“Haven’t I given you a million reasons to?” His jaw flexes and he thrusts in ruthlessly one more time before he’s spilling his come into my deepest parts and rearranging my insides. I writhe beneath him, and he leans against the car, arms braced on either side of my head and staring down into my eyes. “Haven’t I been cruel?” he whispers against my lips.
All I can focus on right now is the erratic beating of my heart and the throbbing hot dick that’s pulsing come into my deepest parts.
I lick my lips and stifle a moan as I try to form a response. “You’ve given me one to not hate you.”
He lifts a brow inquisitively, almost as if I’ve offended him terribly. “When?”
A playful smile splays across my lips. “I guess you’ll never know.” He traces my features with his softened gaze and firms his lips as he pulls out.
I know he isn’t mine to fix. But sometimes I wonder if it was fate that brought us together to mend one another’s tattered souls.
Roman is like an old worn coat, with holes and tears you could fit your hands through. Something abandoned and left to rot. Yet against all odds, he treks on. He doesn’t hide his monsters, yet Callum hid all of his. At least I know what Callum is capable of.
“You aren’t as cute as you think you are, Squirt,” he murmurs as he collects me in his arms and gently sets me on the ground. He keeps me pressed close to his chest, and when I look up at him, he presses a soft kiss to my lips. Almost as if it’s an apology for the rough sex.
Once we have our pants pulled back up, Roman walks over to the wall-to-wall cabinets and pulls out an extra helmet. I quirk a brow and nearly have the breath knocked out of me when he tosses it at my chest.
“Grab the jacket on the hook.” He nods to the coat rack by the door leading back to the hallway. “We’re going for a ride.”
22
BRIAR
This feels incredibly dumb to leave,”I mutter through the helmet.
His voice cuts in with a dash of static. “I told you, we’re safe. Sub-Rosa won’t make any attempts to attack us. They just lost at least four men.”
The nice thing about wearing helmets is that you don’t have to try to hide your smile.
“Did Taylor really do all the modifications to the gear himself?” I can’t help but be impressed. There are five of them that need gear too, that’s quite the job. Taylor spoke about it on the way to the cornfield earlier today and wouldn’t shut up about it. He made their jackets and helmets all bulletproof, and even added weapons compartments to their bikes.
Roman nods. “Yeah he did. Hold on tight, Squirt. I’m not letting up until we get to the peak.”
Peak? Of a mountain? I swallow nervously but do as he says and wrap my arms around him. I know the jackets have bulletproof vests built into them, but my heart is racing so viciously right now that there’s no way he can’t feel it.
I glance down at his hands and watch him send off a text to a group thread labeled Icarus.
VI: Going out for a drive. Taking Squirt.
Zeus: We’ll watch on the surveillance in town and update you if there’s movement at the laundromat.
“Which one is Zeus?” I ask, not particularly expecting him to answer.
“Taylor.”
A beat of silence.
“Is Roman your real name?” I rest my head against his back as he presses a button on the handle, and the garage slowly lifts. It must be exhilarating being in a secret military force.
Music lightly plays in the helmet’s speakers. I wonder if he’s hearing the same song, “Chandelier.” It draws a chuckle from me.
“What? I can’t like pop music?” he tuts.
I laugh harder and squeeze his chest a little more. I swear he stifles a laugh of his own. “It’s not that you can’t so much as I just didn’t pin you as a Sia fan.” He doesn’t answer my question about his name, not that I necessarily thought he would, but I tuck the thought away to ask another time.
Roman pulls out of the shop and onto the highway at high speed. I scream and hold on as tight as I can. Roman laughs again, and my heart weakens a bit at the thought of what a weightless smile would look like on his lips.
I loosen my grip after the first ten minutes and take in the moonlit scenery as he drives us up a different mountain than the party was at. Coming from the city, I never would’ve thought I’d be able to know what it’s like to have so many mountains around one town. But that’s just how it is out here. This one is farther away, right next to the lake, I think, but it’s hard to be sure in the dark.
