by Xander Hades
“Shh!” Unlocking my door, I pull Julie inside my apartment and lock us in. “Why are you here? Were you not listening? Do you not know how dangerous it is for you to be anywhere near me right now?”
“I don’t care,” she says.
“Don’t lie,” I tell her. “I felt you shaking when I pulled you in here.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t scared,” she tells me. “I just said that I don’t care. I know it’s over between us, but I’m not going to disappear into the background until I know for sure you’re going to be all right.”
“You don’t even know what you’re putting yourself in the middle of, but trust me when I tell you you don’t want any part of it.”
“I don’t want any part of it,” she says. “I don’t want you to be any part of it, either.”
“God, you’re so naïve. If you spent any time in my world at all, you’d run away screaming and never look back.”
“I’m not naïve,” she says. “Okay, maybe about some things I’m a bit naïve, but in the short time we’ve known each other, you’ve shown me things and a side to myself I didn’t think really existed. Maybe I would run if I found myself stuck in what you keep calling your world, but I wasn’t free before I met you. In fact, I forgot what that felt like. Maybe tomorrow or a week from now, neither of us will ever want to see the other again, but I’m not just going to walk away when you’re in this kind of trouble.”
“What do you know about it?”
“I know enough,” she says. “You keep forgetting I work with your boss’s daughter.”
“Riley knows you’re here?” he asks.
“She wasn’t exactly thrilled about it either, but at least she was smart enough to realize I’m not going to change my mind about this.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Stupid?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s so stupid about it?” she asks.
“You don’t know me, and you’re putting yourself in danger to—”
“Okay, you know, the whole noble knight in glimmering armor thing actually gets old pretty quick,” she says. “You’re going to find a way out of this, and I’m not going to leave until you do.”
I grit my teeth. “You’re the most frustrating woman on the planet, you know that?”
“I’ve heard rumors of an old chambermaid in Nepal—”
“This isn’t funny,” I interrupt.
“I know.”
“This is serious.”
“I said I know,” she tells me. “What you don’t get is you’re the most frustrating man on the planet. How long do you really expect to get if you’re not going to accept help when it’s offered?”
“I’m not going to put you in a position to get hurt,” I tell her.
“Then we’re going to have to get this figured out quick, aren’t we?” she asks.
I check the door to make sure I locked it. I did.
I ask her, “There’s nothing I can do short of throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you out of here that’s going to get you to leave, is there?”
“Nope, probably not,” she says. “And if you try carrying me out of here, you’re going to end up with my knee where you really don’t want it.”
“I don’t understand why you would come back,” I tell her. “After what I said to you, I thought you’d be gone and glad for it.”
“You were just doing what you’re trying to do now,” she says. “You were trying to make me hate you so I’d be safe. It’s really annoying, and I wish you’d stop doing that.”
“But you’re risking—”
“You know, when Riley came back to tell me you were okay, she said she didn’t mention my name once,” she interrupts again. “You, on the other hand… Apparently, I’m all you wanted to talk about. She told me how gutted you were for the way you spoke to me. She said knowing you hurt me hurt you. You did it anyway so you could protect me. Now, maybe it’s my turn to protect you.”
“But you can’t—”
She interrupts me yet again. “Before I met you, life was just something I heard people talk about on television,” she says. “There are about ten million things I’d rather be doing right now than standing here with you, wondering if someone’s going to bust that door down and shoot both of us, but this is where we are. This isn’t just about you. It’s about me, too. I’m afraid. You bet I’m afraid. But you’re trapped, and I want to make damn sure there’s nothing I can do about that before I just walk away and let the cards fall on top of you.”
“You’ve got a whole life—”
“Obviously, you don’t know me very well.”
“Damn it, will you use your fucking head?!” I shout, stepping so close to her we’re almost touching. “If they’re trying to kill me, what do you think is going to happen to you if you’re standing right there, huh? You think they’re just going to be like, ‘Oh, I’m sure this is a very nice woman who’s simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?’ No. Bullets are cheap, and if you’re standing there, you’re a witness.”
She’s actually yawning at me.
“Are you done?” she asks.
“Hardly.”
We’re standing there, and I don’t know who makes the first move. I don’t know where it comes from or why. All I know is her arms are around me, my arms are around her. We’re kissing, and I’ve never been more frustrated with anyone in my life.
Chapter Ten
Julie
Mr. Chivalry didn’t bother turning the lights on when we come in, but we manage to make our way to the couch with minimal tripping. He thinks I don’t know what I’m doing is dangerous, and probably stupid. The fact is, this is the first thing in my life I feel I have done.
This is the first time I took a chance on something, and it’s not like my previous efforts haven’t been rewarded. I can’t go home to sit in an empty house that’s far too large for little old me, not while I know he’s out here fearing for his life.
Of course, there’s no way I’m staying here all night. I still don’t want to get killed. Nothing’s changed on that front.
