I swallowed hard and felt my body melt against his as I leaned in closer without even realizing I was doing it. “Okay.” My voice was barely above a whisper.

  “That’s my girl,” he replied with a slow grin spreading across his face. “Let’s go before I fuck you against this damn truck and Maeme puts a bullet in my ass.”

  He reached behind me to open the door while pulling me away from the truck and with him as he stepped back.

  • Nine •

  Did that make me deranged?

  Rumor

  Sleeping on sheets that smelled like King was nothing compared to walking back into his room at the stables. Being away from it, I had forgotten how his scent clung to the space. Would his house be like this too? Everywhere I went, I’d be engulfed in King. As if he needed anything more to make me weak and stupid.

  “How did you acquire a room here? Since you have a house?” I asked as he dropped his keys on the dresser.

  He smirked. “Once, Wilder, Thatcher, and I all stayed out here. Wilder moved out first. He got a girl pregnant, and they married. Our twenties were fun here, but the closer we got to thirty, we wanted something of our own. Thatcher had a house built farther back on this property. I did the same on the Salazar land, but I kept my room here. Comes in handy when I need to be close.”

  He walked to me and loomed over me, his gaze trailing along my features as he did so. “I hadn’t stayed here in months, but once I got you settled in the shotgun house, I wanted to be close. Make sure I was here if you needed anything. I moved back in. Until last night, I hadn’t slept at my house since your second night here.”

  That was something. He’d stayed close for me. He might not admit it or put a name to it, but he had felt something from day one. Even if I had been a nervous mess, I could admit I’d found him attractive.

  He moved quickly then, taking me by surprise, and scooped me up in his arms.

  “King!” I squealed, wrapping my arms around his neck as he walked me over to the sofa and sank down on it with me in his lap.

  “Ask,” he said, keeping his arms around my waist.

  “Ask what?”

  The charming grin that should come with a warning label touched his lips. “Everything. What do you want to know?”

  Unsure why he was doing this, I tried to read his expression. “Why?” I finally asked.

  His hand moved up my back and tugged on my hair playfully. “Because you want to know, and when I strip you naked and fuck you in the shower, I’d like all your thoughts to be on that. Us. So, ask me, sweets. What is going on in that head of yours?”

  A nervous laugh tumbled from my lips as I dropped my gaze down to study the front of his shirt. “No pressure or anything,” I replied.

  He pulled back on my hair hard enough to tilt my head back until my eyes met his.

  “It’s not a test. I’m simply telling you that you can ask me whatever you want. I’ll answer. Even if I don’t want to.”

  I was torn. Afraid of the things I might not want to know. But aware I needed to know before I went any further. Loving a man who didn’t see a future in any relationship was brave. It would be the bravest thing I’d done. Running from Hill had been reckless and desperate. I couldn’t think of it as brave. But this … this I had time to consider. He would leave me one day. This would end, and right now, this emotion, which was so much stronger than anything I had ever experienced, I knew it was love. The reclusive thing I had always sought and never truly found. I knew the real thing now. At least how it felt for me.

  Perhaps that was all I was meant to experience. Love was a gift that wasn’t promised to anyone. Right now, King wanted me, and I knew without question that I was going to do this. Take whatever he gave me.

  “When is your birthday?” I asked him.

  “July 27,” he replied. “And yours is May 21.”

  I leaned back, surprised that he knew that.

  “Sweets, Mafia. Remember? We knew everything about Churchill Millroe before we broke into his house that day. Including the security system code, his schedule, his wife’s schedule,” he replied, wrapping my hair around his fist. “Rumor Ariella LeBlanc.”

  Hearing my name—the one on my birth certificate—caused me to still. If he knew that, how long had he known? Since the moment he’d picked me up at the service station?

  “Sweets,” he said in a gentle tone, letting go of my hair to touch my cheek, “the Mafia, baby, we don’t leave anything unturned. We are thorough. The bastard changed your name, but that didn’t erase it.”

