“We didn’t know each other. We were just two people looking for release. Now it’s different.” Her voice was breathy and airy.
“I think we’re still both looking for that release. We both know what we can give each other. I want it again,” I whispered in her ear and tugged on her lobe with my teeth.
“What happens after?”
“We sleep for a couple of hours and then I take you again and again.” I let go of her dress and pull her sweet, lush body to mine. I had never been more turned on in all of my life as I had been standing in that dressing room. I needed to have Marley again.
“No one can know, please.” She tilted her head to the left, giving me access to kiss her neck.
“Ashamed of me, Sunshine?” I teased.
“No, I just don’t need to deal with my dad when it comes to you. He wouldn’t understand. He only sees things in black and white.”
“So we’ll just be each other’s release?” I growled as she thrust her ass into my dick.
“Like a trigger.”
“OK, go get dressed. We’ll continue this tonight when I get off of work.” I slowly slid my hand out of her dress, missing her touch as soon as she stepped away from me.
“You still need to do up the back of my dress,” she said, her back still turned to me, the dress wide open in the back.
“Right. Sorry,” I mumbled, stepping forward and pulling the zipper up.
“Thanks,” she whispered and ran back into her dressing room.
I sat back down, my dick protesting every move and stretched my legs out in front of me.
What the hell did I just agree to? We both knew that we weren’t what we needed, but damned if we both didn’t want it.
I reclined my head back and tried to calm my dick by counting backward from 100. By the time, I hit forty-three I had things under control. I kept my eyes shut and tried to think of anything besides Marley.
“Wow, those dressing room walls sure are thin,” Meg said in my ear right before she dumped a pile of clothes in my lap.
“Jesus Christ, do I look like a fucking hamper to you?” I pushed the clothes off my lap and onto the chair next to me.
“I thought you might have to carry my stuff to hide the major boner you probably have right now.” She smirked and propped her hands on her hips.
“You didn’t hear anything, Meg. I mean it.” I stood up, face to face with her.
“Oh, you mean I didn’t hear you two make plans to pick up where you left off tonight?”
“Yes. She doesn’t want anyone to know.” I crossed my arms over my chest and prayed Meg would keep her mouth shut.
“I won’t say a word. Although it might be kind of hard to see Marley tonight seeing as Lo had put a guy on her at all times from the club. I won’t say anything, but I really doubt Hammer will keep his mouth shut when he sees you sneak into Marley’s house tonight.” Meg mimicked me, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Tell King she doesn’t need protection. The Assassins aren’t going to come after her again.”
“He’s not worried about the Assassins, Marley has other problems that, unfortunately, neither of us know about.”
“Then I’ll be her fucking bodyguard.”
“You have work, and how would you explain that to Gravel?”
“This is bullshit. I’m never gonna be able to see her if someone from the club is always going to be with her.” I took my hat off and ran my fingers through my hair. Son of a bitch.
“I have an idea, but you’re going to have to keep it in your pants until the weekend,” Meg said, rubbing her hands together.
I knew the look she had on her face. I had seen it many times before when she was cooking up some scheme in her head. This was going to be a fifty/fifty shot at working out. I just had to decide if I was willing to hedge all on my money on Meg’s harebrained idea.
“What’s happening this weekend?” Cyn asked walking out of the dressing room with her own mountain of clothes in her arms.
“Operation Snake in the Grass.”
“What?” Cyn and I asked at the same time.
“Alright, alright. I need to think of a new name. Operation Panty Raid?”
“Are we going to act like thirteen-year-old boys and raid the cheerleader’s panty drawers?” Cyn asked, even more confused now.
“What?! No. Do you two have no imagination at all?” Meg threw her hands up in the air, annoyed with Cyn and me.
“Dude, I have no idea what you are talking about. Just spit it out with all this code name shit,” Cyn said as she threw her pile of discarded clothes on top of Meg’s.
