Thick as Thieves (The Greystone Family: Stolen Hearts #3)

Chapter 48

48

Xander

Devon

Devon is like a desert, only Marshall left, so I’m drunk most nights. I think he’s making the most of Evie being away. I notice she tries to restrict his whiskey intake when she’s here. The more time I spend with him the more I see Evie in him. I don’t know how I missed it before. James is also like him in his build. Leaner than Marcus, more graceful in movement.

He offers for me to stay in our old room in the house whilst everyone is away and I’m working on the sculpture in the coach house near the main house. “If that’s okay with you, that would be great,” I tell him, but it’s sweet torture. Their smell pervades the room, her perfume is on clothes and in the air. I lay awake night after night, trying to sleep, thinking finally I can if they’re with me. But sleep does not come, and each morning I get up alone.

On day four, I’m taking a lunch break when I hear Marshall shout out and he carries on shouting. I rush into the kitchen to find him banging his fists and barking orders at someone—turns out it’s Tommy. His blue-grey eyes flash with anger, his face red with annoyance. His whole demeanour changed.

“She’s coming home,” he tells me. “That idiot Rowena has attacked her and the children. Trying to do some test or other. It downright knocked her for six. Even though Tommy said she had them all cowering on the floor.” His fist smacks onto the worktop again. “If they’ve hurt her or those boys, Rowena Russell and her family better get ready. I’ll evict them all from Ireland, and hound them into oblivion. Jonno Greystone has nothing on me.”

I’ve never seen Marshall in full on protective mode, but it is a sight to behold. The calls keep coming in, a running commentary on the decisions being made. My phone rings and I look at the screen—Kitten.

“Hi, are you all alright? Marshall is sharpening all his tools, gunning for Rowena,” I tell her. “Are you okay? Are the boys alright?” My worry is hitting epic proportions. I daren’t ring Marcus, he’ll jet home.

She laughs, but I can hear the wobble in her voice. “It’s a good job Marshall hates London, and he wasn’t here. He would’ve flayed them all. But we’re fine now, just a bit shaken by it. Everything.” She pauses. “I’m coming back. I've got done what I need to. Marshall told me you’re still working and staying at Cornhill.” She pauses again, and I think she’s going to ask me to leave. “Stay.” Her voice has changed, it’s soft, gentle. “Don't leave, we’ll be late getting in.”

My heart reacts to her tone. My body starts to tingle. But I try to keep a lid on my feelings. It’s too soon to get my hopes up.

“It’s fine, just come home safe,” I answer back in a similar tone, letting her know I’m waiting for her. “I’ll be here and see you whatever time you get back.”

I’d wait a fucking lifetime.

They get in around ten thirty at night. By the time the kids are settled, it’s getting on for midnight, and she looks tired and drained. Retelling the story—with Bug, Tommy, and the Purcell boys chipping in at their appropriate parts—we’re falling around with laughter as Oisin and Colm do an impression of the two doctors. With Eamonn demonstrating Kitten’s throwing arm. She’s still running on adrenaline from the debacle. I also bet she’s been running around at one hundred miles per hour packing it all in, being all things to all her staff and friends.

The kitchen’s cleared and we’re finally on our own, Bug seeming to be the last to make a strategic retreat. We’re sitting on the settees in the kitchen living area, drinking coffee with a dollop of whiskey in it. Marshall’s parting gift before bed. The lamps cast a warm glow over her. God, she’s beautiful. She looks like home.

I’m desperate to touch her, to offer comfort, but I know I won’t be able to stop. If I put my hands on her, I’ll lose my mind. Instead, I keep myself in check, asking coolly, “Did you get everything done you needed to?”

“Mostly. I know I’ll have to go back later next week, but I’ll see what I can do via phone or online calls. The team has most things under control.” She sits quietly, pondering her next move.

“I’m still working on this sculpture for Kasey. You’ll have to come see it tomorrow,” I tell her, and when she smiles softly at me, my heart stutters. I try to cover up my thoughts and feelings by talking about my latest creation and drinking my coffee. “In fact, I think I’ll go and carry on working on it. I’ve got a bit of an idea of what to do and want to make a start on it. It’s hot and hard work, bending wire.”

