Lickable.
And because I wanted to, I leaned down and ran my tongue around one of his nipples.
“Fuck,” he hissed, eyes flying open.
I took his nipple between my teeth and his body arched, driving his cock painfully deep.
“Little minx,” he said as he surged upward.
His mouth crashed into mine, teeth bruising my already-swollen lips. I worked my hips back and forth, desperate to find release again. Desperate to bring him with me this time. I dug my nails into his shoulders, fighting through the burn of my thigh muscles.
“Are you going to come again?” he asked as he bit his way down my neck, hard enough that I suspected he’d left marks.
“Mm-hm.” I let my head fall back, exposing my throat. “You this time too.”
“Maybe,” he said.
His teeth sunk into my breast and my entire body jerked.
“Ask me what I need to come, Syll.”
“What do you need to come?” I obediently repeated.
“Tell me,” he said. “Tell me what you want me to do to you.”
I closed my eyes and felt the word before I spoke it. “Everything. I want you to do everything.”
He laughed again, a slow, warm caress of sound over my skin. “I’m going to need you to be specific.”
“Fuck me. Lick me.” I let the words spill from my mouth even as the pleasure reached a near-painful point I’d never felt before. All the things I’d ever wanted to say but had held back in the past, I told him. “I want your mouth on my pussy. Your tongue in my cunt. I want to taste you. Suck your cock. I want you to spank me again.”
He pulled me tight against him and put his mouth next to my ear. “Do you want me to fuck your ass?”
I shuddered, so close I could almost taste it.
“Tell me, Syll. Tell me that you want me to fuck your ass.”
“I do.”
The last word turned into a cry as he flipped me onto my back and slammed into me twice, sending sparks exploding behind my eyes. The second time, he growled my name, and his body tensed above me as he came. He ground down against me, pushing me over the edge one more time before I passed out.
* * *
My first thought was that I was laying on possibly the most comfortable bed in the history of beds. My second thought was that my bed wasn’t even close to this comfortable, which meant I wasn’t in my bed.
I rolled over, waiting to feel my hand smack into Billy, to hear him mumble a curse before falling asleep again. When my arm thumped against sheets, my brain began to try to figure out what was wrong.
Billy’s bed was more uncomfortable than mine. And his sheets were scratchy. And they generally smelled like week-old sex and sweat. If I wanted clean sheets, I usually had to make the bed myself. Sometimes I thought he had me come to his place whenever he wanted his sheets changed.
These sheets were soft. Expensive.
And they smelled amazing. Freshly laundered, but it was more than that. They smelled like…
Shit.
They didn’t smell like shit. They smelled like Jax.
My eyes flew open, and I sat up in a rush.
I hadn’t drunk enough last night to be hungover, which was good, but I also hadn’t drunk enough to not be able to remember what had happened, which was bad.
Because now I remembered everything.
His chest under my hands, all those firm muscles, and other firm things that fit inside me as if we’d…
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to go down that road. If I started thinking about what had happened, I’d have to think about how I felt about it, and I really didn’t want to do that.
Jax wasn’t here, so I scrambled out of bed, grabbing my clothes and yanking them on as quickly as I could. My jeans were still damp from the snow, reminding me that we’d gotten a storm last night. I hurried over to the window, sending up a silent prayer that I’d be able to find a cab to take me home.
We’d gotten a good eight inches or so, but we were Bostonians. The roads were cleared, and people were out doing their normal things. I breathed a sigh of relief. I could get out of here without trying to find Jax. And I really didn’t want to see him right now. Maybe ever.
Yes, that would be good. Never seeing him again, never having to think about how he’d made me come more times in one night…
Nope. I wasn’t going there.
I was going home.
I gave myself a congratulatory pat on the back when I managed to get down to the sidewalk without getting lost in Jax’s insanely massive house and without seeing him. Then again, for all I knew, he’d left hours ago.
Since I hadn’t opened the bar last night, I’d need to have it open tonight, giving me the chance to focus on work and forget everything else. Including the part of yesterday that had been less orgasms and more seeing my boyfriend cheating on me.
As I showered, I started going through a mental list of everything I had to do. I went through every detail twice, trying not to think about how ordering more scotch made me think about how I’d tasted the smooth liquid on Jax’s tongue.
By the time I headed to the office, I felt more in control, more like my old self.
No, I decided. I felt better than my old self. I didn’t have that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that I needed to call Billy, make time for Billy…basically, a whole bunch of stuff about Billy. And now I didn’t have to think about him at all.
And I wasn’t. Thinking about him. Or Jax. I was thinking about filling out my order sheet for February.
I was half-way through the list when I thought I heard something. When I glanced out into the bar, however, everything seemed fine, so I went back to my work. I wanted to get this done before we opened. Once Gilly came in, she and I were going to have a hell of a lot to talk about.
I’d mentally prepared a third of my half of the conversation when I heard something else. I got up this time, going out into the bar. I made it a handful of steps before I saw that I wasn’t alone.
