Craving Rose (The Aces' Sons)

by Nicole Jacquelyn

  “Got a short run to Corvallis,” I murmured, drinking my coffee. “But nothing big until next month.”

  “You goin’ to Seattle this time?”

  “If I can find somewhere for Kara to stay,” I replied.

  “She can probably stay here,” Will said. “I’ll talk to Mol about it.”

  “I’m ready,” Kara announced, peeking her head around the corner.

  “Alright,” I replied.

  “Let me know if you need another pair of eyes this week,” Will said as I started to leave. “I have a bad feelin’ shit’s about to get squirrelly.”

  “Will do.”

  * * *

  Kara and I spent the day doing nothing. I took a nap in the hammock out back for a couple of hours, she painted her toenails and half her fingernails—I had to paint her left hand because she’d never gotten the hang of painting with her right hand. We did some laundry and I swamped out the bathroom. There was nothing quite as disgusting as pulling long, tangled hair out of a shower drain, but someone had to do it, or we were showering in ankle deep water, which was pretty nasty, too. It was an easy day—nowhere to be and nothing to do—my favorite.

  The day was so easy, in fact, just me and my girl, that I started wondering if I really wanted to add someone into the mix. Kara and I were comfortable by ourselves and adding another person would upset the balance. Did I really want that?

  It wasn’t until after Kara had gone to bed and the house was quiet that my thoughts shifted. I liked that it was just us, I did, but sometimes it would’ve been nice to have a partner. Like late at night when I was laying in bed watching a movie by myself, instead of rolling around naked with a woman until I passed out from exhaustion.

  Grabbing my phone from my nightstand, I texted Rose.

  Hey gorgeous

  I set the phone back down, refusing to watch for a response. I wasn’t going to be that guy. I was too old and too fucking busy to wait on a text from—my phone beeped and I immediately reached for it again.

  Hey! You’re up late.

  I smiled.

  So are you.

  Yeah, but I’m working.

  I glanced at the clock. It was already after midnight, so her shift had to be almost over. I stared at my phone for a few minutes.

  Stop by on your way home?

  Is this a booty call? ;)

  I laughed as I texted back. If you want it to be.

  Count me in.

  Let me know when you’re on your way.

  As soon as I set my phone down, I climbed out of bed and started cleaning up. I never let things get too messy around the house, but my bedroom was a different story. There were boots, bags of clothes that I’d never unpacked from different camping trips, mail from months earlier, even a row of empty beer bottles on my dresser. If I was honest, the place was a pit.

  As quietly as I could, I stuffed shit into the closet and carried the empty bottles into the recycling bin in the kitchen. When I got back into my room, I quickly made the bed and kicked my boots under it. Looking around the room, I sniffed. Damn, where was that smell coming from?

  My phone beeped as I frantically searched the room for whatever was causing the funk. Nothing under the bed, dresser and nightstand were clear, floor was mostly clear. I strode toward a bag propped up in the corner and grimaced. Yep. That’s where the smell was coming from. I picked up the bag of dirty clothes as my phone beeped again. Shit.

  Fuck it. I opened my window and tossed the bag into the backyard. I’d grab it in the morning. Flipping on the fan to get some air circulating, I grabbed my phone. Rose was in the driveway already.

  It only took me a minute to get to the front door, and I held my finger to my lips as I opened it.

  Damn, she was gorgeous.

  “Is Kara asleep?” she whispered as I pulled her inside.

  I nodded and locked the door behind her before towing her to my room. As soon as the bedroom door was shut, I pulled her in for a kiss. It felt like forever since I’d had my hands on her, not just that morning.

  “I kind of like sneaking around,” she said, grinning. “I feel like a teenager.”

  “So, what? Last year?” I joked, making her scoff.

  “You have a real problem with my age, huh?” she said as she stepped backward, pulling her shirt off. “I mean, you keep bringing it up.”

  “I’ll never say another word about it,” I vowed as she started unbuttoning her jeans.

