“Hey,” she said with a smile when she saw him. “What’s with the paint?”
He had paint on his hands and some up over the arms, it was dark blue, red and something that, according to the clerk, was called eggshell white. He hoped she didn't recognize the colors.
“Just did some paint job. Is that the last?”
“Yeah, don’t think it’s anything I need to keep.” She stood up. “Paint job?”
“It’s nothing, Nibbles.”
He knew her, though; she wasn’t going to let it go that easy, so he picked her up and carried her over to the counter. He slipped his hand into her panties.
“You need a shave.”
“I know. Just that I packed the stuff a few days ago, I haven’t been able to do it. I think you'll like it the way it is.”
“I wasn't complaining, but you're right, I'll love it like this, too. I meant that you need a shave and I’ll do it.”
He’d been dying to do that, but she kept it so fucking neat that he'd never had the chance. She looked at him with big eyes, and then she smiled.
“I’ll find them.”
He took two towels from the bathroom and threw them on the bed while she panic-searched through the boxes while cursing profusely. It was nice to see that she was as eager as him. With a laugh, he poured water into a bowl and took it into the bedroom. With a big smile, she came in with a razor and the shaving gel. He’d seen it, the gel, and used it once thinking it was just like regular shaving cream. It wasn’t. It really was just a gel especially for that area; according to her, it made it easer to see when it was just a thin gel rather than thick foam. It worked for the beard, too. Only problem was that he'd smelled all flowery, and it had been noticed by the others. And pointed out, more than once. He'd stayed away from her gel since then.
She handed it to him and then quickly got out of her clothes. He arranged one of the towels for her to lie down on and she did, spreading wide. Dawg stared down a few seconds and then looked up at her with a big smile.
“Have I ever told you how fucking pretty your pussy is?”
“Once or twice.”
He dipped his hand into the water and then carefully spread it over her and did the same with the gel, very thoroughly making sure it was all over her. Then he started to shave. And she liked it about as much as he did. She struggled to stay still, but was soon wet. He ran his fingers over her folds to find the stubble, and every time she pressed herself towards his hand, panting. When he was satisfied, he took the other towel, and with a ‘don’t move’ he went into the bathroom to soak it in water. When he came walking back, she was staring at him with a begging face. She was horny, as fuck. And seeing her like that, naked, spread out on the bed while he still had all his clothes, including the beanie, was a turn on, to say the least.
When he started to wipe her clean she closed her eyes and dug her fingers into the cover.
“Babe,” she mumbled. “Tell me you're hard.”
He leaned over her and gave her a kiss, still rubbing the towel between her legs. “Like a fucking rock, baby, but I’m not gonna fuck you yet.”
“No?”
“I’m gonna make sure I got rid of all the stubble first.”
“How?” She asked with a big smile, obviously having some clue about what he was planning.
“I’m gonna eat you out till you scream.”
Edie made a sound that was damn close to what she did when she came, and he went down between her legs and licked, sucked and finger-fucked her more thoroughly than he ever had before. When she was trying to catch her breath, he unzipped his jeans, pulled them down to his knees and with one, hard thrust he got into her balls deep.
“Edie,” he said and held her down, without moving himself. When she opened her eyes he smiled. “Think you’re okay with me shaving you again?”
She nodded, grabbed his cheeks and shoved her tongue inside his mouth, and with a groan he started to move. He didn’t last long at all, but he made it up to her with a second round where he actually took his clothes off.
-o0o-
Tuesday, April 30th
THEY'D MOVED EDIE'S THINGS while she was at work. She helped them at first, by carrying a box out to the car, but she’d been more than happy to get out of that task when he offered. He was also more than happy to not have her with them, because she dropped that first box and it was full of china.
He’d used her truck, so when her shift was over he took his bike and went to The Rover to wait for her while watching her dance and sing in that tight little skirt. When they walked out to his bike, he caught her and grabbed her ass with both his hands.
“You are very sexy, always, but you’re extremely fucking sexy when you dance around in that skirt.”
“Take the truck next time and I’ll keep it on.”
“Can I fuck you in the truck?”
“Truck fuck sounds good.”
He regretted having taken the bike, but that was easily rectified some other night. He smiled when he took her inside his place, and she halted already in the hallway and looked around.
“You’ve painted.”
“I did. Didn’t want my woman to live in a dump, so I fixed it up.”
Edie stood still, staring. “You do realize that I’m still looking for a place? That this is just temporary.”
“Why would it be?” When he wasn’t really getting the reaction he expected, he was starting to get both annoyed and worried at the same time. “What's the problem? I was at your place all the time anyway, we were pretty much already living together.”
“No we weren’t. It was my place. You were staying at my place, but you had your own place and... it’s not fucking the same!” She wasn’t done, though. “You can’t just do stuff like this, move my stuff to your place and say ‘surprise, we just moved in together’.”
“I repainted, fixed it up for you.”
