For the Taking Read online

  “One of her clients kept wanting me,” she said. Again, only when she’d gotten older did she realize what it all meant. “Mom got tired of the beatings, and me taking her customers. Nothing happened, but some men wanted a go at me.”

  “You were five.”

  “There are a lot of sick people in the world. Men and women alike. She dumped me on the doorstep. No promise to return, and she never did.”

  “Did you go looking for her?”

  “Hell, no. I know when I’m not wanted, and believe me, I don’t beg for attention. Never have. Never will.”

  “You were in the system until eighteen?”

  “Pretty much. I ran away a few times. Lived on the street for a couple of days at a time. Believe me when I say some kids had it even rougher than I did. You learn to go without a lot of things. It’s why I don’t like being drugged. I saw too many of us fall to the promise of an easy high. It is easy. Just a simple syringe, pop, and you’re there, cloud nine. The thing is, I’m not stupid. I know the high comes with … conditions. Selling your body. Thieving. The people who have the drugs, you become nothing but a slave to them. I promised myself long ago I wouldn’t be anyone’s slave.”

  “What happened after?” he asked.

  Meghan was breaking all of her rules. He did save her, so she knew she had to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  “What happened after? I left the system when I was eighteen, and been working my ass off ever since. I don’t trust easily, which is why we’re here now.”

  “You’ve just told me everything there is to know about you.”

  “Not everything. There is a lot of stuff you don’t know about me,” she said. “Your turn.”

  She picked up an egg roll, taking a bite.

  “My turn?”

  “I tell you my secrets, now it’s time for you to tell me yours.”

  “No.”

  “Come on. I’m not going to tell anyone. I promise. Do you think I’m working for Peace? Really? He just sent two men to kill me, and you’re still not going to trust me?” She was a little hurt.

  Riley looked at her. His eyes were so pretty and intense. They were the kind that either delivered pleasure or pain.

  “Doesn’t Peace know it’s you?” she asked.

  “He does.”

  “What does it matter that I know if you’ve already given him the message you’re after him?”

  “He has a lot of enemies.”

  She lifted her hand up. “And I’m one of them. I want him dead. He’s the kind of guy who thinks he can take what he wants, and to hell with the consequences. Even if I was to sleep with him, he’d toss me out when I was done. I’ve seen the pictures in the newspaper. Heard the whispers of another woman being found dumped in the lake or a dumpster.”

  “Not all of them are him.”

  “Are they you?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “I … I can’t go back to my place. I can try to run out of the city, but where else am I going to go? There’s always going to be another David. Another someone who thinks they can take without care.” She shrugged. “I don’t know how to show you I can help.” In all of her life, she had never given anyone a chance.

  “Why should I believe you?” he asked.

  “You’ve killed for me.”

  “I didn’t kill them for you.”

  “I know, but you still saved me. No one has ever done anything like that for me.”

  “Is this the foster system sob story?”

  “You can mock me all you want. It doesn’t change the fact it’s true. You helped me when you didn’t have to. I’m willing to help you. I’ve got nothing to lose.”

  “Apart from your life.”

  “Then what better way to go out than taking some asshole with me?” Why was she still arguing about this?

  David Peace wasn’t her concern, and yet, he’d sent people to fucking kill her. Now she was pissed off, and more than anything, she wanted to prove to him he’d messed with the wrong woman.

  How dare he try to kill her?

  Or even think of raping her.

  “He killed my wife,” he said, startling her.

  “What?”

  “Ten years ago, I was chained to a fucking warehouse, and I watched him beat her, and then shoot her in the head. She was pregnant with our first child.”

  Tears filled her eyes as she thought about this man, this strong, sexy man, being chained to a wall, having to watch the love of his life be taken from him.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “He thought he had killed me. One of the men I trained, he shot me in the leg. I imagine I was supposed to bleed out. He only shattered my bone.”

  “Your men?”

  “I was once one of the men who’d have been beating you at the orders of my boss. I worshipped David Peace. He was more than just my boss. He was my mentor.”

  “Oh,” she said.

  “I would have died for him. I’d taken many bullets for him. Been stabbed, maimed, nearly killed several times. All in the name of protecting him.”

  She listened as he told the story of his wife and how she was easily manipulated.

  As Riley talked, she watched him. He wasn’t angry or sad. There was simply no emotion to him. He told it like it was an essay, not even a story. Just a bunch of facts written down in his mind.

  “Now, do you want to help me? There was a time I’d have been the one to shatter your hand.”

  “Have you hurt women before?” she asked. She swiped away her tears.

  He wasn’t crying, and right now, she didn’t want to show any kind of women.

  “Yes.”

  “The women you hurt, did they capture David’s eye and all he wanted from them was a good time. Sex?”

  “No.”

  “Then you wouldn’t have done this to me,” she said. She was convinced of it.

  “You really are naive.”

  “No, I’m not. You are. You ever wonder if he kept things from you? From what you just told me, you worshipped him. You made him feel powerful, and he liked the feeling. Your wife ruined it, and by then, he may have had someone else to manipulate into being loyal. I don’t for a second believe you have what it takes to kill a woman who doesn’t deserve it.”

