Rock Chick 02 Rescue (46 page)

“You wanna get your head out of Hank’s lap?” I shot up and twisted around and I did it so fast, I became dizzy and had to throw my hand out to steady myself. It landed on Hank’s thigh. I pul ed it away like it burned and stared at Hank.

He was grinning at me.

My fucking luck.

Definitely the boy-next-door with an edge.

His hand came out and he wrapped it around my head.

Then he leaned forward, kissed my forehead, pul ed back and looked in my eyes.

“Fun night, Jet,” he said.

Then he got up and grinned at Eddie too and said, “We had dinner, we played poker, we didn’t get shot at and she fel asleep watching a movie. You should be thanking me.” Eddie just stared at him, obviously not feeling thankful.

This made Hank’s grin turn into a ful -on smile.

“I’l let myself out,” Hank offered, the smile firmly in place.

He thought this was hilarious.

I stood up and looked from Eddie to Hank. Eddie was also not feeling in the mood to be polite, so I fol owed Hank to the door.

“Thanks Hank,” I said, when he’d cleared the door.

He turned, winked and he was gone.

I locked up behind him, started to turn back into the room and my shoulder bumped into Eddie.

I looked up at him.

Uh-oh.

“Have fun?” he asked.

Actual y, I did. Hank beat the shit out of me hand after hand in poker, but since we were playing for pretzel sticks, I didn’t mind too much. He also flirted with me outrageously, which, at first, freaked me right, the hel , out. Then I realized he was just playing with me and I found that kinda fun too.

I didn’t tel Eddie any of that.

I was reading loud and clear that Eddie wouldn’t have thought any of that was fun.

“Eddie—”

He didn’t let me finish, his hands came to my waist and he pul ed me to him, and then they came up and with them came my t-shirt. Then it was gone.

“Eddie…”

“Sat down with Marcus tonight,” Eddie said, walking backwards and taking me with him, “Marcus who runs guns, drugs and whores. Dabbles in drugs, mainly focuses on flesh and sel ing shit that tears through it.” Eek!

We cleared the coffee table and couch and I thought we were heading to the bedroom but I was wrong. Instead, he turned, my back came up against the wal and Eddie pressed into me.

“Made a deal with him. He finds Vince, Slick or your Dad, he hands them over to me. Since he’s lookin’ for al of them, mostly for Daisy, this wouldn’t be so bad, ‘cept he has to hand them over to me.”

His hands were at my jeans, he undid my belt and then my jeans while he was talking. When he stopped, he bent low to pul them down, snagging my underwear with them and keeping me against the wal with his other hand at my bel y.

Dear Lord.

“Eddie…” I said.

He came up and both of his hands went to my bottom and he yanked me up. I threw my arms and legs around him to hold on and he pressed me tight against the wal . My stomach pitched in a not altogether unpleasant way (in fact, it was altogether pleasant).

His mouth went to my neck and he kept talking.

“Problem is, Marcus doesn’t do somethin’ for nothin’.” His teeth gently nipped my earlobe and I shivered.

He went on whispering in my ear, “So, in order for him to give me these guys, and there’s a good chance he’l find

‘em before I do, I gotta do something for him in return.” He paused to run his tongue down my jaw and, I couldn’t help it, I wanted to be angry or outraged, but I was turned on. I didn’t know what that said about me but I didn’t care.

His lips went from my jaw to my cheek and then he said against my mouth, “I don’t like owing Marcus.” I held my breath, opened my eyes and looked into his.

They were glittery
and
liquid. Another new look.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

He let go of my bottom but I held on tight.

His hand went between us and worked at his jeans.

“Sorry about me owin’ Marcus or comin’ home to you with your head in Hank’s lap?”

I should have said, “Both.”

Instead, I said, “Marcus. I didn’t start out in Hank’s lap, it just happened.”

His fingers went from his jeans to me and, without warning, one slid inside.

“Ohmigod,” I whispered. I couldn’t help it, it felt so good, it deserved an “ohmigod”.

