Perversion (Perversion Trilogy #1)

For Grim.

“I don’t want to risk anyone’s life, but I don’t know what else to do,” I tell him.

“Coming here was the worst thing you could do.”

“No, it’s not. I know it’s not.” I shake my head. “It can’t be.”

“You lied to me!” he accuses. The anger and hurt in his words sits on my already heavy heart like an anvil. His hand shakes, his finger massages the trigger.

“I did, but I told you I’m a liar. I didn’t want to. You have to believe me.”

His other hand moves to my throat. His knees spreading my legs. “I don’t have to believe shit.”

It’s a battle of wills. Whoever makes the first move loses. Or wins. However, you want to look at it. But hate or not, the connection between us is tangible. A magnet pulling two people together from opposite sides of town.

White trash Romeo and Juliet.

I'm not weak, but when it comes to Grim, I lose my edge. My mask. Everything I've built up over the years to protect myself from the outside world. But he needs to see it. He needs to see me. My hunger for him. My fear. All of it.

“You’re trembling,” he remarks. “Scared?”

“Yes, but not why you think. I’m not hiding anything. Not from you. Not tonight,” I say.

“Fuuuuccckkkkk!” he roars, smashing his fist through the wall next to my head. “Another fucking lie!”

“No, you were right when you kissed me by the bay! I do feel it, this thing between us. The way the air shifts when you’re near. The way you broke through to me and can see me the way no one ever has. I can’t fake that!”

Grim’s anger stabs right through me. His pain is my pain, and it’s as real as if he’d sliced me open with a knife.

Something shifts. He tilts his head to look me over, slowly, deliberately. That makes me feel more vulnerable than I ever have. He has a smug look on his face.

The air all around us is hot, humid, but my skin prickles as if I’m in the Arctic.

“Cold?” he asks, taking notice of the hair on my arms standing on end. His pupils are large and dark. His lids hooded.

I swallow hard. “N-N-No.”

Shit. Great stutter, EJ. Why not just let him hear all your inner thoughts?

“And what might those be?” he asks, pressing his chiseled chest against mine, his lips brushing my jaw. Thoughtfully. “I’d really, really like to know.”

“What?” I ask, as though my entire body hasn't just broken out in a shivery cold sweat.

“Your inner thoughts,” he says. His voice is deep rough and touches my very core.

I gulp. “I said that out loud?”

Grim nods and bites his full bottom lip, then wets it with his tongue. He presses both lips together before flashing me a wicked, knowing smile. The move is so erotic I almost groan in agony. Or maybe I do. It seems I’m having trouble keeping things to myself.

“Well then, Tricks, tell me, if you’re not cold—” He brushes his lips against my ear. He smells clean along with the faint hint of cigarettes and whiskey. “What are you?” He rubs his index finger across the prickled skin on my forearm and locks his gaze with mine. “Besides, afraid.”

Screw it. I’ve already lost. I concede. I forfeit. I literally have nothing left to lose. I want him to know me. Feel me.

One last truth before I’m gone forever.

“I’m yours,” I blurt. Both relief and unbridled lust surge from within me. I’m breathing heavy. My breasts feel full. I’m aching all over with need. For him to touch me. To take me right here against the wall.

His nostrils flare. “Damn fuckin’ right you are.” The words are barely out of his mouth when Grim covers my lips with his. “You’re a hard one to break, Tricks,” he says against my mouth before parting my lips with his tongue and invading my every sense.

So are you, Grim.

I moan into his mouth when our tongues touch. He tightens his grip on my hair, pressing his warm hard body against me.

His hand snakes into my shorts while his lips latch on to one of my nipples through my shirt. He rubs my clit through my panties while I buck my hips against him. “Please, please, Grim. Make me yours.”

I hate the needy tone of my begging. But I can’t help it. I need him inside me. I need him. Just this once. Just one more memory to hold onto for the rest of my life.

He doesn’t give it to me. Instead, he releases his hold on me just as I’m about to come apart in his arms. Like he’s stepping away from the flames of a raging fire. His stare is hard and angry once more making me feel small. Helpless.

His stance is cold and so is the air between us now. “But you’re not mine. I won’t risk my brothers’ lives for pussy.” He opens the door and tosses my borrowed gun into the grass. “Get the fuck out, Tricks.”

I hesitate, opening my mouth to say something, but for the first time in my life, nothing comes out.

“NOW!” he roars, reaching for his own gun on the dresser and aiming it at my chest with a shaking hand. His eyes rimmed in red. The vein underneath his black rose tattoo pulsing in his throat.

I dart out the door and into the night with a broken heart, broken dreams, and the horribly timed realization that I’m desperately in love with a man who I’ll never see again…and who hates me.

And it’s all my fault.





Twenty





I stop when I see a cat prowling in the grass. “Take care of him,” I whisper to Fuzzy who I pass on my way through the yard.

The plan is to go find Gabby and get to the bus station ASAP and see if I can change our tickets to NOW. There is no more waiting for the perfect time because there will be no perfect time. I’ve got to go, and I’ve got to go NOW. Before Marco takes what he thinks is his.

Before Grim’s rage leads to war.

My feet haven’t even hit the sidewalk yet when a voice stops me in my tracks. “Leaving so soon, Emma Jean?”

I turn to find Marci leaning up against a post at the front of the house. She looks exactly how I remember from the day I met Grim. She stubs out her cigarette. “Yeah, I know who you are. Grim told us he found you.” Her stare hardens. “And I know what you are.” She glances down to my dirty yellow Keds.

I stiffen. “He knows, too. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I’m just leaving,” I say. “I won’t be back. You don’t have to worry about me being around ever again.”

“Not until we have a little chat first.” She waves her hand, and I reluctantly follow her to the porch and take a seat on the step next to her, setting my backpack down at my feet.

“You plan on using that thing?” she asks, looking at the gun in my half zipped backpack.

I zip it back up. “I offered it to Grim. Gave him a chance to kill me if he wanted to.”

“I was wondering why two sets of D cups ran screaming through the yard earlier. That you, too?”

“Possibly.”

Marci sighs. “Things aren’t always what they seem. I know that. If you want a chance to unburden your soul, now is the time. I’m listening.”

“I can’t. Grim. He…he hates me.”

She nods like she understands. “When Belly and I first met, I felt something binding us together. Right then on that day. Took me a while to realize it was love. And when we were angry with each other, it’s like that connection made the anger so much worse. So much more hurtful.”

“It’s like I can feel his pain along with my own,” I admit. “I just got to get out of here.”

“Distance doesn’t crumble that kind of bond, baby. Trust me, I tried running from Belly quite a few times before I realized that. And can you blame him for being angry?”

“No, I can’t.”

“I ain’t gonna judge you, kid. No one in this town is in any place to do that. But you gotta give me something here. Free yourself of whatever burden is crushing you. I know the outline of the story, but fill in the pieces. I’m here. I ain’t going anywhere. And again, no judgments. I promise. Grim saw something in you that made him ask me to take you in, and that boy never asked for anything, especially back then. Make me understand why you’re messed up in all of this Marco mess.”