“Husband,” I muttered, pulling his lips down to meet mine.
“Asshole,” he grunted, fucking me even harder.
I panted hard, feeling my whole body quake under him. I tried squeezing my legs together, but he wouldn’t let me. The sensations were too strong, I was on overload. My whole brain felt like it was zapping out of control as he fucked me harder and harder.
“Josh!” I cried out as I clamped down around him. He shouted out as he came, collapsing on top of me with ragged breaths. The sweat from his body dripped onto mine and as he sat up, his skin stuck to mine. He grabbed a blanket off the couch and pulled it over us, smacking his head on the table as he tried to lay down beside me.
I laughed at him as he rubbed his head and laid back down beside me. “You think that’s funny, huh?”
“I find it funny that you didn’t hit the table the entire time you were fucking me, but smashed into it just getting a blanket.”
He laid down beside me, staring up at the ceiling. He didn’t try and pull me into him or make this more romantic in some way. And I was glad for that.
“Did you finish school?”
I nodded, only then realizing that he didn’t see me. “Yeah. Not that it did me any good.” I pulled the blanket up my chest and held it in place as I rolled to my elbow, resting my head in my hand. “So, Josh, tell me about your brothers.”
He laughed lightly. “That could take a while.”
“I have time.”
He rolled his head to look at me. “I thought you had to be up early.”
I shrugged lightly. “I can work on a little less sleep.”
His eyes lit up at the idea of talking about his brothers, and it really hit me just how much I was ruining his life. Even if I wanted to, there was nothing I could do to fix this. Our lives were intertwined now forever. There was no backing out or walking away.
“My oldest brother is Eric. He’s the do-gooder in the family. He has his own business and everyone in town loves him.”
“And you?”
“Of course I do, but it’s hard to live up to his standards. My ma and dad think he walks on water. Don’t get me wrong, he really is a great guy. But he has all this ambition and I’ve always been happy just being a mechanic.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I know,” he said, but I wasn’t sure he believed it. “And if that wasn’t bad enough, my brother, Derek, ran off and joined the Army. How the hell does someone live up to that?”
“Why are you comparing yourself to your brothers?”
He sighed. “I don’t know. I guess I just always wanted my parents to be proud of me.”
“Isn’t it more important that you’re happy with your life? Making them proud isn’t going to make your life better or mean something.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like it matters anymore. They probably think I’m dead, and that…” He shook his head and blew out a long breath. “I hate what I’m doing to them.”
“You mean what I’m doing to them. You didn’t do this. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing you could have done would have changed the outcome.”
He chuckled and grabbed my hand, interlocking our fingers. “We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?”
I smiled at him, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel so alone. I wanted to tell him all about me. The truth. I wanted him to know who I was and how I had become this way. But that might put him in more danger than he was now. So, instead, I told him what I could.
“It’s been very lonely for me. I’m sorry that I’ve ruined your life, but I’m not sorry that you’re here with me.”
“I’m not sorry either,” he said quietly. He frowned and I placed my finger between his eyes, then smoothed one eyebrow down. “I feel like I shouldn’t be saying that.”
“Because of your family,” I guessed.
He nodded. “Yeah, it feels wrong.” He continued to stare at me, his eyes intense and powerful. “For five minutes, we’re going to tell each other anything about ourselves that comes to mind. I’ll start, okay?”
I nodded. I could do this.
“I’ve always wanted a tattoo.”
“I have five.”
His eyes sparkled. “I know. I’ve seen them. And counted.”
“That’s not a fact about you,” I pointed out.
“You distracted me. When I was sixteen, I kissed a girl for the first time.”
“I gave my first blow job when I was fourteen.”
His eyes went wide and he barked out a laugh. “I didn’t have sex for the first time until I was seventeen.”
“I was fifteen.”
“I’ve never wanted a woman more than you.”
“I thought I was in love once before.”
“I’ve never been in love,” he admitted.
“I hate my husband.”
“I hate him too, but I met you, so I guess I can’t be too upset.”
“I took ballet lessons until I was ten.”
“My dad and I used to work on cars together.”
“I know nothing about cars.”
“I once fixed a car for a woman for free in the hopes of getting a blow job.”
“Did it work?”
“That’s not a fact,” he grinned.
“My first boyfriend died in a car accident.”
His brows furrowed, but he didn’t ask anything more. “Yes, it worked.”
“My second toe is longer than my big toe. Like, a lot bigger.”
He went to sit up, but I dragged him back down. “That’s not fair. You can’t say something like that and expect me not to look.”
“I’ll show you when we’re done.”
“Fine,” he huffed. “I almost had a panic attack that night in the hotel when I shoved you through the bathroom window.”
“I love fleece pajama pants. I would live in them if I could.”
“I was the team captain of my football team in high school, but I hated football.”
“My favorite color is pink.”
“I trim my eyebrows sometimes when I get one that grows too long.”
“I like to look for ingrown hairs and then pull them out.”
