Intrepid: A Vigilantes Novel

by Lake, Keri

  “What makes you think you’re any different?”

  I shrugged and sat back, as the waitress I’d come to know as Ronnie set our plates down. An enormous cheeseburger, toppling with pickles and ketchup and mustard, took up most of the plate, leaving little room for the shoestring fries, crisped to perfection.

  “Anything else I can get you two?” Hands set on her hips, Ronnie shot Ty a wink I probably wasn’t supposed to catch.

  We both responded, “No.”

  Not wasting any time, I lifted the burger and bit into its messy goodness, my eyes rolling back at the explosion of flavor that danced inside my mouth.

  Ty lifted his burger as if to do the same, then lowered it, watching me with a cocked brow.

  “Sorry,” I said around a second bite. “I’ve been dying for a good burger. This is awesome.”

  I’d never been known for being a dainty eater, but half-starved made me downright graceless as I went to town on the burger. Lost to the mercy of my taste buds, I almost didn’t catch Ty staring at me the whole time, his tongue sweeping across his lips between bites. Self-consciousness had never been my thing, but the way he looked at me, I couldn’t tell if he wanted to eat me, or confiscate my food. The natural intensity of his eyes hit like a stun gun sometimes, rendering me paralyzed.

  Then he seemed to blink out of it.

  “If you pursued art, what would you do?” he asked, shoveling four fries at a time into his mouth.

  I set the quarter of the burger I’d literally tried forcing myself to finish onto the plate of half-eaten fries. “I guess that’s the problem when you simply love something. Sometimes, you don’t have a plan.” Sitting forward, I sipped the last of my soda, drawing up the final bits of whipped cream with an obnoxious gurgle, and washed down my food.

  “So, when do I get to see this art?”

  Good question. I hadn’t drawn much of anything in the last few weeks, for which I blamed school. Sitting for hours in classes I couldn’t have given a damn about killed my inspiration, and not even the erotic books, or porn, could coax me into sketching. “As soon as I get my mojo back I guess.”

  “What happened to it?” He popped the last of his burger into his mouth, and my eyes zeroed in on his jaw, the smooth lines and muscles flexing with every chew. Mesmerizing. “Thought art was sex for you.”

  “It is. And I’ve been deprived for way too long.” Stabbing the cherry, I lifted it from the bottom of my glass and sucked it clean as it dangled from the end of the straw. I popped it into my mouth, looking up to see Ty’s eyes, riveted on the act, and his Adam’s apple bobbed with a swallow.

  Clearing my throat, I set the straw inside the glass and sat back on the seat. “I like cherries,” I said sheepishly, wondering if he felt as though he’d taken a toddler out for dinner.

  “Yeah.” Head kicked to the side, he kept his eyes on me. “Hey, Ronnie!” he called to the waitress, who sat scrolling through her phone at the end of the bar. “I’ll take our check.”

  * * *

  Dragging me by the arm, Ty led me across Beaufait, to his bike parked at the curb. He didn’t bother to look back at me as he handed me the black helmet and climbed onto the bike. Confusion spun through my head like a record skipping on a turntable, replaying the last few things I’d said to him inside the restaurant.

  My irrational side had convinced the rational half that he’d gotten turned off by watching me eat the burger, and if that was the case, to hell with him. I wasn’t one of those prissy birds who pretended not eat because she didn’t want to admit that a big fat juicy burger tasted pretty damn good, sometimes. Annoyed, I climbed onto the back and half-heartedly wrapped my arms around him.

  Ty fired up the bike, and we took off down the street, into the shadowy neighborhoods of the east side—places I did my best to avoid whenever possible.

  So stupid.

  Much as I tried to distract myself with the scary ass block we’d driven through, I couldn’t let the restaurant thing go. It just seemed petty to me.

  Unless, of course, it had nothing to do with anything I’d said, or did. After all, he’d been anxious from the get-go about something.

  My head didn’t have a chance to settle, before Ty made a sharp turn into the cracked parking lot of a fire-gutted strip mall, and a whole new question mark popped in my head.

