Unstoppable (16 page)

“Burgers. Seriously? I guess I have a couple questions,” I sat on the edge of the lounge and grabbed my beer, “since when do you eat burgers for one, and two, why in the fuck are you cooking burgers on my grille and not at your fuckin’ house?”

“I like burgers, Ripp,” Kace laughed.

“I ain’t talkin’ to you, Shorty. Dekk, you gonna answer?” I asked as I took a slow sip from my bottle of beer.

“Kace wanted a burger, so I cooked her some. I don’t have a grille, and I didn’t want to cook them in my house, so we came here. You gave me a key to this place, Ripp, remember?” he stood from his seat and shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

“Yeah, I remember. But damn, dude. Seriously? Burgers on my chicken grille? And then you act like this fire is some kind of fuckin’ mystery. Lookin’ around like you ain’t got any form of fuckin’ clue what might have happened. You and Shorty sittin’ over there with your hands on your cheeks like you’re all surprised and shit while I’m fightin’ this fuckin’ blaze,” I stood, opened the lid to the grille, and checked the chicken.

“Jesus, Ripp, we cooked a burger,” Dekk laughed.

“It ain’t funny Dekk. You caught my chicken on fire,” I scowled at both of them as I flopped into the lounge.

“And you ain’t got no grille. Yeah. You have serious issues, dude. You got stacks of money. You bought Kace a new car, a fifty thousand dollar diamond bracelet, and you’re gonna fight for the Championship. Millions. You’re gonna have millions if you ain’t got ‘em already. But I can’t force your dumb ass to put a tire on that bike of yours, or buy a pair of boots. Three hundred bucks. A grille cost three hundred bucks,” I pulled my toothpick from my mouth and tossed it in the trash.

“Are you really mad at us Ripp?” Kace asked softly as she alternated glances between Shane and I.

“No Shorty. I ain’t mad. I like makin’ a big deal out of shit. Dekk knows it. Now if my chicken would have burned, you’d have seen the second installment of Dekkar-Ripton. We’d have thrown down right here,” I laughed as I pointed to the bare space on the deck between Shane and me.

“Shit,” Dekk laughed, “I could beat you one handed now. You haven’t really trained in two weeks.”

“I been lifting. And workin’ out. I always lift, you know that. I just been fuckin’ busy,” I complained as I recalled the events of the week.

“You turned that around. You haven’t been fucking busy, you’ve been busy fucking, Ripp. You need to slow down, you’re going to die soon from some kind of disease if you don’t watch it,” Shane said as he sat back on the edge of the lounge.

“I don’t fuck people with twat diseases, thank you very much. And, if it’s any of your business, I’m looking to try and settle down. Well,
kind of
,” I said proudly as I finished my beer.

“Shane said you had sex with two girls from Rundberg. That’s gross” Kace scrunched her face and covered her mouth as if she were going to vomit.

“They weren’t
from
Rundberg; they were
in
Rundberg, kinda traveling through. And yes there was two of ‘em, sisters. But one got fucked and the other just listened,” I laughed.

“Sisters?” Kace turned to Shane, who immediately shrugged his shoulders.

I nodded my head, “Yep. Sisters.”

Kace shook her head and rolled her eyes as she elbowed Shane, probably for telling her half of the story.

“And thanks Dekk. I appreciate you bringin’ Shorty up-to-date on my sexual adventures,” I shook my head, stood from the lounge, and opened the lid to the grille.

“Chicken’s done,” I announced as I grabbed the tongs and platter, “go in the house and get the other shit, it’s in the fridge.”

As they went into the house, I pulled the chicken from the grille and placed it on the platter. Seeing the growth in Kace over the last year allowed me to realize how strong of a woman she really is. She’s small and quiet, but she doesn’t have a weak bone in her body. The day we met, all she could do was sit and point at me. Hell, she was so nervous she couldn’t even speak. Now, she’ll challenge me on even the small things, and fight me the entire way if she thinks she’s right.

Witnessing Shane and Kace together and seeing how well they got along was one single thing that made me consider the fact that Vee and I may be able to do the same. I, no doubt, had my reservations. I’ve never been in a relationship in my life, and changing that would not come easy. I had no idea if Vee and I would even have similar interests, but I was willing to try to find out. She was the prettiest woman I had ever seen, she was intelligent, and she believed she was submissive. I don’t know the first fucking thing about male dominance or submissive women, but that afternoon with my little submissive unicorn girl sure made me wonder if it wasn’t a place where I belonged. As they walked out with the plates and side dishes, I laughed out loud at the thought of shaking Vee’s hand in the bar.

