Risk (Gentry Boys #2) (4 page)

“Fuck me,” he groaned, staring down at my body.  I’d forgotten that I’d worn the black corset underneath the dress.  It smoothed out the lines and flattered my figure.  Best of all it was driving Creed berserk.  He impatiently pulled the dress the rest of the way down and let it puddle at my feet.  Then he flipped on the kitchen light switch and knelt before me, staring at my body with crazed hunger.  With the light on I could see full well what an absolute work of art he was.  There was a line of black script inked across his upper chest.  I couldn’t read what it said.  I really didn’t care what it said.  I just wanted to run my tongue over every square inch of his skin. 

Creed’s hands were everywhere as he remained kneeling. His voice was so thick with lust I knew he couldn’t hold it in for much longer. 

“Shit,” he swore, “I knew you were it as soon as I fucking saw you tonight.” 

My back was against the cold door of the fridge and I was shivering underneath his hands.  I wanted so badly to see him, to feel him.  Creed’s fingers pushed underneath my panties and entered me smoothly.  It had been so long since I’d been touched and Creed knew exactly what he was doing.  I clenched around his fingers as they moved in and out of my body.  I could barely remain standing.  My head rolled to the side and that’s when I realized we were basically fornicating in a brightly lit kitchen next to a dark window where anyone could be looking in. 

“Let’s go,” I gasped, trying to move him to my bedroom. 

But Creed only smiled faintly and stayed where he was.  “When you’re ready.” 

“I’m ready now,” I moaned.  “You know damn well I’m ready.”   

Creed took his hands away and stood up.  He stayed a few feet away and studied me. With trembling fingers I reached behind my back and began unfastening the corset.  He didn’t help with the task.  He just watched until it was loose enough to push down. Then his mouth descended on my breasts. Creed wasn’t about being gentle and I loved it. I clutched him behind the neck and spread my hands along the back of his head, pushing him to suck harder, first on one side and then the other.  That put Creedence Gentry over the top.  He groaned with a muffled curse and lifted me in his arms, carrying me through the first dark doorway he found.  Luckily it was my room, although at the moment I was so focused on getting him inside of me I wouldn’t have had any qualms about using Stephanie’s bed. 

Creed paused at the threshold, searching along the wall. 

“What is it?” I panted.

“Lights.”

I found the switch and the overhead lamp lit up the room.  “You afraid of the dark?”

“No,” Creed snorted and put me down, backing me into the nearest wall.  My breasts were completely bare and instinctively I started to cover them.  Creed swiftly pinned my arms on either side.  Not enough to hurt, but enough to let me know he was running the show.  “Just need to see you.” 

“Creed,” I whispered, feeling every inch of his thick erection even through his jeans.  “I need to see you too.” 

He dropped his pants without hesitation.  “You see me now?”

“Yes,” I breathed, transfixed by the sheer size of him as he pushed his thumbs under my panties, stroking me briefly before hooking the waistband and sliding them over my thighs. 

Creed already had a condom in hand.  He tore off the wrapper and rolled it on matter-of-factly. “Come here.”

He sank into a seated position on the edge of the bed.  When I’d first seen him tonight, sitting in the bar all brooding and gorgeous, I’d been jolted by the forbidden thought of how it would feel to straddle him. Now I knew.  It was easy.  He slid right into me without a pause.  I gasped and clutched his shoulders as he seized me around the waist so he could thrust hard and deep.

“Holy shit,” I yelled as every nerve in my body woke up and howled
‘Where the hell has this been?
’ We’d barely started and I was already on the verge of shattering.  “Creed,” I gasped, “Goddammit to hell.” 

“Shhh.” He put a hand briefly over my mouth and changed direction, rolling on top of me.  “Just take it, honey.” He was in me fast and deep, already thrusting so furiously I didn’t know how he could keep the pace for long. 

But Creedence wasn’t an ordinary man.  He proved that over and over again as I lost track of time.  Actually I lost track of everything but the frantic need to satisfy him and the cataclysmic pleasure he gave me.  

