QUIVER, BOOK TWO ( A DARK ROMANCE)

by Laura Avery

  His face flashed with anger right away, his eyes burning through me with a fire I had never seen before. He kept my gaze for a second, sending a chill up and down my spine. “Jay, you better go.”

  “Ah, bro, I thought we were gonna roll up. I got that good tree-“

  “No,” Danger said, not taking his gaze away from me. “Go.”

  Jay let out a little sound of annoyance but left without further objection, knowing better than to question what Danger said. When the door slammed shut behind him Danger’s eyes are still on mine. “Do you have any idea what would happen to you if you were anyone else asking me that questions? Do you have any idea what I would do to you?”

  “Kill me?” I challenged.

  He picked up the table that sat in the middle of the room and turned it over in one swift motion, sending glass flying all over the place. The rage that filled his eyes was like nothing I’d ever seen. “Shut your mouth, Katherine. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  I knew I was on a bad path, that he was already on edge, but something inside of me couldn’t let it go. “I don’t care! You should have told me! I had friends there! What if something would have happened to one of them?”

  He laughed loudly. “Is that what this is about? Those annoying ass sluts you chill with? They’re fine.”

  “They aren’t annoying! Or sluts!” I shouted, matching his tone.

  “They don’t care about you, they aren’t loyal. You don’t know anything about the real world, Kat. Go back to bed before you piss me off even more than you already have.”

  “Did you shoot someone?” I demanded again.

  He took a few steps toward me and smashed one of the vases that my mom had sitting on the table next to the T.V. More glass went flying everywhere. I rolled my eyes. He was always breaking things when he was mad. The cops had come a few times over it, hopefully, that wouldn’t be the case tonight.

  “No, Kat. I didn’t fucking shoot anyone. Who do you think you are even asking me something like that? What the hell is wrong with you? Got me all heated. Fighting with your crazy ass like you’re my girlfriend or something. Get out of here with that bullshit.” His tatted arms bulged harder out of his body, allowing his veins to pop out.

  “I don’t care!” I screamed. “How am I supposed to know what the hell is going on with you? You think I don’t see the guns in your room or hear the drug talk? Or the way people look at you like they’re scared of you? I see it! I see it all, Danger! I’m not a stupid little kid anymore and you just never talk about it!”

  Danger’s eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of his head and he burned his face into mine with a look of shock and anger. “That’s what a fucking real man does. He doesn’t go around flashing his business and bragging about shit to the women in his life or to his family. No, I handle mine. You’ll never meet another brother like me out here! Ever! I’m one of the realest people you will ever meet.” He stomped by where I was standing and headed toward the door of the apartment, knocking a chair over as he went.

  “Go ahead! Leave! Walk away! It’s what you always do! You don’t care about me!” I shouted after him, hurt by his actions and the whole night in general. God, why did I get so emotional and irrational when it came to him? Why did I have to turn into such a crazy and emotional mess?

  He swung the door open and stopped to look back at me. His beautiful and intense features burned through me like fire. “I’m leaving because I do care and because if I stay I’m sure to say something I regret.”

  He slammed the door shut behind him and I felt the tears start.

  I couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard I tried. My pulse wouldn’t stop racing no matter how many times I tried to control it. I keep getting out of bed to look out the window at the street below us, thinking that maybe I’d see Danger somewhere down there in the midst of people. I wanted to go and look for him myself but I knew better than to go outside on the street alone at this time of night.

  I had tried to call him a few times but got no answer. I hated when we ended up fighting and saying a bunch of bullshit that we didn’t mean. I knew I pushed his buttons and made him angry, but he did the same to me. Still, this blowout had been pretty bad. The worse one in a while, I knew he hated when I would ask about club business, but it was hard for me to help it. Especially on nights like tonight when something real had gone down.

  I just hated the way he treated me like a little girl still. He refused to see what was happening right before his very eyes. I appreciated that he wanted to protect me but he was going to have to let me learn on my own one day, I wasn’t as sheltered to it as he thought. The things I had seen might surprise him. Still, I couldn’t stop myself from crying since he had walked out and slammed the door in my face, leaving me all alone.

  It was like that every time he left me. As annoyed as I got with him and as much as I told myself I hated him the truth was a different story. The truth was that I had an attachment to him I couldn’t quite define and when I wasn’t around it I missed it in a way. I didn’t miss the secrets he carried around or how he treated me like a baby, but I did miss his presence. I did miss the feeling of comfort that came over me when I was around him. It was one I had never experienced with any other boy in my life.

  I looked outside one more time and then creep slowly up the hall toward his bedroom. I creak the door open slowly, peeking inside. I knew I shouldn’t be in here, but something about it made me feel better. I tiptoed over to his bed, pulling back the covers and climbing inside. I pulled them up to my chin and let the warmth drift over my body.

  I wasn’t sure how long I lay there, staring at his ceiling before I heard him come home. It could have been minutes, or it could have been hours. I just knew that it was long enough for the sun to start to rise somewhere far off in the distance.

