Chapter 10 Ryker
RYKER
I sit on the edge of the tub as one of our nurses bandages my arm. She offered to numb me first, but I declined. What would be the point? I don’t even feel it as she stitches me up.
My body is fine. My head, on the other hand, feels like I’m sitting in a vacuum. The house is quiet. Too quiet. I wish Dad would throw one of his legendary parties so I could get lost and no one would be looking for me.
“If you don’t mind me saying,” the nurse whispers, “you’re very brave. Fighting for your family’s honor.”
Before I can reply, she’s on her way out. I shake my head.
“Right, my family’s honor.”
Honor has nothing to do with why I followed Sable to the deli or put my life on the line in that shootout. It wasn’t for territory or respect; it was for her.
I throw on my shirt and head downstairs, only to find Dad and Valeria waiting for me.
“Well, I guess you handled that, didn’t you?” she asks, raising her eyebrows. I can’t tell if she’s actually impressed or just screwing with me.
“We don’t have to worry about Tony anymore,” I reply, skirting them both and moving into the kitchen. Shootouts always work up a hunger in me.
I grab some cold cuts and cheese and start making myself a turkey sandwich, but they both follow me in and take a seat at the table.
“Yes, Tony is gone,” Dad says.
“But some of his family remains,” Valeria adds. “And my daughter…well, you know her. She can be a bit wild.”
Christ, leave me alone. I just put my life on the line for a woman who apparently has no interest in me, and all I want to do is grab a bite to eat.
“Yeah? And what do you want me to do about it?” I ask, taking a big, angry bite. “Follow her around? Be her own personal bodyguard?”
I’m getting pissed. The pain in my arm is starting to rear its head, and along with my sore knuckles, all I want to do is go to sleep for the next couple of days.
“She’ll listen to you,” Valeria says in a tone I’ve never heard from her. She’s also looking at me with a surprising amount of sincerity.
Surprisingly, her comment stings. “Will she?”
Getting up from her chair, she comes over to me and places a hand on my arm. “Come on, Ryker. We both know you and she have a…special relationship.”
My heart skips a beat. Do they both know? How could they? We’ve been discreet. But they’re both eyeing me right now like we’re all sharing a secret.
And then, with that, they both exit the room, leaving me alone with my heavy thoughts—and my turkey sandwich.
My hands are trembling as I pick it up and take another bite.
Theoretically, I could be her bodyguard. Just follow her around and keep her from getting herself killed, but I don’t want that.
I want to stand with her, like Valeria and my father. After all, she and I are both the heirs to this family.
Tossing the rest of my meal in the trash, I stride quickly down the hall to Sable’s room. The door is open, and I see Luca inside, talking with her over a stack of guns.
“Out,” I tell him, like a master commanding his dog. He knows better than to argue and vanishes.
I wave my hand over the arsenal. “What’s this? One shootout wasn’t enough for you?”
“I don’t need a lecture, Ryker—”
“This isn’t a lecture,” I reply. “I’m asking what you’re doing.”
“We didn’t get them all,” she replies, checking the slide on a pistol. “Can’t have survivors who want us dead.”
“We have men who work for us, Sable. You don’t have to do this on your own.”
She laughs and looks at me. “Who are you? My father?”
Something low inside me tightens. Pressure builds as I stare back at her, my lips pursing angrily. “No, I’m the man who just saved your ass from getting shot to pieces!”
“Saved me?” she snaps, lashing out and rushing at me. She slaps me, and I let her. “You didn’t save me. I was fine!”
“You would have been dead!” I roar back, my blood pumping through my veins like magma as our eyes lock and I stare at her, her untamed beauty causing my legs to go weak.
She sneers, shaking her head at me. “So what’s this? You help me out once and think you own me now?”
Her scent is a hammer, battering my brain with lust and desire. I step closer, and she doesn’t even flinch.
Keeping my voice low and taut, I tell her, “You were mine the moment I saw you.”
Her jaw drops, and the moment hangs between us like a blade waiting to drop on our heads.
Then she swings out again, aiming at my face.
I catch her fist with one hand, then grab her other wrist and push her down on the bed. Guns and bullets scatter to the floor, but others remain—a blanket of death beneath us as I press my lips against hers.
