Chapter 41
Having checked the front door and all the windows, I head to the fireplace to add a few more logs. While Jimmy is no longer a threat, there are always other people who are willing to hurt you or take what you have. This has been my routine for five years, and I have no intentions of changing it.
I’m stirring the glowing ashes when my phone pings with an incoming text. I pull it out and see a message from Mathias.
Mathias: It’s done. Check the news tomorrow.
The small knot that’s been slowly getting tighter since we found out Jimmy had plans to have Terry and Howard somehow released or orchestrate their escape finally unravels.
Although the fee I paid Mathias was hefty, I owe him a bonus. Thanks to him and his contacts, we were able to find someone in the same pen who could take care of the pair. I didn’t care how it was done, I just wanted the bastards in the ground, their corpses rotting.
Despite the worry I know she still feels, I haven’t told Cat of my plans. I wanted to wait until it was finished. Now I can put that worry to rest.
Over the last month, I had Marcus search for information on Nicholas and Teresa Monroe. He didn’t find much. My father did a damn good job of making sure their lives were erased if anything happened to them. Marcus was only able to confirm that they were real and had two boys named Nicholas Cooper Monroe Junior and Hunter James Monroe. The boys were eight and two when their parents were killed in a suspected home invasion. Both boys disappeared after that.
Nothing was found about how I got to Tennessee from Chicago. Considering Thomas and Sandra moved to River Heights a few months after my parents were killed, and I was placed in my first foster home soon after, I believe they had something to do with it. I’ve gathered that my fabricated last name, St. James, comes from the middle name I was given at birth.
Marcus also managed to find a picture of my parents on their wedding day. Dressed in the finest clothes money can buy, the couple in the photo were young. They couldn’t have been older than their late teens or early twenties. Both looked happy as they smiled at the camera. What I found interesting was the protective way Dad held Mom’s barely-protruding stomach. In accordance with the date on the back, she was pregnant with their first child. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that they both loved the child she was carrying. Furthermore, I didn’t doubt their love remained strong after their second child was born.
When Jimmy was a child, he probably saw shit that wasn’t there and fell off the deep end because he wasn’t the center of attention anymore. Alternately, something happened between the time he was born and when I was born that pushed them away.
I know there’s more information out there, but I’m letting it go. The whole fucked up situation has messed with my and Cat’s lives for long enough. The last piece of the puzzle was having Terry and Howard dealt with, and now that they have been, we can put that shit to rest.
After tossing in a few small logs, I walk out of the living room and down the hallway to the bedroom in the back. We’re in a small cabin in the mountains. Cat and I bought the place years ago when Eliana was a baby. It’s over thirty miles to the nearest village and deep in the woods. I brought Cat here to get away. We both needed a reprieve.
The door creaks when I open it, and I find the room empty. The bathroom light is on, and steam billows from the open doorway. I check the fireplace and find enough wood burning to last for the next few hours. The cabin has central heating, but Cat prefers a fire. The temperatures are expected to drop into the thirties in the next few days, so I spent the afternoon chopping wood.
Reaching back, I pull my shirt over my head as I walk into the bathroom. My hands are working to remove my jeans as I watch Cat’s silhouette behind the fogged glass enclosure of the shower.
Without fail, every single fucking time I look at her, my heart rate picks up. This woman is my life, and I’d die a painful death without her.
Opening the shower door, I walk down a few steps and close it behind me. The shower is huge, big enough to fit four or more people. When we toured the cabin and Cat saw the bathroom, she spun around and demanded we buy it. Grey, black, and white tiles take up most of the walls. A stone bench sits at one end. Standing facing away from me, Cat runs a sudsy sponge down her arm as the rainfall showerhead rains water down on her. My eyes trace the pink dotted scars littering her back and my gut tightens.
Taking a step behind her, I wrap my arms around her waist, pressing my chest against her back and my groin against her backside. I watch the side of her face and see her lips form a smile.
She lifts the sponge to her chest, but I take it from her. “Let me.”
As I smooth the sponge down over her breasts and taut stomach, her head falls back on my shoulder, her eyes closing. As soon as it meets the dark layer of curls above her pussy, I drop the sponge and let my hands do the work. I slip my fingers between her lips, feeling the slickness of her juices seeping out of her. My other hand moves up her stomach to palm her breast. Her tight nipple pokes my palm, and I squeeze the plumpness.
Her inaudible moan vibrates against my chest. As I slip two fingers inside, I hook them and apply pressure to her clit with the heel of my hand. I drop my lips to the crease of her neck and take little nibbling bites.
Lifting her arm, she grasps my hair, pulling my face closer while her other hand slides down my arm until her fingers mesh with mine inside her. My hard cock wedges between the soft globes of her ass, and I pump my hips.
She turns her head and lifts her chin, offering me her lips, which I readily accept. She tastes like a beautiful spring morning. I pinch her nipple and swallow her soft cry.
Without lifting my lips from hers, I reach over to a shelf and grab the bottle of lube I placed in here earlier.
I haven’t taken Cat’s ass since the first time she asked me to. I know she enjoyed it, and I damn sure want to fuck it again. I’m the one who needed time though. To come to grips that Cat may not be as sweet and innocent as I always thought she was. Sex with her has always been gentle and soft. I’m a different man when I’m with her. The stuff I did with Scarlett couldn’t be more different. I’ve always felt guilty that, other than giving her the type of pain that leaves permanent marks, I enjoyed the raw and rough way Scarlett wanted me to take her.
