Forbidden Crush

by Cole, Cassie

  “You’ll have to use your imagination for the last two days,” I teased.

  He grinned wolfishly. “Then I’d better start saving up some memories.”

  I squealed as he rolled me over and took me a second time, all worries about my credit card a distant memory.

  34

  Hawk

  I’d always had a strong will. When I set my mind to something, not even hell could divert my path.

  But Charlotte had a way of tearing down my willpower and replacing it with her flowery scent.

  I’d been trying to keep her away for her own good. It was harsh, but ultimately necessary. I knew it was the right thing to do. There were a hundred reasons to do it.

  But I couldn’t keep myself away. Not even for an hour after telling her that last night in my barn had to be a one-time thing, I was here knocking on her motel door and ripping her clothes off. I should have felt embarrassed about it. Instead, I felt satisfied. Even now, soon after we had finished, my cock swelled for her again.

  What is happening to me?

  I knew the answer. It was an obvious truth I’d been ignoring these past weeks. Charlotte wasn’t just some hot piece of ass I was fucking to pass the time. She was much more than that.

  I was in love with Charlotte.

  Deeply, madly, crazy in love with her. The kind of love that coats a man’s bones and strengthens him like steel.

  It would only lead to one of us getting hurt, I knew. She was going to leave. I could never let her love me back since I was a dead man. Even if we drove as far west as west went, I would never be truly safe. Not while Sid was alive.

  Staying with her every night was building a storm within my soul that would eventually break. It might destroy me.

  I didn’t care. Fuck the consequences.

  The only thing that was real was the way Charlotte felt underneath my grasp.

  I kissed her hard and rolled her onto her side, then grinded up against her plump ass. She let out a gasp as my cock slid in between her legs and past her pussy, which was already sopping wet again. I moved back and forth on our sides like this, allowing the head of my cock to rub against her clit. Fake-fucking her while she squirmed and sighed.

  It was every bit as torturous to me as it was for her.

  Finally when I couldn’t stand it, I pulled back a little farther and then thrust up into her. Charlotte’s pussy lips parted for my dick, which was as hard as the steel I welded in my workshop.

  The way she felt, and the way she melted underneath me, almost made me come right then and there.

  I wrapped my arms around her and held her against my chest while she closed her eyes and moaned, savoring the way I filled her. I nuzzled against the back of her neck and growled in her ear, “I wish I could fuck you all night.”

  She twisted her head, lips searching for mine, and her tongue was wet and warm in my mouth.

  I stayed inside of her without moving for a long kiss, until she began pushing her hips back against me. Urging me on. I would have loved to tease her some more but it wasn’t my choice. There was a wild animal inside my chest that would not allow me to hold back. It demanded that I fuck her, ravage her, fill her with my seed.

  It was more than just physical. She belonged to me.

  And even though it was more than just physical, for now it didn’t matter. Both of us could pretend.

  I fucked her slowly, taking my time, because she was mine.

  35

  Charlotte

  Day by day, my remaining community service hours dwindled. I stopped keeping track, because for once I didn’t mind the days spent in Eastland. Time flew while having someone like Hawk to talk to while we worked.

  And someone like him to share my bed at night.

  We were getting good at it. We were daring, even. The next night Hawk parked his bike around the back of the motel and came in through my bathroom window. He never said a word—he just removed his shirt, then his pants, and made love to me like he’d been waiting for it all day.

  The next night I met him down the street after dark, hopping into his truck and ducking down to avoid being seen as he drove me back to his barn, and then after a night of sex—before bed, awoken twice in the middle of the night, and then once more before the sun rose—he drove me back to the motel.

  The danger of knowing the Copperheads could show up at any moment didn’t deter me. If anything, it added another layer of excitement. It gave our vigorous lovemaking a sense of urgency.

  Sex was incredible when you thought it might be your last time.

  Fortunately, the Copperheads didn’t bother Hawk. Word around town was they were moving extra loads of meth back and forth from Macon, which was why they were mostly out of sight except for the few Copperheads who were left behind. Soon it began to seem like Hawk might make it to the end of his community service after all. Especially if I could convince him to leave once it was done.

  But for now, despite all the talk of keeping it physical without any strings attached, we were like a new couple who couldn’t keep our hands off one-another.

  One day we were picking up trash on the far end of town when a thunderstorm came out of nowhere and dumped on us. Hundreds of yards from the truck, we abandoned our trash bags and laughed while sprinting into the surrounding forest where the thick canopy above shielded us from the worst of the rain. I clung to Hawk’s body for warmth, and he began kissing me.

  “I want you,” he growled in my ear.

  “Oh?”

  “I want you the way a wolf wants to hunt,” he said in a deep whisper. “You’re a drug, Peaches, but without any kind of crash.”

  I kissed him deeply on the mouth. “Maybe you just haven’t gotten that far yet.”

  He grinned. “I doubt it.”

  He bent me over against a tree and pulled down my cut-offs and panties. I pressed my cheek against the wet bark of the tree as I heard him removing his belt and unzipping his jeans. He entered me in one passionate thrust, and I gasped at the way he filled me so completely. It made me realize just how empty I had been moments before without him.

