Chapter 17
17
I made it eight minutes hiding in the bathroom.
It would’ve been fine if Thor hadn’t noticed his phone was missing. The bathroom door didn’t lock, so he wrenched it open and found me holding his phone. I should’ve hidden it in the cabinet or something, but it felt like my lifeline, and I didn’t want to let it go.
He yanked me up by the arm, and I yelped. “The fuck are you doing in here with my phone?”
“I told you mine was dead, and I need to get home.” My voice was high and pleading; all pretenses of being brave had abandoned me.
He dragged me into the front room and tossed me onto a couch. “You a fuckin’ cop?”
“No! I just really need to get home.”
He smiled cruelly. “So you called your fiancé to come pick you up? How do you think that’s gonna go?”
“No, not my fiancé! I belong to someone else.”
Skepticism marked every line of his face, threatening violence if I didn’t come up with a better answer fast. He snatched me by the jaw. “Doesn’t matter, darlin’. He ain’t here, is he?”
There was a commotion outside, but Thor didn’t seem to notice. Not until Reaper strode through the front doors with six bikers trailing him.
“Theodore,” Reaper barked as he sauntered in, shirtless as usual but wearing an outfit that would’ve made Jareth the Goblin King proud. He’d left his long hair unbound, and it cascaded over his shoulders like an eighties romance heroine’s locks. His knee-length black kilt hung so low on his hips, it was obscene. He wore biker boots and leather gloves that he slowly pulled off one finger at a time and tucked into the back of his waistband. His painted black fingernails, heavy eyeliner, flowing hair, and all the jewelry he wore—from his lip ring to his thumb ring to the silver torque that adorned his bare chest above his nipple rings—gave him a feminine edge that clashed with Thor’s overblown masculinity. “I see you’ve found my errant brat.”
Thor rounded on him. “It’s Thor, motherfucker.”
Reaper’s eyes flashed with amusement. “Ah. I see you’ve learned my real name too. I did rather enjoy fucking your mother. Celia, right?”
Thor roared and took a swing at Reaper, who leaned left so fast, it looked like Thor’s fist was moving in slow motion as it swung harmlessly past Reaper’s head. Then he knocked Thor on his ass with an efficient sweeping kick that hooked behind Thor’s knee.
It shouldn’t have been surprising—he’d always had the lethal vibe of someone who could handle himself in a fight, but I’d assumed it was from behind the barrel of a gun.
The six bikers pulled their weapons and aimed them at Reaper, who casually reached down to help Thor up. I didn’t miss that he’d immediately drawn all the attention and violence from me to himself.
Reaper’s gaze raked up my bare legs, cocking an eyebrow at the jacket before turning back to Thor. “You kept something of mine out of trouble tonight, and you have my thanks. I’ve come to retrieve her. Let’s not blow our deal over a slut acting out.”
Thor gestured for his buddies to lower their weapons and fuck off, leaving the three of us alone. He assessed us with those icy eyes that saw far too much. Why couldn’t he have been a dumb biker?
“Known you a long time, Reaper.” He stroked a hand along his beard thoughtfully. “Never known you to be possessive about a partner.”
“This one is different,” Reaper said with quiet menace.
Thor nodded. “I’ll tell you what I think is happening here. I think you sent her to get dirt on me so that if this deal goes south, I take the fall for it. And I don’t appreciate being set up.”
Oh shit, this looks bad. That was precisely the kind of thing Reaper would do, given his ability to get leverage on literally everyone.
Reaper smiled and shook his head like it was just too funny. “You ever known me to be this sloppy, Thor? If I wanted to set you up—and I don’t—you’d never know it happened.”
Can confirm.
Thor walked to the fridge. “Have a beer with me then. If we’re gonna trust each other, I should get to know your girl better. If she’s important enough to rush over here for, she must mean a lot to you…”
He didn’t believe our story, not for a second. If we couldn’t make him believe we were together, we weren’t going to make it out of here.
Reaper turned a look on me that was full of barely repressed rage. “I’m about done with her thinking she can act out and get what she wants. If she doesn’t remind me why she’s worth the trouble real quick, I might be leaving her here with you after all.”
His threat was clear. He’d leave me there rather than go down with me if it came to it.
I folded my arms over my chest and raised my chin. “Maybe I got tired of waiting for you.”
You want a brat? I’ll show you a brat.
Delighted surprise lit Reaper’s face, like he’d expected me to take the obvious path of fawning over him. “What’s the matter, darling…your fiancé isn’t satisfying you?”
Oh. We’re not even pretending…
“I’m not going to talk about him with you.”
Thor cleared his throat. “I’ve got a call to make. I’ll give you two a minute.”
As soon as Thor left the room, I opened my mouth to explain, but Reaper snatched me to him and obliterated every thought from my brain with a kiss. It was angry and rough, but I clung desperately to him, savoring the feel of his bare shoulders beneath my fingertips and his hands gripping my ass.
