by Nicole Fox
“Only one bed,” she commented. My mouth twitched a little.
“Is that a problem?”
She looked over her shoulder at me, as if she were trying to figure something out. I simply shrugged out of my kutte, hanging it neatly over the back of the motel chair. I walked up to her.
“It’s only got one bed because I don’t room with anyone,” I explained. “Though I’m not opposed to sharing if you aren’t. If you are, I can sleep in the chair.”
Her eyes glanced over to it, as if she were considering it. Eventually, she shrugged.
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
It sounded like it was, but I didn’t press. It didn’t even sound like it was the bad sort of a big deal, either. I figured if I left it alone, it couldn’t bite me in the ass.
While Ana surveyed the room, as if she expected it to arch up and eat her whole, I kicked off my shoes and started to undress. It seemed to gain her attention when I got to my pants.
“What are you doing?”
I raised a brow.
“Getting undressed? We’re riding out early in the morning and, unlike those asshole out there, I’m not partying; I’ll be dragging them out of their rooms and tossing them on their bikes, bright and sunny.”
“You’re taking off your clothes.”
“That’s usually what you do before you sleep. Is it going to bother you if I sleep like this?”
I saw how her eyes roamed over me. I didn’t think it was a problem—not the normal kind, at least. When she didn’t answer me, I shrugged and folded up my clothes to leave them on the chair with my kutte. I usually slept naked, but didn’t figure I’d push it.
“I’m honestly not trying to do anything funny,” I told her. “This is how I sleep.”
With that, I slipped into the bed. It wasn’t perfect, but it was more comfortable than most hotel beds. Ana still stood a little awkwardly, as if she wasn’t sure about what to do. I sat up a bit.
“We’ve been riding all day, and you were walking for who the fuck knows how long before we picked you up. You’ve gotta be tired.” I could see the bags under her eyes that proved that.
“Yeah.”
I pat the bed beside me.
“Come on. I won’t bite—unless you ask me to.”
To my pleased surprise, she cracked a small smile.
“I think I’m good.”
She kicked off her shoes, too, and made her way over to the bed. I raised my brow at the fact that she didn’t get into something more comfortable.
“Are you going to be able to sleep like that? I asked.
“I’ve slept in less comfortable things.”
That made me want to ask, but I didn’t. I just watched her as she slid onto the bed and then under the covers. She looked unsure of herself. Still a little hesitant. I nudged her.
“Hm?”
“It’s gonna be good having you back,” I said. “So much has changed. Like you. You’re so different.”
She stared at me, biting her lip. The way it swelled beneath her teeth made me want to lean forward and kiss those pouty lips, but I held back. No matter what it was I wanted right now, I could at least see that she was still a little apprehensive. Still on edge. Still unsure. Maybe when she got a little more comfortable ...maybe I could try ...
“Yeah. A lot has changed.”
I wondered if that had anything to do with her name, or just her in general. Was it a pointed reminder to me? Fuck if I knew. I had so many damn questions, but I kept them to myself. Baby steps.
I reached over her, clicked off the light, and settled against the pillows. They were comfortable, despite the cheap motel. My arms went under my head, and I was almost asleep when Ana shifted beside me. I thought she might be getting up or just moving away, but that wasn’t the case. She scooted closer to me, snuggling herself against me and wrapping her arms around me (as much as she could manage, at least. She was a tiny thing and I wasn’t called ‘Grizzly’ for nothing.)
I smiled at how warm and soft she was and didn’t even think twice about wrapping my arm around her to draw her close and keep her close.
# # #
I didn’t intend to wake up the way I did. I couldn’t control my body, and I was just a man, after all. So the boner that I woke with early the next morning was one hundred percent not my fault.
It was still dark out. It would be a little while before I actually needed to start getting the boys up and out and hitting the road. We still had a stretch of way to go, and maybe if we were lucky, we’d get back home by sundown, or maybe sooner. I could have easily gone back to sleep for another hour or two, but ...
Ana was pressed against me, her rear snug against my morning wood. She seemed still deep under, snuggled against her pillow the same way her ass snuggled up on my crotch.
I wasn’t going to do anything about it, especially not while she was still asleep. I had standards, after all. But that didn’t mean that I wasn’t affected when she wiggled and jigged her ass against me in her sleep.
Fuck.
I scooted away from her a little, only to have her scoot closer to me again, closing the space that had been made between us. She settled against me again, exactly the way she had been before. Maybe even closer. It didn’t really matter either way to my dick. There was something soft and warm and squishy up against it, and Ana’s body just felt so fucking right.
God, give me strength.
With another sigh and shake of my head—because if she was any other girl, I’d have rolled her over, woken her up, and ridden her until she was screaming my name—I put my hands on her tiny little waist and literally moved her away from me, putting her on the other side of the bed. For her own good. For my own good.
