by VR Baucke
Bloody Mace though! I made a mental note to maim him out next time I caught him alone, which would be tomorrow since the crew was meeting up again. This time it was at our house since we were the only ones with a spa.
By the time my night shift was done, I was beat. My feet ached and my muscles complained as I drove home in the early hours with dangerously heavy eyelids.
Pulling into our drive behind Mickey’s ute, I locked the car then started for the back door. That’s when I felt it. Ripples of ice wove across my shoulders and down my spine. Without a doubt, I knew someone was watching me.
I spun in alarm, expecting to see, or at least hear, someone lurking in the shadows close by, but there was nothing. No movement, no sound, nothing.
Mickey’s reply was instant.
Knowing he was in the house, I wasted no further time loitering on the driveway. Unlocking the door then slamming it closed behind me, I engaged the lock. I was still leaning against it with my heart hammering when Mickey shuffled down the stairs in his boxers.
“What’s with all the fucking noise?” he muttered, palming his eye socket and lazily rubbing them.
“I think someone was watching me.”
His eyes snapped open and he was at the window a second later, peering in all directions.
“You sure?”
“I felt it, Mick,” I replied warily. My bed was calling my name and I wanted nothing more than to comply with its orders.
“The doors are locked, aye?” Mickey asked, continuing his investigation.
“Yup.”
“Go on up to bed, Lil. I’ll check it out.” He reached for his nunchucks then looked back from the door.
“I’ll wait here,” I countered.
He slipped through the front door and into the night, leaving me anxiously waiting for a few long minutes.
“Nothin’,” he puffed, slamming the door closed again. “Go to bed, Lil. You’re dead on your feet.”
There was no point in arguing. Mickey waited as I summoned the last of my energy to climb the stairs, then followed me after turning out the lights.
Despite Mickey being in the house and knowing we were locked up tight, I still couldn’t shake the residual creep that lingered at the tip of my spine. I hardly slept a wink before first hints of daylight began to weave through the curtains. With it came the reassurance I needed to fall asleep.
~
I was up and still kicking around in my PJs early the next afternoon, when rumbling reverberated through the house. Skipping downstairs when a knock sounded at the door, I swung it open to see Gage standing there in full leathers and his hair mussed like he had just ran his fingers through it.
His gaze drank me in and lingered on my bare legs where the tiny sleep shorts failed to cover. In that same moment, I wished I wasn’t wearing a hoody; the temperature in the house just skyrocketed at least ten degrees.
“Gage! Uh, good morn- afternoon,” I managed.
His dark eyes snapped up from their leisurely stroll. “Suit up, Sunshine. We leave in five.”
It took me all of two seconds to decipher what he meant, and after that, he didn’t need to tell me twice. Hell, I left him standing at the door in my haste.
Stepping into my protective pants as fast as humanly possible, I pulled on a long-sleeve, braided my hair then grabbed my jacket, boots, gloves and helmet. Gage was sitting on the front steps in the sun with his bent legs spread wide and his forearms casually propped on them. I sat beside him and pulled on my boots.
“So, what’s the occasion?”
He looked at me then. “There is none. I just felt like going for a ride and thought you might wanna come.”
“Sure do.” I confirmed, zipping my jacket.
Gage stood and gave me a crooked smile.
I blocked his reply as I fastened my helmet. Stopping at Gage’s side, I waited for him to swing his leg over then give me a nod. I effortlessly settled behind him and grabbed his jacket. Gage reached for my thigh and tugged me impossibly closer. I took the hint; plastering myself to his back and holding on to either sides of his jacket as he opened the throttle and took off down the street.
No matter how many times I rode, the euphoria never got old or waned. The roar of the motor, the vibrations, the wind whipping past and the speed were freeing in a way that only motorcycle enthusiasts would understand.
Gage slowed for a red light and the backs of his thighs pressed against my knees when he set his feet on the ground. He turned his head enough to be heard over the rumbling.
