Taking The Heat (18 page)

I raised my eyebrows and responded in a somewhat sarcastic tone, “Oh
really
?’

“Yep. I was pregnant and he hopped on his bike and disappeared for a few months. Rode around the country beating up people in bars while I was home alone wondering where he was. Didn’t call, didn’t text, nothing. He was just beating up random people trying to decide if he should come home or not. A-Train found him down by Mexico somewhere and made him come back. He didn’t tell me
that
part at first, I thought he came home on his own. I just found out the other day, after
this
happened,” she responded.

“Oh wow, how long ago was that?” I asked, clearly seeing she was far from pregnant.

“I don’t know. It was with our first, maybe a little more than a year ago,” she responded flatly.

Surprised she had produced
any
children and looked the way she did, I quickly responded, “You’ve had children?”

She shook her head and bit her lower lip slightly. As she released her lip, and cleared her throat, she shook her head lightly, “No just one. We lost the second one. She was a little girl. There were complications.”

“I’m so sorry,” I breathed.

“It was God’s will, not ours,” she responded as she gazed downward.

After a few seconds of silence, and me feeling like an absolute idiot, she glanced up and immediately continued with her playful behavior. She glanced toward Cambio, shook her head, and focused on me.

“You see, no matter how big or tough they are, they need us more than we need them, don’t let anybody tell you different. And don’t let anyone be mean to you, either. I was in a bad relationship with a guy who’d rather punch me than love me, and Shane helped me understand just how wrong it all was. I finally smacked him with a cast-iron skillet after he knocked this tooth out,” she chuckled as she tapped her tooth with her index finger.

“Even though Shane helped me get out of the relationship, it doesn’t mean I owe him anything. I just explained all of that so you’d know what type of person he is. Anyway, men act like they’re tough and all that stuff, and maybe they are. But it doesn’t mean they’re in charge
all the time
, or that they’re entitled to anything more than we are. Sometimes we just have to take charge and remind them it’s a two-way street, you know, that we’re not doormats. That’s what I did with Shane,” she paused and turned toward Cambio.

It was becoming immediately apparent not only was Kace full of spunk and a little bit of attitude, she was also a very courageous, understanding, and brave woman.

“And don’t you dare ever mistreat her, Toad. Do you hear me?” she squealed.

My head swiveled his direction.

“I won’t,” he responded.

I turned to face Kace, anxious to see if there was more.

“You’re going to be good to her aren’t you?” she snapped back.

My head ratcheted his direction.

“Yes, I am,” he immediately responded.

My gaze quickly shifted back to Kace.

“And you’re never going to pull some shit like Shane did, running off on that bike and leaving her, no matter how bad things get, are you?” she huffed.

I glanced toward Cambio.

He shook his head and grinned, “Sure won’t.”

She tossed her head my direction, “See?”

“That’s why I like Toad. He’s nice. Well, that and he lets me cut his hair,” she grinned.

I turned to face Toad, smiled, and shrugged my shoulders.

He raised his right hand to his well-manicured Marine haircut, “I uhhm, I can’t do it, my shoulder kills me when I try to reach the back of my head, no matter which hand I use.”

Kace turned toward me and placed her hand on my shoulder, “I got some clippers at Walgreens. I’ve been cutting it every four days, he’s kinda
needy
.”

“So how long have you two been seeing each other,” Kace blurted as Shane sat down with a bottle of wine.

Before I could even think to answer, Cambio cleared his throat and responded, “Two weeks.”

Huh?

We’re seeing each other?

“Two weeks? Two weeks ago is when you were in the hospital, dork,” Kace responded as she reached for the wine glass.

She tilted her head my direction, “You’re all he talks about by the way.”

I gazed at him and waited, hoping he had more to say. I couldn’t hear enough about what he was thinking about me.

About us.

“Yeah, two weeks,” he responded, “We started the day she whispered in my ear and woke me up.”

And just like that, a girl I didn’t know provided the answer to a question I had yet to ask, but longed to hear the answer to.

And from that moment on, as hard as I tried, I could no longer see the pit from which I had so desperately dug myself from.

Because I was floating in the clouds.

TOAD

The two weeks Sydney had been away were filled with thoughts of her arrival, boyish anticipation of seeing her again, looking forward to spending time talking to her, and finding out just exactly what she was willing to accept from me regarding any advancements I may wish to make into her life.

Her presence didn’t make it difficult for me to proceed along my previously calculated path of slow steps, soft talk, and winning her heart; it seemed to have made it impossible. I was now under what I would personally describe as a full-scale attack, and she was providing minimal resistance to my approach.

I couldn’t accept that I had simply been shot, hospitalized, and was now in recovery; my beliefs were more complex. Convinced I had been shot, died, and was now resurrected, I viewed life, my existence, and Sydney much differently. In clear contrast to my former way of thinking, I no longer felt guilty for my presence on earth.

I was now truly grateful to be alive.

Lying flat on my back, I stared up at the ceiling and spoke, “You know, my parents named me after my grandfather, right?”

