by Addison Jane
Go to sleep.
You don’t have to fight anymore.
I didn’t want to fight anymore. I wanted to lay here and not get up.
“Ham, get the hell up, asshole. I need you!” my little brother screamed in my ear, the panic and desperation in his voice enough to rouse me. I looked up at him, fighting with the next board, the smoke in his hair and his eyes, pleading with me to help him get us the hell out of here. I fought to get to my knees, but my body was weak, it was giving up.
Could I just sit here and watch my brother die?
Hell no.
Every movement was hard, and my lungs were wheezing, fighting for air that wasn’t dirtied with black smoke and carbon dioxide.
“Move back,” I heard a voice scream. It was muted and hard to understand because it was coming from outside. Romeo stumbled back, and suddenly a huge rock smashed through the glass and broke two of the boards that Romeo was trying to pull off.
“Come on,” the voice yelled, much clearer now, and I realized it was Blizzard.
Romeo rushed over to where I was still struggling to get up and grabbed my body, lifting me off the ground. He was weak, and he stumbled, but he got me to the window. My brothers were still smashing away at the glass, trying to clear the shards.
“The blanket,” I coughed, pointing at the lone bed in the room with a single quilt on it which looked like it was original to the house, like the stones that had shielded us from the explosion.
Romeo quickly realized what I was saying and snatched it up from beside him and laid it across the broken glass before passing me through. Three brothers caught me on the other side, my body a mess of limbs as they rushed me into the trees and away from the burning cabin.
Romeo was right behind me, Optimus and Wrench hefting him out and hooking his arms around his shoulders as they rushed him to safety.
It took me a few moments as I was lying in the thick leaves and dirt on the forest floor that I was being pelted by sharp, cold drops of rain. It felt like fucking heaven against my skin, which I was almost sure had melted off my bones.
“Holy shit, are you two lucky,” Skins huffed as he fell to his knees beside me and started pushing and prodding against parts of my body checking my heart rate and my breathing.
“We gotta go,” Blizzard urged, breathing heavily as he crouched next to Romeo. “This thing is on fire, it’s like a damn beacon pointing right at us.”
I nodded. “Let’s go,” I rasped, barely recognizing my voice.
Skins and Levi helped me up while Op and Wrench assisted by carrying Romeo back down the mountain.
At high speed.
In the fucking rain.
We moved fast, this time, using the more solid path that Romeo had followed up. A lot of it was wood, having been built to make the tracks to the cabins easier, and since this one was the closest to the foot of the mountain, it had the most work done.
It was still slippery as hell, though, and we were lucky when we made it to the bottom with no broken bones.
The coughing fits started as we ran back through the farmland to our bikes, and they wouldn’t stop. I wanted to throw up, but I was already worried.
No evidence was great, but in the case that there was evidence—the less, the better.
“You okay to ride?” Skins asked quickly as he leaned me against my ride, shining his torch in my eyes and partially blinding me as he searched for signs that I was going to die.
I slapped his hand away. “I’ll be fine,” I lied. My throat felt like I’d swallowed acid.
“I’ll call Eagle and get him to grab Leo and his truck and meet us in Huntsville,” Op ordered, pulling his cell from his pocket. “I’m already gonna struggle enough with Romeo on the back that far without him falling off. Leo can bring Ham’s bike back, and he and Romeo can get in the truck with Eagle.”
Romeo instantly stood a little taller pushing away from the massive tractor he was using to balance. “Hey man, I don’t ride, bitch.”
Op scoffed. “Now you do. And tonight, you’ll be mine.”
I would have laughed had the situation not been so dire.
We killed a sheriff. We blew up a cabin. We now have to try and get home without people seeing us and putting two and two together. And I was really feeling the pain now that the adrenaline was wearing off.
My hip was hurting. My lungs were burning. I knew my head still wasn’t right.
