Styx tipped his head back and sighed in pure relief. ETA? he spelled out, Ky voicing his question out loud.
“‘Bout an hour. Told Flame to take him out back. You want the honor, right?”
A hungry grin tugged on Styx’s lips and he cracked his neck as he rolled it from side to side. I did not need this response translated. He had a look of revenge in his eyes. Glancing around the room, he signed, We find these cunts… Then we send them to the boatman, right to Hades.
Styx had quick words with Ky and a few other men I did not know, then came to me. He took my hand and dragged me away.
When he entered the main door to his apartment, he sat me down on the bed, meeting my gaze. “Y-you okay?” He nodded toward the graze on my arm that Beauty had packed and bandaged.
“It is just a graze.”
He began to pace before me on the hardwood floor, each step becoming more and more angry. “Wh-why the fuck d-did they attack?”
“I… I do not know?” I whispered, keeping my head down. I did not like this side of Styx. I suddenly understood why he was feared by so many people—he had a dark side… a frightening side.
Walking to a large panel of wood that separated the bedroom chamber of his rooms, Styx screamed loudly and punched his hand straight through the wood, leaving a large hole, his fall-colored eyes untamed and wild.
Unable to conceal my shock, I shrieked and covered myself on the bed. Styx ignored my fright and disappeared through to the linen closet. He came back with a towel, throwing it on my lap.
“G-get in the shower and clean that f-f-fuckin’ blood off you.”
Losing the battle with my trembling lip, I took the large white towel and scurried into the bathroom. As soon as the door shut, I let my emotions flow freely. Styx was so angry. His attitude toward me had turned cold and sour—just like every other man I had ever known.
I honestly believed that Styx was different.
The man outside was Styx, the Hangmen Mute, the president of an outlaw MC, the man capable of killing with zero remorse. The man outside was no longer the man I knew.
He terrified me.
I walked to the mirror, staring at my rough appearance: wounded arm, messy hair, scratched skin, and dirtied clothes. I was a mess, but all I could think about was Rider injured, Lois dead… and Rider had saved me. Jumped in front of me and saved me. He saved my life. He could die and I—
A hard fist hit the wood of the door, making me jump and bang my elbow on the vanity. “Wh-what the fuck are you d-doing in there? I don’t hear w-water.”
I quickly wiped my eyes and turned on the faucet. I flipped the lever for the shower. I laughed without humor. It was just like the one I had at The Order, and the situation felt all too similar.
“I am going in now,” I shouted back with a shaky voice and set to undressing.
I showered quickly and wrapped the towel around me to dry. I had no other clothes but the filthy heap on the floor, so taking a deep breath, I opened the door and tiptoed through in my scant state.
Styx was on his bed, a cigarette hanging lazily off his bottom lip, strumming a morose melody on his guitar, the lyrics haunting. “You can run on for a long time, but sooner or later, God’ll cut you down.”
Styx looked so dark and powerful as he sat on his bed singing quietly around the smoking white stick in his mouth. My breath caught at the sight. His dark hair fell over his fall eyes and his huge arm muscles flexed with every strum of his fingers on the strings. He was sin personified… A sin I craved… but right now I was out and out afraid of him.
Coughing gently to draw his attention, I fidgeted on the spot, and Styx looked up. His hands froze on the strings as his head lifted slightly. He followed the path of my body, right from my toes to the top of my head.
Blowing white smoke through his nose, never breaking my gaze, he stood, placing his guitar on the chair beside the bed, and slowly walked to where I stood.
Combing long hair out of his eyes with his fingers, he then stroked a finger down my arm, my skin reacting to his touch, shivers blazing up and down my spine.
His finger ghosted down to the knot in my towel, the knot just above my breasts. “Fuck, Mae, I can’t deal,” he muttered gruffly, tugging at the towel, his large hazel eyes seeming to turn a bright jade green. “I want you so fuckin’ bad. So fuckin’ bad…” Then he left to go to the bathroom, slamming the door as he went.
He did not stutter. Not even once.
My fingers remained gripped on the towel and I shook with nerves. I knew what he wanted and my stomach fell like a rock dropped into a lake. He wanted what all men wanted from me; he wanted what a woman was meant to do for a man… what we were created for. He wanted what I had done for men since I was a child.
