Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
WES
Callie’s dark hair fanned across the pillow as she slept. She was curled into my side as I sat up against the headboard. For some reason the image of our bare feet tangled in the sheets of my bed was so fucking domesticated that it was making my chest hurt and clouding my brain.
I wanted her to stay.
I needed her to.
But what could I offer her now that she would have accepted back then?
Everything was the same. She still hated this life, and it’s the only thing I knew as an adult.
I’d taken the very roots that had strangled her and wrapped them around my chest cavity, using my heart as the seed.
For seven years this life was all I needed, and now here she was again, in my arms, and she was going to leave me just like she did last time.
Swallowing the thick ball of tension in my throat, I let out a sigh and dug the note from the bedside table, realizing now would be the best time to read it.
Killian had already texted me, explaining that he’d wait to have the guys move on the Triple Y ranch until later. He knew about the note, but he was respecting the fact that I hadn’t discussed it with him yet.
Unfolding the lined paper, I scanned the black ink and my insides filled with dread.
The only thing written on the note was an address.
One I was particularly familiar with, because it was my address.
Over the past three years, I had been slowly building a house, and while I didn’t live in it now, I was still planning to at some point, at least once I figured out how to hand this shit over to Killian and wasn’t needed here as often.
Except, no one else knew about my property.
I had hired an out-of-town construction crew to build it, with nearly every facet in it being custom built, and the location was at the top of the ridge that looked down into the valley.
You could see the entire town from the living room.
Why would Simon Stone write the location down and then leave it in his casket?
Callie moved next to me, and I quickly crumpled the note in my fist. I couldn’t exactly explain it to her, considering I wasn’t planning on showing her the house any time soon, or ever—if she was going to leave.
It would be the equivalent of peeling back the skin over my heart, cracking my rib cage, and handing her a paring knife.
I hadn’t poured my heart into that house; it was my hope that laced those walls, and it was the only thing that kept me going day to day without her.
Callie settled back into my side, relaxing enough that her breathing evened out. It was getting later now, past lunch time, so we would need to leave soon. I had a bad feeling that once we did, things would change between us.
It made a panicked energy pulse under my skin, making me crave her.
I wanted her in my arms again. I wanted to be inside her, to push all this fear out of my head.
When I had Callie on the table downstairs, she’d accepted this new ravenous appetite of mine so well, even begging for more from me.
I wanted more, and I was a greedy motherfucker, selfish too, so I was going to take what I needed. I was going to have what I wanted.
Even if that meant I filled her so full of my seed that she got pregnant.
If she was worried about protection, she would have scolded me about fucking her bareback in the shower.
No, I knew this was a way of testing the waters with us.
She was being just as reckless as I was, tempting fate to do something to seal us together.
She had no idea what that did to me, the idea of trying to fuck a child into existence. God damn, it was so fucking enticing.
I moved down the bed, allowing one of my darker thoughts to take form. She’d welcomed it, told me she wanted whatever I had in mind…whatever I could think up.
I’d marked her in ways I’d only dreamed of, but now…
Now I wanted to claim her.
She was wearing one of my shirts, and under it, I nearly groaned as I discovered she wasn’t wearing anything else.
I was in just a pair of boxer briefs, but while on my stomach, I slid them down, freeing my cock.
It was already semi hard, while I stared down at Callie’s silky-smooth skin, and equally smooth slit.
I craved tasting her, but this time I needed something different while she slept.
Gently pulling on the back of her knee, I adjusted her enough that when I knelt in between her opened legs, I was notched perfectly at her entrance.
Holding my shaft in my fist, I lined directly up with her slit and watched her face as I slowly entered her.
She was so fucking tight. Shockingly so, which made me wonder at her experiences, since me.
The fuckers who’d had her, didn’t actually have her, not like I ever did.
Just thinking of her with someone else made my grip on her hips tighten, not in anger at her, but possessiveness.
Even then, she belonged to me, and a part of her knew it, which is why she didn’t allow them to stretch her, or please her.
I knew what it took to get her off, which meant there was a good chance she hadn’t even done that.
