Chapter Four
“This is bullshit,” Dwayne said.
Caleb stared at him. He watched his young nephew bend over and take several deep breaths. It was still dark out, and of course it was cold. Caleb didn’t give a fuck though. Dwayne asked for his help, and he was merely providing it.
“What do you think is bullshit?”
“This. This is not what you and Beast do. I want to know the good stuff. Not freezing my balls off just for a fucking jog,” Dwayne said.
There were a million different things he’d love to be doing right now. Babysitting this pansy ass wasn’t one of them.
“Go home.” Caleb turned his back, ready to go home himself. He wondered if Faith was already up, or if she’d still be asleep. There were a few times he’d gone to check on her, and watched her sleeping, in a totally non-creepy kind of way.
“Caleb,” Dwayne said, sounding like a whiny little girl.
The sound of his nephew’s voice was really starting to grate on his last nerve. “What, Dwayne? What the fuck is your problem?”
“Is it wrong that I just want you to teach me the guns, the weapons, the business?”
Caleb rounded on him. “You can’t even hack it running laps at five in the morning. You’re nowhere near ready to handle the kind of shit we deal with. I doubt you ever will be. You’re too much of a lazy ass.”
“I can run the fucking laps.”
“Then prove it,” Caleb said, yelling now. They were alone in the park and had been for the past hour. “I haven’t got time for you to tell me what you can do. I want to see it.”
“I’ve been running with you for months, and you’ve not changed what we do.”
Caleb stared at Dwayne. There had been several times over the years that he told Beast he needed to be harder with him.
He understood wanting to give the kid a childhood, but he was eighteen now. There was no way that he’d trust this little shit with his back, or the business. All it would take was someone who had a little drive to take Dwayne out, and that didn’t sit well with him. He hadn’t liked being born into a criminal family that owned brothels, fight clubs, drugs, and many other illegal businesses, but this was what he did. It was in his blood. Lives depended on him being tough and not taking shit from anyone.
Grabbing Dwayne around the neck, he pinned him against the nearest tree. “You may be used to getting your own way with Beast, but that’s not going to cut it here. As far as I’m concerned, you’re so far away from a person I need by my side, you’ve not got a chance of being part of this world. You can’t take a simple run every single day without moaning about it. I can’t have you at risk of ruining other lives. It’s not just about the run. It’s about being able to withstand the kind of torture that can be thrown your way, while you wait for Beast or someone else to help you out, and people want to get information out of you. So you can take the pain, the beating, a couple of stabs, hell, even a few bullet holes, waiting. You don’t talk. No matter what kind of pain they deliver to you, the people you hurt, the Carson name remains strong. You don’t fall against your enemies. You don’t beg them to stop.” He stared Dwayne up and down. “You’d crumble within the first few minutes. You don’t know how to take the pain. You don’t know how to keep your fucking mouth shut. You’re a disgrace to the Carson name, so no, I won’t have you anywhere near our line of work. The best you’d get is dishing out donuts at the mall.” He released Dwayne’s neck.
Without another word, he spun on his heel and left, jogging back toward his home. Beast would be pissed at him, but this was the way it had to be.
He entered the code that opened the gates to his home, being sure to lock them behind him. Nodding at his security detail, he went toward the back. Anne wasn’t up yet, but he paused, catching sight of Faith as she leaned against the counter in a nightshirt. In her hands, she held the e-reader, and she looked so engrossed that for a few moments, he watched her. She’d pulled her hair back, exposing the scar for him to see.
It wasn’t an ugly scar, not to him anyway. The harsh redness had long since faded, and most of the time she hid it behind her hair. To Caleb, the scar was a sign of strength. She’d been through a lot in her years, and because of that, it made her the woman she was today.
The last thing he wanted to do was scare her, so he opened the door and stepped into the kitchen.
Faith turned to him with a huge smile. “Good morning.”
“Morning.”
“Did you have a good jog?”
“It was … interesting.” He closed the door, relishing the warmth that wrapped around him. “What are you doing up so early?”
“I’m always up early. Anne showed me how to work the coffee pot yesterday. I was more of an instant girl, and I’ve seen you come and go quite early, so I figured I’d be ready with a coffee for you.”
“Thank you.” He watched as she poured him a cup of coffee and presented it to him.
“Anne said you liked it dark in the morning, especially after having a grueling time working out.”
He took the cup from her and took a sip. “You really didn’t have to do this.”
“Is it bad?”
“No. It’s nice.” He sipped some more of the coffee so she didn’t feel bad.
