by Kara Parker
He begins to thrust marginally harder at her words. They have always been adventurous in their lovemaking, willing to try new things, new positions and techniques. But not tonight. Tonight he just wants to hold her in this most intimate position, to look into her face and feel her skin against his own. “I love you Rose…” he breathes.
“I love you too. I love you so much,” she gasps, tightening her hold, never wanting to let him go. The gulf of years that came between them don’t matter. The cartel doesn’t matter. The drugs don’t matter. All that matters is Joseph. He completes her.
They move, slowly, lovingly, for many long minutes, each clinging to the other as if they are the most important thing in the world. Then, with near infinite slowness, he begins to increase the power and speed of his strokes. “Are you ready, Rose?” he breathes, his orgasm beginning to stalk him.
“Yes…” she whispers. “I want to come with you.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“Faster. I want it harder and faster,” she says, groaning as he complies with her wishes. “Yes… yes… just like that. Just like that.”
“Are you ready to come? Are you ready to come, Rose?” he asks, feeling his own orgasm spooling up for release.
“Oh God! Harder. Please, harder,” she whimpers, arching her back and overwhelmed with pleasure.
He increases the speed and power of his thrusts, then increases them again. Then again. Growling in effort he slams into her as hard and fast as he can, pushing up onto his hands for additional power. “Come on, baby. Come on,” he snarls, holding tight as his orgasm tries to overwhelm his control. “I’m going to come, Rose. I’m going to come. Come with me.” He feels her begin to push hard against his upper arms, and then with a soft, shuddering gasp she clamps down on him as he drive furiously into her.
Just as she falls into the oblivion of her orgasm, she feels Joseph thrust hard into her with a gasp, grinding his hips into her in painful pleasure. She waits out the roaring pleasure until her release washes out of her, washing away all her fears and doubts, leaving her renewed. Blowing out a soft breath between puckered lips, she relaxes, pulling him down to take her in a kiss.
Joseph gives in to Rose’s pull, settling onto her and taking her lips, his breath coming in heaves but rapidly slowing. He throws himself into the kiss, trying to communicate how much he needs her through that simple touch.
“Fuck, that was good,” Rose sighs as the kiss finally parts. “We are going to have to stop waiting so long. I need this every night. Or at least every other night. This waiting for a week or more isn’t going to cut it anymore.”
“It is going to be at least three days again.”
“I know. But after that…”
“What about Melina?”
“What about her? I’m not sharing,” she teases.
Joseph smiles. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. I’m talking about you staying with her.”
“I know,” Rose smiles back. “I probably need to start staying with her less anyway. I can’t stay here forever. I’m planning on going home, to stay, in two weeks. After that she is going to have to manage on her own.”
“What about us?” he asks. “What happens after you go back to Vegas?”
Rose can feel her smile falter. “I don’t know. It’s only six hours and we did that for two years. I don’t like it, but unless you move to Vegas or I sell and move up here, I don’t know what else we can do.”
“Would you sell Aguilar’s and move back to Eagle Valley?”
“Don’t ask me to do that. Please.”
“I’m not asking. I asked if you would be willing to.”
Rose pauses, thinking it over. “Maybe. I don’t know. I have put so much into Aguilar’s. That’s my life.”
“No… that’s your job. This is your life,” he says, kissing her gently on the lips. “Don’t ever confuse the two.”
“Would you be willing to move to Vegas?”
“Yes. If that is what it takes to be with you, yes.”
“You’re trying to make me cry again,” she says as her lips pull down into a pout and her eyes become wet again.
“Shhh… don’t cry. We don’t have to decide tonight. We have plenty of time to sort that out. Let’s just get this Matos problem behind us and see where we stand.”
“Okay,” she sniffs, blinking away her tears. “You’re right. Like I told Melina… take it one day at a time.”
Joseph smiles as he moves from between her legs, settling onto the bed and pulling her in close. “Talk to Melina while we’re gone. When we get back, we’ll move your stuff here. You can spend your days there, but your nights here.”
“I like that idea. Melina is going to have to start standing on her own soon. She’s strong and I know she can do it.”
“I know she can. The Nines… we’re here to help if she needs it. Tim helped us a lot when we first got here. Because of him our neighbors realized that we aren’t a bunch of thugs and helped us get accepted into the community. We won’t forget that.”
“I’m going to miss him.”
“Yeah. Me too,” Joseph says, his voice profoundly sad. “I meant it when I told Melina he was like a brother to me.”
“Melina said you will make sure Tim will have justice. What will you do if you find the man that shot him?”
“Make sure he isn’t able to harm another person ever again.”
“You’ll kill him?”
