Gun Shy

by Ashley Bostock

  She nibbled on his lips and he pulled away, “Come home with me.” It was more of an order than a question and as much as Marilyn’s heart and soul wanted to say yes, she knew her mind wouldn’t let her.

  “I just can’t do that yet.”

  “What are you worried about?” he looked into her eyes.

  “About how I would feel about myself in the morning. You know, walk of shame and all. As well as if I’m a rebound hit for all the emotions you have going on right now with the robbery. I hope you understand.”

  She hoped he would understand and not be one of those guys who was going to get irritated with her for saying no, somehow thinking she wasn’t an adult who couldn’t just have casual sex. But to Marilyn, sex wasn’t just casual. As much as she loved it and loved the way it made her feel, she still wanted to make love to men who cared about her and not just her sex. To her relief, he nodded.

  “You’re breaking my heart, Angel, standing there looking so damn beautiful, telling me no. But I get it, and I am a gentlemen and that is my cue to go home and take care of my problem myself.”

  They both glanced down at his crotch as he said those words, where his cock was very much erect. She could instantly feel her cheeks catching on fire. How many times has he made me blush? She looked up into his eyes and he chuckled, “You are so easy to tease. I cannot help it.”

  She could not help herself imagining Blake taking himself, big and hard, into his own hands and working his magic. Would he do it in the shower? In his bed? Amber would love her line of thinking right now. Usually, Amber was all about sex, not Marilyn.

  Although she said she couldn’t go home with him, her body betrayed her as she felt a little bit of jealousy rising in her chest, at the thought of her being the cause of this and not being able to be there with him to ease the pain (pleasure?).

  “Earth to Marilyn? Oh my gosh, were you just imagining sex with me?” He was definilty grinning now as he watched her become embarrassed. He could make out the redness of her cheeks in the streetlights as they became darker.

  She was so busted, she thought. And embarrassed. She cleared her suddenly tight throat, “Well, what I was thinking was neither here nor there. I hope you are able to get something figured out tomorrow. Let me know.” She turned to leave.

  He grabbed her arm, “Uh-uh.”

  He pulled her back around toward him and captured her between his arms. He pushed her up against her Jeep, with his arms bracing himself on both sides of her shoulders, his hard body pressed up against hers.

  “I’m not letting you get away that easy. Tell me you were just thinking about the two of us having sex. You were, weren’t you?” His voice was low and seductive, not at all condescending. She could feel his erection pressed against her lower belly, she could feel the wetness between her legs as he held her like this and questioned her with a look of desire in his eyes.

  “Answer me,” he demanded.

  “Okay, yes. Yes, I was,” she whispered.

  He didn’t let go. Instead he surprised her. He brushed her hair away from her ear and bent close to her, she could feel his breath on her ear.

  “I’ve been having a hard time all night long, only thinking about what it would be like to fuck you. I’ve been thinking about the many different ways I would make you come in my bed. All of the places I would kiss you and lick you. The one place where I would stick my fingers and feel you shudder around them, making you scream my name. Its okay, Marilyn, if you were thinking about having sex with me because that has been all I have been able to think about. Ever since I walked into your store and your cute little ass was in my face, I’ve been thinking about fucking you non-stop.”

  With that, he helped her into her Jeep and left.

  Chapter Nine

  Marilyn had a hard time falling asleep that night. She couldn’t stop thinking about Blake. One minute, she could only think of his hands all over her body, the next she could only think of the stolen truck from the brewery and what he must be feeling. For most of the night though, she thought of him whispering in her ear, all the things he was thinking about. The one place where I would stick my fingers and feel you shudder around them. Oh, she definitely wanted that. She now realized, alone in her bed, how badly she wanted it. Her body was on fire. She ached deep within her body for his touch. Why not just go for it¸ she thought. And to hell with what happened afterwards. In this moment, she wanted to be that woman. She wanted to be a woman like Amber, who could have sex with a man and not look back, only forward.

  For once, lock all her emotions inside and enjoy the feelings of what her body could give her. But she knew, as well as she knew her bookstore, that she couldn’t do that. She was too self-conscious, too emotional, to have sex with someone and walk away. Especially, someone like Blake.

  She really enjoyed his company. The way he made her laugh, and how comfortable she felt around him – once that initial meeting phase passed. He was very much a gentleman to her, in most cases, she thought. She wasn’t sure what the rule book said about gentlemen expressing their sexual desires to a woman outside of a bookstore. But to her, it didn’t matter, she liked it. She was embarrassed at first that he caught her fantasizing about him, demanding her to admit it, but there was something in his eyes that told her he had to hear it from her lips. That same look he gave her when they met at Rumors and she blabbed on and on about his good looks. She chuckled to herself in the darkness. That mishap seemed like it happened so long ago now. It was as if they’d known each other forever at this point.

  Talking tonight inside her store really changed the way she looked at him. She trusted him a little bit more. She knew that trust always came after you got to know someone better, and she was still a little gun shy about jumping in with her heart and not her head like she had a tendency to do, but after tonight there was some sort of goodness about talking, laughing and just getting to know him. It made her feel like maybe he did want to get to know her, that there was a possibility of something that could happen between them.

