by Jadyn Chase
He circled my waist with his burly hands. If he moved me up and down on that torturous hunk of flesh, I couldn’t tell. I didn’t need to. I dissolved in slippery ecstasy that tore me off my moorings. What was happening to me?
He kept whispering to me, but I no longer tried to distinguish what he was saying. It didn’t matter. That rasping voice insinuated the darkest passions into my soul. He gave me the key to unlocking my secret power to unleash myself on the world.
I never imagined I could feel such explosive orgasmic release. Every penetrating thrust, every grinding gyration of my hips against him spiraled me out of my mind. My nectar gushed over his burning rod to glide me on my way to the stratosphere.
He bucked his hips to knock me upward, but I didn’t care anymore what he did. If this was what I felt with him, he could do whatever he wanted with me. What did I care if I climaxed a hundred more times than I already did?
He glided his big, warm hands up my chest, paused ever so briefly on my breasts, and continued until he took my face in his mind-numbing grip. He held my soul in his grasp. He brought my eyes level with him so I had no choice but to stare into the endless pools of cosmic meaning gazing back at me.
His powerful member kept up its incessant rhythm smashing me to pieces, but I knew only the completeness of coming together with him in that holy place where nothing held us apart.
In that place, peaks and valleys ceased. I drifted into one ongoing climactic field of ecstasy from which I could never come down.
9
Roman
I felt Maya slip out of bed. I kept my eyes closed and my head turned away while she got dressed. I pretended to be asleep when she checked her hair in the bathroom mirror, got her handbag and keys, and snuck out of the room.
So that was how it was going to be. Wham bam, thank you, Ma’am, without even a kiss good-bye. Did I make a mistake hooking up with her like that? Maybe I wanted something from her that I could never have. Then again, that was what she was trying to tell me all along, wasn’t it?
The warmth of sleep faded and left me cold. I didn’t move. I still smelled her hair on my pillow. The taste of her kisses whispered her essence into my mind. I hung onto that as long as I could, even as I heard her leaving, probably for good.
She tiptoed into the living room. Silence descended over my room. I was alone. Again. I would always be alone. The sooner I got used to that and made my peace with it, the happier I would be.
I existed for Anna now. I long ago lost the right to ask anything for myself. No woman would come near me now. I got myself saddled with a kid and a club and a lot of other responsibilities. That was my job now. That was my only Destiny.
No sane woman would take that on. I might have some admirable qualities, but not enough to overcome the insoluble complications of my life. I didn’t blame her for leaving, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
The loose floorboard creaked when she stepped off the carpet near the front door. I didn’t have to worry about her seeing me, so I rolled over on my back and opened my eyes. Goodbye, Maya. It was nice while it lasted.
I folded my elbow under my head and stared at the ceiling. I was stupid to think this could turn into something. That was my fault. If I was hurting right now, I had no one to blame but myself. I had the audacity to think it could be otherwise, that a woman as fine and as smart and as successful as her could look twice at me. She got her rocks off. Now she was leaving. That was all I was good for to a woman like her.
The door latch clicked. All at once, a piercing voice blasted through the house. “Maya! You’re here!”
That voice shook the dust off the light fixtures and woke the sleeping ghosts. The building exploded into life.
“What are you doing here, Maya?” Anna cried. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon. Don’t you have to work at the hospital? It’s so good to see you.”
I eased out of bed. I peeked through the door while I slipped on my pajama pants and beheld Anna with her thin little arms wrapped around Maya’s waist. She buried her face in Maya’s stomach.
Through the open door, Dolores’s car pivoted around in the cul-de-sac. She honked two brief toots on her horn, waved through the window, and drove away.
Maya rubbed Anna’s back and stroked her hair. “It’s good to see you again, too, sweetie. I just came by to check on you and your dad. I’m glad to see you’re doing so well. So you had a sleepover last night. How did that go? I hope you didn’t stay up too late. Even if you’re doing well the rest of the time, sleep deprivation can trigger a seizure.”
Anna rolled her eyes to Heaven. She flung her backpack on the floor and hurled herself into the nearest chair. “You told me that a thousand times at the hospital. You don’t have to tell me again.”
Maya indulged in a quiet smile. “Good. In that case, as long as you’re doing okay, I’ll…..”
I saw her leaning toward the door. If I hoped to stop her from leaving, now was my only chance. So much for getting used to being alone. Fuck that. I didn’t want to be alone. If there was ever a shred of hope to keep her around, this was it.
I sidled into the living room as casually as I could under the circumstances. “Sit down and catch up with Anna. I’ll make breakfast.”
“Yeah!” Anna lunged for her, snatched her by the hand, and towed Maya down next to her at the table. “You can help me with my math homework.”
Maya laughed. “I don’t know about that. It’s been decades since I worked on that stuff. You should ask your dad. He’s smart like that.”
Maya cast a hasty glance over her shoulder. Those smoky, intoxicating eyes caught me for a second. What was she trying to suggest? She knew I managed all the business for Los Diablos, so she must have understood that I knew my math as well as the next guy, if not better.
