by Evelyn Glass
He spun into the pit and slowed down, scanning the area. It was dark, and the pit wasn’t lit. There was only the light of the moon to navigate from. Across the distance, he saw a camping lantern, probably electric, set on a pile of stones. He turned the bike toward it and drove slowly, moving across the packed dirt trails that had naturally been worn between one pit and another. He saw a form, leaning against the pile of rocks that was topped with the lantern, but he didn’t realize exactly what he was seeing until he was too close to really turn away.
Behind him, he felt Emma shift, looking around. He wanted to tell her not to look, but his throat was dry and tight. He knew the moment she realized what he’d seen. She gasped, then choked, and he prayed she wasn’t about to vomit down the back of his jacket. He would have understood if she had, but he didn’t want to deal with it. He wasn’t sure he’d keep his own stomach in place if that sensation were added to the mix.
He stopped the bike, planting his feet in the gravel. Emma didn’t wait. She launched herself off the bike, then stumbled, falling to her hands and knees as she vomited. There was a light breeze blowing, carrying the smell of blood and guts, and he fought to keep himself steady. He pushed off the bike, catching her long hair and pulling it out of her way as she heaved again.
The other bikes caught up to them soon enough, Connell in the lead. He cursed as soon as he realized what was going on, and then his big hand closed over Dean’s arm. He pulled Dean away from Emma. He wasn’t gentle, but he wasn’t cruel, either.
“Okay,” Connell said, his eyes gazing so intensely into Dean’s that his belly twisted with the need to look away and break the intrusive connection. “We tried this your way. Now we’re doing it mine. This is war, Dean. You feel me?”
“Yeah,” Dean replied. He’d known this would be coming from the very moment that he’d seen Fred’s body on the rocks, separated from Fred’s head by a good six inches. Whatever was going on — and he still didn’t have a clear read on what the hell was happening — they weren’t playing around. He needed to take this all very seriously. This wasn’t a game. His daughter’s life was in danger.
“What do we do?”
Connell shook his head. “What do I do. You and the Teach head into hiding at the safe house. Out of town. You know the one. You get her there, and you keep her safe, and you let me handle this fucking mess.” Dean started to protest, but before he even got a word out, Connell’s broad hand was resting on his sternum. “I got this, Dean. I promise. I know how much you love them. I’ll take care of it.”
What else was there to do? He helped Emma to her feet. One of the other members had been cleaning her up, giving her some water to rinse out her mouth, things like that.
“Come on,” he said. Tears had run through her makeup, but somehow her mascara was still holding strong. Her lipstick was gone, though, and her cheeks were badly flushed under the foundation she wore. “We’re going somewhere safe.”
Her eyes were glued to what was left of Fred Killian, and for a moment, he thought she was going to throw up again. Instead, she turned her head away, closing her eyes.
“I can’t look anymore,” she said, to him or to herself. He wasn’t entirely sure.
“That’s okay, baby,” he said. “That’s okay. I’m going to keep you safe, okay? We’re going to get out of here, and my friends are going to take care of us.”
“Yeah,” she replied. “Yeah, okay.” Her words were stumbling, and he wished more than anything they’d taken the Buick instead of the bike. But that wouldn’t have sent the right image. He hated it, all the same. Image hadn’t mattered, after all.
He got on his bike, let Emma slip back on behind him, and then put his bike back into gear. He steadfastly refused to think about what was going to happen if whoever was after them — it had to be the Scorpions because who the hell else would bother targeting a small time crook like him? — also knew where the club had their safe houses located.
He drove, and pushed it all out of his mind, focusing instead on the road ahead of him.
Chapter Twelve
Emma
By the time the world stopped in odd, disjointed little chunks, Emma was in the shower. It was nice in the shower. There weren’t any dead bodies there. The shower was vastly superior to everywhere else she’d ever been in her life, as long as there were no bodies.
The floor of the shower was under her butt. It took a minute to connect that thought with the one that was asking why her butt was cold. Her butt was cold because she was sitting on the tile floor of a shower. She looked around, blinking water out of her eyes. Not her shower. Someone else’s shower. This shower was substantially nicer than hers. But the water was cold. That was horrible.
She reached out behind her until she found the wall, and then felt around until she found the shower knobs. She fiddled with them for a few moments, and the cold stream of water coming down from the rainfall shower head changed to be much warmer. That was good. Being warm was better than being cold.
Being warm made her thoughts liquefy and she started remembering things. Like what it looked like when a head was disconnected from a body. Nothing but gore where the neck should be.
She felt the loose, hot urp crawling up from her belly, and bent forward, spattering stomach acid on the tile. There was nothing solid left to throw up. She’d tossed all of that on the gravel after she’d seen it for the first time.
