He unzipped his jeans, then shoved them down his legs in one swift move before he lowered himself and thrust into me.

  “FUCK!” he shouted as he filled me.

  I bucked against him, crying out. This was what I needed. I clung to him as he lifted his hips just enough to almost slip free of me, then rocked back into me hard. It only took three more times before I was clawing at his back, screaming his name while my body shuddered with its release.

  “Fuck yes,” he groaned, watching me. He began to move faster, his breathing coming in pants. “Mine! This is mine! Tell me it’s mine.”

  I looked up at him, watching his beautiful face stare down at me with a fierceness that made me tremble. “It’s yours. All of me. I’m yours.”

  “GAH!” he roared, then exploded inside of me, filling me with a hard, warm rush that sent me spiraling into another euphoria.

  When he rolled off me, he took me with him. My ear was pressed against his chest, and I could hear his racing heart. We lay there in silence while he ran his hands through my hair and our breathing returned to normal.

  “Time to go downstairs,” he finally said.

  I moved so I could look at him. “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  A small grin tugged at the corner of his lips. “Eat. I’m starving.”

  I frowned, but wasn’t sure if I should ask more or let him digest this and deal with it in his own time. Had I underestimated Blaise’s power over him? Did he forgive and accept Blaise on command?

  He pressed a kiss to my forehead, then moved over me to pull my panties and leggings back up. “I want my cum leaking out of you,” he said, then winked at me before getting off the bed and pulling his jeans back on.

  I stood up, and he grabbed my chin to kiss me one more time, then threaded his fingers through mine before heading for the bedroom door. We went down to the kitchen in silence, but I heard the voices as we approached. Levi was laughing, and Trinity joined him.

  We stepped into the kitchen, and the table was full. Levi at one end with Kye, Huck, Trinity on the far side. Trev, who I hadn’t seen here before, was on the other side with Blaise, Maddy, and a high chair with an adorable blond boy shoving blueberries in his mouth.

  “We started without you. Levi refused to wait,” Trinity said apologetically.

  “Yeah, because once they start fu—”

  “Levi! Words,” Maddy interrupted him, and then she smiled up at me.

  Levi shrugged. “Once they you know, it could be hours before they come out of that room.”

  I looked up at Gage, unsure. Would he say anything? Or was this how it was done? Had this not been painful for him? He’d been lied to by someone he trusted. Even if it had been what Gage needed at the time.

  “Well?” Blaise asked, turning to Gage.

  “Like I said, she didn’t need to be tested,” Gage replied, then started to walk us toward the table.

  I didn’t move.

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded.

  Gage turned back to me and tugged on my hand hard enough to pull me to him. “Loyalty, baby. He had to test your loyalty. You’re different now, but he needed to be positive.”

  “Yeah, because once, we couldn’t trust you with shit,” Levi said, causing Gage to scowl at him.

  I shook my head, more confused than ever. “Wait … what? He told me all that to see if I’d be loyal to the family?”

  Gage nodded.

  “I’m, uh, stating the obvious here, but I wasn’t loyal. I told you.”

  Gage smirked as he nodded his head. “Yeah, you did. About tore my heart out, seeing you so upset though. That part I hadn’t been prepared for.”

  “I don’t understand any of this,” I said, getting annoyed. “And if all of that was some made-up story …” I stopped talking, feeling my temper start to stir.

  “It was the truth. All of it,” Gage assured me. “I wouldn’t fuck with your head like that, baby.”

  “But you knew already, didn’t you?”

  He nodded.

  “And I told Blaise’s so-called secret, which means I was not loyal to him.”

  Blaise cleared his throat and stood up. “Not exactly the way I see it,” he said. “Real loyalty requires love. We are bringing you in after a past that might make many members question our decision. You don’t love me.” He smirked. “Why would you be loyal to me? But if you loved Gage, then your loyalty would be strong enough. You proved it by being loyal to him, and Gage is family.”

  I hadn’t looked at it that way. It was smart. A little complicated, but it made sense.

  “I made the mistake once of lying to Madeline to protect her. In the end, I almost lost her. I wasn’t loyal to her, and it could have destroyed us both. But I came clean. Suffered through watching her fall apart over something I never wanted her to know.”

  “And we lived happily ever after,” Maddy finished for him.

  Staring up at Gage, I frowned. “How long have you known?”

  “A week,” he replied.

  “And you weren’t upset?”

  There was male laughter from the table.

  Gage shot them a scowl, then turned back to me. “Yes, baby, I was upset.”

  “So was Ms. Jimmie when he smashed a lamp against the wall, and then he tried to take a swing at Blaise, which got him shoved into the bar by Huck and they ended up breaking an excellent bottle of scotch,” Trev replied, grinning like the memory was funny.

