Unclaimed (8 page)

She reached down and unties the laces on the outside of each boot before she slowly removed
them.  I was frozen.  I couldn’t move.  I just stood there like an idiot watching her.  I wanted to touch her.  To help her, hell she could keep the boots on, but I didn’t do anything.  I just watched her strip for me and appreciated every second of it.  Damn.

She slipped
each boot off slowly and slid down each of her thigh high stockings  God, that was sexy. She didn’t even realize what she was doing to me.

I finally came back to myself and reached for her
panty covered body.  Her cheeks were flushed a delicate pink.  I pulled her to me and let my lips play with hers.  Tonight I wanted things to be slower, gentler, than last time.  I hooked my thumbs in the sides of her thong and started to work it down her hips until she was as naked as I am.  God, she was beautiful.

I fell on the bed careful to turn us so she landed
on top of me.  The last thing I wanted to do was crush her or hurt her side.  She slid up my body so that we were once again kissing only this time our centers were lined up.  She rocked against me.  Her legs parted to fall on either side of my hips allowing me to rub against her warm, wet core.  I grabbed her hips and pressed her harder against me as I tugged her bottom lip between my teeth.

“Do you have a condom?” she asked
breathlessly.  Last time we had gone jacket free and that scared the crap out of me later when I was sober.  I was not willing to do that again.  Never in my life have I been so irresponsible when it came to sex.  I was a perfect example of what happens when people have irresponsible sex.  It just showed how much this girl completely disarmed me.

“Yeah,” I said surpri
sed that my voice was so rough.  I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the little square of protection in my hand.  She took it from me and ripped it open with her teeth.  Jesus.  I dug my fingers into her hips, careful not to touch her angry skin.  She scooted back so she could suit me up.

Once I was
covered up I pulled her back up and slid her over me.  She arched back and moaned, gliding over me, teasing me, not letting me in.  Then her eyes met mine and she shifted so I was right where I needed to be.  She slowly eased down, taking me into her.

I gritted my teeth and had to fight for cont
rol so I didn’t blow on impact.  I held her hips as she rocked against me slowly.  Her back bowed as she pulled her hair off her neck.  It was a breath taking sight to see her sitting above me consumed with mindless passion.  We were both breathing hard.  Her eyes locked on mine.  I grabbed her hands and tangle my fingers with hers as she started to come apart over me. I joined her.

She collapsed
on top of me, breathless. I held her close.  This was possibly the most mind blowing, intimate sex I have ever had.

We held each other for a few more minutes before our breathing became
even.  I slid out of bed to go to clean up before rejoining her.  As soon as I got back into the bed I pulled her right back where I wanted her, on top of me.  The same place she slept the last time we shared a bed.  Her head was resting in the middle of my chest, her legs between mine, right where she belonged.

We
laid quietly for a while, her breath tickling my chest, while I ran my fingers through her long locks.  Her hair felt like silk between my fingers.

“Pru,” I said softly no
t sure if she was still awake.  If she wasn’t I didn’t want to wake her.

“Hmmm,” she hummed against my chest.

“You still awake?” I asked.

“Very much so,” she said quietly and gently kissed my chest.

“You aren’t going to run out on me again in the morning are you?” I asked.  I was more than a little afraid that she’d take off on me, not because of the razing I’d have to have to suffer through if she took off with a parting comment like it was lovely again but I didn’t want to lose her.  It scared the crap out of me.  I shouldn’t care.  I didn’t know much about her.  I shouldn’t feel this connection with her but I did.

I was
overcome with a panicky feeling when I thought of her walking away from me.  I shouldn’t especially since I barely knew her but I planned to change that.  I wanted to get to know her better.  It was a first for me.  I wanted to keep her and that was something I’d never wanted before.

She smiled against my chest and mine tightened
.  “I wasn’t planning on it,” she admitted.

“Good.” 
We were quiet for a minute.  “It was better than just lovely right?” I asked a smile tugging at my lips.  If she said no then I was going to have to prove to her just how lovely sex together really was.

“Yeah, much better then lovely,” she said
softly.  I could see her start to blush.  “Last time was much better than just lovely as well,” she added quietly.  “You’ve gotten a lot of grief about my comment haven’t you?” she asked as she snuggled in deeper on me.

