Page 31 of Striker

He kisses my neck again as he bottoms out inside me. When he moves, I feel every delicious inch of him moving inside me. His hardness against my soft flesh sparks pleasure all the way up my spine.

I get lost in the sensations of him making love to me, vaguely aware that I’m begging him for more. Striker likes to talk dirty, asking me if I like riding his thick cock and if I want him to fill me with his hot come. Every dirty thing he says just ramps up my arousal until I’m coming all over the place. Striker doesn’t stop, though. I know from past experience that he’s nowhere near finished with me.

He slows down until I calm down and then starts those long, firm strokes again. Something about him moving on top of me and using his dirty words to full effect makes me come again. Striker is relentless, making me come three times before he starts chasing his own orgasm. A few strokes later he stills inside me. I swear that I can almost feel him spewing inside me. And I surprise myself by coming one more time with his name on my lips.

I feel him move off to the right, and he lies down beside me. His arms slide around me, like bands of steel. And his lips press once to my temple. I’m too far gone to think or do anything except rest against his chest and tumble off to sleep. My last clear thought is him tugging the blanket up around me and his hand smoothing it into place.

Chapter 14

Striker

Iwake up at the crack of dawn with Beth curled up asleep against my chest. For one brief, glorious moment, it seems like old times. I’m loath to move because this is my dream come true and I want to savor it. Last night the woman I love came to me and offered herself to me. She wouldn’t do that unless she still had feelings for me. Pride surges in my chest when I realize she wanted what only I could give her.

I’ve spent the last three years kicking myself for actin’ the fool and driving her away when all I really wanted was to have her close. In moments of deep grief, I even told myself that I was putting her memory on a pedestal and building her up in my mind to be more than she was. I told myself that no woman could’ve been all that I remembered. But deep down inside I knew that was a lie and last night proved it. Sliding my fingers through her strawberry blonde hair and tasting her body was even better than I remembered.

I don’t generally trust it when good things happen to me. There always seems to be a dark side that eventually spoils it. It fuckin’ hurts to think that might be true of this situation too. But then again, this is Beth we’re talking about. I don’t think she even has a dark side. Once I realize that, I crawl out of bed with something I didn’t have yesterday: hope that Beth likes me enough for more than just a one-night stand. I remember her saying it was just for one night.

Regardless, in order to keep her, I’ve got to protect her, so I pull on my clothes and go check my trackers. Somewhere out there someone knows who’s after the woman I love, and I mean to find them.

I’ve been trying every search I could think of to figure out who Keene is. Denny Richards didn’t want to give up his name. He claimed if anyone found out, he’d be a dead man. I don’t know how true that is but I’m about to find out. My trackers ran all night, and they turned up a lead on the name Keene. Rather than being a person’s name, it’s a company name: Keene Holdings Inc. Sounds professional but that company belongs to another company called Keene Industries. Neither of them is publicly traded or has filed annual paperwork, which leads me to believe they might be shell companies. This is some shady shit, so in my mind, we’re on the right track.

The holding company owns one piece of real estate. I pull up a map and check out the location. It’s a piece of property outside of town, so far out of town that it’s on a gravel road. It was purchased five years ago. It sits back from the road and has no neighbors. Sounds like the kind of place where bad things happen.

I immediately call Jinx. He picks up on the fourth ring, sounding exhausted. “This better be a matter of life and death,” he grumbles.

“Anythin’ can be a matter of life and death if we want it to be,” I tease.

I hear some rustling. Then I hear Nora’s voice whispering in the background. She’s telling him to take this conversation to another room so we don’t wake their baby up. I hear footsteps and then a door close before he asks, “That’s the money guy, the one Richards almost pissed himself over giving up, right?”

“That’s the one,” I say. “He’s got a house out past the city line. I want to have a little talk with him this morning before he leaves his house.”

“Give me twenty minutes.” I hear him yawn but at least he’s up and moving. “The baby was up till four in the mornin’. I got maybe an hour of sleep last night. We’re gonna need to get coffee.”

“We can do that. Maybe after we talk to Keene, we can grab some breakfast.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

I text Jasper before I leave the house because I brought this before the club and he needs to be kept in the loop.

Me: We’re running down a lead on the money man Richards told us about.

Jasper: Do you need backup?

Me: For a pencil pusher? Not fuckin’ likely.

Jasper: Lol… let me know if you need anything.

Jinx rolls up to my gate looking crummy as usual. Since their baby came, my best friend is a sleep-deprived mess. He’s disheveled and wearing yesterday’s shirt. His eyes are bloodshot as well.

“Fuckin’ hell, brother. You’re startin’ to look like a fuckin’ addict. You need to start takin’ better care of yourself.”

“Yeah,” he shoots back. “Worryin’ about my damn self is at the top of my priority list. It comes right after my colicky baby and postpartum wife.”

“Shit, man. You’ve got a lot on your plate these days.”

“It’ll pass, brother. I just have to hang in there a bit longer.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”