Before I met Cat, sex never came with feelings. I liked it that way. And I liked it hard. Flesh pounding flesh hard enough to leave bruises. Fingermarks left by a tight grip. Bites deep enough that they nearly pierce skin. A tight throat gripping the head of my cock as I force it down, using their hair to guide their movements.
Once Cat came along and completely captivated me, I could have spent the rest of my life giving it to her the way she deserved. Sweet. Loving. Tender. Soft caresses and endearing words whispered in her ear.
Our sex life has never been boring or stale. We weren’t a vanilla couple that only engaged in missionary sex with no adventure. The passion between us was intense and real. We explored and played and we were both more than satisfied. And if Cat should want to revert back to the way things were, I’d still die a completely satiated man.
But knowing there’s a darker side to her, a side that likes to get down and dirty and to be taken and dominated….
Fuck yes, I’m game. Anything and everything she wants. Any way she wants it. Whenever she wants it.
Flipping the cap of the lube open, I pull my hips back until my cock sticks out straight, the head pressing against Cat’s ass crack. I dribble some on my length.
“What are you doi—”
Her words die off when she turns her head and sees the tipped bottle in my hand. I move my eyes to hers long enough to see something dark flare behind the pretty blue. She licks her lips as she draws a long breath of air.
I close the bottle and toss it on the shelf. Putting one hand around her waist, I wrap my other hand around my long length and give it a few strokes, making sure the lube covers every inch, because I plan to give her every inch.
Rather than going straight for her tightest hole, I set the tip just outside of her slick pussy and push forward, letting it slide through her lips and nudge her clit. I press my thumb against her asshole, pushing just the tip inside. Her breath hitches and a low moan mixes with the sound of the shower.
“Please, Hunter,” she whimpers, thrusting her ass backward.
I give little pumps of my hips, repeatedly hitting her clit and applying more pressure against her hole with my thumb. “Where do you want me, baby?”
“You know where,” she pants.
I hold her hips still when she pushes back, trying to force more of my thumb inside her.
“Tell me.” I grunt. My control is slipping fast.
She turns her head, looking at me over her shoulder. Her cheeks are a cute shade of pink. Not from the heat of the water, but from the words I’m asking her to say. Her bottom lip rolls between her teeth before she lets it pop free. “My ass. Fuck my ass.”
I grit my teeth, my cock pulsing and squirting out a drop of precum at the explicit words.
We lean forward together, my front plastered to her back, until our hands meet the wall in front of her, directly under the falling water. With my other hand, I guide the head of my swollen cock and notch it at her asshole. Pushing forward an inch, the head pops inside. I groan and stop moving. I’m ready to shoot my load, and I’m barely fucking inside her.
I trail a line of kisses down her neck and over her shoulder as I wait for myself to calm the hell down. I want this to last longer than two minutes, but goddamn, her ass feels incredible strangling my cock.
I groan and grind my molars together when she pushes back into me. “Fuck, baby, don’t do that. I need a minute here.” I drop my forehead between her shoulders.
I give myself another moment before I push in another inch. Cat’s moans match my groans. Pulling out, I plunge back in deeper.
“You feel so fucking perfect,” I growl. “So tight and warm.”
“More, Hunter. Give me more.”
As I slide in another couple of inches, she rises to her toes. Her fingers, wrapped through mine, flex against the shower wall. With my other hand, I reach down and slide my fingers through her pussy lips, then press my middle finger against her clit. She bucks her hips.
Using my hold against her pussy, I hold her still as I force my cock in the rest of the way, bottoming out until my hips meet the flesh of her ass.
“Put your other hand on the wall and keep both of them there,” I tell her, letting her hand go and standing straight.
When she complies, I bend slightly and hook her right leg over my arm. This new position opens her up more and gives me better access. After swiveling my hips against her ass, I pull out halfway and slide forward slowly.
The muscles in my jaw ache from clenching my teeth. Back and forth, I fill her ass, retreat, and fill her again. I play with her clit as I fuck her, picking up speed and ramming deep. If it weren’t for the little cries of pleasure coming out of her, I’d worry I was being too rough. But Cat eats it up and even demands more.
As soon as she clamps down on me and shouts out her release, I’m right behind her, fucking her hard and fast until I’ve emptied every bit of myself inside her.
Later, after I finish washing her and she does the same to me, we’re both in bed. She’s snuggled up to my side with my hands running through her damp hair. Her breathing is even, but I know she’s not asleep because she’s gently playing with the hair on my chest.
“Terry and Howard are dead,” I say in the quiet room.
Her fingers stop moving and her body stiffens against my side. She doesn’t say anything at first, but after a moment, she resumes twirling her fingers.
“Good. I’m glad they’re dead.” She kisses my chest before tipping her head back to look at me.
“I needed you to know that they’re no longer a threat.”
“Thank you.”
“You never have to thank me for protecting you.”
I roll to my side, keeping my arm under her head as I curl it so I can lay my head on my palm. Our faces are only inches apart. Wrapping my other arm around her waist, I tuck my fingers between her and the mattress.
“You became mine from the first moment I saw you, and you’ll be mine until the day we both take our last breath. And even then, I’ll find you in the afterlife.” I smile and lean forward to kiss her curled lips. “Sorry, baby, but you’re stuck with me for eternity.”
She entwines our legs together, her eyes sparkling with her smile. “I guess that’s something I can learn to live with.”