Obsession (Magnetic Desires Book 4) Read online

  I wouldn’t start shit, wouldn’t even finish it. I just wanted a quiet drink, not that I would advertise it. Grinning, I turned my cap backward and rolled up the sleeves on the flannel shirt I’d thrown over my T-shirt. “Got it.”

  He smirked, showing a gold tooth through his thick black beard, and letting out a crackling, grating laugh. “Yeah, looks like it.”

  I pushed through the door and took a minute to let my eyes adjust to the dim lighting and smoky haze. Angel leaned over the bar, her hair in a wild ponytail over her shoulder, the black wife-beater she wore revealing ample cleavage and full sleeves of tattoos. “Hey, Angel.”

  The hard gaze she’d been dealing up to the room softened when it met mine. “Knight. It’s been a long time.”

  I stalked forward and took a seat at the bar. “How about a drink?”

  “Scotch?”

  “I’ll start with a beer.” It’d been a long time since I touched the hard stuff. Between the operation and when I’d gone back to allowing myself the occasional beer had been a year as it was.

  She poured from the tap, swirling it around the glass, producing a beer with little head. “We’ve missed you and your antics around here. Settled down yet?”

  “No.” I flicked one corner of my mouth up. “Why? Do you fancy a ride?”

  Her chuckle started with a snort, her eyes dancing. “You’re the same boy you were the first time you walked in here when you were what?”

  “Seventeen, and I sure as hell don’t feel like it.”

  “Yeah. Time dances us right to the grave, doesn’t she? Let me know when you want another.” With that she slipped along behind the bar, serving up harder alcohol to harder guys than me.

  Settling in, I drank my beer. Nothing was the same now as it had been then. At seventeen, I’d been tougher, or at least ignorant of what waited. I’d been goddamn invincible. Never mind I’d had my lights punched out by a dude twice my size that first night. After that I’d made sure no one would take me down.

  Getting up, I headed for the bathroom to take a leak.

  Standing at the urinals, one hand planted on the wall above his head to keep his drunken ass sway from taking him to the ground, was the shit stain I’d never wanted to see again. Tamping down on the surge of anger that rose up, I stalked over to relieve myself.

  “Knight. That pretty little whore of yours around tonight?” He sneered as he pissed on his boots. Funny how he could barely get the words out around his alcohol thickened tongue, but he could remember who the hell I was.

  “Fuck off, Rabid.” I finished off and tucked my cock back in my pants. There was no point in rehashing the night I’d found him with his dick inside my girl. I’d been ready to destroy him, but the guilt in her eyes before she turned away from me had been enough to tell me she knew what she was doing. Every muscle in the back of my neck and along my jaw tightened, and my fists itched to land in his face. That had been my fault, my doing, but it still filled me with nausea, cutting me apart. Turning away from him, I went back to the bar.

  “You want another?” Angel rested her elbows on the scarred wood in front of me as I took my seat. “Maybe scotch this time?”

  “What’s with the fucking scotch, Angel? I haven’t drunk it in years.”

  “You might want to tonight.”

  Behind us, her laugh rang out clear in the crowd, and I spun around. Mellie leaned over the pool table, cue in hand, lining up her next shot, while a group of salivating dogs crowded around behind her. Not surprising when she was putting out all the right signals. A black mesh top over a black bra didn’t leave much to the imagination, but who needed an imagination when I had memory. Pink areolas, the same color as her lips, and nipples that hardened to stiff peaks under my gaze. Or they had, when they’d been mine to look at. There was a nipple ring through one, or rather, a little silver bar, with round ends. The outline of it visible through her shirt when she was cold. My mouth watered with the memory of rolling my tongue along the metal, and the way she used to moan my name.

  I stalked toward them, unable to keep my fists from clenching when a huge guy in dirty jeans and a leather vest ran his filthy paw up the back of her thigh to the hem of a tiny leather skirt which barely covered her ass. She slapped him away. “Hands off.”

  He laughed and grabbed her hips, pulling her back against him. “Don’t pretend you don’t like it.”

  She whirled on him, the stick between them. “I told you to get your hands off me.”

