Mason I glanced over my shoulder and up the stairs to the still open door. I could see sunlight streaming out of it and could picture Laina still sleeping in my bed. “I don’t know yet,” I said. “Bullshit. You’re into her.” “Of course, I’m into her. I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t. She’s the first girl since—” I stopped talking and shook my head. No sense in going there right now. “Since Evelyn?” I nodded. Rick sighed. “Well, you’ve got good taste. I’ll give you that much. She’s a good girl, Mason. Try not to fuck it up, huh?” “I’ll do my best,” I said. “Speaking of Laina,” he said under his breath. I twisted slowly around to look up the stairs. Laina was descending. Her thick mane of hair was curled wildly and tangled from sleeping. Her eyes were still a bit heavy, and her cheeks were flushed. She had on the same black jeans and black button-up she’d been wearing when she s
LainaThe hot stones being rubbed on the bottom of my feet felt heavenly after the last couple of days I’d had. The young woman doing my pedicure smiled up at me. “Is it too hot”? “No,” I said. “It’s perfect. Thank you.” Ginny was beside me. Her chair was on full-blown massage mode, and her body was being jostled around as a rolling ball in the back of the chair pressed into her shoulder blades and spine. She groaned and nodded appreciatively. “We need to do this more often.” “Agreed,” I said. After the massage and spa portion of the pedicure was done, the estheticians set to work painting our toes. I had chosen a dark purple color with a bit of glitter in it, while Ginny had favored a hot pink. She looked over at me as she turned down the intensity of her chair so her foot wouldn’t be moving while it was painted. “I can’t believe I missed Saturday night. And all that shit went down. It’s insane.” “Be glad you weren’t there. It sucke
Laina “Move,” I growled. Sid bent forward. He was so close to me, I could smell his foul breath. “What are you going to do about it, princess? Are you going to make me? You going to hit me again? Maybe kick me in the balls?” “I’ll scream,” Ginny said. Sid’s eyes flicked to her. “Oh, you will, will you? Go ahead. Let’s hear that scream of yours.” Ginny whimpered and pressed herself tighter up against me. “I thought so,” Sid said, licking his lips. He turned back to me. “No more games. I came to deliver a message for you to pass along to Mason.” I narrowed my eyes at him, and his grin broadened. His back teeth were dark with rot. “Well, go on then. What is it?” I barked. “Tell him he’d better not show his face at the race on Saturday. If he does, we’ll make what happened to him this past weekend look like a cake walk. Mark my words, Laina. He’ll regret it.” “Maybe you’re the one w
MasonI sucked in a pinched breath as I bent over to retrieve my jeans and shirt from the bedroom floor. After stripping out of them last night, I’d fallen right into bed. Now Laina was coming over to stay for who knew how long, and my house wasn’t in the best state—neither was I. The pain wasn’t as bad as it had been. I could move around on my own fine and perform most of my daily tasks. Bending over, turning too quickly, or lifting anything that weighed more than fifteen or so pounds made my ribs scream bloody murder, though, so I’d left some of those tasks and put them off. But now that Laina was on her way, I had the strange urge to try to make everything as perfect as possible. “Fuck,” I growled under my breath. When had I started to care this much? When had things gone from a fun, casual hook up after the bar that night to this full-blown need to impress? I shook my head. This was the exact path I’d gone down with Evelyn. And that had left Ric
Mason “I’m not playing games with you, Mason. I came to warn you. That’s all. And if Mark found out I was here, he’d be furious with me, and he’d… he’d make sure I knew never to do it again.” Evelyn licked her lips and looked down at her feet. And I laughed. It hurt my ribs, but I laughed anyway, and I kept going until I was clutching my side in pain and she was staring at me like I’d been overcome with madness. “Mason?” I got a hold of myself and straightened up, my ribs aching horribly. “If you’re trying to manipulate me into feeling sympathy for you, you’ve come to the wrong guy, Evelyn. You made your bed. Now you can go lie in it.” “I’m afraid of him,” she whispered. “You knew who Mark Denning was before you spread your legs for him. Now he’s all yours. If you need saving, it’s not going to be me who comes for you. Fuck that. This shit?” I gestured back and forth between the two of us. “Is over. It was over a
LainaThe handle of the guest room door was cool against my fingertips. I tightened my grip and almost opened the door to go back out into the living room. Almost. But something held me back, and I let my hand fall to my side. Seeing Mason talking to Evelyn had been a curveball. I’d felt physically ill when she walked past me in the driveway, and the feeling of rolling nausea hadn’t passed since. Why did it suddenly feel like the ground was falling out from under me? I went to the bed and perched myself on the edge. I rested my elbows on my knees and leaned forward, staring down at the plush gray carpet beneath my feet. Mason’s guest room was nice. Simple, but nice. The cool gray carpets and white walls provided a calm, soothing environment that wasn’t cluttered with stuff. All that was in the room was the bed, a nightstand with a lamp, and a chair in the far corner with one pillow. Sheer navy curtains hung in front of the wi
