by HELEN HARDT
He grabbed me and tossed me down on the bed. He turned me over so I was facedown, and he slapped one cheek of my ass hard.
He covered my body with his and bit into my neck. I jolted, the pleasure-pain so intense, it rolled through me like a whirlwind.
He whispered into my ear, “I won’t have your beautiful body marred by that horrible image.”
Horrible image? A phoenix rising from ashes? It was a beautiful image with meaningful symbolism. Why did he hate it so much? He had reacted so violently to the outline the other night. Something about the phoenix bothered him. What could it be?
I would find out, but right now, with his warm body covering mine, my pussy was starting to get wet again.
His rock-hard cock jabbed against the crease of my ass. God, what his body did to mine. My skin tautened, and my core throbbed. I knew he was ready to take me again, and I also knew I wouldn’t resist.
He slid his cock slowly into me.
“You will not get that tattoo, do I make myself clear?”
I didn’t answer, my body so full of heat and desire.
“Your body is mine, Jade. Mine. You will not ink it up.”
He thrust again, filling me, completing me.
In that moment, I might’ve agreed to anything. But I kept my lips shut. The throes of passion would not overwhelm me.
Before I knew it, I was releasing into an explosive orgasm. I bit my lip, moaning, grasping fistfuls of the comforter.
“Mine,” he chanted. “Mine, mine, mine.”
He kept fucking me, harder and harder, and my pussy began to burn. I wanted more and more and more and more…until another climax overtook me.
Again I fisted the comforter, molded to the sheets.
“Take it, Jade. Take me. Take all of me. You’re mine, Jade. Mine.”
He pushed hard once more, and then, my pussy so sensitive from two explosive climaxes, I felt every spasm of his cock as he released into me.
His perspiration dripped on my neck, my shoulders, and I relished it as the droplets rivered down my skin.
When he finally pulled out, he rolled off me and lay on his back with his arm over his forehead, his standard post-coital position. I turned onto my back as well but slid the other way so that our bodies were not touching.
As much as I wanted to roll into his arms, I had to figure out a way to deal with this tattoo business. I had every intention of still getting a tattoo. Was it just the image that he objected to? Or was it a tattoo in general?
Surely he had come across tattoos before. He had been in the military, for God’s sake. Frankly, I was surprised he didn’t have one himself.
I kept quiet for now, breathing in, still relaxing in the afterglow from my two orgasms.
My feet were dangling at the end of the bed, and soon I felt a warm tongue on them. I let out a giggle, sat up, and found Roger licking at my toes. I pulled him up onto the bed and gave him a hug. “Such a good boy. So cute.” I stroked his furry little face.
Talon still lay faceup, his arm across his eyes. I released Roger, and the dog bounded straight to his master, licking at his chest and face. No doubt he was nice and salty from all the perspiration.
With his free hand, Talon reached out and petted Roger, still not opening his eyes or moving his other arm.
I loved how much Talon adored this little guy. A man who loved dogs—was there anything better? I had never trusted people who didn’t like dogs. I personally loved them, and I’d missed having one in my life the last seven years during college and law school. I doubted that Sarah would let me have one in that tiny little apartment I rented above beauty shop. If I still lived here, I’d have Roger to greet me every day when I came home.
If I still lived here, I’d have a lot of things that I missed.
Talon didn’t appear to have any intention of moving. Now probably wouldn’t be a good time to bring up the tattoo again. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I should go now, Talon,” I said. “It’s Saturday, and I have tons of errands to run.”
He grunted.
I put my clothes on, gave Roger another quick pet, and—
Crap. I had no way to get home.
I sat down on the bed again and nudged Talon. “Talon, can you drive me home?”
He didn’t move his arms. “Just take the Mustang. The keys are in the little ceramic pot in the kitchen where they always are. I don’t mind you using it, and I know Marj doesn’t.”
“Really, I don’t want to impose.”
Eyes still covered. “Look, I wish you were still staying here, okay? I asked you to come back. At least take the car. You need transportation.”
I swallowed. He was right. I did need transportation. I was spending way too much on cab fare, although George was probably deliriously happy.
“All right. Thank you. That’s very generous.”
He grunted again.
I went to the kitchen, grabbed the keys, and left.
Before heading back to my apartment, I decided to stop at Toby’s. Maybe I could find a different image, one that wouldn’t upset Talon so much. Haley was at the front desk.
“Haley,” I said, “I’m really sorry I had to dart out of here the other night.”
She looked at me oddly, biting her lip, playing with the dangling hoop. “Let me go get Toby.”
“What for?”
She didn’t answer, just walked to the back and returned with a young blond guy.
“This is Toby. Toby, Jade, the woman who was in the other night wanting the phoenix tattoo.”
“Hi, Toby,” I said. “I wanted to look through the books and see if I could find a different image for my tat. I had some…issues with the first one.”
Toby shook his head. “I’m sure Haley explained things to you.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Haley didn’t say anything to me. What do you mean?”
Toby cleared his throat, his features uneasy. “I’m sorry, Ms. Roberts. We can’t.”