  Anywhere else and she would have had control of the situation. But this wasn’t Blazers and these guys were harder than she was used to. Hell, I’d told her never to come out here alone, made her promise not to even after we were done.

  His palm found her ass, dragging her to him, the stick useless between them, and her tiny skirt lifted, to the delight of the others watching. Not that it wasn’t a perfect view. The curve of her ass, and the sliver of black panty that peeked out beneath, was distracting. With a growl I crossed the distance. The chill in my words the only giveaway of the anger coursing through me. “Get your filthy hands off her.”

  Both heads snapped my way, her eyes widening as she breathed my name. He glared at me, a half smirk marring his face, while he made no effort to let her go. Instead, he dragged her hips closer. “Fuck off. Find your own pussy.”

  I blinked, a slow, tension-filled shut and open of my eyes. The only sign I was about to let loose was both pointer fingers tapping out a staccato beat on my thighs while the buzz of anger filled every cell. No clenched fists, no clenched jaw. When they’re big like that you want to take them by surprise. “She is my fucking pussy.”

  Her intake of breath was audible while every head turned in our direction, silence descending.

  “Is that right?” He glanced down at her, and for a moment I thought we would get out of there without a fight.

  “Hurricane, you little whore.” Rabid staggered across the room, stumbled and bumped into the pool table hard enough to skid it several inches over the floor. “Come back for more?”

  She crumpled, her gaze darting to mine. Those wide expressive eyes watered, her lips parted, while she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

  With clenched fists, I whipped my head around to glare at Rabid, wanting to take him down, to put my fist in his face and beat the living shit out of him. But I only gave him a second, more than he was worth, before I snapped my attention back to the more immediate situation.

  “Whore, huh?” The big guy grabbed her chin, reefing it up, causing her eyes to water, and crashed his mouth to hers.

  With a snarl, I threw myself at him, the first fist connecting with his gut, sending him staggering and causing him to release her. The second landed on the underside of his jaw.

  In the background Angel yelled for Wolf, but this bastard was going to be out before I stepped away. He tossed out a punch, but either he’d had too many drinks to get in a decent shot or he’d never had to defend himself. Three quick hooks to his jaw and another to his gut and he was down on his knees. Twisting at the hips I pulled back and let swing, tensing at the final moment as I laid out one last punch to the side of his jaw. His head snapped to the side and he toppled.

  Wolf stepped in beside me, and I jerked around with a growl, but his thick fingers caught my elbow, squeezing until the haze began to recede. “I’ll take care of this. You two need to get out of here.”

  I darted glances at the crowd until my gaze landed on her. Stepping over the guy I’d taken out, I stalked her. “We’re leaving.”

  “No.” She shook her head, but her tongue darted out over her lip. Those sexy as sin lips that had always been so responsive.

  “You don’t have a fucking choice.” I scooped her up, tossed her over my shoulder and sauntered toward the door.

  “Put me down, Mike,” she squealed, slapping my ass as she bumped against my back.

  “I told you never to come here.”

  “I know, but—“

  “What the fuck
were you thinking?”

  “Put me down,” she demanded. “Let go of me.”

  “Answer my question.” I squeezed her hip as I bounced down the stairs. If I hadn’t been there, she would have found herself in more trouble than she could deal with. My blood boiled that she hadn’t learned her lesson yet. How many times did she need to find trouble before she’d realize it only made things worse? I clamped down on the tirade I wanted to unleash, intermingled with the desire to shove her against the nearest wall and take what I wanted from her.

  “Stop being an asshole and put me down.”

  She wriggled on my shoulder, trying to get loose, and I swiped her ass. A light tap, nothing like what I’d unleashed inside, but the sharp snap of the contact and the way she bounced on my shoulder was a momentary release of the tension coiled tight inside me. Stopping at the truck, I set her on her feet. “Get your ass in the vehicle.”

  “No.” She shivered, her gaze slanting across my mouth.

  I could take a fucking hint, and what was more, I could take what was fucking mine. Fingers tangled in her hair, I dragged her face up to meet mine, devouring every inch of her mouth until her lips were swollen and bruised from the assault. “Get your ass in the truck.”

