by C. M. Marin
“You’ve been distant lately, Jayce. I know you have. I haven’t made that up.”
The worry and honesty in her eyes push me to think back to the past few days. I’ve had a lot on my mind, yes. But nothing that has anything to do with her.
“I’m sorry you’ve felt that way, but what I’ve been is preoccupied, Alex,” I correct her.
“You’ve been preoccupied because you think CJ might have targeted me to get to you. Do you…” Her voice wavers noticeably, and she swallows before she goes on, “Are you thinking I’d be safer away from you? Because I couldn’t―”
“I am thinking that I am not going to let you out of my sight, if I can help it, until CJ and any Spider following his lead are all six feet under. I am not leaving you, Alex. Am I worried about something happening to you? Yes. But you can’t spend your life being worried that I’m being worried. Because I’ll always be, babe. I’ll always be worried that something could happen to you. Always.” When a lonely tear snakes down her cheek, I wipe it away with my thumb. “In the end, it all comes down to trust again. You have to believe that I won’t leave you no matter how fucking scared I am to lose you.”
Deciding that the bikes can wait a few more minutes, I lean further toward her and place a long but chaste kiss on her lips before pulling her to me. I keep her close for a moment while she clings to me. And all I can do is hope that it’s enough. Because there’s nothing more I can do to get her to trust me again. At this point, she’s the only one who can find it in her to do that.
Chapter 23
Alexia
“Having fun?” I ask Jayce.
My hand hasn’t even left the doorknob on the bathroom door when my feet stop in their tracks as I enter the bedroom.
About twenty minutes ago, I abandoned my manuscript. It’s about to be lunch time already, but I hadn’t showered when I woke up this morning. Now, I’m clean, dry, and very naked.
I cock my head to the side as I speak, and the smirk pulling at Jayce’s lips is as playful as it is heated while his eyes slowly travel over every inch of my bare skin. That’s all I need to melt any trace of the tension that followed me through the morning after our conversation.
I know he was right earlier. If someone needs to find that trust, it’s me. And I already have, for the most part. But when he seemed to have been closed off for a few days straight, I couldn’t help it. Concern filled me despite my attempts to not be affected, and anguish followed closely.
But it’s forgotten now. He meant what he said this morning. His heart was talking, that much was clear to me. And it’s enough. Besides, he doesn’t look like someone who’s thinking about the best way to break up with me right now.
With a hand propped on my left hip, I’m acting casual when in fact lust is swamping every nerve ending under my skin, making me tingle all over at the sight of him. His own lust oozing from him, he’s half sitting, half lying on the bed, his upper back leaning against the headboard as he strokes his long shaft up and down very gently. Almost absently.
Arousal seeps through his voice when he’s done enjoying the sight of my body and finally says, “Can’t say that I’m not,” he admits, his smirk still in place. “I came across this very interesting notebook when I showed up here looking for you.” As he speaks, he waves my notebook in the air, and I just now notice it clasped in his hand.
“Don’t know the first thing about writing, but what I can say here is that you hit the nail on the head if your goal was to get someone worked up.”
Snatching my notebook isn’t necessary to figure out which scene he’s alluding to. I still have most of the words in my mind as I remember writing it down yesterday evening, right before I went to find Jayce for some much-needed release. That scene he seems to appreciate so very much turned me into a horny mess, too, to be honest.
Taking a step aside and leaning back against the wall, I watch him shamelessly. My man really is handsome. Beautiful. He’s as naked as I am, his dark jeans and white shirt thrown carelessly on the floor, and every single inch of his body is defined with solid muscles. His rippled stomach and rock-hard pectorals are left bare for me to enjoy, and just watching them reminds me of the way they feel under my exploring palm.
His stare leaves my eyes and slides down along my body, following my hand as it aims for the demanding, throbbing nub between my legs. Hunger erupts in his eyes, and he drops the notebook on the nightstand beside him. The fist clenching around his erection engages in a faster pace, and I grow wetter quickly, as I use two fingers to purposefully toy with my clit.
