by M. S. Parker
I straightened my spine instead of curling into a ball like I wanted to. “That was a one-time thing. He’s not going to pay that much for me again.”
“Maybe someone else will,” Fernando said, moving into my personal space. “Or you could fuck me. That’s always on the table.”
I shook my head. “You agreed that if I could make my payments on time, I wouldn’t have to…do anything else.”
“Are you going to make this one?”
He knew that without a second job, I wouldn’t be able to make it, and it was just a question of when he was going to call me on it.
“If you won’t make it up on the stage or on your back, there is another option.”
Whatever he was going to say wouldn’t be good, but I listened anyway. What other choice did I have?
“I recently had a couple employees…quit on me. I need someone to take their place.” He laughed, clearly enjoying the look of horror I knew was on my face at his words. “Don’t worry. It ain’t fucking. Just making a couple deliveries for me. You go when I say, and we’ll be square each week. Whaddya say?”
My choices were limited, and he knew it.
“All right,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
Nineteen
Slade
I couldn’t take another day like the last few had been. I’d been trying to get a case going on Fernando, but I kept hitting dead ends. Everyone I talked to agreed that he was a bad guy, but somehow, he’d managed to keep himself clean. Mostly because he had no problem ‘disappearing’ people.
This was more than my usual enthusiasm for the work, and I had a feeling my friends knew it. They didn’t, however, know why. I’d managed to keep any of them from realizing how on point Neely’s comments about ‘the pink-haired waitress’ were.
The thing was, even with me working my ass off, I couldn’t stop thinking about Cheyenne. I hadn’t talked to her since I dropped her off Sunday morning, and it was killing me not knowing what was happening. I’d promised her that I wouldn’t let Fernando hurt her, and every day he was still on the street was one more day he could do something to her.
I couldn’t sleep either, and that wasn’t helping matters. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her, heard her. My dreams were full of her. Tonight, I’d had enough. I had to see her again, see that Fernando hadn’t done anything to her.
Which was how I found myself sitting outside her building, waiting for her to get home from work. And when I saw her, I told myself that I just needed to talk to her, make sure she was okay after we’d slept together. I should’ve checked in with her sooner. It was the right thing to do, even if I’d never done it with any other one-night stand. But she wasn’t just any other one-night stand, no matter how much I tried to tell myself otherwise.
“Cheyenne,” I said her name as I crossed the street, not wanting to startle her.
“Slade?” She looked surprised to see me, but not angry, so that was good. “What are you doing here?”
I opened the door to her building, frowning as I realized how easy it was to get inside. “That’s not very safe.”
She rolled her eyes and started up the stairs. “That’s what door locks are for.”
“You trust some cheap apartment door locks?”
She stopped two steps above me, putting her close to my height. “I don’t really have a choice in the matter. I can barely make ends meet as it is.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have said that. I just want you to be safe.”
“Apology accepted,” she said slowly. “You do know that I don’t expect anything of you, right? We had sex. That was it.”
I fisted my hands, so I wouldn’t reach for her. “What if I don’t want it to be it?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her eyes cutting away from mine.
“Look at me, Chey.”
It was a quiet command, but there was no doubt that’s what it was. After a moment, she obeyed.
“It means that I know you have to take care of your brother, but I want to know when I can be with you again.” I took a risk and put my hands on her hips. “I want another night.”
Her eyes met mine. “I do too.”
I hadn’t realized how much I’d been waiting for her answer until the anxious tension in my body was replaced by a different sort of tension.
“I don’t have a lot of time,” she said. “Austin’s in the hospital. He was dehydrated, and they wanted to keep him overnight. I was just coming home to shower and grab a change of clothes before heading over there.” She leaned toward me ever so slightly. “You’re welcome to shower with me.”
I squeezed her hips. “Lead the way.”
As I followed her the rest of the way to her apartment, I tried not to think about anything else more than what I wanted to do with her in the shower. To her. We’d agreed on one more night, and I wasn’t going to push the matter. I was going to make the most of what time we had.
I followed her lead as we removed our shoes, waiting until we were in her bedroom before undressing the rest of the way. Neither of us said anything, and she didn’t even appear to be looking at me, but I took the time to absorb the sight of every inch of her, letting my eyes trace over the tattoo that covered almost her entire back. The trunk of the tree went up along her spine, and the branches moved out over her shoulder blades. Falling leaves completed the picture.
I snagged a condom from my pants pocket, palming it as I followed her across the hall and into the bathroom. Or partway into the bathroom anyway.
I paused in the doorway, eyebrows raised. “Are you expecting some sort of gymnastic positions?”
She turned, a smile on her face, her eyes dancing. “Are you saying you’re not up to the challenge?”
I reached down and fisted my half-hard cock. Her teasing tone twisted that primal part of me that needed something more than vanilla sex.
“Darlin’, you’re pushing all the wrong buttons if you want me to be gentle.” I purposefully drawled the first word.
