“I’ll hook you up with my lawyer. She knows people. There’s no way you can trust anyone up in here. Everyone is suspect, from the lowest employee to the warden.” Taking hold of her hand, he squeezed. “Do you hear me? No one is to be trusted. If it weren’t for Sasha, I’d forbid you to proceed with this. There’re hundreds of thousands of dollars being made by drug dealers on the outside. Maybe cartels. Who the hell knows.”
“He’s as dangerous inside these walls as he is outside. I knew inmates were getting access to drugs, because they sometimes come in here high, but I can’t take down a whole syndicate. I just want to get him. Just him,” she ended in a guttural tone.
“Wherever he goes, he’s gonna find a way to hustle in drugs,” warned Puck. “There’s nothing to do in here, day in day out. Men get real creative when they’re bored and have too much time on their hands. They’ll always find a way to get the illicit substances they crave. Half the fuckers in here are high, and can you blame them? Even if they don’t come in already hooked, why the hell would they wanna stay clean? Hell, I spend my day fantasizing about you to keep from going fucking insane. You’re my drug, baby, so I’m not gonna cast stones.”
She blinked at his admission. It twisted her insides. Dammit, he was stealing her heart again. How could she not trust a man who jeopardized his future for her sake? Puck wouldn’t sabotage his chances of getting out, and leave Sammi to struggle alone, for a simple fuck. And she knew how much he despised being locked up. For a man whose life was founded on the concept of freedom, it was agonizing. No, his actions were intentional. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She wasn’t sure she was ready to acknowledge what seemed to be right in front of her face.
He broke into her thoughts, “You have to figure out how far you want to go with this.”
Ava raised her hand to his cheek and said, “Thank you. You did it. Found out more than I ever thought possible. Sure, I had my suspicions, but you discovered more than I’d imagined possible. Now, though, I need you to stay safe. Get out of it.”
Taking her hand, he dropped an openmouthed kiss in the center of her palm.
“It’s gonna take time. They trust me now that I’m working for them. The best way to shut it down is for me to get the hell outta here. I’ve been indicted, so the prosecutor has over two months to set my trial, not that it usually takes that long. The trial itself won’t be more than a few days. After that, pray to fucking God I’m set free.” He let out a heavy sigh that cracked her heart open even further.
A quiet settled upon them, each dwelling in their individual thoughts. Puck broke the silence first. “What are you going to do? I need to know so I can protect you.” Tears welled in her eyes, and he hushed her. “I’ve got you, babe. You tell me what you wanna do, and I’ll help you any way I can.”
“I’m not going to get involved in a sting to bring down a drug ring in jail. I’m not a crusader, and that’s not how I want to spend my energy. I know it’s likely selfish of me, but my focus is on Kingpin. The goal is to lock him away in a maximum-security prison for a long time. He’s going to prey on the weak wherever he goes, but he won’t be preying on teens like Sasha. I’ll have to watch him and work to dismantle whatever he rigs up, but at least I’ll have more control over him if he’s in prison. And he definitely deserves to be there. He’s a menace.”
“Fine, let’s take time to think about what our next move should be.”
She pressed her hands to her cheeks. “I don’t know if I want you to continue, Puck. I’m serious. This is beyond dangerous.”
“Worried?” he asked with a smirk in his tone. Pulling her hands off her face, he ordered, “Come here.”
His gruff demand triggered a shiver down her spine. She let out a long sigh and stood up. There was no way she could deny him. Not after he went above and beyond his duty. Not after putting him in danger for her sake. Inwardly, she recoiled at the notion that she’d placed him in a risky situation. She came over to his side of her desk. Hands on her hips, she shook her head at him, but he simply tugged at her shirt until she fell into his lap.
The more time she spent with him, the more he broke through her resolve to maintain her emotional distance. Even two hours a week was enough to wreak havoc on her peace of mind. Abby’s visit the other day, instigated by Puck, had battered at her defenses. After Abby and Loki left, she’d been home alone and sick, but in an odd way, she felt coddled, as if he were nearby. It put her in a giddy mood for the rest of the weekend. The fact that he’d reached outside their little bubble in jail challenged her assumption that they’d go their separate ways once he was free.
