Chapter Eleven – Liana
I paced back and forth, glancing towards the door every few seconds. When was he going to get back here? What was going on?
Ever since Lee had run out of the house to go deal with whatever had happened with the Dogs, I had been sick with worry about him. I had tried to tell myself he could handle his shit, and I was sure he could, but the look on his face when he got that call was burned into my brain.
I knew something big had happened. Something bigger than I could imagine. I had tried to get some sleep on the couch, but I couldn’t rest, I was too worried about what went down. I texted him and told him to come back by the apartment when he was done, but I hadn’t heard anything back in response yet. Had something happened to him? Was he hurt?
I had thought about leaving the house to go find him, but I knew it wasn’t a good idea, not when it meant leaving Kara. I felt like I was going crazy, cooped up in here, not knowing what the hell was going on. I headed to the window, peering down onto the quiet street below, searching for some sign of him…
And then, all at once, I heard a knock on my door. I nearly jumped out of my skin but raced to answer it at once. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Lee standing on the other side, sinking against him in a giant hug.
”You okay?” I mumbled against him, and I felt him nod. I inhaled deeply, but I realized his jacket smelled of smoke.
I pulled back, looking up at him, glancing up and down.
”What happened?” I asked him.
”The Kennels were attacked. Burned to the ground.”
My stomach dropped into my shoes. He stepped inside, pulled off his jacket, and closed the door behind him.
”What – what are you talking about?” I blurted out. I must have heard him wrong. No way could they have been-
”They were attacked by Lombardi’s men,” he replied. ”There’s nothing left of it now. Nobody got seriously hurt, but-”
”Oh, my God,” I muttered, clasping a hand across my face. It had been burned down? Destroyed? I had spent so much of the last few years in that place, and knowing it was gone, it almost felt surreal, like I might have been hearing it wrong.
”I’m - I’m so sorry,” I blurted out. I didn’t even know what I was apologizing for, not really, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was letting him know how sorry I was. How much I wished I could just go back and undo all of this, make it fall away. I didn’t know...
”You have nothing to be sorry for,” he replied, his voice laced with a sharp sincerity.
”No, if I had – if they hadn’t-”
”Hey, Liana, listen to me,” he told me, clasping my face in his hands. ”You did nothing wrong. You have nothing to be sorry for. Lombardi and his men, they were – they were always going to find an excuse to come after us like this. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone or something else. And they’ve lit the powder keg. They chose to do it this way, but we’re going to end it. You hear me?”
He kissed me before I could respond before I could come out with any more reasons why I was sorry before I could tell him that he was wrong, and I was at fault for all of this. But as soon as our mouths met again, some of the doubt began to fall away. Because when he held me in his arms like this, I could believe, if only for an instant, that everything was going to be okay.
I kissed him back – he turned me around, pressed me against the door, and hitched my legs up, pinning me there as he slid his hands beneath my hips. I had changed into a pair of flimsy pajamas while he was out, nothing but a pair of thin cotton shorts between us right now, and I could feel his hardness pressing against me – his cock, throbbing beneath his pants, a sure sign of how much he desired me, how much he needed me.
”I need to fuck you, Liana,” he breathed against my mouth. I moaned back to him. The early morning rays of light were beginning to fill the room with a new brightness – a renewal, a new start. I wrapped my arms around him, running my hands down the leather of his jacket.
There was a strength to him, something comforting and grounding, that made everything else feel...possible. Like I could have taken on the world as long as he was right here with me, right here in front of me, where he belonged. I kissed him, his stubble grazing against my chin, as he pulled aside my shorts and unzipped his pants, taking his cock into his hand.
I hooked my ankles behind his back, allowing him to guide himself against me. I could feel the pressure of his tip against my slit, the need for it throbbing through my whole system. After our encounter earlier in the night, I had been starving for him, every inch of me crying out for him with a want I had never felt before. I had been with guys before him, of course, I had, but this – this felt different. This was delicious.
He pushed himself into me in one long stroke, filling me up right there against the apartment door – I felt so delicate in his arms, so small, as though he could have done anything he wanted with me. And all he wanted, at least right now, was to fuck me.
He groaned against my mouth as he slid into me, holding himself there for a long time, and I squeezed my thighs on either side of him, drawing him in even deeper and closer. I could feel his breath mingling with mine in the small space between us. I didn’t want there to be any gap keeping us apart – I wanted him, needed him, needed to feel every inch of him filling me like this.
I tightened my grip on him as he began to move inside of me, seeming to sense how badly I wanted this. My eyes drifted shut as he fucked me hard, filling me in long, deep strokes that guided me closer and closer to the edge. All the tension and all the excitement of the evening had pushed me to the point of no return, where the pleasure seemed to boil in every inch of me at once, till there was nothing left – nothing left but the way it felt, the way it shimmered through every part of my body.
He kissed me again, his tongue in my mouth, his teeth catching on my bottom lip momentarily. I slid my hand over the nape of his neck, drawing him in even closer. I was panting against his mouth, gazing deep into his eyes, need and want melding together in my body until they bloomed into the beginnings of another orgasm. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold myself back for much longer; I felt as though I was going to finish right then and there – the way he was moving inside of me, grinding into me, I could feel him pressing against my clit, that delicious pleasure moving further and further into me, deeper and deeper...
Until, finally, I felt it, the shock of my orgasm coursing through me once more. I gasped and grasped hold of him, gripping him tight as I came undone, pressing my head into his shoulder to muffle the sounds that wanted to escape my lips as I went over the edge. Oh, God, I couldn’t hold myself back and I didn’t want to. The flood of relief coursed through me as the orgasm rocked through my body was more than the first time, more than when he went down on me. It was more intense, a promise, it seemed, of everything that he wanted to give to me.
He thrust deep into me one last time and held himself there, letting me feel the pressure of his cock as he finally reached his release inside of me – he throbbed, releasing the warmth of his seed deep within me, and letting out a long, low growl against my mouth. Animalistic, like I was drawing out some primal part in him. I grinned against his mouth and bit his lip, still pinned against the wall.
”Fuck,” I breathed against his mouth. It didn’t feel like a strong enough word to sum up what just happened between us. After so long lusting after him, crushing on him, finally being with him had been even more intense than I could have imagined.
”I’m going to end this for you, Liana,” he murmured, his mouth against my ear, his cock still inside me. ”Lombardi. I’m going to destroy him. For you.”
I slumped against him. No man had ever promised me something like that in my life – no man had ever made me feel this protected, this valued. But Lee? Lee made me feel as though I was the most important creature in the world.
And that was something I could get used to.