Intrepid_A Vigilantes Novel

by Keri Lake

  When I reopened my eyes, we’d moved to the first surface it seemed he could bend me over, which happened to be the arm of the couch. As soon as my feet hit the floor, he turned me around and pushed my head down to the cushion, leaving my ass high in the air.

  “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll stop.” Hands prying me apart, he plowed into my pussy tongue first, and licked all the way up to my ass, the sensation jerking me forward.

  “Ah, Ty!” I kicked my head to the side, watching him.

  “When I shove my fingers inside of you, I want you to say my name again.” He tipped his head, prodding my entrance with those wicked pleasure daggers, and I did as he asked, his name searing my tongue, while my traitorous pussy welcomed his invasion with a wet slide.

  Drawing his fingers out showed the glisten on his skin, where he held them up for me to see. “Always wet for me,” he said, and sucked my arousal from them. “Admit it, Sera. You say you don’t want to play, but you love this game. You crave it as much as I do. Deny it all you want. Your body doesn’t lie.”

  Unbuckling his pants, he didn’t take his diamond eyes off me once, not even when he slipped the buckle from its loops and tied it around my wrists, above my head. The leather bit into my flesh, as he tightened it, then he knelt down beside me, brushing the hair from my face. “I’m going to fuck you everywhere in here, until you feel me in every corner of your mind. Every time you sit on this couch, you’ll think of the night I bent you over and fucked you against it. Every time you walk through that door, you’ll think of my mouth sucking your pussy. And every time you go to sleep in your bed, you’ll think about the sweat and pain you endured, having my dick buried in you for hours. Only then will you know how badly I’ve wanted you this week.”

  “Why bind my arms?”

  “Because this isn’t about you touching me and tormenting me all over again. This is about me tormenting you. Showing you how it feels wanting to grab onto something, all while knowing your hands are tied.”

  My whole body shuddered at his words, and I submitted to them, tucking my bound hands beneath my body.

  Ty peeled off his shirt and pushed his jeans to the floor, stroking his fully erect cock in front of me. The perfection of his body, the tight cords of muscle, long and lean, and the chiseled grooves in his chest and abs drew my focus away from the scars. “I’m going to feed off of you until I’m no longer hungry.”

  Swallowing a harsh gulp, I tacked my eyes shut, as he lined his tip to my entrance. At the first thrust, I screamed into the cushion, the muffled sound ringing in my ears. My fingers clawed for purchase against the cropped fabric, sliding against the tiny fibers.

  He pulled back to the tip, and drove forward again, his thrust nearly tearing through my womb. In and out, he pumped a vicious rhythm, his cock filling me with every punishing slam from behind.

  The angle, the depth of his cock, the excitement of having my hands bound, all culminated into the kind of ecstasy I’d never had before. Wetness pooled beneath my cheek where I’d leaked drool from the corner of my mouth.

  All I could think about was Bea and I sitting on that very couch come Monday, drinking our morning coffees, as usual, only nothing about it would be usual. I’d be wondering if she could sense, maybe smell the sex clinging to the upholstery, or feel my dried saliva beneath her.

  Ty’s relentless assault kept on, thumping the couch, squeaking the wooden frame inside of it, while he rutted against me like we were animals in heat. Sweat poured down my face, and I could feel more in the wet slide of his hands digging into my waist. My skin burned fever-hot.

  I held my breath, face planted in the cushion, as tingles climbed my spine, higher and higher, building in my stomach like a knot wound too tight. I arched my back and cried out through the first blast of climax exploding across my limbs, my legs shivering as the orgasm shattered along my muscles, weakening them.

  Ty pulled out, and I paused to breathe, only to be lifted from the couch into his arms. He carried me into the bathroom, just as he had at his apartment, and flipped on the shower. As it warmed, he held me up, my legs like jelly, and tugged me into the stall. Arms still bound, I lifted up on tiptoes, when he hoisted my wrists over the shower spigot, slicing through the warm spray. He stepped back, stroking his still-hard cock. He didn’t come—a thought that tripped my confidence button for a moment, until I realized he hadn’t wanted to. Yet.

