Love: In the Fast Lane

by Rie Warren

  “You think?” He brightened.

  “Should just knock her up already.”

  Just then the door burst open with a loud bang. Brodie and Boomer barged inside.

  “This is how you show respect for our baby sister?” Brodie demanded of me.

  Boomer stalked forward. “Talkin’ shit behind her back with her business contact?”

  I stared narrowed-eyed between the pair of pissed off brothers.

  “You think you’re gonna knock Cat up? Not before I knock you out.” Brodie’s fist swung out, opening to grab the collar of my coveralls.

  He dragged me outside while Josh battled it out with Boomer in the hallway behind us. I was glad we were going to finally duke it out, even if the fuckhead had the wrong end of the stick . . . shoved up his ass . . . sideways.

  The last remaining mechanics followed us, this time to the back of Stone’s. For a good ol’ southern boy brawl. Before I could explain, Brodie tried to deck me. My head whipped back just in time so he barely clipped my chin. Thank fuck he’d shucked his rings first.

  Then it was game on. I grabbed his hair, twisted it in my fists, and brought his forehead to mine with a blow that cracked so loud Gerald and the other ass-turds crowed in delight. Letting Brodie go, I watched him shake the holy fucks from his head. Hunkering down, I pulled myself into a whipcord ball of muscle.

  Beside me, Josh and Boomer went at it. They were both massive, so evenly matched in size it was like watching two bulls going head-to-head, horn-to-horn, fist-to-face.

  I didn’t have time to appreciate their Clash of the Titans because Brodie put his head down and rammed into my stomach. With the wind knocked out of me, I spun backward. Josh grabbed my shoulders and pushed me upright.

  He growled, “Get that fuckin’ limp dick, dude.”

  My kick whistled through the air to connect with Brodie’s midsection. He stumbled into the ringside roustabouts who threw him back at me. My knuckles scraped his jaw. His knee slammed into my groin. Luckily his sister had given me a lesson in how to shake off blue balls right quick.

  “The fuck you doing with Cat, anyway?” he snarled in my face.

  Again, no time to react because his left hook aimed for my right cheek. I swerved away, dancing lightly on the balls of my feet. “Give it to me, bitch.”

  Brodie’s eyes turned downright demonic. “What’d you say?”

  “You heard me.” I beckoned him with my fingers, taunting him closer. “You’re a little bitch.”

  “You have no goddamn clue what she’s been through,” he gnashed.

  Brodie charged. I wheeled away and came up behind him. Cranking my arms under and around his shoulders and neck, I full-nelsoned him. On the ground, I immobilized his arms. I held him with his thighs pinned and useless under mine.

  I licked the blood from my lip and flung sweaty hair from my eyes as he tried to roll out from under me. He bucked and swore up a shitstorm. Josh bashed Boomer on his square jaw, grinning like a mad fool even while the skin of his knuckles burst open. Good thing Josh and I had gone a round or two before in our younger days. Boomer lashed out, trying to box Josh into a corner, but the garage gang opened the circle, letting them tear it up as far as the dirt road beside Stone’s.

  On the sidelines, the boys were betting. Cash was flying. Assholes.

  Brodie jerked beneath me. His breaths sawed in and out, lifting me with each ragged inhale.

  “I’ll ask you again. What the fuck are you doing with our sister?” he rasped.

  Josh hauled Boomer back into the ring. He heaved him onto the ground beside his brother.

  “You stay away from Cat, Nicky,” Boomer growled.

  I released his brother and stood up. I spat a mouthful of blood beside Boomer’s face. “Fuck you, Steele. I’m into her.”

  “Yeah, she’s got a lot of guys into her. And you’re not winnin’ any prizes yet, Bozo.”

  “I’ll fucking kill any man who comes between me and her, and that includes y’all.” I swiped my hand across my mouth.

  Brodie bit out, “You write big words and talk ’em, too, but we’re not convinced, and neither is our sis.”

  “Guess I gotta do better then.” I’d fight them again, if that was what it took. Shit, I’d even put up with another dose of Wildcat’s mean right hook. She wasn’t going to shake me off. I wanted her. In my house, in my bed, in my life. “I love her, you twin twat-holes! That’s what I’m doing with Cat!”