The logic was fucking weird, because the logic should have been that I was getting in on her ... I missed her. There hadn’t been a day when we were younger that I hadn’t wanted her heart and her body. She was honestly the most stunning girl I had ever met. She still was. Duchess ... Ana ... whatever the hell it was she was going to call herself these days.
I decided to get up. I needed a leak and a breather.
I went to the bathroom and did my business. Coming out, I shrugged on my clothes and my kutte and went out for a smoke. No one was around, and that didn’t surprise me. Our hall was silent, like it was a graveyard, and all my boys sure as fuck slept like the dead.
I was gone fifteen, maybe twenty minutes tops. I liked to walk while I smoked; it felt like something a little better to do than just stand around like I had a finger up my ass or something. I’d smoked my cig down to the butt and put it out before I got back inside the motel.
When I got back to the room, I was surprised to see the lights on and Ana sitting up in the bed. She was blinking, and she looked cute as all hell when she was tired.
“You left,” she muttered as I stepped in, closing the door behind me.
“I went for a smoke,” I explained. “It’s still early. Come on. Back to bed for now.”
I undressed again, not keen on sleeping in my clothes like Ana apparently was fine with doing. Without thinking, when I got back to the bed, I leaned over, kissing Ana on the forehead. It was just a goodnight—good morning?—gesture, but it seemed to spark something.
Ana turned her head up to me as I pulled away. Even through her sleep there was something there.
“Griz ...”
I leaned down when she leaned up, our lips not crashing, but they were damn sure eager to kiss. She sighed against me, and as her lips parted, I deepened the kiss. She tasted like heaven and candy. Her lips were supple. It was like a first kiss a thousand times over, without all the clumsy bullshit—we were adults. We knew our way around.
Her hands slid to my chest and pulled me in closer. I moved in, until I was over her. I couldn’t get enough of kissing her and pressed close—close enough that I felt every inch of her against me, every curve. If I thought my little smoke break had helped my morning situation, I was dead-ass wron
g. It was back. Full force. Snug between her legs and those little short shorts she wore—
“Wait.”
The fog of it all dissipated at that word. Wait. And then she was pulling away while she was pushing away, and I was moving away from her, too. I didn’t want to trap her. I wasn’t gonna be that guy. But, damn, if it wasn’t a frustration-and-a-half for my cock. My brain, though, that’s what caught up with me.
“Is something wrong? Too fast? I—”
“I just—it’s early,” she said. She nodded her head. Her face was flushed scarlet. It was a good color on her, I had to admit. Good color for me to have pulled up and brought out.
Focus, jackass.
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s early.”
“And, uhm. We’re gonna be riding out in a little while, yeah?”
I was confused.
“Uhm ... Yeah.”
“Yeah. Then we probably shouldn’t start something. And it’s ... It’s really soon, Griz.”
Ahh.
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”
I had never started something and not finished it. Girls never told me no. Deals always went my way. But here I was, not finishing what probably would have been a mind-blowing morning. Fuck.
Ana settled down beside me, and I couldn’t tell if it was awkward, but I felt that it wasn’t, so I decided to roll with it. I pulled her close to me again. I ignored how badly I wanted to turn her over and start kissing her again—at least this time.
After all ... I’d felt how she’d kissed me. She wanted me. Lots of women wanted me, but the difference with this one and all those others is that I actually wanted her back. Always had. I’d give her this one—but I wouldn’t let her get away again.
“Griz ... Griz ...”
She sat on top of me, rocking her full hips. Her hands were on my chest, her nails digging into my skin. It felt so good. She was so hot and tight, and she rode me like she’s always wanted me inside her—like her pussy was made for having me fucking her.
I bucked up into her. I held her hips in my hands and let my nails dig into her skin to mark her up real good. Feet planted into the bed, I hit deep and hard, cock pulsing. She screamed my name.
Feeling how hot and wet she was, was like having Heaven wrapped around my dick. My head went back, and I fucked her harder. Faster. I wanted nothing more than to cum inside her and mark her once and for all as mine.
“Ana ... Ana ...” Duchess. Ana. Whatever her name was, whatever she was going by now, for whatever reason, I called it out to the room. Let her hear how good she made me feel as she writhed like a little kitten in heat on top of my cock.
“Fuck, Ana. Fuck. Just like that. Jjust like that baby. I. I—”
“Griz ... Griz ...”
No.
I drove into her hard, clinging to the feeling as consciousness threatened to pull me away from the fantasy.
“Griz. You’re squeezing too tightly.”
I blinked. I wasn’t having sex with Ana. I was, however, wrapped around her. Tightly. In my motel room. We weren’t fucking, but I damn sure wished we were. I wished she would wake up properly, feeling how hard I was for her and feeling how badly I wanted her, and let me mount her and claim her like she’d always been mine—
But her face snuggled into the pillow, instead, and I loosened my hold on her while keeping my arms over her. She relaxed and sighed.
