Divided (Unguarded #2) (18 page)

Giuseppe Marino.

Cold.

Lifeless.

And so very dead.

He’s gone.

Relief floods me like a tsunami until the waves pull me down when Lucio comes marching toward me. I scramble to my feet just in time for his gun to kiss my cheek and hand to grab my hair.

He yanks me into his chest and two gunshots ring out. I twist around to see where they came from but I’m not fast enough.

His hands bruise my neck as he yanks me around. His lips descend, too close to my ear. “Walk now. Scream, and I pull the trigger.”

Like hell, I won’t scream.

I open my mouth and Lucio realizes what I’m about to do. His hand clamps down over my mouth, muffling my cry for help.

“Lindsey!”

It’s barely audible but catches her attention. It takes her all but a second to run in my direction, her feet pounding the pavement. Lucio hooks an arm under my chest and drags me away. I kick at his legs. I punch him as hard as I can, but it’s as successful as hitting a brick wall. He’s too strong. Too built. Like the man who rips Lindsey back by her hair. The light at the end of the tunnel dims the further Lucio drags me away from my sister.

“Ali!” she yells, fighting off her attackers, but it’s not enough. The man pins her to the ground with his body and hits her across the face.

Blow after blow.

I gasp. My hands fly to my mouth but a cry still racks through. My lungs constrict, the pain—stabbing. And not just from Lucio holding me tight. What I’m witnessing twists up my insides far worse than Lucio’s body strength ever could. Sirens grow louder in the distance, but my hope remains fragile as we drift further away from Lindsey and the others, and closer to my last moments of freedom.

“Ahh.” I stub my toe on the concrete as Lucio forces me to run down the street at gunpoint. We flee the quiet main road turning at the first corner, and as we do, blue and red flashing lights fly toward us. Police officers jump out and Lucio wastes no time shooting open the door of the closest building. I stumble on my feet on the way into another abandoned factory, nearly face-planting the floor. My hands save me on the way down. They sting from smacking the ground.

“Get up,” Lucio grunts. I try to stand, but I’m slow. My legs are weak. He yanks me up by the arm and we’re off again. Movement comes from behind us, followed by a voice I don’t recognize.

“NYPD. Stop where you are and put down the weapon.”

Lucio and I look back at the same time and find Elias gaining on us and Roamyn not far behind him. Relief springs from my heavy chest. This is it. Freedom is close, so close, but an enormous risk away. If I can slow Lucio down, the guys will get to us. Roamyn will save me. If I can break away I can save myself or, at least, die trying. At least, I could go with pride and my dignity intact.

I take a deep breath and channel my anger. My hope. I imagine my dreams. My
love
and when I draw in that strength pulling free of Lucio’s hold. My chest rises and falls fast as I try to catch my breath, but time is running out. I make myself run in the opposite direction and within a few steps, I fly into Roamyn’s big arms. He tightens them around me. His hand caresses the back of my head, the other bunches around the back of my tank top.

He murmurs into my hair. “Thank God you’re okay.”

“I’m okay,” I rasp out.

I’m okay.

I’m okay.

He sets me back with a kiss on the forehead and gives me a once over. His body still tense with alarm and breathing heavy, matching my own.

“You good?”

I nod my head, unable to speak as my lungs work in overdrive.

“Good, I have to go find Eli—”

Bang.

Another gunshot rings out.

Our heads turn toward the echoing of the shot. The sound following the path Elias and Lucio took. Everything slows as I turn back to Roamyn, and as I do he runs at the speed of a man with everything to lose. He takes off around the corner of the empty building. I stand still, unsure where to run, whether to wait for Roamyn or run like hell towards the police. Toward my sister. Without another second to decide the decision is made for me when men in swat uniforms swarm around me.

One greets me, dressed all in black gear. He drops the large gun in his grip to his side. “Miss, you need to come with us
now
.”

“But Roamyn, he’s back there with—”

He puts a hand on my back and gently pushes me forward. “We know. We’ll get them. We need you safe, it’s time to get you out of here.”

I look back and protest. “Please. I don’t want to leave him.”

He ignores my plea. Fresh air whips through me as we make it out of the building.

“Roamyn!” I call out, so loud my throat becomes hoarse.

Please be okay. Please get out alive.

Sirens blast around me from multiple police vehicles, drowning out my voice. They block off the street with the help of SWAT and NYPD officers who are scattered everywhere in my line of sight. The officer who brought me out is now talking to a paramedic.

I turn to both of them. “Lindsey Jenkins. My sister. Did she get out? Have you seen her?” I ask, my tone frantic.

The paramedic smiles and the knots in my stomach untangle. “She’s okay. The police just got her.”

My heart skips a beat. “Oh, thank God.”