  Hawk took me fast and hard, and there was nobody around for miles to hear my screams of ecstasy.

  The rain faded enough for us to run back to the truck for cover, but not enough for us to retrieve our trash bags and resume cleaning the road. Hawk opened a big bag of Doritos and we relaxed while passing it back and forth.

  “You’ve never said much about your parents,” I said while munching on some chips. He shrugged.

  “Not much to say.”

  “I take it they don’t live in Eastland?” I asked. “Otherwise I’m sure you would have introduced us by now.”

  He looked at me. “You didn’t see them?”

  “Your parents? Not that I’m aware…” I gasped. “Wait. Flop and his ex aren’t your parents, are they? That would explain why you were sick of his Vietnam stories.”

  I expected him to laugh and quickly deny it. But he said with a stone-face, “The gravestones. They were next to my sister’s.”

  My heart exploded, clumped back together with duct tape and super glue, and then sank down into my gut. “Oh no!”

  “It’s alright.”

  I put down the bag of chips and twisted to face him. “Hawk! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know.”

  “Seriously, Peaches. It’s fine. They’ve been gone 15 years.”

  He didn’t offer to explain how they had died, and since I had already put my foot in my mouth, I didn’t ask. I rubbed his arm. “Aww. You’re an orphan. Like Annie!”

  “Or like Batman,” he said with a small smile. “I’m a lot more like Batman.”

  I leaned over to hug him tightly. He tolerated it but didn’t hug me back. “Whatever you say, Annie.”

  He groaned.

  Scott called again while we waited. Once again, I let it go to voicemail and then ignored his angry follow-up texts. I’d gotten at least 100 of them in the past day. They were all the same: demanding tha
t I remove the purchase dispute from my credit card, asking why I was being so unreasonable, calling me a selfish person for torpedoing the business we had worked so hard to build.

  He never called me names. Scott wasn’t the type who needed to. His manipulative nature, insisting that I was the one at fault, was much worse than calling me a bitch.

  But I was finally seeing through it. The texts that once would have crippled me with guilt registered only as amusing evidence that I had done the right thing.

  We went back to picking up trash half an hour later, which was a lot more annoying while stomping through giant rain puddles on the side of the road. We worked in silence for a while.

  “Is that what the other tattoo is?” I suddenly asked.

  Hawk frowned but didn’t look up from his work. “Do what now?”

  “The 3194 is for your sister’s birthday.” I leaned over and poked his other arm. “What’s significant about 8233? Is it one of your parent’s birthdays?”

  He scratched at his beard. “So like, August 2nd, 1933? Your math’s a little off, Peaches. My parents weren’t that old.”

  “Grandparents then?” I wondered out loud. “Or some other notable anniversary?”

  He pointed at me with his stick. “Someday, if you get a few drinks in me, maybe I’ll tell you.”

  “I only have a few days left in Eastland.”

  “Then I guess you’ll never know.” He narrowed his eyes. “And it’s a good secret, too.”

  “Aww, man!”

  We were glossing over the uncomfortable truth: that my time here was coming to an end. Which meant our fun little “it’s totally a fling and nothing more” relationship was also nearing its conclusion.

  But Hawk didn’t seem bothered by it, so maybe he was telling the truth that it meant nothing to him. Some meaningless sex to pass the time.

  Hawk paid for my dinner that night at the diner. It was the same arrangement as before: we sat in separate booths, back-to-back, and whispered to each other while eating. Together and separate at the same time, which was an amusing microcosm for our not-relationship as a whole. Mindy muttered under her breath about how we were both damn fools as she delivered our food. Deep down, I knew she was right.

  But deep down, I also didn’t care.

  The next two nights were like the previous: sneaking away with Hawk, screwing until we were too tired to move, and falling asleep in each other’s arms. Then came the night before my final day of community service. We continued our routine as if nothing was different: he picked me up from the motel, I fondled him through his jeans while crouched down in his truck, and then he ravaged me with his animal-like passion in his barn.

  There was something different in his kisses that night. The way he cradled my face while driving into me on the bed, the look at the back of his eyes. Like he wanted to make sure he didn’t forget tonight.

  I wrapped my legs around him, holding him inside me as deep as my lady parts would allow. I wanted to make sure he didn’t forget tonight either.

  Looking back on it, I never would forget that night. Not because it was my last night with Hawk.

  Because it was the night I learned the truth.

  36

  Charlotte

  “How long did you work as a welder?” I asked in that perfect moment after sex, when the bed was a tangle of legs and sheets.

  “Hmm. Seven years.”

  “Do you miss it?”

  Hawk snorted. “I thought I did, at first. After having a nine-to-five job for most of a decade, I didn’t know what to do with myself when I woke up in the morning. But I don’t think it was the job itself I missed. It was the steady paycheck. There’s somethin’ to be said for consistency, ya know?”

  I let out a long, emotional sigh. “You’re talking to someone who was self-employed. I’d kill for a consistent paycheck.”

  “So you don’t miss it either, Peaches?”

  I shrugged, which rubbed my shoulder against his beard. “I miss parts of it. I liked working with people. It’s immensely satisfying making food with your hands, selling it, and then watching people eat it happily. But 16 hour days just to get to that point? I don’t miss that at all.”

