Forged Under Blue Fire: Indigo Knights Book VIII

by A. J. Downey

  I went over and turned off the television, set both phones on the coffee table and slipped into my room. She was asleep, a little line of troubles, of worries, marring her forehead. I would give anything to smooth that line away, to ease the tension riding her fine as hell body beneath the sheet.

  I stripped down to my underwear and got into the bed behind her, pulling her back gently into the curve of my body. She wiggled that ass against my cock, and I closed my eyes and savored the sensation as I curved my arms around her, sliding the one under her pillow and neck. Holding her close as if hanging onto her like this would make it enough, would be enough to hold on to her forever.

  That’s what killed me the most. She was under my skin like no other female I’d ever been with or encountered before and she was a balm to my wounded soul. If I lost that? It would be a special kind of hell, one I wasn’t prepared to walk through but one I better get on board with it being a possibility.

  I mean, I knew she was strong, but just how much could any one woman take in such a short span of time?

  I kissed the back of her shoulder, nose buried in her long hair, and breathed in her soft vanilla scent.

  She threaded her fingers in the spaces between mine on the arm that came over the top of her and hugged it close, pressing back into me and I whispered, “Sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

  There was no response.

  “Ellie?” I whispered after a moment.

  Again, no response and a bit of my anxiety loosened somehow. I relaxed and closed my eyes and even though I didn’t think I was tired, I was out in probably the space of a minute.

  I was back on Ellie’s couch, her perfect body arched above me, her tits thrust toward the overhead light, my hands smoothing over her milk white skin, thumbs tweaking her rosy nipples as she moaned, my cock erect, as hard as it had ever been but something about it wasn’t quite right, wasn’t as fulfilling as it’d been that night, in real life, and when I woke I realized why.

  I was lying on my side, still spooning my lady, her ass grinding against my cock, her little whimpering moans drawing me fully awake and like in my own dream, I was hard to the point of pain.

  “Ellie, baby?” I said thickly, pulling my arm from beneath her slightly so I could prop myself up.

  She whimpered again, dreaming like I had been, her guttural moan ending on a gasp as her liquid brown eyes with their hints of warm bronze flew wide. I chuckled and swept her long hair out of my way, kissing the side of her neck, sliding my hand under the borrowed tee she wore, sliding my palm along her warm skin, over her stomach and beneath the waistband of her thin scrap of panties.

  “Oh, God!” she cried, voice throaty, her hips flexing, shoving her sweet pussy against my searching hand.

  God, I loved the way she telegraphed her wants and desires with her body. The way she writhed against me, the way she pressed against my probing fingertips, the way she moaned breathy and light and couldn’t get enough of my touch.

  She was wild and the most alive I had ever seen her when she was like this. Her body twining around my darkness like a vine, breathing life into my withered soul, my bleak outlook on life. When she was in my arms like this, begging for my touch, begging me to fuck her, I was the most alive I could ever remember being and that was Ellie’s magic.

  She felt so deeply, and she had this power to drag all the feels outta me. A feat I hadn’t realized, until I met her, was even possible.

  She twisted onto her back in my arms, her mouth finding mine, her one hand the side of my face, her tee riding up to just below her breasts, her legs falling open to give my questing fingers better access. I teased her clit with a few more light strokes, her back arching her body taut with a need for more, for a final release I was having every intention of denying her for as long as possible. Not out of a need to be a cruel-assed motherfucker, but out of a desire to make it one of the best damn orgasms of her life.

  I took two fingers and slid them up inside of her and she cried out, her hips bucking against my hand, trying to take them deeper. I smiled against her mouth and kissed her deep as I found that spot inside her and made a come-hither motion against it with the pad of my thumb firmly against her clit, slick with her desire, making everything go smooth and easy. I controlled the amount of friction, slicking my fingers in and out of her wetness, my dick having something to say about not being the appendage to please my woman.

