Page 7 of Pickle

“This okay?”I tear myself away from her mouth long enough to ask for consent. If Thyrie’s not ready, I’ll slow things down and spend more time convincing her that she’s meant to be mine. Wooing her. Fuck. More sappy shit. I swear, the woman melts my brain and turns my thoughts to mush.

“Very.”She gasps, her enjoyment obvious as she presses her breasts into my chest. Tight nipples poke into the space between my pecs, her body slimmer than mine.

I’m not a big guy,my compact frame proving to be a benefit when it comes to being underestimated in fights. Opponents usually discover what I lack in size I easily make up for with sheer brutality and force.

Like recognizes like,and I can tell Thyrie’s used to being misjudged as being too delicate and small to be dangerous. She is fragile, but it’s fragile like a bomb, not a flower. It’s as much a turn on as everything else about her.

She pullsmy shirt over my head and tosses it over my shoulder onto the floor. I mirror her lead and do the same with hers. There are other people in the house, but I couldn’t care less. Anybody coming into the kitchen from the dining room won’t be able to see her through me. And the tinted window above the sink means the man peeking around a tree at the fence-line can’t see inside the building.

Wait.That ain’t right. The man peeking around the tree? That’s a problem. My body turns to stone, the realization I’ve allowed myself to become so lost in the lust between Thyrie andme that I’ve neglected my guard duties. I’m not sure who’s out there, but it can’t have been for too long. My Spitfire turns my brains to mush, but even in the depths of lust, there’s no way to turn off the situational awareness life has drilled into me.

“What’s wrong?”Instantly alert, Thyrie freezes to assess the danger. It isn’t surprising she’s so in tune with me. While I come by my violence the old-fashioned way, as its victim in my youth and its master now, Thyrie’s honed it as a craft in her adult life, first as a soldier, and now as a body for hire. I know she’s got skills and training to match mine.

“Don’t look,”I start. He probably can’t see inside, but there’s no reason to take unnecessary risks.

“Wasn’t gonna. Detail the scene,”she interrupts. I nod in acknowledgment before dipping my head into the curve of her neck. On the chance the light behind us casts enough shadow through the window’s tint to give our position away, I don’t want to let on that he’s been spotted.

With my eyessearching the shadowy landscape beyond the porch lights, I murmur the details of what I can see into the petal soft skin below her ear.

“Strangerbehind the tree closest to the garage. Can’t get a positive ID, but he’s clean shaven and wearing glasses.”

“You think it’s Mitchell?”she husks into my ear, her hand creeping to the pocket where my phone is and sliding it up between us.

“Betting so. Code’s seven-six-three-eight.”I don’t even blink at giving her the code to my phone. Shit, everything I have is already hers, even if she doesn’t know it.

I can feelher fingers moving between us to unlock the phone and open the calling app. I lick a stripe up her neck to nibble at her earlobe and whisper the voice dial that will call Malik. He and Rurik are upstairs working on something in their suite, and I know if I can get ahold of Malik, he’ll bring Rurik. Those two are joined at the hip, Rurik so obsessed and Malik so needy it’s rare to see one without the other.

“Got a problem,”I grunt into the phone when Malik picks up and I explain what I’m seeing Even the seriousness of the situation can’t douse the painfully heavy throb of my cock where I’m pressed against Thyrie’s pajama pants-covered pussy.

There’snothing in the world I want to do more than finish making her mine, but duty to family and the club can’t wait. I think Thyrie understands. Fuck, I hope she understands.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Thyrie

Adrenaline and arousal are dueling to the death in my adrenal system, right now. It’s a crime to put the brakes on the moment I’ve been waiting since Hyram and I met, but there’s no help for it. I was brought here to do a job, and I have to see it through. Frankie and Teeny need me to protect them while Hyram and his MC brothers do…what they do.

I’m not botheredby the certainty that what they do will certainly be bloody and criminal. After hearing the details of what Vance Mitchell is suspected of, and the disgusting comments he made to Frankie, I know he’s scum. He’s earned the consequences he’ll surely face, if indeed that’s him prowling around out there. If nothing else, stupidity has a price, and being foolish enough to stalk Frankie, not only knowing that her husband is a founding member of Ghost Born, but following her here? That’s like escaping the belly of one beast and running headlong into the belly of another.

I hearHyram and Malik organizing themselves, so I listen with half an ear while allowing the rest of my focus to draw out the pleasure of finally having this man exactly where I’ve needed him for days. Tiny rocks of my hips rub my desperate clit against the rock-solid ridge of his cock behind his jean’s zipper. His bulge is so big I can feel him, heavy and hard, against the swell of my stomach even with him pressed against my center. I know when I finally get him inside me, I’ll feel the stretch and burn of his thickness for days.

“Thyrie, Spitfire,”he rumbles against my neck, the vibrations of his words sending shivers of arousal through me, “I’m going to carry you out of here, so if hecansee us, he’ll assume we’re going to a bedroom. Then you go protect the girls while we flank and capture the motherfucker.”

“Wilco,”I confirm then chuckle at the confused look on his face when I pull back to prepare for him to lift me into his arms.

“Sorry. Old habits. Code for ‘will comply’ held over from our days in the service. Since it’s usually me and Silas, and the freelancers we hire are always vets, I forget not everyone speaks camo-grunt like we do.”

MentioningSilas and my past in the military is usually where the rubber meets the road with guys. Either they’re intimidated by the skillset from my military career or by the relationship I have with my male bestie. Regardless, I won’t tolerate a partner who expects me to make myself smaller, so they can digest me more easily.

My breath catchesas I wait to see how Hyram handles the reminder. Yeah, this is a high-stress moment, so it’s not the time to fall out if he surprises me by being as shitty as the men in my past. But it’s also times like this when a person’s true colors peek through. I’d be a fool not to ready myself for the unexpected.

“Then after tonight,maybe, you can make me a dictionary, so I know what y’all are saying,” he says. Zero snark or hostility. At every turn, my feelings for Hyram Holt are validated and amplified by the good man he is. Criminalistic motorcycle club presidency and all.

“Absolutely.Now, get your ass out there and catch a predator.”

Hyram’s chuckleat my silliness becomes a rumbly grumble of need when my legs wrap around his waist and his steps bounce me on his still-hard cock.

“Consider it done. And consider this,”his stride pauses to push me against the wall and grind himself against my needy center, “on pause until then.”

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