Fighting for Honor

by Dani Wyatt

  I focused on them, doing everything I could to not play into their bullshit, when I saw Maggie bolt out the front door.

  When they watched her go, something in their manner changed. They looked from me to Dino, then back to me, and the bigger one, half-ear with all the scars, told me they’d be in touch.

  All I cared about was finding Maggie, so as soon as they were out the door I was behind them, scanning the street, cursing myself for not getting her address or phone number again. I’d asked her some questions about her life though, thank fuck. I know that she works for a news blog The Virtual Register. I know that she lives a few doors down from her aunt’s flower shop.

  What the fuck did she say the name was?

  Flemings? Flamingos?

  Fuck. Something like that.

  As soon as I’ve got the situation calmed down with Mom and Dad, I’m bolting back upstairs to grab my phone, get on my computer and search for all the flower shops in a two-hundred mile radius that start with an F, when I notice there’s a piece of card on the floor under the table.

  I pick it up, flip it over and it feels like fate is cheering me on. “Pink Flamingo Florist, Boston, Massachusetts,” I read from the top of the business card. “Boston,” I repeat to myself, pulling out my phone and the other business card that’s crushed into my pocket.

  After a few moments of waiting, there’s a click and a deep, confident voice.

  “Dominant Alpha Gym, what’s up?”

  “Yeah, I was given a card by a guy called Grizz, asking me to come out there and meet with Teddy.”

  “I’m Teddy. You the guy from the video?”

  “Stone Reiss. I turned Grizz down earlier—”

  “But now you’ve changed your mind?”

  “If you’re still interested.”

  There’s a deep chuckle. “Hallelujah, man. See you tomorrow, ten AM. Bring your kit.”

  As I hang up, it feels like the ground settles under my feet. I know where I’m supposed to be, and nothing is going to stand in my way.

  8

  Maggie

  OH MY GOD, WHO IS BUZZING my doorbell at eight in the morning on a Sunday?

  My stomach knots. I’ve barely slept, both because I can’t stop thinking about Stone but also because I know those guys recognized me yesterday. When I got home, Aunt Liza was just closing up the flower shop and when I told her what happened she started crying.

  She told me they have been at the shop the last three weeks in a row, threatening her. I know she owes them or their boss money, and her time is running out. An old business loan from when my brother, Sam, was running with their crowd. Liza lives on the top floor of the shop, I’m in a little studio apartment a couple of doors down, and I’m worried that if she carries on having trouble with them they’re going to pay us both a visit one night.

  I grab my pink fuzzy robe, pulling it around me because I slept naked last night imagining Stone next to me. Touching myself, playing over and over in my head fantasies about how he would feel. His fingers, his mouth...his cock.

  I get to the buzzer by my door and push the button.

  “Who is it?” My voice is shaking, preparing to grab my stuff and get out or call the cops.

  “Stone.”

  Heat floods my face, relief and embarrassment. How did he find me? “What are you doing here?”

  “I brought breakfast.”

  I run my hand down my throat, feeling the flush on my skin as the tingling down lower reminds me of what happened yesterday. And how far it almost went...

  “It’s early.”

  “I would have come last night but I couldn’t. Let me up. I have coffee, too.”

  Something inside of me fights the urge but I buzz him up, looking around my place at the mess of pickling cucumbers still in their bushel baskets in the kitchen and the stacks of The New York Times and Mother Earth Magazines, as well as my dirty clothes strewn over most of the furniture.

  “Bullshit.” Unicorn, my green and yellow Sun Conure, flaps his wings and repeats. “Bullshit.”

  I shake my head. “Can’t you just say hello like a normal bird?”

  “Fucker.” He replies, and I can’t help but smile.

  “That’s what I get for adopting a bird from a crackhouse.” I shake my head, remembering the news story on the drug house raid. The house was nearly uninhabitable, ten birds living in filth. Twenty starving dogs chained out back. Even had two baby Cayman’s kept in the bathtub.

  It was one of the first stories my boss assigned to me and I came back with the story, and Unicorn.