He hesitates, not sure if he should answer the question. “Yes,” he finally admits, deciding there will be no more secrets between them.
“Good,” Rose says, snuggling in as she becomes drowsy. She is quiet for a long time, her eyes becoming too heavy to keep open. “Thank you,” she sighs.
“For what?” Joseph asks, his own voice thick with impending sleep.
“For not giving up on me. For waiting for me.”
He pulls her just a bit tighter, struggling to control his sleep-fogged emotions. “I would have waited forever.”
Rose can feel her lips pull into a loving smile as she slides into the dark embrace of sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“All right people! Look sharp! The boss is here!” Rose calls as she enters the Goose the next morning. She had gone to bed early last night, made love to the most fantastic man in the world, slept like the dead in the arms of that same man, and she is in a such a good mood nothing short of debilitating brain aneurysm is going to be able to bring her down.
“You’re in a good mood this morning,” Tonya observes dryly as Rose flounces in.
“You betcha,’” Rose says with a big grin.
“Is that Rose?” Jack bellows from the kitchen.
“What do you want? You crotchety old fart!” Rose yells back, making most of the staff titter in laughter.
“Grease trap?” Jack asks stepping out of the kitchen.
“Oh, shit! I forgot all about it! I’ll take of that first thing today. We should get that put on a regular maintenance contract. And why didn’t someone call while I was gone?”
“That’s what I kept telling Tim, but he said it was cheaper to have them come out only when it was full. Nobody called because you said you would do it. I thought you had.”
“Shit! I’m really sorry! I got sidetracked with Joseph here. Next time, don’t wait on me. I don’t want to have to shut down because ditzy chick can’t remember to have it cleaned. Can we make it today?”
“Yeah. Probably.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Ehh… maybe,” he says, but his face tells a different story.
“If I’m not in your kitchen at 9:05 telling you when it will be emptied, you find me, okay?”
“Okay. 9:05,” he says gruffly before turning and heading back into the kitchen, muttering about how at sixty years old he shouldn’t have to remember to do everything and how the manager needs to start pulling her own weight.
Rose grins at Jack’s good-natured grumbling. “Are we ready to
open?” she asks a smiling Tonya.
“Jack!” she called into the kitchen. “You ready in there?”
“First batch of biscuits are coming out now. Yeah, we’re ready as we ever are in this mad house.”
“Alright, Roger,” she says. “Let’s rock!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
By two-thirty, Rose is getting into her car to go home. No—not home. To Melina’s house. She managed to get a promise from the contractor to have the grease trap cleaned today and had avoided a rush charge by taking out a twelve-month service contract. It will probably cost the Goose a little more in the long run, but she likes to have stuff done on regular schedules so screw ups like this don’t happen. Well, at least as often.
She had picked up the Goose’s mail after the breakfast rush and felt a pang of sadness that she couldn’t get Joseph’s mail. As soon as he gets back from El Paso she is getting that key back from him, and getting the phone switched back to the Goose, even if she has to pay the switching charges out of her own pocket.
Be-bopping to the stereo she makes her way to Melina’s and then parks in her now customary spot. She starts to burst into the house, but remembers at the last instant that little bodies can be anywhere and opens the door slowly. The house is quiet. She checks her watch… 2:45. The tykes should be up from their nap, but just in case she moves quietly through the house. The door to the kid’s room is open and she can see their empty beds. Frowning she check’s the master suite, only to find it empty as well. The quiet of the house bothers her, so she moves to garage. Both cars are in their stalls, and peering through the glass of the kitchen window, she can see no movement in the backyard.
Rose stands in the kitchen, cold fingers of dread clutching her heart. She hurries to her bedroom and pulls her cell and selects Melina from the contact list. As the phone rings she grips it tightly, panic beginning to set in. When it goes to voicemail she kills the call. She is standing there, trying not to panic and decide what to do when her phone rings, making her jump.
“Melina! Where are you?” she gaps pushing the connect button.
“The kids and I are out having an ice cream. What’s the matter? You sound like you are out of breath.”
“What’s the matter?” Rose nearly yells. “You scared the shit out of me!”
“Didn’t you see the note on the fridge?”
Rose sags, breathing out hard as the panic and stress flows out of her. “No. Sorry. But what are you doing out? I thought we agreed to not going out alone.”
“I was going stir crazy, and so were the kids. We had to get out for a few minutes. And, well, Mark is with us,” Melina says shyly.
Rose is so relieved that she begins to giggle. “Oh he is, is he? Okay. Sorry I yelled. But damn! I was about to have a heart attack. Anyway, enjoy your ice cream… but you have to tell me all about it when you get back.”
“Okay. Sorry we scared you.”
