by Lane Hart
There’s enough guilt on my shoulders that three men were shot. And I’ll have to live with that blame for the rest of my life. I don’t think I could handle the burden of anyone’s death on my conscience, not even to save Rian.
Maybe it was crazy for me to think I could save him at all.
Wirth
“Fuck,” I mutter aloud when I see a man come strolling out of Maeve’s apartment. Wouldn’t you know it, the fellow looks like he has reddish-brown hair, although it’s hard to tell from this far away.
I had been sitting on my bike on the other side of the complex watching through my binoculars for almost two hours when the fucker showed up.
It felt stupid when I first got here, spying on a woman who has been nothing but amazing to me and the other guys.
But now I’m glad I did it.
The potentially redhaired man could have some sort of connection to the Irish. That would just be too big of a coincidence if not, right?
He climbs into a black sedan, and I’m about to start my motorcycle to follow him when my phone buzzes in my pocket.
Pulling it out, I answer without looking at the screen with a curt, “What?”
“Wirth?” her sexy, raspy voice is so unique I know it’s Maeve. Fuck, why the hell is she calling me?
“What’s up?” I ask, wondering if she’s somehow spotted me. “I’m kind of busy at the moment.”
Then I hear her sniffle before she says, “I’m sorry to bother you, but I just, I wasn’t sure who else to call and was wondering if you could come over.”
Goddammit.
What if she’s being manipulated by the ginger, forced to give the Irish intel?
“Did he hurt you?” I blurt out as I squeeze my eyes shut. “I mean, did someone hurt you?”
“No, nothing like that,” she says before adding, “Well, not recently. I just don’t want to be alone tonight.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
“Nothing. Forget it. I’m sorry I called. I’ll let you go,” she says in a rush.
“Wait!” I shout to stop her before she goes. “I’ll come over,” I agree. I do want to see her face, to figure out what’s going on with her and the ginger and to make sure she’s okay. “I’m, ah, actually in the area. The Knights needed someone at the bar for a, um, a delivery,” I lie to explain why I’m already here in town.
“Oh. Okay. If you’re sure?”
“I’ll see you in a few,” I tell her before ending the call. “Shit,” I grumble to myself, wondering what the hell I’m doing.
I need to tell someone my suspicions about Maeve, but I could have it all wrong and then she would pay the price.
It’s probably stupid, and could even be some sort of setup, but I can’t stop myself from cranking up my bike and driving around the block a few times before finally pulling into a parking spot in her complex.
Climbing off my bike, I decide to send Malcolm a quick text.
I’m at Maeve’s in Wilmington if you need me.
His response is nearly instantaneous, The fuck you telling me for?
Just in case you need me, I reply again with a grin before I slip my phone into my pocket and make my way to her door.
I’ve barely knocked when she yanks it open. She throws her arm around my neck so fast that I don’t even have a chance to see her face. For all I know, some random woman could be hugging me. But then I inhale her strawberry and vanilla scent and know for certain it’s her.
“Hey, are you okay?” I ask when she doesn’t seem inclined to let go.
“Yeah, sorry.” She gives a small laugh before finally letting go and taking a step backward to let me inside. In that second, I notice her eyes are red like she’s been crying. “It’s just nice to see you again.”
Before I can ask any other questions, she’s shut the door and then she’s grabbing my face to pull my lips down to her sexy mouth.
“Slow down there, doll. What’s the hurry?” I ask even as my hands move down her back to squeeze her amazing ass through her cotton shorts, ready to tear them and her t-shirt off to get to her curves.
“I just, I need you,” she says with her palms sliding down my chest along the opening of my cut.
“Need me?” I repeat. Fuck, it’s hard to keep my head on straight when she says shit like that, making my throat tighten and my dick throb and lengthen in my jeans so fast I get dizzy from the blood loss.
I try and tell myself that she’s just like every other woman and that it’s just sex – a much-needed release.
But fuck if it doesn’t feel different when I’m near her – like there’s a gravitational pull I can’t fight no matter how hard I may try, just like the first night we were together. Not that I’ve tried to resist all that much.
Maeve knows how to push all of my buttons in the best fucking way. The woman is addictive. And if I’m not careful, I may lose myself in her and lose sight of the reason why I’m here in the first place – because I can’t trust her. The Dirty Aces can’t trust her.
I just saw with my own eyes a man leaving her place, a ginger who may prove that she’s not loyal. That should be enough to make me push her away, but it’s not.
Of course I still want to ask her who the fuck the man who left her apartment was, if he’s hurting her, if she’s fucking him.
I figure out a roundabout way of finding out the answer to the second question. Sliding my fingers down the back of her shorts and through her wet slit, I push two inside of her, making her gasp. “Are you sore?” I ask.
“Sore?” she repeats. “From last night?”
“Yeah,” I reply as my lips and tongue feast on her neck while my fingers pump in and out of her pussy. “Or today? Earlier tonight?”
“What? I-I haven’t been with…anyone…since you…” she trails off as her walls tighten around my fingers.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” she answers in a sigh when I feel her getting closer and closer to coming; and for some stupid reason, I believe her. “W-what about you?”
