Tattered & Torn

by A. J. Downey

  I grinned. Somebody was in seven different kinds of trouble. I lost the smile pretty quickly when Hayden nudged Ashton and the slightly smaller woman sat up and turned. She’d been crying and looked absolutely devastated and when she saw Trig her eyes welled up fresh.

  “Baby what’s wrong!?” he cried and went for her. Ashton crumbled and fresh tears slicked down her pale cheeks.

  “You didn’t say goodbye! You just left and didn’t say I love you or goodbye or anything!” her slight shoulders shook and Trig went forward and lifted the small woman off of the couch like the small child she resembled. She automatically wound her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist and clung to him, burying her face in the crook of his neck while her tiny frame hitched with her sobbing.

  “Ohhh Baby I’m sorry. I didn’t think!” he held her close and murmured to her. Disney and Aaron looked on concerned but said nothing and Hayden looked like she was ready to put a boot in Trig’s ass until Reaver’s hand fell onto her shoulder. She glared up at her husband who grinned like a son of a bitch, ready to take one for his friend. I shook my head and asked Dis…

  “Seen my woman?”

  It was Aaron who replied, “Went to bed. She looked worried, everything all right?”

  “Yeah man, everything’s cool,” I said which wasn’t exactly a lie, as far as things went, they were cool, for now. We hadn’t heard from Dragon’s team yet but no sooner had I thought it, Trigger’s cellphone went off in his cut. Ashton had calmed down considerably and the big man went over to one of the recliners and sat with his woman curled in his lap. He answered his phone on the third ring.

  “Yeah?” he listened carefully, “Yeah… Uh-huh… Good deal man. Yeah. See you when you get here,” he gave me and Reave a pointed look and nodded and I felt myself smile. Mission accomplished.

  I nodded back to both of them and went for my room, opening the door and sliding in. I shut it tightly behind me and was met with one of the most exquisitely beautiful sights I had ever seen. Shelly lay on her stomach at the edge of the bed closest to the door, her face turned towards it, slack and angelic, lashes making perfect crescents against her high, pale cheekbones.

  The blankets had slipped and so the long, perfectly smooth line of her back lay exposed. It was a fairly full moon out and the light from it shone down through the high window above the bed, bathing her in a silvery light and I felt my heart give a hard twist in my chest as I looked her over.

  My woman, nude and sleeping peaceful, waiting for me in my bed. It made me hard to the point of pain but I didn’t want to disturb her. I set about undressing quietly, hanging things and setting them around the room where they belonged. Shelly’s clothes were folded neatly atop the dresser and I appreciated that she had kept the room tidy.

  I went around to the other side of the bed and just looked at her for a long time. She was so fucking beautiful.

  Chapter 23

  Shelly…

  The bed dipped and I think that’s what startled me out of my slumber. I woke with a start and was immediately pulled backwards into a warm and equally nude, hard body. I gasped and Ghost murmured in my ear,

  “You are so fucking beautiful,” he punctuated the remark by kissing the edge of my ear, his lips silken and hot, sending a course of tingles in a wash down the side of my neck that swept over my shoulder and across my back.

  “Oh!” I gasped in surprise and I couldn’t see it but I was pretty sure he smiled. My suspicion on that was confirmed when I could hear the smile in his voice when he asked me,

  “Did you like that?” he kissed my ear again and then pressed a light kiss behind it, trailing fine kisses down the side of my neck, over that sweet fucking spot, along the back of my shoulder… He cupped a breast with his hand, teasing the nipple with thumb and forefinger and I gasped at the answering throb of arousal in my pussy.

  “God I love your reactions,” he said with this desperate heat in his voice that seriously lit my fire.

  I squirmed and his arm tightened around me, the scorching length of his erection pressed against my ass and I gasped and went still for a moment before redirecting my wriggling. I ground myself back against him and he groaned, pressing forward, lining up neatly with the crack of my ass. I felt myself moisten in anticipation. God I wanted him.