“You liked that scene, then?” I ask him, though we both know the answer.
“Hottest one I’ve ever read,” he confirms. “But if my girl still has doubts about it, I’d be more than happy to try it out, so you can decide if it needs any changes.”
Sliding down and parting my folds, my fingers don’t pause at my entrance before I guide them inside of me, stretching myself.
“Are you wet?” His voice is strained as he rasps out the question.
My own is nothing more than a breathless sound as I answer. “Yes.”
“Take that finger out and suck it.”
His domineering tone matches his domineering look perfectly as his gruff voice conveys his command.
“I don’t remember writing that in my notebook,” I counter with a playful frown, not obeying his request.
On a shrug and with a wolfish grin playing on his lips, he suggests, “You could always add some sexy foreplay before that hot, doggy style fuck.”
“I suppose I could,” I concede after pretending to take some time to think about it.
My free hand goes up and I tweak my puckered nipple between two fingers.
As expected, his gaze turns downright primal. “Good. Now taste yourself,” he commands again.
Never breaking eye contact, I finally do as I’m told. I ease my fingers out of me, lift them to my lips, and suck them ever so slowly until they both pop out of my mouth.
When I run my tongue over my lips, he curses. And even if it seems to be a challenge for him to let go of his cock, he does so nonetheless and tips his chin toward the proud length resting against his stomach.
“Come here and suck that, too.”
It’s only words, but I have to swallow back a whimper. God, I want him inside of me so bad when he takes charge like this. Sucking him sounds great, too, but I’m so aroused myself that I can’t be sure that I won’t lose my mind if he doesn’t take care of my raging need soon. But I can wait if I get the chance to at least touch him.
Once I’ve joined him on the bed and knelt between his legs, I give him what he wants and take him into my mouth. He’s smooth and hard, and he tastes wonderful. My lips move down as far as they can get, then they suck their way up, my tongue discovering again every prominent vein along its path.
“Just like that, yes. Suck.” A gentle hand drops on my head, caressing my hair all the while he turns on the both of us further with his words. “Can’t wait to see you with your amazing ass in the air and your drenched pussy offered up to me. Be ready to feel me pounding into you until your legs can’t hold you up anymore.”
Inevitably, a wave of shudders sweeps over my body at the same time a moan tingles the back of my throat. Jayce must feel both, because he pushes off the headboard, a pleased, lustful growl resounding into his chest. At first, I think that he’s going to grab a hold of my head to take control of my motions and set his own pace, but instead, a loud squeal escapes me when he slams a hand on my ass before easing the sting of pain by squeezing my mistreated ass cheek.
My reaction makes him chuckle before he says, “Can’t wait any longer. Get on all four.”
A surge of anticipation replaces the bearable pain as I move on the bed just like he told me.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful like this, you know that?”
“I’m also waiting,” I retort, teasing him with my ass shaking in front of him.
Recreating a scene I
’ve written is definitely a first, and the prospect alone assaults my pussy with a string of throbs. And another moan finds its way out of me when Jayce places himself behind me, his hardness digging into my ass as his hand presses down on my back. Gently and firmly at the same time, he forces me to bend over and rest on my forearms. My ass is now in the air, my pussy ready for him.
“Gorgeous,” he praises, palming both of my ass cheeks roughly.
When his first thrust stretches me forcefully, I’m taken by surprise. I should have expected it―I’ve written the scene, after all―but I gasp in a breath and groan some throaty sound all the same. He stills when he’s deep inside of me, and the moment he clasps my hips in a firm grip, I can imagine the rough pounding waiting for me as if he was already fucking me senseless.
“Please…”
He pulls out and slams back into me with another harsh thrust that makes him grunt ferociously.
“Is that what you’ve been fantasizing about? Is that what you wanted from me?” he growls breathlessly.
