Count on Me (Petal, Georgia) (26 page)

“You two are really gross.” Anne rolled her eyes.

Caroline snorted. “Whatever.”

Anne leaned close as they all reached the door. “Thanks for inviting Elliot to have a drink. He’s very forceful, isn’t he?”

“Um, I guess. He’s got a great butt.”

“Yes. That too.”

Once they got outside of course, Royal spotted Garrett and headed over.

Caroline grabbed his arm.

Royal turned to her, his hand over hers. “He egged that entire scene on. I told him what would happen the next time I saw him.”

“He’s not worth it. You punched someone for me. Garrett is terrified. Look at him.” She pointed and Royal snarled. Garrett caught sight of them making their way closer and got in his car and drove off quickly.

“That wasn’t nice,” Royal said to Caroline, but he smiled as he said it.

“Oooh. Will you be extra gruff with me? Do I need to be punished for my impudence?”

He swatted her butt but watched Garrett’s car until it turned off Main Street.

Royal was quiet on the way back to his place as he tried to process his anger. Not just at Benji and Garrett, but by how people seemed to feel like they could abuse and threaten Caroline at will. Simply because she believed something they didn’t. Something they could agree or disagree with her with or basically not give a fuck what she thought one way or the other.

To threaten to physically harm someone because they believed differently than you was bad enough. But this wasn’t some random woman. This was
Royal’s
woman. All barely five feet of her, and while she was a total badass in many ways, Benji was at least a foot taller and had a hundred pounds on her.

“That was really fucked up,” she mumbled. “I’m so sorry.”

He pulled into his garage and keyed the car off before closing the garage door. “Sorry for what?”

“That whole scene. So stupid. And your hand. Benji wasn’t worth it.”

He got out and went around to her side but when he pulled her down, he hauled her close. “No he wasn’t worth it. Not one bit.
You’re
worth it, Caroline. No one gets to harm you or joke about it or try to scare you with it. No one.”

She knew she should have been upset. Or mad or sad. But the way he’d defended her, his eyes sparking, fists balled up just right for punching—well, it made her hot all over and she wanted to rub herself on him. Wanted to kiss and sniff and nuzzle and all those super weird primal things.

This Royal who held her was a man whose territory had been invaded. She was
his
and she realized it was no small matter to belong to a man like Royal Watson.

“You’re a sneak alpha.”
Damn it
. And it was too late.

One corner of his mouth tipped up as he took her hands and pulled her into the house. “Sit so I can take your boots off,” he said, his lips on hers.

She flopped onto his couch and took a long, leisurely look from his toes up to the top of his head. “Damn.”

“Is that a good
damn
or a bad damn?”

He pulled one boot off and then the other. “Not only are you a sneak alpha, you smell really good and your body goes all ripply when you take my boots off.”

His smile bloomed over his face, and every part of her stood up and cheered. “Wow.”

He motioned with a tip of his chin as he helped her to her feet, giving a gentle push toward his bedroom.

“Go on, darlin’.” He stalked behind her, all that masculine power flooding through her like a blast of heat.

Still, she needed to give as good as she got.

Caroline looked back over her shoulder, riveted by the sight of his mouth.

“I’m not a sneak anything. Many people mistake being easygoing for being shallow or weak. I don’t have any call to go getting all worked up over every little thing, Caro. But some things are worth getting worked up over.”

Standing at the foot of his very large bed, he reached out, his hand sliding around the back of her neck and yanking her forward.

“Your hands.”

The breathlessness of it made his cock ache. The way her lips caressed the words and the way her eyes had gotten wide for a moment, her desire banked to focus on his injuries.

“Stay here.” She left him in his bedroom. He pulled the shirt, boots and socks off, waiting for her in only his jeans.

He loved the way Caroline skidded to a halt when she came back into the room. She stared at him with that catlike pleasure of hers as she placed a full ice bucket on the bedside table.

She pulled him into the master bath and washed his hands gently.

“Most of this isn’t your blood. You’ll be sore, but it doesn’t look like you broke the skin anywhere.”

“Take your shirt off.”

He backed her into the bedroom as he said this.

And then she did, reaching down to grab the hem of her shirt and whipping it up and off exposing all those fucking curves that drove him so wild.

“Damn. Look at you. I want to lick you up one side and down the other.”

He reached out, removing her bra. He stepped a little closer, feathering his thumbs over her collarbones. Watched as she swallowed hard and dragged her eyes open.

So confident in his power in that moment, he was felled when she took a cube of ice from her glass between her lips and bent her head over the hand she’d just pulled into hers.

Lower, her head bent over his lap and he let out a shuddering sigh. And then the ice against his sore knuckles.

It was…hot. So fucking hot he shivered from head to toe three times. And then it was tender. And hot. So hot again when she cut her gaze to him.

“Goddamn,” he snarled as she ripped sensation from him with nothing more than her gaze and that mouth. Sucking on an ice cube so her lips were a little swollen, glossy from the melting water.

She spit the cube out at long last and dried his skin gently. “I’m going to tell you you really need to ice your knuckles. And you’re going to refuse,” she said quickly before he could do just that. “And I’m going to say that you can touch me one handed while the other is in ice.”

Taking his hand, she kissed his knuckles gently before brushing the backs of his fingers against her nipples.

The sexual energy between them sizzled along his skin.

“All right. After.”

“After what?”

He grabbed his belt, unbuckling it slowly, fascinated by the way her gaze locked on his hands. Her nipples darkened and hardened. Her mouth had rested in a rather tantalizing O of surprise as she’d shivered and sighed.

