The Heavier The Chains...

by M. E. Clayton

  When the guy finally nailed Talon in the face, I couldn’t stop my eyes from watering. But just when I thought Talon was going to let this guy beat him to a bloody pulp, Talon-the Talon I first met in the school hallway-showed up. He ducked a swing and from there it was all Talon.

  I watched as Talon locked the guy up in his left arm and started wailing on him with his right fist, not stopping between head shots and body shots. Talon was holding this poor guy prisoner as he rained down hit after hit on the guy.

  Blood started flying everywhere, and the scene was becoming more brutal with each hit. I was certain Talon was going to kill him, and I wasn’t the only one.

  I stood stunned as three guys-two of them being Lars and Hunter-jumped into the ring and pulled Talon off the guy. As soon as Talon unlocked his arm, the guy fell to a bloody heap on the mat and the crowd went wild.

  Lars, Hunter, and some guy I didn’t know where all holding Talon back, while the other guy’s friends, I presumed, were dragging him back and out of the ring.

  “Oh, my God, Kenzlee,” Alex yelled horrified as I felt. “I know they have a doctor on site here, but…but you don’t think Talon killed him, do you?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t know. I really didn’t know. “Alex…I…” I didn’t know what I was trying to say. Suddenly, I felt like I didn’t belong here. I felt like we needed to leave. I felt…unwelcomed. I felt like I crossed a line being here after Talon had dumped me.

  I felt scared.

  “Alex, we need to go,” I yelled over the crowd. I grabbed her arm. “We need to go.”

  Holding onto her arm, I turned and started pushing my way through the crowd with Alexandria behind me. It wasn’t until I lost my grip on her arm that I was forced to stop. I turned around and reached for her again when I was brought up short. Hunter Finley had Alexandria in his hold, and while she was struggling against him, he wasn’t letting up.

  I raced towards her to help her, but my heroics came to a screeching halt when a hand latched onto my arm and yanked me roughly away from Alexandria. “Alex!”

  “Kenzlee!” she shouted, but it was no use. She was being kidnapped again, and I knew from experience that there’s no way I could escape Talon’s hold. If there was anything that I did know, it was that I couldn’t escape Talon unless he freed me.

  Too bad my heart didn’t want to be free of him.

  Chapter 23

  The hope that saves us.

  Kenzlee~

  Talon dragged me through the crowd until we came upon an old maintenance room. Because the garage was abandoned and unused, the only light coming through the room was from a window aligned near the ceiling. I’m not going to lie; the place looked like a serial killer’s ideal lair.

  “What the fuck are you doing here, Kenzlee?” Talon snapped, and whatever was left of my heart began to crumble.

  I was right.

  He didn’t want me here. I was unwelcomed.

  “Tal-”

  “You can’t come here without telling me, White,” he continued, surprising me. “It gets crazy and you can’t be out there without Lars and Hunter or, at least, one of them. You or Alex could get hurt.”

  “You would care if I got hurt?” I blurted the question out because I hadn’t expected him to admit to caring about me in any capacity after what happened at the park.

  He looked like my question had caused him physical pain. “Kenzlee…”

  The tears started, but I was beyond what my pride was demanding of me. I wanted Talon to love me more than I wanted millions of dollars, and I didn’t care if that made me the biggest fool on the planet. I could live with being a fool. I could live with being labeled a fool who did everything I could to save a love I knew I wasn’t going to get from anyone else. What I couldn’t live with was doubt and cold pride for the rest of my life.

  Talon might tell me to get lost, but at least I’d be able to walk away with no regrets that I wished I had tried harder.

  “Talon, I know you…you don’t want me anymore, but-”

  “Kenzlee,” he groaned right before his hands captured my face and he slammed his lips down on mine.

  My knees gave out on me.

  My knees weakened, but Talon’s arm came around me, and with one hand cupping my face and his arm wrapped around me, holding me to him, he kissed me like he was drowning, and I was his only chance at air.

  He only pulled away long enough to chant, “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.” I was sobbing in his arms, but that wasn’t stopping his kisses or his confessions of regret. “I’m sorry, White. I’m so fucking sorry.”

