I answer with a straight powerful jab, this time on his nose. His head jerks back and the satisfying crack does me good.
“My nose,” he howls, clutching it as blood pours from between his fingers.
I make a beckoning movement with the fingers of my right hand. I’m not finished. Not by a long shot.
With a growl full of pain and humiliation, he tries to take me down with a left hook, but I see it coming a mile off and duck. Using my hunched position to my advantage, I sink three, four, five good slugs into his ribs as he reels back helplessly. Groaning he doubles over. I use his own momentum against him and shove his head further down as I bring my knee up sharp and hard. Something else cracks in his face, maybe his cheekbone and he screams like a girl. I don’t care. I wish I could break his whole fucking face.
He falls to the floor in a daze, and I kick him in the ribs, the same place I’ve already punched him. Where he hurt Izzy. He shouts to his men to help him. Not one person moves.
“You want to know who I am? I’m Christopher’s father, that’s who.” Another kick. “And Izzy’s man.” And another. “Do you understand who I am now?” Kick, kick, I slam my boot repeatedly into his midriff. Begging for mercy he rolls onto his side, away from me, and curls into a ball. I continue kicking his back, hitting his kidneys as hard as I can. Let him piss blood for a while. I’m sure he’s done worse to her.
“Enough! Enough!” he blubbers, snot and blood running down his face.
“Not such a tough man when you’re not beating up a woman, are you?” I roll him over onto his back. He cowers up at me. “Not so tough when another man uses his fists on you, huh?”
I haul him to his feet. He’s a big man, but I’m bigger, and I have all the fury and rage in me. And love. Love for her. My Izzy.
“She’s my woman,” I spit in his bloody, bruised face. “Mine, motherfucker.” He gasps for breath. “If you ever, ever come within a mile of her or my son again, I swear I’ll fucking tear you from limb to limb. Do you understand?”
He doesn’t answer, his eyes are rolling in his head. Just looks down at the fists which are holding him up.
“Answer me,” I snarl. “Oh, and you should know that I’ve already paid a visit to your father.” His good eye goes wide. “Don’t worry. I didn’t hurt him. But I did manage to convince him to let you fight your own battles on this matter. So. Let me ask you again. Do you understand that I will kill you if you ever come within a mile of Isabelle or Christopher or Izzy’s mum again? You or any of your friends?”
He takes a deep, shuddery breath before nodding his head.
“Good.” I cock my right arm back and deliver the killer blow to his jaw, shutting off his lights. He is unconscious before he hits the floor.
I look around again before brushing myself off. I walk up to Jake and we leave the pub. No one moves or says anything. As Jake and his men come out its pandemonium inside the pub.
Jake smiles at me. “For a horse-breeder that was an impressive show.”
I smile at him. “Thanks, Jake.”
“No need to thank me. We’re family.”
We walk together to the car.
“Where next?” he asks as we slide into our seats.
“Let’s go get my family,” I say with a grin.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Tyson
“That’s it?” Izzy’s eyes are wide with a mixture of disbelief and hope as she searches my face for the truth. “It’s really over?”
“Over and done, for good and for all,” I promise.
“He gave up just like that?” she asks incredulously.
“Well, he needed a bit of persuasion.”
“What kind of persuasion?”
“The kind he uses on you.”
Her eyes widen.
“It’s safe to say he will not be bothering you ever again.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asks, chewing her lip worriedly.
“I’m sure. We’ll just leave it at that.”
“Oh, no.” She cups the side of my face with her hand. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“Not yet.”
“That’s not even funny.”
“All right. I won’t lie. I wanted to, but I didn’t. He’s still very much alive. Just a bit … unconscious when I left him. He’ll heal up, just like you will.” I touch her face, then let my hands gently find her waist. “He won’t hurt you anymore. Ever, ever again. I already got confirmation from his father that he’ll keep him in check for me.”
She looks at me with narrowed eyes. “Why would he do that? He adores Tony. Tony can do no wrong in his eyes.”
“Believe me,” I add with a rueful smile, “it’s in his best interest for him to keep him away from my woman.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know what to think about all this. It’s all too much to take in at once. I’m struggling to get it through my head that he would stay away because of a beating. If I know him he will be itching to take his revenge.”
“Take it one day at a time,” I murmur, kissing her forehead, then the tip of her nose. “We’re all set now.”