This position should be horribly awkward but it
wasn’t.

“Oh yeah.”

“Sorry.”  I shrugged.  She couldn’t see it but she could feel it.  “So tell me something about yourself Prudence Kennedy Thompson.”  I needed to know more about this girl.

“
Ummmm…. I go to Sac State,” she finally shared with me.  I already knew she went to school but I didn’t know any details.  She seemed a little hesitate to open up with me. Wonder why?  “I graduate in May and have a job already lined up to be a teacher downtown,” she explained.

I was
impressed.  “Have you always wanted to be a teacher?”

“I don’t know. 
I was supposed to be a doctor but I hate science.  I like kids.  I’m good with them.”  I ran my fingers through her hair again, brushing it away from her face.  How was someone supposed to be a doctor?  That was an odd comment.

“How were you supposed to be a doctor?”

“It’s my parent’s lifelong dream.  I enrolled as pre-med right after high school.  After one semester it was clear that it wasn’t going to work out so I changed my major to teaching.”

“What grade?”

“I got a job teaching kindergarten,” she explained.  “But my degree covers up through junior high.”  I could imagine her teaching kindergarten.

“I’m impressed.” 
I could feel her smile against my chest even though I couldn’t see her face too well.

“What about you?”

“Well, I never went to college.  I barely made it through high school.  Books really aren’t my thing.  At one point I wanted to be an artist but I didn’t see that really going anywhere.  Then I discovered tattooing, did an apprenticeship, got better, and opened Dirty Ink with Jonas.”

“You own Dirty Ink?” she asked
.  I was a little offended by the surprise in her voice but most people are surprised that I was 24 and co-own my own business.  I didn’t exactly look the part of a businessman.

“Yeah. 
Jonas and I went to high school together.  We grew up together in Roseville.  Did our apprenticeships, now here we are, co-owners of Dirty Ink.”

“I’m impressed,” she echoed my words back to me and I smiled
.  I liked that it impressed her.  “And you are an artist you know.  Tattoos are art, they are just on a different kind of canvas,” she said through a yawn.  I completely agreed.

We fell
silent again.  It didn’t take long for her breathing to become even against my chest as she fell asleep.  I liked her being here.  I liked holding her, tiny, little, delicate body as she slept on me.  It just felt right.  She was the only girl I have ever wanted to hold, to cuddle.  There was just something about this girl, Pru, my lovely, little fairy.

I
knew that we make an odd pair.  I was a whole foot taller than her, covered in tattoos and piercings.  She’s, well, not.  She was a prim and proper little college student, who has a dirty little secret in the form of a giant tattoo on her side that I put there but I didn’t think too many people would be seeing it.  I think I preferred it that way.

I lik
ed the way she curled up on me.  How she just seemed to get me.  The way she smelled like something floral but fruity.  It was distinctly Pru.  We may not be a perfect match but she was doing something to my heart.  Something I was not willing to let go.

Prudence

I shifted as I started to wake up and felt fingers brushing my hair away from my face.  My eyes slowly flickered open. I found myself exactly where I fell asleep.  Neither of us shifted in the least.  I was still cuddled up on his chest with my legs between his.  His arms were still wrapped around me.  I never actually slept on a guy before Lincoln.  I wouldn’t have thought it would be too comfortable but it was nice.  I slept like the dead.  I liked waking up on him, in his arms, with his sleepy, silver eyes looking down at me.  He was smirking, of course.  He seemed to smirk a lot.

“Morning, my lovely,” he said his voice still raw from sleep.

“Morning,” I mumbled in response and blushed, of course.  I was suddenly very aware of the fact that we were naked and his erection was pressed against my stomach.  He knew and wasn’t ashamed in the least that I did too.

“Come here,” he ordered with a husky whisper as he tugged
on my arms.  I scooted up his body willingly.  He gently pressed his lips against mine and I melted into him, morning breath completely forgotten.

When he pulled his lips away from mine we were both breathing heavily, his
center was lined up with mine.  He dropped his head back, closing his eyes, and groaned as he rubbed against me, holding my body tight against his.  “Lovely, we have to stop unless you want more,” he explained through clenched teeth.  Our simple good morning kiss transformed into a full-blown make out session where I was unknowingly rocking against him.

