by Penny Dee
She thought about it for a moment, looking up at me, her eyes glittering. Then she reached up and tenderly touched my face. “You talk like you’re a monster. But you’re not.”
There was an infinite gentleness in her eyes, and again my heart ached with longing.
“You don’t know me, you haven’t seen...”
I frowned. I couldn’t tell her about taking the shot.
“Let me see you,” she whispered. “All of you.”
She stepped back and with her eyes firmly riveted to mine, found the hem of my T-shirt. My abs flinched beneath her touch, and my breath hitched in my throat as she lifted my shirt over my head and let it drop to the floor. I was powerless against the intensity of the moment. Rooted to the spot. My heart pounding like a jackhammer against my ribcage.
Her gentle fingers whispered my abs as she slowly walked around me. They trailed across my bare chest and over my shoulders, curving around my bicep until they reached my back. I winced when they left the smooth plane of my shoulder blade and touched the puckered, scarred skin of my back.
I closed my eyes. I felt exposed. Open.
Vulnerable.
I held my breath and felt the disgust tremble through me.
I waited for her to recoil. But she didn’t falter. She kept trailing her fingers along the rubbery skin as she slowly moved around me.
When she faced me again, she rose up on her toes, and I felt her breath against my ear.
“You’re so beautiful,” she whispered in my ear.
“I’m not—”
She cut me off with her finger on my lips then replaced it with her sweet lips. Warmth burst through me, ripped from my heart by her tenderness. Her lips were sweet, the stroke of her tongue slow and seductive.
She broke away and took a step back. When she reached for my belt, I was utterly mesmerized by her. Unable to move and at her mercy, I let her unbuckle it and slowly pull it through the hoops of my black jeans before she dropped it to the floor. She went for the button, her eyes still secured to mine, and I didn’t stop her. I waited, my heartbeat thumping against my throat as she slowly lowered the zipper and reached inside. My eyes closed at the touch of her delicate fingers against my flesh, and I shivered, my breath slipping from my lips. Every cell of my body longed for this. Begged for it. Ached for it.
She took my hand in hers and placed it against her naked breast, and everything inside of me ignited into a powerful inferno.
With a hiss of breath, I swept her up in my arms and kissed her wildly. She weighed nothing in my arms as I carried her through the cabin to the bedroom, where I let her down on the bed and kicked off my boots and jeans. Covering her tiny body with the bulk of my own, her legs tightened around my waist, and she moved beneath me until my cock was right where she wanted it.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I breathed, painfully restraining myself from pushing into her. I wanted this to last. I wanted to savor every morsel of it.
“You’re not going to.”
She rolled us on the bed. Crawling across me, covering me in her warmth, every inch of her perfect, naked body feeling so fucking perfect against mine.
She slid her thighs open and placed them on either side of me, her eyes filling with the wildfire of lust as she took me in her hand and guided me to her. I watched, spellbound, as she rose up and then very slowly sank down on my throbbing, rigid cock.
My eyes rolled backward, mind blown by the sensation. Stars danced in the darkness, and my breath left my lungs in a wild rasp. My pulse roared through me when she repeated the move, rising up and slowly lowering herself back onto me again.
In that moment I shed my fears and lost myself in her. Lost myself in a haze of euphoria as I watched her ride me, her hips slowly rocking back and forth, her tight pussy gripping me and building the sweet tension. Sweat gleamed on her skin like a golden sheen. She dropped her head back, and her long blonde curls brushed my thighs as she rode me, moaning and grinding.
She was perfect. Every fucking inch of her.
I gripped onto her hips, driving my pelvis upward to bury myself deeper and harder into her. A low moan spilled from her parted lips, and her eyes closed as her orgasm began to roll through her.
“Angel …” I rasped out.
Tight muscles curled and squeezed around me, milking me, taking my arousal and making me its bitch. She cried out just as my own climax hit me full force, and I held her thighs still, shuddering beneath her, pulsing my release deep into her body.
She fell forward, her hair falling against my chest, her eyes gleaming between the curtain of blonde.
“See,” she said breathlessly. “You’re not the beast you think you are.”
Later, she lay in my arms, all warm and soft, her pulse a gentle rhythm against my chest. We had just made love again; this time I took the lead, slowly grinding into her body, making her cry out, making her come with my name on her lips. Now I felt drunk on it. Heavy and hazy. Addicted.
Outside, the stars were out and the crickets were singing. Twilight settled across the river, it was a still night, with the warmth of spring in the air.
We fell asleep, entwined in each other, our bodies spent, our minds hazy in our post orgasm glow, and the warm flicker of hope burning in our hearts.
CASSIDY
I woke up to the sound of the shower. Stretching my limbs in the large bed, I smiled contently, thinking about the night before. Thinking about Chance and how crazy spectacular he was. The more time I spent with him, the less afraid I felt. When I was in his arms, I was untouchable. For the first time in my life I was safe.
The shower turned off and I heard the door open and close. I sat up, my hair tumbling about in a big blonde mess. I brushed it out of my face and settled against the pillows, my pulse already quickening at seeing Chance this morning.
Post sex.
Post taking him in my mouth and sucking him.
