Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
SERENITY
Iground down on Hunter’s cock as he snapped his hips up, filling me deeper than any man ever had.
The pressure in my core grew more intense as I bit down on my lip with a whimper. “Baby, please,” I begged, feeling like I was losing my mind. “I need to come. Please make me come.”
“Goddamn,” he grunted, shooting up to sit beneath me.
One hand wrapped around me and fisted in my hair as the other lifted my breast to his mouth.
He raked his teeth across my sensitive nipple before sucking it between his lips and pulling so deep I felt it in my clit, he released it with a loud pop, the grin he gave me downright wolfish.
“My good girl knows how to beg the way I like it.”
“Oh God,” I cried as I continued to ride him, harder, faster, each roll of my hips becoming jerky and uncoordinated as my orgasm came barreling at me. “I can’t hold back, Hunter.”
“Let go,” he ordered. “Come on my cock and milk me dry.”
That was all it took. My release slammed into me like a freight train, my walls clamping down and the muscles in my body stringing tight as wave after wave pulled me under.
Hunter went over the edge a second later, grabbing my hips and slamming me down on him so he could empty himself inside me.
I would never get used to how good he made me feel, how every touch made me crave more.
It had been two weeks since the wedding, and if I thought things couldn’t have been better before, I had been wrong, because without those shadows lingering and his past floating beneath the surface, everything between us was damn near perfect.
I’d gone from happy to blissful, and every day it kept getting better.
Using his hold on my hair, Hunter tilted my head down to his and kissed me, hot and hungry. “My Wildcat,” he breathed, his voice filled with awe. “You have no idea how much I love you.”
“Oh, I think I might have some idea,” I said with a beaming grin. “After all, I started falling for you after that first kiss in the parking lot of the Tap Room months ago.”
He shook his head. “Guess I’m just slow on the uptake.”
I shrugged and dragged my fingers through his hair, loving that I could touch him whenever and wherever I wanted, as often as I wanted, because this amazing man was all mine.
“You caught on fast enough; consider yourself forgiven.”
He hummed and went in for another kiss. “Call in sick, today,” he spoke against my lips. “I’ll do the same and we can spend the whole fucking day in bed.”
“Tempting, but I can’t. Sorry,” I said, placing one last kiss on his lips before climbing from the bed and heading to the bathroom to clean up.
His pitiful groan followed after me. “You’re killing me!”
“Then you’ll have died a very happy man,” I shouted over the running water as I turned the shower on.
Truth was, despite how much I loved spending time with Hunter, I didn’t want to call in sick.
Fletcher had just been accepted to a university a couple hours away, and to celebrate his achievement, we were throwing him a little surprise party at the bar before his shift started.
His whole Tap Room family would be there, as would the kids and volunteers from Hope House to take part in the celebration.
He’s been so nervous when the letter arrived he hadn’t been able to bring himself to open it.
Instead, he held on to it until we had a shift together and brought it to the bar so I could read it first. I might have cried—more like sobbed—tears of joy when I finished the first sentence, congratulating him for getting in.
I was so damn proud of the kid for pushing past everything he’d suffered through, busting his ass to make himself a better life. He was strong enough not to let his past define him, to pick himself up and prove he could do better.
I was going to miss him desperately, but he’d promised to stay in touch, and I had every intention of holding him to that.
Thanks to Hunter’s sadistic habit of holding me at the brink of orgasm for what felt like an eternity, making me beg before finally letting me plummet over, I was cutting it dangerously close to being late.
He was in the kitchen, fully dressed and drinking a cup of coffee by the time I came skidding down the hall, announcing, “We have to go, or I’m going to be late!”
He held up his keys to show he was ready and waiting. With Cyrus still in the wind, Hunter was still leery about letting me go off on my own, so he usually insisted on taking me in to work. If he couldn’t do it, I had one of the other Alpha Omega badasses carting me around.
It had been nice at first, having my very own hot chauffeurs, but I was ready for this whole thing to be over so Hunter and I could get on with our lives.
I felt like we were in some sort of holding pattern that wouldn’t end until Cyrus was behind bars and the threat of him was no longer hanging over our heads.
