Fucking hell.
Someone had taken a sandblaster to my vocal cords. My cock jolted when she told me to get over there and come on her tits. I mean… who would refuse an offer like that?
I took a step forward.
What if this worked out? What if this was good? Too good. So fucking good…
Another step.
“Come on, Jer,” she said. “You watched me come. It’s the least you can do.”
Oh, this girl was going to be the death of me. My heart thudded against my ribs as I went, and once I stood in front of her, those big eyes blinking up at me from behind her mask, nothing in the world could have stopped me.
She unbuttoned my pants, tucking her perfect lower lip under her front teeth as she went to the zipper next, sliding it down one metal tooth at a time. Then she leaned back, her hands spread behind her, and raised an eyebrow.
“Well?” she said. “Go on.”
I cleared my throat, and with a shaky hand, reached inside to pull out my dick. I locked eyes with her, waiting to see the fear and panic I’d seen in Nikki’s the first time I’d done this to her. Instead, Alba’s grin widened, and she looked back up at me.
“You have a beautiful cock, Jericho,” she said. “I can’t wait to see what you look like when you come.”
Just when I wrapped my hand around the tip, she gasped and said, “Wait.” Alba rolled over and grabbed the lube, tossing it to me with an excited nod. I squirted some on my hand and went back to it. “That’s better, huh?”
So much better. With this tenuous trust between us and the thrill in her eyes, I wouldn’t last long. I’d known it before I even started. But that was the point. She wanted to get this awkwardness over with because there was no doubt in my mind I’d fucking get hard every time we did this.
I scanned the length of her again, focusing on her pussy and how badly I ached to fuck her. Standing this close, the scent of her arousal hit me square in the face, tangy and sweet and damn near irresistible. I could drop to my knees right here, wrap those legs around my head, and sink my tongue inside her.
Maybe she read this in my expression because she tsked and said, “See something you want?”
“Lots of things.”
“Hmm.” Then she reached up and stuck her fingers in my mouth, the taste of her sweet cunt lingering on her skin.
Dear. Fucking. God.
I came so fucking hard that I groaned and fell forward, putting my free hand on her shoulder to hold myself upright. She stuck her tongue out, like she meant to catch it, and my balls clenched harder. It hit me in the back of the knees and behind the eyes, making me light-headed for a second. I hissed in a breath, and Alba laughed but in a good way that made me feel like I’d given her exactly what she wanted.
“There it is,” she said. “Oh my God, that was so fucking hot.”
I looked down, and she wiped my come off her tits to lick it, giving me a sweet moan of approval.
“Fucking hell.” I fell into the bed next to her. With my hands still trembling, I wiped them off on a towel and ran them back through my hair, blowing out a long, slow breath and trying to get my fucking head screwed on straight. She unraveled me. She turned me to fucking putty.
How the hell had I lived this long without her?
More importantly, how would I ever go on without her?
“Jericho.” She curled into the space next to me, resting her head on my chest the way she’d done the first night I’d spent here. “I think you and I are going to work together just fine.”
I laughed, rubbing my hands down my face. “Yeah. No shit.”
* * *
After we cleaned ourselves up, she rolled a blunt, and we went outside to smoke. We sat on the wooden picnic table in her backyard that overlooked the valley below, and after what happened, the buzz and fresh air revitalized me.
The sky was clear tonight, the stars shining brightly. If I squinted hard enough, I could see the Milky Way. But the whole fucking universe paled in comparison to how beautiful Alba looked in her post-orgasmic glow. She’d washed the makeup off her face and put on her leggings, hoodie, and glasses, but I thought it made her cuter even if she didn’t.
“Thank you for helping me.” She handed me the blunt.
“You’re welcome.” I took it and inhaled.
“Can I confess something?” She turned her body to face me, not waiting for my agreement before she continued. “I’ve never come that hard before. I liked having you watch me.”
My heart beat faster, and I took a puff just to give myself something to do besides react.
“Yeah, me too.” I handed it back to her.
“Really?” Her eyes lit up. “I was afraid I stepped over a line when I told you to come on my tits.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, I liked that, too.”
“You and I are about to get real comfortable with each other.”
My cheeks burned, and I thanked fucking God it was night so maybe she wouldn’t notice my blush.
“What’s that look?” she said.
“What look?”
“That one.” She rubbed the crease on my forehead. “You’re worried.”
“I’m not worried.”
She raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing me.
“Okay, I’m a little worried,” I confessed.
“Why? I won’t put you online,” she said. “I’ll edit you out.”
“That’s… that’s not it.”
“Then what?”
I paused for a moment, pulling on the blunt before handing it back to her. “I’m not a good guy, Alba.”
She rolled her eyes and took it, wrapping her lips around it again. “You think I don’t know that?”
I whipped my attention to her.
“You were selling drugs at a party. You’re in a biker gang.”
I ran a hand over my hair and down the back of my neck, chuckling softly at her insinuation. “It’s not a gang.”
She narrowed her eyes and handed the blunt back. “Don’t worry. Once my mom…” She cleared her throat, blinked, and looked away. “After it happens, I’m not going to hang around.”
