Tarnished Love

by Carter Steele

  Be bold. Embrace the daring nature of this. If he wants to make you feel young again, then be young again. Give it a little invigorating!

  I deleted everything and rewrote the message.

  “Hey Petey :-) I don’t think we got enough of an actual class in the last time that you were here. If you want to have another private session, let me know and I’ll schedule it for you. Hope you had a great weekend!”

  That, I hit send on. I practically threw my phone into my gym bag, stepped to the front of the class, and began teaching yoga to the best of my ability.

  Unfortunately, I learned something the hard way right there—yoga was as much a mental as it was a physical challenge.

  And in no way could I stay focused enough to meet the mental challenge.

  At the conclusion of class, I hurried over to read my texts. Sure enough, Petey had responded.

  “I would love to see you again.”

  And then.

  “Alone would be fantastic.”

  OK, so he’s not much of a texter. He’s not going to flirt. Or he’s like me and still going back and forth on if this is actually a good idea or if he’s just lost his mind.

  Either way…

  “When are you free?” I wrote back.

  This time, I didn’t have to wait an hour to see a response. I didn’t even have to wait a minute.

  “Let’s do tonight. Pick an hour.”

  I didn’t need to see anything more.

  “9 p.m.”

  The later, the better. I wanted my mind to dance. I wanted my mind to think about the different possibilities.

  I wanted to fulfill the fantasies that had driven me so mad last time.

  Petey

  Friday Evening

  I was fuming.

  Was it possible to be pissed at two sides of something for the exact opposite reason? Because that’s how I felt right now. I was pissed at the Anarchists for interrupting what could have turned into an erotic session with one of the most beautiful women I knew. But I was also pissed at myself for letting myself get so entangled into something that I didn’t really have the headspace to do.

  Ever since Kathryn…

  No, no, do not go back to that, Petey. Get the fuck out of the past and focus on the present. Get to the club meeting and handle your duties there, you idiot.

  I got to the club a short while later, walking in to Brock sitting at the head of the table. Everyone else had already made it.

  “Where ya been, Petey?” Parker asked. “Masturbatin’ in your new home?”

  “Busy,” I said. “But I came as soon as Brock told me something was up. Brock?”

  Brock cleared his throat.

  “I knew that the Anarchists wouldn’t stay away forever. Vulture is still out there, and as long as the brains and the heart of the beast are still alive, it will continue to live. We know this. But I had hoped that we’d get a little bit longer reprieve. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and they’re now playing a new game.”

  Though cell phones were not normally allowed in the room, Brock made a point of going to get his, showing it to everyone, and then pulling up a photo.

  “The Anarchists have taken to imitating us,” he said. “They are impersonating us and leaving our signature in multiple places. I don’t want to say we’ve always had a code to operate with them, but there are certain lines that rarely got crossed. Just how it went. And we never impersonated each other. It was like we wanted to claim credit for what we did, but now, things have changed.”

  He sighed.

  “Parker managed to find us the hideout last time around when we blew their club to smithereens. But unless something has changed in the last fifteen minutes, it seems the issue is still the same. We can’t find them.”

  “Shit,” Zane murmured. “So what are we going to do? Go scorched Earth on them and see what we can find?”

  “For right now, we do nothing,” Brock said.

  Though he did not explicitly ask for my approval on it, he would often look at me after proclamations like that as the eldest officer in the club to see if I agreed. In this particular spot, it was a no brainer to me. Brock, apparently, agreed.

  “Going out and trying to find them may have us wind up in a trap, or it may lead to more violence. In either case, it’s not something that I am looking to encourage. Their attacks, though annoying, have remained harmless for the time being. I believe that that will not last forever, but if we can have patrols going around the city as we have so far, then at some point, we will capture them and we will get information.”

  “That’s all well n’ good,” Parker said. “But if ya expect me to take one of ‘em bastards alive, sorry, you’re out of your damn mind. I’m gonna be huntin’ and killin’ ‘em so I can hang up in my wall here.”

  “That’s fine too,” Brock said, much to my surprise. “The point is not to only capture the Anarchists. It’s to do whatever it takes to end the threat, and if that means that we kill them, we kill them.”

  That wasn’t something that I was particularly in favor of. Killing them would only perpetuate the cycle of violence. But it wasn’t my place to call out Brock for what I felt was an incorrect tactical move in the middle of a club meeting like this. I may have been the eldest member, but he was the president.

  “Ultimately, though, we will take a wait-and-see approach until the time is right. Is anyone here in disagreement with that.”

  For that, I was not.

  “Then we will do this. In the meantime…”

  Brock went into a few logistics questions about new prospects, future parties, and gun ammunition restocking. It was the kind of point where I tended to stop paying attention, because I had learned long ago that simple questions like that had a tendency to just resolve themselves. As the treasurer, it was my job to make sure we didn’t go over budget or spend too much money, but that was such a rare situation that I didn’t worry about it. I would know if some insane expense came that cost us our financial stability.