  His arm tightened possessively around my body, fetching my back hard against his chest. He kissed a line along my shoulder and slid his other arm beneath my neck, curving it over my chest above my breasts. His arm over the top of me drifted down to my leg, lifting it. It took him a few tries but finally with a moan of satisfaction he slid into me. I cried out softly and squeezed my muscles around him, taking him in deeper. He rolled his hips forward and the head of his cock went over that spot inside me on my roof and it felt so good.

  I was dimly aware of my nails biting into his arm, where it crossed my chest and he slowed the rocking of his hips.

  “You okay baby?” he asked by my ear.

  “Your arm, across my chest like this, it’s freaking me out,” I told him. Clinging to Ashton’s advice to talk about those things, he immediately took it away and slid from my body and I mourned the loss but he wasn’t gone from me for long. Just when I had a spark of panic, thinking I should have simply kept my mouth shut and let him hold me like he was, he was laying me flat and vaulting over my leg.

  “I’m going to pull you,” he warned me, his arms going around my thighs and I smiled as he dragged me down the bed, into a better angle for him to do what he wished. He reached between us and positioned himself before passionately thrusting back into me. I arched. I knew there was nothing between us and I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

  “Derek, kiss me!” I pleaded.

  “I love it when you say my name,” he growled and bent over our entwined bodies to crush his mouth over mine. I wound my legs around his hips, opening myself to him further and cried out into his mouth as he drove forward in these short little controlled thrusts that were pure, sweet, blissful torture. The head of his penis riding over my g-spot sending a warm suffusion of pleasure throughout my body, causing my blood to effervesce in my veins.

  I moaned, these helpless little mewling sounds which he quickly ate up, his lips curving into a smile against my own and I found myself smiling too. His hands roamed my body while he loved me, smoothing over every last reachable inch of my skin. When his mouth broke from mine it was so that he could take one of my nipples into his mouth. I arched and then cried out when his thumb found my clit. It was too much sensation all at once and I was wound tighter than a Timex beneath him to the point that when things built, winding down tighter and tighter still, I came, springing apart. All of my cogs and gears, coils and springs bouncing off the walls of the room until I lay panting and empty and winding down and out until nothing but the faint, hollow ticking of my heart remained.

  Derek laughed a little above me and kissed my chest between my breasts, just over my heart. He twitched inside me and I jerked, small little aftershocks causing my legs to quiver and twitch to either side of him. He smoothed his hands up and down my legs and sat up, his warmth retreating. I made a small sound of protest which morphed into an overwhelmed cry of protest. He was moving inside me again and it was too soon! But he didn’t stop. He wasn’t done, though he did me the favor of twining his fingers with mine, holding my hands while he watched our bodies come together.

  He was getting close. It was spelled out in the lines of tension all over his face and body. He grunted and threw back his head and made to pull out but I didn’t care. I knew it wasn’t the responsible thing to do with how much of a mess I was, with everything still being so new but I wanted it. I wanted the closeness and so I wrapped my legs around him and held him. His eyes snapped to mine and whatever he read there, it decided him because he thrust hard into me and with a cry, bowed over my body and came inside me. No barriers, no protection, but it was beautiful and I loved it, I loved him and I was so fucking grateful he’d returne
d to me in one piece, without a scratch that I could see, that I was willing to take this risk.

  If I were pregnant, so be it. It was time for me to grow the hell up anyways. I would know, one way or another, in a couple of weeks.

  Ghost collapsed over me and stayed rooted deep inside my body, gathering me in his arms and I made good on my silent vow of earlier that night. He was here, he was safe and so I opened my mouth and I told him, “I’ll move in with you.”

  He took a deep breath, then two and asked, “Did you miss me then, Princess?” I smacked his shoulder and he laughed, “Ow! Hey! Quit it.”

