Page 77 of The Opposite Effect

She nods without hesitation before locking her determined eyes with mine.

“Why?”

“Because that’s what a woman does for the man she’s falling in love with. You look out for them, even when they don’t want you to,” she answers, her truth-bearing eyes adding strength to her statement.

The massive weight sitting on my chest vanishes in an instant. She has no idea how much I needed to hear that right now. I was barely hanging on by a thread, and she just lassoed a rope around my waist and pulled me back in.

I knew I wasn’t the only one falling.

“I want you here, Princess, more than anything, but what about your silver spoon?”

She shrugs. “What about it? I have food in my belly, a roof over my head, and clothes on my back. What more do I need than that?” She rakes her eyes over the length of my body. “Well, there’s one other thing I need. But, lucky for me, it’s free.” Her arctic-blue eyes stare into mine as she climbs the spiral staircase. “And lucky for you, I don’t have any concerns about messing with a member of my crew while they’re in shock.”

Keeping my eyes locked on her, I shadow her into my bedroom. My heart is beating a million miles an hour, but my mind is the clearest it’s ever been.

Her gorgeous scent filters through my nose when her hands move to the hem of my blood-stained shirt to yank it over my head. She works on the belt of my jeans as she guides us across the room. Once the fastener has been unbuckled, she slides my jeans down my thighs. My cock twitches when she lifts her hankering gaze to me. Her eyes relay her intentions without a word needing to seep from her lips.

“Princesses don’t kneel for no one,” I mutter, my deep tone conveying my wavering constraint.

She sighs softly. “I want to take care of you, Brax, to make you forget the image you should have never seen.”

Who the fuck is this woman?She just saw straight through me. Only one other woman has been able to do that. My grandma.

I cup the edge of Clara’s jaw and peer into her shimmering eyes. “Just you being here is already doing that, Princess. You don’t need to kneel before me.”

My cock leaps in my briefs when I catch sight of the determination brewing in her gaze. “Get on the bed, Brax,” she demands, her voice throaty and ball-tingling sweet.

I arch my brow, feigning shock, but in reality, I’m loving the feisty spark brightening her eyes. There’s nothing as captivating as a princess in battle.

Clara watches my every move as I make my way to the bed and sit on top.

“Do you have any objections to me kneeling above you?”

The thickness of my cock grows as does the vibrancy in her gaze when I shake my head. My eyes drink her in as she slowly prances my way, her hips swinging, her chest panting. A briefchuckle rumbles from my mouth when she pushes on my bare torso, sending me toppling onto the mattress.

My laughter comes to a screaming halt when she climbs onto the bed and frees my cock from the tight restraints of my briefs in one quick motion like a woman starved of my taste, then time comes to a standstill when her lips hover over the glistening crown of my rock-hard cock.

After rolling her tongue over the crest of my stiffened shaft—gathering a drop of pre-cum beading on the end—she bores her full-of-life eyes into mine. Tonight, they’re so readable. They not only expose fragments of her personality I’ve yet to witness they also reveal she isn’t just offering me her body she’s offering me her heart.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t as happy as a pig in mud to accept her offer.

EPILOGUE

Six Months Later…

My head lifts from a sketch I’ve been working on for the past eight weeks when a set of knuckles rap on the wooden door of my office. Diesel props his shoulder onto the wall before locking his hazel eyes with me. “We have a client out front requesting to speak to the manager,” he advises, his tone gruff.

I arch my brow and glare into his eyes.

“Don’t even fucking ask,” he mutters to my questioning expression.

I push back from my desk and stand from my chair. After gesturing to Diesel to lead the way, I shadow him down the corridor of Inked. Charity smiles a greeting before gesturing her head to the gang-related tattoo she’s placing on some young punk’s rake-thin bicep. I run my fingers over the top of my scalp and shake my head. Although we haven’t had any more incidents occur atInked the past six months, we’ve noticed an increase in gang-related tattoos.

Doing our bit for society, my crew inks the tattoo as requested by the client, takes a copy of the design, then sends the client on their merry way. What our customers don’t know is that once they sit in a chair at Inked, they relinquish the rights to their tattoo design.

Any tattoo we believe to be gang-related is uploaded to a private server Hunter created specifically for Inked. If a gang-related crime occurs within the vicinity of Ravenshoe, we can scan the tattoo references into our database. If a compelling match is found, our information is handed to the Ravenshoe Police Department.

Although it may seem deceitful to our clients, I don’t give a flying fuck. Women like Clara should be able to enter a back alley without fear of being jumped. Until that happens, I will continue my endeavor to clean up the streets of Ravenshoe.

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