Stone

My hand blazes with pain. Did I fracture it? I kind of hope I did. I need something to balance out the churning hell in my mind.

I can’t believe I let him go. But with Brooke’s hopeful eyes on me, it’s all I could do. It’s more than just the fact that he’s her father. She watched me kill someone the first night we met. I can’t do that to her again.

I feel her behind me. She shouldn’t even be near me right now. There’s too much violence inside me still. All of it unspent. I may have spared his life, but that doesn’t make me a good man.

She moves nearer. I’m not fit for her right now.

And my mind is still reeling with doubt. What if they get away with it? They’ve gotten away with it for years; why should things change now? What if the dirty cops just kill her old man? What if they send in a SWAT team and move the boys?

“You did it.”

“I should’ve gone with the guys. To sit on that place.”

“Having an army there will alert somebody. You’re here. Ready to make decisions. Thinking things through. Being the leader they need.”

I know she’s right.

“My father wants to help—whatever you say about him, he’s tenacious when he sets his mind to something. Rivera is one of the good guys. This will work, Stone.”

I think about what she said, how I need to trust somebody sometime. It’s hard.

“You and your guys aren’t alone.”

Something strange happens. There’s heat in my eyes. Pinpricks. What’s happening? Then I realize the pinpricks are tears. Am I crying? I’m more shocked than ashamed. When’s the last time I cried? Not ever. Not even in that basement. It’s because she’s right. So right I’m fucked up over it. So right I’m shaking like a motherfucker deep down inside.

Maybe I just don’t know how to feel okay. Maybe that’s what they took away from me.

Her cool hand settles onto my shoulder. “You blow me away,” she whispers.

I shut my eyes, not sure what she means. Not sure I want to know.

“You blow me away, Stone.” Her fingers close around my shoulder. Her touch is sweet. Cool beyond imagining. “I love you so much.”

A breath I didn’t know I was holding gusts out of me. She’s the rain, soothing the fire in me, washing the rage.

Before I can stop myself, I spin around and grab her small frame. I push her up against the wall and devour her mouth—mercilessly, hungrily.

I’m a starving man, and Brooke is the only food for me. The only nourishment in all of time, in all the universe.

I can feel her hands pulling at my shirt, busy and frantic, like she needs this as much as I do. It makes my heart swell up as huge as my cock.

She’s a wild thing against me, but small enough that I can hold her in both hands. I cup her face, tasting her lips. She’s trying for my fly and not really getting it. I don’t care. The feel of her fingertips grazing my steely dick is pure madness.

Her breath is soft and rhythmic in my ear. I kiss her cheek. I pin her to the wall and glide my teeth along her jaw line. I taste her neck, giving her a hard suck, marking her as mine. She cries out, but I keep on. I suck and pull at her neck as I yank up her schoolgirl skirt.

My hands rip at her panties. Find her soaked. I groan and release her neck. “You’re so fucking wet for me.”

She’s panting, watching my eyes.

Just that.

I love the way she watches my eyes. The sweetness of her trust. The bravery of her love. I grip her hair. I tilt her head back so she has to look at me. “I only ever want you to look at me.”

“Only you,” she says, panting. “Don’t stop.”

“I can’t be sweet like last time,” I say. “I can’t be gentle. I need you too much.”

“Fuck me,” she says. “That’s all you need to know. Fuck me. Now. Please,” she adds.

It’s the please that kills me. My perfect little bird, panting against the wall with her schoolgirl skirt around her waist, asking me please.

Like a madman, I’m tearing off my pants. They end up across the room with my shirt.

I grip her bare thigh and pull up her leg. I open her to me like a flower.

I press my chest against hers, heart pounding right into her tits through that schoolgirl shirt. The way her eyes are, I know she feels it. Then I guide myself into her and drive home. The tight silken warmth surrounds me.

She’s so tight and so ready, I nearly lose it. I begin to thrust, fucking her deep and hard.

“Yes, Stone,” she says, fingers squeezing my ass to pull me closer.

“Omigod omigod,” she moans.

I come out of my haze enough to slow. “You need me to stop?”

“It feels so good,” she says.

“So good,” I say, sliding a knuckle over her cheek, just hanging out inside her, feeling the way her muscles move and clench around me.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking at how beautiful you are. I can’t believe I’m inside you right now.”

“You’ll always be inside me.”

I kiss her again. Gently this time. I slide my hands under her hips, urge her up. “Wrap your legs around me, baby.”

She complies. I lift her and walk her to the bed, kissing the fuck out of her pretty face, staying hard as rock inside her. I yank away the blanket and settle us down on the soft sheets.

“Stone,” she says, looking up at me. Her dark hair is splayed out over my pillow, calm waves on either side of her.

“I’m here, little bird.”

I climb over her. I fuck her slow and sweet and easy. Not like she’s a piece of food about to be taken away, but like the woman I love. The woman who loves me.

I can’t trust a lot, but I can trust that. I can start with that.