by Brynn Hale
“Oooh, that man’s gonna get in trouble!” Ms. Queenie lets out a southern holler and her large frame bounces with a lingering chuckle.
Joaquin lifts his reading glasses off his chest, like they’re going to help him to help me. “Now, what can I get you Cray? Since I know you weren’t talking me when you were mumbling those ‘people needing’ words.”
“Yeah, Joaquin, been through this. Straight. Hundred percent.”
He slips the glasses back down and eyes me up. “A man can dream.”
“Dream is all you’ll be doing,” Ms. Queenie chuckles.
“You look like you’re…hungry or horny, I can’t decipher.”
Ms. Queenie bats his arm. “Jeez, Joaquin, you’re gonna scare our best and nicest customer away.”
I lean against the wall next to the cash register. “Not a chance. I’m too addicted to your coffee, Ms. Queenie.”
“Well, I do declare, a man who said he was addicted to me.”
“Your coffee,” I correct her.
“Potayto…potahto, tomayto, tomahto, Queenie’s ready for the dirt, so spill.”
I’ve been here before. She won’t stop until I give her what she’s looking for. And she won’t serve me a second before that, either. Sure, I could walk the three blocks to Sugar Rush and get what passes as coffee but looks like dirty water, but I need Ms. Queenie.
“I think I stepped over a line with a customer.”
Joaquin’s eyes widen.
“Go check on those donuts, Joaquin.” She shoos him to the back.
She tips her head and sighs. “Lord knows that lines are in the sand for a reason, but Cray…” She slaps the counter. “Cray, snap out of it! You’re a grown man. If you want something, you don’t ponder your need. You find what you’re looking for. Just like my coffee. If you want this woman, then that line you’re seeing, it’s more of a finish line than a roadblock.”
“Kinda cockblocked myself, huh?”
She lets out a high-pitched whoop and her voice changes just a little. “Son, we all have our burdens to bear when it comes to finding someone to love. Mine is being afraid of people’s honesty and decency. I’ve been fucked over too many times and ended up in the dumpster a couple of those. Straight men sure can be ungrateful after they’ve gotten what they wanted.”
I feel that punch to my gut. I just up and left her. “Can I get that coffee and muffin now? I need to get back over there.”
“Coming right up.” She races behind the counter like it’s a hold-up. She pushes though the flapping half door, holding up both. I have a tab and it gets charged monthly. It’s just easier for both of us. “And there’s another muffin in there for the woman who’s made my sweet Cray think about needing someone in his life.”
“Thanks, Ms. Queenie.”
She pats my cheek. “Go get her, Cray. You deserve to be happy.”
Seven
Naomi
“But, Naomi, I—”
“The answer’s no. You may not go into Vegas alone. We’ve been over this a million times.”
She crosses her arms and rolls her blue eyes. “You do know that I’m eighteen and can do what I want.”
“Not with a car that has my name on the title.”
“I don’t believe this. You say you trust me, but you don’t.”
“No, I don’t trust the assholes that are in Vegas and looking to corrupt…or worse…a young woman like you.”
The front door lock clicks and the chime rings.
She leans forward, lowering her voice. “I’ve already had sex, Naomi. I can handle having sex without commitment. You might try it because it could really help you unwind. And as for trusting…no, you don’t trust anyone but yourself.”
Oh dear, God.
My legs weaken as I jump off the platform. “I’m going to let that sex comment slide and concentrate on the trust issue for now. Zoe, the world is a scary place, I just don’t want you to put yourself into a situation where the past is brought to the forefront.”
“Mom’s been gone for ten years, almost eleven. Aunt Naomi, I think about her every single day, but I can’t stop trusting because half of my DNA took her away.”
I close my eyes and when I open them Cray is standing behind Zoe.
He tips his head and motions that he’ll be in the back.
She walks into the space. “Naomi, I need to see Eve.”
“Is there something I can help you with?”
