Skepticism (Life. Destiny. Fate. #4)

by LK Collins

  “Are we gonna eat?” I ask as a reminder because we talked about there being some cool places to eat up here on the way, plus he needs a distraction right now.

  “Shit, baby, I’m sorry,” he says, pulling off of the next exit into a small town. “I totally spaced it.”

  “It’s all right,” I tell him, trying to be reassuring. The road is dirt and the town is old as he parks in front of an antiquated building that has probably seen a million better days. “What about here?” he asks, putting the car in park.

  “This is fine,” I’m curious to see if this place will have anything decent and just happy to be doing something, anything, to get us off the road for a bit. Leaning over, he kisses me. Then we get out of the car and the scenery takes my breath away. We are nestled at the bottom of a valley between two mountains. It’s all so majestic and beautiful, nothing like Seattle or Maryland.

  “What is this place?” I ask as we walk up the steps.

  “I hope it’s a restaurant! I’m fucking starved!”

  I giggle at his sudden enthusiasm as we head up the stairs. The boards under our feet creak as we reach the door. Micah’s hand is wrapped so tightly around mine, I can feel my joints cracking, but I don’t pull away.

  The inside of the place is gorgeous, that Old World feel, mixed with a little modern day flash. “Hi, welcome to the Crest,” a young woman greets us. “Are you eating with us or checking in?”

  “Eat—”

  I cut Micah off. “Do you have any rooms left?” I ask coolly.

  I love this place.

  She checks a map that’s on the counter and he stares at me. I peer down with her, but can’t understand it at all. I find it funny that she could either seat you to eat or give you a room.

  “I’m sorry, we only have the honeymoon suite left.”

  “We’ll take it.” I squeeze his hand and catch sight of his jaw hanging open. I think Micah might need me to take his mind off of things. There is nothing that we can do tonight, anyways, so I’m taking charge.

  After showing the woman my ID and paying for the room, she seats us for our meal. Micah stares at me and I pass the room key to him, but he still doesn’t say anything. We sit quietly, and I look over the menu. He’s still watching me, and I act like what I’m doing is completely normal.

  “Hi, welcome to the Crest. I’m Dame, I’ll be your server,” a younger guy says, definitely a regular of the town. “What can I get you to drink?” He looks between Micah and I, and Micah gestures that I order, so I do.

  “He’ll take a Scotch on the rocks and a Guinness, I’ll have whatever your amber beer is on tap.”

  “Would you guys like an appetizer?”

  I look at that part of the menu and order the first thing I see that he likes. “We’ll take the stuffed mushrooms.”

  “I’ll have that right out,” Dame says. The restaurant isn’t too busy, which is nice. Looking out the window we are seated next to, Micah is still silent. I know the alcohol will get him talking, so I bide my time. While we wait, I let my mind get lost, thinking of how I can convince Micah to let me help him with things.

  Dame sets our drinks down, and Micah is still watching me, at this point reverting to pure stubbornness. Raising my beer to him, he picks his up, and I say, “To us and our future, may we survive all this to give Michelle the life she deserves.”

  “To us,” he responds, taking a drink of his beer.

  I let the amber hops roll down my throat and focus on the menu. Micah still being stubborn interrupts my thoughts and asks, “So what’s your plan here?”

  “What do you want it to be?” I counter saucily, throwing him a sexy smirk.

  He picks up the Scotch, swirling it through the ice, and asks, “Are we staying all night here?”

  I shrug a shoulder, shamelessly flirting. “You tell me, Liam, I’m at your mercy.”

  He takes a mouthful of whisky and sets his glass down. Dame delivers our mushrooms, which Micah begins to eat, eyeing me like he’s about to fuck me on this table. Clearly he’s warming up to the idea of letting me take control, while I order for both of us.

  “Why mushrooms?” he asks, once I’m done, “You hate them.”

  “You love them.”

  “Why are you making this about me?”

  I take a sip of my beer, watching him down his. My goal is to get him wasted – he needs it and will thank me in the end. “Because I love you.”

