Downfall

by Jay Crownover

  I tightened my hold on the steering wheel as a woman in an incredibly revealing outfit suddenly darted across the street in front of me. I gasped a little and slammed on the brakes, getting a middle finger flashed my way as she continued to run across the road.

  Shaking my head in disbelief, it took me a minute to get my brain back to the question Solo asked. “She’s having an impromptu slumber party with Riley. I wasn’t sure where you were, so I didn’t want to drag her out of bed and across town in case I got lost. Erica didn’t mind watching her for the rest of the night.”

  He made a low noise and let his gaze drift shut once again. “Figures. Finally have you to myself and a free night without the possibility of an interruption and I can barely move.” He grunted and winced as he shifted around in the passenger seat. “Hey, Orley… I wanna ask you a question. You don’t have to answer right away because I think I already figured some things out. I want you to know, your answer won’t change anything between us, whatever it is.”

  My shoulders locked and a shiver danced down my spine. I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye but didn’t say anything, even when he muttered, “Is your last name Vincent, by any chance? And do you happen to be related to a man named Channing Vincent?”

  I almost drove the car up onto the sidewalk I was so shocked. Solo let out a long string of swear words as the car swerved dramatically across the road and he was tossed toward the door. I was lucky it was the middle of the night, otherwise I would’ve taken out pedestrians and other cars.

  Struggling to catch my breath, I looked at the man next to me who was staring at me with a patient, knowing gaze. He snorted and closed his eyes again. “I don’t know the whole story. I hope you trust me enough to fill me in eventually. But even without hearing what you have to say, I can tell you I know why you left and why you don’t want to be found. The guy is cunning and vicious. He set me up, even though I always thought I was too smart to fall for a ploy like his. I think it’s twice as scary when the monsters are arrogant enough to hide in plain sight. I swear on my mother, I will die before I let that asshole get anywhere near you and Noble.”

  His warm hand reached out and caught mine, squeezing it tightly. I found the roughness comforting and the strength in his grip completely reassuring. I wanted to tell him that Channing Vincent wasn’t above murder, that the man who I always called father was capable of outrageous acts of violence and brutality, but the words didn’t come. Instead, I simply nodded and whispered, “He doesn’t want me, but he will go through whoever gets in his way to get at my kid. It’s late, and you need to take care of those ribs. The conversation about how messed up my family is can wait.” I was secretly hoping it could wait forever, but now that Solo knew my last name, it was better I filled in the gaps for him rather than him wading through all the garbage information my father had paid through the nose to pump out through the media.

  Solo sighed and squeezed my fingers again. “Are you offering to play nurse for me?” He wiggled his eyebrows under the brim of his hat. “I don’t think anyone has patched me up after a fight since my mom put me back together whenever I got into fights after school.”

  It took me a little while to find a parking spot that wasn’t too far from the apartment building. Solo was putting on a brave face, but I could tell he was hurting. I wanted to ask about the other guy, but it felt like if I had too much information about what he did in the middle of the night in the warehouse district, I was accepting this kind of thing as my new normal. I shouldn’t be crushing on a guy who beat up other people for money. I shouldn’t have a slippery, squishy feeling all around my heart when I thought about him getting hurt and the fact he had to hurt other people in order to take care of his mother.

  When I finally found a spot, it took Solo several long, drawn-out minutes to haul himself out of the car; it took us a lot longer to walk to the front of the building than it should’ve. For once, I wasn’t scanning every alley and jumping at every noise from the shadows. I wasn’t terrified of the dark when I was next to Solo. But, I was scared for him, especially when he suddenly wrapped a heavy arm around my shoulders and leaned his weight against me. He was heavy, and his breathing didn’t sound good. I instinctively wrapped my arm around his lean waist and tried my best to support him.

  We both stopped briefly when we got to the front steps of the building. For the first time since I’d moved in, Lester’s ragged, rumpled form wasn’t sprawled out across the bottom step. The entire stairway was empty. Thinking back, I hadn’t had to step over the homeless man when I rushed out to pick up Solo, either.