“Mmm. Night, Griz.”
“Night ... Ana.”
Yeah. Night. I didn’t know if I would get much real sleeping with this unintentional vixen in my arms, but I damn sure knew that, sooner or later, that dream would be reality, and I’d have my little Duchess screaming my name.
Chapter Four Ana
It felt right to sleep next to him. It felt right to kiss him. It felt right going back to sleep and having his arms wrapped warm and tight around me, like there weren’t five years of heartbreak and changes between us. It felt ... so damn right. It shouldn’t have, but it did.
I only slept a little bit after Grizzly came back. I’d fallen into a deep sleep at some point, pulled out of it when he’d been so tightly wrapped around me. I hadn’t gone back to sleep all the way after that. I was too hyperaware of how he still kept hold of me, even if he wasn’t squeezing me hard—like he was afraid to let go of me, or was still protecting me, or something.
Mostly I just laid there, listening to him breath. His chest rose and fell, moving me, but I liked the steady rhythm of it and I liked the feel of his heartbeat against my back. I could remember nights back in the day, when it was Rodent’s bed that I was in, Rodent’s arms that wrapped around me, and Rodent’s mouth on my neck as he coaxed me awake for a morning screw. There had been a time when I loved that, but towards the end, it had always been Grizzly I wanted touching me, owning me ...
I wasn’t the kind of woman to just walk out on her baby’s father, however. Especially not for a man who was that father’s best friend.
I thought that I had gotten over Grizzly, just like I’d gotten over Rodent. Just like I’d gotten over losing the baby I had thought would ... I didn’t know. Bring us back together, somehow, the way normal, real couples were brought back together when they’d made a precious little miracle together. There was nothing miraculous about me and Rodent being together. He’d started slipping, and I’d started falling for someone else, and then all hell had broken loose—
While it was still dim outside, I rolled over. Grizzly was still asleep. I wondered how much longer that would last. While he slept, I watched him. He was still so handsome, every bit of man I had fallen for and more, now. He was a president now. He ran the Butchers. It was hard to go anywhere this side of the border and not hear about them in some capacity or another.
I hadn’t even fathomed that he would have been the much-talked-about leader of them. Oddly, it made me feel more drawn to Grizzly. People always went on about how the Butchers cared for their own in a way that was almost insane, but none quite so as intensely as their own president. He’d apparently gotten into several life-threatening scraps just to help keep them out of trouble and keep them from getting hurt.
I found it admirable.
“You’re staring.”
I jumped, not having expected Grizzly to speak. Was I that obvious? How had he known? He was—
“I—you were asleep. I thought you were, at least,” I said, my face hot with embarrassed blush.
He chuckled. “Just barely. I felt you move.” He yawned, blinking his eyes open. He didn’t seem bothered and that was at least a small relief. “Come on. If I’m not the one up first to get those assholes out of bed, we’re never going to leave at a decent hour.”
I laughed. Couldn’t help it.
“What?”
“You always were an early riser,” I said, sliding out of bed. “Remember, sometimes, even after parties at the bar, you’d be the first one up, making coffee for when everyone finally decided they were going to get up and go back to doing things? It’s how we started talking. I—”
“Suggested putting vanilla in the beans,” he recalled. “For flavor.”
“Yeah.”
“I still do that.”
“You do?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Best coffee trick I’ve ever come across. None of the boys know my secret. They’d take it and run with it,” he said with a laugh.
I blushed a little, tucking my hair behind my ear. I hadn’t honestly thought he’d take it to heart that deeply.
“I’m gonna brush my teeth and get ready,” I said, finding that if I didn’t distract and excuse myself soon, I was going to try and do something really, really stupid.
“Of course.”
I grabbed my bag and went to the bathroom. I didn’t take too long getting through my routine. When I came back out, Grizzly was already dressed again. I hoped that the disappointment of not having his chest bare to me didn’t show on my face; I was trying to behave!
“Ready?” he asked, l
ooking over at me.
“Ready.”
We made our way out into the hall. I watched with an amused smirk as Grizzly started banging on doors.
“Up and out,” he called, never raising his voice. It was deep enough that he simply didn’t have to. There were a couple of groans to be heard on the other sides of the doors, and a couple of the boys were already ready—at least, kind of. They were up and they were dressed, but they looked like they’d gone to sleep on the wrong side of the morning.
“Already, boss?” A younger boy—one I recognized from the night before when I was still working at the bar—poked his head out. He looked really young—hardly even eighteen, I had to guess. He still had the crust of sleep in his eyes, and his hair was all over the place, as if he had just crawled out of the bed.