Torched Read online

  She gave him a pat on the knee and stood up. “Sure. They should dissolve in a few days. Drink?”

  Just what the doctor ordered, a shot of liquid courage. “Could definitely use one of those.”

  : : : :

  Torch washed his hands while I pulled a bottle of whiskey out of the pantry and a couple beers from the fridge. I couldn’t be bothered with shot glasses, this was the just one of those drink-straight-from-the bottle types of nights. As he dried off with a paper towel, I chugged down several large gulps and handed it to him. He threw back probably twice as much as I’d managed to.

  He seemed nervous, a look I’d never seen on him now that I was thinking about it. Angry and snappish, sure, but never jittery. We both leaned sideways against the island and I slid him a beer.

  He practically emptied that too. “We had to take care of some business tonight. That’s how I got cut—”

  I sighed. “Torch, you don’t have to tell me. It’s fine. Just tell me when you’re gonna do it so I can start planning.”

  He scrunched his face in confusion. “Do what?”

  “Go after Mitch. That’s why you’re here, right? To lay down the law? Just tell me.”

  “Jesus Christ, woman,” he snarled. “For once in your fucking life, just stop. Stop thinking, and analyzing, and fucking assuming.” He stepped away from the island and leaned back against the sink. “Just… fucking listen. I let you talk, it’s my turn.”

  Well if he wasn’t here to tell me to suck it up and let him fix my problems, why the hell was he? I pushed myself up and sat on the island across from him.

  He rubbed his beard with both hands. “The Serbs… they were trying to move into Linwood to cook and distribute a drug call Black Zombie. Masters was the middle-man between them and an investor we haven’t identified. All we know is that the investor used another middle-man, Hess, to make cash drops to Masters.”

  Why the fuck was he telling me this? He knew I wouldn’t be able to resist looking into all of it. And if Buddha found out? Shit. I opened my mouth to stop him from making any more bad decisions.

  He held up his hand to stop me. “We neutralized Maric’s men, but the shit still managed to get in under our noses. That’s why the DEA’s in town. A bunch of people ended up in the hospital from a bad batch of it this week, including Nadia. We paid her a visit, got the name of her dealer, and then had a little talk with him at a bar he owns. He tied it back to that Hess asshole. Guess he’s dropping off actual product now. We’re gonna have to find the stash house—”

  “Seriously, why are you telling me all this?” I asked.

  He groaned and looked up at the ceiling. “You know exactly why the fuck I’m telling you all this.”

  No, I didn’t. My brain was mangled. I couldn’t trust it anyway, not since the episode with Zed earlier. I was fucking tired, cranky, and not up for a guessing game. “You want me to help you track these guys down?”

  He lurched forward, and with a swoop of his arm, pulled me down off the counter and grabbed my face with both hands. “That’s not why I came here. You really need me to spell it out for you, baby? I fucking love you. More than I’ve ever loved another fucking human being. And don’t bother spouting off about how love isn’t enough. For me… with you… it damn well is. Because I don’t just love you, I fucking need you. I need your touch, your heart, your mind, everything. And I need all that by my side every day. If I knew then what I know now, I never would’ve left you behind in Ohio. I’ll regret that choice ‘til the day I die. Christ, I regretted it the minute I got back here. For eight miserable goddamn years, I couldn’t get you out of my twisted head. Everything reminded me of you, even in my fucking sleep. You realize how many nights I made myself stay awake, just ‘cause I couldn’t take another one of those fucking dreams?” He shook his head and combed his fingers through my hair. “I can’t, sweetheart. I can’t do it. I won’t lose you over fucking logistics. Not when everything else about you is so beautiful and right that I know I’ll never find anything like it again… I want your ink on my skin, and mine on yours. I want your face to be the one I see at the end of a good day, a shit day, and every day in between. I still think you’re gonna be the death of me, but I’ll die a happy motherfucker… It’s you ‘til I die, baby. Just let me keep you, Livia Ash. Be my old lady.”