  Weak.

  Talon made me weak.

  Or maybe it was strong.

  Maybe he was making me strong enough to push past what would make my pride happy, and give in to what makes my heart, soul, and mind happy. “I love you, Talon,” I blubbered between kisses. “I’m sorry if I-”

  Talon stopped kissing me and taking my face in his hands, his blue eyes stilled everything in me. His voice sounded rough and painful when he said, “You have nothing to be sorry about, Kenzlee. God, you have nothing to be sorry about, baby. This is me. This is all me, and I will do whatever the fuck I need to in order for you to forgive me. I will do anything.”

  I looked into his beautiful eyes and bared my soul. “Tell me I’m not…tell me I’m not a waste of your time,” I sobbed. “Tell me I’m not a waste…of your love. Just…Talon, tell me I’m not a waste.” The last part was said on an agonizing whisper because that was my biggest fear. Without Kaden in my life anymore, my existence was wasted on a world that could do without me.

  Talon’s forehead dropped on mine, and his hold on my face tightened. “Kenzlee, I need you to do something for me, okay?” I nodded, willing to lay my soul at his feet. “I need you to love me enough to erase yesterday from your mind, baby. I need you to erase it from your mind because I didn’t mean a word of any of it.”

  That buzz came back.

  That connection was back, fighting its way through the pain, regret, and desperation. “Show me how much you missed me, Talon,” I pleaded, and I didn’t care that he was sweaty and had spatters of someone else’s blood on him. I needed him. I needed him to erase yesterday from my mind. I needed him to undo what only he could undo. He was the source of all my heartache, so he was the only person who could make it all go away.

  I really thought Talon would turn me around and just bend me over with his need to prove to me that he missed me, but he didn’t.

  I grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him until we were back among the crowd of blood thirsty lunatics. But instead of heading towards the spectators, he walked us towards the section of the garage where the fighters were all awaiting their matches, and that’s where I saw Alexandria, Lars, and Hunter.

  Alex wrenched her arm out of Hunter’s hold and ran towards me. When she got to me, her arms latched onto my shoulders and she looked me up and down, but getting a good look at my blubbering face, she asked, “Are you okay, Kenz?”

  I nodded. “I’m fine,” I assured her. “I promise.”

  She turned on Talon as Hunter and Lars came up behind her. She had her finger in Talon’s face, and she was losing her shit in spectacular fashion. “You fucking asshole!” she yelled. “You fucking asshole! You don’t deserve Kenzlee. She’s too good for you and…and she can do better!”

  “Alexan-”

  She didn’t let Talon speak. She was on a roll, and no one was going to stop her. “Screw you, Talon Draven! Screw you, and, I swear to God, if you ever break her heart again, I will disembowel you and put your head on a stake as a warning to men everywhere. You. Are. A. Fucking. Asshole!”

  I stood there and watched Talon take everything she was dishing out. When she finally took a breath, he asked, “Are you done?”

  “Hell, no, I’m not done,” she snapped, and her finger went from Talon’s face towards the Finley brothers behind her. “If you ever order them to kidnap me ever again, I will kill every si
ngle one of you!”

  Lars chuckled, and Hunter outright laughed behind her, but when she whirled around on them, they both threw their hands up in surrender and took a step back.

  Alex was badass when she was losing her mind.

  Talon nodded and said, “Okay. No more broken hearts and no more kidnapping. Is that all?”

  She evil-eyed us all and said, “Somebody better take me home right now before I really lose it.”

  Well, okay, then.

  ∞∞∞

  Talon~

  After checking on Craig Simmons, the opponent I fought, and finding out there was more blood than actual damage, I had driven a very batshit crazy Alexandria home, and taken Kenzlee to my place. It was almost midnight, and I knew Edie was already asleep, and Mom wouldn’t be home for another couple of hours.

  My plan was to sit Kenzlee down and explain all the reasons why I was such a dick and beg forgiveness, but the second I saw her standing in the middle of my bedroom again, all thoughts of talking vanished.

