Motown Breakdown (Motown Down #4) (25 page)

Both women nodded, one even got up to give her a fist bump. Taking my hand, she pulls me out of the bar back to the sedan. “Nick has terrible taste in women,” she says buckling her seat belt. When I don’t answer, she looks at me and asks, “What?”

“Tell me which part of follow my lead escaped you?” I was pissed at the situation, but I was proud she handled it violently.
All I had to do was lean her seat back…

“Well,” she says chewing her lip. “You weren’t leading and I got bored so…”

“You attacked Leah in front of a crowd of patrons,” I point out wondering what the fuck she was thinking. Unfazed by my legitimate anger, she shrugs it off but I could tell she was pissed too.

“This brand,” she says pulling her sleeve up. “It means I belong to you, no?”

“Yes,” I admit. “You do belong to me but – ”

“Are you saying that you don’t belong to me in return? That this is a one-way street? Because if it’s one sided you should have said so otherwise, I was completely justified in what I did.”

Thinking on it, I suppose she did have a point. It wasn’t that she did it, because Leah was a bitch and someone needed to do it. Though I loved violence I didn’t relish hitting a woman. So no, it wasn’t that she did it. It was why she did it. “Why’d you do it?”

“Because I believed you belonged to me too,” she says with a shrug. “And if you’re mine, even temporarily, I had right to defend what belongs to me. What?” she asks when I can do nothing more than blink. No one had ever claimed me before. “I’m an only child. I don’t like sharing, ever.”

Had to fuck her
. Throwing it in drive, that’s exactly what I planned to do but then she said, “Is Nick my height with a bad Whitesnake mullet and a leather jacket?” I stopped the car.

“Yes, why?”

“Because he’s running out the back door to get in his truck.”

Throwing it in reverse and blocking the exit, I climb out of the sedan and watch Nick lock his brakes up. The look of fear on his face delighted me, but his games did not. Now I’d have to wait to fuck her and he’d pay for that too.

There was a reason that I was twenty-six and single. When it came to boundaries, I didn’t have any. I believed in like for like, tit for tat and so on. In my mind, it was simple really. I belonged to him so he belonged to me.

When Leah disrespected me, I reacted.

It’s true, I am pretty easy going until…I’m not. When it happens, there’s no stopping it and her face bleeding on the bar was a great example. Shade seemed shocked that I not only expected him to belong to me, but that I wanted him to. I may not be the most grounded chick around, but a month of
that
piece of ass belonging to
me
? I’d crush more than Leah and never complain about it. I’ve known the guy a day. Okay fine, a handful of hours and already I beat up a bar maid. I’ve never had anything that belongs to me and for some odd reason, I felt proprietary over him. When he approached Nick’s truck, I rubbed my finger over the tender moon said fuck it, and got out. Every criminal needed backup, it wasn’t just a cop thing. Shade doesn’t see me as capable yet, but he will. I mean he will, once I can manage to walk straight in front of him.

Coming to the passenger side in case Nick made a run for it, I misjudged and slapped my face on the mirror. Well that fucking hurt. “Really?” he asks looking annoyed.

“Mirror works,” I mumble rubbing my face.

Shade orders Nick out of the truck but he wasn’t budging. He was nervous (rightfully so) and was about to bolt. This is a classic fight or flight response. All the best romance books have scenes like this, mine included. So when Nick flew out of the passenger side door it hit me square and sent me down hard. “
Really
?” Shade yells helping me up.

“I’m good,” I say dusting off. “Should have seen that coming.”

“We’ll deal with Nick another day,” he says steering me away. Walking back to the car I ask him to pop the trunk. He gives me a look but complies. Moving some shit around I grab the crowbar (which, let’s face it, has probably killed some people) and took off running.

“Sun!” he yells.

But I just yell back, “Record this for me!” and kept hauling ass. Nick’s bar had a six foot high chain-link fence around the lot which he was currently trying to scale and failing miserably. Taking a warmup swing to loosen my shoulders, I come to stand beneath him. “Where are you going?” I ask genuinely curious.

“I’ll kill you for this,” he yells down at me.

“How will you do that?” I ask with confusion. “You’re up there and I’m down here.” Then I figured it out. “I can fix that, put us on equal footing.” Winding up I landed a nice blow to his lower back. Screaming at me to stop, I hit the back of his legs next and watch him crash to the pavement. Jumping up, he takes a swing and catches my chin enough to stun me. I said
stun
, not stop. Swinging again, I nail him square in the sternum and watch him crumple.

Shade saddles up next to me looking pretty angry. “He marked you,” he says gently touching my face.

“Meh,” I shrug. “I was giving him an opening anyway. Please tell me you got what
I
did on video?”

“That motherfucker marked you,” he says again.

“And I tagged him with a crowbar,” I remind him pointing to the man on the ground. “Now we can get your money or I’ll bash his head in. Whaddya think? I’m not exactly sure how this kind of thing works.”