Someone liked that very much.

He pulled it from the loops slowly. Once the belt cleared his jeans, he whipped his wrist just right so the leather snapped.

“After I use this belt to restrain you, I’ll ice one hand while I use the other on you.”

She licked her lips and offered her wrists.

“On the bed. On your back. Hands above your head gripping the headboard.”

She got on the bed and laid out like he’d told her to. He straddled her body, using his belt to tie her wrists to the headboard. It wasn’t enough to hold her. Not really. Enough that she could struggle though.

He kissed her elbow and then scooted down her body. He unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, and she writhed as he gripped the pants and pulled them off her legs. Her socks he tossed over his left shoulder.

“Your jeans are still on,” she panted.

If he took them off, he’d be inside her before he could remember he had plans. So he left them on.

He eased his injured hand into the ice. “I like it when you take care of me.”

With his free hand, he plucked up an ice cube, sliding the edge of it over her nipple. He drew it around and around, watching as it beaded, pleased at the sight of rivulets of water sliding over her breast.

Her eyelids fluttered a little as she arched on a sigh.

Pleased by his life right at that very moment, he tossed the ice back into the bucket. “Tell me something about yourself,” he said as he lowered his head to lick over the iced nipple, knowing the change in sensation from cold to hot would make her wet.

“I know it’s silly and shallow,” she began in a desire-rough voice, “but it makes me all kinds of hot just thinking about what you were like earlier at the bar. No one’s ever punched someone for me.”

She laughed and the sound drew him close with the need to kiss her. “You taste like something I need a lot of.”

With his free hand, he grabbed a piece of ice again to trace the curve of her pussy through the whisper-thin, translucent material of her underpants, and she stilled. He tossed the piece of ice back and changed hands. And icy-cold wetness seized her nipple. One and then the other until his hand started to warm up.

“I don’t think this is the spirit of our agreement that you’d ice your hand.”

He hooked a finger around the side of her panties and tugged. She lifted up and he pulled them off. “I’m a rebel, Caro. Now would you look at that?” He tickled the tip of a finger against her labia and then brushed it back and forth until he finally got to her clit, and she nearly yelped.

“You’re close. Already.”

“My body is super easy for you.”

“Thank God for it.”

Sweat sheened on her skin. There was a light out in the hallway, and the shaft of it bathed a slice of her leg. He rolled off the bed and flipped the light switch, filling the room with a pale yellow glow from the vintage bulbs in the wall sconces.

“There we go. Look at you, darlin’. Luscious.”

He dried off his other hand, moving the bucket of ice out of the way before crawling back to straddle her body.

“How is it?” She nodded at his hand.

“Swelling has gone down. Enough for me to touch you all over and punch Garrett when I find him.”

“I don’t want to talk about him or any of that. Especially right now. You were doing something?”

“Oh that’s right.” He shimmied from his jeans and shorts fairly quickly before returning to the bed with a condom. His hands slid up the inside of her thighs and paused, looking at her for long moments where he said nothing,

“You have no idea how fucking beautiful you are.” He moved his finger faster. “I figure I need to take the edge off and then get down to serious business. You had a rough night. I need to fuck the stress away.”

She wanted to laugh but the way the leather of his belt dug into her wrists, the way he’d been so…
elegantly
rough with her, it lay on her heavy and narcotic. She was bound, yes, but in a ritualistic sense more than in reality. One hard yank or the words and he’d free her immediately. Which meant she struggled, but not too much.

The first orgasm washed over her like the tide coming in. Gradually filling her until she burst and it ebbed away.

She sighed happily, sagging against the belt.

“Well I know I feel better. What about you?”

“Definitely. I’d give you a thumbs-up, but you know, tied up.”

He grinned. “Yeah, you are. It’s really fucking hot.” He said this as he rolled a condom on and sidled up to her, pulling one of her thighs up as he dipped into her pussy a few times until he slid all the way in.

“Oh, that’s very nice.”

He pressed a kiss against her shoulder as he wedged himself halfway beneath her. Having her arms bound above her head meant she was out there on full display for Royal. The way he touched her, kissed her, looked at her, fucked her, talked to her, whatever made her feel so beautiful. Desirable.

She arched and he slid deeper with a grunt. He filled his hands with her breasts. It was nearly too much, being this exposed to him. The covetous way he touched her. It was dirty and raw and she loved it.

He nuzzled her neck and she practically purred. “You still with me?”

She hummed, rousing a little. “I am and I’m pretty glad about that.” She was warm and pliant, and she made his dick hard and made him laugh at the same time.

All his protective instincts had been awakened, and they ran through his bloodstream like adrenaline. She’d known it and had appreciated it. Each beat of his heart was an echo of her name as he thrust into her.

This rhythm was right.

Each time they touched it was like that. That sudden
click
of knowing and of being known settled in.

He was glad his hands had felt well enough to roam all over her body. He moaned as his fingertips found her clit. Still slick and puffy, and when he stroked it, she tightened around him so hard he cursed.

She’d been threatened and he’d been there to help and he was pleased he was there to get in-between Caroline and danger. Pleased too she’d allowed it and had sought strength from it as well.

And then he’d tied her up with his belt. She’d been as surprised and aroused by it as he had been.

Not just the belt or the way he’d controlled her, but the way he’d stuck up for her. When she was in Petal, how many people could she count on like that? And yet she’d come back because she loved her family that much, and they didn’t all care for her nearly as much in return.