Evin's Fight (Southern Charmers 3)

I fight for control, meeting him stroke for stroke. My tongue tangles with his roughly, anger and resentment fueling me. As if he senses what’s happening, his fingers caress my scalp tenderly and he slows, giving in. The kiss turns greedy as I soak in the warmth of him pressed close, the scent of his cologne filling the air, the safety of being in his arms. I need this, need him.

All the anger turns to a slashing pain and something inside me snaps. My body convulses as the heartache erupts, and I cry into his mouth. He breaks away, tucking my face into his neck and holding me tighter.

“Let it out, baby. I’m here.” He kisses across my temple.

“She did this.”

“She won’t get away with it.”

His words don’t register as I cry for much more than the loss of my career. “Our baby, Evin. We made a baby and it’s gone because of her!”

“I know.” This time, his voice is scratchy and hoarse. A drop of wetness hits my cheek, and when I peer up, a sob wracks my body.

My beautiful Evin is staring at me with glassy eyes filled with misery and devastation. His unshakable strength has fractured.

“I hate her with everything I have!”

“I do too.” He lays his cheek to my forehead, cocooning me deeper into his protective hold.”

I clutch to him, crying until my throat is raw and body exhausted. He only moves enough to slide some tissue into my lap. Faintly, I hear a nurse come in and ask if I’m okay. Evin simply nods, giving me the quiet to recover. After however long, I finally find my voice. “It was the nurse who told me. She thought I knew about the blood results. She offered me a menstrual suppressant to help delay my period, considering the situation I’m in.”

“It should have come from me and I’m sorry it didn’t. But fuck, Poppy, the thought of you hurting worse killed me. It was a judgment call. I was protecting you from something we’d never know was true.”

“My instincts are telling me it was real.”

He stays quiet, but after a minute, his chest vibrates. I raise my head to find him full-out, grinning wide.

“What can you possibly find funny?”

“Baby, there’s nothing funny about this shitty situation. Once again, you shocked the hell out of me. Thought I knew most of your moods, but good to know when you get riled up, you unleash the mouth of a sailor.”

“I may have been a little haughty, but I was pissed.”

“Got that. If I wasn’t so stunned at your outburst and scared you’d launch yourself off the bed, there’d be a different reaction. Thinking about it now has my cock hard as a rock.”

“Oh my God.” Mortification sets in thinking about how loud and crass I was.

“Don’t be embarrassed. It’s hot as hell knowing you needed my dick more than your next breath.”

“Jeez, can we forget about that?”

“And the thing about biting your tit, the pleasure and pain… coming until you blacked out—can’t wait to reenact that, baby.”

“Evin,” I groan, burying my face back in his neck, “stop.”

“Not a chance. Me drilling you against the headboard is coming back to me hard and fast.”

“I can’t believe I told you all that.”

His finger goes to my chin and urges my face back up. He’s sobered, but his eyes are still dancing. “Baby, you spewed all that to let me know your body couldn’t get enough because you think you were pregnant. When you recover from this surgery, I’ll make it my number one goal to get you back to that place. You need my cock all day, every day? It’ll be my pleasure to bring you to the brink of blacking out.” The way he emphasizes the last part sends a ripple down my spine.

I can’t help the smile that slips through. “I’m not sure how in the world you have made one of the darkest times in my life seem okay.”

“Because it is okay.”

My smile slips. “I hate her, Evin, with every fiber of my being. Because of her, I lost my career and my baby. I can’t help but wonder if she’s coming after you next.”

All his amusement dies and his eyes turn deadly. “You will never lose me. That bitch isn’t coming anywhere near us again. The call I took in the hall was from my lawyer. I’ve slapped the Bindel family with a temporary order of protection. If you want, we can start the process of pressing charges. They probably won’t stick, but it would be worth it to see them squirm.”

I narrow my eyes, assessing his instant shift in mood. This is more than my off-handed comment. “Did something happen?”

He nods, then dives into the story of his ambush last night. With each word, my heart races faster. Marco Bindel is a powerful and influential man. The idea of Evin storming up to him and laying him out without a care in the world is a little scary. Knowing he reached out to Isaac and they were all in the same room with no bloodshed is also fascinating.