When we got out front, our bikes were all lined up beside Repo's, Wolf's, and Cash's. The sky had darkened to the point of definite rain clouds and I hoped whatever we were doing involved being indoors. Repo inclined his chin at me and I got on my bike, clipped on my helmet, and we waited until they all took off in different directions. I looked around the streets carefully, looking for any familiar faces in cars or alleys. "Where did they all head?" I found myself asking when Repo just continued to sit on his idling bike, not pulling out.
"Wolf probably took Duke hunting on his land. Cash likely took Renny to Hailstorm to suss out some of his... unique skills."
I fought the urge to ask what Renny's unique skills were, and asked instead, "Where are you taking me?"
To that, he lifted the back of his shirt, revealing two guns in his waistband. "Target practice." With that, he'd dropped his shirt and peeled off, leaving me to follow behind, my stomach twisted into knots at the punishing speed he kept.
I'd shot guns before. It had been part of my training, courtesy of Gabe who was the most skilled with them of K's colleagues. I couldn't claim to be good, but I usually managed to hit the chest cavity even on moving targets.
We drove thirty minutes out of town until we hit a more rural area, pulling off and parking in an abandoned field. "Here? In city limits?" I asked as I pulled off my helmet, my hair sweaty from the heat, watching a bit of heat lightening flash across the storm-dark sky.
"Nothing around for a good five miles. This is private property. No one will hear shit," he explained, moving off his bike and ambling off toward the tree line. I took a deep breath and followed behind, still a little off-put by his oddly distant behavior. I mean... we had made out the night before. He had fingered me the night before. We would have done a lot more had we not been interrupted.
Augh.
I was thinking like a girl.
K taught me better.
Even if we fucked in new and inventive ways, chances were a man was going to treat me no different the next day than he did before we fucked. That was just how men were. I needed to stop putting my thoughts and feelings on him.
"Alright," Repo said a long, hot, disgusting twenty-minute walk later, coming to a halt in a clearing where there were targets already set up, human shaped ones, the cliched bottles and tin cans on a downed tree limb, actual point targets. You named it, he had it there.
"Come here often?" I asked, slinging my sweaty hair out of my face.
"Some of the men practice at the compound, but you can't get the distance there," he said with a shrug.
"The distance?" I repeated, tilting my head to watch him load bullets from his pocket into his gun.
"I'm a good shot," he said simply, no real pride behind the words, just a relaying of facts. "What about you?" he asked, looking over at me for the first time since we left the compound.
"I'm fair. I'm better with..."
"Hand to hand," he finished for me, surprising me. How the heck could he have known that?
"Saw you fucking around with Renny. And then you were quick, practiced breaking up the fight between him and Duke. People without training don't move like you move. Where'd you learn?"
"I had a, ah, team of instructors. Boxing, Krav Maga, street fighting, you name it."
"It shows."
"Is that... actually a... compliment?" I asked, giving him a teasing smile.
"Oh fuck off, Maze. You know you're a good probate. You have your own unique set of skills. You don't need me stroking your ego left and right."
"Need it? No. But it's still nice to hear. Especially seeing as everyone else is really fond of pointing out my flaws."
"If you were looking for cheerleaders, you tried out for the wrong team, honey."
"Cheerleaders? No. But maybe I was hoping for some teammates. But whatever. I get it."
"You get it?"
I felt my lips turn up slightly. "Repo, this is nothing new. This sexism shit? It's old and familiar. It's the sneers from the boys on the playground when I wanted to play cops and robbers with them instead of hopscotch with the other girls. It's the middle school bra snapping. It's the high school pressure to be both a virgin and a slut somehow at the same time. It's the men who tried to take the jumper cables from me when I stopped to help them on the side of the road because they thought that, while I had the common sense to actually buy and keep cables in my car, that I was somehow too stupid to know how to use them properly. Believe me when I say I am familiar with all of this crap. If anything, I think it is worse now that women are becoming stronger and more independent. It's like it makes men even more aggressive and violent toward us. But they're all just going to have to buck up and deal with it because now that we all have a taste of power, we aren't going back to the fucking kitchen. The Henchmen are just going to have to adjust because I am not going any-fucking-where."
