Tempted

by Brenda Ford

  Anyway, I have done my part now, it is out of my hands. Butch will decide whatever he wants and then I will have to make some plans from there. Now, I can turn all of that off and focus on Rose, give her all of me. A warm wave of joy over comes me and that sense of self creeps up on me once more. Yep, this is definitely where I am supposed to be, this is certainly who I am, I am finally happy at last. Life has come good.

  Chapter 12 – Rose

  “Oh my God.” Artie’s eyes nearly pop out of his head, just like I hoped they would. “You look incredible. That dress… wow. It looks great, and your hair… you are making my heart race.”

  I let out a little happy laugh before I grab him, and I pull him inside the room with me. “You don’t look too bad yourself. Those leathers looking fucking sexy on you. I’m starting to really like them.”

  Then I kiss him. I absolutely claim him with my mouth and let the week of frustration without him out. It really is hard to be away from him and that becomes even more apparent every time we are together. I have to admit that there is a real temptation to just stay here and forget my real life. Leave it behind.

  “So, how have you been?” I gush while finally letting go of him. We have all night for kissing and much as I want to rush ahead and fall in to bed with him once more, I also want to know what is happening with him. “How did your meeting or whatever it was go? Did you manage to sort things out?”

  “I am in the process of doing so,” he replies mysteriously. “And I have also been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do next so that I’m not just a freaking burden on you.”

  “You… you have?” I never thought of him like that at all, but I suppose I can see what he means. If he doesn’t find a way of supporting himself financially then I will be the one who is responsible for him. “Really?”

  “Yes, and I want to finally go to business school, like I always planned so that I can finally have the life that I was always going to… but I want to work at the same time as well. Juggle the two things.”

  “Wow, that is a lot.” I can’t help cocking my eyebrows in surprise. “Big ambitions.”

  He curls his arms around me and kisses me softly. “Because I need to be the best for you.”

  “I don’t need you to be the best, you know,” I reassure him. “I just want you to be happy, that’s all.”

  He dips his head low and kisses me some more, making me feel like I am flying higher than air. “I am happy. Whenever I am with you, I feel happy. I just want to be the best me at the same time.”

  I can appreciate that. I know exactly what he means. I want to be better for him as well. I am already doing a much better job of life than he is when it comes to my career and things, but I do want to be more. So, maybe that is something that we can work on together. We can help to improve one another.

  “Is that something you intend to do around here?” I ask curiously. “Is there a business school here?”

  “I don’t know.” He shudders as if this idea is horrifying to him. “But I don’t want to stay around here even if there is. I want to move away to have a fresh start. I need something other than this in life.”

  I nod, kinda glad that’s his decision. Maybe that means he can end up living much closer to me. Maybe even with me then I will get to see him every single day. I can travel less for work so that I can be at home more with him, then we can have the life that we were always meant to lead. We can get married and be linked together properly forever. Then we can even start a family. Have the kids we always planned on. One boy who we will call Luca and a girl named Sakura. Another girl with a flower name just like me. It will be great.

  “That sounds good to me,” I say with a bright smile. “I am happy to do whatever it takes. I just hope that you end up doing whatever it is that you want once you sort out your situation here.”

  For a moment, it kinda looks like he wants to open up to me about everything and there is a split second where I want him to as well. I want to know the dark depths of where his life has taken him so that we can start our lives together on equal footing with everything out there in the open, no skeletons in the closet waiting to break out on us at any given moment to shatter our happiness… but the second passes quickly and nothing is said. Artie remains tight lipped and shifts uncomfortably on his seat and I blow out a breath of relief because I still don’t know if I am ready to hear it all. I might not ever be ready for any of it, who the hell knows?

  “Anyway, tell me about your week instead,” Artie says with a soft smile. “I would much rather talk about you and your interesting sales meetings that worry about my boring week. Your life is much more thrilling than mine.”

  “I don’t know about that.” I reply with a chuckle, but I do go in to it anyway. It feels nice to talk about my job to someone who is genuinely interested anyway. Not many guys are actually bothered about my life. they feign interest to try and seem like good guys, but they aren’t really nice people like Artie. He really is the best of the best. I am just lucky that I am the one who is going to get to keep him forever.

  “I don’t know how you do it,” he muses as I come to an end of my story. “It sounds like you really have your life under control. I mean, I always knew that you would. You are the sort of person who was always going to succeed, but it’s so nice to see. It’s so nice to know that you have reached your potential.”

  I feel an intense blush racing through my body as he says that. The redness reaches my cheeks as the compliments wash over me. God, it’s really nice to see myself through Artie’s eyes. So, when he starts kissing me, I mold in to his body immediately. I lean in to him, allowing the warmth of him to cover me. Yep, I’m at home with Artie, he is my place in the world. I really feel like I would go anywhere with him.

  “I love you,” I murmur against his lips, needing to let him know all over again. “So much.”

  “God, I love you too,” he agrees. “You are the woman of my dreams, Rose. You are everything.”

