Breaking A Bad Boy Page 27

  “That jerk didn’t touch me…these photographs look like I wasn’t happy and I am covering my chest. My biggest problem is Drew thinking he’s got something over on me or you. But what’s worse, the other imbecile, Mike and people like him. Threatening, and doing worse than that to those people back home. Am I right?”

  “They’re vipers. But this isn’t the only news, I had to share,” he said.

  “What else?” she asked.

  “It’s about that program from the Marshall’s. There’s an immediate offer on the table for your father and his family. They’re interested in entering a program to protect them.”

  “Wait. Exactly what kind of protection program?”

  “A witness protection program. An official one.” He rubbed his forehead. “WITSEC. The kind people enter and aren’t allowed to return from. Frank and Gloria along with her children would enter and each will be given a new identity. From what I understand, they will enter the program soon.”

  “Forever. Dad is going to disappear…go away and never come back? Please, Rory. Oh my god. I can’t believe this is taking place.” She raised her hand to her mouth, covering her lips that trembled. Please…there has to be a better way out.

  “If he stays, he could get hurt. And that’s why I came out here. You need to come back home to say goodbye.”

  “He’s just gonna leave. Gone. Like when I was a kid,” she whispered, shaking her head, not wanting to believe this was possible.

  “Sommer, I have a return ticket for you, booked for tomorrow morning. We’re flying out at ten,” he said. “That is, if you want to see him.”

  She exhaled a shaky breath. “Can you come with me…to my dad’s? Help me face this. If I could just see him and hear what he has to say, instead of living in regret. Like the last time when he just up and left.”

  “I’ll do whatever you need,” he murmured, dipping his head and skimming his mouth over hers as she savored the warm slide of his lips. He lifted up an inch, hovering above her with his hypnotizing eyes, hot and feral. “I’ll have to call Miller.”

  “Please, lie down with me,” she blurted out. “Before you call your brother. Just a minute.”

  “Once I contact Miller, if he agrees to help, it won’t take long before this whole thing is over. Once we’re married, we post a photograph and shut the whole bet down. Don’t worry, I’ll get in contact with Drew and get him to remove those photographs.”

  “You’re not going to do something to hurt him?”

  “I’ll use Miller’s resources. Totally legit.” Rory moved over her, spreading her legs, and settling down between her thighs. “Can’t promise the bet will fly. But instead of avoiding the curve ball we were just thrown, at least we’re stepping up to the plate, holding our heads high, and swinging wide.”

  She hooked her hand around his neck. “Thanks for helping me deal with this mess.”

  CHAPTER 20

  “JUST LIKE THAT,” Sommer moaned against his mouth the second their hips came into contact. She felt like heaven. Her hot little body underneath him, and her fingers gripping him through his pants, urging him to move faster, harder against her.

  “Soon¸ baby. Soon.” Planting his hands on either side of her shoulders, Rory pumped his hard-on up against her, taking them both to the edge of torment. Right to the brink.

  His thoughts tripped and his chest squeezed from the burst of endorphins. The blood pumped into his veins, spread a cell-branding primal message throughout his body to just rip her panties off and thrust into her.

  “We’re so close. Just a taste. Please,” she murmured, lifting her leg along the side of his body, giving him an incredible angle in which to slide closer, and he couldn’t resist.

  His spunky girl was breaking down his last wall of resistance, and he was savoring every one of her moves. He grazed his fingers down from her knee, following the silky trail of her inner thigh until he traced the edge of her panties. Lifting the elastic band, he slipped his finger underneath as his cock strained the space in his jeans. Sommer shuddered. His finger skimmed across warm wet skin. Her pussy was swollen, slick, and ready. He toggled her clit and his cock jerked in response.

  His engorged shaft must have commandeered his whole blood supply. His rod stood up, harder than a steel pipe. He felt the pulse of his heartbeat along his cock, so much so that his balls throbbed…fucking screamed for relief.

  With a snap of his wrist, he tore her panties and grunted. “Consider these mine as well.”

  “Seriously greedy, McLemore.”

