Riding for a Fall (Get Your Rocks Off Book 2)

by Sam Hall

  He was still finally, no moving, no caresses, no driving himself deep inside me, though I could still feel the throb between my legs. He was just still and waiting for me.

  This means something. Be bloody careful, my careful, analytical brain said, but there was a reason why I rarely did anything. Because when I did, I got lost in the moment, in the here and now, and forgot to listen to it. I reached up and touched the side of his face, unable to turn away from it. He did as he always had, closed his eyes and leaned into the caress.

  “You OK?” Jake asked almost shyly. There was something different now in that look, that tone, something that had my heart pounding, though I wasn’t sure if this was from fear or desire. And I didn’t get a chance to dwell. The door to the cottage opened and footsteps stampeded up the staircase, Jake shifting to put his body between mine and the intruders until he saw who it was. Billy, Lucas, and Johnno stood at the entrance to the room, taking in everything with one quick glance.

  “Here,” Lucas said, tossing him a shirt.

  “They’re ready to announce you at court,” Johnno said, coming to my side. “You OK?”

  Was I? There was a feeling of having survived a car crash right now, but I just nodded. He helped me to my feet, and I was forced to use the sheets from the bed to clean myself up while everyone else looked on. Note to self, I thought, feeling dazed, ask them to start pulling out.

  Them? my mind asked.

  Them, I replied, casting my eyes over the guys, and there was a possessiveness in the motion.

  “Lucky Mar’s not here to see you,” Johnno said, flicking my dress out into some semblance of order. I didn’t pay it much attention, more focussed on him and his hands as they tugged at the fabric, but I grabbed one as soon as it got close enough and drew him closer. He looked questioningly at me, but I quieted that quickly with a kiss.

  Jake approached as he unbuckled the collar, wrapped it around his wrist several times over, and refastened it.

  “Can’t go collared into court. Liam says.”

  I didn’t answer, didn’t let go of Johnno, just pulled Jake closer and kissed him too, his bandmate’s breath on my cheek as I did so. For a moment, I just felt them, their presence warm against mine.

  “What’s coming?” I asked.

  It took them a little to answer, but Johnno did finally. “Liam’s making you our lady and putting you at his side. There’ll be a ceremony and a celebration, then we can go to fucking sleep. We don’t have a concert tomorrow night, thank fuck. We’re gonna be wiped at the end of this. It’ll be bed all day to recover.”

  “Mmm…” Jake said. “I like the sound of that.”

  When we pulled away, Lucas just watched us with his usual empty gaze, and Billy smiled that satisfied predator smile of his.

  “Ready for your coronation, my queen?” Billy asked

  19

  “Ki, are you—?” Jen rushed up.

  The building disappeared, just as Samson had said it would, in a cloud of magic that tickled my skin as it dissipated. I couldn’t bring myself to move—the feeling of being sheltered inside the little hollow Jake and Johnno’s bodies provided was so fucking nice. I shuffled in closer, not caring what it did to my dress, and their arms went around me.

  “Needing some aftercare?” Jake said. I nodded, not really knowing what that was, but it sounded good. Care. The word was soft and fuzzy, and I moved towards it, just as I did them. “Me too, love.”

  Something sore and ragged inside relaxed as they did around me. I found my lips on Jake’s, each giving the other chaste little kisses before Johnno moved closer to do the same. This—this quiet, this connection, there was something gentle and radiant about it all that lifted me back up. When we finally stopped kissing, I looked at the two of them. Jake’s eyes were on Johnno, and he turned to meet them.

  “You look good, mate,” Johnno said. “I know that look. Pretty sure I looked just as dopey when I was with her.”

  There was something slightly harsh and abrupt about his words, as men’s often are, but it didn’t seem to affect Jake. He leaned forward, bridging the gap between them as he had with me. Johnno frowned, glanced at me and then back again, then let out a sigh.

  “It doesn’t work like that for me. You know that,” Johnno said.

  “Right now, I don’t care. I just need it, the touch.”

  There was something sad in Johnno’s smile when it came, but he reached out and ruffled Jake’s hair, then pressed his lips to the other man’s forehead, for longer than most men would be comfortable with. But I think we were both surprised when he moved down and kissed Jake on the mouth. Just a quick, fleeting thing that was gone as quickly as it came.

