Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
RACHEL
Ishiver, secretly turned on by his words, by the idea that being near me could matter that much to anyone. I was used to being an afterthought for the people who mattered most to me as a kid. I know I’m not over that. Will maybe never get over it.
Even with Zoe, who I know loves me like a sister, I’m careful never to push for more than she offers.
I’m careful to not hold on very tight, in case she decides to leave.
I think about the panic I’d felt when she got together with C because I’d seen that he immediately became the most important person in her life.
Then I was the most alone that I’d ever been.
Growing up I’d had my mom and Zoe. When my mom took off and never came back for me, I pretended not to care, but I was secretly devastated.
I knew I’d been a pain over our last year together, but I never expected her to just leave me behind.
After that Zoe was the only person I had left. Until she chose C.
“Well?” Sasha asks.
I shrug because no matter how casually he asks the question, I don’t think it’s a casual question. “I’m not telling you.”
He swats my ass and then squeezes it. “No?”
“No.”
He lifts me and takes me to the bed. He lays me across his lap and then he lays down several spanks before raising the T shirt and exposing my ass.
I reach back for the sheet, but he pins my arm in the small of my back and spanks me several more times. The heat and sting cause a riot of sensations throughout my whole body. My nipples tighten, my breath grows short, and my pussy dampens.
“Tell me no again,” he says, rubbing my warm ass.
“No.”
The corner of his mouth curves up. The almost playful swats are gone. He peppers my ass with firm blows.
“Oh, my God. Don’t,” I say, but my voice is breathy.
He squeezes me, his hand cooler now than my flesh. He rolls me onto my back and pushes my legs open. He lowers himself, licking between my legs.
“Being spanked is a rough you’ll learn to like,” he says, giving my pussy an open-mouthed kiss that makes me writhe. He crawls up the bed and pushes his thick cock slowly into me. When did he get hard?
God, he feels good. I arch my back.
I bite my lip. I’m sore from earlier, but it still feels amazing. He can strike something in my core that drives me wild. My pussy drips with desire.
An expression of dark pleasure passes over his face. “You like it that deep?”
I realize immediately that other girls must not enjoy the ache that comes from him banging against their cervixes. I do.
“Look how you spread your legs for me,” he says. He kisses me and his dark eyes are lit with lust and excitement. “I didn’t think anything could be better than the way you sucked my cock, but I was wrong.”
I’m tongue-tied for a moment, not used to crude talk that I find sexy and embarrassing at the same time. I close my eyes and concentrate on how good this feels.
He lowers himself onto me, putting an arm under me. His weight is both welcome and suffocating. He ruts harder. He’s so powerful, almost inhuman. My body is a willing sacrifice.
My pussy clamps down around him, clenching and unclenching.
“Fuck, Raven,” he growls, jerking hard and spilling his cum into me in warm jets.
ANVIL
My mind is completely blown. I can’t relate to people who are superficial or eternally sunny. My life has been dark. My little raven’s always been deep-thinking and observant. As sexy as sin and somehow drawn to the black hole of my soul.
I never expected her to be even decent in bed.
Beyond the blowjobs, I’m guessing she’s totally sexually innocent.
Being kinky as fuck myself, she wasn’t going to be a match for me in that way.
It didn’t matter. I was into her in every other way, so I was way past caring about what the sex would be like.
I figured we’d probably never get there anyway.
So how is she the best fuck I’ve ever had? How does she enjoy sex that’s too rough for working girls? And why when I finish fucking her do I immediately want to get back inside her?
I walk into the bathroom where she’s showering. Steam fogs the mirrors, and I lean against the jamb until the glass door opens. She jumps.
“Hey,” she says, reaching for a towel.
I pull it to me before she can get it. “Come here.”
She hesitates a second, then comes to me. I towel off her hair and then the rest of her. I let her fasten the towel around herself, but don’t move out of the doorway.
“What are we doing?” she asks.
