Chapter 49
forty-nine
I feel relieved. Like I’d been carrying a weight I didn’t know I had on my shoulders until Scout accepted me. For me. For the worst part of my past that I’d held on to for so long.
The only thing weighing on me now? Grayson Noel Umbrage. Fucker is still out there and needs to be buried six feet deep.
The day after our Marauder’s hangout, Scout scowls with frustration. The paper target in front of her is filled with holes. In the wrong places. But she’s doing good.
“You nailed it.” My lips brush her temple, scratching her skin with my overgrown stubble. “So fucking proud of you, baby.”
Maybe I should shave. But I’m feeling like a desperate man recently. One that needs to paint his face with camouflage and wait for Gray in the shadows.
I push the button to bring her target toward us at the indoor shooting range I like to use when the weather is shit.
“I hit his arms and groin.” She scoffs, shoving a hand toward it. “Those could be good spots, I suppose. But isn’t the point to aim for the chest? That’s what you said.”
“Anywhere you can get him down? That’s a good start. We’ll set up a new target, and I’ll help you with the aim.”
She shakes her head. “I think my eyes are just crooked.”
With a smirk, prop a finger under her chin so she has to face me.
Just as I think of telling her how amazing she is at this, I get the urge to gather her lips with mine and forget what I was going to say.
“Fuck. You’re so gorgeous.” I scan her face behind her safety goggles. “And not one crooked eye.”
It’s getting uncomfortable in my jeans. There’s more room in my trousers, but I didn’t want to get them dirty here.
By the time I set up her gun and target for the next shots, I’m hard. Cock aching. It’s been fun to play without my stupid cast in the way. And I can’t get enough of my wife.
I wrap my arms around her, one hand splayed on her waist.
“Look through the sight.”
Her ass? It wiggles against my dick, and I press into her firmer. She better be done soon so we can get to where I can take her… Maybe they have a bathroom here.
My eyes flick to the camera in the corner. But it can’t really see if we’re closer to the front of the booth.
Scout’s not moving.
And my fingers can’t help but slip to the button on her jeans, just resting there. She shivers in my hold and sets the gun down with a dramatic sigh that I hear even through the ear protection.
“What?” I ask, blinking innocently. “You want me to…show you how to shoot, or…?”
“No.” She swallows. Her neck grows tight as our eyes meet.
Without warning, she drops to her knees in front of me as I stammer for something to say. To stop her? To keep her going? I glance around quickly to see if anyone’s near, but they aren’t. She’s already got my belt undone.
“Scout! What are—” I heave a wanton sigh that ruffles her brown hair as she rips open my jeans. “You. Doing… Oh, gods…” I groan deep and irreverently as my cock has more room and some of the pressure eases. My head hits the wall behind me, eyes squeezed shut.
Tighter even when she pulls down the waistband of my boxers. My dick bobs out and slaps her in the face. Purple. Veiny. And ready. My crown is already gleaming with pre-cum.
Scout twirls her tongue around the heated tip, then toys with my piercing as she watches my face.
I’m going to crumble in her hold. She’s so beautiful like this.
Wanting to make me feel good. Loving how she’s doing it.
I’m weak. So fucking weak for her. My knees damn near buckle.
My hand caresses her head as I open my mouth in a weak protest or praise. But no words come out.
Half of me is still concerned someone will walk in and stop her.
The other is silently begging her to shove her throat down on my throbbing cock.
“What got you so excited, huh?” she asks, toying with the end. Everything inside me begs for her to just slip her two lips around me. Hug me with her tongue.
I trail my thumb over her cheek and narrow one eye at her with a devilish grin. “You, tulip. That body of yours. Your drive to be the best at everything. Knowing you’re mine and no one else’s. That I can finally be free to fuck you without that stupid cast on…”
Speaking of which…I should repay the favor here, if I can get away with it. Before I can move, though, she makes me choke on a breath.
Her mouth plunges down onto my length as far as she can go. Granted, it’s only a few inches, but it’s enough to make me grasp at the cinderblock wall behind me. Fingers searching for footing. Something to help me stay upright. The heels of my boots carve into the cement floor.
I’m melting into her. Pleasure rising from my balls to my brain.
Especially as her hand joins in, working me up and down the way she knows I like. But with the added terror that someone could see us. That we could get in trouble here…
The sounds she makes are pornographic. Her throat gags around the end of my cock, and every time it tightens, cum threatens to spill into her belly.
But she works harder to relax, which only makes the rhythm more frantic. More insane. My thighs quiver.
Losing my fucking mind, I throb in her hold, seep into her mouth. Balls aching to release. I can’t do it. Not without pleasuring her first.
“I’m not going to last.” My voice is strangled. I’m trying to keep quiet. Trying to maintain some semblance of hanging on. But I can’t. “I want to please you— Oh, fuck, baby.”
I release a tight whimper, and she smiles at me victoriously. Like that sound is her reward. My hand plants firmly on the back of my head, not pushing. Just guiding her in a rhythm that I need.
She’s so into it, I can smell her arousal from all the way up here.
“Stop. Stop.”