“Can’t what? What do you mean?”
“What I mean is…we can’t help you with a tattoo here.”
Chapter Nineteen
Talon
Roger curled up next to me, his warm little body a comforting presence. I missed Jade. Why hadn’t I asked her to stay? I wanted her here all the time, with me. I wanted to take care of her.
But who was I to take care of anyone when I couldn’t take care of myself?
She’d be after me with more questions—about the tattoo, about the news article that wasn’t released anywhere but here, about why I had wanted to…
God, I hated going there. Hated it so much.
Iraqi insurgents had ambushed us. Caught after dark in a copse of trees adjacent to a small northern village, I was one of the officers in charge of two Explosive Ordnance Disposal units, all enlisted men except one nurse. The other officer was my superior, Captain Derek Waters.
Shells began exploding all around us, the blasts deafening, and enemy fire erupted from the mountainside. The whoosh of the blood in my veins overpowered the explosions, turning into white noise. I yelled at my troops to run, my voice vague and far-off, and I ran like hell.
Once I escaped the woods and the gunfire, I looked back. No one was behind me. Why the fuck hadn’t they run?
More to the point, why had I bothered to run? Fuck, why had I done a lot of things in my life when I’d have been better off dying?
Why hadn’t I just stayed, stood stock still, closed my eyes, looked to the heavens…and gotten my ass shot off?
An end to all my problems…
But here I stood. Like a fucking imbecile.
Waters and two troops rushed at me.
“Steel! You okay?” Waters asked.
I nodded. Waters and the two troops crashed to the ground, panting. Still, I stood.
And the answer hit me.
I would go back in.
I would go back in under the guise of saving my men and hope that I got shot to hell. I bolted in, inst
inctively dodging fire. The first troop I came across was one of my enlisted men, Clancy Brown. He was screaming, his foot having been shot. He couldn’t get up, and blood was spurting from his lower limb. I grabbed him by the shoulders and got him onto my back, running like hell to get him out of there. When I finally cleared the copse of trees and the enemy fire, I put him down and went running back in, ignoring Waters, who was now sitting up, yelling at me to stay put.
I charged back in and found my sergeant, Jensen, my second-in-command. I grabbed him and pulled him out, and he too begged me not to go back in there.
“Lieutenant, we need you! You’re fucking crazy! Don’t do it!”
But I ignored him as well, darting back through, again instinctively dodging the fire when I should’ve been putting myself in harm’s way. All told, I got four more out, including a woman, Cline, one of the nurses who had been with us.
I turned and rushed back toward the woods.
“Damn it, Steel, no!” Waters grabbed me around the neck.
I broke his choke hold easily, but Forrester, one of the men who had escaped with Waters, tackled me to the ground.
“We need you, Lieutenant.”
I broke free of Forrester with little effort and surged forward.
Waters stopped me again, with help from Jensen, Forrester, and the nurse, Cline. That woman had a motherfucking strong grip.
“I outrank you, Steel,” Waters yelled. “You’re not going back in there.”
I struggled to regain my freedom. “Your men are in there too, you son of a bitch!”
Somehow, with all the adrenaline pumping through me, I broke free and thrust my body forward again.
Forrester tackled me again.
“Let me go, Forrester. That’s a fucking order!”
Waters ran at me, throwing himself on top of Forrester and me. “You’re staying put, Steel. And that’s a fucking order, you dumb shit. Don’t you think I care as much as you do about those troops? Half of them are mine. But damn it, you’re no good to anyone dead.”
Once more I struggled free, my strength unimaginable. But then—
Thud!
Forrester punched me in the nose, and Cline—yes, Cline, her forehead spewing blood—popped me upside the head. I didn’t feel any pain. Too much adrenaline still coursed through my veins. But I went down. I fucking went down. When my head hit the ground, things went black.
Other than a minor concussion, I got out of it unscathed. I was taken to our military base for patching up.
There I sat, healthy as a horse, still fucking alive.
I had done my best to get my ass blown to bits, and it hadn’t worked.
As I lay in bed, still petting Roger, my body went cold. I was truly no hero. I hadn’t risked my life for my men. I’d gone in seeking my own demise.
My eyes shot open.
I was glad I wasn’t dead. Fucking glad.
Jade had done that for me, and I needed to do something for her. I needed to work through this chaos that was my life so I could be worthy of her.
I scoffed. I would never be worthy of her, of her love. I did love her, but did she really love me? Jade wasn’t the type to lie. She truly thought she loved me. But the fact of the matter was, she didn’t know me. She didn’t know the real Talon Steel. She didn’t know the man who had killed overseas…and who still dreamed of killing three men from his past.
No, she didn’t love that Talon Steel.
That Talon Steel was unlovable.
The boy sat on his ragged blanket, shivering. They hadn’t come in over a day, and he had long since finished the meager meal and small glass of water they had left him.
The bucket was full of his waste, and the rancid stench made his eyes water. He should’ve been used to it by now, but he wasn’t. Wasting away in the midst of his own filth… He truly was nothing.
