“He never gave up on me, even after all this time.”
“That’s true love.” She squeezed me tighter. “I am going to miss having you around here.”
Crying harder, I leaned into her embrace. “I don’t want to leave. I love it here.”
Pulling away, she looked down at me, smiling. “You will always have a home here, but if Reese thinks it best for you to be back home with him, you need to go. You’ll like it. He has a pretty nice house.”
“Anything is better than where I was,” I admitted.
“Well, I guess that is true. I’ll help you get packed up.”
Crickett gave me one of her pink duffle bags for all of the clothes she was giving me and the new ones she had bought. I tried to go to the store with her, but it was a little too overwhelming for me. She made it her mission to get me everything I needed. It was so strange wearing a bra or putting on panties, but I was adjusting to all of it as well as I could.
“Don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything at all.” Crickett put a piece of paper with her number on it into the back before zipping it up.
“Can I call you just to say hi?”
Gripping my hand in hers, she quickly kissed my cheek. “I would absolutely love that.”
CHAPTER 10
KATHERINE
“Home sweet home,” Reese led me in to his house, setting out bags down in the front room.
It was the first time that we were actually alone together since he rescued me. Even though it has only been days since, it felt like a lifetime.
“You home is lovely,” I muttered, taking in all of the artwork on the walls and simple furniture strewn about.
“It’s not much, but it’s comfortable.” He shrugged, starting to show me around. “Your room is right through there.” He pointed down the hall. “Please make yourself comfortable. Your bathroom is right across the hallway. If you need anything, just let me know. I’m going to get cleaned up. Why don’t you take your things and get settled? I’ll make us some breakfast in a bit.”
“I get my own room and bathroom?” I gaped at him as a smile took over while excitement and bewilderment coursed through me.
“Yep. It’s all yours.” He leaned down, kissing me on the forehead. “I’ll be right upstairs if you need me.”
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
I HURLED myself onto the plush bed as my freshly washed locks soaked the pillow beneath me.
Is this really happening?
I was so scared that the last few days had all been some wonderful dream and I was going to be waking up any moment back in that basement. It was terrifying to even close my eyes just in case it was all too good to be true.
Staring up at the sealing, I let myself just enjoy the moment. The sweet simple moment of spending the first minutes in my very own room. A real room. There was a queen-sized bed with sheets and a plushy comforter, a giant dresser just waiting for all of my new clothes, a mirror, a rug, wood flooring, light blue paint on the walls, a ceiling fan, a real light—everything I could have ever dreamed of in my wildest fantasies. And it was mine. All mine.
I was like a little giggling girl, completely free in my space just taking it all in.
After rolling round in the soft sheets for a bit, I picked out one of the dresses Crickett had given me.
Once I heard Reese in the kitchen, I made my way out to join him.
“Find everything okay?” he asked, cracking an egg into the pan.
“I did. Thank you.” I perched up on my tiptoes, kissing him on the cheek.
His arm hooked around my waist as he smiled down at me. “What was that for?”
I shrugged. “It just felt right.”
His eyes locked onto my lips. “You feel right.”
I leaned my head onto his chest. “I could say the same thing about you.”
Being tucked into his side, feeling completely safe for the first time since I could remember, I wondered what the feelings I was having actually were. I knew that I was attracted to him—his dark, stormy eyes, his course beard, his big, tattoo covered arms, his crooked smile—it all sent chills through me. I just never had felt like that for someone before in my life—even before Alastor took me.
“Reese?” I rested my chin on his chest while he used his fee hand to scoop the eggs out of the pan and onto plates for us.
“Yes?” His eyes locked with mine as I tried to find the courage to ask him what I really wanted to ask.
“Is it all right if I really kiss you?” The words forced out of me as I closed my eyes, scared to see his reaction to the question.
“Are you sure you really want to?”
I bit my lips while nodding.
“You’re more than welcome to kiss me if you want to, Katherine.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, keeping my eyes closed as I tilted my head back. As his lips brushed over mine, every cell in my body set on fire in a very good way. It was fleeting but perfect.
“You’re pretty amazing and so damn confusing, sweetheart,” Reese chuckled, pulling me tightly into him.
“What do you mean?” I looked up at him as he pushed his thumb over my cheek.
“I honestly thought you were still scared of me,” he admitted.
I shook my head. “I haven’t been since Crickett told me about the time she met Abel and all of the amazing things he did for her.”
“Well, I have to confess, that makes me extremely happy.”
“Me too.”
CHAPTER 11
KATHERINE
No. Not the device again.
I cowered away from Alastor as he knelt down next to my bed. My wrists and ankles were tied together behind me as I was forced to lay there on my side, naked and completely defenseless to him.
“What happens when you disobey me?” he snarled as he turned the knob on the end of the electrocution wand all the way up.
My eyes slammed shut. “I have to learn my lesson,” I answered.
“And what did you do wrong?” His hot breath landed on my cheek as the fiery burn from the rod coursed from my hip bone through my entire body.
