Conflicted Love (Needle's Kiss) (9 page)

“Mmmm.” His low throaty groan sent a pool of heat to my poor neglected nether regions. I looked around quickly, because you know, there might have been another creeper watching my roommate and baby daddy whacking it in the shower and all.

His hiss drew my attention back to what he was doing. Squeezing my thighs together and trying to ease the ache, I stood staring at him. The pumping of his arm, the muscles in his ass moving with every other stroke strengthened my ache. My breathing picked up speed and my body started to tingle.

I was on the verge of spontaneous combustion. My entire body was warming. Holding in a groan of my own, I took a tentative step forward watching his body move under the stream of water. Quietly and carefully, I slid my hand down my chest palming my aching breasts and pinched one very sensitive nipple. This was so wrong and so dirty, but I was so turned on I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I closed my eyes for a moment. “You like watching me, Princess?” His rough, sexy voice made me squeak in fright; my busy hand shot up to my mouth and my face flamed bright red.

Busted.

Standing millimeters in front of me, completely naked and dripping water stood a very hard, very sexy Trip.

Planting his lips on mine, he pulled me forward into his wet chest. Flicking his tongue out to lick my lower lip, he then slid it in my slightly parted mouth.

Okay, pull away. Pull away, now. Pulling away. No, don't push into him! Loosen the kiss! Not deepen it!

My arms came up to his neck. My hands gripped his hair on their own accord. Holding onto him for dear life, my fear and pride faded into the background and my mind became all too clear. If it were okay to have a sexual relationship with anyone, it would be with the father of my baby, right? And why shouldn't I have sex with him? What’s the worst that could happen? I can’t get pregnant times two! Right?

Trip opened his mouth a few times, clearly unable to get out what he wanted to say. “I want you,” he finally whispered.

After looking at each other for a long while, I nodded and whispered back, “Okay.”

He picked me up off the ground and carried me back to his room. Laying me down gently on the bed, he proceeded to devour me with a gentleness I didn’t know he possessed.

Afterward, sweaty and tangled up together in bed, Trip hid his face in my neck and mumbled something incoherent. “I can’t hear you while your face is in the pillow.”

Pulling back, he nervously asked, "So...can we do this? Again, I mean? Because I don't know how I'm going to keep you around without becoming a walking hard-on, Princess. My balls are gonna fall off soon; they’re that blue and I think I have a blister." He held up his palm to show me; there was absolutely nothing wrong with his hand.

Tension broken, I laughed, "I—I guess. I mean, we're not hurting anyone, right?"

Except myself.

My smile faded at the thought of Trip ripping me apart. Protecting my heart, I stipulated, "But this doesn't mean we're exclusive."

Trip’s entire body went stiff as a board; the anger radiated off him. "What do you mean we're not exclusive?"

"You can still fuck who you want, and I can still sleep with whoever I want to, but we gotta be safe. Nothing unprotected and we don’t bring them home," I clarified knowing full well that I was not okay with Trip fucking someone else, and by his reaction, knew he wasn’t okay with me fucking someone else either.

I took a small piece of comfort in that knowledge, but pushed the issue so much that he gave in.

My plan was to not only keep my own walls up, but push Trip into finding an infatuation with somebody else. I was certain I had just signed over permission for him to break me. I just had to hope I could pick myself up afterward.

Trip

Hours after she fell asleep pulled tight to me in my bed, I lay there feeling more conflicted than I ever believed possible. I’d never felt this way before. I’d never wanted this. I wasn’t even completely sure what this was. A few things I did know though were that I was slowly chipping Teeny’s protective layers away. The idea of her laying like this in somebody else’s arms, some other fucker touching her, didn’t bode well. In fact, it clear pissed me way the fuck off, and if I was being completely honest with myself, I couldn’t imagine banging anybody but her. I couldn’t see anything past her.

All of this brought me to one obvious conclusion.

I’m as good as fucked
.

Teeny

Four weeks later…

“Hey, tart,” Scarlett said closing the front door behind her.

“In here,” I called out letting her know I was in the kitchen. I shoved the barbecued pork ribs back in the oven and turned around to give her a peck on the cheek. “The guys left yet?” I asked pulling out a cold beer and sliding it into her waiting hand. I then snagged an orange juice for myself.

“Yeah, they left about ten minutes ago,” she said after downing half of her beer. The girl could drink. In fact, she’d drunk the guys under the table on more than one occasion.