With a deep breath, I walked to the large bed, dropped the towel and braced myself in the required position for his pleasure. In no time at all, I heard the tinny pipes of the shower whine to a silence. The water switched off and I bowed down in preparation, forehead to the bed, spread my legs wide, grasping my hands behind my back and sent my mind to the place where I did not feel… anything.
Chapter Twelve
Styx
They’d tried to kill Mae. Some fucker’d tried to kill Mae. Shit! They’d killed Lois.
Lois. Dead. Gone. Known the bitch since I was a kid. Lois, a goddamn sweetheart, beautiful to the core, and I’d fuckin’ crushed her before she was taken out by a rival’s slug.
FUCK!
A red mist fogged my mind and I was spittin’ mad. I wanted to hurt something, hit something… kill someone… bad.
My brothers had looked to me for explanations when I came through the bar. Viking, Flame, and AK off like fuckin’ Ghost Riders, burning road after the bastards who dared fuck with their brothers. But I had no answers. I knew they all had my back, but I couldn’t get my head focused beyond Mae, couldn’t rid the image of Rider saving Mae’s life. That should’ve been me. I fucked up and if it wasn’t for Rider taking a fuckin’ bullet in the shoulder, I would’ve lost her.
It weren’t sitting well with me.
One thing was certain; Mae would never be leaving me again. Fuck trying to do good by her. She was staying right here with me, where I could watch her… protect her. At compound she was safe.
I’d done everything but drag her back to my room, and seeing her holding her fuckin’ injured arm, looking tiny and pale on my bed again, made me almost explode. I’d ordered her to the shower like a fuckin’ top-grade Nazi, unable to bear looking at her perfect skin tainted by blood, to be confronted with the reality of what could’ve happened. What had happened to Lois… fuckin’ loyal and messed-up Lois.
And now here I was, in the bathroom, freshly showered, dressed only in my jeans, having to face the repercussions of acting like a total prick to the only bitch I’d ever wanted. I’d scared her shitless. I could see the fear in her fuckin’ wolf gaze.
She feared me and it was all my fault.
Inwardly cussing and dumping the wet towel on the floor, I walked outta the bathroom and froze on the spot.
Mae?
CHRIST, Mae!
She was buck-naked, pink pussy on show, tight round ass up, with her arms gripped behind her back in submission, forehead pressed against the mattress. My fuckin’ woman was braced on the bed, ready to be fucked… Real fucked-up shit!
I was wrong. What I’d felt before this moment wasn’t rage; it was a slight fuckin’ flicker of annoyance, a whisper of fuckin’ anger. It had to be, because seeing the bitch I was turning crazy for waiting for me in some bastard abuse-victim pose had me in cold-blooded murdering territory.
Despite my best efforts, my cock hardened until it was almost painful, that tight pussy too much to deal with. I’d wanted to fuck Mae since she woke up in my bed. Wanted to rip those fuckin’ leathers off her all damn day and sink into her warm pink hole. But any picture I’d painted in my head of what she’d look like naked was surpassed by fuckin’ miles. But her like this, b
raced for me to rape her, had me spinning.
What the hell had she come from? What the hell had they done to her in that commune? And why the fuck did she think she still had to do it right now?
And then I saw them: layers of scars on her back. Lots of ’em. Scratches, chain marks, lashes? I didn’t fuckin’ know.
Unable to see her like this anymore, I snapped, “M-Mae! What the f-fuck?!!”
She didn’t move.
Not even an inch.
Not even a flinch.
Moving around to the head of the bed, I beat my fist in my hand. She was zoned the hell out. Off in some la-la land or some shit.
My jaw clenched with anger, rage building up in my body, causing me to scream. “GET THE FUCK UP!!!”
Mae snapped out of her molestation trance and fell to the side, curling in on herself, peeking up at me through those beautiful long, black lashes; adopting the fetal position.
“Wh-what was that?” I asked through clenched teeth.
Her eyes were as big as motherfuckin’ saucers and her pink lips popped open with a gasp. She didn’t speak, just… stared.
