“Who?” he snarled as I carefully climbed onto the bed.
“A man called Lawrence,” I told him, then, slyly, already knowing the answer and not fearing it, I asked, “Do I revolt you now?”
His eyes flared wide as I effectively dismissed the subject. “No! Hell, no!”
My smile blossomed. “I’m glad.”
He growled under his breath before his hands moved to my waist and he hauled me against him. Within seconds, I was on my back, and I spread my legs to accommodate him. His dick was hard again, and it notched against my sex. I could feel the heavy weight, his thickness, and knew he had the perfect dick because it was mine.
“I’d kill every cunt who touched you if I could.”
I smiled. “I know you would.” And wasn’t that delicious?
All my enemies were his enemies now.
More liberation. The gift that kept on giving.
But because I didn’t need to wallow on that, I leaned up and nipped his bottom lip like he’d done to me earlier, but this time, I did it hard enough to tug, to pull the flesh from his teeth. I wasn’t sure why, but that had a snarl escaping him, and out of nowhere, the hands that had been gentle earlier on dipped into my flesh, holding me in place, keeping me steady as he loomed over me.
But that goddamn boot stayed off my throat, and if anything pinned me against the bed, it wasn’t his hands but his cock against my pussy—that was what I wanted.
What he wanted to give me too.
I groaned as he rubbed his dick against me, the soft fabric of his underwear an irritation that was surprisingly satisfying. I loved the slightly abrasive sensation, felt it against my clit and that had shockwaves fluttering up and down my spine as I arched my back, tightening my legs more around his hips.
With a moan, I let my head fall to the side and loved when he treated me to the same caresses as I’d given him earlier. When he sucked down hard, bit down hard, I growled and slipped my hands into his hair.
Tugging at the roots, I hissed in his ear, “I need you.”
“I’m gonna die needing you, Alessa,” he rasped, his head lifting so he could slip the words into my soul with all the finesse of a master swordsman.
I felt the tear in my spirit, felt him fill it back up again with his statement, and then his mouth was back on mine, his tongue fucking mine, his breath replacing mine.
With my heels and toes, awkwardly, I dragged his boxer briefs down over his hips, knowing it would hurt his cock if he stayed like that much longer, and when he growled, then shuffled about some so he could free his dick totally, I sighed with delight as his hardness met my softness.
I was wet again, slick with it. I could taste it in the air. It was around us like a perfume, and so was his scent too—the essence of him. Of heated man. We were bound together in that one scent, more tightly coiled around each other than we were physically at that moment, and I reveled in it.
Reveled in the truth of it. Of the honesty.
The words spilled from me as I was unable to keep them in as he slipped the tip of his cock against my pussy, and he started to rock into me, thrusting deep so I was filled with him in more ways than one.
“I love you,” I whispered fervently, desperately.
His mouth moved back to cover mine, but before he shut me up with a kiss, he whispered, “I’m in love with you, Alessa. Ghost. Whatever the fuck you wanna call yourself. I’m in love with you and I’ll love you until the day we goddamn die.” Each word was punctuated with a thrust of his hips, a thrust that had me arching against him, groaning and moaning as he filled my pussy like he filled my heart. “And even then,” he ground out. “I’ll love you. I’ll never fucking stop.”
I came.
A harsh groan escaped me, hard and needy and loaded with relief. It tangled with his as we both exploded at the same time, both of us caught up in the moment. Tossed around like we were in the middle of a storm of our own brewing.
But my orgasm wasn’t just physical, it was, crazy though it sounded, mental too.
Because I believed him.
He meant it.
I believed in him.
He wanted it to be true.
And in the future, when he forgot me, when his condition robbed him from me because I had to face facts that it was likely it would, I’d remember tonight. I’d remember his words, remember the feel of him in my body and in my heart and soul, and I’d find comfort in them because no matter what, I knew Maverick would always find his way home to me again.
I just had to be patient, and I couldn’t forget.