  Before I can lean back on the bed and bring Artie with me, he whips me off the bed and stands with my back pressed against the wall. The coldness of the plaster work behind me does absolutely nothing to cool down the intense heat of passion coursing through my system. I’m too turned on for that.

  I wrap my legs tightly around Artie’s back keeping him in place and I can feel the intense bulge between his thighs pressing against my core and making me even more desperate to have him inside me. I don’t know how me and him managed to resist caving to temptation for all this time while we had a conversation. It was the right thing to do at the time, we both had things that we needed to get off our chest, but now it seems crazy. This chemistry… it’s too much for us to ignore. It seems to be consuming him as much as it is me.

  “I want you,” Artie growls while allowing me to slide down his body. My feet gently hit the ground which allows him to press the length of him up against me. “I need you, Rose. You have no idea how much.”

  Oh, but I do, which is why I yank his clothing off with the same vigor in which he undresses me as well. We are both just as desperate to get each other naked which is really freaking exciting. I love turning Artie on just as much as I enjoy the pleasure that he gives me as well. Once the pair of us have nothing on, we crash in to each other again and begin kissing frantically. It’s as if we are star crossed lovers and this is our one and only chance to be together before the world around us implodes. Or maybe horny teenagers who have finally been given a moment alone after torturous months of confusing hormones and wanting one another. Whatever it is, it feels fucking phenomenal. Flames lick all over my skin, electricity shoots and darts all the way through me, I don’t even feel like I am me anymore, instead just a bunch of pulses and sensations created by him.

  I keep my eyes on his as I tug my panties down at a tantalizingly slow pace with my eyes fixed up on his the entire time. Once they hit my ankles, I kick them off and smile seductively at him. Once his body meets mine again, I slip one of
my feet up the wall and press it against the plaster while edging my thighs apart, allowing him to meet me there. By the time he does, his trousers have slipped down and I can feel his sheathed cock begging for entrance. I love the way that he does that. He makes everything so smooth and easy going, like it’s as natural as breathing which is so sexy. The buzzing inside of my body damn near explodes as he slips in.

  “Oh, Artie.” The air has been stripped from my lungs; I can barely get out a whisper. This feels even better than I was expecting it to. I have been waiting for this all week long, but he defies my expectations every single time. “Oh my God, you feel so good. I don’t ever want to let you go.”

  Each thrust is more exciting than the last and I cling to him hard, my nails piercing his skin because I need to hold on to him so badly. I have to feel every inch of him as he slams in to me over and over again. Soon, it seems that Artie needs more from me because he lifts me from my feet again and takes complete control over me. As I lean against the wall and I rest in his arms, he has every scrap of power over me and I absolutely love it.

  “Fuck,” I cry out as the pleasure starts to get to me. “Oh my God, that feels so fucking good.”

  He kisses me all over, somehow coaxing the pleasure from me even faster and harder. His lips tingle all over my body and the electricity is fiery. I love it, I love him, I want everything from this man. Now, the idea that I might be able to keep him in my life forever more makes it even more thrilling. There isn’t the edge of desperation inside of either of us, the fear that this might end any time soon, but there is something new there instead, something that is just as passionate. It’s a comfortable love and I’m over the moon about it. When the orgasm finally does come for me, I lean in to it fully, giving myself over to it entirely, and I feel the bubble wrapping tighter around me and Artie as I do. It’s going to be me and him against the world and I can’t wait to see how that pans out. This time, I have a feeling that me and him will always be on the same page, facing life entwined with one another, how I want to be.

  Chapter 13 – Artie

  I spread out across the bed, stretching wide and smiling to myself. I feel settled and happy knowing that I couldn’t be in a better place if I tried. Finally, after a long and awful week without her, Rose is back by my side… although… as I pat the bed beside me, I realize that she isn’t by my side after all. The bed is empty.

  “Rose?” I murmur while slowly opening up my eyes. “Rose, where are you?”

  It could be late; I might have slept in and she could be in the shower. I’m certainly not worried that she has run out on me because things have been going so well between us and I’m sure that we’re moving in the right direction, but I do want to see her. I do want to know where she is because life is just better when she is by my side. I force my eyes to part wide enough to see that yes, I am definitely alone in this room.

  “Rose, are you in the shower or something?” I can’t hear the water running, but she could be in the bathroom. The door is closed. “Rose, would you like me to head out to get a coffee and some breakfast for us?”

  I force my slightly weary body off the bed, and I pad over to the bathroom, hoping that I’m not about to get my ass kicked for interrupting her. But as I get over to the bathroom, I realize that the door isn’t as fully closed as it looked from the bed. It’s slightly ajar and very much empty. Rose isn’t in there at all.

  “Huh.” I press my hands to my hips and try not to freak out. Since I am usually the one who heads out to get a drink for me and Rose so perhaps, she wanted to do the same thing for me for a change. I’m usually the one who vanishes so I definitely can’t freak out about this. That wouldn’t be right at all. “Right, okay.”