“I want more,” I confessed quietly against his ear before I gently nipped at his pierced lobe before taking it into my mouth.

“Oh thank God,” he bellowed before he flipped me on to my back, grabbed a fresh condom out of the drawer in the nightstand, and proceeded to ravish me.

“I better get home,” I said when we are both breathing evenly again.

“Want a ride?” he asked raising one eyebrow.  I completely forgot I rode to the bar with Maggie last night and then rode to Lincoln’s in his car.  Transportationless.

“Yeah.”  Why not? 
Walking home was out of the question.  I could call someone, last time I called Maggie, or I could get a cab, but I’d rather spend some more time with him.  If he was willing to drive me, I’d let him.

I put my clothes on from the night before and borrow, as much as
someone can borrow, mouthwash.  He showered quickly and tossed on some clothes, claiming he had to go to the shop.  He looked just as good in jeans and t-shirt and he did out of them.

He held my hand as we made
our way through the house.  I already picked up on the fact that Lincoln was a touchy kind of guy.  Jonas and Guy were sprawled out in the living room, yelling at the Xbox.

“Oh it’s Lovely,” Jonas hollered when he saw me, overly excited.

“Did you have a lovely time last night?” Guy asked, dropping his remote and turning to face us when the insurgents on the screen killed him.

“Immensely so, much better then I’m sure you had with your hand,
” I shot back and then smirk.  I prayed that some hot blond didn’t come strolling out of his bedroom.  I was starting to relax around these guys.  If I didn’t start to tease them back I was never going to hear the end of this lovely crap.

“
Ohhhh,” all the guys called out, even Guy, and started laughing.  I figure if I was going to be around I needed to show them I could hold my own.  The lovely teasing wasn’t really bothering me anymore but I refused to take it if I was not going to dish it out.

“
Ohh poor Guy, didn’t have a lovely night,” Lincoln teased as he started to pull me again towards the door.

“Well, Pru, if you’
re volunteering your services?  I’m told I am quite lovely,” Guy flirted as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Lincoln stopped
walking and froze.  I nearly ran into his back it’s so sudden.  “Too far Guy.”  His voice was low, and even.  Cold.  His playful smirk was gone and it’s been replaced by a scowl that was downright scary.

Guy threw up his hands in defeat and turned back to the TV slowly slinking down on the couch.

I gave Lincoln a curious glance but he wouldn’t even look at me as he started pulling me towards the door again.  Once we were outside he pinned me up against the house and devoured my mouth until he suddenly broke away dragging me to the car without saying a word.  He opened my door and I slid in still a little dazed.

Chapter 7

Lincoln

I pulled into the open spot in front of
Flowers by Dora
, the florist on Vernon Street in Roseville, my mother’s shop.  Vernon Street was the main street in old town Roseville.  It had that historic kind of feel to it.  Mom’s shop was light and airy.  She loved it.

I headed into the old building with a large window that had the store nam
e in big curly cursive with swirls and flowers etched into the glass.  The shop hadn’t changed in all the years she owned it: ancient hardwood floors, glass refrigerated enclosures to the right, display of accessories on the left, and a counter half way through the room with a work space in the back.

The little bell chimed as I pushed the door and step
ped into my mother’s cool flower shop.  Flowers instantly assaulted my senses.  There were flowers of all colors in every direction.  The smell was strong but natural. It smelled like home, like my mother.  I spent a lot of my childhood here with her surrounded by all the flowers.

“I’ll be with you in just a second,”
my mother hollered from the back room not realizing it was me.

I didn’t wait in the fron
t area for my mom to come out.  I walked around the counter to the door to the left, which was already partly open, and tiptoed back.

“Boo,” I exclaimed when I was directly behind her and she jumped
a mile.  She turned around to playfully glare at me while she laughed with her hand covering her heart.

“Lincoln, I swear,” she snapped as she chuckled
.  I joined her as I pulled her into a big hug.  She hugged me back.  My mother was an average size woman who had aged pretty well, with short, golden blonde hair and gray eyes like mine.  She hadn’t always had an easy life but she always managed to smile.

“Hi mom,” I said
as she pushed back from me.  I could still see the laugher in her eyes.  I liked knowing she’s happy.  She deserved to be happy.

