Mark (Next Generation Carter Brother #9)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Mark

The sounds of machines whirling, arcade games pinging, and children’s cries of laughter echo around the large hall.

I tune them all out, my focus solely on the mission in front of me. Freya is beside me, Hayden and Clay are standing on the other side of the table, and Liam is standing at the head of the table. This is it. All bets are on, and it’s the moment of truth.

My dignity is on the line.

“And go!” Liam yells.

I twist the knobs in front of me, my wrists flexing to get the right amount of power. “You are going down, Hayden,” I cry.

“Ohh, shit talking, are we,” she bites out. “Don’t worry, Liam has the tissues ready for you when you lose.”

“I won’t be the one needing them,” I remark.

“Repeat that later when Freya is consoling your sorry arse.”

“Says the daughter of a criminal.”

Max has been taken to the local police station. None of us know yet what happened, but he doesn’t have long before the boat is due to leave.

“It’s just foosball,” Freya remarks.

“No, it’s not!” Hayden and I yell simultaneously.

“Guys, come quick. Max and Maverick are on the pier,” Maddox yells.

Freya lets go of the handles first. “No, what are you doing, Freya? We’ve got this.”

Clay lets go too as Freya replies, “I’m going to go see what’s happening.”

I glance at Hayden. “What about you?”

“I’ll let go if you do,” she swears.

“On three?”

“On three,” she agrees.

“One, two…” We both let go.

Freya’s shoulders drop. “Thank God. My arms are killing me.”

“We are having a rematch when we get back,” Hayden warns.

“No!” Clay cries. “No more competitive games for the rest of the day.”

Hayden pouts. “But I was winning.”

“You wish,” I mutter as we make our way to the top deck.

It takes us five minutes to get there, and we aren’t the only ones. Passengers are all leaning over the side, glancing down at the pier.

Charlotte glances back. “He’s had a T-Shirt made,” she tells us as we get closer.

“A T-shirt?” Hayden questions.

We glance over the side of the boat and see Max with his arms up, yelling, “I’m a free man!” It’s the same saying written on his T-shirt in bright red lettering. I snort.

Cheers ring out on the ship as people begin to clap. I take Freya’s hand. “Let’s go meet them at the entrance and see what happened.”

“We’re coming,” Charlotte tells me, then glances at Hayden. “Your poor dad must have been scared out of his mind.”

“Charlotte, I love you, but my dad doesn’t have the capacity in his brain to be scared of the police. Just ask our local police officers,” Hayden replies.

“She isn’t wrong. There’s a reason his face is on a warning poster throughout the station. Old timers already have him burnt into their minds. It’s mostly for the new recruits,” Beau replies.

“Still. He’s in a foreign country. He doesn’t know them,” Charlotte stresses, biting her lower lip.

“I’m sure he was fine. Maverick and your dad were with him,” Drew offers to console her.

She sighs, leaning into him. “You are right. They wouldn’t let him be scared.”

“Is she drunk?” Freya whispers as we fall in step behind Charlotte and Drew.

“Oh no, she’s completely sober, and completely serious,” I reply.

We make our way to the entrance, where there’s a small lobby filled with the Carters.

“What happened?” Hayden asks.

Max eyes her. “You didn’t bother to come and see your old man in the joint?”

“Dad, it’s a three-room building. I wouldn’t exactly call it a joint,” Hayden snorts. “What did you do?”

“I’m innocent. Hence the reason I’m standing here and not locked up,” he replies.

Dad growls low in his throat, glaring at Max. “That’s not entirely true.”

Aunt Lake glares at Max. “What did you do?”

“I ran for my life, babe. They wanted me, and no matter how many times I told them you were the love of my life, they wouldn’t listen,” he explains as he steers her over to the lifts.

The rest of us all turn to Dad, who pinches the bridge of his nose. “What did he do, Dad?” Aiden asks.

Myles clears his throat when Dad just lowers his gaze to the floor. “Your dad did what he always does… Opened his mouth. Miscommunication had them giving him a prized jewel and, well…”

Dad snorts. “He was telling the women he had super sperm and got his wife pregnant with triplets the first time. One woman thought he was pledging his love for her and wanting to live among them. He overreacted like he does about everything.”

“I’m surprised they’ve let him back on the boat,” Hayden muses.

Mum snorts. “That man has the captain and all the higher-ups in love with him. He’s been at the front of the ship drinking and playing cards the past three nights. The cabin crew are either too scared of him or think he’s special and just needs understanding.”

