by Lucian Bane
“Maybe it looks to stop you.”
He snorted lightly, not liking her implication. “Stop me from what?”
“From the job God has you doing.”
Guilt hit him along with surprise. It was rare that anybody ever assumed he was up to good. “Well that’s new.”
She eyed him. “It is?”
“I think some days I have bad boy written on my forehead.”
“Hmph,” she muttered. “You do have an intimidating look about you.”
He smiled, tossing her a glance. She tossed one back, biting nervously at her thumbnail. “I’m all fluff,” he assured.
She gave him the purest little smile. “Until you’re steel bullets.”
He shot out a laugh, nodding. “Only when I need to be, baby.”
Silence filled the car again, but as usual it was thick with something. Her worry, he was sure. “If you want to know anything, ask me. Anything,” he stressed before muttering, “I can cut through your tension.”
“What tension?” she asked, like she was surprised that he knew.
“The one from all the questions you’re not asking me,” he laughed.
“You can feel that?”
“Yes, I can. I learned how to read people,” he reminded. “Everything about your body language says you’re scared.” He reached over and took her hand in his. “Talk to me.”
She took in a discreet breath and released it in a shaky sigh. “I’m … I’ve never been very many places. I just don’t know what … how to be.”
“Be yourself,” he said to which she gushed a laugh.
“Myself,” she mumbled.
He realized then. “Or just observe. Until you figure that out. You can be quiet, you can be moody, you can be whatever you need to be while you adjust.”
She was quiet for a few seconds before she said, “What am I adjusting to again?”
He glanced at her, trying to read what she meant. “You’re adjusting to not being stuck in hell.”
“Right.” She nodded, her fingers fidgety in his. “I just … I don’t know where I am now, where I’m headed, what I’m adjusting to.”
“How about you adjust to being free for now. And figure the other part out as your head clears?”
He saw her nodding for a few seconds. “Okay,” she whispered. “Sounds like a plan. I don’t know much of anything, you realize. Outside of church land. What-what kind of people are your friends?”
“They may look rough like me, but they’re good people.”
“Rough?”
“They’re both MMA fighters.”
“MMA?”
“Mixed martial arts?”
“I see.”
“It’s not something a lot of people know about,” he said.
“What else should I know about them?”
“Well, they’re together but not together. It’s one of those things that everybody else sees but them.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re in love but won’t admit it to each other. They’re both stubborn.”
“I see,” she said. But she didn’t really, he heard it in her voice. She saw that she didn’t see and it all added to her fears.
He squeezed her hand. “You’ll be fine. I’ll be with you the entire time.”
She nodded. “Good.”
Dante had never been so aware of walls like he was with Rin’s. The walls were constantly moving; he’d tear one down only to have another erect shortly after. All of them born of fear, in one form or another.
They made it to the mall finally and as they walked toward the large entrance, it hit him. Rin was him when he was fresh out of prison. That time in his life when he was desperate for somebody, anybody.
The second they entered the clothing store, he found a corner and hurried her into it. “Hey,” he said, making her look up at him.
“W-what?” she whispered, her whole body shaking.
“Listen to me.” He kept hold of her face. “I get it. I get it, I do. This world you’re walking into? It’s terrifying, it’s new, it’s huge. But you need to know that it’s just a place filled with people. These people all around you, they’re not bigger or better than you. They’re just people—brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. They all have lives, they’re all just living those lives, just like you, just like me. Some of them have bad marriages, some good. But most are just like me and you, terrified on the inside. Trying to fit in, to blend in, to belong and be accepted. But we get our acceptance from something greater than that, right?” Dante pointed a discreet finger up. “If He’s for us, who can be against us? Ah, fuck, Princess,” he whispered, wiping the tears from her face, kissing her a few times. “When I walked out of prison after fifteen years, I walked into this very same world, I felt the same fear you’re feeling, the same fucking terror,” he said, continuing to press kiss after kiss on her trembling lips. “Will I fit in, will people see that I don’t know what I’m doing? I know what you’re feeling but I’m right here with you.” He put his forehead on hers. “I’m right here with you. I’m right by your side.”
She clasped his face and filled his mouth with her hot breath, kissing him with a hunger. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you, did I ever tell you? I-I meant to thank you for everything you’ve ever done for me,” she strained. “I’m sorry I’m such a wreck, I’ll get used to it all.”
“Don’t apologize to me, not to me,” he said. “Now let me have fun buying clothes for you.”
“Fun?” she whispered with a light, worried laugh.
“Did you think this was something I dreaded?” he asked, chuckling, stroking her jaw.
“I don’t know what I thought. Just didn’t think fun.”
“Oh I am going to have fun,” he assured. “Dressing your pretty ass in clothes that I want to see you in.”
She nodded and smiled. “Okay. Okay, I’m ready. Take me shopping,” she whispered.
Chapter Seventeen
Rin fought the nausea in her stomach as she tried on the fourth outfit. Each time she exited the dressing room to parade in front of Dante, she died inside, only to be brutally resurrected by his lust-filled gaze, roving over every part of her in approval. It felt like he was looking straight through the clothes, the heat in his studious blue eyes a physical touch.