  I head in to the shower myself, my thoughts growing increasingly tangled by the moment as the hot jets of water rush over me. I want to relax and enjoy myself; I want to be cool with this moment alone, but there is just that little niggle in the pit of my stomach which lets me know that something is wrong. I don’t know what it is and I’m sure that I’m being a freak for even thinking along those lines, but I can’t help myself.

  “It will be fine,” I try to tell myself coolly. “She is fine. She would laugh at you for this.”

  But it doesn’t matter how much I try to give myself a pep talk, there isn’t anything that will make me feel any better. Until Rose is back in this room with me, I won’t be able to be calm. So much so that I hop out of the shower, I don’t even remember to turn the shower off, and I race across the room naked to grab my cell phone to call her. I’m sure that everything will be fine once I just hear her voice and I know where she is.

  Ring, ring… Ring, ring… Ring, ring…

  My heart is hammering so heavily that it takes me a couple of moments to realize that the ringing sound isn’t only in my ear. It’s also coming from across the room inside of Rose’s hand bag. She hasn’t taken it out with her. While she isn’t one of those women who is attached to her phone when she’s with me, so this isn’t something to be worried about, with the strange sensation in the pit of my gut I don’t feel good. I don’t know what it is but now I’m freaking out. I haven’t ever doubted going backwards, picking things up with my ex-girlfriend, it has always felt absolutely perfect, but now there are a bunch of thoughts deep within me.

  “Fuck.” My whole body is throbbing with panic now and I don’t know why. I grab my clothes and yank them on as quickly as I can managed, muttering curse words to myself the entire time. “Fuck, shit, fuck.”

  I grab my cell phone and the hotel room key and rush outside the room. I don’t know where I intend to go looking for Rose, but I know that I can’t sit around and do nothing. I will lose my mind. I know that there are a few places where we normally go so that is where I will check first. I have to…

  “What the fuck?” But I don’t get far. Only just outside of the bedroom door there is a piece of white paper sitting on the door with my name scribbled across it which makes my blood run cold. “Oh my God.”

  Immediately, I slip back in to the room with the paper in my hand. If this is a break up note from Rose, then I will fucking die. If she can’t even stand to be around me long enough to tell me face to face, then it must be bad. Really bad. I will know then for sure that she is one hundred percent done with me for good.

  “No, no, no.” My hands are shaking, there is an intense tremor in my voice. “Please no.”

  I don’t even read it right away. I feel like I need to gear myself up first. I have to get my head in order so that I don’t completely crumble when I lose everything. I just know that without Rose, I will slip right back in to that pit of depression I was in before and I don’t know if I will be able to drag myself out again. What will there be to fight for? What will there be for me to work towards if I don’t have her? I need Rose.

  “This might be nothing,” I tell myself in what I hope is a reassuring tone. “Just read it already.”

  Finally, with a deep and gasping breath, I grab the letter and I tear it apart I have become so convinced that I am about to be chucked, that it’s a shock when I find myself looking at something else entirely. Words that should chill me to the bone, but don’t affect me at first. I’m just numb and in shock… until it sinks in.

  “Oh my God.” I clap my hand to my mouth in shock. “Rose didn’t leave me. He took her.”

  I know that Butch is a bad guy, he hasn’t gotten to the leader of a criminal motorcycle gang without breaking a few laws along the way, and I know that he threatens people and uses violence when needed, but I never thought that I would be on the receiving end of it. I always thought that he has respect for me, but I guess not.

  My announcement, my request to leave hasn’t gone down well. I thought that we would sort it out and I would be able to walk away with ease but now… well now I don’t know what the fuck is going on.

  ‘If she is in the way, then I will make sure she isn’t anymore. You don’t get to leave us.’

  In t
he way… that is because I want Rose over the gang, but I don’t know what it means that he will get rid of her. If Tara has been whispering her poison in to his ears, then he could have done the worst thing. He could have… no, I can’t even think about it. I don’t want to even imagine losing her as well. Surely, seeing what losing Lee did to me should make Butch think twice about any violence, but I can’t be sure.

  The only thing that gives me even a glimmer of hope is the phone number at the bottom, a burner phone for sure. Why would Butch want me to call him if there wasn’t a way out of this?

  “There has to be,” I declare with trembling fingers as I grab my cell phone once more. “There just has to be.”

  As I dial, I feel like I might throw up. There is bile swimming around in my stomach, I’m scared that it might come spilling out at any given moment. I really don’t want to make this phone call with my head over the toilet. It doesn’t help that my heart is pounding heavily in my throat, blocking my air waves as well.

  “Ah, Artie.” This phone has been set up just for me. What the fuck is Butch playing at? “I’m glad that you finally got your sorry ass out of bed to call me. I thought that you might be fucking dead. I mean, you definitely sleep like the dead. You didn’t even hear me taking your woman away.”