Rock the Heart

by Michelle A. Valentine

  I lean down and run my nose along her jaw line. The intense scent of fruity shampoo and a light perfume fill my nose. Every nerve inside me is consumed with her presence.

  I pull my hips back and then thrust them again, stretching every inch of her around my dick as I go in deeper. Her legs relax and open even wider on the next pump and I can almost get my entire length inside her, but it’s still too tight to push the entire cock in. “Shit, Kitten. You’re so fucking tight.”

  I drag my lips across the flesh of her neck. Her head drifts to the side and a moan escapes those red, pouty lips. She’s getting close again already. I increase my pace and allow my hips to smack into her thighs. When her eyes close, I lean up and continue to pump into her. I slide my hand down her belly until it finds the top of her pussy. I flick my thumb across her clit and her entire body jerks while she gasps.

  “Fucking come for me,” I growl as I pump harder while the heel of her shoe digs into my ass.

  The urge to taste her rages inside me, so I snake my tongue out and lick her earlobe before nibbling on it. Kitten grabs my face with both hands and crushes her lips against mine.

  A growl rumbles in my chest as the need to claim her pushes through me. “Tell me you’re mine. Tell me you want me.”

  She peers up at me through sex-hazed eyes and says, “I want to be with you. I think I have since that first night.”

  I kiss her with as much force as I can without hurting her. Knowing that she’s finally admitted she wants me too makes this the best fuck I’ve ever had. I bury my face in her shoulder and wrap her tight in my arms and I pound into her, searching for my own release.

  “Zach,” she breathes my name and it’s my undoing.

  My breath comes out in ragged spurts as my cock tenses then blasts her full as I release into her. The way I feel about this girl is crazy. This crazy connection is odd to me and I can’t quite wrap my head around it. It’s like she genuinely cares for me, and that’s something from a woman I’ve never had.

  I collapse on top of her. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get enough of that.”

  She runs her hand down my back. “That’s good, considering I just committed to you.”

  I lean up on my elbow so I can look into her eyes. “You’re serious about that?”

  Kitten bites her lip. “Weren’t you?”

  I pin her gaze with mine. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted this. I’m a little afraid.”

  “Of what?” she whispers.

  “Of disappointing you,” I admit.

  She licks her lips and places her palm on my cheek. “Be real with me and let me in and you won’t.”

  I give her a sad smile. She has no idea what she’s asking for. “I’ll try.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  My heart squeezes as I lean down and kiss her lips. For the first time ever I find myself sleeping with someone who’s committed to me and it feels fucking amazing.

  AUBREY

  After one last kiss, I push myself away from the couch and out of Zach’s arms. I can’t believe we defined our relationship into more. It’s crazy. Never in a million years would I have ever believed Riff of Black Falcon would be the man to crave and commit to a relationship with me.

  “Where are you going?” Zach grabs my wrist.

  I turn and smile at him. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  “Okay don’t be too long.” He smirks as he smacks my bare ass.

  I giggle as I head towards the bathroom and stop short of the shattered lamp that’s still lying on the floor. His father triggers instant rage in him. I’m not sure why Zach owes his father money, but whatever the reason, it seems to tear him up every time he calls.

  “I’ll clean all that up,” Zach says behind me as he places both hands on my shoulders. “I swear I’ll replace everything I broke.”

  I nod and pat his hand. “Okay.”

  I want to bombard him with questions but I know it’s too soon. Someone like Zach cannot be pushed.

  His warm lips place a light kiss on the side of my neck. “I promise.”

  After my shower I come out of the bathroom to find my apartment clean. You would never know a wrathful hurricane came through here. The aroma of some sort of mouthwatering food fills the apartment and I find myself drawn towards it. Zach’s stands in the kitchen over my stove stirring a steaming pot.

  It’s an odd sight, really. One of the world’s hardest rockers appearing all domesticated in my kitchen, cooking dinner, no less. His rough exterior of all the tattoos makes me think more of Ozzy Osbourne than Martha Stewart. All he’s missing is a polka-dotted apron.

  He glances up and smiles when catches me watching him intently. “I figured you might be hungry after working all day.”

  “I’m starving,” I say as I sit on the stool at the bar and watch him work.

  Zach sticks a fork into the pot and brings one of the spaghetti noodles up the side and cuts it in two. “This was how my mom taught me to check if the noodles were cooked thoroughly. If they cut apart with ease, they’re done.”

  “Good tip. I wish I knew how to cook.”

  He places a strainer in my sink. “Maybe I can teach you all my mad skills. Mom taught me a ton of helpful little tips before she passed.”

  That’s the first time I’d ever heard Zach talk fondly about his mother and that makes me curious about her. “Can I ask you something?”

  He grabs the pot handles with some dishtowels and carries it over to the sink to strain the water off the noodles. “Shoot.”

  I swallow hard, knowing this might not be a place he wants to go with me yet. “What happened to her?”

  He pauses for the briefest second and then shakes the rest of the noodles out of the pot. “She killed herself soon after Hailey died.”

  I gasp and grab my chest. “I’m so sorry. That had to be hard on you.”

