A Rebel Without Claws (Southern Charm #1)

20. ~Ronan~

Chapter 20

~Ronan~

“It’s bullshit!” Zack shouted, pacing the locker room after our last fight.

“It is,” I agreed, holding the damp towel to Bowie’s upper shoulder where Carter had clawed him right below the base of throat and down his back. “But, unfortunately, there’s not much we can do about it besides accuse the referee of being paid off by the owners. And who would we complain to besides the NOWFC Board, who is likely also in Baron’s father’s pocket?”

“Ty won his fight,” Zack continued to argue. “That’s just a fact. And that asshole Carter got away with nearly mauling Bowie to death. Not even a penalty, and it gave him the advantage to beat Bowie.”

Both of these facts were true. Ty’s bout with Baron had gone to the judges since neither had achieved a TKO by the end of the final round. And Bowie had lost his fight after Carter clawed him from the corner of his shoulder and neck and down his back. It had hurt him so bad, Bowie had frozen, giving Carter a shot at an uppercut that knocked him out for a second, enough to give Carter the TKO.

It was illegal to claw the throat, but the referee deemed this one fair. It wasn’t, but what could we do? Refs made calls all the time that weren’t right in every kind of sport. That was just the way it was.

I’d been on edge the whole night, my own blood still pumping hard and hot after winning my fight against Nate. It wasn’t as easy as the last fight, but I forced a TKO when I pinned him face down on the mat, and he couldn’t get free.

Bowie winced as I pressed the towel to the upper part of the wound where it was bleeding most. “I’ll be fine. If that fucking healer ever gets here.”

“Yeah,” Zack snapped angrily, “aren’t they supposed to have a healer ready to go? Where the fuck are they?”

Right then, the locker room door burst open, but it wasn’t the healer. It was Celine, looking pale and afraid. Her gaze went to Bowie as she hurried over.

“Oh my God. Should I call my Aunt Isadora? She’s a Conduit and can heal him quickly.”

Conduit witches had the power to use surrounding energy to heal almost any wound. If the one assigned to the NOWFC ever got here, she could take care of Bowie’s fairly fast.

“If the arena healer doesn’t arrive soon, then I may ask you to,” I told her, not liking how deep the gash was.

Suddenly, the door opened again, and this time it was their Conduit. I’d seen her taken aside by Baron’s father when we hurried Bowie out of the cage. She was a willowy, blond witch, her hair in a tight braid down her back. She wore khakis and a short- sleeved shirt with the NOWFC logo on the right front shoulder.

“It’s about time,” Zack muttered.

“I apologize for the delay,” she said, walking swiftly toward us. “Mr. Hammond requested that I treat the other fighter first.”

“Bowie is worse off than him,” Zack argued.

She took the towel from my hand and nudged me away from the long bench where Bowie was sitting.

“Actually,” she said dryly, “the other teammate had a fractured leg that needed setting and mending. He was seriously injured as well.”

True, Bowie had landed a hard kick after Carter had clawed him.

Then she addressed Bowie. “Lay down on your stomach, and I’ll get started.”

Zack walked over and crossed his arms, hovering and scowling while she started to work.

“Does anyone else need tending?” she asked, her hands taking on a pale green glow as she pressed them directly over Bowie’s injury, a buzz of magic filling the room.

“Ty?” I asked him since he’d been fairly quiet this whole time.

“No, I’m fine.”

“Good,” said the witch, “then you may all wait outside while I work on your teammate. It helps with my concentration.”

Her gaze darted up at Zack, who wore a murderous glare like it was her fault.

“Come on.” I patted Zack on the shoulder as I passed him, taking Celine’s hand and tugging her out into the hallway.

The second I touched her, my anxiety calmed, but the restless energy from the night burned even hotter. I huffed out a sigh. Tonight had been rough. While Zack and I had won our fights, it did appear that the ref tonight had favored our opponents. A lot of questionable calls went to them. Not to mention the final judging on Ty and Baron’s fight. It should’ve been Ty, and I wasn’t being biased. He was a better fighter and had landed more punches and kicks than Baron, even if he hadn’t knocked him out or gotten a TKO.

Ty was leaning against the wall opposite the door of our locker room. “Why don’t you go?” he suggested to me. He seemed to sense my restlessness. “I’ll wait here with these two.”

“Diego, Joaquin, and Boomer are still here,” Celine said. “Do you want me to send them back?”

