“No!” I scream as the gun goes off. It’s so loud that I can’t hear my own voice as a high-pitched ring rips through my ear.

I squeeze my eyes shut as my heart nearly explodes it’s racing so fast. I don’t want to open them. I don’t want to see what I know is waiting for me: Lachlan’s dead body on the sidewalk.

My legs are weak, and I feel like I’m going to throw up as Alessandro lets go of me.

I feel movement beside me, and I gasp when my eyes dart open and see Lachlan with the gun in his hand. He tosses it onto the sidewalk behind him as he wrestles with Alessandro.

Not wrestle. Manhandle is more like it.

Lachlan grabs him by the neck in a tight grip and easily lifts him off the ground. Alessandro’s eyes bulge out as his drowning face turns as red as the burrito stain on his shirt.

Holy shit. Lachlan is so freaking strong. He’s lifting up a guy who must be at least two-twenty with only one hand. His thick forearm is strained as he squeezes his neck even harder.

“Listen to me closely,” he whispers into Alessandro’s ear. The meathead is making choking noises, and I’m not sure if he can hear, but at least the message will definitely get through. “This girl is mine now.”

Hearing him call me his is making the heat that’s swirling through me settle between my legs. It’s the most inappropriate time to get turned on, but I can’t help it. Seeing this gorgeous man protect me in a violent way like this is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

“Nobody comes near her again,” Lachlan growls in a savage voice. “Or you’re going to deal with me. Understand?”

He puts Alessandro down and loosens his grip on his neck. In between a fit of coughs, he glares up at Lachlan with watery eyes. “Fuck you. You don’t know who you’re dealing with, cowboy.”

“No,” Lachlan says, squeezing his neck even harder. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

I gasp as he suddenly surges forward, slamming Alessandro’s head into the car door. He’s out immediately as he falls to the ground. My heart is pounding as I stare in shock at the large dent in the car door that his skull just made.

Lachlan’s taking deep heavy breaths as he struggles to calm himself down. He looks like a terrifying beast, and I get a quick flash of fear as he turns around and looks at me with hard golden eyes.

The fear quickly disappears as his face softens when he walks over.

No one has ever done anything like that for me. I’ve been in dangerous situations my whole life, surrounded by killers, criminals and outlaws, and no one has ever stood up for me like he just did.

I’ve never felt so safe and protected as he puts his heavy arm around me and pulls me to the truck.

“Let’s get out of here,” he says as he looks around. “The police are probably on their way after that gunshot.”

The gunshot! I step out of his protective embrace and quickly look him up and down, searching for a wound. But his body looks fine. There’s no blood at all. Only hard, sculpted muscle.

“Did he hit you?” I ask as he picks the gun up off the sidewalk. I stare at him in awe as he tosses it into a garbage can. The gun was pointed right at his head.

“No,” he says as he quickly opens the passenger side of his truck. “I saw his finger moving, and I ducked out of the way before he pulled the trigger.”

What? He’d have to be Superman to pull that off. “How did you do that?”

He doesn’t answer. He just closes the door after I climb in and hurries around the hood to the driver’s side.

This is all so confusing and my mind is racing. My ears are still ringing and now that the danger is over, my hands are starting to shake.

“It’s okay,” he whispers when he gets in the truck and sees me. “We’re going home where it’s safe.”

There’s nowhere safe for me now. Or for him.

My father and Luca won’t stop until we pay for this. He doesn’t know what he’s just done.

Lachlan takes my hand in his and they instantly stop shaking. “Jessie,” he says softly. I turn and meet his warm eyes and a feeling of safety washes through me, killing any fear, erasing any anxiety. How can I be afraid with him looking after me?

“No one is going to hurt you again,” he whispers. His voice is so sure, and I desperately want to believe him.

“Okay,” I hear myself say. “Okay.”

He gives my hands a little squeeze and then puts the key in the ignition and drives away. I glance in the side mirror and swallow hard when I see Alessandro still slumped in an unconscious heap on the sidewalk, his unmoving head leaning on the dented car door.

It was stupid of me to come here.

Lachlan has been so great. They’ve all been so great.

And how am I going to repay them? I’m going to bring violence down on their peaceful town.

Lachlan may think that he can protect me, but he doesn’t know what he’s up against. My father is Emanuele Marchesi, the head of Chicago’s most notorious criminal organization. He’s not just going to let his daughter disobey him like this.

He’s going to come with a whole army of goons.

