by Mia Knight
She slid her fingers into his hair and destroyed his slick do. She tugged on his hair, forcing his lips from her neck so she could move them to hers. This time, it was her tongue that intruded. She was the aggressor for the two seconds it took for him to participate. When his thumb rubbed her nub, she groaned and arched against him. She felt his lips curve against hers and broke the kiss.
“You with me?” he murmured with a wicked grin.
“Let me up,” she ordered.
He hesitated before he rolled to the side. When she rose, he grabbed her calf to stop her from moving away, but his grip relaxed when she pushed her pants down. He helped her pull them off before he kissed her lower stomach and then nuzzled her pussy. His hands kneaded her ass before gliding down the back of her legs. The erotic sight of her massive husband kneeling before her as he ate her out made her body flush with heat.
“Gavin,” she whispered.
He draped her leg over one shoulder for better access. She tipped her head back and clenched her teeth as he teased her. When it was too much for her, she jerked away and clamped her quaking thighs together. He wiped his face as got to his feet, clutching his cock.
“Your choice,” he rumbled.
She glanced around and pointed at the adjustable bench seat, which had the back up. When he sat, she straddled him. He immediately pressed his cock to her opening and penetrated. He buried his face against her breasts and let out a jagged breath as she settled on his lap.
She looped her arms around his neck. “You feel good.”
His hands flexed on her. “You talk like that; this slow shit ends.”
“We wouldn’t want that. We just started.”
She rolled her hips. He was letting her set the pace, which was a rare occurrence. He was giving her back a measure of control when she needed it. Her hands glided over his muscles, which shifted beneath her palms. His low growl of encouragement made her smile. She nuzzled him as she rolled her hips. His lips sampled her shoulder, the curve of her breast, and the line of her throat. He was loving her out of her melancholy, something he had been doing often in the past few weeks.
“I like being on top.” Her feet were touching the ground, which allowed her to control her rise and fall. “You like this, baby?”
The cords in his neck bulged as he held himself in check. When she rose, he bucked as he tried to keep himself inside her. His hands went to her hips to keep her in place.
She raised a brow. “Not fast enough?”
He flexed his hands before he loosened his hold. Starving eyes laced with lust made her body tingle.
“Do what you want before I take over,” he said in a guttural tone.
She leaned back, braced her hands on his thick thighs, and bucked her hips up to take him. Her stomach muscles burned as she rocked. Gavin gripped her waist, gaze fixated on his dick sinking into her body. She let her head fall back, closed her eyes, and took what she wanted. Gavin applied pressure to her clit, which helped loads. Tension built and was amplified by his mouth sampling her skin. She couldn’t hear her fractured breathing over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. She quickened her pace and went rigid when her climax hit. She lurched forward and rode him hard, sinking her teeth into his shoulder as pleasure took over.
Her orgasm was still going when tipped her back on the bench. He braced her legs against his chest and fucked her hard. She clawed at him as her orgasm continued. When her vision cleared, she found him watching her, lion eyes eager and hungry.
“My turn.”
He pulled out and flipped her so her legs straddled the bench and her hands splayed on the cushioned surface. He positioned her the way he wanted before he impaled her with a thrust that made her scream. He took her hard. She grit her teeth and forced her trembling legs to hold her while Gavin let his beast loose.
He jerked her head back so she looked at him in the mirror while her hands stayed on the bench. The sight of the muscled, dark beast dominating her small, pale form made her mouth water. Her ass was up in the air, head tipped back by the grip in her blond hair. Her body shuddered from the force of his thrusts. He was going so deep, she knew she’d be feeling him tomorrow. Their eyes met in the mirror. The possessive rage carving his face into formidable lines made her even wetter.
“Who owns you?” he asked harshly.
“You.”
“My name!”
“Gavin Pyre.”
“And who do I belong to?”
She smiled through the pain. “Me.”
His hand gripped her breast. “Who’s your baby daddy?”
She rocked back against him. “You.”
“That’s right. Only me.” He bent over her and buried himself deep enough to make her eyes roll. “You ready to breed, baby?”
2
He released his grip on her hair. She dropped her head forward and gripped the bench in preparation for what was to come. When he ground himself against her, her toes curled.
“You ready?” he murmured.
The force of his thrust sent her face first into the bench. When her legs collapsed beneath the onslaught, his iron grip held her up. She lay pliant before him, giving him what he needed. Nothing else existed in her world except him. He roared when he came. The force of his brutal thrust flattened her. He dragged her limp form against him and planted himself deep, groaning in her ear as she splayed on the bench. Tears leaked out of her eyes because it was so good. He shuddered and held her as close as possible as he gave all of himself to her.
He collapsed against the reclined seat and draped her over him. She panted against his chest and clung to him as her throbbing body tried to recover. The smell of their combined scents comforted her, and she floated on the aftermath of amazing sex. His strong heart thumped beneath her ear. He was her rock. They had their ups and downs, but it always came to this—their bond forged over a decade ago. Nothing could break it, and they were stronger now than they had ever been.
