“That’s what I figured too. I think that’s everything,” she says. “If I think of anything else, I’ll tell Marcel.”
Z stares at her for a second before nodding. “Thank you, Charlotte. I’m sorry you’re getting dragged into stuff that has nothing to do with you.”
To say I’m shocked doesn’t begin to cover it. Z doesn’t apologize often or for much. He must actually like Charlotte.
She leans against my side, resting her head on my shoulder. “I tried to warn him my uncle would be an asshole.”
That pulls a chuckle from Z. He stands and slaps my shoulder. “Yeah, when he wants something, nothing stands in his way.”
Charlotte peeks up at me, her eyes full of so much heat, I’m close to kicking Z’s ass out the door.
“All right,” Z says. “I’m out. You staying here tonight?” he asks me.
I nod without taking my eyes off Charlotte, and Z slaps my shoulder again. “Walk me outside.”
“Yeah, okay.” I lean over and kiss Charlotte’s cheek. “Be right back.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re fucking whipped.” Z laughs and smacks my chest as we land on the sidewalk outside.
I don’t bother defending myself because I’m okay with it.
“All right,” he says in a more serious tone. “I’m taking her phone, so her place should be fine.” He stares at the building a little longer and I hope that means since Charlotte came clean, he’s willing to call off the whole “lets spy on Charlotte” escapade.
“Meet you here around ten?”
My face must show my disappointment.
“Listen, if it makes you feel better, I trust her. She did good remembering all that shit and it’s obvious she’s on your side.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We’re still setting those cameras up.”
“I figured.”
He steps closer and lowers his voice. “Honestly, I’m concerned. I don’t like that he’s willing to use her to get to us or that he’s clashing with Whisper. Friction like that in a club can end up blowing shit over all of us.”
No kidding. We’ve lived through that before. “If he’s really trying to patch over SOS, we’re in trouble.”
“Yeah, that could squeeze us right out of Ironworks.” Z glances up and down the empty street before continuing his thought. “Empire’s not an issue. We have enough connections to hold this territory.”
“But we’d have another Viper’s situation.”
“Yeah, but worse because this time we wouldn’t have Wolf Knights on our side.”
“Fuck. Merlin’s such a greedy dick.”
“Sounds like Whisper agrees. That’s good. He’s been a member long enough that he’s gotta have some sway with the others.”
“Jesus, Rock’s gonna kill me.”
Z raises an eyebrow. “This ain’t your fault, bro. Sounds like he’s been putting this in motion for a while now.” He glances at Charlotte’s brownstone. “Shit, if you two hadn’t hooked up, we might not have realized the extent of this until it was too late.”
Logically, I know he’s right, but I’m not ready to pat myself on the back just yet.
Z’s not finished talking me into placing the cameras. “What if they try to bug her apartment next? Think of it as a way to keep her safe.”
Reluctantly, I agree, even though when Charlotte finds out we’ve been spying on her, it could ruin everything we have.
“It’s not her fault.” It’s a lame response, but it’s all I got.
Z isn’t unsympathetic, but we both know whose fault it is doesn’t matter. He gives me a quick hug. “Call me if anything else comes up.”
Charlotte’s in the living room when I re-enter her place.
“What’s the verdict?” she asks as soon as I close the door behind me.
I’m going to spy on you.
“Nothing. Z appreciated the details. You helped us out a lot.”
“Good. That’s what I…Marcel, I meant what I said. I choose you.”
I close the distance between us and sit next to her, pulling her into my lap. “Yeah?”
I don’t deserve her words, but I need to hear them again.
Her uncertain eyes meet mine briefly. “There’s no choice. It’s always going to be you.” A soft smile curves her lips and she peeks up at me through her lashes. “I told you I’m Team Teller and I meant it.”
I want so much to be worthy of her loyalty.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Knowing I plan to betray Charlotte’s trust first thing in the morning brought on a wicked case of insomnia. Having her curled up against me all night only made it worse.
I’m up early, fixing breakfast for her when she sneaks up behind me, wrapping her arms around my middle and pressing her warm body against my back. “I love finding you here in the morning,” she says, her voice rough with sleep.
Glancing over my shoulder, I answer. “You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Still keeping one arm around me, she moves to my side and inspects the eggs and toast I prepared. “Are you trying to make me fatter?”
Reaching under her shorts, I grab a healthy handful of her bare ass and squeeze. “Yes.”
She squeals and slaps my hand away, so I shove the shorts down past her ass cheeks and lay a few smacks on each one. “Now, stop talking trash about my girlfriend and eat your breakfast.”
Slowly she turns her head and stares at me with wide eyes.
“Problem?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest, barely keeping the smirk off my face.
Her mouth twists, and it’s hard to tell if she wants to jump me or knee me in the balls.
“Keep looking at me like that, and you’ll be eating breakfast with my dick in you.”
She doesn’t respond to that either.
My gaze travels down her body, taking in her rapid breathing and hard nipples.
“That’s it.” Is the only warning she gets before I advance. Taking her by the hips, I lift her and set her on the counter. I strip her shorts off the rest of the way and yank my cock out.
