Welcome to Sugartown (13 page)

“
Okay?”

“
Uh-huh,” she
whispers.

The urge to
flip her over and fuck her senseless is so great it could bring me
to my knees, but I made her promise to make me work for it, and
getting her off a handful of times doesn’t mean I’ve done jack shit
to earn that right yet. So, for now, I busy myself by plunging my
middle finger into her pussy and allowing my tongue the chance to
explore everything else, from her clit to the inside of her
thighs.

She hasn’t
resumed her sucking. In fact, aside from the places where our
bodies are connected, she’s not touching me at all and I couldn’t
care less. My Johnson’s not happy about it, but he fucking should
be considering I’ll never need a new mental image for my spank bank
ever again. Seeing the way Ana writhes against my hand, the way her
hips buck and shudder, hearing the breathy moans escape that
ridiculously fuckable mouth of hers as she comes for me is enough
to make me never want to look at another woman again, much less
fuck one.

With all the
shit I’ve done, the hurt I’ve caused people, some I barely knew and
others I knew too well, for all the worthless hours I’ve spent
wandering through this mess I call a life, looking at this girl
before me—who is so perfect and innocent, and downright trusting in
every way—I know that, somewhere along the line, I must have done
something right for her to want to let me in.

I also know
that I’m completely fucking screwed.

Chapter Eleven

Ana

“
Come on. You
have to give me more details than ‘it was nice’. I mean, why the
hell haven’t you strapped him to the bed and impaled yourself on
his enormous cock yet?” Holly whines.

It’s not that
I’m not used to her being this vocal about my sex life—or up until
recently, my lack thereof—it’s the fact that she’s sing-songing it
throughout the diner when my kid brother is sitting at a booth
nearby, and so is Sugartown’s one and only homeless resident, who
carts around stray cats in his trolley and always smells like pee.
He’s harmless. A little crazy, but he’s never been a threat to
anyone. Ordinarily, Crazy-Eyed Callaghan would meet us at the back
door at the end of the day and we’d offload any leftover pies into
his eager hands. Today, for some reason, he’s a paying customer and
has just as much right to be in here as anyone else.

I grab Holly
by the arm and yank her behind the counter. “Would you keep your
voice down, please?”

“
What’s the
matter? Don’t want Crazy-Eyes to hear all about your boyfriend’s
big cock?” she whispers.

“
I didn’t say
it was big.”

“
Honey, you
didn’t have to. Have you seen the guy? He’s a freaking giant! A
sexy giant, but a giant no less. If he’s not big, then there really
is no god.”

“
Oh my god,
you are so sick.” I laugh and throw my cloth down on the counter
and trade it instead for the pie I made Elijah. “I’m just going to
run this over to him, really quick.”

“
Oh, speaking
of sick, is he into kinky shit? You know, cuffs, paddles, anal?” I
feel my whole body flush head to toe, and I almost drop the pie.
Holly’s eyes widen with excitement. Even Crazy-Eyed Callaghan has
never looked this nuts.

“
GET THE FUCK
OUT!” she shrieks, and Callaghan starts shaking his head and
muttering to himself as he gathers his ratty plastic bags
together.

“
Holly,” I
whisper-yell before turning to him to apologise. He doesn’t hear
me, on account of her carrying on like a banshee.

“
Ohmygodyouhavetotellmeeverythingrightnooooooooooow!”

I hightail it
out from behind the counter, snatch up Sammy, who is looking about
as freaked out as I am, and bolt for the door. And, just as I’m
thinking it might be time to find a new best friend, Holly throws
back the shop door and screams, “That big, kinky giant of yours
isn’t going to save you from me, Ana Belle. I know where you live
girlfriend and I WILL find you!”

“
Ana Cabana?”
Sammy asks, as he shoots daggers at Holly over my shoulder. “Wath
kinky mean?”

I really have
to learn to keep Holly away from my kid brother.

