by Brogan Riley
“They’re happy. I’m happy.” That’s true. That’s how I feel.
“Really?” There’s a pinch of sarcasm in her voice even though her hands shake.
“I like my new life.” I feel my throat tighten. “Sally is cool. Your kids are cool.”
“Emily is cool?”
“Yeah, she’s nice.” I lean toward her. “Stay away from her.”
Emily is my friend but the thought of Rhue having warmer feelings toward her wakes a possessive beast inside of me. No fucking way is Emily going to lay her hand on Rhue’s tits. They are mine. Only mine.
I know I should be focused on saving my own ass but I’m focused on Rhue’s tits.
“Why?” Rhue’s cheeks tinge with a reddish brown color.
“Just stay away from her, okay?” I put my hands on the back of my neck and huff out. “You need anything? A cup of tea? Coffee? I can help.”
“I need you to give me a ride. I guess, I could calm my nerves mopping the bar and then preparing drinks for our lovely customers.”
“Sure.”
I make a gallant gesture of my hand. “Ladies first.”
She passes me like I’m a dangerous dog, her tantalizing smell stripping me of rationality. My hand jerks up but I shove it into the pocket of my jeans. No touching. I could cross the line.
I could do horrible things to her, like seizing her around the waist and kissing her until forgetfulness. Like slapping her ass and bending her over the table. Hell yeah, I’d fuck her senseless.
Chapter 8
Rhue
There is a cold windy reality, and a blur of green and grey colors we leave behind. There’s another dimension that engulfs only him and me. The roar of his bike. The beauty of timeless freedom.
The battle in my head.
I’ve been transported into a crime movie. It’s just that it’s all real.
Tyce yearns for peace. He’s on the run the same way as I am. He wants to start over just like me. I can’t ruin his hope or his life. Or his future.
He is a good man. He deserves peace.
He parks the bike in front of the bar and helps me jump off.
I lay my hand on his arm. “I’ll keep quiet, I promise.”
“Thank you.” There’s an alluring rawness in his voice that causes my insides to heat up.
He raises his hand as though he wants to touch my cheek.
He leans toward me as though he wants to kiss me.
He pulls away.
My heart turns into a painful void that craves his touch like never before.
We enter the bar.
Our lovely customers clap their hands and screech like a flock of old parrots. They shouldn’t be here. It’s too early. Ah, a monthly poker game. It’s a whole day celebration with food and drinks and jokes and laughter.
My God, I love them all so much.
My heart dances in ardent fever.
I love Tyce so much.
How did that happen?
He knows me, and I know him. He accepts me, and I accept him. That’s what love is about, right? Or maybe it’s just the beginning of an amazing friendship?
Fuck no. I’m in love. Tyce? Well… who knows?
We start our shifts. It’s very busy. I’m serving the customers and he’s entertaining them.
Time passes yet it doesn’t. It’s like we’re somewhere else. His brooding eyes never leave mine and his music flows in the air like an inferno of sadness and beauty.
Hours are seconds or seconds are hours. I’m dying without him even though he’s so close.
After midnight, Thomas drops me off at my house.
My heart crumbles into pieces.
I can’t breathe without Tyce.
Tyce
I’m a great helper. Her kids love me for some mysterious reason. I wish Rhue loved me too, but she’s done with men, so her friendship must be enough.
I love her so much.
She is my other half, my soul, and my heart. My everything.
Yeah, I can’t be a hypocrite any longer. I fell for Rhue the moment I saw her for the first time. I fell for her hard. I can’t undo it. I don’t want to.
Diana rushes her siblings to focus on their homework and ten minutes later, Rhue walks into the house. Two plastic bags with grocery shopping swing in her hands.
“The appointment went okay?” I ask.
She nods. “She’ll call me when the results are back to her.”
I want to interrogate her, but she’s been kind of mysterious about her appointments. It must be some female problem, so I don’t push.
Not that I don’t want to open her skull and learn all her secrets.
I start dishing up.
We sit at the table and eat my Thai curry. The kids giggle and burble. Then they grab their empty plates and disperse in all directions.
“This was delicious,” Rhue says. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome, sweetness.”
“I’ll only change my clothes and you can give me a ride to the bar.”
“Sure. Caroline will be here in five minutes.”
She makes herself ready in fifteen minutes and we exit the house. I hold out a hand for her as she puts her foot on the peg and settles herself onto my bike. I jump in front of her and her body clings to mine. Fuck me. I want to have her lush body plastered to mine all the fucking time.
I start the engine.
I shoot toward the bar.
I want to stop in the woods though.
I want to bend that curvy body of hers over the seat and drive my dick into her pussy from behind.
I’m mad about her. I’m madder and madder with each day that passes.
I park in front of the bar and help her jump off.
She looks good on my bike.
She’d look even better beneath me with her long legs wrapped around my waist. I’d be buried inside of her to the root. I’d go even deeper. Harder. Faster. I’d fucking slam on her stomach. She’d tremble and whimper and beg for me to punish her even harder.
Fuck me. My dick has replaced my brain. Permanently.
We start our shifts.
