With her head down, Lainey is struggling to button her pants when I step in front of her. She collides with me, a surprised shriek ripped from her throat, then she falls on her ass.
The look on her face when she sees me is the culmination of everything I’ve plotted and planned and dreamed about over the past two weeks. Finding out who my father had turned at the Black Shamrocks MC to keep an eye on Beast was easy, reaching out to him and enticing him to undertake a little side work for me was a bit harder. But I had dug deep, and I had prevailed. I’d taken every obstacle the people who were determined to get between me and Lainey had thrown at us and I’d found a way to turn it in my favour.
Case in point: my presence in this house tonight while my opponents believe she’s safely hidden away from me.
“Going somewhere, Lainey?” I ask.
She blinks then she opens her mouth and yells, “MURRAY! CONNOR!”
As she’s calling for help, she scrambles backward on the floor like a crab in a madcap effort to get away from me. “Help me! Murray, help me!”
I follow her, my footsteps precise and unhurried. We have hours before anyone checks in. I have their guard rotations memorised, so I know down to the second how long I can spend here undetected.
“Oh, hush.” I interrupt her futile calls for assistance. “Connor’s busy getting rid of your babysitter’s body, so it's just you and me, all alone once again.”
Her mouth drops open so far she’s at risk of dislocating her jaw.
“No way.”
"Yes way," I mimic her. She doesn’t have to know that Connor is elsewhere playing a much larger role in this little scenario. I want her scared to escape. I want her to dread leaving me more than she fears staying with me. Following her as she crawls away from me, I continue with the empty threats. "How do you think I got in here? How do you think I left my present on your bed for you?”
At the mention of the photos she falls still. I know they had to hurt, but it’s better for his betrayal to be out in the open. The quicker I make her understand that he’s not a good as he pretends to be, the quicker she’ll see that I am her only option.
I could have sold her out for untold riches, yet here I am. I took care of the threat to our happiness, and now I’m back to claim her as my own.
And, where’s Mik? He’s face-down in the overinflated cleavage of a sub-par stripper.
Using her inattention against her, I seize hold of her upper arms and drag her to her feet. She pummels my chest, but I cut off her resistance before it begins with a hard punch to her temple.
Straightaway, her knees give out and she falls into me.
“Up you come, my angel.” I lift her with ease. My injuries have healed, and I feel stronger than I ever have.
Carrying her, I find my way to the bedroom without any missteps. I’d memorised the layout of the house and mapped out all viable exits before I’d even set a date for her retrieval. With infinite tenderness, I lay her on the bed. Sitting facing her, I gather the pictures together and flip through them.
Despite my little white lie earlier, this is actually the first time I’ve seen the photos. Angling them so I can fully appreciate the depth of the trouble Mik has got himself into, I’m satisfied with what Connor has captured. He really highlighted how far Mik had fallen. With a smirk, I toss them on the floor and turn my attention back to Lainey.
She remains as beautiful as ever. Her face has returned to its former glory. There isn’t a sign of the trauma she endured during our last tête-à-tête.
“I was very surprised by how easily he threw you away when his precious Club was threatened. Cherishing you as I do, I expected a bit more of a fight from him, but he simply sent you away and walked straight into my trap. He doesn't love you as much as you think he does, baby girl. Not half as much as I do.”
To her credit she doesn’t try to argue the point. If anything, she’s a lot calmer than I expected her to be. I was prepared for tears. All I am seeing right now, is an Ice Queen in action.
Has something changed between them that I didn’t know about?
Is my job about to become a lot easier to complete?
I decide to throw it all out there and see how she reacts.
"I'm here to take you away from your worthless existence, away from the trash you associate with. But before we leave this all behind, we have a few small issues to sort out.”
Lainey slides away from me. She’s trying to be subtle, but I’m aware of her movements. Stretching her arms above her head, she leans back against the headboard, effectively boxing herself into a little pocket between the bed and her bedside chest of drawers.
When she reaches for the table, I make a move to stop her. I pull myself up when I see that she’s only picking up her cup of tea. Lainey sips the steaming liquid and regards me over the rim with interest.
“What trap was that?” she appears to ponder out loud.
“Oh, just the one where I forced him to fuck my informant’s trashy girlfriend to prove his loyalty to the faction trying to take down his Club.” She chokes on her tea and I grin. There we have it. The first chink in her armour. "I knew what he was doing. Trying to find his ‘rat’, so I threw down challenges to see where his loyalties lay. You or his Club? And Lainey, you came second by a long way.”
Part of me relishes the turmoil that flickers over her face. The other part wants to take it all away. That’s the part I give into.
Crawling up the bed, I straddle her thighs and take her cup away from her. Her throat works, and she meets my eyes reluctantly. I see the calculation in her eyes, and it strips all sincerity from the smile she directs at me. Placing her cup on the top of the bedside table, I lean down to kiss her while I run my hands up and down her arms.
I contemplate my next move, using her response to my touch to guide me.
There is nothing there. Lainey doesn’t yield to my caresses at all.
