“You want to know about me?”
I nodded.
“Why, does that seem surprising to you? We’ve had sex more than most couples do and the most that I know about you is that you like sushi, red wine, and hate your sides tickled.” To be an ass, I wiggled my fingers at her sides, and she squirmed under them.
“Most employers don’t know more than that about their employees,” she said, half in a tease and half with seriousness. I rolled my eyes then.
“You’re hardly an employee. Come on. Let’s learn a little about each other. I thought we got past the all work and no play part of this arrangement, yeah? You can’t think I’m a complete asshole still.”
“You’re still quite an asshole she said.” She grinned. “Maybe not complete though. What do you want to know?”
I asked her about her life, her aspirations. What she did outside of this that earned her money – couldn’t be something over the top. She wasn’t a flashy woman.
She laid back in the bed, head cushioned by the pillows.
“Well, I graduated a few years ago. My mother passed when I was young. She came from money… left me a lot. I’ve been saving it to move on to better things, but father hates the idea of leaving… I actually work from home. Editing. It pays well but it doesn’t pay half as much as what I need, you can imagine.” She looked at me. “What I really want is to live somewhere in the country, away from this city. It’s always been a bit horrible.”
“So you don’t like it here? I suppose the crime isn’t appealing to a woman like you, huh?”
“Not really. I –”
She stopped, as if embarrassed. I nudged her.
“Go on. What were you going to say?”
“Nothing interesting. It’s just… Well one day, I would like to have children. I couldn’t possibly raise them here. Between the Lorenzo’s lurking every street corner and – well no offense, but your people aren’t all that great either, with all the shooting.” She bit her lip. “I’d like to make a life for myself doing what I love, with a family I cherish. But right now I have bigger priorities. That’s really all there is.”
Ah. Sacrificing woman through and through… I smiled a little, and laid back with her.
“Would you believe me if I told you that I wanted the same thing?” She looked at me incredulously. “No, no lie,” I said. “One day… It would be nice to have a family with someone, you know? You inherited your father’s debts, certainly you understand another inheriting theirs? Only difference really is your father is a gambler, mine was a murderer.”
“I know. It’s what has you and the Lorenzo’s at your throats,” she said. “Everyone in the city knows it.” I nodded.
“Yeah. Everyone knows Pops killed old man Lorenzo’s son. You can imagine what kinda target that puts on my back since my father skipped town? I wouldn’t do what I do if it didn’t benefit me… This gives me power. Keeps me alive…” I trailed off, sighing a little. “Sorry. That got more heavy than I intended –”
“No,” she interrupted. She slid over me, straddling herself across my lap. “Tell me about it. About what you’d want to be doing if you weren’t being a bad biker boy, drowning himself in money and women,” she said wryly. She slid her still-wet folds over my member, making it stir under her. I took her hands in mine, rocking with her as I grew hard again, as my arousal stirred and her wetness slid down over me.
“I’d have a cute little brood of kids,” I said. “I think five is a good number –”
She laughed. “Five?” I nodded, rocking my hips with her. I talked, wistful, and she slid me inside her to love her slowly as I told her about what I wanted.
“Yeah. Five. We’d live out of the city with their mother. She’d be the most beautiful woman I’d ever met, but she wouldn’t take shit anyone, least of all me. I think I’d fix up bikes for a living. Yeah. That sounds nice…”
I lost my train of thought then, caught up in the feeling of being in her again, how she looked on top of me, listening raptly to everything that I had to say. I didn’t remember when we’d gotten to this state in our interactions. It wasn’t supposed to be this sweet…
“Hey, we’re friends, yeah?” I asked, bringing my hands to her hips, gripping her there and guiding her on top of me. She gasped a little, chest rising as her legs spread a little wider. I let my fingers trace between her legs, flicking over the wet folds and teasing the little bud of pleasure there. She groaned, losing her pace for a second as she propped herself up on my chest. She began to work her hips on me more, and I met the easy roll of her hips with ones of my own. The feeling of it was divine, the sweet velvety folds of her inner walls around me…
“Is that what we’re calling it now?” she asked wryly. I grinned a little.
“I think I like you, so I’d say that’s a yes.”
She blushed.
“I think I like you too.”
I grinned, and leaned up to kiss her, taking her face into my hands. She was a gorgeous woman. I told her that often, just because I liked the reaction that it evoked – she always blushed so deep. I rolled us over, so that she was pressed into the bed. Her legs went around me instantly, keeping me buried sinfully deep inside her.
Her breasts pressed against my chest, her arms around my shoulders. I kept my mouth on her, loving her with my lips as I did so with my body. She felt so good, smelled so tempting. Of all the times I had had her since she came to me, she only seemed to get sweeter, more intoxicating. She moved her body with mine, her hips bucking up as I thrust inside her.
Wanting more than what we’d already gotten, getting into the moment and enjoying monopolizing all of her body – she made me damn insane with how much I wanted her – I kissed from her jaw to her neck, making sure to mark her – as if telling the whole world that she was mine, all mine, that she belonged to no one else and her body and her mind were mine for the taking. She gasped, pressing into my teeth, letting me redden her skin and bruise her up; I loved how responsive she was to this, how much she liked the slight pain with the pleasure.
