Unattainable by Madeline Sheehan Page B

later, bruised and battered, standing naked before him,
vulnerable, helpless, looking to him for things he could never
offer her. Then he pictured her fully clothed, giggling over burnt
popcorn.
    And then pictured himself knocking her
out, taking away her control, hurting her, listening to her scream,
making her cry, fucking her.
    His hand squeezed around his cock as he
increased the speed of his strokes.
    The dual images, the sounds of screams
and laughter, continued to assault him. He tried to focus on just
one thing, the pain or the…
    He didn’t know…
    In the end it was the sound of her
screaming, crying, the look of fear on her beautiful face that
finished him off.
    Breathing hard, shaking, Dirty lifted
his head and looked down at his lap. And promptly threw
up.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Seated at the far end of the dining
room table, I watched Cage stomp into the kitchen, past the island
that separated the cooking area from the dining area, and grab the
closest chair, next to Cox. Fuming, he sat down hard and slumped
backward, his thick arms folded across his chest. I knew that look,
had seen it a million times on his face growing up alongside him.
And if I hadn’t already heard Deuce laying into him, as if
everybody in the house hadn’t, I would have already known that was
exactly what had happened.
    I actually caught my emotions start to
lean toward him in sympathy and the urge to touch him, to comfort
him arose, the strong feeling every bit as familiar to me, as
natural to me as when we were children.
    Before he’d—
    Oh no, I wasn’t going to feel bad for
him like I used to. No way. Cage was a slut and dumbass, and it
wasn’t my fault Deuce liked to remind him of that every other
second.
    Deuce was next to storm into the
kitchen, giving out glares as freely as he breathed. As much as I
appreciated all the man had done for me financially, he had such a
serious caveman complex that I was loath to comprehend what Eva saw
in a man that was just so…
    I glanced back at Cage, then again to
Deuce, and shut down my line of thought. I knew exactly what Eva
saw in Deuce. It was the same thing I saw in Cage. It was the
reason I kept sleeping with ZZ. They were all just so…
    Men. They were fucking men. Hard-core,
badass, live by their own set of rules…men.
    Goddamn, I was such an
idiot.
    Taking his seat at the head of the
table, Deuce gave everyone his signature once-over, then he
growled, “Eat.”
    And eating commenced.
    I rolled my eyes.
    “ Tegen?”
    I glanced to my right where Kami was
offering me a large bowl of mixed vegetables, looking more like a
vegetable model than a mother of two, a wife of a heavily tattooed
biker just passing a dish full of food. Tall, waif-like, blonde,
blue-eyed, and beautiful, Kami was a runway’s wet dream.
    She smiled at me. “It’s nice to see you
at dinner, T. You should come home more often.”
    Forcing a smile, I accepted the bowl.
Avoiding all carrots, I took a small helping before dishing my
brother out an equally small, carrot-free helping, and then passed
it to Danny.
    “ Carrots are good for
little kids,” Danny said, frowning at Christopher’s
plate.
    “ Carrots are fucking
disgusting,” I retorted, my bad mood rearing its ugly
head.
    “ Carrots are fucking
disgusting,” Christopher mimicked and Cox burst out
laughing.
    “ See,” I said, smiling
sweetly at Danny. “He agrees.”
    Danny glared at me, her icy blue eyes
narrowed in annoyance. “Oh, shut up,” she said, sounding every inch
like the valley girl she resembled.
    “ Momma!” Harley cried,
looking properly horrified. “You said shut up is a bad
word!”
    “ Mommy tells Daddy to shut
up all the time,” Diesel said, pointing at Kami.
    “ She tells him way worse
than that,” Devin muttered.
    Ripper started laughing, only stopping
when the fork Kami threw at him nearly hit him in the
face.
    “ Hey!” Danny
snapped.
    “ Damn, Ripper,” Cox said,
snorting. “You’re so pussywhipped you need your