  I ignored the throbbing in my cock and just concentrated on her. This wild sprite in my bed, her body a playground I could get lost on for hours. She moaned in futility against my mouth as I fucked her with my fingers, teasing her to a fever pitch, whipping her into a frenzy of need.

  She tore her mouth from mine and murmured, “Hector!” and it was the sweetest sound I think I’d ever heard. My true name from her lush mouth.

  “That’s it, baby. Just a little bit more,” I whispered.

  Her walls clenched around me, making it hard to thrust my fingers inside of her, but that was alright. I recognized this, was so in tune with her by now that I knew she was close. So goddamn close, it wouldn’t be long now.

  Her body rippled around my fingers and she sucked in a sharp breath, her cry of pleasure hitting the ceiling and running down my walls in a beautiful wash of pure emotion of all that was good, all that was still right in our world that had been turned upside down and inside out on us.

  She lay panting, staring sightlessly, legs spread and twitching, shuddering as I withdrew my fingers. I smiled, chuckling decadently, as I got to my knees and shoved down my boxer briefs. I sucked my fingers clean of her essence while she watched, her eyes dilating with desire, stroking myself slowly with my other hand.

  “God, I want you…” she breathed, and I grinned and took the time to strip her of her panties, following through and stripping off the tee shirt I’d lent her. She ran her hands over her skin, played with her breasts for my benefit and the woman knew just what would drive my ass fuckin’ wild.

  I got into my bedside table, pulled out a condom, and double-timed getting that shit rolled on.

  Kneeling between her legs, looking deep into her eyes, seeing the light of desire in them; the want, the need to have me with her – it was more than enough to seal my fate. I would fight to stay by her side, always. Ours was a love forged under blue fire. Hot to the touch and stronger than steel.

  I would do anything for her to make it right, and if that meant starting over somewhere else. If that was what she wanted? Then so be it.

  26

  Elka…

  I held onto him. His body moving over mine, thrusting deep and deeper still, his hands in my hair, his cock deep inside me loving me languorously, slowly, and purposefully. The way he loved me cemented his place in my life wholly. I held tightly to him and met his drive with my own and somewhere in the midst of it all we ceased to be two and became one being and it was beautiful.

  “God, Ellie…” His voice was subdued but intense. Just like the rest of him but not like the rest of him. There wasn’t really anything subdued about Hector Jones and the way he did things, except when it came to me. When it came to me, he was reserved, as if he saved every bit of his tenderness for me and me alone and I felt so graced by this gift from him.

  We lost time. Minutes could have been hours, hours could have only felt like mere minutes. I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. All I knew was this felt good. He felt too good to be true, and when it was like this, I never wanted it to end.

  When I came again, it was a gentler thing than it had been before, and it touched off Oz’s orgasm as well. He collapsed over me, holding me tight and I kissed his shoulder reverently.

  We lay, clinging to each other for several minutes, catching our breaths, trying to cope with the fact that reality lay beyond his apartment door and that eventually we would have to go back to it.

  “You okay?” I asked gently and he nodded, not trusting himself to speak just yet. He pulled out and vaulted my one leg to stretch out
beside me. I immediately cuddled against his side, my head on his shoulder; my arm across his stomach.

  “I’m good,” he said finally between breaths.

  We cuddled close and he sighed out eventually, piquing my interest.

  “What was that about?” I asked softly.

  “Oh, nothing. I called Skids while you were out.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah, we’re headed to the 10-13 for dinner, see if me and the guys can’t cook up someplace for us to go through the weekend. You know, just to get away for a bit. Let things die down.”

  “Oh, Oz, I don’t know if I’m ready to go out in public so soon after today…”

  “Don’t do that,” he said sharply, disapproval in his voice. “Don’t let these motherfuckers win. They don’t know what’s up. The only people who matter in this are you and me. How you feel about me and how I feel about you. Don’t let anyone else have their say in that, that’s not how it works.”

  I was left speechless by the passion in his tone and swallowed hard.

