RIDING DIRTY (Steel Titans MC Book 4)

by Franca Storm

  I reached out and fingered his tee beneath his leather jacket. “Why is that?”

  He took hold of my hips, his thumbs stroking softly over the fabric of my silk robe. “I guess, I didn’t need to take it there with you. We’re the same. We’ve both done some bad shit, seen worse. I don’t feel like I gotta apologize for that, for being who and what I am, for what I’ve done, not when I’m with you. There’s no guilt, shame, or pain. You neutralize it. There’s a connection between us and it takes me over whenever we’re near each other.” He grinned. “It fucking rules everything, takes over everything I thought I knew, everything I thought I could fucking well control.”

  Wow. “I hear you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yes, and I think we’re both well beyond the point of trying to keep things strictly professional, of denying that there’s this connection between us.” I slid my hands up to cup his face, caressing the rough stubble adorning his jawline. “I won’t do it anymore, because the simple fact is that I want you.”

  His eyes flashed and the next thing I knew, he was hauling me off my feet and carrying me with him. The fresh evening air collided with that familiar sandalwood scent and that which was just all Slade Mitchell, infusing my senses.

  A gasp escaped me as my back smacked against the exterior wall of the garage. Slade’s amber eyes burned into mine as he pushed his hips against me, using them to pin me against the hard surface, at his mercy. And, hell, I wanted to be at his mercy. Surrounded by so much power, strength and explosive passion was a heady combination. It sent a fresh wave of arousal surging through me, my breathing quickening, my thighs dampening, and my nerve-endings sparking like livewires.

  I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist, hooking my ankles for leverage, and I tugged him closer still, needing more, so much more of him, from him.

  He was right there with me, dipping his head and pressing his mouth to mine.

  It actually took me aback, because it was gentle, almost tender, as he brushed his lips over mine. He was taking his time, exploring, savoring it.

  His hands came up and cupped my face, a firm, dominant hold, as he deepened the kiss.

  I grasped his leather jacket and tugged him closer still.

  The aggression in the move kickstarted his.

  A snarl escaped him, his hands dove into my hair, fisting and tugging roughly. It became a wild whirlwind of passion as he licked, bit, and sucked at my lips, before his tongue took over, sweeping into my mouth with an unfettered urgency.

  Tasting.

  Reveling.

  Taking possession.

  It was just feeling and need.

  That need quickly took on an unbearable desperation.

  More. More. More.

  I had to have him closer.

  I had to have all of him.

  To be surrounded by him.

  To feel him with every part of me.

  To be unable to tell where I ended and he began. For us to be indistinguishable as two separate entities.

  I had to be one with him.

  I grabbed at his belt and hastily unbuckled it, then pulled down his fly.

  He was there working with me in the next moment, jerking down his jeans and freeing his cock. He ripped open my robe, exposing my naked body beneath.

  And then his eyes were on mine, holding me captive with the dark intensity flaring in them.

  I couldn’t look away and I was only vaguely aware of him shifting his weight and mine, just moments before he thrust into me.

  A strangled cry escaped me as his thick cock drove deep, filling me in the most delectable way.

  His thrusts were deliberate, controlled, and clearly designed to make the both of us feel every single movement, and soak up every single drop of pleasure. His eyes didn’t leave mine, his gaze driving into the heart of me, and sending an all-consuming thrill through me. It was as sensual as it was intimate, forming a whole new level of connectivity between us.

  Slade shifted his weight and grasped my hips tightly as he angled his cock, targeting that sweet spot inside me that unlocked a whole other level of pleasure. I bucked against him, thrusting with him. Pleasure tore through me and I couldn’t suppress a scream. I threw my head back, arching my back, giving myself over to it, to him.

  He dipped his head and brushed his lips over my neck. The tender act had me melting in his arms, breathy moans escaping me.

  But, being the king of subverting expectations, in the next beat, that sweet pleasure turned to a sudden spike of pain as he bit down. He soothed it with his tongue, then nipped me again, moving along the column of my neck, nip by nip.

