by Sam Crescent
He climbed onto the bed and crawled between her legs. Taking her hands, he locked them together.
“You can stop this at any time.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“I’m about to take something precious from you, Charity.”
“You’re not taking it, Dwayne. I’m giving it to you.”
When Beast came to get him, he’d felt he’d been offered a gift, a second chance. When Caleb offered to help him, well, more like threatened, he knew he’d found his calling. With Charity giving him this gift, offering herself to him, it was like he’d finally found heaven and he’d been living in hell until this very moment.
Dropping his lips, he claimed her mouth, consuming her kiss. She moaned, wrapping her arms around his neck, holding him close, and he didn’t want to let go. Her fingers tightened around his, and he released her hands to hold her. Running one hand down her body, he cupped her leg, drawing it up over his hip, pressing his against her naked core. She felt so fucking good in his arms, and he didn’t want to ever let her go.
It was moments like these that scared him.
Never had he wanted anything to belong to him and him alone.
Charity wasn’t a thing. She was a person.
A person he cared so fucking much about, and the thought of never being with her, not seeing her, it tore him up inside. She was his reason for breathing, for fighting.
Breaking from the kiss, he reached between their bodies, grabbing his cock. Placing the head at her slit, he bumped her clit a couple of times before moving down to her entrance.
She panted, moaned, whimpered, begged, and he loved every single word.
Staring into her eyes, he waited, to be sure that she wanted this. Only when he saw the desire, the need in her eyes, did he thrust forward, filling her pussy, breaking through the thin barrier of her virginity.
He saw the pain, and he hated it more than anything else. She released a little whimper, and he wanted to fucking hurt something, but he didn’t. With his dick balls deep inside her, he took hold of her hands, wrapping them around his body as he held her close.
“It hurts. I didn’t expect it to hurt this much.”
“I know. I’m sorry, baby.” He’d heard of the first time being painful, and he hoped he’d been wrong, but the look in her eyes, it cut a part of him just seeing that. He didn’t want to hurt her. “If I could take the pain from you, I would. I don’t want you to hurt at all.”
“It’s fine. This is supposed to happen.” Her hands stroked up and down his back. “It’s not really that bad.”
“Would you like me to move?”
She chuckled. Even with tears in her eyes, she seemed to find the will to smile.
This woman, she was something else as far as he was concerned.
“Yes.”
Slowly pulling out of her pussy, he watched her eyes, knowing it stung just a little from her expression, and he hated it. He hated seeing that look in her eye. With just the tip inside her, he waited, and she nodded at him to keep going.
Hurting her was the worst feeling in the world, so when he thrust back inside, going as deep as he could go, and she moaned, the sound was like a winning bell in his mind.
Taking possession of her lips, he stayed inside her, not wanting to move, but the moment she started to wriggle, trying to get him to do something, he lost all the fight. Pulling out of her tight heat, he slowly rocked back and forth, taking his time, making love to her, making it good for her just as it was for him.
She moaned, her nails scoring his back, and he groaned out, wanting more of her. She was so beautiful, so open, so amazing. He felt completely possessed to have her.
“Please, Dwayne, I need more.”
Hearing her beg like that, he gave her exactly what she wanted, making love to her, driving harder and deeper. There would be a time for fucking, but that wasn’t tonight. This was all about her, and he wanted her to love every single second of what he was doing to her.
Holding her down, he thrust in deep, taking every single part of her, bringing her close to orgasm, and when he finally pushed her over the edge, she let out a cry of his name. Only then did he follow her with his own release, filling the condom, claiming her as his own.
****
The following morning, Charity opened her eyes and was a little confused by where she was. Turning her head, she felt the change within her body, the rawness between her thighs from finally having sex last night with Dwayne.
Dwayne!
She turned her head, and he lay on his side, his back facing her. The light filtering in from the curtain shocked her as she saw what he’d been trying to hide last night. There was no hiding in the cold light of the morning, nor keeping anything a secret.
The scars were all faint, but they were there. Signs of a boy that had been whipped, beaten, his skin broken and marred, only to be fixed together by alcohol maybe. These scars didn’t show the repair of love but of someone who clearly didn’t give a fuck what they were doing.
She recalled his confession about his father, how he would hit him, hurt him. This though, this was something else, and it sickened her to think of the kind of abuse he must have gone through when he was younger.
The scars were so faint that anyone seeing them from a distance wouldn’t be able to make them out. She wanted to touch them, but she didn’t want to wake him up. This was what he’d been hiding from her last night. The first night he’d rescued her all those months ago, she wouldn’t have even noticed these, so taken by her own fear of what had happened to her that nothing else would have even registered in her mind.
Did he mean for her to see them?
Had he fallen asleep not long after he’d pulled out of her, like she had?
She had so many questions, but not one slipped from her lips.
