by A. J. Downey
Maren was, nine times out of ten, the more responsible one when we edged too close to the line, and dammit, I had sort of come to rely on that. I think I’d used up every last bit of adulting on dealing with her brother tonight.
I groaned into her mouth when my fingers skirted over her damp curls, and I realized how much she wanted me, too.
“Please, Nox,” she begged, voice breathy. “Make me feel good, just this once.”
“Fallen Angel,” I observed, but I didn’t deny her, I kissed her and edged my fingers down, delving between her folds, blindly searching until her hips jerked. I smiled against her mouth and teased her clit gently, with soft little strokes of the pad of my middle finger; swirling gentle, teasing, little circles around the engorged nub of flesh until she gasped and panted. I built her up slowly, and pushed her over the edge, swallowing her light cry, crushing my mouth over hers, stifling her moans by tangling my tongue with hers as her pussy lightly throbbed against my hand.
Fuck, she was going to ruin me. I’m pretty sure I’d just committed at least one felony, and with how hard my dick was? I needed to get out of here before I committed more. I kissed her soundly and murmured against her lips, “I love you, Angel, but I need to leave now before I can’t help myself.”
She groaned and let her head fall back against the pillows, her chest heaving, as I slipped my damp fingers out of her waistband.
“Shit,” she muttered and covered her face with her hands.
I laughed lightly, and murmured, “I’ll see you tomorrow, consider that a preview of coming attractions,” and with that parting shot, I left her room, and went downstairs, and out the front door into the brisk, winter, air. I found myself wishing I had the bike, then, and as much as I shouldn’t torture myself further I couldn’t help it. I raised my fingers to my nose and breathed her delicate perfume in.
Goddammit! That only made the pinch of my jeans even tighter.
Chapter 24
Maren
I opened my eyes and smiled for the first time that I could remember, in a long time… It was Sunday, but more importantly? It was my birthday, and it was a touch bittersweet. One, I was excited to be a year older because it took the limits off of me and Nox being together, but two… never had I ever simply wanted to remain a kid before.
I missed my dad, and I wished my mom were well enough to take care of us; because taking care of Sage, it was no walk in the park, although things were getting better. He’d been to see Mrs. Dr. Greene, who had graciously taken on Sage’s case at something like a quarter of her usual rate, seeing as it was really all I could afford, even with Pam helping me with the state funding for it.
He’d been angry, but the anger had grown somewhat less, even though his tight restrictions remained in place. It was typical that I picked him up from school and that he went to work with me. He got to sit on a high stool in the corner of the kitchen doing homework. The only concession I’d given him, was the ability to listen to music through his phone which he was allowed to keep. Mostly because of the potential for an emergency and so that he could reach me or Nox if need be.
If Nox could, he would pick Sage up from Soul Fuel and take him with him so that I could work a little later. He and Sage started regular work outs at the local YMCA, sometimes joined by Reaver and his son Connor, along with Trigger, one of the club’s big officers. It made me glad, because it seemed to be something Sage was really enjoying and soon we developed and fell into an easy, new routine.
As for my job? I loved it. Mandy and Everett were fantastic bosses. Patient, kind, yet firm, in Everett’s case. I could understand it, though. Everett was on the cusp of expanding their business on the coffee side of things into drive up kiosks that she’d decided to name Sacred Grounds. It was exciting and new and required that Mandy and I expand our baking skills outside the realm of chocolate a bit to provide breakfast muffins for the three stands Everett was putting into operations.
So far we had decided on Blueberry and Triple Chocolate muffins as well as a seasonal one, like Apple Cinnamon or Pumpkin in the fall. Right now, with spring approaching, we were thinking about a lemon variety. Even Ashton had joined in the kitchen, forsaking her job at the tattoo shop and leaving it to an apprentice that the guys had taken on.
