by Jayne Rylon
Their sudden departure left him standing there like a loser grown-up who ought to know better than to threaten kids. Hell, they’d probably peer pressured the littlest one into the prank. He knew what that was like too…having to do things you shouldn’t to keep from getting your ass beat.
A gentle hand squeezed his shoulder. “I’m no expert, but it doesn’t look too bad. I bet Sally can fix it tomorrow. Right?”
“Ah, fuck.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. Ashamed of his short fuse and the way he’d snapped like the section of fifty-year-old plastic trim he’d tried to salvage this morning. “I’m sorry about that, Nola. I should know better than to holler at some pimply-faced teenagers. I’m a grown fucking man. I could squash them like bugs.”
“You didn’t. Although they deserved it for what they did. Maybe they’ll think twice about daring each other to do something so stupid again.” She had a way of rationalizing that helped him deescalate. Funny, too, that they should think something so similar.
Or not, since she really seemed to understand him.
Usually people told him he was wrong to get angry, which only spiraled his sense of injustice higher and outraged him more.
“Come on, don’t let them ruin our date. Sit with me.” She led him to the car and crawled in first, giving him a spectacular view of her denim-clad ass.
Settling beside her, he let the red mist settle from his vision as Tom had taught him to do.
The stroking of her hand on his thigh helped a good bit too.
Well, it fired him up, but in an entirely different way.
“You didn’t hurt them. Just barked enough to scare the shit out of them.” She shrugged. “Probably a good lesson to learn before they come across someone with less self-control than you have.”
Kaige laughed his ass off at that one. “You have no idea. I’m not good at keeping my lid on. They got lucky tonight.”
“Have you ever hurt someone when you got angry?” She tipped her head as she studied him.
“Like thrown a punch? Sure. At the Hot Rods when we were younger. We’d scuffle all the time. A couple bar brawls here and there.” He shrugged. “Got arrested once for clocking a guy who’d shoved his girlfriend into my car in a parking lot. She cut her head open on the side mirror. And I think he might have raped her if we hadn’t come along. I should have held him for the police, but I couldn’t stop myself from teaching him what it was like to suffer someone’s fist.”
The woman had reminded him of his mother. And the man had mimicked his father’s poor treatment. There’d been no holding back. A night in the slammer had reminded him that he didn’t plan to end up there permanently. Fortunately, the cops had listened to Tom’s pleading on his behalf and had set him free the next morning.
Everyone seemed satisfied with that.
Not one of his proudest moments either.
“No, I get that stuff.” She shrugged. “Typical guy shit, mostly. Unless you’re telling me you beat someone to a pulp with a baseball bat and put them in the hospital or something.”
Not yet. He’d wanted to a few times.
“Jesus.” He shuddered. “No. The guy I told you about had some world-class shiners and a missing tooth, though.”
The things he imagined sometimes when angry were horrible. Was that normal? He didn’t think so. But he was afraid to tell even his closest friends, or Tom, about the evil hiding inside him. A gift from his biological father.
“So what’s this about?” Nola laid her fingers on his pulse, then rubbed the tension from his shoulders.
And before he knew what lie he’d concoct, he’d blurted his darkest secrets. “I’m pretty sure my dad killed my mom. I have a temper. Like him. They don’t call me Super Nova for nothing. I can’t stand the thought that someday I could slip. Go too far and do…that…to another human being.”
Huge rasping breaths sawed from his lungs. Would she run now? She should.
“Kaige, look at me.” Instead of putting distance between them, she closed the gap. Cupping his chin—covered in five o’clock shadow—in her palm, she turned his face toward her. “If your dad did that… God, I can see it in your eyes. You truly believe he did.”
He nodded tightly. “My father. Not my dad. Tom is my dad.”
“You’re nothing like the man who created you.” She kissed him gently, leeching the last of his fury from his lips. She devoured his pain and anger, replacing it with desire and comfort. After a while, she climbed into his lap, straddling him on her knees so she could peer directly into his eyes. “Hey. I may have only known you a little while, but that’s enough to be sure. Okay?”
