Rush - Blue Devils MC Book 2 (Book 1 Included FREE for a short time only!) (11 page)

She smiled then, and reached her hand out to stroke his cheek. “Thanks, Dad,” she said softly, and then leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m gonna be fine, I promise. And I also promise to text you every day so you know I’m still alive and that everything is going fine. I might even call you once in a while,” she finished with a teasing smile.

“I can live with that,” her dad said gruffly, pulling her in for a long hug. She felt his love wrap around her, more tangible than she’d ever felt it in her life. He pulled back and kissed her on the cheek, and then turned towards Rush.

“I appreciate you watching over Hannah B,” he said gravely. “I’d also appreciate it if you didn’t fuck with her head.”

“Dad!” Hannah hollered again but this time she couldn’t help laughing as she said it.

“I’ll do my best, sir,” Rush said, and held his hand out to shake.

With a final hug goodbye, her dad left, leaving Hannah and Rush alone in the foyer. Hannah couldn’t stop the blush spreading over her cheeks. Her dad, as well intentioned as he was, was also as embarrassing as fuck. That had gone much worse than she’d hoped.

So much for telepathy skills.

Chapter Eleven

Rush

Rush stared down at Blue, at the freckles spread across her nose and her gorgeous blue-green eyes that defied description. Blushing, she looked away and then reached down to pet Turbo, obviously anxious to do something,
anything
, that didn’t involve discussing her father or their relationship. He wondered if she realized how goddamn beautiful she was.

He knew that pushing any sort of future talk on her would only drive her further away. He couldn’t risk that, not right now. He could only focus on the present - today, right now. He would let the future take care of itself. Hope it would take care of itself.

His phone vibrated in his pocket again, pulling him out of his thoughts. As Blue sat down on the couch to give Turbo the full attention that he deserved, Rush checked his phone and saw that Lain had texted him.

Gone to Mexico w Crow to talk to driver. Took Juan Carlos with us. Will report at clubhouse tomorrow. Watch over H while gone.

There was a task he would gladly take on. He was glad Lain had thought to take Juan Carlos, their company translator, with them down to Mexico. With the Blue Devils constantly working with companies in both countries, a translator who could be trusted was worth their weight in gold, and Juan had proven his worth a hundred times over.

“So, it’s just us today, Ms. Blue,” he said, sliding his phone back into his pocket. “Lain and Crow have gone to talk to the bus driver. You ready to hang up some old boards?”

“Sure,” she said, standing up and brushing Turbo’s fur off her hands. “I need to brush you,” she told Turbo sternly. “You’re shedding like crazy.” Turbo thumped his tail happily and Blue grinned across the room at Rush. “Anything for attention,” she said, laughing.

“I know. Turbo’s an attention whore. Don’t let his gray muzzle fool you - he knows a pretty lady when he sees one.” He winked at her, enjoying the delicious blush that spread over her cheeks.

They headed out to the garage and then began packing the boards in and up the stairs. Turbo flopped down in the corner, obviously deciding that nothing exciting was happening and certainly no petting was going to happen, which at least kept him out from under foot.

Rush was happily surprised to see how quickly Blue picked up on the use of a power drill. Having never used one before, she got a hang of how hard to push and what angle to hold the drill at, and was soon zipping screws into place. For Rush, it turned what had been a solitary labor of love into a communal labor of love. He’d enjoyed remodeling his piece of shit mansion and turning it into a home he could be proud of, but he’d always done it alone. It was surprisingly wonderful to have someone else to do it with. Four hands made it so much easier than two, not to mention that he got to stare at her every time she turned her head away. How a woman sporting a head bandage could look so gorgeous was really beyond him. Her long, strong, tanned legs were delicious and he couldn’t help imagining kissing his way up them, inch by inch.

Fuuccckkkkk
…he adjusted himself discreetly in his jeans as she focused on a particularly stubborn board. He had to keep his dick under control. Pushing himself on Blue wasn’t going to win him any brownie points.

After a long day’s work, they flopped down in the living room, exhausted, and just stared at each other. Blue broke into laughter. “Do you put all of your guests to work?” she asked teasingly. “‘Hang old boards or no dinner for you’?” and she started laughing again.

