Carnival Hill (The Harlequin Crew Book 3)

by Caroline Peckham

  “What the fuck do you want that for?” I snorted and the guy chuckled.

  “I think it’ll make a great addition to Saint’s music room,” he said with a shrug. “I’ve left the side gate open at home. No one will be there for a couple of hours so once you’ve got it, just sneak it in around the side of the house and leave it under the tarp I left behind Tatum’s Porsche. I’ve left the cash for you there in an envelope too.”

  Tatum’s moans started building to a crescendo and the guy looked over at the water with heat in his eyes. “We all good? Because I’ve gotta go make her moan louder than that to prove whose cock she prefers.”

  “Yeah, we’re good.” Fox said, shaking his hand and we turned as he walked back off into the water, swimming under the waves as he headed towards his girl and whoever was out there making her moan.

  A little pang of jealousy ran through me at how easily it obviously was for them to all just be together. Couldn’t Fox get onboard with that? It looked hella fun. And I was already conjuring up my own little fantasy of bringing Rogue down here into the water with Fox. Couldn’t he just be a possessive asshole while I was there too tonguing Rogue’s clit? Was that such an awful situation to be in?

  The set of Fox’s brow said he was currently confused as fuck over what he’d just witnessed though and I reckoned sharing my little fantasy with him would end in a bullet between my eyes.

  “What do you think the squid’s about?” I murmured to Fox as we headed back to his truck and got in.

  “No fucking clue,” he said, starting it up.

  “I bet it’s a sex thing,” I said thoughtfully. “All those tentacles, you know?”

  “I don’t know, J.” Fox looked over at me with a laugh.

  “Maybe Tatum’s into tentacle alien porn.”

  “Who the hell’s into stuff like that?” Fox scoffed and memories prickled at the edges of my mind from working at The Dollhouse.

  “Well you’d be surprised what kind of stuff some people are into.”

  “Do you think Rogue’s into weird shit like that?” he wondered aloud.

  “Nah, she likes it rough and I reckon she’d fuck anyone wearing Green Power Ranger shit but-”

  “What?” he cut over me in a snarl and I realised I’d just blurted that out like a fucking idiot. “How would you know what she likes?”

  “Because she tells me shit,” I said quickly, shrugging and he huffed.

  “She never talks to me about anything.”

  “That’s because you’re too busy bossing her around to hear her speak most of the time.”

  He sighed, his fingers flexing against the steering wheel and my gaze hooked on the need burning in his eyes, making my chest tug. I knew he loved her as deeply as I loved her, and I wished there was something I could do to make him come around to the idea of her being ours. Not just his. But it was gonna take a miracle to convince him of that, and I was fresh out of those. Maybe I’d get lucky and find a genie in a bottle on the beach one of these days, then I’d get to wishing for our family to reunite so tightly that nothing could break us. Not even this.

  I was a coward. A big fat coward. Or...maybe I was just an asshole. Yeah, that fit pretty accurately too.

  I glanced back over my shoulder as the cool morning wind tangled my hair behind me and the boat zipped over the waves at high speed. Mutt stood on one of the padded seats to the right of the speedboat with his nose to the salty air and his ears flapping in the wind.

  Any moment now, Fox and JJ would be home from their run. They'd head back into the house, find my note on the kitchen island and-

  My cell phone started ringing in my pocket and my gut twisted in anticipation of the coming explosion.

  "Hey," I answered brightly, glancing towards the horizon where the rising sun was making the sea glitter like diamonds.

  "What the fuck kind of note is this?" Fox demanded.

  "I thought it was pretty self-explanatory," I replied.

  "‘Gone to tea with Rick?’ The same Maverick who is out for our blood, who hates all of us and-"

  "Saved Chase's life? Yeah, that's the one. I brought him a fruit basket from all of you to say thanks. And might I add that the three of you should actually be delivering this thank you yourselves. I mean, I'll let Chase off due to his incapacitated state and all that, but you and JJ owe Maverick now and you know it."

  The line was silent for several seconds though I was almost certain I could hear the sound of Fox grinding his teeth.

