Mica (Rebel Wayfarers MC) (26 page)

They stood there for several minutes like that, both of them still and silent under the rushing water. A spasm gripped his back and he tensed, waiting for it to pass. She must have seen it and decided to stop waiting for some kind of permission, because she moved her hand up his back.

Placing her palm against the top of his cramping muscle, she passed the heel of her hand firmly down and along the painful paraspinal muscle, stripping it of the ability to cramp and spasm. Now that she’d moved, it seemed easier for her to keep in motion, and she soothed his back over and over, using both hands to bracket the long muscles. Again and again, she brought her hands down to his waist, pushed up his sides and ribs to his shoulder blades, and then back the long way down.

She moved slightly, reaching further up his back to his shoulders and neck, rubbing the trapezius slowly. Concentrating, she dug in with her thumbs and the heels of her hands when she found a tense spot. Then, alternating that movement with the long, slow sweeps of her hand down his back to the top of his cheeks, followed by the shift back up his sides and ribs to his shoulders.

After several passes in that fashion, she varied the pattern, pushing her hands down his arms to his biceps, pulling back up to his shoulders and beginning again. He was concentrating on the pleasurable feeling left behind from the pressure of her hands, loving how relaxed and loose he was beginning to feel. He realized with a start that with every stroke down his arms and biceps, her rounded breasts and belly were brushing against his ass and back, giving him brief bursts of slippery warmth. He doubted she was aware of it; it was such a soft trace of heat, but oh, it was even sweeter for being unconscious.

Like a schoolboy waiting for a glimpse of a hidden crush, he waited for those glancing caresses, letting his arousal build higher. He felt his cock twitch heavily, even without a touch or stroke, and he thought he might climax from the anticipation of when the next brushing touch from her soft front would come. He was disappointed when she moved a half-step back, his body losing that connection to hers, but then came her palms on his hips, her fingers wrapping around to the front placed dangerously close to his raging erection. “Daniel, step back a bit; let me work the muscles in your back a little harder.”

He took a deep breath and did as she asked, pushing his ass deeper under the water. He slid his arms down the wall a few inches, and stepped back with one foot to try and hide his rigid cock from her. She turned and put her body right beside his, leaned her hip and side into his, and used her hands and forearms on his back.

God help him, he focused in on the feel of the length of her pressed up against him, her hip sliding in front of and then behind his as she worked her hands. Her body was so tightly touching him that his cock brushed high against the outside of her thigh and hip every time she moved. The stolen friction was nearly his undoing; she was so focused on what she was doing with her hands and paying attention to his back muscles that it seemed she didn’t notice what was happening. He was able to continue bumping the head into her, stroking the side of it along her wet and slippery hip, and imagined being buried deep inside her instead.

It was Mica herself who finally tipped the scale. She wasn’t able to get the angle she wanted where she was standing, so she wrapped one arm around the front of his hips for leverage. Reaching across his belly, she grabbed the opposite hip and tugged him in tight to her side. In this position, her arm effectively trapped the head of his cock tightly against his belly for a few seconds of sudden pressure and friction until she realized what had happened and released him, moving away. By then though, it was too late, and as he groaned her name into his arm, he felt his balls rise to his belly and the hot, heavy, throbbing feeling of his ejaculation as it hit the shower wall.

He felt her absence like a blow for a moment, and then she wrapped herself around him from behind. She pressed her thighs into his, molded her belly to his ass, circled his ribs with her arms, and laid her head along his spine. Aftershocks shuddered through him, but he tried not to move, standing as still as stone beneath the shower and her body, breathing hard, as if he had ran a race.

“Daniel, oh, that was…wonderful,” she whispered into the sound of the running water, softly kissing his back. “Please, say something,” she urged. “I didn’t mean to do that, but it was aaahh-frickin’-mazing.”

He laughed softly then, twisting and placing an arm around her to pull her around in front of him as he stood up straight. “You didn’t mean to torture me, then?” he joked with her, looking into her brilliantly green eyes. “I was trying to be so good, keeping my hands to myself, because you were a Florence Nightingale, trying to heal my hurts.”