“Hell, I took it easy on you,” he said, grinning at her. “I figured half of your payment was just looking gorgeous. You should see how hard my
ugly
guests have to work to be fed dinner.”

She blushed and said awkwardly, “I better go take a shower. I think I have sawdust in my hair.” She walked out of the living room and he cursed himself a thousand times over for being an idiot. He
could not
push himself on her too quickly. She’d leave and Turbo would probably leave with her and then he’d have this whole damn house all to himself again and he didn’t want that.

Pushing those useless thoughts away, he went to the front door and asked Little John if he wouldn’t mind running down to the taco shack and buying enough fish tacos for everyone. He pulled cash out of his wallet and told him to keep the change. Little John’s eyes light up. “Sure thing, Rush,” he said, and took off on his bike, calling out to the other look-outs that he’d be right back.

Rush went back inside and when he heard the shower shut off, he decided that a shower of his own wouldn’t be a bad thing. He grabbed some clean clothes out of his dresser and then slipped down the hallway into the downstairs guest bathroom to take a shower, leaving Blue alone to use the master suite.

As he let the hot water pound down on his shoulders, he pulled out his favorite body wash and began lathering up. And then when his hand slipped down to his cock, almost on auto-pilot, Rush closed his eyes and leaned up against the shower wall. Blue’s smiling face instantly popped into his mind. He imagined running his hands down over her naked body, over her wide hips and muscular legs, back to her deliciously round ass, up her ass crack…

He gripped his cock tighter, pulling on it, jerking on it. There she was, kneeling in front of him, wrapping her lips around his cock, sucking it into her mouth, her warm, wet mouth surrounding it…

His seed spilled over his closed fist and his hips jerked again and again with pleasure.
Fuck!
He rested his head against the shower wall, letting the hot water wash his cum away.

***

She licked her fingers. “God, these are messy but
so good!
I forgot how good the food was here in Copper Lode. Not too shabby, considering how tiny this place is.”

Turbo, sitting at her feet -
on
her feet, really - looked up at her and whined. Rush laughed at him; somehow, he’d raised a beggar. His puppy-dog eyes totally worked on Blue, too; she actually placed her plate on the floor for him to clean off. He went to work, tail wagging.

“You’re spoiling Turbo to no end,” Rush said, chuckling. “When you leave, he’s going to think he can pull those stunts on me.”

Her shoulders tightened perceptibly at his words and she kept her gaze focused on Turbo industriously cleaning the plate, not meeting his eyes.

God fucking dammit! Why did I have to say “when you leave”? You can be a real dumbass sometimes, Rush
.

He didn’t know how to fix it, either. He couldn’t backpedal and say, “I mean, when you stay,” because that would be presumptuous to think that she would want to. He’d ruined the let’s-ignore-the-future world that he’d been working so hard to create for them. He needed to just erase the words from the world; pull them back and make them disappear.

If only…

Finally, she sat up in her chair, back straight, chin held up proudly, and looked at him. “I really need to go for a walk and get out of this house. As lovely as it is, I’m not used to being cooped up all day. Would it be okay if I took Turbo for a walk?”

The implication was clear - she wanted to get out of this house,
and
away from him. Rush knew it would only be the right thing to do to let her go, but he couldn’t. He promised Mr. Wright he’d keep a close watch on her, plus, he didn’t
want
to let her out of his sight. He may not be smart to push her towards a relationship, but that didn’t mean he was just going to give up.

“I’ll agree to that,
if
you’ll wear a bulletproof vest
and
I go with you.” His voice, although light, didn’t allow for a debate. He was
not
going to allow her to go for a walk by herself and get kidnapped by the
Chupas
.

Her eyes narrowed and he could tell she was mentally debating whether or not she could win this argument with him, but finally nodded jerkily. “Fine. I’ll go put on some shoes, if you can find the vest. I’m afraid I left mine at home.” She stood up from the table and stalked out of the room.

Tail wagging, Turbo followed her.

Traitor.
With a sigh, he went to his office to dig his vest out of the closet.