  “Lester is always on the steps. I wonder where he got off to.” I absently commented on the missing man and felt Solo stiffen where his strong, solid frame was pressed against mine. I was glad I was tall. He would’ve taken out a smaller woman when he suddenly jerked to a stop.

  “Was he here earlier?” Solo’s tone was sharp under the hitch of pain.

  I shook my head and winced as he groaned after taking the first few steps to the front door. “No. I ran down the steps on the way to the car. He wasn’t there.”

  Solo swore again and let me brace him with my hip as I pulled open the door. “Not good. Lester always finds his way back to the stoop. I hope nothing bad happened to him.”

  I silently agreed and shot dirty looks at the broken elevator as I helped Solo climb the agonizing five flights of stairs to his apartment. We were both sweating up a storm and grumpy as hell by the time I finally got him into his bathroom and helped him strip down so he could climb into the shower. I tried to keep my expression neutral and even, but there was a lot to take in once the man was standing naked in front of me.

  I was a mom, so I should’ve been able to objectively check out his injuries without getting distracted by all the other goods, but it would be a total lie if I said I didn’t check him out from head to toe as he practically fell into the shower. He was tattooed and built in a way that practically meant it was required I ogle him when he was naked. I checked him out thoroughly on behalf of all the women who would kill to be in my shoes.

  It really was a shame we had the night to ourselves but he was too battered to do anything about it. Under the ink crawling up and down his ribcage, I could see ugly black and purple bruises spreading from his armpit all the way to the top of his waist. He also had a very distinct bruise in the center of his chest that looked like the perfect impression of the sole of a boot. In the light, I could see he had bright red marks all along his jaw and another bruise shadowing his high cheekbone. He looked like hell, but he was standing under his own power and managing to wash himself with one hand.

  Collecting his clothes off the floor, I found a hamper to toss them in and went in search of an ACE bandage so I could help him wrap those nasty looking ribs. When I got back to the bathroom, Solo was awkwardly trying to pull up a pair of nylon track pants with one hand. The sight made my mouth go dry, and when I reached out to help him get situated, the feel of all that damp, tattooed skin under my fingertips was enough to make my brain temporarily short circuit. Our timing was always just a little bit off and it was really starting to suck.

  He stood still as he instructed me on the best way to wrap the bandage around his torso. It made my heart hurt that he treated the entire ordeal like it was nothing new. He shouldn’t know how to treat broken ribs like it was nothing, and I was slightly bitter about the fact that I now also had this knowledge.

  Solo was slightly unsteady on his feet, so I helped him to his bed and found the mix of Tylenol and Ibuprofen he asked for in his tiny medicine cabinet. He popped the handful of pills without water and shuddered when they went down. He threw the arm on his less injured side over his eyes and sighed heavily. It was easy to see that today, and maybe all of his very busy, very hectic days, had finally caught up with him. He was ready to crash. It was like watching a very fast, expensive car run out of gas.

  “Do you need anything before I leave?” I hated to take off when he was in
such obvious pain, but he hadn’t asked me to stay and I didn’t want to overstep those tricky, invisible boundaries we were always tripping over. Plus, now that he knew my last name, there was a very small part of my paranoid brain worried he wouldn’t want anything to do with me. It was one thing to be scared of monsters. It was an entirely different thing to know the woman you lived next to, the one you touched, and tasted, and cared for, came from those beasts you had battled.

  Solo moved his arm and squinted up at me. Without his hat and his usual sardonic, remote expression, he looked so much more vulnerable… and human. At some point I’d started to see him as someone so much larger than life. Right now, he simply looked like a man. A tired, beaten, resigned man.

  I let out a little gasp when his hand shot out and latched onto my wrist. All it took was a tiny tug for him to pull me down to the mattress next to him. He grunted a little when the bed shifted under my weight but curled his arm around me to hold me in place as he dropped a kiss on the top of my head.

