Bound (Bound Hearts #1) (4 page)

“Doesn’t she fucking know someone could steal her jacket?” I knew it was a flimsy excuse. I was ready to bend steel. Then
, she turned around.

“Holy-,” Chet started.

“Jesus-,” JR chimed in at the same time. But it’s what I said that made both of them whip their heads and stare at me incredulously.

“Damn
, that’s fucking hot,” it sure as hell wasn’t like any tank top I’ve ever seen. I must not have seen it right because it was more of a corset. The back dipped low on her shoulder blades and the magnificent ink covering her back, expanded the entire region and the rest was underneath her so called top. It wasn’t completely visible, since the bar’s light was low and smoky. Maybe a bird. I was dying to see it and any other ink she put on her skin.

“I didn’t know she had gotten a tattoo. Neither did Maggie. She is right though. Geoff is gonna have an issue if she comes to the BBQ and that shows. Or
, if she’s wearing anything so revealing.”

“Yeah. Uncle Geoff is going to-

“Who gives a shit? She’s a grown woman, just like you said Chet. She has a grown woman’s mind. She can do as she pleases.” Looking into both men’s eyes, I knew their protective instincts were being pushed to the limit.

“I thought you really didn’t give a shit about her, Courtland.”

“That’s where you are dead fucking wrong, Chet Junior.”

I might not have wanted to know where she was, probably in fear of going after her and asking what the hell that letter meant. I had considered her one of my best friends, despite our age difference. She was there for me just like JR had been. I still cared about her. Deeply. She was the only girl I ever truly loved. The only one I ever thought could be mine and mine alone. Then that fucking letter. Was it going to stop me now? Hell, no. She did grow up to be one fine ass looking woman
, and I sure as hell might get some pleasure in teasing and torturing her just like that letter tortured me for the past ten years. A little pay back seemed fair enough for me.

I tipped my Chevy baseball cap to both of them, turned my cap backwards and made my way to the dance floor.

The country song they were playing was all about getting some. Adelaide was flowing and dancing with another dipshit. Awfully fucking close. Too close for my taste. Her ass was rubbing all over the guy’s dick. It was like they were ready to do exactly as the song suggests.

Over my fucking dead body.

I went right up behind the guy, tapped on his shoulder, he knew who I was by the widening of his eyes. He knew the reputation I had and the look I gave him meant serious fucking business.

“She’s not yours pal. Beat it.” I never knew I could growl, but I did
, and he scat like the pussy he was. I swiftly took his place and put my hands on Adelaide’s hips. Damn she was nothing but curves. I got a real good close look of at least half her tattoo.

It was expanded between both shoulder blades. A Phoenix. With a rainbow of colors. Above the bird was ‘Through these Ashes, Rebirth and Beauty’ scrawled in a cursive font. The bird looked delicate and feminine. Just like her. I can’t wait to see the rest. She also had an open book with the pages shaped into a heart with the lettering, ‘Love Prevails’ right underneath it. That one was small on her left shoulder and on the right, a cross with ‘Keep Faith’ written on each side of the horizontal line.

I leaned in close and got a trace of whatever she had sprinkled on her skin. Like pomegranates. Or maybe that was her shampoo. She smelled amazing. She was lifting her hair off the back of her neck, a thin sheen of sweat was collecting at her hairline and sliding down her neck. I couldn’t resist. I bent down and licked it clean off.

The salt and spice of her skin was like ecstasy. She must have been still buzzing from those three doubles
, because she wasn’t paying attention. So I didn’t stop and I bit down and sucked her skin in deep with my teeth. Her hands fell free from her hair, and they reached up to wrap around my neck. The song in particular, ‘Country In Ya’ by Chase Rice was one to make a man’s heart beat faster and the sensuality run wild. The way Adelaide was moving against my body? Hell. I wonder if she felt the erection I was packing against her. She was still a short little stick of dynamite.

