Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
She is not in love with me. She can’t be in love with me. Agnes does not love me.
She wanted him. He wanted her. He wanted to fuck her endlessly. To mark her. To possess her. He wanted the world to know that she was his and he was hers and he was—
What the hell? I am hers?
But she moaned and her soft body pressed harder against his, and hell, yes, he was hers. He didn’t want anyone else. Since he’d had Agnes, she’d consumed his thoughts. He wanted to fuck her endlessly, but fucking was basic. Physical. Addictive, yes. Absolutely. But it was just fucking.
Yet with Agnes…
He also wanted to protect her. To take her away from any and every threat in the world. He wanted to make sure that she never felt a moment of pain, that she was safe and happy and— she cannot be happy in my world.
A fundamental fact that he had to accept. She would not be happy in the life he currently led.
His mouth tore from hers. “Mistake.”
“Yes, falling in love with you is probably a mistake.” No hesitation. “I get that you don’t love me back.”
Falling in love with you. He didn’t hear anything past that part. The words pounded into him with the impact of a sledgehammer. He spun around, grabbed her waist, and lifted her onto the pool table.
“Not like you’d love a Fed,” she added.
At least, Cass thought she added that part.
He barely heard her because he was already leaning in, pulling in her sexy scent, and kissing her frantically again.
Plunging his tongue deep into her mouth.
Tasting the sweetness that waited. His sweetness.
She was his. He would keep her. Protect her. Kill for her.
Her legs had parted, and he stepped right between them. He hauled her to the edge of the pool table, and he knew he would be taking her. There. Done.
I did warn her. After the fight at the house, I told her what would happen…
Her right hand went between their bodies. She jerked at his belt. Yanked it open. Unsnapped his jeans.
She wants me. I’m taking her. Now.
His mouth pulled from hers, but he didn’t go far. He kissed a path down her neck. Licked. Bit lightly. Maybe left a mark.
Only fair. She’s marked me, soul deep. I’ll wear her mark until I die.
Her flying fingers went to work on the zipper of his jeans. “The position is making this hard,” she gasped out. “I can’t reach you enough—”
“Princess, I’m the one who is hard.” And he bit her again. Lightly. Sensually.
She shuddered. “Do not joke now.”
Who was joking? Her stroking fingers had to feel the giant cock that was hungry for her. He never bothered with underwear, so when she’d unzipped his jeans, his dick had surged into her hot hands.
“I’m gonna fuck you right now.” He could barely speak. Control was long gone. “Unless you tell me to stop.” She needed to tell him—
Her long lashes lifted so that she was staring straight at him. “Fuck me right now,” Agnes told him.
He backed away. One step. No more. He yanked off her shoes. Hauled down her jeans and panties, and she was completely bare from the waist down. Her legs parted, showing him the treasure that waited.
His.
He had to taste her. Had to put his mouth on her as she sprawled back on the pool table and opened wider for him. He had to lick her clit. Over and over. Had to drive his tongue inside of her.
“Cass! I don’t want to come until you’re in me!”
His tongue was in her. In and out. Lapping her up greedily because her taste obsessed him. He could not get enough. Wasn’t sure that he would ever be able to get enough. More, more, more.
“Cass!” He heard the pleasure break in her cry.
A savage smile curled his lips. He grabbed for his wallet and yanked out the condom inside. Thank fuck for that condom.
He rolled it on, had his jeans around his knees, and he hauled her as close to the edge of the pool table as he could position her.
Then Cass took her. Drove deep and sank into the tightest, hottest paradise he’d ever reach in this lifetime.
His dick slammed home, he buried himself as far as he could go, filling her and feeling the tight, eager clasp of her body around him.
Her hands flew over the pool table. Balls went flying behind her. They hit. Clinked. He was pretty sure one even went into the corner pocket.
Screw the balls.
He withdrew. Pulled nearly out of her. Then…
In. As deep as he could go. Forcing his cock in, inch by inch, making her take him as she lifted her hips up against him.