“We need to take different roads. Spread ourselves around so if anyone hears us, they aren’t sure which way we were traveling or if there were more than one,” Blizzard rattled as we pushed our bikes down to the road, not too willing to start them that close to the crime scene.
I wasn’t going to admit it, but I was struggling. Just when I thought the fresh air was finally circulating through my body, the rain washing away the dirt and black shit from my skin, I would start coughing, wheezing, and fighting for breath.
“You just need to make it into town where we can find cover and meet the boys. Twenty minutes at the most,” Blizzard urged as we watched Levi and Kev both start their engines and take off in different directions. “I’ll ride with you. You fall off, I’ll stop and pick you up.”
I laughed, the sound coming out more like a cat with a hairball. “That’s not what you said last time.”
“Come on, kid, there’s a girl at home waiting for you,” he tried this time as another two brothers took off into the night, leaving just Blizzard, Op, Romeo and me.
“She won’t be waiting for long, she’ll be walking away soon,” I muttered, still fighting to hold my ride upright as we waited for the boys to get far enough away for us to leave.
Op raised his eyebrow. “What are you talking about? Thought you and Meyah were a done deal.”
“Ain’t gonna make her wait around while I’m doing time.”
“You get a fucking blow to the head or something?” Blizzard demanded, but when I looked at Romeo, he shook his head. He knew that shit was going to hit the fan. He knew he’d fucked this one up, and we were going to have to seriously think about what we were going to do next. “Hello?”
“Romeo borrowed my gun,” I answered.
Neither Blizzard nor Op commented, both of them staring at me like I’d lost my fucking mind.
Blizzard looked back at the mountain. We needed to be out of here before the firetrucks came, and they’d be here soon.
“He left the gun in the cabin.”
Blizzard and Op both looked at each other and muttered the same word.
I heard him come in.
The truth was, I hadn’t slept since he left.
When he’d come to collect his gun from under his pillow a couple of hours ago, I’d pretended to be asleep. I knew something was wrong, and if it was something to do with Romeo and Ham needed a gun, it definitely wasn’t good or reassuring.
Even when his lips brushed my cheek, I still didn’t open my eyes waiting until the door clicked closed and the room was once again shrouded in darkness.
I wanted to sit up and question what was going on and sit nervously watching him gather his shit so he could disappear and take care of business. Instead, I chose to let him be free from my worried voice and panicked looks that I would probably give him as he pulled out dark clothing from the dresser.
I was learning.
Being an Old Lady was about knowing your man, and I knew that I would only be a distraction and keep him from his focus if I tried to pull his mind away from the task at hand. Being an Old Lady was about trusting he would come to you if he needed you and being there when he did.
I should have waited for him to come to me, but he was back, he was alive, and I desperately needed to touch him after a few hours of wondering what I would do if that didn’t happen. I flipped on the light beside the bed, sitting up and pulling the blanket around my body as I blinked into the shadowed darkness.
“Meyah…”
His face was covered in smudges of black soot, his hands not faring
much better.
I threw back the blankets and climbed out of bed, my mouth hanging open. The closer I got, the more I could smell the smoke that had soaked into his clothing.
“Oh my God,” I muttered.
“Go back to sleep.” His voice was raspy and raw, and it sounded painful for him to speak.
“I think you need to get checked out.”
He snorted. “I’ve been down there on oxygen for nearly two hours,” he explained, followed by a dry and scratchy cough. “I just want to get the hell out of these clothes and wash off tonight. Skins has a medic coming in with some stuff to make sure my lungs and shit are okay, but she’s not due for another hour. Don’t stress.”
Pulling my lip in between my teeth, I took his hand and led him to the bathroom.
“Meyah, go back to sleep,” he tried to order, but the way his voice sounded like a harsh whisper just made me smile. “I’m getting you all dirty.”
I stopped and turned to face him. He wasn’t wrong. The mixture of dirt and black sooty crap which covered him and his clothes was now all over my hands and also on the white T-shirt I’d borrowed of his to sleep in.