“We should spar more often,” he said gruffly.
Her lips quirked as she stared at their reflection, her tiny form draped over the large warrior. “Next time, I get to win.”
“If I win, you win too.”
She couldn’t refute his logic. “True.”
His hand slid beneath the fall of her hair and cupped her nape. His strong fingers massaged while her breathing evened out. Gavin was right. There were other ways to work out her demons, but the bad thing was, at some point, her mind circled back to what caused her to feel like shit today. He couldn't fix this, but he had a right to know.
“I took Nora to see Mom,” she said.
He didn’t speak or stop his caressing.
“The nurses told me she hasn’t been eating. I thought Nora would brighten her day since she’s never met her before.” Her chest tightened. She brushed her cheek over his skin, taking comfort in his presence before she said, “The minute she saw Nora, she went ballistic. She started screaming, throwing things, telling us to get out. It’s the most she’s talked in months.”
She wasn’t sure why Nora’s presence triggered her mother, but it had, and not in a good way. She handed Nora to Blade and reentered the hospital room to find Beatrice trying to get out of bed. When she tried to stop her, Beatrice turned on her and tried to pummel her with her fists. Her mother actually hurt herself since she was weak and still in casts. Beatrice had to be restrained by the medical staff and sedated. Lyla emerged physically unscathed but mentally traumatized.
“She remembers,” she whispered.
When her mother woke from the coma, no one knew how much she would remember. She hoped her mom would be spared that knowledge. No such luck. Today, Lyla had been introduced to an all new level of pain. She thought the worst thing in the world was seeing her mother strapped to a bed where she had been beaten to the brink of death. She was wrong. The worst thing in the world was seeing how much those monsters changed her mother into a bitter, enraged woman who couldn’t stand the sight of her.
> “She said she doesn’t want to live with us … and that it’s my fault Dad’s gone.”
The worst part was, her mom was absolutely right. If only she knew the whole truth … The shit that spewed out of Mom’s mouth brought back everything she’d been trying to forget. She swallowed bile and buried her face against him.
“She asked where Pat’s buried,” she said against his skin.
“What did you say?”
“That he was killed by people in the underworld, and I don’t know what they did with his body.” She hesitated and then asked, “Did anyone go back to the cabin after …?”
“Yes. He’s buried near the cliff.”
She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
“I shouldn’t have let you see her without me,” he said.
“It would have been the same outcome.”
“I don’t think so.”
“She’s changed.” That was the understatement of the year.
“She has a right to act out, but not at you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not. You can’t help her, so let the doctors and nurses do their job. We’ll finance whatever she wants.”
She nodded, recognizing the wisdom in that. She was going through her own shit and needed to take care of herself and Nora first before delving into her mother. She drank in Gavin’s strength and willed his presence to chase away her feelings of guilt and helplessness.
When he straightened, she let out a disgruntled moan. He chuckled and gave her a swift kiss as he rose and settled her on the bench where she swayed before she found her balance. She watched him go to his pile of clothes and pull on his slacks.
“What am I going to wear? You ripped my shirt.”
He tossed his dress shirt, which stopped at her knees. She eyed her pants, but they were too far away. He collected their clothes and her gun and circled back to her. When he eyed her expectantly, she lifted her arms and pouted, knowing he wouldn’t deny her.
“Carry me?”
He reached for her. She knew what he was going to do before he did it.
“I don’t want to be thrown over your shoulder. It hurts my stomach! I want a piggyback ride.”
He looked at her blankly. “A piggy what?”
She got to her feet, and said, “Bend your knees.”
She hopped on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck. He got the gist and supported her legs, which pointed straight ahead since he was too broad to wrap herself around.
“When Nora’s old enough, she’s gonna make you do this all the time,” she said.
“Fine with me,” he said.
“This is amazing. I’m over six feet tall.”
She bounced against his back as they exited the gym. She kept a lookout for Blade, but he was nowhere to be found. Blade always made himself scarce when Gavin came home since he knew what a horny bastard he was.
“Everything okay at work?” she asked.
“Yes.”
He climbed the stairs without effort. She rested her chin on his shoulder and nuzzled him.
“We should do this more often.”
“Fuck in the gym?”
She thumped his shoulder. “Piggybacking.”
“I’ll give you piggybacks if you fuck me more.”
“We fuck all the time, and this is supposed to be a couple’s goals thing. This is the kind of stuff women post on social media to show how sweet their hubby is.”
“We set our own goals, Lyla.”
He turned into the nursery, tossed their belongings on a chair, and stopped beside the crib. She slipped down his back and held her breath as she peered down at their daughter. Nora was flat on her back, black hair covering half of her face. Nora was coming into her personality and loathed bows or hair ties with a passion. Her favorite stuffed animal right now was a pink elephant she never went anywhere without.
