“What’s in the bag? Is it a gift?” she asked excitedly, hurrying over to it as I tossed it down on the bed.
“Just some clothes and weapons, things we need if we’re going on the run,” I explained.
“Oh, I don’t really like to run. I prefer to get my cardio from riding huge men.”
I coughed out a laugh as I looked at her, my thoughts instantly going to how incredible her body had felt submitting to mine and a low growl rumbling through my chest at the memory. I hadn’t taken a single taste of her since, not until tonight when I hadn’t been able to resist helping Jack bring her to ruin. Niall had hauled me off of her when we’d fucked after all. Although I kept going over it in my mind again and again, and though I was certain I wouldn’t have truly hurt her, I couldn’t help but question myself. Maybe he’d seen that demon in me and had feared for her life. Then again, would he have left me breathing if he’d really thought I was close to killing her? It seemed unlikely. And if I hadn’t been close to ending her life, then did I have a valid reason to deny myself the sweetness of her flesh while enduring the sound and sight of the others having her?
The thoughts had been driving me to madness ever since I’d been torn away from her with my cock still hard and wanting, but now wasn’t the moment to focus on it.
“There will be plenty of that if you desire it, chica loca,” I swore. “But right now, we need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because I can guarantee that the Alonso brothers and Raul Castillo didn’t just come here on a whim without informing anyone of their plans. There’s a chain of command which leads right up to the head of the viper itself and I have worked too fucking hard and suffered too fucking much to fall prey to him again.”
“Are we going on a road trip?” she asked eagerly. “I’ve always loved the idea of going on the road, killing bad guys every time I came across them and seeing all of America. We could see all the states, like Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Canada, Disneyland. Then, when we get back, we could put photos of all our fun times up around the house and-”
“We won’t be able to come back here, mi sol,” I interrupted her, needing her to understand this.
“But…I like it here,” she said sadly, finally understanding what it was that I was telling her. “I don’t want to leave.”
I blew out a deep breath and closed in on her, backing her up against the door and breathing in her air without quite touching her at all.
“Tell me the things you need in this life, Brooklyn,” I commanded as I captured her in my gaze. “The things you truly need.”
“You,” she replied instantly, making something in my chest settle. “Niall, AJ, Brutus.”
I nodded, though a part of me still detested that, but I was willing to accept her desire for them in light of the smiles they brought to her face and the moans they drew from her lips. “You can bring those things with us.”
“I need cheese too,” she added. “I’ve gotten a taste for the fancy kind, and if we’re going to be homeless, then I want to bring a supply with me. Janky Lou sold cheese down under the bridge, but it wasn’t the same. And he kept it in his socks which was less than desirable.”
“We won’t be homeless, chica, I swear it to you. We’ll find somewhere even better than this place and make it ours.”
Tears filled her eyes but she nodded, tilting her chin in offering and I closed the distance to taste her, just like she’d known I would.
I pressed my body to hers as I devoured her mouth, sinking my tongue between those delicious lips and making her bend to my will as the darkness in me writhed with lust and the desire to take her here and now.
My grip on her tightened as my cock swelled and a soft whimper spilled from those sinful lips as she felt it, knowing where my thoughts were headed and making no move to resist me.
I forced myself back with a surge of will, swiping a hand down my face and stalking away from her before heading out of the room and into the bathroom.
Brooklyn followed behind me, her steps silent but her presence so potent I wasn’t likely to miss it.
"Why do you always do that, Dead Man?” she asked in a soft whisper which spoke to the echoes of a good man who still lingered on within my chest, raising his head on occasions like this and making guilt stir within me as I realised my actions were hurting her. “You pull away from me and it makes my heart hurt. Don’t you want me like that anymore?”
I whirled around to face her, a frown etching deep into my brow as I shook my head in a fierce denial.
“The problem is, I want you like that too much, chica,” I swore to her. “And that kind of desire only makes me more dangerous. You saw the way Niall had to force me off of you. You experienced the force of my passion when it is unleashed. I couldn’t live in a world without you, mi sol, I couldn’t bear to be the reason you were lost to it.”
Brooklyn gasped, shaking her head violently and rushing towards me so fast that I had no choice but to capture her as she propelled herself into my arms.
“You wouldn’t do that, Dead Man, I know it in my soul.”
“You can’t possibly know that,” I protested, but the look in her vibrant blue eyes was so pure and captivating that I found myself unable to look away from it, from her.
“I do,” she swore vehemently. “You don’t need Hellfire or anyone else to protect me from you. You would never do anything to harm me.”
She pushed up onto her tiptoes and kissed me before I could form any other kind of protest, make any further argument and my lips parted for hers because I was a slave to her wants and only a man. A selfish, starving man who had been in need of her for so long that I hadn’t even realised why I was so empty without her.
Brooklyn’s hands dropped to the buckle of my belt as she started walking me backwards, encouraging me towards the shower while stripping me of my clothes with a new confidence that her experience with the others had clearly given her.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I growled against her lips even as my back hit the tiled wall of the walk-in shower and I knew I was passing the point where I would have the strength to stop this.
“Then don’t,” she snapped. “It’s that simple, Dead Man.”
“It’s not, mi sol. The demon in me-”
“You are the demon, Mateo,” Brooklyn growled, jerking my belt open with such force that she made me stumble. “One summoned straight from hell just for me. I don’t need you to be soft, I don’t need you to be kind, I only need you. All of you. So don’t leave me waiting for you any longer. Don’t keep holding back.”
She shoved my trousers down aggressively and my cock bobbed between us, making its desires known all too well as I bit down on my tongue and pressed my hands to the wall, fighting against the urge to grab hold of her and do what she was asking of me.
Brooklyn bit her lip as she looked at my cock, the shyness and uncertainty that she had shown the first time she looked on it now replaced with nothing but hunger and a need for me which I was useless to deny.
She reached out and yanked on the tap, making water crash down over us and stealing my breath with the freezing temperature of it as it began to wash the blood from our skin.
I kicked my shoes and trousers the rest of the way off, leaving myself fully naked before her as the water began to heat and I fought against the warring emotions inside myself, trying to decide if this was madness or if it could truly be as right as it felt.
Brooklyn reached around her back, trying to unbuckle the leather dress she wore but as I saw her struggling, I snapped, giving in to the need in me and trusting her judgement far more than I trusted myself. So I stepped forward and grabbed her.