“Nothing,” I say. I probably need a shower too. I’m sure I smell like sweat and sex.
I glance at the shower stall. She’s washed some of me away, but there are still traces inside her pussy. I like the idea of that. I run my knuckles over her flat belly.
She looks down at my hand and reads my thoughts. “I need to get my pills.”
I raise my gaze from her stomach to her face. “You take the pill?”
“Yes, to make my period better,” she says. Then she offers a small smirk when she adds, “A little late to ask me now. Do you always wait until after to ask that? How many little Sashas are out there at this point?”
“None that I know about. I don’t go bareback.”
“You do go bareback sometimes,” she says, nodding toward the wall separating the bathroom from the bed.
“That’s different.”
“It shouldn’t be. What if I wasn’t on the pill?”
“May the strongest swimmer win.”
She stares up at me with a shocked expression. “Are you serious?”
I look her over and nod. “Definitely.”
“What?” she asks, giving me a push. “It’s warm in here.”
I step aside, letting her pass.
“You didn’t answer me,” she says after a moment. “Why would you say that? And why would you be with me without wearing a condom?”
“If you have my baby, nothing will ever pry you away from me. I’ll be in your life for how long?” I pause, letting it dawn. “Right,” I add. “Forever.”
I don’t know what I expect, but her reaction still surprises me. She smiles, but she shakes her head. “This life, it’s not good for kids. You know that.”
I look her over. “I do know. And if you would’ve wanted to be a music teacher and marry an accountant or something, I would’ve left you to it.
I wanted you to have a chance at a safer life.
” I touch the scar on my stomach from the wound that almost killed me, reminding myself why I didn’t just start something with her a long time ago.
“But you let Frank turn you into a Mafia princess who was going to marry a made guy. If you’re not going to be free of this life, why the fuck should I let anyone else have you, instead of taking you for myself?
Why shouldn’t the first baby you have be mine? ”
She’s shocked, but I don’t backpedal. She brought this on when she said I could be myself.
“Was that the plan? To get me pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“And what if I still marry Alberto Leone?”
“What if you do?”
Bright spots of color stain her cheeks. “That’s an extremely warped plan.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “You brought this on yourself.”
Her jaw drops. “What are you talking about?”
“No one whispers in my ear or calls me by my real name. No one grasps my arm when they pass by me. People back away. If you didn’t want a connection to me, that’s what you should’ve done.”
“Hasn’t anyone ever been nice to you?” she exclaims.
“Everyone wants something from me. Even my closest friends got that way because they needed me to do things, to back them up in a fight, to help build an empire. And women, the girls in the neighborhood, want a hard ride, or presents, preferably cash. They don’t know me, and they don’t try to.”
“You’re wrong. A lot of people would be interested in getting to know you if you didn’t scowl at them and always look like you’re ready to smash something. You scare people.”
“They’re smart to be scared. You should’ve been scared too.”
“I was afraid of you for a time.”
“So why didn’t you stay away from me?”
“Because—I didn’t want to.”
“All right. But then you get what you get. And what you got was that I don’t stay away from you either.”
“Saying hello to someone and taking care of them when they’re wounded is very different than stalking them and trying to ruin their marriage before it’s even started!
You didn’t talk to me for three years. You never asked me out.
Then you abduct me? And lay traps for my fiancé and father?
And try to change my life permanently? What the fuck? ”
It’s not a real question, so I don’t answer.
“How can you defend your actions?” she snaps.
“I don’t,” I say in a low voice. “They’re fucked up.”
She stares at me and shakes her head. “I don’t—how can I trust you?”
A knock on the door makes her jump.
When she doesn’t say anything else, I go over. I open the door, and it’s Zoe with a tray.
“Good morning, ‘Vil. Good morning, Rach,” she says with a wide smile. “Ready for coffee and some company?”
My gaze is on Rachel, who is still furious, but trying to cover it.