  My stomach growls as I do a quick finger brush of my hair, then wipe under my eyes, because I never take my make-up off at night—if you can call a few swipes of mascara and some lip-gloss makeup.

  I nearly have a seizure a minute later when there’s a soft knock on the door and I reach out and turn the deadbolt, saying a little prayer, then the knob, swinging the door open to see Stone standing there, larger than life, holding a couple white paper bags and a cup carrier with two large steaming cups of coffee.

  “Hi.” He smiles and I melt as he strides into my tiny apartment, his own enormous size making it feel microscopic.

  “Hi back.” I manage, my mouth watering; not at the smell of the coffee, or the mixture of delicious scents from the bags, but the instant flash of indecency that has me wondering for the first time in my life what cum takes like.

  His cum.

  Oh. My. God. I’m such a slut.

  “H—how did you find me?” I stammer, trying to sanitize my filthy thoughts.

  “You dropped this.” He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a business card from Aunt Liza’s shop, handing it to me. “You said you lived a couple of doors down from your aunt’s shop, so I started trying doorbells.”

  “Oh my God.” My face is on fire. “Ringing random doorbells on Sunday morning. Likely to get you shot.”

  Stone grins. “First door I tried, Mr. Nakamura. Told him who I was, who I was looking for and why. He grilled me hard for a few minutes before rubbing his hands together, then putting them on my chest, closing his eyes and humming. Wasn’t sure what to think, but when he stopped, he tipped his head this way, said my ‘chi’ was pure. I gave him his pick of the cream pastries to say thanks.” He shakes his head.

  I laugh. Mr. Nakamura is about a million years old, but he’s as strong as a twenty-year-old and super protective, so I’m surprised he gave me up so easy. “Well, he’s rarely wrong about much.”

  “Coffee might have been cold if I hadn’t found you quickly enough.”

  He hands me the cup, brushing his fingers against mine, then rests his warm palm on my cheek, letting out a puff of air with a sigh and a shake of his head. “You’re even prettier in the morning.” His voice is deeper than I remember, sending waves of arousal from my head to my nearly curling toes.

  I squint one eye at him as he lets my cheek go and sets the paper sacks on the tiny café table near the open kitchen, then turns to look at me, covering his mouth with his hand for a moment. “You hungry?”

  “Fucker.” Unicorn chimes in, and Stone looks over at the cage by the window, then back at me.

  “He’s from a rough neighborhood.” I start, then push my fingers to the bridge of my nose. “I’ll tell you someday. It’s a long story.”

  Stone raises his eyebrows. “I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.”

  I blow through the little hole on the cap of the coffee and smell the wonderful scent, shaking my head. “Truth, I’m not hungry. I have a breakfast aversion. I never eat until after lunchtime. I’m just never hungry in the morning. But, you went to the trouble, so...”

  “No, it’s okay. I wasn’t sure what you’d like so I stopped at this little place, got a few breakfast burritos, then a pastry shop for some cream cheese and raspberry tarts and custard-filled eclairs.”

  “Wow.” I raise my eyebrows. “Maybe I’ll need to start liking breakfast.”

  “When you’re hungry, they’r
e here.”

  God, he’s so gorgeous. I want his hands on me. Anywhere.

  Everywhere.

  “What about you, though? Did you eat? You must be hungry, you drove all this way...”

  Our gazes link and the heat between us is thick and tense.

  He brushes the backs of his fingers up my neck to the bottom of my chin, bending my head back as he closes the space between us and my entire body is on fire, barely knowing if I’m even breathing anymore.

  “I am hungry. Starving, as a matter of fact. But not for that...” He jerks his head toward the little table, then leans down, his hand sliding to the back of my neck and gripping me hard.

  Whatever this chemistry is that buzzes between us, I don’t care. I’m tired of being the careful, calculating girl. The one that pretended to not be interested in love because she didn’t feel worthy. I’m no top model type, and I’m not sure where I absorbed the idea that you had to look a certain way to feel what I’m feeling now, but I’m tossing all those old assumptions out the proverbial window—because I’m pretty damn sure of what’s happening right now, and I’m not going to stop it.

