12. Silas
12
SILAS
I whistled as I walked out of the warehouse.
We didn’t have too many men here, not wanting to draw attention from the FBI, considering Special Agent Matthew Jones was still on our ass.
Our old contacts at the Bureau didn’t seem to be as useful anymore. However, we kept Agent Reese Larkin on our payroll in case he was needed in the future.
We still hadn’t found the piece of shit who’d shot at us, and everything was still such a mess, but I was in a good fucking mood, and it was all thanks to the sweet little angel I had locked up in my mansion.
And I didn’t miss that something was also different about Maverick these days.
I stopped when I spotted Killian by my car. His arms were crossed and his weight leaned against the side door.
Sunglasses covered his eyes and hid his expression from me.
“Hey, man,” I greeted. I walked a little closer, trying to gauge his mood.
His face didn’t change. “You’re in a happy mood.”
“You would be too if you removed that stick from your ass,” I said, tugging him away and inspecting my red Aston Martin.
If there was a scratch on this car, I was going to kick his ass. Luckily, my baby seemed to still be in perfect condition.
“There is no stick up my ass.”
“Oh, yes, there is,” I replied without looking at him. “It’s shaped like a curvy blonde and has a mouthy attitude.”
I didn’t need to see his eyes to know he rolled them at me. “So what’s your plan? Keep her and share her?”
“Yup.” I made sure the “p” popped from my mouth at the end. Perhaps in the beginning, I had intended to fuck her out of my system. I wanted to stop feeling like this about the daughter of the man who took everything from us when we were kids.
Now I knew that wasn’t possible. And as much as Killian tried to deny it, he also felt this… whatever the fuck this could be called for Mila.
Maverick had already gotten with the program.
“You’re delaying the inevitable,” I said.
In the tinted side window of the car, his reflection shook his head at me.
“There is no inevitable. You want to keep and share her with Maverick, that’s on you. Leave me out of it. One of us has to keep his head on straight when it comes to the club princess.”
“Yeah? And what exactly do you think she’ll do?”
He shrugged. “Give her a chance and she’ll mount your head on a pike. Luckily for you, I won’t let that happen.”
“You make her sound violent and conniving.”
“Isn’t she?”
I shook my head. If he had bothered to spend any time with her at all, he would know she was far from it.
As much as she wanted to put on a tough exterior, beneath it all hid a small, frightened, vulnerable girl that I’d realized I wanted to protect.
I might want to tease her and play with her… hell, I might want to mark her. Treat her a little more roughly than what was sane, but I wanted to protect this small girl all the same.
“You want to know what I think?” I asked, turning around to face him.
He didn’t answer me, but instead crossed his arms over his chest.
“You’re scared,” I said.
He scoffed.
I nodded. “No, you’re really scared. Because this one feels different. She feels different from Lilliana.”
My brothers and I had always shared women. Nothing turned me on more than dominating a woman with my brothers, knowing we were bringing her pleasures and wanted pain together.
But it hadn’t always been that way.
Lilliana was Killian’s first love.
She had only been Killian’s. I didn’t know the woman as well as my brother did, since I had been young when they’d gotten together.
But she was the violent one. The conniving one. The one who would have Killian’s head, plus Maverick’s and mine, on a fucking pike if that served her purpose.
And the bitch only had two purposes in life.
Money and power.
Too bad for her, she betrayed us, and now, instead of having any of those things, she was in hiding somewhere in the world, afraid to step foot in Chicago, in our territory, for fear of her life.
A very real fear, at that.
Perhaps it was because she was his first in everything that the betrayal had left so deep of a mark. It didn’t matter, and it wasn’t fair when he’d started to paint every woman he met with the same brush.
Mila was painted a deeper shade than the others because she was the one we were supposed to kill and didn’t.
He was supposed to be the one to pull the trigger but didn’t.
He knew she was different for us.
“Don’t mention that bitch’s name,” he said menacingly.
“You know I can find her,” I replied quietly.
