by Bella Rose
She snorted. “I might try that and save myself a lot of trouble down the road.”
“But then you would never get to fuck me again.”
“Who says I want to fuck you again?” she asked, her tone of voice as prim and proper as it could get.
Griffin turned his head to give her a dirty look. “You really expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t know. Do I?” She rolled away until she’d put her back to him. “You’re the one who seems so convinced he knows me better than I know myself.”
The worst part of that statement was that Leah was starting to believe it might be true. Sex with Griffin had been dirty and raw, and she had loved every second of it. This was not some guy who was so worried about being civilized and offending her feminine sensibilities that he was afraid of his own wants or needs.
Her body was still tingling all over from her orgasm. She didn’t usually reach an orgasm with a partner. It pretty much only happened when she was masturbating. The fact that she had experienced the overwhelming peak while Griffin’s cock had been lodged inside her body was incredible. It felt incredible. And truthfully, she wanted it again. Just one more time in case she never had a chance to feel that again.
But how did one go about initiating sex with someone when they’d only just finished having sex? Her body was ready. Her clit was pulsing and she felt as though a thousand volts coursed through her body.
She rolled back over to face him. Obviously, it was difficult to initiate sex when you had your back to your partner. But from this position she could see that he was staring at her. Why? Did she look ridiculous? Her hair felt like a mess and she knew she was a little on the chunky side. Did he find her unattractive now that he had gotten off?
“What are you thinking?” he murmured. “There are so many emotions flying over your face, I can’t pin any of them down long enough to tell.”
“I’m not sure.” That was sort of true. It was more like she couldn’t isolate a thought enough to express it.
Then she decided all at once to be bold. She got to her knees and nudged him onto his back. When she straddled him, she felt him suck in a quick breath of surprise. Was it stupid that she was excited to have surprised him at all? She hated the notion that she was always predictable.
“What are you doing?”
“Having sex.”
“My cock needs a minute,” he informed her.
Then she realized that even the soft cock sliding through her soaking wet slit and brushing against her clitoris could push her toward another orgasm. “Your cock can have a minute,” she assured him. “That doesn’t mean I can’t have fun.”
“Shit.” His groan left her feeling powerful and wanton.
Leah wriggled a little to find the perfect position. Then she began to roll her hips just so. The friction was incredible. It stimulated her in just the right way. She felt her clit pulse, and wave after wave of tiny little shocks left her almost weeping with the pleasure. She was so close. She could feel it. Heat built at the base of her spine and she continued to ride him as though nothing else in the world mattered. Her breasts bounced, the heavy feeling leaving her nipples throbbing. She felt an orgasm unwinding in her belly and she knew that fulfillment was only a breath away.
Griffin had never seen anything to equal the sight of Leah coming on his cock. The way her body moved had him almost rabid with lust. Her whole torso undulated. Her breasts bounced and her hips gyrated. Then he saw her head fall back. Her long hair fell over her shoulders in a tangled mass. It caressed the curve of her breasts, and he watched as she reached an orgasm with a high pitched keening wail of fulfillment.
“Damn,” he whispered.
Her eyes were closed, and she was actually quivering and trembling with the power of her climax. He could feel the muscular contractions of her pussy on his quickly hardening shaft. The sensation brought him to a full erection in seconds.
Griffin grabbed her hips and forced her to alter her position. He felt his cock catch against her opening and used his hips to thrust home. He fully impaled her body just as she was beginning to come down from her orgasm. Then he felt her shudder around him.
“Griffin!” she cried out. “I’m—I’m—Oh God, I’m going to come again.”
She grew tight and hot once again as her body launched into another climax. He rode it out, watching in awe as she completely lost her mind. She rode him hard, her whole body convulsing with each rolling gyration of her hips. She ground herself against him, and he raised his hips to meet her halfway. She lifted her hands to her hair, pushing it up above her head until there was nothing but the glorious sight of her moving on top of him. Her sheer eroticism left him breathless.
