After all, I had wanted him from the first moment I laid eyes on him as he watched me at the club all those months ago. And he had wanted me just as badly. Surely that was something worth fighting for? Something worth pursuing?
His hand slipped down to my naked behind and his fingers slowly glided toward the front of my body. Once again he found my pussy wet and wanting. He stroked at my clit and my breathing rate increased as his fingers masterfully played my body.
“Fuck, Chloe, all I want to do is make you happy. To please you. I love to watch you come for me. It's like an addiction to me.”
His words and the desperation in his voice sent me into free-fall and his mouth stifled my cries of ecstasy as I came over and over, each intense orgasmic thrall made me surrender more of myself to him. I was completely undone.
Eventually my breathing began to settle and my body calmed as he kissed my neck, cheeks and collarbone all the while whispering how beautiful I was and how he loved to watch me.
I quickly remembered we were, in fact, outside in the early evening light in an only slightly sheltered entrance way where anyone could have caught us. He let my legs slide down his and my feet touched the ground just as one of my neighbors was returning home. He nodded his head and smiled as he passed us by, punched in the door code and entered the building.
I gasped and covered my mouth as my eyes stared widely up at Six. He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and a laugh rumbled up from his belly.
Leaning forward he whispered, “Remember how I was saying that there's a first time for everything?”
I straightened my skirt suddenly realising that I could quite easily have been accused of indecent exposure. “You're incorrigible, Six.”
He clutched his chest and feigned shock. “Who me? Ummm...pardon me for pointing out the obvious but I didn't just come in the doorway to my building. And I'm not the pantiless one here.”
Okay he had a point. Two points actually. I could have stopped him. Damn him and his talent for turning me into an orgasmic puddle of mush.
He clenched his jaw and rested his forehead on mine. “I really should get going.”
“Okay.” I nodded, wishing I had the courage to ask him to stay the night.
He kissed me tenderly before stepping back. “I'll watch until you get inside.”
I smiled at this supposed evil man and the way he was so damned overprotective of me. “Thank you.”
I turned and began to walk away but his voice stopped me again. “Oh and...maybe I'll stop by tomorrow. You know, to check you're okay.”
I didn't speak nor turn around. I just smiled to myself.
He called out again. “And...hey, I'm sorry, okay? I keep fucking up around you and I hate myself for that.”
At those words I turned and walked back to him, cupped his face in my hands and kissed him sweetly on the lips. The familiar tickle of his beard against my skin made me ache for more. But he needed to leave and I had to understand that.
I pulled away and smoothed my thumbs over his cheeks. “I'm sorry too. I hurt you and that was something I shouldn't have done. I think... I think it's safe to say we both have our issues. But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's why we're drawn to each other.”
I smiled and began to turn away again but he grabbed my wrist. “Oh and just so you know... In case it wasn't blatantly obvious a few minutes ago, I do want you. More than I should and you don't deserve to be caught up my fucking shit. But then again I'm a selfish bastard. I like to get what I want.” A sexy smile graced his luscious lips and he shrugged as if his admission was any old meaningless statement. But it wasn't. Not to me. I could see something in his eyes.
Something...deeper.
My heart melted. He let go of my arm and I turned once more, heading for the keypad with the biggest, dumbest grin on my face. As I allowed the main entrance to click closed I peered out through the glass door and watched as he walked back to the bike, pulled on his helmet and sped away.
Chapter Twenty
Chloe
I think I floated up the stairs to my door with a cheesy smile stretching my face but I didn't care. My bizarre day had turned out great. Since arriving at the club after ten that morning, so much had happened. It had been a very long day but good. And in spite of the arguments and the upset I somehow understood him more. I understood his motives for protecting me and I knew deep in my heart that he wasn't evil like he thought he was. What’s more, I knew that he did want me.
