Page 73 of Poisoned Pawn
I nod to Koda before turning to leave only to be stopped by a firm grip on my wrist.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Aidan demands, keeping me in place. “We aren’t done here.”
I look to his fingers wrapped around my wrist then slowly bring my eyes up to meet his.
“We’re fucking done here. I’m going to check on my girl. You got a problem with that take it up with someone who gives a fuck!” I yank my hand free and continue on my way unhindered.
I’m just reaching my car when Zak catches up to me.
“Hey, heads up Aidan is heading back to the church with us,” he says quietly before striding off to Roxanne’s car as she, Maddox and Aidan arrive.
I had planned to shower, eat, then spend the rest of the night buried balls deep inside Star. While I might have the balls to front Aidan, I can’t afford for him to actually shoot me. Fucking Star—or even implying it—in Aidan’s vicinity would guarantee me a ticket to see the ferryman on my way to Hell.
Some well-placed PDAs aren’t out of the question though, and something he’s going to have to get used to because I have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon.
Getting in my car, I speed away, planning to get back to Star before Roxanne. I use the journey to think about Rook. I know my shot hit him that night. Fucking watched him hit the ground. If he survived, he had help. The first person is whoever Lennox sent in to check he was dead. After that, who the hell knows, but someone had to have been hiding him all this time.
I have my suspicions about who that might have been. Rook isn’t the only person I made an enemy of at that time.
Fraser Mack.
I let my thoughts go as I pull into the drive at the church having cut my journey time in half with the speed I was going. Right now, my only thought is Star. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.
My mouth practically waters as I step inside the church. Frankie wasn’t wrong when he said he was cooking dinner. The spicy aroma of Frankie’s curry has my stomach growling, but the sight that greets me has my dick standing to attention too.
Star is beside Frankie, her hair piled on top of her head, several strands have fallen around her flour dotted face, as she kneads homemade naan bread. She’s smiling at something Frankie said, cheeks full of colour and looking completely relaxed.
If Frankie was any other man, I’d have cut his tongue out for making her smile that way. Never in my life have I felt such an overwhelming sense of possessiveness, some might even say jealousy. Whatever it is, it can have me if it means I get to spend the rest of my life watching over this beautiful and strong woman.
Star really is heavenly. Way above me. But I’m selfish and there isn’t one person who will hurt her ever again and live to remember it or speak about it.
Mine.
My feet are moving before I’ve even thought about it. In the next second, I have a shocked Star in my arms, her legs wrapped around my waist, and I’m carrying her up the spiral staircase. My lips are on hers, swallowing any protest and giving me a small taste of what I missed earlier but what I plan to take right the fuck now.
The bounty might have been lifted, but I know deep in my bones it’s not over. Rook told me it’s my move. And this is it; fucking the woman I love. I can admit it even if I can’t say it yet. Cementing myself inside her so totally and utterly that not even death will break us. She’ll own a piece of me no woman can claim to have ever been given. A jagged shard of what’s left of my heart, shaped and worn from years of delivering death.
I stumble at the top, turning to take the brunt of the wall as we crash into it, then spin to seek the door handle. I thank fuck Frankie put walls and a door up here, even if they are nothing but plasterboard and flimsy as hell.
My hand finds the handle as Star breaks the kiss.
“What are you doing, Carter? This is insane,” she pants.
I shove the door open, stepping inside and pushing it closed with my foot.
“Insane is right. I have the blood of a dead man on my skin and all I can think about is you. Being inside you. I need to feel you. To know you’re real.”
Mine.
The word floats through my mind again, fanning the flames of my desperate need to claim her. I drop to the bed, but before I can take her mouth again, her hands on my face stop me.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Her hands hold me in place as she searches my face for answers.
Such a simple question, yet the answer is so much more complex. My dick throbs painfully as I slam the breaks on my primal urge to shut her up with my cock in her mouth, to choke her with it, and attempt to put what I’m feeling into words.
“Show me, Carter. Make me feel it instead,” she whispers clearly having read my thoughts.
I don’t need asking twice. With each piece of clothing I remove, I let my hands linger, fingers trailing over her silky-smooth skin. A kiss here, a lick there, hitting every spot and teasing her until she is nothing but a writhing, burning body yearning for release.