Revved Up Hearts: An MC Romance (Steel Knights Book 2)

by Liz K. Lorde

  Luke brought the back of his hand to the face of the door and knocked on it firmly several times.

  Kayla jumped in her seat and whipped her head around, the panic in her face vanishing when she recognized Luke. She removed her headphones and the lines of her face softened, taking in Luke’s face for a spell.

  “Your dad stopped by,” Luke mentioned, folding his arms over one another. “Didn’t even know he was in town. Works fast, or at least, his people do.”

  “I wanted to come and see you myself,” Kayla removed herself from her seat.

  “What you did was wrong,” Luke said, “I’m glad you didn’t show up.”

  “Fuck you, Luke,” her jaw jumped and a gleam appeared in her eyes, “you went out and fucked that whore behind my back? After all I’ve done for you?”

  “You never did a goddamn thing for me,” he growled, stepping a foot closer and unclenching his arms from their position. “Not fucking ever, all you ever did was get your stupid ass high and steal from me.”

  “I loved you,” she pleaded.

  “Yeah? You loved yourself more.”

  “That’s not true,” she said, and then repeated it, the words coming out of her in a sort of choke. “I just want you back, can’t you just – can you just forget about her? Baby?”

  He stepped closer still, and a hundred thoughts swirled in his head; as if his heart were a proving ground, Luke felt an eviscerating pain. In his head, he felt the thought burning and pounding in his skull, demanding that it come out. It came out clear from a smoke of hate and a drowning of sadness. “No,” he finally replied, cold and firm. Say it, he thought. Just ask already. “You need to forget about me, so I can forget about you – what I did wasn’t right, and what you did was something I never thought you were capable of. Not once.”

  Kayla’s head slumped down to her chest, and it looked as though something left her body – something unseen.

  “If someone had told me back when we were kids that you’d, that you’d go and do something like that, I would have laughed in their face. We’re through, Kayla, and you need to come to terms. Get out of the house, get help, get clean for Christ’s sake.”

  The woman looked more a girl. Lost and afraid and on the verge of spilling her innermost thoughts and feelings out into the world, the world that she probably saw as some sprawling void out to get her. For a moment then, Luke did feel pity – it tore at him to speak to her in such a way, he had known the girl for so long. He knew that she was not well, and that the drugs did not help.

  But he could not bring himself to forgive.

  He could not bring himself to forget.

  Luke knew that he had to ask, the question whipped at his mind like an open flame in the dark, battered by a winter’s wind. “Did you…” he started, and then stepped so close to Kayla that their bodies nearly touched. He brought a finger to her chin and raised it, so that he could look her in the eye. “Did you have something to do with it?” He felt his throat tighten, “with Able’s death.”

  Kayla’ chest rose as she sucked in a breath of air, “What?” She asked, “no. Why would you ask something like that?”

  “Don’t lie to me,” Luke warned, “I’ve been lied to by you enough to know, so don’t try me. Don’t fucking try me.”

  “I didn’t!” She cried, but there was something in her eyes. Something that even the best of cheats couldn’t rid themselves of.

  Fear.

  “Who put that in your head?” She said.

  “Nobody,” he lied, “I killed him, you know. The man who rigged his bike. Did you know that?” He kept his eyes tight on Kayla’s, gauging her every countenance. “Oh yeah,” Luke said, bringing up his hand to show her the two rings – the one that the two had since as long as he could remember. “You should have smelled it, Kayla, you ever catch the scent of flesh burnin’ so hot you can hear the sizzle?”

  There was a look of horror on her face, and yet she remained petrified in her position, like some sort of gargoyle bound to its roost.

  “Didn’t think so,” Luke announced, he could not believe her – felt the knife twisting in his chest to ferret out the truth from her sad lips. “He was paid to do it,” he said, “it wasn’t anyone outside the club.”

