by Fields, MJ
I laugh when I pop up and she’s gasping, choking.
I grab her wrists and lift her up high. My feet touch the bottom, hers sure as hell don’t.
She stops choking. “It’s fucking cold you ass!”
Then she laughs.
“You’re flirting like a teenager, Phoenix.”
“I am not acting like a teenager,” she laughs.
“Good, cause you’ve got some big girl decisions to make.”
“And what decisions are they?” she asks floating towards me.
“I’m not gonna chase ass that doesn’t want to be had. Never had to before.”
“I’m sorry I’m not a slut.” She doesn’t say it pissed off, she actually laughs.
“I can assure you I wouldn’t want you if you were,” I tell her straight up.
“But those other—”
“I was trying to,” I pause and shake my head.
“Look if I’m going to consider doing something I never in a million years thought of doing before, you better at least treat me like you would a friend.”
“I don’t have female friends.”
She swims away and I watch as she pushes herself up on the dock.
She looks back at me and smiles. “If I’m gonna trust honest Gage, he better trust me.”
I swim over and climb out.
She’s shivering as she walks away.
I follow her up the path, soaked to the bone, just like her.
She looks back a few times but keeps walking.
When I get to the Ranger, she stops on her front steps.
“I’d offer you a shirt but it wouldn’t fit.”
“Feel free to take it off anyway.”
She rolls her eyes, hugging her body and her teeth are chattering.
“Go inside and get warm,” I say as I walk up Mags’ steps to say goodnight knowing damn well she’s waiting up to see that we’ve made it back.
I look in the window as I start to tap and see her laying on the floor.
“Mags!” I yell as I open the door and run to her. “Come on Mags, babe, wake up. Wake up, Mags. Just wake up!”
“Gage?” Phoenix says, running in.
I start to lift her up and she opens her eyes, she looks at me confused. “What happened?”
I lift her and she cringes. “Gotta put me down my boy, it hurts.”
“What hurts?” I ask. “What hurts, Mags?”
I hear Phoenix on the phone giving out the address to what I assume is the 911 operator.
“My hip,” she says. “I think I fell.” She puts her hand on her head. “Yes. Oh it hurts.”
“Okay Mags, we’re gonna get you to the hospital and get you all checked out, okay?”
“No, don’t fuss over me,” she says.
“Mags, shut the hell up you stubborn, damn woman.”
Mags laughs, but I know damn well she’s in pain.
I know this woman better than my own mother.
“Don’t move her,” I hear Phoenix from behind me.
I look back at her.
I’m pissed, I’m scared, she seems to get that shit.
“They’ll be here soon, okay?” She walks up and grips my shoulder and squats down by Mags. “You get into that mason jar, Mags?”
Mags smiles. “No, honey child, but it sounds pretty good right now.”
She looks at me. “You two take a swim?”
“She pushed me in, Mags,” I laugh because I know she’ll get a kick out of it and I need to see her smile.
“You deserve it?”
“Suppose so,” I tell her truthfully.
“And you pulled her in with you?”
“Yeah he did,” Phoenix smiles.
“You two are good for each other.”
“Friends,” Phoenix asks me.
“Yeah, Squirt, friends.”
“That’s my boy.” Mags squeezes my hand.
I sit on the floor soaked with Mags’ head on my lap and Phoenix stands.
“I’ll be back.”
“Where you going?” I ask.
“To get you some dry clothes, I’m sure you’re going to want to ride with her,” she says, walking out the door.
“She’s a good girl, Gage,” Mags says quietly.
“She’s a pain in the ass, Mags.”
She winks but doesn’t say anything else.
She’s hurt. Mags is fucking hurt.
Phoenix gets back at the same time as the ambulance.
Mags gives them some hell, I expected it. While she was being a pain in the ass I was changing my clothes, again.
I pull off my shirt and Phoenix looks away and then scowls.
I look over my shoulder at the source of her annoyance and see a female EMT checking out my back.
Shit timing but otherwise it works.
I drop my shorts for added affect and she looks at me, mouth dropping open.
“What?” I ask, trying not to let on that I know exactly what.
Her eyes cast down at my boxer briefs and they get wide as hell.
“You think I should turn around?”
She looks up at me. “As your friend, I’m thinking unless you want that bimbo to grope you with her hands and not just her eyes than you might wanna stay facing this way.”
“And as your friend, I’m asking how it feels?”
“What do you mean?” she hisses.
“That motherfucker at the bar staring at your tits pisses me off just as much as this is pissing you off.”
She opens and shuts her mouth trying to say something smart back, like a fish trying to get air as I throw on clothes.
“Save it for when you, a grown ass woman, can speak your truth. You want me just as much as I want you.”
I turn around and walk over to the stretcher.
“Why the hell do I need an IV?” Mags snaps at the chick Phoenix was pissed at.
“Mags, let the woman do her job so we can get you to the hospital and see what we’re facing. Sooner that happens, the sooner you get back to the Landing.”
She sighs and looks up at me as the woman sticks her a few times trying to get a vein.
