Vicious Heart (Desert Kings MC #2)

18. Cam

eighteen

Cam

On the ride home, she seemed to stop second guessing this life and clung to me like wet leather. She fit perfectly, pressed against my back, as we screamed through the night.

The feeling of her there, safe and touching me, lifted the weight I’d shouldered for too damn long. She’d seen the real me and hadn’t faltered. Damn if she hadn’t got protective.

And said she wasn’t leaving.

Fantasizing about a life with her was something I hadn’t allowed myself to do. Now, it’s all I could think about.

At home, she followed me up the stairs without question, her hand in mine. Like on the back of my bike, she fit there perfectly, too.

My anger from the frat house and from Preacher’s shit had finally abated, chased away by this beautiful woman with hazel eyes that looked right through the worst parts of me and never blinked.

I shut the door behind her, locked it, and pulled her to me. Hugging her, I inhaled the apple-like scent she wore and ran my hands down her back. I’d been so scared I’d find her last night, like I’d found mom. I let myself process that fear and all I wanted was to touch her. Make sure she was real.

“I’m right here,” she murmured and wrapped her arms all the way around me.

For almost a decade, I’d thought the MC had been everything I needed. I’d been wrong.

The thing I needed most was Riley Bowman.

Her lips were warm against my throat, across my jaw.

My apartment was suddenly too hot, and I pulled away from her long enough to shuck my cut, the hoodie, and the t-shirt.

Riley was already in my room before I could turn back to her. I followed, realizing I’d follow her anywhere she went, even if she left. I didn’t think I’d be able to breathe without her. I’d go anywhere. Do anything.

If I was weak for it, so be it.

I caught her at the doorway, jerked her back, and scooped her into my arms.

“Cam!” But she was laughing as she rested her head against my chest.

On the bed, I laid her down and crawled on top of her, kissing her like I could memorize the taste of her, the feel of the slide of her tongue against mine. She tasted like candy, woman, and sex. All things that made my pulse roar in my ears and drown out all sound. God, how I wanted her.

The last time I’d been inside her had been frantic and dark. This time, I needed something else. I rolled off her and flicked on the bedside lamp.

“What are you doing?” She’d sat up and was kicking off her sneakers. Her cheeks were flushed by the wind and some of her hair had come out of the ponytail. She blew a piece out of her face and eyed me with uncertainty.

“I want to see what’s mine.”

In response, she pulled the hoodie and her shirt over her head, leaving just the bra and leggings.

I dipped a finger between her cleavage and hooked the front of her bra, tugging her to me. Without waiting for an invitation, she unclasped it.

My heart raced as I pulled it off. I could see her naked a thousand times, and each one would be like the first.

She was fucking amazing.

I sucked a nipple into my mouth and ran my hand down her side to her hip, then pulled her down with me. We rolled, so I was on top and I kissed my way down her stomach, dipped my tongue into her navel, then lower. I pulled the leggings and panties over her hips, all the way down her thighs.

“Cam.” She wiggled under me, thrusting her hips upward. “Please.”

That pretty pussy was so close, I couldn’t resist.

I slid the tip of my tongue along her slit upward to flick her clit as I tossed the rest of her clothes to the floor. Naked beneath me, she moaned.

“This what you wanted, darlin’?” I made slow, easy circles while her scent left me rock fucking hard.

She bucked and made mewling sounds.

I chuckled and sucked her clit all the way into my mouth. Last night, she’d liked this part.

“Fuck, yes.” She groaned.

With my hands under her ass, gripping both cheeks, I angled her up and feasted, suckling and licking while she gripped the blanket.

And when she bucked too fast, I pulled away and shucked my jeans and boxer briefs.

“What?” She screwed up her brow, confused and frustrated.

I almost laughed.

“I want to come inside you. So fucking bad.”

The heavy lidded, sexy as fuck stare she leveled on me left my balls aching and my cock twitching.

“Do it.”

Hearing her say it did me in every damn time.

“Roll over.”

She did, glancing over her shoulder at me with those big, fuck me eyes. “On my knees?” Her long, slender body flared out at the hips, and my fingerprints were still red on her tight ass.

“Jesus.” I swore. “Yes.”

As she did, I clutched her hips and slid slowly inside her. I memorized the slick glide of her cunt over my cock, the wet warmth, the heady smell, the delicious fucking way she arched her back and moaned.