“Excuse me, we’re closed…” My voice trailed off as my brain registered the large man in the black ski mask standing in front of me.
I didn’t care how snowy or cold it was. A guy in a ski mask walks into a bar, and it’s not the beginning of a joke; it’s a robbery.
“You’ve been given several opportunities to do the right thing, Miss Reeve, but you’ve failed.”
Before I could figure out if someone would even hear me if I screamed, pain exploded across the left side of my face. I hadn’t seen him move, and now I couldn’t see him at all because my eye was watering as I tried to catch my breath.
A second blow followed the first, knocking me to the ground. I yelled in pain, wrapping my hands around my head to protect it. He drove his foot into my stomach twice, sending shockwaves of pain through my torso, and driving all the air from my lungs.
I coughed and gasped, everything in me focusing on how much I hurt, but I still heard him speak.
“You stay away from Jax Hunter, and the next time Mr. Jones comes to make an offer on this shithole, you do the smart thing and accept it.”
Twenty-One
Jax
When I got out of the shower, I thought I was prepared to have an adult conversation with Syll about where things could possibly go from here. Not that I had a clue what I wanted to say. I was just ready for the conversation.
I checked the bathroom, the kitchen, the whole house, thinking that maybe she’d tried to find me and had gotten lost, but she wasn’t anywhere. She’d left.
I might’ve been a guy who’d done the one-night stand thing more than once, but I’d never left without at least telling the woman goodbye. Then again, this hadn’t been the most traditional of hook-ups. We’d both been hurting and needed to get our minds off of things. Conversation hadn’t really been on my mind.
I was in the middle of making myself a highly-caffeinated beverage when my phone rang. I checked it – just in case Syll had l
eft something here – but it wasn’t her. It was Ms. K.
“Hello?”
“Jax, it’s Ms. K. I’m sorry to be calling you so soon after…” Her voice cracked.
“It’s quite all right,” I said softly. “How can I help you?”
“I need you and your brothers to come down to my office to discuss some terms in your grandfather’s will. I know they’ll want to be returning to their homes after the funeral, so I think it’s best for you to come in as soon as possible.”
I closed my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in a room with my brothers and hear my grandfather’s will being read, but Ms. K was right. It’d be selfish of me to ask them to hold off because I was having a bad couple of days. I was hardly alone on that count.
Still…
“I’m sure there’s a lot of paperwork to be done,” I said. “Isn’t that something we can do via mail? I mean, I know snail mail isn’t really popular nowadays, but contracts are sent through the post office all the time.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Ms. K asked, “What do you think you need to sign?”
I took a sip of my coffee before answering. “After our parents died, my brothers and I inherited our father’s shares in the company. Technically, Grandfather was still the majority shareholder, but he named me CEO, so I assumed he has some provisions about me maintaining my position. Shifting around his shares and estate to make sure we all get an even inheritance.”
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” she said after a brief pause. “Look, it wouldn’t be fair to tell you and not your brothers. I need to have you all together at the same time.”
My gut churned, and it had little to do with what happened with Syll, or even my lack of breakfast. Something wasn’t right, and I had a bad feeling whatever it was Ms. K had to tell us, it was going to affect my life more than my brothers.
Wonderful.
“I can be at your office in an hour if you want to call my brothers and ask them to come in too.”
After we ended the call, I added a splash of Highland Park to my coffee. I was going to need it.
Twenty-Two
Syll
I didn’t like this bed. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as Jax’s bed, and the sheets were rough. And sticky with something. And cold. And it was shaking…
No, I was shaking. Or, rather, someone was shaking me.
That was weird.
Why was someone shaking me in my bed?
And why did my bed smell funny?
“Syll! Wake up!”
I knew that voice, but it wasn’t one that I wanted to hear. I was mad at Billy. I couldn’t quite remember why at this moment, but I knew that hearing him say my name made me want to throw up and hit him, or maybe throw up on him and hit him.
“Syll! If you don’t wake up, I’m going to call 911.”
It was the urgency in his voice that finally made me realize that something was seriously wrong.
And then I remembered.
Someone had come into the bar and hurt me.
It was odd, but I hadn’t even realized I was in pain until the memories came forward, and then it was like everything hurt all at once. The pain forced my consciousness up through the darkness that I’d been swimming in.
“Fuck,” I groaned as I tried to open my eyes. The right one felt gummy, like something was trying to glue my eyelashes together, but I managed to get it open. The left one, however, felt hot and swollen, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t see a thing out of it.
“Thank God,” Billy said. “I was afraid I was going to have to call an ambulance. What happened?”
I pushed myself up, taking note of how my entire arm felt bruised but not broken. That was good, because every breath felt like someone was stabbing me in the lungs, and I had a bad feeling I’d cracked some ribs.
And I didn’t even want to see if my face looked as awful as it felt.
