by Evie Harper
With the door now wide open, I can see Phillip is not in here. My heart is beating wildly as I rub the sweat away from my forehead with shaking hands.
I scan Phillip’s room for his wallet and am thankful when it’s the first thing my eyes land on. I take quick steps, scooping it up and looking inside. I see many bills and cards, cards I have no idea how to use; the bills will have to be enough. I will have to wait till I’m with Pacer to find out how much is in the wallet as he is the only one of us who knows how to count well.
I grasp tightly to the wallet in my palm and turn quickly, racing out of the room and heading straight for the front door before I freeze. Mia. I want to see her one last time. I need to say goodbye.
I tiptoe through the living room and peer into the kitchen. I can’t see Phillip anywhere. Where is he? Did he run, knowing he had killed Mia? Did I send my siblings rushing off for no reason?
I crouch behind the bench in the kitchen and look around to Mia’s body still lying lifeless on the tiled floor. Her right arm is outstretched, appearing to reach out for someone to take hold and help her. I stretch my hand out and softly touch the tips of her fingers, still so soft and warm.
Grumbling comes from the back door, and I hastily pull my arm back and scurry behind the counter. I hear Phillip mumbling, but no steps coming into the kitchen. I carefully look around the counter again and see him bringing an old blanket and a shovel covered in wet soil just inside the back door. He’s going to bury Mia in the backyard. No! I need to get to a phone, call the police and tell them what he’s done. She needs to be buried in a cemetery where she belongs, where I can visit her one day.
I look back to my unrecognizable Mia and my heart squeezes, twisting painfully as I force myself to say my last farewell. Tears fall as I swallow past a lump in my throat and finally I’m able to whisper, “Goodbye, Mia.”
Watching as Phillip goes back outside, I decide now is my chance to quietly move back through the house to the front door. I make it and find the door locked as usual, and Phillip is the only one who has the key. The window next to it is slightly opened and has been missing the screen for months now. I quietly, but with all my strength, open the window which hasn’t been touched in years. It squeaks once and I pray Phillip is too busy to worry about any sounds in this old, run-down house.
I jump up and slide my body through the window, scraping the skin off my hips as I barely fit, and fall to the ground with a hard thump. I bite my lip from yelling out in pain.
I’m out.
Terror grips my heart as I sprint frantically from the house, not looking behind me in fear I will find Phillip chasing me.
As I run from the only home I’ve ever known, the house of horrors, the only thoughts I’m having are ones I’ve never let released before this moment.
I think I was in love with her.
Not family love, but a different kind of love.
Now I’ll never know.
Chapter One
Street Thug
Slater
My clenched fist slams into his jaw, and bones crack and break under my bloody knuckles.
I stand and look down at the almost-unconscious asshole who was making fun of a woman with a stutter. Usually I don’t get involved in this shit, but damn, seeing her beautiful face frown and hurt cross her features, as if it was setting in stone to stay there forever, made me want to kill this fucker. And I’m the one man who’s capable of doing it.
A scowl etches its way onto my face at the memory of her eyes lowering to the ground. Watching as her features twist to sadness spurs me to reach down and grip the shithead’s shirt and begin punching him again and again.
I’m finally forced to stop when my brother, Mackson, pulls me off the asshole.
“Fuck, Slate, take it easy. I’ve never seen you with that pussy before, so if you’re trying to get in there tonight, trust me; you’ve already done enough to get a good cock-sucking later on.”
“Get the fuck off me, Mack.” I know he’s only trying to help and lighten the situation, but I’m not in the mood for his show of crude. Mack’s two different people: one in front of others and a totally different person when he’s with our family. We all have an image to uphold, one which has to stay in place to keep the vultures off our doorstep and show them what will happen if they try to cross us or take from us. This, beating a man, is nothing. We’ve all done worse, taken care of business to keep what we have worked so hard for, to keep our turf and our family safe. Our enemies are many and they are always close by.
I push away from my brother and storm back inside TK’s Bar. John, the bouncer, nods and walks past me.
I look over my shoulder and watch as he picks the asshole up and pushes him out the back door, not caring that he just fell again. He closes the back door and then turns around to shoot the shit with Mack.
I continue walking toward the toilets to wash the blood off my hands. I pass the stuttering girl’s table and find her staring straight into my eyes, not once looking down at my gory knuckles, which surprises me. Most girls would run screaming from a man like me, but instead, she meets my gaze and never turns away. We both stare at each other curiously, everyone and everything turning into a blur as only she has my attention. Until I pass her and we’re both forced to break eye contact from each other.
I enter the bathroom and find my heart pounding rapidly and my dick hard. Which is fucking crazy since I just got done beating a man unconscious. Definitely not what’s on my ‘what gets me off’ list.
I enter the men’s room and wash the blood away. Soap seeps into my cuts and a sting begins. My lips tip up into a smile, the pain a sweet reminder of what I did to that fucker.
I sense movement behind me and look into the mirror to find the girl biting her lip and looking around nervously.
I twist my head left and then right, making sure no men are around.
