Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
PJ
We stagger into my apartment on aching feet, where we’re greeted by a cranky Jojo—“Fuck off, goodbye!”—and an enthusiastic Bruiser. He’s gotten better at walking as he’s grown, but he still flops over onto his side when he reaches us.
After taking Bruiser out for a bathroom break, I leave Fallon to tuck the puppy into his crate for the night. Meanwhile, I peel off my sweaty clothes and step gratefully into the shower. There’s hot water, which isn’t always a given in this building, but I need to wash off either way.
I’ve gotten as far as shampooing my hair when Fallon climbs in behind me. Before I know it, I’ve turned to him, pulling him into my arms.
“Are you okay?”
He shakes his head against my shoulder. “Even having seen him, I don’t want to believe he’s actually alive.”
“You were really sure Marina killed him?”
“I saw the body, PJ. I helped her…” His eyes widen as he realizes what he’s said. Or almost said.
“You helped her get rid of the body.” I nod as understanding dawns. “That’s why you were so sure he was dead. Something must have happened. Maybe he faked it somehow. Did you guys check for a pulse?”
“I’d literally gotten off a plane that night, gotten a ride to her parents’ house, and walked in to see him lying there on the kitchen floor.
She told me he was dead. He looked dead.
I should have checked for a pulse, but I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of touching him.
Whatever she gave him, he’d thrown up all over himself.
We needed to get him out of there in a hurry before we woke one of her parents up.
Taking him as far as a restaurant dumpster on the outskirts of town was bad enough. ”
Ew. I drop my face to his chest, kissing his wet skin. “I promise your secret is safe with me.”
Fallon chuckles, but it’s a nervous one.
“I’ve never told anyone. It was a secret between me and Marina.
” He searches my face, like he’s looking for a sign I’ll turn on him.
“Later, right before she died, we fought on the phone. She basically told me if we hadn’t had the shared trauma of Eric’s murder, we might not have stayed together so long. ”
“I killed one of my mom’s boyfriends. A dealer who was dumb enough to use his own product.
Smothered him with a pillow one night after he’d gotten fucked up and knocked her around.
Then I called in an anonymous tip to the cops that she’d been selling drugs to kids.
That’s how she got caught selling to a cop. ”
For a moment Fallon’s silent. Wide-eyed and eerily still. Slowly, he brings a hand to the side of my face. “You set your mother up to go to jail?”
My chest burns at the memory. “It was the only way to keep her safe. She was a good mom once. Used to take me to the park and make me cinnamon rolls from a can on Saturday mornings. Once she got in deep with the drugs and the guys, though, I realized it was the only way for her to get clean. We don’t talk much anymore, but the last time I saw her, she was doing a lot better. ”
“Keeper.” Fallon dips his head and kisses me. I slide my tongue into his mouth as the water washes over us, focusing for a second on the slide of his skin against mine. I like that Fallon’s not trying to say anything comforting, not trying to make things better.
He knows.
I clear my throat. “In one of my first foster homes, there was this guy who had future sex offender written all over him. Kept harassing one of the younger girls. She’d tell the foster parents, they’d punish him.
Then he’d make things even worse to punish her for telling on him.
I started guarding her door at night. We fought when he tried to get into her room, and I pushed him over the banister that led to the second floor.
Didn’t expect it to kill him, but there was a table in the great room below.
Wrought iron and glass. Went right through.
” Using my finger, I follow a rivulet of water from his temple down to his chin. “Now you know my secrets too.”
When Fallon kisses me again, I can feel him shaking against me, or maybe I’m the one who’s shaking. After both of us running all the way from the old factory and the shock of Fallon telling me that yes, his evil, bully dead brother-in-law is alive after all, we’re both barely keeping it together.
But where I expect a sleepy kiss and then we get out of the shower to dry off, instead I get an unexpectedly aggressive Fallon.
His hand slides down my body, cupping my erection before sliding his wet hands up and down my length, making me gasp.
His wet fingers tease my balls, and then they continue on, rubbing the skin behind them and sliding toward my asshole.
“What are you doing right now?” I murmur against his lips.
“I need you,” he whispers.
“You’ve got me, baby. You’ve always got me.”
He straightens his spine. “Would you let me top you?”
I mean, I’ve thought about it before. Still, I’m surprised by the shot of lust that goes through me.
“Is that what you need, baby?” I gaze into Fallon’s face, amber eyes framed by wet lashes.
