Chapter 1

FLAMES

PRESENT DAY

FUCKING HELL.

Russia, I could handle.

Taking down cartel lords, that shit got me up in the morning.

But this? This was a whole level of bullshit I hated.

“At least smile for God’s sake, you are scaring off the ladies”, the annoying fucker next to me quipped making the night even longer than I wanted it to be.

I stared at the fucking thousand dollar donation for some type of extinct bird or some shit of the sort wondering how little my life had been reduced to.

“How long is this going to take?” I asked Jason barely moving from where our feet had been rooted at since we fucking got here.

“The client is some big shot so the way I see it, I’m guessing all night?”

Motherfucking fuck.

“Hey at least you got me. We could grab a drink or too, enjoy the fuck out of this bullshit”

I’d rather fuck a cactus than grab a drink with Jason fucking Bates. He was like the annoying best friend I never asked for. His voice pissed me off, hell his whole life was off.

We’d served together in the old days and we’d seen our fair share of horrors but the fucker treated everything like a joke. All rainbows and unicorns and fucking butterflies. He was an optimistic fucker that annoyed the hell out of us.

“No”, I clipped searching for any good stuff I could drown myself in. if I was going to stay here all night with snobs snobbier than the Queen of England I needed some liquid courage.

“Don’t be such a buzz kill”

“I would if I wasn’t stuck with you”

“What does a guy have to do to get some love around here?” he feigned hurt tainting my B&A polo shirt with his hands.

“You know Cannon was just like you before he fell in love with a certain brunette. I’m telling you man the day you get hitched you’ll be begging me to be your best man”

I almost laughed at that-almost.

Marriage was the last shit I’d do and love didn’t quite exist in my world.

You fuck too many women and practically every fucking pussy tasted the same.

I’d loved once though and it was a whole sticky mess that left me wounded and scarred both literally and metaphorically.

Perhaps Cannon was another fucker at B&A who’d turned out to be stupid than I gave him credit for. He fell in love got heartbroken and soon the dumbass was going on missions no sane Marine would do. Even I included and I was the most insane Marine at B&A.

“You ever shut up? Eyes on the client, Bates. I need to take a piss”

“Ay Ay captain”, he responded and I heaved a dry sigh marking out a reason why Jason and I would never be buddies.

For a sniper, he was the fucking best there was so much that I felt jealous of him but for a person, he was as stupid as people came.

I got out through the back door dragging with me a bottle of Macallan (most expensive liquor I had had for a while).

Embracing the smell of reality and the real world, I leaned against the wall bathing in the silence of the night. Now this was fucking paradise. Alone with a bottle of liquor, my gun holstered by my side, the only thing missing was—

“Mind if I join?”

I jerked my gaze to the million-dollar trust fund baby eye fucking me. Black as fuck hair, Botox and fillers dominating her face, curves hidden by a black cocktail dress, she looked fake and spoilt and I didn’t fucking care.

I needed a good fuck. A long, hard fuck to get my mind off things.

“It’s a free country”, I riposted and she curled her lips into a smile as she moved beside me.

“I’ll take that as a yes”

Yes. I wanted to fuck.

And yes. I was in no mood for small talk.

“Shouldn’t you be inside keeping an eye on the client?”

Her eyes fell on me and I gazed straight into the night. The term bodyguard had never sunk in and it had been two years working as one. I hated my job but I couldn’t necessarily leave it. Without it, I’d be no one.

Just some old Marine seating on the couch in some town house upstate rotting away faster than rats that had eaten poisoned cheese.

“Shouldn’t you be inside chaperoning your money?” I asked with equal disregard.

I might have hated the party but the job came with knowing everyone surrounding the client for the night. The woman standing next to me was Avery Millers. A spoilt little heiress that planned bullshit fundraising parties as such every two weeks.

Her grandfather was a mega Wall Street capitalist and well the big dollar signs ran in the family I guess. She was practically fed by a fucking silver spoon from birth.

“Mm...you know me”, she cooed and I smirked. Nothing pleased women more than to know a guy was obsessed with them.

Unlucky for her, I wasn’t that type of guy.

“Comes with the job sadly”, I laid out the truth.

“That’s a little hard to—”

“The only reason you’d be out here is because a, you are bored and us meeting is pure coincidence or b, you’ve been watching me all night wondering when you’ll get the chance to catch me alone. So which is it, Avery Miller? You out here for a good fuck or what?”

Her cheeks turned pink and even with the darkness I could see her legs clench together in an attempt of hiding the fact she wanted me to fuck her.

“I-I don’t know what you are talking about. I’m not some cheap whore who sleeps around with bodyguards so no, I’m not here for a good fuck”

“Okay”

I took a chug from the bottle, a crude leer piercing my lips.

She huffed, I chugged. She stared, I ignored.

“Fine, I’m here for-to-I don’t normally do this—”

Before the words left her mouth, I’d already dropped the near empty bottle, spun the heiress around so much that her face was on the wall and her ass against my hardening dick.

“Say it. Say what you fucking want, Miller”

She grinded her ass against my dick moaning in all sorts of ways I hadn’t imagined she could. My fist in her hair, I held her in place.

“I want you to fuck me”, she heaved detonating the fuse holding my calmness in check.

My dick out in seconds, her dress up her waist in bundles, I sank inside her with one hard thrust.

“Flames? Come in, Flames”

Jesus Christ. My boss had the worst timing.

Berkely’s voice stretched through the ear pierce and I groaned holding the moaning woman in my arms.

Berkely calling meant one thing.

The client was fucked or b) Jason had fucking messed up in protecting the client.

“Shoot”, I grunted.

“I leave you for one hour and you leave Jason in charge?”

“I’m in the middle of something, Berkely. Lemme guess, the client got shot in the head”, I joked and the broad beneath me tensed.

“As disturbing as that is. No. Client left half an hour ago”

Then I deserved a fucking raise for even sticking around this shit of a place.

“Then why the fuck did you call?”

“We’ve got a problem”

“When do we never have a problem?”

The silence that followed telling me what I needed to know, I pulled out my dick from Avery moving a few feet away from her and tucking it back in.

“What shit is going on, this time?”

He laughed and my jaw ticked.

Fucker never laughed.

“This time it’s your shit knocking on the door. There’s a woman in B&A, claims to know you”

So fucking what?

I fucked women 24/7 and hell all of them knew me. At least what I told them about me. Though this said woman had crossed a lane.

I loved sex but I wasn’t stupid enough to associate my sex escapades with B&A.

“Put her on the phone. I know she’s there”

Two minutes later, I heard breaths from the other end of the line before someone uttered,

“Andro”