by Vi Keeland
His words were like a knife to the heart and couldn’t have come at a worse possible time.
Feeling numb, I closed my eyes, and Riley pulled me into a side hug. Leaning my head on her shoulder, I knew I was going to have to tell him. But I needed just one more night.
One more night where it was just Rush and me.
One more night before I inevitably lost him.
Gia insisted that we stay in tonight. She said she wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to spend time with me at my place.
I wasn’t gonna argue with that. After a long day of making the rounds at several different properties and getting into it with this one contractor, there was nothing I wanted more than to just chill with my girl.
Whoa.
My girl.
Fuck. Did I just think that?
I did.
Gia was my girl.
What was happening to me that I actually loved the thought of being tied down? Tied up. Whatever. Fact is, I’d never wanted to be attached until she came along and taught me that there was a first time for everything.
Well, damn.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a girlfriend. It was probably in high school, but even then, my relationships were short-lived. I used to think I didn’t want it. But now, I realize it was just that the right person hadn’t come along.
Gia had insisted on driving herself to my place. That was fine with me because it gave me extra time to make something for us to eat. Cooking wasn’t my forte, but I was one hell of a griller. I could marinate the fuck out of some vegetables and meat, throw it all on skewers and slap them on the grill. I made pilaf in the rice cooker and threw some garlic bread in the oven. Earlier I’d stopped at the liquor store to pick up Gia’s favorite Moscato. That definitely elevated my pussy-whipped status up by a notch.
When she knocked on the door, I put my beer down and went to let her in.
Her shoulders were rising and falling as she stood in the doorway. She looked anxious. She was wearing a red strapless dress, and her flushed skin looked like it was trying to compete with the color of her outfit.
Gia lifted her hand. “Hey.”
I pulled her into a hug, and that turned into me lifting her up in the air as she wrapped her legs around me. I kissed her so hard, sucking all the clear gloss off her lips.
When I put her down, I couldn’t help noticing how good her tits looked.
They looked huge, like they wanted to spill out of that dress.
“I missed you today,” I said.
Pussy. Whipped.
“I missed you, too.”
When I finally pried my eyes away from her breasts and looked up at her face, I noticed that it seemed like her eyes were watery.
My brows furrowed. “Are you…crying?”
She sniffled. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just got emotional all of a sudden. I’m sorry. That happens to me sometimes. It’s random. I’m fine.” She wiped her eyes. “Really happy, actually. I promise.”
I didn’t know what to make of that. I just knew I needed to taste her lips again. Caressing her cheek, I brought her mouth to mine.
Gia took a deep breath in. “Something smells really delicious.”
“I grilled us up some dinner. Thought it was about time you sampled my meat.” I winked.
When she didn’t respond to that with laughter—in fact, when she didn’t respond at all—I knew something was still preoccupying her. It was unlike Gia not to come back with something.
Placing my hand around her waist and inching her closer to me, I said, “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes.” She smiled.
We ended up eating dinner on the deck. We both devoured the steak tips with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and zucchini. Gia said she didn’t feel like any of the wine, which was odd. So, I tried to make her something else. Even trying to get her to say a dirty word in exchange for a Cosmo didn’t work.
We watched the sun setting as I sipped my own wine while she drank water. Hanging out on my deck like this was becoming our thing.
After dinner, Gia sat in between my legs as we stared out at the dark ocean.
Her hair was blowing in the breeze when she suddenly said, “I want to learn everything about you, Rush. I don’t want to miss anything there is to know.”
“We have plenty of time for that, don’t we?”
She turned around momentarily when she said, “No one knows how much time we ever have.”
I squeezed her. “Okay, Miss Morbid. What do you want to know? I’ll tell you. Anything at all. Shoot.”
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Black.”
“No surprise there. It suits you.” She chuckled. “Um…where do you see yourself in ten years?”
“That’s a bit of a jump…”
“I know. I’m just asking questions as they pop into my head.”
I thought about her question then said, “I honestly don’t know, Gia. I know the typical answer that most people would give is…married with kids and a dog or some shit. But I’m not most people. That was never how I saw my life. But I’m realizing lately that what I thought I wanted and what I actually want might be different. I don’t have a clear grasp on what ten years from now or even tomorrow looks like.” I spoke against the back of her neck. “I hope you’ll just wing this with me.”
She turned around and answered me silently with a kiss.
Then she blurted out, “How many women have you been with?”
I should’ve seen this coming at some point.
“Why do you even want to know that?”
“Morbid curiosity, I guess.”
I sighed. “I honestly don’t know. I never counted.” I wanted to give her something, so I estimated. “If I had to guess? Maybe fifty.”
“Wow. Ok.”
“Wow?” I mimicked. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect there. I thought maybe it could even be more than that.”
I didn’t really know if I wanted to know the answer, but I asked anyway. “How many men have you slept with?”
