Explicit Memory

by Scarlett Finn

  ‘I want to hear everything that happened.’

  ‘I thought you were going out.’

  ‘I am,’ he said. ‘When I get back, we’re going to talk about it, ok?’

  ‘They threatened Tawny,’ she admitted.

  That was the kind of news that wouldn’t wait, because if anything happened to the girl and Flick hadn’t said anything to Rushe, then she would never forgive herself.

  ‘They what?’

  ‘Someone here is watching us,’ she said. ‘Antoine knew that... you hadn’t been sharing my bed.’

  Rushe pulled back, and Flick opened her eyes to witness his deepening frown. ‘Why were you talking about our bed?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Flick said. ‘We can discuss the details later. But I wanted you to know that someone here is reporting back. Maybe you already know who it is, I know you know more about what’s going on here than I do. But I wanted you to know I knew, just in case. And Tawny should be careful—‘

  ‘Tawn will be fine here.’

  ‘Ok,’ she said. ‘I don’t doubt your ability to keep her safe. They think that you’re sleeping with her, that you’ve chosen her over me.’

  ‘What the fuck—‘

  ‘Hey!’ Flick said, locking her arms around his neck to prevent him from leaving his position on top of her when he tried to. ‘I’m telling you so that you know what they know, or what they think they do.’

  ‘They think I’m screwing around on you?’

  ‘I don’t care what they think.’

  ‘What the hell right does that fucking—‘

  ‘Don’t get riled,’ she said, lifting her head to kiss his jaw. She dragged her teeth on his stubble and lapped out at his bottom lip. ‘I missed you so much. You and your mouth.’

  When Flick urged his face downward she knew he complied reluctantly, but on pressing her lips to his she sucked his lip enough to make him open to her, and when she traced her tongue on his, Rushe’s body began to relax.

  Flick concentrated on every crevice of his mouth, tasting and tickling him slowly. Letting her legs part further, she brought them higher until she very gently wound them around his hips, hoping that the gradual action wouldn’t register to him, and that she could lull him back to calm.

  ‘I wanna take my time, Kit,’ he murmured, bracing himself above her but sliding a hand from one knee to her ass. ‘I don’t wanna fuck you fast now. I wanna take my time.’

  ‘Ok, Lover.’

  ‘I’ll wake you up when I get back?’

  Flick nodded, and he kissed her again. She let her arms drop away when he tried to shift, but her legs stayed in place, which brought him back to her with a smile.

  ‘Problem?’ she asked with a grin, and he snagged her lip in his teeth.

  ‘You’d give me room if I told you I was getting my dick out.’

  She laughed. ‘Yes, I would. Right now he likes being where he is.’

  ‘And he’ll be back there soon. But you’ve gotta let me go now.’

  As she relaxed and let his weight depart from hers the chill that took his place sank into her bones, because that last sentence was exactly what Flick was afraid of.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It turned out that a night with Rushe was exactly what the doctor ordered. The outcome of her refusal of Antoine’s request was still unknown, and the uncertainty plagued her. Still conflicted over what had happened at her parents’ house, Flick hadn’t got into specifics with Rushe. Neither of them had much inclination toward talking when Rushe had returned to her bed.

  Her love had kissed every inch of her and made long, slow love to her for hours, until her mind cleared itself of the turmoil he didn’t know that she struggled with. They couldn’t have fallen asleep more than three hours earlier, but Flick was invigorated this morning despite the lack of sleep.

  Getting down and depressed about what was going on wouldn’t help any of them. Today was a new day, and she was going to be proactive and make a difference, no matter how small.

  After climbing out of the shower and brushing her hair dry with the blow dryer in the bathroom, she went back to the bedroom entirely naked and grinned at the sight of her man, naked and face down on the bed, snoozing in innocent bliss.

  No one could take this away from them. This man had expanded her world and opened up to her when he’d never trusted another soul. He trusted her. Flick had spent her childhood being overshadowed by her sisters, and she’d never been good enough for her parents, she’d always fallen short. But not to Rushe, she’d never understood his commitment and loyalty to her, but both were irrefutable.