This time when she stepped out of the dressing room and peeked around to make sure nobody else was there, she met his gaze, finding him looking … tormented. Uncomfortable. Annoyed? Tired? She swallowed, smoothing her hands over the fitted red dress.
He suddenly stood and strode over to her. He ushered her into the dressing room and shut the curtain all while fear clawed at her stomach. Maybe she’d put the dress on improperly. The front could have been the back by the way it was designed.
He suddenly turned and his mouth crashed down on hers, stealing her breath while he pushed his hand up between her legs, his hungry fingers stroking along her folds. She clutched his neck and lifted her leg to which he groaned and shoved a finger inside her with long, deep strokes in and out.
“Oh God,” she cried.
“You’re driving me crazy,” he croaked. “And you don’t even know it.” He nipped all over her mouth. “I thought it was time you knew.”
“Oh God, Dante,” she strained as his thrusts turned maddening. Was he … God was he …
“You’re fucking dripping,” he grit, yanking the dress edge up higher and using his other hand to find her clit. He took it between two fingers and squeezed.
She lifted her leg higher. “Yes,” she cried, her hands going from his shoulders to the wall, back to his shoulders under the building heat.
“Fuck,” he whispered, dropping to his knees and spreading her pussy open with one hand. She gasped as she watched the tip of his tongue flick on her clit. She stifled a sharp cry when he pressed his mouth hard into her, sucking that hot spot, determination drawing his dark brows together.
The feelings and sight of it made
her dizzy, made her pull his hair and push that spot against his mouth, made her hips move to that ecstasy pulsing higher and higher. Reach, reach for it. Reach faster, harder. And that’s what she did, she thrust her hips, flicking with little jerks on his mouth until she was shuddering in climax, pulling his hair and squirming from his growling kisses.
The seconds melted into non-existence and he was suddenly kissing at her mouth. “There,” he whispered. “That should hold me for a while.”
Rin felt the bench next to her and collapsed onto it, feeling like a human noodle.
“You okay? How many outfits to go?”
Outfits? Right. Clothes. Clothing store. Mall. Earth.
She survived that department store only to have Dante pull her into another. “Last one,” he said.
She looked around, immediately blushing at the intimate apparel. “I … I can’t try this stuff on,” she whispered. Not in public, like she’d just done.
“Don’t worry, I won’t make you. Not now.”
Instant heat hammered her clit at his unspoken not now but later. She imagined the event, his repetitive sexual ravishing between each intimate outfit she modeled for him.
The selection of intimate apparel was done without Dante’s input, thankfully. It was all accomplished between Rin and the store clerk, a busty young blonde that seemed to know her way around the intimate necessities. Rin felt like the woman was selecting items for Dante’s taste with the way she kept looking over at him when picking articles. As though to see if it met with his approval. Only after fifteen minutes of that did Rin consider the woman was doing it just to see him.
Rin kept an eye on Dante as much as she did on the woman and was smiling before all was over. He never looked at the woman, not once that she’d seen. Every time he looked her way, his eyes zeroed in on her immediately, no straying, not even a little.
Two armfuls of intimate articles later, they checked out and headed to the mall bathroom where she changed into comfortable clothes. Jeans and a white t-shirt. Both fit her body just enough to show her shapely hips and modest breasts. They weren’t tiny but certainly not big either. Nothing to gawk at.
Finally, they left the mall and even with the heavy burden of bags, Rin felt like she floated on clouds. She couldn’t stop grinning. It wasn’t just the new kind of clothing, it was how she was being treated in them, and by him. She had never imagined she could feel so … pretty so … desired. And that gave her something she never remembered having before. What was that feeling? Courage maybe? Confidence?
But there was something else that followed the feeling, something that felt dangerous. She didn’t know what it was or why, and until she figured it out, she squashed the happiness down to keep it from bubbling up and taking her entirely over and making her into a giddy, babbling, lusty, lewd woman. With ugly short red hair in worldly harlot’s clothing.
They finally pulled up at the place where they would spend the next few days. He didn’t know how many days, he’d tell her as soon as he figured that out. There was a room for both of them and she wasn’t sure if he meant a room for each of them or one room for them both. And she was too embarrassed to ask. If it was two rooms then maybe that’s what he wanted, although she couldn’t imagine he’d want that. But maybe it was something the owners wanted. Why, she had no idea about either. What did he tell them about the two of them? That they were friends? Lovers?
Heat burned her cheeks at the thought of being seen as an infidel. But that’s not what Dante thought of it. He thought of them as … he’d said she was his fiancé. That meant he thought of them as engaged? But … did he really or was he just speaking metaphorically? To make his point? The idea he meant metaphorically made her sick. What would that mean if that was the case? That they were in between? In between what? Did he realize it was wrong to engage in any kind of intimacy like that without the intention of commitment?
He said he’d make love to her to finalize their … union? Did he really consider that a marriage? And did he define marriage in the traditional sense where he lives with her forever? Takes care of her? Is a family?
She jolted when her passenger door opened and Dante’s hand was before her. “Ready?” he asked softly.
“No,” she said, not meaning to say it out loud. “Sorry.”
