Taboo Read online

  Taboo

  Sam Crescent and Jenika Snow

  TABOO (A Taboo Short)

  Sam Crescent and Jenika Snow

  http://www.CrescentSnowPublishing.com

  Published by Crescent Snow Publishing

  Copyright © March 2016 by Sam Crescent and Jenika Snow

  Digital Edition

  First E-book Publication: March 2016

  Edited by Rebecca Cartee

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction, transmission, or distribution of any part of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  This literary work is fiction. Any name, places, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

  Please respect the author and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials that would violate the author’s rights.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Taboo (A Taboo Short)

  Other titles by Crescent Snow Publishing

  Alexei

  Poppy

  Chapter One | Poppy

  Alexei

  Chapter Two | Poppy

  Alexei

  Chapter Three | Poppy

  Alexei

  Chapter Four | Poppy

  Alexei

  Chapter Five | Alexei

  Poppy

  Chapter Six | Alexei

  Chapter Seven | Alexei

  Chapter Eight | Poppy

  Alexei

  Chapter Nine | Poppy

  Epilogue | Poppy

  Coming Soon | Malachi

  Crescent Snow Publishing | More information on Sam Crescent and Jenika Snow’s CSP titles can be found below: | www.CrescentSnowPublishing.com

  Want to join the Crescent Snow Facebook Street Team?

  Other titles by Crescent Snow Publishing

  Beautiful Torment

  Book 1: Zeke’s Rule

  Club Corruption

  Corruption

  Bound

  Taboo Shorts

  Teacher’s Pet

  Player

  Cherry

  Taboo

  The Soldiers of Wrath MC

  Book 1: Owned by the Bastard

  Book 2: Bent, Not Broken

  Book 3: Hard As Steel

  The Soldiers Bonus Story (free story available on CSP website)

  Book 4: Dead Bastard

  Boxed set (books 1-3+ bonus story)

  Book 4.5: Ruin and Rise

  Book 5: The Way I Like It

  The Soldiers of Wrath MC: Grit Chapter

  Book 1: Beast

  Coming soon

  Owned (Club Corruption, 3)

  His Darkest Secret: 2015

  Book 6: The Soldiers of Wrath MC

  Book 2: King (Grit Chapter)

  Cocky (A Taboo Short)

  Alexei

  I’ve been a figure in her life for longer than I can even remember, and although I was married to her mother at one time, my feelings for Poppy have grown over the years. She’s smart and beautiful and knows what she wants in life. I shouldn’t want anything to do with her sexually: she’s much younger and we have a past. But I want her, and screw anyone that says I can’t have Poppy.

  I should be ashamed that I jerk off thinking of her, that I can’t even get hard with another woman. But I’m not. I’ll have her, one way or another, and damn the consequences.

  Poppy

  He was married to my mom at one point, been a person I’ve looked up to and respected. However, things have changed... I’ve changed. I shouldn’t want Alexei because of the history we share, but I’m an adult and have needs. And he’s the only man I’ve ever wanted.

  This is wrong, taboo, but I am tired of being proper or appropriate when it comes to Alexei.

  Chapter One

  Poppy

  I’ve known Alexei since I was a child, and I’ve had a crush on him for that long. When he married my mother five years later, and technically became my stepfather, I never saw him as that. Thinking of him that way seemed wrong, gross even. He might be married to my mom, living in my house, but he would never be anything but Alexei.

  His deeply accented voice spoke of his Russian heritage, and the three-piece suits he always wore fueled my fantasies of him as a teenager. I would picture him as the head of the mafia, which now I realize is so stereotypical. Nevertheless, it was so hot back then that my heart would flutter thinking of him protecting me. It might have been disgusting that I saw him as anything more than what he was, but I didn’t care. When he and my mom divorced only a year later, this little part of me rejoiced.

  I didn’t say I couldn’t be a bitch.

  Here I sat, in my car that barely made it back and forth to work, staring at the skyscraper across the street. Alexei was in that building, probably crushing people with his bare hands. Yeah, he was fierce all right, and he was the strongest man I’ve ever known. It doesn’t matter that it’s been a long time since I’ve talked to him, longer than I even cared to admit. But he was the only person I trusted with my problems, the only person that knew me as well as I knew myself, even after all this time.

  He was the only one that could help me.

  I climbed out of the car, clutching my bag like it was some kind of lifeline and feeling like I was about to vomit. I wasn’t afraid of Alexei, not in any sense. He was a good man—as long as you didn’t cross him. I’ve seen him beat the shit out of some guy that bumped into my mom and all but touched her breasts. And although it seemed a little extreme, the guy had been drunk and saying some pretty nasty shit to my mom.

  What was I so nervous about asking him for the money I needed? Mainly because I felt wrong for doing it, like I was taking advantage.

  But you know him, have known him nearly your whole life. He’s a good guy, and he won’t have a problem helping you.