  “Don’t move,” he commanded, watching me.

  My toes slid across the shower floor as I tried not to put too much weight on the neck of the thing.

  His hand reached out, spreading the water over my breasts, and he held a puckered nipple between his fingers, giving a light pinch. The sensation built inside of me again. I didn’t know how, but when he set his mouth to my breast and suckled it, want beat through me as wickedly as before, and I ground my ass against the cool tiles behind me.

  Abandoning my breast, Ty reached up and pulled the detachable showerhead from its hook, the same hook I was desperate not to bust from the wall. Fist still pumping his cock, he set the showerhead against my swollen and sensitive pussy, nudging my leg up onto the ledge beside me. While the determined pulse of water titillated my clit, he clamped his mouth on my neglected breast, and I squirmed, letting out a desperate moan as the insane little tickles beat against my flesh.

  “Oh, God!”

  “Don’t come yet.”

  His teeth pinched my nipple, like a zap of electricity sizzling across my flesh, and I tipped my head back with a whimper. My stomach muscles tightened, as the unremitting warm thumps of the massage setting taunted me to climax.

  “I can’t …” I murmured, willing myself to ignore it. Wrists burning with the wriggling of my hands inside the leather cuff, I chuffed an unintelligible noise, like that of an animal, as I held back the monstrous urge to come. My breasts tingled, standing at peaks to his merciless lapping.

  Still pounding away at his dick, he stepped back just enough to keep that goddamn spigot positioned against my clit, and I watched him come all over his palm in fountains of hot seed jetting from the tip, watering my mouth.

  I couldn’t hold on anymore. The satiated expression plastered to his face. The release on his hands. The stomach-knotting pressure pounding against my pussy.

  I kicked my head back and let it crash over me, half-sobbing, as the intense heat shot through my body. Dizziness swept over me, and I stumbled forward, caught in Ty’s arms. Holding me up with one hand, he set the showerhead back and lifted me into his arms.

  Weakened to the point of exhaustion, I couldn’t muster a single twitch of my muscles, as I rested my head against his shoulder. His lips found my throat, and the cool tiles hit my back, soothing the burn of my skin. Chin held in his palm, my eyes shut to the shower’s warm sprays against my face, Ty crashed his mouth over mine, his tongue impaling my lips, as he sucked the water from them.

  “There is no other woman for me, Sera. It’s only you.” His lips slanted over my own, my head still caught in a haze of pleasure. “Like a fucking addiction I can’t shake.”

  I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could hear the quaver in his voice, the unstable sound of a man on the edge.

  “I’ll never be good enough. Not for you. But tonight, I’m going to make you feel good.”

  “Ty.” Turning my head to release his grip of my chin, I rested my forehead against his shoulder to get out of the water’s spray. “You are good enough.” Hands still bound, I ran my knuckles over the groove of his chest and kissed his throat. “You are good.”

  * * *

  Cool air danced across the sweat clinging to my body, as I lay in bed, listening to Ty’s steady heartbeat thumping in my ear. Sleep tugged at my eyelids, as he sat circling the pad of his finger over my skin, lulling me.

  He’d finally removed the binds from my wrists, and I clutched him with the dreaded feeling that he’d slip away any minute.

  “Why does she look to be in pain?”

  I follow
ed the path of his gaze to the sketch propped on the easel across the room. “It’s longing.”

  “For what?”

  “Something out of reach. Something she’ll never have.” I mustered the strength to lift my head from his chest and traced the grooves of his muscles. “Hits home.”

  “Yeah. For me, too.”

  “How so?”

  “You’re lying in my arms, but I feel like I’ll never really have you. You’ll never be mine.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  His brows knitted, and he ran his thumb over the deepening creases in his forehead, but he didn’t answer.

