Rose (Road Kill MC #3) (7 page)

Ultimatums are fuckers.
I think less of her mom for making one.

They stand frozen as they stare at each other. Norah kills Rose slowly with her eyes.

I stay where I am. I don't force people. It's not my way.

Rose stretches out her hand in my direction like a lifeline.

I thread my fingers through hers. I don't even think about it; it’s as automatic as taking my next breath.

Her mother's eyes move to our joined hands, and without a word, she walks away.

I pull Rose against me as she cries.

No woman's ever made me give my trust before.

Until now.

I would die for Rose Christo.

Rose

My parents won't speak to me. I feel abandoned. Drake gets Charlie this weekend for court-ordered visitation.

Overnight.

Charlie's never spent a night away from me except for at Mom and Dad's.

Noose has been great.

Like now.

I wrap my arms around him. I haven't stopped crying since I found out. I can't fix this.

Noose can't fix this.

Drake wins. He gets Anna's boy, and I've betrayed her by not keeping him safe. I couldn't even do that.

The bike eats the black ribbon of road. I swear we're going too fast around every curve. The heat and solidness of the bike is negated with the wind that pulls at my vulnerable sides. The smells and flavors of the early autumn air fill my nose with life.

I can barely hang on. I don't deserve this.

Deserve Noose.

Deserve anything.

I dropped Charlie off at Mom and Dad's, and they silently took him inside. Neither spoke to me.

Their eyes were on Noose sitting languidly on his bike. I left my car at their house and took off with him.

I assume we're going to the club, but we pass the large building tucked into many commercial warehouses just like it.

Moving toward downtown Kent, we roll past the organic market and gas stations that've changed hands so much, they're just signs and pumps.

At Kent Station, Noose slows.

We arrive at a ten story, ultra-modern concrete building. I look up. Nondescript. The sign says
Top Shelf
in cool rolling neon script like ice washed by glacial blue.

Noose puts his hand over my cold fingers for a moment then roots around in a bag attached to his handlebars. The chrome emblem HD glows softly in the streetlamps.

Tomorrow is Columbus Day, and I don't have to work. No facing Ned, receiving pity from Naomi, or taking Charlie to school.

I've taken my brain, dusted it off, and set it on a shelf inside my mind. I need to
feel
and shut off that part of me that thinks.

Noose said he would help me.

He presses a button on a rectangular box, and an underground parking garage door lifts. The low rumble of his bike grows louder as he glides below the ground.

LED lights softly glow above our heads as we cruise past cars and bikes.

He finds his stall and rolls into the slot.

Noose shuts off the bike and kicks the stand out with his heel. Swinging off, he holds his hand out, and I take off the helmet. I felt claustrophobic the first couple times I wore it. Now I would feel naked without it.

I hand Noose the helmet, and he walks to a row of cages with cyclone fencing. Pulling a keyring from his pocket, he flicks out a tiny key then inserts it in a padlock. He walks inside, and I dismount, hopping as I land.

I follow him into a walk-in locker-type storage thing. Handmade shelves line the back and sides of the small space. Motorcycle parts, oil, the delicious WD-40 I always smell on him, and a bunch of miscellaneous tools decorate the shelves. There are also gloves, hoodies, and other outdoor stuff.

“Handy.”

Noose whips around at the sound of my voice, and suddenly, I'm in his arms and turned in one motion. He presses me up against the back of the cage, and I hit the pegboard full of tools.

Noose's hand braces my impact, and tools clatter to the ground like metal rain.

“What?” I ask, but his mouth is on mine. Tasting. Teasing. Killing me with his brutal insistence.

I want to cry. I want to beat my fists at the unseen enemy of fate for first taking my sister, then my nephew.

But Noose is real. He is here. Where destiny takes, it gives back.

He easily lifts me by my ass, and I wrap my legs around his waist.

“This okay, Rose? Because I have to… I have to—” He slams his mouth on mine.

“Yes,” I manage breathlessly.

We haven't even gotten to his condo yet, and all I can think about is his erection pressing into my stomach and his strong hands cradling my ass, widening the cradle of my hips to accept him.

“Noose!” I say into his mouth.

He yanks the front of my yoga pants down and slides his finger between the folds of my slit in one movement. I sigh in relief.

I need him. I need him like this. Exactly like what he does.

He moves his finger back and forth, pinning me against the peg board. A wrench or something grinds into my back, and the pain of the tool mixes with the friction of his finger.

It finally drops from his motion of sliding back and forth inside my labia. I'm soaked.

He dips the end of his finger inside me, and I yelp. The sensation is so raw, so necessary, that my head falls back and I jerk my hips forward, seeking more.