  Today, though, I wasn’t daydreaming or wondering what secrets I needed to keep for the rest of the club. Instead, today, I was occupied with questions about Anna.

  Anna, Anna, Anna. The girl who made me forget all of the baggage and act like a fool. The girl who was so gorgeous, there was no way that she was only a year younger than me. The girl who had the spirit and guile of someone ten years younger, yet the apparent discipline and maturity to own her own fitness studio.

  I supposed that it wasn’t a problem to be thinking about her right now, with the Anarchists not causing too many problems. But I recalled how, when Brock started to fall for Heather, we had had to reign him back in due to concerns about him getting distracted. I could not allow Anna to become that for me. I figured that as long as things remained status quo, a little fun wouldn’t hurt too much.

  Too much. How much is actually too much? And how much is just you trying to play coy and have it both ways?

  “… and with that, we’ll close.”

  I came back to the meeting just in time to see Brock close out. Everyone stood up.

  “Petey,” Brock said. “A moment, please?”

  I nodded, sitting back down. Such requests for my time were not uncommon in the club. I guess being the oldest gave you a certain privilege in getting to hear private conservations and to be seen almost as a kind of therapist for everyone, even if you were less than a decade older than everyone else.

  That, or Brock needed some strategic advice. But if that was the case, he probably would have requested to speak to Parker, not me.

  As soon as Landon closed the door as the last one out, Brock leaned forward.

  “You’re in support of what we’re doing?”

  I shrugged.

  “Yeah, I don’t see a problem with it. If we go into the city and start raising hell to try and find them, we’ll cause more trouble for ourselves. Why? What are you thinking?”

  It’s never just a question of support o
r not. Brock leaned back, put his hands behind his head, and sighed.

  “I’m a happy man with Heather,” he began. “But I’m starting to notice some looks and judgments from the other guys. I’m worried they think I might be going soft because of her. Maybe they think I’m not willing to put my life on the line so much with her in my world. Or maybe they think I’m not willing to take the bold action because I’m getting laid with a woman I care about. I don’t know.”

  I cracked my knuckles.

  “If you’re asking me if I think you’ve gone soft,” I said. “The answer to that is hell no. But I do think that a lot of the guys in here think that we can smell a chance to go for the kill. They think that if we sit back and let them get away, they can rebuild.”

  “And you disagree with that.”

  “Yes. We don’t need to burn the forest down to find a wounded bear. We already know that we can hurt the bear. If it wants to come back after us, then we can kill it completely when it comes back. Otherwise, we will sit back and let it live. Sure, it’ll come around eventually, but we’ll be ready.”

  “Makes sense,” Brock said, although that felt like more of an automatic reaction.

  “If you’re worried about what the club thinks, I hate to say it, but you’re always going to have people doubting you. We even had people doubting your father. It’s only after the fact that things settle down. So don’t worry about that, at least as long as it doesn’t come to the point of mutiny. Which you’re nowhere near.”

  “Good,” Brock said, and this time, it felt genuine. “Thanks, Petey.”

  “Anytime,” I said, rising from my seat.

  I turned to the door and put my hand on the doorknob.

  “By the way,” Brock said, a hint of excitement in his voice. “Who’s the girl you’re seeing now?”

  Oh, Jesus, really?

  I turned and shrugged.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Parker saw you doing yoga with a bunch of grandmas and one very attractive woman,” he said. “Unless you’ve turned into a cougar hunter…”

  I shook my head.

  “I just needed some exercise, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, you do,” Brock said with a laugh.

  I rolled my eyes and shut the door as Brock continued to laugh. If only personal business could stay as secret as club business.

  Sunday Morning

  The last time we had been in this spot, the Anarchists had struck right after our meeting.

  But they seemed to have gotten wiser. They knew better than to make their attacks repetitive and predictable. They may have been assholes, but they weren’t idiots.

  It was for the best, though, seeing as how I could finally spend my weekend relaxing, fighting a mild hangover from the party Friday, and doing household work. I wasn’t a young buck like many of the other boys any longer; I couldn’t drink until three in the morning without consequence. In fact, I couldn’t do much to my body without consequence anymore.

  But that just meant I was a lot more deliberate and careful with how I did spend my time.

  I rolled out of bed. It was just after noon. I went to my phone and pulled up my messages.

  And wouldn’t you know it, Anna Adams had requested my presence again.

  Let’s just say it wasn’t hard to say no to that.

  6

  Anna

  In preparation for my private lesson with Petey that night, I took every step to make sure that he had the best experience possible.

  First, though I normally pulled my hair back in a ponytail when I taught class, this time, I let it fall over my shoulders. I thought that it made me look a little younger.

  Next, I put on a little more makeup than I normally did. Not a ton—I didn’t want to come across as obvious. But I did want to make sure… well, it didn’t need to be said so strongly.

  When I picked my outfit, I picked black leggings with a black sports bra—and nothing more. Though some of my tops revealed my midriff anyways, this would give Petey the full view and also give him the least amount of resistance to what we both wanted.