“Just waiting on you, sweetheart.”
I cut my eyes at him as I looped the strap of my purse over my shoulder. “Don’t look so smug. It’s your fault I’m almost late.”
He didn’t look the slightest bit repentant as he came over to me, giving me a loud, smacking kiss and slapping my ass. “Worth every fucking minute, baby. I will never get enough of you.”
The feeling was entirely mutual.
By the time he pulled into the parking lot of the Tap Room, I was downright giddy, ready to surprise Fletcher, and show him just how many people cared about him.
“Have a good day,” Hunter said before hooking me around the back of the neck and pulling me across the center console for a kiss. “Tell the kid I’m proud of him and he’s gonna do great.”
I smiled softly at my man, happiness radiating from my pores. “I will, honey. Love you.”
“Love you more and forever.” He’d started saying that the day after the wedding, and I would never get sick of hearing it.
With one last kiss, I climbed out of the car and headed for the bar, feeling like I was walking on a cloud. I had no idea that my own happy ending was going to be threatened by a deranged psychopath.
Fletcher
I woke up this morning with a pit in my stomach, a sense of dread clinging to me like a plastic bag stuck to a car antenna as it sped down the highway. Something bad was going to happen today. I’d tried to shake the sensation, but it wouldn’t let go.
This was supposed to be a good day.
Ms. Serenity thought she’d been so clever, planning a surprise party for me because I got into college, but she was terrible at keeping secrets.
More than once, I’d walked around a corner to find her standing with someone, discussing it at a loud enough volume I’d been able to hear her all the way down the hall.
She’d been so excited that I couldn’t bring myself to tell her I knew.
I didn’t want to burst her bubble. And besides, it was kind of nice having someone care about me so damn much. I wasn’t used to it, that was for sure. A lifetime with my father had taught me to expect the worst from people, but Ms. Serenity had been determined to prove that wrong.
Truthfully, I was sad to be leaving the Tap Room gang behind, but most especially her.
She’d insisted we were a family, and the way she said it made me think she really believed it.
I was going to miss her like crazy. I was going to miss all of them.
But I’d come back. Once I made something of myself and could show everyone how successful I was, I’d come back.
And I’d repay Ms. Serenity for all the kindness she’d given me these past months ten-fold.
On that thought, I peddled my bike faster, as the Tap Room came into view. I’d just rounded the corner of the bar into the back alley where I kept it locked when the door by the dumpster swung open and Ms. Serenity came out, carrying a bag of trash.
I called her name and raised my arm to wave, but froze when a figure ducked out of the shadows right behind her. It was someone I’d recognize anywhere. The devil himself, made human.
“Ms. Serenity!” I shouted frantically.
She looked up at me and waved, that beautiful smile of hers stretched across her face so big you could see it from a mile away.
My blood turned to ice as I began peddling faster, like my life—or hers—depended on it. “Run!” I screamed, but it was too late.
My father lifted his arm, something I couldn’t make out in his hand, and brought it down fast, slamming the object into her head so hard her whole body dropped like a lead balloon.
He scooped her up before she could hit the ground, and threw her over his shoulder, casting one last glance in my direction as I screamed for help and peddled so fast my heart felt like it was going to burst.
With a sick grin I’d seen too many times to count, he threw her limp body into the passenger side of his truck, raced around the hood, and slammed the driver side door. Then he peeled out of the alley.
I jumped off my bike without bringing it to a full stop and raced through the back door, running so fast my feet skidded across the floor once I reached the front of the bar.
“Whoa, kiddo,” Ms. Rory laughed. “Slow down or you’re liable to hurt yourself.”
“Ms. Serenity,” I panted, my lungs feeling like they would explode.
Reading the terror on my face, the humor fled from Ms. Rory’s, and she rushed over to me, placing a comforting hand on my back as the rest of the people on shift gathered around me.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
“He took her,” I wheezed.
The other bartender on duty, Dan, crouched to reach my eyes. “Who took her, kid?”
“My dad.”
Everything that happened after that felt like it was going in slow motion and lightning speed all at the same time.
The bar burst into activity, because everyone knew what it meant. The devil having just stolen an angel, and we had to get her back.