by Sophia Gray
The stairs creak, and I lift my head up. I listen carefully and hear another creak; she’s actually coming up. “Nobody’s home,” I call out.
There’s another creak, and then another. I sigh audibly and clasp my hands behind my head. My fingers dig into my skin and my hair, and I turn my face just enough so that I can watch the top of the stairs. Within a few seconds I see her sassy face, and the rest of her is quick to follow. Rather than the retort I expect, though, she just stops at the top and watches me.
“What?”
She lowers her head and licks her lips. I can tell she’s deep in thought. “I don’t want to fight, Andre. But I also want to figure all of this out. And I can’t do that if all you’re going to do is jump on me about my dad.”
My brow wrinkles together before I sit up. “Hold on. You got on my back about bringing your dad up, and nowyou’re bringing him up like it’s okay?”
“What? No!” Her hands cover her face, and she actually growls. “Oh my God, stop twisting my words around! Idon’t want to bring him up. He has nothing to do with the baby! Maybe someone needs to beat the shit out of you or something to knock some sense into that thick skull of yours! I’m so sick and tired of repeating myself, and I’m pretty damn sure you’re sick of hearing it.”
“You’re right about that last part.” I swing my legs off the bed. “But okay. Let’s talk. Actually, you’re so interested in this whole thing. You talk.”
Her arms fold across her chest, and she glares at me. “Now you’re just being an asshole again. Don’t you know how to be anything else? You’re going to be adad and all you want to do is sit there on your stupid bear rug, and yell at me for something that isn’t even my fault!”
“IT IS YOUR FAULT THAT YOU DIDN’T FUCKING TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAD BEING A DAMN COP!”
The entire house rings with my sudden explosion. My own ears ache, but damn did it feel good to scream at her a little. She stands there frozen to the spot, and I fully expect her to turn around and leave. That’s what I hope she’s going to do anyway. I can’t believe I let her into the club without checking her out first, but that’s what I get for thinking with my dick and not my head. That won’t happen again.
She walks toward me, and her face is set with grim determination. Her strides come faster, and pretty soon she’s almost on top of me. Her fingers points toward my face, and she leans down like she’s about to give me a lecture; I don’t want to fucking hear it. I grab her by the shoulders and haul her down next to me. She lands with a squeak on her back and squirms to get up. As she struggles, I haul myself on top of her, straddling her hips, and grab her by the shoulders. Her hands come up, and nails scrape red lines down the side of my neck. I hiss and clench a fist; now, more than ever, I want to slam my fist into her face.
“You bitch! LISTEN TO ME!”
“STOP –”
Before she can scream back at me, I clamp one of my hands around her mouth and growl at her. She goes very still under me, but her eyes are narrowed; they’re hot like a pool of lava.
“Kristel.” I add a whole lot of firmness to my voice. “Stop attacking me. Stop yelling at me. And for fuck sake, stop antagonizing me. Just lay there and -”
She slaps me across the face. I feel a rush of pure rage, and I grind my teeth hard enough that I can hear them; my jaw aches. With another growl, I grapple for her hands and finally pin them above her head. I lean down close to her face and bare my teeth. The words, though, won’t come out. I’m so close to her that I can smell her skin. Her breath wafts hotly against my mouth. Her body is tense and firm underneath mine. I can feel her breasts rise and fall against my chest as she breathes. When I kiss her, it surprises me. I hungrily take her mouth, and my tongue forces itself into her mouth. She closes her teeth around it and bites down, but not hard enough to do damage; she’s not scared. If she was, I probably wouldn’t have a tongue anymore.
I moan and rock my hips against her. She strains against my hands, but I don’t want to let her hands go; she’s just so sexy like this, all helpless beneath me. Maybe it’s all an illusion, but I feel like I have power over her, and I don’t want to let that go.
My mouth rips itself from hers and drags across the length of her neck. I bite and suck and lick, and I find the taste I’ve been craving for weeks. She gets a hand free, but I don’t care because it gives me the opportunity to push down my boxers. I’m already achingly hard, and I rock my body harder against her body. She grips my cock and strokes it hard enough to make me wince; but it feels good. God, does it feel good. Her other hand twists itself free, and she tangles her fingers into my hair. She grabs me by the jaw and kisses me, and a whimper rises from her throat. I break the kiss and lap my tongue down to the hollow of her throat. My tongue dips in and out before I push her shirt up and over her head. Her bra goes next, and I’m quick to suck on one of her breasts.
“Fuck… Andre…” She calls my name, and a shudder of pleasure rolls through me like a wave.
I’ll fuck you all right, I think. My teeth bite down on one of her nipples, and she lets out a cry. Her hand tightens around my member and pumps it harder, so I bite down again. Her other hand is pushing down her own pants, and I can feel her wiggling under me. I help her with her pants and then her underwear and yank them away as quickly as I can. My fingers dip into her sex, and they slide in with ease. She’s already hot for me. She wants me even though she’s pissed at me.
