“We’ll find a place to lay low, I’ll punish your ass for making my job twice as hard, then I’ll work on tracking down some information to fix this for good.”
“What does fix this for good look like exactly? Two between my eyes?”
“Don’t start with me again. I’m on your side. We need leverage to negotiate an exit for you. If that doesn’t work, you have to leave the country. Disappear for a while.”
“If there are more than one interested party, who are we supposed to negotiate with?”
“Whoever’s highest on the totem pole. The person with the most to lose. Probably Murphy. I’ll figure that out too.”
“I have to work tomorrow.”
“No. That’s not happening. We need to break the pattern. Those guys followed you from your job.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I know a place. Get on the bike.”
On our way toward my ride, she turns to me. “Punishing my ass is on your to-do list?”
“Until it’s raw, yes.”
“Why the hell for?”
“What happened back there was completely avoidable. I warned you on your phone. But that was after you tried to ditch me after work.” I hand her my spare helmet. “Let’s go.”
13
Rose
I don’t know what to think anymore. Thorne is my stalker… and my savior? I was so sure he pointed that gun at me to kill me. That the entire night before I made it to the stockyards was a ploy to lower my guard. But I was wrong. He killed my attacker without a second thought. The tightness around my heart is gripping me now as the deserted streets whizz by on the back of his motorcycle. My hands are around his waist. I’m literally holding onto him in order to live as we ride far away from the life Grams and I have had for over ten years. The cool early morning air assaults my face like the wakeup-call this last little while has been.
We zoom through a busier section of the city and hit a red light at one of the intersections.
I want to turn back.
Everything I have is there.
Had, I say inwardly.
Letting out a sigh, I roll the tension out of my shoulders and remind myself that the life I had is now past tense.
Time for a new place, a new name, a new everything.
“Hold on to me,” Thorne shouts back. His large hand covers my interlinked fingers on his abs. He lifts his foot off the ground and gets ready to take off when the light turns green.
I blink a few times. This doesn’t feel real. There’s no double meaning to his words, but they hang in the air between us. I’m not the girl who holds on to a man and hope he’ll protect me. As hard as they tried, my parents couldn’t protect themselves, let alone me. I survived that day because the person who had my parents killed had a moral code. That fact has never sat well with me.
Thorne takes a turn at the next corner, leaning the motorcycle into the curve. My body hovers dangerously close to the ground. If I tense up too much, I can bring us both down. My life is unraveling in the same damn way. I don’t want to be the weak link, but one sharp tug and everything around me can fall apart.
I asked Thorne where we were going, and he mentioned some safe house a couple of hours outside of the city. A hunter’s cabin that no one knows about, not even his employer. He’ll spend the day and one night there with me, and then I’m supposed to stay there alone while he goes off like the hero to fix things for me.
To fix my life.
I’d much rather tell him to stop the bike and I’ll figure out my own plans. I could disappear again. With Grams. She’s a lot older now, though. She didn’t put up any resistance when I sent her off to see her brother, and I saw in her eyes that she knew something wasn’t adding up, but she went along with that plan anyway. Who am I kidding? If I run now, Grams can’t go with me. It wouldn’t be fair.
Thorne thinks that following him right now is simple. It’s not. I’m teetering, hanging on, at the end of my rope, conflicted about which path to take. It’s times like these that I want to just stand still. Let them find me. Let fate catch up to me. Let go. Maybe I’ll see my parents at the end of that road.
Taking a breath, I mentally shake myself. Giving up is not who I am.
I’m a fighter.
I fight.
The word brings back the image of Thorne earlier, warning me that the next time he has me alone, he’ll fuck that fight out of me. I swallow hard and feel the heat rise up my cheeks, even with the wind rushing past us. I have to shift around in the seat behind Thorne to stop the throbbing that starts up again between my thighs. This is the wrong time to feel this intense heat. My breasts are pressed up against his back, and I’m holding on to his rock hard abs. My thighs are clenching his outer legs, my pussy rubbing against his firm ass whenever there’s the slightest bump in the road. If this trip to his safe house lasts any longer, I might be the one throwing myself at him, begging him to fuck this need into submission.
My core tightens again. This has to stop. But it doesn’t let up for the entire ride. My body might be doing its own thing, but ultimately, I have control over my mind. All I can do is push the thoughts down each time they threaten to overtake me. Discipline is key.
Our drive comes to an end on a narrow dirt road that stops in front of what I can only call a shack. Looking at it from the outside, it can’t be more than the size of my living room.
“We’re here,” Thorne announces, kicking down the bike stand.
He waits for me to climb off, and when I do, I remove the leather jacket that he let me use for the ride here.
“You can take that off inside, you know?” he says, jumping off.
Ignoring him, I slip my GO-bag off my back and set it on the ground. I stretch my legs and look around, trying to guess the time without checking my phone. It’s dark. The coming dawn is the only source of illumination until he finds a flashlight in his bike’s storage flap.
I left work at three in the morning. It was probably four-thirty when I made it to the stockyards and saw my life flash in front my eyes. We drove for over an hour. Two hours tops. I look up at the sky again. It should be lighter than this, but there’s a mountain range to the west of us, delaying the sunrise.
