Pursuit: Brandon & Carly (Mafia Ties Book 4)(4)

I gave him exactly what he wanted, screaming as I came again. By the time my heart stopped racing and I could see straight, Brandon was right above me. “I can’t wait to feel this tight, little pussy wrapped around my cock.”

I felt him nudge my opening and blurted out a warning. “I’m a virgin.”

He froze, his eyes widening in surprise. “Fuck!” he hissed.

He dropped his head against mine, and I tried to prepare myself for his anger and disappointment. I felt his chest expand as he took a deep breath, and my vision blurred. Great, now I was mortified and crying. What a fucking perfect combination. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to stem the flow and block out whatever was about to happen.

“Oh, kitten.” The whisper-soft sound of adoration in Brandon’s tone had my eyes popping open. If anything, his eyes were even more heated at my admission.

“You’re not angry?”

“Hell, no! I’m thrilled as fuck to know I’m going to be the first and only man to have you.”

I wasn’t sure what to think of the possessive gleam in his eyes or the way he used the word ‘only.’ Considering how he’d acted around me since we met and what he’d accused me of, it was enough to give a girl whiplash. “I know it’s weird, me still being a virgin. But if you knew the way I grew up, you’d understand.”

He twisted, rolling onto his back and pulling me onto his chest. His dick was rock hard and digging into my stomach, but he acted like it wasn’t bothering him. “Then tell me so I’ll understand. And while you’re at it, explain why an O’Reilly was willing to help the DeLucas.”

“It’s a long story,” I sighed.

“We’ve got all night.”

I must have been delirious from the orgasms because I found myself closing my eyes and resting my head against his chest while I told him things I’d only admitted to one other person, and that was out of sheer desperation. “My da isn’t a good man. Back when my ma was alive and I was a little girl, I thought he hung the moon. Then she died, and I realized he was only pretending for her sake. For what it’s worth, he loved her. He really did.”

I rubbed my cheek against his hot skin, thinking about how I’d dreamt of finding a man who looked at me the way my da had looked at my ma. “Once she was gone, it was as though something broke inside of him. The darkness he’d tried to overcome for her consumed him. He didn’t care about anyone—not even his kids. The only thing that mattered to him was money and power. And if we interfered with his goals in any way, we paid dearly.”

I gulped, thinking of hours spent locked in a dark closet as punishment for one infraction or another. I still had an aversion to small spaces. I didn’t think I’d ever overcome it. “As I grew older, I realized he was willing to do almost anything to get what he wanted. Drugs, guns, human trafficking. It was all the same to him. A means to an end. And then I learned that’s all I was to him, too.”

“What’d he do to you?” Brandon growled.

“It turned out he hadn’t guarded my virtue all those years to protect me. He just wanted a virgin daughter to barter off for even more power.”

“Motherfucker,” he hissed. “That’s why you came to Nic?”

“Yeah, a fat lot of good it did for me, since my own father wants me dead for being a traitor to the family.”

“It did a lot of good, Carly.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“It brought you to me.” His arms tightened around me. “I swear to fuck I’ll keep you safe from him.”

“I don’t want to go back, Brandon. I’m so tired of it all.” Really, I was just plain old tired, as my wide yawn proved.

“Then sleep, kitten. We’ll worry about it in the morning.”

I’d shot him in the leg, made him chase me across several states, left him with a case of blue balls after he gave me the most amazing orgasms ever... and he responded by holding me in his arms while I slept soundly for the first time in my entire life, secure in his embrace.





Chapter 3


Brandon


Pat O’Reilly was a dead man walking. While listening to Carly tell me about her childhood, I felt the rage boiling just under the surface. He had treated his own child no better than an animal and then planned to auction her off to the most powerful bidder. I was already planning each little way I would torture him before letting him die.

Carly snuggled deeper into my embrace, and I closed my eyes, reveling in the peace I was finding in her arms. I hadn’t expected her to be such a balm to my tarnished soul. Every protective instinct in me had roared to life and I knew I would do whatever it took to keep her safe. I was keeping her, period.