Her eyes swim with tears. “You’re my knight in shining armor”
Her mother enters the room with baby Christopher on her hip.
“Mom,” she says. “It’s over.”
Her mother looks at me, her mouth agape.
“Can I?” I ask, suddenly choked up, holding my arms out for my son. She moves forward and stands in front of me.
For the first time in my life I look into my son’s eyes. His eyes are blue, but a different shade than mine, deeper and with a starburst in them. I smile at him and he gives me a big grin. His teeth are tiny and his gums a clean pink.
“Da, da,” he cries.
I hold out both my hands in front of him and he raises both his arms and wriggles his body to get out of his grandmother’s grip.
I grab him around his solid body and hold him to my chest, marveling at the feel of his strong, sturdy little body. His skin is so soft. His blue eyes look straight into mine, and I’m hooked.
I hear the sound of Izzy crying softly with joy as I touch my lips to the side of his head. I whisper in his little ear, “I’m your daddy, Christopher.”
I drive them back to Suffolk, but as soon as we enter the driveway I feel sick. I can’t never again live here. Not without my horses. I stop the car and turn around.
“Why are we turning around?” Izzy asks.
“We’ll stay in a hotel tonight, okay?”
“Oh, okay,” she says uncertainly. “But I really wanted to see your horses.”
My hands clench on the steering wheel. Later tonight I’ll tell her about my horses, but right now, I can’t deal with the emotions. When I was running on autopilot I was numb, but now that the protective numbness is gone, the loss is indescribable. We drive to a hotel and check in. Her mother goes to her room, which is next door to ours, and the staff bring in a cot for Christopher. Very gently, I lower him into his cot. We stand next to each other looking down at him.
“We’re so lucky, aren’t we?”
I turn to look at her. “I’m the luckiest man on earth.”
I pull her along until we are standing next to the wall. As gently as I can, I start to undress her. She clasps my hands.
“I don’t look so good,” she says.
“You’ll be beautiful when you’re big with my next child, when you’re old and full of wrinkles, when you
’re sick, when you put on weight, or lose weight. To me you’ll always be the woman who turned my brain to jelly. The most beautiful woman on earth. Always perfect.”
Her mouth forms an O.
“Now, let me see what is mine.”
Her hands drop away. I take off her top. Her bra. Her shoes. Her trousers. Her panties. Her body is black and blue and yellow. My mind takes a picture of her like this because I will never again see her this way. My mouth finds her nipple. It’s pink and it belongs in my mouth. I swirl my tongue around it, the ache for her astonishing. I need to lose myself completely in this woman.
“Tyson,” she gasps.
I suck the bud and it hardens in my mouth. I let my lips travel across to her other breast and enclose that nipple inside my wet, hot mouth. Her body arches sensuously. I look into her eyes as my mouth trails down to her stomach, gently licking at the swollen discolored flesh I find on my way. I travel down past her hips to the insides of her thighs. As my tongue skims the delicate skin she draws her breath sharply. I trap her legs with my hands and press my mouth against her pussy.
“You’re so fucking wet, baby,” I growl.
Her hips move, asking for more. “I want you inside me,” she whispers.
“I’ll be inside you soon enough.” Licking her sweet slit gently, I massage her clit with my thumb. My eyes swivel up and lock on hers. She is trying not to moan too loudly. Each time my tongue drags across her clit or swirls around it she shudders. Her eyelids flutter when I slip two fingers inside her hot folds.
“Ahhh …” she groans.
I hate that she has to control herself. I want the whole goddamn world to know that only I can make her sound like that. I lift her right leg and drape it over my shoulder so her pussy is splayed open for me. It is dripping, the little hole pulsating with excitement. I grasp her thigh so she cannot move at all.
Then, without any warning, I bury my head in her pussy and fucking devour her. Fuck, it feels like I haven’t eaten her pussy in ages. Plunging my tongue deeper and deeper, I lick the sweet taste from the inside of her walls, savoring the honeyed flavor. It’s addictive. My tongue is going to be in this pussy as often as it can. Her hands drop to my head and she grabs fistfuls of my hair. I take her clit in a deep kiss, sucking and nibbling. I want her to cum on my tongue. Her pussy clenches and throbs against my mouth as I bring her to an orgasm.