That was the last thing she remembered thinking before exhaustion pulled her under.
34
The smell of coffee woke Harlow the next morning. She hadn’t heard the beans grinding, it was the scent of the alluring java that made her eyes open.
Stretching out, it took her a minute to remember where she was. When she felt his solid body under her head, she smiled. There was no mistaking the man when he was as ripped as Ryske. Not that she would ever mistake the texture of his skin, the smell of him, the comfort she got from his embrace.
But, when she recalled what had brought her there, her smile didn’t linger.
Pushing away from Ryske, she ran a hand over her hair while sitting up, clutching the sheet to her breasts. Noon was asleep in the bed to her right. With his face half buried in a pillow, he looked so peaceful, so innocent.
“Coffee?” Dover asked from the other side of the apartment.
He was pouring sweetener into one of the two mugs in front of him. Maze was in an armchair, his back to the dining table and to Dover. At the same time Dover gave her his attention, Maze lifted his chin to look at her over the top of his laptop.
Clearing her throat, Harlow drew up her knees. “I… I didn’t violate him.”
“I don’t think he’d have cared if you did,” Dover said, going to the coffee machine to pour a cup for her.
Ryske rolled toward her onto his side, still ensconced in slumber, oblivious to the conversation.
“I think we’d have heard if she did,” Maze said. “You weren’t here when we went to sleep, right?”
“No,” she said, tucking her hand under the covers to stroke Ryske when his knuckles bumped her.
His hand wasn’t the only thing trying to make itself known. His erection was being kind of rude about prodding her.
“How’d you get in?” Dover asked.
If she didn’t have so much to feel guilty about, the answer might have made her squirm. “Key,” she said. Both men looked at her again. She shrugged. “I locked up.”
“I told you they never give just one copy,” Maze said to Dover who was bringing her cup across to her.
Careful about the handover of the hot liquid, she was grateful for the comforting smell and the welcome taste of the delicious liquid.
“So, you moving back in?” Dover said. “You need to be put back on the schedule?”
“I…” Harlow took another sip of coffee. “That might be premature.”
Lying back, she twisted to put her cup on the nightstand, intending to sit up again. But, Ryske’s hands snaked onto her hips. He pulled her ass backwards, bringing her into more intimate contact with his cock.
Smiling, she tipped her chin toward her shoulder. “I’m naked, Crash,” she said, realizing he wasn’t as asleep as she’d thought. “Be careful, you pull me any harder and that thing’s going to slide home.”
The purr that came from behind her made her laugh.
“Yeah, and we’re sitting right here, so keep it away from home,” Maze called out and shivered like the idea of witnessing that creeped him out, as it should.
Rolling over, Harlow tucked herself close to Ryske, curling one leg up over his hip and picking his hair from his brow.
Ryske’s eyes opened to slits. “Hey, Gorgeous,” she whispered.
“Come here often?” he grumbled, his eyes closing again.
He hadn’t been awake for three minutes and already he was using pick-up lines.
Harlow laughed. “Only as often as the host eats my pussy.”
“My favorite breakfast,” he said, his fingertips gliding up the inside of her thigh. “Was I good?”
Wriggling closer, she brushed her lips over his. “Good?”
“We had an agreement you’d take advantage whenever I was passed out.”
That he could remember a conversation they’d had so long ago touched her sentiment. Taking his hand from her thigh, she moved it onto her breast, encouraging him to fondle her.
“I didn’t want to disturb you…” she murmured. “You looked so peaceful.”
“That’s ‘cause you were with me,” he said, touching the underside of her chin to draw her mouth to his.
Mornings like this were supposed to be a thing of the past. In spite of that, Harlow decided not to pass up the gift of another. Responding to his kiss, she was moaning into his mouth, tangling her tongue with his when he scooped her body under his.
“Shit, man, at least pull the curtain,” Maze said.
Elevating his mouth, Ryske was grinning, even though his eyes still seemed to be asleep.