  I’d begged Hill to let me keep the name Ariella. I wasn’t one hundred percent positive, but I’d been told that my mother’s name was Ariella. She’d named me after herself. It could have been a lie, but I clung to it. Wanted it to be true because it had given me a beginning. Someone I had belonged to. Had a connection to. When Hill had taken it from me, completely wiping out the only history I had, I’d mourned it.

  “I want it back,” I said.

  He nodded. “Okay. We’ll change it back.”

  I stared at him. “I can do that?”

  King leaned in close, pressing a kiss to my chin. “Yeah, sweets, we can.”

  The swell of joy inside my chest, spreading through me, was one of those rare things.

  Leaning back to look at me, King narrowed his eyes slightly as he studied me. “Those unshed tears are happy, right?” he asked.

  I nodded my head and ran my hands up his arms to grab his biceps, and they flexed under my touch. “What was that about a shower?”

  He flashed a wicked grin at me. “You’re done with the questions? You didn’t ask my full name.”

  I leaned closer to him. “King Chasen Salazar.”

  His eyes widened.

  “Maeme called you that the first night you brought me here,” I reminded him.

  “And you remembered? With all the shit you’d dealt with that day?” He seemed surprised.

  I lifted a shoulder. “I was terrified, running from the cops, but I was still a female who had been rescued by the most beautiful man she’d ever met.”

  King gripped my waist and lifted me off him, standing me up. “Beautiful? Really? Not sexy? Charming?” he asked as he stood.

  “Those things too,” I replied.

  A deep, pleased sound came from his chest as he reached for my sundress and tugged it up, sliding it over my hips until it was bunched at my waist.

  “Lift your hands.”

  I did as told and let him take it the rest of the way off me. Standing there in nothing but a pair of white satin panties, I stared up at him. His appreciative gaze drifted down my body as he ran a hand down my back until he was cupping my butt. When he squeezed it, a low groan came from him.

  “Let me spank it.”

  Tingles danced throughout my body. I didn’t try to speak, giving him a nod. The flare of heat in his blue depths caused me to shiver. He enjoyed this. And as terrified as it seemed I should be, I knew what he wanted to do was nothing like what I’d experienced with Hill.

  King brought pleasure with each strike. His words were seductive, addictive, not painful and degrading. I couldn’t imagine ever trusting anyone else like this, but with him, it was easy. I wanted it too. His arousal only spurred mine on.

  He sat back down, then took my hand in his and pulled me over his lap. I gasped and tensed, turning to stare up at him. This wasn’t what I’d been expecting. His focus wasn’t on me though. He seemed transfixed on my bottom as he ran his hand over it, slipping his fingertips just underneath the edge of my panties.

  “Relax,” he murmured.

  That seemed like an impossible task in this position. The uncertainty, mixed with the helplessness and sense of being exposed, was exciting. Did that make me deranged?

  His hand lifted slowly before coming down with a firm, hard smack, causing me to jump. A rumble of pleasure came from him as he brushed his fingertips over the skin that was currently stinging.

  “So damn pretty,” he said before lifting his hand.

  I closed my eyes and turned away from him with the impact. The sharp pang was followed by an ache of pleasure between my legs. King did it again and again. Each time, it was harder, and I could hear his breathing getting heavier. The hard ridge of his erection pressed against my belly, only building the thrill into a frenzy.

  “Fuck, sweets. I love seeing your ass red,” he said in a husky tone as he grabbed a cheek and squeezed the tender flesh. “Such a good girl.” His hand caressed the skin that currently stung. “Goddamn, this ass is juicy.”

  I trembled from the dark edge in his voice.

  “Get up!” he ordered.

  I moved quickly. Unsure of what was happening, but the sudden fear was tinted with the thrill.

  “Hands on the bed. Ass in the air,” he demanded, standing and shoving me toward it.

