A Brother At My Back

by A. J. Downey

  I wish I could have given Zeke the cold satisfaction of knowing what’d been done with Cooper but I wasn’t about to put any of my bros in the club in any danger of word getting to the cops around here, not over some guy I barely knew and his feelings for a girl I knew even less. That was just madness and would be me begging to be put out bad. I’d walked that path once, even if it had been for honorable intentions. I wouldn’t be trying it again.

  I went into the club’s dimly-lit interior and Alan, Tiffany’s boss straightened up at the bar. He gave me a chin lift and I went over.

  “A drink, on me. What will you have?”

  “Gizza a beer,” I said to the bartender and he gave me a nod with a quizzical look.

  “I’m going to assume that meant ‘give me’ somehow,” Alan said with a smile and I grinned.

  “Ah, yeah, I do it without thinking, I reckon. Use things like that from back home.”

  “I figured.”

  “How’re things?” I asked.

  “Could be better. From a business stand-point, not too bad, from the standpoint of being worried about my girls and the rest of my employees…” He trailed off and shook his head, bowing it and grabbing the back of his neck.

  I made a decision. “If I told you ‘No worries, bro’, would you believe me?” I asked.

  He eyed me skeptically for a second and then a spark of recognition ignited in his eyes and he nodded slowly. “The reputation of your club proceeds you when it comes to believing. Your jacket definitely buys you some trust in this matter.”

  The bartender returned and set a bottle of beer on one of those paper coasters in front of me. I picked it up and took a swig.

  “Francesca is about to perform her last dance; I saved you a seat by the stage,” Alan said and gestured out that way with one hand.

  “Thanks,” I said and he led me over to a chair by a small round table just enough to hold my beer, an ashtray, and a pack of smokes if I had the latter. I wished I could fire up a blunt to mellow out some, but that would have to be later.

  “Thank you for looking out for her,” he said and clapped me on the shoulder. I nodded and with a smile, he was gone.

  I settled in and took another swig of my beer. It was one of them good ones, not the cheap kind to scull to get down so you didn’t have to taste it.

  The dancer on the stage was just finishing up and the announcer came over the sound system.

  “Alright, thank you, Candy! Let’s give Candy a round of applause.”

  There was a smattering of clapping and an enthusiastic whistle and the music transitioned to some bass-heavy 80’s music.

  “Please welcome to the stage for her last dance, everybody, it’s your very own queen of the night – let’s give it up for Francesca!”

  The music blared heavier and that hard-hitting voice that made you want to rise out of your seat declared she had everything I needed and more. I felt my lips curve into an appreciative smile as Tiffany burst from the curtains, striding along the stage one foot in front of the other, hands on her hips like she owned the night.

  She made it to the pole and went around once, putting her back to it, sliding down, her knees parted and gloved hands, those fancy black satin ones that went to her elbow, tracing a line between her breasts over her stomach, tantalizingly to the waistband of the barely there scrap of panties covering her sex.

  She had it. She knew just what she did to me, her eyes sparkling behind the black lace mask covering the one side of her face. The bass hit and she stood and did some really amazing shit around that pole that had every man around the stage panting for her, except I’d be the only one who got to lick, and I would until she came writhing underneath me as soon as I got her back to my flat.

  She moved like fluid fire around that damn brass pole and along the black lacquered stage and there was something different about her. An unbridled joy to her dancing that I’d never seen before and I realized that she was performing her heart out up there and she was both beautiful and so fierce it squeezed my damn heart.

  She made her way down the steps rather than do her seductive crawl like the first time I’d seen her dance, and made her way along the tables and chairs, drifting fingers teasingly over shoulders, giving one guy a playful shove against his forehead, until she came to me. She straddled my legs and bowed swiftly, coming up with her tits practically in my face and I couldn’t say there was a complaint to be had about that. She turned around and gave me a spectacular view of her ass, and it was everything in me to keep my hands to myself as per the house rules.

  She leaned back against me and I got an equally spectacular view over her shoulder, down between the valley of her breasts, her ass pressed lightly over my dick which was straining at the inside of my fly. She undulated against me, rubbing lightly against my crotch and I just about died and went to heaven.

  She eased her bra off and held it off to one side, dropping it delicately, turning around again and sitting full on my lap, topless and alluring, her arms around my neck as she looked me in the eyes and with a wicked little smile, she kissed me. I lost what little self-control I had for a second and gripped her ass, pulling her hard up against me. The only thing between me and her and getting it on right there pretty much just my jeans.

  She came up for air and, certain I had her, she bent all the way back, her hands kneading her breasts, her hips writhing over mine and I couldn’t wait to recreate this without the damn clothes back at my place.

  She came up slowly, passion in her eyes and I let her go when she stood. She took me by the hand and I stood with her. A little pirouette beneath my arm, she took a bow for the men, collected her cash from the floor around us and blew kisses, then took my hand again and with a little wave over her shoulder, led me to the back.

  The way back, before she turned around and kissed me fiercely again. We broke the kiss, both of us breathing hard and I asked, “What the fuck was that?”

  She smiled a little smile and said, “I saved the last dance for you.”

