Desperate victory, p.17
Desperate Victory, page 17
A shudder rolled through me. Trapped with my vision muffled and then when he closed off my ears, I’d only been able to savor his scent, his touch, and his taste.
“I want to take all but one away,” he whispered against my ear, one hand cupping my cunt when we’d cuddled in bed in the earlier hours after he’d spent himself and purged whatever demons speaking to Hans had provoked. “Strip them all away until you know nothing but my touch. I want you to lose yourself to the only thing you can feel, experience, and know.”
He’d traced my earlobe with his tongue as those words sank under the haze of pleasure I floated on.
“Anything you want,” I whispered and he’d wrapped me up even tighter. The hand on my cunt flexed, one finger sliding into me like he needed to be a part of me. With his free hand, he spread it over one breast. Maybe I’d get his hand tattooed there instead of the hickeys… all of their hands.
That might take hours though.
“Don’t offer me too much, Buttercup. I will take everything.”
“I’ll offer you what I damn well please, Phillip. You can take anything you want from me. I’m yours.” Then lest he think I was being willful or blind, I added, “I know what I’m giving you. I know you’ll never hurt me. I trust you.”
Trust was a precious commodity in our world. It made for a lonely existence, and it had for me for a long time. Particularly when Adam and Ezra fought so hard to keep me in my bubble. But loving Em, protecting my family, looking after Andrea—they’d all been the gateways to freedom.
Out here, trust was even more valuable.
“I will never betray you,” Bodhi promised in a voice soaked with bloody oaths. “I will kill anyone who does.”
No wiggle room. Maybe the fact I had zero doubts about the truth in those statements said something terrible about me. I didn’t care. “You know, I will do the same for you, right?” Because he was mine to protect too.
The low, heated chuckle he released stroked through me like its own caress. He added a second finger to the first, scissoring against the swollen tissue of my cunt and he began to rub circles against my over-sensitized clit with his palm. One bite to my earlobe as he began to tease my orgasm to life. There was no way I could come again, but I was more than willing to try.
“Yes,” he whispered. “I do know, Buttercup.”
The ghostly reminders of his touch skated over me as I descended the short steps from the loft. Bodhi shirtless, a pair of gray sweatpants balanced on his hips and giving me a wonderful view of the muscles moving along his back. The look he sent me was molten when he turned to add toast to the plates he was building.
“That’s my shirt,” he murmured as I strolled right to the breakfast bar. I was very proud that my steps didn’t falter.
“If you want it or need it, you can always come and get it.” I slid onto one of the leather stools. The cold bracing against my ass. But I was enjoying the partial nudity and there was a relaxed air in this place, away from everything and everyone. We would be back in the thick of it soon, so I was in no hurry to push away the tender cocoon he’d weaved around us.
“True.” He turned back to the stove and bit by bit the burners were shut off and then he was adding eggs and crispy bacon to the plates before bringing over a magnificent bowl of fried potatoes with onions and peppers.
“You have many hidden talents,” I teased. “I’m not even sure Adam knows how to cook. Ezra barely knows where the kitchen is.”
He chuckled before bringing the French press over and pouring a cup for me before pouring his own. “He knows where it is, but I think he’s far better at starting the fires than putting them out.”
That was true. Cradling the coffee cup in my hands, I pushed up with one foot on the rail around the bottom of the breakfast bar. Bodhi met me halfway with a whisper of a kiss.
“It’s a good thing they have us,” I murmured.
“Very good thing. You are a boon to everyone.” He winked. “Now eat. I burned a lot of calories last night.”
“You dirty dog,” I teased, sitting back down with care. Yes, my ass and my cunt were still more than a bit tender but in all the best ways. “You just want to see me walking funny.”
“Oh, I know you’re going to be walking funny.” The pure, smug, masculine pride in his smile and his words made me grin. “The rest of the world is going to be there for us very soon. I wanted a little more time with you.”
The perfect echo to my earlier thoughts had me saluting him with my coffee mug. “Mr. Cavendish, I am at your disposal for whenever and wherever you would like to escape again.”
I needed this kind of time with each of them. It was easy to overlook with so many dangers threatening and even more secrets needing to be unraveled. We couldn’t afford to neglect each other, even if it wasn’t neglect. We had to be able to ask for what we needed. That Bodhi had?
Tears burned in my eyes as my heart expanded. Milo had, once or twice. Adam had precisely once when he’d finally stopped fighting what could be and embraced what we had. Ezra?
I took a long drink of the coffee. Ezra was a beautiful work in progress, a patchwork quilt of all our damaged parts and the warped tapestry woven by families with too much money at their disposal and far more blood on their hands.
“Thank you for last night,” I said and the surprise creasing his smile entertained me. “I needed it too.”
“Well, should you ever need or merely want it again…” The invitation dangled there.
“The same goes for you… If you want or need me or it, I’m here. Always.”
Our gazes locked and the wordless pulse seemed to bounce from his soul to mine. Poetry existed in these moments. Grinning, I reached for a crispy slice of bacon that I could wash down with my coffee. The world really was waiting for us just outside the door.
“Lainey B?”
“Hmm?” I glanced up.