I got up, showered and dressed, and found Sage downstairs watching TV. Despite how much we needed the money, Everett and Mandy had insisted I take the day off and Nox said he had something special planned, which meant Sage was supposed to be ready for Reaver and Hayden to pick him up. It was supposed to be so that I could have a break and so that Sage could hang out with Reaver’s son, Connor, who was only two years older.
“You should be dressed,” I remarked and he snorted.
“Can’t wait to get rid of me?” he demanded; I was both hurt and sick of the attitude, so I did what Nox had suggested – I called him out on his bullshit.
“Well, when you’ve got that attitude, can you blame me?”
Sage stared at me and blinked, slowly. I raised my eyebrows at him, and he dragged himself to his feet.
“Not the way to earn back your privileges!” I called up the stairs to his retreating back.
“Whatever,” he muttered and I sighed under my breath and went to fix myself a cup of coffee. I guess I should have considered myself lucky that I’d gotten to sleep in.
“Hey, Maren?” I turned around just as the coffee gurgled its last to see Sage standing awkwardly in the kitchen entryway, guilt painting his expression sour. His hair was getting too long in front, the dark waves were flopping into his chocolate eyes. I needed to take him to get it cut.
“What’s up?” I asked softly, going a little gooey at the wrapped box in his hands, a card in a light yellow envelope perched on top.
“Happy Birthday,” he said, coming up and setting the box on the counter next to me.
I didn’t care what was inside. It really was the thought that counted, especially with everything we’d been going, though… especially considering that it was my first birthday without my dad.
I pulled my little brother into a tight hug, and he asked, voice muffled by my shoulder, “Aren’t you going to open it?”
“When did you even go find the time to buy it?” I asked, leaving off the real burning questions of where did you get the money?
“Nox took me, I didn’t know what you’d want. You know, Dad always used to help me, but Nox knew… it was almost like having Dad back for a second. Anyways, he helped me pay for the rest of it. I used all my allowance I had left.”
I felt my eyes mist and dragged him into another hug. He struggled and pushed me off, “Geeze, just open it already!” he cried and I laughed and used the sleeve of my cardigan to dab at the moisture in my eyes.
I took up the box and shook it next to my ear, just to drive Sage nuts. He rolled his eyes at me and I laughed, and set it down, working the tape on one of the end flaps of wrapping paper free.
“Oh, my god! You’re killing me, Maren,” he said shaking his head.
I tore into the paper and he raised his eyebrows at me. I stopped, and asked him, “I thought you wanted me to open it,” with a sly grin.
“You’re always supposed to open the card first!” he blurted and I smiled. It was something my dad had always insisted upon. Open the card first, thank the person for it and then open the gift, never forgetting to say yet another thank you for the gift.
I picked up the card from the counter and slid a fingernail under the flap, cutting it loose with my finger. The card was pretty, lacy with purple flowers, butterflies, and a generous amount of crystalline glitter. It read, ‘To my sister…’ on the front and when I opened it, the inside made my eyes mist again.
I know we don’t always see eye to eye,
I know we don’t always get along,
Still, I’m lucky to have you in my life,
You’re the one who keeps me strong.
I closed the card, which had been a blank one inside until my brother ha
d taken his pen to it, and set it on the kitchen counter beside the unopened box of whatever he’d gotten me. Sage hugged me almost as tight as I hugged him and I said: “I love you, even when you are a pain in the ass, you know that, right?”
Sage sniffed, “I know,” he said, voice breaking, and it didn’t have anything to do with his pitching headlong into puberty, either.
I let him go and he stepped back, dashing at the moisture in his eyes, while I carefully wiped at the tears collected in my own.
“My makeup good?” I asked and he nodded.
“Yeah.”
“It’s my birthday, and Reaver and Hayden are about to be here any minute to pick you up. I’m going to kill you if you’re lying to me,” I told him and punched his shoulder lightly. He twisted away from me and laughed.
“I’m serious! It’s fine.”
“Waterproof everything for the win, huh?”
“I guess,” he said. “You going to open that?”