  “I see!” I exclaimed.

  She smiled a little secretive smile and asked, “You park out front?”

  “Yeah, I’ll pull it around.”

  She shook her head and said, “I walked in the front door of this club the first time I ever came here, I think it’s fitting I walk out the front when I leave.”

  I blinked, the gravity of what she was saying hit me.

  “You quit?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Alan and I talked. It’s time.”

  I pulled her to me, an unexpected relief flooding through me, the tension draining out of me. I kissed her with a ferocity I’d never really dared try with her before, but I needed to. This was a kiss that said, you’re mine and she stepped into it, pressing tightly up against me, her perfect tits molding to the front of my leathers, her hands finding my ass and pulling me closer.

  “God, I need you to fuck me,” she breathed and I realized what was different about that last dance. She was as turned on as I was, dancing for me, and she’d let herself go for real. Let herself feel the music, the vibe, just everything about it.

  “Here? Now?” I asked.

  She shook her head, “Never here. Not with you. Let me throw my clothes on and my shit together and take me home.”

  I grinned and said, “Sounds good to me,” except I could never do that. Never take her home, because, for me, home was halfway across the world in New Zealand.

  35

  Tiffany…

  We didn’t make it into his apartment, which was the closest of the three locations we could have gone. He fetched me up hard against the wall outside its door in the hallway. Our mouths crashed together in a fit of passion that scaled higher and higher until I found my legs wrapped around his hips and the hard length of his cock pressing, scalding, against his jeans. Two layers of denim, a scrap of lace and depending on if he were wearing a pair of boxers or not, a thin layer of cotton was all that separated us from our heart’s desire and it wa
s way too much clothing.

  He fumbled with his keys blindly, trying to get them into the lock and I loved how his hips thrust against me. How he dry-humped me like a horny teenager as he worked desperately to get us inside. I didn’t care. I’d let him do me right here, in the hall, against the cracked and paint-chipped wall.

  He shoved the door open with a triumphant grunt into my mouth that was swallowed by the laugh that came from mine. I held onto him, clung to him with arms and legs and he strode into the place, kicking the door shut behind us.

  The mattress was where he’d left it, in front of the cold hearth, and I wistfully wished for a fire, but at the same time I didn’t want to stop what we were doing for him to build one so I said nothing.

  “Mm, down,” he ordered. “Down, down, down, down, down!” he said rapid-fire against my mouth when I didn’t immediately comply. I got down and he shrugged out of his coat and gave me a look like I wasn’t getting naked fast enough. I laughed and stripped down twice as fast as he did. Of course, I had years of practice getting my clothes off – him not so much.

  My panties were kicked off to the side in a soggy heap and he reached for me as soon as he was naked, too. I gladly went into his arms and we kissed for far too short of a time before he turned me around and shoved me onto my knees on the rumpled bed. I crawled up a ways to give him some mattress to kneel on and spare his knees from the hardwood and he gave my ass a playful slap in thanks.

  It was that kind of a mood and the light sting made me bow lower to the covers, my ass up, hips pushed back offering the opening to my cunt to him and he didn’t waste any time. He pressed the pad of his thumb and lightly teased my asshole which both surprised me and felt right in the moment. He didn’t try to breach it, which I appreciated; he was just going for some down and dirty sex, and I was so looking forward to that.

  I gave a low moan when he slicked the head of his cock up and down my slit from opening to clit and back. He teased me, thrusting between my legs, his dick hard and hot, running the slick head of it against my clit, teasing these high gasping little moans from me.

  “Please,” I begged, voice breathy and he slapped me on the ass again. A deep, wanting ache had taken up residence in my pussy and I just wanted him inside me so damn bad. I thrust my hips back lightly and tried to capture him as he played his body against mine and I heard him give a dark chuckle.

  He stopped playing when I gave a whining little groan and shoved into me hard and fast, going balls-deep, but my body had been ready for him since the club and all he did was fit me like a lock and key.

  He ground against me, pulling back on my hips and doing that thing he did that drove me nuts. Just something about him being all the way inside me and him pulling me down on him harder, grinding up and down touched off a chain reaction inside me that had me on the verge of orgasm in no time and fuck he was an expert at keeping me there, drawing out my pleasure for what felt like forever until I slid into an altered state of mind, a place where everything felt warm and the world took on this hazy quality that blurred around the edges.

  “Touch your clit, make yourself come on that dick,” he ordered roughly, and I was happy to comply.

  I face planted into his bed so I could reach between my thighs and tease that delicate and sensitive bundle of nerve.

  “Aw, God that’s it, yeah!” he sucked in a breath between his teeth as I tightened up my pussy around him and that warm, golden glow, began to suffuse me from the inside out.

  I rocked back to meet his every forward thrust, voice forced from me in an even cadence to match our rocking. I panted, gasping faster and faster, the fuller the feeling got as if I were a cup holding a steady stream of pleasure. I was on the brink, the pleasure barely held from spilling over by surface tension alone. I held my breath and with a cry, spilled out of my skin, up my throat in an ecstasy filled cry that rushed across the hardwood floor and flooded the apartment with pure, unbridled joy.

