Knox’s erection grows against my back. Thank God he feels it too.
I don’t know how to process the way my body aches for this man’s touch, right now. My cheeks flame when I consider he might take me in front of them in some ritual.
Surely, sex between us should be something private too.
But does it matter?
The way my thighs rub against each other suggests it doesn’t.
“Soon,” Knox encourages in a whisper at my ear, before looking to Havoc. “This goes wrong, I’ll resign my colors.”
“No fucking way,” Vandal says, stepping forward.
“Must have a million-dollar pussy,” Ridge mutters.
Knox moves me to one side, nudging me behind him. “Come and fucking say that to my face.”
Ridge raises his hands in surrender. “Come on, Prez. You fucking hate this family. Have hated Maren for as long as I can remember. You’re gonna have to give us all time to get comfortable with the about-turn. We supposed to salute Caldwell, now, or some shit?”
North moves to the other side of me. “Ridge has got a point, Prez. Spell it out.”
“Nothing changes with Caldwell. We live by our rules. We do what we’ve always done.” Knox moves me back in front of him, grips my neck, then tilts it so he can kiss and then bite it. “You like your dad, sweetheart?”
Sunny grins at the endearment.
There’s a buzz in my head. Surely, what Knox is doing to me, turning me on like this, should be private. And worse, why do I not care?
So, I give his men the benefit of an honest answer. “No. I despise him.”
28
KNOX
No one moves, but I can see on their faces that even if they have concerns about what I’m doing here, they trust me enough to roll with it.
The air in the garage hangs thick with tension that rises above the scene of oil, blood, and sweat. There’s something electric about it that hasn’t settled since my fist first connected with Pax’s jaw.
It’s gotten worse since Maren came to stand in front of me like the queen she could be.
Should be.
Pax lies unconscious on the floor, breathing the last few breaths of oxygen. Because what Sunny found him doing was enough to convince me the man should be wiped from the earth. The two men had gotten away, but Sunny and Ridge had managed to grab Pax. They’d burst into his house and found him looking at the kind of illegal shit a grown man shouldn’t be looking for. For that alone, concrete will be tied to his ankles, and then, Havoc will take him out to open water and drop him way too far from shore for anyone to worry about him ever being found.
And Maren hasn’t stood back from any of it. She hasn’t flinched at the way I’m holding her in front of my men. Even as I run my thumb over the curve of her breast and feel the hard nub of her nipple beneath her T-shirt.
My hand tightens slightly where it rests at her throat. It won’t be enough to hurt but will certainly be enough for her to feel it.
I press my lips close to her ear so only she can hear. “If I wanted to fuck you right here, would you let me?”
“In theory, yes,” she says, and the corners of my lips turn up in a smile.
Something in my chest shifts, at that. She trusts me to take her to places that I’m thinking she hasn’t been before. And it’s hot as hell that there’s a wilder and darker side to her sexual preferences we haven’t even begun to explore.
Yet, I can tell there’s a piece of her that wants to keep it for the two of us.
I hear one of the guys shift their weight.
One of them exhales.
