Thief: A Bad Boy Romance (12 page)

“That’s the spirit.”

We sit.

His skin is warm against mine - warmer than it should be after our freezing-cold dip.

And I know it’s over the second I touch his skin with mine. We’re shoulder-to-shoulder, thigh-to-thigh under the blanket.

This doesn’t lead anywhere we should follow, and we both know it.

I turn to him. “This is a bad idea,” I say quietly, my eyes darting across his.

“Horrible,” he murmurs.

“The worst.”

And then I’m kissing him.

So much for that idea.

I’m falling, tumbling into him as my lips part hungrily for his tongue. His hands slide up my arms, drawing me into him, growling as he kisses me fiercely. I moan into his lips, and then he’s pulling me into him, and I’m powerless to stop myself.

My leg swings over his lap, and then we’re face-to-face, skin-to-skin, kissing heavily, and moaning into the other. His hand slides to my hair, tangling in my locks as he holds me tight and kisses me hard enough for my toes to curl. My nipples drag against his chest, and I can feel his
thick
cock pulsing so hard between us.

I reach down, curling my fingers around his length before slowly giving it a stroke.

“
Fuck
, Ivy.” He groans into my mouth and I stroke him faster, feeling him pulse and respond to my touch.

His fingers dip down between us, finding me soaking wet. I moan into his mouth when he slides them across my opening, and when he curls a finger inside, I break the kiss for a moment to gasp.

His thumb finds my clit, rubbing it in slow, lazy circles as he pushes a second finger inside my slick pussy. I whimper as I start to move, rocking on his fingers like I’m fucking his hand, stroking his cock in the same rhythm.

His mouth drops from my mouth, kissing and biting it’s way down my neck to my nipples. He wraps his lips around one, his tongue batting across it and sending shivers through my body.

I start to rock harder, losing myself in this moment, losing myself in him as we grind together, our hands doing the talking.

His fingers move faster and faster, curling right inside against my spot as his thumb slips across my clit over and over again. I can already feel it starting in my toes - the burning, aching, breath-stopping feeling that I know I’ll be powerless to stop. His mouth moves back to mine, and his fingers keep moving - pushing, dragging, and coaxing me right to the edge of that drop.

“Silas-” I gasp out into his lips. His cock pulses in my hand as I say his name.

His mouth drops to my ear, his breath hot against my neck. “I want to feel this tight little pussy come for me, Ivy,” he growls. “Come for me, gorgeous.”

A single, aching cry tumbles from my lips before I shatter for him. I bury my face in his shoulder, biting the skin there as the orgasm bursts through me, my whole body clenching around his driving, magical fingers.

I gasp for air before I start to move my hand again, stroking him quicker.

I want to feel
him
come for
me
now.

“Fuck, Ivy,” he growls, his jaw tightening.

“I’m-”

And suddenly, I know what I want.

I slip down off his lap, kneeling before him. And before he can say a word, I lean forward and wrap my lips around that big, perfect cock of his.

Silas groans deeply, growling out his pleasure, his hand slipping into my hair.

I swirl my tongue around him, feeling him pulse and throb in my mouth.

“Baby, I’m going to come.”

But I only move my lips faster up and down his cock, my tongue working the underside as I stroke the part of him that doesn’t fit inside. He groans again, his ab muscles rippling as I feel him grow even harder inside my mouth.

And suddenly he’s coming.

I swallow him as he fills my mouth, feeling him shudder against my lips as his growling moans send shivers though me.

I give him a final lick, giggling as he shudders, before I sit up and grin at him.

“Horrible idea,” he murmurs, grinning back at me.

“Oh, the worst we ever had.” I snuggle back into him, letting my head dip onto his shoulder as he strokes my hair.

We stay like that for a minute, basking in it, feeling our hearts thud and just being in that moment.

Finally, I glance up at him. “At some point, I should probably get back home, you know.”

He laughs, the sound rumbling through me.

“At some point,” he murmurs, leaning down and kissing my lips.

“But not right now, right?”

“No, not right now,” I say softly.

