Page 111 of Root

He rides it out, upping his pace as if nothing happened at all.

“What fucking trouble, Jessie?”

“Gangs. That’s how I know there are more gangs than there seem. That’s all.” I want to cry because I’m lying. I’m telling a partial truth. I don’t want to talk about any of this at all. “I just…keep out of it…”

“Sounds—oh fuck.” His free hand grips my hip as he pushes the small hammer in deeper. I was wrong earlier about its dimensions. It’s definitely not as long as his cock. It’s thinner, too, but when the claw hits my clit I come again. It’s so filthy and wrong. “Sounds—like—you…you know more.”

And then he stops talking, and starts taking my ass hard and fast.

It’s the dirt I want. The salacious.

“I bet you love that hammer, don’t you? I wish I had a fat vibrating fucking dildo for your cunt. I’d jam it up there and turn it on high and we’d both come hard. Oh, fuck, you’re even tighter like this. I could pound this sweet ass all the time and never get sick of it.”

I come again, and this time, it’s humungous. It sweeps every cell of my body, and I shake and spasm and he groans, coming, too.

His cock twitches in my ass, and the pulsations set off a second mini quake, the heat and gush of his cum something I’m going to savor.

This is what I want, what I crave. Dirt and filth and all the degrading things he can do to me.

It’s the only way I can ever give in to being submissive to him. And I’m—

“Jess…” Rush whispers my name as he eases the hammer out and drops it with a thump back where he got it. He kisses me, all along my damp nape, over my ears, my jaw. He kisses my bare back, and then he ruins it all. “That was amazing. You’re fucking amazing. So unbelievably perfect.”

He ruins it by making me start to fall apart.

He ruins it by making me soft and wanting to cry.

“Don’t,” I say.

“But Jess,” he whispers, “I don’t know why you lie.”

I go still as he pulls out, drops to his knees and kisses my pussy, licking me clean with his tongue, sucking my lips and making me shudder out a weak orgasm.

Then he pulls my pants up and eases my tits into the cups of my bra before fastening it. Finally, he puts the T-shirt back in place.

He doesn’t, however, untie my hands.

I turn and he’s moved to look at the city. “I believe what you say about your brother. And the gangs. But fuck, you were upset the other night. I’m not Nikolai. He’d have every drop of information out of you by now.

“You’re after something, for someone. My guess is the gang, the Ten64. Why? I don’t fucking know. If it’s to get your brother’s freedom, why the fuck haven’t you asked? We’d help. I’d help. Shit, we’ve got Lucy fucking Smith on our side. The Smith Family notoriously keep out of shit, stay invisible, but they’re on our side. Not to mention most of Queenstown. So why haven’t you asked?”

I swallow. “There’s nothing to ask.”

He turns, disappointment on his face. And he comes to me, taking mine, angling it to his.

He fucking kisses me, soft and sweet, and it’s heartbreaking, bu tthere’s no option but to kiss him back because these kisses cleanse and make me want to fly.

And I know he’s right. If I’d been smart, I’d have lied differently, told them, got my brother out and we could have ridden off, away from this fucking city.

Or…maybe I’d have gotten Jack dead because the Ten64 don’t care. If they can’t have something, they’ll burn it. This is new, striking out to take a piece of something already claimed, but I’ve seen their work. It’s how Jack got caught up, really. Me, too, by proxy. You align with them or die.

Or even worse, if I told the truth, I might get both Jack and Rush killed. Or just Rush.

I couldn’t live with that. I couldn’t—I’m trapped in the worst way.

“So,” I ask, “doesn’t that show I’m not lying?”

“Maybe,” he says.

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