Rhue is in a trance, but she doesn’t even realize this. She floats around the bar top, her body swaying in rhythm with my music. Her hands move with sensual elegance. He breasts wave in a carnal invitation.
I want to fuck her like an animal.
I want time to stop. But the clocks are ticking.
Sally kidnaps Rhue just after midnight. I want to kill.
I can’t breathe without her.
Rhue
Her face looks professional, her eyes like two chasms of detachment. I know she has to be like this.
I know it’s hard for her too.
But for fuck’s sake, her words crush my life. Crush me. Crush my kids.
Her words take my future away from me.
Invasive.
Metastatic.
Palliative treatment.
I’ve never seen her before. My doctor has broken her leg, and she’s off sick.
“I’m really sorry,” she says and sounds like she means it.
“So am I.”
I tumble out of her office. My mind spins out of control. My knees bend.
I need him so much.
He wanted to come to this appointment with me, but I didn’t allow him to accompany me.
I sit down on the floor, and the fellow patients’ eyes slide over me as though I’m a sculpture in a medieval church. A woman offers me a glass of water. I empty it and nod my thank you.
He’s with my kids as always. They love him so much. Joy fills my heart each time they start burbling about his cooking skills and cool jokes. He is young but very mature and thoughtful at the same time. He’s good at repairing the roof; he’s good at doing the laundry. He’s the best at dealing with my sweet little monsters.
I thought Diana would be against him, but no, she’s not. She wants him to visit us every day. The younger kids want him to move in with
us.
I pull myself up.
I’m gonna dye my hair. Yeah, that’s my plan for today. Tomorrow? Fuck, stop thinking.
Today. Only today.
I sweep my hair down my back and huff out.
A deep lavender color will look good on me.
Tyce
I can’t fucking tear my eyes off her tonight. Her hair is beautiful. That lavender color of her tendrils enhances the beauty of her dark skin tone. She’s a walking seduction.
I sit down on a bar stool, propping my elbow on the bar top.
“Your song was amazing, Tyce,” Rhue says. “You’re very talented.” She nods several times, mysterious flickers in her eyes. “You can sing and this song is very atmospheric.”
There’s nobody around us, so she allows herself to call me my real name.
My eyes sweep over her face.
She’s amazing.
Beautiful.
A yawn escapes her mouth as she puts her elbows on the bar top.
“Which one of your monsters is sick again?” I ask as my eyes roam over her breasts almost pouring out of her pink vest. The bright color makes the dark skin of her tits shine golden.
“Colleen.” She nods a few times and sighs. “Chickenpox this time.”
Adrenaline fills my veins. She needs me.
She needs me today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. Kids are kids. They’re messy and catch nasty bugs. I need to save them, save Rhue.
Rhue
Brian is looking after my kids tonight. He had chickenpox in the childhood, so my little girl is no threat to him. Not to mention that she’s fine—no fever and only a few tiny blisters.
I’m on a mission.
“I’ll help you tomorrow,” Tyce says.
You’ll help me tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and for the rest of your life if my plan works out.
I shake my tits like I’m dancing to the disco music.
Diana said he was hitting on me.
My little girl is smart and observant.
I flash him a seductive smile. “Thank you. You’re great, Tyce.”
I lean toward him, my tits pouring out. My dark areolas are half-visible, my nipples erect. Who said I couldn’t react to his nearness despite the circumstances?
But I can’t keep my tits on display forever.
For fuck’s sake. Say it, Tyce.
My kids will be orphans soon. They need a good daddy.
My momma died of breast cancer when I was fourteen. My dad has been mostly drunk since the day of her funeral. He’s a distorted shadow of the good man he’d been before she died. For the first five years after her death, he’d tried to keep his job and be a parent, but the addiction was like a particle of evil. It grew unnoticed, taking a bit of him from my sister and me at a time. When I went to college, my dad was an alcoholic in full bloom. Our poverty was in full bloom too. My sister turned eighteen and left our family house for good. She lives abroad and she has her own problems, as far as I know. She hasn’t spoken to me for a while, in fact. I’ll tell her about my diagnosis when everything else is sorted out.
I’ve tried to help my dad on a number of occasions. He’s my childhood hero, after all. It’s just that one day I started drowning in my own problems. Yeah, life is always a shitty black comedy.
I have no grandparents, no close friends, except Sally, Brian, and Caroline. They’re too old. Tyce is young.
I allow my hard nipples to slip out and then I smarten up my top in a slow seductive motion. My conscience tries to reason with me, but I kill off its voice. It’s not about choosing right over wrong. It’s about giving my kids a future. I would kill to give them a safe future.
Fuck, Tyce, say it.
“You want to go out for a walk one day?” Tyce rasps.
“Like you and me or like you, me, and my kids?”
“Up to you.”
His hand jerks up and he rubs his knuckles on his scarred cheek. Pain jabs my heart. This is what it’s all about. He’s scared that I could reject him.
I hold his wrist and take his hand off his face. “Just you and me. Sally can babysit my kids.”
“You sure?”
Five hundred percent.
I brush my lips against his and suck on his lower lip. God, he tastes all man—a hint of beer, a hint of tobacco, untamed wildness.
