“How about the asshole smacking you around?” My hand flies to my cheek to cover the mark from Marcus’ hand. “Yeah, baby doll, I noticed that.” He could have been polite enough not to say anything.
“I’m f-f-fine.” Breathing through my nose, I lock my jaw so I don’t cry again.
He remains quiet for several more minutes, so when he stops me with a hand on my arm and nods to a house, saying, “This is me,” I whimper in disappointment.
We didn’t conversate much, but he kept me dry, and I felt better in his presence. Probably has something to do with his massive size difference—easily a foot taller than me. He’s also as wide as a linebacker and double my mass. And after what just happened, I should be terrified, not feeling the safest I have in my entire life.
“Well, thanks for sharing.” I offer a weak smile, dreading leaving the protection of the umbrella and stepping back into the freezing rain.
“Fucking stubborn,” he mutters before I’m lifted and flipped upside down over his shoulder with his hand on my ass, heating me up.
Why am I not screaming?
Pounding on his back?
Is he kidnapping me?
Piper!
CHAPTER 2
Galen
Ma never said she was fucking stubborn. I should have known, though, because any woman who is willing to put up with my twerp of a little brother would need to be headstrong as hell.
I still remember the first time I laid eyes on Piper Lindsey four months ago. I’d been out of the country on a job in the Middle East and made a rare phone call home. Ma hadn’t heard from me in a couple of months, and she was worried. For as ruthless and cold-hearted as I can be, I hate making the woman who gave me life worry.
So, I called, and my obsession began. She’d been in the kitchen behind where Mom was sitting with her phone at the table, laughing at something my father had said while they were making bread or something. I could tell immediately that my parents adored her, and that’s when I knew she’d be mine. It didn’t matter how I got her; she belonged to me.
When I discovered she was dating Marcus, I felt bad for about three seconds. His jealousy over her laughing with Dad couldn’t be masked from someone like me. I knew he’d inevitably fuck up, and they’d be done.
Tonight seems to be the night—storming and pouring rain, just like my fucking emotions. And now she’s in my arms. Squirming, but not to be released. She has no idea who I am, but she’s not screaming or begging for her life.
Sliding her down my body, I allow my hand to slip up the bottom of her shorts and grip the curve of her ass in my powerful fingers. There’s no space between us, and as I look down, I notice her shirt is stuck halfway up her belly, showing off her perfectly flat stomach—one I crave to make nice and round with a baby or two.
Once I discovered where she lived, I made a trip to her shared house. The first thing I did was replace her birth control pills, and I’ve been there every month since to do the same. I knew immediately from a camera I’d placed in her room that she wasn’t sleeping with and had never slept with my brother. I might have killed him if they had.
My sweet girl isn’t interested in him like that, but thankfully, from her perky nipples stabbing me in the chest, I can’t say the same for me. The way her eyes trace my lips is another indication.
“What am I doing here?” she finally asks, lifting one of her delicate hands to place on my chest. I don’t think she realizes she’s doing it.
“It’s raining.” I close the umbrella to make my point.
“Yeah, but I shouldn’t be here.” There’s no heat behind her words, and she sounds uncertain.
“You look like you should.” I won’t say what I want; I can’t scare her off.
Her brows furrow, scrunching her nose, and her juicy lips pout. She’s fucking adorable. “I…should…home. I need to go home?” The way she poses it as a question makes me grin like a fucking serial killer about to catch his prey.
Squeezing her bare ass cheek in my hand, she gasps and jumps, not realizing how intimately I’ve been holding her. I slip my hand up a little farther to discover she’s not wearing any panties.
A growl bursts from me. I’m pissed and turned on as my finger slicks through her puffy lips. She’s wet from more than just the rain, and the beast in me rolls over, ready to let her have her way with us.
“Wh-what are you…ohhh.” Her eyes close, and her body sways more into me as I push the tip of my finger within her entrance. I don’t go farther; I’d rather she beg me to take her and not just me doing what I please. Though, we’ll have those days, too.
“Let’s get you warmed up, doll.” My voice rumbles low in her ear, and I feel her shiver and push her pussy firmer into my hand.
Lifting her by my hold on her creamy cunt, my finger dips deeper as her arms wrap around my neck and her legs curl around my hips. I take her upstairs to my room, where I’ve been readying for so long that I have everything laid out that I’ll need to please her.