by April Lust
“He’s going to kill me,” I said softly. “He’s not going to let me live after leaving him like that.”
“He’s not gonna kill you,” Charlie said. He snorted. “Jack talks a tough game, but he ain’t a bad man.”
“Are you kidding?” I twisted against the seat belt. “He’d spent almost every day of the last few years beating me! He doesn’t give a shit about me!”
Charlie shifted. “That’s how men like Jack show they’re yours,” he said. “That’s how bikers are, honey. If you didn’t wanna be treated like that, you shouldn’t have started shacking up with someone like him!”
“Forgive me,” I spat back. “I was only fucking fourteen when we met! I didn’t know that he’d wind up being so damn abusive! He promised me the world!”
Charlie coughed and spat out the window, pushing us farther away from safety with each passing moment.
I swallowed hard. I was racking my brain, trying to think of something to do, when a memory slammed into my skull with more force than a semi-truck. Back when Jack first started hitting me, I was always able to get him to stop if I promised to get on my knees and suck his dick.
I hadn’t enjoyed it, but it had come in handy. Slowly, I reached over and put my hand on Charlie’s lap. His thigh was muscular and strong, and my hand barely covered any ground as I slowly moved it toward his crotch. I could feel his flaccid cock and I rubbed my fingers over it, moaning slightly. Charlie flexed and shifted under my touch. He ground against my hand, then shoved his hips back against the seat.
“What the fuck are you doing,” Charlie hissed. “I’m trying to drive, for fuck’s sake!”
“Pull over,” I said softly. “Pull over and let me do something nice for you, Charlie. Then we can talk about all of this.” I held my breath as I moved my hand over Charlie’s crotch again, rubbing the bulge between his legs.
“Stop,” Charlie growled. His voice was throaty and deep and a shiver of arousal went soaring through my body as I felt his cock begin to stiffen beneath my hand. “Stop it,” Charlie repeated. He closed his eyes.
I rubbed him harder, fondling his cock through the stiff denim. When he was rock hard, I began sliding my fingers up and down the shaft, caressing him as thoroughly as I could. My wrist ached after a second, but I noticed he didn’t pull away.
“Stop it!” Charlie growled. He shivered and bucked in his seat. The car swerved to the side and I shrieked, thinking we were flying off the road. But instead Charlie slowed the car to a stop and I realized we were back on the shoulder.
“Why, Charlie?” I turned to him with what I hoped was a sultry pout on my face. “Why do you want me to stop?” I made my eyes wide and stared up at him, trying to imagine that he was Jack. This always used to work, I thought. This always used to make Jack stop what he was doing and relax in the pleasure. Men are all the same – they’re simple creatures. They’re hardwired for pleasure like this. They just want some woman to take care of them, that’s all. They just want to be doted on.
“This isn’t right,” Charlie growled. His face was red and flushed and as I continued to stroke his erection, I noticed his jaw was twitching. “Stop it,” Charlie said. He didn’t sound as forceful as before. When he tried to push my hand away, I reached over with my free hand and held his arm in place.
“Charlie,” I cooed. “Come on, this could be different. You don’t have to take me back to Jack. You could let me out right here, and everything would be fine. Just let me pleasure you, let me help you cum, and—”
“No,” Charlie said sharply. He finally pushed my hand away – it was stinging from the feel of the rough denim against the sensitive skin of my palm. “No, I can’t let you do that,” he growled. “I have to take you back. That’s my fuckin’ job.”
“But you don’t really have to,” I said softly. When I realized he wasn’t going to push me away again, I reached over and began stroking his still-erect cock. I didn’t want to admit it, but touching Charlie like this was starting to turn me on.
“Stop,” Charlie groaned. He closed his eyes and threw his head back. “Nicolette, stop it. This is crazy – it’s fucking insane! You can’t manipulate me like this!”
“I’m not manipulating you,” I said sweetly. “I’m just trying to work out an arrangement that benefits both of us, don’t you see that?” I rubbed Charlie’s cock softly with my fingers. “I just want to make you feel good, and I want you to do something for me. You don’t even have to tell Jack! Just tell him you couldn’t find me in Durango, that you think I went somewhere else.”
Charlie made a sound in the back of his throat and his eyes rolled back in his head. “God,” he groaned. “Nicolette, stop!”
“No,” I purred, reaching over with my free hand and stroking his chest. “You’re so big and strong,” I said softly. “Don’t you want to help me, Charlie? Don’t you want to do the right thing?”
He didn’t reply.
I trailed my hand down his muscular chest, feeling his abdominal muscles through the thin fabric of his T-shirt. “Charlie,” I purred softly. “If you don’t help me, I’m going to run away again. I’ll have the baby and abandon it. I’ll drop it off at the hospital, and then it’s going to grow up alone, just like you did. Don’t you want the baby to have a family?”
He was silent.