Post him giving me several delicious orgasms.
He appeared in the doorway, a towel hanging low on his hips, and every womanly part of me lit up, like it was on crack, at the sight of the muscular arms and chiseled chest. His shoulders were huge. His abs ridiculous.
“Good morning,” he said, slaying me with his boyish grin.
“Good morning.” I started to throb.
“How are you feeling?”
My inner bad girl roared out of me, brought on by the sexiest man alive standing near naked in front of me. I smiled seductively.
“Turned on,” I said huskily, my eyes dropping to the tight V disappearing beneath the towel. I was already wet. Swollen and slick.
He gave me a heated look. A wicked smile. His tongue slid across his bottom lip as he tugged on his towel.
It slipped away and holy cow!
Chance’s body defied all reasoning. It was hard and strong. Warm and golden. Godlike, even. I drank in the image of him, absorbing it to memory, my body trembling with anticipation as he approached the bed with an almost predatory look on his face.
My eyes dropped to his manhood. It was long and thick, and it swayed at half-mast as he climbed onto the bed. He knelt before me, his broad chest gleaming like it was cut from granite. But despite how spectacular his chest and abs were, I couldn’t tear my gaze from his enormous cock.
I walked across the bed on my knees and took it in my hands, marveling at its size and thickness as it grew harder between my palms.
He trembled beneath my touch, and a thrill rolled through him when I slipped my lips over the wide head and drew him deep down into my throat. He threaded his fingers through my hair and gently rocked his hips. I released a soft moan, the taste of him consuming me as I suckled and licked and sucked him hard. He was salty and warm and so virile I could taste his strength as he slid in and out of my mouth.
With a husky groan he pulled away.
“You keep doing that baby and there’s no way I’m going to last.”
He gently guided me down to the pillows and settled between m
y open thighs. His eyes shone brightly in the low light, and I was surprised by the affection I saw reflected in the deep blueness.
He fit himself to me and very slowly pushed in.
My breath left me as his left him, because of how fucking amazing it felt when he was inside me.
“You’re so wet, baby. So tight.” He began to move slowly into me. His eyes were darker now. Filled with heat and lust and all the promises of what was to come. “I never want to lose this.”
Joy lit up inside me, flicked on by his words. I shifted beneath him so my clit met the friction of every stroke into my body. I gasped and it was husky and desperate because dear God the pleasure was almost too much to handle.
I never imagined we could fit so perfectly together. But we did. Like our bodies were made only for each other.
He pressed harder into me, grinding against the most sensitive part of my sex. I flexed and tightened around him, and he groaned. He quickened his pace, each stroke coming harder and faster than the one before, his breath coming quick, his brows drawn together. I raised my hips to meet every thrust, my legs shaking as the pleasure grew and grew until it erupted through me like a fucking star bursting. I cried out his name, my mind leaving my body and drifting up toward the heavens.
I was only vaguely aware of his moans until they grew louder and his controlled thrusts quickened. He started to come and his face shimmered as he stilled, his cock buried so deep I could feel it ejaculating into the very depths of me.
We lay heavy in the sheets. After a while he rolled onto his elbow and looked down at me. His fingers drew a gentle trail down my side and around my belly button.
“No regrets?” he asked.
“Not one. You?”
“I might be slightly fucked-up, but I’m not completely insane.” His smile was beautiful. “Letting you walk out would’ve been my only regret.”
Outside, clouds covered the sun as a morning thunderstorm rolled in, shattering Chance’s plans to work on the fisherman’s cottage.
So we spent the day lost in each other instead as the rain hammered into the roof above us. We took a shower together. Made sandwiches in the kitchen and then made love on the granite counter top with such emotion and frenzied energy we sent two plates to their demise, crashing on the floor, and I somehow managed to break a nail.
It was a nothing day but an everything day all at the same time.
Because here Barrett didn’t exist.
And I wasn’t running for my life.
CASSIDY
The following morning, I woke up high on emotion, tangled in the sheets with my beautiful beast. Without words we made love again, slow and warm, our bodies speaking what we were feeling, our early morning moans breaking the stillness of a blue dawn. It was blissful. Erotic. And through it all, I felt a little more of Chance’s wall come down. With every breath. With every stroke of his glorious cock. With every brush of his lips and tongue against mine, he took another step toward me, and I took another step away from the shadows where I’d hidden for so long.
And that was how it went for days.
We cocooned ourselves in his cabin. Nestled amongst the trees and the sparkling water of the river. Spring was here, and it was all around us in the greenness of the riverbank and the blueness of the sky. Birds sang of promise, cicadas chirped in the pale warmth of a March sunshine, and the air was warm with the sweet scent of blooming flowers and the marijuana plants that dotted the riverbank.
Neither of us knew what was happening. Only that time had stopped as we lost ourselves in the comfort and ecstasy of each other’s bodies.
We didn’t speak about our feelings. Didn’t talk about what was happening. Didn’t make plans. Because despite the euphoric bliss of our lovemaking, we were both realists and we still wondered if this was something that could ever last. We were too broken. Too jaded by our past. And too frightened of our future.