  “Not how I envisioned getting you into my bed for the first time. But it will have to do for now.” His eyes closed and he gave me a little squeeze as I rested my head on his bare shoulder. “You’re the only thing I need, Orley. I need to know you’re safe. That you’re okay. That you trust me enough to let me help you.”

  I sighed and carefully threw my arm around his toned stomach. I made sure to keep my touch light so I didn’t hurt him any worse than he already was. “You’re wrong. I think you need sleep more than you need me.” Or the truth. But I didn’t say that.

  He yawned and nuzzled his nose against the top of my head. Between one breath and the next he was out. His breathing evened, his body loosened… except for where he held me next to him.

  Even in his utterly exhausted state, and even though he knew my last name, it seemed like Solomon Sanders had no intention of letting me go.

  Solo

  Pain pulled me out of a fitful sleep, but it was the warm, soft body curled against mine that woke me up. All of me. A few hours ago, getting a hard-on was the furthest thing from my mind. Now, the rigid length between my legs was the only thing I could think about, even though my entire left side felt like it was on fire. Every single breath hurt, and the slightest movement made me blink away tears of agony. This was far from my first time dealing with busted ribs, but it never got any easier or less painful.

  Orley was still wrapped around me. She didn’t move throughout the night. Not once did she jostle or bump into any of my broken, bruised parts. Her arm stayed low around my waist and the long leg she had hitched across my thighs never moved close to anything it might damage. Her hair was a silky mess spread across my chest, with single strands catching on the scruff scattered across my chin. I rarely shared a bed with anyone overnight. I was typically too busy to stick around after the fun, and I didn’t like my strictly planned schedule interrupted when I had someone else in my space. Orley wasn’t like that at all. Somehow, without being aware of it, I’d made room just for her in my life. Having her in my space didn’t feel like an imposition at all. It felt like it was meant to be.

  I slid a hand across the curve of her hip and along the smooth line of her thigh. My eyebrows shot up when I got a handful of velvety soft, naked skin. I could’ve sworn when we went to bed she’d had on those black leggings she seemed to live in, but now all she had on was a long t-shirt, hiked up to her waist, and a pair of cute, pink panties that barely covered her. Those long ass legs of hers were free of both the covers and any pants. It was enough to remind me she was going to get up soon and go get her kid. We were also going to have to have a talk about the man who set me up and sent her on the run, but none of that felt like it mattered as much as taking advantage of the fact we had a few stolen moments together. I wasn’t exactly up to acrobatics and stunts, but feeling her pressed against me the way she was, suddenly made the pain radiating along my side much more bearable.

  Orley was still asleep when I dragged my hand up her side, knuckles brushing her ribcage. I took the fabric of her t-shirt with me and traced the subtle curves of her body. Her bright blue eyes popped open in alarm when I got the gathered material to her neck. She made a surprised little noise, but cooperated by ducking down when I tugged the cotton over her head. Her red hair floated around her face like a ring of fire, and she watched me with wide eyes as I caught the side of her face with my palm and tilted her head so I could drop my mouth over hers. The kiss was hesitant at first, tentative and soft. It was obvious she was worried about inadvertently hurting me; I could barely feel the touch of her palms on my shoulders when she shifted her hold on me as I started to thoroughly devour her.

  We weren’t going to be interrupted this time. Right now, she was still the girl next door who needed someone to look out for her, the only girl in years who’d interested me enough to make time for. There were no little eyes and ears to hide from. This was an opportunity I refused to let slip by, even if it meant my body felt like it was being turned inside out. Pain was just as sharp and prevalent under my skin as the pleasure.

  Slowly, she started to kiss me back. I felt some of the rigid tension leave her shoulders, and her lips and tongue started to give under the insistent pressure of mine. One of her arms wrapped around my neck, and the other slid across my abs, careful of the bandage still tightly wrapped around my middle. She traced the outline of my belly button with the tip of her fingernail, and the little scratch against my skin caused my dick to throb against the nylon material of my pants. There was no hiding how deeply, and quickly, I reacted to her touch. My entire body felt like it was humming with anticipation. There was a buzz vibrating along all my nerve endings, making the acute pain firing along my entire left side a dull echo against everything else she was causing me to feel.