Leaning on the bed, my muscles straining, I asked her again, “Answer the f-f-fuckin’ q-question, Mae. What. The. Hell. Was. Th-that???”
She swallowed so loud I swear you could hear it all the way to Mexico. “D-did… did… I displease you?”
Her devastated face cut through me.
Out and out fear. Me. She fuckin’ feared me.
I dropped to the bed, groaning low as I drank in the sight of her perfect round tits, smooth with big fat dusky nipples, big enough to spill out over my fingers when cupped and a flat smooth stomach, milky skin. Reaching down, I adjusted my cock, which was gonna smash through my jeans any fuckin’ second. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, calming down. Opening them again, I picked up my cut from my chair and passed it to her.
“C-c-cover yourself.”
Mae snatched it from me and hid her body, tucking her legs and arms under the mass of leather. Hades grinned up at me—no. Taunted me. Mae looked so small. Petrified and small. And I couldn’t help but note that she looked so fuckin’ hot under my cut.
Old lady good.
Shit.
Wrong time!
Shifting my legs slightly, I faced her. “B-b-babe, wh-why d’you do that?”
Lowering her eyes, she whispered, “I had made you angry. I was trying to make you happy. Is that not what women do here, on the outside?”
My fists clenched.
“Mae, I was p-pissed at what just happened, not at you! B-b-babe, I shouldn’t have shouted, b-but I couldn’t calm d-down. I have a short f-fuse. You g-got fuckin’ targeted today, Lois died and it was my f-fault! You coulda fuckin’ d-died if it weren’t for Rider!”
“Why was it your fault?” she asked quietly.
“‘C-c-cause I kept you! The club’s g-gettin’ shit, some other or-or… organization is t-trying to take us out. J-j-just have to figure out now wh-who and take the fuckers out first—a-a-ain’t the first attempt; won’t be the last.” I took a deep breath, relaxing my throat. It was getting easier to talk to Mae.
Yet another fuckin’ thing to like about her.
“What will happen now?” she whispered. I could still hear the fear in her shaky voice.
“You’re st-staying with me. G-gotta protect you. That means st-staying right by my side.”
I watched as she closed her eyes and sighed in relief, and Christ if I didn’t spit some cum in my jeans. At a sigh. Fuck I needed to get laid. I was too pent up, needed a release.
Running a hand over my head, I said, “Y-you gotta tell m-me why you were sh-shoving that fuckin’ perfect p-pussy in my face, babe.”
A pink blush covered her whole face and she sank lower into the leather of my cut. “You were displeased. I was providing you with pleasure. As a woman, that is what is expected of me. It is selfish and a sin to deny you pleasure.”
I swallowed back the growl about to let rip from my throat. “Y-you do that a lot wh-where you from? G-get fucked like a d-damn sex-slave?”
She hesitated for a moment, eyebrows drawn, then nodded reluctantly.
That did it. I stood and had to shake out my shoulders. I needed to fight. Hurt someone. “Th-that how you fucked, b-babe? Were you f-forced into that sh-shit?”
Hearing the catch of breath, I turned to hear the answer. “It is essential for sharing the Lord’s love, for the sacrificial exchange of bodies. For the leaders of my people… for the men of my people… I… I did not have a choice in this act… None of the sisters did.”
“Sh-sharing the Lord’s l-l-love? Sacrificial ex-exchange? What the fuck’s th-that shit ab-about?”
“Where the disciples got closer to God through… their sexual release… through the vehicle of our—the sisters’—bodies.”
I hesitated. Sometimes I got so damn confused with the shit she spouted. Who the hell’re the disciples? And why the hell were they fuckin’ Mae like an animal?
“And y-you? What did you g-g-get from it?” I asked, rolling my lip ring to stop from going Flame-level psycho.
Tears filled her eyes and her full bottom lip wobbled. “Nothing. I got nothing from it. In fact”—she paused and drops fell down her cheek—”I hated it. My Lord, I hated it. Every single time. None of the sisters ever got pleasure from it… We were forbidden to do so. Women should not feel pleasure. Sharing is for duty, not for love.” She took a hesitant breath. “We would be… punished. We had to adopt the position and endure it until the brother—or in my case the elder—was done.”