My teeth clenched shut as I tried not to scream out from the pain.
“I can’t hear you!” he bellowed, pushing the wand harder into my skin.
“I didn’t want to get up for breakfast.” I stammered out as tears rolled down my cheeks.
“Is that allowed?” he continued finally removing the device away from me for a second.
“No,” I whimpered.
“Is it ever going to happen again?”
“No. I’ll do better.”
“Have you learned your lesson?”
I frantically nodded my head. “I promise I have.”
“I don’t know about that. I think you need a little bit more to really understand your place in this world.”
“KATHERINE,” Reese whispered as he shook me.
“W-what,” I tried to sit up in the pitch-black room. “What’s going on?”
Reese climbed into the bed next to me. “You were screaming bloody murder in your sleep. Are you all right?”
I curled into his arms. “Just a bad dream. I’m sorry for waking you.”
His lips rested on my temple. “I am just glad you’re all right.”
“Will you stay with me?” The dream was still attacking my thoughts making me uncontrollably petrified.
“Of course.” He climbed under the covers, tucking me in to him as he held me.
Rolling over to face him, I let my lips land on his as my fingers trailed down his chiseled muscles.
Pulling away, his whispered, “I don’t know if that is a good idea.”
I shifted away. “Sorry.”
He pulled me back towards him. “You have nothing to be sorry for and trust me there is nothing more that I want right now than to show you how much I want you to be touching me and kissing me. I just don’t want to take advantage of you.”
“You’re not. I want this,” I admitted.
REESE
AS KATHERINE LET her fingers twist into my beard, I felt my resolve to not fuck her start to dwindle. I didn’t know the rules on this shit, I was making them up as I went along. It scared that shit out of me that she was only falling for me because I saved her but I couldn’t help that she had infiltrated my every thought.
I couldn’t get her perfect body out of my head. And that made me feel so fucked up. She was a vulnerable victim and I was her rescuer—there had to be lines drawn somewhere.
“I really do want this,” she muttered again.
Fuck.
I kissed her cheek.
“Are you absolutely sure? Because once this starts, I am never letting go of you. Not in a captive way, I mean as far as I am concerned we will belong to each other.” I did my best to explain what sex meant to me. the fact that she would be mine—not in a creepy way—but it was how the world worked for me.
“I understand, Reese. I want to be yours. I remember what it was like before Alastor. When you’re with someone—you’re with them.” Hearing her words sent a calm over me.
Rolling on top of her, I let my lips lock with hers.
“I’ll be gentle.”
As she kissed me back and her fingers rolled over my back, my body went into auto drive. Shifting down my mouth watered as I kissed my way down her soft body finally landing between her legs. I breathed her sent in, taking a moment to compose myself.
“May I?” I had never felt like I needed so much permission to eat a girl out before, but these were special circumstances.
“Please,” she moaned.
From the very first lick, I was addicted. She tasted amazing and her groans of pleasure were intoxicating. All I wanted was to devour her, completely fuck her senseless, but I held back. Forcing myself to be leisurely and soft as I worked her swelling clit with my flattened tongue.
“That feels incredible,” she panted as her hips bucked a little.
Tenderly, I filled her with two fingers. While exploring her wetness, I could feel her climax already building as the walls of her pussy started to collapse slightly.
“Cum for me, baby,” I demanded, needing to feel her drench my fingers.
As she tensed and shook, I felt a complete release in both of us.
I kissed slowly back up her body, holding her tightly to me.
She reached down for my dick but I knew that we needed to leave the rest for another time. Pushing her hand away was the hardest fucking thing in the entire world.
“Not tonight, sweetheart. This was all about you.” I pulled the covers over us.
“Are you sure?” she asked as he head fell onto my shoulder.
“Positive. We need to work up to other things. I don’t want to rush this,” I admitted.
“Thank you,” she muttered.
“For what?”
“Making me feel so damn amazing and not pressuring me.”
“It’s what you deserve.”
CHAPTER 12
REESE
A MONTH AND A HALF LATER
It took weeks for Katherine and me to get into a solid routine around the house. Even though she was still terrified to leave my home, I was able to get her to start enjoying a little garden I set up for her in the backyard.
Living out away from town had its perks, and keeping Katherine in solitude was one of them. She has rallied so much in the days after we rescued her, but once the adrenaline wore off, she retreated a bit.
I had gotten used to all her naïve questions and started to enjoy our long talks in the evenings. She even started to sleep soundly through the night.
After a week or so, she had moved into my bedroom where she really belonged. Instantly we had turned into a boring, domestic couple learning to be together in every sense of the word. It was simple and perfect.
Maccon, Allie, and I took shifts when we weren’t working, making sure someone was home with Katherine for most of the day which seemed to help a lot with her transition into being a normal human again.
One big bonus—my house had never been cleaner.
In the warmth of a summer evening, as I helped Katherine pick flowers from her garden, the sound of tires crunching on the gravel of my driveway broke through the night air. We weren’t expecting anyone.