  “Then it had to be some—“

  “No,” Luke cocked his head, and then gave a rueful little laugh, “no. They’ve all been checked, they’ve all been cleared. But you? Well, I never thought you’d end up high off your mind. And then I never thought, that you’d steal from me,” he said, putting a finger to his chin inquisitively, “that’s where I thought it would stop, too. But it didn’t, did it? Attempted murder, that’s where that new line’s been drawn.”

  Kayla sniffled. He could see that she was trembling ever so slightly.

  “Murder’s just one step past attempted,” Luke brought his arms out wide in a gesture.

  “I didn’t do it,” she said stiffly, like she had read it from a prompt that Luke could not see.

  “Tell me the truth,” Luke pursued, “tell me the fucking truth, you want me back? Hmn?” He could feel the heat rising through him, “I want to hear you say it.”

  She could only look at him, her eyes searching his.

  “Say it,” he growled, “say it.”

  There was a tense moment of silence between the two, and a glimmer of hope in the girl’s eye. But she could only repeat the line she had given him before.

  Luke pushed down the anger inside of him and the features of his face softened, he put his hands on her hips and brought her close to his body – so that she could look up into his eyes. “I love you,” he whispered, “don’t you love me?”

  She nodded her head ever so softly, “Yes,” she said meekly.

  “Tell me the truth,” Luke whispered, bringing his forehead and pressing it against her own. It felt as though worms crawled all around his backside, he wanted to be anywhere but here; saying the words, even in a lie, was too much.

  She quietly sunk into his chest and the two remained there for a spell. Kayla looked up again and brought her mouth close to Luke’s ear as he held her. “I saw the way they looked at him,” she said, innocently enough. “Allen admired him,” she sucked in a breath, “I was sick of you being the guy that everyone went to, but not the one that everyone recognized.”

  It crept up crooked his spine. Careful, knifelike and cutting – the base sensation played every fiber of his being like a taut string violently struck.

  Every word made the muscles in his body tighten; made the blood in his body thicken, made the pounding drums in his head beat louder and louder still.

  Reason punctuated the rhythm of his thoughts, betwixt the maelstrom of feeling in his gut.

  Kayla let out a sort of shudder, “You’d always be in his shadow, baby,” the words were poison, and it took every ounce of will to not strangle the life from her right then and there. “All those times when we were alone, or with the club? I saw the way he looked at me, the way that he wanted me.”

  He could not bring himself to say a word, lest she fully grasp the murderous intent that would surely drip from his voice. How she could not feel it radiate from his person, was beyond him.

  “No more lies,” she promised, resting her head against his shoulder now, “I love you and I hate her, I hate her – I hate her – I hate her. Just, come back to me,” she pleaded softly.

  But Luke said nothing. He was stiff and still, his hands still on her – but barely recognizing that they were even there. I’m going to be a father, he reminded himself. I am going to have a kid, kids don’t grow up to be right if you’re a killer.

  You’ll never see the light of day again, he thought. Jasmine’ll hate you, till the day you drop – your child will wonder where you were.

  Don’t do it.

  Kayla held him tighter, calling out his name gently in a questioning manner.

  Please. Just… don’t.

  His hands found her throat.

  She cried out, t
he lines of her face twisting into shock and horror. Kayla pleaded and pleaded, even through the strangling it could have been heard clear as day. But Luke wanted nothing of it, to him they were a dull, worthless noise – the last remnants of some dead thing.

  Luke pushed her along as he choked her, with his strong arms and his mighty frame. The heat that consumed him was greater than anything he’d ever felt.

  This has to happen, the thought pierced his mind in a quickness. If you do this, you’ll lose everything that you love; good, I deserve to lose for loving this thing.

  That was when Kayla bumped into the chair, crashed into the upright keyboard – her violent gasps coming and going between cries and begging and wild flailing. But she would not go far, every inch that she tried to struggle and break way, was another ounce of energy Luke knew she would not have. She felt a toy in his hands, and he hated himself in that moment – sickness crawled through his innards like a fatal poison.

