Soul Ties (Club Ties #4) (21 page)

Connall swaddled her in a blanket, and plucking her off her feet, turned for the door. He grabbed a phone but all he saw was the beauty in his arms. She twined her arms around his neck and dropped her head to his shoulder.

Thank Christ her room was nearby. He couldn’t survive more than a few steps, and by the time he got her onto her bed, he was ready to plunge into her sweet, wet pussy.

“Did you fuck him?” he demanded.

The gold flecks in her eyes glittered. “Never.”

“That’s good because I would stomp back down that hall and pop a bullet in his head, prez or not. You’re mine, Sarah.”

A shiver rolled through her, and she arched beneath him. His cock rubbed against the silken heat of her. Even through his jeans, she was burning.

She leaned up to kiss him. With a groan, he took her mouth. Then tore away. “I taste them. I don’t like kissing your dirty little slut’s mouth. You’re mine.”

“Don’t kiss me then.” She tugged his hair and scrabbled with his cut with her other hand. He let her remove it, along with his shirt.

“I’ll kiss you anytime I fucking want. And I’ll have my cock covered in your juices and my mouth on this pussy.” He cupped her hard. Fuck, she was drenched. He didn’t even want to hear the delicious details every man in the universe wanted when his girl fucked another woman. No, he only wanted her moaning his name.

“I’m taking your ass tonight, Sweetheart.”

She gasped.

“Yes, I am. You’re mine.” He reared up and flicked open his belt. Five seconds later his jeans, boots, and socks were puddled on the floor.

She stretched out, a golden goddess. When she let her thighs fall apart, he couldn’t stand it a minute longer. Without giving a condom a second thought, he entered her.

Split her, more like. She screamed as he bottomed out in her pussy. His balls were ready to explode. He withdrew an inch and filled her again. Shoving her up the bed with each thrust, he pinned her wrists and claimed her mouth even if he didn’t like the flavors there. When he was done, she’d only taste like him.

She dragged her teeth over his lips, and he hardened more, if that were even possible. He was going to show her who owned her body.

Harsh breathing filled the air. He stopped tasting other people and only knew Sarah. Sweet, beautiful Sarah. He released her hand, and she snaked it around his nape, drawing him closer.

Her liquid heat surrounded him. When her inner walls began to clench and release, he pinched her chin between this thumb and forefinger. “Look at me when you come.”

“I don’t want to look anywhere else,” she panted.

“Fuck yeah.” He palmed her breast. Her nipple peaked under his caress, and he dropped his lips to it. Sucking, scraping her sensitive skin with his beard scruff. Passion flowed as she rocked up to meet his movements.

“Connall…babe…I’m…”

He raised his head and pierced her in his gaze. No, she wasn’t looking away from him anytime soon. He’d keep her on her back the rest of the night. He did a slow push-up over her, sinking his cock into her depths. “That’s it. Come for me. Say my name when you tip over the edge—”

“Connall!” Juices flooded him, and he let go at the same moment. The first hot jet that left him sealed his fate. He was in fucking love with her. He couldn’t just walk away—couldn’t stand the idea of any other man having her.

Her throaty cry pumped five more jets from him, and then she collapsed. Head lolling to the side, eyes closed. Pink cheeks and swollen lips, she looked like a painting lying against the canvas of her white pillowcase.

With a noise in his throat, he covered her with his body. Her fragrant hair tickled his nose, and he felt her lips spread across his shoulder.

“I never got that birth control,” she whispered.

Dammit. He rolled off and glared at the ceiling. “Guess we’re taking a lot of risks.” Or he was, rather. He was doing a piss-poor job of protecting her. He needed to walk into Church and tell his brothers he’d killed O’Dovey. It would come to that eventually. Why was he waiting?

Sarah crowded close to his body.

This is why.

Her softness was hard to turn away from. If he got a few more hours, days, weeks with her, it was worth it.

And leaving her with his child…fuck, that made him want to roar with happiness.

Hell, he was so screwed up. He scrubbed a hand over his face. When she nuzzled his neck, he gave in and yanked her atop him. Holding her captive, never wanting to let go.

Somewhere in the club, a crash sounded. Then laughter. He skated his hand down the knobs of her spine. Time slipped by.

