Scandalous Heroes Box Set (167 page)

She wasn’t sure what he had planned for her. From the way his mood shifted from molten hot to iceberg cold, it probably wouldn’t be the scenario she wanted. Agreeing to go to his place alone set her up for a whole host of events that Keys could do to her to torture her.

Keys made one stop at an all-hours convenience store. He barely acknowledged her when he hopped off the bike and headed inside, leaving her alone. She tried peeking through the window with all of its advertisements to see what he just had to have before heading home, but she couldn’t make it out. After he made his purchase, he stuffed it into his jacket pocket and headed out the store.

The remaining ride took less than a minute for him to coast up a driveway to a modest townhome. He pulled out a small remote, and with one click, activated the garage door.

Keys parked the cycle next to a large SUV, then turned off the bike and hopped off as the door closed behind him. “Helmet, off. In the house, now.” He pointed to a workbench to signal to her to place the helmet on it.

Eminence did so, then followed behind him into the house. “I’m not even allowed the courtesy of a verb now?”

Keys glanced over his shoulder. “You want an action word? Here you go.” He stopped and faced her. “Fuck.”

She blinked. “I’d almost forgotten how straightforward and honest you are. Just don’t remember you being so, um—”

“Horny?”

“Crass. Rude. Tactless.”

“You’re still dressed.” He took off his jacket and tossed it on a recliner behind her.

“I must have been out of my mind to come here.” Even in the darkened room, Tank seemed immense. “I’ll call myself a cab.”

Just like he’d done in the office, he stopped her from leaving with just his voice. “So that’s it? You’re running again? Truth hurts?”

Eminence glared at him. “Why are you being this way to me?”

Keys remained quiet, then started pacing in the room. He stared down at the floor as though looking at the spot where his booted feet would land with each step. Then he stopped.

Him stopping worried Eminence more than the pacing. It meant that he had his thoughts together enough to release his true feelings.

Keys turned to her. “You broke me.”

Those three words made Eminence blink. She stopped breathing for a moment as she looked at the giant who had exposed his soul to her.

“I didn’t trust a lot of people growing up. My parents blame themselves. I was the only boy in a house with three sisters, and my parents used to tell me to treat my sisters well, but that I was too good for any girl.” He snickered. “That was their twisted way of keeping me from dating and getting some girl pregnant.” Keys glanced at Eminence after his last statement. He looked remorseful.

Now Eminence understood the reason. She wanted so much to hold his hand. Still looking fit to be tied, she held off.

Keys continued. “So I immersed myself into activities. Football, baseball. Hell, I even joined the debate team.”

Eminence smiled. She remembered when he’d done that. It had given her a glimmer of hope that Keys would be more than just a guy getting by on his looks and a few high school sports stories.

“Then I met you.” He pointed to her. “Everything changed. You made me laugh, and you listened to me.” Keys shook his head. “You
used
to listen to me.”

Her heart stopped at that statement. She swallowed hard and waited for him to finish.

“Because of you, I opened myself up to other people. That’s how Jordie became my friend.” He took a couple of steps toward Eminence, who remained rooted in her spot. “Jay came to me as a friend. The one time I needed you to be by my side you bolted. When you wouldn’t talk to me anymore, I couldn’t cope.” He released a snicker. “Funny. I could run football drills until I puked and would do them again if my coach wanted me to. I would take on any stupid dare. I even skydived one time. But you walking away from me and cutting me off crushed my spirit.”

Eminence covered her mouth with her hand as she studied Keys. She had no idea of the power she had back then and how her reacting to her father’s betrayal had affected Keys. She wanted to touch him, hold him. When she took a step toward him, Keys retreated.

“Look, you promised you would tell me what was going on in your life that day between me, you, and Jay I’ll listen.”

She released a long breath before twirling and heading back into his sparse living room filled with packed boxes.

Keys continued. “After I listen, you and I can—”

“Keys.”

“What? I was going to say watch a movie. You still do like watching movies, don’t you?” He brushed his hand up on a light switch by the kitchen that illuminated a ceiling fan light in the living room.

