It hadn’t worked out that way, of course. Manny sucked him back into the life the minute Rex turned eighteen. That didn’t mean that Rex forgot the lessons his foster parents had taught him. He kept the ideal of family and commitment as a possibility for the future. His future.
When he saw Ellie again, that tempting image of the future flitted across his mind--so quickly that he would've missed it if he blinked but his eyes remained wide-open and he saw it.
He could have both. His lifestyle and a family. It wasn’t clear yet exactly how that would work, but he had to believe that it was possible.
CHAPTER SIX
After a restless night, Ellie got up early and decided to spend the day writing. It was the best way to deal with all the emotional turmoil of the night before. She made coffee and took a large mug into her living room, settling down at her desk.
While she waited on her laptop to start up, she opened all the curtains and windows to let in some fresh air. The temperature was perfect and the smell of freshly cut grass made her smile.
She didn’t bother getting dressed or fixing her hair. It was Saturday and the only place she needed to be was at her house, working. Even if any of her friends called to invite her out she was turning them down. She still had yesterday’s chapters to finish and she could use the time today to get ahead.
It was unfortunate that she stopped yesterday in the middle of a very important sex scene. Picking up where she left off and not remembering last night was going to be tough. Her mind kept wandering, leaving her feeling unsettled.
Piling her hair on top of her head, she secured it with an ink pen and put her glasses on, trying to get serious about finishing up what she started so she could move on. It still wasn’t working. The characters that she'd been lovingly developing suddenly felt flat and boring.
Closing her eyes, she let her mind see the characters as real people, like a movie playing out that she had to transcribe onto the page. It didn’t hit her until the scene was nearly done that she was recounting her night with Rex.
She read back what she typed and was surprised to see how good it was. There were a few spelling and grammatical errors but they were easily fixed.
Except...
Rex’s name was dotted across the pages where the old male lead's name used to be. A couple of clicks of her mouse and a few quick strokes on the keyboard would take care of that little mistake. Yet it felt harder than she expected and when she saw Rex disappear from the page, Ellie would be lying if she didn't feel a twinge of sadness.
***
It was way too early to be back. He had no clue what he was going to say to make up for what he did last night. Some people weren’t good with words and he was definitely on that list.
Her neighborhood was quiet and the roar of his bike sounded obscene. He parked and looked up at the front of her house. From where he sat, he saw her sitting at her desk facing the bank of windows in the front of the house. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a messy knot and a pair of glasses rested on her nose. Rex forgot that she wore glasses to read.
Getting off the bike, Rex walked up the path to her front door. Her windows were open and he could hear the rapid tapping of her fingers on a keyboard. She must be working. He almost turned around and got back on the bike, but the closer he got to the front the more it looked like she was typing with her eyes closed.
She was typing with her eyes closed. Eyes closed, breathing hard and her cheeks were flushed a very familiar pink. While he watched she finished and sat back, obviously reading what she just wrote. She made some quick movements with her fingers on the mouse pad then smiled--a sad smile yet she looked satisfied.
***
The doorbell rang just as Ellie was getting up to refill her coffee cup. Seeing as how she wasn’t dressed, she thought about ignoring it. She really wasn’t up for a visit from anyone right now. Peeking out the window she saw a familiar blood-red bike in her driveway.
Pulling open the door, she kept her lower body hidden. “Rex? What are you doing here?”
“I was thinking, maybe, that you, I mean—can I talk to you?” He stuttered like a shy little boy.
“I’m not really dressed for company, Rex.”
“Please.” The word stuck in his throat, like it always did. He might have learned to say it but it was still a struggle to get it out.
“Okay, come on in.” She stepped back and opened the door, still hiding behind it.
“If you want to go get dressed, I can wait.” Rex didn’t pretend he wasn’t looking, because he was. Ellie wore an old Fabulous Thunderbirds t-shirt and a pair of panties that looked like very short-shorts with a pair of hands printed on them so it looked like they were grabbing her rear. They were so outrageous that he couldn't help grinning.
Determined not to feel self-conscious, Ellie shook her head and straightened her shoulders. “It’s a little late to pretend like you haven’t seen me in less.” She moved into the living room and waited for him to follow.
He sat down on the couch and tried to ignore the fact that it was still a little mussed up from the night before. Instead he looked around her space, taking it in. It suited her—not too girly; earthy colors and very neat.
“So what exactly did you come back for, Rex?” She leaned against her desk, crossing her arms under her breasts.
She was clearly annoyed. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but it made it harder for him to say what he wanted to say. He couldn’t sit still. Getting up he moved around to the area behind the couch then began to pace. “I really messed up last night.”
