“Please, Cassie--” he started to say.
“But I want to, Damon. For all that you've done for me and because I genuinely want you.”
“I want you ,too. God knows, I do,” Damon said, stroking her cheek.
“Then take, me Damon. Take me as you've done before. I'm yours to take – ”
“You belong to no one, Cassie. Remember that always, okay?”
She nodded. “I didn't mean it like that, just that – I want you and I'm not doing this just because I think I owe you.”
“Good,” he said, kneeling down to the ground so he was eye level with her. “But just so you know, I didn't ask you to stop because I wanted to stop, but because you almost had me close...”
He trailed off, but Cassie knew what he meant. A mischievous grin formed on her lips, taking over her face. She kissed Damon and he kissed her back, guiding her so she was lying down flat on the bed.
They were both already undressed, making it even easier, but Damon didn't rush into it. Instead, he held himself above her, kissing her lips, her neck, her cleavage, covering her in kisses. Taking a nipple into his mouth, he teased her, causing her body to writhe beneath him, begging for him to enter her.
“Please, Damon,” she said.
Instead of making her beg for it like he did before, though, he slowly guided his cock toward her opening, letting it rest up against her. It was Cassie who thrust her pelvis upward, managing to slide the tip of him inside of her. Even that little bit sent shivers throughout her entire body. The anticipation of him being inside of her was too much so she lunged upward a bit more.
Damon thrust into her at the same time, spreading her pussy open and sliding comfortably inside. As he became sheathed inside of her and filled her up, they both groaned in pleasure. He rocked back and forth on his knees, filling her up over and over again, all while kissing and touching her. He was moving faster, gaining momentum, but he always moved as if he didn't want to break her, as if he were taking extreme care to avoid aggravating her hurts. After everything she'd been through, he didn't want to hurt her even more.
But there was no pain. Not at all. Her body was filled with such intense pleasure, she didn't feel anything but the way his cock thrust in and out of her and she wanted more. Digging her nails into his back, she lifted her body up, holding onto him with her legs.
“Oh God,” she mumbled, surprised at the sensation from the change in position.
This allowed him to thrust deeper into her. Damon let out an almost animalistic growl as he gripped her hair, pulling her face into his and thrusting his tongue into her mouth. Their bodies continued to ride out the pleasure together.
Damon was a mess; he was probably even trouble. But one thing was certain: she'd found her hero.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Relief flooded Damon's body as he made love to Cassie. The idea that Andy could have killed her, had he not gotten there in time, was in the back of his mind and continued to replay in his head. But she's not dead; she's here with me, he thought to himself. There was something there, something more than just sex this time. There was a connection, a concern for not only her pleasure, but for her happiness, as well.
As he stared down into her eyes, his cock inside of her, he couldn't get over how beautiful she was. The way her face was froze in a look of pure bliss, the way her eyes begged him to fill her up. Everything about her was beautiful.
She felt fucking amazing, as always, too. Her pussy tightening around his cock with each spasm. She was close to climaxing, he could tell, and there was nothing in the world he wanted more than to make her scream out in pleasure. Not because he wanted anyone to hear this time – but because he wanted to know she was enjoying herself. He wanted to make her feel so fucking good it would bring tears to her eyes.
And from the small gasps she was making as they made love, it was obvious she was feeling pretty damn good. Her nails dug into his back, moving up and down, scratching him from his ass to his shoulders. She'd leave a mark, that was for sure. If he weren’t bleeding right then, he knew he would be soon. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was making her feel good.
“Oh, Damon,” she cried out, her body shuddering underneath him. “Oh God, Damon.”
“Mmmm,” he whispered into her ear. “I love hearing you say my name.”
“Damon, Damon, Damon – ” she said, her voice getting higher and higher with each thrust. Each time she said his name, his own body shivered with intense pleasure. “Oh God, yes...”
The bed was shaking, hitting up against the wall, and things were getting a little heavy. He didn't want to hurt her, though, yet she was demanding her up his speed, begging him to fuck her harder. And he wasn't a man to let his woman down.
But he could feel his own orgasm building in his body. Too soon, he thought to himself. Too soon. Slowing his thrusts down, he tried to keep himself from cumming. He wasn't ready yet and wanted the pleasure to last. But in this position, Cassie grabbed onto his ass, pulling him in deep as she let out an ear-shattering scream that was bringing him closer and closer to the brink.
The vibrations within her pussy were too much for Damon who couldn't manage to control himself any longer. His own grunts and growls joined her screams as he exploded inside of her, spilling his seed into her with a wave of pleasure that seemed to last forever. He never wanted this feeling to stop, this pleasure of being inside of her as he came hard while she held onto his body, shuddering from her own climax.
