Beckett
Darkness sets in as Mia finishes telling me what happened. She’s been sitting on my lap for over an hour, and, from time to time, tears fall down her cheeks.
I’m trying to stay calm knowing that Mia’s spoken with Veronica and that she’s probably in bed with Skates.
But now we know Skates is hiding on his dad’s boat out in the ocean.
As much as I want to call Ryland and Hudson and put my plan in motion, I don’t. Mia needs me right now.
“You promised me you wouldn’t go anywhere without one of us. If Ryland hadn’t installed the tracker on your phone, who knows what would have happened,” I softly scold Mia.
“He did?”
“Yes. He put it on every phone my family owns. Don’t be mad. It’s for everyone’s safety.”
She hesitates but then says, “I’m not mad. I understand. But I took my gun.”
How do I get it through to her that she shouldn’t be carrying a gun?
“Which I also asked you not to do,” I remind her. “You could have been shot or arrested today.”
She closes her eyes, and another tear escapes. “I’m sorry. Once I discovered Veronica’s Instagram with Skates, I wasn’t thinking. Don’t be mad at me, Beckett.”
“I’m not mad at you, but promise me you won’t do that ever again.”
Hesitantly, she finally agrees.
“I mean it, Mia. I don’t want you in prison or dead.”
More tears fall. “Okay.”
I sigh and hold her closer to me. “Are you all right? That was pretty intense with Casey.”
She takes a shaky breath. “Everything is his fault. He may not have pulled the trigger on Clay and me, but he’s just as much to blame. And now he’s trying to scare me enough to leave with those pictures.”
Something hasn’t been sitting right with me since Mia told me Casey sent the pictures and how Casey claimed that Mia had it wrong.
“Mia, why do you think Casey sent you to Michigan? If he wanted to hurt you, he would have done it instead of sending you away.”
She snaps her head away from my chest and glares at me. “He did hurt me. He ruined my life by sending me there.” Her turquoise eyes, full of pain, stare at me.
I stroke her cheek. “I know you hated being there, but if he wanted you dead, you would be. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
She looks away. “Why does he have to be my father? And that makes Skates my brother.” A new round of tears flies out of her eyes. “I have their evil blood in me.”
I turn her chin toward me and sternly say, “No, you don’t. There’s nothing about you that’s evil or bad.”
“There has to be. He’s my father.” Her face crumples in pain.
I cup her cheeks. “It doesn’t matter. You’re warmth and light. Everything good in life is in you.”
She sniffles. “It can’t be.”
“Nonsense.” I lean into her and firmly hold her head, parting her lips with mine, trying to show her nothing she is thinking is true.
“How can you still want to even be near me?” she whispers, her lips trembling against mine.
I push my forehead against hers. “You’re my everything. “
“It’s their fault you lost ten years of your life.”
“That has nothing to do with you.”
“How can it not?” She closes her eyes in pain.
“It doesn’t. You aren’t them.”
She opens her eyes as drops of tears turn into streams again.
I quickly turn and flip her onto the bed. My face hovers over hers. My hands grip the sides of her head. “Listen to me, Mia. You are innocent of all their decisions. Nothing they have done is your fault. When I say that you’re my everything, I mean it.”
She takes a shaky breath and sniffles. “I hate myself right now, knowing I’m part of them,” she whispers.
“Shh, don’t say that. You aren’t part of them.”
“I am. You can do better than me.”
My heart breaks, seeing the pain she’s going through. She’s already been through a lifetime of sorrow, and she shouldn’t think any less of herself based on who her DNA comes from.
I brush my lips against hers and stare into her ocean-colored orbs. “That’s not true. I need you like the air I breathe. When I’m away from you, all I can think about is you. Nothing will ever change that.” I crush my mouth to hers, ravaging her tongue, stealing her warm breath, taking all I can but giving everything I have to her.
Her hands grip my shoulder muscles, and her legs widen until my growing erection is pressing into her heat.
With my blood pumping in all my veins, I lick behind her ear, then suck on her lobe before murmuring, “You make me forget bad exists.”
“Make me forget, Beckett,” she sniffles out.