His balls grew painfully tight. He knew that at any second he was going to come again. He could hardly believe he had anything left to give her. She’d taken it all and more. Then he convulsed. His cock throbbed, and he arched his back as the powerful sensations overwhelmed him completely.
Still holding her hips in his hands, his fingers dug into her soft skin. She continued to move hard against him. She tightened her belly muscles, leaned back, and a whole new part of her pussy pressed against his shaft. Griffin lost it. He shut his eyes and stars burst behind his eyelids. He poured his seed into her body even as he felt her come for him one more time.
It was as if time stopped completely. He saw her riding him. He felt the smoothness of her silky thighs beside his. He saw her belly grow taut as she braced herself for the ultimate pleasure. And yet his whole world had narrowed to the moment in time when he gave her everything that he had and more.
Leah didn’t quite know what had happened. She just knew that she had lost her shit. That was about the only way to describe not only her behavior, but also the results of it. She collapsed onto Griffin’s chest and listened to the thunder of his heartbeat. The sound echoed her own.
“Wow,” she whispered. “Is it always like that?”
“No.”
“Really?”
She was having a little trouble buying that. Griffin was a pretty virile, masculine sort of guy. He was obviously skilled in bed. Leah hated thinking about it, but she could easily see him pleasing dozens of women without breaking a sweat. Hell. He probably regularly fucked half the women in the Hellfire Crew just to keep them sated and happy. There was no way any woman could feel the need to complain after spending a few hours with this guy.
“What are you thinking now?” he wanted to know.
“I was just wondering if this is the way you intend to run your crew,” she mused. “Now that you’re the leader.”
“How?” He raised an eyebrow in what appeared to be curiosity.
“Well they’re a bunch of complaining bitches, right? So I figure if you fuck them like you just did me, they’ll be too tired to care about anything at all.”
He made a noise she couldn’t interpret and then he rolled out of the bed. “That’s really what you think of me, is it?”
“That you’re good in bed?” She frowned. “Duh. Did you not just prove that?” She wasn’t about to add that she had enjoyed more orgasms in the last forty-five minutes than she had in the last month, even with her self-service activities.
“I’m not that kind of man,” he told her stiffly.
Had she offended him? That was rather surprising. He started to get dressed. Okay. She hastily got out of bed and retrieved her clothing. It was a little icky to put her panties back on when they were so wet and a little sticky from her arousal, but she could deal with the discomfort if it meant not being the only naked person in the room.
“I guess I’ll just go then,” she said, testing the waters.
“Yeah.” He belted on his leather pants. “I need to get back down to the bar anyway.”
“Remember what I said,” she told him suddenly. “About the land and the deeds, and the house and—well, the rest of it.”
“Yeah. I heard you.”
Now he looked pissed off. Great. Oh wel
l. It was just a one-night stand. Right? Leah picked up her purse and looked around the apartment. It was strange. The place had really looked like a dump when she’d walked in. Less than an hour later, her opinion had changed a bit. It looked sort of cozy. And the rumpled bed made her want to blush and giggle like an idiot schoolgirl with a crush. Yep. It was definitely time to leave.
She wiggled her fingers in a wave. “I’m sure I’ll be in touch.”
“Yeah,” he growled. “I bet.”
Chapter Five
Griffin was in a bad mood. There was no other way to put it. He stalked downstairs to the bar and took up residence at his usual table. A dozen or more members of the Hellfire Crew sat around the place along with a few more patrons who were more like motorcycle gang wannabes. A few of them were the typical female groupies looking for a ride—both literally and figuratively speaking. A few others were just out looking for a rough night in a bar. The way he was feeling right now, he was willing to give it to them. Anyone that tried to pick a fight with him was in for a shocker.
“You look like someone pissed in your beer.” The bartender, Ronnie Long, put a longneck bottle on the table in front of Griffin. “And I would know since it would be me doing the pissing.”
