Grasping her shoulders roughly, Shadow growled, “You can’t mean that. I’ve waited years for this moment. The bastard is finally dying. My hard work and patience are paying off. You were always part of my bigger plan.”
Greta sniffed with derision. “You can’t expect me to believe that. It’s been over ten years! I know you, and”—she smacked his cut—“if you had wanted me bad enough, nothing would’ve prevented you from coming for me. Nothing! Right now, it behooves you to have me by your side. This is all for show.” Straining against him, she hissed, “I saw you the day Scorpion went up to Vermont and spoke to Marianne.”
Holding her firmly in place, Shadow drew back, eyes narrowed. “You knew I was there?”
“As if I would’ve left Marianne alone with that abusing asshole. Of course, I was there. I was hiding and I heard what she said to you. You didn’t make a move. And you knew me better than anyone. If you had shown yourself, I would’ve left everything for you. I would’ve done anything for you. Anything! Can you say the same for me?”
“It wasn’t the right time,” he said, avoiding answering her question directly. “Your father didn’t trust me, and I had to prove to him that I hadn’t helped you and your mother get out.”
“If you had loved me, you would’ve helped us, not Trucker. Knowing you, you have something up your sleeve. One of the brothers must have called you when Cutter and I were at the clubhouse. Told you how I was received by the brothers and bitches. They trust me, not you, and you need that trust to make sure you become president.” Eyeing him carefully, she nodded. “That’s it, isn’t it? Someone else is vying for the spot and you need reinforcements.”
“You’re wrong, ” he said, harshly.
“I’m not,” she retorted. Anger bled into his expression. Adjusting his grip on her, Shadow began to shake her. Thrashing against his iron clasp, she went for his eyes, but he backhanded her. Scorpion raised himself halfway up, and hollered, “Take her down! Teach her how to respect bikers.”
Gunner and Lazer tackled Shadow to the ground. He lunged up again and again, but they held him down. A hand to her throbbing red cheek, she stared up at her father and spat out, “To think that I came here with the hope that you’d changed. That there was something salvageable in you.”
Stumbling off the bed, Scorpion made a grab for her, but he was too weak, and she threw him off her.
“Cutter,” she whimpered.
Shadow, lying on his belly, wrists twisted behind him and a knee in his back, snarled, “He left you, you cunt. If he cared for you, he would’ve stayed and fought for you like a man. But, he’s a fucking little bitch.”
Greta gave him a swift kick in the ribs and ran out of the room. She shuffled down the hall, and after scanning the waiting room, she rushed past the bikers and didn’t stop until she was out of the hospital. She screeched to a halt at the curb, in time to see a small blur, a retreating biker jetting out from the far end of the parking lot. Hands shaking, she pulled out her cell and dialed. “Poppy, I need help.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Cutter had to believe she’d make the right decision. Otherwise, the ache pulsing in his chest would become a permanent companion. On his way home, he made a pit stop for two bottles of whiskey and then locked himself inside his house to wait.
Swinging the bottle to his lips, he guzzled it down until the burn mixed with the acid already churning in his gut. Spine plastered against the shut door, he promptly slid down to the ground and hung his head between his knees. The only time he lifted it was to fit the bottle to his lips. The ringtone for Kingdom went off, cutting off his swallow. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and reached for his cell. “What do you want?”
“Where the fuck are you?”
“Home. What’s up?”
“Sage is blowing up my phone. You left Greta in Camden?”
“Yeah, Loki’s there and she needed some time.”
“Time for fuckin’ what? That’s your old lady.”
“Butt out, Kingdom.”
“You left her alone with those fuckers. Without tellin’ me. What the fuck were you thinkin’, you dumb fuck?”
“I’m doing right by her,” he asserted.
“Fucking hell, you’re not making up for being a slacker by throwing her away. I’m retracting my offer for VP. I can’t be having an idiot like you as my second-in-command.”
“Stay in your fucking lane. I’m not throwing her away. I’m giving her a choice. Big difference.”