  He grabs my hand across the table and looks me in the eye. “Do you have any idea how much you mean to me?”

  He’s trying to express feelings to me that also reside in my own soul. So I decide to let him tell me, to show him that he has to let me help, if we want to make it past next week. “Why don’t you tell me?”

  “You’re my fucking world, Natalene. You’re the ground that I walk on, the air that fills my lungs. If I lose you again…I’ll die.” His eyes fill with tears, as do mine, and I know in this moment what we are feeling is once in a lifetime.

  “Micah, you always know just how to take my breath away.” I wipe away the tears and grab his Scotch, taking a drink to give me the strength that I now need. He chuckles and runs his thumb under my eye, catching a stray tear that falls.

  “I’m just speaking the truth. For a decade I lived in hell. Miserable every day, loathing my life, pretending to be someone I wasn’t, and now that I have you back, I can’t have anything change that.”

  “That’s why you have to let me help,” I plead with him, squeezing his hand.

  “Another round?” Dame asks, walking by.

  “Please,” I tell him.

  “I…I can’t baby,” he whispers, shaking his head.

  “You can’t, or you don’t want to?” I ask him. He tilts his head, not liking my question. “Come on, think about it. If you don’t let me do this, then we aren’t going to get the money, and both of us will end up dead. I don’t want the end that Romeo and Juliet had.”

  “Don’t use that on me.”

  When Micah and I were young, my parents hated him. Actually, they still do, but that’s beside the point. We were so crazy in love, we didn’t care what anyone thought, and we just lived each day and did whatever it took to see one another. We knew in our hearts that we’d change Romeo and Juliet’s love story, give it a non-tragic end. But when he never found me, we lived it for a decade.

  Now I can taste our future. It’s close. I can envision us living together, with Michelle too.

  “Then give me my happily ever after. You know nothing in life comes easy, especially the way that we’ve lived our lives.”

  He slams his whole new Scotch and asks me, “If you wanna help, what’s your plan?”

  “Introduce me to Reid and tell him you’ve hired me to help you.”

  “Well, he kinda already knows who you are…”

  “What the fuck? Why?”

  “When Vincent came in questioning me about you, I had to cover my ass. I asked Reid to say you were on his payroll.”

  “Okay…then that’s perfect. I can go into all the dispensaries and install the devices. They’re wireless, so it should be simple and quick for me to pull off. Reid knows this is part of the deal, to have his men in there. The dispensaries will never know I don’t work for him, so they’ll have the peace of mind that he backs the cameras, and then we can tie them to where they can be monitored by the owners as well. You said so yourself that each location is getting the in-person security Wednesday, so it will be safe by then.”

  “But that just leaves five days ’til our deadline.”

  “So? What’s that? Thirty-five or so locations per day, and after I install you get the money for each one, and we just knock out the list?”

  “Yeah, but there are only twenty-four hours in a day.”

  “And I’m sure someone is attending to the grow early in the morning or late at night.”

  “But then security won’t be there; it’s not safe, Nat. I won’t risk it.” He’s becoming agitated and I c
atch sight of Dame across the room and signal for more drinks, thank God.

  “Okay, let’s ask all of them to give us a window when we can come in and maybe we can have one of the security guards drive with me? We’ll make a calendar tonight and if it’s when security is not there, you’re gonna have to help me. We can even start tomorrow?”

  “What about Tomas?” he asks.

  I think about what he is offering; his cousin is family and would always help us at the drop of a hat.

  “Okay.” That’s actually a good idea – Tomas is a genius with computers, like Micah. He would be a huge help. “When can you get him out here?”

  “I can send Rocco any time. I’ll call him now,” he says running his hands through his hair. Dame sets our food and drinks down, which look fucking delicious, but I think both Micah and I have lost our appetite. We need to focus on our plan and getting Tomas here.

  “You like my cock, don’t you?” I ask Nat as she is on her knees with the tip of my dick deep in her throat.

