Hell Bent

by Arlene Knowell

  She cupped her hand over her mouth in surprise. “You can’t be serious! You were there the whole time?”

  He nodded. “Do you know how big a jackass it would take to leave you alone after what you went through? As big a jackass as your brothers think I am.”

  Oh God, it was worse than she’d first thought. Much worse. She’d flexed her father-given muscles and made Shane leave when she wanted nothing more than for him to stay. Then she’d gone a step further and denied him the right to tell her brothers that even if she was stubborn that he hadn’t left her unguarded. In grand style, she’d made her

  brothers hate Shane.

  ~ * ~

  Mindy and Shane stepped from the car and walked toward the beach a few hundred feet away. It was difficult to find places that her brothers might not see her with him, but luckily the secret would be out soon.

  “You’re beautiful, do you know that?” he asked suddenly, as she wrapped her hands around his arm.

  She jerked her face toward his. “Me? I think I’d fit more into the average category.”

  He traced his eyes over the dark features of her face, “What would make you say that?”

  “According to my brothers, beauty is beneath blonde hair.” She admitted. “And that’s one thing I’ll never have.”

  “Beauty isn’t about hair color. They’re confusing beautiful with the stereotype of easy. You, on the other hand, are beautiful.”

  “Jesus, I’m standing by the ocean with the incoming tide and you’re going to drown me in lies.”

  He turned toward her as her dark hair blew in the salty air. “Look at you, dark hair, dark eyes, and flawless olive skin.” He pulled his fingers down her cheek, brushing away her hair. “Perfect lips, and curves that probably measure closer to perfect than anything your brothers have dated in months.”

  “Thank you, even if I do doubt your sanity.” She blushed.

  “But I wasn’t talking about that stuff when I called you beautiful. I was meaning the way that you absorb the world. The way you don’t take the small stuff for granted, that makes you beautiful.”

  He stopped and lowered his face toward her as she reached to trace a scar above his left eyebrow. “I would love to hear the story.”

  “I didn’t think you liked war stories,” he said, his tone somber as he leaned in to kiss her.

  She pulled away slightly and whispered, “Maybe it isn’t the stories after all, but the way they always insisted on telling them.” She tilted her face into his kiss. “I want to know all about you. About the places you were stationed, and how long I’ll have to wait for you to take me back to

  your special place.”

  He cleared his throat and trailed a finger down her arm. “I’m leaning more toward taking you to my quarters. That rock was hard.”

  “I’d gladly give myself to you on a bed of nails,” she whispered, tiptoeing to pull his lips to hers.

  “Barbed wire.” He pulled her into his arms. “I cut a rolled fence at the Bosnia Serbian border and it recoiled and cut my face.”

  He deepened the kiss. Her need was as obvious as the hard on between his legs.

  “I need you, Shane.” She sighed as she looked at him with her dark alluring eyes and swollen lips. “The other night when you were inside me I knew that nothing could hurt me.”

  Those were the kinds of words that made a man forget everything except his cock and where she wanted it to be. She could see the desperation in his eyes as he looked around, in search of a private place to hide.

  “We aren’t the only people here.” He locked his index finger into the belt loop of her jeans, using his last bit of strength to battle her spellbinding powers.

  “Where?” she asked as she unbuttoned his shirt. “How fast can we be there?”

  He looked desperately around, grabbed her hand and made a dash toward his car. He opened the door for her and leaned to kiss her when she sat inside. The kiss deepened and she considered begging him to taking her right there. With a grunt and a raging hard on he ran around the car and jumped inside. The engine roared to life and he drove quickly around the winding road. She toyed with him. First she rubbed her hands down his chest. His muscles were taught and felt wonderful to her touch. She crawled onto her knees, nibbled and licked his ear until he growled with pleasure. She worked to unfasten his belt, then his jeans.

  “Ten more minutes,” he promised as he drove like he was in it to qualify at Indy.