It hurts her, I hurt because she hurts. This fucking sucks.
Chapter Eight
Black
Phoenix
I stand looking out the window at Mags’ kitchen knowing she’s not coming back for a while.
I followed them to the hospital and waited in the waiting room to give him a ride back home.
It was six hours before he came out. Well, six hours before I was wakened by a big hand clamping my knee and startling me.
He asked what I was doing and I told him.
He looked shocked I had come and I told him that I adored that woman too.
He took me to her and in her drugged up state she told me to take her boy home and put him to bed. Gage laughed at her words and then told her he wasn’t going to leave her because she needed surgery and if they threw her in jail, she wouldn’t get it.
She fell asleep shortly after that and he sent me home.
I came back the next day and waited with him for her to come out. I actually held his hand. It was awkward at first, he didn’t seem to think so, and it became less so to me very quickly.
She came out of recovery, miserable and ornery, which made him a lot less anxious than he had been while she was under the knife.
I convinced him to go home and shower, get some sleep.
When he came back three hours later, I knew he hadn’t slept at all.
It’s been a week and Gage has been with her every night.
She broke her hip, had surgery, and at her age, things don’t heal fast or easy.
I go down into the city during the day and sit with her so he can leave and work on the property, that damn fence he’s hell bent on building, alone. And also because I miss her like crazy.
She’s miserable to most of them, but not to me and by the smile she gives him when he comes in she’s not to Gage either.
-You good?
I reply.
-Yep. You good?
His reply.
-Yep.
Other than that we don’t talk much. In a sense it’s good. I mean, I don’t feel pressured to give into what he wants. What I know I want more and more every time I look at him.
I step away from the window and grab my cup of coffee off the counter and finish the cup before heading in to shower so I can head to the hospital. They may be transporting Mags to a rehab center today.
Pulling down the dirt road I see Gage pulling in, I move from the middle of the dirt road so he can pass by.
He stops when he gets beside me and I roll down the window.
His aviators are covering his eyes that I assume are red from lack of sleep, his beard needs a trim, and although his hair is totally gorgeous it’s a mess.
“She’s full of piss and vinegar today,” he tells me.
“Are they moving her?”
“They say so. She told them to go to hell. She’s getting crankier and crankier. I offered to have a nurse and physical therapist come to my place, she told me she wouldn’t be my problem then told me she was sick of me sitting there staring at her knowing I had shit to do, told me to get out.”
“She did not,” I gasp.
He shakes his head. “Yeah, she did. Told me I should make sure you don’t stop in today either.”
“Ouch.”
He nods. “Got a bunch of boards in the back of the truck, gonna build a ramp today. She gets thrown out on her ear she’ll need it.”
“You need help?”
“Nah, you probably have shit to do.”
“No. My afternoon schedule just cleared itself up.”
“You know how to use a hammer?”
“No, but I’m sure you can teach me.”
A shit ass grin creeps up on his face and all the feelings he evoked in me that had been asleep for a week, woke up.
“Get your ass turned around then and follow me down.”
The entire trip down to his house I am tension and tingles. I’m going to be alone with Gage for the first time in a week and in the times away from the bar, away from Mags, away from him, he is all I have thought about.
Stepping out of the Jeep, I watch as he opens the tailgate to his truck and pull out a large piece of wood. A two by four? I have no idea but watching him lift and pull it out of the truck did nothing to calm the fire igniting inside of me.
I wipe the moisture off of my forehead and am embarrassed that I seem to be sweating, he looks up and sighs, “Rain.”
Thank God, I almost laugh at myself.
He turns and looks at me. “Gonna have to do this in the barn.”
*****
For an hour he saws and measures, and I write down numbers as he spits them out to me. I love watching him concentrate and the way his eyes squint when he’s trying to figure something out, the way he gives a little nod when he’s mastered it, and the way he looks back at me when giving me a number, or measurement and looks pleased that I am there.
The rain starts coming down harder, and the sound of it against the tin roof is almost mesmerizing. When the lights flicker, he sets down the round saw and steps toward the door.
“Looks pretty bad out there.” I walk over and stand beside him.
The clouds are moving fast, nearly black ones replacing the light gray, the wind is howling and the rain is coming harder.
“Probably gonna lose power,” he says as he turns around and looks up. “Should get the extension cords to hook up the generators.”
He looks back at me. “I’m gonna lift you up, you grab them.”
He points up and I look.
“Don’t you think a ladder would work?”
“They’re in the other barn, not sure we got time.”
“I have a skirt on,” I say.
He holds back a smirk. “I won’t look.”
I stand in front of him and lift my arms. “I feel like a two-year-old.”
He chuckles as he bends down gripping me below the knees and hoists me up towards the orange extension cords hanging on a huge nail on the beam.
I try to pull the first down and it’s stuck.
I look down and tell him, “It won’t come down.”
“Gotta stand up, it’s probably looped around the spike.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
He grips my ass, that’s on his shoulder and lifts me. “Grab it and pull, Phoenix.”