  I open my mouth, not exactly sure what to say, when his other hand comes between us, taking the coffee cup from my me and setting it down next to the white paper bags. Then he grabs my ass and pulls me hard against him.

  Our hips meet—well, my hips barely hit him mid-thigh, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling the thick, long rod pressing into my body as my breasts flatten against the top of his abs.

  I feel so tiny and I have to say I love it. I feel he could toss me over his shoulder with nearly zero effort, like a Viking taking his spoils, carrying me off.

  To ravish me, of course.

  Because this girl suddenly, and unapologetically, wants to be ravished.

  By him.

  Stone’s warm breath is in my ear, his grip growing tighter, as though he has already claimed me, making my pussy clench, desperate for something I’ve never wanted before.

  “This is no fucking joke for me, Maggie. I don’t know what sort of voodoo spell you’ve cast but I’ve never wanted someone like I want you. I want to touch every inch of you. I want to taste every inch of you. There’s a monster inside of me, a different one than the one that’s always hungry for blood. This one is hungry for something else, something far more delectable. You’ve released him and I can’t put him away.”

  He backs up, pressing me against the wall in my tiny kitchen, his lips brushing mine, making me shiver. His grip on me is nearly brutal, but when I look in his eyes I feel no fear. I feel only his possession, the intensity pushing me closer to the edge.

  Need pulses down low inside me as Stone’s voice murmurs in a low growl.

  “You want that, don’t you, baby?” He pauses, his lips moving against mine as he speaks. “You want me to taste you...”

  All I can do is nod, words escaping me.

  “Good, because it’s been torture since you left yesterday. Not being with you isn’t something I can live with, Maggie. Not anymore.”

  9

  Stone

  SHE NEEDS TO KNOW SHE’S mine.

  I won’t leave here today until she understands.

  My hand at the back of her neck, the other on her ripe, full ass, tell her some of what I’m feeling, but not all.

  I can still taste her sweet lips from yesterday, but it was over too soon. I bring our faces together, crushing her soft curves into my hard muscle and sweeping my tongue into the warmth of her mouth, listening to her soft moans.

  Her tongue spins with mine as I groan at the flavor, wondering if I will lose my fucking mind when I get my face between her sweet thighs. Her body is everything. Womanly, curvy, soft.

  And hot as fuck.

  My lust is nearly unbearable already, but when I feel her body soften against me, when I feel the way she kisses me back with nearly as much urgency as I feel, knowing she’s giving this part of herself to me, I’m ready to come undone.

  She’s the most natural beauty I’ve ever seen. Even surprising her this morning, straight out of bed with her tousled hair and fresh face, she’s feminine, innocent...yet wildly sexy. When she opened the door, knowing she’d just been in bed and I was the first person she was seeing this morning, I nearly came in my fucking jeans. And I know that soon, I will be the first person she sees every morning when she wakes.

  Because I can’t bear the thought of waking up without her.

  My cock jerks against her softness as I press us against the wall of her kitchen, but this won’t do. Her bed is just around the corner and I don’t wait, crouching down a few inches to jerk her up with one hand under her ass until I feel her legs wrap around my back and the heat of her pussy warms my midriff.

  “Fuck-er,” the bird chirps, and my mind answers: I’m about to.

  She mewls into our kiss as I walk us toward her bed, kicking the door closed behind us and shutting out the parakeet. Her arms twist around my neck, tightening her grip, holding onto me like I might disappear. But I want her to hold onto me for the rest of our lives. For her to know I’m her anchor, her safe harbor, the place she comes with the good in her life, the bad, the frustration, the fear...

  That thought spins inside me, knowing I need to find out who those guys were. Not their names, but who they are to her. Why she ran out of there as soon as she saw them. There was fear in her eyes and that’s something I never want to see again.

  But right now, I’m a dirty fucker and I need her to give herself to me.

  I grind us together, rubbing her up and down on my cock as we approach the bed, so she knows what’s coming for her.