I must have bit just a little bit too aggressively as my teeth ran down her neck
, leaving one hell of a hickey, because she whimpered. That was a sound I wanted to hear again. As soon as I put her underneath me. I moved a hand and wrapped it above her breasts, where I could feel the top swells against my forearm. I brought her in real close and the other hand I placed just underneath her belly button. My fingers dipped just underneath the band of her jeans as I lifted her a bit into my dick. She felt freaking incredible.

“Adelaide.” I knew my voice came out low, and growly. That was my intention. The lust I was starting to feel was untamable.

Her gasp was barely audible, but her body stiffened and froze on the dance floor.

She shifted her head slightly to see where my hands were placed. I heard her
intake of breath. Then, the little witch did something I
never
would have imagined. She lifted her foot up, growled and she slammed it on my boot. And her damn hand had reached back, grabbed my balls and squeezed. I let go of her instantly. I had on steel toe boots, but her damn boots had a little heel and even the thickest shoe could feel that. And did she really have to do that to my boys? Fuck.

She turned to me as I was hunched over
, and shoved me back until I was ass down on the cold hard floor as she stomped away in all her furious glory. Jesus sweet mother of God, that woman was mine.

Adelaide

OMG. I couldn’t believe my eyes. When his deep southern drawl hit my system, it sobered me up like a bucket of cold water being splashed in my face. I only looked down at him for a second, when I shoved him as hard as I could. By the look of shock, then that angry glare he gave me, I knew it was time to high-tail it out of there.

Besides. How dare he, of all people, come up behind me and touch me like that? Kiss me like that. Suck my neck like a damn vampire. Crap. My hand flew to where I could still feel where his teeth scraped my skin
, and came away with a small smear of blood. Whoa. He must have really sucked hard. I hadn’t really felt it. Those double shots of Crown made me feel really flowy like and when that guy came up to me at the bar top and asked me to dance, I was feeling just right to not say no. I had no idea he had been replaced.

Or maybe I
did. The way the man’s hands on my hips had changed should have clued me in. They had tightened and grinded me up and down an impressive erection. I didn’t want to look to back and see what guy was behind me. I was out there to dance and have a good time. I wasn’t drunk enough that I didn’t have some sense. When his mouth hit my neck the first time to tongue away the sweat running down, had sent shivers down my spine. No one has ever
tasted
me like that before. (Well any way at all really, but-whatev-.) It was somehow erotic and sexy. When he bit down and the harder he bit, I knew he was leaving a hickey. I didn’t really give a damn. I felt my panties dampen with arousal and my nipples were starting to feel extra sensitive with the piercings.

I got them pierced for my twenty-first birthday. It was such an impulsive move and when Gram asked why they felt so tender, she thought I might’ve been pregnant. When I said no,
(of course I did! One-I wasn’t pregnant, Two-Hello! My grandpa was right there-I said it was menstrual stuff) I told her I had to tell her something. When we got to my bedroom, I told her-‘don’t freak out, I’m gonna hurry and get it over with’. I whipped my shirt up and showed her the nipple piercings. She was shocked and I thought she was about to have a heart attack, but she laughed instead. Yes, weird I know. Here I am in like the bible belt of America where if you didn’t have a drink, you were a prude, but after downing the first one you were labeled an alcoholic, and here, Gram just accepted my piercings. I asked her why she wasn’t more weirded out and she told me about growing up in New York.

I thought to myself, Thank God. Onl
y my Granddad was from Georgia, and he definitely didn’t need to know about what I did. I was his grandchild for goodness sakes.

