by Jenika Snow
The Underground 2
Adrian’s Wrath
Brea Collins's past keeps resurfacing no matter how hard she tries to outrun it. When she finally settles in a small town, working at a club to save enough for her final escape, she never expects to meet Adrian Holden, a man that makes her feel something other than fear.
Adrian's life hasn't been a fairy tale. He fights in the Underground, an illegal cage fighting organization. His anger and grief are his fuel. When he sees Brea, a damaged woman that calls out to every protective instinct in him, Adrian knows that she might very well be his salvation from his bleak past.
Their happiness can only last so long. With two traumatic pasts and an uncertain future, there is bound to be something that drives them apart, but Adrian is determined to have Brea at all costs, and he will do everything in his power to ensure that.
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 45,239 words
ADRIAN’S WRATH
The Underground 2
Jenika Snow
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
ADRIAN’S WRATH
Copyright © 2013 by Jenika Snow
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-795-6
First E-book Publication: April 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
Life isn’t always what you make of it. Just go with the flow and trust that the people in your life will always be there for you.
This is for my husband who doesn’t complain when I spend hours upon hours in front of the computer. He is the rock in my life and without him I wouldn’t have ever written my first book. Thank you and I love you.
ADRIAN’S WRATH
The Underground 2
JENIKA SNOW
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
Adrian threw another shot back and stared ahead. The club was packed, as usual, but he was impervious to all that happened around him. His thoughts were too raw, too real. He needed to drink tonight away and just be somewhere else, at a different time, not stuck in the fucking past.
“Another.” He slid the empty shot glass across the bar. The bartender grabbed the whiskey and refilled the small container. This was his fourth shot and Adrian had no intention of stopping. Maybe he could get drunk enough to forget about tonight, to forget about everything he had lost.
Through the mirror lining the back of the bar, Adrian could see her before she even sidled up to him. Her platinum-blonde hair was in need of a new dye job. Her lips were bright red and fuckable. Yeah, he could see that mouth wrapped around his cock. At the thought, his pants grew tighter from his arousal. He slammed the glass on the counter for another drink and the glass was refilled right away. She stood beside him now, her perfume overpowering as she “accidentally” bumped into him. They were all the same. They all thought they were someone special, that they had the pussy of the century. He drank the shot, loving how the burn from the alcohol had since diminished and all he felt was numbness.
“I’m sorry. Can I just grab one of these?” Her ploy to get his attention wasn’t lost on him. When she leaned across the counter, practically sitting on his lap to get a napkin, of all things, he could see her nipples poking through the thin material of her top.
“How about I buy you a drink?” He turned toward her, letting her know without actually saying it what he was really after. He always bought them a drink first. It was the least he could do since he had no plans on promising them anything else. One perfectly dark eyebrow rose and she smirked those plump red lips.
“Sure. Sex on the Beach.” She was trying to be cute. It was pathetic. He could see by the way she dressed and the way she portrayed herself that she was after the same thing he was.
A good, hard fuck.
The club was popping despite the fact it was a Wednesday night. He tossed back another shot, not feeling the burn from the alcohol any longer, and waited for the female beside him to suck down her drink. He wanted to get this over with, wanted to burn off this aggression and need that churned deep inside of him. Fucking and fighting, the only two outlets that helped to relieve the pain, anger, and all-out hatred he felt on a constant basis.
His “date” for tonight had her ruby-red lips wrapped tightly around the straw, her eyes trained on him. She eye fucked him, hard. Her gaze was heated as she traveled it down his body, stopping at his crotch and raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow. No doubt she saw the erection straining against his jeans. He was hard, so fucking hard he could have driven nails into steel. As she finished her drink the sound of the remaining liquid being sucked through the straw had him gritting his teeth. Although he needed the release sex brought, the motions of getting it down were tiresome. It was the same thing every night, the same monotonous routine that he could have completed with his eyes closed and his mouth sewn shut. He knew he was a bastard, knew that fucking a different woman every night of the week sealed the deal, but there were things that were a constant in his mind, things that would bring him to his knees, and he needed to avoid them at all costs. Sex seemed like the most logical way to close that door in
his mind that gave him a temporary reprieve from the pain.
