by LM Terry
Oh my god, this is embarrassing. I throw my arm over my face, hiding from him. When I feel his hot breath on my sensitive skin, I bolt upright. He pushes me back down grabbing my wrists to keep my arms straight by my side. “I want to taste you, Jesse Miller.”
What? Oh god, why did I not talk to Raffe, to Candice, to someone!
This is Dirk. What did I think sex with him would be like? He’s not the hop on, hop off sort of guy. He is going to want to….oh god, I don’t even know. I’m so fucking naïve.
I flex my fingers as his grip tightens around my writs. He is waiting for a response.
I inhale and blow out slowly. “Okay,” I say uncertainly.
That’s all the permission he needed. He releases my wrists and pushes my knees apart. The moment his mouth connects, my back arches off the ground. Holy fuck. Just. Holy fuck.
He chuckles, the vibration taking me places I never knew existed. His tongue flicks over me, making me cry out. Every woodland animal is going to be running for the hills. The more noise I make and the more I thrash in the blankets, the more insistent he becomes.
“It’s…it’s too much,” I pant, fisting the blankets.
“There is no such thing,” he stops to tell me. His eyes blazing up my torso. We stare at each other as I try to catch my breath. His scary, motherfucking eyebrow arches up as I feel his finger slide into me.
“Oh, um…” I grip the blankets tighter, my knuckles turning white.
A second finger enters as his eyebrow creeps higher.
“Happy Birthday, Jesse,” he smirks.
And then…
“Oh. Oh my god, Dirk.”
His fingers curl as his mouth descends on me again, teasing me so…so…good.
“Oh god. Oh god.”
White stars burst behind my eyes. The breath caught in my lungs expands. I’m…I’m going to pass out. I just know I am.
“Holy…shitttt,” I yell as my legs tremble around his head.
He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t fucking stop.
A second wave hits me, knocking me clean out of this world. I’m…I’m, holy mother of god what kind of demon is he?
When Dirk’s heat leaves me, I open my eyes. He’s kneeling over me, a look of awe in his mood ring eyes. “Fucking beautiful,” he says before sucking his fingers into his mouth. The way he is looking at me sends delightful shivers down my spine.
He shoves his jeans down in one swift motion, kicking them the rest of the way down his legs. I’ve seen him naked once before but good god he is impressive.
His inked hand grips his cock at the base and slides down slowly. A drop of precum falls to my leg. Fuck I think I can hear it sizzle on my skin. I let my eyes travel leisurely over him. All ink and muscle. I want to get lost in him. I am lost in him.
He moves cautiously closer, his eyes darting between mine. I wet my lips, anxious to feel his body against me.
When he settles between my legs and his skin meets mine we both groan in unison.
“You feel so good.” His hands slide under my head, his fingers tangling in my wild strands. He grips them tightly, holding me still. “Don’t close your eyes. Don’t look away.”
I can’t even nod, he has my head pinned so thoroughly. “Okay,” I whisper over his face.
His hips tilt. He enters me so gently, with so much care it brings tears to my eyes. When he is seated fully he pauses.
“I want to stay like this forever,” I say quietly.
He relaxes, a smile forming on his gorgeous face. “Forever is a mighty long time.”
“It’s not long enough.”
My words affect him. He looks away. “I don’t deserve you.”
“And, I don’t deserve you. But, here we are.” I run my hands up his neck, stopping when I reach his dark scruff. He drops his eyes back to me.
His mouth crashes to mine. He unleashes every pent-up emotion he had carefully tucked away under all that ink. Our love making becomes frantic. Suddenly we cannot get enough of each other, cannot get close enough. I want to crawl inside him and live. I want to be the sugar skull girl trapped behind his tattooed ribs.
We touch, we kiss, we taste, we give, we take…until the predawn birds signal to us that a new day is about to begin.
Together we lay, a tangled mess of sweat and limbs.
“Jesus, Jesse,” he pants into my ear. I turn so that my back is pressed to his front. His arm wraps around, keeping me tucked safely in his arms.