“Five,” she answered without hesitation.
I suddenly wanted to kill five men I’d never met.
“That’s not that bad,” I said.
“It is what it is, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, still a little jealous, which was fucked-up.
Gia hesitated before she asked. “Have you ever been in love?”
She was definitely hitting me with all the big questions tonight.
There was only one relationship in my life that ever came close to that. Since we seemed to be opening up tonight, I decided to tell her a story.
“The closest I ever came was with a girl named Beth. She was my best friend growing up. Her father was actually like the closest thing I had to a dad. His name is Pat. He was super cool and I used to go to him for advice about…you know, dude stuff. Shaving and shit. Anyway, they lived only a few doors down from us.”
“What did she look like?”
“She had brown hair, not as dark as yours, though. She was pretty. She actually wore glasses like you sometimes. We were close. But I never looked at her in a sexual way—until we were about seventeen.”
She swallowed. “Then what happened?”
“I wish I knew what the turning point was. I guess it was just teenage hormones doing their thing. I didn’t really think anything like that would ever happen with her. I never wanted to go there. Anyway, one night…it did…we ended up having sex, and it really put a strain on our relationship.”
Gia sighed. “Wow.”
“There was no way I was ready for anything serious. She wanted more after that, and I just couldn’t commit to anything that young. But I really did care about her. And I always regretted hurting her. We were kids. And she was practically family. Things were really never the same after that happened.”
“Where is she today?”
&
nbsp; “After we graduated from high school, her father ended up getting a job out in Arizona. When her parents and brother moved out there, she followed them even though she was old enough to stay out here on her own if she really wanted to. I think if I’d begged her to stay, she would have. But like I said, I wasn’t ready for that. So, she moved.”
“Do you ever talk to her anymore?”
“We’ve kept in touch. She’s actually married now with a kid. So, everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”
“I bet she still fantasizes about you.” She smiled.
I pulled her into me. “Oh yeah? What makes you think that?”
“Because I couldn’t imagine having sex with you and having to go back to being just friends.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about that. I have no interest in only being friends with you ever again. Because my intentions are completely impure when it comes to you, and I don’t anticipate that ever changing.” I laughed.
She ran her fingers through my hair then posed another question, one that threw me for a loop a little. “Do you believe in God?”
My feelings on that were complex. I did my best to offer an explanation of how I saw things when it came to spirituality.
“Yes. I do. Well, at least, I believe there’s something powerful that watches over all of us. But the only thing that’s certain to me is that we weren’t meant to know everything. Anyone who claims to understand exactly how this complex universe works is a fucking liar. Or they’re believing what they want to. We all just have to do our best with what knowledge we have and have a little bit of blind faith. We get signs every day that tell us whether we’re on the right path. People and opportunities are placed before us. You know that feeling you get when something feels truly right in life? Like all the stars finally aligned? That trust you feel that the universe has sent you exactly what you need—even if you didn’t realize you needed it?
“Yes.”
“Well, that to me is God.”
She stayed quiet, soaking in my answer. For some reason, since we were being open, I had the urge to share something with her that I hadn’t shared with anyone other than my mother.
I nudged her up. “Can I show you something?”
“Yeah.”
With our hands locked together, I led her to a spare room inside at the back of my house. It was where I housed my own artwork along with all of my tattoo equipment that I never parted with. I still dabbled in design, mainly word of mouth stuff, friends who wanted new ink.
She walked around, gazing at the paintings on the wall.
“I made these.”
“These…are yours?”
I nodded.
It wasn’t that I was ashamed of what I’d created, but these weren’t the type of images you flaunted in the middle of your living room. From the time I was a teenager, I’d had an obsession with painting beautiful women…but not just any women—sexy, sensual women with wings. I don’t know if you could consider them fantasy angels or fairies. But they all had a few things in common, long hair, sexy, voluptuous bodies, piercing eyes—and wings. Some were naked. Others were clothed. I could totally see how the average woman might find these images creepy, but I suspected that Gia wouldn’t. I knew she was open-minded and would find the artistic value in them.
“I don’t even know why I’m showing you these,” I said. “You seemed so interested in my mother’s art. Obviously, these are a lot different than…sunsets.”
“Yeah, they are. They’re absolutely stunning—breathtaking.” She stopped in front of one of the darker images, a demonic-looking girl with black wings and horns. “What made you decide to start making these?”
Shrugging, I said, “I wish I knew. I just find them to be beautiful and mysterious. I haven’t actually created one in a few years, though. These are all pretty old. And you’ll notice, each one is slightly unfinished. It’s like I would get hung up on making it perfect then move on to the next one out of frustration.”
She smiled. “I almost feel jealous of them. That’s how beautiful they are. Is that strange?”
Well, I’d take that as a compliment.
