Page 39 of King of Cruelty

River scooped me up. Sitting upright and feet on the floor, he propped me on his lap and kissed the hell out of me as the last traces of my orgasm shuddered out of my body.

Tongues tangling, fireworks igniting, we made out like lovesick teenagers—hot and sloppy and addictive, and so distracting, I didn’t know my pussy was receiving another visitor until the sneaky slut let him in.

Moaning, my brows popped when River spread me cheeks and all, pushing me firmly down on his hardness. He held me still as he started pumping, springing off the edge of the couch and drilling me hard—all without breaking our kiss.

I cried out, pouring all my filthy words and desperate urgings for more, harder, and faster through his lips and into his soul. I had to be reaching his soul, because the man had found mine.

Small, afraid, and hiding in the deep, dark place it crawled into when my mother shot my father, and blew away the façade of my perfect dad and perfect childhood all in one act.

River coaxed it out and taught it to trust again, to laugh again, to believe in men again, to love again.

Yes, I loved River Redgrave. The truth was I always loved him... that’s why he pissed me the fuck off. When I wasn’t looking, the man talked me out of all my resolutions against love and made me his in every way before I could blink.

I dropped down as he pumped up—our bodies in perfect tandem. Our souls in sync. Our first time together, and still he knew my body like his favorite book.

His hands on my waist just the right kind of tight and firm. His lips the right pressure. His tongue teasing and delicious without choking me like Luca used to do. His cockbiiiiigggwithout being a pussy-ripper. Every single bit of being withRiver was right and perfect in a way it’d only ever been with three other men—Sunny, Liam, and Bane.

I broke away gasping. “River, I—”

“I love you.” River smiled into my eyes even as he pumped faster, cracking my jaw in a silent scream. “I love you more than Romeo loved Juliet. More than Jack loved Rose. And more than hazelnut loves chocolate.”

“I—I—” River struck that spot and all words and sense flew out the window.

I crested the peak, then went careening off—free-falling into a volcanic eruption of pure ecstasy. Each individual nerve ending caught fire and burned away, surrendering totally to River and my complete love for him.

He pumped once, then came inside me, painting my walls with hot ropes of cum.

We tipped over, collapsing in each other’s arms—grinning at each other like lunatics.

“More than hazelnut loves chocolate, huh?” I giggled, kissing the tip of his nose. “Now that is real love right there. How can I top that?”

“You don’t have to.” He laced his fingers through mine, holding me close as the sweat cooled on our bodies. “You just have to love me back.”

“I do, River.” I pressed my forehead to his, closing my eyes while we descended into our own private world. “I love you.”

GENNY

Bee and I watched from the shadows as Calm Guy stepped out of the house—free and unweighted down by all the weapons, food, and even furniture the other brothers were carting out of the house as fast as they could.

I only knew he was Calm Guy because Bee matched the voice to the face.

“His name is Brother Edwin,” she whispered. “He’s in charge of these guys but we’ve heard him mention a Brother Abraham a bunch of times. I’m guessing that’s who Eddy Boy takes his orders from.”

I nodded, studying him. Edwin was tall and slim with shaggy brown hair, wide-set eyes, and a tattoo on his neck that I couldn’t make out. None of that stood out, but what surprised me, is that he was young. He held some kind of authority over the others, but he looked no older than twenty-one. A simple glance told me most of the other brothers were older than him, so what about Edwin made him qualified to be the warden of this prison?

“I’ve met Brother Abraham,” I spoke up. “We had a nice chat before I killed him. A stupid, ignorant, pea-brained moron, but he did do my girl Kenzie a favor, and murdered the bitch who threw her and her baby into the arms of a sex trafficker, so at least the man will have one good deed in his logbook when he’s standing at the gates of hell.”

“Wait, you killed Brother Abraham?” she hissed as we watched Edwin pause to talk to the men loading guns in Abraham’s van. “What does that mean? If you took out their leader, does that mean— Is it over?”

I was shaking my head before she finished the question. “If Abraham was the true leader of the Brotherhood, these guys would care a lot more about the fact that I clearly murdered him and disposed of his body sometime between him driving me here, and me busting in there and blowing out their hideout. But look at them...”

We watched the brothers working quickly, efficiently, and coldly. Not a single soul was weeping and boohooing about the place over their blessed leader’s death.

“I mean, they can’t even be sure he’s dead,” I continued. “They’re assuming he is, but Edwin didn’t send anyone to check. Why? Because they don’t really care.”

Edwin ended his conversation and continued on toward a break in the trees.

“If Abraham was truly their leader, and they’re sacrificing—and dying—to serve him, then they’d give way more of a shit than this.”

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