“Has it?”
“Fuck, woman. Then your boots stretching all the way up your silky thighs. Had me crazed tonight, sweetheart.” He whispers huskily in my ear. “Well played.”
He lowers me onto the bed and I sink into the soft, red sheets. I shift around and start to get onto my knees, into the submissive position he always likes me to be in when we start to play.
He stops me with his hands on my shoulders. “No, sweetheart.”
I frown in confusion.
“No play. No toys. No games. It’s just us tonight.”
Oh.
I watch as he slides off his cut and carefully hangs it off the back of one of my beige armchairs in the seating area over on the other side of the room. His gray, ribbed t-shirt is next.
Transfixed by him baring his body, bit by bit, I lean back on my hands and enjoy the view.
Mmm. He’s so incredibly built. All hard muscle. Those abs of his are begging to be licked. He’s like an old school warrior with nipple rings and tattoos from head-to-toe. From his lower belly, his arms, the entire surface of his back, right up to the top of his neck. The only ink I have is a tiny tattoo on my ankle of angel wings with the words C’est La Vie in between them. I don’t have any piercings beyond the one in each ear either.
He comes to the bed, eyeing me expectantly as he reaches for his belt. He wants me to join him.
I start unzipping my boots and sliding them off as he slowly unbuckles his belt, putting on a teasing show for me. I think about doing an actual strip show for him. I’m trained, after all. But that sickening feeling rises up within me. I can’t. I blink away the awful memories trying to take me over.
“Hal?” he calls, worriedly. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Fine. I’m fine,” I say, smiling up at him as I finish kicking my boots off.
Next, I pull my dress over my head. By then, his jeans are off and we’re both only in our underwear.
He climbs onto the bed, his body covering mine.
Shocking me, he cups my face in his hands and breathes, “So beautiful. So perfect.”
He leans down and presses his lips to mine, taking me in a soft, slow kiss. I sink into it, tilting my head back to receive him better. I part my lips as he teases my lips, his tongue gliding over mine, moving in a sensual dance that has me moaning out from the glorious feel of it. It’s so soft and tender, something I’m not used to from him.
I lose myself to it, running my fingers up and down his back, needing to feel him, needing more of him, all of him.
His hands leave my face and cup my boobs over my bra. He pulls the cups down, freeing them so he can tweak my nipples. It has me writhing. I buck my hips, rubbing my pussy against his hard cock.
He breaks our kiss and grunts as I get rougher, wilder.
“Yeah, I gotta have you right now too, Hal.”
He grabs my panties, fisting them in one hand. I cry out in surprise as he rips them from me with a rough tug of strength.
I watch him push his boxers down.
And then, he’s suddenly in me.
“Oh God!” He fills me in one sudden thrust, right to the hilt.
He stills to let me adjust, smirking. “Sorry ˈbout the panties. I’ll buy you more.”
I chuckle. “Couldn’t wait, huh?”
“Fuck, no.”
A thrill runs through me, knowing how desperate he gets for me. The feeling’s more than mutual.
I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck, drawing his lips back to mine. The second they brush, he starts to move inside me.
Once again, it’s different than the way we usually do it. Gentle. Slow and steady.
It has me opening my eyes as we kiss. His are open, too. He’s gazing at me intensely.
I can feel the emotion from him, feel the depth of the connection between us. It’s amazing. Overwhelming, actually. It takes me over and I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to blink away tears.
I deepen our kiss, savouring the taste and feel of him.
I clench his dick tightly with my pelvic muscles.
It has him breaking our kiss and gasping, “Fuck, Hal. Fuck.”
I smile up at him, doing it again, making him throw his head back in ecstasy.
He shifts his weight and angles his dick inside me. I scream as he hits my G-spot. Over and over. “Yes! So good! Yes, Smiter!”
“That’s right. Scream for me, Hal. Scream my fucking name.”
He grabs my hands, his fingers weaving with mine. He eases them up above my head.
Then, he starts thrusting faster, harder, and jerking me up the bed. I can’t stop the screams from ripping from my throat.