“I’m ready, so ready for you, baby.” She pressed her body against his, her whispered words smelling of the cheap alcohol. Her breasts smashed against his chest and he could feel the tight stab of her nipples through the layers of clothing. She leaned into his ear and he forced himself to stay still as her hot breath wafted across his flesh. “I’m so fucking wet right now.” She ground her pussy against his thigh and all but purred in delight. “Why don’t you slip that big hand of yours under my skirt and see for yourself?”
“Not here.” She pulled back and pouted up at him. He threw some cash on the bar and stood. He towered over her, but he towered over everyone. At six feet five inches and two hundred and fifty pounds of hard muscle, Adrian was used to the gawking and murmurs when he entered a room. He used his strength and height to his advantage, used his power to fight bloody and get what he wanted. Like he said, he was a selfish fucking bastard.
The woman, whose name he still hadn’t caught and didn’t care to, sidled up beside him instantly. He wasn’t taking her to a hotel room to spoon with her, he was taking her there to fuck her good and hard and hopefully get rid of some of his inner turmoil. The scent of roses filled his senses, despite the tang of spilled beer and sweat in the air. Instantly he knew who it was and he didn’t stop himself from turning to the right and watching her. The waitress leaned against the side of the bar, the tray in her hands overflowing with empty glasses. She was a tiny thing, short and thin and way out of her element working at a place like this. That much was obvious. As if she sensed his gaze, she lifted her eyes and met his. Even from the distance he could make out the startling blue of her eyes.
He would never be able to forget when she had looked up at him that night when he had ripped those men away from her. When Adrian had heard her scream, even with the noise surrounding them and the blood rushing to his ears as he faced off his opponent in the cage, every protective instinct inside of him had gone on high alert. Memories had assaulted him and tunnel vision had taken over his vision. He’d had one goal in mind. Get to her.
When Kash had joined in, the two cage fighters had made quick work of the drunken bystanders. It had been a very long time since he had felt anything remotely strong for a female. He didn’t mean fucking them either. The bone-deep protective instincts that had slammed into him as she had looked up at him, silently begging for his help, had broken something inside of him. The walls around his heart and mind that had taken him years to erect had cracked at that moment. Never had he had such a strong reaction to a woman, and never so instantaneously. She had been the gasoline on his fire. It had been weeks since that night, and despite his inner pep talks that he needed to stay away from her, he found himself frequenting the club she worked at on a nightly basis.
“Come on, baby.” The woman beside him rubbed her leg up and down his calf. “I’m aching for all that power you have to thrust between my thighs.” She giggled and ran her hand across his cock. “Every time I see you fight I get so wet.”
Adrian broke his stare from the waitress. The woman’s hand still rubbed long strokes up his jean-clad erection as she gazed up at him in almost awe. The fact that he fought other men illegally in a cage right below this very club should have disgusted every female that watched him bloody his opponent, but it had the opposite effect. Of course Adrian used that to his advantage. If they wanted to sleep with a man that didn’t care about hurting other people with his fists, then he wasn’t above burying his cock in their pussies. He took one last look at the waitress, saw her still watching him, and smirked. It was good she was seeing him for the dick he truly was. Maybe then she would get that look, a look he didn’t want to delve too deeply into, out of her eyes when she gazed upon him.
He spun on his heel, his “date’s” hand in his, and left the club without a backward glance. He needed to stay away from the waitress, but whatever it was about her, Adrian found the more he saw her, the more he wanted her. It was a dangerous combination, and one he had no plans on submitting to.
Chapter Two
Brea watched Adrian leave. Even after his massive body disappeared in the crowd, her heart still pounded wildly. Every night she saw him sitting on the same barstool, slamming back the whiskey like it was water and he was starved for it. He wasn’t like other men, though, not in the least. There was a threatening aura that surrounded him that had everyone instinctively moving away from him. She didn’t think he even realized the effect he had on people.