“See.”
I didn’t care.
Ham was back.
He wasn’t completely uninjured, but he was alive, and he was in one piece.
I stepped forward pressing my body against his and took his face in my hands. My thumbs swept through the dirty, greasy mess that stuck to his cheeks, doing nothing but leaving smears here and there and rubbing off on my hands.
“Meyah.”
Without giving him a chance to pull away, I tiptoed up and pressed my lips to his. My hands slid up into his hair, my favorite place. I twisted it in my fingers, tugging at it as I sliced my tongue through his lips, forcing him to open for me. Then just when I thought he might hold his ground on this one, he pulled back, breathing heavier than usual but with a look in his eyes that instantly made my pussy twitch.
“You need something?” he growled, the rough texture of his voice just adding to the intensity.
I licked my lips, trying not cringe at the bitter taste. “I need you. I just want to look after you.”
I never expected seeing him like this would make me want to touch him so bad. It was like I knew he’d been somewhere, he’d done something that he couldn’t tell me, that I was naive if I thought it couldn’t get him into a lot of trouble. But he’d come home to me. He was here, and I just needed to touch him, to make sure that he was okay, and that he was back with me.
I guess you could call it a fear.
Fear that one day he’ll walk out and not come back.
I wasn’t a practiced Old Lady, but this was just natural.
This was just me wanting to feel my man when I could have easily lost him. I reached around him, turning on the shower, and closing the door again before starting at his belt buckle. My hands moved meticulously to undo the belt, pull it to the sides, flick open the button, pull down the zip. The heavy—which I now realize were wet—jeans fell to the floor surprisingly leaving him naked on the bottom, and he quickly made work of stepping out of them and kicking them to the side.
“Good boy,” I whispered, earning me a deep but quiet growl. I couldn’t hold back the giggle. My usually ferocious lion had turned into a little kitten, his growl more like a purr.
The top half went next. I tugged them over his head and tossed them over my shoulder, not caring that they hit the wall, most likely leaving a black smudge before falling to the floor.
“My turn,” he hissed before I could even take him in. “If we gonna get in here together, I need something to wash.” Taking my hips in his hands, he walked me backward until my back hit the vanity. “Turn around and take them off.”
My tongue snaked out, wetting my lips before pressing them together tightly and slowly following the stern order. I made quick work of my pajamas, kicking them away, noting that the bathroom was now becoming a lot warmer. The steam was rising filling the air around us.
The mirror had already fogged up, so I didn’t see it coming when Ham’s palm landed right on my ass cheek with a resounding slap. I stood a little straighter, the sting still running up my spine but in the most amazing way.
Slap. Another, on the other side, and this time I swear I almost broke the edge of the porcelain sink, gripping it so hard with my hands I was scared it might snap off.
“There, now I’ve got something to wash,” he noted, his voice a little less raw, no doubt thanks to the warm moisture we’d filled the room with. I turned and looked over my shoulder, giggling softly when I saw the two black handprints on each cheek, the edge around them just slightly red. I could still feel the sting, and I knew that even when he washed away his handy work, there would most likely be two perfectly red handprints left for at least the next hour.
“You mark easily.” His lips brushed my neck, and I sighed allowing my head to fall to the side and my body to relax. “I’ve gotta be more careful.”
“No,” I whispered. “Don’t be.”
I reached up wiping my hand across the moisture on the mirror and instantly caught his eyes staring back at me. They were wild and bright, the erection which was now pressing against my tender ass seemed to get a lot harder and closer to my pussy.
“Damn it,” he rasped, reaching up and threading his fingers through my hair with one hand and tugging it back. “I was gonna get clean before I did this, but you’re fucking insatiable. Spread ‘em.”
I stepped out to the side knowing just what he wanted, just what I was going to get and knowing full well that my pussy was already soaked. He never had to do much.
