After what seemed like an eternity of torture, flicking his thumb back and forth over her lower folds, Shane finally crooked his finger to move her panties aside. At the sight of the weeping desire between her legs, he groaned. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this.”
When his lips covered her, Shane wasn’t gentle. Holly shrieked, clutching at the edge of the table. The man’s firm hold on her thighs prevented her from escaping as he mouthed her roughly between the legs, his tongue darting out to lap eagerly at her honey. At her taste, he groaned again, the vibrations making her knees weak. It was much, much too much for her to bear, and Holly’s toes curled almost painfully when Shane found the minute beat of her clit to lick and suck powerfully.
When his thumb pressed into her slick entrance as his teeth grazed her clit with tender pressure, she came apart with his name on her lips. Holly clutched at the desk wildly for purchase as sensation thrummed through every nerve ending in her body, making her quiver powerfully atop the desk.
She felt Shane’s deep sound of satisfaction all the way to her toes, and when the man’s mouth left her, an aftershock of pleasure jolted through her system, making her gasp.
When her lover straightened, his mouth shone with her leavings, and Holly blushed hotly. Shane licked his lips, lowering his hands to the button on his jeans, and Holly’s eyes widened at the size of the bulge that strained against the zipper. She watched, utterly transfixed, as the man undid the fastening carefully, allowing his engorged member to spring free.
Holly didn’t think she’d ever seen anything so beautiful in her entire life. As Shane stroked his cock, she found her inner muscles contracting in anticipation and had to force herself to breathe. “I’m going to say sorry before we start,” Shane rasped, taking hold of her hips to edge her onto the edge of the desk. “Cause I’ve wanted this for fucking ever and I haven’t touched a woman in eight years. “
“Sorry for what?” Holly replied breathlessly.
She got her answer when Shane slammed home with a force that drew a strangled moan from her and pinned her against the desk. A choked cry escaped her as he filled her in that single stroke, the pleasure so intense it bordered on pain and brought tears to her eyes. Shane hardly gave her a moment to adjust before he began a brutal rhythm, pounding her into the desk with a force that drove the heavy piece of furniture across the floor.
Tommy would never have been so rough. Tommy, who was gentle touches and tender kisses…
When Shane yanked one of her legs over his shoulders, angling a thrust so deep Holly saw stars, she screamed, clutching at him for dear life. She felt as if her entire body was coming apart, as if each thrust of Shane’s rock hard cock into her willing, wet haven would be her ultimate undoing.
“Fucking Christ…” Bracing a hand against the wall when the desk could go no further, Shane uttered an epithet in a guttural moan. “I’m gonna come, Holly…”
She’d been on the pill since Maddy was born – and Holly would be damned if she was robbed of the feel of Shane emptying himself inside her.
“Do it,” She demanded almost deliriously. “Give it to me, Shane. All of it.”
With an almost violent growl, he reached between them to find the plump bead of pleasure above where they were joined. The moment he touched it, rubbing the tender nub ruthlessly, Holly clamped down on him with a shuddering moan, her body arching against his like a bowstring loosing an arrow.
Shane slammed into her one last time, a low, long groan escaping him as the long, heated spurts of his completion filled her.
When he’d finished, he sagged against her, his head falling into the crook of her neck and shoulder. As the sweat on their bodies cooled, Holly realized what an absurd position she was in. She wasn’t sixteen anymore, tumbling and flipping at football games – and yet her knee was touching her shoulder, Shane buried so far within her that she could still feel him twitching.
When she moaned softly in discomfort, he pressed up from the desk, straightening to look down at her. In that moment, his damp hair hanging over his brow as he gazed down at her, Holly felt her heart fill for this man.
The man she wanted with every fiber of her being, but knew she couldn’t have.
“You alright?” He murmured gruffly, reaching down to stroke a strand of dark hair from her face.
Holly didn’t think she’d ever been more alright in her life. She felt sleepy and sated – truly calm for the first time since Tommy had passed. “Mmhmm.”
Shane smirked, moving carefully as he withdrew from her. The moment he did, Holly’s body cried out for him, his absence an acute pang of pain she felt low in her gut. He helped her straighten, tugging her to the edge of the desk to help her slide down. When she stood on her own two feet, however, Holly’s left leg collapsed beneath her and she went down with a cry of pain.
Fuck. Fuck.
She’d almost forgotten about her left leg. It wasn’t the one Shane had been doing acrobatics with, and in the wake of two amazing orgasms, it certainly hadn’t been her first concern. Now, the pain had returned with a vengeance. Pain that almost sent her scurrying to the hospital in the wake of Kirk Luckston’s last visit.
The man had pressed her against the desk with such force that she’d felt several somethings pop, and ever since then, she struggled to hide it.
“Holly.” Shane immediately reached for her, his arms curling beneath hers to help her back to her feet. “What happened? Are you Ok?”
She nodded frantically, but when she put weight on her hip again, she couldn’t help the hiss of pain that escaped her. Raunchy, intense sex most certainly hadn’t helped her injury. In fact, from the feel of things, it had only exacerbated it. “Goddamn it,” In the space of five seconds, Shane’s tone had gone from a seductive whisper to a frustrated snarl. “Let me see.”