  “That’s a long time,” she protested with a dramatic pout. She reached her hand inside his jeans, pulling his rock hard shaft free.

  His breath caught and he looked down no more than a

  second before she took him into her mouth, all of him. She could hear his hands as they tightened the grip on the steering wheel. He shivered as her lips flicked the head of his shaft. She wouldn’t have cared if she had been sitting at a red light on Rodeo Drive as she gave him head. Luckily, they were on a secondary road with little traffic. She rose up and stared at him, licking her lips, then kissed him as if he wasn’t driving a speeding vehicle. Then suddenly she was out of her jeans and moving toward him.

  “I can’t take it,” she groaned. “I’ve gotta have you, now.”

  She straddled him and pressed herself onto his hard shaft in one smooth, swift motion. He gasped. He brought the car to a screeching halt, eased onto a field road and into the cover of some roadside trees. She bounced on his shaft, in search of a release that she desperately needed.

  “Now.” He slid the seat back, killed the lights and wrapped his hands onto her hips. “Let’s be sure you get exactly what you’re after.”

  Who would come first? She was desperate for an orgasm, and she planned to get it even if it landed them on the hood of the car with her bent over doggie style.

  She looked down to where she slammed her crotch violently onto him. Fire rushed through her to see her wetness swallow him up time after time. It looked good, to watch him disappear inside her. He bit his bottom lip and helped her pump onto his shaft. The sounds of her breathing changed and moments later gave way to a breathless panting that signaled her approaching climax.

  “Oh, God,” she sighed. “Oh, that’s it.”

  He grunted when her body convulsed as she held her breath. “Breathe, let it feel good.”

  Her shaking subsided but tears slid down her face. He pressed his palms onto her cheeks. “What’s wrong, are you hurt?”

  She shook her head. “I’m falling in love with you.”

  “Are you okay with that? With who I am?” he asked, his expression anything but light.

  “I’d follow you to the ends of the earth.” She tapped his lips quickly with her own.

  “I don’t need you to follow me to the ends of the

  earth.” He held her face closer. “I just need to know that if I have to go there you’ll be waiting for me when I get back.”

  A smile slowly grew across her face. “I’ll be waiting.”

  Six

  Her brothers were waiting for her when she finally rolled out of bed. She hadn’t made it home until half past four. She’d had little choice but to sleep in. She walked toward the bathroom at 08:00. Their eyes instantly locked on and followed her until the door closed. She showered, applied a paper thin coat of make up to hide the circles beneath her eyes. She brushed her hair and teeth. Slowly, she drew in a deep breath and looked at herself in the mirror. Her brothers were going to give her hell for staying out all night. She didn’t care, it was well worth it.

  “I missed breakfast, huh?” She made her way back into the living room and flopped down between them on the sofa.

  “We figured you had breakfast before you came home,” Pete said, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

  She turned her weary head toward him, looking up from a slumped position where she had propped her feet on the coffee table that was distanced for a 6'3" sitter. “I’m acting like you guys now, aren’t I?”

  “If we’re going to be out all n
ight we tell you,” Pat said, standing up and pacing back and forth in front of the couch.

  “Well, I would have told you, but by the time I figured it out it was too late to call.” she explained with a tongue in cheek attitude. “Besides, I told you I’d be late before I left.”

  “You could’ve at least left your cell phone on so we could get in contact with you.” Pete’s eyes were cold. She recognized her father’s cold look of warning in them. “We were worried about you.”

  “I didn’t want to be disturbed.” She yawned lazily. “Kinda the same way you both leave your phones laying on your dressers when you go out.”

  “Where were you?” Pete finally blurted, locking his demanding eyes on her. “And who is this prick you’ve been seeing?”

  She turned her head up to him again. “He’s no prick. I don’t date pricks. If you’d taken time to get to know any of my dates, you would know that.”

