“Working,” she said.
“Fuck. Where is he right now?”
“He’s home. Drunk. The usual.”
I slid my arms around her. I pulled her close. “Goddammit, Linds.”
Her hands were at her sides. I was holding her up. That’s when she started to cry.
The sound of the pouring rain outside. The sound of my girl crying. I hated it. I wanted to give her more in life. That piece of shit her aunt married needed to pay. The way he talked to Linds and the way he treated her had always been wrong. But now he hit her? Fuck no.
Linds moved her hands to the back of my leather cut. She clawed at me. She turned her head and looked up at me. I felt her lips touch my neck.
“I missed you,” she said. “So much, King. Just be here tonight with me, okay?”
“Always, sweetie,” I said. “Let’s get you out of those wet clothes.”
“Please, yes,” she said. “I feel so gross right now.”
“Not a chance,” I said. “You’ll never know how beautiful you are, Linds. I’m going to spend every day of my life showing you that.”
I finally got a flicker of a smile out of her.
Then I kissed her.
Then I led the way to the clubhouse to strip her out of those wet clothes and make her forget about the night.
It was an hour later when we were wrapped up together, naked, under a blanket. My cock was still throbbing from the things her sweet body had just done to it. I had my hand across her chest, feeling her heart still racing.
Her eyes were shut.
I refused to shut mine though.
Nights like that I didn’t want to end. Because they always brought tomorrow. And tomorrow for us had never really worked out.
So for me, I had tonight.
My girl, in my arms. Feeling her body. Feeling her heartbeat.
Feeling her love.
13
(lindsey)
*NOW*
I almost passed out again.
I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. There was a red mark on my face but it wasn’t too bad. It hurt worse to touch than it looked. I couldn’t believe Nelson actually got drunk enough to do that to me. Better yet…
I shut my eyes and side stepped.
I left the bathroom and saw him standing in the hallway.
King.
It made my heart jump, twist, flip, and almost pop.
It made no sense. I never thought I would ever see him again. But there he was, standing in the hallway of my apartment. Filling the fucking hallway with his wide shoulders and body. He had always been built, every piece of muscle and ounce of strength earned through living the hard life he did.
I just stared at him.
“Still shocked?” he asked.
“I feel like I’m going to wake up from a dream.”
“Or from being knocked out from some asshole?”
I sucked in a breath. “Oh…”
“Yeah,” King said. “What is that about? Of all the things I worried about you while I was inside. Never that, sweetie.”
I reached for my cheek. Tears were back in my eyes. I was embarrassed that it had happened. That I let things escalate that far with Nelson. I even felt guilt. That I put Nelson into a position where he did that.
King stepped forward. He touched my arms. He swallowed hard. His Adam’s apple flexed. God, that was such a fucking turn on.
“Never again,” he whispered. “No man ever has the right to touch you. Not like that. I sat inside a small cell, day after day, wondering about you. Hoping you were finding happiness. But that? Getting smacked on by some fucking prick. That can never happen again.”
“It’s my fault.”
King shook his head. “That’s the thing, sweetie, it’s not your fault. Don’t ever believe that. Fight that shit off. You’re stronger than that.”
“He never did it before.”
“He… who is he?”
“Nelson. My…”
King ran his hands down to my fingers. I felt him touch the small diamond ring. He slowly lifted my left hand and stared at it. I saw the hurt spread across his face. He was holding my hand, his thumb rolling left to right over the diamond again and again. And again.
He touched his chin with his other hand and swallowed even harder.
“You love that guy?”
“I tried to force myself to love him,” I said. “I just couldn’t do it.”
King lowered my hand and then broke away from me. “I just wanted to see you. To make sure you were okay. That’s all.”
“No,” I said. “You can’t just do that to me. You can’t just take off. We’re not playing that game anymore.”
“Game? What game?”
“How the hell are you even here right now? Don’t I get that?”
King made fists. “It’s hard to explain, sweetie. That’s all I can say.”
He started to step back.
I rushed after him, grabbing for his arms. He was so built, so strong. I gripped his left arm and sank my feet into the carpet. King just dragged me like I wasn’t even there.
“Please!” I begged. “I haven’t seen you in over a year!”
King flicked his hand against the door handle and then looked back. “I know, sweetie. I just wanted to check on you. Make sure you were okay.”
“I’m not okay,” I confessed. “You saw what happened. It’s like before. I’m lost. I… you…”
King turned and cupped my face with both hands. “Look, sweetie, I only wanted to check on you. All my boys told me it was a mistake. But I had to fucking see you. You were the light on the inside for me.”
“Then stay right now and tell me everything,” I pleaded. “How are you really here? What are you going to do now? If I was the light on the inside, then I can be the same here.”
“You’re wearing a diamond ring,” King said. “You belong to someone else.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said. “Don’t move. I’ll prove something to you.”
