by Em Petrova
He never stopped to watch the man fall. He left that up to his team. His first priority was getting Vivian out of the cabin and to safety.
If his speed would have earned medals for his sprint to the cabin, now it’d shatter records.
His boots sank into thick mud in the yard, and he raced to the trees to conceal them. Over his shoulder, Vivian let out a groan that made him wonder if she was hurt more than he originally thought.
He hit his knees and lowered her to the ground. She turned onto her side and vomited, her body jackknifed in half as she emptied her stomach.
“Christ, what did he do to you? Talk to me, Viv.” He put his hands on her, running them over her arms and thighs, searching for broken bones. “Did he beat you?”
The harshness in his voice barely harnessed his desire to go back there and put another bullet in him.
He knew his first shot hit its mark. Broshears prided himself on his shooting skills, and Christopher had been point-blank in his sights when he pulled the trigger.
Vivian’s golden-brown, cognac-colored eyes burned up at him as though she didn’t truly see him. In that second, bile pushed up his throat too. What if her mind had been broken? On the surface, she looked the same but he’d known men like that before.
Cupping her face, he searched her gaze. “Vivian! Talk to me. Can you speak?”
“Y-yes.” The faint whisper tearing from her lips sounded like shredded paper.
“Are you hurt? Is anything broken?”
“No. But…my hands.” She jerked her shoulders, and her arms flopped. Her hands landed in her lap, the wrists raw and bloody and her hands…
Fuck, the state of her hands. The bonds, too tight and in place for too long, had cut off much of the blood flow to her fingertips, leaving them purple. The skin swelled with collected blood and fluid, making her hands far from human or normal.
“Jesus Christ.” He reached for her fingers and started to massage some blood back into them, starting gently at the tips which looked the worst.
She stared down at her hands, a blank expression on her face as she watched him.
“Can you feel that? Can you feel me touching you?” he asked.
She shook her head. “They’ve been numb a long time.”
“That motherfucker is on his way to hell’s gates right now. Cora, can you hear me?”
“Affirmative, Broshears.”
“We need transport. Call ahead to the nearest hospital with a top surgeon.”
“On it.” A second later, he heard a click of the radio as Cora silenced things on her end.
He continued to tenderly work his fingers over Vivian’s. She sagged forward until her forehead hit him in the shoulder. He’d been so focused on her hands that he wasn’t aware of how close she was to passing out.
When she opened her eyes, she couldn’t see anything at first. But she smelled Alix’s masculine shaving cream.
Was she imagining it? Had she died and Heaven was filled with the scent she loved so much?
She took stock of her body. First, the haze began to clear from her vision, and then pain blasted through her hands and shot up her arms.
“Shhh. I’ve got you, honey.”
“My hands hurt!”
He drew her tighter to his chest. “I know. Fuck, I want to kill that bastard again for what he did to you.” He closed his eyes and opened them again. The depths jolted her with the realization Alix was here—and she lay in his arms.
“Where are we?”
“In the air on our way to the nearest hospital. We need to have you checked out, but the pain is a good thing. It means you have feeling and blood flow to your hands.”
Reminded of the searing pain, she bit off another cry, burying her face against his muscled chest.
His lips moved over her hair, and she caught a whisper below the noise of the chopper. “Not letting you go…”
The events rushed at her, and she recalled the moment he’d burst into the cabin and cut her bonds. He’d also shot Billy.
“Where are the others?” she asked. “I saw Gasper.”
He dropped a kiss to her forehead. “They’re back at the cabin, seeing things out to the end. The authorities are inbound to take Christopher’s body away.” He gazed into her eyes. “What the hell happened, Vivian?”
She breathed through the pain in her fingers and focused on his question. Flashes of her moments in the cabin with Billy left her questioning her ability to ever trust someone who claimed closeness with her again.
“I went to the cabin to get away from…” She cut off.
“From?” He kissed her again on the temple. He couldn’t seem to stop kissing her.
“From myself, really. I hate what I did to you, Alix. I—”
“Shh, don’t talk about it now. We have time later.”
She searched his handsome features. “I want to talk about it now. You need to know how I feel.”
He swallowed hard. “How do you feel?” he grated out.
She tried to raise her hand to touch his face but it hurt too much, and she dropped it again. “I’m an idiot, Alix. I’m in love with you and was too afraid to say it—to allow myself to feel it.”
A soul-deep knowledge had flooded in while she sat bound to that chair and again when Alix broke down the door to rescue her.
To feel relief, she had to know pain.
She must know the loss of her father and the betrayal of people she was close to in order to know love…for Zack, for Hunt as a friend.
For Alix.
“I love you, Alix Broshears.”
“Christ, honey…you’re my everything.” He leaned his forehead against hers, eyes closed. “I’m gonna get you safe and well and then I’m not going to let you out of my sight for a very long while.”
His words plucked at her heartstrings, and she knew without a sliver of a doubt that this man was it for her. He was her forever.
After they landed, everything became a blur. Pain meds helped her through, and so did Alix’s warm gaze. When they tried to kick him out of the ER, his bellows echoed up and down the halls. Hearing him refuse to leave her side imprinted her deep, and she clung to the knowledge that despite everything that happened, she wasn’t alone in the world.