“He’s been on the bridge and didn’t invite me?” Hayden snaps. “I’m going to kill him. I am.”

“Love, calm down,” Clay calls out as he follows her.

“No! He knew I always wanted to sit in the bridge and be captain.”

I clap my hands together, looking at the others. “Right, anyone up for a round of mini golf?”

*** *** ***

I’ve had many brilliant ideas in my time. Recommending mini golf is not one of them. The indoor area is bathed in florescent lights and only parts of the course are glowing. The Carters love a challenge, so we got painted in the florescent body paint they offer at the beginning and joined the fray to play crazy golf.

Only, a Carter can take things a step too far when challenged, which is why all hell had broken loose when Hayden swung her golf club and the ball hit another cruise passenger in the forehead. The girlfriend of said passenger retaliated by throwing her club at Hayden. Hayden, after recovering from her shock, pushed the woman, and she ended up getting her arm stuck in one of the display sets on the course. A male passenger from that group went for Hayden, but Clay and Drew held her back. Landon had already handled it by knocking him out cold, but it didn’t stop the others in the group from going at them. That’s when all hell broke loose.

Benson Boone, Beautiful Things, blasts from the speakers as I pull Freya away from the commotion and into a hidden corner. Normally, I’d stand side by side with my family, or even be the one who breaks up the fight, but this woman has the entire side of her body painted and it has been driving me crazy for the past hour as she bent over to take her shots.

One of the floral prints snakes up her leg and disappears under her shorts. I want to know how far up it goes.

“What are you doing?” she gasps as I press her against the wall.

I run my finger up her thigh. “How far does this go up?”

Her teeth glow as she grins. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

I lean down, kissing her neck before placing my lips at her ear. “I would,” I confirm, sliding my hand up higher until I’m under her shorts.

“Stop,” she whispers. “Someone might see.”

I run my nose along her jaw as my fingers slip her knickers to the side. She’s wet. Really wet. “So responsive,” I muse quietly.

“Mark,” she breathes as I run my fingers through her wetness, pressing my thumb against her clit. “Oh God.”

I insert a finger, pressing a kiss to her neck. “You are going to come for me,” I demand, inserting another finger inside.

Her head drops back against the wall, and her hips rock against my hand. “Someone will see.”

She tightens around my finger. “You like that you might get caught,” I rasp as I kiss the corner of her mouth. “But don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

“Fuck,” she whispers before biting on my lower lip.

She’s so fucking wet. My fingers are soaked with her juices as I pump them in and out of her.

Over the music, insults are roared back and forth, but my attention is on Freya. She grabs my bicep, and with the other hand, grabs my arm, but I take it with my free hand and pin it to the wall.

“I’m going to fuck you so hard. Soon,” I growl. “But first, I want you to fuck my fingers. I want you to come all over my hand.”

“Mark,” she pleads, her grip on my hand tightening.

“Come for me, Freya. Come all over my hand.”

She presses her forehead to my shoulder, her entire body vibrating with her orgasm. I keep thrusting until I hear her whimper. Only then do I remove my hand and bring my fingers to my mouth. Her pupils darken as I suck them clean.

“We should go back to the room,” she orders.

I take her hand and pull her towards the exit. I push down the exit door, and escape into a hallway. A cleaner is coming out of a room opposite us, paying us no heed as she continues down the hall. I tag the door before it closes and tug Freya inside.

“Here?” she asks as I spin her around until she’s pressed against the closed door.

“I need you now,” I demand, slamming my mouth down on hers.

Our kiss becomes wild, and each time she makes that sexy little whimper in the back of her throat, it chips away at my control.

I grip her tight, perky arse and lift her up, carrying her to the end of the room where a counter sits. I drop her down, loving the noise she makes.

She tears her mouth away, her lips swollen. “Someone could walk in,” she rasps.

I kiss the corner of her mouth. “I’ll be quick.”

Her eyebrows pinch down. “If I’m going to risk being caught with my shorts around my ankles, you’d better get me off first. There will be no getting yourself off—”

I slam my lips down on hers, shutting her up. I have every intention of getting her off first.

I pull back. “Strip,” I demand, ripping my T-shirt off and throwing it to the floor.

“Bikini top stays on though,” she hisses when I pull the cup down a little, sucking her nipple into my mouth. “Fuck!”

I unzip her shorts whilst she snaps open the button on mine. I tear them down her thighs, leaving them to dangle at her ankles, and slip her knickers aside, running the pad of my thumb over her clit. “Always so fucking wet.”

