by Jessie Cooke
Storm was confused. He had just swooped in and acted like her knight in shining armor. “What are you sorry for?”
“I had just caught sight of you before that creep grabbed you and my first thought was...I wonder if she can take that little outfit home with her. I’m as bad as he is. How you women deal with our shit, I’ll never know.”
She laughed. “You might just be the first man I’ve ever heard admit something like that. But no, you are nothing like that pig. You have been respectful of me since we met, and I want you to put your hands on me.” He smiled, and she rose up on her toes and put her mouth next to his ear and said, “And yes, I can take this outfit home, as long as you understand one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“The referee makes the rules.”
He laughed. “Oh, baby, I’m at your mercy.”
8
As Ryder used the hand towel to tie her hands around the shower head two hours later, Storm had to ask, “Not that I’m complaining, but weren’t you supposed to be at my mercy?”
As soon as they walked into her apartment Ryder had pushed her up against the wall, pushed the tiny little booty shorts she was wearing aside, ripped a hole in her fishnets, and fucked her, right there. It happened so quickly that she somehow missed his taking off his own pants and putting on a condom...and she most definitely hadn’t been in control. But fuck, it was hot...and now this...
He laughed and said, “Oh, baby, if you could see what I’m looking at back here you would know...I am most definitely at your mercy.” Once he had her hands secured, she felt his hot lips on her neck, kissing her softly underneath her hairline and then sucking on the side of it as his hands came around to find her breasts. He massaged them and used his fingers to roll and tweak her nipples. She could feel his rock-hard cock pressing into her ass and as he rubbed it against her, she could feel it growing larger and harder. She was moaning and pulling at the restraints that bound her to the shower head. She wanted to touch him, and at the same time she wanted him to keep touching her. He kept twisting her left nipple while letting his right hand run slowly down her wet belly, and land on her swollen clit. She groaned, a long, deep groan that came from deep in her chest as he began to rub, twist, and manipulate it. His mouth was clamped down hard on her neck now, sucking almost violently. She knew there would be a purple mark there when he finished, but she didn’t care. She’d wear his mark proudly, like a tattoo.
She rocked her hips back into him, swinging from the towel that bound her to the shower, rubbing her ass into him, listening to him growl into her flesh. When he pulled his mouth up off her, he brought his tongue out and licked the spot softly, soothing and cooling the bruise there before running his lips up the side of her face and sucking her earlobe in between his lips. He was still rubbing her clit, pressing on it, driving her closer and closer to the edge of that cliff that she fell off head first every time they were together.
He began rubbing her clit harder and faster. Her moans were getting louder and more desperate, and just when she was about to let the orgasm take her...he stopped. “Oh fuck...Ryder...oh God, I need to come, baby.”
He kissed the side of her face again and she felt him smile. “Patience, baby, you’re gonna come so hard that you’ll feel like a bomb went off inside your body,” he whispered, and she felt the warmth of his breath penetrate her ear, causing her body to convulse. She was panting hard when she felt him put his hands on her waist and whisper again. This time he said, “Arch your back, baby, stick out that gorgeous ass for me.” With a whimper, Storm did as he said. She felt his hands sliding down over her hips and thighs as he got down on his knees behind her. She felt his hand slide up and spread her lips and she gasped, but that wasn’t the best part. The best part was how once he got them wide open, he pressed his tongue up into her and began moving it around.
Storm rocked her body so that she was grinding her hips into his face. Ryder was holding her tightly with a hand on each cheek, and his beard scratched and tickled her flesh while his tongue brought her closer and closer to the brink. He licked and sucked and shoved his tongue in and pulled it out until she finally reached the peak of that climax that had been threatening to turn her organs into hot, molten liquid. Her knees went weak and she let go, crying out his name as she did. The towel that bound her wrists was the only thing keeping her upright as she came, and came, and came. Her pussy was still having spasms when he stood up behind her and without saying a word, he shoved that thick cock up into her. He moved his hips in a circle, making sure he hit every surface of the silky walls of her pussy. She had just finished coming, but she was almost there again when his strokes began to get harder, and deeper, and faster. She could hear his breaths shortening and sexy noises coming from deep in his throat and she thought he was about to come...and just then he pulled out, reached up and untied her hands, and held onto her to keep her from collapsing on her noodle legs as they climbed out of the shower.
Storm was light-headed and slightly shocked when he wrapped his arm around her and lifted her off the floor. He sat her up on the bathroom counter and picked up a dry towel. His sexy, full lips met hers and he kissed her long and hot while using the towel to dry her off. He slid the towel slowly down her back and then around front, rubbing her breasts lightly, and then her stomach and finally her pussy. She wiggled against his hand; she wanted him inside of her again already...but instead he slid that towel down one of her legs, and then the other, finishing by drying her feet. Storm wasn’t a foot person, but the feeling of him massaging her toes and the balls of her feet while he looked up at her with his sexy eyes was pushing her to the limit once again.