She would die if she randomly ran into us on the street because I probably wouldn’t be able to contain myself if she were placed in front of me right now. Yet Killian had dictated that he didn’t want anyone to look for her. I didn’t know if it was because he still had some lingering affection—a soft spot—for the bitch, or if it was something else entirely.
We’d killed men for less, yet this one was off-limits?
We were far from the powerless teenagers we had once been. We were powerful men. Most of the men who had done us wrong were dead, had suffered horrible deaths, but we left Lilliana alone at Killian’s insistence.
I didn’t know why.
It wouldn’t take long for us to find the bitch.
He shook his head. “Just leave it alone.”
“Why?”
“Silas.”
I shook my head and stepped closer to him. I placed my hand on his shoulder. “You need to find a way to heal from this, brother. Even when she’s no longer in our life, you’re still letting her affect you.”
He shrugged me off. I didn’t take offense.
I caught my own reflection in his dark shades.
“She no longer matters.”
I laughed. “It’s true, but her ghost still lingers around, doesn’t it?”
“Whatever. I’m going back in. Are you coming?”
I shook my head. “Nah. I’m taking the rest of the day off. I’ll be back tonight for the final run-through before we distribute the goods.”
I didn’t need to tell him where I was going. Judging by the curl of his lips, he already knew, and I wondered if there would ever be a time when he could look past all that had happened with Lilliana. If he could forgive himself, when Maverick and I had never held him responsible in the first place.
If it wasn’t for the respect I had for my brother, I would have hunted the bitch down.
I didn’t make a habit of killing women.
Women usually didn’t play any role in our world, but there had been a few exceptions, and Lilliana was the mother lode.
I climbed in the car and drove off, watching Killian’s reflection in the rearview mirror until I turned and he disappeared from view.
The house was quiet when I came in.
Rachel was probably out shopping, and I didn’t know what Mila did with her time when we weren’t home.
I searched upstairs for her, and when I found her room empty, a small panic started to set in. She had to still be on the property. We would have known if she’d escaped, considering there were guards all over the place.
Some of them greeted me as I passed them on my way to the backyard, and I came to a stop when I finally found her in a hidden garden.
She was reading a book—so immersed in the story, she didn’t even hear me approach.
I used this moment to take her in. For one moment, she didn’t have her guard up. Her expression was free of worry, and free of the cynicisms she tried to hold onto.
She looked younger than she was, though she wasn’t very old at twenty-four, her eyes told anyone who was paying close enough attention that she had seen a lot of shit.
I didn’t doubt it, and I didn’t like it one bit.
I wished someone had been there to protect my innocence growing up. Even though both Maverick and Killian had tried, they weren’t that much older than me, and our dad was a piece of shit who cared about nothing but the Tiernan empire.
I supposed I should be thankful.
It made me ready to take on this dark world, but that didn’t mean I wanted that for Mila.
I shifted on my feet, and she looked up suddenly, her eyes widening in surprise, and her book fell to the grass.
I walked over to her and picked it up, glancing at the title briefly before I handed it back to her.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles .
“Thank you,” she said quietly, taking the book back.
I watched her for a beat.
Something about our dynamic had changed with her, and I didn’t know why or how.
Perhaps something happened with her and Maverick, and though I didn’t mind sharing her with my brothers, I realized I was jealous as hell over that.
“What are you doing home?” she asked.
I shook away my thoughts and shot her a wide smile. “Taking you to lunch.”
It was late afternoon. This could very well be considered an early dinner, but I hadn’t eaten all day, and looking at her, I was feeling…
Starved.
She frowned. “Taking me to lunch?”
I nodded, my smile widening. “Yup. Why do you sound so surprised?”
Her gaze narrowed on me. “Is this… is this like a date?”
“Ah,” I said, gently grabbing hold of her hand and helping her up. I let my eyes roam up and down her body, taking in the soft pink dress she wore.
It was pretty modest compared to what I’d seen other women wear, especially since it came down past her knees, but the straps weren’t any thicker than my finger, and I couldn’t help but be fascinated by the sight of her bare shoulders.