Decision made, I move my weight from her legs and lay a gentle kiss on her forehead.
Play time is over.
It is time to get down to business.
By the time we leave this house tonight, I want all our old grievances to be left bleeding on the floor.
I refuse to bring any baggage with us as we begin our new life.
Gritting my teeth, I exhale through my nose, then I backhand her across the face. The impact knocks her against the wall behind her. Gripping her hair, I pull her back to me and make her look me in the eyes.
“That's for playing with my feelings so you could trick me.”
With her hair as leverage, I pull her to her feet and punch her three times in the stomach. She fights me throughout the first two strikes, breaking her nails in the back of my hand as she struggles to get out of reach. I ignore the blood that wells when she takes gouges out of my skin.
The third punch does all the damage. I hit her harder than normal, directly in the solar plexus.
“One for each time you shot me, Lainey,” I inform her quietly.
She tries to scream, but she can’t take in enough air to fill her lungs. I’ve winded her. Literally taken her breath away—and it feels divine.
When she doubles over, dry heaving like she’s about to throw up, I let go of her hair and rock back on my heels to examine my handiwork so far. We’re making progress. I am confident in my ability to break her in this room, so I can rebuild her once we’ve put this night far behind us.
This time, I will prevail.
Unbuckling my belt, I remove my clothes. My intent in clear as I drop them to the floor at her feet, however Lainey isn’t paying attention. She gags, then drops to her knees before she sags face first onto the floor. She’s not down for long. The effort it takes her to pull herself into a sitting position is enormous, and the fact that she manages it is a testament to her strength.
Any other woman would have wilted by now.
Not my girl.
She fights to the bitter end.
A habit I’m determined to
break.
Squatting in front of her, I slap her face. “Stay with me, Lainey. I’m not finished yet.”
She shudders and leans back against the bedside chest of drawers. I tilt her head back with her chin and look her deep in the eyes as I outline what will happen next.
“It's time for your punishment for letting him take your purity. You let him take the innocence that was meant for me, you dirty slut. I waited for you to be ready. I treated you like a queen! I was willing to take you away from your pathetic family, and you let him have my reward.”
Finally, the fact that I’m naked and aroused seems to register with Lainey. Her eyes widen, and she tugs her chin from my grip. Reaching above her head, she slides open the top drawer. I swat her arm away, splashing the still-warm tea over the both of us. The cup falls onto the carpet, the remaining liquid seeping into the threads.
When Lainey begins blindly throwing punches, I yank her to her upright. As she wobbles on her feet, I twist the material of her singlet top into a tight knot and rip it from her body. Underneath she is bra-less. Her tits spill free as I expose her upper body to me.
She kicks out at me after I toss her on the bed, but I am ruthless. I’ve taken it too easy on her in the past which is why we keep finding ourselves having the same fight over and over. Tonight, it stops. Merciless, I use all my strength, pounding her into submission so I can unzip her jeans and yank them down her legs. Her skimpy underwear gets caught in her pants and they come off at the same time.
Throwing the denim behind me, I seize her neck and squeeze the sides. Stealing her breath is my favourite way to torture her. The way her bright eyes bulge under the pressure and her face turns a beautiful, delicate shade of blue is the ultimate aphrodisiac. It’s unfortunate that I have to loosen my grip when she begins to pass out, however it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. The ultimate goal lies at the apex of her long legs. The honeyed warmth that sends me crazy.
It’s been too long since I’ve felt her wrapped around me.
Tonight the wait is over.
Lainey attempts another escape. She lunges to the side of the bed, but I follow her. Her head ends up wedged between the mattress and her bedside table. It must hurt. I know it must. Yet, I show her no mercy.
Compassion will be on offer tomorrow.
Right now, I must teach her than I am the master of her fate.
My grip is bruising as I hold her legs apart and push my cock inside of her heat. Her body tries to resist me. She doesn’t stand a chance. I thrust inside her, forcing her body to accommodate my length, stopping to rest once all resistance has been subdued.
“Not again. Please God, not again,” Lainey begs beneath me.
I take no offence.
She’ll soon change her mind.
Pumping my hips, I move within her. Furious need takes control and my thrusts take on a brutal edge. Lainey cries. She pleads. She squirms. I power on through it all. Using her body as a vessel for my rage. She grows wetter, yet her walls grip me tighter.
She is perfection.
My matching piece.
The other half of my soul.
"Oh, yes! I've missed this. I've missed you.” The truth spills, unbidden, from lips.
Every part of my body is on fire. I feel like I’ve come home and discovered that I live in heaven.
The only thing missing is her screams.
“Scream for me, Lainey. Prove that you've missed me too.”
I slap her, hitting her harder and harder, until she provides the soundtrack that I need.
All too soon, it is not enough. Maintaining my vicious pace, I sink my teeth into the fleshiest part of her breast. Her skin gives with ease, her blood runs free, and I lose my mind.
Ecstasy builds within me. I chase it hard.
My release is not far away. I can feel it building.
Lainey bucks beneath me. I tug her back into place.
“Fuck you!” she screeches.
