by Jamie Begley
“Don’t stop. It feels so good.”
Ice bent over her back, using his chin to see her face. He would never be the perfect match for Grace, he shouldn’t even be allowed to touch her, but she was a lifeline that either God or whichever twist of fate had brought into his life, and he was going to make damn sure she never thought about him leaving her again.
Inexorably, he kept lunging forward until both their bodies were covered in a sheen of sweat. She wantonly surged back on him. driving what was left of his brain to mush as they each tried to outdo the other on how much pleasure they could give each other.
The first climax they had shared had just been appetizer, not quenching their hunger that the three weeks of abstinence had built. Now, the climax he was building in their bodies was one that would not only alleviate the remnants of what was left, it would consume them in a fiery blaze.
Stroke by stroke, Ice drove them closer to the edge like a sailboat anchored to shore, waiting until he felt the flash of need that signaled he was getting close to coming before using the heel of his palm to crush down on her clit, setting her free to sail toward her own climax.
The aftershocks had them crashing down on the bed together, neither of them able to move.
“Ice…,” Grace plaintively mumbled underneath him. “I can’t breathe.”
Groaning, he managed to roll over onto his back. “Damn, woman, that was good.”
He winced when she smacked him on his chest, then grinned down at her when she tiredly climbed on top of him, resting her cheek on his chest.
“Are we dead?” she asked sleepily.
“No.” Running a hand down her spine, he then grabbed an ass cheek, giving it a loving squeeze. “But the night isn’t over yet.”
“It is for me. I have nothing left.”
As she burrowed into him, Ice saw she was already half asleep.
“Take a nap. I’ll wake you when I want to fuck you again.”
Her lips curled in a satisfied yawn. “Do that and I’ll make you regret it.”
“If you think that’s going to deter me, you chose the wrong threat.”
“It wasn’t a threat; it was a promise.”
Turning her face into his chest, she put her hands under her chin to stare at him seriously. “I’m not going to the hearing.”
“Grace… I wasn’t—”
“It has nothing to do with you. This is a part of my life that has to be over. It’s poisoning me just as surely as the poison Simone drank to escape him. I’m never going to forgive him.”
“I don’t expect you to,” he said, rubbing a knuckle across her cheek.
“I’ll write a new letter, but I’m not going to give him one more minute of my life. Not one. I’ve been so afraid of him getting out that I’ve only focused on that. The only revenge I could get was to keep him where he didn’t want to be. I hope he gets out, because he will come searching for me. And when he does, I’ll be waiting.”
“Are you sure?” Ice didn’t try to sway her either way.
“I’m sure. I need to stop listening to footsteps from my nightmares and start listening to the patter of little feet.”
Ice could feel her eyes drilling into his soul.
“Is that a hint?”
“It’s a request. That is, if you still want to have one with me?”
At the sight of her trembling bottom lip, his curled salaciously. “I thought you were tired.”
Scooting down his body, she reached for his already rising cock. “We can sleep on the way home.”
CHAPTER 11
Grace sleepily stretched out in the bed, reaching out with her hand to search for Ice’s warmth. Feeling only the cool sheets, though, she lifted her eyelids to find the bed empty.
“Ice…” She turned over, seeing the bathroom door wide open but he wasn’t in there.
Brushing her tousled hair from her face, she looked toward the clock on the bedside table and then hurriedly flipped the covers back, jumping out of the bed to get dressed.
Rushing in the bathroom, she took a quick shower. They were supposed to meet Dax at the airport for the flight back to Queen City.
Expecting to find Ice in the bedroom when she came out of the bathroom, she sent him a text as she got dressed. Anticipating that he was in the kitchen or the living room, she assumed he would come to the bedroom when he got her text.
She was taking the suitcases out of the closets when she heard a text ping on her phone.
Give me five. Having breakfast with Shade.
Disappointed that he hadn’t asked her to go, she shrugged it off, too happy in the aftermath of spending the night in Ice’s arm to resent him for taking a break for masculine company.
Wheeling the suitcases into the living room after checking that they weren’t leaving anything behind, she was about to go to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee when she heard a key in the door.
She gave him a beaming smile when he came through the door with a large cup of coffee.
“I was about to make me some.”
“Then I’m glad I saved you the trouble.” Giving her a kiss, he saw that she had the suitcases ready to go. “Did you double-check that we have everything?”
“Of course,” she said, taking the lid off the steaming coffee cup.
Ice gave her a know-it-all look, then went around her to head into the bedroom. Grace trailed after him as far as the kitchen to get some milk for her coffee.
Stirring her coffee, she flushed when Ice came out of the bedroom, carrying her favorite sneakers.
“Thank you. I would have missed them when I got home.” Taking a sip of her coffee, she flashed him a grateful smile.
He didn’t return it, coming to stand beside her at the kitchen counter.
“There’s something I need to tell you.” The seriousness in his voice had her hand trembling around the Styrofoam cup and her heart plummeting to her feet. It was everything she could do not to beg him not to leave her before he spilled the bombshell she had been expecting.