I cry out when she grips my balls, and I have almost no control as she guides my cock to her entrance. My fingers withdraw and slide across her lips. She sucks on them and gets a taste of herself just before I drive my cock home hard. A scream rises from her, and she arches off the bed. Her body writhes under mine, but she holds me close instead of trying to push me away.
My mouth finds hers again, and I kiss her as though I need her lips to survive. Our tongues tangle wildly together, and I’m already breathless enough that my mind goes blank. There are no thoughts; there’s only her. I pound her roughly into the bearskin rug, and my heavy bed groans and shifts with each thrust. She keeps calling out my name even through the kiss, and my mouth stings with the way she keeps biting me. Her hands grip my hair and pull pieces of it out, then slid down my back. Nails dig into my skin and rake long, red lines along my sides. The sting and the ache feel so good that I growl encouragements against her mouth.
Her hands come around to my chest, and her fingers close around one of my nipples. She pinches it hard, and her nails dig in. I can’t see, but I’m sure there’s blood. I hear my own hiss; how can one woman feel so unbelievably good? The worst part is I’m still pissed at her.
“I want to hate you,” I growl against her mouth. “You put us all in danger.” I fuck her harder, and she gasps sharply with each thrust.
“You’re still going on about that?” She challenges me with her voice and gives both of my nipples a vicious pinch with her nails. “You big fucking baby.” She pinches again, and this time I cry out. It hurts, but it feels so good; I never want it to stop.
“I’m –”
She grabs my face and kisses me so hard that the world spins. The words I want to say vanish along with every other thought. I kiss her hard, and our lips mash together. She keeps biting me, so I bite her back while my hands hold her shoulders down. I slam her into my bed, all of my rage and stress pouring out of me. Those emotions define my strength, and I know by the cries she’s making that I’m hurting her; I don’t care. She never tries to get away, and her arms cling to me as though they are part of me.
“An…dre…. Fuck me… Andre… oh shit… ANDRE!” Her cries turn into screams, and she climaxes around my throbbing cock. Her walls undulate around me and make me thrust faster. I can feel the strain in my back and my hips, but it only makes me hotter for her. The way she screams my name pushes me faster and faster toward orgasm myself. My balls are so hot they feel like they’ve been put into a broiler, and my cock is ready to explode. Her hands are around my balls again, and they pu
sh them against my body. She’s not doing me any favors, but I’m too enveloped in pleasure to stop her.
I roar with my own release, and the sound of it makes the room shake. The way she squeezes my testes hurts, and the ache that comes with the pleasure of orgasm sends a series of heavy shudders down my spine. My body tingles, and I kiss her deeply. My anger is still there, but it’s quieter than it was; it helps that my brain is too full of fog to think.
“Do you hate me now?”
Kristel’s voice comes to me in a soft whisper. I grip her hair and stare into her eyes. My lips taste hers. “Maybe I don’t hate you that much.” My words are a lie. As I stare down into the blue of her eyes, I realize I can never hate her; but I’m terrified to love her.
Chapter Ten
Kristel
The sound of his breathing lulls me to sleep. Every time I think about why I’ve come here, he breathes again. I can feel his heartbeat against my bare chest. It should make me feel so comforted. I should be angry at him for yelling at me. Hell, I should just get up and leave. I don’t need him or his club to help me with the baby.
“Damn it,” I whisper softly. My fingers stroke through the short strands of his black hair before they trail down along his face. I’ve never seen him asleep before; he looks so peaceful. Maybe he could even look nice if I stare at him from the right angle. “Why do you have to be such an asshole? And why do you have to feel so good?” My breath pauses for a moment before I release it from my lungs. The wild, rough sex we just had was far better than I expected it to be. I wanted it to feel painful and ugly. Instead I lay here and think about how badly I want to do it again.
“Because you’re a bitch.”
I flinch in surprise at the sound of his voice. He’s awake? I feel my cheeks flush for a moment, and I let out a quiet laugh. “Aren’t we a pair, huh?”
“Hmm…” He lifts up his head, but his eyes are still closed. His arms curl around my body and cuddle me. Between the sensation of him on top of me and the bear skin under me, I feel deeply comforted and warm.
I stroke his hair for a long time and just watch the ceiling and his face at the same time. My mind races with all kinds of thoughts, and I can’t seem to sort any of them out enough to focus on. It’s infuriating, and I heft a loud sigh in frustration. “Andre?” My fingers pause in their stroking, and I wait for him to respond to me. When he doesn’t, I say, “do you really want this baby? Or are we just lying to ourselves?”
He’s so quiet that I think he’s fallen asleep. Eventually, though, he opens his eyes and gazes down at me. “I don’t know.” He closes his eyes again and rests his head against my forehead. “And I don’t think there is a right answer. There can’t be… not with something as big as this.”
My hands hold his face, and I feel the tears in my eyes for the first time. I don’t want them to, but they dribble down my cheeks anyway. “Isn’t there some kind of book with all the answers somewhere? Or a cheat sheet?”
“If so, I don’t know where either one of them is.”
A big hand touches my cheek, and I notice he’s looking at me. One of his thumbs brushes a tear away, and I’m surprised when he pressed his mouth to it. He begins to lap and suckle away all of my tears, and I find myself wanting to cry even more because I’m so touched. I draw in a small sniffle and sink my hands into his hair to hold him close to me.
