"We were just happy to find that you were okay," K said, shaking his head at her.
"Oh, bullshit. I call bullshit. You totally wanted to burst in and start knocking heads. What happened to Repo's fists? And yours for that matter?" she asked, nodding toward K's hands.
"Me, that was Moose. K, that was the hotel room wall back in Philly annnd... the owner of a cab company's face in Philly too. And almost the face of a clerk at the hotel in Philly. But he pissed himself before there could be any real fun. He's been busy."
"And this wasn't some macho thing?" she asked dubiously.
"It was a 'our girl is missing' thing, Maze." That effectively shut her up, her lips parting slightly.
I know I told her that after her whole probate thing was over that I planned to pursue something with her, but I hadn't exactly explained what I meant by that. I meant she was mine. I meant I was hers. I meant that I was going to do everything in my power to never be another reason she couldn't trust a man again.
And judging by the look on her face, she sussed out the deeper meaning in those words.
"Alright," K said, clapping loudly. "You two can get into that later. We need to get the fuck out of here. Not that I don't trust Rus, love," he told Maze, shaking the piece of paper he had folded, "but we can't stay here. At the very least, we need to get out of North Carolina. Let's cross over into Virginia and get another couple of rooms before we head back tomorrow. Sound good?"
With very little option, we both agreed and shuffled down toward the car where K promptly jumped into the driver and Maze in the passenger, like it was an old habit. With a shrug, I got into the back and listened as K filled Maze in on everything that had happened over the course of the last two days, covering everything from the phone frying to the boring hours we spent waiting for more intel to work with.
K finally parked in a hotel lot at almost three A.M. Maze had fallen asleep in the front a half an hour before, K flipping on the radio to a classical station to drown out the sounds of the road. He hopped out, telling me he would get rooms and left me to wake up Maze. I climbed up front and opened her door, watching her for a long second. The only time I'd ever seen her sleep was when she was sick. Her lips were parted slightly, her eyelashes soft against her cheek. Up close, I could see her blond roots hinting through the purple.
"Honey," I said, touching her cheek, smiling when she grumbled and swatted at my hand. "Come on, honey. Let's get you inside," I said and her eyes fluttered open, looking at me then behind me as she rubbed at her eyes.
"You just want to get me into bed," she said, her voice still sleep-foggy.
"Well, I can't deny that, but right now I think you need sleep more than sex so let's go get you comfortable."
"Augh," she growled, swinging her legs out of the car. "Walking..." she added, curling her lip up at me as she jumped down.
"It's ten feet to the door. I'm pretty sure you can make it."
"Yeah yeah yeah," she grumbled, waving a hand at me as she walked.
"I thought you were supposed to be a morning person," I said, trying not to laugh at her as she flung the front door open.
"Three A.M is not morning. Especially after the day I just had."
"Here you go," K said, handing Maze a key. "4B. I am in 9D."
"9D?" Maze repeated.
"They had a room next to yours. And we're close, love, but I don't need to hear you two fucking."
"Sleeping," she corrected, moving past him toward the elevators.
"Is she always this moody when she wakes up?" I asked as we followed, both of us smiling at her back.
"Only when she's woken up."
With that, we rode the elevator up to the second floor where Maze and I got off, agreeing to meet K for breakfast at ten, then going toward our room.
Maze paused once inside, staring at the bed.
"What's up?"
She turned back to me, head tilted. "We've only slept in the same bed once," she informed me unnecessarily, "when I was sick."
"Mmhmm," I said, rocking back on my heels. "You had a bad dream and asked me to not let them get you. I told you I wouldn't. Guess I failed there, huh?"
For the second time that night, she threw herself against me, squeezing me tight enough to almost cut off my air. "You came for me," she told my chest, her voice muffled by my shirt.
"Of course I came for you."
"You claimed me to Reign."
"You got a problem being mine?"