  At the same time, he started grinding against my clit, between thrusts.

  The overload of conflicting sensations was a step too far, and I hurtled over the edge, ecstasy surging through me as my orgasm took my mind and body alike.

  Through it, I was aware of Slade grunting and shuddering against me, as he followed me into bliss.

  It was more than two bodies driven by lust coming together and playing out that desire and need to the absolute fullest. It was solace and salvation, two people exorcising the unrelenting pain, grief, and darkness that had infected them for far too long.

  “Slade,” I croaked, raw emotion spilling out of me, as the weight of it all assaulted me now that I’d left myself open and bare without my defensive walls for protection.

  “I know,” he said. He cupped the back of my head and held me to his chest. “I’ve got you.”

  “Don’t let go,” I murmured against his shirt, as I tightened my grip around him, fisting my hands in his jacket for good measure.

  “Never gonna happen,” he breathed, resting his head on mine.

  Never was a really long time.

  And I was more than fine with that.

  17

  ~Slade~

  I JOLTED AWAKE.

  A high-pitched alarm blared through Willa’s bedroom.

  Adrenaline spiked, anticipation building, when my first thought went to it being my phone and the alert I’d set up to tell me when Nolan was on the move.

  Finally, I could take action and go after that fucker, and get this long drawn out mission done.

  I lunged for the bedside table to snatch up my phone.

  “It’s not yours,” a sexy sleepy voice called through the darkness.

  I stopped short and rolled over to see Willa pushing up in bed and rubbing her eyes. “It’s my early-warning system.” She shoved her hair out of her face, then reached for her phone. “An animal probably tripped the alarm again,” she groused. “It happens more often than you’d think.”

  “No problem, darlin’,” I said, relaxing back down into the bed, my head sinking into the mountain of pillows that she had lining the full width of the headboard.

  I’d barely closed my eyes when a sharp slap to my arm had them flying open again.

  “Damn, what was that for?” I grumbled, sitting up again and straining to see her through the dark, hoping she could see my pissed reaction.

  Instead of that happening, she bolted off the bed, suddenly all frantic, telling me, “Get up. Get dressed ASAP, baby.”

  Baby? Was that where we were at now? I had to admit, I was liking that more than I thought I would. So much that it pulled me from the immediate.

  Another slap came my way, this time to my shin. “Slade, I’m serious! Get dressed!”

  Her urgency infected me real quick, and I tossed the covers aside and jumped out of bed. “What’s going on?” I asked, as I snatched my clothes off the floor and hurriedly dressed, watching her do the same.

  “Pack your essentials.”

  “Answer me, Willa!”

  Her gaze snapped to mine as she pulled on her tactical pants. “It wasn’t an animal. I have cameras at the first checkpoint, ten miles out from this property. I have a visual of two black, unmarked vans. If they stay at the same speed, we have approximately eight minutes and thirty seconds before they reach the safehouse.”<
br />
  “Freeman and Nolan,” I growled.

  “Maybe. There’s no time to check, only to act.”

  “So, we’ll take them down.”

  She shook her head as she shrugged on her tactical jacket and rapidly checked the magazines of both her Glocks. Damn, the woman could dress fast. I’d never seen anything like it. “It’s too risky. We need to get gone before they arrive.”

  “What?” I said, as I shoved my gun into the holster at my right hip, then shrugged my leather jacket on.

  She hightailed it to her closet and pulled out a duffel bag, slinging it over her shoulder, clearly a go-bag. “There’s a tunnel through a hidden door in the basement. It’ll take us out to a garage located in the depth of the forest. I have a vehicle parked there all gassed up and ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

  “We ain’t running, Willa,” I told her as I patted the pockets of my jacket to double check that I had my wallet and keys, along with extra ammo. “We take advantage of them coming to us and we end this here and now.”

  “Assuming both vans are filled to max capacity, that’ll be way too many dropped bodies.”

  “Then call in your cleanup guys ASAP, give them a heads up right now.”

  She shook her head adamantly. “That’s not the plan.”

