Things We Left Behind

I Have to See a Man about a Pile of Frozen Rats

Sloane

No touching,” he ordered as he put the car in gear.

“Geez. Bossy much?” I pouted.

“If you so much as graze my dick with your pinkie finger, I’m pulling over on a public road, dragging you across this console, and fucking you into oblivion.”

“That’s not a convincing argument for why I shouldn’t touch you.”

“If you’re a good girl and wait the four fucking minutes it takes to get home, I’ll strip you naked and worship every inch of your beautiful body with my cock, mouth, and hands.”

My hands fisted in my lap. Good enough for me. “Drive faster,” I told him.

My breasts felt heavy and swollen. My clitoris was throbbing. And I was so wet, I was thinking about renaming my lady parts Costa Rican Rainy Season. He’d let me taste him. He’d let me take him in my mouth. My heart pounded at the near victory.

The tires squealed when he zipped past my driveway and pulled into his. Neither of us said a word as the garage door rose in front of us. I didn’t ask why he’d brought me here instead of my place. I didn’t care. As long as he was about to touch me.

He pulled forward into the garage, and we were both out of the car in the span of a heartbeat. We met in front of the hood, and he took me by the hand and dragged me to the door. He slapped the garage door opener and manhandled me inside.

I was definitely not complaining that the touching moratorium was over.

Inside the ruthlessly organized laundry room, I shoved his jacket off his shoulders. It landed on the tile, followed by the coat he all but ripped off me.

“You drive me fucking crazy,” he said between kisses as we exited the laundry room and entered the kitchen area.

“Good,” I muttered, kicking off my boots. One landed under the dining room table; the other made it to the kitchen.

He grabbed me and kissed me until I couldn’t think straight. The hot, hard pressure of his mouth, the dominating strokes of his tongue. I felt cool air and realized he’d stripped my skirt right off. My sweater came next, leaving me in nothing but thigh-­highs, my bra, and my soaking wet underwear.

Lucian’s gaze heated as he took a moment to sweep my body. “How am I supposed to not touch you when this is how you look?”

“Nothing’s stopping you now,” I said.

He opened his belt and I started to lose my mind. The zing of leather as he whipped it free made me tingle from head to toe.

He slid his thumbs in his slacks. I paid no attention to them as they pooled at his feet. I couldn’t drag my eyes away from the black briefs that were failing to contain his cock.

I definitely lost my mind because instead of sexily unbuttoning his shirt, I yanked with both hands and sent buttons flying in every direction.

His smile was wicked. Evil. Like I’d just done something that had earned a punishment. I couldn’t wait to find out what it was.

“I hope you don’t expect me to pay for that,” I told him.

“I can think of a few things I want besides money.”

He hauled me against him and boosted me up with one hand on my ass. I wrapped my legs around his waist and plastered myself against him. Mouth to mouth, chest to chest.

We were moving. He was carrying me somewhere. I didn’t care where as long as he stopped long enough to put that monumental dick inside me.

My back met drywall. He pinned me against the wall with his hips and opened the front closure of my bra with one deft flick. His growl made my blood simmer in my veins. I lived for that sound of approval. My nipples were hard, straining toward him like flowers following the sun.

He dipped his head and fastened his mouth over one lucky nipple.

“Gah!” I said as he applied the perfect amount of suction, drawing the pink nub deeper into his mouth.

I bucked against him, dangerously close to coming already.

I could feel the bare, wet head of his penis as it prodded my thigh.

He lavished my breast with attention until the ecstasy had my head thunking against the wall.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice rough and ragged.

“Yes,” I breathed.

He moved on to the other breast, the other jealous nipple.

They felt so full and heavy. Every suck released a letdown of pure pleasure.

“Goddammit,” he murmured, lips moving against my breast.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, hissing as his chest hair teased my wet nipples.

“Every time, I think I’ll take my time. That I’ll spend an hour just on your perfect fucking breasts. I fucking lose it,” he said.

“Wha—­”

I didn’t get any further than that. Because he plucked me off the wall and turned us.