  He stopped in the doorway when he saw me in his bed and I met his eyes. His handsome features were magnified in the morning light and I felt my heart start to speed up in my chest at the sight of him. I studied his face and I knew that he had forgiven me. I knew any anger that had come over him earlier was gone now. He was just as ready to make up as I was.

  He sighed and unzipped the leather jacket he had on, pulling it off to reveal his inked arms and muscles bulging out of his t-shirt. He tossed it on his dresser and made his way over to the bed, pulling the covers back and crawling in next to me.

  I found my heart starting to speed up at his closeness. How could I find someone so annoying and sexy at the same time? Neither of us said anything for a second; we just lay face to face taking one another in. I’d crept into his room before when I couldn’t sleep. It felt safe to me like nothing could go wrong if I was next to him. He might not have been willing to see me as an adult but he did always protect me, I would give him that.

  “Katherine,” he whispered, using my full name.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, nudging myself closer to him. “I should have never asked you that. I should have never accused you of that or talked to you the way I did.”

  “I’m sorry, too,” he said. “There’s no excuse for me to come at you that way, you just always manage to get under my skin in the worst way. There are things you don’t understand, things that don’t make much sense even to me. How can I explain things to you if I haven’t figured them out myself yet?”

  I moved even closer to him, hating myself for needing to feel his closeness. “But you have to understand some things. You can tell me some things.”

  He shook his head in the darkness of his room. “No, I can’t. You still don’t get it after all this time. I keep secrets from you guys to protect you. It’s better that way.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “I just wish you wouldn’t treat me like such a child all the time. I’m 18 now. I’ve grown up, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  He smiled and reached up to push my hair out of my face. “Trust me, I’ve noticed, and so have my brothers.”

  I felt a thrill shoot thr
ough me at the compliment. It could have been me but I swore a hint of jealousy flashed through his eyes. “Jealous?” I challenged.

  “Don’t be cute,” he said with a smirk. “We’re fine, go to bed.”

  I sighed and moved myself closer to him, trying to nuzzle deeper into his smooth skin.

  And that’s when I felt it.

  How hard he was through his pants.

  Danger smiled sheepishly at me. “Sorry, it’s morning.”

  He moved himself away from me a little bit, to my disappointment.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered.

  Something about the fact that he was turned on and such a short distance away from me pleased me. It made me want to please him, it made me want to show him just how grown up I really was.

  I moved myself closer to him again so his hard member was pressing up against me. He raised his eyebrows at me, clearly wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

  But I didn’t care.

  When I was younger I would think about the girls he hooked up with. About how beautiful they were to get him that excited, to get him to want them that bad, but I never thought I would be one of them. I never thought I would be this close to him when he was turned on in any way.

  Before I could lose my nerve I took my hand and slipped it under the covers. I was just about to rub my fingers over the tip that was sticking straight up in his pants when he grabbed my hand, pulling it away.

  “Kat,” he said. “Stop.”

  I pulled out of his grasp and rolled my eyes. “I just want to feel it. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Yes it is,” he told me.

  But this time when I reached for it again, he didn’t stop me and I started rubbing it slowly through his pants. I took my fingers and massaged the tip of it back and forth. Then I took my fingers and ran them up and down the length of it, slow at first and then faster.

  I felt it start to rise even more in his pants and a sense of satisfaction washed over me. I pretend that I’m just rubbing it and in the process pop the button of his jeans open, slowly working the zipper down with each stroke of my hand. By the time he realized what I had done my hand was already inside of his pants.

  “You have to stop,” he gasped, making no reach to stop me.

  “I just want to see it,” I informed him. “Please?”

  He didn’t answer for a second, too busy enjoying the pleasure I was giving him through his boxers. “Okay,” he moaned. “Just to look.”

  I smiled in satisfaction and stuck my hand inside of his boxers, pulling his hard cock out. Just stroking it with my bare hand I could tell how huge it was. It was so long and thick that I could barely fit my hand around half of it. I took my time jerking him off, rotating between going fast and slow until I was sure he was nice and turned on. I nuzzled my face into his chest while I stroked it, letting my face get lower and lower. I could feel his heart starting to race fast in his broad chest from being so worked up.

  “Danger,” I whispered.

  He moaned loudly.

  I dipped my head under the blanket, not waiting for a further response. I started at the bottom and licked his huge scope all the way up to the top then took it in my mouth slowly, starting to work it in and out while I moaned. Something about knowing I had my stepbrother’s cock in my mouth was a turn on and I started working it faster in and out of my mouth, going crazy on it. Danger let out a moan from above the covers and I groaned back in satisfaction, happy that I was making him feel so good.

  After a few minutes, his hand crept down under the blanket and took me by the back of my head. I stopped and let him guide me, letting him move my head up and down really fast for a few minutes. He pulled my head off of him slowly and I opened wide knowing what he wanted. He stuck his cock in my mouth and shoved it so far down my mouth that I could feel it in my throat. I kept it there for as long as I could, working it in and out, moaning.