I let my fingers skim down the skin of her shoulder blade.
She held still for me, taking in my face with those eyes of hers.
She looked pretty.
The scars on her back weren’t noticeable, not unless you looked closely enough, but I had a feeling even if they were Mila wouldn’t have been shy about showing them.
She didn’t seem to view the scars as a deformity, but just another thing on her body.
I hated the scars for the reasons behind it, but I couldn’t hate anything about her body. Not when I was so fucking fascinated by everything about this girl.
“We can count it as a date if you want.”
Her eyes narrowed and her lips thinned. “If you have to say it like that, then it’s not a date.”
She moved around me and I laughed, snaking my arms around her waist and holding her close to my body. I thrust my hips, letting her feel the hard-on pressing on the small of her back. She gasped slightly.
Fuck me, but when was I ever not hard with her around?
“It’s a date,” I said softly, letting my lips touch her ear.
She tensed against my body for a moment before relaxing back into my arms.
Good girl.
I had never been on a date before—unless we counted that picnic I had taken her to, back in New Orleans, as one.
Never wanted to date, and with the life that I led, I didn’t have the time nor the inclination to find a girl to date.
But Mila seemed like she wanted a date, and how could I fucking deny her anything when she looked like this? Smell like this?
I let my hand smooth down the soft fabric of her dress.
Feel like this?
“I like what you have on,” I muttered against her soft skin.
Everything Mila had on just made me want to rip it from her body.
“What do you feel like eating?” I asked.
“Steak,” she answered.
“Not what I want to eat, but okay.”
She turned her head to the side and met my eyes. “What do you feel like eating?”
I grinned, pressing a small kiss on her neck. “You.”
She stilled in front of me for a beat before I felt her shoulders shake against me. It took me a moment to realize she was laughing silently in front of me.
I reveled in it, wondering if there would be a time when I could hear her laugh out loud again.
I smacked her ass hard, taking in the small gasp of surprise and pain that escaped her lips, before grabbing her hand and leading her out to my car.
We drove away from the property in no time and headed toward the highway. I already had the perfect place in mind.
Mila looked out the window as I drove, seemingly lost in thought.
I didn’t know what she was thinking about, and she wouldn’t have told me even if I asked, so I left her alone during the short drive.
I parked in front of the small, cozy restaurant.
I had thought about taking her somewhere fancy, but for some reason, I didn’t think that was what Mila wanted for today. And I much preferred a place where someone didn’t know who the fuck I was.
It was also less likely we’d run into someone who wanted to shoot me at point blank here. Even though I wouldn’t normally cower away from a good gunfight, I didn’t want to run into any trouble with Mila around.
Precious cargo and all that shit.
She startled out of her thoughts when I shut off the ignition.
She looked at the restaurant, a small smile playing on her lips.
What I wouldn’t give to know what was making her smile like that.
She turned her sea-colored eyes my way, and my chest constricted at the sight.
“Ready?” I asked, clearing my throat a bit when my voice came out gruffly.
She nodded and got out of the car.
I bit my tongue to keep from telling her not to leave the car until I got out first and opened her door.
We were in a relatively safe part of the city.
I doubted I would run into anyone here who wanted me dead.
Still.
It was better to stay on guard.
I checked out my surroundings as I stepped out. Mila was already by the hood. Her eyes roamed over to the line where the parking lot met the street, and I wondered for a moment if she was planning on making a run for it.
“You wouldn’t make it,” I said, startling her.
She turned to me and didn’t hide her expression right away.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I laughed and wrapped my arm around her slight frame. She didn’t fight me and let me lead her to the doors of the restaurant.
There weren’t many people here, considering we didn’t come during peak hours.
I liked this a hell of a lot better. It was easier to look for things that were out of place. We came to a stop at the host stand, and only one girl was working.
I barely glanced at her when I said, “Table for two.”
It took her a beat too long to reply, and I noticed her focus was on me, wearing an expression I knew well.
And what was more, Mila didn’t miss it.
She tensed in my arms, and I held in the urge to smile.
