by Lynn Burke
“Fuck,” he groaned against my ear, his beard tickling, his cock fucking killing me.
“Vigil.” I gasped as he pressed in deeper. Holy fuck, deeper...
“Goddamn, wildcat.” He gulped and planked, leaving my back cold. “Your ass is so goddamn tight.” The stinging drag out—the gentle thrust back in—he growled like a damn animal as he finally bottomed out. “Fuck.”
Vigil rested his forehead on my back and stilled deep inside me. “Fuck.” He trembled, and I forced myself to relax.
“Take me,” I whispered, opening my eyes and turning my head enough to see him shaking. “Don’t hold back. Please.”
“Hurt you.”
“You won’t. I want it, Vigil. I know it’s you—I’m not afraid.”
He growled like an animal—and gave into that beast.
I bit back my shriek as he pulled out and plowed into me like a damn train, sliding me along the sheets.
Holy fuck … holy fuck.
So deep. Brutally so. Every thrust harder than the one before, every grunt and groan from his mouth oozing wetness from my pussy. I buried my face in his bed and shrieked, “Yes!” with every thrust, my muffled cries only seeming to spur him on.
He sank back onto his knees and lifted my hips, creating a deep arch in my back.
I needed to come. Needed release—hell, I needed him to find his so he would stop even as I craved more.
He palmed my pussy before I moved my hand to take care of business myself. “This pussy is mine.”
“Yes,” I gasped as he pinched my clit.
“This ass is mine.”
I saw stars behind my eyelids as he slammed in deep. “Fuck, yes.”
My climax hit me like a tsunami, and I shrieked, bucking in his hold. I couldn’t help the rush of wetness squirting from my body, coating his hand. Soaking his bed.
“Goddamn, Mila.” Vigil let loose, his bruising grip on my hips holding me still as he fucked me hard and deep, the curses groaning past his lips, the grunts ripping from his chest keeping me on a steady high. My pulse thrummed and ears rang as I lay pliant in his hold, allowing him to use me for his own pleasure.
He’d given me so much already...
Wet heat shot deep inside me, and his animalistic groan shivered over me, pebbling my skin. A few more thrusts, and the pain of him inside me eased. We both heaved for breath, and he sank with me into the mattress, his sweaty chest against me, his lips searching through my hair for the skin of my neck.
A shudder rippled through him as he licked the dampness from my skin.
I turned my face on a harsher angle, needing his mouth. He gave me what I needed, the soft cushion of his lips, the gentle glide of his tongue along mine curling my toes in exquisite perfection.
Unable to move beneath him, I soaked in his heat, his hardness, the feeling of absolute rightness.
Eventually, he released my mouth and brushed his lips over my ear. “Don’t move.”
“Deal,” I whispered with a smile, but he backed out of my ass and a wince flatlined my lips.
“Did I hurt you?”
“You’re a goddamn beast, Vigil—but I loved it.”
He chuckled and kissed the base of my spine.
Every muscle in my body felt depleted like Jell-O. Relaxed to the point of passing out. I obeyed, not moving as Vigil returned to the bed with a warm, wet towel, gently wiping between my thighs.
“I ought to take you into the shower, but I can barely move,” he said, running a hand up over my back.
I patted the mattress beside me, and he stretched out, pulling me into his arms, away from the wetness I’d made on his bed.
Chest to chest. Legs entwined. He kissed my forehead, my nose, and finally my lips with gentle brushes and flicks of his tongue, tasting and sharing my breath.
“Sorry about the mess,” I whispered.
“It was hot as fuck.”
My damn smile came easy.
“Gonna make you a deal, wildcat.” He pulled back, and my heart stuttered at the emotion in his pale, sleepy eyes. So vulnerable and open, completely unshuttered, allowing me in. “You’re going to unload everything you’ve been going through the last year, and I’m going to listen without getting pissed. I’ll take and carry that burden and promise not to kill anyone in return.”
I couldn’t help the laughter bubbling inside me. “I’d rather hear your dark secrets.”
A flicker of something slid over his face—fear perhaps? “Tonight is yours, wildcat. Get all the shit out then let me hold you while you sleep.”
“I have to go home, Vigil—I can’t leave Devon there alone.”
“He told me he’d castrate me if you got home before sunrise.”
I slapped at his shoulder, and he chuckled. “My son did not say that.”
“Not those exact words, but I know a threat when a man makes one.”
“Man, huh?” I cocked an eyebrow, loving the teasing light in Vigil’s eyes.
“He’s seen more than most kids his age.”
My smile faded. “He has.”
“Tell me.”