“All good?”
Giving him a thumbs up, I grinned to myself when he grabbed my hand after I set it on his waist again, briefly linking our fingers and squeezing. I liked this part of him; quietly commanding yet sweetly concerned.
I don’t know how long we rode for, and I didn’t care. Eventually, Gage pulled into a reserve and leisurely followed the sealed lane that wound its way through large oak trees. I sat back a little from his body and took in more of our surroundings. He pulled up at a clearing and waited for me to get off before he killed his bike. The sound of birds and cicadas engulfed us. After removing my helmet, I stared up at the bright green canopy above that protected us from the direct sunlight.
I looked back at Gage when I felt his stare. He didn’t look away as he removed his helmet and tugged down his face shield. Wordlessly, he swung his leg over his bike then took my hand, leading me to a wooden park bench near the stream.
“I got you something,” he said with a smirk once we were sitting.
I laughed loudly when he pulled out a large bag of M&M’s from his internal jacket pocket and shook them up and down.
“You shouldn’t have!” I said, accepting the bag and holding it up. “Some?”
“Hit me,” he replied and held out his hand.
I put one in his hand then poured a whole lot into my own, throwing them all into my mouth in one go.
“Fucking stinge!” He grabbed the bag back and chuckled at my shout of indignation.
“Hit me,” I threw his words back at him then giggled when he placed a single yellow M&M in the centre of my palm.
“Like the sun,” he mumbled.
Gage searched out a black one for himself then watched as I nibbled at the yellow shell, his gaze continuously flicking between my eyes and my lips. He crunched the brown M&M down without looking away. Just as I leaned in to reach for the bag, he grabbed the back of my head and set his lips on mine in one smooth movement. There, we both stilled with his upper lip between mine and my lower lip between his. When Gage eventually re-instigated the kiss, it was slow and soft, no tongue, and simply sweet.
My fingers lazily ran through his beard, the other hand forgotten entirely as the bag of M&M’s fell from my fingertips.
Gage hoisted me onto his lap. With my face captured gently in his hands, he continued to tease me with his drawn-out approach to savouring my taste. I hummed when his tongue finally ran across my lip, but still he remained unhurried. We paused, breathing in the same air, lips parted yet barely touching.
“What was that for?” I whispered. “Friends don’t kiss friends like that.”
The torture swimming in his eyes made my heart ache.
“I like you Lil, and as much as I need to keep my distance from you, I can’t. Besides,” he grinned cheekily, “I wanted to see what yellow tasted like.”
I giggled. “And? How does it taste?”
“Like fucking gold,” he growled.
I swear I blushed hard at his words. No matter what he said, whether good or bad, his words were always filled with emotion and conviction.
“Hmm, interesting, because you taste sinfully dark,” I teased.
He emitted an amused snort despite
the ghosts resurfacing in his eyes. “That about sums me up.”
Climbing from his lap, I rescued the bag of discarded M&M’s from amongst the grass. Finding a blue one from the bag, I sat beside Gage and sat it in his palm.
“Where there’s a tiny bit of light, the darkness has an opportunity to fade to blue.”
Pain. I could see him visibly struggling with what I just said. He was filled with deeply set affliction that visibly etched on both his emotions and body. My fingers lingered on his palm and I only pulled away once his fingers closed to encase the M&M I’d placed there. He didn’t eat this one, just held it while he studied me with a furrow on his brow and wonderment now in his gaze.
We hardly spoke the rest of the hour we spent at the reserve, purely happy to be in each other’s presence. I did, however, spend most of that time in Gage’s arms, or, at the very least, with my hand in his. By the time we left, he seemed to have an air of resolution about him. He felt more settled, more accepting of our connection, just… more.
TWENTY-THREE
LIL
WE TOOK THE long way home, and I made the most of my arms wrapped around Gage’s torso, feeling his stomach move with each breath he took.
