by Karen Renee
“You’re here,” I said on a breathy chuckle.
“Yeah, babe, but if I can’t come up–”
I didn’t know why he wanted to come up, but my mind was a whirl, so I did not care. Doing my best to keep my voice low, I blurted, “Yes, you can come up!”
Chapter Twelve
Gonna Help Me Out With That?
Cecilia
It was foolish, but I raced to the front door just before Brock knocked. I could feel my smile in my cheeks and my eyes, so I knew it was huge and bright. Hopefully, it wouldn’t all be for nothing. Brock took me in from head to toe and a tentative smile curved his lips.
As he strode inside, I said, “My roommates are both here. Although, Madison was six sheets to the wind, so I suspect she’ll sleep like the dead, but Kendall might still be awake.”
He nodded, and my smile drooped. Maybe he was going to chat and leave. Why did I get my hopes up?
I locked the door behind him, and swung an arm out toward the couch. “So, you wanna sit down? Can I get you something to drink?”
He looked down at me, smiling outright. “That’s okay, hon. Can we talk in your room?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
Since Brock had spent more than a few nights with me, he definitely knew the way, so I followed him to my room. Even a few steps ahead of me, he smelled of his cologne, but with a hint of smoke.
Closing the door to my bedroom, I asked, “I thought you were done with the DJ thing once your internship started?”
Any time I saw Brock in my room I felt like not only the room shrunk, but I had shrunk with it. It was weird, but anytime he was here, his energy took over. This was no different. He had a hand wrapped around his neck and it was a really good look for him. His bicep and forearm were flexed, and I had to keep myself from biting my lip.
“Gabe’s sick, hon. Needed someone to fill in, and that someone was me.”
“Oh,” I whispered.
He kept calling me ‘hon,’ not ‘honey’, and I wasn’t sure how to read the situation because of it. His hand dropped and my eyes shot to his.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
My eyes slid to the side and back to him. “For what?”
His chin dipped down. “Seriously? For being such a massive dick to you at Pop’s.”
I mimicked his chin dip. “You had every right, Brock. I mean, my dumb ass should’ve come clean to you much sooner.”
He sighed. “Yeah, well. I don’t want to beat the dead horse of that weekend. You’ve been on my mind almost every fuckin’ day since then.”
“Really?” I interrupted, and I sensed he was trying to stay focused.
“Yeah, really. I should’ve talked to you that last day, but I also didn’t want to make any rash decisions and I knew if we talked about it, I’d fly off the handle with my temper which definitely would’ve led to me making decisions.”
I nodded because that made sense. Especially the flying off the handle part. If there was anything I’d learned about the Sullivan men, it was that they had fiery tempers.
After a long silence, he asked, “You got anything to say to that?”
I shook my head. “To what?”
He gave a quiet chuckle. “To my apology, Cecilia.”
“Oh! Well, I accept, though I didn’t think you needed to apologize at all.”
He shook his head. “There’s never any call for me to behave the way I did. I didn’t even eat at a table with you because I was so pissed.”
I couldn’t say anything, so I gave him my best understanding closed-lip smile. He returned the smile but his was devilish.
“You gonna stand there smilin’ at me or are you gonna get over here and give me a hug?”
My head reared back. “You want that?”
“Get over here, woman.”
I went over there, and when his arms settled around me, Brock said, “If I just wanted to talk shit out, I coulda gone home to call you.”
I grinned at him while I squeezed his waist. “Sorry. I didn’t think of it that way, I mean, I did pull a twelve-and-a-half hour shift today. I’m a little slow on the uptake.”
A fierce glint hit his blue eyes. “You gotta work in the morning?”
I smiled. “Work two to ten-ish tomorrow.”
“‘Ten-ish?’”
“There are no Extra-Magic Hours tomorrow, but even if the park closes at ten, I don’t normally get out until the drawers are counted and all that good stuff.”
He nodded and on the downward nod, his nose glided along mine. “So, you shower in the morning or do you wash the grime away before bed?”