I ought to have known better than to let some guy maul me, but let’s face it. I hadn’t had sex
with a man in over a year. My b.o.m. (battery operated MAN, I was not gonna use battery operated boyfriend, come on. I’m twenty-seven for crissaskes, I wanted to think it was a man. In my head, it was), was great way for a quick release and it always got me off, but I was just missing something. That emotional connection a woman has when intimate with her man. I had relationships. Kinda. They just didn’t seem to last. For multiple reasons too. Main one being I wrote ‘mommy porn’, ugh. I hated that slander. And the fact I had my nipples pierced, was another reason. I mean, really? Was it that big of a deal? Men got their nips pierced. The fact I have a vagina means I’m what? A chick who likes kinky fuckery? Eh. No. Woman who has a problem with self-image? Not that either. I loved my body. For the most part anyway. That’s what happens when men run a world. Yeah. That’s my bit of feminism. Fist pump to all the feministic women out there.

But then, for some sick, twisted unknown reason, it seemed like I picked guys who reminded me of the man I thought was my father. Well
, most guys I picked anyway. Insert eye roll here. Typical classic story.

Not good. Not good at all. After any relationship progressed into more intimate situations, it just seemed forced and naturally
, not satisfying.

For one of my novels, I had researched BDSM, or really
, bondage and dominance/submission. There was a club called ‘The Portrait’. (Yeah, weird name, until you looked inside. The club was full of nude paintings from every time period, past to present.) It could’ve been a museum if it hadn’t been for the various stages of sensual acts happening. Membership to one of these clubs was way over my income, but I was lucky that one of Susie’s older brothers was an enforcer and had petitioned my research to the owner.

The owner, Dash Maxwell, was ‘intrigued’. I’m pretty sure by the look on Susie’s brother’s face
, it was a totally different understanding, but when I met the owner, he was something out of every woman’s fantasy. The rules at The Portrait were severe. Everything had to be consensual and the NDA I had to sign, after reading, understanding, etc. Dash was very informative. I’ll leave it at he knew how to worship a woman’s body, but command it to do his every demand.

That relationship-yeah I called it that-I was having sexual relations with the guy, it was a relationship, of sorts-only last
ed a month, but he treated me like a lady in and out of the bedroom. Never once did I ever feel strange, I set my boundaries and we compromised. He said for a man like himself that was hard. He liked having complete control, and he did. For the most part. But it wasn’t true feelings. I didn’t fall for him.

I didn’t fall for any of them. I was still waiting for that ‘oomph’. That gut squeezing, butterfly-tingling, goose-flesh sensitizing, an
d red-hot-passion-along-with-an-emotion-provoking-feeling you only get once in a life time.

I thought I felt it that night
ten years ago, with Courtland, but that was a teenager’s crush. I hadn’t really thought about him like that until that night he took me to see the planes. I had wanted him to save me. To take me far away from my miserable life.

What I felt earlier
, was uncontrolled and wild. What I felt, as his hands wrapped around me and his mouth took me in a lustful haze, I knew I never wanted to forget anytime soon. How could it be, that the one guy who abandoned me, could make me feel what I thought I’ve been missing? That ‘feel it from the tips of your toes to the ends of your hair’ type sensation. I was almost close to begging the guy to take me somewhere, but then, he just had to open his mouth.

I almost made it to my Nissan Rogue
, when a firm but nonthreatening hand, gripped my upper arm.

“Adelaide. Three basic rules. One. No hitting. Two. My balls? Really? That certainly wasn’t fair. Three. Never let another man touch you like that. One and three are non-negotiable.”

I knew he wasn’t referring to himself, the louse, when he told me the third ‘rule’, but I was about to state the obvious. “Oh, you mean the way you handled me?
Are
handling me right now?” I yanked my arm free, “Get your grubby mitts off me. I don’t know who you think you are-

I didn’t see it coming
, but he took my upper arms in his hands and hauled my lips to meet his. With his height, he had lifted me up high, so I had to grab on to something before losing balance from being on my tippy-toes.

My hands were on his shoulders, my arms on his biceps
, and I could feel the hard steel muscle beneath. I didn’t get a good look at him, but I was dying to.

