But as I rubbed my thighs together, sending a hand down between my legs to caress that firm little nub, I wondered if it could have been something else.
CHAPTER NINE
NATALIE
My dreams that night didn't stop in tormenting my already overdriven mind.
Dad, looking devastated at Mom's funeral and even more so with each passing day that I never came home. I was all he had left. I had to reach out to him soon.
Intermixed were highly sexual dreams about Sol, which only frustrated me on waking up. In my dreams I traced his tattoos with my tongue, he handled me roughly and I arched under every fiery touch from him.
So when I came downstairs to see him shirtless and barefoot, cooking breakfast in the kitchen, my feet stopped in their tracks and my breath hitched in my chest.
Wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts, his tattoos and Adonis physique were on full display. My dreams did him no justice. The reality was more mouthwatering than my brain could ever imagine.
Ari with the TV turned on to cartoons was a welcome distraction.
"Morning, Natalie!" she chirped.
"Morning, Ari," I said. "No school today?"
"Last I checked, there was still no school on Saturdays."
The sarcastic answer came from Sol, who turned his back to me and faced the stove as he flipped pancakes. His wide, muscular back displayed some kind of battle scene between dragons in a Japanese art style. I wanted to study every intricate detail with my eyes, my lips and my fingers.
"Bad kids get school on Saturday," Ari corrected her father. "It's called detention."
"Good thing you're not one of the bad ones, baby."
Sol turned and winked at me as he did. I tried not to stare at his washboard stomach and sculpted shoulders, keeping my face neutral. I was still mad at him for essentially insulting me last night and blowing off my plea for help for my friends.
If I could just keep from being distracted from his perfect, ripped body, I'd stay for as long as I needed before going home to my dad. I could find my own way to rescue Leah if he didn't give a shit about it.
"Ari, go wash up for breakfast," he instructed.
She jumped up from the couch without protest and headed to the bathroom to wash her hands.
Sol immediately came around the island to stand directly in front of me. My pulse quickened as he came near, overwhelming my senses when he lightly touched my chin to ensure I was looking at him.
And oh, I was. Lost in those golden brown eyes.
"Hey, I'm sorry about last night," he said quickly in a low voice so Ari wouldn't hear. "My stupid monolog came out totally wrong. I don't think you're damaged goods at all. You're an incredibly brave, strong person. And a beautiful one."
What?
I must have heard him wrong.
My mouth dropped open a little in surprise and I swore his thumb brushed ever so slightly against my lower lip. In the next moment, his hand was gone from my face.
"I can't promise anything but I'll do what I can to help the other girls that are still there."
This sudden change of heart both moved me and knocked the breath out of me with confusion. Why would he suddenly care? And why did I need his hand on me again so badly after he took it away? Why did I want to be enveloped in his strong arms the moment he invaded my personal space?
So many feelings and emotions coursed throughout my body, I didn't know what else to say but, "Thank you."
"All washed!" Ari emerged from the bathroom holding up her proudly washed hands.
"Good girl!" Sol was suddenly too many feet away from me, scooping small pancakes onto a dish with a spatula. "Good girls get blueberry pancakes."
"Yay!" Ari upturned the bottle of maple syrup and dumped it all over her pancakes until I stopped it from overflowing her plate.
"What are your plans for today, Ari?" I asked.
"Netta's taking me to the park to play on the playground!" she exclaimed. "Come with us, Natalie!"
"Sure, if it's okay with Netta."
"Natalie can't go to the park, baby. She has to stay here."
Ari and I both looked at her father with disbelief.
"I do?"
"Yes," he said through gritted teeth and narrowed eyes. "I need you here."
I got the hint to not ask any more questions and the three of us ate through a long, uncomfortable pancake breakfast until Netta stopped by to take Ari to the park. The moment she was gone, Sol headed up the stairs.
"I have some work to do. Gonna shower and be back in a few hours."
"Okay wait, what the fuck?" I threw my hands up in the air. "I'm just supposed to stay here and do what, exactly? Be your maid?"
"Natalie," he sighed, sounding genuinely apologetic. "I can't let you leave the house. I'm sorry. It's safer for Ari, you, everyone. Antigua likely has someone watching me and if they see you coming and going from my house, we're completely fucked."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I cried. "So I'm basically still a prisoner, just to a different boss in a nicer cell."
"Call it whatever you want. I'm not risking my daughter getting kidnapped or murdered."
"Since you're going, what's stopping me from just walking out after you're gone, huh?" I demanded, spit flying from my mouth but I didn’t give a fuck.
His perspective made sense and I wasn't entirely sure why I fought against him so much. I just hated having so little control over my own life.
But Sol didn't seem worried. He merely shrugged as he continued up the stairs and said, "If you want to risk getting captured again, that's your call."
CHAPTER TEN
SOLOMON
Maybe it was wrong to test Natalie like that.
But was it wrong that my dick felt like concrete seeing her all worked up and pissed off?
I had to make my shower an icy cold one because that sexy little spitfire gave me an hard-on that just would not quit.
When my blood finally cooled I dried off, got dressed and left the house without another word to her. I didn't see her but her bedroom door was closed.