  He nods as he carries the pot full of strained noodles back to the stove and dumps the simmering red sauce over the noodles and begins to stir. “It was. Losing them both so close was almost more than I could bear. I almost didn’t make it myself. It was a very dark time in my life.”

  I lean my elbow up on the counter. “What brought you out of it?”

  He opens the cabinets searching for plates. “Trip mainly, and Tyke. Music—the way I could lose myself in it. It helped me forget how shitty my life was, still does to this day.”

  “Are things still bad for you now?” I wonder out loud.

  Zach shrugs as he fills two plates full. “It’s getting better, or at least right now it feels like it is.”

  I smile as he sets a plate of spaghetti in front of me. “Thank you. It looks amazing. I have to say this is a first for me.”

  He sits beside me. “What is?”

  “A man has never cooked for me before. You’re full of surprises.”

  He winks at me, like there’s more up his sleeve before taking a bite of food. “Sorry there’s no meat in it. You didn’t have any hamburger. Tomorrow I’ll go shopping for us and cook for you while I’m here. Hopefully I can teach you a thing or two.”

  “I’d like that.” I twirl a noodle around my fork and pop it into my mouth. “Mmmm. This is so good.”

  He grins. “I’m glad you like it.”

  The question of what’s happened in his past still lingers on my mind. If his mother killed herself over the grief of the loss of her daughter, why does Zach’s father blame him for their deaths? Suicide is a personal choice kind of thing. It isn’t like Zach made her do that. Something about the whole situation doesn’t add up and while he’s being so sharing I might as well try to figure out the mystery behind this man.

  “Can I ask you something else?” I ask quietly.

  Zach takes a drink of his water and says, “You can ask me anything you want and I’ll try to be as honest as I can with you.”

  “It’s about your sister...” He freezes up again at the mention of bringing up his sister again. I’m starting t
o see the pattern with that every time I ask something about her. It’s almost as if he’s afraid to talk about her. “What happened to her?”

  He sets his glass on the bar in front of us. “She died in a car crash.”

  At first I think those kinds of tragic accidents happen every day. I still don’t see how Zach’s dad blames him for any of this.

  Zach traces patterns in the condensation on the glass and I worry he’s shutting down again until he opens his mouth and continues. “There was a guy in my high school—a real know-it-all type jackass, and he kept taunting me with his flashy new Mustang. I always tried my best to ignore petty bullshit like that, but this guy was able to get under my skin like no other. He talked so much shit everyday about how his car would smoke my Camaro in a race, that one day it finally got to me.”

  This is not the story I was expecting from him and I’m perplexed on where he’s going with this. “So what happened?”

  He sighs. “I told him I’d race him after school to get him to shut the fuck up.”

  I crunch my brow. “How did that involve Hailey?”

  He stares down at the counter and takes a deep breath. “I was responsible for driving Hailey home from school. Instead of making her wait at a playground or something while I raced, I kept her in the car with me.” He frowns. “I thought she was safer with me than alone at a park. There’s so many weirdo creeps. I didn’t want one to come along and take my eight year old sister, you know.”

  My heart leaps up into my throat as everything starts clicking. Hailey’s death. The fact Zach’s sterile. “There was a crash?”

  He nods. “It was a two lane road. An oncoming car forced me off the road and I hit an embankment and the car flipped us about five times. I broke an arm and fractured my pelvis. Doctors said I was lucky to even be alive because I was so mangled. Most of the damage was on Hailey’s side, though. She was gone on impact and it was all my fault.” He sucks in a deep breath and he starts choking up. “I never meant to hurt her.”

  I rub his back and place my chin on his shoulder as my heart aches to comfort him. “I’m sorry.”

  Zach wipes away a fallen tear. “Thank you, but I don’t deserve sympathy. I should’ve died, too.”

  “You were just a kid,” I say softly. “Kids make bad choices, doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to grieve.”

  “But it’s my fault she’s dead. I’ll never be able to forgive myself for what I did. My parents never did. I killed their baby.” He sniffs.

  “Don’t say that. It was an accident,” I try to ease his burden.

  He shakes his head. “My own mother said that at my trial. She told the court to punish me to the fullest extent of the law for killing her baby.”

  I gasp and clutch my chest. “You went to jail over this, too?”

  “Juvenile prison and my license was suspended until I was twenty five, but I think they let me off light. I deserve to still be rotting in that jail cell.”

  “It was an accident, Zach. You didn’t mean to hurt her. You have to learn to forgive yourself,” I say.

  “I don’t think I ever will. The best I can hope for is little moments of forgetting, like my time with you.” He stares into my eyes. “When I’m with you, I don’t feel as shitty about my life. You give me hope that I can maybe one day be a better person.”

  I place my hand on his arm. “You’re already a good person. You have a good heart. I know that. You need to know it, too.”

  He sets his hand on mine that still rests on his forearm. “I’m trying, but deep down I think I know I don’t deserve anything good.”

  I stand and wrap my arms around his neck. He squeezes me around the waist in a tight embrace and we hold each other, connecting without words.

  This man is far more complex than I thought. I’m glad he trusts me enough to tell me his story, but I get the feeling that he hasn’t known real love in a long time, and that explains so much. It answers the question on why he’s never settled down even though he’s got a good heart.

