Center of Gravity (Marauders Book 3) (17 page)

“A different alibi?”

“It’s not that hard,” he smiled. “I would’ve left you out of it if I could’ve.”

“I told them everything I knew.”

“Good. You did the right thing, and you had nothing to hide.”

I wasn’t convinced, and it didn’t escape my notice that he hadn’t actually answered any of my questions besides the really basic ones. I also wasn’t sure if he was telling me the truth, but maybe it could be that simple, and as long as I viewed what we had going as something casual, I could ignore the rest and stay in the bubble I’d kept around us. I wasn’t
in
his world. At least that’s what I told myself, and frankly, I wasn’t sure I could give him up just yet. I nodded.

“It’s called a tutu,” I said.

“What?”

“The short skirt, it’s called a tutu.”

“It was nice, I could see your entire ass, but the tights and the cup on the guy…” He shook his head. “Not a good look on any dude.”

“Makes their ass look nice.”

“I didn’t notice.”

I laughed and then looked at him. “Okay. We keep it simple, and I won’t ask you any unnecessary questions. Casual and simple.”

Frankly, I wasn’t sure it would work in the long run, but I figured it could work for now, and this had never been a long-term solution any way.

“Let’s go get some candy for the movie,” he said and stood up.

“You’re going to eat more?”

“Everyone knows that the food stomach and candy stomach are two different things.”

“I can’t, Mitch. I really can’t.”

“Okay,” he took my hand. “Movie first, chocolate later.”

-o0o-

“Can I ask you something?” I asked as I stared at the shelf full of chocolate bars in front of me.

I’d hoped it was a joke, but after the movie, he’d taken me to buy candy. I wasn’t sure if I was capable of eating after the buffet, since it was still hard for me to move, I was so full.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never had chocolate.”

“Of course I’ve had chocolate!” I turned and looked at him, but he was busy picking out chocolate bars, and I decided to drop it. I had been planning on asking him if he’d just said he didn’t have sex with others to make me feel better, or if it was the truth. “Did you like the movie?”

“You’re a shitty liar, Gimp. Good thing you decided to tell the cops the truth.”

“You do know it’s really rude that you keep calling me ‘Gimp’?”

That’s when he turned, put his arm around my waist, and gave me one of those nice smiles. “It’s not. It could be rude, but it’s not, and you don’t mind. You wouldn’t even have pointed it out if you hadn’t been pissed that I caught you trying to lie to me.”

“I wasn’t lying. I changed my mind about what I wanted to ask. Let’s just drop it.”

“Let’s.” He pushed the chocolate bars into my hand. “Now, number three on my list is shoplifting. Put these in your bag. I’ll cover you.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Dr. Mitch

-o0o-

Mitch was at the clubhouse; it was his dad’s birthday and the annual Christmas party. He was trying to keep an eye on the door, so he could catch Anna when she arrived.

It had taken her a few days to fully get over the murder and having been questioned by the cops, but she’d seemed fine by the time her parents had arrive and she’d had to ditch him to spend time with them. He’d talked to her on the phone a couple of times, though.

He might’ve said it was about sex and him showing her things she’d missed, but that was complete fucking bullshit. He knew they were beyond fuck buddies, and he also knew he was falling in love with her. ‘A total goner,’ as he’d once labeled his brother’s feelings towards Vi. Watching Anna at an ‘all you can eat’ buffet, laughing about the amount of food on his plate, holding her hand through a shitty movie, and ending their day out by tricking her into shoplifting some chocolate bars had pretty much cemented it. He was crazy about her, which was the main reason he’d been so dead set on making sure she wanted to keep seeing him.

Her eyes when he’d told her to put the sweets in her bag, that he’d cover her, had almost made him laugh his ass off. But he kept a serious face and when she’d still hesitated, he’d grabbed ahold of her, kissed her while slipping them into her bag, and they’d walked out.

“I did not
not
shoplift because of ballet, I didn’t do it because I’m not a
thief!”
she’d yelled as soon as they got outside, and she’d done it while throwing the chocolate bars at him.

“You are now,” he’d chuckled and kissed her again. She had laughed about it later. At least a little.

When she finally arrived at the Christmas party, it took him a few seconds to recognize her. She was wearing a red dress, showing the most amazing fucking cleavage. Her hair was up in the usual bun, but she had long earrings and stunning makeup. She’d worn makeup before, but not like this, and he’d never seen her with long earrings. He decided that she should wear earrings all the time, because they made her neck look even longer.

“Tell me she dumped you, or that you’re at least just fucking,” Sisco muttered next to him. “Look at those legs!”

Oh, he’d seen them, and not only now when she was wearing that dress. He fucking loved her legs. Not just because of how they looked, but just as much because of what she could do with them—or what he could do with them. He turned to Sisco.

