Forged Redemption, page 11
part #5 of Tribal Spirits Series
She sprawled over his loveseat, dominating it in a way she always had. The sight of her kickstarted his libido, a pulse of desire he could never ignore. Ally’s long, tan legs were on full display in the blue running shorts she wore, and her white tank top might as well have been painted on. Ally was perfection, all slender shoulders, her tits straining the fabric of her shirt, and hips with a generous curve.
Her sultry gaze locked in on him, those blue eyes darkening with intent. He didn’t question for a moment what she had in mind. When they’d been leaving Beaver Tavern, the claws had dug in hard at the sight of all the couples taking solace in each other. Dax had kept his arm around Sierra’s shoulders, Lana had leaned against Lucas, and Jer and Raven had kept their hands clasped together.
Ally had twined her fingers through his back there, and the stupid fraction of him that dared to hope had leapt onto the comfort. However, in the dim light of his old house, reality set in. Comfort belonged to someone who hadn’t ordered the bombs that scarred her.
“Going to just stand there gaping at me, or are we going to drink?” Ally asked, tapping the seat beside her. Her tone dripped sex, making what she’d come here for clear. He should feel used, but hell, he wanted her so badly the need drowned out reason.
Drew ran his hands through his hair and sank into his weathered couch, even though sex was a terrible idea. He leaned over to pass the handle of Jameson over, and she tilted the bottle. As Ally passed it back, he caught the gleam of the liquid on her lush lips curved into a smirk as fake as his own.
“Why aren’t you at Lana’s tonight?” he asked, spreading his arms along the back of the couch. He didn’t miss how her gaze scorched when she lingered on his chest. “You know out of everyone she’s the best with this sort of shit.”
Ally stretched her arms over her head and stared at the ceiling. “Lana and Luc were doing their thing upstairs. I didn’t want to bother them.”
Drew lifted an eyebrow. “So, you chose to bother me instead?”
Ally pursed her lips. “What am I interrupting? Your romantic date with the bottle, or your hand?”
He snorted and lifted the bottle of whiskey to his lips again. The fiery liquid served as a reminder when it washed down his throat. As much as he wanted to sink between those luscious thighs, the damage he’d caused was still visible there. And if they continued the way they were, the casual drinks, back and forth taunts, he knew where they’d be heading.
“Ally, this isn’t going to happen,” he said, hating the words even as he said them out loud. Because truth be told, his soul ached with a weariness he couldn’t fight anymore, and she’d been the first breath of relief he’d found. She flinched. Before she could say anything else, he forced himself to continue. “I don’t blame you for hating me. Hell, join the damn club. But I can’t help the way my body reacts around you, and we end up colliding every time. You deserve better than a hate fuck with the asshole who screwed up your leg.”
Drew tilted the Jameson back again, unable to witness her reaction. If he were more selfish, maybe he’d just indulge. But when he’d started working with the Tribe, he had promised to make amends. Out of everyone, she deserved them the most.
He heard a rustle and his heart clenched. She was going to leave, in typical Ally fashion. This had been their holding pattern from the beginning—when shit got real, one of them would ditch. All their bickering, yet they never found the words to say.
He lowered the bottle to find her sitting inches from him. The scent of her, gardenia and fresh berries, surrounded him, enhancing the desire he fought to contain.
Ally’s brow furrowed and she let out a shaky breath. Her gaze glided over the couch. “Look, I’m only going to say this once, so pay attention.”
Like she needed to ask. She’d had his rapt attention from the moment she stepped into his house.
“I never hated you, Train Wreck,” she said, her voice skating a whisper. Hearing the words out loud punched him in the chest, and Drew sucked in a sharp breath. She couldn’t look at him, but he understood. Everything about opening up was more painful than the worst knock-down brawl he’d been in.
Ally reached out and placed her hand over his, the touch a connection that had never faded between them. Finally, she looked into his eyes. The lost hopelessness there drove shards into his chest.