I chuckled. “They don’t compare to you. They’re fantasy. All the things that make them beautiful…the strength they seem to convey… that’s all brought to life whenever I look at you, whenever I’m with you.”
Gia looked like she was trying to fend off tears again. Was it something I said?
She walked over to where I kept all of my ink supplies.
“Oh my God. Is this where you tattoo people?”
“I rented space in a shop back when I was doing it for a living. But I took all my stuff with me. So, I have a little setup here.”
In the corner of the room, I had a table along with various pieces of equipment: a steam pressure autoclave, needle bar setups, and several sealed containers to keep things sterile.
“Can I ask you something?” she said.
“Shoot.”
“Would you do anything for me?” She reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck.
Leaning down, I tasted her lips then said, “Pretty sure I would, yeah. Unless you said you wanted me to let you fuck another dude while I watched. That’s a hard limit. I don’t share.”
“Well, then this request will seem like nothing compared to that.”
“What is it?”
“Will you draw something small on my body tonight? I want you to choose where it goes and what it is. Not a permanent tattoo or anything—just your artwork on my body. I want something created by you just for me.
I expelled a breath. She knew how I felt about actually tattooing her, that I’d refused to do it. She’d asked me to before, and I’d said no. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to put my mark on her. I just didn’t want her to regret altering her perfect body if she wasn’t absolutely sure about it. So, this seemed harmless.
“You really want me to draw on your skin?”
“I really want you to. Yes…please.”
The urgency in her request was odd, but at the same time, the prospect of getting to mark her—albeit temporarily—with something of my choice excited me.
“You’re a pain in the ass,” I teased.
Her face brightened as she realized I was giving in to her request.
“Thank you!” She beamed.
“Go lie on the table, but first, take off your clothes. Take off everything.”
She did as I said and made her way over to the table I had set up.
She was stark naked. “How do you want me?”
“There are so many ways I could answer that question.” My dick stiffened to full mast as I said, “Lie on your stomach first.”
Gia did as I said, and suddenly, I was staring at her beautiful ass face-up on the table. I softly kissed her back, lowering my mouth slowly down to her butt cheeks.
I knew exactly where I wanted to put my mark on her but was too worked up to even start. I needed to make her squirm first.
Taking my finger to my mouth, I licked it before slipping it between her legs and into her pussy. She flinched at the contact. I added my index finger and pushed deeper into her. With my thumb firmly placed on her ass, I moved my two fingers in an out of her hole as she wriggled under my hand. I was so tempted to replace my fingers with my cock. But before I could even really consider that, her hands gripped the table as she moved her ass in sync with the motion of my fingers. Then, I could feel her pulsating around my hand as she came.
It was a beautiful sight as she panted with her face down on the table.
As she came down from her orgasm, I rubbed my calloused palm over the soft skin of her ass.
“You ready?”
Out of breath, she rolled over onto her back, her beautiful tits bouncing. “I hope you don’t give all your clients orgasms before working on them.”
“Only you, baby.” I leaned down one last time to take her nipple into my mouth. I was hard as fuck, but I’d promised her some ink. �
�Get on your stomach again.”
I knew exactly what design I wanted for her and began drawing it onto her lower back just above her ass crack. It had been a long time, but I didn’t feel rusty at all. I used a violet-colored pen, just the color I’d choose if this were permanent ink.
It took me about ten minutes.
“Ready to see it?”
“Oh my God. Yes.”
I helped Gia down from the table, and she walked her gorgeous, naked body over to a mirror on the wall. She turned her head to look at what I’d drawn on her.
Her eyes focused in on the small pair of wings on the bottom of her back.
“You gave me wings.” Her mouth spread into a wide grin. “Now, I’m one of your girls.”
I pulled her into me. “No. You’re the girl. I don’t have to imagine anything anymore.”
Somehow I managed to not lose control as she slept in my bed that night.
We messed around, but we didn’t fuck. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I couldn’t wait any longer, though. If she was down, the next night we were together, I was going to have her. I needed to be inside of her.
Gia’s car wouldn’t start when she tried to leave my place the next morning. I couldn’t believe it; that piece of shit had died again after I’d just fixed it. So, I gladly drove her home in my Mustang.
When we got there, I needed to take a leak badly, so I used the small bathroom off the hallway just outside of her bedroom.
As I shook my cock off into the toilet, I looked down at the trash bin and noticed the packaging of a pregnancy test.
Hmm.
There were two sticks in the garbage, too. Being the nosy motherfucker that I am, I lifted them out and noticed two pink lines on each of them.
Someone in this house was pregnant.
But who?
This bathroom was shared by three of the bedrooms. Gia and Riley had their own rooms, and then the other bedroom off of this hall was shared by two dudes.
The stick must have belonged to Riley.
Yeah.
It had to be.
Well, it couldn’t be Gia. I knew that. Because she hadn’t fucked anyone.
My heart was pounding.
Right? It couldn’t be.