For right now, I’m pacified as he pulls my shirt off and, kissing my shoulders with what feels like fervent passion and severe annoyance. “You need to start listening to me,” he says, unhooking my bra with one hand. He removes the bra with two fingers and flings it over his shoulder without looking away from me.
“Maybe you need to shut up.” I almost giggle saying it.
He’s peeling his shirt off, and I take this moment to softly, gently, ever so tenderly push him backward. His arms are stuck over his head, and by the time he’s freed one of them, he’s already falling onto the couch.
“That wasn’t a strong moment for you,” I tell him. Truth is I like this side of me.
He reaches forward, wrapping his arm around my waist. He pulls me toward him, and it’s more than a gentle tug. I lose my balance, but conveniently fall onto his lap. Like he’s done this before…
“Do you have a condom?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says. “It’s in the starboard medicine cabinet, but not starboard the way you’ll be looking at it, stage port if you are the stage and the medicine cabinet is the audience.”
I do my best to shove him in the shoulder, but I’m the one that moves when I apply force.
“That wasn’t a strong moment for you,” he tells me.
“Funny,” I say with my world-class valley girl voice. “You’re like, soooo funny. Like, oh my god.”
I get up, and try to navigate his apartment in the dark, but it’s not going so well. It doesn’t help I don’t actually know where I’m going, having never been here and that.
Behind me, I hear two sharp sounds, almost like clapping, and I’m ducking for cover. This is it. The first time I kind of rebel, I get shot by a biker gang. I wonder if the story will make the news? “Young Female Executive Brutally Murdered by Biker Gang for Stepping Out of Her Comfort Zone.” The headline will probably be more concise, but I don’t
want to be an urban legend. That’s exactly the sort of thing that would happen to me.
I remove my hands from my eyes. It’s a unique defensive posture, the crouching peek-a-boo, but at least I’m not dead. Instead of getting shot, the lights came on. Big Mr. Biker Guy has the Clapper.
I find my way to the bathroom, wondering if I’ll still be in the mood by the time I get back to the couch. There’s only one medicine cabinet, and I find a thankfully unopened box of condoms on the bottom shelf.
If I stand here, trying to get this thing open, the romance is just going to go out of it for me, so I walk back into the living room, becoming very aware that I’m topless as I get closer to Russ.
It’s not like he hasn’t seen me naked before, but this is still new. I’m walking around half-naked, and I don’t even do that when I’m at home alone. I catch a bit of a rush, casually walking over to Russ and politely dropping it into his lap, bending over a little for effect.
He sets the box to the side for now, and grabs me by the front of my pants. Pulling me toward him, he manages to get my button open and my zipper unzipped, and I’m kind of glad he knows what he’s doing.
Stepping out of my pants, out of my underwear, I stand bare before him. He asks, “We can’t stay here tonight.”
“I know,” I tell him. “Should we go now?”
“We’ve got time,” he says. I don’t know how he knows that, but I trust that he doesn’t want to get either of us killed.
He’s naked, and I go to straddle him, but he directs me off to the side and tells me to lie down.
I do.
With his hands, he parts my legs. His lips move up the inside of my leg, and oh my god, that’s a new sensation.
His tongue is warm moving over my clit, and I’m asking myself how I’ve lived twenty-seven years and am only experiencing this feeling for the first time now. My “boyfriend” back in college: not the giving type.
Running the tip of his tongue up and down my folds, he breathes hot air onto my skin as he returns his attention to my clit. He slides a finger inside of me, and I’m gripping the outdated couch cushions beneath me.
His finger touches the anterior wall inside of me, and a second later, I feel this firm press that seems to swell outward, and spreads through every part of my body. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it,” I tell him.
I don’t know if he’s smiling, given where his mouth currently is, but I can feel the hot puffs of his stifled amusement against my most sensitive skin. He’s probably laughing because he thinks I don’t know what a g-spot is. Actually I do, but up until a few seconds ago, like many women, I thought it was a mythical thing like unicorns or comfortable heels.
He’s sucking the skin of my inner thigh, and my feet start to feel hot, tingly. I’m breathing hard when my breath doesn’t catch in my throat, and I can feel a thin sheen of sweat forming on my skin.
Looking at me now, he kisses his way up my body, from my thighs to my stomach, to my breasts, to my breasts again, to my breasts a third time, and then up my shoulders and neck.
Without taking his eyes off of me, Russ grabs the box from where it fell in front of the couch, opens the box, pulls a wrapped condom out of the box, removes the condom from its wrapper using a combination of one hand and his teeth, and starts rolling the condom onto himself. I suppose it’s a good thing he knows what he’s doing, but I’d be a little happier if he didn’t seem to know so well.
Then again, most people my age have had sex more than twice in their lives.
His eyes are fixed on mine as he presses himself into me, inch by inch, until he’s so deep inside me I’m not quite sure where he ends and I begin.