“No. I just need my sister. It’s not about helping or needing or wanting. It’s about being a part of her life cause soon she’s going to be gone, too.” She purses her dark pink lips and her eyes meet mine with a gloss. “I already miss her as much as I miss Mom.”
I walk around the table and wrap an arm around her. Both of my girls are thin, like Joanie, and have her gorgeous blonde hair, but we all have the same peach-toned skin from my Greek mother. “Okay. One night and one night only. Do you understand?”
“Okay. But since I’m on Christmas break, if I want to stay a second, can I call and ask with Eve there on the phone.”
“Zoe…” I chuckle and shake my head, smoothing some hair from her eyes. “Child, you are going to be the death of me.”
“Please don’t say that.” Her smile falls and she wraps and arm around me, too. “I’d miss you more than I miss Mom.”
I blow out a long breath to keep from tumbling over that edge.
She backs away. “Um, are you naked under there?”
I adjust the blanket and the edge is caught on the bed, I wrestle it until it rips. “Oops. I’m getting a tattoo done to surprise Eve.”
“I figured that, but why are you naked?”
“I’m getting it on my… back thigh.”
Her eyebrows go up. She mouths while motioning a thumb behind her, “By him?”
I nod, matching her eyebrows with mine.
She holds up a hand for a high-five and I wave her off. “It’s not like that. We’re just…just…friends.” I hear the word come out of my mouth and I know it sounds forced.
“Naomi, it’s time you have a life. If Cray is that life, then do it. I’ll be heading back to Nebraska next fall for college, I hate thinking of you all alone here.”
“I’ve got the folks at the precinct.”
“People you hang out with only at work.”
“There’s Michaela’s mom, Emily.”
“Ugh. Don’t get me started on why you don’t want to be Emily’s friend. She’s got skeletons, Naomi. Like bones in her closet that no one should see.”
“How do you know this?”
“Michaela told me. She’s been arrested on drug charges twice now.”
“And you slept over there?”
“To keep Michaela clean, Naomi.”
“But you’ll never…” I motion my head.
“Ever.” She crosses her heart. “You taught me and Eve well. She’s going to be an officer in the Air Force, for fuck’s sake. She’s—”
“Watch your language.”
“Fine, but she’s got so much of you in her that I really think that DNA doesn’t matter. It’s love that does.”
And with that I can’t stop them. Tears gather and fall and I let them. I’ll blame the tattoo.
“Okay, go and take my car instead of yours. It’s filled with gas and the tires are new.” I dig out my keys and switch with her. “Text when you get there, but don’t text along the way. And wear your seatbelt. And don’t stop off—”
“Naomi…” his voice cuts me off. “Just let her go. You’ve obviously done your job right.”
I don’t like that he’s stepped in, but he’s not wrong. “Okay.” I reach out to her and hug her. “Love you.”
“Love you, too. I’ll see you in four days.”
“What?!” I exclaim.
“You and Cray can find something to do while I’m gone. Right, Cray?”
He chuckles. “I like her. Nice to meet you, Zoe.”
“Same here,” she says with a smile to him and a wink
to me.
I’d always wanted to protect them from what might hurt them. Maybe I was actually hurting them by protecting them. They were brilliant young women with bright futures. My sister was the same, but she couldn’t see past the love to what her husband was really doing to her.
I didn’t want to fall into that trap, but jumping into the first man’s arms who came into my life with possibility either sounded just as bad
Zoe waved as Cray let her out and then locked the door.
He came back. “You okay?”
I let out a long breath. “I think so.”
He reaches out and I slip my hand into his. “Let’s go for a bike ride and a hike.”
“Is that okay with this?” I motion to my leg.
“Yeah, it’ll be fine. You need some time off before we start the coloring and shading.”
I squeeze his hand. “I’ll put my pants back on.”
He lets go of my hand and stalks to the chair where he laid them after I took them off. He gets down on one knee and holds out the first leg, I step out of the sheet and lift a foot. As I, do he grabs my hips and lifts my foot to his knee and his tongue snakes between my legs and laps deep into my body. He holds my hips as my legs faulter.