Looking at me in the mirror, she says, “Thank you. I appreciate y-your help, but I can handle myself.”
Trying to hide my surprise, I say, “I didn’t do it for you, gorgeous. I did it because the guy pissed me off.” I lie, but I’m shocked at her words; I was expecting a thank you, not a, ‘thanks, but no thanks.’
She opens her mouth and then closes it again, seemingly unsure of what to say now.
I turn around and lean on the sink, crossing my arms over my chest, examining her while I wait for her to either say something or leave. She’s fucking pure mint, the hottest chick I’ve ever seen. Not because of her long, luscious, tanned legs which connect to a fit body with tits that would fill my hands perfectly, but because she oozes class.
Her eyes and lips send me back in time, but I know it’s impossible. It can’t be her. I do this every time, look for her in every woman, wondering what Mia would have looked like.
Stutter Girl isn’t even the closest I’ve come to finding a match before. This is just another way I torture myself for letting Mia down, not being there when she needed me the most. I’m forced to push my painful memories away when the woman finally decides to speak.
“Okay then. I’ll leave you alone to, umm...” She looks to the urinal and her nose scrunches in disgust, “do your business.” She steps to leave, but the thought of her walking away from me has me stupidly asking my next question without thinking.
“You seemed to talk just fine then. You use it as some sort of attention thing?”
She narrows her eyes and her expression turns stony. “So that’s who you are. The unintelligent, m-meat head who just happens to be lucky in the looks department. Ignorance is a disease, asshole. You should really go see someone about that.”
I step forward and grin. She thinks I’m good-looking.
She begins to walk away, and my chest pounds at the thought of never having her attention again so I gently place my hand on her wrist and apologize. “Okay, that was a stupid thing to say. I’m sorry. I can be an ignorant asshole sometimes. How ‘bout you tell me how it works, so I’m not so unintellig
ent in the future?” My tone is soft and I hope she can’t hear the plea in my voice. My mind is telling me to let her walk—this isn’t like me at all, coming across as weak—but I don’t want her to walk away from me just yet.
Her eyes search my face for what I assume is sincerity and my gut twists as I wonder if it’s because people have tricked her this way before, just to try and hear her stutter. Fucking bastards.
She sighs and turns back toward me, but moves her wrist out of my grasp. I glance down at my hand with a frown, confused that I hate the fact I’m not touching her anymore. However, I’m distracted as she takes a big breath in and out and begins to explain.
“I don’t stutter often, or really much at all anymore. I was born with it, but it only happens i-in situations which make me uncomfortable, afraid or if I’m under pressure. I did speech therapy for years to learn to control it.”
I tip my head to the side slightly, examining her, admiring her strength and determination. It’s easy to see her stutter is something she gets frustrated with and that it embarrasses her, as her cheeks flush pink when she does it.
“You must be a very strong woman. I can only imagine the shit you must have had to deal with growing up.”
A frown appears on her stunning face and she says, “There are plenty of people in the world who have it worse than me. I don’t dwell on what I can’t change.”
When she’s finished speaking, she licks her lips and begins to fidget with her fingers.
I’m fascinated by her; her strength and thoughtfulness is captivating. I inch closer, desperately wanting to taste her, needing to know what she tastes like. My skin prickles with need as I close the distance between us. I lean down and take her mouth quickly and she suddenly inhales, right before my mouth hits hers, giving me the perfect opportunity to taste her. She grabs hold of my shirt tightly and sighs contentedly as she begins to kiss me back.
Fuck. She tastes so sweet, and her lips are wet and soft. She tastes like pears, my favorite fruit.
Our mouths continue to crash against each other, biting, licking and claiming one another.
We pull back at the same time, both with ragged breaths.
“What was that?” she asks, still trying to catch her breath.
“That was me saying I like you,” I reply with a grin.
Her eyes widen and she softly questions, “Even after you know I have a stutter?”
I stare into her eyes, processing her words. Why the fuck would that even matter? She begins fidgeting with her hands again, and damn if I don’t think it’s the cutest thing I’ve seen.
Christ, I wonder if she will let me fuck her tonight.
As if she heard my question, she jumps up, wraps her legs around my waist, and her arms around my neck, and kisses me again.
I hold her tightly to me and palm her ass. I groan as a fierce craving explodes inside of me as I feel the heat of her pussy directly over my aching, hard cock.
I move us to one of the disabled stalls, slamming the door shut and fumbling with the lock while she begins to grind up and down on my dick.
A deep gratifying groan escapes my lips. She feels so fucking good, so fucking right.
I drop her and spin her around. “Hold tight to the toilet seat,” I instruct and she does exactly as I ask.
I pull her dress up to find a black G-string and two firm, round ass cheeks staring me right in my face. The urge to bite them is overwhelming.
“If I’m gonna take this sweet cunt then I need to know whose pussy I’m fucking. What’s your name, Stutter Girl?”
“Piper,” she breathes out.
I slide my fingers through her long, dark-brown, wavy hair and grasp it tightly. She whimpers and my dick jumps, begging me to slam into her warm heat.