I found myself on my knees, facedown on the upholstered ottoman in his living room. My ass was in the air, my face pressed into the blue linen.

Lucian hovered behind me, his erection nestled between my legs. I wanted him so damn much I was prepared to beg.

“You baited me at the bar,” he accused, coasting a hand gently over the flowered silk of my underwear.

“How?” I asked, ready to lie.

“That sweater and little fucking skirt. Your fingers brushing my dick when it was already rock-­hard for you. Those sexy little glances while you played with your straw. I should teach you a lesson.”

His fingers curling in my panties, the drag of damp silk against my thighs was an exquisite kind of torture.

“As long as your lesson involves you fucking me, I’m all for it,” I said breathlessly.

His hand resumed its gentle strokes over the slopes of my rear end. I peeked between my legs and watched his penis slide back and forth through my folds.

“I hate not being able to touch what’s mine,” he confessed.

I was about to point out that our arrangement definitely did not allow for “mine” talk outside bed. But the hot head of his erection branded me with every brush against my sex. I struggled against him, sliding my knees wider, begging with my body.

“Please, Lucian,” I whispered.

“I don’t have a condom on yet,” he reminded me.

His tone sounded…different. Like there was something he wanted to ask for. Was it something I wanted too?

“I hit the gynecologist last month. All my tests were clear,” I said. Then winced. “But I’m not on birth control.”

“Vasectomy,” he reminded me. “And I was tested six months ago.”

His hands were still caressing my hips, the crown of his dick still nestled against my sex as if waiting for an invitation. My heart hammered in my chest.

He’d probably fucked his way through an entire professional cheerleading squad since then.

“I haven’t been with anyone since,” he added.

“Seriously?” No wonder he was so…explosive.

“Shut up.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay?” he repeated, prompting me for more.

“Put your bare cock in me and make me come, Lucian.” I couldn’t make it any more clear than that. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

He tensed against me, and I wished I could see his face. But I forgot all about it as the broad crown notched into place. Yes! There! I shifted back against him, hoping he’d let me take him. But he stilled my hips with his hands.

“It’s my turn to play, Pixie.”

I’d never been so excited to be threatened before in my life.

“Then hurry up and get started,” I groaned. “Please.”

“Good girl,” he purred. And then he gripped my hips and thrust himself home.

He felt hot and hard and smooth inside me.

My body tensed at the invasion. I was beyond wet, beyond ready, but he was so big and the angle was so deep it was still a shock. My head came up.

Lucian’s palm landed with a stinging slap on my rear end.

I let out a yelp as a pleasant heat bloomed across my ass cheek.

“Hold still,” he ordered through clenched teeth.

I let him guide me back down, feeling the length of him as it pulsed inside me. He stroked the sting away.

“You need to relax for me, baby. Relax so I can get all the way in.”

My inner walls were quivering in anticipation of a muscle-­pulling orgasm.

“Come on, Pixie. Breathe for me.”

I wanted to do as he asked. I wanted to please him. Because then he’d please the hell out of me. I sucked in a weak breath and then forced it out like a teakettle.

He glided one hand from my neck all the way down my spine. “Good girl. Do it again.”

This time, it was a real breath, and I felt my muscles relax a millimeter. Apparently so did he, because Lucian was withdrawing slowly and then thrusting in. Hard.

I took him all. I knew it even before his shout of triumph.

I was possessed by Lucian Rollins.

“I can feel you in my organs,” I groaned.

He responded with a short, hard upthrust that had me moaning.

So full. So gloriously full I didn’t remember what it felt like to be empty.

“You look so good taking my cock, Pix,” he murmured, sliding his hands up my back and then around so he could massage my breasts as they hung heavily off the ottoman.

“Yeah, well, you feel pretty okay in there,” I squeaked.

He gave my nipples a hard tweak that had my inner muscles clamping down on him. I could feel the dizzying pulse of blood in his shaft. With nothing between us finally, I reveled in the scorching heat of his body as it entered mine.

I was at his mercy and we both knew it.