I sucked and bit at her neck, my teeth sinking in as we went harder, the sound of our sex filling the room in a way that was like music. Heh. Who knew that I had become so poetic when it came to sex, but she pulled it out of me and I wouldn’t say I could regret it as she moaned my name.
“Nero, more. I need more. Please…”
Bucking into her, I made my way to her breasts, taking one between my lips. Her fingers tugged at my hair, scratching over my scalp before dragging down my back, sure to leave their own marks on me. The pleasurable pain made me buck harder into her, and I took her thighs in my hands to push her legs further apart, to piston into her and give her more, more, just like she asked for.
“Oh my god. Good, so good. Don’t stop…”
Her pleas came out, strangled sighs. I could feel her pulsing around me, her wet walls tight around my long hard length. She was close all right, so damn close and I wanted to feel it. Once more my fingers trailed between her legs, circling over the pleasure bud nestled between her silky folds. She gasped when I touched her there, rocking her hips harder against my own when she did. I stroked her there, pressing hard, using her body to my advantage as I gave her what she wanted, made her body shake with how good it felt for her. She was delirious on the pleasure, and I was high in giving it to her. It was like it was my sole purpose – make her scream my name, make her want me the way I wanted her –
“Nero –!”
Her back arched off the bed as she came, flooding her juices around my length. The way she cried out and clung to me. it had to be so much, so much, but I wasn’t done with her – no, not at all.
She sobbed in pleasure as I kept going, my fingers and length between her legs, pushing her past her limits. She panted, her chest heaving with every heavy breath that she took, with every moan and whine that fell from her pretty lips.
“Too much, god it’s too much, Nero—”
I silenced her with my
mouth, kissing her quiet as she clung to me, her nails stinging down my back. She moaned against my lips, and I couldn’t help but shudder at the feel of her pressing desperately to me.
“Cum in me. Please. I need it, Nero. I want to feel you.”
I groaned, unable to help myself. I kept my mouth on hers, kissing her as I worked towards my own completion, as well, as I kept her at the cusp of hers. When I came, it was hard, deep within her, filling her womanhood until it dripped out of her – a testament of my want and desire for her. I rolled my hips into her until I was spent, though I remained inside her even as I softened.
“God you feel good,” I murmured.
Slowly, I rolled us, laying us to our sides. I continued to keep myself inside her, liking the connection as I looked at her. Her face was flushed pink, sweaty, her eyes dark and glazed as she looked at me. She was truly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.
“What’s that look for?” she questioned after a moment, smiling a little before she nuzzled against my chest. I chuckled a little, not knowing if I would get away with telling her my thoughts.
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m just having a good time…”
Aggressive Negotiations
Elizabeth
Five months.
It had been five months since I had made my arrangement with Nero Adams. Five months since I told him I would give him my body in exchange for the money to clear my father’s debts. Five months since he’d first touched me.
In those five months, I learned a lot about him. I learned he didn’t really like his line of work, but did it because he had to. I learned that he was a fan of rock and rap, even though the combination was a bit strange. When he was a boy, he had been in band (played the saxophone, according to him, though not very well.) He liked to tell jokes. He liked his drinks strong.
I liked him. More than one should like a man to whom they whored themselves out to. Certainly more than a friend.
I didn’t know when it happened. Somewhere between learning that more than money, he wanted a family, in the tiny moments that we shared together where he wasn’t driving into me and bringing me to ecstasy. It made me feel something for him. I didn’t think that it was very wise of me – couldn’t possibly be sane.
Whatever my feelings, I knew that I would at least have to put them on the back burner until my father’s debts were paid. Nero was still giving me money, even slipping me extra, I’d noticed. I almost told him to stop, once. But money was money, and father needed it more than my pride needed to hope that all the extra time spent with him wasn’t just because I was giving him easy access to my body.
I would just have to wait and see. There were more important things to worry about…
Two weeks into the fifth month of my arrangement with Nero, Alec Lorenzo called me to his home.
It was earlier than usual; I tended to make my payments at the end of the month, not in the beginning of it. I wondered if my father had managed to incur more debt while I had been paying it off. I prayed that he hadn’t; that would only anger the Lorenzo’s further, and I had no desire to bring their wrath on my father further, nor myself for that matter.
I arrived at twelve, pulling up to the sprawling mansion. It was nothing like Ray’s, where Nero conducted his business. Ray’s was seedy; Alec Lorenzo’s home was austere and it made me swallow every time I came over to deliver their monthly payment. I walked up to the front, apprehensive, each step heavy. He hadn’t told me what he wanted to see me for, just that he wished to ‘talk’ with me.
I was let in. The servant didn’t speak to me, and the thin man never had since the first day that I had come over, begging that they take my money in exchange for leaving my father alone. All he did was walk me through echoing halls, carpeted by ancient rugs that had certainly seen brighter homes. I was taken to Alec Lorenzo’s office, where the servant knocked for me, and left.
I waited.
“Come in.”
The voice that sounded was old, worn, the voice of someone who had smoked far too many cigarettes in his lifetime to be justified. I turned the knob of the door and entered, coughing a little at the scent of smoke.