  “Are you OK?” Jen asked.

  “She’s fine. Look at her,” Vervain said with a grin. “She’s more than fine. This is the face of a woman who now knows what she wants.”

  “Some of it,” I said, then smiled when the other guys sidled closer. I stared at all of them openly now, like I had that right. Like they’re yours, I thought. Even Lucas came over. He might’ve looked like he’d swallowed a frog, but he was trying to enjoy each kicky mouthful.

  For a moment, I felt a tremendous feeling of rightness, like this was exactly where I was supposed to be. I didn’t like the whole ‘you complete me’ thing, but it was like that. I wasn’t completed, all my usual crazy was simmering away, but I was… I looked at the guys. I was added to, exponentially, in ways I was still trying to understand. The pretty haze I’d stepped out of Samson’s with just seemed to grow and grow until my heart ached, and I didn’t think I could take it anymore.

  “Ready to emerge from that chrysalis, butterfly? It’s time for your coronation,” Billy said.

  “No, no one has told me anything about the process. I got frocked up and…” I said.

  “Yeah, we know what you did,” he replied with a grin.

  “We didn’t want to burden you with the whole hoopla beforehand,” Johnno said. “You said you wanted to sort things out with Jake. We figured we’d come get you just after. All you have to do is ascend the stairs when asked, bow to Liam and accept his offer, then you sit on the throne with him until the festivities start.”

  All… I thought, the anxiety trying to batter past the soft, squishy haze I was stuck in and not quite managing it.

  “That won’t be too long. No one’s got the heart for politics tonight,” Billy said, looking up at the steadily darkening sky. “One of the reasons why it’s good to come here.”

  “What do they want then?” I asked, my hand grabbing Jake’s and tightening my fingers around it.

  “To party,” Jake said with a wolfish smile. “C’mon!”

  I was not myself.

  I walked down the main path with the guys and Jen and Vervain surrounding me, providing a buffer between me and everyone else, who all seemed headed in the same direction. Rather than my usual performance anxiety, I was just a bottle tossed gently on a wave, swirling and bobbing along until I was spat out at court. And there he was—Liam, looking like a perfect faerie king, his hair spilling over his bare chest, his leather pants straining over his muscular legs, his arms resting on his golden throne.

  Like every girl’s rock fantasy, he saw me and only me in the crowd, and held out a hand. The group parted like magic, and up I walked, past all those people, to the steps and then up them too, until Liam stood and wrapped my hand in his. He drew me close, as he had in so many of my dreams, and brushed his lips against mine, only his breath telling me how much more he wanted. He smiled when he pulled away and then turned me around to face the court.

  “I’ve brought you all today to formally recognise Kira as my consort.”

  Was this what it was like for him each time he performed? I wondered idly. To have so many people pay attention to his words. But not just that, they studied both of us, like we were absolutely fascinating, something that brought a giggle from me, one I had to smother quickly. I couldn’t help it, the warm fuzzy of only a moment
before had bled into a pervasive feeling of unreality. This was so bloody odd. To just be seen, to accept that I had this right to stand before them on this podium, was just so fucking weird, but for some reason, I didn’t care. Liam’s hand, his body, his mouth—that was my entire focus.

  “So you’re going to go through with this?”

  The strident voice cut through the silence and had everyone turning around. That was the kind of voice that belonged up here, I decided. I went to move, to float on down the steps, to allow the owner to take my place, but Liam’s arm tightened around me. All I could feel was the bite of his fingers around my waist. Everything else was a dim haze, even when Rhiannon stepped out of the crowd.

  “She becomes lady? Her?”

  She spat the words, her eyes raking across me and him, spitting blue fire as they did so.

  “Did I stutter?” Liam replied.

  “You… This is not… You do this, and there’s no coming back.”

  “There is nothing you have that I wish to come back to,” Liam said. “I’ve announced my decision to a full court, under our most sacred of skies. The gods have heard my decree. It is done.”

  Liam turned and curled me towards him until there was only a thin gap between us.