“Troy and Marley want to hook up, but they don’t want the club knowing, specifically Gravel. That’s where you and I come in and create a diversion,” Meg explained.
“Was that so hard to say? All this cloak and dagger shit makes you even loonier than you normally are. I’m gonna go pay,” Cyn said, grabbing two shirts off the top of the pile and headed to the checkout.
“Geez, she has to be PMSing.” Meg shook her head as she watched Cyn walk away.
“Shut up, Meg. I’m gonna go see if Marley is done. We need to head back if we are going to make it back in time for work.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Meg called as I made my way to Marley. I threw my hand up in the air but didn’t say anything. Sometimes with Meg, you just needed to let her be herself and let her say whatever she wanted. It was easier that way.
There were four stalls for changing and only one had the door shut. I knocked on the door and prayed for Marley to be naked when she opened the door.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Marley
“Just a sec,” I called as I pulled my shirt over my head. After I finally got my heart beating at a normal pace, I had decided just to get the black dress and nothing else. Money was tight and I didn’t need to be blowing all my tips on clothes. If I really thought about it, I didn’t need the black dress either, but I have plans to make this dress worth every penny when Troy came over.
I grabbed all my discarded clothes and made quick work of hanging them all back on the hangers and opened the door to see Troy standing there.
“Hi,” I gulped out, surprised to see him.
“Meg and Cyn are paying and then we need to head back.” I looked Troy up and down and saw no evidence of our encounter having any effect on him. When I had walked back into the dressing room and looked at myself in the mirror, my cheeks were stained red and my pulse was beating a mile a minute. I had a split second thought of pulling Troy into the dressing room with me and see if he really wasn’t affected or just a good actor.
“Let’s go! I wanna hit the pretzel place before we leave. Hustle!” Meg called.
There goes that idea. “I’ll just hang these up and then check out. Five minutes tops, promise,” I said, trying to sneak past Troy, who was standing right in my way.
“Go hang those up and I’ll hold onto this for you.” Troy grabbed the dress I had draped over my arm and headed out of the dressing room without a backward glance.
I made quick work of hanging up all the clothes I didn’t want and looked around for Troy, but couldn’t find him. I headed to the front of the store and saw him standing with Meg and Cyn waiting for me.
“Where’s the dress?”
“Right here,” Troy said, handing me a plastic shopping bag.
“You bought my dress?” I asked dumbly as I grabbed the bag from him and looked inside. Yup, sure as shit, there was the dress laying folded inside.
“Yeah. Let’s go. Meg’s hungry and when she doesn’t eat, she gets hangry.” Troy grabbed the bag out of my hand and headed for the exit.
“Stop. You can’t buy me clothes.”
“I can, and I did.” Troy grabbed my hand and tried pulling me to the door. I dug my heels in and refused to budge.
“No. Take it back or let me pay you,” I insisted.
“Oh, how cute. Rigid and I had this same fight over groceries,” Cyn said, looking all sappy as she watched Troy try to pull me out of the store.
“And then remember the motorcycle boots he insisted on buying for you. You attempted to fight him, but in the end he won,” Meg added.
“Yup. I can’t remember King ever insisting on buying you something, though.” Cyn crossed her arms, thinking.
“That’s because every time he says he’ll pay, I let him pay. That’s something you two need to learn. If he says he’ll pay, go with it,” Meg said, staring me down.
“That’s because King is your boyfriend. Troy is just, well, Troy,” I sputtered.
“Yup, that’s right, I’m Troy. Let’s go. You can pay me back later for the dress,” Troy said as he tugged one last time on my arm and I gave in.
“Just let me give you the money now,” I insisted.
“It’s not money you’re going to pay me back with.”
“Oh, now this sounds good,” Meg said to Cyn as we walked out of the store and towards the pretzel place.
“Troy, I thought no one was going to know,” I said worriedly glancing behind us.
“They’re gonna help us. Don’t worry. Their alliance is to me, not Gravel,” Troy said, trying to reassure me.
