Fire & Brimstone: A Neighbor from Hell

by R. L. Mathewson

  Fucking hell.

  This was already getting complicated and there was nothing that he hated more than complicated. So, when she started walking by his side and stuck her hands in her back pockets he was relieved.

  To a point.

  “This place is gluten free,” he said, mostly to have something to say so that he could get his mind off how good it had felt to finally cup that beautiful ass in his hands.

  “It’s gluten free?” she asked as she worried her bottom lip, no doubt trying not to get her hopes up. “Are you sure?”

  “Since I helped build it, I’m pretty sure that it is,” he explained as they reached the front door.

  “Your family’s in construction, right?” she said, sounding a little nervous as he held the door open for her. She hesitated before throwing him a small smile and stepping inside.

  “Among other things,” he murmured as he followed her inside. “But, it’s the one thing that we all have in common.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, glancing around the small shop nervously.

  “Relax,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her forehead, because she looked like she could use a little support and not because it felt like an eternity since the last time he’d touched her. “Everything in here is safe for you to eat.”

  After a slight pause she nodded and ventured closer to the large menu posted on the wall. She stood there for several minutes, not saying anything as she took in what they had to offer.

  “What do you recommend?” she asked, chewing on her bottom lip as she started at the top of the menu and worked her way down again, obviously wary of her first real taste of gluten-free cooking.

  He hadn’t actually tried anything here, because of the obsession he had with dissecting recipes and recreating them for his restaurant, but his brothers had. As far as he knew they’d given every item on the menu the Bradford seal of approval so he pointed at the first item on the menu.

  “The baked macaroni and cheese is pretty good,” he said, praying that his brothers hadn’t made him a liar, otherwise he was going to have to hunt them down and beat the shit out of every last one of them.

  Chapter 19

  “Would you stop doing that?” Lucifer snapped as he was once again forced to pluck an ice cube out of his glass and place it on the back of his hand.

  “Probably not,” she said, taking her time to scoop up another spoonful of that delicious beef stew and dumplings that she’d let him talk her into ordering after she’d devoured the baked macaroni and cheese.

  “You could share,” he pointed out, on the verge of pouting as he sat there looking from his empty bowl to hers and then back again.

  “I could,” she agreed, pausing long enough so that she could enjoy that perfect spoonful of beef, gravy, vegetable and dumpling before adding, “but I’m not going to.”

  His eyes narrowed dangerously on her and she knew that look well enough to know that he was seriously considering stealing the rest of her food, but lucky for him, he didn’t try. She really hated the idea of sending him to the ICU after everything he’d done for her, but if he tried to steal another bite of her delicious food she wouldn’t have much of a choice.

  “You’re mean,” he grumbled, signaling to the waitress for another bowl.

  “Yup,” she agreed as she scooped up another spoonful, already planning on stealing his bowl of beef stew when it came, “that’s me.”

  “And it doesn’t bother you?” he asked with a curious tilt of his head as he studied her.

  “Not at all,” she said with a shake of her head as she reached for the hot roll that she’d noticed Lucifer eying. “Does it bother you that everyone thinks you’re an asshole?”

  He chuckled as he grabbed the roll before she could. “No.”

  “Seriously?” she asked, not because she didn’t believe him, because she did, but because she was honestly just curious.

  “Why would it bother me?” he asked with a careless shrug as he broke off a piece of his roll. He dipped it in her bowl and soaked up some of the gravy.

  “Because most people would have a problem with everyone believing that they’re an asshole,” she explained as she watched him.

  “Most people are fucking morons,” he said unapologetically as he took the bowl of stew from the stunned waitress, who practically ran away as soon as she placed an extra basket of freshly baked rolls on the table.

  “And why’s that?” she asked, grabbing a gluten free roll, still surprised at how good it tasted. It didn’t taste exactly like a regular roll, but it was close enough that she didn’t care.

  “Because they care what other people think,” he said as he stole the roll out of her hand.

  Sighing, she reached for another roll. “And you don’t?”

  “Not one fucking bit,” he said as he dug into his stew, leaving her to wonder how that must feel.

  It was definitely a tactic that could have come in handy for most of her life, she thought as she picked up her spoon and-

  “Did you want me to kill you?” the selfish bastard asked with a cold glare that had her sighing as she continued with her mission to steal a large chunk of dumpling out of his bowl.

  “Yeah, because you really scare me,” she said, making a show of stealing that large delicious bite of food and eating it all while keeping her eyes locked with his.

  A small smile touched his lips. “You’re not scared of me, are you?”

  “Not in the least,” she admitted with a wink as she put her spoon down, pushed her chair back and decided that it was time to check out the large selection of gluten free baked goods for dessert.

  So many pretties, she thought wistfully as she tried to decide between the cheesecake brownie that had caught her eye or the vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting.

  “Get it to go,” the harsh whisper teased her ear as she felt Lucifer’s arms wrap around her and pull her closer.

