Dirty Ties (33 page)

A confrontation with Collin would likely result in an airing of secrets. Would Collin call the cops and turn in the notorious Evader? Would he call his father and devise Logan’s death? No fucking way. Not Collin.

His hand stopped moving, his fingers curling along my inner muscles. “We’ll decide what to do about Trenchant
together
. And if we have to run, we’ll do it
together
. The fourth option.”

Running away together. The fourth option. It sounded so fairytale-ish. But that didn’t stop a very hopeful flutter from taking flight in my stomach. “And if I tell you to walk away from your revenge?”

He removed his fingers, laced them through mine, and moved our hands to his chest. “Feel that?”

The thump of his heart strummed against my palm, steady and strong. I nodded.

“It beats for you, Kaci. I choose
you
.”

The last traces of tension loosened from my muscles and broke free. It was dangerous to cling to those words, to believe that regardless of what happened, he wouldn’t leave me. But the risks he’d taken to sneak into my condo, not knowing if Collin would turn him in or tell his father, attested to the fact that he’d given up his revenge.

I’d lived in constant paranoia since I married Collin, always on guard about sex and relationships, but not now. Not with him. Funny that the man who betrayed me made me feel…less worried? Certain?
Safe
.

He tilted his head, his face so close his breath brushed my lips. “And if you have to trade your career for a life on the run?”

I untangled our hands and placed both of mine on his whiskered jaw. A fever of emotions coursed through me, but one sentiment burned stronger than all the rest. “I go where you go.”

His face hardened beneath my palms, his eyes holding mine hostage. “Unless it’s prison or death.”

A swallow formed in my throat. There was definitely no
us
in either of those scenarios. “Then we fight and evade.”

He rose and smacked a hard palm against my thigh, startling a gasp from my lips. “Stand up.”

Evidently, he was done talking. And done waiting because he gripped my hand and jerked me to my feet. I followed willingly, a glutton for the sexy way he took charge.

Leaning into my back, he walked us toward the bed, clicking on the lamp as we went. “I’ve thought of nothing but you every day, every second.” His hands curled around my hips, lifting the nightshirt and yanking it over my head. “It’s been a month, Kaci.”

Only the panties remained, and my bare skin shivered beneath the caress of the air, my nipples tightening into needy points.

“No girlfriends? Or flings?” I kept my back to him, staring at the empty bed. Why the hell was I asking this? Yet I couldn’t stop. “I’ve seen you at the races. You damn near have to beat the women off you.”

He spun me, and the backs of my legs hit the mattress. With his hands on my waist, he lowered me onto the bed and dragged me to the center on my back, the sheets soft and cool against my skin.

Leaning over my body, he propped his fists on either side of my hips. “It's only been you since our night in the elevator.”

My mouth dried as I connected that night to every moment since. He saved me from the bald man in the alley. He blackmailed my family and fucked me in a hotel room five days later. He followed me on Rogers Avenue and told me he was angry with his mother. “You knew that was me on the bike? All this time?”

He straightened and released the button on the waistband of his leathers. “My helmet”—he lowered the zipper on his pants—“has night vision, among other things. I didn’t know who you were until you removed your helmet in the elevator.”

Okay, wow. Finding out the woman sucking him off was his brother’s wife? That explained his sudden freak out. And now I was curious about the
other things
his helmet could do.

He removed his boots. His pants went next. Then he stood before me, a powerhouse of twitching muscle, all long, strong limbs and a huge, hard cock. Really hard. Long. Thick.
Distracting.

“Keep staring at it.” He gripped the base with a tight fist as his gaze roamed my body and landed on my face. “You’re about to feel exactly how hard the last month has been.”

His voice was casual, but the intensity of his golden-green eyes said so much more. His wide stance and the
V
-line etching his abs didn’t move. Time didn’t move as we stared at one another, our thoughts colliding and twisting together, our eyes communicating on a level that transcended words. In that single moment of eye contact, we fought, apologized, forgave, and fucked. Then, through that power of silent understanding, we shared our fears, desires, and hopes.

It left me trembling for more.

Lifting my hips, I slid off my panties and tossed them. He tracked my movements, his fist tightening on his cock. I planted my feet on the bed, spread my legs, and slid my finger along my slit.

A wave of twitches rippled over the tensile muscles of his torso right before he shot forward. His body covered mine, his heavy bulk crushing my air and jump-starting my heart. His ragged breaths heated my face as he lightened his weight with his arms and spread me wider with the force of his legs.

His head dropped against mine, and he looked down the length of our bodies. Hand on his cock, he positioned himself and rubbed the tip through my folds.

I flexed against him, his lips separating, our exhales merging.

Then he raised his eyes and stared intently into mine. “I’m clean. No more shit between us, okay?”

No more secrets and no more condoms? I nodded, grinning. I was on the pill. But instead of asking about that, he thrust. A hard, claiming shove to the root.

We shuddered together, joined as closely as two bodies could be. He buried his mouth in my neck, mine dropped to his shoulder, and he groaned so hungrily it made my heart pound and my pussy clamp down.

His body tensed and shook over me, against me, surrounding me. He rotated his hips, slow and patient, dragging his cock deep inside, letting me adjust to his size.

Then he moved. Fast. Ruthless. Out of control. He was carnal need, power, and passion. I felt it in every drive of his length and the hard contractions of his ass beneath my hands.

He swept me up in his madness, overwhelming me with a thousand sensations at once. The stroke of his tongue on my neck, the leather and soap scent of his skin, the rippling packs of muscle in his back, the soft tousle of his hair, the scratch of his hard nipples against my chest, his eyes finding and locking on mine, and the sudden and mind-blowing shock of my orgasm.