  I was practically drooling as Rose pushed her jeans down her hips, kicking off her shoes so she could discard the pants completely. Her movements were sure and easy, she wasn’t trying to put on a show—but it was far sexier than anything I’d ever seen.

  Then, just as she stepped backward toward the bed, all hell broke loose as a moth the size of my fist flew right into her face. I jerked in surprise as Rose yelped, swinging her arms in front of her, trying to swat the moth away. It didn’t help. If anything, it seemed to freak the thing out. Then a couple of his friends joined him.

  “Get them off,” she hissed, dropping down to her knees. “Are they in my hair? Check my hair!”

  I tried hard not to laugh as I reached back and hit the light switch, blanketing the room in darkness.

  “Now, you won’t be able to see them,” Rose said fearfully, her voice wobbling.

  “They’re attracted to the light above you,” I replied, reaching for her. She shuddered as I pulled her against me. “No light and they’ll leave.”

  “Please check my hair,” she said quietly. “It feels like they’re crawling all over me.”

  “They’re gone,” I murmured, running my fingers through her long, dark hair. “Nothin’ is in your hair.”

  “I hate moths,” she grumbled.

  “My fault,” I replied, kissing the top of her head. “I left the damn window open.”

  “You should have a screen,” she said seriously.

  “I’ll get right on that.”

  “Please close the window.”

  “On it,” I said. She was naked except for her bra, and it was downright painful to let her go. I hurried to the window and slid it closed just as Rose began to laugh.

  “Jesus,” she gasped through her giggles. “That must have been sexy as hell, watching me freak out because of a bug.”

  “I’d pay to see the show again,” I replied seriously, trying to hide my smile.

  “Wait,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “I could get paid for this?”

  I couldn’t stop the loud guffaw that left my mouth. She was a fucking trip.

  “It’s a sliding scale,” I said as I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her off her feet. “Moth fights don’t pay much.”

  “What about naked moth fights?” she asked, smiling as I tossed her onto the bed.

  “Depends on who’s naked.”

  Rose laughed again, but the sound cut off as I pulled off my t-shirt. There was enough moonlight that I could see her pretty clearly as she licked her lips and folded her arms behind her head, watching me.

  “I’m the naked one,” she said huskily as I pushed my shorts off.

  “Not yet,” I pointed out, nodding toward the bra she still had on.

  “Easily remedied.”

  It was my turn to stare as she rolled a little to the side and reached back to unclasp her bra. Without fanfare, she pulled it away from her skin and dropped it on the far side of the bed.

  “I’ll turn the light back on and you can earn some cash,” I said, my mouth suddenly dry as the Mojave.

  “Touch that light switch and you’re a dead man,” she warned, smiling.

  I’d seen every part of her the night before, traced every hill and valley more than once, but that didn’t seem to matter as I stood frozen beside the bed trying to decide which part of her I wanted to touch first. Every shadow was like a hidden treasure, and every inch highlighted by the moon was damn near mesmerizing. Every part of her was gorgeous, from her full lips to the way her thick hips tapere
d to muscular legs and small feet. She looked like a fucking painting. One of the really old ones where the women were curvy and smooth in all the right places.

  “Well, if you’re just going to watch,” she said, the last word drawn out. Her arm slid from behind her head, and I damn near had a heart attack as her hand slid between her legs.

  “Oh, fuck that,” I muttered, climbing onto the bed.

  She laughed as I jerked her legs apart and knelt between them, and in the back of my mind, I realized that I liked when she did that. Rose was prickly and she didn’t take shit from anyone, but when she was happy—you knew it.

  Her laughter stopped as I scooted down the bed, and she gasped as I put my mouth on her. I liked it when she made that noise, too. Rose tasted good everywhere, and I groaned as she grew wetter against my mouth.

