Meant For You: Rocktown Ink, Book 3

by Gray, Sherilee

  I released the prick whose shirt I was fisting, and he smirked at me. It took all my strength to turn away, which was when he sucker punched me in the kidney.

  I spun around as Riff hammered the guy in the face with a right hook, and then the guy’s asshole friends jumped in.

  “Get back,” I yelled at Eves and waded in.

  Riff was way outnumbered. I’d only gotten in a few hits when I noticed a couple of other Ramblers heading over. Grifter was fighting off two guys, and one tackled him to the ground, holding him while the other started to wail on him.

  Shit, I couldn’t get there to help him…

  Lila appeared out of nowhere and slammed a chair over the back of one of them, dropping the guy.

  Christ.

  Trix was brandishing a fucking bottle, and I watched as Everly kicked the guy Lila had felled in the nuts. Other people had joined the fight, and the place was a fucking mess.

  The guy I was fighting came at me, and I sidestepped, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and threw him across the floor, then rushed over to Eves. She looked ready to take another shot at the partially unconscious guy on the floor’s nuts, when I lifted her fireman-style, grabbed Trix by the wrist, and headed for the door as Grifter snatched up Lila and followed me out.

  The night air hit me as we walked out. It was still hot, like the blood pumping through my veins.

  “What the fuck?” I said as I put Everly on her feet. “You don’t get in the middle of a fight like that.” I dragged my hand over my cropped hair. “You could have been hurt, for fuck’s sake.”

  She planted her hands on her hips. “Those assholes deserved it. And it’s not like I haven’t been around fights before. I know how to handle myself. Christ, Dane, you could’ve gotten in trouble.” Her eyes were flashing fire. “What if the cops were called? I just…I wanted them to stop.”

  Fourteen-year-old Everly was suddenly standing in front of me, fear shadowing her eyes, and it sliced me in two.

  We’d had an intense fear of the police when we were kids, that someone would call them to one of Wayne and Sonya’s parties, that Child Protective Services would get involved, and we’d be taken away and separated.

  I tugged her back in and cursed. I knew what was going through her head, what she was remembering, and I didn’t want it there. “Come on.” She and Trix followed me to the truck and we climbed in.

  “Where’s Lila?” Eves said.

  She was standing by Riff, and we all watched as she put her hand on his arm, looking up at him. He said something and gently removed her hand and stepped back, crossing his arms. Lila looked distraught, blinking up at him several times before turning away and striding back to my truck.

  I watched Riff watch her until she climbed in.

  Then he got on his bike, started it, and roared off.

  “I’d like to go home,” Lila said, voice shaky. “Can we just go home?”

  I started the truck. We’d planned to camp out at Riff’s, but I got the feeling he wouldn’t be there even if we showed up. He had club business to take care of, and worse, it involved his own family. So I headed back to Springhaven.

  I reached over and rested my hand on Eves’s thigh, heart still fucking pounding after seeing her go after some guy twice her size. Freaked the hell out over what could’ve happened.

  “Okay?”

  She turned to me, and I let out the breath I was holding, afraid that I’d see that look in her eyes again, the one I’d seen over a year ago. Fear. So much fear. But there was no sign of it.

  She covered my hand and we stayed like that the whole way home.

  * * *

  “I’m scared,” Everly whispered against my chest.

  The banging on the door grew more insistent. I tightened my hold on her and kissed the top of her head. “I’ve got you.”

  The music was turned up, the drunk assholes singing out in the living room got louder, and the banging fucking kept on going. The rage inside me pumped hot and thick through my veins until I couldn’t contain it another moment.

  Everly started trembling.

  I snapped. “Don’t move,” I said to her.

  She grabbed my hand as I climbed off my bed. “Dane, leave it. Please.”

  The rage had a hold of me and I couldn’t keep it in anymore. Yeah, I was barely seventeen, but I was tall and I was strong. I worked out a lot because I had to be strong to protect Everly.

