Later that night, getting back to his apartment, I pressed myself into his body and kissed him even more. We stripped quickly and made up for the loss in time. We didn’t even make it to the bedroom. He pushed me to the floor.
His legs straddled me as his hands went to work on my cock. He kissed my ear, and then my jaw, moving lower to my chest. His tongue drew a tight circle around my nipple before sucking it into his mouth.
I pressed his head closer to my chest, relishing the electric he sent through my body from the suction. His hand on my dick pumped securely and made sounds tear from my throat that I hadn’t heard in a long time.
He stopped to devour my mouth.
“Sit on the couch,” I said hoarsely.
He shook his head and pulled my nipple with his teeth. The sharpness almost cost me cumming too soon.
“Chance,” I jerked my hips into his as he fisted me at a feverish tempo again. I had to make myself sound in charge. Something we battle over, “Sit on the fucking couch.”
He pulled away and looked down into my eyes, “Why?”
“Just do it.”
He only stared at me.
I laughed. “Is this how it will always be for us? Two alpha dogs constantly fighting to be on top?”
He set his lips to my neck, “You make me a dog. That’s not so bad though, is it? Dogs are dirty and dominant but at least they’re loyal.” He pressed his forehead to mine, “What do you want?”
I explored his back with my hands, “I want to suck you off,” I admitted. “I’ve missed the taste of you,” I held his bearded chin between my thumb and index finger, pinching. “I want to take you as deeply as I can.” I brushed my thumb over his pouty bottom lip, “Then I want you inside me. That’s what I want.”
His eyes darkened before he came off me to sit like I asked. I knelt between his powerful thighs, held his shaft in a strong grip and drew the tip of my tongue over the slit in his head. Wiping clean the pre-cum from his head, I held him in a snug fist and watched his foreskin glide back and forth with my hand. His lips parted to cope and little spurts of breath came tumbling from his throat.
I opened my mouth and took him. It was what I’d been thinking of for weeks. I would speed up then slow down and suck with each pull back before licking with each forward launch. When I felt him thickening I pressed my middle finger into his hole to find the place I knew would fringe his power.
He groaned so loudly I smiled as I took my lips from his dick.
He made room and I laid us down on the couch. He came over me but when I tried to touch him, he pinned my arms over my head at the wrists, “Tell me what you wanted to say before.” He kept sliding his cock against my thighs so I opened them. Once he was between, I pressed them together again and marveled in the sound of him sucking in air.
“Tell you what?” I asked.
“You know what,” he was trying so hard to speak clearly but we are both close.
“That I love you?” I asked. His intensity almost killed me. “Is that what you wanted to hear from me? Yes, I’m in love with you. I’m very in love with you.”
He unpinned me only to turn me over and I complied, pushing my hips down into the cushions I waited to feel him hold them tightly before pulling them back into his groin. He bent over my back and kissed and licked his way up my spine to my shoulder, “I love you too,” He trembled with it.
I waited while he took the condom from the pocket of my jeans on the floor and rolled it on. He gripped my hair and tugged until I let my neck go backward. He kissed me hard before penetrating and the whole body quiver that followed made me moan.
It was powerful, coming together after being apart. His ramming into me pulled several words of love and profanity from my lips.
I haven’t been taken in ages and with every stroke, I see how far from myself I’ve been.
There’s no life without this man. This flawed and imperfect man that’s unscrewed the deadbolts that locked up all my emotions.
TRIXIE
I sat on a barstool while Liam cleaned up. It was early in the morning. Almost seven and he and I kept exchanging glances. I want to move past what happened. I want him not to look at me as someone that needs protecting. I’m not so perfect.
“I wrote a new song,” I said trying to make talk.
He smiled, “Yeah? What’s it about?”
“Dancing; just a racy tune for dancers to grind to. I thought it could be dominated by drums.” I pulled my white sweater closer. I was wearing a simple red dress underneath with a sweetheart neckline and white sneakers because it’s Valentine’s Day and though I am quite single, I dressed up for mostly myself.
“Sounds good,” he washed glasses at the sink just under the bar, “I’d like to hear it.”
I looked up at the ceiling. “You think Chance will be down anytime soon?”
He narrowed one eye, “I doubt it. He sleeps later since…” he let it hang.
I grinned, “I’m not hurting over Adam. I don’t mind talking about it. I know he and Chance are wrapped up in it.”
He looked relieved. “Have any plans tonight?”
I shrugged, “I have a hot date with chocolate and The Walking Dead.” I teased.
He stopped and dropped his shoulders, “Well, that sucks.”
“Why?”
“I was going to ask you out…but…I wouldn’t want to crash your date.”
I bugged my eyes as my heart took flight, “But we don’t have to tell chocolate what I’m doing. I don’t think chocolate minds if I don’t show.”
He tilted his head, “But there might still be another form of chocolate involved. So you would definitely be cheating. I know a place that serves this chocolate mousse dessert… could you shoulder that betrayal?”
I wrinkled my nose and thought a minute, “Hmm, well, I don’t know…”
He walked around the bar and my heart took to hard hammering. He came up behind me and turned my bar stool so I had to part my legs just a little to let him face me.