There was a short pause, making my heart lodge itself in my throat, thinking she was looking for a way to tell me it wasn't something she wanted. But then she tilted her head up, her chin resting on my chest. "None come to mind," she said, smiling.
"Good."
"So... this sleeping thing," she said, her smile turning a little mischievous.
"The sleeping thing?"
"Yeah, do you have your heart set on it?"
"I might be able to be persuaded out of it."
"Well, I guess it's good that I can be rather... persuasive," she said, her hands sliding up my stomach and chest then back down, her hand sliding over the crotch of my jeans.
"You think? I don't know, honey. I'm pretty beat."
"Really, because this particular part of you seems... rather awake," she said, her palm stroking over my cock. She slowly lowered herself down on her knees before me, reaching up and making short work of getting my cock out and into the warm velvety wetness of her mouth. I reached down, dragging her hair out of her knot and watching it flow down her back and shoulders. She sucked me deep, twirling her lips around me in a circular motion as she moved back upward, her tongue sliding over the tip and licking off the pre-cum beading there.
I twisted my hand in her hair and pulled her back onto her feet, crushing my mouth to hers, kissing her hard and demanding until her entire frame wavered against me. Then I took her hips and turned us, me sitting down on the edge of the bed and pulling her to stand between my legs. "Take your clothes off, honey."
"Take my clothes off?" she repeated, showing me a hint of uncertainty I hadn't seen there before.
"Yes."
"Repo, I..."
"Rye," I corrected.
"Excuse me?"
"Rye. When we're alone, it's Rye. You want me to call you Maisy?"
"No," she said immediately, shaking her head. "I'm not Maisy anymore, not really. I want you to call me Maze."
"Okay. Take your clothes off, Maze," I demanded again.
Her hands balled up for a second before she unfolded them and reached for the hem of her wifebeater and quickly dragged it off. Her hands slid down to her jeans, unfastening them and bending at the waist to drag the tight material down. She stumbled forward toward me in trying to free one of her ankles, her hand slamming down on my thigh to steady herself, giving me a shy smile that was very likely the cutest fucking thing I'd ever seen in my life.
She righted herself, reaching behind her back for her bra clasp and letting the material fall to the floor, her nipples hardening immediately likely due to both desire and the marked coolness of the air conditioning in the room. She hooked her fingers into her panties next, pushing them down and shimmying out of them.
I watched her for a minute, eyes raking over every inch of her: her round breasts, her slim waist, the flare to her hips that made her perfect ass possible, her thick thighs.
"Rep... Rye..." she said, shuffling her feet and drawing my attention back to her ridiculously perfect face.
"Like how it sounds when you say my name, honey," I said, patting the bed next to me and she moved to sit. "Lie back," I said, lowering myself onto my knees and moving toward her knees, pressing them apart and before she could even fully flatten her body to the mattress, my mouth was on her sweet pussy, licking up her slick slit and finding her clit, already swollen with desire, and moved my tongue around it in soft, barely-there circles. Until she was so wet that my face was slick, until her inner thighs
were shaking, until her moans got loud enough to warrant loud rapping from one of the rooms on the side of ours. Then and only then, I flattened my tongue on her clit as I thrust two fingers inside her, raking over her G-spot and feeling her pussy milk my fingers hard for a long minute until the waves subsided.
"Rye, please," she pleaded, her hands reaching down to grab my head and drag me upward.
"Please what?" I asked, kneeling between her thighs and reaching up to drag my shirt off.
"Please get inside me," she begged, hands going to my hips and dragging my jeans and boxer briefs downward as she sat up, planting kisses across my stomach as I fumbled for my wallet, pulling out a condom and pushing her back on the bed so I could slip it on. I kicked out of my boots and the legs of my pants then moved over her, planting my hands by her sides and running my tongue up her stomach from the navel upward, tilting my head to take her nipple in my mouth, sucking hard until she arched up into me before I went to her other breast to continue the torment.
"Rye..." she groaned into my ear as I bit into her neck, her fingers digging into my back hard as her legs wrapped around my lower back.