“
I’ll tell
you when you’re older,” I say, and set him down on the footpath. He
disappears into the shop. As I approach the garage, I can hear the
sounds of flirty feminine laughter and the occasional clang of a
wrench banging around. Dad took off with the dragon to some club
meet thing earlier, so I know Elijah’s here alone finishing things
up. Correction.
Was
here alone.

“
And when I’m
older, Anath’s gonna tell me what kinky ith,” Sammy states proudly,
and I hear that stupid whore with the flirty laugh giggle again.
The sound grates on me and I have a really weird sense of déjà vu.
I know that laugh, and I wasn’t wrong about it belonging to a
skanky whore. Nicole White.

“
Aww, he’s so
cute. Is he yours?” she asks.
Oh for the
love of god, that bitch knows exactly who the kid belongs to. The
same girl who she stole her last boyfriend off.

“
Naw, he’s
just my wingman.” Elijah hauls himself out from under the stupid
cow’s Mazda 3 and fist-bumps Sammy. “Ain’t that right
buddy?”

“
Hellth
yeah,” Sammy replies while he smashes his little fist into
Elijah’s, and I can’t help but laugh.

Elijah’s gaze
meets mine and a silent greeting is exchanged between us. His is
possibly a little more friendly than mine.

“
Sorry to
interrupt,” I say, though I’m really,
really
not sorry at all, and if my
tone didn’t convey as much, the look I give him sure does. I hold
the pie out for him to take. “I thought you might appreciate this
after a hard day’s work.”

“
Oh my god,
you actually made him a pie. That’s so cute,” Nicole says, and I
swear I hear a hint of jealousy in her patronising tone.

Elijah gives
her an odd look and then turns his attention back to me before
yanking me toward him and taking the pie out of my hands. His other
hand slides down my arse and cups my cheeks.

“
Ana makes me
all kinds of things,” he says, squeezing my bottom for emphasis and
my heart swells so much in that moment that I kinda love him for
putting Nicole in her place. In fact, I’m not even sure that line
was for her benefit at all.

“
Oh, I didn’t
realise the two of you were together,” Nicole snipes.

I throw her a
look over my shoulder. “Would it matter if you did?”

“
Oh come on,
Ana. Surely that nasty Scott business is in the past?”

“
Oh, it is.”
I turn and smile at Nicole and Elijah pulls me back against him. I
press my hand to his cheek as he tucks himself against my neck. My
grin grows to proportions that could only be called psychotic.
“Absolutely.”

Sammy runs in
from the courtyard out the back, drops a handful of toy cars at
Elijah’s feet and adds his two cents. “Scotth’s a arthface with a
sthinky weiner.”

“
No arguments
there, little man,” Elijah says, and mock punches Sammy’s shoulder
before setting his pie down on the workbench. “We’ll still need to
do some more work on the Mazda, Nicole. So, if you leave me your
number, I’ll call you tomorrow when it’s done.”

Elijah fishes
out a piece of paper and a permanent marker and puts them down on
the bench in front of her but instead of using them, the way any
normal person would, Nicole picks up the marker and sidles up to
him. She takes his hand and scrawls her name and number across his
palm. I’m about to go ten rounds with this bitch right there in
front of Sammy, and something tells me Elijah knows it, because he
shoots her an annoyed look and says, “Right, well, I’m about to
close up shop. Ana and I are babysitting the kid
tonight.

“
Ooh,
romantic,” she quips.

I swear to
god, if she doesn’t shut up I will club her with a monkey
wrench.

“
I’m noth a
baby,” Sammy protests.

“
Of course
you’re not, little dude. I don’t know why they call it that. It’s
kinda stupid really.” Elijah turns back to Nicole. “Anyway, I’ll
have Bob call you tomorrow when the car is done.”

“
Oh. Okay,
sure,” she mumbles and then turns to me and smiles with one of the
fakest smiles I’ve ever seen. “Ana, we should totally hang out one
day.”

“
Yeah,” I say
then mumble under my breath, “so not going to happen.”

“
Well,
thanks, Elijah,” she says, and she just can’t resist touching his
arm one last time before she walks away, deliberately swaying her
hips as she leaves.