“For two?” the girl repeated.
“Yes,” I said, offering a charming smile.
“R-right this way,” the girl stuttered.
Mila pushed away from me, her lips pressed together, a storm brewing in the sea of her eyes. I put on an innocent expression.
“What is it, angel?”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I waited, and after a small moment, she rolled her eyes at me and walked away.
I laughed quietly under my breath before eating the distance between us, taking her back into my arms.
She tried to shove off my touch.
I leaned down and nipped her neck. “Behave,” I admonished.
“You behave,” came her sour reply.
“What did I do?”
She shot me a scathing look but didn’t bother answering. She sat in the booth, her back against the wall, facing the restaurant. I took a seat next to her, making sure our thighs touched.
She tried to slide away.
I followed. The hostess’s cheeks were now an interesting shade of red. She placed our menus down and said directly to me, “Your server will be with you soon.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.”
The hostess let out a small peal of girlish giggles before walking away. Would she have done that if she knew how much the sound grated on my nerves?
But then I turned and found the black look that covered Mila’s face, and I decided it was fucking worth it.
My little angel was jealous.
And fuck if that didn’t make me feel about ten feet tall.
I kept my eyes on her while she pretended not to notice me staring, her attention shifting down to the open menu in front of her.
I smiled and played with a small strand of her blond hair, making her shift a little in her seat.
Finally, she turned to me. “What?”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing at the biting tone in her voice. “Nothing. I just think you are absolutely adorable, angel.”
Her eyes widened a bit. I gently chucked her chin.
“Did I rob you of your speech?” I asked.
Before she could answer, the server came. She was an older woman with tired brown eyes and messy hair tied into a bun. And I might have imagined it, but I thought I heard Mila give a small sigh of relief.
I placed my hand on her thigh.
“Welcome. What can I get you folks?”
I looked at Mila. She seemed surprised. Did she think I wasn’t going to let her speak or order her own food?
I didn’t give a fuck what she ate, as long as it wasn’t bad for her.
As for what she might or might not say, I had enough people on my payroll to ensure shit wouldn’t happen even if she were to decide to do something as stupid as ask for help.
“I’ll have the sirloin. Medium rare, please.”
So polite. My grip tightened a little on her thigh. She shifted, and it might have been wishful thinking on my part, but it seemed she had moved a little closer to me.
“I’ll have the New York strip. Rare. And two glasses of red wine.”
I closed the menu and handed it to the server, waiting until Mila did the same. Then, I moved my hand around the small of her back and clutched her waist.
She met my eyes, but for once, there wasn’t any hint of fear in them.
There was wariness, sure, and a little bit of apprehension, but not fear.
I smiled, baring teeth.
Her breath caught and I firmed my grip before she could pull back from me.
I leaned down and buried my head in her neck. “Did I tell you how pretty you look today?” I asked, pulling back to look into her eyes—to drown in them.
Pink was definitely her color.
I planned on buying her a lot of pink shit from now on.
She shook her head, focusing her gaze on my lips. It took me a moment to realize what that look in her eyes meant.
“Are you getting shy on me?” I asked softly, cupping her chin and lifting until I could see her eyes once more.
She bit her lip but didn’t say anything.
“It’s true, you know,” I added.
“What is?”
“You look pretty today.”
“Oh…” She pulled back slightly, and I let my hand drop, placing it back on her thigh. “Thank you.”
I held in the urge to smile. “You’re welcome.”
She waved her hand, indicating the restaurant. “This is nice.”
“Nice,” I said, letting the word coat over my tongue. “Sure. It’s nice.”
She frowned. “Don’t you agree?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It’s nice.”
She gifted me with a small smile and fuck me if I didn’t feel like I had won the lottery or some shit.
The server came back with a basket of bread and two glasses of red wine.
I placed one in front of Mila. She didn’t take a sip.
“Isn’t it a little early to be drinking?” she asked me once the server left.
I shrugged. “Do you really care about that?”
I sipped my wine, savoring the taste a bit before I swallowed. I was acutely aware of Mila’s gaze on me.
