by Lynn Burke
Gone to all thoughts but her, knowing her, seeing her, I grasped her thighs, spreading them wide, her skin so fucking addictive beneath my calloused palms. Pulling out to the tip hurt, but the lush feel of her body swallowing me back in…
“Not gonna fucking last, little lamb,” I managed through clenched teeth.
“Help me, Ryker.” She tossed her head to the side, eyes clenched shut, her arms shaking from holding onto the headboard. “Please touch me—help me.”
I pulled out halfway and slid a thumb up the back of my dick, crossing over to her skin where we joined, straight to her swollen clit.
“Tell me how to touch you,” I rasped out, rubbing in circles, unable to even think about engine parts or fuck into her for fear of blowing my load too early.
“Just like that.” She gasped and jerked at I pressed harder, her lower lip between her teeth.
I continued the action, enthralled by the concentration on her face, the noises coming from her shuddering chest. Dipping my fingers down once more, I gathered more wetness, leaning forward to plank on one arm while rubbing her hard nub.
“Need…” She licked her lips, her head thrashing. “Please.”
I pushed in, teeth clenched as tingles started in my lower back.
Fucking doomed.
“Come around me, little lamb. Soak my cock, Pia … fuck, I need to feel you come all over my dick.”
“Ahh…” Her chest rose as she arched, mouth opened.
“Look at me.”
Her eyelids lifted—and she climaxed with enough force around me, I saw fucking stars. I lost control. Head dipped, I watched my dick fuck into her with frantic thrusts, smashing her headboard against the wall—chasing the goddamn tingles shooting toward my balls.
I convulsed at the first spurt. Cursed myself for not pulling out. Thrust and unloaded more spunk, whispering her name as she cried out a second time, another rush of wetness, another spasm of her pussy sucking me deeper.
“Fuck!” I gasped for breath with the last twitch of my dick, head drooping between my shoulders, forehead on her chest, my heart pounding in my ears, her hot breath caressing my scalp. “Holy fucking hell.”
“Okay?” she whispered, still breathless and keeping her hands to herself.
I realized she’d even managed to keep her heels on the bed.
“Yeah.” I breathed out a heavy exhale. “Better than okay.” I nibbled on her breast before pushing up—and trying to shove my semi deeper into her soaked pussy. “Fucking perfect.”
I pulled out in a rush of cum, my brow furrowing. “Sorry about taking you bare.”
“It’s okay. I’m on the pill.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s okay, Ryker.”
I nodded and rolled off the bed, hanging onto my pants to keep them from dropping to my ankles and tripping me as I made my way to the bathroom.
****
I laid on my side, watching Pia sleep. Lips parted, pink still flushing her cheeks. Seemingly innocent as a child … how could a man steal from such kindness? Hurt such a sweet spirit?
A man like my father.
The muscle in my jaw ticked, but I forced myself to remain calm.
Pia had known abuse at the hands of the man who was supposed to help see her through to her adult years, same as I had but, unlike me, she’d chosen the high road. A life dedicated to helping the innocent ones like herself who didn’t have a family to call their own.
I hadn’t known respect for too many people in my life, but Pia topped them all. A warrior. A nurturing mother-type to those who needed one. An angel in human form with a heart of absolute fucking gold. She would make an unbelievable mother. That truth sent an ache through my chest.
A strand of her hair lay over her cheek, and I gently tucked it back, my fingertip brushing the top of her ear.
She didn’t stir—and my gut didn’t twist.
I’d been able to touch her. Fuck her face to face, three times, watch her eyes as she came around me. The possibilities ahead…
My chest tightened.
Possibilities, yes, but allowing such vulnerability could leave me in a worse place than where we’d started. It could fucking end me.
Pia was too good for me, and she would eventually realize that and take her affection away. The though made me want to vomit, but I couldn’t pull myself from her bed to leave. I’d had no intentions of staying the night, but her whispered plea for me to stay had decided the rest of my evening. I considered the heart I thought I’d lost years earlier, the emotions and desires I had for more, letting me know it still beat hopefully inside my soul.
