I’d been warned. I’d been sent threatening letters. I’d had my car and home vandalized. Threats had been delivered to the club.
We’d arrested four of his workers who’d been acting on orders from him, and still he didn’t stop, despite every single one of his workers now sharing a cell next to his.
That was inevitably what sent me to Florida for an extended stay. The death threats had progressed to actual assaults, and I didn’t want to put my club, my fellow officers, or Channing in danger. Which actually was a breath of fresh air not to be sleeping ten feet away from her every night.
Plus, I got to visit with my mom and stepfather.
If anything else, not seeing Channing was the one thing that hurt the most. I could handle car bombs and death threats all day long, but one look at the sorrow in Channing’s eyes every time I saw her but didn’t approach, absolutely gutted me.
The look in her eyes, the accusation. As if I was being just like she’d expected me to be.
“Table for two?” The host asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Dortea confirmed. “I need somewhere with a lot of light,” she said glancing around the dimmed bar area. “Preferably by those windows right there. Perhaps beside that young woman?”
My head turned to examine the windows, first disregarding the beautiful woman sitting at the booth directly behind me, but as soon as my mind registered what it’d seen, my eyes flashed back to hers.
They were swimming with tears, and she was staring at the TV above the bar with a grim determination that broke my heart.
God, this all was so unbelievably fucked up.
I’d been using every tactic I’d learned in all my years of training to stay away from her. I knew what could happen to her if I started being seen with her in public. Varian’s cronies would see, and then they’d carry that information back to him. He’d then send out orders to do whatever necessary to affirm compliance on my part. And I would have. In a fuckin’ heartbeat.
“Sure, that’s Melody’s section, and she’s on break, but I can definitely have Sean over there take your orders. Is that okay?” The young woman asked.
At Dortea’s nod, she walked quickly around the half wall that separated the entrance from the seating area, and placed our menus on the table before leaving.
We were seated directly across the aisle from Channing.
And we were facing each other.
She was doing everything in her power not to look in my direction, and I was doing everything in my power to turn my head away from her.
We both lost.
Our eyes connected, and I could see the desolation in her eyes, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe.
I hated that I made her feel like I’d used her and tossed her away, and I didn’t know what to do to fix it. Hell, I couldn’t fix it until after I’d testified.
I was fucked if I did, and fucked harder if I didn’t.
Either way, I was taking it up the ass, and who knew how long it would take until I was able to talk to her. I may be testifying on Monday, but that in no way meant I was free and clear. There might still be instances that I was needed to clarify something, or add something to my testimony.
Channing’s head lowered in defeat just before she bolted for the bathroom.
I stared after her for all of twenty seconds before excusing myself to the bathroom myself.
I walked slowly in the direction of the bathrooms, but instead of going into the men’s, I went into the women’s, being sure to lock the door behind me.
The sound of Channing hurling was the first thing to register with my senses, and I instantly knew I just couldn’t do it any longer.
Walking slowly to the stall, I was relieved to find that she hadn’t found the time to lock it, and I pushed it open slowly, finding her squatting down beside the toilet with her hair hanging down surrounding her head.
Thankful that she’d chosen the handicapped bathroom, I squatted down behind her and gathered her hair in my hands.
“Oh, Chan, I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Her hiccupping sob caught me off guard, and my head dropped until it was resting on her shaking back.
“Please,” I whispered brokenly. “Don’t cry. I’m not worth it.”
I wasn’t used to girls crying. I didn’t have any girls in my life. I had a brother that was fifteen years older than I was, and a mom that refused to let anyone see her cry. The only women I’d seen cry, lately, were the wives of the members of the MC. When the first tear started to drop, I was walking in the opposite direction.
I’d seen plenty of crying in my day as a cop, but when it hits me then, I have my cop face on. Right now, I had my me face on, and I couldn’t handle it.
“It’s okay. I’m okay. I just ate something bad,” she lied.
Badly.
Leaning up, she pressed her weight into me, and I wrapped my hands around her waist.
My hands sprawled against her abdomen, and curled around until my fingers went around her back.
“Sure you did. Can you stand?” I asked, as I buried my head into her hair.
She nodded, but neither one of us moved.
“I’ve been getting death threats,” I said into her hair.
I left out the getting the shit beat out of me part. She didn’t need to know that much detail.
Her body froze, and she stood fast.
My hands missed the reassuring weight of her body immediately, and I stood, too.
She was staring at me wide-eyed. “Really?” She gasped.
Then she was in my arms, and I held her while she cried all the harder.
She’d put on weight over the past few months. In fact, so much so that her breasts were a lot more cushy, but I’d never, for the life of me, tell her that.
We stayed that way until there was a knock on the bathroom door, and an annoyed woman on the other end. “You need to open this door. There’s a line of women out here waiting to get in.”
Letting her go reluctantly, I walked out of the stall and opened the door to find a line of glaring women standing with their arms crossed. “Sorry we had a breakdown.”