“I guess.” He didn’t concede easily. Not when he’d lived with the fear for ages.
“Don’t lie to me. We can work on it, but only if you tell me the truth.” She rubbed her thumb over his knuckles.
In years past they might have been bruised and bloodied after an altercation. Either by him pounding the offender or some inanimate object afterward. Hell, hadn’t he done exactly that on those poor tires last weekend? Faint proof of that scuffle lingered.
He needed an outlet.
But had it been shame that had kept him from acting like a barbarian in front of her or had she counteracted his vile nature with her sweet one? He wasn’t sure. And maybe it didn’t matter if the end result was the same.
“I worry that it’s in my genes. That someday I could snap, like he did.” A sigh buffeted her hair away from her softly rounded face. He hadn’t realized how tightly he’d bottled that nightmare inside.
“You won’t.” She petted him all over, settling him even as she roused another animal instinct. “Come on, Kaige. That’s not how it works. I’d bet your pitiful excuse for a father hit your mom loads of times before he crossed that ultimate line. Didn’t he?”
The memory of flashing police lights and medical workers that only provoked a more violent outburst later appeared front and center in his mind. He nodded.
“You’re never going to get there. If you want to hone your anger management skills, there are lots of people who can help. I’d be more than glad to go with you to meet with one of them.” She kissed him again. “And I know some other fine ways to blow off steam.”
She began to unbutton her blouse.
He glanced around and realized they occupied the only car left in the enormous lot. He swallowed hard. The stadium lights made a clunk as they were switched off, pitching them into darkness broken only by the soft glow of the specialty dash lights.
Startled, Nola jerked. Her ass hit the horn.
Before he knew it, they were both laughing as he tumbled her sideways into the seat he’d shoved all the way back earlier, to give them more room. He covered her, loving the way her long, lean body fit beneath him. She spread her legs, giving him the perfect place to rest, surrounded by her warmth.
Kaige descended, his mouth plying hers as his hands roamed across every inch of her that he could reach. From her toned arms he wandered upward until he cupped her breast in his left hand. Kneading, he absorbed her resulting moans and ground his cock against her mound.
She’d worked her shirt open enough that her bronze skin shone in the combination of moonlight and the glow of the dash. He kissed his way down her long, graceful neck to her collarbones, pausing to lick the seductive indentations there.
Startled, he realized what he’d originally thought was the edge of a black lace bra was actually ink. “You’re tattooed too?”
A few blinks later, she registered his question. “Oh. Yeah. Not like you. I have a few simple ones. Places I can cover with my clothes.”
“What’s this?” He nudged aside the cup of her bra to investigate.
And didn’t like what he found.
A man’s name—Steven. On her chest. Over her heart.
He didn’t realize the growl echoing through his car came from him until she laughed. “Calm down, Nova. It’s a memorial tattoo.”
“For who?” He gentled his touch on
her soft skin.
“My dad.” She swallowed hard.
“Ah, shit.” Kaige kissed her again, more tenderly this time. “I’m so sorry, Nola.”
“It was a long time ago.” As if that dulled the pain.
He knew some hurts lingered a lifetime. Maybe he could bring her a sliver of joy. She deserved it. Hardworking and compassionate, who was there for her? Her sister and her mom.
Nova wanted to be added to that short list.
“Let’s forget about the past. Both of us.” He nuzzled their noses together even as he insinuated one thigh deeper between her knees, pressing the flexed muscle there against her pussy. She lifted her pelvis to enhance the contact.
“Yes. Please.” She strained her neck to claim his mouth once more. How long they distracted each other with the parrying of their tongues and fingers buried in each other’s hair, he didn’t care. Connecting with her, like this, erased everything but how good she could make him feel.