  The room is spinning – she got me so drunk that I can’t see straight. Looking at the clock, it’s blurry, but I think it says 12:15am. I might be drunk, but I can still feel everything she’s doing to me. She’s working me so good, jerking and sucking. Her hot body above mine driving me absolutely mad. I buck my hips towards her, moving my fingers a little faster over her cunt as she kneels on the bed.

  She moans from my touch, and although I am wasted, I have complete control over her. She keeps sucking me, and I look down at her gorgeous head bobbing on my cock. She slows her sucking, her body tensing, and she’s close to coming.

  “You wanna come?” I ask her.

  She stops sucking and looks me in the eye. Everything about her is so beautiful. Her breathing is ragged and I slow my movements. Her eyes widen and she looks at my hand, pissed.

  “Don’t stop,” she begs.

  “Then suck me like my cock is inside of you.”

  Right away, she leans down, taking me all the way in her throat. My hand stops moving and I cup her sex as a forceful come blasts into her mouth. “Ah, fuck, baby,” I yell, pumping my cock. She makes the sexiest noise and lets me stroke myself between her soft lips.

  “You’re bad,” I tell her.

  “No, you’re bad,” she says popping my cock out of her mouth and straddling me while guiding my dick inside of her. She places both of her hands over my chest and asks, “Does this hurt?” As she pushes down, internally I wince a little, my body still bruised and sore from those fuckers jumping me. But the sensation in my cock takes all the pain away.

  “No, it’s good,” I say.

  “Why didn’t you let me come?” she asks, moving more quickly.

  “I didn’t mean to,” I say, slurring. She laughs at me and I tell her, “It’s really your fault for getting me so drunk.”

  “Mm hmm,” she says, moving her hips up and down. Her pussy so tight and warm, my balls tighten wanting to come again. I smile watching her please herself, rubbing her slit just right, giving little moments of pleasure ’til the head of my shaft hits deep inside of her.

  She whines with every move, drunk herself, although she’s acting like she’s not. Reaching down, I hold her hips, moving along with her. I bury my cock a little further in and she throws her head back, crying out as I fuck her.

  “You want it hard, like this?” I ask shoving my dick into her again.

  “Yes,” she answers breathlessly.

  “Are you going to come good?”

  “Mm hmm.”

  “That’s it, take my cock.” With the force of my hands holding her and my hips grinding into her, I give her a good, deep, fucking.

  She writhes on top of me. “Yes, Micahhh. Just like that,” she begs.

  Reaching up, she grabs one of her tits and squeezes it hard. “Pinch it,” I tell her.

  She makes me so hot that I’m not sure how I haven’t already come a dozen times. Suddenly she begins to shake on top of me and moans deeply. She’s coming. I don’t change what I am doing, keeping my same, deep, hard, steady movements. Holding her hips, she only lasts about five seconds on top of me before she falls over. Her hair fans around my head and shrouds us like a cloak. I search for her lips and the instant that we connect, I kiss her harshly and come again. Moving my hands up her body, I hold her tightly to me and rock myself into her, giving her a piece of me. The same way I have so many times, but this time…it feels different.

  “Time to wake up, baby,” Nat says kissing my neck. I roll over taking in the sights of the room and try to process where we are.

  Closing my eyes, I can picture her naked body on top of me riding my dick so hard last night. The thought fully hardens me, as I am halfway there already. I begin to stroke my cock and she rips the covers off of me.

  “What are you doing?” she demands.

  “Mmmm, thinking about you last night.”

  “So you remember things?” she asks.

  “Of course,” I sit up and look her in the eye, concerned that she would believe that I didn’t. “So you remember our plan for the cameras and—”

  “Ahh, fuck. Why did you have to remind me?” I let go of my dick and roll over away from her, looking out the window at the resplendent view of the mountains.

  “Don’t roll away from me,” she says hopping on the bed.

  I pull the covers over my head to hide, but don’t last long as she starts to tickle me. Laughing out loud, I try and throw her off of me, but fail miserably; I’m so slow and groggy. “Okay, okay,” I beg. “I’m sorry.”

  Peeking out at her, she looks like she showered, wet hair and clear skin. “You showered without me?” I ask.