  “Help!” She managed to screech when Luke repositioned his hands around her throat.

  He pushed her up against the wall and he could feel his body shaking, could feel the frightening feeling of cold to hot, hot to cold that ran him through. Killing was one thing. Killing those in the game. Killing bangers that had no worth, killing enemies that would do him or those he loved harm.

  This was murder. Undiluted, basic, and evil. It was murder in motion, and all his thoughts did him no good in stopping it.

  He watched the life drain from her face, the color being sucked out and leaving a white mask for her face. Dead, vacant things looked back at him. The woman’s body went limp, but his hands would not stray from their path. He would have to call in a favor from Jameson, the club’s cleaner, this much he knew.

  The hardest part was letting go.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Jasmine

  She could not bring herself to open the text. Jasmine felt it in her feet, the urge to walk around the house; the questions had been burning in her skull ever since she found out.

  Am I good enough to be a mom? This is insanity; how can you be a mother when you’re still on the fence with your mother. But still, she read her book on her couch, the television turned to a music station playing quietly the soothing sounds of jazz. The First Steps. Some once junk book that she had kept stored away with reads that her grandparents had never gotten around to.

  It was always my career that I was focused on, Jasmine thought. Now I’ve got love, a thing growing inside of me and a whole lot of problems. Guess I had problems before this too, but damn if those outlaws haven’t made it all the more… complicated. She knew that if Luke couldn’t find a way out, she wouldn’t want to keep the baby – but if she didn’t keep the baby, and he remained imprisoned, how could the love survive?

  Jasmine knew that the man had a plan, but doubt still lingered like a smog. She resolved then, when she felt the fingers pressing against her heart – that no matter what, no matter the troubles – she would always stand by him. He’d do the same.

  There was a knock at the front door. Jasmine’s head turned to face it, and she set down her book. Getting up from her spot on the couch, she walked over and peered through the seeing hole.

  A jolt of excitement slammed into her when she saw Luke in his plain clothes. Jasmine quickly unlocked the chain on the door and opened it, moving into her lover and wrapping her arms around him. How precisely he was able to get out, and so quick, she did not know – but her heart raced all the same; and her chest tingled, and her insides danced to an unheard song. She whispered in his ear as he held her tightly, whispered as to how much she missed him – even if it was only for a day – how she worried herself even though she tried to be strong.

  “I know, baby,” Luke said in a low voice, there was something about him that she did not like. Something in his voice that told a tale; when she pulled back, his eyes corroborated the mystery. He brought his hands to her waist and kept her close, “you know that clown couldn’t hold me.”

  “The way you were talking he had you dead to rights,” she countered. “What did you do? Who did you talk to?”

  Again she could see it in his eyes that he didn’t want to talk about it, could see the hurt on him like it was stitched on his sleeve. “I got out, that’s all that matters,” he said, “right?”

  Jasmine pulled him along into her home, closing the door behind them. She then brought him, by his rather large in comparison to her own, hands, to the couch and looked him dead in the eye. “No more secrets,” she said, “and you told me that yourself.”

  “I did,” he admitted gently. Distantly.

  “You did. Tell me what happened?” Jasmine went for his hand and brought it to her stomach, uncertain if it would please him or not.

  The man finally smiled. He moved slowly towards her then, and pushed her down on the couch carefully. His eyes examined her face, as he moved in to press his lips against her own.

  Jasmine’s toes curled and little jolts of pleasure went through her like fire made flesh. She’d needed to feel his touch for quite some time now, going without it for too long made her body weak and all manners of perverse; it felt as though she were salivating for him. Jasmine’s hands found themselves slipping beneath Luke’s shirt; they crept upwards and felt all around his chest.

  Luke’s mouth moved from Jasmine’s lips, kissing all the way to her jaw and then to her neck, sucking and biting her deep.

  Even his smell’s intoxicating, she thought. There was a pulsing sensation between her legs, a feeling as though her body had to be filled – a desire that her nipples need be pulled on. In their brief moment, all her worries slipped away, leaving her laid bare to love and lust. Her fingers found the man’s nipples and she playfully squeezed them.