  Chapter Four

  Mellie

  Shaken, my lips stinging from his kiss, I climbed into the truck and waited for him to settle behind the wheel. My insides had caught fire when he kissed me, the burn racing out of control, leaving me wet and aching for more than just his possession of my mouth. He stayed silent as we pulled away from the bar, and I twiddled my thumbs, anything to keep my hands to myself.

  “What were you doing out here?”

  “I don’t know.” What the hell was I supposed to say? I came to the one place you made me promise not to go, hoping you’d be there.

  “Don’t lie to me. This isn’t the kind of place you decide to go on a whim, or because you need a dick,” He grumbled, his hands throttling the steering wheel. “It’s bullshit, Mellie. You’re better than that.”

  “Am I?” I snapped back. In three years, he’d never had a go at the way I went about my business. “It’s the way I was built, Mike. Like my father, like Lola. I can’t help who I am.”

  “Don’t bring Lola into this. Your sister is not like this.” He waved his hand over the length of my body.

  “She used to be.” I ducked my chin to my breastbone. “My father used to say she was a slut.”

  “Your father is an asshole. Perfect fucking role model, he was.”

  “I know.” I cringed, tucking myself into the seat. “I don’t want to be…this. I don’t want to be like him.”

  “Then don’t. Don’t go to places like that. You never used to be so fucking needy when we were...”

  “Together? You’re the one who left me. Don’t you think maybe I’m just looking for someone who can replace you?” I slammed my hand over my mouth, my heart stalling out in my chest as I tried to swallow back the words that spewed out. No matter how close to the truth they might be, they’d come out far more accusing than they should have.

  His shoulders tensed, the muscle near his ear bunching for a second. “Don’t you think I know that?”

  He’d gone out and had an affair. Not cheated on me, not an, Oops, I got too drunk and slipped, my dick accidentally landing in some woman’s hoochy. I could have forgiven him for that. Could have put it behind me. But a full blown under the rug affair for months on end, I couldn’t get past it. “I wasn’t enough. You stopped wanting me.”

  I caught a glimpse of his curled upper lip in the light from an oncoming car, before the shadows of tall pines fell over the cab. He hunched over the wheel, his biceps flexing under the cotton of his T-shirt. Then just as quickly, he relaxed, settling back in his seat and squeezing my knee. “I’ll own up to this being my fault. I pushed you away, made you feel…” he took his hand off my knee, and I wanted to grab it and hold it to my leg, slide it up my thigh. Instead, I watched him scratch at his jaw. “I didn’t have an affair.”

  “You always say that. But you don’t even try to make excuses. You never did, even when I confronted you. Does it even matter anymore?” Of course it fucking matters. He was supposed to be my forever boyfriend, my final fuck, the man who tamed the hurricane. Instead he’d made it worse. I shrugged, backing up my words, even though my mind raced with all the reasons it could never, ever not matter. “It doesn’t matter now. I won’t go back there again.”

  His gaze flicked to me, not surprising when I’d chewed him out and blamed him for every bad decision I’d made since we broke up. I could feel him through the darkness. All heat, sizzling over my skin, and making the ache even worse than it had been before. “I know you won’t. I’m going to make sure of it.”

  His hand landed on my knee, did a slow slide up my thigh. My skin prickled under his touch, and my legs parted without a conscious thought as to letting him in. “You think you need dick, sexy legs, to fix what’s wrong with you, and I’m going to give it to you.”

  His nails scraped over the sensitive spot on the inside of my leg, before he pulled the flesh between his fingers and pinched me. I arched out of the seat, and he grinned, a flash of white teeth and dark eyes. My lungs fluttered as I jerked in a breath. Would I ever stop reacting to him like he was the only one who could really make me feel? “I don’t need you to fix me.”

