Taken Hard (The Hard Boys 2)

“You ever want to kill Dad?”

“All the time. Each time I gave birth. Then when he seems to fall asleep without a care in the world. When he snores. The fact he loves horror films and I can’t stand them, and I think he only watches them so I’ll spend the entire time plastered against his arm.” The love and affection in her eyes were clear. His mother’s gaze shone brighter when she spoke of Theodore.

His father passed the window and looked in, giving his wife a wink and a wave.

“It’s about accepting the good and the bad. Knowing it’s not always going to be perfect but willing to risk it anyway because that’s what you want to do. Your father and I, we know this and we accept it. We don’t have a perfect life together and yet we do at the same time.”

Caleb stirred the sauce his mother had pointed at him to do. At eight forty-five, she sent him packing, and he had no choice but to head to the garage to open up. Several cars waited for him.

He looked at them. None of them were brand new, but they were all cared for.

Lilly. He thought about her. There was never a moment he couldn’t think about her, and he just knew. The good, the bad, he wanted it all with her. He was in love with her.

Chapter Six

Three weeks later

Lilly had never been to the bar on a date, but seeing as she’d been with Caleb when he got a call out to help start a car, she’d gone with him. She went with him during most calls out at night. Especially if she was still with him.

The car had started, and Caleb had offered to buy her a soda and have a dance with her.

The soda had been lukewarm, but Caleb’s arms around her as they stood in the center of the dance floor in the bar, that felt perfect.

Three weeks they’d been officially dating, and they were the best of her life. She rested her hands on his chest and smiled up at him.

“Do I even want to know what you’re thinking about right now?” he asked.

“Probably not.”

“Is it as dirty as chapter ten?”

Her cheeks heated and she quickly glanced around. “Caleb, people can hear.”

“I don’t care if they can. They don’t have a clue what I’m talking about.”

“But I know.”

He leaned down, his lips brushing across her ear. “Do you think about having my mouth on your pussy?”

She’d given him another book. This one even more erotic than the last.

Looking up at him, she quickly averted her gaze and sank her teeth into her lip.

“I’m going to take that as a yes.”

Caleb didn’t move an inch even as the tips of his fingers grazed the curve of her ass. She didn’t want to keep on being shy with him. Caleb made her feel everything. Tilting her head back, she stared into his eyes. “Do you think about me…” She hesitated. “Sucking your cock?”

He groaned and rested his head against hers. He pulled her closer, and she felt the hard ridge of his cock against her stomach. “I think about doing a lot more than that. I know you’re a virgin, but I want you, Lilly, so damn much.”

“Well, well, well, the town slut is with the whore himself.”

Lilly tensed as she became aware of Jacob’s voice. The man often tried to get her alone. He’d tried to proposition her multiple times over the years. She despised him, but Edward often told her he was a loyal customer and refused to ban him.

Caleb held her close to him. She didn’t dare look.

“Get lost, Jacob.”

“Why should I? That little prissy bitch has been leading me on for years.”

She tensed up.

“Prissy and a slut. I think it’s time you got a dictionary and learned that you’re contradicting yourself. Now get lost before I take real offense to you abusing my girl.” Caleb growled each word.

The music had softened.

“Let’s just go,” she whispered. They shouldn’t have lingered at the bar. It was wrong. She’d spotted Jacob in the corner the moment she entered and made sure to not risk being on her own. It was when she was alone that he struck.

In the first few months of working at the bar, she’d sucked at it. Over the years, she’d gotten better.

“No, we’re not going, Lilly.” Caleb took her hand. “Apologize to her now.”

Jacob scoffed. “You think I’m going to say sorry to that whore?” He spat at the floor right near her feet.

She hated this. Jacob always made her feel small. She believed at one point her mother used to sleep with him, but she stopped after just a couple of times.

“I shouldn’t be surprised she’d go with you, Caleb. You don’t have any standards. I bet your dick is as rotten as her pussy is filthy.”