And that’s nothing to say what Luca is going to do when he finds out where I am. He’s not going to forget how I embarrassed him at the church, and he won’t let someone take out one of his enforcers without retaliating.

It was nice of Lachlan to try, but he can’t protect me. Nobody can. I’m a puppet surrounded by killers who hold the strings.

It’s not fair to drag Lachlan in deeper than he’s already in.

We’re both silent as he drives through the town. We pass The Slurry Rabbit and I see the twins outside chatting up a group of girls, and I just feel guilty.

They didn’t ask to be involved in this either. The guilt and shame would eat me alive if anything happened to them. Or Maximus, or Caleb, or even Kneecap—whatever his deal is.

I can’t stay here.

It was selfish of me to come. I should have just stayed home and gotten married like I was supposed to do. I’ll always be a piece of property to these dangerous men, and the faster I accept that, the less the people I care about will get hurt.

The fantasy was nice, but I should have known how this would end. I take the white cowboy hat off my head and put it on the seat between us.

It’s only after we pull out of town and start driving along the dark mountain road that Lachlan speaks.

“Do you want to tell me what that was all about?” he asks softly.

I take a deep breath as I look out the window, seeing nothing but dark trees. It’s crazy how the scenery that is so beautiful during the day, can look so scary at night.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” I whisper. “I should have gotten into the car.”

“No,” he snaps back. “You belong with me. I can keep you safe. Please believe me.”

I’d love to, but I can’t.

We drive the rest of the way in silence, and when we finally pull into the ranch, my mind is made up.

“Lachlan,” I say after we get out of the truck. We’re standing in the dark, and I wish the moon wasn’t so bright so that I don’t have to see his face. It would be so much easier if I didn’t have to see his face.

“I’m leaving in the morning.”

He flinches like I just stabbed him in the heart.

This is for his own good. I have to go home. They may kill me, but I’m willing to sacrifice myself for him. It may be best if they do kill me and get it over with quickly. Because the pain of living with a cruel man like Luca while I fantasize about a perfect life back here with the man standing in front of me, will be pure torture.

“Okay,” he says as his face hardens. “Tell me what’s going on. Exactly what’s going on.”

I take a deep breath and tell him. I tell him how my father is a mafia don to the largest criminal organization in the Midwest. I tell him how I’m not allowed to work or go to school, and that I have to live off an allowance that he gives me, all to make me more reliant on him. I tell him how he has been at war with a rival faction led by a horrible man named Luca Cupano. Six years they’ve been going at it in the bloodiest mob war since the days of Capone. I tell him how they finally came to a peace deal and how it involved me.

My father decided that I was to marry Luca to officially cement the alliance with a marriage. I was a token of goodwill. Something to be traded and bargained for. A piece of property.

It didn’t matter what I wanted. My feelings were irrelevant.

All that mattered was that these dangerous men got what they wanted, and now they’ll never forget that I denied it to them.

“I have to go back,” I say, fighting back tears as my chest aches. “It’s the only way.”

Lachlan steps forward and cups my cheeks. It feels so good that it breaks my heart that I won’t ever feel this again. The tears start pouring out and sprinkle on his hands.

“I’m telling you, Jessie,” he whispers. “I’ll protect you.”

“You can’t.” My voice is shaking as all of the nerves and fears and dread start to take over. My legs give out on me, and I drop to the ground as deep sobs begin gushing from my chest.

“Nobody can,” I say between gulps of air. “I’ll never be free.”

Lachlan kneels down and slides one arm under my legs and one arm around my back. He gently lifts me up and holds me to his big chest like I’m weightless. The sobs begin to slow down as I snuggle my cheek against his chest, listening to the soothing sound of his heart beating.

All I want is to stay like this forever, feeling safe and protected in his strong comforting arms.

He takes me into the cabin and gently lays me on his bed. The room is dark with only the light of the moon creeping in through the window. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful as his face in this moment.

“Stay with me,” I whisper as I grab his shirt, unable to let it go. “Just for tonight.”

Without a word, he leans over me and presses his warm lips to mine in a beautiful kiss that takes all of my pain and worries away.

My heart is pounding when he pulls away, but this time it’s not out of fear or anxiety, it’s out of passion and need. I want to feel him deep inside me where he belongs. I want to be his once again.

His silky tongue slides against mine, and he swallows my moan with his hungry mouth. I forgot how good kissing Lachlan feels. It’s not just his mouth. It’s the rush of blood to my throbbing pussy, it’s my pounding heart thumping against my ribcage, it’s the overwhelming feeling that everything is going to be okay, and it’s the butterflies… fuck, I love those butterflies.