Heat blazed in her eyes. “What if I don’t want you to be gentle?”
A single step took me right up to her. “Be careful, Chey. You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Then show me.”
I caught her chin, tipping her head back until I could see her face again. “Do you trust me?”
She didn’t answer right away, and I wasn’t sure I would’ve believed her if she had. She wasn’t naïve, but I knew she didn’t completely understand what I wanted.
“I do,” she said finally. Her expression was serious as she put her hand on my chest. “Can you make me forget everything, just for a while?”
I put my hand on hers. “I can.”
“Please do it.”
I reached down and palmed her bare ass as I pulled her right up against me. I dug my fingers into the firm flesh even as my cock rubbed against her flat belly. I wanted her so badly that it hurt, and I knew our time was limited, but I wasn’t going to skip this part. She needed to understand a little bit more before I gave in and did what I’d been wanting to do to her for what seemed like forever.
“Do you remember the first thing I said to you that night, the thing that I said I would need you to do?”
After a moment, she nodded. “Communicate.”
“That’s just as important now as it was then,” I said, “because there’s a part of me I held back before, but that I want to show you now.”
“Okay.”
There wasn’t really any way to say it but to just come out with it. “I’m a sadist. More or less.”
She pulled back enough to give a little distance between our bodies, but she didn’t move completely away. Her expression was wary, but not frightened. “What exactly does that mean?”
“I enjoy causing pain.” I couldn’t sugarcoat it, no matter how badly I wanted her to agree to try.
I kept my eyes locked on hers as I gripped her hair, wrapping it around
my hand. I pulled slowly, hard enough to hurt, but not viciously. Her breath caught, but she didn’t tell me to stop.
“It’s always safe and consensual,” I continued. “I don’t get off causing damage or ‘forgetting’ to stop when a safe word is used. But punishments, limit testing, the line between pain and pleasure…”
She reached up and ran her finger along her earrings, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I think that’s something I might like to explore.”
I released her hair and cupped her breasts, rubbing my thumbs across her nipples. “Have you ever thought about other piercings?”
Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. “I’d have to find someone I trusted enough to do it.”
I frowned. “I don’t like the idea of some random man having his hands on you.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
That wasn’t the direction I wanted this conversation to go…or my thoughts. Possessiveness within a sexual encounter was one thing. Moving it to regular life was something else entirely.
I pinched her nipples, and she gasped. Time to get things back on track.
“Choose a safe word,” I said. “Something you’ll remember, but not something you could accidentally say.”
She thought for a moment. “Blue.”
“Blue it is.”
I leaned down and kissed her, biting her bottom lip until she started to squirm. It was red and swollen when I finally released it, and I knew there was only one way to start things.
“On your knees,” I ordered.
To her credit, she didn’t even blink as she went down. I waited to see what she would do, and I wasn’t disappointed. I let out a hiss as she wrapped her hand around my cock, her touch softer than I’d imagined. Then she opened her mouth and got to work.
Twenty
Cheyenne
I’d never really understood the jokes Resa had made about her jaw aching until this moment. My mouth was open as wide as possible, and I still couldn’t take all of him. I ran my tongue over every inch I could reach though, enjoying the sounds he made as much as the taste of him.
Then his hand was on the back of my head, and I knew things were about to change.
“If it’s too much, snap your fingers,” he said, his voice hoarse.
He dug his fingers into my hair, pulling the roots hard enough to bring tears to my eyes, and I knew he was testing me to see just how far I was willing to go. The answer was simple…as far as he wanted me to. He’d protected me from strangers, and then from Fernando, in more ways than one. He might hurt me, but he’d never hurt me.
His eyes stayed on mine as he pushed his cock between my lips, sliding it over my tongue, getting closer to the back of my throat with every passing moment. I fought the urge to gag, my hands grabbing his thighs, nails digging in. Just when I thought I couldn’t stand it a second longer, he eased back. He gave me a moment, gasping and coughing, and then applied the pressure again.
His muscles flexed under my hands, and I could feel the depth of the power he was holding back. But I had power too. I felt it when I sucked and licked and teased. He was strong enough to take what he wanted, but only I could give it to him.
“I’m going to come,” he said, the words forced out between gritted teeth. “Do you want it in your mouth, on your face, or on your tits?”
I leaned forward, tightening my lips around his cock until he groaned and pushed forward. For a few seconds, I couldn’t breathe, and then he was coming, his hand sliding from my hair and giving me the control I needed to swallow his every last drop.
When he finally slid out of my mouth, I knew I wanted to do that again.
My knees ached as he pulled me to my feet, and my throat felt rough, but all of that was in the background as he helped me to my feet. Anticipation had my body on overdrive, wondering what came next.
He turned me toward the sink, and I put my hands on the edge. He ran his hand down my spine, his fingers tracing my tattoo before dropping between my legs.
Such talented fingers.
They rubbed my clit, then one slid into my pussy. Two strokes, and then he repeated the pattern over and over until my pulse was racing and I was ready to come.