“She didn’t dump me and stay the fuck away.”

“Thought so,” he heard Sisco chuckle behind him as he walked away.

She was holding a bag in her hand, and it looked heavy. He stopped a few feet from her.

“What’s in the bag?”

“A present for your dad.”

“Why?”

“You said it was his birthday.”

She looked confused, like it was the most obvious thing in the world that she’d bought
his dad
, who she didn’t know, a birthday gift.

“We like to party and this is mostly a Christmas party, so you didn’t have to, Gimp.”

“No,” she smiled. “But it’s the polite thing to do.”

That’s when his dad came over to greet Anna. “The ballerina.” He gave her a quick hug. “Well, you look stunning!”

“Thank you and happy birthday,” Anna said and handed Brick the bag. “I hope you like it. I honestly wasn’t sure what to give you.”

Brick opened the bag and a smiled. “Beer?”

“Yes. It’s a Spanish bear—or a lager. Apparently the best one they have. That’s pretty much all I can tell you about it,” Anna laughed. “And please don’t ask me what it means that it’s a lager.”

“Spanish?”

“Yeah, I asked my dad to buy the best beer Spain had to offer, and he bought that.” Now she looked a little embarrassed. “Dad is more of a wine man, so I wouldn’t hold my breath about it.”

Mitch noticed that Brick looked impressed, and somehow that made him proud.

“That’s really nice. Thank you,” Brick said and gave her another, slightly longer, hug. “What can I get you, girl?”

“A beer, any beer is fine. You can keep those for yourself.”

Brick handed Mitch a bottle of the Spanish lager, and he looked at it. Estrella Damm, he’d never heard of it. He opened it and took a mouthful. It was good, and he and Brick nodded to each other at the same time.

“That’s a nice lager, Anna,” Brick said. “Really nice of you, darlin’. Get the lady a beer, son.”

Mitch nodded and grabbed Anna’s hand before walking her over to the bar. He made sure she had a beer of her own and then handed her his bottle of Estrella Damm.

“Taste it.” He watched her take a sip. “So how are things with your parents?”

“Okay,” she nodded, handed him the bottle back, and then sighed. “They’re very... careful. I’m guessing they’re still not used to the idea of me not dancing and think I’ll break apart if they mention anything even remotely related to ballet. Which doesn’t leave us much to talk about, to be honest.”

He assumed this wasn’t the time to point out that she actually still did break apart a little when ballet was mentioned. Not completely, but a little. Instead, he leaned his elbow on the bar and took a closer look at her. She was amazingly sexy, and his eyes kept going back to her cleavage.

Since the day after the cops had come and picked him up, when she’d ignored him, and until her parents had arrived, they’d spent every night together, and he’d liked that. His dad was starting to complain a little about him always coming in late for work, but most of them were late more often than not. They worked at the garage, but they all knew their real work was the club business. For the garage business they had employees.

With the finances, keeping an eye on the cops’ murder investigation, doing his own murder investigation, trying to find Hump, doing constant extra searches though their servers and computers, giving lessons to the slightly less tech-savvy members to make sure they used their computers safely, being woken up a few nights a week to check the moron trying to hack their server, and setting up safe communications with the Dutch club—the list went on, but with all that, he figured he’d earned the fucking right to come in around ten each day. And he knew no one would argue with him about it, but they were all curious as fuck about Anna. Naming her as his alibi had sort of been to throw her under the bus as far as the club went, and he hoped they’d be good to her.

“You look great,” he finally said when he for the tenth time was caught staring at Anna’s impressive cleavage. “I like that dress.”

“I’ve noticed, but thank you. I would look better in high heels, but it made the cane too short, and I walked a bit like the hunchback.”

He laughed. “A very sexy hunchback.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled.

“Baby!” Lisa yelled and threw her arm around Anna’s waist. “The things that dress does to your ass makes me want to smack you in a jealous rage.” She gave her cheek a kiss. “You look amazing, why didn’t you wear that when I took you out barhopping?”

Barhopping? What the fuck? When did that happen? But he didn’t get a chance to ask because Lisa dragged Anna out of his way, and he noticed Lisa had been right—Anna’s ass looked fucking awesome in the dress. She disappeared into the crowd and not thirty seconds later his dad was at his side.

“So that’s the alibi and the reason to why you’re always late for work lately?”

“Yeah...” He wasn’t sure what to say. “It’s not what you think.”

“So if I think you’re spending your mornings nailing the ballerina, I’d be wrong?” Brick asked, with an amused smile on his face.

“Uh... No,” he admitted.

“She seems nice. Gotta like a girl who gives me a lager.”