“Don’t be cute. That was not what you were going to say,” she shouted after him as he ducked into the kitchen.

When Keys returned, he held two frosty bottles of water in his hands. He unscrewed the caps off both of them. Eminence sat on the couch with her spiky high heels off and her legs curled under her butt. Her feet throbbed and almost thanked her for releasing them from their expensive if not torturous prisons.

“Here.” He handed her a sweaty, clear bottle, then sat on the other end of the couch. “So shoot.”

* * * * *

After a hefty swig, Eminence relayed a story that floored Tank. He didn’t know about her pain of catching her father being unfaithful. He hadn’t realized the anguish she went through watching her parents’ marriage disintegrate right before her eyes.

“No wonder you thought—” Tank moved closer to her and removed her nearly empty bottle from her other hand and sat it down on a clear spot on his coffee table. He cradled her face in his hands and made her look at him. “I’m sorry about your parents. But you knew me. You knew I wouldn’t have done something like that to you.”

Eminence wiped her eyes. “I thought I knew my father, too, and look what happened. He’s married to this other woman and my mother is still miserable.”

Tank swept his thumb over her cheek. “There’s a difference. You and I had a different type of relationship from what you have with your parents. They still love you individually. Their romantic life fell apart. Ours didn’t. At least I thought it didn’t. You stopped trusting me.”

Eminence leaned her face into his palm. “I should have known better. Jordie and I did everything together. She knew all of my secrets.” She stared at him, her big, brown eyes brimming with tears. “And you, you protected me.” She moved closer to him so that her leg touched his. 

With her face still in his hands, he pulled her forward and brushed his lips over hers. He couldn’t get enough of hearing her breath catch. He should have been stronger. With this one night, this one moment, he had to take advantage of everything that he could, from kissing her to fucking her to playing with her. If only his heart didn’t demand that he did whatever he’d planned to do with her in order to get this woman to stay with him.

Once he took her breath away, he pressed his mouth onto hers, savoring her full lips. Parting his lips a sliver was enough of an invitation for Eminence to invite her tongue into his mouth. His heart pounded so hard and heavy, even his t-shirt felt too binding across his chest. He wanted to be naked, and he wanted to be inside of her now. He had to clear the air and make sure that the past wouldn’t continue to wreck their potential future.

He pulled back from her and said, “Hi, my name is Keys Tanksley. My friends call me Tank.”

              Eminence furrowed her eyebrows. “What are you doing?”

“We need to start over on a clean slate.”

“And forget everything in the past?”

Tank nodded.

She shook her head. “I don’t agree. I like some of the stuff from our past.”

He rested his hand on her naked thigh. “Like what?”

“Like the way you used your mouth on me.”

Tank positioned his mouth by her ear and whispered, “You mean like this?” Then he kissed the shell of her, swiping down the side of it with his tongue.

Her body shivered in response. “That was one thing.”

As he listened to her breathing pattern increase, he kissed down the side of her face to her neck. “Or this?”

“Mmm, yeah.” Eminence put her hand on his thigh and kneaded his muscle.

The motion, the connection, her tangible need engorged his cock. If he didn’t get to make love to her this time, his fucking head would explode.

Tank floated his hand over her white, silk blouse. Without having to look, he undid the buttons, one by one with his nimble fingers until he had her shirt open. With that task done, he smoothed his hand down over her ass to her legs. He swept the duo around until he had her flat on her back on the sofa. Then he climbed over her body.

“Or maybe even this.” He trailed his lips down the center of her neck to between her breasts encased in a flesh-colored nylon bra.

His hand hovered over her breast, but he withdrew it. No, he wanted to enjoy her, all of her.

Tank laved her tight abdomen.

“Oh, Keys.” Eminence ran her fingers through his short hair.

Just hearing her call his name again ran his blood molten hot. His dick ached in his pants from pressing against his jeans. Her body writhed under his and it sent his mind careening into thoughts of how she would be once he plunged inside of her.

“Oh hell!” Tank leapt from the couch. He noticed how Eminence’s gaze dropped to his protruding cock.