  What the hell?

  I sat up on the seat, as he rolled the bike to a stop, suddenly wondering if he planned to drop me off there.

  The moment he cut the engine, he slid from the bike, hands rubbing his skull while he paced. I could see the tight clench of his jaw, the pissed off angle of his brow, and hell if my pulse didn’t kick up another notch.

  “Fuck!” he growled, still pacing beside me.

  I tugged off the helmet, seriously clueless as to what the heck was bothering him, had been bothering him since he’d picked me up from Jo’s. “You wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

  His bitter laugh only added to the confusion, and he came to a stop, standing akimbo. He sniffed and swiped arm across his nose, his nostrils flared with angry breaths.

  Before I could ask if I was the source of his anger, he broke from his stance.

  “Fuck it,” he grumbled, striding toward me. “I’m going to hell, anyway.”

  He hopped onto the bike, facing me instead of the front, and yanked me toward him, setting my aching core to his bulge and my legs straddling his thighs. His dark gaze traveled over my body, swallowing it up into some unseen fantasy behind his eyes that had him licking his lips.

  One hand latched onto his shoulder, I braced myself on his thigh, as I leaned in to kiss him, grinding against his lap.

  Tongue spearing my lips, he slid his hands up the hem of my shirt, and peeled back my bra beneath. Both thumbs brushed over my nipples, and I moaned into his mouth, arching toward him.

  When that didn’t seem to be enough for him, he skated his hands down to the waistband of my jeans, and unzipped them, tugging down the denim until it hugged low on my hips. Had it been anyone else, I’d have yanked them back up and demanded to be taken home, banishing the asshole from my contact list. After all, I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea of being put on display. Public sex just wasn’t my jam. Ty made me want to break the rules, though, and even if I was a damn fool for it, a small part of me trusted him. It wasn’t about him taking advantage of me, or conquering me, a bid for power, like Dane. With Ty, it was about letting go. He made me want to venture into the obscure corner of my mind and take a look around. To leap into a dark chasm of unknowns. I could be someone else with him—wild and crazy and carefree, like my mother, without the burden of expectation and appearances. I could be passionate and ravenous, seizing every moment as if it were my last.

  Knuckles running over my already soaked panties, he kissed me harder. Angrier. As if eager to suck the air out of my lungs while drinking his fill of me. His kiss moved through me, the entire weight of his desperation bearing down on my lips. An exasperated breath blasted from his nose, and his groan vibrated across my teeth.

  “Why do you have to be so wet? And so fucking soft?” His voice skated halfway between pissed off and frantic, the sound of it only heightening my lust.

  “You make me this way.” I slid my hand higher into his hair, gathering what little of his trimmed cut I could clutch in my fist, as he pushed my panties aside for the bare flesh beneath. Fingers caressing my slippery seam, he pressed his forehead to mine, and palmed the back of my skull.

  “What are you doing to me, Sera?” The sharp sting at my crown added a painful buzz, while his fist tightened around my hair. He didn’t give me a chance to answer the question, before plunging two fingers inside of me, the invasion rough with the angle of his hand and the bike, until he yanked down my jeans farther, just enough for a smooth slide.

  I tipped my head back and closed my eyes, as a shaky breath blasted through my parted lips. Cool air mingled with the heat rolling off my skin, and the danger of our surroundin
gs kept my muscles on a tight coil of anxiety, only adding to my arousal.

  Ty sucked my bottom lip, dragging it between his teeth, while his fingers pumped in and out in long, agonizingly slow glides. Each time he withdrew, the sounds of my arousal admitted how much wetter I’d gotten.

  “I thought … I said something wrong back there.”

  “You want to know what’s wrong?” The husky growl in his voice, and the masculine heat pouring off his body, shot lust bullets to my core. “Watching you eat that cherry made me wonder how it’d taste if I sucked it from inside you.”

  I didn’t even know if that’d be physically possible, but coupled with the work of his fingers, the visual of it put me one step closer to the edge of climax.