  As she went to turn from me, I grasped her arm and drew her back around to me. “There ain’t always time for a plan. Sometimes, you just gotta run with what you got and improvise.”

  Our gazes clashed.

  I saw her taking my words in.

  Then she relaxed in my hold and blew out a breath. “We don’t even know how many there are. We don’t know who they are, we’re just working off assumption.”

  “Well, you got any other enemies looking to come at you right now?”

  She tossed me a look. “I’ve pissed off a lot of people over the years. But, yes, this is too coincidental. It has to be Nolan or Freeman, maybe both of them with their muscle.”

  “So, we do this then. We end this here and now, yeah?”

  Drawing in a breath, she conceded, “All right. Between the three of us, we can work it. But we keep Freeman and Nolan breathing until we get all the intel we need in those areas. How far has Freeman gotten with building the Strikers Rising? Does Nolan have any contingencies in place? That sort of thing. If we’re going to end this, we want to make damn sure we actually have. Otherwise, we have no hope of walking away and going to ground.”

  I stopped short. “What? You’re telling me you’re actually going to do it, follow me into retirement, get away from all this?”

  “I—”

  A thunderous crash tore through the bedroom.

  We both reacted on instinct and dove for the floor as glass exploded all around, millions of jagged shards raining down like one of those stupid-ass confetti cannons.

  The second I recovered from hitting the floor with a jarring thud, I jerked my head up to see four masked men climbing over the wreckage of the now shattered bay windows and barreling into the bedroom, coming for us. They were decked out in heavy-duty storm-gray tactical gear, way more hardcore than even Willa, each wearing balaclavas hiding their identities. They moved real fluid, in tight formation, like every move was choreographed and thought out long before they made it, working off each other well.

  I sprung to my feet and swept my leg at the closest one that was coming around the side of the bed. He dodged it, jumping out of the way, then thrust his fist at me. I brought my arm down, knocking it away and using the in to grab a hold of him and haul him into the wall.

  Before I could get any further, a battle cry tore through the room and I looked to see Willa charging the other three. “You think you can invade my territory and remain breathing? You arrogant shits!” She leapt onto the bed and used the momentum to execute a flying kick that struck the closest guy brutally, knocking him back into the one behind him, the both of them crashing into the glass wreckage littering the floor like a biting, jagged carpet from hell. The remaining guy came at her. Adrenaline shot through me and I fisted my hand in my opponent’s balaclava and used it as leverage to smash the back of his head into the wall. Once. Twice. Until he went limp in my arms, passing out cold. But as I ran to Willa’s aid, she grabbed the incoming guy by his shoulders, jerked him into her and used his weight against him, taking him with her as she dropped to the bed, rolled backward, then threw him over her shoulder. Jesus Christ.

  He ricocheted off the bed and landed at my feet. I put him down with a boot to his face.

  The next thing I knew, Willa was pulling her gun and firing off two shots in quick succession to the two guys she’d kicked back, a bullet through each of their temples. They dropped like ragdolls with a hefty thud on the glass-covered floor.

  She spun and got off the bed, striding over to me. “These guys are military trained. Fuck. This is worse than I thought.”

  Before I could get a word out, the bedroom door flew open and another one of the soldiers barreled on it. His mission was short-lived, though, as a shot fired and he jerked forward, blood spurting from his throat.

  As he dropped in a lifeless heap on the floor, Rick came into view, his gun in firing position.

  He took in the situation quickly, his eyes wild, his breathing heavy.

  “You guys all right?” he asked, looking each of us over quickly.

  “We’re fine,” Willa answered.

  He let out a breath of relief, then spun back to the door and locked it. “I already took down two before this guy. They’re fucking everywhere.”

  “What was all that about having eight minutes?” I asked Willa.

  She shoved a hand through her hair. “Some of them must’ve come on foot, through the forest.”

  “So, two vans’ worth are still yet to come?”

  She gave me a nod. “Looks like.”

  “Who the hell are these guys?”

  “Blake sent them,” Rick informed us.

  “What?” I barked.

