Page 3 of Connor's Claim

Blood welled from a cut.

Horror trickled through my veins. I’d killed men in their sleep. Or wide awake and hanging from chains in front of me. Never once had the sight of blood affected me.

Except it was hers… Had to keep moving. Ducking, I put my shoulder to her belly and lifted her fireman-style, ignoring her huff of breath.

Then I was out the door and running. Down along flowerbeds. Over a low wall that divided the patio from a formal knot garden. A flight of steps that led to a sunken lawn with a fountain, but if you went left and under a tree, an animal track led to a gap in the fence.

My route in and out as a younger man, and our salvation now.

“Stop,” Everly begged.

“No. We need to get out of here.”

I scrambled through bushes and up a slope to the edge of the neighbours’ wide garden. They had an access alley to a side street. It was where I’d left my car.

“He can’t be right. Why would a gang come after me? It was probably security arriving,” she argued. “Connor, stop. I’ll yell if you don’t.”

Everly had always been on the naïve side.

Despite her Machiavellian father. Despite the disturbing undercurrent of the city we lived in. Where I dwelled in darkness, she’d always summoned light.

She wrenched at me so I stumbled, correcting my balance to set her down at the base of the huge oak tree that temporarily concealed us. She hobbled, her injured foot held up from the earth. “Thank you. This is a misunderstanding, that’s all.”

Blood pounded in my ears. With my back to her, I pulled my kit from my pocket. In easy, well-practiced motions, I had a needle in my hand and ready to go.

“…no clue what that man meant,” Everly was saying, her hands moving with her words. “If we just?—”

I embraced her and stabbed her arse in a fluid movement.

Her beautiful face rose to mine. Lines of confusion shaped on her forehead then disappeared. She tried to form a question, but those treacherous eyes rolled back, and Everly passed out, draping gracefully against me.

I didn’t wait around, lifting her again to get us to safety. The alley was clear, an automatic light flickering but not coming on. Out on the street, I paused to make sure there was no one watching then crept to my car and laid the lass across the back seat, all with barely a sound to alert the neighbours.

From the driver’s seat, I regarded the unconscious woman in my rearview mirror. In my haste to get her out of sight, I hadn’t taken care to cover her with her dressing gown, and her body was mine to stare at.

Expensive ivory nightwear, a tumble of brunette curls.

Everly had curves for days. Thick thighs I’d tried and failed to stop dreaming about. A rack that could make a man cry. She’d never liked her body, but I’d worshipped her, dropping kisses on her soft belly and loving every inch of her creamy skin.

That was then and this was now.

Her camisole was askew so one breast had half fallen out, her dressing gown lace concealing her nipple like the best kind of peep show. At the apex of her thighs, her silk shorts stretched over her mound, giving me a lewd outline of her shape. Parts of her I’d once traced with my tongue.

Despite every resolve I’d ever had with this woman, my dick thickened in my black jeans.

Anger followed. Never again would I succumb to wanting her. No matter how my body betrayed me, I was only here for one thing, and it wasn’t that.

The engine rumbled, but I kept the car’s lights off. There were few other vehicles parked on this road of mansions, most people tucking their expensive rides away in garages or on their driveways.

Except for a black motorbike, propped up kerbside behind us.

Just as I’d recognised the intruder in Everly’s home, I knew his bike, too. Riordan had ridden it to the warehouse, and I’d memorised the model and plate.

Throwing my car into reverse, I slammed into it, sending the machine skidding with the crunch of broken glass.

Fuck him for being here tonight. Fuck him for stealing my thunder and apparently wanting to save her.

And fuck me for the twisted thoughts that, even though she’d rejected me, said to my face that no, she didn’t want me, now Everly was in my possession, I was going to bleed out from old wounds when it came time to let her go.

---