He jerked her around to examine her left hip and sucked his breath in sharply. “What?” Holly demanded. “What is it?” She hadn’t bothered to look at the damn thing. Truth be told, she was afraid to. Craning her head over her shoulder, Holly found herself greeted with the sight of deep black and purple bruising down her left buttock and thigh, with spots of red at the back of her hip. A low cry of shock an alarm escaped her.
While she was still taking in the sight, a piece of fabric hit her in the face. Holly just managed to catch it, and her expression turned outraged as she met Shane’s blazing green gaze. “Put your clothes on. I’m taking you to a hospital.”
Holly immediately stiffened. She couldn’t go to the hospital. What if Kirk found that she’d been admitted? What if he got suspicious and visited her house while she was gone? She couldn’t take the chance.
Her response was purely instinctive – fueled by what she knew the man could do to people.
Had done to her.
“Like hell you are.”
Shane stared at her as if she’d grown another head. “What did you just say?”
When he looked at her like that, his green eyes gleaming dangerously, Holly almost lost her courage.
Almost, but not quite.
Drawing herself up to her full height as best she could, she stared him down. “I’m not going to the hospital. I said I was fine and I meant it, Shane.”
Though the man had pulled on his jeans, he was still shirtless, and Holly was treated to the sight she had fantasized about on the first day he came to visit as the man stalked towards her. His chest was covered with a network of inked images, and as he moved, the minute contractions of his muscles made the entire affair ripple in a way that made her lightheaded with renewed desire. “Don’t be stupid, Holly. Your hip could be broken – at the very least dislocated. You need treatment.”
“I fell.” When she spoke again, her voice was more unsteady than before, despite the strength she tried to inject it with. “I’m fine.”
“For the love of God, Holly, you’re getting to the hospital one way or the other. You can either agree with me, or I can drag your ass. Which is it going to be
?”
Holly gaped at him in shock. “You wouldn’t.”
Shane very quickly proved her wrong, reaching down, he snatched her dress from her and tossed it aside before tugging his own button up onto her torso. Though Holly fought him tooth and nail, it wasn’t long before the man had hauled her over his shoulder, making her shriek with indignity. Despite the pain in her hip, panic kept her struggling. She couldn’t check into a hospital. She’d be leaving Maddy alone! Who would protect her if Luckston came for her?
Helpless tears pouring down her face, she pounded Shane’s back furiously as he carried her out of the restaurant and into the warm night air. He didn’t understand.
He would never understand.
**
Holly wasn’t speaking to him.
Leaning against the wall outside her hospital room, Shane sighed, attempting to quell his frustration. He didn’t know who to be angrier with: Holly or himself. How the hell had he allowed himself to be so rough with her when she was injured? Why hadn’t she stopped him? Drawing his hands heavily over his face, he groaned.
He was still shirtless, and so the few nurses manning the floor at this hour of the morning gave him funny looks as they passed. Shane didn’t give a fuck what they thought. He only cared about one thing, and that was Holly.
The doctors already told him that her hip was dislocated – probably had been for several days. Her scream when they popped it back into place had cut straight through him, and Shane found himself seething with fury.
What was wrong with her? How the hell did she expect to be able to get around with an injury like that? Whatever the hell might have happened to her, she was a fool to go without medical help for so long.
Why was she so goddamn hard on herself? Wasn’t it enough that Tommy had left her with a mountain of problems?
Shane straightened just enough to see into the hospital room where Holly lay. She stared stubbornly out the window and every time he attempted to speak with her, she demanded to be taken home.
He was reminded of the backbone she’d always had. Even as a teenager, Holly had never been the type to have her life dictated for her…which was why he’d been so surprised that she’d gotten pregnant at the age she had.
Holly had once had dreams and aspirations just like Tommy did…what made her give hers up for him?
Shane was still wondering how to put himself back into Holly’s good graces without wringing her neck when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Scowling, he glanced down at the bulky shape against his thigh accusatorily. It was three in the goddamn morning. Who the hell could be calling him?
As a custodian passed with a cart of freshly washed hospital gowns, he snatched one to drape over his upper half. The nurse’s beady, judging eyes were starting to get to him.
Shane was about to enter Holly’s room and speak with her again when his phone chirped. A text message. With a sigh, he withdrew the device from his pocket. If it was his old man wondering where he was, he was liable to chew his head off.
When Shane glanced at his screen, however, he was surprised to see a message from an unknown number.
CALL ME
Frowning, Shane wracked his brain for who might need him at this hour. Again, no one came to mind. A glance into Holly’s room was enough to confirm that she was still pissed at him, and so, Shane dialed the number the message came from, his curiosity getting the better of him.
The voice that answered the call was unfamiliar, but Shane knew trouble when he heard it.
And this was trouble. “Shane Wilder. Long time no see. You think we wouldn’t notice you roaming the streets?”
His gaze narrowed at the blatant threat. “Who the hell is this? What do you want?”
A mirthless chuckle answered his demand. “What we want? The same thing we’ve always wanted, Wilder: Our goods. You were safe in your little lockup, but now you’re back to playing by our rules.”