“Oh, fuck…”
“I know how wound up you were. I’m not leaving you like that only to have my motorcycle get you off. I’m the only thing that you’ll ever need from now on, babe.”
I know I should tell him that’s not happening. Not the impending orgasm, that’s fucking happening. But I don’t ride bitch. Ever. We’ll go get my two-wheels and open both up on the road.
“Cray…Cray!”
His tongue flicks my clit and I moan.
“Can I lay down?”
“Sure, babe.”
I lay back on the bench and my ass stings. “Oh, shit! Oh…that hurts.”
He cringes. “I forgot. Sorry.” His hands grab my hips and like I’m a pillow, he flips me to my cool side, my ass in the air, pulling me down until my pussy is hanging just at the edge and my thighs are on his shoulders. “That’s better.”
His fingers almost pet my puffy pussy lips. A thick finger invades my body and I cry out as the tissues pulse, hugging and pulling him deeper. He licks my clit as he slowly invades my body with two fingers. I shiver. I’m exposed to him, but I don’t feel naked. I feel bared. Emotions, nerves, and my trust are all there for him.
I’ve never been taken while on my stomach. Actually, I think only two guys ever went down on me. I never gave the nod to anyone else and I’d stopped a few in my younger days. It takes a higher level of trust in my book. And I’m always by the book.
But he’s changing my book. He’s rewriting what I imagine. I gasp as his lips slip around my clit and he sucks. Sucks harder than I would have thought would be pleasurable, but my thighs tighten and my stomach coils into a bundle. His fingers comb against my front walls and I fist the sheet in my hand.
“So…close…so fucking…”
“Come for me, Naomi.”
I moan his name, long and severe as a wildfire of rush flashes through me. He keeps up the action until I reach back and smack his head with a giggle.
But now I have a choice to make. I want to give him a blowjob, but I want to feel him inside of me even more.
I turn over, ignoring the pain and my hands are at the waist of his jogger, undoing the tied string.
“Babe, I said—”
I stop him with a long deep kiss, while I reach in and find…
I pull back. “Tighty-whities?”
He licks his lips. “I knew I was going to have to fight a boner with you all day so I was trying to be a gentleman and keep the manaconda hidden.”
“You did not just say ‘manaconda’!”
“Hey, you’re the one who wants to see the goods.” He steps back and drops his pants and I know that my face contorts.
“What the hell is that?”
“Man-a-con-da. Say it with me, Naomi.”
“I don’t think you say it, Cray. I think you ride it.”
Eight
Cray
She hops off the bed, dropping to her knees, and her tongue catches the pre-cum that drips from the head of my cock. Her lips center on the hole and she sucks the mushroom head into her mouth while the rest of my cock starts pulsing with blood.
“Fuck, fuck…fuck!” I reach out for a wall, wondering if I’ll collapse. She uses my cock as a handle and moves me so my ass is up against the bed.
And then she goes to work. Slurping. Jacking. Licking. Sucking. And then she starts all over again. I look down and I want to see her hair around her shoulders.
“Can I undo your hair?” I ask.
She stops and looks up at me. One nod, that’s all she gives me, and I’m done. I drive my cock into her mouth while I pull the elastic out and she moans around me.
In seconds, I’m nearing the end. I look down and I see she’s been rubbing her clit. I inhale a deep, deep breath to calm myself. If she wants more, she’s getting all of me.
I reach down and lift her up. I place her hands on the bench, bending her over and I slide my cock up and down, from her clit to her ass. That sweet rosebud right there, but there will be another day for that. This is the day that I make this woman mine.
“Babe, I don’t have a condom.”
“I’m covered and clean.”
“I’m clean.” I require that my artists show they’re clean, and I’ve never taken a chance before today.