I laughed, and pulled the box closer to me, tearing off the paper. It was a bigger than average shoe box. The lid taped down with Scotch tape. I worked my fingernail under the satiny tape and popped it free on all four sides and lifted the lid off, setting it aside. White tissue paper blocked my view and my curiosity mounted. I lifted some of it aside and found a pair of leather gloves. Sturdy, but that would mold to my hands, and definitely made for a woman.
I set them down and lifted the paper off the rest of the way, and found a pair of sturdy riding boots. They looked like typical men’s boots from the front and sides, with the exception that the laces to tighten them up were located at the back of the calf, reminiscent of corset lacing and adding a decidedly feminine flair.
I looked up at Sage and asked him, “How on Earth did you...?” I left the ‘afford this’ silent, and felt more than a little dirty for the question escaping my mouth. It was rude and ungrateful, but with the way Sage had been acting, I couldn’t be sure that a theft hadn’t happened.
“Used all my allowance, Nox made up the rest. I guess it’s from both of us.”
“You used all of your savings? On me?”
“You only turn eighteen once,” he said with a shrug, and it was very grown up of him. I pulled him into a hug and sat down at the kitchen table to put on my new boots, laughing with him as we figured out straps, buckles, zippers, and laces together.
Sage had even run upstairs to bring me down an extra pair of socks, saying that Nox had told him to make sure I wore two pairs until the boots were well broken in, to prevent blisters. I was glad it was still cold enough outside that wearing two pairs of socks wouldn’t be any kind of a hardship.
The doorbell rang just as I stood up and Sage and I were admiring the fit of the boots over my dark, skin-tight jeans.
“I’ll get it!” he cried and went to the front door. I followed him up the hall and when he opened it, it was to a smiling Reaver and Hayden.
“Hey! Ready to go?” Reaver asked.
“Yeah, let me just run upstairs and grab my backpack.”
“Hi, Maren!” Hayden greeted me.
“Hey, where’s Connor?” I asked looking around them and seeing empty air.
“On our way to get him, your place came before his mom’s when it came to plotting a course,” Reaver said.
“Ah, I see. You guys are absolutely sure this isn’t any trouble?”
“Nah, no trouble at all. I think it’ll be good for the both of them.”
Sage came running down the stairs at full elephant tilt and hugged me quick.
“Bye, Maren!” he quipped and I smiled, both for him and the rumble of Nox’s motorcycle as he pulled up to the curb. Reaver ruffled Sage’s hair and rolled his eyes over my brother’s head.
“Yeah, bye, sis!” he said and Hayden laughed as they both stepped off the porch and went for Hayden’s SUV in the driveway.
“Try to have fun tonight!” she called over her shoulder and I waved.
“I’m sure I will!”
“Oh, you will,” Nox promised, coming down the path through the yard, another longer and wider box tucked under his arm. He stopped in front of me and I turned my face up to his, smiling about to say something funny when his lips crashed into mine and he very nearly devoured me from the mouth down.
I made a surprised noise, my arms twining around his leather clad shoulders as I arched into his chest. The box was set aside on the railing, his arms curving around my back as he hauled my body up tight, fitted perfectly into the curve of his own while our mouths wrought magic.
“Get me out of here,” I heard my brother exclaim, and just hearing his eyes roll in the tone of his voice made me laugh. Nox pulled back from the kiss and laughed with me.
“That’s enough out of the peanut gallery,” he said, then with a wave at Reaver called out, “See you later, bro!”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Reaver declared and Hayden started her lumbering giant of a vehicle and backed smoothly up the drive.
I turned back to Nox and said softly, “Hi.”
“Mm, Happy Birthday, Angel,” he murmured and pressed a quick kiss to my lips before letting me go and taking a half step back, retrieving his box from the railing. “Let’s go inside, Baby. It’s chilly out here.”
“I’m warm,” I said, and it came out a bit breathier than I’d intended.