His finger sinks to the knuckle inside me, and we moan together.

“You're fucking killing me,” he says.

“Uh-huh,” I say, gripping his shoulders as I plunge up and down on his finger.

He adds another, and I still, my hips as far as they'll go. My forehead sways forward, and I bump his.

Noose's thighs pin my knees from beneath, holding my body weight, and he goes for it, finger fucking me as I'm spread against the wall.

“Please,” I whisper.

“On it, babe,” he says, his thumb driving into my clit as his fingers work deep inside.

“Come for me, Rose.”

I haven't thought about being in public until that moment. But the mere thought of someone catching us as I'm spread and on display has me coming in great deep pulses around his finger.

“Ah!” I scream, and Noose covers my mouth, kissing me as he lets up on the pressure on my clit.

I throb around his gently pumping fingers.

“Noose,” I breathe, sort of embarrassed now that the heat of the moment is cooling.

“Nah, babe, fucking blew up around my hand. I could do that twice a day for the rest of my life, and I'd never get tired of it.”

I open my eyes, and his luminescent gaze bores into me. “Really?” I ask in a voice heavy with spent lust.

“Better?” he asks.

I laugh instead of crying. He sees it. “No tears, Rose. I just gave you good hand.”

I laugh harder then finally manage, “Yes you did, Noose.”

His fingers withdraw slowly and with great care. I watch him lick his fingers like a satisfied cat. “Sweet pussy.”

My face heats. “Thanks, I guess.”

Noose's golden-brown brows lift. “I know what I'm talking about, Rose.”

I fold my arms, and he rolls my yoga pants back in place and slowly lowers me to the floor. His size dwarfs me.

“You don't always think about what you're saying.”

Noose shrugs. “Best pussy I've tasted.”

“Well your cock is the best I've tasted.”

Noose cages me against the pegboard with his powerful arms. “Yeah? Sucked a lot of cock?” His eyes are slivers of silver.

I let him sweat it for a few seconds.

“Rose,” he says, voice dangerously low. He reaches out, picking up a heavy piece of my hair and spinning it around his finger until his hands is caught in it, trapped at my nape. “Well?”

His eyes turn molten, and I ask him, “How do you like thinking I've got all kinds of dicks to compare to and I think yours is the best?”

He frowns.

I laugh.

His frown deepens to a scowl. “Don't.”

“Hmmm. Well then, I know you've been with a twat parade. You don't have to mention it.”

Noose barks out a laugh. “Twat parade?”

I nod. “Yes.”

He pulls me into his arms. “Maybe, but there's only one twat I want.”

Then he pulls my yoga pants to my ankle and drapes my leg over his shoulder.

“Noose—don't. Someone might—” I groan as he sinks to his knees, pushing his finger inside me again and pressing his tongue flat on my clit. “Oh God.” My head falls back against the pegboard.

Noose is relentless, lapping at my pussy with a precision that has me coming in two minutes.

He hums low in his throat, lips locked to my clit, and the vibration of his voice brings another wave of light pulsing, sinking into my skin and my soul.

I wear Noose's mouth, his finger deep inside me, his voice thrumming through my flesh, and I forget everything but him.

The man.

The moment.

Noose

I lean over the railing of the tiny balcony on my tenth-floor unit, staring at the cars and people moving below like toys moved by the hand of an invisible giant. After another drag of my cig, I push rings into the air. I center them, throwing them into the sky, locomotive style.

“Noose.”

I turn, leaning back against the railing. “Hey, babe.”

My eyes run down her body. Not much to see. Rack is covered in one of my T-shirts. Rose is so small, my T-shirt comes to mid-thigh on her. Little long for my taste. I'd love to see a hint of that sweet pussy.

When my gaze works its way back up to her face, she gets that hot look of embarrassment mixed with lust. Love that fucking combo.

I mash the cig out in a Road Kill ashtray on a two-seater table that's shoved into the corner of the balcony.

“Some view.” Rose peeks from the safety of inside, and I grab her, jerking her out onto the balcony.

“Noose!” she shrieks.

“I got ya.” I hold her tightly, letting her feet dangle between mine. I kiss her nose. Then I get carried away and start kissing her eyelids, mouth, and jaw.

“Fuck, can't get enough.” And I can't. Every bit of her is good.

“Put me back inside,” she says, whacking me on my back. I ignore her, kissing the soft skin between her earlobe and collarbone.
Dee-lish.

“Please.”

I pull away. Her eyes are genuinely frightened. Must have a thing with heights.

I walk her back inside and close the glass slider without looking. She backs up, and I prowl after her.

“You have that look,” she says warily.

I thumb my chest and chuckle. “The one where I tell you with my eyes that we're gonna fuck?”