  I was humiliated about the reason I needed the money, afraid of what Alexei would do once he found everything out... which he would. Alexei always found shit out, no matter how hard someone tried to hide it.

  And as I walked up to the front doors, my hands shaking, my heart feeling like it would beat right through my chest, I knew that no matter what, I was making the right decision coming here.

  Are you sure about that?

  Alexei

  The sound of my intercom going off had me cursing. I pressed the button down and barked out, “Yes?”

  “Mr. Mackovich, there is a Miss Poppy Severis here to see you. She doesn’t have an appointment. Would you like me to send her away?”

  Poppy.

  Just saying her name in my head had my gut clenching. It had been too long since I’d seen her, hell, heard from her, but I always thought about her. She was twenty-three now, fifteen years younger than I was, but the most genuine person I’d ever met. I’d watched her grow from a bright child to the gorgeous woman she was now, and she was here, at my office, and all I could think was inappropriate things.

  I was a sick bastard, but even knowing that, I couldn’t extinguish my need for her. I’ve wanted to make her mine since she was nineteen and came back from college on break. Long since divorced from her mother, I’ve always kept in contact with her, made sure she was safe, taken care of, even if she didn’t know it.

  I pressed the intercom button again, my other hand clenched at my side, my entire body tight. “No. Send her in.” I stood, staring at my office door, waiting for her to come in. Then the door opened and Poppy walked in.

  Everything in me stilled as I stared at her. Fuck, it had been too long, and she l
ooked even more gorgeous than ever. How in the fuck was I going to control myself when it came to what I felt for her?

  Chapter Two

  Poppy

  He’d agreed to see me; now, all I had to do was walk through that door. I was shocked. Part of me had expected him to tell me to leave. Stepping into his office, I wasn’t prepared for the sudden hit of arousal as I stared at my stepfather. He wasn’t my stepfather. Mom had long moved on to another man.

  “I’ll take it from here,” he said, moving around the desk.

  I’d completely forgotten how damn big he was. Seriously, he made me look tiny, and I wasn’t a small girl. Years of not being mom’s perfect little girl had sent me into binge eating. But I wasn’t going to delve into that kind of shit. I wasn’t here to think about the past, but about the future.

  The door closed behind me, and I glanced back to see that we were alone.

  “Poppy, it has been so long,” he said. He pushed his hands into his pants pocket, and I couldn’t help but watch and notice his crotch. Quickly, I averted my gaze. I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me. Alexei would never be interested in me.

  “I know. Erm—” Damn, this was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

  “What’s the matter? I take it this is not a social call.”

  “It is, and it isn’t. I mean, it’s not. No, it’s not a social call.” I could feel my cheeks going a deeper shade of red as he continued to stare.

  “Well, what do I owe the pleasure of seeing my stepdaughter?”

  I couldn’t help but wince. Did we have to put an actual title on what we were to each other? He was no relation to me; why did he constantly feel that he had to do so?

  Ugh!

  “I was wondering if I could borrow some money.”

  I watched his eyes go wide. “Borrow?”

  “Yes, like a loan, only I hope without too much interest?”

  He pulled his hands out of his pockets and folded his arms, looking rather amused by my question. “I have to say, I’m rather shocked.”

  “Good shocked?” I hoped it was a good shock. I didn’t want it to be a bad shock, did I? Even when he was married to my mother, I never asked him for anything. When we went out, he always offered, and I never asked, not once. This was so embarrassing.

  “I don’t know. Why do you need the money, Poppy?”

  Biting my lip, I tried not to wince even more than I already had. I didn’t want to tell him why.

  “I went on a shopping spree.”

  He snorted. “Try again.”

  Looked like I still couldn’t lie to Alexei.

  Alexei

  I had to say I was a little startled by the change in Poppy. It had been too damn long since I last saw her, and in that time she’d changed so much. It might have been over four years since I divorced her mother, but I’ve kept an eye on Poppy. She no longer looked like a young girl; she was all woman. I preferred women with a bit of meat on their bones. Her mother had been okay until she lost so much weight, and I just didn’t find her attractive anymore. The woman I married was not the woman she became.

  But that’s not why we divorced, not in the least.

  With Poppy, however, I was having no trouble in getting hard. It was taking all my concentration to look at her face and not travel down her body. Her tits were nice and big, I’d clocked them the moment she entered. I just wish I could make her turn around so I could see the rest of her body. Fuck, I’d pay her a million fucking dollars just to have her do it naked.

  Gritting my teeth, I tried to remind myself that I shouldn’t be thinking this kind of shit about my stepdaughter. It didn’t matter what I said though. I wanted what I wanted, and she was at the top of the fucking menu.

  “I could have spent all my money on a shopping spree.”

  “You forget I know you, Poppy. You don’t give a shit about shopping sprees. You were always moaning when I took your mom out. Now, why do you need the money?”

  “I’m broke, okay, broke, and I can’t get a loan from the bank. I just... I thought you might be able to help me.”