“I don’t want to go back inside,” I tell him quietly.
“Me either but everyone will be up soon.”
I turn my head to look at him. “What made you come back last night?”
His hand brushes back and forth over my stomach. “Raffe.”
My eyes widen. He laughs.
“He was waiting on the dock. Seems he knows me better than I thought.” His smile fades, a seriousness falling over him. “He called me a coward.”
I turn away from him to stare at the tent. Self-conscious in the fact that Dirk did not come back on his own.
Dirk leans in so his lips, brush the shell of my ear. “He was right. I was being a coward. You had me spooked. I’ve never felt this way before, Jesse.”
His hand roams up between my breasts. It doesn’t stop until his fingers are wrapping around my throat. He squeezes gently. His breath hot on my ear. “It scares me because I knew once I had you I would want more.” His grip tightens, my heart picking up a notch. “And then I would want more, and more, and more.”
His tongue skates along my shell of my ear making me shiver in his arms.
“I’ll never. Never. Get enough of you.” He turns my face towards him. He kisses me with an intensity that scorches my insides and curls my toes.
I will never forget the look on his face when he pulls away. It’s scary, frightening, and god if I don’t fucking love it.
“Raffe was smart to bow out when he did. Because once I had you,” he pauses, his eyes boring into mine, “I knew I would kill anyone who touches you.”
I swallow hard. He is serious. Profoundly serious.
“You are mine, Jesse Miller. No one will touch you, look at you, even breathe in your direction without going through me first.”
We stare at each other. I watch the turmoil swim in his eyes.
“Do you understand?”
I nod slowly. His hand falls away from my neck.
“Does that scare you?” he asks, studying my face.
“No,” I whisper, running my hand over my throat. “I feel the same way about you. If any, and I do mean any, woman approaches you…you better send her packing real quick.”
His nostrils flare. He rolls me onto my back, smiling wickedly in my face. “Is that right?”
“I’ll stick a fork in them, Dirk. I’m not kidding.”
He falls onto his back laughing hard. “Oh, god, Jesse. You are fucking perfect. Perfect,” he exclaims between bouts of laughter.
It’s music to my ears. I smile smugly to myself. Scary tattoo man is mine. Finally, mine.
When I was a girl I thought I wanted to be like him. But, maybe what I really wanted was simply for him to be mine.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jesse
◆◆◆
My dad looks up when I walk in for breakfast. His eyes follow me as I grab a bowl and sit at the table. Katie slides the box of fruit loops to me. Raffe comes in to grab a cup of coffee, he plops down across from me. I keep my eyes on my cereal.
“I went to your room this morning to wake you up, you weren’t there,” dad says.
I shove my spoon in my cereal, my heart beating nervously. “I went for a walk. Couldn’t sleep.”
“We went for a walk too,” Katie chirps in excitedly. “We took Teddy for a walk.”
Shifting in my chair, I offer her a smile. “That’s good. Teddy seems to really like you.”
“I love him,” she tells me. She slurps the last drop of milk out of her bowl. Once she puts her bowl in th
e sink she bounces over to my dad and gives him a hug. “I better go. Candice is waiting for me.”
“Have a good day at school, sweetie,” my dad says, bonking her on the nose.
She nods. “Bye Jesse, bye Raffe.” She hurries out the door.
The silence that settles over the room is deafening. The only sound the crunch of my fruit loops.
Raffe finally breaks it. “It’s amazing the difference in Katie.”
I nod, not looking up. I shovel more food in my mouth, so I don’t have to talk.
My dad doesn’t say anything to Raffe. Instead he directs his attention to me. “I didn’t see you while we were out walking.”
I almost choke on my food. “I didn’t see you guys either. Weird.” I jump up and scrape my bowl in the trash. “Well, I’m off to my first day at the new shop.”
“What, are you too old to give your old man a hug goodbye?”
I rush over and wrap my arms around him. He hugs me tight. “You know you can talk to me about anything, you know that, yeah?”