Rose nods quickly. “Yeah,” she says breathlessly. “That one.”

She spins and takes off running. Her bare legs are lightly toned. Gorgeous.

Love her spirit.
I chase her through the hall then grab her around the waist, lifting her. She squeals, and I smile.

Love her. Love everything about her.

“You can't want to again!” she shouts.

I turn her so fast, she stumbles, and I push her back on my orgy-sized bed. Falling over her, I brace my weight with my elbows and mow the hair back from her face with the flat of my palms, holding her face still. “Oh yeah—I want.”

Rose blinks, spreading her legs. “Thank you, Noose.”

“For fucking you, Rose?” I laugh. “No. I'm the one that's fucking thankful.”

She smiles that soft smile that makes my guts flop. “No, for helping me through this.” She tilts her head, continuing quietly, “You're so… raw.”

Sounds accurate. I just nod.

“Why?” she asks softly, running her fingers along my jaw.

A sick sense of helplessness runs through me. My boner becomes a noodle between us.

“Takes energy to pretend,” I say. “Better to just be me.”

“I think that's what I love most about you. You just do you. All the time.”

I smile beneath her touch. “Yeah.”

Her wandering finger runs along my bottom lip, and I suck it in.

I work up courage, figuring on rejection but taking the chance. “I want you to move in with me, Rose.”

Her finger stills.

We stare at each other. I watch the answer form in her eyes.

I hit the bed by her head, and she gasps.

“Noose—I can't.”

“Why? I can't fucking protect you where you're living, Rose.” I palm the sides of her head. “I can't live with myself if I can't secure your safety.”

Tears run out the corner of her eyes. “Charlie deserves stability, Noose. And now Drake will have him every other weekend.”

Dammit it all to fucking hell.

“I am rock-of-fucking-Gibraltar stable, Rose.”

She shakes her head. “We don't have to rush things, Noose.”

I pull away, rolling over on my back, forearm over my stomach.
Damn, damn, damn.

“I used to live by my instincts. It was the only component that saved me in Afghanistan.” Dragging my fingers through the top of my hair, I try to delay the inevitable. But I gotta make Rose see. “I'm not fucking rushing. I've been living in slow-motion for fucking ever.”

I turn, propping my head up on my elbow, my eyes never leaving hers. “I've lived my whole life like I was dreaming. And you woke me up, Rose. I've never felt more real.” My chest is like a taut springboard. “I've never been more sure. You tell me we don't need to rush. Hell, I can't wait to start living. Don't ya feel it, Rose?” I touch the silky flesh between her tits, and her breath catches.

She closes her eyes. “Yes.”

“It's not just me. It's this thing between us. Like we've always been connected. Different, but one piece. You get that, don't you?”

She nods, opening her eyes. “I do. I want what you're offering.”

My heart thumps an unsteady rhythm. “But?”

“Charlie. I have to be his advocate.”

I'm going to kill Diablo. It doesn't cost my soul anything. I'll sleep better once he's gone. But it has to be done just right.

“I know you're a package deal, Rose. I have the room for the kid here.”

She looks around. “It's—you've got a nice place, Noose.” She bites her lip, casting her eyes away.

“Tons of parks and shit right around here. Kick-ass school district.” I wouldn't just move her in and make things worse for her and the kid.

Her eyes widen.

I nod, swiping a thumb over her cheek, running my skin over the edges of her eyelashes, which sweep closed. “Yeah, I looked into it.”

A hush falls over us, broken only by the purr of the fan. Our hearts beating. Our minds thinking.

Rose grabs my hand and peels away each finger to open my palm. She kisses the center of my hand.

My guts bottom out. This girl.
This girl.

“Okay,” she answers, the ghost of a smile hovering over her mouth.

“Let's celebrate.” I dip my mouth to hers.

Time crawls to a stop.

*

“Satisfied?” My eyebrow hikes.

Rose nods. “Yes.” A frown forms between her eyes, and I try to erase it with my thumb. She's looking in the third bedroom, where all my weight lifting shit sits.

“That just leaves a room for Charlie and one for us.” She nibbles on her lip, and it makes me want to suck her lips into mine, doing my own nibbling.

I point out the most amazing part of the room configuration. “The key is, his room will be on the other side of the condo.”

She pivots to look at me, rolling her eyes.

I laugh, towing her to what could be Charlie's room. She's already said yes, but she needs to see it to believe it.

Rose swings open the bedroom door at the other end of the penthouse suite I own outright.

Whoever says crime doesn't pay was a dumb fuck.

“Oh!” Rose exclaims, rushing to the window. Lights glitter from the west hill, and her eyes move to the huge park and stadium just a few blocks away.

