Hell Bent (Rock Bottom #1) (12 page)

Once in the parking lot of the jail, I slip a hat over my head and get out, stuffing my hands into my pockets as I walk. The last thing I need right now is anyone finding out I’m pregnant. 

Pregnant and bailing guys out of jail.
When the hell did this become my life?

I see him as soon as I step through the door, but he doesn’t notice me. With his head resting in his hands, his fingers grip his hair. Seeing him in handcuffs makes my stomach turn. It isn’t just because he is in here, but part of me knows that he is in here
because
of me. If I hadn’t told him I was pregnant, or what Greg had said to me, this wouldn’t have happened. It’s nothing but another reason that things wouldn’t work between us.

I stand there, unable to move or tell anyone why I’m there, and almost as if he felt me walk into the room, he looks up. From across the room I can see the regret filling his eyes, but I’m not sure why it’s there. Is it because he kissed me back that night? Or the fact that he landed in here because of me?

I finally manage to pull myself away from his intense stare and go through the motions of bailing him out. I wait by the door while they release him and he pushes past me silently. 

“Wanna tell me why I had to come down here at all tonight?”

Bennett continues to ignore me as I attempt to keep up with his long strides toward my truck. In the darkness of the cab, he stays silent, looking at anything but me, and I’m not sure why that hurts so much.

“Bennett—”

He cuts me off as I pull out into traffic. “If you take me to the ATM, I’ll pay you back, and I’ll let you get back to what you were doing before I came along and fucked up your day.” 

“Or you can quit being a fucking dick and tell me why you were arrested in the first place.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he mutters, turning to look out the window.

Pulling into the bank, I crank the wheel and pull into the closest dark parking spot. After throwing the truck in park and shutting it off, I jump out and rush to his side, pulling the door open before he has a chance.

“It does
fucking
matter,” I yell, blocking him in the best I can. I know as well as he does that if he wanted to move me it wouldn’t be hard. “You don’t get to be pissed off with me and walk away and get arrested without giving me a damn explanation when you call me to come bail you out!”

His eyebrows draw together. “I’m not mad at you.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“I’m not.”

“You flipped out because of me. You are pissed because of
me
.”

“No,” he bites out, finally turning toward me. “I’m not pissed at you. I’m pissed
for
you. I got arrested for something that
I
did, and I would do it all over again for you.”

For me? What the hell is he talking about.

Before I have a chance to say anything at all, Bennett grabs the back of my neck, pulling me up on my toes until his lips are so close to mine that I can almost taste him. My hands rest against his chest, gripping his shirt, but I’m not sure yet if I’m trying to push him away or pull him closer.

“Don’t stop me this time.”

“This will never work,” I whisper, trying as hard as I possibly can to keep my eyes on his and not his lips. 

“I’d rather learn the hard way than never take the chance at all.” While he talks, his fingers trace down the side of my face and under my bottom lip, making it quiver. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since that night at the bar and even more since the night you kissed me in the studio. It should’ve been me that night in the bar, Izzy. I should have stopped you from going with Greg and made you go with me.”

It’s stupid but I lean into him. I want to kiss him, to feel him touch me, and it drives me crazy. His lips graze mine just enough to make me moan because I know what is coming next.

Sliding his hands down to my hips, he lifts me, pulling me across him until I’m straddling his hips and my arms settle around his neck. Bennett’s hands move across my body as I kiss him, sliding up my back before running back down to grip my ass.

“Fuck,” he groans as I nip at his bottom lip.

I rock my hips, grinding against his growing erection. The need to feel him inside me only intensifies the more he touches me and thankfully he gets the hint without me having to tell him. Sliding his hands into the sides of my pants, he pushes them down my thighs. I shift enough to get them below my knees and get to work on his belt. When my fingers finally wrap around his length, my eyes widen as the tips of my fingers graze three piercings. Obviously, I’m not a virgin, but I’m not overly experienced, either. I know none of the guys I’ve slept with had these, and I’m not quite sure what to do with them.

Noticing my sudden hesitation, Bennett grips my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Nothing needs to happen right now unless you want it to, but I promise I won’t hurt you.”

Tangling my fingers in his hair, I shake my head. “I want this, Bennett. I’ve always wanted this.”

Lifting my hips, I lock eyes with him and sink down on his cock. He stretches me, making me gasp as each piercing slips inside of me. I never would have expected metal barbells to feel so good rubbing inside of me.

My head falls back as he uses his thumb to circle around my clit, and he takes advantage of it by running his lips across my throat.

“Beautiful,” he whispers. That word—no matter how many times I have heard it—has never sat quite right with me. I’ve never felt it. Until now. Until
him
.

“Are you going to tell me why you were arrested or not?”