Ellie’s back stiffened at his words. Talk about adding insult to injury. He came all this way to tell her what a mistake he made? How perfect.
“I didn’t mean to come off like--” He stopped pacing and scrubbed his hands over his face in clear frustration. “When we were kids, you were the only friend I had. No one else liked me because I was such an asshole.”
“You were never an asshole to me.” Ellie, uncrossed her arms and relaxed a little. He looked like that angry little boy again, stuck in a life that wasn’t his choosing and forced to accept it.
“Yes I was. You never let me get away with it for long, but I tried over and over.” He began to pace again. “I think that’s why I never minded being around you when my dad would pawn me off on your mom.”
“Mom liked you. She always thought you were a good kid who was cut a raw deal.” Ellie watched him pace. He still hadn’t looked at her.
“She was good to me. I appreciate it now. I couldn’t back then.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, uncomfortable talking about how he felt. “I was sorry to hear that she passed.”
“Thank you.”
He stopped pacing suddenly and turned to face her. “I was a jerk last night.”
“Yeah, you were.” She shrugged, acting like it was nothing to her. “I get it, okay? You weren’t thinking with the head on your shoulders and you regret sleeping with me. No harm done.”
“Wait, no.” Rex held his hands up, confused as to what he said to make her get the wrong idea. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t regret last night. At all. I regret making it seem that way by freaking out a little, but I don’t regret any of the rest of it.”
She wasn’t looking at him, seeming less than convinced and he was out of words.
Ellie was looking out the window, contemplating what he said and the next thing she knew he was in front of her, yanking the ink pen out of her hair and letting it fall over his hands. He took two handfuls and pulled her head back, taking her mouth more aggressively than he had before.
Ellie’s body reacted immediately, refusing to let her brain catch up. She arched into him, her hands finding the desk to brace herself against. His mouth was punishing, bruising her softness. When he released his hold on her hair it was merely to place that grip on her hips and pull her harder into him, grinding his pelvis into her stomach. There was no way to deny that he meant to prove how much he wanted her.
>
He meant to take things slower, to seduce her a little bit but all his plans went right out the window the moment her body was pressed against his. She was lush, curved in all the right places and responsive to him in a way he never experienced before. He never got the impression that she was holding something back.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Why did it have to be Rex? She was no angel. There were other men. Enough to know that the mild responses she had with them didn’t compare to what she felt when he touched her. She was on fire in seconds, breathing hard and skin flushed with the blood pounding in her veins.
Rex had always been good at getting whatever he wanted from women. A slow smile, a well-choreographed touch—that was pretty much all it took to get them willing. They were always willing and sex was a pretty easy game to play.
This was different. Ellie was different and this didn’t feel like a game.
Pulling away, he looked down at her bruised lips and glazed eyes. He did that to her. He put that look in her eyes. It was an electric shock to his system. Snatching her up, he pushed the things on top of her desk away and set her on the top, stepping between her thighs.
With his mouth trailing little nips all down her neck and his hands working their way under her shirt, she struggled to find the breath to speak. When she did, the sound she made was somewhere between speech and moan. “The windows are open.”
His response was nothing more than a buzz of his lips against her collar bone. He didn’t think anyone would actually be able to see them unless they came up the walkway but the thought of getting caught added an edge to the moment that he liked. Sliding his hands up higher, he pulled her shirt quickly up and over her head. When her hands rushed to cover her exposed breasts, he pressed his chest against hers until she was reclined back on her elbows.
Ellie couldn’t stop a quick glance towards the windows. She was so far out of her comfort zone. But then Rex's lips were on her nipples, pulling just right and her mind shut down to everything but him. The neighbors could have stood outside clapping and she wouldn’t have cared.
Keeping her distracted with his mouth on her nipples, Rex lifted her just enough to slide her panties down and off. Hooking his foot in the rung of her desk chair, he pulled it behind him. All he could think about was getting his mouth on her.
Oh, dear God, was all she could think. He smoothly moved from her breasts to the junction of her thighs that she hadn’t had time to even pretend to protest. Her thighs rested on his wide shoulders and he sat down in her chair like a guest at the dinner table. The feel of his breath against her hot, moist skin was enough to have her squirming but it was the long, slow lick of his tongue that left her moaning.
He nuzzled at her clit with just the tip of his tongue, loving the way her legs tightened over his shoulders. There was something about her reaction to him that drove him crazy. His cock was so hard that every shift of his body put him dangerously close to the edge. He speared his tongue inside her in a mockery of what he was dying to do to her.
She tilted her head back and kept her eyes closed until he put his tongue inside her. It was an utter shock of pleasure that had her losing any remaining shyness so she could watch him taking her with his mouth.