So, I did. From the verbal and emotional abuse my son had endured, to the physical assaults I’d dealt with in private. It’d been the final beating, the one that ruined my womb for life that had broken the camel’s back.
But it was time to move on.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Vigil
Mila didn’t hold a goddamn thing back, and guilt over wanting to do the opposite with her sat heavy on my head long after she fell asleep wrapped around my body. My heart ached for her, the devastation she’d endured, the secrets of abuse she’d hid from her son. Fuck, he knew enough as it was.
I smoothed my hand down her back, her skin like satin against my fingertips.
Sleep eluded me even though my clock glared an angry red two a.m. from the bed stand. I’d never exhausted myself with a woman before, but Mila had drained me dry—of cum and emotions, including the ones over Ricky. I’d been buried in pussy and ass before, but never felt beyond the flesh. The connection between me and Mila … I felt that clear to the tips of my fucking toes. Didn’t doubt the claiming I’d laid on her, and the fact she’d whispered and groaned her agreement, I knew I was set for life.
Mila was mine. So was her son.
I’d texted Devon one-handed not long after his mom fell asleep with her head on my chest letting him know she wouldn’t be home until morning. He replied with two thumbs up emojis and a “Good!” making me grin.
I rolled both of us, spooning against her back, one arm around her waist and holding her lush ass against my groin. My dick chubbed, but I talked the fucker down. I wanted her again, but I wasn’t an asshole. I’d wait until she woke on her own.
She sighed in her sleep, and I made myself close my eyes to shut out the dark. Mila belonged in my bed, with me every goddamn night, and since she’d agreed to my claiming, I wasn’t about to let her go back on it.
Fuck Stacy Pritt and fuck the widow’s son and his rental.
Mila and Devon would be moving in with me before the weekend ended. I couldn’t stand the thought of them not. Wouldn’t stand for it at all.
I’d lost Ricky, but I wasn’t about to lose the two new loves I’d found.
I breathed in Mila’s sweet scent, laid my hand over her heart, and counted the steady beats until finally passing the fuck out.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Mila
I woke at the crack of dawn as usual, but snuggly warm and completely relaxed. A few blinks brought the unfamiliar room into focus—and the night before rushed back to mind. My pulse lit as I realized that snuggly warmth was actually a hard body pressed against my back from neck to toes.
Vigil’s steady, warm breaths stirred the hairs at my nape, one of his legs thrust between mine, my toes resting on his shin. He still slept, I realized as his exh
ales remained even.
I took a few minutes to enjoy waking in his arms and how his heat radiated through every inch of my body to the point of tingling in all the best places. A shuddering sigh ripped through me while I grinned like an idiot. I’d had fun alright. Even though he’d been gentle until the end, sex with Vigil had been toe curling, oxygen stealing, and ass achingly perfection.
I considered turning and waking him with my hand and mouth since I hadn’t gotten the chance to the night before, but thoughts of my son waking to find me still gone decided for me.
Easing from Vigil’s heavy limbs without waking him was like playing pick-up sticks, but I won. I couldn’t decide if I was pleased by that fact or not.
Cool air slid over my naked body as I studied him sprawled across his king-sized bed. That sheet we’d had atop us pulled down to his hip, but didn’t reveal the goods beneath. Lower lip between my teeth, I gently inched it downward with one hand and nearly let out a moan at the sight of him. Morning wood hadn’t yet crept up on him, but he still hung thick and long over his thigh. How the hell had that monster fit inside me?
Wetness rose between my legs at the memory of his slow thrusts in and out of me, and my sore ass clenched at the thought of his beast coming out to play.
Good god almighty.
I grabbed my cell and clothes off the chair in the corner where I’d left them the night before and slipped out of his bedroom into the hallway. A quick change in the downstairs bathroom, and I hurried home, the tweeting of birds and the rising sun on my face a sign of a new beginning beyond what I’d ever dreamed.
My face heated as I considered what Devon would say but told myself being open and honest with him would lead the way for him to be the same when the time came.
At least, I hoped.
I fished the back door’s key from its hiding place beneath the stoop and let myself in. Silence met my ears, but I hadn’t expected Devon to be up yet. He’d left his bedroom door cracked open like he’d always requested since a toddler, so I stood and watched him sleep for a few minutes, my heart overflowing to the point tears stung my eyes.
Smiling, and my footsteps light, I returned to the kitchen and made coffee, sitting my sore butt at the table with a mug and buttered toast to wait for him.
My cell dinged, and thinking it was Vigil, heat rushed over my skin. Grinning, I grabbed it up and swiped across the screen.
Marshal Pritt: Your husband escaped while in transit this morning
I blinked, read the line again, my chest tight and breath held.
No.
Why the hell would he text such information? I rang him, my heart pounding.