  Silence resonated for a beat or two.

  Josh yanked me to him. “Way to own it, bro.”

  “’Bout damn time.” Ray slowly clapped.

  Gerald grinned. “Cool.”

  Javier shouted, “Pay up, mendejos. I won the bet.”

  “Lucky little puñetero,” Mick grumbled.

  The two hulking dudes heaved to their feet. They had the grace to look a little sheepish, and beat the hell up. Josh and I held each other upright. They did likewise.

  “We were talking about Josh and Leelee,” I said. “I’m not fixing to get Cat knocked up. I love her.”

  “No shit?” Brodie wiped his sleeve across his bloody lip. “How come you didn’t say anything?”

  “Getting punched in the face made it a little difficult to talk, pudwacker.”

  Swollen, hurting, and winded, we four shook hands, flinching as cuts and bruises were squeezed with just a bit too much force.

  “Sorry for fuckin’ up your face.” Brodie managed to look contrite.

  “Don’t mention it,” I said as I slapped Josh’s back in goodbye.

  I flicked Javier’s faded green fan of cash winnings as I passed so they fluttered to the ground. Then I limped to the parking lot.

  I rode the Indian Chief home, roaring through the night, eager to reach Cat. Sure, my knuckles bled inside the leather gloves and my lip was cut, but I could take a few knocks on the head as long as she was ready to take me into her heart.

  ****

  I hit the kickstand, threw off my helmet, and strode up the steps to my house. The leather gloves stuck to my sticky knuckles when I peeled them off. When I kicked the door open, Viper tongue-lolled up to me. She took one look, one whiff, and whined.

  Cat came around the corner. Her hair—those shiny black tresses—fell straight to her waist. Standing there in a pair of small shorts, my oversized USC T-shirt hanging to her hips, she gasped.

  I probably looked like an extra in a horror flick.

  “Holy shit, Nick! What happened to you?”

  I grinned with a busted lip. As I went in for a kiss, I barely brushed her mouth before I drew back. “Ouch.” I prodded my mouth. “That hurts.”

  “It’s swollen.”

  “But it makes me look like a stud, right?”

  “A bruiser maybe. Go sit in the kitchen and let me clean you up.”

  “Nope.” I grabbed her hand. “We’re going to bed. PS. I finished the Beast. She’s parked outside, purrs like a fuckin’ panther, and I wanna make love to you.”

  “With your hands bleeding all over the place?” She shook her head, but she smiled.

  “I’ll get naked, you can clean me up. In bed. Deal?” We deserved a little HEA ourselves.

  Clearly not convinced, Cat marched me upstairs. I shrugged off my clothes and leaned back against the pillows. Waiting for Cat to gather supplies from the bathroom, I started to stroke my cock. It arced against my stomach. Precome drizzled from the head and dripped onto the muscles of my abs.

  Cat almost dropped the first aid kit when she saw me waiting for her. Her gaze ran up my legs. I widened my thighs and tugged my heavy balls between my fingers.

  Her nipples peaked against the thin shirt she wore. Her breathing, low and unsteady, pressed her gorgeous tits even more clearly against the T-shirt. She sat beside me, concentrating on my battles wounds. I let go of my cock to fondle her. She blushed and swatted my hands away.

  “That shiner’s going to match your eyes in a day or two.” The alcohol swabs stung the cuts on my hands an
d face. Her hand cupped my chin as she tenderly kissed my cheek. “Who did this to you?”

  “I think I just won your brothers’ respect.” Pretty damn pleased with myself, I grinned. And—ouch—no more grinning for me. “It’s a good thing you like me all roughed-up.”

  She finished patching me up and sat back. “I’m going to kill them.”

  “Nah, nah. They might be in traction by now. ’Sides I think that was my ‘welcome to the family’ ass-whuppin’.”

  “Oh, Nick. I love you.”

  Wait. What the . . . Huh?

  “No, no, no. You cannot just slip it in like that.” Her I love you afterthought almost rendered me unconscious. The shit with that?

  She tapped my nose. “See? How can I not have those very special feelings for you? You’re hunky and adorable.”

  “Wildcat,” my voice rumbled. I pushed her down to the bed. I slid her long legs farther apart, starting with her ankles and rising to her thighs. “Don’t test me.”