“Yeah.” I give him and Raffe one last look before heading out the door.
Raffe catches me outside. “You got anything scheduled today?”
“No,” I tell him. “I’ll probably be on walk-in duty.”
“I’m free today so I thought I would stop by and we could work on the rose piece.”
“Yeah, sure,” I say as I toss my bag in the rod.
He grabs my arm and turns me to face him. “You okay?”
I drop my head and smile shyly.
He chuckles. “Okay, so things went well last night?”
“It…it was amazing.”
“That good huh?” He leans against the rod.
“I’m sorry.”
He grabs me by the shoulders. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not upset. It’s….” his cheeks turn pink. “I always wondered what he would be like, you know, in bed.”
My eyes go wide. I guess I thought Raffe had only been interested in me but no, he was interested in Dirk too. Now I really feel bad. The thought of losing Dirk breaks my heart. Is Raffe’s heart breaking from the loss?
“Raffe, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought everyone knew.” He laughs sadly. Raffe pulls me into his chest. “I’m happy for him. He was never meant to be mine. I think I let myself get infatuated because he saved me and because of those damn eyes of his. Don’t feel bad.”
Raffe lets me go when Jeremy one of the guys who works in the shop walks up. “Hey Jesse, I got the paint for the rod.”
I clap excitedly. I’m going to give Sylvia a paint job. “Thank you, thank you.”
“When you’re ready come find me and I’ll give you a hand. The equipment isn’t too hard to use but I can share some tricks and tips with you.” He pats me on the back as he walks away heading to the shop.
My eyes follow him before going back to Raffe but when I turn around I see Raffe is focused on something up by the warehouse. I follow his gaze. Dirk is standing by the front door giving Jeremy a death glare. His words from this morning come rushing back. “Oh, fuck,” I whisper under my breath.
Raffe stands up straight. “Go on, go to work. I’ll deal with Dirk. Don’t worry I won’t let him kill Jeremy.” He laughs as he walks away. “I’ll see you at the shop.”
When I get to the shop Dan is already there. I hop around excitedly.
“You’re in a good mood today.”
“That’s because life is grand,” I say dreamily, falling into my chair.
He shakes his head. His first customer of the day comes in and he takes him over to his chair. “Any walk-ins are yours today, Jess,” he says from across the room.
I give him the thumbs up. “I’m going to work on Raffe. He should be right behind me.”
He nods and gets to work on his client.
Raffe shows up a few minutes later just as I’m getting everything set up. He takes a seat in my new chair. “Nice,” he says, running his hands appreciatively over the leather. “Man, this is great not having to drive over to shitsville.”
I snap my gloves on, my focus on what I want to get accomplished today.
“Dirk says he’ll be here shortly.”
I glance up at him, snapping my gum. “What? Why?”
He shrugs his shoulders. “Good luck going much of anywhere without him. I think you’ve created a fucking monster. He’s having words with Jeremy as we speak.”
“Raffe, I thought you were going to stop him?” I say annoyed.
“Oh yeah, about that. I had to worry about my own ass. Dirk told me all the ways he could break my balls if I so much as touch you.”
My gun silences. “But, we are friends. He can’t do that.”
He winks at me. “Don’t worry your pretty little head. He isn’t going to hurt me.”
The door dings. Dan gets up to help the lady at the counter. I mumble to Raffe about how I’m going to give Dirk a good talking to, when I notice he isn’t paying attention. He’s eyeing the pretty dark-haired lady at the counter.
She nervously pushes her hair behind her ear. “I’m looking for Daniel Hoffman.”
Who?
“That’s me,” Dan says.
I glance at the lady again. Her eyes dart around the room. When they pass over Raffe and me, I gasp. Mood ring eyes. The same mood ring eyes I stared into this morning.
She stops on Dan. “Well, this is a little awkward, but I think we may be cousins.”
I jolt out of my chair. Raffe grabs my hand to keep me anchored by his side.
“Rachel?” Dan whispers, taking a step back.