“Hey.”
Hey? All nonchalant and sleepy? “What the fuck, Pritt?” I managed to make my vocal cords work.
“Calm down, Michelle. We’ve got this under control.”
“Calm down?” I squeaked, my throat swelling with rage. “The last thing he said while being dragged away was that he would get revenge. Burn both me and my son to the ground. Tell me again why I should calm down?”
“He has no clue where you are. None whatsoever, and—”
“How the fuck do you know that?” My voice found strength, rising with the anger coursing through me.
Pritt let out a heavy exhale like he was annoyed, the bastard. “There are only a handful of people in the agency who know where you are.”
“And he’s got contacts out the ass, Pritt. Now that he’s out, he’ll want to find us, and he will.”
Devon rounded the corner, shirtless and hair mussed, his brow furrowed. “Mom?”
“I can come over later this afternoon,” Pritt continued, his voice still unmoved and bored as could be, “but honestly, I don’t think we need to over react,”
Over react. If Stacy Pritt had a child of his own looking at him like Devon did at me in that moment, my tells showing on my face for my baby to see, he wouldn’t be so quick to say such a thing.
I needed a gun.
I needed to pack up our shit and leave.
Immediately.
“I’ll call you later,” I said and hung up without waiting for a reply. “He escaped.”
“Fuck.” Devon’s face paled, and I hopped up, throwing my arms around him. He actually clung to me, and I closed my eyes, wishing to hold his head to my chest like I’d done when he’d been little.
“We’re going to be okay,” I whispered, fighting off tears. “I’m not going to sit around here waiting for the marshal—I’ll figure something out.”
“Call Vigil.” Devon stepped out of my hold and grasped my arms. “Call him. Now. He’ll protect us.” His dark eyes peered intently at me as I nibbled on my inner lip.
Yes, Vigil would offer us his protection, but I couldn’t bear the thought of bringing danger to his doorstep. “I can’t put him in that position,” I whispered, my heart aching as much as my throat.
Devon’s scowl deepened. “The man is madly in love with you and isn’t going to just let you take off, Mom. We’re stuck with him whether you want it or not—especially since you spent the night in his bed.”
My face heated. “He’s not in love with me.”
“Bullshit.”
“Dev...” I raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t show one ounce of being contrite over the curse.
“Calling it like it is, and I won’t apologize.”
We had a stare down, our first one in a long, long time. Usually, he caved to my authority, but I recognized the stubborn tilt of his jaw, the set of his shoulders hitching toward his ears.
A slow smile tilted the corners of my lips. “Love you, Dev.”
“Love you more,” he said, his dimple popping within a flash. “Now call your man so I don’t have to freak over not being strong enough to protect you myself.”
Those damn tears hazed my vision again, and I nodded. “Okay.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Vigil
My cell dinged, and I peeled an eyelid up.
Mila wasn’t beside me.
I sat up abruptly, my head jerking toward the bathroom. The door hung open, the lights off.
“Mila?” I hollered while grabbing my cell.
Wildcat: He escaped.
“Goddamnit all to fucking hell.” I scrubbed a hand down over my face, knowing exactly what she’d meant. I put through a call rather than text a reply.
“Vigil.”
“You okay?” I asked, climbing out of bed and grabbing my jeans off the floor.
“Yeah.” Her voice shook—a nice, little lie.
“What’d that fucker Pritt say?”
“Says we have nothing to worry about.”
“Bullshit.” I yanked up my jeans and strode into the bathroom to take care of business, not giving a shit I was on the phone. “I can protect you in ways the agency can’t. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
A rush of relief swept over me even though my entire body tensed tight as fuck. “Pack your bags, Mila, enough for at least a week, but don’t worry about food. I’ll be over in five to pick you up.”
“Okay.” She hung up, no questions asked, and my chest ached like a motherfucker.
She did trust me. Explicitly.
I grabbed a bag from my closet and rang Warden.
“What’s up?” he asked, his voice muffled.
I glanced at the clock—it read only six-seventeen. “Long fucking story, but I’ve got to take off north with my woman and her kid.”
“Claimed her, huh?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I growled at his teasing tone. “They’re both mine, and I’ll protect them no matter the cost.”
“I understand,” he stated, all business.
“Can we go to Shaun’s camp?”
“Of course.” His voice came through clearer like he’d sat up, fully awake. “What’s going on?”
“Mila
’s ex is Harlon Flanders, and he’s loose and gunning for her.”
“Who’s Mila?”
“Michelle.” Exasperation swept through me, and I slammed my shirt drawer closed hard enough the entire chest of drawers shook. “I’m going to have you, Ryker, and Devil stay here to look after the club.”