“Alright, now you’ve overshared,” he laughed. “Game over. I can’t screw you anymore knowing that you’re that perverted.”
I laughed and punched him in the shoulder. “It’s a girl thing.”
“Obviously, no man would ever spend that much time over a single hair.”
Josh
As soon as I walked in the door, she pounced. Shoving me up against the door, she had me pinned against it as her hands roamed my body. This was the way it had been with us for the past month. Every time we were around each other, we were fucking. And every single time, one of us would ask questions about the other. We were slowly getting to know each other, one fuck at a time.
Everything Cy had warned me about was coming true. I was beginning to feel things for Hannah that I never thought I would feel for a woman I had gone on the run with. Things were just different since that night of the party. I wanted something with her, something I was sure we would never have. At least, not in the normal sense. I wanted a future with her any way I could get her. If we were just dating, I would see where this could go, but it wouldn’t be a sure thing. But what we had was living on borrowed time. Seeing where things could go wasn’t an option. It was this or nothing, and I sure as hell didn’t want to live my life like nothing would ever happen.
I picked her up, my hands under her ass as I carried her up the stairs. My lips fused to hers and her pussy ground against me. She made it impossible to do anything, even think, when she was in the same room as me.
“God, I love these muscles,” she groaned as she ran her hands over my arms. “I can’t believe how ripped you’ve gotten.”
“You told me I had to,” I said, shoving the bedroom door open. I stumbled forward, dropping us both down on the bed as I continued to kiss he
r.
“I like cats,” she mumbled against my lips.
I slid my hand down to her mound and cupped her. “I like pussy too.”
She chuckled against my lips and pushed me up, tearing my shirt over my head. “If we weren’t on the run, I would want a long-haired cat.”
I stepped back and unzipped my pants, shoving them down my legs. “I prefer dogs. We could get a guard dog. It might be useful to us.”
“Not if the dog got in the way of a bullet,” she said, sinking to her knees and taking me in her mouth. My eyes rolled back in my head and I threw my head back, groaning loud. My fingers slid into her hair and I slowly started guiding her on my cock, setting the pace I wanted.
“The dog is to protect you,” I panted. “Better the dog than you.”
She stopped working me in her mouth and looked up at me. My cock slipped from her mouth and she slowly stood, her body pressed right up against mine. We stared at each other intently, neither of us flinching. I knew what she wanted, but I wasn’t ready to say it yet. I couldn’t. I was afraid, no, terrified. I didn’t want to jinx what we had going for us. And frankly, this was the first time I had ever felt anything like this before. I couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t just sex-induced lust. I needed to be sure that this was the real thing first.
I pulled her in for a kiss, slowly removing the rest of her clothes. When I pushed her down on the bed this time, I took my time. I felt her shiver under my body. Her hands were warm against my skin, and it was like she was memorizing every inch of my body.
Hannah
My phone buzzed, bringing me out of my deep sleep. I was getting used to being wrapped in Josh’s arms every night, and even though neither of us had said it yet, I was falling hard for him. The only problem was, he would never really know all of me. When my phone buzzed again, I grabbed at it blindly. It was probably work, asking me to come in and work an earlier shift.
Looking at the screen through bleary eyes, I bolted upright in bed. I slapped my hand against Josh, waking him up. “Josh, we have to go. Now!”
“What?” he grumbled. “It’s my day off.”
“Josh, I’m serious. We have to run. Now! Get your ass up!” I flung the covers off just as he shot up in bed and quickly grabbed the gun that Cy had given him out of the nightstand drawer. He looked around the room for the threat, but didn’t see one.
“What’s going on? Why do we have to leave?”
“Because they’ve found me!” I shouted, grabbing my duffel and shoving clothes inside.
“How do you know?” He pulled up his jeans and threw on a shirt, before doing the same as me. I tossed him my phone and he stared at it in confusion.
“It’s been too long, Carlotta. I can’t wait to see you,” he read, then looked up at me. “Who’s Carlotta?”
I stopped packing for a moment and looked up at him like he was an idiot. “Me!”
He flinched back, staring at me incredulously. “Who are you?” he practically shouted.
I snatched the phone back and rushed into the bathroom to grab my stuff, then shoved it in the bag and zipped it up. He was mirroring my movements, but I could tell that he was confused as hell. I reached under the bed and pulled out a stash of weapons that I had been collecting since we got here. His eyes widened and he shook his head. I shoved half in the bag and prepared the rest.
“Now, hold on. Let’s think this through. How do you know he’s found you?”
“Because this phone is a burner phone. He wouldn’t know about this number unless he had found me.”
I tossed my duffel at him and picked up one of the guns, checking the magazine and shoving it in the back of my jeans. Then I picked up the other two guns and nodded to him.
“Are you ready?”
“Ready for what?” he asked, shouldering both bags before picking up his own gun. “And how do you know how to handle two guns at once?”
I moved quickly to the bedroom door and slowly opened it, peeking down the stairs. Just at the bottom, I could see a shadow just outside the front door. They were already here. I shut the door and turned back to him.
