Raw Redemption Page 21

  “I know. I could feel it was hard for you.” She reached down and slipped her hand into his bigger one. “I’m sorry, Growler.”

  “But I know it cost you just as much. Maybe…more.” When she stilled against him, he knew he’d surprised her. “This is your fight as well as mine. And you’re strong, baby. Stronger than me—or anyone—has given you credit for. I’m sorry for not building you up when you needed support. That’s on me.”

  She tucked her head beneath his chin, but not before he saw the dancing of emotion cross her face. It was a while before she spoke, her question catching him off guard. “What you did to have me released from police custody…why? Why did you do that for me?”

  God, he was weak right now. So weak. After having his hands on her in the alley, he was starved out of his mind. And yeah, there was a hint of fear that he would fail tonight. Fail her. The mission. Leaving her without an explanation. “That day in the park, Ailish. You asked me for help. Maybe not with your words…but when you looked up at me? I…I haven’t seen anything but your face since.” He closed his eyes and thought of her, dressed in green, dark circles under her eyes, but surrounded by sunlight. “I didn’t know who you were until you showed up in the interrogation room. But I knew you were good, baby. And I needed to be what you needed. I still do. It’s like a never-ending ache. Need to be Ailish’s man. Protector. I want to cut down everything in your goddamn path. And then I want to take you to bed knowing I earned it.”

  She looked up at him, stunned, sending his heart sprinting fast enough for a one-minute mile. “What about me earning you?” Her voice shook. “You haven’t given me the chance to earn you yet.”

  Was this woman for real? “I don’t require earning. I require you to keep breathing.”

  Her thumb brushed over his wrist, over his hammering pulse, and she made a comforting sound. “I remembered more about the park. I remember thinking you looked as alone as I did.” She kissed his T-shirt-covered chest. “You might be the first person who ever listened to me at all…and you heard things I didn’t even say. Thank you.”

  “Ailish—”

  “Wait.” She pressed a finger over his mouth. “You saved me. I’ll never forget it. But now you have to let me be part of something bigger than me. You’ve asked me for trust so many times. Now I’m asking for the same.” A heavy pause as she scrutinized him. “Don’t try to cut me out tonight. No matter what.”

  “Dammit, baby,” he leaned down and grated against her lips. “If someone hurts you, I’ll level that fucking house with everyone inside it. You know that?”

  “Yes. I know that.”

  She opened her lips and accepted his sweeping tongue, so ready to allow more that Henrik had no choice but to tear his mouth away, positive he would die of sex deprivation before the day was over. “Our time is up.”

  “No,” she murmured, giving him a final peck on the mouth. “It’s only beginning.”

  Heart in his throat, Henrik watched the girl—who’d so casually insinuated they were together for the long haul—walk to the passenger side and climb in. She wanted him, just as he was, but the need to be worthy poured on his head like torrential rain. Could he get them both out alive, with the evidence to earn him back his badge? Make him a man of honor once again?

  Only tonight would tell.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Henrik paced the guest room floor, his gaze straying to the digital bedside clock for the hundredth time that hour. The four tastefully painted walls of the bedroom felt like a cage, and he needed to break free. He hadn’t seen Ailish alone since that morning, one of the armed men accompanying him every time he’d gone to prod her on Caine’s behalf and check on the progress of her work. The hostility radiating from the men in Ailish’s presence was almost too much to take without using his fists to swell their eyes shut. So they couldn’t look at her anymore. Couldn’t show so much disdain for her. They made his skin crawl.

  The only thing allowing Henrik to maintain his sanity was the plan to move tonight. To collect Ailish, retrieve what they needed from the basement safe, and get the hell out of Dodge. Any longer in this house with her in jeopardy would have been more than he could bear. Completing the mission after only two nights in the house was beyond risky. He hadn’t been given time to lull Caine into a false sense of security. But with Caine’s behavior so erratic and his newfound knowledge of Ailish’s second set of books, they were already out of time. It had to be now.