“Fuck me before I chicken out,” she demands heatedly, reaching inside my boxers to pull out my dick.

I grip her thighs, bringing her to the edge of the counter, and line my dick up. “Play with yourself,” I order, and before she can protest, I thrust inside of her, rattling the contents on the counter.

“Harder,” she pleads, dropping her head back as she plays with her clit.

“You’d better be fantasising about me,” I hiss as I thrust harder.

Her eyelids flutter open, and her gaze seems to burn into me, filled with need and want. “Nope.”

My eyes narrow as I force my dick in deeper, making her eyes close. “What do you mean no?”

“I’m imagining a man in leather trousers, his chest ripped as fuck, and he’s worshipping my body,” she sniffs, which soon turns into a moan when I grip her throat gently.

“You’re a little minx,” I growl.

“And you said this would be quick,” she retorts.

“I did, didn’t I,” I muse, ripping her bikini top down. Her tits spring free and I grip her hips, using her as leverage as I fuck her into the counter.

Items on the counter rattle so hard, some begin to fall to the wooden floor at our feet.

“Oh fuck!” she hisses, digging her nails into my shoulder.

I drill into her, the intensity surpassing this being a simple fuck. There is an insatiable hunger driving me, causing me to fuck her hard and fast.

I know from the tightening in my balls that I won’t last much longer. “Play with yourself,” I order when I notice her hand has slipped away.

Once her hand is on her clit, I lean forward, capturing her nipple between my teeth. I apply the tiniest bit of pressure, knowing what she likes and dislikes.

Her walls clench around my cock seconds before her back arches off the counter. I growl low in my throat, gripping her hips and fucking her with force until I explode inside her.

She drops back on the counter, letting out a breath. “As much as I want to take a minute, we really should get dressed before someone walks in.”

I chuckle as I put her bikini top right. I grab a towel off the shelf next to us before sliding out. I wipe her clean before wiping myself.

“Eww, what are you going to do with that now?” she asks. I chuck it on the side as I pull my shorts back up. Her eyes widen at the towel. “You can’t leave it there.”

“Why? It’s a store room.”

“Dude, how pissed off would you be if you got out of a shower, only to grab a towel covered in spunk? This is clean supplies not a laundry room.”

I bite my lower lip, glancing at the towel because she has a point. “I’m not carrying it through the halls back to my cabin.”

She glances around the small room, her eyebrows arching. “What if we spill one of the bottles of bleach onto it?”

I tilt my head to the side. “I don’t think that will clean it.”

She rolls her eyes and jumps down. She pinches the towel between her fingers and moves it over to the pile I grabbed it from, then unscrews the cap on a bottle of bleach a little before tipping it against the towels. “There, that should do it.”

“Let’s get out of here,” I suggest, grabbing her hand and moving over towards the door. I push down the handle and pull but nothing happens. I try again, my brows furrowing when it doesn’t open.

“Um…” Freya muses, pointing to the black thing above the handle. “I think it’s key card activated.”

“What?” I ask.

“I think that’s card activated like all the doors,” she states.

“But we aren’t trying to get in. We are trying to get out.”

She snorts. “Let’s hope our captain loves your uncle enough to let us stay on the boat.”

I try again, pushing the handle down, to no avail. “We can’t be locked in here. We’ll miss dinner.”

“You are worried about food when we are about to be caught in a staff only room?”

“Yes. There’s nothing in here to eat. I won’t survive,” I screech. “Oh God, if I’m not back in my room, Liam will find my stash of sweets and eat everything.”

She clears her throat, patting my back. “Maybe there’s a stash of those biscuits they top up our coffee stations with in here.”

I sniff. “Do you think so?”

“Probably not,” she admits.

I bang on the door. “Help! Help us. We are locked in here!”

“What are you doing?”

“I need food. Now the thought is in my head, my stomach is shrinking from hunger.”

“Do you not have your phone?” she asks.

“No. I left it on my bed. My battery had been low and I forgot to charge it so I left it. They won’t think to look for me until morning. Your family will just think you’re hiding away again. What if no one comes for us?”

She steps up beside me, banging on the door. “Help! Someone, help us!” she screams, before glaring at me. “I refuse to be stuck in here with you all night moaning about food.”

I glare back. “This isn’t my fault!”

She screams louder, banging her tiny fists against the wooden door.

We have to get out of here.

We have to.