  “I bind myself and my court to you, Kira, daughter of Joan. All that I am, all that I have is yours. My arm is yours, my court is yours. I am your lover, your partner, your slave.” His words were knives stabbing into me, slicing me open, but I was arching up into the blows. This Liam was frighteningly familiar. He was the Liam of my dreams, those blue eyes searching mine, my face, as if the answer to all the world’s questions could be found there. His gaze was so soft, his persona as brittle king tossed aside for just this moment, in front of all of these people. Instead, it was just him. The man who had come to me so many nights, who held my hands down and begged me to stay with him as he worshipped my body. The man who told me he loved me.

  “So do you accept, love?”

  I had to shake my head slightly, but not too hard, to come back to the here and now. I had to hang on, to this sweet, fuzzy feeling, to the cloud of euphoria I carried around with me. The release, from anxiety, from intrusive thoughts, from worry and guilt and reality was so seductive, I couldn’t do anything else.

  “Of course,” I said, because that was the only response, wasn’t it? Why would I ruin this by asking questions or saying no? Hadn’t it always been me and him? Wasn’t he there, deeply lodged in my soul? He might have snuck in there under false pretences, but it didn’t change the fact it had always been him for me. His eyes flared wild when I moved in closer and touched his cheek, his breath fast and noisy when I did. Like I’d done a million times before, I reached up and kissed the man of my dreams.

  And we were met by a sea of applause, because of course we were, and I was swept into his lap. I lay across his knees as he sat down on the throne, my head resting in the hollow of his neck. I liked it, this skin to skin, this shelter from so many eyes. I was wearing way too many clothes, my face as stiff as a mask with all of this makeup, but it was him that provided a buffer. Always him.

  He ordered a dance or a party or something, I found it hard to think. All I could feel was him, my head filled with his scent of sandalwood and wild thyme. His mouth was right there when I pulled back, taking my bottom lip between his teeth and sucking rhythmically. My far leg dropped down, and he pulled away to see what had happened, his smile deepening when he saw the deep slit of my skirt and what I wasn’t wearing underneath.

  “Oh, butterfly…” he growled over the music that had come from nowhere, or had it been playing for a while? His fingers walked up my thigh in time to the swirling beat. They stopped at the top of my stocking, the feeling of his finger sliding under the elastic somehow more erotic than the fact that I could feel the cool air on my wet cunt. He took my mouth with his, sucking and licking and thrusting his tongue against mine as he jammed his hand down my hose. His fingers scored my skin as I wound my hands in his hair.

  A minute, a day, a year could have passed since we started kissing. It felt like the world had stopped spinning, and I wanted it to stay right there.

  “How’s she doing?”

  I cried out a little when he pulled away, but when I saw Billy hanging over us, my hand went up to touch that long silken fall of hair. He drew my hand away, like someone would a child, but for some reason, that just made me smile. He did too, leaning in, as if breathing in my scent.

  “You wanna give me some of that lovely buzz you got going?” he asked kindly.

  I answered by grabbing him by the back of the neck and drawing his mouth down.

  “Fuck,” he groaned against my lips. “You’re so bloody luscious. I could lose everything in you, just dive deep into all this sweetness.”

  “I know what you mean,” Liam said, running his hand along my thigh, making me squirm, wanting more. “I can’t get away with fucking her right here on the throne, can I? Because I’ve been waiting to get into this tight little cunt for a bloody long time.”

  “With this crew?” Billy said, looking at the crowd. I watched them because he did, my eyes drawn as if by a string. If I’d had any concerns about my lewd display, I needn’t. Dancing, wild and free and uninhibited, was happening alongside the tighter, more brutal moves of people fucking. Singles, doubles, great lines of them, all intersecting in all the many ways bodies can.

  “She’s driving them fucking mad,” Jake said, staggering up the steps, long scores raking across his chest, tracks I wanted to follow with my tongue. “This party…people will be talking about it for years.” His eyes dropped down when he heard a whine from me, followed quickly by his mouth. All three of them moved in sync, one pair of lips kissing me senseless, only to be replaced by another.