I’m lost in my lust. So much so that the first blow to my head barely registers.
It’s when she continues to bring the butt of her gun down on the soft spot between the bottom of my skull and the top of my spine that I realise she is hurting me. Somehow, she’s got her hands on a weapon.
My thrusts halt in an instant. Staying deep within her body, I pause long enough to reach around to feel the back of my head. Dizziness hits when I examine my fingers and find that they are coated with blood.
Lainey made me bleed.
“Stop it,” I demand when she hits me again.
She ignores me, dealing me another excruciating blow. When she lifts the handgun again to hit me, I take hold of the barrel and try to wrestle it from her grip. My hands are slippery from her blood. I can’t get a good enough grip to wrench it from her hands.
I concentrate on subduing her instead.
Nothing works.
She is a woman possessed.
My cock slips free of her body when I roll onto my back to escape her vicious assault.
Lainey’s fury doesn’t abate. She hits me in the face with a flurry of jabs and punches.
She pounds my chest with the butt of her gun.
My body is in agony.
She’s gaining the upper hand.
Wrapping my arms around her back, I hold her to me. She straddles my waist, squeezing my ribs with her thighs, then she headbutts me. I wrestle her body to mine. My arms are constricting, python-like. I don’t care if she can’t breathe, I will not abide her making me bleed further.
She bites my upper arm. Instinctively, I shy away from the new source of pain and that’s when she gains enough room to force the gun between our bodies.
The barrel is directly over my heart. The cold metal presses an indent into my chest. Lainey doesn’t even hesitate. Her trigger finger tightens immediately. I don’t have enough time to think, let alone react.
With vengeance in her eyes, she squeezes the trigger.
I never hear the sound of the bullet leaving the chamber.
Instead, everything becomes white noise. My body is no longer my own. I can’t feel her weight on me.
I can’t hear. I can’t smell. I can’t breathe.
All I can do is see.
I see everything.
Every day that I shared with her because she’s all that matters.
The day I first saw her, and she stole my breath away from me.
The day I vowed to ruin her to have my revenge over her twin brother.
The day I first touched her, and I instantly knew she was precious.
The day I realised she was pure, and I developed my craving to taste her.
The day I was mean to her, and I liked that she stood up to me.
The day I caused her pain, and it fed my monster’s appetite.
The day I discovered she loved another man, and I decided to destroy her.
The day I tried to kill her, yet the thought of living without her made me cry.
The day I shattered her soul by breaking her body, mind, and spirit.
The day I came back to steal her, and she ended up breaking me.
The day I underestimated her, and she finally pulled the trigger.
The day I admitted I couldn’t keep hurting her, and I died to set her free.
Today.
THE END
Thank you so much for reading Craving Control, a Black Shamrocks MC Companion Story. I hope you will consider leaving a review on your retailer of choice. Now, flip the page for a sneak peek of Soothing Suffering, a free introductory novella to the International Bestselling Black Shamrocks MC series.
Soothing Suffering is a free, introductory novella designed to give you a taste of the dark, raw, and gritty Internationally Bestselling Black Shamrocks MC series.
BLURB: With the woman he loves—the woman he failed— fading away before his eyes, Mikhail “Mad Dog” Kennedy knows he needs to do something drastic to save her. To save himself. If she flinches away from his touch one more time, his gu
ilt-ridden heart is going to shatter into a million pieces.
Madelaine O’Brien knows she’s drowning. The after effects of what happened to her are slowly killing her will to live; yet, she can’t find the strength to stop it. Keeping everything a secret is the only option. Her internal battle to fight off her feelings of contamination and shame is hard enough without needing to explain to the Black Shamrocks MC what really happened with her crazy ex-boyfriend.
When Mik comes home and tosses her motorcycle helmet into her hands, declaring that they’re going to ride for as long as it takes for Maddi to open up to him, she realizes this is make-or-break. The trip is either going to push their relationship past the point of no return or it’s going to be their chance to set about soothing suffering.
Flip the page to read the first two chapters of Soothing Suffering.
PROLOGUE
Lainey
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” ~Kahlil Gibran~
Turns out that there is a fate worse than death. After watching my mother fade away before my eyes, I decided that I would do everything in my power to live a long life.
Death is scary.
Death is the end.
Now, every time I look at my scarred and broken body, I close my eyes and I pray for death. It doesn’t scare me anymore; if anything, I look forward to the day that I can close my eyes for the final time and never have to think about Brendan Taylor and what he did to me, ever again. The sweet respite from the voices in my head—the ones that keep telling me that I’m still Brendan’s slut—can only be achieved by embracing the end of my life.
That final barrier, the one that stops me from following through on my desire to die, is getting thinner by the day. With every memory that masquerades as a nightmare, with each flinch away from Mik’s gentle touch, with every single glance he sends my way that’s filled with guilt and regret; I edge one step closer to finishing it all.
No-one knows. I refuse to let them see just how close I am to giving up. There’s nothing they can do anyway. My bed was made when I chose to let my pride get in the way of admitting my mistakes. If I’d spoken up, none of this would have happened.
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