by A. Zavarelli
“I was just going to get cleaned up.”
He jerks me back towards him and wraps an arm around me. “Ye don’t get out of my bed the minute I blow my load into you,” he says.
He sounds genuinely offended, so I try to ignore my discomfort and allow myself to relax around him. But it’s obvious to both of us, it’s not going to happen.
“Haven’t ye ever just been held before, Mack?” he asks.
I tense at his question. No, I haven’t. And that’s how I prefer it. So friggen what?
“Look, Lachlan,” I tell him. “You should probably know right now that I’m defective. I’m missing that chip other people have. The one that makes women want to be held and cuddled. I don’t want or need those things. There’s nothing like that inside of me, okay. So just drop it.”
He turns my face towards his and gives me a sad expression. Pity. “Ye’re dead wrong about that, Mack,” he says softly. “Maybe you can’t see it, but I can.”
I open my mouth to tell him off, but he kisses me again and then squeezes my ass.
“Come.” He takes my hand in his. “Let’s have a shower.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Mackenzie
I wake up in ecstasy. Quite literally, since Lach’s got his face buried between my legs.
Holy shit, this guy and his tongue. He knows how to use it that’s for sure. I’m grabbing his hair, arching my back, wiggling my hips around and making all sorts of crazy noises while he laps at me. All I can see is his dark hair bobbing up and down between my thighs, and it’s fricken hot.
All of this combined pushes me over the edge. Jesus, I don’t even last two minutes. That can’t be normal, right?
Lachlan pulls away, his lips still wet with my arousal as he pushes his hips between my legs. He’s staring at me. Hard. His eyes are flicking back and forth between mine, appraising. Something has changed between us. I know he can feel it too.
He reaches down and brushes my hair away from my face. And then he kisses me. It’s soft and tentative, like he’s testing something. I kiss him too and dig my fingers into his back. He’s making me feel crazy. Deranged. Like I can’t remember why I’m doing any of this and who he really is.
He groans and murmurs something unintelligible against my lips. His hands are skating over my body, stroking my breasts while he grinds his erection against me. I make a sound in my throat, and he tenses above me. The softness of his lips bleeds away as he kisses me hard. And then he snags my lip between his teeth and jerks.
I barely have time to understand what’s happening. His eyes flash and he flips me over and pins me down on the bed. He crawls up and straddles the back of my upper thighs, his hand twining in my hair and pushing my face down against the pillow.
“What the fuck are ye doing?” he snarls.
I don’t answer because I’m pretty certain this is a rhetorical question. He’s just as confused as I am about this thing between us. He can’t make sense of it, and he doesn’t want it either. But his hard cock wedged against my ass cheeks lets me know he wants me just fine.
His grip tightens on my hair and then he sinks inside of me from behind.
“I didn’t want this.” He grabs a handful of my ass cheek and squeezes.
“I know,” I whisper.
He fucks me hard and fast, his palms pushing my shoulders down as his hips crash into my ass.
“Goddamn you, Mack,” he grunts. “Ye’re fucking everything up.”
I take it. I take his punishment, and what’s more, I like it. I’m glad that he’s just as fucked up in the head as I feel. It makes my conscience feel better about this whole situation.
“You fucked everything up!” I yell back at him.
His lips come down to the back of my neck, sucking and biting their way to my ear.
“Nobody else gets this,” he whispers threateningly. “You gave it to me, Mack. It’s mine. Do ye understand that?”
He jerks on my hair and I grunt. “Fuck you, asshole.”
“Yeah, fuck me,” he echoes. “You’ll be in my bed every night, sweetheart. Riding my cock, taking my come. This body is mine now. Am I making myself clear enough?”
In answer, I come all over him again. He buries his face in my hair and jerks inside of me, emptying himself with a groan. And then he collapses against me, his body heavy and slicked with sweat.
I don’t move or try to fight him, even though I’m still uncomfortable. My discomfort is only outweighed by the thoughts racing through my mind. His words. His breathing calms and he kisses my throat. This time there’s nothing rough about it. The man is fucking Bipolar, I swear.
He rolls onto his side but keeps his arm thrown over my waist. I move into a more comfortable position and meet his eyes.
“A goddamn virgin,” he mutters. “Tell me how that’s possible, Mack.”
I shrug and tear my eyes away. “Never found anyone I wanted to give it to.”
Lachlan grabs my face and turns my attention back to him, his voice soft when he speaks. “Thank you, sweetheart,” he says earnestly. “For giving it to me.”
I clear my throat and give him a shaky smile as I retreat back into my shell. “So what’s on the agenda for today?”
“Today.” His face darkens. “Ye’re coming back to the club with me. Where I can keep an eye on ye.”
***
Turns out the little stunt I pulled with Conor actually worked out in my favor. Since Lachlan had to send Ronan off on some sort of mission, there isn’t anyone else he trusts to leave alone with me.
So tonight I’m back at the club, doing inventory. I highly suspect Lachlan could give two shits about how much stock he has, but it’s something to keep me busy. I’m not going to complain, because it puts me exactly where I need to be. I can keep an eye on the Russians, and Donny too. Now that Sasha has told me he was hanging around Talia, I have something else to go on besides just my dislike of the guy.