Creed was relentless, absolutely freaking relentless.  We did things to each other that I’d thought were only legends.  As I finally began to doze off I felt his weight leave the bed.  A pang overcame me as I realized he was likely done for the night, and done with me.  Apparently I was wrong.  Creed turned off the light switch and crawled into bed, pulling me against him.  Then he spoke for the first time in hours. 

“Truly your real name?”

“Yes,” I said sleepily.  “I mean no.  My mama named me Tallulah after the town I was born in. Tallulah Rae Lee.  Melted together into ‘Truly’ at some point.” 

Creed was silent.  He ran his fingertips lightly over my shoulder. 

“Is Creedence
your
real name?” I asked. 

“Yeah,” he answered rather flatly.  “I’ve always been just Creedence Gentry.” 

I hugged his chest.  The dark curtain of sleep was begging to fall.  “Well, that’s a whole lot from what I can tell.” 

His voiced sounded odd.  “If you say so.” 

I slept soundly until the sun came up. 

CREED

I woke up before her.   I hadn’t really meant to hang around until sunrise but that girl had drained me to the point where all I could do was pass out at her side. 

As I pulled my jeans up I stared at her.  She stirred as the soft light of morning bathed her face and the sheets freed one of those juicy tits I’d gotten so much mileage out of last night.  A slow smile spread across my face.  Damn, I’d been
all
up in that shit.  It would be almost worth going without for another two months if it meant being treated to a happy ending like that. 

Truly sure as hell knew her way around.  Whatever she didn’t know she’d been more than willing to experiment with.  The big pile of rubbers over in the garbage can was proof I’d hit my goal.  Still, I was sorry I hadn’t stuffed even more in my wallet.   As I stared at Truly’s naked skin I was sure that I could get in the mood for some morning action. 

I stood over her for a moment, just watching her sleep.  She was one hot slice, even more of a great roll than I’d figured.  What’s more, I strongly suspected that even though she knew how to please a man it had been quite a while since she’d done anything about it. 

“Hi,” she said, opening her dark eyes and gazing up at me. 

“Mornin’,” I answered, sitting on the bed next to her.  She pulled the sheet up to cover herself even though I’d already been over that landscape quite a few times now.  Her dark eyes seemed stern as she pushed her black hair out of her face and regarded me seriously. 

I started to feel a little uneasy.  I mean, usually when I banged around with a girl I didn’t need to worry about running into her much.  But Truly was Saylor’s friend.  There could be some fallout in my future. 

“You sleep well?” she asked. I thought I caught an edge of sarcasm in her voice, although it was tough to tell beneath that drawling accent. 

I played it safe.  “Sure,” I answered smoothly.  If she was going to buckle under a crazy amount of guilt over our frantic fuck fest then there wasn’t much I could do about that.  Still, I didn’t want to just run out the door and let that be the end of it. 

“Breakfast?” I asked and her eyebrows, which were as dark as her hair, shot skyward. 

“I don’t cook,” she scowled.

I rolled my eyes, knowing she’d misunderstood me.  “No, I meant would you like to go out and get something for breakfast?”

She was thinking.  “Is that what you want to do, Creed?  Go out to breakfast?”

For crying out loud, did she need an engraved invitation? “Jesus, I just asked you, didn’t I?”

Truly sighed and rubbed her eyes.  “Yeah, sorry.  I’m not real hungry though.”

Her words were pretty clear.  Her body language was even clearer.  She’d pulled her knees up to her chest and was keeping her body bandaged in the sheets.  She just wanted me to leave her alone with her morning after remorse. 

“All right then,” I said, rising and stifling a yawn. 

“Bye Creed,” she said in a flat voice as she kept her eyes down. 

“Truly.”  I reached over and touched her bare shoulder.  She finally looked straight at me.  There was a cute smattering of light freckles across the bridge of her nose.  Her big brown eyes were deep, dark and wary.  I just wanted her to know something and then I’d get out of her hair.

I cleared my throat.  “I had a fucking great time last night.” 

She smiled slightly at that.  “Yeah,” she blushed, “I did too.” 

“So I’ll see you around, Tallulah?”

“You might but you should know I don’t answer to that name.” 

“You will if I’m the one saying it.” 

She flashed me a withering glare and I laughed.

