The Hound

by Nikky Kaye

  Crude. Sexual. Need. That was pretty much it.

  “Jake!” One side of her face was smushed into the couch, her lips pursed as she struggled for air and a brief reprieve.

  I gave her none.

  Her eyes closed. “Evie,” she panted.

  What about her? I leaned over, my hips slamming into her ass over and over again. “Evie what?”

  My movements slowed to minute, intimate jerks against her as I molded my front to her sinuous and sweaty back. I was so goddamn close, in every way—yet I wanted to get closer. Still in a fog of hunger, I licked and sucked her shoulder and neck.

  “Ev—” Annie tried again, twisting her head around to try to look me in the eye. My hands dug underneath her, gripping her tits as I thrust.

  “Evie what?”

  She yelped as I yanked her up, throwing me a dirty look. Then she looked straight ahead before dropping her chin to her chest. Her hair tickled my face as I plastered her against me, with one palm at her breast and the other splayed over her belly.

  Pinpoints of light refracted through my belly, signaling I was about to come.

  “Are you…?” She inhaled, her hands covering mine over her expanding ribcage. “You going to fuck Evie, too?”

  Shit, what?

  At that moment, I lost any grasp I still had on my self-control. Pleasure shot through my body, and any ability to think and reason was sucked out of me in its wake.

  “Agh! Fuck fuck fuck!” The tension in me uncoiled violently as I spurted helplessly into her—without a condom, again. Apparently my brain cells were in my dick, and I was losing them at a rapid pace.

  By the time I finished, I was trembling. My clothes were damp with sweat, with only my pants shoved down my hips, and Annie shivered—naked—in my arms.

  Jesus Christ, had I even made her come? What kind of beast was I?

  When I dropped my hands from her, she tumbled forward onto the couch, face-planting into a throw pillow.

  “Owf!”

  Still trying to catch my breath, I looked down at my dripping cock, the moisture between her thighs, and said a silent prayer for Dom and Evie’s couch.

  I scanned the room. Frowned.

  “Where’s Evie?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Jake

  “Jake, you are the dumbest motherfucker on the face of the earth.”

  I reared back as Dom laughed in my face. “Thanks, asshole.”

  Too late, I remembered that Stella was in the kitchen with Evie. Had she heard us? Glancing over, I saw that Evie and my daughter were deep in a cookie-making tutorial. Hopefully neither of them heard Dominic giving me shit.

  It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, following a silent Sunday morning. After our nuclear encounter the night before, Annie retreated to a guest bedroom at Dom and Evie’s and never came out. Evie gave me a dirty look, a raised eyebrow, and shoved me out the door.

  My apartment was cold, quiet, and filled with my own restless energy for the rest of the night. Later in the morning, I picked up Stella from Sheila’s.

  It was going to be a sleepover night, since Sheila had a long shift that evening. She was still training in the dispatch job, and while the bags around her eyes were being packed for longer and longer trips, there was a satisfaction in them that I couldn’t begrudge. The new job was agreeing with her, even if the scheduling sucked at times.

  By the time Stella and I arrived at Dom and Evie’s, Annie had already left for work. I was frustrated and annoyed at missing her, but when I grumbled to Dom about it, he just laughed.

  And insulted my intelligence.

  “Let me guess,” I said. “Evie kissed and told.”

  He shook his head at me. “Well, yeah. It sounds like it was a pretty hot scene.”

  “You don’t mind?” Dom had a jealous streak, at least about Evie.

  His shrug was casual, but his smile faded as he put down the newspaper he’d been reading on the couch. “Nothing happened between you two again, as I understand it.”

  “No, I mean about Evie and Annie.”

  He waved his hand, making an indistinct sound in the back of his throat. “It is what it is. And like I said, it sounded pretty hot. I trust Evie. I don’t think she’s going to leave me for Annie, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  I didn’t know what I was getting at. But I felt like I’d been reaching in the dark since leaving their place less than twelve hours earlier.

  “Okay, Mister Know-It-All. Why was Annie so…?”