  She started for the door, clearly humiliated, but I wasn’t going to let her leave.

  “Stop, Poppy.” During the time I was married to her mother, I never used that tone with her. While I commanded people and I expected them to follow, I’ve always seen Poppy as fragile.

  I had to say, seeing her comply so quickly turned me on even more.

  She didn’t turn around, and right then, I didn’t want her to, otherwise she would have seen the evidence of my rock hard cock. I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

  Was it wrong that I wanted her to see it? That I wanted her to want it?

  Would her pussy be nice and tight, or had she been fucking her way through the guys that surrounded her?

  Poppy had the kind of beauty that men were drawn to. Her curves, her smile, and the way she was just nice, she was like a flame for all the moths.

  Yeah, I didn’t like the thought of other men being near her. I wanted them as far away from her as they could get.

  Taking hold of her shoulders, I turned her around, and she looked up at me with those big eyes.

  All this time I’d thought I was a sick fuck, but the look she gave me was undeniable.

  Poppy wanted me just as much as I wanted her.

  Chapter Three

  Poppy

  “Sit, Poppy,” Alexei said, his voice hard, unyielding.

  I’d always had this little fear of him, not that I thought he’d hurt me, but because he was just so commanding, so dangerous. The men he’d hung out with were powerful, big, and I’d always thought that maybe things weren’t always on the up and up where his affairs were concerned. But then again that might have just been those fantasies again.

  I walked over to the couch and sat down, watching as Alexei moved over to the bar in the corner of the office and poured two glasses of whiskey. I never really drank, but right now, I needed something hard, especially since I knew he’d make me tell him everything.

  He came back, handed me the glass, and took a seat across from me, his focus right at my eyes. The intensity I knew so well speared right into my very soul.

  “Tell me what’s going on, Poppy, and try not to lie to me this time.”

  I looked down at the glass; the crystal glass caused the amber colored liquid to cast little rainbows. Might as well get this over with. I tossed back the drink, breathing out as the liquor burned its way down my throat. Setting the now empty glass down on the table in front of me, I looked at Alexei.

  “I met a guy.” God, starting those words off made me so embarrassed. How many books, movies, or even my friends had started their sentence with those words?

  Alexei didn’t move, didn’t speak, but his jaw clenched, and I saw the way his hand tightened on the glass he held.

  “Things were fine at first, really good, in fact. But...” I looked down at my hands, now clasped together in my lap. “We were only together a few months, but in that time he found out all of my account information.” I looked at Alexei, not wanting to cry, but my emotions rose up swift and hard.

  This is so damn painful to talk about, especially with Alexei.

  “He cleared out my savings account, my checking... everything.” I bit the inside of my cheek, feeling my eyes water.

  “What else, Poppy.” Alexei leaned forward, set the glass on the table, and looked so damn pissed.

  I looked at my hands, kept silent, for probably longer than I should have. It was dramatic, and I was humiliated being here, telling him these things, but I needed his help. He was the only one that could get me out of the absolute shithole I’d found myself in.

  “Before I found out he wiped my accounts clean, I’d told him I wanted to end things.”

  “Why did you want to end it?” Alexei’s voice was deep, hard. When I didn’t answer, he said again, “Tell me, Poppy, now.”

  I lifted my gaze to his and just spit it out. “He hit me, and I
wasn’t about to stay with a guy that put his hands on me like that.” The emotion that covered Alexei’s face was dangerous, violent, and I actually leaned farther back on the couch. A gust of frigid air emanated from him, washing me in the promise of what he’d do to my ex.

  Alexei

  I was going to fucking kill the prick. No, not kill him right away, but make him suffer before I ended his worthless life. He’d put his hands on Poppy, stolen from her; and I was going to make sure the fucker knew messing with her was the last thing he’d ever fucking do.

  I stood, my anger tangible. I knew Poppy could see it, hell, fucking feel it. I walked over to the bar again, poured myself another drink, and downed it before turning and facing her. “I need to know where he is.” She shook her head before I even finished.

  “Alexei, please, no. I don’t need that kind of help.”

  She might only need help getting back on her feet since that motherfucker stole all her money, but I needed to help this way. I needed to make the asshole hurt. What Poppy didn’t know about me was that I hadn’t always had this empire. I came from the streets of Moscow, did deplorable things to survive, to stay ahead of the game, on top of shit. When I came to America as a teenager, I worked my ass off. It took nearly two decades to get where I was now. How would she really feel if she knew the man in front of her, the man who had once been married to her mother, had lived under the same roof with her, was actually a killer?

  I looked at her, at how vulnerable she was, how innocent she looked. I wanted her still, cared about her more than I’d ever cared about anyone else. It was fucked up in a sense, given our backgrounds, but seeing her here after so long told me I wouldn’t be able to walk away. I knew people from my previous life that would have no problem getting their hands dirty. Hell, they were still in the muck and shadows of the world, surviving the only way we’d ever known how.