Brushing his nose across hers, he kissed her again. “Shower?” he murmured.
Assuming the question was for her seemed premature when the guys answered. “Sounds like an excellent plan,” Maze said.
“Perfect,” Dover said like they were making this decision by committee.
Groaning, Ryske rolled off her and rubbed both hands up and down his face. “What the fuck, guys?”
“We don’t want to watch you having sex with Nightingale,” Maze said. “Let the woman keep a little mystery.”
“Oh, he’s so sweet,” she said, moving onto her side, pressing her breasts against Ryske’s ribs and drawing her nails around his shoulder tattoo. “I missed waking up with you, Crash.”
She kissed his chest without paying much attention to where she’d been aiming for. Her lips grazed his scar. The sensation of touching the spot where the bullet had entered him made her pull back. Gazing at it, her fingertips retreated to test the sensation.
Bullets. Gunshots. Blood. It all reminded her of what had happened last night. It wasn’t until Ryske flattened a hand on top of hers that she snapped from her daze and blinked up at him.
“You okay, Trink?” he asked, displaying sincere concern. “It doesn’t hurt.”
“I know,” she said, assuming that it couldn’t since it was healing so clean.
“You can touch me anywhere you want, but if it offends you, we’ll find something else to tattoo right there… your pick.”
Aroused and eager to forget where her mind had been going, Harlow slithered up on top of him. Pulling the blanket over both of their heads, she provided them some privacy.
Ryske was more interested in curving his hands around her ass than who was watching them.
“I think I want to try shower sex after all,” she whispered, wrapping both arms around the top of his head to hold him in place while they kissed.
“I think I want to try Trinket on top sex,” he said, squeezing her ass in both hands then taking her hips. “Slide down a bit, baby.”
She laughed. “Here?”
“No! Not here,” Maze called out, making both of them laugh.
“He’s not that much of a prude,” Ryske said, and cradled her head to call over her shoulder. “He’s just busting my balls.”
“That’s all your balls are gonna get today, buddy,” Maze replied.
He didn’t get a response because she and Ryske had returned to their kissing. Harlow was thinking that this was perhaps the best way to spend a morning until a noise outside their cocoon broke the air.
“What the… Is he alone in there?”
That was Noon’s voice. It made them stop kissing for long enough to smile on each other’s lips.
“God, I wanna fuck you,” Ryske murmured, grabbing her lower lip in his teeth.
The sting of his bite made Harlow smile until she tasted blood. Catching the top edge of the sheet, she wrapped it around her breasts and sat up, straddling Ryske’s bare abdomen. The sheet kept her and his lower body covered.
Touching the corner of her mouth, she realized that he’d opened the cut Hagan had caused last night.
Ryske sat up against her. “Are you bleeding?” he asked, holding her in place with his drawn up knees at her back and his torso in front.
He hadn’t bit her there. The cut was on the inside corner. He pushed her hand aside to inspect it for himself. Pulling his hands a
way from her mouth, Harlow used her upper body to push him away enough that she could reach for a pillow.
Tucking the sheet around her naked body, she climbed off the bed, tossing the pillow onto Ryske’s lap to conceal his erection, not that he was modest.
She nodded at Noon while retrieving her coffee from the nightstand. “Morning.”
The newly-awakened guy was perplexed, but there was nothing she could say to alleviate his confusion. Holding the sheet in one hand and drinking her coffee with the other, she headed across the room.
“Why are you bleeding?” Ryske asked. “I didn’t bite you that hard.”
“It’s nothing,” she said, going into the kitchen. Finishing her coffee, she put the cup in the sink and turned to Dover. “Do you know if any of my stuff was left here? I seem to be sans clothes.”
“Why can’t you put on what you were wearing last night?” Maze asked, putting aside his laptop to leave the armchair.
That was a good question, and one she couldn’t come up with an answer for. “Those clothes are… unavailable.”