  Thankfully, Henrik had watched Caine drink his weight in bourbon tonight and take several trips to his upstairs office, presumably to add cocaine to the mix. Most of his posse had followed suit, but seen fit to drive home in their identical black cars anyway. A blond woman had shown up just before Henrik went up to bed, accompanying Caine to his upstairs bedroom located one floor above Ailish. So at the very least, Caine was occupied for the time being.

  One o’clock in the morning now; Henrik needed to move. He double-checked his weapon, sliding it into the inside of his jacket pocket as he strode for the door. Having already checked to make sure the door didn’t squeak, Henrik slowly eased it open—a figure stood just outside in the hallway, partially obscured by darkness. His weapon was drawn before he’d registered it was Ailish.

  Both of her hands shot up as she fell back a step. “It’s me,” she whispered.

  Henrik couldn’t drop the gun fast enough, his every nerve ending scorched by the tremor in her voice. He yanked her into the room with his free hand, closing the door behind her and locking it. “I told you to stay in your room.”

  “I know.” She tucked a lock of stray hair behind her ear. “But I figured we would meet at midnight, and when you didn’t come, I thought maybe…”

  “You thought I went without you.” He cupped the side of her face, groaning inwardly when she turned her head, those lips plumping as she kissed his wrist. “I told you I wouldn’t do that.”

  Stepping past him, Ailish removed the necklace from around her neck, tucked it beneath one of the bed pillows, and returned to her place in front of him. She rolled her lips inward, restless energy drifting off her like mist. “Henrik, I don’t want anything left…open. Between us.” A frisson of unease wormed in when her meaning wasn’t entirely clear, but she stepped closer…and closer, until her tits met his stomach, forcing him to relax. Until she laid a hand on his belly, let it drift lower to settle on his belt buckle, and his dick lifted to meet her hand. “I’ve been pushing you since we got here and I want—no, I-I need—to make up for it. I don’t like knowing you eased me and I didn’t…you didn’t…”

  “Come.” Lust flowed out from every corner, pushing at all the walls he’d managed to build, making his muscles flex of their own accord. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”

  Ailish nodded, her hand trailing down even more to grasp his erection, momentarily blanking his mind. She elevated herself on tiptoes, her tongue licking around the hollow of his throat. “You need to be what I need, don’t you?” Her torturing hand slid to the base of his arousal and back up. “I need you to use me to clear your mind. Use me to ease your frustration before we go. And do what we came here for. I need the same.”

  Base, original lust that meant claiming his woman couldn’t be delayed any longer. He’d stripped Ailish of her nightshirt before the impulse fully registered. The bra came next, those two candy-flavored nipples pointing up at him, begging for the kind of cheek-hollowed sucking only he would ever deliver. When he saw the shorts she’d had the audacity to wear outside of a bedroom, little sparks went off in Henrik’s palm with the need to slap her ass. Without holding back. They were black, a cross between underwear and spandex shorts, ending only a quarter-inch from where they cradled her pussy.

  “What the fuck are those?”

  “They’re just like all my clothes.” Starting at her belly button, she trailed her index finger down to her pussy, sliding it between her folds. “Made for you to take off of me.”

  “That might be the best
answer I’ve ever gotten.” He plowed his fingers through Ailish’s hair, gripped the strands, and turned her around to face the door. “Bite your lip, baby. This is going to sting.”

  Goddamn, the girl ever spread her legs like she was about to be frisked. While that idea was tempting as hell, the way her ass cheeks hung out of the bottom of those shorts demanded his full attention.

  He dropped his open palm in a downward arc, glancing off her left cheek, groaning into her hair when the flesh jiggled just right. “If I wasn’t hard enough to break through steel, I’d be owning that pussy from behind right now.”

  “When are you ever not that hard?” she said on an exhale.

  “Are you back-talking me?” He twisted his fist in Ailish’s hair, laughing when she only tilted her hips and whimpered the word “more.” “I’m too hungry not to take what you’re offering, Ailish. You want to take me on hands and knees like a beggar? So be it. But you know what I want first.” Roughly, he shoved his hand into the back of her shorts, kneading her ass. “Go down on me like it’s the last time.”

