School and Rock (Raptors Book 5)

by RJ Scott

  “This is going to sound stupid, and I’m not ripping off Eric Clapton, but have you ever been happily strolling along the road of life and see a crossroads up ahead and not know which road to take?”

  “Hmm, well, I’ve always been pretty set on my career path. Is this about the band coming to meet the team?”

  “Yeah, sort of. No, not really.” I exhaled deeply and pushed my fingers through my hair. “I just foresee some issues. How can I be the father Madeline needs and be on the road all year long? I mean, hockey travel is going to keep me from her from October through April at the very least. Then I pick up and go on the road with the band? I don’t know.” I fisted my hair, both hands tight in the purple strands. My eyes began to water. “I refuse to be that kind of father. I refuse to be Liberty. But I love both things so much, how can I choose?”

  He turned to face me, reaching up to untangle my fingers from my hair. Then, in a move that knocked me off my feet, he kissed each fingertip. The press of his soft lips to my fingers diffused the angst and anger welling up inside me. We moved to each other in unison, my arms sliding around him, his hands skipping nervously over my bare chest. His breathing was erratic and quick, like a wild baby rabbit cornered by a house cat. I nipped at his lower lip as he toyed with my nipples. Plucking, rubbing, twisting, making me huff and rub myself against him. He was hard too, the thick ridge of his cock pressing mine. We both inhaled at the contact, his palms now moving up to my shoulders. I gave him a gentle hip check, using my size to lever him from the open door. We danced clumsily across the room, my hands on his ass. We fell onto the bedding, legs knotting, mouths seeking, hands desperately tugging at zippers and belts until both of our cocks were freed. He lay under me, shirt twisted around his wiry frame.

  “Oh… oh God,” he whimpered when I took us in hand, his fat cock resting atop mine. Pre-cum leaked out of me. I was always wet and oozy when I was aroused. I thumbed the liquid then rubbed it over the head of his dick. “Mm, oh shit I just…”

  I kissed his mouth, long and hard, rocking my hips in and out. He clung to my arms, his nails biting into the flesh.

  “I can stop. Do you want me to stop? Is it too much too fast?” I asked, my voice thick and rough as sandpaper. Please say keep going.

  His hips chased mine when I moved to give him room to breathe. “No, don’t stop. This is perfect. Perfect.” He arched into my hand, grabbing handfuls of hair and tugging my mouth back to his. We pumped with abandon, his tongue sliding over mine, eager to feel the release riding down on us like a stampeding herd. My balls drew up. I bit down on his lower lip, then pushed up using my legs to ram my cock against his.

  “God, oh God… I’m… shit yes!” He blew apart then, coating my hand, his kisses sloppy and demanding. Warm cum coated our dicks. I held him close with one hand, feeling him shudder as he pulsed repeatedly. White light ignited at the base of my spine. I stroked hard once then twice, the slip and slide of our pricks thick and wet with his spunk threw me over. He wiggled a hand down between us, his palm brushing my head. I cried out and spurted on his fingers. His hand wound around mine, pressing and squeezing, milking us both dry.

  “Holy hell,” I gasped, his nose in my neck, my dry lips beside his ear, and our cocks soft and sticky, resting on our hands.

  “That was… fucking stellar!”

  “Yeah, yeah it was,” I replied then captured his soft, sweet lips for a kiss that went on and on and on before I rolled off to lie flat on my back. “Talk about flying to the moon.”

  “You sent me into orbit.”

  We both sniggered like fools. “Would it be too soon to mention wanting to explore Uranus?”

  That made him snort, which made me laugh, which made him kiss me with the intensity of a sun going supernova. Science was sexy. Who knew?! We laid there making lame space cracks until his phone rang. He wiped his hand on his shirt as I tucked and zipped.

  “My hand is a mess,” he complained while wrestling his phone from his back pocket.

  “I can lick it clean.” He laughed lightly and then placed his phone to his ear. “I was being serious.”

  He held out his right hand. I took it in mine and began lapping at the cooling spunk. We tasted fucking fantastic together.