“What about me?” I ask. My teeth nip at her sensitive flesh below her ear. The move makes her pussy clench in response.
“Have you…been with anyone?”
“No,” I say, smiling against her skin because of her question and from being able to feel her reaction to my mouth on her, getting her worked up just as much as my fingers fucking her. She’s gasping and moaning, her lower body squirming as she fists my cut, desperate for a release.
Wanting to get her there so I can finally get inside of her, I jerk her shorts and panties down her legs while pulling her shirt over her head, leaving her beautifully naked. As soon as Maeve steps out of her bottoms, I grab her by her thighs, lifting her up so that her legs wrap around my waist.
“Bed. Now,” she urges before her mouth finds mine. I’m on board with that plan.
I shove three fingers into her pussy from behind as I kiss her, then stumble my way through the living room, searching for a bedroom while Maeve tries to get my cut off.
There’s a light coming from a back room, so I head in that direction, thankful when I see the neatly made queen bed from the door.
I toss Maeve down on the mattress long enough to get my clothes off and put a condom on. She’s too stunning to be real lying on her back waiting for me, her eyelids heavy with lust as she watches me.
“Damn. Why didn’t I get you naked last night?” Maeve asks.
“I was too impatient to undress,” I admit as I pounce on top of her, crawling up her body until our mouths meet. Our lips and tongues are just as frantic as our bucking lower bodies to join. My plan to get her off on my fingers goes out the window as soon as I feel the heat of her pussy through the latex.
It’s not an easy fucking fit. Noticing my difficulty, Maeve reaches down to guide me inside while spreading her thighs as wide as she can to take me.
“God, yes,” she moans as I sink in those first few amazing inches. Her eyes drift closed and her lips part in a si
lent scream as I fill her up.
Nothing else matters at that moment in time but the woman under me. Everything else is forgotten. I couldn’t even spell my name because letters and language cease to exist.
It’s just me and Maeve, nearly every inch of the front of our bodies touching and moving in sync. I try to go slow to savor the pleasure, make it last, and not hurt her. But then Maeve’s fingernails dig into my ass cheeks before she says against my lips, “More. Faster. Please.”
I push my upper body off of hers, bracing my palms on either side of her head to look down at her face. “You sure?”
Maeve nods and then gives a verbal answer. “Yes. Don’t hold back,” she says.
So, I don’t.
I finally let go and let my body have whatever it needs, what it’s been needing for years, maybe for my entire life. I’ve always been too careful with the few women I was with to take it from them. My hips pound into Maeve relentlessly while I stare down into her green eyes that are holding me captive.
“Oh God, Wirth! Yes! YES!”
Every word from her mouth is encouraging me to keep going, while her pussy does the same, her inner walls clenching and releasing around my cock faster and faster, pulling me impossibly deeper into her tight, wet heaven.
She makes me feel like a goddamn superhero. And if I could, I would stay right fucking here with her forever.
Chapter Eleven
Maeve
Trying to take all of Wirth’s abnormally long, thick cock is just as challenging as the first time. But once he’s in, his big body moving inside of me and above me, the condom slick with my arousal, we fit together perfectly.
He’s still being cautious, worried he’ll hurt me when it’s the exact opposite.
The hot, liquid pleasurable weight inside of my lower belly builds and builds until it bursts, making me tremble all over. It feels like I’m soaring and falling at the exact same time.
Wirth’s arms wrap tightly around me to catch me, pinning me to the mattress with his weight as he growls out a curse next to my ear and his heavy body shudders against mine.
I love having him draped on top of me like an enormous, protective blanket. My fingernails trail up and down his back as we both catch our breath and the sweat on our skin begins to cool.
“Jesus,” Wirth whispers, his lips pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “I thought I might have hurt you, but I think you killed me.”
I laugh at his comment which makes my pussy squeeze around his shaft that’s still inside of me, causing him to groan deep in his throat and shiver. Wirth isn’t like other men after sex. He has to make an effort to pull out since he won’t just slide free. He could stay inside of me all night if he wanted, and I don’t think I would mind.
“This condom needs to go before it explodes,” Wirth says when he starts to move off of me.
I grab his shoulders to stop him, worried he’ll leave as soon as he stands up.
“Can you stay the night?” I ask him because I don’t want to be alone. Talking to Rian earlier, bringing up the past that I’ve tried so hard to forget, makes me wish there was someone to hold me for a little while.
“Yeah, doll, I can stay,” Wirth replies. Maybe I’m imagining it, but it sounds like he’s hesitant.
“You don’t have to…” I say since I want him to want to stay, not to do it out of some obligation he feels after sex.
“I want to,” he replies, sitting back on his knees so I can see his face. And I think he’s telling the truth.
“Good. I can make you breakfast in the morning,” I offer.
“There’s only one thing I want to eat for breakfast,” he jokes with a grin as he swipes one long finger from my belly button down to my folds, making me squirm.
“That’s fine too,” I agree with a smile.
Wirth rolls out of bed to dispose of the condom in the bathroom and then strolls back into the bedroom confidently, like he could walk around naked all the time and not have any self-consciousness. And why should he when he looks that good?