“I think,” he smiled and his dimples worked to sway me, “You have no choice. The one doing the asking pays and once you’ve been asked you’re kinda obligated to say yes.”
I tried to hold the game but I laughed, “Okay… I’d like to go with you.”
“Yeah? It’s a place in Little Italy. Chance told me about it. He knows the owner.”
I nodded. I wanted him to kiss me. I needed it. So I tilted my chin up and held his eyes; his dropped to my mouth and a butterfly explosion happened in my belly.
Zeus came out from the back and set deadly eyes on Liam, “One rule,” he said in a thunderous voice, “No stealing. That’s what Chance tells every member in this fucking place. You steal and you go. Where is the money, Liam?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
TRIXIE
Liam and I came apart and both of us went wide eyed. “What are you accusing me of?” he asked.
Zeus walked around the bar with what felt like full intent to knock Liam off his feet. I stood up and tried getting between them but Liam forced me to his side.
“The safe!” Zeus bellowed. “Money is missing! Chance and I are the only ones with the combination to that damn thing. As of a few weeks ago, we gave you the code. Now the fucking thing is way off.”
My head shot up at Liam, “What does that mean?” I asked.
Liam turned tight-lipped and I didn’t know how to interpret that.
“Liam,” I pressed, “Answer us.”
He looked down at me and for the first time ever his words came out in a harsh and hurtful manner, “What the fuck do you think?” He looked back at Zeus and untied his apron before flinging it behind the bar. “I Quit,” he told him.
I looked on with a slack jaw and tears in my eyes. “Liam! Did you take that money?” All I could think of was his past. The robbery. Him telling me he wasn’t any good. That I shouldn’t trust him.
“You don’t quit asshole, you’re fired!” Zeus clarified.
&nb
sp; Liam turned to me and Zeus, “Have a nice life, both of you.” He walked out. That was it. Zeus said things under his breath about Liam paying the money back and how he was going to call the cops.
“Wait!” I stood trying to think, “Please, Zeus, I need you to wait. I just…give me a second, please.”
“Wait for what? Him to hit Mexico? Fucker.” Zeus took his phone from his pocket and unlocked it.
I snatched it and held my hand up, “Slow down! Please! How do you know for sure?”
“Trix, if you don’t give me that phone, he’s not the only one walking out of here jobless.”
“But why would he do it?”
Sarcasm spilled from his mouth on the spot, “Gee, I don’t know; because he robbed a store once, maybe? Because not all tigers change their stripes? Let’s get real deep into detective work, shall we? Three people have the codes, two of them have run this damn place for years and money never went missing. A third person gets the code and money does. Did you ever get past first-grade math?”
I closed my eyes and tried to hear that voice inside that usually perceives even impossible situations with a keen eye. All I hear now is people telling me how gullible I am.
“Just let me talk to him first. I need to at least know why he did it.” I reasoned.
Zeus is loyal to Chance. He guards Chance’s investments like a knight because they have a solid foundation of trust so I get his anger but…
“Please,” I held out his phone. “This is personal…I need to know why.”
Zeus took the phone, “You got twenty minutes.”
I ran out to the street but Liam was long gone.
Buddy. He wouldn’t leave without Buddy, his case and guitar. I hailed a cab and as soon as I reached the apartment building I bolted for our floor. I checked the guys, banging until Blaze and Knox answered.
“What’s going on?” Knox questioned. “Liam-.”
I moved past them, “I don’t know.”
Blaze was at my heel, “He’s packing his stuff.”
I found him doing just that and went to stand at his side, “Liam, just talk to me. Tell me why you took it-.”
“Why? What good is that?” He snapped.
I grabbed his hand to stop him but he pulled out of reach, “Don’t!” he barked.
I turned angry, “Why won’t you say anything? Zeus is calling the police! Is that what you want? What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you being like this?”
“Because I’m done!” He stopped to face me, so hot with hate I could feel it on my skin. “I’m done defending myself! I went to prison for years because every word I said didn’t matter. I lost time in my life that I can’t get back because everyone assumed the worst of me. I’m not doing that bull shit again. Zeus wants to fire me, fine! You want to believe I did it? Fine! Fuck all of you.”
He slammed his case shut and snapped his fingers for Buddy to follow.
“Wait just a God damn second!” I stepped in his way. “You were the one telling me not to trust everybody, you were the one holding back and telling me to wise up! What do you want from me? I would defend you! You’re my friend! But you didn’t even try to say otherwise, what am I supposed to think?”
“You know you didn’t second-guess it,” he said. “I saw it in your eyes, you think I did it.”
I frowned, “Tell me you didn’t.”
“Why? To make you feel better? I’m tired of it. I know that look. I saw it on the woman I planned to marry once. I’m totally done.”
His stubbornness finished me. “Then leave, because so am I.” I turned and left, slamming their door in my wake.
I went across the hall to my apartment and fell into anger instead of tears as I threw off my sweater and plopped at the island. I held my head in my hands and tried not to throw up.
That was when I saw it.
A letter.
