Rock Chick 04 Renegade (20 page)

“I didn’t use protection,” he interrupted me.

I blinked at him then my eyes got wide.

“
Fuck.
” The word was a gentle explosion under his breath and then he got further into my space, his face close to mine. “I didn’t expect it to go that far.” This was not good.

“What did you expect to happen?” I asked.

“I expected to make you come with my hand and have time to get protection before I fucked you. But Christ, your face when you came…”

He stopped speaking and I stopped breathing.

Then he went on. “I also expected you to be the kind of woman with enough experience and brains to keep herself protected.”

My mouth dropped open then I snapped it shut then I said, “You make it sound like my fault.”

“You didn’t tel me you were a virgin. Things would have gone differently if you had.”

I didn’t know what that meant and I didn’t get the chance to ask.

He kept talking. “How in
the fuck
does someone who looks like you remain a virgin until you’re twenty-six fuckin’

years old?”

Okay, so, I was getting the impression that my virginal status was a turn off. Instead of this making me angry, it hurt me someplace private, someplace there was no way in hel I’d ever let show.

I pretended his words didn’t affect me and looked for an excuse.

“I’ve been kinda busy,” I told him.

“That’s not it.”

“I’m a lesbian?” I tried.

He stared at me like he thought it might be a good idea to cal a certain kind of doctor.

Then he twisted his torso around, turned off the faucet, came back and put his hands on the wal on either side of me.

“No one has ever touched you?” he asked, his voice stil sounding angry, intense and I didn’t know how to react.

I mean, this wasn’t exactly the end of the world, was it?

Was I that bad?

“No one’s ever touched me,” I answered softly.

“No one?”

I shook my head.

“Put their mouth on you?” he went on.

“Vance!” I exclaimed.

“Answer me, god dammit!” he clipped, his eyes flashing, the intensity escalating and my heart began to race.

“No!” I yel ed, confused and beginning to get freaked right the hel out.

When I said no he moved quickly, yanking my body to him and his arms went around me tight, his mouth came down on mine in a hot and heavy, ful -on-tongue-action kiss.

It took my breath away.

He pul ed away but only to yank my nightgown over my head and throw it aside. I noticed his nakedness then, forgetting my own, and stared in amazement at his body for the second he gave me before it was against mine, pressing me to the wal , hands everywhere, mouth on mine.

My bel y was fluttering again, wildly, and I went with it, exploring his skin with my hands.

Okay, so, maybe I was wrong about my virginal status being a turn off.

It was out of control, even though we’d just finished, we started again and it was not like before. I thought that had been intense but
this
was. It was violent, unrestrained, we were al over each other and it was fucking amazing.

Within minutes I was alternately panting, kissing him, tasting his neck, his col arbone, his shoulders and my hands were running over his ass when he bent, lifted my leg, swung it around his hip and slammed into me.

My head went back when he fil ed me and cracked against the wal .

He heard it, picked me up with his hands at my behind, stil inside me. I wrapped my legs around his hips and my arms around his shoulders. He moved us into the hal , his head tilted back and mine tipped down, our mouths locked together.

He went to his knee on the floor and dropped me to my back. He moved over me, I kept my legs and arms around him and he started immediately moving inside me, hard, fast, deep, my body jolting with his thrusts. It felt good, beyond good, straight to magnificent.

His hands went to the sides of my head, fingers in my hair and he looked down at me while he moved. I tried to kiss him but he dodged my mouth.

“Never,” he said, his voice gruff, his hips stopping their thrusts and grinding into me.

“Never what?” I murmured, one of my hands sliding down his back, the other one went into his hair.

“Outside my bike, never has anything important in my life been just mine.”

My body stil ed, so did my heart, and my eyes locked with his.

He started moving again, slowly, deeply and he kept talking. “Always castoffs, leftovers, used, sometimes even food from dumpsters.”

My heart started beating again, only to trip over itself; my breath came fast, not only from what was happening to my body but what he was saying.