  “What? No, what?! Oh my God, are you and Emma okay?!” I sat up, worry crashing down on me at the panicked tone of his voice, all licking coming to a screeching halt. “Oh thank God! I’ll be right there. It’s okay, it’ll all be okay. I’m coming now.”

  I got to my feet as Joe flung himself out of my bed. “What happened?”

  Joe turned his head to face me, his eyes wide. “I have to go. It’s Natalie. Our house just burned down.”

  Twelve

  Joseph

  I recall Simon telling everyone at the party to leave. Then he scooped us me, Colorado and Maddie into the car and headed to my sister and Emma. I remember sirens, and arriving at the house too late. I know they told us my sister and Emma were at the hospital. They must have told us, even if I didn’t hear, because Simon yanked me back from running into the smoking ruins of my family home, and into the car. We sped toward the hospital at speed but why did we have a police escort? Was it to give me time to say goodbye? Was my sister dead? Was Emma gone?

  “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Colorado kept saying, but he didn’t know, he couldn’t know.

  When we screeched to a halt outside the emergency room I yanked open my door, twisted in the seatbelt, fighting the restraint, until I finally fell out of the car on my knees onto the hot asphalt, Simon helping me up.

  I yanked away, ran around the car, crashing into Colorado.

  “It’s okay,” he said again.

  I shoved him, and ran to the doors, barely missing slamming into them as they opened. I ended up in a sterile white environment, with eyes on me, and fear so real I could taste it. “My family,” I said, willing someone to tell me what had happened.

  “Uncle Joseph!”

  Emma wriggled in the nurse’s hold so hard that she had to let her go, and then I met her in the middle and fell to my knees to hug her. She was okay, she was alive, and I gripped her so close that I didn’t know where her crying started and mine ended.

  “My sister?” I asked over Emma’s head, as quietly as I could, because what if she was dead? What if I’d lost her? What if Emma’s mom was gone? I’d be there for Emma, raise her like my own, because she was everything to me. I stopped myself crying and I shoved up a wall so damn hard that I could cope with whatever they told me.

  “Uncle Joseph, Momma’s burned.”

  Oh my god, no. I couldn’t imagine what I was going to see, or how much pain my sister would be in, I couldn’t feel anything but cold icy fear.

  “This way, sir,” someone said, and I stood with help, stumbling after them until a door closed on me and Emma and I was suddenly alone with two people, one in a suit, and the nurse who’d been holding Emma. “Your sister has superficial burns on her hands and left arm, a broken leg, and there are concerns about smoke inhalation, plus the obvious contraindications with her diabetes. She’s in safe hands, and as soon as we can take you to her, we will.”

  “Sh—she’s okay?” I slumped to the nearest seat, holding a sobbing Emma on my lap and staring up at the kindly face of the nurse.

  “I want my momma,” Emma wailed, then buried her face deeper into my jacket, the scent of smoke in her soft curls. What if I’d lost them both? What was the point of a universe of possibilities if I didn’t have my sister and niece in my life?

  The nurse pressed a hand to Emma’s head. “Your momma is fine, sweetheart, your uncle is here now and he’ll look after you.” I expected her to leave but she didn’t, and it appeared it was the suited woman’s turn to speak.

  “My name is Hillary Bright, and I’m a hospital liaison,” she held out a hand, but dropped it when she realized there was no way I’d let go of Emma. “It’s okay,” she murmured, and took a seat next to me. “I don’t expect you to have all the answer
s, but Natalie’s records show that you’re her next of kin, and Emma’s legal guardian in the event anything should happen to her.”

  I nodded. I remember the day she’d signed all the paperwork, not long after Emma was born, and on the first anniversary of Bobby’s death. We’d been sober and thoughtful, and I had promised her I would never let her down. She’d cried then, said it wasn’t fair, that nothing was fair, but we’d hugged it out.

  “Do you have somewhere for your family to go now? Can we assist in—?”

  “I’m not leaving,” I blurted. There was no way in hell that I was going to be dragged out of here until Nats could go with me, and if I had to build a tent in the room for Emma, then I would.

  “Momma,” Emma sobbed some more.