A nurse stepped through the curtain divider and looked at him. “Some men are here for you.”
He scuffed his knuckles over his jaw. “Tell them I’m busy.”
“Sir, I’m not a messenger. You can talk to them yourself. They’re in the waiting room.”
He looked to Vivian in the bed, her hands elevated to assist with the swelling. She nodded. “Go on. Talk to your team.”
The nurse’s head snapped up at the mention of a team, but she busied herself with checking Vivian’s hands.
“I’ll be right back.” He brushed his lips over her forehead and walked out.
The nurse pressed on Vivian’s hand, leaving a white spot, and then redness flooded in again. “You have good flow now. You’re lucky you caught it in time.” She flushed red herself, leaving Vivian to wonder what could be going on in her mind. But the next second, she revealed it.
“I’m supposed to ask how this happened. I know the doctor already asked, but perhaps you’ll confide in a woman. Are you safe at home?”
Vivian’s jaw dropped. “You don’t… Wait—you actually think Alix did this to me?”
Her face turned blotchy. “Sometimes sex games get out of control.”
“That wasn’t the cause. Alix saved me. I can’t tell you what happened, as it’s tied up in a criminal case now.”
The curtain jerked aside, and Alix’s big body appeared there. The thunderous expression he wore told her he’d heard everything and took exception to being accused of hurting her.
His dirty look drove the well-meaning nurse out of the room, and Alix plunked into the chair at her bedside again.
“She was only doing her job, Alix,” Vivian said quietly.
“Do I look like a woman abuser to
you? Granted, I’ve wanted to tie you up when you got stubborn, but I’d never hurt you.”
“What! I’m not that stubborn.”
He leveled a look at her, and she laughed.
“You don’t have to explain to me.”
He issued a grunt. “I know the hospital has an obligation to report domestic abuse.”
She nodded, turning thoughtful. “Who’s in the waiting room?”
“Lipton, Gasper and Hep.”
She was almost afraid to ask. “What happened with…” she pitched her voice to a whisper, “Billy?”
As if unwilling to keep his hands off her, he curled his fingers on her upper arm. “He was taken by the coroner.”
“So you did…”
He nodded. “Yes. I hit my mark.”
A shudder rolled through her, and he leaned in. “I’m so sorry, Vivian. I hoped it wouldn’t end like this.”
“Billy brought it on himself…” Suddenly, she sat up straighter on the hospital bed. “Does Geri know yet?”
“She’ll be told at some point, yes.”
For the first time, a tear trickled from the corner of her eye and zigzagged down her cheek to drop from her chin. “How horrible for her to lose him.”
“I think she lost him when he committed the first crimes. That wasn’t love, Vivian. You have to realize I’d never, ever put you in harm’s way.” His vehemence raised a shiver in her, and he got up from his chair to sit on the edge of the bed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
She snuggled into the safety of his chest. “What comes next?”
He tipped her face up to meet his gaze. She read there that he understood her question to mean more than only the immediate future.
“Next I take you home. And Zack and I take care of you.”
She smiled. “I love that.”
“When you’re all better, I’ll…” he dipped his mouth to her ear, “take you to bed and strip you nice and slow. I’ll kiss every inch of your body. Then I’ll lick every inch. Then I’ll cover your clit with my mouth and suck—”
The curtain opened, and the doctor cut off the rest of what Alix was about to say, but Vivian already felt those words in her core.
“We’re going to keep you a bit longer to ensure the swelling is going down before we release you,” the doctor informed them.
She and Alix both nodded, and the doctor left again.
Alix cocked a brow. “Where was I?”
“Right here.” She twisted her mouth into his, shivering at the flavor of the man she believed she’d driven away.
Chapter Thirteen
Broshears glanced away from the stove to Zack seated so pretty and well-behaved next to him. “You’re not foolin’ anyone, buddy. You’re waiting for me to drop some bacon.”
He threw a glance over his shoulder to ensure Vivian wasn’t going to enter the kitchen to see her dog chomp down a slice and then quickly tossed him a cooled piece from the paper plate.
Zack caught it in his teeth, hardly chewed and swallowed. Then he repeated the ritual by sitting in perfect position again.
“Did your mom train you by using bacon?” he asked.
“I most certainly did not.” Vivian swept into the room in uniform.
He took in her fitted pants and top, and her silky black hair drawn off her face. The only thing that could pull Zack away from bacon was the thought of going to work, and he jumped up to circle her excitedly.
“Yes, boy. We’re going out today and train. Both of us have been lazy and out of practice. Sit and we’ll go in a bit.” He heard sit and did as she commanded. Vivian sank to one of the kitchen chairs.
He felt her stare as he turned his attention to removing the last of the bacon from the frying pan.
“Ya know, I’m getting used to seeing a smoking hot man at my stove in the mornings. Especially a shirtless one.”
Grinning, he carried the plate to the table. He hovered over her, hungry for a kiss. “I hope not too used to it. I don’t want to become too predictable.”