“Not yet,” he cautioned.
A single finger moved higher, then pressed against my ass. I sucked in a breath, instinctively tensing up.
“Relax,” he said, his voice low, nearly a growl.
My muscles refused to unclench, but I wasn’t willing to use my safe word. I wanted to know what he would do now.
His hand disappeared, and then came down with a hard crack on my ass.
“Fuck!” I yelped, jerking upright.
“Down,” he growled.
I glared at him but bent back over the sink. The second blow didn’t catch me off guard, but it still hurt. Not bad enough to stop him, but enough that I tensed again.
“I’m going to keep doing this until you relax,” he warned. “You might want to think about how much you want it to hurt when you’re sitting all night.”
Shit. He was right.
“I don’t know if I can,” I admitted.
He bent his head and brushed his lips across my shoulder. “Breathe. Give in to it. Feel it.”
I didn’t think I really had much of a choice in the feel it area. My ass felt like it was on fire.
Then he started spanking me again, and I knew that I hadn’t felt anything yet.
I closed my eyes, trying to do what he’d told me to do. To give in and breathe and feel and breathe and feel…
Five.
Six.
Breathe and feel and give…
Nine.
Ten.
Tears ran down my cheeks, but I was barely aware of them. Something in my mind had shifted. I felt the heat and the sting from the spanking, but it had done what I hadn’t been able to do on my own.
I was relaxed.
This time, when Slade’s finger returned to that tight ring of muscle, I was ready. I made an inarticulate sound as he pushed his finger into my ass. He moved it slowly at first, then faster as his free hand went to my breast, pinching and twisting my nipples until I could barely stand.
I’d gotten myself off before, but this was different. I was on the verge of coming from sensations that shouldn’t have been pleasurable. Except they were. And some part of me had to have known. Getting tattooed and pierced had always given me a thrill I hadn’t thought too hard about. The same thrill I felt now as conflicting sensations warred.
“Please please please please ple–”
I wasn’t even aware that I was begging until I stopped, the final word breaking off into a half-scream. He caught me around my waist as my knees gave out, holding me there for a moment before swinging me up into his arms. I kept my eyes closed as I rested my head on his chest.
I couldn’t even explain how badly I’d needed that, because I didn’t fully understand it myself. All I knew for certain was that Slade had unlocked something.
I heard the familiar squeak and creak, quickly followed by water. I’d almost forgotten I’d come in here to shower.
“I need to put you down now,” he said. “Unless you still want me getting in the shower with you.”
I raised my head and stared at him, confused. “Why wouldn’t you be? Don’t you want to…?”
He smiled the sort of slow, smoldering smile that should’ve been illegal. “Does that mean I didn’t take things too far?”
I shook my head. “I just needed some recovery time.”
“Good, because my dick was going to rebel if it didn’t get inside you.” He turned back toward the sink. “Where’d the damn condom go?”
I was about to tell him that I’d been on the pill since I was thirteen because my mom had been terrified of becoming a grandmother before she was thirty, but then I remembered that even though I trusted Slade, I had to think about what was best for Austin. I couldn’t take that risk, no matter how much I wanted to feel him skin to skin.
He set me on my feet, and I climbed into the shower while he took care of the protection. He joined me a few seconds later, the look in his eyes enough to make my stomach clench. Without a word, he picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. I had a moment to feel cool tile against my back, and then he was slamming up into me, and I couldn’t feel anything else.
Not even Austin feeling better, or the memory of the toe-curling orgasms Slade had given me, could make today any better. I normally hated working Friday nights because the guys tended to be more handsy than any other time of the week, but tonight was going to be worse because Fernando had a job for me to do. Sure, it was better than stripping or fucking, but that didn’t make it any less illegal.
“You can still change your mind,” Fernando said with a familiar lecherous smirk. “Some girls prefer to work off their debts and get their jollies at the same time.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I’d seen him sell that bullshit to my mother, but I could never talk to him like that. Not if he still had that debt to hang over my head. A part of me wondered if he’d give me up even then, but I didn’t listen to that part. I couldn’t, not if I wanted to stay sane.
I held out my hand. “Where am I going?”
He dropped the handles of the bag onto my arm and rattled off an address not too far from where I lived. I’d known that the neighborhood was iffy, but I hated knowing he had ‘business’ that close to where Austin and I slept.
“Ask for Seleste. Don’t give that to nobody but her,” he said. “If it gets lost, it’s your ass.” His eyes narrowed. “Literally.”
It probably wasn’t the smartest thing, taking the bus with a bag full of drugs, but I didn’t really have much in the way of alternate options. By the time I got off at my stop, my nerves were frayed, and I just wanted this to be over. I knew I had to go back to DDD for the rest of my shift, but even that was more appealing than being out here any longer than necessary.
The house I found looked like every other one on the street – nice, if a little run down – but as soon as the door opened, I knew it wasn’t a nice family of drug dealers who lived here.