Anna glared at me and smacked her lips in exasperation. “I ask him all the time. I’ve had enough of him.”
Maya burst out laughing again. Her face glowed when she laughed. Could it be she felt more comfortable around Anna than she did around me? She didn’t show any sign of trying to leave, though.
I stuck my head into the fridge and took out a carton of eggs, a package of bacon, and a loaf of bread. I set the eggs and bacon to fry on the stove and slotted two pieces of bread into the toaster. Then I put on a pot of coffee.
Anna laid out her math book and started a laborious explanation of fractions. Maya listened with her head on one side. “It sounds like you know all about this stuff. What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to check my homework and make sure it’s all correct.” Anna spread a crumpled sheet of paper in front of her.
Maya blinked. “I don’t think I can do that. This is too hard for my old brain.”
“It is not!” Anna exclaimed. “You’re smart. Just check it with the answers in the back of the book.”
“Can’t you do that?” Maya asked.
Anna’s face fell. “I thought you were going to help me.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. That little squirt could sink her hooks into anyone. She could twist hardened bikers around her little finger until she convinced them to do exactly what she wanted.
Anna heard me and shot daggers in my direction. “You stay out of this, Papa.”
“I didn’t say a thing.” I made a show of pouring coffee into a mug. I added sugar and milk and set it down in front of Maya.
She raised it to her lips, but she didn’t take her eyes off the dreaded fractions. Poor girl. She didn’t have a clue what dealing with Anna was really like.
She took a sip of the coffee and her head shot up. “Thanks. This is perfect. How did you know how I like my coffee?”
I cracked a grin down at her. The diaphanous aromas from last night still haunted me every time I looked at her. “We had coffee at the hospital cafeteria, remember? I watched you put milk and sugar in your coffee.”
Her eyes widened. “You remember that?”
“Of course. I
remember everything about meeting you at the hospital. How could I forget?”
She bent her head and her luminous hair cascaded over her face to hide her features. I went back to the kitchen and flipped the eggs. I was in the middle of laying out another raft of bacon when she spoke up behind me. “That smells really good. You make it look like you make breakfast for girls every morning.”
“I do.” I snuck a meaningful glance at her over my shoulder. “Every morning.”
“Papa,” Anna interrupted, “could we take Maya to the zoo with us this morning? You promised you would take me.”
I turned around to face them. “Yeah, you should come, Maya. It will be fun. We can feed the monkeys.”
“I don’t know,” Maya hedged. “I should get back to work.”
Anna’s happy smile turned upside down. “Do you really have to work today? Do you ever get a day off?”
“Today is my day off, but I have things I need to do before I go to work tomorrow. You don’t understand how it is. When you work full time, you have to save up everything else to do on your off days. I have to…”
Anna seized her hand. “Please come! Please! Say you’ll come. It’s one day out of your life. Come on, Maya. Please.”
She looked over at me, but I didn’t intervene. Too many conflicting emotions struggled in my being. Did I want her to come with us or not? Here I invited her to have breakfast with us, so I must want her around.
Another part of me didn’t want the added complication. If she was going to leave me in the mornings without even saying goodbye, I didn’t want to bother getting close to her. I certainly didn’t want Anna getting attached to her if this thing wasn’t going anywhere.
I scooped two eggs, two pieces of buttered toast, and two pieces of bacon onto a plate and placed it in front of Maya. Her magnetic eyes floated up to my face, but I couldn’t make out the hidden meaning behind her expression. She opened her mouth to say something. Would it be for good or ill?
Before she could speak, Anna attacked her again. “What about English, Maya? Are you any good at English? I really need help with punctuation. I can never figure out when to use single quotations and when to use double ones. I always get them mixed up.”
I took the opportunity to retreat to the kitchen. I left Maya there with her breakfast to think it over. Now that I got her involved in my personal life, a few things crystallized in my mind. The fog of sex cleared so I could see this situation for what it was.
Whatever she wanted to do with me and mine, she better get herself figured out in a big hurry. I didn’t have time for any half-assed night visitor. I could pick up a hooker on any street corner. I didn’t need someone I cared about, acting like one.
If she wanted me, she better be ready to go all in with me, Anna, and Los Diablos. If she couldn’t do that, she better be prepared to pack up and ship out now. That would save us all a heap of trouble down the road.
She stared down at the table. I couldn’t make out from the stove if she was staring at her breakfast or at the scribbled essay Anna was trying to convince her to edit.
Anna babbled something about, “after we get back from the zoo.” The words electrified Maya into action. She jerked in her seat and the chair skidded across the floor. She leaped to her feet and grabbed her handbag. “I better go. You guys enjoy your breakfast.”
I met her at the door. “Are you okay? You don’t have to rush off.”
“I…. uh….” She waved toward the street. “I gotta…. you know…. I gotta get to the bank and everything. Today’s the only weekday I can do it. I’ll see you later.”
“Will you?” I asked.
She spun around and blinked. “What?”
“Will you, really? Will you really see me later?”