Alec Lorenzo sat behind his desk, long grey hair pulled back, the Cherrywood hiding his large pot belly. Caracts clouded his eyes like his cigar smoke fogged up the room; neither seemed to bother him.
“Ah, Ms. Love. Please sit.” I did so, knowing that I had very little choice in the matter.
“Mr. Lorenzo,” I said politely. “Is there a problem? I was under the impression my payment wasn’t due until the end of the month. Was I mistaken?”
He coughed, hacking into his hand before smiling at me, a great yellowed, toothy expression.
“It’s your payment that I wanted to discuss, though less in terms of you needing to pay me and more in terms of who’s paying you; I had no idea that your income came from Nero Adams.”
From within his desk, he pulled out a folder. He slid it over to me, and my heart pounded in my chest; anxiety raced through me. Inside were pictures of Nero and I, namely ones of us having sex. It was embarrassing that Alec Lorenzo had them, and knowing that Nero and he had bad blood, I feared what the man across from me would do.
“I only needed the money,” I began to explain. “It wasn’t to insult –”
“Child. If I thought that you were trying to insult me, I would have shot you already,” he said. “No. I look at this more as an opportunity. You know that the man Nero Adams called father killed my only son, yes?” he asked. I nodded. “Yes… Little scuffle that ended badly. An accident, apparently. Skipped town before blood could be repaid. And there you are. Close to his son.”
“We’re not close,” I said immediately. “I only… Work for him.”
“Ha! Work. I suppose if bending over for him and letting him in that tight pie of yours is work, you can tell yourself that, Ms. Love. I didn’t call her here to argue over your employment status, however. I called you here to make a deal.”
He sounded pleasant about it, but I felt I couldn’t trust him. His Cheshire smile was far too devious and self-satisfied to mean anything good; and he wasn’t a good man either way.
“What sort of deal?”
“The sort that would erase your father’s debts to my family, and give me my retribution for my son. I want Nero Adams’ life, Ms. Love. I do believe you can help me get it?”
Fight or Flight
Nero
I need to talk to you.
She had sounded so desperate on the phone when she’d called. She hadn’t even given me a chance to say hello before that blurted out of her. On a normal day, I’d have teased her. Asked her maybe if she was that needy for what I could give her, now that she wasn’t so averse to flirting back with me. But this wasn’t that; there was desperation in Elizabeth, and I hated to think about what could have had her coming to me a second time for help.
It was strange to care about someone like that. Where I actually felt nervous and worried about what was going to happen. There were people that were close to me – the people that worked with me, who had worked for my father before. But none of them were like Elizabeth. None of them…
Hell. I had come to actually want her, more than just for sex or to see how far she’d let me push her. She would never want to associate with me after everything was said and done, her father’s debts paid. She wanted a quiet life away from all of this. I was hardly the kind of man that could pull that for her.
I waited for her at Ray’s, sitting on the front stoop. It was the middle of the day; there were patrons inside drinking but hardly anything to write home about at this time in the middle of the week. When she pulled up in her Dodge, I stood, putting out my cigarette. She was dressed nice, like she’d just come from a meeting. My head tilted, and I eyed her. She looked anxious, but mostly, she seemed to be sad. My thoughts instantly went to her father when I saw the tears threatening at the corner of her eyes. She instantly came to my arms, something that
surprised me but also made my heart leap.
“Elizbeth, are you okay?”
“He wants to kill you,” she said immediately. I paused. “He told me… he said if I helped him kill you he’d… he’d…”
“Hey. Hey. Come on. Let’s get you a drink and you can tell me what you’re talking about.”
We ended up in my office, a bottle of Jack between us. She began to explain.
“Alec Lorenzo. He called me over earlier. He found out about us – about how I’m getting the money to pay for my father’s debts,” she said. “He said that if I helped him kill you, that he would get rid of my father’s debts for me. He’s still angry about his son, been waiting for revenge for so long…”
I cursed. Lorenzo and I had always gone back and forth. Man was too bitter for his own good. This was the first time that he had tried to get one of my own to turn on me –
The thought makes me pause. Since when had I started thinking of Elizabeth as one of my own?
I pinched the bridge of my nose, before looking at her.
“What did you tell him? Did you agree?” Perhaps this was just her giving me the courtesy of warning me before she put a bullet in my head. After all, around her I was unarmed. I never prepared for anything deadly when it came to dealing with her.
“It’s what I told him. But I don’t want to. I don’t know how to reconcile this but I don’t want you dead… even if it helps my father… your life isn’t supposed to pay for his mistakes – ”
“How long do we have before everything sets into motion?”
She wiped at her nose.
“I told him that I would convince you to meet with him. He plans to ambush you. I told him that you might not want to meet with him, on his turf, however. From there I don’t know. He does have someone watching my house though. To make sure I don’t decide to skip town,” she said bitterly. “They also… they took my father. For insurance.”
I didn’t know what to say. This was a lot for her. It was enough that she had gotten involved with this mess to begin with. That she had had to turn to me and my money to fix her father’s problems with the Lorenzo’s. If it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t be going through this.
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