The expression on Puck’s face when he entered her office hadn’t disappointed, either. Beneath his stoic mask, she saw his relief and desire. Once he saw she was healthy, his slitted eyes told her that the instant they were alone, she was his.
Even as she sat on his lap—her favorite position of all time—he was in full possession of everything that was about to happen between them. Dominance oozed from his pores. His fingers ran lightly across her back, reassuring her.
“You okay, angel?” he queried, looking her over. “I was worried about you when you missed work. Thought I scared you away.”
Shaking her head, her tresses fell across her face and a strand stuck to her slick bottom lip. He gently plucked it off and looped it around his index finger.
“No, just had a cold, but honestly, it didn’t occur to me you’d worry,” she admitted.
He pulled back from her, surprise raising his eyebrows upward. “Not worry? Seems I’m not doing a my job if you doubt me.”
She shifted on his lap, his husky tone and huge body affecting her concentration. Leaning against him, she shrugged lightly and inhaled his spicy male fragrance. A warm fuzziness spread through her body, making her muscles lax with desire. She gave him a sultry look underneath her lashes.
“Do I need to show you how much I care?” His tone dropped to a low pitch. “How much I missed you? Be careful what you say. You may not like what you unleash in me.”
“I didn’t say anything,” she countered.
“Sure about that? Questioning how much I care is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
His cedar scent wound around her like a flame, flicking at the edges of her skin. She’d self-combust if he didn’t touch her soon.
“Show me,” she said simply.
He didn’t answer with words. His fingers gripped her neck, and he leaned over her, his lips hovering over hers for a long moment. Then, like an explosion, he devoured her.
※※※
Puck gripped her nape and pulled her in for a hot, wet kiss. Slanting his head for greater access, his tongue delved deep and deeper still. His other hand swept down to cup her butt, fingers curling to take her taut, firm ass. He slipped his hand over to her belly and unzipped her pants. Fingers explored until they found what they sought. Fuck, she was primed for him. One finger dipped inside her soaked core. Then another. Her inner walls clenched around his digits. His heartbeat pounded in his ears. Feeling her pulsing around his fingers, knowing how it would feel around his cock, was almost too much to bear. Pressing the ridge of his erection against her, he pushed in deeper. His other palm brushed down her torso, tugging at her shirt until it was free of her slacks.
“Next time, I want easy access,” he demanded against her lips. Grasping her shirt, together they managed to pull it off.
Fuck him, the cups of her bra were a see-through pink. Her already pink nipples shimmered beneath the mesh fabric. Swear to God, he was going to spill in his jumpsuit. Cupping a breast in the palm of his hand, he lifted it to his open mouth and sucked on the plump flesh; his teeth scraped her diamond-hard peak. A low hiss fanned across his cheekbone.
“So fucking tasty,” he praised. Using the sopping wet mesh, he rubbed her nipple. Giving it a firm pinch, he moved over to her other breast. The scent of her warm skin permeated his nostrils, whisking him away to a tropical island, far off from th
is jail that smelled of piss and misery. It was like scenting heaven, and he hadn’t even gotten to taste her pussy yet. He gave her breast one last hard suck and then helped her up. Standing before him, his harsh breath rasped over her collarbone, and her body gave a stiff shudder.
“I need in, baby girl.”
Wrangling with her pants, he worked them and her panties down to her feet. Down on his haunches, he took one pant leg off and spread her feet wide apart.
“Take off your bra. I want you naked.”
She fumbled with clasp and flung it off behind her. It landed haphazardly somewhere on her desk.
“If anyone finds me like this…”
“No one will see you,” he growled. The very idea drove him crazy. Ava was his. His to see and touch. His to fuck and love. All his. Besides the dinky little lock, he had an ear out for any potential problems. No way would he risk anyone seeing her or jeopardizing her job.
Standing up, he admired the contrast of her nudity to him being fully dressed. Everything was illicit. Inmate and employee. Fucking in the middle of the afternoon. The sound of people walking past, the crackling radios, the messages on the intercom speaker.