I bite down hard on my lip to stop myself from thrusting in hard and fast.
I turn her head to the side and bend to look into her face.
Fuck, those eyes.
What is it about them?
“My name’s Slater and my cock has been aching for you all night.”
Piper giggles at me, and it just makes my dick grow impossibly bigger.
I unzip my jeans and drop them to my ankles. Piper looks over her shoulders, her eyes widening as she licks her lips. I groan while haphazardly trying to get the condom out of my wallet as fast as possible. My wallet falls to the ground but I don’t give a fuck. I roll the condom on quickly then I lower her G-string down to her sexy as fuck black heels and spread Piper’s thighs apart.
I drag my finger through her pussy up to her clit, fucking loving how drenched she is for me. I circle her clit with her own wetness, causing her to whimper and grind her hips.
As I continue the motion, I put the head of my dick at her entrance. The moment she begins to moan louder, I slam into her and she screams out in pleasure.
Fuuuuuck! Her slick, warm folds enveloping my cock feels fucking incredible. I grasp her hips firmly and begin slamming into her. Piper holds tight to the toilet seat while whimpering and begging me not to stop. I push harder and faster until she’s moaning loudly and her sex is pulsating, causing my cock to throb and beg me for its own release.
Piper’s legs begin to shake and a shine appears on her back, as sweat trickles down my neck from keeping up the punishing pace. I hold her legs steady as I pound into her harder than I’ve ever fucked a woman before.
Piper screams out her orgasm and then I begin mine, roaring into the stall, hearing myself echo through the entire bathroom.
Piper’s arms drop to the toilet seat and she rests her head on her hands, sighing contentedly through her heavy breathing. I thrust in and out, slowly coming down from my high.
I pull out, and we both begin fixing ourselves up. I glance up and watch Piper pull her dress down. She’s stunning and to top it off, my cock fucking loves her. I’ve never seen stars while blowing my load before, but fuck if she didn’t just make me think the world was ending. And I didn’t care at all as long as I died inside of her. She’s fucking perfect for my dick, but not for my lifestyle.
Why the fuck am I even thinking past tonight?
Before I can even be the asshole and leave her standing here alone in the bathroom stall, Piper unlocks the door, walks out and throws over her shoulder, “Might see you around.” And then she’s gone. Fuck, I think I’m in trouble.
Piper
I rush out of the bathroom, and with each step a delicious tingle shoots through me. My panties are soaked through; I’ve never felt such pleasure before. Sure, I’ve given myself plenty of orgasms, but a man never has. I’ve never let go like that, never trusted a man to be so in control and rough with me before. I never knew what I was missing.
I head straight for the exit and sense eyes on my back. I instinctively turn around and there he is, across the busy bar, just standing there relaxed, staring at me as if I’m a puzzle to be worked out.
I don’t understand what it is about him that I’m drawn to. That he stood up for me tonight? The first person in my whole life to stand up and protect me from a bully...is this what safety feels like? My eyes grow glassy as sadness takes hold of my heart. I wish at twenty-seven years old that I didn’t have to ask myself that question. All I’ve ever wanted was to belong, to feel wanted and safe. Is that what Slater gave me tonight? It seems ludicrous because his whole demeanor screams danger. He’s a street thug, and it shows in the way he carries his body: proud, domineering with a ‘don’t fuck with me’ vibe. Not to mention the group of men he’s with, all of them exactly the same—hard faces and bodies which promise pain even if you just look at them the wrong way. Not to mention beating my bully unconscious.
I’m here to save kids from that type of life, not to save a man who’s clearly already lost to it.
I scrutinize his face one more time, committing it to memory before turning and fleeing, promising myself never to return, promising myself never to be this foolish again. But I know I’m counting down the days until I meet the street thug ag
ain.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Evie is an Australian author whose passion for reading lead her into writing. Evie spends her days writing heartbreaking, suspense filled love stories with happily ever afters. Evies characters are strong alphas with even stronger heroines who bring sexy sass to the relationship.
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Books by Evie
YOU LOVED ME
You Loved Me At My Darkest (Lily and Jake)
You Loved Me At My Weakest (Emily and Kayne)
You Loved Me At My Ugliest (Alexa and Joseph)
PORTLAND STREET KINGS
Collision (Slater and Piper)
Fatal (Mack and Lana) - Coming late 2015
Tail (Della and Dom) – Coming early 2016
Pursue (Kelso and Ivy) – Coming mid 2016
Drifting (Pacer and Sophie) – Coming mid 2016
THE O’CONNOR BROTHERS
William – Coming late 2016
Alexander – Coming late 2016
Matthew – Coming late 2016
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my husband and children for being patient and understanding with me when I had to work long into the night and miss our dates on the couch watching movies.
Thank you to my amazing friend, Bel. You’re one of the coolest chicks I know, your smart, thoughtful and honest. I love talking to you everyday, bouncing ideas around with you and talking about books and our lives. I’m very thankful to be able to call you my friend.