My arms are wrapped around his head, and he’s kissing my breasts, his back arched. The warm suck of his mouth seems to stay a few seconds after he moves.
The first time, the light was off, and I feel so incredibly bare, but I’d rather not kill the mood by clapping. With his skin pressed against and sliding over mine, I feel just as naked, exposed, vulnerable.
He’s tender, though, even as he is powerful. I don’t get scared when I’m with him. Only that I’m going to screw it up somehow.
“I want to try something,” I tell him.
“Yeah?”
He leans up, and before I lose my new and extravagant proclivity toward sexual exploration completely, I rock my hips, just to feel him inside of me another few seconds. Finally, I pull myself back a little and turn around so I’m on hands and knees, facing away from him.
“I’ve never tried doggy style, and I hear that one’s really popular,” I tell him.
He chuckles. “We really need to work on your dirty talk, Julie.”
I like it when he says my name.
He moves closer to me, and I snap my head around to look at him, saying, “Not anal. That’s way above my pay-grade.”
“That’s a little better,” he says, “but I still think we should work on it.”
I don’t even think the words before they’re out my mouth. “Just shut up and fuck me, will you?” What is coming over me? I’ve never talked like that in my life, but it feels kind of exhilarating. It’s not something I plan to overdo, but every once in a while…
I feel him enter me, and my mouth is wide. He’s deeper inside me than I even thought possible, and his hands are on my hips, coaxing me back and forward over him. I can feel my thighs begin to twitch, and that still-new sensation starts to rise within me.
Rocking back and forth, I let out a pleasured moan. My heart is pounding, and I’m trembling from the flood of endorphins washing through me.
He’s so hard inside me, and I’m mouthing words because I can’t find my voice. That swollen static builds and grows and it’s everything now when it breaks. My arms are weak beneath me, and I’m not sure if I’m even moving as my whole body tenses and relaxes, again and again.
I never knew it was possible to feel something this powerful without first consulting a doctor.
Those waves of pure ecstasy are starting to fade, when Russ starts breathing harder, pulling me faster over him. He says, “I’m gonna come,” and it doesn’t even cross my mind to correct the colloquialism.
His fingers grip my skin, and then his breathing slows, his motion slows. He leans forward and kisses my upper back, and I’m about to say something when his phone starts ringing, startling me.
“I’m not answering that right now,” he says.
Good man.
I lean forward and turn so I’m lying on my back, and he settles in over me, kissing my lips. As much as I want to tell him that was amazing, the thought of speaking doesn’t strike me as the least bit appealing right now. I want to make this moment last as long as it can before the real world creeps back in.
Unfortunately, it never takes the real world long to ruin everything.
His phone rings again, and he’s still kissing me. It stops ringing, and then two seconds later, it’s ringing again. He glances toward his pants, but doesn’t move.
“It might be an emergency,” I tell him.
He kisses me again before getting up. He goes to answer his phone, but suddenly, someone’s pounding on his apartment door. I grab the nearest item of clothing and cover myself like that’s going to change something.
I’m snapped out of my little world, and now my blood runs cold.
“It’s Riley!” the voice comes from the other side of the door. “Russ, if you’re here, I need to talk to you right now!”
Russ quickly puts on his pants, and I’m grabbing for my pants when he opens the door. I lean back and out of sight of the doorway. As I hurriedly get dressed, I can hear what Riley’s saying when Russ opens the door.
“They’re coming here to finish things,” she says, out of breath. “Auric and at least five others, they’re already on their way. They’re armed. We need to get out of here—you need to get out of here.”
As uncomfortable as I feel, this isn’t the time to hide on the couch until Riley goes away
so she doesn’t see me and put two and two together regarding what just happened. I stand and quickly make my way over to the door.
Riley glances at me, but doesn’t verbally acknowledge my presence. She says, “Do you not answer your phone? We need to go now, all of us.” I look at Russ, but before he has a chance to turn his head fully in my direction, Riley’s shouting, “Now! We need to go now!”
Chapter Eleven
Russ
We drove all night. My bike, it’s still parked in front of my apartment building. At least there’s a chance they don’t know Julie’s car. Now, it’s still dark outside, and we’re in a run-down motel two states away.
Julie hasn’t said anything since we got here.
It’s past midnight now. That means it’s Christmas Eve. This isn’t going to help either of us love the holidays.
It’s about four o’clock in the morning when Julie says, “It didn’t feel real. It never felt real. You kept telling me, but it didn’t seem possible.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her. “Bringing you with me was the only way I could think to protect you.”
“Maybe we can talk to them,” she says. “Whatever the problem is, there’s got to be a way to get them to stop. What do they want? Money?”
“No, they want me,” I tell her. “There was a raid just before I met you, and our top guy, he got arrested. I was put in charge, but the man behind all of this, Auric, he wants to assure his position, and nothing’s gonna make him think he’s done that unless I’m dead and Rev’s dead, too.”