  “No, not now.” Hillary looked aghast. “I meant after. I understand that you live with Mrs. Owens and Emma, and there is no house to go home to, do you need us to—?”

  “I live somewhere else now,” I lied, and blurted out Colorado’s address. “We’ll go there.” I wouldn’t allow them to tell me I couldn’t take Emma. Hillary didn’t falter as she carefully wrote down the address, and then closed her file and sat. It seemed as if I had a shadow in this family room, and I shuffled along a chair to give us more distance, then tried my hardest to calm Emma.

  “I’m here, Em,” I murmured into her hair. “Momma is okay, we’ll be fine, we’re okay…” I kept repeating it, until she mumbled something incoherent and then finally after a while she fell quiet, and then dozed in the crook of my neck. There was a gentle knock at the door, and Hillary answered it. For a moment I thought it might be Colorado and I wanted that, but then what if he told Hillary I’d lied about the address? Why didn’t I just say we’d get a hotel? I had the money for a few nights, and we could live in a cheap hotel long enough until the insurance came through. It wasn’t him, but Hillary checked back at me, and then opened to door to another stranger who came inside, this time a young firefighter, still in uniform, holding a plastic bag.

  “This was important to your sister,” he murmured, and placed the bag next to me. “Captain said I should wait, but she wanted these photos and I never let go of them after we pulled her out.”

  She’d tried to retrieve photos for Emma? Had she gone back in? Why would she do that?

  “What happened?” Emma stirred in my arms at my voice, and I willed her to stay asleep where she would be safe from all of this, lowering my tone. “I spoke to Natalie, she called me and told me about the fire, she was out of the house and she was okay.”

  The fire fighter glanced from me to the liaison who was doing her best not to listen, and then took the edge of a seat near the door.

  “Strictly off the record, it’s not clear yet as to cause of the fire, possibly faulty wiring, but your family was out and the fire was mostly covered. Then your sister ran right through the space where the front room window had been and into the room itself, which had escaped most of the fire, grabbing at things. Everything is in there.” He gestured to the bag. “By the time we got to her, I swear it was a few seconds, the second floor had collapsed under its own weight and she was caught in burning debris.”

  I whimpered in my throat. Why did she do that? Then the worst of it hit me. “Did Emma see what she did?”

  “No, I promise you, she didn’t have a clear view, but…” he sighed and closed his eyes, exhaustion bracketing his face, “she would have heard the panic and known what was happening.”

  I bit my lip, my stomach churning, and forced back the tears. Crying wouldn’t solve a fucking thing.

  “I’m sorry for the loss of the house—”

  “It’s nothing, just wood and brick, this is what’s important,” I murmured, and pressed my face into Emma’s hair. “Emma and Natalie will be okay. They’ll be okay. Thank you.”

  I knew I kept repeating that, the litany was more a prayer to some higher authority out there in the stars who might be able to make what I said true. God was beyond me, I didn’t have that faith, but I found a small place of peace cuddling my niece and repeating the truth I wanted to believe.

  The door opened, and there was a commotion, the fire fighter going out, the liaison hissing like a scalded cat, and then there in the doorway, Colorado stood with Maddie in his arms, Simon a hulking worried presence behind him.

  “I’m his boyfriend,” I heard Colorado say. “And I don’t care what you say, I’m coming in to be with him, and I’m bringing my daughter and my bodyguard.”

  There was a scuffle, but there was no way that strong, confident Hillary was a match for determined, argumentative Colorado or his back-up, Simon. In seconds, the two men were in and I didn’t have the heart to argue with Hillary about why I needed them in here with me. After a short face-off, Hillary decided it was fine to leave me with my boyfriend. I couldn’t tell if she was being sniffy or she was relieved, but she handed me a card with her extension and informed me that I had support now.

  Colorado sat next to me and I leaned on him, still refusing to cry. Simon stood at the door his expression sober.

  “Is she okay?” Simon asked, “What can I do to help?”