“Hi son,” she said
good-naturedly as she picked up the arrangement she was working on and carried it out to the front.  I followed her.  She walked around the counter to put her work in the refrigerated case that took up almost an entire wall.

“So what do I owe this honor?” she asked
teasingly.  I propped myself up on a vacant stool and watched her as she went about setting up for the day.  It was early and the shop just opened.

“I missed you,” I teased
.  It was true but I made it sound like pathetic teasing.

“Of course
you did,” she said knowing teasing her about it was my manly way of just coming out with it.  She patted my cheek with her well-worked hand.

“How are
things?” I asked.

“Al
right. The shop’s doing well.  We’ve been pretty busy with wedding season…” her words trailed off which is what caught my attention.  I did care about what my mother had to say.  I wanted her to be happy.  God knows the woman deserves it but I was distracted.  I wanted to call Pru.   She actually gave me her number. It was burning a hole in my pocket.

“What’s on your mind, son?” she asked
.  She only called me son when she was teasing me, or seriously concerned.  This time it was concern.  I could hear it in her voice.  She caught onto my distraction more quickly than I expected.

I smiled at her.  T
here was no way I could hide from my mother.  It has been just the two of us for as long as I could remember.  She could always tell if I was distracted, upset, anything.  She could read me like an open book.  She was a good mother.  We were close.  I didn’t even try to pretend like she wasn’t picking up on something.

“I met a girl.” 
I explained getting straight to the point.  She raised an eyebrow.  I never talk to my mother about girls, but then there hasn’t been one worth mentioning.  I was not about to tell her about the endless parade of woman passing through my bed.

“A girl important enough for you to drive all the way out here to tell me about?” she asked
hopefully.  I had her full attention now. She stopped shuffling around the stop and sat down next to me to listen. She was excited.  My mother has been hoping I’d find Mrs. Right and settle down for years.

“R
oseville is not far from Sac.”  It wasn’t.  It was like twenty or thirty minutes depending on traffic.  She always acted like I lived on another plant and it was some great feat for me to come out here.  “I came out here because it’s Friday morning and I come every Friday morning.  We do lunch.  It’s like tradition.”  It had been our tradition since I moved back to town.  My mother deserved at least a few hours of my time once a week.  She’d given up so much for me.  The least I could do was spend time with her.

She nodded
.  “Okay then.  Tell me about this girl that has you so distracted.”

“Well her name is Prudence. 
We’ve only gone out a couple of times.”  I was not about to tell her that things started as a one-night stand.  “But she’s different,” I said not knowing how else to describe her to my mother.

“Different how?” 
My mother eyed me sternly, like I’m going to tell her Pru had a third eye or only eats raw meat or something.

“Not different as in odd, different as in not the
normal kind of girl I run with.  She’s going to college to be a teacher,” I shared.  My mother perked up at that raising a brow.  It reminded me of myself.  Pru was not my normal type of tattooed, going nowhere bar bunny, although, she did have a tattoo.

“So not a shop junkie?” she teased
.  That was what she called the girls that hung around the shop with the ultimate goal of getting with one of us.  My mother did not approve of them in the least but what mother would.  She took every chance to remind me of that.

“Not at all. 
I actually gave her, her first tattoo yesterday.” I explained.

“Is that how you met her?” she asked sternly.
  Her voice is laced with disappointed.  She doesn’t like the idea of me dating the people that I work on.  She thought it was unprofessional.  I kind of agreed but I did it.  Well, I didn’t exactly date them.

“No actually we
met at a bar but parted ways.  Then she just happened to come in to get some work done and I took advantage of it.”

My mother’s eyes li
t up.  I knew she would like that.  She loved the idea of fate and all that meant to be crap, although, fate seemed to have dealt her a shitty hand.  “Must be fate,” she said smugly.  I knew that one was coming.  I managed not to roll my eyes at her.

My mother fell in love wi
th her high school sweetheart.  She thought they would get married and live happily ever after but no such luck.  I knew some of the details but not all.  She was very closed lipped about it all.  She refused to speak about it actually.  All she ever told me was my father and her had been in love but were on different paths but she didn’t regret any of it because it gave her me.  A very mother like thing to say.