  Wide-eyed, I looked from Trev to Gage.

  He shrugged. “I have a temper. Took me a bit to calm down.”

  “You were restrained for over an hour while Blaise talked to you,” Huck said, sounding amused.

  Suddenly, I was relieved he had known already and that the worst was over.

  Levi stood up and clapped his hands together. “So, when are we going to load Shiloh’s stuff and move her in?”

  “They’ve still gotta eat,” Huck said, scowling up at him.

  Levi shrugged. “Fine, but I got a date tonight. Let’s not push this too late.”

  “You don’t date,” Huck replied.

  “Okay, then I got a fu—”

  “LEVI!” Maddy interrupted him again.

  “Uh, sorry.”

  Gage leaned down and brushed his lips against mine. “Are you okay?” he whispered.

  I thought about all the reasons I shouldn’t be okay, but looking up into Gage’s eyes, I knew that as long as I had him, I would be fine. He was all I needed. I had experienced life without him, and I couldn’t imagine going back to that.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  His beautiful smile sent the flutters in my stomach free.

  “I love you.”

  He cupped my face in his hands. “And I fucking worship you.”

  Firecracker Teaser

  One

  Trev

  Horse racing was in my blood. It was the second-most important part of my family’s legacy. However, if I was being brutally honest, this was my favorite part of the Kentucky Derby weekend—the Derby Eve galas. I typically hated fucking galas, but not these. I didn’t even mind wearing a tux. My best friend didn’t seem to share my sentiments. Saxon Houston looked annoyed. He was definitely here for the races. Horse racing was his first love.

  Smirking, I turned toward him to lay one of my smart-ass comments that would get a smile out of the guy when my eyes found someone else instead. All other thoughts left me. The music being performed onstage by some old famous dude faded away. It was as if no one else was in the room. Just her.

  Fucking hell, she was smokin’.

  The lights caught the different shades of blonde in her long, curly hair. Bare, sun-kissed shoulders and—holy shit—that body in that formfitting hot-pink dress. She wasn’t looking at me. Not directly. Her focus was on the old dude singing. From where I stood, her lips looked full. I wanted to see her eyes. I had a thing about eyes.

  “I’ll be back—maybe,” I said, not taking my gaze off her when I spoke to Saxon.

  “Where are you—oh,” he replied, and I knew that he’d spotted my target.

  He could keep his nice-guy bullshit right where it was. I had seen her first.

  Moving through the crowd, I didn’t even stop to speak to the Packers quarterback who had grown up in Ocala. Our families were friends. Even if Jon Bon Jovi stepped in front of me—and I was pretty sure he was here—I wasn’t stopping.

  She took a sip from the drink in her hand and finally let her gaze travel across the room.

  Who was she with? Why the fuck was she alone?

  Reaching her side, I pulled out all my Hughes charm and decided she was about to fall hard. I’d make sure of it.

  “You owe me a drink,” I said, leaning down close to her ear.

  The tiniest jerk of her shoulders was followed by a slow turn of her body toward me. She lifted her eyes and … fuck me.

  “I doubt it,” she replied. Her thick Southern drawl was a smooth, smoky sound.

  What color were her eyes? Honey? Could eyes be the color of honey? Because hers looked like warm honey with sunlight shining through. I struggled to get my head back in the game after she’d thrown me off with eyes I hadn’t expected.

  “Ah, but you do.” I flashed her a smile that had been working for me since puberty.

  She smirked. “Please continue. I can’t wait to hear the rest of this cheesy pickup line.”

  Okay, fine, it was a pickup line, but, damn, it wasn’t cheesy. It was fucking smooth.

  “Because when I saw you, I dropped mine.”

  A grin tugged at those full pink lips, and then she laughed.

  Score. It’d worked.

  “What color are your eyes?” I asked, fascinated.

  “Hazel,” she replied with another laugh.

  I shook my head. “No, I’ve seen hazel eyes. That is something else. Sunshine and honey.”

  “Now, what would you have said if they’d been blue? What’s your pickup line for that color?”

  I shook my head. “That wasn’t a line. I’m fucking serious.”

  “Mmhmm,” she replied, taking a sip of her drink.

  “You don’t believe me?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Does it really matter? I don’t even know you.”

  Ah, but we were gonna fix that.

  I held out my hand. “Trev Hughes,” I said.

  The flicker of recognition in her eyes told me she must be connected to the horse racing world. Not just a guest or someone wanting to experience the Kentucky Derby. She knew the last name Hughes. Her eyes lowered to look at my hand as if she wasn’t sure if touching me was something she wanted to do.