  I dragged the chest of drawers out of the way, the wood screeching across the floorboards, slid the lock back, and yanked open the door.

  A red-faced, shiny-chinned creep stood there, swaying.

  “I need to use the fucking can, asshole,” he said, face filled with fury before his gaze slid behind me to Everly and he grinned. “Didn’t know Wayne provided party favors. My turn next.”

  I saw red, grabbed the fucker by the throat, and threw him across the hall. His body hit the wall with a thud. He stared at me, a stunned expression on his face.

  I moved in on him as he tried to stumble to his feet and knocked him back down. “The fucking bathroom is down there, asshole. You bang on my door again, I’ll fucking end you.” I walked back into my room, slammed the door, threw the lock, and slid the drawers back in place.

  Then I stood staring at the scarred wooden door in front of me, shaking so hard from rage, from adrenaline, from fear, my teeth were chattering. I’d been in fights before. I’d fended off drunk pricks in this house. But this was the first time I realized what I was capable of.

  And that I would do those things without even thinking about it if it meant protecting Everly.

  Delicate arms wrapped around me from behind and squeezed tight. “It’s okay, Dane,” Everly said against my back. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

  I jolted awake and blinked up at the ceiling.

  Fuck.

  I scrubbed my hands over my face, attempting to scrub that dream, the memory, from my brain at the same time. I glanced at Everly beside me, and the churning in my gut slowed and settled.

  I released a ragged breath. The night had been a disaster.

  When we finally got back to the ranch an hour later, all I’d wanted to do was climb into bed with Eves and sink inside her. Our night and morning at the cabin had been fucking amazing, and I’d had big plans for tonight.

  But Trix had followed us to Eves’s room and had passed out on the couch, and I’d been forced to keep my jeans on. Worse, Eves had kept her clothes on, and I’d lain there all night with a hard-on, and because Eves was near me, an image of what we’d done in that cabin on replay in my head.

  In between that, I’d thought about what could have happened in that bar if someone had accidentally hit her. If she hadn’t been so lucky.

  So I wasn’t happy when, after managing a measly half an hour’s sleep, I was woken by that goddamn dream followed by that fucking rooster crowing.

  “Make it stop,” Trix said from the couch.

  “Nothing makes him stop,” Eves muttered and snuggled closer to me. “He stops when he wants to. What time is it?”

  “Seven,” I said.

  Trix growled and Eves bolted upright.

  “I have to get to work.”

  I pulled her back down. “It’s your day off, remember?”

  “Oh.” She relaxed again. “I forgot.”

  Eves was drifting back off, and I was trying to communicate telepathically with fucking Trix, telling her she really wanted to leave the room, when the rooster, who had stopped for ten fucking seconds, started up again.

  Eves jumped, and Trix cursed, stumbling to her feet. “Screw this.” She aimed a thumb at the door. “I don’t know how you live with that noise. I’m gonna go hit Cassy up for some breakfast. Call me later?” she said to Everly then she was gone.

  Well, what do you know? Telepathy fucking worked.

  Eves rubbed her face against my chest, then tilted her head back and smiled at me.

  Jesus, she was beautiful. I leaned down and kisse
d her. “Thought she’d never leave.”

  Her eyes sparkled up at me. Fucking sparkled. “Oh? Why would you want her to leave?”

  I took her hand and put it over the zipper of my jeans, over my hard dick.

  “Hmm, I see,” she said, expression turning serious. “You really are in need of assistance, stat.”

  I chuckled. “You gonna make it all better?”

  “Why, yes. Yes, I am. But I think we’ll need to get you out of your clothes first.” Her mouth came back down on mine and we tore at each other’s clothes, tugging down pants, underwear, yanking off shirts, until we were both naked and panting. All playfulness was gone, and Eves was right there with me. I could see it in her eyes.

  I pulled her in tight so she was plastered against me and kissed her again, deep and hungry and unrestrained. Eves whimpered against my mouth, her legs moving restlessly.

  “Stomach,” I said against her lips.