  "I want you back by nightfall."

  "And I want the moon to come live in my pocket. Dreams are pretty things, Badge, but I haven't quite figured out how long I'm gonna be visiting with Rick for so just calm your onions, trust me like you say you do and enjoy a few hours of peace. Or days. Whatever. I'll keep you posted.”

  "And what exactly am I supposed to do in the meantime while I'm freaking out over what you might be doing over there?"

  "Well, Chase needs a sponge bath," I suggested. "You could take care of that and maybe make a slow-motion video of it for me while you're at it. Soap him up good, Badger. I know you're the perfect man for the job."

  Fox agreed vehemently - or started cursing me out. Hard to tell with the roar of the speedboat's engine and the crash of the waves. So I just cut the call and bit my lip while I gave that fantasy some solid air time in my mind.

  Mutt yipped excitedly and I looked his way, a grin splitting my cheeks as I spotted what he'd seen. A dolphin leapt up out of the water beside the boat, another right behind it and my heart swelled as I caught sight of more and more of them chasing along in my wake.

  I started snapping photos and sending them to the group chat I'd made with the boys. It was designed to give Chase a little peek out of his window at the world while he was recovering, and I’d bought him a new phone especially for the job. Okay, okay, I’d stolen it. From a kid. But seriously, that kid needed to spend less time on his phone and more time enjoying the world, so I’d done him a solid in hindsight. Besides, Chase needed it more and I wanted him to remember there was lots to smile about even when the dark crept in on you, because that was the only way he was going to survive the darkness that Shawn had tried to stain his soul with. Only me and JJ actually sent anything to the chat though. Fox was still playing the grumpy asshole and Chase was clearly not interested - except I could see that they both saw the messages. Every single one always lit up with that little notification to show me they'd read them within seconds of me sending them, so I knew deep beneath their cool, bad boy exteriors they were squealing over the dolphins with me too.

  I took a few selfies with the dolphins in the background and squished my face beside Mutt's and even took a quick video of me conversing with the dolphins in their native language.

  JJ sent me a voice note of him cracking up at my spot on impersonation and I enjoyed the company of the dolphins for more than half of the trip across the water before they peeled away from me as I approached Dead Man's Isle.

  The armed thugs raised guns and shouted shit at me while I waved enthusiastically and brought the boat up to the end of the jetty. I tossed the mooring rope into the face of a guy who was pointing a pistol at me, and he snarled angrily as he caught it.

  "Hey, Dave!" I said with a grin as I lifted Mutt off the seat and helped him up onto the jetty. I had to clamber over my surfboard and the sick new board I'd bought for Rick to follow him, and the fruit basket was one heavy bitch, so I passed that to a reluctant Dave before climbing up myself.

  "My name is Rupert."

  "Dude, it's my accent. You can't blame me for a slight twang on the pronunciation," I said, waving him off as I turned back to the boat and leaned down to start dragging the surfboards out.

  "Well look what the tide washed up," Rick's voice called to me as I was ass up in my white sun dress and half falling into the boat. I whipped around so fast I fell back on my butt on the wooden boards.

  Maverick stood there, arms folded and scowly, wearing a pair of b
lack shorts and a black tank with a pair of dark shades on his face. Honestly, that dude was a walking talking cliche, but he made it look hot as fuck so who was I to complain?

  I abandoned the surfboards and leapt to my feet with a little bit of a squeal, breaking into a sprint as I raced for him and a bunch of his asshole Damned Men raised their weapons.

  "If any of you aims your gun at her again, I'll-" Rick cut off as I leapt on him, arms and legs going fully around him and my weight hitting him at speed so that he stumbled back a step before managing to balance us. "What are you-"

  I shut him up with my lips on his, kissing him hot and hard, my fingers fisting in his hair as he gripped my ass and kissed me back with equal ferocity.

  Fuck, I'd missed him. I hated this water that divided us all the goddamn time. I hated knowing he was so close and so far away all at once. Sunset Cove may have begun to feel like home again for me, but it would never truly be that while he remained away from it. From me. From us.