“Vance –”

His lips came to mine, his hands moved out of my hair and went to the sides of my face and he stared in my eyes, pressing deep inside.

“Mine,” he muttered, his deep voice hoarse, that fierce undercurrent there.

His tone caused a shiver to run through me, straight through to my soul.

Then he kissed me.

* * * * *

We were back in bed, comforter up to our waists. Vance had his arms around me; I had my hands pressed against his chest.

Boo was sitting on the end of the bed staring at us with barely concealed impatience at what he considered the unacceptable delay in the arrival of his morning wet food breakfast.

After we were done on the floor in the hal , wordlessly Vance had carried me up to the bed not like last time but cradled in his arms. He’d managed that feat too, graceful y.

He pul ed me into bed, yanked the comforter over us and he held me, stil silent.

I was silent too. My body was completely sated after three earth-shattering, back-to-back orgasms, so much so, I could barely move.

My mind was blank with shock and, if I admitted it to myself, pure unadulterated fear.

I pul ed my thoughts together, tossed my emotional Rottweiler a juicy steak and twisted my head to look at Vance. “We have to talk.”

And we did. We
so
had to talk.

He kissed me quickly then looked in my eyes. “Is this one of your whisper-sweet-stories-about-your-life-and-smile-at-me talks or something else?” he asked.

“Something else,” I told him.

“Then we don’t have to talk.”

“Crowe.”

He kissed me again.

“I’l cal you later,” he said.

“Crowe –”

“We’l go out to dinner before the meet with Darius.”

“Crowe!”

He leaned in, kissed my forehead, let me go, moved swiftly and disappeared off the edge of the platform.

“
Crowe!
” I shouted.

I scrambled to the end of the bed, wrapping the comforter around my naked body. With effort and absolutely no grace I threw my legs over the side of the bed, stumbled, corrected myself and jumped down, pul ing the bulk of the king-sized comforter with me

I went charging into the living room, Boo hot on my heels but Vance was gone.

“God dammit!” I shouted at the empty room.

“
Meow!
” Boo concurred.

* * * * *

She was fol owed, to my complete surprise and absolute mortification, by Daisy and Roxie.

“Wel ?” May asked after she arrived, looking at my face closely.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I stated, walked right by the trio and stomped across the room, ignoring the kids who were staring at me.

The ladies caught me at the entry to the hal and hustled me, protesting al the way, into the yel ow counseling room.

Roxie shut the door and May drew the blind on the window to the hal .

“Oh Sugar, what happened?” Daisy asked, eyes on me, her voice gentle.

I faced off against Daisy and ignored her soft look. “I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

And I didn’t. My emotional Rottweiler was straining against his chain, snarling and barking, teeth bared.

I didn’t need this shit. I didn’t need these people.

I didn’t need to think about the fact that I’d had unprotected sex,
twice
, with Crowe. If his swimmers were anything like him they were gonzo and had probably already fertilized at least one of my eggs and as I stood in the yel ow counseling room were likely creating a beautiful baby with dark hair, dark eyes and amazing bone structure.

This would mean I’d
never
get Vance Crowe out of my life.

Furthermore I didn’t need to think about what he said to me, how he said it or how it made me feel.

I needed to think about my mission. I needed to keep my head in the game.

The door flew open and Roxie, who stil had her hand on the knob, went flying.

Indy, Al y and Jet stormed into the room. I looked to the ceiling and fought for patience, or deliverance, or the ability to beam myself to Nicaragua.

I came back into the room when I heard Indy say, “Sorry Roxie.”

“What’d we miss?” Al y was staring at me.

Jet closed the door.

“I have to get to work,” I announced, stalking to the door but Daisy got in front of me and stopped me.

“He hurt you?” she asked, her voice stil kind.

“No,” I answered. “I’m late. I have appointments.”

“Does anyone know if they did it?” Jet whispered to May.

“We haven’t got that far,” May replied.

“Sugar, talk to us,” Daisy grabbed my hand.