My eyes widened. “Um, why do I get the feeling you want to shower with me? Are we, uh, back–”
His forehead rested on mine. “Yeah, Sunflower. I want to shower with you, and I want to give this another shot, so we’re back together. If you want the same thing, anyway.”
Boy, did I! Luckily I kept that sentiment to myself and I whispered, “Yeah. I want the same thing, Brock.”
He smiled outright and I felt my knees get weak. “Then kiss me, Sunflower. Since I smell like sweat, booze, and stale cigarettes I need a shower stat, but there’s no better way to shower than with you.”
Rising up on my tip-toes, I slid my hands along his shoulders while I whispered, “Sounds good to me, B-Rock.”
WHILE MY NIGHT-TIME shifts were physically exhausting, they didn’t make me sleep a full eight hours. If I tumbled into bed at two, I would still wake up by quarter after eight. Six hours of sleep wasn’t ideal for a girl like me, but caffeine went a long way to keep me in line. Since showering with Brock took nearly forty-five minutes, we didn’t get in my bed until a little after three a.m. When I peeled an eye open, I saw it was closing in on ten o’clock, and that was when I felt the bed lightly jostling.
I rolled to see Brock tugging on his shoes.
“Good morning,” I mumbled.
He turned to me and the tender look in his eyes sent warmth through my whole body. What I wouldn’t give to capture that look permanently.
With a hand on the bed next to my hip, he leaned toward me. “I didn’t want to wake you, Sunflower.”
I slid a hand into his hair above his ear. “That’s sweet and everything, but we never got a chance to talk last night. No way would I want you to leave without at least saying good-bye.”
His lips tipped up in a small smile. “That’s good to know, honey.”
Hearing him call me ‘honey’ forced me to close my eyes and take in a deep breath because it made me feel just that good. I opened my eyes and his face was closer.
“Know we didn’t talk, and I know we need to. When’s your next day off, Cecilia?”
My lips tipped up. “Mañana,” I chirped.
I loved Spanish. I never got the chance to take it any further than the rudimentary level-one Spanish in high school, but even from the brief experience, I knew the Spanish language beat English. Seriously, the grammar made more sense and almost all of the words sounded better than their English equivalents. Regardless, the Spanish word for tomorrow was one of my favorites.
Brock smiled at me like I was a nut and he said, “Good. I was afraid you’d say Monday. I started my internship a few weeks ago and... well, we’ll just say it’s been a bumpy start and my superiors have noticed.”
I grimaced since I knew I was the cause of that, but Brock cut that short by putting his hand behind my neck. “Don’t sweat it, honey. We’ll talk things out on Sunday. Call me when you’re leaving the Mouse. I’m covering another gig for Gabe tonight, but my goal is to sanitize our place this afternoon even if I gotta figure out a way to unleash a Lysol fogger to do it.”
My head tilted. “‘Lysol fogger?’”
He shrugged. “I’ve never understood why there’s a fogger to get rid of bugs, but Clorox or Lysol hasn’t figured out a way to sanitize an entire room within a twenty minute window like Raid or other companies can with pesticide.”
I grinned. “You might be
on to something, Sully. Maybe law enforcement isn’t your true calling.”
His eyes hardened. “Oh yeah, it is. But, call me. Want you in my bed tonight, and if you’re off before I’m done at the club, I’ll wake Gabe’s ass up to unlock the door for you.”
I scoffed. “I thought he was sick!”
Brock’s brows furrowed momentarily. “So?”
“So, he shouldn’t have to get out of bed when he’s sick to unlock a door for me,” I cried while shaking my head.
Brock chuckled. “Whatever. He’ll live, and just to say, I bet you wouldn’t have felt that way eight weeks ago.”
Brock
SUNDAY MORNING WAS my favorite time of the week. With the light feeling of Cecilia’s hand on my chest, I knew this would be a top-notch Sunday morning. Until I heard the bellow of my younger brother, that was.
“Brock! I’m headed out,” he yelled and I was amazed he had a yell in him at all.