“Yeah,” said Ty. “They can come back.” She dropped my hand to send a text.

“I should stay,” I told Ty, anxious as the leader of the team. I should wait with them.

“There’s nothing you can do,” added Zack. “Get lost with your girlfriend.”

“We’re good. We can handle it,” added Ty with a nod to the back door.

Celine finished texting. “They’re on their way,” she told Ty.

“You’re sure?” I asked Ty.

He nodded, so I urged Celine toward the exit with a hand at her back. We were both quiet as we made it to my Bronco. Once I wheeled out of the lot, the buzzing energy amplified. I could pretend I didn’t know what it was about, but I did.

It was common to feel this rush of heated energy after a fight, but being near Celine right now wasn’t calming me down. It was doing the exact opposite. My craving to pull over on the side of the road and yank her into my lap was so strong I gripped the steering wheel tighter and shifted in my seat, trying to get my raging hard-on to settle .

I was still sweaty, having pulled on my jeans and T-shirt after the fight without showering. But that wasn’t what was making me so uncomfortable. It was the heady scent of desert flower next to me and the insatiable need to devour her and bury my cock inside her.

“Ronan,” she said quietly.

I actually flinched and glanced her way. “Is your wolf riding you?”

I nearly laughed because I could feel him pacing again, wanting to take charge. And I sure as fuck knew exactly what he wanted—to mount his mate.

“It’s not that.”

“I think I know what it is.”

Stopping the car at a red light, I looked over. She had that unsmiling, sultry look she got sometimes, her pupils dilated, her mouth soft. I liked that I could identify her expressions now. The only problem was the look she was giving me was an invitation, and I wasn’t sure I could be gentle if we went there.

“Don’t take me home,” she finally said, the red of the streetlight shining on half of her perfect face.

My gut clenched, and my dick got harder. “Are you sure?” I asked, noting the roughness of my voice.

Her gaze flicked down my body to my crotch. There was no hiding the bulge I was packing.

“Positive.”

The light turned green, and I turned toward my home, hoping like hell Uncle Shane was still playing cards with his pack friends. Rihanna’s “Skin” was playing on the radio, and every word intensified my need to get Celine into my bedroom and get her naked .

By the time we pulled up the gravel drive and past the shop to the house, my entire body was humming with need. I smiled at the empty spot where Uncle Shane usually parked his truck.

Once parked, I rounded the Bronco and scooped her up into my arms like a bride. She squealed but then moaned when I took her mouth in a searing kiss. My body reacted to the silky touch of her tongue, the plushness of her mouth. I couldn’t imagine how good it would feel to sink inside her.

She broke the kiss suddenly. “Get me in the house, Ronan.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I practically ran through the yard and up the steps. I set her down to unlock the door, then corralled her inside, my hands on her waist as I shut the door behind me with my boot.

She gripped my shoulders as I guided her backward. “Which one is yours?”

“What’s wrong? You in a hurry?” I asked playfully, even when I was the one already breathing hard with anticipation.

“Yes,” she said confidently. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.”

“Oh, baby.” I pushed her into my bedroom and shut this door, too, with my foot. “The things you say.”

She grinned and stopped walking as I scooped my hands to her ass and kissed her hard, nipping at her bottom lip. She moaned and rocked her hips forward, my cock so hard it was painful.

“Fuck,” I whispered. “Let me take a quick shower. I’m all sweaty.”

“Okay.”

I had to close my eyes. It was hard to look at her with desire painted on her pretty face and walk away.

“I’ll be fast,” I promised .

She laughed as I turned and hurried into the bathroom, bumping the door closed partway. I stripped quickly and stepped into the shower, sliding the glass door closed. I planned to get in and out in less than two minutes. But as soon as I soaped my chest and gave my painfully erect dick a stroke, the bathroom door pushed all the way open.

Through the cloudy steam and the opaque glass door, I could see Celine standing there watching me—completely naked.

~CELINE~

I don’t know what it was about Ronan, but he made me feel brave and bold. Or maybe it was that I felt safe enough with him to be anything and everything I wanted to be.

He slid the glass door open, revealing his incredible body. He was beautifully made, all tightly packed muscle, chiseled abdomen, wide shoulders. His wet hair was darker and slicked back, water sluicing down his body in tantalizing rivulets.