Weaving around the two utes and my car that filled the driveway, Gage parked up on the back lawn. Trav was already at my house, beer in hand and spinning a yarn to Mickey as my brother casually smoked.
I jumped off the bike before Gage cut the engine and strode over to Mickey, plucking the fag from his lips and stubbing it out on the grass—barely refraining from stubbing it out on his leg.
His bitchy reply was muffled as I tugged off my helmet.
“You know it’s bad for you,” I sassed, hugging Trav, who shook me from side-to-side.
“Whatever,” Mickey mumbled back, his lips already connecting with the top of his beer.
Gage came to my side, now stripped of his helmet and jacket, and ran a hand through his hair. The tight black t-shirt drew my attention and encouraged it to linger, greedily looking over every hint of muscle on his torso and arms.
“Lil!” Mickey barked. “Stop staring at the poor fucker. It’s awkward for everyone.”
“Not for me,” I called over my shoulder as I made my way towards the house.
Now that we didn’t have cool air rushing around us, standing around in the afternoon sun in leathers was hot as Hell.
Gage’s footsteps followed me through the house and up the stairs. He walked close, too close, and when I stopped abruptly and turned to face him, he stopped short where the toes of his boots connected with mine.
“Are you following me?”
His low chuckle came from within his chest. “It would appear that way, but I’m actually heading for the bathroom.”
“Oh,” I said on a laugh, feeling silly for thinking he was up here because I was. I waved him off. “Of course you are. It’s in there.”
I rushed to my room, shut the door then held my face in my hands because that was freaking embarrassing! I cursed myself the entire time I undressed and slipped into a bikini. By the time I pulled a cute little sundress over top, I heard a knock at my door.
“Come in,” I called, brushing out my hair in front of the mirror.
The door slowly swung open to reveal Gage’s large form. His eyes landed on my bed where he stared for a moment before clicking the door shut behind him. He’d been surprisingly non-talkative today and it was beginning to unsettle me.
“Gage, is something wrong? You’ve been... different... today.”
He didn’t say a word as he slowly prowled my way, but took the hairbrush from my hands and turned me back to face the mirror. I watched him as my heart hammered so loud in my chest, I was sure he could hear it.
Our eyes connected in the reflection as he lifted the brush and gently swiped it through the length of my hair. I didn’t know whether to feel awkward or at ease; no guy had ever brushed my hair before—apart from Mace—and the air had definitely not been charged with sexual tension like it was right now.
“I enjoyed today,” Gage murmured, his focus remaining on the brush strokes.
“Same.”
The silence drew out, and my eyes drifted closed from the continuous rhythm through my hair.
“I liked it more than I wanted to,” Gage admitted, almost sounding pained.
My eyes reopened the same time he stepped a fraction closer. The breath snagged in my throat when his fingers skimmed down my back, lower than where my hair stopped.
Gage brushed my hair over my shoulder then pressed a kiss below my ear. My head tilted to the side on its own accord, and the hairbrush made a dull thud when it dropped to the floor. Gage’s hands found my hips and tugged me back against him. I linked my fingers with his and relaxed against him as he wove his arms around my waist then smoothed up my stomach.
“Same,” I breathed again.
As soon as my head fell back against his shoulder, his lips landed on mine and quickly turned urgent. Spinning me in his arms, I held on as Gage lifted me by the backs of my thighs and sat on the bed with me straddled on his lap. His warm hands held my exposed neck where his thumb could work over my jaw as he kissed me. Our movements synced and I quickly fell into a state of heightened need.
A tortured groan escaped my mouth when Gage pulled far enough away for his eyes to flick from my lips to my eyes. His fingers dug harder into my ass and his voice grew hoarse.
“Come home with me tonight.”
I studied him at close range, searching for the answer in his eyes; the same answer my mind wanted to give him.
“Mace is working later,” he clarified, assuming my hesitation was due to Mace potentially being home with us.