  “You keep telling me there are secrets and things I don’t know about you, but you’re not giving me any more than that. Is it a terminal illness? Are you moving across the country? Whatever it is, Ty, I’m willing to make this work out. I told you before—no regrets.” I lay back down on his chest, possessively drawing my arm across him, as if he’d up and leave right then. “I lied when I told you I wanted the pain of being with you, even if we never saw each other again. I didn’t expect to feel so connected to you. I thought it was just sex.” Head still resting against his heart, I stared up at him. “I’m sorry, Ty. I can’t just do sex with you. I want more.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose, eyes clasped shut. “Have you ever told a lie so profound, it could destroy lives?”

  The frown on my face only exposed a fraction of the confusion swirling in my head. “What do you mean? Like what?”

  The silence between us skated across my nerves, as he turned his head toward the window, casting his gaze from mine.

  “Hey.” Hand set to his cheek, I guided his eyes back to mine. “Tell me. I promise it won’t change anything.”

  His brow flickered, jaw shifting with either annoyance, or disbelief. “What if I told you I needed something.”

  Without so much as a flinch, I held his stare. “Tell me.”

  33

  Ty

  I was the quintessential definition of a rotten prick. I’d gone there under the guise of wanting nothing more than to fuck her, and as much as I wished that was the case, that wasn’t entirely true. Everything I’d said to her, wanting to leave my mark, wanting her to remember me, wanting her so bad I couldn’t breathe—I hadn’t lied about that. Fucking her had been my own selfish indulgence. One last high to keep me going for a while, because I already knew the withdrawals would destroy me.

  But I’d come with ulterior motives, and I’d have sooner stabbed my heart with a gut-hook blade, over having to see the look of betrayal staring back at me.

  Only she had access to the ledger—the one thing capable of saving a bunch of kids from turning into sex mules, enslaved to the whims of sick fucks like Fox and Gideon.

  And her own father.

  I’d avoided her as much as I could physically stand to be away from her, but with the clock ticking down the seconds, and Kutscher’s mansion guarded like a fortress, I had no choice but to enlist Sera.

  I already knew her trust in me was sketchy, and without doubt, she’d question my interest in her from the beginning.

  Even at the risk of losing her, though, I couldn’t let what happened to Eli become some other kid’s fate. Sera and I shouldn’t have been what we’d become anyway. Like light and dark, fire and water, the moon and the sun trying to come together. We didn’t mix.

  In another life, she might’ve been everything I wanted, maybe even something I’d bust my ass to keep, but in the life I’d chosen to live, she was my enemy’s daughter. An impasse with no other outcome.

  A thought for which I’d punish myself with a fifth and sharp blade later, but I needed to get what I had to do over with. I needed to break things off before I hurt her any more than I already had.

  I slid my gaze to hers, so warm and inviting, framed by hair all sexy and tousled about her face. A stab hit my heart from just looking at her. “I want you to understand something.” I pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, dragged my finger down her cheek to her chin, lifting it just enough to kiss her. “Given the choice, I wouldn’t have traded tonight for anything. No regrets.”

  “No regrets,” she echoed, but the dubious expression on her face told me she suspected something bad.

  The indecision crashed inside my head, jumbling my thoughts around until I couldn’t straighten them out. I couldn’t grasp the treachery of the words I was about to say to her.

  “I need you to retrieve your father’s crypto ledger. Looks like a USB thumb drive.” As I talked, I watched the muscles in her face slacken, the shine in her eyes dull. If I could read her mind right then, she’d undoubtedly be imagining a dual meaning to my words, or maybe searching my eyes for the punchline of the joke I hadn’t revealed. “It holds his cryptocurrency wallets. There should be a twenty-four-word passphrase. A series of random words written down on a paper that came with the ledger.”

  Her eyes glistened in the moonlight, before she pushed off my chest and shielded her face behind her palms.

  The seconds of ensuing silence beat against my conscience in a deafening reminder that I was the most rotten piece of shit. Perhaps worse than her father.

  A bitter laugh broke the tenuous stillness, but quickly ended in a sob. “You …. You were using me this whole time?”