  I’ve been thinking about fucking you non-stop. His comments made her giddy. She was secretly thrilled that he was thinking about her that way. She wouldn’t admit that to anyone, but she loved that his mind was on her and all the things he wanted to do to her. She thought of him joking about ‘taking care of the problem himself’ and she fantasized again about him grabbing his hard shaft and milking it, she slipped her hand under the blanket, inside her panties and finally gave herself the relief she needed since the moment he walked in her life.

  Two things were keeping Blake awake tonight: Marilyn and the robbery of the beer truck. The whole idea of someone stealing from him really pissed him off in general. He hated people who stole things. There was a kid in his high school that stole from other kids nonstop. He would take silly stuff that wasn’t worth stealing in Blake’s mind. Like, a library book that wasn’t Blake’s, a textbook – another thing that wasn’t Blake’s and one time the kid stole Blake’s wallet, which landed Blake in the principal’s office because he had gotten into a fist-fight with him.

  Blake didn’t understand stealing. He worked hard to get the things he had. He earned them. Why shouldn’t other people have to earn things too? Who would steal the beer from the truck? Random people? Random people meaning someone who didn’t know Blake personally or was it someone who knew him personally that was out to get revenge on him? He couldn’t think of anyone that he had pissed off in the past. Definitely not any time recently. Mostly, he kept to himself, his family, the brewery and some close friends he had. He was certain it wasn’t any of those guys. He would bet his life on that.

  Maybe this was just a random act and somewhere, somebody was sitting fat and happy...and drunk, with their new-found fortune. Whatever it was, it sucked. He should have probably called Tyler to see what he thought about the whole situation but the sheriff told him that he would be questioning both of them in the morning so he wasn’t too concerned about not calling him.

&nb
sp; What was he going to say anyway? Bad shit happened and now they were out a great deal of profit? He also didn’t want to have to tell Tyler where he was when he got the news. Blake was a grown man, doing grown-up things with Tyler’s ex and while he thought Tyler would need to deal with that on his own, Blake wasn’t a dick – he wasn’t going to flaunt her around in front of Tyler if he didn’t need to. Besides, what he had going on with Marilyn right now, he wasn’t sure how long that would be going on, so there was no need to bring her into matters concerning him and Tyler if he didn’t need to.

  Boy, did she drive him crazy though. In a small matter of time, that little angel had officially driven him wild. He was usually the one in charge when it came to women. It was usually his call on matters of sex and, lucky for him, women had always complied. But not this woman.

  No, she let him think she was putty in his hands and then she firmly let him know who was boss. Smiling, he thought, and that boss is not me. Not this time. She gave him a run for his money and admittedly, he liked it. He was intrigued with her.

  Tonight, he enjoyed getting to know her and when he thought he had her all figured out, she said something completely opposite and threw him off. She kept him on his toes. He should have known that the moment he laid eyes on her at Rumors. She was absolutely breathtaking and appeared shy but then she told him all these things he didn’t know he was dying to hear, and when he saw her again at the brewery – there she was, shy again.

  But tonight, she wasn’t shy.

  She had made him laugh, she laughed at herself, and she was extremely smart and down-to-earth. She told him a lot about herself. She wasn’t shy at all. When he kissed her, she kissed him back with an intensity he couldn’t believe. She kissed with her body. It was like her soul was reaching into him with their kisses and he couldn’t help but be sucked in.

  Marilyn did get a little embarrassed when he thought she was thinking about sex with him. At first, he was only bluffing but the look she had in her eyes told him he had hit the nail on the head and from then on, he couldn’t help himself. He had to hear her voice telling him that she was thinking about fucking him. He had to see the look in her eyes. Lord help him, he would have had no problem pulling her panties to the side and making her come right there underneath the moonlight.

  When he left her, he understood one thing about that angel, loud and clear: when she did put her mind to something, she did it with her heart and soul.

  He grabbed his phone laying on the nightstand next to his bed and texted her.

  Marilyn read the text from Blake, right before she fell asleep.

  Chapter Ten

  The next day Marilyn was dying to know what the sheriff had to say about the hijacking but she was too nervous to text or call Blake before he called her. She waited and waited for him and about after ten that morning Blake texted.

  Lover Boy, which is what she thought of when she thought of Blake. He was so strong and yet so sweet, from the moment she saw him she couldn’t help but think of how he would be as a lover, as her lover. She knew it was too soon to think of him that way but when he looked at her, his emerald eyes shining, smiling into hers, the way he touched her, the way he grabbed her hips letting her know that she was his –only his, made her feel things she wasn’t used to feeling, made her go insane. That is why he was her loverboy. He didn’t ever have to know that is what she thought of him, but that is what she put into her phone. So anytime she received a text from him, LoverBoy showed up.

  She texted back:

  Blake read her text. He tried to ignore the disappointment welling up inside him. Why was that feeling there? He’d only been around Marilyn for a week or so; he didn’t know what that meant nor did he care for it. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and thought about her text. Start our own investigation? Was she crazy? Not really, he mused. When he met with the sheriff this morning, they basically had no leads. No one saw the delivery truck nor had they seen any other vehicles.