The kiss was passion personified. Heat, burning desire, his tongue skirted my lips, begging me to let him in. And let him in I did. Our tongues found a rhythm and I reached further into him. He was nothing but warmth, security and hot as lava. I mated my tongue with his and he leaned his body into mine where my back brushed the cool steel of the driver side door. The cold of the door made me hiss
, but that didn’t stop me from grabbing onto him tighter when he tried to retreat, and drag him back to my lips. I was desperate for more and my leg crawled up his thigh where he shifted a hand to my back upper thigh, bringing me closer to the iron-clad, jean-covered erection he was presenting me with. I felt it rubbing against the lower part of my stomach and holy macaroni, I knew I needed to stop this.

But t
here it was. Fuck. My. Life. It was a total sucker punch to the gut. That ‘oomph’ every girl dreams her first kiss to be like. It was…it was-too much.

Way too much, way too damn soon. Or
ever. I really didn’t need this. I wasn’t staying.

I whispered, “Stop.”

Courtland instantly obeyed and brought his head back, and he lowered my thigh to the asphalt. I had to close my eyes. I didn’t want to see the green emerald eyes staring back at me. Probing. Asking. Demanding.

Then the abandonment of those ten years were shoved right in front of my f
ace. I steeled against those feelings. I let go of the embrace I had him in and moved to open my door.

“Adelaide. Don’t even think about getting in that car.”

I laid my sweat beaded forehead against the coolness of the window and breathed in and out like my therapist told me to do. She always felt that I had left over feelings for Courtland. That I really hadn’t said goodbye to one of the most important people in my life.

But in all honesty, d
idn’t I? When he never tried getting a hold of me and me asking JR what was happening to Courtland, and him never telling me the truth. Didn’t I say good-bye? I knew I hadn’t said good-bye to my past concerning my so-called dad. I had to deal with that soon. After what he said to me earlier? I needed to deal with it before going back to Georgia. Going back home. Because that was the only
real
home I knew.

One of Courtland’s hands brushed my dark mane to the side and traced the words I had scripted over the Phoenix tattoo. The coolness of the summer air cooled the lingering heat I was feeling
, and I started to relax.

“Addy?”

“I’m sorry. I just can’t. Please.”

“Let’s go grab something to eat. Just me and you. Nothing more than just two people eating. We don’t even have to talk if you don-wanna.” His voice dropped low and I knew I was close to giving in.

He leaned his head down between my shoulder blades and his hands were loosely caging me in. His breath danced across my skin, tingling the nerve sensors throughout my body.

“Adelaide. No pressure, just food with someone you once knew.”

Sighing, I knew he wouldn’t relent. I nodded my head and he stepped back gliding his hands down my body, before squeezing my hips and letting go.

“I guess I could eat.” Turning I gave him a shy smile. I didn’t quite look in his eyes.

“Look at me.”

For some reas
on. I couldn’t. I didn’t have the normal confident stamina I possessed. I felt weak and vulnerable in front of him.

“Adelaide Claudette. Look at me now.”

He just had to say my middle name, didn’t he? Not only was my first name out of some musical, my middle name was a namesake from my dad’s mother. Who was evil incarnate-Uncle Chet really had no idea about his family. That old bat was still alive and kicking, too.

I clinched my jaw and upturned my face to look up into his. He sure as hell was tall. I had to almost crane my neck all the way back.

I did my best to look calm, cool and collected. He must have seen my efforts, because he smirked, shook his head then cocked it to the side.

“Took you long enough.”

The emerald color of his eyes were smiling, full of mirth and confidence at getting what he wants.

I knew mine flared at that jibe, because he laughed and whispered, “Simmer down.” Ugh. I’ll give him simmer down with my knee in his dick, instead of a hand. I smiled at that
thought as I looked down at the subject at hand. There was still a very noticeable bulge and holy macaroni- did it just twitch?

“Don’t even think about it, you little blue-eyed witch. Let’s go eat. Please?”

Witch came out like an endearment and I rolled my eyes. His voice came out gentle and sweet.

“Ha. Alright. I’ll follow you.”