The problem is, he’s not anywhere to be found tonight. And surprisingly, I haven’t actually seen him at the club a whole lot since I’ve been here. I suspect he only stops by out of necessity or when it suits him, which means I need eyes on him elsewhere. That could present a problem since I know Lachlan’s going to be watching me like a hawk now.
Halfway through my shift, I decide to go check on Sasha. I feel bad with how I left things last time, and I want to make sure she’s alright. But when I wander into the dressing room and find her with a split lip and a bruise around her neck, I see red.
“What the hell happened to you, Sash?” I demand.
Her eyes dart around the room before she glances back at me pleadingly. I slam my lips together and gesture down the hall, away from the prying ears. Once we’re at a safe distance, I cross my arms and rake my eyes over her body. She’s practically shaking with fear, and it pisses me the hell off. Trying for a gentler tone, I ask her again.
“Did Donny do this to you?”
She bites her lip and stares at the floor. Answer enough. Jesus, where the hell is Ronan when you need him?
“Let me tell Lachlan,” I plead with her. “He’ll put a stop to this once and for all, Sash.”
The venom that spews from her mouth when she laughs shocks me. “No he fucking won’t,” she snaps. “You don’t get how things work, Mack. Donny is one of their own. We’re the outsiders here. Lachlan won’t say or do anything that will make it any better.”
“I don’t believe that,” I say weakly.
She gives me a pitiful expression and shakes her head. “Well then I feel sorry for you. You’re going to have to learn the hard way.”
I wring my hands together and try to think of something that will fix this mess. Apart from me kicking his ass again, I don’t see a whole lot of other options.
“Let me talk to him then,” I suggest.
Sasha shakes her head, her shoulders slumped in defeat. “No, Mack. Just leave it alone. He’ll get bored wit
h me eventually.”
“That’s not good enough,” I argue. “I’m not going to stand by and watch you…”
“You have to,” she hisses.
Her lip wobbles and then her eyes start leaking tears, and I have one of those moments where I’m reminded that I’m an awful human being. Because I don’t know how to comfort her right now. Every time I ever cried, my dad told me to knock it off. Somehow I don’t think that approach will comfort Sasha.
“I’m sorry, Sash.”
“I’m scared,” she admits. “He scares the hell out of me. He knows where I live, what my schedule’s like… he even knows about my sick mom. He’s said some things. Some really bad things. And I don’t know what he’ll do if I don’t give him what he wants.”
Suddenly, it isn’t Sasha I’m looking at anymore. It’s Talia. My stomach churns as I wonder if this was the same thing she felt. Like she was trapped in an impossible situation, and she didn’t know who to turn to. She would never come to me with it because she knew I’d take them all on myself. That was her weakness. Talia was soft hearted, but she was fiercely protective of those she loved too. It only strengthens my determination. I’m not going to let Donny get away with this shit anymore.
“Listen, Sash,” I say. “I’m going to handle this, okay? I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
She blinks up at me with clear blue eyes and stares at me in confusion. The exhaustion on her face is almost too much. The stress has been taking a toll on her body, and she looks thin. Her cheekbones are too prominent, the dark circles under her eyes too obvious. Her mother is dying, and on top of that she has some psycho trying to use and abuse her every chance he gets. I want to wring his fucking neck.
“Why?” she asks. “It’s got nothing to do with you.”
“Because that’s what friends do,” I tell her. “And I’m your friend.”
“Okay.” Her body sags in relief. “I guess I don’t really have any other choice.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mackenzie
Later that night, I’m in the stock room finishing up my inventory when someone grabs me from behind and covers my mouth. On instinct I try to throw my head back into his face, but when he grips me by the hair and I get a whiff of his cologne, I relax.
“Ye’re a deadly wee thing, aren’t ye butterfly?”
He moves his mouth over my ear to nibble on it, and I keep my lips zipped as my body melts against him. Hot kisses press against the sensitive flesh of my neck as his hand snakes lower and cups the thong beneath my dress.
“Who does this belong to, sweetheart?” he asks in a rough voice.
His erection is already poking into my back, and there’s some feral part of me that loves that he sought me out just to do this.
“It’s yours, Lach.”
He groans and bites at the back of my neck while he starts to gather the material of my dress around my waist. He’s rubbing his hard cock against my ass like a weapon.
“You caused this,” he tells me. “I haven’t been able to think straight all night. Now ye’re going to fix it.”
“Okay,” I agree.
“Bend forward and put your hands against the shelf.”
I do as he orders because... I just really want to. Rough fingers shove my thong aside a moment before the sound of his zipper fills the small space.
“I don’t have time for sweet tonight.” He slides his thick cock between my thighs. “I’m going to fuck ye hard and fast and stuff ye full of my come before I have to leave.”
I make a noise in my throat. Jesus, why does that sound so hot?
Lachlan grabs my hips and sinks into me, and he was right about one thing. It’s definitely not sweet and gentle. The bottles of alcohol rattle on the shelf as he slaps his hips against my ass, his balls bouncing against me as he pushes deeper and deeper. He’s groaning, his hands simultaneously squeezing the flesh of my ass and one of my tits.
