I pressed my nose to his cheek as I came for him a second time, linking my feet over his calves to ensure he couldn’t pull out. Kellan grunted as my pussy began squeezing him again, then reared back and pistoned into me as hard as he could. I felt his dick throb, then throb again, only harder this time, and then gasped as I felt the warm flow of his cum spurting deep, deep inside me.
“Parker!” he breathed, sucking my earlobe into his mouth. I trembled and spread my legs a little wider, eager to take all that Kellan had to give. As his orgasm waned, he whimpered and said, “Fuck. I love you. I love you so damn much.”
I opened my eyes to look up into his. They were half-lidded and swollen, and between them, the bridge of his nose was turning black and purple. But none of that mattered. This man was mine, scars and all, and in that moment, he’d never looked more handsome.
Softly pressing my forehead to his, I whispered back to him, “I love you too, Kellan. I don’t know how this happened so fast, but I know I love you. I really do.”
Kellan pulled out of me, letting me turn so that he could hold me in his arms. Kissing the top of my head, he murmured, “And we’re gonna be together, baby. For as long as you’ll have me. There’s just one more thing I gotta do…”
~ TWENTY-THREE ~
Kellan
I looked for Vic the second I stepped out of the winner’s room, leaving Parker in bed to enjoy the workout I’d just given her. I never found him, though. He’d disappeared, gone with the wind. For a second, I thought he’d made off with my winnings, too.
Thankfully this time, my instincts were wrong.
“Your manager said to give you this, on top of what you earned tonight,” the venue owner said once I’d managed to figure out who the hell he was. He handed me a fat manila envelope and glanced over his shades at me. “You sure you don’t wanna keep fighting, Killer? I mean, the way you took down Tutera… shit, you could go pro. You’d make a killing.”
I quirked a small smile as I glanced at what Vic had stuffed into the envelope. Just a cursory flick through the bills told me there was more than fifty thousand dollars in here.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said. “I’m really looking forward to living a life that doesn’t involve killing or maiming anymore.”
Besides, I added inwardly as the owner shrugged and turned his attention back to the girls swarming him from all sides, only douchebags wear sunglasses indoors.
Parker and I took a cab to the hospital that night. I knew I was too fucked up to avoid it this time, and having her at my side made things a little easier. I definitely hadn’t come out of that fight with Tutera unscathed. I had a broken nose, a fractured cheekbone, two broken ribs, and a host of other hairline fractures and deep bruises that were gonna take a while to recover from. They wanted me to stay overnight, get some pain meds in me so I could sleep, but I had a better idea.
“It’s cool,” I said as I signed the form that said I was leaving against medical advice. “I know a guy.”
Parker was, at first, furious. I couldn’t really blame her. I mean, she’d heard the diagnosis loud and clear while she was sitting there holding my hand. Not only had I left the hospital without much more than a splint for my nose, but I wanted to take a road trip? Now? In the dead of night?
Like I could sleep, anyway. I was too amped up. I could see all the possibilities of my life lain out before me now. No way a man could sleep when he’d just realized he had a future.
I’d planned on driving, but Parker insisted I sit the hell down in the front seat and relax. Which meant I had to tell her where we were going, which kind of ruined the surprise. She’d had the good sense to tell me to call ahead, though, which worked out in my favor, because when we pulled up to Iris and Slade’s new house, they weren’t nearly as annoyed with me as they could have been. Especially not Iris, once she saw who I’d brought with me.
“Oh, my God,” my sister whispered. She looked up at me with wide eyes. “Is this her? Parker?”
As if Parker wasn’t standing right there in front of her. I smiled. “That’s her. And she speaks English, by the way, so you can say ‘hi’ yourself.”
“Hi,” Iris said, wrapping her arms around Parker in a hug my girlfriend obviously didn’t expect. “Welcome to the family.”
All the blood rushed to my face, making it feel even more swollen than it had before. “Fuck’s sakes, sis, she’s my girlfriend, not my wife. Damn, you’re gonna scare her off.”
Inside, Slade did his best to get me situated for the night, but he said I was gonna have to go to the hospital again in the morning. I could go to the one he worked at, which I knew would work with me and my odd request of “no pain pills, please,” and Parker and I were free to stay with them until I’d healed a little. We ended up making a weekend out of it, which was a nice way to get Parker introduced to everybody. I even let her visit with my mom and stepdad, which was not an experience for the faint of heart.
“I don’t know what you were so worked up about,” Parker said to me on the drive home. “Everybody was really nice.”
“Yeah, now,” I snorted in reply. “You should’ve seen us a few years ago. Incest, drugs, and rock n’ roll were all the rage.”
Parker rolled her eyes at me, which was a gesture I got used to over the next few months. She and Thom ran their story on me and Senator MacFarlane, and by extension, the illegal fighting rings I’d been a part of. I was a local celebrity for a bit after that, and the senator himself made it a point to have a photo op with me, once my face didn’t look like chopped liver. I heard a few weeks later that there’d been a whole bunch of raids that went down at the same time, a blitz on the underground fighting world. Vic hadn’t been part of it. Apparently, he’d skipped town. Asshole.
