by Alexa Davis
I clenched my fists in my lap. My brain was on fire, jaw clenched tight.
“Hey, it’s no big deal,” C.J. added quickly. “Especially now that I have my very own “hacker tracker” business with my new partner.”
“Really? When did this happen?” I squinted at her.
“About five minutes after you left with security, when my lips moved faster than my brain and I said you and I were going to start our own private investigation business.” She raised her face and gave me a sheepish smile.
“I’m going to chase cheating husbands?”
“No, you’re going to chase cyberbullies,” she corrected.
“Well, fuck yeah I am. I do that all the time already. I’ve uncovered fraud, embezzlement, and one of your viewers who was making big donations, then stealing the money back.” I locked my hands behind my head. “Well, he tried to get it back. He won’t be bothering you or anyone else anymore.”
She clapped her hands and wiggled on her stool. “So, you’re not mad?”
“I’m a little surprised, but this time your lack of a filter has worked out pretty dang well. I’d still love it if you worked on that, though.” She frowned, but it passed quickly and was replaced with sheer, fierce victory. I felt like I’d been had, but damn, if she wasn’t the finest thing ever to put on wings, I didn’t know.
“Well, shit,” Shelby looked at us in turn with an expression of sheer disbelief. “You have a job here now.”
C.J. nodded at her, but the weight of what she said almost dragged me off my stool. “You’re staying.”
“Well, I do have that meeting at Stanford…”
“Screw Stanford, you’re staying in LA with C.J., and being geeks together, and having geek sex, and being parents to that smelly fur ball together.”
“Stiles isn’t stinky!” I groused. Shelby just held out a hand, like I’d proven her point.
“Whatever. My point is, I was planning to come to California before I was coming to visit C.J. If we have a plan and I can make money,” I looked at C.J. out of the corner of my eye, “and we can make a lot of money, then why shouldn’t we go for it?” I jumped off the stool and sent it clattering to the floor. “I’m staying in California. So, LA better be ready for cowboy boots and Duluth trading company, because I’m not giving it up for all y’all’s surfers and such.”
Shelby laughed and C.J. covered her face with her hand.
“You know,” Shelby mused, “the cowboy thing could be your signature. It’ll make you stand apart and people will remember you. I mean, we don’t exactly expect a slow drawling, sexy as hell cowboy when we call the GeekSquad.”
C.J. peered over her fingers. “The model and the Marlboro man,” she quipped.
“Hargrave Rivers LLC,” I corrected. She and Shelby grinned in unison.
“Well, my break is over, and I would love to get the next two hours of pictures and ass-grabbing over with. So, my tall, dark, and handsome cowboy, how’s about we go play nice with our future customers?”
“With these guys, it’s more like future nemeses.” I added, rolling my eyes.
“We need to get you a duster with pockets for your tools and stuff, then bring you to these dressed as McCree from that shooter game.” Shelby looked me over like she was taking my measurements already.
“Or, we could not, and I could be taken seriously,” I replied, waving her off. I’d seen the way people looked at me when they saw how I walked, or my boots. Even Shelby and company when I’d started talking the night before. Everyone was surprised that I was a techie because I talked like a Texan. The last thing I needed was people underestimating me more because I looked like a damned caricature of a cowpoke when I was working.
C.J. gave Shelby a look that shut her up, while I picked up the stool I’d knocked over. I held out a hand to each lady, and they hopped down from their seats and we walked out onto the convention center floor. A wall of noise hit us as I swung the steel double doors open to let C.J. and her wings through, and I took a couple shallow breaths before I took up a position at her back. Two men joined us, large enough to make my six and a half feet feel small.
C.J. was incredible. She opened her wings to the amazement of the children who flocked to her, and managed to keep their handsy fathers at bay without losing character or charm. She had her picture taken with fans of every age, and then the pseudo celebrities and past-science fiction heroes came forward to take their pictures with her too.