“Maybe tomorrow you can wear one of those Speedos then.”
He grinned and stamped her mouth with a hard kiss. Then he edged away enough to hook a thumb in the waist of his sweats. He made sure her focus was fastened on what he was doing before he thumbed down the fabric to reveal a hint of his trimmed happy trail.
She pulled in a gasp. “You’re commando under those sweats.”
He tossed another dimpled smile her way and took one step toward his own seat when she launched from the chair. With her cheek pressed to his spine, she slipped her hands into the waist of his sweats and down to grip his cock.
It was already half swollen but at her soft touch, it shot to full length in heartbeats. She stroked him from base to tip and brushed her fingertip over the crest. His groan turned into a growl.
He’d never last with her touching him like that. He whirled to face her, and her backside hit the table edge.
Their gazes met. “You’re playing with fire, woman,” he rasped.
Her eyes glittered. “I never get myself into a situation I can’t handle.”
In a swift move, he cleared the table of plates and food, lifted her and planted her on the surface. The scent of bacon rose in the air, and the chomping noises coming from Zack told them he benefitted from their play as much as they would.
Broshears found her staring up at him with all the intensity he felt in his own stare. She raised her hands to his chest and he spread her legs to angle his erection toward her.
“Dammit, I wasn’t thinking. You’re still dressed.” He slammed his mouth over hers, lifting a moan of desire in her throat. His body erupted in goose bumps at the sound.
With his tongue dancing across hers to a love song only playing in his head, he palmed her ass cheeks and lifted her.
He had every intention of making it to the bed they’d been sharing every minute he was in town. But the living room rug was closer.
He hit his knees and lay her down gently. Heat flashed between them, and they attacked her pants together. Finding out that her hands were shaking with urgency shot need straight to his balls.
“Zack’s…the only one…getting breakfast,” she panted as she released her shirt buttons and shoved her bra upward to bare her breasts to his questing tongue.
He circled her nipples and sucked on them until she arched. Then he reared back. “Oh, I’ll get my breakfast, honey.”
She cried out as he dropped between her thighs and opened his mouth on her slick pussy.
The first taste of Vivian…of the woman he loved and planned to make scream for him every day of her life…milked precum from his balls. It pooled on the tip.
When he sank his tongue into her pussy, she dug her short nails into his shoulders and levered her body up into his tongue.
“Mmmm,” he rumbled.
“Alix!”
He dipped his tongue into her honey again and again. She quivered with each pass. But he withdrew it and trailed it upward in one big, long lick to her straining nubbin. He drew the hard pearl between his lips and worked it with the gentleness he knew drove his woman to her breaking point.
She sucked in a gasp. Her stomach dipped. Her breasts heaved as she attempted to suck in more air.
He teased her with the slightest strums of his tongue and held her in place until he felt the power of her release coiling inside her. Only then did he plunge two fingers into her sheath and pump them to the waves of her orgasm.
When she uncurled her fingertips from his shoulders and threaded them into his hair, looking into his eyes, love poured out of him.
Slowly, he licked her juices off his lips and moved up her body. Shoving his sweats down and freeing his cock as he did.
He gripped the length and angled it toward her liquid heat. She hooked her thighs around him and drew him in. The long, smooth, wet, amazingly-hot stroke yanked a groan from him.
She jerked her hips, and he buried himself to the hilt inside her. Need burrowed it
s hooks into him, and he started to move. Pulling her up and into him. Pinching her nipples and then licking them. Kissing her until he grew dizzy.
“Deeper, Alix. I want you so deep.”
Her throaty voice excited the hell out of him. He fought against his rising need to blow. Watching her face as he thrust and withdrew, he saw when he touched on the places that made her latch onto her lower lip or her eyelids droop with lust.
He found one particular location in her tight sheath and worked it with small, slow thrusts. “Is that good, Viv? Right there?”
“Uhhhh…huhhhh!”
“Christ, you’re getting so wet when I rub my cock over that spot.” Her pink nipples jutted up, and he plucked at one with his fingers. She thrashed her head and clutched at his biceps as he rocked into her, out of her, into her…
“Alix!” Her tone changed, and he knew that sound—she was on the edge.
He was more than happy to help her dive into the bliss awaiting her.
Plunging faster now, giving her his whole length and withdrawing it through her clenching walls, he claimed her mouth and drove them both to the final, gasping end.
“I love you!” she cried as she shuddered apart in his arms.
He swung his hips and thrust once more, shooting his seed deep in her bare walls. His groan vibrated to a growl, and he kissed her with all the passion flowing through him.
Long seconds followed. Her pussy gripped him in small aftershocks. The pulse in her throat flickered, and he pressed a soft kiss there to feel her heart pounding for him.
“I love you, Vivian.”
She slipped her fingers into his hair and held him to her throat as her racing heart slowed to a more normal beat. “I love you, Alix.”
He braced his weight on his arms so he could look at her. “How was your breakfast, Ms. Valentine?”
A grin spread across her beautiful face. She stroked her thumb across his mouth. “Yummy.” She suddenly giggled. “But I’m pretty sure Zack thinks he got the best end of the deal.”