“Lots of Little League and shit happen right here. Walkable from the condo.”

I move behind her, wrapping a forearm around her neck.

I know when she finds my knot board hanging on the wall in a huge picture frame done in clear Douglas fir.

“Oh my God—Noose.” She whips around, hair scattering over my T-shirt.

“Do you? Wow.”

I gaze at the knots, each one carefully executed and under glass. The frame glows with a warm amber hue. The knots are glued to blood-red velvet, and the different twines stand out in stark neutrals in all varieties from bright white to a creamy tan. Some have stripes. All are deadly.

“Can you do all these?”

Rose doesn't see me nod; her back is to me.

“Yeah.”

She turns, eyeing me up. “There's like fifty knots there.”

I nod.

A nervous laugh bursts from her lips. “Can you do more?” Her voice holds awe.

I shift my weight, looking away. “Yeah.”

“How much more?”

My gaze moves back to her. “Enough.”

“O
kay
. So much secrecy.”

“Necessary,” I say, wrapping my arms around her and kissing the top of her head. I inhale Rose's smell and close my eyes.

I could just hold her with me forever, just like this.

“What about your parents?”

“Yeah. My parents. They won't relent, Noose, as long as we're together. They'll make a place for Charlie in their lives, but they can't afford to love me if they think they're going to lose me.”

“We could tie the knot,” I say, surprising myself.

Rose turns slowly. “You don't mean that.”

I inhale deeply then let it out slow. “I don't say shit I don't mean.”

Rose skewers me with her silence. When she speaks, I like that even less. “We're moving too fast. You can't marry me for my parents’ acceptance, Noose.”

I would do a lot to chase the pain from her eyes.

“I don't even get points for my pun?”

A sad smile comes and goes. “First, you want me to move in with you, then you talk about getting married like those choices are solutions to problems instead of what you really want to do.”

“Bottom line, it's the same difference.” Why can't women see that when a man loves them, part of that love is to solve problems they can't?

“Not to me.” Rose backs up. “I want this.” She waves a hand around, encompassing the condo. “But I only want what you
really
want.”

I feel Rose slipping through my hands, and it makes me fucking crazy. I step into her space. “Don't, Rose. Don't do this. Don't shut me out.”

“It's over, Noose. Drake's got Charlie. He's won. His threats didn't work, but that club? The motorcycle gang he belongs to? They figured out the money so my nephew will be his, even if it's not in his best interests. They don't care about Charlie as a human being. He's just a pawn of ownership.”

That's a no-shitter. But what Rose says strikes me the wrong way. “Let's get something crystal clear here, Rose.”

She steps back, creating space.

Uh-uh.
I back her up into the wall, her head inches away from my TV-screen-sized knot board.

“Road Kill is
not
a gang. Hell—gangs are the douches we're trying to keep out of our territory.”

“Are you saying you do nothing illegal?”

I shake my head, my eyes narrowing. “You know we do.”

“Okay.” She flips her palm over. “So explain the difference. Because Chaos Riders helped hide Drake's crime against my sister. They hid his deed.”

A tear jumps out of her eye, making a path for another to follow in its wake.

“Rose, I'm sorry about Anna.” It's the first time I've said her name, and Rose's bottom lip quivers as the name drops from my lips.

“No two clubs are alike. This is MC 101, so pay attention, babe.”

Her chin lifts, and a defiant tilt sits on her mouth.

Good, I need her to be pissed instead of sad. A sad Rose shreds me.

“Chaos and Road Kill go back a long ways. The two Prezs used to be like this.” I cross my index and middle finger tight. “They had a difference of opinion, and now there's two clubs. Chaos does shit we won't.”

“Like running girls.”

I jerk my head back. “Yeah.”

“Drake ran his mouth in front of me, when—” She looks at her feet.

“Hey, there's no shame in what he did to your body, Rose. You weren't in control. Fuck, some chick that I hated could blow me, but eventually, if she was talented enough, I'd get hard. It's biology, babe. It's still unwanted.”

“Yeah, well, I still feel like I've been violated.”

My voice goes deep—low—my anger fucking the timbre six ways to Sunday. “Because you were.” I wanna kill that fucker Diablo so bad, I can feel his neck underneath my hands.

Underneath my rope.

Rose studies my expression before I can lock it down. She touches my shoulders, so loaded with tension they're like boulders beneath her touch. “Don't do anything rash, Noose.”

Rash?
I give a hard laugh.
Too fucking late by far.
But I don't tell Rose. She needs convincing that I want her for the right reasons.

Telling her Diablo's days are numbered won't advance me.

Killing him will.

And it'll feel fucking great.