But it was a break from the darkness.
A break neither of us were in a hurry for it to end.
When I had to work, we rode into town on Chance’s bike, and he would kiss me passionately as we parted, his lips and tongue speaking promises of what was to come when I returned home. When my shifts finished, he would be waiting for me, casually leaning up against his motorcycle and looking so damn hot it was inevitable I would tear his clothes off as soon as we stepped into the cabin.
Nights were spent in bliss. Early morning hours spent in ecstasy as he woke me up with his commanding hands, luscious tongue, and hard body.
But like they say, all good things must come to an end.
And it’s true.
Our happiness was short lived.
Because that’s when the body washed up.
CHANCE
A jogger found her. Half submerged on the sandy riverbank, nude except for a sock on her left foot.
She had been shot in the head.
Her name was Vander Quinn, and she was the wife of our town mayor.
By mid-morning the riverbank was crawling with law enforcement.
By lunchtime, I was sitting in our clubhouse with Bull, Cade, and Ruger, across from Mayor Quinn and his assistant. Quinn looked distraught.
“On behalf of the club, I’d like to offer you our condolences for the loss of your wife,” Bull said, giving him a sharp nod of his head. He knew the pain of losing the woman you loved. For seventeen years it had kept him from having anything serious with another woman. But while he was empathetic toward our mayor, it didn’t stop him from being suspicious. “What I don’t understand is why you would ask the Kings for help.”
Within hours of his wife’s body being discovered, Quinn had reached out to Bull and asked for a meeting.
“I want to find out who did this, and I want them to pay,” he said through gritted teeth.
“That’s to be expected, but you have the sheriff’s department and the state troopers all over this.”
Quinn leaned forward to rest an arm on the table. “Everybody in this town knows that if you want something done, you reach out to the Kings. I want who did this. And I don’t want to wait.”
“Buckman is a good sheriff.”
Quinn cocked an eyebrow at Bull. “Come on, he’s so corrupt he’d sell his own grandmother’s soul for the right price. Don’t think for a second I don’t know about the things he does for your club.”
Bull’s expression didn’t waver. “He’s a good investigator.”
“That may be the case, Bull, but I want the person responsible for this to be found and dealt with in the most appropriate manner.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, I want it dealt with outside of the law. Going to prison would be too good for the son of a bitch. I want him cold and stiff in the ground.”
His words crackled in the air like electricity.
“We’re not murderers for hire, Quinn,” Bull finally said.
“Oh, I don’t expect you to murder anyone. I just want you to find him and leave the rest to me.”
Bull’s eyebrows rose above his sunglasses, but he said nothing. Quinn nodded to his assistant who pulled out a thick yellow envelope from of his briefcase and slid it across the table.
“There’s twenty thousand. You’ll get another twenty thousand when you deliver whomever was responsible to me.”
I leaned forward and looked inside the envelope. Sure enough it was fat with cash. Bull turned his head in my direction, and I nodded, letting him know it was full of money. He gestured for me to give it back.
“I’ll say it again. We aren’t murderers for hire, but we’ll find out what piece of shit came into our town and murdered one of our own.” He rose to his feet. He was tall and formidable, and the dark sunglasses added more intimidation to his already imposing figure. “And I’ll trust that this act of loyalty will be remembered by our prestigious mayor in the future. Do we understand one another?”
Quinn looked at the yellow envelope on the table, weighing up his options. He rose to his f
eet and stretched out a hand to Bull. “You have yourself a deal.”
“Good.”
Twenty thousand dollars was a lot of money to turn down, but I understood why Bull did it. Currency like the one Quinn was offering could be traced back to the Kings and could become a headache for us further down the track if things went pear-shaped with the investigation. A future favor and a handshake was far less incriminating than a pile of cash.
The two men sat back down.
“Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt you or your wife?” I asked. As Sergeant at Arms, Bull would rely heavily on me to help find out what happened to Vander Quinn.
“My wife had a lot of friends. She was a people person. They gravitated to her like bees to pollen.” He paused, his face marred by sadness. “I can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt…” His voice trailed off as he remembered something. “A couple of weeks ago she started getting phone calls from a number she didn’t recognize. She told me about it over breakfast one morning. But then she never mentioned it again. Do you think that might have something to do with it?”
“It could but I would say the sheriff’s department would have already sent a request to her phone provider for access of her records,” Ruger said, meaning we’d be able to get them off Buckman later. “Can you think of anything else?”
Mayor Quinn paused, thinking.
“There is one other thing.”
We waited.
“My wife was having an affair.”
“An affair?” I asked.
Mayor Quinn waved it off. “It was nothing serious. Just like all the others.”
Seeing the confusion on our faces he elaborated.
“My wife and I had an arrangement. We’ve been married thirty years this June, gentlemen, and I’m man enough to admit that marriage can get a bit boring once the shine of new love wears away and you’re faced with the day-to-day monotony of real life together. My wife enjoyed a few trysts here and there, and I understood them. She was a good looking woman with time on her hands and a healthy sexual appetite. We had a great sex life, believe me. But that didn’t stop her wanting to eat pork chops instead of sirloin steak every once in a while.”
