by Brook Wilder
“Now.”
Rox took off and I fired off a few rounds, the return fire splintering the doorway in front of me. A searing pain hit my left arm, but I ignored it as I backed toward the kitchen, seeing that Rox already had the door open and waiting.
The tricky part was that the garage wasn’t actually a garage, but one of those steel framed open carports that Leo had liked to park his truck under. We would be in the open but, under the cover of darkness, could make a break for it.
“Stay low!” I yelled at her, grabbing her hand and propelling us toward the open door.
Gunfire erupted the moment we stepped outside, but luckily they were still firing at the house and not at the two people crossing over the path to the carport.
“Get in,” I told her as I positioned myself at the back bumper, raising my gun for anything that was going to change direction once we got the truck cranked. “I’m going to climb in the back as soon as you crank it up.”
Luck was on our side, as the drive under the carport led directly to an empty lot behind the house.
Our escape route.
Rox hurried to the driver side, and I barely heard her open the door before I started firing, muffling the sound as best I could when she got it started.
There were shouts as I hauled myself over the tailgate and Rox took off, barreling down the bumpy path to the deserted lot. My body got thrown around against the truck bed’s metal interior, the ping of the gun fire on the tailgate lessening as Rox exited the lot and turned the truck south, toward my place.
We had done it. We had made it out of there with very little injury, save the bullet graze on my arm.
But the worst was yet to come.
Chapter Thirteen
Rox
My heart was in my throat as I turned Leo’s truck down the familiar street leading to Neil’s house, hoping to God I would not find him dead in the back once I stopped.
The rearview mirror was empty. No one was following us, though I circled the block a few times to make sure, ready to make a break for it if someone did catch wind of the truck.
Or its occupants.
I eased the truck into a parking spot across the street from Neil’s house and shut off the engine, surprised to find my hands shaking. What was I going to find in the bed of the truck? I should have pulled over. I should have checked on his wellbeing.
Oh God… what if Neil was dead? I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t deal with that concept as well. Despite all that had happened between us, I loved him, and I needed for him to be alive.
Grabbing the box and the gun, I opened the driver side door and nearly dropped them both.
“I was wondering when you were going to get out,” Neil said dryly, his arms crossed over his chest. “Are you alright?”
I sucked up all those earlier worries.
“I’m fine. Are you?”
He shrugged.
“Nothing I can’t handle. You know where the key is. Go inside. I’m gonna ditch the truck.”
I bit my lip but didn’t object. It was Leo’s truck, but it was also a marker for whoever was trying to kill us. I couldn’t hold onto it and not put our lives in danger.
“Okay.”
He nodded, and I walked across the street to the small house, reaching behind the rock on the front step to get the key.
I was the reason there was a key there, Neil wanting to give me a way to get into his house whether he was there or not. He had tried to get me to keep it, but I hadn’t been ready for that yet.
And now… well, we were back to square one.
I inserted the key, hearing the truck crank back up, and pushed open the door, walking into the cool interior.
Neil’s house was a total bachelor pad, with the large-screen TV and leather furniture you would expect to see. I knew the layout of his house, each room committed to memory, so I sat the box on the couch and walked to the only bathroom, flipping on the light.
I looked like I had just been through a bad accident. My eyes were huge, and the cuts on my face from the salon fire stood out in sharp contrast to my pale skin. I fumbled for the knob on the faucet and turned it on, surprised to see my toothbrush still in the holder by the sink.
Huh?
Curious now, I opened the medicine cabinet and saw that my things were still in the same place on the shelf, the one I had dubbed as my own, so I wouldn’t have to keep bringing a bag with me.
Had he not cleaned any of this out? Why?
“You can’t think about that now,” I muttered to myself, splashing water on my face as I heard the front door open and close.
I had bigger things to worry about.
We both did.
I walked out of the bathroom and found Neil in the kitchen, pulling a few beers out of the fridge.
“Want one?” he asked, pushing the door closed.
“Please,” I said, rattled by what I had just seen.
Neil handed one over and I frowned as I saw blood on his arm. Placing the beer on the counter, I grabbed his arm.
“What’s this?”
“It’s nothing,” he growled, pulling at my grip. “A graze.”
“From a bullet?” I asked, panic rising in my voice.
What else was he hiding from me?
“I’m good, Rox,” he ground out, hissing as I pushed up his sleeve to examine the mark. “It’s not the first time.”