And, well, there was only so much restraint a man could demonstrate.
I shifted my hips and slammed forward, hitting as deep as her body would allow and rocking my pelvis against hers to rub over her clit again.
Then there was no teasing, no softness. I slammed into her: hard, deep, fast, driving her back upward and sending her crashing over before she could realize she was close. Her pussy clenched hard around my cock and I buried deep and came, cursing out her name as I rested my head in the crook of her neck.
"Rye," she said a minute later, her voice sounding almost a little amused.
I pushed up enough to look down at her. "What?"
She smiled then, open, carefree, a smile I hadn't seen from her before, not really. "We totally just had sex in a bed."
I felt my own lips tip upward, a surprised chuckle rolling in my chest. "Yeah we did."
"It was pretty damn good, but I don't think we should give up open fields in thunderstorms or the yard at the compound just yet."
"Or the roof," I added, leaning down and dropping a quick kiss on her lips. "Or the bathroom. Or my cars."
"Exactly," she said, unconsciously running her hands up and down my back. "But the bed does have an advantage."
"What's that?"
"I can sleep here," she said, bringing a hand to cover her mouth as she yawned.
I laughed, planting a kiss to her forehead and pulling away to go deal with the condom. When I walked back out, she had already moved up the bed and climbed under the covers, the light off on her bedside table.
"You weren't fucking around about being tired, huh?"
"Hey some of us require sleep to keep functioning," she said, curling up on her side toward me as I got under the covers, reaching over to turn off the light, leaving just the one over by the door to the hall on to be able to see each other by. "Besides, it's not my fault. You stole the last of my energy."
"Get used to that," I said, pulling her up and onto my chest, feeling her soft body meld perfectly to my harder one. My arms went around her back and hips to anchor her to me, not wanting her to roll away in sleep. It was a new feeling for me.
But then again, it was all new to me.
I never stuck around long enough to have a woman fall asleep with me.
"Okay," she said, her voice already a little far away like she was falling asleep.
"Okay," I said back, squeezing her a little and feeling her relax against me as she passed out.
To my complete and utter shock, less than an hour later, I did as well.
Nineteen
Maze
For no damn good reason, I was twisted in knots as we drove into the compound the next afternoon. Repo, as if sensing the tension in me over breakfast, had tried to smooth things over, telling me how on-board Reign had been with helping, calling in the other friendleys in the area, claiming I was part of their club even though I was only a probate.
But regardless of that and the absolutely mind-numbingly hard, borderline brutal sex we'd had in the shower right before leaving, so rough that I'd had three orgasms and some soreness between my legs the whole ride back to Navesink bank, I was still freaking out a little bit.
First, because I'd lied.
I didn't know Reign as well as Repo did, but he really didn't seem like the kind of man who was going to be forgiving about being lied to, repeatedly.
Second, because I didn't want any of them to think that my situation in any way made me weak. They, being bikers, outlaws, testosterone-driven men, tended to settle problems with bull-headed confrontation. There was no running away. That was what pussies did. It was not what a one-percenter did. Ever.
So yeah, when I followed Repo into the front door, K taking my six, I was pretty fucking close to throwing up all over my boots.
I had half-expected to walk into some sort of damn tribunal, all the patched members standing in a line, arms crossed over their chests, ready to throw me out on my ass. But when I walked in and found everything pretty much business-as-usual in the clubhouse. Men were playing pool or bullshitting, watching TV. At the bar were the men who held my future in their hands: Reign, Cash, and Wolf. Janie was nearby with a woman I had learned to know as Alex. I looked around, expecting to see her man, Breaker, but not seeing him anywhere.
Duke and Renny were standing on opposite sides of the room, Renny by the door to the hall, Duke leaning against the wall by the couch. I know from what Repo and K told me that the two of them had teamed up to track down leads and bring in Moose, but things still seemed a little tense between them.