  “I was scared okay!?” I demanded. He pushed himself up so he could look at me and I felt my eyes well with a cross between angry and grateful tears. Angry that so soon after us getting on the same page that he would go out and do something stupid, and relieved that he’d come back to me safe.

  “Oh hey…” he kissed me, and then kissed me again. I sniffed and forced the tears back down before they could spill over.

  “I’ll always come back to you Shelly. Always,” he intoned.

  “Don’t,” I said harshly.

  “Don’t what Honey?”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Ghost. Its bullshit and I had too many of ‘em growing up.” He searched my face for one very long minute.

  “Okay Baby, okay,” he cupped my face with gentle fingers and kissed me long and slow. He’d grown soft inside me and it was a unique and decidedly delicious sensation when he grew hard again, filling me from the inside out while we kissed. I’d never experienced anything like it before and I marveled at how many firsts he took me through in the bedroom.

  I gasped when he began to rock with a slow and loving cadence in and out of me. I loved what he did to me, that he wanted me; that he wanted to help me fix me. I wrapped my arms around his hard shoulders and raised my hips to meet his thrusts, loving him back while he loved me slowly and deeply. It was so different than anything I had ever experienced before and I cherished it for the precious gift that it was.

  Here was to hoping that we would survive living with one another. I closed my eyes and came with a gentler explosion this time, the pleasure washing out to my edges and then gently lapping back in towards my center. My Ol’ Man certainly knew how to make a splash with me.

  Chapter 24

  Ghost…

  I didn’t waste any fucking time. Shelly had agreed to move in with me, I asked a couple of prospects if they’d help us out since most of the guys had something going on Sunday. The prospects agreed and with them on board, I had her moved in that weekend. After, of course, stopping at the drugstore and loading up on condoms which I discovered needed to be stashed in just about every corner of the house, truck, garage, bike, club room, you name it. I couldn’t get enough of her. I just couldn’t. It was impossible, but all good things must come to an end and unfortunately the weekend was over and I needed to take my ass back to work.

  I propped my foot onto the old country wooden chair in the corner of the bedroom by the bathroom door and pulled the laces tight on my work boot, tying them off. Shelly was quickly becoming the mistress of her domain which once had been my office but I was happy to have her there. I found her on the floor in a pair of skin tight gray leggings and an oversized tee. She was pulling on one of those thin sweater things that draped artfully in the front and I asked her, “Want me to build a fire in the stove before I go?” she smiled up at me, her face the most tranquil that I’d seen it and shook her head.

  “I’m handy-capable,” she smarted.

  “I always wondered which one was the retarded cousin,” I gave her a one sided grin. She stuck her tongue out at me.

  “Speaking of… Reaver is supposed to come by and go for a run with me tomorrow. Is that okay?” she chewed her bottom lip.

  “Shelly, this is your house too. You can have whoever you want over here whenever you want. You’re my girl, not my prisoner or captive sex slave… all though I kind of like the sound of that last one,” she balled up the piece of paper she had in her hands and threw it at me. I put up my hands and batted it away.

  “Hey!”

  She was smiling brightly and my heart felt lighter, “Better get to your Rescue Ranger gig.”

  I frowned at her, “Where’d you see them?” I asked. I mean I knew about ‘em being in my thirties but Shelly was barely into her 20’s.

  “I grew up poor, remember? When my mom was sober enough to remember she was supposed to give a fuck about me she picked up a VCR from good will. VHS tapes were like twenty-five cents apiece or less. I had a pretty impressive Disney collection at the trailer. If Reaver heard my mom and her boyfriend du jour going at it from his place he’d climb in my window and would put whatever on and we’d huddle there and watch it while they screamed and crashed. When Reaver was there things were a lot less fucked up and scary,” I leaned against the doorway and listened to her. It was the first time she’d spoken frankly about anything from her past, or her feelings on it…

  She blushed faintly and bit her lips together and I had this funny feeling in my chest and felt my muscles relax. She was trying with me, trying so hard and it was written in the faint lines of worry in her forehead, between her eyes, that she was trusting me but was so very afraid.