  Bounding over to the bed, Flick exaggerated the bounce as she crawled toward him on her knees. With a few more bobs on the mattress, she heard him mutter.

  ‘Roll over,’ Flick said, slapping her hands to his shoulder blades, and throwing a leg over his waist.

  ‘I’m sleeping,’ Rushe grumbled into the pillow.

  ‘I can see that,’ Flick said. ‘Roll over.’

  Digging her fingers into his flesh, she massaged her hands up to his neck and across his shoulders.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Don’t be finicky,’ she said. ‘He wants to play with me.’

  ‘He doesn’t,’ Rushe mumbled.

  Tilting her hips forward, and then dragging them lower, Flick ground her clit down against his spine. She sagged down on him to push her naked breasts into his back. ‘I get to play with him anytime I want to,’ she said, licking the nape of his neck and further down his back as she worked her way lower until her pelvis rested in the dip of his lower back.

  ‘You gotta work for it, Kitten.’

  ‘I’ll work, I’ll work. I’ll do all the work.’ Kissing the breadth of him, she wriggled deeper. ‘Please roll over, Lover.’

  He loved to tease her, and over the months as he’d relaxed into the security of their love he’d gotten better at it. Part of her role in the relationship was to lighten the mood, and he needed a friend, a playmate, because he’d never had one before. She wanted to fulfil every role in his life that he’d been deprived the pleasure of.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Ok,’ she said, undeterred.

  Flipping her form away from his, she could almost feel his interest being roused. She knew if she looked at his face his eyebrow would be up, though his eyes remained closed. But keeping him guessing stimulated her too. Crawling up the bed, she sucked his earlobe into her mouth, and then whispered into his ear, so close that her lips touched the rim of his ear canal.

  ‘Your dick’s not the only part of you capable of pleasuring me,’ she breathed.

  While ensuring her breasts remained on either side of his bicep, she slid her fingertips downward, scarcely touching so much as the hair on his forearm until she lifted his wrist. Shifting onto her back, Flick pressed his arm into her cleavage while her hands took control of his. Resting the heel of his hand on her pubis, she opened her legs, and draping one leg over his butt, she then spread his fingers against her.

  ‘Feel how wet I am?’ she murmured, slipping her fingers between his. Taking control of two of his fingers, she rubbed them up and down her clit, pushing her hips up and his hand down at the same time.

  ‘Flick your own clit,’ he said, though his arm remained loose and his hand in her power. ‘What do you need to get me juiced up for?’

  ‘This,’ she sighed out. Elevating her hips, she pressed her finger the length of his, and urged his digit inside her.

  Her own finger remained on top of his as she wriggled deeper with the two digits acting as one. He didn’t move or make a sound, but his chest vibrated and Flick smiled, undulating up and down against their joint invasion. The tip of his finger twitched against her g-spot, and she gasped. His cool, unaffected act wasn’t going to last much longer, but she wanted to push him harder.

  Whipping his hand down, she spun to her side, pressing her body to his and bringing his hand up between them, still cradled in both of hers.

 
‘I taste good,’ she said, smudging his bottom lip with his moist finger, then dipping her head in to kiss his lips with their fingertips still trapped between them. Then sucking his finger into her own mouth she groaned out, and his face relaxed into a smile before he very deliberately licked his lips, still though, his eyes stayed shut.

  ‘You’re one dirty, fucking ‘ho.’

  ‘I know,’ she purred, rolling to her back while embracing his arm as she ran her tongue the length of his digit.

  The ease was erased in a cascade of snow when she saw a figure in the doorway, watching them.

  ‘Rushe,’ she gasped, and immediately pounced off the bed. Rushe was already up and off the bed behind her, but she noted that he stopped as soon as he registered what she’d seen.

  ‘Missed my invite to this party.’ The figure came into the light, and Flick recognised Silver, alone. He closed the door behind him, inviting himself into their shelter. ‘Love the tits; god was kind to you.’

  Flick grabbed Rushe’s tee-shirt from the back of the couch and pulled it on to cover her naked form. ‘They’re not for public consumption,’ she said.

  ‘You have nothing to worry about,’ Silver said, coming in closer. ‘But that’s enough to make a man fall to his knees and worship.’