I came hard and long, a moan tearing from my throat, every molecule in my body on fire with tingling pleasure. When I caught my breath, it escaped with laughter.

“There’s my girl.” He kissed my forehead, pulled out, and flipped me to my belly. My pussy was still pulsing from my release when he entered me in one, long slam of his hips.

He bent down and brushed a kiss over the top of my spine. Propping his upper body with one hand, his other caressed my thigh, moving higher until he reached my hip bone and lifted it to angle my ass in the position he wanted.

I rocked my hips, dragging the heated steel of his length in and out. “I don’t know if I’m up for a repeat of last time.”

His hand stopped my movements, gripping my thigh and yanking my butt tight against his pelvis. “Yes, you are.”

With his cock still buried and his knees on the outsides of mine, he wove his fingers through my hair and lowered his hard, warm chest against my back.

Then, on hands and knees, he rode my body the way he rode his bike.
With intimidation, recklessness, and unharnessed energy.
Collin’s words, and while they rang true, I shuddered at the memory of him imagining his brother like that.

The heat of Logan’s body chased the thought away. His thrusts slowed, his mouth moving to my spine. He kissed every inch of my back and shoulders as he pushed in, pulled out. His cock hard, thick, and constant, his lips soft, tender, and full of adoration, it was an intense slide of flesh and whispered breaths and need.

One hand braced beside mine, his other now a dominating hold on my breast, he kneaded my flesh and tweaked my nipple with skill and possessiveness. His touch held a direct line to my pleasure centers, my nerve-endings gravitating toward the shift of his hand as it slid off my breast to caress down my ribs and over my mound.

The rub of his thumb over my piercing pulled me to the edge of euphoria. My back arched as he continued in tormenting circles. His thrusts, his thumb, his mouth on my neck, all of it moved me higher, faster, toward release until I was just breaths away.

He pistoned his hips and yanked hard on the steel ring. I exploded. My muscles clenched around his cock. White-hot bliss rippled through my blood, my gasp stretching my jaw in a frozen gape.

He leaned over my shoulder, gripped my face, and captured my lips with his. He kissed me fiercely as he pumped his hips and followed me over. His masculine groan vibrated against my mouth, the hot pulse of his seed soaking my well-loved insides. His body shook as he ground his pelvis with a final jerk.

When we collapsed in a sweaty pile of limbs, my breath left my lungs in a satisfied rush. He rolled to his back beside me, his arm falling across my ass. His chest heaved, fighting for air and glistening with his exertion.

I slid my front to his side and ran my hand over the warmth of his pecs and biceps. I wanted to kiss every inch of his glorious body, taste him, breathe him in. So I did.

As I nipped and licked from the top of his head to the curl of his toes and everywhere in between, he watched me with an intense, pensive look on his face. “Come here.”

I climbed up his body, his cock already hard and ready and brushing against my belly, and straddled his waist. He positioned my hips over his, the hands on my thighs gentle, the potency of his gaze consuming. I quivered above him. I would never get enough of this man.

Slowly, he slid me down his length, stretching my delicate tissues, holding my gaze and thrusting the final hard inch into the clasp of my body. Then he held my hips tight against him. Not moving or speaking. Simply watching. Joined in the most intimate way.

He reached up and wrapped a hand around my nape, pulling me toward him until our foreheads touched. “No matter what happens or how volatile the journey, there will be no room for emptiness. I promise.”

I sucked in a staggering breath.
The strongest love.
Maybe he was promising he’d always be with me. Maybe he was telling me he loved me. Either way, his words breathed both tenderness and honesty. With just the sound of his voice, he called me out of the nothingness I’d lived in my entire life.

A hot lump swelled in my throat, my eyes burning with weeks of built-up emotion. I wanted him so much it hurt.

He released my neck to cup my face and claim a kiss, his tongue stroking in a slow, tender entwining. Our bodies rocked together as he made love to my mouth, to my body and soul. It was there, in a bed I once despised for its emptiness, where we caressed and explored and murmured into the early morning.

It wasn’t all gentle and slow. He was a beast after all and worked me harder and longer than ever before, his face between my legs, his cock in my mouth and everywhere else. But every moment was given and received with the kind of eye contact that reached so deep it engaged the heart. The variance between his gentle moments and his demanding ferocity held me in constant suspense. And somewhere in the mix, I found myself falling, recklessly, insanely, into soul-deep happiness.

Sometime after three o’clock, we settled into a lazy cuddle, our voices whispering through the dark silence. We talked about Collin, our parents, his friend Benny, the contrast of our childhoods, the birth of the underground racing network, his dream to be a pro sportbike racer. We covered the gamut yet had only scratched the surface.

Now, wrapped in the protective fold of his arms, I listened to the even rasps of his breaths. Even in sleep, he held me as if he would never let go. And I held him right back, my cheek on his chest, our legs intertwined.

Our fierce connection terrified me, and now that I could feel it mending and locking, the fear of losing it clawed at the back of my mind. What if he slipped away while I slept? What if the connection faded by morning?

I had to believe this crazy, mercurial, beautiful thing between us was real. We began in a place of conflict, and we would be stronger for it once we overcame it.

I twisted in his arms and glanced at the clock on the table.
4:13 AM

It was Saturday morning. We had the weekend to decide how to proceed with Trenchant.
Together
. Trent’s one month ultimatum was over. I would turn in my resignation, and strangely, I felt zero remorse about leaving the company I’d worked so hard for.

What that meant for the future, I didn’t know. But I did know I’d found what I needed. Happiness was right here, so alive and present in the moment. And like all things fought and won, I would protect it,
him
, with my life.

I woke to a quiet, sunlit room. My muscles ached, the tissues between my legs were sore as hell, and my eyelids weighed a hundred pounds each.