I lifted her up and off me and she lay next to me, our collective juices running out of her pussy. “Did he touch you?” I asked, and she lowered her gaze. She knew who I was talking about and what I was talking about. Solomon. I was going to kill him. I’d already decided on that.
“Not in the way you think,” she finally said and I frowned. “He would have, but he was having too much fun hurting me. Then you turned up.”
I wasn’t sure if she was lying or telling me the truth. She’d sure as hell felt like a virgin when we’d fucked, but what did I know for certain.
“You’d tell me?” I asked her, and she placed a kiss on my bruised chest in answer.
I breathed heavily, scared for the first time in my life of what might happen next. I’d never believed in anything other than living for the next day. But knowing that she was in my life now changed all that. Now I needed to live for more than a day. More than a week or a month. Now I needed to think of more than just myself.
“I want you to be free, Penny,” I said. The words were coming out before I even realized I was saying them, but I knew them to be true. “I don’t want you to be owned or claimed, by me or any other man. I want you to have a choice in your life.”
“Well, I choose you,” she said with a small frown.
I shook my head. “Nah, I chose you. I took you, I stole from you from your fucked-up family, then your daddy gave you away and let some piece of shit claim you. And then that fuck Solomon stole more from you than any of us could. But it shouldn’t be like that. I want you to have the life you wanted, Penny.”
“Well, I want that with you,” she said stubbornly.
“I know. And we will. But first I need you to have a life of your own.” I swallowed, hating the stupid fucking words. Hating my stupid fucking mouth. Hating this stupid fucking life. And the stupid fucking conscience that I’d suddenly grown. “Without me.”
She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “No!”
“Yes,” I said, my voice gentle. At least as gentle as I could make it.
“Why are you doing this?” she said with a sniffle.
“Because this life ain’t worth anything unless you’re free, and you’ve never had a day of freedom. That ain’t living.”
Tears dripped from her eyes, despite her trying to hold them back, and I stroked my thumb under her eye to catch one of them. “Don’t cry. I’m trying to set you free,” I said.
“I don’t want to be free,” she sobbed, and I chuckled.
“Yeah, you do. And when you’re done being free, I’ll be waiting for you, right the fuck here.”
She bowed her head to her chest and I leaned up and gripped both sides of her face gently before pulling her mouth to mine and kissing her again, ignoring the pain burning through my muscles and my heart. Her tears mingled with our kisses and she sobbed against my lips. Fucking killed me. Almost made me tell her that I changed my mind. But I didn’t because she deserved more than that. She deserved better than that. She deserved better than me, but that was okay because I was going to try and be better, just for her.
“Promise?” she finally said against my lips.
“Cross my heart,” I replied, and she kissed me harder.
Her tits pressed against my chest, soft and plump, her nipples hard, and my dick twitched. I reached around to cup her ass and shift her body so she was straddling me again. Penny rose up and gripped my dick in her hand before sliding herself back down on me, and that time when we fucked, we made it last. Because neither of us knew when we’d do it again.
~ 32 ~
Fighter
5 months later
My fist slammed into the side of Solomon’s face and I heard the crack of bone. Rolling my shoulders, I rearranged Battle’s brass knuckles on my hand before smashing my fist into his face again.
He grunted in pain, but put up no resistance. The fuck was already dead, he just hadn’t quit breathing yet. His head lolled, his jaw hitting his chest as saliva, sweat, and blood dribbled from his mouth and down his front. I was sweating something fierce; it was the most I’d done since I let the Vipers almost beat me to death, but I wasn’t done with him yet. Not even close.
I slid the brass knuckles off and handed them to Battle as I attempted to catch my breath. Battle handed me a semi-cold beer and I took a long swig from the bottle before dragging the back of my hand across my mouth.
Battle stepped forward and gripped Solomon’s hair so he could lift his head up. The fuck was out cold. Eyes rolling, tongue flaccid, his breathing was labored.
“Piece of shit,” Battle grunted, letting go of his hair so his head would flop back down.
I finished off my beer, flinging the bottle to one side, and wiped my mouth again. I was still out of breath and Battle shook his head at me.