Once I was inside my apartment, I threw my keys on the coffee table and went to take a shower. I stripped out of my clothes and removed what was left of my lace thong panties and dropped them in the trash with a smile. As the water cascaded down my back I thought back to the conversations we'd had throughout the day. The deep concern he harbored for my well-being was touching, even though it maybe should have stifled me. But no one had cared so fervently for me before and it felt good.
Images of him in just his black boxers, all tattooed and masculine, replayed over and over as I reluctantly washed the smell of him from my skin. I remembered how he had held me and how we had connected so intimately. The intensity in his eyes as he had fucked me. My nipples tingled as the memories of the passion he ignited in me rolled around my mind. I grinned and shook my head.
Gosh, Chloe you really have got it bad.
I stood under the water until it became too cold to be in there any longer. Once I was dry, I pulled on clean...and whole...panties, yoga pants and a T-shirt. By the time I got back through to the living room dusk had fallen so I closed the curtains before slumping on to the couch contemplating how tired I was. It had been an emotionally—and physically—tiring day and my muscles ached—but in a very good way.
As I was sitting there trying to decide what to make for dinner someone began banging on the door and I jumped. Surely it wasn't Six? Although maybe it was and he couldn't stand the thought of leaving me for the night either.
I excitedly skipped to the door and flung it open. Before I knew what the hell was going on a loud crack broke the silence in the still air of the building and I was knocked off my feet. I felt my head collide with the floor and I cried out just before everything went black.
I blinked my eyes open but a searing pain in my head almost made me throw up. I was lying on the floor completely disoriented. What the hell? The familiar smell lingering in the air was reminiscent of one of my scented candles and as I blinked I recognized the ceiling light. Okay...so I'm at home... I tried to move but as soon as I turned my head the room began to spin and I retched as my stomach roiled. A deep, dark laugh reverberated across the room and dread traveled in goosebumps down my spine.
Oh. Fuck.
“Ahh, so the little prick tease is awake, huh?” Brett's familiar, throaty voice caused nausea to spring anew up my gullet and I had to swallow fast and breathe deep to stop the onslaught of bile.
I lifted my hand to my head in a bid to stop the whooshing sensation. “What the hell are you doing here?” My voice was weak and wavered with fear and I cursed myself for not being stronger.
“Oh I think you know, sweet-cheeks. You owe me.”
Grasping at the carpet beside me, I managed, with difficulty, to push myself to a sitting position. “I owe you nothing. Why don't you just leave and I'll forget you came, huh? No police. Just go, okay?” I could hear the desperate plea in my voice and I closed my eyes trying to fend off the threatening tears.
Seeming to take delight in my distress, he laughed again. “Oh, baby, I think we both know that ain't gonna happen.”
He appeared in my line of sight and I was greeted with the sunken, empty eyes of someone I considered to be half man, half demon. He had changed and now resembled a monster. In fact, he had all the facial characteristics of someone addicted to heroin. Pale, almost translucent skin with visible veins, sunken cheeks, bloodshot eyes and a couple missing teeth. What the hell did my mom see in him? And oh my god is she okay? If he's here where is she?
I inhaled, hoping to calm my nerves. “H-how did you find me?”
“Let's just say I'm in league with the devil.” He chuckled and looked pleased with himself at his apparent inside joke.
“Tell me something I don't know,” I muttered loud enough for him to hear.
“Oooh feisty as ever huh? Jagger was right.” I had no clue what he was talking about which must have been evident in my expression as he decided to clarify. “He's the guy from Loki's Legion who you flirted with at the whore house you work in. And just like the fucking tease you are when he tried to take what you were offering you got your meat head boyfriend to beat him up. Unlucky for you, Jagger happens to be a pal of mine.”
Oh. My. God.
Brett is in cahoots with Loki's Legion?
My stomach plummeted like I was on the steep descent of the world's highest roller coaster. “W-what do you want, Brett? Is it money? Because I don't have any so if it is you're wasting your time here. Just tell me what you want and then leave.”