I noticed first my sister’s handwriting just as Liam slammed the door across the hall and his angry steps faded away. Today was Jolee’s last day at the apartment. We told her the day after the hearing was officially her eviction day but it looks like she took us seriously for once.
I sniffed and pulled the note closer.
Trixie,
I’m sorry. I know I say that a lot but I mean it this time. I know what kind of person I am. I wish you understood what it’s like for my kind. We aren’t strong like Chance, or forward thinking like Liam. We don’t learn as well as we should from our mistakes.
We pull from wreckage only long enough to stumble into more. Sometimes it’s almost out of body. We see the pain we cause or the ruin but we seem almost powerless to stop it.
I have to tell you the truth because you’re my sister and you deserve that.
I’m pregnant.
I don’t know whose baby it is and I don’t know how it happened.
I just know that there’s no way in hell that I’m fit to be a mother. So I did something you might hate me for. I saw Liam write the combination to the club’s safe on a note to remember the code. I took it to take money for an abortion.
Please, I’m so sorry Trix but I can’t do this. I’m not strong like you. I’m doing a kindness, look what I cause for people. I’m not a mom.
I know I just fucked up worse but I just can’t help it. I took the money while you guys brought Chance home. Please tell him I’m sorry too.
Maybe one day I’ll be a better person and pay everyone back. Especially you.
Love you forever,
Jolee
ADAM
I got on stage with Trixie and the band to be received by a very pleased crowd. The club is brimming with patrons and it feels like it went into a renaissance.
Jax is put away so his dark presence doesn’t cloud Rebel Vision.
Jolee isn’t sucking the life from Trixie.
Chance and I are strong and the limelight for our band, Riders of Beat, is at full throttle. We’ve picked up gigs at high-end places when it doesn’t conflict with our schedule here and Elijah our talent scout is talking about a tour when our contract is up. The trouble is, I can’t imagine leaving Chance for long periods of time. I can’t let the band down, though.
Liam…he’s been gone. I’ve seen his absence sting for Trix and that is the only thing taking from a fraction of my joy these days.
“This next song…” I spoke into the mic and the place quieted. “Well, I suck at writing them. That’s Trixie’s thing.” They laughed with me; even the band. “I tend to have trouble getting feelings out verbally; writing them is impossible. So… I’m borrowing a song… from another great artist, to sing for someone very special to me. He’s actually,” I glanced at Trixie and she grinned at me. “The Urban Legend,” I announced.
I found Chance in the loft where some of the dancers and drinkers were. He was leaning his forearms over the railing and watching with that smirk. Now it’s a love struck one.
It felt freeing to announce it like this. In some ways, I thought tonight would take me back to prom night when I last sang for a boy and it ended in heartbreak and disaster but this time the memory is so far from my mind.
Knox was on the keyboard for this one and he drove us into the current of the song. I started the lyrics to Better Love from Hozier. I’d studied the lyrics very closely for days and I couldn’t find a better way to describe Chance and I joining together.
Blaze came down hard on the base drums and it synced with my heart. When we let go on the chorus Diego’s guitar fell in tune with mine. My voice filled with so much honesty I felt brought to the brim of tears by my own sound.
I looked up and held his eyes while I sang. It proved to evoke even more strength.
He started walking but he kept my eyes. He made his way past a few customers and down the steps until he was around the corner and facing me from the bar.
Trixie’s voice would rise when I needed it and hold my notes flawlessly. She didn’t mind singing this with me for another man and I adore her for it. My sweet and open-h
earted Trix.
Diego made true love to his guitar and Knox serenaded the keys to the keyboard.
Blaze brought energy to his drums that would otherwise make me tremble and I chalked it up to our most powerful performance yet.
They made it special for me. For Chance. For the fact that I was growing and learning to relish life and all the beauty found in outward expressions of love.
Chance, in his quiet and reserved way, was so obviously moved that it gave me stamina and by the end of the song, I knew we had what it took to do this. To be together.
Later in the night at closing, I watched Chance count the money and do tip out. I scanned the club to find Trixie sitting alone at a small booth and table. She was lazily stirring a mixed drink and holding her head in one hand.
I made my way over and touched her shoulder before sitting down beside her.
She turned her head and blinked away wetness in her eyes.
“Hey,” I pulled her into my arm and kissed the top of her head. This was more touch in public than I’d ever given her while we were together. “Thinking about him?” I guessed.
She laughed bitterly. “It’s been eight months.” She sniffed. “I would be stupid to be thinking about him.”
I sighed. Eight months since Chance’s trial. Eight months since Liam left us only so Trix could find a note from her sister explaining his innocence. Too late. The damage was done. Jolee ruined something even in her absence.
“He was wrong to get that pissed,” I defended. He should have just answered you.”
She pressed her lips together and then released them, “No, I was wrong to doubt him and I did. Then I turned around and lied about doubting it. I never hesitate to follow my gut before and the one time I don’t I make a mess.”
I tried another route, “Have you been to all the places he used to frequent?”
“I don’t think he’s in the city anymore. I don’t know.”
The Significant Other (The Relationship Quo Series Book 4) Page 28