Page 8 of Beauty & Corruption

“Éan, I don’t have sex.” He backed me against his bed with his body, reaching around me and grabbing a pillow. His mouth stilled beside my ear before he whispered, “I fuck.”

I was speechless and having a hard time remembering how to breathe. I held my breath for a second then forced myself to do something that I shouldn’t have to think about doing.

Inhale. Exhale.

Air in. Air out.

“Good night, lass. I’m taking the couch.”

I didn’t want to be affected by him, especially not as much as I was. My sides heaved as I breathed in an erratic pattern. I ached to be touched, but I damned sure wasn’t letting his fingertips give my body the relief it begged for. Mordy behaved as if he had no restraint and never held himself back, but the more time I spent with him, I understood that wasn’t entirely true. Mordy was a complicated man with more than questionable morals when they were measured in most aspects of life, except when it came to me.

I gave up, and my body stretched out on his bed, pulling the covers up to my chin. Everything was a mind game when it came to Mordy. I knew this, and yet, I wasn’t able to shake the statement he made about not being able to keep his head above water. I wasn’t familiar with Icarus, but I think I faintly got what he meant by being too close to the sun. We weren’t good for each other. When we were left alone, the result was pain. The first time we met, he drove a blade into my shoulder, and the pain was obvious. When he ripped the shirt off me, it was a slow, infectious hurt. The ache started with the guilt that coursed through my veins as it screeched at me to stop him. When I didn’t listen to the screams of my conscience, the infection spread to Stone as it crept out of my mouth, burrowed into his soul, and shredded his trust. Now, it was more than evident in every unbearable breath I pulled into my body or any impure thought that entered my mind that was associated with Mordy. There was a gigantic gaping hole in the center of my chest where my heart used to be.

I didn’t know much about anything right now, but the only thing I was sure of was the agony that Mordy and I caused not only to each other but to everyone around us. I needed to steer clear of him yet didn’t know how I was supposed to avoid someone when he practically walked in my shadow.

Chapter 6

Stone

Sleeping while Reggy and Mordy weakly argued back and forth wasn’t an option. Every time I heard Mordy’s weak excuses to continue his antics, I had to stop myself from swinging my door open and pounding my fists into his face. He got off on pain. If I beat his ass to a bloody pulp, he would enjoy it. Bird, on the other hand, refused to admit out loud that she was drawn to him, but it was undeniable. So, he saw her tits in a bra, big deal. It was dumb to lose my shit over it, but it wasn’t the true reason I was upset. Of course, at first, it was a territorial thing, but truthfully, I was more pissed at the intimacy they shared in that moment than I was anything else. It might not have meant much to her, but she didn’t understand Mordy like I did. If she actually despised him like she claimed, we would have talked about what happened and then made up in the same conversation.

Shit, maybe I opened some twisted form of Pandora’s box in his head when he first started touching her, and I hadn’t put a stop to it. I should have pressed the issue harder than I had, but honestly, I thought it was harmless. The joke was on me this time. I should have known nothing—and I meantabsolutely nothing—was harmless when it came to Mordy. As much as I hated to admit it, he was a damned good brother, and every step he took was meticulous. I didn’t even think this was exactly intentional on his part, either. Mordy didn’t do feelings or relationships. In fact, the only successful bond I had ever seen him have was with us brothers. His passion lay within murder and violence, not searching the earth for a lifelong partner. Would I ever apologize to him for the shit I have said to him? Probably not. It wasn’t how we operated with one another. But, seeing as I basically told Reggy to fuck him to get it out of her system, I guess I wasn’t even that upset with him. He didn’t do compassion. Honestly, knowing Mordy and his sick, sadistic behavior, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was hunting her or something as equally weird.

I took the night to mull things over and cool down because I was being irrational, and I knew it. I would never admit it to Mordy, but when I sat down and really thought about them fucking, I got harder than a rock. I wasn’t remotely attracted to him, or any other man for that matter, but the idea of being able to see Bird’s sweet cunt stretch around him as she rode him had me half-mast. The idea of her being pushed to the brink of ecstasy, regardless of the cause, always got me hard.

