Happily Ever Alpha: Until Avery (Kindle Worlds Novella) (The Carpinos Series Book 4)

by Brynne Asher

  “We need to tell them what happened. Right now they’re looking for a needle in a haystack when they could have strong leads. I can point them in the right direction.”

  I nod and mumble through my tired haze, “Tomorrow.”

  His arms tighten around me and he lowers his voice. “Were you protecting me even when you thought I was running women?”

  This gets my attention, causing me to open my eyes, but all I see is shadowed ink. I run my hand up his back and pull myself closer. “I think that hurt more than anything else, thinking I didn’t know the real you. But even so, I guess I was.”

  “Fuck, baby.” He fists my hair, tipping my head, and takes my mouth. It’s a kiss that’s claiming and greedy and what memories are made of.

  I drag my bare leg up his thigh, pulling the pink towel as I go, but when I almost reach his ass, his strong hand grabs my leg, stopping me.

  “It’s late,” he murmurs against my lips. “You said yourself it’s been a long day. Go to sleep.”

  I press into him and take a big breath before exhaling, releasing more of the tension I’ve been holding onto. He’s right, I am tired and the sooner I sleep, the sooner I can file this day away, making it a distant memory.

  I tuck my face into his neck and close my eyes. I thought it would take forever after the wild ride my emotions have taken today, but here in Link’s arms, I fall asleep.

  *****

  His hold is impossibly hard, creating a pain through my jaw, down my neck, and slithering down my spine.

  “I might just start with you.”

  No…

  I jerk awake and raise on to my elbow, realizing where I am. When I look to my bedside clock, it’s just after three in the morning.

  “You okay?” Link’s voice is raw as he pushes up on one arm to look down at me.

  I exhale and nod. As cold to the bone as I was when we went to bed, right now I’m flushed and warm—overheated from being wrapped up in his body heat. But just when I want to rip off my robe, I feel Link’s hand come up and pull it together at my chest.

  When I look down I realize it’s pulled apart. I push his hand away, not caring because I have to cool off.

  “I’m hot,” I complain, pulling it down my shoulders and wiggling out of it.

  When I look at Link, he’s dragging his eyes up from my chest before closing them on an exhale. “Do you want me to go to your couch?”

  “No,” I turn to him and scoot back down the bed, pulling him with me.

  I press my bare breasts into his chest, his body also warm from the heat we’ve created in my small bed. My hand wanders down to his waist, and when I start to pull on the towel that’s barely hanging onto his hips, he stops me.

  “What are you doing, little one?” he murmurs with his lips to my temple.

  “I want you,” I admit. “I want us to go on like yesterday never happened.”

  His hand wraps around my wrist in a vice and he brings it to his chest. “But it did happen. You’re in no shape to be making these choices in the middle of the night, baby.”

  “Please, Link.” I twist my hand out of his and he allows it. Placing my hand to his strong square jaw, I put my lips on his, dipping my tongue in his mouth. He doesn’t argue, his tongue invading me, and the taste of him makes me come alive. I’m not tired any longer, knowing exactly what I want.

  “You should go back to sleep,” he murmurs against my lips, but his hand glides down my back and dips into the back of my panties, familiar with my body.

  But I’m not familiar with his and I want to be.

  “I want you,” I plead, arching my back. “Make me forget about everything but us. Just us, Link.”

  He leans back to get a good look at me, his eyes falling to take in my mostly bare body. Bringing his hand up to cup my breast and squeezing, he asks, “You’re sure?”

  “Make me only think about you.”

  His blue eyes flare and that’s all it takes. His hand slides under my hips and he yanks me to the middle of the bed on my back. Doing what I just tried to do, he rips my pink towel the rest of the way off—and there it is. His cock. Standing at attention through the shadowed room, long and veined, wanting me as much as I want Link.

  But I lose sight of it because Link dips his head to wrap his mouth around my nipple, sucking hard and nipping, as he kneads my other breast in his hand. I let my legs fall open and bring my hands to his head, holding him to me, never wanting him to leave.