“Okay, they’re already here. I don’t know how many of them, so here’s what we’ll do. I’ll go down first and take out as many of them as possible. When I go high, you go low. You have my back, understand?”
He looked like he didn’t understand at all, but he would soon enough.
“I have extra magazines in my duffel, if you run out. Do you understand?”
“Sure, why the fuck not,” he said in a daze. “I’m your back up apparently.”
I nodded once and opened the door again, slowly slipping into the hallway. From the top of the stair, I could see that they were already in the house, but they must have just come in or they would have already heard us. I took the stairs slowly, my back pressed up against the wall as I tried to find the best position. Once I fired, they would know exactly where I was and there would be no cover. I squatted on the stairs and nodded once to Josh, who also had his gun out and at the ready.
Taking a deep breath, I lined up my targets and fired. Gunfire immediately erupted all around us. Chunks of wood flew up as bullets were fired at us, but I was faster, taking out target after target. The front door flew open and I heard Josh’s gun fire and then the man dropped, but more were coming. I could see the shadow of one of the men walking along the wall of the staircase, ready to ambush us. I needed to take him out first. I swung my leg over the banister and dropped down on him, firing my gun at the other men that were running toward us. When they were down, I slammed the butt of my gun against the man’s head and he dropped beneath me.
“Hannah!” Josh shouted. I spun just as another man ran up behind me. I fired two shots right into his forehead without a second thought. I glanced around quickly. There were no more men here, but they would be coming.
“Let’s go!”
Josh ran behind me, carrying our bags as we ran out of the war torn house and out to our car. He shoved the bags in the back and slammed the door as he got in the passenger seat.
“What the fuck was that?” he shouted. The back window was blown out before I could answer. I ducked and started the car, putting it in drive. I flew across the lawn and then the neighbor’s, barely missing the ditch and flying out of their driveway. “Where did you learn to shoot like that?” he asked.
I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw three SUVs coming after us. “I’ve always known how to shoot like that.”
“What? No, that first day, you were terrified.”
“I was playing a part,” I said, spinning the wheel as I took a corner too hard.
“What does that mean?”
I sighed. It was time to tell him the truth. There was no way to hide it now. “I’m not running from an abusive husband.”
“You’re not? Then who the hell are we running from?”
“The Scavuzzo crime family.”
“I’m sorry, the what?”
“The Scavuzzo crime family.”
“Oh God, you witnessed a murder or something, didn’t you?”
“Not exactly,” I said, weaving in and out of traffic, trying to lose the SUVs behind us. “Damnit, I can’t lose them!”
He glanced behind us and then pulled out his phone, dialing a number. “Cy, I’m in a bit of trouble here. I need some help.” I slapped him on the arm. The last thing we needed was to bring more people into this. “Yeah, we’re on Larpenteur and we just passed McNally. Yeah…Three black SUVs. Thanks, man.”
“What the hell did you just do?”
“Don’t worry about it. He’s former military.”
“You just dragged him into our mess.”
“Our mess?” he asked incredulously. “Oh, that’s rich!”
“Rich? That’s the truth.”
“This,” he said, gesturing between the two of us, “is not our problem. This is you lying your ass off!”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you. I thought we could find a w
ay out of this eventually.”
I slammed on the brakes just as the car in front of me decided to stop for a yellow light. I yanked the wheel and gunned it, flying around him and just barely made it through the light. The SUVs followed, not caring about the accident they just caused.
“Why the hell are you running from the Italian mafia?”
“Because I am the Italian mafia,” I shouted, swerving around another car.
“You’re…”
“Carlotta Scavuzzo, only daughter to Giovanni Scavuzzo.”
“Holy shit,” he said quietly. “You’re…”
“Yes.”
“And you’re not…”
“No.”
“And we’re…”
“Yes.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Now is not an opportune time.”
“Oh, really?” he said, shooting me a dirty look. “Should I plan this for a more convenient time? Maybe for when we’re only running from an abusive ex and not the fucking mafia!”
“It’s not the whole mafia, obviously.”
“Obviously,” he snorted. “You say that as if you’re sure.”
“Well, do you see all of Chicago descending upon us?”
He actually looked out the window like he was expecting to see men in suits with tommy guns rushing us. I flew through another intersection, glancing out the passenger window and seeing Cy grinning at me maniacally as he saluted me. I slammed my foot down on the gas and watched in the rearview mirror as he rammed into one of the SUVs and two other vehicles slammed into the other two, causing a massive pileup in the middle of the intersection. Josh groaned next to me, shaking his head in his hands. His phone rang and I snatched it out of his hands, putting it on speakerphone.
“Cy?”
“Hannah, I’ve handled your problem.”
“It’s Carlotta,” Josh shouted.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said into the phone.
“This is not nothing!” Josh shouted.
“Get your ass out to my house. I have a car in the garage you can use. Leave yours behind the barn and I’ll get rid of it.”
“Thanks, Cy.”
Wanted Dead or In Love: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 3) Page 7
