Lady Killer (Tangled Desires Book 2) (22 page)

I don’t get far. Both suitcases topple behind me as my gaze locks with his. He looks brutal under the scruff, his hair unkempt, dark shadows under his eyes. It feels like a lifetime since I’ve seen him, though it’s been mere days. He’s staring at me, and I’m just standing here staring back. I can’t understand how I ever thought either of us would survive without the other. He moves, places his crutches in front of him and swings forward, and I start breathing again, my heart racing. Then he smiles, and I’m more fucked than I’ve ever been. I launch myself at him, and I don’t stop running toward him until his arms are wrapped around me, the crutches clattering to the floor.

“I was coming to get you, pretty girl.” His mouth is on the hollow below my ear, tracing along my jaw. “You don’t get to bolt from me, ever.”

“Never again.” I’m breathless from his touch, the caress of his lips as he finds mine. His palms catch my face while he devours me, licking inside my mouth to remind me I belong to him, and he belongs to me.

“If it wasn’t for my leg, I’d pick you up and carry you out of here, princess, just so I could hold onto you.”

I reach up and take his hand in mine. “You are holding onto me.”

His grin lights up his eyes, but then his expression sharpens. “We need to get one thing straight before I take you home.”

“About the baby?”

“It’s not mine.” He growls. “The only person I’m going to be practicing making babies with, and having babies with, is you. Chelsea’s baby isn’t mine. I promise you that.”

I believe him when he says that. It’s in his eyes, and the way he was so determined to find the woman who sent him the pee-stick when he thought he might be a father. “Whose is it?”

“Do you trust me?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“Then trust me when I say it isn’t mine, and that I can’t tell you whose it is. Not yet.”

“Okay,” I say.

Mace saunters over to us, and pulls me in for a hug. “Are you staying, princess? Tommy’s been a grumpy fucker since you left.”

“I am.” I curl under Tom’s arm, holding his crutch in the arm that isn’t around his waist.

“Could you grab my girlfriend’s suitcases, brother? I want to take her home and—”

“Fuck, I’m going to have to find somewhere else to live so I don’t have to hear you two going at it.” He marches over to my bags as we head for the exit.

“Give me your phone, Gem.” Tom says.

I realize I’m still holding it in my hand, forgotten when I saw him, and I give it to him. “Why?”

“Because trying to get hold of you these past days has been a nightmare. I need to know we can contact each other no matter what.”

“I’m staying,” I say. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He enters his number in my phone anyway and sends a text to himself. I hear the beep of his phone as it goes through. Then he hands it back to me and pulls me a little closer to his side as we watch Mace handle my suitcases.

Tom chortles, his whole frame vibrating. “We might want to consider hiding in bed for a long while. There’s a shit-storm brewing.”

Tom

I still can’t believe that a week ago I didn’t know if she’d come back. Or if I’d even be able to get her to see me so I could clear up the confusion. But now she’s asleep beside me in our bed. She does this thing where her lips are parted and these tiny grunts puff between her lips when she’s sleeping. It’s fucking adorable, and I can’t get enough of watching her while she snuggles her ass into me. I get hard for her so easily. Everything she does has me wanting her.

I graze my knuckles over her hip, and along her taut belly, down between her legs, slipping my finger over her clit. She moans a little and this delicious little shiver has her wiggling her hips against me, before her eyes flutter open.

“I love you, pretty girl.” My chest swells as she smiles, twisting into me, one leg curling up over me so I can touch her intimately, feel her get wet for me.

“Love you more,” she says, sliding over me, her hand guiding me into her tight heat. Her hips rock as I push inside her, creating a rhythm I match with deep strokes.

We talked about condoms, and birth control. Made sure we were covered, because after that night she let me inside her without one, we never wanted to go back to having anything between us. Her skin starts to flush, her breath getting shallow, as I reach between her legs to stroke her clit. She’s so perfect riding me like this, the sensation utter bliss, that when she spasms around me, clenching my cock so fucking sweetly as she cums, I go with her, falling into her.

After we take a shower she wraps her lips around me until I cum again. Then I use my fingers to pull her apart, because my leg still gives me too much grief for me to get down on my knees. I wish life would stop for a while, so I could get lost in her, but it doesn’t.

We dress quietly, sharing soft murmurs and lingering kisses, and eat breakfast from the same plate before I have to go to the gym and she heads to the next town where she’s signed up for animal science classes at the college located there.

My siblings come and go, the house still full to capacity, but I don’t mind it that way, and I don’t think Gem does, either. In fact, I think she might love them almost as much as she does me, and that’s okay because I am going to marry the girl. I’ve got the ring already. I just need to figure out the right time.