  “Yup,” she kisses my lips and hops off the bed. “There is some Tylenol on the nightstand; I’ll start the shower for you, and then we need to hit the road. There’s lots of work to do back in the city.”

  I glance next to me and am thankful that I have her on my side to sometimes help me make the hard decisions that I don’t want to see and to keep my fucking head on straight. Getting up, I swallow the pills and find her texting on my phone. “Is that Tomas?” I ask.

  “Yeah, he’s taking off now.”

  I look down at her handling business and can’t stop myself from unbuttoning her jeans. “What are you doing?” she asks.

  “I’m gonna fuck you.”

  “Micah, we need to get going.”

  “And we will, but I have a hard cock and it needs your tight pussy first.” She doesn’t say anything to me, instead she watches what I am doing as I reach down rubbing her wetness and kiss her neck, pulling her skin between my teeth. She rests against the wall with her arms to the side and I nip every bit of her exposed skin, fingering her soft cunt.

  Her skin is hot under my lips, making me that much hornier. She reaches down dropping her pants to the floor and then steps out of them. I wet the tip of my dick inside of her, rubbing and pushing it in her slit. Not being able to wait, I crash all the way in, filling her with my swollen dick. She drags her fingernails down my back and cries in pleasure. I brace my weight against the wall, fucking her harshly and filling the room with nothing but the sound of her screams and our skin slapping together.

  I growl into her ear, so fucking turned on, and then take it between my teeth. She threads her fingers into the back of my hair and yanks firmly. Standing with her holding me in her control, I say, “That’s it, take my stiff cock,” my own words bringing the need to come into fruition. She holds my hair and forces me to look her in the eye. As I fuck her, I get lost in her beauty and how much I truly cherish her. Her moans and body push me to the edge, I’m so close and so hard. Then she says, “Come in my pussy, Micah.” And my body lets go, shuddering as a violent blow of cum shoots out of me. I grunt out profanities, giving it to her and push so hard that I lift her off of her feet.

  She always takes my cock, no matter what we have going on, and I pray that we will live past this next week to enjoy a lifetime of this.

&nbs
p; “Are you sure, you’re ready to do this?” Micah asks me.

  “Yes, baby. It’ll be fine.”

  He takes my face in the palm of his hands. “I want you to check in with me before and after every install.”

  “Micah, that’s absurd.”

  “Nat, I need the peace of mind to be able to focus on the Ignacio case, and plus, I need to contact that dispensary to get the funds right when you’re finished. Just do it for me, please.”

  “I’ll text you afterwards, but I can’t have things slowing me down.” He nods, agreeing, but I can tell it’s not what he wanted to hear.

  “Tomas, thank you for helping, and Samantha, you too.” Micah tells his cousin, and his girlfriend, who we are so grateful to, since they pulled through for us.

  “Of course, man, it’s all going to be good.” Samantha beams as Tomas speaks and I can see a tiny spark of young love between then, like when Micah and I first started to date.

  I kiss Micah on the mouth and grab my bag with the laptop in it needed for the installations, as well as the calendar with the schedule for the day that the four of us came up with.

  Hesitantly he hands me the keys to the Denali, and I snatch them from his hand. He grabs his coat and keys to the BMW. “Have a good day, dear,” I say nonchalantly, walking out of the house. But he stops me on the sidewalk. “Safety first today, Nat, I mean it. These fucking dispensaries are getting hit by the cartel in broad daylight, and they go in with bad intent.”

  I nod, letting him know that I am taking this seriously. He kisses me, clearly not caring who sees us. With his eyes shut tight, I can tell from his force that he’s nervous as hell. Before now, I felt good about going into today…now I’m not so sure.

  Parting ways with Micah, I leave him, Tomas, and Samantha behind talking out front and drive to my first spot. Gro-ganic is an old house, different than the one that we picked up the cash from. Getting out of the car, I look around. The neighborhood seems quiet and I wonder how the neighbors feel to be living so close to a dispensary. Grabbing the equipment I need, I walk to the front door where my senses are immediately invaded by the aroma of weed.