She’d never known that person when they were alive. That ought to have made it easier. Somehow, it got harder. She didn’t like that, things being harder. She stuck her face back under the spray and tried to let it wash away the thoughts that were accumulating in her brain.
A quiet, polite tap on the bathroom door made her heart skip up into double time. Logically she knew the only person knocking on that door was Dean, but on this fucking day, she wasn’t sure she’d have been surprised if Elvis turned up. The door cracked open just enough to let his voice in, not his eyes or his body, and bless him for that — and she heard Dean’s voice. “Emma? It’s me. Do you need help with anything?”
“No,” she replied, then heard the quaver in her voice. “Wait, yes.”
He stepped into the room quickly, closing the door behind him. “What do you need?” His gaze was focused tightly on her face, even though she could feel the water dripping down her nipples and making trails down her belly.
“I don’t want to be alone.”
He nodded as if this were a perfectly logical request. “Do you want to be not alone with me out here, or not alone with me in there?”
She barely had to think about it. She needed him to fuck her senseless, fuck her until she could sleep without seeing that poor person’s bloated face. She chased the image away before she made herself sick. She let her fingers wander until she was tweaking her nipple, her gaze focused on him. He licked his lips, but he didn’t look down. “I want you to come in here with me.”
He had to clear his throat twice before he could speak. “And what do you want me to do, once I’m in there with you?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“I think so. But I want to hear you say it.”
She smiled, the water finally spreading some warmth past the surface layer of her skin. “I want you to fuck me. As hard as you want to.”
“Okay,” he said. He was out of his clothes and into the shower before she had time to reconsider. Which was, all things told, a beautiful choice on his part. He pressed her against the wall, catching her between the heat of his skin and the cold tiles behind her, and it felt amazing.
“How are you holding up?” he asked as he leaned over and ghosted his lips over her neck.
She curled her arms around his neck and let him take some of her weight. “Distracted,” she said. “Unfocused. It’s hard to think straight. I keep zigzagging.”
“I see,” he said. He leaned back just a little, his hand slipping between them. He didn’t hesitate, just pressed his fingers down through her curls and found her c
lit, trapping it almost delicately between his forefinger and middle finger. She sighed against him, spreading her thighs to give him better access. “Does this help you focus?”
“Yes,” she murmured, and he tugged at her clit with a gentleness that made her gasp again, rocking against him. Letting her hang on his neck, his other hand found her breast, teasing at her nipple and flicking it with his thumb. The rhythm was different, nothing she could focus on in either spot. It was perfect. No pressure, no urgency, just quiet, delicate teasing. His lips traced feather-light patterns on her neck, down her shoulders.
She could feel him hardening against her, but he didn’t seem to be concerned or worried at all. Merely taking his time, enjoying her soft, shifting movements.
It was a good feeling, light, freeing. No demands, no declarations. Calm, reassuring need.
Until it wasn’t anymore. Until it flipped over some odd boundary in her mind, and she was desperate, keening and shifting against his hand as she tried to get more contact, more pressure, something to intensify the delicate arousal that was twisting her belly up in knots. He groaned into her mouth, his fingers turning harsh and brutal on her nipple before he left her breast behind, taking his fingers down between her thighs and slipping first one, and then two fingers inside of her. She knew how slick and wet she was, how desperately she wanted him to drive her up into that tiled wall, her body aching and stretching around him at this angle. Her fingers, or his, finding her clit and taking her over the edge.
But there was absolutely no way he had a condom with him. Shit.
“You don’t—” He curled his fingers forward, hitting a sweet spot that made her body sing, and she cried out, her nails digging into the back of his neck. He let out a little hiss of air, but he didn’t stop. “Condom—” she managed to sputter out, before cursing as he found the rhythm he seemed to enjoy, pressing down on her clit and up on that spot in a firm but unhurried pattern that left her surging.
“Hush,” he said, kissing her neck again. “Let me take care of you.”
She let him take care of her as he filled her, his hands refusing to go fast, refusing to take her as far as she wanted to go. He surged and retreated, and she hooked a leg up and over his waist to give him better access.
“Good girl,” he murmured into her mouth again, and he shifted so that the length of his shaft was pressed up against her slit. She gasped, her eyes closing, her mouth wide open, as she felt the orgasm boiling up inside of her, rippling through her as she ground down onto the length of his cock, wishing he was inside of her, and grateful that he was “taking care of her” however he could. As her body pulsed, she sagged, her arms around his neck the only thing holding her up. He caught her around the waist and braced her weight, letting her sway in his arms.
After a moment, he turned off the water, wrapped her in a towel, and then lifted her into his arms. She was distantly surprised at how easily he picked her up. They were of similar heights, but she didn’t seem to weigh anything noticeable to him. That was delicious. He carried her into the bedroom and placed her down gently on sheets that felt fresh and clean. He started to step back, but his erection was still deliciously hard, and Emma reached out to him, grabbing his hip.