He helped her out of the car and gave her one of his deep, hungry kisses where his groan vibrated in her mouth and lungs. “We’ll say a quick hello and then I want to take you out.”
“Out?” she whispered.
“Yes, out. On a date.”
“A date,” she gasped, trying to figure out what that meant to him, what that might entail and what things she’d need to know in order to pull that off. Dates with Daryl were surely nothing like dates with Dante, this much she knew.
“Yes, it’s where I take you to eat and we sit and talk, enjoy each other.”
She waited for more and said, “Oh.” Like a bimbo might. “I know how to do all of that.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to drag you into something you aren’t comfortable with.”
“Thank you,” she said, looking around at the neighborhood. Reminded her of the setting off of The Cosby show. Quaint and clean. A few people out and busy about their business. Dressed modestly too.
Chapter Eighteen
The sit-com resemblance ended when the woman she presumed was Joann answered the door. “Claw!” she cried, hugging him tight before mumbling something with giggles.
“Fuck, Jo, I told you no,” Dante muttered.
“Ohhhhh, no harm in a few friends that miss you!”
Few friends?
“This must be the lovely Rin Tin Tin,” Joann sang and laughed, her bright green eyes and huge teeth aimed at her. Impeccably straight teeth, but huge. Rin shook the woman’s strong hand, her many metal bracelets tinkling. “Jessica is here,” she mutter sang under her breath to Dante who appeared upset. Rin noticed the woman’s teeth were still showing but wasn’t sure if it was a smile. She realized her mouth and lips were large and … face. Head really. Maybe it was just her hair though. Before the awkward hand rattling/pumping was over, Rin’s mind snapshotted her large eye-brows.
“Come in,” she insisted, pulling Dante who quickly snatched Rin’s hand, tugging her with him. “Rex is pouting to see you,” she whispered.
They walked down a short foyer and entered a large room where yelling erupted. Rin quickly discerned they’d just walked into a surprise party. She clutched Dante’s hand tight, suddenly thanking God that he’d let her change before leaving the mall.
Rin stood smiling a little, trying not to make eye contact with the bodies in the room, hoping she appeared normal. There were four others besides the large man—Rex she guessed, who had Dante in some kind of painful looking hug, only Dante laughed and returned the punching and slapping and shoving show of affection.
“So good to see you man!” Rex said, gesturing to Rin now with a heavily muscled arm covered in colorful tattoos. “Is this Rin?”
“This is Rin,” Dante said, calling her with a tilt of his head.
Rin forced herself to leave the corner and extended a hand to the giant. He shook her fingers briefly and mumbled, “Lovely to make your acquaintance.”
Everybody erupted in laughter, but it was Rin that felt like the butt of the humor. She tried to relax into Dante’s emphatic embrace while returning Rex’s pleasantry with a mousey ‘same here’.
“Rin, I’d like you to meet Terry,” Rex gestured to the guy on the couch. “He’s the shaggy mutt on the left. And that’s Jessica, the gorgeous brunette on his right. And that’s Big Bad John over there and his lovely lady Edith,” he pointed at the black giant in a single chair with the petite blonde perched in his lap. “Man! Get your damn feet off the furniture!” Rex barked before pointing to Joann who took a smiling seat next to Jessica. “And you met my ho, Jo, at the door?”
“Oh, I’ll ho you, bro,” she said loudly.
“I did, yes,” Rin nodded. �
�Nice to meet all of you,” she said, trying to make her voice carry just enough while noting the way the brunette eyed Dante.
“So good to see all of you again,” Dante said then turned to Rex. “Man, where’s our room, I’m ready for a shower if you don’t mind.”
“Sure!” Rex said, patting him on the shoulder.
Rin followed Dante who followed Rex out of the room. “It’s your old room, I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, that’s perfect,” Dante said, entering a small room. Small but not small.
“You know where everything is, nothing’s changed here. Besides Jo being a pain in my ass,” he muttered with a low chuckle. He headed out the door and turned. “Hey, we’re going to Frodo’s tonight and we’re expecting you two to join us,” he said, eyeing him like he was prepared to insist.
“Man, how about tomorrow or something. Rin’s tired, I’m—”
“I’m fine,” Rin shot out in alarm at realizing he was about to make her the reason for the man’s disappointment.
Dante angled an upset look at her, confusing her.
“I am,” she assured, not understanding what he wanted from her.
“Great!” Rex said, winking at Rin. “But hey, you got time,” he cried, his voice low and emphatic. “We don’t leave till nine. Gives you four hours to get your game on.”
His game? What kind of game? God she wasn’t good at games unless it was word games. Hopefully it was that.
The door shut and he turned to her with a dreadful look. “What? What did I do?”
“I didn’t want to fucking go out!” he hissed.
“You said you wanted to take me on a date!” she cried.
“You! Not them!” he whispered, upset.
“Well I didn’t know! And you blamed me!”
“Blamed you?” He suddenly shook his head with a smile and walked to her, pulling her into his body. “I didn’t blame you baby,” he murmured, his hands roaming her entire back side, slowing over her butt for a firm grip. “I was hoping you’d play along.”
