Risk Me (Vegas Knights Book 2) Read online

  His hand hooked over the back of my neck and he fit his mouth to mine just as he fit the head of his cock to my pussy. He rocked back and forth over me, slow and easy, not entering, just letting me feel him at first. Then, as that alone threatened to drive me insane, he shifted his position, then moved—on the next glide, he bore into me and I cried out.

  He froze, not moving another inch.

  “It’s okay,” he rasped against my lips. “I’m stopping…right here. Until you’re ready.”

  It was a mix of pain and pleasure mingling through me and I gripped his shoulders, staring up at him in shock. I didn’t know how else to describe what filled me. Shock. Pleasure. Pain. He was inside me—a part of me. Just as I’d wanted him to be. Just as he already was in so many ways.

  But not enough…

  I could feel him trembling above me, the caged hunger inside him, and an aching emptiness inside me.

  Groaning, I arched my hips upward, trying to take him deeper.

  “You ready, Thea?” he asked.

  “Please…yes, damn it, yes,” I moaned.

  He slid deeper, then pulled out.

  “No!”

  But a split second later, he was back inside me, and deeper this time.

  He kept that up, that slow retreat/advance rhythm that eventually had him buried inside me completely and I was whimpering long before he had given me all of him. I thrashed beneath him, the pain still a looming shadow but lost under the pleasure and I chased that brighter edge, uncaring of the sharp bite that went through me.

  It didn’t matter.

  Nothing mattered but the movement of his body over mine, the ragged bursts of his breath and then…

  Not even that mattered.

  Everything exploded. Light and sound merged into one and I forgot how to breathe, how to do anything but cry out his name.

  Well…maybe not everything.

  At some point, I’d said something.

  I realized that, embarrassingly, a few minutes later, when he pushed up onto his elbow to peer down at me.

  “Did you mean that or was it just because I’m that good?” he teased.

  I blushed—he had a way of bringing that out of me.

  But I didn’t lie. “I meant it. I’ve…uh…I’ve meant it for a while.”

  A pleased smile curled his lips. “I love you, Thea Kent. More than you’re ever going to know.”

  12

  LeVan

  It wasn’t like I’d planned it.

  Sure, I was tired of acting like the two of us were hiding what we were to each other, but I already understood what the problem was with Thea.

  Every-fucking-body in town knew what the problem was with Melody Kent. She was a first order bitch in a world that tolerated her because of her wealth. Thea was nothing like her.

  My granny used to say that like begat. That could never apply to Thea and her mother. Completely impossible, given I knew what that haughty woman was about a long-ass time ago.

  I was only ten years old the first time Melody Kent made a lasting impression on me.

  The candy store in St. Gabriel was something of a local hotspot, a popular lunch spot, a popular place for date night, a great place to take your kids on Saturdays. It was just plain popular. Who the hell knows why Melody had been there. I’m pretty sure they don’t sell anything soaked in booze.

  I’d been on my way to the front, my ten-dollar allowance clutched in one greedy fist while the candy I’d picked out was clutched in the other—I’d only let myself pick out two dollars’ worth of candy. Two dollars. Because the magic trick I wanted from a store in Baton Rouge cost eight dollars and I knew my dad—he wouldn’t give me any extra money.

  I’d just stepped up to the counter when I heard her voice.

  “You really should check his pockets, Darla. Boys like him are always free with taking things that aren’t theirs.”

  I hadn’t realized she was talking about me.

  I just hadn’t.

  My daddy was a doctor.

  My mother was a teacher and she worked with special needs kids. I earned ten dollars every week because I helped out around the house—I didn’t just clean my room. Mama said that was my job and cleaning my room wasn’t enough to earn money. I had to do more.

  If Darla’s eyes hadn’t dropped to me, I wouldn’t have known.

  But the sweet old lady had glanced at me. Her mouth had gone tight. She hadn’t been happy and although she didn’t say anything to Melody, I knew the woman behind me had been talking about me.