He pulls away much too soon and gives me a sexy grin as he slowly stands up. His heated eyes roam up my body from my legs to my heaving chest. His intense hungry eyes linger on my aching breasts in a totally shameless stare.

When his beautiful eyes finally meet mine, I’m dripping wet for him.

“You’re so beautiful, Jessie,” he says as he looks me up and down again.

I’d tell him the same if I could get a word out. I’m too worked up to talk.

With a grin he pulls his shirt off in one fluid motion and stands over the bed, looking down at me. Fuck, this guy is hot.

His chest is huge with a sexy tribal tattoo that travels from his left pec over his shoulder and round bicep. He didn’t have that when we were younger, but I like it. I really like it.

My eyes travel down his chest to his hard-sculpted abs that look airbrushed on. I swallow hard as I continue down to the carved V plunging into his jeans and see the shape of his hard cock pressing out against his pants. It’s so long and hard, and my pussy aches with need at the sight.

I can still remember how it felt when he slid it in last time, taking my virginity. I’m glad it was with him. He was so gentle and seemed to know exactly what to do.

My hands have a mind of their own and reach out to him as he comes back on the bed. He smiles as he kisses me once again, this time taking my mouth with a rough and possessive kiss that knocks the air out of my lungs.

I slide my hand over his thick neck and hold him there, never wanting the kiss to end.

A whimper escapes my lips when I feel his hard erection pressing into my inner thigh. He smiles on my mouth and then starts kissing a trail over my jaw and down my neck, making me crazy.

I’m already panting as he slides his strong hand up my shirt and cups my breast. My nipples are aching inside my bra, and I just want to take it off. I want everything off. Clothes don’t belong between us.

I put a hand on his shoulder and push him back. “Hold that thought,” I say as I quickly sit up and yank my shirt off. I toss it on the ground and drop back down.

His sexy lips leave a tingling trail on my skin as he kisses down my chest. With a firm grip, he grabs my bra and yanks it down, popping my breasts out. He swarms on them at once with strong hands and a wet tongue, licking, squeezing, kissing, and sucking every inch of my curves.

I’ve been dreaming of this for years. Whenever I’m alone in bed at night, I touch myself thinking of Lachlan doing exactly this to me.

My wet lips curl up into a smile as I slide my fingers through his dark hair as he goes from one nipple to the other. He moans as I squeeze my hand into a fist and tug his hair.

His back is rippled with thick muscle, and I can’t take my eyes off it as he continues down, kissing my stomach. I’m not the thinnest girl in the world by a long stretch, but Lachlan never seemed to mind. In fact, he always told me he loved my curves and constantly had his hands all over them, so I’m not self-conscious at all as he kisses my soft stomach.

“Fuck, you smell good, Jessie,” he says as his big hands land on my belt buckle. “You’re driving me crazy, sweet girl.”

He quickly unbuckles my belt with swift fingers as my hips writhe under him. I may be driving him crazy, but I am completely at his mercy.

Right now, he could do whatever he wanted with me and that would be just fine.

He unzips my jeans and then tugs them down my thick thighs.

“You’ve been killing me all night with this body,” he says in a deep voice that’s like chocolate to my ears. “When I saw you come out of the changing room in these jeans, I had to stop myself from ripping them off you and taking you over the rack of clothes right then and there. It was torture to be around you all night and see you all covered up.”

My chest is heaving up and down with raspy breaths as he pulls my jeans past my knees. I lift my legs up, and off they go on the floor to meet my shirt.

I’m aching for him. My pussy is throbbing. My new panties must be soaked through. I bought a sexy pair made of lace, in the back of my mind hoping this would happen, knowing this would happen.

He gently pushes my legs apart and lowers his head between them, his hungry eyes locked on my sex. He moans in delight as he smells my arousal and then comes forward.

My breath stops in anticipation, catching in my throat as he opens his mouth. “Ooohhhh,” I moan, arching my back as he drags his tongue over my mound, making my panties even wetter with a slow languid lick. It sends waves of pleasure rippling through me, making me tremble.

“Tell me you’ll never leave me again,” he says as he slowly peels the lacy material to the side, exposing my mound. His eyes never leave my pussy as I nod my head up and down.

“I’ll never leave you,” I say in a gasp. “I’m fucking yours. Forever.”