I feared rejection, but I feared losing her almost as much. I hadn’t had my fill of Pia Hill—I wanted more.
I’m going to enjoy you just a little bit longer, I whispered in my head while finally closing my eyes. But I hope you don’t hate me for keeping my heart locked away.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Pia
I woke before my alarm clock and glanced over to find Ryker on his back, breathing heavy. Stubble covered his head, and I settled on my side to study the man who had turned my entire world upside down and inside out.
He didn’t believe he was a good man, and from the outside looking in, most of society would agree with his findings. But he’d allowed me inside. Allowed me a peek into his thought processes, his emotions that he didn’t seem too fond of.
We’d made progress the night before, leaps and bounds beyond what I’d even hoped for, and he officially knew more about me than my closest friends. I’d flipped, unloaded all my dirty laundry—and he still stuck around when I’d feared he would leave. He’d let his walls down, even.
His touch, the little it was, had thrilled me, turned me on more than any man’s had. I’d felt like a blushing virgin bride, experiencing arousal and lust for the first time.
Warmth between my thighs shifted my lower half on the mattress, and Ryker’s breathing paused for a second.
I held still—but it was too late.
He turned his head, sleepy lids peeling upward, and the softness in his hazel eyes, the complete lack of shielding, made me want him all the more. The desire to roll on top of him, kiss us both breathless, and take him into my body shot adrenaline through me like sparks from a fire—crackling and ready to explode.
“Morning,” I whispered instead, unable to keep from smiling as my insides jittered. I could wake up to him every morning without complaint…
“Morning,” he grumbled, his rumbly voice pebbling my nipples. “Coffee.”
I laughed outright and climbed out of bed, knowing from our time in Ogunquit there wouldn’t be cuddles and morning sex. Coffee, the love of his life, it seemed, it would be. At least I had a French press and good grinds rather than single packet brewer bags like the hotel.
****
Ryker stayed the next night—business to take care of in Southie with his mom’s condo and final legal details putting the place up for sale since Jenny had decided to stay in Vegas for the time being. I didn’t ask, simply made him dinner when I got home and lost myself in his eyes when we’d ended up in bed, me beneath him, his fingertip touches more sure and with less hesitancy.
Still no kissing, but the hope I had bubbling inside me could float a fishing boat.
He invited me to spend the weekend at his place in Topsfield—spend the weekend at the club. Meet his brothers. Their old ladies.
His real family, he’d called them.
Giddiness lit me up from the inside, and not hugging his back as we sped up the highway on Friday night proved near impossible. Without saddle bags like Warden’s bike, I ended up using my backpack, every nook and cranny stuffed full.
I allowed myself a few thigh brushes against his, and even brushed my elbow against his while we washed up the dinner dishes at his home late that evening.
And what a home, definitely more than a single man needed. I wondered if he’d bought it subconsciously thinking about his future, wa
nting a wife and children, but I didn’t want to pry and put him on edge.
I’d never seen him so relaxed, and I wished for more of the same—for that would ensure even more progress between us.
That ease dissipated Saturday afternoon as we readied to head to the Viper’s club. Tension ate at his shoulders, and his eyes glinted with wariness—concern for something. He brushed aside my question if he was alright, so I climbed onto the back of his bike once more, my own nerves rising.
He’d told me a handful of names, even mentioning Warden and his woman along with Stone and his new girl—and couldn’t hide the envy in his voice. I didn’t doubt at that point, he did wish for more. That he did yearn to live life like a normal man.
My desire, my determination to help him, tripled.
Regardless of what I would find at the Viper’s den, I would stand by him—even if he wasn’t yet my man.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ryker
Pia sat primly in the chair beside me at the table the officers lounged around. At least the music had lowered enough conversation wasn’t difficult. Not that Warden or Stone would have noticed or cared. Both sat, legs sprawled, their women on their laps, lost in their own fucking worlds.