“You sure about that? Christ, stop whoring yourself out as a martyr. It doesn’t suit you. I hope you don’t end up ruining your life for your fucking pride,” he remarked, before disconnecting.
Cutter scrubbed his eyelids, but he couldn’t block out the image of Greta. Her bright eyes and luscious curves. They had been his. Hopefully, they would be again. Maybe Kingdom was right and he was going to regret his actions, but he had to follow his gut, and his gut had never let him down.
Hours later, he blinked, and found himself slumped on the floor. Lightning-fast pain struck and felt like his skull was cleaved in two. Rubbing the crease the floorboard left on his cheek, he groaned and rolled onto his back. He stared bleakly at the ceiling, lifted his fingers out of a pool of spilled alcohol, and shook them. Droplets of liquor sprayed him in the eye. Shaking his head, he managed to dispel his disorientation.
He’d do right by her. It might fucking kill him, but so be it. With a palm planted on the floor, he stumbled to his feet, hauled himself onto his couch and collapsed, winded from the exertion.
Boom, boom, boom.
The pounding on the door hammered inside his skull.
“Cutter, open up it’s me.”
Greta. He heaved himself up and stumbled to the door. It sprang open and his eyes gobbled up the sight of her standing in front of him. The urge to grab her was intense, but instead, he stepped back to let her in. For the first time in his life, he prayed that he hadn’t fucked up by giving her options.
“I choose you, not him. Never him.”
Dragging her into his arms, he exhaled, “Thank fuck.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and confessed, “There’s only been you since the day we met. I love you. My happiness is in your hands.”
The starkness in her voice wrapped around his heart. Burned through his veins and stirred his cock to life. Staring at his open palms, he focused on the sharp, horizontal line cutting across the other lines. Greta was that line. Discovering her had cut him off from the wreckage of his past and healed him. Made him a better man. He trailed his fingers down her wet cheek. “I left because I was trying to do the right thing.”
“I know,” she whispered, “but what’s right for me is you. Only you. The best thing that’s ever happened to me was us. I’d go insane if I lost you.”
Fierce possessiveness rushed through him. He slammed his mouth down on hers, pushing through her lips, and devoured her. Leaving her lips bruised, with traces of blood from their teeth, he scattered open-mouthed kisses along her jaw and her arched throat. Sweeping her into his arms, he marched into his bedroom as she licked and nipped the side of his throat.
※※※
Cutter draped her over the bed and covered her with his body. Her nipples beaded against the hard ridges of his defined chest. His intoxicating musk enveloped her, and the knots in her belly unraveled, leaving her boneless. Tugging her shirt up with one hand, his other slid up her short skirt, aiming straight for her pussy. He cocked his head to the side, and she got a side-long glimpse of his smug grin, eyes alight with triumph. Cutter’s thumb pushed through her slippery folds before flattening her clit.
Holding her gaze, he intoned, “You’re mine, babe.” Oh, the word mine wound her up, flaying her from the inside out. His fingers speared her, and she urgently ground herself against the heel of his palm, straining to suck his stiff, thick digits into her clenching sex. He gruffly blew out a breath against her temple, a sultry gush of tropical air.
“Repeat after me.”
Dependent on the tension building inside her, she pumped her hips to get more of the right amount of pressure.
“Greta,” he cautioned.
She grunted in frustration. Dammit, he was going to be difficult. Suddenly, he had his key chain in his hand and whipped it around his fist a few times. She blinked furiously. “What are you doing?”
“Repeat what I said.”
Her mind flickered out. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember what he’d said. “Umm…”
Chortling darkly, he yanked off her shirt and her bra. Her torso bare, he tweaked each of her nipples and then dragged the chain roughly over one, crushing the peak between the links of the silver chain. The sharp sting of metal sparked a shiver. Gasping, she arched her back.
“Concentrate,” he chided, “because even if I’ve got my cock moving inside you, it’s bad form to do anything without my permission. Say it, Greta.”
“Nothing without your permission,” she repeated vaguely, “Now finish me off, dammit!” His fingers surged inside her sex and twisted, hitting the right spot. Her hips twitched, and an arrogant smile crept over his lips.
