REXThe words off Raina’s lips make me want to stay in the house with her, but there’s a lot to do if we’re going to stay in Colwood. I give her one more kiss. It’s quick and leaves us wanting more, but I leave her alone in the bedroom.It only takes about 15 minutes for me to make my way around the house and property lines. There are few homes on this side of town since it leads away from the town’s center. A ranch is located across the street but the house is at least five minutes away from the main road.The property next to mine has at least half an acre of grass between our houses. The open space is one of the reasons I put in the motion detectors. Criminals, animals, and vagabonds just passing through are the types I’d like to know are on my property before seeing them.After checking the security system, I head to the garage where there’s a cabinet for my guns—well, the larger ones. There are a few others in a gun safe near my bed. I like to be prepared.My phone rings with a n
There’s an array of cubicles set up for the paralegals, staff, and other administrative positions that help our firm run as smoothly as possible. Most of those cubicles are still in the same condition they’re always in. There are two, closest to the desk outside of my office, that have the contents from their desks and drawers scattered about.The door to my office is wide open, which isn’t how I left it. When I walk inside, there are only a few dozen sheets of paper on my desk.“I think that whoever broke into the office was looking for something your partner is in possession of. Having realized this wasn’t Mr. Olsen’s office, they left things mostly intact.”I let out a sigh, staring around the room I usually spend about 60 hours a week working in. These past two days with Raina make me reevaluate how much time I spend here. I don’t want to be slaving over client documents while she’s at home washing that naked body of hers and I’m not there to lick her dry.“Mr. Remington?” Detecti
RAINAThe lyrics to a song repeat over and over in my head as I sink into the heat of the warm tub. Comfort soothes me as the tune plays from my phone. There’s a brief interruption when Rex sends me a message that he’s on his way back home.Home.This is home for me and I don’t want that feeling to change. This day has been long and relaxing in this deep tub, water up to my shoulders is exactly what I need.I wonder what it will be like to give myself to him. The more I think about it, the more my fantasies feel real. My hands travel up my torso until they reach my breasts. I can picture Rex showering me with kisses, touching me everywhere, and rubbing my nipples.My fingers brush over my hardening nipples, squeezing them before they travel down to the center between my legs. I’m hesitant to touch myself, unsure of what to do, and when I hear Rex come into the house, taking his time to walk up the stairs, I put my hand along the edge of the tub. It feels wrong to touch myself without
I’m standing in front of the bed when the water shuts off, but I don’t hear him since the carpet silences his footsteps. My heart races the minute his energy looms over me. His arms wrap around me from behind.Rex slides my hair to one side, kissing my neck while his arm reaches around the front to play with my clit. His tongue dances along my neck, and his other hand works my nipples. I’m yearning to finish what we’ve started.“You ready to come again for Daddy?” he whispers against my ear.“Yes, Daddy.”The words come out with short breaths as my body rises to the cliff of another climax. Rex moves me from in front of the bed to on top of it. I scoot away from the edge as he crawls between my legs, twisting his neck from side to side before looping his arms under my thighs. He spreads them apart and the first swipe of his tongue over my clit makes me close my eyes and whimper.Rex is kissing my pussy with the same passion he does me. My waist and hips move, gyrating and thrusting to
REXWhen Raina nuzzles against me, there’s no other place I want to be.She’s by my side and that’s where I want to keep her. Sex for the first time with her makes me insatiable. Sensations ricochet around my body that make me anxious for another round in that sweet cunt, but I let her sleep.The way both of our stomachs growl lets me know I need to make something to eat. After covering her gorgeous body with the blanket, I head downstairs into the kitchen. The sun is shining bright as I put on some coffee in search of what to make Raina for breakfast. It only takes a second to see what I’m going to put together. There’s nothing wrong with a good steak or two cooked in a cast iron skillet. Eggs and home fries make for a solid breakfast.When her phone starts to ring, I head out of the kitchen while the food cooks to see if she’s awake. I’m sure she’ll want to answer the call. Her blonde hair falls lazily to the side of her face as I enter the room where she’s sitting up in the bed.He
I shake my head with a slight laugh. “Baby girl, that sounds horrific. Your body is perfect to me. Somehow my hands permanently etched into your skin doesn’t scream sexy to me.”“Definitely not. You know there are people who come in to get work like that done. One guy came in and asked for his dick to be inked. He wanted the slogan ‘Melts in your mouth’ wrapped around it like a Christmas tree garland.”“Ouch.” Laughter erupts between us, and I know there’s no way in hell I’m letting another man or woman touch my cock to tattoo it. “I wonder how painful it is.”“Have you ever wanted to get some work done?”“Not really. I’ve seen some amazing pieces done. A client of mine runs a gym and has his entire back done of Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier. It’s one of the most iconic moments in boxing and sports history. He loves it and loves talking about it. I like that aspect of tattoos in that it’s art. It evokes emotion.”Raina nods. “You mean if it’s good, it evokes emotion.”“No, even if y