“You never told me. We might’ve always been back and forth, and we might’ve fought a lot, but we shared everything. And when you joined the Landsliders—that’s why I’m still pissed. You. Never. Told. Me.” Her voice grew hoarse, a pleading there that slid right under his skin. The air grew tense between them, loaded with the truth she’d spoken, one she’d been silent on for so long.
Drew’s throat squeezed. And what if he had? Maybe together they could’ve found a way to extricate him from the mess. Maybe he wouldn’t have been so alone. But he’d boxed her out, distancing even when he hadn’t tried to. And after the miscarriage, the tenuous bonds between them had fallen apart. He’d never blamed her for leaving.
Excuses bubbled to his lips, ones that had dwelled there for far too long. The ones he had made years ago to justify keeping her in the dark—her protection, to keep her safe, to keep her away from evil like Mackey Kendricks.
Yet she sat here baring herself before him in a way she rarely had before. All the excuses crumbled to dust.
Drew slipped his hands around hers and gripped tight. His heart hurt—right-hook hurt—at her admission. “I’m sorry, Car Crash,” he murmured, the old name loaded with the timeworn affection that had never quite vanished, even as they’d both tried. “I should’ve told you.”
As much as he wanted to say more, the simple truth stood on its own. They had shared everything. She had been a part of all his shitty history, from the fights he got into as a kid to the cracks in the head and hands around his throat his dad called ‘training.’ No matter how much they’d fought, they’d always shared everything, until he’d joined the Landsliders and they’d fallen apart for real.
Ally’s lips tilted with a half-smile. “Was that so hard?” Even as she tried to return to her normal register, the vulnerability she’d exposed lingered in her words and the tender way she glanced to him. Those slips of soft were his kryptonite from the iron-edge woman who slung acid for a pastime.
He grinned. “Full-out evisceration.”
In the wake of the horror they’d witnessed today, smiles and jokes felt sacrilege, like he was spitting on their corpses. However, life was too short, too glass-vase-fragile to waste. Relief radiated through him in a way he forgot was possible, like a hard shell cracked wide open. The heat inside spilled out, real feelings that existed beyond the numbness he’d sentenced himself to.
All the time he’d spent pushing Ally away had been a waste, because this gorgeous, resilient woman had never wanted any ideal. They’d collided together over and over throughout the years because they were both headfucks too stubborn and broken for anyone else to deal with. Somehow along the way, he’d forgotten that.
“Spirits above, Ally-cat,” he murmured, the words thick in his throat. “I missed you so damn much.”
The admission tore at the numbness, a mixture of pain and warmth he’d been avoiding for far too long. He might not recover from this riptide threatening to drag him away, but she’d taken the first step toward him. He’d rather soak in the hurt than cause her hesitant smile to falter.
She stared at him, eyes full of wonder, full of the hope he thought had been destroyed a long time ago. Spirits, those lush lips, the slender slope of her face, and the wicked curves of her features made for sin—all of it held him spellbound. She’d always been a beautiful destruction he’d embraced every time.
“Then enough about what I deserve,” Ally growled, a grin spreading. Her gaze flashed the bronze of her mountain lion. “I want you, Drew Williams.”
Like this, she was the hellcat he remembered, but she’d grown. The Ally from years ago would’ve never been able to voice the words out loud. Her bravery socked him in the gut, the push he needed to bypass the self-loathing in his brain.
Drew reached out to trace the slope of her jaw. He brushed his thumb across her lips, and she shivered in response, her gaze laser-focused on him. Everything about her screamed sex, from the way she tilted forward, revealing the shadowed slope of her cleavage, to the heat in her eyes, a lioness on the prowl.
“And how badly do you want me, babe?” he murmured, a grin rising to his lips. He continued to run his fingers across her skin, down the elegant column of her neck, and across those exposed collarbones.
“Keep your ego out of this, Williams,” she shot back, the exact response he expected from her. “You’re insufferable enough as is.”
She was the only one who’d ever keep him in check. Others might not get their collisions, but they both understood when the other needed to hurt and when barbs at each other soothed pain that would otherwise consume. When he’d returned with the Tribe, Ally’s barbs had been cool, none of the familiar heat in them. Those had hurt.
