by Marie James
“Goddammit,” Grinch mutters as he pulls free of the girl he’s spending time with. “What are you doing here?”
Chills race up my arms when he asks, but my eyes dart around the room searching for Rivet. Surely, she isn’t involved with this shit. But she’s a grown woman and free to do what she wants.
“I’m looking for Rivet,” I finally manage when I don’t see her toned body under any of the guys.
“She isn’t here,” Grinch says. “Now leave.”
“He can join,” the girl riding Rocker’s cock coos from the sofa.
“She’s not here?” I ask, ignoring the invitation.
I’ve been to some wild-ass college parties. Threesomes and sometimes foursomes are nearly an everyday occurrence in San Diego, but I’ve never seen an orgy of this magnitude in my life. Good for these guys, but I’m itching to get out of here.
“Can I get her phone number?” I look to Grinch, but then divert my eyes to the ceiling. “Can you at least put your cock away while we talk?”
He chuckles. “Listen, man. You interrupted us, not the other way around. Her number is…”
He rattles off the number, and I plug it into my phone.
“She’s at the hotel over off Main. Room 324.”
With that, he goes back toward the pool table, his hand stroking his dick. He shoves back into the woman without warning, and she moans like she’s having the time of her life. Like an idiot, I wave my hand to whoever may be looking at me and haul ass out of there. I use my key to lock the damn door, praying no one else comes in and gets the same eyeful.
I shake my head, trying to get the image of Jinx with his women stacked three high as he fucked them one after the other out of my head. I head to my truck, knowing I won’t have the ability to concentrate as much as I need to and remain safe on my bike.
Although I have her number, I don’t call Rivet. She may turn me down if I call her and request to come to her hotel room. So, I just head that way instead.
***
“What are you doing here?” Rivet asks when she opens her hotel room door. My mouth runs dry at the sight of her in a tank top and sleep shorts. Her nipples are peaked against the shirt, and I almost lose my resolve to not make tonight sexual.
“I’m just glad you’re here and not back at the clubhouse,” I mutter instead of answering her direct question.
I’m seconds away from explaining what she’s missing, but then she rolls her teeth between her lips to keep from smiling.
“You knew?”
She laughs. “I told you I was glad I wasn’t involved in their plans.”
“I wish I knew. You wouldn’t believe what I just walked in on.”
Her smile spreads. “You went over there?”
“Don’t remind me. Can I come in?” I ask when she doesn’t move from the doorway.
“Shit, yeah. Come on in.”
“So, they kicked you out?”
“I was invited,” she begins as I step further into the room. The television is on some documentary about wolves, the volume low, and the covers on one side of the bed are pulled down and looks inviting as hell. “I opted out.”
I turn to face her. “Did it take you a long time to come up with that decision?”
“Not a bit. I work with those guys. I don’t want to see them fucking or know what they sound like when they come.” She shudders violently like she’s got bugs crawling over her skin.
“Yeah. I wish I didn’t know either. One chick even invited me to stay and join them.”
“You didn’t take her up on her offer?”
“Not a fucking chance,” I assure her. “Orgies aren’t really my scene.”
“No?” She inches closer to me. “Why is that?”
“I’m interested in focusing on one woman at a time.”
“Really?” Her hand runs up my chest, fingers tracing my muscles over the fabric. “Any particular person?”
“You,” I pant, not able to hide the truth.
“I like where your head is at,” she purrs.
She. Fucking. Purrs.
How do I say no to that? How do I resist her?
“Wait,” I say as her hand reaches for the button on my jeans. “I didn’t come here for that.”
“Yet, here you are.” Even with my fingers around her wrist, she manages to run her hand over the erection growing in my jeans. Or maybe I let it happen. Hell, at this point I don’t feel like I have an ounce of control.
“Can we just talk?”
“Traumatized that much?” She grips my cock in her hands, and I don’t bother to restrict the groan that leaves my lips. “You don’t seem to be struggling. I can kiss it and make it better.”
Fuck my life! Why did I choose tonight of all nights to get to know her better?
I keep her from lowering to the floor at my feet by grabbing her shoulders. After I take a long calming breath and step back, I look at her. She’s sex personified. Her nipples have puckered further and are now begging for my damn mouth. When I see her exposed legs, all I want is for them to be wrapped around my waist while I bounce her on my dick.
I clear my throat.
“You really just want to talk?” She doesn’t bother to hide the surprise in her voice, but she doesn’t sound disappointed either.
“I’m more than just a pretty face,” I joke.
“I found that out tonight. How did things go with Landon?”
She motions for me to take a seat on the bed, and I do, but I go to the far side of the king-sized mattress and sit close to the edge. Getting close to her will be more than my restraint can manage.
“We got the kids to the hospital. The police were called. Landon is staying at a buddy’s house since Dustin and Khloe are out of town.”
“And he can’t go back to the clubhouse.” She laughs.
I scrape my hands over my head. “Thank fuck I called Dustin before taking him home.”
“The kid would’ve gotten an eyeful.”
“True.”
We talk for hours. I tell her about my life growing up in Cerberus and the amazing men I had as mentors. She relives her glory days of winning her track championship and losing her favorite grandmother right before high school graduation. But then she yawns, the day’s activities finally taking their toll.