“A lot of shit just happens when you’re with other guys,” Eddie said low, his mouth stil against mine, then his fingers moved, his thumb got involved, my bones dissolved, I closed my eyes and pressed my hips against him.

“It’s nothing,” I breathed.

“Jet, open your fuckin’ eyes and look at me.” I did.

His eyes were burning into me. I realized in the middle of a turned-on daze that something was happening and it had a lot to do with Eddie being hot-blooded, me being his w-word and Eddie not liking coming home after a shitty task he did for me to find me with my head in some other man’s lap.

I couldn’t say I blamed him.

His fingers kept up their torture as he spoke.

“You’re gonna have to wake up to the shit happenin’

around you. You think Hank doesn’t want this…” His finger went out and then back in and I was pretty sure it was joined with another one, “you’re wrong.”

I was finding it difficult to keep my concentration on our conversation but felt it was important I do so.

I tried to explain.

“Hank’s your friend, he sees in black and white, he plays by the good guy’s rules. He told me so. He wouldn’t try anything with me.”

Eddie wasn’t convinced.

“I think I’ve been pretty fuckin’ tolerant of your shit until now, but I’m warnin’ you, tonight it ends. Do you understand?”

I nodded, though I didn’t real y understand, I was beginning to.

His fingers went away but then
he
fil ed me and immediately started moving.

immediately started moving.

“You don’t understand. You don’t have a fuckin’ clue,” he said against my neck.

I’d never had sex against a wal , or anywhere other than a bed, except, of course, the stuff Eddie and I did in the shower. The shower stuff wasn’t sex as such, as it didn’t involve penetration and acrobatics, just fingers, mouths and eventual orgasms. Mostly,
my
orgasms.

Okay,
all
my orgasms.

This was al new to me.

New and
yum
.

I chanced moving my arm from hanging on for dear life around his shoulders and slid my fingers into his hair.

“Eddie,” I whispered.

His head came up. “What?” he asked, stil moving.

“Are you done talking?”

He ground his hips into me and I bit my lip.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Then, would you please kiss me?”

The glitter went out of his eyes, leaving only the liquid. I felt a deep relief in my bel y, then a deep thrust somewhere else and then he obliged.

The alarm went off, Eddie touched a button and rol ed out of bed.

I tensed, waiting for him to yank me out with him, but he didn’t.

I heard him moving around the room and I opened my eyes, noticing it was dark, way early and I sincerely hoped he was only getting up either to use the bathroom or program the coffee maker for later.

I fel back to sleep.

Then I heard beeping buttons like someone pressing them and I opened my eyes.

I was on Eddie’s side of the bed, hugging Eddie’s pil ow and smel ing Eddie, probably both on his pil ow and on him.

He was crouched by the bed, ful y clothed and fiddling with the alarm.

“Eddie?” I muttered.

His head turned toward me, “Shh,
Cariña
, go back to sleep.”

I noticed the clock, it was stil way early.

I got up on my elbow.

“Whas goin’ on?” I mumbled. It was so early I couldn’t ful y form words.

He came out of the crouch but sat on the side of the bed.

“I’m goin’ to work,” he said.

I blinked, coming quickly awake. “What about our shower?”

“Maybe we’l shower later.”

Something was wrong. Eddie liked our showers, a lot (or, as far as I could tel he did).

I sat up feeling strange and, maybe, a little scared. “Are you mad at me?” I whispered.

His hand came out and tucked hair behind my ear. “Why would you think that?”

I felt something lodge in my throat.

I knew what it was.

It was fear.

Okay, so maybe I was a lot scared.

“Last night… Hank,” I answered.

For a second he didn’t move, then he put his hands at my waist and pul ed me around so I was sitting on his lap.

Then his lips touched my neck and he said, “I wasn’t mad at you last night.”

“You sure seemed mad.”

“That wasn’t mad, that was frustrated.”

Dear Lord, if that wasn’t mad, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see mad.

His head came up and he looked at me in the dark.

“I don’t like Marcus,” he said.

