Careless (Bastards of Grove Hill #2)

by Zepphora

That’s the moment when I developed my crush on Rian Walsh, my brother's best friend. I didn’t know it as a child, but that was the moment that altered everything about my life.

The good. The bad. The deadly.

The word obsession seems too trivial to describe how I feel toward Sorcha. I am beyond obsessed with Sorcha—have been for years. I can't remember exactly when the unscratchable itch crept in on me, but even when I try my hardest to ignore it, I can’t. She’s always there in the back of my mind. Lurking in my thoughts. The closest I come to eliminating that irritating tickle is by watching her.

She’s like a physical form of poetry; her laughter brings people more joy than a blunt brings a pothead. Her eyes get so bright when she smiles that I have seen people stop in their tracks just to marvel at how beautiful it makes her. Her innocence in this fuck up world captivates me.

The level of protectiveness I have toward Sorcha makes me uncomfortable, but I have no choice. It’s as natural as breathing.

I'm not supposed to want her.

I'm not supposed to need to know she's safe at all times. I'm not supposed to lose control and ju...

Yet, she’s the only oasis in the minefield of my reality, which is the most amazi...

“You listen to me, baby,” he growls as his fingers tighten around my throat. He tilts his head forward then runs his tongue along the shell of my ear. “If I didn’t tell those assholes at our school to leave you the fuck alone, they’d be pawing at you any chance they got. You’re seriously blind if you don’t see how damn sexy you are.” He buries the hand that isn’t around my neck into my hair, yanking my neck back at a painful angle. I grapple at his wrists, not quite sure if I want him to remove his hands or to anchor them to me. “And, if one of them laid a finger on you, I’d have to kill them.”

Then I will ease her into everything else, test out what she likes in bed, before I give her the full depths of my depravity. I can’t wait to fill all three of her holes and have her tears and cum soaking my sheets.

Sorcha is mine. She always has been and the only hands that get to touch her are mine. My cock will be the only one to come near her mouth, her ass, and her delicious pussy. I’m hard just thinking about tasting her again, popping her cherry and being the first and only one to bury my bare cock deep inside her.

“Do you seriously think this is about the rules?” I huff as I grab the Bowie knife from my tray of tools and toss it from hand to hand. “You may have stayed within the Bastard’s rules, but you broke my rules. I had Sorcha blacklisted for a reason, and yet you thought it was okay to touch my girl.”

“Rian, I promise I’ll leave her alone,” he sputters out. “I won’t even look in her direction. Just, please, let me go.”

There are no second chances when it comes to my woman.

Sorcha is my fucking everything. I can’t take my hands off her. I devour her fuckable lips and grind my hips against hers.

Rian Walsh loves me. Even though it's everything I’ve ever wanted, it doesn’t change anything. He must leave and act like he doesn’t love me.

Sometimes the ones with the greatest power to hurt us are the ones we love the most.

“Stop with all of this, please.” I wave my arms as much as I can in the limited space allotted to me. “All this does is make everything else worse, okay?” I say, dropping the facade of the happy girl everyone wants to see. I’m miserable, and every day is full of pain and disappointment. How could he not understand how hard it is to watch him act like I don’t exist when others are around but is now touching me like I’m his when it’s just the two of us. Day after day I watch him betray his vow of love in the name of self-preservation. Rian turned love into a four-letter word, and he has the nerve to ask me what’s wrong?

Rian Walsh isn’t mine. Maybe he was never meant to be. With how bad my luck is in this life, I must have done something incredibly heinous in a past one.

No matter what, we always end up back together. Facing off like two opposing forces ready to wage war, but I’m always the one to surrender. Maybe that makes me weak. Maybe I don’t care.

“You can go suck on Satan's dick knowing Sorcha never needed you. I was the one to protect her all those years and I’ll keep protecting her.” This part I lean in to whisper so Finn can’t hear and her eyes follow me down. “And we’re going to have lots of kids, hopefully all girls. I already have their names picked out, Aine and Aoife.” I pull back enough to give her a smile. And that’s the last thing she sees.

Ding dong. The Wicked Witch is dead.

I’ve always needed Rian, like I need the air. I have no clue why I thought I could ignore the way I feel about him or deny my body what it craves.

“If someone touches you, they lose a hand. If someone looks at you, they lose an eye. You’re mine. And if there is any doubt after tonight, I have no problem claiming you in front of everyone. But then I’d have to kill them all.”

Sorcha is all mine. My woman. My heart. My home.

My obsession with her is unhealthy, but as long as she doesn’t know how sick I am, I can live with it. But this goes beyond being just an obsession. Maybe it always has.

Fuck. My brat is doing this on purpose. She wants to drive me insane with her moves—make me lose control.

“That’s my good little slut. You love having your ass played with,” I growl as my balls tighten, but I hold out my release, slowing my strokes.

“You’ve proven that ten times over. I doubt I could ever find a guy that would willingly kill half the town just to protect me.”

A laugh falls from his lips as he pulls me closer. “Don’t exaggerate. There’s only been twenty-six people.”

“Sorcha, I’ll make it an even thousand if it means keeping you safe.”

”Aren’t you just a regular Prince Charming? Such chivalry,” I taunt, the witty banter back on his face.

“There’s nothing I do concerning you that could be considered chivalrous.”