“Careful not to let the cat out when you leave,” she grumbled, rolling to her side to face the wall.  I figured that was the final hint to get lost, which was fine with me.  I wanted to go home and grab some more sleep.   

I had to hunt around in the living room for my shirt.  I finally found it beneath a big black cat. 

“Pssst.”  I held my hand out and made animal noises, trying to get the thing to move.  It just dug its claws more firmly into the fabric and hissed. 

“Move,” I whispered, lunging forward threateningly.  “Come on,
get
.” The animal just stared at me with neon eyes.  I glanced at the door to Truly’s room.  I didn’t want her to come charging out here asking what the hell I was doing to her cat. 

The stupid thing yawned and blinked at me.  I’d always hated cats.  They seemed like sneaky little shits. 

“You don’t win,” I warned it, wagging a finger.  “We’ll be revisiting this shit.” 

I left Truly’s apartment bare-chested and closed the door softly behind me.  I halfway hoped the stupid cat actually
would
try to run out.

After cutting across the back of several apartment complexes and jumping over a few cinder block walls, I was at my own door inside of ten minutes.  The crappy pickup truck I shared with my brothers was nowhere in sight.  In all likelihood Cord had driven it to work already. 

After fishing out my keys and opening the door I heard Chase and Saylor laughing in the kitchen.  I tried to go straight to my room but Chase heard me come in and called my name. 

I sighed and headed out to them.  Saylor had her laptop on the table and didn’t look up when I entered the room.  She was a writer and sometimes used Chase’s superior brain power to help her edit her work.  Cord had warned me she wouldn’t like it if I went after Truly but it shouldn’t be any of Saylor McCann’s business who the hell I fucked.

“You leave her a souvenir?” Chase laughed, referring to my missing shirt.  He was shuffling a deck of cards and leaning so far back in his chair he was on the verge of toppling. 

“Something like that,” I shrugged. 

Saylor looked up then, her face a little pinched.  “You look wrecked.”

I smiled again at the thought of last night’s workout.  “I
was
wrecked.” 

Chase let his chair fall forward with a thump.  “Holy shit, Creed’s grinning and everything.  Must have been better than average.”

“It was,” I said honestly.  Saylor was getting red in the face so I tried to change the subject. “Your boy go to work?” I asked her. 

“Yeah,” she answered in a rather lifeless tone that was probably meant to show her contempt for me.  I was getting irritated.  This was bullshit.  This was major bullshit.  If it had been her buddy Chase instead of me she wouldn’t have been bothered at all.  She would have showered him with fucking Trojans and winked. 

Chase poked Saylor in the arm.  “Can I still borrow your car?” 

“Sure,” she shrugged.  “Keys are in my purse.” 

“Where’s your purse?” 

“Somewhere in this apartment.” 

Chase looked at her and nodded.  “I’ll find it.” 

“M’kay.”

My brother left the table.  Before he wandered off to search out Saylor’s purse he slapped me on the shoulder, his eyes twinkling. 

“That good, huh?” he mumbled. 

“Yeah, I’d do it again,” I answered, deliberately loud enough for Saylor to hear me.  She pursed her lips as I went to the fridge and began drinking milk directly from the carton.  I knew it bugged the hell out of her when I did that. 

“Is she okay?” Saylor asked. 

I was dumbfounded.  “What the hell do you think I did to that girl?”

Saylor turned and fixed her big green eyes on me.  “Nothing.  It’s just that you seem like you have a ‘use them and remove them’ philosophy on women.” 

I fired back.  “Kind of like Cord did to you once, huh?”

Shit. Shit. SHIT. What the FUCK made me bring that up?

Saylor’s mouth fell open.  She knew exactly what I was talking about.  There was a painful moment of silence between us.  A million years ago, when we were all dumb teenagers back in Emblem, the three of us brothers had made a nasty bet.  On the table was Saylor McCann’s virginity.  Cord won.  He felt like shit about it, especially after word got out, but I can imagine how much Say must have hated him.  She must have hated all of us. 

I watched Saylor’s eyes cloud over with bad memories and I felt like an evil bastard.  Here was this girl who adored my brother, had given him a chance to prove he’d grown from a reckless jerk into a good man, and I was lashing out at her because I didn’t like to hear the truth. 