Gem

I never thought I’d be exactly where I wanted to be, able to do what I wanted, and love who I wanted. But I’ve found that with Tom. There have been a few times reporters have been waiting for us at the gym, at the vet’s center, even outside the house, but I don’t mind anymore, because I no longer have to hide, and I want everyone to know I bagged the Lady Killer. I want those girls who think they might still have a shot at getting their grubby paws on him to know he’s mine, the man beneath the legend is mine, and I will happily remove anyone who gets too close to him.

He smiles as he slices another bite of pancake and holds the fork out for me to take. This is love, Mace said. When a man shares his food. I believe it. I’ve seen these boys fight over everything from the last square of chocolate to a whole side of bacon, and yet Tom happily gives me anything on his plate. I shake my head when he offers me more, and then I get up from the table, swinging my bag over my shoulder. “I better get going, or I’ll be late for my first class.”

He gets up, too, scraping his plate into the trash before placing it in the sink. “Are you going to come by the gym tonight?”

“Of course.” I still need that release of energy, the focus and drive I get from boxing, even if I never need to use it outside the gym again.

“What the heck is this?” Claire stumbles into the kitchen, looking bedraggled, her eyes half-closed without her shot of coffee yet. In her hand she’s holding an open box, with something shiny on the inside. The sun glints off it, and I think it might be—

“Is that a fucking engagement ring, Little Bit? Don’t you already have one of those?”

“It’s not mine, Mace, you ass.” She holds it in front of him. “I found it under the sink in the bathroom.”

Tom’s statue-still, his gaze planted on the box, and Mace snorts. “You thought hiding a ring in with all Claire’s girly shit was a good idea? Fucking idiot.”

“What’s going on?” Razer asks, rubbing a hand over his head. “Is that an engagement ring? Did you ask Gem to marry you?”

“I haven’t yet.” Tom mutters, stalking over to snatch the box from Claire’s hand. It’s all so surreal and crazy, and I wonder when he was planning on asking me. It hasn’t been very long, but I know my answer already.

“Do you think you could handle marrying into this crazy?” Rush appears behind me, startling me. My heart’s racing, my pulse thumping in my ears.

“Yes.” I don’t even realize I’ve said it until they all stop to stare at me. “Yes, I would absolutely marry into this crazy, but I haven’t been asked yet.”

“Well then.” Tom grins, stalking toward me with the box in his hand. “I guess I better ask you. Do this whole thing properly.”

I’m halfway out of my skin with shock, but I know I belong with him, will always belong with him. He stops in front of me, takes my hand and then tries to bend down on his knee, but I can see the pain it causes in the way his mouth pinches.

“Here.” Mace comes up behind him, and helps him get down in front of me.

“Thanks,” Tom huffs. “It’s the least you could do since you’re the one who shot me.”

Mace steps back, quieter than I’ve ever seen him, as Tom pinches the ring out of its velvet holder.

“Right. I didn’t have time to practice how I was going to ask you or anything,” he says. “I was waiting for the right time, but I guess this is as good a time as any when it comes to how I feel about you, Gemma.”

My face is going to break, my cheeks hurt with how big my smile is, but I can’t seem to contain how full my heart is, or how happy he makes me. “I love you, Tommy.”

“Shush now, pretty girl. I’m trying to give a speech here.” He winks at me.

“Okay.” I press my lips together. There is total silence in the Hadley house, and it may be the one and only time that has ever happened.

“I think I’ve been in love with you from the moment you walked into my gym. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head, or my heart, since. I want to share my food with you, fight with you, and tease you about your dislike of candy, chocolate, and coffee, which I still struggle to believe, by the way. And I want to practice making babies with you, often. Every day, even, until we do make our own babies. Then I want to grow old with you.” He holds the ring in front of the finger I’m holding out for him. “Do you think you could handle me when I’m too old to be good for anything other than whining about how my brother once shot me in the leg?”

I’m giddy, and my answer comes out all breathless and not at all sounding as serious as I mean it to, but I can’t help it. “Yes. Oh God, yes.”

He slips it onto my finger, twisting the band over my knuckle. Then Mace bounces forward to help him to his feet. “You had to slip it in there didn’t you, dickhead?”

“Of course.” He pulls me against him, my hands on his chest, the diamond so shiny I’m almost blinded by the glitter. Then he tilts my chin. “My name’s not God by the way, it’s Tom.”

I don’t wait for him to kiss me. Slipping onto my tiptoes I wind my arms around his neck and press my mouth to his, our tongues sliding over one another as we get lost in us.

Claire pierces the quiet. “I think you’re going to be late, Gem.”

I glance at Tom’s watch. “Oh shit.”