“Come on inside,” he mumbles, but I’m not ready to be trapped in close quarters with him.
“I need some air.”
He stands beside his ride. He doesn’t move.
“What?” I ask when I notice he has his eyes on me.
“Get inside.”
“Don’t do that, okay?” I say, close to my breaking point. “I’m tired, but I’ll come in soon. Give me some time to wrap my mind around everything.”
“And you prefer to do that out here?”
“Yeah, kind of.”
I look up at the sky, doing my best to find some equilibrium. My fingers rise to my earring again, and I let my eyes close for a moment. Then I feel the warmth of Thorne’s big body behind me, pulling me to the present again. I feel his leather jacket fold over my shoulders.
“Take whatever time you need.” His voice is thick and dark. It sounds the way it did when we were standing beside my car at work earlier. He was taunting me, teasing me, breathing the kind of passion into me that I didn’t know I could feel.
“Thanks,” I reply in a whisper.
In another life, one where he isn’t the man sent to keep tabs on me, maybe…
The long drive, the longer day, and the clean country air finally take their toll, and exhaustion hits me hard. I make my way to the front steps, Thorne a few steps behind me, and I stand aside for him to unlock the front door.
He pushes it open. “Ready?”
I nod and cover my yawn, feeling some of the fight drain out of me. I don’t want him to protect me, but he’s doing it anyway. Maybe I can stop fighting just for today, and for one more night.
I hope I don’t regret it.
14
Thorne
“Try to relax,” I tell her a minute af
ter we walk into the safe house.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Chill.”
“That’d be a tall order for anyone right after they’ve been shot at, flash-bombed, and had a windshield shatter on their face.”
“Take a breath. Regroup. Better yet, dance for me.”
She shakes her head. “I shouldn’t.”
“I’m sure you’re a natural.”
“I’m really not,” she assures me.
“Show me,” I demand, folding my arms and waiting, watching from my spot near the sofa.
“All right, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is the only move I know, and just so you know, I feel like a dork.” She relaxes one knee, then the other, then pumps both her arms. I’ve never seen anything so awkward, but on her, it’s cute.
“Okay stop now, before you break something,” I laugh, and she groans painfully.
“Told you. I can’t dance.” She points toward the floor. “Two left feet.”
“I see that now,” I joke.
“Trust me, I tried. My boss told me how much more I could earn on the stage instead of waitressing. It’s the red hair. It pops under the stage lights or something. Brings in the high paying clients. I wasn’t interested, but he kept trying to convince me... until he saw my moves. After that, he never brought it up again.”
“Get over here.”
She huffs out a breath and kicks off her shoes. I’m not expecting it when she drags her t-shirt over her head and shimmies out of the yoga pants she’s wearing. They’re both covered in some of the glass that shattered all around her earlier. What intrigues me is she’s not the least bit shy about stripping it all off while I’m standing right here, or even now, wearing only a bra and panties. Is she so at ease with me, or is she confident in her self-image? Either way, the room is twice as hot with her in it. I’m hard as granite in no time.
“You’ll be okay,” I say, adjusting my cock in my jeans. “You’re strong. Probably one of the toughest women I know.”
Rose slumps down on the edge of the bed, and her arms drop to her sides. “Of course. I’ve had to be that way for almost all my life. But I’ll tell you something. Today? I’m tired. I’m sick of keeping it together, watching my back, and protecting myself. I just want these people to go away. I want my life back.”
“Shh,” I say, sitting beside her. I run a hand down her back, and as I let it come to rest at the side of her waist, she rests her head on my shoulder. “You’ve got me. We can fix this.”
“You’re dangerous,” she admits.
“That goes with the territory, but you’re growing on me.”
She looks up into my face, studying me. “How close are you to your family?”
I meet her gaze with an empty stare. “I’m not. I never met my birth parents. My mother died during childbirth. My father wasn’t in the picture. All through my childhood, I thought the couple who adopted me were my real parents. They were older. My adoptive mother died of a heart condition when I was eleven. Her husband had a stroke not long afterward. Foster care didn’t agree with me… I ran away a bunch of times. Child protective services didn’t come looking after I turned fifteen. I’ve been on my own ever since.”
“That’s ... sad, never knowing your real parents.”
“Not really.”
“You don’t miss them?” she asks, staring off in the distance.
I shrug. “You can’t really miss what you’ve never had.”
After a brief silence, she looks at me again. “You take a lot for granted.”
“Like what?”
“Like… you might not always have the luxury of choosing to be my ally.”
There’s not an ounce of anger, disappointment or ill will playing on her face. She’s stating what she believes to be a fact. She’s not wrong. I have an employer. Orders can change. But that day she’s referring to—one where I may be the one standing on the other end of the barrel of the gun that’s meant for her—that day isn’t today. The more time I spend around this woman, the further away that day feels.
“Everyone can choose to make a change, including me,” I tell her to give her some hope. “Have a little faith.”
“Faith is for fools. I believe in what I can touch, in what’s in front of me.”