I pulled out my ponytail holder, letting my hair fall around my bare shoulders. Ronan grunted with a sort of pained look and held out his hand. I didn’t hesitate, stepping into the shower with him.

He slid his hands into my hair, tilting my head back, his mouth on mine. I moaned as he pressed me into the cool tile wall with his hot, hard body, nipping up my jaw to suck and bite at my throat.

I clenched my fists in his hair as his hard cock flattened against my belly, the warm spray of water beating on us, making our skin slick. His hands were everywhere, sliding down my back, squeezing my ass, then up my hips and on my breasts, fingers lightly pinching my nipples.

“Ronan,” I pleaded, pressing my hips forward.

He pressed his forehead to mine, gliding his fingers between my legs. He slid his middle finger along the slickness of my slit before pumping it inside me.

“I need to be inside you so bad, baby,” he practically growled.

“Then get inside me. I’m on the pill.”

On another groan, he cupped my ass and lifted me, my back sliding on the wet tiles as I wrapped my legs around his waist. He shifted his hips, his cock nudging at my entrance. We were both panting as he let me sink down onto his cock before thrusting once to bury himself deep.

I gasped at the tight intrusion, clawing my blunt nails into his scalp and shoulder where I held on.

“Fuuuck.” He closed his eyes, clenching his jaw before he murmured, “So tight and perfect.”

“Ronan?”

His eyes slid open, a brilliant, bright blue, predatory and feral.

“I need you to fuck me.”

He was so still, his stare so intense, it sent a shiver over my body.

“I don’t need you to be gentle.” I made it quite clear, panting, heart pounding. “In fact, I’d prefer that you weren’t.”

That deep purring of his wolf vibrated in his chest, teasing my nipples to hard peaks. Then he dragged his dick out to the tip and slammed back inside me.

I moaned at the pleasurable jolt, tipped my head back to the tile, and closed my eyes .

“Like that?”

“Just like that.”

He thrust in hard again, grazing his wet mouth along my jaw to my ear.

“Your pussy was made for me.”

He pumped in and out again with a deep thrust.

“You were made for me, Celine.”

Then he began to drive faster, harder.

“You’re mine,” he growled, fucking me hard now. “All mine.”

“Yes,” I whimpered. “Yes, more.”

I wrapped both arms around his neck as his hands cupped my ass. He shifted one hand on my bottom, his finger sliding to rim the tight hole of my backside.

I whimpered, the new sensation both strange and intoxicatingly arousing. His finger worked my back entrance, just a fingertip. It was blindingly pleasurable while his long, thick cock pumped inside me.

“Oh God!”

“Mmm,” he hummed, the narrow blue slits of his gaze watching me with fierce intensity. “Need to feel you come while I’m inside you, baby.”

His voice and his body held me completely captive. But even more, the pouring of his emotions that soaked into my skin and sang to my blood were unlike anything I’d ever known.

“Goddess above,” I whispered against his lips where he hovered close so he could watch me, “what is happening to me?”

I was unraveling at the seams, as if my maker had decided He or She wasn’t quite done with me, as if I’d only ever been half-made, the body and the spirit not yet complete, still moldable and raw. The threads of my being were pulled apart and resewn into the one holding me in his arms, driving so very deep inside me, willing our souls to fuse.

“You know what’s happening.” He breathed hard, still stroking deep but slowing his pace. “You feel it as much as I do.”

Swallowing hard at the realization that he felt it, too, there was no doubt, no possible other course but to see this through, to make our bodies and souls one.

“Ah!” I cried out as my orgasm swept through me like an avalanche of sensation. “I’m coming!”

“That’s right. Let it go, Celine.” His canines were lengthened and sharp, his eyes ice-blue with the wolf, his voice dark and deep. “Let me feel you.”

I scraped his nape with my nails as I came, my sex pulsing with pleasure.

“Yes, so good.”

He bent his head and sank the tips of his teeth into the crook of my shoulder. There was a prick of pain, but somehow also euphoric pleasure, sparking a second orgasm through me.

“Yes, yes.” I rocked my hips, bathing in sexual bliss.

He licked the small wound he’d made, the mark he’d put on me, an animalistic growl of satisfaction vibrating from his chest. Then he kissed my mouth, grinding his cock inside me in a slow circle until he too was groaning and coming, his cock throbbing as he spent himself.