“What’s so funny, Ripp?” Kace asked as she walked across the deck and placed the plates on the table.

“Well,” I started to talk and began laughing again.

I covered my mouth with my hand and though of me trying to act as a Dom. Visions of me donning my Chuck’s with a whip in my hand and Vee wearing leather boots that went half way up her thighs caused the laughter to continue.

“Are you going to enlighten us on what’s going on?” Shane asked as he looked back and forth between Kace and me.

Eventually, I stopped laughing, rubbed my hands on my shorts, and took a breath. As I wiped the tears from my eyes with the back of my hand, I tried to decide a way to tell them what I had decided to try and do. Not a bit unlike Shane, everything I do, I do well. I had my reservations about being in a relationship at all, but I knew if I did my research, I could be as good of a Dom as anyone. In hopes of a little reassurance, I set the platter down and opened my mouth.

“The girl from the Jackalope? The really pretty one from the other day?” I sighed as I tossed a few pieces of chicken on my plate and sat on the edge of the lounge.

Shane nodded as he walked toward the table, “Vee, right?”

“Yep, Vee. Vivian, as in
Vivian Simon
. The big law office under the Bat Bridge with the Simon, Simon, and Simone on the side? Yeah, that’s her. She’s an attorney,” I pulled the skin from my chicken and poked it into my mouth.

“Wow, an attorney,” Kace said as she spooned vegetables and coleslaw onto her plate.

“Well, we met for drinks the other night,” I paused and took a bite of my chicken.

“Did you tell her you’re a thirty-one year old nympho boxer that fights bare knuckles on the side for spending money?” Shane laughed as he sat down beside Kace.

I nodded my head and finished chewing my chicken, “Well, as a matter of fact, I did. I told her all of that. And she told me a few things as well.”

“Funny things?” Kace looked up and smiled as she carefully pulled the meat from her chicken leg.

“Not at the time, no,” I took another bite of chicken as I shook my head.

“But it’s funny now?” she asked.

I took a drink of beer, washed down my chicken, placed my plate on the table beside my lounge, and tossed my legs over the side. After resting my forearms on my thighs and leaning forward, I felt comfortable telling them the rest of the story. Kace and Shane were both looking at me as if my head were on fire.

“Let me finish before either of you two make some stupid assed remarks, okay?” I gestured toward them with my hands as I spoke.

As if rehearsed, they looked at each other and nodded.

“Okay. So I met Vee at the bar, and we started bullshittin’ about stuff, and all of a sudden she says,
I ain’t lookin’ to do anything with anybody and I ain’t lookin’ to fuck nobody. I don’t just fuck. So, if you wanna fuck, toss that beer back and kick rocks, son.
So I said, hell I’m good with that and I’m still listenin’,” I paused, grabbed my beer and took a drink.

“So, let’s see. I said,
what are you lookin’ for?
She takes a long drink to finish her beer, waves over the waiter like she’s dying of thirst. Gets herself another beer, drinks half of it, sets that fucker down on the table, leans forward, and lets me fuckin’ have it. I about shit myself,” I lifted my beer and took another short sip.

“What did she say, Ripp?” Kace scooted all the way to the edge of the lounge, and sat with her mouth hanging open.

“Alright. Here’s where it gets interesting. Now let me finish, alright?” I asked as I leaned forward and rested my arms on my thighs.

Again, they both nodded. Kace wiped her mouth with a napkin and set her plate aside and waited for me to speak. I loved telling stories, and telling stories to these two was like telling a story to a kid. They just sat and stared, hanging on every word. I waited a long minute before I started talking, and as soon as they began to start squirming in their seats, I began.

“She set her beer aside, leaned forward, and said,
I am submissive. I want a man to hold me down and treat me like a whore. I don’t want a dominant man, I wand a God damned Dom. I want someone to take charge and make me his little submissive bitch. If you’re this man, be this man. If you’re not, Mr. Ripton, let’s part friends.
Yeah, she called me Mr. fuckin’ Ripton. This gal, she’s got class,” I nodded, leaned back in my chair, and waited for them to speak.

“Sounds like it,” Shane chuckled and slumped into the lounge.

“Uhhm. What’d you say?” Kace asked, still sitting on the edge of the lounge.