  I’d been with plenty of women, all shapes and sizes, and I’d realized a long ass time ago that none of that surface shit mattered. The only thing that mattered was participation. The difference between a woman who let sex happen and one that actively participated was like the difference between gas station food and a steak hot off the grill. There was no comparison.

  Rose didn’t let anything happen to her. She rolled her hips and scratched at my shoulders, gripped the sides of my head with her thighs and pulled my hair. There wasn’t anything passive about her. After she came, she pulled at my shoulders, urging me up the bed so she could kiss me and run her lips down my neck.

  “Condom?” she asked, her hands reaching between us, one hand wrapping around my cock and the other cupping my balls. I shuddered as I blindly reached for a condom in the drawer of my nightstand.

  Rose only moved her hands long enough for me to roll the condom on, and then they were back, guiding me inside her. The hum she made as I bottomed out gave me honest-to-God goosebumps, and I gritted my teeth against the urge to groan my reply.

  Then we were both moving. The slow, leisurely, sex we’d had the night before was a distant memory as we both fought toward orgasm. Her hands were everywhere, never stopping as she scratched at my back and squeezed my ass, pulled at my hair and gripped my shoulders. Mine weren’t any less busy. Leaning on one elbow, I played with her nipples and pulled her leg further up my side, changing the angle and making her whimper. I wrapped my hand gently around her throat and she moaned. When I slid my finger into her mouth and she bit down, sucking as she came, it took every ounce of willpower I had to wait until she was finished before I blew.

  I rolled onto my back and pulled Rose against me, my chest heaving as I struggled for air.

  “I didn’t think it could get better,” she said with a sigh. “I was wrong.”

  “It’s always better once you know what the other person likes,” I said, tipping my head down to look at her.

  “Not true,” she said, raising one eyebrow. “I’ve had really good sex before, and it got progressively worse. It was just the excitement in the beginning that made it good.”

  “The man you were fuckin’ clearly didn’t know what he was doin’,” I replied, making her snicker.

  “Well, I’m glad you do,” she said, patting my chest.

  “Baby, I haven’t even had your ass,” I joked. “You haven’t seen my skills yet.”

  “Oh, come on,” she said, drawing out the last word as she smacked me. “Why’d you have to go ruin the moment?”

  “We were having a moment?”

  “Ass,” she joked, relaxing into my side.

  “I’m just givin’ you shit,” I said, running my hand up and down her back.

  “But only half-joking, right?” she replied.

  “Well, yeah.”

  She huffed out a laugh.

  “This was a good way to end the night,” she said sleepily. “Work was shit.”

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing for the first few hours,” she replied. “Then a couple of douchebags came in and wouldn’t fucking leave.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “What kind of douchebags?”

  “The harmless, think they’re God’s-gift-to-women, kind.” She turned her head to look at me and rested her chin on my chest. “They kept talking to me, even though I made it perfectly clear that I found them annoying.”

  “You got someone working with you?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” She grinned. “Tonight was Wren.”

  “Wren?”

  “He’s this super hippie dude that can name any of our beers by taste with his eyes closed. It’s awesome.”

  “Sounds like good protection,” I replied dryly.

  “Yeah, well, one of my regulars was there, too. Old Larry likes to tell anyone bothering me about how he killed Charlie in ’Nam with just the knife he still carries around on his belt.”

  “That right?” I asked.

  “I don’t think he’s kidding, either,” she mumbled.

  “You like bartending, huh?”

  “I love it,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “I mean, I know pouring drinks isn’t rocket science, but it’s fun. It’s always different, you know?”

  “Hey, don’t knock doin’ somethin’ you like,” I replied. “People spend their whole lives doin’ jobs that suck. Who wants to live like that?”

  “Not me,” she said, raising her hand.

  “Yeah, me, either.”

  “You like working on cars?”

  “Wouldn’t be doin’ it if I didn’t.”

  “What’s your favorite part?”

  “Restorin’ old ones,” I said, the answer coming easy. “I like makin’ the old ladies purr again.”

