I was inflamed.
He explored me, every single inch of me.
He made me explode, then waited and brought me to the pinnacle again, and right before, he paused. A second. I heard the crinkle of a condom, and then he was back.
He had undressed me. I had done the same.
I relished in the feel of him, and then he moved between my legs. His eyes met mine, held me captive, and he slid inside.
So good. Sooo good.
As he began moving inside of me, and I was rolling with him, in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn’t usually like this. There should’ve been clumsy fumbling. An awkward maneuver to unsnap my bra. I should’ve been embarrassed at how his fingers slid inside, and then gasped at how good that felt, but none of that happened.
The good part had happened, then happened again, and continued to happen, but this wasn’t normal. We weren’t normal.
He and I, we were made from the same fabric. It was that life, where I wasn’t the cheerleader or the book nerd. He wasn’t the jock or the frat preppy. He’d been born into a world outside the norm, and all my life, that’s where I kept finding myself migrating toward.
Thrust.
Harder.
I wanted more.
Deeper.
Please.
Oh, please.
I didn’t realize I was panting until he skimmed a hand up my throat, and his mouth leaned to capture mine once more.
God.
Yes. This was so out of the ordinary, but one night of this? It was better than no nights of nothing.
He groaned, pushing into me and holding there. “Come, baby. Come.”
I didn’t want to. I started to shake my head, trying to hold on, but then his hand dipped, and he found me right there. Oh-OH! I surged right over the edge, and I just kept right on going. My body was trembling, more waves were hitting me, and as he slid out and back in once more, I was clutching onto him, holding him to me.
One. More. Push.
He tensed, then I felt him jerking.
His body trembled just as mine had. He rested on me, a lazy kiss to my shoulder. “Fuck, woman.” He grinned against my skin, moving to lay on his side.
I smiled, that same lazy feeling starting to course through me.
That was good. That was really good.
I said as much, trailing a hand up his arm and chest.
He lifted his head, dropping another kiss to my throat before finding my gaze. “Hell yeah, it was.” His words were raspy. His eyes were molten. They were on my mouth again, and his hand moved down between my legs. “Jesus. I could go again.”
“What?” I started to laugh, then was groaning as his mouth dipped down.
And he found me right where his fingers had been.
Oh, dear--oooooh.
I raked my hands through his hair and held on. I had a feeling the night had just started.
8
Christopher
“Are you kidding me?”
The buzzing had woken me, and when I saw who was calling, I wanted to roll right back and pull Kess into my arms. We’d gone at it all night long. It’d been amazing, and now this?
I grabbed my phone and headed outside.
My uncle said, “I need you back.”
I bit back a growl. “In the morning.”
“Now. We’re headed to Texas. I need you with me.”
“In the morning.”
“Now!”
He was our MC president, but he was my uncle.
Silence. Then, “What am I missing? You asked for a night to hang with friends—”
“Her. I wanted a night…”
“With Heckler’s niece?”
He didn’t sound happy about that. I gripped the phone tighter. “Yeah.”
“Are you kidding me? Tell me this is a joke. Tell me I don’t have to hang up, and when her uncle asks me what’s going on, I don’t have to choose to either lie to him or tell him the truth, that my nephew just banged his niece? Tell me I don’t have to do any of that.”
“She’s not a one-night thing.”
“What?”
I felt raw saying this, but to hell with it. “I held off all year. All year. I couldn’t leave without—I protected her for nine months, Uncle Max. She’s not a one-night thing.”
There was more silence.
Another beat of it.
Then a gruff, “Well, that changes things.”
I sighed, exhaling a little easier. “Does it change things enough?”
“Maybe. Let me make a few calls.”
“Thank you, Uncle Max.” I was about to hang up when he called my name again. “Yeah?”
“You did good this year. I’m proud of you.”
My chest swelled up.
My uncle was the smartest and most dangerous man I knew. He could hire the killings of hundreds if he wanted. He had the men. He had the power. He had the connections, and he got there by being ruthless and brilliant at the same time. Words like that were not normal from him.
Yeah. My chest swelled up.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll be in touch. Go hold your girl again.”
I hung up, turning to go back into the house, then stopped.
Kess was there, a bed sheet wrapped around her.
The moonlight was lit over her, casting half her body in shadows. I couldn’t see her face or her eyes. I needed to see her eyes.
I began to move toward her, but she tightened her grip on the sheet in front of her and stepped forward. I saw her eyes.
I wished I almost hadn’t.
Those eyes were fierce.
“You protected me for nine months?!”
Yeah. She really wasn’t happy.
9
Kess
Nine months!
I’d been under threat for nine months, and from the little Chris said, I knew there was a whole ton more he wasn’t saying.
There was a threat. He was young, so he’d been assigned to me. He watched me, and that was the gist of it. That was all he could tell me.
I wanted to rip him a new one, but I didn’t want to harm him. Fillet him with my words, maybe, but not real filleting.
Nine months and I had no idea.
Its why Heckler came in the first place, and he’d been so vague when I asked why he was here.
“Just tell me who it was from?”
We were sitting in his living room. He was standing, leaning against the wall. I was on the edge of the couch, my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands.
“I can’t. The rumors were higher up so we couldn’t risk it. That’s seriously all I can say.”
I knew he couldn’t, but it was driving me crazy.
In danger. Nine months. My mind couldn’t wrap around that.
“That’s why you moved next door.”
He hesitated but nodded. “I installed a security system in your house. I could monitor you if something happened.”
“And school?”
“Your crew wasn’t in your first and seventh periods.” He shrugged. “So I was.”
He was right. They were in all my others. They were with me every other moment of the day, too. Lunch. After school. Except when I was home, and he was ‘monitoring’ me.
“How?”
He flinched at my tone. It was dull, grating.