“I’m gonna set this here,” she says, then shrugs off her puffy coat and hugs Rachel. “How are you? Okay? I’m so glad you’re here.”
Rachel glares at me over Zoe’s shoulder.
“Z, goddammit!” C says, coming up the steps. His hair’s wet, so I guess he was in the shower when she took off. “I told you to fucking wait. Did you even text first?”
Zoe sits on the bench. “Rachel’s up. She’s ready for coffee and a scone.”
“Yes, I am,” she says, putting an arm around her friend’s shoulder before she sits down next to her on the bench.
Zoe lifts the lid from the tray, and there’s a whole spread. Scrambled eggs, scones, bacon, coffee. It’s what we would’ve gotten if we’d gone over to the castle’s kitchen, but Z obviously busted in to check on her friend.
“Sorry, ‘Vil,” C says in a low voice. “Zoe, let’s go. You can see Rachel later. After you and I settle up for this.”
Zoe spins around, sparks flashing in her dark brown eyes. “I’ll come. But first I’m talking to Rachel alone. Go outside with him, Anvil.”
“Girl, you’re digging yourself deeper and deeper,” C warns.
“I know I am,” she says, raising her chin defiantly. Then she takes a breath and shakes her head. When she speaks again, she’s got her fiery temper under control. “I need to talk to my friend alone. C, please? Go outside.”
“Five minutes,” C says before he walks out.
I step outside, too. Zoe’s volatile, but Rachel’s not the type to be wound up by other people. I’m pretty sure it’ll be all right. Or at least no worse than it was.
“How’d the night go?” C asks, glancing at the door. He doesn’t say it, but I know he doesn’t want to get caught in the middle if Zoe and I end up getting into it.
“We slept all right,” I say.
C’s eyes cut to me. “Frank’s losing his shit. Alberto Leone made it into town this morning with a dozen guys.”
“You want me to change locations?”
“No.”
“Might be better.”
“There are trucks parked at the end of the drive. Unless we wage war on the next-door neighbor’s lawn, you’re going nowhere.”
“Sorry I brought it here.”
“Where else would you bring it? This is the C Crue compound, built with C Crue brains, sweat, and blood. It’s yours and Trick’s as much as mine. And if you’re under siege, we’re all under siege.” He draws in a breath and blows it out. “You know what Trick said?”
“Do I wanna know?”
C smirks. “He said, ‘It’s about time. What’s the point of a building a multimillion-dollar stronghold if your enemies never surround you?
’ Then he sent a text to Frank, challenging him to a game of online chess and sent UberEats to the cars out front with an order of catfish, hollandaise sauce, blood sausage, and cole slaw. For breakfast.”
“What the fuck,” I mutter as C barks out a laugh and keeps laughing. When he subsides, I say, “Trick is off.”
“He does have a tendency to throw gasoline on bonfires and then to step back and watch things burn. Right now, he’s playing video games,” C says. “But first he loaded the guns, including the ones on the roof.”
I nod. “I shouldn’t be back here playing house. What do you need me to do, C?”
“Nothing yet. Operations outside the compound are rolling. We’ve got supplies here. We’ll wait. I say play house until Frank or Leone make a move on us. We’ll call the rest of the crue back if we need to.”
The door opens, and Zoe emerges with her wildly curly hair twisted into a tight bun.
“Speaking of playing,” C says. “Here’s a little girl who likes to play games.
When you get to the bedroom, Z, put the black toy box on the end of the bed.
After you strip, bend over the end of the bed and wait for me.
Your naked upturned ass should be the first thing I see when I walk in that room. ”
Her flush is a deep crimson as she hurries down the steps. C is crazy about Zoe and he lets her get away with a lot of sass, but she never gets a pass if she outright disobeys him. She must have been really worried about Rachel to come over the way she did.
“Come to the house around noon. We’ll bunker in the basement to run our plans.”
I nod.