by J. M. Walker
Cover Design: Rachel Mizer with Shoutlines Designs
Formatting: Jo-Anna Walker with Just write. Creations
Editing and Proofreading: Wendi Lynn and team with Ready, Set, Edit
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Grim (King’s Harlots, #2.5)
Copyright 2016, J.M. Walker
DEDICATION
To you.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Christine Stanley with The Hype PR. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate you and all you have done for me. This series wouldn’t be out there without your help.
Tammi Plummer. My wonderful PA. Girl, you are my #semicolon #BossPA. I can’t thank you enough for your support and help in this never ending and amazing journey. We will make it to the top! I love you.
My beta readers. Jen Lum, Tammi Plummer and Angie Stanton. This book wouldn’t be what it is today without your help. I love you girls.
To my Jems! You girls put up with my daily antics, my quirks, my random posts and more. You support me in everything and take a chance on my stories without even knowing what to expect. I can’t thank you enough.
My review team and the Review Crew. I know this novella is a little different from the previous books but I can’t thank you enough for taking a chance and reading it. For loving it. For supporting it. For hating it. All of your words have helped me grow.
All the bloggers, authors, readers, every single one of you who have shared, liked, commented, purchased the books from this series. I can’t even begin to say how much you mean to me. How much I grow each day and am facsinated by that I’m in this book world. I learn so much from each and every one of you. You help me be a better writer. A better person.
I love each and every one of you. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for you. Thank you. Just…
Thank you.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 1
Jay
WITH ANGEL AT MY side, anything was possible. We could conquer the world. As long as we were together, nothing would get in our way of being happy. Or so I thought. I couldn’t focus on anything that was going on around me. So much shit had gone down that I fell deep within myself, and I didn’t know how to get out.
Angel and I had been together for months, but nothing seemed right anymore. Our attraction to each other was fast and hard, our physical connection even more so. Once things died down with the human trafficking shit, we ended up in a rut. Or maybe it was just me. I couldn’t be sure because Angel never said differently. I knew he loved me. He told me as often as he could. And he showed me even more. But I could still see he was hiding in that dark place he grew up in.
My thoughts were interrupted when Buck shifted his big furry weight against me. With his arm over my waist, he was almost as possessive as his owner.
“Sleep, princess,” Angel murmured in my ear, wrapping himself over his dog and me.
Buck shifted, pushing him.
Angel chuckled, his deep laugh sending a shiver down my body. His breathing evened, his hold tight on my waist.
I sighed, scratching Buck’s head.
These two were my life. Why these questions and thoughts were racing through my mind, I couldn’t be sure. But it pissed me the fuck off.
I had always been a go getter. Embracing life to its fullest even though I was awkward and quiet. Losing my sister tore me in half, but it also made me stronger in the end. Now that she was home and safe, I should have been able to move on, but I didn’t know how to.
Rolling over onto my side, I cupped Angel’s cheek, brushing my thumb along his full bottom lip.
He was beautiful in a dark, demanding sort of way. Black scruff marred his strong jaw line, his bangs falling at the perfect angle along his forehead.
Buck jumped off the bed, curling himself into a ball in the corner of the room.
Angel shifted beside me.
Trailing my fingers down the line of his jaw, I moved them softly down the side of his neck to his strong shoulder. My thumb reached a scar on his pec, brushing over it slightly.
Angel’s eyes fluttered open, darkening to a point where all I could focus on was him. Us. It had always been him and me. Angel and Jay. King and Queen.
Before I knew what was happening, he had me under him and his hips between my legs. “What’s wrong?” he asked, kissing the soft spot under my ear at the same time he pushed his pelvis into me.
I groaned, wrapping my hands around the back of his neck. “Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me,” he growled, nipping his teeth into my skin.
I jumped, arching beneath him. No matter how many times we had been together, it was still as intense as the first time.
“I’m not,” I panted, my body becoming alive at his touch. It had always been like that. One touch and I was done. I was his. He made me feel like the most important person in the world. That it was just him and me.
“Jay,” Angel whispered, trailing kisses along my jawline. He sunk his teeth into my bottom lip before forcing his tongue into my mouth. Every time he kissed me, he breathed new life into my lungs. Releasing me with a wet smack, he licked his tongue along my bottom lip.
A shiver shot straight down my back, hitting me in the center of my fucking soul.
“You’re lying.” He sat back on his haunches, kneading his fingers into the flesh of my thighs.
“What do you want from me, Angel?” Desire simmered as frustration took over. I didn’t know how to answer his questions. Now that there was nothing to distract us, we had been fighting more. I couldn’t remember how it started. Nightmare after nightmare of my past forced old feelings to the surface. The dark evil that had taken over my life as a young girl. The desire to hurt and the pain it caused.