“I’ll bet. You look like you’ve been working out.” Well that means she’s noticed my body.

My brain starts off down a road it should not be travelling. I huff out, “If Tommy is turning into the Rock, I’m going for Vin Diesel.” I flex my biceps, making my muscles pop.

“You’re more Paul Walker, but with black hair,” she tells me, an amused grin lighting up her face while her tired eyes spark back to life.

“Wow, that's a compliment I’ll take,” I say, grinning like an idiot as I finish my coffee, stand, and walk towards the door. “See you in the morning. You look beat. Get some sleep, you’ve had quite the day.”

I walk out into the night air. God, I need to cool down. My body’s burning. I want to kiss her, want to touch her. I need to get a grip. Concentrating on wire will definitely help focus my mind, and not on her. Both are dangerous in and of themselves. But of the two, she is more deadly.

I’m a good hour in. Sweat is pouring from my body. I’ve shed my T-shirt and have two large nicks on my chest that keep opening up periodically. Standing, studying the framework, the door to the workshop opens and in walks the most glorious sight. Kitten, in an old T-shirt of Kell’s, a black pair of lace knickers, boots, and an old peacoat of Kellen’s. I can’t help but grin.

“Going out clubbing?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. She looks down at herself as if she didn’t know what she had on.

Grinning back at me, she coos, “I couldn't sleep, saw the light. Thought I’d come see what you’ve been doing.” She looks from me to the wire frame of a horse. “Wow, Xan. It’s amazing. Kasey will love it.”

Moving towards the wire, she runs her fingers along the silver neck. Flicks of upturns make the mane, and longer strands of wire flow backwards to give the illusion of movement. I watch her hands move over the piece and it’s as if she’s running her fingers over me. I can literally feel her touch on my body as she gently runs her hands and fingertips along the wire.

“Ouch!” She pulls her finger back suddenly and I see a bubble of blood.

“Occupational hazard that,” I growl out, pointing to my chest.

She looks at the cuts, but doesn’t move her eyes from my chest. Fucking hell. Her eyes rove over my body, taking in my shredded jeans. I can feel the energy swirling around us, her force field pulling me in.

I move involuntarily forwards and take her fingertip in my hand, swiping it across my chest, pressing it into my pec. “Pressure will stop it,” I tell her, my voice husky. I hold her hand and look down at the finger as another bubble of blood appears. I look into her eyes asking, “May I?”

She nods, not taking her eyes from mine. I pull her fingertips towards my lips, and open my mouth, allowing her finger inside, resting lightly on my tongue, and I suck. I hear her gasp a little. Good. I’m affecting her as much as she is me. Fucking good.

I suck harder and then take out her finger, looking down on it. “Looks like it might be okay now.” My voice is so low. My eyes glued to her face.

She looks up at me through her lashes, shaking her head. “No, it needs more,” she says, her voice answering mine, low and husky.

I stare into her beautiful eyes—grey, clear and full-on fucking desire written in them. I don’t smile, I don’t say a word. Her eyes tell me everything I need to know. Mine respond in kind.

I take her finger again toward my lips, licking the end of it. Small licks, bites, and then I pull it into my mouth. My eyes close briefly as my lips close over her fingertip. And when I open them, hers are burning into me, the white heat pouring out of them.

Her nipples stand erect, trying to force their way out of her T-shirt. Her body arches itself towards me, her pulse hammering in her neck.

I move her finger out of my mouth and kiss down the hand, the other fingers. I move her hand into my hair, as I pull her into me. “I want to kiss you,” I gasp out, my eyes fucking begging her, and she nods at me. “Words, Kitten,” I say.

“Yes, I want you to kiss me,” she says, looking me directly in the eyes. “I want you, Xander.”

I drop my lips onto hers, gently at first, then as my mind disintegrates, I kiss her harder, deeper. I’m growling in the back of my throat, her aroma all around me. Kell’s cologne is on the coat, and it turns me on to have them both with me. She matches my thirst for her, kissing me back, pushing me to kiss her more—neck, throat, chest, we stand face to face.