She didn’t answer me. Instead, she brought the glass up to her lips and sipped delicately.
I felt a small stirring in my dick.
Fuck.
How could everything she did affect me like this?
“Good?” I asked, my voice rough.
She nodded. “Yeah. I don’t drink all that often.”
I grinned. I figured as much. There was a bunch of shit she didn’t do often. Some she didn’t want me to know. She behaved as if a lot of the experiences we shared were entirely new. Hell, she’d even seemed surprised about the date.
Though I hadn’t really considered this one, her eyes when I said it made me want to fucking plan dates for her every day of the week.
“Drink up,” I said in reply.
She obediently took another sip.
“Tell me about your first date,” I said when she put the glass down.
I could see she hadn’t expected the question.
I was surprised too.
The last thing I wanted to hear about was Mila with some other bastard. But her experiences made her into this girl I had become wholly fascinated by. I wanted to know more about her.
She was saved from having to answer right away when our food came. I tapped my fingers on her thighs as I waited for the server to be done, feeling impatient for any morsel of information she was willing to share with me.
Finally, the server left, and I watched as Mila cut into the meat and placed it in her mouth.
Her eyes shut, and she let out a small moan that affected me more than I wanted to admit.
I ignored my food and instead focused on her. When she finally opened her eyes, they widened slightly when she found mine.
I grabbed the napkin on the table and wiped away a bit of sauce that was stuck on the corner of her lips.
The action was surprisingly gentle, considering that not too long ago, these very same hands had pounded a street rat to within an inch of his life, but I found myself wanting to be gentle for her.
Certainly not the kind of gentleness that she deserved, from a good man who would provide her a stable life, but the kind of gentleness I thought I might be capable of, that of a bad man who would do all sorts of unimaginable things just to give her the world.
She cleared her throat. “You want to know about my first date?” she asked, and I couldn’t decide if the tone in her voice held any resentment or not.
“I was in high school,” she continued when I didn’t respond. “He was the captain of the baseball team. Tall, lean, and blonde. He had the brightest blue eyes, and he looked at me in a way that made me feel special.”
I instantly hated the bastard, and I vowed I would get his name by the end of the date and make sure he wished he had never laid eyes on her.
She looked over at my clenched fist on the table, and I might have imagined it, but I swore a glint of amusement flashed in her blue-green eyes.
“He took me to the movies. I forgot what we saw. He paid for the tickets and the popcorn, and when he got a bit too handsy in a theater filled with strangers, I tried to push him off.”
That fucking prick. Forget regretting laying his eyes on her. I was going to make sure he wished he was never born.
She glanced over at me, and I didn’t miss the small smile gracing her lips. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t look like that. I’m not going to give you his name. Besides, before anything could happen, he was pulled off of me and thrown against the wall.”
I frowned. “By whom?”
“By Sebastian Cline.”
There was that fucking name again. We should have made sure he hadn’t left the clubhouse during the massacre.
“Your dad’s stepbrother?” I asked.
She seemed surprised that I would know that. But we had made Daniel Hayes and everything that went on in his club our business for so long, there was very little about the bastard’s life that I didn’t know about.
Add to that the fact that we learned that Sebastian had been looking all over the city for Mila. The man who’d ambushed her at the company was a freelancer, hired by Cline. The guy worked for anyone willing to pay enough, and there were no lines he wouldn’t cross to get the work done.
The bastard was dead now. His body hung from a metal chain in one of our warehouses, serving as a treat for rats.
She nodded.
“Why would he care? Or, hell, be there on your first date with you?” I asked.
Something wasn’t adding up and I couldn’t tell what Mila was thinking since she wasn’t looking at me.
“He didn’t come on the date with me,” she said quickly. “I didn’t even know he was there until he showed up in the middle of the movie and did that. Um, he’s my supposed betrothed.”
“What the fuck?” I said, a little too loudly. So there was some shit I didn’t know. People around us turned their attention our way, but I ignored them.
“How old were you?”
“Seventeen.”
