Page 56 of Swamp Kings 1

“With his hand?”

She closed her eyes, panting on shallow breaths as she shook her head, the silence dragging her through an awkward shame.

“His cock?”

Her gasp flew out at the hot way he said that word. Again, she shook herhead, unable to open her eyes now, ready to get to the end of whatever was happening.

“His lips and tongue,” he stated in a soft hunger. “On your pussy.”

Oh my God.She was dizzy. Was she falling? The room was falling.

“Is that it?”

She forced a nod as her heart hammered against her chest bone.

“Thank you,” he barely said.

The sound of the fridge startled her, and she opened her eyes to him grabbing a water. She quietly inhaled and exhaled three measured breaths, eyeing his massive body while she sat locked up and frozen on that stool. He turned and drank the water, his throat muscles contracting as he sucked on the bottle ‘til it was all gone. Then he looked at her.

“Seems like talking about it to you has somehow helped it.” He walked to the trash and tossed the water bottle into the recycle bin. “Do you think you might be willing to provide more of that?”

Holy crap.

“H-here?” she asked, not meaning to gasp it so loudly.

“We can try it on the phone. I’m willing to pay youanysum of money.” He returned to the island, his direct, intense gaze crippling her mind. “Please don’t take that the wrong way. I’m just… desperate.”

Oh mercy, that was some kind of admission for him. She remembered who she was talking to. The man who would do anything to help her and always had. “Of course I will,” she said, clearing the crack from her voice. “I’m sorry you’re going through this,” she thought to say. “It sounds… truly horrific.”

He angled his head at her. “I wish it was horrific. I gave you the dark side of this lust. You should hear the other side of it.” She was riveted again as he took a seat and locked his gaze on her. She wasn’t going to survive this. “That spark I mentioned?” he began, ready or not. “That surge of energy that lights up every part of me, filling my veins with fire? It’sfuckingexhilarating.” Holy shit, he cussed. He never cussed. “It’s sharp as a razor, vibrant with insanity. It’s sopainfullygood I want to be devoured and obliterated by it.And when I finally let it come, this monster offiretears through me, shreds every nerve in my body with a savage ecstasy. And I…revelin the obliteration,” he whispered. “Icravethe aftermath of this twisted, fucked up massacre of my humanity. I know you can’t truly understand it and part of me is soverysorry for you while another part of me, a part growing smaller every day, is so very relieved that you have no. Real. Clue.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Spar sat in the crowded Basilique room, sandwiched between Hurricane and Bart, trying to focus on the serious business before them. They had more bodies than usual. Eveque asked that the second in commands attended, so every leader there represented two bodies, which included the Creole King’s Verthurs. Three tables sat in the center of the room connected like cars on a train, each occupying the Kings of the swamps and their leaders. The rest sat in chairs lining the walls all around.

The room buzzed with an undercurrent of tension. The weight of everything that happened with Kaphas and Quantum the day before—and what was looming—sat right on their heads. But the Northern Creole men and these Quantum Kings brought a distinct flavor of brotherhood that got mixed with their own coonass concoction. Like a Cajun superglue filling the cracks popping up all around them, making everything sah-say-bon.

Bart slid him a stack of papers. “Take one andpass it down, dear brother.”

Spar took the top one and handed the stack to Hurricane. “Take one and pass it down.”

“Yes sir,” he said, as Spar eyed the sheet filled with an outline for the meeting updates. Thank fuck because all the details were an angry hornet’s nest, swarming in his head.

Spar leaned and muttered to Bart, “Great fucking job. Glad you’re on the team.”

“Wouldn’t miss a single second,” he said, grinning at him as he cocked back in his seat.

The murmur in the room died down as Bishop stood at the head of the table. “Meeting’s beginning. The list in front of you details all the updates, broken up into regions within our swamp. The North Swamp is our Creole King brothers. The South Swamp is the Marsh Kings as we are referred, and the East Swamp is being designated to the Quantum Kings. Kaj is currently organizing the Vickis and when he’s done, we’ll need to have a final meeting that decides a firm plan with them in relation to us.”

He paused a second, staring at the sheet before setting it down. He looked up, his eyes moving over all the men before him. “Looks like this war is bringing things we’ve never had to deal with before. New laws and plans of actions will no doubt be required. The way I see it, we got three Swamp Leaders. Myself over the South Swamps, King Nidev over the North, and Quantum King over the East.”

He lifted the paper again and read it for a few seconds. “I’ll give our updates and take any questions, then hand the floor over to King Nidev.” He set the paper down. “I’ll start with the chaos immediately outside these swamps. I can easily say I haveneverseen anything spiral as fast as this has. Not even Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath can compare. Every city within a two-hundred-mile radius is facing widespread riots, the rise of factions, and environmental hazards.” He looked at all of them, his shock evident. “It’s a refugee nightmare out there. People are displaced and stranded. Communication breakdowns at every level, emergency services maxed out or non-existent in some areas.”

He paused with the weight of it clearly pressing on his shoulders. “Brothers….” he began his voice weighed down with warning. “I fear the puppets have cut their strings, and this hurricane of mayhem will be writing the future.”

Even knowing all this shit beforehand, hearing his Eveque say it like that, put an ominous crackle in the air.

“We cannot. We cannot,” he stressed, “afford to let our guard down here. The chaos outside will only get worse before it gets better—if it ever does.” He pointed at the wall on his right. “Those factions rising out there? Some are just desperate people trying to survive, but others are organized. Dangerous. They’ll have no qualms about tearingdown whatever’s left of civilization to gain power. We all know how quickly lawlessness can spread, and it’s only a matter of time before they start pushing into our territories. Which means our security measures are non—negotiable.”

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