When she began to shake beneath him, he knew that prolonging their make-out session forever would be cruel. She needed more from him and he was willing to grant her wishes. He resumed his explorations, suckling on one of her breasts then the other, while allowing his hands to keep the side of her chest he didn’t feast on company.
Nola planted her feet on the seat and arched upward, granting him better access. He obliged her silent demands, tugging her bra lower until her tits were fully revealed to him. Plump yet a reasonable handful, he couldn’t imagine her more perfect any other way.
Teasing her nipples between his teeth, he fluttered his tongue against the tips, making her writhe and call out his name. Her neat fingernails scored his back before her hands slipped beneath his shirt and raked his skin on her journey upward. She clasped him tight to her with both those sharp crescents and her legs, which had twined around him.
As much as he longed to rip his jeans open and plunge inside the moist heat perfuming his car, he shoved aside those base urges and committed himself to taking care of Nola. There’d be time enough for full penetration some other night. When he wasn’t contorting her like a pretzel in his car with no more class than the teens he’d run off.
Kaige slipped his hands beneath her arms and hoisted her so her shoulders rested on the door and he had more space to maneuver. He glided along her body, opening the button and fly on her jeans in less time than it took his car to go zero to sixty.
Tight, the fabric resisted his attempts to divest her of it. But the combo of her rolling those killer hips and him tugging, meant they triumphed over her sexy pants. With them around her ankles, she spread her knees.
And Kaige couldn’t wait a moment longer.
He lunged between her legs, burying his face against the wet spot that dampened the crotch of her elegant panties. Instead of wasting time peeling them off her or ripping such a cock-hardening garment, he left them in place, sliding the crotch to the side so he could admire the moist folds of her trimmed pussy.
“You going to stare at it all night? Or are you going taste me?” She sassed him as she observed the pure desire that had to be glowing in his eyes.
Just for that he took his time, inching toward his prize. Her howl of frustration had him chuckling against her outer lip when he intentionally began off center, away from her most sensitive flesh. Gradually he spiraled inward, skimming her clit at the top of each circular track he traced with his tongue.
Nola let him play for a bit, but she eventually caved, jammed her fingers into his dreads and used the grip to direct him to where she needed his touch most. Hard as the aluminum alloy they stamped parts from, Kaige didn’t give a shit if she saw him grind his cock against the seat while he devoured her.
Lapping her slit from the base to the apex, then swiping sweet cream from around her clit, he made sure she knew he preferred the taste of her to the dessert he’d inhaled earlier. Working two fingers inside her tight sheath, he savored each of her pretty cries, echoed by the clenching of her body.
And when he pumped in and out of her in long, liquid glides made easy by the natural lubrication she supplied, Nola began to tremble. Kaige lifted his gaze long enough to witness her head thrown back as she cupped her own breast and squeezed the nipple harder than he would have done.
Nola wouldn’t be an easy lover. Not some fragile flower he had to temper his lust around. No, she could handle him. And match every bit of his passion with her own.
He couldn’t wait until he could sink into her. Shower her with ecstasy and prove that they were a perfect match. In and out of bed.
But what would she think if she knew how he liked to play with the rest of the Hot Rods? Would she let him show her off to his friends? Would she understand that he prized her, was proud of her beauty both of form and soul?
Did she have enough ardor to share?
He would bet she did.
Kaige imagined his buddies helping him delight the woman he was coming to care too much about. The thought of Bryce filling Nola in tandem with him resulted in a spurt of precome dampening his pants.
And when Nola surrendered to his handiwork, coming apart as she rode his face, painting him with the proof of her rapture, he nearly joined her. To hell with control or his pride.
Prepared to finish himself, he anchored Nola through the storm of her ecstasy. He used his free hand to shove open his jeans. She surprised the hell out of him when she slid to the floorboard—still spasming—and encouraged him to sit, with one leg on either side of her luscious body.