Against my ear he whispered, “He’s trying to trap us. Don’t say a fucking word.” I felt his smile against my neck. “Unless it’s please …or more …”
More.
Please.
Please make me feel alive again.
I was up against his bare chest, and all I could think about was how much I needed to touch him. All of him. I wanted to trace my fingers over the tattoos that covered his collarbone, then trail them down his abs.
What’s stopping you?
It was the most liberating thing I’d ever experienced, to realize that while we were in this room, the rules didn’t apply, and I didn’t have to feel guilt or shame for it later. I could still hate him the minute we walked out, but right this second, our survival depended on me wanting him.
And, god , did I want him.
One of his big hands slid up and under my shirt, growling when he discovered there was nothing under it. “What the fuck were you playing at tonight?”
He rubbed my breast, then found my nipple, and I arched into his touch, gasping when he pinched it gently between his fingers. He watched me with a challenge in his dark eyes, like he was just waiting for me to stop him.
He didn’t seem to understand that I needed him so badly, I could barely breathe. I gripped the wrist of the hand he had under my shirt, and he tilted his head like he thought I was going to pull it away. And I did…only to guide it down the front of my shorts.
“More,” I breathed, and he obliged instantly. He unbuttoned my shorts with his other hand, giving him easy access to where I needed him.
When he ground a knuckle over my clit, the sound that came from my throat was as undignified as it was involuntary. He parted my folds, and I moved against him, pushing the tip his finger inside me.
“Please,” I begged, and he thrust a little deeper. “ More .”
He closed his eyes and locked his jaw. “ Christ , Juliet.”
Did he know he’d just said my real name?
I forgot I even had a real name when he twisted his hand to curl his fingers inside me at the same time as he pushed his other hand into my shorts to roll his thumb over my clit, moving faster when my breath stuttered. He dragged the pleasure from me relentlessly, finding the sensations that made me buck and gasp, then pushing me to the brink as he repeated them.
He claimed my mouth again, and I came apart at the seams, crying out as an orgasm rocked through me. He coaxed out every last wave of pleasure like he was wringing them from my body, then broke the kiss to meet my eyes. He looked as surprised as I felt, and then a line formed between his brows as he studied me.
To my mortification, tears started to burn my eyes; it was all just too much: The desperation and nerves of daring to defy Kevin. The terror of being caught by Thor. The confusing relief of being saved by my enemy. The bone-shattering relief of release in Reaper’s arms. Being touched when I actually wanted to be touched. Trust that didn’t make sense. It was like the dam of my self-control had crumbled, and I teetered on the edge of falling apart.
“Don’t you dare,” he growled, kissing me again like he could chase away all my feelings that easily. Because he could.
His first kiss had been angry and rough, but this one was just fraught with intensity. He used his teeth and his tongue and his hands to pull me back into the moment where nothing else mattered but him.
“It’s not polite to stare,” he said, pulling back to glare at Thor.
I turned in Reaper’s arms, but he held me against him possessively, idly stroking his fingers along my bare hip bone, not bothering to button my shorts back up.
Had Thor just seen me come?
It was obvious from where I was standing that he was hard, and I didn’t understand why, but the knowledge he’d been watching only made me wetter. I wanted him to see.
I pushed back against Reaper’s hardness behind me, and the look on Thor’s face was ravenous. He licked his lips like a wolf about to take down his prey.
Reaper nipped the side of my neck. “Are you eye fucking Thor, brat?”
The charge of the room had shifted. Thor didn’t look like he wanted to kill us. He looked like he wanted to join us.
I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “What are you going to do about it if I am?”
Thor’s mouth hitched into a brief smirk, like he wasn’t used to seeing anyone talk back to Reaper. “You in a sharing mood, brother? Got a few ideas about how to put a mouthy brat in her place.”
Reaper’s hand on my hip tensed, though not enough that Thor would’ve noticed. “I’d normally suggest you ask the lady, but the lady isn’t allowed to make any more decisions this evening, given her questionable choices up to this point.” I held my breath, waiting for his answer. I might’ve wanted Thor to watch, but I certainly didn’t want to discover his idea of a punishment. “She doesn’t put me in a sharing mood.”
Thor covered his flash of irritation with a shrug. “Then get her the fuck out of here. She’s caused enough trouble.”
Reaper wove his fingers into mine and tugged me towards the door. He was the picture of nonchalance as he tipped a nonexistent hat at the bikers who were waiting outside.
As soon as we got in his vehicle, the charade would be over. I had to go back to remembering all the reasons I hated him, and part of me couldn’t fathom shutting the door on everything we’d just unleashed again.
He sauntered towards his Range Rover, but just as we reached it, he pushed me against the side and claimed a quick but thorough kiss, a possessive kiss, with one hand on my ass and the other tangling into the hair on the back of my head.
“There will be a price for this,” he murmured when he broke away.
I breathed a sigh and climbed into the passenger seat when he opened the door for me. “There always is with you.”