All she wanted to do was hold him, to let him know everything would be okay. That he wasn’t alone anymore.
She wanted to find his dead father and kill him all over again. The thought of anyone hurting Dwayne, it filled her with so much hate that she wanted to spit.
“You’re trembling,” Dwayne said, shocking her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
He rolled over, and she watched him sigh. “They’re just scars.”
“I … I don’t care about them being on you. Well, I do care, but I want to hurt whoever did them, Dwayne.”
“You’re never going to get to do that, so don’t even waste a moment thinking about it.”
“Your dad did that.”
“It was all part of his lessons.”
“Why didn’t you show me them last night?”
“It was your first time. I didn’t for a second want those scars, my old man, to be even a memory for you. They’re nothing.”
“He was a monster.”
“I’m not going to deny that, but there’s nothing you can do. Stop thinking about them.”
“You were a little boy. I saw the pictures of you in Beast’s home, Dwayne. He had you from a young age, and even before then, your dad was beating you.”
“It was all part of his training, Charity. Don’t worry about it.”
“You shouldn’t have gone through something like that.”
“I know, but you don’t have to worry about it. The scars don’t hurt me.” He cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking back and forth. “What about you? How are you feeling?”
“I don’t care about me.”
She cupped his face, holding him between her hands, and pressed a hard kiss to his lips. She wanted him to know what no matter what he was loved, and she would do everything to take care of him. He deserved happiness, love, someone to always have his back.
He pressed his head against hers. “I care about you. How do you feel?”
“I’m fine.” She really was. A few little aches were nothing.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“Okay, it’s a little achy, but nothing to worry about.”
&n
bsp; He ran his thumb across her lip. “You were so tired last night that I didn’t even run you a bath. It should have helped with the pain.”
“So, it’s really not that bad.”
“Still, it’s my job to take care of you. Stay here.”
“Your job. I don’t like the sound of that.”
He chuckled. “You know what I mean. Stop being a pain in the ass.” He winked at her.
“I like being a pain.” She watched him walk toward the bathroom. “I mean it, Dwayne.”
“Mean what?”
“I’d have killed him for hurting you. I want to hurt him.”
“Nothing can be done, but the thought means a lot to me.”
She smiled and watched him leave. He had a really nice ass, and he’d not put on any sweatpants to cover himself. She liked that. Lying down on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling, completely blown away by the fact she was here, on his bed, no longer a virgin. After everything that had happened to her, this had overtaken the night she’d met him as the best night of her life.
When he saved her, she always remembered that moment with happiness. He’d protected her, and now he’d made love to her.
For a long time, Charity didn’t want to think about her feelings or what it all meant. It couldn’t mean anything, not really. He was older than she was, not that she cared about the age difference. Number had no meaning to her, not when it came to Dwayne.
Most of her nights and days were filled with thoughts of him, her curiosity, her concern about what he was doing. She wasn’t a fool. She knew what he did on a daily basis, but the thought of never seeing him again filled her with dread.
“Come on,” he said, coming back in moments later, still completely naked and looking sexy as ever. She couldn’t believe how confident he was, his flaccid cock hanging between his legs, not a care in the world. There was no fighting it for her. She was completely addicted to him, needing more of him with every single second that passed.
Climbing off the bed, she walked toward him, trying to cover her nakedness. When she stood before him, he took hold of her wrists, holding them a little away from her body.
“You don’t need to hide from me, Charity.” He leaned in close and kissed each nipple, then her stomach, before moving down to between her thighs. “Never hide from me. I like every single inch of you and then more, got it?”
“Yes.”
She was thinking of him doing something a lot dirtier than just kissing her.
Get your head out of the gutter.
“I know what you want. I can see it in your eyes, and don’t worry, after you rest, I’ll be making sure every single one of those fantasies come true.” He winked at her, and she couldn’t help but think of something highly sexual.
What was it that Dwayne did to her?
Wave a magic wand?
Pushing those thoughts aside, she entered the bathroom and saw he’d lit a couple of candles, and the water in the bath was filled with bubbles. She was overcome with so much emotion that she couldn’t even think straight. In a few short moments, he’d done something so incredibly romantic.
He took her hand and helped her into the bath.
Easing back, she closed her eyes, basking in the feel of the water, which soothed her aching muscles.
“Good?”
“Very good.”
“How did you know?”
“I had a hunch.”
He sat on the edge of the bath, looking down at her. She liked it when she was his primary focus.
“What are your plans this summer?”
“I don’t have any. Apart from trying to figure out what the hell to do with my life, that is.” She tilted her head to the side. “Do you have any plans?”
“How would you feel about moving in? I know it’s quite sudden, but it’ll give you a chance to figure out what you want to do. What you want to be? No pressure.”
She couldn’t believe he was asking her that. Her parents were always on her case so that at times she felt she couldn’t breathe.
“Yes.”
“You don’t want to think about it?”