  “I’m not letting anyone tell me who to see or who to love here, Oz. I’m just tired. Tired of the judgement and the ridicule. Tired of everything I do and anything I say being met with pity. Like, I understand it. I was there. She was my sister! I don’t need anybody and everybody prying into my life, tearing it apart any more than it already has been especially when you’ve spent so much time and care stitching it back together!”

  He gripped me tight against his chest and kissed my head and said, “Alright, alright now. Easy. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

  I huffed out an exasperated breath and said, “I know you didn’t. I’m sorry… I’m just…”

  “Sick of the bullshit,” he finished for me when I couldn’t find the words.

  “Yes. That.”

  “I hear you, but you better get your hip waders on, now. It’s only gonna get deeper while these reporters smell a story.”

  “There is no story here,” I groaned.

  “Not to us,” he said. “But the rest of the world? They gonna be all up in our business until they’re satisfied, they get bored, or something else more entertaining pops up.”

  “I hate that you’re right,” I said after a long silence.

  “I hate it too,” he said. “But I’ll be damned if they stop me from livin’ my life.”

  I rolled my lips together and nodded slowly.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay, you’ll come with me to the 10-13?”

  “Okay, I’ll come with you, but I totally reserve the right to say, ‘I told you so’ if disaster strikes.” I pointed a finger at him, and he nipped it playfully, holding the tip between his teeth gently, smiling around it.

  He let it go and said, “Deal.”

  “And we have to go talk to my dad at some point,” I said. Worried about him, wondering if buried in the myriad of messages from reporters in my voicemail box, if I had a few waiting from him. I was also glad he knew about Oz.

  “You want to call him?” Oz asked.

  “Let me check my voicemail and see if he already knows.”

  Oz nodded and went out to his living room, coming back with my phone which was turned off. I frowned.

  “Was blowing up. Mine too. I shut ‘em both off.”

  “God, now I’m almost afraid to turn it back on,” I said as I hit the switch. It took a few seconds for the device to boot and when it did, I had a ridiculous amount of voicemails and text messages start to flood through.

  “We’re gettin’ you a new number,” he said and I nodded.

  “Yeah, I do not want this to be the rest of my life. Holy shit.”

  “It ain’t gonna be, babe. I’ve seen how this works.”

  I nodded and scrolled through the transcripts of the voicemails on my phone deleting all the reporters and requests for interviews as I went. I sighed when I landed on a voicemail from my dad.

  “He call?”

  “Yeah.”

  I rejected a call before I could put one through to him and blessedly, he picked up on the second ring.

  “Elka?”

  “Yeah, Dad. I’m sorry if I made you worry. It’s been kind of a day…”

  I filled my father in on all the gory details and he listened patiently.

  “And where are you now?” he asked.

  “With Oz. I mean, Officer Jones,” I said, leaning back against the headboard of his bed, pulling the sheet to my chest.

  “Elka…” My dad’s voice was warm with concern but also held an edge of disapproval. Not, I think, because of Oz and what happened – although maybe that was it. More about what this might mean, what people would think. I don’t know.

  “Daddy, I love him very much, and nothing was done on purpose. He didn’t mean to hurt Mia,” I said.

  “I know that!” My dad sounded affronted, like my words stung and I had to concede that this was an extremely complicated and delicate situation.

  “Elka, come home,” my dad begged, and my heart broke slightly.

  “Not right now, Daddy,” I said. “I’m safe, and I’m not talking to any reporters. I might get out of town for a few days. I don’t know yet, I’ll have to see.”

  “Elka…” again with that disapproving tone.

  “It’s okay, Dad. I’m okay. I just need some time to process and I think you do too.”

  “Well, yes… I will concede that point,” he said unhappily.

  “Just…” I raised my gaze to meet Oz’s. “Just promise you don’t hate him,” I said, and the pain crept into my voice despite my best effort to contain it.

