He was riding a fine line of control, I could feel it in every one of his movements, and I knew that a single twitch could set him off. I was panting, resting my hands against the door when I felt him fall to his knees behind me, jerking my hips toward him so I was bent over at the waist.

“Fuck,” he whispered against my skin, slowing his movements. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me,” I rasped, pressing my forehead against the door.

He didn’t reply because he was pushing his face between my legs and capturing my clit between his lips, bypassing every other piece of flesh. He rubbed it slowly at first, warming me up, but the minute I started writhing against him he sucked. It took only a few minutes to come with him shoving me over the edge, and before I could come down from my high, he was standing and spinning me around.

His jeans and boxers fell to his feet as he lifted me up, and without pausing, dropped me onto him. He used his body to press me to the door, but instead of holding me with his hands on my ass like I was used to, he ran his arms under my knees until they were resting on the insides of his elbows. I wrapped my arms around his neck in a death grip, but the position left me with absolutely no control unless I wanted to fall to the floor.

“Lift your chin for me, Sugar,” he ordered huskily as he pounded in and out, causing my back to slam into the door.

The second I tilted my head back, I felt his tongue and teeth at my throat as he bit down and then sucked strongly. When he was done, he pulled back to gaze at it and mumbled, “Better,” before dropping his forehead to my collarbone. I let go with one hand, trusting him to keep me from falling, and ran my hand softly through his hair as his thrusts became fast and jerky and he came with a slow groan.

He held on to me and shuffled into our bedroom, falling to his back on the bed. I kissed him as I climbed off, and went to crouch at his feet when I felt something running down my leg.

We hadn’t used protection.

I didn’t say a word as I rushed to the bathroom to take care of the mess, and when I got back to our room, he was laying in the same position with his forearm resting over his eyes.

“You want to talk about it?” I asked gently as I pulled off his boots and socks.

“You don’t need that shit in your head,” he told me with a sigh. “It was a clusterfuck. Farrah’s ma was there.”

He didn’t say another word, and I didn’t press as I stripped away his jeans. I started for the dresser to get us some clean clothes but he stopped me.

“Don’t get dressed tonight,” he said wearily. “Want to feel you when I sleep.”

I didn’t reply, but turned back toward him and climbed back in the bed.

I bit the inside of my lip as he crawled under the covers, but couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, “We didn’t use protection!” before averting my eyes.

“That a problem?” he asked as if he didn’t see one.

“What if I get pregnant?”

“What if you do? I’ve got a job, we’re both adults, and you’d be a hell of a mother,” he answered, closing his eyes as his head sunk into the pillow.

My mouth open and closed a few times, trying to decide on a suitable reply, but he reached out without opening his eyes and pulled me down next to him.

“Stop worrying about it, Callie,” he told me simply.

His body was relaxed into the bed as if boneless, and for the first time that night his face wasn’t drawn and tight. I could force him to have the conversation with me; he’d do it if I asked. But as I felt his arm tighten around me, and his breathing grow even, I couldn’t make myself say anymore.

“I love you,” I mumbled, my lips pressed to his chest.

“Love you, too, Sugar.”

Chapter 49

Callie

The next few days passed in a blur as Asa and I argued about when I was going to move. He thought it made perfect sense to pack up the rest of my shit and move it when he left, so he didn’t have to make an extra trip. I could see his logic, and in any other situation, I could have agreed with him.

But Farrah needed me.

I couldn’t move to Oregon when she was still startling at every noise. She was staying with Echo, but driving to my house whenever he was working which meant she was at our house a lot.

I wasn’t sure what was happening with the Aces, but the guys that came down with Slider and Poet still hadn’t left. Something was brewing, something big, and I wondered what Asa wasn’t telling me as he and Echo disappeared for meeting after meeting. For some reason, his insistence that I move to Oregon with him immediately had turned almost desperate, and he was snapping and snarling at me constantly.

“Farrah doesn’t need you here!” he roared, continuing the argument the minute he walked in the door that night. “She’s living with Echo! He’ll deal with her shit!”

“She was there for me when you weren’t,” I told him calmly, refusing to get into another screaming match. “She sat with me the day of my parents’ funeral. She came by every day to make sure that I wasn’t alone.”

“Don’t throw that shit in my face again, Calliope!”

“I’m not throwing it in your face,” I replied, “I’m trying to explain to you that I owe her.”

“You owe her? That’s what this is about? That’s fuckin’ ridiculous.”

His automatic brush-off of something I felt so strongly about made my entire body tense with anger and I had a hard time controlling myself as I answered him.