Karma eventually caught up with him, though. Apparently Thom had been keeping his eye out for any news, any new fighting circuits popping up in neighboring states. About half a year after I quit fighting, Vic fucked with the wrong ex-SEAL and got his head bashed in. He was trying to run the same scam he’d run back here, only now that there was a story about it out there on the Internet, his next victims figured it out before he could get them under his thumb. Vic ended up a vegetable rotting in a hospital somewhere, and it took a little while, but I eventually felt sorry for the guy. If he was dead, that wouldn’t have been so bad. But trapped in your body, unable to think, unable to do all the things you used to do, just pissin’ and shittin’ and droolin’ all over yourself day in, day out? That wasn’t living. That was hell.
I wouldn’t have wished that fate on my worst enemy. But there was nothing I could do. I’d tried to warn him, in my own way. And some leopards just never changed their spots.
The money I’d saved up, plus what Vic had left me with, gave me some time to think about what I wanted to do with my life. After a lot of thought, I realized that the reason I’d enjoyed my time in the Marines so much wasn’t because I was out there fighting for my life, but because I was making a difference for people back home. I was impacting lives with my service, ensuring that a new generation of Americans could enjoy the freedoms I always had. Or at least, that was what I’d told myself out in the desert all those years. When you were living the reality of a tour of duty, you didn’t really dwell too much on politics. You just towed the line.
I wanted to feel that way again, and this time, I didn’t want to get anyone hurt or killed. But I was still a fighter at heart, and I always would be. So what could I do?
Parker introduced me to the idea of teaching others how to defend themselves. And after a little research, I’d landed myself a job as a mentor teaching at-risk youths the fine art of boxing. I had to modify the program a little, of course—some things I was just better off not teaching to kids—but it ended up a huge success, both for the kids and for me. My class was the most popular one the local rec center offered, and my students all seemed to be getting a lot out of it. That was enough for me.
Shit, though, it was so weird to thin
k of myself as a teacher, when a year ago I’d been convinced I would never do anything but destroy people. Now I was building them up, making them into better versions of themselves every day. I was their rock as much as they were mine. We were all just taking it one day at a time.
And Parker? Things with her turned out even more amazing than I could have hoped for.
After she ran the story with Thom, her boss, Melanie Cartwright, had offered her a better position at The Spill. But Parker ended up getting an offer from The Daily Bazaar, a way more upscale news outlet that came with a private office and a damn fine pay raise, too. She missed the hell out of working with Thom for the first few months after she left, but then one of the sportscasters at the Bazaar got canned for putting webcams in the women’s restrooms, and upon Parker’s glowing recommendation, they hired Thom. She’d felt like she owed it to him, she said, but I think deep down, she just missed her friend.
She got a lot of attention from other places, too. A lot of talk shows and shit wanted to interview her, to talk to the woman who’d exposed the seedy underbelly of underground fighting, and all that bull. Not that Parker hadn’t done exactly that, but the way everyone stalked her for months on end was a little frustrating for both of us. And then some asshole got it into his head that he could get his big break by “exposing” Parker for impropriety—basically alleging that her special relationship with me had tainted her judgment and the facts. I offered to find this fuckwit and make him take it back, but Parker just rolled her eyes and said it was part of the job. Besides, Thom ended up rooting the guy out, and I’m not sure what he said, but whatever it was, Parker was never bothered again. I’d respected the guy before, but he really impressed me that day.
Everything had really fallen into place. Parker and I slowed down a little and decided to leave the family planning for later. Once we got past the “fucking like rabbits” stage, we saw things a little more clearly. And anyway, there was already going to be a new addition to the family soon. Iris just announced she was pregnant, which kind of almost meant I was going to be an uncle. Slade was too, sort of, and a dad. You can bet I gave him as much shit as possible for that, too.
It felt so good to move forward. I was a mentor to kids like me now, playing the part of the big brother I’d always wanted, but had to grow up without. I was making a difference in people’s lives, and for once it was a positive one, one that made me feel genuinely good about myself.
And things with Parker just couldn’t have been better. Well, I guess maybe they could’ve been a little better, because next week, after Thom and Andy’s wedding, I was going to propose to her. Thom had been ecstatic when I told him. He’d even helped me plan it out to ensure Parker got the most romantic moment she could have hoped for.
Things were changing. But no matter what happened, as long as I had Parker at my side, I knew I could handle it. With her, I was safe. I was home.
Life was good.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bestselling author Sienna Valentine grew up in Canada and still lives there, spending her time reading and writing. Steamy romance has always been her favorite genre, and now finds that the only thing more satisfying than dreaming up her fantasies in the first place, is writing them down and being able to share them with others.
You can find Sienna on facebook here:
www.facebook.com/Sienna-Valentine-429498083819222
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would to thank all of my wonderful readers who have given me a chance to live my dream of writing for a living. I hope that each book I write is better than the last so that I never disappoint you.
I would also like to thank my ARC and Beta readers that were very helpful in pointing out issues that my own eyes passed over after multiple edits. It’s so helpful having a group of wonderful women that are eager to read my sometimes unfinished and unpolished work and give me constructive feedback. You are all very patient and I appreciate every one of you!