I didn’t say anything more because I guess he was right in a sense, but who’s to say King or Rigid wouldn’t find out and tell Gravel. I might have just agreed to be Troy’s hook up without really thinking about it. Shit.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Chapter 8
Marley
“Bandit!” I called into the backyard. Troy had dropped me off at my house after grabbing pretzels at the mall and said he would be back after work to pick up Bandit after I insisted he stay with me while Troy worked. There was no sense in Troy taking Bandit home when he could stay with me.
It was past eleven o’clock and I was basically on pins and needles waiting for Troy to get off work and come over. I was going to wear the dress tonight, but I had decided against thinking it would look like I was trying too hard so I had settled on my cute, but sexy pajamas.
I heard a motorcycle roar by and rolled my eyes. Every hour, on the hour, someone from the club would drive by, checking up on me. Ridiculous.
I had called Gravel the third time I had heard and seen them drive by, but Gravel insisted it was for my own protection. I had no idea if they were going to continue their drive-bys through the night or not. It looked like the night I had planned with Troy might not go the way we had hoped.
Hearing a truck pull in the driveway, Bandit bolted past me, around the house headed for Troy. Bandit may have liked staying with me, but I could tell he had missed Troy.
As I rounded the house, I saw Troy’s truck door open and only Bandit’s back legs.
“Down boy. I’m happy to see you too,” Troy said as he climbed out of the truck.
“He missed you,” I said walking up to him.
“He just knows I’m the one who feeds him.” Troy kneeled next to Bandit and rubbed him behind his ears and he groaned in appreciation.
“Our plans might have a slight hitch in them tonight.”
“I know. Meg told me after she talked to King that they had prospects drive by your house to make sure everything looked OK,” Troy said, standing up and brushing his pants off.
“Yup, like clockwork. They just drove by not even five minutes ago.”
“So every hour they drive by?” Troy asked, stepping closer to me.
“Yeah.”
“So that means we’re good for an hour?”
“Give or take.”
“Not as much time as I’d like, but it does for now.” Troy took one step closer and wrapped his arms around me.
“Don’t tell me we’re going for an eight-second ride, cowboy,” I said, grabbing Troy’s baseball hat off his head and plopping it on my head backward.
“Oh no, Sunshine. I’m gonna take you for a ride, but it’s gonna be much longer than eight seconds.”
“Yeehaw,” I whispered right before Troy’s lips crashed down on mine. He spun me around, our lips still connected and leaned me against the side of his truck.
“You taste better each time I kiss you,” he growled against my lips. I glided my hands up his arms and delved my fingers in his hair, gripping his head. Troy’s kisses were like a drug I couldn’t get enough of. Every time our lips touched I yearned for more.
Bandit started crying and pawing at my leg. “Bandit’s jealous,” I said in between kisses.
“Bandit had you all night to himself, it’s my turn now.”
“Think you’re both jealous of each other,” I laughed, tilting my head to the side as Troy rained kisses down my neck.
“If you would-” Bandit started going crazy barking and standing on his hind legs, trying to get in between Troy and me.
“I think there’s something wrong with him, Troy,”
“Yeah, he’s not the center of attention. Down, Bandit,” Troy ordered, holding his hand up. Bandit bit down on Troy’s sleeve and yanked his arm down.
“Troy, I think we-,” Gunfire blasted through the quiet night and Troy tackled me to the ground and grabbed Bandit.
Three more gunshots rang out and then tires squealed as the car took off.
“Stay here,” Troy ordered and then army crawled to the back of the truck. He got up on his knees and peeked behind the truck.
Bandit’s wet nose nudge my hand and I jumped, scared. I wrapped my arm around his neck and cuddled him close to me. Troy and I had just been shot at. Holy fuck.
“Call King, although I’m sure with that much gun fire, someone already called the cops and I’m sure Gravel is running down the road right now. Stay. Here.” Troy glanced back at me.