“Which you wouldn’t have had to do if you’d just asked me what I wanted. Not just assume I’d swoon, bat my eyelashes and say 'lovely, give me the Old Lady tattoo while you're at it'.”
He was stunned. He had no fucking idea what her fucking problem was, just that it was a full set of problems in her head. And that comment ruled out asking her to get his ink any time soon, which he had planned to suggest. Not today... but soon.
“Are you shitting me?” he finally asked.
“No! I am not shitting you. Give me my car keys.”
“What?”
And now she was yelling, almost in panic, “Give me my fucking car keys!!!”
“No. You’re not running away from another fight. We're having it and you're staying. What’s the point of paying two rents?”
“Why would we discuss the point of anything since you’re so completely missing it?”
“What?” Jesus motherfucker he was about to explode, which would only make it worse, but why couldn't she listen to him? “That’s a valid fucking question.”
“Well on the point of questions, did it ever occur to you that maybe you should ask me if I wanted to move in with you?”
“It was a fucking surprise, I was gonna surprise you!”
“This is not a nice surprise, Dawg!”
“No, I can see that, and I don’t get what you’re so fucking upset about.”
“You didn’t ask! You need to ask me things. You can’t just order me around and tell me what to do.” She extended her hand. “Give me my keys.”
“No. You’re not running. For once we are going to argue, at the same spot, for the entire argument until we're done.”
“No we're not!” She yelled and then she turned around and walked out.
He, of course, ran after her. “Shit. Just fucking tell me where you wanna go and I’ll take you there.”
“No. I'm not going to argue with you in the car. Unless you give me the keys to my car, I’m fully capable of walking. I’ve walked miles all over the world.”
He couldn't believe her! Why was she making every littl
e thing so hard? Like now! Why couldn't they, for once, argue and be done with it. Her running away just meant the arguments lasted much longer. And why the hell couldn't she appreciate, at least a little, what he'd done for her?
“You’re not in the fucking desert now, and you’re not gonna walk around alone, in the middle of the night, here.”
“Then just give me my keys and I’ll drive, I’m safe to drive alone aren’t I?” She yelled while she was still walking, almost running, with him running after her like some pathetic dog.
Finally he grabbed her wrist. “Fuck, Edie! How the fuck am I the bad guy in this?”
“I told you, you didn’t even ask me, just decided what I was gonna do.”
That’s when he got it and he cursed again but this time that he’d been so stupid. Edie wasn’t big on having other people tell her what to do; her opinion was important to her, since no one gave a shit about it until she was eighteen.
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Edie.” He held on to her shoulders. “Will you move in with me?”
“No.”
Stubborn fucking women and their fixed fucking ideas and incapability to be practical about shit. Probably not what he should say now. But that sure was what he was thinking.
“Why?”
“Because I liked having a place of my own. I’ve never had that,” she pouted. Pouted!
“But I was there all the time anyway,” he tried.
“But it was my apartment.”
“Fine. I’ll sign over this place to you if that makes you happier.”
“No. It doesn’t. I’m not moving in there. Can you give me my keys now?”
“You’re still gonna go?”
“Yes. Give me the keys, please.”
“Why?”
“Cause I’m about to panic when I see that place. I need some time.”
Dawg bit down, dug the keys out of his pocket, slammed them into her outstretched hand and then turned around and walked inside without even looking back. He'd been on stakeouts, gone through blueprints and worked eighteen to twenty hour days on the Phoenix Águilas detail the last two weeks. This while cleaning and repainting his entire fucking apartment just to give her a nice surprise. That turned out awesome! He needed some time as well, so it suited him just fucking fine that she took off.
-o0o-
I sat in my truck and tried to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do now. He’d really caught me off guard, and the fact that he’d just decided that I was gonna move in was driving me insane. I didn’t need that. I needed to be allowed to decide things for myself. Especially things like if we were going to move in together. I wasn't a child.
The next thing I did totally contradicted that last thought. I called Lanie.
“Yes.”
It was the middle of the night so of course she was sleeping, but I needed her.
“Lanie, can I stay at your place tonight?”
“Sure. I’ll wait up for you.”
I drove there, and when I parked the car and walked up to their house she opened the front door. She'd been waiting for me, just like she'd said she would. She pulled me into a hug, and I started to cry.
“Oh, honey, what’s wrong?”
“He just decided, he didn’t even ask!”
“Ask what?”
“If I wanted to move in, just fucking painted the place and surprise! This is where you live now!”
She was quiet and then I felt the shakes, I took a step back and looked at her.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Not at you. I’m sorry. It’s just... such a bossy biker thing to do.”
“What?”
“How do you think I moved in here?”
I sighed and walked inside. “He should’ve asked.”
“Honey, you do realize why this is pissing you off, right?”
“Of course I do. I spent twelve months talking to shrinks every single day. I know why. But it really is the normal thing to do, to ask a person if they wanna move in together, you don’t just paint your place and move their stuff into your home!”
“He repainted?”
“Not the point!”