He dried himself off too, quickly, and then took her hand, helping her down off the counter and leading her into the bedroom. He took her straight to the bed and laid her down on her back. He took the time to slide on a condom, and it only just then dawned on Storm that she had been about to let him come inside of her in the shower and not give it a second thought. That was unlike her. She was on birth control, but even when she’d been in a relationship with Denny, she’d been very careful. She knew she wasn’t ready for a baby and she didn’t want to have to make any hard choices if she turned up pregnant. She was glad that while her head had been in the clouds, he had been using his.
Ryder smiled down at her as he climbed up between her legs. He used one of his knees to push her thighs further apart and then as he slipped his cock inside of her, he took her right leg in his hand and brought it up on his shoulder. He drove his cock all the way up inside of her, as deeply as it would go. Storm brought her other leg up and placed it on his other shoulder herself and then she gripped the comforter with both hands and held on as he took her for another wild, sexy ride that ended with them both covered in sweat and gasping for breath. God, he’s fucking incredible.
They lay tangled up in each other’s limbs for a while, neither of them speaking. She was listening to the sounds of him breathing and pressing her face into his chest so that she could feel his heart beat. When it began to slow down, and his breathing evened out, she thought he had gone to sleep but suddenly, out of the blue, he said:
“Baby, where’s your mom?”
Storm felt a shiver run through her and down her spine. Why was he asking about her mother, especially at a time like this? She disengaged herself from his arms and sat up. Looking down at his face she drew her brows together and said:
“Why are you asking about my mom?”
In a soft voice which Storm found slightly patronizing he said, “Don’t get upset, baby.” He sat up and put his hands on her shoulders. She felt her muscles tighten and he did too. He softened his voice even more and said, “I was just wondering because I heard Dax mention that she disappeared, the same night that the bar was robbed. You’re driving her car, so I thought you might know where she went...and if she had anything to do with the robbery at the bar.” The shiver turned into a spark and that spark flared up, heating her body not with passio
n this time, but with anger.
“You’re investigating my mother, and me?” Suddenly her nakedness no longer felt comfortable and sexy. It felt wrong...he was using her, and she had been putty in his hands.
“No, baby, listen to me. I’m just still trying to figure all of this out...”
“You’re fucking me in the hopes that you’ll get some information. You think Dax is right and I was a part of that robbery, me and my mother? You think we’re what, a mother-daughter criminal team?”
“No, I don’t think that...”
She pulled away from him and scrambled off the bed. She felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach and she couldn’t breathe. She thought about her own mother’s not only thinking she’d been a part of the robbery, her and Denny, but actually hoping she was. Her mother wanted what she always wanted lately, money...and Ryder had wanted sex, and she’d given them both exactly what they wanted. She’d stripped herself bare for them both and what she got in return was the usual lack of respect and compassion for her own problems. “Yes, you do think that,” she said, sadly. “If you didn’t think it, it wouldn’t matter to you where my mother is. You wouldn’t be lying next to me after we...” She was going to say “made love,” but spat out “fucked” instead. “And thinking about that night. You’ve been thinking about it all along, haven’t you? This whole thing was about getting me to talk…proving that I was part of this robbery.”
“No, that’s not it, really...”
“Get out, Ryder.”
“Baby, please...”
“Stop it! Stop calling me baby! Stop trying to manipulate me!” She picked up his pile of clothes off the floor and threw them at him. “Get out!” She stormed into the bathroom, slammed and locked the door behind her, and slid down to the cold floor. She sat there and sobbed quietly into her hands, making sure he couldn’t hear her, until he finally stopped knocking and she heard him get dressed and leave. She felt like such a fool. Ryder had probably been laughing his ass off at her the entire time. How pathetic she was, thinking that a guy like him, who could have any woman he wanted, really wanted her. He was working undercover and as soon as he’d gotten what he wanted, he would have been gone.
9
Ryder walked into 92 Proof and scanned the room. His eyes landed on Hunter, or rather his trademark goofy hat. He was seated at the end of the bar and Carolyn was leaning into it. They looked like they were having a serious conversation and Ryder wondered if it was about the robbery. He walked past the few tables of patrons that chose to spend their lunch hour in a bar and just as he approached the counter, Hunter turned and looked up at him. “Ryder, how’s it going?”
“It’s been better,” Ryder told him. He’d spent his night tossing and turning, and finally at dawn he’d gotten up and tried to work his angst out on Edith. The old girl wasn’t cooperating any more than anything else in his life, however. She was spitting gas out of her carburetor and he just hadn’t had the energy to deal with it at five a.m. “Hi, Carolyn, how are you?” Ryder hadn’t seen the bar manager since the night of the robbery although he had wondered how she was holding up.
“I’m doing good, Ryder. I never got a chance to thank you for that night.”
“I didn’t do anything,” he said. “I’m glad no one got seriously hurt, though. Did your boy go back to school?”