  I looked down as tears filled my eyes and started pouring down my face. But Torch wasn’t letting me run. He lifted it back up and with his thumbs, he wiped away the moisture. Then, instead of going for my mouth, he planted soft kisses on my cheeks, like some kind of symbolic ritual. Maybe it was only symbolic to me, but I couldn’t help looking at the gesture as his love wiping away and covering my pain.

  His touch drawing me out of an exhaustion-induced haze, I finally understood why he’d come here tonight. And why he’d told me shit that I had no business knowing. I’d made it clear that the only thing standing in our way was the club code that said I’d have to live in the dark. Instead of an olive branch, he was offering me a flashlight. The question was whether his boss would hit him over the fucking head with it when he found out.

  “The club—”

  “Buddha knows I’m here and what I’m doing. So do Zed and Grimm. Along with me, that would’ve been a majority vote in church tomorrow. I couldn’t wait… Listen, baby, I can’t promise I’ll always tell you every little detail, but you’ve got my word that I’ll tell you enough to feel informed and safe. So help me, I trust you. You watch what you say and know how to keep shit quiet. And I know you’d never hurt the club, I’m betting my life on it. As for Henslow, we both know that fucker needs to be dealt with. But if you wanna put the bullet in him yourself, if you clue us in to what you wanna do and let us be the muscle, I’ll happily provide the gun and hold him down.”

  Goddamn it.

  The sincerity and desperation in his voice tore me deeper and deeper apart by the second. He’d taken a sledge hammer to that monumental wall around my heart and smashed it into the foundation, causing cracks to rip through it and send the whole fucking thing tumbling down. I was out of arguments, out of reasons to keep saying no, he’d figured out a way to use those same crumbling bricks and build a bridge between our worlds.

  “Baby, just meet me half-way,” he pleaded.

  I was there.

  I grabbed the back of his head and brought our lips together, not a twinge of doubt getting in the way of claiming him. And letting him claim me.

  “That a yes?” he asked, pulling away just far enough to talk.

  I broke out in a smile. “You want me to spell it out for you?”

  “Yeah, you should do that,” he replied with a grin of his own.

  “Okay then,” I laughed. Weaving my fingers through his, I brought our hands up to his chest and looked him straight in the eye. “I love you too, baby… God, I love you. I’ve loved you since the day you asked me to get on the back of your bike, I was just too stupid and stubborn to listen to those fucking voices in my head. I regret every single time I picked up the phone to call you and talked myself out of it, because these past few weeks have been the absolute best of my life. I didn’t know how the hell I was gonna walk away from that. I need you too. More than I need air to breathe. Torch… it’s you, ‘til I die.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “And?”

  “And take the GPS off my fucking car.”

  “Not gonna happen. Quit stalling,” he warned. “I asked you something.”

  “I’ll be your old lady?”

  “Say it again, without it sounding like a fucking question.”

  “I, Livia Ash, will be your old lady. Better?”

  “That’s the sexiest goddamn thing you’ve ever said to me,” he growled, before overtaking my mouth again. His strong hands started roaming, tucking themselves under my shirt. A deliciously familiar tingle started forming in my core.

  I squealed as he bent down, slung me over his shoulder, and carried me through the living room. “Put me down, y
ou’re gonna drop me down the stairs!”

  Torch stopped at the base and patted my ass. “I’ll never fucking drop you,” he promised.

  And then, he carried me up, making me feel like I never had to worry about falling down again.

  : : : :

  Torch did drop her.

  Onto the bed.

  He’d meant it, all of it, every single word. But that last part? That was a fucking vow.

  He’d been ready to sell his soul, but after getting most of his rage out on Jimmy, he’d realized that—along with everything else he loved about her—Liv wasn’t greedy. Fuck, she’d been completely selfless all this time, both risking her anonymity to stop Maric and hanging out at the clubhouse everyday for over a month to help Biff. At no charge, with no expectation of getting anything in return.

  Really, all she wanted was a little fucking peace of mind. Who the hell was he to deny her that after everything she’d done for him and his family?