“Not in the mood, Ronnie,” Griffin snarled. “Just get behind the bar and serve drinks. Stop playing therapist.”
“Dude, if I was going to play therapist, I would tell you that you’re wasting your time worrying about that bitch Leah Rawlins. She’s not worth the trouble!” The dirty look on Ronnie’s face said everything even his derisive words did not. The Hellfire Crew had no use for Leah.
This was no surprise to Griffin. Leah had been tarred with the same brush the crew had reserved for her mother. Still, none of them realized what had really been going on in that house. And it might not make a difference to some of them, but Griffin never could abide the thought of a man beating up on a woman no matter what she had done. And beating your twelve-year-old daughter? Unacceptable.
Ronnie nudged Griffin with his toe. “You got some though, didn’t ya?”
“It wasn’t like that.” Ronnie’s snide tone rubbed Griffin the wrong way. “We’re just two adults having a quick fuck. Is there anything unbelievable about that?”
“From her?” Ronnie gave a whistle. Then he had the fucking audacity to yell across the bar to one of the other Hellfire Crew. “Hey Clint! Griffin got Leah Rawlins into bed and he wants to know if that’s unbelievable!”
“Whoa, Nellie!” Clint raised his pool stick into the air and gave a fist pump. “I’m surprised that bitch doesn’t have a troll or something inside her pussy that would chop your dick off just for trying. You’re the boss though. Right, man?”
There was a loud round of guffaws from the assembled men and it occurred to Griffin that he was surrounded by men who had not mentally aged past about fifteen. It no longer surprised him that Leah didn’t want her baby brother raised by this pack of wolves.
***
Leah did her level best to sneak into the house without a sound. There was no need advertising that she had been gone, much less where she had been. She crept into the living room, feeling like a cartoon character with her exaggerated movements. She set her purse down and then tiptoed down the hallway to Thorn’s room.
Carefully turning the knob, she cringed when it squeaked. Then she pushed the door open and found—actually she found that the room was empty. She flipped on the light and walked all the way inside. She turned a slow circle. The bed was rumpled but empty. There were no clothes on the floor, none in the closet, and nothing in the dresser.
“Shit.”
How could he do this to her? Didn’t he realize how worried she would be? The kid was only sixteen. Feeling a sob sticking in her throat, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911. She didn’t like the police—a holdover from her childhood—but she needed them now.
“What’s your emergency?”
“My little brother has run away,” she said hurriedly. “Please. I need police or something. I don’t know where he is. He’s only sixteen. Our father died. Thorn didn’t want to live with me anyway.”
“Okay, ma’am.” The dispatcher’s voice was very soothing. “I’ve dispatched the police to your location. Please just sit tight and wait for them to arrive. Did you try calling his friends?”
“I don’t think he has any,” she said haltingly. Of course, the only ones he did have were the offspring of the Hellfire Crew, and there was no way any of them would speak to her.
“Then just sit and wait for the police, ma’am.”
“Okay.” She hung up, not even thinking that she might have been required to stay on the line. But nobody was dying here. She was just freaking out. It wasn’t the same thing.
She returned to the living room and paced. There was nothing out of place. No money was missing, none of her jewelry or anything. Not that she had much. It was as if Thorn had never been here to begin with.
“Ma’am?” Someone knocked on the front door and she realized that she had left it standing wide open.
“Yes!” She waved the policemen inside. The guy in front had a nametag that read Torres. The other one was Hansen. “Please come in. You have to help me find my brother.”
“He’s sixteen?” Torres looked at the second one and she could tell they were about to blow this one off.
“Yes.”
“You think he might have run away?” Officer Hansen asked gently.
Did they really think she was that stupid? “Yes! I know he did. He was so angry that his dad passed away, and he wanted to stay with those stupid Hellfire assholes, but I wouldn’t let him.”