“And we can always do it in the shower again, too,” he added as an afterthought, maybe more to himself. “I can’t get enough, and I got plenty of fucking time.” It was the way he spoke, how he was a little rough and controlling that set me off. I never knew I would be that girl who you’d catch screaming harder, but God, with Ham, it could never be hard enough.
Sweet and tender one moment, his lips roaming my skin pressing soft kisses to my neckline, and I gasped as his cock pushed up into me groaning as I couldn’t help but press back against him, taking him deeper.
“Holy shit,” I gasped, moving my hands from the sink to the foggy mirror as he forced my body to bend just slightly. My toes curled with each slow drive inside of me, lifting me just slightly onto my tiptoes as he bottomed out.
His free hand ran down the center of my back and moved his other hand from my hair to my shoulder using it to pull me back sharply with the thrust of his hips. I screamed out and tossed my head back.
“I want to hear the words, Meyah,” he urged. He always wanted to hear, wanted to hear me moan, wanted to hear how much I loved it, wanted to hear me scream his name. Where I shied away, he was always constantly trying to draw out this vixen I had inside that sometimes scared me.
“So damn good,” I hissed, licking my dry lips and panting hard in the heat. It was getting close to fucking in a sauna with the heat of the bathroom. My hands were slipping on the mirror leaving prints everywhere—God forbid anyone else ever uses it.
“Louder,” he demanded, grabbing a fistful of my ass with his hand and opening me wider, so he could press in deeper.
I cried out feeling him hit one spot inside me I could never reach on my own. “There,” I yelled, trying to match him for each thrust pushing myself back.
“Here?” he asked, pounding forward and striking right in the spot.
“Oh. My. God.”
Risking it, knowing that I was so close, I braced myself with one hand on the mirror and slipped the other down between my legs swiping my fingers across my clit. That single touch was almost enough to light me up like a rocket.
“Fuck!” Ham cursed. “Do that again, your pussy tightens right up.”
“I’ll come if I touch it again,” I whisper, trying to breathe and keep on my feet and take his cock hard and deep.
“Then come goddammit,” he snapp
ed, his hips automatically picking up speed, lighting my body on fire and making it hard to breathe. “Now.”
I flicked my finger across my clit, back and forth a couple of times, the instant stimulation sending a shockwave of ecstasy through my body. My legs began to shake, but Ham quickly wrapped his arms around my waist and held me up, while he continued to power inside me, the sound of skin slapping against skin mixed with my pleasure filled moans and his deep growl, a perfect symphony.
I tried to find my footing. My legs shaky and unstable, Ham’s cock pressed right inside me, pumping his cum deep. My body tingled and felt electrified, it was so damn blissful.
I leaned my head back against his shoulder. Standing there for how long? I had no idea. Long enough for him to pull out, and for me to feel him leaking down my leg—which I found strangely erotic. Maybe that was just because I knew we were both about to get in a hot shower and spend the next however long we had hot water just washing each other down and touching, feeling, exploring.
Ham helped lead me over to the small cubicle, his lips already lost on my neck, his nose in my hair. “You’re fucking amazing, I ever tell you that?”
“Occasionally.”
“You could have waited for me to clean all this shit off.”
I frowned and shook my head. “I’ll take you as you are, any day. I can’t just pick and choose when I want you, and when I don’t. That’s not how this works. I’m all in.”
He was quiet for a few seconds, and I wondered whether I’d said something wrong.
I spun in his arms looking up at him with a raised eyebrow. “How’d I get so lucky?”
Ham smiled. “Luck had nothing to do with it. This was all about fate.”
The Fourth of July really snuck up on us quickly. Ham assured me a week ago that things with the sheriff were over. Everyone was safe, and stuff was going back to normal.
I decided that it was probably a good time to go back home and spend some time with Mom and Denver. I’d been neglecting them, and even though things between Mom and I had been less than okay, I didn’t want her to think I’d given up on her, or that I was completely disowning her.
