I’d wasted so much time with my one-night stands and rules about life. It had never been about proving to myself I could be normal and have sex and not let Colby win. For two years, I’d been punishing myself. I’d hunkered down in my grief and tried to end it all. Why had I let a mere boy destroy me?
I’d been scared for too damn long, denying myself the pleasure of falling, of that feeling you get when butterflies go crazy in your tummy. I’d been shoving them down, swallowing them whole.
Not anymore.
I jerked my shirt off and then my skirt, my hands ripping at my bra and panties. My body was already throbbing with arousal, but more than that—we needed to talk.
I yanked open the glass door. “Do not shut me out. I have something to tell you …”
I stopped and swallowed. He was wet, his hair slicked down as water coasted lazily down his throat to his chest, past the V in his hips and right to his hard-as-steel length.
I stepped inside and shut the door. I sensed something big—other than the size of his appendage.
“Are you ready to risk your heart, Elizabeth?” he said softly, watching me.
“Wha—what?”
He sent me a heavy look, laced with heat. “Right now, in this shower, you are going to tell me exactly how you feel about me.”
I shivered at the authority in his voice. “Is that an ultimatum?”
He stroked his hard length, eyes on my face. “Do you want this?”
Yes.
But first …
“This—this is going to sound really weird, but …” I swallowed, getting my nerve up. I mean, I thought he was in love with me, but was he? I sucked in a sharp breath and gathered my courage. Be brave. “I—I have a mountain to climb in life, and I want you next to me. I want you to walk up it with me—behind me to give me a push or next to me when I need to hold your hand. And when there’s a jungle there, I want you to fight with me. We’ll have machetes, and it will be tough some days when I try to figure out who I am and what I need, but with you next to me, it’ll be okay. I want you to carry me when I’m tired, and I’ll carry you when you’re tired. I want you to rub my fingers when I’ve worked a hard day making pretty things, and I’ll rub your muscles when they get hurt. I want to be the blanket that covers you when you are cold. Or vice versa. I want all of it—all the blood, sweat, and tears—no matter what dream you decide to follow. I’m here. Forever. I love you.”
“Unicorn Girl, God, I love you too.” Tears misted in his eyes and he blinked them away as I did a double take. He wasn’t the kind of guy who’d ever cry. He gathered me in his arms and kissed me deeply, his mouth soft and tender.
After a while, we pulled back. “And I’m sorry for ignoring you for the past few days and not seeing what was right in front of my face. I—I was scared.”
He kissed my nose. “I knew you loved me—or I hoped you did. You couldn’t stand it when you saw me at Cadillac’s with Lorna. Hell, you couldn’t stand it when I deliberately flirted with her in class just to get you going. But you rejected me, and shit, it felt like you’d knifed me in the gut. I never want to have that feeling again. I never want to be without you by my side. And I hate to bring up Nadia, but you have to know that I never loved her—not really. Not like this need I have for you, to sink into you and never come up for air.”
My heart filled with emotion, and I battled my own tears.
He sighed, his face softening. “The moment that dragonfly landed on you, I knew you were going to rock my world. It was my mum, telling me to see you.”
I traced my fingers across the tattoo on his neck. This beautiful Brit was hers. “Nothing matters without you. My past, my rules. It all seems so unimportant now.”
He picked me up and kissed me while I laughed against his lips. “This shower is kinda on the small side. Let’s get out and get in the bed.”
His slippery fingers skimmed down to cup one of my breasts, his touch circling closer and closer to my nipple. “Always in a rush,” he teased, his fingers finally making contact with the nerve endings on my nipple. I hissed, the sound reflecting part torture, part pleasure.
I encircled my arms around his neck and leaned back, giving him more room to play, more skin to see. He slid his hands down to my waist and toyed with my bellybutton.
“I’ll never have enough of you. I think about this constantly,” he said, easing his hand down further to palm me. “When I fought, when I worked out, when I ate, when I was in class. All I wanted was you under me and whispering how much you can’t live without me.”
He slid a finger inside me. “This. You. Me. I want it forever.”
I didn’t give him a reprieve either. I knew what made him sweat, my hands coasting over his chest, flicking at his nipples with my nail, making him groan.
I moaned as his finger pushed deep into my center, sliding against the wetness. He strummed me delicately and then harder, his fingers like magic.
“Declan,” I murmured, tasting how his name sounded when I knew that he loved me and I loved him.
“Elizabeth,” his voice huffed out.
Passion slammed into me like a tsunami.
Tingles built in my spine, the heat building as I relaxed against the shower wall while his hands worked me. Teasing. Stroking. His touch consumed every single cell in my body, the drive to possess him and be owned by him. “I’m going to come soon,” I gasped.
He moaned and twisted me around until I was facing the wall. His lips landed on my neck and he sucked hard. I called out, and he did it harder. Making me squirm with need. I gasped. “What are you doing?”
“Making you mine and letting everyone fucking know.”
He moved me again, facing me toward the shower. With a gentle pressure from his hands, he bent me over. “Put your hands on the wall and hang on,” he said softly.