“No, of course not. And yes, that would be the normal thing to do. To ask.” Lanie pulled me out on the deck and gave me a cigarette. I shook my head since I was trying to kick that habit before it became another bad one.
“I mean, I might wake up down at the courthouse and have him tell me we're getting married. Or... I don't know, come home and find pets running around or some shit like that. Moving in together is a big thing.”
“Yes, it is. I know,” she said. “It’s very cave man, I admit that, but it was an attempt to do something pretty sweet. He’s just trying to take care of you.”
I knew that, and I knew that she was right, but the thought of him trying to control me freaked me out. I didn’t need that; I needed to know that I was in control of my own life. I couldn’t hand that over to him.
“I’m scared, Lanie.”
“He’s not dad, he’s not about that.”
I dried my cheeks. “I need to sleep. I need to...”
“Sort it out by yourself.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’ll talk to me when you’re ready. But he’s not dad, it’s not about controlling you, it’s about taking care of you. It’s a bit bossy, I admit, but that’s what they’re like, and he really just wants to make things easier for you. And also, he wants to live with you.”
“Okay.” I stood up and gave her a hug. “I need to sleep.”
“You know where your room is,” she said with a smile.
As I walked to the room and got ready for bed I realized it wasn't just that he'd tried to simply move me into his apartment that scared me. It was that we fought so much, too. It felt like we fought every week, about everything, and it worried me.
-o0o-
Brick turned around when Mel came back and looked at her. She'd told him Edie had called and was on her way. You didn't need to be a genius to know what the problem was. She'd had a fight with Dawg.
“What happened?”
“Dawg surprised her by painting his apartment, and he told her she was going to move in with him.”
He'd known that; he'd sent some guys to help him with the painting and the move. “So?”
“He didn’t ask her.”
“Still; so?”
“She’s not big on having people tell her what she’s gonna do.” Mel moved closer to him and put her arms around him. “He could’ve asked.”
“It was the smart thing to do. No point in paying two rents when they're together all the time.”
“Baby, listen to what I’m saying. Edie has problems when people are trying to control her.”
“Ahh.” He got it, and Mel had a point. “Didn’t think about that. It's still the smart thing to do.”
“Yeah, sure...” Mel mumbled and turned around. “Night.”
He lay awake for a while. He could sort of see why Edie had a problem with it, but he thought was Dawg had done was smart. And he'd really made and effort. Repainting and shit. There was no point in having two places if you were always at the same place. Then he wondered how fucking worried Dawg was now. If it had been Mel who just disappeared like that, he’d go crazy, so he carefully turned around and grabbed for his phone and texted to Dawg.
‘Your girl is here. Let her sleep it off.’
So the next morning at nine, Dawg rang their doorbell. When Brick opened it up, the two of them smiled at each other and shook their heads.
“You got yourself a handful, brother,” he said and stepped aside to let Dawg in.
“I know,” Dawg said as he walked inside. “Still sleeping?”
“Usual room,” Brick said and pointed.
Dawg smiled at him and shook his head before heading towards the guestroom.
“Was that Dawg?” Mel asked from the kitchen.
“Yeah.”
He watched Dawg soundlessly ope
n the door and slip inside.
-o0o-
Edie was curled up the way she almost always was when she slept. Dawg sat down on the bed and carefully drew his fingertips along her jawline. Her eyes fluttered and then opened.
“Hey, Nibbles. Want some company in the bed?”
“Yes,” she mumbled.
He took off most of his clothes and she held up the sheet so he could get under it.
“Missed you,” he said and put his arm around her and the other underneath her head, pulling her close.
“What colors did you paint? I only saw the hallway.”
“Dark red in the living room, dark blue in the bedroom and eggshell white in the kitchen.”
She lay still and then looked at him.
“That’s the colors I said I’d choose if I got to paint my own place.”
“I know. That’s why I picked them.”
“Why?”
“Cause, baby, I don’t give a flying fuck what colors the walls are where I live. You do.” He kissed her nose. “Listen. I'll take my stuff from there to the clubhouse. You can have that place and I'll find some studio apartment or something.”
She seemed to think it over, and she was gnawing on the inside of her cheeks, but still didn't say anything.
“Babe? Take my place. Like I said, I'll sign it over to you if that makes it better.”
“So if you break up with me you can't kick me out?”
“I'm not gonna break up with you.”
“But if you do.”
“I won't. But if you want you can kick me out.”
“Okay. I don't want to have your bed there.”
“I know, I already threw it out, yours is more comfortable.” He hugged her and kissed her cheek. “Can I keep my vinyls and my stereo there?”
“That's about the only thing you own! What are you gonna have at your place?”
He shrugged with a smile. “A bed. Can keep my clothes there if you wanna have the wardrobe to yourself.”
He doubted she'd need it though. She still didn't have many clothes, and besides the shoes she wore at work, she walked around in those old, very well-worn work boots all the time.
“It would be like we lived together anyway!”
Arrow of Time (Marauders) Page 27