When her words washed over his chest, he started from the edge of sleep he’d been clinging to for half an hour. “You scare me with the force of your need.”

Swallowing hard, he tried to think up anything to say to put distance between them. Trouble was, he didn’t want to. He liked her right where she was.

After a few minutes, he stopped trying to come up with a reply. She probed deeper.

“There’s a poison inside you, isn’t there?”

He stiffened, but she didn’t roll off him, only clung more tightly.

“You might as well tell me what happened.”

“With what?” His voice was gravelly.

“With her.”

He gently but firmly pushed her onto the mattress beside him. Sarah sat up, pulling her legs beneath her so he glimpsed the secret warmth he’d just explored and wanted so much more of. He tore his gaze away from her thighs but landed on her face. That was worse.

Rolling, he swung his legs off the bed. Everything in him burned to run from this conversation, this woman, this fucking club. Instead, he dropped his face into his hands and listened to her breath hitching.

Scraping his fingers through his hair, he said, “I’ll see you through this shit with O’Dovey, and then I’m leaving town.”

Throwing the man’s name out there clogged the atmosphere. A blackness settled over them.

She pushed out a noisy breath. “You’re not running from O’Dovey. And neither am I.”

He twisted to stare at her. She stared back, determination setting her stubborn jaw. “Hell fucking no, Sarah. You’re not going to the table with this.”

“What if I already have?”

His heart rocketed into his throat, and he was on her in a blink. Pinning her beneath him, fury building along with arousal at feeling her hot body. “You told Jamison?”

“N-no.” She grabbed his hand and drew it to her breast. Her nipple pebbled under his palm, and it took every bit of his self-control not to groan.

“Dammit, Sarah. Be honest. Did you tell him or not?”

“Not. But I’m going to, and you can’t stop me.”

“Like hell. I’ll lock you up if I have to.”

They glared at each other even as he ached for her. She slid her thigh up his hip, bringing her wet pussy against his cock.

Despite all lights blinking red in his mind, he slid into her. She cried out, and he swallowed it. He hooked her against him, yanking her into each thrust. Passion burned in her eyes.

As need stoked his own fires, he took her mouth.

She came. Just like that, she gave herself.

He hung suspended for a long minute. Then tipped over the edge with a roar.

»»•««

The whole club felt oppressive. Dark and gloomy, as if monsters would jump out at any minute. Sarah had lived through a lot of shit with her biker family, but this…

It’s all in my head.

Well, not all. The prez was holding court. Six guys clustered, and the women were in the opposite corner of the room, eyeing them warily. Nothing good could come out of this meeting. Guns and knives littered the tabletop. Ace’s mouth was grim, and Jamison shaking his head.

“Where’s Connall?” Ever whispered to Sarah.

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Ever looked askance for more information, but Sarah ignored her. She couldn’t talk about how Connall had slipped out of bed before she’d awakened or how he’d never confided the information she’d probed him for.

She was in love with a man she’d never know. A good man who made her heart patter with joy. She lived for his rare smiles and longed for the chance to put more on his face.

But he wouldn’t let her in. And there was the complicated matter of their secret.

She wouldn’t let him confess to her sin. Jamison knew her—they all did. They’d believe her, right?

In the recesses of her brain, she feared they’d think she was protecting her man. Lots of old ladies took the blame for the guys they loved. Better they spent some time in prison than the man who could remain earning through the club and keep their children fed.

Sarah shoved her hair off her face. “I can’t sit here anymore. I’m going for a walk.”

When she pushed her chair back, Ever placed a hand on her arm. “You can’t go out.”

“The lockdown’s over.”

“I don’t think you should go, Sarah.”

She pressed a kiss to her friend’s cheek. “I’ll be fine.”

Outside, the air hung heavy with the threat of rain. She headed across the parking lot and out through the gates. As she passed Harris, he raised a hand. She tossed him a wave and quickened her pace.

It killed her that the club was no longer her haven. Everyone felt like a threat. And she missed Connall’s presence—walking into the room and finding him staring at her, his arms folded and his fist pressed to his mouth.

She turned a corner and continued walking. There weren’t sidewalks in this section of town. No streetlights either, not that she needed them. The sun was high in the sky, creating a slick of perspiration on her forehead.