  I stepped to her and took her face in my hands and, this time, I kissed her with all my promises for the future instead of regrets of yesterday. The kiss should have been passionate and loving, but Kenzlee was grappling to latch herself to any part of me she could, her desperation was breaking my fucking heart.

  I did this.

  I made her doubt her worth, and I will do anything she needs me to do to restore what I took away from her. If that meant watching her buy a Mercedes and let her drive me around in it, then that’s what I’ll do. I’ll do fucking anything.

  I pulled back. “Baby…” Before I could tell her to slow down, that we had all night, she was dropping to her knees and reaching for my shorts. “Uh, no,” I said stopping her.

  Kenzlee looked up at me and she looked heartbroken all over again. “You…you don’t want me to-”

  I grabbed her by her shoulders and hauled her to her feet. “Oh, I want,” I corrected her. “I want a whole hell of a lot, White. But now like this. I need to shower first and-”

  “Can I shower with you?”

  Fuck, this girl was going to drive me crazy by the time she was done with me. “If that’s what you want, White, but-” She didn’t let me finish. She just turned her back on me, headed towards the bathroom, and I followed her like a pussy-whipped bastard.

  Locking the door behind me, Kenzlee was already halfway to being undressed and I literally couldn’t comprehend how I managed to live these past few days without her. After tonight, I wasn’t sure how I was not going to move her in with me.

  Since I was still only in my basketball shorts from the fight, seeing how it was take the time to change or get Alexandria and her crazy ass home, all I had to do was push them down along with my boxer briefs and I was naked.

  Kenzlee was removing her bra as I stepped towards the shower and turned on the water. When I had adjusted it just right, I turned back to face Kenzlee, and she was standing before me complete naked, and I knew I wanted her to walk around our house like that forever. Or, well, until we had kids.

  I stood by the shower and waited on her as she walked towards me, that siren’s body of hers making me weak as fuck. She passed me, and when she entered the shower, she didn’t immediately stand underneath the spray.

  Nope.

  Kenzlee plastered herself against the tiled wall and waited. Since I was the one who needed to wash the sweat and blood off my body, she didn’t really care about taking a shower.

  I entered the shower and let the spray do its job, but a proper shower could wait until later. My dick was at full mast and my hands were desperate to get ahold of Kenzlee.

  After I felt marginally cleaner, I planted my hands on the tile on either side of her head and loomed over her. “Tell me what you need, White,” I whispered against her temple. “Tell me what you want from me and it’s yours. Anything.”

  Her hands reached out and her fingertips danced across my abs. “I want you to love me,” she answered.

  “I do love you,” I assured her.

  “I want you to love me forever,” she clarified.

  “Done,” I promised. “What else do you need from me?”

  Kenzlee looked up into my eyes as was as honest as the say she was born. “I need you to not be able to breathe without me.” Her eyes flickered back and forth between my eyes and my lips. “Like…like I can’t without you.”

  If she only knew.

  I grabbed her by the back of her thighs and she automatically wrapped her legs around my waist and pressing her up against the wall, I told her the truth, “I can’t breathe when you’re gone, but I also can’t breathe when you’re with me, White. You own every breath I take. Now, what else?”

  Kenzlee’s arms were anchored around my neck and she was rubbing her pretty pink pussy up and down over my hard cock. “Oh, God, Talon…” she moaned as she started getting her clit off on my dick.

  “What else, White?”

  She didn’t wait for me. With her right arm wound tightly around my neck, her left arm reached down, and grabbing my cock, she positioned it at the opening of her pussy and impaled herself on me. “Fuck,” I hissed.

  “I need you to live inside me, Talon,” she begged, finally telling me everything I wanted to hear. “I need you to live inside me every day.”

  I grabbed her hips and pounded into her body so hard that her body kept crashing against the tiles on the wall. We were only teenagers, but what Kenzlee made me feel was bigger and older than either of us. The buzz I felt when we touched, talking, and fucked was blind to age.

  My love for Kenzlee was the real deal. I was going to love this girl for the rest of my life.

  “Harder, Talon,” she demanded. “I need…I need you to erase yesterday.”

  Fuck.