I stare
daggers into her back until she disappears from view, but the sound
of Elijah’s laughter has me whipping my head around so fast I think
I may have actually pulled something. “What’s so funny,
Cade?”

“
Nothing,
just never picked you for the jealous type.”

“
Yeah well, I
am. So bite me.”

“
I didn’t say
I didn’t like it.” He lifts me up and sets me back down on the
workbench, edging his way between my legs.

“
Are you
gonna kith my thister again, cauth dude, thath tho
grossth.”

“
Hey Sammy,
do me a favour?” Elijah asks. “You know how the whole courtyard is
covered in stones?”

“
Yeah?”

“
Well,
earlier I dropped a dollar coin out there and I really, really need
that dollar, but I just can’t see it because I don’t have awesome
x-ray vision like you do. You think maybe you could find it for me?
It’s really important that I get that money back.”

Sammy folds
his little arms over his chest and gives Elijah his best discerning
stare. “Whath in it for me, Cade?”

“
I’ll split
it with you.”

“
Pleath. I
get more than that for getting out of bed in the
morning.”

“
God, you
Belles’ drive a hard bargain.”

I shrug. “He
learned from the best.”

“
I have no
doubt.”

“
Alright, you
find me my dollar and I’ll give you this shiny ten dollar
note.”

“
Are you
serious?” I baulk. “For ten bucks, I’ll go and find your
dollar.”

“
Uh, uh, uh!”
He gently pushes my shoulders back to get me to stay put.
“You
will be otherwise
indisposed.”

“
Sammy, I’ll
throw in ten, too.”

“
Alright,
I’ll do it,” Sammy says and hightails it outside.

“
If I didn’t
know any better, I’d think you had experience blackmailing small
children, Cade. You don’t have one of your own stashed away
somewhere, do you?”

Elijah’s
still watching Sammy’s hasty retreat, but I swear I see pain mar
his features before he turns his warm chocolate eyes back on me.
“Nah, not exactly father material.”

Okay. Is it
just me, or did he totally just turn fifty shades of
guilty?

It occurs to
me then that, despite all the time we’ve spent together lately, I
still know nothing about him or his past. And there’s a million and
one things I’ve wanted to ask him from day one, but I haven’t, at
the risk of sounding like some overenthusiastic creeper. Like,
where he grew up? What do his parents do? Does he have any brothers
and sisters? Is he close to them? And then there’s the most nagging
question of all—why does he have the name Lilly tattooed over his
heart? It’s not like it’s emblazoned across his chest in neon pink
or anything, it’s very cleverly and very artfully worked in amongst
black and grey thorns and what looks like a gothic graveyard scene,
but the fact that another girl’s name is permanently inked on his
skin still makes my insides churn in that
oh-my-god-what-if-he’s-still-in-love-with-someone-else kinda
way.

Still, it’s
not like I can ask him outright. Not only would it make me seem
totally insecure—which I am by the way, I’m aware of my downfalls
and I’m completely okay with this—but it’d just be so insensitive
to come out with, “Hey, Elijah, that girl’s name tattooed on your
chest along with a graveyard? Is it because she’s actually buried
in the ground, or is she just figuratively dead to you?”

No. I
definitely can’t ask him. Not yet, anyway, although at this rate,
we’ll both be buried in the ground before I even pluck up the
courage to ask him his favourite colour.

Elijah’s
snaps me out of my mini meltdown by saying, “By the way, what’s
this about me being a big kinky giant?”

“
Urgh! Holly
doesn’t know how to keep her big mouth shut around my little
brother. She’s pounding me for information.”

“
As long as
I’m the only one pounding you for … other things. Actually, scratch
that. Two hot chicks pounding into one another is a sight I’d like
to see.”

I pull away
from his embrace to stare him down. “You think my best friend is
hot?”

“
I think your
best friend is psychotic, but come on, you can’t say something like
‘she’s pounding me’—” His voice goes all high-pitched and, what I
assume is supposed to be girly, but really makes him sound like a
baby-voiced nymphomaniac, which is just wrong on so many levels.
“—and not have a man go to his happy place.”