My fingers tangle with Izzy’s, pulling her back into my chest after I close her apartment door. Like her truck, you’d never know by her apartment that she could buy anything she dreamt of.

“The word
whore
doesn’t sit well with me. Not when it’s being used toward someone I care about.”

Nuzzling into her neck, I nip at her throat. She sighs, tilting her head out of the way so I can get to more skin. I’m distracting her—I know it—but as soon as my words sink in, she pulls away and stares me down.

“You didn’t.”

Shrugging, I move across the room and drop down on the couch. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie, trying to hide my smile.

“Why would you screw up your friendship and get yourself arrested over me? It’s just a word, Bennett. If all it took to bring me down was someone saying something mean to me, I would have probably killed myself years ago.”

I growl at the thought. My sudden protectiveness over her today surprises me more the worse it gets. How can I be so protective so quickly?

“If that’s what my friends are like, I don’t want friends. I was raised better than that.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying. I promise you, Bennett, you don’t want to be involved with me. I’m a hot fucking mess.”

Grabbing her hand, I tug her down gently until she is straddling my hips again. This is quickly becoming my favorite, way to sit and I have no clue why I have ever sat any other way with her in the same room. I love it, but it’s not helping at all since I actually want to talk to her, but my body has other ideas.

“I know what I’m saying, I know what I’m doing, and I know what I want.”

Dropping her eyes to my chest, her hand follows. The slow sweep of her thumb does nothing for my mindset. “What exactly is it that you want?”

So vulnerable.
I want to take away all of her pain and fears. “You.”

“Crazy fucker,” she mumbles, making me laugh.

“I don’t care what people think of me, or what they think of the people I’m with, or if they like what I’m doing. What I care about is the people I care about being hurt. Do you know how much it fucking sucked finding out you were in an accident through a tabloid cover? And then not being able to get ahold of you to find out what happened or if you were actually OK?”

“I’ve made a lot stupid choices lately.”

“No.” I lift her face because I hate that she’s avoiding my gaze. I never want her to feel ashamed with me, but I need her to know how scared I was. “I make stupid choices. I act like a five-year-old half the time just because I can. Don’t believe me? Check my YouTube channel; I’m a child. You made dangerous choices, and I don’t even really know what happened to piss you off and make you take this path.”

“You don’t wanna know.”

“Try me.”

Izzy pushes off my lap despite how hard I try to keep her where she is. She pads down the hallway and right when I’m about to follow her, she comes back holding a disk. After inserting it into the side of the TV, she presses play and watches for a few seconds. I know I should be paying attention to what is on the screen, but I can’t take my eyes off the tears streaming down her face. It isn’t until she tells me that she can’t watch it again and leaves that I turn my attention to the man on the screen.

It doesn’t take long for me to realize exactly why she couldn’t handle watching this again. As soon as the video stops playing and her father’s face disappears, I make my way in the direction she disappeared in. Stepping through the open bedroom door, she’s curled up in the middle of her bed crying.

“You think that would make me change my mind about wanting to be with you? You’re not the only person in the single parents’ club. Hell, you’re not the only person in this room that’s in it.” My words make her cry harder so I climb into bed in front of her and pull her against my chest. She grabs the front of my shirt and I lift her leg over my hip to get her closer. “Why do you keep trying to get me to change my mind about you? Why the hell do you keep trying to push me away?”

After a few minutes of her trying to calm herself down, she can finally breathe enough to speak again. 

“Because I don’t want to get hurt anymore.”

Her hand falls to her stomach, and I know that Greg’s words hurt her more than she wants to let on.

“What makes you think I’ll end up hurting you?”

Fucking tabloids and their lies,
is the only thing I can think of.

“Because everyone leaves.”

Well, that’s not where I thought she was going with this. The words sound familiar coming from her, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s said them to me before. Running my hand up her side, I thread my fingers through her hair and tug her head back. 

“Not everyone. Not me.”

We spend the next few hours talking about anything and everything. For the first time ever, I’m not itching to get out of a woman’s bed. When I yawn, she shifts away and sighs.

“You should probably go home and get some sleep. Your boss is a bitch and plans on working you to the bone this week.”

“I’ll go home if you want me to go home. But only if that’s what you actually want.”

“Do you want to stay?” she whispers.

Pulling her back so she’s touching me again, I press a soft kiss against her lips. “I want to stay.”

Izzy fights a smile while trying not to yawn. Wrapping her arm around my waist, she settles her face back against my chest.

“Then stay.”

“Not everyone. Not me.”
Bennett’s words play on repeat in my head as I force myself to open my eyes. He’s still here, tangled around me, and it makes me smile even though the urge to pee is so strong that it hurts.