Cecilia jolted up from my hold, and I shook my head at her. I rolled off the bed, and tagged a pair of boxer-briefs. By the time I moved into the living room, I was still adjusting the waistband on my abdomen.
“Listen, little bro, you might wanna dial it down on the volume. And, I fill-in for your ass the least you can do is not shout the place down tellin’ me you’re leaving. Got a real strong memory of you pressin’ my back against a door the first time I yelled while you were busy gettin’ your damn beauty sleep after a gig. You got me?”
Gabe’s face went from smug to abashed to curious as I spoke. Since I did not want to entertain his curiosity, I nodded to the door. “Thought you were headed out.”
“You, uh, got a woman in your room?” he asked, and I almost felt sorry for him because his congested, nasally voice sounded awful.
“He does, but if I had to guess, you suspected as much and wanted to draw that woman out anyway,” Cecilia said. The sultry tone of her drowsy voice went straight to my cock.
Gabe threw a quick smile her way. “Cecilia. Nice to see you again. If Brock didn’t tell you, I’m under the weather or I’d give you a hug.”
I looked over my shoulder to see her standing in her jeans and a t-shirt. “That’s okay,” she muttered.
When I turned back, Gabe’s gaze came back to me and he said in a very low voice. “About fuckin’ time.”
“Get the fuck outta here, man.”
“Brock!” Cecilia cried.
I turned back to her. “Like you wouldn’t give your sister crap if the tables were turned.”
She shrugged a shoulder while her head tilted the opposite direction, and she sauntered back to my bedroom. Fuck. That was a hell of a good view. I turned back to Gabe, but he was already out the door, so I prowled back to my room.
Her jeans were on the floor and Cecilia was arranging the sheets on her body. At the foot of the bed, I snatched them off her.
“Hey!”
“Is for horses, baby. You got no need for sheets now.”
Her eyes widened and those long legs of hers started to move so I wrapped a hand around her ankle to drag her down the bed a few inches.
“I’m tired,” she whined, but I could tell she didn’t mean it.
“Sure you are, but here’s a compromise, sweetheart. Gonna take you hard and fast, and when we’re done, maybe then it’ll be time to snooze.”
“Really?” she asked.
Shoving her legs apart, I nodded. “Don’t know about you, but I always sleep better after I come. So, you gonna help me out with that?”
A sultry smile spread on her face. “What kind of girl would I be, if I didn’t?”
AFTER I TOSSED THE condom and cleaned up, Cecilia was sitting on the bed, her legs criss-crossed and my undershirt loosely covering her body. Christ. I didn’t know if it was because it was my tee or because it was just her, but I really liked seeing her in my clothes.
“Baby, what are you doin’?”
Her pale blue eyes widened as I put my knee on the bed.
“We have to talk, remember?”
I blinked. “Yeah, but we’re doin’ it chest to chest and not while you’re dressed and I’m naked.”
Her eyes narrowed, but my hands were fast. I grabbed the hem of my shirt and whipped it up her body, forcing her arms up. I tossed it over my shoulder, then used my torso against her chest to push her to her back.
Pressing into her, I slid my hand down her leg, hiking it over my thigh. “Now, you told me you were an addict for six years. Were you also–”
“No. It was only the last nine months of my addiction that I was with... well... under–”
Her struggle with how to word it prompted me to say, “Using your body?”
Her face held a mixture of gratitude and something I couldn’t put my finger on. “Yeah,” she whispered.
My brow furrowed. “So, all your money went to drugs?”
She chuckled. “All my money went to Marco, uh... he was... Well, at first I thought he was just a dealer. Didn’t help that I was infatuated with him, which helped him hook me on coke. Not long after that, he showed his true colors and he started pimping me out. And not like–”
I knew she was driving toward a bad joke, so I put my finger over her lips. “Okay, Sunflower. I get you.” I kissed her neck to put her a little more at ease. “And you got away from the life with your family’s help?”