  “Fuck, Kat,” he moaned loudly. “You take it so fucking deep.”

  I grunted in satisfaction and shoved it even further in my mouth.

  “Fuck,” he said, practically yelling. “Yeah, right there, good girl.”

  I kept going faster and faster; taking his praise in with pleasure.

  “You’re gonna make me fucking cum, Kat.”

  I went faster and faster, waiting.

  “I’m going to bust so hard, Kat. I want you to swallow every drop, baby.”

  I got so happy when he called me baby that I got another surge of energy and started going even faster. After a few more seconds he exploded in my mouth and I swallowed every drop just like he said. I put my head on his chest, gasping as my breath came back. I could feel his heart racing and I loved listening to it as it beat slower and slower coming back down to normal.

  “Fuck,” he said. “That was so good. It was wrong but so fucking good.”

  I grinned into his chest. It might have been wrong but I didn’t even care.

  I was guessing I wasn’t so little to him anymore.

  PART TWO

  JENNIFER

  Trigger Ford was the sexiest man in our city and he knew it, too. He pounced around on the streets like he owned them, like a dog on the prowl for anyone who was trying to come into his territory. His tan skin was smooth and silky, his hair and facial hair always perfectly trim, and his deep brown eyes always intense. His style was flawless. Always dressed head to toe in nice clothes, the nicest brands on his body.

  He demanded attention every place he went, not by any fault of his own, just by his looks and power alone. I had spent all of high school watching him from afar, watching him lead the boys around him, and watching him dominate half of the girls in our school. Everybody worshiped him, so, of course, he had no idea who I was.

  I was never what you would consider popular in high school. Bigger than most of the other girls, it was rare for me to get much if any attention from boys. It had bothered me when I was younger, but in my later years, I was happy to be ignored. Being ignored was better than being made fun of. Being ignored was better than being a hoe. I never wanted to be one of those girls that would use their chest or body to get what they wanted from guys.

  The worst I got was a few rude comments about my weight. I had never been loud and outgoing like most of the girls around my neighborhood, too shy to be that aggressive with others. I wasn’t even that outgoing with people I was close to, let alone strangers.

  By the last year of high school, I felt invisible. My mom had worked hard to get her lift back on track after her battle with alcohol and drugs. After years of struggles, being broke and high, and putting us in the sketchiest situations she had finally had a breakthrough when her sister had died two years earlier from cancer. My Aunt Tammy had been my mom’s best friend, the one person who would never give up on her.

  After Tammy’s death, my mom really straightened up, getting off anything that wasn’t organic, and going back to work at a local nursing home. She worked her ass off trying to give us the best but once you’re in dangerous situations, it’s hard to get out, almost impossible. In the end, we were able to move out of the crack head complex I had grown up in with my little sisters, but only to a slightly better apartment a few blocks over. My mom was still working hard to get us further out of the inner city, though. I had a lot of respect for my mom even though she had put me through a lot of hardships. At least she was around. Unlike my father, who had split as soon as he found out my mom was having a baby. I had no idea who he even was. I could have walked by him on the street tomorrow and never known it.

  Anyway, once we were in our new neighborhood, I was left alone more.

  It was safer and more stable: fewer people around willing to sell their soul for something shiny and new.

  But I didn’t care about other people selling their soul. I was only worried about my soul and the souls of my family. That was why I had busted my ass in high school to get a scholarship to attend the local university. Most kids in my school didn’t take much seri
ous. Our graduation rate was one of the lowest in the state, but I had never wanted to be a victim. Never wanted to be a white trash welfare baby who never made any money of her own, so I had busted my butt.

  Better for me to keep my mouth shut and take everything about getting my diploma as serious as I could. Someone who didn’t take school seriously, though, was Trigger. I never saw him open a book, he barely listened in class, looking bored and like he couldn’t be bothered with anything else about coming to school besides the fact that he could flirt with girls.

  We were from different worlds, him from the popular crowd, leading everyone, and filled with power. Not just at school, but on the streets too. Me, from the handful of losers who circled the halls lusting after him and his sexy friends, knowing that after high school I would never be in contact with someone that perfect again.

  Which is why I was surprised to see him on my first day of college.

  But there he was when I opened the door and headed into my first class of the day.

  Sitting in the back row like it made perfect sense.

  I felt my heart start to quicken in my chest at the sight of him. Dressed in black jeans and a white t-shirt, his signature leather jacket across his back, just like the last time I had seen him, on the last day of my senior year. The only difference was that he looked even more handsome in just a few short months if that was possible.

  I forced myself to take my eyes off of him, picking a seat in the very front of the room. I busied myself taking my notebooks and books out of my old bookbag, trying to make sense out of what the hell he could be doing there.

  I knew he wouldn’t remember me. We had never even talked in high school. Still, something about him being there bothered me. It hadn’t felt right. I had spent the bus ride over here thinking about how college was a fresh start for me. No one here knew me; no one knew where I was from, or about my family drama. I wasn’t the same shy girl no one looked at twice; I could be anyone I wanted.