  “Then you’re a fool.”

  “Then shoot me. I’m a hindrance. I’m a pain in the ass. You’ve seen what I can’t do. I’m a survivor, but I’ll slow you down. Take your gun out right now and end me.”

  He pulled the gun and pressed it to the center of her forehead.

  She wasn’t afraid.

  “Do it,” she said. “Kill me.”

  He didn’t say a single word.

  “Do you know the only bad thing I’ve ever done?” she asked.

  He didn’t ask.

  “I didn’t report a dead body I found in an alleyway. I was fourteen years old. It was freezing cold, and as I went near a fire down an alley to get some heat from one of the bins, I had to step over a dead body. It was an old man. I knew he was dead. His eyes were frozen open. I stepped right over him, and heated myself up. The next day, I went back to the foster home and never said a word. That is the only bad thing I have ever done. So shoot me.”

  ****

  Riley knew he should have shot her, later that night as he listened to the world go by. Meghan wasn’t snoring. She lay beside him, very much awake.

  He listened to her even breathing, waiting for her to speak.

  She’d been a little taken aback when he didn’t shoot her.

  There was no reason to kill her.

  Meghan was right. In all of his years of killing, he’d only ever killed people who deserved it. He’d never taken the life of an innocent.

  “I’m sorry about your wife,” she said.

  “It was a long time ago.”

  “Ten years,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you decide against getting your revenge?” The bed moved as she turned.

&n
bsp; He glanced down to see her resting her head on her palm and staring at him.

  “What?”

  “Ten years is a long time to wait to get revenge? Why did you wait so long? Did he come after you? Is that why you’re here now?”

  He smiled. “You’re a curious thing.”

  “You could have killed me. I’m guessing a part of you likes having me around, even if you don’t want to admit it.”

  Riley didn’t say a word. He liked looking at her. She was pretty, and he was still a man who liked pretty things. Even ones with a mouth who didn’t know when to shut up. He could still deal with it.

  In a weird way, he liked hearing her talk.

  See, he was crazy. What man liked to hear a woman constantly talk? It just went to show he’d hurt his head.

  “After I burned down the warehouse, I had to get to shelter. I had lost a lot of blood, and what I didn’t know, the bullet I’d taken in the leg had shattered my bone. I’d also been badly beaten, and I had a few other broken bones. I needed to heal. Then time to repair, and rehabilitate.”

  She touched his leg. He didn’t flinch or move.

  “Which leg?”

  He lifted the one up.

  “You walk as if you’ve never had any damage.”

  “Practice.”

  “Did it hurt?”

  “Every second of every day.”

  “Your plan for revenge, it helped you?” she asked.

  “Are you sure you’re not the one telling my life story?”

  “I guess I can fill in the gaps of what you’re not saying. Still, ten years is a long time.”

  “Not for what I want. David’s strong. The time I was away, he grew stronger. I knew by the time I could get my revenge on him, I would need to rid myself of all the training he’d ever taught me. I had to remember it, but I couldn’t use it myself. He’d catch me, and I wouldn’t be able to kill him.”

  “You’ve spent all this time training? Preparing yourself to kill him?”

  “Yes. I’m stronger, faster, and harder than ever. I can watch him without even being detected. I’ve been hunting him for a year. I have killed over fifty of his men, and stopped several of his imports from making it to the city. Believe me, he is going without a great deal.”

  “Does he even know it’s you?”

  “I believe so.” He didn’t waste his time checking to see if David had gotten the message.

  “You must have loved her very much.”

  “I did.”

  “Still do to be willing to die for her now.”

  “I would do anything for my Bethany. She was my life. She knew what I did for a living, and she didn’t judge me. I had to do what I did to put food on our table, and a roof over our heads. I made a good living. She respected me for that.”

  He looked down to once again see tears shining in Meghan’s eyes. “You cry a lot.”

  “My emotions right now are completely out of whack. I rarely cry, believe me.”

  “It’s the stress of the past couple of days coming through. You should rest.” Riley tensed up as she snuggled against his side. “What are you doing?”

  “Can you hold me?”

  “No.”

  “It’s not hard to do. Put your arm around me.”

  “Meghan?” He felt her shaking, and he didn’t like the thought of her going into shock.

  Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her close.

  She tilted her head back to look at him. “See, not so hard.”

  She shook a little more in his arms, and he held her tightly, not wanting to let her go.

  As he stared at her lips, they looked so tempting, and he wanted to kiss them. Where was his lack of desire? This need curling inside him made no sense to him at all.

  Cupping her face, he ran his thumb across her lip. The bruises on her face annoyed him. He couldn’t comprehend how anyone could raise a hand to this woman. She was … so beautiful.

  Talked a lot, but still.

  “Riley?”

  Her tongue peeked out as she licked her lips.

  “Stop it.”

  “You want to kiss me.”

  He didn’t confirm his need.

  The hand she placed on his stomach moved down his body. He didn’t fight her, not even as she grasped the evidence of his arousal.

  He wanted to fuck her.

  There was no denying it, even as he was a little taken aback by it. Ten years was a long time to go without any woman.