She licked her lips, and it signaled Keys. He picked her up, threw her over his broad shoulder like a caveman, and stalked back to another room.

* * * * *

With her ass next to his face, Eminence didn’t question her destination. She didn’t even care if he talked to her during the act. As soon as Keys touched her, her body belonged to him.

As though still in football training, Keys took his stairs by two until he got to the second floor. He kicked open a door to an even darker room. Although she faced his back, she heard him kicking a couple of boxes and cursing until he was able to turn on a floor lamp in the corner.

Just like the downstairs, boxes lined his walls and covered the floor. Shipping boxes did not cover his unmade bed.

Keys plopped her on the bed, then made short work of his shirt and boots. Eminence watched the display. Seeing him remove each item reminded her of watching a Chippendale dancer who must have downed caffeine pills with Red Bull.

His body looked nothing like the way it did back in high school. Yes, he had been more muscular than the guys back in high school. Now his body had more defined muscles. If his body defined what a cut and ripped man looked like, then Keys epitomized that.

Keys wasted no time pulling off his jeans, which Eminence had been eagerly awaiting that moment herself. After pulling his jeans down to his feet and stepping out of them, he stood up straight, showing off his erection.

Every part of her body ached to experience the length of him inside her again. Her mouth wanted to taste him. Her hands itched to wrap themselves around him. Her pussy throbbed.

“Shit!” Keys scanned the room after his outburst. “You, get undressed.” He darted from the room, his erection waving in front of him.

Eminence stood to disrobe, however the power to do so escaped her as the image of Keys running through his house naked flashed through her mind. When she heard the telltale stomping coming upstairs, she made a feeble attempt to remove her panties.

In Keys’s hand, he held the jacket he wore that night. “Why aren’t you naked?” He slammed the jacket onto a pile of boxes and reached inside of an internal pocket. He pulled out a box of condoms.

So that’s what he purchased in the store. Not caring if Eminence had undressed now or not, he ripped open the box, tore off a condom package at the end of the row and sheathed himself with the filmy prophylactic.

Keys grabbed Eminence and pushed her against the wall. “You’re going to regret not getting undressed when I told you to.”

He pulled her leather skirt up to her waist so that now it looked like a belt. She had managed to get her panties off. But what Keys did next, she wished she’d gotten her shirt off before her panties. He grabbed her unbuttoned blouse and opened it further, then grabbed her bra and ripped it apart.

“Do you know how much that bra cost? I—”

Keys stopped her rant by pressing his lips on hers, then lifting her up and plunging his cock deep inside her.

Time didn’t revert back to the first time they had had sex like she thought it would. Oh, no. As soon as he entered her, time stopped completely. Eminence couldn’t see. Her body froze with the exception of her legs, which she managed to clamp around his body.

Although she didn’t want to admit it because it would be like admitting she needed him as much as he needed her, but damn it if she didn’t have an orgasm as soon as he entered her.

Eminence let out a long, loud wail the moment his cock drove into her pussy. Right now, she could care less that he ruined an expensive bra. She savored how her body trembled and the juices produced when he pumped in and out of her, and how he held onto to her for dear life.

Keys broke from the kiss long enough to stare into her eyes. The connection burned a hole down to her soul. Eminence held onto his sweat-covered shoulders. He rested his forehead against hers as he pumped harder and faster.

Eminence’s heart pounded so hard, between her staggered breath and Keys’s panting one, she only heard the beats.

His cock fit inside of her channel as though built for her. By all accounts, it had been. Keys needed to be in her life. If she hadn’t gotten scared and run off, they could have been together long before today, long before this incredible moment.

She dug her fingernails into his tough flesh on his back, and buried her face into the side of his neck, occasionally nipping at his salty skin. Sweat poured from his body. His large hand palmed one fleshy breast. His thumb circled her nipple while she nibbled on his earlobe.

With a slight curve of his hips, Keys managed to hit a spot inside of her that broke her.

“Oh God! Yes! Yes! Yes!” Eminence gripped the back of Keys’s neck.