His hand finds its way to mine. “I say we stay here a little longer.”

“Now
that’s
the best idea yet.”

“
W
e’re here Mama
!”

Carter squirms in his mother’s arms as she pulls him from the car seat. I smooth my skirt down as I step from her car into the sunny morning air a block away from Marsden Park. Well, soon to be the Jacob Hammond park.

It’s a weird thought, realizing that my family is such a part of this town that our
name
is going to literally be on the map after today. That’s all my parents, though. My mother, the music teacher at Harborview Elementary for thirty years. And of course my dad, the magnanimous, big hearted, strong-willed Congregationalist minister. Founder of two different soup kitchens, one of the biggest fundraising drivers for the North Boston home for boys, and general pillar of the community.

It was crazy to hear about the park renaming, but not anything
that
surprising considering my dad’s place in this town. Well, that and considering that literally
no one
- including the Shelter Harbor historical society - can remember who the heck Marsden was, or why the park is named after him.

Who better than Jacob Hammond?

Mom and Dad and Sierra get out of their car parked right in front of us just as Rowan’s distinctively loud Indian motorcycle goes roaring past us.

It’s an important day, and rightfully so. But my mind is honestly everywhere
but
on the fact that my family’s name is about to be emblazoned across the park where I learned to ride a bike, or where Sierra broke an arm on the monkey bars.

It’s on the man whose touch I can still feel from the night before.

Whose lips I can still taste.

I force a smile to my face though as my mom puts her arm around me, all of us making our way to the gazebo in the middle of the park where the white folding chairs and podium is laid out for the dedication ceremony.

“I’m just glad I’ve got so many of my babies at home for once!” she gushes, giving me a squeeze.

Well, all of us except for Kyle, who’s got a work thing and gets a pass. But even if “work” wasn’t “the FBI”, Kyle would always get a pass being the golden boy in our dad’s eyes.

After all, he’s got two sons, and
one
of them didn’t manage to almost get himself killed escaping an armored truck robbery with Silas Hart.

But that’s in the past, and it should stay there.

* * *

M
ayor Thompson finishes her speech
, and the crowd of people assembled in the park cheer as my dad takes the small stage. There’s a plaque given, and more words about everything our he’s done and how the Hammond name is a “pillar of the community.”

But it’s not thirty seconds into Dad’s acceptance speech when I look up into the crowd, and my heart jumps.

Silas stands at the back of the crowd, watching it all. He’s cleaned up from the t-shirt and jeans look I’ve seen him in so far back in town, wearing a charcoal grey suit this time, the jacket open to a well-fitted shirt, and a
tie
.

Silas Hart has
never
worn a tie in his entire damn life. Hell, he didn’t even wear one to
prom
.

He nods and claps when my dad accepts the award, and again when he ceremoniously cuts away the sheet covering the new sign for the park that’ll bear our name.

Watching him there, I’m not thinking about the “good” Hammond name, and its established place in this town.

I’m thinking about the boy that
wasn’t
from the right side of town.

The boy with the broken past.

The boy with the home I couldn’t visit.

The boy that was all wrong for me that I couldn’t and had no intention of ever saying no to.

What was I thinking?

When you’re young, you know everything. More than that, you know everything, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is
wrong.

I realize now, as an adult, how moronically self involved that is.

I was drawn to Silas because of that darkness that followed him. I was pulled into that storm inside his eyes, heedless of what anyone had to say about it. Because back then, no one was going to change my mind.

I blink as the crowd cheers again, realizing I’ve been staring at Silas for the last few minutes across the crowd.

He’s staring right back at me, and as the crowd claps as my dad leaves the stage, I tear my eyes away, remembering to bring my own hands together. I glance back after a second, but he’s gone from the spot he stood moments before.

“Congrats, Dad.” Rowan claps Dad on the shoulder as Sierra throws her arms around him.

“Pop-pop!” Carter squeals as our dad picks him up.

“Hammond Park, huh?” Rowan grins, pushing his hair back from his face. “So are we on the lookout for any Marsden descendants looking for blood today?”

