Rock Chick Redemption (Rock Chick #3)(55)

He pul ed out and broke his rhythm, his body tense, I could feel him but he wasn’t coming inside.

My eyes opened.

“Hank?”

His head dropped and in my ear he said, “Stay.” Holy cow.

My entire body spasmed.

“Don’t.”

“Promise me you’l stay,” he whispered.

I moved, tightening my arms and wrapping my legs around his back.

“Whisky –”

When I used his nickname, he slid deep inside and kept going, finishing me off.

* * * * *

After we were done, he held me against his side and made me tel him what happened with Bil y, from the minute he left for his run, to the minute he got into bed with me after I came back. He listened without saying anything but his body was speaking for him, getting tense; his hand, which was stroking my back, going stil every now and then, sometimes, flexing and biting into me.

Then, he made me tel him about the sledgehammer incident.

He said something then. “I’m gonna kil that motherf*cker.”

“That’s what Uncle Tex said,” I told him.

Then, he made me tel him about my plan to get rid of Bil y.

In other words, we had the conversation we were meant to have over breakfast five days ago.

“That wasn’t a very good plan,” he said to me.

“I know that now,” I replied.

Then, he told me he knew my place was trashed, Mace had told him at Lincoln’s Road House.

“You’re not safe to go back there,” he said.

“I’m going,” I returned.

“We’l see.”

Jeez, there was just no shaking this guy.

“Yo u do know that there’s this little thing cal ed the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote?” I asked.

“I heard of that,” he said and there was a smile in his voice.

“And there’s this whole movement cal ed fem… in… is…

im.” I said it slowly, like he was a dim child. “Where women started working, demanding equal pay for equal work, raising their voices on issues of the day, taking back the night, stuff like that.”

He rol ed into me, which made me rol onto my back.

“Sounds familiar.”

“Do you have an encyclopedia? Maybe we can look it up. If the words are too big for you to read, I’l read it out loud and explain as I go along.”

He got up on his elbow. “Only if you do it naked.” I slapped his shoulder.

He ignored my slap, threw his thigh over mine and settled in.

I sighed.

Shamus jumped up and walked around on the bed like it was the floor for a bit, then laid down with a loud, doggie groan, his back pressed the length of my side.

I sighed again.

“You Nightingale boys are hard to shake.”

“Remember that,” Hank murmured and wrapped his arm around my waist as if to prove the point.

Chapter Thirteen

This Is Gonna Be Fun

The next morning Hank woke me up and made love to me, catching further at my heart by paying special attention with his mouth and hands to the fading bruises on my neck, arms, hips, even my wrists, like he could erase them and their memory with his touch.

Man, was I in trouble or what?

When we were done, both of us stil breathing heavy, Shamus gave a whine and moved up and down the side of the bed, not taking his eyes off Hank.

“I gotta let him out,” Hank said, giving me a light kiss on the mouth and moving gently away from me.

I nodded and rol ed onto my side, pul ing the pil ow to my middle.

I watched Hank tug on his henley and jeans and walk barefoot out of the room.

I heard a door open and close.

Then something weird happened.

I closed my eyes slowly, languidly, coming down from the high that was Hank’s lovemaking and when I opened them, Bil y’s face was right in mine.

I jerked straight up in bed, stil holding the pil ow to my middle and screamed Hank’s name. The scream was loud, it was shril and it echoed through the house like a gunshot.

I scooted up the bed, clutching the pil ow and getting to my knees. My back hit the headboard when Hank ran into the room.

“Jesus Roxie,” he said, looking at me. I had no idea I was deathly pale and as wild-eyed as Uncle Tex was last night.

I was staring at nothing. Bil y wasn’t there. My eyes moved to Hank and he sat on the bed, his arms coming to me, taking the pil ow away and pul ing me into his warm, solid body.

“Holy f**k. Fuck, f**k, f**k. I’m seeing things. I could swear Bil y was right here,” I told him and I could feel my body trembling.

He swore under his breath and pul ed me across his lap, wrapping the sheet around me and tucking my head in his neck.

“I’m going crazy, or crazier. God, I swear he was right here. I could see him plain as day,” I whispered against his neck, twining my arms around his middle.

“It was a flashback, sweetheart. Victims of violence get them al time.”

I was stil shaking and I felt the tears crawling up my throat.

“Dammit,” I choked, burrowing into him, trying to get him to absorb me or trying to absorb some of his strength into me, I didn’t know which. I felt the wetness on my cheeks transferring itself to his skin. “I’m so f**king weak.”