But, eyes locked on each other, they were in their own world. Looking over her shoulder, he gazed down the slope of her long spine ending in her beautiful, rounded ass. Reaching around, he grabbed hold of one of her buttocks and jiggled it. Sexy as fuck. Cocking his head, he listened carefully. For the moment, everything was quiet outside, so he gave her bouncy flesh a crack of his hand. A harsh breath vibrated from her parted mouth. He cupped her cunt, catching her juices in his palm, and let out a soft groan.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, messy already. Oh, I’m gonna add to this mess,” he promised with a dark chuckle as he slid his wet palm up to her tit, massaging her wetness roughly into her skin. His tongue followed an invisible line up the side of her neck.
“Please, Puck, please,” she sobbed brokenly.
He unzipped his jumpsuit while landing nicks and nips along her throat. She nodded in encouragement and he said, “Brace yourself.”
She scooted up on the desk, her palms slapped down on the desktop. He’d been half hard when he walked through the door. Now, as he drew her thighs wide open, seeing her glistening slit and engorged pearl, his balls felt as heavy as a pound of lead each.
“So fucking eager,” he murmured as he fit his flared tip at her entrance. Inch by slow inch, he pushed into her wet heat, watching as that pink flesh wrapped around his shaft and sucked it in. His eyes almost rolled to the back of his head. His fingers cinched around her hips to keep her still because she was trying to push forward and take more of him.
“Hurry, dammit,” she pleaded. “Harder.”
“Listen, I’m in control of this fucking,” he barked, although his movements made a liar out of him because his hips slammed hard, rooting him in rough and deep. A few more thrusts, and he bottomed out. “Christ fuck, that feels good.”
Curled over her, he grasped her hips and pumped, moving in a blur, their wet flesh slapping at the same pace as their moans. Knowing he wasn’t going to last for shit, he thrummed at her clit. She tightened and pulsed around him. His strumming turned into short, hard pinches, and she clamped down on his cock, writhing against him in a frenzy.
Her wild abandon fucked with his control because he popped off like a champagne bottle. One moment, the bubbly was inside a bottle. The next instant, his come spurt out in long ropes. Pleasure overtaking him, he pounded into her roughly. The tendons of his neck strained as he threw his head back and bared his teeth, clenching to stop the howl ripping out of his throat. He clutched her jaw and smashed his open mouth over hers, filling her with his scream while absorbing her own.
Rutting into her like an animal, he felt the shudders of her aftershocks beneath his hands as she milked him for all he was worth. She wrapped her slim legs around his hips and linked them at the base of his spine, wringing every last drop from him as his arrhythmic thrusts finally slowed.
Tearing his mouth away, he bit down on her shoulder, heaving out ragged breaths. Once he regained his breath, Puck pulled out, stumbled into the chair, and pulled Ava onto his lap. She curled into him as best she could, her long legs dangling over the side of his lap. He swiped sweat-covered strands of hair from her forehead and inhaled a sated breath.
Fuck, he didn’t think he’d ever come this hard. Sure, doing something forbidden added to the thrill, but it was more than that. The energy between them had always been striking. Inexplicably, it bypassed boundaries of time and space. If anything, it’d grown in their time apart. The first time they’d fucked in her office had been a reintroduction. Today was raw passion.
He laid his hand on her belly and stroked. “That was too fast. I want to savor you. Stretch you out on a bed and lick you from top to bottom,” he confessed, his voice tinged in regret. Her hand slipped down to cover her pussy, dripping with his come.
He swatted it away. “Nuh-uh, I want you to spread your legs, not close them.” Greedy mofo that he was, he wanted to see his seed seeping out of her, more evidence of where he’d been. Dropping his head, he shuttered his eyes and groaned out, “Christ, what a sight.”
When he got out of jail, he was going to keep her naked and covered in his seed for days. He wasn’t going to let her shower, just let his come dry on her pristine skin until she smelled like him and their combined fucking.
But today he didn’t have that luxury.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you dressed.” Lifting her to his feet, he tagged a few tissues and cleaned her, swiping a few extra times ’cause that’s the kind of helpful guy he was. Once she was decent again, he dragged her back onto his lap and pressed her back against him.
