The fresh cuts sting with the reminder of how I couldn’t control the shit that happened to me when I was young. Couldn’t control what happened to Discord. But Ican, and Iwill, protect Kerri.
God help anyone who tries to hurt this woman again, because I sure as hell won’t have mercy on them.
I stare into her huge eyes—her luminescent eyes—and see a world of wonder in them. But then she fucking snort-laughs in my face, and I’m convinced she’s lost her goddamned mind.
“Good luck with that.” She sets the cookies on the counter and places her hands on my chest. I swallow a groan at the heat of her palms through my shirt. “You can’t hide me forever.”
She’s not wrong.
Eventually, we’ll have to leave the Death Star and return to civilization.
I should already be counting the days until Kerri Ward is no longer my problem, but I’m not. No, instead, I’m thinking of all the reasons she’ll continue to need my protection long after this threat is over. “You let me worry about that.”
Kerri is absently twining my shirt around her fingers, even as she’s staring at me in confusion. “Seriously, Havoc. Why do you care?”
Because someone needs to protect you.
Might as well be me. Ienjoyhurting people. It’s what makes me damn good at my job. As a teenager, I was a thug with a chip on my shoulder, running around Mayhem, causing trouble with Wraith, Jester, and Malice. My talent for inflicting pain allowed me to rise from street rat to enforcer at record speed. By the time Crow inherited the Unholy from Moody, the gang’s former president, I was ready to take my place at the top of the hierarchy.
So yeah, I’ll murder the fuck out of anyone stupid enough to get anywhere near this woman.
“You ask too many fucking questions,” I growl.
No, she actually doesn’t, and that’s something else I like about her.
Goddamnit.
I never wanted to like her at all.
And then my hands are buried in her thick, golden hair. I lower my head toward her. Keep my eyes locked on hers, trying to read her thoughts. Silently begging her to stop me before I make a huge fucking mistake.
I expect Kerri to push me away. Slap me. As an extreme, knee me in the balls.
Instead, she meets me halfway.
The hesitant contact isn’t even a kiss. It’s a test. A tease. Not nearly enough contact. A whisper of her lips across mine. Her gentle relinquishment of control. It’s her next breath. And because this is all I’ve thought about for months, I tighten my hold on her hair. Pull her head back and crush my lips to hers. My other hand bites into her hip as I grind my cock against her core. I use my tongue to push past the barrier of her teeth. When she opens for me, I devour her. Taste every part of her mouth. Break through her defenses until she relaxes against me. Until her hands slip under my shirt and slide up my bare back. I swallow a hiss as my dick kicks in my jeans, her touch on my body exquisite torment.
I kick her legs apart. Fit myself between them and tug her hips toward mine. She wraps her arms around my waist to hold me like I’m her anchor and the world is a raging sea. I swallow her moan and answer with a growl. Rock my hips against her pussy as an excruciating pressure builds up my shaft.
For a woman who walks around so fucking composed and cool, Kerri is as hot as an August afternoon in my arms. And when she rips her mouth away and throws her head back to gasp for air, the greedy bastard I am, I take it as an offering and trail my tongue along the column of her throat, licking at the salt of her skin.
Her groan is a lightning strike that ignites the nerves in my body. I nip at the tender flesh below her ear to test her boundaries. She flinches but tilts her head to the side to give me better access. With a growl, I bite harder. Her arms tighten around my waist, pulling me closer. And because I’m pure fucking evil, I bite her again, sinking my teeth deeper.
Deep enough for pearls of precum to wet the tip of my dick.
“Havoc,” she breathes.
Christ.
The way she says my name is a prayer on her lips.
I release her flesh and reclaim her mouth, imagining the filthy things I want to do to her. All the shocking things she’ll never let me do.
But Kerri flips the script on me. Seems my duchess doesn’t play fair, because I’m not the only one with teeth. When she bites my bottom lip, I comethiscloseto shaming myself by nearly jizzing in my jeans like a lovesick teenager making out with a girl for the first time. I have to grind against her to ease the pressure tightening in my balls. And what does she do? This woman has the audacity to meet each thrust, rubbing herself along my erection as she moves to my neck. We’re like a couple of fucking vampires and I love it. She digs her nails into my back at the same time her teeth sink into my throat. Pain and pleasure clash, buckling my knees. Thank God I’m holding on to her because if I weren’t, I’d fall to the floor like a bag of broken bones.
No one—not any of the women I’ve been with—made me feel this fucking good. From a kiss.One kiss. Doesn’t make sense. But I realize with Kerri Ward, logic doesn’t mean a damn thing. And right about now, I don’t give a single shit. Because my life is nothing but empty pain and crushing loneliness, except when I’m with her.
Kerri tastes of sunshine and fucking rainbows. She tastes like everything good and pure in this shitty world.