  “You’re learning, baby.” He lowered his head, targeting her slender neck. If he couldn’t make love to her, then nipping her throat and touching Sommer’s incredible smelling skin would do. For now.

  “Oh my little tease,” he growled, unable to resist skimming his finger over her slick skin. At the mouth of her pussy, he thrust his finger inside. One hard pump and she bucked, her hips jackknifing off the mattress and she impaled herself onto his finger.

  “More. Please!” She demanded, gyrating her lush hips.

  “That’s it,” he grunted, pumping his hand and moving his finger in and out of her until her sounds, her scent, the feel of her soft skin held him captive. Who the hell am I kidding? No way was he about to stop. Not until Sommer’s body yielded.

  Rocking rapidly, she squeezed his finger, splintering his brain into two camps: the ‘Waiting Until We’re Married’ team was now in direct opposition to team ‘Thrust into Sommer.’

  The chanting was overpowering in his head.

  Thrust Into Sommer.

  Thrust Into Sommer.

  Thrust Into Sommer took the lead, beating the non-existent…he couldn’t even recall the name of the other team. What other team?

  Lifting up, he stared down into her glowing face and her liquid golden eyes, and felt himself falling. His cock demanded release and he lowered his zipper.

  “Oh Rory,” she pleaded with her husky voice. So beautiful—his girl. His golden haired, golden eyed goddess.

  Soon his wife. His lover. Always, she’d been his love. Forever.

  All of sudden the tides changed and team Waiting Until We’re Married shot forward, not by far, but enough to get noticed.

  “Sugar,” he hissed, grinding his hips rough against the mattress before springing upward.

  “Rory?” Sommer looked half-stricken as if he weren’t serious. “Babe, please.”

  His dick throbbed painfully hard; painfully in need of Sommer wrapped around him. In a little while they’d be married… she was his. “We’re going to plan,” he barked gruffly.

  “Yeah, this plan.” She opened her legs, showing him how wet she was. “Come here, cowboy.” Her voice sounded like a seductive siren’s call and he almost lost it.

  Shit! He moved downward, not stopping until he wedged her legs wide open. Taking her knees in his hands, he parted her legs even wider as he shifted in between her lovely thighs, and snuggly secured her by hoisting her calves over his shoulders.

  Officially, he was now pissed, horny, and hungry as hell. “Baby, I’m going to get you off and then I swear, if you tempt me again, I’m going to lay you over my lap and take my sweet time, spanking your ass until it’s good and red. And that’s a goddamn promise you can take to the bank, Sommer Kincaid.”

  Lowering his head, he splayed her lips, giving her what she wanted and needed with his tongue, sucking her clit and pussy hard and rough. Her body bowed under his mouth and she began to tremble, crying out, “Please. Ahh.”

  “That’s it. Give it to me. Now, baby!” He felt her orgasm rip through her and he thrust his fingers into her, pumping harder than before. He didn’t relent until a blush crept up her neck, overtaking her cheeks, and her lips parted and his name echoed off the walls.

  She exploded from the force of his fingers.

  But not his marble hard dick. That beast he kept housed in his jeans, and god help them both when he was finally free to fuck her as his wife.

  RORY dialed
his brother’s number and spoke into the phone when Miller answered. “Got a plan. I’m here with Sommer and putting you on speaker.”

  “Hey Sommer. Go for it,” Miller said.

  Rory raked his fingers through his hair. “Can you contact Mike and get a line?”

  “A line? Okay, define your plan. That could screw up everything with the Marshalls,” Miller returned.

  “Mike has got some sicko action being offered and this time, his greed is going to strangle him. But I can’t place the bet.”

  Miller exhaled. “Not that I’m entertaining doing what you suggest, but the question is begged. What line is that jackass running and why do you even remotely believe you’d win?”

  “He’s got a line on Sommer and me.” The words exited his mouth like shards of glass as he met Sommer’s eyes. A blush spread over her beautiful cheeks. The idea that she was being put through this shit had him back to the edge of crazytown. For her, he swallowed the bitterness of his anger.

  “Hold on. Exactly what kind line are we talking about?” Miller asked.