“Whoa there.” Torres put up his hand. “Are you talking about Deacon Rawlins’ kid Thorn?”
“Yes. Thorn Rawlins is my brother.”
“Ma’am, that kid isn’t going to stay anywhere he doesn’t want to be.” Torres shut his notebook and shoved it back in his breast pocket. “I’m sorry, but there’s just nothing to be done for a runaway like Thorn.”
“What?” They weren’t even going to try? “But I don’t know that he’s with the Hellfire Crew. What if he’s somewhere else? Oh God, what if he’s in a ditch somewhere dead? He didn’t have a vehicle. He’s on foot.”
Hansen snorted. “I promise you that hooligan isn’t going to stay on foot. He’ll get a car, and then we’ll get another call for a stolen vehicle.”
Both cops turned and walked away, leaving her with nothing and nowhere to turn.
***
Griffin was nursing his third beer when the front doors opened and Leah Rawlins came striding back inside. She looked around, spotted him, and started walking in his direction.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” he muttered. Taking a long last drink of his beer, he set the empty bottle aside. “You’ve got to have a set of brass balls to come waltzing back in here a mere three hours after the last time.”
“You’d think, wouldn’t you?” Her words were hurried, as if she had no time to mess around with pleasantries.
“So?” he prompted. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for my brother.” Her voice was deadpan, but there was panic in her eyes. “He was gone when I got home. He was asleep when I left.”
This last bit sounded a little on the defensive side. Apparently, Leah felt a little bit guilty. Griffin set that aside for later. Right now, he was more concerned about the boy. Thorn was a loose cannon and always had been. For all his faults, Deacon had been the boy’s tether. Without his father, there was a good chance Thorn would do something stupid.
“Did you call the cops?” Not that Griffin held out much hope that the local authorities would take anything seriously when it came to a member of the Hellfire Crew. Even the kids associated with the crew got bad reputations. Deserved or otherwise.
Leah’s green eyes flashed fire. “If he had been anyone else, anyone! They wouldn’t even take my report just because he’s Deacon’s
son. It’s wrong!”
Griffin didn’t say anything, mostly because it wouldn’t have mattered if he did. She was right. The cops took a dim view of the Hellfire Crew, and they certainly wouldn’t step in to help. It meant the crew was harassed nonstop when they weren’t beating the shit out of each other. And God forbid another gang or crew create a ruckus, because the Hellfires were bound to take the blame. As far as local five-oh were concerned, they were the cause of anything bad that happened in the county.
“Are you going to help me or not?” Leah demanded.
Her heart hammered against her ribs. She was falling down a well of doubt, standing here in this stupid bar with her hand out like a beggar, and Griffin just stared at her as if she were stupid.
“I haven’t actually heard you ask for help yet, Leah,” he drawled.
She gaped at him, staring at his calm expression and wondering if she’d really heard him correctly. “Excuse me?”
“I’ve heard you complain to me that Thorn ran away. You’ve touched on the authorities’ unwillingness to do anything for a member of the Hellfire Crew that doesn’t involve incarceration. You’ve bitched about how being Deacon’s son means Thorn doesn’t matter to anyone. But you haven’t actually asked me to help you.”
Dammit! He was right. She was probably, deep down inside, hoping that she wouldn’t have to ask. She wanted him to jump to his feet and be just as concerned and worried as she was. But this wasn’t his kid. In fact, she had no business asking Griffin to help with anything when it came to Thorn. Deacon and Griffin had been rivals at best and bitter enemies at worst. Thorn posed a very real threat to Griffin if any of Deacon’s supporters within the Hellfire Crew decided to get behind Thorn and declare him the leader.
“Fine.” Leah took a deep breath and tried not to sound like she was swallowing glass. “Griffin, will you please help me find Thorn? I don’t know where to look, and I know that simply driving out to the Hellfire compound would be the height of stupidity.”
He smirked at her. “I won’t deny that.”