“I can practically taste Kell on you from his coat. I can smell you all around me. It’s like fucking heaven,” I rasp out as I push off the coat and lift her up. Her legs come around me, and I sweep everything off my work bench with one hand—wire, pliers, hammer, and wire cutters all clatter to the floor.

Dragging my T-shirt from the other end of the bench and spreading it haphazardly onto the surface, I lay her down onto it, pushing her T-shirt up to expose her tits. I carry on pushing it higher, over her head but not off, so it traps her arms above her head. I grin at her, bend forward, and rub my face along the side of her fantastic tits and then drag my tongue over one then the other.

Sucking one into my mouth, I knead the other. Her head drops backwards, hanging over the back of the bench, her body arching upwards as she pushes into me, her nipples hard as I flick my tongue on one then the other, biting, sucking, nipping and licking.

“I want to take my time, but I won’t be able to. I need to fuck you baby, so fucking hard.”

The noises she’s making drive my senses into overdrive, pushing me to the edge of sanity. I need her to come there with me, to the edge.

“You make me lose my mind,” I growl into her throat. “Come with me, Kitten. Let me take you to insanity.” I’m rambling, telling her what I want, unable to hold back anything anymore. “Come with us, trust us, I love you, Kell loves you, let us love you again. All in.”

I’m biting at her neck, chest, talking and sucking at her, running my hands all over her body, every touch a reconnection. I can feel the silk strings of contact binding us back together, becoming steel, stronger than the metal I work with.

“I wanted no one else. No one ever, only us. Please let me love you again. Trust us again.”

All I want is to touch, to feel. Pleasure is all I am. All I want to give, but a small part of my mind is shouting at me. Don’t push it too hard, she may not want what you want.

I pull away slightly to give her some space, but she’s panting and pulling me back towards her.

“I trust you, I need you, all of you. I know what you want, need, take me there, Xander.”

She breathes into my ear, telling me everything I need to know, and the noise that comes out of my mouth I have never heard before. My mind and body scream out in complete ecstasy. This woman is my life and soul, my purpose.

“Not for one night. It has to be forever, or not at all,” I tell her.

I’m gambling big now. I’m gambling with my heart and soul. But the stakes have to be huge, this is huge. This is my entire life laid out on this bench. I lift her head slightly, cradling it in my hands. “Forever, or not at all. All in, Kitten. I vow I will never do anything to make you question my or our trust again.”

I hold my breath until she whispers out, sealing my fate.

“All in, forever, just us.”

Her face expressing her whole heart, I can’t get any words out. My face is a mask of intensity.

I look into the eyes of the woman I first saw at the age of nine. How they etched her name on my heart, blazed a trail onto my soul.

“Just us,” I affirm. “Just us, always.”

I press my body down onto hers, and she’s taking all my weight. The weight of waiting has been a heavy burden for me to carry for so many years. I shared part of it with Kell, and some more of it with her in Scotland. But here in this coach house workshop, bare walls, bare brick, basic concrete floors, these primitive surroundings, I know I need to transfer every bit of myself to her. The weight of my love, the depths of my passion. The burden of my want. The truth is, I know she has the strength and disposition to carry it with me and Kell. To share it, to enhance it. To elevate it to unknown and uncharted territories. She is my life.

I kiss my life into her—hard, heavy, and full of passion—as I move my hands into her knickers, and groan out at how wet she is for me. My fingers push inside her, moving slowly in and out, biting at her tits as I do.

I open her legs wider, rending the lace knickers in two, and throw them on the floor. Dropping to my knees and widening her legs further, her head drops back again. She’s pushed her feet onto the edge of the bench, and when I put my lips onto her clit and suck, she arches under me, groaning out. The smile on my face splits it in two. Fuck yes. I want it all, and I go full throttle on her.

Licking her up and down, pushing my tongue inside her, she tastes fucking fantastic. I’m as high as a kite on this woman. I push my fingers inside her hard and fast, hitting the front wall of her pussy. She tenses up, thrusting at my face, moaning and calling out my name, and I revel in the feeling of her juices flowing into my mouth. I want more, more and more.