We both kissed and moaned through the ecstasy, savoring the savage sweetness of this moment. When he drew his mouth from mine, both of us panting, the shower still beating down on our bodies, he simply stared at me. Slowly, his lips curled up into a smile, his canines still sharp. He didn’t move to set me down or pull out of my body .

“Are we going to stay like this forever?” I teased.

“If it were only possible, I’d be in heaven.”

He brushed his lips against mine in a wet, feathery kiss. “I’m pretty sure I am in heaven right now. I just don’t remember dying.”

“I nearly died from that orgasm.”

He smirked. “The first or the second?”

Then I laughed, my sex squeezing him. He hissed in a breath, then chuckled, his gaze shifting to the shoulder he’d bitten.

“Sorry about that.”

“No, you’re not.” I smiled. “You and your wolf are proud of that.”

“Maybe a little.” Then he frowned. “Does it hurt?”

I lifted my shoulder. “Feels a little tender, but it’s fine. Did you break the skin?” I tried to look, unable to see it since it was at the juncture of my shoulder and neck.

“Fuck, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

He lifted me by the waist, withdrawing from my body, and set me on my feet. When he started to turn toward the shower spray, his mood growing suddenly uneasy, I gripped his arms and forced him back to me.

“Ronan, that was a good thing.”

He remained quiet, obviously upset, even while one of his hands trailed down one of my hips and back to my waist. His soothing brush of hands always amazed me. He was constantly touching me in tender, reassuring ways, like it was his job to make me feel cherished and protected. It was also my job to make him feel the same way.

“This is a sign your wolf is resurfacing even more. He’s making himself known.” I coasted my hands up to cup his jaw .

“He’s marking his territory,” I added lightly. “And I like that. Very much.”

“Mmm,” he hummed with that deep masculine sound while guiding me under the shower spray. “Let’s get you washed.”

He didn’t say more, but proceeded to carefully bathe me. After lathering his hands with shower gel, he cleaned my shoulders, back, and thighs before turning me to tend to the front. He didn’t crack a smile as he soaped and washed my breasts, belly, between my legs. Then he squeezed some shampoo into his palm.

“Turn around.”

I did, closing my eyes as he gently massaged the shampoo into my scalp, taking a leisurely long time. It was luxurious.

After I rinsed, he was already beginning to soap himself.

“No,” I told him, pressing two drops of shower gel into my palm. “My turn.”

Finally, he smiled, standing perfectly still as I took my time washing his shoulders, chest, abdomen, and thighs. I didn’t miss that he was half-hard again by the time I finished with his back and behind.

He rinsed, and quietly we exited and toweled off. He rubbed his hair roughly with the towel while I used his brush in my damp hair. When we returned to his bedroom, he glanced at my clothes I’d set neatly on a chair next to his dresser. While he opened a drawer and slipped on some boxer briefs, I draped a fresh towel on one pillow, climbed into his bed, and lay down there, not wanting to soak the pillow with my wet hair.

He froze and blinked at me for a second. “I thought you’d have to go. ”

“Do you want me to go?”

“No!” he snapped quickly, then he lifted the covers and slipped in beside me, facing me. “Won’t your parents wonder where you are?”

“I told my mom not to expect me home.”

“Told her you were staying at Samara’s or something?”

The inflection of his voice didn’t change from basic curiosity, but I sensed with my empathic gift that he was nervous now. And I knew why.

“I told my mom I was going to see your fight and not to expect me home. I’m pretty sure she can figure it out.”

“What if she tells your dad?”

I shrugged. “So she tells my dad.”

He grinned and laced our hands together, tucking them beneath his chin. “So you decided you were staying the night before the fight?”

“Yep.” I tugged our laced hands back and pressed a kiss to his knuckles, one of which was bruised and swollen.

His other hand slid around my waist, and he tugged me closer. “Thank you.”

“For what? Accepting multiple orgasms with my boyfriend? You’re very welcome.”

He laughed. “Damn, baby. I’m so into you.”

He said it easily and naturally. That was another thing about Ronan that turned me on beyond belief. There were no games or guarded niceties between us. It was real and true, and it gripped my heart in a hot iron fist.

“Me too,” I whispered .

Even though I’d admitted that I was falling for him fast last week, I knew I was beyond that now. I’d well and truly fallen—hard and deep, but I was still too scared to say the words.

Still, as we curled up together in his bed, our bodies entwined, I felt his love wrapping me in its protective warmth. I never wanted to leave the safe cocoon of Ronan’s arms.