Bird was in his bed, and the last time I checked, unbeknownst to her, Mordy was watching her sleep. I wasn’t sure if she was aware, but it was something he did regularly. When I caught him the first time, he said he was doing a parameter check, and I told him to get the fuck out. Of course, he didn’t listen and returned the next night. It was a vicious cycle, and every night, the tension grew between us. After our last meeting at our clubhouse, I stopped telling him to get out. He probably figured he had worn down my resolve, and I didn’t tell him otherwise. Mordy put being a brother of the Crazed Kings MC above everything, just like I did…before I fell for Bird. Well, Iguess my morals changed the day I met her, but I hadn’t realized it. Since the very day my eyes landed on her, I had been doing questionable shit by thinking of her first and the club second. I might not have realized that was what I was doing at the time, but thinking about each tiny aspect of our past, it was obvious. I was in love with her and didn’t want to lose her, but somehow, I was the one who had ended things. I would have loved to say I knew it was only a temporary thing, but if I was being honest, I wasn’t sure that was true.

Chapter 7

Reggy

Stone was a lunatic. There was no way around it. Somebody who loved someone else didn’t suggest they explore their feelings for another person. Feelings. Ha! I would never breathe a word of it to another soul, but I was drawn to Mordy. Never in a thousand years would I have ever thought that would be true, but it was. I wasn’t able to explain it, but it felt as if there was a magnetic pull drawing me to Mordy. Each time I told myself I would ignore him, I found myself doing the opposite. Even in the most detrimental, fucked up situations, he found a way to ease the tension and make me laugh. I unintentionally saw a side of him that I didn’t think many others ever had, and it was hard to forget that part of him even if I wanted to.

According to his brothers, Mordy was a heartless killing machine who lived, breathed, and would, without question, die for his MC brothers. He wasn’t heartless, nor did he lack compassion. He just didn’t express it like most people. Underneath that hard lunatic exterior of his laid an ooey gooey center, and he was an almost considerate person. At least, that was the Mordy I saw on some days. To others, it was clear why the only place he had found in life was with the Crazed KingsMotorcycle Club. He was a stone-cold killer. When we met, I was certain that, without question, he had a lump of decaying ash inside his chest where a heart should be. Now, I realized beneath all of those sadistic ashes lurked a beating heart.

“Penny for your thoughts,Éan?” the familiar voice said from somewhere on the floor.

“How long have you been on the floor, Mordy?” I asked in a bored tone.

“Long enough to know you enjoy sleeping in my bed more than you will ever admit.” What? There was no way he could know that despite how emotionally exhausted I was last night, I had to stop myself from plunging my fingers inside myself because I was so turned on by his words.

“Bullshit.”

“You can’t bullshit a bullshitter.”

I laughed at the way the sentence sounded with his accent.

“Exactly. You know it is true. Now, get your pretty little arse out of my bed. We have shit to do today,” he announced, not moving from his chosen spot on the floor. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, and honestly, I had conditioned myself into not getting excited when either of them said we were doing anything. Everything I had done for the past month had consisted of things to do within the confines of this house. It was a nice house, beautiful even, but it wasn’t home. I missed Mom and Maryanne, and I missed the shit out of all my brothers. I even missed even Greg’s relentless ass.

I didn’t bother moving. There wasn’t any reason to hop out of bed and rush to get ready when we weren’t going anywhere. The fact of the matter was that even if I was mostly here by choice, it was still a forced decision. Staying here was the safe choice. If I went home, the Falbos were sure to come after me. I wouldn’t even know if I was in danger, seeing as I hadn’t even met one of them. Up until the brothers of the Crazed Kings rodeinto my life and told me otherwise, I thought the Falbos were fictional monsters that Mom made up to scare us into staying out of trouble. I wished now more than ever that I had paid more attention when she told us the stories of the Falbos and Angeloffs. If I thought it would do any good, I would call her and ask for more details, but Mom wasn’t known for being able to keep secrets. She had a hard enough time keeping our Christmas gifts a secret, so I doubted she would have been able to keep something as juicy as a mafia scandal pregnancy to herself. Sure, she had to have her reasons for not telling my brothers and me that our dad was part of the bratva, but it was probably to keep us safe. She put her kids’ safety above everything. So, making sure we were safe was the only thing I could come up with for why she would have lied to us for so many years. Unless she really had been snowballed into thinking Dad’s name was really Kiry Angel, but I doubted it very seriously. My mom was smarter than that.

“Did you not hear me?” Mordy’s head popped up on the side of the bed, and his piercing blue greedily roamed up my body, stopping at my wrist that was sticking out of the covers.

“I did,” I answered dryly, pulling my arm under the cover with the rest of my body. I didn’t understand what his deal was. He looked at any part of my body like it was made of the ripest apple, and his mouth watered to taste it.

“And?” His finger poked my leg, and another poked the knee on my other leg. I kicked at him, and his fingers stilled for a second.

“And there’s nothing you can do that will get me out of this bed right now.”

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