  Her tits pressed up until the cloth of my shirt almost ripped apart. I moved between her thighs and skimmed the shorts down her legs, off her feet. There was nothing but hot, wet pussy underneath.

  I reached to the nightstand for a condom and started rolling it on. “You either take the shirt off or—”

  Cat slipped the red and white jersey up her body and over her head. Her teardrop tits with the metallic jewelry and stiffened nipples made me see double. I crawled over her. My back and shoulders and arms flexed. My cock was rigid. The crown pressed along her thigh until it reached the apex of her body. The wet glide-slide of her slit hugged my hard flesh until I pushed against her clit. The slick hood opened with the heavy head of my cock.

  Cat writhed beneath me. With her heels planted against the bed, she grabbed my hair in her hands. Her hot breaths hovered just to the side of my mouth. “Make love to me.”

  I shuddered. I lifted all the way off her then sank all the way inside. Rising over her on bulging arms, I tugged her lip between my teeth and let it pucker out.

  “Say it again, Cat. Please.” I pistoned deep and pulled out, hanging onto my sanity by a thread.

  “I love you.” Her hot gasping hiss swirled across my lips. Her hands clawed down my back and dug into my ass. She drew me into the incredible heat of her cunt.

  “I’ll never get tired of hearing that.” I slid closer, intent on long, slow, deep lovemaking. “I’ll never get tired of feeling you.”

  I grasped her hands beside her head. I lowered down until our bodies collided.

  Her feverish crystalline eyes opened. “I need to come, Nick.”

  The slower I thrust, the wetter she became. Liquid, melting, moaning, she bit my throat. She writhed against me in tight circles as I drove inside of her. I could feel her heat squeezing around me. Cat pushed her hand between our bodies. She curled her fist around the base of my cock so everytime I withdrew, it was through her tight palm.

  My head knocked back and my hips pumped forward. Finally her hand dragged up to clench my shoulder. Faster and harder. Sharper and louder. Breaths coming in bursts. We sought each other’s mouths and crashed together. We came together, and it roared through my ears, through my body, and splashed out of me.

  I sank between her thighs a few more times. My hands brushed down her back as I flipped us both over so she landed softly on top of me. Our breaths sighed and slowed. A languid kiss held us together.

  Cat wound her arms around me. “I love you, Nick. Don’t give up on me.”

  “I’m here.” I ran my fingers through her hair then over the sweet swell of her hips. I kissed the top of her head, murmuring. “I won’t.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cat O’ Nine Tales

  IT ALREADY FELT LIKE Christmas morning when I woke the next day, memories of Cat’s sweet and then solemn I love yous dancing in my head. She nuzzled next to me, generating the warmth not just in my bed, but also in my heart. While she slept on, I leaned onto an elbow to watch her.

  So this is what bliss feels like.

  Something beautiful, a little bit fragile. Something peaceful that made me stronger. I spread out beside Cat, cradling her head with my arm. I smiled when she rolled toward me, her black hair a silken fan over her pillows and half of mine.

  We had plans, starting with Christmas in a couple weeks. We were going to spend Christmas Eve with her brothers. She assured me Boomer knew his way around the kitchen and not just his bruiser knuckles. Mimi had invited us for Christmas lunch. She was beside herself with joy, and her way of showing it was to feed us up with a massive lowcountry feast.

  We had plans beyond the twenty-fifth, too, into 2014. Plans for a future.

  The weakest of wintry sunrays filtered into the room through the open blinds. Warm beams kissed Cat’s lips, which were softened by sleep. They shimmered across her neck, shoulders, and arms bared of sheets and covers.

  I traced her inked designs, the chilling sugar skulls amid the vividly flowering landscape. The word Remember appeared over and over along stems and petals, set into her skin. As I had so many times before, I bent to kiss a particularly vibrant bloom on the bend of her elbow where her skin was most delicate. A shaft of sun slid across her skin, lighting her arm in an array of colors and . . .

  Oh fuck.

  I pushed my thumb into the hollow of her elbow where the sun illuminated a silvery trail of flesh beneath the marks of the tattoo. I flipped her arm over. I skimmed over the thin white webs showing underneath her ink, far paler than her golden complexion. Scars I recognized from Daniel. The scars that had lingered beneath his newer, more raw track marks.