  Blood had roared too loudly in my ears for me to understand anything else and it wasn’t until Mama appeared to take my hand that the world made sense again. She’d said something—she wasn’t happy either. That much I remembered clear as day.

  It was later that night that she and I talked again.

  We’d had those talks before but this was the first time it clicked.

  “You’re going to have people who treat you differently, baby. Whether it’s because they are small minded, or stupid, foolish…there are any number of reasons for it, but you are not a white boy. You’ll never be white even though you’re paler than me. But your heritage comes from two races, and because of that, people will judge you for it. You just have to rise above it and be who you are…a good boy…one who is loved dearly, a boy with lots and lots of talent.”

  I’d asked her if that’s what the woman in the candy store had done.

  Mama had gotten pissed then.

  “No. She judged you because of who I am. But she still would’ve judged you unkindly, baby.”

  It wasn’t the first time Melody Kent had caused me grief in my life and if she ever found out about Thea and me, it wouldn’t be the last, either.

  Still, while there was a good reason for keeping our relationship quiet as far as Thea’s family went, there wasn’t as much of a reason—or any reason, really—when it came to my family.

  We’d just…done it.

  That summer day, as she was preparing to start college in Baton Rouge, we’d been having lunch at a café in the city when Mama and Dad walked in and saw us.

  I had a crawfish in one hand. The other was empty, ready to crack the head open.

  Thea’s eyes were sparkling, her lips curved in a smile as happy as I’d ever seen.

  Her brother Nicky sat next to her, and he was laughing at something I’d said.

  I liked Nicky.

  He was a sweet kid, as innocent as anyone I’d ever met, and I couldn’t understand the hell it must have been for the two of them to live with someone as full of hate as Melody Kent—and she was full of hate. I’d seen the aftereffects of fights gleaming in Thea’s eyes, and although she tried to hide them, I’d also seen bruises, long, ugly marks in the shape of fingers that marred her arms or wrists, evidence of cruel hands grabbing and squeezing.

  There had never once been a mark on Nicky—and I’d asked.

  Thea told me she checked in on Nicky all the time and she’d told her mother if there was ever a mark on Nicky, she’d go straight to the cops.

  I told her she should go anyway.

  But she worried what would happen if things didn’t go as they should—would her mother throw her out? If so, who’d watch after Nicky?

  I’d asked my dad about child protective services and special needs kids, trying to keep it subtle. I don’t know if I’d succeeded, but he’d advised me that it wasn’t always easy to prove a case of abuse…however, he did have friends who watched for such things.

  I took that to mean that Nicky was being watched by two of the toughest pieces of work I could ask to have on my side—my father, and Thea Kent.

  Sometimes, I wondered how she could still laugh after living the life she’d led.

  When I asked her, she’d push a deck of cards into my hands and whisper, “Show me a trick, Magic Man.”

  After I made her smile, she told me, “That’s how.” And she wouldn’t talk about it.

  I did what I could to m
ake her laugh.

  Although I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to make her laugh about this.

  “Mom. Dad.”

  She froze, her eyes moving up to the couple standing at the end of the table.

  Nicky, as free and open as a child despite the fact that he was just a handful of years younger than Thea, looked up and beamed at them. “Hi. Dr. Brax, hi!”

  That was the Nicky I wanted to remember after tragedy had struck.

  13

  LeVan

  That beeping sound was going to drive me crazy.

  And Thea…well, she was going to break my heart. She cried silently, standing next to me as she stared through the glass.

  She hadn’t made a sound since I’d arrived and she’d thrown herself at me. Arms wrapped around me, she’d whispered brokenly, “Thank you for being here… I’m so sorry.”

  Sorry.

  Yeah.

  Me too. But she didn’t owe me an apology. She had just as much to grieve as I did, maybe more. Our worlds collided in a way neither of us ever expected. It wouldn’t change anything, and it wasn’t her fault.