When she got to the next corner, she heard it—the engine. Connall’s bike had a distinctive sound.

All the hairs on her body lifted. As the hum neared, she hardened herself and adopted indifference.

It didn’t matter. He kept riding.

Tears collected in her throat, and she could barely breathe around the knot. He was so hot and cold. In bed, he was fiercely possessive. Then times like now, he didn’t glance her way. She had whiplash from trying to keep up with his mood swings. She almost missed O’Dovey—at least she’d known what to expect.

An hour of walking later, she stopped at a diner to sit in the air conditioning and drink sweet tea. Nobody bothered her or even looked her way. She almost felt normal, as if nobody viewed her as a club bitch. Maybe she really could blend with Cassidy and start a new life.

Daydreaming of just that didn’t soothe her soul the way she’d hoped, though. Suddenly all the fight left her. She couldn’t go on this way. Her world had been upended by what she’d done to O’Dovey. She was going to continue to sink into the pits of hell.

Sons dying as they fought for a war nobody had started.

The evening came on. She stared unseeingly at the rainbows in the puddles of spilled oil on the pavement. Only when the hum of the bike engine she knew so well sounded did she look up. Connall waved at her, and she went to him, climbing onto his bike and putting her arms around him.

She did love to ride.

»»•««

“The Raiders haven’t retaliated. What the hell are they waiting for?” Wrench thudded a fist on the tabletop. He’d healed nicely since the bullet had grazed his cheek, but right now Connall wished he’d let the wound get infected. Putrid, in fact. The whole damn club needed to stop caring about O’Dovey and the Raiders.

“They’re back-building,” Jamison said from the table head. “Gathering forces. Keep your ears to the ground. We need to know when bikes are coming into this town.”

“Do we have enough guns?” The question was directed at Ace.

Grimly, he nodded.

Keeping Sarah out of the shit-pond was Connall’s top priority, but he’d preserve himself till the bitter end too. He stared at his fingers spread on the table. “Look, I treated the guy, okay?”

Sinking deeper into the lies.

“What are you talking about?” Jamison’s tone was harsh.

Connall poured himself into the role he was about to play. The good doctor treating a wounded patient. He released a breath. “He left here and got into some trouble. I don’t know with who or what happened, but he came into the ER. I was on call.”

“You treated him?” Ace gaped at Connall.

He nodded. “He asked me not to speak of it. I assumed he wanted to tell you all himself. Then he didn’t show up. Nobody could find him. That’s when I knew he’d skipped town.”

In the back of his mind, he could nearly hear Sarah say,
You know what happened when Rocket tried to lie to them.

It was a chance he had to take. Given time, things would die down. The guys would get wrapped up in more gambling ring shit or sell illegal alcohol to the wrong customer. O’Dovey would be a drop of piss in an ocean.

Connall met Jamison’s gaze.

“What did you treat him for?”

“Contusions, a broken rib. Lacerations. He got some stitches and a splint. And…he had a bad case of the clap.”

“No shit?” Ace asked.

“No, I made that part up.”

The table erupted with laughter, and for a moment, Connall was in the clear.

“So if O’Dovey really did just take off, why? Who fucked him up in the first place?” Jamison asked.

“Drug dealers?” someone offered.

“No, he didn’t do drugs. Hell’s Sons don’t get fucked up in that shit.” Jamison eyed them all. No brother could survive his wrath if they did do drugs, so they all nodded in agreement.

“A family member? He has a brother, right?” Ace asked.

“His family hasn’t seen him. I asked them, remember?” Harris interjected.

“But if they’d beat him up bad enough to send him to the hospital, they wouldn’t admit to knowing his whereabouts.” Connall stroked his beard-rough jaw and assessed his brothers.

“True.” Jamison tapped his knuckles on the table. “But I don’t feel right about the Raiders. They’re involved in some way. Otherwise, why aren’t they retaliating?”

“Because we gave them an eye for an eye,” Ace drawled.

Jamison slapped the table. “That’s right.”

Fuck, here we go again.

As the discussion spiraled out of Connall’s control again, he thought about Sarah. When she’d asked about his past, he would have done anything to get out of telling her the truth.