Yet with these, the glint returned to her eyes and a smile ghosted her lips.
Maybe he didn’t deserve forgiveness, but she’d given it anyway. Maybe he could shove the shadows away and let the light in—at least for tonight. Drew’s heart thundered.
“Take your swings now, babe,” he drawled. He prowled closer on the couch, closing the space between them. “Because they’ll all be gone when you’re screaming my name.”
“In your dreams,” she responded. Ally licked her lips, the eagerness in her eyes stoking his libido. The mere scent of her got him hard, and her arousal was heavy in the air. Fuck, he wanted to drive into her again and again, to slip her golden hair through his fingers and tug. Drew needed Ally splayed beneath him, unfettered and raw. The slip of vulnerability from her before had stoked his coals in a way nothing else would.
All thoughts of stepping away vanished once she spoke up. Ever since the Tribe had dragged him out of the Landsliders, Drew had been running, running, running from those memories. He’d grown icebox numb, only the blackened tendrils of his self-loathing protruding through. Yet, if she could summon the bravery to voice her truth out loud, then maybe he could face a few of his demons.
Drew placed his palm on her cheek and drew her forward. The space vanished between them, and their lips met. They’d kissed before, a thousand times over, but he had never needed her this badly.
He sank into the kiss, his fingers threading through her hair. He gripped tight. Drew drank in the taste of her, of desire, of heartbreak, of salvation. This wasn’t a chance encounter fueled on regret and old memories. This thing between them, this crazy collision they’d always fallen into—this was the way they healed.
Chapter Thirteen
The moment Drew’s lips met hers, everything else vanished.
The pain, the excruciating pain from the losses earlier that made her forget how to breathe, how to function.
The raw scrape of nerves that buzzed after the words burst from her mouth, unbidden, the only way she’d ever manage to speak them.
The overwhelming fear of what would come next, of the retribution they’d promised the packs they would deliver.
When she had been sitting at home and flicking through the TV channels, the emotions had roared so loud she thought she would go insane. She’d only met one person who could shut away the noise, the one whose arms she’d fallen into time and time again. Ally couldn’t place when she’d forgiven him, whether it had been the moment he returned, or the small connections along the way of fighting together again, of reconnecting back in the cabin, but she had.
Ally wrapped her arms around his neck and sank into the explosive heat of his kiss. That clever mouth coaxed moans from her. The way he switched from the gentle brush of his lips to the harsh bite of his teeth was pure poetry, and she couldn’t help but surrender. His vanilla scent wrapped around her, the warmth traveling straight between her legs. He leaned over her and she fell onto the couch cushion with a thud, a grin rising to her lips.
Drew dipped to claim her mouth again, pure possession. This was the passion she’d craved that no amount of Tinder dates could compare to. Not like she’d ever admit it, but when she masturbated in the shower, she envisioned him, every fucking time. Her nipples tightened when he pressed her into the couch, his weight pinning her in a way she craved right now. Whenever her problems expanded to the point where her very cells threatened full breakdown, he brought her to the ground and pieced her back together.
Somehow, she’d forgotten that. Somehow, the years of secrets had poisoned their well, until each of them withered more and more.
“Spread for me, sweetheart,” Drew commanded, showing the bossiness she only ever took from him in the bedroom. Ally opened her legs wider, desperate to feel his hardness between her thighs. He brushed another kiss to her lips even as his fingers skimmed the waistband of her running shorts. He tugged down, bringing her panties along too as they both hit her ankles. Ally toed her sneakers to the floor and kicked the fabric off the rest of the way.
Vulnerability crashed over her like the tide as she lay here, pussy bared to him. His gaze grew hot and hungry when he rested his big hands on her thighs. Her scar throbbed like it always did, and she tried to pull her legs together on reflex. Drew didn’t budge, even though he cast a glance to the mottled skin, the disfigurement her thigh had become.
He met her stare, the desire there mind-melting. “You’ve never looked more beautiful.”