I press just the head of my cock inside of that sweet honey cave. But she won’t have it. She pushes back against me and I look down as a quarter of my cock slides inside the tightest, wettest, hottest pussy I’ve ever had…and skin to skin. Something I’ve never done.
“Woman, you’re going to ruin me.” I keep moving forward, but before I’ve given her all nine inches, she’s thrashing around and wailing so loud that I really wonder if Ms. Queenie and Joaquin can hear her. It’s part magical and part jaw dropping and part cock exploding—a trifecta of passion.
I continue to drive deeper and deeper and she just keeps coming and coming.
“Oh, my God! What the hell are you doing to me?” Her body convulses.
I bottom out and start thrusting, long, deep strokes. She pants coming down.
“Cray, are you in my stomach?”
“Is it too much?” I wind her hair in my hand and pull her head back just a little to give me access to that graceful neck and in the process her ass pops out at me and I get a different angle.
“Oh…God…no, it’s…fuck it…give it all to me.”
I’m careful to not slam into her thigh, to avoid hurting her. My nuts slap against her clit and I can feel her pussy start to tingle like Pop Rocks along my cock.
“Babe, this is it. Come with me…”
“I don’t know if I can stand for it to happen again.” She’s almost whimpering.
I slap her ass, just a little to bring her back and the action vibrates through her pussy.
“Yes!” She rises to her tip toes and I drive harder. “Yes…yes… again.” I smack her ass and the bubble butt looks like rings on a lake from a tossed rock. “Oh, fuck! Cray!”
And with that, her pussy locks around my cock. I plant deep inside and my seed coats her in long thick ribbons, mixing with her cream. I thrust through the final flutters of that sweet, sweet pussy. She collapses against the bed.
“What have you done?” she asks.
I can’t answer. My heart pounding like a bass drum in my chest.
I’ve fallen for you.
I meet her at her house with my bike. I pull a helmet attached to my bike as the garage door rocks to open.
My mouth drops open as a leather clad Naomi makes me moan. I moan. That is her gift to me.
She lets out a hearty laugh. “Surprise. I don’t ride bitch, babe. I’ve got my own wheels.”
“Nice bike.” I chuckle, too and click the helmet back on my bike. Her Ducati Panigale is a few
years old, but in great condition.
“Thanks. I don’t take it out very often, but the department just considered getting some motorcycles, so I think I’ll apply to drive one, if they’re approved and this will be good practice.”
That would be doubly hot. Uniform. Bike. I growl.
Her phone rings loudly. “Sorry.”
I wave her apology away while adjusting my leather riding jacket, black with green accents.
She pulls her phone from her pocket. “Hey, Eve, you and Zoe having fun already?” Her face pales. “What? She left two hours ago. Okay, I’ll call it in and I’m on my way.” She shoves her phone back in her zipper pocket.
“What’s wrong?”
“Zoe never made it to Eve’s and she can’t get a hold of her.”
“Okay, what do you want to do?”
“I…I…” Her body starts to shake.
I kick the stand down and jump off my bike as her body crumples in on itself.
She wobbles her head. “Cray, I don’t know.”
I swallow. “I do. You call your team and I’ll call mine.”
“Who are you calling?”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll find her.”
“What if…”
I lift her chin and peck her lips, salty tears wetting my lips. “Babe, she’s going to be okay. I promise you.”
I pull out my phone and she does the same. Dispatch orders a couple of units to come over.
I hit a contact for the President of the Graffiti Street Guardians MC.
“Go for Slater,” he answers.
“Slater, it’s Cray.”
“Cray, nice to hear from you. What’s up?”
I breathe out through puffed cheeks.
He grunts. “Just give it to me straight and we’ll take care of it.”
And honestly, that’s all I need to hear. My woman is hurting. Bad. She’s going to collapse if I can’t make this right. And I’m afraid I will lose her. Lose everything that we’re starting. I thought this was a journey and don’t want the path to end. But I don’t know if I can make it right.
Zoe probably just broke down on the road to Vegas, but why she hasn’t called is concerning.