  She opened her mouth to ask him if something was wrong when she felt it, that very large and very hard bulge pressed against her lower back. She licked her lips as she tried to come up with a witty response, but all she could manage was a nod as Lucifer released his hold on her so that he could grab his wallet and pay the bill.

  As she stood there, waiting for the waitress to figure out what was wrong with the credit card reader, she couldn’t help but wonder if she should give him her two weeks notice before she pinned him to her bed and stripped him naked or after.

  *-*-*-*

  “Where are we?” she asked, breathing heavy as she finished climbing onto his lap and straddling him, barely giving him a chance to throw his truck in park.

  “Don’t know. Don’t fucking care,” he said, breathing just as heavy as he shifted them towards the middle of the seat and away from the steering wheel that had absolutely no chance of surviving this encounter.

  Although he couldn’t say with a hundred percent certainty, he was pretty sure that they’d made it to the Fire & Brimstone’s back parking lot before she’d stopped rubbing his cock through his jeans and started to climb onto his lap. He should put a stop to this and carry her inside where they could finish this in his bed, but that would mean that he had to stop kissing her and there was no fucking way that he was going to stop kissing her.

  The needy little moan that she made when she sat back on his legs only guaranteed that he wouldn’t be leaving this truck until he found out what other noises he could get out of her. He wouldn’t fuck her, not until she gave him what he wanted, but he would do absolutely everything in between and probably a few things that could be considered sex instead and he would make sure that she enjoyed every last fucking second of it.

  He wanted her so fucking badly that he didn’t care that he had strict rules about this sort of thing. Never in public, never lose control and never with a woman that drove him out of his fucking mind. He liked being in control of his life, his career and his future and women like the one threading her fingers through her hair as she
sweetly suckled on his tongue made that fucking impossible.

  If he had a type, she definitely wasn’t it. He normally dated serious women who were married to their careers and didn’t want anything more than a good fuck when their schedules permitted it. He never lost control, texted them during the day just to say hello or thought about them twenty-four/seven. Granted, most of the women that he dated took his indifference as a challenge and usually ended up pissing him off, but...

  Christ, he couldn’t think straight with her running her fingers over his fly like that, teasing his cock into a frenzy. When she stopped tracing his cock with her talented little fingers he nearly begged for more, but seconds later she had him groaning and losing control of that kiss as she pulled down his zipper, reached inside his pants and wrapped her warm, soft hand around him.

  “Fuck!” he groaned as he was forced to break off from that kiss as a shot of pleasure surged through his body, making his cock harder than it had ever been before.

  Gasping for air, he watched as Rebecca licked her lips hungrily while she watched her hand move over his cock. Groaning when she ran her hand over the tip, he found himself following her gaze. He watched, entranced by the lightly tanned hand slowly moving up and down his shaft.

  He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had given him a hand job, probably because it had never felt this good. He watched as her hand slid down to the base and paused long enough so that she could squeeze a groan out of him only to work her way back up to the tip and use her thumb to spread the drops of excitement that were already forming there over the head, making the already sensitive skin tingle with indescribable pleasure.

  “God, that feels good,” he groaned, licking his own lips as he continued to watch her lazily run her hand over his shaft, applying just the right amount of pleasure at just the right time.

  “You like that?” she asked with a seductive smile that made him think about how good those full, pouty lips would feel wrapped around his cock.

  He nodded as he leaned in to kiss her. “Keep doing that and you’ll find out just how much,” he promised her as he placed his hands on her thighs.

  “Then maybe I should stop,” she teased with a smile against his mouth as he reached for the fly of her pants.

  “Maybe you should,” he murmured as he pulled her zipper down and reached for the waist of her pants.

  With a little effort and some wiggling on her part, he had them pulled down along with her panties far enough to give him access to her soft slit that he fully planned on tracing with his tongue soon. Moaning as she continued to kiss and stroke him, he leaned in a little closer and moved his hand over her smooth supple ass until his hand was between her legs and his finger was moving over her wet slit sliding deep inside her.

  They groaned together as she pushed back against him, taking his finger deeper as she held onto to him, her hand never stilling on his cock. If anything her grasp on him had become a little more urgent. Her strokes had increased when she started to ride his finger, pushing back with every stroke. The position wasn’t comfortable and it took a lot of effort to manage, but the pleasure that they were giving each other more than made up for it.

  He knew that he could get her off like this, but he wanted more. Slipping his finger inside her one last time, and God, he’d never knew a woman could get this wet before, he pulled his hand free, wrapped his arms around her and turned so that he could lay her down on the bench seat. She kept her arms around him as she kissed him almost desperately as he yanked her pants off. By the time she managed to kick her shoes off, he had her pants shoved down to her ankles and in seconds, thrown onto the dashboard.

  Shoving his pants down to his knees, he followed her down, groaning when she wrapped her bare legs around him and pressed his cock against her wet slit.

  “Lucifer, please!” she cried, moving against him, making him groan in pleasure, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

  So, he rocked against her, telling himself that this was going to have to do for now, because there was no fucking way that he was going to settle for anything less than-

  “Christopher!” she yelled on a frustrated sob as she rocked urgently against him and just like that, he lost control.

