not tonight. Not ever. As far as you and I are concerned‚ we were never in this room. We never saw each other. We never touched each other. None of it happened."

"Kael—"

"This never happened‚ Aria." His voice broke slightly on my name and he cleared his throat hard. "It can't have happened. Do you understand what would happen if anyone found out? My campaign. Your scholarship. The pack. Your mother."

"My mother‚" I repeated with a hollow laugh. "You mean the one who's been cheating on you for your entire marriage?"

"That's different."

"How is it different?"

"Because she's my wife and you're her daughter!" He was almost shouting now‚ and the pain in his voice was so raw that it actually made me flinch. "You're my stepdaughter‚ Aria! I'm supposed to protect you! I'm supposed to— fuck!" He turned away and slammed his palm against the wall.

I flinched at the sound but I didn't move. I just stood there in my red dress with his cum still between my legs and watched the most powerful Alpha in the city fall apart in front of me.

He stood there facing the wall for a long moment‚ breathing hard‚ his shoulders tense. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a thick fold of cash. He turned around and held it out toward me.

I stared at it. "What is that?"

"Take it."

"What is it for?"

"It's to keep your mouth shut‚" he said flatly‚ and something in his eyes went cold. "Take it. Go home. And never speak of this again."

He tossed the cash onto the bed between us. It landed on the twisted sheets where we'd been tangled together just minutes ago.

I looked at the money. Then I looked at him.

"You think you can pay me to forget what just happened?" I whispered.

"I think we both need to forget what just happened. The money is just motivation."

Motivation.

As if what we did was a mere business transaction.

I wanted to throw the money at his face. I wanted to scream at him that he didn't get to do what he did to my body and then treat me like a problem to be solved with cash.

But my throat was too tight and my hands were shaking too hard and his cum was still dripping down my thighs while he stood there in his pressed suit looking like nothing had happened at all.

He straightened his tie‚ smoothed his jacket‚ and walked to the door. He paused with his hand on the handle‚ his back to me‚ and for one second I thought he was going to say something else. Something that would make this hurt less.

But he didn't.

He opened the door‚ stepped out‚ and closed it behind him.

And just like that‚ I was alone.

I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the cash lying on the sheets. My hands were trembling in my lap and my chest felt so tight that breathing hurt.

I wasn't going to cry. I told myself that firmly while my eyes burned and my throat ached.

I wasn't going to cry over this. Over him. Over what we did.

But I did.

A tear slid down my cheek and I wiped it away fast‚ angry at myself for letting it fall.

I had walked into this club tonight wanting to forget my problems.

Instead I had created the biggest problem of my life.

Becoming my alpha stepfather's dirty secret.