I hurried away from King and through my cramped apartment to my bedroom. My heart hadn’t had a second to calm. From trying to say something reasonable to Nelson to him hitting me to King appearing from nowhere and saving me…
I fell to my knees and reached under my bed for the box of notes. It was a desperate move, but what choice did I have? I never thought in my wildest dreams that King would be standing in my apartment. It was just like it always was with us - he’d show up, save me, and then take off.
I wanted that to change.
I ran back through the apartment and lost my breath again when I saw him standing near my door.
He was the sexiest man I’d ever seen. I watched him go from handsome boy to rugged man with each passing year. I felt all the feelings a girl turning woman could feel and experienced enough with King to know if there really ever was one person in the world for me, it was him. Nobody would compare and nobody would ever come close.
I couldn't let him slip away from me again.
“Here,” I said and jammed the box against his chest.
“What the fuck is this?”
“All the letters you sent me,” I said. “I kept them all.”
“Letters?”
“When we were banned from seeing each other.”
“No shit,” he said.
King peeled the top off the old shoebox and I saw the way the corners of his mouth started to curl up. He moved the notes around, holding the box with one hand. He plucked a note out and shook the paper to open it. I saw the look on his face as he read, the memories obviously crashing back at him really hard.
“You have to tell me what’s going on,” I said.
“I’ll tell you exactly what’s going on,” he said. He put the letter back in the box and handed it back to me. “These are memories. These are fucking great memories. Everything we ever shared together, right?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Keep these forever. That’s all
I can say, sweetie. I have to get back with the boys right now.”
“I don’t feel safe,” I said.
King touched my face. Reaching back with his other hand, he opened the door.
As his thumb stroked my cheek, I felt my heart started to crack.
“King…”
“Lock your door. I’ll give you my cell number if something happens. You know I’ll always protect you. But anything more, sweetie, right now…” He slowly shook his head. “Fuck.”
King pulled me in and planted a kiss to my lips.
“Hate me all you want, but you know this is right.”
King broke away from me and left the apartment.
I stood there, holding the shoebox of notes.
King came crashing into my life and then was sucked away. Just like a fucking wave. This time it felt like the wave had hit me hard… and I was now drowning.
14
(king)
*NOW*
I couldn’t stop thinking about the ring. She let some guy put a ring on her finger. And that same guy was then going to take a swing at her? Well, that guy would never touch her again. That was for sure. But the ring? That was something else. That was making a promise to another man. It shouldn’t have hurt me the way it did. I had gone looking for her. I had wanted to see what kind of life she had.
I throttled my motorcycle and sped up, taking a turn with speed. I tempted the road, the reaper, tempting everything to go wrong and have me drop my motorcycle and end up dead.
It didn’t happen.
In some weird way I almost felt invincible. Yet the only thing that could hurt me was Linds. And she was doing a great fucking job at it.
Giving me a box of letters then?
I didn’t need to see that shit. I knew every word that was in those letters. I wrote those words. I sent those words to Linds. I gave them to her as though I was able to slice a piece of my heart out of my chest and give it to her. That was the entire fucking point of it all. So she knew how I felt, no matter what happened.
I rode right to the strip club and parked my ride next to the rest of the Reap. I could only imagine the hell they were in there stirring up by then. I ripped open the side door and walked inside. The flashing lights and thudding music overtook my senses, along with the sight of beautiful woman strutting on a long stage.
I saw Knox and Slam standing at the back wall, a beer for each one. They were talking. Of course they were talking. They were so fucking wrapped up their lives and the Reap, they were missing the pussy all around. I couldn't say I blamed them though. My mind and heart was back in Linds’s apartment.
Knox hugged me and asked, “Did you get what you wanted?”
“No,” I said.
“I’m sorry, bro.” He patted my chest. “Take a load off. Literally.”
“We talked to Sabrina,” Slam said. “She’s yours for the night.”
I looked over my shoulder and saw the rest of the guys at the stage, drinking, whistling, enjoying the attention of four topless women. I walked up to the group and put my arms around them.
“What do I have to do to get a fucking cold beer around here?”
Ejiah reached to his right and took someone else’s drink. The guy turned, stared right at the group of us, and then put his hands up. A total dick move by us, sure, but goddamn it was such a great feeling to have such power.
I threw the beer bottle back, tasting its beautiful taste, my eyes locked straight forward right at a set of huge tits. Her left nipple was pierced with a ring. I could easily hook the tip of my tongue through that ring and pull hard enough to make her scream.
“And who are you, bad boy?” she asked me as her curvy hips jutted left to right. She ran her hands up her body, over her breasts, and into her hair.
Christ, her tits were so full that when she lifted her arms up, they were still firm and huge.
“Just got out of prison for murder,” I said.
“Oh, prison,” she whispered. “That sounds scary.”
“Not a chance,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“Serenity.”
“Of course it is.”
Ari flipped a ten to Serenity and tucked it into her g-string. “Hey, my brother here could use a little drink. And you know what I mean by that.”