  She gasps as I break our kiss, moving my mouth to her neck to kiss and nip, laying her down on the pile of pillows and messy pink and white bedding.

  Her eyes are wide as I bring a hand to her throat, running my other down her cheek. There is such tenderness in me when I look at her but there’s also something else. Something from another time. Something that makes me want to knot her hair in my hand, throw her over my shoulder, choke her so she knows her breath belongs to me...

  I’ve never felt like this. There’s an animal inside me that is clawing his way out and he wants to fuck into her and have her soaked with my cum every day from now on, so the world knows she is claimed.

  I rub my hard length against her pussy, my boxers and jeans the only thing separating us, and feel the heat radiate. I lean down, run my tongue along her jaw, hearing her gasps as my hand controls her breath.

  “That makes you hot, doesn’t it, baby? My hand on your throat...”

  She presses her head back into the pillow, her eyes wide but trusting as she whispers a sigh of agreement and her nails dig into the flesh of my shoulders.

  “Fuck, Maggie. I want you so bad.” I dry hump her harder as I feel her hips move upward against my movements. “That hot little cunt of yours wants me too, doesn’t it?”

  She nods and her nails dig in harder as I lean down, kissing her so deep, this time the room disappears around us and all I know is her.

  I slide my hands down between us, unknotting the belt of her pink robe and exposing her naked body underneath. She’s perfect.

  Subtle and glorious, pale flesh calling for my mark. I grunt as I kiss her again, needing to reward her in some way for being the magical creature I’ve waited for my entire life. I run my hands around the sides of her neck, my thumbs finding the drum-beat of her pulse that matches the pounding of my heart.

  When I pull away, I run my hands down her chest, cupping the weight of her perfect tits in my hands, keeping my eyes on her face for any sign of fear or hesitation, but there’s none. She could stop me, but she chooses not to, and I feel honored and obeyed as I lower my head, running my tongue down from her neck to her nipple, listening to her moan as her back arches and I take her into my mouth, sucking hard, feeling her nipple pebble against my tongue.

  “You’re going to be such a dirty girl for me, aren’t you, baby? For me
...no one else.” I grit the words out, looking at her face while I switch from one side to the other, her body answering me without words as her hips angle upward, greedy for what I’m giving her.

  “God, I can’t believe we’re doing this.” She whispers in a shaky, lust-drunk voice, and I slip a hand down between our bodies to tickle the little patch of dark hair, just above where her lips split, and she shivers beneath me.

  “Sit up, I need this off of you.” I order, tugging at the robe, and she pushes up on her hands at the same time as I pull it down her shoulders. Then she lifts her ass for me to extricate the offending fabric completely from her body. When she lays back down, I lean back, settling on my knees as I take in the masterpiece before me. “Fuck.” Is all I can say, my dick so fucking hard it throbs like a toothache, but I need more.

  “Spread your legs again. Show me that soaking mess. It is soaking, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” Her voice is low, but I can hear how ready she is, and when her knees fall open my heart nearly stops.

  There is no possible way she can keep getting more magnificent with every moment, but somehow she is.

  “Fuck, that’s a pretty pussy. That cherry is calling for me, isn’t it?”

  She nods, pushing a finger between her teeth and biting down, her innocent eyes heated with the same desire that flows through my veins.

  With her laying in front of me, I strip off my t-shirt, tossing it without regard, then reach back and remove my boots and socks without taking my eyes off her. I give my cock a squeeze and a few calming strokes through my jeans, but it will only last so long.

  I trace my fingers down the center of her body, over her soft tummy, her belly button, until I slip them delicately into her soaking pinkness.

  Her eyes close on a moan with the contact, as her scent takes me by the throat, letting me know I am the one that belongs to her now.

  My jaw pops as I clench my teeth, watching her face and body for each reaction as I explore her drenched, silky heaven with my fingertips. Her creamy honey coats my fingers and I withdraw them, bringing them to her mouth and glossing her lips with her own arousal, then slipping two fingertips into her mouth, feeling her suck and imagining that mouth around my cock, as it soon will be.