  His fingertips swiped my panties, and I wished I’d followed my instinct and left them home tonight. Heat flooded me, swirled through my core. My heart beat a little faster, swelling with the knowledge that I was still alive, not a shell, not a giant black hole of nothingness. Rough fingers pushed aside my underwear and slid through my wetness. Pushing inside me, one finger, two on the second slide, he scissored them inside me, stretching me out. “Fucking drenched aren’t you, Hurricane?”

  Wetter than I’d been in years.

  He pulled out of me, circled my clit, rolling it between his fingers. “Are you still an honest girl, Mellie?”

  “What does it matter?” My breath hitched as he took me close to the edge.

  He pulled his hand back, rubbed his fingers together, before using only his palm on the steering wheel. “I told you once before I don’t do sloppy seconds. So you better tell me if you had anyone else between your legs tonight.”

  “No.” Shaking my head, I straightened out my skirt, unable to keep the tremor from my hands. Not that I hadn’t thought about it, but the idea of being with someone else had been drowned out by him. By the way he’d eaten me alive with his eyes in his office earlier in the day, and the idea he’d plunged into my head last night. Shaking, I shut my eyes and leaned against the headrest. I couldn’t want him so much, still, after all these years. I shouldn’t entertain the idea of him and me. Our mess had already taken enough of a toll. How close to too far gone could I go before there was no return? Even tonight things had spiralled out of control. If Mike hadn’t been there, would this have been the one night I couldn’t have called him to come get me? “I wasn’t going to screw anyone. I shouldn’t have gone out there.”

  Empty silence stretched out between us, the blink of the indicator as he turned onto another street the only sound. I latched on to it, settling my mind into that blink, blink, blink pattern. The truck bumped, rattled, then came to a stop at the top of his driveway. “Mellie, look at me.”

  Shaking my head, I screwed my eyes shut tighter. The snap of his seat belt as he took it off, then rustling as he shifted in his seat. “Come on, Hurricane. Look at me.”

  The thing about Mike and me was that my emotions, where he was concerned, could shift on a dime. Sure I could blame him for where we’d ended up, but I’d played my part in it, too. Still played it if truth be told. Maybe if I hadn’t delivered the final death blow to our relationship we’d have made it through the rest of it.

  “Okay, you want to be like that.” More shifting, and then his hands slid around my waist, his fingers biting into my skin as he lifted me like I wa
s nothing and pulled me onto his lap. Electricity pulsed over my skin as he glided his palms up my side to grip the back of my neck, dragging me forward. He rubbed the spot behind my ear, the rough calloused pad of his thumb grating on my skin as his warm breath tickled my lips, setting off sparks. Even with my eyes closed I knew he was staring at my mouth, could feel it. I darted my tongue out to wet them, to cool the heat pulsing through me.

  His lips slammed into mine, capturing my tongue, nipping it with his teeth, and sending a shiver down my spine. The hand on my neck tightened, crushing me to him as he thrust his tongue into my mouth, devouring a whimper. What the hell? Did I just whimper? He fucked my mouth with his tongue, making promises I knew he could keep. Every slide, every bite a forerunner of what he would do to the rest of me. Palms to his chest, I slid them between us, over abs that were harder and leaner than I remembered.

  “Open your eyes, Hurricane.”

  I wrenched them open, air bursting from my lungs at the way he looked at me. Large pupils, narrowed, filled with heat and the wicked sin I so desperately craved. “I’m going to fuck whatever thought has got you worked up, right out of that pretty head of yours.”

  “Is that a promise?” I rocked on his lap, felt his hardness beneath the soft, worn jeans. Needed it more than I wanted to admit.

  He sucked my bottom lip between his teeth, his fingers biting in to the side of my neck as he clamped down on my mouth. “It’s a threat. You even glance at me like you’re thinking like that and I’m going to slide into you until you can’t remember your own fucking name.”

  “But—”

  “No. You don’t need to be thinking that shit.” Opening the door, he lifted me out.

  The cold air ripped at me, biting through my thin top. His gaze lowered to my pointed nipples and the edge of my nipple ring outlined against the thin fabric. The cold could be damned, when those eyes of his set off heat explosions in my blood. They bloomed through me, and I considered ripping my clothes off right there. I reached for the hem of my top, bunching it between my fingers.