  “Yes,” I breathe, arching into his touch, his big hand feeling its way down my body.

  “Want my mouth on you,” Link murmurs against the skin of my stomach. “I’ve been dreaming of your pussy since I bounced you outta my bar. Gotta taste you, baby.”

  Oh, yes. I think I’ve been dreaming about that for almost as long.

  He moves, his scruffy jaw scraping my skin, alerting every cell in my body that this is going to happen. I’m finally going to get all of Link.

  From the way I’m breathing and the heat and wet building between my legs, I have to say, my body is just as excited.

  The second he props my feet on his shoulders, spreading me, his mouth lands between my legs over my panties. Nipping at me through the thin material drives me mad, dying to have his lips and tongue on me, skin-to-skin. I try to arch into his kiss, but his strong hand keeps me where I am.

  “Link,” I call for him, begging for more.

  He squeezes my ass, pressing his mouth to me, creating some friction, but not enough. Finally, his hand comes between my legs and pulls my panties to the side, stretching them to their limits. His tongue hits me first, then his lips.

  “Holy … oh, fuck.”

  I feel him smile against my pussy.

  “No, don’t stop,” I beg.

  “My little firecracker,” I hear him murmur from between my legs and I lose his mouth altogether, but it’s to rip my panties completely off. When I look down my body at him, he’s returning my stare. With his hand behind my knee, he lifts one of my legs high and wide, saying, “Stay spread for me. The whole time.”

  My eyes close and all the air leaves my body. I lift my other leg to do as he says and feel his fingers on me where I’m impossibly wet.

  His finger moves up and down, teasing my clit. “Remember when I told you I wanted every inch of you, baby?”

  I drag my eyes open to see him gazing at me with nothing but a mix of lust and hopefully something more. Much more.

  I nod.

  “I want all of you,” he continues. “Lift your knees higher.”

  The moment I do, his fingers, covered in my arousal fall farther back. He presses on my ass, making me gasp.

  “Relax,” he whispers.

  I don’t know how I possibly could—I’ve never done this before. But he presses through my tight muscles and I close my eyes, groaning from the sensation—foreign, kinky, and amazing, all at the same time.

  But that was nothing compared to his mouth wrapped around my clit combined with the strange, but wonderful, sensation of his finger.

  “Oh, it’s too much,” I complain not knowing why I’m complaining because if he stopped, I’d probably die a young death from sexual frustration.

  Long moments pass as he eats me, sucking and biting just hard enough, and that, mixed with his finger moving, it comes over me fast.

  “Link—” I call before he sucks just hard enough for me to fall over the edge.

  I come on his hand and his mouth, moaning and gasping for air as if I won’t live another moment.

  I don’t even realize I’ve lost his touch until I gain it again. He takes my mouth as he slides inside me, balls deep, in one smooth thrust.

  “Avery.” His breath is heavy on my lips, his face a sexy mix of an erotic pain that has just been eased. “Nothing but us.”

  “Just us.” I draw my knees up his sides, his heavy bulk pressing me into the bed. He always makes me feel small and I love it.

  He pulls out and slams back into me, doing exactl
y what I asked—I forget. My mind clears from everything that happened yesterday—how for a long, miserable few hours I thought Link was something—or someone—he’s not.

  Because from the moment Link held me while my song was being performed for the first time, I felt complete. Whole.

  My breaths become shallow and I arch. He’s hitting that sweet spot inside me while rubbing my sensitive clit with each thrust.

  “Come on my cock,” he demands, driving into me harder.

  It doesn’t take long and I do. I come again, this time it’s different and my moans must spur him on. His movements quicken, pounding me into my bed, reaching deeper with every thrust, burying himself in my heart at the same time.

  “Your pussy. So sweet, Avery.” His words are labored and gruff as he slams into me once, then twice, coming inside me, his face in my hair.

  He gives me all his weight, collapsing on top of me. We lay here like this for many long moments, him still buried deep, loving the feel of him inside and surrounding me. I never want him to leave.