  One minute he was grinding his cock against her wet slit and the next he was buried deep inside her and fucking her hard enough to rock the truck. She felt good, so fucking good, he thought as he pulled his cock out until just the tip was inside her and slammed back inside her, loving the way that she was digging her fingers into his back and moaning his name like a prayer.

  “Oh, God!” she cried out, tightening her hold on him as she held on for the ride.

  She felt so fucking good, so fucking good…so fucking wet and tight…

  He leaned down and kissed her before he pulled back, needing to watch her as he pushed her over the edge. When he felt her sheath tighten around him, he thrust harder and ground his teeth as he fought off his own orgasm.

  Several thrusts later he thought that he was going to fucking die when she started screaming. Her back bowed, nearly throwing him off, but he wasn’t going anywhere. He leaned down and kissed her, swallowing her screams as he fucked her hard and fast. He kept going until long after she’d stopped screaming and his own orgasm threatened to break him in two as it ripped through him.

  Gasping, and more satisfied than he’d ever felt in his entire life, he dropped his head onto her shoulder and chuckled, because he couldn’t believe the most amazing woman that he’d ever met was also the one that he’d spent the last five years fantasizing about-

  “I quit.”

  -throttling.

  Chapter 20

  Closing her eyes with a defeated sigh, she demanded of the large man sulking after her, “Why exactly are you following me?”

  “We need to talk,” Lucifer said and she really couldn’t help the pathetic groan that escaped her or the fact that she was becoming increasingly bitchy since all she wanted to do was sleep and all he wanted to do was argue.

  Why couldn’t he just enjoy the afterglow like a normal man and leave her alone? she wondered as she struggled to drag herself through her apartment. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed, close her eyes and savor the way her entire body hummed with pleasure from the most incredible orgasm that she’d ever experienced, but the stubborn son of a bitch following her to her bedroom wouldn’t let her have that.

  Selfish son of a bitch, she thought as she forced her feet past her bed and instead headed for her dresser, because today was Wednesday and she was supposed to work the evening shift. She was tempted to say that hell with it and go to bed for the night since she’d just quit. The problem was that she didn’t have a job lined up and after she finished her two weeks, money was going to be tight enough as it was.

  She needed the hours, she told herself over and over again in her head, hoping that it would give her the energy that she was going to need to survive the next eight hours. Forcing herself not to look at that inviting, messy bed where Mojo was currently snoring, she focused on getting ready for work.

  Oh, to be a dog…

  “What are you doing?” Lucifer asked when it should have been more than obvious.

  “Getting ready for work,” she mumbled, grabbing a fresh Fire & Brimstone tee-shirt, jeans, socks and panties before turning around and once again forcing her feet to take her away from her bed.

  “I thought you’d just quit,” Lucifer snapped, not really sounding all that happy for a guy that had been trying to fire her for the past five years.

  Before she got a chance to respond, the reminder that the walls were thin cut her off. “You quit?” Melanie asked from her bedroom, which just happened to be next to hers.

  “Yes!” she hissed with a glare at the wall.

  “Oh…,” came the response from the other side of the wall. “Are you going to apply for that bouncer job?”

  She probably would if it was still available, but it had been weeks since she spotted that
ad so it was probably already filled. She was going to have to dust off her resume, think of new explanations to explain her checkered work history and start spending all her free time searching for jobs and filling out applications.

  “Maybe,” she said, hoping that would appease their audience.

  “You’re not quitting,” Lucifer snapped, making her cringe, because if there was one thing that Melanie liked, it was gossip. She loved to know everything that was going on, but she was surprisingly tight lipped, refusing to share anything.

  “Oh, this should be good,” she heard Melanie mumble to herself.

  Yeah, this was going to be great, she thought dryly as she paused by the towel closet, blindly reached inside, grabbed a semi-folded towel and headed towards the bathroom, praying that Lucifer would lose interest so that she could take a shower in peace.

  “You’re not quitting,” he said more firmly as he shut the bathroom door behind them as though that would somehow make her change her mind.

  Sighing, she tossed the crumpled towel on the sink counter. “I have to quit.”

  “Why do you have to quit?” Melanie asked, obviously too curious to wait until later to start her interrogation.

  “Mind your business, bitch!” she yelled, deciding that the next place they moved to was going to have walls lined with lead.

  “You are my business, bitch!” came the reply, making her shake her head and Lucifer glare at her, because apparently he wasn’t happy about having an audience either.

  “Look,” she said, too exhausted to argue, “do you think that we could talk about this later?”

  His scowl said it all.

  “Right,” she sighed, moving to turn the shower on when Melanie, who apparently had nothing better to do than to hang on their every word, announced, “There’s no more cold water!”

  Well, that would explain why Melanie hadn’t been in her usual spot on the couch with her laptop powered up and a pile of Hostess wrappers decorating the couch and floor. Whenever Melanie got stumped on a design or code, she took a bath to think it through and that usually meant a really long bath with the help of fresh hot water added every fifteen minutes or so.