Fully sheathed inside her, I held us there, teasing us both, until it felt like my balls might explode. Then I took her with one full stroke out and back in, then another, fighting against the urge to fuck her until I couldn’t see straight, and holding onto every little whimper and tremble.

Riley took me, learning quickly to rock backward to meet each thrust.

Goddamn, it felt good.

I wrapped her ponytail around my right hand and wrenched her head back, remembering the way her eyes had dilated at The Black Cat when I’d grabbed her hair. Just a little pain…she liked that. Riley gasped, and trembling, arched her back in response.

The new angle let me slide in deeper, and her pussy clenched tight around me.

I almost came.

“Baby…” I whispered, relishing the heat of her wrapped around me, the way her ass bounced with each thrust, and moved faster.

She came a nanosecond before me, squeezing the come from my cock and bucking against me.

When we collapsed on the bed, I rolled to my side and pulled her snug against my chest.

“That was nice.” She groaned after a few seconds.

“I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve.” I kissed the slope between her neck and shoulder.

“I don’t doubt that.” She rolled in my arms, so that she was looking up at me.

Her expression was tender, her face sleepy. God, I could gaze down into those eyes for the rest of my life.

The thought ripped through me like barbed wire, tearing up everything as it went. What I’d thought of myself. Who I’d been. The life I thought I wanted.

Jesus. Fuck.

“What’s wrong?” Never one to miss a thing, she leaned up on her elbow, frowning.

“Nothing.” Of all the things I couldn’t tell her, this was one I could. “You know how you think you know what you want from life, then someone shows up and tosses a big ass wrench into all of it?”

She snorted, grabbed the blanket, and pulled it over us, then lay back beside me. “Nothing in my life has gone according to plan. Absolutely nothing.”

Then she examined me so long I adjusted my position beneath the blanket restlessly.

“Is this…” She gestured between us. “…the sex, all this is?”

There was no way she was serious. I waited a beat, but she said nothing else. I swore under my breath. “No. I can fuck anyone, Riley. You’re…”

“The monkey wrench.” She screwed up her nose like an annoyed rabbit.

“Yeah.” I kissed the crinkly tip.

“Then I have to be more than something you own. I’m not property.”

“You think so?” I brushed a stray lock of hair from her face.

“You’ve called me yours a few times. With Lance and now when we were…” Her face turned a pretty shade of pink. “I have to be equal in this relationship.”

“Absofuckinglutely.”

“ Cameron , I’m serious.”

“I kinda like it when you call me that.”

Under the blanket, she punched me in the gut, but there wasn’t a lot of force behind it.

“I’m naming my next wrench after you.”

“Make sure it’s pink handled.”

I kissed her gently and reached over to cut off the light, shutting out the world and all the bullshit.

“Be serious.”

I sobered. “Fine. Yes, there’s more between us than just sex. No, I wouldn’t have made the order to handle those assholes for just anyone.” Any of the patch bunnies, nah, I wouldn’t kill for them. But for Riley I’d rip a man limb from fucking limb.

A flurry of remembered anger thrashed about in my chest.

“I’m falling for you. I don’t want to leave, I…want to be here, with you.” She sounded half frightened, like she thought I’d balk and run.

“Darlin’, I fell for you the first damn time I saw you.” And it was the truth.

She wanted to be here with me. I hadn’t scared her off. I damn sure didn’t deserve her, yet here we were.

“I love you, Riley. I’m not on my way. I’m already there.”

And it was fucking terrifying .

I kissed her mostly to keep her from saying something she might not be ready for. My tongue slowly exploring her mouth while her fingers traced circles on my chest. The hum of the AC pulled me from the kiss, and I tugged her closer so she wouldn’t get cold.

“When I felt like I couldn’t get to you in time, nothing else mattered. When I saw the marks he put on you—” I brushed my knuckles against the small bruises just above her collarbone. “—it took me to a dark place.

“You brought me back from there.”

She nuzzled her face against my chest, speaking so quietly I almost couldn’t hear her. “I feel like the truest version of myself when I’m with you.”

“I don’t need you to love me, Riley, but—”

“I do, I love you.”

Whatever trepidation had been inside of me slid away.

“Then stay with me.”

“I am.”