***

“So there she was, poor Isabel, looking up at me, covered from head to toe in mud, and all I could do was laugh!” Her laughter spilled out into the twilight, the street lamps casting their glow periodically along the street. Rush laughed with her, happy to see her happy again. It’d been a good idea to get out of the house, and the farther they walked, the more Blue relaxed.

As they walked, Turbo cheerfully sniffing his way along in front of them, Rush kept an eye on the shadows, the bushes along the street, the wooden fences. Any place a
Chupa
could be hiding. He’d tucked his Desert Eagle into the small of his back and had pulled his cut casually over the top of it, hiding it from view. Blue may not like him carrying, but he didn’t care. Her safety was more important to him than her comfort level. But there was no reason to wave it in her face either.

“Tell me about Isabel - she’s a student you’ve talked about by name before,” Rush said. Frankly, he just liked the sound of her voice; its light, happy lilting quality. She didn’t speak like a native of Copper Lode; she placed accents on wrong syllables and said some words completely wrong, at least to his ear.

But it was one of the things he loved about her - he never knew what was she was going to say, or how it was going to sound. It was one of her more endearing qualities.

“Isabel Lara…” Blue said, and sighed. She grew pensive and a little withdrawn. “I know I’m not supposed to have favorites,” she said, embarrassed, “but if I were going to admit to having one, Isabel would be mine. She’s so goddamned smart, Rush, truly she is. If you met her, you’d be blown away by her. She soaks up English like a sponge - she’s my best English student by far.” They turned left, and began wandering up another residential street. With a start, Rush realized that they were about to walk past his parents’ home. He’d forgotten just how close his house was to his parents’ - only a few streets away. He pushed that thought away - his parents were
not
something he wanted to focus on, not with Blue there with him.

“She was left on the front steps of the orphanage in her pueblo when she was a newborn, which isn’t uncommon there. The poverty in that part of Mexico is overwhelming. Things like running water and indoor plumbing, things we take for granted, is an unheard-of luxury to them. When I first told Isabel about a refrigerator, she thought I was pulling her leg. After I convinced her that they were real, she spent the next two weeks telling me what she’d put in a fridge if she had one. And it was stupid things, like cheese and milk. Things we don’t even think about but down there, without easy access to refrigeration, it all spoils very quickly.”

Her voice got tight and a little higher and Rush knew she was fighting back tears at the thought. With a start, he realized that after everything that had happened that day on the bus and since then, she’d never cried.

Not once.

Not over any of it.

But here was her recollection of Isabel and fridges, and she was on the verge of crying. His gut twisted.

We have to get her back. We have to!

“Once the head of the orphanage realized how special Isabel was, and truly, it would be hard not to realize this if you met her, he talked some rich Americans into sponsoring her education at a private school, Santa Maria’s. The public school system down there is…it’s awful, Rush. I mean, really, really bad. I got a job at a private school instead of a public one because I couldn’t have handled working at a public one. I may be a bleeding-heart liberal but even I have limits.” She laughed a little, self-deprecating.

He reached out and pulled her to him, a one-armed hug, as they walked down the sidewalk. Past his parents’ mansion. And he didn’t even care. He was so wrapped up in Blue and what she was saying, nothing else mattered. He let his arm drop and they continued down the sidewalk. He wanted to just let her talk. Whatever she needed to get out of her, he wanted to hear.

“Anyway, when I met Isabel, I felt this instant bond with her, and she became my shadow. The day that we were hijacked, she was sitting next to me, sleeping. I love her like I would love my own daughter. I tried to protect her that day, and…didn’t. Couldn’t.

“I failed her. Rush, I let them take her…” Her voice was even higher, tighter, and she looked away, clenching her jaw. She was walking faster now, down the street, and Turbo began trotting, working his old bones to keep up with her. She was trying to outpace the shit that had happened that day. Rush knew she wouldn’t appreciate hearing it, but he thought then and he thought now that she was nothing but a goddamned hero. Whether she succeeded or not did not matter. What mattered was that she
tried
.

He hurried, matching his steps to hers, silence hanging over them, and they got back to the house in record time. He could tell she was still keyed up though, and he said quietly, “When I have a shit situation I’m trying to work out in my head, I go for a bike ride. I still don’t have a helmet that would fit over that bandage, but if I promise to be super careful, will you ride with me?”