“I want you to tell me what’s going on. Why have we been fighting?” Angel gripped my hips. Although he was hard and ready for me, he didn’t do anything about it.
Licking my lips, my fingers itched to reach out to him. To grab hold of his powerful body, knowing he would give me everything I desired. He would take away the terror of my past. He had already started. But what would he think if I told him I was still scared? That every night I woke up in a cold sweat because the fingers of death had visited me only moments before. That all of the monsters who had destroyed a piece of this town deserved to die.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” Angel’s mouth set in a firm line, his jaw clenching. “If we want this to move forward, we need to be honest and open with each other. I fucking proposed to you, Jay.”
My heart thumped. I remembered his unconventional proposal. He had told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. And I told him that I felt the same way. It wasn’t anything fancy. It was perfect. It was us, and it was ours. I wouldn’t have asked for it to be any other way.
“I’m not a talker, but yet here I am, talking,” Angel huffed, rubbing the back of his neck. His dark gaze peered down
at me. “Why are you shutting me out?”
I swallowed hard, the dry lump in my throat burning. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Be honest with me.” He cupped my cheek, placing a soft peck on my mouth. “That’s all I can ask for.”
Tilting my head, I returned the kiss and wrapped my hands around his neck.
“What are you so scared of?” he whispered against my lips.
Us.
***
Scars embedded on my soul.
The physical pain was nothing like the mental anguish that had been inflicted on me over the past couple of months. What did I do to deserve this?
My sister would be so disappointed in me.
Tyler Bone was the bad boy of Dante’s Kings. Becoming the new prospect in my daddy’s motorcycle club, I would fall all over myself to get his attention. And when I did, hell swallowed me whole.
“Jenny, grab me a fucking beer.” Tyler’s deep voice rumbled through me, punching me in the heart that I had been so willing to give him. He had all of me. Every single piece. But I didn’t know how to take any of it back.
“Jenny!” he boomed.
I jumped from my spot on the floor where he had beat me down. The pain in my ribs made it hard to breathe, but I refused to show him how bad he had hurt me.
It had been that way since Tyler got what he wanted and made Vice President. My father trusted him. And I looked good on his arm, so he kept me by his side.
Grabbing a beer from the fridge, I made my way to the bastard as fast as I could.
“It’s about time.” He snatched the bottle from my hand, peering up at me through dark eyes. “On your knees.”
My heart jumped. “Tyler.”
“I don’t suggest making me repeat myself,” he said, his voice calm and even.
Lowering to the floor, I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants.
Safe place, Jay. Safe place. You got this. You’re strong. You will make it out.
“My beautiful Jenny.” Tyler leaned forward, pinching my jaw, and forced me to look up at him. “If you only cooperated, it would never have to be like this.”
“Yes, it would.”
He smirked. “You know me too well.
For the next hour, he did whatever he wanted to me and took it without remorse. He forced me to submit in ways that should never be allowed.
Even though this had only been going on for a couple of months, the abuse had been happening since the first time I saw him. I just never knew it then.
“I love you, Jenny,” Tyler whispered to me later that evening. “You know you like it when I hurt you.”
I turned to him, my gaze roaming down his bare chest. His tanned skin was marred by my violent touch.
Bile rose to my throat.
Looking up at the ceiling, I vowed at that point never to trust again. And if this is what love was, I didn’t want it.
***
(Angel)
Being taken by Vega destroyed a part of Jay that I wasn’t sure how to get back for her. Maybe that piece of her was gone for good. He forced her to choose life over death and watch girls kill themselves. But they never died. It was a complete mind-fuck, and it did what he wanted it to do.
Eric Vega fucked Jay up.
She was closed off, snapping at anyone who was around to hear it. The world had tilted on its axis, bringing us together. As soon as we were happy, a wedge was driven between us.
Girls were still missing. Jay’s sister had finally been found. Was that it? Did Jay’s estranged relationship with her twin, Violet, put this fear in her?
Jay wouldn’t talk to me about it, and that pissed me the fuck off. We had been through a lot together. I would die for the woman laying beneath me. She taught me to love. She opened up something inside of me that had been closed off for years. And now she was doing the same.
“You need to talk to me,” I told her, running my fingers down her cheek. With a raging hard-on between my legs, I breathed through the impending urge to just fuck her and be done with it.
She met my stare, a questioning look in her gaze before she reached out for me. Her hand wrapped around my cock, stroking from base to tip.
I hissed out a breath, my head falling back on my shoulders. “Fuck.” Her hands felt so fucking good. I could never get enough. Jay was my addiction. She was the pure heroin I had heard about. The ultimate high that druggies craved. And she was mine.
With her hand working my dick, all I could do was kneel there. My hands found her hips, gripping tight until my fingers dug into her flesh.