Laina I got out of bed, changed into a pair of sweats and a crop top, and padded out into the living room and then into the kitchen, where I found Mason standing in front of the stove frying up some eggs. “Morning,” I said. He looked up at me and smiled. He looked more and more like himself every day. “Morning. How’d you sleep?” “Better than I thought I would. You?” “As well as I could. There’s fresh coffee in the pot there.” He nodded at the coffee maker on the counter. “Help yourself.” I did. I found cream in the fridge and sugar in one of the cupboards. After fixing myself the perfect cup of coffee, I went over to the stove where he was mixing the eggs around. He gave me an apologetic look. “They started out as omelets. And then I fucked them up.” I smiled. “Scrambled is just as good.” “Would you like toast as well?” “Sure. What’s the occasion?” “No occasion,” he
Mason“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Laina asked. She was sitting in the passenger seat of Rick’s Jeep—his daily driver—and had twisted around to look at me in the back seat. We were slowing cutting through the crowd gathered for the last race before the final showdown of The Streets. This was the biggest turnout so far, and there would only be more and more people coming over the next hour and a half leading up to the start of the race. I nodded to her. “Everything will be fine.” “You don’t think we should have come a little later?” she asked, looking out her window at the people outside. “We won’t be able to keep it a secret that you’re here. We’re basically handing over the opportunity for Mark and Sid to concoct their master plan.” “Master plan?” Rick chuckled. He had one hand resting lightly on the top of the steering wheel as he put the Jeep in park with the other. “You make them sound like movie villains.” “They m
Harley“I can’t believe it, man,” Rick said.“I couldn’t for a while either,” Mason said. “But this is something we’ve wanted for some time now. Now it’s happening. You picked a good time to go away. I was going to ask for your help building the crib and setting up the nursery.”Rick chuckled. “Well, you have Benji for that.”The men looked at Benji. His shoulders slumped. “Yay.”Everyone laughed.“Are you going to find out the gender, or let it be a surprise in the end?” I asked Laina.She lit up like a light bulb and instinctively put her hand on her belly, even though she wasn’t showing yet. “I think we’re going to wait.”I smiled. “Beautiful.”Within the next half hour, everyone migrated to the dining-room table, which Laina had set beautifully with a white tablecloth, gold chargers, and white plates. The candles were in gold holders, and even the cutlery was gold. She had an eye for detail.While we devoured the spaghetti and meatballs, we talked about life and babies and all the
HarleyTwo Months Later“Careful,” I said as Rick took a sharp righthand turn and drove the Jeep into Mason and Laina’s driveway. The appetizer I’d thrown together slid across the backseat and bumped into the door panel. I scowled at him. “I slaved over those for fifteen minutes. Don’t ruin them before we walk in the door. I want to knock everyone’s socks off with how much of a homemaker I’ve become.”Rick killed the ignition and arched an eyebrow at me. “A homemaker? Really?”I lifted my chin. “What?”He snorted and got out of the Jeep. “Nothing. I just doubt anyone is going to think ‘homemaker’ just because you’re showing up with a plate of—what do you call these?” He opened the back door and picked up the plate covered in three layers of saran wrap.Wrapping the plate had been more difficult than whipping up the food.“They’re caprese salad skewers,” I said.I’d spent the fifteen minutes before we left sliding cherry tomatoes, bocconcini cheese, and basil leaves onto toothpicks. I
RickThe corner of her mouth twitched, giving away the beginning of a smile. “A trip, huh?”I nodded. “We can narrow it down to some destinations and start mapping it out. There’s no better time than now, right? We can get out of the city, figure out what we want, and make up for lost time. Just you and me and beaches and sand and—”“Lots of sex?”I chuckled. “That’s not what I was going to say, but I assumed it was part of the package.”Harley nodded. “That sounds like a plan to me.”“Good,” I said. “Now stay still.”She opened her mouth to ask me why but promptly shut it when I ran my hands over her shoulders and then to her breasts, which I gently massaged, loving how they felt all lathered in slippery soap.“You’re such a guy,” she said playfully.I snickered. “I know.”She let me lather her entire body in the shower. Then we switched places, and she did the same for me. Having her run her hands all over me was heavenly, and it helped me forget about the tight pain in my bruised r
RickAll the aches and pains that had plagued me on Saturday night were still with me when I woke up on Monday morning. I was lying on my back, and Harley was tucked into my side. Her cheek was on my chest, and her left leg was draped over me. Her breathing was deep and slow and soft, and I didn’t open my eyes.I just lay there and listened to her. And felt her closeness.Yesterday had been dedicated to recovering and covering our tracks from Saturday’s race. I hired a tow-truck driver to come get the Saleen and bring it back to my place, where I got it in the garage so that if the cops came looking for it, the car wasn’t sitting out somewhere. It needed a lot of work, and the downside of street racing was obviously that it didn’t have insurance. I couldn’t claim a hit and run when the car was beat to shit on both sides and the rear end.Fucking Torq.But it was just a car, and I liked working on vehicles. The Saleen would be my project for the next year or so while I figured out what