  Scratch that.

  Their family. And true to the Serpent brotherhood, they’d supported him, even if it meant getting a little creative in bending some bylaws.

  But the only bendy thing he was interested in right now was Liv’s body. Every soft and smooth inch of it. He didn’t have to be at the clubhouse until noon, so he intended to take his fucking time. He didn’t just want to make her scream, he wanted to make proper love to his woman.

  Jesus Christ. His woman.

  It sounded good. Real good.

  She got on her knees and watched as he shrugged off his cut, hoodie, and shirt. “You know you’re the only man that’s ever made me come?” she asked with a devilishly crooked little smile.

  “Babe, I love you but you’re full of fucking shit,” he snickered.

  “No, really,” she insisted, then hopped off the bed and opened a drawer in her nightstand. She grinned as she pulled out a purple dildo and waved it at him. “Torch, meet Dexter. Dexter, Torch. I’ve had to do a lot of faking, but this big boy takes care of it when I get home.”

  He snatched the damn thing from her and inspected it. “Let me see that shit.” With his other hand, he unzipped his jeans and kicked them away, then held the fucking toy next to the real thing for a little comparison. He chuckled, realizing that he was slightly bigger, walked over to the window and tossed it right the fuck out.

  “Hey!” she shrieked, scrambling to look out the window to see where it landed.

  “Hey nothing. You don’t need some plastic shit when you got the real thing.” He took her hand and wrapped it around his needy shaft.

  “Mmm, I don’t know,” she replied, gripping it tight and stroking slow. “Dex had a lot of horsepower—”

  He growled and pulled her in. “I got your fucking horsepower right here, you shit-talking goddess.”

  “Oh yeah?” she moaned, hooking her arms around his neck. “How about torque?”

  If she wanted torque, she’d fucking get it. He kissed her and reached under the hem of her tank to pull it off. The flannel pants slid down even easier. He grabbed her head and kissed her again, alternating sucking on her tongue and nibbling on her bottom lip as he forced her backwards toward the bed. As soon as the backs of her knees hit the edge, he let go and let her fall to her back.

  He yanked her forward a little, parted her legs, and slid down to his knees between then. She propped herself up on her elbows, but with the first stroke of his tongue on her clit, threw her head back with a little moan. He reveled in how wet and warm that intoxicating pussy always was.

  Always ready, needy, and so fucking tight that both of his heads always damn near exploded whenever she milked him dry.

  As he licked her slit and suckled her sweet, pink lips, thoughts of other men failing to give her what she needed—what she fucking deserved—made his cock even harder. Virgins, meh, they were more work than they were worth. But a women who knew what she was doing and couldn’t get off without him? Ladies and gentlemen, that was a fucking ego boost like no other.

  And it deserved a token of appreciation.

  As much as he loved their frenzied and passionate fucks, it wasn’t a night for fast and hard. Tonight was all about slow and sensual. He wanted to make it last, feel the heat spread through her, hear her moans get louder and louder, just building until she couldn’t take it anymore.

  He slid his hands under her ass and lifted it, giving his selfish mouth access to a place that had always made her moan the loudest.

  “Oh, god, baby!” Liv cried out, as his tongue followed the trail of her juices down to that beautifully-puckered little asshole. He licked around it in slow but steady circles, then dipped his tongue in as far as it could go. Not wanting her to go quiet, he circled the rim with his mouth and sucked as he pulled out his tongue, the combination of withdrawl and suction making her go absolutely wild. “Baby!” she wailed.

  He pulled away and grinned. Wiping the wetness down his beard, he stood up and leaned over her. “Not yet, baby girl. I gotta feel you.”

  She smiled and bit down on her lip as he hovered over her and slid an arm under her ass to pull her up in the bed. “You got something to prove tonight, handsome?” she cooed.

  “Nothing to prove, darlin’, just wanna take it slow and show my incredible old lady how much I fucking adore her.” He covered her body with his and positioned himself at her entrance. “Fucking incredible,” he moaned with the first thrust. “And amazing.” he added with the second.