Our lovely customers clap their hands and chant ‘more kissing’.
Those old gits should avoid excess emotion. I growl to silence them, but they growl back like old excited lions.
I start polishing shot glasses with a tea towel. “Tomorrow at four?”
Tyce nods, his burning eyes locked on mine. He flops from the bar stool and returns to his chair on the stage.
The rest of the evening turns into a blur as I plan our walk in detail.
Tyce gives me a ride home. I kiss him on the cheek and enter my house. I check on my younger kids and rush Diana to go to bed. I take a bath and shave my legs. I put a thick layer of moisturizer on my face.
I kill off my scary thoughts.
I’m a mom. My kids are my priority. I can’t afford being scared.
Dear God, I want to live. Why are you doing this to me?
Fourteen hours later.
So, we saunter along the path, a chilly breeze brushing against our faces. It’s cold as though hail is coming.
The wild fields of wheat wave, stretched all around us. They haven’t been cultivated for years hence their savage condition. Caroline is very stubborn. She keeps telling me her ghost husband has been looking after the fields since he died. And that was ten years ago. She suffers from an autoimmune condition and can’t work as a farmer anymore. Her eccentric beliefs prevent her from employing one. Well, nobody’s perfect. People have the right to be weird.
I look up in the sky. The bright threatening grayness makes me feel like I’m a snowflake.
I hold Tyce’s wrist. “I need to talk to you.”
“Talk to me.”
I pull my hair together, my heart thundering. Now or never. “I need a husband.”
“What?”
“Will you marry me, Tyce?”
A gust of wind smacks me like a cold hand. A screech of a bird whips my ears.
Tyce’s deep breath causes my throat to pulse. My pounding heart wants to jump out of my chest.
“I will marry you, Rhue.”
A sacred silence envelops us. His heavy breath breaks it.
“Thank you.” I rest my cheek on his shoulder as the relief from his words makes me feel dizzy. “Do you want to listen to my story?”
If he asked me about the reasons for my unusual proposal, I would burble like that… Dixon has changed his mind and the dick wants to take my kids from me. If I have a husband, the Dickdixon will leave me in peace…
“No,” he says, his voice menacing in an alluring way. His jaw muscles twitch. “I want a real marriage.”
“Of course.”
“I want kids.”
“I’m healthy Tyce. I can give you two kids.”
God, please don’t send a snap of lightning to kill me. I’m in a tight corner. There’s no other way.
He squeezes my hand as his fingers hook the back of my neck. I sigh as he turns me and my eyes meet the dark flame of his.
“Tomorrow, Rhue.”
“What?”
“We’re going to ride to Las Vegas tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’ll only pack a few things and we can go.”
He’s as eager as me to tie the knot. That’s… very convenient.
That’s unexpected.
I know he likes my boobs. So does Brian. And Thomas.
I didn’t know he wanted a relationship. He’s a tormented ship just like me. We both crave a safe haven.
The grip on my neck tightens. “No, we’re going today.” His words are full of power and dominance.
I shrink into myself.
I’m facing a fallen angel. His eyes are like a dark blazing inferno, his face like a mask
of tempting danger.
Chapter 9
Rhue
He moves me backward as my fingers dig into his shoulders. His bandana falls off his head and dances in the wind before it lands in the grass.
His eyes lock onto mine and threaten to consume me.
My body shivers and my heart starts hammering. God, he’s so strong. So demanding.
So feral.
My ass rests against the seat of his bike.
“So, you’re my fiancée, right?” He winds my hair around his fist.
I feel like a tiny and fragile woman. I feel like a woman for the first time in years.
I nod. “I’d say I am.”
“Rhue.” He shakes his head. “If you only knew…”
He nuzzles his nose against my hair, inhaling me, and emits a guttural growl.
His lips slide down my temple and then slam on mine. Electricity courses through me, and I yelp into his mouth.
His tongue parts my lips and invades me like a savage sword. His smell brings a wave of intoxication to my mind. His touch strips me of sanity.
He fucks my mouth with his as his hand dives under my skirt. He runs his rough palm up my inner thigh, his touch like a callused lick of fire, and his fingers slip under my panties. His digits are so fast. So shameless.
Unstoppable.
I’m wet and his growl tells me he’s very happy to have discovered my arousal.
He slides a finger into me and kisses me deeper.
God, I want to descend into darkness with him.
He turns me round so abruptly my mind spins out of control. He bends me over the seat of his bike and pulls up my skirt until it bunches around my waist. Heat pours over my face and I wiggle, but his hand rests against my back and immobilizes me.
“You’re going to be a good, obedient fiancée,” he rasps.
He doesn’t ask. He commands.
I love it.
His knee parts my thighs. His fingers pull my drenched panties aside. I feel him open his jeans and the blunt head of his hard cock touches my entrance. I suck in a breath. It’s been so long since I was with a man.
“Three kids,” Tyce says into my ear, his scorching breath sending tingles down my spine.
He circles my entrance with his cock and my body chants for the unison with his.
He pushes in. The sensation of his thick shaft filling my channel is so intense I mewl.