“I’m sorry… I know this is a big thing. And it came out of nowhere.”
He lets out a quiet snort next to my ear and kisses one more tear from my cheek. “What else are you sorry for?”
My jaw tightens, and I feel the anger I directed at him before inside me again. “Are you serious? Don’t tell me you’re going to go on about the ‘my dad is a cop’ thing again.” When he just stares at me, I push at his chest. “Okay, off! Get off! The one time I think you could be a decent human being and you ruin it!”
He stares down at me as though I’m a child before he sits up. I push at his chest again as I wiggle out from under him. I want to slap him again. Violence, though, just seems to get him all hot and bothered, and I don’t feel up for another round. My lips pursed together and my jaw tight, I collect my clothes and trot down the stairs. I don’t need to look back to know that he’s probably watching me. Angry and confused, I stalk through the kitchen until I get to the two closed doors. One of them leads into a sort of rec room while the other one leads into a bathroom.
“Asshole,” I mutter for the third time while I step into the bathroom. When I turn the water on and toss my clothes on the floor, the very sound of the pressured shower water soothes me. “You’re such an asshole, Andre…” It doesn’t matter that he can’t hear me, I say it anyway.
The hot liquid makes me gasp in relief as soon as I step into the shower. I close my eyes and turn my face into it. A smile pulls at my mouth, and it feels almost as good as the water does. With my eyes closed, I feel around for the soap until I find it to wash his scent off my skin. I’m just starting to breathe easier when an all too familiar lurch in my stomach causes my eyes to fly open.
“No… shit…” I must admit, I’ve been swearing a lot more since I joined the Black Knights. Because I know what comes after that lurch, though, I feel like it’s justified. “No, no, no… damn it, no…”
The lurch comes again, and I quickly turn off the water; half my body is still covered in soap. I grab a towel from the rack next to the shower and step out as my body begins to shake. With a hard swallow, I wrap the towel around myself and sink down in front of the toilet. My breath quivers, and my teeth grind together. I push the lid of the toilet up and stare into the water, almost daring it to do something.
“Kristel?”
I hold my breath when I hear Andre’s voice on the other side of the door. What the hell is he doing here? “Go away!”
“I’m not here to fight. Can you just come out and talk to me?”
Why does he have to pick this moment to be reasonable? I run fingers through my hair and close my eyes. The nausea hasn’t come yet, so maybe this is just a false alarm. As though Karma has been keeping an eye on me, my whole body tightens uncomfortably. Stomach acid races up my esophagus, and I focus on deep breaths instead of small ones.
“Kristel… you can’t hide in there forever.”
His voice, and what he’s saying, is the last thing on my mind as I hurl my breakfast into the toilet. The sound of my vomit makes me shudder in disgust almost more than the sensation does. My eyes clench closed, and I beat my fist against the side of the toilet and try to remember to breathe.
There’s a soft click as the door opens next to me. No! I don’t want him to come in here! I can’t tell him to leave, though, as I throw up again. My fingers hurt from the grip I have on the sides of the toilet, and my body won’t stop shaking. I almost want to cry all over again as I feel Andre crouch behind me and hold my shoulders. He pushes some of my hair over one of my shoulders to keep it away from the toilet, but he doesn’t say a word. I feel like I’m going to vomit again just from the fact that he’s here. I wish he’d stayed up in his room.
“You don’t need to be here.” I swallow hard and wince at the taste in my mouth.
He stays silent and rubs at my shoulders. When he kisses the back of my neck, I can’t help but wonder what he’s up to. Wasn’t he just screaming at me an hour ago? I start to get up, my hands still shaky, but a heavy wave of nausea forces me to stay where I am. There’s nothing left in my stomach because I start to dry heave. It’s painful and wracks my body to the point where I feel like I’m going to throw my own stomach up. My throat burns and tears sting the corners of my eyes. I keep choking on nothing as I gasp for air. Even a small breath feels like victory.
Andre keeps his hands around my shoulders. He holds me and steadies me. Once in a while he kisses my temple or behind me ear. Even though I want to ignore him, I can’t help but feel drawn to him. Whatever his motivations are, I know I need him in this moment.
It feels like hours gone
by when the dry heaves finally stop, but I know it’s probably only been a few minutes. I gasp and struggle for air, and my hands ache from where I’ve been clenching them around the toilet. My body wants to lean into him, and I’m too tired to fight it. One of his arms slides around me to help me sit upright. His other hand grabs some toilet paper and hands it to me.
“Thank you…” I take the toilet paper and wipe at my mouth. Everything tastes terrible. “Why did you come? I was just taking a shower.”
I feel him shrug. “I don’t want to fight with you, Kristel. What I’d like is to sit down quietly with you and go over our options without anything else getting in the way. I’m so pissed off about your dad because he’s the enemy. Him and his kind are the guys who put people like me and the rest of the group in jail. I don’t know what you’ve experienced in life before me, but I sure as hell don’t plan on getting locked up again anytime soon.”