Quickly, I rushed Katherine inside and grabbed my gun out of the drawer next to the front door.
I held my finger over my lips before training my gun on the entrance.
Pounding sounded on the door as a gruff voice hollered, “It’s Jett. Let me in.”
Katherine flew to her feet, excitedly watching as I slowly opened to door to see the goofy grin of my long-lost friend.
She leapt into his arms and he spun her around in the foyer of my home.
“I am so sorry it took me so long,” Jett whispered as he buried his face in the crook of Katherine’s neck.
“You’re here now. That’s what matters,” she sang out while he set her down.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes, man.” I wrapped Jett in a hug as Katherine still clung to him.
Jett’s eyes grew red and watery. “Thank you so fucking much.”
I smiled at Katherine, wiping a tear from her soft cheek. “The pleasure has been all mine.”
Amidst the family reunion, I heard something else outside, and Jett glanced over at me with a knowing stare.
“Were you followed?” I whispered.
He rapidly shook his head. “No fucking way. I was careful.”
Katherine pulled at the sleeve of Jett’s flannel shirt. “I knew he would come for me,” she cried out.
I grabbed her face, putting my hand over her mouth and whispering in her ear, “Get upstairs and into the back of my closet like I showed you when we first got here. Do you remember where the shotgun is?”
She nodded under my hand.
“Go,” I demanded.
We both watched as she flew up the stairs to her hiding place.
“Damn, man, you have all bases covered,” Jett remarked as he followed me to my gun safe in the family room.
“Can’t be too careful with a madman on the loose.”
“Fucking true story.”
Handing Jett my sawed-off shotgun, I slapped him on the shoulder. “Just like old times together, brother.”
He nodded sharply. “Seems we can’t get away from this type of shit when we’re together.”
We stood back to back in the middle of the house, completely still.
After a few minutes, I looked over my shoulder. “False alarm?”
Jett’s body relaxed. “We’re probably just bugging out from having to be on high alert for so long.”
“True.”
We called Katherine back down and went on to cook dinner. We needed some form of normalcy amidst the fucked up situation.
I was in awe as I watched the two of them finally reconnecting, and I didn’t know if I should leave them alone or stay. Imposing was the last thing I wanted to do, but I was also terrified to let Katherine out of my sight after the stupid scare we’d had only hours before. It was ridiculous, but I had grown to care about her so damn much and couldn’t imagine anything happening to her.
“Jett, man. I have to ask,” I glanced over at him as he strained noodles over the sink. “Where have you been? We’ve barely heard from you.”
Jett set pot back down on the stove, glancing from his sister to me. “I was trying to find Alastor. That fucker went deep into hiding. I followed a few leads but nothing really panned out. Once I knew for sure he was nowhere to be found and not on my ass, I hightailed it up this way.”
“He’s still out there. He’s going to find me.” Katherine shrank into the corner of the kitchen, wide-eyed and starting to hyperventilate.
“We’re not going to let anything happen to you,” I cooed over to her, taking her hand to calm her down.
Jett hooked his arm around her neck. “With the two of us w
atching over you, there’s nothing that Alastor could do to get to you.”
Katherine breathed in slowly, nodding her head. “You’re right. I am just overreacting.”
“Let’s eat and not worry about that douchebag for at least a few hours.” Jett pulled a seat out for Katherine, helping her sit.
We were halfway through eating our meal at my kitchen table when terror struck. Out of nowhere, the window behind Jett erupted and a large man was tackling him to the tile as glass scattered all around.
Jett instantly started to fend off the attacker as he bellowed, “Get her the fuck out of here!”
Without even thinking, I whisked Katherine up into my arms and ran out the front door.
She was fighting me every step of the way. “We can’t leave him. Alastor will kill my bother! Reese, please!”
I had to shut her crying pleas out of my mind as I let my Harley roar to life and I forced her onto the back of my bike.
“He’ll kill you too or worse if I don’t get you out of here,” I yelled, gravel flying out from my back tire as I peeled out of my drive. “Jett is one tough motherfucker. He won’t let Alastor win.”
I was say it to the both of us. I was terrified that I just left my friend to die, but I didn’t know what else to do. Protecting Katherine was all I had.
With clenched fists, she wailed on my back. “Reese! Please! Stop! Go back!”
Her struggling made it near impossible for me to keep my bike steady, and finally I gave in. There was no way I was going to be able to get Katherine to safety with her fighting me the entire ride.
We hadn’t even made it a mile down the road when I turned back against my better judgement.
“Thank you.” She kissed the back of my neck. I hated that I was about to drive her to the most unsafe place I ever could but I had to.
I hated everything about what was happening.
As soon as I dropped the kickstand, I shoved my truck keys into her hand. “Get in, crouch down in the back, lock the doors. Do not do anything until Jett or I come get you.”
“Please save him.” Her bloodshot eyes met mine as she took the keys from me.
“Promise. Now go!”
Unfixable: An Unacceptables MC Standalone Romance Page 5