I had a pretty strong hunch that she wouldn't leave. She was a smart girl, she wouldn't take a risk like that. And anyway, she wasn’t my prisoner. I did give her the choice.
I got in my car and took the short drive to Harry's, Cloverville's staple watering hole to meet Louie, my bookie.
Maybe it was pretentious of me but I much preferred the classy wine bar, Vino Veritas for an evening of drinking. Harry's was a bit too divey and sticky for my taste but they had TVs showing the games and highlights, which was all that mattered for this order of business.
I spotted Louie in his usual spot, a pub table against the wall facing the big screen TV. As usual, he wore reading glasses low on his nose, eyes moving between the TV and the laptop in front of him. A half-finished beer rested on a coaster next to his computer.
Despite my promising shot at an engineering degree before getting kicked out of school, I just didn't understand numbers like Louie. In his late forties with salt and pepper hair and wise blue eyes, Louie had been running gambling books since I was a toddler. And he did them for me like a computing machine.
"How about them Warriors!" I exclaimed, clapping him on the back.
"How about them dumb suckers who keep betting against the Warriors," he chuckled in reply, peering at me over his glasses. "Just sent the deposit to your account, boss."
"Excellent," I said, sliding into a chair next to him. "That's what I like about you. You're never late."
And thank fuck for Bitcoin. I couldn’t imagine doing business the old school way, walking around with huge amounts of cash. Carrying around fifty-thousand dollars in a bag like in a damn movie would be asking to get shot.
"What kind of numbers man would I be, then?" He smiled. "Beer?"
"I'm in more of a shots mood, I think." I flagged down a waitress and ordered a round of Tito's shots.
"Is that a celebratory mood or stress mood?" Louie inquired curiou
sly.
"The second one," I replied, accepting my shots off the drink tray. I threw back the first one and set the empty shot glass down on the table before continuing.
"Antigua did us dirty."
Louie's eyebrows raised slightly but his expression didn't change otherwise.
"And you're surprised?"
"Not entirely but it's a biggie." I reached for my second shot and lowered my voice.
"Not only is he still pimping, it seems to have reached a new low. Women locked up in awful conditions. Straight-up sexual slavery."
Louie removed his glasses and pressed his lips into a thin, tense line.
"And how do you know this?"
"One escaped. Found her in the back of my delivery truck." I threw back the second shot and signaled for more. "You should have seen her, man. It was sad. She was filthy and thin. And armed with a knife ready to kill herself before being taken prisoner again."
My mind went to Natalie accusing me of keeping her captive just like before and my heart squeezed with a little bit of guilt. I didn't want her to feel that way. But then again, why did I give a fuck what she felt?
Louie sipped his beer as he pondered what I told him.
"We can't let a slight like this go," I said with an emphatic slam of my empty third shot on the table.
"I realize that boss, but you know what I'm going to say about the odds," Louie said cautiously. "He's got the power to wipe us off the face of the goddamn earth." His expression changed and he looked curious. "What'd you do with the girl?"
"She’s staying with me," I replied. Louie was one of the few people I could trust with the truth. "She's at my house, temporarily."
"Uh huh..."
One look at me and Louie knew exactly what kind of struggle raged between my heart, mind, and dick. He was damn perceptive and could've been a detective if he lived on the legal side of things. The way he looked at me was almost fatherly.
"Sol, you realize how much more complicated that makes things for us. Especially for yourself."
"I know. I fucking know." With a sigh, I propped my elbows on the table and rested my head in my hands. "And Ari fucking loves her. Not even two days and she asked if she could be her mommy."
"Never thought I'd see the day you'd let a woman complicate your life," he chuckled.
"No shit. Me neither."
"You know what you gotta do, though."
"Yeah, I do."
We shot the shit for the rest of the day into the evening, talking business while I paced myself on the shots. The more I drank, the more tempting it became to head home and shove Natalie between a wall and my hard place.
Fuck, why did I say I would help her friends? I wasn't some damn hero. If we were going to succeed in overthrowing Antigua at all, we'd have to catch him by surprise and go in guns blazing.
There would be casualties. Probably a lot.
What was it about this woman that cause me to make promises I couldn't keep? What was it about her that made me put my own livelihood at risk for a request she made? Who was she to even make requests of me? She should be thanking me every day that she was still alive.
With blowjobs, ideally. But unfortunately, real life wasn't the same as fantasy.
Dusk descended over the bar, turning the sky a brilliant gradient of purple and orange. I said goodbye to Louie and slammed back a glass of water before heading out.
I was probably on the cusp of being legally too drunk to drive but I felt alright and lived less than a mile away.
I knew my cop buddy Liam was on duty tonight and he'd look out for me if I was driving too erratically.
I had to hit him up about this Antigua business too. His dad was a detective and could probably find something out for me.
Liam was one of the few cops who understood me and my chosen way of life. So many other blue uniforms around this sleepy little town had nothing better to do than get on my ass about petty shit. But Liam knew I ran a tight business, illegal as it was. No violence would come to the streets where our kids played as long as I was in charge. And I respected him for staying off my nuts and letting me do my thing.