I carry on sucking and licking as she comes down, finally moving up her body, biting and sucking as I go. When I reach her tits, her sensitivity makes her cry out.

“I need to be inside you, I don’t want to stop.” I’m demanding it of her, as I know she’s all in. I need control of her, I’m too far gone for it to be a negotiation. But she submits to me, her body pliant.

“Xander, more, yes,” she cries out, pulling me to her, kissing me with a fire I have not felt for months.

My soul is singing, my body shouting to the rooftops, touch me, kiss me, hold me, want me, I am yours, take it all.

I rip at my jeans, pushing them down and off, no boxers to fool with. I thrust inside her hard and fast as she lays on my workbench, a perfect height. Lowering myself over her, I continue to thrust inside her, long slow movements, harder pulses, fuck, it feels so good. I speed up and then slow down. She’s trying to get me to go faster, but I don’t. I massage her clit, and carry on with the slow rhythm, then harder and harder as she pushes back at me.

“Harder, Xan, more, I love you.”

I grin at her, pick her up, and spin her around so she’s facing away. Laying her forwards on the bench and entering her from behind, I go hard and fast, holding her hair as I do.

I should have known a long, slow fuck is not what she needs. Like me, months away from each other, the need is overwhelming.

I stand her up and whisper, “Trust me,” lightly into her ear, knowing it’s a double edged sword I’m swinging.

She nods as I move her to a tall metal stand I use for stretching wire. Removing the T-shirt, I grab the softest piece of leather. I reach for her hands, watching her face carefully, and she holds her hands out in front of her, staring into my face, a smirk on her lips. I bind her hands and hook her wrists onto the frame above her head.

The heat from the furnace is pumping into the room, warming the air around her. It’s intense, thick, and shimmers around her like a mirage. She’s the oasis within it. Like the purest water when you’re dying of thirst, and you’re scared to hope it’s real, in case it’s not. You want it to be. So badly. But she is real, and she is here. She’s naked, the light from the lamps making her body glow. She’s a goddess, a siren, home.

“I’m gonna fuck you all night long. Tell me what you want,” I groan out at her. My brain is spinning with everything I intend to do.

“You,” she cops out, her voice barely a whisper.

We’re standing, her back to my front, my cock as hard as the steel I work with. Pushing it towards her arse cheeks, she hisses as it seeks out her warmth and I push in, pulling her head back as she stretches out on the restraints.

“Yes, you like them.” I slap her tits and I feel the pull of her pussy. I do it again and again, her contractions grabbing hold of me, our bodies covered in sweat. I hold her and thrust into her relentlessly, talking nonsense, talking love, talking forever, talking, talking, talking, saying things I have never said to anyone.

I pull out, and if I hadn’t tied her hands, I think she might punch me. I pick up a piece of broad, soft leather and slap it against my hands, grinning at her as if the devil has overtaken my soul.

“I think you need to be taught a few lessons.” I’m slapping the leather harder into my hands.

“I’ve done nothing wrong.” Her words are indignant, but her voice is husky, visceral.

“Coming out into the night with no trousers on.”

I swing the strap and it hits her arse cheeks with a snap. She cries out, and then groans.

“Coming out into the night with knickers on.”

I do it again, and again, rubbing the soft leather over her cheeks after every hit, my mind has gone.

“Drinking your drink too erotically.”

I smirk as she laughs gently at that. I can’t think of any other crimes. I’m pure feeling, seeking out the pleasure, taking her with me.

I open her legs further and swing the strap underneath to slap at her pussy. She shouts out, the pleasure in every note. Pulling one of her tits into my mouth, I swing the strap again and again, a little harder each time.

She’s close, her eyes wild, totally black, all pupil. I instruct her to wrap her legs around my waist and I thrust into her fast and hard.

I may be fucking savage, but she’s feral, pushing me further to places I have never been before. Deeper, desperate, she’s holding my body in thrall.

I feel my legs buckle, my mind stutter, and she screams out as I bite down onto her, her pussy owning my cock, holding me hard, tightening the bonds between us. She pulses again and again, the tingle in my balls igniting, and I shout out her name as we set fire to our souls, falling into the white heat of heaven.