"I believe you," he said, nodding a little. "And I respect the determination, Maze. But I'm not sure it will be enough to get you a patch."
"Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see. So are we going to gab like chicks all day, or are we shooting?"
"Gab like chicks?" he repeated, lips twitching.
"You seem awfully interested in my thoughts and motivations for a guy," I said, shrugging, trying to be casual.
"You're a fucking piece of work," he said, shaking his head and turning toward the targets. "You'll go first," he said, taking my gun and replacing it with his since it was loaded.
I nodded, taking a deep breath as I moved out a couple feet. "From here?" I clarified.
"Yeah, that'll do for now," he said, sounding distracted, but I could feel his eyes on me.
I took a breath as I set my feet wide and raised the gun, holding the handle in my right hand with my left hand cupped around the front of the handle to steady it. On an exhale, like Gabe taught me, I slowly squeezed the trigger. The shot echoed across the empty area, making the birds scatter from their hiding places in the trees as my bullet buzzed and landed in the center of one of the human targets.
"Can you do a head shot?" he asked, moving in behind me, looking over my shoulder so that I felt his breath on my neck and, despite the sweltering heat, I felt a shiver move through me.
"We'll see," I said, taking aim and hitting just outside the left ear.
"Again," he instructed, but as I held my arms out, his hand moved to the inside of my elbow, putting pressure until I bent it. "Don't lock your arm, keep it loose." I nodded tightly and pulled the trigger again, hitting where the eye would be, cringing a little at the visual I got in my head. "That'll do it," he said moving away from me, taking the gun from my hand. "Go stand in front of the target."
I'm pretty sure my blood went immediately cold at that instruction. "I'm sorry, what?" I asked, turning to face him, brows drawn together.
"Go stand in front of the target," he said, checking the clip before looking up at me.
"You can't be fucking serious."
"Are you questioning an order?"
"I'm questioning your marksmanship and sanity."
To that, he chuckled. His hand raised, his thumb stroking gently down the side of my jaw. "Do you really think I'd tell you to do it if there was even a chance of my fucking up this face?"
I ignored the fluttering in my belly at him sort-of calling me attractive because, really, standing in front of a target was a much bigger priority. "Um, Repo, this isn't a carnival. The bullets aren't going to come in from the back of the target like a knife throwing wheel. And I may not have the most exciting life in the world, but I still very much like being alive to live it."
"Maze... trust me, okay?"
I closed my eyes on an exhale as his finger stroked down my cheek again before dropping. Then, every cell in my body screaming not to do it, I turned and walked toward the target.
"Hey," he called as I moved away, "tie up your hair," he commanded. Then, figuring there must have been a good reason for the instructio
n, I grabbed the band off my wrist and tied my hair up.
I took a deep breath as I pressed my back to the target, tucking my hands behind my ass, pulling my shoulders in, trying to shrink myself as best I could. Across the field, I watched Repo check the clip again before raising his arm. Yes, arm. Singular. He didn't even spread his legs to distribute his weight. He did none of the things I was taught were integral to a precise shot. Then I stood there, frozen in absolute horror as he squeezed off a succession of six bullets faster than I could draw a breath. The bullets whizzed past my body almost simultaneously, so fast and close that I could feel them move the air around me before they stabbed into the target behind me.
When he dropped his hand, I slid down the target on shaky legs until my ass hit the ground, pulling in my legs and wrapping my arms around them as I tried to stop the way my insides were shaking.
A minute later, Repo crouched down in front of me, resting a hand on my knee. And, well, I felt the anger well up as my head snapped up to look at me. "Did I pass your stupid fucking test?" I hissed, my jaw so tight that my teeth hurt from clenching them. "Out of curiosity, this hunting Wolf is doing... is Duke the deer? And this assessing of Renny's skills up at Hailstorm, does it involve being strapped to a chair with his eyes taped open while being injected with LSD ala Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory? You guys are so fucking twisted."