Easing some of the worry I turn back to the building.

Come on. Come on, Roamyn.

My palms sweat. I link my trembling hands together. My eyes never leave the door as I wait in fear. I can’t lose him. I can’t lose him even if he isn’t mine to lose.

I bite my nails and begin pacing when a voice slashes through my nerves.

“We need more help here!”

His deep throaty voice sends me running toward him through the thick commotion as he wheels out Elias on a gurney, SWAT team and two paramedics beside him.

“Roamyn!” I yell.

He turns at my voice and scoops me up. I bury my face in his neck and his scent invades me, warming my body. He’s okay. He’s alive. I’m alive. I soak in the comfort it brings my heart until reality smothers my reprieve.

“Lucio shot Elias in the back. He’ll be okay. But Lucio got away,” Roamyn says, tone low, filled with hate. “I’m sorry.”

I rest my palms on his chest and kink my neck back. “Don’t be. Let’s just have this moment because five minutes ago I never thought I’d get to do this again.”

He gives me a yearning look. Strokes my hair and inches his face closer to mine. My cheeks blaze as he cups my face. His lush lips so close and tempting. If I dip my tongue out, I could taste him. I move from his lips to his eyes, cautious. Guarded. I want him but I’m not ready for him. My body betrays me and leans in, smashing my lips to his. Hot. Wet. I gasp, and his tongue surges into my mouth. He brands me with a kiss to ruin everyone before him. I circle my arms around his neck before sliding them down to my waist and stepping back, breaking our connection.

“I need to see Lindsey.”

He nods as a paramedic wraps a blanket around my arms.

“Thanks.” I smile, grateful, and take a seat on the back of the ambulance with Roamyn by my side. As if she could read my mind, Lindsey’s voice powers through and she hustles over.

“Ali.”

My eyes shine and I smile at my sister. “Lindsey.”

She wraps me up in a hug. The relief overwhelms me as I cry into her shoulder. Sad tears. Happy tears. It’s all too much for my fragile heart. I didn’t think I’d make it out this time. When Adriana trained her gun at my head and pulled the trigger, I thought it was the end. But it wasn’t. She’d chosen to save us and shot her own father in cold blood. I have no idea why and right now I don’t care. She and Lorenzo got away safe and this is all that matters. Right here. The love transpiring despite complete and utter chaos. That even among disaster, love will always prevail. Mason and Lindsey, smile at one another across the road with the kind of adoration and love happily ever afters are made of. Cassidy holds Elias’s hand trying to hide her worry and concern as they close them into the back of an ambulance to get Elias off to the hospital. I smile up at Roamyn. He grins back, dimples peeking out. My muscles relax with that look. The smirk. It calms my racing heart and everything becomes a little easier. I sigh and turn around. Tilting my head to the side, I lean on his shoulder. His arm comes around me.

And then there’s us.

Me.

Roamyn.

Caught in the middle of two worlds colliding.

Silence.

It could be remedial. Or just the opposite. Some people love it—crave it. I can’t think of anything worse. At least, when I’m not high. The silence sets free the voices inside my head and there’s no place more dangerous than living in the abyss of my own mind.

And now is no exception.

The walls are caving in around us. The air, dwindling. Roamyn’s living room has never felt smaller than what it does in this defining moment where silence has become the only thing separating us. The only thing keeping our worlds intact before one of us loses all patience and the ability to think clearly through the lust induced haze we’ve been swimming in for far too long.

One word. A movement. A look. Is all it will take to change everything and nothing all at the same time because it’s always been
Roamyn
for me
.
He runs as deep as the scars etched into my skin and blood in my veins. Once he’s wrapped around me, on top of me, inside of me, I’ll never be able to ever let him go. Which is why my fingers are squeezing the counter so hard my knuckles are turning white and why my mind is screaming at me with every possible reason why being here with him now is the worst idea I’ve ever had. Angry hazel eyes pin me down. Roamyn’s broad chest rises and falls fast as he stands with his hands clenched into fists at his sides, Hulk-like in all his muscled glory. Wide shoulders tower over me, even from a distance. His presence fills the room and steals my breath.

“Ali.”

A shudder rolls through me at the gruff sound of his voice. When he says my name it’s like nothing else. I close my eyes and let it soothe me in a way only he’s capable of doing. Off balance, still imagining his face behind my eyes, words fall from my mouth without thought. “Thanks for letting me stay over tonight. I’m exhausted, though.” I reopen my eyes and point to the lounge taking up most of the living room. “I think I’m just gonna go to sleep.”

A few giant footsteps in my direction and Roamyn’s all but a touch in front of me.