“Yes, God, please, Jayce…”
Another sharp thrust compels me to clutch the sheets even though Jayce has too strong of a hold on me to let me surge forward. And the next time he pushes into me is the start of an endless string of savage thrusts ripping a cry out of me every time his cock hits that deep spot inside of me. With the same forceful pace, he brings me higher and higher into my pleasure, not even slowing down when my limbs show the first signs of exhaustion. His firm hands that keep in place are the only reason I haven’t already crashed onto the bed.
With each one of his untamed thrusts, Jayce grunts his own pleasure, and soon, my vision blurs. The muscles in my legs begin their shaking dance, and my forearms ache under my weight. I barely hear myself scream Jayce’s name when hardly endurable pleasure strikes the pit of my core and sweeps me away and into an orgasm that makes everything else disappear. The only thing still registering in my brain besides my climax is Jayce’s hard length carrying on with its unsparing treatment until he freezes deep inside of me. An animalistic roar resonates through the room, and warmth fills my pussy.
When my body finally surrenders, and I fall flat on my belly, it’s because Jayce stops locking me into place and his own body drops onto my back. Erratic breathing is the only sound there is to hear for at least a minute before he decides to move off me.
Me? I don’t move an inch. “Damn,” I croak out, my throat raw from all the screaming.
He laughs a sated laugh. “Yeah, that’s about right.”
Chapter 24
Jayce
“I can’t believe I’m about to empty this place already.”
Alex’s voice sounds more weary than sad as she enters her apartment, me and Liam right on her heels.
Stepping even closer to her as she drops her purse onto a table, I wind my arms around her waist and pull her to me. “Are you getting cold feet about moving with me?” I tease her, whispering against her ear.
I have to loosen my hold on her when she turns around in my arms.
“No such luck for you,” she teases right back, smiling brightly. “I lived here for all of three weeks, but it feels like it was ages ago. Renting this place was nothing but a total waste of money,” she adds rightly.
“Well, for what it’s worth…” Liam trails off, forcing a drained sigh out of him. “I love you, baby sis, but once I’ve moved all of your stuff to Jayce’s, it’s staying there,” he warns her. “All of this moving is kind of getting old.”
She pouts dramatically, and he winks at her.
“The bright side is that we don’t have to bother with any painting. The walls are all as good as new.”
Which is a damn good thing. It means we can wrap it all up today. I want to be finished with this ASAP. Her place is in our house.
“Thank God,” Liam agrees. “So, where do we start, Alex?”
“I’ll clear up the living room first, so you guys can start with the heavy stuff there. In the meantime, you can take care of the mat in the yoga room. Once I’m finished in the living room, I’ll move to my bedroom. Half of my clothes are at the club anyway, so it won’t take long to pack up what’s left here. I’ll pack everything from the bathroom and the kitchen last before we start cleaning up,” she quickly instructs us.
I’m glad she’s the most organized person I know. It’ll save us precious time, especially since she has to work this afternoon.
“Yoga room first for us, then,” I resume.
“Yeah,” she confirms. “Oh, I’ll go with you before I start in here. I have a ladder shelf there I need to clear off.”
“Let’s move, then,” I say, and she walks straight to the yoga room.
“I need to take a piss first,” Liam says.
Just as he closes the bathroom door, I follow Alex into the yoga room.
“Fuck,” I blurt out when her steps come to a sudden stop and I bump into her back. “Right behind you, babe,” I remind her, chuckling.
Her body is too delicate to hurt me in any way, but the puff of air rushing out of her at the collision lets me know that, unlike me, she felt something.
“Nothing broken?” I chuckle lightly.
When her body stays stiff against mine, and she doesn’t even acknowledge my teasing, I start to worry that I might really have done some damage. But when she speaks, saying no more than two words, all I am is confused.
“The notebook.”
After a fleeting second where my brain is trying to figure out what’s happening, I ask her, “What, babe?”