  He presses into me one more time and something in my head clicks.

  I realize that during our middle-of-the-night, first-time-sexcapade, he didn’t use a condom.

  He didn’t use a condom!

  Holy shit.

  Not wanting to look like a freak and lose it, even though I’m very definitely losing it inside my brain, I strum my fingers, playing a new chord I came up with the other day on the imaginary piano over his tattooed back.

  “Hey, Honest Abe?” I call for him, faking playful even though my insides are anything but. In fact, my insides are tossing and turning, protesting and picketing our carelessness—burning their bras.

  “Yeah?” His body moves against mine, laughing at my not-so-sexy pet name for him.

  “So, um … are you on birth control?”

  He lifts on a forearm, smiling big at me, his body is shaking with silent laughter. “Not that I know of.”

  I bite my lip and raise my brows. “Yeah. So, the thing is … neither am I.”

  He stops laughing, which I expected, but I did not expect what happens next. He doesn’t lose his smile.

  No.

  That smile turns into a satisfied grin.

  Why is he grinning?

  We just did it for the first time, and even though it was really, really great—like, off-the-charts-great—not one person in this amazing duo was a responsible sex-goer.

  Not a one of us.

  Everyone knows irresponsible sex-goers make babies.

  Fuck!

  But Lincoln—Honest Abe—Forester doesn’t appear worried. And weirdly enough, his words match his expression. “I’m good with that.”

  He leans down and kisses me before saying, “Be right back. I’ll get something to clean you up.”

  Then he pulls his huge baby shooter out of me and leaves my bed. With my luck, all his cylinders are firing at full capacity. I roll to the side so I can watch his imposing frame stalk out of my bedroom and to my bathroom—in all his naked and beautiful glory—and all I can do is wonder, what the fuck?

  Chapter 11 – I’m a Carpino

  family, force, and

  surprises

  Link

  I close my front door and make my way back to Avery.

  Leo, a friend of the Maysons and a cop on the Nashville PD, has just left with Nico. I couldn’t let her put it off any longer—Avery needed to report what really happened. I’ve also spent an hour on the phone with the PD in Vegas so they can start looking for the owner of the strip club I managed and my old boss, Harry Brownlow. He did a stint in prison after they shut his club down for promoting prostitution, but he got out a month ago.

  He’s apparently wandered all the way across the country to initiate some type of payback on me that resulted in an attack on Avery. Which means he’s here and trying to threaten me by hurting her.

  No fucking way will I allow that to happen again.

  He wanted my attention—he got it.

  I’ve hired extra security for The Knot and, for the time being, I’m cutting our capacity by half to keep a closer eye. Until this is settled, my bottom line doesn’t matter. I’ll keep it up as long as it takes.

  Avery wasn’t excited to explain why she didn’t tell the full truth to the campus police yesterday, but I convinced her the sooner she did, the sooner this would be done. Leo made her feel comfortable and assured us he’d follow up.

  After what happened to her yesterday, I convinced her to sleep in and skip her classes this morning. Then I had to sway her to pack up and come to my house. She refused until I told her that if I had to use another pink towel, I’d have to hand in my man-card. She laughed out loud and finally gave in. Who knew she’d relent over pink towels when she didn’t give a shit about my high-tech security system?

  The woman is something else.

  When I get back to the kitchen, I find her ass in the air as she’s bent over digging through my refrigerator. I take a minute to enjoy the view before asking, “You hungry?”

  She stands and looks to me, still holding the door wide open. “I’m trying not to be because if I were, there’d be nothing to eat.”

  I shrug. “I’m not here much.”

  “I can tell.” She shuts the door and puts her hands to her hips. “I’ll go to the store for you.”

  I shake my head and go to her, not able to wait another second. Ever since I made her mine last night, it’s hard not to touch her. Putting one hand in her hair and the other on her ass, I pull her up for a kiss. “You’re not leaving my sight. I’ll take you to dinner, but I have to be at the club tonight, especially after what happened. Get ready—you’re coming with me.”