I had a beer in front of me rather than the whiskey my head and throat craved.
Pia brushed the back of her hand against mine where they both set atop the table, and I managed to not jerk away like an asshole. My shift in my chair betrayed my unease, though, and she mouthed a, “Sorry” to me.
I dipped my head to let her know no big deal—and Vigil caught my eye, his eyebrow raising.
A scowl dented my brow, and I slugged down a few swallows of my ice cold beer.
So fucking weak. Why couldn’t I give in? Why couldn’t I pluck Pia off her chair and settle her in my lap where I wanted her?
“Let’s dance!” Shaun, Warden’s woman, hopped off his lap, and I noted the catchy tune spilling out of the speakers as some new girly song she and Giada had been bellowing the last time I’d been back at the club.
“Come on!” Shaun grasped Pia’s hand and pulled her up, and my brow smoothed as Pia cast me a quick, silly smile.
“Have fun,” I grunted before drinking down the rest of my beer. My gaze locked on her ass as Shaun and Giada headed a few feet away to the open area they usually danced in.
“She’s a good woman,” Vigil noted.
“Don’t I fucking know it.” I glanced around the table quickly, calculating the refills we needed. “Bucky!” I held up five fingers to the pledge manning the bar, and he nodded.
“Too fucking good,” I resumed the conversation, sitting back in my chair, hands on my thighs, my focus back on the woman I obsessed over.
“You let her touch your dick yet?” Devil asked, and I flicked him the bird. “She touched your hand, and you didn’t even flinch.”
“Pretty fucking amazing, if you ask me,” Warden tossed out. “Nice to see, Ryker.”
I nodded, only half listening.
“You gonna put a ring on it?” Devil asked, and I glanced his way, scowling.
He sat back, hands raising. “Can’t blame a brother for asking considering your past of making the whores keep their hands behind their back to suck you off.”
He spoke truth, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear.
“You fuck her face to face?”
I glared at Vigil—he alone knew I’d never had a woman that way in my forty-three years.
Our stare down lasted all of three seconds before he chuckled. “Well, goddamn.” He grinned. “I’d slap your back to congratulate you, but I like my nose where it is.”
I grunted something about his ugly mug that earned chuckles from around the table.
“You ought to claim her before she realizes what a cold hearted prick you are.”
I stared over the table at Stone and his challengingly raised eyebrow, but kept my mouth shut. I’d watched him stab Arturo twice before slicing his throat—and he called me a cold hearted prick. Fucker hadn’t shown an ounce of hesitation—and not a single one of remorse since.
“Well, I, for one, hope she sticks around long enough to crumble your walls.” Warden grabbed the beer Bucky held out to him, and lifted it, watching and waiting as the prospect handed the other four bottles over. “To Ryker, the sick son-of-a-bitch whose callous ass just might allow the soft touch of a good woman.”
“I’ll drink to that!” Devil hooted, and Vigil dipped his head in agreement, less jovial while studying my face.
We clinked our bottles together over the center of the table—how couldn’t I drink to what my heart longed for—and we guzzled down our drinks.
“She fits right in,” Vigil observed, setting his bottle back on the table, and my focus turned toward the girls.
“She’s also hot as fuck for you,” Devil said. “Watches you like a hawk.”
I wanted to argue it was her motherly-type instincts, but saying that out loud would probably sound weird as fuck.
“Fucking gone on you, if you ask me,” Stone said.
“Not asking you.” I swigged the colder brew, putting an end to the conversation.
“You ever call Klingon about watching over Jenny?” Stone asked a few seconds later.
“Yeah. He knows where she is and is watching out for her.” He, like me, wasn’t so sure she needed a full-time body guard, and I didn’t want to worry Jenny with things she had no business knowing. We’d agreed to keep things quiet, but his chapter would have her back undercover, unless something blew up in our faces.
