Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Pennsylvania
When Lorcan’s man had said “Three” and Owen had run out from his hiding place, I’d done the only thing I could think of. I’d swiftly grabbed him and wrapped myself around him. The sounds of his sobs were still echoing in my ears the following day.
Gideon thought the house was compromised, so until he was able to get security tightened and more men on the premises, he’d sent Rita, Dean, and the kids to a safe house a few hours away, with a small army to protect them.
I hoped none of Lorcan’s people were aware or had followed them, and Gideon was keeping heavy tabs on his family.
He’d wanted me to go with them, but that had been a short-lived argument, thankfully.
I didn’t care to take part in whatever interrogation they were doing on Lorcan’s men.
All I knew was, they’d carted them off to a warehouse and I was sitting in the living room with Gideon the following day as he watched everything that happened on the big television.
“He had something like what, fifteen men take out my guys, and afterward they just disappeared and left these two behind?” He huffed. “Makes no sense. Why not make sure they got what they came for?”
“You told me you wiped out a lot of his men, right?” Gideon nodded. “Then what’s to say he didn’t hire some mercs or whatever to help him infiltrate your home but didn’t want them knowing they were kidnapping Gideon Hendrix’s kids? Maybe they didn’t even know whose house this was.”
“It’s honestly the best answer I’ve heard. And if it’s true, that means his numbers are still low.”
“Unless he’s hired protection,” I added.
Gideon’s attention shifted from the TV to me, his eyes full of fire and anger. It was the expression of a man who’d been pushed too far.
“Penn, I really wish you’d have gone with my brother.”
“What are you talking about? What’s that have to do with Lorcan hiring protection?”
“Because it’s become apparent to me that I’m going to have to get a whole lot more brutal if I’m going to take Lorcan out, and I don’t want you to see that side of me.”
I smirked and slid my hand over his thigh. “I thought you were going to be my monster.”
“I am but—”
“No buts—well, unless they’re yours. I get it, even if you think I don’t.”
He shifted closer. “And what do you get, Penn? What do you understand about what’s about to happen?”
“Bloodshed,” I answered in all seriousness. “I’m not one for drama. I actively run from it, actually. Drifting from town to town, only staying long enough to not be memorable. Hell, when this shit started I was going to bolt, and my head is one hundred percent telling me to do just that.”
“Then why aren’t you?”
“Because my heart doesn’t want to go, and that part of me that doesn’t usually put its two cents in.”
“Your heart, huh?” He grinned.
“I like you, Gideon. You have a beautiful family who’s been kind to me. Leaving now feels wrong.”
“My family loves you. You continue to save them. I swear, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a hero complex.”
I guffawed. “No, not even a little bit. I’d rather go unnoticed.”
He lifted my hand and brushed a gentle kiss on my knuckles. “There’s no way anyone wouldn’t notice you.”
I hummed. “Well, I mean, as a kid I was, but it was usually negative.”
“And so you’ve spent your adulthood hiding, staying under the radar to go unnoticed because you didn’t want any more negativity to enter your life.”
I squeezed his hand. “What are you, a therapist now?”
“No, but you’re pretty transparent.”
“Oh, am I?” I poked his stomach with the hand not currently clutching his, and he chuckled.
“A bit.” His smile faded. “But seriously, Penn, you say you understand that bloodshed will be coming, but I’m not sure the reality of that computes.”
Releasing his hand, I carefully straddled his lap, and cupped his cheeks.
“If you don’t get ugly, vicious, if you don’t bite back ten times harder than Lorcan, he will decimate your empire, kill your entire family while you watch, and then salt the earth so no one can ever grow from your roots again.
Whatever your strategy was before needs to be tossed away, and you need to be my monster. ”
I didn’t give him a chance to reply. I leaned in and took his lips in a punishing kiss. One that showed I was here and not running, that I’d be beside him as he fought, that he and his family were worth losing it all, but that I didn’t plan on that happening.
“Penn.” He released a breath when we parted.
“How long do you think we’ll be alone for?”
He quirked a brow, a playful grin on his face. “Probably about twenty minutes.”
“That’ll do.”
“Do what?”
I slid off his lap and kneeled on the floor, my hands immediately going to the button on his pants. “To blow you.”
“To…oh, yeah, that’s a great plan.”
I laughed at how fast he assisted me in divesting himself of his pants and boxers. His cock was already hard and leaking, and my mouth watered to taste the bitter yet sweet flavor and feel the weight of him on my tongue.
My eyes locked on his, I slowly licked from his balls to the tip, relishing in his flavor. His eyes drooped, and the sigh he released was filled with relief. His shoulders lost their tightness, and under my hands I felt his thighs quiver with need.
I kissed the head of his cock and suckled lightly, my tongue swiping over his sensitive glans.
“Fuck, Penn.” His head fell back against the couch and I lifted up, taking his entire length down my throat. “Holy hell.”
I hummed around his cock as I mercilessly sucked his dick as though his orgasm was the answer to all life’s questions.
He gripped the side of my head, and jackknifed upward and…shit, yeah, that control he took, that did it for me. I was so hard it hurt. I pulled my cock out and worked my way to my release.
He came, and I swallowed every drop. His moans and growls vibrated through me, and my orgasm erupted.
His dick slipped out of my mouth, and I met his very sated gaze. “I want to fuck you,” he blurted.
“Right now?”
He shook his head. “No, I want to take my time with you, Pennsylvania.”
The sound of my full name tumbling out of his gorgeous mouth had my cock twitching.
“Yeah, okay.”
“Tonight, come to my room.”
I smiled so wide my cheeks ached. “I’ll be there.”