  Fuck. What had Dad done to her family? He’d better not have fucked this up for me before it even had a chance.

  I started to attempt damage control when she finally lifted her hand and slid it inside mine. Her skin was soft, and her hand was dainty with pink nails to match her dress. I liked how my hand seemed to swallow hers. A weird tightening in my chest that I wasn’t familiar with struck me.

  “Gypsi Parker,” she replied.

  I could see in her gaze that she was searching mine for any recognition. But I’d never met anyone named Gypsi in my life, and there was no fucking way I’d have forgotten her. Especially with those eyes.

  Reluctantly, I released her hand but stepped closer to her, then bent my head to whisper in her ear. “I know you aren’t here alone,” I said. “Please tell me there isn’t a guy somewhere who has a claim on you.”

  She laughed again. “That’s a tricky question.”

  No, it wasn’t. I needed her to answer me and then point him out so I could make him disappear.

  “How so?”

  She smirked again and turned to look out over the crowd. “A man did bring me.” She paused and glanced back at me. There was a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. “He bought everything I’m wearing.” Reaching up, she touched the simple diamond necklace around her neck. “Even the jewelry.”

  “I’m praying he’s your father.”

  She laughed. “No. He is definitely not my father.” This amused her. The humor in those honey-and-sunshine eyes was unmistakable.

  “Fuck,” I muttered.

  She tilted her head to the side and reached out to touch my arm. I fought the urge to cover her hand with mine and keep it there. I’d dress her and buy her jewelry better than what she was wearing now, if that was what it would take. I started to say so, but she spoke first.

  “You’re not what I expected,” she replied. “I think we might end up being good friends.”

  Oh, hell no. She was not friend-zoning me. When she started to move her hand away, I reached up and grasped it.

  “I’m thinking something a little more exciting than friends.”

  Her eyes shifted away from me then, and I saw a change in her expression before she turned to look at me again.

  “I need to be going.”

  “I’ll go with you,” I told her.

  She wasn’t running off like goddamn Cinderella.

  She sighed, and I could see the battle in her eyes before she lifted them to me.

  “Okay, fine. You lead the way.”

  Hell yes! I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her close to my side before walking toward an exit. The gala wasn’t doing it for me anymore. Time to change locations.

  Just as we reached an exit, my cell started ringing. The ringtone was my father’s. Fucking hell, this’d better not be family shit he wants me in on tonight. I considered ignoring it, but I knew I’d regret it later. Glancing down at the girl beside me, I debated on it. She might just be worth my father’s wrath.

  “You gonna get that?” she asked once we were outside.

  With a sigh, I reached into my pocket. “Yeah.”

  “Get Saxon. Meet Levi and Kye at their hotel suite. There’s an issue that needs handled,” Dad barked at me.

  Motherfucker!

  “Saxon?” I asked, making sure I’d heard him right.

  “Yes. Kenneth agrees it’s time,” he replied.

  Kenneth was Saxon’s dad. He was also part of the family. Saxon hadn’t been on any family business before. He never mentioned it, and I had thought he would just handle the horse racing part of our world. Hearing that Dad was bringing him into the other side surprised me. I wasn’t sure Saxon had it in him.

  “Okay.” Irritated, I hung up and turned back to figure out how in the hell I was going to explain this to Gypsi and get her to hand over her phone number.

  But I didn’t get a chance to figure it out.

  She was gone.

  COMING JULY 30, 2023

  Acknowledgments

  Those who I couldn’t have done this without:

  Britt is always the first I mention because he makes it possible for me to close myself away and write for endless hours a day. Without him, I wouldn’t get any sleep, and I doubt I could finish a book.

  Emerson, for dealing with the fact that I must write some days and she can’t have my full attention. I’ll admit, there were several times she did not understand, and I might have told my six-year-old, “You’re not making it in my acknowledgments this time!” to which she did not care.

  My older children, who live in other states, were great about me not being able to answer their calls most of the time and waiting until I could get back to them. They still love me and understand this part of Mom’s world.

  My editor, Jovana Shirley at Unforeseen Editing, for always working with my crazy schedules and making my stories the best they can be.

  My formatter, Melissa Stevens at The Illustrated Author. She makes my books beautiful inside. It’s hands down the best formatting I’ve ever had in my books.

  Beta readers, who come through every time: Annabelle Glines, Jerilyn Martinez, and Vicci Kaighan. I love y’all!

  Damonza, for my book cover. The book covers just seem to be getting better!

  Abbi’s Army, for being my support and cheering me on. I love y’all!

  My readers, for allowing me to write books. Without you, this wouldn’t be possible.

 

 

  Abbi Glines, Straight Fire

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
Share this book with friends