Thirty-Six
Maverick
We arrived back at Lily’s mansion early in the morning. So early that my aching head, the disgusting taste in my mouth, and the cricks in my body made themselves even more apparent than before because no biker worth their salt woke up and was moving until at least twelve in the afternoon.
Long ago, I’d embraced that side of the life with open arms—early mornings fucking sucked.
Though I’d had a terrible night’s sleep, what had happened in the middle of it was more than enough to make up for it. I was in pain, I knew from Beau’s expression that there wasn’t going to be much they could do to help me even if he wanted to dose me up with meds, and I was in the middle of a fight I wasn’t sure we could win, but I had Alessa.
And she had me.
That meant something. It mattered. It gave me hope, and it gave me a reason to live for. To get up in the morning, to fight instead of rolling over and just doing what I had to to get by.
We parted once we were in the poolhouse, Alessa going to her bathroom and me to mine. As we prepared for the day ahead, my mind wandered some as my thoughts tangled with her and what I was going to do.
Lodestar and I needed to come up with some plan of attack so I could present that to the council tonight. It’d been a long time since we’d held a church with me attending, so I knew there was shit I had to catch up on. My brain didn’t appreciate the thought even if I knew it was necessary.
When I made it out of my room, dressed in jeans, a Henley because it was getting cold out, and my cut, I found Alessa drifting down the hall, Kati at her side. As I watched her move, the innate grace of her had me thinking of when she’d get the chance to be on top of me rather than under me.
The thought of her tits shaking in my face was enough to make me grip my dick and squeeze it into behaving. Not that it’d listen. After the first taste of prime pussy, my cock knew where its bread was goddamn buttered.
It was just a fucking shame that life was going to get in the way because I’d live inside her if I could.
Or, at least, for as long as she’d let me.
Seeing she was wearing a dress again, I noticed she had leggings on once more. What the fabric shielded had any arousal dying. Not because the scars were ugly, but because they infuriated me. They enraged me.
They made me goddamn murderous.
Adding to my to-do list the need to investigate her past owners, I tried to make my expression a little less grim so it didn’t freak either Alessa or Kati out when I moved into the kitchen.
Alessa shot me a soft smile which I returned, somehow finding it easy to let go of my wrath when she looked at me like that.
She smiled for me now.
Just like I did for her.
The notion had my heart swelling in my chest. My pulse slowing down. Just like I’d taken a couple of deep breaths or something, the peace that gave me, that she brought to my world, was a gift she’d never be able to understand.
She was a haven in a mad, mad universe, and I vowed to never forget that.
Whatever it took, if I had to hardwire my brain with fucking hypnotherapy or whatever BS was required to keep some of my memory functioning, there was something I had to cling to. Something that I had to hold onto with both hands so that she would forever stick with me, even if the CTE took control of me again.
“Maverick?”
She broke into my though
ts with my name, and I was grateful for that, because I didn’t have a clue how to do what needed to be done.
“Yes, babe?”
Kati giggled. “Lessie, you’re a babe.”
They grinned at each other. “I always was one.”
“Until he forgot.” She pouted, then wagged her finger at me. “Maverick, you were a very bad boy but—” She paused with a dramatic sigh. “I still protected you.”
“You did?”
She nodded. “When you fell asleep, I made sure you were safe.” Preening a little, she said, “Star told me I did a great job. She even forgave me for setting fire to the microwave.”
The words combined with the beaming smile that revealed a gap where her baby teeth had fallen out had me snorting out a laugh. “How did you do that?”
“Star told me to make her some soup.”
“And you put the can in the microwave?”
“Well,” she said with a huff, “she never told me not to do that. It seemed a lot more practical at the time.”
“You could have taken it out when it started to flash,” Alessa chided, her brow puckering with concern. “You must take more care, Kati.”
Her younger sister heaved a sigh. “I knew you’d say that. Where’s the fun in being careful, Lessie? It was pretty and so exciting. All those sparks! I loved it.”