  I’m going to show him that he’s capable of giving and receiving love. He deserves to know he can.

  Chapter 17

  RIFF

  I put away all the groceries I bought from the local shop. I’m excited. Before I leave in the next couple days, I’m going to teach Aubrey how to cook one of Mom’s specialties, chicken and noodles. Granted we aren’t making the noodles from scratch like Mom did, but these frozen ones will work out nicely.

  Waiting on Aubrey to get back from work is more difficult than I thought. I filled my days with sleeping or shopping while she’s at work, not the most glamorous tour break I’ve ever had, but it’s been the most rewarding. Our connection keeps getting better, even after day four with her—I’m still not annoyed. Matter of fact it’s the opposite. I want to spend every second with her, which is so unlike me.

  I begged her to blow off the rest of the week and spend all her time with me, but she’s too responsible for that. Center Stage is a huge advertising firm, and she explained how she’s lucky she even has a foot in the door considering how competitive it is to even get an internship there, let alone a job. She’s a secretary to some young, hot-shot type. From the way Aubrey described him, he sounds like an uptight pain in the ass.

  I could never work for a douche like that without telling him to shove his memo corrections up his ass.

  I plop down on the couch in the living room after all the stuff is stored and flip on the television. Some afternoon celebrity tabloid show pops up on the screen. It catches my eye immediately because Noel and Lanie’s faces fill the screen in a kiss while a jagged line cuts down part of the screen and shows Sophie walking with her head down. The words home wrecker flashes and my fingers tighten around the remote.

  These fucking tabloid shows never get their shit straight. The shit they tell the world is half-truths at best.

  A text message chimes into my phone. I grin as I read Aubrey’s words. “Miss you. Be there in a few minutes.”

  Never in a million years did I ever figure I would feel like this. For once in my miserable life I don’t feel like a completely evil being all the time. And Aubrey didn’t go running for the hills when I came clean about my past, which was a relief. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost this feeling so soon after getting a taste of what happiness feels like.

  The door opens and Aubrey steps through it. Her auburn hair styled into loose waves over her shoulders stand out against her gray sweater-dress. Even after eight hours of work she still looks amazing.

  “Hey,” she says with a smile. Her bright green eyes focus on me as she sets her bag down and plops down next to me on the couch and snuggles into my side. “I missed you.”

  I comb my fingers down her silky hair and then kiss her forehead. I don’t even want to think about how much I’ll miss her when I head back out on tour. I know distance is the true test of all relationships.

  “Do you want a break from cooking tonight?”

  I pull back and she peers up at me through her sexy, long eyelashes. “Why? Are you tired of my cooking already?”

  She shakes her head. “No. I thought maybe you wanted to take a break and we can go out to eat.”

  I shrug. “I’m okay with cooking, but if you want to go out, we can do that, too.”

  “There’s a place around the corner that I love—really low key, and has my favorite pizza in the whole world.”

  “Sounds good, Kitten. Anything you want.”

  She kisses my cheek. “I’m going to go get ready.”

  An hour later, she comes out of her room in jeans, a black top, and tall heels. She stops and grins as she does a little turn so I can check out her entire outfit. The black blouse dips down so low I can see the small of her back. “Jesus. Are you sure you want to go out. I’m sporting a half-wood just looking at you.”

  She grins. “Then this is perfect. I like making you wait because I don’t think you’re used to that.”

  I stan
d and wrap my arms around her, pressing myself against her. “I’m not used to anything like you.” A blush floods her cheeks. “I like that you can’t hide emotions. Your fair skin gives you away every time.”

  She giggles and kisses my lips. “I’m glad I stand out.”

  “You have no idea how much.”

  The restaurant is tiny, almost to the point that if I weren’t aware of it, I would’ve never found it. Ten small, two-person tables fill the dimly lit dining area and the rest of the space is brick ovens and kitchen. Customers picking up carryout orders stream in and out of the door in constant revolution. The heavenly aroma of melted cheese and simmering sauce surrounds us as we take out seats.

  “It smells good,” I say.

  Kitten smiles as she opens the sticky menu. “That’s because it’s awesome. Once you try it, you’ll see.”

  The dark-haired waitress wearing a red and white checkered apron pops over to our table. “What’ll it be?”

  “I’ll have a Coke,” Aubrey answers.

  “Make that two,” I add.

  The server yanks a green notepad from her apron pocket and cracks her gum. “Do you know what kind of pizza you want?”

  I glance over at Kitten. “I can eat anything, so order whatever you like.”

  “We’ll have a pepperoni with extra cheese, please.”

  The waitress scribbles the order down and says, “It’ll be out in a few.”

  The girl scurries off in the direction of the kitchen and once she’s out of earshot I turn towards Aubrey. “Did you have a good day at work?”

  She shrugs. “Same old same, you know. I did get to type up a couple memos for the Black Falcon account, so at least I was allowed to think about you all day.”

  I bite my lip and rake my eyes over her. The idea of her having dirty thoughts about me all day at work is nearly enough to make me say fuck the pizza. “What exactly was I doing in these daydreams?”