  She did as I asked, shaking with excitement, and seeing that just made me impossibly harder. I grabbed one of the pillows and shoved it under her hips so her gorgeous bare ass was right where I wanted it.

  She glanced at me over her shoulder, and the heat in her eyes made my mouth dry.

  I slapped a round cheek lightly, and she gasped. “Christ, you’ve got a gorgeous ass.”

  She squirmed and her face darkened in that way that made me crazy, made me want to do all sorts of dirty shit to her just to make her blush. I chuckled, and it sounded dark and dirty. Going by the way Eves squeezed her thighs together again, she’d totally be on board for whatever I came up with.

  I couldn’t wait another moment to taste her. “Spread for me, baby.”

  She did instantly, her lips parting as she watched me take her in.

  The sight of her spread out for me like that—mine to touch, to taste—Christ, I started to shake.

  I glanced up at her again as I ran my hand down her spine, watching as goose bumps lifted over her skin, and took that perfect ass in both hands and squeezed. “So beautiful, Eves.” A breath shook from me and I dropped down, chest to mattress, and buried my face against her pussy.

  Fuck, yes.

  I slid my tongue over her slick flesh, feasting on her, growling when Eves squirmed and cried out. I’d never heard a sweeter sound in my life. I settled in and stayed there until she was drenched, until she was gasping and hot as hell.

  “Dane,” she said, voice so needy and hot my balls tightened.

  But I wasn’t done. I slid my tongue higher over her ass while I pushed two fingers inside her, thrusting them hard and fast, making sure I grazed over that spot repeatedly inside her that would get her off so fucking good.

  She fisted the covers suddenly and screamed into them, coming hard around my fingers.

  As soon as she stopped clenching around me, I yanked my jeans off the floor, grabbed a condom, and suited up. Eves was back to watching me over her shoulder, and I jerked her ass back to line it up. “Ready, baby?”

  She licked her lips, nodded, and I thrust home.

  Eves groaned.

  “Fuck,” I barked out.

  I took my girl like I needed to, deep and hard. Christ, being inside her was so insanely good. I never knew it could be this good.

  Everly fisted the sheets and brought her ass back as I thrust deep, pushing back, taking me deeper, and I damn near lost my mind. I fell over her, fucking humping her into the mattress, pinning her down and slamming into her.

  “You feel so good, baby,” I grated out between clenched teeth. “Nothing’s as good as this, as being inside you.”

  She fisted the sheets tighter. “Oh God, don’t stop.”

  Like fuck. I got up onto my knees, taking Eves with me this time. Mouth attached to her throat, one hand on her tit, the other between her thighs, working her clit. I took her like that, grinding into her from behind.

  She gasped, quivering in my arms, and reached back. One hand went to my hip, my ass, holding me to her. The other slid down over mine, helping me work her clit. She leaned forward a fraction so I could go deeper.

  And I did. I dragged my mouth up her shoulder as my hips slammed into her round ass, filling her slick pussy over and over as it gripped me tight.

  I was close, so fucking close.

  I wanted her eyes on me.

  Pulling from her quickly, I rolled her to her back and came down on top of her. She spread wide for me instantly, and I fisted my cock. Her arms banded around me tight as I slid home again.

  Everly’s eyes were hooded, her mouth swollen and pink and sexy, hair all over the place. She was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen.

  My balls were heavy and so fucking tight as I took her hands and pinned them over her head. I stared into her eyes and filled my girl over and over, letting her see what she did to me. How she was everything to me. How fucking in love I was with her.

  My muscles started jumping and trembling.

  Everly arched suddenly, thrusting her tits higher, and she cried out, pussy squeezing my cock repeatedly as she came for me again.

  I stayed where I was, watching her, and my own orgasm fucking detonated. I called out her name and gave it to her, everything I had. Everything. And she gave it right back.

  I carried on rolling my hips, grinding into her, working us both through it until she stopped spasming around me, until my dick was wrung dry.