“Good,” he says in a satisfied tone. “That’s what I want to hear.”

This time my back arches to the point of snapping as he slides his tongue through my dripping folds, licking every inch of my aching pussy.

The sensation is overwhelming in the best possible way. “Yes,” I moan as I grab fistfuls of blanket on either side of my head. When his tongue hits my clit, I yank the sheet off the corner of the mattress as I scream out loud.

“You’re so wet for me,” he says in a low gritty voice. “I love it.”

I get even wetter as his tongue slides over my hole, and he presses it in deep. Oh, God. I feel like I’m falling. Like I’m spinning out of control.

He slides a delicious finger inside me, then another, making my hips buck.

I’m grinding against his hand—his fingers in deep—as he sucks on my clit. I feel it coming on fast. The orgasm burns up every cell in my body as it comes raging forward. His tongue doesn’t stop. He just keeps working me with his fingers and mouth as white spots start dotting my vision.

The orgasm slams into me, hitting me hard, and taking my breath away. My hips are rolling, pushing my pussy against his face as I come harder than I’ve come before.

I’m shaking uncontrollably as I watch him stand back up with a satisfied smirk on his face. He should be satisfied with himself after that.

All I can do is watch while I try to catch my breath. My legs are still trembling on the bed and my heart is pounding. He’s grinning at me as he unbuckles his belt and slides his jeans down, taking his black boxer briefs with them.

His hard cock springs out, and I gulp at the impressive size of it. He’s huge. It’s a beautiful long cock that’s thick and intimidating, but I’ve always loved a challenge.

The warm waves of my orgasm are still flowing through me as he grips it with his strong hand. I quickly remove my bra and panties as I climb to my knees and wrap my fingers around it, stroking his length as I kiss him on his sexy mouth.

“Mmmmm,” he moans as he gently bites my bottom lip. “On your hands and knees.”

I obediently obey and turn around, dropping into the doggystyle position with my big ass in the air for him. He grabs my ass cheek hard enough to make me whimper. His hands feel so good on me, and I can’t wait to find out what that big cock feels like.

“Remember, you promised to stay with me, Jessie.” He drags the tip of his cock up my folds as he says this, making me shudder. “You’re free to do what you want now, sweet girl. I’m here to make sure of that.”

I want to believe him so badly. I want to stay with him and do this every night.

He slowly presses the tip of his cock into my wet tunnel, and I’m squeezing the sheets in a fist and gritting my teeth as he starts to fill me.

“We made the mistake once of separating,” he says as he slowly, agonizingly, slides in one millimeter at a time. “And I always regretted it. Let’s not let it happen again. Stay with me, Jessie. You’re free now.”

Once he’s finished talking, he slides in deep, and I throw my head back and cry out.

“Fuck, Lachlan,” I moan, biting my lip as I adjust to his size. I remember him being big, but not like this. I’ve never had anything close to stretching me and filling me like he’s doing right now.

I grab the wooden headboard with one hand and moan as my pussy relaxes and takes him in easier. He squeezes my other ass cheek with his big hand as I focus on his dick sliding in and out of me.

His grunts, his strong hands gripping my ass, his muscular thighs slapping mine, his balls hitting my clit. Oh, fuck, I’m in heaven.

“I’ve missed this tight little pussy,” he groans as he picks up the pace, thrusting in harder and faster. “I haven’t been with another girl since you, sweet girl. I just couldn’t be with anyone else. I didn’t want anyone else.”

I’m not sure what’s having a bigger effect on me, his words or his cock. He hasn’t been with another girl? Since me?

I want to tell him that I haven’t been with anyone else since him either, but it’s so hard to talk with his big cock taking my breath away.

“I’m going to come, sweet girl,” he says in a raspy voice. “Come with me.”

He doesn’t have to ask me twice.

I dig my face into the sheets and let it come, crying out as it washes over me like a wave of heat. His hands tighten on my ass, and he lets out a deep grunt as he thrusts all the way in, coming deep inside of me.

“Fuck,” I scream into the sheets as I feel his warm seed fill me up. This is the best feeling in the world.

A few moments later, he turns me around and slides back into me, just holding it there as he lies on top of me, being careful not to put any of his weight on my body.

I scratch his muscular back as I listen to his breathing soften in my ear, but it’s the already spoken words that I’m really hearing.

I can stay if I want. The choice is mine. I’m free now.

I hold him tight, never wanting to let go.

I would choose him in a second if only I had a choice.

A scary thought occurs to me. What if I do?