She squirms, bites my lower lip and tries to knee me, but I overpower her, pressing the entirety of my weight down on top of her tiny frame.
“Stop!” I bellow. For the first time, I see actual fear in her eyes. “You don’t even care about me, do you?”
Her face softens almost imperceptibly. “What…?”
“About how I would feel if something happened to you? Why do you think I followed you to Tony’s, Sable!?”
Her body relaxes beneath me. She’s not fighting back as hard anymore.
“I wanted you there with me,” she says softly, an admission I never expected from her. “I…I knew you’d come.”
Lightning bursts inside me. I can’t hold back any longer.
I envelop her lips with mine, kissing her deeply, showing her just how much I love her with every single movement.
She stops fighting me and wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me closer, tighter, like she’s trying to meld us into one.
My hands tear like weapons at her dress, ripping it into shreds of fabric that fall away to reveal her mouth-watering curves.
My cock is ready to rip through my pants, and I nearly fall off the bed kicking them off. Her little pink pussy is dripping, and just as I press my tip against her hole, she stops me with two palms against my chest.
“Just sex, right?”
My chest is hot, and my heart is pounding. I shake my head. “Wrong.”
I pump my hips forward and enter her, feeling the walls of her hot, wet cunt stretch around my girth. I’m so hard my cock could cut glass as I rock into her, no condom, no barriers.
God help me any man who tries to take this woman from me.
“I’m not here to cage you, beautiful,” I whisper, kneading her juicy tits with both hands. “I’m here to rule with you.”
Her pupils dilate, and her eyes flare. She bucks her hips back against me, taking every solid inch in her soaking slit.
She’s my step-sister. People will talk. But I don’t care. What are they going to do about it? I’m Ryker Vale, and once Sable and I squash the last of Tony’s men, there will be no one left to oppose us.
“I want that too.” She nods. “And you were right.”
“About what?”
“You have owned me since you first saw me. I was just too scared to face it.”
I flare inside, pumping her pussy faster as my balls begin to ache with the desire to breed. Time to make it official. Make a move that can never be taken back.
My head is spinning as all the blood in my body goes south. I gasp for breath as I watch her tits bounce with every thrust I deliver.
Bullets fall to the floor as the bed shakes, the headboard pounding into the wall as I fully claim her perfect body.
I’ve never been so hard in my life. Sweat pours from my body as I clasp her in my arms and soar over the edge.
My balls tighten, and every muscle in my body goes taut. “I’m gonna fill you up, princess.”
Her breath catches briefly, but she quickly nods. “Yes. Give it to me. Make me pregnant.”
My back arches, and my dick sprays like a firehose as I go off, filling her tiny channel with more seed than I’ve ever shot in my life.
My ravenous fingers mark every inch of her body as I bury my cock inside her, touching her cervix as her walls clamp down, sealing me inside her.
“I’m coming!” she gasps.
I know.
I can feel it. Every single pulse of her orgasmic bliss, enhancing mine. Just knowing I can give her pleasure like this has me soaring.
It’s a rush beyond anything I’ve ever felt. And I can’t help but smile. This is my life from now on—pleasing the woman I love over and over and over again.
We’ll raise a family together.
We’ll rule.
And everything will be perfect.
I slump down on top of her, burying my nose in her neck so I can fill my lungs with her scent. My tongue moves on its own, eager for a taste of the tiny layer of sweat that’s formed on her skin.
She giggles and twists away. “That tickles.”
Laughing, I bring my face to hers, brushing away the hairs that obscure any tiny bit of her gorgeous face from me.
I know by the look in her eyes that it doesn’t need to be said, but I say it anyway.
“I love you, Sable.”
She beams up at me with an expression I’ve never seen before.
“I love you too,” she says, her voice soft.
I study her eyes. The strength is still there. I haven’t tamed her—I chose her, and she chose me.
We lie there together for what feels like forever, not speaking, just delighting in the bliss of the moment.
Finally, as the sun begins to set, we get out of bed, dress, and go downstairs together.
Our parents are in the study. My father is reading while Valeria writes something in her journal. They both look up as we come in.
I glance at Sable, then back at the two of them.
“We have something we need to tell you.”
I suspect they already know, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing they can say can stop the inevitable. My life is now all about her—protecting her and ruling with her.
And no one alive can stop that.