But all good things must come to an end and their orgasm eventually wound down, leaving them both breathless. He fell on top of her, but rolled off, pulling his dick out of her. The exhaustion hit as if she drained him of his very last bit of his energy, and he could tell she was fighting to stay awake herself. He was on his back, she was next to him, fighting to keep her eyes open.
“Come here,” he said. “Come closer, baby.”
She did, laying her head on his chest, snuggled up next to him.
And as she drifted off to sleep, Damon couldn't help but stare down at her and smile. Even as he joined her in drifting off to sleep, content and peaceful, he fought off that inner voice that whispered to him, that told him allowing himself to get this involved and this deep was dangerous.
Damon Steele wasn't the type of man who fell in love. Not this easily. Not with women like Cassie. Considering everything they'd been through so far, he knew that the danger was only just beginning. If he were willing to kill for her, what else would be willing to do for her?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
They stood out on the back deck, drinking a beer and watching the sunset. Cassie looked over at Damon and smiled. Ever since the night in the woods, he'd been different with her. Kinder. Gentler. And she realized as the days passed, she was falling harder and harder for this man.
But he continued to keep a wall between them. He kept her at an arm's distance. It was as if he was afraid of her. Afraid of letting her in too close. Damon was more guarded with his emotions than anybody she'd ever met before. And though she thought he cared for her, she didn't know if he felt the same way. And it was breaking her heart to think that he might not.
“I never said thank you,” Cassie said.
Damon looked at her. “For what?”
She gave him a warm, genuine smile. “For saving my life. Again. You seem to be making a habit of it.”
“You seem to have a knack for getting into trouble.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I've made some poor decisions in my life.”
“Haven't we all?”
“I guess we have.”
She looked to the sky, which was turning shades of violet and orange as the sun slipped below the far horizon. She thought back to all of the time she'd wasted with Andy. All of the time she'd wasted in her life, period. Decisions she'd made came back to haunt her – her decision to drop out of school to marry Andy, being the biggest one she regretted.
She'd had a plan and a vision for her life. She'd wanted to do
things, to be somebody. But then Andy had showed up and, at first, he'd swept her off her feet. He'd made her feel special. Safe. Loved. But it wasn't long before the real Andy began to emerge. The one who wanted to own her. Possess her. Control her every thought, her every move. She was young and naïve, clinging to those rare glimpses of the man who'd first pursued her, made her feel special. She thought that his behavior, his abuse, was somehow her fault and that if she could just stop doing the things that upset him, she'd get that Andy back.
The weeks turned into months, which turned into years and she never got a glimpse of that man again. By then, she'd dropped out of school, her plan and her vision for her life forever damaged. Or at least, changed. When she'd run away, it was simply with the thought of ending her years of torment and pain. It hadn't been with the thought that she could rebuild her life and rebuild her dreams again.
But then Damon showed up and everything in her mind began to change again.
He was gruff and a little rough around the edges, but she knew he was a good man. He didn't have to, but he'd protected her. Had helped her get away from her miserable existence. He'd killed to save her. She knew he cared for her and was devoted to her in ways that maybe he didn't even understand yet. She was just hoping and praying, though, that he wouldn't reject those feelings outright. Hoping he might examine them further, deeper, and come to the conclusion that she had – that he wanted to be with her as much as she wanted to be with him.
“So, now that you're free,” Damon said, “what's next for you?”
Cassie shrugged. “I've been thinking lately that maybe I might want to go back to school. I've only got a few semesters left to get my degree and maybe finishing it out might be a good place for me to start.”
Damon nodded. “Sounds like a good plan. What do you want to do?”
Cassie smiled and blushed a little. Her dream had been to be a veterinarian. She loved animals. Loved working with them. And even though it sounds like something a child might say, she wanted to spend her life caring for them. “I've always wanted to be a vet,” she said softly.
“I think you'd be pretty good at it,” Damon said. “Max took to you pretty quick. And he doesn't like most people.”
“You just have to know how to talk to them,” she said, trying to get him to meet her gaze. “You have to know how to get inside those walls they keep up and let them know that you won't hurt them. That you care for them.”
Damon finally turned and looked into her eyes. She could see the conflict in them. She could see the fear. Feeling slightly emboldened, Cassie stepped to the edge and then taking a deep breath, stepped off.
“I'm not going to hurt you, Damon,” she said.
“I know that.”
“Then what are you afraid of?”
He shrugged. “I don't know.”
She reached up and put a hand on his cheek, drawing him down into a kiss. He pulled her close to him, running his hands through her hair as they kissed. She could feel the heat and intensity radiating off of him. His kiss was filled with meaning and she felt the wall that he surrounded himself with begin to weaken as the first cracks began to appear.