  She forced herself back to her feet and waddled toward the kitchen. She wasn’t good at staying out all night, that was more her self-righteous brothers’ department. Soon she would get the chance to tell them about Shane, but she wasn’t sure exactly how to do it.

  “Damn, Mindy, get that freshly fucked look off your face,” Pat ground out trailing her toward the kitchen.

  She paused, and glanced back toward him. “Excuse me, did you just call me freshly fucked?”

  “Yes I did, do you deny it?” He moved closer, grabbed her arm and spun her toward him. “I’m ashamed of you.”

  Her mind drifted back to the night before. She’d absolutely blown Shane’s mind by taking what she wanted right there in the car. She’d further confused him by telling him that she was falling in love with him. But he had a few tricks up his sleeve, too. He took her back to his quarters in the NCO housing units. He opened the door and allowed her inside and she was overcome by the pure male scent in the room. He’d turned his footlocker onto its end beside the bed. It held a bottle of wine chilled in an old ammo box and a single candle that looked like it would burn for days. He led her toward the bed, foregoing the grand tour until he had a little relief of his own. She pressed her hands past his still unbuttoned shirt and leaned in, kissing his chest in random spots. He clapped and the light went out. The flick of a cigarette lighter ignited in the room and he leaned toward the candle. She had never imagined that a man like him could be romantic, but it seemed there was a side to him that could melt a girl like the hot southern sunshine.

  “Hello!” Pat growled, waving his hands in front of her face. “I asked you a question.”

  “You actually asked two questions, for which I have

  two things to say you, hypocrite.” She pointed her finger at him. “First, I wouldn’t call it fresh as it’s been almost twelve hours. And second, let he who isn’t freshly fucked cast the first stone.”

  He stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. He nodded slowly in disbelief as he crinkled his eyebrows into a deep furrow. “What?”

  “The hickey on your neck, dear brother,” she said, wobbling her head in sarcasm. “It looks like you did a bit more than watch wrestling last night.”

  She pushed through the kitchen door and poured a glass of juice. “Anybody want some juice?”

  There was no answer. She pulled a pan from the cabinet to create an egg sandwich when Pete stormed through the door.

  “Are you doing this just to spite us?”

  She looked up at him as she held the spatula. “I’m doing this for me, it has nothing to do with you. If you didn’t put yourselves and men like you up on a self-glorified pedestal, then you’d see I’m not wrong for doing so.”

  “You might as well forget it, Pete, she’s a lost cause.” Pat said as he entered the kitchen.

  His words stung like a bee on sunburned skin, and she couldn’t help but lash back out. His eyes grew large when she jerked the frying pan from the stove without a single thought and began swinging it at him, the contents scattering all about the kitchen.

  “You listen to me, Pat Austin. You don’t have the right to call me a lost cause!” She continued to swat at him, and he ducked the blows, his hands protecting his face. “I have the same blood running through my veins that you have in your own. Maybe I did have a good time last night but unlike you, I guarantee that I’ll remember his name this time next year.”

  “Oh stop it, it’s different with guys.” He dodged another swing of the frying pan.

  “In your mind you think it is different! And that’s lucky for you because in the real world you’re nothing but a male whore. Don’t you ever criticize me again, you self-centered egomaniac. I can count my men on one hand and I’d be willing to bet that if you had to count the sluts to your credit, you’d need every finger and toe in this whole fucking building.”

  “There again it’s different with men.” He was enjoying the torture too much for her liking.

  He jumped back, hands in the air, with a loud chuckle as he continued to dodge the hot frying pan. She gritted her teeth because it was for certain that no one in the world could make her as angry as quickly as her brothers.

  “It’s easy to see why you got popped in the mouth.” She spat before she thought.

  His smile fell away. “I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.”

  “I suppose it would be different if I had been out with one of your own kind?” she quizzed, deciding not to push her luck. “Then it would be okay because I was a notch in somebad-ass’ bed post.”