When one or another of my favorite actors wandered by, C.J. even wrangled pictures with me in them, for my own collection. She seemed to be right in her element. Meanwhile, just being around all those people, even though they were ignoring me completely, made my skin crawl and my palms damp. At a word from one of the security guys walking with us, she extended her floor time, but told Shelby and I that we could wait for her back in her dressing area if we were tired.
I almost took her up on it, then looked her over, from her sweat beaded forehead down to her stripper heels. If she could stick it out, so could I. I told her so, and Shelby agreed. Shelby added that it was a high, watching people love her work, so she always loved staying with C.J. for as long as possible, feeding off the amazement at what they accomplished together. As I watched that signature hip pop and felt, more than heard, the gentle whoosh of the wings as they opened, I understood exactly what she meant.
Finally, C.J. was finished, and we all dragged ourselves back to the changing area. I carefully tucked the winged costume away and double locked the case, using both the provided combination lock for the locker, and adding my own digital signature to the inside of the locker itself, in the form of a monitor that was synchronized to C.J.’s phone.
“I really lucked into it with that cool security system you have installed at your apartment,” I declared as we secured the bags and shut the locker, spinning the combination lock to reset it. “I added a battery pack so your monitor will work here. So, in effect, your system thinks that this is home, and your cell phone is away. If anyone opens the locker, it will immediately tell you, and you’ll see their face and everything.”
“I’d rather no one mess with my stuff. You know, we can just take it home and bring it back,” C.J. worried out loud.
“No, honey, you can’t,” Shelby quietly reminded her. “The judges are cracking down on people who make changes after the competition has started. If you take it home, you’re disqualified, automatically.” C.J. folded her arms and stared at the locker door. For a moment, I thought she might demand to stay the night.
“Thank you, Jackson, for understanding how important this is to me,” she said quietly as she took my arm. “I will make sure my phone goes directly on the charger and turn the volume all the way up for the rest of the night.” I leaned down and kissed her carefully. She was still in full makeup, and as hot as smeared lipstick sounded in my head, having encountered it earlier, I’d realized the reality was just waxy and strange.
C.J. was still on her weird “no real food” kick, so I begged her to let me pick up salads for us and promised I’d help her work it off, as Shelby gagged behind us. I let her drive the Jeep, since she knew the area so much better than I did, and she was far more alert.
“I swear, if I hadn’t spent the last six hours almost exclusively by your side, I’d think you’d been snorting cocaine,” I teased as the song she was singing along with, loudly and off-tune, thankfully ended. It was the worst, and most amazing thing I’d ever heard, and as I watched her face nearly split with her happy grin, I would’ve listened to the torturous karaoke all night, just to see her like that.
“Well, it’s your fault,” she retorted. “I was coming down hard from the energy of that wild, awesome debut of War Angel, and beyond worried about leaving her there all night.” She looked over at me as we waited for the traffic signal to let us through the intersection. “You thought ahead. You made War Angel safe, and you didn’t even tell me.”
“You were so mad at me this morning I didn’
t want to make things worse by asking if you were worried about theft. I’m crazy smart, remember?” She snorted and rolled her eyes, then reached over and slid her hand so far up my thigh, my body reacted automatically and my pants started to feel tight.
“What are the chances we could work off a burger and a beer?” she asked. Her hand was now over the growing bulge in my pants, massaging it gently as she looked straight ahead. I swallowed hard and stammered, then cleared my throat.
“If you want to work off dinner, we should eat first, then have sex. Which is not how it’s going to happen if you don’t stop that.” I pressed her hand harder against me, then gently placed it safely on my knee. She giggled and squeezed then rested it there as the light finally changed and we could turn into The Habit, the burger joint that had been wafting insanely mouth-watering aroma into the Jeep.