“The girls will be here in a few minutes, but seeing as I have you all to myself, I wanted to ask you something,” Scarlett piped up looking a little unsure, which was odd and so unlike Scarlett.

Licking my lips, I braced myself for questions about Trip and me. We’d been seeing each other for about two weeks. Although Scarlett knew all the details, I had been waiting for her to put her two-cents worth out there. “Shoot,” I said leaning back against the kitchen counter.

“Well, I’m getting married.” I snorted and didn’t bother pointing out that I was quite aware she was getting hitched, seeing as this was her bachelorette party and I’d been helping plan the entire thing for months. “I’m also going to be on my honeymoon.” She was stalling, which meant whatever she had to say must be important for her to be pussyfooting around. Nodding my head, I gestured for her to keep going, a little more at ease that I hadn’t just landed myself in a Scar-type lecture. “I wanted to ask you if, I mean, you can say no and I won’t be offended but—“ she took a big breath and rushed out, “willyouworkforme?” Her cringe made me laugh out loud. It figured she’d be worried about asking me. Six weeks ago, I would have glared at her and told her I didn’t want her handouts. I had been slowly working on lowering my pride and accepting a little help without snapping about being a charity case. Maybe I was getting soft or maybe I’d just come to realize the people around me genuinely cared about me and just wanted to help me out.

The hilarity of the wary look on her face and the way she was gripping the bottle in her hand had me laughing louder. She was waiting for a fight that wasn’t going to happen. “What is it you want me to do? You know I’m not licensed to ink.”

“You can be though! I don’t know why you never came back,” she said quietly with regret shining in her eyes.

I had been about two-months shy of completing my apprenticeship when I quit to take care of my mother during her last breakdown. Scarlett supported my decision knowing how hard it was to take care of the woman who’d looked at you like a disease for most of your life; however, she’d always encouraged me to go back and I never had.

Don’t ask me why I continued putting it off. Maybe it was me listening to my mom and the millions of times she’d told me I’d be nothing but a waste of space. A nobody.

I’ll admit I was a pussy. A scared little bitch.

Mindlessly rubbing my hand over my swelling belly, I smiled and made a decision that I should have made years before. “You know what, I might just do that.” With one simple sentence and small choice made, I felt giddy at the possibilities. This might just be the second best decision I’d made recently. I’d made the first best decision walking out of the doctor’s office knowing I was going to be a mom and not fighting it.

“‘Bout fucking time, bitch!” Scarlet all but whooped, smiled and breathed out hard. “I thought I was gonna get my head taken off for that. When can you start?”

“Wait, how am I going to finish my apprenticeship with you away?” I asked confused, and then it dawned on me. “Trip?” A million excuses ran through my head.

Could I spend all that time with him? Could I have him instruct me without me biting his head off? Unlikely. An idea struck. “What about Remy?” Yeah, that’d work. “Remy can do it, right?”
Please, please, please
, I mentally chanted to myself hoping I didn’t have to spend that much one-on-one with Trip. He was already breaking down my carefully erected barbed wire fence.

Regardless of the non-exclusive stipulation I’d put on us, he was home every day right after work, and taking me out on weekends or hanging around when I was tired. We were fast becoming a very real something. If it kept going the way it was, I was liable to screw everything up and fall in love with the big ape.

The big
sexy
ape, I might add.

“Remy’s leaving,” she told me sadly. “Day after the wedding, he’s leaving.” My hand came up to my mouth in shock. Remy had been at Needle’s Kiss since Scarlett first opened her doors.

“What?” I asked “Why? I’m so sorry. That’s bad timing, babe.” Why he’d leave right when Scarlett needed him was beyond me.

“It’s sad to see him go but he has some family issues to sort through. He wasn’t very forthcoming, but I know it means he has to move away and he doesn’t have a lot of time.” She shrugged shaking her head, and then jumped up and snagged another beer from the fridge before turning back to me, eyes pleading. “This is why I really need you in the shop. I know you won’t be able to do full time and you can make your own hours or whatever, but I
do
need the help and if I could choose one person to take over for him,” she smiled softly, “it’d be you.”

My throat clenched. “Shit, don’t get all squishy on me. I
will
cry, you know! And I’m so freakin’ sick of crying. Stupid tears.” I sniffed busying myself with pulling snacks out and dumping them in bowls. “One more day, honey. One more and you’ll be a missus,” I reminded her, changing the subject on the sly and attempting to ignore the fact that I’d not only be living with Trip but working very closely with him for the foreseeable future. Denial. That was the best way to deal with it. At least, that’s what I’d keep telling myself.

