Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC (38 page)

"And all because of Ricky," she mumbled. "But if nothing else, you'll still have people like Trucker and Styx hoping to claim a place beside you, right?"

"Styx just might be the only motherfucker who's left once all this shit is said and done."

"At least you know he's loyal to you and the club."

River slowly nodded his head and peered. "Yeah..." He cleared his throat. "So you two friends or some shit now?"

She slightly lifted her shoulders and averted her eyes. "I don't know. He's been nice to talk to sometimes, I guess."

He nodded again. "You know he's got a bitch out in Montana?"

She narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry?"

"He's got a bitch out in Montana that he goes to see every now and then."

"You mean like a dog or an actual person?" she asked. He made a face. "I'm only asking because I'm honestly not all that sure. I mean you use the word so casually in every sentence like it just comes so naturally to you."

"Maybe it does--"

"Maybe it shouldn't. Maybe the fact that it doesn't come so naturally for him is why he has someone that he goes to see up in Montana on a regular basis. Maybe you could have that too if you didn't."

"Who says I'm even lookin' to have that kinda shit, doll?"

A wide and genuine smile crossed her face as she tilted her head and stared right into his eyes. She rolled her tongue across her lips and sank her teeth into each one. "Come on, River.
Everybody's
looking to have that 'kinda shit', and you're lying to yourself when you say that you don't."

"Uh--"

She put up her hand to stop him. "No matter how often you try and sit down and deny and pretend otherwise, you want it just as badly as anybody else."

"Maybe not as badly as you seem to," he said.

"No..." She fell quiet. "Maybe you're right, maybe I want it just a little bit more."

He swiped his tongue across his bottom lip and while tapping his fingers against the arm of the couch, nervously asked her, "Any particular motherfucker you've got in mind as far as who you're wantin' it from?"

"
Been
wanting it from," she emphasized as her breathing increased.
Shit
. "And I think he's staring right at me. I think he's been staring right at me for a long,
long
time now."

Jesus
.

Her skin grew hot the longer she stared at him, then her eyes went soft as the blood rushed her cheeks, and she sat up straight which brought his focus down to those full, perfectly shaped round tits and hard as fuck nipples that brushed against the soft fabric of her robe, and shit, that was it. Those words were exactly what this motherfucker needed to hear, that look in her eyes was exactly what he needed to fucking see – that goddamn body of hers was exactly what he needed to feel beneath his own. And not just for the sake of his now rock solid cock or his natural male ego, but to help loosen the grip of that goddamn cage tightening around his once slow beating heart; a rhythm his body no longer knew the second she walked back into his life wearing that perfect as hell smile.

Once she realized what she had said, Mia waved a hand across her chest and leaned forward. "I'm sorry." She placed the glass down on the coffee table and arched her brows. "I'm sorry, that's probably some of the booze talking."

"Don't we often tell the truth about shit when we've got no other goddamn thing to lose?"

She produced a lazy smile and sank her teeth into her bottom lip, and gently suckled it. Shit was like a soft, warm hand squeezing around the head of his cock, and goddamn, was he fucked.

"You're trying to be a philosopher now?"

"No, darlin'," he replied, his eyes moving between her face, her breasts, her cunt, which had just barely become exposed. "I'm just a goddamn, motherfuckin' truth teller."

"Okay... Okay, then since you've had your fill of booze now too, why don't you tell me this; what did you think about me when you first saw me show up to the garage, asking for your help."

"In that tight tank and short as fuck skirt?"

She nodded. "
Yes
."

He waited a moment and drew his finger back and forth across his lip, and without even thinking of what the hell to say next, he blurted out the first few words about her that came into his goddamn head. "I thought you were beautiful, doll.
Fuckin'
... Most beautiful goddamn woman I'd ever seen in my entire fuckin', piece of shit life. The kinda beautiful that if anybody ever asked me just how fuckin’ much I thought you were, no words I could use to describe it would be accurate enough to explain the way you need to hear it, or the way you need to know exactly what I thought and how I felt when I first saw you again." He sat back. “Ain't a single goddamn word I could say to you that'd be good enough for it.”

Mia took in every goddamn word, every syllable, every letter, along with the rough and rugged sound of his voice, and lowered her eyes while smiling in relief at finally hearing the truth for herself. "And what did you think of me after I asked for your help?"

"I thought you were crazy as fuck," he said.

She tilted her head back and laughed, and goddamnit, all he wanted to do in that moment was climb right between her thighs and cover her neck with his mouth and soft, soft strokes of his tongue.

"Tell me why you agreed to help me," she said. "Why you wanted me to move in here with you. Outside of what happened with Tiny, was it solely for Ricky or for another reason entirely?"

"Truth?" he asked her.

Her stomach dropped and she gulped, fearful but prepared to hear it. "Truth."

He sat back and exhaled. "For the sake of my club, and the shit you promised I'd get out of it if I did," he answered. "And 'cause I just wanted to keep you around me for as long as I fuckin’ could.”

“Really?” she asked. He nodded. "Why?" Her reply was quicker this time; more anxious, almost too anxious for an answer that he wasn't sure how the fuck to give her one, or if he even wanted to anymore.

River turned from her. "We shouldn't even be talkin' about this shit with you bein' lit up like this again. And after what the fuck just happened--"

"It's all the more reason to discuss it," she said. "And I'm not 'lit up' like anything again. Despite some of the booze maybe talking for me, I'm still of relatively sound mind." She bent forward and placed a hand on his knee, and his entire goddamn body went soft at her touch. She saw the fire blazing in his eyes the longer she kept her hand there, felt his skin grow warm beneath the fabric and against her fingers, and though it fully aroused her, she pulled back, knowing exactly what was liable to happen between them if she didn't. "Why did you want me to stay?" she asked, her voice weakening at the thought of his answer. "Why did you want to keep me around? I mean, I think I know why, but I just want to hear the words from you. I just want to hear you say it."