“Oh my God you’re crazy,” I squeal.
Just then the lights go out.
“Gage!”
“Squirt, I got a hold of you, why you yelling like I’ve disappeared?”
“It’s dark!” I yell and he laughs.
“Grab them cords and we’ll fix that issue.”
“I can’t feel it, wherever it’s stuck...oh shit!” I start to fall and he catches me.
“Phoenix, you’ve got to relax.”
We end up nose to nose and I can feel his hot breath against me.
“Gonna lift you one more time,” he says, breath labored.
“Okay,” I whisper as my stomach knots.
As he lifts me I feel his nose slide down my chin, soft skin against my neck, his callused hands move under the fabric of my shirt and I hear myself let out a whimper and he pauses.
“You good?” His voice is rough and strained.
“Um, yep, yes, I’m good.”
“You reach up there and grab it okay?”
I do and pull myself up to reach where I think it was stuck. The cord gives and I slip.
Legs and arms flailing I spin to grab him so I don’t fall and I end up wrapped around him.
He grips my ass tight. “Christ, Phoenix.”
His muffled moan is against my bare thigh and I realize just what position we have ended up in, the dark.
I hear him groan and inhale deeply, I feel something, his nose rub against my upper thigh and I grab his hair as my body tenses. He lifts my other leg to his shoulder and rests on it.
“You smell like heaven,” he groans.
“Oh God.”
“Can you reach the cord?”
I lift one arm up and blindly reach for what I know is there.
“Got it.”
“Good, now hang on tight.”
Half a second later I hear a rip and feel his tongue. “Oh hell.”
“Mmm,” he groans as he licks me.
“I’m gonna fall,” I cry.
“Don’t you let go,” he demands as he pushes his tongue inside of me.
“Oh, oh God.”
His hands grip my ass so tight I know it will bruise, but I don’t care.
One hand on the cord, the other tangled in his hair I whimper as he licks me deeper, sucks hard and pulls me tighter against his face.
Thunder rolls around us and he continues eating me, licking me, sucking me, causing my body to catch fire.
His groans and the vibration causes more sensation.
I let go of the cord and fist his hair with both hands.
He keeps licking as he walks, or I think we’re moving, oh God I don’t know, it’s slower now, and not inside of me, everywhere, every crevice, every hypersensitive inch of me and then he nudges my clit and I start to fall backward.
His hand catches the back of my head as my back hits cold metal. Lightning flashes and I look up at him. His hair is wild, his jaw tight, his eyes dark.
Desire.
Dark.
Lightning flashes again and I see him.
He pulls his shirt off with one hand and he is beautiful and dark.
All man.
Thunder rumbles loudly all around as his hand grips the back of my neck gently. He pulls me up, then quickly I am down. Not on cold metal anymore, I’m on his shirt.
Hands grip me behind my knees and I am pulled lower and spread completely.
&
nbsp; “I’m gonna to eat you raw.” His tone is raw need.
A million worries flood my mind, is this really happening, do I look okay down there, did I shave this morning, am I fresh, I have never had a man between my legs like this, oh God, what if I’m gross.
Lightning strikes as he buries his face between my legs and I look down trying not to cry out my pleasure. He is engulfing every part of me, consuming me, kissing, licking, nibbling on me. The sounds he makes erase all worry.
Worry gone.
Heaven.
My body grinds against his face, and he pulls me even closer, his fingers digging almost painfully into my flesh.
The feeling is euphoric, better than amazing. I want more, I want everything, I want it all.
His tongue lays against my clit for the first time and electricity surrounds me.
“Oh yes, oh God yes,” I cry out as lightning strikes and he stops.
Shit.
I look down and his jaw is tense and he pushes a finger inside me.
“Oh God,” I cry as he pushes in and pulls out slowly at first, then fast.
“Oh yes,” I cry.
“Fucking need you,” he says as his mouth touches me again and he sucks my clit as he fucks me with his big long fingers.
“Yes, yes, oh yes!”
Lightning strikes again and I see him.
I see hunger, need, desire, sex, I see sex and Gage and want and God help me, I want him inside me now.
“Fuck me,” I pant. “Now, damn it. Fuck me.”
He doesn’t stop.
Another finger pushes inside me and I cry out.
He licks, then sucks and I fall apart.
Minutes? Hours? Days? I don’t know how long he continued but he did as promised, he ate me until I couldn’t move if I wanted to.
I hear his panting breath, his fingers working me slower now.
My shirt raises and he squeezes my breast and then he pulls it out of the bra cup and sucks. He sucks so hard that it hurts, but it hurts so damn deliciously, like the rest of my body.
He moves to the next and does the same.
When he stops, I open my eyes and see the lights flickering.
He stands up looks down at me, eyes cascading slowly down my body and he watches as he pulls his fingers out of my sore pussy.
“You look amazing,” he sneers.
I lay waiting for him to take me, like I begged him too.
The lights are now fully on and he hasn’t made a move. Feeling vulnerable, I start to close my legs and he turns around, putting his back to me.