He crouched down and reached out to touch the side of my head and I flinched first and then winced as he touched the place where he had struck me. He moved his hand back toward his face and I gasped at his blood soaked fingers. He sucked them into his mouth and the nausea I was fighting came back with a vengeance. I retched again and threw up on the carpet beside me.
Brett's shoulders shuddered and his eerily raspy laughter filled the room. “Whoops. I think you made a mess of your pretty carpet there, little prick tease.”
Tears began to sting at my eyes. “Brett, I need to get to a hospital. I may have a concussion, please.”
In a mocking voice he replied, “Awww, does the little princess feel shitty, huh?” I glanced up at him to find a stupid pout on his face but it was soon replaced with an evil sneer. “Too fucking bad, bitch. Maybe you should've thought about that before ruining your step-daddy's life then, dontcha think? And anyways you won't have concussion for long. If you get my drift?”
I gritted my teeth and willed my lip to stop trembling as I tried desperately to ignore the fact he just insinuated he was going to kill me.
With as much venom as I could muster I shouted at him, “You are not my step-daddy! You're a lecherous bastard and nothing else!” I hoped that someone else in the building would hear and come to my rescue.
But a loud thwack resonated throughout my body as he struck me again, causing my head to be flung sideways. Blood spattered onto the floor from the fresh cut on my lip and I began to sob.
I couldn't help it.
Hope was no longer just slipping away from me. I had none left. This was it. I was going to die at the hands of this vile animal.
Here I was, injured with someone who had thought it was okay to make a pass at his girlfriend's teenage daughter. Someone who had assaulted me. Someone who had apparently even lower morals now than when I last saw him. I had been terrified of what he was capable of back then but now...now he was involved with Loki's Legion and he was sinking to depths of depravity even I had never expected.
He rubbed his chin and licked his bottom lip. “Well if you don't have money I can think of other ways you can pay me what you owe me. And what you owe Jagger for that matter. Maybe I'll call him to come around and join in our fun.”
“I don't owe you or him anything you sick fucker!” I bellowed once more in the hope someone would hear and call the cops. Lashing out at him I decided I couldn't just give up regardless of how hopeless my situation seemed. If only Six would return. Rescue me again. But I had watched him ride away. He'd be back at the club house by now. If I could just get to my phone...
Brett leaned in close and the stench of alcohol on his breath turned my stomach again. I tried to turn away but he gripped my chin hard and forced me to face him. “I think you're forgetting the money you stole from me. And the fuck you promised me.”
“I promised you no such thing,” I growled. “I spent my time trying to avoid you, you pervert. Now I suggest you leave before my boyfriend gets back. If he finds you here, he'll kill you and I mean that very literally. Jagger knows what he's like. He's huge.”
With an angry growl he pushed me back onto the floor as I swung out at him and tried my best to kick him in the balls but he was too strong for me, especially in my dazed state. All too soon I was restrained by his hand which encased both my wrists in a vice like grip and he pushed my thighs apart with his knees, pinning my legs down with his. His weight was crushing me into the floor and try as I might I couldn't move. My shins burned with excruciating pain from being pressed on and my fingers began to go numb.
He stared down at me with a lascivious grin and moved a hand to his fly. He was fumbling with the zipper and even though I struggled I was no match for him. I started to scream but he slapped my face again.
Much harder this time.
My ears rang and I closed my eyes as tears spilled over, leaving cold wet trails back into to my hair. I waited for my fate to play out, helpless and fragile, just the opposite of the image I had tried to portray to Six.
As I lay there I tried to remember what it had been like before Brett came into our lives. Before he tainted my relationship with my mom. Before I'd run away to escape from him. I opened my eyes again, turned my head to the side and spotted my large pot vase on the floor just out of reach. He must have knocked it over one of the times he had hit me. As he fumbled around with one hand struggling with the zipper on his grubby jeans and one hand holding my wrists, I somehow managed to slip one arm free. He was too busy concentrating on trying to undo his jeans to realize, and I stretched my fingers further and further.
