The Mobster’s Flower (Men of Valor Springs #3)

Chapter Eight

Vlad

She’s perfect.

Every inch of this flower, from her bright red hair to the tips of her toes, is perfect. She has me hooked, obsessing over her to a point I’ve never gotten before. I would never usually be so reckless as to be intimate in such a setting, but around Rue Carter, everything feels right.

With her is where I am meant to be, feeling that sexy little mouth part underneath mine for a kiss. Swallowing her low, whimpered moans as we engage our tongues in a carnal dance, the friction so hot and obscene it feels forbidden.

Everything about this moment feels illicit, but I can’t stop. She doesn’t try to stop me either, burying her fingers into my collar and pulling me closer, her little whimpers making my hard cock throb.

“W-we shouldn’t do this here,” she breathes against my mouth, releasing her fingers on my collar for them to travel down my chest.

“Take it slow, baby. No one will come in here,” I assure her, but she shakes her head, her fingers dropping to the bulge in my pants, and a groan climbs up my throat when she squeezes my erection in her palm. “Fuck, baby, if you don’t stop, I will shoot in my pants, and we don’t want that, do we?” My hand travels into her sweater and fondles her bare tits beneath her bra, squeezing a rosy little bud between my knuckles and tugging, causing her to cry out. “The only place I am coming is inside your tight little cunt.”

“Yes,” she whispers, her dazed eyes locking with mine as her fingers move to the button of my pants and twist it free before tugging down the zipper. I groan when she dips into my briefs and grabs my straining cock with her slender fingers.

“Fuck, baby!” I growl, forcing in deep breaths and biting back the urge to come. “I need to be inside of you.”

I draw my hand from under her sweater and reach beneath her skirt, tugging her underwear down her thighs before tearing it completely off. I lean down and wrap my arm around her ass and lift her into my arms, pinning her to the wall. Her skirt rides up when she wraps her thighs around my waist, but I am already guiding my leaking shaft into her wet, quivering sex.

Rue wraps one arm around my neck and cups my jaw with the other, her eyes shining with something akin to affection, but I am too jaded to believe that this girl would offer me such a precious gift without making me earn it.

“Want you,” she whispers, writhing needily against my cock, but I don’t keep her waiting. I dig my fingers into her thighs before slamming forward with a barely suppressed roar and burying all my thick inches in her tight heat, impaling her to the wall. She cries out, throwing her head back as her pussy pulses hotly around me.

“Shh,” I whisper, dropping my forehead against hers as I fight with everything in me to stop myself from coming with how her snug sex is milking me. “We need to be quiet, baby. You can’t make a sound.”

“I’m trying,” she whimpers, clenching her fingers around my shirt. “Y-you’re so big.”

I take her lips with mine, swallowing her cry when I start moving, slowly at first to get her accustomed to my girth before slow isn’t an option anymore, and then I start pounding into her, railing her into the wall. She gasps against my mouth, her pussy squeezing my cock rhythmically as I drive in and out of her tightness. Her sexy tits bounce under the sweater, pebbled nipples pocking holes into the soft material. I squeeze her tight little ass in my palms and boost her up the wall, driving faster into her and swallowing all her cries.

Her thighs start shaking around me, and I feel her draw close to orgasm, and thank heavens for that because I am so fucking close, my balls burn with the need for release. I lean harder into her, positioning myself to hit that sweet spot inside her with every thrust, and it takes three pumps before she’s coming with a sob.

Rue breaks our lips apart to bury her face in my neck, biting hard on my shoulder, no doubt breaking skin, as her body starts to shake against mine with yet another orgasm. My fingers bite into her perfect mounds as I slam into her through her orgasm, and she cries into my shoulder, her sex cinching hard around me, and that sends me coming right along with her. I slam forward and bury my cock deep into her tightness as my balls release my seed into her womb, my gut twisting from the pleasure that floods me. I thrust into her, burying my seed deeper into her as she trembles against me, her pleasured cries muted by my shoulder. Her pulsing sex milks me of every drop until we both lose the tension in our muscles. Rue slumps over me, her breathing just as labored as mine.

“Fuck, baby,” I rasp, dropping my lips over her temple. “You were perfect. The way you took all of me was so goddamned perfect.”

“I can’t believe we did that,” she whispers, lifting her head to look at me, and I find her eyes glassy, a small smile grazing those perfect lips. “Someone could have walked in on us.”

“No one did. I told you no one would.”

She nods, her eyes turning dreamy as she looks at me, and I just want to kiss that mouth once more, remind myself just how lucky I am to have her when someone knocks on the door. Her eyes flash with alarm as they shift to the door.

“It’s that guy. Arya’s cru—I mean, bodyguard,” she says, sounding horrified. “How long do you think he’s been standing out there? Do you think he heard us? Oh my God, what if he did?”

I slowly lower a panicked Rue to the floor and turn around to see Jax’s silhouette outside the window on the door. I don’t know if he heard anything, but I know Jax would never say anything if he did.

“It’s okay,” I tell Rue, snagging some tissues from the box on the bedside table and using them to clean us up before tossing them into the trash. I straighten her clothes before turning to work on mine. I zip myself back up and then look at her, grasping her chin and forcing her eyes on mine. “You’re okay.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not,” she whispers. “I…I think we need to talk. I’m just realizing that all this started because you were trying to distract me from the question I asked earlier.”