I nodded my head, letting him know I wasn’t going anywhere and then he disappeared behind the truck.
Bandit whined in my arms and rested his head on my leg.
“Where the hell is Marley?” I heard Gravel bellow at Troy.
I knew I should get up or at the very least say something, but I couldn’t. I was paralyzed.
“She’s behind the truck with Bandit. She’s okay,” Troy hollered back.
“Good, now tell me what the hell happened. I called King as soon as I heard the first shot, he should be here any minute.”
I lifted my hand to pet Bandit’s head and I saw my handshake, but it was like I couldn’t even feel them. My heart was beating a mile a minute and my breathing was short and shallow.
“Troy,” I shakily called. I had to get a grip, but I had no idea how to. We were just shot at. Someone just tried to kill Troy and I. “Troy!” I screamed, losing it.
“I thought you said she was fine!” I heard Gravel yell as I wildly whipped my head back and forth looking for Troy.
Bandit whined again in my arms and rested his paw on my arm. Jesus Christ, even the dog was trying to comfort me.
Troy and Gravel ran around the side of the truck. Troy dropped to his knees next to me and cradled my head in his hands. “Shh, Sunshine, you’re fine,” Troy murmured.
“Someone just shot at us, Troy,” I said dumbly like Troy wasn’t there.
“I know. We’re OK, though. So is Bandit. Nothing to worry about.” Troy stroked my cheek with his thumb, wiping away the tears I didn’t even know I was crying.
“No, we’re not! Someone tried to kill us!” I shrieked, my panic going into overdrive.
“Shh, look at me, Marley.” I shook my head no, unable to calm down. “Marley, look at me right now,” Troy demanded, his voice stern.
My eyes whipped to his and a cry escaped my lips.
“You’re OK. Don’t worry, Sunshine. Gravel’s here and King and the rest of the guys will be here any minute. They’ll take care of everything. I promise.”
“You can’t promise everything will be OK, Troy. You don’t know that. Mark’s family is here and they just tried t
o kill us. Nothing is OK with that,” I whispered.
Troy wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. I had never felt more scared but so safe. “I promise, Marley. With everything I have, nothing is going to happen to you.”
“Take her into the house. Ethel is on the way over. She’ll sit with her while we figure out what the hell is going on,” Gravel said as he shoved his phone in his pocket.
I clung to Troy, not wanting him to let me go. “Stand up, Sunshine. Let’s get you in the house and not sitting on the ground.” Troy patted my back and I pushed away from him. He brushed my hair out of my face and gave me a swift kiss on the forehead before he stood up and held his hand out to me.
I grabbed his hand and he hoisted me up, sliding his arm around my waist. “I’m sorry,” I whispered as we walked up the porch steps.
“Nothing to be sorry about. Being shot at isn’t something someone should be able to brush off like it’s nothing.”
Opening the front door, Bandit bounded in ahead of us and Troy’s hand slipped from my waist to the small of my back as he guided me into the living room towards the couch.
“Do you want me to stay with you until Ethel gets here?” Troy asked as I sat down on the edge of the sofa. I patted the cushion beside me and Bandit hopped up, plopping his butt down.
I heard the roar of motorcycles come down the street and pull into the driveway. The cavalry had arrived. “You should go outside and let everyone know what happened. I’ll be okay until Ethel gets here.” I tried sounding like I was OK, but I knew that I was one breath away from having a breakdown.
I heard a car door slam and knew that Ethel was here. Thank God. I didn’t want to be a blubbering mess in front of Troy. I already looked like I had a screw loose when I lost it outside.
“She’s here. You can head outside.” I looked up at Troy whose gaze was trained on me.
“I’ll come back in as soon as I can, OK?”
“OK,” I whispered, nodding my head.
“Marley,” Ethel called as she walked in the front door.
Bandit’s ears perked up and he leaned into me, trying to see past Troy, who was standing in front of me. “Hey, Ethel,” I called.
Battling Troy: Devil's Knights Series Page 5