  I slammed into her viciously and relentlessly. I rammed into her until every muscle in my body was screaming. I brutalized her until she came all over me, and I didn’t stop even when I erupted inside her. I didn’t stop when we finally washed each other, and she dropped to her knees in the shower. I didn’t stop when I carried her to my bedroom and licked every part of her body. I didn’t stop when I came inside her for a third time, and she finally started begging me to stop.

  I didn’t stop until I had my dick buried in her ass, cumming for the fourth time, and finally owning every part of her body. I spent all night showing her what she meant to me, and Kenzlee spent all night showing me what her complete surrender looked like.

  When we were finally spent and ready to crash, Kenzlee’s warm body pressed up against mine was confirmation that she was everything I would ever need in my life. The realization that I almost fucked this up hit me hard and my chest caved with the sensation of knowing I almost lost her.

  Never again.

  Chapter 24

  The desperation that blinds us.

  Talon~

  I was in the kitchen making breakfast with Mom sitting at the table a cup of coffee in her hand. Edie was off volunteering with a church group who set up a carnival for the local children once a month. It wasn’t anything fancy because it was a free event, but it was one of Edie’s favorite things to do, so she always got up at the ass-crack of dawn to go help out. Kenzlee was still asleep, so it was just me and Mom.

  “So,” Mom chuckled around the lip of her mug.

  “So,” I mimicked, my back to her as I mixed the pancake batter.

  “Is she moving in?” Mom asked that question so casual, I almost believed she’d be okay with that.

  I laughed. “No, Mom. Kenzlee is not moving in,” I assured her. “She’s probably going to move into a mini-mansion with the millions her father left her.”

  I turned around when I heard my mother sputtering and coughing. I ran over to her and patted her on the back to help calm her. After a few minutes, her face red, eyes watery, and chest heaving, she squeaked out, “Wh..what?”

  I went back to preparing breakfast as I told my mom everything that transpired with Kenzlee’s
family. I told her about how they lost everything, how they shipped her to her Uncle Allen’s, how her father hung herself, and how her mother was mad at her over the money her father left her. But, of course, because I didn’t want to get my ass kicked, I left out the part where I broke Kenzlee’s heart.

  My mother would kill me if she knew.

  I was pouring the pancake batter into a fresh-seal container when my mom asked, “How do you feel about that?”

  I knew what she was asking. “I hate it,” I laughed. I shook my head. “I absolutely hate it, Mom.”

  I heard her sigh. “I thought that might be the case,” she muttered.

  I turned to face her, and crossing my arms over my chest, I cocked my head at her. “Do you blame me?”

  She shook her head. “No, Talon, I don’t,” she replied. “You’re used to…being the man of the house. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to…adjust to being with someone who…”

  I leaned forward. “Doesn’t need me?” I supplied.

  “Who doesn’t need anyone monetarily,” she corrected. “But I’m sure that girl needs you, Talon. If she loves you, she needs you.”

  I dropped my hands and gripped the counter behind me. “I know that, Mom,” I told her, because I knew that now. “I know that, but…I’ve spent all my life helping you and doing my best to provide a future for Edie. I don’t know how to…just step back and…having nothing I do matter or make a difference.”

  “Oh, Talon,” she whispered. She stood up and walked over to me, and it still amazed me that this little sprite was a grown woman.

  “I’m going to work my ass off every day in whatever job comes my way, and when that check comes, it’s not going to matter, Mom,” I said, trying to explain how emasculated Kenzlee’s money made me feel. “It’s not going to provide for anybody. It’s going to be…my fucking hobby.”

  “Talon, you’re not your father,” she said, echoing Edie’s statement. “You’ve already gone above and beyond in your life proving that you are what a real man is supposed to be. You need to quit being scared that you’re going to turn out like Hawkley, because, my beautiful boy, you are not.” There were tears in her eyes and it gutted me to see them. “And even if Kenzlee does go on to get a degree with her millions and make a ton more money than you do, it’s not money she needs from you. Money is not what any woman needs from a man. Kenzlee needs from you what she can’t buy with all that money she has. She needs you to love her and protect her, and that’s all, Talon. And, baby boy, you love and protect the women you love better than anyone I know. That, I can guarantee.”