  “Adventurous?”

  Well, that too. “Upset,” I said.

  Dom shook his head again, enunciating carefully. “Dumb. Mother. Fu—”

  I put up my hand, jerking my head towards the girls in the kitchen. “Okay, I get it. I mean—I don’t really get it.”

  With a frustrated huff, my adopted brother stood up from the couch, and I followed him to his home office. This room used to be a business sanctuary, but Evie’s influence had crept in here as well—a new clock on the desk, a cushy chair by a bookcase.

  “Sit down.” He pointed to the armchair.

  When I fell into the chair with a sigh, the midday sun shining through the window illuminated a swarm of dust motes.

  Dom leaned against the desk, his arms crossed over his chest. “From what Evie told me… it sounded like a test.”

  “A test?” My mind raced, hurdling over the evening like a mental track and field competition. “I failed, didn’t I?”

  “Dude, you pooched it. Big time.”

  “What? What is it with women?” I pressed my fingers into my eyeballs. “How am I supposed to pass a test if I don’t know I’m taking it? Obviously, I didn’t even fucking study!”

  “From what I heard, you did manage to get some cramming at the last minute.”

  I looked up. The bastard was grinning. “That’s not funny.”

  “Bullshit. I’m hilarious. And you’d probably say something like it, too—if you were in my place.”

  Thinking back on the whole situation, I paused over certain moments, then pressed play and paused again. Blinked and tried to do a mental screen capture. The problem was that my memory wasn’t objective; it was biased toward my dick.

  Evie and Annie were practically acting out the beginning of a sorority girl porno, when I’d arrived. I’d made some joke about leaving them alone, but didn’t. Showed Annie how sexy she was, then fucked her senseless.

  I blinked at Dom. “Is it because I got off before Annie did?”

  “Did you get shot in the head in Iraq and just didn’t tell anyone?” Dom huffed, referring to my stint in the service.

  I didn’t usually talk much about that time. I joined up because I wanted to belong to something without feeling like a pawn—as I had been since being adopted by Dominic’s rich grandfather. He’d gone and plucked me out of foster care to be a playmate for his orphaned grandson, like we were living in some stupid Charles Dickens book.

  Inevitably, I rebelled. So I busted my ass—and got it kicked on a regular basis—to become an elite soldier, so I wouldn’t be a toy for entitled assholes to play with.

  The joke was on me.

  The military was one big role-playing game for politicians, most of whom didn’t know the difference between a dungeon and a dragon.

  “I’m not talking about Annie. Not really,” Dom amended.

  “Is it something about Evie?”

  “You’re getting warmer.”

  “Did I embarrass her?” She hadn’t seemed too shy at the time, though I remember her saying my name a couple of times.

  My adopted Richie Rich brother looked like he wanted to hit me. “Bag of rocks. You are dumb as a—”

  I threw up my hands. “Okay! Okay! Just spell it out, since I’m too fucking stupid to connect the dots, here.”

  “They thought you wanted a threesome.”

  My mouth opened, then closed. The thought had crossed my mind, sure. “But I never said—”

  “You said we were b
oth sexy,” Evie reminded me from where she stood in the doorway to the home office.

  I startled, looking behind her for Stella.

  “She’s playing in the living room with some kitchen stuff,” she answered my silent question.

  Kitchen stuff? “Like what?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Just some knives, a cheese grater. A ninja blender thing.” Evie lifted one shoulder.

  Oh. She was joking. “You are both sexy,” I told her.

  The corner of her mouth turned down. “You also said you wanted both of us.”

  “Well, yeah. At one time—separate times. Not together, right then.” Didn’t I? I rubbed my forehead.

  “Then you proceeded to fuck Annie’s brains out,” Dom said.

  Annie added, “While I left the room, like a lady.”

  “That’s debatable,” I muttered. If I recalled correctly, she’d left the show at intermission.

  But yeah, after we’d—I’d finished, I’d wondered where she’d gone. I asked Annie where Evie—oh. Oh, shit.