"You wanna hear me say that I wanna slide my hand right up and in between those fuckin’ thighs, babe?” he said. “That you not havin' panties on right now would give me the perfect fuckin' opportunity to stroke that fuckin’ clit with the tips of my goddamn fingers, and fuckin’ taste you? You wanna hear me say that I wanna know what kinda faces you make when you taste yourself on ‘em for the first goddamn time, the kinda faces you make when you finally taste me?”

Stunned, she slid her tongue across her lip and gulped. “I--”

“You wanna hear that I've been thinkin' of plantin' myself right between those goddamn thighs, wrappin' those long ass legs around my fuckin' waist and slidin' my cock so deep the fuck inside you since the minute you stepped outta that goddamn car? That every fuckin’ time I look at you, it’s all I fuckin’ want for myself? All I think I might ever need in my entire goddamn life?”

She wanted to faint; she almost did. "Yes," she whispered.

"Jesus, baby. You’re a fuckin’ rainstorm and I’m goddamn lightnin’ ready to strike at what you’ve got at any fuckin’ second." His eyes fell to her legs and he watched with a stiff cock as she rubbed them back and forth against each other and rocked the lower half of her body against the couch. "If I told you to get on my goddamn cock," he told her, "said I wanted to fuck you ‘til the goddamn sun came up and fuckin’ rock on me like you’re doin’ right the fuck now against that goddamn leather…" She continued rocking and pinched her lips to the corner of her mouth in an attempt to hide a smirk. "You're not like any other bitch I've ever known, darlin'. And I've known a lot of ‘em.”

"I could imagine," she replied. "But me being different from them should be a good thing for you."

"Should be, babe. Really fuckin’ should be, but it's not."

"And why is that?" she asked. “After everything that you’ve said--”

"'Cause truth be told, darlin', you're just not my type of woman. Every goddamn thing I want from you is somethin' I know I shouldn't have."

"Maybe that's your problem." She rolled her eyes up and scrunched her nose. "Your other problem."

"What's the first one?"

"Admitting that you want it in the first place. Or maybe that's the actual solution to it." She turned her entire body toward him and placed her hands in her lap. "If I kissed you right now, what would you say to me, or do?"

"A better question should be where the fuck would I put my hands on you if you did? Put ‘em where the fuck I want, or wherever the fuck you ask me to?"

“Wherever the fuck I ask you to.” She grinned. "What would you do?" she asked again.

He took a moment and swallowed hard while keeping his eyes directly on hers. This son of a bitch was hungry as fuck, and he’d been looking for a bite for too goddamn motherfucking long now when it came to this bitch. He was ready to sink his teeth in deep and not give up until she fucking screamed no other name but his own. "If you tried to kiss me right now, babe, stick that sweet fuckin’ tongue inside my goddamn mouth and let me suck on it a little bit, just a little fuckin’ bit ‘til I felt you come… I'd just sit back and let that shit happen."

"Really?" she asked, all while attempting to catch her breath. "Even with me not being exactly your type?"

"My heart may say one thing about you, babe, but my cock has been sayin' somethin' entirely fuckin' different for a long, motherfuckin' time now."

"Hm." She readjusted herself on the couch; the height of arousal between them had damn near reached a boiling point. "Well maybe I'll give you that."

"Maybe?"

"Yeah, maybe." She leaned her head and smiled. "When you finally allow your heart to feel the same damn thing for me, or even more than that beautiful, giant pink cock of yours most certainly does, and maybe even always will."

"You're so fuckin' sure?"

"I'm so very 'fucking sure'." She took in a deep breath and slowly released it. His eyes went from her hers, down to her mouth and dipped to the side of her throat where he watched her pulse beating erratically in rhythm. That shit was beating just for him and he fucking knew it. Shit. Just the thought of dragging his mouth across it, and the sensation of his tongue on her skin as she shattered beneath him made his cock stiffer than a goddamn bag of concrete. "I'm going to bed now," she told him. "Maybe try and erase what happened tonight with Eightball from my mind as much as I can." She stood up from the couch and stepped closer to him and as he stared back up into her eyes, all he could see was the chance at that better life continuing to pass him by.

She reached out for his face and brushed the salt and pepper whiskers along his strong and sturdy jawline with the back of her fingers; softly, slowly, the feeling of it making her feel warm in places she hadn’t felt come alive in years. Unwillingly, River’s eyes closed and his nostrils flared, and he turned his head, forcing her fingers to brush between the slight opening of his mouth. The tip of his tongue met her flesh and as he blew on her skin, they both felt something then, at the exact same motherfucking time, and he knew it. He fucking knew it and he ached for that shit more than he was ever willing to admit to even himself.

"Goodnight, River," she said, her soft voice still weak but now heavy with lust. "
Thank you
."

His eyes flew open and as he refocused his vision, he stared back up into her face. Her eyes said she wanted to fuck him; she wanted to fuck him good and slow, and hard and all goddamn night long. They told him she was into the leave scratches on his back, scream out his name until she went hoarse, roll her eyes into the back of her head and go blind kind of fucking that could make even a resilient motherfucker like him sob from satisfaction. Her body needed that kind of pleasure from him just as much as he desperately needed it from her, and he could feel that shit, right down to the tip of his goddamn cock, he could feel it. Had she been anyone else, any other bitch at all, he would've taken her back to his bedroom right then and there, placed her flat on her back and given her every fucking thing she desired from him and then some. But this bitch was different, and he knew that shit. It made her both absolutely fascinating to him and a big ass, motherfucking pain in the goddamn ass all at once.

"Night," he finally told her through a grunt.