Josh emerged from the cupboard to look at her. “Because they might put me in a home? Kenny Wilkes, in my class, they put him in a home ‘cause they said his mama didn’t look after him right.”
Thea had been aware of that case, it had been the subject of a lot of gossip in the community, so she’d overheard much of it in the laundromat and as people chatted as they shopped in the store. “Yeah, well that’s ‘cause Kenny’s mama was drunk when she wasn’t cranked outta her mind and she didn’t look after him at all.”
“But you don’t do drugs. And Dizzy and Shaggy and the others don’t.”
Thea decide not to split hairs about pot; she was pretty certain Dizzy wouldn’t stand for the others doing anything else, anything harder. She would be out of there in a cloud of dust if they did, but she had seen zero evidence of that. “Some people think stickin’ a needle in your arm and hangin’ out with bikers is the same thing, as bad as each other. So we’ll just keep quiet, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Josh was sullen. “Still sucks though.”
“Yes. Yes it does.”
She’d cooked them a quick supper and then left Josh under the watchful eye of Clarice, who was obviously dying to ask some questions about their disappearance, but politely kept them to herself when Thea didn’t offer any information. Her hunk of junk car seemed even more recalcitrant than usual and only made it to the store on a wing and a prayer. Thea thought about asking Dizzy to take a look at it, but she felt weirdly awkward about that for no discernible reason, so she shelved the thought for the time being.
Dwight, the store manager, was coming off the shift before her. If he’d been snippy on the phone that morning he was outright hostile now. He was rail thin and no taller than 5’ 5”, and more than a couple of inches of that height were courtesy of the heels of his boots. What he lacked in stature, he made up for in attitude. Puffed full of his own importance, he reminded her more than once that she needed the job more than he needed a flake employee. That was fucking rich. It was the first time that she’d called in sick in years. And now he was holding it over her. That was just great.
She had her high school diploma, but it was over a decade old. Now all she had was plenty of experience working in the store. There was a chance she could get a job waiting tables in town if she lost this job, but she’d bet her last paycheck that Dwight would badmouth her if he sacked her. She was sure she’d struggle to get work if she lost this job. Fuck. She hated that he was right. She was going to have to be a model employee for the foreseeable future. She hoped that would be enough.
Apart from the drama with Dwight, it was as tedious as Monday shifts usually were. Since it was quiet, and she was bored, she decided to earn some space in Dwight’s good books by cleaning the store. She mopped the floors and wiped the shelves down and didn’t see one customer the entire time. By the time she was done she didn’t think she’d ever be able to get the smell of fake pine trees out of her nose.
Unfortunately, all that time with nothing much to keep her occupied gave her way too much opportunity to overthink things, specifically things concerning her and Dizzy. There was a real attraction there, the man was sex on a stick for a start, considerate and kind, and he paid attention to Josh. Thea could see from the respect and affinity that the other patches had for their President that he was a good man. Not once during the entire weekend, even though one of their number had died doing whatever it was they’d done, had she heard anyone say a bad word about Dizzy. She’d kept her ears open and all she’d heard was friendship, and that his presence was missed in Louisiana, and pride at the progress he was making here in Texas.
But she started worrying that she’d just been caught up in the frenzy of the lockdown. Now that she was a couple of steps back from the situation, she wondered if she’d let things move too fast. Maybe she should have thought things through more, taken more care. She should have held back, considered Josh more through all of it. It was too late now, though. Dizzy was not the kind of man who was just going to hand the reins over to her. The sense of authority that surrounded him, his power, his command, it was all as alluring as it was terrifying. Not only did she have someone else in her life to consider when she made decisions now, but she knew she would not be calling all the shots.
She was disturbed from her anxious train of thoughts when she heard the rumble of a bike approaching, and then silence, but no one came into the store. It wasn’t unusual to hear the roar of the engines about town, so she just got on with closing up for the night. She double checked everything. She didn’t want to give Dwight an inch.
She was a little late when she started her way across the lot to her car, and she was fumbling in her bag for her keys. The day was catching up with her, she was beginning to feel bone tired, so she didn’t see the bike parked next to her car at first.
“Heya, sweetheart.”
Thea let out a little squeaky shriek and dropped her keys. Dizzy threw his head back and laughed at her shocked reaction.
“What the fuck?! I nearly had a heart attack!” She dropped to the tarmac and scrabbled for her keys, trying to breathe her heart back down her throat and into her chest.
“No drama, sweetheart. Just wanted to make sure you made it home okay.”
“I don’t call sufferin’ a coronary event okay. Anyway, I thought we were okay, that we didn’t need to worry too much?” She caught her errant keys and straightened, but made no further move towards her car.
“You don’t. Just tryin’ to be nice over here. If anythin’, I’m more concerned the engine is gonna drop out of that death trap, or the brakes are gonna fail.”
“Yeah, well, it’s done okay so far.” Thea wasn’t sure why she was offended on her car’s behalf. It sure didn’t deserve her defending it.