“I won’t be going back with you.”
This was it then. What she had been expecting to happen.
“I see.” She set the cup down then turned toward him, waiting for him to speak the final words, to say their marriage was over. Feeling desperate, she promised herself she wouldn’t beg. Then she immediately decided she wasn’t going to give him up without a fight. If she was hurting this badly now, how was she going to survive without him in her life? It wasn’t humanly possible to live with this pain and survive.
“Grace….” His snapped voice dragged her out of the pain-filled well she sank into. “Listen to me. I’m only going to be gone for a couple of weeks. I have to take care of some business for Shade that he asked me to do.”
Relief had her sagging and she braced herself on the counter. “Okay.”
He frowned at her. “That’s it? You’re not going to ask what it is?”
She quickly shook her head. “I trust you. Can I have a kiss?”
He put his hand behind her neck, pulling her toward him. “You’re getting as crazy as T.A.’s friend.”
She smoothed her hands over his chest. “Probably. I’ve heard love does that to you.”
“That’s for fucking sure. My head hasn’t been on straight since I met you.”
She put her arms around his shoulders as he kissed her, committing it to memory until he got back to Queen City.
The sound of her phone ringing had Ice trying to break off the kiss.
“It’s Dax. I’ll call him back. I’m going to miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you, too. Just think of the sex we’ll have when I get back.”
“Hopefully, I’ll be recovered from last night,” she said, finally forced to answer the insistent ringing of her cell phone.
“I’m on my way,” she told Dax when she answered.
“I was beginning to get worried,” his voice sounded from the other end.
“Don’t be. I just woke
up late. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Disconnecting the call, she placed it in her pocket so she wouldn’t forget it, then took the shoes from Ice.
“We better be going, Dax is waiting.”
She put on a brave face when Ice put her suitcase in the rental car, leaving his suitcase behind. Getting in the passenger seat, she took his hand when he got behind the wheel, holding it all the way to the small airport.
When he pulled into the airfield, she didn’t immediately get out, even though she could see Dax waiting by the plane with the door open.
“Please take care of yourself,” she said, turning to face him when he stopped the car.
“Grace, don’t worry.” He raised a lone finger to rub away her frown lines. “Baby, you know I would be on that plane with you if it wasn’t important.”
“I know.” She turned her face, resting it on the palm of his hand. It was calloused and hard, yet he touched her with the gentleness of holding delicate porcelain.
“I’m not happy about staying behind either. I don’t like you flying without me.”
“Dax is an excellent pilot,” she assured him.
“Baby, I know. Or your ass wouldn’t be getting on that plane.”
When he kissed her, she didn’t want to let him go. It was Ice who finally had the strength to pull away.
Reaching for the door latch, she stalled. “When Mom died, I couldn’t truly understand the grief my dad was going through. Stupidly, I thought he was going through the same type of grief I was, that Dax and I were both going through. It was different, though. I see it now.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m thankful to T.A. She makes it more bearable for him in a way that Dax and I can’t. I’m happy he found her.
“Mom told me that, with Dad, they fell in love at first sight, and when she got home, she told her chaperone that she was going to marry him. I asked her how she was so sure. She said she knew because, when she always looked at other men, she imagined chasing after a rainbow with them.” A sob slipped through her lips at the memory of her mother’s words. “She said, with Dad, not only could she see them chasing after rainbows, but that he would do his damnedest to catch them for her.
“You’re like my father where that’s concerned.
“Stay and help Shade. You wouldn’t be staying unless it was important, and when you come home, I need your help catching a couple of rainbows, but I’d rather have three if I can talk you into it.”
Gathering her emotions, she sprang out of the car before Ice could say something, seeing that Dax was walking toward the car, concerned that it was taking her so long to get out.
She didn’t want to look back at Ice. She was crying too hard and didn’t want him to see her makeup smeared to hell and back.
“Grace!”
She kept walking, afraid that if she didn’t, she would want to stay.
“Dammit, Grace!”
At the authoritative tone in his voice, she turned and walked straight back into his waiting arms. Enclosing her in them, he rubbed his unshaven cheek against hers.
“Baby, when I get home, you can have as many rainbows as you want.”
CHAPTER 12
THE DAY GRACE RETURNED TO QUEEN CITY
Ice quietly put on his boots before standing up from the chair in the corner of the bedroom. Walking to the side of the bed, he stood looking at her sprawled out naked. Her beautiful face was relaxed and, for the first time in a long time, she looked as if she was sleeping peacefully.
Pulling the comforter over her, he couldn’t resist placing a soft kiss on her lips. Then he straightened and stood silently a moment longer before forcing himself to leave, making sure to close the bedroom door quietly as he left.
He didn’t live in Treepoint, but he knew where he was going. It was hard to miss the main street of the small town.
He was pulling into a small parking lot when his cell phone rang.
“I’m here,” he said, answering.
“You’re late.”
The unknown number on his phone had been unidentifiable. Shade’s voice wasn’t.