“I think I got that.”

I could swear, even in the dark, I could see him smile.

“I also don’t like seein’ you with other guys.”

“I haven’t been with other guys.”

“Vance?”

Hmm.

“Mace?”

Wel , what could I say? That was a life or death situation.

“Hank?”

I didn’t real y have an excuse for that one.

“I’l try to do better,” I said.

“Try real hard.”

Eek.

Time for a new subject.

“Eddie?”

“Yeah?”

His arms tightened and I came closer. I slid my hands around his middle and put my head on his shoulder.

“Yesterday, nothing happened. No one shot at me and I didn’t wrestle with anyone and my stun gun stayed in my purse the whole day. Except for seeing Shirleen tel Darius to whack Vince, yesterday was a good day.” Eddie’s body grew stil when I talked about Shirleen and Darius.

“Don’t worry, I told Hank about it. He made some cal s,” I assured him.

“Lee told me last night. That why you left me a message?”

I nodded against his shoulder.

His body relaxed.

“I think we should celebrate,” I decided, lifting my head to look at him, “Not about Darius whacking Vince but for a day with no hair-raising experiences. I’l make you dinner tonight.”

He ran a hand through the side of my hair and then rested it against my neck.

“Dinner would be good,” he said in a soft voice.

My bel y did a curl.

“Maybe Mom and Lottie wil come over. And Tex.”

“I thought your sister was moving to Denver?” he asked.

“She is.”

“They can come over another night.”

My bel y curl graduated to a doo-da spasm.

“Okay,” I agreed.

He touched his lips to mine.

“Why are you leaving so early?” I asked when he was done.

“Got shit to do.”

“My shit?”

“Your shit.”

Wonderful.

I real y
was
a pain in the ass.

I tucked my head into his throat.

“I’m sorry,” I said against his skin, “I hate this.”

“
Mi amor
, it’l be over soon.”

“I hope so, who would have thought it but I want my boring, old, normal life back.”

His body shook with soft laughter.

“
Chiquita
, I’m not sure you’re capable of boring and normal.”

I wished he was right.

“Just you wait,” I mumbled.

He didn’t say anything but I could tel , even in his silence, he didn’t believe me.

“I’ve set the alarm so you can get up later, Bobby’l be

“I’ve set the alarm so you can get up later, Bobby’l be here at 7:30 to take you to Fortnum’s.”

Bobby was another of Lee’s men and I was guessing Bobby pul ed Jet Duty that morning.

I sighed.

“Al right.”

He kissed me, the touch-on-the-lips, touch-the-tips-of-the-tongue kiss. It was one of my favorites.

Who was I kidding? They were al my favorites.

“Be good,” he said against my mouth.

I sighed again.

“I’l try.”

He was laughing when he put me back into bed.

It was only when he was gone that I realized I stil had fear lodged in my throat. It wasn’t fear of men with guns and knives and rape on their mind, it was a whole other kind of fear that, cal me crazy, was far worse.

* * * * *

The alarm went off again, and again I hit the snooze.

This happened two more times.

At 7:15, I stared bleary-eyed at the clock, let out a little scream and jumped from the bed.

I was in my underwear and one of Eddie’s flannel shirts, hair wet from a fast shower and in a complete tizzy, when there came a pounding at the door.

It was Bobby.

Bobby was built like a tree and he looked like a member of the Tex Family, except younger and before the crazy kicked in.
Just
before.

He did a body scan and his eyebrows went up.

“I’m running late, can you wait?” I said to him.

He shrugged, sat down on the couch, grabbed a remote and found a bal game.

“How can there be a bal game on at 7:30?” I said, exasperated, staring at the screen.

“English footbal , it’s later there. Man U vs. Arsenal, a friendly.”

It was like he was speaking in code but I wasn’t real y listening, I was staring at the screen.

These guys didn’t wear pads and helmets that hid their faces, these guys didn’t wear sil y pants with gathers at the ankles.

These guys wore shorts and shirts, no hats or helmets and you could see, straight out, they were hot.