“Yes, you told me that,” she responded.

I tilted my head her direction slightly, “Do you know what it means?”

She raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth slightly. After a few seconds of silence, she breathed her response, “No, I guess not.”

“
Change
. Cambio means
change
in Italian,” as I finished speaking I shifted my gaze to the ceiling again.

“I didn’t just get shot. I’m going to tell you what I think happened and you can believe me, I don’t know…
consider
it…or think I’m crazy and go in the other room. I uhhm, but I’m going to tell you anyway,” I said.

“I won’t think your nuts,” she said under her breath.

“Hold that thought,” I responded.

“Some people get tossed in prison and they look at whatever it is they’ve done and make a decision to change. They decide if they don’t, they’re going to continue to repeat their behaviors and end up right back in there. That’s what the system hopes for, making the criminal
think
, and causing them to change into a law abiding citizen as a result. I guess you could call the experience of going to prison, for this particular person, an eye-opener,” I paused and tilted my head her direction.

She blinked her eyes as she nodded her head slightly. To relieve the pain in my shoulder, I shifted my eyes back to the ceiling.

“So I’m sure some people get shot, end up in the hospital, and make a conscious decision to change their life afterward. You know, just like the guy in prison. Make sense so far?” I asked.

“Makes perfect sense,” she responded.

“Okay, well that’s
not
what happened to me. I got shot, went to the hospital, and at some point in time, I died. I know I did. I was dead, Sydney. And I came back from that place, and now I’m a different person. I didn’t decide this, it just happened. I guess I need to back up, I’m not different, I see
life
differently. It’s hard to explain,” I shifted my eyes her direction and waited for a response.

She had moved from resting her head in her hand and looking my direction to lying beside me and staring at the ceiling.

“”What was it like, being dead?” she asked in an almost eerie monotone voice.

I stared up at the ceiling and spoke as if recollecting a scene from a movie, “My reply is probably what you’d expect me to say.
Strange
.
Hard to explain
. I don’t know,
difficult to think about
. It seems like a dream, but it wasn’t. I was weightless, but the experience was heavy. I felt like there was weight on me or with me at all times. I wasn’t a ghost or spirit, it was really
me
.”

“You know I have to ask, where’d you end up in your opinion? Heaven or hell?’ she asked.

“Heaven as far as
I’m
concerned. I mean it was peaceful. Not chaotic, like I think hell would be; and my grandfather was there, but he wasn’t sick. He was the way he used to be before he got sick, still old, but really full of energy and he seemed to be having fun,” I said.

“Did you talk to him? I mean in the experience?” she asked.

“No, he was out of reach. Just close enough I could see him, but not so close I could touch him. You know,” I paused and tilted my head her direction.

“It’s weird. It’s like an entire lifetime of time passed in the 24 hours that I was in the coma. It’s just weird.”

She rolled her head to the side and grinned slightly, “I suppose so.”

“You believe me?” I asked.

“Uh huh, I do,” she breathed.

“I just don’t want you to think I got shot, ended up scared of dying, and decided to try and become someone I’m not going to be able to be. If anything, I’m
not
afraid to die, not now. And this wasn’t something I decided.
It happened
and
I’m different.
”

“I believe you,” she said as she rested her elbow on the bed and her cheek against her palm.

“So you still going to ride in the club?” she asked.

I shifted my body her direction until the pain reminded me to stop, “Fuck yes, I am. It might have changed me, but it didn’t change me into a
twat
. Jesus. I guess along with the change, it made me want to
live
life instead of just
existing
.”

“I was just asking,” she said with a laugh, “And you weren’t just existing, believe me.”

“Well, whatever I was doing, I’ve decided I want more out of life,” I said as I shifted my gaze to the ceiling.

“Starting when?’ she asked.

“Now. Starting
now
. I want to kiss you,” as soon as I heard the words escape my lips, I wished they hadn’t.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to kiss her, because I did. Although my
mind
was obviously ready, I feared
I
wasn’t. Not yet. Before I had a chance to retract what I had said, apologize, or claim some type of mental incompetence, she sat up on the bed, leaned over me, and pressed her lips softly against mine.

Prior to the kiss, I couldn’t for the life of me recall the last time I actually kissed a woman. As our tongues fought for possession of the space our combined mouths created, I knew one thing for certain.

I’d never forget this kiss.

And I didn’t want it to end.

As the weight of her upper body shifted on top of my chest, she lifted herself by pressing her hands into the bed. Her breasts now lightly brushing against my chest as she straddled my torso, I pulled my lips away for a much needed breath.

As I attempted to focus on her face, I brushed her hair from her face, and over her shoulder.

“I just needed to take a breath. My lung…”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe we should stop,” she sighed.

“No. No, we don’t need to stop, I just needed to…to take a breather. You might want to shift your weight a little lower. Move your hips down on my hips, and keep your little butt off my stomach. It’ll be less painful. You were sitting on me. Just lay on me,” I groaned.