  “You like to tease me, Sera? Huh?” He plunged again, curving those weapons of pleasure higher inside of me. “’S’at how you get off?”

  I circled my hips against him, wishing I could reach down and grab hold of his cock, but the angle of the bike put me at a disadvantage—and him at a massive advantage over me. At my nod, his jaw ticced, and he plunged again, deeper than before.

  A moan leaked past my lips, my legs helplessly dangling at either side of him, while his fingers drove me closer to the edge.

  “Why? I try to be a nice guy, and you push me.” His hand slid up under my shirt, to my still-exposed nipple beneath, the pad of his thumb caressing in maddening little circles. “You drive me so fucking crazy.”

  “Is this … your mean side, then?” The sharp clench of my stomach and thighs, as I tried to hold it together, interrupted my breaths.

  “It gets more fucked up than this. You shouldn’t tempt me the way you do.” Palming my breast, he rested his head against mine, and tugged at my nipple, adding a bite of pain to the pleasure his fingers had worked up.

  “Then, you shouldn’t … ah, God!” The cresting orgasm had me arching my back, clawing at his thigh. I mindlessly circled my hips, unable to sit still, as each penetrating drive seized command of my muscles. “Shouldn’t make it … feel so damn good!”

  “I should stop, then?”

  “No! Please!” The sound that flew from my lungs was a cross between a mewling kitten and a braying donkey, as I sucked in a breath. Completely unattractive, but totally out of my control. I didn’t know why I wanted him to keep touching me, with my jeans half pulled down my ass, out in the open where some gang probably watched from the shadows, waiting to ambush us, but that was the thing about Ty. He made scary moments exhilarating. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop!”

  Faster and faster he pumped, my juices leaking into my jeans, soaking his fingers. I clamped my eyes closed, stomach tight, tighter—oh, fuck, tighter. My thighs trembled, trying to hold off what was determined to pull me under. I clawed and trembled, fighting to stay afloat, as liquid pleasure rushed through my veins at a dizzying pace.

  “I could fuck you like this, Sera. Right here in this parking lot.” He licked my throat and gave a tug of my nipple that sent me over the edge.

  With an upward thrust of my hips, I screwed my eyes shut to the blinding explosion shooting up my spine. “Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God!”

  My body shuddered against him, as he continued to finger me, holding my swollen nipple captive in a tight pinch.

  A glistening layer of my arousal coated his fingers when he finally withdrew them, the urge to come a second time vibrating my thighs as I watched him shove two into his mouth.

  Trembling and weak, I sat forward, and Ty wrapped his arms around me, squeezing the breath out of me, as he pulled me in for a kiss.

  His hand moved to the small of my back, seating me against his bulge, and I reached down to return the favor for him, but stopped short when his hand covered mine. “I should get you home,” he whispered.

  I’d have ignored that and kept on, if he hadn’t shoved my hand off of him altogether and pushed to stand alongside the bike, before turning his back to me again.

  Heat flared across my cheeks, the needling pangs of embarrassment churning the greasy burger in my stomach. I didn’t bother to say a word as I fastened my jeans and pulled the helmet over my head.

  My mind fought to convince me that the whole experience of being finger-fucked in some dark and empty parking lot beside a fire-gutted storefront wasn’t even close to being sleazy. After all, he was the one who’d gotten me off. And Johns didn’t typically set out to satisfy whores. Still, I couldn’t help feeling cheap. Like he’d only done it for my benefit, to appease the scarred little horny girl.

  By the time we rolled up in front of my apartment, I couldn’t even look at him while handing off the helmet.

  His finger hooked beneath my chin, and he slanted his lips over mine, but his kiss felt hasty and impatient.

  “Good night, Sera.” Unlike last time, he didn’t even wait for me to get to the door before he revved his bike and took off.

  As though he couldn’t stand to be around me any longer.