That was all we needed—a pyromaniac in the ranks.
“Remind me not to shove her and Sin together.”
Alessa arched a brow in confusion. “He worked with explosives back when he was in the Forces.”
Kati’s eyes widened. “He did? OMG, that’s so cool! Do you think he’ll set—” Her mouth turned down at the corners, and the excitement faded. “The compound… I don’t want to feel that again.” Her shoulders hunched and then she flinched as if the memory was so tangible, it was enough to make her body remember the sensation. “That boom was terrifying.”
Alessa wrapped her arm around her. “Well, best not to ask Sin to set a bomb on something else.”
“What about our enemies?” Kati asked solemnly, making Alessa gasp.
“Kati! You can’t think that way.” A gaggle of Ukrainian escaped her, which I got the feeling Kati half understood because her nose crinkled even if she turned her face away, like that would help her evade Alessa’s concern.
I’d like to say she was wrong, but I couldn’t. How could I? I didn’t even fucking know if there were plans in motion for what Kati just said. Cruz was the go-to chemical man. He could and had crafted a bomb with ease. Sin was the more ‘traditional’ purveyor of destruction. He used what Uncle Sam gave him and set fire to the world with it—legally.
Letting the sisters duke it out because there was nothing I could add to this conversation that wouldn’t distress either of them, I grabbed the carton of OJ that was open and drank straight from it. I’d be finishing off the two pints before I left the kitchen, so I saw no point in dirtying more dishes.
When I turned around, I saw Alessa was watching me. Or, to be more precise, she was watching my throat. I’d seen the hickey she put there last night and was pretty fucking proud of the one she was sporting too.
There was no mistaking we were taken—exactly how I wanted to fucking keep it.
“Want anything from the fridge?” I asked her softly.
“A yogurt, please?”
When I saw there was only natural yogurt in there, I didn’t ask which flavor, and instead, tried not to grimace as I watched her eat it plain.
Kati, evidently as disgusted, said, “Why do you eat that, Lessie? It’s gross. Banana and strawberry is so much better.” She smacked her lips. “I think you should keep some here just for when I visit.”
Alessa smiled. “I can if you want.”
“Duh. I like hanging out with you.” She bumped her arm into Alessa’s. “Do you think you’ll teach me more words in Ukrainian?”
I saw the delight in Alessa’s eyes before she could control it. “You’d like that?”
“I would. But only the bad words. That way I can’t get in trouble at school when I tell the teacher she’s a moron.”
I snorted out a laugh at that nearly had me choking on OJ as I did so, but Alessa’s disapproving look had me ducking my chin to stay out of this conversation too. In fact, escape seemed the safest route, so I dipped down to give her a kiss which she responded to—Christ, she tasted better than fucking OJ and that was saying something—and left for the secure haven of the main house with the carton still in hand.
As I shoved on the boots I’d dumped by the door earlier on, I nearly hooted when I heard Kati ask, “Did you do it yet?” There was a pause. “Lessie? What is ‘it?’ Is it nice?”
When her answer was a flurry of Ukrainian, I hazarded a guess that Alessa didn’t feel like being truthful.
Laughing as I left the poolhouse, I made my way down the neat path and smiled as the scent of lavender blossomed around me which, actually, made me think of Alessa. Did she use lavender perfume? As I pondered that, and also pondered where she’d gotten those hot as fuck dresses from, I headed into the house and made my way to the kitchen which I somehow seemed to register was Lodestar’s war office.
I wasn’t sure how I knew that, just thought that it must be a memory from before. Deciding that was a good sign, I didn’t puzzle that hard over it and took another sip of OJ as I rounded the table and took a seat beside her so I could see what she was working on.
The biggest surprise?
She was asleep. Not only was she sleeping, in fact, she didn’t wake up as I sat down, nor did she register that I started messing around with her computer.