I watch the stiff set of his jaw, his entire body in a tense state, his eyes narrowed and set in concentration. He’s right on the edge, waiting for me, before he lets go.
He grinds against my pussy, before thrusting deep again.
Grind. Thrust. Grind. Thrust.
“Fuck,” he rasps. “Halle.”
The growls and grunts he makes are the final straw. His next thrust sends me hurtling over the edge into absolute pleasure. “Smiter!” I shriek. “Fuck! Yes!”
He pounds into me even harder, like a vibrating force.
His grip tightens on my hands and his entire body jerks as he grunts out a curse, finally letting go inside me.
I throw my head back against the bed as I catch my breath, completely spent.
He releases my hands and rests his head on my shoulder.
That’s when I realize something. “Smiter?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?” he answers, breathless.
“You’re still clean, right? I am. I’ve only been sleeping with you. You too, right?”
He lifts his head and looks down at me. “Yeah. Why?”
“No club whores? Seriously? We weren’t exclusive.”
“Yeah, I swear. No other woman, but you. What do I need that for?”
Aww. “Okay, it’s all good then.”
“What is?”
“You didn’t wrap it up.”
He pushes off me abruptly. “What? What the hell?”
I sit up with him. “Smiter, it’s all okay.” I reach for him, but he pulls back.
“I’m sorry, Hal. Ain’t never fucked up like that before.”
“It’s fine.”
“You ain’t on the pill, so how’s it fine?”
I don’t want to explain. It’ll ruin what we just shared tonight. But, seeing as though we’re going to take this thing between us to the next level now, he has a right to know. I just really don’t want to tell him. I hate talking about it. I hate thinking about it.
He climbs off the bed and pulls on his boxers. “I’m gonna head down to one of ˈem twenty-four-hour pharmacies and get you the morning-after pill. Won’t be long.”
“Smiter, no. Stop. Please.”
He frowns at me. A moment later, his expression turns wary. “Hal, I don’t want kids. That ain’t an option. I mean, I know we’re tryinˈ to be more than fuck buddies here, but that’s way too—”
“You don’t want kids?”
“No. Never have. Never will. Ain’t my scene.”
“Wow. Okay, I had no idea.”
He looks away, seeming really uncomfortable. “Gonna be a problem, ain’t it?”
“What?”
“All women want kids.” Wow, that’s one hell of an assumption. “It’s a deal breaker, ain’t it?” He looks so worried.
“It… uh… it actually works out well.”
He cocks an eyebrow.
I draw in a deep breath. I need to do this. I have to. “I can’t have kids.”
He stares at me for a while, his mouth agape.
“Smiter?” I press, needing to know how he’s taking my revelation.
He comes back to me, sitting on the edge of the bed. “How the hell ain’t we talked ˈbout none of this stuff before?”
I shrug. “We were just fucking.”
“Nah, we’ve had a good friendship going,
too. We’ve talked ˈbout a load of stuff. We know each other real well.” He shakes his head. “I mean, I thought we did.”
“I’m sorry. I thought this sort of thing would freak you out.”
He takes my hand in his and squeezes it gently. “Mind telling me what happened?”
“I… I had an abortion. The clinic I went to botched it really bad. It’s a long story, but it basically means I can’t bear a child now.”
He rubs my hand. “I’m so sorry, Hal.”
I shake my head and shrug, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. It sounds like a big deal to him, because he’s hearing it for the first time. I mean, of course it is actually a big deal. But, it’s just that I’ve lived with the knowledge of it for years now. I’ve learned to accept it.
“An abortion, Hal?” he says, eyeing me expectantly, wanting to know more.
He’s going to freak out. I don’t want that. But, he’s as stubborn as me. I know he won’t drop it until I tell him what happened. “Smiter, keep in mind that it was a long time ago.”
He tenses. Great. It’s like he’s getting ready to freak out.
I look down at the duvet, running my free hand absently over the silkiness of it to try to distract myself somewhat, as I utter the words I can barely even think at the best of times, let alone vocalize. “I was raped.”