Their annoyed faces immediately changed to understanding when they saw the woman still crying behind me.
The toilet flushed, and the sink turned on as she washed her hands as I held the door open for the ladies who were most assuredly not pleased to find a man in the women’s bathroom, but still understanding.
When I felt Channing at my back, I grabbed her hand and led her out of the bathroom.
When we reached the end of the hallway, I stopped and pushed her against the wall. “Stay and listen to what Dortea has to say. She’s the DA. Eat your dinner, and wait up for me tonight. I’ll be over when you get off work, okay?”
At her affirming nod, I let my hands slip from her face, and gave her a soft kiss on the lips before leaving her standing against the wall.
I didn’t look back.
I knew she’d follow.
Now I only hoped she’d listen.
Chapter 7
I’m not weird. I’m a limited edition.
-T-shirt
Channing
I walked into my house completely numb.
Would he be there? Or would he not show.
Forgoing the lights, I tossed my bag onto the couch and kicked off my shoes at the corner of the hallway.
My money was on him not showing.
I was afraid that if I let myself hope, that I’d be crushed just like the last time.
Cautiously, I walked towards my bedroom.
I was nearly there when a deep, resonating voice called out from behind me. “Your door is broken.”
I squeaked and turned to find him behind me and staring at me accusingly. Or at least what I could see of him.
Mostly, I could only make out his face and that he was wearing dark clothing.
“Yes, I know it is. That’s why I had that foundation g
uy come out. My back door stopped closing over five months ago. Now I just have one of those hook and eye locks that you lock from the inside.
He growled low in his throat. “Why didn’t you get the foundation fixed, then?”
My back straightened and I glared at him. “Because I don’t have the money,” I snapped.
His head tilted. “Well, what the hell is your brother doing? Can’t he help?”
My eyes narrowed on him, and I stalked towards him with purposeful steps. With one pointy finger, I started to poke him in the chest. “First of all, my brother no longer lives here. Which you would know if you’d bothered coming around in the past long months. Secondly, I’m doing the best that I can. The foundation will come once I can afford to pay more than my bills. Thirdly, did I give you permission to walk through my house and snoop?”
I could almost hear his teeth grinding together. “No, but I had to let Lucy out. What’d you want me to do, let him out the window when he needed to go?”
My eyes narrowed on him. “You had some chick in my house?”
I hadn’t meant it to come out quite so screechy, but there it was.
His mouth turned up in the corner, and I swung my elbow around, knocking him in the chest.
He didn’t move. Not even a single millimeter, and that pissed me off even more.
“Get out of my house if you’re going to make fun of me,” I snarled.
I saw his hands come up in the darkness in a placating gesture.
“Calm down. Lucy’s my dog. Lucifer. Lucy for short,” he told me.
You know those times when someone tells you to calm down, and you calm down? Yeah, me neither.
“You know what, fuck you. I’m not un-calm!” I yelled.
His little lip tilt turned into a full-blown smile, and he started walking towards me. I, of course, started retreating. That is, until my back met the wall of the back hallway, and I could go no further.
He didn’t stop, however. No, he kept coming until he’d pinned me to the wall in the same exact position that we’d ended up in months ago when I’d been drinking.
His arms went on either side of my head, fists planted on the wall.
He leaned down until he was nose to nose with me. “Then would you like to explain why you’re all in my face and screaming like a batshit crazy little harpy?”
Yes, he said batshit crazy little harpy.
Who did this man think he was? He didn’t know me. He didn’t know what I’d gone through.
“You know what? You can take me as I am,” I snarled into his face.
“Or what?” He retorted.
“Or you can kiss my ass, eat shit, and step on a Lego,” I snapped, trying to push through him.
He didn’t budge, though. The man was a rock. Jesus Christ.
He laughed in my face, and I saw red.
“Get off me, asshole.” I pushed again.
This time he relented, but only enough to rip the t-shirt over his head before he was back, pressing his feverish skin against mine.
My hands involuntarily went to his chest, one over his pounding heart, and the other under his right pectoral.
His skin was very hot against my cold hands. They had to be like ice, but he didn’t even flinch.
My thumb swiped up on its own volition, sweeping over the pebbled areola of his nipple, and eliciting a gasp from him.
“Do you understand how fucking hard it’s been to keep away from you? Do you know what it feels like to know you’re sleeping ten feet away from me, but I can’t have you? What it feels like to follow you when you run, but not approach?” He whispered fiercely.
“Yes, I under-fucking-stand! You wanna know why I do? Because I’ve been doing all those things too! I lay awake at night thinking about you. I know you’re behind me when I run. I also know it’s been hard to stay away from you, because I’ve been doing the same exact thing! I know the exact day you left town without a fucking word to me. Every single night I lie awake for hours watching your window. You’ve fucking ruined me!” I screamed.
“Fucking perfect, because you’ve ruined me, too,” he bellowed back before crushing his mouth to mine.
Clothes dropped where we stood. Hair was pulled. Skin was bitten.