  “I gotta take her out to dance. My will isn’t that bloody strong,” Liam ground out. “We’ll make sure she’s seen by everyone that’s needed, and then it’s back to the hotel.”

  “You gave them the requirements?”

  “Fucking massive bed, lube, refreshments, food for when we surface, all that weird shit you two ordered.”

  “You won’t say that when you see her staked out to a frame,” Billy said, running a proprietary hand across my collarbones. “She’ll be open in every way.”

  “That’ll happen no matter what. You get your wish, tonight, Jakey. Nothing’s off the table,” Liam said.

  “Just the way I like it,” he said, then he unwrapped the collar from his wrist and settled it around my throat. I moaned when the buckle jangled, the leather tightened. “There,” he said, his eyes glimmering green before me. “Just as it should be.”

  My head spun as I was righted suddenly, forcing me to grab onto whatever was nearest or slam forward on my face. Hands slapped over mine as they hit bare flesh, holding them for longer than necessary. Then I was swung to my feet, Liam’s lips on my nape as he took my hands and moved me into position.

  “I can’t dance,” I said when I belatedly realised my body was in the same pose as those still actually dancing.

  “Of course, you can,” Liam said. “That’s what you don’t get.” He dipped me down, my hair almost grazing the ground. “Human Kira might not have been able to, but you? You can do absolutely anything you want.”

  He drew me down the steps behind him, and I felt a pleasure I’d never experienced, being able to move swiftly and skilfully without a thought. Because how could I think? I was drawn into the great writhing mass and then into Liam’s arms, the incongruity of slow dancing with him amongst a fucking orgy making me laugh and laugh. And he laughed with me, until he found a much better use for my mouth.

  “Kira…” he said as we fought to catch our breath. How long had we been kissing for?

  “Mind if I cut in?”

  Liam’s head jerked up to see Jen had arrived, standing at his shoulder.

  “And what do you want, oh heir of Rutherglen?” Liam said, twirling me away.

  “To check in with
my friend and to give you a friendly warning. Rhiannon is fomenting dissent.”

  “So what else is new?”

  “And Daddy is here.” We stopped still for a moment, and I was left hanging in Liam’s arms as he stared at my friend. I couldn’t do that for long, I could feel it in my bones. My feet shifted as he stayed still, only his iron grip enough to stop me dancing away. “You had to know that was coming, Liam. This is a huge statement. He was always going to—”

  “That’s fine. I invited him, being my liege lord and everything. We’ll pay our respects, as always.”

  “Fine, now…” Jen held out her hands to me, and I pulled away from Liam with little effort, putting mine in her much smaller ones.

  “Have fun, my love,” Liam said. “But make sure you return to me.”

  And off we went, dancing around the room in a much more sprightly way, somehow skirting the people fucking.

  “How are you? We didn’t get much of a chance to explore tonight. They keep you on a tight leash,” Jen said.

  “Hmm…?” I frowned a little, something about her words creating a little niggle in my mind, but it was soon dismissed. I didn’t want to think or talk, I just wanted to keep on moving.

  “Kira? You’ve looked a little…out of it since being at Samson’s. He’s pretty tricky. Are you sure you’re OK?”

  Something about her words had me stopping still in the crowd. I watched the people move around me, saw the grins stretched wide, the eyes glittering in the now artificial lights that beamed over the dance floor.

  Was I?

  That was a big, sleeping beast of a question. I could tug at its tail, force a response, but something made me think that it might not be such a good idea. I looked down at my dress, then at the dance floor made from perfectly shaped rocks all laid out in a sun pattern, and then at her. Jen, my mind reminded me, friend, fae.

  “Yes, of course,” I said. The words came quickly, but when I tested them in my mind, they felt solid, real. “I’m OK, better than that really. Right now, I should be in a doctor’s office getting my eyes looked at and my blood pressure taken, having yet another half hour of my life sliced off and disposed of, all in the pursuit of making me…whatever it is that they wanted. I saw the fae as a child. That’s why they gave me the bloody camera, Jen, to make me see the truth. But I did, Jen, I did. I saw all of this, this world, these people, myself. I saw all the ways humans twist and turn themselves and others into knots in the pursuit of ideas that have no fucking merit.”