She nodded and smiled sadly. “I miss him already although I think Tyler is relieved he’s gone.” Tyler was Carolyn’s boyfriend. Ryder didn’t know him well—he’d only seen the guy a few times—but what he did know was that the man had some medical problems that had forced him to retire early from his job as a correctional officer. Carolyn told Ryder that although he’d been practically forced by the state to retire, he hadn’t been there long enough to get “vested” and be able to collect a pension. He and Carolyn lived off the barely over-minimum wage that she made at the bar, and his paltry state disability check. Ryder knew they struggled, especially since most of the money for her son’s education came directly out of Carolyn’s pocket. He wondered if that was a point of contention between her and her boyfriend.
“They don’t get along?” he asked.
“Oh no, they get along fine,” Carolyn told him. “But you know...” Her face went red as she said, “Living in a little trailer with paper-thin walls doesn’t give you much privacy.”
That was more information than Ryder wanted, but in her defense, he had asked for it. He took a seat on the stool next to Hunter and said, “True. Can I get an iced tea, Carolyn?”
“Sure. You’re not drinking today?”
“Not at noon,” he told her with a wink. Ryder liked to party with his brothers, and he’d enjoyed drinking with Storm that night. But he wasn’t big on day drinking. He liked to be in control, and that meant of his own thoughts and emotions as well as anything else. It was partly what he was having a hard time with where Storm was concerned. Any other woman that had ever kicked him out would never see him again. But after a night of sulking and licking his wounds, the only thing he wanted to do was put his arms around her again.
As soon as Carolyn was gone Hunter said, “You sounded serious on the phone. What’s going on?”
“I want in on the investigation.”
Hunter took a sip of his drink and said, “What investigation is that?”
“It’s not like you to play games, Hunter.”
“I’m not playing, Ryder. See, I know you can’t possibly be talking about the robbery investigation since I’m pretty sure Dax doesn’t want you anywhere near that.”
“Because I was seeing Storm, but I’m not anymore.”
Hunter raised an eyebrow but before he responded, Carolyn was back with Ryder’s tea. She set it down and said, “Did I hear you mention Storm? How is she?”
“She’s good,” Ryder said.
“I feel so bad about her losing her job. I can’t imagine her being in on that robbery. Of course I only knew her for a week, and I guess you just never know what people might do when they’re desperate.” Ryder didn’t respond to that and after Carolyn waited a few beats she said, “Is she working?”
“Yeah, she got a job over at the Skybox.”
“Well, good for her. I hope she does well. I’ll get out of the way so you boys can finish your talk.” When she was gone again Hunter said:
“Mind if I ask why you’re not seeing Storm any longer?”
“Because she thinks I’m investigating her and she’s pissed.”
Hunter chuckled. “So, you want to really investigate her now?”
“I want to find out the truth. Storm has been in the city for just a little over three weeks now and her reputation is ruined thanks to an ex-boyfriend that’s a piece of shit and her mother’s problems. I really think that’s the only connection she has to any of this, and I want to prove it.”
“And then she’ll take you back, and you’ll live happily ever after?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I want her name cleared. You and I both know that being on the Skulls shit list will get her nowhere in this town.”
“So, do we run your participation in this investigation by Dax?”
“I’ll leave that up to you. If you’re worried about pissing Dax off, I’ll take this to him myself.”
Hunter sighed and finished what was in his glass. He looked around them, presumably to make sure no one was close, and he said, “I trust you, Ryder, and I also understand where you’re coming from. I’m usually not one for keeping things from the boss man, but in this case what he doesn’t know isn’t hurting anyone in my opinion. As long as you’re reporting everything you find out to me and I’m passing it on to him, we’re good. But up front I have to tell you that it doesn’t look good for your girl.”
“All I know is the ex was locked up for burglary and the mother is a gambler. What else do they have on her?”
“The day after the robbery, Storm’s savings account was cleaned out. The money was taken out at an ATM in South Station four hours
after the bar was robbed. Her mother bought a ticket to Penn Station fifteen minutes later.”
“How the hell do you know all of that?”
“Finding out where people are is my job. My cousin and I have a lot of contacts in high places; it’s why Dax uses our services so much. That’s all I can tell you about that. But, as far as the ATM withdrawal goes, it was just under five hundred dollars. We also know it wasn’t Storm because by that time Dax had a guy on her and she never left the house that day.”
“Okay, but if she was involved in the robbery why would Storm give her mother her ATM card and not just give her cash to leave town?”
“Mom left on that train less than five hours after the robbery. If Storm’s ex did the robbery, Storm probably hadn’t gotten her cut yet. As far as how deeply Mom was involved, I don’t know. What I do know is that Elise Waters is a hard-core gambler. Months after her husband died of natural causes and she got a decent insurance settlement, she was broke. Her home was repossessed, and the tribal council on the reservation refused to help her unless she agreed to therapy. She turned down the therapy and moved in with her sister May in Dorchester. She got a job at a little diner, but she didn’t stop gambling. Her sister kicked her out of her home the night of the robbery when she found out that Elise had been stealing from her. It turns out that Elise is in deep with a guy named Park Santos. Park is a bookie and a loan shark and Elise Waters owes him a lot of money. He was looking for her hard before the night of the robbery.”