The sex we had next was sweaty, hot, and hard.
Loki only slowed enough to rip his pants down his legs, roll on a condom, and slam inside of me.
He plunged so deep inside of my tight sheath that he hit the back of me. My head slammed back into the wall. My hands clawed at his back as he took me hard, plunging inside of me over and over again.
When he still couldn’t get the depth he was looking for, he dropped us down until I was on my back in the hallway, back to the cold unforgiving floor.
He wasted no time giving his hard cock to me. He drilled inside of me like a man possessed.
Our sweat-slicked bodies slid against one another’s, and only added to the thorough fucking he was giving me.
He didn’t say anything, just like last time, but his touch did.
It revealed everything he was not saying and more.
Warmth, affection, need, want.
It was enough that I stopped fighting him, and let him have all of me. Every single wall I’d started to rebuild in the last few months was annihilated.
We were breathing in each other’s air, our mouths touching. There was no kissing going on because his rough thrusts wouldn’t allow for that, but that didn’t matter. He was giving me enough sensation in my aching core for fifty thousand kisses.
“Jesus, yes,” I breathed against his lips.
I felt him smile against my lips before he leaned up off my body and grabbed my hips in his large hands, lifting them from the ground and pounding even harder inside of me.
The angle was one that allowed his cock to work that secret spot inside, setting me off like a bottle rocket.
I screamed, wrapping my legs around him tightly, pulling him in close.
He followed me not even a second after, grinding his hips hard into my own as he released himself.
The darkness kept me from seeing his face as he came, but I ran my hands up over his chest and neck, feeling his muscles strain as he jerked inside of me.
Finally, his body unlocked, and he dropped my hips back to the ground.
His sweaty chest met mine, and his head buried in my neck.
Nearly all of his weight was balanced on his forearms as we both caught our breath.
“You make me stupid,” he groaned.
My wandering hands went up his ribs to his back, exploring the bulging muscles. “You make me mad.”
Pushing himself up, he slowly pulled away, letting his dick slip from my body, and making me feel empty in the process.
“You make me mad,” he said with no heat whatsoever in his voice.
I laid there with my back against the cold floor, and my legs flopped open, unable to move as he walked into the bathroom and threw his condom away.
I heard the toilet flush, and still I didn’t move.
The light in the hallway flicked on, and I saw him stare down at me with an unreadable expression.
“Are you going to get up?” He asked with a touch of humor.
“My legs aren’t cooperating at the moment. Check back in ten,” I said, closing my eyes.
He chuckled, and then the next thing I knew, I was standing up.
My eyes snapped open and I glared at him.
“I was in my happy place. Now that I’m not in my happy place, you can get the hell out. I’m still mad at you,” I said, poking him in the chest for emphasis.
He rolled his eyes and tugged my hand until we were both in my bedroom.
“Let’s lay down in bed. I’m fucking beat, and as soon as we get this talk over with, I wanna catch about six hours of sleep. I have to be at work at ten in the morning,” he told me.
I followed him warily, and watched as he went straight
to the bed, threw the covers back, and flopped down right in the middle.
Then he patted the bed, and closed his eyes.
Picking up the t-shirt he’d worn over, I pulled it on over my head.
Then I glared at him for all of two seconds before I took a running jump and bounced on to the bed beside him, then rolled.
I hit his body with a thump, and he let out a whoosh of breath before opening his eyes and glaring at me. “Thanks,” he said dryly.
“Anytime,” I said as I snuggled deep into his embrace and fell blissfully to sleep.
***
I woke to the smell of bacon, and it made my stomach turn.
Lurching out of bed, my feet became tangled in the blankets and I fell face first onto the floor.
“Fuck,” I gasped as I struggled free of the blankets and dashed to the bathroom.
The door was partially closed, and in my peripheral vision I saw Loki, but I headed straight for the toilet, retching up what was left of my meatloaf dinner from over twelve hours ago.
“Is that all you ever do?” Loki asked from somewhere behind me.
Gasping for breath, I picked my head up, swiped the top of my forearm across my lips, and nearly fell over when I saw the huge red slash across Loki’s lower abdomen. It went from his left hip to the bottom of his ribs.
“Is that a knife wound?” I screeched.
He looked over at me, but kept running his fingers down the gash, making me follow his movements with my eyes.
“Yep. Happened last night,” he confirmed. “Been in less than twenty four hours and he’s already had someone ready to hit me when I least suspected. Fucking Dortea has her goddamned head in the clouds half the time. She needs to get with the program.”
“Holy fucking shit! How did you, ah,” I blushed. “Have sex with that.”
“Nothing wrong with my dick, sweetheart. It’s on my belly,” he said dryly.
“But,” I shuttered. “I was running my hands all along your chest and belly last night. I hurt you!”
He gave me a level look. “I would’ve told you if you hurt me, and trust me, you didn’t hurt me.”
I looked at the angry looking gash skeptically. “Whatever you say.”
Keys To My Cuffs (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 4) Page 6