  There was a groan that escaped the man’s lips, and suddenly his touch became much harder. More fierce. Luke pinioned Jasmine under his weight and looked at her with warning eyes, a smirk gracing his lips. He pulled off her shirt quickly, revealing Jasmine’s plain white bra.

  Jasmine gasped lightly, feeling a hot rush flow through her at the man’s domineering touch.

  He unclasped her bra and threw it to the side, letting her firm tits spill out. His hand went to her one breast, and his mouth to another.

  She let out a soft moan, loving the feeling of his hand pawing hard at her tit. “Fuck,” she breathed. “I love it when you get rough like that.”

  “I always get rough with what’s mine,” he growled before dipping back to Jasmine’s nipple and pulling on it slow with his teeth.

  High pitched little whines left her throat with delighted tones. Her hand reached to her man’s crotch, feeling around for the apparent hardness of his cock. Glorious, she thought. She loved to feel how hard Luke got for her, how badly his body wished to be inside of her. She could feel herself making a mess of her panties already, in desperate anticipation of Luke filling her all the way.

  Luke slapped at Jasmine’s breasts a number of times, getting them a little pink.

  She bit her lip, moaning and groaning in pleasure-pain. Hot pinpricks assailed Jasmine’s body as she pulled and picked at the man’s pants, trying to undo the button on his jeans.

  He pushed her hand away and removed them himself, along with his boxers, revealing the fully-erect length of his cock.

  Eyes widening ever so slightly, Jasmine’s nipples became taut from all of the excitement. “I need it,” she husked.

  “I know you do, baby,” the man crooned back, undressing what remained of Jasmine’s clothes – pulling off her panties that were done in a mess; her sex plainly slick with lust.

  She saw his cock twitch and something dance in his eyes at witnessing the wetness of her sex. Every part of the man was something to wonder at, his hard ripped body – all muscles and man, and the perfect bit of hair on his chest.

  Luke pressed the head of his cock at the lips of Jasmine’s wet, inviting pussy. He was dangerously hard; she could feel his head twitching almost impe
rceptibly at feeling her precious folds. His mouth found her neck and he sucked hard and deep.

  She loved the thought of being marked. Of being fucked like a piece of property; for she had given him everything, and would still give him more. I have to feel him, she thought, lost in a haze of wanton desire. “My pussy needs your cock, daddy,” she whispered, wrapping her legs and her arms around her lover; she loved the warmth that his body provided. Loved the feel of his hard muscles, loved the closeness.

  “I know baby girl,” he practically snarled like an animal unchained, “this cock is screaming for your cunt,” he continued. “I dream about being inside of you, my body burns up with the thought of feeling your precious little lips gripping me and sucking my cock.”

  “Yes,” Jasmine breathed, pulling against him harder, hoping just for the head of the man’s sex to penetrate her. He was being devilishly torturous today. “I need you to fuck me, daddy.”

  That was when he pushed himself inside.

  Oh fuck. Nothing ever feels so quite as good as feeling him first stick me. Lightning kissed at Jasmine’s body; every inch that the man gave her, another wave of ecstasy would crash around her. She bit down on her lip and scratched along at his back, loving every last inch of the man’s hardness as it pushed up, until he was rooted deep inside of her deliciously wet slit.

  Luke moved with a needful rhythm, thrusting in and out of Jasmine; the sound of his cock sloshing her around sounded like simple heaven.

  Jasmine knew she was drenched down there, her nectar coating the man’s hardness with all it’s love. The beating of her heart increased a step, and she re-dug her nails back into the man’s skin; the bliss surrounded her, made her head throb as he pulled himself from her soaked sheath. She had a thought, then, one that she did not expect – and even stranger, her body found it to be sinfully hot. “Fuck,” she breathed as Luke’s cock slammed in and out of her lips, “fuck me senseless.”