Grabbing the dish towel off the stove, I wet it in the sink before pressing it to the wound, getting a hiss in return.
“Nothing? Nothing? You were shot!”
“I wasn’t ‘shot’,” he said, as I dabbed at the burn mark. “Geez Rox, you don’t know what a bullet wound looks like?”
“I do,” I said through clenched teeth, thinking of all the things that could have gone wrong tonight.
Neil could have been killed. He had done everything he could to save my life, and he had gotten shot.
Just because it was a graze didn’t mean it still didn’t hurt.
“Are you crying?” he asked gently, causing me to look at him.
Sure enough, tears were streaming down my cheeks, even though I was shaking my head.
“Shit Rox,” he said, using the pad of his thumb to wipe away the tear. “I’m fine, I swear it.”
“Y-you could have been killed,” I got out as he wiped away another tear. “Killed!”
He swore and took me into his arms, pulling me against his hard body.
“I wasn’t,” he said, his hand tracing a path down my back. “Please, don’t cry. I fucking hate it when you cry.”
I clung to him, my hands tight around his waist, as I tried to control my emotions. This was Neil, my brother’s best friend, the man I loved, and I had nearly lost him. I wasn’t overreacting. I couldn’t lose him too.
Because I would have no one else left to care for me.
He pulled back and placed his hand on my chin, forcing me to look at him. Gone was the hard expression I had grown used to, and in its place was concern.
And tenderness.
“What’s going on with you?” he asked softly, his eyes searching mine. “Tell me how I can help.”
I wanted to forget it all. I wanted to pretend for a while that nothing bad had happened between us.
“Love me,” I whispered instead, sliding my arms up his chest and around his neck. “Make me forget.”
He growled before crushing his mouth to mine, his tongue sweeping in without apology.
I whimpered as heat exploded all around me, inside me, from the mere touch of his tongue to mine. My body had been waiting for this moment.
As if it was going to happen again.
Neil picked me up in his arms, never breaking our kiss, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, hooking them in as he pressed me up against the wall, like I weighed nothing at all.
“I’m going to fuck you,” he whispered against my lips, sending shivers down my spine. “I’m going to make you scream my name.”
It wasn’t
going to take much. I pressed my lips to his jaw, sliding my tongue over it like I knew he liked, as he slid his hand up my shirt, cupping one of my breasts in his big paw.
“Please,” I said in his ear. “Take me to bed.”
Neil pressed a kiss to my chin as he slid his arm around my waist, carrying me bodily down the hall and into his bedroom, the place where I had spent so much time with him.
I had missed this.
Laying me on the bed, he wasted no time covering my body with his. I felt the coolness of the sheets under me, the heaviness of his body pressed against mine, and I knew I had come home.
Even if it was just for a little while.
Neil’s tongue swirled around my ear, and I gasped, the tightness in my belly begging for release.
“I am going to kiss you all over,” he whispered in my ear, before his tongue slid down the side of my neck, leaving a path to cool in the air.
When his tongue found the shadow between my breasts, I arched my back, wanting so much more. We had played this game before, and every time I felt like I had both lost and won in the same breath.
“Neil,” I said, grasping his hair. “Please.”
“Patience,” he said against my skin, his hand starting to work on my jeans.
Patience was not something I did very well.
His fingers flicked open the button on my jeans and pulled down the zipper, every movement causing a flood of wetness in anticipation of what was going to happen next. I was more than ready for him, but I wasn’t going to win the battle or the war at this point.
Neil backed away and gave my jeans a tug, succeeding in getting them off my hips and down my legs and giving him a good view of the lacy thong I had put on that morning.
Red, his favorite color.
“Damn,” he whispered, barely brushing a hand over my mound. “You are gorgeous, Rox.”
I smiled, hearing the reverence in his voice. How many times had I hoped to hear that again? How many times had I dreamed this up in my sleep, so that I could relive it and remember what it was like to be loved by him?
He knelt between my legs, and I moaned as his tongue touched the lace barely covering me.
Oh God, he was going to kill me slowly.
His finger hooked the lace and pulled it aside, and I arched to bring my body against his mouth, his tongue sliding into the already wet slit. My entire body shuddered as he touched my hard nub, swirling around it before suckling gently. My fingers found his hair, and I held him there, on the verge of losing it and wanting to pull him away just so I could experience the swirl of feelings he was sending through my body at that very moment.
Neil looked up and our eyes met.
“Don’t deny me this, Rox,” he whispered.
