by Lily White
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a way home, so I went downstairs in search of Gabriel only to be standing near the front door when it slammed open.
Jumping in place at the bang, I stared wide eyed as Tanner lugged in one of the twins.
From the state of him, I couldn’t tell which one it was, not that they were easy to tell apart when their faces weren’t busted to hell and swollen.
“Oh my god, what happened?”
Tanner balanced whoever it was against a wall, or at least he attempted to. The twin slid down to the ground, a groan crawling up his throat as his head swiveled over his shoulders.
“Is he okay?”
Moss green eyes met mine, pure malice behind them. Every bit of cruel humor you usually saw in Tanner was gone, replaced by such intense anger that I stepped back as if I’d been the one to hurt his friend.
Jabbing a finger toward the twin, he barked, “Keep an eye on him while I grab the other one.”
I would have argued with his harsh demand if it hadn’t been for the state of Damon...or Ezra. I wasn’t sure which one.
“Okay.”
Without another word, Tanner marched back outside and I knelt by...whoever it was...my hand reaching as if to touch him, but he was so banged up, I was afraid.
“Can I get you something? Water, or-“
Amber eyes barely peeled open to pin me in place, a growl erupting from his throat that was a good warning to get the hell back. I was more than happy to oblige.
When Tanner dragged in the second twin, I saw that he was as badly beaten as the first.
“What happened to them?”
Tanner ignored my question and barked another demand instead.
“You need to help me get them upstairs.”
I would have helped, except the twins were twice my size.
“I don’t think I can carry them. But I’ll see if I can find Gabriel.”
Cursing under his breath, Tanner shifted to drag the twin’s body up higher so he could get a better hold.
“Just watch Ezra while I do it myself.”
Ezra...finally I knew which was which.
It took him ten minutes to get Damon upstairs and come back for Ezra, and I followed him up on the second trip to see if there was anything I could do that didn’t involve holding up a man that must have weighed over two hundred pounds.
Ezra’s feet barely made it up the steps, but eventually we got him into his room and in bed.
Silently, we moved into the hall, neither of us having much to say to the other, not that Tanner looked like he was in the mood to talk.
We passed his room, and I walked into grab my shoes.
The door shut causing me to spin back.
Tanner leaned up against it, exhaustion obvious in his posture, and barely restrained rage in his expression. Even staring at me like I’d somehow hurt his friends, he was gorgeous. I wouldn’t doubt that Tanner has been smelted using the purest of rare metals and then forged in the flames of Hell.
His hair was a mess around his head, like he’d run his hands through it all night. And his eyes - I couldn’t breathe when I looked at them. They had the power to trap you in place, cage you behind impenetrable bars. His skin looked hollow beneath the sharp blades of his cheekbones, and his jaw moved in a way that drew my eyes.
Nothing could hide his body beneath his clothes, his shoulders far too broad, his waist angling down to slim hips that led to muscular thighs. Dressed in a black t-shirt and dark jeans, he was a smear against the white door, a shadow that absorbed light.
“I should go,” I said, shoes in hand, my voice a bare whisper as if anything louder might wave a challenging flag.
Stepping up to leave, I was hyperaware of how he watched me, his body unmoving. I was so close to him that I could feel his breath on my hair, the flutter of the strands near my face tickling my skin.
He was hurting. I felt that too and it was an intrusion for me to know it. Tanner wasn’t the type to reveal weakness.
“What happened to the twins?”
Our eyes met.
“They have an aggression problem.”
I would have been surprised that he’d admitted that much if it wasn’t already known that the twins liked to fight.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Shaking my head, I didn’t have a response. It just felt like the right thing to say, a silly platitude that did nothing to solve the problem.
Why had I said it?
The only answer I could think was that, at this moment at least, there was a vein of humanity I could see in him. A soft spot I doubted many people knew existed. Tanner cared for his friends, and in that moment, I could plainly see that their pain was his as well.
The silence between us was heavy. But then Tanner scrubbed a hand down his face and locked his eyes with mine again.
“Every time I turn around, you’re here,” he commented, not acknowledging that I’d just told him I was leaving. “It pisses me off.”
And then the soft spot was gone. I shook my head as if I’d been imagining it.
Not surprised by his blunt statement - that’s just who he was apparently - I still felt stuck in place and unable to answer. It didn’t matter, my stillness, he closed the distance between us because his feet weren’t glued in place like mine.
He stopped within inches of me, just shy of physically touching, but close enough I could feel his heat.
“I can’t stand you.”
This was getting ridiculous.
“You’re not my favorite person either.”
His lips twitched.
“Then why the fuck do I want you so much?”
Damn good question. I’d been asking myself the same thing for weeks.
He palmed my cheeks and tugged me the last inch that remained between us, his mouth claiming mine in a storm of cruel lips, a demanding tongue and punishing teeth.
There was nothing sweet or ordinary about the way Tanner kissed me. It felt more like he was fighting me than loving me, hating me than giving a damn about what I thought or felt.