The rising and falling of her chest presses into mine. I quickly remove her clothes as she releases my shirt and pants.
Her hard nipples and the fullness of her soft breasts smash my pecs as my lips and tongue glide down her neck. “I love everything about you,” I mumble then flick my tongue on her nipples before tracing the edge of them.
How did I ever exist without her?
She begins to whimper quietly, gripping my hair and widening her legs into a V and bucking her hips.
I flip on my back, rolling her on top of me and guiding her down so I slide through her tightness.
I groan as her wet heat surrounds me, and her walls grip me in pleasant torture.
“Oh God,” she whispers as she always does whenever I first thrust inside her, her eyes briefly closing as her mouth forms into a shaky O.
I clutch one of her hips and circle her clit with my other hand, watching the flush grow throughout her face.
“Beckett,” she breathes, her chest rising and falling quicker, palming my stomach.
“I got you, my angel,” I murmur, mesmerized by every breath, sound, and facial expression she makes.
She’s so beautiful. How did she become mine?
“Please...oh...oh...” She tilts her head back; her soft black hair brushes my hand that’s on her hip.
My thumb circles faster and harder.
“Don’t stop...oh God...Beckett,” she cries out as her body convulses on top of me, clutching my cock, shooting currents of heat through every cell in my body.
“Fuck, you feel good,” I growl at her.
Her eyes roll, and she cries out, oscillating harder.
When her climax passes, I sit up, cupping her head and urgently sticking my tongue in her mouth.
She wraps her arms around me, and I’m in the place I love most—flesh to flesh, limbs pretzeled, the smell of sex and Mia’s scent flaring in my nostrils.
“Hold me tighter,” I murmur between kisses, never wanting her to let me go and caressing the soft skin on her back.
Mia grips me harder and grinds faster.
“Yeah, angel, do that,” I praise her as my heat burns hot throughout me.
“This?” she whispers, gyrating.
“Oh, fuck. Yes. Do that.”
How is it possible she was a virgin before me?
Mia knows just how to ride me. My memories may be faint from anyone before her, but no one ever made me feel the way she does. She has no idea how much she turns me on. And that’s before she shatters on me. Nothing on earth is better than her unraveling.
Salt from her skin hits my tongue as I lick and suck on the curve of her neck.
“Oh God...Beckett...oh...” she moans and arches her back into me, slowly, then with more intensity, spasming on my cock.
My balls shrivel and nerves sit on the edge of euphoria. I grip her hips and frantically thrust faster. “Come with me, angel,” I growl, trying to hold out until she unhinges completely.
She cries out my name, and her eyes roll before she buries her face in my neck. I pump hard into her, groaning as adrenaline bursts all my atoms, sending me flying into paradise.
As we still in the aftermath, trying to fill our lungs with air, I don’t loosen my arms around her. Her nails are still digging into my back muscles, and I stroke her head. I raise my head out of her neck. Staring into her eyes, I tell her, “You’re mine, and I’m yours, Mia. Every part of you, I want. Your blood, my blood, it doesn’t matter. What matters is us. Together. Do you understand me?”
Her eyes fill with tears. “Yes.”
“Good.” I kiss her some more. “I don’t want you going anywhere without me, Ryland, or Hudson. At least not until I say.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“Nothing,” I lie. “Just promise me.”
She bites her lip.
“Promise me, Mia.”
“Okay. I promise.”
“And no more carrying your gun. Put it in the safe and keep it there.”
She closes her eyes and sighs.
I cup her face. “Mia, nothing good is going to come from you carrying your gun. I don’t want you in prison or dead. Promise me.”
“Fine. I promise.”
“Thank you.” I return to kissing her but can’t ignore the uneasiness in my gut. Casey and Henry know that Mia is fully aware of how Clay died and that is dangerous.
I look Mia in the eyes. “You can’t tell anyone else that you know how Clay died.”
She looks at me in panic. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
I pull her into me, stroking her head. “Shh. I know. It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” But I know it’s the furthest thing from the truth.
Forever. I want her forever, and I need to figure out how to end the danger that’s surrounding us without going back to prison or getting killed.