There were several tabs open, different programs I recognized, a conversation with someone called aCooooig who, twenty minutes ago, had asked if she was there. Evidently, she’d been napping for longer than twenty minutes. I remembered that she’d had a concussion after that nasty flight from the clubhouse roof, so figured she’d be finding it hard to sleep through the subsequent headaches. Didn’t stop me from rooting around in her files though.
When I saw a folder titled ‘Martin London,’ I frowned as I peered through what was, quite clearly, a thorough investigation. I just didn’t know why. The man was a retired pastor who, to this day, worked with several charities, most of them children’s. He’d traveled all over the States, doing essentially missionary work which didn’t exactly make sense by how deeply his bank account was padded. He lived nearby, at an address I recognized as being in a very nice suburb. Upper middle class, definitely.
Why on earth was she interested in him?
Bored, I moved onto another file and realized it was an initial findings report on Donavan Lancaster’s financials. I knew why she’d be hunting there too—looking for the house where the fuckers had taken Alessa and the others to rape them in luxurious comfort.
The next folder unveiled a dossier on the information leaked several years ago in what I knew was one of the major reasons behind Cruz’s introduction to the MC. He’d helped reveal a shit ton of secrets Uncle Sam wanted to keep hidden… Recognizing some of the paperwork, I scanned through a third of the dossier. When she started to shuffle around, I knew I didn’t have much time so I moved onto the final file—Scarlet.
Like she’d done with that London guy, there was a folder on her as well. It wasn’t as thorough, no financial check just yet, and though some of Scarlet’s movements were traced—her international travel, for one—the files were limited.
Even though I picked up a lot of information, mostly what I learned was that she was definitely under the weather. A workaholic, incapable of taking a chill pill and stepping back from her computer, there was no way these files and dossiers would still be works in progress if she was fully functioning.
This little nap was proof enough.
Feeling the stillness in her that told me she was awake and didn’t want anyone around her to know it, I squeezed my carton of OJ and said, “Want a coffee?”
At my voice, she rela
xed, and though it was stupid, I smiled, glad she felt she could let her guard down around me. I thought I was probably one of two people she could do that with. And before Kati had come along, I’d been the only one. That was why I’d never understood why she’d fucked around on me.
Who did that?
When you found peace in someone, with someone, why wouldn’t you try to keep a tight hold of that?
There was no understanding some people, and that was why I’d forgiven her, welcomed her back into my life even though I knew she was a treacherous bitch. Beyond that, beyond the treachery and the lies and the half-truths, I knew she had my back.
Always.
Even if she had a weird way of going about it.
“Please,” she muttered, opening bleary eyes to rub them and yawning as she did so. “See you’ve been hunting around my shit.”
“Shouldn’t fall asleep with your screen on,” I told her unapologetically.
She flipped me the bird but returned her attention to her computer. I had eagle eyes so I saw she replied to aCooooig pretty early off the bat while I set about making her a pot of coffee she probably shouldn’t be drinking with a concussion headache, but hell, programmers were the unhealthiest people around for a reason.
All the while the pot of coffee brewed, my mind brewed too. Thinking about what I’d read, what she was investigating, what we’d discussed last night, about the issues we faced, and that was when something occurred to me.
I pulled out my phone and connected a call to Steel. As the secretary, he’d be the one to know this shit. At least, I hoped.
“Hey, bro, what’s going on?”
“Steel, man, thought just popped into my mind. What happened with the books?”
“They’re with Lily, I think. Why?”
Shit, yeah. I remembered now. She was supposed to start working on them—if she had them, then that meant the brothers had been okay with her just learning the ropes without any input from me. And to be frank, it wasn’t like she needed my help with the economics degree she had.
“Not the legit business, the other stuff.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “When I went into the clubhouse, it was to retrieve the computer in the safe.” Lodestar and I shared a look. Because I’d been going in for something else too. Something that was missing now.
Maverick: A Dark MC Romance (A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Series Book 6) Page 30