She needed this. She needed me.
I pulled out, letting out a shaky breath before plunging back in. It was rough enough that Callie’s eyes snapped open.
“Wes!” she gasped, but it was followed by a deep moan as her leg came up, dropping to the side so I had better access.
Roughly gripping her ass, I pulled her onto my cock as I thrust. Her jaw dropped on a silent gasp as her fingers grabbed hold of the sheets.
“Fuck, River,” I rasped between clenched teeth, repeating the motion of sliding out and pulling her down against me.
It wasn’t deep enough of a connection for me, so I moved my hand from her ass to her back and lifted her, so she was straddling me, her knees going wide on either side of my hips.
She stared down at me, cradling my jaw as I controlled how hard we fucked by circling her waist.
She swiveled her hips at a brisk pace, keeping her gaze locked with mine.
The way our skin slid against one another drove my need for her higher.
Her hands came to my shoulders as I roughly shoved the shirt up over her head.
I needed her breasts pushed up against me as I fucked her.
Chests heaving, her pebbled nipples pressed into my chest as we slowed, and on my knees, I moved us until her back was pinned against the headboard.
With a growl, I began forcing my cock into her tightness at a reckless pace.
“Fuckkkk. Wes. Shit. Shit!” Callie screamed as her orgasm took hold of her. Her knees compressed my waist, her pussy clenching tight against my dick, but I pulled her ass hard against my cock, coming with a choked rasp.
“You think you scared me with that bullshit about birth control, River? You think I’m afraid of marking you over and over, filling you up to the brim with my cum, until you give me a baby?
” My thumb pressed against her pulse while I continued to fuck her.
Her heavy-lidded eyes stayed on my face as our bodies moved.
“You think I’m afraid to play the same game as you, tempting fate to tie us together in some sort of toxic, fucked-up way?
Putting a baby inside of you isn’t going to scare me off, River.
For as long as I have you, consider us in a game of Russian roulette with fate.
Each time we fuck, we’re going to see if that’s the one that’ll ruin us.
Because I know you’re going to leave me, and even with a baby, but it’ll still tie you to me, River.
You won’t be able to walk away without being marked by me. ”
Our foreheads stayed pinned together as I continued to hold her against me, finishing my own orgasm with a heaving chest.
She sagged against me, her lips finding mine in a fevered kiss.
With both our breaths mingling, she tipped my jaw back and caught my eye.
“Do you want me to stay?”
The question pierced through me, tearing at an already gaping hole. It was too big of a request, and if I told her yes, and she left anyway…fuck.
I looked away, lightly kissing her shoulder. “Would it make a difference?”
She stayed quiet for a stretch of time, slowly stroking my hair before eventually trying to crawl off me, but I held her firm.
“Would it?”
Her hazel eyes turned on me, sharp and focused. Her pink lips parted like she wasn’t expecting me to turn this on her, then finally she answered, and I was glad I hadn’t exposed my heart because she’d just fucking ripped through it.
“No. It wouldn’t.”
I assumed as much. Giving her one last squeeze, I let her crawl off me. I didn’t follow her as she cleaned up or as she dressed. She knew what would come after this. We’d find her dad, and then she’d pack her things, and she’d leave my life again.
This time I was at least grateful I had kept some of my heart tucked under my sleeve, never allowing her to see it for what it was. She owned all of it, the entire fucking thing. If only she wanted to keep it.
The cab of the truck was quiet as we drove up to the house.
I was nervous to see her reaction, even with her not knowing it was mine.
It made her acceptance or disappointment even more important.
We didn’t talk about what happened at the house or what either of us said.
Our relationship was fucked up. I knew it, and she knew it.
We loved each other, in our own strange ways, enough that we were literally trying to create life, or at least not doing anything at all to prevent it.
I considered it a challenge, and she wasn’t shying away from it, while also not confronting any of it.
It was better to just move past it.
Which was what I had been doing while moving through the motions of finding someone to watch Max and talking to the guys about heading to the Triple Y ranch. I wanted them busy while Callie and I headed up the bluff.