Equilibrium (Marauders #4.5) (16 page)

“Why not?”

“Because then you know how many times they did it.”

“Why would that matter to me?” he asked, and she shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m the only one who’s had sex with you. And even if I hadn’t been your first, I wouldn’t care.”

“No?”

“No. Not even a little. You’re with me now, and that’s all I care about.” He kissed her again. “I’m just glad you seemed to like it.”

“I liked it a lot.”

“Good.”

“It was better than I thought it would be.”

“Yeah?”

“Can we do it again?”

“Definitely,” he chuckled, and with a smile she got up to rest on her elbow. “Wait. What? Now?”

“Yes. I think I want it, like, firmly established in me that it’s good, so I won’t be nervous next time. If we do it properly now, I mean.”

She wanted to fuck through the night. He could do that. Hopefully.

“Okay, but I need a few minutes to get going again. And you need to warn me when you’re getting sore.”

“I know,” she smiled. “You can lick me.”

“I can do that,” he confirmed. “Now?”

“Yes, and then maybe we can do it when you spoon me?”

“We can do that.”

“You’re just going to agree to anything I say, aren’t you?” she laughed.

“Pretty much,” he admitted, and started kissing his way down her body.

By the third time, he managed to make her come while he was inside of her. The surprise and relief made her laugh, and it was the most awesome fucking laugh he’d heard in his entire life.

~oOo~

Brick

Brick had woken up when Niu called to tell him it was all clear. They would keep their eyes on everything and would let them know as soon as anyone was within a hundred miles of Greenville. She would also contact him to let him know how they’d keep in contact during the war.

When Brick sat up, the first thing he noticed was that Eliza’s cot was empty. The initial worry turned into anger when he realized where she was. Because he had no fucking doubt of where he would find her. There was really only one person that she trusted, and as okay as Brick was with her hanging out with Roach, she needed to fucking stay in place when they were in lockdown.

He got out of bed to get dressed, and when Mel woke up and wondered were the fucking fire was, he didn’t bother to explain. He walked over to Roach’s door and kicked it in. That was when the anger turned to red-hot fury, because not only was Eliza in there, she was fucking naked. They were both naked. So much for ‘just hanging out’ and ‘needing someone to talk to,’ and he felt like a fucking idiot. He’d fucking trusted Roach to take care of Eliza, to be a friend, and he’d fucking believed him when he’d said that nothing was going on. Apparently Roach’s version of ‘nothing going on’ still included banging his president’s daughter. Brick hated to feel like an idiot, and more than anything he hated when people lied to him.

When Roach sat up and said, “Fuck,” Brick didn’t hesitate. He took the few steps to the bed and planted his fist in Roach’s face.

That was when the chaos started.

Eliza was yelling and flew out of the bed, still goddamn naked, and Mel was yelling from the door—all while Brick was still doing his very best to beat the crap outta Roach. He’d pulled the little shit out of the bed and had him against the wall, still punching him, when he realized that Eliza was hanging on to his arm, and she was still naked.

“Get dressed,” he said to Roach before turning to Eliza. “You get dressed, too, and then you’re going home.”

Roach was holding his bleeding nose while looking at Eliza, but she was looking at Brick.

“Fuck you,” she spat. “You don’t own me.”

Without hesitation, he gut punched Roach. “Wanna keep that up or are you going to get dressed?” he asked Eliza. “Because I might not own you, but his ass is mine.”

“Brick…” Mel said from the door.

“Shut up,” he said. “I don’t wanna hear it.”

Eliza got dressed, but when Mel tried to pull her out of the room she refused, and went to stand next to Brick.

“Get out,” growled to her.

“No. And if you want me to ever talk to you again, you’re not going to hit him again.”

“Eliza, please go,” Roach said. “You don’t need to see the rest of this.”

Eliza took a deep, shaky breath, and for the first time Brick noticed the tears pouring out of her eyes. She turned her tear-filled eyes towards him. They’d fought a lot when she was younger, and he undoubtedly had deserved her hatred a few times, but this was the first time he’d seen it. Without saying anything else, she turned around and walked out.

He turned to Roach. “Get dressed and get the fuck out of here. If you’re not back here tomorrow at noon for your punishment, you’ve lost your cut. I’ll make up whatever shit I need to get that by your president, is that clear?”

“Yes,” Roach nodded.

Brick left to catch up with Eliza. The rest of the members had gathered along the hallway. He turned to Bear, “We’re in the clear. Get everyone out of here, and make sure that shithead leaves,” he said while pointing at Roach’s broken door. “I’ll see you here tomorrow at noon.”

Ahab took a step forward, “Prez.”

“
Don’t
talk to me right now.
Bad
idea to talk to me right now.”

He didn’t even wait to see if Ahab got the message. Eliza was waiting outside, and he grabbed her and dragged her towards Mel’s car.

“Get in.”

Thankfully, Eliza did as he’d asked, and he turned to see Mel coming out of the clubhouse, and she didn’t look happy either. He had a feeling she was more pissed at him, though. She got into the driver’s seat, and he wasn’t in the mood to argue with her about that.

The car was blissfully silent for about two minutes until Roach passed them on his bike.

“Where’s he going?” Eliza asked.

“That’s none of your business.”

“Stop the car.”

“No,” Brick roared, but with a glare at him, Mel pulled over. “Jesus fucking Christ, the stubborn fucking women in my fucking life,” he muttered and sighed when he got out to stop Eliza from running after Roach—as if she had a shot in hell to catch up with him on foot.