“You deserve better than me, Cassie.”
She shook her head. “No, I deserve better than Andy. And you are far better than he ever was. Maybe you're the one I've been waiting for.”
“I'm not so sure about that.”
“Maybe we should find out. Together. I care about you and want to stay, Damon. With you. I want to be with you.”
She looked into his eyes and could see that he was torn between repairing all of the cracks in those high, thick walls of his and letting them crumble to dust completely.
When she looked into his eyes, she felt hope.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Maybe we should find out. Together. I care about you and want to stay, Damon. With you. I want to be with you.”
When she spoke those words, a cold bolt of fear ripped through Damon's body. But at the same time, he felt something warm, something completely unfamiliar, but something that wasn't entirely unpleasant. He cared for Cassie. He was too far down that road to not, at the very least, acknowledge that. But his feelings for her were as complicated as anything he'd ever dealt with in his life.
After leaving the military and finding his way to Carl and the Black Dragons, Damon's life was simpler. Things were more black and white and he'd ruthlessly cut out anything that contained shades of gray. He was devoted to the club. To Carl. To his brothers in arms. They provided him with safety, structure, and a semblance of a family and community that he'd never had before. So he'd clung to it every bit as fiercely as the drowning man clings to the life preserver.
But then he'd found Cassie in that stairwell, terrified and hurt, and she'd triggered something deep within him. Something he hadn't felt since he'd watched his father beat his mother and eventually kill her. He wanted to save her. Protect her. Keep her safe. At all costs. He'd been too young to protect his mother and couldn't do anything to prevent her death. Ever since that night, though, he'd carried around a burden of guilt heavier than any pack he'd carried in the service. And it was a pack he couldn't simply drop when the run was over. It was with him all day, every day, its weight unrelenting and unceasing.
It was that need and driving force, that feeling of powerlessness and impotence that had haunted him for so long that led him to plucking Cassie out of that stairwell and bringing her back to the clubhouse. He knew it was stupid. He knew it would lead to complications the club couldn't afford. But he didn't care. He'd done what he hadn't been able to do years ago – he'd saved her life.
What he hadn't counted on was the feelings that developed as a result. Damon had figured she'd be good for a fuck now and then as long as she was staying with them and that would be it. But as he got to know her better, as he spent some time talking to her and really finding out what made her tick, something within him changed. She was no longer just some piece he'd brought back to bang, she was a person that he was beginning to care about.
And when he'd found her in the woods with Andy choking the life out of her, something inside of him snapped. He'd flashed back to the night he'd witnessed his father shooting his mother. The image ran through his mind like a highlight reel from hell. He kept seeing his mother's face the moment the bullets had torn through her body over and over and over again. He saw the look of triumph on his father's face. And he remembered the hate that had flowed through his body like a flooding river.
He didn't even recall what he'd said to Andy – or if he'd said anything at all – before he pulled the trigger. Damon didn't even know how many times he'd pulled it. All he remembered was coming down, his vision clearing, and seeing Andy dead on the ground with Cassie right beside him. At first, he'd been terrified that he'd hit her, that he'd accidentally killed her. When he saw her stirring, though, he couldn't recall feeling more relief about anything in his life.
After he'd sent her away, he took Andy's body to a deep part of the woods where there was a thick, deep swamp. It was in a remote part of the forest that didn't see much foot traffic. He'd weighted down the body as best as he could and had dumped it there. He hoped either the animals or the elements would get to the body before he was discovered. He'd taken Andy's car to a wrecking yard that a buddy of his owned. He'd disposed of the car, no questions asked – which was how Damon liked it. It was simpler. Cleaner.
And he'd done all of this for Cassie. His friendship with Carl had been strained because of what he'd done. But he hoped the years they had between them counted for something and that they'd be able to get past it. Things were still tense, but the ice between them had started to thaw, so he had hope. But for the first time since he'd joined the Dragons, Carl questioned his commitment to the club. He had done things that jeopardized it. He knew he'd disappointed Carl and that hurt him more than anything.
After that night, the tension about Cassie staying in the clubhouse had dissipated. With the threat go
ne, there was no need to send her packing. And she'd started to fit in with the club in a way. She cooked every night, serving up home cooked meals to the guys who were staying over, and making herself sort of the unofficial housemother. The guys liked her. She seemed to like them. And Damon started to see a side of her he hadn't seen previously. She was lighter. More free. She didn't grieve Andy's death in the least. If anything, she acted like a tremendous weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. And maybe it had.
Carl was right to be worried about the fallout – hell, Damon was worried about the potential consequences of what he'd done, but he also believed that things were going to be okay. As he looked into Cassie's eyes, he began to think everything was going to be okay.
Merrick: Harlequins MC Page 34