  Finally, I dropped down and rolled to the side, taking her with me. We stayed wrapped around each other for a long time, touching, kissing, dozing. I’d never experienced anything like that in my life. Nothing that had even come close. With Everly it wasn’t just sex; it wasn’t just fucking. I’d always thought the words making love were cheesy bullshit. But that’s exactly what happened between Everly and me every damn time.

  And I had every intention of having her again. I was just about to roll her to her back and slide inside her again when Eves’s phone started ringing.

  She groaned and muttered a curse…well, an Everly curse. “For eff’s sake.” She reached back, taking the phone from her bedside table.

  When she looked at the screen, she stiffened. I wasn’t surprised when I leaned over and saw her aunt’s name there. Everly was contemplating not answering it—it was written all over her face—but then that guilt dimmed her beautiful eyes and she put her phone to her ear.

  “Hi, Aunt Julia.”

  Everly listened for a bit and her face paled. I listened as she said a lot of yes, this and yes, that.

  “I’ll leave soon,” she eventually whispered.

  My gut clenched, heart racing as she ended the call. Leaving? What the fuck? “Is everything okay?”

  Eves shook her head. “Aunt Julia, she said she’s not well, that she needs me home for a while.”

  Every muscle in my body went tight. “A while? What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. A week…maybe two. Cassy already said I could have some time off, after how busy we’ve been. So at least I won’t be leaving her in the lurch.” Her eyes came to mine and they were hollow.

  I held her chin between my finger and thumb and stroked her smooth skin. “You don’t want to go?”

  She shook her head. “You know what our relationship’s like, especially now.”

  Everly and her aunt’s relationship had always been strained. “Why especially now?”

  She toyed with the covers. “After what happened with Clayton. She couldn’t show her face in church again—her words. That creep’s father was my aunt’s pastor, and I’d humiliated her and disgraced our family.”

  “The fuck? He was going to drug you…” I couldn’t finish the rest of that sentence, not if I wanted to keep my shit together.

  Everly shook her head. “Julia won’t believe it. She thinks…” She threaded our fingers together. “She never liked me talking about my time in foster care or you. So when you showed up and did what you did, everything between us got a whole lot worse.”

  “How much worse?”

  “
Just…words said in anger.”

  “Like what?” I growled.

  “Like she should have left me in that house, that she never should’ve come for me.”

  I tugged her in close and held her. “You don’t need to go back there.” I didn’t fucking want her to go. I finally had her back. I didn’t want to let her go even for a week or two.

  That sounded like forever to me.

  She cupped my jaw and pulled back so I could see her face, her eyes. “But she did come for me, Dane. She made sacrifices, took care of me, made sure I had everything I needed, more. I’m all she has. I can’t not go.”

  Fuck.

  I knew that, too.

  I pressed my lips to hers. “Just promise me you’ll come back.”

  “I promise,” she said against my lips.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Everly

  I set my bags on the bed in my old room and walked to the window.

  My aunt’s ranch in Rutherford was pretty. A lot smaller than Cassy and Cal’s, but to me, when I’d first arrived here, I thought it was huge. I’d just turned fifteen and thought a prettier place couldn’t possibly exist. I’d spent hours wandering the fields, spending time with Aunt Julia’s horses.

  It had also been a good way to avoid her.

  She wasn’t a cruel woman; she was just indifferent. Like now, when I’d first moved here I’d been missing Dane. And most nights after a silent dinner with my aunt, only the odd word spoken, usually to correct my posture or my manners, I’d head upstairs to my bedroom, climb into bed, and cry myself to sleep.

  I stared out the window to the front yard and it felt like I’d never left. That we’d never argued, that I hadn’t packed up my car and driven to Cassy’s ranch, a woman I had never met in person but who I’d clicked with from that first phone call.

  “Everly? Are you still up there?”

  My fingers clenched around the window frame and I turned toward the door. “I’m coming down.”

  I shook off the melancholy feeling riding me and took the stairs, sidestepping the parts that squeaked out of habit, the ones that alerted her when I was coming or going that might have given her a reason to seek me out.