“Got an ache, baby girl?” He thrust in boldly, hard and fast, but quickly removed them, and ordered, “Turn over.”
She flipped onto her belly, and he pressed a palm between her shoulder blades, telling her to stay still. Behind her came the sound of his boots scuffing the carpet. Then, he massaged the chain against the puckered hole between her butt cheeks until she was a writhing mass of flesh, arching her back and spreading her buttocks for more. His fingers tangled her hair as he gathered her tresses and meticulously secured them around his fist.
She let out a strangled scream as he guided her to her knees until she was facing him on the carpet. Yearning for his touch, Greta thrust her breasts out, proudly displaying her nipples, one of them red from his earlier ministrations. Smirk fading, he took a big swallow. Good, she thought grimly.
“Extend your knees until your cunt is spread on the ground.”
Gaze trained on the patch of carpet between her legs, Greta alternated her weight from side to side. Her knee ground down on something sharp, and she stifled a grimace. Her hamstrings were stretched so wide, they burned. Discreetly, she circled her hips to scrape her puffed-up clit. A spasm popped off a mini explosion at the back of her skull, and she jerked. A vein pulsed along his temple.
“I didn’t give you permission to grind down on your pussy for relief.” His hand landed heavily on her shoulder, and she almost buckled beneath the weight. “Get back up, brat.”
As she struggled to her feet, he abruptly swung her up and landed her on his lap, knees flanking his thighs. Embarrassed by her overenthusiasm, Greta buried her face in his chest. Nuzzling her, he combed his fingers through her hair above while experimenting below with the lips of her sex. Blood rushed to the place where he played with her, engorging her clit into a hard pebble. A seductive chuckle rumbled near the hollow of her ear.
His mouth engulfed hers. Slanting his tongue over hers, he rode it full throttle. Moaning, she met him with equal force, and their tongues wrangled like wrestlers. He broke off and murmured over her skin, “I feel that wet, fuckable cunt. Your sweet cream is drenching my fingers.”
He breached her pussy with four fingers in one solid thrust. A slurping sound dominated her ears as he set a fast pace. “I was gonna lap up your sweetness.”
Nodding desperately, she broke off sucking on his neck, imploring, “Yes. Please.”
A teasing smile lifted a corner of his lips. “If you listened and hadn’t rubbed your cunt on the carpet, takin’ your pleasure without permission, you’d already have my cock in that fuckable mouth of yours. Only thing I’d be deciding was whether to take your pussy or ass next. Instead, you had to make shit difficult for yourself. When you earn it,” his words wound around her like a spell, “I promise it’s gonna be like nothing you’ve experienced before. Obscene. Nasty.”
Greta palmed the hard ridge of his cock behind his jeans. She dove for his fly, but he withdrew his fingers from her cunt, seized her hand, and popped a smack on her flank.
“Time on your knees hasn’t taught you enough. The way you’re going, you’ll finish up with a sore pussy but no orgasm.”
The words no orgasm halted her in her tracks, and she wilted. Humming with approval, Cutter dragged his zipper down and spread his jeans open. His massive cock smacked against his navel. He always went commando. Simply knowing that he was ready for action, anyplace and anytime, had her salivating.
“Not convinced you deserve my cock, but I’ll show you mercy. You’ll pay me back, wearin’ your love collar.” He cupped her throat and tilted her up until their eyes were aligned. “On your chain. In public.”
Wearing a choker was manageable, but with a chain? In public? Panic gurgled in her throat. “No!”
Greta went for gouging his eyes, but he had her on her back in an instant, wrists cuffed above her head. Ramming her body up, she strove to crack her head against his nose, but he straddled her waist. She continued to strain against his powerful grip, striking him with her elbows wherever she could. He leaned her sideways and looped her arms resolutely behind her. Pinning her down, he landed slap after slap on her buttocks, her flesh rising and falling in response to his precise, controlled smacks.
“Disobedient. Little girl, I go soft on you for a second and you throw my leniency in my face.”
