Under Locke(119)

Dex was stalking toward the end of the block, a phone held up to his ear, and I could hear him barking something ugly and low into the end.



Shit.



I gathered up my guts and followed after him, catching bits and pieces of "Motherfucker—at Pins—lost his fuckin' mind—Ritz!"



Oh boy.



The moment he thrust his cell phone into his pocket and made way to start stomping across the street, I slid my finger through the belt loops at the back of his jeans and tugged. "Charlie."



Miraculously, he paused.



"Hey, he's gone," I told him in the most soothing voice I could come up with. My free hand settled on the small of his back. "Calm down."



Dex turned to look at me over his shoulder before gradually turning around, the tips of his boots pressing against the tips of my flats. For once, that carefully blank expression was missing. In its place, Dex's mouth was pulled back in a tight snarl. His eyes narrowed.



Yeah, he was pissed.



I smiled at him, hoping that it would calm him down, and I tugged at his belt loop again. "Chill out." I used the same words he'd used on me so long ago. "Nothing happened."



"Ritz," he gritted out. "He came here. To my shop. On my territory. And tried to fuckin' get you to go with him." He bared his teeth. "That's not fuckin' nothin'."



Sometimes I just wanted to roll my eyes at him. "But he's gone, and I don't want you to get in trouble."



Okay, he was still pissed.



"And I'm here with you, not him, so it doesn't matter."



He stared at me for a long moment, his gaze hard. Then his hands were cupping my face. He tipped my head back to nip at my upper lip, sucking it between his.



Oh my crap.



Dex moved to do the same to my bottom one before I reacted. Before I tried to kiss him back the same way he was kissing me, with the dull edges of my teeth catching his bottom lip. He tilted my head even further back, arching me against him as he wrapped an arm around my waist.



His hot tongue slipped into my mouth the first chance he got, brushing against mine with more force, more possession, than I knew what to do with. But it didn't matter that I'd only kissed three people before him. That his experience more than likely eclipsed mine by hundreds, because he moaned into my mouth. He pulled me tighter against him, gripped my waist more strongly than he needed to.



The kiss was a claim.



His tongue dueled mine in a way that was completely friggin' inappropriate on a busy public street. His hard body curled over me, consuming me.



And I loved it. I let it happen. I sucked his tongue into my mouth like I knew what I was doing. Like I'd cease to exist if he didn't bite my lip again.



"Iris." He gently bit the soft place between my jaw and throat column.



Holy, holy, holy crap.



I was going to go up in a pile of flames. A burning inferno that rivaled hell, that would be worth every second of pain to have Dex's mouth so aggressively on mine.



He bit down again before nuzzling the line of my jaw. "You're mine." His lower body pressed into my stomach. Hard, he was so hard. "Your mouth, your face, your ass, your pussy, Ritz. You're all mine."



Me, who had never even kissed another person in public, was panting. Ready to give everything and more to the man that scared the crap out of me.



And if it wouldn't have been for the throat clearing that yanked me so abruptly from the sexual daze I was in, I would have gladly stayed there with his tongue in my throat and his teeth at my jaw forever.



"Uhh, Dex?"



He sucked my lip one last time, hard, into his mouth before pulling his mouth away reluctantly.



The sound of that same throat clearing came from behind me again.



"Dex, Luther's on the phone." It was Slim talking. Slim that was clearing his throat.



Slim that had caught us making out. In the middle of the sidewalk. In the middle of the day.



Oh. No.



The ginger had a smug look on his face and I really don’t think I imagined him mouthing, “I knew it,” at me.



I'm sure my face turned a kaleidoscope of reds and pinks as I tried to take a step back and away from Dex, but when he kept his arm tight around my waist, it was useless.



"Okay," he finally answered in a hoarse voice, not bothering to turn around.



Dex kept his head down, toward me. His arm was stiff on my back. Sucking in a crisp breath through his nose, he let out a shaky exhale out through his mouth. He leaned in and whispered three words that made me break out in goose bumps. "This isn't over."



I really friggin' hoped not.





Chapter Twenty-Seven



"Tell us what happened."



Ef me.