When I was eight or nine, we’d had this crazy snowfall that had closed school for an entire week. We’d never been able to take vacations when I was a kid, both because of money and because of not having anyone to cover the bar, but that week, Dad had left one of his friends in charge for a couple days and took me somewhere outside of Boston where there were huge hills covered with snow. We’d taken his old sled down dozens of times, and at the end of the day, I’d begged him for just one more time. He’d given in, and on that pass, we were a bit further to the side than we had been before, and we caught a rock. It sent us into the trees, and I’d hit the trunk of a pine face first.
This felt worse.
“Let’s get you up,” Billy said as he bent over and wrapped one arm around my waist.
It felt wrong, him touching me, but my head was throbbing, and I couldn’t exactly remember why it was wrong. Besides, I wasn’t sure I could get to my feet on my own. When I was standing, however, he didn’t let me go.
“Babe, you look awful. What happened?”
I leaned against the bar, sucking in a breath at the pressure on my bruised back. He kicked me. The bastard who’d broken into my bar had punched me in the face at least twice. And then he’d kicked me. That was why my ribs hurt.
Dammit.
“The guy who trashed the place came back.” My mouth tasted like blood, and while my cheek hurt with the movement, I didn’t feel any empty spaces in my gums.
Hooray for me. I got the shit beat out of me, and I still had all my teeth.
“Everything looks fine.”
Billy’s inane comment had me turning my head to look at him, and now I recalled why I didn’t want him touching me.
I managed to take a step to the side, so his arm fell away from me. “Fine? Do I look fine to you?”
“You know what I mean.” He scowled at me. “The bar looks fine.”
Except the blood on the floor where I’d been laying. That was going to be a bitch to get out of the wood grain. “I need ice.”
“You need to go to the hospital,” he said. “Come on, babe, let me take you.”
“Babe?” I echoed as I remembered why I didn’t want him near me anymore. “You lost the right to call me that anymore.”
“Don’t be that way.” He reached for me, and I slapped his hand away.
“If you want to do something for me, then get me some ice, but don’t touch me.”
For a moment, I thought he was going to tell me to fuck myself and walk right back out the door, but after a second, he headed for the kitchen.
Had he come here to talk to me about what happened? He hadn’t called or texted, so I didn’t think that was it, but then again, he’d probably realized that I wouldn’t answer any calls or texts from him. Anyone who knew me would understand that I wouldn’t want to see him yet, and definitely not by ambush, but being clueless really wasn’t a good enough reason for him to be here.
Especially since I’d told him a few years back that I’d cut off his balls if I caught him cheating on me. Granted, I’d been plastered at the time, but it still seemed like the sort of thing a man wouldn’t forget, considering the usual attachment men had to their balls.
“Here.”
He shoved a towel full of ice at me, the expression on his face something that would’ve been at place on a tantrum-throwing preschooler.
I took the ice and held it to my face, hissing at the pain the contact brought with it. I was going to need some heavy-duty painkillers to get through work tonight. Tequila would probably work just as well, but after the unwise choice I’d made last night when inebriated, I was going to lay off the alcohol for a while.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, closing my eyes. I let the cold seep into my battered face, numbing those screaming nerves. I would’ve loved to stand there and enjoy the ice’s effects, but I could hear Billy breathing from where he was standing next to me.
“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”
I sighed. “No.” I didn’t bother to explain to him that I didn’t have th
e money for a hospital visit. If he’d been paying attention at all, he would’ve known it.
“Why don’t we sit down,” he said, “so we can talk without tiring you out.”
And any gratitude I was feeling for him finding me and then getting me ice was gone. He hadn’t gotten the ice to take care of me. He’d done it because it would get us to what he’d come here for quicker. It was still all about him.
I shuffled over to the closest table and sat down. No use in expending more energy than was absolutely necessary.
“All right, Billy,” I said. “Let’s have the conversation. Tell me why you’re here.”
He had the audacity to look hurt. “I’m here because I didn’t like the way we left things yesterday. I figured I’d give you some time to cool off, and it was a good thing I came over too. Who knows how long you would’ve been laying there if I hadn’t.”
Telling him that I would’ve eventually woken up on my own would’ve just prolonged the conversation, so I kept my mouth shut and hoped he’d hurry the fuck up and say what he’d come here to say.
When he realized I wasn’t going to thank him again, he frowned, but continued, “We’ve been together too long to let something like that destroy it all. I mean, it’s not like you were innocent in all of it. You said yourself you’d come over to tell me you’d cheated on me.”
I held up a hand. “I made out with someone else, yes, but I stopped it, and came to see you to make things right. I wasn’t fucking other people for months and only admitted to it when it was too late to deny it.”
He rubbed the back of his head. “I’m sorry, Syll, all right? Is that what you want to hear? That I’m sorry?”
I would’ve wanted to hear it if I thought for a moment he meant it. It’d be easy to accept the apology and go back to the comfortable patterns of our relationship. I could pretend like I believed he regretted what he’d done, and not just that he’d gotten caught.
But what he said after I caught him, that was stuck in my head. It had been cruel and mean-spirited. That was how he really felt – who he really was – and I refused to allow him to treat me that way.
The Hunter Brothers Complete Box Set Page 10
