by Xander Hades
He picked her up and looked around. There were two steps to the so-called “bedroom,” an area that sat above the bed of the truck. Here there was queen-sized bed and his face broke into a great, near-feral grin. He scooped her up as though she weighed no more than a doll and carefully threaded them both through the opening as she giggled and kicked her feet like a mermaid.
He lay her on the bed and took one of her legs to move it to the side and discovered her dilemma. He pulled the pants and underwear aside to expose the boots and with eager fingers pulled the laces free of her left leg. The boot, once removed, flew out of the bedroom door and she heard a muted crash from somewhere in the kitchen area.
She expected him to turn his attention to the other, but Hoodoo’s patience was clearly at an end. He pulled her legs apart and leaned over her, his shaft lying on her belly. As he kissed her neck and again worked his way down her body to her breasts, it caressed her, too, with a promise of things to come, but when he drifted between her moist folds, he kept going, his hardness lost on the bed. His lips, however, did not stop, nor did they miss any inch of her as they traced her form.
He suckled each breast, getting the nipples hard and firm and finally reached the heated warmth between her thighs, finding the sweetest spot of all with his mouth. She gasped and arched and pressed his head to her, as his fingers found and parted each delicate fold, to be explored with lips and tongue until she screamed his name, her head rocking back and forth on the pillow in frantic enjoyment. When he rose and put himself at her sex, she nearly climbed on him, pulling him into her and digging her nails into his back.
He took her, or she him. They rolled together, gasping, reaching. Somehow they wound up with him lying on his back and she riding him, although she had to hunch over somewhat as the ceiling was so near. This brought a hilarity of its own, and in laughter they came, finding release together, throbbing and pulsing, breath hot and burning against throats strained from crying out in orgasm, in triumph, and resolution.
In the end, it was she who collapsed on him, shuddering and spasming, her head resting on chest that she might feel the wild pounding of his heart against her cheek as they both tried to get their breath back.
“God, I missed you.”
Tracy couldn’t have said for sure which one of them said it. Hoodoo’s arm wrapped around her, pulling her close as she got caught up in the wonder of what they had just done…and in the regret that she’d moved so readily down the exact same path that had brought them so much heartache before.
Chapter Twelve
Tracy woke feeling pleasantly sore and very crowded. Hoodoo slept on the very edge of the bed, he didn’t try to sprawl out or overtake the mattress, but sharing a queen-sized mattress with giant was problematic at best. The bed simply wasn’t big enough. She looked at the foot of the bed, and then at his feet. His feet, ankles and most of his calves hung off the end of the bed like a diving board stuck out in the air.
He lay on his back, on top of the sheets in the warm summer night, his naked form nearly gleaming in the ambient light that came through the single window over the bed. His muscled chest rose and fell as strong arms lay loosely around him. That was a problem, too. Not only was he too big for a bed, the thickness of his arms actually added to the problem, leaving Tracy very little room to move.
In Phoenix, he’d had a king, an extra-long king he’d bought because it almost let him have his feet on the mattress when he slept. It was also wide enough for Tracy to have a comfortable amount of room beside him. A queen-sized mattress was the largest most RVs could handle, certainly the sort of RV that can be rented. It was mostly luck of the draw what the agency had it available when her reservation came due, and she lay there looking at him thinking that she could easily ended up with a twin or double bed.
Hoodoo slept on his back, at least he had since she’d known him. That did have an advantage. In the darkness with the sounds of revelers in the background, the roar of motorcycles and the occasional laughing and partying sounds that marked any festival, she curled up beside him.
As he didn’t leave her a lot of room on the mattress, she lay her head on his chest and wrapped a leg and arm over him and nestled in. She inhaled the smell of his skin, earthy, a little bit of axle grease, perhaps, but it only smelled like motorcycle and that was a scent she’d grown up with. His chest rose and fell and as she began to drift off to sleep, his arm rose and wrapped around her as though she was a teddy bear to his dreaming slumber.
It was still odd, even after all this time to feel so small, yet so precious. He could have crushed her, and in the throes of passion, when they played rough, she sometimes wondered if he would forget his strength or if his need would overcome caution. Yet, his calloused hands, capable of squeezing a bolt cutter hard enough to cut chain, never so much as left a mark upon her skin.
Even the times when a little rough play was warranted, it was her who initiated it. Hoodoo’s lovemaking was usually very attentive, remarkable for a man whose favorite exercise was a bar-room fight. Well, ok, maybe second favorite.
Tracy sighed in contentment. She shouldn’t be feeling this good, she realized. There was going to be remorse come morning. Recriminations. But for now, in the languid state that came from being very well sated, she allowed herself the hope. The anticipation that this time would be different. That here, in the night, she could be a woman in love, and let the rest disappear until light of day.
Give me this moment. Give me now.
She wasn’t sure who she was even praying to. Did it matter? Somewhere, somehow the universe, God, whatever owed her. After everything her family had been through in the last two years with her father’s illness, with the constant money stress, the caregiving…she’d earned some measure of happiness.