But I still let him because I was practically melting at that moment, as if he’d let me go and I’d just fall to the floor a puddle of feminine submission and raging hormones.
This was stupid. Purely idiotic, but I went with it, allowed it, couldn’t pull myself away from it if I tried.
He woke up everything inside of me that I’d long ignored and I kissed him back as my fingers let go of the shoes they were holding, as my hands moved to run up the hard bulge of his arms.
Fuck, his tongue was thick and wet and warm and his hands held me in place while he kissed and licked and nipped, tasting me in the way he wanted while I fought to remember to breathe.
I couldn’t stand this son of a bitch, yet I couldn’t push him away, not after his body pressed to mine and the heat was so unbearably good that I moaned and dropped my head back when his hands finally moved down my body, his mouth dragging down my throat where my pulse pounded against his lips.
Seconds later we were both ripping at our clothes as if they’d offended us for daring to keep us apart. My hands fumbled the button of his jeans open just before he dragged my arms up while removing my shirt.
I was still half dressed when he lifted me up and tossed me on his bed.
Tanner kicked his jeans off his ankles, reached back to pull off his shirt, his entire body bared to me except for one part still tucked behind boxer briefs.
Holy shit...
It was unfair how beautiful he was. The gods must have carved him from stone with the intent to screw over womankind because why else would such an arrogant ass be wrapped in a package as perfect as that?
He smirked when he caught me staring. “This changes nothing between us. Just so you know.”
“I wouldn’t want it to,” I rasped.
He grinned, “Glad we agree on one thing.” His lips quirked. “Are we calling a truce for now?”
“Yes.”
I’d barely said the answer before my body was jerked down as he tugged my jeans off. His gaze trailed down me burning a path over every inch of skin. He wasn’t touching me, but I could feel him everywhere, and I both loved and hated how he felt.
If just the way he looked at me could cause that, then what would his hands feel like? His mouth? His tongue?
My eyes drifted south to see he was fully erect under his boxer briefs, the thick outline trapping my breath in my lungs. If anything, it answered one question:
There was no way that could have been inside me without me still feeling it in the morning.
We hadn’t slept together, not last night anyway. The same couldn’t be said for what was happening now. This extremely bad decision I was making that felt good.
Tanner crawled over me, a study in perfection, his upper arms flexing and bunching where he held his chest off mine and dragged a leisurely eye down my body.
I was on fire in every place our skin met, my lips parting to drag in air, but then his mouth was on mine again, taking, exploring, and I kept my eyes open to watch him lose control.
It was fascinating.
He was fascinating.
But also dangerous, and while I knew that, I wasn’t doing the smart thing by saying no.
His lips pressed soft kisses down my throat, lower until he was teasing my breasts over the cups of my bra.
Dragging the cup down with his thumb, he licked my nipple and blew on in until it was hard, my back arching up, begging for more. And then his teeth bit down, his tongue swirling over the sting of them. My fingers gripped his hair and it was as soft as I knew it would be.
His voice was gritty against my body. “I hope you don’t think this means I’ll play nice from now on.”
Tanner kept inching down me, his tongue flicking over my belly button while I writhed and groaned at how slow he was going.
His fingers drifted over my hip, between my legs. I was soaked for him, embarrassment heating my cheeks because there was no way he could miss how much my body wanted him.
On a tease, he flicked my panties aside and dragged a fingertip along my slit.
“This is interesting,” he joked. “Should have told me how much you wanted me before, Luna, I would have gladly-“
“It’s Luca and you know it, jerk.”
Tanner laughed and continued toying with me.
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the shiver that coursed through me.
“And nice? Ha! You? I’m not sure the word can be used in the same sentence as your name. There’s some law against it.”
He chuckled, the sound deep. “In all fifty states, as a matter of fact.”
But he was nice, so damn nice that when he dragged my panties down my legs and peered up at me, I almost came at the sight of those heated, dark eyes watching.
Hands shoving my legs apart, his mouth covered my pussy, his breath a wash of heat, his tongue...
My eyes rolled back in my head, my fingers clutching his hair. “This is nice,” I squeaked.
And then he spoke against me. “Do you ever shut up?”
But then his tongue was pushing inside me and I shut up then, my ability to speak stolen as he lapped at my arousal and circled his tongue over my clit.
My body buzzed with the need for a quick release because it had been too long since I had one. I couldn’t hold it back, my legs locking on the sides of his head as I was taken over by an orgasm that hit me like a speeding truck.
“I’m....oh god...”
Not that I could open my eyes to see, but I somehow knew he was staring up my body to watch me come apart and that made the orgasm stronger.
I was shaking by the time it ended, the blood rushing in my head loud, but not loud enough to block out the way he chuckled, the sound arrogant and full of male satisfaction. He could make me see stars and he knew it.
Crawling up, he shoved his boxer briefs off, leaned to grab a condom from the drawer in his side table and was sliding it on when he spoke softly.
“I’m not God, so next time you come, I want to hear my name on your lips.”
A smile stretched my mouth. “And if I refuse?”
His mouth crashed with mine as he dragged my leg up to lock it over his hip.