And that was the realization that set me off. He was sheathed in me to the hilt, filling me in a way I’d never been filled before. The tension spiraled higher and higher, and all it took was a subtle widening of my knees and I was coming. I cried out as it rolled through me like a thunderstorm. Lucian held deep as it broke inside me in a spectacular thunderclap release.

His growl was feral as I milked his cock from the inside.

He let me have it, and then he was moving. Fast, slick drives, powering into my quivering core. “More,” he said, his fingers bruising my hips with their grip.

Sweat slicked our skin where it touched. He powered into me, through my climax, drawing it out until I wasn’t sure if I was still coming or if he’d set off a new orgasm.

“Fuck, Sloane.” There was a plea in his tone. His hands tightened on me, and then he was pulling me up, my back to his front, his hand holding my jaw so he could seal his mouth over mine.

I could feel it build for him, and I knew what he wanted but wasn’t asking for.

I broke the kiss. “Yes, baby. Please come in me,” I begged.

His grip on me tightened, and his mouth returned to mine. A second later, he went completely rigid, and I felt the first hot burst of his climax in the depths of my soul. It felt so good. So dirty. So right. Lucian Rollins was coming inside me.

His shout rang in my ears as another jet of release let loose inside me. “Sloane!”

I was coming again or still, triggered by his orgasm. He rode me, his thrusts slow and shallow as my body wrung every drop of his release free.

It was glorious. A fireworks show set off in my vagina, detonated by the obstinate man’s obliging penis.

Lucian collapsed on top of me, flattening me to the ottoman. He was still inside me, still on top of me, still coming. I never wanted it to end.

“You make me feel like I have no control,” he growled, still moving in me. It sounded like an accusation.

I took it as a compliment.

“This is ridiculous,” Lucian said when I pulled his ball cap lower over his face. “We’re adults, not teenagers. We shouldn’t have to sneak around.”

I zipped my coat all the way to my chin and covered my hair with the hood. “I’m hungry and all you have in your house are frozen, nutritious chef meals. Besides, do you really want Knockemout gossiping about us like we’re some kind of grumpy-­sunshine love story?”

“I’m the sunshine in that scenario,” he said confidently.

“You’re the delusional grump who never wants to settle down, especially not with the beautiful, charming, book nerd next door. I’m the perky, sunshiny heroine who believes in true love. Just not with you because I’m only using you for orgasms.”

He shook his head. “You’re going to miss those orgasms when you meet Mr. Right. There are some things only Mr. Wrong can deliver.”

“We’ll see about that.”

We headed outside, cutting across his driveway and the strip of snow-­covered grass to my place.

The lights were on across the street, but there were no errant dog walkers or couples out for a romantic, arctic stroll.

I blew out a sigh of relief and jogged up the walk to my front porch, pulling Lucian with me.

“I think I have some chocolate chips in the pantry,” I said.

Suddenly, Lucian nabbed me around the waist and pulled me back.

“I take it chocolate chips make you horny?”

But he was positioning his body between me and the front door.

“Go back to my place,” he said, his voice cold.

“What? Why? What’s going on?”

I tried to peer around his broad back, but he spun and gripped me by the shoulders. “Do as I say.”

I saw it then, the morbid, nauseating pile of matted fur and long, fleshy tails. “Oh my God.”

On an oath, Lucian picked me up and marched me off the porch. He set me down on the walkway where I no longer had a clear view of the door.

“I don’t suppose that’s common behavior for rats,” I said, fighting the rising nausea.

“No, it isn’t,” he said sternly.

“Damn it. You better go back. I have to see a man about a pile of frozen rats.”

“No, you’re going back to my place, and I’m calling Nash.”

“If you call Nash, the chief of police will know that we were together tonight. Which means the rest of the town will know by morning. And they’ll be speculating about these threats. And you don’t live here anymore, but I do. I’m the one who’s going to have to deal with the attention.”

“Threats?” Lucian’s voice was deadly calm.

“I still think the first one was a joke. This is clearly an escalation over some vague note.” I was babbling. Apparently that was the effect a pile of dead rats had on me.

