Tease: A Kings of Korruption MC Novel (30 page)

“I’m sorry, Laynie.”
 
Her words wash over me, shock freezing my tongue.
 
“I’ve been doing some thinking since I talked to your young man …”
 
She takes a deep breath.
 
“He was right, you know?
 
What he said.
 
I knew he was right.
 
I just couldn’t accept it.”
 
Her voice fills with tears.
 
“You and I used to be so close, honey.
 
And I ruined that.”

Tears fill my eyes as I listen to her confession.
 
“No, Mom.
 
You didn’t ruin it.”
 
I smile.
 
“You may have squashed it a bit, but you didn’t ruin it.”

She chokes out a laugh through her tears.
 
“I’m going to work on being so overprotective, OK?
 
I just … after the accident, I think I just started focusing on you to help concentrate on something other than losing Garrett.
 
I almost lost you too, Laynie.
 
There was a while there when we didn’t know if you were going to make it.
 
It was terrifying.”

Tears slip down my cheeks.
 
Sometimes I forget that even though I had lost my vision and my brother in the accident, my parents had lost a son.
 
Hearing her admit to that pain makes me realize just how selfish my thinking has been.

“I love you, Mom.”

She sobs into the phone.
 
“Oh, baby, I love you too.”

My mom and I stay on the phone for another twenty minutes, and when we finally hang up, my heart feels lighter than it has in years.
 
Things are finally working out with my mother, and my dad and I have always been solid.
 
He’s wonderful, but he avoids confrontation at all costs.
 
I know he loves me, but he never gets in my face.
 
As for Daniel, I need to fix things with him still, but at least we’re talking.

Hearing the key in the lock, I sit up, waiting for Travis to get inside.
 
Though he wouldn’t tell me where he was going, I knew.
 
It was in the heaviness of his voice, and the whispered telephone calls, not to mention the fact that he has been gone so long.

“Hi.”
 
He sounds exhausted.

I smile and hold my arms out, motioning for him to come to me.
 
“Hi, honey.”

The couch dips as he settles down beside me, dragging me up onto his lap and wrapping his arms around me tightly.
 
Pressing his lips to the top of my head, he just holds me.
 
He smells like soap and laundry detergent.

“You were gone a while,” I whisper.

He nods, lips still pressed to my hair.
 
“I got back a couple hours ago.
 
Stopped by my place to have a shower first.”

I say nothing and just squeeze him tight.

“Fuck.
 
I’m so glad to be home, Laynie.”

My heart squeezes and my belly flutters.
 
Squeezing him even tighter, I whisper, “I’m glad too, honey.”

We sit in silence, holding each other, and just listening to our breathing.
 
Finally, I can’t stand it anymore.
 
“Are you OK, Travis?”

He shakes his head, his lips twisting in my hair as he does.
 
“No.”

I turn, placing my hands on his cheeks and press my lips to his.
 
“Tell me.”

He shakes his head again.
 
“I can’t.
 
If you don’t know anything, you can’t get into any trouble.”

Swallowing, I nod.
 
I knew it was bad.
 
“I know you went after the Devils.”

He freezes.
 
“How the fuck do you know that?”

“Just the way you’ve been acting.
 
The whispered phone calls the last couple of days, and the fact that you were gone so long.”
 
I sweep my lips across his cheek.
 
“You don’t have to tell me anything, but you can talk to me.”

Sighing, he picks me up and sets me back on the couch before he stands.
 
I can hear him pacing back and forth in front of me as he talks.
 
“Fuck.
 
That shit we did … while I was away … it was fuckin’ bad, Laynie.
 
How can we live with ourselves after that shit?”

Forcing my face to remain expressionless, I keep it pointed straight ahead as I answer him.
 
“Is it over?”

He snorts.
 
“Oh, it’s over.”
 
He goes back to pacing.
 
“Do you believe in an eye for an eye, Laynie?
 
Retribution?”

Biting my lip, I think about his question.
 
I think about Mouse, and Sarah, and the baby that she’s carrying.
 
Then I think about how those men had pulled up to that picnic area, opened fire on us and drove away without the cops being able to do a damn thing about it.
 
Clenching my fists, I set my jaw and nod.
 
“Absolutely.”

Air rushes from his lungs and he kneels in front of me, placing his hands on my knees.
 
“Just when I was starting to believe I wasn’t a monster …”

Running my fingers through his hair, I aim my eyes at his face and whisper, “Monsters don’t feel remorse.
 
Monsters are people like those men, who come along and steal a precious life, then move on like nothing happened.
 
You’re not a monster, Travis.
 
You’re human.”

His fingertips trail across my cheeks.
 
“You make me want to believe that.”

I smile softly.
 