We were close enough to home that we took our burgers and deep fried green beans to go. Once we were back at the apartment, C.J. stuck to her word and immediately plugged her phone in, and cranked the volume as high as it would go. She checked the monitor, panicking a little at the black screen she got until I reminded her that it was aimed at the door, and black was exactly what she should see, unless someone activated the light sensor on the other side. I ate the most incredible burger I’d ever had, made even better by the accidental starvation of being too busy and distracted to stop and eat for hours, and pulled out the bed while C.J. took a long shower to wash off all the makeup and weird lotions and things she’d had to use for her cosplay.
I’d opened a couple of beers for us, but dozed off waiting for my gorgeous girl to finish her shower. It wasn’t until the air got cool and woke me up that I realized I was on top of the blankets and she was curled up under them next to me. With a soft curse, I untangled myself from the monstrous cat that had decided I was his favorite pillow, and slid under the covers next to her, careful not to let my cold skin steal her warmth.
I was exhausted. I could only imagine how tired she was, even though she was a lot tougher than me. Letting her sleep was the best thing for her. But, watching her breasts rise and fall with her steady, deep breaths, only made me want to touch her more. Her face was all soft in sleep, the angles and tightness of worry and healthy skepticism smoothed out until she looked like she was still just a kid.
I inched closer to her and watched the corners of her mouth tilt up in the ghost of a smile. Encouraged, I gently lifted her and slid my arm under her neck, pulling her ass up against me and wrapping my arm over her. She snuggled in without waking, and the damn cat pressed up against the backs of my legs, pinning me in place between them. I had hardly thought up an insult for him, when my thoughts slid away on the silk filaments of the cobwebs that fluttered through my mind and I faded back to sleep, my woman in my arms, exactly where she belonged.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Carina
I woke up with Jackson wrapped around me so tight at first I panicked, thinking I was tangled in my sheets, and was going to fall out of bed. Once I knew it was him, and not my evil t-shirt sheets that held me so tight, I gently extricated myself and stayed in bed for a few more minutes as I checked on my locker at the convention. There was no record of any activity, which made me smile so big it hurt my face.
Feeling buoyed by Jackson’s super idea that had kept my costume off my “things to worry about” list, I checked my email while still in bed, stealing every second of time with his warmth that I could. I pressed my hips against his bare torso. As I felt him react to me, even in his sleep, I thanked the universe for sending me a man who preferred sleeping nude. My emails were not enough distraction for the muscular, naked body next to me in bed, so I took off the tank top and panties I’d worn to bed and dropped them on the floor, and rubbed up against him again.
He stubbornly refused to wake up all the way, mumbling something about horses and oats, and all the while he was getting harder as he pressed up against me. His hips moved, and I adjusted him so he was sliding between my legs as his hips rocked back and forth. I heard my breathing turn raspy as he slid over me like he was sheathed in silk, and I had an idea. I ducked down under the covers and slowly lowered my mouth onto him, until my lips were pressed against his stomach. I pulled almost all the way off, and repeated the action, only faster.
As I began to suck in earnest, I heard him gasp, and his fingers threaded through my hair as he threw off the covers with his other hand. I looked all the way up his body to his face, but his eyes were closed as he gently touched my cheek and knotted his fingers in the tangles of my un-brushed hair. I worked him in silence until he pulled his hips away, sinking into the mattress, and pulled me up with both hands.
“I need you on me, now,” he panted as he lifted me up further. I got to my knees and straddled his hips, easily sliding his wet shaft into me, only making us both wetter as I started to glide up and down on him. He never opened his eyes, just gripped my hips so hard he left little half-moons behind from his finger nails. Even that small pain made me wetter, and I picked up my pace until I was breathing hard and riding the edge of pleasure towards the abyss. I leaned forward and begged him to mark me somewhere no one else would see.
He bit down hard on my shoulder, and sucked until the pain went from dull, to sharp and immediate. I shuddered and clenched around him, and he lunged at me again, taking my breast in his mouth and doing the same, biting and sucking right next to the nipple, leaving teeth marks and a quickly purpling bruise bigger than the nipple itself. I was cascading down through my orgasm and screamed out, begging for more pain. He dug his fingernails into my backend and bit me one last time, on the already tender flesh of my breast.