"Hey babe," Reign greeted me, noticing us first. He'd half-turned from the bar, giving me a chin jerk. "You're on the gates overnight."
I felt myself falter, crashing back into K whose hands settled on my shoulders as I watched Reign turn back away from me, falling back into conversation. "Um..." I said, looking at Repo who gave me a small smile and a shrug as he moved over toward the bar to talk to his brothers.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, love," K said, squeezing my shoulders then stepping away from me. "I can't stay long. I need to get back to work, get a new phone situation squared away, and see a Russian about another Russian."
I felt myself nod tightly. I knew that was going to happen. I wasn't K's only case. He had a lot of girls he needed to keep tabs on and while Shelly could hold down the fort for a limited amount of time in an emergency, she had a life and K's girls needed to hear from him to feel safe. That was the way I felt too. I needed to know he was still on the job to feel like I could breathe, to keep the faith.
And, well, my case was closed.
Or all but.
Ruslan wasn't an issue.
Viktor was on his way to being no one's issue anymore but some Russian dude back in the motherland.
My life was mine again.
I was pretty sure that was what was absolutely freaking terrifying me.
It was easy to be Maisy, the girl with the con mom, the amazing, but dead grandmother, the ex-boyfriend who almost got her locked up for his crimes, the employee who had been way too trusting of her bosses. She was easy. Clueless, naive, effortless to take advantage of, but easy.
And Maze, the girl with no past who was a hardass and cold and distant and secretive and wholly incapable of trusting anyone, who questioned every minute little God damn thing. Yeah, she was easy too.
But this person left in the wake of it all?
I had no idea who the hell she even was, but I was pretty sure there was nothing easy about her.
If the night and morning in the hotel room with Repo/Rye was anything to go by, it wasn't going to be easy to reconcile both sides of me. Because that was the case now. I wasn't Maisy and I wasn't Maze; I was a hybrid of both those women. I was someone who could be soft and sweet and emotional like I had been
in my life before. But I was also someone who knew she could make a full grown man unconscious in seconds if she needed to. I had thicker skin and sharper edges.
My immediate instinct when I threw my arms around K and then Repo when I first saw them was to cry. Legit, that was the knee-jerk reaction. I wanted to let all the stress and worry and fear burst out of me in one big, ugly show of emotion. That was the soft side of me. But I had pulled it together and tried to joke around, pulling out my thick skin and keeping it together.
Then after being lulled to sleep with some seriously amazing sex that was deeply akin to actual lovemaking and waking up in Repo's arms to find that he too had fallen asleep, well, the thick skin thinned out and Repo woke up suddenly to the loud hitch in my breath as the tears streamed down hot and relentless.
"Honey, hey, what's the matter?" he'd asked, reaching out and wiping the wet from my cheeks as his eyes slowly cleared of sleep.
But I just face planted into his chest and let it all out.
Then, later in the shower, wishy-washy emotions all exorcised, Repo and I had went at each other like animals, like a battle, like survival of the fittest. There was nothing even remotely like lovemaking about the way we fucked, hair-pulling, skin-biting, ass-slapping, airway-constricting.
The Maisy I used to be would have been horrified by the violence of it.
But Maze thrived on it.
So, yeah, to say the least... my little personal identity crisis was an issue.
Especially because I had decided to keep trying to get my patch. I knew it was a long shot if it was even possible at all. But I wasn't a quitter. I wanted to prove it to them that I could take whatever they threw at me and handle it.
I also wanted needed to prove that to myself as well.
But was the new hybrid me going to be badass enough to pull it off? And was it going to change things that Repo and I were now openly... um... dating? Fucking? I wasn't entirely sure what we were. He'd claimed me. So I guess that meant more than fucking. Repo didn't exactly suffer from communication issues, so the fact that things were slightly hazy were either because I was over-thinking them or because he was waiting to clarify them when he saw how I was going to handle the whole situation.
Repo (The Henchmen MC Book 4) Page 21
