Read Online Blood Deep (Blackthorn Book 4) by Lindsay J Pryor - Free Book Online Page B

there was no other option. He’d learned to run fast when he’d needed to, and to stay and fight when that was the better option. Eden needed to be the one to take control because, despite being the eldest, Billy was made of softer stuff, so Eden had learned how to defend and protect him too. Over time, Eden had earned a reputation that meant he got even more of what he wanted. It was about survival, because his survival meant his family’s survival.
    Now was no different.
    Luckily – as he felt Tatum’s thighs locking around his – he’d also learned a lot over the years from the women who found his hard edge, coupled with his charm, appealing. He’d turned it to his advantage, making the most of willing partners ready to teach him that extra skill or take him that one step further. He’d subsequently handled more than his fair share of women like Tatum – those who were anything but the feebler sex. And he had thrived on it.
    They had become his weakness, his guilty pleasure. But they had also taken a part of him that only with age had he learned he’d lost. Sex, for him, was now void of the connection granted only to the privileged. Sex hand in hand with love was as elusive as love itself. Love outside of his family, at least.
    ‘So you’re not here to test my mettle then?’ he asked.
    Her smile was as toxic as the fumes that now filled his senses. ‘Would you like that? It’d certainly give me some clues as to what nickname I can give you.’
    ‘I don’t need a nickname.’
    ‘Anyone who’s anyone doesn’t operate by their real name around here.’
    ‘So what’s your real name?’
    She smiled again. ‘What you see is what you get with me.’
    And he knew exactly what he’d be getting. ‘Those numbers tell me I’m to watch my back.’
    ‘Depends if you stay on my good side.’
    ‘I’m not interested in your good side.’
    She tongued her upper molars as she smiled again. She pulled his T-shirt up slightly to rake her gaze over his torso, survey his abs. She smirked in approval as she ran her hand over every groove of his chest, traced her fingers down to his wound – a wound that fortunately looked far older than less than a day.
    ‘Someone take a dislike to you in the penitentiary?’ she asked, running her finger along the stitches with the fascination of a child who enjoyed plucking the wings from live insects.
    ‘A lot of people take a dislike to me.’
    ‘Do you care?’ she asked, reaching down to single-handedly unfasten his belt as she exhaled another mouthful of smoke into the limited space between them.
    ‘Not much.’
    She popped the buttons on his jeans, easing the front of his shorts down to free his stirring erection. Her eyes flashed with approval as she looked back into his. ‘I’m already coming up with a few nicknames.’
    ‘Keep it to one syllable. It makes it easier for when you’re screaming out my name.’
    She laughed. ‘That’s a big promise.’
    ‘Which I always keep.’
    She bit into her bottom lip as she wrapped a surprisingly soft hand straight around the base of him. ‘You been with a woman since you got out?’ she asked, slowly sliding her hand up and down in well-practised strokes.
    Fortunately he’d never had a problem with blatancy – even less so in such deft hands. ‘No.’
    ‘How long were you in?’
    ‘Too long.’
    ‘Then clearly,’ she said, parting her thighs further as she eased even closer. ‘I’m going to have to do something about that.’ She tongued her molars again, her breaths heavier as she took a firmer hold of him, experimenting to find the pressure and angle he preferred.
    But he caught hold of her wrist, eased her hand away. ‘You might want to reconsider before you go any further.’
    ‘Sweetie,’ she said before exhaling a curter stream of smoke. ‘If it’s my honour you’re worried about, you’d be better worrying about your own.’
    ‘I don’t do honour,’ he said. ‘In fact, I’m very likely to hurt