“Yeah, sure.” She passed her hand across her forehead. “Of course.”
“I’ll remember you said that.” I checked her reaction to the words.
She shook her head and whirled away without really answering. “See ya.”
She hurried down the sidewalk and hopped into her car. She sped away without a sideways glance to the left or to the right.
10
Maya
I slotted the chart back into its holder and headed down the corridor toward the Post-Operative ward. Since my rotation changed, I settled back into the usual grind. I even started to feel somewhat happy again. At least I didn’t have to walk past the Pediatrics ward anymore.
I turned into the Post-Op and stopped dead in my tracks. The room contained a single bed and a whole lot of monitors and IV equipment and pain relief pumps. Chirps and beeps went off all the time, but I didn’t notice that.
The patient on the bed was a middle-aged male with long black hair scattered across the pristine white pillow. He still had his ET tube down his throat, and the arm lying exposed on the counterpane bore the indelible marks of dozens of tattoos. His IV extended from the middle of a wheel symbol surrounded by a dragon. The words, Los Diablos splayed across the banner underneath.
I stared down at the figure. I didn’t recognize him with all that medical equipment all around him. He looked like any ordinary man. His chart chronicled the injuries of a man caught in an accident. He had emergency surgery before coming up here to recover. Only that tattoo gave me any clue to his real identity.
I forced myself to think. What should I do? Should I ask to be removed from this man’s care? That would only attract attention to the fact that I knew him personally. I didn’t know him personally, though. I couldn’t have picked him out of a Police line-up if I tried.
At that moment, someone bumped into me from behind. I checked over my shoulder and came face to face with Roman Santiago. My heart stood still. Now what should I do? Should I politely excuse myself? Should I run for the hills?
Before I could decide, Anna ran up to me and grabbed my hand. “Maya! What are you doing here? Are you taking care of Kane?”
“Yeah, I…. uh….” I glanced up at her father.
He narrowed his eyes and glared at me with cold, hawkish indifference, but I never doubted for a second that he was listening and judging every word I said. He wanted to know as much as Anna what I was doing in his friend’s room.
I pulled myself together. “I’m on a rotation. That means I work for four months in one department before I change to another department. I was on a rotation in Pediatrics when you were there. Now I’m here in Post-Op. That’s why I’m taking care of….of Kane.”
I looked up from her to Roman’s chiseled features, but he gave nothing away. If my explanation settled anything for him, he didn’t show it. Just then, a group of some dozen other people crowded into the room. They were all men wearing their patched vests and their red bandanas. They streamed past me and surrounded Kane’s bed.
A terrifying character with a curved mustache confronted me. “When will he wake up? We need to question him about what happened? When will they take that thing out of his mouth?”
“I…. I really don’t know.” I glanced at Roman and back to…..The whole experience in Pediatrics came rushing back to me. His name was Carlos. That guy with the mustache was Carlos. I couldn’t make up my mind if I should be explaining the situation to him or to Roman.
Either way, I was explaining it to Roman whether I wanted to be or not. “I just looked at Kane’s chart. The surgical techs are due to check on him in an hour. That’s when they’ll make a decision whether to take his ET tube out, but they’ll keep him sedated until then. They don’t want him conscious with it in. He might gag and try to pull it out before he’s ready.”
“That’s not good enough,” Carlos snapped. “We need him conscious now. We need to find out what happened.”
“Why don’t you ask the Police?” I replied. “They’re the ones who brought him in.”
Carlos’s gaze shifted over my shoulder to Roman. He compressed his lips and didn’t answer, but he didn’t try to hide his displeasure at my answer.
I gathered my resolve. I rem
inded myself these were only regular people. Carlos was as worried about his comrade as anybody would be if their loved one got into an accident.
I threw back my shoulders. “I’ll try to find out where the surg tech team is and I’ll convey your concerns to them. I’ll do my best to convince them to come earlier if I can. I can’t do any better than that.”
I turned on my heel, but I had to look Roman in the eye before I could get out of the room. He stood rooted to the spot and his eyes didn’t flinch one iota when I walked around him.
My heart hammered my ribs. Why? Did those people really scare me? No, it wasn’t that. It was Roman. I thought I was rid of him. Now he turned up in my hospital all over again. This was my worst nightmare coming true, and I could look forward to dealing with him a lot more in the future as long as I was taking care of Kane.
I scurried back to the nurse’s station and fumbled around on the desk for the surg tech team’s phone number. Maybe once they woke up Kane and he gave those devils the information they wanted, the gang would leave me in peace.
I found the number and got out my phone, but when I touched the screen, a strong hand clapped me on the shoulder. I screamed in spite of myself and whipped around.
Roman eyed me with one eyebrow raised. “What do you think you’re doing?”
My hand flew to my heart. “Don’t do that! You scared the shit out of me.”
He glanced down at my phone. “I asked you a question. What are you doing?”
“I told you what I’m doing.” I fought to breathe through the terror and angst. “I’m calling the surg tech team to tell them you want Kane woken up sooner. I told you that.”