But he dreamed sometimes, when he was able to sleep. He dreamed of escaping and growing into a big strong man…and hunting those masked demons…plunging knives into their hearts… and laughing into their blurred faces as they drew their last breath.
But the walls… In the walls, the face of the phoenix emerged.
“That will never happen, you piece of filth,” the bird chided, laughing. “You are worth nothing. Nothing more than that little gray blanket they’ve given you. You will die here, and they will never pay for what they’ve done to you. You deserve every bit of it.”
And then, even though the boy would close his eyes and cry on the inside, tears would not emerge.
He was too dehydrated to make tears.
He unclasped his hands around his knees and lay down, shivering. As the walls came ever closer…closer…closer.
Until the walls swung back to their normal positions when the door at the top of the stairs opened. The boy squinted at the sliver of light. Footsteps echoed, and one of the three descended, wearing only shorts and a T-shirt…and the black ski mask, of course.
The boy huddled in the corner. Please, please not again. Normally they all came together when they decided to abuse him. But the boy was never sure what would happen when one of them came alone. The demon didn’t wear shoes. Normally they did. When the lone beast turned toward the boy, he carried food. The boy had stopped getting hungry a while ago, but still he knew he needed to eat. His stomach was raw and empty.
He needed to eat to survive. Always to survive.
“Here you go, bitch.”
The one who brought the food. Not Tattoo or Low Voice. This one was almost invisible most of the time, rarely talked, but he took his turns like the others. He set the tray down.
The boy looked up. The man’s eyes glared, but the boy couldn’t tell the color in the darkness. He looked down the devil’s body, all the way to his ugly bare feet. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine…
Nine toes. No pinky toe on his left foot.
No pinky toe…
I shot upright.
One of those bastards was missing the pinky toe on his left foot. Was that unusual? He could have been born that way, or he could have lost his toe in an accident.
I didn’t care. I threw on my robe, ran down the hall to my office, and fired up the computer. I was about to put out a search for men missing a small toe on the left foot.
And one of them was going to answer to me.
Chapter Twenty
Jade
“Excuse me?” I looked to Toby and then to Haley.
The Goth girl was biting her lip ring again.
“Are you in the business of turning away customers?”
“Any business has the right to refuse service to anyone,” Toby said.
“But why me? I’m nobody.”
“I’m afraid I can’t help you.” Toby stood awkwardly, adjusting his weight between his two legs.
“You’re the only tattoo shop here.”
“There are plenty in Grand Junction. I’m sure you can find what you want there.”
“But I’ve seen Haley’s work. I love it.”
“Haley is a fine artist, but there are many others who will serve you just as well.”
I shook my head. “What the hell—”
And it hit me. Talon had been here. He had waived his money around and convinced these people not to tattoo me. He hated the tattoo. He’d made that abundantly clear. But to go so far as to pay off the only tattoo shop in town not to do business with me?
Only one way to find out. I turned in a huff and walked out the door, slamming it.
I drove back to the ranch, anger coursing through me. How dare he?
It was nearly dinnertime by the time I got back, and Marj was pulling up just as I was.
“Jade, great to see you. What are you doing driving the Mustang?”
“Talon loaned it to me.”
“Oh, good. Although I’m sure George will miss all the fares.”
I wasn’t in the mood to make nice, even with Marj. “I’ve got to see Talon.”
“Sure. He’s p
robably inside. Why don’t you stay for dinner?”
Dinner? I was hardly hungry. I stalked inside behind Marj. “Talon!”
“Calm down, Jade. We’ll find him.”
I went running to his bedroom and opened the door, not bothering to knock. Roger looked up from where he was sleeping at the foot of Talon’s bed. Talon was nowhere in sight.
Roger panted and ran to me.
I gave him a quick pet. “Come on, boy. Let’s put you outside.” I let the dog out and then turned to Marj. “Where the fuck is he?”
“Settle down. I have no idea.”
“He was here a few hours ago.”
“Oh, you were here?”
I nodded. “Is his car here?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t look,” Marj said.
I ran outside. His Mercedes was there, but his pickup was not. He had driven off somewhere. “Damn it,” I said under my breath.
Marj came outside and grabbed my arm. “Jade, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“Your brother is what’s wrong with me, Marj.” I let out a huff. “He has really overstepped his boundaries this time.”
“What are you talking about?”
“For some reason, he doesn’t want me to get a tattoo. He won’t tell me why, except that he doesn’t want me to mar my body. I had the greatest image all picked out—a phoenix similar to what I saw on my mom’s boyfriend. It truly spoke to me, and after so many years of searching for the right image, I thought I’d found it. But Talon went crazy, forbidding me to get a tattoo, and especially that tattoo. I don’t take kindly to orders, as you know, so I went in today to make an appointment at Toby’s, and I was told that they won’t tattoo me. Can you fucking believe that?”
“I’m sure there’s a very good explanation.”
“Really? You think so? He’s a businessman, for God’s sake. I’m a client willing to pay good money to get a tattoo. And he turns me away. That has Talon Steel written all over it.”
Marj bit at her lip. “Why would Talon care if you get a tattoo?”