RAINAThere’s an air of rebellion I feel every time I step inside Tattoo Heaven.Come in and get inked by an angel or a demon. Angel always brags that his wife, Avery, must have sold her soul to be such a damned good artist. The way he looks at her with love in his eyes reminds me of the way I feel when Rex can’t keep his eyes or hands off me.Angel’s not as tall as Rex, but he’s stocky and covered in ink. Avery has two sleeves of artwork that she displays regularly. The glass display case that separates the waiting area from the rest of the shop is now sitting in front of a temporary partition. The accordion-looking paper wall typically goes up whenever someone has an appointment to get a sensitive body part worked on.“Hey, honey. What are you doing here?” Avery asks, her snowflake tattoo beaming in the morning sunlight shining through the window. “I thought you were getting out of town for a few days.”“Owen had other plans that made us rethink that. Rex is running around a bit, bu
REXThe tin box sitting in my passenger seat has dents in it from where I had to pull it out from under the sink. What the hell was Owen thinking by leaving it there?I call him as soon as I get into my car. Luckily for me, he answers right away. “What’s wrong, Rex?”“For starters, your little stunt last night set off all kinds of alarms at Raina’s place. I have her place wired with cameras and motion sensors,” I tell him with a twinge of annoyance.“Did you find it?” he asks, with his voice barely above a whisper.“The box? Yes, I found it. It didn’t take a search party or anything. Pretty fucking obvious hiding spot if you ask me.”“I wanted it to be obvious to you. Those are the originals in that box. I have copies with me and that’s what I’m using to lay breadcrumbs for the agents I’m working with.”“Is talking on your phone okay? I feel like you shouldn’t be talking on the phone about this.”He sighs. “I probably shouldn’t but I just don’t give a fuck anymore, Rex. I’m tired of b
“He has a point. You got shot four times.”“Six times, actually.” I touched the spots on my body like a prayer. “Drive-by shooting. It was apparently meant for him, but I stepped out of the house at the wrong time, and boom. They decided to settle for his daughter instead.”“That’s not supposed to happen,” Mona said, frowning. “We’re not supposed to be fair game.”“It’s not a game to them though, to guys like that. Those assholes don’t care if we’re innocent or not. They’ll hurt us if it gets them what they want.”“I’m sorry that happened to you.”I waved it away and stared out over the yard. I didn’t remember much from the aftermath, but I remembered it happening vividly: the black truck that pulled up, the guns that appeared in the windows, the way I screamed, the pain as it flared, the weird, almost calm knowledge that I was going to die. Then black, then waking up in the hospital, in pain, very, very angry, and all the rehabilitation, the surgery, the bullshit. It took months to g
Amber After that very strange, but surprisingly good night out at the bar, I did my best to hide from him for the next couple days. When we were sitting at the bar, our legs touching slightly, I felt it: that tingle down my spine, that buzz on my lips. We ate, he asked about me, made me laugh, and toward the end of the night, our fingers touched as we reached for the check, and I stared into his eyes, and I knew in that moment that if he’d kissed me, right then and there at the bar, I would’ve kissed him back. We walked back together, said goodnight, and I’ve been hiding from him ever since. I should hate him. I don’t understand what the heck would attract me to a guy like that. He robbed a man in front of me for fun. I hated that sort of thing, hated men that bragged about crime and thought it was exciting, hated that sort of macho arrogant crap most of all, and yet somehow, he was different. He didn’t seem to take himself too seriously, and he made jokes all the time, and of cou
I walked along the bar toward a large man up near the door. He was on the way to the restrooms, so I had a good excuse to pass him. I exaggerated my sway, just a little bit, making myself look drunker than I was. The guy had a goatee, a double chin, and a tiny sprout of hair at the top of his head. I noticed the Rolex first, then the way he leaned toward a much younger, much prettier girl and grinned at her with a creepy hunger in his eyes, and I’d watched him down three drinks since I’d started my first. He was rich, he was trying to impress a girl, and he was drunk, which made him ideal.It wasn’t a complicated maneuver. Amber stared at me, wild and ready to get up and chase me down, so I hurried a little bit. I turned the corner toward the restrooms and bumped into the guy, grunting as I did it loudly. My hand slipped into the pocket of the jacket he had hung on his chair— found nothing.“Shit, sorry,” I grunted, and slipped my hand into his pants pocket. It was tricky, but they we