Lyla leaned down to pat their dogs, Beau and Honey, who shadowed Nora. Their tails thumped the ground as she fussed over them. She wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it eased her mind knowing the dogs had appointed themselves as Nora’s personal security. One could never have enough safeguards in place. When she saw Gavin reaching into the crib, she shot to her feet and smacked his arm.
“Do you want to wake her up?” she hissed.
“Yeah.”
“No,” she said firmly and pushed him out the door. “It’s almost one in the morning. You’ll keep her up for hours, and her sleep schedule will be off.”
Thankfully, he didn’t fight her. When they entered their room, she slipped off his dress shirt and unwrapped her hands before she stepped into the shower. When he joined her, he slid her wedding ring on her finger. When she stood in front of the vanity to blow dry her hair, he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
“Feel better?” he asked.
She nodded.
He kissed her cheek. “She’ll heal. Give her time.”
She watched him walk out of the bathroom. Since when did Gavin become a sage? He’d changed since they emerged from Hell. He was calm, confident … satisfied? Like Carmen, he could move on now that Manny and Vinny had been avenged, but she couldn’t. In her mind, it was only a matter of time before some other asshole rose up and tried to test them. Steven managed to put together an impressive committee of powerful men in the city. They had perished in Hell, but those men were part of organizations that opposed them and could cause trouble in the future. The Pyre name would always make them targets.
She blow-dried her hair and ran her hands through the shiny blond locks. Her mother used to have the same hair before it was shaved off. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her robe gaped, showing the gruesome scars on her chest. Her skin tingled as Steven’s soft, malicious voice slithered through her mind.
You bear my mark, Lyla. What does Pyre think of that? I hope he thinks of me every time he touches you. The almighty Gavin Pyre brought to his knees by little old me.
She deliberately replayed her memory of crushing Steven’s bones with Lucifer’s shield. He was dead. He couldn’t hurt them anymore. “Fuck you, Steven.”
Her scars were nothing compared to her mother’s. Steven’s men slashed Beatrice’s skin to ribbons. Not an inch of her had been left untouched. It had been touch and go with her mom after one of her surgeries, but she had pulled through. Her mom was in significant pain and would be for the rest of her life. She lost one eye, and there had been significant damage to the other. Her mother’s world had been shredded to pieces. Lyla had no clue how to be there for her mom, but after today, she knew it was best she kept her distance.
The crushing guilt was a physical weight on her chest. She couldn’t catch her breath. She tilted her face up to the ceiling and focused on breathing past the panic clawing at her throat. A useless tear slid out of the corner of her eye. She couldn’t change the past. All she could do was get through the present and focus on the future.
When she had herself back under control, she averted her gaze from the mirror and finished her nighttime routine. Maybe she should take a page out of Carmen’s book and dye her hair or something, a declaration of a new beginning. Once Carmen found out Vinny had been avenged, she dyed her hair red and celebrated by partying her ass off. She wished she could be more like Gavin and Carmen. Gavin acted like the events in Hell never happened. He was as cool as a cucumber and slept like a baby while she was plagued by panic attacks and nightmares.
After she dressed in a nightgown, she walked into the room and found Gavin standing in front of the window, talking on his phone in Spanish. She went to check on Nora and collected her gun and clothes from the chair Gavin left them on. She rested her chin on the side of the crib and watched her daughter sleep. Her heart clenched. Nora was the best thing that ever happened to her. Locked in that cell in Hell, she thought she’d never see her daughter or Gavin ever again.
She chanced fate by stroking Nora’s soft cheek. “You’re safe, baby. Mommy’s here.” And she would do w
hatever it took to ensure Nora had a long, full life, even if it meant killing her father or anyone else who stood in her way.
Once more, she paused to love on Beau and Honey who were curled around each other. All of them had been through a lot. It was time for them to heal.
When she walked back into the master suite, Gavin was still on the phone. She set the gun on the nightstand and climbed in the bed on her side. She burrowed beneath the covers, comforted by the sound of his rumbling voice. There had been more than a few nights when Gavin was forced to work at night. Whether it was for the casino or underworld, she didn’t know. All she cared about was that he came home to her whole and healthy.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Fuck. The stupid shower invigorated her. She wasn’t remotely sleepy. She stared at the ceiling as her fingers tapped on the blanket.
It’s your fault your father is dead!
She flinched as her mother’s accusation slid through her mind. It was her fault, all right. She pulled the fucking trigger… and she would do it again if she had to. As usual, the thought of Pat made her sick. She tensed, ready to make a run to the toilet. If Pat hadn't made a side deal, maybe her mother would have been saved from this horror. She rolled and buried her face in the pillow and tried to think of anything but him.
Gavin climbed into bed when he ended his call. She turned toward him as he sat up with his back against the headboard and stretched out his legs.
“Trouble?” she asked.
“Nothing major.”
That could mean anything, but she didn’t push. She tossed an arm over his leg and rested her head on his thigh. It took less than three seconds for his hand to land on her hair, which brought up her earlier thought.
“I want to dye my hair.”
His fingers paused. “What color?”
She pursed her lips. “Maybe a nice brown or something.”