  I stumbled, confused by the sudden change in him. The gleam in his eye wasn’t something I’d seen before. I was torn between wanting to run or doing as he’d said. His hand slapped against my already-tender bottom with enough force to cause me to fall forward, catching myself on the edge of the bed.

  My heart slammed against my chest wildly. What had happened to him? Why was he doing this? I grabbed fistfuls of the quilt and closed my eyes tightly. With one hard jerk, King pulled my panties down to my ankles, then tugged them free before pushing my legs open wider.

  The sound of him inhaling deeply came just before the hot, possessive lick of his tongue slid between my legs. A cry tore from me as my knees buckled.

  “I’m gonna eat this sweet pussy until you squirt on my face,” he said as he lapped at me, making my world spin. “Soaking wet from me spanking that ass.”

  He growled then and slipped a finger inside me. “Twists me up, sweets.”

  I let out a cry and pressed back, wanting to feel more. “Please,” I begged.

  “Please what? What is it you need?”

  I clawed at the bed as my body shook. “You. I need you. Inside me.”

  The hard crack of his hand on my butt pulled a strangled moan from me. Then, he did it again. And again.

  “I said I wanted you to squirt on my face,” he said. “Don’t distract me.”

  I opened my mouth to beg or apologize. I wasn’t sure, but King’s tongue sliding up between my butt cheeks cut off all words. My eyes flew open in shock. He flicked at the hole, and I tightened. The sheer exposure of this was too much.

  “Easy,” he whispered against my untouched area. “Just let me play a little.”

  I stared at the wall, holding my breath as he pulled my cheeks open, pressed his face there, and then made a pleased hum as his tongue tickled the opening again.

  “Oh God!” I moaned, burying my face in the mattress, not believing he was doing this.

  “That’s a good girl,” he praised as he began to trail kisses along my bottom.

  He shoved two fingers between my legs this time, and I immediately rocked back, desperate for it. My body was spiraling in areas I hadn’t known it could feel things.

  This time, when I felt the tip of his tongue skim the outer rim, then trail down to meet where his fingers were thrusting inside of me, the bliss that had been creeping closer burst free. The warm rush that came between my legs shook me as I held on to the covers while wave after wave of my climax came over me.

  King’s hands grabbed my waist, and for a brief moment, I felt airborne before my back hit the bed and his massive body came over me. The wild look in his eyes made me whimper with another jolt between my legs.

  “Fuck, baby girl. You make me crazy,” he swore before grabbing my knees and holding my legs open wide as he slammed inside of me.

  “AH!” tore from my lips as he held nothing back.

  With a ferocity I’d never experienced, King began to fuck me. Each punch of his hips against mine got more aggressive.

  “Tell me whose pussy this is,” he demanded.

  My eyes locked on his. The blue almost completely taken over by his pupils.

  “Yours,” I said, hoping that was what he wanted to hear me say.

  “Fuuuck,” he groaned loudly.

  I watched him, completely mesmerized by him. I was sure I’d never see anything that could compare to the beauty of King Salazar in this moment. His body jerked, and his jaw slackened slightly just before I felt the pulse inside of me.

  The image he’d created, along with the sensation of his release filling me, ignited, sending me into yet another realm of bliss.

  • Ten •

  I’d think with all that crying out and moaning I heard, you’d be in a better mood.

  King

  Storm stepped out of Sword’s stall just as I was about to pass, headed for the exit.

  “Wearing a tux, huh? Sounds like a good time,” he said as he locked the stallion inside.

  “Hell is a more accurate description,” I grumbled.

  Leaving Rumor curled up in my bed, asleep, wasn’t helping my mood either. She had been exhausted after three rounds of fucking. Once I’d taken her against the wall of the shower, I had washed her hair and conditioned it, following her directions, then bathed her body. She was so spent that she didn’t even get dressed. While I washed my hair, I watched her walk into the bedroom and drop the towel, then climb under the covers. I’d cut off my left hand if I could forget this shit tonight and go back up there with her.