“To our night out,” I said.She smiled, met my toast, and sipped her drink. “This place isn’t so bad.”“You got a lot of spots like this back home?”She shook her head. “I didn’t come to fancy places like this. I’m more of a dive bar girl myself.”“Funny, I’m the same way. South Philly is filled with little holes in the wall, bars that have been there for generations. Some real cheap, trashy places, but you can get good and drunk and see the boys from the neighborhood there, so it’s not so bad.”“Philly’s a weird place. It seems so small, you know?”“It’s old. Not built in an ideal spot. Didn’t sprawl out like the newer cities. Chicago’s kind of that way too.”“I guess that’s true. I like it though. It’s got character.”“That’s what I think. Philly’s got everything you could want, and it’s cheaper than most other cities, plus it’s a lot smaller, so you can get around way easier.”“If you’re trying to get me to move here permanently, I think I’m sold.”I laughed. “I’m not sure you’d wa
Ren At first, the job wasn’t so bad. I hung around that big house, watched TV when I felt like it, bothered Amber when I got bored, and kept out of Mona’s way as much as I could. Things were quiet for a while, but after a few days it started to get real old, real quick. Amber wasn’t happy. That got pretty obvious by the fiftieth time she told me to go fuck off. Not that I minded if she told me to go to hell, to be totally honest—I sort of liked that she pushed back against me. The girl had spirit, she was a goddamn handful, but I could tell something hung over her. I kept thinking about those fresh-looking scars on her body, so like the bullet wound scars I’d seen on countless other guys, and had a couple myself, but that made no sense. I couldn’t imagine what a girl like her would be doing with bullet scars. One night, Mona decided to head into the city. Amber watched her go like a sad puppy, and I knew she wanted to go with her, if only to escape the house for a little while. I l
I climbed out of the water, intensely away of his eyes on my body. He was a good-looking guy, muscular but trim, with light eyes and dark hair slicked back. His pouty lips would’ve made a younger version of myself swoon, but I was over all that, over and done with it. I felt self-conscious, though, and realized that some of my scars were visible— the two on my leg, and the one on my shoulder. I quickly walked to my towel and grabbed it, wrapping it around myself, but too late. I caught him looking with a thoughtful frown. “We should set up some ground rules, if we’re going to do this for real.” He looked at me and shrugged. “All right. You played along with me, so I’ll play along with you. Give and take, the bedrock of any healthy relationship.” I doubted he’d ever been in a healthy relationship, but I didn’t say that out loud. “When I’m swimming, you can’t sit there and watch me.” “Fair enough.” “And you can’t follow me around all the time.” “That’d make me a shitty bodyg
Amber Vincent hustled me out to his house in Mt. Airy the next day, accompanied by my hired goon babysitter. I ignored him. It wasn’t easy though. He was a big guy, broad shoulders, stubble on his face and chin, but he held himself with this strange grace that I couldn’t totally understand. He commanded a room, and I kept sneaking glances in his direction, and caught him looking back at me, seemingly unashamed at being caught. I didn’t know what his deal was, but it annoyed the hell out of me, and drove me wild at the same time. The Mt. Airy house was Vincent’s wife’s place, a nice, pretty girl named Mona. She met us out front in black pants and a white button-down shirt. She was a few years older than me, with dark hair cut short, and dark brown eyes. She smiled, hugged me, glanced at Ren, then held me by the shoulders. “You must be Amber. Vince told me all about you.” “Yeah?” I asked, smiling a little, trying to ignore the way Ren loomed behind me. “I hope it’s all good thin
“If you’re asking me to fight your war, I’m not interested.” He shook his head and held up his hands. “Something simpler, actually. There’s a girl that came to live with me, daughter of a capo in the Chicago family. She went through something recently, they’re having their own problems out there, and she was sent here to get away from the heat. Unfortunately, things are getting hot around here now, too.” I thought of the girl I’d seen with the long dark hair and the intense expression. She must’ve been twenty, maybe a little older. It must’ve been the same girl he was talking about. “Not sure what she would have to do with me.” “I need you to be her bodyguard.” I let that sink in for a second then burst out laughing. He stared at me, eyes hard and cold, and I knew this wasn’t a joke—but it had to be. I wasn’t a bodyguard. I was a thief, and the occasional thug. I had a reputation for myself, sure enough, but nobody entrusted a life in my hands—much less the life of a young, bea
When Vince came calling, I had to answer. The Leone family was the largest mafia in Philadelphia, and I was still an independent guy, working all my jobs alone. I was happiest that way, and didn’t want to get tangled up by the Leones, but their money was good and the job was simple: track down a couple goons and beat the ever-loving shit out of them. I brought Floyd along and offered to split the pay sixty-forty. He thought it was an even split, but shit, that’s on him for not asking. “Either way. I hope they got the message.” Vincent smiled and clapped me on the shoulder, the one with the knife wound, and I grimaced. He had the good manners to look a little embarrassed before turning to Floyd. “Thanks for the assistance. I’m sure Ren will have your money soon.” “When I get paid, he gets paid,” I said, nodding. “Very good.” Vincent squeezed my shoulder. “I actually have another job for you, if you’d be willing to talk?” I hesitated. I really didn’t want to get too involved. The Le