  My dad sucked in a sharp breath on the other end of the line and breathed out slow.

  “I don’t think your mother, or your sister would want that,” he said after a time. Which wasn’t exactly a statement on how my dad actually felt about the situation, but it wasn’t an outright condemnation of Oz, either.

  “I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you too, my sweet girl.”

  “Talk to you soon.”

  “Okay,” he said, defeat in his tone.

  “I promise,” I added.

  “Alright. Just be safe.”

  “I will.”

  I ended the call and turned off my phone.

  “Big mess,” Oz remarked, and I nodded without looking at him.

  “Big mess,” I agreed.

  “Right, then let’s go sort it out,” he said and held a hand down to me.

  I let him haul me to my feet, up off his bed. We showered together, dressed in silence, and when it came time to leave, I stopped him with a hand on his back at his front door.

  “Wait.”

  He turned to look at me and I took a deep and fortifying breath.

  “You good?” he asked and I nodded.

  “I’m good, just don’t leave my side, okay?”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said and opened the door to the outside world.

  27

  Oz…

  I took us down the alley on the side of the 10-13 and to the small little courtyard and delivery space behind it and parked the bike out of sight from the street. A lot of the brothers were already here, parked along the brick wall making the alley narrow as fuck, but I got around ‘em. Didn’t even have to make Ellie hop off to traverse the skinny aisle between front bike tires and the opposite brick wall – I was that good.

  Ellie kept nervously eyeing the corner where the alley turned back here as she divested herself of her lid and handed it over to me.

  “Hey,” I said sternly but not unkindly. I wanted her attention for this. She turned to look at me and when I didn’t immediately say anything, raised her eyebrows. Satisfied she was really listening I said, “I know it’s hard, but relax. Mkay? Ain’t nothing gonna come back here and bite you.”

  She smiled but it didn’t hold her usual brightness and I got that. I really did, but she seriously needed to try and chill. She was starting to make me nervous.

  I put a hand to her
lower back and guided her to the kitchen door and rapped out the seldom used Indigo Knights’ pattern. Typically, it was reserved for Narcos or Driller when they were undercover so as not to be seen waltzing through the front door.

  Reflash himself opened it up. “C’mon, the both of yah,” he said, and we were ushered into his kingdom, line cooks and dishwashers looking on curiously.

  “C’mon!” Reflash cried. “What am I payin’ you for! We got people that need to be fed!” The crew fell back in line and started working as quickly as they’d ceased their activity and Reflash led the way through calling back over his shoulder, “Don’t touch anything.”

  I smirked, and steered Ellie in front of me, hands on her shoulders, dropping one to her hip as we stepped through the tidy kitchen over rubber no-slip mats and avoided the guys and gals back here who were feverishly creating Reflash’s culinary masterpieces.

  “How you doin’ sweetheart?” he asked kindly, holding open the kitchen door out into the restaurant.

  “Oh, um, alright I guess,” she said, blushing faintly.

  “Yeah,” he said like he didn’t believe her. “You’re alright now, at least here you’re among friends. Head on up to the fishbowl. We got it curtained off.”

  “Thanks man.” I held out my elbow and he tapped it with his as I passed. It was a thing we’d adopted. Pounding fists just made him have to go wash his hands again, which even though I knew he was going to do it anyway after opening the grimy back door, I was just trying to be considerate.

  “See you in a few,” he said and I nodded.

  “Thanks, my brother.”

  “Anytime.”

  “This way,” I murmured behind Ellie’s ear and I stepped around her and in front of her and went right up to the fishbowl which was, indeed dark, from the thick black curtains that had been pulled along the rails on the inside to cover the thick glass for privacy.

  The door gave that familiar scrape along the lintel and it felt like coming home – for real. My apartment by comparison was just the place I went to crash. Right here, with this pack of loveable assholes, was my real home. Until Ellie. I was more excited about introducing her to this part of my world than I cared to admit. I just wished it was under better circumstances.