  “Then what do you want to do when you leave here?” he asked.

  “That’s the question my parents have been asking.” I poked him in the ribs, which made him grunt. “How does it feel to sound like my dad?”

  “Just making conversation, Peaches.”

  “My degree is in business. I can do a lot with that.”

  “I didn’t ask what you can do,” he pointed out. His fingers caressed through my hair in a soft scalp massage. “I asked what you want to do.”

  “I wish I knew!” I let out a frustrated laugh. “I’ve already lived out my dream of starting my own food truck, a dream which has been thoroughly dispelled. I’ve been trying not to think about it. I’ll worry about it when I get home. By then, I’ll have all the hours in the day to decide.”

  I cringed at the mention of leaving Eastland and going home, and expected it to spark a discussion about the end of our fling. But Hawk didn’t seem to notice.

  “Nothing wrong with waiting until you’re sure,” he agreed. “Hey. Did that deposit go through?”

  “Oh! Let me check.” I reached across Hawk’s nude, muscle-covered body to grab my phone. A few taps on the banking app and I groaned. The money my parents had deposited into my bank account still hadn’t arrived. Money I needed to pay my remaining motel balance, the car parking fees, and all the court fees I would have to pay to verify that I’d completed my community service hours.

  “How long’s it supposed to take?” Hawk asked.

  “They said up to seven days. Momma said it should only take three. Tomorrow will be day four.”

  “What time’s your meeting with Judge Asshole?”

  “Noon, on the nose,” I said. After scraping together extra hours on the weekends, I only had three hours of community service remaining. Less than half a day, which I could knock out tomorrow morning. Then I was meeting with Judge Benjamin to verify everything and officially release me of my obligation. “Maybe the money will be deposited in the morning.”

  “If not, you’re in trouble. If you give the sheriff a check that bounces, he’s gonna tack on a whole bunch of penalties. Maybe even get the judge to fuck you over with more community service. Hell,” Hawk added, “the judge might decide you haven’t been properly rehabilitated, and give you another 120 hours of community service just for shits and grins. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s fucked someone over like that.”

  I shoved him playfully. “You should be comforting me, not giving me more reasons to freak out!”

  “Just being honest with you, Peaches. If you want me to tell you sweet lies, I can do that too.”

  I stretched out across his body and sighed. “As tempting as ignorance sounds, it’s best that I’m prepared. At least now I can maybe convince the sheriff to wait a few days before depositing my check.”

  Hawk got a funny look on his face, and then kissed me on the crown of my head. “Wait here. I need to get something.”

  He climbed out of bed, giving me a nice show of his legs and butt. I was pretty sure he was flexing his cheeks as he put on his jeans, but I didn’t mind one bit. “Where are you going?”

  “It’s a surprise. Don’t go anywhere, gorgeous.” He flashed me a sexy smile before disappearing out the door.

  His vague comments only made me more curious, as if it was a fun little game. I jumped out of bed, threw on my jean and one of Hawk’s t-shirts, and hopped into my shoes on the way to the door.

  It was a clear night, and the animals of the forest were chirping and croaking loudly. I squinted into the darkness, scanning the trees for Hawk. There, to my right: the bright cone of a flashlight scanning the ground in the woods. Moving away from me.

  I followed quietly. The ground was still soft from the recent rain, which deadened my footsteps on the little trail thr
ough the woods. I don’t know how far into the trees he went, but I followed him for about a minute before he stopped and shone the light straight down on the ground. He crouched low, which caused the cone of the flashlight to shrink to a small circle.

  I don’t know what I expected as I drew closer. Since it was our last night together, part of me hoped it was a going-away present. A metal wind chime he’d built in his workshop, or something to that affect. Something sweet. What else would he put in the woods outside his barn?

  Hawk whirled his head when he heard me approach his little spot. He relaxed, then tensed. “Peaches. I told you to wait.”

  “I wanted to see where you were skulking out to in the middle of the night.” On the ground next to him was the top of a wooden crate buried in the dirt. He’d removed it, revealing a hollow cube of wood in the ground. “What’s going on?”

  He held up a tight roll of $20 bills held with a wide rubber band. “My retirement fund. This is to cover your expenses tomorrow if your deposit doesn’t come through. That should be $1,000. You can pay me back in the bedroom once my strength returns.”

  “That’s sweet,” I said. I meant it, too, at first. Then I got a look at the hole itself. Inside was a single gallon-sized ziplock bag filled with other rolls of cash. As the cone of the flashlight passed over it I saw rolls of $20, $50, and $100 bills.

  “Geez, Hawk. You really did steal from the Copperheads, didn’t you?”

  It was a joke. A lighthearted jab between two lovers who spent all day teasing each other. It couldn’t be the Copperhead money. It was probably just where Hawk hid his savings since there wasn’t a bank in this crummy little town.

  But Hawk tensed. Only for a moment, but by now I knew him well enough to notice it immediately.

  “Hah, right,” he said back. But it was too late. I’d seen the hesitation before he laughed it off. The way he clenched his jaw.