The smile she offered him was so damn sweet. Faith, for all of her macho attitude, was a sweet woman.
“Would you like something to eat? I make a mean French toast.”
“Sure.”
He sat at the counter, watching as she worked. She no longer looked skittish around him, and he liked watching her … a lot. He was as fucked-up as his brother.
Hope had really tamed something within Beast. When he stared at Faith, the only taming Caleb needed was that of his cock.
Watching her work, even looking like she’d just woken up, his cock was hard, ready for action.
There was no denying that Faith was a beautiful woman, even with her curves. She was all tits and ass, all in the right places. Sipping at his cooling coffee, he watched her ass while she stood at the stove cooking his toast.
The scent was making him hungry, but the thought of bending her over the counter and feeling her tight cunt made him even more so.
Glancing down the length of her back, he took in her fluffy white boot slippers, and even they didn’t help detract from his arousal.
She finished his toast and placed it in front of him, which caused her to bend forward. The nightshirt she wore gaped at the front, giving him a good view of her tits.
Forcing a smile to his lips, he took a bite of the food, not really tasting it but feeling the need to fuck, and fuck hard.
Unable to take his gaze away from her, he waited for her to take a seat, and she did, completely oblivious to the pain he was in. He wanted to fuck her so hard.
“Is your food okay?” she asked.
“It’s fine.”
He hadn’t taken her to belong to him as some kind of sex toy to help relieve his needs. There hadn’t been another alternative, since he couldn’t bring himself to leave her with a man who was willing to sell her for a debt. When it came to Faith, she made him feel so fucking much, and he didn’t get it. Women were all the same, but when he was with Faith, everything felt different. Her father was going to use her in any way he saw fit, and Caleb didn’t like that.
They finished their food in relative silence. There wasn’t any awkwardness, or at least he tried not to show that he was in fucking pain.
The shorts he wore seemed to be getting tighter with every passing second, and it was starting to piss him off.
Once their food was finished, Faith took his plate and stood at the sink. He gulped down the final bit of his coffee and moved up behind her.
“You may not think it, but you really need to start wearing clothes downstairs.” He pressed his body against her.
For a split second she tensed up as he made her aware of his rock-hard cock.
“Some men don’t have as much control as me.”
Before he could do anything more, he pulled away and left the room.
A cold shower was in order, and if not, he was about to have some happy time with his fist.
****
Faith stared out at the garden where Beast and Caleb were talking. There was no sign of Hope today, not that she minded. She still had a great deal of coursework to do, and that was what she was supposed to be doing right now, studying. Instead, she stood at the window, and watched Caleb. She didn’t care about Beast. He seemed too … mean for her.
Caleb had that mean streak though.
No one messed with him, and she imagined he was a force to be reckoned with. Both men were.
Teasing some of her hair through her fingers, she thought about the other day at the kitchen sink when he’d pressed his body against hers.
She’d not been afraid. Far from it.
The instant hit of pleasure had taken her by surprise. Her nipples had grown hard, and her pussy so slick. She’d not wanted him to leave, and when he had, she’d mourned the loss.
What did that make her? Did it make her a whore? Wanton? What? She didn’t get her feelings for Caleb.
She wasn’t scared of him.
Never had been.
He’d protected her from her own father, and she even knew without a shadow of a doubt that he’d taken care of her father, killed him. Yet, she didn’t care.
Over the years her father had pushed her love for him until there was nothing left. Did she love Caleb? No. The truth was, she didn’t believe in love. As a child she’d once believed in fairy tales.
From what she’d witnessed firsthand, love gave men and woman an equal right to abuse each other, all in the name of love. She did a lot of people watching, and most people ignored teenage girls who were alone.
Biting her lip, she forced herself to stare down at her book.
Chemistry wasn’t going through her head, nor were math equations, or the correct way to build a sentence.
Sex.
Dirty, hardcore sex rushed through her mind, and it made her once again look at Caleb. One sexual partner, one time, and she was … needy.
Her tits ached, and pressing her thighs together did little to relieve the slow agony she felt.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, talking to herself.
Of course, with her need for sex, she’d started to search for something, anything that would help relieve her for just a few days, if not longer. Porn helped a little. Well, it didn’t really help. It was boring, but she loved to watch the act itself. The penetration of a cock inside a pussy, and just because she was a woman didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy that.
Men loved it all the time.
She still didn’t understand their love of girl on girl though. She’d see that as competition, but then, she’d never been with a girl before. Not that she was attracted to girls, far from it. She could look at them and see how beautiful they were, but that didn’t for a second mean she wanted anything more.
