Prologue, part II
DALLAS
The windows are fogged, the cab still full of our body heat even as the early autumn night is quick to cool it, and all I want to do is pull Lucy back onto my lap so that we can go for round two.
The moment I came, she nuzzled her face against my neck, breathing me in as she shuddered gently. I held her as long as she let me before she slid her hand between us, pressing her trembling fingers against the fabric of my sweat-slicked t-shirt as she pushed back.
I know the sign. Can’t say I like it, but I know it and I lean into the seat as she climbs off of me, easing into hers.
Even so, my hand lingers where it shouldn’t—reaching over the console, I lay my palm beneath the bunched-up material of her skirt, searching for her skin—like if I let go of her completely too fast, she’ll disappear from my sight.
She’s still struggling to get her breath back, pretty blonde hair mussed from my fingers tugging through the waves, cheeks flushed in that way that still knocks something loose in my chest every time no matter how long we’ve been together.
She buttons her blouse carefully, fingers steady even though her breathing isn’t.
That’s my Lucy. My Dandelion. My fucking wish come true…
look at her, sitting ramrod straight in her seat.
Forever composed on the outside, even when she’s breaking in half on the inside.
I watched her shatter as I had her writhing on my cock, but now that we’ve finished, you’d never know it.
I don’t say anything as she pulls on her clothes the same way someone would don armor.
I just continue to watch her, greedy and craving her so badly, it’s like I didn’t just fuck her until she was crying out my name.
Shit. My jeans are still down by my ankles, the waist snagged on the gas pedal, my spent cock nestled against my thigh as the chill from the late night begins to seep in, but all I want to do is bend her over the dash and do it again.
Outside the windshield, this side of Harmony Heights looks like a fucking postcard under the gleam of the moonlight. Trim lawns. Quiet streets. A town that smiles while it strangles you, and far enough away from the Fortress where Jack Collins rules over his domain.
King Jack Collins, lord of the Order of the Owed.
My bastard of a father.
If Lucy’s obvious need to get dressed so quickly after I defiled her again doesn’t kill my growing hard-on, just thinking of Jack does the trick.
Keeping her attention on what she’s doing, Lucy checks the position of her stockings before smoothing her skirt.
Only then does she glance at me, her lips curving into a soft smile that doesn’t quite reach her storm-grey eyes.
Swallowing a sigh, knowing what she wants from me, I jerk my jeans up from the floor of the Ford 150. Lifting my ass from the driver’s seat, I shimmy the denim up before tucking my semi in so that I can button up.
Her lips twitch in a small smile that has me pausing with my fingers on the zipper. I turn, looking at her, peering at her. There’s a hint of sadness in the curve of her lips, there and gone again.
I raise my eyebrows, a silent question.
She shakes her head. “You almost ready?”
To see her walk away from me? Not really.
Oh, I’ll enjoy the view. Watching her skirt sway, her tight ass moving as she disappears through the woods that separate her side of Harmony Heights from mine…
but knowing she’s going to the house she shares with two roommates who would rat her out in an instant if they knew about me while I have to return to the Fortress to wash her off of me before Jack figures out where I’ve been… it’s a double-edged sword.
When I’m inside of her, Lucy Wright belongs to me. As soon as the vice-grip of her pussy has released my dick? I wonder how I’ll ever be able to keep her.
Maybe if I wasn’t Dallas Collins that wouldn’t be a problem.
From the first beating my old man ever gave me—that I remember—I knew that being Jack Collins’s boy came with expectations.
I was four, and I told him I wanted to stay over with my aunt and uncle and Adrian.
I didn’t want to go to a boring old Order meeting.
I told him no.
If my mother hadn’t interfered, taking the last of the blows herself, Jack might’ve killed me that night. For the next ten years, there were other beatings that were just as close, but one day he looked at me and realized that, sooner or later, I’d be strong enough to fight back.
Jack never hit me again. He sure as fuck didn’t lay a finger on my mother in front of me.