When she had been offered a chance to earn a hefty amount under the table working the floor during the illegal cage fights they held under the club, she had instantly been leery. She kept to herself for a reason, a good reason, but she also couldn’t deny the fact that the money that had been offered would go a long way in securing her release from her personal prison. Every little bit of money that she could save brought her closer to escaping the nightmare that had become her life. So, against her better judgment and all the internal warning bells that had gone off inside of her, Brea had accepted the one-night position.
It hadn’t been until she was crammed into the basement, sweaty, drunken bodies pressed far too close for her comfort, that the past assaulted her. She could have handled it, but when the numerous hands had started touching her, and then forcibly pulling at her, everything around Brea had gone black. She had been back in that room, his hands moving on her, in her. Every horrendous second had seemed like eternity, and then it had all stopped. She had found herself on the floor, staring into a face that was hauntingly attractive, but devastating all in the same breath. His sheer size should have had her cowering even further, but she found herself wanting to reach for him. It had been years since she had wanted to reach for a man. This man, this stranger who she had just seen fighting in the cage, had come to her rescue. He hadn’t known her, yet when she had screamed he had been there. He was dangerous. That much was clear. She didn’t want to feel anything for anyone. All she wanted was to earn whatever she could and then disappear.
“Earth to Brea.”
Brea tore her gaze from the sea of bodies that Adrian had walked into and looked at Shan. The redheaded bartender watched her curiously. Her tiny white top stretched over incredibly huge and clearly fake breasts, and it was painfully obvious she didn’t wear a bra, seeing as her nipples could have cut right through the shirt. Brea knew it got Shan a shitload of tips, though.
“I’m sorry. I guess I’m in my own world tonight.” Since seeing him all those weeks ago, she hadn’t been able to stop wondering about him. Even now, several weeks later, all Brea could think about was how he saved her. As nonchalantly as she could, Brea had inquired about him until she had found out his name and that he was a newer fighter.
Sure, it wasn’t like he was the typical knight in shining armor. He had been bloody and bruised, just finished fighting another man in the recesses of this very club, but still. He had saved her. Even now she could picture that night. Her fear came back tenfold but she pushed it down. She would not let her past haunt her. It had taken her a long time to get to where she was, to be able to actually stand the sight of other people. Cameron’s face still haunted her dreams, but every day she was getting better, stronger. What she needed was a breather. After telling Shan she needed some fresh air, she stayed to the wall and made her way outside. Brea never went out the back doors, not when the shadows were her enemies. A side door close to the kitchen always had an illuminated area right outside, and more times than not there was someone out there taking a smoke break.
When the night air hit her, she shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Of course no one was outside, but the lingering smell of cigarettes informed her she probably just missed someone. Leaning against the brick wall, she stayed right under the large spotlight and brought her leg up to rest against the wall. Her head fell back involuntarily and she didn’t stop her eyes from closing. All she wanted to do was go to sleep. Sleep away the past year, sleep awa
y her fucking life. She just kept telling herself soon it would all be over. She would be someone new and wouldn’t have to look over her shoulder.
* * * *
Adrian was right. Her tits were huge and fake, but what the hell did he care. This was his life now, and as long as she was willing, he didn’t give a fuck.
“Mmm, you look hungry,” Candy, his date for the night, whispered as she slipped her panties down her long, fake-tanned thighs. The women he went for these days looked just like she did, big tits, fake tan, and willing to spread their legs to release a little pent-up aggression. She tossed the tiny scrap of material to the side and bent to remove her high heels.
“Leave them on.”
She smiled seductively but listened. “Oh, so you’re one of those boys, are you?” He didn’t know what the hell she was talking about and he didn’t care. He was wasting time. His shirt was the first thing to go followed by his jeans. He tore the condom open and slid it down his erection.
“I like a man that has to wear Magnums.” Candy’s nails were painted an obnoxious pink color and she slid them down his chest to grip his cock. Adrian gave credit where credit was due, and Candy sure as hell knew what she was doing. The gentle tug of his shaft was only the precursor to what he knew she had planned. When she leaned in close, her fruity breath whispering against his ear, he had to fight the urge to push her on her back and get down to fucking her.