“You’re really overthinking this.” She closed her book and glared straight ahead of her. Thinking about sex was really starting to bug her, and not in a good way either.
Gathering her books, she made her way up to her room and placed them on the desk before sitting on the edge of the bed. There was no way she could hide up here, but right now, she didn’t see any other option.
What if Caleb didn’t return her feelings or her needs?
He’d given her no indication that there was even anything between them.
Finally, when she couldn’t handle it anymore, she took a quick shower and changed into one of the dresses that Anne said she looked good in. She didn’t think for a second that she looked good in any dresses, but she didn’t want to hurt Anne’s feelings. Since she’d been with Caleb, she’d grown attached to the older woman, and she loved Anne’s caring nature. For so long she’d been alone, not really knowing how to be with anyone, and Anne seemed more like a mother and a parent to her than anyone else had. She didn’t want to lose that.
Leaving her room, she made her way down to the kitchen, knowing the older woman would help her feel calm and more herself again.
When she got to the kitchen, however, Caleb stood at the stove stirring a pot.
Hands clenched at her sides, Faith was about to leave just as he turned and saw her. “Hey, Anne wasn’t feeling very well. I think she has the flu, so we’re fending for ourselves for the next couple of days.”
“Does she need someone to take care of her?” Faith asked.
“Nope. Anne doesn’t like anyone fussing over her. She’s got a niece who takes care of her when she’s like this.” He covered the pot he’d been playing with and turned toward her. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, and to Faith it only seemed to enhance the thickness of his arms, and it was driving her crazy. “You weren’t in the library when I came to see you.”
“I decided to go to my room. Try and do some studying there.” It wasn’t a total lie. She’d been to her room to try to forget about her arousal. Being around Caleb didn’t help.
Any other man was easy. She’d seen some of his guards, and her body was fine, even her thoughts staying calm.
With Caleb, on the other hand, she was in total meltdown, and it was driving her crazy.
“What’s wrong?” He stepped closer to her, and she took a step back.
She couldn’t look away from him though, and as she stared at him, she was mesmerized by how dark his eyes actually were. They were so brown and intense. He didn’t stop coming toward her until her back hit the wall. Then his hands pressed either side of her head, and she found that so sexy. Trapped between his body and the wall, she didn’t see a problem with that.
Tilting her head back, she waited for him to speak. Then of course she remembered that he was the one who spoke last. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“What is fine supposed to look like?”
“Why are you hiding in your room?” he asked, completely avoiding the question.
“I’m not.”
He smelled so good.
The closer he was, the harder she struggled not to reach out and touch him. She wondered what he’d do if she ran her hands up his chest. He had to be as hard and muscular as he looked even beneath the crisp, white shirt.
He always wore business clothes, which to her was incredibly sexy.
The tension seemed to mount as he stared down at her.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, daring to hope it was the same as she was.
“You don’t want to know.”
Do it.
What have you got to lose?
He can reject you, and you just hide out for the rest of your life.
Easy peasy.
Taking that next step, she ran her hands up his chest. He tensed up just a little, but he didn’t pull away. In fact, one of his hands went to her hair, fisting the length, and she released a gasp. There was a bite of pain from the tightness of his hold, but it only made her more aroused.
For several seconds neither of them moved. The only sounds she heard were those of their deep breaths, and she didn’t know what to do.
Everything seemed fuzzy. Then he slammed his mouth against hers, and all came back into focus. She wrapped her arms around his neck, moaning as his tongue plundered inside her mouth. He held her head so there was no getting away.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she refused to let go, holding him tightly as his touch consumed her more than anything.
Her pussy was on fire for his touch, or for anything.
Caleb pressed her against the kitchen wall. The hard ridge of his cock grazed her stomach, taking her breath away with its sheer size. Even confined in his pants he was a big man.
She didn’t care.
She wasn’t some virgin that didn’t know what happened next, and she wanted this more than anything. She’d been around sex a lot in her life. Her father hadn’t kept her away from some of the women he liked to pick up for the night. It had been random women who told her about her periods, what to expect when she got older, and to always make sure the boys bagged their dick up.
It had been an interesting upbringing. Some women had been cruel to her, while others had felt bad for her.
He broke the kiss, and she missed his touch. Licking her lips, she tasted him on her tongue, wanting some more. Neither of them spoke, and she was desperate for something, anything but rejection.
Of course, she should have expected it.
“That shouldn’t have happened.”