Instead of words, she uses her legs to show me what she wants, hooking them around me and pulling me closer. I fist my cock, dragging it against her pussy. Leaning in, I cup the back of her head, gently tugging her hair. “You’re soaking wet. Should I put my hand on your ass every morning?”
She tilts her head and watches me from the corner of her eye like she’s embarrassed or it’s too much. My lips drag over her neck, and I grip her hair tighter. “Tell me.”
Again, she responds with her body. This time wrapping her hand around my cock and guiding me to her. Grabbing her ass, I drag her to the edge of the counter and slam into her.
Finally, a sound leaves her lips. A soft grunt.
“That what you wanted?”
Her head falls back, and she closes her eyes.
“No, Sunshine.” I gather her hair again and pull. “Eyes open.”
When her gaze fixes on me, I drop my hands to the straps of her tank top, sliding them down her arms and pushing it down so she’s bare from the waist up. All perfect creamy skin flushed red from her chest to her cheeks.
I lean down to kiss her, holding her in my arms while I thrust in and out with increasing speed.
More soft little noises escape her mouth, hot breath drifting over my skin. She tips her head back, exposing her neck. “What? You have to tell me what you want, Charlotte.”
“Please.” Her voice is nothing more than a ragged whisper. “I’m so close.”
My hand moves between us, finding her clit and I drag my thumb in circles around it.
“Oh. Not. Yes.” Nothing she says makes any sense.
I take my other hand and grip her jaw, tilting her head so I can taste her skin.
“Yes, yes.” She squirms closer and fuck, I swear, I need three more hands to handle this hot as fuck woman.
“Put your hand on your clit,” I growl against her ear, wrapping my arm around h
er.
Using my palm as a barrier to protect her windpipe, I gently squeeze the sides of her neck in pulses. Once. Twice.
Her whole body tightens. Bare inside her I feel every little flutter and squeeze. Her loud cries fill the room, and I have to take several deep breaths because I’m not ready to come yet.
“Look at me,” I demand.
Her eyes are hazy and unfocused when she meets mine, but she smiles.
For a second I stop my frantic thrusting and squeeze the sides of her neck again. “You need to get fucked harder?”
“Yes,” she breathes out.
“Say it.”
“Fuck me harder.”
I slam my hips into her and run my hands over her head, stopping to cup her cheeks and stare into her eyes. “That’s my girl. All you had to do was ask.”
She’s too blissed out to laugh and knowing I did that to her sends a blast of heat down my spine. “If you want to come again, do it soon,” I warn her.
She reaches up, wrapping her arms around my neck. Her fingers trail over my scalp leaving me with a shivery sensation. “Fuck. Charlotte.”
Our mouths meet, lips and tongues sliding against each other, sloppy and frenzied. My hips jerk, coming so hard my vision blurs.
Both of us breathing hard, we pull back a few inches and stare at each other. I brush her hair off her sweaty forehead.
“You’re legit gonna kill me, Sunshine.”
“Thank you.” Her voice is solemn when I was going for silly after so much intensity.
“For what?”
She shakes her head and drops her gaze. “For always knowing what I need.”
I tip her head back. “I’m not a mind reader though. I need you to talk to me so I don’t hurt you.” Again, I try for levity and raise my arms flexing my muscles. “I’m a big brute, you know.”
That finally gets a laugh out of her. She presses her palm to my chest and slides off the counter. “No, you’re not. I trust you. You’re…the sweetest, best…I love you.”
I’m hot all over from her sweet words. I pull her into my arms and kiss the top of her forehead. “Your breakfast’s cold by now.”
“That’s okay. I’m full of you.”
I snort, and she giggles against me, then backs away. “Wow, we’re a mess.”
“Go grab a shower. I’ll clean up and make something else for you.”
Mercy jumps up as soon as she sees me enter the restaurant. “Oh my God, come here,” she says, holding out her arms. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you.”
We take our seats, and the waiter hurries over to pour me a glass of water. After he leaves we study our menus without speaking.
“Do you know what you want?” she asks after a few minutes.
“Honestly, I’m not hungry.”
“Do you want to go somewhere else?”
“No.”
She ends up ordering breakfast while I suck down multiple cups of coffee.
“I wish you’d let me come to the funeral,” Mercy says.
God, that’s probably the one thing that could’ve made the funeral even worse. Exposing my best friend to my degenerate family. “Trust me, you didn’t want to be there. Hell, I didn’t want to be there.”
“Did your uncle at least treat Carter okay?”
I snort out a laugh. “He was a monumental asshole as usual.” My lips curl into a smirk. “Marcel handled it.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Mr. Bad Boy?”
“Stop calling him that.”
“Sorry, I didn’t realize it was that serious.”
I nod, staring into my coffee. “He’s it, Mercy.” I give her a brief explanation of what went down at the funeral but leave out the parts about my uncle threatening Teller and spying on me.
“Wow. Your uncle’s needed someone to put him in his place for years.” She taps her spoon against her glass a few times. “I guess Marcel’s not so bad after all.”
“Even Carter approves.”
She throws her head back and laughs. “Now that’s saying something. He’s never liked any of your boyfriends.”