Mica grinned spicily up at him. “Aaahh-frickin’-mazing man.” She lifted onto her toes to kiss him, once again tipping the scales.

36 -
            
Bedtime stories

The playful mood held through much of the next hour as they dried each other off with soft towels. Touching softly and gently, they explored with fingers, and lips, and tongues, all the most sensitive and responsive parts of each other’s body. He grabbed two clean Mallets shirts from his bag, throwing one to her. He stood and watched her with a smile as she pulled it over her head, thinking and hoping she might be on her way to being his now.

Kissing the top of her head, he grabbed his laptop and the envelope of DVDs, and settled into the bed, leaning back gingerly against the piled-up pillows. He specifically chose his bedroom to settle in, giving her free choice of where to sleep, hoping against hope she would pick with him.

“I need to watch some of this video tonight. I have an early morning wake-up call. My first conference call starts at 6:30 a.m., so if you hear the phone, and I’m not moving yet, kick me out of bed,” seeing that she leveled her gaze somberly at him, he backtracked and said, “unless you aren’t sleeping here.”

“Daniel, I…we should talk now, I think.” Looking at him steadily, she tucked her chin down and tensed her body, waiting to divulge what he didn’t know.

He leaned over and set the computer on the floor next to the bed. “Okay, come here,” he said, and opened his arms wide.

She twisted the hem of the shirt nervously between her fingers, and then turned to sit at the foot of the bed. She was as far from him as she could get and still be on the same piece of furniture, and he frowned and lowered his arms. “This is important to you, isn’t it?” he asked, and she nodded her head in agreement.

She continued to look at him for a few seconds, and he saw when she came to a decision by the way her eyes changed and her chin lifted. Pulling a hairband from her wrist, she lifted her arms, tightening the shirt across her breasts as she pulled her hair back, scraping it out of her face into a ponytail that gave her nothing to hide behind.

Taking a breath, she started with, “First, tell me what you already know from your friend. I don’t want to cover ground you’ve already turned over.”

Daniel nodded. “Steve said you had a hard life; your mother died early—too early. Your father did the unthinkable to you and your friend. You have a brother and a sister. I know a little of what happened after high school, but not a lot.”

She snorted. “Unthinkable…that’s a delicate word for it.” Frowning at him, she asked, “Is that it then?” and he nodded in response.

“Okay, I’ll keep parts of this brief, since you have the rundown, but, Daniel, you have to know what kind of damaged goods is sitting on this bed in front of you before we go any further. I’m glad you had your friend look into me; that shows smarts, and helps me somewhat with what I have to say.” Shifting her position, she sat cross-legged, pressing her thigh against his foot and ankle. He remained still, not wanting to shift from that fragile physical contact.

She looked at him, and then down into her lap, watching her fingers twist the hem of her shirt again. “Mamma died; you know that. Then, uh…Daddy molested and raped me for years. Michael, my brother, had to help pick up the pieces of me—deal with the aftermath too many times—and it changed him…well, it changed me too, of course, but it was…it was really hard on him.” She frowned. “Then, what happened to my friend, Emily…that changed us all in a really bad way. I couldn’t let it go without a fight, without trying to do what I could to make it right. I wanted the whole world to know that none of it was her fault. Small town Texas—you have no idea how those closed-minded biddies can talk…and how insignificant they can make you feel with just a look. I knew if I could prove what he had done to me for so long, it would take the focus off Em and give her time to deal.”

His heart was shattering at the matter-of-fact tone in her voice; she could’ve been talking about what to buy for breakfast, instead of horrible events that changed the course of her life forever. By finding out the reason she had testified at the trial, why she was willing to bare herself in that way…well, he had never known anyone so willing to take that level of pain and anguish on themselves for someone else.

She had paused for a breath, looking intently into his face. “Mikey and I have a hard relationship to figure out. He felt powerless when everything happened, so when Daddy was in jail, he wanted to be able to control something. He picked me, ha…” she laughed bitterly, “…which was a mistake, because I’ve never liked being told what to do. We fought a lot over those months, and he had picked up some bad habits from Daddy.”

