The Billionaire's Assassin [COMPLETE]

File 1: There's no tomorrow

Santa Barbara, California

*Eight years before- 2010*

Halloween evening

There was no going back for Maya.

She couldn’t right the wrongs of her deeds. Not this time. And all she had left was the minuscule hours left with the boy she loved more dearly than her own life. The boy she killed for.

Knocking on the pool house door she knew he occupied, she rocked on the tips of her toes anxiously. They’d spend countless hours in there since they’d become friends. Since they’d become an item. Since they’d become intimate.

But today would be the last.

Every minute with him matters, she told herself. Sunlight beamed down on her hefty curls, heating her neck and arms, beads of sweat threatening to dribble down her forehead. The hollowed silence clenched at her heart, swallowing her nerves down. He was in there. She knew he was in there, noting his car parked outside his mansion and the wet footmarks on the tiles leading to where she stood. She knocked once again, looking around at the haunted decorations being perfected by the house staff beyond the barrier of bushes. Each second felt tenuous, waiting for him to respond.

Suddenly, the echo of footsteps awakened Maya, hearing the door unlock. Thomaz Alejandro ‘Rex’ Rai Henson towered over her wearing only cotton bottoms and a somber frown. His auburn hair still dripped of chlorinated water. “What happened to you never wanting to see me again?” he hissed, broad shoulders leaning against the doorway. A ghost of heartache flashed across his hazel green eyes. “I’m an i***t who only causes troubles; no reason for a destined ivy leaguer to be hanging around me--”

Maya rolled her eyes at his pity banter, seeing through his facade long ago. “Shut up, Rex.” She strutted inside boldly, swerving around with eyes that sent ice piercing through his body. “You’re too egoistic to truly think that of yourself. Lazy, narcissistic, manipulative. Those you are, but an i***t? Hardly.”

He closed the door, craning an eyebrow. Her candidness, like exhilarating raindrops falling on him after a drought, refreshing and alert. “But that was what you were trying to imply when you dumped me out of the blue.” His crossed arms. A domineering expression challenged her to deny it.

Maya bit her bottom lip, eyes darting to the floor. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just...I didn’t want to break up with you, Rex.”

It was never her intention in the first place. However, if he knew less than 24 hours ago he had a hit on his head, he’d have understood the severity of why she had to distance herself. If only he could peel more layers of the barricade she surrounded herself with. Most of the layers she’d protected herself with since childhood had already been unwittingly dismantled because of him. Just a few more and she’d fall to pieces in his arms.

A mock laugh escaped his tongue, cold and bitter. “Only a week and you’re already running back. Thought you would have held out longer.” His eyes hungrily traced over her, inhaling the curvature of her body, her golden sun-kissed skin, her mocha brown eyes. He’s dreamt of her the night she tore his heart out so unexpectedly, throwing it on the ground to shatter. He’d never given his heart to anyone. Nonetheless, staring at her now, captivated by her beauty and magnetism, Rex knew he’d take that imprudent chance again. This time though, she’d be the one chasing him. “Was it seeing me with Olivia that did you in?”

Making no indication that his mention of Olivia struck her, the bow of her plump lips rose. She already knew inferring Oliva was only to get under her skin, a shard to cut her with for all he’d endured this week. “Whatever helps you sleep at night. Tell me, was she good?” Taking a step forward, the alluring look of desire crossing her face, causing Rex to feel a throbbing sensation in his loose pants.

The challenge was on. Who would submit first?

Matching her step, he gave a cocky grin. “Depends on what you mean. Kissing? f*****g? Overall good to be around?”

She inhaled, smelling the scent of rustic tobacco and chlorine wafting off his body. “Let’s start with kissing.” A quick step forward. “How was it?”

Mundane. “Exhilarating.”

“The f*****g?”

Cheap. “Animalistic.”

“Was she better to be around?”

Never. “Extremadamente.”

With every question and answer, their bodies were drawn to each other. That invisible thread, always damning them together since day one.