Seven-fucking-teen and the motherfucker was already possessive of her.
I really underestimated Sebastian Cline’s obsession with Mila. It seemed to run deeper and further back than I had thought.
Something came to my mind. “Do you know if he was at the clubhouse the night of the attack?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I saw him as I was leaving my dad’s office. He was always at the house.”
Now I fucking regret that we didn’t interrogate anyone besides Daniel. My men were given one task, and that was to slaughter every single one of the club members present.
Yet we let that fucker escape.
Chicago was no longer run by the Heartless Saints. But that didn’t mean they had forgotten that night. Cline was gathering men, and we had bigger problems than the Romero family in New York and the Cadorna Famiglia here in Chicago.
Fuck.
Her fingers moved around the table as she shifted nervously in her seat. “I wouldn’t have let it get to my wedding. I was biding my time until I could try to run away again. Obviously, I waited too long.”
She shot me a pointed look.
I tapped her nose with one finger. “Actually, I think you made the right decision.”
“Really?” she asked sarcastically.
I ignored that, grinning at her. “Yup. You waited for me and my brothers.”
She rolled her eyes. “Lucky me.”
I leaned down close and let my lips run up and down the side of her neck. She stilled, and I pressed a small smile against her skin.
“And about to get luckier, angel,” I whispered.
I didn’t miss the slight shivers that wracked her body. She could deny it all she wanted, but she was affected by me.
Good.
It made things a hell of a lot easier for me to convince her to stay ours.
I wasn’t letting her go.
She should get used to that idea right fucking now.
“Can I get you anything?” a high-pitched voice called from my side. I resisted the urge to growl, and turned to the hostess standing there.
Before I could tell her to beat it, Mila spoke up.
“No, we don’t need anything. And certainly not from you.”
I turned to my girl, and I was sure she didn’t miss the amusement in my eyes.
She glared at me as if daring me to say something before turning back coldly to the girl.
The hostess stuttered something I didn’t hear, and I didn’t care, because all my attention was on the little angel showing me her claws. And fuck if I wasn’t turned the fuck on by her.
I felt more than heard the hostess leave, and Mila avoided my gaze. I tugged on her hair playfully, and she pulled away from me, grumbling something under her breath.
“What?” she finally asked, her voice mean.
I laughed, which probably wasn’t the best thing to do, but I couldn’t help it.
Who knew she could be so funny?
“You’re jealous,” I said.
She picked up her knife and fork. “Am not.”
There was a note of petulance in her voice that I should find annoying. I didn’t.
She was cute.
“Are too. And I wouldn’t lie to me if I were you.” I let my voice settle in the space between us, let her hear the dark promise that offered nothing but sweet punishment.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Or you’ll what?”
“Wanna find out?”
She stabbed the meat with her fork and plopped it in her mouth. “I am not jealous. You can flirt with whoever the hell you want. And if you’re turned on by the squeaky voice of a shameless woman, then so be it.”
I chuckled and pulled her closer to me. She tried to shove off my touch. I stayed close by, leaned down until my lips touched her ear, and said, “What if I’m turned on by a sassy blonde with no sense of self-preservation?”
She gasped. “I do have self-preservation.”
“Hmm.” I gently tapped her chin. “Eat up, baby.”
She didn’t say anything as she went back to her food, and I ate my steak. I felt her eyes on me every once in a while, as if she couldn’t figure me out. I pretended not to notice her attention, giving her some time to her own thoughts, even though I was fucking ecstatic about the turn of events.
We didn’t say anything for the rest of the meal, and though I wasn’t really one for silence—it was my older brothers who loved bathing in the silence of the room—I found I was comfortable with her. It wasn’t a feeling I had ever experienced before, and a part of me didn’t want to end this lunch.
But eventually, reality seeped in. We couldn’t stay like this forever.
The server dropped off our check once she cleared the table, and I took out my wallet and dropped two one-hundred-dollar bills before standing up and holding out my hand to Mila.
She watched me warily, hesitating for a quick second before gingerly slipping her small hand into mine.