“You should.
 
It’s true.”

He sighs.
 
“Laynie, my world is fucked-up.
 
I’m not some fairytale biker from one of your books, and I don’t live in a fairytale biker world.
 
It’s real and it’s fuckin’ dangerous.”

Smirking, I nod.
 
“Getting run off the road clued me in on that.
 
Getting shot at confirmed it.”

“Jesus,” he mutters.

Biting back a smile, I sigh.
 
“I know it’s not like my books, Travis.
 
I know that it’s dangerous.
 
But do you wanna know something?
 
I don’t care.
 
Since I met you, my life has gone from lonely and dark to exciting and full of color.
 
I’ve made new friends and had more adventures than any of the heroines in my books.”
 
I smile.
 
“Best of all, I have you.
 
You are the first man to ever look past my blindness and treat me like a normal human being.
 
The first man to ever make me
feel
like I’m special.”
 
Nuzzling my face into his hand, I continue, “Who cares if it’s dangerous?
 
I’m not afraid of living this life with you.
 
I’m more afraid of living it without you.”
 

He’s silent a moment before laying his head on my lap.
 
“Fuck, I love you,” he whispers.

“I love you too, honey.”

IT’S BEEN THREE MONTHS since that terrible day that Mouse was ripped away from us all.
 
Since then, not a night has gone by that Travis hasn’t slept in my bed.
 
No matter what either of us had going on that day, at the end of the night, we crawled into bed together, falling asleep in one another’s arms, and waking up every morning in a tangle of arms and legs and tousled hair.
 

Today we’d made it official.
 
Travis had packed up the few things that he owned and moved them into my apartment.
 
Already I had tripped over his enormous motorcycle boots, almost fallen in the toilet after he’d left the seat up, and had put my hand in a small puddle of mysterious liquid that he’d left on the counter.
 
It seems living together for real is going to take some getting used to.

Hearing the water turn off in the shower, I fluff up my hair one last time and make sure to position myself in what I can only hope is a sexy position.
 
As soon as Travis had gotten into the shower, I’d run to the closet and pulled out my favorite high-heeled shoes and stripped off my clothes, leaving only my lacy thong panties.
 
I’d then found his leather cut and pulled it on as well.
 
Now, I’m standing in the doorway to the bedroom, hand propped on one hip while I wait for my man to get out of the shower.

I hear him enter and hear the whisper of a towel running across his wet skin, then his deep intake of breath.

“Jesus,” he whispers.

Smiling, I place my finger inside the opening to the cut I’m wearing and slowly trail it down between my breasts and down my belly, slipping it just inside the band of my panties.
 

“Stop,” he orders in a deep, husky voice.
 
I pause, pulling my lower lip between my teeth.
 
I hear his footsteps as he approaches me.
 
“Don’t fuckin’ move.”

The sound of his knees hitting the floor in front of me takes my breath away.
 
My smile fades as my heart races.
 
Uncertainty starts to creep in as I wait for him to do something, say something … to touch me.

His breaths come out in jagged pants.
 
“Fuck, Laynie.
 
You fuckin’ wreck me.”
 
My belly flutters at the sound of his strangled voice.
 
“You are the most beautiful fuckin’ woman I’ve ever seen.”
 
His fingertips slip inside the cut and trail slowly up my belly.
 
“You have no fuckin’ clue how incredible you are,” he whispers.

Parting the cut slowly, his other hand slips inside.
 
He cups my breasts with both hands, rolling my nipples between his finger and thumb.
 
Heat builds low in my belly.
 
I can feel the wetness between my legs soaking into my panties.

I can feel his warm breath on my mound through the lace of my panties just before I feel the firm swipe of his tongue through my folds.
 
Pleasure spikes through me, almost bringing me to my knees.
 
His tongue pushes against my panties once more and drags slowly across my clit.

I reach down and spear his hair with my fingers as he laps at my swollen bud and continues to roll my nipples with his magic fingers.
 
I whimper in protest when he pulls away, only to cry out in shock when his hands go between my legs, tearing the thin strip of fabric that covers my wet entrance, leaving it hanging uselessly from my waist.

“Those were my sexiest panties!”

“I’ll buy you more,” he growls, and then his mouth is on me.
 
Lifting my leg, he places it over his shoulder as his mouth sucks at my heated clit.
 
I throw my head back and grab onto the door frame with both hands to steady myself.

Continuing to fuck me with his mouth, he reaches up and pinches my nipple once more, causing the most beautiful pain I’ve ever known.
 
I rock my hips against his stubbled face, my orgasm building strong and fast.
 
When his finger plunges deep inside of me, I scream out as the pleasure overwhelms me, my entire body trembling with my release.