I put some of the
pieces together over the years.  My mother’s high school sweetheart was Russell Kole, lead singer of the Cherry Pickers.  He hadn’t been when they were in high school.  Well, he had been the lead singer of the Cherry Pickers, local teen rock band, not Russell Kole, lead singer of the legendary rock band.  He got a recording contract and they tried to make it work for a while but ended up parting ways.  Sometime during all of that she got pregnant with me.  The only child that was never been good enough for him to claim.

Russ
ell never did anything for us.  He was a completely absentee father.  I hated him for what he did to me and for what he did to her.  He could have married her.  They could have been happy.  We could have been a family.

I found the letters he wrote her in a shoebox in the back of her closet when I was thirteen.
  She’d never moved on, never dated.  She told me I was enough man for her, which was sweet when I was seven.  Now it just made me sad.  She deserved more.

Prudence

Lincoln and I stopped for a quick Starbucks breakfast and chatted the whole ride home.  He was easy to talk to and I loved talking to him.  I gave him my number but was not surprised that he hadn’t called yet.  He’s a guy after all.  God forbid they look overly interested or something equally stupid.

It had been two days since he left me with a mi
nd-blowing kiss on my doorstep.  I was sitting in my room with my laptop on my lap working on a paper when my phone rang.  It was a number I didn’t recognize but I answered it anyway.

“Hello,” I said into my phone still focused on my laptop.

“Prudence Kennedy Thompson,” a deep voice was coming from the other end of the line.  I couldn’t help but smile.  My laptop no longer had my attention.

“Lincoln,” I hesitated
. Did he have a middle name? “O’Neill.  Do you have a middle name?” I asked genuinely curious.  Suddenly I felt like that is something I should know about the guy I was becoming involved with.

“I do,” he said
.  His voice was light and teasing.

“And what might that be? 
I think it’s only fair since you know my whole name.”

He was quiet for a moment.
  “Montgomery,” he finally shared.  He clearly didn’t want too.  I couldn’t help but chuckle.  Nothing about his name was funny but out names were ridiculous.  “I know my mother was a cruel woman,” he teased.  I noticed he said mother and not parents.

“No, I like it.  Lincoln.  Montgomery.  O’Neill. 
That’s quite a name.”

“You’re one to talk Prudence Kennedy Thompson,” he joked and we both laughed
.  We both had horrible names.  Not so bad on their own but they were a mouthful.  Lincoln Montgomery and Prudence Kennedy.  What a combination.

“I think you like my name,” I said
in a soft husky voice.  He was always calling me by my full name.

“Caught me. 
I do. I really do,” he almost growled.  I smiled at my cell phone wishing he was here with me.  “So what are you doing?”

“Writing a paper on gender stereotyping in the classroom,” I explained as I set my
laptop to the side.  There was no way I would be able to write and talk to him.  I wasn’t going to even try.  I’d end up typing something like Lincoln O’Neil has a cute ass in the middle of my paper.  I was sure my professor would love that.

“Sounds fun.”
  I could hear the sarcasm in his voice.

“Like a hole in the head.”

“I like the holes in your head.”

“I bet you do,” I teased.

I heard music in the background and people talking.  Was he out?  “Where are you?” I asked my curiously getting the better of me.

“The shop.” 
I looked over and my clock.  It was almost ten pm.

“
Open late?”

“Kind of, one of the new guys is still working on a piece that is taking longer than planned and I’m closing tonight so I’m just hanging out.”

“Ahhh…”

“So what are you doing Saturday?” he asked.

“I don’t know.  I don’t really have any plans yet.”

“Well I was going to head to the lake this weekend and I was wonde
ring if you’d like to join me.  Be my plus one,” he offered.  Oh I wanted to be his plus one.

“Sure.”

“Good,” he said and I heard him let out a deep breath.  Was he really worried that I’d say no?

“Do I need to bring anything?”

“Just you, and swim stuff if you have a problem skinny dipping in a lake full of people.”

“Swim stuff it is,” I laughed and he pretended to b
e disappointed.  We made arrangement for him to pick me up and then said our good byes.  By the time we hung up our phones I had completely tossed my paper to the side.  I was done with it for the night.  I’d finish it another day.  I had a few left.  I was so excited about Saturday that I could barely contain myself.