  I’d begged Daniel over and over again to get sober. To clean up. He’d just ruffle my hair and call me a kid. I hadn’t told my parents because I didn’t want them to think he was just a druggie.

  Kid. I’d never been a kid. Not when my older brother was stoned out of his skull half his life. The only time I’d been able to keep him straight were those few hours every week when we worked on the motorcycle.

  My fingers dug harder into Cat’s arm.

  “Ow, Nick!” She woke up and crawled away from me.

  My stomach lurched into my throat, making speech almost impossible. “You . . . you’re . . . you’re a goddamn junkie!”

  Pain punched me so deep in the gut, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t look at her. I’d done this before.

  “I lost everything because of drugs. My brother, my mother and father. Everything, Cat.”

  Fear skittered across her features. “You’re not the only one. I lost me! I lost . . .”

  “What? What did you lose? When the hell were you going to start talking to me?” I shouted in her face.

  With her arms crossed over her chest, she caved in on herself. My heroine, the heroin addict. “I didn’t want you to know.”

  “No shit, Cat.” My stomach curdled until I thought I’d puke all over the bed.

  I heard her moving closer but I pulled away. I slid out of bed and dragged on my jeans. “Don’t. Don’t come near me. Don’t touch me.”

  “I couldn’t tell you,” she whispered.

  “Guess that’s why you never bothered to.”

  I couldn’t even force a laugh. I should’ve known. Goddamn it, but I should’ve figured it out! I should’ve recognized the signs. She was so tightly laced. The full sleeves of ink and the long-sleeved shirts even in ninety-plus-degree heat. Not once had she ever had a drink in my presence.

  I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want it to be true. I wanted to pull Cat into my arms as she sat there, crying and shaking her head.

  “But the cocktails when you go out with Leelee?” I asked.

  “Mocktails when I go out with Leelee. You’ve never seen me drink because I don’t. I can’t afford to.”

  “You’re an addict.”

  “I’m a recovering addict.” She tilted her stubborn chin at me, wet tracks down her cheeks to go with the white ones hidden on her arms.

  “You’re a ju
nkie, Cat!”

  She jumped off the bed, swimming in a cascade of sheets. “And you’re a judgmental asshole!” She stood blazing before me. “I have fought my addiction. I live with it every day. I have fought for my life. I deserve your love, not this asinine knee-jerk reaction because I’m not the sweet little pussycat you thought I would be.”

  My jaw clamped shut, my teeth grinded.

  My voice hollow, I said, “Then you tell me. Tell me what the fuck happened to you, finally. Because I’ve been waiting all these months, Cat, scooping up every breadcrumb you deigned to feed me like it was the goddamn holy fuckin’ manna from heaven. Meanwhile you’ve been holding out on me in a way you knew would hurt me most.”

  “Where should I start, huh? At the end?” She prodded my chest. “The end is I love you. How about we begin with that?”

  I grabbed her wrists and pinned her hands to her sides. “I say you start at the beginning. And don’t leave anything out.”

  “I was seventeen. I needed to support my habit. The heroin came first, stripping second, the escort service last.” She threw the words at me, all defense, no remorse.

  I backed away from her until I hit the wall. I slid down until I hunkered with my head in my hands. “Jesus Christ, Cat. The stripping was one thing, getting arrested . . . we dealt with that, you and me.” I peered up at her, meeting her bleak gaze. “This is . . . I thought it couldn’t get any worse. I thought we were done with secrets.” My voice dried up and I swallowed hard. “I thought we trusted each other.”

  I heard the rustle of clothes being pulled on before she held her hand out to me again. “Nick.”

  She pulled her palm back when I glanced away. She blew out a ragged breath. The tears on her face slid between her lips and dripped off her chin.

  I’d give in if I touched her. I wanted . . . I wanted to go back, to pretend I didn’t know. My eyes burned, my throat working to force down the pain. I coughed and covered my eyes. “Tell me.”

  “You know everything. The only part I left out was the drugs—”

  “Just heroin, or did you dabble in coke, maybe hit speed too. How much candy did you do?”