“I want to, I’m just not sure if it’s wise…”
“You’re right, it’s not wise,” Gage replied, still eyeing my lips. I licked them nervously and smiled when he mimicked the action. “Not wise at all,” he whispered while trailing his fingers up my inner thigh.
My breathing grew heavy and heat pooled between my legs. “You’re distracting me, Batman.”
Gage smirked, knowing full well what he was doing.
“There’ll be Hell to pay if you move an inch higher,” I warned despite my body demanding that he hurry up and touch me how I wanted.
Gage rumbled another deep chuckle. “Hell is where I roll, baby,” he drawled with a smoulder that had me second guessing my restraint.
He held my gaze in challenge as he inched higher. I watched his daring expression until my eyelids fell closed.
“You’re playing with fire,” I hissed as my body involuntarily ground against his fingers.
“Don’t I fucking know it,” he bit back.
Another knock sounded at my door.
“No,” I instinctively yelled which brought on Mace’s chuckling from the other side.
“Tell Gage I’ve got his gear here… I’m assuming he’s in there with you?”
“Fuck you!” Gage called and threw himself backwards onto my bed.
More of Mace’s laughter sounded through the wood as I climbed off Gage’s waist.
“Well, you may as well come in,” I sassed, whipping the door open to find him casually leaning against the door frame, holding a bottle of mouthwash, and grinning.
He tossed bottle at me then held out a pair of Gage’s black jeans, which I snatched from his hand. Mace followed me into the room and sniggered at Gage sitting on the edge of my bed looking dark as fuck.
“Was I interrupting something?” Mace scoffed.
I backhanded his chest. “Your time will come, and I’ll be the first leading the charge into your bedroom.” He flinched slightly from my sudden lash-out. “And yes, you were interrupting. We were in the middle of a conversation.”
“Is that what they call it these days. I’ve been doing it all wrong.”
Gage unlaced his boots while Mace and I continued our bitchy tête-à-tête.
“You’ve never done it right to begin with,” I tea
sed.
Mock outrage crossed over Mace’s face. “I’m a fucking conversation God. It’s a good thing you haven’t had a piece of this, Lil Bean, because I would have ruined you for my cousin here. On that note, go easy on him, he’s out of practice.”
I smothered a gasp behind my hand at Mace’s brazen pot-shot at Gage, who cussed Mace out.
“You know I won’t go easy on him. Oh actually, you don’t know, because you haven’t had the pleasure of getting this,” I declared and whacked my ass.
Mace barked a loud laugh. “Jesus, Lil Bean. Doin’ you would be like doin’ my sister, if I had one. And that shit I don’t need to see,” Mace called over my shoulder.
I turned to see Gage kicking off his leather pants and bending to pull on the jeans. I froze and blatantly stared at his toned thighs as the muscles flexed with his movements.
Words.
No words.
No w…
“Close your mouth,” Mace sniggered close to my ear. “Catch yas out back,” he added with a slap to my ass that jolted me back to reality.
Absolutely mortified at my reaction, and Mace calling me out for perving, I declared that I, too, would wait outside. However, Mace slammed the door shut before I could follow him through it, then held it closed.
With a final curse at him through the wood, I risked a glance back at Gage. He now faced me, slowly zipping his jeans with a smirk. I snapped back around and studied the light switch.
“Lil?”
“Mmm?”
“You can look now. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
I snorted and turned. I seldom got uncomfortable or bashful around anyone; Gage was the exception. It also meant that I was crushing on him harder than a school girl crushing on the latest boy band.
“You didn’t,” I lied. “You just keep on confusing me and it’s, well… confusing!”
Gage stepped close. “Story of my month,” he rumbled.
He used his large body to walk me to the wall. With his forearms braced on the wall either side of my head, he brushed his body against mine. An unchecked groan slipped from both of our mouths. The moment my fingers flicked under his shirt and landed on his lower back, the weight of his body increased.