I feel his hand flinch.
Slowly, I look up at him, bracing myself for what I’m going to find.
To my astonishment, there’s no trace of anger. No fearsome rage. Just pain.
My chest tightens at witnessing such raw and exposed emotion from him.
“Halle,” he says, his voice breaking. He wraps me up in his arms, holding me tightly, protectively. “I’m real sorry.”
“It was a long time ago. Not all clubs are as nice, or as safe as mine.”
He jerks back. “Went down at a strip club?”
“Yeah. I don’t know if you remember, because it was when you were drunk, but I told you I was a stripper.”
“I remember that, yeah.” Realization flashes on his face. “That’s why you weren’t up for the lap dance?”
I nod.
“Shit, Hal. If I woulda known, I never woulda—”
“Smiter, it’s all good. It was so long ago. I’m over it.”
I see him hesitating on saying something.
“Spit it out,” I encourage him. “Seriously, it’s fine.”
“After that, why stay in the same business, building Temptress?”
“Good question. For one, it was all that I knew at the time. But, the main reason? I didn’t want to let what happened take control of me, so building the club, owning my own one and doing it all my own way, was kind of my attempt at taking control of it, rather than letting it take control of me.”
He smiles and nuzzles my hair. “That’s amazing, Hal.”
“Thanks.”
A long silence falls between us. It’s not uncomfortable, or awkward. It’s just peaceful.
I know he’s trying to absorb the weight of what I’ve told him, while I’m trying to push it back out of my mind again.
“I’m gonna need a name, Hal,” he says suddenly.
I shake my head. “It’s over and done with.”
“Ain’t gonna accept that,” he growls.
“Smiter—”
“Hal, just let me—”
“What? Kill him? Isn’t your club legit now?”
His eyes narrow. “I’ll make an exception.”
“No. It’s over, Smiter. Trust me.” I pull away and climb off the bed. I walk over to the back of the bedroom door and grab my white cotton bathrobe off the hook. I slip it on and tie the belt.
“Over? He in jail then?”
I shake my head.
“How the hell’s it over then?”
I run my fingers through my mussed-up hair, mussing it up even more in my distress. “He’s dead, okay? He’s dead.”
“Dead? You’re sure?”
“I should be. I saw it with my own eyes.”
He looks at me in disbelief. “You’re telling me you killed somebody?”
“You don’t think I could, is that it?”
“You don’t got that kinda darkness in you. That’s what I think, sweetheart.”
“You know what I do for a living, right? I’m with you, someone who I know has done that more than once. A man connected to a motorcycle club that has only recently started operating above board. I’m not innocent, Smiter. Not at all.”
He gets off the bed and walks over to me. “You want me believing you got that in you.”
“I… no.” Do I?
“Some sorta self-preservation having people thinking you’re that dark, capable of that kinda thing.”
“Maybe.”
He reaches out and strokes my cheek. “I get it, for real. But, you don’t gotta do that with me.”
Dammit. “It’s a reflex, I guess.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that.”
I pull back, as I fight myself to finally reveal, “He was killed by a bouncer at the club I was working at back then. It was an accident. He…uh… he came in again, shortly after… what he did to me.”
“Fucking psycho.”
“Yeah, he was. He thought he had some kind of claim on me, after what’d happened. He tried to get my address from the club owner, but he refused. He managed to get my home phone number, though. The owner swore it wasn’t from him. I wasn’t unlisted then, so it wouldn’t have been that difficult. Anyway, I started getting creepy calls from him for a while. Then they abruptly stopped. The next thing I knew, he was trying to get to me at the club. The night of his death, I was headed to my car when he showed up in the parking lot. He was crazed and drunk. I think he was probably high, too, given how insane he was. He came at me with a blade. I was really lucky that the bouncer was still there. He saved my life. In the struggle, the blade ended up in that bastard. He died on the way to the hospital.”
He strokes my hair. “Sorry you had to go through all that, sweetheart.”