As she stretched out on the pool table and her legs rose to lock around his hips.
He leaned over her. Drove into her. Pounded into her as she twisted and moaned and heaved against him.
Too hard. Too rough. Too fierce. He knew all of these things.
He should have given her care. Tenderness.
Except there wasn’t a whole lot of care or tenderness in his life.
He didn’t even know how to show care. There had been so little that was delicate or precious in his life, not in a very long time.
“Don’t hold back with me!” Her demanding cry.
He stared down at her. Her bright gaze met his. So sharp. So stunning.
She thinks that she loves me.
His stare darted over her. A red line circled the wrist he’d cuffed. I did that to her, dammit. I hurt her. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. He’d just wanted to protect her.
Her much smaller body was beneath his, open, taking him. Ready.
I can’t hurt her. Don’t want to hurt her.
“Cass!” She shook her head. “Don’t. Hold. Back.”
He didn’t. He let go. Need took over. Control obliterated. Hell, who was he kidding? His control had long been obliterated with her. He never, ever should have taken her the first night. But, now his fate was sealed. So was hers.
He would not let her go. He would not lose her.
Fear for her had nearly swallowed him whole when he’d looked over and seen her out in the open, crouching near that traitorous bastard Levi. Cass had driven straight to her, so desperate to get to her. She’d been his only focus. And, hell, yes, he’d cuffed her to him.
He’d kidnapped her, as she’d claimed. Taking her to safety had been his only goal.
And now…taking her was his only thought.
He pounded into her again and again. She arched up to meet him. Her moans urged him on. He plunged into her, and she squeezed him so greedily that Cass knew his mind was long gone. His temples throbbed. His body ached. Yearned. Needed.
The slap of flesh against flesh filled the air. He did not look away from her gaze. He could not. He saw the pleasure take her in the widening of her eyes and heard it in the sharp cry that broke from her lips. Her head tipped back as she gasped and moaned and seemed to go boneless beneath him.
He erupted into her. Hips thrusting, body taking, soul craving hers. Again and again, he emptied into her until he swore that there was nothing left of himself.
There was only…us. Together. Whole.
Us against the entire freaking world.
She’d had sex on a pool table. A first for her. Not the most comfortable position ever, but Agnes wasn’t about to complain. Maybe the table hadn’t been mattress soft, but the two orgasms she’d just gotten?
Stellar. Ten stars. More.
Her legs were still wrapped around Cass’s hips. Her right arm still clinging to him. She let that arm fall onto the table as she heaved out a breath. She should probably lower her legs. Release him. Cover up. Do something.
He raised up. Stared down into her eyes.
And an odd wave of uncertainty filled her.
She couldn’t read his expression. Truth be told, she had a very hard time ever quite getting a read on him, despite all of her talk about profiling him.
Sure, she thought she understood his motivations, but when it came down to his core, Cassius Striker was truly a secretive SOB.
Fair. She was pretty secretive, too.
Except the secrets that they both carried might just wreck them, if they weren’t careful. “I will trust you.” There. Done. She’d take the first step. She sort of had to do it, considering that she’d already given the man her body and her heart.
He doesn’t want your heart. Try to pull back. He clearly wants your body, and you want his. Take the pleasure he offers. Don’t let your emotions get so wrapped up in him.
But…
Too late. Too late for that warning. Maybe it had been too late from the moment their paths had crossed that very first time. Fascination and curiosity had come first and then, the more she’d learned about him, the more she’d wanted to explore the darkness that clung to him.
“You will trust me? Or you already do?” A deep rumble as he remained inside of her.
“I already do.” True statement. Despite everything, despite all the reasons she should not.
“If I didn’t trust you, then I wouldn’t have walked into the house after the big fight scene.
You know, when you were telling everyone how you were going to fuck me?
Remember that? I wouldn’t have just casually strolled inside. ”
And, surprising her to her absolute core—the core that still had fun little aftershocks of pleasure zipping through her—Cass smiled. A real smile. A slow one that stretched his lips and made the gold in his eyes gleam. “It was my turn.”