Click-click.
Manacles locked around her wrists. Sliding down her thrashing body, he wrenched her thighs open and caught a slip of skin between his teeth. Mercilessly, he suckled until his face was coated with wetness.
“I saw the Horsemen watching you, begging you with their eyes. But, they’re not gettin’ their little queen, are they? Oh no, they’re not, because she’s mine.”
“Get off,” she shouted between pants. Bracing his arms on either side of her, he caught the curve of her chin and shook it.
“Cut it out.”
The hardness of his tone gave her pause. Smoothing the length of her inner thigh, he mused, “Look at that ripe pussy.” He skimmed a finger between her nether lips. “But, it doesn’t deserve a touch yet,” he tutted. “Naughty kitten, I’m gonna clip those nails and build a cage for my little wildcat.”
He brought her to her knees and rose above her. The tip of his cock rubbed between her parched lips and her tongue instinctively darted out. A shudder went through him. His cock was exquisite. Despite his reprimands, this was a treat because Cutter rarely allowed her to suck him off. His musky flavor hit her taste buds, and she moaned around his cockhead. Pre-come oozed out, coating her palate, and she lapped up whatever she could.
“Fuck, girl. You’re earning your way back to me.”
Her thumb and forefinger circled the base of his cock and followed the glide of her mouth. Looking up, she batted her eyelashes and inquired sweetly, “You want it slow and sloppy? Or fast and hard?”
He rocked his hips. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Her head leaned against his thigh, causing his cock to push into the inside of her cheek. She repositioned herself quickly to work her tongue over the ridge on the underside of his penis and took her time. When she tipped her head back to swallow the head against the back of her throat, he took her hair like reins. Fucking her mouth, his shaft drove the air out of her lungs as he bottomed out, his balls bouncing against her chin. Gripping his quads, she relished the iron power of his muscles as they flexed under her fingers. Although it barely gave her enough friction, she rubbed her clit against the comforter.
“I didn’t give you permission to—”
Cutter ended in a grunt when she sucked his cock in deeply. Cupping his balls, she massaged them, and his head dropped back as her name ripped out of his throat. She snaked her fingers down her torso and onto her clit in time for his semen to spurt out and spill from the sides of her mouth. Cutter plunged his fingers inside to spur
her on further. Oh, did she ride those thick, flat fingers of his to her peak. Exploding violently, she shot off into the skyline and shattered like a clay target at a hunting range.
His fingers strummed her until she collapsed, and his cock slipped from her mouth. He settled in behind her and wrapped her into the shelter of his heaving chest. Talking into her halo of raven tresses, he said, “Shadow cares, ya know. I saw it in his eyes. He cares. How could he not, when there’s no woman as picture-perfect as you?”
“Perhaps, but Shadow cares about his position with the Horsemen the most. You love me, he doesn’t. He wanted me by his side to reinforce his takeover. I know him inside and out, and I know you inside and out. A perfect example was the fact that you walked away to give me the chance to make up my own mind. Not once has Shadow done what was right for me. It’s true that, as a kid, he was the first person to see me, really see the hurt little girl inside me. And at the hospital, she got the attention she craved from him, but acknowledging my hunger and knowing where my heart lies are two different things. You’re my heart.”
Cutter eased her off him, swung his legs over the bed and planted his elbows on his knees. Facing away, he said, “Princess, you’re meant to be at the top of the pecking order. I can’t offer you that with the Squad. Kingdom offered me the position of vice president, but it won’t be the same.”
“Cutter, I already have a career that I love, and I have no intention of dropping it for any club. I’m already advising Sage as she takes her place alongside Kingdom in the Squad. Being the old lady to the vice president would simply make what I already do official, but I’d do it anyway. Another reason I rejected the Horsemen is because the Squad is my club. My loyalty is here, with you and them.”
He expelled a ragged breath and, pivoting toward her, said, “Say that again, babe. You don’t know how long I’ve yearned to hear it.”
Cutter's Claim: A Bad Boy Biker Romance (The Demon Squad MC Book 2) Page 23