  “Nothing, she’s…” In the best place? How many times have I heard that said on the television, in shows that Natalie loved. The best place for someone hurt was the hospital—that had to be true. “Colorado, I lied,” I murmured, half hoping that he wouldn’t hear me. He moved away from me and for a second I thought I’d blown everything, although how those few words could have broken our fragile blooming relationship I don’t know. Then he moved Maddie to his left arm and used his right to pull me close.

  “What did you lie about? Did you break the law? Do I need to get a lawyer? I can get a lawyer now. Simon, call me a lawyer. Whatever it is I’ll fix it.”

  “Colorado,” Simon warned from the door.

  “Hush, Simon, this is important. I just want him to know—”

  Simon talked right over him. “You can’t go on offering help when you don’t—"

  “I’ll do what I damn well want.”

  “Colorado—”

  “Simon—"

  “Stop it, both of you,” I whispered with enough force to stop them. “I lied when they asked if me, Natalie, and Emma had a place to live. I told them your address.”

  Simon let out a sigh of relief.

  “As you should,” Colorado murmured and hugged me closer. For a second it felt as if the four of us—him, me, Emma, and Maddie—were this joined circle of family, and then I wanted Natalie here, and I wanted to cry at the thought of losing my sister. “That’s not a lie,” Colorado said with defiance.

  I closed my eyes and soaked in the warmth of him, and the care and safety I felt with Colorado and Simon in the room, and the fact that Emma was sleeping in my arms.

  “I told them that… I’m sorry… and I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t needed to. They were looking to get me a place to stay, not just me, but Emma and Natalie, and I said we would be moving in with you.”

  Colorado pressed a quick kiss to the top of my head and hummed something random. “I thought Natalie might like the blue room, it has the best views of the garden, and its own bathroom, and a side room for a nurse if she needs one, or maybe for Emma, although I think Emma might like the pink room across the hall, unless you think she’ll be scared on her own?”

  I opened my eyes and looked up at him, but he wasn’t joking, he was talking as if he’d spent a while thinking about this.

  “Huh?” My thought processes were frazzled and ragged but it sounded as if he was offering my entire family a place to stay.

  “And Simon has already arranged to have a representative at the remains of your—shit—at your house as security and to collect what can be salvaged. It’s not much, I’m sorry.”

  I couldn’t speak, the emotions inside me, the panic and fear that had brought me this far spilled out in angry, miserable tears, and Colorado held me. “I could have lost everything,” I said between sobs, and was never
more shocked than when Simon sat on the seat the other side of me and patted my knee.

  “Everything will be okay, kid. You have us now. Promise.”

  No doctors or nurses came to see me until four a.m., and then it was Natalie’s surgeon to tell me that surgery on her leg had been successful and she was sleeping peacefully.

  Doctor Ellis, a tall slim woman with short, spiky pink hair was the one delivering the news I needed to hear, and I’m sure she explained it as simply as she could. The injuries were nothing but words—compartment syndrome, smoke inhalation, blood loss—a list that seemed never-ending. By the end of it all I could think was that I wanted to see Natalie.

  “I’m Colorado Penn, goalie for the Raptors,” Colorado announced grandly into the sudden silence when she’d finished, with a wave of his arm and a toss of his long hair. “Money isn’t an issue, and I can get the best surgeons in here, from the team. Simon, call the team, and get management out here.”

  She wasn’t shocked, I could tell, and I knew that Colorado was looking out for me, but she’d just gone in and fixed my sister so in my eyes there couldn’t be a better surgeon.

  “I can assure you, Mr. Penn, that Mrs. Owens is in her private room with the extra nursing care you have requested, and that surgery went well. This hospital has a fine reputation for—”

  “What about a second opinion?” Colorado insisted.

  I was still stuck on the fact that my boss had organized a private room and additional private nursing care, how the hell was I going to pay him back for that? I’d be providing childcare services for free until Maddie turned eighteen.

  The surgeon inclined her head. “You are, of course, entitled to a second opinion—”

  “No,” I pressed a hand to Colorado’s chest, right next to where Maddie’s head lay. “Thank you, Doctor Ellis, I don’t know how I can ever say thank you enough. When can I see my sister?”

  “If you like I can take you up now.”