Shane’s blood immediately ran cold.
Fuck.
It had been months since he’d received his last unmarked letter in the slam. Before then, they had arrived like clockwork – the fifteenth of every month – each and every one demanding the same information.
The goddamned product. The drugs Alex murdered for – and the crime that put him behind bars when his brother was gutted like a goddamn pig.
Chapter 8
Shane would be lying if he didn’t admit that he was impressed. But then again, he’d always been impressed when it came to Alex. He could still remember the first time he met his friend – it had been a hot Miami evening and he couldn’t believe someone as notorious as Alex Paine would have any interest whatsoever in him, but after they’d smoked a few weed cigarillos, the much younger Alex invited him over to his abode.
And what an abode it was.
At the time, Alex was living in the place his father bought for he and his mother when they visited the sunshine state – and it was larger and more grandiose than anything Shane had seen in his entire life. While his own family was fairly well off – Tommy and he had grown up in an upper middle class neighborhood- Alex lived the life of riches every young adult dreamed of.
And all because his father ran New York City.
While Shane hadn’t known precisely what that meant at the time, he damn well did now – but that didn’t mean Alex’s new pad impressed him any less. When he pulled up on his gleaming black Harley, he was immediately greeted by a man that looked like he’d been chiseled from a boulder. As big as Shane was, as big as Alex was, this man had to be close to seven feet tall. He asked Shane what his business was at the enormous gated estate behind him and Shane quietly mentioned his name and who he had come to see.
The man’s changed his demeanor immediately.
“My apologies, Mr. Wilder. I’ll buzz you in. Mr. Paine will see you immediately.”
And with that, he stepped aside, pressing a button on the ten-foot high wrought iron gate so that it slid back just enough to admit Shane and his bike. The dark-haired man re-mounted and made his way into a huge courtyard that rivaled some of those in Miami’s most expensive neighborhoods – not that this wasn’t one of them. It was simply a little further under the radar than most.
The man’s compound was immense – turreted and sectioned off almost like a castle, and there were armed men everywhere that Shane cared to look. One promised to keep an eye on his bike before directing him through an ornate, iron inlaid front door that led to the heart of the house.
If Shane had ever doubted that Paine had taken up the mantle of his father’s business, his doubts were very quickly assuaged. While he assumed that what his friend had offered him right out of prison wasn’t completely on the books, at the time, he thought the money might simply belong to Alex’s father in its entirety.
But no – only someone with power in their own right lived in a place like this – and if that was the case, Alex had definitely moved up in the world.
As he made his way towards an immense, high-ceilinged great room with a sixty inch, pristine television, he was stopped in the doorway by more security. Shane arched a brow when he was asked to raise his hands so that he could be patted down. He was wearing a wife beater and jeans- there was literally nowhere for him to hide a weapon.
“Guys, guys.” All at once, Alex appeared from the Great Room as his men were searching Shane. “What the hell is all this? Back up, back up.” He pressed his guards away from Shane, his expression displeased. “Guys, this is Shane Wilder. We don’t fuck with this man. I owe him my fucking life.” The guards immediately scurried back to their positions, apologizing profusely.
Shane couldn’t help but be slightly amused at the display, despite his current distress. “So what, you breaking fingers if these guys piss you off?”
Alex snorted, shaking his head. “I’m not my dad. Not by a long shot.”
And that was probably a good thing. In his time behind bars, Shane had learned more about Alex’s father than he might have cared to.
Of course, before he’d been put away, he had some idea. Alex Paine was the son of Jackson Paine – one of New York’s leading crime lords. Of course, Jackson would argue that he was the leading crime lord. He’d probably had enough of his rivals killed to have earned the title on bloodthirstiness alone. The fact that at least twenty percent of the criminals Shane had done time with were somehow connected to the Paine Organization said a lot – especially considering that Miami was a long fucking way from New York.
But Alex was nothing like his father. He didn’t do shootouts on the streets and revenge killings. He wasn’t a cruel employer, and he didn’t commit violence when he didn’t find it absolutely necessary.
But when he did…well…then he could be just as ruthless as Jackson.
Or so Shane heard.
“Glad you made time in your busy schedule to come see me man.” Shane slapped him on the back, his grin pleased. “Heard you’re working at your Dad’s shop.”
“Yeah,” Shane ran a hand through his hair, recalling the ornery old man who never missed an opportunity to tell him how much he’d fucked up. He had to admit that the affection they showed for one another was fucked up – but theirs wasn’t the relationship that most needed help.
At that particular moment, he was pretty sure Holly was never going to talk to him again – and he was struggling to figure out why.
“Yeah. Trying to spend as much time away as humanly possible.” With a grimace, Shane scratched at the stubble on his chin thoughtfully and Alex nodded in understanding.
“Right, man. I feel you. Let me get us a drink and we can talk about this issue of yours.”
He led Shane into the great room, and the tattooed man gazed around the elaborate digs in awe. He’d be lying to himself if he didn’t admit he was tempted. Alex would probably never have money problems in his life – his illegitimate profession ensured that he would always be comfortable, even if he was always looking over his shoulders for the cops.
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