She still doesn’t move, and while pointing a finger to a bright orange notebook abandoned in the middle of the mat, she repeats, “The notebook.” She quickly goes on. “Did you put it there when you came over to see the room?”
There is concern and urgency lacing her voice, and that alone tells me it wasn’t her who left that notebook there. And I never touched the thing, either.
My blood turns icy-cold as I pull out my gun.
“Liam!” I shout over my shoulder. Then, just to be sure, I ask Alex more softly. “You sure you couldn’t have left it there?”
She shakes her head. “Positive. I never bring my notebooks or computer in here. There’s just no reason. Besides, this one is an old one that’s supposed to be in a box in my bedroom closet.”
“What’s going on?”
Liam has joined us just a few seconds later, and as soon as his eyes land on the gun tightly clasped in my hand, he reaches for his own.
“Someone broke in at some point,” I tell him, not bothering with the details that brought us to that conclusion, and he doesn’t ask either before I add, “Let’s take a look around to be sure we’re alone. You don’t move, Alex,” I caution, and she nods, her eyes still locked on the notebook.
The apartment isn’t big, so we’ve checked every nook and cranny of it in less than a minute.
“Clear!” Liam shouts from Alex’s bedroom.
“Clear!” I echo his statement as I’m striding back to the yoga room.
She hasn’t moved from the spot we left her, and she leans willingly into my arms when I pull her to me.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” she assures me, but very quietly. “Why would they come in here?” she wonders out loud more than she asks me.
“Alex, you okay?” Liam urges from behind me.
“I’m fine. I just don’t understand why they would want to come here,” she repeats as she draws away from me. “What did they expect to find at my place?”
The Spiders. CJ. We know that he’s been busy making plans to retaliate, but some bloodthirsty instinct flares up in my gut knowing that he seems to have set his eyes on Alex. What in the fucking hell he thought he’d find in her notebooks, that’s beyond me. But as Camryn would put it, that man is genuinely sick. Trying to analyze how his brain works would be a waste of time. I’ll only think about one thing from now on when it comes to him. Finding a way to kill him. And soon.
I sp
in around to talk to Liam. “Call some back up, just in case. Now, I want to wrap this up even faster than I did before.”
He nods swiftly and leaves the room after one more look at his sister who smiles weakly at him.
Focusing back on her, I say, “I don’t want you to go to work, Alex.”
There’s a flicker of surprise I can see crossing her eyes before she shakes her head. “What? No, Jayce, no. I have to go,” she urges.
“Fucking God, Alex,” I almost seethe. “Don’t you see the risks you’re taking every fucking day? Don’t you see that they’re trying to get to me through you? CJ’s out for blood, you understand that? He won’t hesitate to kill you first chance he gets.”
How can’t she see the danger here? It’s staring her right in the eye, and she doesn’t see it.
“You know he won’t attempt anything at the hospital,” she tries to reason with me.
“For fuck’s sake, Alex,” I growl, barely able to keep my voice composed. “You need to stop being so stubborn! If something happened to you because of me…” I blow out an exasperated breath but decide not to say anything else.
I don’t want to fight with her, but hell if she doesn’t make it hard.
“Ben, Brent, Nate and Blane are on their way,” Liam says from behind me. I don’t acknowledge his words, and he must sense the tension filling the air, because he goes on. “What’s going on?”
“Your sister shouldn’t go to work, Liam. She just…”
She just doesn’t want to fucking listen to a damn thing.
When Liam seems to be gauging me and Alex forever instead of backing me up on this, I shake my head and grunt without looking back to Alex. “Let’s get to work. Alex, you don’t leave this apartment without one of us.”
Fuck. It’s like she doesn’t want to face the reality. She doesn’t want to let those fuckers play a part in the decisions she makes, and I get that. I totally do. But how important is what she wants going to be when she ends up with another bullet in her?