Daniel gasped in dismay, thinking she meant her brother had raped her as well, and she read his face right and clarified, “No, not that, thank God. He used force to make me understand how things should be in his mind. Belt, fists…whatever came to hand. We’re twins, but I found that we’re nothing alike—not since those days.”

“We graduated high school, and a couple weeks later, we found out Daddy was getting out and moving home. I scooted out of there fast, and so did Mikey. Neither of us could face being there with him. I took my truck, trailer, and horses onto the circuit, turning to what I knew, had always loved, and was really good at. I had a deft hand with horses back then; I had grown up riding, and then moved to training early on.”

She took a breath and continued, “There wasn’t a lot of planning that went into what I was doing that summer. I think I wanted a chance to make some money before college started, but if I’m being totally honest, I simply wanted out of Longview for a while. It seemed like everyone in town had seen pictures of my body showing my scars. The lawyer said they were ‘tasteful’ and didn’t show anything except the back of me, but the looks I got from everyone made me believe they were disgusted by everything about me.

“I was racing barrels and poles, plus, doing a little equine therapy at nearly every event.” She smiled sadly. “I know all this doesn’t mean much to you. It’s not a sport you follow, I bet, but it was what I knew and—”

He interrupted her for a second, rubbing his foot against her thigh, “Will you teach me later, Mica?” He wanted her to know that right now, this second, he was still counting on there being a later for them.

She laid her hand on his foot, rubbing across the instep firmly. She tucked her fingertips between his toes, rubbing and separating them, tugging on them lightly. “Sure, Daniel, if you want me to. It’s the sport I love, so I’d be happy to show you and talk about it.” Taking a breath, she continued to idly play with his foot as she began talking again. “In Chickasaw, there was a nice event, had a pretty good purse for winners. I showed up and pulled a pretty crappy parking spot; about the only thing going for it was that it was at least still on the fairgrounds. It was not close to the showers, and was a long way from the arena—a pretty crap spot. My trailer set-up was decent; I had a twin bunk in the front section with my stuff, and room for two horses and tack. I had my own horse, plus one I was showing for a client. Both were good’uns—decent skills and great dispositions, athletes with attitude…just like I wanted ‘em.” He realized her accent was slipping from her normally tight control, and he wondered what was coming.

“The times on my initial runs were good, the arena was packed, and it looked like easy-peasy pie for me. Riding way back over to my rig on the outskirts of the event to wait for my second runs, this nice lookin’ bull rider came up and talked to me, and he was sweet. He also did steer wrestling, and his horse had pulled up lame. He wanted me to look it over, see if I could do anything. I did a lot of equine massaging, and would show people the best way to wrap legs, rub horses down, things like that, so this was a pretty common request behind the barns. I needed the money, so I leaned down to shake his hand and introduce myself, and he said his name was Ray Nelms.” She flicked her gaze up at Daniel’s face, watching as he recognized the name.

“Yeah, same guy who visited Gentry. We have a bit of history between us—Ray and I do. He was sweet up until he wasn’t, and when he was mean…he was real mean. He started on me that first night, and there was no one parked close enough to hear me yell or cry. He was rough during sex, choking and forcing me a lot of the time. When he was angry, he liked using the clasp end of a lead rope to get his point across, or the knotted bits of his bull rope. Over the weeks, Ray added quite a few trophies to the ones already on my back—that’s what he called them, ‘trophies’. He was proud of that, knowing no matter where I went, I’d always have him on my body.” She stopped abruptly, taking a huge breath. “I need some water; you want some?” and she bolted from the room.

Daniel sat there a second in stunned silence, trying to absorb everything she had confided to him over the last few minutes. He was enraged she had encountered disaster after disaster in her young life, and in awe of how strong she had made herself, in spite of what had happened to and around her. Closing his eyes against tears, he yelled, “Yeah, Mica, water would be good.” He hoped she would come back on her own. He didn’t want to push her if she wasn’t up to facing him again tonight, but he wanted her back so he could hold her and let her know none of this made any difference to him.