  Her eyes widen. “Even in my illegal-underagedness?”

  I squeeze her fine ass, enjoying the feel of it in my hand. “I’ll lock you up in my office. There’s no way I’d let you out on the floor after what happened. And quit talking about you being underaged. Makes me feel dirty.”

  She grins. “After last night, I think you are kind of dirty.”

  I shake my head and take a step back before I bend, putting my shoulder to her gut, hitching her over my shoulder.

  “Link!”

  “You think I’m dirty, huh?” I turn and head for the sofa as I put my hand on her ass to keep her from falling.

  She grabs at mine where she’s hanging over my back and tries to keep from laughing. “You’ve definitely got some kink to your game.”

  I flip her onto the sofa and come down on top of her, pinning her where she can’t move. “My game? My game is nothing compared to the spell you’ve cast on me. Who the hell are you, little one?”

  Bringing her hands to my face, she runs her fingers up my neck and over my short hair. “I’m a Carpino. Unfortunately for the men in our lives, we breed sass. I should’ve warned you the night you bounced me from your club.”

  I lean in, regretting the fact I don’t have time to strip her bare. If I’m going to feed her first, we need to be on our way—I’ve got too much to do at the club tonight. “It’s too late, baby. You’ve hooked me and I’m not letting go.”

  I kiss her, pressing my now hard cock between her legs, wishing we were at the point where I could take her quick and not feel bad for it. But after yesterday, she deserves time and attention, not a fast fuck before we’re out the door.

  She kisses me back and just when I’m about to rethink the quick fuck, my doorbell rings followed by edgy, sharp knocks. Sighing as I pull my lips away from hers, I lift my head and look over the arm of the sofa toward my front door where I see my fucking mother, of all people, glaring at me through the sidelight window.

  “Fuck,” I groan and look back to Avery. “I’ll apologize now. It’s my mother.”

  Her face falls and she whispers, “Can she see us?”

  I can’t help but smile. “She can see me, but I’m a grown man and this is my house. I don’t give a shit what my mother thinks.”

  My mother does
n’t like to be ignored, so in true fashion, she bangs on the door before ringing the bell twice in her bitchy form. When I lean down to kiss Avery again, she halts me with more whispered pleas. “Get off! You cannot lay here on top of me with your mother looking in. This is bad enough. Don’t make it worse.”

  I push past her hold and kiss her fast before standing, holding a hand out to help her up. She fixes her rumpled clothes as best she can before I start to pull her with me, but she stops in place. When I look back, she’s staring at my front door with a horrified expression.

  “What?” I ask.

  “That’s your mother?” she whispers.

  I shrug. “She might be a bitch and a pain in my ass, but I promise she’s harmless.”

  “Holy shit. Of all the people in Nashville, what are the odds?”

  “Open the door, Lincoln!” my mother shouts, still banging away.

  “Link—” Avery calls, but I’ve already got the door open.

  My mother wastes no time stepping over the threshold, but unlike what she usually does—starting in on me for some new way I’ve disappointed her—today she glares straight at Avery. Standing there in her expensive pant suit and low heels, she crosses her arms and sneers. “So, this is where you’ve been.”

  I frown and look over at the woman who’s worked her way into my heart. She’s standing there biting her lip and looking one hundred percent guilty.

  What the hell?

  Chapter 12 – Family

  when witches and mamas

  become one

  Avery

  “Where were you today, Ms. Carpino?”

  Link has said in a roundabout way his mom was a bitch, but I thought he just meant generally. Lots of women can be a bitch from time-to-time. Nashville’s a big place. I had no idea he meant his mother was the bitch.

  I’m pretty sure she’s the leader of the cult.

  Dr. Eubanks is also known as Dr. Witch to many undergrads at Vanderbilt. She’s the one professor everyone tries to avoid, but she’s the only one who teaches Child Psych and I needed to check it off the list so I could move on. I had no choice but to enroll in her class.