I swallowed.  “I didn’t mean it.”

She snapped her laptop shut.  “Yes you did.”  She stalked to her bedroom with her computer under her arm. 

“Saylor!”

She ignored me and slammed the door. 

Chase appeared a few seconds later, twirling a set of keys on his fingers.  “What’s she all bent out of shape about?”

I sighed.  “Ah, I was being a prick, that’s all.” 

Chase laughed mockingly. “
You?
  I don’t believe it.” 

I shoved him.  “Where are you going anyway?  You don’t have class today do you?”

Chase had enrolled in a few classes at Arizona State.  He’d done so after some prodding from Saylor, yet another reason I should be grateful to her. 

“No,” Chase answered slowly, his face guarded.   I stared at my brother.  He wasn’t the secretive type, not by a long shot.  Something was up. 

“Just going to the mall,” he said without looking me in the eye. 

“What for?”

Chase shrugged.  “There’s an aquarium there I want to go see.” 

“What are you talking about?  There’s not an aquarium at the mall.”

“There is,” he insisted with a grin as he started backing away toward the exit.  “There is an aquarium at the mall and I’m going there for research purposes.” 

“Whatever,” I muttered.  “Don’t get bitten by a shark.” 

“I won’t.  Not today.  What are you getting up to?  You working?” 

I scratched my head. Chase and I often worked security for sporting events at the university. “I don’t know.  What day is it?”

“Friday.”

“Then no.  Tomorrow I’m supposed to work the first football game.”

Chase nodded. He jerked a thumb to the closed bedroom door.  “Be nice to her, okay?”

“I’ll work on it.” 

Once Chase was gone the apartment was unbearably silent.  After hunting around in the kitchen for something to eat I found a loaf of bread that hadn’t turned green yet.  I pushed a few pieces in the toaster.  We were out of butter so I ate them plain. 

Saylor hadn’t come out of her room.  I stood in the hallway for a few minutes, wishing I knew what the hell to say to her.  I liked Saylor. I really did.  She was a sweet girl who had made my brother incredibly happy.  We grew up in the same town for crying out loud and we should have had plenty to talk about. 

Maybe that was my problem. 

Talking wasn’t really my thing, especially when it came to women.  There had been a number of them who had tried to fasten themselves to me on a more permanent basis but I was never interested.  It wasn’t their fault.  It just wasn’t the way I was built. 

I sighed and backed into the living room.  I wasn’t tired at all anymore.  Actually I was wishing I was still in bed with Truly, doing something other than sleeping.  My dick was instantly at attention as my mind recalled the sight of her in that black lacy underwear hiding under her dress.  Fuck, she had just about killed me with that thing.  I hadn’t been that close to coming right in my pants for years.  She was definitely something special and I wasn’t going to be sorry about last night no matter how pissed Saylor decided to be about it.  In fact, I’d be happy to give it another go if Truly could get over her obvious casual sex guilt. 

If she did it once she’ll do it again.

That might be true.  How many times had she come on my hand, around my dick and in my mouth?  She’d loved every damn dirty minute. 

Since I couldn’t go anywhere with those thoughts right now I breathed deep until the boner subsided.  When I was in control again I spied my guitar in the corner behind the couch.  I grabbed it and sank into the couch with a sigh.  That thing had gotten me through more rough moments than I cared to count.  I’d scored it at a pawn shop in Emblem the summer before my senior year of high school.  I had never taken lessons but learned to tune it and play basic chords on my own.  The boys had always begged me to do something with my voice but I couldn’t imagine getting up on a stage with lights shining on my head and a bunch of dickheads in the audience waiting for me to fuck up.

As my fingers idled along the strings a wave of peace washed over me.  Most of the time I walked around feeling wired and edgy, as if the smallest push would send me into darkness.  When I drank too much it took over my whole head and all I could see was a face I’d do anything to forget.  I didn’t think of him as my father.  As far as I was concerned the three of us had never had a father.  But in the moments when that cocksucker broke through anyway, grinning like a true villain, I had murder in me. 

As I started playing I began singing the first song in my head.  I lost myself in the music instead.