"Hey," he said, his voice doing that obnoxious soothing thing as his thumb moved under my chin and tilted it up, "stand up and turn around to look at the target."
"Oh yay, another order."
"Maze, just fucking do it okay?" he asked, his voice still calm.
"Fine," I grumbled, pushing up onto my feet and turning to look at the target. And there were the six bullet holes: one on either side of my head, one above, one at each side of my body and one down near where my feet had separated.
"See," he said, moving in right behind me, his hands stretching out on either side of my body and sticking his fingers in the holes on the sides of my head.
"See what? How close you were to shooting me?"
"See how close I can get without even grazing you," he corrected, not moving away though his hands dropped. "Shooter is the best shot I've ever seen, Maze, but I'm a damn close second."
"I don't understand what the purpose of this was," I said shaking my head a little and I could feel the back of my skull brush against his chest. He was way, way too close.
"Maze, I'm a lot of things, but I'm not stupid or unobservant," he started. "You trust the lot of us just about as far as you can throw us which, with those little arms of yours, is not very far. And, well, a trust fall is just too God damn cheesy."
"Seriously? This is just trying to get me to trust you? Will you do the same thing to Renny and Duke when they get their turns with you?"
"No. But the difference is, I don't need to with them."
"Why bother with me when you guys are obviously doing everything in your power to get me out?"
"Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with them, Maze. Maybe this is about you and me."
I felt myself stiffen. "There is no you and me," I said, my voice quiet.
"Sure there fucking is," he said, his breath in my ear, his words emphasized by a rolling of thunder.
"There can't be," I objected, shaking my head as I watched one of his hands slide up my thigh then up and across my belly, folding over it and pulling me against his chest.
"And yet," he murmured, his head ducking. His lips found the sensitive spot just below my ear, pressing in gently and making a shudder pass through me.
"Repo," I whispered, hearing a pleading in my tone, but not sure that I was asking him to stop, or to give me more.
His nose tilted up, teasing the edge of my ear before his tongue moved out to tease the lobe. "Tell me you don't want this and I'll stop," he said as the first few fat drops of rain landed on our heads and shoulders.
Of course I wanted it.
I wanted it like I wanted The Henchmen to accept me, like I wanted K to be proud of me, like I wanted to keep on breathing.
It no longer felt like something as simple as a want, a desire. It felt like a need, like something necessary to keep going.
So I swallowed the lump that was trying to get me to stick to the plan, follow the rules, do the right thing, and admitted the truth. "I want this," I sighed as his arm squeezed my belly, his teeth nipped my ear, and the sky finally opened up.
"Turn around, honey," he said in a deep, rolling way that made my belly flip over as I turned in his arm. His one arm settled low on my back, the other raised to brush across my neck until it grabbed my ponytail and pulled my hair free, slipping the band over his own wrist for safekeeping, before cupping my jaw.
Above us, the thunder roared again loud enough for the ground to shake under our feet. "Should we take that as a bad omen?" I asked, eyes seeking his as the rain poured down our faces. To me, it was welcome, cooling my overheated body, washing the sweat away.
"Probably," he agreed, tilting his head a little as he closed the space between us, "but it's not gonna fucking stop us."
With that, his lips crushed into mine, hard, desperate, not a hint of restraint in him as he slanted his head, bit into my lower lip, claimed my tongue. His hands didn't stay where they were. As soon as my arms went around his neck, his hands started roaming, both moving down my back and slipping up under the wet material of my tee, sliding up to my bra strap and making short work of the clasps.