ALSO BY SIENNA
Desperados
Sanctum (Black Dogs MC Book 1)
Retribution (Black Dogs MC Book 2)
Slade: A Stepbrother Romance
With Aubrey St. Clair
Fighting for Salvation
Trust
Silver and Chrome (coming in Christmas 2016)
Excerpt From Sanctum
SANCTUM
~ PROLOGUE ~
Maggie moaned and giggled in the dark as she felt Jase’s tongue sliding between her legs. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, fingers tangling in his hair, feeling the motion of his head moving around her center. The coolness of the sheets and the low summer breeze from the open window countered the heat of his body against hers. She could only stand a few minutes of his sweet torture before she grasped at his shoulders, trying to pull him on top of her.
Jase moaned a few times as he lingered, his tongue flicking over her clit one last time before he obliged her silent orders. He traced a trail with his mouth up over her stomach and breasts. When she kissed him, she felt her own wetness on the 5 o’clock scruff on his chin. Jase slid his hips between her legs, his aching hardness pressing onto her sensitive lips. She gasped in his mouth and he laughed a low, sexy laugh that made her stomach shiver.
Jase seemed to tease her a few more moments, sliding his cock against her without entering, until she whimpered and squirmed beneath him. He dropped a hard, passionate kiss on her lips when he finally relented and pushed inside of her. She inhaled the moan he let out when he felt her warmth around his cock. He began to thrust into her desperately, pulling her body for leverage to get as deeply inside of her as he could. Maggie grasped at him, digging nails into his back with every powerful meeting of his hips on hers.
It was only a few minutes before they were both crying out in sweet release. Maggie bit into Jase’s shoulder, holding him close as she came. She felt him shudder against her, and deep inside her.
Maggie collapsed against the sheets, and Jase, on top of her. The sounds of their heavy breathing filled the bedroom.
Jase lifted his head up to look at her and planted a kiss on her lips. “That’s five—record broken.”
“Record broken hard,” said Maggie with a chuckle. “Good show, Campbell.”
“And to you, ma’am,” said Jase. He playfully bit around her stomach where he knew she was ticklish, and Maggie collapsed into giggles until she finally got him to stop.
Rolling off to lie next to her on the bed, Jase played with her curly hair as she lay on the pillow. “I feel like it’s been too long since we got to do this - at least this many times in a row.”
“Yeah, well, who’s to blame for that, mister?” said Maggie with a quirk of her eyebrow.
“I know, I know,” said Jase. “Things have been busy with the club, I know. Henry’s finally giving me better jobs than just bartending.”
“Ugh,” said Maggie immediately. She twisted around dramatically. “Don’t even want to hear his name.”
Jase laughed and tweaked her nose. “Maggie, we’re fucking in the man’s house.”
“Yeah, well, not for long,” she said.
“Oh?” said Jase. He laid his head down on the pillow next to her and gave her a hopeful grin. “Finally going to move in with me?”
Maggie grinned back at him and scooted a little closer. She had practiced broaching this conversation for hours in the mirror before her father had finally left the house, allowing Jase time to come over. “Maybe… “
“Seriously?” said Jase. He perched on his elbow and looked at her.
“When you put a goddamn ring on it,” she said with a laugh. Jase mussed up her hair. It was the response she always gave him when he asked about moving in. She waited just a beat before she tacked on the new part. “And if we’re moving into some place that’s not in LeBe
au.”
When he didn’t answer right away, she looked up at his eyes. Some part of her knew he might be resistant, but truth be told, the bigger part of her heart which held his love had no fear until she saw that worried sternness in his jade-colored eyes.
Jase took a deep breath. “You’re still on about this?”
“About moving away? Yeah, I’m still ‘on about it’,” said Maggie. “Did you think I wasn’t serious when I brought it up before?”
Jase sighed and rolled over onto his back. Maggie felt her heart start to ache when he threw his legs off the side of the bed and checked his phone.
“Jase, don’t ignore me,” she said.
Jase turned half around. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to ignore you. I’ve just heard this before. Every time you and Henry have a fight, you talk about getting out of here.”
His words stung. He made her sound so reactionary and emotional. “That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it? Why do you want to get away from here so bad, Maggie? I don’t get it.”
“Yes you do, you just don’t agree with it.”
“You’re right, I don’t. Henry has only ever made my life better, and you’re asking me to feel exactly the opposite about him—and break my commitment to the club by leaving,” said Jase. He stood up and put on his boxers.
Maggie sat up. “I’m not asking you to feel differently about Henry. How could I? I just… don’t you get it, Jase, that the Henry you know and the Henry I know are not the same man? He gives you the world, and every opportunity, but he can’t push me away from all of it fast enough. He acts like I didn’t grow up in that fucking clubhouse right alongside you.”
“You’re his daughter, of course he’s going to treat you differently from some stray kid he picked up.” Maggie could hear the tone in his voice had gone to a bitter place. “But he’s never let you want for anything. Hell, he’d probably let you live here until you’re a senior citizen.”
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