Page 9 of Texas Hold Em’ (The Devil’s Luck MC #3)

JAMESON

C arrie’s body felt like it was made for me.

The curve of her hip against my hand set my nerves on fire.

The way she clung to me, pulled me down to her for kisses, and clawed desperately at my back as I thrust inside her—it all felt so primal and visceral.

I couldn’t recall a moment where I felt so present or grounded.

This woman, the taste of hot sauce on her tongue from the wings, the smell of dirt in her hair from the crash, was so much more real to me than my own heartbeat in my chest.

I pressed deep inside her.

She pressed her head back against the door and closed her eyes as she moaned with pleasure. I kissed her neck, her chest, her shoulders. She rolled her hips and arched her back, trusting me to hold her in place, and I did, pushing deeper into her until she could take all of me.

Maybe she was a bad girl, after all.

I cupped the back of her neck and drove deep inside her.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she gripped my wrist. Her lips formed a silent O and she stretched to the tip of her toes as I fucked her harder and harder until her thighs trembled and she let out a cry of pleasure.

Her knees buckled, but I held her up as she came.

She held my shoulders as I rocked inside her, working up to my own climax.

Her pussy clenched and released around my cock with every thrust. She was so swollen, plump, and soft. I could hardly stand it.

Carrie took a fistful of my hair in her hand and pulled me down to her. “Let it go,” she breathed.

I shuddered.

She kissed me like we were both on fire, and I wanted nothing more than to burn with her. She rolled her hips and murmured against my lips for me to come.

“For me,” she whispered.

The fire raged and suddenly broke.

I shuddered with the release. She dragged her nails down my back and held on for dear life until the flames flickered and died.

Carrie hung her head and panted for breath as I stepped back and released her leg. She tucked her hair behind her ears.

I pushed the door open behind her, grabbed a cigarette from the counter, lit it, and took a drag.

Carrie waved the smoke away. “You smoke like a chimney.”

I tipped my head back to exhale upward. “Even an orgasm can’t stop you from complaining, huh?”

She blushed and smiled. “Shut up.”

I nodded down at her bloody knees. “We should get you cleaned up.”

She pointed at a gash in my hip from where I slid across the pavement. “You too.”

I flicked the ash off the end of my cigarette. “I have rubbing alcohol in the bathroom.”

She turned, showing me her bare, perky, perfect ass, and shimmied across the apartment to the bathroom, where I heard her rummage through cupboards.

“It’s in the red kit,” I called.

While I finished my smoke, Carrie brought the kit out into the living room and unpacked its contents on the coffee table. I joined her after cleaning myself up, and we sat in front of each other on the hardwood floor, naked, dabbing at each other’s cuts with alcohol-soaked cotton swabs .

“Ow,” Carrie hissed as I hit some road rash on her elbow with the alcohol.

“No pain no gain.”

She jabbed my hip with her cotton swab.

“Watch it!”

“ No pain no gain, ” she mocked.

I snorted. “Cute.”

She glanced up at the warehouse windows. “The sun is going to come up soon.”

It had to be close to five thirty in the morning. Somewhere along the way I’d completely lost track of what time it was. I didn’t much care about the minutes ticking by as I sat on my floor with a beautiful girl, dabbing at her wounds.

I couldn’t deny that I was in awe of her.

One minute she was gentle and feminine, and the next she was a smashing hit at Jackson’s and blending effortlessly in with the group, and then she was rolling to her knees returning fire after I crashed my bike, and hitting every mark.

“It was pretty incredible how you handled yourself tonight,” I told her.

She watched me with apprehension. “Is there a ‘but’ coming?”

“No.”

“Well in that case, thank you.”

I chuckled. “My brain was a fucking mess. I didn’t have my head on straight and there you were, already firing perfect shots and saving our asses. How’d you do it?”

Carrie shrugged as she pressed a bandage onto my hip with gentle fingers. “I was the best shot at the Ranger Academy. I broke records that were almost eight years old. Nobody has yet to beat me in following classes.” She sat up straighter. “I’m an expert marksman and proud of it.”