  My heart flared inside my chest, as if it would kill me from the inside out. I reached out for her, but she slapped my hand away and scooted toward the opposite side of the bed.

  “Don’t fucking touch me!”

  “Sera, listen—”

  “I knew there was something. Something didn’t make sense. Why would a guy like you want anything to do with a girl like me? For weeks, I couldn’t figure it out.”

  “You don’t understand. The ledger contains—”

  “You seduced me,” she cut in. “You hoped I’d be some starry-eyed little nympho who’d fall so in love with you, I’d steal for you!”

  Another stab. That one with a soul-shredding crank of the blade. “No. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “Get out. Get the fuck out.”

  I lurched toward her, frustrated when she kicked away. “None of what happened tonight was a lie. I want you. I’ve wanted you since that first night up on the roof.”

  “If you don’t get the fuck out of my apartment, Ty, I swear to God, I’ll call the fucking police!” Face burning red, she pointed toward the door. “Get. Out!”

  “No.”

  “Get out! Get out! Get out now!” She pushed at me, sobbing, and when I reached for her, she scrambled off the bed, swiping up her T-shirt and covering herself. “I don’t ever want to see you. I don’t ever want to hear from you again. Get out, and don’t ever come back.”

  Turning away, I breathed hard through my nose to calm the angry tremble of my muscles, the fury simmering in my veins ready to explode any minute. As if I’d asked for any of it. As if I’d wanted to get involved with a woman I could never ultimately have.

  Maybe I had asked for it. Maybe that was just the breaks for those of us who’d been dealt a shitty hand all our lives. We didn’t deserve happiness, or love, because fate, or God, or whoever pulled the strings had already written us off.

  I gathered up my clothes scattered throughout her apartment. I’d only tugged my jeans over my hips when my coat smacked me in the face.

  Anger got the best of me, and I stepped forward, my jaw aching with the urge to kiss her so goddamn hard she’d pass out breathless. Pin her down on the bed and make her understand.

  “Sera, listen to me.”

  Hands balled to fists, she held them to her temples, her lip trembling with another sob.

  I stepped forward. Another step. And another, until I stood before her, and I grabbed her shoulders. “I didn’t want this. I never wanted to hurt you.”

  “Why are you doing this, then?” Her fist struck out, punching me in the chest. The second followed the first, until she was pummeling my heart. “Stop! Stop it! Just get out! I hate you. I fu
cking hate you!”

  Nothing could’ve possibly struck me harder than the venom of her words.

  I released her and stepped back. If pain was on the table, might as well show her all the cards. “I know why you take care of Jo. I know why you feel guilty every time you look at her.”

  The aversion of her eyes told me I’d nailed a soft spot, but considering the anger I’d already stirred, I didn’t push it.

  “The ledger wasn’t for me. It was for Dax. He asked me to retrieve it.”

  “That night at the party, right? How convenient that it’s the same night I met you!”

  I rubbed a hand down my face, other hand propped at my hip. “I’ve been watching you longer than that, Sera.”

  Her brows pinched together, tears streaming down her cheeks and mingling with her mascara to create black streaks. “What did you say?”

  “We didn’t meet by chance on the roof of that building. I went up there for you.”

  “Why?”

  “Why did you run away from your father? Why do you visit Eli’s grave? Take him flowers? Why would you give up your dreams for Jo?” Arms crossed over my chest, I treaded carefully, knowing every word could set her off. “I know why.”

  “If you don’t get the fuck out of here, I’m going to scream.” Her hands slammed into my chest, knocking me back a step. “Get out!”

  I didn’t bother to fight that time. I’d hurt her beyond repair, and what had transpired was for the best. We were fated to hate each other. I’d known that from the beginning.

  So I left.

  * * *

  Light flickered from the living room of Jo’s apartment, where a woman, presumably her full-time nurse, lay passed out in front of the TV. I slid the window I’d just climbed through closed to a crack, and hoisted my duffle back up onto my shoulder.