  There had been no desire until this very moment.

  Without waiting for her permission, he brushed his lips across hers. At first, he was gentle, merely tasting her. He’d never been the kind of guy to enjoy kisses. Foreplay hadn’t been his thing, but he wasn’t in a rush.

  She let out a little moan. He stroked his tongue across the seam of her lips, and she opened up.

  Deepening the kiss, he held the back of her head. She gripped his cock even tighter in her fist and he nibbled on her lip, relishing the little moan that escaped her.

  Pulling away, he stared into her green eyes. There wasn’t much light in the room, but he could see her clearly.

  “Tell me to stop.”

  “No.”

  Her voice was firm as she gave him the order, and he didn’t like it.

  “Meghan.”

  “You kissed me. It’s only right that you finish what you started. This is on you. Not on me.” She rubbed his cock. “Tell me to stop, Riley.”

  She moved until she was the one straddling his waist, her hands going to his chest. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and she only wore a pair of pants and a T-shirt. “Tell me to stop.”

  She repeated her words, but he couldn’t tell her to stop. He didn’t want her to.

  He liked her straddling his dick. Even with her bandaged hand, he wasn’t turned off by her.

  His cock seemed to get bigger, wanting her even more.

  She gripped the edge of her shirt and lifted it up, showing him those glorious tits.

  “This doesn’t mean anything,” he said.

  “No, it doesn’t. We’re two people in the world with nowhere else to go.” She took his hands and placed them on her tits. “I get your heart is with another. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy me.”

  Bethany was the furthest thing from his mind. Whenever he was with Meghan, he didn’t think about his wife. He wasn’t even angry over her death, not like he once was.

  Meghan let go of his hands, but he didn’t let go of her tits. They were more than a generous handful. From what he could see, she had nice, large nipples, and all of a sudden, he didn’t want to be in the dark anymore.

  Reaching across to the lamp, he flicked it on, highlighting the bed and her body.

  She was a curvy woman.

  Cupping her hips, he thrust his cock between her thighs, and she let out a moan. He normally hated foreplay, but with how long it had been since he’d been with a woman, he didn’t want to rush this.

  Once he was inside her, he had no doubt he’d come faster than a virgin teenage boy, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t at least show her a good time.

  Switching their positions, he had her on the bed, legs spread, and he kissed her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back.

  Breaking from her lips, he trailed his down her neck, sucking on her pulse, leaving his mark. He wanted people to know she was taken, that she was owned.

  None of this made sense to him.

  He’d only just met her, but yet, he wanted to let everyone know she wasn’t for the taking.

  Gliding down her body, he got to her tits, and now he was in for a feast. Pushing the mounds together, he teased each nipple, sliding his tongue back and forth across each peak. Tonight, he would have his fill of this woman, and tomorrow, he’d deal with whatever feelings arose.

  Chapter Five

  Meghan was far from an innocent virgin. She’d been with a couple of men over the years. None of them had ever wanted to go down on her like t
his. She watched as Riley slowly kissed his way to her pussy. He spent a lot of time worshipping her tits, sucking each one into his mouth before moving to the next.

  She closed her eyes and then forced herself to open them as he licked, nibbled, and sucked each one.

  “I love your tits.”

  His lips moved down her body after that, his tongue and teeth leaving little bites as he went. She spread her legs wide, not wanting him to be interrupted or obstructed by her legs.

  She was so wet. She felt her arousal leaking down to her asshole. She’d never been this aroused before. It was crazy. This man had killed in front of her, and yet, she couldn’t get enough.

  He let out a little moan just as he was poised above her pussy.

  Going up on her elbows, she looked down at him to see him spreading the lips of her sex apart. “You’re already so wet.”

  “I want this.”

  “I can see that, baby.”

  She gasped as his tongue swiped through her slit, circling her clit before moving down to plunder deep within her. She gripped the sheet beneath her tightly, not wanting to let go. He was the one with all the control, and she had nothing.

  Back up he circled, teasing her nub. He bit down on her tender flesh before soothing out the pain.

  Fingers stroked across the entrance of her cunt, and she was more than prepared for what was to come. Two fingers, then three as he fucked her with his digits, driving in deep before pulling them out.

  She watched him suck her arousal from his fingers before putting them back inside her.

  “Fuck!”

  He turned them around and began to stroke a part of her she didn’t even know existed. Gritting her teeth, she tried to focus but couldn’t as the pleasure was at the next level.

  Suddenly, he stopped, and she didn’t want him to leave her hanging like that. Within seconds he had her spun around, on her knees, her ass in the air.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’m playing. You got a problem with that?”

  “No. No problem.”

  His hands roamed across her ass before spreading her cheeks wide.

  Gritting her teeth, she tried not to be nervous. This man was still a stranger to her. Admittedly a very handsome stranger but still one, nonetheless.

  “You have a nice, big ass.” He slapped it, making her yelp at the sudden brush of pain. It didn’t hurt, but it did startle her. Riley’s fingers teased between the crack of her ass. One of his hands was still playing with her pussy, and now, he was playing with her ass, which was slick from how aroused she was.