A big smirk behind her beer bottle was her only reply to that. She was happy which in-turn made me more than just happy. Instantly, she ruined my feeling of elation by opening her mouth “So, you and Trip, huh?”
Ah, fuck here we go, I thought rolling my eyes.

“It’s just convenience. We’re living under the same roof and my hormones are apparently turning me into a horny sixteen-year-old boy seeing his first boob and…well… Trip is a sixteen-year-old boy trapped in a very fuckable, well-sculptured man-candy body.” My mouth started to water at the thought of that very sculptured body and what it’d done to me not twenty minutes before Scar had walked in. “It’s nothing. Just scratching each other’s itches is all.” And boy, oh boy, did the man know how to scratch an itch.

“You, my sweet little Teeny, are blushing like a schoolgirl in a confessional.” She laughed, “You can’t bullshit a bullshitter, babe. You’ve been crushin’ on that boy for years and you’re telling me it’s just sex? Nope. Not buying it.” She shook her head “I know you as well as I know myself, and any chance you’ve ever gotten you’ve eye fucked the shit out of that boy.”

I broke out in a sweat and repeated completely unconvincingly—myself entirely aware of the fact I was trying to assure both of us, “It is just sex.”

Scarlett simply smiled, picked up her plate of food and wandered into the living room. Luckily for me, the doorbell sounded letting me know Trip’s sisters were here. “I got it,” Scar called out leaving my lying ass to organize the drinks.

“What the fuck?” Halfway through a game of Never Have I Ever, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor mouth gaping open at Haven’s empty glass after Scarlet pulled out the ‘I’ve never had sex on a Harley’ question. Not only was I processing the fact that only my juice and Haven’s shot were gone but there weren’t many people in town that owned Harleys and she looked more than a little guilty.

“Never have I ever slept with—,“ my question was cut short when the front door swung open and four of the hottest guys I’d ever see stumbled inside, all in varying degrees of drunk off their tits, except for the designated driver and man in question, Jude.

“Haven,” I whispered gaining her attention from the doorway. “He’s your brother’s best friend, honey.” The blush that tinged her cheeks along with the sideward glace toward the door answered any doubt I may have had. “Ah, shit,” I mumbled. Haven bit her lip and quickly looked away.

“I’ve come to drag you to my den,” Mace announced on a loud slur causing Scar to giggle hysterically. “Don’t laugh. I am caveman.” He jabbed his thumb into his own chest and then pointed at Scarlett. “You pretty lady. Cave, now.”

“Mace, you aren’t supposed to see her until the morning,” I reminded him as Trip came up behind me plopping down with a leg either side of mine.

“S’okay, I’ll bring her back in an hour,” he smiled and hauled her out the door.

“What’re we playin’, Princess?” Trip whispered in my ear; his warm breath sent a pleasant shiver over my body and scattered my thoughts.

“Um,” was that all I could muster as a reply? Um? His tongue darted out when he kissed the spot on my neck he knew made my knees weak. With a sigh, I gave in and tilted my neck to the side giving him more access. Who the hell was I kidding? Gave in? I’d given in weeks ago and this meant I was in big trouble.

“You girls stayin’?” Trip gruffly asked his sisters.

“I’ll take ‘em home,” Jude jumped in snapping his eyes away from Haven. Busted. “I have to take Remy anyway.” I couldn’t very well go and say anything with Trip sucking on my neck and a room full of people, so I settled for a very pointed look as Haven, who quickly grabbed her bag and shoes, hightailing it out the door behind everyone.

“We’re alone,” Trip growled into my throat where his lips were still working against my overheated skin. “I’m so hard I could cut glass and there’s only one place I want my cock.” My shoulders relaxed at his admission of not sleeping with anyone that night, I was constantly worried my stupidity would blow up in my face. I knew how much of a fool I was telling him we weren’t exclusive, but it was the only thing I could do to show him I wasn’t interested in having a real relationship. I should rephrase that; it was the only thing I could think to do to get him to move on from me, and let me be alone. In the meantime though, that itch was getting scratched.

Trip’s hand snaking around the front of me and up my skirt pulled me from my thoughts. “You okay, Princess?”

“I will be in a minute,” I smiled as his fingers gently ghosted up my inner thigh.

“What where you girls playing?” he asked nibbling on my ear. My breathing picked up right along with my libido.

“Never Have I Ever,” I breathed out finding it hard to concentrate with his mouth and fingers going places.