Please let me reach it, please, please let me stop him.
I heard a grunt and glanced toward him to find he had his T-shirt stuck in the teeth of the zip. Dumb-ass. He cursed and forgot himself for a moment as he released the grip on my other wrist to use both hands on the trapped fabric as he swore in vile language and sprayed saliva everywhere like some kind of rabid dog.
Seeing my chance, I stretched that little bit farther but a shooting pain stabbed at my shoulder as it momentarily dislocated. Dizziness and nausea washed over me in equal measures but I knew I had to act fast and to stay silent. My fingers touched the smooth edge of pot and I held my breath, praying silently that I could grip it enough to pull it toward me.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion and my fingers slipped into the rim of the vase. It rolled slightly closer making it easier to grip but it was almost like a lead weight. I began to fear that my efforts would be in vain but with a strength I never knew I possessed I began to lift the vase with one hand.
There must have been some serious adrenaline coursing through my veins as a guttural, banshee-like scream erupted from my chest and I swung with all my might. I followed the trajectory of the soap stone vase and met the shocked expression of my assailant just as the empty vessel collided with his skull.
There was a loud crunch and he lurched sideways, hitting his head on the door frame that led into the kitchen. I let go of the vase and it landed on the floor with a resounding thud but then everything went silent just before I blacked out yet again.
Chapter Twenty-One
Chloe
When I awoke again, the room was dark and very still. A heavy odor of bad breath, alcohol and a kind if metallic stench that I didn't recognize hung in the air. My legs were weighted to the ground and as I tried to move I realized that they were being pinned down by something stretched across both of them. With a pounding in my head, I scrambled to a sitting position and managed to pull my legs free. I tried to stand, but thanks to the whooshing sensation that came over me, I only made it to my hands and knees.
I had no clue what time it was. The curtains were closed and I vaguely remembered drawing them together when I had gotten out of the shower. I crawled across the room and pulled myself up by the window sill and yanked the curtains open.
The sudden illumination of bright daylight made my eyes sting and the glare temporari
ly blinded me. I had to blink over and over for a few moments to give them time to adjust. When I turned around again I inhaled sharply as the events of the previous, horrific evening came back to me.
Brett was slumped in a heap against the kitchen doorway with his head at an unnatural angle and it became clear that the unfamiliar odor was fresh blood as it oozed from his badly fractured head.
“Oh shit no. What have I done? Oh fuck. Oh God.” I crawled over to him and listened intently but couldn't hear him breathing. I tentatively reached out with a shaking hand to press my fingers against his neck in search of a pulse. His skin was cold and I was now covered in his blood but there was no sign of life.
I tried his wrist.
Nothing.
Panic began to wash over me and I backed away and slumped by the couch with my head in my hands. I began to rock back and forth as tears streamed freely down my face. My first instinct was to call the police. It was what I should have done. But something inside of me stopped me reaching for the land line phone.
Instead I reached for my cell.
After a couple of seconds the ringing at the other end stopped. “Chloe? Hey, you okay?” Six's voice was strained and I wondered if I had made a mistake contacting him.
“Umm...n-no... No I'm not okay. Something's happened. S-something awful.” My voice was weak and I knew immediately he'd be terrified at my words.
“Awww fuck. Stay where you are. Don't move, okay? I'll be right there.” The airspace went dead and I pulled the phone away from my head. I stared at the blank screen for what felt like hours but can have only been minutes. Every time I turned my head to where Brett's lifeless body lay slumped, my stomach roiled and fresh tears began to spill over.
I managed to pull myself onto the couch and sat there, frozen on the seat as far away from Brett as I could get, until eventually the front door was flung open. I didn't have the energy to turn and check who had entered. By that time, I had become numb, staring at one spot on the carpet where I had knocked over some red wine months before and had never completely gotten the stain out.
Six: Company of Sinners MC #2 Page 12