She could not look away from that smile. And maybe it had made her brain processing speed slow down because she could not understand what he meant. “Excuse me?” His turn for what?
“You strode that sexy ass into my bar and announced that you were going to fuck me. Figured it was my turn to do the announcing. We’re even.”
Even? She snorted.
His grin actually stretched.
And her heart seemed to melt.
What is happening here? Actually, she knew what was happening.
She’d just discovered that Cass had a lethal, secret weapon.
His killer smile. After sucking in a couple of breaths, she was able to say, “I believe…” Her voice came out prim.
Prim when he was still balls deep in her.
“I believe I walked in the bar and simply asked what I had to do to, ah, get fucked by you. And I was just saying that for our audience.”
He leaned over her.
He was getting bigger in her again.
Uh, oh. They were gonna need a new condom.
He braced one hand on the pool table. His face lowered over hers. He was intimidating. Dominant. Sexy as hell.
Her inner muscles tightened around him.
He growled. No more sexy smile. His face had gone hard and serious. “I wasn’t just saying that for the audience. I was saying it because I fully intended to fuck you at the first opportunity.”
She wet her lips. “Goal achieved.”
His impossibly dark and long lashes flickered. “What in the hell am I supposed to do with you? Other than, of course, kill for you.”
“Keep me,” she whispered. But what she meant was…Love me. Good thing she managed to hold that part back.
“You don’t belong in my world.”
“You don’t belong in the world you’re in, either. You think I don’t see that?” And she held her breath.
His jaw hardened. He began to withdraw.
“Trust has to start somewhere,” she murmured.
He stilled.
“I could believe that you’ve been deliberating misleading me from the word go.
That you are part of the Twin Cobras, and you knew who I was all along.
That you’re involved in whatever sick game the leaders play.
You carry their tat. One of your MC members carried it.
Violence surrounds you. Maybe you’re fucking me as twisted part of their savage game. You’ll fuck me, and you’ll kill me.”
“Never.”
She swallowed. “See, I happen to trust that to be the case. That you won’t kill me. That you won’t use me. That you won’t betray me. I think…I think something very bad happened to you a long time ago. I also think that, deep down, you’re just like me. We both want justice.”
“Vengeance. That’s what you want. You want to make them pay for what they did to you. If you just wanted justice, you’d still be sitting at the FBI with Gray.” And he withdrew completely. Only he didn’t go far.
He stood near the edge of the pool table.
Cass yanked up his jeans. He had his clothes in place quickly, and she sat up, her legs dangling over the edge of the pool table.
Agnes tugged her shirt down, covering herself as much as she could.
Her jeans and underwear had been tossed about ten feet away.
He glowered at her. “It’s about my profile, isn’t it? You think you know so much about me because of it.”
“I think…” And this was not a conversation she wanted to have while half-naked. “I think bad things happened to us both. I think someone you loved was hurt, and you went out to get payback.”
He shook his head and turned away. “I am the bad thing that happens to people, sweetness.”
“Not to me.”
He swung back toward her instantly. His hands flew out and curled around her waist. He lifted her off the table. Held her in front of him for just a moment.
“Talk to me,” she said, and the words were a plea. “Let me in.” In your life. In your world. In your heart.
But something started to beep in the bar. An alarm? Her head turned toward the bank of monitors. She could see a motorcycle heading toward the bar.
“Javion is coming back.” Cass had also looked that way. “You need to get dressed. If he sees you like this, then I’ll have to kill him, too.”
A joke. Not a funny one. “He’s your friend.” Agnes slanted a glance Cass’s way. “You would not kill him.” Certainty.
But he smiled. Not the grin that had disarmed her before. Something altogether different. Harder. Colder. With more than a hint of cruelty. “Sweetness, I told you before. I killed my own father. That was the dead truth. So believe me when I say, I sure as hell would not hesitate to kill a friend.”
And her jaw nearly hit the floor.