I looked at our hands then at her then I pul ed my hand out of hers. “Listen, I don’t mean to be rude but I have work to do and this, real y, is none of your business.” Daisy’s head jerked and she took a step back.

I went to walk by her but a strong hand wrapped around my upper arm, ultra-long fingernails (I noticed, at a glance, they were painted frosty pink with swipes of silver across the tips) biting into my flesh and Daisy turned me back around. I was now facing a Daisy without the kind and gentle look on her face. This was a serious Daisy, serious as a heart attack.

“Girl, I know you’re a kickass, head-crackin’ mamma jamma but whatever happened with Vance you ain’t ever gonna get through if you don’t talk to your girlfriends, comprende?”

“You aren’t my girlfriends,” I told her.

Her eyes narrowed.

“Excuse me but we held the goddamned Sacred Girlfriend Ritual last night in your very own livin’ room,” Daisy declared, “complete with margaritas and makeup.”

“Sorry, Jules, but you aren’t getting rid of us,” Indy said.

“If he hurt her, I’m gonna kick his fuckin’ ass,” Al y said to no one.

“Vance wouldn’t hurt her, no way,” Roxie said quietly, watching me.

May pushed through everyone and grabbed onto my upper arms. “Talk, girl,” she said quietly in her Mama’s-gonna-make-it-better voice and even I, head-crackin’

mamma jamma (whatever that meant) was no match for May’s Mama voice.

I took a deep breath and let it go. “The date was terrible,” I told them and May’s hands dropped and she stepped back, her face fal ing with disappointment.

“Oh no,” Jet said.

“We fought,” I explained.

“About what?” Roxie asked.

“He tried to tel me what to do,” I answered.

“Wel ,
that
wasn’t the way to go,” Indy muttered.

“When we got back to my house, we made up,” I went on.

“That’s good,” Jet put in, her expression brightening.

“Then we started to… um, you know…” I faltered.

“Then we started to… um, you know…” I faltered.

“Go on,” Al y encouraged.

“Then, at a good part, Vance had to stop and go outside to shoot Sal Cordova who was stalking me.” Daisy started to giggle.

“He shot him in the ass,” I told Daisy and I had to grin because I stil thought it was funny.

“What kind of good part?” Al y asked, bringing me back to the matter at hand.

I looked at her, grin stil on my face now for a different reason. “A
really
good part,” I told her.

“What we talkin’ about here? Hands and fingers or mouth and tongue?” Daisy demanded to know.

“Or fingers and tongue?” Al y threw in an alternate combo.

“Hands and fingers, mainly fingers,” I answered.

“Oh my,” Roxie breathed.

“Vance got shot too,” I said.

“No!” Indy exclaimed. “Lee didn’t tel me!”

“He’s okay, just a graze, some stitches in his thigh,” I assured Indy.

“So, you didn’t do it,” May said.

I looked to May. “Yes. We did. This morning. Twice.” Their eyes grew round and they leaned in.

“How was it?” Indy asked.

“What’s his body like?” Al y asked.

“Did it hurt? Are you okay?” Roxie asked.

I closed my eyes, bit my lip and then opened my eyes again and told them the rest. Al the rest, everything. When I was done talking, they were staring at me, mouths open.

“Holy crap,” Indy breathed.

“I knew that horse ridin’ thing was no urban myth,” Daisy said to Indy.

I looked at Roxie and she had tears in her eyes. I watched her a second and, forgetting about my travails, I walked to her.

“I’m okay,” I assured her and she nodded, tears stil threatening. Then I asked, “Are you okay?”

“Vance. We…” she stopped. “Jules, remember I told you yesterday he was the one who rescued me when my ex kidnapped me?”

I nodded.

“Wel after he brought me back, he went after my ex, Bil y, when Bil y got away. Tracked him for days. In the end, during the big face down when Bil y caught up with us at Daisy’s party, Vance shot him in the hand.” I stared. I’d heard the story but I didn’t know it was Roxie’s boyfriend or Daisy’s party.