He ran his hands down my back, and I felt him grasping himself as he slid into my sheath, softly at first, but then wilder, going deeper, and I tightened my muscles, accepting all of him, clenching against him. His body flexed and stroked, sliding in and out like a well-oiled machine.
“You feel so good. Never want to stop this.” His hands tangled in my hair and pulled.
His hand cupped one of my breasts, pulling on the nipple. I angled my hips higher to get more of him, to feel every single inch.
He pounded into me, his hand curving over my hips, the touch rough and then gentle. I got lost in the sounds of our sex. I went deep, my mind and body feeling part of his, as if we were one.
He grabbed my chin and turned my head around to stare deep in my eyes as he slammed his cock home. “We’ve got all night to do this.”
I closed my eyes in ecstasy.
34
The next day neither of us wanted to get out of his warm bed, but by seven I was back at my place showering. Declan was skipping classes to go talk to his father. He’d been tense most of the morning and didn’t want to say why, so I let it go.
After my first class I had a small break so I went to the Tau house to see Blake. It was ten by then and most of the brothers were up stirring around from whatever Halloween debauchery they’d gotten into the night before.
I asked where Blake’s room was and made my way up the stairs. I knocked briefly and when no one answered, I eased into the darkened room. He’d pulled the shades down and then tugged the curtains all the way closed. I smirked. Preparing for the next day hangover?
I heard a grunt, and my eyes went straight to his bed. That was when I noticed he wasn’t alone. Long, curly red hair was splayed out, half on his pillow and half still under the covers. I froze and squinted to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. A girl’s arm popped out from the covers and I saw a ring I’d made.
Shelley and Blake? It seemed crazy, but then I remembered all the time they’d been spending together. Here at the house … the parties.
Neither had seen me yet, and I couldn’t stop the silly grin that spread across my face.
I eased back ou
t of the room on tip-toes, not daring to call attention to myself or embarrass them, but I practically rubbed my hands together in glee when I thought about how I was going to surprise them both with my knowledge.
I clicked the door shut and left.
* * *
That afternoon I finished my shift at the bookstore and headed back to the apartment. My mind and body yearned for Declan, but just as I pulled in the parking lot, he was pulling out, a passenger inside a Lexus with an older gentleman who was the spitting image of Declan and Dax. Father? Where were they going?
I debated on calling him and just then he sent me a text.
I love you so fucking much. I need you bad, but my father is demanding I go to dinner to talk money. I’ll be home soon.
But he wasn’t.
I waited for him. And waited.
At midnight, I gave up and went to bed, crawling beneath the cold sheets.
Where was he?
35
A metallic sound reached my ears. I looked around the dark bedroom, checking out the balcony door, but it was shut. It hadn’t come from that direction, I decided, my attention instead focusing on my bedroom door that led out into the apartment.
It came again, a gentle scraping noise.
I tried to put a name to it and decided it was like the sound someone makes when they scratch metal with a sharp object.
Declan? My heart warmed, and I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face.
The sound came again, this time sharp and clear as a bell, and a malign tingle went down my spine.
Something was wrong, very wrong.
I was fumbling around on the nightstand for my phone when the overhead light clicked on, blinding me.
I held my hands up to shield the light and blinked.
Gasped.
A hurricane ripped through my chest.
Colby.
His hands twitched, calling attention to a roll of duct tape and a small silver knife. His nose had a slight bend to it, testament to the night Declan had broken it.
He rushed me and I scrambled up to a sitting position, but my reactions were sluggish.
He lunged over me and I twisted away on my stomach, aiming for the end of the bed, but he caught my ankle and yanked me back. He flipped me over to my back and covered my mouth and most of my nose with his hand. “You were always a bit of a handful.”
I struggled and his grip tightened, the pressure against my mouth hard enough against my teeth that I tasted the copper.
He laughed, a jagged, breathless sound. “And don’t act so surprised to see me. After all, you sent your mom and her boyfriend to blackmail my father. Did you really think I was going to let that ride?” His nose flared, anger sparking in his gaze as he put his nose next to mine.
“You really should have called me back and talked to me. We might have been able to figure this whole thing out, but you didn’t, and now I have to talk to you in person.”
God help me, I couldn’t breathe. Not really. Small amounts of air sucked in and then rushed out of my nostrils. Dark spots danced in front of my eyes, and I clawed at his hands, my nails digging in to get some muscle, but he laughed and elbowed me in the ribs.
Whoosh.
The room spiraled.
He was going to kill me. Here in my bed. He was going to finish what he’d started two years ago.
My lungs burned, ready to explode.
My body ached for air. God, help me. Someone, please.
I whimpered and kicked up at him, trying to find purchase on his shoulders, his legs, anywhere. That didn’t work, so I tried to buck him off me, my hips still able to move.
He tsked and maneuvered me up on the bed and straddled my chest with his legs. “I’m going to take my hand off your mouth so you can breathe, but if you scream, I will knife you right here, do you understand?”
I nodded, fading fast, adrenaline the only thing keeping me awake.
He eased his hand back a millimeter at a time until finally I had more air.