  It’s only crazy if you regret it. And Petey is handsome, he’s relaxed, and he’s playful. He’s not going to be more trouble than he’s worth.

  And it’s not like you’re getting entangled into something deeper anyways… right?

  Just let it happen, have fun, and move on. It’ll be good for you to get it out of your system after Jason, anyways.

  Finally, I made sure that the lights were low when I set the studio up. I didn’t want anyone thinking that I was open, anyways. Only Petey would have my focus for the next couple of hours.

  I got to the studio a few minutes before nine, taking the chance to make sure that the place looked good to me. I had swept the place at the end of my last class, but I could never take too much care. I fiddled with some of the mats, wiped down some of the glass, and made sure that my desk had very little on it.

  Something told me that depending on how the lesson went, I could be spending less time at my desk and more time on it.

  And then the door swung open. I had thrown on a light jacket when I originally walked in to not look too ridiculous on the walk from the car over, but now I realized it came with a nice added benefit. It would get Petey a little excited to see me.

  “Just in time,” I said.

  Petey turned the corner, wearing gym shorts and a sleeveless shirt that exposed his impressively cut shoulders. I had not known that he had arms or defined delts like he did here, but now that I saw them… well, it certainly was something worth admiring for a little bit.

  “Are you ready for your private lesson?” I said.

  He smiled.

  “As long as you promise me some of the more exotic positions,” he said. “You know, to get a good stretch in and such.”

  “You’re funny,” I said with a giggle.

  I went to the front of the class, laid out my mat, and removed my jacket. I took a very quick glance at his shorts and saw a bulge forming. I was pleased with the sight, though a part of me still wondered just how the hell I had gotten to this spot. This just wasn’t something I had ever done before. I’d have to accept there would be some wild nerves along the way.

  “Let’s begin, shall we?” I said. “We’ll do some light warmups, swing those arms over and under, and do that for about ten seconds.”

  Though I did the movements with him, in theory to show him how they were done, the warmup really just gave me a chance to think about what the heck was happening. If anyone from my time outside of Romara knew what I was doing…

  Let’s just say for the longest time, Jason and I had had a reputation for being a bit wholesome. We had our fine in private, sure, but I liked to project the image of a happy, wholesome woman to the world. It worked well outside of Romara. To some extent, it was still working.

  But Petey had either seen right through it or he had just not cared. He had wanted me, and he had gotten me. Mission accomplished in that regard.

  “Now then,” I said. “Let’s move to the ground and get the hip hinge working. Do ten glute raises.”

  I finished before he did and looked over, imagining me on top as his hip hinge worked in a different fashion. What in the hell are you doing, Anna?

  And if you are going to do it, how long are you going to play this little game?

  “OK, kick your leg out, raise it to the ceiling, do that ten times.”

  Do you really just want to sleep with this guy? Is that your style? It’s fine if you want to do this, but why stop here? I know what everyone says about the Kings, but Petey seems like a decent guy.

  You don’t even know him, Anna. You’ve met him just a few times. There’s no way you can know him well enough to be serious.

  But it’s something worth pondering, at least.

  “Alright, now roll over and walk your hands to your feet. Come out slowly out of that, grab some water, and we’ll get started.”

>   Petey nodded and headed over to his bag. He tried to be subtle about tucking himself against his shorts to make the bulge not as prominent, but given that I had no one else to look at, it wasn’t something that I missed very easily.

  “You OK over there?”

  I put my hand on my mouth. I hadn’t even meant to call him out for it. I’d meant…

  Well, I wasn’t really sure what I had meant to do. I figured that something would just sort of happen at some point, and that would be that. But I sure as heck had not anticipated that me saying something would be the thing that sparked everything.

  Petey looked at me in surprise and opened his mouth to say something, but he then appeared to reconsider what he was going to say. It was like he realized he had an opportunity to say something that could spark the fire, and the smirk on his face said it all.

  “I guess you could just say I’m a little excited about this session,” he said, turning his body and walking toward me. “You know, I’m with a beautiful, cheerful woman in a private lesson. Could it be much better than that?”

  “When you put it like that, it’s hard to disagree with, isn’t it?” I said, feeling my cheeks redden by the second. “Especially when it’s coming from a handsome man such as yourself.”

  “Well, truth be told,” he said, placing his hand on my shoulder. I felt his cock slip out of his pants waistband and brush on me. It felt mighty good and got me feeling mighty aroused. “There is one way that I could make it better.”

  “Yeah? Can you tell me what that is?”

  Without another moment’s hesitation, he took me into his arms and kissed me. I threw my arms around him and jumped up into him. He grabbed me by the ass and held me up as the two of us passionately kissed.

  All doubt about this moment flew out the window at this moment. If I had second thoughts about if this was the right thing to do or not, they were so far buried that they were inaccessible. Petey’s irresistible charm and tight body had my hormones raging out of control. Nothing was going to get me to stop.