  Pat reached out and pinched her on the leg. “If it had been with one of our kind you’d need a walking cane after waiting six years.”

  She lunged forward swatting again, him still dodging her like a teasing adolescent in a game of keep away. She gritted her teeth as she swung and if she ever got lucky and made contact he’d have a bruise to add to his collection. Pete grabbed her from behind as she continued to back Pat through the apartment, and as simply as that she was unarmed.

  “Calm down!” Pete yelled as she kicked against him. “You act just like Dad sometimes.”

  “Get your hands off me,” she screamed so loud that the neighbors could probably hear. “I am grown and I don’t need a damn caretaker.”

  “No, you need your ass whipped that’s what you need.” Pat rubbed his hands together. “And there is no time like the present.”

  She backed away as he walked toward her. She hated it when they ganged up on her, not that she could fight either of them alone and win. She backed into the kitchen as Pete stood there holding the frying pan. She sat down at the kitchen table and looked up at them.

  “It’s time for me to leave,” she announced as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I should never have moved in with the two of you.”

  Their faces changed suddenly from smirked grins to solemn expressions of regret. They looked at her as if she had just announced a family member had died.

  “Don’t look at me that way, what did you expect?” she asked. “You both live the way you want to, date who you want, screw who you want and I never say a word. Do you really think that I like all those superficial whores you bring home? Well I don’t but I keep my mouth shut.”

  “Mindy,” Pete interrupted.

  “I’m not finished,” she said as she held her hand up to him. “I know they are with you just because of what you are, not who you are. I know that neither of you would ever go out with a woman like me, but it’s the women like me that will really love you someday.”

  “Look sis,” Pat interrupted.

  “Pat.” She locked eyes with him, tears still flowing down her cheeks. “I’m sorry that I popped off about you getting hit in the mouth. I was wrong for that. And I’m sorry that I’m not what you want me to be, but I have far too much pride in myself to open my legs for every uniform that walks by.” She didn’t care that her big bad-ass brothers were seeing the weakest part of her. “If my choices are to be like the girls you want me to be or lose your respect, then I guess I just lost your respect.”

&nbs
p; Pat stepped forward with open arms. “No you didn’t. You just gained it.”

  “That’s right little sis, you sit right there and I’ll cook your sandwich.” Pete rinsed the skillet beneath the faucet and sat it onto the stove eye.

  She couldn’t believe what had just happened, for one time she had actually stood her ground against the both of them and won. She proudly wiped away her tears. “You’ll leave me to date whom ever I want?”

  “If he’s good enough for you then he’s good enough for us.” Pete looked over his shoulder toward her as he flipped the egg in the skillet. “How long have you been dating him anyway?”

  “A while,” she explained as she nudged the chair beside her for Pat to take a seat. “He’s really a good man, and you’ll like him.”

  Pete sat a steaming sandwich in front of her and they

  both took a seat at the table. “Tell us about him.” Pat said.

  “What if I do better than that, what if I bring him here tonight and you meet him?” she asked glancing from one to the other. “Or do you have dates?”

  “Since when do we date on Sunday night?” Pete poked at teasing finger into her ribs.

  “You promise not to try and intimidate him into not seeing me anymore, right?” she quizzed. The last thing she wanted was for Shane and Pat to tie up again.

  “We promise.” Pat put his hands in the air. “Even if he is a little civilian prick.”

  She pointed her finger at him as she chewed her sandwich. She wanted to laugh because they had no idea the man they were calling a prick was the very man who had backed not one, but both of them down when it mattered most. She also had to consider, however, that neither of the twins was happy with Shane Newhope at the moment.

  ~ * ~

  “So, is he picking you up tonight?” Pat asked as Mindy walked into the living room late that afternoon.

  “No, we’re meeting for dinner, then he’ll follow me back here.” She leaned forward over Pete’s lap for him to fasten the clasp on her seashell necklace.