Before he could tell her reciprocation was unnecessary, she’d hummed her approval and licked his frenulum piercing then taken his cock deep into her throat and began to bob over the stiff length. One of her hands disappeared. Out of sight, she made sure he understood what she was doing with moans and cries of extended pleasure that only enhanced the manipulation of her mouth and tongue along his shaft.
Holy shit.
He grabbed for her free hand, entwining their fingers. Speech became impossible, but she didn’t need him to warn her of his impending explosion when her mouth was full to overflowing with his bulging cock, which leaked faster after each pass of her lush lips.
As if going down on him really got her off, Nola moaned. She looked up at him, her mouth stretched into an impossible O around him. Her eyes rolled back and she convulsed. Taking him to the root, she managed not to bite him as she came again.
Nothing could have stopped him from joining her then.
Kaige’s release railroaded him, flattening him as if a car had dropped from one of the lifts, right on top of his helpless body. His balls drew tight and launched jet after jet of semen into her mouth. She swallowed greedily, drawing every last drop from him.
When they both went limp, with her head lying on his thigh, and him petting her thick mane, he couldn’t believe how wrecked he felt inside. As soon as he could coordinate his limbs, he lifted her from the floorboards and gathered her to his chest. He tucked her close to his heart and rocked them both, wondering how the fuck he was going to make things right.
For them.
For the Hot Rods.
Without speaking, they cleaned each other up and restored their clothes to some semblance of order. Instead of going out of their way to return to the shop, he volunteered to take her home since her sister had to come out to the wedding site in the morning anyway. Holding hands when he was in between shifting gears, they rode through the night to her house in a comfortable silence, each keeping their own counsel.
Overwhelmed with joy and a healthy dose of fear, he didn’t try to talk, knowing he’d probably only fuck up the amazing evening they’d shared. Content, he squeezed her fingers as he pulled over where she indicated on her street. The modest neighborhood held small single-family homes with neat yards.
Kaige walked Nola to her door and laid his mouth against hers. They engaged in a sensual, seductive dance of lips interspersed with a few good ass squeezes by both parties. When they broke apart, he rested his forehead o
n hers and smiled.
“Good night, Nola.”
“Night.” She touched her swollen lips.
He walked backward a little ways before he drew enough oxygen into his lungs to think straight. “Hey, Nola?”
“Yeah?” She sounded at least half as rocked as he had been. Good.
“Will you be my date for Eli, Al and Sally’s wedding?”
“You haven’t asked anyone else yet?” She squinted at him. “Why not?”
He shrugged.
If he were being completely honest, none of the guys were planning to bring dates. Except him. He’d been plotting for nearly an entire week now.
“I’d love to go with you.” She ducked her head as she smiled. “I’ve been kind of wishing you’d invite me. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, though.”
“Seriously?” He paused.
“Uh-huh.” She hugged herself. “I’ve seen the stuff my sister’s working on and now, knowing all of you, I’d really enjoy attending. Plus, of course, being with you. Ugh. I’m pathetic.”
Kaige couldn’t stop himself from jogging back to her side at her adorable admission. He kissed her hard then lifted her, whirling her around in circles. “It’s going to be a hell of a good time. Especially with you by my side.”
After a few rotations, she shoved his shoulders while laughing. “Okay, okay. The whole world’s spinning, Nova.”
“Yes, it is. And it’s beautiful.” He relented, lowering her to the ground slowly enough to torture them both. One last kiss and they were reluctantly prying themselves apart then widening the chasm between them again.
He crossed his legs and leaned against the hood of his car while she ascended uneven steps to her front door. When the frosted glass opened and warm light spilled onto the concrete stoop, Kaige heard a woman who could only be Nola’s sister, judging by their similar voices, say, “That looked better than chocolate! You lucky cow.”
“Shhh…he can probably…”
Kaige cupped his hands around his mouth as he shouted, “Yeah, I heard that. And you’re right, Amber. It was killer. Good night to both you lovely Ms. Browns.”
“Get the hell outta here.” Nola was laughing as she popped her head through the doorway once more. “Go home, Nova.”