Rose giggles in relief again. “It’s okay. But you have to tell me. Are you wearing the blue dress?”
“No!” Melina giggles, drawing the word out. “Stop it. You’re awful.”
“Just checking. See you when you get back.”
“What are you doing?” Melina asks Rose as she and Touch enter the kitchen later.
“Making dinner. Will you be joining us, Touch?”
“I can’t. I need to get home and get some sleep. I take over for Guy at four in the morning.”
“You have to eat,” Rose says, encouraging him. “I made enough for you and Guy both to join us. You’ll still be doing your job. You’ll just be here in the house with us instead of out… where ever you guys go.”
Rose smiles to herself as Touch looks at Melina, then back to Rose, obviously torn. “It’s the least we can do, Mark. In fact, it is stupid to have you guys hiding outside all the time. Why don’t you stay in the house with us?”
“Hang on,” Touch says. “Guy? You copy?” he says, holding a tiny black device on the front of his shirt Rose hadn’t noticed before. “How would you like to have…”
“Skillet pork chops,” Rose supplies.
“…Skillet pork chops for dinner? Rose is cooking them. I don’t know. How long?” Touch asks, looking at Rose.
“Twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes,” Touch repeats into the device. “I don’t know, but it smells damn good. Okay man. See you in a bit. He’s coming,” he finally says to Rose.
“Good,” Rose says. “How does this ‘protecting us’ thing work, anyway?”
“I do four in the morning to four in the afternoon. Guy does the other.”
“Where does he sleep?”
“He doesn’t. He is in the woods on the other side of the road where he can see the front of the house. Same place I am when I am on watch.”
“That’s just stupid. We should have asked about this during the meeting. Why don’t you stay in the house with us? What if it rains?”
“A little rain never hurt anyone,” Touch says. “Thank you for the offer, but we had better not.”
“Why?” Melina asks. “Rose is right. Wouldn’t we be safer with you in the house with us?”
“No. In our lookout we can see everyone that drives up. We have a rifle, and if they are hostile we can take them before they even get to the house.”
Melina and Rose look to one another. “Far be it for me to tell you how to do your job, but I think you are overdoing it a bit,” Melina says. “It was one thing when you guys were doing this in two hour shifts, but just the two of you… that’s asking too much. Until something else happens, why not stay in the house with us? Guy can sleep in the living room if he wants. No one can get to the bedrooms without walking past him. How can we be any safer than that?”
“She’s right, Mark,” Rose says to Touch, using his name as Melina has been doing. “If you’re exhausted, how does that help us?”
“A twelve hour shift is nothing. I used to have to do thirty-six hour shifts in training.”
“Do what you think is best,” Rose says with a smile. “But I would think having two women doting on you, and a couple of hot meals a day, beats sitting in the bushes. But maybe that is just me.”
Touch begins to snicker. “You drive a hard bargain. Let me talk it over with Guy, okay?”
“Sounds good. Now shoo. Out of my way, both of you,” Rose commands, waving her hands in a ‘get out’ motion.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“That was awesome! Thank you, Rose,” Guy says, leaning back in his chair.
Guy is a big man, heavy set with a beer gut, tattoos, long hair, and an equally long beard. The stereotypical biker. But Rose is taken with his easy charm, though she senses that there is an underlying toughness. She wouldn’t want to meet Guy in a dark alley… or if she did, she would want him on her side. The more she hangs around the Nines, the more she realizes she needs to reevaluate what she thought she knew about bikers.
Rose smiles. She enjoys cooking, and she enjoys watching other people enjoy eating. She thought she had prepared plenty, but after Guy was sure everyone else had eaten to their fill, he had taken care of the rest. To prevent it from going to waste, he said, “I’m glad you liked it.”
“Beats power bars and coffee, that’s for da… sorry… for sure,” he says, making a face while glancing at Michael and Kimberly.
“Did Mark tell you our idea?” Melina asks.
“No. What idea?”
“They want us to move into the house with them,” Touch says.
“I don’t know about that. You’re the one that said we should be out where we can see the entire area,” Guy says warily.
“I know. But nothing has happened in almost three weeks now. Maybe they are right.”
“We’ll cook,” Rose offers helpfully.
“No fair offering bribes,” Guy grins, but then he sobers up. “I’ll follow your lead, Touch. But…”
“But what?” Melina asks.
“The cartel coldcocked us with Tim. Every
last one of us swore that won’t happen again,” Guy says, first looking at Melina and then at the table in shame. “He may not have had a jacket, but he was still a Nines as far as I’m concerned. I feel like I let a brother down.”
“Same here,” Touch says, his face twisting in grief and shame.