Let me have it, then. Give me tonight. Just this much. And tomorrow…I will face tomorrow.
She sighed a little, and pressed her face against Hoodoo’s arm, shifting around so that her head rested on his chest. He smelled amazing, the musky sweaty outdoorsy blend with a tang of powerful machinery and paint that was pure him. She savored this moment, savored the warmth the way his arm came around to pull her in closer even though it was obvious he was still asleep, his head tilted back against the pillow, his mouth agape, letting out the occasional snore loud enough to be heard outside. She loved even that, although in the past she’d complained bitterly that he kept her awake at night, only to have him prove there were many other ways to keep her awake at night.
She smiled a little, and closed her eyes, snuggling in. I’ll rest a little while. Just let me enjoy this. Then I’ll get up and start the day. Then I’ll…
It was with some surprise that she woke with daylight streaming in through the window.
Tracy lifted up on her arm, and discovered it had gone numb in the middle of the night. Her neck had a crick from sleeping on his chest, but overall, she was feeling deliciously languid and her aches were less from sleeping and more from activities before slumber.
Hoodoo was looking at her. He was smiling.
“How…” her mouth was filled with cotton and her throat was stuffed with sand. She cleared her throat and tried to get enough saliva to form words again. “How long have you been awake?” she managed to ask.
“A while,” he said with a grin, fingertips tracing the path from cheek to nose, tender and sweet.
“You’ve just been lying there watching me?”
“No,” he smiled and nodded toward his phone, half lost in the blanket, letting her see that he’d been surfing as she slept. Tracy chuckled.
“I can’t say that you’re the softest pillow I’ve ever slept on.” She grinned at him as she shifted, nestling against him better. “But I seem to have slept pretty well, all things considered.”
“It’s a kind of tiny little bed.” Hoodoo looked down at what little mattress he could see under his bulk.
“No,” she shook her head, “it’s a huge, colossal, magnificent mattress.” She reache
d up and pinched his nipple. “You’re just bigger, huger and colossal-er.”
“And you’re naked.” Hoodoo said, licking his lips, “and you’re stunning. Especially in that light.”
She swallowed hard, not ready for horny when she wasn’t sure how she felt about last night. She cleared her throat. “And you slept with your arm around me,” she whispered shyly.
“It would still be around you, if I still had any feeling left in it.” Hoodoo said and leaned forward to kiss her. “It fell asleep a while ago.”
Tracy forced herself upright to free the arm pinned under her. “Why didn’t you wake me? I would have moved!”
“Hell, no.” Hoodoo said and then broke off to concentrate on moving the arm back over his chest. “Weren’t no way I was gonna wake that. You were just too damn beautiful. I was ‘fraid if I woke you, I would break the spell and you wouldn’t be lying on me anymore.” He smiled hugely, bright white teeth shining. “I like you lying on me like that.”
“I’m not that…” Tracy licked her lips. Pretty? Sexy? Attractive? What do I say? I’m just me.
“Yes, you are.” Hoodoo said with a certainty, “and I can prove it.”
“How?”
Hoodoo moved his gaze from her down to his own waist.
Tracy followed his eyes and her breath caught in her throat. “Oh my,” she said laughing. “Well, maybe I am after all.”
And just like that, in laughter and playful attacks, she forgot the misgivings of the night before, and her late night apprehensions. I’m too careful…I need to let go more…
So she let go. And found that spot on his side where he was ticklish and concentrated instead on an attack of sorts, because a good attack seemed needed right then. At least up until he retaliated and almost sent them both to the floor. She was still giggling when he rolled her over and then scooted her to the middle of the bed.
He proved to her how beautiful he thought she was and then proved it again. Breakfast was nearly at noon and consisted of instant ramen eaten naked, but it was a wonderful way to spend a rally.
They drank coffee in the chairs they’d had the evening beers in the night before. The day sped past them, bikes and bikers. The way time passed was like they’d found a quiet corner where the rest of the world allowed them to be alone.
It can’t last. I know it. But I am holding on to every moment, every second while I can.
Sometimes in watching the hurry of the rest of the world, Hoodoo reached over and took her hand in his. Her hand was engulfed, subsumed, and held as delicately as a china flower.
In that moment, the voice she’d ignored and stomped on all night and throughout the day returned and she heard it as clearly as a scream of triumph.
I’m in love.
Damn it!
Chapter Thirteen
“You know, part of selling something is actually having the thing for sale,” Loki said as Hoodoo drew even with the booth. “Like where people can actually see it.”
Hoodoo glanced at the booth and saw nothing out of place. The banners hung where he’d left them. The fender and gas tank lay were they could be examined. In fact, everything looked pretty much the same as it had looked the day before. He gave Mad-dog a quizzical look.
Mad-dog shook his head. “We put the stuff back up in the booth, big guy, but ah… you’re the artist. You are what we’re selling. If you’re not here, there’s nothing to sell.”
“Dude!” Val said from the lawn chair where she was putting a great deal of attention into painting her nails black and orange. “It’s afternoon, where the hell were you?” She lifted her hand to examine the effect and frowned a little.