“Who’s the girl?” Mel asked as she put her arms around Brick’s waist and looked at Anna at the other side of the room. “Oh, is that the ballerina? I love her dress!”

“Yes, that’s her,” Mitch said, hoping that Mel was done with the questioning, which she obviously wasn’t.

“I didn’t know you two knew each other, too. Thought she was Lisa’s friend.”

“I’m leaving,” he said, and took his lager from the bar before turning to Mel. “Don’t scare her!”

He kept an eye on Anna, making sure she stuck to Lisa. He didn’t want her walking around alone, not when she looked like that. She talked to Edie a lot again, but Mel was at her side for quite some time, too, and he didn’t miss her interest. Obviously his dad had said something. Mel had been worrying about him and his lack of interest in women other than for temporary fucks. She’d given him the ‘for someone so smart you’re acting like an idiot’ speech more than once. He lost sight of Anna for a few minutes, and he almost swallowed his bottle when he saw her next to Sisco. It didn’t take him many seconds to reach them.

“I’ve never tried that.” Anna smiled at Sisco.

“Tried what?” Mitch asked and cut between them to put his arm around her shoulders.

“None of your concern,” Sisco smiled and winked at Anna. “I’ll see you around, Swan.”

“Swan?” Mitch asked Anna.

“He asked if I’d ever danced the swan in the Swan Lake, and I told him I had.”

He was about to ask her again what it was Sisco had talked about and that she’d never tried, but was interrupted when she continued talking.

“I’m on my way.”

“On your way where?”

“Home,” she smiled.

That threw him off. It made sense, though. He’d hoped she’d spend the night with him, but she’d said she wouldn’t while her parents were in town.

“Can’t stay a while longer?” he mumbled and moved closer to her. “At least half an hour longer?”

“You’re just trying to get some before I leave,” Anna laughed and started walking towards the door. “I’ll call you.”

Mitch took her arm, leaned forwards, and whispered in her ear.

“You saying you won’t need any? Gonna be at least four days until I can see you again.” He gave her ear a quick lick. “And I’d really like to just hoist that dress up and fuck you from behind with my hand down that amazing cleavage. I’ve been picturing it
all
night.”

She was definitely breathing heavily, and her eyes were closed, but she didn’t answer. So he simply took a firm grip around her waist and turned them around. She didn’t hesitate and followed him through the clubhouse, and into his room. The second the door closed, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

“You just paraded me through the clubhouse!” she growled between kisses.

“They all knew anyway,” he chuckled and started to pull her dress up over her hips. “Turn around, baby.”

He took her cane, laid it on the dresser, and then pushed Anna to lie over the desk. He pulled down her panties carefully to not tear her stockings, since he knew she’d hate to have to go through the clubhouse with bare legs. Once they were down, he pressed two of his fingers inside her.

“Shit! Oh my god, Mitch!”

“See,” he said hoarsely, “you would’ve regretted it if you didn’t get some today.”

“I know!” She got up on her elbows and looked over her shoulder. “Admit it, you would’ve been really pissed if I’d left without you getting some.”

He smiled and leaned over her. “I would’ve just come by and introduced myself to your parents.”

“You wouldn’t.” Her eyes widened. “You can’t do it.”

“Relax, baby. I was kidding.”

He moved his hand to her front to find her clit. The other went down her cleavage just like he’d promised, and he pinched her nipple. When he felt how fucking wet she was, he decided he couldn’t wait. He stood up and grabbed a condom.

She looked over her shoulder with glowing eyes and a small smile on her lips, but she didn’t move.

“Fuck, babe,” he groaned and leaned over her. “I’m gonna miss this, so if you see a shot, send me a text. Okay?”

“Okay,” she moaned as he pressed inside her.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was so fucking beautiful. Her earring rested just under her jawline. A few strands had fallen out of her bun. He stroked them to the side and kissed her just underneath her ear. With her eyes still closed, she smiled.

He straightened up, grabbed ahold of her hips, but kept his eyes on her, flat on the desk, moving with his thrusts, and for the thousandth time that night, it struck him how beautiful she was. He looked down and saw his hands holding her hips, the rounding of her ass, and his dick moving in and out of her. He wouldn’t last long, it was all so god damn good, and her insides were already clenching down on his dick.

“Mitch!” Her eyes were still closed, and with a firmer grip of her hips, he slammed inside her. They flew open. “Again!”

He did as she’d asked, and she shrieked once more. “Like that?”

“Yes! Don’t stop!”

He definitely wouldn’t last long, and he leaned down over her while still pounding into her. He took her hands, interlaced his fingers with hers, and held them over her head. Resting his head on her shoulder, he inhaled her scent and felt her come around his dick. That was it. With a few hard thrusts, he came as well.