As she shifted her weight and repositioned herself, she lowered her mouth to meet mine. As we began to kiss again, my mind filled with emotions I never knew existed. Feeling as if I wanted to cry, laugh, and scream for joy at the same time, I continued to kiss her eagerly. As I felt her weight against my hips, I realized, much to my surprise, my cock was steadily rising against my very low resistance sweat pants. I felt like I was in high school again.

Well, that’s a first.

Somewhat embarrassed and hoping I could convince it to recede - at least for a while - I attempted to think of anything
but
Sydney. As she continued to be the aggressor, kissing me passionately, I realized my attempts were not only feeble, but quite unsuccessful. When our lips finally parted for another much needed breath, she lifted her weight from my chest completely.

Now sitting on my upper thighs with her arms dangling at her sides, she gazed into my eyes and grinned.

“We’re together, right?”

Somewhat confused, and still reeling from a whirlwind of emotions, I pressed my elbows into the bed until my shoulders lifted slightly from the comforter, “Say again?”

“You and me? We’re together, right?” she said as she began to fumble nervously with the bottom of her tee shirt.

“Oh, yeah. Absolutely,” I nodded.

“No one else?” she said under her breath.

“No. Hell no, I want you to know…”

She leaned forward and pressed her index finger against my lips, “Shhh. That’s all I needed to know. Lean back.”

She lifted her shirt over her head, unclasped her bra, and tossed both on the floor beside the bed. As my cock continued to test the tensile strength of the cotton fabric of my sweats, I watched as she gripped the waistband and pulled them to my thighs. As my cock popped out of the sweats and stood at full attention, she shifted her eyes from my face to my cock, and back.

“Wow,” she gasped.

“That’s all I’ve got. Wow,” she chuckled as she reached down and gripped the shaft in her hand.  

She slid her body along my legs until her boobs were pressing against my knees, and her blonde hair was draped over my hips. I could feel her warm breath against the tip of my pre-cum covered cock as she spoke.

“I’m far from a virgin, and I’m not even going to act like this is the first cock I’ve ever sucked, but I can tell you this,” she paused and licked the tip of my twitching cock.

“If you grab my head and try to force it down my throat, it’ll be the last,” she gripped my cock in her hand tightly and slapped it against her lips as she waited for my response.

Incapable of doing much other than staring, I blinked my eyes, considered speaking, and nodded my head once instead.

“Agreed?” she asked as she slapped it against her lips again.

I moistened my lips, opened my mouth, and listened as the word
absolutely
puffed from my lungs.

She tossed her hair over her shoulder, licked the pre-cum from the tip, and slowly began to slide her full lips along the swollen shaft. As if witnessing a miracle, I watched as she worked her mouth up and down the shaft half a dozen times.

I attempted to lean forward and reach for her perfectly sculpted breasts. As the pain in my shoulder reminded me of what I’d been through, I fought against it and pressed my elbows into the bed, leaning up into an almost seated position. I slowly slid my hands along my thighs, not wanting to confuse her in any way regarding my intent. As my hands cupped her breasts and my fingers fumbled with her nipples, my breathing immediately changed.

Surprised, sickened by my lack of performance, and beyond embarrassed that I was reaching climax in a matter of seconds, I considered lifting her head away from my cock. Instead, I released her breasts and pressed my hands firmly into the comforter.

As the sound of my heavy breathing filled the room, I closed my eyes and arched my back slightly. In tune completely with where my mind, body, and sexual state of arousal was, Sydney began to stroke and suck my cock simultaneously. I closed my eyes as I felt every muscle in my body constrict. My fingers dug into the comforter as I held my breath, attempting unsuccessfully to prolong the experience.

I opened my eyes and stared as she lifted her mouth from the tip of my throbbing cock, stroked it twice, and smiled a smile of complete and utter satisfaction as she watched a geyser of cum erupt all over my thighs and sweats.

“Holy…”

“Fucking…”

“Shit…” I breathed as I released the comforter from my grasp.

She gazed into my eyes and smiled, “Sorry. I just, uhhm, I wanted to watch you, you know…cum. I wanted to see it, knowing it was me that did that for you.”

  “Holy shit.” I sighed, “Sorry I didn’t last longer. I got kind of excited.”

“Me too,” she chuckled as she leaned over and rolled off the edge of the bed.

As I watched her tip-toe shirtless to the bathroom, realized just how delicate, sweet, and utterly adorable she actually was. It didn’t in any way change my perception of her, or my opinion of who she was or where we were hopefully going. It did, however, cause me to mentally place her in a category where no one else had ever been placed.

As Sydney walked from the bathroom with a washrag, I closed my eyes and allowed her to slowly seep into the void in my heart the war had long since left. As she leaned over the bed and kissed my lips lightly, I felt her continue to fill the vacant space. I opened my eyes and admired her beautiful face as our lips parted. For a lingering moment, she silently hovered over me; gazing into my eyes, and smiling the entire time.

I closed my eyes and grinned.