“Then I’ll keep going until you’re begging me to stop.”
He lined his cock with my entrance and drove inside with one possessive thrust, no hesitation, no concern that he would be too big, Tanner just took without worry that it had been years since I’d been so brutally opened.
I could feel him everywhere, his body hard, his cock harder, and when he moved it was hypnotic, his mouth stealing my ability to breathe as his thrusts became more powerful, a good hard fucking because this wasn’t sweet, it was two people who didn’t want to want each other. As if we were getting it out of our system, as if we could satisfy some deep seated urge and then forget we ever knew each other.
It wasn’t long before another orgasm came on, my body clinging to his as he pushed me over a precipice that should have been illegal, my arms locking over his shoulders as his name crawled over my lips. I knew he enjoyed that, but he was too busy chasing his own release, his hips thrusting him impossibly deeper as he came.
And as I wound down, my skin slick with sweat, his body collapsing on mine, I remembered how stupid I was for letting this happen.
Tanner would hate me again when he learned how I forced his hand on the project, and we’d be at war just like before this happened.
But I’d won, and that’s all that mattered.
The thought felt like victory and it made me smile.
I should have remembered that pride always goes before the fall.
Luca
Gabriel upheld his side of the deal. Two days after I slept with Tanner and then hauled ass before he found out what I’d done, I received a not-so-polite text from him telling me that while he would help with my project due to how I played his friend, he would not do so happily.
I’d grinned while reading it, the satisfied smirk still on my lips when I walked into the library that night to find Tanner waiting at a table, his dark gaze tracking me across the room with every intention of getting even.
Unfortunately for him, I had no interest in giving him the chance. I’d written off having anything to do with the Inferno boys ever again.
As long as I kept my distance, Tanner wouldn’t have the chance to get back at me. It was a win-win. I’d gotten everything I wanted and he was bound to helping me because, surprisingly, they honored favors.
That said something about them, though. Even if they were insufferable jerks that toyed with people like pawns on a chessboard, they accepted when they were beat and kept up whatever terms cornered them.
To say I was walking a hell of a lot taller was an understatement. I was practically floating because little Luca Bailey actually succeeded in besting Tanner Caine. Not many people, if any, could say the same.
For a full week, Tanner met me in the library each night, and I learned something about him that impressed me.
He knew law like the back of his hand, so well in fact that he didn’t need to crack open books to know what he was talking about. He was a walking encyclopedia of information, and I realized that when he passed the Bar exam and became a lawyer, he would be hell to beat in a courtroom.
Tanner was already ruthless, but also intelligent, and that was a bad combination for whoever decided to cross him.
Not only that, every night we met, he was actually acting human around me…like a friend of sorts. It lowered my guard against him, which bothered me. Frightened me. I didn’t want to like him.
And I absolutely hated sitting across from him remembering what it had been like to have sex.
I was beginning to feel things for Tanner I knew were dangerous.
For that reason, I got back together with Clayton. I knew it wasn’t a good idea, and in a way I was using him as a buffer. Things had been awkward for us the first fe
w days, but he’d caught up to me after class and apologized for the text. He admitted it was dumb and that he was jealous I’d gone to the party without him, and he begged me to give him another chance.
He was safe. And I was scared that without him, I’d fall into Tanner’s bed again. So I’d agreed to being exclusive, even though his kisses were a pale comparison to a man that dominated my thoughts every time he was around, his dark eyes always watching me as if plotting my unfortunate demise.
But still, I was walking on air without realizing the problem with being up that high: the fall would only be that much harder, and by Friday of that week, the air was ripped out from under me, the universe conspiring to destroy me, and rather than it being a one-two punch, it was also a right hook that knocked me completely off balance.
It started when I returned to my dorm from class. I was due to meet with Tanner in an hour and wanted to run back to freshen up, but when I walked into my room, I stood in place at the door to notice Everly’s closet was empty, clothes hangers strewn about as if she’d ripped them down in a hurry. The drawers in her desk were open and empty as well, only a few scraps of junk paper and chewed pencils left behind.
Turning, I found a note on my desk, a hastily scribbled message that she had to leave without giving an explanation why. Almost as a soon as I’d finished reading, someone banged a fist against the door and shoved it open.
Jase’s shoulders filled the doorway, his nostrils flared like a wild beast. “Where the fuck is she?”
Voice a low growl, he scanned his eyes over her closet and side of the room, coming to the same conclusion I did when I saw the empty space.
I held up the note. “Are you the reason, she left?”
He stabbed a hand through his hair, obviously pissed, his eyes dragging to me as his hands fisted.
Jase didn’t say a word in explanation. He just stormed out as quickly as he’d barged in and I was left standing in place, confused and angry because I knew he had something to do with Everly running.
That was the first punch.
Thinking Tanner might know what was going on, I met him at the library as scheduled.
He waited for me outside the main doors, his dark gaze trapping mine, his expression unreadable. Flipping his phone through his hand, he opened the door and held it for me, his energy off as I walked past him.