Nerves swallow my words and I gulp, my throat bobbing with the movement. His frown deepens, jaw ticks. Hands slide to the back of my neck, pulling me in before I can stop him from getting dangerously close. My body stiffens at the firmness of his touch. Pleasure spirals through every crevice of my body because this is heaven and hell. Pleasure and torture. Familiarity. This is Roamyn. Strong and firm. Always.

He lowers his head to mine, so close I feel his breath warm my face. “I nearly lost you today, babe. Are you really gonna pretend after the day we had… after the past seven fuckin’ years of this… us.” He gives my neck a gentle squeeze. “That you don’t want to know what it would feel like to have my lips kissing your skin? My cock deep inside of you while I give you everything I should have a long time ago?”

His words become whispers of truth in my ear. I do want it. I’ve wanted it since I was fifteen years old. Warmth trails against my skin as Roamyn’s nose caresses my cheek before bringing his face back to mine.

“I want to feel you, Ali. I want to feel us together just once before you shut me out.”

My chest tightens at the pain cutting through the last of his words. He knows. He knows I’m about to close the door on every moment, every laugh, every crazy second we’ve shared together. I can’t move forward with him holding my hand, not anymore. And I can’t fall back to an addiction I won’t escape twice. And I will fall, I’ll fall because I’m still too weak for him. I’m walking a tightrope and one small slip in the wrong direction will send me crashing down. Because I’m powerless against Roamyn Tate and the hold he has over me.

He’s my heart.

My soul.

My Kryptonite.

He’ll be my undoing.

This is how it has to be. At least for now. On my own. Fighting for myself. Dependent on no one because if I were to lose him now, I’ll lose myself too. I can’t be dependent on him to give me a reason for living. I need to be enough, for me. But maybe,
just once, f
or one night, could we forget about everything else and just give in. We can forget about the past, ignore the future and bask in a moment we’ll spend forever chasing.

I bite the inside of my cheek. What am I thinking? I’m not strong enough for just once and our hearts will always want more.

My lips part and heavy breaths fall through my small voice. “One time will never be enough. We both know that.”

His eyes soften. His other arm comes up where he cups my cheek. “You’re right. But I’m hoping once is all it’ll take to make you realize no matter what, we’re always better together than we are apart.”

His hope weighs me down. How can he possibly believe that? We’re chaos and crashes, not roses and happiness.

“We’ve been a lot of things, Roam. But together isn’t one of them.”

I lower my head thinking how time has changed everything.

Years of hearing his smooth voice lift me up and pull me down.

Years of accidental touches, stolen glances, and forbidden feelings.

I fought against us.

He fought for the both of us.

He pulled away.

I pushed back.

We’re a mess. Reckless. Beautiful. Destructive, and I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.

The last of my resolve peels away with the
what ifs
,
maybes
and my shameful lack of self-preservation.
God, I’m a masochist.

Roamyn lifts my chin, giving me no choice but to look at him. To face what I’ve just allowed to happen.

His hands glide down my sides, firm and slow. Reaching my hips, they splay around my ass. Wetness pools between my thighs and my eyes close, breathing in his touch, his scent, the uneven strumming of my heart. I want to capture every piece of this moment and lock it away, somewhere deep, hidden. Where I can treasure it forever. Roamyn pulls me against him and my hands fly to his hard chest. We’re nose to nose. Lips barely apart. Bodies molding to one when he rolls his hips forward, his hardness thrusting up against me. An inferno rages in my core. Light moans fall from my lips, spurring on my hands that are now gripping his thick, muscled arms. My breathing, needy. My body, anxious.

His hands loosen around my ass and glide under my top, all the way up to my breasts where he pulls the cups back and grazes my nipples. He rubs over the tight buds and a shiver shoots up my spine. I arch my back into him and he kisses my shoulders, my neck, across my cheek, trying to bring us impossibly closer. His thigh meshes between my legs and I grind against him, all inhibitions gone. I bite down on my lip to hold in everything I want to say but know I shouldn’t. And somehow he knows, I can see it in his frown, those eyebrows all drawn in. His square jaw, tight with anticipation, just waiting for me to come to my senses and put a stop to this. But his hungry almond eyes contradict every other feeling. Lust swirls behind them and the look, one I’m so familiar with, one I’ve committed to memory stares back at me with as much fire inside his eyes as I feel coursing through my body.

A minute passes, or maybe it’s seconds. “Good. Because I’ve waited far too fucking long to do this.”

All air escapes me as his face descends on mine. His lips conceal any coherent response. Our tongues tangle with unrelenting need. Fingers twirl through my hair until Roamyn knots it in his hand followed by a gentle tug. The pull spikes excitement and goosebumps coat my skin as he brushes light kisses against my exposed throat.

