16. Ike
16
IKE
I rolled over Isla, pressing kisses to her skin as she squirmed underneath me. I’d had her in my bed going on four days now, and I wasn’t ready to get up for anything.
“Stop, IKE,” she laughed.
“Knox,” I growled. “I told you to call me Knox.”
“I’ll call you Knox when you stop tickling me.”
“I’m not tickling you. I’m making love to you.”
I licked a trail down her body, spreading her thighs to get to the best part. She gasped, her fingers sliding through my hair and tugging just as I licked her pussy.
My phone rang on the nightstand, but I ignored it, unwilling to tear myself away from her body for anything. Eventually, it stopped, but started right up again.
“Knox,” Isla panted. “Maybe you should…”
“Maybe I should what?” I murmured, sliding a finger deep inside her, watching as her eyes fluttered closed.
“The…”
I added a second finger, twisting them inside her and hitting that spot she loved so much. I had memorized her body by now. I knew exactly what drove her crazy and how to make her come apart for me. But that didn’t make it any less enticing to watch every emotion play out on her gorgeous face.
My phone went off for a third time and I reluctantly pulled away from her, but not without licking my fingers clean. I snatched the phone off the nightstand and answered.
“What?”
“IKE, I’ve got news for you.”
My eyes immediately went to Isla. “Donny. I was beginning to think I’d never hear from you.”
“It took some time. It wasn’t easy to get the information you needed.”
I pulled the phone from my ear and put it on speakerphone so Isla could hear everything. “Tell me what you found out.”
“Shawn Yates. Whew. He was on the straight and narrow up until about five years ago.”
“And now he’s on the take,” I surmised.
“On the take?” He laughed. “That would be fucking easy. No, your boy got in big with the Irish.”
“Just any Irish?” I asked, my lips twisting in humor.
“You know who I’m talking about.”
I did, and it wasn’t good. “So, how bad are we talking?”
“Looks like he’s been their inside guy for a long time. I would guess he’s made a lot of charges disappear, probably tampered with evidence. You know how it is. Once you get involved in this shit, there’s no getting out. That’s probably how he ended up in the hospital a couple of months back.”
“Nope,” I corrected. “That was a friend of mine getting retribution for Shawn’s wife.”
Isla’s eyes flew to mine. She still thought I was the one who beat the shit out of Shawn, but I hadn’t touched him since that night in the alley.
“Huh. I thought for sure that was the Irish. Word on the street is Shawn took a cut, gambled it, and lost big. My guess is that’s why Shawn tried to kill his wife.”
I watched as Isla slid her hand up her throat, swallowing hard.
Insurance policy? I mouthed to her.
She nodded.
“He needed the insurance to pay out, but he didn’t try very hard. His attempts were lackluster, at best.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that continuing,” Donny snorted. “He’s on the run and desperate.”
“Yeah, I saw that. Thanks, Donny.”
“If I hear anything else, I’ll give you a call. Hey, you owe me.”
“For what?”
“For blowing up my favorite hangout.”
“That wasn’t me, but I’ll get you something extra for the intel.”
“Much appreciated.”
I hung up and sank down on the bed beside Isla.
“You put it on speaker.”
I frowned, wondering why that was the first thing she said. Out of all the information we’d just heard, that’s what she wanted to know about? “Why wouldn’t I? It concerned you.”
“Right, but why didn’t you listen to it first and then decide if you wanted me to know what it was about?”
Sighing, I tugged Isla into my arms. “When are you going to get it through your head that I won’t hide things from you?”
“You didn’t tell me you weren’t the one who attacked Shawn,” she pointed out.
“Because you needed me to be the bad guy.”
Her eyebrows rose at that. “Yeah? And why do you say that?”
“Because you were starting to have feelings for me, and as long as you could be pissed at me for beating up Shawn, you had a reason to push me away and deny those feelings.”
I smirked at her, knowing she was about to smack me, which she did two seconds later. And when I laughed at her, it only pissed her off even more, making her cheeks flame to the same color as her hair.
“Alright, Tiger,” I said, catching her wrists when she tried to attack me again. “Save the spankings for later. We have work to do.”
“Which would be what?”
“Well, we have to figure out how to get your ex off your back. He won’t stop coming after you until he gets the money or the Irish kill him.”
“And you want me to help with that?” she asked, her voice nearly squeaking out in surprise.