“Only Rox knows. Nobody else, okay?”
“Stays between us. You got my word.”
“Can we go to bed now?”
“Yeah.” He sweeps me up into his arms and carries me to the bed. Then, he tucks me into bed.
“Aww.”
He pulls the duvet up to my chin, smiling. “Didn’t know I had a sweet side?”
“I might have suspected it.”
“Hey,” he says, settling in beside me. “I was joking. Shown you my sweet side before, woman.”
“Yeah, you have,” I admit. “Maybe if you play your cards right, you might see mine.”
He laughs and sidles close to me, holding me close. “Oh, Hal. I’ve already seen yours, too. You got this real hard outer shell, but you’re the sweetest girl I’ve ever known underneath all that.”
“Uh oh,” I say, sinking into him.
He moans happily and then whispers in my ear, “Don’t worry. That’s another thing that’s gonna stay just between us, sweet Halle.”
I turn into him, resting my head against his chest. He tightens his hold around me.
I close my eyes and sleep finds me quickly.
Chapter 9
~Smiter~
I watch Halle saunter outta the bedroom, her mouth open wide, as she lets out a real unladylike yawn that has me chuckling. The things people do when they dunno somebody’s watching. It’s real fucking amusing.
She freezes at the sound of my laugh and jerks her head my way. “Uh… hi.”
Her reaction tells me she weren’t trusting what I’d promised her last night. “Didn’t think I’d really be here, huh? Thought I was still gonna sneak out?”
“I wasn’t sure,” she admits, looking all sheepish.
She makes her way over, her hips swaying in that sexy way that gets my cock hard in an instant. She ain’t all doled up yet, but the sight of her in just my t-shirt might be even sexier than her put-together look. And, h
ell, it’s kinda cute. Color me real confused. I ain’t never known sexy and cute to go together. It’s usually one or the other. But here Hal is making my cock hard and ready for her, yet, also hitting me with this need to hold her real close and take care of her.
She reaches me up at the breakfast bar, where I’m chilling and downing a coffee. She trails her hand lightly over my shoulder and across my naked back as she passes by me. I groan at the sweet feel of her fingers on me. Woman’s got a real soothing touch that fires me up good.
“I see you’re making yourself at home,” she calls over her shoulder, as she grabs a mug off the counter and starts making herself a coffee.
“I was gonna cook breakfast, but there weren’t nothing in your kitchen to work with.”
Her mug in hand, she takes a sip, eyeing me in surprise over the rim. “You can cook?”
“One of my talents, sweetheart. I got lots.”
“Oh, I know, baby.”
“So, you forgot to go grocery shopping, or what?” I ask, tryinˈ to sound casual ˈbout it. Really, I’m fishing. I’m tryinˈ to figure out what’s up with her. First that comment ˈbout not filling up on gas to save money, now her fridge and cupboards being bare. Something’s up. I got a sinking feeling it’s way worse than she’s letting on. But, Hal’s proud. She ain’t just gonna come on out and say it, if I get in her face ˈbout it. I gotta be casual and offhand, like I ain’t tryinˈ to find nothing out.
She turns away and opens the fridge. “Pretty much. I’ve just been busy with Temptress,” she says, grabbing a pizza box outta it and bringing it over to the breakfast bar. It’s ˈbout the only thing I did see in there. I know right off the bat that she’s lying ˈbout being busy. Temptress has been closing way earlier than normal lately.
She slaps the box down in front of me and slides onto the stool next to me.
“Leftover pizza is fine for breakfast once in a while,” she says.
“Left over from when?” I tease her, cuz I can already see it looks good. Half a pepperoni pizza that don’t look more than a day old.
As I grab a slice and take a bite, she answers, “Two weeks at the most.”
I swallow and give her a look. “Mean, Hal. Real mean tryinˈ to poison the guy who gave you such a good fucking last night.”
“Wow,” she says, after swallowing a bite from another slice. “You have such a way with words. A real Prince Charming, aren’t you?”
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