  I found myself back in my body, gasping, satisfied, and floating on a sea of warm afterglow, lying on my stomach with Nik stretched out beside me. He lay on his side, head propped on his hand and fingertips lightly tracing patterns on my back. I blinked and focused on him and he smiled and said, “Never fucked a woman into losing it so completely before.”

  “Never been fucked so well,” I said and smiled, stretching like a cat and moving over so I could cuddle him and be cuddled by him in return.

  He rolled onto his back and pulled me against his chest. I sighed, a content and happy sound and he sighed too.

  “I have no idea what I’m going to do now,” I said.

  “Part of the adventure isn’t it?”

  “I suppose so,” I said softly.

  “One day at a time, I reckon.”

  “That sounds good, although I like to have a plan.”

  “You plan to graduate, yeah?”

  “Yeah, I have to do my practicum, that’s coming up next quarter.”

  We talked about what that meant and how I needed to go about completing everything. We were quiet for a time and then he ventured with, “You know I only pay peanuts for this place a month, you probably pay more for your flat. I reckon to save money it might make sense to move in together, yeah?”

  I liked the sound of that. I know Silas was gone, I’d seen to that, but my apartment wasn’t in the safest part of town and I didn’t exactly have a job now. It would also let me divert yet more money into other things.

  “You mean that?” I asked softly.

  “Of course I do.”

  “You honestly think you could live with me and my crazy cat?”

  “Who, Max? She’s not so bad.”

  I smiled, “I love that you love my cat.”

  “I love you,” he said.

  I cuddled closer to him and closed my eyes.

  “I love you, too.”

  Epilogue

  Zeb…

  It had to be around three in the morning, but the party was still going hard. I lay in a hammock with my girl and we listened to the laughter around the campfire on the lakeshore. We were resting, it’d been a great day hanging with my bros while Tiffany had taught some pole dancing moves to Everett where the tetherball court was, in the back of the main cabin.

  All in all, it was another successful spring lake run in the books. We’d been living together for a few months now. She’d been doing her practicum during the day, working out of a battered-women’s shelter, and had been working some night shifts part-time at Hayley’s family’s diner to fill in. Waitressing didn’t pay nearly as much as dancing had, but she was happy and to me, that was priceless.

  “Mmm, answer it,” she murmured lazily from where she rested against my chest. I frowned and did the math in my head as I pulled my phone out of the inside pocket of my cut.

  “This is Zeb,” I answered.

  “Nikau, it’s your auntie, Bubs,” a familiar voice crackled over the line. I sat up and Tiffany struggled up with me.

  “I know who it is,” I said and I could hear the weeping, like singing, of my mother in the background. I wondered if it was my grandmother and forced out, “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s your sister,” she said and I felt my heart sink.

  “What’s happened to her, auntie?”

  “Nikau, it’s time to come home,” she declared and I felt a grim resignation take hold.

  “Be there as soon as I can.”

  We exchanged a few more words; she wouldn’t tell me exactly what was going on until she saw me, but that was just the way of my people. Some things just shouldn’t be said over the phone.

  “You have your passport?” I asked Tiff.

  “Yeah, yeah I do, actually. Never thought I would use it, though.”

  “Could be dangerous,” I warned and she gave me a level look.

  “I go where you go,” she said softly, and I nodded.

  It was going to be a long trip, but I was finally going home.

  Glossary

 
The following is a glossary of Kiwi terms used throughout the book that may be unfamiliar to readers in other parts of the world. Special thanks to Susan Brock for all your help with the Kiwi-isms and better Kiwi-fying this book.

  Bloke – the American version of this would be ‘Dude.’

  Bonnet – Hood of a car or truck.

  Boot – Trunk of a car.

  Brassed Off – Pissed off. Angry. To take off angry.

  Bro & Cuz – Pretty much means what it says but rarely refers to an actual blood relative.

  Carked – Died.

  Chur – Sweet. Awesome. Yeah. Good. Cool. Cheers. It means all of those things.

  Choice – Cool. Sweet. Thanks. Depends on context.

  Cuppa – as in a cup of coffee or cup of tea.

  Eh – this slang word can be added to just about every sentence in just about every way. It’s just a way of speaking, eh.

  Facecloth – Washcloth.

  Flannel – Washcloth.

  Flash – Looks brand new or really good.

  Flat – Apartment.

  French Letter or Frenchie – A condom.

  Gidday – Hello.

  Give Your Ferret A Run – Have sex.

  Gizza – Short for ‘give me.’

  Good As Gold – Everything is awesome.

  Hiding – Fight or beating. “Wanna hiding, bro?” means “Wanna beating, bro?”

  Home ‘n’ Hosed – Safe. Everything completed successfully.

  Hoon – A hooligan but also refers to the nature of people’s driving.

  Knackered - Tired as fuck.

  Knickers – Underwear.

  Maori – Indigenous New Zealand people.

  Mate – Buddy or friend.

  Mean As – Referring to something being great, awesome, or good.

  Metal Road – a country road with a gravel surface.

  Munted – When something is broken or someone is fucked up on booze.

  Nek Minute – Basically means ‘next minute.’