  “By George, I think he’s got it,” drawled Dom. Evie snorted, disappearing down the hallway again.

  I dropped my head into my heads, groaning. “Fuck. My. Life.”

  “Looks like you’re doing a pretty good job of that without help.”

  “Fuck you.”

  My brother sighed. “I get that maybe you didn’t mean to, but it sounds like you made Annie think that you wanted Evie, as well. And Evie tells me that her friend is a little insecure about the whole fact that you’ve banged my fiancée before.”

  My forehead furrowed with a frown as I looked up at him. “You were there, too.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think that fact fills Annie with confidence.”

  No, it probably didn’t. Annie was up and down, always unpredictable and at odds with herself. She was the kind of woman who would enter a hot dog eating contest just to prove that she wasn’t a vegetarian.

  “So what was I supposed to do?”

  “Leave.”

  I jerked my head back in disbelief. “Dude. They were kissing and taking each other’s clothes off.” My body began to react just at the memory.

  Dom looked away uncomfortably. “Okay, fair enough. Shit, I don’t know.”

  “What would you have done, in my place?”

  Silence. Right, I thought so.

  “I gotta ask you, Jake. Do you still want Evie?”

  “No! I mean, she’s beautiful and sexy and everything, but I’m not in love with her.” Hadn’t I said something like this to Annie? “I never was.”

  I met Dom’s assessing gaze, wanting him to understand that I wasn’t a threat to him or his relationship. I saw Evie as a sister. Okay, yes, a sister that I’d double-teamed with him at one point, but… She was just… Evie—soft, sassy, real.

  In retrospect, I’d barely noticed her after seeing Annie’s flushed face and pebbled nipples the night before.

  All I saw was Annie.

  All I wanted was Annie—the woman who didn’t give a damn about my money or medals. The one who had no regard for her own personal safety, but looked at my little girl like she was made out of crystal.

  “Okay, smart guy. What do I do now?” I asked him.

  “Hang out, if you want. I think Evie’s going shopping or something. Then take Stella and pick up Annie after the lunch service is done,” he said, reminding me that there was no dinner at her restaurant on Sundays.

  “I meant in a bigger picture kind of way.”

  Dom considered it. “Talk to her.”

  And say what?

  Chapter Twelve

  Annie

  I almost didn’t expect Jake to come pick me up from work. When he did, I didn’t know what to say to him. Luckily, I didn’t have to say anything, as my manager John pulled him aside to talk about… something.

  Whatever. I grabbed my stuff and said goodbye to the kitchen staff, who were still scrubbing things down. The dishwasher was broken, which left Darren steaming open his pores over a full sink of hot water. I felt bad for the guy.

  “Do you want me to help?”

  He shook his head, his face red. “I’ll get the boss to pitch in.”

  I snorted. “Good luck with that.” John was notoriously prissy. Then again, he might help out just to make sure it was done properly—not that Darren was a slacker. But there were a lot of brunch dishes there.

  “Wow!” Stella had broken free of her father’s gravity and wandered into the kitchen. “Can I have a peanut butter sammich?”

  Everyone froze, unaccustomed to seeing a little kid in a commercial kitchen.

  “I’ll make you one at home,” I told her, scooping her up. “Say goodbye, Stella!”

  “G’bye, Stella!”

  “Sheesh.” I rolled my eyes. “Do you practice being cute?”

  She squirmed out of my arms and ran out into the front. The staff got back to work with fresh smiles on their faces. That kid was better than Prozac, sometimes. By the time I caught up with Stella, John was going through credit card receipts and Jake was waiting at the door.

  “Ready?”

  I nodded.

  The walk back to Jake’s apartment was quiet, except for Stella’s shrieks as she swung like a monkey from his tattooed, muscled arm.

  “Again!”

  Yeah, kid. Again. I envied her ability to hang on to Jake without a care, trusting that he would catch her if she fell. I’d never known a man like that. I certainly hadn’t had a Daddy like that.