The lady clears her throat. “Hm, you remember me?” she asks hesitantly.
Dan nods dumbfounded.
She smiles and shifts her weight from foot to foot. “I was hoping you…” her lip begins to tremble, but she continues on, “might know where I might find my brother.”
The door opens to the shop as if Gabriel’s God orchestrated the whole reunion. Dirk walks in, his eyes immediately seeking mine. His eyebrow cocks up when he sees the look on my face. He rushes towards me. “What’s wrong,” he asks pulling me into his arms.
“Your…your sister,” I whisper.
He pulls back to search my eyes, then he slowly drags them away and glances over his shoulder. His arms drop to his side. “Rachel?”
She nods, tears streaming down her face. They stare at each other in a daze. Both lost in the memory of the day they were separated. Then it hits Dirk, he rushes to her and crushes her against his body. “Where have you been?” Dirk asks with pleading eyes. He pushes her back, looking at her from head to toe.
“I’m, I’m fine.” She pushes against his chest, uncomfortable with his scrutiny. “It’s, it isn’t what you think.”
He releases her, taking a step back to give her space.
Her eyes wander over his ink before dropping to her feet. “I’m sorry I don’t remember much. I…I remember a few things. The park…” her words trail off.
He runs his hands through his hair. “Do you want to go get a cup of coffee or something, so we can talk.” He glances over his shoulder. I smile at him encouragingly. His sister is here. Actually here. This is so unbelievable.
She nods. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to intrude on your business,” she tells Dan.
Dan’s eyes soften. “You’re not intruding. We are all family here, you included.”
“I’ll see you back at the warehouse later today,” Dirk says, his eyes glassy with unshed tears.
“Yeah, of course. Maybe your sister could join us tonight for dinner?”
He takes my hands in his and squeezes, a smile forming on his face. He nods. “Things are finally looking up, huh?”
I nod, unable to speak. Things are most definitely looking up.
He holds the door open and follows Rachel out.
The rest of us stand around shell shocked for a minute. Dan heads back to his client and I sit down pushing my chair close to Raffe. I fire up the gun, bo
wing my head over his leg.
“Her eyes. Did you see her eyes?” Raffe asks, a hint of awe in his voice.
I glance up quick to catch the look on his face. “Yeah, mood ring eyes.”
He smiles and runs his thumb over my ring. “Kind of hard to ignore aren’t they.”
“They do demand attention.” I laugh.
His eyes trail back to the door. “I hope wherever she was it wasn’t too painful. It will kill Dirk if someone hurt her.”
We work for a few hours, finally putting the finishing touches on his piece.
“I forgot Candice caught me on her way to take the girls to school. She told me to let you know she is dropping Katie by after school. She needs you to give her a ride home. She has to run Ally to her dads for the weekend.”
“Cool, I’ll make sure I wait for her.”
He kisses me on the forehead before leaving. Dan leaves shortly after telling me he will see me later tonight. He is going back to Trap to finish packing. He’s moving into the warehouse now that the shop in Trap has sold.
I doodle in my notebook until Katie comes bouncing in the door with Teddy on her heals. He comes over right away, tail wagging, for pets. Katie rattles on about her day as she walks around the shop, taking everything in. “I’m so happy Candice brought Teddy with her when she picked us up from school,” she says, sticking her face in a jar of suckers that Dan keeps on the counter.
“Were you worried about him?” I ask, busying myself shutting everything down for the day.
She nods pushing a pink lollypop in her mouth. “It’s a new home and I didn’t want him to be scared without me.”
“I’m glad that you and Teddy are friends.”
She pulls the sucker out of her mouth and is about to pop it in the dog’s mouth when I stop her. “You can’t give him sugar, sweetie. It will make him sick.”
She frowns. “That’s sad he can’t have candy.”
“He doesn’t know what he’s missing since he’s never had it.” I tell her, waving my hand for her to follow me out the door.
“I didn’t know I missed having a daddy until I got Bill,” she says coming to stand by my side.