  23

  Ty

  I tipped back the fifth of whiskey, while the hot sprays of the shower pounded against my back in the same massaging rhythm as the strokes along my shaft. Pressing my forehead to the cold tiles, I screwed my eyes shut, the memories taking me back to earlier in the night, when I’d been knuckle-deep inside Sera’s tight pussy. Spread out across my bike, she’d embodied every fantasy of what I’d imagined sex with her might be like. Wild. Uninhibited. Perfect as the wet heat that’d welcomed my fingers.

  Drink clutched in my free hand, I pounded out a night’s worth of frustrations that’d ended when I’d dropped her off and had to force myself to leave, just to avoid hauling her up to that apartment and fucking her until she couldn’t remember her own name—only mine, like a constant chant in her head, over and over again.

  The look on her face when she’d finally come had to be the single most agonizing thing I’d ever seen. Painfully beautiful to watch. Like the nights I’d fallen asleep on the roof and awoken to the indescribable awe of the sun rising up over Detroit. I’d wanted to bottle that shit up and drink it, revel in the high of watching her orgasm, until I’d be so fucking drunk on it, I wouldn’t be able to see straight.

  But the circumstances between us had become a joke.

  She was the daughter of my enemy.

  Things had already been set in motion, and even if I could walk away from it, there’d be consequences. Not just for me, but for Sera, too. I wouldn’t subject her to that.

  Yet, with every stroke, my dick battled my thoughts.

  I wanted her. Goddamn, I wanted her so bad, I could feel my resolve slipping. Like a powerful magnet fucking up my hard drive every time she came near me.

  The water pulsed across my skin, heat swirling, making me dizzy with the buzz of the alcohol swimming through my veins. The things I wanted to do to her were dirty and vile, but so goddamn thrilling at the same time.

  I was already on God’s shit list, so why not sweeten the ride to hell?

  Squeezing my cock, I pumped faster. My breaths turned staccato as my mind took me to those last few minutes with her body sprawled out on my bike, like a buffet just waiting to be consumed. Each stroke matched the thrust of my fingers inside of her, as if I could even fathom how good it’d feel to have her pussy wrapped tight around my shaft.

  It wasn’t enough. I wanted to be buried inside of her, those toned thighs hooked around my back, nails tearing into my skin.

  The pleasure clashed with the pain of wanting the very thing I couldn’t have, until jolts of lightning crashed behind my eyes, and my orgasm exploded into my palm. I grunted, rolling my head against the tiles with the final pumps that ejected the last of my load, and I imagined it jetting all over her tits and stomach.

  As my breaths slowed, muscles turning soft, weak, I opened my eyes, staring down at the swirling water.

  A terrifying reality settled over me as my body hardened again.

  I wouldn’t be satisfied until I’d had one taste of Sera.

  I tipped
back the bottle, letting the burn of the alcohol talk me into what was becoming out of my control. Whether I wanted to, or not, I was going to see her again.

  24

  Sera

  I’d pretty much given up on Ty, when he hadn’t bothered to call since the weekend, or show up at Mama D’s on Tuesday. Much as it hurt and embarrassed the shit out of me, I’d resigned myself to the idea that maybe he just wasn’t as into me as I’d thought. So I couldn’t help but frown when a text popped up in the middle of my Research Methods class.

  TY: What are you doing right now?

  ME: Trying to pay attention in class

  TY: Have you thought about me, Sera?

  I glanced around at the other students, whose heads remained buried in notebooks as they scribbled away, and I lowered the phone to my lap, tucking it beneath the opened book in front of me.

  ME: Does it matter?

  ME: You apparently haven’t thought about me much

  TY: You’re wrong

  TY: I haven’t stopped thinking about you

  TY: Sprawled out on my bike

  TY: The look on your face when you came

  A shiver spiraled down my spine, but I’d already told myself not to get roped in again. I’d already convinced myself the guy had a thing for games, and I had no time for that.

  ME: Well, I hope you took a picture

  TY: You don’t want to see me again?

  Of course I did. The slippery glide of my satin panties couldn’t hide that fact. The truth was, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him, either, but being with him was like riding a roller coaster in pitch-blackness. Sure, it was exciting, as long as it didn’t throw me off somewhere along the way.