Even their ribbing couldn’t put Hoodoo out of his good mood right now. He nodded good-naturedly, hands up in mock-surrender. “Alright, alright, I’m back, okay? You all run and have fun, enjoy yourselves, I got this.” He sat down on the chair. It tipped slightly under his weight.
Val shook her head and looked at the others for help. Each of them hid smiles and looked pointedly at any direction but hers. Or Hoodoo’s.
“What?” Val demanded, capping her nail polish sitting back. “What am I missing?”
“I think things went very well for the boss-man here,” Andy said, pointing a thumb in Hoodoo’s direction.
“I think it went well for his lady, too,” Danny added with an exaggerated wink.
Val turned to Hoodoo. “I was sitting here in your booth and you were getting laid?” she yelled. “How is that fair?” She crossed her arms over her chest, forgetting her wet nail polish and glared at him like it was his fault when she realized what she’d done.
“You wanna meet my friend later?” Hoodoo asked. Val quit fussing at her nails to look up at him. “Ok, we’re even.”
“Deal.”
Loki wasn’t paying attention to the chatter. His focus was down the road coming into town. The stream of bikes had started up again as soon as dawn and hangovers allowed and it really blended all together. But something caught his eye and he stiffened as he watched.
“Hey, Hoodoo!” he called and frantically waved the giant over to look. Set in the middle of the oncoming stream where a half dozen bikes whose riders were stern-faced and solemn. It was what set them apart from the revelers who whistled and called to each other, social and energetic and so utterly normal for a gathering like this.
Looks that grim meant someone was up to no good. Hoodoo watched as other bikers started clearing away, giving the group some room.
The other thing that separated them from the rest was the fact they seemed to be making a straight line to Hoodoo’s booth.
“Customers?” Hoodoo said, not believing it for a moment.
“No,” Loki said with a nod toward the leader. “That’s the Bandit I saw your lady love splitting a meal with.”
“That’s her cousin?” Hoodoo said, squinting against the sun. “Which one?”
“The one with the middle finger sewn on his vest.”
“Classy.”
Eight of the riders broke off the stream and pulled up as close to Hoodoo’s booth as they could get. Each one wore the colors of The Bandits and they swaggered to the booth, looking critically at the items on display.
“Heh,” one of them laughed and pointed to Val. “How much for that little trinket? She’d look good hanging from my neck.” His cronies laughed. Val flipped him off and Mad-dog held up a restraining hand, not so much for her protection but theirs.
“Which of you pissants is the Cajun?” Joey asked. He glanced at Mad-dog and the others, but when Hoodoo stepped out of the shadows, the man’s eyes grew wider. He backed up a step involuntarily and caught himself before straightening up, and squaring his shoulders like a man about to set into the boxing ring.
Hoodoo sighed. He knew that little dance step. A little man reacts to the size of him and then feels like he has to bluster and pose to gain back the machismo that he feels he lost. Little men like that cannot be reasoned with.
“What you need?” Hoodoo ground out through clenched teeth.
“You stay the fuck away from her. You get me?” Joey pointed his finger in Hoodoo’s face. It lost a little of the emphasis that he had to gesture almost entirely up.
“What are you talking about?” Hoodoo stretched and flexed his fingers, shaking out his hands a little. “Piss off.”
The little man, if anything, drew himself up higher. The man had to be just about standing on his tiptoes by this point. “I said, you stay away from my cousin. I don’t want you sniffing around her! You got nothing to say about anything, you get me? She don’t take orders from you! SO FUCK OFF!”
“Tracy don’t take orders from no one,” Hoodoo said, with an involuntary laugh. His accent grew thicker and heavier when he became angry and right now, he was barely understandable. “No me, nor you, and thinkin’ ‘special no you.”
Joey took a deep breath and spat in Hoodoo’s face.
There was a pause where the world stopped around them. At was
as if the entire rally held their breath and then as one moved back to give him room. Because after all, that was all that was needed. The booth exploded in violence. Hoodoo’s fist came across like a vertical jackhammer, this time he wasn’t holding back. This wasn’t exercise before a beer run, this was a shot in anger… this was a shot in rage. He connected to Joey’s chin and the smaller man spun and lifted off the ground before landing in the dirt. Someone jumped on Hoodoo, but he threw the man off and into the parked motorcycles of The Bandits.
Mad-dog, not to be outdone, growled and leapt the table in front of the booth and blocked a blow by another Bandit and drove his fist into the man’s solar plexus.
The twins and Loki looked at each other, and as one, stepped into the fray, each choosing an opponent and Val disappeared. Whereas Mad-dog leapt the table, she leapt on the table and flew from there, landing a vicious flying kick to the tip of a Bandit’s nose. He never saw it coming.
She landed on her feet in front of the Bandit who was untangling himself from the bikes. He reached behind his back and Val yelled “GUN” and propelled herself back into the air, stopping her ascent by laying her steel-toed boot into the man’s groin. He went down coughing blood and his pistol flew free, landing under the mass of motorcycles.