“I should get going,” I tell her.
“Stay,” she whispers.
And so I do. I kick off my boots, manage to get my jeans and t-shirt off without attacking her, and when we finally settle on the bed, she doesn’t hesitate to snuggle into my side.
“Cannon,” she whispers right when I’m close to falling asleep.
“Hmm?”
When I open my eyes after she doesn’t answer, I find her inches from my face. Without a word, she leans in close and brushes the sweetest kiss against my lips. I fight every urge in my body that’s begging me to flip her on her back and sink inside of her when her tongue brushes mine for the very first time. That isn’t what her kiss is about.
When she pulls away, she presses another kiss to my bare shoulder and settles back against my chest.
I fall asleep with her taste on my lips and a million possibilities on my mind.
Chapter 29
Rivet
It’s hard not to be agitated when I walk into the clubhouse. I’ve been annoyed since I woke up alone in the hotel room, cold with Cannon’s scent on my skin. I’m equally bothered by the fact that I slept so soundly that I didn’t register him slinking out of the bed. Feeling safe in a man’s arms enough to sleep well has never happened before, and I’m miffed by the idea that it’s Cannon, the jokester, that is making me feel that way.
“Get attacked by a tiger?” I ask Grinch as I enter the kitchen and see the claw marks on his neck.
“She was definitely a cougar,” he says with a wide grin as he steps away from the coffee pot to give me access.
“So, it was a good night?” I know I don’t even have to ask, but I don’t want the guys walking
on eggshells around me afraid that they’re going to offend me.
Grinch smiles as he looks toward the kitchen table. “What do you think, Jinx? Was it a good night?”
“The best,” my other teammate agrees. “We should do that once a month.”
“If that’s the case,” I begin, walking toward the table to take a seat, “then you guys will start paying for my hotel rooms.”
“You could always join in on the action,” Rocker says, joining the conversation.
He’d said as much in the kitchen yesterday, but my answer is still the same this morning. “Not a chance. I heard you guys got interrupted last night.”
“Didn’t stop me,” Rocker says with a salacious grin.
“Me either,” Jinx interrupts. “I had the girls stacked on top of each other. It was like pump, pump, pull, move on to the next gir—”
“Listen,” I say, holding my hand up, “I’m glad you had a good time, but I don’t need the finite details of your fuck-fest.”
All the guys chuckle.
“Your boy showed up,” Grinch says, his eyes focused on my face.
“Not my boy.”
“He was looking for you.”
All the guys grow quiet, watching me for some form of reaction but I refuse to give them one.
“We’re ready,” Kid says from the kitchen door.
I breathe a sigh of relief as we all stand. I won’t be able to hold them off for long, but I’m lucky for this morning’s reprieve. Without another word, we all drop our coffee cups off at the sink and head to the conference room. The meeting we’re having today is the only reason I didn’t lounge in the hotel room longer. That, and the scent of Cannon on my sheets was a little too much to deal with.
As we walk in, I’m trying to studiously avoid Jinx’s conversation with Rocker about his conquests last night as though Rocker wasn’t there participating. My feet stumble in the doorway at the sight of Cannon sitting beside his dad at the front of the room.
He’s not wearing that ridiculous t-shirt that caused problems at the diner yesterday. He no longer has the rough stubble on his strong jaw or the mop of messy hair on his head that I’ve thought about way too much to admit to.
He’s in a crisp button-down shirt and dark gray slacks. His clean-shaven jaw bobs up and down as he listens to something Shadow is telling him while pointing to the computer screen. His hair is combed and styled to perfection.
He is perfection.
When he lifts his head and sees me standing there, his eyes damn near glow, the medium blue turning dark for a split second before his dad demands his attention once again.
“Not your boy, huh?”
Grinch’s challenge in my ear startles me, making me realize I’m just standing there gawking at Cannon.
Could I be any more obvious?
I settle into my chair, making sure to keep my eyes everywhere in the room except for the corner where Cannon is situated. Everyone claims their seats, and it doesn’t take long for Kincaid to step in front of the group and give us the rundown on our next mission.
“We’re doing some pro bono work for SDSU,” Kincaid begins, and from the corner of my eye, I see Cannon snap his head up. “Over Christmas break, four students from SDSU were murdered, their car set on fire, and authorities couldn’t find a motive for the gruesome acts. Three more students have gone missing from a trip to Tijuana. They last posted on social media eight hours ago.”
The screen behind Kincaid comes to life, and even though I want to look away, I memorize the smiling faces of the women.
“Cassie Jones, Michelle Prince, and Regina Walker,” Kincaid says as he moves the red dot of his pointer to each face.
“Michelle’s boyfriend notified the university police after his calls and texts went unanswered. We’ve been monitoring the trouble coming out of Mexicali. We don’t have much to go on, but Cassie’s phone pinged off of a tower there. We’re leaving here in an hour, and hopefully it won’t be too late.”
“Hopefully,” Dominic says as he stands tall beside his younger brother, “we’re just being overly cautious and we find these women with hangovers in a hotel room.”