"Arms up," he said, pulling his lips from mine and dragging the material of my tee and my cut and pulling them upward. My arms went straight up and the material was gone in seconds. His hands moved out, brushing the straps of my bra off my shoulders. They slid down my arms until they disappeared, leaving me topless in front of him, the cold rain and heavy dose of desire making my nipples harden almost painfully. To my surprise, his hands didn't immediately go to cover my breasts, instead they moved to the sides, teasing over the skin that was usually looked over, then stroking down my sides to the waistband of my pants. They tickled across my belly before they moved to unfasten and drag the material down. As he was exposing me, he lowered down onto his knees in front of me, planting a kiss right below my navel before he reached down to untie and remove my boots, then slip my pants and panties off my body.
His face was almost level with my pussy and he angled his head up to look at me, his chin brushing up the triangle above my sex. "Beautiful," he said as I reached out to brush the rain off his forehead. His palm moved up and around my calf, snagging the back of my knee and yanking it up and open, forcing my hands to slam down on his shoulders to keep my balance as his head ducked then angled up so his tongue could slide up my slick cleft. A tremor ran through the muscles in my thighs as one of my hands left his shoulder and sank into his soft, wet hair, curling in and holding on tight as his tongue worked slow circles around my clit.
I watched him for a moment before tilting my head up to the sky, feeling the rain splash down on my face, watching the lightening crash across the sky. I'd never done anything sexual outside before, let alone during a storm. Something about it felt right, natural, primal. Rain slid down my body as Repo's lips closed around my clit and sucked hard, making me double over.
His arms went out to my waist, grabbing me as I went down on my knees in front of him. My hands went automatically to his shirt as my eyes held his, pulling the wet fabric up and tossing it to the side. My hands moved down his chest, moving over the bold Henchmen tattoo with guns, roses, and stocking-clad ladies' legs, then down over his firm abs, until I found his hard cock through his jeans and stroked my hand over it. Leaning forward, I kissed up the column of his neck as his hands moved down the skin of my back, landing on my ass and sinking in, using it to pull me forward until I was flattened against him.
My hands worked his button and zip then grabbed the waist of his jeans and boxer briefs, fumbling with the heavy, wet material until it pooled around h
is knees.
"Condom. Wallet. Back left pocket," he demanded as his hand slipped down my ass then between my legs to tease my clit again. I shook my head slightly, trying to work past the overwhelming need for release he was creating and I fumbled for his wallet, finding the condom foil, then discarding the wallet to fall with a slap onto the sopping ground. His finger left my clit. He grabbed the condom and his hands went between us for a long minute, protecting us, the task made harder by the ever-increasing rain.
He pulled back, giving me a wicked smile. "What?" I asked, my hands sliding down his belly and closing around his cock.
"This is gonna be filthy," he declared and I took the double entendre for all it was worth for all of, say, two seconds before his arm went around the center of my back and we were both falling to the ground, my entire body slapping down in the grass that was no longer really grass, but a puddle of water and mud. It coated my body from ankles to the back of my head, slick and slippery.
But I only had a second to consider that before Repo pressed up and moved down my body to nip his teeth into my hardened nipple as his other hand went between my legs again, thrusting two fingers inside me with no pretense at teasing. I arched up into his mouth, my legs going up on either side of his hips so I could move with his thrusts, fast and insistent. I felt myself tightening, getting close quickly.
It had been so long, too long.
My body was desperate for release.
"Nuh-uh," he said, pulling his fingers out of me, giving me a sinister little smile as he moved his hand upward and pushed them into my mouth. "You're gonna come around my cock this time," he said, sliding down onto his forearm as his cock pressed up against me. His fingers pulled from my mouth and moved between us until his cock pressed up against the entrance to my body, pausing for an impossibly long minute until I was squirming against him.
He leaned down, claiming my cold lips and warming them immediately. Then and only then, he thrust hard to the hilt in one smooth move, landing deliciously deep, his mouth muffling the sound of my moan. There was a vibrating, rolling sound in Repo's chest as he stilled inside me for a moment, his lips ripping from my lips and his forehead landing on mine.
Repo (The Henchmen MC Book 4) Page 12