Sitting back on her heels, she looks up at me, swiping a hand under her chin to wipe away her drool. I gather her up under her arms and stand her for a moment. Then rip her jeans down and off her feet, tossing them to the side.
I point to her panties. The big black ones I’ve grown to love so much. “Out of those. Now.”
My eyes dart toward the door as she obeys like a good girl. The camera is still blinking, but I don’t think it has a shot of us from this angle.
As soon as her underwear is on top of her jeans, I grip her waist and flip her upside down until her mouth aligns with my cock.
It’s difficult, but if I lean my neck forward enough, I can latch onto her pussy. And it is oh so fucking wet for me.
I devour it. Hungry. Ravenously releasing a growl, my stubble brushes her inner thighs.
She surges down on my cock until I pay her back by sticking my tongue deep inside her, then trail my lips to her clit and pull it inside, nibbling on it until she gags and moans on my length.
Relieving the ache in my legs, I lean against the wall, my arms still tight around her. And then my hips pepper into her mouth. Cock plunging deeper down her throat. Her hands grip my ass as mine do the same to hers.
It’s only a minute until I know I’m going to explode.
“Baby… Tulip… It’s coming.” My mouth is full of pussy, so it’s barely audible. But hopefully she understands. This is it. Everything I have.
I give one last shove inside her and clamp down on her pussy as I come.
Bliss rockets through my spine. Heat cascades down my limbs.
I’m shaking. But the second I sense her throat clenching, swallowing my cum, she whimpers and shivers.
Thighs clamping down, writhing against me as she uses my face to get off.
Somehow, I hold her until she’s done without collapsing. I’m fucking dizzy. My brain has no blood left in it, but I manage to set her upright. She stumbles a step, and I grip her forearm to steady her.
When she reaches to grab her clothes, in a daze, but I gather her into my arms.
“Wait. Just let me hold you a second,” I say breathlessly. Her wetness coats my lips, cheeks, face, stubble. Our chests rise and fall against each other’s until they slow to normal breathing.
Running my hands through my hair, I worry about someone watching us. Chuckling silently to myself, she gets dressed. Her cheeks darken to maroon.
“We need to get out of here.” She glances at the door to the entrance, like she’s suddenly remembering the men at the counter we'll have to walk by.
I shake my head, then gather her fist in mine.
“Yeah. We need to keep at least one place in this town where we can behave.”
“Grayson Umbrage is still out there.” My tone sounds ominous as Scout hangs up her jacket, returning from her run around the neighborhood the following week. “No updates. Nothing.”
“Yes, but I always have this!” She holds up the gun I bought for her, the one she’s been training with at the range. Trying to lighten my mood.
When I think about the words I heard him say in the attic, my stomach roils. “Still. The creep is in love with you, and who knows when he’ll stop. Or where he is. Valen and Olivia are still checking into it. Keeping their eyes open. No sign of him near Sanguine Manor. Or campus. But I’m worried.”
She drops onto the sofa next to me with a slight shiver, lips turned down with disgust. I hate bringing up what he did. But she needs to be careful. Especially when I’m not with her.
I just finished my first full leg workout after my injury. And can hardly move a muscle.
“I don’t believe Grayson about the elders. When have the Seven ever allowed a broken appointment? I think he’s operating alone and not with the university’s aid. He’s lying. Or deranged.” She shifts her eyes to the ceiling. “Likely both.”
I shrug. “Either way, I don’t care. No one touches my wife. Looks at my wife like that…and lives.” Thinking harder, I pluck a piece of lint from my trousers. “But I still think he is working for the university.”
“Why?”
“From everything Aiden Cardell and Valen told us. We’re collecting the evidence.”
She nods once. “So his key, the tangram, is the entry to the hidden fraternity, Gamma Nu Upsilon.”
“Yep. Ruled by…Malkaos.”
“The new moon god.” She combines the facts Aiden and Ashlyn told us.
“But that still doesn’t mean that the university nor the president know about him or the GNU at all.”
“Except he was employed at various university-sponsored functions. Even paid—”
“But that was by a dead dean that employed him. Not tied to the university as a whole. We don’t know that the president or the elders themselves know about him.”
I interrupt with one small fact that Valen noticed. And Aiden. Even Aiden’s brother, Ryan, noticed. “The previous president had a tangram on his desk.”
“True.” Scout’s silent for a moment. “But not this one. President Damon seems to be unaware of him.”
Scout’s scared. And she should be. I am, too. But I need to be strong for her. I grab her in my arms and hold her tight to my chest. She curls up like the small thing she is. “We’ll hunt him down. And I’ll end him. I don’t want you to live in terror.”
She sits back, and I hold her face. Shaking her head, she gives me some fierce eyes. “I refuse to change my life because of him. Because of any of them.”
Squeezing her cheeks, I press my lips to hers briefly. “The president wanted a fearsome couple. An ideal marriage. We’ll give them that. And more. You and I, tulip? We make the best team.”
Her lips set, face fierce.
I narrow my eyes with determination. “We’re taking over. And making Northview operate the way we want.”