“Yes.” Fallon’s jaw is set. He’s decided.
The look on his face is something I’ve only seen glimpses of before. His eyes brighten. His shoulders go back. I drag my gaze up his wet, naked body. From his well-manicured toes to his solid legs to his hard cock, which I only get a glimpse of before he wraps the towel around his waist.
“I’d give you anything you asked for if it made you happy,” I tell him.
“Come here, then.”
One step and then another. I press against his shaking body. “You need to be the one in charge, don’t you, baby? After what happened tonight? I understand. Here’s the big secret, Fallon. You’re always the one in charge with me.”
His gaze sharpens. Greedy. Excited.
I reach into the medicine cabinet and pull out the lube. “Let’s go, then. Just do me a favor, and don’t tear me up, huh?” His cock is hard and fat, jutting from between his legs. “That’s kind of a monster you’ve got there.”
I think I get it, why he needs to dominate me right now. Everything he thought he knew got turned on its head tonight. If I can give him something back, it’s what I’ll do.
He can’t walk up to Eric Leslie and try to kill him again without risking being the one who goes down, but he can hurt me. It’ll help, I think.
I grab Fallon’s hand and walk him backward into my bedroom. “Come on then, baby. Make it hurt.”
Next thing I know, I’m landing backward on the mattress. Fallon looks at once calm and also a little bit giddy. I haven’t seen him this way before, but I’m here for it.
“Safe word?”
“Pancakes.” When he raises his eyebrow, I give him a grin. “You don’t mind if I borrow it tonight, do you, baby?”
“It’s all yours.” Definitely pleased. Good.
He reaches down and scrapes his fingertips over my nipples, and then he starts pinching, harder and harder until my back bows off the bed and I can’t stop myself from shouting out. Should’ve seen this coming when I said I wanted him to hurt me.
Not that I’m sorry. Definitely, definitely not sorry.
Each pinch gives way to a burning heat, a sizzle that seems to go straight through my brain, my bloodstream, my nerve endings, and all the way down to my dick and balls.
I thrust my hips up, seeking the same attention there, but Fallon climbs onto my legs, straddling my upper thighs and pinning me in place.
“Patience, Keeper,” he growls. As he leans down to take my nipple into his mouth, as he bites until there’s a searing pain that makes me hiss, and then runs his tongue over the swollen nubs, repeating the process until the pain blends into the pleasure.
This is going to be one hell of a rollercoaster.
At some point I start begging. Begging him to stop, begging him to let me move, begging him to let go of the iron grip his hands have on my wrists so I can touch him or myself, for fuck’s sake.
He’s giving me enough to drive me mad, gently sliding his hard cock against mine and pulling back every time I try to thrust against him.
“Stay still, or there will be a punishment, Keeper.”
Oooh, shit. It’s his teacher voice. Only quieter. Rougher.
Fuck. Yes.
After God knows how long, he finally pulls away and gives me a satisfied smile. “I think you’re ready now.”
Okay, so I know I’m new to this, but it’s suddenly hitting me that Fallon, for all his beautiful submission, is a fucking excellent dominant. Fuck knows I’m about ready to get on my knees and debase myself in pretty much any way he asks if he’ll just please let me come, dammit.
“I told you to hold still,” he says before pushing my legs up, propping them wide on the bed. “Too bad we’re not at my house. This would be an excellent time to have a spreader bar handy.”
Well, shit, now I’m picturing it. All tied up with my legs held wide open. Fuck me, for real.
Then he goes about slicking his fingers, slicking my hole. When I think he’s about to thrust inside me, he leans down and bites my inner thigh.
“Fuck. Ow.”
His eyes glitter under the light of the dim lamp beside my bed. “Hang in there,” he murmurs. And then he slides his index finger far too gently over my aching cock. “You’re doing so well. Such a good boy for me.”
I’m not too proud to admit my chest puffs up with the praise. His finger returns to teasing at my hole, making me gasp and clench. Every time I go nuts and start squirming or thrusting, he bites my inner thigh again. Guess that’s supposed to be my punishment.
After a few bites, though, it sort of feels like I’m riding on some sort of magic carpet. Something that dips and swoops and makes me dizzy, but also feels thrilling as hell. My vision starts to blur until I could swear there are faces watching me from the textured plaster on my ceiling.
When I’m totally lost to the sensation of it all, two fingers thrust inside me. Hard. Painful. Burning. Then those fingers find my prostate.