  As soon as his grip loosened on Ailish’s hair, she turned and fell to the floor, working the buckle of his pants with desperate fingers. His stroked the crown of her head, brushing back the red hair that kept getting in her way, chanting yes, yes, yes in a tone reminiscent of torn-up concrete. When she’d finally released his cock, Henrik’s legs almost buckled at the freedom. Christ, he’d been thick behind the fly since fingering Ailish that afternoon and he needed. Needed to be handled.

  “Be rough with it.” He covered her stroking hand and squeezed—hard—so hard that Ailish gasped. But when he showed her how fast, how irreverently he needed to be jacked off, she wasted no time following his instructions. She balanced the head of his cock on her tongue and beat him off, her hand moving in a blur, strangling him root to tip better than he could do it himself. “That’s right, baby. You won’t hurt it. Pretend you’re angry with me. You want to make me mad so I’ll take it out on you when we finally get down on the floor and fuck. Choke it off—” He growled into the crook of his elbow when she added a wrist twist on her ascent to his plump tip. Still propped on her tongue, Henrik hooked a finger into the side of her mouth, drawing her lips wide and thrusting halfway into that addictive warmth. “Ahhhh. Shit. Suck me in between your teeth. Rake them over me.”

  God, she was eager. Loving up and down his package like she was sick and his come was the antidote. Henrik leaned forward so he could see her ass in the shorts, the shorts he would be taking off her very soon. To bang her breathless. But he’d sure as hell remember to take them along with him when they got out. She’d be modeling those things for him until they became so threadbare, they wouldn’t stay on her hips anymore. All of it would take place in his apartment, where there wouldn’t be any distractions. No time limits. Just the thought of having unlimited access to Ailish made his balls pull tight.

  “All right, that’s enough.” She wouldn’t stop. Taking him down her throat until her eyes squeezed shut, then releasing him with big, gulping breaths. Red hair stuck to her cheeks, feathered her nipples. She was the hottest fucking sight of his lifetime. “I can’t take anymore,” he groaned, wrapping a hand around her hair and tugging her away from his aching dick.

  “I need you. I need you,” she whimpered.

  There was a bed right behind them. He could get her there. He could—

  She turned around, right there on the carpeted floor, falling forward onto her elbows and putting her ass on display. He was tempted to claim the shorts were his downfall, but it was all Ailish that had Henrik dropping to his knees behind her. All Ailish that had him feasting on her ass cheeks with wide, openmouthed kisses. All Ailish that had him outlining his handprints with the tip of his tongue, his palms smoothing over the tight, bent-over flesh, his mouth making a meal of her backside.

  “Take off the shorts. Show me where I’m going to sink in.” Face pressed to the floor, Ailish reached back and slipped the slinky material down her angled bottom, exposing everything to Henrik without hesitation. Telling him without words that she would be his playground until they were both spent. “If I forget myself and take you too hard, baby, you tell me.” He let his middle finger travel over the pucker of her back entrance, lower, through her folds to play with her clit. “Something about this position that makes me feel a little fucking ruthless. You understand?”

  She spread her thighs wider. “Yes. I understand.”

  Jesus. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think Ailish wanted to kill him. She was tight, slick temptation just waiting for him to take. And waiting wasn’t an option. Not when she was already so wet and begging for it with discreet glances over her shoulder. “You’re my woman, Ailish. And I’m going to give you a filthy, sweaty bang under your father’s roof to make sure you know it.”

  His cock made it halfway inside Ailish before she clenched and resisted him, a soft cry leaving her lips. Having met the same struggle before, though, Henrik knew once he pushed through and gave her time to adjust, she’d be fine. She wouldn’t be hurting then; she’d be begging for some rough. So he reared back with his hips and pushed deep, almost blacking out the first time his balls smacked against her. Damn. Damn. Damn it’s so tight. So sweet.

  Henrik slid a hand up Ailish’s spine, burying it in her hair and tugging her head back. “Tell me when you’re ready to be ridden.”