  “They’re military-trained. Hardcore,” Willa pointed out. “No offense, but that’s a far cry from the guys of the Strikers MC.”

  “When they attacked me, one of them told me that Blake sends his regards.”

  “He knew you were here,” Willa realized aloud.

  “He must’ve tagged me. Son of a bitch!” Rick cried, smashing his fist into the wall. “He knew. That little fucker knew I was playing double agent.” He eyed me, fear spiking. “He let it happen so I’d lead him to you.”

  “Another crack,” Willa murmured.

  “What?” I asked.

  She darted over to her bedside table, stepping over one of the soldiers on her way. She ripped open the bottom drawer and pulled out a metallic device that looked a lot like a remote. “I should’ve met you far away from the property and checked you,” she said to Rick. She swept the device over him, the thing emitting a low crackling sound. After doing a full sweep, she pulled back cursing. “It’s not on you. There’s nothing transmitting. He must’ve tagged your truck. That’s the only other thing you brought with you. All other provisions were provided by me when you arrived.”

  With a heavy sigh, she pocketed the device in her tactical jacket.

  “I’m sorry,” Rick told her.

  She held up her hand. “Let’s focus on the immediate situation. Staying alive. The second wave in those vans will be here all too soon.” She bolted forward and marched out of the bedroom, motioning over her shoulder for us to follow her. As she stormed down the hallway, she muttered to herself, echoing what I’d heard from her earlier before she’d gone all berserker on the soldiers, “Bastards think they can invade my home. Arrogant, amateurish shits.”

  Rick grinned at me. “Yeah, she’s real territorial. Best keep that in mind. Good thing you’re leaving the club, because even having a club whore within a few hundred feet of you won’t go down well with her.”

  “Never pegged her as the jealous type. She do that with you then?”

  “Na
h, we weren’t nothing, just a one-off thing. You only see it with the things she’s real passionate about. She freaked when The Jackals went after her old safehouse. Took it as a personal insult. She plays it close to the vest, but she’s got a lot of heart. A shitload of passion for the things that she cares about. That used to just be her work and her clients.” He eyed me intensely. “But now there’s you.”

  His words were real heavy, hitting me hard.

  The responsibility of it weren’t something I was used to.

  I didn’t have much time to think more on it, though, as we came to a sudden stop in front of a closet and Willa spun on us and barked, “Cut the chitchat. We have work to do.” She eyed her phone that was still clutched tightly in her hand like a lifeline. “Just under four minutes before they reach us.” She shot a glance out the kitchen window a few feet down the hall, at the driveway that gave way to a private road through the surrounding forest. “That’s the only road accessible via a vehicle. It gives us an advantage. We’ll see them coming. We can control and contain.” She opened the closet to reveal another door with a keypad barring access to whatever was within. As she punched in an eight-digit code, she spoke over her shoulder, “Ricky, you take the east side. Prevent them from gaining access to the basement stairs. That’s our extraction point if all else fails. Slade, take the west side, using the heavy foliage as cover.” A sharp click sounded and the closet door unlocked. She jerked it open to reveal some heavy-duty artillery inside. Jesus Christ. She pulled out a sniper rifle and eyed us both. “I’ll head to the roof and thin the heard a little. The chimney will give me suitable cover and the vantage point can’t be matched.”

  As she went to brush past us, I grasped her arm, stopping her. “You’ll be way too exposed up there, out in the open.”

  “I told you, there’s cover.”

  “It ain’t enough.”

  “I know what I’m doing. It’s very far from being my first rodeo.”

  “Willa—”

  She pried my hand off her and held it between us, smiling up at me. “Last night shifted things between us. I understand that and I understand where you’re coming from. You’ve been rooted in the MC culture for so long and a part of that is shielding your women from any threat. You can’t do that with me, because I’m on the same side of it that you are. You know what I can do and you’ve also witnessed it up close during your attempted takedown of Nolan. I’ll be okay.” She smiled and stretched to whisper in my ear. “But, just so we’re clear, I am yours now.”