Maybe it was the wickedness of being completely naked and having a fully dressed man making a meal out of her that sent her over the edge. Or maybe it was him watching her as she watched him. Her entire body spasmed when she came and her thighs locked around his head.
She tried to catch her breath. It was impossible. Every nerve ending was singing and her blood was pounding. She barely registered that he was standing. All her muscles were still contracting when he sheathed himself and slid his cock inside her slowly, carefully. His moan was the only thing that broke through the haze.
There had been moments, early on in his teen years, when he was overwhelmed by the feeling of being snugged inside of a hot and willing woman. He felt like that now. Her inner muscles were still clenching and releasing, so tight around him that he was grasping for control.
His eyes were so tightly shut and his mind so focused on keeping still inside her that he didn’t notice how she watched him. The way the muscle in his jaw twitched uncontrollably. The white tips of his fingers where they were digging into the meat of her thighs. The vein at his temple that throbbed with every beat of his heart. In that moment she finally understood what all the characters in her books knew: the power that a woman had over a man.
He was still visibly struggling for control. Ellie wrapped her arms around his neck, brought her mouth to his ear and whispered words that she never thought would come out of her mouth. “Fuck me, Rex. Now.”
“Jesus, Ellie.” The words were barely intelligible, growled through clenched teeth. She licked her way up his neck and he lost that last thread of control he was clinging to. He pounded into her, lost. In seconds she was tightening around him and biting his shoulder to smother her very vocal appreciation.
He came so hard that he felt lightheaded. Even after he was spent he couldn’t stop stroking in and out of her heat. Sweat dripped off his forehead onto her breasts and she chuckled breathlessly. It was contagious and he found himself smiling like a kid.
“There’s gotta be a bed in this place.”
Her eyes went wide and shot up to his. “Again?”
“Again.”
***
Hours later they were sitting on her bed, eating Chinese takeout straight out of the box and laughing about their obvious lack of chopstick skills. He pulled on his jeans to answer her door when the food had been delivered but hadn’t bothered to button them. She pulled the sheet around herself and let him take care of everything.
They went at each other like animals over and over again. She ached pleasantly, her hair was a tangled mess and because of the way he kept looking at her, she didn’t even care.
“This is completely crazy, you know that don’t you?”
She paused, food halfway to her mouth. “What?”
He leaned back against her padded headboard and stretched out, crossing his ankles. “Your father put mine in prison and the old man hasn't forgotten about it. Yet, here we are.”
It was true. Manny Pershing was the president of the Siouxan Brothers motorcycle club and as luck would have it, Xander Throne--Ellie's father--was the head of the Karthadossian Riders. The two clubs had been fighting each other for as long as any of their members could remember.
Ellie put the chopsticks down in the box and set it in her lap. Rex gave her the opening and she was taking it. “Do you really think my dad set yours up?” There was no censure in her tone, just curiosity. She had her suspicions about her dad and she wondered what his thoughts were on the matter.
“The old man is convinced of it.” Rex shrugged, taking a bite out of a crispy eggroll. He chewed slowly, mulling over what to say. “You sure you want to know what I think?”
Leaning back on her hands, she watched his face closely. She always thought she was a good judge of people, their moods, their little tells. Whatever Rex had to say, he was worried it would piss her off. “I’m sure.”
“Dad is plenty good at getting himself into trouble, but that mess—that wasn’t Manny being Manny. We both know what goes on in the background at the clubs. Even if you were sheltered from it more than I was, we both know that illegal shit goes on there. It’s petty shit though, small drug deals and gun sells. Nothing that would bring the Feds into play.” He stabbed at his box of food with the wooden sticks, weighing his next words carefully. “Yeah, I think your dad set him up. Xander has a rep for not being involved in the big drug trade, yet the club is making money hand over fist. I’m pretty sure that those drugs ran through the Karthadossian’s west side club long before my dad got caught up in that deal.”
Ellie nodded, staring down at her lap. She swallowed hard at the thought of what she was about to say. “I’m pretty sure that you’re right. Dad may have kept me sheltered from the worst of what goes on in his c
lub but people talk and I was the kind of kid who listened carefully without letting on that I was listening.”
Rex sat forward and tipped her chin up so that she was looking at him. “What do you know, Ellie?”
“You know how I feel about my dad. We’ve never gotten along. He has no problem using the people around him to get whatever it is that he wants. Including me.” Tears welled up in her eyes as the words tumbled from her lips.
Rex took her in his arms and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.“The secondary clubs that Xander picked up.” It made sense. A man like Xander would have no second thoughts about using his kid to get an upper hand against an enemy.
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