Her head tilted back and forth. “To an extent, but mainly because of your brother’s motorcycle club.”
I nodded as I recalled the tense conversation I had with my brother when I returned to Pop’s place after dropping Cecilia at her apartment. “Cary mentioned that. Did you have to testify–”
“I didn’t have to do anything like that, even though I was deposed. The trial starts soon, but DA never subpoenaed me, so I assume the narc who arrested Marco had enough evidence against him.”
I tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear before it fell in her face. “And now you’re making a fresh start in O-Town.”
“Yeah,” she breathed. After a lengthy silence, she asked, “May I ask why we had to do this naked?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Honey, with a body like yours, I’m always gonna want you naked.”
I smiled when she shook her head at me.
“So typical.”
“No way I’m gonna be here in the buff and you in my shirt, though you in my shirt is sexy as fuck.”
She arched a brow.
My hand went from her hip to inside her thigh. “Besides it’s easier to do this without anything in the way.”
I plunged my finger into her folds that were still slick from our earlier session. As I gave my finger a slight twist, her legs squirmed. She reached down and my hips bucked when she stroked my semi-hard cock. I hissed reflexively because her hands on me equaled exquisite torture.
She smiled a knowing and devilish smile at me, and I traced her lower lip with my tongue. Not to be outdone by me, she returned the favor on my upper lip and so began a different kind of kiss between us. It was slow and lazy, but hungry in a way that I was surprised it didn’t get out of control.
We were skin to skin but closer to my side of the bed, and using my hand not engaged in pleasuring Cecilia I grabbed a condom I’d left on the nightstand. She reached for it, but I held it out of her way.
Her eyes narrowed a bit. “Let me, please, Brock.”
I dipped my chin and grinned, handing her the foil packet. “Fine, since your hands certainly know their way around my cock.”
She grinned a saucy grin. “That they do. And my mouth knows its way around even better.”
I groaned. “You teasing me, or are you gonna deliver on that?”
She ripped the packet open. “Later, honey.”
While she rolled the condom over me, I pulled her face to mine and kissed her harder than I had in the past. One thing was coming clear about Cecilia, she never took. She gave as good as she got, but most of the time she shot for giving more than she was getting. What got me, was that most of t
he time she gave so much more it forced me to up my game at every turn. I really fuckin’ liked that about her.
“All set, B-Rock,” she muttered.
“Damn right, we’re all set,” I whispered.
In a wide motion, I swept her legs up over my arms and lined my cock up perfectly with her slick heat. With forced control, I sank into her slowly.
Her voice might have been a whisper but it sounded like a satisfied hiss. “Yes, Brock. I like that. Need more, honey.”
“What do you say?” I teased.
Those pretty pink lips of hers curved up at me. “Please... honey.”
“You got it, baby.”
My hips pounded in a steady rhythm, but I did my best not to go too fast too soon. Try as I might to keep control of things, her hands in my hair and her tongue on my lips snapped my control. My thrusts became more forceful and I kissed her with no regard. Our teeth clashed once or twice, and we were both drinking from one another. My hand moved up her torso, pinching her nipple the moment my hand slid over her breast. She moaned, loud and high, which forced me to pull my head away dislodging her hands.
I’d had other women, but Cecilia and I were intense together. Over the past six weeks, I had missed not just her, but this connection. It was like nothing I had ever had. Nothing.
Reaching up, I tugged her hair to get her attention. Her eyes met mine and the heat in them urged me to go harder.
“Look at me, Sunflower.”
“I am, honey. Love your eyes.”
“Don’t stop looking at me.”
“I won’t. Faster, baby,” she whispered.
I drove in faster while I put a finger to her clit.
“Yes,” she moaned.
“Are you close?” I growled.
“Yeah. Oh, yeah. Real close.”
I rubbed faster and slightly harder. Feeling her pussy convulsing, my pace quickened. On an upward stroke, I felt the release rush through me as I came.
My arm holding me up gave out, and I lowered on top of her as gently as I could. “God, what you do to me, honey,” I whispered.