  Thea’s brother, Nicky, was so frustrated by his mother’s treatment of him that he ran out. And how could anyone possibly blame him for that? Who wouldn’t want to escape the life he was subjected to? Except this time, he didn’t hesitate to get behind the wheel of a car. Those four wheels were a means to an end, one that would put miles and miles of distance between him and that woman who called herself a parent. The problem was that Nicky didn’t have a driver’s license, but he didn’t let that stop him.

  Too bad his escape was short-lived.

  Too bad he didn’t know how to steer a car.

  Too bad other people were on the road.

  People like my brother and his friends.

  My brother, Harry, had been parked on the side of the road with some friends he regularly spent time with. There was no real reason they were in that particular spot at that specific time. But it was the wrong place and the wrong time, because being there put them in Nicky’s path as he came careening out onto the main road from the long, elaborate driveway of the Kent estate.

  Nicky crashed head-on into Harry’s parked car.

  Two tenuous worlds violently collided.

  Harry’s friend, Jeffrey, died instantly.

  Brady, Harry’s other friend, wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. He was thrown from the car. According to the doctors, two of Brady’s pelvic vertebrae had snapped. He had compound fractures on his ribs too, and had to be put on a ventilator. There was little to no hope he’d ever come off it.

  Nicky was flung from the car he stole. He wasn’t doing too well, but he was likely going to have a better outcome than Brady. And definitely better than the dead boy.

  My brother was knocked unconscious during the collision, but when he came to, he had barely a scratch on him. Everyone was astounded about Harry. He’d been sitting in the driver seat when Nicky hit them, and of the four boys, he was the only one who walked away unscathed. The paramedics cleared him at the scene, and he rode along in the ambulance van with Brady. He refused to leave the ER even after the police took his statement and the doctors released him into my mother’s care.

  There wasn’t much to be thankful for, given we were dealing with one fatality, possibly two, if Brady’s condition didn’t improve. I tried to be grateful that my brother was okay and that Nicky was alive. I was, but their being alive was overshadowed by the knowledge that two families would never be the same after today.

  Of course, it could’ve been much, much worse.

  There was a clatter behind me, rhythmic and sharp. The woman had the worst timing ever, daring to show up in the middle of my effort to be grateful. Disgust and rage ripped through me at the sight of her as she strode into the room. Every muscle in my body went rigid, but I still kept staring at the woman put on this earth only to make people suffer.

  Thea’s mother.

  She wore a pair of four-inch heels that made her appear much taller than normal. Even so, she was still shorter than Thea and I were, the loving young woman who I believed would always be at my side. I took a breath to prepare myself, and when that evil bitch stopped halfway across the room, I assumed it was so she wouldn’t have to look up at me, but I could’ve been wrong. It might’ve been because she couldn’t stand the thought of looking up at her daughter—one of only two good things she did with her life.

  Thea and Nicky Kent.

  Here was Melody Kent.

  Evil bitch.

  The worst parent ever.

  Her dark, graying hair was swept back from a face that was starting to show its age no matter how much she spent on Botox, facelifts, and beauty creams. Her eyes raked over me, then flicked to Thea, lips pursed in disgust. I resisted the urge to sneer at her, but only because I knew it would add to Thea’s troubles. It was worth repeating that her mother was a bitch of the first order.

  Melody Kent made a habit of taking out her problems on her closest, easiest targets—Thea and Nicky.

  Thea had told me once that she and Nicky were connected to Melody Kent by blood and nothing else. The woman had no love for her kids and even less respect. It was something I could never understand until I actually had my first run-in with the woman years ago. She was the living personification of a true-to-life ice queen, perpetually dressed in silk, powdered up and perfumed. She breathed, moved, and thought like a human, but emotions were foreign to her.

  “Are you proud of yourself, Dorothea?”

  Thea Kent’s shoulders stiffened. Turning slowly, her eyes went cold.