Though that wasn’t exactly true, it wasn’t far from wrong. “Where are they? In a meeting?” Maze asked, joining them in the kitchen.
Dover put a hand on her shoulder. “Check Ryske’s dresser. Whatever was in the laundry will have been put back there.”
Thankful that she’d been distracted when packing up her things, Harlow was confident something would’ve been left behind given how many of Ryske’s clothes she’d found tangled in hers.
“Thanks.”
“When did Nightingale get here?” Noon asked.
The poor guy was still half-asleep. This was too much activity and talking for him to take in so early.
She intended to offer him a smile of sympathy but didn’t get that far. Her attention snagged on Ryske who was seated in the middle of his bed, pillow on his lap, like she’d left him. But, the scowl on his face was magnetic.
Trying her best to appear innocent, she shrugged. “What?”
Her love wasn’t moved. “Where’s the gun?”
As much as Harlow didn’t want to squirm, the impact of his stern suspicion was difficult to conceal. “Want to have that shower now?”
“Fuck, Trink,” he said, rolling to the side to pull a pair of boxer-briefs from his nightstand.
He only had one pair in that drawer, and this was apparently emergency enough to use them. While he pulled them on, she tried to think of a good excuse to run out of the apartment, but came up blank.
Her focus on Ryske had been so absolute that Harlow didn’t notice everyone else was staring at her until the two men in the kitchen closed in around her.
“What happened?” Dover asked.
Ryske fell into formation with them, blocking her in. The only route out was down the spiral stairs, and given that she was naked that didn’t seem like a smart option.
“I can’t…” Swallowing, she looked at each of their faces. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Tell us the truth,” Maze said. “Whatever happened, we’ve got you. But we need to know what you did.”
“I did nothing,” she said.
Noon appeared between Maze and Ryske, wrapped in his own sheet. He was wearing sweatpants, so the sheet had to be for warmth. Maybe he just wasn’t ready to let go of his bed yet. She didn’t know how anyone could be cold, the temperature was off the charts. Standing there under the crew’s scrutiny was making her sweat.
“Ryske told you to come here if you used the gun,” Maze said because he’d been in the room when Ryske gave her that instruction the previous day. “Now you’re here without clothes, without the weapon, and without a good story… So, what happened?”
“I…” Ryske wasn’t going to extend any reprieve. His frown was more intense than all the others, which was an achievement because every looming face was stern. “I was scared,” she said, looking only at Ryske though she was aware of the others. “I was tired, and I was scared, and I wanted to feel safe, that’s why I came here.”
“No one has a problem with that,” Ryske said. “All of us consider this your home.” No one contradicted him. “But, we need to know where that gun is and what happened.”
“I can’t—”
“If the weapon was used in a crime…”
“It wasn’t,” she said, shaking her head. “I promise you, it wasn’t.”
The guys didn’t seem convinced.
Ryske broke away from his friends, coming closer than the others. With a hand on either side of her face, he crouched to her level. “Baby, you need to tell me every single detail.”
“I—”
“Whatever it was,” he said and smiled. “It’s okay, we’ve got you. You are safe here. Every one of us will stand behind you.” Loosening his smile, he gripped her tighter. “I’m going to be the one who has to answer for it, so you need to tell me everything. I can’t get any detail wrong in front of the cops or in front of the judge.”
That was… her anxiety became a sense of foreboding. “You…” The implication of what he was saying filled her with outraged horror. Throwing her arms up, she thrust his hands away from her head. “What the hell, Ryske? You think if I went out there and killed someone that I’d let you walk up to the cops and confess? That I’d let you take the rap for my crime?”
Ryske smiled, his expression full of swagger. “I think you wouldn’t have a choice,” he said. “These three are way bigger than you and as long as they’re holding you down, I can do whatever the hell I like.”
“You asshole,” she whispered and smacked her chest. “I take responsibility for what I did. I make my choices and they are mine to make. I do not need you to take ownership of anything I do.”