I continued rubbing him sensually and leaned closer so my lips were inches away from his ear. “Charlie, you could do the right thing,” I repeated softly, sticking out my tongue and licking his earlobe. He smelled like man, and the scent was enough to make my lower belly tangle with arousal. “You could do this with me,” I said softly. “If you want the baby to have a family, we could raise it together.”
Charlie pushed my hands away. His chest was heaving and I realized he was panting madly, like a dog. “Nicolette,” Charlie said in a warning tone. “You don’t know anything about me – you don’t know anything about my life.”
“Sure I do,” I said, reaching back over and stroking his thigh with my fingers. Charlie shuddered under my touch. This time, he didn’t push me away. Cautiously, I dragged my fingers up his thigh and began stroking the head of his cock through his jeans.
“Nicolette,” Charlie warned. “Don’t start this. Don’t try anything funny with me. I’m not letting you get away with this.”
“I’m not doing anything wrong,” I replied as I stroked his hard erection. Touching Charlie was starting to make me feel really horny, and combined with the high anxiety and adrenaline flooding my body, part of me couldn’t resist the idea. “I’m just touching you, that’s all. You like that, Charlie, don’t you? You like it when I pleasure you like this.”
Charlie growled, low in his throat. “Nicolette,” he warned. “Don’t try anything. Don’t keep doing this with me!”
“We could raise the baby together,” I said softly. “We could be its parents, and love it, and make sure that it always knew it was wanted. Charlie, don’t you want this baby to grow up with a mother and father who love it? Don’t you want the baby to have a different story than you?”
Charlie didn’t answer.
“I know you had a lonely, sad childhood,” I said. “I know you bounced from house to house in the foster system. But that doesn’t have to be the case with this baby. This baby is your chance to start over – to give someone what you always wanted and never had. Charlie, this is like a second chance for you!”
“You don’t know shit about me,” he countered. “You don’t know what I had to deal with growing up; you don’t know how things were!”
“I do, though,” I said sweetly. “I’ve listened, Charlie. You and the rest of the Steel Gods always thought I was invisible. But I wasn’t. I’ve been here the whole time. And I listened to your background, and I know things were hard. I know you spent your teenage years on a farm. Charlie, this baby won’t have that life. But I can’t raise it with Jack – he’ll kill me, or the baby, or maybe both of us. So unless you agree to raise it with me, this baby isn
’t going to have a chance. It’s not going to have parents. It’s going to grow up cold and alone with no real family.”
Charlie bit his lip and let out a loud moan as I stroked his hard cock.
“Charlie, please, listen to me,” I begged softly. “You can change everything right now. All you have to do is listen to me, and let me go. Please don’t make me go back to Jack. I know he’ll hurt me. I just know he will.”
Chapter 13
Charlie
“Fine,” I snapped, pushing Nicolette’s hot little hand away from my pulsing hard-on. “Fine, you fuckin’ happy? I’ll take you somewhere else! Just stop this,” I said firmly. “I don’t have time to deal with your shit anymore.”
Nicolette sank down into the seat. The relief on her face was unmistakable, and she closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. “Oh, Charlie,” she said softly. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Try to sleep for a while,” I advised her. “I’m gonna pull out a fuckin’ map and think of somewhere to go.”
Nicolette’s face paled. “I don’t want to go to California,” she said. “No matter where we go, it can’t be there. Charlie, I can’t go back to that state!”
And I can’t go back to that state, either, because your abusive boyfriend is gonna kill me when he realizes what I’ve done, I thought as I reached across Nicolette’s slender lap and into the glove compartment for a bundle of maps. No matter what we do now, we’re fucked.
“Where are you thinking?” Nicolette ran a hand through her long hair. Her round eyes followed my every move, and suddenly I got the feeling that despite what I’d said about promising to take her somewhere else, she probably didn’t trust me. Not that I could blame her; I was the one who’d kidnapped her.
“There’s a town in Utah, St. George, that’s right over the border,” I said. I glanced up at the mile marker signs on the highway. “That looks like it’s about two hours away. Utah sound good?”
Nicolette nodded. Her lips were white and bloodless. “Yeah,” she said softly. “That sounds good. Thank you, Charlie.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” I growled. “I haven’t done shit yet. And this car might not even get us to Utah.”
I didn’t want to tell Nicolette, but when I’d taken a look under the hood, I hadn’t liked the way things were going. The car was an old piece of shit – part of me wondered if Jack had done this on purpose. Sent me on a wild goose chase to fetch his old girl with a shitty heap of junk for a ride.
But the other part of me didn’t think Jack would have done anything so vicious. I wasn’t even sure I believed Nicolette about some of the shit she’d been saying. She was desperate and scared, sure. But Jack couldn’t be that bad. Jack was the guy who’d taken me in and given me a chance when none of the other bikers in town would even look at me. He was the guy who’d given me a life as a Steel God. I wasn’t about to turn on him just yet.
“But we’ll try, right?” Nicolette’s voice was perky and hopeful. She’d stopped crying, and her cheeks were beginning to glow pink once more. She was about as beautiful as I’d ever seen her, strapped into the passenger side of the shittiest car I’d driven since I’d patched into the MC. “We’ll try, won’t we? We’ll make it, I promise.”