  “If it turns out you’re pregnant,” I said softly, “I promise you, we’ll do much better with our kids,” her expression softened and she dropped her eyes to the papers in her lap. She nodded but the set to her shoulders betrayed her level of fear.

  “Shelly,” she looked up at me and swallowed hard, “Whatever happens, we’re going to be okay.” I said but didn’t add the ‘I promise’ at the end that I wanted to.

  “You better git,” she said and smiled faintly. I went into the office and dropped into a crouch beside her.

  “You better kiss me goodbye then,” I told her and she nodded and kissed me, slow and patient, savoring the contact. She broke away from me and swallowed hard, she looked like she wanted to say something but then she rubbed her lips together and smiled.

  “Be back before you know it,” I said and stood.

  “Take a shower before you come to bed. You went out with the boys you smelled like gasoline and fire when you came back,” she looked over a line of figures and I smiled.

  “Too smart for your own good. You gonna be a handful?” I asked.

  “Would you really have it any other way?” she asked pointedly.

  “Nope,” I ducked out of the office with a raging hard on in my jeans and made it to the kitchen. I paused with my hand on the door handle and forced myself to turn it when all I wanted to do was go back to her and make love to her and make her feel safe. I pulled on the door handle and went out to the tow truck.

  Huge progress was being made. I wasn’t sure it could be made any faster than what it was. Still, it was frustratingly slow. I passed the old Volvo she drove and made a face. She needed something better, newer, more reliable but it was going to have to wait for now. I got up into my truck and turned her over. She started right up and I called in that I was in service and pulled out of my driveway leaving my girl to swim in a sea of her numbers.

  Chapter 25

  Shelly…

  “It’s too fucking quiet!” I moaned into the phone. Hayden laughed.

  “How long has he been gone?”

  “A little over two hours. I swear to God it’s actually too quiet out here for me to concentrate. I like, need noise or something.” I could swear I heard my cousin-in-law roll her eyes at me through the phone line.

  “Better get used to it. Turn the TV on or something and leave it on in the other room. Works for me…” Truthfully I was feeling creeped out now that I was in the house by myself for the first time. It felt like I was being watched or something which I knew was both crazy and stupid. No one would be out in the boonies like this. I shook it off and tried one more time…

  “Going to leave me out here to suffer huh?” I asked.

  “Y
ou suffer so beautifully Baby Cuz!” I heard Reaver growl into the phone and that pretty much sent my last hope of getting Hayden to come over down in flames. The fire, it burned. I sighed, but put my hand over the phone so they wouldn’t hear it.

  “Okay, I need to have a girl kind of something out here soon though. It’s a sea of ugly country prints and mismatched furniture and I’m not about to take it.” Hayden laughed.

  “I solemnly swear I will help you guys find a happy medium when it comes to the interior decorating for the low, low fee of you double checking my taxes,” she said and I raised an eyebrow.

  “Deal,” I said.

  “Okay,” Hayden squealed and laughing said, “I gotta go bye!” before the line went dead. I pulled my headphones from my ears and tossed them down onto a stack of manila file folders next to my phone.

  “So much for that,” I muttered but decided that the whole TV thing had pretty much been a solid tip. I got up and went out into the living room and rooted around for the remote. I found it wedged between the arm and seat cushion of a shabby but comfortable looking recliner. I was looking over the buttons to familiarize myself with the operation of it when I heard the noise. It was a thump followed by a scrape and it was just outside the kitchen door.

  I froze, my heart squeezing painfully in my chest as panic hooked its claws in my throat. I couldn’t swallow, although I wanted to. I took a slow deep breath and tried to quell the urge to freak out. It was dark outside, just past ten now, Ghost was working the overnight shift. I took a halting step and stopped. He’d shown me the gun safe in the office closet but the kitchen was between me and the office and even supposing I could make it…