“Leave me alone!” she yelled.

“Just get back in the fucking car.”

“Or what? What are you gonna do?”

“Don’t be so fucking childish.”

“I’m not fucking childish. Last night was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I got something back that was taken from me, and you ruined it. I needed it, it was beautiful, and you turned it into something ugly.”

“You don’t get it. This is club business, and you need to stay fucking out of it.”

Eliza turned around, and to his astonishment she started to push him back towards the car by beating his chest, all while yelling at him.

“Don’t do that! Don’t you fucking dare hide behind the fucking club business with me. Ever! Your fucking club business had me gang raped, and I was never angry at you for what happened, not FUCKING ONCE. I STILL loved you because I thought you were on my side! So DON’T YOU DARE!”

That deflated him completely, and he just stood there and watched her turn and stomp off. He couldn’t follow her because he didn’t want to hear anything she could have to say to him. She’d never once before accused him for what had happened. Not with a single word or look, but now she had, and she’d done it because of Roach.

He stood there until she was out of sight, and then he got into the car with Mel.

“She’s right,” Mel said.

“Don’t even start. I trusted him to take care of her, and instead he fucks her.”

“You know, my life would be a lot easier if you two bothered to listen to what the other one was saying. She said ‘last night.’”

“What’s your point?”

Mel started the car and gave him a look of disgust. “They hadn’t had sex until last night. And the next morning you beat him black and blue right in front of her. Way to got to make her feel better about sex.”

“That doesn’t fucking matter.”

“Yeah, it does, and if you take five minutes to think about it, and stop being a stubborn fucking ass, you’ll know why it matters. In general, I’m really fucking pissed at you right now, so I suggest you shut up, and if you don’t think you can do that, it’s probably better if I drop you off at the clubhouse.”

It would’ve been great if he only had to fight one female member of the family at a time, because fighting with both of them was hell.

~oOo~

Eliza

I was terrified that Roach’s bike wouldn’t be outside his house, that he’d already left and was on his way to New York. I giggled in relief when I saw it at its usual spot and ran up the stairs to bang on his door.

When he opened, I took a deep breath. He looked like shit. Dad had hit him square over the nose, so he had two black eyes, and since he’d taken of his t-shirt, I could see the bruises forming over most of his upper body, too.

“Oh shit,” I mumbled. It looked like every part of him was hurting. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have gone to your room.”

“It’s not. I could’ve sent you out, or at least made sure we didn’t fall asleep. Not even mentioning I should’ve told him about us sooner.”

“That doesn’t give him the right to beat you up.”

“It kind of does,” he said with a lopsided smile. “He loves you, and he’s worried about you. He probably thinks we’ve been at it from the beginning. You know, that I took advantage of you.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I’m actually not entirely convinced about that myself.”

I took a step forward and held his cheeks. “Please don’t. Don’t you turn this into something ugly, too. I can’t… I don’t think I can stand it if you do that.”

Roach leaned his forehead against mine, but he didn’t say anything.

“Why did you fall in love with me?” I asked.

The question made him chuckle. “I don’t know why, but I know when.”

“When?”

“When you peed on their graves,” he laughed. “I’d suspected it before, but that’s when I realized I’d gotten you all wrong, and just… Your laughter. I’ll never forget what you sounded like when you were laughing. Or what you looked like when you zipped up your pants.”

“Which means you fell in love with me when I was at my strongest, and you even waited pretty long after that.” I gave him a kiss. “No taking advantage of going on.”

“Eliza…” he started, but I didn’t want to hear, so I kept talking. If I could talk forever he wouldn’t be able to say whatever it was he was going to say.

“I chased you into a damn strip club. I… I did the chasing.”

“That’s doesn’t really matter. It’s more that I… Fuck, I fucking hate saying it, but I made you dependent on me. That’s what he thinks, and I’m kind of worried about the same thing. I’m scared I’ll fuck you up, or that I already have.”

“Please don’t,” I whispered, and I could feel my heart breaking. “That’s not how it feels. I know you’ll probably leave anyway, or that Dad might make you choose between me and the club, or whatever, but please don’t make me think we did something wrong. I can’t… stand the thought that the best thing that’s ever happened to me was wrong.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. None of it was your fault. I don’t know if I did, either, but sometimes I wonder. Just… no matter what happens, promise me that this isn’t the end of the line.”

“What do you mean?”

“That you’re not done. That you’re going to go back to school and get a life other than this, and keep moving forward.” He was still close to me, and he finally put his arms around me. “And that you keep in mind that you don’t owe me anything. This should never be about you owing me anything.”

I looked at him and smiled. “You think I have sex with you because I feel that I owe you?”

“No, but if you’re fed up with me, tell me to fuck off. From now on, you don’t owe me anything.”

“Okay. Not sure it matters anymore. At least not if Dad gets his way.”

Roach ran his fingers through my hair and gave me a smile. “Have some faith. And more importantly, let him blow off some steam.”

“If it’s not enough?”

“We’ll deal with that then.”

“Can I stay the night?” I asked, and that made him laugh.

“Really think that’s a good idea?”

“Probably not,” I admitted. “What’s going to happen?”

I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know, but I had to ask. Especially if I couldn’t stay, which I kind of guessed he was right about being stupid.

“I’m going back there tomorrow at noon.”

“And? If he makes you choose?”

“He can’t. Most he can do is send me back to New York, since he’s not my president. After beating me up again,” Roach added with a smile. “You’re worth a couple of beatings, though.”

“Yeah?” I asked with a smile. “Because I’m hot?”