  As a teenager, I spent some time trying not to get caught by my mother’s asshole boyfriends. They seemed to think that jailbait was fair game if my mom was asleep. I got out of there as soon as I could, but my grades weren’t good enough to get me very far.

  Waitressing wasn’t my dream job but it wasn’t a nightmare, either. It was honest work and decent money, and until recently I’d been satisfied with it. Now I was almost thirty, and realizing that I’d been in my “temporary” job for nearly twelve years.

  Shit.

  It made me feel even worse for getting so comfortable at Jake’s. I was a strong, independent, ninja woman! Okay, maybe not so much the ninja part.

  I frowned and sighed. “You know…”

  Jake nearly tripped when he heard me speak, swearing as he stumbled over Stella.

  “Daaa-ddy!” Stella picked herself up from the sidewalk and gave us both a baleful look.

  “Sorry, honey.”

  She stepped between us and took our hands. “Swing me!” she demanded in restitution.

  Jake grinned at me over her head. Was that relief? Gratitude that I’d broken the awkward silence? Usually his smile did weird, wonderful things to my insides, but this one felt like I’d gorged on hot chocolate instead of tequila.

  It took us a couple of tries to coordinate our arms, but soon Stella was swooping up and down like a tote bag on a really successful shopping trip.

  “I know what?” Jake asked.

  “What do you know?”

  “You started to say something. ‘You know…’”

  I blinked. “Oh, yeah. My, uh, secret admirer seems to have given up. No notes, no presents, nothing.”

  He stopped, breaking his daughter’s grip on him. “So you think he’s forgotten about you? Stella, stop whining.”

  “I just think maybe I could go back to my own apartment.”

  Try to live my own life again. Get back to the place where I wasn’t depending on other people to keep me safe and happy. Maybe I wouldn’t have as much, but I wouldn’t lose as much, either.

  Stella tugged on my hand, trying to wrestle a swing out of me from sheer momentum. “Let’s go!”

  “Just a minute, starlight. We’re almost home, anyhow.” I looked at the sidewalk. “I mean—I’m sure you’re wasting money on me…”

  Jake stepped toward me, taking my other hand. The three of us stood in a circle, Stella yanking on us both and our free hands in each other’s. We looked ready to have a séance, summo
ning spirits from beyond the grave.

  He leaned in close, his voice harsh in my ear. “I don’t know what’s worse—the way you undervalue yourself, or the way you underestimate other people.”

  A hole opened up in my chest. “Like you?”

  “Like me.” His hand squeezed mine, completely surrounding it with warmth and strength. His daughter was still holding my other hand like I was a puppy on a leash. “And like him. You don’t know what’s capable of. You don’t even know who he is, remember? Maybe he’s just lulled you into a… what’s the—?”

  “False sense of complacency,” I finished. Yeah, I was familiar with the concept. It seemed to be the story of my life. “I’m a big girl, Jake. I know how to dial nine-one-one, all by myself.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Okay, smart ass. Prove it.”

  Then he said nothing more while we walked the last block to his apartment.

  Prove it? I didn’t understand. “What, you want me to show you my phone or something?”

  “Not exactly,” he said. Once in the lobby, he gave Stella his phone to play on and told her to go sit on one of the couches. I watched, confused, as he then spoke quietly to the security guard.

  “Aren’t we going upstairs?”

  “Not yet.” He unbuckled his belt as he stalked toward me, whipping it out of the loops on his pants with a swish. “Turn around.”

  “What?” Was he going to take his clothes off in the lobby?

  Impatiently, he spun me around and pulled my hands back. My shoulder blades squeezed together. “Ow!”

  “Sorry.” He landed a soft, slow kiss on the nape of my neck. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” Each apology came with the press of his lips, the tip of his tongue, the heat of his breath. It all rendered me to a liquid form, relaxing me into that sweet, mellow complacency we talked about.

  Until he wrapped his belt around my crossed wrists.

  What the—?

  The leather squeaked a little as he pulled my makeshift binding as tight as possible. My gaze flew to the guard, who was looking down at his phone. Even Stella was immersed in Jake’s phone.