“I-I’m not,” I said shakily. “But I’m about to lose it.”
The grin I got back sent a dagger to my heart, tearing down the walls I had attempted to construct around him to keep him out. He leaned down, and I closed my eyes as he set about torturing me with his tongue, the dam breaking, causing me to scream his name through the orgasm. His hands gripped my hips as he angled me toward him, drinking up the wet juices that flowed out of my body because of what he was doing to me.
What he had always done to me.
Soon I was limp, my heart racing, and slightly lightheaded. Neil rose over me and I vaguely heard him remove his clothing before he was covering me again, pressing against my entrance. I could smell myself on his lips, drawing him into a kiss as he slid into my tight warmth.
“Damn,” he whispered as he sheathed himself fully. “I had forgotten how good this felt.”
I wanted to both laugh and cry, the heaviness of him inside me a familiar feeling, a welcoming feeling. I wanted to hold him there forever and never let go of this feeling. Instead, I cupped his cheek, forcing him to look at me.
“Fuck me, Neil.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said, pulling out and slamming into me again.
I cried out, not in pain, but in pleasure as he forced another orgasm, stars exploding behind my eyelids this time, my body quivering around him.
He groaned and started a rhythm, one that I eagerly caught onto, grasping at his shoulders and urging him on, until the bed started to squeak under our bodies.
This was what I had missed.
His thrusts grew faster, and I clutched at him, riding the waves of my own orgasms, while screaming his name until he stiffened, shouting my name as he poured into me.
It was a moment suspended in time, two people finding pleasure in one another where love was still growing.
I never wanted to let it go.
Chapter Fourteen
Neil
I pulled out of Rox and stepped back, running a hand through my hair. God that had felt good. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed her, missed this between us, until it was back again.
Fuck the club, the people who were trying to pull us apart.
It didn’t matter.
She pushed herself off the bed, and I reached into one of my drawers, pulling out a long t-shirt that would likely be a nightgown of some sort on her.
“Here,” I said gruffly, handing to her. “Put this on.”
She didn’t reject it. Instead, she curled her fingers around the soft fabric.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” I answered, watching as she exited the room on her way to the bathroom, before releasing a breath.
I wasn’t about to let her out of my sight, not with people shooting at us. She had everything she needed here, and until I could figure this shit out, here was where she was gonna stay.
Sliding off my own shirt, I kicked my clothes into a pile and climbed into my bed, sliding my hands under my head.
I hadn’t expected this to happen tonight. I hadn’t expected her to ask me to fuck her, but when she had, I had lost all sense of control. Being with Rox had been what I’d needed, and I wanted to believe it was what she had needed as well.
If only this shit hadn’t gotten complicated…
But now that we had found the box, we could start unraveling what Leo was into and hopefully clear his name in the process. I knew that was going to be the only way Rox would be able to move on, though how she handled any news from me was still up in the air. I was keeping secrets from her, secrets that I didn’t know whether she could handle.
Nor was I ready to tell her about them.
Shit, I was being selfish. I wanted to hold onto what had just happened a little while longer, remember the good ole days between us.
So, sue me!
Rox came back into the bedroom, the shirt hanging to her knees, and I threw back the covers.
“Come on.”
She fiddled with the sleeve of the shirt, not moving onto the bed.
“Are we… do you think we are safe here tonight?”
I nodded. I had hidden the truck, not finding it in my heart to destroy it, and set the alarm before I had brought her back here. Plus, there were guns under the mattress and in the bedside table.
And, besides, I wasn’t planning on doing much sleeping tonight, not with her in the bed.
“I got you. Don’t worry.”
She heaved a breath and climbed in beside me, covering herself with the comforter. I didn’t move to swallow her whole immediately, allowing us both to adjust being back here again. I had taken her virginity in this bed, claimed her as my own and told her that I loved her. There were so many damn memories that, if this thing could talk, it would have quite the story to tell.
“Neil?”
“Yeah?”
“What do you think is in the box?”
I sighed, scrubbing a hand over my face.
“I think that it’s something important, for Leo to have gone to such great lengths in order to hide it like that.”
“Me too,” she said in a small voice. “I hope… I mean I know it’s what we have been looking for. It’s got to be.”
I nodded, feeling the same. I
no longer believed that Leo had been on Grayson’s side, but I needed to prove it to Grant and the rest of the club. Leo’s words were not enough. Not only that: if he had found something we could use, that would give us a leg up on Grayson and his traitor gang.