“Don’t go,” she said.
“You need some rest.”
“I need this,” she replied and propped herself up on her elbow so that she could guide his cock into her mouth.
He groaned with something that sounded perilously close to relief and shifted so that she could move more easily. His cock was big enough that she had to relax her jaw and bring her hand into play to come close to stroking his entire shaft. He sighed into the motion, resting one hand on the headboard of the bed, and one knee on the bed, giving himself a way to balance. He was salty and wet, delicious in her mouth, but she only managed to stroke him half a dozen times before he pulled away.
“Move over then,” he said, with a good-humored push. She slid sideways on the bed as he reached into a drawer, pulling out a condom and rolling it into place. She expected him to press down into her, driving her back into the bed and fuck her like he had before, but there was something different in his eyes this time. Instead, he relaxed on his back, his erection jutting up like an exclamation point, and raised an eyebrow.
She shivered just a little. There was something about the way he looked at her as if he already knew her inside and out. It was delicious, delectable, perfect. Straddling him was easy, comfortable. But it would be far too simple to just take him inside of her. No, the boy deserved some fun in return for all the torturing he’d been doing on her.
She slid up and down his length, teasing his shaft, like he had done to her. The condom would mute the sensation somewhat, she imagined, but he still bit his lip and shifted under her, striving to flip himself deep inside of her. On the third or fourth stroke, she let him, sinking him deep inside of her in one smooth movement. She gasped at the sensation. Earlier, when they’d fucked, she’d been so wet, and he’d still had to work himself inside of her slowly. This time, she opened easily and readily. He was seated deep inside of her, and she felt her body tense around him, stroking him even before she began to move.
She balanced with her hands on his thighs and rode him, gently at first, enjoying the feeling of her clit dragging along his shaft, the little flip as she reached the tip of him and almost let him slide out before she took him all the way inside again. His hands were resting on her upper thighs, massaging and murmuring little curses and declarations that she couldn’t quite hear. And then his thumbs found her clit. One high up, where her pussy lips joined together into her mons, and one down low, just above the place where she opened for him. His stroking of her was feverish, almost desperate. She started moving faster, watching his breathing and his eyes for how close he was. His lips were tight on his teeth, and his eyes kept closing as he fought to control himself.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “Fuck, fuck, fucking… yes… fucking yes…”
“Let me take care of you,” she said, catching his hands in hers. His eyes widened as she knotted their fingers together and gently pressed his hands down below his shoulders. She felt the flex in his arms and knew he could easily overpower her. It made his acceptance of her power that much more delightful. She leaned forward, getting a better angle, and she rode him. It took her out of the position she wanted most, but the low growl he gave told her that it was exactly what he wanted, and that was all right for now. His hips thrust up, hard and fast until the easiest thing was to move with him, letting him fuck her, even from here.
The moment when he came was nothing but exquisite. His eyes closed first, and his hips surged as his back arched. She rocked with him, holding him deep inside of her, feeling his pulsing cock wrapped up inside of her. For the first time in her life, she wondered what it would feel like to have this moment without latex between herself and her lover. To feel that pulse of arousal and completion deep inside of her, swirling like a transfer of energy between the two of them.
She didn’t realize he had been silent throughout his climax until he dropped back down to the bed, gasping and cursing like a sailor.
“Jesus,” he murmured.
She thought they’d be done, but he pressed up against her in one swift motion, rolling her onto her back. She gave way with a little squeak, laughing. He dropped himself down to her belly, kissing his way down to her curls.
“This okay?” he asked. Ten minutes before, she would have said no, but she nodded her yes as his teeth closed over her clit and she surged against him. His fingers filled her quickly, curling up and stroking that sweet spot as he licked her clit, pressing it delicately with the flat of his tongue before flicking at it and making her gasp. She pressed her hands up over her head, pushing against the headboard to keep from burying her fingers in her hair and fucking his face until she screamed. He kept moving in slow, steady turns. She was gasping, cursing, and desperate for completion, but it wasn’t quite enough.
He pulled
back just a little bit from her, his fingers still moving deep inside of her.
“Show me how you like it,” he said, his voice low and rough.
“Oh God,” she murmured, and she was too tired to argue or to feel embarrassed. She took two fingers and pressed them down onto her clit, firm and hard, a little higher than where he’d been. She moved faster than he had been, feeling a bright red blush flood her cheeks, and feeling the roiling pleasure begin to curl into a tight little ball in the pit of her stomach.
“Yeah, baby,” he whispered, pressing one quick, hard kiss to her fingers. She felt the beginning of the peak, and trusting her instincts, turned her fingers so that they were presented to him, glistening and soaking. He groaned with something that sounded like pure pleasure, and sucked them into his mouth, hard and fierce, as he curled his fingers hard inside of her and pulled.