HarleyHe watched me like a hawk as I started going down to my knees, pulling his boxers down as I went.His cock sprang free, teasing and taunting me as I got comfortable below him. I gazed up at him and took his shaft in one hand, working him over softly and warming him up. His gaze was dark and heavy as I ran my tongue from the base of his shaft to the tip and then swirled it around his meaty head.I drew him into my mouth, suctioning my lips around his thickness. I worked him slowly at first, taking my time, easing him into it. I knew he was hurting, and I wanted to be gentle with him.If he’d let me.He had a way of taking over halfway through and showing me who was boss. Not that I’d be mad if that happened.I swirled my tongue around his length before taking him deep in my throat and holding him there as my mouth filled with saliva. Then I bobbed my head, sucking him off hard and fast and fitting as much of him in my throat as I could take.He let me suck his cock for a long ti
HarleyIt was a wonder that the Saleen had even started back on the track, and it was even more mind blowing that it made it back to my house without losing several more pieces along the way.I parked at the back of my building in the private parking lot. I didn’t want to leave it on the curb in case any police drove by. It would be easy for them to link the Saleen to the scene down by the docks, and then we’d be done for.After parking the car, Rick had to climb out of the passenger window again. Every move he made was gentle and controlled. I knew he was hurting and hated that there was nothing I could do to take the pain away.Once he was out of the car, I climbed across the console and slipped out too. He offered me his hand, and I took it but didn’t lean on him for support. I was pretty sure he wasn’t in much of a position to be offering it in the first place.We walked soundlessly across the parking lot, our footsteps drowned out by the sound of rain pinging off the metal garbag
Rick“Fuck me fucking sideways,” I said.I couldn’t afford to waste any time. Either I was getting his ass out of the car, or I was bailing.“You owe me, motherfucker,” I said as I leaned in through the driver’s window and reached up to unclip his seatbelt.Torq crumpled to the ceiling of the car, landing across my arm beneath him. Shattered glass from the windshield bit into my bicep and forearm, but I gritted my teeth against the burn and worked to drag Torq’s ass out of the car. He was a heavy motherfucker.He started groaning.I stumbled to my feet and hauled him backward. “Work with me you fat bastard. I’m getting you out of here. Your asshole buddies bailed on you.”He mumbled something incoherent.“Yeah, I know. They’re your friends, not mine. I guess that’s what you get for being a piece of shit.”I collapsed when I had him clear of the car. I struggled to catch my breath, and my side screamed with pain. I tucked my arms under his armpits, stumbled back to my feet, and kept dr
RickI landed heavily on the wet pavement after managing to climb out through the passenger window of the Saleen. My right leg was tender and bruised from Torq driving into me, and my chest ached from the seatbelt and being jostled around roughly as I’d lost control of the car.But I was alive, nothing was broken, and there was no blood. So, overall, things were pretty good.Aside from the approaching police.I used the car to push myself to my feet, slicking my wet hair off my forehead as I rose. Then I stood and waited for the dizziness to pass. I didn’t think I’d hit my head at any point, but it sure felt like I had. Maybe it was just severe vertigo from whiplash.It didn’t matter. I could figure that out later. I had to focus on getting the hell out of there and making sure Harley was safe, too.She had a lot to lose if this race got busted, and so did I. She was everything. If I lost her, I would lose my damn mind. After all this time, we were finally together, and there was noth
HarleyBenji and Mason took off for the registration table. I swung my attention toward Rick’s car. The whole passenger side was busted up. The damage looked pretty bad, and I had no idea what sort of injuries he might have acquired. I leaned forward to look down the road.The last drivers were only twenty or so seconds away. Maybe less.“I think his door is jammed,” Laina said, nodding at Rick’s car.I narrowed my eyes. She was right. He couldn’t get out. His car was too crumpled and too fucked up for him to get the door open. I wondered if it would still run.If we had to leave it behind, it was a sure-fire way for the cops to trace the car back to Rick. Then all our dreams of starting a new life together would be over. He’d be in jail for a long time.Charlie shook my arm. “What do we do, Harley? Tell us what to do!”I swallowed and took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay. We need to clear the area. Rick can handle himself. Help me get people the hell out of here. Send them off in differen