“You like that, baby?” she purred.
“You’re … distracting … me,” I panted, rolling my hips in tune with her hand.
“Your cock is delicious.” She shrugged. “It’s not my fault it wanted to come out and play.”
“Geeze, woman.” Pulling from her grip, I flipped her onto her stomach.
She let out a soft gasp, arching beneath me.
“Just because you’re teasing me—” I thrust inside of her “—doesn’t mean I won’t get the answers I’m looking for.”
Jay pushed her ass against me, matching my movements. “Just fuck me, Angel. That’s all I’m giving you right now.”
Fuck, this woman and what she did to me. I couldn’t control it. Her touch. Her demands. Everything about her brought me to my knees. She was the ultimate undoing to my control. I loved her. With every single inch of me. I knew her inside and out, but when she shut down on me, it forced the ugly part of myself to come out and play.
Digging my fingers into the flesh of her ass, I lifted her and pushed her head into the pillow. She wouldn’t give me the answers I needed? Fine. I would fuck her however I felt. I was pissed. And I made sure to let her know it.
“Angel,” she cried out, shaking beneath me.
My girl liked it rough and dirty, and I made sure to show her exactly how rough I could be. My thrusts powered into her. My fingers dug into her pale skin. I gripped her hair, pulling her upright, and wrapped a hand around her slender throat.
“You think just because you can tease me with your beautiful body and soft demands that I won’t get the answers I’m looking for?” I growled, sinking my teeth into the soft spot beneath her ear.
She moaned, shivering against me. “I know you can’t resist me.”
My blood thundered in my ears. As much as I didn’t want to, as much as my cock wanted me to give in, I released her.
Jumping off the bed, I pulled on my pants, the cotton rubbing over the strained erection.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snapped, her eyes heating with fire.
I chuckled, cupping myself. “You want my dick? Tell me what the fuck is going on.”
Jay glared. She took deep breaths before she turned over onto her back. “Fine. You won’t fuck me? I’ll just continue myself.” Her hand reached between her legs, her fingers flicking over her swollen clit.
My dick jumped. Fuck. She played nasty.
She whimpered, letting me hear all of the sounds I craved. “Angel, baby.” She arched beneath her touch, her finger slipping inside her center. “Please.”
“Are you begging me?” I breathed, not able to take my eyes off her hand.
“No.” Her finger thrust in and out of her glistening pussy. “You’re going to beg me.” Her hand moved from between her legs to her mouth. The finger that had just been inside of her body now inches away from her lips.
My cock swelled, pre-cum dripping off the end. Fuck. I couldn’t handle it. She wouldn’t dare.
Peeking her tongue out, she licked along her finger, a soft moan escaping the back of her throat. “I taste good, Angel.” Her eyes were dark and wild, demanding that I do what I did best. Her lips closed around her finger, and that was when I lost it.
She knew my weakness. The fact that her taste was on her lips sent a shiver racing up my spine and controlled my next actions before I could comprehend what I was doing.
Grabbing her ankl
es roughly, I pulled her off the bed and into my arms before she could scream out my name.
I spun her, ripped down my pants, and drove into her so hard I had her coming undone in seconds. My name left her mouth on a guttural cry. Her hips slammed into mine, her hot cunt sucking me dry until I couldn’t give anymore.
A half an hour later, we fell to the floor, with my dick still inside of her, ready to go again.
This. This was what I lived for. Every damn day of my life.
“I told you you couldn’t resist me.” She stifled a yawn, curling into me.
I didn’t say anything. I only watched and cared for her. With my marks on her body and my come inside of her, my love for her went deeper.
She would tell me what was going on. Whether she liked it or not.
Chapter 2
Jay
“YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL.”
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“No, I don’t.”
Tyler smirked. “Yes, you do, or else you still wouldn’t be here. In my bed. Filled with my come.”
A year ago, I would have cried, bawling like a baby over the pain he had caused me.
But now, on this cool summer evening, I laid with the man who destroyed the innocent part of my soul.
He was right.
I did love him but not in the way one should. I loved him because he fed the dark part of my soul. Since Violet was taken from me, he was all I knew. He allowed me to unleash my anger on him. Hitting him until I was spent and sore.
Tyler was the only person who believed that Violet was taken. That she wouldn’t just walk off with some random guy and not tell me about it. My own father didn’t believe that she was a victim. She had always been the wild one. While she was gone, I took over that role. My timidness no longer a factor in this game called life.
“Why do you hit me?” I finally asked, breaking the unnerving silence that I had become accustomed to.
“Why do you hit me back?” Tyler rose from the bed, pulled on his torn jeans, and turned to me. His dark hair had become long in the past couple of months. So long he had to put it back into a ponytail.