  She wiggled her hips around, thighs flexing, issuing soft expulsions of breath toward the ceiling. “I’m ready. I’m ready.”

  With a closed-mouth growl, Henrik propped up his right leg beside her hip to give him added depth. And he scooped his hips up, pressing deep, deep, letting Ailish know what she was in for. Her features went slack as he ground himself inside her, buried to the hilt. “Feel where I’m touching? I’m the only one who’ll ever reach that part of you. Mine. I claimed it. I’ll claim it every day.”

  Her nod was jerky. “The only one. Every day.”

  “Good girl.” Already the tide was rising inside Henrik. But it was darker and more powerful than usual. Having Ailish in such a vulnerable position signaled that she trusted him and shared this animal lust with him. He wasn’t alone in wanting to fuck like two desperate creatures. Not if the sweat pooling at her lower back, the wheezing quality of her breath, was any indication. Her hips were jerking up and back now, her body insisting without words that he take. “Yeah, you want it. Don’t you?” He pushed her hips up to the tip of his dick and slammed back to the hilt, sliding her knees forward on the carpet. “Want it so bad, but you barely let me in.”

  “Yes, I can,” she moaned, the flesh of her backside shuddering with every blow of his hips. “So good.”

  Needing to hear her voice right up against his ear, Henrik fell forward, planting his knees on either side of Ailish’s hips and holding her still with an arm wrapped beneath her torso. He dropped his chin down onto her shoulder to give himself a nice view of her pretty bouncing tits. And he pumped like he’d never get another chance. Ahhh shit, she was sopping wet between her legs, turned on but never once making it easy for him to go balls-deep. Every thrust was a struggle, and something about making such a rough effort over and over set loose a riot of his darker desires, pounding in his temples, shaking under the muscle of his abdomen. Their size difference only exacerbated the need for aggression. The need to make his unique mark on this woman. His woman.

  Each time he managed to sink the full way inside, she made this gasping hiccup sound and it was driving him out of his mind. It blew around his head like leaves in the wind, echoing louder with every revolution. “Henrik,” she sobbed. “Don’t…I can feel you’re holding back. Don’t.”

  Was he? Yes. Yes, dammit. He was so used to keeping himself in check, he didn’t even know what it felt like to let himself go. “I want to go harder. I need to. Need to make that pussy sore, then soothe it with some hot come. Need to make you a slave to this dick. You want that, Lish?” His pace kicked up a notch. “You giving
your man a tight little place to spill himself, no matter how mean he gets?”

  Ailish’s breath whooshed out near Henrik’s ear when he pushed her down onto the carpet, the elbows she’d been using to prop herself up now pointing out at her sides. Henrik slid his arm down from beneath her belly to jerk her hips up—just her hips—into his groin area as he continued driving between her thighs. With her cheek flush with the carpet, he could see her profile. The red staining her cheeks, the little O her cock-tease mouth formed. Pinned. Being taken. Watching her fingernails dig into the carpet, while the sound of his balls slapping her flesh played like an erotic overture in the room. He was growling into her neck, the sight of her tits jiggling in sync with his thrusts driving him high, so fucking high. Mine. My woman. My body to pleasure myself with. My woman to orgasm as I see fit. Mine. All for me. All for her.

  Henrik vacillated between lust and love, ownership and wanting to be owned. Until those two heavy sides meshed together and fell over him like a net. “I couldn’t let them take you away from me, Ailish. I was already in love with you. I was already your man in the park. And they wanted to put you away. No. No. I wouldn’t…I couldn’t ever let it happen, baby. I need you.”

  God, if he’d thought simply explaining his actions was a weight off his shoulders, telling Ailish he loved her was like digging his way free from a pitch-black ditch into the sunlight. He’d never admitted it to himself before now, but somewhere in between that chance meeting with her in the park and now, he’d let himself fall. He was still falling, though, reaching out for a precipice to grab on to. Ailish. It was her. Always her. With a gritted curse, Henrik pulled out of the perfection between her legs, flipped her onto her back, and fucked into her again.