“I don’t need to think about it. Yes, yes, yes.” She jumped out of the bath and hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. You may hate living with me.”
She doubted that for even a second she would have regrets. It was Dwayne, the man she’d been wanting for a long time. There’s no way in hell that she’d ever hate living with him.
Chapter Ten
One week later
“What exactly are you looking for?” Beast asked.
Dwayne looked up from Beast’s office to see his uncle leaning against the doorframe. He’d snuck in early so that he could get started on what Williams, the police informant they paid, had for him. “I’m looking at most of the unsolved cases or the guys that were caught when I was eighteen.”
“At seven in the morning?”
“I started around four, why? I didn’t wake anyone.”
“Yeah, and if you did, I would have blown your fucking head off.” Beast entered the room. “Why unsolved cases and assholes that were caught?” He lifted up one file, glancing through it.
“The bodies that you brought to my attention. The women. I didn’t kill women. I was attempting to save them with my mission.”
“Mission?”
“You can mock it all you want, but it meant something to me.”
“I’m not mocking it. Just seems strange to call it a mission.”
“It’s exactly what it was.”
“Fine. So, this mission, what were you hoping to achieve going through hundreds of files?”
“To see if someone rang a bell. If I knew someone. Nothing matches.”
“Someone clearly thinks like you.”
“It’s not hard to see a forest that is completely off-limits to everyone, and think, oh, this is a good place to bury a body. I’m only doing this because you two can’t.”
“In our world, if you don’t think about everything and all the consequences of what you do, it gets you killed. Gets people you love killed. Don’t take that chance, Dwayne. Anything you see, anything that gives you even a smidgen of doubt, you double-check, triple-check, and make sure you wipe it out of your mind before moving on. Otherwise, people you love could end up dead.”
“Got it.” He glanced down at the file in his hands. The man had a shaved head, was known for racial attacks, and was still locked in prison. Just seeing the face of the man made Dwayne sick to his stomach.
There was a time he’d have been afraid, scared, and allow that fear to manifest. Not anymore. He was the thing that people had nightmares about.
“I heard Charity moved in.”
“Can’t anyone have a secret from you?” Dwayne asked, opening another file.
“She’s young.”
“Don’t even get me started on her age. Look at Hope. She should have been dating someone like me, not you.”
“Still, she wouldn’t have gone for your lame ass. Moving in is a big step.”
“I know.”
“You like her?” Beast asked.
Seeing as his uncle was clearly going to stick around and have this conversation, Dwayne closed the file and focused on his pain in the ass. “Why are you suddenly interested in my love life?”
“You’re getting older. Some men, they have certain needs.”
“If you’re talking about sex, don’t go there. I don’t need to know.”
“I’m talking about settling down, Dwayne. Not all of us think with our head in the trash. Sex is great, but grow past that,” Beast said.
Rolling his eyes, he stared at Beast. The man was huge, scary, and a force to be reckoned with. When he’d come to take him away from his father, Dwayne had considered him Santa Claus, taking him away from the nightmare that had become his life.
“I love her,” Dwayne said.
He’d never said that to anyone else before. Staring at his uncle, he
saw that he’d surprised him.
“You love her?”
“Yeah, I do.”
He opened the file again, about to get back to work.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you can’t just drop something like that and pretend nothing has changed.”
“Nothing has changed.”
“Dwayne, you’ve just said that you love Charity and you don’t think that’s a big deal?”
“No.”
“Does she know?”
“Why do I feel like we’re attempting to gossip or something?”
“Dwayne, I know we’ve not always seen eye to eye, but I do love you.”
“I know that.” Dwayne stared at his uncle, not really sure what to say to make him seem less enthusiastic. “She’s different. I don’t want to live without her.”
Being inside her, claiming her virginity, he felt … everything with her. She’d seen his scars, knew his story, and she hadn’t run away.
“Can we not talk about this right now? I don’t want you dropping by and making a big deal of this when there doesn’t need to be.”
“Okay, but if I ask Hope and Faith, they’d both say loving a woman was a big deal.”
“Which is why you’re never going to tell them, or Caleb. He can’t keep a secret for anyone,” he said, looking back at the files. “What if this is completely unrelated?”
“Charity moving in?”
“We’re assuming that this guy knew me, but he couldn’t have known me. These are all fresh bodies. This has nothing to do with me, so why bring me into this?” Dwayne asked.
“Dwayne, if he keeps dumping bodies near where you put yours, that can come back to you. There’s only so much we can do to keep you safe. This guy has to be stopped. Do you have any leads yet on who it could be?” Beast asked.
Dwayne shook his head. “I don’t know. Your informant was the one to tell us about them. He’s kept a lot of details to himself.” He glanced down at his watch. “I need to stop for coffee.”
“Dwayne, be careful,” Beast said. “Whoever this guy is, he could be dangerous.”