  “I’d think with all that crying out and moaning I heard, you’d be in a better mood. How many times did you two fuck? Or was it a marathon round? Because if it was, then you need to tell me what kind of pills you’re taking to go that long.”

  My hands fisted at my sides as a monster seemed to stretch out inside my chest. I didn’t like that he’d heard her. Not one fucking bit. Those sounds had been for me.

  “Jesus,” he muttered. “Get the murderous look off your face. It was loud. The guys outside probably heard it.”

  I didn’t need this right now. I had to go deal with Scotlin all evening. Touching me. Pretending like I wanted to touch her. Fucking hell.

  I stalked past Storm without saying anything. Just as I got to the door, I stopped and turned back to him.

  “No one touches her. No one bothers her. No one gets close enough to breathe her air.”

  Storm held up both his hands. “Dude, she’s safe.”

  I trusted him. Not that I had a lot of choice. If I wanted her here with me at nights and I wanted the peace of mind that she was safe, I had to trust them all.

  Stepping outside, I did a quick scan of the area. Two of the trainers were out on our younger thoroughbreds. Stellan was with the jockey we were using for one of the Derby races and Bloodline, our hopeful for the Preakness Stakes. The area was secure, but then I hadn’t expected any less. This place was locked down like a fortress.

  A low whistle came from behind me as I made my way to the truck. I turned to see Thatcher leaning against the side of the barn with a cigarette between his teeth and his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Hot date?” he asked with amusement in his grin.

  “Fuck off,” I replied.

  He knew where I was going, just like he knew this was the last thing I wanted to do.

  His twisted laugh didn’t help my mood as I jerked my door open and climbing inside.

  • Eleven •

  I decided that remaining silent was best.

  Rumor

  Waking up with a note by the pillow from King, telling me he’d be back tonight, had put me in a funk. I’d known he had to go to dinner with Scotlin, but it didn’t mean I liked it. Reminding myself it was me he had been with all afternoon helped ease the sadness some. The jealousy though was more difficult to tame.

  Staying in the bedroom all evening wasn’t going to help me either. I would just smell him and think about what he was doing. If she was touching him. If he was touching her. I had to get out of here and find a distraction.

  I made my way downstairs and followed the sound of voices to the lounge room. The door was standing open as I looked inside. Sebastian was seated on one of the sofas with a piece of pizza in his hand and his focus on the large screen that covered the wall. I scanned the rest of the area to see Storm pouring a drink at the bar. Wells was seated in a leather chair when I found him. His attention was already on me.

  He smiled at me. A slow, slightly devilish grin. “Come on in. Have some pizza.”

  I felt the other two sets of eyes in the room swing my way, and I stepped inside, shifting my gaze from Storm to Sebastian.

  “You’re awake,” Storm said. “Pizza is on the table. Go get you some. I’ll fix you a drink. What’s your poison?”

  The smell of the pizza hit me, and my stomach grumbled. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until now.

  “Uh, water is fine,” I replied.

  “Water it is,” he agreed.

  “Come on. It’s pizza. If you’re not gonna have a beer, at least have a cocktail. We can make girlie shit,” Wells said, opening the box of pizza on the table that sat in front of the main sofa.

  “Water is fine. Really.”

  “Let her drink what the fuck she wants,” Sebastian snapped at him.

  Wells rolled his eyes and grabbed another slice of pizza, then sat back down.

  I decided to take the seat on the same sofa as Sebastian. Wells made me uneasy. I had been around him the least of the guys. Granted, he didn’t make me feel as edgy as Thatcher did though. Thankfully, he wasn’t here.

  “Aren’t you leaving?” Sebastian asked, his gaze flickering over to Wells.

  Wells finished chewing the food in his mouth and swallowed. “Yeah. Sure you two don’t want to join me?”