Lust. Love. Excitement. Years of the most torturous foreplay explodes from both of us as we tear at each other’s clothes. As my fingers claw at his back. As our world’s shift from one dimension to the next because nothing, nothing has ever felt like this. It’s all consuming—electric. Seven years in the making. A night I’ll never forget.

A groan comes from Roamyn as he tears his lips from mine. “Bedroom.”

I nod and he hoists me up in his strong arms. Lifting me as if I’m weightless. My legs wrap around his waist, my pussy rubs against his cock and every step toward the bedroom is a brush closer to an orgasm. Except we don’t make it there straight away. He kisses me up against the wall, then against the door to his bedroom until we finally make it in and Roamyn sets me down, his hands never leave me. They trace the top of my shorts all the way to the front where he unbuttons them and pushes them down. The soft touch prickles a shiver over my skin, tightening my nipples. He slips off the rest of my clothes, painfully slow and as my black lace bra falls to the ground, and I become bare to Roamyn. Bare in a way I never have before. I grab my arm, covering my scars with my hand so he won’t see the ugly.

His fingers clamp down around my wrist and he pulls my hand down. “Ali. Don’t hide, baby. I want to see you… all of you.”

His fingers glide over my scars and the usual searing of pain burdening me with the bad memories of them, never surfaces. Instead, my body smolders, ready to combust if Roamyn doesn’t hurry the hell up.

“You’re so beautiful, Ali.” He kisses my neck, hands still caressing my skin. “So fucking beau—”

“Roamyn,” I breathe out and reach down for his belt buckle. “If you don’t have these clothes off in the next ten seconds, I’m going to have to take care of this on my own. I can’t wait any longer. I’ve already waited long enough.”

Roamyn groans. My body writhes with desire.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

I shake my head as he refers to the few bruises and cuts from today. “You won’t.”

He rips his shirt over his head and his pants glide over the round globes of his tight ass. They slide down the ‘V’ lines leading to the very piece of him I want to spend hours devouring. My throat thickens as his cock springs free, glistening with pre-cum. I lick my lips and Roamyn notices the action.

Every muscle in his body tenses. “You want my cock, Ali?”

“Yes,” I reply, voice raspy.

He storms forward with hungry eyes. “Good ‘cause I’ve been imagining your sweet cunt milking my cock for far too fucking long.”

Scooping me up in his strong arms, he sends us backward into his bed. He brings my hands together above my head in one swift movement. His wet lips kiss tenderly over my breasts.

“God, I could kiss you every day for the rest of my life and it still wouldn’t be enough.” He sucks my nipple into his mouth. Swirls his tongue over the bud and my back arches in response.

“Are you on birth control?” he murmurs, switching between breasts. Sucking. Nipping. Pulling.

My brows squish together at his question. “Yeah. Why?”

He moves lower down my stomach. “Because I want to feel all of you, Ali. If this is my only chance at ever having you, I’m going to savor every fucking second of it. And I want to do it with nothing between us. I’m clean. And I know you are too.”

I pull up to my elbows. My hair grazes my naked back and falls around the sheets. “How do you know that?”

Roamyn looks up, innocent as ever and shrugs. “I saw the doctor’s report after you got out of Sweet Tarts.”

I open my mouth to speak but decide against it. Another conversation for another day. Right now what I need is to drown in everything Roamyn. I inhale his woodsy scent and turn my face to the side clutching the sheets in my hands. Roam’s kisses grow lower. Softer. Tantalizing. Seductive.

“Oh God, Roam.”

He slides back up my body, hovering above. Sitting back on his heels his fingertips graze my inner thighs. He reaches my knees and spreads my legs apart. He lines his cock up at my entrance and swirls it through my desire. Long, slow strokes. Up and down. The pressure—teasing. Enough to send my body crazy with lust. I groan and he surges forward, filling me up. His hands land around my neck. Pulling out to the tip he thrusts in again. This time settling himself all the way in. I quiver with every movement. Our bodies rub together. Our hands link together, squeezing tight as we power toward nirvana. My heels dig into his ass, pushing harder each time he jerks inside of me.

“Seven fucking years.” He breathes out through each thrust. His hands sweep over my forehead and he pulls back the loose strands of hair tickling my face. “You’re worth every excruciating second of the wait.”

He sits back and grips my hips. My skin pinches beneath his grip and he pounds into me. Harder. Faster. Unforgiving. My heart soars at his declaration and the new angle is all I need to tip me over the edge. I fall, fall into the depths of the only man I’ve ever loved. I fall over the brink of orgasm. Of pure bliss and God is it a beautiful drop. My toes curl. My walls contract around this gorgeous man above me as he hammers home. His body quakes and with a throaty grunt he pulses inside of me, filling me up with his cum.