  Orley pulled back slightly, eyes wide as she took in every feature on my face, obviously searching for signs of pain and discomfort. “What about your ribs?” One of her hands lightly drifted over the beige bandage strapped around my middle.

  I lifted an eyebrow and dropped a haphazard kiss on the very tip of her nose and tugged her closer. I sighed in contentment when I felt the sweet drag of her breasts across my bare skin. “Well, you owe me one, remember? You’re going to have to do all the work this time.” I wiggled my eyebrows and smirked at her. “But that means I’ll owe you one back.” If we could keep going like that forever, I would have no complaints.

  She studied me for a long, quiet moment. She was obviously weighing the likelihood of us getting another free moment like this against how badly I was injured. The small window of free, uninterrupted time apparently won out, because a moment later she was the one kissing me with delicate aggression, and her toned leg hitched across my thigh moved so it was rubbing against the erection straining to get free from my track pants. I hissed at the sensual contact and let my teeth sink into her lower lip. The kiss went from careful to consuming in under a second. Teeth clashed, tongues twisted, and every single place we touched felt like it was electrified.

  I felt her hands shake a little as she helped me slide my pants down my waist. I couldn’t heft my weight up off the bed like I normally would, so I got the pleasurable sensation of feeling her hands ghosting over my hips and down my legs. She was the only woman, other than the one who raised me, who had helped me dress and undress because I couldn’t do it myself. That kind of care, the simple act of her being there when I needed someone, was enough for warmth to unfurl slow and steady in my gut. She wasn’t a woman who was easy or convenient, but the more time I spent trying to figure her out, the more I realized I would fight anything in the world that tried to get between us… including the lack of time we had to be with one another.

  Orley looked up at me from under her long lashes as she slowly crawled her way back up my body. The light brush of her fingertips against the inside of my thighs made my entire body shudder; the heat from her gaze made my cock kick in reaction as she zeroed in on the one part of me oblivious to the dull pa
in still curling around my insides. My dick didn’t give two shits about broken ribs. All it could focus on was the way her lips were damp from her tongue darting out to wet them, and the kiss of her warm breath as her head lowered closer to the slippery, leaking tip.

  I nearly bolted upright into a sitting position when her tongue suddenly danced across the rounded head, the tip skating across the weeping slit with a little flick that made me see stars. I wrapped my hands in her long hair and blew out a long breath, reminding myself if I moved wrong, this would all be over before it even got started. It took every ounce of self-control I possessed to stay mostly still as she tilted her head and opened her mouth so she could swallow almost the entire length of my throbbing erection. What she couldn’t fit in the warm, wet cavern of her mouth, she wrapped her hands around, starting a torturous rhythm of stroking and sucking that turned my blood to lava and made every muscle in my body tense. My ribs protested… loudly. But, the rest of me felt so good and was so caught up in the way Orley was equal parts confident and hesitant as she took me apart, the complaint was easy enough to ignore.

  I moaned in approval as she hummed around the unyielding flesh in her mouth. Her touch was remarkably gentle as she learned every inch, every pulse, every quiver of pleasure. Even as delicately as she was handling me, the sensation of her fingers learning my most vulnerable and sensitive spots was going to be forever branded in my memory. It felt so much better having a woman who cared touch me like I was special than it did to have a stranger’s hands crawling all over me, desperate and impatient. Orley was mindful of my currently broken body, but she was still aware of the way I ached for intimacy and the connection we shared.

  Her tongue licked and twirled with remarkable skill around the crown and down along the veiny length of the underside. When her lips touched the curl of her fingers, I gasped and pulled on her hair probably harder than I needed to. My hips lifted of their own volition, following the drag and pull of her mouth, but an instant later I regretted losing control. White hot agony blazed from my shoulder all the way down to my knee, and when I moaned this time, it wasn’t in pleasure.