  Glancing at Silver, Flick realised that he was looking at Rushe’s groin. Before she could process what that meant, Rushe’s hand landed on her hip and he tugged her body in front of his to protect himself from open view.

  ‘You know better than to fuck around with me,’ Rushe said.

  ‘If wishing made it so,’ Silver said, but lost interest and wandered around the end of the bed to the other side of it. ‘You’ve gotta split.’

  Flick couldn’t understand why this man, who wanted Rushe to settle his debt, was telling them to leave. If the debt was settled, Flick would have thought Rushe would have left straight away.

  ‘Got work to do,’ Rushe said. ‘I’m going nowhere.’

  ‘Leave your tits here if you want,’ Silver said, lifting his attention to the windows. Rushe reached past her to whip his jeans from the back of the couch and pull them on.

  ‘His tits go with him,’ Flick said, propping her fists on her hips.

  ‘I wouldn’t be mouthing off if I were you. You’re in enough trouble round here,’ Silver said. ‘I ain’t never had one of my girls shot before.’

  ‘I wasn’t holding the gun,’ Flick said, and Rushe’s hands landed on her shoulders.

  ‘They’ve got Tawn in their sights,’ Rushe said. ‘I can’t carry both of them alone.’

  ‘Not when they’re likely to kill each other... We’ll take care of them,’ Silver said. ‘They’re on you, man. Those guys were hanging around again last night, spooked Cody and the boys.’

  ‘Your minions come running to you scared, and that grants us an audience with the great Theo Silver?’ Flick asked.

  Silver smiled, a wide grin that showed his glowing white teeth. ‘She’s a firecracker.’

  ‘I’m not bailing, Silver,’ Rushe said, sliding a hand down her arm to take her hand and draw her back. He guided Flick’s body to behind his and stuck her hand in his back pocket.

  ‘You gotta run,’ Silver said. ‘They’ll get the drop on you when you don’t expect it. As long as you’re here, they know where to find you.’

  Silver couldn’t be keen on the idea of cops or the Merciers coming here in pursuit of Rushe or her. That was trouble that no lowlife criminal wanted on his doorstep.

  ‘I’m ready for them,’ Rushe said. ‘I know it’s coming.’

  ‘But you’ll stay here, protecting these ladies, until the last possible minute. What is wrong with you, dude? You’re gonna let them do it? No, you gotta run and keep on going, or they’ll put you away forever.’

  When Flick thought of Theo Silver she didn’t think of a kind man, and she certainly didn’t think of a chivalrous one. But this wasn’t an evil man intent on collecting a debt.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ Flick said, suddenly very aware that she didn’t have the full picture. Rushe had told her not to jump to conclusions but hadn’t gone on to lead her to any accurate ones.

  ‘Your boyfriend’s a wanted man, mixed up in some shady shit.’

  ‘She knows,’ Rushe said.

  Flick was taken aback by his honesty. It wasn’t normally their policy to advertise how open they were with each other, or how close they were. The women here, whom they’d been living with full-time, didn’t know for sure that she and Rushe were physical with each other, let alone intimate.

  ‘You weren’t kidding when you said she was your number two, were you?’ Silver said with a serving of incredulity.

  ‘No, I wasn’t.’

  Being dubbed Rushe’s second was so humbling that she was speechless. In addition, he’d done it to a third party, a stranger. For half a beat, she couldn’t grasp the concept at all, and then she was struck with confusion as to why Rushe would be so open with a man effectively holding them to ransom. Still, she edged in, propping her chest against him and allowing her lips to make contact with the back of Rushe’s arm.

  ‘We’ll look after her, man,’ Silver said. ‘You know we will.’

  She couldn’t imagine that Silver meant they would care for her in the same way that they did for Tawny, that Rushe would send money each month to secure Flick a place to stay here.

  ‘I won’t work for you,’ Flick said. ‘If you expect me to bend over for your clients—‘

  ‘You’re a queen, you could own this place here if the girls knew the truth,’ Silver said to her, as though Rushe wasn’t here at all. ‘Rushe ain’t never had a woman, not ever, not a regular one while he’s on a job. He’s worked for me before.’

  ‘She knows,’ Rushe said again.