I opened my mouth and gulped in fresh oxygen, filling my lungs.
Yes, air, air, air!
He shoved my chin up to close my mouth and slapped a piece of duct tape over my mouth as his other hand imprisoned my wrists.
I grunted, not able to move. My eyes watered. Death loomed.
Don’t give up! the girl inside me yelled. You did once. Never again.
I flailed around, using my elbows like Declan had taught me to knock him in the nose. He screamed in pain and pounced on me harder, using his knee to pin me in place on the bed. He fished around in his pocket and pulled out a zip tie and tied my wrists together. Sweat dripped from his face into my eye, and I cringed.
I sucked air in through my nose, imagining the picture I made, my wrists bound, a piece of duct tape across my face as I lay crosswise on my bed. Memories from another bed flew at me, things I didn’t want to remember.
Straightening his shoulders and rolling his neck, he paced around my room.
He wiped a shaky hand across his mouth. “I had plans, Elizabeth. Hell, I had plans for the good life and then you start calling Father and his assistant, telling them lies about us. You’re a little slut and you want to backtrack and tell everyone that I raped you.” He barked out a laugh. It was weird and off.
His eyes flared wide, the bloodshot veins like roadmaps. Was he high?
He crossed his arms. “Father called me all high and mighty and asked me all these crazy questions about you. He was already pissed at me for getting kicked out of school, you know, and his words to me were to ‘take care of it.’ Now, maybe that meant paying you off, but you see, I really think he meant for me to do whatever necessary to make sure your little story never reaches the papers or the police.”
No! I shook my head from side to side rapidly. My eyes beseeched him. Please. Mama and Karl had given up, I wanted to scream at him. It was over. Over!
He licked his lips, hungry eyes raking over me. “You know, I remember that night at the hotel. Do you?” He ran his eyes over the scars on my wrist. “I heard about this. I really did a number on you, didn’t I?” He lifted his eyes to mine. “That’s some powerful shit, when you can make someone try to off themselves.”
I froze.
His eyes clouded in a faraway look as if chasing a memory. “You drank that vodka like water, and when I put that Molly to your lips, you lapped it up like a baby kitten looking for a milk coma.” He sat down on my bed, his fingers idly toying with Granny’s quilt. “I had to have you, I guess. You’d been telling me no for weeks and you’re the type of girl who wants too much, and I was sick of kissing your ass. I wanted you, and, in the end, I got you, didn’t I?”
He was going to kill me this time. He was on something. I knew it by the way spittle came out of his mouth.
I closed my eyes, fighting to keep the hysteria at bay.
Fighting to keep my imagination from running crazy.
I whimpered, an image of Declan in my head, his broad shoulders, his warm gray eyes, his sensual mouth that I’d never taste again. I pictured the future, us having babies—twins—me working on my jewelry while he made a living at the gym, going to the UFC. Dax popping in for dinner … laughter.
Simple and easy.
Just love. True love. Epic kind of love.
Colby speared me with his gaze, bringing me back. “Truth is, things got kinda out of control prom night. I didn’t mean to hurt you—or hit you—but that’s what happens in the heat of the moment. You were so helpless—I liked it. You get that?” He squeezed my cheeks together, his hands rough. His tongue snaked out of his mouth as he licked his lips. “You were good, Elizabeth. I liked hurting you.”
I closed my eyes.
“Don’t do that!” he barked. “I still have things to say to you.”
My eyes flew open. He kneeled onto the bed, eyes protruding with anger. “I came down here to get rid of you, but first, all this talk about prom …” He laughed bitterly. “Well, it’s go
t me excited, babe.” He jerked my hands up and pressed them against his crotch. “See? My dick is hard.”
36
A little after midnight, my dad dropped me off at my flat. We said goodbye, and maybe I sensed something new between us. Respect? I didn’t know, but we had spent the last few hours at a steak place, working through the details about a huge-ass loan I was taking from him. I’d had to swallow some of my pride to ask, but in the end it was worth a future with Elizabeth. Maybe she was okay with my illegal fighting, but I didn’t want to put any kind of stress on our relationship. Reality had hit me like a ton of bricks last night as I’d held her in my arms. Yeti wouldn’t be my last illegal fight, and there’d never be enough money for the gym. Of course, I’d given him a choice: either he gave me a loan or I continued to fight. He’d been furious at first, especially since he hadn’t known about the fighting, but in the end, he’d agreed to a loan.
I climbed the steps to the stairs and popped open my phone to search for a text from Elizabeth. She’d sent me a few, the last one around eleven.
Should I let her sleep and talk to her tomorrow?
I stopped in front of her door and knocked but didn’t get an answer.
I knocked again. Her car was there.
Did she not want to talk to me?
Was she tired from last night?
I stalked back to my place and unlocked the door. Just as I was opening the door to go inside, something pricked at me. I stepped back onto the breezeway, a sense of urgency gnawing at me.
I scanned the carpark. All looked well.
But then…
My eyes went to Minnie’s Diner across the street. Parked in the back was a sports car, its lines sleek and powerful even in the dark. Porsche?
British Bad Boys: Box Set Page 21