Stepping back, he circled a finger to indicate them all. “We are owners of everything we all do,” he said. “And, we do what is best for the whole… You in prison is not what’s best for the whole.”
“But you in prison is?” she asked.
“We make decisions as a group and for the group,” Ryske said, raising his arm to show his line of stars. “Highs and lows until we’re dirt in the ground.”
Before she could retort, Noon raised his arm, Maze did next, and Dover was last. Her eyes moved from one line of stars to the next. Every single one of them had the same new star like the one Ryske had shown her on his skin. Close to their wrist, smaller than the others, it had the line of a concentric star around it. That star was more delicate than the others and it was for her.
“You…” she whispered, her fingers moving toward Dover’s tattoo.
Grazing the ink on his skin, she was so moved that tears immediately pricked her eyes. “You ready to take yours?” Dover asked.
Her lips twitched into a smile that fell and jumped to her lips wider than the others. Nodding, she had never felt so sure or excited about anything since accepting her love for Ryske.
“Good,” Ryske said and turned to Dover. “Get setup for her.” He landed a pointed look on her. “This conversation isn’t over. Get your tats and tonight, we’re all gonna hear every detail.”
“Ryske,” she said, catching his attention before it could leave her. “I love you.” Her gaze flitted between them all. “I mean, I love all of you.”
“Yeah,” Ryske said, grabbing her hand. “But I’m the only one you shower with.”
Pulling her through the other guys, he guided her into the bathroom. As they crossed the threshold, she dropped the sheet, letting it catch in the door that didn’t close anyway. Ryske pulled her into the shower and turned on the water.
Making love against the bathroom wall, Harlow decided that not only had he been right about shower sex, but he’d been right about the crew too. Whatever happened to her, they all took it upon themselves to be responsible for it.
Harlow wasn’t going to push them away anymore. It may not change the future. But, after their ink was on her arm, she’d be a part of them forever, and they a part of her.
35
>
Getting her tattoos had taken a while. Doing them in the apartment meant they could take breaks whenever she or Dover needed them. It ended up taking the better part of the day to complete the work.
The other guys went out and came back several times, going about their business while she got a star tattooed for each of them. Dover added a line around the one she’d had done for Ryske, so that her stars matched the rest of the crew’s.
When Dover was done, the guys had congregated in the kitchen to admire his handiwork. Floyd’s was already open by that time, but each man had taken the time to place a short kiss on the star meant for themselves. Harlow had laughed and asked if they did the same for theirs, but knew from their reactions that they hadn’t.
Ryske had followed up his kiss on her arm with one on the lips. He’d coiled an arm around her waist after, and she’d stayed pinned to his side until he said he had to go out with Maze. For a minute, it seemed like the guys were braced for her to object. She hadn’t. Harlow knew what his life was and would never expect special treatment.
It was just a shame she wasn’t so sure of what her own life was.
Harlow hadn’t spoken to or of Ophelia and had decided it was best to keep her distance from that part of town for a few days. In fact, she’d decided to stick close to Floyd’s until the news got out. After that, she didn’t know what would happen.
Someone would have found Hagan that morning, meaning the cops had to be investigating already. Word would be seeping out onto the street and as soon as the news got back to Floyd’s, the guys would know what had happened, or at least, that there was a connection between Hagan and her appearing there. These guys didn’t believe in coincidence; it made them suspicious. Harlow had learned that firsthand the night Ryske had crashed into her.
“I won’t be long,” Ryske said, bowing to kiss her.
She accepted his kiss, but curled her fingers around the side of his neck to hold him in place. “Can I… borrow you for a minute?”
“No,” Maze said, catching Ryske’s arm to hold him away from her. “You don’t have time for sex.”
“No, hey, now wait a minute,” Ryske said, unhooking his arm from his friend’s grip. “We might have time for quick sex.”
Go It Alone (A Go Novel Book 2) Page 28