I looked at it, taking in the softness of her skin and the delicate shape of her hand, as I guided her out of her seat.
Our eyes met for two long seconds before she looked away, directing her gaze to my chest.
I tucked her close to my side, enjoying the rightness of it, and led her out to the door.
“Have a good day. I hope you come again,” the hostess called as we passed the host stand. Mila tensed beside me, and I held her a little tighter against me as we walked out the door without saying anything to the girl.
Mila grumbled something under her breath and tried to get out from under my arm. I gripped tight and laughed.
“Ah, baby, do you have any idea how happy I am to see you like this?”
She tilted her head back. “What do you mean?”
My smile widened. “Jealous.”
“I am not jealous. In fact, I would like it if you put all your energy into finding someone else to mess around with.”
I rolled my eyes and tsked her.
“Didn’t I warn you not to lie to me?” I asked, my voice low.
She understood the dangerous man she had just unleashed. She tried to take a step back, but realized she couldn’t.
I pushed her back until we came up to my car, and kept going until her ass touched the door. I rested my hands on either side of her, trapping her against me.
“W-what are you doing? We’re in public, Silas.”
“So?”
Her eyes widened. “So? You-you can’t do it here.”
One corner of my mouth curved up in a small smirk. “Do what?”
“Do… whatever the hell you’re planning on doing.”
“I wasn’t planning on doing anything,” I said, bending down and burying my face in her neck. “Damn, you smell good, baby.”
Her hands came up to my chest, and I thought she was going to push me away, but at the last moment, she curled them around my shirt, holding me there.
“Silas,” she whimpered, half protest, half plea. “What are you doing to me?”
“The same thing you’re doing to me,” I said, a tinge of desperation in my voice. Fuck. Whatever spell she had put on me since the moment I’d first laid eyes on her had only become more potent with each day that passed.
I wanted her… badly.
I moved my lips up and let them coast gently over hers.
She took a deep breath but didn’t pull away, and fuck me, but that wasn’t enough.
I needed more of this. More of her.
I pressed my lips against hers roughly and held still, taking her in.
She pulled me closer to her until only a small inch or two separated my body from hers. Until all I wanted to do was open the doors, shove her in the car, and fuck her so hard she would be feeling me for days.
I buried my fingers in her hair as I moved my lips over hers, nipping on her bottom lip.
She gasped in pain, and I took full advantage and plunged my tongue inside her mouth.
We both groaned at the first touch and… and…
I was fucking gone.
I gripped her hair more forcefully and angled my head to deepen the kiss.
Hesitantly, she kissed me back.
Fuck.
She was shy and unsure in her movements, but this small, hesitant kiss affected me more than any other kiss I’d ever had with any other woman.
I couldn’t get enough of it. I pressed her body to the car until there was no space between us, kissing her back with the reckless abandonment I had been feeling for days now.
Her hands fluttered out from between us, and they made soft, gentle touches, traveling up my arms and settling on my shoulders.
She wiggled against me, and I knew she fucking loved what she was feeling.
I wasn’t as big as Maverick, but I was bigger than most men, and the way her eyes ate me up whenever she thought I wasn’t looking… well, fuck me, but it made me feel like the king of the world. Something that money or power had never come close to making me feel.
“Baby,” I whispered against her wet lips when I pulled away and both of us were breathing heavily. How could it be like this with her?
Why this girl?
But I couldn’t bring myself to care why. I just wanted to hold her close.
My phone beeped and I growled in frustration.
I grabbed the phone and looked at the screen before moving my gaze back to the pretty girl with flushed cheeks and swollen lips.
I just wanted to say fuck it to all my responsibilities and spend the day buried in her.
“You have to go,” she said softly.
I nodded. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged like it was no big deal, but I knew she was lying. I didn’t want to leave her, especially like this, especially since this was the first time since we got back to Chicago that she wasn’t actively trying to fight me. It didn’t matter how much of a losing battle those other fights were for her. But tonight was a big night for us, and we needed all hands on deck, so to speak.