  Rory’s chest stopped moving. He held his breath. Slowly, he snarled, “He’s taking bets on us doing it.”

  Silence on the other side. Rory exhaled through his nose, trying to work the kink out his neck muscles by rotating his chin from side to side as he waited for Miller to respond.

  “He’s seriously in need of getting his ass kicked.” Miller’s voice came out steely. “Text me the info.”

  “I’m on it. It’s nothing short of messed up, but it could strangle his ability to float any more bets. He’d have to cover the losses for his operation beyond the choke-hold limit. Didn’t you say he was restricted in the amount of bets he could take? I’d wager on the side of his appetite and greed. Mike will double-cross Carlo as sure as the sun is gonna rise tomorrow. And if we had proof, like a recording along with his note, we could square Sommer’s dad’s issue and give that Carlo dude the proof to deal with his own scum.”

  “Jesus,” Miller replied. “When did you go hardcore?”

  “It’ll work,” Rory shot back. “I learned from the best.”

  “How much you want to lay down?”

  He looked over to Sommer, stroking his hand down her arm and encircling her thin wrist with his fingers. So fragile, and his to protect. “Depends on the odds, but I bet he’ll offer up two-to-one, might go as high as four-to-one.”

  “We already have the Kincaids set up for the program. The Marshall’s will give the final go ahead and they’re set,” Miller said.

  “Miller, please,” Sommer jumped into the conversation. “I spoke with these two guys. I don’t believe they’re going away anytime soon. Not from Annona, unless something happens. Something big.”

  “Sommer, I promise you, those two won’t bother you,” his brother replied. “But about this plan—”

  “I’m not afraid for me—well not totally. I was talking about Annona, and even the cities around.”

  “Bro, just see what you can do,” Rory said, knowing his older brother was already considering the issue if he’d not dismissed the idea straight out. Miller wasn’t one to dicker. If he didn’t like an idea, he’d shut down the conversation or walk away, if an opposing party refused to listen. No argument. If he was willing to discuss it, he was already looking for probabilities and payoffs. Of all his brothers, he’d learned from Miller how to place a bet by looking at all the angles.

  “To be clear, that means you’d have to come up with fifty if this thing somehow went south. You need to understand, things happen, and people will walk away. You cover you own losses if that happens. What’s your collateral?

  “Don’t worry. I’m prepared,” he answered and sucked in a breath, wishing he didn’t have to say this in front of Sommer. “I can always sell my land.”

  “What?” Sommer’s voice shot up.

  “Rory, hopefully this won’t come to that,” Miller began. “I’ll be back in touch when I hear something.”

  He hung up and looked over at her. “Don’t worry. You know it will all work out.”

  “How do you know?” she asked, her face pale and her eyes filled with worry. “I didn’t think that you’d have to risk—”

  “All we need to do is secure the line of action that dipstick is offering, and tie him up with his own stranglehold of greed. When he accepts the bet, it’s as good as a clover hitch. Now, I bought you a bunch of stuff. Don’t you want to get ready for your wedding?”

  She nodded, biting her lip, and he lifted her chin. “You have always been so sure of yourself,” she whispered.

  He smiled and brushed a few strands of her hair away from her cheek. Lowering his head, he kissed her and whispered. “I have always been sure of you. You are mine.”

  FROM the foyer the elevator chimed, signaling visitors. Rory glanced over toward the bedroom. Sommer had been inside for the last forty-five minutes, showing no signs of coming out. Yet. He’d showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt that Jeff had prompted him to buy in his shop downstairs. Not exactly his style, but clean, and he felt refreshed.

  The elevator doors opened and he watched three men exiting, recognizing one. “Jeff,” he said and nodded, walking across the marble floor. “Come in.”

  “Rory,” Jeff returned the greeting. “As promised, I have the minister, and a witness.”

  “Welcome,” he said in return as the men faced him. He felt a chuckle at the back of his throat at the actual unfolding of his wedding. From the Texas variety of big wedding-hoopla, this was a variation that would give everyone in his family something to talk about. Ironic, since they weren’t here. His five-member wedding party: his bride, two witnesses, the minister plus himself—countable on one hand, would break quite a few molds back home.

