Beast (Salvations Bane 2)
Page 11
Beast looked around him. He absolutely could not believe she was having this conversation with him in the middle of the clubhouse common room. He didn’t care, but she would when she realized what she’d just yelled at him. It was everything he could do to keep a straight face.
“Sunshine, I wasn’t telling you to leave.”
“You said it! Then you were gone this morning! You left me! What else was I supposed to think or do!?” Still yelling. OK. This was way, way off in left field.
As if Thorn had just been waiting for the right moment, he tossed Beast the jacket he’d had made for her, and a tiny box he’d picked up just that morning. The reason for his sudden early departure.
“OK. First of all, I never said I wanted rid of you after we’d, uh… I never said I wanted you gone.” He cleared his throat, knowing that, no matter what happened in the next few minutes, she’d still have to deal with all this later. Everyone in the club would tease her about it. For months. “Second. I left to pick up some things I had made for you. It was supposed to be a surprise after dinner tonight, but I can see perhaps now is the better time.”
She blinked. “Wait. What?”
“Yeah, Sunshine.” He held out the jacket to her, spreading it out so she could see the back. Property of Beast was emblazoned on the back on rockers top and bottom. When she looked up at him, her eyes still narrowed in irritation, Lucy, Vicious’s ol’ lady, stepped forward.
“It’s not what you think. That’s Beast’s way of claiming you. Making you his ol’ lady.” She grinned. “It’s a good thing, honey.”
It seemed to take Fleur a moment for that to sink in, so Beast took a tentative step toward her, the little box in hand. He opened it and pulled out a ring. Taking her left hand, he slid the ring onto her finger. “The jacket is for me. The ring, for you.” Then he got down on one knee. “Fleur. Will you marry me? Be my ol’ lady?” She stood there, mouth gaping open. A strangled sound came from her, but she couldn’t seem to form a coherent response. Beast grinned. “I’m taking that as a yes.”
To the cheers of everyone around, Beast picked Fleur up and swung her around before wrapping his arms tightly around her. “Sunshine,” he sighed.
“Oh, Gideon!” This time, the tears were happy tears. She wrapped her arms and legs around him before kissing his face all over. “I’m so sorry. I just thought --”
“That was your first mistake. A woman as smart as you should never try to think like a guy like me. You’ll get it wrong every time, because I’m not nearly as intelligent as you are.”
“That’s not true!” He cut off her protests with a hard kiss before tossing her over his shoulder.
“Listen here, little Miss Astrophysicist. We’re gonna get you into Florida Technical Institute and you’re gonna find a star and name it after me. Then, you’re gonna find twelve more and name them after our kids.”
“Twelve!”
He swatted her ass. Hard.
“Yes. Twelve. Then, when our kids start having kids, you’re gonna retire. I’ll find a peaceful place for us to go camping every year, and you’ll show our grandkids where every one of those stars are while we roast marshmallows by the campfire.”
“I’m not having twelve kids!”
“Thirteen is an unlucky number.”
“Beast!”
The echo of his club’s laughter followed them down the hall until he shoved open his door and closed them inside. He set her on her feet then placed his hands on her shoulders. “Look at me, Fleur. Really look at me.” When she did, he could still see the worry lying beneath her adorably dazed and confused expression. “I love you. I know I haven’t said it, and I don’t show a lot of affection around other members of the club. That stopped tonight. You’re my ol’ lady. I won’t deny I didn’t want to get too close to you before, but that was my own insecurities. I was afraid you do exactly what you did. You ran. I just had no idea it was because you thought I didn’t want you. Stupid of me since I hadn’t given you a reason to think otherwise.” He took a breath, aware he was starting to babble. “Anyway. I love you, Fleur. I’ll support you in any way I can. I’ll protect you and our children with my life.” He closed his eyes against the tears threatening. When did he become such a pussy? “Just…” He swallowed. “Just stay with me, Sunshine.”
Finally, finally, a smile split her face, once again as bright as the Sunshine he’d named her. “Yes. I’ll stay. Gladly!”
Beast brought her in for a kiss. One thing led to another and before he knew it, they were naked in bed, his head between her thighs.
“Oh, God!” Fleur screamed as she gave him more of that honey he’d come to crave.
“More,” he growled. “I want more!”
Her breath came in ragged little pants, sweat glistening off her skin. “I love you, Gideon,” she panted. “I love you so much!”
“That’s my girl,” he said as he crawled up her body. He entered her in one swift movement. She cried out and wrapped her legs around him, digging her heels into his ass.
“Oh, God! Oh, God!”
“So fuckin’ tight! Don’t think I’ll ever get used to this!”
“Fuck me, Beast. Oh, Jesus, fuck me hard!”
He did. Slamming into her over and over until they were both on the verge. Her little pussy gripped him until he saw stars with the effort to hold back. When she screamed, he let himself go. With a roar to the ceiling, Beast came inside her with one hot, creamy spirt after another. In his life, nothing had ever felt so right. His woman. In his bed. His seed inside her.
“I came inside you,” he murmured, wondering how she’d take it. It was a shit move on his part, but he didn’t fucking care. He was doing everything he fucking could to tie her to him.
“Yeah,” she said, sounding supremely satisfied. “You certainly did.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Well, you are doing the right thing. You know, putting a ring on my finger and everything. It was bound to happen eventually.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. I guess it was.” He kissed her mouth gently, taking his time and savoring her sweetness. “We good? You’re not going to run again, are you?”
“No.” Then she frowned. “But what about Debbie? Won’t she come after you?”
“I doubt it. Once I figured out what was going on, I texted Venus. Her response was cryptic, but she indicated there was nothing to worry about.” He shrugged. “I trust my people. If she says it’s good, then it’s good.”
“I was surprised Debbie isn’t in jail. I mean, I thought all the guys who did this were in jail.”
“The men are. It wasn’t likely there was anything Debbie would be charged with to keep her in prison more than a couple years, so I didn’t try very hard to get her to agree to plead guilty. I just let Venus do what she does. Debbie isn’t in jail, but if she says there’s nothing to worry about with her, Venus has taken care of it in some way. I’ll trust her.”
“Well, if you do then I do, too. I’ll have to remember to thank her.”
“Oh, I think the little show in the common room was thanks enough. I haven’t heard Venus laugh like that in years.”
At the mention of the episode just a few minutes earlier, Fleur groaned. “Don’t remind me. That’s not going away. Is it?”
“Not likely.”
She shrugged. “Oh, well. I guess I’ll have to learn to live with it.”
“If by it you mean me, then I don’t think you’ll have anything to worry about. I’m a beast when it comes to protecting my woman. You want it shut down, I’ll take care of it.”
Fleur laughed. “No. It’s to my advantage, really. Now every club girl here knows there’s not a single thing I won’t let you do to me. There’s not a fucking thing any of them can lure you to bed with.”
“Only you have that power, Sunshine.”
“I love you,” she said, kissing him once again.
“I love you, too, Sunshine. I love you, too.”
Marteeka Karland
Erotic romance author by night, emergency room tech/clerk by day, Marteeka Karland works really hard to drive everyone in her life completely and totally nuts. She has been creating stories from her warped imagination since she was in the third grade. Her love of writing blossomed throughout her teenage years until it developed into the totally unorthodox and irreverent style her English teachers tried so hard to rid her of.
Marteeka at Changeling: changelingpress.com/marteeka-karland-a-39