Standing closely, Maya could feel the intimidating heat radiating off Rex’s firm chest. There was no denying that he had it all. The charming looks that had a majority of the school swooning. A lavish lifestyle everyone envied, especially when he purposely flaunted his wealth. His favorite pastime. And the dexterity and impishness that confront her curiosity more than anyone she’d ever met.

She placed a hand on his chest, feeling his heart knock ravingly, like a caged beast tired of being contained. So familiar. That beast lived within her as well. “Liar.” Her voice laced with righteous certainty. However, she would submit this time, for his sake. “I never meant to hurt you. I love you so much but...there are things I can’t tell you right now. Things that might hurt you.”

Electricity coursed through her touch into Rex's veins, kindling his impulse to pick her up, slam her on the bed, and have his way with her, a hundred times over.

He swallowed the thought for later. “What could hurt me so badly?” More than you breaking my f*****g heart?

That night, she asked to meet along the beach, the same beach they’d shared their first kiss. Rex had prepared a night of passion along the sandy turfs with the liquor he stole from his father's private collection and colorful buttercup flowers he’d taken from his mother’s shop. However, Maya arrived with tears in her eyes, screaming that they couldn’t see one another. Her excuses were unsatisfactory, as though she’d just realized they weren’t meant to be only seconds before. He was too troublesome for her future. He’d been with too many girls before. Being together would only tarnish what little reputation she had. Anything to get him riled up and walk away as quickly as possible.

Her brown eyes rang with pleading truth when she said, “I could hurt you if we’re together for much longer.” Her breath smelt of sweet mint, brushing against his face. If he bent down, he could see the shadow of her tattoo along her slender shoulder. The girl with the chip on her shoulder. He yearned to see every inch of it, of her.

“I’d prefer you hurt me when we’re together than apart,” he whispered, closing the gap between them. Her previous words flashed through his mind, suddenly grasping each word. I didn’t want to break up with you…“Why’d you say those things if you didn’t want to?”

“To protect you.”

“From what?” His arms now clung to her waist, keeping her close as though she’d float away at any moment.

Maya licked her lips. I’ll tell him after tonight, she promised herself. I’ll find a way. “From me.”

Lifting on her tiptoes, she wrapped her arms around his neck, her lips capturing his. He surrendered to her touch wholeheartedly, drawing closer, the destined thread between them taut. Kissing him, having him in her arms, was like finding the meaning of life once again. There was so little in this life Maya could call her own but above all, she wanted Rex to stay in it. To stay with her. After tonight, if all went as planned, she’d confess everything of herself. All the questions she’d evaded. Her reasoning for attending A.J Santiago Academy. And who she was beyond her own facade he had yet to unveil.

Ravished by her intoxicating taste and caress, Rex lifted her into his arms, wrapping her legs around his hips. Their lips never parted as he walked to the bedroom, his swollen member pressing between her legs.

Maya fell to the bed with a yelp, spiking up Rex’s arousal. He pressed his forehead against hers, catching their winded breaths. “Tonight,” he sighed sensually against her. “I’ll let you get away with your lie tonight.” Hastily deducting her lie impressed her even more, biting her bottom lip as he straddled her on the bed. He was truly the one. “But tomorrow, you will tell me the truth, mi cielita.”

As he absorbed her lips again, she prayed they’d have a tomorrow together. A tomorrow she could spend with him in freedom. Freedom from the agency. Freedom from her past. She’d admit to everything she’d done to marred him from his uncle's death to what had been leading up to her final mission tonight.

Euphoria coiled around her body like a snake, his hands stripping her of her clothing. His greediness and yearn burned her from the outside in. She allowed herself to captivate every caress, taste, moan, and scent. Keep it stored for later, just in case. He ravished her naked body, tasting her like a forbidden fruit, entangling together in a passionate embrace he wished to relish in forever. They’d done this countless times since she’d admitted her longing for him. And he, a man of experience and satisfying her every wish, never liked to disappoint.