“Only if you want to.” I released her and stood, grabbing a pair of sweats out of my drawer, tugging them on as she ogled me from the bed. It was a damn shame she was covering her breasts with the sheet. She was a sight to see, and looking at her in the morning light was one of the highlights of waking up beside her.
“And what would that involve?”
I shrugged. “Fancy clothes, danger, probably a few mobsters…just a usual job.”
“And you really want me to come along.”
“Only if you promise to behave,” I grinned.
She shook her head at me, a smile breaking through even though she tried to hide it. “So, where do we even start?”
“With his old stomping grounds. He’d go someplace familiar first. Someplace he thinks is safe, but not something from his current life. Anything come to mind?”
“Um…when I met him, he was a good guy. He didn’t have hiding places.”
“Doesn’t have to be a hiding place. Just somewhere he’s comfortable.”
She gnawed on her lip, damaging the perfect skin that was meant for my teeth only. I tugged it free, watching her eyes flutter to meet mine as she cocked her head to the side in question.
“That’s my job.”
“What—”
I crushed my lips to her, snagging her lower lip between my teeth and tugging hard, but not enough to break the skin. I never wanted to hurt her in any way. I released her, pressing a soft kiss to her one last time before smirking at her.
She chuckled, then cleared her throat. “Gotcha.”
“So…”
“Right,” she said, flustered from the kiss. “So, places he would go…” She concentrated, but narrowed her eyes at me. “You know, it’s really hard to think about Shawn when you just kissed me like that.”
I tugged the sheet away from her breasts and lowered my mouth to her collarbone, brushing my lips gently over her skin, down lower until I sucked her nipple into my mouth.
“What about now?” I asked, pushing her onto her back as I crawled between her legs.
“Getting harder.”
“Tell me about it.”
My tongue slid down her belly, until I reached the apex of her thighs. All it took was one taste and I forgot about what we were supposed to be doing. “Fuck it,” I muttered, inhaling her sweet scent. “What’s one more fucking day?”
“Knox!” she cried out as I thrust my tongue inside her.
For fuck’s sake, she was unlike any other woman. Her scent, the way she called my name, that demanding look she got in her eyes, and the way she was still able to laugh despite all the shit she’d dealt with. She was fucking unbelievable.
And she was mine.
“Knox, fuck, I need—” She cried out as I flicked my tongue over her clit, shattering the high she was riding. It all came tumbling down as her orgasm raced through her. Her body shook in my arms as she came completely undone.
I slid up her body, my nose sliding over her skin, my tongue licking the salt from her flesh until I had her in my arms and pulled tight against my chest. I pressed kisses all over her face, unable to pry myself away from her for even a few seconds.
Her lips met mine in a fevered kiss as her hands slid down my chest, over my abs. Nails scraped over my skin as she pulled me closer, wrapping her hands around my back. Every touch was fucking torture.
I tore my lips from hers, my hand cupping her jaw as I forced her to look at me. “You’re mine, gorgeous.”
“I know.”
She didn’t get it, the things that were left unsaid between us. “When I told you I’d fucking wait for you, it wasn’t because I’m a saint, Isla. Do you remember what I told you about growing up?”
Her eyes blinked in confusion. “Yes, you…you were poor. And your mom was sick.”
“My old man loved her with everything in him. There wasn’t a fucking thing he wouldn’t have done for her. They didn’t have much, but they always had each other. I always knew that. No matter what happened, through it all, they had each other. They had me. It was fucking perfect even if we had nothing.”
“Until she got sick,” she said, her hand resting against my cheek.
“And even then, through it all, he did everything he could for her. I still remember him holding her when she was sick, carrying her to the bathroom when she was too weak to walk, and holding her when she cried. And I—I remember the devastation in his eyes when we came home and she was gone. The light went out of his life. Nothing could ever replace what they shared. She was his forever, the only fucking spark in his life.”
I brushed my thumb along her lip, knowing she would be the death of me someday, and I’d gladly take any bullet if it meant she lived.
“All those fucking years alone with my old man, I wondered why I wasn’t enough, and now I understand it,” I said, staring into her eyes. “I knew it the moment I saw those green eyes in the alley. I felt that same fucking spark deep inside me, and I fucking knew exactly why he withered away without her. There’s no going back now. I won’t let anyone else fucking touch you and there’s no fucking way I’m ever letting you go. You gave yourself over to me. You’re my fucking spark, Isla.”