Heat stung at her eyes, all the hateful words that rose in her mind banished. After the agony that had scored her today and the failure threatening to crush her, Ally just needed the reminder that something good existed out here. That she had a future to fight for too.
She and Drew had always been complicated—they would always be complicated. But she’d never wanted to chase after her dreams with anyone else but him.
He crawled down to sink between her thighs and her core clenched in anticipation. Drew lowered, brushing his lips against her thighs as he nipped and sucked at the skin. A breath escaped her. She was so drenched for him and had been the moment their lips met. The bristle along his jaw rubbed against her skin and the fevered kisses he pressed against her thighs had her spreading open on instinct. She tensed when his lips brushed across her scar, but he didn’t hesitate, biting the knotted skin. He teased her to the point where she grew delirious, until her pussy pulsed with need. Ally slid her calf along his side.
“Something you want?” he teased, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “You know the currency, sweetheart.”
Ally opened her mouth and shut it. The man was infuriating, obnoxious and, holy hell, he made her insane. With a smirk, he descended between her thighs. Once he slipped his tongue against her clit, Ally forgot everything. Drew lapped at her with a languid laziness, those slow strokes agonizing. They sent her careening toward oblivion. A moan slipped past her lips when he increased the pace.
“That’s right,” he murmured. “Show me how badly you need me.”
He tightened his grip and descended again. The glimpse of him between her thighs was the hottest thing she’d ever seen, chin-length strands framing his gorgeous face. His eyes glowed the electric blue of his mountain lion. The breath escaped her at the scorching way he bit and sucked, and the tip of his tongue moved with exquisite precision. Everything she’d been holding back exploded outward, her moans growing louder and louder.
Ally bucked at the intense spike of pleasure rolling through her, and she thrust her hips toward his clever mouth. Drew gripped her so tight his nails dug into her skin, the delicious bite enhancing her pleasure. The way he devoured left her breathless as he wrung moan after moan from her. Each stroke brought her closer, closer, until everything vanished except the scent of vanilla, sweat and the feel of his mouth on her.
Drew increased his tempo, moving with a fury she was helpless to resist. The pressure built, built, built, until it twisted so tight she couldn’t think, couldn’t function and couldn’t breathe.
Ally careened over the edge. White-hot pleasure flooded through her and the breath caught in her throat. Her core spasmed, the aftershocks radiating through her as she came. Every other thought bleached away in the wake of the mind-blowing bliss holding her captive. Drew relaxed his grip on her legs, and she lowered her hips to the couch again. His lips glistened from tasting her, and the wickedness simmering in his eyes promised they’d just begun.
Spirits above, she’d forgotten what being with a partner who knew every button to push, every switch to flip felt like. Drew understood her body and the way she ticked like her pack knew the forests of this region.
“On your knees, sweetheart,” he commanded, a cocky grin on his lips.
Her core clenched tight at the desire hot in his tone. His erection strained the fabric of his sweats, and he slid off the couch to stand. Her mouth salivated at the sight of him, all sun-kissed skin and ridged muscles she wanted to sink her teeth into. He was the sort of gorgeous that made her heart ache. No matter how much they pissed each other off, or how they might argue and bicker, she’d forever fall for the concern shining in his eyes and the steadiness he offered every time she came apart at the seams.
Ally rose to her feet, a little unsteady in the wake of the orgasm he’d wrung from her. She stepped to him, slipping her fingers past the elastic of his sweats. She skimmed her fingertips across his silken length, enjoying how he closed his eyes at the touch. His breath hitched in his throat.
He wasn’t the only one who knew every step of this dance.
“Time for a little payback, stud,” she purred, bringing those pants down his powerful thighs, his defined calves. She sank to a crouch, and Drew kicked off his sweats. The sight of him standing above her, all cut muscle and lickable, smooth skin dosed her with lust that traveled right between her thighs. Spirits, she was soaked. As she switched to her knees, the hesitant tenderness in his eyes squeezed her chest tight. He looked at her like he wondered if he was allowed to have this sort of connection.