“Better?”
“Yeah, thanks,” she replied with a satisfied sigh. The sound reverberated through his chest. Having Ava lying against him was a heady feeling, indeed. He’d done that; he’d put that blissed-out expression on her face. He’d never felt such a deep sense of pride in bringing a woman to completion. Not that he left women hanging. Never that. But no woman brought out this side of him. He’d stand on the top of the building, beat his chest like a caveman, and shout to the world that she was his.
Chapter Thirteen
They’d worked out a routine in the past three weeks. It had serious limitations, but whenever she was frustrated, Ava reminded herself that she had it better than every other family member with someone behind bars out there. They only got to see their loved ones during visitation, without a moment of privacy. The time she spent with Puck, talking, fucking, and strategizing, brought them closer than she’d ever thought possible. Along with Sage, Ava had contacted and started collaborating with the Office of Special Investigations. The OSI had initiated a narcotics investigation. Not that she expected to be kept in the know, but she hoped the investigators would be able to intercept telephone calls from jail and JPay, the service inmates used to email and video-call with people on the outside.
Ava’s days started at seven-thirty in the morning because life in prison started early. Puck’s sessions were her last of the day, but it was past three o’clock, and there was still no knock on her door. The nervous hum she experienced before seeing him morphed into a tight knot. Where is he? She checked her clock again. Fifteen minutes after the hour. There hadn’t been a lockdown or anything else to cause a change in schedule, and jail ran like clockwork. Had Puck gotten into another fight? Was he in the hole, again? Had he gotten caught doing something for Kingpin? A frisson of fear slithered down her spine.
Logging back on to her computer, she checked to find out where he was. Nothing. She did a quick search on the inmate locator database. Her spine hit the back of her chair. He’d been released at 7:57 that morning. He’d been freed hours ago but hadn’t contacted her. Grabbing her work phone, she checked her voicemails, but there were no messages from either him or Sage. She opened her cell phone but only found a text from Kat.
He was gone.
Ava slumped into her seat once more, a long exhale whooshing out of her lungs.
Really, Puck? An array of conflicting emotions tore through her. Relief and happiness were closely followed by a hefty load of nerves. Had he used her? Besides their intimacy and his declarations, the risk he’d taken with Kingpin had convinced her that he was serious. But perhaps she’d served her purpose, and now that he was free, he didn’t need her anymore. Because making zero attempts to contact her was not a show of commitment.
Ava grabbed the receiver of her work phone to call Sage, but insecurity surged through her. What if he didn’t want to see or hear from her again? Even if he hadn’t used her, she might not be important now that he was back in society. He was busy getting back to his life, Sammi, and his club. What if he was at his club at this very moment? She sucked in a breath. With another woman. The thought ignited a swell of jealousy in her. If he was at his club, he was currently surrounded by biker chicks, any of whom would be more than willing to welcome a brother home from jail.
Swallowing down the bile rising to her gullet, Ava slowly returned the receiver to its holder. Glancing at the clock, she saw that there were thirty-five minutes left of the workday. She could wait and decide what to do once she got home. Just in case, she placed Sage’s contact info into her cell phone and waited out the remaining time, like a prisoner.
※※※
Ava drove sluggishly down the tree-lined residential street toward her house. Her heart was heavy; a gloom had descended upon her. Not being in the mood to go straight home, she’d first stopped to do some grocery shopping. Dusk had already descended upon her quiet neighborhood by the time she drove up to her house.
Parking the Clementine, she popped open the trunk. An uneasy feeling pricked the hairs at the back of her neck, but she did a quick sweep of the street, and nothing was different. There were a few extra vehicles, but that was to be expected since one of her neighbors was constructing a screened-in patio. Hurrying up the path to her house, she juggled her work bag, purse, and two shopping bags in her arms when a large hand landed on her back. Her eyes flew over her shoulder, and she let out a yelp. Right behind her was Puck. She clutched her chest and cried out, “Oh my God, you scared the hell out of me!”
Puck's Property: A Bad Boy Biker Romance (The Demon Squad MC Book 5) Page 10