He didn’t say another word. No, Lucian Rollins merely tossed me over his shoulder and marched me back to his house while placing a call.

“Why am I just now finding out that she’s being threatened?” he snarled into the phone.

“Put me down, you big, gorgeous asshat!”

He ignored me.

“You’ll want to see what someone left for her on her front porch. Bring the biggest evidence bags you have.”

“Excuse me! This is kidnapping,” I said, pummeling his back with my gloved hands.

“If you don’t stop screeching, the entire neighborhood is going to come outside and witness this,” Lucian said.

I was fairly certain he was talking to me.

“That’s not relevant, and it’s not anyone’s business but my own,” he continued.

That was definitely meant for Nash.

“Meet me at my place. I have to tie her to a chair,” Lucian said.

“Nice going, Lucifer. Now Nash is going to tell Lina, and Lina’s going to tell Naomi, and Waylay is going to eavesdrop and tell Chloe, and my niece can’t keep her mouth shut if she’s underwater trying to swim.”

“Someone left a pile of dead rats on your porch, and your biggest concern is your niece telling everyone we’re seeing each other?”

He unlocked his front door and carried me over the threshold.

“We’re not seeing each other. We’re seeing each other naked.”

“I can explain,” I said to the group before anyone else could begin. “It’s just sex.”

Lucian slapped a gloved hand over my mouth. “Shut up before you piss me off even more.”

“Pay up,” Lina said, holding her hand out to Nash. The chief of police had responded with his fiancée, his brother, and his sister-­in-­law.

The six of us stood in my driveway while we waited for Sergeant Grave Hopper to show up with an evidence bag big enough for a pile of rodents.

Nash and Knox exchanged annoyed looks, and both men reached for their wallets. Naomi and Lina grinned as crisp twenties were exchanged.

“A pleasure doing business with you,” Lina said. “Don’t ever doubt us again.”

“And don’t forget you owe Stef too,” Naomi told Knox.

“What’s going on?” I asked after prying Lucian’s hand away.

“We knew,” Lina explained. “Nolan told me he saw you at the hotel bar the other weekend and that the boss here went to ‘deal with you.’ Then both of you showed up to work with post-­O face.”

“Knox and I were skeptical until Honky Tonk,” Nash admitted.

I smacked Lina in the shoulder. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” she countered.

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t think either of you would be fucking stupid enough to fuck around,” Knox interjected.

“Lina said it was like approaching a skittish dog. You don’t want to make any sudden moves or you’ll scare it off,” Naomi interjected.

“This is stupid. Can I please go back to my house?” I asked.

“Not until we make sure there aren’t any other surprises waiting for you inside,” Nash said.

I shivered.

“She’s staying with me tonight,” Lucian announced.

“Listen, Lucifer. Just because we’ve had sex a few times doesn’t give you the right to tell me what to do.”

At that moment, a police cruiser pulled up in the driveway behind Nash’s truck. Grave and Officer Bertle got out.

“I’ll leave you two to your bickering,” Nash said and headed for his cops.

Lucian used the distraction to haul me several feet away. Lina and Naomi exchanged smug looks.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

“You should have told me,” he said coldly.

“Told you what? That someone left a lame anonymous note in the book drop for me? Do you know how many weird things we find in there every week?”

“Someone is threatening you, and you will take it seriously,” he announced.

“Ugh. Even after sex, you’re infuriating.”

“And you’re still a pain in my ass that won’t go away,” he shot back.

We exchanged heated glares. But I caved first. “Look at us. Our friend would rather bag up dead rats than be around us.”

“Listen carefully, Pixie. While my dick is in you, whatever you choose to call it, that makes you mine. And while you’re mine, I get to know when someone is scaring you.”

“I’m not scared. I’m annoyed. I really liked that welcome mat.”

“You’re not taking this seriously. Which is another reason I am.”

“This is almost as bad as the mayor’s snakes,” Officer Bertle complained, stifling a gag as he stuffed a rat in the bag with a pair of tongs.

“Luce,” Nash called.

“Take her inside,” Lucian ordered, guiding me to Knox.