  It happened in broad daylight but apparently no one was the wiser. He really didn’t need this shit in his life. The sheriff had questioned him, almost like he was the suspect in this ordeal. He told him what he knew, which was not much. Blake did what he did every weekend – loaded up the truck based upon the order’s list and sent it off for delivery the next day. Tyler double checked the list and the contents of the truck to make sure everything matched up and off it went.

  This morning he had spoken with Tyler and he wasn’t too pleased about the robbery either. He, too, was furious, not understanding how the fuck something like this could happen in broad daylight. How the police had no leads and were just going to keep looking into it. The driver of the truck said that masked men basically ambushed him off the road, forcing him to pull over. The driver was more excited that it was like “something out of Fast and the Furious,” the movie, since he wasn’t actually hurt.

  They did have guns which made him cooperate, quietly and quickly, before they hogtied him. He had told the sheriff that there were three men (presumably) who got him stopped while a fourth person “appeared out of nowhere” with a semi-truck to load the contents into their truck.

  Blake’s phone rang, he pulled it out of his pocket and saw who it was, “Hello?”

  That one word got Marilyn’s blood pumping so fast through her veins, how was that even possible? How could one little word make her feel like she wanted to take all of her clothes off and jump into his lap?

  “Hi, it’s Marilyn.” She said a little too breathlessly.

  “I know who it is. I’ve been waiting for you to call me,” he couldn’t resist adding, “Especially since I know some of your dirty thoughts.”

  “Blake! You cannot say that kind of stuff on the phone!”

  “I can’t? Why don’t I come see you then and we can talk in person about all the wild and crazy things that are going through your mind? If you’re lucky, I will not only tell you my thoughts, but I will show you.” He couldn’t help but grin. She was so easy to tease, he loved hearing her so flustered.

  She could feel her cheeks heating up. Quietly, she responded, “You, you do not need to show me. I can guess and besides I am working now and I do have customers that probably don’t want to hear that talk. Besides,” she couldn’t help flirting back, just a little, “I guarantee you, I would have more to tell you than you would me.”

  This vixen, Blake thought, she definitely challenged him and he liked it! “Marilyn, Marilyn, Marilyn, if you continue to talk like that, I may just have to come to your place of business and do something about this whole issue. Do you want that?” he threatened.

  “What? Now? No, I have to work. Or do you mean ever? I don’t know about ever, I just-“ she stopped, realizing she was giving into the teasing. Okay, breathe. She could hear Blake chuckling on the other end of the line, “Ha ha, good one, okay. What else did the sheriff have to say?”

  Blake turned serious, “Nothing much. No leads. There were four people with a semi who loaded everything into their truck. Masked gunmen. That’s it. I cannot fucking believe it. Tyler’s pissed. We all are. It’s a pretty gloomy day at work. The only good thing is I will be able to pick up our delivery truck in the next day or so”

  “I’m sorry Blake. I was only halfway serious when I said we should do our own investigating but you know what? Maybe we should. The first place to start would be at the brewery. Do you guys have cameras? Maybe they taped something fishy,” she said hopefully.

  “We have a few cameras but I doubt there is anything on them worthy enough to investigate. The cameras are all mostly located where patrons are so we can keep an eye on them. There is one located in the loading docks but it would be mostly me on camera. I guess I’ll check that one. I’ve already given it to the sheriff’s department. It only goes back for forty-eight hours though. Any other ideas, Angel?”

  He was surprised she was offering to help him find anything related to the hijacking incident, no one ever really offered to help Blake wi
th much of anything. Maybe it was the attitude he exuded; he could handle anything thrown his way, but this woman wasn’t buying it. She just threw herself into his problem as if it were her own. The fact that she was doing that didn’t surprise him, as he got to glimpse her in motion here and there, it was obvious she didn’t do anything half-assed. What did surprise him though, was that she thought he was worthy of receiving her help.

  “Not yet. But my mind is still thinking so if I come up with something I will let you know.”

  Blake couldn’t help but smile, of course she was still thinking. Her beautiful brain didn’t stop. His voice dropped, “Thank you for helping me. How about I take you out to dinner tonight? Come with me please?”

  Was this going to be their first official date? Marilyn knew without thinking that she was going to say yes. Her heart thumped inside of her chest.

  “Okay. Where to? On second thought, why don’t you just come over to my house and I will make dinner for us?” What was she thinking? She thought. She couldn’t believe she actually just extended that invitation to him! Was he going to think that was the go-ahead to have sex with her? Was it? She asked herself. Okay, maybe on some level she did want to feel his hands all over her body. But on the more, personable-act-like-a-decent-person-with-respect-level, she didn’t want him to think that.

  “Or we could just go-”

  “Okay. I will come over. I’ll bring dessert.”

  Oh boy, she thought. Dessert? So really he got away with bringing nothing but himself? She tried not to laugh. She couldn’t help if he was the most gorgeous guy she had ever met in her entire life.