  Rick broke away from my lips and I dropped my mouth to his neck, my skin heating and burning beneath his touch as I kissed and bit at his flesh, the scrape of his stubble against my lips making me moan.

  "Fuck off," he barked loudly to his men. "Every last one of you."

  There was a flurry of movement all around us, but I was blind to it as Maverick used his grip on my ass to rock my hips over the thick bulge of his erection between my thighs.

  He turned us towards a small lookout hut at the end of the jetty where it met with the sand of the beach and slammed my back against it hard enough to force the breath from my lungs.

  "I've missed you, baby girl," he growled against my lips, his hand shifting beneath the hem of my skirt as he found the string securing my bikini bottoms at my hip. "I've missed those ocean blue eyes of yours. These filthy lips." He bit down on my bottom lip to accentuate that point and I moaned for him as he yanked the bikini string undone. "I've missed that round ass." He slapped it hard enough to make me gasp, while his hips kept me pinned against the hut and his other hand yanked the other side of my bikini bottoms undone. "I've missed your perfect fucking tits," he added, tugging my dress down hard enough to make them spill out the top of it before his mouth closed over my nipple and his teeth dragged across the diamond hard point of it. "And I've missed this wet, wet, pussy." A cry escaped me as his cock drove into me without any fanfare or build up and he sunk it all the way to the base with the kind of brutality I fucking adored from him.

  "Jesus, Rick," I gasped, my head falling back as the sun beat down on us and the sea lapped beside us.

  "Fuck, you feel like heaven," he groaned, drawing almost the entire way back out of me before driving in again hard. "This is for sure the closest I'm ever gonna get to it anyway."

  "I don't want heaven, Rick," I moaned. "I like the dark too much for that."

  Maverick laughed darkly, his hands repositioning to grip my ass as he drew back again and looked me in the eyes. "Say it."

  I bit my lip as I looked at him, moving my hands to toy with my breasts and tugging on my nipples while he watched like a hungry wolf. "You own me, Daddy," I teased. "So prove it."

  Maverick's eyes lit with fire and he slammed into me again with such force that I knew my cries were being heard by every single one of his gang no matter how far away they'd scurried at his command. But I didn't care because he did own me and if he wanted the whole world to know that then I was going to let him show them.

  Maverick fucked me harder and harder, my fingernails biting into his shoulders while I drove my heels into his ass to encourage more, my pussy gripping his hard length tightly as each thrust pushed me closer and closer to oblivion.

  He kissed me like he was trying to devour me, his tongue worshipping mine as he drank in the sound of my moans.

  He lifted a hand to my throat and the noise that escaped me as he locked his inked fingers around it was pure sex.

  His eyes met mine as he drove into me harder and harder, his grip tightening and hips pistoning until I couldn't breathe, and all of my damage was forced to the surface of my skin. But as he looked upon me in that raw, broken place, the hunger in his eyes only sharpened, his dick driving into me even more eagerly until I was breaking for him, shattering, exploding and coming so hard that my vision blacked out.

  Maverick kissed me hard as he released his grip on my throat, his cock plunging in and out of me while my pussy spasmed around him and I rode out wave after wave of pleasure.

  But before I'd even come down from my high, he was yanking out of me and pushing me to my knees before him.

  "Open wide, beautiful," he commanded, a fist in my hair as I blinked up at him through the haze of my orgasm.

  I did as he commanded, moaning around his cock as he drove it between my lips and began fucking my mouth exactly how he wanted it. He wasn't gentle with me but that only made it hotter, knowing he was taking what he needed from my body in exactly the way he liked.

  His shaft bulged and swelled in my mouth and with a throaty groan, he came hard, spilling his cum down my throat as I half choked on his cock.

  He pulled back with a sigh like he'd been needing that more than words could express and I smiled up at him as I bit down on my swollen lip.

  "Tell me who owns you, baby," I teased and he smirked at me.

  "You, beautiful. Only you. Always you."