Nox chuckled, and I turned to go in, he gave me a slap on the ass as I went through the door and I yelped, laughing.
“That’s one,” he said smiling.
“One what?” I asked.
“Birthday spanking.”
My mouth dropped open and I felt my eyes go wide as I rolled them dramatically, declaring, “Oh god!”
“Nope, that comes later,” he said.
“What comes later?”
“You, writhing underneath me, calling me god, comes much later, Angel,” he said and his tone was so serious, taking on a darker, sexy tone that made my breath still, and my heart stutter to a stop completely.
“I like the sound of that,” I said quietly, and he smiled, a deliciously dark and wicked smirk that made my insides turn to liquid.
“Where do you want to open your present?” he asked and I gave him my wide-eyed innocent look.
“The bedroom, of course…” I said letting my eyes roam every delicious inch of him. He brought the box in front of him and I smiled and said, “Oh, that present, the kitchen, I suppose. I’m still not quite caffeinated enough, how about you?”
“I could use a cup of coffee,” he said smiling, adding: “Smartass,” to the end of his casual declaration.
I turned and went down the hall singing out, “Better than being a dumbass,” as I passed through the archway to the kitchen.
I set about making coffee while he leaned casually against the counter, box set next to the wreckage from Sage’s gift. His light eyes were fixed on my boots as they traveled across the linoleum and I smiled to myself as I poured us each a cup from the coffeemaker and added the right amounts of cream and sugar.
“They look good, Angel. Sage picked ‘em out all by himself, and I couldn’t argue.”
“Thank you for helping him,” I murmured. “Was the card you, too?”
“What card?” he asked and I smiled to myself and handed him his cup. Once my hand was free, I slid the card Sage had given me off the counter and handed it to Nox. I sipped my coffee carefully while he read it.
“He’s a good kid,” he said softly and I nodded.
“He is when he wants to be, which thankfully, is much more often now.”
“I think he’s just lonely.”
“I don’t disagree. He only gets to see his friends in school and Ian’s parents are still pressuring him to stay away from Sage and not talk to him. They’re so worried about their precious little snowflake and about my brother being a bad influence, that they don’t have a single care for how any of it is affecting Sage at all.”
“Preaching to the choir on that one, Angel.”
I sigh
ed, “I know, I just wish it would start to suck less for my brother. We’ve all been through enough right now.”
“Mm-hmm,” Nox agreed. “Which is why you need to open your gift.”
I smiled wryly and set my coffee down, pulling the box closer to me across the kitchen counter. I stood next to Nox, who leaned back against the counter, light eyes fixed on my face as I popped the four small pieces of tape holding the lid on the garment box. He hadn’t wrapped it, just left the pristine white box to speak for itself; I liked that somehow. It felt far more grown up than Sage’s wrapping paper that screamed ‘Happy Birthday’ with balloons and confetti.
I lifted off the lid and picked up the card lying on top of the tissue paper. Again, just a simple white fold of paper, ‘Maren’ written on the front and inside? ‘I love you.’
“I love you, too,” I murmured and smiled at the little card. I lifted the tissue paper and discovered a beautiful, black leather jacket. It was beautifully accented with silver zippers, with silver buckles at the hips, and zippers at the pockets. It was fitted, the zipper to hold it closed angled and rising up one side for an asymmetrical look that worked for it, adding both edge and class to the look. I pulled it from the box as if it were made of magic and held it up.
“Look at the back,” Nox said quietly and I turned the garment around, gasping at what I found on the back of the coat. There, embossed perfectly into the leather, was a pair of narrow but perfect angel wings.
I stared at them for a long minute, admiring them, finding it difficult to tear my eyes away to look at Nox who was standing quietly, patiently waiting for me to say something.
“I think this is quite possibly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been given,” I said.
He smiled and reached out, lowering the zipper on the front of the coat until it opened up. He took it from me and held it out so I could turn around and slip it on.