Now, I was confused. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “I’ll get some life insurance money. I’m going to sell everything and travel around the world.”
I paused as I smoked the blunt, remembering she’d told me that the night I met her.
“You don’t have to worry about me for very long.”
I winced, a strange tug on my heart aching in my chest.
Another reason not to do this. Another reason to tell her no. Don’t get attached.
“This is quick money, and then we both move on with our lives.” She smiled, shifting her hawk-like gaze up and down like she was figuring me out. “You’re still uncomfortable with that.”
There was no reason to lie, so I took another hit of the blunt, passed it to her, and let the smoke out before sighing. “Yeah, maybe I am.”
“Why?”
I opened my mouth to tell her the truth, that I was terrified I might fall in love with her, that I might already be in love with her, and fucking her on camera would make shit more complicated.
But…
I didn’t say that. I’d only known her two days. Who the hell felt this way about someone after knowing them for less than a week? I wasn’t a fucking sap, and I didn’t want to scare her off.
Instead, I said, “I don’t want someone to recognize me and hunt you down. Drag you into things that wouldn’t be good for you.”
Again, she seemed unperturbed. “That’s fine, Jer. I won’t push you into anything you’re uncomfortable with.” She took another long inhale and handed the tiny roach to me. “For the record, I haven’t been with anyone else for a long time. I’m clean.” She gestured to her mouth, reminding me of her taste still lingering in the back of mine.
“Oh,” I said. “It’s been a long time for me, too.”
She laughed like I’d cracked a joke, but when she realized I wasn’t chuckling with her, she stopped and her features dropped. “Wait. What?”
“What?”
“Okay, on the count of three, define a long time.”
I shrugged in agreement.
“One… two… three…” And then she blurted out, “Six weeks.” At the same time, I said, “Nine months.”
Her jaw hung open and she sunk her fingers into my forearm. I froze, realizing my mistake as soon as the words came out of my mouth. I’d been honest. And so had she. And now I sounded like the fucking loser who couldn’t get laid.
My cheeks burned harder. I hated weed’s ability to drop my fucking inhibitions.
Why the fuck did I tell the truth?
“Nine months?” she repeated, louder than I wanted her to.
“Shhh.” I put a hand over her lips and stabbed the blunt out with the other. “I don’t need the whole fucking town to know.”
“How is that possible?”
Why the hell was I telling her this? It couldn’t have been the fucking weed. Was she this easy to talk to? Or did we no longer have any secrets from each other? I’d seen her asshole up close and personal. She’d licked my jizz off her tits. Where were the lines?
“Are you gay?” she asked.
“No,” I hissed.
She laughed and bit her bottom lip, pushing her glasses higher on her nose. “Then why?”
I cleared my throat, figuring I might as well be honest. So I told her about my old man, Thor and Gemma, and Nikki and the last twelve years. The fights. The breakups. “She’s pregnant with another guy’s baby. My brother, Pie.”
“She got with another MC member?” Alba widened her eyes, clearly outraged.
I nodded. “Married and all that shit.”
“That bitch,” Alba said.
I chuckled and shook my head. “It’s fine. I didn’t love her as much as I thought I did.”
She didn’t say anything for a while, so long that I didn’t know what to do with myself. I finally reached inside my pockets and found my smokes, pinching one between my teeth to light it. I offered her one, but she declined.
We sat there until I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Okay, fucking say something.”
“Is she the only girl you’ve ever—”
“No,” I said. “There were a few after her.”
“Only a few,” she said.
“I don’t like people I don’t know,” I said. “Call me ridiculous, but I’ve got trust issues.”
She laughed and held up her hands. “No judgment here. I’ve got daddy issues, so it’s fine.”
“What about you?” I asked. “How many notches are on your bedpost?”
“Oh. We don’t need to get into all that.”
Her refusal to answer made me even more curious. “Come on. Don’t be shy.”
“Like…” She pursed her lips. “Twenty-five? Thirty?” She shook her head. “I lost count somewhere around there.”
“Wow,” I said, raising my eyebrows and drawing out my tone, more surprised than appalled. “That’s a lot.”
“Hey.” She nudged me in the shoulder. “We said no slut shaming.”
“No,” I said. “I woulda lost count around like fifteen. You remembered past twenty?”
She held my gaze for a moment, probably deciding whether I was fucking with her, and when she realized I was, she laughed again and pushed to her feet, climbing off the picnic table. She stepped in between my knees and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me into a hug. Her incredible smell assaulted my senses, and I had to resist the urge to bury my nose in her hair for more.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“Same.” I put my hands on her waist, and fucking hell, I was right. They looked incredible wrapped around her body.
“But Jericho, I swear to you,” she said, cupping my face, “say the word and it’s just us. I won’t touch anyone else until it’s over.”
“I know,” I said. “I trust you.”
“Good.” She nodded toward the house. “Now put that out. I want to go inside and watch our video.”
I laughed, the sound coming from deep inside me, from a place that made my spirit so much lighter.