  “I swear to God,” she said, shaking her head a little, “everything that comes out of your mouth sounds like an innuendo.”

  “Not everythin’,” I argued.

  “See!” she pointed at me. “Even that sounded dirty.”

  I laughed and her head bobbed with every shake of my chest.

  “Probably sounds like that to you ’cause you want my dick all the time,” I said reasonably.

  “Not all the time.”

  I just looked at her.

  “Okay, most of the time,” she grumbled.

  She blew a piece of hair away from her face, then crossed her eyes and smiled at me. Jesus.

  “Are we doin’ this?” I asked quietly. “Me and you?”

  “Do you want to?” she replied, just as quiet.

  “Yeah.” I was beginning to think there wasn’t even a choice to be made. That train had left the station when she sprayed me with water through the kitchen window.

  “Me, too,” she said with a sigh.

  “Alright.”

  “Alright.”

  I was pulling her up to kiss her when a loud thump came from inside the house.

  “Fuck,” I said, jumping off the bed. I quickly pulled on my shorts and grabbed my pistol from inside the nightstand, checking to make sure it was loaded. “Stay here.”

  Rose nodded, her eyes wide and worried.

  I checked the living room and kitchen first, but nothing was out of place. Just as I started back down the hallway, Kara called for me. My stomach sank as I ran toward her room.

  “I’m okay,” she said tearfully as soon as I reached her doorway. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, holding her hand to her head. There was blood everywhere.

  “What the fuck happened?” I asked, flipping on the light as I hit the safety on my pistol.

  “I fell out of bed,” she cried. “I think I might have hit the rocking chair.”

  I glanced at the tiny rocking chair that she’d had in her room since she was a baby, and decided I was going to burn the fucking thing.

  “Let me see,” I said gently as I dropped to my knees, setting the pistol on the floor.

  As she pulled her hands away from her forehead, the bleeding got a fuckton worse.

  “Shit. Put ’em back.” I sure as hell wasn’t going to touch her face when I hadn’t had a chance to clean up.

  “Rose,” I called making Ka
ra jerk.

  “Rose is here?”

  “What do you need?” Rose asked, coming to the door in her jeans and t-shirt.

  “Can you grab me a towel? They’re under the sink in the bathroom.”

  “Rose is here,” Kara said in understanding, her eyes wide.

  “She’ll be around a bit,” I replied, my cheeks hot.

  “Sweet.”

  “Here,” Rose said, holding a whole pile of towels. “I didn’t know if you wanted a washcloth or a hand towel or a big one.”

  “Hand towel works,” I said, grabbing it off the pile. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” She looked at Kara. “Damn, what happened?”

  “I fell out of bed,” Kara said miserably as I moved her hands away and pressed the towel to the cut. “Ow, Dad!”

  “You need to keep pressure on it,” I said, letting her take over. “Or it’s not gonna stop bleeding.”

  “Head wounds are the worst,” Rose said. “They bleed like crazy.”

  “You okay?” I asked Kara, squeezing her knee.

  “Yeah.” She sniffled. “It just scared me.”

  “I bet. It scared the shit outta me.”

  We all grew silent, then, none of us sure what to say. In all the time I’d had Kara, she’d never dealt with me and a woman in her room in the middle of the night. I knew she probably suspected when one slept over if they were still at the house when she went to bed, but she’d never come face-to-face with it. My face grew even hotter, and so did the back of my neck.

  “Is it slowing down?” Kara finally asked. She pulled the towel away and I grimaced. The bleeding had slowed a little, but she definitely needed stitches.

  “Here, honey,” Rose said, handing Kara a washcloth. “Use a new one.”

  “I’m gonna get dressed, princess,” I said, getting to my feet. “Need to go get that stitched up.”

  “No,” Kara whined. “Can’t you just tape it? Or use super glue?”

  Rose laughed.

  “This ain’t your knee, Kara,” I said. “It’s on your face.”

  “I don’t care.”