  Melody Kent’s eyes drifted my way, and she waved a self-important hand at me dismissively. “You may go.”

  “With all due respect, I’m not here for you, Mrs. Kent,” I drawled. I took pleasure in emphasizing the title of ‘Mrs.’ because of what I knew, despite my promise to try and never antagonize the woman on the other side of the room.

  “You will leave now…or I shall call the authorities.”

  I slid an arm around Thea’s shoulders and her body relaxed. “I’m not going anywhere,” I reiterated.

  All the air got sucked out of the room, as though the universe itself was bracing for our showdown.

  “Try having his dad escort him out, Mother,” Thea said through the tense silence.

  “Don’t you dare speak to me that way,” she said through clenched teeth, then turned slightly to me. “Perhaps I should send the authorities to look more closely at your brother instead.”

  “Sure. You might want to ask for my Uncle Daniel…the police chief. He’ll point out that Harry’s car was parked when the accident happened. But go ahead. Knock yourself out.” Saying that gave me no satisfaction. Nicky may have been at the wheel, but the whole thing was a tragic accident. With a muted smile, I stroked a hand down Thea’s back, then back up, trying to draw some of the tension away.

  “You think your connection to the chief of police will save your brother?”

  “No,” Thea spoke before I could reply, taking a small step forward to attract her mother’s attention. “It’s the witnesses and the surveillance video the police recovered, and the off-duty cop who also saw the accident. Those are the things that’ll save Harry. Now just…stop, okay, Mother? Stop it. And as you’re not here to show an iota of concern for Nicky…your own son…can you just leave?”

  Melody Kent cocked her head, her eyes questioning and cold, almost snake-like. She still didn’t look through the glass to her son—to the boy doctors said might not survive the injuries he sustained after being ejected from the car. Maybe she’d never look, because if she did, she’d have to come to terms with the fact that he only jumped into that car—her car—to make his umpteenth attempt at running away after she’d laid into him yet again.

  Next to me, I felt Thea shudder. I wanted to take her away from all of this. Two more years, I thought. Two more years and I’d be done with my bachelor’s degree. I promised my father I’d go to college, give
it a shot. After that, I could do what I wanted. My post-graduation plan was to marry Thea and get the hell out of this town. In two more years. But that time seemed longer than ever now.

  I gently squeezed her shoulders to comfort her. It was all I could do for now, since we’d never leave Nicky alone here.

  “I’m here to be with my children,” Melody Kent said to Thea, her voice sharp. “Both you and Nicholas.”

  “You’ve never been there for us in my life,” Thea replied. “Why start now?”

  “You rude, selfish little--”

  “That’s enough, Melody.”

  The calm yet commanding voice echoed deep with authority, yet was brimming over with compassion. It didn’t come from me. Compassion wasn’t something I could spare when Melody Kent was near.

  It was my father.

  Dr. Braxton Vanderbilt had an imposing figure. At the age of forty-eight, he was the youngest physician to head the large trauma hospital on the outskirts of Baton Rouge. He was the heir to one of the largest family fortunes in the country. At one time, I’d been told that Dad could’ve become the wealthiest man in Louisiana, but did not jump at the chance he’d seen as an empty, loveless arrangement.

  My father wanted a marriage, not a merger.

  That merger would’ve been with one Melody Kent, who would’ve been perfectly fine with such an arrangement.

  Melody Kent had as many dollar signs behind her name as my family did, possibly more, but loved the idea of marriage to my father. Of course, that idea didn’t take root, and now, the woman had accumulated a fair number of ended marriages and failed relationships. She also had three other children from previous marriages, but those children’s fathers had had the presence of mind to take them away from Melody Kent. If only Thea and Nicky had been so lucky. They were the ones who got screwed over.

  Because their mother was a miserable bitch.

  I couldn’t stand that she was so miserable that she made her kids’ lives a living hell, but I didn’t hate her.

  Couldn’t.

  She made Thea, and Thea was my world.