“Ye know what I love about you, Mack?” he grunts out. “I love that ye’re such a cocky little bitch, and yet ye let me toss you around like this. It fucking turns me on to no end.”
I don’t even try to deny it. I’m too busy trying to hold myself upright from the power of his thrusts and the electric energy humming through my body. He makes me feel like a princess and a dirty little slut.
“Tell me ye like it,” he demands.
“I like it.”
And I do. So sue me.
“Tell me ye like me using you like a little slut. Bending ye over and shagging ye wherever I want because I fucking own you.”
“Ugg…” I groan. “Fuck you, asshole.”
I can practically feel his smile beaming down into my back. Apparently my back talk turns him on just as much as my agreeability because he’s fucking me like a lunatic now. I have no more wits left when his hard fingers dig into my hips and he chokes out his release.
I’m panting, sweaty and can feel his come leaking down between my thighs when he pulls out. I still haven’t come, but I’m so fricken’ close. I half expect him to just zip up and leave, but instead, he turns me in his arms and pins me up against the shelf.
His lips find mine in a much gentler fashion than the way he just fucked me while his fingers go to where I need them. I close my eyes and my head falls back as he takes care of me. It’s intimate, having him so close, breathing my air… being so vulnerable to him, but it doesn’t bother me right now. I know he’s watching my every tick, my every breath, and every tortured sound pouring from my lips. He swallows them all and then gives something else back to me when he kisses me.
He sends me flying over the edge with only a full minute of effort before I collapse against him.
“Have I worn ye out, love?”
When I blink open my eyes, there’s a satisfied smirk on his face. “Yes,” I answer.
“Grand,” he murmurs against my lips. “Ye know I’ll murder anyone else who touches you, Mack. Just remember that.”
He’s not saying these things for show. I really think he would kill someone who tried to touch me. I wrap my arms around him and stroke the back of his neck as I stare up at him earnestly. “I would never do that to you.”
He nods, but doesn’t look convinced. Can’t say that I blame him after last night.
“I have to head on,” he says. “I won’t be in until late, but Ronan’s on his way back here now to take ye home.”
Home. As in his place. How comfortable he is with dropping that word. In another lifetime, I imagine what it would have been like for me to meet Lachlan. If Talia were still here, and she wasn’t the reason I was doing this, could I be with a man like him? Be the little woman to a mobster? I don’t know, but a part of me strongly suspects that I wouldn’t be able to help myself.
Lach brushes his lips against mine one last time and straightens his clothes before he walks towards the door. He gives me one last glance and a wink.
“Be good, butterfly.”
“I will,” I reassure him.
He turns again, but something else slips out of my lips. Something crazy.
“Lach?”
“Aye, sweetheart?”
“Be careful.”
This earns me a boyish smile. And fuck me if I’m not grinning right back at the goofy bastard.
***
When the door opens again, I figure it’s Ronan, so I finish up counting the bottles before I spin around. But when I notice Sean standing there, his eyes on my body, my stomach rolls. Is this why Lachlan came and fucked me earlier? Because he knew one of his men would try to corner me like this?
“Hello there.” Sean winks. “I didn’t know you were in here.”
Yeah, sure you didn’t. Asshole. I smile sweetly and shrug. “It’s okay. I was just about to leave anyway. Ronan’s taking me home.”
I hope this will make him back down, but not so.
“You’re sure a pretty little thing, aren’t you?”
I try to move past him and reach for the door, but he grabs me by the arm and holds me in place.
“What’s the rush?” he asks.
“I told you, Ronan’s waiting for me.”
“Last I checked Ronan does as I tell him,” he replies. “He can wait a little longer.”
If he were anybody else, I’d have punched his lights out by now. But this is Niall’s son. And I’m in a very precarious position. Sean full well knows it too. I doubt there are many women who have the balls to stand up to him, knowing what he can do to them.
“I can see why Crow likes you,” he says. “Why don’t you stick around and have a drink with me.”
“I’d love to,” I try to keep my tone even and patient. “But it’s been a long day, and I’m really tired. How about a rain check?”
His eyes narrow, and his grip tightens around my arm. A little bit of panic wells up inside of me. I don’t want to hurt him, but no way am I going to let him touch me. I know I should be agreeing to his request. Asking him questions, trying to get the information I need. That was my original plan. But that was before I started focusing on Donny. Now I want to stay as far away from Sean as I can help.
“Let me rephrase that,” Sean says in a tone that brooks no argument. “You’re bedding one of our men at a time when the syndicate is vulnerable. And I don’t trust him to vet someone he’s putting his cock in. So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to have a drink together, and you’re going to answer my questions. Understand?”
Fucking prick. I nod and yank my arm away. “Of course.”
The door opens, and Ronan lurks in the frame, his eyes filled with accusation when he catches me standing with Sean in the small space.
“Ah, perfect timing,” Sean says. “Ronan, fetch us a couple drinks, will ya?”
I shoot Ronan a glare right back, letting him know this is not my doing. He presses his lips together and leaves without a word, of course.