“Jenny must love Pia—putting up with your grumpy ass,” Devil said with a chuckle, starting up the goddamn ribbing again.
I ignored their shit for as long as possible, watching Pia dance, watching her watch me, but within fifteen minutes, I’d had enough—especially once the women returned and the face sucking started up.
I roared my bike’s engine to life, and Pia and I took off out of the compound, heading north, back home.
We weren’t in the kitchen ten seconds before she stepped in front of me, blocking me from escaping. Luminous eyes peering up at me, face flushed from dancing and riding, she all but begged to be bent over the island. Fucked to within an inch of her life.
She lifted her hand, and I held my breath, allowing her to touch my beard. “You hoped for a fuller future when you bought this place, didn’t you?”
I grunted—she could take it however the hell she wanted.
“I saw your jealousy over Warden and Stone’s ease with their women. You long for that, too, don’t you?”
“I dreamed of having a few rug rats of my own one day,” I let loose with the truth, because why the fuck not? Telling her my desires wasn’t the same as putting my heart on a fucking platter for her to stab to death.
“Stupid,” I muttered when she didn’t respond.
“No.” She dropped her hand but didn’t take her focus off my mouth. “It’s not stupid in the least. If you don’t have hopes and dreams, what’s the point of living? That would be an empty existence, I think. Boring and lonely.”
I didn’t move an inch, just stood there like a goddamn buffoon while she stared at my lips, her own desire all too easy to read. Dilating pupils, parting lips, breath coming faster as the pulse in her neck heightened.
“What do you hope for, Pia?” I heard myself ask, needing to burrow into her head like I wanted to do to her body with every inch of my skin against hers.
“That you’ll kiss me some day.” She lifted her focus to my eyes, peering deep inside my goddamn soul—probably seeing the chest I’d locked my heart up inside. “Think you could?” she whispered.
I realized I’d reached out—that my palm rested on her curvy hip, without thought, without intent. My subconscious and body sure as fuck wanted her.
“I won’t kiss you back, Ryker—promise. But I need to feel your lips on mine.”
Fucking temptation to give the fuck in…
My dick jerked
to attention at the thought of having her on my lap, our mouths fused as she rode my cock…
Fuck it. If I flipped out from a simple kiss and scared her off, she’d be gone before weaseling my heart out of its cage.
I leaned down and gave Pia what she wanted.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Pia
I held my breath, beyond surprised he moved in on me, and at the slight brush of his lips across mine, I lost myself to him, my ovaries singing hallelujah and then some. Holding still hadn’t ever been so hard, and I trembled, my heart pounding as he slid the soft cushion of his mouth over mine once more.
Ryker pulled back, blinking, his attention glued to my moistened lips. My heart soared, and I couldn’t keep my smile contained.
“Again,” I told him.
He swallowed, but leaned down.
My cell rang in my back pocket—Stacey’s ringtone I’d assigned her to know if Dasia ever happened to call.
I wanted Ryker’s lips on me, but Dasia…
“I’m sorry.” I turned away and dug my cell out of my back pocket. I heard her sobs before I even got the phone to my ear. “Dasia?” I stepped back fully, my heart in my throat.
“He raped me!”
A shudder rippled over me, and I sagged against the island, clutching it with my free hand. “Ted Griffey?”
“Yes!” She sobbed, and I could make out Stacey murmuring in the background.
No. Please God. I choked on my own sob, fighting for calm, fighting to remain upright and not spew the contents of my stomach all over Ryker’s kitchen.
“He said he couldn’t help himself,” she managed to say between her hysterics. “Said his demons wouldn’t leave him alone.”
“Are you at Stacey’s?” I asked, my stomach still churning.
“Yes.”
“You have to go to the hospital, Dasia. Report this.”
“No—I can’t.”
“You have to!”
“I’m taking off the second I hang up,” she said, her voice calming the slightest as my insides heaved. “Please don’t come looking for me—I need you to leave me go this time, Miss Pia. Please.”