The sharpness of the pain changed my scream and tore a gasp from my throat, before I collapsed shuddering on top of him. He held me while I trembled, and softly stroked me with callused hands turned to velvet in the gentleness of his touch. I was amazed at how I could feel such intense pain, amazing pleasure, and feel so protected, all at the same time. I looked into his eyes, which were finally open, and he watched me carefully.
“I’ve never done a lot of what you ask for. Promise you will tell me if I’m getting it wrong, or if it’s too much. I’m learning as I go, and so far as I can tell, you are the wildest creature to exist on God’s green earth.”
I chuckled softly and stared down into him. I had never met a man as wholesome and worldly as he managed to be at the same time. “You seem to have a steep learning curve, as it so happens. But, what do you want? What can I do to make you explode in pure pleasure and make you forget any other woman could ever exist?” He moved under me, and I clasped around him hard and tight enough to make him gasp aloud. “So, cowboy, what are you going to do now?”
He smiled up at me and pulled me to him for a kiss. While he held me close, our tongues intertwined, my hips pulsing against him, he wrapped his arms around me and rolled us so that he was on top of me, still kissing me as he started to move slowly and steadily in and out of my hot, wet clenching muscle.
“I guess I’m not very exciting,” he whispered in my ear as he leaned in close, “but sometimes, all I want is the feel of you around me, under me, and savoring every second I’m inside you.” His rhythm never changed, but what he said thrilled down my abdomen and poured over him in thick hot liquid as I came hard and fast under him. He grinned down at me as I clutched at his shoulders and bit my lip to silence my cries. He rubbed his thumb over my lips, separating them, and kissed me again, long and deep, eating my screams as he pushed me over the edge again with those long steady thrusts, as though each one was a declaration of his love for me.
He let himself go then, as my body softened around him. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, ran my fingers through his long, soft hair, and held him as tight as I could, all of me as close to him as I could manage without eating him whole and carrying him inside me. I felt him throb and spasm inside me and I tucked my face into the heady, masculine smell of his neck, breathing him in and holding his
scent as long as my breath held before I exhaled.
“You are the kind of man a girl should fall in love with.” I whispered into his ear as he rested on top of me.
“I’m the kind of man who will crush a girl if I can’t roll over and get off her skinny ass,” he teased as he rocked to force us to one side so he could relax and not put his weight on me. I fought him for a moment, but let go with a giggle and slid onto my side rolling as one so he was still inside me as we rested face to face.
“We moved too fast, didn’t we?” he asked as he stroked my hair back from my face.
“I always move too fast, in everything, all the time. So maybe, maybe I’m pulling you along too.” I tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let me.
“My momma would be the first to tell you that no one makes me do anything I’m not fully ready to do. I want you, and only you. So, if you want me too, then I think we’re good.” He kissed my forehead and slid slowly away from me, cold bleeding into the space between us. “Close your eyes for a few minutes while I make breakfast. We still have plenty of time before we must leave. But, save some time in the shower for me this time. I want my hands on you a little longer before we head back into the land where I have to let other men grab your ass.”
I snickered and shoved him away, pulling the covers over me to keep warm while I watched his naked ass head toward the fridge.
He pulled fruits and veggies out of the fridge and sliced them up, feeding them into the blender, all the while humming a country tune and occasionally adding a yummy little shimmy for good measure. Dragging myself away from the fantasy of domestic bliss I’d never thought I’d have was torture. With a dramatic sigh, I dragged myself off the bed and grabbed my clothes from the dresser before heading into the bathroom, with the sound of the blender buzzing cheerily behind me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jackson
I put away the bed and tidied up the apartment, and made sure everything on her list was ready to go before joining her in the bath. I tried to sneak in to the shower with her, but she was waiting for me, sitting naked on the counter when I walked in the room.