“This is no longer about money,” he says standing over Nick. Something changed in Shade and I was so in tune with him that I inched closer so I wouldn’t miss it. Without even blinking, he produces a shiny pistol and shoots Nick right in the face. Have you ever seen anyone shot in the face before? Talk about messy! Grabbing my hand, not even bothering to hide the gun he walks back to the sedan, buckles me in and starts driving.

“Shouldn’t we wipe the scene?” I ask looking out the window. “Or do you have guys for that?”

“Shut up,” he says in a menacing voice. I debated hitting him in the mouth with the crowbar but let it go because I didn’t want to end up in a car accident. When we park in the garage, he comes to my side of the car and literally pulls me out and drags me inside the house.

Forcing me up against the wall, he puts his hands on either side of my head and says, “Earlier, I just wanted to fuck.”

“Change your mind?” I counter.

“No,” he says leaning in so we’re nose to nose. “Now I just want to fuck really
hard
.”

The heroine of this book just so happened to be into rough sex too, go fig. I have to say, this best seller was really coming together.

Leah was one thing.

Chasing Nick down with a fucking crowbar in broad daylight was another.

That dead son of a bitch marked her face and she set him up for it.

I was born and raised in a hostile world. I made a living from doing vile things to survive in it. Blood, death, and threats were all part of the job. The dark side to this life doesn’t bother me, never has. But the one thing I do not tolerate, will never tolerate, is marking a woman’s face.

For some fucking reason, I didn’t want her to see my world for what it was. For some other fucking reason, I was glad she did. I expected many different reactions from her but never anticipation. She wasn’t supposed to get off on it, she was supposed to scream at me, call me a monster and run. How could I chase her if she didn’t fucking run? She was supposed to despise me, make me work for it and she wasn’t doing that either. And why wasn’t she crying about getting hit? From day one, I had to shield Luna from the darkness. She handled most of it well, but she hated it just the same and it took its toll. Luna, unlike Sun, was born with blood on her hands and would never be able to wash it off no matter how hard she tried. Sun, unlike Luna, didn’t want to. With much more force than I intended, I slammed her into the wall and caged her in. “Earlier I just wanted to fuck,” I warn her. “Now I just want to fuck really hard.”

Her grabbing my dick through my jeans was a pleasant surprise. Sun, leaning forward to bite my nipple, hurt in a really good way and I couldn’t fight the moan. Maybe because she did it without being told, or probably because she was rough about it. “Again,” I order her. When she bites down a second time she does it even harder and my knees lock up from the bite of pain. “Undress me,” I instruct her.

“I write shit like this,” she says taking her top off making no move for my clothes. “Because women generally like an alpha who gives orders. But,” she says dropping her pants and stepping out, “I’m not those women and I’ll only let you push me so far before I push back.”

At some point, I undressed myself and hadn’t even realized I’d done it. That’s a first and so was a woman telling me what she will or won’t do. Prior to Luna, I was a kid getting pussy when I could, but my adult years were spent with one woman, the one promised to me. One who did what she was told, whether she liked it or not.

Apparently, she didn’t like it, so I let her go.

Reaching for her chin, I lift it gently and move in to see the mark left behind. The skin was red, slightly swollen and I knew it hurt. A woman’s skin was something to be cherished, never bruised. “I will never hurt you,” I promise her. “A man never puts his hand on a woman in anger. I’d kill him again if I could.”

“Shade,” she says quietly. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Killing him for me. Sweetest thing ever.”

Kissing her to shut her up seemed wise. I wasn’t prepared for her to say shit like that. Sun has been in my life for a handful of hours but it felt like forever. I didn’t like it because two fucking days ago I was married to the woman I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with. I trusted Luna because I knew her. I did not trust Sun and couldn’t afford to.

But I could fuck her.

She was handsy, I respected that. From cupping my balls to this swirl thing she’s doing with her wrist to jerk me off, I wasn’t going to stop her. Spreading her legs apart, I use my hands too. Her breath quickens to match mine, her eyes that were open, closed. When I hit the spot her head fell back and she gripped me harder causing mine to fall forward.

Leading her from the doorway to the kitchen, I bend her over the island, add a little spit and surge into her. Clutching the edges, she arches her back and moans. I didn’t say shit and neither did she. What I did do was fuck her as hard as humanly possible hoping she’d ask me to stop. I wouldn’t of course, but I wanted to hear her beg as payment for worrying me earlier. Sweat was pouring down my back, my legs ached and still she didn’t give in. No, she pushed back against me daring me to take it to the next level. Anchoring my hands on her shoulders, I slam into her so hard it fucking hurt
me
. Still, she wasn’t coming or screaming in ecstasy. In fact, suddenly she wasn’t doing anything.

“Am I boring you?”

“Little bit,” she shrugs staring straight ahead.

Stopping completely because yeah, I was pissed and my dick hurt, I spun her around planning to do something sinister but came up short. Sun was looking at me like she was disappointed. “Look,” she says hopping up on the counter (naked). “I get it, even bad sex is still good, right?”