“I overslept.”
“Me, too.”
A brief silence came over the phone, both waiting for the other to mention the night before. Ice wasn’t about to open his mouth.
“It’s a go. The deputies are all on patrol, and Knox gave the front desk clerk the day off.”
“Okay. Thanks.” He paused.
“About last night….”
Ice forestalled what he was sure Shade was about to say. “Grace and my mouths are zipped. We spent most of the night in the ladies’ restroom.”
“That wasn’t what I was about to say, but it’s good to know.”
Ice could hear the amusement in Shade’s voice.
“I was going to ask if you recognized the redheaded woman at the bar last night.”
Ice frowned. “No. Is there a problem?”
“No problem that I’m aware of,” he said cryptically. “I just left. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“Me either,” Ice said grimly, disconnecting the call.
Ice heard the metal door close behind him. He had once been locked up when he took a job from Desmond to get Yo-Yo out of prison. The best part of the job had been meeting Grace. The worst part was being locked in the small cell. It could fuck with a man’s mind. He sure as fuck hoped it did Harvey’s.
Walking to the cell at the end, he saw a man stand up from a lone bunk.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m here to give you one chance, and one chance only, to save your life… at least for a few more days.”
“Go fuck off! I don’t have to listen to a damn thing you say. When I get out of here, I’m going to let the whole county know how I’ve been treated!”
“Shade told me you were a stupid son of a bitch. He nailed that one on the head.” Ice stared at the face that already bore the marks of the enforcer’s wraith. “He also told me I’d be wasting my time trying to talk to you.”
“Shade sent you?” Harvey stared at him distrustfully through the bars. “Is he finally getting me out?”
“For about ten minutes, then you’re coming right back.”
“I don’t want to come back. I want to go home!” he yelled.
Without pity, Ice was unmoved by the man’s anger.
“You don’t have a home anymore. You went after what belonged to Shade. Instead of hauling ass out of the state as fast as you could, you tried to blackmail him with fake pictures of Lily. There’re two men in the world I would never try to piss off, and Shade is one of them.”
Ice could tell that Harvey still had no idea of the gate he opened and the consequences he was going to have to pay.
Ice took one step back from the cell when Harvey looked like he was going to vomit in fear.
“Who’s the other one?”
Callously, Ice refrained from answering. “You’re going to have to get it in your fucking head that there isn’t any clean way to get out this shitstorm you made for yourself. Man up and brace yourself for the impact of what you did, and you might live to see another two weeks. Or, you might as well have the funeral home on the top of your contact list, because the box you’re headed for is smaller than the cell your ass is standing in now.”
Feeling sick, Harvey grabbed one of the bars of his cell. “What do I have to do?”
“First off, I’m going to escort you to the thrift store and you’re going to apologize to Lily. I’ll watch you go in while Lucky will be there to make sure that, this time, you treat her the way she should have been treated at the start. Then, when you get back, Knox is going to lock you back in this cell.”
Ice could tell Harvey was going to go off again, so he squashed him with the truth.
“It’s the safest place for you. Not only can Shade not kill you in here…” This part he had to lie to Harvey about. If Shade wanted him dead, Fort Knox wouldn’t keep him from accomplishing his mission. “But the m
an that was smart enough to get you to take the blowback for him might not be afraid of taking you out as he was of Shade. You’re actually easy pickings where that’s concerned.
“After the thrift store, make yourself comfortable for a few hours. I have to take care of a few things, but when I come back, I’m going to tell you exactly what you’re going to do to keep breathing.”
“Why not tell me now?”
“We’re on my timetable, not yours. I’m going to get Knox so he can get your clothes.”
Before he could move away from the cell, Harvey tried to reach out for him through the bars. “Is this going to get Shade off my back?”
Ice almost lied to him, but the good conscience part of his brain that loved Grace wouldn’t let him.
“The only thing I’m able to offer you is a couple of weeks where you won’t have to look over your shoulder. You committed a cardinal sin where Shade is concerned. The only good news that I can give you is that the other man I wouldn’t piss off doesn’t know what you did. If he did, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you. There wouldn’t be anything left.”
This time when Harvey met his eyes, Ice let him see the stark truth in them. There was no way around what he had done. Harvey had bet that outsmarting Shade and letting greed blind him outweighed the ramifications if he failed. Not only had he failed, but he had failed hard. Fortunately for Ice, Harvey’s failure played right into his hands.
Moving away from the cell, he went to the door, knocking on it to alert Knox that they were ready.
The door opened, the sheriff on the other side.
Ice wanted to roll his eyes every time he saw the brother in the uniform. The citizens in the small town obviously had no conception of who the man really was who guarded their homes and businesses. They might believe he was no longer a Last Rider, but the club would have his loyalty until his dying day. Just as the Predators had his.
“Did he go for it?”
“I didn’t give him the choice,” Ice said, taking the clothes that Knox held out to him. “Give us ten, and then we’ll get this show on the road. I need to get back before Grace wakes.”