The Skull Crusher (Skull 2)

Cassini stepped out of the hallway, her hair and makeup done, but she was wearing my boxers and t-shirt. “You were gone for a long time.” With accusation in her eyes and an attitude in her hips, she didn’t look happy to see me.

“I had a lot of work to do.”

“What kind of work?”

“Ruling, collecting, threatening, torturing…the list goes on.” My hand moved to her neck, and I examined her prettiness, the plumpness of her lips, and the beautiful color of her eyes. Evan betrayed her for a pathetic sum of money and married a woman who couldn’t compare. The man was twisted in the head. “Miss me?”

“I’m too annoyed to miss you.”

“Annoyed?”

“You were gone for nearly sixteen hours.”

“That’s the job, baby.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, I don’t like your job.”

“You’d better get used to it. It’s not going to change.”

“Don’t expect me to change either.” She stepped away from my grasp so my fingertips slid past the softness of her neck.

“Did you sleep well?” When she turned around, I stared at the way her boxers hugged her perfect ass.

“What do you think?” She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer.

“You want to come with me to the Underground, then?”

“Probably not.” She came back, her lips sealed around the bottle.

It seemed like every time I came home from a long night, we had this same conversation again. She didn’t like it when I was gone, and she was always suspicious of my activities. As the Skull King, there wasn’t anything to be suspicious about. I was committing heinous crimes all night long. “You’re welcome to join me whenever you want.”

She continued to drink her beer, her affection nonexistent. She was clingy with me before I left, and now she was pissed at me all over again. A sassy woman with an attitude was rarely happy for long. “And do what, exactly?”

“Sit on my lap.”

She made an irritated face. “Like a dog?”

“No. Like my woman.” I had a long night, and I’d been looking forward to sleep, but now that this woman was in front of me, wearing my clothes with her hair styled, all I wanted to do was be buried inside her. I wanted to erase the memory of Evan, a man who never deserved to be there in the first place. I wanted to replace Lucian, to erase whatever hold he thought he had on my woman. I wanted to unshackle the invisible chains that kept her tied to the two men.

I pulled the beer from her hand and set it on the table against the wall. Then I backed her up into the dining table, making her move in reverse until her ass tapped against the corner. My shirt was yanked over my head, and my jeans were discarded.

She still seemed angry with me, but her body was responding to mine. Her fingers pushed down her boxers and panties until they slid to her ankles. She left her camisole on, but the sheer material barely covered anything anyway.

I scooped her onto the table then placed my heavy body on top of hers. My hips maneuvered between her legs and I positioned her to take me, to have all of me. It disgusted me that a man had had this woman’s heart, but he tossed it aside for money. It enraged me more that a man used her good heart against her to make her submissive. I wasn’t much better than the two men, but I somehow felt entitled to have her.

I felt entitled to own her.

Once I was inside her, she gasped against my mouth.

She was slick and warm, her body indicating she wasn’t the least bit angry with me.

Her fingers dug into my hair, and her lips shivered against mine. “I missed you…”

I didn’t need to hear her confession to know how she felt. She was pissed the second I walked in the door, but that meant nothing. This woman could be livid, but that didn’t change the fact that she wanted me, that she wanted me to be home with her, to fuck her and protect her. “I missed you too, baby.”

21

Cassini

It’d been nearly two months since I came to live with the Skull King. I’d never seen him crush a skull with my own eyes, but I knew he was capable of it. I hadn’t witnessed his violence firsthand, but I knew that was what he did every night. I went from one master to another, but living with Balto had started to feel like home.

I wasn’t sure what this relationship had turned into.

I’d never stayed awake during the night and waited for Lucian to come home. Instead of hoping he would walk in the door in one piece, I hoped he wouldn’t walk through the door at all. But with Balto, I counted down the minutes until I knew he was safe. My imagination ran wild, and I pictured him surrounded by beautiful women, women who wanted to screw him for free.