  Rick tugged me to my feet and I tugged my dress back up to cover my tits while he righted his shorts. The only piece of clothing that had actually made it off of either of us was my bikini bottoms in our haste to reunite and it only took me a moment to resecure them.

  I spotted Mutt sitting at the far end of the jetty, looking out to sea with his ears back. He glanced over his shoulder at me, and I swear if dogs could raise judgemental eyebrows then that was what he was doing. But I’d seen him humping a dead seagull the other day on the beach so who was he to judge?

  "So are you gonna tell me what I did to earn that little treat?" Maverick asked curiously, his gaze falling to the fruit basket that had been abandoned on the jetty beside my boat.

  "You know what you did," I scoffed. "You saved Ace. You brought him back to us."

  "I dunno if I'd put it like that," Rick said dismissively. "I just didn't want some other asshole to take away my kill. If anyone is gonna be carving up the Harlequins, then it'll be me."

  I ran a hand through my hair and looked up at him, shaking my head in disbelief. "Whatever you wanna tell yourself, Rick. But we both know you can't bullshit a bullshitter. So just cut the crap and enjoy the fruit basket the boys sent you to say thanks."

  "If a Harlequin had something to do with the creation of that fruit, then I want nothing to do with it."

  "Oh yeah, Fox sprouted a pineapple tree right outa his ass especially for the occasion," I mocked.

  "Pineapples don't grow on trees," Maverick grunted.

  "Err, yeah they do. Like coconuts," I disagreed.

  "No they don't. They grow on the ground on grassy bush things."

  "That seems super unlikely, dude. The crows would get them if they just grew on the ground."

  "Crows can fly, so if they wanted to eat pineapples they could get them from a tree as easily as the ground," Rick argued.

  "So you admit they grow on trees?" I demanded.

  "No. Just Google it."

  "I don't trust some alien on the internet, Rick. I believe what I see with my own imagination. And pineapples definitely grow on trees." I grabbed the heavy basket of fruit and swung it into his arms before taking out my phone and snapping a pic of him holding it. "Smile, dude, you don't look cool when you frown like that in photos - you just look grumpy."

  "Fuck off. Why are you taking photos of me anyway?"

  "I'm just sending your gushing appreciation back to the boys. Ah look, here's a reply - Fox says he hopes you don't choke on any of it. Aww, that's sweet."

  Maverick barked a laugh, his gaze whipping from me to the boat where he spotted the two surfboards and he
fell still.

  "What's that about?" he asked, placing the basket of fruit down again.

  "Well, I was thinking about that time you kept me prisoner out here on your isle of boredom and how you'd done absolutely nothing fun the whole time we were here. And then I realised I'd never even caught a sniff of some board wax on you, and I realised that you mustn't have gotten around to getting yourself a board yet. So on account of you saving Ace, and me being all kinds of grateful, I got you one."

  "I thought the sex was your way of saying thank you," he grunted, his mask a vacant kind of blank that gave me the sudden feeling that he was about to refuse to go surfing with me.

  "No, dude. The sex was because you're hot and you have a really big cock. But the surf is my gift to you. So are you gonna come catch some waves with me or are you too chicken shit?" I tugged my dress over my head and dropped it to the wooden jetty so that I was left standing there in my navy bikini.

  Maverick still looked inclined to say no so I sighed dramatically and began heaving my own board up out of the boat.

  "I guess I'll have to tell the boys you can't surf for shit these days then."

  "I haven't surfed since the last time you and me were in the water together, beautiful," Maverick said in a low tone and I stilled, my heart twisting at his words.

  He used to love the surf almost as much as I did. I'd be down at the beach every damn morning with my board before school and the others all joined me with varying frequency, but Rick was there most often. We were free when we were out on the water. I knew I’d been missing that like crazy while I was away from this place and I got the feeling he could do with some freedom even more than I could.

  “Fine,” he agreed at last, nudging me aside as he grabbed both boards and lifted them out of the boat. “I’ll come surf with you so long as you stay the night. I’m sick of sleeping in a bed that you’re not in and I want unrestricted access to that body of yours all night long.”