Serenity smiled and leaned over the stage. She fell to her knees and reached for me. Her nails dug into the back of my head as she quickly cupped her right tit. She pulled me right to her tit. I smelled her warm, soft skin. The scent of a woman. It was delicious but not the meal I wanted.
A second later I felt someone pull at the top of my leather cut.
“That’s enough,” a voice said.
I spun around and saw another woman standing there.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked.
“This is Sabrina,” Matteo said. “You’re gift for the night.”
Sabrina ran one finger across my cheek and to my bottom lip. “You don’t get to touch or enjoy anything else but me, do you understand?”
“No, I don’t,” I said. “I don’t take orders very well.”
“Then that’s something we’re going to have to fix. Follow me, bad boy.”
Sabrina turned, tossing her bleach blonde hair all around. She was a tiny little thing with a beautifully curved ass that swayed left to right as she walked.
I followed her to a private back room where she pointed to a big leather chair. I took a seat and smiled, loving my life right then.
“I’m not going to fuck around, bad boy,” Sabrina said. She reached back and unhooked her top. She wiggled her shoulders and arms and just like that she was topless. “You like these?” she asked as she cupped her tits, letting her thumbs roll over her nipples.
“You know I do,” I said. “Quit with the dumb talk.”
“Oh, tough guy,” she said. “So what do you want me to do first?”
“You’re the expert. I’m just a criminal outlaw, right?”
Sabrina walked to me and climbed right up on me. Her hands touched my face. “But you’re so fucking sexy though, bad boy. I bet you drive all the ladies wild. Your cock has been everywhere, huh?”
She put the tip of her nose to mine and flirted. Her breath smelled like mint and her skin was like cherry. The combo, along with her slithering body against mine sent a simple message right to my dick.
I was hard within seconds.
No big shock there.
Sabrina rocked her body against the bulge in my jeans. Then she smiled and bit her lip for a second.
“Damn, you’re really big, aren’t you?” she whispered.
“You have no idea,” I said.
Her lips grazed my neck. Then she went to my ear. “My shift ended an hour ago, bad boy. This is all for me. Have what you want. Right now.”
I touched the small of her back, feeling her moving back and forth against me.
Goddamn, it’s been so long since I’ve had a woman like this… outside prison… a free man… no worries…
My grip tightened to her waist. I stopped her from moving. I pulled her as tight as I could. My dick raged, wanting to explore the depths of her pussy.
I put my head back and Sabrina looked down at me. Her blue eyes were full of lust, ready to fuck. She lowered her nose down to mine again. She gently rocked her chest against mine, pressing her tits. They weren’t big but they weren’t small. Nice and firm. They’d look great bouncing as she fucked me.
My hands eased down to her ass and that’s when I stood up. Sabrina locked her legs around me. I grabbed at her though and pulled her off me. I stood her up and walked her to a wall. I thrust my dick at her, holding her against the wall.
“Anything you want and need,” she whispered. “Just have me, bad boy.”
I gritted my teeth. I put my lips within a centimeter of her lips.
Then I turned my head away.
“Fuck,” I said.
“What is it?” Sabrina asked. Her lips were against my ear. “Tell me.
Let me take it away. I can do anything to you and for you.”
That’s where Sabrina was wrong.
I slipped away and left the room without a word.
The heavy bass of the music hit me as I made a straight line for Knox.
“What, you done already?” Knox asked.
I put a hand to his chest and drove him against the wall. “Listen to me, brother. I need to talk to you tomorrow. First thing. No fucking around. I didn’t get out of this mess by accident. You enjoy your night tonight, brother, but tomorrow shit gets real.”
“Where are you going?” Knox asked. “We worked this out for you.”
“This isn’t for me, Knox. None of this shit it. I’ve got somewhere else to be.”
“I hope you know what you’re fucking doing,” Knox said.
“You know what? I have no fucking clue what I’m doing. But I don’t care.”
We hugged and I bolted out of the strip club.
Some outlaw, huh?
Running away from a strip club where there were women willing to do anything to me and I was climbing back on my motorcycle to go back to an old flame.
“A ring,” I whispered.
I had fucking got pissed off over a ring? I took off when Linds was showing me her heart because of a ring. A fucking tiny little diamond that meant nothing other than ooh’s and aah’s of those who saw it.
But we both knew the truth.
We didn’t need a fucking ring.
We were meant to be together.
15
(lindsey)
*THEN*
Aunt Jane came walking into the kitchen. She put down a clothing magazine in front of me. “Almost time for school shopping again.”
“I’m too old for that,” I said. “Well, to go with you.”
“So you can take my car and use my money but I can’t go with you?”
“Exactly,” I said with a smile.
“Teenagers,” Aunt Jane said.
“Hey, I’m a legal adult now,” I said.
“But you still have one more year of high school.”
Jim appeared in the kitchen, a buttoned down shirt tucked in, his black hair slicked back like he was about to sell something. He opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water.
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