I was fourteen, and when Jack looked in my eyes, he saw what he’d created.
An angry, bitter teen who didn’t care if he lived or died.
He didn’t quite break me, and he wasn’t sure if I’d be the successor he deserved, so he did something even worse than punch me in the face.
He turned me into a killer.
I’ve been my father’s top enforcer for the last decade.
His attack dog, if you will. Anyone who steps out of line, I’m there to make them pay in the name of the Order of the Owed.
I don’t even know how it happened, only that it did, and I guess I was beaten down enough because I’ve never thought seriously of turning my gun on my old man.
Me? Before I met Lucy, I’d thought about it. Adrian would find a way to resurrect me so he could kick my ass if I tried, but there were times… yeah. I thought about it. After what happened to Mom a few months ago… if it wasn’t for having Lucy in my life, I might’ve.
But I never targeted Jack. The fucker is untouchable. To take down the King would be to destroy all of Harmony Heights, and I… I wish I was a strong enough bastard myself to do it. Sure, I don’t ever want to be King myself, but my daddy issues shouldn’t lead to the entire Order imploding.
Especially since I can’t say for sure he’s the reason Mom jumped. Oh, I can guess… and considering my own ideation, I wouldn’t blame her for ending her life when Jack refused to end their sham of a marriage… but I don’t know.
And one of the biggest skills Jack taught me in his quest to break his boy by molding him into the future King is how to lie to anyone.
Look at me. I can believe that Mom jumped rather than having been pushed from all those stories the same as I can convince myself that Lucy will be satisfied sneaking around with me until I finally grow a pair and tell Jack that I’ll have her or I’ll have no one.
Fucking Order. I’ve always known what’s expected of me.
A wife by thirty, at least one son to pass on the Collins name, and my neck on the line if I disobey my old man.
I never cared before, but with Mom gone and Jack dropping hints that I still have something to lose…
sneaking around is all I can offer Lucy.
So if she wants to take a walk around the park beside me after I fuck her in the cramped cab of my truck, it’s the least I can do.
The scrap of well-manicured grass bordered near the back by closely grown trees separates this Stepfordesque suburban street from the part of Harmony Heights that makes it a city.
The Fortress is located downtown, but on the west side, there’s a district with high-rise apartment buildings, liquor stores, laundromats, and cheap fast food restaurants.
That’s where Lucy lives, and if I could whisk her away from it… if she’d let me… I would.
Only she’s made herself clear. When we started our fling, I knew she was the one for me.
Lucy didn’t. Though she’s spent her life on the outer edges of the Order’s society, she refused to move up the ranks by joining the Used.
If we were together, she wanted to be my girlfriend, not my mistress.
She wanted to be mine, and in every way that I can be, I’m hers.
So I don’t use my position and Jack’s money to put her up in an apartment somewhere.
We slink around after dark, necking like teens beneath the shadow of the trees after fucking like the mid-twenty-somethings we are.
I have to go against my instincts and let her leave while knowing that, until Jack calls on me or one of my brothers needs me, I’ll park my truck down the street from Lucy’s apartment building, soothing my obsession by just knowing that she’s near…
It’s about a fifteen-minute walk through the park, not counting any detours. I hop out the driver’s side of the truck, adjusting my cock, running my fingers through my curls before wiping the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand. All I taste is Lucy, and that’s enough for now.
She waits for me to prowl around to the other side of the truck. Once I pop open her door, she slips her hand in mine so I can help her to the asphalt. It’s another excuse to touch, and a reason to hold on to each other for a moment before we slip off into the dark.
This part of Harmony Heights is closed-down once the sun sets. Technically, the park is off-limits after dark. That just means that we shouldn’t run into anyone as we move through the trees. But shouldn’t isn’t definite, and I’m on my guard while Lucy is uncharacteristically quiet.
The late night air is cool, the sky over our head clear with a sliver of the moon our only company. We walk side by side, close enough that our arms brush. I want to lace my fingers through hers, but I can’t. We don’t do that in public, no matter the hour.
Just in case.