Dizzy cast a skeptical eye at the dented hunk of metal. “It was doin’ okay ten years ago. It’s on its last wheels now.”
“So you’re sittin’ here at this time to scare me half to death and insult my ride?”
Dizzy shrugged. “Guess so.”
It was late, or early, whichever way you wanted to look at it, Thea did not want to spend hours standing in a parking lot. She stalked to her car door, but as she aimed the key in the lock, Dizzy caught her arm. “I’m sorry I scared you. I don’t warrant a kiss ‘hello’, though?”
All Thea’s overthinking began to fade into the background. He was so close and so warm. And he was right about the state of her car. And he’d apologized. Still, she wanted to get home and get into bed, so she tried to get away with a quick peck, but Dizzy wasn’t having any of that. As soon as her lips met his, before she could pull back, his fingers were threading their way into her hair, over her scalp, behind the elastic tie battling with the weight of her hair. He kept her steady and the kiss built into something more than just a ‘hello, how’re you doin’?’ It built into a lot more than that. By the time he let her go, Thea was flushed and wondering about the logistics of leaving her car in the lot and straddling Dizzy’s bike behind him, or maybe in front of him.
“M’I okay to see you home, then?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
He laughed again when she fumbled her keys, trying to unlock the car door. She muttered a quick prayer once she was safely inside that she didn’t reverse over him, because her mind was not on the task at hand at all.
She was surprised, but not displeased, when Dizzy parked his bike behind her car on the street and dismounted. He shook out his wind-tousled hair as they walked up to the door to the building. Thea didn’t say anything, but she was wondering whether he was just planning to see her to her own front door. He’d been that far before, on Friday, when he’d stood guard as he waited for her to pack things for her and Josh and their vacation at Casa del Priests.
He waited silently while she fumbled the key for that door, too. She was unnerved by his presence, not knowing what it meant, but not as much as she was just plain distracted by his proximity. She took a deep gulp of air to try and retain a littl
e decorum, knowing that Clarice would be waiting up for her.
Sure enough, when she gently pushed the door open, Clarice was standing behind it, a tapestry bag full of yarn and knitting needles in her hand.
“Hi, Thea.” She paused a beat. “And hi, Thea’s friend.”
Thea caught the movement of Dizzy’s nod out of the corner of her eye. “Mornin’ Ma’am.”
“Oh, call me Clarice, please.”
Thea nearly fell over. She’d brought a leather-clad biker home, and he’d turned the charm on, making his voice syrup smooth over those two words, to the point that her pensioner neighbor was now all aflutter.
Clarice was actually a little red in the cheeks. “If you’ll excuse me, Thea, I’ll get out of your way.” Thea moved dumbly to one side as Clarice passed her and headed across the hall to her own doorway. “Josh has been a delight, as always. He’s fast asleep.” Jesus God, did Clarice just wink at her?
“Er, okay. Thanks Clarice.”
That was definitely a wink, and then Clarice had shut her door behind her. When Thea looked up, Dizzy was sporting a wide grin. She waved him through the door, since he didn’t seem to be of a mind to leave.
“That should amuse you. I think you’ve got a fan there.”
He shrugged as he walked into her home. “It amuses me ‘cause it’s obvious you don’t do this a lot.”
“What do you mean?” It was late, early, whatever, and her brain wasn’t in the right gear to play guessing games. She concentrated on making sure that the door was locked securely.
“It’s obvious you don’t bring a lot of men home.”
Oh.
Thea stopped short. “Well, yeah. I don’t. Like, ever.”
“Ever?”
She huffed out a breath and made in the direction of the kitchen. “Do you want a drink of somethin’?”
“Not unless you’re offerin’ beer or whiskey.”
“I haven’t got either of those.” She threw her bag and keys onto the table.
There was silence.
“You’re gonna make me actually say it out loud aren’t you?”
Dizzy had followed her into the kitchen corner. He leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms low on his chest. And didn’t say a word.
“Fine.” Thea could feel the blush rising, and dropped her eyes to the floor. “In ten years you are the first man I have ever brought here. As far as Clarice is concerned, that probably means we should get wed or somethin’.”
“Now that’s movin’ a mite quick, sweetheart.”
She stopped studying the scuffed, black and white tile-effect linoleum because Dizzy’s voice was suddenly very close. When she raised her eyes, he was right there in front of her. He fed his fingers back into her ever loosening hair.
“I take that as the honor it is, sweetheart.”
Thea felt adrift. There was no other word for it. The tide was carrying her out into the open ocean. She was almost past the point of kicking for shore. Almost.
“You can’t stay over. It’s too soon. It’d be weird for Josh if you were here when he woke up tomorrow.”
“When you wake him up.”
“Semantics.”
“That’s okay, sweetheart. It’s gonna be a wrench leavin’, I won’t lie, but you got it. You know what’s best for you and your boy.”