I’ve still got my bag over my shoulder so I snatch up my keys and race for the door. It feels wrong to be bolting after what just happened, but Tom makes it to the door before I get down the stairs. “I’m going to marry you, pretty girl. As soon as bridezilla’s wedding is out of the way. You might want to start considering a date.”

I spin around, bolting back up to him. I’m going to be late, but right now that doesn’t bother me, because Tom’s looking at me like he’s the luckiest man on the earth. He has no idea I’m the lucky one. “When is it? When’s their wedding?”

“March.”

“April,” I say. “I’ll marry you in April.”

He growls low in his throat, his eyes dark and full of intense emotion as he grabs me and hauls me to him, kissing me like he’s getting drunk off my mouth. “Can’t fucking wait.”

The End

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Sneak peak

Mace

“Fuck him, Chelsea. He isn’t worth it.” Turning into her, I grasp her cheek, and surge forward to press my mouth to hers. She’s still trembling, her face all splotchy from the crying jag she’s on over Rush, but she freezes when I touch her.

Asshole. Fucker, making me break her heart for him.

I shouldn’t be touching her the way I am. Shouldn’t whisper my lips over hers while she’s falling apart. Definitely shouldn’t hold her closer, squeeze her tight against my chest while I lick along the seam of those soft lips. I’m going to pull back.

Just as soon as I can gather my wits. Probably shouldn’t have shared that bottle of vodka with her. She tastes of it, and something sweeter. Smells like flowers.
Come on, fucker. You can’t do this. She’s untouchable. Your brother’s ex as of tonight. Her tears aren’t even dry yet.

Oh shit.
Her hands are bunched in my shirt. It’s freezing out here in the barn, the wind whistling through the gaps in the cladding, but I’m on fire where her knee and hip press to mine, when her hands touch me. They’re fucking heaven, skating over my chest through the cotton of my shirt, while her mouth opens to me so I can lick inside her.

“This is wrong.” She gasps, but her tongue darts against mine wildly, her hands jerky, uncontrolled as she slips them under my shirt.

I know it is, but I don’t want to stop.
Fingers dancing over my abs have me hard for her.
Not a first. Just the first time it’s been more than a wet dream or me jacking off and feeling like a dirty fucker for thinking about her like this. Wanting my brother’s girlfriend to be mine.

I yank at my shirt, pull it up over my head. She scrambles at it, jerking it free while I fumble with the zip on her parka, push it off her shoulders and pull her against me. Her perky tits fill my palms, nipples pebbling as I kiss the side of her mouth. “Fuck him, he left you. Left me to tell you. He isn’t worth it, Chelsea.”

I’d never make her cry the way he has.
She doesn’t push me away, but she should. Somewhere under the infusion of vodka and pot I’m aware I’m fucking up. I should be ignoring her.
I was supposed to tell her Rush left and then walk away, that’s all. I’m not supposed to
be kissing her.

But she’s so damn responsive, winding her arms around my neck, melding us together. I want more of her, I want skin on skin. I can make her feel better. I can make her forget him. Her chest heaves as I drag the white tank up over her head, her pupils dilated, her lips parted. She reaches for the buttons on my jeans.

This is going too far. I need to stop now. Just get up and walk away from her.
I press her down on the hay bales. It scratches at my skin, gets stuck in her hair while I scrape my hands down her sides, my mouth glued to hers. She’s intoxicating. One button, the slow metallic crunch of her zip, and I shove her jeans down her hips.

She’s whimpering into me, her nails digging at my back while she writhes against me. The overhead light flickers with a surge of electricity, but it’s nothing compared to the current of arousal she’s unleashing in me.

I put my mouth to her throat, feel her moan under my lips, her tits arch into me as I shove her jeans down her legs. Slim fucking legs, and red cotton panties. My breath catches in my throat. I want her so bad. So much it hurts.

Her fingers curl in my hair, tugging at my scalp even as her belly shudders under my hot breath. “Mace.”

Nothing sweeter could have come from her lips. My pulse races and I tear her pants away, along with those panties.
I need to stop now. It’s not too late. We can pretend this never happened. That I haven’t wanted her since the day I set sights on her. The day Rush decided he wanted her, too.

Then she parts those slim thighs, showing the little patch of blonde curls, and her slick pussy, and all the blood runs to my dick. She’s desperate and needy for me.
Me. Mine.
I crawl over her, touching her where she’s wet for me, while I claim her mouth again, murmuring, “Chelsea, I want you so fucking much.”

She bites my lip, moans into my mouth as I push my finger all the way into her.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she whispers, but she’s tugging on my pants, pushing them down over my hips. My cock getting caught where the buttons are too tight.

I push my finger in and out of her over and over, listen to her breathing ratchet up while she cums on my digit. It’s not enough, and she’s got the button undone, her fingers in my boxers, tickling the head of my cock, slippery, leaking because I am dying to get inside her.