When I pulled up to the house, the absence of Netta's car in the driveway proved to me that Natalie stayed put. Netta would never leave Ari at home alone even if she did live down the street.
I crept in quietly through the front door. Most of the lights were off except for a reading lamp next to the couch. Peering over the cushions, I saw a sight that made my cold, calloused heart absolutely melt.
Ari was asleep with a picture book in her lap with Natalie cuddled up next to her, also asleep.
They were both under a blanket and laid stretched out on the couch. I couldn't help but smile at seeing my little girl sleeping peacefully. She never dozed off out here. She loved her princess bed too much.
And Natalie.
She looked absolutely beautiful and angelic. Her face was also relaxed and peaceful, the complete opposite of the expression she wore this morning.
And still my cock grew hard, pressing against my zipper as if reaching for her.
Careful not to disturb them, I sat on the couch just behind where Ari's feet stretched out. Natalie's arm draped across Ari's shoulders protectively and a strand of dark blonde hair fell across her face. Without thinking, I brushed that piece of hair back behind her ear and my fingers had no desire to leave her skin.
Her skin was so incredibly soft. The curving lines of her jaw and neck so feminine and elegant.
I found myself leaning in closer, brushing more silky strands of hair away from her gorgeous face. She smelled like strawberries.
My cock throbbed eagerly from being so intimately close to her, so close that I could inhale her scent and see the adorable freckle just under her ear. Maybe it was my alcohol and lust-fueled brain urging me on, I don't know why, but I just had to kiss it.
When my lips touched the skin of her neck, it was like they caught fire from her body heat which quickly spread throughout all of my limbs.
I couldn't stop at just one little kiss. I was under a spell and I needed more.
She stirred and moaned a little as I planted soft kisses on her neck, savoring the taste and warmth of her skin which only made me stiffer and harder. I could taste how her pulse quickened and her body temperature rose.
"Sol," she moaned sleepily as she turned her head to face me. I swore my name never sounded sexier coming from a woman's mouth than in that moment.
"Natalie."
I said her name only once before capturing her mouth with mine.
I half expected some resistance but she gave me none. Rather she opened her mouth up to me, her eager tongue darting forward to dance with mine. Fuck, she tasted so sweet.
My fingers gripped through her hair at the base of her skull, pulling her to me because I couldn't get enough. I was vaguely aware of her hand wrapping around my neck as our kiss ignited a roaring hot flame between us.
"Mmm, Daddy?"
In a flash, I tore away from Natalie and practically rolled off the couch. I saved myself by planting my ass down on the floor right in front of Ari's sleepy face.
"Hey, baby," I said, probably smiling too wide. "How was the park?"
"Good. Natalie read me a book." Her eyelids drooped lower.
Relief swept through me. Good. She didn't see anything.
"That was nice of her." My eyes darted up to Natalie, who sat up wide awake with messy hair and flushed, swollen lips. In other words, sexy as fuck.
"You ready for bed, big girl?" I asked Ari.
She nodded, barely able to keep her eyes open as she slid off the couch into my arms.
As I carried her up the stairs to her room, I looked over at Natalie and mouthed, "Stay there. Be right back."
She watched me go up to Ari's room silently without a word.
I put Ari to bed with record speed and practically ran out of her room, dying to taste Natalie again without interruptions. This time, I had to taste more of her.
But just as I softly closed Ari's door, I heard Natalie's shut firmly and the lock turn on the other side.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NATALIE
My chest heaved as I sucked in deep breaths behind the safety of my bedroom door. My whole body pulsed with heat and tingled with sensations I couldn’t name but consumed me all the same.
I ran up here to gather my thoughts, to make sure I didn't let myself make another stupid decision.
I could still feel his lips on my neck, his tongue in my mouth, the heat from his body and how good he smelled.
He permeated my senses with just a few kisses. No one had kissed me like that before. It was like an electrical charge that jolted me to life.
And yet my gut roiled with all the familiar sensations of the past six months. Fear, shame, and the disgust with myself.
I often felt like that when trapped in that dank, filthy basement, while being used by various men. Blaming myself and believing all the things they told me. That I wasn't even a person. I was nothing more than a vessel made to be stuffed with cock.
When I escaped and rode for hours in that dark van, I made a promise to myself: That I would never allow my body to be used by another man ever again.
But if his kisses took my breath away and set my body on fire with need, was I really being used?
Why couldn't I use him for my own pleasure? What was the point of spending the rest of my life in fear of men?
And the ever pragmatic side of me asked, How will you know if sex can ever feel good again if you don't do it?
Steadying my breath and steeling my nerves, I turned back to the door and turned the knob. Looking through the crack, I saw Sol's bedroom door was closed.
With my heart beating like a drum against my ribs, I walked through the hall. My hands shook with nervousness and if I slowed my pace down enough, I was certain I'd see my feet shaking as I placed one in front of the other. Stopping directly in front of his door, I gently pressed my ear against the wood. His deep breathing, which I just barely heard, confirmed that he was fast asleep.
Down and Dirty: A Single Dad Bad Boy Romance (Small Town Bad Boys Book 3) Page 5