I clutched her chin and tilted her head back. I let my thumb glide gently across her bottom lip and, unable to help myself, I stole another hard kiss before guiding her away from the car door and opening it for her. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”
Her eyes flashed in disappointment, but she quickly turned away from me before I could say anything, shutting me out.
I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.
We had just taken one step forward and two steps back.
But this shit wasn’t going to always be like this.
We weren’t always going to be this busy, and unluckily for her, she would have the full, undivided attention of the monster then.
I couldn’t wait.
Silently, I climbed into the driver’s side and took off.
The drive back seemed to go by faster than the drive to the restaurant, and I soon found myself parked in front of the mansion.
I got out of the car and held onto Mila’s hand as we walked through the silent house.
Rachel was probably off doing whatever the fuck she did at this time. I brought Mila to her room and set her down on her bed.
She watched me with eyes filled with emotions I couldn’t decipher, as I opened her underwear drawer and grabbed all the panties in there.
That seemed to draw her out of her reverie, and she gasped, standing up. “What are you doing?”
I grinned. “Punishment for lying to me. I’ll give this back when you decide to tell me the truth.”
“What the fuck?” she exclaimed, making me smile even more. I dropped the panties on her bed and pushed her down on the mattress.
“S-Silas?”
“Yeah, baby?” I asked, flipping her dress up to her waist.
She tried to kick me away. I tapped her on the outside of her thigh, not hard enough to leave a mark, but enough to get her attention.
She stilled on the bed and I brought my hand up to her belly, rubbing over it.
A small noise escaped her lips that didn’t sound like a protest to me. More like a good little puppy who loved belly rubs.
I made a small approving noise in the back of my throat. “Good girl.”
I let my fingers skim down her skin to the waistband of her panties and smoothly dragged them off her. My eyes honed on her small, waxed pussy, and my mouth watered.
“Did my baby miss me?” I asked.
Again, she made those little noises that I could feel all the way to my dick. I shifted, resisting the urge to strip down and rub one out in front of her.
I brought her panties up to my nose and took in her scent. “Fucking amazing,” I said into the fabric.
My phone beeped again, reminding me I didn’t have much time with her.
Fuck.
She whimpered, probably needing to come. How could I deny her? Time wasn’t on our side, but I bet it wouldn’t take me long with the way she was rubbing her legs together.
I pushed them apart once more, cupping her drenched pussy. Her lips parted in a silent gasp, but she didn’t stop me.
She wanted this as badly as I did.
“What a good girl you are, drenching my palm like this,” I said, rubbing her. One foot pressed down on the mattress, and she slightly angled her hips up, begging me for more.
I complied and rubbed harder, focusing on the way her small pussy went slick, the sound she made as her juices gathered around my hand.
Fuck me, but it was going to be so hard walking away from her.
I moved my hand down and pushed two fingers inside her. She clenched around me automatically, like the good girl she was, and I smiled, fucking her with my fingers—slowly at first, before I increased the tempo.
Soon, her breathy little cries filled the room, along with the heady scent of her arousal, driving me insane.
I fucked her harder.
“Come for me, angel. Let me hear you break .”
She fell apart, her eyes closing, and her legs going slack. I slowed my movements but didn’t pull out of her right away, drawing out the orgasm for as long as possible until her cries quieted, and she lay there, splayed out for me to see.
I brought my fingers to my mouth, sucking on them and taking in her flavor.
Fuck, not enough—but soon I would devour her whole, and I wouldn’t stop until she begged me to.
And the way my girl was, I doubted she would want me to stop.
She watched me with hooded eyes as I stood in front of her, and when I couldn’t taste her anymore, I dropped my hands, winking.
She blushed red, making me chuckle before I gathered up her panties in my arms. “You can have this back when you stop lying to me… and yourself,” I said. Leaning down, I took her lips in a quick kiss and walked out of the room.
Something hit the wall as soon as I got three feet away from the door, and a frustrated noise came from the little kitten, making me smile.
Fuck me, but I couldn’t wait to see her again.