A pink blush brightened her porcelain skin and her lashes fluttered, her baby-blues meeting my attention. “I have never felt… gratification… from a joining. I do not know what that kind of pleasure is like… if I am even capable of feeling that kind of pleasure at all.”
My heart cracked, right down the damn middle. I moved across the room to Mae like a pussy. “B-babe…” I wrapped her in my arms and she cried, fuckin’ cried a river on my shoulder.
I couldn’t stand it, couldn’t stand seeing her so torn. What the hell had she been through?
“Shh… Y-y-you’re outta that hell now. I g-got you… I got you… You’ll never have to go th-through that a-a-again…”
“They will be searching for me. They will not stop until they have me back in commune,” she cried.
Gripping her hair, I replied, “Far as y-you’re concerned, th-they’re dead. They’ll n-never find you here. Fuckers a-are nothing to th-the Hangmen.”
She sat up and shook her head. “The devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world he did not exist,” she said softly. “I know the guards, Styx. They are coming. They exist and they are coming. It is only a matter of time.”
“They c-come for you, they d-die,” I said through clenched teeth, and her eyes flared at my words as her hand ran down my arm.
I jerked as I felt her lips press to my bare chest, her tiny hand graze down my stomach, the sensation zinging straight to my cock.
“What should it be like, Styx? What should it feel like… to be intimate with someone… you know… normally?”
She lifted her head from caressing my body, seeking out her answer, her glossy blue eyes staring at my lips and then up to my eyes and back again.
“You c-can’t be looking at m-me like that, b-babe,” I rasped out, trying like fuck to rein myself in.
“Wh… why?”
“B-b-because you l-looking at me like that is t-telling me you fuckin’ wanna be in my b-bed… W-want me to show you how f-fuckin’ good you should f-feel taking my cock. W-w-want me to fuck you ’t-til you can’t walk.”
Then that nose twitched, and my cut covering her naked body fell to the floor, leaving her naked, on offer like a damn platter. Bare-assed naked, perfect curves on show—heavy tits, tight fuckin’ frame. Wolf eyes hooded, pink lips moist, ready for me to make her come… for the first time in her bastard life. Begging me with her eyes to make he
r come so damn hard.
“River…” A plea. A breathy, desperate plea slipped from her lips, like she was channelling her inner Marilyn Monroe or something. The voodoo possessive shit took hold of my controls once again. She’d called me River. I hadn’t been called that name in over a decade. She’d remembered my fuckin’ real name.
“Mae… You need a b-better man. It ain’t me, babe, no matter how much you th-think it is… or want it to be,” I croaked, my cock painful with need and iron stiff. I couldn’t believe I was actually thinking it, but I wasn’t sure taking Mae as mine was such a good idea. I always took what I wanted, no care for anyone else. Fuck, Lois was stone-cold dead because of her want of me, but taking Mae after the last few weeks, after today, just seemed so… so… fucked up and wrong.
“Styx…” she hushed out, riding a small, needy moan. Her nipples were like damn bullets, her hips slowly rocking with need. “It is you… It has always been you…”
And then she was on me. Mouth pressed right against mine, her tiny hand gripping my hair in her tight fist, pushing me farther against her hungry fuckin’ lips. I took what she gave, battled it, fuckin’ conquered it, and when that tongue pushed through to meet mine… I snapped.
With a move like lightning, I thrust Mae back to the bed, tearing at her mouth with my lips, my hands moving to grip her tiny Jane Mansfield waist, pinning her below me. She whimpered as my tongue wrapped around hers and her skin felt like it was on fire. Feeling outta my mind with desperation, a desperation to touch every part of her, brand her as mine, I shifted my hands down to her tight thighs and in one move, wrenched them apart, my cock now lying flat against her pussy.
Christ. She was ready, so fuckin’ ready.
It was gonna happen. I was gonna take Mae. Had to. It wasn’t a choice as she squirmed underneath me, grinding against my dick.
Breaking from her mouth, I hissed as her legs wrapped ’round my waist. “F-f-fuck, babe. Y-you’re ready, huh? R-r-ready for me to make you c-come?”