“Well at the moment, I’m the thing that’s right in front of you.”
I shouldn’t make a promise I may not be able to keep, but this woman has me wanting to be the guy who makes her world right again. Somewhere during the last week, I’ve become a different man. And it’s because of her.
I turn toward her and kiss the corners of her mouth. “Believe in this,” I growl against her lips.
Her breathing deepens and I see a trace of a smile as I pull from the kiss.
“Better now?” I ask.
“A bit.”
“Good,” I tell her. I give her a gentle shove, lowering her onto the bed. Using my leg, I spread her thighs apart and hold down her shoulders. Her eyes go wide, surprised by how quickly I’ve changed gears, and color rises to her face.
“What the hell are you doing, Thorne?”
I lower my hips to hers and grind my erection along her lower belly. All that stops me from entering her are my jeans and that thin material of her panties. “Before I leave to take care of this Murphy problem, I have another promise I’m going to make good on.”
“Thorne,” she moans as I tease her. Her hands go under my shirt, and she slides her palms up my chest, taking the shirt with them.
“We both know how much you like what I do to you, but I want to hear you say it this time.” I want her to beg for it. She has it in her, that’s for sure. The way she came so hard for me with just my two fingers in her pussy. I can’t wait to see the need on her face when my cock is deep inside her.
“Tell me,” I order her and lift my hips up, depriving her from the pleasure she’s already experiencing. Looking down at her right now, seeing her curvy body laid out for me like food, all that red hair spread out around her, she’s not the only one feeling deprived right now.
“Yes… I want you,” she whimpers.
“That’s sweet,” I tease her. “But that’s not what I want to hear.”
“Fuck me, Thorne.” She says it so softly I see the words on her lips but I barely hear it. Her hands come down to the side of my jeans, pulling me closer as her hips raise off the bed toward me.
“Beg for it.”
“Dammit… You know what? Fuck you, Thorne. I’m attracted to you, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to lie here and let you make a fool of me, asshole.”
Her composure does a one-eighty and she gives me a cold, expressionless stare. That look doesn’t match the rest of her body. She’s strong-willed, but I’m fucking stronger. As she tries to sit up, I hold her wrists and raise them above her head.
“I know you don’t mean that,” I warn.
“You don’t know a thing about me,” she seethes.
“When I flip you over and spank your ass, you’ll find out how much I understand you, Little Red. If that’s what it takes to make you beg, so be it.”
“I can’t believe—”
I cover her mouth with mine, delivering a punishing kiss that’s sure to leave her lips red and swollen. She struggles at first. Fighting is all she knows, but I’ll show her that when it’s just me and her, she doesn’t have to put her guard up. All she needs to do is submit.
Bringing her hands together, I hold them down with one hand. I slip the other one past the fabric of her bra, massaging her big tits. She so fucking responsive. I have to rein myself in as her sensual moans fill up the room, proving my point for me. She fucking needs this as much as I want her. I’ve been craving her since the second I laid eyes on her.
Her body relaxes under me, molding to mine where we touch. She parts her legs for me. I let out a growl at how she moves with me as I rock my hips, showing her how I’ll take her when the rest of our clothes come off.
“Tell me what y
ou want,” I say against her lips in a rough order.
“I’m not—” she starts to say, her voice weakening with her will, but I stop her with my kiss and grind harder against her mound.
“Tell me.”
“I—”
“You want this,” I growl. “Say it. Tell me you need me.”
“Thorne,” she whimpers breathlessly.
“Yes?”
“Please,” she starts.
“What?”
“Please… just fuck me. I hate that I need you, but I do.” I feel every bit of fight leave her body. Every muscle on her goes soft all at once. “I’m yours. Do whatever you want to me. Kiss me, fuck me, bend me over and spank me. No one else has done what you do to me. No one makes me feel this way.”
My need to own every part of her grows a thousand-fold now that she’s admitted what I’ve known from the get-go. I should slow it down, but I can’t stop. My hand moves down from her breasts to the side of her panties, and I rip it to shreds taking it off of her. I pull from her lips, kissing down from her chin, not stopping until my mouth is at her folds to taste her sweetness. I’ve been grinding on her body for so long that as my tongue passes over her clit, her back arches and she cries through an epic body-wracking orgasm. I should be shocked, but this thing between us, it’s bigger than either of us thought. Everything about her just fits.
Standing, I take off my clothes, appreciating every inch of her with my eyes. She sucks in a breath when my boxers fall to the floor, and her gaze drops to my thick, fully erect cock. The way she looks at it, I’m not sure if it’s fear or admiration, or both. I go to her again, pushing her knees apart and exposing more of her pink flesh.
“You’re mine, Rose. I fucking love that you need me. And yes, I know how hard it was for you to admit it. You don’t like the idea of depending on anyone, just like it wasn’t my plan to fall for you. But I’ll tell you this. I plan on taking you however I want to, as hard and rough and dirty as I want to, wherever I feel like it. Here on the bed, out on the table, up against that wall, on the back of my ride.” She moans as I say each word, reacting to them, to me.
Wolf (Tall, Dark and Dangerous Book 2) Page 8