Ground rules established, Thea decided they’d done enough talking. She reached up on her toes to kiss him, steadying herself with a palm against his chest, flexing the pads of her fingers against the leather worn soft with time. The kiss was every bit as deep as the one they’d shared in the parking lot of the store. And she’d been wrong. She would not be able to smell pine disinfectant forever. She was filled with the scents of leather and skin with hints of spice and sweat that just was Dizzy. Fuck, he smelled tasty. She wrenched her mouth away from his because she had an urge to lick his neck, but she got carried away and set her teeth into the tender skin as she sucked at the taste of him.
He gripped her shoulders and set her away a little. “Fuck, sweetheart. That’s gonna be the first hickey I’ve had since school.” Oh, she liked that he was breathing hard. “You wanna suck somethin’? I have a better idea what you can go at.”
So did she. She caught his fingers with hers and led him to her room. Thea bit her lip and prayed to every deity she could name that Josh wouldn’t wake up. She was going to have to keep quiet, and that was going to be a challenge. As she closed the door of her room behind them, she realized that she was going to have to get some sort of lock for it if this was going to become a regular thing. She couldn’t afford the therapy Josh would need if he walked in on her and Dizzy in the middle of the act.
Since it was late, early, whatever, Thea didn’t waste any time in getting naked. She could see that Dizzy was laughing at her eagerness, or trying not to laugh out loud, but he was definitely amused. But his amusement was not getting in the way of him getting naked either, so she was going to let him off the hook for that. Apart from making sure that his kutte was laid safely on a set of drawers, and that he’d retrieved a condom from the pocket of his jeans, he paid about as much attention as she had to where her clothes went.
And then those gloriously rough hands were on her body and his mouth was on hers, their tongues tangling, tasting and it was too much and not enough. Dizzy was rubbing his thumb over and over her pierced nipple, he’d caught onto her little quirk real quick, but she would not be distracted.
Thea dropped to her knees and took the solid length of him into her mouth. The scent of him was stronger here, more musky, and almost irresistible. He was too long to completely fit, but she wrapped her palm around the base of his shaft and worked him with hand, tongue and lips until he was thrusting against her grip and making barely audible grunts. His fingers were tangled in her hair, which somewhere between the kitchen and the bedroom had come completely loose from its moorings.
She pulled back so that she could tease the taught line of skin on the underside of the glans with the tip of her tongue, which earned her several muttered curses. She grinned at his tantrum, even as she tormented him.
“Fuckin’ sexy witch.” He rasped as he wrapped his hands around her upper arms and hauled her to her feet. “Playin’ like that’s just gonna earn you a good fuckin’, sweetheart.”
Nothing about that sounded bad to Thea; in fact she felt her body flood wet at the promise. It was late, early, whatever, and she was in no mood for more playing. She stepped around Dizzy, and crawled up onto her bed until she was kneeling on all fours on top of the covers, in the middle of it.
The sound that came out of Dizzy bore no relation to actual words, but his intent was loud and clear. She felt the mattress dip as he joined her, a pause – during which she heard the foil packet being ripped open – and then he thrust, hard and deep and fast, into her in one smooth move, without warning.
Thea threw hear head back and let out a silent scream, remembering only at the very last moment that she needed to not wake Josh. But Dizzy was pounding into her. His hands were clutching her hips, yanking her back onto him as he shoved into her. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t stay quiet. It was too much, too overwhelming, too fucking glorious. He was hitting a sweet spot over and over and over with those brutal thrusts, and every time he did she let out a grunt, each one a little louder than the last.
And then he had his fist in her hair and he pulled, forcing her to come up against his body, her back to his chest. She was almost disappointed when he released her hair, even though it had been the other side of painful. But then he slipped his warm, rough palm over mouth. Oh that was a good idea, because there was no way she was going to be able to not make noise.
And it was enough, until he let go of her hip with his other hand and moved to play with her piercing instead, his hot forearm tight across her chest, the hair on it scratching at her skin. Oh that was good, so good, so very fucking good. Thea moaned into Dizzy’s hand, and then cursed when he let go of her breas
t. But then his fingers were on her clit, pinching and pushing her pelvis back against his thrusts at the same time. His fingertips were playing with the point of tight pleasure and he was driving the heel of his palm into her stomach, down low, and his cock, dear god his fucking cock was hitting that spot and ... she bit his fingers as she came to keep from screaming until she was hoarse. As it was, her throat cramped from the effort of holding her cries back.
Her orgasm ripped his from him. He buried his face in her hair and yelled into her neck and even through the tingling, blissed haze Thea knew she would have a matching hickey in the morning.
When he finally ceased the flexing of his hips, they both fell forward onto the covers in a sweat-soaked heap. Thea tried not to squirm, she didn’t want him to move, but she wanted to, needed to writhe against him because the electricity making her blood sing made it impossible for her to lie still, and she was still deliciously stretched by his cock which was still buried to the hilt inside her.
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