  Didn’t matter in his book. Big. Small. In a chapel or hotel.

  What did? Finally after almost five years, his and Sommer’s wedding was about to take place. If she ever exited the bedroom.

  “Pleasure.” He held out his hand, shaking and listening to them introduce themselves.

  “Paul Holiday. Minister. Wonderful to meet you.” The minister towered above him, meeting his gaze, pumping his hand. With a slap on his back, Paul walked inside the living room.

  The other man entered with a quick shake and release. “Antoine Faraday, witness. Nice to make your acquaintance. I come with a bouquet.”

  Antoine was a slight, short dude who glanced around nervously from behind steel-rimmed glasses, and reminded Rory of a kid he went to school with and had moved away to start some tech company in Dallas.

  “Thanks for coming,” Rory replied, taking hold of the bouquet. “Roses. Sommer loves them.”

  “Here,” Jeff said, holding out another shirt. White, button-down—not a tux, but more sophisticated than the black golf shirt he now wore. “Fifteen and a half. Thirty-four regular. I would have brought slacks. Thirty-two. Am I correct?”

  “Keen eye. Thanks and yeah, on the mark.” Rory’s hands were filled as he walked into the living room with his guests.

  Jeff grinned. “Ten and a half shoe.”

  All the men looked down at his feet. “I wear boots mostly. And again, Jeff, you’re right,” Rory said. “Can’t thank you enough.”

  “Trust me, you have. Proof that romance is alive and well is payment enough.”

  “Drink?” he asked, motioning to the bar.

  “Great night for a wedding,” Paul said. “I can be bartender and minister. Who’s having what?”

  After a round of drinks, his nerves actually got tighter when Sommer still hadn’t exited the bedroom. When his phone buzzed, he stood up from the sofa and said to his guests, “Excuse me. I need to take this.”

  “Don’t forget the shirt.” Jeff held it up. “You can change.”

  He walked into the suite’s extra bedroom and closed the door, glancing at Miller’s phone number displayed on his cell screen. “If this is good news, your timing is dead center,” he said, pulling off the
shirt he wore.

  “It’s news. Not sure if it’s good,” Miller said. “There’s a crimp in the plan. In how the Kincaids are required to participate.”

  “Required…what part are they playing?” Fuck! His mind spun. “What happened?”

  He didn’t want to hear that the deal couldn’t be made. Drew was the perfect idiot. And Mike was hungry like a shark, willing to consume anything, even his own tail for a cash bet.

  “I placed the bet. Not me personally, but a contact. You were right. Mike snatched it up. The guy is trading in all sort of shit, Rory. From girls to fucking drugs. I doubt that this is going to fly. The Marshalls were forced to turn this case over to the Feds. Mike is going to be arrested, and I have to back off from asking questions. My contacts don’t have answers at this point. The only thing for sure is that the bet was made, and there’s recorded evidence. How it plays out, that’s unknown. Buddy, I don’t like when the outcome is risky.”

  “That’s what betting blind is all about. I see the outcomes as both being better than great. He’s going down. And, either way, the best part is he’s going far away from Annona,” Rory said, slipping on the button-down shirt. “That’s what we call a win, win.”

  “Something else,” his brother exhaled the words. “The Kincaids want to go into the program being offered by the Feds.”

  “What the hell? That’s not surprising though.”

  “Yes and no. They liked the idea of a clean break.”

  Liked. That sounded past tense. He stopped buttoning his shirt. His mind tumbled at the thought of Sommer’s dad just picking up and leaving town. “When?” he asked carefully.

  “Already happened.”

  It felt like the air had been punched out of his lungs. “I thought we had enough time to get back first. I told Sommer she’d have an opportunity to say goodbye. This is blindsiding us.”

  In his mind, he replayed Sommer’s words—her plea to help her get through her dad leaving again. He’d promised Sommer. Gave her his word. Said he’d help her when Frank Kincaid disappeared, so she’d not have the emotional scar tissue like the last time. There was no do-over. She wouldn’t have another opportunity.