  ‘She clearly don’t know everything, ‘cause she’s standing there looking at me like I’m the devil. You tell her my girls are here by choice? I look after these girls. I got respect for the girls in this line of work.’

  ‘Silver’s mom was an escort,’ Rushe said, still in front of Flick. ‘She was killed by a john when he was fourteen.’

  ‘I see what these women go through. My momma had no choice, and she raised me good. Taught me no drugs, no violence. Yeah, I get a cut for running this place, but my girls get a safe place to work, no danger here. I keep ‘em safe.’

  The ease between the men made more sense. They both had a lot of respect for women and seemed interested in protecting them when they were at their most vulnerable.

  ‘If you’re such a great guy, why force Rushe to be here? Force him to settle this debt?’

  ‘Your boy and I are playing them for fools. As long as they think we’re enemies, and that he don’t want to be here, the longer they’ll leave him here.’

  ‘You’re buying us time,’ Flick said. ‘But... why?’

  Rushe took her hand from its pouch as he backed up until he leaned on the back of the couch. He directed her hip into the vee of his thighs and draped his arms around her.

  ‘I came here to find Tawny, I told you that.’

  ‘I thought he was here to cause trouble,’ Silver said, dropping onto the bed and stretching his legs out as he propped himself up to sit against the wall. ‘We about near killed each other.’

  ‘He thought I was trying to muscle in on his territory, to take over,’ Rushe said. ‘I made it clear that Tawny was my only concern.’

  ‘Then he found out how we run things here.’

  Rushe must have realised that these women weren’t victimised, exploited, or abused. ‘So you came to the agreement about Tawny?’

  ‘After he tried to take her out and clean her up,’ Silver said. ‘Yeah. But she’s not level, that girl. Think she thought your man was her shining prince.’

  A burst of laughter bubbled from Flick’s chest, causing Rushe’s arms to clench around her, so she glanced up. ‘Sorry,’ she said, and brushed her cheek on his chest as he grazed his lips through her hair.

&
nbsp; ‘Took her time to realise Rushe wasn’t interested in love, wasn’t capable of it,’ Silver said. ‘Least that’s what we all thought.’

  ‘You know more than all of those women,’ Flick said. ‘More than the girls here... more than Tawny?’

  ‘Your secrets are safe,’ Silver said. ‘Your boy keeps mine.’

  The edge of Silver’s mouth crept upward and his eyes drifted downward to survey the couple, but Flick recognised that it wasn’t her figure the pimp was enjoying. Splaying her fingers on Rushe’s bare chest, Flick rested her face against the heat of his firm, muscular flesh.

  ‘Don’t worry, Lover. I’ll protect you.’

  Silver laughed, a warm but booming sound that actually set her at ease.

  ‘You two cut it out,’ Rushe said, turning his mouth down into her hair again.

  ‘You’ve got a hunk of man there, honey, if you ever feel like sharing...’

  ‘I’m the jealous type,’ Flick said. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Shame.’

  ‘Why don’t you tell—‘

  ‘I got enough guys coming in and out of my crew regular enough. If I get a reputation of being soft then maybe my girls don’t stay as safe.’

  ‘It’s rough around here,’ Rushe said. ‘Silver doesn’t always deal with the most understanding of guys.’

  ‘All this time I thought...’ Flick didn’t finish.

  ‘That I was an evil bastard,’ Silver said.

  ‘He likes people to think that,’ Rushe said. ‘He hams it up well.’

  ‘Would’ve figured you’d tell your lady about me,’ Silver said. ‘If she’s pissed off, she won’t suck your dick for a week... you’ve still got my number, right?’

  Flick heard the mischief in Silver’s voice and she wondered if Silver really meant what he said, or simply meant to make Rushe uncomfortable, which wasn’t an easy feat.

  ‘You better watch out, I can be scrappy,’ Flick said, twisting enough in Rushe’s arms to peek at a smiling Silver through her hair.

  ‘If you’ve got any influence over that man, you should be telling him to watch his ass,’ Silver said, getting up and strolling around the bed toward the couple. ‘We’ll watch yours here, ‘cause if Tawny ever finds out about this...’ His smile dissolved.