But I shouldn’t. I’m breaking the rules for her, but the knowledge is buried under the drive to have her on my dick. There’s nothing between us now, except her hot fingers wrapped around my cock as she tugs me forward, leading me to where we both want me.

Inside her.
I need to fuck her now.
She’s wet and hot on the head of my cock, and my brain feels like it’s hemorrhaging as I slip between her slick folds. “Fuck, Chelsea.”

So fucking tight she grips me, pulling me into her. Every instinct is to cum. Her breath hitches, something makes her tense up for a minute, and I don’t know if that’s normal, because this is the first time I’ve fucked anyone, but I’ve got a feeling. I freeze. Count to three, count to ten, do the alphabet backwards until she loosens her grip on my shoulder, leaving dents in my skin.

I skate my mouth over hers. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes glaze, but she nods and then I’m moving inside her tight wet heat, pushing in, pulling out. With her heel driving into my ass, I kiss her lips, her throat, over and over. The hay bales shift, making the old floorboards creak as we move faster. The need to cum is so intense, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. And then she’s whimpering in my ear, and I’m fucked if I’m ever going to let her go. I feel her whole body start to clench, her muscles contracting around my dick, and I’m cumming inside her. It’s insanity, the best feeling in the entire world.

When I roll onto my back, I take her with me, pulling pieces of hay from the tussled blonde halo of her hair and pressing her cheek to my chest. I rub silken strands between my fingers and thumb as she lies quietly in my arms. This night wasn’t supposed to go like this, and we’re going to have to talk about it, but I’m certain of one thing. I’m going to find a way to get her to forget Rush, to make her mine. Because there will never be anyone else who can measure up to her.

I fall asleep, or maybe we fall asleep like that. I’m not sure. I wake freezing, still mostly naked, the hay itching the crap out of my back. No Chelsea. Only the empty vodka bottle on the floor of the barn and the first glimmers of sunlight slanting between the cladding. Dragging my shirt on, I toss my baseball cap over my hair and hide the empty bottle at the back of the hay stack, then I wander back up to the house.

Mom glances up from the stove as I walk in the kitchen door. “You were up early?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” I get the juice and pour a glass while she fixes a plate, passing it to me on my way to the table where Claire, Tom, and Razer are seated.

Tom and Claire are in some heated discussion about whose turn it is to feed the chickens. Only Razer, my best friend and practically adopted brother looks up from his breakfast as I sit down. Cutting into my egg, I glance at the empty seat beside me. Rush’s seat. Except he’s gone, and I fucked his girlfriend the night he left town, when all I was supposed to do was tell her he was gone. I find it hard to feel guilty, though I know I should, because I can’t turn off the way I feel about her.

“Weird not to have him here,” Razer says around a mouthful. “No magic tricks with breakfast.”

I shrug. I don’t want to talk about it. I want to finish my breakfast and go to Chelsea’s. My gut is a little tight, since she left before we could talk about what happened.

Shit, we didn’t use protection. It’s not like it hasn’t been hammered into my head. How could I have forgotten?

I push away my plate, scooting my chair back. “I’m going to head over to Chelsea’s. She was pretty upset last night. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

Even to my own ears my excuses sound hollow, although the words are true. I want to make sure she doesn’t regret what we did, that she isn’t freaking out over us forgetting to use protection.

“Oh, she isn’t home,” Claire says.

“She came around before breakfast to find out where Rush was.” Mom’s hand lands on my shoulder, and my chest gets tight, but I can’t let it show.

Chelsea and I are barely friends. We’re not supposed to be lovers. I’m not meant to want the girl my brother dated.

“She went after him.” Claire practically swoons. “Isn’t that just so romantic?”

“It’s not romantic, Little Bit,” Tom grumbles. “It’s stupid. She’s a moron.”

“Don’t be mean, Tommy.” Mom tsks as she walks away from the table.

My stomach heaves, and I jump up and stalk outside, pacing the length of the vegetable garden, barely able to breathe. She went after him. He dumps her, by getting me to tell her he’s gone, and she goes after him? Even after what we did?

It fucking stings. I get to the furthest fence post and have to stop. Planting my hands on my knees, I fight the chunks that rise in my throat.

“Are you okay?” Razer asks, following me, his hands shoved in his pockets.

And I can’t say no, because this is one secret I’ve kept from my best friend. The girl I’ve been in love with since the first time I saw her across the school cafeteria will never be mine. She’s Rush’s, and he doesn’t even fucking want her. “Just hungover.”

A spark of anger starts in my chest, bristling under my skin as he walks back toward the house. I can’t contain it so I lash out. I smash my hand into the wire of the fence.

Everything’s fucking fantastic.