Shane turned to Kace and shook his head, “Ripp might be wild, but he isn’t crazy, babe.”

“I said
yes
,” I said as I sat up in my seat, “and we shook on it.”

“Holy…” Shane said as he leaned forward and pulled his hood off his head.

“Shit,” Kace stammered.

Her eyes widened as she stared my direction.

“You shook on it?” Shane asked as he stood.

Shane and Kace both knew how I viewed a handshake. A man has nothing in this world but his word. Nothing else matters. A handshake, to me, was as good as a written contract to anyone else. My shaking Vee’s hand made no form of assurance that anything was for certain. It did, however, give a guarantee that I would do my best to make it work out.

“Yep,” I said as I rose from my chair and smiled, “and Kace’s gonna give me pointers from her books.”

“Oh hell no, she isn’t,” Shane blurted.

At the same time that Shane spoke, Kace jumped from her seat, slapped her hands together, and screamed, “I can’t wait.”

“What in the fuck do you know about being a Dom? We’ve talked about this. This isn’t something that you dabble in like putting together model airplanes,” Shane snapped.

“I know a little after fuckin’ my little submissive unicorn,” I chuckled.

“Unicorn?” Kace asked with her face covered in confusion.

I sat in my seat, grabbed my plate of chicken, and set it down on my lap. As I pulled a piece of chicken from the plate, I turned toward Kace and smiled.

“Kace sit down, and let me tell you a story…”

RIPP.
“Why does it always have to be a three ring circus around this fuckin’ place?” I asked.

“When you ain’t here, it’s fine.
You
are the circus, Mike,” my father responded over a fork full of potato salad.

“Pop, it ain’t me. You guys have turned into a couple of weird asses. Since when do we eat hamburgers on Sunday?” my elbows resting on the table, I spread my hands shoulder width apart and waited for a response.

“We eat what’s in front of us, Mike.
Since
that’s what your mother prepared.
Since then
. That’s when we started eatin’ burgers around here.
Since
your mother made ‘em. Now shut up so we can visit,” he said as he waved his fork at me.

“Bad word. You know I don’t like it when you tell the kids that, Lewis,” my mother muttered without looking up from her plate.

I could say motherfucker or cocksucker while we ate, and I might have someone look up from their plate in disbelief. Maybe they would, more than likely they would not. But tell someone to
shut up
in my mother’s house, and she would have something to say about it.

“
Be quiet
is a better choice, and I don’t even like you telling the kids that,” my mother looked up from her plate toward my father as she spoke.

“Finish speaking, Michael, your father didn’t mean it,” she looked down at her plate and slowly started picking through her food.

Kace smiled the entire time, her eyes shifting back and forth between my mother and father as they spoke. Quietly, Shane ate his food, always attentive, but not outwardly paying attention.

“I don’t even know what we were talking about,” I turned my palms up and shook my head.

“Sisters,” Kace grinned.

“Thanks Shorty. So what? Now all of a sudden we work on Sunday? Manda and Bug are working every damned Sunday, they’re never here. Sunday dinner isn’t Sunday dinner if no one’s here. Hell, if I didn’t bring Shane and Kace it’d just be the three of us,” I complained as I reached for my hamburger.

“You didn’t
bring
‘em. We
invited
‘em,” my father pointed his fork at Shane and Kace, then waved it at me.

“And we invited ‘em ‘cause they’re good company. They don’t sit here and bitch, Mike. They eat and offer good conversation,” he said.

“Shane don’t talk, Pop. He sits and fuckin’ nods,” I took a bite of my burger and chewed it quickly.

“And Kace? Look at her Pop. She smiles. That’s what Kace does. Dekk nods, Shorty smiles,” I motioned toward Kace and Shane who respectively smiled and nodded.

“See?”

“No nicknames at the table, Michael,” my mother said without emotion.

“Kace and Shane, Kace and Shane, Kace and Shane, Kace and fuckin’ Shane, mom. Jesus,” I chuckled.

“Don’t cuss at your mother, Mike,” my father grumbled.

To be quite honest, I enjoyed eating Sunday dinner at my parent’s home as much as about anything. I looked forward to it all week. I never really viewed it as an inconvenience or an obstruction to my daily routine. To me, it was a way of relaxing and remaining close to family; and now, friends. I seemed to always do my utmost to make it as big of a fiasco as I could by being the center of attention. If I wasn’t talking shit and making a scene, my parents would think there was something wrong with me.