I snorted. “And what are you planning on doing to support us, huh? You gonna work as a waitress? In some diner?”
Nicolette crossed her arms over her chest and looked indignant. “No,” she said. “Well, maybe. I’d do anything, really. I mean, I have to support myself. And the baby.”
I licked my lips and sighed. “Nicolette, don’t worry about that right now,” I told her. I folded the map and stuffed it between the windshield and the dirty dashboard. “I’ll take care of you, okay? Don’t fuckin’ stress about it anymore. You got that?”
Nicolette slouched in the seat. “I can’t let you do that,” she argued. “I’m not going from man to man. I want to do something for me!”
“Well, we can figure out what to do after the baby comes,” I said. “You’re gonna make yourself sick if you keep thinking about it now. You got that?”
Nicolette nodded miserably. “Okay,” she said. She ran a hand through her hair and pulled an elastic off her wrist and twisted her hair into a knot at the back of her head. “Fine. Can we just go, already?”
As I pulled back on the road and pointed the car in the direction of Utah, I kept sneaking glances over at Nicolette. She was slouched down in the seat and staring out the window, one hand resting on her belly. I hadn’t noticed it before – definitely not when we were fucking. But I could tell she was pregnant. Her breasts were swollen and her lips were pink and glistening. She was radiating, glowing. I knew some of it had to have come from her anxiety, but this was more than that.
“We should get there in a couple hours,” I said.
She didn’t say anything. The car filled with an uncomfortable silence so I fiddled with the radio knob, tuning to a country station peppered with static.
My ass was numb and sore by the time we pulled over the Utah state line. Nicolette looked at me with wonder.
“We’re really doing this, aren’t we?” Nicolette’s voice was soft and slow, like she’d just woken up. “We’re really going off on our own.”
“And we’re gonna raise that kid,” I said, pointed to her stomach. I wanted to talk to her – I wanted to find out everything in her head, what she was really thinking. But she was silent; there was none of the pleading desperation that she’d shown a few hours before.
I still wasn’t willing to digest everything she’d told me about Jack. And I had no idea what I was gonna do about the man himself. He’d kill me if I showed up in Carlsbad without Nicolette. I thought about what she’d said: lie, and say she’d fled elsewhere. Well, Jack would just put me back on tracking her. And then I’d have to lie again, and this whole damn thing would just get even messier.
The town of St. George was slower, sleepier than I’d expected. It was small and picturesque, with a hospital on the outskirts. A few houses, the rocky red cliffs in the background. It looked like small-town America, like the places I’d bounced through as a teenager before settling down on the farm in California.
“This is pretty,” Nicolette said. She rolled down the window and stuck her hand outside, swirling her fingers in the arid air. “Where are we going?”
“We’ll find a hotel for the night,” I replied. “And in the morning, I’ll get out there and start looking for a place for us to rent.”
“I can pay,” Nicolette said quickly. She pulled her purse up. “I have a credit card, just in my name. You shouldn’t use your card. Jack could track us here.”
I stared at her. “You’re sharper than you look,” I told her, not sure I was able to believe it myself.
She blushed and ducked her head. “Thanks,” she said softly. “I tried to get everything in order before I left. You know. So I wouldn’t have to go back for any reason.” She licked her lips and her smile faded, like she’d suddenly just remembered about my trying to kidnap her. I knew right then that any intimacy built between us could be torn down in seconds. All she’d have to do was think about the way I tricked her.
She could never trust me. I wished I could go back in time and stop myself from ever listening to Jack, but I knew that all I could do now was work on trying to make things as right as possible.
I pulled into a local motel, the headlights of the car bouncing over the wall.
“You want me to go in?”
Nicolette shook her head. “I’ll go,” she said. “Just give me a second.” She climbed out of the car and stretched her arms high over her head. In the dim light of the parking lot, her body was mostly obscured. But I felt a jolt of hot lust searing through my body when I remembered those sweet curves, how she’d felt like hot silk in my hands. And tonight it might happen again. I couldn’t stop the thoughts from coming, but the first one was like a bolt of lightning that opened the floodgates.
Nicolette sashayed int
o the office, plucking at the seat of her jeans. I licked my lips as I watched her bend over the counter and ring the service bell.
Ten minutes later, she opened the passenger door to the car and tossed a key at me. “You’re in twenty-one,” she said. “I’m on the other side of the motel. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I blinked. “We’re not…we’re not staying in the same room?”
Nicolette shook her head. “No,” she said. “We’re not.” She laughed and stood up with her hands on her hips. “Charlie, come on. You kidnapped me! Like I’d fall asleep in front of you.”
I climbed out of the car and slammed the door so hard the whole body shook. “Fine,” I snapped. I pulled the key out of her hand. “You better be up by nine. We’ll look for a place to live together. But we’re not staying in this shit heap for more than one night. It looks like it’s fucking filled with roaches.”