My dad chuckles deeply, a warm rumbling sound. And I’m turning to smile at him when I suddenly see his face drop as his whole body stiffens.

I turn back, following my dad’s cold stare, and there he is.

Silas.

Silas, eye-to-eye with my father for the first time since that night in the ER waiting room.

“Oh-” my mother starts, bringing her hand to her mouth and drawing in a breath as she sees the boy who was all but a third son to her standing right in front of us.

Dad clears his throat slowly, his eyes never leaving Silas. “You’ve got a lot of damn nerve, son,” he says gruffly. His eyes dart to Rowan, and then me. I cringe, wondering if
everything
from last night is written all over my face.

Silas slowly shakes his head. “I don’t mean to start anything, sir, I just-”

“You just
what.
”

Dad steps towards Silas, his large frame drawn up high and protective.

Stella reaches out with a hand. “Dad-”

“Dad, I asked him to be here.” Rowan steps forward, shaking his head at our dad.

“You
what?
” Dad turns a stern scowl on our older brother, narrowing his eyes at him.

“It’s an important day, sir,” Silas says slowly. “I know-” he clears his throat. “Whatever the past, I didn’t want to miss something important like this for the Hammond family.” He looks my dad right in the eye.

“No matter what happened.”

Dad holds his gaze a moment longer before he mutters something under his breath and looks away.

“You do what you like, son.” He turns back to Silas, his look solemn as he towers over him.

“Just stay away from my family.”

My mom is still looking at Silas like she wants to either cry or hug him - maybe both. Dad puts an arm over her shoulders though as he turns. “Let’s go.” His eyes drop meaningfully to me, his look stern.

I look back at Silas for a moment, wanting to say
something
, but knowing I can’t.

“Good to see you, man,” Rowan mumbles, nodding stiffly at Silas as my dad glowers at him.

Silas’s eyes dart to mine, holding them just for a second before he nods, turns, and walks away.

My sisters and Carter and our parents start to walk back to the cars. Rowan blows air out through his lips.

“Well, fuck. That went well,” he growls.

I shake my head. “Dad’s never going to forgive him, is he?”

“For that night?” Rowan frowns and looks at his feet.

“Maybe? Probably not?” He sighs. “I don’t know, Ivy.”

“Even though he knows Silas was only there that night stopping
you
from doing the job.”

“Jacob Hammond and his convictions,” Rowan mutters. “You know Dad. In his eyes, Silas fucked up my path, even though I never wanted that path anyways. I’ve told him a hundred different ways what happened that night, and what could have gone so much worse if Silas hadn’t been there.”

“He just doesn’t care?”

“He just sees Silas as the root of it all. I mean, Dad had a certain idea for all of us growing up, and a plan he thought we’d all follow. But then I’m busted stealing that six-pack, you’re
dating
Silas Hart, Stella’s off talking fuckin’ marriage with that asshat Mitch.” He shrugs. “That night was just the culmination of a lot of shit, Ivy.”

“And Silas got the full brunt of it.”

Rowan snorts. “Oh, believe me, I took a fucking
sermon
from Dad in that hospital bed. If I wasn’t his own flesh and blood, I’d be as gone as Silas, trust me.”

“Silas
was
basically his flesh and blood,” I say heatedly, my face darkening as I think of the unfairness of it all.

My brother nods. “I know, Ivy.” He meets my eyes. “No one said it was fair, it’s just the way things shook out.”

He frowns. “How is it, by the way? Seeing Silas, I mean.”

I swallow the heat from my face as I casually reach for my phone as a sort of cover. “Oh, fine,” I shrug. “I mean, you know, the past is the past. We were kids back then.”

“You loved him back then,” Rowan says quietly.

I look up from my phone, swallowing the pain and the memories that threaten to come tearing out as I put on a forced smile.

“It was a long time ago, Row.”

He nods before he glances at his watch. “Hey, I’ve got a bar that needs opening.” He looks up at me with a grin. “Feel like helping?”

“Does it come with a free drink?”

My older brother laughs as he puts his arm around my shoulders. “Today, Slimy, it comes with three.”