  Her eyes rolled up and her body tensed. He curled an arm behind her head to steady himself and leaned down to kiss her.

  She murmured her disapproval when he raised his head, but a look of contentment soon came over her face as he increased his speed and touched her chest. He ran his palm over her tits, around her neck, down her stomach, and up her ribcage. Like he was making sure she was real.

  He still couldn’t believe that she’d actually agreed to be his woman, that he didn’t have to worry about her sneaking off when he wasn’t looking anymore. But she was real, she was here, and he was the luckiest motherfucker on the planet.

  With each thrust her body had loosened up, now flexing and flowing with every wave. The opposite was happening around his cock, her walls were closing in on him so tight that he knew he was getting her close again. The pressure around his shaft made him want more, so he pushed in deeper. Sweat started beading up on his forehead and his balls seized up, her trembling hands clawing at his back making it fucking impossible to hold off.

  As soon as he felt the first ripple of convulsion inside her, he let himself go too. “God fucking almighty,” he panted, still hovering and trying not to crush her. “Nobody’s ever taking this pussy away from me.”

  “That magnificent dick better be all mine too,” she murmured.

  “All yours and comes with a lifetime guarantee.”

  He rolled over onto his back to catch his breath. Liv apparently caught hers faster and shuffled off the bed.

  “Where the fuck you think you’re going?” he asked.

  “Relax, babe. Just need a glass of water.”

  “Hurry up and come sit on my face.”

  Liv laughed and shook her head, but followed directions and soon came out with a glass of water. She drank half and offered the rest to him.

  “Come here, baby,” he demanded as she put it down on the nightstand. She crawled over him, but he reached around and slapped the shit out of her ass. “Other way.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said with a mock salute, earning herself a swat on the other cheek. She changed direction and turned on her knee, slinging a leg over his head and lowering her ass in his face. She ran her nails along the bottom of his dick—already hard again—and took it in her mouth.

  He loved doing this shit with her, they always found a fucking fantastic rhythm of giving and receiving. But usually it was foreplay, this time it was only the second course. The taste of his seed mixed with her juices was just getting him started again.

  He moaned as she took him in
all the way to the back of her throat. She purred as he slid down a little so he could tongue her clit and finger her ass at the same time. He again rubbed circles around the rim, before pushing the tip inside. Liv’s nails dug into his leg as he pushed it the rest of the way in and stroked.

  “I want all of you, baby. You gonna give it to me?”

  “Mmhmm,” she murmured around his dick.

  He gripped her hips and pushed them down toward his groin. As she got on her knees, he sat up and ran his fingers along her slit, collecting all the liquid he could to coat his dick.

  “Come, baby,” he told her, rubbing his hands across the ink on her back.

  She flashed a smile over her shoulder, then positioned his tip and slowly slid down over it, giving herself a chance to acclimate to his width with every inch she took. And giving him the chance to enjoy every inch as her tight ring made its way down his length.

  When she’d situated herself—down to the base—he sat all the way up, snaked his arm up over her stomach to reach her breast, and crossed his legs at the ankles. He started rocking his hips, slow and shallow at first. But as soon as she started giving it back, his primal instincts took over and he buried himself in her without restraint.

  His hand went from caressing her tits to wrapping around her neck. When her moans and groans starting getting louder, he went the other way and stroked her pussy, using his fingers to pinch and roll her clit.

  They both sped up, sweat starting to soak their bodies, until she erupted seconds later. The sight of her throwing her head back—hair wet from working for it—made him lose his grip too, even stronger and longer than the first time.

  It seemed like a lot of shit in life was better the second time around, Liv being the prime example. It also seemed like a lot of people couldn’t learn from the first time and blew their second chances.

  As he watched her lift away from him, kiss his hand, and walk back toward the bathroom again, he knew he’d never be one of those fucking idiots. He had his club, his health, and his woman. What the fuck else could a man really need? No, he wasn’t going to blow this shit now that he knew what he’d been missing.