“As you should be. When did you first learn to shoot?” I pressed gingerly at the bandage she’d applied to my hip while she began packing up the first-aid kit.

“My dad taught me. ”

“Was he a Ranger too?”

Carrie shook her head. “No. School teacher actually.”

“Really?” That surprised me. “A school teacher who taught his daughter how to fire a gun. There’s a story there.”

She smiled wistfully and zipped up the medical bag.

“My dad raised me on his own. My mom abandoned ship when I was two and left him for another man who whisked her away to Florida.” She scoffed and shook her head.

“Stupid woman. It all fell apart for her, of course. The man she cheated on my dad with cheated on her, started another family, and left her high and dry in a one-bedroom condo with nothing to show for herself. She called my dad back, wanting to make amends and have a chance to repair her relationship with me. I was ten by that time and never really felt like I was missing a parent. Dad filled in all the empty spaces for me. So he left it up to me, and with every passing year, I knew more and more that I wanted nothing to do with her. She hurt him too badly. She made her choice.”

Carrie was a strong woman now, and she’d been a strong girl, too. “That couldn’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t,” she admitted. “But I don’t think my dad and I would have become as close as we are if she hadn’t left.

He floundered for a long time trying to figure out how to bond with me.

He loved mechanics, you see, and mathematics.

I wasn’t interested in any of that kind of stuff.

He’d try to find common ground but we didn’t share interests.

Until, when I was thirteen, he took me to a gun range for the first time. ”

I smiled and leaned back on my hands. “Love at first shot?”

“Love at first shot.” She grinned. “I was a natural, and Dad was so proud. He kept betting other kids, mostly boys at the range, to challenge me. We walked out of there that first day with thirty extra bucks in our pockets, grabbed burgers and shakes, and decided to come back the following weekend. From there Dad took me skeet shooting and entered me in contests.”

“Sounds like a proud father.”

“He is.”

“Does he know what you’re up to over here? ”

Carrie shook her head. “Hell no. If he knew the mess I was in? No. I could never tell him. I’d rather he think I’m just sitting behind a desk pushing papers, keeping my head down, being a good employee.”

I wondered what would happen to Carrie’s father if the worst happened to her. What if we couldn’t protect her? What if he got a call in the middle of the night that his little girl had been blown away by a gangbanger with one good eye and a desire to see others suffer?

My stomach tightened.

Carrie drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Everything okay?”

“Hm? Yeah, yeah,” I said, shrugging off the dark thought. “Everything’s fine.”

She stared up at the exposed pipes in my ceiling with a nostalgic smile on her lips.

“My dad is the best person I know. He taught me how to stand up for the little guy, you know. Even if it scared the hell out of him to find out what I was doing here, I have to believe he’d be proud of me for holding my ground, even if it is dangerous.

” She licked her lips and stared evenly at me.

“I’ve never been in a fight this big before. ”

“Me neither,” I admitted. “But Jackson has, and I trust him to see us out of this.”

“Jackson,” she mused. “Yeah, I wish I could trust him the way you do, but I’m pretty sure he still hates my guts.”

“It’s not personal.”

“It feels pretty personal.”

I sighed. “Jackson just doesn’t trust easy, and for good reason. Besides, he has a lot on his plate, and technically you were wearing the enemy’s colors up until two weeks ago. You can’t blame him for being cautious.”

She bit her bottom lip. “Do you think he’d care if he found out that we’d, you know?”

“Fucked?”

She blushed. “Yeah.”

I considered it for a moment. “Yeah, I think he would. For now, we should keep it between us. He wouldn’t understand. Getting tangled up with a law enforcer would make things even more complicated than they already are. You understand that, right?”

She nodded. “But you got tangled anyway.”

I chuckled. “Yes, I did. But there’s something you should know.”

She cocked her head to the side.

“I used to be a Ranger, too,” I said.

Her eyes widened. “Come again?”

I laughed. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But it’s true. Born and raised Austin boy right here.” I pressed a hand to my bare chest while she stared incredulously at me. I frowned. “Oh come on. It’s not that hard to believe, is it?”

“A little bit! How did you end up here? Why did you walk away? How long has it been since you wore the badge?” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “I have so many questions!”