ROYAL ROCK(135)

“Come on. Can you do this with me?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Good. Be strong.”

I quickly led her back into the club, leaving the first man there on the ground. I didn’t have time to inspect him or to wake him up, but I knew what I’d find: a tattoo on his wrist of a dagger going into a heart.

We found Lydie still at the bar, and with one look she knew something had happened. We gathered her up and were back out front, flagging down a cab, and back home within fifteen minutes. It all moved by in a blur of activity. I didn’t have time to think or second-guess; my only priority was keeping the girls safe.

Finally, when we were back inside, the anger I had been holding at bay ever since the men had attacked came surging back.

“Guys, what happened?” Lydie asked finally. She’d been oddly quiet the whole time, probably because Claire seemed like a catatonic mess.

“People are targeting Claire’s father,” I said through clenched teeth. “They’ve been trying to kidnap her to get at him.”

“Holy shitballs. Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious.”

She was stunned. For a second I felt a little proud that I had finally found something that would shut up even Lydie.

“Come on, Claire,” I said. “Let me get you to bed.”

“Are you sure?” Lydie asked.

“She’s in shock,” I said. “I’m here. I can handle her.”

“Okay.”

“Go home.”

She stared at me. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

“I won’t. Call a cab and don’t leave the house until it’s out front.”

She nodded, and then I took Claire upstairs. Lydie watched us go, concern clear on her face.

“Why would they do this?” Claire asked me.

“I don’t know.”

I helped her undress and put her in a T-shirt and shorts. I’d be a liar if I said that I didn’t sneak a single look at her incredible fucking body, but otherwise I was a perfect gentleman.

Once dressed, I got her into bed.

“Stay,” she whispered.

“Are you sure?”

“Please.”

I undressed and climbed into bed with her, wrapping my arms around her tiny-seeming body. I couldn’t believe a man could possibly want to hurt her. Anger flooded me again, but I choked it back, willing myself not to let Claire know how truly beyond pissed I was.

I held her like that late into the night. Eventually her breathing slowed as she drifted off to sleep. I wasn’t the cuddling type, but I knew when a person needed to be comforted, especially after an insane trauma. A second insane trauma in a matter of a few days, no less.

Meanwhile, as she slept, I planned.

The bastards weren’t getting away with it. I had been trying to give up and remain neutral, but neutrality was off the table.

Now I was going on the hunt. The motherfuckers didn’t know what they had started.





15





CLAIRE

I couldn’t tell how late it was when I woke up, but Nate wasn’t sleeping. I could feel his warm body pressed against mine, breathing deeply and slowly. I pressed my ass against him harder and he responded, his arms wrapping around me.

My heart began to beat fast. I knew what happened next. I knew what he wanted, and I knew I wanted it just as much, even if there were a million reasons not to.

Forgetting about all of that, forgetting about the men that attacked us in the alley, about the pirates and my father, I began to grind my hips against him.

“Are you sure you want to start this, sis?” he whispered in my ear.

I gasped as his hand found my breast and then tipped my chin back toward him.

“Yes,” I said.

His mouth found mine, kissing me deeply, as I reached back and found his cock, already stiffening. I began to stroke him through his thin gym shorts, rubbing his length up and down as his hand explored me in return.

Finally, agonizingly slowly, his fingers slipped below my panties and found my clit. I hadn’t realized how soaking wet I was until he began to slowly slick around my clit, his fingers moving in blindingly pleasurable circles around me.

I could hardly take it. I moved my mouth away from his and gasped in some air as he pushed against me harder and began to work me more frantically. I wanted to speak, to tell him to keep going, beg him to fuck me, but he was already in control. His arms wrapped around me and worked my clit, alternating between there and pistoning inside me.

I was a writhing, mindless mess, but I didn’t care. Somewhere in the back of my head, I knew logically that I needed to be quiet, that our parents might hear us, but that didn’t seem to matter to me. Not in the state I was in, the state Nate put me in. I couldn’t control what came out of my mouth any more than I could control my SEAL stepbrother’s powerful arms and hands.