“Nope.”
“Is he handling things okay? I know your mom had…issues, but he lived with her after all.”
“It’s been difficult.”
She finishes and signals the waiter for our check. “So, my plan was movies and then eating an obscene amount of ice cream. Why don’t we stop by and see if Carter wants to join us?”
“I’d like that.”
The first thing she does when she sees Carter is throw her arms around him. “How are you, lil’ bro?”
“Jeez, it only took my mom dying to get a full body hug from you, Mercy?” Carter says.
She pushes him away. “Don’t make me regret it.” She cocks her head. “I thought Charlotte said you had a girlfriend?”
He closes and locks the front door and follows us to Mercy’s car. “Stop telling people Bianca’s my girlfriend, would ya.”
“What else should I call a girl you spend so much time with?”
“As platonic as it gets.”
“Carter, do you bat for the other team?” Mercy asks sweetly. “Is that what you’re trying to tell us?”
“Considering I’ve been trying to get in your pants since I was twelve, no.”
I jam my fingers in my ears. “La, la, la, la, I did not just hear that.”
Mercy laughs, not at all offended by my brother’s candor. “Sorry, buddy. I still like my men a little more seasoned.”
“That’s all right. Wait until you get to cougar age and want some young man meat. I’m going to tell you tough shit.”
“If I never hear my brother refer to himself as ‘young man meat’ again, it’ll be too soon.”
We banter back and forth like that all the way to the mall.
Carter ends up falling asleep in the middle of the movie. I don’t have the heart to wake him, because if I had to guess, this is the first time he’s slept since he found mom’s body.
“Have a good nap, little buddy?” Mercy asks after the movie.
“Actually, yeah.”
“Why don’t you come home with me,” I suggest on our way to drop him off at home. “I hate the thought of you staying in the house all alone.”
“No offense, but I don’t think I can tolerate listening to you and Teller going at it all night.”
Mercy cracks up.
“We can control ourselves, you know.” Except for fucking on the kitchen counter like we did this morning.
“Oh my God, look at her face, Carter. She’s turning red. Are you picturing the sex God with the platinum tongue trying to convince you with his magic peen?”
“Sweet Jesus, would you let me out of the car before I hurl?” Carter groans.
Charlotte’s so late leaving the apartment she misses Z by only a couple minutes.
“Ready?” he asks.
“Oh yeah. Can’t wait to spy on my girlfriend. Highlight of my fucking day.”
He sets a hand on my shoulder. “It sucks. But you know it needs to be done.” Z’s words are sincere, so I can’t even be mad at him.
After dropping his bag on the kitchen table, he pulls out what he needs. “Going to check for any other bugs first.” He glances around. “She got a computer?”
“She takes her laptop to work with her.”
“All right. Another time.”
Great, something to look forward to.
I let him work as he scans her Wi-Fi first for any wireless cameras in the area. He pulls out his laptop and plugs it directly into Charlotte’s router. “Nothing,” he mutters.
“Good.”
Ignoring me, he continues his search. When he’s finished, he returns to the kitchen. “Help me set these up.”
The heating grate in the entryway to her building turns out to be a real bitch to get loose. We end up scratching up the plate in the process. “No one’s gonna notice unless they look too close,” Z says.
“Be more ca
reful inside her place.”
The second and third cameras go in much easier. Z grabs my phone and sets it up so I can monitor the feeds. He also maintains access to it, which I can’t say I’m thrilled about. “You have it backing up somewhere?”
“Yeah. Learned my lesson with Furious.” All the surveillance video was backed up at the gym, so when Ransom burned it down, we had nothing.
“You can access it anytime you want this way.” He shows me a few things I’m probably never going to remember then hands my phone back to me.
“I’ll probably fast forward through the footage once a night or so to see if there’s anything there.”
“Fine.”
Z doesn’t make any of the obvious jokes one might make in this situation. About how I can be sure Charlotte’s not cheating on me or how he can’t wait to see her dance around in her underwear. “Thanks for not being a dick.”
In a rare moment of seriousness, he says, “I don’t exactly enjoy this, you know. But at least when you tell the club, they’ll know you were being proactive.”
“At least there’s that,” I answer dryly.
“And if Wrath kicks my ass for not bringing it to the table right away, you’re covering Crystal Ball for me for a least a month.”
Finally, something to laugh about. “Only if he doesn’t kill me first.”
CHAPTER NINE
Still torqued from bugging my girlfriend’s apartment, I need to do something constructive.
And if it sparks off trouble, I really don’t give a fuck.
My first stop’s the bank.
My next stop is the Wolf Knights MC clubhouse.
In the past, Whisper’s talked enough about the club for me to know Merlin spends most of his days here.
On a weekday afternoon, the parking lot’s deserted except for two trucks and three Harleys.
I knock at the back door all polite-like.
The door swings open and the brunette who tried to climb me like a fucking tree the last time I was here greets me. Her lips curl into a smirk that looks more deranged than seductive.
“Hello, Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes Biker.” She sets one hand on her hip, drawing my attention to her nearly non-existent leather shorts. “Change your mind?”