“We can’t trust the people in Mexico enough to reach out and verify that the girls are there, so we have to go ourselves. We’re the closest team, so we’re taking Team A,” Kincaid adds.
Team A is Hound, Grinch, Jinx, Rocker, and me. I cut my eyes at Cannon, finding him staring at the screen, the picture of the girls still smiling back at us. He looks like he’s seen a ghost, and it isn’t hard to tell that he knows at least one of the missing girls. Shadow taps his shoulder, drawing his attention from the screen, and I watch him nod as his dad talks to him.
A few more things are discussed before we’re dismissed to get ready to leave. I hurry out of the conference room. I only have an hour to get ready, and I didn’t shower before leaving the hotel room this morning.
My go-bag is ready, and after ten minutes in the shower, I’m ready to head out. There’s a sense of urgency filling my blood as I leave my room. These girls have only been missing for eight hours, and if we’re lucky, we can find them alive. We normally work with much broader time frames. Sometimes it takes weeks after someone goes missing before Cerberus is contacted to help. Many people don’t know about us until they’re so frustrated with direct channels like the police and federal agencies that they go looking for darker resolutions to bring their loved ones home.
“Hey.” My head snaps up at the familiar sound of Cannon’s voice.
“Uh, hi,” I manage.
My jaw is slack looking at him. He looks even better standing up in his crisp clothes than he did sitting beside his father earlier.
I have this need to ruffle his hair, to brush my fingers down his clean-shaven jaw, but I don’t do either of these things. I keep my distance in the hallway, making sure there’s a couple of feet of space between us. Being near him right now makes it hard enough to keep my train of thought. Touching him would make it impossible.
“You didn’t wake me this morning before you left,” I whisper, revealing my disappointment before I even realize it.
“You were sleeping so hard,” he returns, his feet shuffling closer to me. “I couldn’t bring myself to wake you.”
“Were you in the conference room because you know those girls?”
“I’m helping Dad this summer, learning the business side of Cerberus. I know Cassie. She used to date one of my frat brothers.”
“I’m sorry she’s missing.” For some reason I reach for him, wanting to comfort him.
He clasps my hand, and it doesn’t even matter that we’re standing in the hallway where anyone in the clubhouse could come walking by and see us standing here with such affectionate postures. He presses our clasped hands against his chest in a move more intimate than the sex we had in the spare bedroom a while back.
“You guys will find them. I’m sure of it.” He steps closer, forcing me to look up at him.
I’m a strong woman, fit and sure of my body’s abilities, but with him so close, he seems to tower over me, cocooning me in a layer of protection that makes my eyes burn.
“We aren’t always successful,” I warn, keeping my voice low.
During our conversations last night, he spoke of his dad and the other guys in Cerberus and what it was like growing up with such strong, moral men, and I’m sure they protected him from the tragedies, and rightfully so. It was easy to see that Cannon sees every one of them as heroes.
I don’t want to give him false hope. He’s no longer a child needing the protection of the adults in his life. I refuse to placate him or give him a false sense of security. It would only diminish him as a man.
He steps even closer, his body urging mine into the wall, and for a split second I push the impending mission from my mind and just exist in this perfect moment with him.
His hand caresses my cheek with a softness he’s never displayed before, and heaven help me, I lean into the touch.
>
My hands find his hips, and I try to pull him in closer. I want, no I need, to feel him pressed against me. Last night, the gentle kiss, the warmth of his skin against mine—it was everything.
My throat seizes when I look up at him, seeing so many emotions blazing in his eyes. I’m falling for this guy. Falling for the idiot who introduced himself with obnoxious pickups lines that went beyond innuendo. Falling for a guy that should be off-limits, that should make me cringe when he speaks or want to get away from him in his dumb t-shirts. But he’s a breath of fresh air, serious when it counts, and last night he’s the one that wanted to talk, for us to get to know each other better. I was willing to strip down and offer him everything last night, much the way I am right now, but he pumped the brakes.
“Cannon,” I whisper when he lowers his mouth to mine.
Kissing is usually a hard limit for me, and I should be freaking out—about my feelings, about his clear intent right now. But I’m not. Instead of trying to shove him away, I lift my lips to his, and a frisson of heat engulfs my body making goosebumps form on every available inch of exposed flesh.
His tongue brushes mine, unhurried, a soft promise of things to come, and I relish it. I want to live inside this kiss for all of my days. It’s sexual, but at the same time it isn’t. That doesn’t even make sense in my own head, but my body responds to his in some carnal way I can’t explain. I want him inside of me, but at the same time the pressure of his mouth on mine, the delicate way he tilts my face, and the gentle sweep of his thumb on my cheek is pure perfection. I feel like he’s giving me everything, and when he pulls away, I miss his lips but I also feel like he’s making me a promise. God do I want his promises.
“Are you freaking out?” he asks, his voice low and husky, hitting me right in the gut the same way a dirty suggestion would.
“Because you kissed me?” I manage.
“It was more than a kiss, and you know it, Rivet.”
I nod. It’s the only thing I can manage.
“We have twenty minutes until we load up,” I tell him, the suggestion clear in my breathlessness.