Fuck, she’s right. I was in such a good mood that I didn’t want to talk about my family’s business, to ruin it. “Look, baby—”

The knock comes again, and I grit my teeth, shooting daggers at the door. I turn back to Rue, and she shakes her head. “You should go and see what he wants. Something tells me it’s urgent.”

Fuck!

I don’t want to leave Rue alone, but I know Jax wouldn’t interrupt me unless it is important. “Fine, I’ll see him. Wait here for me.” I drop my lips to hers and let them linger before finally pulling away. I walk to the door and yank it open, my eyes locking on Jax’s angry ones.

“It’s not Arya,” he says when he notices the dark expression that settles in my face.

“Then what is it?”

“I got a call from the mechanic. Someone messed with the brakes alright, and one of my contacts called to tell me your cousin has been bragging to anyone who will listen that he’s responsible. I thought you would want to take care of it personally.”

He thought right. Someone almost killed my sister a few weeks after she back to Valor Springs. Of course I am going to take care of it. It seems Anton is set on playing games with me and reigniting our fathers’ war, but the one thing I will not let him do is toy with the lives of the people who matter the most to me.

“Stay with the girls, make sure no one, and I mean no one, comes near them,” I tell Jax, waiting for his nod before striding away. I have a cousin who needs to be taught a lesson once and for all.

When I’m done with him, no one will dare come after me or mine ever again.

***

I find Anton where I imagined I would.

He is drinking with his buddies at Shadow Lounge, the arrogant bastard. This might be a family-owned business, but he likes to treat it as his personal playground.

His eyes widen with fear when he notices me stride toward him, the smile on his face turning into a frown and the glass in his fingers slipping from his hands. He attempts to put on a brave face in front of his friends, but I can see the tremble in his fingers.

Fucking coward.

He never should have picked to fight with me if he didn’t know he would win. We are nothing like our fathers. I, for one, refuse to drag out this power struggle for decades like my father did, and Anton, well, he is nothing like his father either. He does not have the balls to fight that long, and I will not tolerate this any longer.

He sees the punch coming, and despite that, he doesn’t move fast enough to avoid it. My fist collides with his face, and the loud crack as his nose breaks does little to calm me. He falls back over his chair, arms swinging and taking all the drinks down with him. The men at his table jump out of the way and no one steps in to assist him.

I am a raging bull, and they must read the rage in my face. I will not hesitate to take on anyone who steps between Anton and me. But I’m not worried. We’re on my turf now. No one would dare call the police here.

“What the hell, Vlad!” Anton roars, clutching his bleeding nose, but I don’t give him a moment to catch his breath. I grab the man by the hair and drag him out the back with everyone watching us. I pop open the trunk of my car and shove him inside before snapping it closed and muting his protests.

No one makes a move to stop me as I climb back into my car and drive away with my cousin kicking and screaming in the trunk of my car. I don’t stop to get him out, my blood boiling at the thought of someone harming Arya. Unlike me and my father, Arya is a sweet soul who tried to connect with everyone in our family despite my warnings. She is loving and doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. If Rue’s flower stand hadn’t been there that day…

No, I don’t want to imagine what would have happened to my sister.

“Fuck!” I slam my fist on the steering wheel. Anton should have cut my brakes instead. It’s me he should have tried to kill and not the one innocent soul in the entire family. He’s too much of a coward to try to come at me directly, though.

My head is still humming with rage when I stop outside the warehouse I brought Rue to yesterday, and fuck... Was that only yesterday? Christ, it feels like I have known the girl much longer than that.

I get out and open the trunk, and there is fear in Anton’s eyes, but more than that, he looks resigned. Almost as if he knows his fate is set and there is nothing he can do now. He should look at me and see the Grim Reaper because I have every intention of sending him straight to hell.

“Get out!”

He slowly climbs out, his eyes dropping to the gun hanging loosely from my fingers. “I didn’t mean to hurt her, Vlad,” he whimpers, dropping to his knees. “I swear it.”

“You almost killed my sister.”

“I know… I… Jesus Christ, I only meant to scare you and send her running back to Belgium. Vlad, please…”

“I’m going to shoot you and be rid of you once and for all. I should have put you down a long time ago like the rabid dog that you are.”

“No, please, Vlad. I’m begging you. I… I’ll leave. I drop all the bogus charges I brought against you. Okay? I’ll leave Valor Springs and never come back. Causing the accident was stupid, but you can’t shoot me. We are family.”

I stare at the kneeling man, snot and tears dripping down his face, and I consider his fate. My father made a costly mistake by letting the feud with his brother drag on for as long as it did until they took each other out. If I let Antin go, the cycle will repeat itself, and this time, I have everything to lose. I have a woman I have fallen in love with, a sister who depends on me, and a family business that will crumble if anything happens to me.

I refuse to make the same mistake my father did, but…how the hell will I look Rue in the eyes if I kill this man?

Before I can make the decision, my phone vibrates in my pocket, and I consider ignoring it, but I don’t. Arya is still at the hospital, and this could be an emergency, so I take the call without checking the caller ID, surprised to hear my sister’s voice at the end of the line.

Her tone is tired, but her words are happy and carefree, and they give me the answer of what I need to do with Anton.