Thankfully, he climbs into bed without putting his clothes back on and lays his arm across the pillow, inviting me over. I go, cuddling up to his chest, happy to be in his arms and out of my shitty memories even if it’s only for tonight.
“I’m really glad you came over,” I tell him as I let my fingertips trail over his chest.
“What had you upset?” Wirth asks as he holds me against his body.
“Just the past…my brother. He reminds me of our father, and that’s not a good thing.”
Wirth’s big, muscular body goes still. He doesn’t even breathe before he asks, “Your brother?”
“Yeah,” I agree, and then my head lowers when he sighs heavily. “But enough about me. Tell me something about you.”
“Not much to tell,” he grumbles. “I grew up poor, started stealing cars before I could drive them. Now I run the shop.”
“Auto repair shop?” I ask.
“Not exactly,” he responds. “I can fix cars, but mostly I just take them apart and sell the pieces. Chop shops have more risks, but also more rewards than a regular repair business.”
“Oh, so you steal cars?”
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Wirth mutters. “The only victim is the insurance companies since they cover the loss.”
“What if someone can’t afford car insurance?” I lift my head to ask him.
“Trust me – the kind of nice, expensive cars we deal with – if they can afford a fifty-thousand-dollar car, then they have insurance or they stole it first,” he says, making me smile and shake my head before I lay it back down on his chest.
“And here I was thinking you were a good guy.”
“Never claimed to be good,” he says. “I just told you I would fix your car and not ask anything in return.”
“Yet here we are in my bed,” I point out.
“You called me, remember?” he chuckles. “And the first night, well, I just didn’t want you to go upstairs with that giant. He looked like he could rip you in half.”
“He’s not as big as you,” I tell him, letting my fingers reach down to wrap around his cock and enjoying the way my touch has him sucking in air.
“You’re trying to kill me, doll,” he grits out.
“I’m trying to make you feel good.”
Wirth’s fingers tighten in the back of my hair, lifting my face so he can lean down and kiss me. When he pulls away, he says, “You do that without touching me.”
Wirth
After an amazing night with Maeve and an even better morning when I made good on my promise to have her for breakfast, I make myself leave her warm, strawberry and vanilla scented bed, intending to do more surveillance in the area before heading home – this time at the only Irish pub in town.
All I know is that I was fucking relieved when Maeve mentioned her brother. That must have been the man I saw yesterday. I’m a dick for thinking the worst.
“I had fun,” I tell Maeve, leaning over to kiss her lips where she’s still tangled up in the sheets, even though the words don’t seem quite adequate enough.
“Me too,” she says with a smile. “We should do it again sometime.”
“Yeah, we should,” I agree. But in the light of day, and without a heavy dick, it’s a little easier for me to remember that I can’t completely trust Maeve just yet. I need to try and keep myself from falling for her even more until I know for certain that she didn’t have anything to do with the shooting at the Knights’ bar. I also want to make certain she isn’t fucking anyone else now that we’re…doing whatever it is we’re doing.
“Oh, and I’ve got my paint crew working on your car now. Hopefully it’ll be ready in a few more days.”
“That’s great. Thank you. I don’t have anywhere to go, so there’s no rush.”
“Good. I’ll call when I know more,” I tell her.
“Thanks, Wirth. Have a safe trip back,” she says sweetly.
“Thanks,” I re
ply before I finally force myself to walk away from her.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask if she’s going to see any other men, but I hold back. It’s a little too soon for that conversation. Even if I don’t want to think about her with another man, we’ve only had one night together. One and a half if you count our first time before shit went down at the bar. I have no right to be jealous of how she spends her time apart from me.
As soon as I’m on my bike with my full helmet on to cover my face, I take a trip to the Irish bar on the other side of town. Unfortunately, it becomes pretty obvious that there’s an exit for it off the highway heading back to Carolina Beach, right before the one where I found Maeve changing her tire. There are a ton of other businesses on the same strip, so that’s probably just a coincidence and I’m reading too much into it.
What’s not a coincidence, however, is when I spot the same black sedan that I’m almost certain was at her apartment last night. My blood pressure skyrockets at the sight. I don’t know who I’m more pissed at – Maeve or myself. I fucking knew a man was at her apartment and still I somehow ended up falling right back into bed with her. I’m not sure what would be worse — if it was a guy she was fucking or her brother with connections to the Irish who she would, of course, put before anyone else.
Either way, I’m so fucking pissed I can’t even see straight. I park a block away, hiding my bike between two big trucks to watch the place through my binoculars for a little bit while I seethe and try to figure out what to do.
When a group of guys come walking out of the bar, I put away my binoculars to try and zoom in with my phone to take photos. They’re mostly blurry blobs, but maybe the Knights will recognize one or more of them.
The men divide up into two groups. Some, including the man who definitely has an auburn tint to his hair, get into the black sedan. The others pile into a black Jeep before taking off. I consider following them, but worry that my single motorcycle could stand out. So instead, I make a call, which is probably not the best idea given my current temper.