“Will you go with me to meet my aunt and my grandmother?”
His grandmother. My heart fisted tight.
“It would be my pleasure. Just one request?”
“Name it.”
I grinned. “Give me time to change into something that isn’t last night’s dress or just your shirt?”
His long sigh held amusement and teasing. “If you insist.”
“I do.”
We were already chuckling.
Breakfast passed almost too swiftly, but I savored the moments. Then it was time to shower and change. The fact Bodhi had clothes for me here—perfectly sized and in my style—told me all I needed to know about how he’d already begun to plan ahead. I checked in with the boys while he took a call.
We’d be back at the penthouse after this meeting. Then it would be time to make our next move. Our meeting with his family kept us in the city and only a couple of blocks over at a lovely little pied-à-terre that reminded me a bit of Bodhi’s loft that we’d just spent the night in. Having a secure little private getaway in the city was just smart thinking if you didn’t live here regularly.
Having it for us to escape to when we shared our living space? Also smart. I was going to have to look into doing that as well. But that was a later problem…
The elevator carried us swiftly up from the garage to the apartment itself. “It’s a locked building,” Bodhi assured me. “Without the proper code or the invitation, the elevator will lock people out of any residential floor.”
That was smart.
Waiting for us were a pair of older women, dressed casually, yet I didn’t mistake their easy smiles or assessing looks as anything other than what they were. They wanted my measure and they were both protective of Bodhi. Even more, Bodhi clearly respected them, as well as held them in great affection.
That made me like them even more.
“Sophia, Aunt Eliza, this is Elaine Benedict, but you can call her Lainey if she permits.” The introduction carried just a note of warning. One that Sophia seemed to notice immediately even as the wattage of her smile increased.
“Oh, my darling boy,” she said, laughing even as she extended her hands to me. “It is a pure delight to meet you, Miss Benedict.”
“Lainey,” I insisted, accepting her grip and smiling at her. There was just something so classically beautiful about her. Like she wore the air of another time and age settled on her like a crown rather than a weight. “Please. I am very glad to meet you as well.”
“Very nice, I know your grandfather,” Eliza said as she accepted my handshake. “Leopold always enthuses about you.”
I grinned. “Grandfather is proud, but he’s also a little biased.”
Sophia wrapped an arm around me. “He’s very biased,” she said with a laugh. “But we should always be about the ones we love. Now, you must come and sit with me and let me ply you with some cakes and tea, then ask you all manner of inappropriate questions.”
Bodhi cleared his throat.
Chuckling, Sophia gave him the most impudent of looks. “Only if she agrees. Don’t tut at me, Bodhi. It’s impolite.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Affection and amusement vied for supremacy in his tone and my heart just squished like I’d been squeezed into the biggest hug. These women were not his mother, but they seemed to love him like they were. I loved that for him.
“You may ask me anything you wish,” I offered as we reached the table the women had already set. “But I reserve the right to keep some secrets.”
“Oh,” Eliza said slowly. “I like her, Bodhi. I like her very much.”
“Me too,” he said, grinning at me and I winked. It wasn’t the pleasurable haze we’d woken up in, but it was warm and wonderful.
Chapter
Twenty
MILO
Iclimbed the steps from the subway to street level. The colder air was a brisk slap in the face after the warmth from the train. Course, it was also not as smelly up here. Not everyone on that train had showered recently. Still, I liked public transport, particularly if I wanted to flush out any tails.
When I was with Lainey, we drove all over the city. She had a driver. She had a bodyguard—thoughts about that prick were probably better left undisturbed. The fact Karagiani had her in close quarters for so long and hadn’t done anything, was something of a miracle.
A flash of movement across the street mirrored my own path. I didn’t make a big deal of looking. Not when I could see Jasper clear as day in the reflection in the glass window of a closed store. Not a lot of missing real estate out here, but some of these shops had been closed for a while.
It was another part of King’s business plan to gentrify. Drive the residents out and the prices down. Keep retail out until the building owners were practically hemorrhaging money, then sweep in for a save. He would pick up the properties at a steal, and flip them for quite a bit more.
A disgusting process that made solid business sense, but disgusting where human compassion and common decency stood. My phone rang as I cleared another block and I slid it out of my pocket. Jasper’s name flashed on the screen with his middle finger.
Snorting at the image, I grinned. Freddie must have pocketed my phone at some point this week. I would have to check the other contact images to see what other surprises he set up. For now, I hit answer on the phone. “Bored?”
“Not particularly. I am freezing my nuts off in this wind. How much further before you show me the top secret new clubhouse?”
I shook my head, chuckling. “It’s not a top secret clubhouse, just a little personal renovation project. Future investment and planning.”
“Raptor,” Jasper said, his tone suddenly sober and serious. “I hate to break this to you, but you don’t have enough time to match your girlfriend’s bank account or the other boyfriends for that matter. I’d say you need to focus on what you bring to the table and accept your fate as a kept man.”
“Fuck you,” I told him cheerfully. “One more block, then I’ll cross toward you and we’ll head east.”
