I woke when I felt hands turning me and my first thought was panic. Not exactly panic, as such. Extreme panic.
Therefore, I pulled violently free from the hands and scooted swiftly across the bed. Too swiftly and too panicked. I landed on my ass on the floor, cracking my head against the nightstand.
I didn’t react to either of these things. I heard movement on the bed so I twisted and scuttled backwards on hands and feet like a crab except not sideways. I hit wall and pushed up as the dim light coming from street lamps filled the room and I saw a big, shadowed man heading my way.
I raised my hand to ward him off, his chest hit it, hands spanning my h*ps and I heard, “Baby, you’re safe. It’s me.”
Tack. It was Tack. Not a bad guy there to hood me and hurt me but Tack.
I relaxed and the panic slid out of me.
Earlier, Dog had taken me to the Chaos Compound, dragged me with a hand on my upper arm to Tack’s room and he’d locked me in. Not a word of explanation. Not a, “Have you eaten?” Not a, “Don’t worry about your beloved aunt and best friend, all is well.” He just walked out, locked me in and I heard his booted feet walk away.
Now it was the dead of night and Tack was back from whatever he did with Lanie. Not me. Lanie.
Reminded of this, my hand stopped going slack at the knowledge that nothing else terrifying was happening to me, it strengthened and tried to push.
Tack wasn’t in the mood to be pushed away. I knew this because he leaned into my hand and my elbow buckled at the pressure just as the pads of his fingers bit into my flesh.
“Tack –” I started to say, what, I did not know, but he cut me off.
“Three hours,” he growled.
These words were so strange, said in a growl so low it was almost guttural, and his tone had changed so significantly from his previous quiet words, I stopped putting pressure on my hand and blinked at him in the shadows.
“Pardon?”
My arm got crushed between our bodies when his invaded my space and his hands slid up my hips, into my shirt, pulling it up, skin to skin.
“Three hours,” he repeated, his voice still that fierce, guttural rumble that kind of scared me and I didn’t know why. It was like the tone communicated that he was trying to control something, some emotion, and he was failing.
“Three hours?” I asked.
His shadowy face got close to mine. “Yeah, Red. Three. Fuckin’. Hours.”
Then his hands flew up, taking my top with it with such force I had no choice but to lift my arms. It was gone for nary a second when his fingers gripped me at the waist, I was up, twisted and he was walking, taking me with him. Then as quickly as I was up, I was down on my back in Tack’s bed and he was on top of me.
All this happened and I didn’t even have a chance to take a breath.
My hands went to his shoulders. “Tack –”
“Three hours.”
“Why are you saying –?”
I didn’t finish my question, his mouth crushed down on mine and there was no gentle coaxing to open for his tongue. It spiked out, forcing itself between my lips and then it was in my mouth. His kisses could be hungry, they could be demanding but he’d never kissed me like this. No one had ever kissed me like this. I didn’t even know you could kiss like this. It drained me dry at the same time it filled me up. Filled me full of what, I wasn’t sure except all of it was good.
Then his fingers were in my bra, pulling the cup down, they curved around the bottom of my breast and lifted it. His mouth released mine and he twisted his torso down and sucked my nipple into his mouth, hard.
“Oh God,” I moaned as the heady sensations tore through me, my hands lifted, fingers sifting into his hair to hold him to me.
His other hand went to my shorts, he unbuckled my belt, unbuttoned the top button and pulled the zip down maybe half an inch before his hand was in, sliding through the instant wetness his mouth at my nipple created. His middle finger slid through, I gasped and then stopped breathing when it filled me.
Then it started moving as Tack released my nipple and demanded, “Get your other tit ready for me.”
I didn’t hesitate. He sucked my nipple back into his mouth, more wetness surged between my legs and my hand left his head, my fingers went to the other cup of my bra and pulled it down. Then my hand curved around the underside and his head shifted, his finger between my legs still moving, he sucked my other nipple sharply into his mouth as his finger and thumb rolled the one his mouth left behind.
God. God. Amazing.