His laughter carried over the phone. “Got it.” Then he ended the call. One block later, I crossed at the corner and headed down a different street. Fortunately, this block offered something of a shield against the wind slicing down between the building. Which was good, cause my nose was fucking numb as hell.
Jasper fell into step with me. He had a cigarette lit and the familiar trail of bluish, tobacco smoke wreathed him periodically before the breeze would snatch it away. The smoking was a bad habit that he’d never kicked and frankly, I didn’t think he wanted to.
We were all a little fucked up. Some of us were a lot fucked up. If he wanted to smoke, he got to smoke. Lighting cigarettes gave him an excuse to check behind us. I paused closer to the building than the street.
“Light one for me?”
He paused, glanced behind us then made a show of patting himself down. Then we huddled to block the breeze while he lit the cigarette. I made a face at the taste but only lipped it.
“We’re clear. Pretty sure we lost the babysitters before you took the train halfway around the city.”
I chuckled. “There are a lot of different lines. Still trying to learn them all.” I turned us down a pathway into the underground garage. The boom gates were both closed and their pathways were marked red, but they weren’t actually preventing anyone from walking in. “Sometimes the best way to learn is to just get lost and figure it out.”
“Makes sense.” Of course, Jasper got it. “Big fucking city though.”
Yes, it was. Lainey and the guys occupied the upper echelons. They knew everyone worth knowing and a few more besides. I had a feeling Bodhi had more of a feel for the street as well, but it wasn’t his focus. I wanted to know everything. Hard to prevent trouble if you didn’t cover all the ways it could come at you.
The path down followed a curve. The concrete pavement was discolored by years of vehicles coming and going. By the first turn, the sound from the street behind faded along with the breeze. At the second curve, I turned toward the door that was tucked away there and opened it, letting Jasper inside before we closed it and then waited by the grimy window.
“Ah,” Jasper said with a long slow sigh as he extinguished his cigarette then mine. “The good old days of paranoia and keeping one eye firmly over our shoulders.”
“You make it sound like we’ve had new days where we don’t.” I raised my brows at him but he only shrugged, that faint smirk back on his face.
“Every now and then,” Jasper said. “But you know, I don’t mind it like I used to.”
“You never minded it,” I pointed out before heading deeper into the service hallway and taking the stairs up into the building above. The door was locked behind us so even if we had someone following us, they’d have to break the door to get in. That would set off an alarm.
Still, Jasper was right. Paranoia fit like a well-worn jacket and my favorite pair of shoes. At the first floor, I entered the code to unlock the door. It buzzed when it opened. Mickey J turned from where he was standing in the middle of the gutted floor, a cup of coffee in hand. The smell of fresh brewed carried.
“You two are late,” Mickey said as we crossed to join him.
“Milo wanted to go fishing on the way here. Sadly, no bites.” Jasper rubbed his hands together to warm them before he poured himself a cup. “I thought Liam was going to show up for this one.”
“Later,” Mickey said, then fixed a look on me. “Where’s your head?”
“Where I need it to be.” I waited for Jasper to finish then got my own cup. “We have three of his men here. He’s going to know someone grabbed them. So whatever details they have are likely to be thin.”
“If he’s kept anything of his security since making you move in, after you moved out, then he’s an idiot,” Jasper said. “Of course, I don’t mind if he wants to be an idiot. I will happily take a baseball bat to his head and close that chapter.”
“I know you would, but Ivy’s still on the fence.” Not that she didn’t hate him, but it was harder for her to make that call where King was concerned.
“She’s not on the fence,” Mickey said and that dragged my attention and Jasper’s. Only instead of curiosity, there was rough agreement in Jasper’s expression.
“Agreed,” he said and I frowned.
Mickey eyed me briefly then said, “She doesn’t want you to have to make this choice or to have to do it. She’s trying to work herself up to doing it for you.” The compassion in his eyes was no match for the depth of feeling in Mickey’s voice.
He loved my little sister. He might be too old for her and maybe once upon a time he made bad choices, but he was also the same man who did penance for those mistakes, who loved her to distraction, and would do everything he could to protect and keep her safe. He was also steady enough in a group of hotheads to keep the peace when they needed it and to tell her no when she did.
“Ivy never has to do that for me,” I said, but the rest of the protest died unspoken in the face of the bland looks they were both favoring me with. “But you guys know that.”
“So does she,” Mickey said, saluting me with his coffee. “Doesn’t mean she doesn't want to protect you.”
“She’s a pain in the ass like that,” I muttered and Jasper smirked.
“You love it.”
Having my sister back? Yeah. I did. Even if she was with all of my best friends, and I was with hers. Or maybe because of it? Fuck, I didn’t care. Considering I wouldn’t give Mayhem up without a bloody battle and my corpse on the ground, I could hardly fault Ivy for how stubborn and intractable she’d proven about keeping the guys.
I downed a couple of swallows of coffee before I stripped off my coat. “Do you have a preference on who we start with?”
We’d debated this, the three guys all worked for King. They weren’t civilians. They were definitely muscle. He used them for a lot of the dirtier jobs—including watching me. Business was one thing, but these pricks enjoyed hurting people. While I found that behavior rather despicable, it did free me up to deal with them how I saw fit.
